Studying = Failing.....

So I was in a Writing/English 8th grade class today and one student decided to write what seemed to be a mathematical equation.  If you can explain this to me, I would be much obliged because I don't get it!

No Study = Fail

Study = No fail

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No Study + Study = Fail + No Fail

(No + 1) study = (No+1) fail

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Study = Fail

This is a pretty common theme with middle schoolers these days; they try to give logical arguments to teachers why studying is a bad thing.  In the first five minutes the teacher decided to indulge the class and allow them to prove to him why this equation could be true.  A plethora of arguments were thrown out there, most of which consisted of ridiculous claims and poor use of the English language.  However, one student did say something which made some sense...

"Teachers give us so much homework and we become too tired to finish it.  I think teachers think that we just do homework all the time and not get tired."

While this argument makes sense, Students these days whine and complain about having way too much homework to do.  At the middle school I work at, most students have two daily classes, mainly English and Math, while having two periods that only run every other day.  The homework in the "every other day" classes are due on the day of class, which means they have homework due on Thursday, and have 5 days to complete the homework due for the following Tuesday.  These classes consist of Geography and/or History.  However, on the days they don't have those two academic courses, they have either art, band, technology, or computer class, depending on what the student wanted to take for that specific quarter.  These electives typically have little or no homework as everything is done in class.  So, to be honest, they only have homework in their two daily classes that is due everyday...if that.

However, homework in these two everyday classes consist of worksheets that are no more than 10 to 15 problems and/or questions.  Yeah, they get writing assignments, but the English teachers typically only ask for no more than two paragraphs (4 - 8 sentences per paragraph) for each assignment.  For the most part, teachers will give examples to help guide their students in the writing process when working at home and most likely allow them to start the assignment before the period is over.  Needless to say, this is NOT A LOT and it is NOT DEMANDING!

In the English class I was in today, the 8th graders were learning about Pathos, Logos, and Ethos.  After explaining these concepts with examples and instructions, the teacher allowed the students to grab some magazines and look for ads using one of these three rhetorical concepts.  You'd think they would be all about looking through magazines and ripping up pages, but no!  Every single students complained because it was "too much work" and they "didn't get it."  Conversations are great with these kids as they seem to enjoy talking about issues like abortion and how "people who have abortions should receive the death penalty", but when you ask them to think on their own, everything goes to Hell.  It's sad and disheartening, but so very true.

Is The True Or What?

So if you think there is truth in this picture, raise your hand.  It's true isn't it?  So many people are relying more and more on film, TV, and other electronic media to inform us because we don't want to research and read for ourselves.  More and more books are being made into films, historical knowledge is being passed down to insufficient informational programs like we see on the History Channel, and actors and actresses have become a new line of instructors.  It's become so bad that teachers are constantly having to reteach concepts that have been bastardized in our youths head from main stream media.  Thanks you Hollywood!  I love you, but I don't think you realize what your doing to our nations future.

Keeping Up

As an attempt to keep my "personal" blog a little more alive, I have a goal which I'm calling the "twice a week thing" where I post two times each week.  Hence the name "Twice a week thing."  (wink)  I became so enthralled with my comic book and movie blog that I began to neglect this one.  Well no more my friends!  Random Incoherent Jargon is back in business!

As a celebration of this "born again" status of my blog, I would like to reminisce on my very first post, "I Believe In Nothing."  It caused a lot of turmoil within the family.  Apparently my Aunt had read it and became immediately offended by the entire post and began to tell the entire family about it.  The news had traveled all the way up to my grandmother who became so upset that she cried over it, coming to the conclusion that I "hate them."  My sister had gone to visit them in East Texas where they spent a good chunk of time talking about the post since Granny apparently needed to talk about with her.  I heard so much news about the post from my mother, my sister and my father that everyone in the family has been talking about with everyone else and was incredibly upset by it, concluding that I'm ashamed of them and my post was uncalled for and unloving.  All of this was being said to everyone...except me.

