Skit Reflection

A reflection on the skit itself... I have a feeling this one will be a little short too, but I'll do my best to say every little detail about it. So, we had to make a skit about a modern problem related to discrimination. I wasn't present on the day the group chose the topic, but they chose to make our skit about discrimination towards the homeless, and I agreed that it was a good and relatively original idea. We wrote a preliminary script, and we found out it was hard to make a mini-drama about a serious topic without making it too dark or non-entertaining. We often found ourselves recurring to comedy, and though this is fine if used in moderation, it can belittle the seriousness of the topic if overused. We managed to stay between these lines, though I think with a few more rehearsals we could have improved it a little more.

So, our skit was about two guys (played by Alexis and Josue) discussing Game of Thrones in a car, when a homeless man (played by Dylan) approaches asking for spare change. They ignore him, but in their distraction they fail to notice that the traffic light had changed to green. An impatient man (played by Luis) honks his horn and yells at them to move and run the homeless guy over. This guy was named Richard (Dick, for short [I know, we're awesome]). So, the next day, Alexis' car breaks down in the same red light and no one around is willing to help him move. He calls a towing service, but since it's rush hour, the service operator (played by me) tells him he can get there in two hours at best. The homeless guy from before shows up and, despite having initial suspicions, Alexis lets him help. They push the car out of the road, and Alexis, feeling indebted to him, offers the homeless guy a meal and a smoothie at a nearby McDonald's and later offers him a job at his workplace. Throughout all this, the play was stopped every now and then so a thoughts guy (played by Melissa) would speak out loud the thoughts a specific character was having. Oh, and Alexis' character had a name, but it was never mentioned in the drama and I forgot. Oops.

So yeah, that's about it... It was honestly pretty fun, but if I were to do it again, I'd like it if we performed it a few times in class or something and get recommendations from the other classmates on how to improve it. And I think I've said all I can say, sooo... yeah.

Semester Group Project

I've honestly never been a fan of group projects; I always feel like some people end up working harder than others, and then the hard-workers' grade ends up being worse than it should be because of the not-so-hard-workers. I also tend to leave my work until the last possible moment (I've tried to change, but damn it, it's not easy! Don't judge me.), but when working in a group I consider it disrespectful and unfair to my classmates, so I feel forced to do it a bit earlier. This is annoying, of course, since it forces me to go against my nature, but in a way it's also good; I'm not exactly proud of being such a lazy guy half the time, so at least in group projects I can say I did (most of) my work on time. In this group, like in all others, there were some disagreements, but overall it was a good experience. Communication wasn't always easy due to our very different and very busy schedules, but we found a way. The skit was much more fun than I thought it'd be, though with a little more time or a few "test-runs" I feel we could've done even better. We also had a pretty intense discussion the last class when discussing the movie, but it never got out of hand and I felt everyone was respectful, so I'd say it was a productive debate. We never reached an agreement though, and I don't think we ever will, so it's better if we never speak of it again. Ever. (Just kidding, comedy is important too, blah blah.)

So... yeah! I hate group projects in general, but this one wasn't so bad. I guess I wouldn't mind doing it again, though I'll always prefer individual work. (Short entry. Not really much to say.)

Serving In Silence: Reaction Questions

1. Describe these reactions:

A. Military: Due to military regulations, it is seen unacceptable and immoral. Some of her friends in the military don't seem to be bothered by it, but most agree that she should be removed due to the regulation that forbids homosexuality. 
B. Father: He initially seems to not know how to react (he responds to her letter with a mere two sentences) and doesn't accept it. When he finally does, he wants it to be a secret.
C. Children Each Son (s): The three oldest ones are completely okay with it, and they even say that they already knew. The youngest, however, is in denial right up until the end of the movie, when he finally reconciliates with his mother. 

2. Margarethe's decision to tell 

A. the military: Surprisingly to her, they asked her during an interview for a promotion and she felt she shouldn't lie. 
B. her children: She feels forced to tell them due to the potential lawsuit; she'd rather have them find out from her.
C. her father: Same as above, she tells decides to tell him before the confrontation with the military. She lets him know through a letter that takes her a long time to write. 

3. What is your reaction to this true story? Do you believe that she should have kept her secret or told it to everyone? Explain your reasons why. 

I enjoyed the movie, though I admit I was a little shocked at how relatable it is to recent events in my life. I'd rather not elaborate much on this due to their private nature, but I will say that I thought the movie was good and the story was a very interesting and important one that I had not heard of. I believe she did the right thing by letting everyone know; there are few worse pains than having to hide an important part of yourself from your family and loved ones. (EDIT: I don't know why this section looks smaller on the blog, but I can't quite find how to fix it. Sorry.)

