Jedi_Master_713's Xanga

Week of Inspiration

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:45:41 GMT

On June 5, 2009, flowerspushthrudirt issued A Challenge to Xangans, asking us to “write non-controversial posts that uplift people and make people laugh” during the week of June 7-June 13, 2009. In response to this, CelestialTeapot wrote Challenge to Xanga: Stay the Way You Are, in which he wrote, among other things, “Xanga is a platform for individual self expression. For a lot of us, that means our personality and our voices are unreined” and “It is only when we challenge our beliefs in controversy that our ideas can grow.”

I definitely agree with CelestialTeapot that Xanga gives us the opportunity to express ourselves. That is certainly true for me. I write and comment about topics on Xanga that I would not really be confident enough to talk about with other people in person.

At the same time, however, I also think that flowerspushthrudirt’s idea is a good one. As I commented on CelestialTeapot’s post, if her suggestion had been a mandate, a rule that we all had to follow, I would be very upset. Considering it is completely voluntary and temporary, I thought about it, and decided to participate. In between all the controversy, arguments, and resulting misunderstandings, I love a chance to be positive and write about the things that make me happy.

Therefore, while I doubt there is anything I can say that will be completely non-controversial and offend absolutely no one, I will attempt to focus on some nice, positive topics. (I’m aware that this is actually late as I did not post it during the week suggested by flowerspushthrudirt. I was going to post it during that week, but didn’t finish it in time, due to a combination of procrastination and other things. Also, I was kind of upset about something, so I hope that finishing this and posting it will make me feel better.)

There is a site called Gives Me Hope (GMH), which was started in May 2009. It is staffed by Emerson Spartz, the founder of the Harry Potter fan site Mugglenet and his fiancee Gaby Montero, the founder of Daily Cute. Gives Me Hope was created in response to the site FMyLive. According to the About Us page, on Gives Me Hope, “people share with the world their most hopeful, uplifting moments and allow others to draw strength from their experiences. It’s like Chicken Soup for the Soul – the 21st Century, Twitter-style version. Because with all of the hurt and suffering in the world, who couldn’t use a few more reasons to hope each day?”

I first visited Gives Me Hope for the first time a few days ago, and it really does live up to it’s description. Some of the posts are just about the simple good things in life, while others are about finding some good despite a bad situation.

Here are some examples of the posts on the website:

John (Post #999) wrote “Three years ago, a friend of mine died in a car accident due to drunk driving. I’ve taken care of her son ever since and today he hugged me and told me that he wished I married his mom before she died. I was driving the car. GMH”

Anonymous (Post #874) wrote, “I saw a story on the news today about a man who tried to rob a convenience store. The shop owner subsequently pulled out a rifle and pointed it at the man, who immediately begged for forgiveness. The robber explained he had no food or money for his family. The owner gave him 40 bucks and bread. GMH”

thesummaid (Post #993) wrote, “i was sitting on the bus depressed i had this little girl looking at me and smiled and asked “you look sad..did your fish die? my sisters fish died and she was sad..but then she got another one and was happy again so don’t worry..you can get another fish” and then got off the bus with her mom.”

The site is still new, so there are not too many posts up yet, but Mugglenet is a very popular site, so maybe more people will join and post on Gives Me Hope in the future.

The description of the site on the About Us page is accurate. It actually is a bit like Chicken Soup for the Soul, the main difference being that these are small posts instead of essays or stories written by professional writers.

I am usually a person who enjoys a well-written essay on a topic, but some of these posts were especially moving. Also, I think it was a nice idea for them to create a site focusing on positive things in response to one that focuses only on the negative.

As I mentioned towards the end of my previous post, I have been reading the Holy Bible. (At this point you may be thinking, Wait! I thought she was going to stay away from controversial topics. I am going to attempt to talk about the Bible without being too controversial. Let’s see if I succeed.) I prefer to read books cover to cover, so that’s what I’m doing. Right now, I’m in the middle of the Book of Judges. Out of curiosity, I’ve been peeking ahead at the parts that I’ve heard are especially inspirational, such as The Book of Psalms, The Book of Proverbs, and the Sermon on the Mount.

It’s always been my belief that a reader can take away something good from most books, even from one with which he does not completely agree. In fact, I do not think I have ever read a book that I thought was perfect (though some do come close, in my opinion). I cannot pick one book that I would read continually, excluding all others, so I keep reading as much as I can.

I think this same rule, of taking away something good from whatever one is reading, can also be applied to holy book in which one does not necessarily believe.

I thought I should share one of parts that I found especially inspirational, with messages that people can appreciate even if they are non-Christians and, indeed, even if they profess no faith at all.

Proverbs 8

[1] Does not wisdom call out?
Does not understanding raise her voice?
[2] On the heights along the way,
where the paths meet, she takes her stand;
[3] beside the gates leading into the city,
at the entrances she cries aloud:
[4] “To you, O Men, I call out;
I raise my voice to all mankind.
[5] You who are simple, gain prudence;
you who are foolish, gain understanding.
[6] Listen, for I have worthy things to say;
I open my lips to speak what is right.
[7] My mouth speaks what is true,
for my lips detest wickedness
[8] All the words of my mouth are just;
none of them is crooked or perverse.
[9] To the discerning all of them are right;
they are faultless to those who have knowledge.
[10] Choose my instruction ahead of silver,
knowledge rather than choice gold,
[11] for wisdom is more precious than rubies,
and nothing you desire can compare with her.

[12] “I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence;
I possess knowledge and discretion.
[13] To fear the LORD is to hate evil;
I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.
[14] Counsel and sound judgement are mine;
I have understanding and power.
[15] By me kings reign
and rulers make laws that are just;
[16] by me princes govern,
and all nobles who rule on earth.
[17] I love those who love me,
and those who seek me find me.
[18] With me are riches and honor,
enduring wealth and prosperity.
[19] My fruit is better than fine gold;
what I yield surpasses choice silver.
[20] I walk in the way of righteousness,
along the path of justice,
[21] bestowing wealth on those who love me
and making their treasuries full.

[22] The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works,
before his deeds of old;
[23] I was appointed from eternity,
from the beginning, before the world began.
[24] When there were no oceans, I was given birth,
when there were no springs abounding with water;
[25] before the mountains were settled in place,
before the hills, I was given birth,
[26] before he made the earth or its fields
or any of the dust of the world.
[27] I was there when he set the heavens in place,
when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,
[28] when he established the clouds above
and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,
[29] when he gave the sea its boundary
so the waters would not overstep his command,
and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.
[30] Then I was the craftsman at his side.
I was filled with delight day after day,
rejoicing always in his presence,
[31] rejoicing in his whole world
and delighting in mankind.

