My intro post

 Hi, I'm Bon

    When thinking about what to share about myself, I'm reminded of various lines from Charles Bukowski, the gravely voice of Tom Waits, and his eccentricity. I think of my mothers own quirks, the various gifts and anxietys shes given me. How when my father was once asked if he was wearing women's clothes, he said "No, they're my wife's!". I feel stitched together by the things my family exposed me too, by the essence of their characters, the things I admire within them, and those other aspects I reject adamantly as well. 

One of those Bukowski lines states that one should "invent yourself and then reinvent yourself". Throughout my floundering process of becoming, I feel more and more that my life is defined by the things I do for others, and with that, secondary education is what I am studying here at college. I can only hope to develop the skills and perspective to become a inclusive and earnest educator who aims to help develop the hearts and minds of young adults 

In my off time, I enjoy wasting it by napping too long, preferably while cuddling my cat. I also keep myself sane by lifting weights in my home gym. I only wish I could tell my 14 year old self that being 220 pounds wouldn't give me the confidence and self esteem that I still crave. My other favorite form of escapism would be music, listening to and shittily playing it. You will find me ruining my hearing for hours while listening to progressive death metal, city pop, and goth.

I am growing more and more curious and suspicious of the media. I feel that we carry with us some of the most effective propaganda tools created within our pockets. That the move toward short form content and ambitious attention seeking algorithms are continually leading us astray. I guess I'm hoping to gain a sense of media literacy from this course, and try to understand some of the mechanisms behind these things. 

Speaking of, I do get news from the likes of tiktok and instagram. I get a lot of videos of seemingly everyday people sharing information, and I guess that sort of presentation makes it all feel more palatable to me. If and when there is a story im particuarly interested in, (Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Shiloh Hendrix, Charlie Kirk, to name a few) I'll more thoughtfully look into them across different mediums. I can not say I feel particularly sure about the objective truth of many of the things I see online. There is much bias, as well as true propaganda, and vetting sources of information for things like that is important. What is this organizations background? Their history? Where is the money going? I consider questions like that often.

    Guess that'll about do it? I'm looking forward to this class.