Thankful for a classmate

Honestly there are so many classmates that I am thankful for. There is Tyrone, Sam, and Vicky.  Those are three individuals that have been there for me since freshman year and I would like to say that we are all good friends with one another. Out of the three I would say I am the closest to Tyrone. We have been teammates for 4 years and he has become one of my best friends. I am also very close with his family; they are like a second family to me. The second closest person is Sam, I met him freshman year as well and we have been teammates for the last 2 years. We were actually closer friends a while back but we had an “obstacle” in our friendship and things went downhill but we have moved on and we are good friends once again. I am close with his family as well but not as close as I am with Tyrone’s family. Third and last would be Vicky. Ummmmmm, what can I say about Vicky?...  I met her freshman year as well, we became friends, and we dated for a short moment. We were very close but we also had “obstacles” in our friendship and we went almost a year without speaking. Now we have matured and we have become good friends. I am thankful for these guys because without them and the things that we have experienced together I wouldn’t be the person that I am today. I can honestly say that I love these guys. There are many people that consider themselves to be friends that forget each other after high school. That won’t happen; these guys and many others that I am thankful for are forever in my heart…

Defend the poet

In the poem “Dinosauria we” Charles Bukowski speaks of the unfortunate situation that many people have been born into. Things we don’t influence at all, that influences our lives so deeply.  In his poem he speaks of a young man, “as the supermarket bag boy holds a college degree.” Well it is not really him speaking of the young man; more so him speaking of the economy. How bad does the economy have to be when someone in possession of a college degree is working in a supermarket as a bag boy?... it has to be one of the most economically unstable places in the world for someone to be in that situation. How can we be one of the most advanced countries when a person can spend 30 years of their life paying off 4 years of schooling?... it doesn’t make sense.

“Into hospitals which are so expensive that it's cheaper to die.” When should dying ever be an option?... if things are so bad that a person would choose dying over fighting for their life, something really needs to be done. Who are we to charge a person to help them?... something we should want to do, basically putting a price on someone’s life. Jonas Salk could have easily charged everyone for the vaccine in which he created for polio and became a very rich man but he chose not to because he felt as if that was something he should have done for the ones that needed it most.

A direction the class needs

Coming in to this year I wasn’t sure about taking a philosophy class.  Based off of the title of the subject alone I thought it would be too challenging for me because at the moment I was going through a phase where I was being extremely lazy and refused to study, and apply myself to do the basic things that were needed of me to pass classes. Being in this class has made me think. (I am not just saying this, I am meaning this) But back to what I was saying… being in this class has made me think, and question who I am, and what my purpose on this earth is. (That was a question proposed to us in class and a blog topic) while thinking about this I asked myself; if I am not applying myself, and taking advantage of opportunities that are given to me that will ultimately set me up for success in life what is my purpose of being here??? Me being lazy doesn’t help me, me not doing homework and not studying for test doesn’t help me, and I have realized that. Me taking this class has helped me realize things, I have realized my potential. And as I think about things more deeply I wouldn’t be the type of student or thinker that I am now if it wasn’t for philosophy class. So the class doesn’t need a new direction because the direction in which we are heading now has set me on the right track and now I am headed in the right direction.

how do i know what i know???

How do I know what I know, I think I know what I now because it is proven to me. Of course there is a lot of stuff that hasn’t been proved that I still claim to know but it is going to be that way until someone proves it to be wrong…

Good point… I know what I know until someone proves what I know to be false.

There is only one thing that I am certain of though, something that no one can prove to be false. I am certain of existence. No one can tell me I don’t exist for I am most certain of the fact that I am living today. I never find myself thinking about whether I exist or not, whether all of this is a big dream, whether my life is one big allusion. That never crosses my mind.

Some people say they know what they know because they read it in text books but someone had to write that text book. Then since you read it, it would be safe to say that you don’t know this because you are basically going off of what someone else said, and what they believe to be true and the question comes back up, how do they know what they know?

