Blogging Around

Katie J.

In Katie's post she wrote about organizing her room. Who knew such a simple task could be so challenging yet so relieving. This point was one of the main points Katie talked about in her post. Being a teenager myself I found Katie's post easy to read and easy to relate to. This was one of the main reasons I chose hers to comment on.

I feel the same as Hannah. I really liked this post. The main reason I like this was because i can relate to this post a lot, as mostly any teenage student could say. Considering we are on the same basketball team I feel you pain. My room is the last thing on my list of priorities. Another thing I really like about it was you were really descriptive. As weird as this may seem, I felt i could just picture you doing everything you mentioned. Overall, I really like your writing. The combination between short and long sentences really helps the blog post flow which is what overall helped create such a fantastic post. Good Job KJ!

-Katie Dwyer

Shayne T. 

Shayne's post was one of the post that struck me the most. I made me realize something I never realized before. She made a connection between Alberto Knox and Mr. Allen. This is something I would have never done without having read her post. She focused on the point that both Mr. Allen and Alberto Knox both want to not only broaden knowledge but also be able to apply it to the world. 

Let me just start off by saying I love how you connected Mr. Allen and Alberto Knox. I never really compared the two before but after reading your post it is all clear to me. They do share similar traits. Mr Allen pushes us everyday to learn more about the world around us and not about the equation of a line but actually connects it to real life stuff, just like Alberto is doing for Sophie. I thought overall your blog post was very clean and concise. You got right to the point without all the little side comments in-between. I thought your thinking was out of the box and Mr. Allen and Alberto would be supportive of that thought process. Good Job Shayne!

-Katie Dwyer

Get Organized: iTunes

Organizing is something I love to do. I know that may not be a typical teenage thing to say but I do tend to find some fun and entertainment in organizing something. These somethings can range from organizing my house to organizing my pens and pencils for school. There is just something about the feeling of feeling neat and tidy that makes organizing fun to me. So, when I got this assignment I immediately thought it would be a piece of cake considering I pretty much had already organized everything. Unfortunately, as the time came closer for me to actually do the project, I was stumped. I had organized almost everything at least once before and It would be boring to write about something that I had already done. So I sat and thought for a while on what I could organize. So after about 5 minutes (Yes I consider that a while) I decided to do it later and turn on my music. I pressed shuffle and I continued on with the rest of my homework. 

The first song that came on was a Christmas song, and considering it is not yet Thanksgiving I decided to press next. This next song that came up was a song I listened to before every basketball game last year. Considering I was not about to go play in a basketball game, I pressed next one more time. This next song that came on was one of my favorite summer songs. But the thing that made me press the button one more time was simply because it wasn't summer and I didn't want to trick myself into thinking it was coming soon. It was obvious that my music was disorganized. 

After realizing in that exact moment that I finally had something to organize, I dropped everything I was doing and started to organize. The only problem with organizing my music, and even organizing anything, is that it is always hard to find a place to start. So, once again I sat there staring at the screen. I soon decided to start by organizing my Christmas music into on long playlist, considering the season is coming soon. By doing this I not only started the project but I also started with a simple job. I found this job to be particularly upsetting, mainly because I realized that I only had six Christmas songs on my iTunes. How could I be a preacher of Christmas Music if I had none for myself to listen to? Therefore, I made a note on my computer to find Christmas songs and to put them in the playlist. 

Making this note did calm me down a bit, but found myself still frustrated with the outcome, so I decided to next organize my country playlist. I knew this one would not disappoint me because I listen to country all the time. I even came to conclusion that I had to make two separate country playlist considering I have so much country. The first playlist was dedicated to one band. I called it " Country: Rascal Flatts." As you can tell this playlist consisted of Rascal Flatts music and only Rascal Flatts music.  The next playlist was "Country: All of the best." I called it this because every song in there is the rest of my country music and they really all are the best.

I continued to make these playlist with pump up music for basketball games and a sleep playlist for when I'm trying to fall asleep. There are playlists called 2010, 2011, and 2012. In these playlists I separated all the favorite songs and separated them by year. These songs are the songs that I guess I could say were "popular" at the time. 

