Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Moral Rapelling?
General Feelings:
Climbing Trip:
Rapelling
Have you ever walked off the side of a cliff? Literally, just walked off. I mean, sure, I was on a rope. Sure, I was on two ropes even. But the fact is, neither of them were taut while standing straight up. In fact, neither were taught until I was a foot down the rocks and standing parallel to the ground. A shorter safety would have been nice here. The idea of having that 4 feet of no rope terrified me. It took me about 15 minutes to actually start my rapel off. I managed to cut my 4 feet down to a couple of inches by stepping down and using an arm to lower myself down - no free fall, but no supporting rope either.
Why'd I do it? Why didn't I just walk down? Aside from TS's encouragement, the reason is for the experience. I like doing things. I like having experiences. I slept in a hammock above a black widow's web...well where was until I knocked it down while setting my hammock up. It was an experience. Ok, that was just a stupid move, but it was late and I didn't feel like moving. I rapelled down a rock face for the experience. I conquered my fears of it. Or better yet, I began to conquer my fears. To add to the fear, I rappelled down on anchors that TS and I set up together (mainly TS). That's an experience I've only dreamed of having. I did a Tarzan swing on the rope later that day just because I was scared to do it. It was an experience. It wasn't particularly dangerous, but it felt good knowing I can do it and knowing I have done it.
Sometimes I wonder if I like doing these things so I can claim I've done them, or if I like doing them for the sake of doing them. I sure hope its the latter. Is this blog my sick, self absorbed public journal? Possibly. I prefer to think of it as my way of communicating with the world, keeping my memories, and at times (now) learning about myself a bit. Admittedly, knowing its public makes it easier to write some things. The audience is a motivation of sorts. I think my reason for liking experiences is because experiences are memories. Time spent making memories is time worth having.
On the note of memories - I want to be more proactive. I want to do more. I feel as if in the past few months I've gotten better at this. I've coded for fun, I've climbed, I have an internship and a research set up. I've organized travel plans. I want to get good at being proactive. TS kind of inspires me on this one, he has such an exciting life because he doesn't waste a minute of it. I want to always be making memories.
Conversation with AB
Does absolute morality exist? Absolute Morality only exists if there's some universal standard of what is evil. The very fact that there's no common agreement implies no absolute morality. Event horrors (Holocaust) had/have supporters -->no absolute morality. Morality is defined by logic, empathy, and sympathy.
If you can empathize with another being, you naturally shouldn't want to do wrong to it. IE if you can empathize with Fred, you can logically prove its immoral to mistreat Fred. But not everyone empathizes equally. In fact, empathy is deeply personal. What's a person? My empathy is defined by what? By my free will? lol. Must be by my past interactions...what does this imply? Certain situations cause lack of empathy to develop? Granted, this assumes there's no "soul" and that humans realy are living chaos theory (still not certain how I feel about that). ¶ 10:41 PM
- Optimistic about school. Speaking with TS this weekend made me realize something - I can get A's in school. He said one thing in particular that made me feel really good and just reminded me that I can do well in school, "You were always good at tests". I haven't felt like that since high school. In fact, its been the opposite since then. No need for that to be the case though. Time for me to start getting A's again.
- Excited for Australia.
- failed at H Bridge circuit design (barely tried, better with IC any ways)
- soldered up H Bridge IC (key is to hold the heat still and move the solder)
- created worling circuit!; circuit broke 10 minutes later...
- verdex pro connects with Tweener, but not with new cable
Climbing Trip:
- went to Pilot mountain with TS and VT
- learned how to set anchors for top roping
- bought shoes after doing a 100 footer barefoot (ouch!)
- I cut really easily and was asked by multiple people if I was ok/what happened - maybe I'll wear pants next time? Also, I looked really filthy/manly/war veteran like (awesome!).
- Make a computer flash card program with a GUI
- Finished the bowling program.
- Chapel Hill is awesome, but need to be 21.
- Math 103 is very interesting. I'm really glad I got to relearn it.
- Party with TS and AB was good; had fun meeting people. Looking forward to getting good at clubbing/barring in AU. Not sure why but its a skill I really want to have. (I want to be the best meeter of people in alllll the land!)
- I want to run a half marathon at some point in my life.
Rapelling
Have you ever walked off the side of a cliff? Literally, just walked off. I mean, sure, I was on a rope. Sure, I was on two ropes even. But the fact is, neither of them were taut while standing straight up. In fact, neither were taught until I was a foot down the rocks and standing parallel to the ground. A shorter safety would have been nice here. The idea of having that 4 feet of no rope terrified me. It took me about 15 minutes to actually start my rapel off. I managed to cut my 4 feet down to a couple of inches by stepping down and using an arm to lower myself down - no free fall, but no supporting rope either.
Why'd I do it? Why didn't I just walk down? Aside from TS's encouragement, the reason is for the experience. I like doing things. I like having experiences. I slept in a hammock above a black widow's web...well where was until I knocked it down while setting my hammock up. It was an experience. Ok, that was just a stupid move, but it was late and I didn't feel like moving. I rapelled down a rock face for the experience. I conquered my fears of it. Or better yet, I began to conquer my fears. To add to the fear, I rappelled down on anchors that TS and I set up together (mainly TS). That's an experience I've only dreamed of having. I did a Tarzan swing on the rope later that day just because I was scared to do it. It was an experience. It wasn't particularly dangerous, but it felt good knowing I can do it and knowing I have done it.
Sometimes I wonder if I like doing these things so I can claim I've done them, or if I like doing them for the sake of doing them. I sure hope its the latter. Is this blog my sick, self absorbed public journal? Possibly. I prefer to think of it as my way of communicating with the world, keeping my memories, and at times (now) learning about myself a bit. Admittedly, knowing its public makes it easier to write some things. The audience is a motivation of sorts. I think my reason for liking experiences is because experiences are memories. Time spent making memories is time worth having.
On the note of memories - I want to be more proactive. I want to do more. I feel as if in the past few months I've gotten better at this. I've coded for fun, I've climbed, I have an internship and a research set up. I've organized travel plans. I want to get good at being proactive. TS kind of inspires me on this one, he has such an exciting life because he doesn't waste a minute of it. I want to always be making memories.
Conversation with AB
Does absolute morality exist? Absolute Morality only exists if there's some universal standard of what is evil. The very fact that there's no common agreement implies no absolute morality. Event horrors (Holocaust) had/have supporters -->no absolute morality. Morality is defined by logic, empathy, and sympathy.
If you can empathize with another being, you naturally shouldn't want to do wrong to it. IE if you can empathize with Fred, you can logically prove its immoral to mistreat Fred. But not everyone empathizes equally. In fact, empathy is deeply personal. What's a person? My empathy is defined by what? By my free will? lol. Must be by my past interactions...what does this imply? Certain situations cause lack of empathy to develop? Granted, this assumes there's no "soul" and that humans realy are living chaos theory (still not certain how I feel about that). ¶ 10:41 PM
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