When I was composing My Hiraeth, I worked by myself. Working on my own is most of the time, the best option for me. When by myself for My Hiraeth typing was the best option for me because it helps me to concentrate much better with no distraction. I like to listen to music as I compose my work. The most difficult part of my composition was the thought process. It was difficult to find a point in my life that I yearned a home that I could not go back to. I helped overcome this by thinking for a few minutes. I wrote this composition a few days before it was due and I believe was the best thing for me to do at the time because it gave me plenty of time to revise and edit. I composed my work on My Hiraeth at home on my computer where I could be alone and listen to music while I type. I chose to write about the time I was a child, because it was the best part of my life and since I am not a child anymore, I can reflect upon the past and see that I miss it very much and wish I could go back: hence my hiraeth. For future revision of my work I have a SIX-STEP process:
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Having to go into a certain location to talk to somebody by voice across the planet was a bit of a hassle but still very welcoming in the department of technology that let us communicate almost anywhere on Earth almost instantaneously. The first cellphone was called a Field telephone used by the military in 1910 and was used during the two World Wars. The first official cellphone that was released to the public was invented by Martin Cooper, a Motorola company engineer in 1973. From then, people jumped on the cellular phone bandwagon. In 1994, the first official smartphone with applications like a PDA, Simon, was released to the public. It was the size of a brick, had a digital touchscreen with email, a calendar, calculator, and a settings menu! With the price tag over just over a grand, this bad boy was a must. The second smartphone that came to the glory of the consumer was The Nokia Comminicator series in which had a clamshell form. The smartphone was released in 1996. Later on that year in March, HP released the mother of smartphones: The HP OmniGo 700LX Communicator Plus. Such a long name for a device, but with good reason. This device had a PDA-like functionality. It had a flip form factor with a keyboard on the bottom form and a screen on the top. It had MIDI-formatted music on it, folder browsing, a photo viewer, email, calculator, and even games! Although was still in black and white, the smartphone was a revolution in the mobile voice technology department. As more companies jumped in, years went by and more and more smart mobile devices were being released. In the mid-to late 2000’s Symbian, Blackberry, Nokia, HP, and many other companies released smartphones with complex operating systems that became extremely popular and became more focused on entertainment. With browsing, video playing, and more things that you could only do on a regular computer were being implementing on smartphones. Apple, in 2007, revolutionized the smartphone with their iPhone. The iPhone had a whole dedicated app marketplace, a gorgeous LCD touchscreen and many features that other smartphones didn’t. A year later, Google came out with the first Android smartphone. As years past after that, the iOS and Android devices became the dominant smartphones in the marketplace and became bigger, more powerful, and more smart. Each year they came out with more and more features. Today, the best smartphones have become almost as powerful as a standard desktop and even have just about all the capabilities of a laptop PC! When I grew up with my Dad in Louisiana when I was around 5 or 6, he ran an online video gaming business. In his room, there boxes filled with tons of PC and console games. I had a few gaming consoles and a Mac PC. I grew up liking video games because of his love in his business and I am happy for that. I genuinely enjoyed the thrill of playing them. It was a totally interactive experience and I was in charge of the outcome of the character being played as in the video games that I played. I enjoyed a wide range of many different kinds of video games. Anywhere from shooting and action to racing and family-friendly. Since I was a kid living in my Dad’s home, during the years of his online business, I have enjoyed video games so much in fact, it has become my favorite hobby. The reason I enjoy games and have become my favorite hobby, is due to the fun factor. Movies can contain an enjoyable story with engaging characters and great atmosphere. Video games can contain the same factors as movies do but with an interactive experience rather than a passive viewer’s experience. Game play usually takes longer to completely view all of the content involved. Playing and achieving certain goals within the game world can unlock rewards that help benefit me or my character in the virtual experience. Gaming to me has changed the way I look at the world. Many sources of entertainment are an outcome to many people’s hard work. If a certain group of people really enjoy doing something enough and put their mind into the outcome of what they like, success can be achieved. It is pretty awesome in my eyes to see dedicated communities that work hard to achieve what they want. This is why video gaming is my favorite hobby. The music I listen to contains a wide range of different genres. Genres including soundtrack, pop, country, rock, and techno all fall into the kind of music that I listen to. When I was a kid around the ages of 5 or 6, my Dad or my Grandmother would drive me to elementary school and on my way to school, they would have the radio on. On the radio, country music played. I began to be into songs from country artists such as Faith Hill, Lee Ann Womack, Shania Twain, LeAnn Rimes, Kenny Chesney, and others. The first of my favorite songs were that of what adults would listen to in the South: country music. As I grew into my older years, around 8 or 9, I moved to Houston, Texas with my Mom and Stepdad. With the people I grew up with, pop, hip-hop, and other more popular urban-genres were amongst the genres of music I had started to listen to. On the radio and on Television, stations would play music from artists like Madonna, Usher, Inrique Iglesias, Destiny’s Child, and others which I really enjoyed. As I grew into the mid 2000’s, my hobby of playing video games lead me to the enjoyment of hip-hop music. The start of my scent going elsewhere in music was my time with a video game called, “Midnight Club 3". Rock, techno, and other genres of music started to dive into my taste in