Metacognition: Mashup

When I first heard the "mashup" project explained, I couldn't believe how easy it sounded. Just take a bunch of other people's work and throw it on a page? That isn't Academy work, is it? Well, it turns out it was.

I thought my mind would barely have to lift a finger with this project. Find quotes about love, copy, paste, and repeat. But once I started working, I realized there was so much more to it than that. You had to choose what order to put things in, how to arrange them, find meaningful connections between passages, and think.

When I began thinking, I realized the project created a new dynamic for me. I hated this at first, but grew on it as time went by. The Mashup forced me to research, without knowing what I was looking for. The claim would be formed after the fact. I immediately deemed this an unstable and risky endeavor, but realized there was no other path to arrive at the destination. I wish my mind had been open to that style of thought from the beginning. As it was, it only took about fifteen minutes of research to recognize the fun and spontaneity present in forming ideas as you go. Rather than a typical research paper where you find evidence that supports your claim, I was molding a claim that supports my evidence!

I was surprised at how well this project got all of our brains moving. We began moving past finding evidence. Rather, we were finding ways the evidence was related, and ways we could arrange the evidence to emphasize our point. I worked best and was the most productive in regards to our project when my mind was open to making connections, rather than focusing on one thing. One really achieves a better understanding of something when they have to think hard enough on it to relate it to something else. I really like that this project introduced me to this style of learning.

I like that eventually my brain started working in the two ways outlined (evidence before claim, and connections), but I hope I can use this experience to be able to think like that without having to be provoked by an assignment.

An Inconvenient Truth: Life Isn't Fair

"Life isn't fair. Get used to it." This quote hits the nail on the head, as far as our existence on this Earth goes. The irony lies in the speaker. Bill Gates, someone life has been more than fair to. About $56 Billion more fair. Regardless, the idea that human way of life favors some over others has been a facet of life since the dawn of time. This bothers me beyond belief.

There are countless examples I could give as to why life is unfair, but I'll stick to a few prominent ones.

Since we, as humans, are not omnipotent entities, we have no influence in the decision as to where we are born or into what circumstances. It is pure chance. Some people are born into wealth and power in countries like the United States. Obviously not everyone here is well off, but living conditions in the US far surpass those of many other countries. But for every person born into a comfortable position and giving the opportunity to succeed, there are two to three more born into destitution and hardship in countries like Sudan, Haiti, or the Republic of Congo. These people did not do anything to deserve the suffering they will be forced through in life, but are nonetheless dropped in those situations. Parents are the same way. Many people are born into loving families, who look out for each other and care. But there are still many others who are faced with neglect and abuse. Again, they had no choice in the matter.

This next inequality is mostly present in the United States, but also marginally elsewhere. There are very, very, hard working people in our country. And then there are athletes. Now, no one loves sports more than me, but honestly, this is ridiculous. The backbone of this great country, those who perform physical labor in infrastructure and construction rarely bring in over $100,000 a year. But I can understand compensating people for striving for excellence in education. So lets say a psychiatrist went to school for eight extra years, and is making two to three hundred thousand a year. And then Alex Rodriguez, the New York Yankees third basemen, who rakes in $30 Million a year in guaranteed salary. He plays a game. The previous two professions excel in helping both our country and people in need. A-Rod hits a ball with a stick. He didn't even go to college. (Not to mention celebrities who are famous for the sake of being famous. The Kardashians' make upwards of $20,000 per episode of their new show.)

The last disparity I will mention is simply between good and bad people. The cliche, "Nice guys finish last," certainly has its moments of truth. Both in the job hunt, and in friendship, among others, people are trampled simply because they are unwilling to trample others. It's a dog eat dog world, and those who aren't over-aggressive rarely get what they want. Unfortunately society has, over time, morphed to these low standards, but nevertheless they are ever present. My hope is that our culture can come to terms with itself and recognize that the genuinely good people aren't always the ones with the highest paying jobs, or the most Facebook friends. You'd think we would try to reward people who get to where they are honestly and fairly, but at least they can have that inner peace knowing that they did.

