Jeffrey Alexander Martin

Yes, that's the real name of the band, Grandpa Loves Rhinos. Alright, without further ado, let's dive into the article. - - - - - - - The first thing you probably think when you hear about the band Grandpa Loves Rhinos is, "What's up with that name?" I know that's the first thing I thought. Well, it's a literal statement. The band is two brothers, and their grandpa really did love rhinos. He even had a room full of collectible rhinos. There are some other interesting things about this band. One, they decided that the title of their first album would be a bit of advice, "Better Eat Your Wheaties". Is that advice or is that a threat? Good question, but I'm not going to go there. Next is what I find most interesting. Here is a blurb from their Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/grandpalovesrhinos/ - - - - - - - Grandpa Loves Rhinos hails from the state of Idaho and is comprised of Paul and Seth Hyde, brothers who are geogr...

Ah, yes. The epic struggle of trying to give advice. It's never easy. It's even harder when it's supposed to be for someone in the future. But, I shall try. This is a letter for my nephew Judah. He turns one-year-old tomorrow. I think it's a good idea to have family members write letters for the kids in the future. It will definitely be interesting when they open them. I did this a year ago for his sister Evelyn. I can't remember exactly what I put in that one, and I'm not going to look at it because I want this one to be its own thing. We shall find out together what I'm going to say. - - - - - - - It's hard for me to know if the purpose of this letter is for you to get to know me because I'm dead, or if it's to give you some life advice, or a mixture of both, or something else. Let's do a little of both and hope for the best. I've always been bad at introducing myself, especially by doing something like writing a bio. He...

In "On My Personality" I delved quite deeply into my personality. I want to make one small adjustment though. Thinking of myself as an "open conceptual explorer" sounds cool. But I'm not sure that gives you or me a good grasp on what I'm actually made for. I think "wanderer" might be a better classification. And, thinking about this, it fits pretty darn well. I wanted to be an international traveler bouncing around to different countries. This isn't really feasible now because of my health issues, but I'm still drawn to it when I see other people doing it while teaching English as a second language. I like have deep and long conversations that wander around wildly between subjects. Most people have a difficult time with this, but it's the best way to keep me from being bored. I do the same thing with writing and reading. What am I reading about right now? A weird mix of a bunch of different things. What do I write about? A weird ...

My personality has always been a bit... different. And, as the years have progressed, I've slowly been able to gain some insight into the nature of this difference. Let's start with a personality trait breakdown. There are different ways to do this, but we are doing this one. (An example of what these numbers mean: I'm in the 26th percentile in agreeableness means that out of 100 people I am more agreeable than 26 of them, and less agreeable than 73 of them.) Agreeableness - 26th percentile - Compassion - 21st percentile - Politeness - 38th percentile Conscientiousness - 0th percentile - Industriousness - 0th percentile - Orderliness - 0th percentile Extraversion - 18th percentile - Enthusiasm - 21st percentile - Assertiveness - 22nd percentile Neuroticism - 87th percentile - Withdrawal - 93rd percentile - Volatility - 72nd percentile Openness to Experience - 97th percentile - Openness - 97th percentile - Intellect - 94th percentile If you want to...

Are you ready for the next installment of my series for 88.9 Hey Radio? Today I think we will go with dark emotion. - - - - - - - I had never heard of Zahna. You probably haven't either. That's because Zahna didn't exist before 2017. Here's how she introduces herself on her website: - - - - - - - Zahna is a female Christian Hard Rock solo artist based out of San Antonio, TX, and is also known as Suzy Martinez, the former front-woman of national touring band "ILIA". After separation with ILIA in 2016, Martinez debuted as Zahna in Mid 2017. Fusing gritty, industrial guitar riffs with technical drum elements, the San Antonio-based vocalist shines her aggressive vocal style, giving birth to the powerful active rock she now claims as her own. https://www.zahnaofficial.com/ - - - - - - - She was also married in late 2018, which means that she now has another name. Zahna is a woman of many names. Her first album was released in 201...