Now I realize that this project wasn't simply for fun, even though it really was to me.  There was something more behind why we were told to do this. By organizing my music into separate playlist I not only helped me find my music better, but I also found that I understood it better. I not only understood the words but I understood where they came from, what made them belong to that playlist they were put in. Those words and those musical notes that were combined and made in to a song.  That song belonged to a specific group of mine. It kinda makes this song an individual within a group of similar individuals.  Each song is different yet each song in that playlist is the same. 

I guess you could say that after finishing this project of mine, I was rather pleased with myself. I not only made my life a whole lot earlier when it comes to listening to music but I also found out a lot about my music and how it all flows together. If I could take away one thing from this project it would be the fact that all my music flows. Each song is separated into a playlist they belong to. Each playlist consists of songs that are similar to each other in a certain way.  And each playlist is similar to each other because each playlist consists of songs that I like. Each playlist has songs that are mine, songs that mean a lot to me. And in the end thats's all that really matters to me. 

Change of Mind: We Are Happiness

Happiness is the state of being happy. Sadness is the state of being sad. The english language really couldn't get any simpler than that. We have happiness when we are happy, therefore I have happiness when I look out the window and see snow on the ground for this first time. We have sadness when we are sad, therefore I cry every time I watch The Titanic.

This simple concept is something that lives in every human being, and I could even say that it exists in all mammals. We've grown over the years to associate things that bring happiness and things that bring sadness. We do this without hesitation, it is an instinctual feeling one gets that makes one decide whether he is happy or sad. Because this instinct has developed amongst human beings, I have never once stopped myself and asked the simplest question: What is happiness?

Many would answer, " Oh it's a time when you are happy. Yeah that's happiness." I am ashamed to say that a few days ago I would have said the exact same thing. However, it wasn't until one day in english class that I realized I was wrong. I don't know what happiness is. I don't know how it is achieved. Therefore, I question myself, do I  have happiness?

In the book Sophie's World, the philosopher talks to Sophie about Hellenistic Philosophy and the history behind it. The things that struck me were located on the last two lines of the page. It mentions how "the main emphasis of this [philosophy] was on finding out what true happiness was and how it could be achieved." I couldn't believe that a concept so simple was something that philosophers had to question. It seriously blew my mind.

Out of pure curiosity, I went home and opened my computer and googled happiness. I asked for its definition and how it could be obtained. I was disappointed to find that every answer was the same. Happiness was just as I thought it had been. It was obtained when one is happy and its definition is the state of being happy. So if the answer was so obvious, why would any one try to question it? What was I missing from this understanding?

I found myself quickly typing in the words Urban Dictionary into the google search bar. I clicked on the linked and typed in happiness. I pressed enter and waited for it to load. As I read through pages and pages of the definition of happiness, I found a certain pattern to the answers. Page one consisted of the definition that we all know by heart; if your happy you have happiness. However, and I got to the next few pages I saw the definitions start to change. The amazing thing about this was that these definitions were not what may be "correct" to most of society, but these answers were correct to the person writing it. That is the whole magic to Urban Dictionary. It is your own definition, it is your own interpretation.

Even though these interpretations many not be mine, or yours, we can still find connections to one or many different interpretations. Yes, I believe a plateful of bacon is happiness. To a vegetarian that may not be true. Yes, I believe happiness is the night I don't have to do homework. To that crazy student whom I have not met yet, that may not be true. But the one interpretation that that not only changed my mind on happiness and helped me answer these simple and easy questions was located right on the first page.

"Happiness, the greatest gift I possess." 

Instead of asking the questions what and how, why not ask the questions who and where. You are happiness. I am happiness. You have happiness within you. I have happiness within me. We both have this special gift that we can call our own. We can do whatever we want with this gift. We can decide to hide it and store it in a place where no one can see it, or we can decide to show it and not let anything to stop it from shining.

Connection: It's Crazy Man

It's crazy man. These three words are words that I have heard throughout my life. It's crazy that he made that winning basket. It's crazy that she is having another baby. It's crazy how good of a cook your mother is. It's crazy how well work went today. It's crazy man, just crazy.

Some might say that my father, the man behind these words, tends to over use them, and I sometimes would agree with such people. My father always thinks everything is crazy. No matter what happened, why it happened or how it happened, it is simply just crazy. Therefore, growing up with this repetition, I've learned to adjust to his obsession and ignore the crazy phrase completely.