(Stole an idea from a classmate again, though I used a different pic.) On the left is Margarethe Cammermeyer, and on the right is the cover art for the movie, featuring Glenn Close, the actress who portrayed her.

5. (?) How would Dr. Kinsey explain the Margarethe Cammermeyer's sexuality?
She is a mother of 4 boys so how can she be lesbian? Is it her choice?

We debated this extensively in class, and we couldn't come to an agreement on exactly where on the Kinsey Scale she could be classified. I find it hard to use this scale because I believe one moves through it. I think it's possible that she didn't know she was homosexual until she fell in love with a woman; this could help explain how she is a mother despite being a lesbian. I don't think she is "any less of a lesbian" (as odd and ridiculous as that sounds) because she has kids; if she feels she is a lesbian, then she is. Ultimately, I believe she would be a 4 on the Kinsey Scale due to the fact that she lived as a heterosexual woman until the events in the story. Finally, I don't think anyone chooses to be heterosexual or homosexual; I certainly don't remember choosing to be heterosexual. Therefore, I don't think it's her choice, it's just who she is. 

6.What does Margarethe believe about her sexuality as it relates to her identity?

She believes that it is an important part of her identity (hence her decision to expose it to the world), but that it doesn't change the rest of her identity and personality. 

Reflection: Award Ceremony for English Literary Contest

On Thursday, April 23rd, our class attended the award ceremony for the Literary Contest we had been asked to participate in early in the semester. The event was dedicated to a recently, and unfortunately, deceased English professor from the university (I apologize for not remembering his name). The love and appreciation his colleagues felt for him was evident throughout the ceremony. Apart from being a professor, he was a writer, and a few of his poems were read out loud by some students. Finally, the awards were given for the winners in the Poetry, Essay, and Short Story categories, and two or three of them were from our class.

The event itself was good. It was clear that the staff responsible for organizing the ceremony had spent much time and dedication on it. The 1st place entries for each category were read out loud, and I enjoyed them quite a lot. My favorite was the poetry winner; I believe the poem was called "Godly Poet," though I can't say for certain. As for my own entry, I didn't win, though I must admit I was glad that I didn't have to read my poem out loud. I made the mistake of choosing an old journal entry as the base for my poem, and as such I didn't feel comfortable with the end result due to the "outdated feelings" it contained. Perhaps with more time I would've submitted a separate entry (in a different category, since poems have never been a strength of mine) with more effort and emotion put into it.

In conclusion, the event itself was very enjoyable. I felt really moved seeing how excited and emotional most of the staff were when speaking of the deceased professor. As for myself, if I could turn back time, I'd work harder and spend more time on my writing and submit an entry I'm actually proud of and hopeful of winning with, or at least getting some recognition from.

A Room With a View: Class Situation

Let me start off by saying that A Room With a View is not my type of movie. I generally don't really enjoy what I think are called period pieces; in other words, movies that are set in the past. In different eras, maybe, is a better way to explain it. I don't really know why, but I find it very hard to enjoy them... Perhaps the only one I've liked is the recently released and Oscar-nominated (and with a few Oscar wins, too) movie called "The Theory of Everything", based on famous physicist, cosmologist, etc. Stephen Hawking, and even then it didn't focus on a specific era but rather on his life, his struggles with his disease, his love life, and... I digress. Point is, I usually don't like these types of movies, and A Room With a View was sadly no exception. Anyways, on to the class situation in the movie...

So! In the movie, Lucy and Charlotte, two seemingly upper class women, stay in a hotel in Italy, but are inconvenienced by the fact that their room doesn't have a view. Mr. Emerson and his handsome son George offer to switch rooms with them, and for some reason I don't quite understand, this seems to bother Charlotte. Anyways, although they don't seem to be poor, these men are more easy-going and open-minded and shit when compared to Lucy and Charlotte. Oh, I hadn't thought about it before, but are we allowed to cuss here? Well, already did it so... Digressing again. Point is, Lucy begins to find herself drawn to George, and eventually he surprises her by grabbing her and kissing her passionately, and Charlotte interrupts them. Once they're back home in England, Lucy is engaged to a snobby, definitely upper class guy named Cecil (even the name is snobby! No offense to any Cecils who read this, I only speak the truth.). Things get complicated when George, the other guy, moves in right next to her. We see a pretty good example of the class difference between George and Cecil in the lake scenes. Rich men are stereotypically seen as allergic to fun and real emotion, so Cecyl, being a rich man, doesn't even think of going for a swim. On the other hand, George, the fun, relatively poor guy, gets in and splashes around and stuff. So, long story short, she breaks off her marriage and tries to run away from George and her feelings for him, but ends up running off with him to Italy again. 

