Modern @ MindSay

There was a proposal to built a monorail in Melaka by the state government, from Air Keroh to Bandar Melaka.However, we have to consider various aspect of implementation and it's suitability.

Since Melaka town were made up of old and ancient building architecture, it was not so suitable for the monorail or aerocar. The modern tram is a better alternative and compliment well with the surrounding of an old building in most old town like the European town. The aerocar will have a support pile which is not very suitable and blocking the view and of the beauty of the building architecture.

I have collected many tram design and used in various country. Most of the design were of the British tram design as the British made were familiar during colonial time. In fact the "hill train" in Penag were of the British origin.

Looking from some of the collection of picture above, the early 3 of the picture were of a old tram, mostly used in UK and Australia. But the 4th and 5th(old tram red in color) were used in modern Istanbul and old Istanbul. The 6th and 7th were of the modern one used in most modern town including old town with a new design and new engine which is a much better and faster.

It complement well with the old and modern architecture building.

If you ever take an Ethical Reasoning class, basically through EVERYTHING you believe in as ethical and moral and throw it out the door!  And I am not shittin you!

 

Now granted the ethical reasoning class I went to is a class of 6 total classes to become a drug/alchol counslor in the state of NE, so we had to learn a couple of laws that are used as a drug and alchol clients and counselors.  And half of us were either just starting the classes and the other half were working LDACs or Social Workers who work with addicts.  What just boggles those of us new to these classes is the fact counselors have to juggle not just the federal law on confidentiality but also the State Law of reporting abuse of any kind!  Thus why you take the Ethical Reasoning class and find out that everything you normally would think and do is WRONG!!!!!!!

 

When a counselor deals with issues we have 4 main choices to choose from after we do our ethical reasoning and decision:

 

1.  Legal and ethical, or

2.  Legal and unethical, or

3.  Illegal and ethical, or

4. illegal and unethical

 

Out of our four choices, we were told that we really do NOT ever want to choose #4 but that we would choose #s 1-3 all the time in our wide range of issues and decisions.  Amazing huh?  That we would choose illegal and ethical or legal and unethical but trust me after dealing with some secenarios that actual counselors had to deal with, you would be amazed at how many times you would choose illegal and ethical or legal and unethical!  We were also told and it made total sense that when laws are in conflict with this profession, the bigger wins except when smaller is tougher!

 

Then we got a very brief introduction into the Stages of Ethical/Moral Reasoning.  Which made EVERYONE's brains go to mush!  We were taught that Lawrence Kohlberg is the champion of research in the area of moral development and if you are going to buy any books (modern) to make sure you look in the back to make sure that Kohlberg is listed as a source.  Paiget took a lot of works include Freud's (which was pointed out that Freud may have been wrong on a lot of things in a lot of ppl's views but he was right on a lot of things that are used across the board by many ppl!)  and even though Paiget is now dismissed with a lot of his research in moral reasoning, he is credited with having accelerated the effer to understand psychology of moral reasoning which includes Kohlberg's stages of of Moral/Ethical Reasoning that we use today. 

 

LDACs and other counselors always look at their final decision they make for a client and then look at what stage of Moral/Ethical REason they are using.  And what is so upsetting but not suprising is that once a person starts working as any form of counselor, their Moral/Ethical Reason goes from what they dub a Jr. High level after a few years working back down to an Infant level.  Because they start out with good intentions and follow through with them, they get in trouble either via their organization or the law for being a truely ethical and moral counselor!  So after that, they revert back to the infant level to cover their butts because they have been burned!

 

There are three main catagories of Moral/Ethical Reasoning that are then broken into 6 stages that we use today:  (I am going to use an example from our ethics manual)

 

Stage 1:   If I don't take the course I'll get in trouble.  (Infant-Concerned with self)

Stage 2:  I need the CEU's, so I'll take the course.  (Toddler-Concerned with self)

These two stages fall into the Preconventional Level of Reasoning that the majority of ppl revert back to once working in a counseling and other profession after a few years.

