Blogging Around

Alli wrote about blogging this year in a Metacognition blog. She focused on the overall experience of the blogging and specifically the Blogging Around prompt.

Hey Alli. I really liked your take on blogging this year. You gave a really great overview of (I think) everyone's feelings at the beginning of the year. I agree that blogging helped us develop our writing skills but still kept it open to interpretation. I also like the prompt blogging around for the same reasons as you do. It reminded me how many smart people there really are in Academy, and that even those that usually don't talk have many ideas. I found it really interesting that even in the blogs where we were all writing about the same thing, each blog came out differently. It was amazing to see the different ways people think about the same things. You've also inspired me to go back and look at my past blogs, which I have yet to do, so thanks so much!

Emily wrote about her suggestions for blogging in her Metacognition blog. She also talked about her whole impression of the whole blogging experience.

Hey Emily. I really liked all of your ideas. I also agree that some of the really good blogging prompts weren't used, and that more freedom in blogging would be beneficial to the thinking process. I also agree that even though we do not necessarily like the blogging prompts they are beneficial to our thinking. Thank-you for reminding me that blogs gave an open stage to continue conversations had in class, because that is a very important facet of the experience. I also agree with you on the subject of grading, and how it facilitated a free environment. Nice job!

Metacognition: Blogging

All this year, blogging has been a good way to develop thoughts. It helped me think about important things, and made me develop random passing thoughts into something I could actually use. My thinking was not always the best while writing the blogs, but it was genuine, and free. It was relaxing to sit down and write about something that was open ended, but with enough structure so that I could know something to write about within five minutes of sitting down at my computer. I think that some of the prompts should be changed or discarded, and some added. The Best of Week blog should be used sparingly. Captured Thought, Connection, 360 degrees, iMedia, It Matters, should be used more. I had trouble with the Change of Mind blog (and did not enjoy writing them) because I had to change my mind about something, and if your mind had not been changed about things from the recent things than you had nothing to write about. Dialectics should also be explained better. Overall I think the blogging was a good opportunity for everyone to practice their writing and expand their thinking.

Best of Week: Perspective

During the week, in class, we talked about the importance of part 2, and the perspective of the doctor. He observed Micheal K and took note of things that made Micheal a more rounded character. We got to see Micheal better when looking through the eyes of someone else than when following him around in 3rd person. On page 151, the doctor imagines what he would say to Micheal. I am the only one who can save you. I am the only one who sees you for the original soul you are. I am the only one who cares for you. I alone see you as neither a soft case for a hard camp but a human soul above and beneath classification, a soul blessedly untouched by doctrine, untouched by history, a soul stirring its wings within that stiff sarcophagus, murmuring behind that clownish mask. You are precious. Coetzee shows his mastery of irony for in the end, Micheal (or Micheals) is the savor, the doctor's messiah. The doctor cares for Micheal is body, but he cannot heal him in spirit, because to Micheal, there was never anything to heal. His body may shrink to just fragile brittle bones and sinewy muscles but his soul stays constant. Only through the doctors eyes can you see this, he is the only one who sees Micheal's originality. In the end the doctor is left begging for an clue, an idea, from Micheal. He wants to know the answer, although he really had no question, just an obsession. He needs it be acknowledged, for him seeing Micheal as he truly was, was meaningful, to himself (and unbeknownst to him, to us). He felt that, but he had become so dependent on Micheal that he could not know for sure. Micheal had hardly said a word to him, but through his actions, his purity, he changed this one life. One can live with that.

What if people lost the ability to Love?

What if people lost the ability to love? What would our world be like? I am sure that today a great amount of suffering is caused by love, but there is also a great amount of happiness. On the surface, one might think that erasing love would just make it more neutral, but considering this complicated connected world, I don't think it would end up a level playing field. Without love would other things connected to it disappear? Things like family, compassion, romance, tears, appreciation. Almost every book, poem, or movie considered great now would be wasted on this new generation of cold-hearted machines. Every society on earth would fall apart, change, to be replaced with a new way of life. Religion would be completely scraped, or at least geared more towards personal gain. Without love, there is no need for compassion for others or piety or friendship unless it is to benefit yourself. Love creates connections, without it people would have no relationships based on anything other than personal gain. In the end, people who possessed the hardest exterior, who had the least amount of love in them in the first place would rise to the top. When no one can love, those that can do it with the most profit, who are the greediest, can rule this new world. There would undoubtedly be those that remembered love, that wanted it again, but how could they get something so precious back? People would no longer suffer because of love, but a greater amount would suffer from war, from famine, from greed. Although thinking about this is admittedly pessimistic, I think its valid (or at least interesting). If something inside the human brain or the human machine enables us to love, couldn't that part brake? Couldn't it disappear? In order to calculate the importance of something possessed, we must also acknowledge the things (good or bad) we would endure if it were lost.

