Blog 30

Analyze specific qualities that make a person fit to successfully pursue extreme adventures in the natural world, but also could potentially lead to disaster.

I think basically any time you plan on going into the wild, there's a chance of your adventures leading to disaster. That's just the way life goes. But there are two things that seem to be most important while embarking on such adventures, and they're fairly simple.
But I guess the most important quality is to have the drive and the motivation to survive in the wilderness, otherwise, you'll probably live there for a week, and want to give up or get bored. If you have no motivation to do something difficult, then you have no reason for being there, and in the end, it would just seem like a waste of time. However, if someone does have a strong will, they can also push themselves too far, which can lead to injury and death.
There's also that personal need for a challenge that comes in handy as well. With this, all the struggles are seen as ways you can grow and improve. The saying "what doesn't kill you, will only make you stronger" comes to mind. But once again, you can take this state of mind too far and trap yourself into a bad result.

Semester Reflection

1. Discuss your overall strengths and specific positive experiences in Humanities in the 2009 fall semester:
I suppose my greatest strength was getting things done all together, though the methods could have been more efficient when it comes to time. Reading and annotating our assigned books was a strength of mine as well since I had so many thoughts on most subjects in the book, and it actually made writing the essay easier later.

2. Discuss specific experiences from humanities in the fall 2009 semester that motivate you to improve in the spring 2010 semester:
My essays could have been better, and I could have studied harder for our quizzes. I realized this through the grades I got, and just looking back on them. Time management can be improved so that I spend more time getting help and working on my assignments.

3. Discuss how you used blogging as a productive space to work with ideas, develop high quality work, share work, etc.:
Blogging gave me a lot more writing experience, and it was a good way to let out all of my thoughts. By doing this, while writing essays, my thoughts were a bit more organized on the first draft than they usually were.

4. Describe the progress you have made as a writer this semester—remember to include specific details.
I’ve learned a lot more valuable writing techniques such as The Loop, and activating my verbs. I’ve also become more aware of the punctuation I use and how it affects the flow of my writing, but I still have a lot to work on in these areas.

5. Describe your experiences reading throughout this semester—remember to include specific details.
I read books that I never thought I would have been interested, and realized that I actually enjoy reading them more than I expected. Annotating books is sort of natural for me, though I never did it before because I didn’t think I was allowed to. So when I look back on the books, I can find my favorite quotes and such much quicker. I’m also more interested in reading more books like The Great Gatsby and The Outsiders. Narrative-nonfiction has also become an interest of mine. I had never seen or even heard of it before, and now I’d actually like to write something using it.

6. Discuss what you are looking forward to, what you hope to accomplish and/or your goals in the second semester of Humanities:
I hope to improve my writing so that it is more organized in The Loop, and overall thought process. I’d also like to go through more drafts for my writings and hopefully remember to go into office hours and such to get more critiques. I am also going to try to write better and neater notes when needed.

Semester 1 Final Honors History Blog

1. Discuss your successes as an honors student this past semester:

I was certainly challenged in writing this semester, not just with just the writing itself, but even trying to figure out where to start. I hope I’ve improved at least a little throughout this semester. I’m glad I was introduced to the more journalistic form of writing, because it involves a lot of extra research and thinking, and in doing this, I think my mind has expanded. That would have to be my greatest success this semester.

2. Discuss what you might have done differently if you do this past semester of honors over again:

To be honest, I would have liked my grade in humanities to be higher. I’m grateful that I’ve managed to keep a 93 in the class, but I was really hoping to get a 95. Ninety five just seems like a good number. I know I could have tried harder and done better. This is how it goes every year. One thing I would have liked to have done over again is the MSB project, because I feel like I could have gotten a lot more experiences and knowledge out of it than I did. I would have liked to find more direct information on my own since I’ve been looking into journalism, and I know that journalist have to get information directly from the source. The MSB project would have been good practice for this.

