Best of the Week: Consilience

Alright, I'm not gonna lie, I'm probably the last person I would've expected to say this, but I'm actually beginning to enjoy the article "Consilience" by E.O. Wilson.

I honestly dreaded the point in class where the "do you mind" journals had to be packed away and "Consilience" was brought up to do some deep and analytical reading. I felt like this somewhat short article was taking weeks and I dreaded it. For some reason, something about that changed last night, and I was actually able to enjoy it.

I understand why we went over the article as a class to make sure we didn't miss anything, because obviously it is full of small yet important details and claims. But for some reason, while doing the assignment last night(even though we only had to read a couple of pages on our own) something about it was very liberating. I felt like I was in control of the article and I could go at my own pace, rather than the pace of the class. I was able to re-read passages if I didn't understand them, I had my trusty dictionary near by to look up the words I didn't understand, and I truly felt as though I had been in training for the past few weeks, and now that there was no one to help explain it, I did it on my own, and I suceeded.

It was an amazing a-ha moment and it made me a little less nervous for college next year. It was amazing to see preparation and studying in class for the past few weeks all pay off.

An Inconvenient Truth: Name Calling

If someone punched me once for everytime someone called someone else "gay" or "retarted" as a diss, I would be black and blue in the face. It honestly hurts me when people call someone gay or retarted for doing something stupid or making a mistake. Not only is it ignorant, it is completely innappropriate.

I have found my peers at Glenbrook South to be very tolerant and open and this is why it distresses me that students continue to call each other hurtful names. I know that when they say these things, they are probably not trying to be disrespectful to the gay community or people who are mentally challanged, but by calling someone gay or retarted to describe something stupid, they really are offending people.

Another problem with name calling is how quickly it spreads. If one person hears it, they will decide to use it and so on and so forth until people think that it is okay to call a simple mistake "gay".

I know that it would be very difficult for me to get everyone in the entire school to stop calling things gay when they really mean to use another word, but whenever I am having a conversation with someone and they describe the physics pop quiz as "gay", I always take a moment to ask them if that is what they really meant to say. Most of the time they realize it was not the best word to use and they quickly realize how ignorant they sound. Hopefully if people correct those who use the words "gay" or "retarted" disrespectively, they will realize their mistakes and choose to use different and less hurtful words in the future.

Best of the Week: Ted Presentations

The TED presentations that we started this past week have been really interesting. That's not to say that the other coursework wasn't, but there is something very refreshing about hearing issues that are going on currently, and what people are doing to change the world we live in. The TED presentations have opened my eyes to new ways of thinking as well as new innovation. It is also interesting to see my peers presenting the ideas of the TED speakers. I was pleasantly surprised to find that our class is full of eloquent public speakers.

In addition to the TED presentations, another one of my favorite parts of this past week, and the whole fourth quarter really, has been the Do You Mind questions. It is nice to start class with the same structure everyday. Even though the structure remains the same, the questions take my mind to a different place everyday which makes the class really interesting. It is wonderful to answer the questions for myself as well as hear the answers of other people in the class.

Blogging Around

The first Blog I commented on was Bita's. She had a post called "Metacognition: Thinking For Myself" that I found very easy to relate with. I learned that Bita and I have a similar way of thinking and I connected with her through this blog entry.

When I read this blog post I immediately understood what you were talking about. I remember mindbooking at your house and feeling so lost and having to really search for ideas, wheras now, they just come to me because they are things that I am already thinking about. Having pressing issues that are already mind makes it so much easier to do things like mindbook and come up with ideas for essay topics. I also find it challenging to express what I'm thinking through words at times but sometimes it is easy to express ones thoughts through another medium like creating something where you don't necessarily use words. I'm glad that your way of thinking has changed for the better!

The second blog that I commented on was Jack's. His was all about how he has changed his study habits from freshman to sophomore year. I really connected with his blog because I also went through the same academic shift. It used to be that I just went to school because I didn't think I had any other options, and now I go to school to learn and to engage in the academics because it actually interests me.

I really enjoyed reading this blog entry, and I feel like I could really relate to what you were talking about. Just yesterday I was talking to a friend about how I wish I would have been more into school freshman and sophomore year. LIke you, I pretty much only did homework for the grade, not to truly learn the material. Looking back I wish I would have done homework to truly get something out of it instead of just making up answers to get it done. However, it's not possible to go back in time and re-do what was done, so I'm glad that you and I both had that homework/school a-ha moment so we can learn and succeed in the future!

Captured Thought: Photography

This semester I decided to take Photography 161 to better my knowledge of cameras, composition and just to have an interesting elective. I started the class about a week and a half late because I had some problems with my scheduale, but regardless of missing the first photography lessons I still decided to enroll in the class.

The first time I went out to shoot I was concious of everything. I checked the light meter, adjusted the f-stop and shutter speed, and made sure the composition was exactly what I wanted before I took each photo. I was so excited and I went to Walgreens right away to get my film developed, but unfortunately when I returned to pick them out the entire roll was blank. I didn't even know what I had done wrong, but I was mad at myself not only for wasting the film, but because I thought I had a lot of really good pictures on that roll.

The next time I went out to go shoot, I went with a friend, just incase I had any questions and to make sure that I was doing everything right. We got a lot of good footage and the next day in class I developed the roll. At the end of the period we took the film out and I expected to see all the pictures I had taken the previous day, but instead I once again saw that same blank roll.