[32] “Now then, my sons, listen to me;
blessed are those who keep my ways.
[33] Listen to my instruction and be wise;
do not ignore it.
[34] Blessed is the man who listens to me,
watching daily at my doors,
waiting at my doorway.
[35] For whoever finds me finds life
and receives favor from the LORD.
[36] But whoever fails to find me harms himself;
all who hate me love death.”

- Proverbs 8:1-36 (Holy Bible, New International Version)

I love the personification of wisdom in this chapter, and I think that the advice given is sound in many ways. Verses 5 through 11 are particularly wonderful, in my opinion. We would all (whether religious or not) do well to seek wisdom when she calls and we should value her advice.

The idea that wisdom was among the first beings in creation and observed the creation of the world and of humanity (in verses 22 through 31) and even helped with that creation (in verse 30) is very poetic and I think it helps to emphasize its importance. While I was reading this, I was literally imagining a lady watching creation and being sure to pay close attention. I could imagine wisdom literally trying to get our attention, trying to get us to listen.

I think it’s a very beautiful image. The fact that I think it’s an example of figurative language does not in any way lessen its beauty or the importance of wisdom. I think it is an example of how we can think about the abstract, formless ideas in our minds. It helps to get the idea across in a meaningful and elegant way.

My time in AP Calculus class during twelfth grade is very memorable to me. Before this class, I had always done well in mathematics classes, but I never found it all that interesting. There were times when I thought all of my other subjects fascinating; I found science awe-inspiring, history thought-provoking, and English absolutely divine. Even when my mathematics teachers were nice and explained the material very well, making it easy to understand, it all just seemed like a bunch of numbers. (When the teachers were bad or did not explain the material well, it was truly boring and I would watch the clock.) Calculus I was the first mathematics class in which I really found the subject interesting. I saw how the number related to science (specifically physics) and I saw that the calculations I was performing were actually about something.

My teacher was absolutely great, and he was very passionate about the subject. He was very positive and encouraged us. He understood that Calculus class would be very different from any other mathematics class we’d taken in the past, and he always told us that he knew we could succeed. He explained the topics very clearly and made them interesting to learn about.

He was among that rare and extremely important variety of teachers who actually teach well, encourage students, and make the class memorable. Everyone should have teachers like him.

Works Cited

Anonymous. Post #874. Retrieved on June 7, 2009 from http://www.givesmehope.com/view/GMH/874.

CelestialTeapot. Challenge to Xanga: Stay the Way You Are. Posted on June 5, 2009. Retrieved on June 7, 2009 from http://celestialteapot.xanga.com/703887551/challenge-to-xanga-stay-the-way-you-are/.

flowerspushthrudirt. A Challenge to Xangans. Posted on June 5, 2009. Retrieved on June 7, 2009 from http://flowerspushthrudirt.xanga.com/703851382/a-challenge-to-xangans/.

The Holy Bible, New International Version. Michigan: Zondervan, 1984.

John. Post #999. Retrieved on June 7, 2009 from http://www.givesmehope.com/view/GMH/999.

Staff. About Us. Gives Me Hope. Retrieved on June 7, 2009 from http://www.givesmehope.com/aboutus.

thesunmaid. Post #993. Retrieved on June 7, 2009 from http://www.givesmehope.com/view/GMH/993.

To all those who will try to be happy once in a while, to alleviate the sadness...

May the Force be with you.

Richard Dawkins's "The God Delusion": A Book Review

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:29:40 GMT

"The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a mysogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."

– Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (page 52; paperback edition)

As you may have guessed from the above quotation, I read Professor Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion.

Before I continue, I want to thank In_Reason_I_Trust and Zerowing21. After reading some of their entries, I was motivated to read this book (and hopefully others like it in the future). I’ve been reading many people’s Xanga blogs about religion recently and enjoying every moment of it. If I have read something you wrote about religion, even if I have not mentioned your name here, I would like to thank you. There aren’t many people I can talk to in person about religion, so the internet is my main source of conversation on the topic and books are my main source of information about it.

I think religion is a very interesting and thought-provoking topic. I love to read books containing religious satire. Works such as Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series (a trilogy in five parts), Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, Robert A. Heinlein’s Job: A Comedy of Justice, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, and Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court come to mind. I enjoyed all of these immensely. By reading these books (and others like them, which contain a serious topic underneath the fantasy/science fiction) I have an opportunity to think about the topic itself, in a fictional setting, and draw my own conclusions about its relation to the real world.

While I usually read fiction and enjoy religious satire, I thought it would be a good idea to read some non-fiction books on the topic of religion. I thought this book would be a good place to start.

Now, after that much-too-long introduction, on to my review...

I find Professor Dawkins’ scientific approach to religion very interesting. (I guess this makes sense, since he’s a scientist.) Whether he’s writing about the origins of religion, the likelihood of god’s existence, or the effects of religion, he always includes scientific arguments, which I think strengthen the overall effect of his book.

While Professor Dawkins is first explaining The God Hypothesis, he mentions NOMA (non-overlapping magisteria), which (he explains) is the idea that science and religion are separate and that, therefore, science cannot comment on the validity of religion. He disagrees with this, stating, "[A] universe with a creative superintendent would be a very different kind of universe from one without. Why is that not a scientific matter?" (78) I think this is a very good point. After all, if the universe was created by an all-powerful, all-knowing, and benevolent god, then why do we see so many things in the world that contradict this idea? I used to agree with the idea that science and religion were separate, but I had been having doubts about that for a while, and I think that this book finally convinced me.

A little bit later, Professor Dawkins makes another statement which I found particularly amusing and which I thought rang true. After explaining that there are people who claim science can’t comment on religion or morals, he writes, "NOMA is popular only because there is no evidence in favor of the God Hypothesis. The moment there was the smallest suggestion of any evidence in favor of religious belief, religious apologists would lose no time in throwing NOMA out of the window" (83). I think this is an excellent point. If science and religion should be forever separate, then why do some religious people try to find scientific proof of god (or creation)? When there is little or no evidence, why do they hold on to faith? If a person wants to claim that a hypothesis has scientific support, he/she has to be willing to admit that the hypothesis is wrong if it turns out there is no scientific support. It’s unfair to only selectively look at the evidence which supports a hypothesis and ignore any evidence against it. If we want to treat the idea of god as a hypothesis, then we have to say that we don’t definitely know the answer until we find evidence; until evidence is found, it’s hypocritical to preach it in churches and teach it to children in religious schools as it is an absolute fact.

