Passion Project Update

I'm stuck in a bit of a slump. I have found a ton of words but I'm stuck when it comes what to do with them. Initially I was going to make a video acting out the definition of the words but most of them can't be acted out. I was also thinking of of making a dictionary of my own words(not like words I made up but like the words I wanted to put in)  but I don't know how to make it interesting and not just like a regular dictionary. I think I'm going to start exploring more on the origin of language(not just the English language but all language) and maybe even try to find out what makes certain words more common then others like why do certain words die out while others are still in.I have a lot to figure out so I plan on using my Fridays more wisely.

127 Hours

"There is no force more powerful than the will to live." When we first discussed this quote in class, I immediately thought of drowning. I remembered hearing this quote on Teen Wolf (yes I'm quoting Teen Wolf sorry), "You know when you’re drowning you don’t actually inhale until right before you black out. It’s called voluntary apnea. It’s like no matter how much you’re freaking out, the instinct to not let any water in is so strong that you won’t open your mouth until you feel like your head’s exploding. Then when you finally do let it in, that’s when it stops hurting. It’s not scary anymore, it’s… it’s actually kind of peaceful.”  I also thought of  crazy incidents where people are stranded. Life of Pi came to mind as well. I thought of how long he was stuck at sea and how even trapped on a boat with a tiger he managed to keep himself sane and alive long enough to find shore. I also thought of how people resort to cannibalism in order to survive. Before this lesson, I had watched 127 hours at home. I always enjoy doing things more than once (like re-reading a book) because you pick up on things you may have missed the first time around. This movie was no exception. I think my viewing experience changed a bit now that I'm older, forgot about some details and was generally more aware when watching. It's like the first time you go through something just to go through it, then you go through a second time and look for your answers.The first time I watched the movie I was interested but I wasn't aware. I didn't completely understand what Aaron went through. The struggle he went through didn't really sink in. I hadn't realized how much strength he would have to possess to go without food and water for 5 days while enduring freezing temperatures, hallucinations and not being able to sleep. Watching the movie the second time really let all of that sink in. Before I was like "WOW he cut off his own arm  to survive!!!!!!!" but then I learned what he really did and its like " WOW HE CUT OFF HIS OWN ARM. HE HAD TO BREAK HIS OWN BONE. HE HAD TO CUT OUT A NERVE. AND HE FELT IT ALL BECAUSE WHERE HE WAS CUTTING, HIS ARM WASN'T DEAD AND IF THAT'S NOT BAD ENOUGH HE HAD TO USE A DULL KNIFE TO CUT HIS BARE FLESH. ON TOP OF THAT HE WAS LOSING A GREAT AMOUNT OF BLOOD WHILE HE WAS ALREADY STARVING AND HADN'T DRANK WATER IN 5 DAYS. AND AFTER ALL THAT HE GRABS HIS CAMERA AND TAKES A PICTURE OF HALF OF HIS ARM HE LEFT IN THE ROCK THEN JOGS FOR WHAT PROBABLY FELT LIKE HOURS TO HIM WHILE FEELING THE DIZZINESS FROM ALL THE BLOOD LOSS TO FIND HELP. MOST OF ALL, AFTER ALL THAT HE CONTINUES TO GO ROCK CLIMBING. AMAZING"
Some people after seeing what he went through would think he was crazy for continuing to rock climb after having his accident but I would have to disagree. After finding out he still continues to do what he loves I was happy for him . I feel like it's very courageous of him ( mostly because if that happened to me I would never leave the house again)(heck I don't think I would have even made it past stabbing my self in the arm the second that knife hit skin I would have passed out)(actually I probably wouldn't have even made it that far I'm a wimp I probably would have stopped trying as soon as I ran out of food and water)(maybe even the second it turned night time I can't handle the cold and the 3 blankets I'm using right now  in my almost 70 degree house while typing would have to agree). The point of the movie, I believe, is to show, like Arron himself said, that "When something happens, it's a trauma, but we decide if its going to be a tragedy or a triumph." Aaron definitely turned this experience into a triumph. Instead of drowning himself in self-pity he did something. He didn't give up. He took action, freed himself, learned from his mistakes, and took this opportunity to better himself.

Dasani - Invisible Child

After reading the 5-part story on Dasani and her family I was left in deep thought with many questions. I had a few questions when reading like, Why does the city not put money towards fixing the shelter?, Why do they even examine the shelter if nothing is being done to fix it?, and Why do the police not take the problems going on in the building, like rape, burglary, etc., seriously?.I was angry that all these people are being ignored. And that's just at Auburn there's tons of shelters out there with families just like the ones that lived with Dasani that are being left behind. I get disgusted when thinking of all the children that suffer in these shelters and how their families are probably trying to leave but they don't have anyone to help. At the end of the story I was left wondering what Dasani was doing now. The common questions like what happened to Chanel and Supreme, how are they liking their home, how is the family doing, etc, came to mind. What really struck out to me was the way the author ended the story. I was confused on why the author would leave us so abruptly without a conclusion but, I'm starting to realize that no ending would be satisfactory for me. I think the author was right in leaving the story off where she did. Even with more parts I feel I would still want more because Dasani's story is never ending. She has so much of her life left and is full of so much potential. The author did her job, showed us what we needed to see and when she felt she got her point across she stopped. I feel like she's leaving the story unwritten for Dasani to write herself. Overall, I really enjoyed the piece. I learned a lot about being homeless and how shelters work. I learned that a roof above someone’s head doesn't necessarily mean they have a home and that homeless shelters aren't the safe havens I believed them all to be. I was able to understand why so many people never get out of poverty and how there is an impulse to buy new things once you have the money to afford them. After reading about their life, I felt very grateful for what I have but shameful at the same time for all the things I take for granted on a daily basis. 

