X Seconds Till Ipmact

    Remember when hand written thank you notes were received, eye contact was maintained, and the good places to grab a cup of joe as well as where the best eats were heard of through the newspaper or by voice? Technology has impacted society greatly. Thank you notes and acknowledgements are expressed through email, twitter, facebook, and even instagram.
Today you hear all types of great places to try like coffee, Italian, Asian, Mexican, study spots, just about anything with the aid of technology. Places are reviewed and shared through yelp, google, (thought I hate to admit it, due to my hatred) bing, and many more.

    Just last week I was looking for a close coffee shop with a study environment and coffee, hopefully ranging from decent to outstanding. How did I go about doing this? I simply opened my Yelp app, and typed in coffee. My phone then aided me into it's warm atmosphere. Symposium Coffee has now been made into my second home, I'm even writing this post from it. I have incorporated it into my weekly schedule as well as my budget. I now plan on eating, having coffee, and doing homework here a minimum of twice a week, usually three times if possible.

    As I've sat here for several hours, completing homework, multiple people, including myself, have pulled out laptops and completed work. Not so far away, lies their phone face-down, if they do not wish to be disturbed and distracted from the task at hand, or face-up if they aren't doing too serious work. Not so long ago that would not have been possible. Now navigation, printing, books, and much more are accessible through a number of resources. Many of these include internet available on tablets, laptops, phones, and even cars.

The First Computer

    Work used to be done at work, with dinosaur computers and monitors, and nearby lied a corded work phone with no Bluetooth headset insight. Not so long before that computers used to take up a whole room with cords spread all over the place. Before that was type-writers and it's parent, the manual version. The manual version aided by machine consisted of stamps for each individual letter that was then used on paper. Well before everything was a quill ad parchment later replaced by a pen or pencil and paper.

    Ever wonder what this is doing to society? Ever think about how the social norms have changed? From my experience I have noticed a  large difference in eye contact. This may be because I took ASL, and now I get adequately irritated when someone is looking at their phone and not at me. However, I can't help but assume that if technology was not so advanced eye contact would be much more valued and popular among my generation. Personally I view eye contact (for the most part, take a look at the picture) as an act of respect towards anyone you're talking to, or listening to.

Comments welcome. Disagree? Tell me why. Have any stories? Don't hesitate to share them.  Do the same things(or others) bother you too?

Pandora's Not so Box-like Jar

    Just about everyone who has either studied Greek Mythology as part of their high/middle school curriculum, was read Greek Myths when they were little, or just had a curiosity of Greek mythology is familiar with Pandora's Box. For those of you who didn't know that "box" was actually a jar. The original word used was pithos, which can be translated as a large storage jar. This jar did not change into a box until the 16th century when the myth was mistranslated.
    If you are unfamiliar with the well-known story of Pandora's Box, it is about a girl named Pandora. Pandora was the first girl to be made of clay. She was created to be a spouse to Epimetheus. Epimethus and Prometheus were brothers, one of which, Prometheus, had angered Zeus by giving people fire without asking Zeus's permission first. To get even with Epimetheus, Zeus gifted the naturally curios Pandora, with a box. The box was relativity small and had a large lock on it. He then made Pandora promise she would never open it,gave the key of the heavily locked box to Epimetheus, and also told never to open. Zeus was quite sure curiosity would get the better of either one of them and the box would soon be opened. When Pandora wished to see what was inside the box Epimetheus responded, "You know your father," referring to Zeus. "He’s a tricky one."
One day when Epimetheus was sleeping, the highly curious, Pandora stole the key and broke the promise she had made to Zeus. The broken promise resulted in the release of every disease and sickness, all the hate and envy, and everything bad that had not been experienced. When her husband awok,e he found her sobbing. As she explained what had happened, she expressed her effort how she had tried to catch them and failed to do so. She then opened the box again to show him how empty it was, and out flew one tiny bug. Pandora tried to catch it but, yet again, failed. “Hello, Pandora,” said the bug, hovering just out of reach. “My name is Hope."
      I look at this story as a way to teach not only children but everyone, the danger of curiosity. Zeus knew that curiosity was bound to strike either Pandora or Epimetheus, that is why he placed the responsibility into their hands, thus satisfying his need for revenge. I also think that this is a lesson to be learned about temper. Zeus was angry, rather than confronting Epimetheus and Prometheus he released everything bad, apart from Hope. I believe that the opening of Pandora's Box was on account of all four Gods. I feel that in life, the responsibility of dealing with life itself is different than in the story. I feel like if an error is made, it's not so much other people's fault rather than your own. In the myth, the blame is almost equally dispersed among the Gods. I feel like in life it is mainly (for the most part) you who is responsible for your outcomes. I know that life as well as daily tasks heavily depend on others. I feel like if something does go wrong, in general everyday life such as work or school, there are very rare times in which we can say to ourselves, "there was absolutely nothing I could have done." Could you have been better organized? Better prepared? studied more? However you may think there are exceptions. For example in the case of a genetic disease or any fatal tragedy. In that situation there is always something you could have done. Preventing death, is of course inevitable. However, you could have taken them to the place they always dreamed of, spent more time with them, made them smile one more time, and/or heard their laugh just one more time. You always could have done something more, something to have made that time better. If you are experiencing this in the present, by all means do what you will look back on and wish you had done. My question to you now, is not what could you have done or what would you have wanted to do, but what will you do with the time given to you now? 

