Roger Ebert

As a precursor to our new unit centering around amazing people you've probably never heard of, we spent a majority of the week talking about Roger Ebert. He gained fame as a film critic reviewing hundreds of films. Ebert was known for having strong opinions and standing by them. In his career he went on to have a television show swell as develop the popular thumbs up/thumbs down rating system. However that's what made Roger Ebert a successful person but made him amazing was when he fell ill. Ebert had cancer which caused him to lose the ability to talk and lose part of his jaw before eventually taking his life in 2011. When a person faces tragedy they do one of two things, they sink or they swim. Roger Ebert swam using his blog to regain his voice addressing a variety of topics. 

I think what made Roger Ebert so inspiring was his ability to connect with people. He didn't preach he just wrote in a way that people could connect to.

To me what made Roger Ebert's views so inspiring was that there was life behind them. They were the epiphanies of a dying man which added so much more weight to them. Roger Ebert was dying but he refused to let these new found ideas die with him. It goes along with the sink or swim idea. As he was swimming from diagnosis to unfortunate death he was able to really evaluate life in a way that most people are never able to. You could tell that every point Ebert made came from careful reflection and consideration. I think what inspired me the most was his optimism. He talks about personal narcism and loneliness but not in a downtrodden way. Instead he twists it to support community and to get across his personal thoughts one the importance of love and kindness. One of my favorite lines in Ebert's blog post All the Lonely People was " We want to say "I am alive" in a billion billion different ways" I really related to this because I remember thinking this is so true. We're all fumbling around trying to find our niche and trying to find what makes us happy. Everything Roger Ebert said was filled with truth and it doesn't necessarily have to change you, personally they didn't cause a huge life altering epiphany. But for the moments i spent reading the posts they did inspire me which says a lot to be able to motivate people even though the only thing left of you are the words on a computer screen. And I think Roger Ebert's ability to inspire, though words of optimism and wisdom, makes him truly amazing.

Review of Racism in America

Over the past month my opinion on racism has been altered drastically. I knew that racism was still a part of life in America but I was skeptical of the impact it had on the majority of the population. However through our discussions I've become much more open minded. White privilege was a major topic we discussed that before class I've never even heard of before. White privilege is the idea that due to the accumulation of racism over time, minorities are automatically at a disadvantage. An example of this would be that a white child has upper middle class parents so they live in a school district with decent schools. An african American kid on the other hand lives in a less wealthy community because his parents and grandparents didn't make enough money to be well educated. The african american kid may have the same amount of potential as the white kid yet because he attended a worse school he didn't get as good of an education and is immediately set back. White privilege works off the same kind of idea as accumulative advantage that Malcolm Gladwell discusses. Over generations of minorities being at a significant disadvantage their losses have accumulated giving white people a statistical upper hand.

I don't think white privilege is something that we as a society are going to be able to fix. You can't punish the white kid for being born born better off nor can you give the african american kid unearned advantages. Affirmative action is one attempt at evening the playing field by giving students in a minority  better chance of getting into college but it too causes problems. The only solution to white privilege is time. As society progresses the lines between white and black are blurred. As generations of minorities get the kind of education and opportunities that all people deserve the accumulated privileges of the white will lessen until they're so minuscule that they no longer actually give any benefits. The success of people or lack there of can not be based souly on race. It is obvious that a white kid who's parents are millionaires could still end up unemployed and  bankrupt but thats not the point of white privilege. The point is not that white people can't succeed on their own or minorities are destined to fail, the point is that its important to acknowledge the disadvantages that are still a part of life due to racial discrimination.

Another topic that interested me a lot this unit was the idea of cultural appropriation. Unlike some of the other topics we discussed cultural appropriation is something that I was aware of before doing our racism unit. I feel like this is an extremely important topic to be aware of because it stretches past the already broad topic of race and culture and stretches to religion. Cultural appropriation is basically when aspects of a certain cultural are adopted by a cultural outsider. Clothing is often one of the biggest examples of this. An example would be a shirt with a Native American symbol printed on it being sold somewhere that is clearly not using it for cultural meaning. A lot of stores are culprits of this by selling cultural articles as fashion. Urban Outfitters is one of the biggest offenders stealing things from culture and religions s much so that they have often had to take things out of their stores because of it.

