Metacognition: A Tribute To Aristotle

This year my family hosted Thanksgiving at our house. This of course means plenty of cooking...and cleaning. Since my two older siblings were off at college until a couple of days before, this means i had to do a lot of the cleaning. My mother decided to use my room as the coat room which means i had to clean it twice as much.

Before I started I was frustrated because I had already spent most of the day cleaning the rest of the house and then i got this new assignment to clean my room. It was unfair! After I started, I was still frustrated. I didnt want to be doing this at all. I had to put all my clothes in my drawers, make my bed, clean my bookselves, desk, floor, closet, etc. After I finished, I felt, for lack of a better word, clean. But not just physically. My mind felt neater and clearer.

In a sence, I knew this would happen. Everytime I have to clean something, I get upset that I have to do it and after I feel acomplished and clean. I think the hardest part for me is actually keeping it clean!

I did learn (and still need to work on) that cleaning is not just making things LOOK clean. I have to go through old things and clothes or whatever and give and/or throw them away, not just push it aside. Hopefully, by the time I get my own place, I'll have this nailed.



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Change of Mind: Religion

As a child, I grew up with a pretty religious parent. In fact, my dad went into college majoring in music and ended up changing to religious studies. For a while, after college he taught religious classes and such until he realized he could not make a living off of it. Now he is a salesman. In a way, this disappoints me because I think it is important to do what you love no matter what. At the same time, I understand where he is coming from. Unfortunatley, money is more important than I would like.

Anyways, as I was saying, my father is pretty religious. I wouldn't say he is very religious because we dont go to church every week (although we used to), we dont say Grace every night before dinner (although, once again, we used to), and he doesn't preach to our family about religion (although, he did teach my brother, sister, and I in our last year of religious studies at our church). But seriously, the idea of God and Christianity is not a commonly brought up in our house. Sophie's World and other discussions we've had in class have caused me to ponder the idea of religion and God.

As I've entered high school, and maybe throughout some of my middle school years, I have begun to reject the idea of God. Science has always been something that makes sence to me (even though I may not always get the best grades). The idea of evolution is so much more believable and practical than a God. I've come to the conclusion that people have created the idea of God because they don't have the all the answers they need. Maybe they think its easier to creat some sort of almighty and powerful creature than to live with the fact that they can't figure out where the world came from. But sometimes I still wonder.

There is a part of me that wants to scream out and say, "NOTHING MAKES SENSE!" Anything is possible. Even though science is practical, whose to say the wonders of the world and universe are? We have no idea what is out there is space, what was here before us, what will be here after, etc. If I know so little about the world, myself, and others, why can't there be a God? Or multiple Gods for that matter? 

This conflict had lead me to no final answer. I think maybe we are jumping to conclusions. There is no way for us to prove there is a God(s) and no way for us to prove there isn't. But I think that if I were dropped on some island as a baby, isolated from everyone and anyone (just ignore the fact that I proably wouldn't survive and all that junk) I don't think I would think of a God. Well...Wait...Maybe I take that back. Considering that I wouldn't know any scientific information. And also, its so hard to tell because every civilization has created some sort of religion. Which makes me wonder, WHY? It brings me back to the thought of people creating a God because they have so many unanswered questions. But, agh. Who knows? ....No one....

But anyways, the topic of this blog is "Change of Mind" and I have yet to explain that. Clearly, Sophie's World and the discussions has caused many questions to resurface but I think they have caused me to be more open to the idea of religion. I mean, as far as we know, there could be some religion out there (that has not yet been created, or discovered, i guess) that holds all the unanswered questions. There are endless possibilities out there. I just need to figure out what I believe, or don't believe.

An Inconvenient Truth: Technology is Taking Over

"I can't expel the truth. It's much more than I ever thought..."
-Death Cab For Cutie, "Sleep Spent"

I am so extremely afraid of technology. But unfortunately, I am a hypocrite. Right now, I am sitting on my computer, typing this blog, listening to music off itunes, and I'm waiting for my cell phone, which is sitting in my lap, to buzz with a text message. Obviously, all of these inventions are here because of the recent advances in technology.