Maybe no one knows anything. Maybe no one is as bright as they think they are seeing how they don’t know anything. Maybe there is no such thing as “facts”… maybe there is, I don’t know

father and son, mother and daughter...... family

Father and son, the relationship between father and son is interesting, when the son is young they are really close they play together and have fun doing all types of father and son things. But when they grow older from time to time they have disputes and bump heads a lot. They almost never agree with one another, and seeing how they are both men they have a hard time talking to one another about certain things. They can’t really express their love for one another as they should but of course they love each other for they are father and son.

Mother and daughter, their relationship stays intact longer than father and son but of course they will too grow apart from each other. When the daughter is young they are as close as two people can possible be, they don’t do as much playing as the father and son but the mother is mostly trying to teach the girl how to be a lady and how a lady is supposed to act. They dress up together and do the things that ladies do, experimenting with makeup and all the good stuff. But when the daughter reaches that age, the mother has to let go and let the daughter live her life and hopefully she was taught right.

Mother and son, father and daughter. These relationships are very similar. There is a lot of protecting going on. The son wants to protect his mother and the father wants to protect his daughter as they should want to. But just as the other relationships there comes a time when they have to let go and stop trying to protect... because at the end of the day everyone has to live their life..!

our meaning

Hmmm…  what is my purpose in this world? Why am I here?

I think there is one and only one answer to this question. I mean… if there are more please let me know, but I think the meaning of life is to be successful in life. No matter the motivation, it may be fortune, girls, striving for fame, or even the material things such as cars, clothes, jewelry, etc. it really does not matter what a person decides to do I don’t think anyone starts something anticipating on failure, I believe they are striving for success.

If you invest time in something im sure you would want the best outcome no matter what route you choose. If you play basketball and you practice hard every day and you are preparing for a big game you wouldn’t approach that game betting on the failure of the team. If you invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in college tuition you would approach school as if you are expecting to become something out of going there, therefore you would be putting your money to good use. Even if you dealt drugs, you wouldn’t strive to be the worst drug dealer in the history of drug dealing, your goal would be to make money therefore trying to be the best.

What im trying to say is that I think my purpose, along with everyone else’s purpose in life is the become successful, start a family and keep the cycle of life going… have some kids… Boost that kitty

God in 2010

God in 2010… the question comes up a lot, is there a God? It is kind of a hard question to answer, damn near impossible unless you have had some type of encounter with the big guy himself.  Many people believe that God has decided to punish New Orleans for its many years of wrong doing, most of which happens during the time when Mardi Gras in going on. So when Hurricane Katrina hit these people felt as if the city of New Orleans had it coming and as if it was their fault when in actuality they could control that situation at all, it would have mattered if they committed every crime/ sin possible, hurricane Katrina would have had the same effect.

Many people have different beliefs of what or who God is, if they believe in a God at all. But as we discussed in class, people believe what the majority of the population believes. If there was ten people In the class and eight of them were to say that I am twelve feet tall in time the other two would start to believe that I am twelve feet tall no matter how wrong they thought the rest of the class was initially. So seeing how majority of the world believes in some type of God then that is what people would believe to be the truth. I think we as human beings tend to believe what everyone else believes, I call that JUMPING ON THE BAN WAGGON!!!!

does Candide's punishments fit the crime?

We live in a world where many of the punishments are too harsh and do not fit the crime. I the novel candied commits many petty crimes. Crimes that in my opinion shouldn’t be considered a crime. One instance is when candied kissed the princess, Miss Cunégonde, the baron’s daughter, decides to spy on Pangloss and Paquette (the maid), between her being nosey and her desire for knowledge she hurries to find Candide. Not only does she find Candide, she finds Candide and the princess smooching. Of course they wouldnt allow such a thing to happen so after the baron found out what had taken place Candide was surely banished from the castle.

I think banishing someone that hasn’t been exposed to anything other than the community that they have lived for all of their life is harsh seeing how they aren’t ready to endure what goes on in the real world because they only know what they have been exposed to. they would be lacking all of the basic skills needed to survive, such as, I don’t know, say ummmm… survival skills.

A series of events occur and this ultimately leads to candied serving in the Bulgarian army. His next crime is when he decided to take a walk one morning and four soldier capture him, and he is labeled as a deserter. He is given a choice between being executed and running the gauntlet, which is when a person is made to run between two lines of men who will strike him with weapons thirty-six times.

