Blogging Around

Maura blogged about getting organized. She explained how she always lost clothes due to a "monster/black hole" in her dresser and what she did to kill that monster and get her dresser drawers in a more organized manner.

Maura, I liked how you used a clothes-eating monster as an excuse for losing your clothes.. haha just kidding! Losing clothes is nothing new to me either, so I'm pretty sure there is also a monster/black hole in my closet. Whenever I reorganize my closet I always make piles for clothes I want to keep and those I want to donate as well. Feeling guilty about giving away certain items of clothing always keep me from finishing my task right away, but in the end, I always think that someone out there probably needs this sweater or this pair of jeans more than I do. I am such a neat freak all the time so I get the piles of clothes into nicely folded stacks in no time like you did! After accomplishing something like the task you described, I feel much more relaxed and I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders just like you said you felt. Overall, great blog entry because I was able to relate to everything you explained!

Justine thought that the best of the week of November first was the video of the starlings. She talked about the process her group went through to come up with a myth and a scientific reason as to why and how the starlings fly around the lake the way they do.

Justine, I agree that each week is very different in humanities. I thought that the most interesting idea that week was also the video about the starlings. It was so cool to watch them fly over the lake like that and without colliding. My group got their creative juices flowing and we found that the only thing hard about the assignment was picking ONE of the endless amounts of myths we made up. I like how you brought up that this activity helped us see like the people back then who actually believed in myths. It was also interesting the way you ended your blog by saying that we still don't know everything because I love the saying, "we learn something new everyday" and there have been many times that that statement has been proven.

Metacognition: Organizing My Room

          On a beautiful, sunny Sunday, I spent exactly fifty-three minutes re-organizing my room. I threw away unneeded papers, put clothes back into my closet, cleared the desk space of random objects, and put everything laying around back into its designated space.
          Before actually starting this project, I felt super lazy and not motivated at all because it's a lot of work re-organizing my bedroom and I just didn't feel like doing it. During the process though, I got more motivated and I didn't feel lazy anymore and I was on a roll putting things back where they belonged and being able to see my actual desk and floor made me feel good. After organizing my entire room, I felt proud of myself for accomplishing such a big task all by myself.
          This project made my mind feel more organized and peaceful. I wasn't worrying about the mess and all the random objects cluttered around my room. My thoughts were just more relaxed I guess and I didn't feel as stressed as before.
          I now know that I have too many clothes, I keep papers that I don't really need, I own a bunch of random things that pop out of no where and that I should really just put things back where they came from after I use them because that would be easier than re-organizing my room every week. I also realized that I have a lot more storage space than I thought I had.
          Nothing really surprises me about my thinking anymore. I mean I always think about things ahead of time, like what outfits I'm going to where that week or projects and homework I need to do. If something needs to be done within a certain amount of time, then it's always on my mind until I get it done.

iMedia: Stand Up To Cancer

    The video on the left is of Taylor Swift singing her song called Ronan. She wrote this song for a little four year old boy who died of cancer earlier this year. It's quite an emotional song and the lyrics are so heartfelt. 

         She performed this song on the televised event Stand Up to Cancer. This matters because it is so important for people to support this event. It's a great cause and it really does help those people who have cancer. I know that hundreds of people die every day because of cancer and not many of them get media attention like Ronan did, but by watching the event and donating any amount of money, you can help someone out there. 

        This matters to me because even though I have never had a family member die of cancer, my heart goes out to those families who have; especially those who've lost kids to it because they still had their whole lives ahead of them. I really wish that I could do way more than just donate money and advertise and tell people about this because I really want to help people who live with cancer, who fight for their lives everyday.

        It should matter to others because no one can do something huge and life changing by themselves, but if a group of people get together and try to make a change, then something significant will happen; it may sound cliche, but the more people that stand up to cancer, the more lives will be saved.
        There are so many people out their fighting for their lives because they've been given a certain amount of time to live, while others go through everyday without a second thought about when their final day will come. People should donate to charities for cancer so everyone can get a chance to live their lives for as long as possible.

Best of Week: Aesthetics

       When Mr. Allen wrote the word Aesthetics on the board in class on Monday, I had no idea what that word meant to me. The definition: the structure and rules of appreciating beauty. As I stared at the words written on the board, I realized that I never thought that there were rules about appreciating beauty. And that I never knew about this wonderful word. I was enlightened.
       This made me think about how I have gone through seventeen years of my life without knowing such a thing as aesthetics. Maybe the word has come up before, somewhere in these seventeen years, but I don't remember ever using it or working with it. It makes me think about how there could be any rules to appreciating beauty? I always thought that one could find beauty in whatever they found beauty in, and that was it. It makes me wonder what the rules are.
       Aesthetics hasn't really connected to my knowledge until we went through Sophie's World and picked out quotes and phrases that- I guess- represented the rules of appreciating beauty. So, because I have never heard of this word until now, that is the only thing that I can connect to my knowledge.
       Once again, aesthetics doesn't really connect to me beliefs because I believe that there aren't any rules to appreciating beauty.
       I am really glad that I've learned this word because now I can see the books I read, the paintings I look at, the music I listen to and everything else I happen to stumble upon in my life, in a different, more artistic way. Aesthetics has opened my eyes to the world around me.

