Nels Lindahl — Functional Journal

I am going to eat dinner at Free State Brewery. This is ironic because I am not supposed to imbibe alcohol due to certain medical restrictions associated with the migraine preventative that I am currently taking. We are recruiting for the University of Kansas Master?s in Public Administration program.
This day has been very strange, any way you want to look at it. A major step was taken in the right direction today as I have been scavenging the Internet for rolling admission Public Administration Doctoral degree programs. Well maybe this is the step in the right direction that I have been looking for and perhaps one of the programs I have applied to will send me back some positive news.
That is how it works, this wacky game of life, all things considered; I think I will be able to find a path forward.

I am having one of those days where bad things just seem to build up. Bad things come in threes and I have just finished this latest cycle of strangeness. It all started when my central processing unit gave out on my classic 1.4 gigahertz Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) processor. This computer has lived on the 1.5 gigabytes of 133 megahertz ram. I am getting the dreaded over clocked processor hangs and random restarts that announce the formal end of an area. I am going to have to build a new computer for the first time this centaury; my computer lasted all of four years and has been through countless papers, projects, and educational activities.
You might be asked so what is the second thing that went wrong today? Well my Ford Taurus that you might have read about is in the shop and needs new brakes and a radiator. My roommate Brain had to give me a ride to class so that I could talk to the chair of the department. Well at or around 8 am I found out what I have known for quite some time that Nels Paul Lindahl will not be attending the University of Kansas Public Administration PHD program. I guess my writing has never really been in favor in the department and my interests in technology and the community are to divergent from city management. I think that I am comfortable with the idea that the University of Kansas Public Administration department is not interested in studying E-Government, emerging technology management, and the influences of technology on the community.
The KUMPA program is a one stop shop for all of your local government city management needs, which is not where my intellectual curiosity resides. I am a futurist at heart and will always push the envelope of what is possible and consider the future of technology. I do not want to be bitter and spend the rest of my days at the University of Kansas in exile, but at the same time I have a renewed passion for taking both of my criticisms and developing them as strengths. I have drafted a series of articles and papers that are directly related to the topics that I want to study. What a day? What a year? The month of March is my madness, I swear!
Well I have more writing to do than I could shake a stick at and I am working diligently to graduate on time. This is a question that has been answered and while I do not agree with the answer I feel that I have to refocus on what I can do, not on what I will not be allowed to do. I was a Jayhawk for life, now I am a Jayhawk for sale to the highest bidder? What do I have to offer? Endless passion and motivation to get things accomplished and a never ending search for expanding my expansive wealth of technology related knowledge. No matter where I end up I promise to exploit my University of Kansas Public Administration cited weaknesses to prove once and for all that I am good enough.

March is my month of truth. In March I will find out where I am going to college next year, finish all of my necessary and proper master?s degree requirements that are external to my normal class load. I will also be having my car fixed. Now most of you know that I drive a completely paid for 1995 Ford Taurus and that from time to time really strange things happen to it like the time a wheel flew off on the highway. This time it is something more serious I am afraid the radiator has given out and in my almighty search for extreme challenges I have been feeding the demon more and more anti-freeze/coolant over the last couple of months hoping that perhaps it was not a problem
Well it turns out that it is a problem and in my infinite wisdom and glory I have decided to send the old Ford Taurus into the shop for some repairs. Now I do not know why but for some reason repair shops seem to think that they live on a separate schedule from everybody else I have read, ?Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.? I know that being at the center of resolution affords a certain ability to enjoy the moments of satisfaction along the way. However in a free market economy where one party is forced without due consideration based on the impending doom of auto hazards to participate in a binding agreement for some sort of mechanical evangelism where the almighty keeper of the facilitation equipment will decide to resurrect my automobile.
This is the one time that I would like to be able to get online and find out exactly how much it should cost to have my radiator repaired provide advice and consent to the actual repair costs to my poor beleaguered Ford Taurus. I do however own this pinnacle of automotive greatness, this behemoth of modern technological bliss, a true infusion of epic adventure in a sea of normality. I own a Ford Taurus and am thinking about starting the Ford Taurus club of America, which will conveniently have meetings at the same place and time of the Corvette clubs. I will also eat very fattening food and play heavy metal at the meetings.

