Blogging Around

The first blog I read was Nigel's. He wrote about the concept of equality and explained it in a way that I had never thought about, which was why it was really interesting to me. This is what I wrote:

"First of all, your entire blog is seriously awesome. I actually had trouble choosing which one of your posts to comment on, but this one really caught my attention. I love that you have a different opinion on equality, because what I first expected when I read the title was a blog about how equality is important, complete with cliches and everything. I was surprised when I read "Students should stop being taught that everyone is equal because that statement is a big fat lie" because I know a lot of people would agree with this, but a lot of people would also disagree with this. I haven't really thought a lot about equality, but after reading your blog I think you have definitely convinced me that keeping the idea of diversity and differences is the most important."

The second blog I commented on was Justin's Get Organized post. He organized his closet, just like I did. His ending thought/realization was also pretty similar to mine, highlighting how great it felt afterwards to be organized and wanting to apply it to other parts of his life. I wrote:

While I was looking through people's Get Organized blog posts, I noticed that a lot of people chose to reorganize their closets, including myself. I think that the fact that closets have so many different parts (types of clothing, etc.) is kind of reflective of the different parts of all of our lives--if that makes sense--and, like you said, how each part of our lives need some form of organization whether it is extracurricular activities, school, or anything else. After cleaning my own closet, I also felt very in control, which isn't a feeling I have often. I feel like if I had a ton of time, my entire life would be one big organized closet...and I agree that good time management would be the way to go in order to take on bigger projects.

Get Organized: A Tribute to Aristotle

After months (maybe even years...) of staring at the messy closet I share with my sister, I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to get organized. Our closet is relatively small for two teenage girls to share, but somehow we manage to fit a lot of clothing and other miscellaneous objects in it. The top rack is mine and the bottom rack is my sister’s. I started by taking everything out—so the closet was completely empty. I sorted through the clothing and made a pile of clothes that we could donate (with my sister’s approval of course) and clothes that we wanted to keep. After hanging the “keep” pile back up, I refolded all of the clothing that sits in the mini dresser that also somehow fits in the closet. I vacuumed the floor of the closet and was surprised to find that it looked a LOT better—completely worth the 50 minutes that it took!

Before I started the daunting task of organizing our closet, I was pretty unmotivated. I expected it to take a long time and I also expected to give up after approximately half an hour. I usually only clean when I’m stressed out or frustrated (I still haven’t decided if this is a good habit or a bad one...) but this time I was cleaning without the stress. I got pretty caught up in it and time passed much faster than I thought it did. I didn’t even look at the clock once, surprisingly. This project makes me wonder how organized I could potentially be if I just forced myself to start. If my whole life could be as organized as my closet now is...that would be pretty great. And also hard to maintain. In hindsight, this project could have been done much earlier, instead of ignoring it for all this time. It reminded me of how important it is and how good it feels to be organized, whether it is my room or all of the papers we get in school. 

iMedia: Big White Room

When I first heard "Big White Room" by Jessie J, the lyrics immediately pulled me in, mainly because I didn't understand them.

At first I took it literally-she was trapped in a room by herself and the walls were white...but I realized that it most probably had a deeper meaning than that. The white room must be a metaphor for something more.

I looked up the background of the song, and I found out that this is a song about feeling trapped-"I don't wanna be here anymore, I wanna be somewhere else/ normal and free, like I used to be..."

She had written it about her experience in a  hospital. Some sources said that she had a heart condition-"my heart's beating, b-b-b-beating, beating, out of control..." She wrote the song after watching a boy pass away, even after praying that he wanted to live.

I love this song because it isn't your typical happy, passionate love song, and it's not a typical sad song either. Pop culture is brimming with music that is relatable and appealing to a large audience, and this song breaks that mold.

But music like this makes us think. It makes us have to try to relate and to understand what the singer is expressing. It forces people to step out of their shoes and into someone else's for a change, and I think that being able to do this is extremely important.

Best of Week: Technology

Something that really intrigued me in class this week was our discussion about humans and technology. We talked about the possibility of having the ability to download information into our brains and the ethics of doing so.

While it would be insanely cool to be able to do that, I also think that it’s not natural. It feels like cheating. What would we be working towards if we could have everything we needed programmed into our brains already? If everyone is special then no one is special. If everyone is beautiful then no one’s beautiful. Then would the same goes for this? If everyone is at the highest intelligence then no one’s at the highest intelligence.

Metacognition: College Essays

A popular college essay prompt seems to be along the lines of “What matters to you?” or “What is something our university should definitely know about you?” In all honesty, I've been struggling with college essays, especially the self-reflective kind.

