You Got Your Painting: Finding Your Own White Mojo in this Black Friday

 "I've been the DoD since ... At some point I plan to go back into teaching but not yet. Hey I want to commission another painting just been super busy. How are things on your end?"

Well, three of my oil-paintings, full-figure and in real size, have been stolen couple months ago. Commissions? I did accept yours because the challenges poised at that time. I think that I met all of the pressures in that instance. It was the end of the year, more certainly Christmas time.

From my end, and for a long time by now, there is a clear mission statement, with the main goal to do the very best that I can do and in the best of my abilities, in spite all my shortcomings, difficulties, and obstacles. Nothing that I have done, though, has been done for money but for following my mission life statement which matches my values and propels me to continue onwards, I would have not stay in New York City otherwise.

Hope you would have find the meaning of your life already within your own interpretation of what is Coram Deo and Coram Mundo for you... You know, it is the time of the year in which we usually meditate in how to make this world a better one. It is possible that my message does not eloquently "speaks" inside any ear yet, but I know that I have shared, written, and uttering my words as I have painting my impressions with all my true empathy, compassion, sincerity, and deeply scrutiny of the reality in which I have the opportunity to live in, and which I am witnessing.

It is all sharing, for which I have never the desire nor the aim to impose my views or anything else onto others. What else could I do, if I do not know nothing?

I feel somehow accomplished and successful since some people have made their business to take almost everything that I did or have owned from me without recognizing that they did in the first place. Perhaps, because I think differently or because their fears, or any other unknown reason, or much deeper psychological complexes; or evenly, just because they were making some type of money or earning some kind of privileged; however, it is not all negative, many people are using my ideas, my paintings, diagrams by acknowledging my modest contributions; I have not received any monetary remunerations for their usage but makes me really proud as they have used what I have conceived somehow.

In addition, by today the free-culture aka as Open Source is actually changing the landscape and many other things especially in technology, and it is all for the better. Look at the city of Munich for example, lately after a painful migration, it has completed, this last week, after ten years, the migration from Microsoft servers and office applications, to GNU/Linux and LibreOffice...

Freedom my friend... and of course with the same free-will and good faith by which I would have allowed you and others to enter into my office; with the same enthusiasm, positivism, and energy that I have opened to you and anyone else to see my being as is... Freedom the essence of life and dignity based on respect, kindness, and responsibility towards what are your real priorities of life considering others in the meantime too.

Incidentally, today, and since yesterday, people are fighting to be the first ones to access the stores to buy bargains; today is the so called Black Friday. It is sad for me to see that so many people believe on that; many brothers and sisters are believing in having more instead to be happy and thankful for what they already have. Greedy is winning nowadays my DoD friend.... and serving as a teacher has nothing to do with it.

Anyhow, you should be very proud to work for the DoD... under the unique leadership of Dwight Eisenhower, with the inspirational vision of J.C.R. Licklider and the incredible management skills of his student, the computer scientist, Bob Taylor, the DoD was able to implement the ARPANET and it has changed the world since then.

Finally, perhaps you could remember well one thing, Bob asked to IBM and AT&T, first than to anyone else, to develop the project based on packet-switching-then-theory, but they both rejected it and stated the same thing, "Packet-Switching would never work;" and what has happened after all? Doesn't work, really?

It reminds me of so many higher education institutions and the individuals behind them... An apparatus that deserves and needs to be changed for good. If those institutions still are running in the way they are, it is not because they are competent or effective but the lobby-ism, greedy-ism and idiot-ism in many branches of the illogical "tree." I am not Noam Chomsky in that I am not believing that it is the United States as a whole, which by they way, I think that it is very unfair to put a country under the same label, that is doing evil, but some individuals, and more so, a group of bastards that are in positions whereby with their pretenses are taking the very wrong decisions for all of us under their mere empty and selfish interests.

It is ludicrous and sad up to the point of ridiculousness but a lot of people have been fished into thinking that those who are precisely in positions of power are very smart people, think on the Mayor of Ontario as an example; notwithstanding, there are many others less conspicuous and stupid but many times more harmful.

March Forth my friend...be your own portrait, as you still can find your mojo, this is your life and as I have explained you it is not a prison but only for those who think of it as that; as they do not know better, they make the hell out of it for them and for the rest of us. Just don't be one of them, let us use a mirror and see ourselves into it… anyway enjoy it!

Sincerely,

 

JMK

PS. This is your shopping day, and so you got your "painting" for free as in Freedom...   What do you think?

State of Higher Education In America or My Chicken Caprese and The Higgs Boson

A little more than a year I was asked couple questions, and so I responded as follows:



Thank you for asking,

Yes, I have asked them about what academic programs they are planning to study, evenly in the following courses after that, some students change their minds after a while. Nevertheless, specifically, I pointed out about what they would love to do and dedicate their lives and talents to, essentially what is their vocation? What is that itch or call for? 

Now some of my sincere musings:

As we need more people who loves what they do:

For example, I know many people who have studied industrial chemistry (Bob that was for you, what are you doing with your PhD?) and now they are plowing potatoes as farmers instead, and believe me, they feel happier doing so than to be doing what they should in a NCL (Nuclear Chemistry Laboratory).  