A New Voice

    Nearly everyone was read stories when they were little. Most commonly stories were read before bed time. In fact if you were not read stories, especially in the US, before bedtime your childhood is thought to be significantly lacking. My childhood was filled mostly of your typical Christian stories accompanied by other fables, and fairy tales. I am unsure if being raised by Christian family played a role in which kind stories were told. However, I was still left lacking the knowledge of the "classic" bedtime stories.
    Up until middle school I had never encountered Greek mythology. Although, after middle school I had kind of forgotten about Greek Mythology, along with everything I had learned, I decided to pick it up again. This week I met with Mary Chase, my writing professor, to do a check-point of how my blog was going. What I pulled from our meeting was that I need to loosen up in terms of my writing style and let my thoughts flow. Next we talked about linking my thoughts about Greek Mythology to modern day. I was then refreshed on the Greek Myth ofArachne.
    For those of you do don't know the story it is about an arrogant girl whom of which was very skilled at weaving. Because of her skill she believed she was the best weaver and challenged Athena to a weaving contest, which resulted in Arachne being turned into a spider. Aachne's new transformation was designed to punish her and her descendants weave for the rest of their lives with their work constantly being destroyed.

    After revisiting this story I began to think if there was more to the punishment than just having to weave for the rest of your life, fixing the aftermath of humans. Have you ever been showering and looked up to see a massive spider who caused you to drop your shampoo on your foot and scare the living crap out of you, all in the matter of about a second? Well, one of the first things that came to mind is that I really hate spiders, especially if they are discovered in bed and our of reach. Next, entered word arachnophobia into my brain, and from there on I thought of how many people are scared of and dislike spiders. Despite them killing a large majority of insects, they are still hated among the majority of humans. That got me thinking, maybe there was more to Athena's punishment. Not only did Arachne and her descendants have to live their life with their work constantly being destroyed, but they were also viewed as monsters and undesired by most people. They are forced to see (with very blurry vision) the hatred and fear they cause humans, then they are left to run for their life from their distressed punishment's foot, vacuum, Kleenex, coffee mug, or whatever hard object happens to be lying within reach. Then if not killed that time they are forced to repeat the process, given that they are not killed by another predator.

Have any thoughts about spiders or any stories about your encounters? Leave me a much welcomed and appreciated comment below.

Information to Get out of My System

    Before I truley understood the direction I wished to pursue I had been doing more of a "report back" style of writing. Now I understand its okay to really branch out. This is what I had typed up until this point(pretty rough draft.) It's just information with little to no voice whatsoever. From here on out I will be changing my style of writing and thought I'd put this up for those of you who may have an odd fascination of blunt information.
    Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. Aphrodite was other wise known as Acidalia, Cytherea  meaning Lady of Cythera, or Cypris meaning Lady of Cyprus. These names were used amongst different local cults of the goddess in Greece. The Goddess of beauty was born, according to Hesiod's Thegony, when Cronos cut off Uranus's genitals and threw them into the ocean. Aphrodite then arose from the sea foam (aphros). According to Homer's Iliad she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. Because of her astonishing beauty there was fear that jealousy and lust over her amongst the Gods would disrupt the peace, Zeus Married her to Hephaestus. Due to  Hephaestus's ugliness the threat was eliminated. Aphrodite had many lovers such as gods (Ares) and men (Anchises.) She also played a role in the Eros andPsyche legend and was later Adonis's lover as well as his surrogate mother. She is also said to be the mother of many lesser off-springs.

    Hesiod was a Greek poet thought to be alive between 750-650 B.C.) Thegony is poem Hesiod wrote in the 8th-7th century B.C. entailing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods. Hesiod's piece was originally composed in Homeric Greek. Ancient authors give him give him and Homer credit for creating the bases of Greek religious customs. Many scholars regard him as one of the major scources of Greek farming techniques.
    Homer was also a Greek poet, whom of which, lived in years unknown to this day. Homer is estimated to have lived 400 years before his own time which would place him at 850 BC. The majority of modern researchers imagined him to be around the 8th-7th centuries. He is considered to be one of the greatest Greek poets whom of all dramatically impacted the history of literature. About 50% of his work are speeches. Homer composed his epic pieces of writing in a archaic version of Ionis Greek combined with other dialects such as Aeolic greek. This system of writing later became the base of Epic Greek(the language of epic poetry generally in dactylic hexameter.)

A Role in Fortunes

     After embarking on my journey to learn all about Zodiacs I soon found that Greek Mythology kept popping up. I have always found Greek Mythology fascinating. My fascination began the summer in 6th grade, when I was required to read Percy Jackson the Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan. All incoming middle students were required to read the novel as an introductory to Greek Mythology. Unfortunately, the class only skimmed Greek Mythology resulting in my own deeper interest.
    From what I know, which isn't a whole lot, there was only 12 gods at one time. The Olympian Greek Gods/Goddesses were Aphrodite Goddess of love and beauty, Apollo God of the sun, Ares God of war, Artemis goddess of hunting, Athena Goddess of wisdom, Demeter Goddess of harvest, Dionysus God of wine, Hades God of the underworld, Hephaestus God of metallurgy, Hera Goddess of family, Hermes God of trade, Hestia (calm) God of the hearth, Poseidon God of the seas, and Zeus King of all Gods and ruler of all mankind.

    While researching this topic what I wish to learn is repetitively general. I wish to discover why there were so many gods, gain knowledge about each Olympian God's/Goddess's myth, and anything else that I may come across.