Marika's post was about finding a widowed image for her poem, and her struggles in making her poem just the way she wants it.
"Marika,
One thing about your post really struck me. The first was you talking about having a "brief, concise poem filled with depth and loads of images and meanings open to interprataion". Your not the only one who wants that, I would love to have my poem be exactly that. But like yours, it's not. I'm going to keep striving for that, but (not to sound pessimistic) I've realized that I can't create that perfect poem in one revision. But mine (and I bet yours too) is getting better every revision. And hopefully sometime soon, it'll be just that. And yours will be too.
-Kyle"
Emily's post was also about our poetry assignment, and how her first version of her poem didn't work out, but the second one did.
"Emily,
About the first draft of your poem-- I think it just happens sometimes when you write something, review it, get other people to look at it, etc, but it still doesn't turn out the way you hoped. I think that this kind of happens to everybody, I know that it's happened to me loads of times. Sometimes some ideas only can go so far before they get kind of used up. I'm really glad that you found another widowed image that really worked for you, and that you were able to create a beautiful poem out of. Sometimes you think something's gonna turn out great, but later you realize that it wasn't that good to begin with. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's not always your fault that a piece of writing doesn't turn out awesome, often there's nothing you can do with an idea.
-Kyle"
Metacognition: My Poem
While writing my poem, I think that the most important realization came about when I realized that two characters were necessary in poem. The two characters were necessary in order to explain the main character's story. Though originally, only the main, male character was necessary to the story, eventually the female character became involved, and it could be argued that she became just as important. Their stories weren't just to explain the other's anymore, they were both extremely important, and both held their own lesson. It took me a long time to understand this, it was more of a slow realization than an "ahah" moment. This whole thought process came about solely because of having to do a revision, and getting feedback on poem. The decision to add another character came to fruition because of my feedback to make the main character's story further. It's possible that there might have been another way to do thought, but I can't think of one that would keep the integrity of the poem the same, and I really like the way that it turned out.
Best of Week: Edgar and King Lear
My favorite observation from this week was regarding Edgar (Poor Tom) and King Lear in the forest. I've really enjoyed the actor's portrayal of Edgar, as he's multi layered and very entertaining. The observation that we made during class was that both Edgar and King Lear were crazy, with Poor Tom being crazier, yet Poor Tom wasn't actually crazy and King Lear was on his way to it. While seeing Poor Tom, we saw foreshadowing of what King Lear could become. As we saw King Lear take Poor Tom underneath his wing, it reminded me of a young child caring for a baby doll. Shakespeare shows the various levels of insanity, creating a nice contrast. I'd like to be able to use this technique in my writing, in the future.
Connection: King Lear and Cinderella
As I was sitting in my parent's car, driving home from the hawk's game, I was thinking about what I could connect King Lear to. As I was thinking, Goneril and Reagan came into my mind. There are both pretty distinctive characters, and almost immediately I began to think of the evil step-sisters in Cinderella. While there is not a absolute connection between the four, there are definite parallels to be made. In both Cinderella and King Lear the sisters are pretty mean. They also lie to get what they want, and the other sister gets left out in the dust. Cordelia got taken out of the will, and Cinderella almost didn't get to go to the ball. But in the end, Cinderella did come out on top. Whether it will happen in King Lear, I'm not sure, as it's definitely not a fairy-tale. It's interesting to see how Shakespeare's characters influenced a classic fairy tale that has been told over and over again. In the evil stepsisters and Reagan and Goneril we can kind of see an archetype that has been fairly pervasive through the ages.
Ted Project
To start out with, I'm going to say that the ted project this year turned out way better than the one last year. But it was definitely not perfect. I'm going to start with all the good things I liked about TED, and then the things that didn't turn out so great. To start, I liked the way the google sites worked better than the wikispaces from last year. They were better organized, and easier to understand how they worked. There was also a better amount of collaboration, as with the built in discussion and comments. I also really enjoyed meeting up with everybody else in academy at the end for a discussion. That really gave me a good feeling of community, as it's not often that you'll see all of the academites in one area at every given time.
No I'm going to start talking about some of the stuff that I didn't like. First, the video that I was given was not on my top three list. That took some of the enjoyment out of it, as I wasn't as passionate about the topic I was given as the topics that I chose. I also didn't like how we only had one meeting time built in. I know that is hard to coordinate, but it would have been better if we had more times to meet. I'm still not feeling great about the way that everybody is being graded. I like the rubric for the group grade, but for the individual, I didn't like the tasks and assessment part. I know that I worked on that site a lot more than just what was documented. But how do you create a task when you do multiple little things that take only five minutes each? I feel like it would have worked better if we had maybe a clock in, clock out kind of thing, where you write the times you started working, stopped working, and what you did during that time. I feel like the task's thing was slightly arbitrary. Another thing that I didn't like was how people set out working on the project. Most people didn't start until the week of, when it was like, "O MY GOD!!!! Ted's on thursday!!!". I wish that people would be more responsible, but there's nothing that you can really do about that. Another thing that I didn't like was how our teacher's allocated time for ted. In one of my classes, the teacher would say "Take 30 minutes for ted, etcetera etcetra". But in another all the teacher said was that they cut out some projects, but there was no specific time for TED. One of the areas about this project that I thought could have run smoother was the rooms. The lyceum was perfect for this task, but I was stuck in the emerald city. In that room, the computer along with the internet was slow. It wasn't set up as much for a presentation as for teaching a class. Also, when the computer screen was put on the projector, the screen on the laptop went black, making it very difficult to navigate. I also think that more time would have been better, but that's again logistics.