When it comes to cultural appropriation the issue isn't that people are wearing things from different cultures. The issue is that people are taking things from other cultures and religions but remain ignorant of the true meaning. Sometimes the true meaning is lost with appropriation which is the biggest offense of all. Buddhism is a prime example because of its core teachings. Since the religion promotes peace and living simply people will often take Buddhist symbols and use them only to represent tranquility completely ignoring the religious symbolism behind completely. It is important to embrace other cultures as long as you do your research. Learn about the culture and its values. However if you don't know what something is don't wear it. Its offensive to the strong believers and makes you look ignorant. Embrace cultures but don't steal from them. Race is a tricky topic because its easy to offend people when you don't know what you're talking about. Thats why I think it was s important we discussed it in class. Its something we don't get the chance to discuss in other classes and overall i think we were able to have a lot of serious and enlightening conversations. I definitely think I'm better informed now and much more open minded.

Blog Post Update 10/15

In the past two weeks our main focus has been genrally the same as previous. The main purpose was to just expand our vocabulary. Now that we're all fluent with signing the alphabet we looked up ore words. Some were of basic words like hello, mother, father, and help but others were more unique like clumsy, goat, and coffee. Also we've finally finished assigning sign language names to each member of our group. Names can represent physical appearance like Erin's which is red with the sign for E to represent her red hair. They can also be about a specific trait or characteristic you have like mine is clumsy with an E. More research has been done regarding the creation of sign language and deaf culture. For the continuation of the project though we are trying to figure out what other interesting things we can find out about deaf life and deaf culture. Like I found a video about a restaurant in Toronto Canada that hires deaf waiters and requires people to use sign language to order.  Overall we're still trying to find out more about deaf life and American Sign Language.

Passion Project 9/29

We've had two passion project days and we've actually gotten a lot done. We've done research into the history of sign language. We've also looked into how people got sign language names and figured out what ours would be. We learned some basic sign language like letters, greetings, and basic words. There is still a lot more research that we need to do and compile it into a power point presentation. We have a lot of information but none of it is organized. We have a long way to go but we still have time so I hope its going to be a good project.

Empathy and Equality

If you think about it each person lives in their own little circles. My circle is I wake up, take the bus to school, play volleyball, go home, and then go to sleep. Throughout my day though my circle overlaps with other peoples circles who's lives are similar to mine like family, religion, social groups, and so on. So when theres a part of life that doesn't fall within your personal circle its hard to think about but thats empathy. Its the ability to feel for someone else despite it not directly effecting you. According to Jeremy Rifkin, to the problem with society is a lack of empathy. We don't care enough about the person standing next to us to be driven to help them let alone a person in Syria or Sri Lanka that we've never met before. Jeremy Rifkin says that our goal should be to extend our empathy to the entire human race. I would hope this could be possible but I think its too idealistic. There will always be the people that care too much and the people that hardly are at all. Yet I think we can all stand to be more empathetic. Through empathy we can fix a majority of the issues pressing in on our society. When we listed issues in class we got results of sexual assault, gender equality, education, health care, illness, terrorism, disease, mental illness, super patriotism, lack of kindness, Russia and the Ukraine, Syria, and so many other topics we discussed that i can't even remember. Many of the issues we stated were weaved together to the point where by fixing one you may fix another while at the same time creating a new issue all by itself. While thinking that every problem facing our society can be solved is simply idealistic, I think we can solve a majority simply by thinking of people as people. Many problems are caused by viewing others as different or even inferior. But when you remove labels and classifications you are left with just a person. A person with a family, dreams, insecurities, and most likely struggling with the same kind of things you are. When you take away the things that group us together you also take away the fictions that keep us apart. One big issue is gender equality. Literally the only reason people believe genders are so different is because the only see the stereotypes and the fictitious differences that keep us apart. Take away gender and you are left with simply a person. Certain cultures view women as inferior simply because they've been told that women are inferior. However if you look at someone as a person instead of as their labels you don't see female, black, baptist you see charismatic, well read, and loyal. War too can be solved with empathy. There is a difference between civilians and soldiers in war but why. A gun? No they're still people. Society sees statistics as numbers. We've grown up in a world where war statistics are broadcasted over family dinner to the point where they're just numbers and lists of names without any real meaning. It doesn't invoke any true emotion. With empathy though we think before we shoot. Even more empathy can help get rid of the reason to shoot. Empathy makes it so religion or race or even nationality don't really matter because they're people just like everybody else. I don't think its possible for every single person on earth to be completely empathetic but society as a whole needs to increase our empathy in order to create a world of equality and to help solve the pressing issues that we face. We just have to see people, as people.

