Blogging Around: Austin and

I commented on Austin, who wrote about paintings and it's further meaning in modern society, this is what I wrote: Austin, this is incredible insight. What struck me most was this idea of potential. This idea of changing or interpreting something as greater than it seemingly may be. In this case, Beever's transformation of a simple sidewalk. I believe that you drew an amazing parallel to all of our capabilities- and the the idea that we can do whatever our mind believes we are capable. This reminds me of Descartes who said, " I think, therefore I am" and that the "judge" was your mind. Therefore, one's capabilities are only limited by your thoughts, and everyone is a canvas of potential- now whether you choose to be painted upon, is only up to you.


Ben was analyzing our presence and it's effects in Afghanistan- and the benefits withing hard power and soft power. This is what I commented:
Ben,your points are an amazing analysis and your blog really epitomizes an active thought process- looking into the effectual reactions to our nation's action. Although I believe that you've fallen into the trap of an either or fallacy. Why can't the U.S sustain hard and soft power- overall hegemony- through an action. Let me explain,
withdrawal may solve for both hard and soft power.
a) it may "soften up our enemies"- the provocations and tensions that our troops cause are immense- taken in a recent study- the main drive of terrorists are to drive out U.S troops in their "home land", which means withdrawal can set them up for appeasement

b) withdrawal could solve for our overall perception of hard line deterrence. Many would argue that our troops in Afghanistan are the root cause of overstretch- with the constant deployment and the vast area of the region- we're often spread out and this kills our "hard line policy". It's that we're trying in these countries, and we're failing, and it sends off a perception that the U.S is no longer the #1 global hegemone anymore. Withdrawal would thus be net better than the status quo, because not only would we solve for this perception because our presence is no longer there, we would be able to sustain troops better in other areas and thus increase our hard line policies there.

Metacognition: Aristotle and Organization

I ventured into the jungle today. The nature of my inhabitance, forever cleaned yet left ever dirty. It is the obstacle of every child and the burden of moms across the globe. This my friends, is the action of cleaning one's room. 

Before I took up this "project" I retained a feeling of dread whenever I thought about "cleaning up my room". I think of this chore as a hassle, an unnecessary component to my daily life. In other words, I didn't give a hoot about the state of my room. As long as I can sleep in it, we're all good. This mindset changed, as I realized that my uncleanliness and unorganized room was bothering me and was a nagging at the back of my mind. I couldn't work in peace or sleep well without an annoyance. I also realized that the state of my room was a "reflector" and spilled over into other parts of my life. School, work, other chores, you name it. I was truly being unorganized in the way I approached these things. This was really hurting me, as I left homework at home, forgot to do things, and was simply being messy. I knew I had to do something, and found it in this homework prompt assigned over this break. Actually cleaning my room, was a step toward relief. Working toward making the change feels good, even though I wasn't finished, I felt as if I was making a difference. Finally, after working on this dreaded chore, I felt as if a weight had been lifted from my chest. 

My room really is a representation of my state of mind, now that I've cleaned it, I feel as if I can do this "cleaning" and "organization" of school, work, and everything else I do. I've become more aware of what's going on and how messiness and an unorganized lifestyle can cloud that lucidness and readiness. I feel great in the way I can approach my work and life.

Coming into this chore, I regarded all organization as menial. As long as I have everything, why do I need order? Or at least complete organization? My mindset has vastly changed as I realize the benefits of a clean and organized lifestyle. This brings me to wonder if any of my previous ideas are misconceptions as well. And it teaches me to continue to keep my mind open, as I explore other areas and styles of my life.

iMedia: Snow- Vitamin String Quartet

This piece "Snow covered by the Vitamin String Quartet" is an incredible reflection of our culture. It's the synthesis of time that our society has fallen in love with, and has carried over into our media and the sounds of our lives.

The synthesis of this piece comes from it's return to a more orchestral and natural sound- a sound that reached it's height from the late 18th century to the 19th century. A style that has diminished in modern mainstream music and composition- being overtaken by the tides of electronic music (instruments) and autotune. This song brings us back to this style of music that is now made known to us best under the likes of Bach and Beethoven with it's orchestral sound- although recognizes a more modern tune within the song- Snow by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

We recognize this everywhere in our culture. People love antiques, museums, time weathered tourist sites, and places filled with history. We adore a historic field, that brings us back to the past. All of these are really a synthesis of past and present represented in our daily lives, just like this piece of music. This is extremely important for us to recognize this in our media, because it's a reminder that we must remember. Remember what happened in our past. And build upon our history to make improvements in other things and within ourselves. Without a previous building block, we're lost, and our significant accomplishments are lost.