However, this adjustment of mine was quickly brought back one night. My father got a magazine in the mail about our universe and the science behind it.  I specifically remember the front cover displaying a picture of what looked like an explosion of magenta, blue, black and red color but was later described as the universe. My dad, who usually spends his week nights watching a basketball game, spent the whole night reading every last word of this magazine. He didn't move one muscle. The only things moving were his eyes as they scanned the pages. I was curious to see what could possibly be more interesting than watching a Bulls game and screaming at the refs as if they could hear him. The only problem was he had seemed to be too interested to take his eyes off the page.

So I sat there waiting for him to be done. As he read the magazine, turning page after page, I sat there staring at the only thing I could possibly see on that magazine; our universe blown up on a 8' by 11' sheet of paper. I swear I stared at that picture for what seemed like a half an hour, but what broke my focus was the movement of my dads lips and the sound that came out, "It's crazy man."

He had to say no more.

As I looked at that picture of the universe, so may questions popped into my head. How did this form? What is it made of? Why is it like this? I felt like a pretty stupid human being when I couldn't answer the simplest questions. Because of this occurrence, I've recently compared that moment of my life to the moments happening to Sophie in Sophie's World.  She is being overwhelmed with questions that seem so simply, so easy, but are really something that we find the human brain can't even begin to answer. So once again Sophie and I are both feeling pretty useless.

Even though we may seem useless to the knowledge of these question, we are not useless to each other. By reading the novel, I have expanded on my previous questions and may have gotten the slightest bit closer to understanding these basic questions about our universe. By understanding that everything is made of the same one thing that form different objects, I can understand or even question the bang theory. Yes, the universe started with a bang, literally. However, the substance that started this bang couldn't be absolutely nothing, it had to be something, therefore something must have already existed. It's crazy man.

It blows my mind every time I begin to think of such things.  Philosophy is a crazy subject to think about. But the thing that holds both me and Sophie together was that first initial state of wonder that came upon us when we were first asked that question. And just like any other human being the only thing we had to say was it's crazy man, just crazy.

Metacognition: Just Write

Just moments before writing this post, I had written a long post about this topic. I was typing so fast that my hand was cramping up and my answer was getting very deep. But suddenly I stopped, and looked at what I had written and hated it. Even though all I was doing was speaking from the mind, I hated everything I had written. So, I highlighted the whole thing and pressed the delete button. All that was left was a blank screen. I had to walk away from the computer for a few minutes to re group myself. For some reason I had anger towards this little white screen in front of me.

It is the moments like this that shocks me the most about my writing. I am shock by how my writing has evolved throughout my years in high school. I want to say that I am speechless, because I really am, but if I were to explain how this all occurred, I would have to rewind and go back to my freshman year. I would have never found myself deleting something I had just spent time working on. I would have said it was time wasted and I have bigger and better things to do with my extra time. So being the freshman that I was, I continued working this crappy piece of work I called writing. And if we were to move forward one more year to my sophomore english class, we would find that my mindset towards writing would still be the same. I didn't care about the language of writing at all, let alone know anything about it. I just cared about pressing the print button and turning the assignment in.

It wan't until my junior year that things really started to change. I was introduced to a different style of writing that no english teacher had ever taught me before. This style was to just write. It seems simple but yet in the moment it was so unbelievably crazy to me. How can one simply just write? How can anyone just sit there and type while simultaneously speaking their mind? It was crazy to me. So when that first essay came around, I tried and failed miserably. I didn't necessarily fail in the eyes of the teacher, but I failed within my own eyes. There has never been one essay that I had written from that point that I really liked. I always hated my writing.

The next essay that came around I decided to experiment a little and simply just write what came to my mind and that was it. That essay was one of the best essays I had ever written. And the best thing about it was that I was proud.  I had written something that was truly me.

Form that point on, and continuing on to this post and all of my other blog posts, I write through my mind. When something comes to me I put it in words that make sense to me in my mind. These words group together to form a language that I love to read. I love reading my own writing. But you wouldn't find me saying that my freshman year. I didn't have the thinking skills that I have now a days. But even though I have developed a better sense of writing, I am no where near perfection, no one ever is. In order to get me closer to this state of perfection, I need to work on writing more freely. I need to stop giving into what people want me to write about and start writing on what I think is appropriate to write about. I need to take risks. I want to be a writer with complete freedom. But in order to accomplish what is need, I have to simply just write.