I'm always keeping track of ideas for writing. It would be interesting to write a book on epistemology (the theory of knowledge) and reference at least these thinkers: Ayn Rand, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, Karl Popper, Jean Piaget, James Gibson, Carl Jung, Irenaus Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Viktor Frankl, Endel Tulving, Jerome Bruner, Lev Vygotsky, Richard Feynman, Erwin Schrodinger. I think that I might be able to pull, or generate, something new out of that. If you don't age when you are moving at the speed of light, then travel at the speed of light would basically be like time travel. It's really just like a pause button. I was talking about this with my dad, and it's an interesting idea. Basically Rip Van Winkle, but with space travel. What if ghosts were subject to physics? Hard rules for magic are interesting. I haven't read "Master of the Five Magics" yet, but it did seem to revolutionize fantasy writing by taking magic and applying physics...

"Traded" is an excellent movie, right up until the end. Let's look at why, and how it could have been different. Trace Adkins is the bad guy, or a bad guy, and I like him in the bad cowboy role. Here is the logline for "Traded". - - - - - - - A father must leave his ranch for Dodge City to save his daughter from an old enemy, putting his reputation as the fastest draw in the west to the test. - - - - - - - But, we all know that loglines aren't usually that great at telling us about the movie (the one for "The Wizard of Oz" is hilarious, I will put it at the bottom). So, let's take the plot breakdown from Wikipedia and that will give us a thorough explanation of what happens. - - - - - - - The film opens with the narrator stating that women have little value in the West and many become prostitutes. Women are sold and traded like property in Kansas. In a western cabin 17 year daughter, Lily, asks Dad, Clay, if she can go to...

My approach to theology is a little different than my approach to religion because it deals with a different domain of philosophy. Whereas religion deals with ethics and social structure, theology deals with epistemology (the theory of knowledge). This is quite a different view than most people take. Most think of theology (the study of God) from a metaphysical perspective (the fundamental nature of reality) and therefore try to solve ontological problems (the nature of being). This is why debates about whether God is immanent (present throughout the universe) or transcendent (outside of the universe) are so pervasive and perceived of as so important. Neither of these can be shown or not shown, nor will they ever be able to be shown or not shown. We don't need to worry about this. When we look at both ideas from an epistemological perspective we can see that either way God is a real conceptual entity. If we are willing to admit that we don't know the answer to the metaphys...

I started teaching my first student a little over two years ago. His name was Parker. He is still my student. Parker Parker started the third grade this year and was very happy to learn that he is more advanced in English math than his classmates are in Chinese math (he is from, and lives in, China). His class is studying how to do the perimeters and areas of squares and rectangles. Parker and I went through that many months ago, and we went through the Pythagorean theorem (how to find the hypotenuse of a triangle with A^2+B^2=C^2) a few months ago, along with how to find the area of triangles. Just recently we are basically through how to find the circumference and area of circles. Parker likes math, but still, learning this type of thing can be boring. So, here's what we do. We start off by reviewing things, we do work on terminology but our main focus is on the math skills themselves. We do a square, a rectangle, and a triangle. Then we focus a little more on a cir...

Why propose a new structure for theological philosophy and religion? Well, I see some problems and I think there are better solutions than the ones being used. I think the primary problem could be classified under the term fundamentalism. By this I mean a few things. 1 - It's usually a fully literal view of everything. Humans just don't work well that way. 2 - It's a system that doesn't update. 3 - It's intolerant. 4 - It's strict in a tyrannical way. 5 - These strict rules have to be issued from a source, that source means there is a lot of centralized power and authority. 6 - Power, such as wherever this authority rests, attracts the worst people and corrupts the best. These are huge problems that all societies, civilizations, and cultures have to deal with. I think if you focus on one though, then it would mostly solve the other problems. If a system was designed so that it could update, peacefully and with limited conflict, then you would need to not ...

This will probably be an intellectually intense article. The exploration of depth in lyrics. Before we dive into the actual article I'm writing, check this out. I went through the lyrics of the song I'm going to explore and these are the notes I wrote to myself on the first time through (I left in initial spelling errors and everything). - - - - - - - con fidere, cognitive dissonance, semantic triangle square, squaring the triangle individualized groups and anonymous communities, true dialogue and discussion, intention and consquentialism weight as both truth and importance, experience as singular, autonomy and locus of control the dispossessed, self censoring, procrastination of challenge, platos cave seeing the light, truth as not always comfortable, free speech necessary for free thought explicit and implicit communication transactional analysis eric berne, diversity of opinion perspective logic experience and value, don't understand that, rene girard, mirr...