The high school teacher was walking around the classroom. Giving out an assignment to write one paragraph that would change the world. This was one of those lofty paper assignments that the teacher often gave out to see what the students would write about. Only this time one of the students at the back of the classroom was writing with a passion that could only be described as frenzy. Something was different about the focus this student had on the essay it was different than every other essay paragraph the student had ever written. But did it matter that a student wrote something important? Collecting every paragraph as they were passed to the front of the classroom the teacher was looking for that paper from the back of the room. The students left the classroom for history class.
Sitting at a desk in the front of the classroom the paragraphs nearly flew out from underneath the red ink of the grading pen. Until the high school teacher got to the bottom of the stack, the pen fell to the ground; something was different about this paragraph. It just made sense to the teacher who was reading the paragraph out loud as the principle walks into the room. The principle asked to see the paragraph and read it out loud once more telling the teacher about a new idea to read a different students work over the intercom every day to encourage scholarship. However reading the paragraph over the intercom would make what matter about the students writing?
A strange silence set in over the high school as the principle read the student from the back of the classrooms paragraph. None of the students really understood what was going on and they did not appreciate the words being read over the intercom. The student received no respect from the other students who simply did not understand the gravity of the words they were hearing. Soon the paragraph was read over the intercom the students still do not appreciate the words. A call rang into the principles office from the local newspaper wanting to start a student highlight section asking if they principle knew of any student that would be perfect for starting off the newspaper column.
It was easy for the principle to pick up the essay and read it to the reporter over the phone. Printing the paragraph did not take up much space in the local paper but it did take up space in the public mind. Soon everyone is talking about it in the community asking what will be next in the student newspaper column. The student from the back of the classroom thinking does it matter? Then realizing the most important question does it need to? Where will the paragraph end up next and even if it is important and makes a point does that point do anything but echo off the reader?

Notions of action stem from a social structure that is strongly related to accomplishment and perhaps a structural problem has occurred within the nation. The United States of America has lost a true national vision. In other words, we do not know where we are going and why we need to get there. The current wisdom of popular political culture could be used to say actually we have a new vision generated from the last watershed event that occurred on September 11th to rid the world of terrorism thus reducing the likelihood of world war three. This is a valid argument however I would argue tat it is no a holistic social goal like Kennedy?s challenge of being the first nation to reach the moon propelling NASA to the front of the public mind.
Now is the time for a new vision of social progress my preference is moving toward a functional utopia which has been explained at length in my essay aptly titled, ?Functional Utopia and the Future of Society.? However, some vision is necessary to be able to motivate the country to some larger goal. The power of national vision is that so many individuals within society are ready and willing to work toward accomplishing something and are currently limited to only accomplishing on a fiscal level. Now if the ?American Dream? replaces the national vision then an opportunity is lost for social progress. This is a call to action a social question of what could be. A question of what needs to be. A question of how we will move forward and a cautionary look at why we cannot move backward as a society.

When does the social animal become aware of the normative game in terms of both conscious choice and ability for generating change? This challenge of structure is part of the question of how the social animal becomes aware about what is really going on within society. First things first the social animal is a cognitive miser who does not have the domestic intellectual capacity to understand the holistic value of the world. Perhaps it is to complex of a calculation to estimate the value of driving a car when it can be broken down into an infinite number of categories. It could be valued at the approximate summation of thirty eight cents a mile with maintenance and other calculations or it could be seen in terms of the amount of time it would take if driving was not possible. Therefore the reality of the situation is that the social animal does not have to calculate the value of a car implicitly it is only viewed explicitly in terms of what can be directly supplied.

Is the social animal aware of the framework of the normative game? Probably not at even the most basic level of being aware that being able to participate within that game means that the social animal understand the bounds and limits of that question and in that end it means that the framework for dissolution exists in the understanding of how things work.

What does this all mean?
Why is this being discussed?
Is this worth understanding?

