Best of Week: Changing the Way We Eat

        I think the most interesting and meaningful topics that came up in class this week was when we discussed the way we eat after Hallie's TED presentation. Hallie did her presentation on Jamie Oliver- a British chef who has made it his life mission to educate the uneducated on how to eat well. He believes children need to be taught about what is healthy and what is not and how to cook good, nutritious meals while still getting enough nutrients.
        This was extremely interesting to me because I happen to know a lot about healthy eating from my upbringing. My family owns an organic farm in Wisconsin and I have been brought up eating very natural, healthy foods. In fact, my aunt's job is something like what Jamie Oliver does only on a much smaller scale. She goes around to schools in south-west Wisconsin to talk about eating healthy and to help schools increase the healthy food choices in their cafeterias.
        Another part of her speech I liked is when she offered someone either a candy bar or an apple. I think the majority of Americans (as she proved) would take the candy bar (the unhealthy choice) over the apple, but not me. Maybe that's just because I was raised eating far more apples that chocolate bars, but I hope that it's because I know better, because by that logic once Americans become more educated about the food they eat and what it's done to them they will hopefully change their eating habits.

Blogging Around

The first blog I commented on was Garret's blog titled Metacognition: Organization, Garret organized his facebook and in turn learned a lot about who his friend's were and who he really cared about, which is something that I could relate to:

I completely agree with the things you said in this post Garret. I'm not trying to be mean when I do this, but I honestly don't accept the majority of the friend requests I get. I only have a facebook to keep in touch with my real friends not so I can make someone I hardly know look popular. So, my guidelines are I will accept a friend request if I have had a conversation with you. I probably only have about 200-250 friends on facebook now and I'm proud of it. I actually read a study that proves the average person can only maintain about 150 personal relationship max at one time which proves that those friends you removed weren't really friends or even aquaintences in some cases.

The second blog post I commented on was one that Benjy did awhile back called Connection: Once and Real Life. Benjy talked about how a lot of movies try to make things seem perfect: relationships, talents, happy endings but that doesn't really portray real life very well. He then discussed how the movie Once, which we watched in class, did a good job of portraying real life and real relationships which I agreed with:

I completely agree with you on this Benjy. I think a lot of filmakers try to cater to the publics cravings for happy endings and instead sacrifice a lot of meaning in the story, because in real life not everything is a happy ending but you have to be able to find happiness no matter what kind of endings you are given. I think Once does a good job of making a pretty true to life story yet keeping it appealing to the audience. The best movies in my opinion tell it like it is and don't let sappy, set up moments catered to pleasing viewers dominate the films.

Final Blog

For my Lit Circle book I read Fareed Zakaria's The Post American World.
I looked around for another book in my class that was closely related to mine but couldn't find on I thought was that close. However, when I looked at some of the books in the other classes I noticed that one group was reading The Political Mind by George Lakoff. I read a blog written by Doug Cummings. He talks about how Lakoff writes about how politcs are changing and that it is important for liberals to not live in the past and rather use more modern politics. This is an example of changing the status quo in the geo-political landscape. That is the main idea of The Post American World. Zakaria believes the power in the world is shifting away from being dominated by the US. He believes te U.S. shouldn't live in the past and try to continue with the status quo. He believes (as Lakoff does for liberals) that they must act to modernize and go with what is currently happening.

Metacognition: First Semester

        This first semester has been an interesting one in humanitites. I feel like I've learned a lot of thing that I couldn't learn in any other class. To be honest, I took humanities because it sounded more like anI art class than an English class in the description and I was a little disappointed to learn that we would still be reading books. But I have taken away something from this first semester that I can't learn in any other class. I feel like I'm learning how to appreciate.
        It first started at the beginning of the year when we did activites such as the vertical listening excercise. I learned to find deeper meaning and to look more closely at details. This has allowed me to appreciate things I used to not enjoy. I am having multiple Jackson Pollack moments. I can now appreciate dance and classical music if for no other reason than I realize now how much work and talent it takes.
        I also have found more interests of my own. I came into the class as someone who had many interests, but throughout my young life the main focus of my interests has been sports. But I love art and I love music. Because of humanities I have spent time outside of school looking at art. I'm a big fan of crazy modern art. My to favorite kinds are optical illusions and street art. My two favorite artists are M.C. Escher and Banksy.
I'm also spending a lot more time with my music. I am expanding the genres of music I listen to and am spending a great deal more time playing the guitar. I even picked up a new intrumen: the ukelele. I am glad my interests are expanding and my horizons are broadening.
        This ability to appreciate is something extremely important to learn in life and I'm glad I learned it before I left high school. I feel more educated and sophisticated, and I feel like my options for later life will be much greater. I will be able to meet more people and be able to love the world around me more.

