What If?: We Broke the Rules

              In class we are currently working on the Frank Gehry project. A project where we have been given the task by our teacher to create a given building from scratch and make it exactly as the teacher requests. If I had not seen the film about Frank Gehry, I would have assumed this project came with a lot of rules. When doing something for a customer the worker must always work to please them and only do as they say. But, after watching the film about Frank Gehry, I realized his philosophy about breaking the rules. Frank Gehry thinks outside of the box and tends to break the rules or the "status quo" when building these amazing buildings he is known for.
            Growing up in the suburbs we are always surrounded by these cookie cutter houses. We have such a strong status quo that when broken the community is in utter shock. But what if we broke from this status quo and began making up our own rules? What would happen to the community? The major question here is does it make you a bad person if you break the rules? Frank Gehry constantly breaks the rules of architecture and creates these beautiful and memorial buildings we all have seen today, but does that mean the same for us? Will good come out of our rule breaking, or will we be shunned for trying something new. In a community where every person is just like the next we need to learn to loosen up and break the rules because who know what will happen, we may be the next Frank Gehry.

Blogging Around: Elyse and Justine

         In Elyse's post, Connection: Philosophy and Justice, she addresses the use of philosophers in MLK's Letter to Birmingham. In the post Elyse speaks about time and how with time correlates with good judgement and with time our judgement will improve. I really enjoyed reading her post and below is comment I made on her blog.
        When I saw that the Letter from Birmingham was used in this post I had to read it. I love history and reading about MLK and all he stood for. This post connects two key things that when brought together can change the world. When you said, "the definition of justice or what good judgement means definitely depends on the time" and I couldn't agree more. Back then the public lacked a sense of philosophy on the matter of what it meant to be a person and how no color can make you any less human. I love the use of philosophers in the letter and I'm really happy we read "Sophie's World" this year because if we didn't we wouldn't be able to connect to MLK's speech as well as we did with the knowledge we gather from the book.
         In Justine's post, Connection: Once and Hollywood Films, Justine connects the movie "Once" to traditional Hollywood films by showing the difference in styles. "Once" took a more realistic approach while traditional Hollywood films tend to run around the truth and end everything in a fairytale. Below is the comment I made on Justine's blog.
         I couldn't agree more about how different the film was from the traditional Hollywood films we are used to seeing. I too enjoyed that the film makers took a risk and made this movie more realistic to the viewers. After watching the typical Hollywood fairytale ending films the viewers walk away sad about their lives and why their life isn't as perfect as the one they watched unfold on the screen. But in the movie "Once" our whole class walked away in smiles. They could relate to the story and the pain each character felt. I think change is good and the difference between the movies help the whole class realize how caught up we can get in movies and how unrealistic they truly are.

Captured Thought: Saying Good-Bye

               As high school comes to an end we all start to ponder how in the world will we say good-bye? I can't even imagine that in just four short months I will never see some of my classmates ever again. As I began scrolling through Facebook I looked back at pictures from middle school. After middle school graduation some of us had to say good-bye to dear friends as we parted separate ways to different high schools, but why does it seem more difficult to say good-bye in high school than in middle school? After laying in my bed for a couple minutes it finally hit me. We are all scared that after spending over four years together saying good-bye means forgetting each other forever.

              Once I finally found this long searched answer I was able to connect in to the movie, Peter Pan, directed by PJ Hogan. In the movie the main character Peter Pan teaches all of us a life lesson on what to say when two people part ways, "Never say good-bye because good-bye means going away and going away means forgetting." Although Peter Pan is a a fictional cartoon character, we could all learn such a great lesson from him. I never want to forget my high school peers and all the memories we've created through the years so instead of saying good-bye, I'll say until next time. There is no reason why we should say good-bye and risk forgetting all the good, even some of the bad, things that have happened to us through the past four years. No longer will I ever say good-bye to someone because if I truly know them I'd never want to forget them. The future is full of possibilities, the past is full of memories, and the present is here for all of us to enjoy the time we have left together.

Connections: Dogs and Time

               Today in class we formed several discussions about time after reading the novel written by Alan Lightman, Einstein's Dreams. After reading the first 32 pages of the book the essence of time and how different time is to all of us kept stirring in my head. After peering down at my busy schedule for the week, I wouldn't be able to do all I do if there wasn't something called "time". When I finally walked through my door after a busy day at school, I went into my living room and laid down on the couch. Only two minutes later my little Yorkie came running into the room, jumped up onto the couch, laid on my stomach and looked me in the eyes. With the thought of time still prevalent in my head I questioned what time means to my dog. She's been home for over eight hours alone and yet still seems to be unaware of the time passing.
                Dogs have no conception of time. When we first got my dog we took her to puppy school to train her. One of the biggest tips we learned when training a dog was to punish the dog right away after they behave badly. If you fail to do so, with the dogs lack of conception of time they won't understand why you are scolding them. Although no one ever thinks to connect dogs and time, they pose as a great example for how the conception of time truly differs on the being. For Americans, we always are looking at the clock and making sure we are on time and in the places we need to be when told to do so. For dogs, they can sit on a chair for hours and move at their own free will and have no boarders surrounding them of when to be somewhere. Americans should learn from how dogs view time and begin to loosen their conceptions of time. Without the burden of always being late, Americans can enjoy life for all it has to offer, much like dogs and the conception of a timeless world.

