Brian-“Signman, looks like you are getting out of the sign business? What are you going for in college and beyond?”

Brian,
At the end of this semester I will have all my general courses finished, thank God. Being forced to take classes that I explored already in high school was a chore! The only upper level classes that I have taken so far have been mathematics, physics, and electronic engineering. Those areas will be my main pursuit when I transfer next fall to Sac State. One will likely become my major and the others will just be to aid in my major or for my own curiosity. I will also take some programming classes. But after this semester I will be working full time until fall to get some money saved for the transfer and to pay off my bills.

“WHAT IF EDISON HAD GOTTEN 8 HOURS SLEEP EACH NIGHT AND NO NAPS?”

His peers would have liked him more I think he would have still made the advanced that he did. Maybe just on a longer timetable. When I had Trig it was the last class of the day. That class really made math seem ugly to me and I was struggling with it. Coming home and taking a nap became a routine. 45-60 minutes and then I would do my math homework first. On days where a nap wasn't possible I would watch the news for the same amount of time. Either way it made doing homework more effortless than when I would start homework the moment I walked through the door or without some kind of escapism.

The way we sleep isn't an evolutionary remnant. On days that I go out and spend 14 hours in the rain and cold installing an Applebee's sign I usually will have no dreams during the next nights sleep, just a very deep, deep sleep. Obviously a recovery sleep; very difficult to wake from. On the weekend or days where I don't really over exert myself I dream a lot; very easy to get up the next morning.

What I am getting to is that the mind has some wonderful mechanisms in place to regulate what our body needs. The medical community doesn't completely understand them yet and I doubt anyone in the alternative realm does either. So I am not to big on tampering with them on a regular basis. An occasional Delta meditation to get you through some last minute cram sessions for class is a good tool but to use this coupled with theta naps everyday, as a substitute for natural sleep, is inherently dangerous. I can't safely operate a car, work 150 feet in the air on a sign or use heavy equipment while life takes on a dreamlike state. It would only lead to death.


Paul-"In one respect, for us to even speak meaningfully here, we would first have to recognize and validate a piece of linguistic coding labeled 'genius' (and unconsciously assume the corollary that anyone who wasn't or didn't exhibit 'genius' fell into a category called 'not-genius' or 'other-than-genius'"

Paul,
I agree that almost everyone has a bit o' genius in them that is waiting to be expressed or is expressed everyday and is just not recognized by others. Many people I have encountered have very obvious gifts that will not get them the recognition of “genius” because their gift is an obscure one in the big picture (a Waldo gift). If Einstein had been naturally interested in history we would likely have never heard of him regardless of his historical theories or Richard Feynman if his interest were in agriculture instead of mathematics? Our societies requirements for genius are fickle. Think of some of the more obscure character actors out there that you may consider incredibly talented that mostly go unnoticed while Keanu Reeves gets millions per movie and can’t act very well at all. I like his movies okay but it does show that we have some strange value systems and Genius is right in their with it, unfortunately.

Does higher intelligence equal genius? Should an individual with an I.Q. of 140…160…200 be considered a genius? I think not and the term shouldn’t even be used in the tests. Genius is as genius does. Higher intelligence only means you are smarter than most, it doesn’t mean you are a genius. Even though Webster’s disagrees. “Genius” is an accolade reserved for those that have exercised their potential to some notable degree. Well that’s my two cents for the weekend.
Later
Jeff