Okay, I get it. some of these inventions are SO cool and mindblowing. I can talk to anyone i want, literally whenever I want, I can find out anything I want, whenever I want, I cant listen to anything I want, whenever I want (all of these are to some extent). But, its so overwhelming.

I think my fear focuses on what technology WILL become. I am afraid of the future of technology. I am afraid robots will take over the world. I am afraid people will end up communicating only through technology. I am afraid of so many things relating to technolgy that it is very difficult for me to put it into words.

Side note:

Dear Reader:

I am trying very hard to converge my thoughts and not ramble.

This is very hard for me...

I apologize in advance if this gets hard to follow.

-Hana B.

I'm going to try to explain what goes on in my mind when I think about this topic.
So, here goes nothing-

For some reason my mind wonders to colors.

The future is grey, silver, white, and black. Kind of like the Apple company.
HERE! LOOK AT THIS-
http://www.apple.com/
That's exactly what I think about. That color scheme. AND thats not even the future! Thats right NOW! Agh. That's scary as heck.

Well anyways,
I picture the past and present, this colorful and wonderful scheme of organic colors and brightness and beauty. And I'm afraid the people of the future are never going to be able to experience and appreciate this rainbow of the world.

OH! By analyzing my thought process and thinking about why I think of it like this, I have figured it out. I'm afraid the future will lose sence of nature and natural experiences. Technology will force us to create a false sence of emotions and seeing. Therefor, the colors of the furture have to do with technoloical things. And the colors of the present and past are natural.

Wow, that seems extremely obvious. I guess I just never thought about it before.

In conclusion, my fear is that we will lose touch with nature and our natural, human, behaviors and selves.



But wait! There's more! Now, I must suggest how I should come to terms with this problem.

A couple of friends and I have been talking about creating a commune and just living in the forest and avoiding all technological inventions (we all share the same fear). Although I would absolutley love to do this, I have a feeling it is not going to work out (don't tell them that).

I think maybe I should just relax and take a step back. There must be other people who feel the same way as I do. Maybe, I can start to think about other possible outcomes of the future, maybe it'll all be okay. Although technolgy is advancing SO QUICKLY, I can hope that people will still want to remain human and natural.

But, agh. That doesnt really do much for me. Honestly, I am having so much trouble coping with this problem because these advances are unavoidable. There are people out there who want,  and  need, to see how much we can make possible through technology. But we can only go so far....

Connection: Anonymous Letters and Anonymous Gift

In Sopie's World, Sopie recives anonymous letters with philosophical questions and lessons. I was really excited about this because I liked that the teacher was an unknown figure. In fact, that might have been my favorite part about the letters. Naturally, Sophie is curious about who it is but thats the fun of it! But, honestly, I was upset when Sopie discovered who the teacher was. I didn't think it was needed. The only thing that I thought that had to be known was that someone was taking their time to create all these lessons and teach Sophie some of the coolest and most thought provoking ideas ever pondered. To be able to know that someone is teaching her these very valuable lessons about history, life, and thinking but does not need to be recognized  is so amazing! They dont feel the need to be reconized for "doing a good thing." Thats the wonderful thing about being anonymous.

Last year, on my birthday, I went to my locker to collect my things, as usual. I opened it up to find a wrapped box that I had never seen before. This was easy for whoever put the box in because my locker is always unlocked since it is backstage. I trust that no one will take anything and if they do I know they will return it. But i had never expected for someone to leave me a present!

So this box, in red wrapping paper, had a note written right on the front. All the note said was:
"To: Hana
From: Someone
Happy birthday!"

