[Fwd: Questions/Answers] I've been told students never received this so I'm sending it again & also posting it.

> You mentioned about a word "jammed" in class just now, and you said that we can use the word when we're talking about a machine.
> So I wonder why we can say "the CD is jammed," but not "the computer is jammed?" What is the difference between the two?
>
> And I do not really understand the explanation you gave us for "mind over matter." Could you help me to have a better understanding about it?


I will always answer class questions to the whole class, so everyone learns, though the sender will always be anonymous.
1. A machine can be jammed. A CD cannot be jammed, but any mechanical object with parts can be jammed, such as a CD player. A computer cannot be jammed because there are no mechanical parts, only hardware. This is not entirely true, however, if one's DVD drive is jammed (will not close, or is stuck). But normally computers don't jam since it's mainly an issue of software or hardware not made up of mechanical parts. An electric fan can jam; a door can jam (won't open); a window can jam because it may not open smoothly, or a painted window will get stuck. A gun jams. Sometimes a jammed gun will save someone's life since it won't shoot. A rifle can jam. It's just a word that native speakers know how to use and when to use it. It's something native speakers don't think about; collocations come as part of life.
Sometimes "jam" is used as part of a phrasal verb (with a particle): "It jammed up on me." "I put too many bananas in the juice blender so it jammed up on me."
"Jam" is also used in a related way to say one is in a difficult position: "I'm in a jam at the police station. I lost my ID. You've got to come over with some identification." A "jam" then is a difficult situation that is usually unforeseen and may involve some kind of pressure. A jam then is different from a problem. A door can be broken and be a problem; but if a door is broken and one has to leave on an airplane flight in five hours one may be in a jam if one can't fix it right away. It's a matter of nuance, shades of meaning. "Listen, I'm in a jam. My plane leaves in two hours and I can't close my door. The hinges don't work. I can't leave the door open while I'm away. Can you come over and take care of it while I'm gone?"
So, no, a CD can't jam, though the CD player reading the CD might jam, or jam up, as we say. Nothing simple or made of one part can jam. It must be made of several parts where one part of the machinery can get stuck for some reason.
Another meaning of "jam" is a jazz free improvisation session. That is, musicians play freely, just having fun, to see what happens. There are even Rock jams.
Yet another meaning of jam is that sugary dessert that children (and even adults) spread on bread.
2. As for mind over matter, I can't do better than quote Shakespeare's Hamlet: "I can be bounded in a nutshell and count myself king of infinite space were it not that I have bad dreams."
(Note, I'm quoting the man, Hamlet, not the play, Hamlet, in which case I would have to italicize the word.)
In other words, some people can have 20 million dollars, live in a palace and kill themselves at 25 years old; another, whose mind is at peace, can live in a shabby home, with little money and can say, "I'm so blessed: I've got my health." Or: "I'm so blessed: my health could be a lot worse than it is." Or: "My health is terrible, but I still have my family, so I feel blessed."
See it's all a matter of mind over matter. Buddhism understood this. Zen (Ch'an Buddhism even more so). All our desires come from our mind. Advertisers understand this too, but from a different point of view. Whereas Buddhism tries to teach us that since all our desires are artificial, not natural, but come from our minds, and therefore we should get rid of those false desires, advertisers try to increase those false desires/needs: "You need this perfume to catch a man." "You need to lose weight to look sexy." "You need to have this brand new expensive car to attract the opposite sex." "If you drink this brand of Scotch you're a real man." Or, in psychopathology, "If my mother doesn't approve of my boyfriend I must be evil." "If my father doesn't applaud my grades, I must be bad," etc. And so on.
So what Hamlet knows is, if his mind were quiet, if it did not have false needs or desires, he could live in a little nutshell and still feel that he was KING OF ALL SPACE. But it's his bad dreams (i.e. thoughts) that prevent this: My neighbor has a new car so I must have one too. My classmate got a higher grade so I can't sleep at night, even though I'm getting good grades and my family has 40 million dollars in assets! I'm wearing last year's clothes instead of this year's, so people will laugh at me. To quote Hamlet again: "There's nothing either good or bad but that thinking makes it so." This is part of what is called Cognitive Psychology too, which tries to emphasize changing our habitual way of thinking about things (mother, father, friends, money, etc.). The anorexic is not fat but thinks that her weight is too heavy for what she thinks is thin! And no matter how much weight she loses she will always feel fat because she thinks fat, or she thinks thin. "There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so."