4 posts tagged “education”
Since I'm clearing pictures off my camera, here are some shots from Strix's graduation back in May.
My leadership class meets once a month, and the last class day was Friday. It was a particularly interesting day, including a mock County Commission meeting in which we all got special rolls to play and a Jeopardy-style game at the end of the day. It was a little different than the show Jeopardy, in that whenever you answered a question wrong you got pelted with silly string.
Afterwards, I went to a social at the home of one of the alumni. I know it's tacky to take pictures of another person's home, particularly if you don't know them very well, but I really liked his house.
These are camera phone pics, so they don't quite do it justice, but you get the idea. It was a really neat fusion of Art Deco and Southwest themes.
Following the social, I met Strix at the IHOP for a Mensa dinner. We have a tradition of eating pancakes on Friday the Thirteenth, so this was a friggatriskaideckapancake party. As it happens, the number of attendees added up to thirteen, as well.
Wil Wheaton posted a link to Scott Adams' blog post about free will vs. determinism, and it made me think of the Philosophy 101 class I took as an undergrad. We got to the part of the course where we were talking about free will vs. materialism (determinism), and after going over the various texts from the philosophers the professor had the room split up. Everyone who believed in free will went to one side of the room, and everyone who believed in determinism when to the other. I happened to be the only person on the determinist side, with twenty-some fellow students glaring back at me. Then the professor had us defend our positions.
The most outspoken of the free-will camp asked me if I really believed that people made all of their decisions based on their genetics. I responded, "Of course, not. People make their decisions based on a combination of things, including genetic predispositions, but also including their current state, and their experience and upbringing."
And then I asked, "So what do you base your decisions on, if it's not any of those things?"
Alpha male: "I have a soul, and it makes decisions."
Me: "And what does that soul base those decisions on?"
Alpha male: "It just decides."
Me: "If soul's make decisions that aren't based on anything - like your experiences or your upbringing - then how is that different than just flipping a coin?"
He didn't really have a response to that.
Originally posted on my old blog on February 20th, 2006:
What a day! We did a lot today, and I took a lot of pictures, so I'll cover it in different parts.
After breakfast this morning, Stina and I loaded up the PT Cruiser and headed out to look for a geocache on the campus of the University of New Mexico. Click on the image for an enlarged view:
We parked about half a mile from our goal in front of the UNM Research Incubation Lab, whatever that is.
We passed this cactus on the way to the cache.
We passed this sculpture on the way. I don't know what the name of it is, but I call it "Tic Tac Toe Game Gone Awry." Notice that beautiful New Mexico sky in the background.
This was another sculpture that was visible from the parking lot of the particular facility where the geocache was found. Again, I don't know this real name of this piece, but I call it "Praying Mantis Made out of Sticks." Really, I've never really cared for this style of art. All those right angles make me feel like in back in my freshman high school geometry class.
The cache was in a very visible place. I always feel nervous rummaging around for a geocache where people might see me and wonder if I'm a terrorist. So, I take my camera with me, and this photo is the result of me taking a picture so that if anyone saw me they would just think that I was a photographer looking for an interesting vantage point. Unfortunately, this was what was actually visible from the location of the vantage point.
If you think you might try to find this cache, don't look at the next pic. This photo is a spoiler. Its a view of the facility where the cache was found.
We took a different path back to Stina's PT Cruiser, and passed this sculpture on the way. I didn't need to come up with a name, since I got close enough to see the plaque. This is called "Cloud/Rift." If I had to name it, though, I would call it "Wile E., have the Roadrunner stand here."