I looked around asking who gave it to me but everyone looked just as surprised as me! No one knew anything! Or at least they were very good actors. So I proceded to open the box. I freaked out because it was a converse box, my favorite kind of shoe. You dont give converse to just anyone! Plus, theyre expensive! So I immediatly starting asking "Who bought me converse?! Who was it?!" Again, no one seemed to know!

Finally, after prodding everyone with my questions and getting no answers, i opened the box. Inside were not the converse I expected, rather, I found a box of 150 crayons. I guess box would not be the correct term. It was a crayon tower! With crayons of all different colors, some even had glitter in them! AND it came with a crayon sharpener that you can take out. Whoever gave them to me obviously knew this tower would be something I would be very excited about.

Just like Sophie, I was dying to know who gave me this. I was asking around for weeks. I came to the conclusion that I love not knowing who it is! It makes this present so much more interesting. I am so so so happy that someone did this without feeling they need to be recognized but rather, just out of the kindness of their heart. To this day, almost a year later, I still do not know who it is.  And I'm perfectly content with that :)



iMedia: City and Colour

 

I have loved City and Colour since the first time I heard him. Dallas Green (Dallas=City, Green=Colour), the artist, plays the kind of music i love. The slow, acoustic, calm, sound with meaningful lyrics. It took me a very long time to choose what song i should put in this blog. I decided on "Against the Grain."

Lyrics:

You need not to climb mountaintops,
You need not to cross the sea,
You need not to find a cure for everything that makes you weak.
You need not to reach for the stars when life becomes so dark,
And when the wind does blow against the grain,
You must follow your heart,
You must follow your heart.

When all your friends have come and gone,
And the sun no longer shines,
And the happiness for which you long is washed away like an ocean's tide,
When all the hard times outweigh the good,
And all your words are misunderstood,
When the day seems lost from the start
You must follow your heart,
You must follow your heart.

If you feel you've paid the price,
And your wounds should cease to heal
And everything you love in life spins like a winding wheel.
If you should wake to find you're abandoned,
And the road you've traveled leads to a dead-end
When death creeps in to play it's part,
You must follow your heart,
You must follow your heart.

But like i touched on before, it is not just the lyrics that get to me. The way the music can make you feel a certain way amazes me. Its weird to think that the tempo and notes of sound waves can cause you to feel a certain emotion.

Clearly, this song is telling people to "follow [their] heart[s]" no matter what bad is going on in their lives. I think this video is great because you can see Dallas Green's emotion so clearly when he sings. Its nice how songtimes the camera focuses on his face, and other times, his guitar. It is nice to actually see the way he portrays his music.

Best of the Week: Born Into Brothels

The documentry Born Into Brothels has been consuming my mind all week. It's a very interesting story but it's so scary. What scares me the most is that this has been, will be, and is going on all over the world. Another scary topic is that students like us will watch something like that and then it is possible that we will never think about it again.

For example, our class is 8th period, and here we are, so focused on this movie, so sad, so symathetic...and the bell rings. We run to our cars, drive to our suburban homes and families, and focus on ourselves once again.

I've made it a point not to do that with this movie. After the first day, i went backstage and talked to my friends about this documentry and its been on my mind for a while now. No, I'm not perfect, i have thought about myself quite a lot but I really have been trying to htink about these poor children and families in these brothes.

I keep thinking about the little girl who was wondering what she would be like if she could just leave and get an education. I'm so upset with myself for not appreciating the education i have as much as i do. Why am i here? Why is she there?

And that little boy, whose father used to be big and stong and now all he does is smoke all day. Even through all of that the son still tries to love his father.

Or the girl who was being yelled at while getting water to clean the dishes. She said that life is about pain and suffering and people need to learn to accept and deal with that.

All these kids stories break my heart. I want to take them here and help them relize that there are better places out there. These children are so strong, so much stronger than i will ever be and its so sad to know that some of them, if not most of them will end up in the same position as their parents.

Metacognition: QE Essay (After)

In my previous blog about my QE essay i wrote about starting my essay. Now that i have fully finished, i can take the time to look back and see why i improved on or wish i had improved on.

