Blogs

Hello everyone!

So, one thing I love more than ANYTHING is when my classes overlap, and that happened to me today with my Computer Science class and this Education class. We had a speaker come in today and talk to us about incorporating dance and technology. Somehow, I managed to bring up Clark's cyborg reading and it fueled part of the discussion about how people "felt" about technology beign incorporated into their bodies and movement. The answer in short is apparently dancers LOVE it! They feel it enhances their capabilites.

I just wanted to share that! 

In light of our "environmental" interpretation of Bruce Bechdel's life, I thought you all might be interested in an article from yesterday's NYTimes, We're Here, We're Queer, Y'all, which describes the possibility and reality of queer life in rural areas...

Last week, we had an activity, figuring out several polices that explore the problem of female offending problem and address the problem.

It was hard to decide which role at first place because honestly I am not familiar with the system and don’t know anyone in that system. After we finally decided that we will be policy maker, all the policy seems really unrealistic. However, even though the problem seem difficult to deal with. We still need to figure out something to deal with it because we not suppose just wait and do nothing before things get worse. Therefore, we figure we should have a big goal, such as eliminating the poverty.

Ironically, even though this is the goal of generation of human. No one has accomplished nor does anyone have figure out a way to reach that destination. Neither communism nor capitalism had this figured out. However, the direct correlation between the crime rate and poverty is undeniable.  The reality in this society is already very cruel for common people. At the same time, for people with come criminal record, life is even hard. It might sound mean, but the truth is that their lives barely go back to normal again. Also, no matter how feminist claim the progress they made to change the unequal situation for women in society. Women are still in disadvantages place. Therefore, these offending women really got them in an unfortunate place to live. Alliance or Vision both tried, but didn’t succeed in some sense.

There are several problems that attract my attention in this problem.

There is a wall of dragonflies preventing me from getting to my destination.  I'm letting them prevent me. 

I have never seen so many dragonflies in one place and I don't like it.  It is amusing how I depicted the dragonflies in beautiful jewel colors when I really  don't like them at all.  Below is my watercolor from my experience.

As I began reading Chapter 4 of Offending Women I was both worried and happy about the different approaches the staff had toward how to help the women in their facility “recover”. I was worried because if these differences led to constant disagreement and distrust between the staff members this would be apparent and hurtful to the women in Visions. However, I think it is helpful to have different perspectives and approach to recovery. The goal of recovery is something the staff seems to agree on: “In short, Visions’ discourse of recovery offered a clear, easy-to-follow interpretation of the inmates’ problems: low-self esteem led to addiction, which then led to even lower self-esteem. It also led to a clear easy-to-follow model of treatment: reflection and introspection heightened self-esteem and thus ended addiction”. This statement makes me think of the language and separation between different types of crime and offenders. For example, is the recovery model also applicable to white collar criminals? My personal instinct says no because I question whether the prerequisite of low self esteem applies to these criminals (do they need to improve their self esteem and recover from greed for instance?). But this question also makes me uncomfortable about the language that is used in some case to discuss offenders who have had less privileged lives.

               It has rained and the garden is very wet. There are no crows.  The only sound is a damp thickness of  cricket sound, thick as an invisible soup through which my ears have to wade.  As I become accustomed and tuned in to them, I hear they are not just an undifferentiated "them", but a symphonic multitude, a chorus of legions of crickets under blade and under leaf, under bush, and under tree.  I will search and perhaps find none. I have searched before.  Their communication ( I believe that we can make that assumption) has a comforting effect on my nervous system.  Theirs is a soft blanketing sound, an unobtrusive  blend with the soft swish of leaves in a soundless breeze. We hear  the air’s effects.  The effect of its movement on surrounding things.  Everything is connected.  Everything has an affect on something, or someone else.

               I have heard myself claim to myself that if a garden sound is not beautiful, in the sense to which I have become accustomed by small song birds, then I would prefer it to be unobtrusive.  That is to say banished.

              Do I prefer unobtrusive people? Unobtrusive plants?

To begin with, I was so busy emailing the photos to my email so I could upload them, that I thought my assignment was done. I didn't realize that I didn't actually post anything until after my job at the library, I apologize for being late :(

Changes! So many! I dedicated today's observation to seeking out any changes occurring in the area. I could see from very far away that there was an orange growth on the tree I sit under. It was so bright orange, I thought maybe it was the foam that is put to block out and exterminate bee hives. As I got closer, I thought someone might have left a handkerchief tied on the branches. Then I saw this:

...that HSBurke referenced in class today, as we were discussing what to "do" with stories of trauma:
Zimbabwe teen leaves anguish behind, starts future at Bryn Mawr (Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 2, 2012)

Hey guys, 

Here's the article I was talking about in class today (or rather a link to it from Bryn Mawr's website):

http://news.brynmawr.edu/2012/10/02/philadelphia-inquirer-tells-inspiring-story-of-bryn-mawr-student-undaunted-by-tragedy-of-her-early-life/

Something about it just rubs me the wrong way. People (even JMac!) are speaking about her with such authority, like they know her so deeply. And it's been, what? a month? I think her story's incredibly brave, but I think what I was trying to get at today is that: as a student body, do our perceptions/treatment of her change thanks to this new knowledge? What do we do with her story? 

So I am not the best artist in the world, as evidenced by this watercolor. However, I really wanted to use the tools Nan put at my disposal. I found, though, that the brush was not the right instrument for me. I ended up using my fingers to create this. It made me feel much more connected to the paper, and was much eaasier to mix the colors I needed. 

I also decided to paint ontop of a page of Gary Snyder's essay. I loved his garden metaphor for good writing, and wanted to incorporate it somehow. I tried painting on just a regular piece of paper, but decided it didn't quite caputer our class notions of language and reprsentation. I'm not quite sure how it connects, seeing as I was painting and not writing, but I like the way it turned out.