Concerning the probability of god’s existence, Professor Dawkins refutes several of the arguments for god’s existence. He then explains why the existence of god is unlikely. My personal opinion on the existence of a god has changed throughout the years. I’ve thought about it a lot, but more than anything, I want to know. This is why I found Dawkins’ scientific approach so wonderful to read. He makes it clear that although we are not absolutely one hundred percent sure that god either does or does not exist, it is more probable that god does not exist, given what we do know about the universe.

He explains that while people are technically agnostic, we are atheists in practice. While I have had doubt about god’s existence for many years, I used to think that atheists were perhaps being as dogmatic as theists by saying that there is no god, but what Professor Dawkins explained caused me to change my views. I realized that (to use an analogy) god is like extraterrestrial life. We technically do not know if there are aliens on other planets. Until we find out that there are, we act as if they are not there. We do not take their imagined opinions into account when we make decisions in our lives and make laws in our governments.

In the chapter on the roots of religion, Professor Dawkins’s knowledge (and apparent love) of biology plays a major role. He speculates about why so many people, around the world, believe in god. He doesn’t think that religion itself was preserved in evolution, but suggests the idea that maybe religion is a byproduct (a "misfiring") of something else that was preserved in evolution.

I admittedly don’t know enough about biology or evolution to judge the validity of this statement, but I found it very interesting. I’ve heard religious people use the argument that religion has been a part of every society as an argument in its favor. I’ve never found this convincing, because the popularity of an idea does not necessarily mean it is true. (Plus, there’s the fact that there have been many different religions, which does not support the argument that one of them is true while all the other are false, since no one religion has any more evidence than the others.) Professor Dawkins’ suggestion could explain why religion is found in so many societies and why it is so resilient in the face of challenges.

The professor also tackles the question Can we be good without god? While some might say "no," he says "yes." Again, he uses science to back up his opinion. He write about altruism from an evolutionary point of view, which I found fascinating.

In a chapter which I particularly enjoyed, Dawkins continues his discussion of morals and explains why the "good book" is not really a good guide to morality at all. He makes some very good points, some of which I’d also thought of on my own (but which he expresses more eloquently than I can) and many of which I had not considered before. .

A passage I particularly enjoyed was when Dawkins discusses his interview with Reverend Michael Bray, who claimed that the reason Christians are against homosexuality is because god will destroy an entire town that has some homosexuals and thereby also kill innocent people. Professor Dawkins writes about this, "You’d think an omnipotent God would adopt a slightly more targeted approach to zapping sinners: a judicious heart attack, perhaps, rather than the wholesale destruction of an entire city just because it happened to be the domicile of one lesbian comedian" (270-1). Reading this made me smile, because (despite the reverend’s horrible attitude) Dawkins has expressed something I’ve always thought. Wouldn’t god be able to only punish those who did something he found offensive without killing other people? He is supposedly omnipotent after all. Unlike Mr. Dawkins, who used a physical ailment as an example, I’ve always imagined the extremists’ god sitting up in Heaven with a sniper rifle. (I’ve been watching too much Family Guy, which once had a reference to The God Delusion in one of its episodes.)

He also points out the fact that religion sometimes motivates people to do horrible things. I think this is very true. Instead of looking out at the world and deciding what to do based on the consequences, some people follow arbitrary rules from holy books. These rules sometimes have disastrous consequences, because many of them put forward the idea that one group is special while all others should be persecuted or have fewer rights.

One of the parts that really made me think was Chapter 9, which is entitled Childhood, Abuse and the Escape From Religion. In it, Dawkins argues that indoctrinating children into believing religion and labeling children with the religion of their parents is wrong.

In this chapter, Dawkins also discusses the importance of education, especially the evolution vs. intelligent design debate. One great point he makes is that supporters of intelligent design don’t have science to back up their claims. I definitely agree with him on this; intelligent design does not belong in schools, because it’s just creationism dressed up to look like science.

I have always had mixed feeling on the topic of parents teaching their kids religion. On the one hand, I respect other people’s rights and understand each person will want to teach their kids about their own beliefs. On the other hand, I also believe that children should have access to information and that it is not possible to label a child with a certain religion unless/until they have reached that decision on their own after actually learning about that religion. Children (and adults) should be able to learn actual science and also learn about different beliefs other than their family’s so that they can make their own decisions. After all, they may be kids now, but they will one day be adults with responsibilities. They will be allowed to vote make many decisions that will affect both their own lives and the lives of those around them. What they believe will affect their actions. They cannot make informed decisions if the information they have been given is false or incomplete.

To say that the parents’ right to teach and/or indoctrinate their kids is more important than the kids’ right to make their own decisions later in life is misguided. Now, before someone accuses me of wanting to kidnap children and indoctrinate them, I am not suggesting that religious people should not be allowed to have kids or that kids should be taken away by the government if their parents are religious. I am suggesting that the government should not help people of a certain faith teach religion to their kids. For example, if a parent decides that certain books will not be allowed in their house, that’s their decision. However, the government cannot ban these books just because some religious group finds them offensive. Those books should still be available in libraries, and if a child wants to disobey his/her parents by reading them, the government cannot step in and enforce religious beliefs on the child.

In fact, I’ll go even further and say that kids reading books that their parents disapprove of can be a good thing. If I only read books that my parents agreed with, then I would not have read The God Delusion. I would also not be reading The Bible.

(To read some very interesting information about censorship please go to Judy Blume’s Website. There are six separate articles on censorship. I read several of Judy Blume’s books when I was in elementary and middle school without even knowing that they were controversial, and I really enjoyed them. The American Library Association’s Website has several lists of the most frequently challenged books, and it’s my goal to read as many of them as I can.)

Getting back to the book review, throughout The God Delusion, there are quotes by various people, and they all do an excellent job of supporting Dawkins’ argument. This book motivated me to read more about religion and atheism, and these quotes offered a good place to start, since I looked up several of the books they are from. I think that one of the great things about reading is that a really great book will inspire a person to read more, and The God Delusion has certainly done that for me.

So, I guess this wasn’t as much of a "review" as me just going on about all the things I enjoyed about The God Delusion. I could go on and on, but then this entry would be even longer than it already is. I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about religion. It not only contains logic, reason, and science; it also offers several good laughs and many thoughtful moments.

Some people have said that Professor Dawkins is shrill or strident – a claim that he responds to in the introduction of the paperback edition of The God Delusion. I don’t think he was mean; In fact, while reading, I kind of felt like I was sitting in an interesting class while a nice and funny professor calmly explained the topic to me.