 

Stage 3:  I'll take the course because I know the presenters are truly wonderful human beings and I want them to like me. (Jr. High-Social/Group Concern)

Stage 4:  I'll go because my boss told me to and thus it's my duty.  (Law & Order-Social/Group Concern)

These two stages fall into the Conventional Level of Reasoning that the majority of ppl who do NOT work in counseling professions funtion at (before they become counselors!) and the level that the majority of those ppl in professoins as Police Officers, Medical professions, Judiciary professions, and the Military function at.

 

Stage 5:  I'll go because I have accepted a job as a counselor, and have thus also accepted the responsibility to discharge my duties in an ethical manner.  (Negotiation to find balance)

Stage 6:  I'll take the course out of respect for dignity of my clients, who deserve, simple by virtue of being a human, to be treated in accordance with the highest possible ethical standards.  (Individal vs. Social)

These two stages fall into the Postconventional, Autonomous, or Principled Level of Reasoning that very few ppl ever fall into.  What is so suprising is that the US Constitution was written to these two levels by 30-45 year old White men who were slave owners and they thought and wrote like this when the Constitution was being constructed.  The same with the Magna Carta.  Any Country that has been through a lot and still flurised and wrote laws and other things at this level have flurished and have functioned orginally at this level of Reasoning!

 

Amazing isn't it.  And I am not done with the things I have learned!  We also had to learn about putting 4 factors into play after we came to our Decision and our Rational of why we got there.  Those Rules as they were dubbed in our class are:

 

Beneficence--the duty to promote welfar of, and prevent harm to, all persons we serve.  Whic extendes to the community and is a must for all counselors to pursue. 

 

Nonmaleficence--the duty to do no harm Sounds Wiccany to me if you ask me!  This actual principle is traceable back to Hippocrates.  In other words, we have a duty to avoid potential harmful multiple relationships with not only our clients but their families.

 

I was very happy to hear in this class, that I and my friend that went to this class who are Pagans, were NOT the only ones that had a HUGE problem with Nonmaleficence.  In reality there is NO such thing as doing NO HARM to ANYONE!  And when a few of us brought this up to the Ethics Presentors, it was explained to us that we are correct, somone is ALWAYS going to get harmed in what ever decsioin we make and our job is to ethical come to a decision as to who is going to get the least amount of harm presented to them!

 

Rspect for Client Autonomy--duty to recognize the client's right to make her/his own decisios, at the same time the substantial influence we have over those decisions and the potential conflict between duty to respect client autonomy and the duty to prevent harm

 

Justice-- the duty to treat individuals fairly, provide equal access to services regardless of race, disability, appearance religion age gender ethnicity intelligence, sexual orientation, national ancestory, martial economic educational or social status

 

Then after learning all about these lovely things, we got told there is of course no book that we can resort to when we have delimias.  Suprise Suprise!:P

 

Anyway, I got a lot out of the class even if I didn't agree with some of the decisions that were eventually made by unknown counselors scenarios that we were presented and had to make our own decisions over!  But that is why in the Ethical/Moral Reasoning class there is truely no right or wrong answer to any of your decisions!  This class was to help you think in an ethical manner and then be able to explain your decision and WHY!  We learned to always ask WHY we came to any decision in anything more than 5 times because then and only then would we come to the true understand at what is at the core of our ethical reasoning!

