*Memory Matrix

I am blogging like it’s 2006 again. Countless people write about social justice and their experienced reality and they find praise and acclaim. I stifled my words for a long while because I believed that I would be even less able to find a job without stifling my words. My experience is valuable and would have served me well had it been in my possession prior to its acquisition.

Rebecca at Basics by Becca expressed her view on allowing the potential opinions of other people to dissuade one from following their own way. “Find out all the things that make your heart sing and go after them! It might be a little bit scary at first – but who cares? Don’t let other people’s opinions stop you from following what makes you happy. The more time we spend doing our passions, the easier it becomes to find our voice [1].” She further admonishes one to stop caring what others think about you. “This goes hand in hand with the last point – once you stop caring so much about what others think of you, you will start to feel a lot freer. It’s okay to make mistakes and it’s okay to be different! Embrace your authentic self and let it shine [1].” She recommends being bold, and letting go of the past.  The phrase about letting go of the past possesses great salience for me. “This one is hard but so important! Living in the past keeps us stuck and makes it impossible for us to find our voice because we are too caught up on what has already happened instead of living fully in this moment right now [1].” Other great action points including finding one’s tribe, expressing one’s feelings, and letting yourself be free. “Take off the mask and just BE YOURSELF with no apologies attached. Don’t worry so much about whether things are perfect or if people will judge you – just be yourself and don’t let anyone else define who that is. You are free to be anything you want, so take the time to figure out what makes you happy, go for it fully without apology [1]!” She says to be authentic: “Be honest about what matters most to you in life, because only by doing this can we be fully authentic. If society’s expectations are not on your list, ignore them and follow your own path[1]!”

Jennifer Hamady in Psychology Today mentioned that “Creativity is an imperative for a well-lived life [2].”

Sam Watson said “One of the advantages of writing blogs is that it can help to refresh and consolidate you thoughts on a topic. “ [3] His view coincides with my own.

Research has shown that writing about traumas improves time management over time. Dr. Pennebaker found that writing for short periods of time produce improvement, and writing for longer periods of time also produces improvements [4]. In an interview on the subject, Kim Mills asked “Do people have to write on a regular basis to see a really significant effect? Do I have to write something every day to really experience the benefits [4]?”

“Oh my God, no.” Dr. Pennebaker answered. “To give you an example, I write maybe two or three times a year when something miserable is going on. When I hear about journaling and writing every day, I just get nervous about it. I would hate that because I use writing when I’m dealing with something that is ugly, unpleasant, painful. And if life is going well, why in the world do I want to introspect that? I want to enjoy life when it’s here and when there’s bad things, writing for me helps me get through them [4].”

1. Becca, “18 Powerful Ways to Find Your Voice.”
2. Hamady, “The Truth About Creative Expression.”
3. Watson, “Geostatistical Modelling with R and Stan.”
4. Mills and Pennebaker, “Expressive Writing Can Help Your Mental Health.”

“How The Masses Deal With Risk (And Why They Remain Poor)” appeared on Capitalist Exploits in January of 2016. The quote that resonated the most was “What is also a fact is that the mean return of early stage VC investments is north of 50% per annum. This is the mean and like anything else with a little bit (OK, a lot) of work, outperforming the average in anything is entirely achievable if you put effort into it.” (Chris MacIntosh, 2016)

“For Many Americans, ‘Temp’ Work Becomes a Permanent Way of Life” appeared on NBC News in April of 2014. The article follows Kelly Sibla and others who joined the ranks of the permanent no-benefit-no-FMLA class of temporary employees. The market started calling ‘temp’ jobs ‘contract’ jobs around the end of the Great Recession. “…labor economists warn that companies’ growing hunger for a workforce they can switch on and off could do permanent damage to these workers’ career trajectories and retirement plans” (Maddie McGarvey, 2014).Andrew Moran, writing for Time Doctor looked at the same issue in “Employee Extinction? The Rise of the Contract, Temp Workers in Business” using Federal Reserve data and other countries. The phenomenon is not unique to the United States, however the United States does not have a social safety net for things like housing the way that other countries do.

James Balogun wrote a career advice piece on the subject called “Here’s the Deal with Contract to Hire Positions”, and although he left out the valuable statistics about the majority never converting to full time employees, the article provides a great analysis on the scenarios when taking such a job. The best quote is “Let’s be clear here. The employee is the one taking the risk in a contract to hire, not the employer”. (Balogun, 2016)

Outcome-Based Religion by Mac Dominick describes the management theories of Peter Drucker and their penetration into organized religion in Chapter 13. It’s an interesting read and describes the mode of many denominations to act in a business manner. It details theological seminaries and Pharmaceutical company foundations working with seminaries via foundations (Eli Lilly, among others). The book mentions one “community church” that makes hundreds of referrals for psychiatric care annually. Dominick refers to this as the rise of “Christian Psychology”. It’s an interesting read, but like many other works that discuss the Roman Catholic faith, fact-checking assertions remains a good idea. One example of such claims is the assertion that Catholicism teaches that salvation exists in all faiths, but, in August 2016, Brother Andre Marie wrote an explanation detailing the misunderstandings of that view.

Dr. Ed Hindson at Liberty University wrote an article denying preterism in 2005 called The New Last Days Scoffers. Donald Perkins discusses the refutation and explains the futurism view. J. R. Bronger wrote another analysis of the preterist view in August 1999, and calledRealized Eschatology a poisonous belief. Bronger used a broad brush, but made strong arguments, including references to Hymenaeus and Philetus, historical figures who claimed the resurrection was already past. JM wrote a more recent article with strong arguments opporsed to futurism. Jame’s Loyd’s article at Christian Media Research takes issue with preterism and contains historical detail in addition to scriptural analysis while keeping Daniel’s 7 debated years in the past rather than the future.

Age of the earth debates from the old-age side are based on linear regressions which are parameter estimates and arguing about whether that’s a fact or not is like arguing about whether the expected value of a portfolio is a fact or not. It’s an absurd thing to claim as truth and argue about since it is a mathematical outcome from a chosen formula.

Genetic ancestor tests DON’T ACTUALLY REVEAL ANCESTRY [1]. This one is a myth that new atheists push about.

…It’s also quite possible for someone who is African American to get ancestry test results that say they’re 75 percent European… [1]

One cannot analyze a bunch of DNA and determine where someone came from a million years ago, and applying DNA results to modern geopolitical borders is snake-oil selling. At best they are correlations only and correlation doesn’t imply causation.

The second one is a favorite of anti-Israel proponents who secretly think the Judeans in the Bible were replaced en-masse at some point in the past with people who looked differently than the modern Isrealis who got that state as a result of Judaism-following ancestors, thus proving that Jesus was ‘browner’ and did not have ‘blue eyes’ [2] because of hithertoo unknown genetic predictive power proving that he would thus side with the PLA in morality questions. King David being said to have had Red hair really puts the lie to that whole browner thing… Hence why genealogies are a waste except as box-checking messiah status.

1. https://now.tufts.edu/articles/pulling-back-curtain-dna-ancestry-tests [archive | wayback]

2. https://www.timesofisrael.com/anomalous-blue-eyed-people-came-to-israel-6500-years-ago-from-iran-dna-shows/