Metacognition: Creativity Essay

       When I sit down to write an essay, I used to always plan every single detail; from the attention-grabber, transitions into new paragraphs, ending sentences, order of paragraphs, and finally the conclusion. Lately though, I have found that I don't really plan like that anymore; I read the prompt, come up with a couple of ideas, and start typing what's going on in my head, onto Microsoft Word. 

       There are many things that surprise me about my thinking while writing an essay like the creativity essay. For one, the most random things go through my head and surprisingly more often than not, those things turn into some pretty great ideas. More than half the thoughts I put into my creativity essay were random things that popped into my head while writing it. Another thing that surprises me about the way I think now, is what I said before: I barely planned the creativity essay to be completely honest. I understood the prompt, picked a class I thought was really boring and just went to town. Ideas just seem to flow out when I sit down and write now- which means humanities is actually making me more creative than I was.

      The main thing I like about my thinking is that it has no limits. I think about the most random things. There is an unlimited amount of ideas in there. I can think about anything and everything. And yeah, I guess everyone's minds can have no limits, but I don't know that for sure. So, all I'm saying is, my mind can take in and come up with almost anything. Once you read my creativity paper, you'll know what I'm talking about; the different paragraphs in that essay show so many sides of my mind, especially the creative side that humanities has brought out. 

      I think it's really good that my mind is so open and expandable. It can basically adapt to anything. It really helps me stay open to new things. And it definitely helps me a lot while writing essays; my thoughts bring up interesting ideas that I use in my papers and it also brings forth interesting ways to communicate those ideas. 

       If I had to choose one thing that I would want to work better, I would chose my intellectual thinking. I find that I have a hard time finding math and science interesting, so I don't pay that much attention to those classes. They are classes I need to graduate and I would like to raise my grades in them. Creativity doesn't really play a big part in those classes so that doesn't help me a lot there. I just want my mind to be more intelligent I guess. 

        All in all, this is what goes on in my head, how I think and what I would like to work on. 

Blogging Around

Deena M: In her blog, she talks about her journey through switching from a private to a public school; the things she dreaded and the good things that came out of the change.

Deena, I could kind of relate to your situation because I grew up in New York and that's where I went to school before third grade. I loved my life there and that's the only life I knew, until one day my parents sat me down, too, and told me that we were moving to Glenview, Illinois, a suburb I have never heard about before. I was really young then and obviously I didn't have a huge say in it, so I packed my bags and moved with my family. I dreaded the same things you did: how much will my life change? will the kids like me there? will it be hard to fit in? so many questions ran through my mind. Looking back at it, I'm glad my parents made me move because I've have met so many amazing people here that I would like to stay friends with for the rest of my life. I remember meeting you in sixth grade and we became really good friends! I'm glad you and I moved because we would have never met each other and all our other amazing friends and we wouldn't have the incredible memories that we do today if it didn't happen.

Maria G: She brings up the question that Mr. Allen asked us all on the first day, "what makes you extremely happy?" and she says she knows that one day, some time in the near or far future, she will find what makes her happy, and that's what makes her happy.

Maria, I just want to start this comment off by saying that I honestly really liked this blog entry. When he asked us this question on the first day, I was going to say the same thing you did, but he said to say something else so I said vacations and Bridesmaids instead! After reading your entry though, I realized that I have been thinking about that question, too. I think the question came up at a decent time because if he hadn't asked it, it wouldn't be thinking about it now that we are starting to decide what we want to do with the rest of our lives. Just like you, when my relatives asked me what I wanted to do in college, I would always reply with, "I have no idea," but after exploring the majors at multiple colleges and seeing inspiration in the world around us, I think I've got my list of choices down to a top 5, but I won't go into that. Oh, and I also love to read and design! Those babies laughing videos are so great and they make me happy every time I watch one. I'm glad you found that by not knowing what your future holds, but knowing that one day you'll just know that you've found something that makes you mind-numbingly happy, makes you happy! Harvey MacKay once said, "find something you love to do and you'll never work a day in your life," and that's what I want to do.