I hope I made it evident why this unfairness bothers me so much, but in case I didn't, it's because:

• some people never have a chance to succeed from the moment they are born.
• some lines of work are incredibly overcompensated compared to others that require much more effort.
• "Nice guys finish last"

360 Degrees: Success

Who is the judge of success? Is it one's family, friends, or community? Or is it one's employer, educator, or leader? Success means something different to every single person on this earth. No one has all of the same standards, priorities, and benchmarks. What may be the highlight of one person's entire life, could be considered a failure in somebody else's. Why?

Take two children. One grew up in a wealthy neighborhood in the suburbs, and was given all the tools he needed to do well in life. The other, however, was not so lucky. He grew up in a slum in the city, with one parent, and barely enough money to pay the bills. Ten years later, the two boys are sitting next to each other in a community college classroom. The privileged child is looked upon by his friends, family, and society as a failure. He had so much going for him, but squandered it away, ending up here. But for the other child, the fact that he even made it to college-any college- is a miracle in its own rite. Yes, they ended up in the same place, but who was more successful? Your background plays a major role in your view of success.

The United States GDP in 2010 was 14,624,184 million US Dollars. A country like Congo's was 12,600 million US dollars. For the Congo, bringing in, say, 20,000 million dollars in a year would constitute a monumental success. If the United States did that, we would collapse and cease to be a country. This discrepancy in the meaning of success does not only lie between individuals, but entire entities, including nations, and corporations, where the same simulation above could be applied. Your starting point also plays a major role in your view of success.

The previous two examples have both been the results of inequality. What if, like the first situation, there were two boys. But this time, they were neighbors. Same living conditions, same economic situation, and same intellect. Upon graduating, both students receive the same 3.5 grade point average. To one, this is spectacular. He couldn't be happier with that solid B. But the other leaves the ceremony with incredible disappointment, disdain, and frustration. Since all external factors were the same, this inconsistency is a result of mindset. One boy held them self to much higher standards than the other, and was thus upset when he didn't reach them. That being said, should people hold themselves to higher standards? It is a matter of opinion, but I believe the answer is yes. Even if your goals are not reached, the motivation you receive striving for them is worth the possibility of disappointment in the end.

To conclude, success is subjective. Everyone views it differently, and that can be a result of one's own background, starting point, or motivation levels, among many other factors. But in the end, you, and only you, are the judge of your own success.

Dialectics: War and Peace

The recent uprisings in the Middle East, as well as the very recent offensive in Libya have brought up the question: how do we attain, and maintain, peace? In this dialectics blog I would like to discuss how sometimes war and peace are at times, inextricable.

Peace: the normal, non-warring condition of a nation, group of nations, or the world. Based purely on definition, peace is essentially the lack of war. But when it comes to attaining peace, many times it seems like war is the only option, or at least the only one the world has turned to in recent history. For example, World War II. The only way to stop Adolf Hiter and bring peaceto Europe was essentially for the entire world to get involved in the biggest conflict in history for almost ten years. Tens of millions had to die, simply to assure people didn't have to die. Obviously that is a very simplified version of what happened and other issues were involved, but the fact that people were killed just to assure peace seems counterproductive. It makes you wonder, is peace worth all the trouble it causes to maintain it? If Kurtz is right in claiming the human race is inherently bad, then why do we try so hard to be something we are not?

On the flip side, you can't have war without peace either. What would you be fighting for? The sake of fighting? The Latin American liberator Simon Bolivar once said, "I fear peace more than war." At first this sounds crazy, but if one really looks deeper into his circumstances and motives, it is very profound. When at war, his people were unified under nationalistic pride. At peace, citizens were infinitely more likely to try to better their position with revolts, rebellions, or even revolutions. In fact, following the unified effort to defeat the common enemy, the imperial Spain, or France, or Britain, the region of Latin America broke up into dozens of small states. Generally in war, you know what is coming. Fighting. But in peace, there is no common cause. Anything could erupt at any time.