Passion Project 2 Update

Honestly our passion project has come pretty far. We've actually gotten a lot done. We started by researching different genetic abilities. By combining our research with some of our own ideas we compiled a list of tests. Then we made up a survey and we were able to test everyone in our class except for the people who weren't here. We also tested our families so that we can see how the traits move through our families. We still need to analyze all our data and figure out what abilities are actually determined by genetics. Some obstacles that our group came across was determine what actually counts as having the skill. For example some people have really prominent hitch hiker's thumbs compared to others so its hard to determine what actually counts. Some obstacles that we may come across is finding reliable information and determining what all our information really means. However I don't think these issues will hold us back and I'm actually really excited to keep working on our project.

Passion Project Update & Reflection

Its amazing to think we're already halfway through the Passion Project. My project that I'm working on with my group is a Rube Goldberg Machine and though we've started and have made progress we've still got a long way to go. With each step we added there seems to be another issue. Most are easy to fix. Some on the other hand are going to take a lot of thinking to fix. One of our main problems we have is the hand sanitizer itself. Our last step is to have a weight pull the pump of the hand sanitizer down. The issue is that the weight also pulls down the whole hand sanitizer bottle. The second issue is in poor Thomas the Train. Thomas has the very important job of traveling along his tracks up a hill to hit a block and start a domino effect. That would work perfectly, if Thomas could actually make it up the hill. On the bright side, we have a total of seven steps done and we're actually getting together today to continue working and we're definitely making progress.

The Outlier Behind the Magic.

         I always think of an outlier as someone with a unique mind. A person who is bursting with creativity and the power to think outside the box. Someone who embodies these qualities the most is the one and only Walt Disney. Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois. From an early age Walt Disney was interested in art and was constantly encouraged by his mother to practice his talents. As he got older took every opportunity he could get to practice and improve his art. In high school he took classes in art and photography as well as taking classes at night at the Chicago Art Institute.
       After dropping out of school Disney joined the Red Cross and took a job driving an ambulance in France. Upon his return, Walt's brother Roy got him a job as a newspaper artist at Pesmen-Rueben Art Studio. During his time here Disney made friends with experienced cartoonist Ubbe Iweks. Walt, his brother Roy, and Ubbe tried to start their own studio producing short cartoon series but they quickly fell into debt and had to declare bankruptcy. Not willing to give up the three moved to Hollywood and started The Disney Brothers' Studio. The company survived but wasn't a huge success until the creation of Disney's famous character: Mickey Mouse. In 1923 Walt Disney made the cartoon "Steamboat Willie" and from then one Disney's career sky rocketed.
    The work the followed "Steamboat Willie" showed Disney's creativity. Walt Disney pushed boundaries and did things no cartoonist had done before. He created his first feature film "Snow White" which is now considered the best animated movie of all time. From that point on each film did things that none had before. Fantasia combined color and sound. Bambi used realism and detail. Mary Poppins was the first movie to ever combined real life actors with animation. Then Disney created Disney Land "the most magical place on Earth".
     Walt Disney follows many of the rules of an outlier. For the 10,000 hour rule he took classes and practiced his art form a young age. In Malcom Gladwell's book "Outliers" he says that the time where most people reach their 10,000 is when they're 20 years old. Walt Disney produced his first successful cartoon "Steamboat Willie" in 1923 at the age of 22. For parentage and patronage Disney was constantly encouraged by his mother and siblings. Even more, his brother Roy gave Walt financial backing numerous times and helped Disney create his companies. As for special opportunities, Walt Disney befriended Ubbe Iweks while working at Pesmen- Rueben who he learned from and went into business with. Finally for intelligences. There is no denying Walt Disney's creativity but he also had recognizable practical intelligence. Everyone during that time admired Disney and his skill for storytelling. He had a way of speaking to people that would keep them interested and he talked in a way that people could understand and relate to. He could pay attention to detail without drowning the listener. Overall Walt Disney, the man behind the magic, was a true outlier.

