Metacognition: Jane Eyre Writing Assignment

When our group first sat down to start the Jane Eyre writing assignment, I wasn't really sure where it was going to end up. I feared that it would be boring, the characters would be flat, and that I wouldn't have much to add to it. But once we got started, I felt the creative juices in me flowing. I'm not sure what made it start, but I'm glad it did.

Every time we started a new topic, or needed a character to come up with something interesting, a creative idea popped into my mind. It was like there was a great idea in there whenever I needed one. And I'm not overexaggerating. I forced myself to really focus on the project at hand(mostly because I wanted to get it done). Great things came from it.

And because I was focused, the other people in my group were too. It's amazing how off task people can get sometimes. Based on previous experiences, if one person isn't there to work, the whole atmosphere changes. But we all wanted to be there and get the job done, so we did.

I wish every other project could be like this for me. This project came easier, it was free flowing and there was always something interesting to add. Even when we needed to think harder or deeper about something, the three of us came up with something. Maybe it was the whole collaboration aspect of the project. People don't always come up with great ideas on their own. I felt like we all really contributed and did the best we could with it. Altogether, the project was a success.

Metacognition: Jane Eyre

After reading Jane Eyre, I noticed that most of my attention was focused on Jane's feelings, and how I relate to them. I would find myself criticizing the decisions she made, the things she said, and the way she treated people.

This might have been because I felt a need to understand Jane. First of all, Jane was living in a totally different time period than I am now. At first, I couldn't understand why she had to make things so complicated for herself. I wanted her to choose Rochester from the beginning.

This might have been the easy way out. I've learned from reading this book that the easiest way of doing things is not exactly the best way. When reading, I now know that I need to imagine things from the characters perspective, and not my own.

I also think I read too fast. While reading, I got the main ideas and feelings that were going on. But, I missed a lot of deeper meanings while doing this. I would give myself about an hour or so each night to read the section, but sometimes it wasn't enough, and I would end up skimming the text. Next time I read a book, I'm going to take my time. If I'm going to take the time to read the book, I might as well enjoy it as much as possible.

Another thing I need to do while reading a book is stop and think about what is going on. By going fast, I only allow the quick, "right after reading" thoughts to come. If I stopped after each chapter or important passage, I would definitely benefit. That extra minute would result in reflection and deeper thinking, which is what we are all essentially looking for.

360 Degrees: "Strip My Mind"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7j-6N6gnIc

Out of all the songs I know by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, this is the one song that, simultaneously, I love and don't understand at all. I decided to try and dissect it as to MAYBE come to terms with what Anthony Kiedis is singing about.

My two favorite parts of this song are the guitar solo and the chorus. "Please don't strip my mind." What exactly does this mean? Who is he even talking to? Is Kiedis talking to God and telling him not to let his memories fade away? Or maybe he doesn't want to be stripped of a certain person that he loves? Is he asking the person he loves to come back to him? When someone refers to "stripping the mind," the first thing that comes to mind is removing all memories away. Maybe he loved this one girl, and he knows that he will never get her back. All he has is the memory of her.

Kiedis also makes a reference to his past. He sings, "Hot as Hades early eighties, sing another song and make me feel like I'm in love again." Something that was once great back in the day has passed in his life. Even after his relationship is all said and done, and years have passed, he is still hung up over this one girl. Why do people find it so hard to move on sometimes? I am curious about what makes a person difficult to get over.

The music working with the lyrics is really what makes this a great song. At some points, quiet in the background, the guitar is whiny. It's like his heart is crying out through the guitar. I especially like the beginning part. He just lets the chords ring out, instead of stopping them. He actually does this throughout the whole song. It creates this effect that we are almost floating. At other times, like during the solo, it's both scratchy, dragged out, and whiny at the same time. Even when the Kiedis isn't singing, there is something else showing us the pain he is going through. Why can't he get over this? Was this girl his first love?

I think it is absolutely amazing when a band can put together lyrics and music and have them mesh perfectly. Every time I listen to this song I hear something new and interesting. Is there ever a limit on different ways to see things? I am curious as to how a person actually creates a song. Which comes first, the lyrics or the music? Can it be both? Which way did this song come?

An Inconvenient Truth: An Increase in Technological Communication

The increase in technology and the ways we use technology has a dramatic impact on the way we communicate with each other. Cell phones, video chatting, and emailing create new ways for us to communicate. We seem to be using these methods more and more often. As great and easy as these ways seem, it makes the old ways of communicating with each other that much harder.

Before texting, the way to break up with someone was either to call or tell them face to face. But now, you can send one message and end a relationship. We text instead of talking. What kind of relationships are we forming?

The truth is that it is easier to text someone instead of call, or video chat someone instead of meeting up with them. Once we stop putting in the effort to talk face to face with people, what have we become? Our lives are based on communication and our relationships with each other. The most important people in my life are the ones I see and talk to the most. The people I talk to on Facebook, or text, are far less important. These relationships are not the ones that last a lifetime. But they seem to be the ones we find the most interesting.

My generation seems to be obsessed with how many friends they have on Facebook and how many people text them. I probably have at least five friends who are addicted to texting, going on Facebook, etc. Some people just cannot leave their phone at home, and are constantly checking to see if someone has texted them. When you are trying to have a conversation with someone, and they are checking their phone, it feels like their other "friends" are more important than you are.

Another problem with all of these new ways of communicating is the distractions it creates. Instead of finishing our English blog early, we might be checking our email or Facebook page. Instead of spending quality time with the family, we might be video chatting our friends.