music. My exposure to different media, friends, environment, and school had helped me explore the different kinds of music around the world and have left a satisfying taste in my mouth. As I have grown up, my library of music has grown with many different tastes in mind. A lot of which comes from the games I have played and the movies I have seen. Music is very important to me because it fills in the gaps of boredom, aids in my concentration in doing homework, and provides enlightened mood. The Drunken Peasants is a podcast that is uploaded to YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud, and iTunes. On the show, three to four people on webcams play videos from sources such as the news and YouTube to make fun of them by providing commentary and/or responding to them. They upload anywhere between 10 minutes of clips to 4 hour long episodes. The clips they play contain content such as news stories from Fox or CNN, people’s rantings about various topics like feminism, educational material, and other videos that talk about current events. The hosts in the show – Ben, TJ, Scotty, and Paul - also read articles from news sources and break them down by arguing points against them and mocking them. Sometimes they will bring on guests who support their Patreon page (a public funding) or other popular YouTubers/little-known celebrities. Perks are achieved such as exclusive videos, discounts towards items from their shop, and being on their show from certain levels of money donated to them through their Patreon website.
The purpose of their show is to entertain and have a pretty large audience, over 140,000 subscribers on YouTube. They also have their own dedicated website, drunkenpeasants.wiki which is updated by not the hosts of The Drunken Peasants, but by some of their fans. Hangouts to various bars and other places of entertainment with their fans are organized by Ben from the show and posted ahead of time on their Facebook page. Often times at least 100 fans show up to these meetups and videos of them are recorded then posted on YouTube and Facebook. Due to their dark comedic nature of the show, there’s no surprise that controversy is a big factor of the show. Since the hosts have no fear in mocking the common stupidity in human nature, they receive much hate from the people’s videos they cover and fans of those mocked. In my other post, I reviewed the PSP (PlayStation Portable) which was released in 2005 (2004 in Japan) by Sony. As the successor of the PSP, Sony announced the PS Vita at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) 2011 in California. The PS Vita had dual analog thumb sticks, as well as improved hardware including a higher resolution OLED touch screen, touch pad on the back of the device, gyroscope, more RAM, more powerful GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), and more powerful CPU (Central Processing Unit). The system had added features that the PSP didn’t have such as full PlayStation 4 Remote Play support, more social interaction, faster navigation, and other features that made many gamers hyped for its release. The PS Vita was finally released later that year in December 17, 2011. Sony sold over 300,000 in its first week’s release in Japan and Over a million globally. Games’ graphics on the console were on par with the graphics of games on 7th gen. consoles such as the PS3. Games such as Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and wipEout 2048 were graphicly impressive to many as well as myself, but were not as impactful as the PSP’s launch titles. As of this day the PS Vita is still an enjoyable on-the-go handheld gaming device in my opinion but popularity and support has declined steeply since its first few weeks of release due to expensive propitiatory memory cards, mobile gaming market shift, issues with PS4 Remote Play, small game library, and other factors. The handheld gaming console has great potential. With what we saw with the PSP and its absolutely huge game library that made it sell so well, the PS Vita could have followed its predecessor’s tracks. At the time of the PSP’s release, playing video and listening to music, and looking at photos-all on one portable device that you could put in your pocket was a revolutionary concept that was put into action with great success, because cell phones like the original iPhone that could do all that wasn’t released until 2007. In 2012, we already had smartphones with gaming, video, web browsing, and everything else, so with the PS Vita just out in market, it failed to compete mainly with other handheld devices. In the wake of all this, hopefully Sony will announce a totally new and competitive portable gaming console that can be a hybrid of a smartphone and a dedicated gaming handheld within the next year or so. Hence their next device has a greater chance at success like the PSP did. In this course, we define a composition as a whole product being composed of many different parts, such as an essay. An essay is composed of many different parts such as the thesis statement, material with source-based argumentive elements, imagery, and descriptions. In this class, Sabatino asks us to write so we can reflect on what we are thinking and therefore learn more about what we have in mind. It also helps learn more about ourselves and being messy is a good thing, because we can use it to become stronger. As a writer in this class, I feel as if I am improving my appreciation for what many journalists go through to share knowledge from what they have experienced and give their audience a glimpse of what is happening in the world. I have also learned to appreciate the mistakes I make to learn from them because they help me become stronger and better in terms of progress. Making mistakes and being messy is what needs to be done. A first draft should always be messy so I can go over it and learn from my mistakes, not only through writing but also in life. I have finally learned about what questions to ask as a writer and how to structure my arguments in essays and just essays in general. I have learned about presenting descriptive imagery in my writing and to also reflect upon what I have written. Even though I am not really into writing, myself, It has assisted in giving me lessons on living my life the way that would help bring more progress to the table. Not only does making mistakes become an important task to achieve but to also have a structured life. A structure that can be messy but later become a light at the end of the tunnel for guidance. In this blog post, I will write about the similarities of an episode of Chef's Table: Francis Mallman and this class.