Metacognition: Organizing My Music

        For my tribute for Aristotle, I organized my music files on my computer. It was something I really needed to do, but couldn't motivate myself to do it. Thanks to this project I was given motivation and I'm glad that this project is finally out of the way.
        Before beginning to organize my music I realized I was facing a daunting task. I had let my music stack up unorganized for such a long time. I had music saved in files and CDs on my computer I had never transfered to my itunes library. Also, I must admit I do some downloading and all of my downloaded songs didn't have the right names or they didn't have artist or album names. TO give you an idea there were over one hundred of these songs. I was going to have to listen to most of this music just to find out what it is and then transfer it to my library then to my itunes. "This is gonna take awhile," I thought.
        I decided I would do this project over the course of Thanksgiving break, a little bit at a time. It was just the opposite of what I thought it would be. It was easy and moved relatively fast. It may have only gone fast because I enjoyed myself. It was relaxing going back and rediscovering this music. It was almost like I had lost my music and late at night over break I found it while organizing. It was a good way to unwind after a long day. I would just sit down at my computer and listen to songs while I typed in the names and artists and albums. After I finished it was nice not only because of the music that I discovered, but what I discovered about myself.
       I discovered that organization is a feeling. It is something that you feel in the back of your mind and having less on your mind allows for more relaxation. Although not having my music organized doesn't seem like a big deal, it gave me a feeling of accomplishment and got one more little thing I had to do off my back. I now know that if I can continue to take care of these little things that I procrastinate about then I will be a much lessed stressed out person. I also know how much music I really have.

Best of Week: Which Hellenistic Class Do You Agree With?

        On Tuesday, we talked about all the different Hellenistic classes of thought. There were five main philosophies, all of them very interesting. There were the Cynics, the Stoics, the Epicureans, the Neoplatonists and the Mystics. Each group in class was given a Hellenistic group to research and then would have to return to the class and report on their specific groups and their philosophy. After each group had presented, each individual in class was told to choose which Hellenistic school of thought they thought their beliefs best fit under.
        I really liked this assignment because it was interactive and interesting and people got a chance to really search themselves and I think that helped everyone understand the philosophies better. It was also interesting to see who I agreed with and who didn't. I also like hearing my classmate's explanations of why they chose the group they did.
        The overall class results were approximately this:
Cynics: 2
Stoics: 1
Epicureans: 6
Neoplatonists: 2
Mystics: 3
None of the Above: 6
      I was in the epicureans. I probably could have gone in the none of the above as I don't feel too strongly about any of the philosophies, but I decided to choose one and Epicureans was the one I thought I could believe in most. Here's a breakdown of my thoughts on each group ending with why I chose the Epicureans.
Cynics: I like the Cynics ideas. They believe that material things are not necessary for happiness. I totally wish I agreed with that, but I don't. I wish I could just go out in the woods and live off the land, but I know I won't. Desire is human nature. People always want things and including me. Especially in this material world we live in now, and being an American teenager I honestly don't think I would be happy.
Stoics: They basically reject emotion and I would find it hard to live a life without pain and suffering or without love, happiness and joy.
Neoplatonists and Mystics: I am not really a religous person and just find it hard to buy into either of these philosophies which both involve a higher being. Of all the philosophies I wish I could be a mystic because I like the idea of strongly believing in a God and coming so close to your God that he almost takes you over. It would be perfection to meet God.
Epicureans: The epicureans are all about indulging in pleasures. Sure they believe that to much of something at once can be bad, but they believe, contrary to cynics and stoics, that emotion and material things are good if they bring pleasure and happiness. I believe, on Earth, our goal should just be to obtain true happiness and have fun. We should love and do what we love. They also believe that after death there is nothing, so we don't have to worry about punishment in a next life. I would like their to be an after-life, that's how I feel about death. I'm not worried about dying because I know if there isn't after life I won't know it cause there will be literal nothingness.
        So, I guess as far as in class Hellenism goes, I guess you can call me an Epicurean.        

Connection: Sophie's World and Issues and Answers Class

        There is an obvious connection between Sophie's World and one of my classes. And no, that class is not humanities. Sophie's World is a book about philosophy. What a coincidence? So is Issues and Answers.
        In Issues Class we talk about all kinds of philosophies. One of the major ones we did last quarter was leanring about Plato's Allegory of the Cave. It was interesting, then, to learn more about Plato in Sophie's world. Some of the philosophical questions that arise in class have also been discussed in class. We talked about who we are and why are we here starting in the first week of school. So it was interesting that those were the first to questions that Sophie was asked as well. I haven't come to an answer yet and I decided I don't think I ever will. But I am finding more pieces to the puzle everyday and get a better idea of the answers to those essential questions. Both humanities and Issues and Answers have made me into a deeper thinker, exactly like what the philosophy classes are doing for Sophie.
        I think it will be interesting to keep track of Sophie's philosophical jounrey next to mine. Maybe I will notice more similarities. But having this experience has made me enjoy the book much more so far as it is quite easy to relate to.