Blogging Around

Owner of Blog: Katya Roos
In Katya's blog entitled "

"iMedia: Stand for Darfur" , she uses a picture of a Darfurian child to describe how innocent and hopeless the people of Darfur are. She talks about how these victims need attention and most off, they need our help but the sad part is that no one is doing anything about the genocide in Darfur. Katya asks whether those who help others out should be called heroes or whether it should just be human nature to help out others.

Ligia Hotca said...

Katya-
I definitely agree with everything that you said in this blog entry. And to answer your question, I personally believe that it should be simply human nature to help others. I don't think it's right to just stand by and watch the millions of innocent victims in Darfur be slaughtered just because they had the unfortunate luck of living in the wrong place. Everyone should realize that these people need serious help because if we all just neglect the fact that innocent people are being killed then we must be pretty dumb. We all need to realize that in order to survive we need to help each other out because every single one of us deserves and equal opportunity at life.

December 13, 2008 11:05 AM

Owner of Blog: Shion Payne

In Shion's blog entitled,

"Carry it Forward: Visions of Light", she gives a brief summary of the film "Visions of Light" and connects the idea of using light a means of distorting a person (or outfit in her case) to make them seem more appealing.

Ligia Hotca said...

Personally, i think this idea is awesome. I've seen some of your art work and sketches of different outfits and you are seriously an amazing artist. The whole idea of using the city lighting is great and it will really help highlight your urban styled outfits. Having the city in the background is also a nice touch since your portfolio is called "urban style", the urban surroundings will really make it more appealing. Oh and if you really stick to this plan of using lighting as a means to make your outfits more appealing, your portfolio will definitely get into your dream college.

December 13, 2008 11:25 AM

Research: Hildegard of Bingen

http://elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy/JEK/09/17.html

In the novel Sophie's World, Hildegard of Bingen is first introduced to us and one of the earliest woman philosophers and thinkers. Hildegard lived as a nun in the early years of the Middle Ages and was widley respected for her different works in theology and visionary writings. At the age of eight, she went to a Benedictine monestary at Mount St. Disibode to recieve an education. Ten years later, at the age of 18 Hildegard decided to be a nun and at the age of 38 she was the head of the female community at the monestary. Soon after she become the head of the monestary, she had a series of visions and devoted ten years of her life to writing these visions down, describing them in full detail along with maticulous illustrations of what she had seen. Since the number of nuns coming into the monestary were growin rapidly, Hildegard moved the location of the nuns to another monestary in Bingen.
Throughout the next several years of her life, she spent her time traveling around Europe, preaching. After many years of preaching, Hildegard passed away on September 17, 1179, leaving the 100's of letter that she had written to emperors and popes behind, along with the 72 songs and 70 poems she had written. Most of the books she had written dealt with theology of ethics. She was concerned apparantley, with how exactly the human body and mind functioned and how the nervous system can affect our ways of percieving reality. Her books also dealt with insight on nature and of God and his relation to the universe. Hildegard's interests in biology, naturalism and botanism all tied together to influence the hundreds of people that she had given advice to and preached to throughout her life.
As you can see Hildegard of Bingen was not only recognized in the Middle Ages as one of the first and most courageous woman philosophers and thinkers of her time, but she has ended up playing a significant role in world history ever since. After her death, composers went on to expand her compositions and songs and eventually created a type of music. Hildegard helped inspire many generations of women to not only be more practical and scientific but to be more philosophical.

Change of Mind: Philosophy and War

A few days ago in class, we had a discussion about the Baroque chapter in Sophie's World that focused on the postcard that Sophie recieved from Hilde's dad (p.218). In the postcard, Hilde's dad argued that the best way to avoid war was to take a short course in philosophy. My initial thought on this statement was that it would make sense to teach a manditory philosophy course because the basis of philosophy is Humanity. The main thing that philosophy revolvs around is how humans came to be, what it actually means to be human and what seperates us from other creatures on this planet. I figured that if someone took a course in philosophy, they would soon learn that all humans are the same because they are made of the same "form" (as Plato put it) and since we are all equal, there is no need to go off in foreign territories and conquer that group of people. I thought that equality was the underlying reason that would help these people realize that it would be unfair to have more territory or resources than it's neighbor.
However, after having a discussion about it in class, I came to realize that in fact, if a philosophy course were to be taught to everyone, that would only cause more problems. People would realize each human condition is unique in it's own way and by learning the history of philosophy, they would realize that in fact humanity is unequal. A course in philosophy would then help each person determine his/her philosophy of war and whether or not they should engage in it, which would ultimatley cause even more problems. Because each person is their own unique individual, and bceause we are all composed of both evil and good, history has proven that some of us tend to be more evil than good (and vice versa) and this would in turn provoke violence instead of calming it. After this discussion, I realized that a course in philosophy would NOT make everyone realize that we are all humans (and equal for that matter) and get us to stop fighting, but it would instead make us fight and argue even more because of the fact that we would each establish our own philosophies (of war) that would each reflected OUR OWN personal perspectives of what is good and evil.