The PSP (PlayStation Portable) was a portable game console that was revealed at E3 2004 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) in L.A. The console’s reveal left people shocked at how powerful a portable device could become. Playing on par PlayStation 2 games in your hand at the time was an unbelievable! It was revealed to have so many features that many could only dream of: watching video, listening to music, playing 3d games, and web browsing all on one device! There were devices that had features like the PSP but were expensive. The device has a directional pad, thumb stick nub, 4 action buttons, two trigger buttons, a button to change the screen brightness and many others. It uses the original fat USB, unlike the micro-USB we all use, and uses a standard A/C port to charge but the USB can be used to charge it as well. The console has a 4.3” screen with a resolution of 480x272, 32 MB of RAM (64 MB for later models), Graphics card with a clock speed of 133 Mhz and 2 MB of VRam. This all may seem like really weak specifications but at the time was really powerful. Also, the games that run on it were optimized ONLY for the system, so the games could take advantage of the console to its fullest extent. When it comes to games, the PSP released with games like Need for Speed: Underground Rivals, Wipeout Pure, and Dynasty Warriors. Not only did it launch with popular games, popular games all throughout the PSP’s lifecycle were released and was supported by many big third-party developers all throughout its life. After more than 10 years, the PSP is still a popular device to play games that all of us remember. To many people like me, so far there is no portable gaming device that surpasses that PSP’s gameplay. In a writer’s shoes, their expressions through writing helps to express what is in their mind and through their published piece, can spread the knowledge of their thoughts throughout the world. This can lead to many people’s minds being changed and can possibly change the world. The impact can be a mind-changing scenario. In the film, the main character, Abbott who is an agent who works for the security of the people, she makes an impact on people’s safety. Terrorism is a great threat to many nations and to help prevent it is a very impactful role. A writer’s role and a security agent who is in a top position both make an impact by influencing the people’s state of mind.
As a security agent who works for the U.S. Embassy, partakes in the prevention in terrorism and as the main character in the film, she is a big influence on making the world a better place in terms of safety. Her job holds a high ground in the status of one of the most important roles on Earth. Preventing terrorism makes a big impact on the traverse in economical safety and individual security. Depending on the job position that is held within the embassy, employees there make anywhere between an annual of around $30,000 to around $160,000. As a writer, it is very important to express the inner thoughts of yourself and convey your message to the world. A powerful enough message can spread and become a huge influence on people. One may argue that a writer’s influence cannot really compete in the influence of a top security agent’s position in security. It also can be argued that a high official in an Embassy can no way be compared to an author of a piece of writing and therefore is not relevant. This is true to an extent because these are two different kinds of positions career wise and can be seen as holding no ground to stand on when it comes to similarities in importance. Although, I do agree with that alternate position to an extent, this rebuttal only can hold so much water before it drowns in lack of nuance. In the movie, Abbott’s actions as a person of her position prevented a huge terrorist attack on U.S. soil and in a result saved millions of lives that could have been lost if it wasn’t for her. If she was on the news as a hero, thousands if not millions of people’s minds would have changed with their opinion of her role for her country. They would have appreciated the sacrifices that are made to prevent terrorism. Since there have been tens of times where terrorists almost succeeded in their plans. Writers on the other hand also change the world and have changed the world many times. For example in the mid to late nineteenth century, Charles Darwin proposed in books like “On The Origin Of Species” the theory of evolution and has changed in ways of the world’s understanding of biology and other sciences that involved life studies. The theory of evolution was first proposed by Darwin and has influenced millions and helped create the understanding of life as we do today. In conclusion, both knowledge and the physical world that we interact is interweaved in reality. Whether you are a writer or a high positioned staff member in a very important job, they are both very impactful in the sphere of influence. Both compare to being a big role in yesterday’s and today’s society. Because of the power that a person can have when it comes to writing and being in a high position, it is important to be careful when it comes to actions that are taken because the world is dependent on people like them. So both a writer’s role and a security agent who is in a top position both make an impact by influencing the people’s state of mind. My hiraeth. A term that can describe a yearning for a home that I can’t go back to. Or at least I never had. The word as I have learned comes from Wales which is part of the UK. The word was used by the Welsh people. A clever word that has no direct definition in the English language. As quick-witted as the word is, it is a perfect expression to describe an anecdote I can reflect and visualize my hiraeth.