3. Discuss your goals for honors in the second semester:

In the second semester, I’d like to really improve my essay writing skills. On my essays, I usually got B’s, so I know there’s plenty of room for improvement. Even without those grades I know I can improve, and I truly want to get better at writing since it’s a passion of mine. I’d like to take advantage of office hours a bit more and do at least three drafts for each essay with plenty of critiques from classmates as well as Randy. I’d also like to break from the habit of procrastinating. I’m excited to see how my writing and thought process changes next semester.

4. If you could choose any parts of literature and history for our honors work, what would you pick and why?:

When it comes to literature, I’d like to work with poetry, and fictional or narrative-nonfiction having to do with the psyche. I love reading and writing poetry, because every poem is sort of like a mystery to be figured out, and everyone has their own interesting interpretations of them. Plus I think I need practice with symbolism. I’d like to read and write about books about people with psychological struggles because the stories can be really twisted and also have extremely interesting and new perspectives that could stretch my mind. For example, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest seemed like a good book to read involving this. When it comes to history, I’d like to look into the Vietnam War since it’s the war I know the least about and many writers seem to be scarred over. I’m really interested in war stories nowadays since I read Tim O’Brian’s The Things They Carried, and that book really gave me a new perspective, and held my interest. I’m hoping to get that same, if not a better experience from another war story book.

Into The Wild (Essay)

Do you feel, as one letter writer did, that there is “nothing positive at all about Chris McCandless’ lifestyle or wilderness doctrine …surviving a near death experience does not make you a better human it makes you damn lucky” (116); or do you see something admirable or noble in his struggles and adventures?

I’d have to disagree with the above statement. One of the key points of McCandless’ travels was to challenge himself, which he did, and by doing so he met a variety of new people and expanded his horizons. He did as he pleased. At some level, Chris was achieving a sort of freedom. However, he seemed to make things too hard for himself throughout the book to the point where it seemed like torture, as if this freedom needed consequences. What Chris was trying to do was admirable, but he made many decisions that were ridiculous and unnecessary.
On multiple occasions throughout the book, it is said that Chris didn’t get along with his parents because he, as an old friend of his says, “just didn’t like being told what to do”, and Chris found his parents to be overly controlling. The author states that Chris’s father, Walter “is accustomed to calling the shots. Taking control is something he does unconsciously.” If you put two and two together, it’s pretty simple to see that Chris must have hated his lifestyle. A letter he wrote to his sister even basically said that he couldn’t stand his parents. Of course he would set out to get away from them. In a letter Chris wrote to a friend of his on his journey, he holds the opinion that “so many people live with unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation.” I agree with this statement. Chris was unhappy with his life and decided to change it. In this sense, Chris’s actions were very admirable because he took charge of his own life, and lived it the way he wanted to.
Chris’s father stated that “Chris had so much natural talent.” In one of the books found on Chris’s area of death, one piece of text he highlighted said “I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt in myself the superabundance which found no outlet in our quiet life.” Once again, if you put these together, it is quite clear that Chris wanted a challenge. According to friends and family of this traveler, most things came easy to him. It’s only logical that a person is going to want a change in pace after so many years of easiness. It’s a way of proving to yourself that you can do more than what you’ve already done. And once you’ve proved that, the accomplishment is refreshing.
On the other hand, Chris took this idea a bit too far on many occasions. On many of his long journeys, Chris took nothing more than 25 pounds of rice for food, and the gun he brought for hunting was clearly not going to be very useful if he wanted to kill big animals to keep his body satisfied. There would have been nothing wrong with being better prepared for his travels. It would have been one thing if he didn’t know how to prepare for the wilderness, but his family recollects that when Chris was growing up, they often took camping trips. Knowledge is a resource that Chris did not always use. He knew what materials would be needed, and knew how to use them for the most part, so what was the point of forcing such rookie mistakes? If he knew better, which he did since he often seemed to think he was going to die, then he should have took what he knew, and used it properly at least to some extent.
Also, when people offered to help him, he refused it. Westerberg, a close friend of Chris, had offered to buy him a plane ticket up north, which would get him to his goal destination, Alaska, in a much shorter amount of time. Chris responded to this offer by saying “flying would be cheating.” Chris had been trying to live freely with, as he put it “no strings attached” and it was his life, so how could he possibly be cheating? If you have a goal, and there is a more efficient and logical way of getting to that goal, then you should take that path. Otherwise, you’re just holding yourself back. If he had wanted freedom, he should have considered the freedom to return to society as he pleased.
In a journal entry, Chris writes “I writhed and twisted in the heat, with swarms of ants and flies crawling over me, while the poison oozed and crusted on my face and arms and back. I ate nothing…there was nothing to do but ache and suffer philosophically…I get it every time, but I refuse to be driven out of the woods.” He knew that he got poison ivy rashes somewhat frequently, so he must have known that rash ointment would be helpful. During those days of agony, he could have been continuing his travels had he just brought some medicine, or at least left the woods for a day to pick some up.
I understand that he wanted to challenge himself, but there is a fine line between challenging yourself, and torturing yourself. There would have been nothing wrong with buying a proper hunting gun, and accepting offered help. I think one of the challenge’s Chris failed to overcome was the challenge to let people help him when he obviously needed it. In the end, the only person holding Chris back was himself. He had gone into the wild underprepared, and knowing that he was most likely going to die on his final journey. He even said goodbye to his dear friends, as if he would not be back for a very long time. When he finally realized that he needed help, it was too late. He paid for his mistakes with death, and there’s no coming back from that.

