Kevin Porter

July is overrated

July for me has always been my vacationing month.  Every year I go to my grandparents’ house in North Carolina and usually take another week or two to go somewhere else.  Unfortunately, that somewhere else this year was my great aunt’s funeral.  Although I never knew her, I always feel a sadness for any death.  It was harder for me mainly because I met my great uncle, and he was really great.  I can’t help but wish I’d been able to see my great aunt.

The main reason I’m posting this update is to get back in the groove of the web.  I haven’t been able to tweet much or blog much mainly because of my being out of town the past two weeks or so.  I’m even behind a bit on the news, which is kind of a new thing for me to deal with.  Anyhow, as July turns to August and school looms ahead, I still plan on getting some things done through my blog over the rest of the summer.

That’s right. If we can’t beat them, let’s throw them overboard. A revolution of truth.

July 4 elections

I suggest that we in America move our Election Day to July 4. And why might that be, you ask? Well, quite frankly, Independence Day seems to be the only time of year people are going around actually thinking about freedom. I would wager that if the 2008 elections had been held on Independence Day Barack Obama would not have won. Neither would John McCain have won. Would Mitt Romney have won? John Edwards? Hillary Clinton? Or maybe Mike Huckabee? No, I don’t think so. I’m relatively certain we would have a constitutionalist independent or a constitutionalist libertarian/conservative in the White House now. We wouldn’t have any greedy politicians. There wouldn’t be a Secretary of Homeland Security who seeks to alienate enemies of government opinion, and there certainly would be no Waxman-Markey bill looming in front of our faces.

Maybe this is my American patriotism getting in the way of reality again, but I think there would be huge changes with an election day change. Am I right, or is this just my flashback to the Jackson years? Maybe it’s worth a shot when if we get some decent minds back into our government.

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

— Philippians 1:6

An improved education

I was listening to TWiT today, and as usual it stimulated some ideas inside my head. One of my favorite aspects of the show is the discussion of future media and industries, such as news, education, etc. Although I usually disagree with him, Leo Laporte (the host of the TWiT network) had some interesting ideas and discussion topics. Also one of the co-hosts, Jeff Jarvis, had a lot of input. This little conversation got me very intrigued. I think they hit the whole topic of eduction right on the head.

I think we all know that our education system is not the best right now. Students do not seem to be doing as well, and the world is surpassing America in many aspects of the education system. So what is our problem? Do we need to just throw more money at a failed system? I should think not. Let us take a look at some of the problems in the school system.

First of all is testing. One of the worst ideas the school system has ever had is testing. These government-mandated tests basically do absolutely nothing. They just see who knows the right answers. But this is the wrong mentality. We are not looking to see who can find the right answers on a whim, but we need to see that everyone is learning. The idea is not memorization, but common sense and logic. This is one of the worst flaws I have seen in the school system and one of the worst problems I have seen in students I see every day. The biggest problem is that these students are so bent on memorization that they cannot determine a right or wrong answer when a question is asked in a roundabout way or you are asked to fill in blanks. Too often I’ve seen people just leave the answer field blank just because everything was memorized rather than learned.

Second of all is creativity. Creativity in schools is stifled beyond belief. I can’t remember the last time my teacher gave me a writing assignment in which I could write about anything I wanted, or when I was given a science paper where I wasn’t given explicit instructions on what I could and could not write about. Perhaps this is a bad example, but this seriously needs to be fixed. I am a self-admitted non-artsy person. But creativity does not mean art. It means allowing your passions to be expressed with creative works. I think the least schools can do in order to create a better society is to stimulate students’ creativity and give time over to allow students to explore the passions and learn about what they are interested in. Think of Google’s 20% rule. Google requires that their employees take 20% of their time to dedicate to things they are interested in. And look at where Google is today—quite a company, no?

Finally for this piece, there is lectures. When my teachers give lectures, they are usually one-sided speeches. Now the teacher may be right, but this can leave many students confused. Whenever I think of a good school system, I like to think of the ancient lyceums (the Greek universities). When great philosophers like Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato would teach, they would not just “teach.” They would have a discussion. That is, they would allow for feedback and create a conversation. I can’t tell you how vital this is to learning. You can take a boring subject and make students hungry for more information by simply allowing them to ask questions and foster conversation. Kids will begin to like to learn this way.