This all means that as society functions a coin is flipped and while both sides matter or in this explanation both sides are choice and one is the socially created value of the normative game and the other side is the ability to make rational coherent choice. The normative game creates an inherently tunneling hyper-real that is strengthened by an inertia built on positive sanctions for playing the game correctly.

This is being discussed because it is the most basic question of the social animal what is the basis of social animals functionality.
Understanding this framework is the basis of being able to break it down and in that end, it is the basis of changing the function of the social animal within society.

Future Essay Topics

1. Being socially Judgmental
2. Normative discourse within individuals
3. Normative discourse within society
4. Normative discourse within groups
5. Anticipation of the awareness and activism that would follow the collapse of the normative game must be maintained.
6. Only the awareness of the confines of the normative game will spur change within the bureaucratic structure.
7. It is inevitable that society notices the collapse of the normative game.
8. Building the top one percent

Well I could not sleep last night and I was not able to for a very specific reason and perhaps it was because of my new coffee addiction? Who knows but when I woke up this morning at 9:30 to go back to work on my midterms I brewed another 8 cups of coffee. This whole coffee conspiracy is getting to me what does it all mean, and why does it all matter? I need to know some things like what is the best coffee to drink what are your thoughts on this coffee issue? What kind of coffee should I buy? How fast does it go bad? GJOE says you cannot microwave it, but being the rebel that I am I did and it was fine?
thenormativegame (11:23:45 PM): yes, coffee, damn it, i have had 5 cups since 11, i think I am going to never sleep again
SuperGJoe (11:24:42 PM): go down to the Bourgeois Pig and get a pound of “Black Magic” coffee. It’s the finest coffee I’ve ever poured into my body.
thenormativegame (11:25:43 PM): really?\
thenormativegame (11:25:51 PM): i will if you say it is that good
SuperGJoe (11:26:17 PM): maybe you won’t like it. Go down there and have a cup. They usually have it on hand at all times. Nels, I should have 100K within the week
thenormativegame (11:32:58 PM): wow
thenormativegame (11:33:07 PM): you finally going to have the gjoe100k Extravaganza
thenormativegame (11:43:00 PM): oh dear
thenormativegame (11:43:03 PM): damn coffee
thenormativegame (11:43:06 PM): i had to microwave it
thenormativegame (11:43:11 PM): it gets cold and tastes worse
SuperGJoe (11:43:28 PM): yes
SuperGJoe (11:43:31 PM): such is the nature of coffee.
SuperGJoe (11:43:46 PM): and its considered a coffee injustice to revive coffee in a microwave.
thenormativegame (11:44:41 PM): really?
thenormativegame (11:44:45 PM): what am i supposed to do with it
SuperGJoe (11:44:51 PM): garbage.
thenormativegame (11:47:07 PM): no shit
thenormativegame (11:47:13 PM): and just make more?
SuperGJoe (11:47:14 PM): yeah.
thenormativegame (11:47:22 PM): why does the microwave hurt it
SuperGJoe (11:47:23 PM): it’s a Maxwell House Conspiracy.
SuperGJoe (11:47:34 PM): I don’t know. These things are bigger than you and me.

Formation and rational thought on the issues of static language related to the idea of change over time. In the end does the writer matter to the nature of the idea or does the idea supercede in terms of value and become the point that accelerates toward critical mass. Some individuals view language as strict and ridged which cause them to view each sentence and word as an object containing value rather than the totality of the work containing meaning. This results in a quandary for the reader is it more important to simply understand the argument and the general meaning or is it more important to focus on the mechanical process? For some the answer is that focusing on the mechanical values of is easier it is simplistic and allows the social animal to read and perceive the words as part of a bigger structure rather than an argument within that structure.
Perhaps it is time to announce that the material has inherent value and it is what is left to history the writer is a passing arbiter of ideas and not in the end perhaps only a vessel of presentation. Readers who become so over focused on the mechanical values of language are missing the point in the future it will not matter what values of mechanics are used because they change over the years. Language did not spontaneously form it has evolved and it changes over time it is a dynamic set of values that can be molded even within this presentation of prose. That means that in the end history is the final arbiter of literary work not the value of its mechanical development.
Words do not mean the same thing to every individual reader in fact the interpretation of language can result in all sort of different measures of presentation. That means that perhaps writing more might not be just simply more it might be the lynchpin to future understand since the value of language might change to the point where without a full and complete history and understanding of an issue a point of reference could never be created. In fact as a reader it is sometimes easier to create an interpretation of an idea rather than trying to interoperate and define the position that is being read.