Into The Wild (first)

2. Krakauer observes that it is not “unusual for a young man to be drawn to a pursuit considered reckless by his elders.” Explain whether McCandless would agree with Krakauer.
As many people said repeatedly throughout the book, McCandless was a smart guy. I'm sure he'd be able to agree that what he was doing was sort of involved with this psychology. But it would probably take a lot of convincing, since many people also said he was stubborn. My guess would be that he would argue that he was going on this adventure because his family barred him up for so long, and he finally got to break free, and once he got to that point, and continuously enjoyed it, there was no way he was turning back.

3. Do you feel, as one letter writer did, that there is “nothing positive at all about Chris McCandless’ lifestyle or wilderness doctrine …surviving a near death experience does not make you a better human it makes you damn lucky” (116); or do you see something admirable or noble in his struggles and adventures? Was he justified in the pain he brought to family and friends in choosing his own solitary course in life?
I find McCandless' adventures to be both admirable, and a bit unneccesary at the same time. It is truly admirable to set out and embark on your own adventure, using independence to guide you through nature. At some level, McCandless was achieving a sort of freedom. However, I think it was unneccesary for him to make everything so hard on himself. It was like he was trying to torture his own body--as if there has to be some extreme consequences for freedom. By doing this to himself, I can't help but feel sorry for the family. Especially after finding out how much he apparently loathed them for reasons they couldn't really understand. His letters made it sound like his hate towards his parents is what really made him want to escape the world, which later lead to his death. So, I do find his actons to be admirable to an extent, but at the same time, his reasons for doing so seemed quite immature, and caused many people terrible greiving for somewhat rediculous reasons.

Blog # 25

MSB projects must go beyond the walls of HTHMA. You have two basic choices: enter a contest or have a professional organization exhibit your work.

If you are entering a contest:
1. Post a link to the contest
http://www.oceanconservancy.org/site/PageServer?pagename=photoContest

2. Summarize the basic requirements including entry fees, contest deadlines, permission forms, file sizes, and other requirements.
My picture(s) [5 at the most] have to be sent in by mail and recieved by January 31st, 2010.
Entry format/eligibility. The pictures have to be on a photo CD (photos must be a 6" x 9" scan at 300dpi in a jpeg or tiff format): Photos must not be digitally altered outside of what can be done in a darkroom to be considered. Lo resolution will not be considered (these were the exact words of the site). Each picture has to be labeled with a name, my name, date and location of subject. I also have to fill out and send in an entry form.

3. Evaluate your work against their requirements. Will your work be accepted?:
My work will be accepted if I don't send in my edited pictures. If I send in my raw pictures, and just crop them, it will be fine. Or do I have to send in exact copies of my final products?