Blogging Around

I read Cassie's blogs because she writes about interesting topics and I always end up reading more than one. I chose to write a comment on her blog about the connection between atoms and art. It stuck out because that isn't really  something that I would consider a connection but she made good reasons why it was. I myself am not an artist and when I look at art I don't look at the small details I mostly look at the big picture. My comment was:

"This was a good connection because I too can relate. I am not the type of person that looks closely at the little details but when I do step back I definitely see the bigger picture. My perspective on things does change."

I also read Karolina's blogs because she writes a lot about topics that I wouldn't really ever see. I read her blog about the inconvenient truth about the intentions of a teenage mind. The word teenage really stuck out to me so I decided to read it. She made a lot of good points about typical teenagers and a lot of stuff she wrote about was true. Teenagers believe that they have to act a certain way or do things just to seem like a normal teenager. My comment was:

"While reading this I was agreeing with a lot of what you were talking about. I myself am not 18 yet but  I doubt that turning 18 will change the way that I will act." 

Connection: Postmodernism

For the past few days in class we have been discussing the differences in between modernism and postmodernism. We talked about it from several subjects such as the individual, art, worldview, truth, and memory. We watched clips and read about some books to help us understand the differences between the two sides. We only spent a few days out of the week talking about but i'm sure we could have spent much longer discussing it. But what we talked about was really interesting and it made me think about how it relates to things in my life. Both things that have already happened and things that will happen in the future.

I think the ones that relate most to my life are the ones about worldview and memory. The worldview of postmodernism relates more to my life than the worldview of modernism. On the worksheet we used to reference in class, there is a point made that all voices- past and present-coexist and that originality is difficult. I believe that I am the same person I was a few years ago on the inside but on the outside there are obvious changes. It's the same with the world. There are obvious changes but it mostly stays the same in specific ways. So in the future I will change but in some ways I will still be the same.

The section on memory of postmodernism relates to my life because I have a lot of memories. On the worksheet it mentions that we a withing a memory; memory is not within us. So its almost as if it's an illusion. I have experienced and seen many things over the past 17 years but I have many memories that are still there but it's very hard to remember. For example, when I was younger. I don't remember specific things but I still have memories. We see things everyday but we don't remember every single thing but there is a memory that remains.

There are many more things about postmodernism that I can relate too and also modernism. But the memory and worldview sections relate the most to my way of life. I thought that this was a very interesting topic discussed in class. I'm glad I got to learn more about it.

Connection: MLK jr. and challenging the status quo

For the past few days we have been discussing how martin luther king jr. challenges the status quo. We read his letter from a birmingham jail as an assignment. We had to pick where in his letter where he was challenging the status quo. He saw the world in a different way. Someone would say the world is like this and he would deny it and prove why it wasn't. 

This is interesting because most people just sit back and accept the world the way it is. But not martin luther king. He stood up for what he believed in and he wanted to change the world for the better. He isn't the only one, there are several people in history who challenged the status quo. They all wanted to prove something and in order to do that they needed to come out and prove why some things in the world aren't what they are said to be. 

Even though martin luther king jr. and challenging the status quo were already connected I wrote about it because I thought it was a good thing to start the semester with. 

first semester...

Throughout the last five months I have learned a lot from all the things we have discussed, watched, and read in class. The things we learn in humanities is much different than what you would learn about in other english classes. We tend to have discussions for several days about one topic. I find that interesting because I never knew that so much could be discussed about one single topic.

One thing that was difficult for me this semester was the book The Shadow Catcher. That book confused me because there were so many symbols that were hard to both find and understand. But in order to do well on the quizzes and tests I read all the chapters and tried my best to figure them out on my own. And most of the stuff I couldn't figure out, other people couldn't either so we discussed it in class.

The discussions and notes we take in class really help. Taking notes will always help with my learning because if I have trouble remembering something I can always look back at my notes. I decided that since using my notes really helped with this book it might work with the next book we read. While we were reading Sophie's World we had many worksheets and took a lot of notes. And when it came time to taking the test I referred back to the notes and it helped me get a good grade on the test.

Throughout second semester I will use the same ways to study as I did throughout the first semester because it seemed to work out well. I will keep up with the reading and try my best to keep my grade up .

An Inconvenient Truth: Grades

At school you have your easy classes and you have your hard classes. The one reason why those classes might seem difficult is because of how much effort goes into getting a good grade. You are getting difficult homework assignments and the you study for hours on end for the tests. And sometimes no matter how hard you study and how much you understand the concepts you end up doing horribly in the class and your grade drops. Tests and how students are graded are concepts that bug me.

For example in math, I understand the concepts and I know how to do the work but all the tests just destroy my grades. It makes me think that even though I understand what to do I will never know how to do it. It also makes me feel that I'm not smart enough to do well on the tests or the class. 

There will be tests all throughout college and there will be some that are impossible and some that may seem easy but really aren't. All the people that hate taking tests, including myself, will just have to deal with it. I guess I can look at it as though there are worse things in life than getting bad grades. 

Get Organized

I would say that I am organized, but unlike Aristotle I don't use logic and classification when organizing. After a week my bedroom and bathroom start to get very unorganized and messy. I decided to get organized, so for this project I chose to clean my bedroom. 

My bedroom has several dressers and shelves so I decided to clean them off and reorganize what was on them. For example, I put the books on my bookshelf in alphabetical order. On my dressers I grouped items together that I used daily and ones I rarely ever use. For the past few months since school started, my textbooks have been scattered on the floor, so I put them on my bookshelf. I also organized my clothes. I separated the dirty ones from the clean ones by throwing the dirty ones in the hamper and hung up my clean ones. It only took me about 30-35 minutes to straighten up my bedroom.

When I was cleaning up my room I started to get frustrated and bored because it seemed to be taking forever. So I plugged in my iPod and listened to my music. My music made the cleaning tolerable. I was able to finish quicker because I couldn't be disturbed by any other noises around me. After I finished cleaning I had such a feeling of relief. I was finally done. 

After finishing the project I had a big sense of relief knowing that my room was finally clean and organized. Before this project I had no idea that I was able to get even more organized than I already was. Even though I wasn't classifying my stuff in my bedroom everything had its own place. So overall I think that this project was an interesting way at looking at getting organized. 

Best of Week: Sophie's World

Throughout this last week in humanities we have been discussing the book Sophie's World. It can be difficult to understand so the discussions that we have in class help me understand the book better. Each philosopher that is mentioned in the book are all so different from each other so the discussions and worksheets that we do help me understand the differences between them. We discuss certain parts in each chapter and write down notes in the margins.

I can look back on both worksheets and book notes when I'm studying for the test over the entire book. We have done the same with the Shadow Catcher but I feel that these notes would be more helpful because Sophie's World is a little more complicated. But despite the book being complicated I find it very interesting.

I enjoy this book because I have never thought about all of the questions Sophie is asked. I have asked myself why the world is what it is but I never get an answer. Mostly because there isn't just one single answer. I never thought of the world as if it started out as nothing. The author does a great job using Sophie as a type of reflection process.

We discussed that several times this week. We also discussed Plato's world of ideas and senses. Plato has many theories which are hard to understand so we had worksheets and notes. And after discussing the notes I was able to get a better understanding of the differences of each of the worlds.

Discussions are a good way to hear everyone else's thoughts on the book, which also help the class with understanding the book. So overall, I believe that discussions have and will be very helpful in the process of reading this book.