I'm unsure if people do this often. Maybe it's just a teacher thing? But I like to give my friends fun yet intellectual and/or educational assignments for the week. These can range from using what I like to call a "five-dollar word" (and one day I really do hope I have enough money to give out five bucks everytime someone says a cool word. Man oh man, those geeky english majors) to using a particular word correctly in a sentence that they wouldn't use normally (they then have to share the reactions of others with me) to finding "fun facts."
About a month ago, the assignment was to use "groovy" in a sentence two to three times correctly without planning its appearance.
So my friend was talking to me yesterday when suddenly he commented on the "grooviness" of something... and I laughed. Because I had completely forgotten about it. I was quite amazed at his memory, however. Pretty rad.
In other news, I do have some fun facts to share. Sometimes I'll be reading a homework assignment and come across something that really amazes me. I don't know if that makes me a total nerd or what, but since I do get so excited about some of these things, I've actually been designated the "fun fact finder" for the Honors Club. Hahaha.
So here are some fun facts for the week:
- Children from homes rich in conversation have heard more than 45 million words by the time they are four.
- The average adult's vocabulary consists of about 10,000 words. 5,000 of these are used daily, while the other 5,000 are used only very occasionally (usually in writing).
- Andrea Gibson is an amazing poet.
Ok. So maybe some of them are a little biased. But you get the point. (And you should check out Andrea Gibson at some point and time. She is FABULOUS!)
In other news, the Honors Club is showing the movie Walmart: the high cost of low price tomorrow. For once, I'm actively involved in setting all of the necessary things up for the movie... unfortunately, this is also the first time Student Life's stuff hasn't been in perfect working order. This all approximately equates to a headache. But. I finally have the movie, and I'm glad I decided to figure out the other logistics last week rather than this week.
Moral of the story? Plan ahead, dearies, especially when in college. Everything and Anything could go wrong.
Speaking of planning ahead, I have this really neat final assignment in my Buddhist Literature class that I'm looking forward to. Now, normally in a class such as this, I'd read the six books, write the two to three (heavily edited) papers and... move on... Well our final paper is supposed to be somehow connected to something creative. It could be a movie, a bunch of photos, a collage, a poster, a poem, even. It could be ANYTHING! And, since I've really been into photography lately (mostly because I'm permitted the use of the communication office's camera! which is sweet!) I think I might do a power point or something of a bunch of shots from "nature" at GMC and somehow connect this to Zen Buddhism. Wouldn't that be sweet?
Here are some of the pictures that I already have in mind. These ones in particular were taken by Evan, that crazy ex-photography major. I don't think he'll mind if I connect Buddhist philosophical concepts to his awesome photography skills? Probably not.
I love this one... it just makes me think about floating and flowing, and the idea that everything is flowing (with energy), yet everything is not flowing (we don't percieve it as such, anyways) all at the same time... and that's exactly what we are currently reading about in Dogen's Moon in a Dewdrop. Gosh.
And this one just messes with one's perception. Buddhism speaks of things being and not being... or, similar to Plato's allegory of the cave, Buddhist monks believe that our perceptions are faulty... that we only percieve a reflection of the innate reality of an object. Crazy. Well, this is what this photo makes me think of.
And at last, there is this one phrase in Dogen when he's talking about this monk discussing some philosophical matters with a master. He goes on to say: "the treeness of the great earth, high sky, bright sun, and clear moon derives from the treeness of the old plum tree. They have always been entangled, vine with vine."
As best as I can tell (Zen Buddhism is pretty ambigious) he is referring to the Buddhist concept that everything is a part of everything else. We are all one because anything and everything I do can and will affect you, whether directly or indirectly-- meaning whether I say something that helps you personally, or say, if I help organize some sort of volunteer program.. all of the people helped via that volunteer program and the people they have interacted with are therefore affected by me, though they may not even know my name. So then. Here's a picture connected with that.
It's all pretty cool. I'm also considering trying to incorporate some sort of human/nature element, as I have a bunch of neat pictures involving that, too. More of those to come later, though, I've got some homework to complete.
Peace.