Who Got It - Algerian Proverb

Vietnam Comments

some time in 2007

Ran into this today and thought it was funny so read it and tell me what you think.

I believe I wrote it for a playwriting class but I may have just written it to write it and have it all in one place.

So my father always used to tell me that Vietnam was that best time of his life. He would say things like “You know when I was a mailman in Vietnam, we used to sit up on the roof tops, smoke dope, and watch the battles, and every now and again you’d look up at a rooftop and see sparks coming down. That was a commanding officer coming to check on his men and them dumping their dope. But you see, I was never on a rooftop, I was always on the ground, collecting their dope. Now if you will excuse me, I need to go smoke their dope. At the end of the war,” he continued without getting up, “I came to my unit and said ‘well boys, we’re going home, and we’re going to have an inspection. So, anything you don’t want them to find you just put in this box right here.’ One man had some pills; there was a good amount of heroin, and, of course, all kinds of dope. Then I sealed the box, sent it home, and we never had an inspection. I miss that war.”

It’s funny that my father tried very hard to get kicked out of the army during boot camp and failed miserably and then when over there to spent the war sleeping with prostitutes and doing drugs. I wonder if the war shaped him or just exaggerated existing characteristics. He did drugs in high school, drugs in college, and even more drugs when he was drafted.

If you knew the pain this man has caused me then you would understand why I’m nothing like him.    

Shadow to Dance - Carl Sandburg

Cruel Children

13^th January 2012

Dear Cassi,

   

Another of the ghost of my memory moaned today. I remember this one occasion where I was foolish enough to watch as another child was roughed up by a group of his school mates. They drew no blood mind you. It was all just make believe that went too far.

   

I forget what offence this unfortunate young man committed to anger the other seven year olds. However, I know it had something to do with a contract. They surrounded him and twisted his arm but went little further than that. The anger on his face is what I recall.     

   

They took his contract, I think it was written on notebook paper, spit on it, rubbed it on the ground and then on his face. Children can be so cruel but this happened in the school yard so the teachers are not without blame.

   

I remember there was this green ball of snot coming out of his nose and he thought it was blood. He fumed when he felt it and reached up then looked at his hand. It looked like his head would explode.

   

The next day it was like nothing ever happened. I have trouble understanding that now days. Then again this was the child that showed another kid his butt on a dare. He got over it and from what I know he is doing well. Then, he hasn’t called in more than ten years.

Stay safe, Cassi

Richard Leland Neal

Dyed Inside

 

Nose Hair

An August Journal: College Application

“Whenever the people are well-informed they can be trusted with their own government.” Thomas Jefferson: as quoted in Time Magazine August 14, 2006

15^th August 2006

         

Today I submitted my application for California State University Fullerton. Frankly, it should have been submitted of August 1^st but as the time has passed nothing more can be done. I’ve had quite the trouble with this application and it’s been more than a year from the day I made the commitment to apply. I don’t know if there is much of a point to this foolishness many of us in the modern day find our degrees useless and I may be in that category.

         

To add to the matter I have submitted my paper work for graduation from Fullerton College and have made it totally clear that all my information is in order. What I will do with my AA I don’t know but as it will bolster my resume it can’t hurt. It’s funny that I’m at the mean age for the student body of Fullerton yet I believe I’ll be something of an old man at the Cal State.  

         

I have no one to blame for my procrastination in life but myself at this point. At twenty-two perhaps I could say something twenty-four my argument has grown week but at twenty-six I’m just a procrastinator.  The reason for my procrastination is a general feeling of unpreparedness. No more screwing around when I get to the university. I have to pay more for my college experience and that makes all the difference.

         

Will there be much of a difference or will it just cost more? In the end we simply ask questions and weight for answers. What more can be done? 

Vegetarian

 

Long Walks - Noel Coward

 

Four Years Apart

February 2012

 

Short one for you today, if I have time I’ll post another to make it up to you.

This is another of my grad school essays. I do have to say that as all my classmates have to read my work shorter is better. It would be Rude of me to post long things in class.

 The most popular boy in high school who is a senior asks your physically matured freshman daughter to the prom. She is normally very self conscious about her appearance and often depressed, but she is now very excited about the attention and is the talk of the school. Do you allow this date? Why or why not?

Point one: my daughter’s depression implies that I am a bad parent. This issue should be addressed first and foremost.