iMedia: Rise Against- Prayer of the Refugee

Rise Against- Prayer of the Refugee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOtNqDyyX2c


When I first listened to this song, I didn't really pay much attention to the lyrics. I'll admit that what first caught my eye was the heavy, deep rhythm of the guitar and the lead singer's deep voice. Of course I could only listen to it so many times before I actually listened to what they were trying to say, before I actually figured out that this song was intended for more than it's fantastic pulse. The lyrics of this song startled me more than any other song that I had heard at the time and caught my attention because of one simple reason; the fact that I could actually relate to it (although not the extent that the lyrics portray). The lyrics are so truthful and perfect in the essence that it captures the true emotions of a refugee. When I first read these lyrics I noticed something very important about not only myself, but probably most of the other Americans. I noticed that ever since this immigration crisis in the US, most people have viewed these immigrants to be criminals and black hearted people, but what was really interesting about this song was that it gave us a perspective on the immigrant's themselves. This song showed us not only the truth about our culture and how one sided we are (in thinking), but it showed us the truth about these people that we look down upon. It showed us how they are human beings just like us and how just because they are seeking the same opportunities and we all have here in the US, they have to live their lives in constant fear and agony because of us.
They are not the bad guys, we are. We are the people who don't take the time to consider both sides of this issue. We are the hypocrites who live in the land that we call "the land of the free" in which the rights to freedom of speech is reserved for EVERYONE, or so we say, but in reality we don't allow these freedoms to anyone but ourselves. This video clearly shows how hypocritical we are as a country and most definitely reflects how bias we are. We use other people around the world and manipulate them into thinking that they are doing something good. That their work will some day be paid off, but in reality we just take credit for their work. Let's face it, the majority of us don't necessarily know what it is like to be in poverty and have these hopes and dreams of being a refugee in a country that offers an escape from this misery. This obviously affects our culture in a terrible way, but there is no way around it because this is the truth about us. We are not the "land of the free" and we do not accept everyone for who they are, but most importantly we do not offer the same opportunities for all because we discriminate on all different levels simply because we fails to think about issues from different perspectives.
I have to say that I am stereotyping a bit when I say this because I know for a fact that not everyone is like this, but if we all neglect the fact that we have done wrong and we have been hypocrites, this is ultimately what our culture will turn out to be (not that it already isn't). I understand that this is only one video and it might seem crazy to draw such drastic conclusions but this is more than an ordinary music video. This music video not only takes a risk in portraying the negative sides of America, but it shows the emotions and truths about the people that seek refugee in our country, which is more than i can say for most of the other music video's I've seen.

Blogging Around

Owner: Sonny M
Blog:

"What If? 9/11 All Over Again"

In this blog, Sonny discussed what would happen to the world if 9/11 were to strike again, except this time it were to happen to the Sears Tower. He talked about how everyone would have the same reactions and the view of the tower would be the same.

Ligia Hotca said...

I agree that if something like 9/11 were to happen again, but to the Sears tower, most people would react the same (including the President). It would still be shocking to think that something like this could happen to Chicago, but I think if It were to happen to the Sear tower it would affect us (the people around Chicago) a little more than the rest of the country. It would be interesting to see the 17 and 18 year old's reactions now in comparison to their reaction when the first 9/11 occurred. For one thing, i would think that our generation wouldn't necessarily find it shocking at all ,considering what we've been through since the first 9/11, but they would still be affected by it. They would definitley respond in a calmer way than before, but who's to say what they would do about the attack.

October 12, 2008 5:45 PM

Owner: Katya R
Blog:

"Change of mind: Denis Johnson, 9/11"

In this blog, Katya brought up a good point about 9/11 that I haven't really paid attention to or thought about much. She said that it's unfair that we were making such a big deal about 9/11 because it was simply one attack whereas other people around the world get attacked everyday and no one even seems to notice.

Ligia Hotca said...

Katya, I think you bring up a relevant point about 9/11 that most people fail to see. I completely agree with what you said about other people being in worse off situations than we were on this day and how people all over the world have to deal with death and tragedies on a day to day basis. It isn't fair that we got that attention on 9/11 just because we are America and because we apparently are one of the most important nations in the world. It also isn't fair that these innocent people in countries that are far worse off than the US don't get ANY attention when way worse things are happening to them just because they have the unfortunate luck of living in a impoverished country. You bring up a very good point about the 9/11 tragedy that I think everyone should know and think about because it is the reality of our world.