We see this in so many things:

• Technology- improvements are constantly being made to a previous "generation"
• Music- synthesis of an old and new
• Science- using previous discoveries to expound upon new ones
• Academics- we use the establishments of great thinkers and philosophers to learn about what we study today
• Sports- techniques discovered in the past are honed and safety gear is always improved upon a previous "building block" in order to make sports less dangerous and more enjoyable
• Everything in life is seen in this lens, constantly improving through other's discoveries, accomplishments and mistakes.

We must recognize this ambivelant theme in our lives- that life is a synthesis of history and now. It's so prevalent in our media, and can be seen in this song. We must use history in our lives in improving ourselves and society as a whole.

Connection: King Lear and IR (International Relations)

Our missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Korean Peninsula, Japan, etc. are all examples of the United State's position in International Relations, or IR. We deploy a troop presence in order to maintain our interests in these nations, a few being, democracy, oil, retaining a global economy, and shutting down insurgents in the name of a "global war on terror". 

What we're essentially doing as we deploy a troop presence is make a "logical" calculation or prediction and deploy troops in order to protect our interest, and to maintain our security. This is also known as "securitization". Now many would argue that, the act of "securitization" actually instigates the very problem being "securitized" against. Let me cite some empirical examples: 

1. Iraq- we maintained a troop presence and the insurgency mission fell: terrorism initially reached unprecedented levels (not including 9/11- was a single act of terrorism in the U.S not a global ravaging of the Middle East) and we were forced to withdraw leaving our economic interests more damaged than when we arrived.

2. Korea- the conflict escalated upon U.S and Chinese intervention on the peninsula, before it remained rather isolated and because interests were put at risk, the superpower's securitizing intervention led to the war that it was (1950)

You see, securitization isn't limited to IR, it's a commonly taught lesson, that when you often try to fix things you make it worse or instigate the problem through intervention- Shakespeare recognized this and epitomized this lesson in this play.

The tragedy of King Lear stems from Lear's honest act of attempting to passing down his kingdom through heir-ship. And passing down the "inheritance" of the kingdom to Regen and Goneril was supposed to solve for a peaceful shift in power. What was the result? Absolute destruction. King Lear assumes a role in which to devolve his power and intervention to solve for a peaceful kingdom, but by his very intervention, collapses it and allows for the likes of Edmund, Regen and Goneril to be involved in this revolution. 

So as you can see, there is an incredible similarity to be made between the U.S's view on international relations and King Lear's action upon a successful division of his kingdom. They both securitize through their action and allow for their fears upon which they securitize, occur.

360 degrees: Colors

Colors. The texture of our life, the hue of global ambiance, and the complexity of symbolic universitality. The significance of this wonderful element ranges from child's play to cultural  definition. Color encapsulates so much within our lives and can be looked at through so many angles and aspects.

One of these aspects is upon the level of art. They provide the intensity to a truly vivid picture and help envelop the beauty of reality (people, the environment, etc.). Without it, there wouldn't be the same level of beauty in art as there is made possible by the wonderful pigments we know today.

Another aspect is the level of symbolic significance. For example: the color red is seen as a symbol for both blood and death as it is a symbol of love and forgiveness. Green is a symbol for trickery and decietfulness, as well as a symbol for vitality and life. Colors hold multiple special meanings that are explored throughout our cultures.

Colors also hold extreme religious significance. In Christianity, redemption can be represented by the color red for the blood that Jesus shed. Green can be seen as a sign of the serpent, thus the devil (represented in the story of Adam and Eve). Green can also be seen as a religious symbol of life and nature- thus hope for eternal life. And white is seen as a symbol of purity and cleanliness. As you can see, colors hold great significance in the aspect of faith and belief.

Colors are also great cultural definers. Flags are represented through nationalistic colors. Also, certain celebrations held close to individual societies are represented through colors.

For example, to name a few:
Christmas: Red and Green
Mardi Gras: Purple, Green, Gold
Thanksgiving: Brown and Gold

Colors signal these celebrations and the society (or nation) that embraces them.

Colors do have incredible significance and meaning beyond the art room. They hold great symbolic significance, cultural and religious meaning. They truly do have aspects that revolve 360 degrees.

Working on the Kite Runner Essay allowed me to open up upon myself. It provided insight as to how I think, more specifically how I construe and correlate things to one another, how effective I am in transferring my thoughts eloquently upon paper, and all in all my thought process or method in writing.

Writing this paper, I was especially conscious about the rhythm of my writing. The dynamics create a strong beat and creates a flow necessary to captivate any reader. I focused heavily on the rhythm of individual words, but more importantly the sentence structure as a whole. The dynamics of my thought had to come cleanly and smoothly to the mind of the reader. I attempted to captivate this thought process through the accent upon certain words, and the beat of a sentence. For example- to describe the culturally broken Afghanistan I created a litany of features that provided a "droning" feel to represent the drabness and sick modern Afghanistan. For this assignment, in particular, I really capitalized upon this technique and practice and enjoyed the changes I made to my overall writing. I was surprised at the flow it created and knowing that I consciously decided upon this word choice I grew to appreciate the multitude writers involved in a higher class of writing.

