Carry It Forward: TED Presentation

Today I presented my TED speech and I really liked the idea my presenter talked about. Obviously, because thats why I wanted to do it for my presentation in the first place. Eating habits is something I really care about and want to fix in my life for instance. I eat ALOT of meat, and I used to eat ALOT of junkfood, but Ive started to cut down on that. He explains how our over-consumption of meat and junkfood are going to destroy sustainability on earth and harm our own bodies. I believed this whole time that meat was good for me, so thats why I eat so much of it. And its so incredibly good! But I would really like to decrease the amount I eat because now I know the real harm its doing. It is definately going to be really difficult but I hope to succeed with this because Im not completely satisfied with my body yet. And of course I care about my health and I dont want the planet to destruct any time soon. I know my contribution wont save the world but its a start! It sure will be easy though when I go out for dinner, because meat is wayyy to expensive! So Ill stick with salads and other healthier things instead of my first instinct always being meat.

                                        

An Inconvinient Truth: Wars & Hatred

The one thing I just cannot understand is why everyone can NOT get along. Like why cant we all just accept each other for who we are? Everyone is so caught up on their own beliefs and if other people dont share that same belief, automatically we hate them. Like the Holocaust for example, why must you hate on all the Jews? Its not their fault they're Jewish, thats just what they were born into! How can you punish them for that? They believe in their stuff just as the Germans believed in whatever they believed in. You never saw the Jews hating on them for anything! Why cant everyone just mind their own business! I feel that all countries now should just have nothing to do with each other. We should stop helping others and others stop helping us because its not doing any good. Its just the mindset that everyone has and there is no way we can change that and that really bothers me. They all say "oh this person isnt like me so lets judge them!" "start a war!" blah blah blah! We all just need to get with the program and realize that what were doing is harming us, wasting money, and not getting us any further. We need to accept, love, and respect each other so everyone from everywhere can be friends and we wont have to have any hatred or any wars or any of this stupid stuff that is a waste of time. I dont want to worry about bombs dropping on my country or me or my kids living through world disasters like that. And with the way its going, I dont think its going to get any better. The band Smashmouth said it perfectly in their song "Why cant we be friends?" We just have to change everyones mindsets to love and respect and I think well be just fine. But that is a looooong stretch.

Blogging Around

First, I commented on Kara's blog about the meaning of life. She talked about how we need to live for the better things in life, and appreciate that more and I think that is a very strong idea.

Kara,
You are so right on! There is so much more to life than stupid electronics and things like that. However, I dont feel that we are selfish for having them or wanting them. I mean, I dont think what was your main point, but I definately need my phone and computer, for communication, safety and homework of course. But I'm sure I dont obsess over them or base my life off them. Family, friends and love are so much more important and that is what we need to focus on and cherish.

After that, I commented on Addie's blog about the Do You Mind question on change. She said how she would have liked to (if she could) been born in a different place and upbringing do get a different experience and maybe learn about a new culture.

Addie,
Oh my gosh! I wonder this ALL the time! I would love to have a chance to be born in a completely different place, different family, friends all that stuff. That would be awesome! Thats really interesting you thought that way because when people are asked what they want to change about them, the first thing we generally think about is appearance. But you didnt and I think thats really special. But it would definately be really cool to live a whole different life and see how different things "could have been."

Best of Week: Interpretation

All week we have been reading this article called "consilience" a unity of knowledge. The key idea discussed in this article is interpretation. The author says that interpretation is an art of it's own. It is the engine that drives consilience and I think that that is a very strong idea. We mostly talk about how when reading these articles, we have to interpret what they are saying in our own way to really understand it. You ask, how do you know that you know something? If you can interpret it in your own way. But this is a very hard thing to do sometimes and can get frustrating. Anyways, this is a huge reoccuring idea in class everyday and is very powerful. I would like to see myself being able to interpret others works in my own way this year and when I get to college. Thats why I love that we are getting the practice now.

Best of Week: Do You Mind?

My all time favorite part of this year is the Do You Mind questions. I love answering them, and I love hearing other peoples answers. It really is a great way to think deeply and explore my past and ways of my mind. One question I liked a lot was one asked earlier this week. It was, What's the biggest step you've taken in the past year? How did it change your life? When I was asked this, it required no thinking time. It came to me right away because this was definately my big moment this year. I finally got to perform infront of the entire school by myself! I was CRAZY nervous, but it was an all around great experience that really changed me. I used to think only the "usuals" got that opportunity and that I would never be able to do that, but I was wrong. When it was granted to me, it was an amazing feeling of accomplishment and gave me tons of confidence I never knew I had. This memory will now stay with me forever and help me to go on and do bigger and better things. Confidence is KEY.

Blogging Around

First I read a blog by Klaudia Stachura. It was a connection of Alan Lightman, Colbie Callait, and Klaudia. Her main focus was how in Einsteins Dreams, Alan Lightman talks about how people get stuck in time and they aren't able to say the things they want to say. She noticed that in one of Colbie's songs, she talks about this, and Klaudia has also had her own experience of this with her grandfather. I responded:

Klaudia, first I have to say that I respect you so much for being able to share something from your past that is so personal and emotional. But the main thing I got from this, was when you said its hard for you to express emotion. That is really sad :[ and being a person who loves to love and tell everyone how much I love them, I really hope that changes for you in the future because its a great thing and it feels really good to say. :] and I do know exactly how you feel, all of my grandparents are dead and seeing the last one go was heartbreaking and its hard to go through I know. But on a happier note, I love the connections you made..its always great to connect things with music because it is so relatable sometimes and music is a fun way to do school stuff haha..but they were very strongly put, so true, and I love the picture! Then I noticed that you have an image for every blog post and it really spicens it up..lol I wish I thought of that! Great job! Love ya! haha

Second, I read a blog by Joe G.  He wrote about when he cleaned out his closet, and I was able to make a very close connection to that. I responded:

Joe, this is seriously the same thing I did with this blog. Haha my closet was a DISASTER and I was like how did I let it get like this? I can never just fold things back up and put them away right away im just too lazy lol. But that quote is really awesome. I've never heard it put like that, but my parents always said things like that to me too. Even knowing, its still hard to do sometimes right? Yeah and procrastinating never helps either! But this was halarious lol like I actually laughed when reading it especially the clothes cleaning themselves up part! Lol.

Final Blog: The Shallows--The Post-American World

The book I read was The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains. I am commenting on Ashley Cummings' blog for her book, The Post-American World. It doesn't seem like these two books have a lot of connections, but there are some in the beginning of the book, which she writes about in her blog. The quote Ashley used is saying that there is so much growth in our world now with technology, economics, and politics and it can be good and bad. I am going to stick with the technology part because that connects to my book the most. She quotes that "it is raising a series of complex and potentially lethal dilemmas" (Zakaria 27). That is something that the author of my book Nicholas Carr, would probably agree with. He believes that the Internet is changing us and our brains in mostly negative ways. Both of these books discuss how technology is greatly advancing. It's good because everything is now faster and easier and we can do anything we need to do online, and most Americans now find that they cant live without it. Its bad because were dependent on it and now were losing the importance of memorization, books are also losing their value and its only going to get worse...and better at the same time. Also, I like how she talks about challenging the status quo, and changing it because thats what we have been talking about in class all semester. I feel like in my book, the author wants us to challenge the status quo as well and maybe try to cut down on our use of the internet and television. He wants to bring back the power of the book, as opposed to The Post-American World, where they need to alter the status quo to compete with the new global powers we will soon have.