I, Curtis

Socialization

At the moment I am working on an exam for Introduction to Sociology and I find myself somewhat disgusted with how much humans assimilate to social norms. One of the questions on my exam relates to socialization, which as defined by my instructor and the text, is what makes us human. While I agree that without early socialization we would not be able to develop language skills, there are other things that bother me. Do we learn to assimilate to our culture as a result of socialization, or does some inborn need to assimilate cause our socialization? I assume it is the first, as supposedly all humans are supposed to be social beings. If we assume that we assimilate because of socialization, I worry about what our socializations teach those who are fragile and just learning of the world. While I agree that as a “civilized” species we should have certain “moral” guidelines that we should follow, including a respect for others around us, I feel that the emphasis on conforming to “norms” is just a bit over the top and is severely repressing the development of our species. At some point someone proposed the notion that “everyone” in our “local society” has a cell phone and thus now, every person over the age of 7 now has a cell phone, whether they need it or not, everyone must conform. I think of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “The Game” (S5 E6), in which a harmful game spreads among the crew of the ship, turning them all to mindless zombies. It is almost analogous to every major social trend in every culture. Why does anyone play “Farmville” for example? Probably because they accepted an invitation after a friend “gave” them a bale of hay or a cow or something. These nasty social habits and conformity are contagious throughout society. One of the most common examples of the force of conformity through socialization is tendency of children who use their left hands to write to be socially sanctioned in some way until they conform to the more socially acceptable right handed behavior. Why does everyone have to be the same? Schools claim that children who choose to have green hair are a distraction. Why is this? Because the student does not conform to the acceptable natural colors, and the other students have not been taught that there is nothing wrong with green hair. The fact that teenagers go through a rebellious phase is at this point a socially expected thing, which leads to the fact that it becomes part of their socialization. I can not be certain, but it seems as though it may also be a tool of socialization, to create an opportunity for the sanctions to be tested and to re-enforce the need to adapt to social norms.

Conformity is regulated by social sanctions (dirty looks, negative comments, more direct actions of punishment), and is ultimately the tool of socialization. Socialization is the process by which an individual is forced to assimilate to “the way we do things”.

Error in Degree Audit

I seem to have mis-calculated something in my degree audit, and because Banner is generally less intelligent than a trained monkey, it was no help in discovering the error. When I so eagerly marked the waiver status on the first two requirements on the degree form I neglected that those 5 credit hours don’t just go into the sky, they have to be filled by something, so therefore, I have 5 more elective hours, or closer to 6 since I don’t have any 2 hour courses on my record.

I have elected to use the following courses for those 6 hours:

US History I – CPCC – Fall 2008
Data Structures – FSU – Fall 2009

A Thought on Status

I have been thinking about my “status” architecture for GITI. At present I can tell GITI my status directly, through the UI, or by sending it an email (must be done from my phone at this time, as it only accepts 1 address). GITI will in turn post to Twitter, which Facebook picks up on. I was just thinking the other day that it seems that this practice may have become quickly outdated. While being totally out of contact I post status updates by emailing GITI, what about when I don’t have my phone close, but I am near somewhere with WiFi and have the iPod with me? It would make most sense to open the Twitter app on the device and post my status there, and let it be disseminated out, but what about GITI? What happens to GITI’s records? They are forgotten and so is any web app that uses my status from GITI. Perhaps the key here is to let GITI check Twitter and sync my statuses for me.

Hidden Features in GITI

Sometimes I get distracted, so distracted in fact that I forget to do things that one might consider important, especially when writing code. It would seem that about a year ago when I wrote code for adding batches of assignments to GITI I thought far enough ahead to add a “batch stamp” to the assignment records so that assignments added together could be traced together. The failing here is that when I remembered to write the code to make the stamp I failed to remember to write the proper code to actually use the stamp for anything in the UI itself. Chris accidentally added a batch of assignments to the wrong course (nothing wrong with it, I did it at least 5 times when I first started using the batch add system), and short of checking all of their little boxes on the pending assignment page and doing a bulk change there is no good way to assign them to a different course (and at this moment, I try to recall if it will change the course serial number or just the course code on the assignment). So, oops… I forgot to write the code to call back a batch of assignments. I guess I add that to my list of bugs to workout as Education crosses over to the v3 platform.