During this process of constructing the essay, I also focused on the contrast in thought that created an intelligent clash between these ideas. For example, I compared Amir's past to the present torn homeland to really bring out the cultural dynamic change. Using this technique, I really opened myself to the other areas of writing, and consciously recognized other writer's techniques within their work. I always subconsciously recognized the brilliance of these techniques but now truly appreciate them for what they are- the paper has opened me up to the greater view and technique within writing.

This paper has gone beyond the average sophomore writing assignment- as beyond a test of skill, it taught me so much and opened up my mind to a new realm of academia. I will make sure to focus on these skills, and practice them in papers to come. They create a brilliant underlying scheme for pieces of writing. I believe that I still have much to do in these categories, but this paper has launched this experience and thought process in the metacognition of writing.

Blogging Around

1. Austin Bream: His focus was that we encourage that which we condemn, the example given was that society encourages others' disparities in order to sense superiority.

I would like to respectfully disagree with Austin's point of view on society's actions. He says that "Joe's" misfortune was due to society and ultimately put him in jail, but society can't provide a perfect world for everyone. To believe and expect this would be unrealistic, society didn't cause this, rather how he acted in his circumstances did. For one, there's always a choice, he didn't have to steal, there are laws that push for a certain accessible standard of living within the workforce. Also, he states that society allows schools to stay poor, but there are so many ways that these schools are improving and movements being issued that they do. Albeit they don't meet a "suburban" standard, but in any situation some will  be greater than others, not because they "want to be superior" rather they want the best for their area. Austin also states that "Society encouraged his poor childhood by encouraging his father's absence", I believe that society actually looks down upon leaving a family, that it's discouraged. Society didn't encourage it, rather situational choices were made and resulted in Joe's bleak life. Austin then says, "Society encouraged that absence with Joe's existence", again it's unrealistic to believe that society caused Joe's father to leave and then to put Joe in that situation so he suffers, all to have a sense of superiority. Society's heart often goes out towards cases such as these (i.e. charities, political movements, affirmative action, etc.). Nobody gets a good feeling out of this suffering, that they feel better about themselves. Simply, subordination is inevitable in any given culture or society, because of competition, yet competition in life does not necessitate the lowering of others simply the bettering of one's self. It's unfair to put society at fault for situational issues.

2. Ryan Bunney: His focus was that standardized tests test little.

I agree that standardized tests do not encapsulate all of one's intelligence or even how great of a student you may be, but I believe that their is merit. It tests one's diligence in studying, test taking ability, intelligence (not all of it, but a portion of it), and more. There are other methods of admission that do test these lacking areas which is why they work in conjunction with one another- Ryan pointed this out. I could very well say the same thing about college essays, or about one's GPA, and the list goes on and on.

Also, on junior high testing, I would argue that ultimately preparing for the ISAT is beneficial for the students- Ryan brings this up. That it allows for greater resources, teaching, etc. So that it is a good method of determining where resources are due, because all schools prepare greatly meaning that they end up being on a ,give or take, level plane. On the Terra Nova's, I believe the teachers actually do prepare you for the test through everyday instruction, and my experiences show that they do take time to prepare you and have you do well. This all points to schools wanting the best for their students.

I really like your points going both ways, it shows that you recognize both planes of the debate and that you're open minded and remain so throughout your writing and expression.

  

Connection: Starry Night

Art. What comes to your mind upon reading this word? Art is a theme that resonates among all of us and within our lives. It's a culture's heartbeat, it's definition and expression. Yet many define it as a seemingly aesthetic or shallow work, nothing beyond a cursory surface. Yet art is the quality and expression of principles, emotions, realms, of what is beautiful and appealing, beyond ordinary significance. Throughout class- most clearly recognized through Beat by Beat we explored and analyzed the significance and meaning behind the art of writing, opening our mind to the wonders and intelligence behind the ink on paper. I recognized through this concept of true art the meaning behind other pieces of art- exploring the painting Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh.


Through the class's reading and discussion of Beat by Beat we perceived the purpose and brilliance behind techniques and writing styles. We were able to recognize the "beat" and "rhythm" of writing, the significance behind word choice, and the meaning behind so many different styles. Thus, I decided to explore the different realms of art (i.e. music, paintings, drawings, etc.) and decided upon discovering the meaning behind the art of the impressionist era. 


I decided upon the impressionist era, because of the "impressions" that the art left or would seek to create, impression is defined as an effectual consequence or response, something that one would have to diverge themselves within exactly like one envelopes themselves within the art of writing.