Now I understand completely, It's hard to talk to your loved ones about such heated topics, especially when it's within your own family.  But why they felt the need to talk about it with everyone else, but not me is beyond my imagination.  My aunt did make some comments about it on Facebook a few times, but she never tried to call or even send me a message attempting to dialog with me about the post.  I attempted to call my grandparents and my aunt but the phone was never picked up, and I never received any calls back.  If they had tried to contact me, I might have been able to clear up any confusion on their part as to the implications of the post and how wasn't an attack on the family, nor was it me portraying any type of embarrassment of them. I think they read certain phrases and decided they knew what it was trying to say when in fact they got it completely wrong.

However, I do need to clarify that I am not sorry that I wrote it.  If there's one thing I took away from growing up with this family, it's this...None of them will hold anything back!  We all speak our minds, and we do it ever so abruptly and without mercy.  We don't worry about what people think of our opinions, whether they be individual or collective, just so long as we are heard!  What prompted the specific blog that apparently caused such a fuss within the family was seeing so many of my Church of Christ friends on Facebook making Facebook statuses and/or comments that talked about the "other" religions (that are Christian none the less) and how their belief structures are wrong.  Sociology has been one of the best things in my life, but has also caused a lot of frustrations, especially when it's with my own family after seeing such cultural insensitivity and an unwillingness to understand a religious society and portraying a very false image of God in general.

Growing up in the Church of Christ, I was never truly exposed to other Christian belief systems, nor were most other Church of Christ goers.  Yet week after week, they would go to church where they would sit and agree with sermons which focused on how the Church of Christ has it right, and everyone else is wrong.  Topical sermons like "Are instruments in worship godly?" or "Who are the people of God?" or (and this is a real sermon which I heard at the Church of Christ in Crane Texas) the very abrupt sermon "Why God hates people outside the Church of Christ."  Going to college and becoming someone who studies cultures, these anti-cultural focuses within church hurt me more than enriched my understanding of Christianity and it's history.

I find it silly as well seeing as how the Church of Christ hates on everyone else, but the other Christian churches could care less.  It's as if it's assumed within the Church of Christ that it's voice echoes throughout the world, being heard by millions, even though the Church of Christ is truly only predominant within the south, a part of the U.S. the majority of Americans have little respect for anyways...especially Texas.  My point is, the typical Church of Christ has a very conceited aura about them, as if they have this monopoly on what the "truth" is and they are the hope and future for all those outside their church walls.  I would argue that the Church of Christ has one of the most (if not THE most) culturally insensitive belief systems I've ever encountered.  I can't be apart of that church ever again because it goes against my sociological education and moral convictions.  I don't think it's an evil church, I just disagree with almost all of its teachings and practices. I'm especially against they way it attacks other religious sects without considering the fact that they themselves are sinning by condoning such behavior within their church.

Remember, Remember The Month Of November....

So here I sit at my in-laws house, blogging about the Thanksgiving holiday and how awesome it should be.
But now, as I ponder upon the life I have had these past few months, and knowing what my kids at Lincoln middle school have to go home to, (or lack there of) it honestly makes me sad. Here I am, happy as can be, and my kids are probably back home NOT having the time of their lives. And, of course, this gets me thinking about other things such as children starving all over the world, families who have next to nothing and can't provide for themselves, mothers whose husband's have left them high and dry, and so on and so forth. And here I sit with this deluded sense that I should be thankful for everything around me. But the truth of the matter is there is no happy place in this world, except in our own imaginations.


I become so irritated with people who feel so good about themselves because they are sending a few bucks a month, through a program whose commercial they saw on T.V., to children who have literally no money to feed themselves. These types of people are also the ones who are proud they are saving the environment by driving hybrid automobiles and make sure they let everyone know about it. They also feel that the best way to serve God and be a good Christian is by sitting in church every Sunday and listen to the preacher, and then go home to completely contradict everything they "believe" within those church walls.


Hypocrisy is exceedingly flamboyant within the world today. You can't get around it, nor can you say it doesn't exist. It is the most consistent form of evil in the world and always has been. It is higher than murder, higher than adultery, higher than lying, higher than stealing....it is the only constant in the world, and people continually deny this. Whether it be verbally and non-verbally, hypocrisy exists so easily on Earth because it is the easiest way to live our lives.