Crazy ideas? Obviously I don’t think so since this is entirely my thoughts. However, we always need reform and improvement. Whether or not we go as far as I’d like to is not up to me, but as long as we take a step in the right direction I think we can get something done. But here’s my thinking: if kids can enjoy learning, our society will benefit by a greater majority of people that are not only learned but continue to learn throughout their lives. Imagine the possibilities if Lindsay Lohan decided to whip out a book and do a little thinking.

Here is the original photo before I processed it through HDR.  Quite a difference, and there’s many more things HDR and tone-mapping can do for photography.  (If you don’t know what HDR is, check out the Wikipedia article.)

One of the results from my HDR photography excursion this afternoon.  I’m a nature photographer generally, so the power of HDR is not fully evidenced here.

Iranian elections

Definitely one of the biggest news stories of the year, the Iranian elections have been hugely publicized by many different mediums.  Though some news organizations may not have understood the huge implications (*cough* CNN), people the world over have been poring over different Twitter feeds and live bloggers who are constantly updating the web on the goings-on of the protests.  No doubt everyone is for freedom (well, except maybe Mr. Ahmadinejad and the mullahs), so naturally we are supporting the freedom protests in Iran (i.e. those protesting the apparent election fraud).

There have been three kinds of responses I’ve seen to this whole ordeal.  The first is that we (by “we” I am referring to the US and/or her allies) should intervene and “keep the peace” in Iran.  In other words, occupy Iran until we would “see fit.”  The second response is that we should leave the Iranians alone: it’s their business, and we’re overhyping the whole thing anyway.  (This response could imply a government conspiracy to use this as an opportunity to invade Iran.)  The third and final response I’ve seen is a more moderate approach: giving support to the protesters as individuals and getting the news out, but not trigger-happy or lackidasical.  The latter was my personal response.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like either of the two guys.  Either way I think Iran will still be bad news for most of the free world, especially considering the mullahs will still have ultimate power.  However, I don’t like to see when people get cheated out of choosing their idiot to run the government.  They can choose either idiot, but as far as decency goes, the elections must be fair.  No, we probably shouldn’t, nor will we, result in invading Iran.  And based on the mullahs’ response, it seems this could end up being another Tiananmen Square incident.  I pray to God it won’t, but the mullahs aren’t too happy.

There’s really not a whole lot most of us can do to help the situation, other than get the news out and of course pray for the protesters.  Seriously, these men, women, and children are putting their lives on the line for freedom.  They need all the prayer and support they can get.

Bottom line: let the people choose their idiot.

Come on summer

Today was my eighth grade graduation and also my last day in the eighth grade. Honestly, I love getting out of school for the summer as much as anyone my age. But I’ve always had a sense of nostalgia for the end of a school year. This year is especially difficult for me. It’s the end of my grade school career—I’m going to be a a freshman next year. Also many of my friends, regardless of how well I did or did not know them, are going to different high schools than me. If any of them happen to be reading this, they know I wish them luck and such for high school and the rest of their lives. But the thing is, these relationships that have been developed are being fragmented, if not shattered. Sure, I’ve social media on the web, but that’s nothing like going to school everyday and saying “hi.” Call me a wuss, but I really do feel a deep sense of melancholy at the end of the school year.

Next year is bound to be interesting. I have at least one goal in mind: grow current relationships and break down walls of separation. It has to happen sometime. Anyhow, come on summer!

Finals, school, life in general

I’ve been meaning to try out Tumblr, so I figured the best way would be to use it as a personal life update blog.  So, let’s dive right in.

If you’ve been following my Twitter stream (or lack thereof lately), you probably heard a whine or two about finals and such mixed between excited posts about the end of school.  Well, school is ending for me this Thursday, and my last finals are on Tuesday.  The former is a relief, the latter only somewhat.

In between studying and such, I’ve been having to do some work in the yard and my pool and other miscellaneous tasks.  Today (Friday, that is) I was putting some mulch down around the yard along with my dad.  Not my favorite of tasks, but it’s not so bad after a while.  On the downtime I have, I’ve been playing The Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO), an MMORPG.  I’d like to give a review of it on my main (“editorial”) blog sometime in the near future, but that may have to wait until school is out.  I’ve been enjoying it tremendously.  The gameplay is great, the storyline is better, and the graphics are superb.  It’s better than any MMO I’ve played, including World of Warcraft.  I’d highly recommend you go out and download the trial (be warned: it’s a 9GB file).

Anyhow, my Tumblog is supposed to be short, so I will keep it that way.