Plato was born of privileges. He wanted to be wrestlers and acquired “Plato” (means broad or flat), his ring name. He became the Socrates’ disciple for 9 years. Plato was heavily influenced by Pythagoras’ “All is number” thought.

Plato believes that everything we perceive around us is merely appearance. The true reality is the realm of ideas or forms from which this appearance derives. The Universal realm of ideas, which is perceived by the mind, is unchanging and eternal. Plato’s explanation of time – a “moving image of eternity” – is more than a profound religious explanation.

Plato founded the first university called Academy, where several of disciples learned his philosophy. His ideal republic resembles a Utopia where no one has private possessions and all men and women are equal. These were templates for communism and fascism in recent times.

Plato believed that human soul consisted of three distinct elements: 1) The rational element strove for wisdom, 2) the active spirit sought conquest and distinction, 3) the appetites craved gratification. The righteousness can be achieved only when each of the three elements of the soul fulfilling its own function.

In Plato, eros is regarded as the soul’s impulse toward good. In its lowest form this is expressed in our passion for a beautiful person (infatuation?). A higher form of love involves a union devoted a more spiritual aspirations, giving rise to social good (soul mate?). The highest form is devoted to philosophy.

Plato died at the age of 81. He was buried in the Academy.

This is a quick overview of Plato, his life and philosophy. It’s a good 90-minute read.

Something read in 90 minutes sounds very good. Who wouldn’t want to learn about a great person in 90 minutes. Of course, this book can only serve as an introduction due to its limited space and the Domino-Pizza promise.

Surprised to know that Aristotle tutored Alexander the Great, who did not pay much respect to his teacher. Aristotle is famous for his founding of “logic” and he first used the Arabic numbers, which helped to advance the math science.

Born rich in 384 B.C., Aristotle was a student of Plato and a graduate of the Academy. Disappointed by not being nominated to head up the Academy and his eventual branch off from Plato’s philosophy, he later found several of his own schools including Lyceum, MIT of the era. Where Plato’s approach to the world was essentially religious, Aristotle’s tended toward the scientific. He has a profound understanding of politics, this led him to adopt a pragmatic approach to politics, basically of moderation virtues or middle of the extremes.

The ironic thing is that his ideas were widely adopted by Islamic world, while the Western world sank into the Dark Ages. The Islamic world absorbed almost all of Aristotle’s teachings which became Islamic philosophy. He was wrong about the earth being the center of the universe and the world was made of 4 primary elements: earth, air, fire and water. But the bottom line is that there is no one true way to viewing the world, either scientifically or philosophically.

Aristotle later escaped to a small island after the death of Alexander to avoid the wrath of the mob. He died in Chalkis 30 miles north of Athen at the age of 62.

This is a decent “cheat sheet” on Aristotle. I enjoyed the ease-to-understand stories of Aristotle and it actually took me just about 90 minutes, give or take.

This is a 4-CD seminar audio recording. I must have picked this up from OverDrive. I thought the title was humorous. It never crossed my mind that humor was a business in itself – a profitable for the talented. Somehow, I perceived this is something you sort of being born with. But there are tricks and methods to this art.

The first couple of CD’s were live audio recording of Seinfeld co-producer, Peter Mehlman, on the inside story of the script making for Seinfeld episodes. My key take-aways:

Seinfeld Motto: no hugging and no learning – this is what entertaining is all about.
The main themes in the Seinfeld plot: Lies, schemes, Tragedies – disguised as comedy, philosophical discussion, and other miscellaneous one-liners.

Peter’s talk is very interesting. This has motivated me to watch all the Seinfeld episodes. Writing for George was easy, but hardest for Kramer and Elaine. Seinfeld has lots of scenes, compared to others; the pace was much faster than people would feel. There are roughly 3~4 plots in a 22-minute episode and it’s very difficult to tie them together. Most of ideas came from individual experiences from real people.

The other 2 CD’s were the lectures of Professor Mel Helitzer. He actually taught humor writing in universities. My key take-aways:
3 R’s of why humor?
1. Respect & attention – call attention to you ( not talented in sports, pretty, middle child, physical defficiency, mother to reach, sit in back in class)
2. Remember – people remember.
3. ? (not mentioned)

Why do we laugh? (I never thought I would laugh for the below reasons but it’s true.)
1. Surprise (shock-value joke, never saw it coming)
2. Superiority & incongruent (makes the listeners feel superior than the people got picked on, e.g. Candid Camera victims).

3 elements of humor writing: MAP
Material
Audience: will people understand and feel “superior.”
Performer: written for (can’t use Rodney Dangerfield’s material for Mel Brooks, e.g.)

Recipes of Humor Writing: THREES
Target: People you pick on. This one is less obvious to me.
Hostility: aggression.
Realism: some truth to what you say.
Exaggeration: makes it funny.
Emotion: the performer’s act.
Surprise: like “reverse.”

These 4 CD’s really put people behind the scenes of humor writing and comedy in general. The examples given were little dated as the audio was taped/published in 2004 and the Humor class was probably tapes in the 80’s, as many of Gary Hart jokes were cited. Otherwise, this has been a great lesson in humor for me. Enjoyed every minute of it.

Michael Oher (Williams) was an black teenager that was almost abandoned by his alcoholic mother and absentee father. If it were not for his special physical build perfectly fit for a left-tackle (quarterback’s blind side, thus the book title) and his unique athletic talent, he would probably go through life unnoticed by everyone as in his early life. Thanks to Big Tony, his family friend, who brought him to Briarcrest High School and managed to got him enrolled in the school, despite his near-zero scholastic aptitude. But without the love from his adopted white family: Sean & Leigh Anne Tuohy and their 2 kids, Collins & Sean Jr., as shown in the movie trailer, A Diamond in the Rough.

There were many sub-stories that built up the main story, including how the left tackle became the second highest paid position in football because the newer passing game trumpeted by Bill Walsh who made the quarterback a critical position. The history of football game was briefly described to establish the critical nature of the left-tackle, quarterback’s blind-side line of defense. How Michael managed to eked out high enough grade with BYU’s on-line course to pass the stringent NCAA college admission requirement was described in great details. The story then detours to describe how Steve Wallace became the most valuable left tackle for 49ers and won 3 Super Bowls. The story of Steve Wallace’s transformation came alive with Lewis’ magical narration.

I was hooked on Michael Lewis’ work after reading his Money Ball. This one is no exception. What a wonderful story of rags-to-riches! I particularly like that way the author got the readers interested with a “hook” and flash back to tell the story, instead of the usual chronological order. However, the story got a little long toward the end. The discussion about all the potential black athletes who never got a chance because they never made it to graduate from high school seems to leave room for future work. It also went to reinforce how lucky Michael Oher was, even with his talent.