Pornography as a Social Problem

I am just getting started with reading my sociology textbook and have already discovered a few things that I don’t like, the primary thing is the author. The author has the audacity to call pornography a “social problem”, and classes it with rape, pollution and the spread of AIDS. I personally take offense to this because in my opinion pornography is part of sexual expression. Even at its worst I do not feel that pornography is much of a social threat, unless the author believes that it to be a component of Social Darwinism. In my view of pornography (beyond the scope of just basic sex pornos), I see pornography as expanding the possibilities with variety in sexual intercourse and taking sex to a level beyond the basic animal actions. Some pornography can be artistic and tasteful, something which I suspect that such a prude as the author of my text probably had not considered before, as even considering it academically would probably violate his sensibilities. I do not understand how someone in the social sciences can be so closed minded. Perhaps this direction for a minor wasn’t such a good idea, these people are a little too stuffy for me. It seems like in sociology anything related to sex is a bit taboo. If it isn’t race related, these people don’t seem to care about it. I guess having Freud being one of the founders of modern Psychology wasn’t such as bad thing after all, he was open to all possibilities.

End of an Era

I have been blogging on the Moveable Type platform for over 6 years now. It has been upgraded and mutated and I have customized some things, but in general, it never did become as familiar as it should have been. At this moment the original blog address (disturbingthoughts.net) runs on MoveableType and the new blog address (icurtis.me) is running on WordPress. I have tried WordPress before in an experimental capacity, but this time it is permanent. In a few days (or maybe weeks) the old platform will be abandoned. Chris and I have mutually agreed that MovableType is crap and no longer met our needs. At the time MovableType was first implemented it was the stable and reliable platform. Unfortunately, not a lot of people really got behind it and its parent organization allowed it to mutate into some sort of nasty CMS management application.

It will take time to move all of my blogs to their respective installations of WordPress since it is not centralized and I am still quite unfamiliar with how everything works. This blog, while being the largest turns out to be the easiest to move to a new platform, as it had an alternate address that almost no one uses and it has very few dependant web applications, whereas some of the others have websites associated with them and things that make their transition more of a challenge. That being said, my status website as well as the experimental unified presence at livecurt.net will be halted until they are revised to work on the new platform.

When I agreed to be moved to WordPress I thought it would be a very difficult thing for me to warm up to it and agree to give up the more familiar platform, but I’m not finding the types of oppositional emotions that I originally thought would occur. WordPress is flexible, fast and has a more understandable management functionality than I could have ever hoped for from other applications. I am not sad to see MT go, it was a pain and will not be missed.

Report of Unused Courses

Last night I wrote out a report on what courses actually apply to my degree. This particular blog entry is a bit different, it is a quick list of courses that were successfully transferred but that do not apply to the degree.

Java Programming – CPCC – Summer 2005
Introduction to Computer Science I – UNCC – Spring 2007
Introduction to Computer Science II – UNCC – Fall 2005
Computer Utilization in C++ – UNCC – Fall 2005
Data Structures – FSU – Fall 2009
C++ Programming – CPCC – Spring 2005
C# Programming – CPCC – Fall 2008
Ceramics Wheel I – UNCC – Fall 2006
Ceramics Wheel II – UNCC – Spring 2007
Creative Writing II – CPCC – Spring 2008
Deductive Logic – UNCC – Fall 2004
Global and Intercultural Connections – UNCC – Fall 2005
Internet Protocols – CPCC – Fall 2005
Major Figures in Philosophy: Plato – UNCC – Spring 2005
Web Based Application Development – UNCC – Fall 2005
US History I – CPCC – Fall 2008
Introduction to Ethics – Gaston – Spring 2004

This list is only courses that Fayetteville decided to be nice enough to actually transfer and does not include courses that were completed after my Associates degrees were issued. It also does not include “Digital Photography” from UNC-Chapel Hill, as I opted to not have that transcript transmitted (before any admissions officers freak out, I submitted a statement of enrollment instead, since it was only one course).