So, was I convinced by Professor Dawkins? Am I an atheist? You may be asking this. (Or perhaps you are wondering why the world you just wasted your time reading a horrible weblog entry by some annoying college student who doesn’t know what she’s talking about.) I have to admit that I actually think I am. My belief in god has changed many times, and I have had doubt for many years. I have always seen the horrible things done in the name of religion and have been upset about the extremism. I’ve also always supported separation of church and state. Despite that, even after losing my trust in religion, I still used to hold on to a belief in god both for comfort and to explain the unexplained (what I now recognize as the "God of the Gaps" idea). I think that reading this book helped me take the last step into disbelief in god.

By the way, after reading The God Delusion, I also read Christopher Hitchens’ God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything and Sam Harris’ two books End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. Right now, I’m reading The Portable Atheist. To be fair (to get different sides of the argument) I’m also reading The Bible and The Qur’an. When I love a topic, I dive in headfirst. There are probably many of you here on Xanga who have read more about religion and atheism than I have; if you could recommend any books, I would be very appreciative.

Works Cited

Dawkins, Richard. The God Delusion. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006.

Pharmacy School and Logical Reactions

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 03:17:13 GMT

Happy new year!

As I thought of the fact that the year 2009 has now begun, I thought of the Earth traveling around the sun and how arbitrarily we have decided that one certain point in the Earth’s orbit is when the new year begins.

Now, I’ll continue to my actual post.

Have you ever received those emails that have some kind of sweet story with a moral message? I occasionally receive these from my family members and friends. Despite the semi-annoying and too-sugary-sweet nature of these kind of emails, I can still think they’re nice.

A while back, a friend of my sent me this type of email. The story went something like this. There was a boy who felt embarrassed by his mother, because she only had one eye. This was his attitude during both childhood and adulthood. He didn’t find out until after she died that she had donated one of her eyes to him after he was in an accident. (He was a baby at the time, so he did not remember this.)

The morals of the story seem to be that we should appreciate the selfless things our parents do for us and that we should not judge people based on their appearance.

My second reaction to this email was that, while the story was semi-predictable and overly sweet, it was still nice.

My first reaction was, This story can’t be true. (I had not been expecting it to be a true story, of course. I’m not saying that a parent would not be willing to sacrifice for a child, but most of these kind of emails that I get are made-up stories with a message, though still semi-realistic. In this case, the fact that it was not true was blatantly obvious.) If the boy had gotten a transplant, he would be on immunosuppressive medication for the rest of his life. A person who receives a transplant from another person must take this type of medication. The recipient’s body will recognize that the organ is a foreign object, and the immune system will attempt to destroy it. These medications suppress the immune system (hence the term "immunosuppressive") so that the organ can function and extend the person’s life. Eventually, the body can "figures out" what’s going on and can start attacking the transplant organ anyway. The transplant can’t last forever.

Therefore, there’s almost no way our fictional son could be completely oblivious about the fact that he received a transplant, even if he was a baby at the time. Unless someone was slipping the medication into his food from childhood into adulthood and even after his mother died (which I guess is technically possible, although would be a rather big point to leave out of the story) he almost certainly had to have known about the transplant.

As I wrote above, most of these kinds of emails do not contain a true story, but this scientific mistake was easy for me to realize. At the time (during the fall 2008 semester) I was enrolled in a pathophysiology class and we were learning about the immune system.

I told the friend (also a pharmacy school student) who sent me the email about my reaction.

I was glad that I had actually remembered something from class and was (kind of) applying it to a situation outside of an exam. Maybe being in pharmacy school and taking all these science classes has made me more logical and encouraged me to use some critical thinking. If this is so, I am glad. At the very least, it has given me more knowledge about science than I had before, for which I am also glad.

So, in conclusion, it’s good to know that I can appreciate the morals of a story but still logically judge it (based on my admittedly still-limited scientific knowledge) for accuracy.

Bibliography

All information about transplants and immunosurppressive medications is from my pathophysiology lectures. I am still a student, so if any of my information (or logic) is incomplete or incorrect, please feel free to tell me.

To all those who value both logical reactions and morals...

May the Force be with you.

– Jedi Master 713

Who do you think is the most influential person in history? Why?

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:26:54 GMT

I've decided to answer one of the featured questions: "Who do you think is the mostly influential person in history? Why?"

There are many people who have been influential throughout history -- from civil rights' activists to volunteers, from leaders to philosophers, from writers to artists. There have been people like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. who stood up for those who were not being heard. There have been writers, photographers, and artists who have made people aware of the plight of the poor, hungry, and sick, thereby raising awareness and getting people involved to offer aid. Then, there are those who's name we'll never know, those who helped their family and friends, who served their communities anonymously. Their names may have been lost in the many long ages of history, but they were no less influential.

So, with all these worthy people, who deserves the award of "most influential person in history"? I have two answers:

First, I think that the most influential persons in history were the first human beings. Depending on each person's beliefs, the first people may be Adam and Eve, the first homo sapiens to evolve from lower life forms, or maybe some other people entirely. Regardless of the specifics, I think that history has a great influence on us. Everyone in history has been influenced by those who came before them. As Isaac Newton once said, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." We always learn from the past, even when we don't realize it. Current events in politics are linked to those that came before. When a person learns about the religions and traditions of their family and society, they are learning something that has been passed down, in many altered forms throughout history. This history goes back all the way to the first humans. Whatever one believes about the origins of humanity, those origins have had a great influence on us. That first spark that differentiated us from other life forms -- the higher brain functions, the ability to change, the ability to think, the ability to take actions that go against our genetics and basic instincts -- was the first step towards all that we as a species have done since then.

Second, the most influential person in history is you. Yes, you. And me. And everyone. Every single person has the ability to influence our world. When I speak or write about my ideas and opinions, I don't know if I'll reach one person or one billion. I would like to think that I have some influence, even if I'm not the most influential person in the world. My point is that the world is always changing. No matter what has happened before, from the birth of the Universe to the present, nothing is permanent, nothing is inevitable, and nothing is impossible. As we learn from the past, we learn what has not worked before, what has worked, and what has kind-of worked. We can then create a better future if we work hard enough to make our own influence strong and counter the mistakes of the future. We will have a better tomorrow if we are willing to work hard today.

In conclusion, our past influences us and the future gives us opportunities for improvement.

As we remember the past, we must also look forward to the future. We must take control and decide which ideas, from the past and the present, will influence our future.

To all those who will remember those who were influential and strive to be influential themselves...May the Force be with you.

-- Jedi Master 713

I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

Not to worry, friends. I'm still alive.