This makes me think about how I spend my time. If I cut out all of the hours I spent texting and talking to my friends on Facebook, I can only imagine all of the things I could do. Finding time to play guitar is hard, I could use the time I spend on Facebook to do that. I could spend time with my sister, getting ahead on my homework, working on an art project.

These new ways of communicating bother me because it takes away from all of the worth while things I could be doing. But, for some reason I feel like I have to use them. Facebook is now used for school, texting is the easiest way to communicate with someone quickly, and all of my friends video chat. This has become a part of our culture, and there is really no way to get around it. I just need to better limit my time using these ways of communicating. Maybe I need to make better choices of who I talk to also. Talking to someone I'm not that great of friends with is not a worth while use of my time.

Dialectics: Feminism and Industrialization

The idea of feminism is one I have not done much thinking about until recently. I had heard the word before, and I understood a little bit about what it meant. But until I began learning about industrialization and the development of more complex societies, I never realized how important feminism was to my life.

Industrialization began with inventions that allowed people to do things quicker and easier. People made more money, we could get around and communicate faster, and the world became connected in a way it never had been. Within the 17-20th centuries, each society became more and more industrialized. Women began working more. It was no longer the men that just had to do all the hard work.

If industrialization around the world had not developed as much as it did, I'm willing to bet that I would not have the rights I do today. After the World Wars, women were needed way more than before. They had to take up the jobs the men had left behind. I can't imagine living in a world where women were so subordinate to men. Today, I live to make a good future for myself and a family. Back then, it was a woman's job to get married and take care of the kids.

It is interesting to think that the more complex we developed as societies, the more rights women won. It took thousands of years for women to get equal rights as men. What is even more interesting to think is that some women still do not have these rights. The countries that developed slower than others seem to (generally) be the ones where women have smaller amounts of rights. Take Africa or South East Asia for example. Their culture doesn't completely circulate around new technology the way ours does. The women living in these societies have very few rights: the men inherit the land, the men control the family, the men decide what they want to do with the wife. I'm so lucky that I don't need a man to do this for me.

Blogging Around

Chelsea's Blog: She discussed the lack of intimacy between the man and the woman in "Cathedral." She connected this to her own personal, real life relationships.

The lack on intimacy is definitely a problem we see reoccurring everywhere. In my opinion, this is due partially to the increase in technology. We text instead of calling, email instead of talking face to face about things, and chat on face book instead of hanging out.

The lack of intimacy in the relationship between the "guy and girl" in the story seems to be due to distractions in their lives. Sure, we can see they love each other. But, they both seem more interested in other things. Tv, smoking, and newer more interesting things(Robert, for example).

But, I also don't think that anyone can completely judge anyone else's relationships. An outside person looking into someone else's relationship is going to see things different. The amount of intimacy between two people obviously goes down when other people are factored into the equation.

Vicki's Blog: Vicki wrote about one our last current events meetings, where we discussed the future of our generation. Mr. Allen brought up how he is scared for us and our future, and Vicki connected this to our lives and how the government administrates for us.

I remember hearing Mr. Allen's words about "long-term thinking" as well. I have to be honest, this scared me and really made me think about my future on this planet. I'm so used to living in Northbrook. I don't have to worry about making a living, how the environment's gradual destruction might affect me, etc. Yet.

Our lives are so comfortable as they are now. I think the reason we aren't making the necessary changes that need to be made is because we feel content with where we are. I have come to realize this is the main problem with our thinking. We wait until it gets so bad, that we have to make changes. For example, we are probably going to wait until an "environmental catastrophe" happens, and THEN we make laws completely regulating what we put into it.

There is not much we can do about this either. We can only hope that the government does what is best for us...

Best of Week: An Africans View

The best idea from class was the idea of putting an Africans view into Heart of Darkness. Throughout the book, we see white peoples views. We can pretty much assume the narrator is white, since he is sitting and listening to Marlow telling the story as an equal. Marlow is a white character, as are the Manager, Kurtz, and most of the characters. We see the story through white peoples eyes.

The reason we only get white people's views is because of the time period the book was written. The book probably wouldn't have been read by as many people, or even published, if a black mans view was written. A big concept of the book is savagery, and how the white people are bringing civilization to Africa. Unless Conrad was somehow not a racist, like most of the men in the 19th/18th centuries, he would not have portrayed the Africans any other way.

The idea of putting another characters view into a story suggests there is a side missing to a book. Heart of Darkness has black characters in it, but none of their opinions, views, or voices are heard. Where could we even put a black characters voice in? My suggestion would be the narrator. This would skew the whole entire story. Instead of respecting Marlow, this person might hate or resent him.

This idea of a side of the story missing applies to everything. Everything we read, listen to, or see has a second side. In Heart of Darkness, no one ever asked the black people how they felt about Kurtz, or the Company. No one cared. If they would have asked the Africans how they felt about white people taking over their homelands, they would not have gotten positive responses.

Including this second side of the story would have added another layer to Heart of Darkness. Not that their aren't enough layers already. But with every point of view you add, another level of complexity arises. The relationship between the white, European men and the African "savages" is an interesting one that we haven't learned too much about. It would be eye opening to see this side.

I could see myself using this idea of adding the second side to things in my writing and daily life. As I said earlier, when you add that extra layer to a story, it becomes that much greater. In daily life, looking at both sides of things helps us make decisions. When faced with a problem, if you look at both sides of it, you are bound to see the positives and the negatives of the situation.