Metacognition: Short Story - The Nothing Fellow (Short Story)

Since I could create little books with paper and crayons I have been experimenting with stories and the ways they come together. When writing a story longer than a page, no matter how planned the story become, there are still unexpected aspects... usually important ones. When I finished the Nothing Fellow, I was surprised (as always) at the differences wrought by my pen (or keyboard). The things not planned made the story better (I think). While I was writing my thoughts were not linear, I composed paragraphs for the end while I was writing the beginning, thoughts came about different parts while I was in the shower or sitting in class. When sitting down to write, I was all over the place. I am not sure if it was a good or bad thing, but it eventually all came together. It probably would have been easier to write the whole thing in a linear fashion, but that is not how my brain works, and I have to come to accept that. Writing is easiest when I am tired or distracted by a few other things, and now I think I know why. When I am writing, and am dedicating my brain fully to the task there are too many thoughts and tangents that fight for space, and its hard to keep up. If I am tired the action is slower and easier to follow, if I am distracted, there is just enough space left to let me work in peace. Its strange that I need to do these things to calm my thoughts, but I have found it works, and is necessary for my sanity. Too many thoughts on the same subject can be very painful. In the end, I hope I turned out a good story, and learned to manage any skills I may possess a little bit better. I hope to at least avoid future headaches.

Metacognition: Jane Eyre Assignment

During the past week Dylan and I had been writing and thinking about the Jane Eyre assignment almost every day. Working with a like-minded person on a thought-driven project is very enjoyable because you can build off each others ideas. Going into the project I was worried that making a dialogue would be difficult keeping all the other requirements in mind. I was surprised when we started writing that it was relatively easy. The conversation flowed, the ideas came quickly, and we even created characters (or applied their existing personality). The thoughts were very linear, one built off the previous ones. At the end there was very little to add because everything had fallen together during the process of writing it, straight through. It was a very effective use of time. Working through the whole thing only took a couple hours, and it was not a boring use of time because Dylan and I had an interesting discussion. Mostly we agreed, and I think we were both surprised at how easy the writing was. It was fun to try to make each character have a different voice, or a different role in the conversation, and to keep their separate beliefs in mind throughout the whole discussion. When we reached the end, there was still so much we felt we could continue with, which I think is a hallmark of an effective discussion. Our thoughts worked well together separately and working in tandem, no thinking strategies need to be devised... we used the most effective way of thinking for both of us.

iMedia: Said the Raindrop to the Seed

Said the Raindrop to the Seed is a little known love song about a drop of rain and a little seed. It is one of the best love songs I have ever heard. Its simple, its beautiful, and interesting. The metaphor is new, and amazing in its execution. Its the full story too, its not just a moment of love, its all of it. Its from life to death. It says that even though love is not historical by itself, or that they may not be remembered or even matter to anyone else, they matter to each other. It reminds me of the beginning of Love Actually (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMScPVO4rLw), it is not Romeo and Juliet or Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester, but one love, whether quiet or newsworthy, is no more important than any other. The metaphor of the raindrop and the seed is also very good because they are a team. Without each other neither of them can make a flower, something beautiful. Without the other, they would be a lonely ugly nothing, but together they make an amazing thing. In the end, the raindrop asks the seed to be always there for her because she can't stand not being with him, even in death. The song is so truthful, and plain (but in a good way). I think anyone who listens to this caught by it, its a relaxing universal song. A simple masterpiece.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AW-LgDx_Qk&feature=related

Lyrics:
You and me,
Said the raindrop to the seed
We'll make a winning team won't we?
Cause when I fall down
You'll become a pretty flower
And I'll be finally free
From the shackles of this cloud

And the sun will shine
And we'll make the most of life
Come, we haven't got much time
'Cause all living things must die
But I will nurture you
'Til your petals turn to white
And you will hold me close
Until the last drop of me dries"

'Cause you and me
We have each other
And that's all we need
The place I'll call my home
Is anywhere that you will be
You and me
May never make a mark on the shape of history
But I'm glad you came to make your mark on me

So darling when I lie down
I hope you'll be around
To lay your roses down over me
'Cause I'd never keep
To watch you fall asleep
I wouldn't last the day
Without you standing next to me

Through a satellite lens
We are just a tiny speck
Oh, of little consequence
In the greater scheme of things
But from down here
In our private little sphere
The colors are in focus
And the picture's crystal clear

'Cause you and me
We've got each other
And that's all we need
The place I'll call my home
Is anywhere that you will be
You and me
May never make a mark on the shape of history
But I'm glad you came to make your mark on me

I'm glad you came to make your mark on me.