Joyas Voladoras

This piece of writing really makes you think but at first not exactly in the most positive way. In fact, the entire last paragraph seems discouraging. The way that I interpreted it was that no matter what precautions you take your going to end up heart broken and hurt. After reading that I was left thinking "well than whats the point of getting close to someone". Later as I was rereading I realized that loving something is natural. It's impossible to keep your heart locked away. Like whales. They are these massive mysterious creatures. We know next to nothing about blue whales but what we do know demonstrates how natural it is for a heart too want to be connected to something. Blue whales travel in pairs because they want to. They are so large that they really don't necessarily have to for protection. They need the companionship just like the humming bird needs food. Their entire hearts could stop within seconds if they stop. Stop moving, stop eating, they get too cold and then their whole life just stops. So they live fast paced making every heart beat work for them. Brian Doyle weaves his message in between medical terms and animal references but its still there. I feel like he was trying to say that if you can't protect you heart  indefinitely than what is the use of putting up walls at all. Our hearts naturally want to love so we shouldn't try to stop it.

Quotes

Personally I love quotes. I'm not sure but I always like looking for quotes. Here are some of our favorites:
"Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die tomorrow." -unknown

"I'm not sure what I'll do, but- well, I want to go places and see people. I want my mind to grow. I want to live where things happen on a big scale" -F. Scott Fitzgerald.

"We are all a little broken and that's okay"- Unknown

"Why fit in when we were born to stand out"- Dr. Suess

"Live life for th moment because everything else is uncertain"- Louis Tomlinson

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.” - J. K. Rowling

Sunscreen

There were a few peices of advice that I really liked. I especially liked the part about not worrying about not knowing what you want to do with your life. I have no idea what career path I plan on taking. I also liked the advice about not wasting your time with people who aren't careful with your heart. Its like don't waste your time on the insignificant people. A piece of advice tht i want to add to the list is don't show other people how scared you really are. You could be terrified but that doesn't mean you have to let the rest of the world know that.

What's Worth Knowing?

You can't teach a person everything they need to know. School teaches us the skills we need to have  successful careers. But what is worth knowing can't be taught, it has to be developed through experience. The things that aren't taught in school can't be just taught. Is like telling a person how to react to a certain event. Say your fish died for example. Some people could feel a tad saddened but they flush the fish and continue with the day while I on the other hand cried and made my mom get rid of it. You cant teach that. What determines the right way to react. Whats worth knowing is how to live life. How to be happy with what your doing. How to be a good person. How to work through the pain and keep trying no matter what others tell you. These skills have to be picked up along the way. These skills are also different for each person. Not everyone deals the same way just as not everyone has the same favorite color or the same friends. You can't teach the skills that are worth knowing. You just have to continue living life and you will develop the skills along the way