For one of U of I’s essays, I had to write about how my past has impacted my decisions about my future. Initially I had a lot of trouble figuring out what to write about. I really woke up one day and decided I would major in business and fashion...there wasn't a specific part of my past that has been the indicator of that. I didn't grow up drawing clothing I created in my mind, and I never thought I would want to be a business major. I had always had the impression that those business people were the boring ones...all serious and stuff...

And that was until I actually started to look into it. I realized that I could find ways to connect my artsy self into a field that, at first glance, can sound unexciting.  

A lot of qualities that a business major needs—discipline, motivation, the ability to persist in long term goals—were things that I have learned through my background in piano. Once I finally came to terms with this, I realized that I had my essay.

Blogging Around

In Eva's blog, she compared our lives here in Glenview with the lives of children in the brothels:

I really agree with your thoughts on this. If I were to stereotype North shore suburban kids, I would say that we take a lot of things for granted. Not true for everyone, but definitely accurate in a lot of people. We complain every day about having to go to school, when the kids in the brothels would do anything to be allowed to get an education. We complain about our parents who “nag” us to work harder and harder, while the parents of kids in the brothels pull them out of school, which is basically unheard of around here.

In Malcolm's blog, he talked about how creativity is important in many aspects of someone's life:

My two brothers are pretty much video game addicts...and also two of the most uninspired people I know, SO I definitely see the point that "The Creativity Crisis" makes in my own life. I also get where you're coming from when you said that you need creativity as a musician. Having original and innovative ideas is essential to composing and making your own music.

Best of Week: Thinking the Right Way

In class this week we discussed Neal Gabler’s article “The Elusive Big Idea.” A quote that really summed up the main idea of the article said that today’s world is a place where “big, thought-provoking ideas that can’t instantly be monetized are of so little intrinsic value that fewer people are generating them and fewer outlets are disseminating them...” This statement made a weird connection for me. It made me think of those academic dishonesty scenarios that we get at the beginning of every school year.

An example: Kid #1 doesn’t do their homework, and 5 minutes before class you see them with two copies of it—one blank, one with Kid #2’s name on it. They copy the answers lightning fast and get an A for the day.

This doesn’t exactly match any of the scenarios, but it’s still the same idea. It’s possible that Kid #1 just didn’t have time to do his homework, but it’s also possible that he was lazy and didn’t care. The fact that he is copying the answers shows that he probably doesn’t care what questions he is copying the answers to—he very likely hasn’t even read them. What he cares about is that he gets the homework points. Points have value.

People today are much too concerned about immediate knowledge instead of forming their own ideas through rational thought techniques. I think that resisting this common urge to simply know everything is extremely important. Pursuing original ideas should have just as much--if not more--influence on everyone's thought process. 

Connections: Mason Cooley and Curiosity vs. Creativity

The other day I came across a quote. The things you come across on Twitter can be pretty interesting:

I had no idea who Mason Cooley was, but I liked his quote so I looked him up. The first source that came up was Wikipedia. It said that he was famous for his aphorisms—another word I had to look up. Aphorisms turned out to be short quotes that express a common truth, according to dictionary.com.

In my opinion, though, this quote was more than just a generalized truth. It reminded me of the Alan Alda essay we studied in class, "Pass the Plate, Mr. Feymman." We did an activity after reading the article in which we made a "handbook for curiosity." It's true that curiosity and creativity are different things, but in my opinion, this quote connected them. I think that curiosity definitely leads to creativity.

One of the points in my group's curiosity handbook was "challenge your thoughts until you find new ways of thinking." Challenging original ideas is an important step in generating curiosity as well as being creative, which is what connects the quote to our handbook for curiosity. 

Captured Thought: Addiction

The other day, I was surfing through YouTube videos and I came across a contemporary dance routine from a show called So You Think You Can Dance. The song they choreographed the routine to was called “Gravity” by Sara Bareilles. This has always been one of my favorite songs, also by one of my favorite artists. The first few lyrics are: “Something always brings me back to you, it never takes too long.” Whenever I listened to this song, I always interpreted it as a love song, talking about how love can act like a gravitational pull.

But seeing this particular dance routine really threw me. The story behind the dance was not at all a love story; it seemed to be the exact opposite. It seemed to be about an emotionally damaged girl being tortured by some sort of evil. The dance was beautiful, but I didn’t really understand it.

Before every dance routine on the show, there is a video the choreographer talking about the meaning behind the routine—this is also the part I usually fast forward through. I went back and listened to the explanation, and I learned that the choreographer had taken an entirely different interpretation of the song. Instead of love being the gravitational pull, it was an addiction. Which, in hindsight, is pretty genius if you ask me.

For anyone who's curious, this is the link to a video of the dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hND4LGKmqCA