I am dead in the water with topics.
Internal Security-
It would be depressing, but it would be interesting to research: How does the NeoNazi interact with both its past (the ArcheoNazis?) and the present? How does the present interact back (trying to ban it, restricting it)?
How effective are these supposed safe places for women? Do women feel grateful, empowered, or baby-sat? Does it encourage risk-taking, or just normal (not fearing) behavior?
I'm not sure what topic it could possibly fall under, but I would be interested in researching German advertising and media, with regards to national problems and history. (I can explain that more in class, I swear.)
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Rethinking Thinking
Honestly, I thought poorly of this article. I guess it doesn't help that the pages were stapled out of order. As I read it, I just got more and more irritated with it. I considered unstapling it and putting it in order, but the pages aren't printed front and back in the right order either, so I couldn't. And this bothered me.
The writers put down the education system - which bothered me. Both of my parents are (and one of my grandparents was) public school teachers, and most of the illusions people have about "better ways to teach" are simply illusions; either impractical, impossible, or previously tried and failed. Teaching this sort of thinking seems to me like legislating "being nice to people!" Or nailing jello to a wall. Or herding Siamese cats (undoubtedly the most stubborn and crazy cats there are). Above all, I hate people who criticize systems without proposing something viable instead.
I just find the whole idea of this article redundant and unneccessary - at least for me. I don't think that people are discouraged from thinking creatively. I think they quite reasonably require people to prove using words and numbers. This article almost seems to bash conventional thinking, and I honestly don't like that. I know well what it feels like to think in the abstract, especially with my crafting projects, or when I get really strange ideas. (I almost feel like the Cookies are Viruses essay is required here...) I just don't like people telling me I have to think this way any more than I would like people telling me I can't think this way. (And I have never had someone tell me I couldn't think this way. Other than my exgirlfriend.)
The writers put down the education system - which bothered me. Both of my parents are (and one of my grandparents was) public school teachers, and most of the illusions people have about "better ways to teach" are simply illusions; either impractical, impossible, or previously tried and failed. Teaching this sort of thinking seems to me like legislating "being nice to people!" Or nailing jello to a wall. Or herding Siamese cats (undoubtedly the most stubborn and crazy cats there are). Above all, I hate people who criticize systems without proposing something viable instead.
I just find the whole idea of this article redundant and unneccessary - at least for me. I don't think that people are discouraged from thinking creatively. I think they quite reasonably require people to prove using words and numbers. This article almost seems to bash conventional thinking, and I honestly don't like that. I know well what it feels like to think in the abstract, especially with my crafting projects, or when I get really strange ideas. (I almost feel like the Cookies are Viruses essay is required here...) I just don't like people telling me I have to think this way any more than I would like people telling me I can't think this way. (And I have never had someone tell me I couldn't think this way. Other than my exgirlfriend.)
Monday, April 14, 2008
Hunger
Okay, sorry, I've had this on the editting block since........I'm not sure when. But I never finished it. So now I will.
Mwahahahahahaha pink dots. Sorry, I really liked this template, but when I noticed at least two other people had it...it had to go.
I ran straight from class to class to the Ave to a hair salon to Haggett to the bus stop, never eating. Elizabeth, Mary Grace and I walked from the bus to the theater together. We took a wrong turn, and I bought one of those five-dollar footlong sandwiches. I considered it pretty good luck; I was starving. While looking at a Seattle Center map, we were ambushed by a really stubborn homelessman. Upon being told we were going to the ballet, he knew Midsummer Night's Dream was playing, and asked if we knew who the choreographer was. He started quoting Shakespeare, and had an in depth discussion with Mary Grace about their respective favorite classical composers. I felt...rather uncultured. Once we were close to the theater, he felt he'd established a rapport, and asked for his money. I don't know if MG was telling the truth or not, but she said she had no money on her. He said please, he was really hungry, and ended up with six inches of my chicken sandwich. I know he would have totally preferred money, but I doubt he threw it out.
Honestly, I think that affected me about as much as the ballet. Encounters with the homeless are always weird, but this one seemed particularly so. Besides, it's the first time in years I've actually given one something. Mary Grace showed him compassion and talked. I ignored his patter, but gave him my food.
This was where I left off...But as for the ballet...
I liked the first act. I saw what Shanga meant by how they just expressed things with their entire bodies, particularly Puck. Sometimes they were over-playing it, but...it's ballet. It's not supposed to be realistic.
I thought the costumes were fantastic. Amazingly beautiful, though apparently they did not make the role of the characters clear...what others called sprites and butterflies, I somehow took as wild folliage plants and flowering plants. Maybe they were listed somewhere as sprites and butterflies; I've never actually read the play. Shrimp colored? I just thought they were a nice peachy-pink. I love silly and elaborate costumes, though. I desperately want to take a costuming class with the drama department next year...though I'm not sure if non-majors and poor sewers can take it. I loved the color-coding of the couples.