I wrote about how i had trouble starting, and thankfully, i got through that. It was nice that we split the paper into different sections because then its not all given to us at once and due on the same day. Students are bound to procratinate when given an assignment like that. It also gave me time to write different drafts, which i said would help me in my previous blog.

I dont think i found many new surprises since i wrote about my thinking before. I tried to avoid some of the mistakes i knew i would make but once again, my mind would freak out whenever a section was due. This is still something i need to work on. As well as stating on the subject becuase i would find myself going off the "trail" and onto a totally different topic. Sometimes it gives me a chance to think of others things that connect to the topic but i have to make sure to clean everything up and relate it in a clear, and easy way so the reader can see how my mind traveled.

Things i still need to work on are avoiding procrastination, re-reading and re-writing, talking to people about thier veiws on what im writing, and asking for advice. These are all important and would all help me write a better paper in some way.

Overall, this was a good learning expirience. It was our first big paper of the year and its noice to know what i need to improve on.

Blogging Around

Jon talked about Susan Sontag's 911 essay and related it to current events and well as discussed his own opinoins on the matter.

My response to Jon S's "Connection:"
Dear Jon,
This was amazing! I remember talking to you a while ago about how you enjoy writing. I thought this was great and it inspires me to write more in my blogs.

In response to your blog, I agree with you 100%. As we've talked about in class, and youve re-capped in this blog, Susan Sontag was just exersizing her rights. I enjoyed the fact that you could apply this to things that are happening in current events (sorry, that kind of a teacher-like statement, but it's true).

When you talked about the point where freedom of speech and expression goes to far it reminded me of a discussion I had last year in US. We discussed if there is, or should be, a limit. I thought, and still think, there is. Clearly, not everyone agrees or follows this, but i belive when freedom of speech or expression reaches the point of derogatory terms and such, it has gone too far. From your blog it seems like you would agree with this. I'm sure there are other examples of it reaching it's limit but thats always the example that stands out to me.

Well, anyways, I REALLY enjoyed reading this. Thanks for sharing this in your blog.

Love,
Hana B




Abby V talked discussed the class where we learned about autism. This was interesting because she connected ideas from Temple to Elyse's brother.

My response to Abby V's "Best of Week:"
Hey Abby,
I really like this blog a lot.The class that you're talking about was probably one of my favorites. I also did not know a lot about disability, as well as many others in the class, it seems. I think it was important for us to have this discussion in class because we all learned a lot, not just about autism, but keeping an open mind.

I have friends and family members who have other disabilities so it's always been a topic thats been close to my heart. I often think about how the world may appear different to them and I would be interested to learn more about many different disabilities. In fact, I'm thinking about majoring in special education.

but anywaysssss, I really glad you enjoyed this topic. I think its interesting that you pointed how how people with autism seems to have a stong love for things. That was a very cool observation!

See you in class!
Hana B

Metacognition: QE Essay

I'm often very jealous of the way that others minds work. While reading something someone wrote, or looking at doodles on the sides of their homework, I wish my mind could be as creative as theirs. When I am assigned to write a paper, i often get stuck very quickly and lose all my creativity.


For my QE essay, I decided to write about the relationship between emotion and creativty. For me, the hardest part of every essay is starting it. I sat myself down and thought.  Why did I chose this one instead of the others? What did I know about this topic? How do I relate to this?


I started of the essay talking about how emotion plays into MY creativity or how creativity plays into MY emotions. Often, papers are easier for me when I can write about myself. It was going pretty well and I finished one paragraph. I re-read it that I wasnt interesting to start off a paper with "When I do this..." I decided to put a paragraph before this one. The problem was, what should this be about? Once again, I chose something that would be easy for me to write about. Music.


Music related to this topic very well. I listed some characteristics of music and musical terms and then talked about the emotions it gives me.


