For the final...

I think we should have a major game day over the movies, stories, and theories discussed in class throughout the semester. If we are required to do something more contructive than that, then I vote that we have an open-ended question applying concepts we have learned  to our lives (for example, the exercise we completed in class relating to the reading on time). 
I also think we should get out of class early because it is the first day of finals week and we will all probably be stressed like crazy :)

Time

While I was reading the chapter on time, I had one of those "aha moments" that connects an experience with an explanation. It made complete sense to me that time, while measured in seconds, minutes, hours, days, and so on, it is also determined by the activities we accomplish. I feel like we could all agree that an hour in traffic feels much longer than an hour watching television. Likewise, the week of final exams goes by much slower than a week of vacation. Therefore, it makes sense that our perception of time is affected by our actions and how we use our time. I found the explanation so obvious that it was interesting and I couldn't help but wonder what activities speed up time and which stretch time.

Activities that speed up time:
-Watching a good movie
-Reading a good book
-Browsing on Facebook
-Spending time with friends
-Social events
-Taking a nap
-Holidays
-Vacations

Activities that slow time:
-Watching a terrible movie
-Reading an uninteresting book
-Replying to countless e-mails
-Sitting in a waiting room
-Waiting for a delayed flight
-Sitting on an international flight
-Final exams
-Dentist or doctors appointments
-Sitting in traffic

Five Changes to Make the World a Better Place

1. Regulate ownership and availability of guns
2. Establish a competitive education system
3. Create a health care system that is available to more people and has extensive coverage for those with severe illnesses and diseases
4. Use cleaner energy (wind energy, solar energy, etc.)
5. Place more funding into medical research to find cures for HIV, cancers, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's, etc.

October 17- Mediation and Media

I thought the idea of mediation and the influences that media has on us was very eye-opening. The first example that came into my mind when the book mentioned how media shapes the way we view other countries and cultures that we have never visited or experienced. I have never been to the Middle East, but the media depicts it as a constant war zone. It has always seemed to me, with the influence of the media, that the culture was bizarre and treated women poorly. However, now that I think about it, I can't really, truly know any of that unless I experience it first hand. Those are actually assumptions I have made based upon the news and media. It all relates back to rule number one: in theory, everything is suspect. You cannot rely on the media or prior assumptions for a definite truth, everything must be taken lightly because we cannot truly know if our media sources are reliable.
I thought the term mediation was interesting. It was not something that I had ever spent too much time thinking about, but I can't deny that all media is processed by me even if I don't realize it. For example, I have never been to half the locations that I have seen in movies or on TV, but I still feel like I have a general idea of those locations because I have processed information through mediation. Likewise, through reading I have been exposed to many outside thoughts and opinions and my mind has processed them even though I am not aware that I am doing it. That is why I found this particular idea interesting to me.