Today I was talking to my friend Laura .  She asked me how I got into sculpting.  It was a bit of a long story, I probably put her to sleep. ;)  But anyway, somewhere or somehow I got to thinking... about art, sculptures, what it means to me and what I want to accomplish with myself.  I have studied art a bit, and its history.. well, not as much as I would like to, but that is something for another day... but what is on my mind now, is that I wonder how art is evolving and changing over time.  And, I wonder if my art is a step forward in sculpture.  I wonder if art as a whole is growing because of what I do.  Even if not very many people have seen it, I know it is unique and different then all other sculpture.  It reminds me of another theory, that every time someone breaks a new world record, our species evolves on some small level; as we are pushing our boundaries and capabilities as human beings.  So I wonder if the same is true for art, and what I do.  I think about artists like da Vinci, Dali, Van Gogh, and others.. who have each their individual styles and have influenced art throughout their time and our time.  It seems like da Vinci's style has been lost on many levels in modern art; like the way he created a portrait isn't being used today.  Well, it probably is, but perhaps isn't as popular (I don't really know).  So anyways, I would like to see myself creating sculptures on higher levels of art, meaning that I want them to push the limits of what we know about art and sculpture today.  To see if I can create a new type of art or expression or something from what I do.

 

You can see my work at www.futantshadow.deviantart.com/gallery/

 

Peter

This is so true to today.....

Well our plans changed up.  DeLaney threw a straight up PMSING fit over not seeing a certain film and Coltin was throwing a temper tantrum about not being able to hit the arcade AFTER the movie.  So we went to the mall theater. 

 

After those lil fits, we were good to go!  I dropped off the food I usually have left over from cooking when Randy isn't home to Father Mike, filled the van up, grabbed some cash and we got to the Mall in time to get tickets and go grab something to eat. 

 

We hit the arcade where Coltin managed to get himself 80 tickets to cash in before the movie and we walked into a VERY packed movie theater just in time to grab the last few seats for Alvin and The Chipmunks.  Coltin had already seen it with his Dad but was okay with seeing it again.  After the movie we hit the arcade again so DeLaney could finish spending her last tokens and cash in her tickets.  I cashed in mine too:P:D  You KNOW I had to get $5 bucks to play the games also didn't ya!:P

 

After the last stop at the arcade, the kdis and I wondered down to Barnes & Nobles.  I really didn't need anymore books, I have such a HUGE pile of to read books anyway.  But I look at it this way at times, my to GET list is even larger!:D  But I was a good girl, we walked out with 3 calanders.  One for each kid and another one for me.  DeLaney was "nice" enough to point out I already had a new Celtic Blessings calander what was I going to do with the new Celtic Mandala calender.  I promptly told her you can NEVER have too many calenders in the house and I could put it in my computer room.  She shut up then!  I swear she is like her Daddy more and more every day with her logical thinking!  I guess if she is the spitting image of her Daddy it is okay for her to think like him.  As long as she doesn't get to logical and to prissy she and I will get a long just fine as she gets older.  But her PMSing is going to get put to a stop FAST!  I dont' give a rats ass she hasn't started her cycle, she has the acne already (yes my baby girl has started gettin facial acne!), and the tude.  She was told point blank today after her lil fit, that there is only ONE BITCH in the family and that is ME!  I also picked up the book Little Women. 

 

My one and only New Year's Resoluation this year is for every 3 normal books (not counting smutt books-I can read an entire weeks publishing of those with out blinking in a day if you let me!) I read; I will read a "classical" book and then a "modern" book.  My sister, pointed out my libary collection of books is more along the line of a History, Anthropology, Religious, Philosphy College level collection NOT to mention soft core porn collection of the certain smutt book series I keep!  So if I want my kids to read other things, I have to show them Mommy can too.  Randy is NOT happy for every "Classical" and "Modern" Fiction or Non-Fiction book I have to read he has to do the same thing and then we swap if we choose different books!  He is saying he doesn't have time.  He is findign out that when he is home I can find him the time!:D  I can also find him time when he is on the road!  Read one or two chapters before you eat.  He eats then he sleeps, so he has to read before he eats!

 

After Barnes & Nobles and wenching a lil bit to the store manager about our store's crappy assortment of Address Books, we wondered down to Hallmark so I could pick up a new address book.  I got one.  I am not happy with it but at least Randy can figure it out if he needs to use it and I picked up extra inserts.  When you have a LARGE family with the majority of them being either R's, N's, and L's you run out of space easily!    I also wenched a bit to that store manager about their crappy assortment of address books also.  She at least explained that the majority of them went bye bye the day after Christ Mas.  Barnes & Noble's only comment was we have a HUGE selection of Journal type books! 