So... I guess that's it. 

My Journal Experience

It's been a while since I last wrote here, I gotta keep this thing updated...

So! At the beginning of the semester, our English professor informed us of a two or three month project: throughout the semester, we were going to keep a journal and write in it approximately five days a week. The journal had a little peculiarity, however; in this journal, we were to follow five "anti-rules" based on Natalie Golding's "Writing Down The Bones," which basically said to write whatever came into our mind non-stop for about 10 minutes, completely uncensored and without much regard for grammar or spelling. One of the anti-rules, and probably the one the professor emphasized most on, was to "go for the jugular," which basically meant to go for precisely that which we didn't want to write, that which we didn't want anyone else to see, to go for those dark feelings inside ourselves that we have trouble admitting exist. It can be hard to explain, but I think you know what I mean.

When we were told of the project, I was obviously not excited at all. Although I do enjoy writing every now and then, keeping a journal updated 5 out of 7 days sounded very tedious and time-consuming, and it was something I knew I'd forget very frequently. Effectively, I hated it during the first week or two; I forgot to write in it at least 6 days a week, and the few times I did write, it felt like I was only giving a half-hearted, "let's-get-this-out-of-the-way" effort. It was also very hard for me to ignore my spelling mistakes, so I frequently went back to correct something or stopped to look up how exactly to write a word (the word "embarrassing" has always confused me, for some reason). However, I slowly began to enjoy it a little more each day. I also began to write all 7 days of the week, in order to make up for the days I'd forgotten. Eventually, I actually looked forward to the late hours at night in which I'd write! It was a place to write down the thoughts I'd had during the day, my thoughts about what had happened and how I had felt about it. Since the rule was to ignore those barriers we build up about what's right and what's wrong, about what is and isn't acceptable, I could expose my true thoughts about certain topics no matter how wrong or controversial they seemed, even if only I was ever going to read them. This openness with myself about how I felt helped me make a significant decision some weeks back to stop going after something that had no future, and I've felt much happier with my life since then.

The project is now over, and my journal had a grand total of 43 entries. Even though I haven't written in the journal ever since I wrote the last entry, I'd really like to keep one in the future. In the summer, when I don't have any more assignments from classes and stuff, I plan to begin a new one, with five minute entries so it doesn't take up too much time. It's been a surprisingly good experience, and I look forward to doing it again. Oh, and I probably won't decorate this one.

On Looking

"On Looking" is the name of the story (well. the part we read isn't so much a story, but I wouldn't know what else to call it) our English professor asked us to read for this blog entry. It's written by Alexandra Horowitz and, among other things, it poses an interesting question: What is "paying attention?" The answer may seem obvious, but if you take some time to think about it, it's not. Many psychologists have spent years upon years studying what exactly it is to "pay attention," and yet they still haven't been able to come up with a clear answer.

Another interesting idea in the text is the idea that concentrating on something means ignoring so many other things. The first few sentences do a great job making you think about this idea; for example, the author makes you realize that as you are reading her story, you are ignoring "the hum of the fluorescent lights, the ambient noise in a large room, the places your chair presses against your legs or back, your tongue touching the roof of your mouth, the tension you are holding in your shoulders or jaw," amongst many other things. I found it to be true in my case; as I read the story, everyone in my house left one by one, and I only noticed when I took a break to go to the bathroom, despite the fact that opening my home's is a very noisy task to say the least. Something similar may have happened to you as you read this very entry.

Finally, Alexandra Horowitz also writes about a bias in an individual's perspective named "deformation professionnelle" by the French. As one may infer by the phenomena's name, it means that humans tend to look at every context from the viewpoint of their profession. For example, a psychologist may see many diagnosable conditions on his friends while on a night out based on their attitudes, or an economist "views the simple act of buying a cup of coffee as an example of a macroeconomic phenomenon." It makes sense; most of us have witnessed it firsthand with our parents, and we will probably be victims of it in the future when we have our own professional careers. The protagonist in the story (whom I assume is also the author) tells us that later on she will go through a walk with different people, and will try to mark down what they see, how they see it, and what varies between people. She also provides a short anecdote of how a psychologist who was on a walk with her and who "thinks a great deal about attention" walks past $60 thrown on the street without even noticing. It's quite ironic, of course, but it serves as proof that no matter what it is practically impossible to keep our attention on everything around us. I would truly be interested in reading more of her experiences during this experiment.