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:03:30 GMT

I'm back on Xanga after such a long time and....lo and behold, everything is so different that it took me forever to find how to add another log entry when the button was right in front of my face.

The spring semester of my second year in college is moving on with the speed of a Federation starship. I recently had my interview which, along with my GPA, will determine if I am allowed to continue to my third year of pharmacy school. Next semester, I will (hopefully) begin the professional years of pharmacy school, which are suppposed to be very difficult. Let's just hope that everything goes well.

My classes are alright, I guess. I have several big exams coming up and then finals. On Thursday, I have an exam for Systems Physiology, which is a difficult class, because there's lots of information to remember. Right now, I'm listening to a recording of the lectures and taking notes again, even though I already took notes during class. My friends and I are intense like that.

Organic Chemistry is still extremely difficult, but I've been putting in some extra effort to improve my grade from last semester's. Meanwhile, in Organic Chemistry Lab, nothing disastrous has happened. My friends and I have been able to put our heads together to understand what's supposed to be going on. The final for this class is earlier than my other finals, and I hope I do well.

I recently became interested in the books of an author named Terry Brooks. He's already written a great many novels. I recently read his Magic Kingdom for Sale -- Sold! It's the story of Ben Holiday, who feels his life has no more purpose or passion after his wife's death. He buys and becomes King of the Kingdom of Landover, where everything's messed up since there hasn't been a King for many years.

I really enjoyed the book and I'm looking forward to reading "Sword of Shannara," the first book in the Shannara series, which is also written by Brooks.

Most people know by now that the seventh Harry Potter book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released this summer. It made me so happy! It was a wonderful ending to the story and I loved it! Of course, I have lots of opinions, but I won't bore you with them here. I just wanted to express my joy.

The whole idea behind this weblog is supposed to be that I write something interesting...but my life's not really that interesting, I'm afraid.

If I think of something better to write soon, I'll do it.

May the Force be with you!

-- Jedi Master 713

Spring Break...Finally!--Also, I'm Writing!

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 18:51:42 GMT

Greetings, all!

I know I haven't updated in a long time. There's really no excuse, except that I've been busy with school and that--when I wasn't busy--I was being lazy and/or procrastinating.

Anyway, I decided that I should really not abandon this site, since it's one of the things that started my obsession with computers. You see, in my early years, I had a computer-phobia. I avoided electronics at all costs, because I felt completely helpless whenever I tried to use them to do anything. That all changed in high school, when I had to type my papers and when I discovered that there were lots of fun things online, like Harry Potter sites and information about books--geeky, I know. As I met friends, I had a reason to be online, since I could talk to them. Now, here we are, and I am on the computer whenver I have any free time. It's really quite a change, and I like it.

I'm very happy right now, because it is the first day of spring break from Rutgers. I finally have a few minutes to do whatever I want--although, I do have to study for chemistry and create an oral presentation for my Scientific and Technical Writing class. Still, I'm happy. I might visit the high school during the week. Are any of you guys visiting as well? Maybe we could go on the same day.

Currenty, I'm reading several books. One is Isaac Asimov's Prelude to Foundation. It's absolutely amazing. Asimov is a wonderful writer who can create entire worlds. The story moves along a great pace and surprises me with great writing and suspenseful situations on every page. Hari Seldon is the creator of psychohistory--the theory of prediction--and is a hunted man. He's a great character. One of the things I love about the book is that the characters talk about serious topics and about science, but it does not seem like a lecture. It's absolutely intriguing--if you're interested in science, I guess. Another book I'm reading is Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. It takes place in the early nineteenth century, and is about how magic returns to England after hundreds of years. It's written in old-style writing from (I think) the Victorian era, according to my Modern Literary Fantasy professor. That's the class I'm reading the book for, but I was going to read it on my own anyway, so I was glad when it was one the syllabus. Clarke writes the way books were written back then and includes lots of social satire that is kept me interested in the beginning one hundred or so pages of the book, while the story was moving slow. There are so many unexpected things going on and lots of complex characters. I love it.

One of the things I love about being home is that I have an opportunity to write. I'm working on fanfiction as well as some of my own stories. I'm working on the next chapter of my fanfiction "Of Fire and Ice." I also have another story going about Remus when the Marauders were at Hogwarts. It's about him being a werewolf.

My own stories--I'm kind of disorganized with my original writing, mainly because I have so many different ideas that I can't keep them straight. Also because I have to work on characters development as well as plot development, since the characters don't come fully-formed (or almost fully-formed), like in fanfiction. I have a story I'm working on called "Orbit." It makes sense in my head, but I'm having trouble moving the story along. It's science fiction and about a planet with a strange orbit. Yeah...I know it sounds boring, but it sounds interesting in my head.

College is going fine. I'm trying not to fail miserabley. I wanted to graduate with as close to a 4.0 as possible and with honors. Now, I'll settle for the 3.0 I need to keep my scholarship--although I am still trying to do well.

Anyway, that's all for now.

May the Force be with you.

Of School Schedules and Two Awesome Books

Fri, 24 Nov 2006 15:56:53 GMT

Greetings, everyone!

I hope everyone’s fine and looking forward to Thanksgiving break. I know I am. When the high school students had their week off, I started to feel lazy in school. I think that I’ve developed some kind of biological need to have that week off after thirteen years in the public school system. I suppose that habit will pass with time. Besides, I get to be happy that we in college have almost a month off during the winter-and that it’s in between semesters, which means no reports or projects to do.

On Tuesday, I navigated the infamous webreg.rutgers.edu to register for my spring semester classes. The day on which a student gets to register depends on how many credits that student has, and the time to begin is 10:00 pm. This means that most of the first-years with some credits were sitting at their computers at 9:59pm on Tuesday, waiting impatiently. I registered for five classes: General Chemistry II [required], Pharmacy Convocations [required], Scientific and Technical Writing [second semester writing course], Modern Literary Fantasy [Humanities elective], and Creative Writing [Humanities Elective]. I’m glad that I was able to register for all of the classes I have to take. Some of my classmates got locked out of Biology and/or Chemistry; the AP credits for Biology were very helpful, because I got to register the day before the students who did not have any credits at all.

My schedule is making me a little nervous, because I really have no clue what to expect from most of my classes. Mostly, though, I’m really excited, especially for my electives. Some of my classmates tried to discourage me from taking the classes that I wanted; some of them opted for the "easy A" classes, some of which sound about as interesting as the history of the drinking straw. So, I’ve decided to "challenge" myself by taking classes that I find interesting, despite their difficulty. I was hoping to take a history class, but the ones that I thought were interesting are either not offered next semester or full. I hope that there are some more Greek and Roman history classes offered and open next year in the fall.