The second act I could have done without. I guess I'm just not into ballet. People talk about the grace, but all I see is women in positions I don't honestly believe the human body is meant to achieve. Some of those arabesques? I don't see how or why their back legs could or would be like that. It just looks awkward to me, and yet, all I hear is people cooing about the grace and beauty. When the women scooted across stage en pointe? I...just don't like that. It makes my legs and ankles hurt to watch. That motion...scares me. It looks alien, or insectlike.
Mwahahahahahaha pink dots. Sorry, I really liked this template, but when I noticed at least two other people had it...it had to go.
I ran straight from class to class to the Ave to a hair salon to Haggett to the bus stop, never eating. Elizabeth, Mary Grace and I walked from the bus to the theater together. We took a wrong turn, and I bought one of those five-dollar footlong sandwiches. I considered it pretty good luck; I was starving. While looking at a Seattle Center map, we were ambushed by a really stubborn homelessman. Upon being told we were going to the ballet, he knew Midsummer Night's Dream was playing, and asked if we knew who the choreographer was. He started quoting Shakespeare, and had an in depth discussion with Mary Grace about their respective favorite classical composers. I felt...rather uncultured. Once we were close to the theater, he felt he'd established a rapport, and asked for his money. I don't know if MG was telling the truth or not, but she said she had no money on her. He said please, he was really hungry, and ended up with six inches of my chicken sandwich. I know he would have totally preferred money, but I doubt he threw it out.
Honestly, I think that affected me about as much as the ballet. Encounters with the homeless are always weird, but this one seemed particularly so. Besides, it's the first time in years I've actually given one something. Mary Grace showed him compassion and talked. I ignored his patter, but gave him my food.
This was where I left off...But as for the ballet...
I liked the first act. I saw what Shanga meant by how they just expressed things with their entire bodies, particularly Puck. Sometimes they were over-playing it, but...it's ballet. It's not supposed to be realistic.
I thought the costumes were fantastic. Amazingly beautiful, though apparently they did not make the role of the characters clear...what others called sprites and butterflies, I somehow took as wild folliage plants and flowering plants. Maybe they were listed somewhere as sprites and butterflies; I've never actually read the play. Shrimp colored? I just thought they were a nice peachy-pink. I love silly and elaborate costumes, though. I desperately want to take a costuming class with the drama department next year...though I'm not sure if non-majors and poor sewers can take it. I loved the color-coding of the couples.
The second act I could have done without. I guess I'm just not into ballet. People talk about the grace, but all I see is women in positions I don't honestly believe the human body is meant to achieve. Some of those arabesques? I don't see how or why their back legs could or would be like that. It just looks awkward to me, and yet, all I hear is people cooing about the grace and beauty. When the women scooted across stage en pointe? I...just don't like that. It makes my legs and ankles hurt to watch. That motion...scares me. It looks alien, or insectlike.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Response to Class today
And now, belatedly, my response to class today.
Ghosts and monuments of Seattle
---The Underground Tour. I haven't been on it yet, surprisingly - in fact, the only memory I have of it is walking somewhere in town with my mother, and asking her why there was purple glass in the ground. I was quite disturbed to hear the answer. The underground is a piece of Seattle history, as short as Seattle history may be. I only hear about it infrequently, as one of those things one is supposed to do at some point while living here. The story (from wikipedia...then again, this isn't a blog, it's a paper) was that there was a major fire in early Seattle, and the city officials decided that the city should not only be built out of flame-proof materials, but also higher. Apparently, toliets ran backwards during certain tides. This just doesn't seem as epic as other city features. Maybe that isn't the right word, but you know what I mean, don't you. "Tour Guides regale you with humorous stories our pioneers didn’t want you to hear. It’s history with a twist!" This is just not serious like Berlin history.
---The Space Needle is what makes Seattle recognizably Seattle, especially to non-Seattelites. It's a monument to the Space Age. Hence the "space" part. It was built for the 1962 World's Fair, I believe. While I very rarely see it, it's just there. All the time. And because I seem to be in a dark mood right now,* I'd like to paraphrase part of a Chuck Palahniuk book, Invisible Monsters, on the topic of the Space Needle. It was abandoned by the Jetsons, and taken over by the Flintstones. The fairgoers went there in the 60s, dreaming of flying cars and walking on the moon, and now it's visited by hippies who make their own sandals out of (sometimes vegan) leather. We gave up our dreams and looking to the sky and went back to the dirt. In a way, it's sort of true.
*In this class, divided Berlin and the DDR. In one history class, the Holocaust and eugenics. In my other history class, we just covered the extreme racism towards immigrants, what exactly was in the meat products, and the tenements of New York City before workers really had rights. I blame you, UW. I blame you for my bad mood.