 

So we loaded up and started heading down the interstate to cross the river and go home.  And for some odd reason I said nope right at the first exit to So. Sioux!  I took it!  Coltin asked if we were going to stop and see Granny and I said nope that is tomorrow.  We went right by her nursing home and I pulled up right in front of the Pet /Grooming/Boarding Place!  Where DeLaney promptly reminded me of her father yet again! 

 

"MOM!  Your NOT allowed to go to any pet store or animal auction with out Daddy, because you have a bad habit of bringing home more animals!  Daddy said so!"

 

I ignored her and said if I walk out with something your Father will get over it! 

 

They had an adorable puppy selection and I was VERY tempted to get the one and only Male Sheltie they had left.  But I didn't.  See I am not a real big dog fan.  I love them but they are sooooooooooooooo much more needier then cats.  And if you leave for a weekend or a week you either A have to take them with you or B find someone to take care of them or C board them.    Plus I dont' really like small dogs.  They are so much more in need of care then bigger dogs.  I looked at the kitties they had.  They had two adorable fluffy orange tabby kittens about 6-7 months in age.  Of course DeLaney wnated one of those.  Coltin honed in on the 3 identical short haired orange tabby kittens about teh same age as our twin black kitties.  I said NO MORE CATS!  We have a female that will give us a litter or two don't worry about getting anymore cats.  Their fish selection was pretty crappy but they get cleaned out for the holidays since they are on of two pet stores in the tri state area that carry exotic fish.  Of course atticsmouse would have went for the rodent selection for her snakes:P:D  She can have them.  They carry a lot of feeder mice.  I guess a lot of folks in the area have snakes:P  Fromt here I wondered back to the front of the store where the birds where at.  DeLaney wanted me to get finches.  I hate those lil things.  Plus they drive my cats batty.  Not going to get anymore finches.  Parkettes I have two.  Don't want NO MORE! 

 

Then I honed in on the Cocketiels and Doves!  They had FANCY cocketeils!  Guess what we have in the house including a new bird cage!  I got myself a Fancy cockteil!  Yay me!  They were hand raised but like most pet stores even a smaller one they don't get to handle the birds like they should.  And our new addition to the family is really scared at the moment.  I made them clip his wings for me.  Usually I dont' clip my cockteil's wings but that is how I lost the first two!  One escaped from his cage while hanging outside and the other one escaped out the door thanks to DeLaney and Coltin's lil friends in TX!  So he was pretty pist when I got him home and pretty scared.  I took him out of his home cage, had his wings clipped, and put him in a brand new cage.  Then I introduced him to the dinning room on top of the sewing table before I clean a spot off for him in the computer room!  Shadow and Socks the two older cats could have cared less. Pisser, Brothers, and Grimm were extatic!  Another cage to climb on and bounce off of!  Sin Kitty is outside hoing around again so I can't wait to see his reactoin to another bird in the house.  Spud the dog is a jealous creature and is barking at the bird periodically!  Tweek and Tweeter the parakeets are happy over another bird in the hosue!  They are twittering a storm up and trying to get otu the side of their cage to go visit the new baby!

 

And yes, before atticsmouse can ask me, I told Randy.  My reasoning for buyin another animal is:  He is getting 150-250 dollar boots in January for work, plus I am paying a good chunk of our defeered payments on HIS truck off with his bonus in January so HIS truck is paid off on time this year!  My bird and cage is a LOT less expensive then his boots could ever be!:P:D  His comment was:

 

"So, do you have a place in the barn ready for me to sleep since you keep bringing in more animals?" 

 

Smart ass man I tell you!

 

I cooked dinner, worked on laundry ( I swear I am always working on laundry!), and the kids and I sat down and played dominoes.  They are in bed and I am rambling on and on and on again:D:P:D