Bored....

I am so bored. No particular reason, as I have plenty to do, I just don't wanna. (How's that for an example of maturity) I don't have anyting new to read for Philosophy, I'm avoiding my Quantitative Methods homework (even though the teacher is awesome, I don't think anyone can make math exciting) My husband thinks math's exciting, but he's a geek :) In fact he was bored this morning so he made me my very own message board (even though I told him I'd be using this blog for my class) Geek is really a broad term though. I consider myself a geek, it's just with books and reading and the internet in general. DH is a math and computer geek. My quantitative methods teacher is a self professed stats geek. I never really thought of it before but there are subdivisions of geek :) I wonder if there's an ultimate geek somewhere? The supreme geek to whom all must bow down to...

My baby turns three on Monday :( It seems like just yesterday I brought him home from the hospital. I miss my little baby boy! He's turning into a 'big boy' now. Doesn't want cuddles, always playing with his trucks. This boy sleeps with a metal truck. He still has little boy moments, they are just getting fewer and fewer. <> It was bound to happen :)

Short note...

I've changed my template, this one seems to be a little easier to read. My Philosophy teacher o.k'd the use of this blog for my project, so what I will do is start seperating my posts in the title, by putting philosophy in parenthesis. Hopefully this will make it easier for both my teacher (who I doubt wants to wade through my facinating pregnancy tales) and anyone else who happens to pop by :) Thanks for your patience in this experiment 'o mine!

Socrates.

While searching on line I found this site: http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/socr.htm (sorry it's not clickable) I was actually trying to see if Socrates was the one who died by drinking hemlock, but this site looks like it has tons of useful information on Philosophy in general...

Meno by Plato

What is virtue? Honestly, I don't know. Much like Meno, I can come up with *examples* of a virtue, but I am unable to define it as a whole. It pisses me off :) On my way home from class tonight, I was thinking (dangerous, I know) that I think one of the points that Socrates is trying to make in this dialog is that the answer is not as important as the journey to the answer. It was pointed out that this dialog illustrates the Socratic method of teaching. What I was thinking is that Socrates (or more technically, Plato as he is the one who wrote this) places immense value on the *process* with which one comes up with an answer. This may in part be due to the fact that he believed that we don't learn things, we remember them. If that's true then none of my past selves ever took a math class. Overall, I did come to like the story. Specifically, Anytus was an interesting character. I think what made it truely interesting was his interaction with Socrates, knowing that Anytus would be the one to prosecute him.

U/S

baby looks good :) we have to go back in three weeks because the baby would only show us one side, and they want a good look at both sides of the spine, but she said that was just a precaution. Babe was very stubborn, crossed legs, even tried using a hand to cover the goods. With the help of a very patient U/S technician we were able to see that it's a BOY!!!!! I'm so thrilled!!

One last post!

Ok, last you'll hear from me today, I promise!! My big ultrasound is tomorrow, hopefully we will find out if the bean is a little boy or girl!! I had my first phone conversation with a TWBBer :) Awesome girl, we seem to have tons in common and we're both babblers!!

I had my first night of stats class tonight. It got off to a kind of rocky start. It said it was in Kent Hall, so I go there and the building is closed for construction!! So I go to the building next door, find nothing. In a last ditch effort, I have Will drive me around to the other side and find out they finally opened a new part. So after being late (I hope it didn't piss the teacher off), I got in on the lecture, and it was all pretty comprehensible. Luckily this teacher also seemed excited about his subject. I'll take an excited animated teacher any day! I think that's about it, I'll post an update on the ultrasound tomorrow if we find out anything.

Princess Bride

Courtesy of Prinn's blog (perle moon see side bar as I seem to be inept at inserting links into the text) I love this movie!!!!!!



Which Princess Bride Character are You?
this quiz was made by mysti

adding some more time wasters courtesy of Prinn :D

B	Brilliant
O	Old
N	Nerdy
N	Nice
I	Insane
E	Emotional

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com
**excuse me, but old?!?! Insane maybe, but definitely not old...

Random thoughts part two...