October 12, 2008 5:58 PM

360 Degrees: Hurricane Ike Strikes Galveston

How can someone not loose faith in God after a natural disaster like Hurricane Ike just diminished their home? In the first place, I think in order to fully understand this question, we must first blame ourselves for the disasters that Hurricane Ike caused. Usually human nature consists of people learning from their mistakes in the past and growing from them, but then if this statement is true, why haven't we taken note from Hurricane Katrina? Why haven't we payed attention more to these "natural" disasters? Why haven't we built built things or done things to prevent this devastation? The answer, I believe, is that we (our government too) were too busy with intervening in other people's affairs around the world instead of looking in our own front yard and helping OUR people. The US is always trying to make themselves useful in other countries affairs and then this is what happens to us. But most importantly, it seems like the US is good at one thing and one thing only; procrastinating.
But now I'm back to the question what does this have to do with God? Of course, for the religious people in Galveston, of which there are many, it has everything to do with God. Not only do they believe that God made this "natural" disaster happen as a punishment for something they have done, but from this , the people of Galveston, just like this old woman in the picture above ,are going to take this punishment and make the best of it. I believe that they are going to believe that God did this for their own good. They are going to believe that although God did cause this, God will fix it in the end.
On the other hand, I think that there are people who suffered from this hurricane that lost complete faith in humanity as a whole and simply turned to God for answers. I believe there are at least some people that did this because I know for a fact that if something like this happened to me and no one tried to help or prevent it most importantly, I would definitely loose faith in people.
This whole concept of God leads me to ask the question, why are the southerners so different from most of us up north? There are many answers to that I believe, but the main one is religion. Up here, although most of us belong to some church or religious institution, there is no way that we actually base our lives off of this like the people in the South do. I may be wrong, but in 2003 I was in Galveston visiting some family and all I remember thinking is, "Wow, these people are crazy religious fanatics". Everyone I talked to and almost every place I went to seemed to reflect a religious view. Galveston is a place full of hope and full of optimists. In my opinion, it is probably one of the few places in the US that can actually get hit by a disaster like this and still have hope and faith in God.
But if this is true, then why don't the people up North praise God as religiously as the people in the South do? Is it because we are too busy running around doing useless things when in reality the only thing that matters is God? Or is the opposite; Is it that we truly do know what we are doing and God is not our main priority because we believe that God has no say on our future and that these "natural" disasters are simply natural disasters? What I am really curious about knowing is that if the North were to suffer from something like this, would the people still be saying this? What would the people in the North think of God then? IF it were to happen to us in the North, could we suddenly become aware of God? Fortunately for us, nothing like this has happened-yet-and hopefully won't happen anytime in the near future. The one thing that I can say about the people who suffered tremendous losses from this hurricane is that they deserve to believe in something because humanity is not always dependable and in the end I think that they are the lucky ones because they are the ones who actually have faith in something, whereas the rest of us aren't even lucky enough to have faith in ourselves most of the time.

Metacognition: Q and E Essay

As I was writing the first section of this essay, I noticed something unusual about my thought process that I haven't really caught before. I noticed that instead of writing exactly what I was thinking at the time, I realized that I was trying to write what I would expect that the person reading this essay would want to hear. This was really shocking to notice because I had never thought that I was the type of person who would be a "people pleaser", so to speak. I'm not sure if everyone does this when they are writing, but I'm almost positive that everyone does this when they speaking to someone. People usually say what other people would want to hear and not what they actually think or want to say. They keep their opinions and thoughts to themselves and whether it is because they are scared of denial or because it is just human nature I'm not sure. What I am sure of though, is the fact that I was doing this as I was writing.
Now obviously this way of writing/thinking is not effective because for one, it doesn't really represent my voice on an issue. Also, it isn't very effective because it doesn't necessarily allow me to go deeper into my thinking and write down something that is actually worth reading. However, lucky for me I caught myself before I got even deeper into my writing. As soon as I noticed it, I went back and edited things so that they reflected exactly how I felt and what I wanted to say.
Since I now know this, I can finally apply it to all other writing that I will be doing in any class. When writing in the future, I will try as best I can to just express myself and my thoughts in a piece of writing that reflects exactly what I feel. Once I come up with a good thought, I can finally let my mind wonder and create deeper analytical thoughts which will in turn create an effective piece of writing.
Even though this "people pleaser" thought process is an area that I would like to work on , and have started to work on shortly after realizing it, there is one thing about my thought process that I love. I love the fact that I can come up with random thoughts about the past and the present that make no sense and are in no way related and then somehow link them together. For example, in this essay, I was listening to Pink Floyd while I was trying to write an opener for my question. Suddenly, my mind drifted and caught the lyrics "We don't need no education/We don't need no thoughts controlled" and from these two fragments I found myself a story. I linked an anecdote that I experienced in the past to a thought that I was currently having the present. This to me, being able to relate things from the past to the present is really interesting and really important to me because it is how my mind works. Most of the thoughts that I have everyday are basically comparisons between the past and present and I find this to be the coolest thing ever.