Blogging Around

Isana P.

In Isana's blog post, she talks about this unique relationship between how to write well and how to live well. She did tied this relationship together by comparing "The Sea of Information" and the senior year of high school. This relationship was well described and written out for a reader to understand the point Isana was trying to get across.

"When reading this post, I must say, I thought for just a second that you were reading my mind. This issue of being a senior in high school and making all these major decision is something that bothers me every single day. How am I supposed to look into the future and see what I wanna be in 5years? In 20 years? It just really blows my mind. However, what I like most about your post was how you connected writing with life in general. This kind of connection is something I have never even considered, maybe this being because I am not one who finds joy in writing so I never really look at it as a way to relate to living a good life. Now, even though I may not be the best writer or even find it to be my number one hobby, I still find this connection fascinating. The way you explain how when you write you find this certain spark and it leads you, it guides you to a place where you know is where you are supposed to go and connect that to finding a spark in life and having that lead you towards your destination. I just found I could relate to that 100%. In this post you were really preaching to the crowd and it's something you should be proud of because I really enjoyed it."

Vika P. 

In Vika's blog she connect Born Into Brothels to her own photography. She showed this connection by not only talking about how her own life connects to the kids' in the brothels, but she also showed this by actually showing us viewers actual photographs she took to help us understand her connections on a much higher level of comprehension. 

"I would like to just start out by saying one simple word; wow. Your pictures are amazing. For some odd reason, or maybe it's not odd at all, but I find photography to be one of the coolest things anyone has ever invented. I'm sure your probably saying "well duh it's the coolest thing" because you are so passionate about it. And your passion is the exact thing that drew me into your blog, or should I say blogs. It is hard for me to just comment on one blog, so while i have the chance I would like to say that both of your blogs were very interesting the way you incorporated your own photography. I was confused whether I like the beautiful photos or the writing itself. However, as I write this I have come to realize that it is both the writing and the pictures together that creates these blogs. The way you explain your blog like your having a conversation with someone is a major part in why I found myself drawn to it. But the pictures itself was another major thing. The way each pictures is so simple yet so complicated and the way it tells a story is something I find to be so amazing."

Best of the Week: Importance of The Arts

There are many different topics talked about during class, and majority of these topics are always interesting. One particular topic we talked about this week was the fact that some schools around the world, even around the United States, do not provide music courses or courses pertaining to the arts. This was something I had never realized was such a big deal, until now.

We watched the movie Born into the Brothels which really focused on this idea that the simple art of photography can not only entertains oneself, but can also, in most circumstances, change someone's life. The lives of these children in the movie were more than just chagned; they were transformed. We looked at a website during class that showed where these kids were in their lives. Majority of these kids were happy and successful. What more can you ask for in life? It just amazes me that such a simple task, such as photography, can change someone's life that dramatically. The minute we talked about how some school limited these arts from students shocked me. I finally realized that if there are so many people being held back from these types of opportunities, imagine if they were actually presented to things like art and photography and music. Imagine all the "could have been" musicians and artist that would have evolved from this group of people. Sometimes this is just mind blowing.

Some might find it weird that I would be so shocked by this because many would question why I even care. I am not what they like to consider an artistic person. In fact, I am more into the sports aspect of life. However, that does not give me a reason to not care and understand that people who have the greatest potential are being held back from some of the most extraordinary things we have had for centuries. However, others may ask why I am in complete shock. The answer to that is simple. I have lived such a fortunate life. I am not talking about being fortunate by the fact that I have loving parents, a roof over my head, and live a stable life style. I am talking about being fortunate because throughout my whole schooling life, or as far as i can remember, I have been given the opportunity to explore the world of the arts. It just shocks me that the kid in the brothels were never able to experience what I had experienced. And it shocks me even more that kids similar to me, have not experienced this whole new world before.