We all want to be good people; we all want to show the world that we are a caring and loving race of creatures. And we do that by sending someone a few bucks a month, or driving hybrid cars, or something that resembles those things. And those people go through life thinking they have accomplished something and make themselves feel good about it. Yet these are the same people who drive mini-vans with Televisions in them, or have bought their kids I-pods because they "want one so bad" and "need one!" They say they can make sacrifices, yet they spend their money on unnecessary material things they don't need. I become so frustrated when I see people doing those types of things, and claiming they are doing good...that they are making sacrifices to help others. but this is far from the truth.


A sacrifice...a true sacrifice....would be me (or you) walking down the street and finding a homeless man or woman, take them into my life and helping them get started. I would give that person a few of my cloths, offer some money to get him or her on their feet, help them find a job, a house, and a way to live happily, until he or she can do it on their own and I can walk away knowing they will be fine.


A true sacrifice would be to go overseas to a foreign country and help rebuild homes, restore communities, and not get paid for it!


No one really knows what making a sacrifice really is. This is why so many children today have unhappy homes. The parents have children and realize they have to give those children their undivided attention and want out!


People think making a sacrifice is by mailing in a few bucks to starving children in another country. If you want to make a sacrifice for these children, leave your lives at home and go live with these children and MAKE THEM FOOD!


I don't know, maybe I'm just over analyzing things, but I don't know what to be thankful for since nothing is better. Things still suck in the world and people try to act like it doesn't exist or it isn't their problem. They say to be thankful to a God who provides everything. Yet there are people in the world who have nothing. I wish people everywhere would realize how stupid they are and start caring more about others than about themselves. Get away from your happy dappy, materialistic lives and make a REAL sacrifice to help others and stop claiming that the small, insignificant ways you "contribute" to society are actually making a big difference to make you feel good about yourself. It's selfish, and evil.


When the world has reached the level of peace and happiness where war and poverty doesn't exist, then and only then can we be truly happy as a race of humans.  But since I'll never see that in my lifetime most likely, the Month of November will always be for me a month where I realize I didn't do enough for others and I can only hope I do better next year.  I hope everyone can one day, feel the same way I do.

Heemstra Hall, Doomed to Destruction....

Current Info: For those who don't know yet, the Board of Trustees met on October 9, 2007 to discuss the future of heemstra (among other things). A group of 8 men from heemstra went to the meeting as representatives of the dorm. They passed out letters from guys within the dorm, as well as a community letter that outlined our hopes as they go about the process. Those letters will be posted here soon for viewing. The Board was also encouraged to go to chapel that morning, where the men of heemstra stood outside with flags, posters, and other heemstra paraphinalia as a statement of support for the letter. West guys joined us as a statement to save small communities.

The Board decided to spend up to $500,000 for preliminary studies with the architect, with hopes to have a building(s) ready by the fall of 2010. They stated that they want student input in the project, and want to do what is possible to keep costs low and yet still focus on community and identity.

The life of heemstra is short, and there is little/nothing to do to save the building itself. What we can do is continue to encourage those with power to do what is possible (and maybe even reach for the impossible) to build small dorms that will allow the culture, traditions, and identities of both heemstra and West to continue. This may be the difficult part. While the Board claims to understand the benefits of small dorms and wants the architect to be creative in building something that supports that culture, but they also are concerned with the cost and it seems will fall to the side of what is cheaper in the end. This is where it will be important to help the architect see the need for a building that is not flashy, but functional.

Here's what you can do:

1. Write a letter for the Board and email it to Mori at bmoriart@nwciowa.edu . Content that will be helpful at this point includes how the current structure of heemstra adds to the experience and community. Content from the letters will be collaborated and presented to the architect. This is one of the most important things you can do. Express how the different quirks about heemstra effect us - small size, community spaces where we can all fit, lack of marble pillars, lack of air-conditioning, floor size, etc. Think about your own experience and how it would be different if heemstra was built differently.

2. Find someone who has a lot of money and will donate it with one stipulation: it can only be used to build a dorm of 100 guys or less.

3. Get in touch with heemstra alum and have them write letters as well.

At some point, there will be some way for you guys to interact with people who will be making decisions with the architect. Guys in heemstra will be informed about what that will look like when the time comes.

Thanks for your support!  Go to heemstrahall.com and get a glimpse of this place.