Carry It Forward: Born Into Brothels

I was really moved by the documentary that we watched in class called Born Into Brothels. The movie was really inspirational, and it was amazing to learn about a culture and what other kids are going through all around the world. Sometimes it is hard to "burst the Glenview bubble", and we find ourselves getting caught up with trivial matters, but not really thinking about the challenges that others are facing all around the world. In class I remember discussing the distance between us and the kids living in the brothels in Calcutta, and it made me realize that we are more similar than we think we are. I know we live completely different lives, but we all have core elements that connect us, and make us human. We all experience the same emotions, they are just brought about in different ways. I'm not trying to say that what they deal with isn't painful, but no matter the physical distance, the human spirit is so powerful that people who have easier lives will reach out and offer their support to those who are less fortunate.

For a while, I've wanted to be a filmmaker, and I've become interested specifically in documentary work lately. Seeing this film re-established the importance of documentary films to me, and made it clear that there are people out there like the kids in the brothels, who need their stories to be told, and their talents to be seen by others. This film made me want to learn more about other social issues that people are living with, and how I can become more of a humanitarian in this world. The film was extremely powerful and it will surely be something I will carry forward and keep with me, so that I always remember that the human spirit is strong and does a lot of good for the world.

Metacognition: Q&E Essay

I'm not gonna lie, there was a brief moment in time where I thought the Q&E Essay would be the death of me. I found myself sitting at my computer watching that cursed cursor click my time away. I will be the first to admit that I should have started my essay earlier, but honestly, this was the most challenging experience of writing an essay I had ever faced.

Looking back now, everything is a blur. I was trying so hard, and thinking for such long periods of time I literally stayed up the entire night working. This is no exaggeration either; this is a true account of what was going on in my mind as I was writing my essay.

Around 1:00 AM(my usual time to call it quits on homework and hit the sack) I noticed that I could maybe pass for being done with my essay, but it was important to me that I got all my points across exactly how I meant, so i decided to trudge forward and further elaborate on my points for another half an hour.

2:00 AM rolls around and I notice that my entire paper has essentially been re-worked due to some silly notion I had that I should start fresh. This of course was probably a very silly thing to do seeing as I knew I had less than 3 hours until I had to wake up and get to school.

At 2:15 AM, I decide at this point I may as well stay up the entire night, because I wont be satisfied either way; whether it be with 3 hours of sleep or none at all. I called my friend Max(who apparently doesn't sleep either), and we went to the 24-hour Dunkin Donuts for a crazy caffeine coffee binge.

When I arrived back home at 3:15 AM I was unhappy that the caffeine was beginning to wear off, and at that point I was grumpy as well as unhappy with my paper.

After working a little longer I heard my alarm clock go off, and it was probably one of the most surreal moments of my life. Obviously we all know that human beings need sleep to function, so I thought my day would make for an interesting experiment. I got to school at 6:00 AM to shoot some scenes for a movie, and then by 7:00 AM, I was already off to my first period early-bird gym class. Needless to say, I crashed around second period, and I knew I crashed when I called my teacher Mr. Jeeves(his name is Mr. Kane) and instead of asking his permission to go to the bath room, I accidently asked "Est-ce que je peux alle au toilette si vous plait?"(Even though I was in Sociology, not french)

I guess where I'm going with this is this ordeal with pulling an all nighter should have been a lesson for me that I need to get my work done earlier. But the sad thing is, here I am writing this blog at 1:24 AM, so I can only imagine what the night holds in store for me. Clearly I need to find a better way to get my work done faster, so I can actually sleep at night.

Blogging Around

Response to: dannyrhumanities: Metacognition: Joining T.U.B.

-in the blog Danny discusses what it was like to join a new band, and how he learned new styles and techniques from collaborating with other musicians.

I think that its really cool that you were able to step out of your comfort zone and try something new with music. It's really important to take risks, and try new things because you never know if you will enjoy something, or be good at it, until you actually try it. The way you described the differences between your two bands was really interesting, because you said instead of doing things the way you were used to, you had to step back and listen to what other people were doing. I think that listening to others is the key to a great collaboration. Even though you probably have lots of good ideas on your own, imagine what would happen if you combined your ideas with someone Else's? The possibilities would be endless and the combination of thoughts could generate something truly amazing.

Response to: HannahHumanities: Best of week: My self portrait

-in this post Hannah describes the feelings of her work being plagiarized and connected it to the article about Farnsworth called "The Televisionary"

First of all, I really enjoyed reading your blog entry because it was set up with a very clear beginning, middle, and end. I was drawn into your post because of this idea of a self portrait and what it means to the artist as well as what it means to others. It boggles my mind to think that you were able to work on one specific piece of art for 8 hours! It shows true dedication and focus, which are necessary skills for an artist. The way that your friend took your ideas to put into her art was a great connection to the televisionary. It really bothers me when people use other peoples work and take the credit for it, and I'm really sorry that that happened to you. Especially after you spent so much time developing you own PERSONAL style, it is unfair that someone else would use what you made and put into their own self-portrait. The whole point of a self portrait is to display each individual artist's work, and in the end your friend wont be the winner, you will be because you stayed true to yourself.