Best Of Week: Curiosity Is The Key

Although there were a lot of interesting insights and ideas that we talked about in class this week, the one that really caught my attention was a piece from the article "Sea of Information". In this article, Andrea Barrett writes on page 11 about how "[She'd] learned to follow where the spark of interest leads [her]" and goes on to say how these little sparks are "full of potential, charged and fresh and inspiring". I think that this idea that Barrett presents to us is very important because it gives us some insight on creative minds. From this quote, one could easily articulate how Barrett is trying to tell us that it is curiosity that drives a person to follow that sudden spark of interest in something. Barrett is saying in order for a person to have a creative personality they not only need to be open to new ideas and beliefs, but they also need to learn to follow their curiosity because that, in the end, is what leads them to do great things.
After reading this one quote by Barrett, it made me realize how many people end up doing exactly the opposite. When someone suddenly gets a spark of interest in something new and mysterious, most people, including myself, just end up completely ignoring it. If a person would actually take the initiative to find out more about what they wanted to learn about and were interested in, that person would have the potential to create (or even understand at the very least), something powerful and worth knowing. However, that is not the case regarding curiosity.
If I were to get nothing out of my senior year here except for one crucial insight, I would definitley want to learn this piece of information. I think this idea about being open to everything and everyone and following your curiosity no matter where it takes you is an idea that everyone needs to incorporate into their daily lives. To be honest, this is one of the main ideas out of humanities that I think is going to stick with me forever. Obviously forever is a strong word, but an insight like this is extremely hard to forget and once you have learned something of this degree, it's hard for someone to withhold themselves from it and not try to use it. That is why i think that I'm going to try it out, starting with my mindbook.

Connection: Romantic Individualism and Transcendentalism

In the article "The Televisionary", Malcolm Gladwell introduces this character known and Farnsworth to us, who is supposed to be the inventor and visionary of the television. Through out the article, it is mentioned in various ways that Farnsworth is a romantic. However, the way that this piece is written about Farnsworth, it is made out to imply that basically romantic individuals are bad because they are selfish and want things simply for themselves. They prefer to work alone instead of working in a group and getting the advantage of creating something even more magnificent. Even though this term is portrayed in a negative light in this article, there are some instances that suggest that the collaboration of individuals in general make great things happen.
This article relates in some ways to the idea of Transcendentalists. The founder of Transcendentalism, Ralph W. Emerson suggested that the greatest thing that a person could be is their own unique individual. For Emerson, the power and potential that the individual had was the greatest thing that ever existed. The ultimate goal of these Transcendentalists was for the individuals in one nation to act as their own person and make decisions that they know they want and now what the government or anyone else tells them to make. This idea of the rugged individual obviously played and still plays a very important role in our nation today.
Both Fransworth and Emerson were great examples of romantic individuals in our history in very similar ways. They both did things that interested themselves and ultimatley, they both wanted to make themselves important and the best they could be. The only difference is that Farnsworth was a visionary who was trying to be an individual in a competitive field where there was no room for individuals, but where there was only room for groups. This is a crucial idea because Emerson suggests that in order for someone to become a romantic individual, they would have to be in solitary confinement basically. However, since Farnsworth was working with a piece of technology that many other people were involved with, there was no chance for him to achieve the individualism that would lead him to claim success for the invention of the television.
The connection between these two very important people is very interesting in the sense that it demonstrates a perfect example of when an person can actually become his/her own individual and when he/she cannot. Also , the comparison between these two people show the change in society and technology as time went by and how these two things affected people all over the nation. In Emerson's time there were corporations, but not corporations that were as innovated and group orientated as the corporations in Farnsworth's time. This shows how much harder it was for Farnsworth to actually achieve individuality since he was constantly being pulled in by the mass.

Change of Mind: School

Over the last three years of high school, I pushed myself from day to day to get my homework done and to make sure that I studied for every single test. Because of this continuous routine that I was stuck in, I thought that my senior year of high school was going to be exactly the same. However, during the first few days of school this year I reflected upon my previous years in GBS and came to realize that everything I supposedly "learned" during this period had been someone lost. Even though I got pretty good grades, i must of not learned a lot.
For this reason, I have decided to go through my senior year with a different approach. Instead of actually trying to get good grades in my classes, I'm actually going to make sure that i understand and remember the things the things I learn in them because getting an A in a class doesn't necessarily mean that your remember the material. Grades are not a measure of accountability and are therefore pretty much irrelevant my learning process, that is why i have decided to stop caring so much about them and start caring more about the important elements that my classes offer.