Somethings that suprise me about my thinking is that when I'm forced to focus on something like right a paper, my mind freaks out. I think when it freaks out, it automatically shifts into divergent thinking. For example, I'm one of those kids who is given a topic for a paper, starts on the topic, then by the end is talking about something totally different. I have to make sure I do multiple drafts of something like that.


I do like that my mind can be divergent though. When I take the time to calm down, work on what i need to, check it twice, although it may be a mess at first, I can change it up but it will still be creative.


To accomplish that, I need to work on calming down and STARTING. If i can figure out more creative ways than to start than i usually do, I think my work will turn out a lot better. I just need to try out different strategies.

Best of Week: How Do You Know If You Know Something?

There have been many times where its the night before a test, I'm looking at a review sheet, and I look though every term and say, "I know that, I know this. Okay, thats easy. I rememeber that" but the next day when I take the test I don't know any of the answers. The problem I have is know the difference between recognizing the term and knowing what it actually means.The lesson in class "How Do You Know If You Know Something?" has helped me a lot.

It's funny to think that after 11 years in school, before this lesson, I wasn't quite sure what I ment to know something. I knew what it ment to belive something is right but that's not what we were talking about.

We established that to prove you know something you must figure out the big insites or claims of the idea. It is also important to use appropriate vocabulary that applies. We finally decided that the definition of knowing something is having the ability to say it in your own words comfortably.

This is definitly going to help me in the future because when studying, if i can't explain the term myself, I'll know that I DON'T know it. It wont just help me for studying either. If I'm not sure i understand what someone said, or a random idea that I'm more interested in taking the time to learn, I can try exlplain it in my own words. If I'm not sure that i understand, I can always try to explain to someone what I think it is in moy own words. If I'm misunderstood, they can explain it to me in their own words!

Connection: The Creative Personality and Paradox

In my mind, creativity  links with colorful so when I think of people who are creative, I usually picture people who doodle cool things on their homework, or are amazing artists. Unfortunately, I forget to give credit to those who are comedians, musicians, directors, writers or scientist like the ones Csikentmihalyi talks about. In "The Creative Personality" by Mihaly Csikentmihalyi, he focuses on how creative people have complex and paradoxical personalities.

When I remember to expand my definition of creative, I remember my friends. I pride myself in having very creative friends. Whether they are incredibely smart, artists, musicians, or just plain funny. Based on Csikentmihalyi's aricle, my friends should have paradoxial personailities, and they do.

When my mind hears the word paradox, it automatically thinks of the show Paradox at our school. Although I have never been a member of the club or been in the show, I saw it my sophmore year and I participated in stage crew for it last year. I think the people who i know who were in the show are very creative. They create the comical skits and preform them. Outside of their preformance, they are some of the wittiest, funniest people I have ever met and I envy all of them because of that. I appreciate the fact that these people are able to have fun and I can enjoy my day more because of them.

Change Of Mind: Vertical Listening

The idea of veritcal listening was only something I thought about when it came to music. I really enjoyed listening to "Maple Leaf Rag" preformed by Marcus Roberts and listening to the right hand (the melody) and the left hand (the harmony, rhythm, and counter melodies).

This past summer I worked on, and still continue to work on, my ability to focus on the "left hand" of songs and learning them. Something I had never thought of before was taking this idea and applying it to people. For me, this is something I would really like  to work on.

Applying the idea of vertical listening to people seems very difficult. With music, one can just listen to the different notes being played or sung. Often, with people, you have to build a relationship before you have the privilage to hear those other notes.

I am having trouble figuring out ways, or strategies, if you will, to go about verically listening. I hope to discover more ways than just one because the results might not always be the same. The sole stategy I have come up with so far is to listen to what someone says, think about why they said what they did, what they were thinking when they said it, what their veiw point is on the situation, and ask them questions about it to finally create a more meaningful relationship with that person. Of course, it will take sometime to build a meaningful relationship but by doing this i will be able to see the different layers of people. To me, that is an amazing privilage and I hope i get to that point with many of my friends.