Anyway, if someone was trained to be an astronaut (or cosmonaut) and now he or she is working inside a manhole or as a taxi driver, as long as they are happy doing so, it is fine for me; however, it seems, that these aforementioned outcomes are not the main intend of obtaining a higher education, in the first place.  Again, I know many cases, and every time I look around, I see more.  

The other day a waiter was explaining to me the new findings and the underpinnings of the “God Particle or Higgs Boson," (by the way, I wrote this on July 2012, this year [2013] Peter W. Higgs was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics), so well, that I was compelled to ask him and I did, how come he knew all that stuff; he answered me, while his body was visibly shaking, somewhat with tears in his eyes, and while nervously holding my recently ordered dish, a modest "Pasta Chicken Caprese", in his unsecured hands: “I have a PhD in Physics and I was trained at the Princeton's Plasma Physics Lab;” he told me as someone who was vomiting and cursing the whole experience at once,(I thought about it, "that bad eh"), and then he suddenly as promptly left that cooked "chicken" over the table, and he marched towards the kitchen with his head down as he was looking at the floor with anger and resentment while I was hearing dumbfounded the eternal beating of the bouncing dish under the pasta with chicken and over the most cruel and evil wooden table. Yeah, it was reality down there and it is unfortunately the reality of many nowadays...

Some hours later, at the dawn of the other day, after that deep conversation over diner, I found myself teleported somehow in an emergency room at the hospital. Then, I understood the true meaning of life, its combination of a tomato sauce, chicken salmonella, a waiter with a PhD in Physics, all together with the God Particle in the physicality of my own ill and painful indigestion or in other words, food poisoning, I guess this was yet just another lesson for me.  I am telling you, it felt as if I were dying; ergo, I am not recommending you, to eat Chicken Caprese and talking about the God Particle at the same time. It is just not healthy. 

The main propeller, purpose or motivation of a great number of people to pursuit a higher education is to get a decent job, i.e., to make enough money to achieve the American Dream, a part of it or a least a decent life for you and for one's family. To put it, perhaps a little bit blatantly for you, many students [I am not stating: All, nor I am referring to the few neither] do not really care or know much about what they will be doing at their future jobs, or what entitles to do their work in the field which they would have chosen. Frequently, I have observed the absence of love or especial interest for the subject matter or for the entire profession at large. In other words, they want to drink the milk but they do not want to take care of the cow.  

The questions that we might want to ask as well are: How could we inculcate, not only the love for life-long learning but also for the services and efforts pertaining those different particular professions, which are most needed nowadays in a very competitive and ever changing marketplace? In other words, what type of professionals do we want? Which positions are being, or going to be, offered by significant employers? 

In addition, many corporations are stating that they do have many "openings" but they cannot hire anybody because they cannot find people with the right or appropriate qualifications, skills or knowledge-base.  What is wrong with that? Well, some positions are "permanently" opened for years and years, per secula seculorum. How come? There are employers, out there, who somehow prefer to wait for years for the "right individuals," instead to hire or training or retraining their employees. Not to mention the invention of outsourcing.... Go figure!

By average, for say, out of ten students, I have found that five want to study Business Administration, usually, three of those five, want to be enrolled in Business programs because they feel that these programs are easier than other programs. In addition, two or so, students would have explained that they want to study Business to make money by creating their own corporations; and some of them have presented how to do it with very genuine and somehow creative ideas.

The other 50% of students seem to have very diverse opinions. However, approximate 2 or 3 out of ten, want to build their careers in Nursery, Human Services, Social work, or Psychology, i.e., the helping professions. So, some of them are not only looking for money, but to serve and enjoy what they do, generally, these are students with already some professional experience. Moreover, 2 out of ten, want to be involved in Information Technology/Information System (IT/IS).  However, some have explained me that what they want to study is "computers". When, I have asked them what they mean by “computers” they have shown different perceptions about the field of "computers;" it seems, that for some students it means "Gaming;" for others, it means coding or programming; yet for others, it means graphic design, or web developing; and still others, that see the field as just "hacking" or evenly “mating”.  As I have stated, go figure!

PS. For those who truly care for my well-being, my “particles” are better now…they finally seem to have made peace with the God particle.  I do not know for how long so though… 

Sincerely,

John M. Kennedy

El "Buen" Camarón Es El Que Se Queda Dormido...

 

Hay un estudio (hay muchos pero uno en particular) en el cual se revela la relación o correlación entre el uniforme y la capacidad del individuo para cometer actos de maldad, como la tortura, ... va más allá de la desinvidualizacion por cierto, linda con el adoctrinamiento y la aniquilación del yo... se utiliza en los claustros marciales por no decir militares, pero también se aplica con éxito, parece ser, en las corporaciones... se crean entes también en los institutos educativos... todo bajo la energía impuesta por los intereses de unos grupos de poder que lo único que quieren es más poder no sabiendo ni para qué lo quieren. La pretensión primaria es la seguridad, estabilidad y sobrevivencia, bajo la represión, control, y la manipulación mediática a través del evenenamiento mental por medio de la basura repetitiva... es lo que hay y casi todo se consume aunque no se necesite para nada... poder es tener, y saber es perder... perder la razón... a la corriente hay que seguirla como "buen" camarón dormido...