As I recklessly stumble through what some people refer to as life, I constantly am adding to my awareness of myself and what's going on around me. I think of this life as an ongoing series of events, actions and revelations that could be collectively categorized as education. I also think that if you're not learning something, it's because your mind is closed and therefore, you're wasting valuable natural resources. With that being said, I'm currently experiencing several educational events that might explain why it often seems like I'm under the influence of mind altering substances.
I'm finishing the required course work for that ever elusive degree in Public Relations. I'm hoping that portion of my education will be over with in December. For several reasons I'm doing that exclusively online, which has inadvertently led to many other areas of my "life" or education. Much of my formal education studies require significant research, which thanks to this wonderful place called cyberspace, is easy to do. Unfortunately, this internet thing has given us access to everywhere, which complicates things.
For instance, a year or so ago, I took a course on media effects and another on communication law. Both courses required some degree of analysis on sex and how it affects society. Forced by my classroom requirements mind you, I was obligated to research sexual issues and in the course of doing so, I became entwined in a world wide web that became a tangled web of pop ups and invitations from some very lovely naked people doing some very interesting things with body parts, vegetables, hand tools, power tools and sporting goods!
Although I've always been open-minded, well okay, a bit perverse when it comes to my adult oriented appetite and activities, I was able to learn that I could experience shock, disgust, wonder, pity and guilt at the exact same time I felt pleasure, excitement, hope, intrigue, horniness, wildly arousal and total absolution. I really enjoyed this aspect of my education, but it made it difficult to find the desire to keep learning about media effects and communication law.
Another aspect of my education is the awareness of the unaware members of our society when it comes to computers and the internet. By all means, I'm no expert but am usually able to get around and accomplish what I need. If I need to accomplish something I don't know how to do, I have the resources at my fingertips to find out how. Granted, it's usually a tough way to learn, but as with all of life's lessons, it's the difficult ones you learn the most from. I do understand that these resources are not readily available to everyone. I also know people who have acquired the technology but are too damn stubborn or afraid to apply it for anything but playing solitaire or video poker. I started with a used PC I got for $50 for it's word processing capabilities. I've now got a PC that I can talk to and it does my typing for me, I can talk to and see people anywhere in the country in real time and it's free, I can and do produce videos (see above paragraph) for school, business and personal purposes and can put together a Power Point slide presentation and add my own narrative and background music. The fact that my sister, whose kids are now adults, doesn't know how to turn a PC on, for no reason other than she refuses to try, disgusts me. I'm getting a little off track, which happens sometimes.... or a lot.
Back to my education. Since I am of the belief that communications technology will be the biggest contributor to the future of this world and perhaps others, and I hope the words I'm capable of writing can be used to help ensure we have a future, I have become an internet columnist and am trying to learn the fine art of the blog. I learned last week what HTML code is, and how it can screw up the formatting to your first blog http://www.usthepeople.blogspot.com so I am starting this one. During my blog studies, I've surfed thousands of them and am formulating an idea of what I want this one to be. I'll begin posting items I feel are relevant from my first blog soon, and encourage anyone who comes this way to feel free to contribute. In fact I would really appreciate input from others regarding the direction the blog is heading. I'm going to attempt to learn enough about HTML, so I can make functional changes.
While I'm pretty naive as far as protocol goes, I intend to also provide links to blogs that I find to be insightful, innovative, fun, or just nice to look at. I'll also be posting articles that I write and may have been published elsewhere on sites such as http://www.americanchronicle.com or http://www.axisoflogic.com and if I find something that I really enjoy elsewhere in cyberspace, I'll share it and provide credit to where I got it.
While the general direction I intend to move in will be towards news analysis, promotion of political and corporate reform and preserving constitutional rights and civil liberties, primarily the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights. If I can talk someone into posing, we might even have scantily clad, or even naked pictures sometimes.
Stay tuned, give me a link if you want, and please, offer suggestions and comments.
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