----------

I just finished reading a great science-fiction short-story collection called Past Lives, Present Tense (edited by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough). Basically, the topic of all the stories is that a scientist has discovered that all of a person’s memories, personality, and basically everything about them is stored in every cell, somehow attached to DNA. This idea is introduced in the first story, which is written by the editor Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. A husband who is mourning his dead wife is contacted by her in a dream. She tells him how they can be together again, and he follows her instructions. Basically, he discovers that it is possible to "download" someone into another person’s body if you have the DNA of the person you want to "download." So, both he and his wife end up living in his body. They are happy that they can be together again.

The other authors expand upon this idea in the other stories. The procedure has become available to those who can afford to pay a fortune for it, through the company of a man named Wilhelm Wolfe. In each story, a personality of someone dead is downloaded into someone who’s alive. Each story, though all of them are science fiction and based on the same idea, is unique; there is something in this book for everyone. Each of the main characters is unique; they each seem to come alive on the pages. Some characters decide to go through the procedure on their own, some are convinced to do it by someone else, and others have it done to them forcibly. Each person has their own reasons for wanting to go through the procedure or having it done on someone else. The "downloaded" dead people range from Babe Ruth to Anne [one of King Henry VIII’s wives], from Edgar Allen Poe to Meriwether Lewis [of Lewis and Clark], from Florence Nightingale to Jeb Stuart [a Confederate during the American Civil War]. There are even two stories with people who want to download Jesus Christ. Often, the main character has certain expectations, which end up being completely wrong, sometimes will hilarious or ironic results. Leonardo da Vinci may have been a famous scientist, but he was also a very outgoing and extroverted guy who liked to have some fun, so a quiet scientist who downloads the famous inventor, hoping to invent the perpetual motion machine that da Vinci worked on, was in for a big surprise.

For some years, I had an aversion to short stories, which was an aftereffect of feeling like we read nothing but short stories in elementary school. Past Lives, Present Tense is one of the books I’ve read recently that have made me realize that short stories can be really amazing. So, in conclusion: Read this book. It is awesome!

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I also just finished reading Divine Intervention, an absolutely amazing novel by Ken Wharton. It’s about a planet called Mandala. Hundreds of years ago, colonists left Earth in a space ship called the Walt Disney to search for another planet that could support human life, and after many years of searching-during which they aged more slowly than they should have, due to traveling near the speed of light-they found Mandala. Now, over a hundred years later, the people of Mandala have their own society on their own planet. It has been a long time since the Walt Disney left Earth, and the communications between Mandala and Earth are rare, so the people on Mandala have their own unique society, as the back cover says. They have their own religion, culture, and history. There are internal struggles between the city dwellers, who live in Mandala City in the American Valley and the Burnouts, who live in Red Valley.

The prologue got me curious about the story, because it describes a barren planet-half frozen and half scorched by the sun-on which a probe crashes. I wondered to myself what this was all about and immediately continued reading.

In the beginning of the story, the people of Mandala are planning for the new colonists from Earth who are going to arrive in a few months. Then, the government receives a message from the Mayflower-the ship bringing the Earthies to Mandala-is ahead of schedule and going to reach Mandala earlier than expected. While this isn’t a problem, something else is: the Mayflower is carrying over three thousand new colonists. The Earthies think that the people of Mandala must have colonized the whole planet and that three thousand people won’t be much of an increase in the population. The truth, however, is that there is very little habitable land on Mandala, and three thousand new colonists would triple the population and make the Earthies the majority. The Prime Minister is afraid that the Earthies will be able to take over. The government keeps this updates from the public and decides to eliminate the Earthies.

Drew Randall is a seven year old who is deaf, but can hear and speak through a mechanical device that is connected to his brain through an optic cable and hangs around his neck like a pendant. He’s communicating with something in orbit around Mandala-something he believes is God. He knows that the Earthies are here early and is trying to figure out what’s going on. Without meaning to, he becomes in integral part of the war that’s about to start. The city people, the Burnouts, and Drew Randall’s family all have their own motives in a battle is being waged on the planet, in space, and in the Earthy ship. It’s absolutely great and kept me motivated to read more.

One of the reasons I found this book intriguing is that it has absolutely everything! Each topic is also very thoroughly developed, not just mentioned superficially, like in some other books. There’s politics, corruption, suspicion, action, religion, and-of course-science. This book is filled to the brim with science; if science was a liquid, it would drip from the pages when the reader opened the book. Much of it is physics, and since I don’t know much-okay I know absolutely nothing-about physics, it was difficult for me to decipher some things at first. I had to read some paragraphs twice, but everything was very understandable and it pulled me in. One of the unique things about this book is that-instead of the "science vs. religion" idea that we are used to reading about-the religion of Mandala is based upon science. The Captain of the Walt Disney is a an important religious figure; his journal and the Walt Disney’s log are religious books on Mandala. Each chapter begins with an except from one of these two books, and these excerpts by themselves are fascinating. They add a whole new level of meaning to this book.

So, in conclusion, again: Read this book! It’s amazing.

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To all those who will challenge themselves to succeed and enjoy all of the wonderful books there are to read...

May the Force be with you.

Fantasy Universes

Sat, 21 Oct 2006 01:58:34 GMT

Greetings, all!

I saw a really awesome bumper sticker on one of the cars at Rutgers. It read, "If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?" That made me really happy! I just thought I’d mention it, because swords are so awesome!

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Sarah wrote an entry on her xanga about Narnia, and Irena and I have been having this little discussion vis the comments page. Yesterday, I wrote a really long response to one of Irena’s comments, but the computer did not submit it properly and it disappeared, so I’ve decided to respond in an entry. If you have not been following our unbelievably geeky discussion, you can see the beginning of it on Sarah’s xanga. Geeks are an extremely influential and powerful group on the Dark Side.

The only Narnia book I have read is The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I haven’t seem the recent movie, but I remember watching an older version in elementary school. I have read all six Harry Potter books and seen all four Harry Potter movies. Please keep in mind that this is the information upon which my opinions are based.

Anyway, on to my response: I know that J. K. Rowling was probably influenced by C. S. Lewis, because she has said that she loves the Narnia books. However, the ideas of the all-knowing mentor and the children being thrown into a situation they must deal with are in lots of books, not just Narnia and Harry Potter. As for the good and evil, I actually think that Harry Potter has more levels of good and evil than Narnia does. Narnia seemed to have a defined good and evil, while Harry Potter has more people in between, not just Snape.