Overall though, I really enjoyed the project, and though I had a lot of comments, most of them are nitpicky, and I think that this was a good experience over all.
Captured Thought: Humans and Nature
A week ago I was playing with my dog, Callie, in my backyard. As I was walking along the gravel path, I watched her sprint through the yard joyfully, seeming to be perfectly content. As my flip flops scuffed against the gravel, I started thinking about how come I don't feel that. I don't feel content just sitting outside. I can't just run. I don't feel right just being outside. I need to be doing something, I need to be wearing shoes, I need to be warm, I need to be dry, etcetera etcetera. But as I was thinking this, I realized that I wanted that. I wanted to feel (this is sooooooo cheesy) at one with the earth. I wanted to feel like I belonged, not that I was intruding on something that was so much bigger than me. Dogs have this, as do all animals. Some humans have this. But I don't, and most other people don't have it either, but why? We've become so domesticated, so used to our nice, comfortable indoor lives that we lack this ability. As I'm typing this right now, I'm lying on my bed, warm and dry. In maybe half an hour I'll go and eat dinner. But I haven't forgotten this feeling. I'd like to feel content with the earth, but maybe what's wrong with humans is also what makes them great? If we felt content with what he had, would he have built houses? Computers? Cars, and loads of other great things. But what I'd really like to have is both, both a contentedness with nature and the comforts of every day life. But I don't even know if that's possible.
360 Degrees:Blogging for Change
On wednesday of this week, it was Blog Action Day 2008. The whole point of this event was to raise awareness of poverty through blogging about it. It was estimated that the message reached 13,498,532 people through 12,836 blogs. That's a massive amount of people that would have read about poverty, assuming the website didn't exaggerate. But is this a good use of everybody's time? I'll probably spend 15-20 minutes writing this blog post, and I I'm assuming that the 12,836 bloggers spend approximately the same time writing their average blog post. The time that all the bloggers spent comes out to approximately 150 days of time. Couldn't more to be done in a 150 days than just creating blog posts? A person could go to volunteer their time in Africa, or in any place with a large poor population. 150 days of a person working at a minimum wage job comes out to 26,100 dollars. Wouldn't that do more good donated to a good cause than spent sitting in front of the computer? I guess it kind of depends on what the readers of the blogs are gonna do. Because me, I'm already aware of poverty. You've got to be kind of dense not to be. You see it on the news everyday, you see beggars in the street, etc, etc. So what is all this time spent blogging accomplice? Hopefully some of the readers of these blogs will donate some of their time and money to helping the cause. But we can't really see this, can we? We've got to be more content with knowing that maybe this is helping someone. Though the numbers that I mentioned at the beginning of this post are impressive, you've really got to ask yourself, what are these numbers doing?
Blogging Around
This is my response to Kate K's 360 degree look on soul mates. In her post, she questions whether or not everybody has soul mates out their, and how they find them.
In a way, this theory is more comforting to me than the theory of having just one soulmate. What if that soulmate dies, or lives in China? Or finds someone else who they think is their soulmate? With my theory, you've got multiple chances to find somebody to love.
We see this happen all the time. Some people haves spouses die, but they can find love again. Could this happen if people just had one perfect soulmate?
People all like to think that they'll find love someday, and I'm not any different than that. Hopefully we all will, whether they're are "soulmates" or not. Because really, isn't "soulmate" just a term for someone we love unconditionally?"
This is my response to Crystal T's 360 Degree look on PostSecret. She talks about the significance of a specific secret, and how secrets don't just affect the people who sent them in, but the people who read them as well.
"Crystal, I really enjoyed your blog post also. I've been a follower of postsecret since last year and I've really enjoyed reading the secrets, it's been one of the highlights of my sunday (other than the homework).
I also really enjoyed the post it note. To me, it really speaks of an optimistic hope that we should have. Reading that quote brightened my morning.
In responding to the question at the end of your post, I immediately thought of Kite Runner. In the introduction to me essay, about how secrets drive the story forward, I talked about Post Secret. According to my thesis, people's stories are driven by their secrets. Maybe the people sent in the secrets to let them go, to follow a new, clean path in their life?
