Blogging Around

Katie's blog was the most recent blog we did. She made a great connection between postmodernism and the commericals and things we see in the real world. The video she showed from the Superbowl was this very emotional and moving commerical that in the end turned out to be a car commercial. I really enjoyed reading this post.

Hi Katie J.

I was sitting on my couch and saw the the exact same commercial! This is a perfect example of postmodernism, I couldn't agree with you more. Everything you said makes sense to me and describing the commerical in a postmordern way helps me understand both postmodernism and the whole message the video was saying.Your writing was very insightful and I really enjoyed reading it. GOOD WORK KJ!

-Katie Dwyer

 

In Annie's blog post she talks about technology and how she and everyone around her is pretty much addicted to the technology around them. I truely loved this blog post. This blog post brought up a question I ask myself everyday. How and when did technology suddenly take over man kind!

 

Annie
I honestly couldn't agree with you more. I ask myself that question almost every day. This issue is everywhere we go, even with in the walls of Glenbrook South. There is not one day where I dont see a large amount of people around eachother on their phones instead of talking and interacting with the people around them. It shocks me everytime I see it. But the worst part of all of this is that I am sometimes one of those people. I think out of everything that technology has done to human beings, the fact that I am a culprit of not sociallizing when I have the chance to is something that will always bother me. Other than that, I really liked this blog post. Good work!

 

iMedia: Playgrounds

Modernism and postmodernism have been difficult tasks for me to grasp. There are so many distinct differences between the two, yet I still find myself to get confused when approached with something and asked if it is modern or postmodern. So, in order to help myself understand this concept I went on a search through the web and found myself in a deeper hole than I already was in. Out of pure frustration I then decided to take a drive and go get myself some Starbucks. On my way home I took the long way back to my house just to stall even more time. As I was driving, there appeared out of the left side of my window and school playground which I had never seen before considering I always take the short way home. And in that moment thoughts went running through my head and I finally got myself to understand, or begin to understand, this difference between modernism and postmodernism.

Who would have thought that a playground would help make two ends meet for me? Who would have thought that a little frustration and a little sip of a white chocolate mocha would lead me to getting on my computer and checking out design plans and ideas for playgrounds for kids?

Let's take this picture for example:

This picture is the kind of playgrounds I grew up with. The swings, the sandbox, the slide, and the spiny thing that always made me feel sick. Those are what I used to have fun. Those are the basics to playgrounds. Those are the foundation to modern-day playgrounds. Those are representations to my understanding of modernism.

Modernism was the building blocks to the post modern world. Without modernism there would be no post modernism. Without the basic slide, without the basic swings this wouldn't go from this...

To this...

and this...

Let's analyze these differences just a little more. What post modernism does to change from modernism is first the overall appeal to this playground. The appeal of the middle school playground was the one thing that caught my eye. This playground went beyond all the boundaries of traditional playground. This playground broke down lines, broke down circles and triangles and bent and curved these shapes to create figures that look appealing to the modern day eye. This not only accomplished the postmodern appeal in my eyes but it also caught the appeal of many children's eyes. I will argue that any playground is fun to play on, but for children if there is a challenge, if there is something that stands out to them they will feel more inclined to play on this work of art. Yes, this playground is a work of art, its a work of art with many purposing but its main purpose is to provide this postmodern appeal for kids all around. 

It Matters: Breaking the Status Quo

"Go above and beyond."

" Be the change you want to see." 

"Don't let good be good enough"

     "Stand for what you believe in"

"Achieve the unachievable."

Sound familiar? Those are some of the most famous words any parent or educator says to young children. They instill this image in their minds, in my mind, that we can achieve anything we want if we just put our minds to it. Assuming my parents and teachers were right I tried to fly by jumping off a chair, but gravity once again won the battle and the cold hard ground broke my fall. Maybe, it was my young 5 year old mind that didn't understand, or maybe it was just because I couldn't fly at all, no matter how hard I tried.  

 "I can't achieve the unachievable, " I said to myself, "I can't fly on my own. I just can't." 

Can't. Can't. Can't. If I have learned one thing over my whole life it would be that the word can't isn't good for anyone. This word, which I used for many  years following my attempt to fly, is a word I like to call a boundary word. The moment you say the word can't, you draw a line for yourself. This line blocks you from continuing forward. This line is a line that you won't cross. 

If I must admit, I have drawn plenty of those lines for myself throughout my whole entire life. It wasn't until recently that I've consciously noticed these lines in my path. But why now? Why have I just started to realize that I have so many lines I have not crossed yet? If not why, then what? What brought this to my conscious attention? 

It was Martin Luther King Jr. It was the letter he wrote to Birmingham. It was when he said, "Perhaps I was too optimistic; Perhaps I expected too much." 

Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I interpreted my parents in the wrong way. I expected that if I wanted to fly, I could fly. But no, I can not fly, at least not on my own. I am a human being. I was not made to fly. But maybe I expected that if I couldn't fly by myself that everything everyone told me was wrong. But in reality, I was wrong. I expected too much. I can fly. I really can. 

He can fly too.

And so can he.

And so can he.

So why can't I?

What these men are doing and what Matin Luther King Jr. has taught me and all my classmates, is that breaking the status quo, breaking this image of flying and transforming it into something else, can get you so much farther than you ever thought possible. In a little article I read about changing the status quo, this man, Stan Lewis, explains the limitations the word can't puts on achieving things in life. 

" I can't do it. As long as you say that, you will always be correct, that is until you embrace change. Change will affect our Thinking as our minds are open to new opportunities around us. As our minds open up, new thought processes begin in our minds. Things we would have never imagined start to enter into our heads. These new thoughts produce new opportunities."

So it matters. Breaking the status quo really matters. And because of it, I will be able to fly one day. Because of the status quo, I will be able to some day break it and change my life forever. 

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.