Point two: An emotionally vulnerable fourteen year old should not be alone with an eighteen year old. If they had sex it would be a crime in the state of California. Prom is an occasion were sex in expected as a societal norm so the answer is no. I would not be comfortable with my fourteen year old being sexually active with a man four years older than her. I would not be comfortable with her being sexually active at that age.

Step Toward Failure - Homer Simpson

 

Comments to Grad Students

February 2012

 

Here are three comments I made in the online classrooms for grad school. I know this has been way too much about brad school over the past few weeks and I’m sorry for that, but it is a big part of my life.

Comment 1:

You know, (Student 1), the trouble with emotional regulation in children is that they cannot understand the biological processes that go into feelings. I can’t count how many times I have had to advise parents about the dangers of caffeine and young children or the effects of large amounts of salt on mood.

The average American child has mental problems because their body is pounded with poisons every day as parents haven’t the knowledge to understand what they are putting in their children’s bodies.  

Comment 2: This was in response to folks calling my work simple and easy to understand. I think they were calling me dumb but who knows.

It will never stop amazing me how textbooks can take a topic someone is truly invested in and make it dry and dull. I always told myself that if I wrote textbooks I would write them to be relevant, interesting, and short.

I thank you all for letting me know that I have done that in this case and I mention that it is our duty to write papers well because we all have to read them.

My illness over the past few weeks took a toll on my work, but it pleases me to know that I was not completely without merit.

Comment 3: This was another point where someone had commented on my work stating that it was so very simplistic.

You know, (student 3), as one of the least, yet most diversely, educated people in this school I have seen the word simple applied to my work a surprising number of times. I believe it was five by week three.

I think this comes from explaining things to those who need to know rather than to those who already know.

Every night I have a conversation that may change a life but it is often with a person who operates from a limited understanding due to the hardships they have suffered.

Still, I do believe that every hour at you work you have conversations that change lives. This leads me to ask: how much time you use to explain why things are done to your clients? When I explain anger management I tell them how to undermine the emotional feedback loop, and then I explain how that loop works so that they trust my advice.

Insult to Injury

 

A Village to Raise a Child

This is another of those Grad school mini essays. I write about five of these a week so to post them all I would do nothing but post these.

Am I right? You tell me.

February 2012

What does it mean that it takes a village to raise a child? Explain.

The most noted part of this in the modern day is that a child will be most influenced by those that child spends the most time with likely their peers. Thus the combined parenting techniques used by all the parents in the village, or environment, will be reflected in the youth.

We can also note that malefactors in the environment have much to do with the children and their well being. In order for children to get their hands on drugs, for example, they must first be exposed to drugs. This would indicate that someone in this environment has been using drugs or had access to drugs and profits from their sale. Even the condition where children sniff markers or other inhalants imply that these children must first gain access to these supplies and then be unsupervised while using them. W may also note that the modification of behavior from the used of these drugs would not go unnoticed in a well monitored system.

It takes a village to raise a child because the whole village has an impact on that child. It takes a people to keep a person. We should always be aware of the fact that never in our live do our actions have no impact.

Like My Grandfather

 

Wind and the Waves - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Prosopagnosia

12^th December 2011

Dear Cassi,

 Ever have one of those words that you should know, but it simply falls out of your head whenever you hear it? For me that word is Prosopagnosia a condition where you cannot recognize faces. I should know this because, I have Associative Prosopagnosia and have trouble putting faces to names.

    
 When I was a young boy I would go to class and see lumps of clay atop necks instead of faces I could put name to and often had to wait for someone to speak before I knew who they were. I even had trouble recognizing my father when he shaved his beard or changed his hair.

     
As it is possible that this condition came from trauma to the back of my head when I was very young some of the experts may call what I have Prosophenosia which involves the occipital area of the brain, the vision area, rather than the Fusiform Gyrus, the face recognition center. Without extensive testing I can never know which, but a name on the problem has given me some closure.

     
Another of the greater obstacles in dealing with this problem is the fact the many have little understanding of its nature. For example, my psychology teachers believe that the condition was beyond recovery because they have no idea of how the brain deals with the problem.

    
 When I look at you I know that’s your nose and your chin. For the longest time it was putting those things into perspective that I had problems with, and during that time I went by voices and body shape. I remember giving out Valentine’s Day cards to my class one year, I think I was four, and not knowing who any of them were simply handed cards out at random. It was an embarrassing problem that placed me in a box for most of my life separated from the world and alone.

Keep warm, Cassi,

Richard Leland Neal

A Better Place - Peter Walstrom