To conclude, war and peace are both incredibly important and necessary in today's culture. Obviously if war is avoidable than we should take that route, but sometimes it isn't. In situations like those, war can be a terrible yet effective way to facilitate peace. Once that peace is achieved however, the cycle begins anew.

iMedia: Faster (SPOILER ALERT)

This past weekend I watched the movie Faster starring Dwayne Johnson and Billy Bob Thornton. Although it was advertised as a typical "blow stuff up and kill people" movie, I found it to have incredible insights into the inner workings of the human mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Buf4_Crt27c

Essentially, the plot of the movie is as follows. Dwayne Johnson's character, recently released from prison, obtains a list of people involved in the killing of his brother. His brother was killed sitting right next to him, after they were set up following a bank robbery. A story of revenge, the man, fearless, travels all around the West Coast in search of these murderers, who he single handedly mows down one by one. He experiences no emotion in the killings, and doesn't care who sees him, going as far as murdering a man in the middle of an office building and another being operated on in the hospital, as seen in the trailer above. As long as these villains get what they deserve, The Rock doesn't care what happens to himself.

I experienced some cognitive dissonance while watching, as I wondered what Dwayne Johnson really was. Is he a murderer for avenging the death of his brother? Or is he a hero for ridding the Earth of these cruel fiends? Several incidents support the latter, as he is only interested in killing those directly involved with the murder, and even finds it in himself to forgive one of the killers, who didn't directly participate and had since taken up the role of a preacher, advocating the importance of forgiveness in people's lives. His lack of emotion throughout both scared me, and reminded me of "Stone Boy." Either it showed that in his mind, what he was doing was not a bad deed, or he was so far down this vengeful path that he had blocked out emotion.

To combat this apparent serial killer, two different entities (representing multiplicity) are assigned to the difficult task of bringing him down. The first, a troubled police officer (Billy Bob Thornton), who is dealing with drug, marriage, and retirement problems. I interpreted his involvement in the case as his quest for competence, trying to prove to himself, his wife, and his department that he is an able bodied policeman. However, you later learn that he played a major role in Johnson's brother's murder, unbeknownst to the main character. He is determined to face up to his past actions and kill The Rock before The Rock puts two and two together and goes after him.

The final player is a British secret agent hired by his boss to assassinate this killer. The man is essentially perfect, having won awards in science and technology, overcome polio, married his dream girl, and been rich beyond his wildest dreams. He had never failed before, but did so multiple times in chasing after the serial killer. He becomes incredibly frustrated, having been able to take out so many people in the past, but unable to kill this man who is simple enough to walk into a hospital and shoot. The fact that The Rock is not doing anything to avoid capture and the agent still can't get him causes a great internal struggle within the agent.

This movie is a testimony to something that Mr. Allen talked about early in the year. I felt like I was able to 'get' all this different insight in real time, and focus on the deeper issues at hand rather than the superficial explosions and gunshots.

Best of the Week: Curiosity and Noticing

In this very limited week, two topics especially caught my attention. While discussing "Cathedral" in class, Zoe brought up the narrator's lack of curiosity and emotion, which contributed to his wife's discontent with him. Also, Mr. Allen raised the point that the only character to receive a name in the story was the blind man, Robert, which interested me.

Zoe's insight allowed for a deeper understanding of the short story, "Cathedral," but I felt like the message could be applied to my own life as well. The narrator seems like a nice enough guy, and as a reader I cheered for him throughout the story, but as evidenced by that same story, being nice isn't always enough. In order to get the full experience out of not only your relationships, but your life in general, one must possess curiosity and emotion. Simply going through the motions does not cut it when it comes to establishing connections with people. In the story, the tape is cut off right before Robert was about to give his opinion of the husband, and the husband was just fine with that. What is life without the drive to learn and know more about yourself and the world around you. This lack of fire inside of the narrator could play a major role in his wife's unhappiness. This reminds me to constantly to be striving for knowledge and self-bettering, because you can never know enough. According to "Cathedral," inquisitiveness is looked upon with respect from others, not as an annoyance.

