School sucks! Yah yah, I know that. I am now over 5 years removed from my last day of High School (dang I’m old), but I’ve come to realize something about learning. Often times we confuse the value of learning with our enjoyment of learning.

Does all learning have value? I would say it does. My junior year of High School in AP Chemistry, my teacher Mr. Bradbury gave us a talk on “learning for the sake of learning.” This is why I believe all learning has value: When you learn something, not just memorize it, you use your brain. It’s amazing how few people in our society use their brain, but that’s a whole different entry. When we learn we are training our brain to THINK. Effects have causes, “facts” have interpretations, truth isn’t always truth because someone says it is. Learning makes you brain work better, it helps you solve problems, and there is value in that. We may not like math or English, but their is value in them. But how is that different than enjoying it?

As I get ready to start a teaching credential next week, I’m actually excited. I’ve found a career I enjoy, and I’m working towards that goal. This is where I differentiate the value of learning and actually enjoying it. I believe their is value in the process of learning itself, but it becomes enjoyable when it goes beyond that basic premise. I have a vested interest in the school work I’m about to undertake, and beyond valuing just the learning itself, I can enjoy and look forward to the fruits of my labors later on in my career. When you cross the line from simply storing up knowledge, and start using knowledge, your learning then can have purpose and fulfillment.

So the next time you wake up for school in a crappy mood, realize you’re off to get smarter that day and exercise your brain. I wouldn’t say you have to enjoy every minute of school your whole life, but it’s your attitude that determines what you will enjoy, and what you will decide to use.

I did an interesting comparison today between George Bush’s contribution page and John Kerry’s contribution page. Funny how you can tell so much about the spirit of the party based on one webpage.

John Kerry Contribution Page

George Bush Contribution Page

See a difference in the “spirit” in which they’re asking for you money?

Scouring the WWW to bring you cool and time wasting fun!

Crazy Guy on a Bike – A huge journal made by a guy that rode across the country on his bike. I read the first couple days, sounds fun.

So Cal Earthquakes – Ever wondered if that shaking feeling you felt was an earthquake or just really bad gas? Go here and check.

Text to Speech – The possibilities are endless. Extra kudos for giving you a downloadable version.

Viva Bush! – Show your mexican heritage….or if you just like Spanish!

John Kerry’s Flip-Flops – A very lenghty list concerning John Kerry’s flip-flops.

Awesome NES – This thing rules. Top loading nes with RCA outputs.

Mega 64 – Download the videos, they’re hilarious.

If you didn’t notice, there’s a new link to the right for my image gallery. So far it only has San Diego pictures in it, but I’ll be sure to add more soon. Check out the program here. If you get really into you can use a program called Gallery Remote. It lets you upload and resize files from a handy program. Makes the whole process unbelievably easy.

Stupid People at the Zoo

So as we walked around looking at the animals, I noticed some comments people made as they observed. The most notable comments I heard were at the gorilla exhibit.

Person 1: They’re amazing. It’s like looking in a mirror.

As dumb as this sounds, this person is probably correct. Anyone dim enough to make this statement is probably more like an ape than a fellow human.

Person 2: I’m not sure who’s on display, us or them!

The fact that they are the ones in the cage would lead me to believe they’re on display, not I. If anything was on display it was this person’s foolishness.

Another dumb comment I heard was at a parrot exhibit.

Person 3: Wow, look at it’s pretty fur.

Yaaah, the bird has fur. *shakes head*

If you do go to the zoo, keep your ears open. The stupid things people say are almost as entertaining as the animals themselves.

Before my unfortunate run-in with the mysterious wild beast, Stacie and I had spent the day at the San Diego Zoo. If you’ve never been, I highly recommend it. They’ve got so many cool animals, it’s just awesome. Check this guy out…

The polar bears were probably my favorite. Amazing and gorgeous animals. They were only active in the morning, so we made sure to see them early. This next picture is Stacie with a pretty purple plant.

If you’ve seen the Lion King you’ll recognize this little fellow. He’s a Meerkat that was just chillin’. What a life!

Overall it was an awesome day.

Yesterday Stacie and I spent the day at the San Diego Zoo. We had a great time, and I’ll be posting pictures soon. The ride home however wasn’t so fun.

About 30 miles North of San Diego, cruising 70 mph in the far left lane of the 5 freeway, something appeared before my car: a BEAST. The freeway was near pitch black, so I only saw the beast for a split second. It was the size of a dog, but had the shape of a cat. As soon as my headlights lit the beast up, I began to swerve out of the way…but alas, it was too late. With a loud *thud* my car smacked into the head of the beast. At first it was unclear what the damage was, so we pulled off the freeway to check it out. It wasn’t pretty.

As you can see it ripped through my bumper and significantly tweaked my fender. But luckily Stacie and I were ok. The car will get fixed and life will move on. If you have a weak stomach, please avert your eyes from the next photo. It shows the nastiness left from the beast.

And if you’re wondering, I’m pretty sure I won the battle. If you’re driving around the San Diego area though, keep your eyes open for the ghost of a headless BEAST!

Every now and then I come across some cool links that I think some of you may find either amusing or helpful. Today we’ve got a mix of both.

AntiVir – The first FREE Anti-Virus program that is actually GOOD. Goodbye Norton, hello free AntiVir. Test it out here. It catches everything. Only thing I don’t see is an automatic internet update, but manual is there.

Eskiv – Super addicting game where you move a square around. My best is only 115. Dare you to beat me.

Panda Cam – Watch the Pandas LIVE! Ooh so exciting. I can’t see anything right now because it’s dark.

Steve-O – This kid in Iraq has an amazing story. Not only did he turn in his father who was fighting against US troops, but a few days later his mother was killed in retaliation.