The characters in Narnia did not remind me of the Harry Potter characters at all. Even though the kids in Narnia have both their good and bad points, they seemed a little bit two-dimensional. I didn’t really feel passionate or interested to learn what happened to them. They also weren’t very proactive; they had to wait for Aslan to tell them what to do. I think that the characters in the wizarding world seem more real, with their own personalities. They have their own little side stories and personal friendships and rivalries going on that we get a look into. I care about what happens to them. Also, I think it’s interesting that sometimes the all-knowing mentor(s) don’t really know all and Harry and his friends have to act on their own.

[As for talking trees, all I have to say about that is that the Ents in The Lord of the Rings are awesome-I mean, come on, they dismantled Isengard and trapped Saruman in a tower. That’s one of my favorite parts, even though they are not actually main characters.]

Even though the wizarding world is grounded in our own, I don’t think that takes away any of the magic. Because the wizarding world is independent of the muggle world, the "realities" of the muggle world don’t interfere with the magic of the wizarding world. Narnia didn’t really pull me in, which is why I stopped reading it after one book, while the wizarding world did. This may have something to do with the way the books are written. C. S. Lewis does not include many details about Narnia, so all we know is what is relevant to the main story, so it feels like a story. J. K. Rowling, however, includes the little details that are not relevant to the main story, but may or may not be relevant to the side stories. I think this helps us [or at least me] get sucked into the wizarding world. These details, I think, make the reader feel at home in the story; we know little useless facts about the wizarding world, just like we know little useless facts about our own world. I think this "feeling at home" in the wizarding world is also one of the reasons why there are so many Harry Potter fanfictions.

To sum up my argument, I absolutely love the Harry Potter books and did not enjoy what I have read and seen of Narnia.

By the way, there’s really great cake on the Dark Side, too, because of Irena’s awesome-cake-detecting mutant powers.

As the Sith say, "May the Force serve you well."

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I just finished reading Richard Paul Russo’s Ship of Fools. Take a little of each of the following: politics, religious debate, inequalities in social class, rebellion against an oppressive upper class, ulterior motives, suspense, mysteries that are not fully solved, horror movies where the "evil" must be escaped because it is killing people but remains largely unidentified, stories that tell you how the characters got to a certain point and then leave the future open-ended, the idea of being an outcast, and the idea of feeling alone in the universe. Now add in a narrator with a unique voice but seemingly little passion, a dwarf that makes really great coffee, a pope that doesn’t believe in god, and a female priest whose ideas about god are different from the traditional ideas of the church she’s a part of.

This is the best summation I can give of this book. It was certainly a good book and it made me want to read more and find out what happens next. However, the questions I wanted answers were not answered. It’s that kind of book: it presents situations, leaves questions unanswered and lets the reader decide. I think this technique was a good approach to the story. I think it was kind of the point of the whole story. I’d say it was a good book, but not great.

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I have floppy disks that I used to use before I got a flash drive, and I can’t use the floppies on my laptop, so I was on my mom’s computer, transferring some of my stories from floppies to my flash drive. This was a very strange experience. There were beginnings of stories I didn’t even remember until I saw them again. I’d see the name of a file and think, "What’s this?" then remember when I opened it. I came across stories I started in middle school and never finished. I want to finish them, but I’ve discovered that I think what I’ve written of them so far is absolutely horrid. My writing has definitely changed [for the better, I hope]. I’ve been doing some writing recently, and it really makes me happy and excited.

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To all those who will debate geeky topics....

May the Force be with you.

College and Other Randomness

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 22:40:10 GMT

Greetings, everyone!

I know it’s been a while since my last entry, but-as you probably know-my entries tend to be long, and I haven’t had much time to spare. College is many things, most of which I don’t entirely understand yet. The words "strange" and "different" may sum up my impression thus far, since I only have three weeks of experience.

For one thing, the work in college is different from that in high school. Studying had always been a foreign concept to me until AP classes. Even then, however, old practices were difficult to change. Now that I am in college, I think I’ve studied more in the past month than I did in all of my non-AP classes throughout my previous thirteen years of school.

The classes themselves are different from the classes in high school. For one thing, there are five hundred students in my chemistry lecture and one hundred and fifty students in my psychology class. This makes it rather difficult to feel the same kind of comfort that usually results from being in a small group of people.

Some of my teachers are good and also nice, but I have thought more than once during my chemistry and calculus classes, My high school teachers were better than this. I’m sure that I’ll have some really great and memorable teachers at some time in my college career, but right now, I can’t help but miss my old high school teachers.

Basically, college isn’t completely awful, but I don’t have any fond memories in it to consider it special. I miss high school very much, not because it was easier but because it was where I had so many memories and where I felt comfortable. I could probably walk the halls of WHS blindfolded, whereas I have to make a conscious effort to walk around the campus without causing bodily damage to myself or others.

Ah, college...What will I think of it in the future?...

__________

Is it possible to download a person’s mind and consciousness into a virtual paradise? If you do, does their soul get downloaded as well, or are they destined to go to hell come Judgement Day for trying to become immortal? Is it possible for copies of multiple minds to live inside one body and, working together, create a whole other person? What the hell is "The Bin"? These are some of the questions raised by Dennis Danvers’ Circuit of Heaven, which I just recently finished reading.

The novel is a rather interesting combination of science and the moral questions related to it. The Bin is a silicon structure where the Pentagon once was in Washington, D.C. It is a paradise without death, disease, or aging. People flock to The Bin in droves, seeking immortality and paradise.

The main character is Nemo, whose parents abandoned him when he was young to go live in the virtual paradise that is referred to as The Bin. At that time, minors were not allowed into The Bin. Nemo vows that he’ll never go into The Bin; he’d rather die in the real world. His best friend is Johnathan. Johnathan and his family stay out of The Bin because of their religious beliefs, but they are not fundamentalists; they practice their religion and try to help others, but don’t preach or use violence against those who don’t agree with them. There is, however, another group that seeks to destroy The Bin.

When Nemo goes to The Bin as a visitor, to see his parents on his birthday, he meets Justine and they fall in love. It’s a classic love-at-first-sight moment. Justine now lives in The Bin, which means that she no longer has a body in the real world; her body has been incinerated. Nemo is just a visitor, so he must leave in less than one day and return to his body so that he doesn’t end up sick or worse. Nemo has to make a decision about whether to go in The Bin to be with Justine or stay true to his vow and live in the real world. Meanwhile, Justine has been having weird dreams and does not remember anything about her life. The only truths in her world are her love for singing and her love for Nemo.