The short story also emphasizes the importance of emotion in one's life. What I got from the story was that it was possible to like someone you can't connect with emotionally, but impossible to love someone of the same nature. That being said, it was interesting to see the emotionless narrator placed in a situation where love is implied, and seeing how he dealt with it. Mr. Allen filled in the blank left by the blind man with "I can only conclude-he's just like your last husband." We all know how that went, and if Robert was right, the narrator had to make a change in his mindset and point of view if he hoped to remain married to his wife. With such a short sampling of his life, it is impossible to know whether or not he ever made that adjustment, but it looked like he was heading in the right direction.

Finally, I found it very interesting how something as simple as giving the blind man a name could mean so much to the story. It made me wonder how I could improve such subtleties in my writing to make the reader's experience that much better. These structural nuances are what set the great writers apart from the good ones.

iMedia: Dialogue (Part I and II)

As an avid fan of the band Chicago, I really appreciate the song "Dialogue," not only for its upbeat tempo, catchy guitar riffs, and strong brass section, but for the powerful lyrics as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWODczdgGDQ

Essentially, part one of the song is a conversation between two people with very different mindsets and outlooks regarding the world around them. The first contributor is asking the other many questions, such as "Will you try to change things, use the power that you have, the power of a million new ideas?" or "Don't it make you angry the way war is dragging on?" The second voice you hear is from a college student, who is not interested in the world and its numerous events. He says he only needs to worry about himself, and is oblivious to the need for change in their society.

This song was written in 1972, making "Voice Number Two's" argument "I always thought everything was fine" incredibly invalid. In this time period, the Vietnam War was raging, President Nixon visited Communist China, NASA was doing incredible things in space, the Watergate Scandal occurred, and African Americans were in the early stages of equal rights. I was surprised that I actually became angry when listening to "Voice Number Two's" lines in the song. How could one be so out of touch in the world that they lived in, especially in a time when radio, television, satellites, and newspapers made it so easy to know what is going on?

His ignorance made me realize how important it is for me to stay involved in the world today, or else I might have an artificial sense of contentedness like he did. Sure, everything might be alright in my life, but that does not mean that everything is alright in the world. As a citizen of this planet it is my responsibility to have an understanding of the problems facing our civilization, and do my best to help out when I can. When asked if he was worried about what was happening he simply said, "I try to mind my business, that is, no business at all." I could've written an Inconvenient Truth blog about this line alone. Everyone has the ability to play a role in global affairs. Just because something doesn't affect you directly, the implications of such an event canplay a role in your life.

When "Voice Number One" asked "Will you try to change things, use the power that you have, the power of a million new ideas?" I saw each one of us has this power he talks about. We can all change things, whether it be individually, or coming together as a country, continent, or even species. In order to unleash this power, however, one needs to have an understanding of the world around them. How can you fix things if you don't know what is broken?

An example I can think of is the environmental crisis. As of right now, this crisis has a limited or no effect on me as an individual. But as a planet, the consequences of such a catastrophe are indelible. Wait fifty years, and the oceans flooding onto continental soil or removal of oxygen from the atmosphere might concern me a bit. By raising my own awareness now, I can do all in my power to prevent such an event from occurring in the future. My power of ideas could be something as simple as starting a recycling program at school, to as complicated as creating an efficient new bio-energy.

In the end, you just don't want to be passive through life, and let it come to you. Be an active member of your family, your school, town, country, and planet. Know what's going on, and maybe even be part of it.

Last summer, my friend had an opportunity to meet this band in person, and eventually they got around to talking about the possibility of a dual concert next year. Now, for the past six months or so I have been rehearsing with several of my musical friends, playing these songs, in the hopes of joining Chicago in a concert over the summer. This would be one of the greatest experiences of my life, but would not have arisen if not for my friend's can-do attitude and proactive attitude.