Connection: Edward & Clara and Edward & Bella

          I am connecting Edward and Clara's relationship in The Shadow Catcher, to Edward and Bella's relationship in The Twilight Saga. Even though their stories are decades and worlds apart, I found multiple similarities between them.
          Starting at the beginning of their relationships, both couples started a "friendship," you could say, through an accident. A gun shot rang through the forest, startling Edward and causing him to fall off a roof and Clara ran to him to provide some care. Bella was in the school parking lot and had a near death experience when a fellow classmate almost ran her over with his car, but Edward came to her rescue, stopping the car.
          After these accidents, their "friendships" seemed to blossom. Clara talked to Edward about her life, she read him books and they bonded by talking about art and portraits. Bella and Edward also talked about their families and their lives while out to dinner one night, and the one special moment that bonded Bella and Edward was when Edward played Bella a song on the piano called "Bella's Lullaby," which is a form of art.
          Another thing I found that these two couples had in common was when the men left. Edward Curtis left Clara the morning after they slept together. Edward Cullen left Bella in the second book, New Moon, because he didn't want to hurt her anymore. While they both had different reasons, they both still left the women that loved them.  And of course, just like in every love story, even though they were left behind, both Clara and Bella went back to their men.
          Lastly, both couples took the next step in their relationships without a second thought: sex. It's a subject I won't get into too much, but it's important because it was a huge step in both relationships. It was the moment that helped Clara decide that she really did love Edward and it was the same way for Bella when she and Edward did it in Breaking Dawn.
          The one way I think that these two relationships inform each other is that one relationship lacks, what the other has. Edward and Clara's relationship may not be fully developed yet, but I can tell that Edward Curtis does not love Clara the way Edward Cullen loves Bella. At this point, honestly, I can't find something the Edward and Clara's relationship has, that Edward and Bella's relationship doesn't, but I guess we'll see what we find in the next chapter, Clara and Edward.
          This relationship provides an insight for me into two completely different relationships, yet I found multiple similarities. It was interesting to be able to look at a relationship between two people in the 1900's versus a relationship in 2008. It gave me two different perspectives on something that I don't normally think about.
         

Best of Week: We Live in a "Post-Idea World"

          After reading The Elusive Big Idea by Neal Gabler this week, I realized that I strongly agree with him. "Ideas just aren't what they used to be" (Gabler) and it's so true; no one is coming up with incredible inventions that would help our environment or help the economy get better or end world hunger. I mean there might be people out there in the corners of the world doing these things, but we don't know about them because the media is focused on the new iPhone 5 that just came out. Alexander Graham Bell- who invented the telephone- or Benjamin Franklin- who discovered electricity- would not be impressed with the new innovations we are coming up with in the 21st century; which are mostly next generation Apple products and new cars. I think we, as the human population, should focus on things that would help our being.
          One of the things that made me think while reading this article is when Gabler says, "to have gone backward intellectually from advanced modes of thinking into old modes of belief." I think he means that nowadays, instead of thinking about how to solve a problem with a new solution, we look back at how people did it before us and use their methods. Secondly, he brings up the point that "at a time when we know more than we have ever known, we think about it less. [...] We are certainly the most informed generation in history" (Gabler). This is definitely true because we can access so much information from the internet that instead of thinking about how we can answer a question, we can just type the question into Google and get the answer right away. Lastly, I think the most significant thing he mentions in this article is, "it is certainly no accident that the post-idea world has sprung up alongside the social networking world" (Gabler). This makes me think about how the only thing I hear people talk about these days are what's going on on Facebook or who's tweeting what or what pictures people reblog on Tumblr. I feel like people are just so unoriginal these days because they see things on those social networking websites and that's where they get their ideas; I feel like these sites keep us from being creative and limit the ways we can expand our minds.
          The one thing that I could relate to in this article and about living in a "post-idea world" is the idea that, "among the young- [...] ideas are more difficult to express" (Gabler). This is a connection to myself because I do find it hard to be creative, especially with the my Mindbook, but I'm trying my best. When I use twitter, it sometimes makes it hard to express ideas because of the 140 character limit.
          In the end, I totally and whole-heartedly agree with everything Neal Gabler talks about in his article. We do live in a world where creativity is slowly fading away and it is harder for people to express their creative sides. Hopefully, better sooner than later, instead of moving backwards from thinking, we can move towards it again.
         

Carry It Forward: "The Writer"

Yesterday in class, we discussed the poem The Writer and how Richard Wilbur uses the starling, and the narrator to give readers different perspectives.  We also talked about how Tim O'Brien used different perspectives to try to help his audience understand the Vietnam War in his book The Things They Carried.

The whole perspective idea is valuable to me because I think that it makes writing much more interesting and fun to see a work of art in multiple, completely different perspectives. I think it's important for readers to be able to see a story or a painting in different views so they can understand it as a whole. By reading a story or a piece of writing in different perspectives, readers are able take out different meanings from the text and recognize the depth of the writing instead of just seeing it in a general view.
I will definitely be doing some more writing after high school and I'm considering maybe even writing a book after college. Being able to really think about the idea of different perspectives has really inspired me and now I want to include different perspectives in my writing this year and in the future. It's brought another element of writing into my mind and I really want to work with it. I think the idea we discussed yesterday, will improve my writing tomorrow (as in the rest of my life).