Yes it is 9:26am and I am in a Campus Computer Lab on a Friday Morning?
It always seems like the more that needs to get done the more compelling the reasons to take a break are. I have come to realize that even five minutes in the middle of a huge project can be refreshing but when I have nothing to do taking a five hour break does not derive as much satisfaction. Today I programmed the alarm clock for 7am to be ready for an SPSS statistics seminar at 9:30am on campus and being the rebellious youth that I am I decided to go ahead and push that back to 8am and I did not go back to bed for that hour I just sat back and thought about the world and enjoyed some personnel introspection time that I used to reflect on my last few days.
What is it about taking time truly for ourselves that becomes so difficult as we get older perhaps it is the ability to put things down that hampers us. Or maybe it is the idea of responsibility to get things done and that if at some point we do not get things done and loose the reputation for getting things done that would be the end of things. Perhaps this is a stream of logic that is hard to follow or perhaps it is one that was not meant to be followed at and in the end I always seems to feel that perhaps I over think things. What does it take to get things done? Well my motto has always been, ?If it is worth doing it is done.? That motto has served me well over the years things that are important to ourselves and to others should be accomplished it is perhaps not in the big issues that we find ourselves struggling.
It is a perspective that rewarding ourselves for getting things done that normally would never have been accomplish the little things that make a difference. While it is important to overcome large challenges they are almost always expected and with regard to that idea I take more solace in accomplishing the little things that were difficult than just following the path of the larger things that fall into place. Perhaps this view is simplistic but it is functional in terms of realizing that it is a series of little steps that put the large ones into place and getting something that accomplished that was considered impossible or unrealistic, or just plain unreasonable means that little victory should be celebrated more than a huge success.
This is not large celebration for show at a convention center or an acceptance speech this is a simple individual celebration that requires nothing more than personal acknowledgement. I have always found it is the small personal victories that keep me motivated to strive and look forward.

1. You are to busy for me
2. We just are not working
3. I like you better as a friend
4. I don?t want to hurt you
5. I have found someone else
(Courtesy of an Internet friend)

I had a chance to read Jean-Paul Sartre?s Existentialism and Human Emotions, which provided an interesting looking into existentialism. Sartre says, ?A man is involved in life, leaves his impress on it, and outside of that there is nothing.? (Sartre 29) Those words resonated with me more than I care to admit as I pondered the ideas surrounding accomplishment and failure, and what is failure after all if it is not the information that could have been presented in the form of a contribution that was lost either from lack of will to put pen to paper or a fundamental conflict with being articulate.
The idea that there is nothing outside of the impression that is made on the world is powerful idea that separates personal gratification from social creation and in that guise builds a stream of logic that identifies some parts of effort as more important than others. I am not sure if I needed to hear those words or if they just made my consciousness fell better about where I am going in life.
?Therefore, in the name of this will for freedom, which freedom itself implies, I may pass judgment on those who seek to hide from themselves the complete arbitrariness and the compete freedom of there existence. Those who hid their compete freedom from themselves out of a spirit of seriousness or by means of deterministic excuses, I shall call cowards; those who try to show that their existence was necessary, when it is the very contingency of man?s appearance on earth, I shall call stinkers. But cowards or stinkers can be judged only from a strictly unbiased point of view.? (Sartre 46-47)
That paragraph from Sartre deserves a thousand quality words but I lack the stomach to explain so much in so few words. Being able to define those words in terms of two important ideas that the social animal cannot use deterministic excuses or fatalism to define themselves wrapped in a blanket of history without rethinking the world is an important part of separating the real idea from the abstract argument. However, Sartre also has the forethought to check back the excuse of necessity in terms of design, which is important to breaking down a series of potential arguments before they ever develop. Perhaps I will have the time tomorrow to define a theory I am working on which has to do with bias and race relations.