Grading day

I am about to work on some heavy grading. That is true, despite the messed up wrist. These monsoons are driving pain into my wrist.

The monsoons are Tucson's humid season. They cause either my knee or wrist to hurt. This is wrist year, apparently. I am sitting here wearing a wrist brace.

I wanted to get in a blog post. I don't really have much to fuss about that I am not fussing about on Twitter. I am @jtarb1 there.

Remember, feeling as if you are persecuted shows a poor mindset.

Memberless movements

So, I am beginning to feel as if memberless movements (Black Lives Matter, Anonymous, other umbrella organizations) are a failure as an idea. Black Lives Matter is receiving flack because of the Dallas shootings where five policemen were killed and more injured. Anonymous also accepts blame for many things either right or left-wing. Al Qaeda even, and to a lesser extent ISIL accepts blame for nearly everything in order to pull Western nations to the fight.

Occupy was another one of these memberless leaderless movements. It quickly failed.

The Civil Rights Movement succeeded due to voting drives and somehow not alienating people enough to gather people into a majority. The Civil Rights Act passed (though probably as a method of winning the Democrat voters that were black).

The way to win is to become a majority, while getting attention. By having unofficial groups, there are no membership rolls to sign. There are simply petitions to gather.

One group I used to be associated with that is not memberless is the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. They limit the need to gather petitions by having large membership rolls. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference eliminated hangers on by keeping their membership official.

So, if anyone is contributing to Black Lives Matter or whatever, start making official memberships. Leadership movements quickly become associated with hangers on. Not that you care what I say.

UPDATE: I recently heard Caleb Carr's interview by James Altucher. He seemed to confirm my idea that ISIL will accept blame for anything that seems relevant. He said that the 2015 San Bernardino attackers were merely needing their future deaths to have meaning and swore allegiance to Al Baghdadi at the last moments before the attacks.

Sleep interrupted

My daughter was up at 3AM. I got a little nap, but she never fell back to sleep. It was a rough night for me, because I was up to 10PM.

I have managed to keep a happy face on even though I am tired. She'll probably be awake until she passes out tonight.

Keeping awake has been hard most of the day, so I just keep doing what I am supposed to be doing. Parenting and school grading. I am up to date on that.

I have a little more than 3 more classes before I am ABD. I am excited to get on with the process by getting my prospectus looked at.

How do you stay motivated when you are just exhausted? I normally exercise and just keep busy. Sometimes, I will even nap.

Not an aviator

I am not an airplane aficionado. Yet, something has my attention reading Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. It came to me somewhat by insight, and I am not sure it is true. Yet, it probably is.

WWI and WWII aviation probably allowed airplanes to become safer than they would be without WWI and WWII. Obviously, the wars were horrible. But without the many unsafe training flights and combat flights of the World Wars, we might not be able to fly safely today.

The military is constantly in forms of social experimentation. It allowed integrated military units before the nation integrated. It recently allowed transgendered people in, yet with some heavy stipulations.

The military may have allowed airlines to become safer than car travel. I know that plane crashes receive lots of TV coverage, but it is still safer than car travel I understand. I still cringe during takeoff and turbulence. And landing. Maybe, especially landing.

On other news, even though I have diverted from my diet, I am still 258 lbs. as of this morning. I think I can be satisfied with that.