I really enjoyed this book for two reasons. First, because I thought in the beginning that I knew what may be causing Justine’s nightmares. When I found out the truth, I was partially right, but the surprising parts made me think What the Hell? Second, because it presents some issues like the potential of science and where morals fit in with science.

My main complaint about the book is that although the author mentions the moral or controversial issues of technology, he doesn’t discuss then very much. The romance is the main story, even though I don’t think it’s meant to be the main message of the story. I don’t usually like the "love at first sight," but I can deal with that. The love between Nemo and Justine is obviously necessary, since it is the only thing that would make Nemo reconsider his beliefs. It’s also very sweet. However, I wish the author had written more about the science and controversy, which didn’t seem like a huge part of the story, although I got the feeling that it could be a main theme.

Anyway, it’s a good book and worth a read. The parts about Newman Rogers alone are really great and rather funny. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes science fiction.

__________

My life is going okay right now. Adjusting to college is not exactly difficult, but just strange. The bureaucracy is amazingly annoying, of course. I am actually very happy right now, because I got a perfect score on my first psychology test.

I am also happy because I saw Irena today. Seeing friends always makes me happy. You know, I was thinking about something you guys. We should start a club. I don’t know about you, but being a commuter sometimes makes it inconvenient to stay late for club meetings. Maybe we should start a book club, or a Magic club, or something equally geeky. I’m just putting the idea out there. Do you guys think it’s possible or even worth trying?

To all those who are dealing with the weird world of college and trying to find meaning and fun in life...

May the Force be with you.

Stranger

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 00:18:33 GMT

Stranger: Real Life and an Overdue Book Review

Hello, greetings, and salutations!

Today, I went to orientation at Rutgers. It feels really weird to be in college. It’s something I’ve been looking forward to for a while, and yet, I can’t escape the feeling that once I’m there, it’s going to be horrible. I know: I’m so full of hope, aren’t I?

I really do hope for great things in life, but there’s always the uncertainty that makes me nervous. I realize that college is very large part of accomplishing some of my goals, which is why I want to do well in it. I also realize, simultaneously, that I have some goals that have nothing to do with college whatsoever. Finding a balance [and more importantly, the time] to do everything I want to is the main challenge I anticipate.

By the way, about my surprise at being signed up for biology: there’s an option of a psychology/sociology elective in second year. Because I got AP credit for Biology, I’m automatically in Psychology. Oh, well. There are worse things, I’m sure.

Anyway, I wish the best of luck to all my friends starting college or returning to school.

__________

I’ve been meaning to post this book review for a while, but I haven’t had the chance. Therefore, I’m just tacking it on to this entry.

During a four-day trip to Chicago during summer vacation, I read Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. One word to describe it can be found in the title itself: strange. However, the strangeness has a point to it.

This book is the story of Valentine Michael Smith ["Mike"], a human who was born on Mars. His parents were part of the eight-person crew of the Envoy and made the first human expedition to Mars. Twenty-five years later, the crew of the Federation ship Champion made the second human expedition to Mars and found that all eight of the Envoy crew were dead. At first, they thought there were no survivors, but then met Mike and brought him back to Earth.

Although human by genetics, Mike was raised among the Martians for his entire life. Therefore, being on Earth presents him not only with the challenge of adjusting to the increased gravity, but also with the challenges of being in a society so different from the one he grew up in. He does not understand humans and desires to "grok" them. Grok is a word Heinlein made up, which means "to know something so well that it becomes a part of you." He seems like a child at first, sometimes making comments that made me laugh out loud, since he’s oblivious to the way things are done on Earth. Mike is intriguing, interesting, and likeable. Despite being in a whole new environment, he is not the least bit suspicious, trusting people until they give him a reason not to. He doesn’t realize that the government is holding him prisoner in the hospital. When nurse Jill offers him a drink of water, he is delighted, because on Mars, sharing water makes people "water brothers," or close friends.

After escaping from the hospital, Mike meets new friends and becomes "water brothers" with some more people. After living with a household of humans, Mike begins to understand that he cannot truly be a Martian, but realizes that he doesn’t agree with everything on Earth either. Both Mars and Earth are described as having advantages and flaws. Mike wants to combine some of what he learned on Mars with the society and potential of humans to improve humankind on Earth. I don’t want to give it away, but let me just say this: According to wikipedia.org, this book inspired the Counterculture of the 1960s.

Heinlein’s writing style is great! There’s a good balance between narration and dialogue, and Heinlein knows just where to say what he wants to say so that the story flows wonderfully and builds upon itself spectacularly. It pulled me in and made me care about what the characters were going to do. This can be a good and bad thing, sometimes, since I can be happy for the characters but also become upset if characters do something I don’t like.

Heinlein discussion many political, social, and religious issues in the book. The character Jubal makes some lengthy speeches and seems to be the one through which Heinlein expresses his views, which were very controversial at the time when he wrote the book. The "ideal" society based upon love that Mike wants to create has some inherent impossibilities built in, since it is based on Mike teaching new members the Martian language and other supernatural abilities that he learned on Mars. Knowing Martian helps them to understand ["grok"] and the supernatural powers help them in their quest to create the perfect world. I think that this book, while expressing some of Heinlein’s views, doesn’t necessarily strive to present a society that we should aim to create, since doing so would be impossible.

Despite some complaints, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Even those who don’t agree with everything that the members of Mike’s Church of All Worlds [which is what Mike name’s his organization that works towards an ideal society, although he claims it’s not really a church] do [and I don’t] can enjoy reading this book. I think that everyone can appreciate the desire to live in a society based upon love and rid the world of violence and hatred.

This book is a great read for anyone who enjoys science fiction books that are relatively heavy on the science and futuristic technology [though not too heavy-one doesn’t need to be an astrophysicist to understand it], wants to read books that discuss opinions on different issues, or just likes a good science fiction story that has a unique story and ends with more questions than it started with.

Note: [For anyone who may consider reading this book.] After buying this book, I discovered that there are two editions available. The one I have is the original, as it was published in 1961. I found out from wikipedia.org that when Heinlein submitted the book to a publisher, the editor told him to shorten it-his manuscript was 220,000 words-and remove a sex scene. The book as originally published contains 160,000 words. After Heinlein’s death, his wife published the entire book, as he originally wrote it. My review is based upon the shorter version, since it’s the one I read. I don’t know if I’ll read the other one, but if I do, I’ll be sure to write something about how the two are different and which one I think is better [not that I think anyone will care].

__________

Now that I think about it, the part about starting college and the book review actually go well together, because I suspect that tomorrow [my first day of classes as a college student] I’ll feel like a stranger on a new planet.

To all those who will try to find meaning and inner strength as the world changes around them...

May the Force be with you.