Waste Land Response

     The moist memorable part of Waste Land was seeing the people's reactions when they saw themeselves turned into art. I loved seeing how emotional they got when they completely understood all that Vik Muniz was trying to do. I learned not to assume the worst. I expected the people to be very negative and ashamed of working at Jardim Gramacho because it seemed like people only worked there as a last resort. But the people were proud that they were working their way towards a better future. They faced each new day with a positive out look and a lot of the time they looked happy. It showed that I shouodnt just automatically assume the worst.
      As for the people whos lives were completely changed, I could'nt imagine how that would feel. Their jobs that they did everyday turned into somthing bigger than that. It must have been overwhelming (but in a good way). I think that if I was in their shoes, I wouldn't believe that it was really happening. To go from being just one of the many people pulling recyclables to people working towards making a difference. I think it would just be so surreal. If it were me I would also be honored to represent such a huge group of people.
      This art is very unique and very powerful. My life isnt like that. I represent basically th average person my age. My life is full of school, sports, and expectations. Art I think has to tell a story and nothing in my life at the moment needs to be told. I don't really think anything in my life could really lend itself to art similar to what was documented in Waste Land.

Outside

 

The first one is a picture of a bush nd there is a tree you can see behind it. Im not sure why its upside down. The next one i chose because I like the wat the sky was bright but also felt stormy like it had a meloncholy feel. Again not sure why it is angled wierd

The Big Picture

I chose this picture for a couple of reasons. It is New Years being celebrated on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro. More than two million people gathered on this beach to celebrate the new year. I chose this picture because  New Years is the time where everyone throws away the bad memories and mistakes of the previous year and try to make the next one memorable. I know this is going to make me sound ignorant but I never thought of other countries celebrating New Years because for me its watching the ball drop in Times Square so this picture just blew my mind. This is a giant spectacle that shows that no matter where you are from New Years is a chance to start over. The girl in the picture is unknown but she is one of many celebrating. What might be missed about this photo at first glance is the immenseness of the celebration. From the left of the photo traveling along the coast there are fireworks that are literally lighting up the sky. And they aren't backyard fireworks either but the magical "i feel like a little kid" fireworks like at Disney. It tells the story of the New Year being something long awaited and finally there is chance to make up for missed opportunities. The girl is so excited and is just grasping every second of the celebration. Its basically how I feel every year at the same time. I know it is point less to believe your whole life is going to change just because the date changes but there is still hope and its like getting put on the starting line and getting ready to go. It gives you the motivation you need to just go. The picture shows that this feeling is universal. I only wonder what people were really thinking and feeling when they were watching this spectacle unfold. Did they have the same hope that I always have on New Years?

Looking in

My family is really food oriented and the time we really bond is in the kitchen. My dad was teaching me how to make mussles. This is him looking into the pot where he was prepping the sauce.

Color

This is the door to my bedroom. A few years ago I started putting some things on my door. Originally it was just small notes or reminders but then I started adding things that had meaning. I added some post cards  that I just got and some pictures. Now my whole door is full of a conglomeration of pictures,quotes,postcards,notes,dreams, holiday cards, drawings, etc. Each item on my door have a meaning behind them. I have a ton of pictures from some of my favorite vacations like my trip to Universals Harry Potter World (I'm a big Harry Potter fan) and pictures I took on the beach in S. C. during Hurricane Irene. I also have some really inspiring quotes and just random things that I just loved. I also have pictures of places I want to go or things I want to do which inspire me and keep me moving forward. I'm not sure if you can tell but there is a lot of neon colors on my door and its just an overall mixture of colors.

Texture

This is my ice cream that I was eating out of the container. I know its not important but I'm just saying it is my favorite, Starbucks Java Chip. I just don't recommend eating it when you are already freezing cold on your couch, doesnt make you any warmer.

Underneath

As a lot of people know I have sort of a nail polish addiction. I always have some sort of design on my nails. Many people (mainly girls) don't feel complete without make-up on, stylish clothes, their hair looking nice, etc. For me its my nails. That's why my picture is of my nail polish bin. It qualifies as being underneath literally because it is underneath my bathroom sink (in that cabinet) and also figuratively as in underneath my "blank-nail-phobia". Also just to give you perspective the bin is a 1.5x1.0(ft.) and is just a whole jumble of colors including 14 different shades of pink,12 shades of blues, and 5 different clear coats not including detail brushes. Basically the picture represents whats underneath/behind it all.

weekly food supply

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