Despite our lives being so different, I see a bit of myself in Dasani. She's determined, filled with hope, is genuinely curious about everything, and never quits. I admire her strength and her ability to rise back up after having a bad day as well as her decision to make a better life for herself. Rather than get into drugs, stealing, etc., she planned on saving up her money and buying her family a home and now she aspires to go to college which I think is wonderful. If I could talk to Dasani I would tell her to never give up. I would tell her that she shouldn't let where she is from hold her back from achieving her dreams. I would tell her that she has the potential to accomplish great things. I would tell her how much I admire her. Lastly, I would tell her that the president and his family do live at the white house.

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Beasts of the Southern Wild was one of the best movies I've seen in a while. I enjoyed the movie in general but there were a few lines that I loved. One of my favorites was "The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted." I suppose I enjoyed the movie so much because of how wise and fearless Hushpuppy was. It was amazing that at 6 years old she was able to see the world in one big picture. She knew there was so much more to the universe then her. She was able to comprehend so many things. A few lines that got to me were "When it all goes quiet behind my eyes, I see everything that made me flying around in invisible pieces. I see that I'm a little piece of a big, big universe", and"All the time, everywhere, everything's hearts are beating and squirting and talking to each other in ways I can't understand. Most of the time they probably be saying, 'I'm hungry or I gotta poop' or sometimes they be talking in codes." Hushpuppy was also fearless due to the way her father raised her. I found their relationship to be very interesting. Wink, her father, wanted her to grow up to be strong so she could take care of her self and handle anything that came in her way. He's always rough with her but there is a touch of gentleness because he does love her. My favorite quote from wink was "My only purpose in life is to teach her how to make it," because it sums up all his intentions with the things he does, like when he tells her not to cry or when he has her open up the crab by "beasting" it (opening it up with her hands and eating it like a beast would). In the movie we see Hushpuppy act the way her father told her to. She refuses to leave the Bathtub and when she'd forced to she comes back anyway. She knows what people say about the Bathtub but she doesn't care. She then says "They think we're all gonna drown down here. But we ain't going nowhere", "One day, the storm's gonna blow, the ground's gonna sink and the water's gonna rise up so high ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water… But me and my daddy, we stay right here. We is who the earth is for."  and "Everybody loses the thing that made them. It's even how it's supposed to be in nature. The brave men stay and watch it happen, they don't run." Hushpuppy is one of those brave men. When the aurochs approached her she wasn't scared, she looked them straight in the eye because she knew that " Strong animals know when your hearts are weak," and she wasn't weak. Another reason I loved Hushpuppy was because she had such big dreams and aspirations and plans of making a name for herself. She says a few times in the movie that "In a million years when kids go to school, they're gonna know, there was a Hushpuppy and she lived with her daddy in the Bathtub." Overall, I loved the movie and it's ability to make the way of life in the bathtub seem normal, at one point I found myself not wanted to see them leave either.
I think this movie fits into our humanity unit because it shows some important traits we have as humans. The movie shows that we are able to solve problems. When the Bathtub floods, they find a way to survive despite the challenges. It also shows we have empathy.It shows a free way of living. They didn't have modern technology, they didn't live in a big city,they had to find their own food not buy it and basically they lived a simple life. They couldn't buy food from a grocery store they had to fish for it themselves. Lastly, it showed us that there are different ways of living and thinking but even with these differences we still have the same characteristics that make us human.

Passion Project Update & Reflection

We are now halfway through our passion projects and I can honestly say I haven't gotten much done. I had lost track of how little time I have. My progress is small. I have read "Half of the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn and I have taken notes on what I want to include in my presentation. I also started my second book two  weeks ago called The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedman. It has taken me 6 passion days along with multiple 30 minute reading sessions before bed to finish Half the Sky. I started my second book on the 7th passion day but haven't gotten far in it.I've been too busy with school work to try to read but my laziness/ procrastination has paid its dues as well. I spent the last passion day finishing my Myers-Brigg blog post so I lost some time there too. With only 8 passion days left and I still need to finish The Feminine Mystique and my third book on women's history. My plan for the rest of the project is to read more at home. I will try to dedicate more of my free time to reading so I can finish both books. In addition, I will keep my reading at home now instead of during class time. During these next 8 passion days, starting tomorrow, I will begin the research part of my project like where feminism first began and how it's grown. Also, during these days I will construct a poll to give to the class and to others. Lastly, I will begin to start/build my prezi and add information on as I go. I might have to do some work at home but if I stay on schedule I think I'll be able to include everything I want into my project.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

After taking the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), I uncovered that I was an INFJ. 