OK....It's kind of sad when you can tie yourself into mental knots... Anyway I was continuing to thing about perception vs. reality (can you tell this is bugging me). On a completely hypothetical tangent, how do we know we are real? I think therefore I am. Is that enough of a qualifier? How do I know I'm not a dream of a God figure sitting on some mountain top (think Zues) who is having a great 'ole belly laugh at this dream of his pondering reality.

I started reading Meno by Plato last night. I'm not too far into it, but from what I've gotten they are looking to define virtue. Is virtue simply one thing that can be a blanket term applied to everything? Is there one virtue that is more virtuous then any of the others? We were told to focus on the characters first. Honestly I don't think Meno isn't intelligent, probably because I can identify with with all of his points. I also get frustrated with circular arguements, which is what they seem to be having up until this point. Socrates...Maybe he was operating on a different plane of understanding than the rest of us mere mortals. I can understand how his arguements when broken down into shape and color, but when he jumps back to virtue, I'm right there with Meno. Hopefully this will clear up as I finish the story.

Random Thoughts.

I have figured out the problem with taking night classes. I go to class, come home, and my mind is buzzing so hard I can't shut it off!! So forgive me if this is rambling and disjointed folks, I'm a little tired here.

I had my first Philosophy class last night. Surprisingly, I think I'm going to like it! The teacher is *very* animated. I'm so glad, because it is always much more fun to sit through a 2 1/2 hour class with a teacher who is excited about his material. Now if I can manage to wrap my pregnant, hormone ridden brain around what he is saying I should enjoy it. I almost wish I had waited until I came back in the spring to take this class. As I have told both my husband and mother many times, pregnancy makes me dumb. This blog also might be changing it's face relatively soon. We are able to choose one of two options for grading in this class. The first is more traditional. You have a couple of papers, midterm, final. The second is by journaling. We can choose to do this by various means, one of which is blogging. The only drawback I can see to the second option is that it would constitute 75% of my grade. It makes me nervous to put 'all my eggs in one basket.' On the other hand, I would have plenty opportunity for feedback (blog being submitted weekly, many more chances for the teacher to tell me I'm screwing up!) Both my DH and my mom think I should choose the second option. I think it's because they both think I'm this tremendous writer waiting to burst out. I think they both are predispositioned to unwarrented flattery seeing as how one gave birth to me, and the other married me. I think I'm going to try it, just because I like my thoughts to be more free flowing, and I think this option will provide that. (let's hope the teacher doesn't have a problem with babbling :) ) If you don't want to read my thoughts on Philosophy, the class ends at the beginning of August. We'll be back to my regularly scheduled whining then! Then again this all might be hypothetical seeing as how I don't know if he will let me use an existing blog, or if he would like me to start a new one :) In any case I think I will muse for a little bit on something he wrote in his blog...

"There is a difference between appearence and reality." This statement is deceptively simple. Unfortunately for me I have the suspicion that a majority of Philosophy is deceptively simple. The teacher brought up an interesting point in class. If you stick something in water (he used the example of a spear) it looks bent. Obviously, it is not. When you stick your arm in water it does not bend. So there, appearance and reality are two totally different things. That could also be said about the internet. Many of us have blogged or discussed how much of the internet is real. For all you know, I could be a 400 lb trucker named Bubba who gets kicks out of pretending to be a 25 year old pregnant woman. I guess the point that gets me is how do I know what is reality and what is just appearance? Is reality subjective? For instance, the September 11th attacks. I was living in Michigan at the time, no where near them. I have only seen what happened on T.V. I didn't lose anyone I knew personally. I had family in the military that I feared for, but they are both fine. So are the attacks less 'real' for me, than someone that experienced them directly? Or for that matter, how do I know that they ever happened? Television is as bad as the internet in that it is so easy to just fall into believing everything you see without actually having proof (Don't get your shorts in a knot people, I do believe they happened, I do believe they were horrible. This is hypothetical.) Think about the movie Wag The Dog info here It would be completely possible to do this in the television age! Not saying it would be easy, but possible. So where is the line between appearance and reality, and who is to say that your reality is any more valid than mine. I don't think I have any of the answers yet. Of course I've only had one night of class :)