The painting I decided to analyze was Starry Night by Van Gogh, now upon research and interpretation I discovered many deeper apprehensions of the masterpiece. For one, the painting was created to represent the warmth and geniality of Van Gogh himself, for he admired the night sky as his own. He also painted this piece at a time when he was in sickness diagnosed with the time's "epilepsy", he used this painting to escape from his misery and illness and envelope himself once more in the work of art. Also, because of his affliction he wasn't able to go on his own and observe his subject as he once had, meaning that he used mental imagery to paint this piece allowing for greater interpretation and his representation. His passion for the night is seen through the darkness, where the sky comes upon the town- interpreted as the greatness of the sky. Many experts also speculate that Van Gogh was illustrating the "Via Lactea", a recent scientific discovery of his time. Also the configuration of the painting- the spirals of white and yellow and the bright vertical lines are "soft" to the painting. It illustrates a supplication for hope out of darkness along with the stars and mellow window light of the town. 


Now without a deeper look into the painting, it's ostensibly a crude, undefined picture of the night. But further look into it we recognize it's true meaning and the nature of it's art, just as we do throughout the reading of excellent writing.






   

Best of Week: Blessings

The Kite Runner apprises an incredible amount of universal teaching and guidance, applicable to each and every reader's life, creating an indispensable connection between the reader and Hosseini. Throughout the week's reading and discussion, I explored two predicaments throughout the class's observations that epitomized the "lesson" that our writer illustrated throughout Amir's story. One a re-visitation to the past and another a barrier to his future. The lesson that I learned is one of counting your blessings and making the best of what you have, no matter how great or how small your capabilities may be.

Throughout our class's examination of the book we continually came across the topic of historical re-visitation. That is, the re-visitation of Amir's past (hence the memoir). Now, Amir deliberately recognized the excruciating pain, hardship and impact that his experience of viewing Hassan's rape left him, yet he didn't "capitalize" upon the joy that was brought into his life ( i.e. Rahim Kahn's appearance, Soraya, and his father's acceptance). His lingering upon his past truly gave him this pain and remembrance. 

The second situational problem is Soraya's infertility, this passage in the book exemplifies the problem through Amir's feeling and emotion:

"And I could almost feel the emptiness in Soraya’s womb, like it was a living, breathing thing. It had seeped into our marriage, that emptiness, into our laughs, and our lovemaking. And late at night, in the darkness of our room,I’d feel it rising from Soraya and settling between us. Sleeping between us. Like a newborn child."

It brings an incredible amount of hardship impacting both their marriage and their family. Upon this, due to their defined culture "filling in that gap" is much harder to fill than not (i.e. General Taheri's view on blood relations). 

Given these two "problems", I realized that we can come across cross roads like this in our lives and we can take either path. The one that makes the best of our situation or the one that leads to further contempt and pain. Knowing Hosseini through his writing, I know that he'll find a way to make the best of both situations in Amir's life. To fulfill both holes in his life through the life of another.

Best of Week: Culturally Defined

Throughout our reading and discussion of The Kite Runner, a predominant question was raised both by myself and the class as a whole. This question was one of Amir and Hassan's relationship. It was prompted by many passages, this, simply being one of them: The question being, why don't Amir and Hassan recognize their relationship as a true friendship? rather, what's stopping them from retaining that mutual bond?

"Ali and Baba grew up together as childhood playmates--at least until polio crippled Ali’s leg--just like Hassan and I grew up a generation later. Baba was always telling us about the mischief he and Ali used to cause, and Ali would shake his head and say, “But, Agha sahib, tell them who was the architect of the mischief and who the poor laborer?” Baba would laugh and throw his arm around Ali.

But in none of his stories did Baba ever refer to Ali as his friend.

The curious thing was, I never thought of Hassan and me as friends either. Not in the usual sense, anyhow. Never mind that we taught each other to ride a bicycle with no hands, or to build a fully functional homemade camera out of a cardboard box. Never mind that we spent entire winters flying kites, running kites."

I found the answer through Baba and Ali's dialog and interaction with one another, and that reflection upon their child's relationship.

Baba and Ali's dialog identifies with their societal relationship (i.e. "Agha sahib" and the nonrecognition of a true "friendship") and reflects the cultural relationship between a Pashtun and a Hazara. Regardless of Amir and Hassan's childhood experiences together, their relationship was bound by the same cultural standard. Hassan recognizes Amir as "Amir Agha" and sets himself in a position lower than Amir in both outside and within their time together. Khaled Hosseini used their relationship in order to illustrate a theme of civilization and culture represented in life itself, sufficiently answering our questions. That ethnic and cultural boundaries drastically affect and define who we are and our relationship with others regardless of our situational experience. But most importantly, that it can’t erase the bond that has been created within those experiences.

Is it fair that culture have such a dominant role in defining these relationships? I can't tell you for sure, but I can speculate that maybe society's interpretation is what makes some relationships so special after all.