One other research topic I was wondering about:
I was thinking about how advertising might be different in Germany than in the US. I really liked this bulletin board, and besides the definite scandel that would happen here if it was put up. (My sister took a picture of an even more explicit one while she was in Berlin. It was two bananas, one wearing a condom, one not. The one not was all black and rotten. She thought it was hilarious.) What other differences might I see if I was there, in values, technique, maybe even color schemes?
And remember, Damen und Herren, Berlin is poor, but sexy.
Ghosts and monuments of Seattle
---The Underground Tour. I haven't been on it yet, surprisingly - in fact, the only memory I have of it is walking somewhere in town with my mother, and asking her why there was purple glass in the ground. I was quite disturbed to hear the answer. The underground is a piece of Seattle history, as short as Seattle history may be. I only hear about it infrequently, as one of those things one is supposed to do at some point while living here. The story (from wikipedia...then again, this isn't a blog, it's a paper) was that there was a major fire in early Seattle, and the city officials decided that the city should not only be built out of flame-proof materials, but also higher. Apparently, toliets ran backwards during certain tides. This just doesn't seem as epic as other city features. Maybe that isn't the right word, but you know what I mean, don't you. "Tour Guides regale you with humorous stories our pioneers didn’t want you to hear. It’s history with a twist!" This is just not serious like Berlin history.---The Space Needle is what makes Seattle recognizably Seattle, especially to non-Seattelites. It's a monument to the Space Age. Hence the "space" part. It was built for the 1962 World's Fair, I believe. While I very rarely see it, it's just there. All the time. And because I seem to be in a dark mood right now,* I'd like to paraphrase part of a Chuck Palahniuk book, Invisible Monsters, on the topic of the Space Needle. It was abandoned by the Jetsons, and taken over by the Flintstones. The fairgoers went there in the 60s, dreaming of flying cars and walking on the moon, and now it's visited by hippies who make their own sandals out of (sometimes vegan) leather. We gave up our dreams and looking to the sky and went back to the dirt. In a way, it's sort of true.*In this class, divided Berlin and the DDR. In one history class, the Holocaust and eugenics. In my other history class, we just covered the extreme racism towards immigrants, what exactly was in the meat products, and the tenements of New York City before workers really had rights. I blame you, UW. I blame you for my bad mood.
One other research topic I was wondering about:
I was thinking about how advertising might be different in Germany than in the US. I really liked this bulletin board, and besides the definite scandel that would happen here if it was put up. (My sister took a picture of an even more explicit one while she was in Berlin. It was two bananas, one wearing a condom, one not. The one not was all black and rotten. She thought it was hilarious.) What other differences might I see if I was there, in values, technique, maybe even color schemes?And remember, Damen und Herren, Berlin is poor, but sexy.
Non-class matters 4-10...because I am easily distracted...
Ich hasse/liebe Phoenetics. Hiedi was talking about oh, if you can feel the position of your tongue changing, you should be a linguist. I almost was a linguist...I adored Ling 200 like none other, but I didn't think I could cut it for the major.
This is the English vowel chart, or one of them anyway. Google has failed me at finding a German one that I could understand. It's really useful to me, though, especially talking about vowel height. See the height on the chart? Yeah. That's what it is. The English [i] or "ee" sound is really, really high.
The chart for the consonants would also be heavily useful, but I don't want this to be tooooo image heavy.
Update: Ich habe jetz einen Wörterbuch! Mein Freund gab mich ihren Wörterbuch. (Yeah, you'll have to check to see if that's right, actual German speakers. Meine Grammatik ist kaput.)
This is the English vowel chart, or one of them anyway. Google has failed me at finding a German one that I could understand. It's really useful to me, though, especially talking about vowel height. See the height on the chart? Yeah. That's what it is. The English [i] or "ee" sound is really, really high.The chart for the consonants would also be heavily useful, but I don't want this to be tooooo image heavy.
Update: Ich habe jetz einen Wörterbuch! Mein Freund gab mich ihren Wörterbuch. (Yeah, you'll have to check to see if that's right, actual German speakers. Meine Grammatik ist kaput.)
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Mein Wörterbuch...
I muss in Deutsch schreiben! Maybe not always, but...you know...at least sometimes. Unfortunately, my German-English/English-German dictionary (erm) went away. Somewhere. All my grammar notes were in it! Unglücklich. So now I've been using Babel Fish, and it's far too tempting to translate entire phrases in it, which may prevent actually learning stuff, and the stupid thing isn't always right.
Ich sollte ein neues Wörterbuch kaufen. The one I have is out of print, but I don't think I like the new edition from the same company.
So, if anyone from my class is actually reading their classmates' blogs, do you have a recommendation?
Mine looked a lot like this, only it was German-English/English-German, not just German.
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