The "I" stands for Introversion meaning that " I often prefer doing things alone or with one or two people I feel comfortable with. I take time to reflect so that I have a clear idea of what I’ll be doing when I decide to act. Ideas are almost solid things for me. Sometimes I like the idea of something better than the real thing." 

The "N" stands for Intuition meaning that "I would rather learn by thinking a problem through than by hands-on experience. I’m interested in new things and what might be possible, so that I think more about the future than the past", "I am interested in doing things that are new and different", and I like to see the big picture, then to find out the facts."

The "F" stands for Feeling meaning that "I believe I can make the best decisions by weighing what people care about and the points-of-view of persons involved in a situation. I am concerned with values and what is the best for the people involved. I like to do whatever will establish or maintain harmony. In my relationships, I appear caring, warm, and tactful."

The "J" stands for Judging meaning that I use my decision-making (Judging) preference (whether it is Thinking or Feeling) in my outer life. To others, I seem to prefer a planned or orderly way of life, like to have things settled and organized, feel more comfortable when decisions are made, and like to bring life under control as much as possible.Since this pair only describes what I prefer in the outer world, I may, inside, feel flexible and open to new information (which I am).Do not confuse Judging with judgmental, in its negative sense about people and events. They are not related."

After this test I became more aware of certain things I do. Sometimes you don't realize the kinds of things you do until it's pointed out. If I was asked to describe my personality the first thing I would think to say wouldn't be that I prefer to look at the big picture then find out the facts, but if asked I would agree. I realized that those certain things I do lead me to think differently than others. The most important thing I learned after taking this test was that there is no one set way of thinking. Everyone sees things differently and most will probably think differently than me. 

According to this test, there are at least 16 different personalities. But that's just a rounding. There are always going to be people who break the mold, even if its just a little bit. What makes us human could be our differences in the way we think. There are at least 16 ways of thinking, 16 different curiosities, and billions of ways of fulfilling our curiosity. We are human because we ask questions, we find answers, we go on journeys, we make discoveries, we are always solving problems, we are always improving all because we all think differently and we are all curious. 

Joyas Voladras

Our hearts are probably our most important muscle/organ. They're only about the size of a fist but they pump blood through our bodies 24/7, 365 days of every year only ever stopping when we die. That's a lot of work. In the essay Joyas Voladras we learn about many hearts including the engine of a heart trapped inside the hummingbird. The hummingbird is a magnificent creature. Their hearts beat 10 times a second (while normal human hearts beat a mere 1-3 per second). Not only does the hummingbirds heart beat almost 10 times faster than ours but "a hummingbird's heart is only the size of a pencil eraser." With a heart like that it's no surprise that hummingbird's don't live to be a 100 years old. Hummingbirds live a fast ambitious life and "The price of their ambition is a life closer to death." It is said that "Every creature on earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime. You can spend them slowly, like a tortoise, and live to be two hundred years old, or you can spend them fast, like a hummingbird, and live to be two years old." This was one of my favorite quotes in the essay because it makes you think. I believe that Brian Doyle was trying to get the readers to think about is how they spend their 2 billion beats. The tortoise and the hummingbird are obviously two different extremes and I don't think that we are meant to be like either one. We as humans are given the happy medium in this situation. Although we don't live to be as old as a tortoise we are given more time than just 2 lousy years. Hummingbirds may live a fast life but it's a bit of a meaningless life. When reading and re-reading this quote I initially thought of a video we saw last week in class. In the video, Neil Pasricha discusses his 3 A's of Awesome: Attitude, Awareness, and Authenticity. Basically, he talks about how it's important that we live the little time we have here on Earth with a positive attitude, that we are aware of all the awesome things, especially during dark times, and that more importantly we have authenticity, and no matter what we stay true to ourselves. I believe Brian left us with a similar message. He gets you thinking about those 2 billion heart beats. In the last paragraph of his essay, Doyle talks about how "all hearts finally are bruised and scarred, scored and torn, repaired by time and will, patched by force of character, yet fragile and rickety forevermore, no matter how ferocious the defense and how many bricks you bring to the wall. You can brick up your heart as stout and tight and hard and cold and impregnable as you possibly can “but even though we are torn, and even though we build walls we can't stop being aware of things good or bad. Our walls topple " in an instant, felled by a woman's second glance, a child's apple breath, the shatter of glass in the road, the words I have something to tell you, a cat with a broken spine dragging itself into the forest to die, the brush of your mother's papery ancient hand in a thicket of your hair, the memory of your father's voice early in the morning echoing from the kitchen where he is making pancakes for his children." With this in mind, the answer to our question “What does it mean to be human " becomes clear; we are not humans because we have hearts and organs, we are human because of how we live. "So much held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day, an hour, a moment." As humans we are aware of many things. We know when to build our walls up, we remember the pain but at the same time we remember the good. We can't help being aware, and we can't help that our walls fall down. We are curious beings with the need to share with others. We have empathy. All these qualities effect how we live, and all these qualities are what make us human.