After going through everything I did with my teacher, she looked at the camera and told me that something was broken and it was the reason that the pictures weren't coming out, and I was so relieved to find out that it was the camera and not me that was causing the problems.

I was still a little weary after developing the next roll, but as I unrolled the film, I began to see the negatives for the first time, and it was the first time that I understood photography.

metacognition: Architecture Project

Doing the Frank Gehry inspired Architecture Project made me realize how important group collaboration really is. A lot of times I feel as though I could do things best if I just worked alone because then everything would get done exactly as I wanted it to, but doing this project made me realize how constructive and thought-provoking working in a group really is.

A lot of times group work can mean one person does all the work while the other group members act as parasites feeding off of the one person. Although that can be the case, it is amazing to find a group of people that can equally collaborate to make something greater than each individual could have come up with. I felt that in our group we really collaborated and each of us brought something to the table. I thought it was good that the first day we layed out all the rules and the first thing that we did was decide the roles for each group members. Laying out who would be doing which role proved to be very beneficial because it gave each member of the group something unique to focus on.

Working in groups is something that I really enjoy during school, because I truly believe it will be something that I need to do in my future. Some people take group work as an oppurtunity to slack off and let the other group members take the reins, but I really enjoy group work and because I know that collaboration and having different view points in one group always makes for a better product.

iMedia:Nothing Stands Alone

The other day I heard the song "What?" by A Tribe Called Quest, and even though it is a fairly short song, it really made me think. In the song they rap about things that go together and how nothing is anything without another thing.  That is a confusing way of saying that nothing stands alone, and everything is a part of an interdependent relationship that is necessary for everything to function.  In other words, everything has an opposite and the opposite is just as important.  

"What is a Quest if the players ain't willing?

What is a pence if you don't have a shilling?

What's a con artist if he doesn't have brains?

What's America without greed and glamour?

What's an MC if he doesn't have stamina?"

This song is cool because it shows how two-sided everything really is, and how something can mean nothing when its alone, but paired with something else it means something.  It is kind of like positive and negative space; one cannot be without the other.  

Lately I've just been thinking a lot about balance and what it means to find a balance.  There cannot be more positive space than negative space, there needs to be a balance.  I'm coming to realize how difficult it is to find a balance in most aspects of my life.  When we were discussing the Frank Gehry project as a group I found it almost impossible to write rules for our group.  Whenever I would says something, I would look at it from another point of view and contradict everything I was saying because I really believe there should be a little of both sides when making decisions.  It really is troubling for me because when I look at things from two different sides, it makes it very difficult to make final decisions.  I guess I am still trying to learn what it means to find balance and not have too much negative or positive in my life.  I think my ultimate goal is complete equilibrium. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=979AE9yhdss&feature=PlayList&p=EF091996B01B2EF6&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=18

It Matters: Challenging the Status Quo

Recently in class we have been discussing the importance of challenging the status quo, and effective ways of going about it. Challenging the status quo will happen forever; as long as people are unhappy with the way they are living, there will be those who step up and challenge the status quo to evoke a change in the social order. People like Martin Luther King Jr. who like many others saw that there was a problem, but he stood up and took leadership to challenge the status quo and stand up for what he believed in.

This idea can be related to our current situation under the leadership of Barack Obama. In his presidential address last week, he kept talking about how important it was to not be satisfied with the status quo, and to keep making changes to get to where we want to be in a society.

This relates to the TED talk that we watched in class about tribes. The Speaker, Seth Godin, had some very insightful ideas about leadership and what it takes to make a change. He kept advocating that it was not important to get everyone to follow your ideas, but a select group, or "tribe" of people that are dedicated to whatever the cause is, is the best way to go about getting what you want in a society.

There are definitely connections that can be made between Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama in their speeches. They both speak to the people and for the people. Also they both are very effective in laying out the problem or the injustice and then giving their take on how it should be fixed. Even though a speech doesn't physically change the way we live, hearing a speech as powerful as one of Dr. King, or Barack Obama empowers the people and sparks social change. Nowadays anyone can give their opinion by starting a blog or posting their opinions on the internet, but there is something about speeches that better connects human beings and expresses our ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MVtE7C-YVc

Metacognition: First Semester

The first semester of Humanities has profoundly changed the way I think. The class has shown me how to see things from other perspectives, and not only that, but it has also shown me how to see things I was missing before. For example when we watched "Falling Down Stairs" this past week, it was like a completely new experience. Before Humanities, I probably wouldn't be that interested in the movie, and I would've thought it was boring. After Humanities, I had a new way of watching the movie; instead of just watching it, I was mindful of the aesthetics, philosophy and collaboration that the movie incorporated, and it ended up making the viewing experience much greater. I didn't used to think the way that I do know, and I believe that it has been an extremely positive change in the person that I am.

Another thing that I have noticed a change in, has been my open-mindedness. I used to go into many things with formulated opinions and I would put walls up and not give things second chances. Lately I have been thinking a lot about second chances, and changing oneself. During Humanities I have began to realize that things people change, and that it is not a bad thing. I was always very adamant and opinionated about the music, movies and books I was into, and I would criticize people for liking the things that I found to be stupid. Humanities has taught me that people find beauty in other things and that is okay. Furthermore, I now see that people changing their opinions is not a bad thing. If people always "stuck to their guns" nothing would get accomplished, and humanity could never evolve.

For me, Humanities has been a class that has been less about points, and assignments, and more about an over all new way of learning and thinking that has significantly changed the person I am today. I want Humanities to continue to open my eyes to new ideas and ways of thinking as I move forward into the next semester.