Two Days Straight?

I'm a blog addict now. Two days in a row!

I'm excited about what I read tonight. I quit reading the book I was reading last night because one of the books I have to use as a source for my first paper arrived today. It is Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. I read the first 34 pages tonight. Actually, it held my interest but like last night's book, I found myself using the dictionary all too frequently.

Tonight's vocabulary:

recondite - concealed, obscure
esoteric - private
morass - swamp
inchoate - imperfectly formed

Maybe I like this author (Kuhn) better because I don't have to use the dictionary as much. What I read last night, I ended up with like 40 words or phrases necessitating a dictionary for interpretation. My favorite phrase from last night was "social veritistic epistemology." My interpretation of what that is: knowledge that a group of people believes is true.

Tonight's reading was about...what? How do scientific paradigms (theories and models) affect scientists in that field of study? The main example I remember was the science of physics and electricity, compared to mathematics. Study of mathematics has been around much longer than the study of electricity. Back hundreds of years ago, Kuhn says the scientists who studied electricity were called electricians. I love it! Anyway, once basic paradigms are established, researchers build verification knowledge (prove the paradigm in depth and scope, or find flaws). I think the whole purpose of this class is to help me find HOW to look for a researchable topic. I think this book is going to help. Another reason I like this book is because I like science. :-)

OK, tonight is karate....I had fun in class. I didn't really want to spar tonight. Sparring is kind of disturbing to me. When I lived on 20th street, growing up, my bedroom was on the front of the house, overlooking the street. Across the street was an apartment building with a busy carry-out liquor store. It was called Gimperline's, and I remember the old man Gimperline who ran it. I remember watching drunk men fighting in the street. We didn't have air-conditioning so in the summers, I always had my windows open. I could hear men fighting in the street and see them beating the shit out of each other. Sometimes the police would come. Women and men would fight too. I never heard gun shots, but sometimes knives and "brass knuckles" or ball bats were involved. I could go outside the day after and find teeth and blood and hair. It was gross. I would sometimes watch from my window. Who couldn't watch that. Like a movie when you don't want to look but you do anyway.

But I'm off topic. Sparring was actually kind of fun tonight. It's so tiring though. I'm pretty good at it, I think I'm the best woman at it there (other than Mrs. Clark...she's GOOD!) I have fun with everyone but Lee (the others refer to him as Moose.) He is a 16 year old 6'something football player. He has hair down to his shoulders and it's curly blond - if I were just 16 again!! No thanks..just kidding. I never want to be 16 again. He kicks and hits too hard. I should wear my mouth guard when I spar him because he isn't careful enough. The time before last, I was wearing my mouthguard and he kicked me in the mouth HARD. My lip swelled and it cut the inside of my lip somehow. My teeth were fine though, thank heavens. Jerry gets mad when he hits me or kicks me so hard. I'm pretty tough though. I'm usually ready for it when he makes contact. When I'm sparring, I usually beat the other women. I can beat a couple of the men. I like sparring Jason. He has a lot of control and he's good. I defeated him tonight but he had already gone like 15 rounds. I gave him a quick back fist tap to the head and he thanked me - he was beat!

I must get myself to bed. I have a hard day tomorrow.