I've come to a paradigm shift, everyone.

1) I need to pursue what I'm actually interested in.
2) I need to take classes that are actually interesting and useful. 
3) I need to work on this website to show what I can do.
4) Most importantly, I have to question the expectations I've imposed upon myself. I first realized this from a Facebook post I made, pictured below:

Now, I've got to think seriously about what to do next.

Some ideas include video editing, audio production, recording. Those three go great together when combined with marketing and monetizing expertise. Time to produce content and network!

If you can help with anything I've mentioned in this post, feel free to email me at kmountcastle18@jcu.edu! Cheers!

-Kyle

Hey everyone,

I finally made a new vlog video on YouTube. Watch it below. Any critique on the video and other videos is always appreciated. Thanks!

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Hey guys.

I've been really busy with schoolwork, so I have not been able to plan much for this site, other than stylistic changes to the Inspirations page. For November, I will plan activity this weekend and next weekend. Apologies for the delay!

​-Kyle

I've spent over 10 hours in the past few days into making this video. The intent is to give a cinematic look of poetry I've written. I found a app that allows free embedding for 1 year, so I'm set! I hope you enjoy it!

I thought I'd share this screenshot of a friend's Facebook sharing. I partially read the Philosophical Salon article that he shared, (which can be found here) and I wasn't clear about the main idea, as I stated below:

To give you an idea of my "two contentious parties" observation, here are some comments from the article:
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I'm not sure what this user's premises are for their last sentence. I've never watched The Sound of Music, so I'm confident that I'm missing countless amounts of context-revealing details. Maybe those details only reveal the author's opinion. Yet, I am increasingly curious about how commentors on supposedly civic websites create verbal violence towards other commentators. I suspect there are psychological and pathological phenomena unfolding in any party involved, but I can't affirm my suspicions effectively without quantitative and qualitative evidence. 

Next example:

Whenever I see a comment designed like this one, I immediately assume the author is not thinking about what they're typing. There's no quantitative evidence and qualitative evidence for language filled with proven logical fallacies; such fallacies are unconsciously and carelessly used in attempt to win arguments in comment sections (To better understand what this phenomena poorly exhibits, look deeply into Edward Tufte's Six Principles here. I don't want to experience legal accusations for scanning my hard copy to post). I see this trend in conspicuous digital mediums.  Facebook, news, and newer editorial websites constitute as conspicuous digtial mediums; I think all of these mediums are unconsciously consumed as absolute truth, which mass mediums seem to condition people to do.

At any rate, below is another comment with kinder tones. For me, it still is rife with logical fallacies, but at least this author doesn't behave like the one I described above:

For more information on logical fallacies, visit the website pictured below.

I have a grant writing class in 15 minutes, so I will stop now. I hope this post gives you an opportunity to understand my observations of what I see on many websites.

From roughly 5:30 to 6:18 AM, (Early to bed, early wise, as old Ben Franklin would say) I composed this song:

From looking at this image, my process appears complicated. It's VERY complicated because I edit quickly, but I process how I should edit slowly. Some people may not have this process, but my process only works for me. I can't tell you what your process is, but I can show you mine. You can learn something new from it, but I cannot predetermine what that "something" is.

Let me show you how my process is complicated (and this entire explanation is not comprehensive):

I wrote this first stanza before boxing it and pointing how I want to perform it. With the title, I initially  scratched out "drop" and put it back into the title. Sometime afterwards, I added the subtitle in parentheses. The excess quote marks between "Radio of Parents Minds" (notice the word "their" crossed out) were written accidentally. I think this accident is noteworthy for my process; it demonstrates how attentive to detail I can be (for whatever I think deserves attention, at least). 

2nd Example:

Here, I boxed the first half of the second stanza. Then, I pointed to what I wanted to remember, as you can see below the corresponding arrow. This helps me specify what I hear in my head.

3rd Example:

This image clarifies the music I hear in my head for my song. Ultimately, I need to be as clear as possible how the song will sound once I hit the record button. While I currently use my camcorder, a friend down my dorm's hall has a solid rig to record audio. You can find out about his gaming collective here. 

4th example:

"Country song" was initially written on the next page displayed below, but I obviously added to it as shown below:

To save time (Cropping the same image 30 times in Photoshop is not wise when you're attending John Carroll), I will update this demonstration. Expect that installment by the end of Fall Break (which is a 3-day weekend for JCU). Stay tuned!

It seems that students at many universities tell themselves they don't matter. At the bottom of this post is a study I found that gives qualitative evidence of this trend. This only becomes true if they believe that their mind tells them the truth.

I think Paul Loeb gives a starting mantra. In Soul of a Citizen, Loeb picks apart self-resignation and the harm it causes:
           
          "Once we accept that we're powerless, our passivity turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy, a habit of    mind the becomes harder and harder to shake. We decide that there's nothing we can do about key common issues, large or small, so we withdraw from public life before we give it a serious shot. We stop paying attention. After a while, we stop caring. Why break our hearts over things that are beyond our control?"

Loeb and I agree that this is a pervasive cultural trend in America. Personally, I've been like many John Carroll students until recently. Reading Loeb's book has given me a clearer idea about what exactly are my self-serving intentions, and what can be done to convert such intentions. Instead of focusing on guitar practice and school for the sake of serving private life, I want to find ways to create social change with as many ways as possible.