We all have some secrets, no matter how big or small they are. There's a big relief in letting go of your secrets. Some people might not think that guys do this, but I've shared a few secrets with my friends, and they with me. It's nice to know that somebody else knows, and postsecret allows you to have that feeling anonymously."
360 Degrees: Weapons Manufacturing
Recently I started watching Iron Man the movie. I haven't finished it yet, but what I've seen so far has made me think about the impacts that weapons manufacturers have on the world and war. People keep developing weapons that can kill in a more sophisticated manner. In some ways, I believe that this is necessary. It's slightly ironic, but it could be possible that having weapons is actually a prerequisite to peace. Because if somebody wants power, and they get there hands on weapons, then somebody else will also need to have weapons in order to stop them. But if nobody made weapons in the first place, and nobody had weapons, then there wouldn't be a problem. But won't humans never feel safe unless they have weapons to protect themselves, because they believe that everybody else has weapons to? But doesn't it become overkill eventually. Doesn't the USA have enough nuclear weapons to blow up the earth ten times over? Why is it necessary to have this many weapons. And what about the people who work for the weapon's manufacturers. How do they feel about their line of work? Are they okay with it as long as they only sell to countries that will use it for good? But, like in Iron Man, some weapons will fall into the wrong hands, or are sold to them. Either way, people will die. Another question is, will creating more advanced weaponry decrease the amount of deaths or increase them? Would it be better if we resorted to having men line up with their swords across from each other, and the last side standing the victor? Wouldn't this shed less blood than dropping a nuclear bomb onto somebody? How can weapon's manufacturers answer these moral dilemmas and come to peace with them selves?
Metacognition: The Kite Runner Evidence Plan
As I started working on my Kite Runner essay, my mind kept wandering. There were the ted videos I need to watch, social studies reading, and a chemistry presentation to worry about. As I was preparing my essay plan, I wasn't able to put myself fully into it. Even though I knew that it was the skeleton of my essay, it didn't seem super important to me at that moment. I was aware that even after completing the evidence I would have almost a week to work on the essay and improve it. I could completely alter my evidence plan if I wanted to. I don't like this quality about myself, I tend not to completely throw myself into something until it's really important. This is relevant to the majority of things in my life, from homework, to practicing for a concert. While working on this part of the essay, I put in effort, but I don't really feel like I've made progress on an essay until I see paragraphs on paper. Hopefully in future projects, I'll be able to throw myself into something like this with all of my mind with it. This is a fundamental thought process that I need to alter about myself. I need to convince myself that working on something that will help reach the goal, without having the goal insight, is worth all my complete effort and time.
Best of Week: Short Sentences
Before the school year started, when I saw the list of books we were supposed to get, I was slightly annoyed. “Another Grammar Book?” I thought to myself. I wasn’t looking forward at all to reading this book. But when we started, I was pleasantly surprised. It turned out that this wasn’t even a grammar book at all. It was something that I could actually use to improve my writing. So to me, it's ironic, that something that I thought was going to be one of my most disliked things about this class, became a best of the week blogging post. I really enjoyed seeing how actual authors used this technique to improve their writing. Just the passages in the book by themselves impressed me. I have always liked using short sentences, but I kind of just scattered them throughout my writing randomly, without really any point to them. From this section of "Artful Sentences" It actually gives situations where they can be used for maximum effect, to invoke feelings in the reader, and give voice to my characters. In some ways, I'm looking forward to my next writing piece so I can try out this technique. Now that I think about it, my best of week is really two ideas, the first, that I can actually enjoy a book about writing techniques, and the second, how to use short sentences in writing.
Carry it Forward: Kite Runner
The idea that I'm going to carry forward from the novel "the Kite Runner" is the theme of the past calling you and bringing you back to atone for your sins. This happens to Amir when Rahim Khan calls him from Afghanistan. You also find out on the first page that this is essentially the theme of the book. Even though he ran away from his demons years ago, Amir still needs to atone for his sins. His past comes back to bight him, almost ruining his "almost" perfect life in the process. He was millions of miles away and he was still caught up in his past. Let's compare this to my "hypothetical life". I go to college and move to Arizona where I make completely new friends, and make a clean cut from my old life. But, what if one day, my Dad calls and says my Mom is sick with a deadly disease and I need to come back to Northbrook. There, I meet all my old friends, relatives etc. They would know what I did years ago (maybe I killed someone in a drunk car crash) they would know all my ghosts, skeletons in the closet etc. These would exposed to my new life, and all my new friends etc would know my secrets. Whether they would accept them or not is debatable. But my goal in life is to not to have any "dirty little secrets". I plan to live my life to the fullest extent, not doing anything wrong, not derailing anybody's life. I'll try to act safely, and not take any unnecessary risks that endanger the lives of others. Because there are some things that stay with you forever, that you can't run from.