Blogging Around: Kevin and Murray

           In Murray's Best of Today: The Myth of the Cave blog post, Murray stresses the fact that our attention to the beauty of the world has vanished since we were children. As children, we were able to see things for the details held within them that made them unique, now we just use assimilation to describe things and look for common characteristics rather than unique details. I made the following comment below to Murray regarding what he wrote about this issue the world is facing.
           Murray, I really loved this post. I completely agree with what you are saying. I had a Hannuka party today at my house and my eight year old twin cousins came along with the rest of the family for dinner and presents. Being with my cousins all day was the best. They find the beauty out of everything. Like you were saying, they don't just see a couch as a couch. Instead, they see all the details that makes that couch so unique. I too really want to be like a child again and rewire my brain to be able to perceive the beauty of the world. The world is so beautiful and as we grow up we become less able to see what's standing right in front of us. I truly hope the coming generations steer clear of this blindness because the world is a beautiful place and it's a shame we are all missing out on it's beauty.
           In Kevin's Getting Organized: Word Documents blog post, Kevin describes his experience cleaning out his desktop of all his old word documents since middle school. Although this is a very time consuming task, that wasn't what drew my attention. Kevin's way about getting rid of his documents inspired me to do the same. He not only read all of his old documents, but he assessed them to see how much progress he has made in his writing. After doing so, Kevin only kept those that showed the most progress to use as milestones of his past. I made the following comment below to Kevin regarding his experience clearing his computer of his old documents.
           Kevin, I can completely relate to the numerous word documents filling my computer since 7th grade. Even this weekend I was told I couldn't save a windows movie because there was no room on my computer. I personally had a hard time letting go of the documents. Like you stated above, my writing has changed tremendously but my emotions I was feeling while writing each paper is still held amongst those essays. After reading this blog posted I'm inspired to read all of my documents and keep only those that will show my progress because although some of them be useless, many of them hold memories I can't replace.

Get Organized: A tribute to Aristotle-Cleaning My Room

              Being the busy bee I am, I barely have time to clean my room. After almost losing my small dog in the clutter of clothes that laid sprawled out across my floor, I finally decided to clean it. Taking a little over three hours to clean the room it finally returned to normal, but it wasn't a walk in the park to get there. Before starting, I began to doubt that my room would ever return to normal. Negative thoughts were all that roamed my head and they didn't leave for quite some time. While cleaning my room the negative thoughts stored toward the back of my mind. They didn't quite leave but overall I started to become more optimistic. After I sorted the clothes, I began to see that there wasn't as much work to be done. By organizing the clothes I organized my thoughts and the light at the end of the tunnel began to shine bright. Finally, after working for three long hours the room was pristine. I was so proud of myself for pushing through those three tough hours of hard work to achieve my goal. I finally did it and nothing feels better that achieving a much needed goal.
              This task not only helped me achieve a goal but it changed my mind. It helped me realize how important it is to makes goals. If I didn't previously make a goal I wouldn't have had any incentive to finish cleaning the room. The goal forced me to divide my work and take on each section one at a time. My mind since the task has been setting more goals, even if it is just doing homework. For example, last night I wanted to make sure I was in bed by mid-night. To achieve this task, I made sure to give each subject a specific amount of time and attention so when mid-night rolled around I was in bed. To my surprise my goal was easily met and it wouldn't have been possible if I didn't practice making goals and dividing up the tasks by cleaning my room.
               After the amazing task of cleaning my mess of room, I found out a lot more about myself in general. I didn't know how determined I was to achieve a goal. I didn't give up when I began to get tired and hungry, nor did I just do a sloppy job and shove clothes under my bed. After accomplishing the task I now know how strong my will to succeed is and when given a goal to achieve I will fight to the finish, even if it is something as silly as cleaning my room.

Captured Thought: Is the Love Real?

                    In my medical technology class we often reference and watch House episodes to get a true ethical dilemma intertwined with a medical situation. House is a TV show whose plot revolves around a snobby doctor and his team of medical assistants. Together, the team assists hundreds of different severe illnesses amongst the thousands of hours they spend in the hospital. Since the majority of us are taking the class to get a sneak preview of what our future in a medical career has to offer, these videos surprisingly do the job. These videos provide us with how to deal with an ethical dilemma that comes with an illness. We all have to acknowledge our patients lives and situations outside of the hospital, and seeing the doctors in the show address these situations preps us with knowledge on how to handle similar situations in our near future.
                     One ethical dilemma that has stuck in my mind the best is the most recently watched episode, Spin #206. In this episode, a profession cyclist has caused himself an unknown severe illness by taking illegal drugs to become the best cyclist he can be. One of Dr. House's assistants finds it horrible that he has been cheating all this time and claiming national titles, while little kids looked up to him as their role model and inspirational athlete. The assistant takes matters into her own hands and questions whether or not she should turn him into the press. A fellow doctor at the hospital over hears her thoughts and tries to shed some light on the situation. He brings up the time when he cheated on his wife with a woman he thought he loved. He asks the assistant to think about all of the kids out there who see him as a role model and how bad it would crush them if they found out everything was a lie. The assistant rebuttals with the statement that the kids will realize they never loved him because he is a cheater. The Doctor adds the closing remark and states, "When you love someone, and then realize they cheated, it doesn't mean you didn't love them before."
                      In the late afternoon on a Thursday, this quote easily passed by me. But, it wasn't until nine hours later when I realized how true the statement actually was. We all have been through times in our lives when we were lied to. I wasn't until some time later when we realized we were being lied to. For example, Santa Clause. Growing up we all awaited Santa's gifts underneath the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. It wasn't long until we heard a noise downstairs, woke up, and tip toed down the stairs just to find our parents walking around with our presents from "Santa" in hand. Sadly, we had to learn that Santa no longer existed due to the facts being present and logical. But, just because the facts and truth was out, it didn't mean I didn't love and believe in Santa before. We all need to realize that just because something changes in our life, it doesn't change our previous memories. Once we all become receptive to change and allow it to not affect on how we look back at our past, we will learn to live with change, no matter how large the impact.