Degree Audit – BS in Psychology – Fall 2010

As I near the completion of my undergraduate career and must fill out my final Academic Progress Report I have decided to utilize the degree audit features in Banner and work with it and other documentation to create a detailed picture of where all of my credits have come from for the degree. I have accumulated almost 180 credit hours at this point and not all are used in this degree, but quite a few do manage to find a home somewhere or other in the program of study. Spaces where there were multiple courses that could be assigned I entered the course that was selected by Banner to fill the position. I must say, I am a little sad filling out the form that goes with this audit for my last advising session as an undergraduate. Its almost like leaving high school all over again, once the degree is issued none of these courses will matter by themselves, they loose their identity and just become part of the degree. For this particular list of courses I looked back in my records in GITI and pulled semesters that classes were taken (since FSU doesn’t keep that info when transferring) and found myself reflecting on my experiences in the courses, especially those that I took in person, although there were some memorable online courses as well (primarily in the summer of 2004). The end is near.

University College Requirements

UNIV 110 – University Studies (2):

Waived for students entering with 30+ Credit Hours

PHIL 110 – Critical Thinking (3):

Waived for students Entering with 60+ Credit Hours

ENGL 110 – English Composition I (3):

Creative Writing 1 – CPCC – Summer 2007

ENGL 120 – English Composition II (3):

Writing in Academic Communication – UNCC – Fall 2004

SPEE 200 – Introduction to Communication (3):

Interpersonal Communication – Gaston – Spring 2004

MATH 123 – College Algebra (3):

College Algebra – Gaston – Spring 2008

Math Elective (3-4):

Discreet Structures – UNCC – Fall 2005

Natural Sciences (8):

Descriptive Astronomy – Gaston – Spring 2008
General Physics I – UNCC – Fall 2004

History and Social Sciences (3):

General Anthropology – CPCC – Summer 2004

Humanities and Fine Arts (3):

Art Appreciation – CPCC – Summer 2004

Restricted Electives (9):

Art History II – Gaston – Fall 2008
Introduction to Microeconomics – UNCC – Spring 2005
Introduction to Literature – Gaston – Fall 2008

Physical Education (2):

Personal Health & Wellness – CPCC – Summer 2008

Psychology Major Requirements

PSYC 210 – General Psychology (3):

General Psychology – Gaston – Fall 2003

PSYC 233 – Statistics for Psychology (4):

FSU – Summer 2009

PSYC 320 – Theories of Learning (3):

FSU – Spring 2010

PSYC 331 – Developmental Psychology (3):

FSU – Spring 2010

PSYC 352 – Research Methodology (4):

FSU – Spring 2010

PSYC 360 – Social Psychology (3):

Social Psychology – Gaston – Fall 2003

PSYC 370 – Introduction to Biopsychology (3):

FSU – Summer 2010

PSYC 400 – History and Systems of Psychology (3):

FSU – In Progress

PSYC 422 – Abnormal Psychology (3):

Abnormal Psychology – UNCC – Fall 2004

Elective Group 1 [310, 342, 381] (3):

Theories of Personality (PSYC 310) – FSU – Spring 2009

Elective Group 2 [343, 430] (3):

Sex and Gender (PSYC 430) – FSU – Summer 2010

Elective Group 3 [420, 421] (3):

Sensation & Perception (PSYC 420) – FSU – Spring 2010

Computer Competency (3):

Introduction to Business Computing – UNCC – Spring 2005

Psychology Electives [PSYC 300+] (9):

Behavior Modification (PSYC 380) – FSU – Summer 2010
Child Psychopathology (PSYC 381) – FSU – In Progress
Cognitive Psychology (PSYC 421) – FSU – Spring 2009

Sociology Minor

SOCI 210 – Introduction to Sociology (3):

Introduction to Sociology – Gaston – In Progress

SOCI 340 – Crime & Delinquency (3):

Not Yet Started

SOCI 350 – History of Sociological Thought (3):

Not Yet Started

SOCI 412 – Race and Ethnic Relations (3):

Not Yet Started

Sociology Electives (6):

Sociology of the Family – CPCC – Summer 2004
Introduction to SPSS (SOCI 333) – FSU – Not Yet Started

University Free Electives

University Free Electives (9):

Principles of Accounting I – UNCC – Spring 2005
Drawing I – Gaston – Fall 2007
Drawing II – Gaston – Spring 2008

Organizing Apps

Maybe there is something wrong with me, I can’t manage to get my apps organized into a sensible way. Anyone want to offer some suggestions? I’ve tried dragging my apps around and I just can’t get them into a sensible arrangement and I hate the iOS folder grouping stuff.