playing cards

a few nights ago i tried to teach two of my friends a card game that i have been playing for about a year now. they have never played it and it was hard for me to teach them because i have a way of playing it that i developed throughout the years time.

i would relate this to craft, meaning that i have developed skills that help me play this game in a way that helps me win. it was hard for me to teach them this game because i didn't want to teach them my strategies due to the fact that it was confusing them. sometimes a move that i would make would seem stupid and senseless to them but to me it was a good idea, it ended up making me the winner.

all i could say to them was, "you just have to keep playing it to understand why i'm doing this"

winter

bears and humans, or at least this human, are similar in the sense that they hide or want to hide from winter.

unfortunately, bears have it better off because it's acceptable for them to hide the entire time, where as i have to come out and face the elements when necessary.

when bears hibernate in the winter they eat alot before they climb into their warm caves for the longest winter nap. I can say that if i could i would love to fill my stomach and sleep through the winter too, but that just isn't practical for me.

i think that maybe bears (and other animals too) do this for a few reasons. one being that its so cold and being cold really sucks. two, winter to me is very depressing. over the past few years anything bad that happens, happens during the winter. whether it's a car accident, a death in the family, or a lack in money its during the winter months. three, its just a really good idea to just hide from it all and catch up on sleep you may have been missing from the last three seasons of the year that really aren't so bad.

Karma!

i first came to lancaster to see PCA&D a few months ago. while my friend and i were walking around checking things out a woman came up and asked for a ride to york. i asked her if she just wanted to use my phone to call for a ride but it turned out her boyfriend wouldn't come get her and she was stranded in lancaster without any help, and to make the story a little more interesting she had just been released out of the hospital. i didn't think that about her i just thought she was a crack addict that was telling lies. once she was in the car and we were driving to york she asked to use my phone and i got to hear an actual conversation between her and her boyfriend and turns out she was telling the truth and he was just not coming to get her. so we dropped her off and headed back to harrisburg.

the whole way back i was speeding and my friend kept saying watch out for cops, don't get pulled over. not twenty minutes after he said this we flew by a cop going at least 85. i started freaking out, especially after i watched him turn on his lights and start after us down the highway. so i got in to the left lane and watched in the rearview mirror and the cop pulled over a different 4 door red car, that wasn't mine. i looked at john and i said "DUDE!!! thats karma right there, since we gave that lady a ride to york that cop didn't pull us over!!!" he just laughed and we went on our way.

i just thought this story could tie in because i thought of it when you were talking about the Buddhist notion of self. With the karmic dispositions, samskaras (inclinations to action based on past action).

listen up

i tried to listen and do nothing but listen and to my suprise i couldn't do it as long as i thought i'd be able to. A few classes ago you told us to try and do this in our free time and at the time i didn't think it would be that hard. Trying to just sit and listen to the surrounding sounds can be more difficult than is seems. For the first few seconds i was listening to the clock ticking and the sounds of the highway out side but after that my head started thinking and having conversations with out me telling it to. I was thinking about how i'm going to get to new bloomfield to get this car i'm trying to buy, how i'm going to get my community service done in the next three weeks. My mind also started thinking of things i haven't been worried about today, i remembered that my friend called me four days ago and i still haven't returned her call. So i tried again to clear my thoughts and just listen but in the end i got the same results. It's just wierd that i can't keep my mind distracted on just listening for more than a few seconds without my thoughts taking over.

human activities

do you believe that all human activities can be fully described and understood through some combination of philosophy, art, craft and science?

Because of the connections that i now understand exist between the four subjects i do believe that there is someway to describe and understand all human activities.

ex. : although in my last post i related driving to science i realize that it is actually more craft or art rather than science. because you aren't focused on how the car works, rather the things you have to do to get the car and yourself in one piece to your destination. the turning of the wheel and the actions you do while driving have nothing to do with the way the car is made to work. it could be considered art the way that some people multi-task while driving.

ex. : when i am having a conversation with my friends in harrisburg via text messaging, i have to laugh when someone comments on the speed at which i text. i use the text messaging on my phone everyday, and i have subconsciously learned how to text without looking at the key pad sometimes. you could put this example into the category of craft, because it is a skill i have developed through practice and over time.

use of P/C/A/S and driving

when i am about to get in my car and go for a drive i usually don't think of the technical aspects that go along with driving. so i guess when breaking down driving its mostly going to go towards the science idea of this class. when you are driving if you think about how the car is put together, how it goes from point a to b, how the gas you put in the tank makes the car go when you push the gas pedal, that all goes along with science.

there are some parts of driving that can be considered art or craft, i suppose. when i am driving home from lancaster to harrisburg there are moments when i am doing three or four things at one time. if i am sending a text message, smoking a cigarette, changing the cd all at the same time, i am most definately steering the car with my knee. some people could consider this an art, where as some people could just think it is completely stupid. i'm comfortable with doing it because i know i can, due to practice. this is where craft comes into the picture.

although i feel that art, craft and science can fit into this somehow, i am having trouble finding a way for philosophy to come into the picture.