If I were to take anything from this lesson, I would take one thing. I would never underestimate what the arts can do for a person. In fact, I would never underestimate what any hobby could do for someone. As long as you love what you do and your passionate about it, it can change your life. Just like a simple camera did for the kids in the brothels.

It matters: Creativity or Pagiarism

On the very first day of school you sit down in class, say hello to all the friends you did not seen over the summer and then wait for the teacher to introduce himself to the class. For some reason I have yet to understand, we, as students, tend to be most attentive on that very first day of school than on any other day of the year. Maybe this could be because I had finally reached the final year of high school and couldn't wait to get it started, but it is always hard to tell. As I continued throughout my first last day of high school as a senior, I went from Math to Psychology to Gym to Consumer Ed to Humanities and found that even though these classes are all completely different, there is something that makes them similar. These similarities can be described on exactly one sheet of paper which is read aloud on the first day of school in every class period.

That day I sat in all my classes listening to words come out of the teachers' mouths but, being a senior, I told myself I had heard this a million times and decided not to pay any attention to the content being read to me in that letter. Even though I was completely inattentive when my teachers were reading, there is always that one thing that you just can't ignore when being read the rules of what is required from every student. This one topic I am talking about is plagiarism. Let's face it, every student in the Glenbrook South building has had a least one teacher that has given specific instruction on how plagiarism is never a right decision to make. Now, don't get me wrong, I am in full support that stealing another's idea is completely wrong and punishment should be used under certain situations, but i feel that this issue is often misunderstood.

From day one we are always told in order to avoid using another persons idea, we have to be creative and think of our own new ideas. However, assuming that my understanding is correct, in a discussion we talked about in class, using someone else's idea and creativity go hand in hand. Now I know this may seem to be a some what unreal combination of plagiarizing and being creative, but when looking at it in a different light the pieces start to fall together.

No idea is ever your own. Those simple words describe how these two vastly different subjects can be related to one another. In an article written in the New York Times, writer Trip Gabriel explained how this idea of plagiarism can often be miss understood and one of his answers consists of the fact that there isn't anything that can be described with originality. One day you could be looking at an invention some random scientist had made, but that same day you could think of a way to apply similar functions the other invention had done, but in your own unique way. Now is this considered plagiarism or being creative? Well, this topic could be very debatable. It is hard to come up with an answer because you can see the point of both sides. However, the point to prove here is that creativity is something that is greatly influenced by other outside factors. It is nearly impossible to be creative without first coming in contact with the ability to view the idea or concept of another person.

The Magic of Music

Captured Thought: The Magic of Music

Music has always been a major part in my life. I could even argue that the iPod was one of the greatest things ever invented. I could also argue that society couldn’t ever live without music. How could I possibly know this is true? I know this because I am one who always has her iPod with her and finds that she can’t live without listening to music for a single day.  When I wake up in the mornings, I listen to music. When I drive to and from school, I listen to music. Even before I got to bed, I listen to music. Now it may seem like I am the “musical type.” That I am a great singer who plays a bunch of instruments because that’s what people think of when someone claims they have a love for music. However, I am nothing like that. In fact, I am the exact opposite of that. I’m what they like to call “the jock” even though I am a girl. I am a girl that lives and breathes sports. However, I am also a girl that loves her music. I am the girl that uses music like a mentor. It helps me through my highs and lows. It can change my mood from bad to good. It can get me pumped for a basketball or volleyball game. It can help me understand what I am feeling and what others are feeling. Music, to me, is magical.

The idea that music is magic is something that has never changed for me. But, there is one thing that I have questioned about music and about why I love it so much. I never really understood why I felt the way I felt when I listened to a specific song. Why do I feel happy when I hear a song come on the radio? Why do I all of a sudden understand how people feel when I listen to music? These types of questions run through my mind all the time. Until one day, I was talking to my cousin about the loss of her father and how she dealt with it. She told me that her and her father had a song that they both loved. I wished I had remembered what this song was called, but she explained to me that the song told a story. And right then and there she needed to say no more. I understood why music is so magical to me. I finally understood why I react the way I react to certain music. Each song is a story. A story that contains thoughts, ideas, and emotions that I personally connect to. I love the songs that I love because I love the stories within them.  I learned that it is not the music alone that is magical, but it is the lyrics, the story within that makes what I listen to so magical.