After running the gauntlet twice, Candide’s skin is nearly flayed from his body. After the brutal gauntlet occurs, the king of the Bulgars happens to pass by. Discovering that Candide is ignorant of the world and decides to pardon him, but Candide’s wounds heal in time for him to serve in a war between the Bulgars and the Abares. So basically, a little kiss and him deciding to take a walk has resulted in him being banished, beaten half to death, and taking part in a war, I would say the punishments most definitely do not fit the crime.

Modern day socrates

Socrates was credited as one of the founders of western philosophy. He had a method of his own, he would question the opposing person and let them paint themselves into a corner and attack when he sees the chance is right. He is the type to speak out if he doesn’t believe in something; after all he did ultimately end up dying for what he believed in.

If I had to label someone as the modern day Socrates, I would give that title to Kanye West. Mr. West gets the title for a number of reasons. My first reason is at the VMA’s when Taylor Swift won the award for best music video and he walked up on stage and stated what he believed it appeared to me as something that Socrates would have done. Basically what I’m saying is from evidence/their actions we are easily able to say that these two guys are similar because they do things that very few other people would do for what they believe in such as simply die, or interrupt someone giving a speech in front of millions of people and reveal to them that you believed someone else should have won.

I also put Kanye West under the title of the modern day Socrates because he had the confidence to say it about himself. He (Kanye West) said, “Now, I’ma need you to kill the hypocrisy, this is an aristocracy. I’m Socrates, but my skin more chocolately.” He is very confident in what he does, just as Socrates it confident that he is the best philosopher.

Is the unexamined life worth living?

Is the unexamined life worth living? Many people would say it's not. Some people have this crazy belief that every aspect of one’s' life is supposed to be planned from start to finish. And if it's not then it is labeled the unexamined life , therefore it is not worth living. (According to these individuals of course).

I believe that any and every life unexamined or not is worth living. The big guy put everyone on this earth for a certain reason, whether they choose to fulfill the big guys plan and make something of themselves is their decision.

I have examined my life plenty of times. I often find myself reflecting on my life, asking myself questions such as “what is my purpose in this world?" "Who am I?" "Is me telling others that my name is Dominique sufficient?"

I feel that the examination of one’s life is very important. Everyone should, at one point in their life, sit down and think about their past, what’s going on in their life now, and what’s to come in the future for them. As a young adult growing up in today’s society I see a lot. I have two cousins, one is name Marcel and one is named Jessica. Jessica is a sensitive and very attractive woman that has realized that a series of(and I quote) “aint SH*T” relationships that was doomed from the begging has consumed most of her life, most likely ruining her chances of ever getting married and finding that special person. She is now in her late 30’s. On the other hand Marcel, a caring and hardworking man found that special person, settled down and started a family but he starting ignoring his family, this went on for years and he found himself depressed, and living alone.

I just think that if Marcel and Jessica would have just sat down and examined what was going on in their lives they could have made the necessary changes and had different experiences in relationships.

my eulogy

Dominique was a great person. As a child he was very quiet and shy. He never had any problems in school, and most definately not with the law. Growing up he attended James McCosh Elementary School, a very rough school located in his neighborhood. He loved that school, almost everyday he would come home and tell me how good his day went. But... when things got rough, and things got out of hand, he got out of there. After leaving McCosh he went to St. Columbanus Catholic School where he learned how to play basketball, and scored hundreds of points over the years. After graduating he attended Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, one of the best schools in the nation. For Dominique high school was a big deal, he could wait to get there but as soon as he got there he couldnt wait to get out. From time to time he would lose focus and his grades would slip but he had a freakishly strong brother also attending Whitney Young to keep him in check. Dominique has always been close to his family, but especially his sister, she was his favorite and he wouldnt admit it but he looked up to his big brother and followed in his footsteps by coming to Whitney Young. Although he thought his brother was a bit immature, he always found him to be very entertaining. He never had just one good memory while attending Whitney Young, he just enjoyed going to school with his brother and bestfriends everyday. I think i can speak for all of us when i say, "we will miss you."