Morning time. A time to get up, and breathe the crisp air of a tranquil dream that cascaded in my childhood life. I yawned and stretched as I prepared to wake from my bed. The sun was shining through my window blinders on my window in front of me. The sunlight beamed onto my tube TV and the TV stand in which a Pokémon toy ball sat on. The sunrays beamed across my room with some glistening dust floating across the air inside. I could see as I sat upright in my bed, the light casted upon my shiny toys like my game consoles, computer, and my Hot Wheels collection that I enjoyed much so. My Mac computer perched on a desk with a blue lamp that paralleled the color of my walls. As I jumped out of my bed, musings flashed across my noggin. Exhilarated to play with some of my friends in my neighborhood I quickly got dressed, sped past the front door and scampered to my closest friend’s house, Cody. He was appreciable and our time together could last an eternity. We played multiplayer videogames in a room, we explored our countryside neighborhood, rode bikes, drove go karts, and all kinds of other fun activities that kids would normally do. The instant I got to their front door, I rang the doorbell. His dad answered the door. I asked, “Is Cody home?” He replied with an up and down nod the he turned around to get him. I waited a couple minutes outside the door, leaning on a tree with a few wind pinwheels on the ground surrounding the tree and some yard decor. He came out and we headed out to our bikes while yelling at each other about what we planned to do that day. We separated then he jumped on his bike in the car driveway of his place and I jumped on mine in the car garage of my house. We met each other on the road in front of his house, next to mine. We were next-door neighbors so it didn’t take much time at all to visit each other. We decided to see who could ride a bike the fastest. We both had a little analog speedometer on our bikes. We counted down, then pushed on the bike pedals. We coasted down the road and Into a winding curve that steeped downhill around an old tree faster and faster. The road made a circle down and back up around the huge tree, then back to Cody’s house. I had won the race but still was very fun to Cody as he said. We threw down our bikes in his front yard after the race to go into his house and play video games. We jolted through his front door, past his parents and ran upstairs into his room, then crashed on the floor and turned on the Nintendo 64. We both had a controller and played Vigilante 8. It was a game that had a car-warfare theme. We played for hours on the Nintendo and then played Halo on the original Xbox. Halo was a shooting game that had aliens in it. We had so much fun shooting aliens together and playing against each other. After hours of beating aliens and shooting rockets at cars, we departed for the day and enjoyed the rest of our day at home, eating dinner and enjoying the rest of the free time we had. At home while it was dawn, I had a great dinner my Dad that he made, then watched the Digimon movie that was released the previous year of 1999. It was a really thrilling movie at my age. This wasn’t just a one-day thing. For a few years my childhood life was filled with moments like this. I had other friends I played with at the time. The yearning for those moments have crafted the perfect term that exists not in the English language. It exists in the language in which the Welsh cleverly weaved together. The word is Hiraeth. The youthful years I enjoyed, was a time I wish I could go back to, but can’t. It is a time I yearn for. My Hiraeth.
Based on the movie, “Survivor” released in 2015:
The film, “Survivor” released in 2015 in theatres and received mostly negative reviews from sites such as Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert, and IMDB. The negative reviews included ridicule of the unrealism of events that took place and a tedious script. However, the movie received mostly positive reviews on Amazon, Netflix, and Google Play Movies & TV. The positive reviews included praise for the non-action and its cinematography. Overall the movie received mixed reviews and depending on the website you go to, you will see mostly negative or mostly positive reviews. Milla Jovovich stars in the film as Kate Abbott, a secret service agent who works for the American Embassy to help prevent terrorists from coming into the country after experiencing her friends’ deaths in the 9/11 attack. New to the Embassy in London from Washington D.C., she goes about her business on the job as she normally did before but comes across a suspicious terrorist during a Visa approval process. Roger Rees who stars as the suspected terrorist, goes and reports to his boss about the incident. The boss’ hired hands set out to assassinate Kate for her high intelligence by planting an inconspicuous bomb in a restaurant that Abbott and her colleagues go to for their executive, Bill Talbot’s (actor Robert Forster) birthday. Due to a last minute decision to buy a gift for Bill at a next door gift shop, Kate escapes with little injury and is confronted by a professional hitman, The Watchmaker (actor Pierce Brosman) who fails to murder her by an exploding nearby gas canister. She later runs to a park and meets Bill who corners her then attempts to shoot her but fails by his gun being flipped on himself through being wrestled. Shot and killed by accident, she flees and is framed for the incident. Desperate to chase after the radicals who plans to fly to America, Kate looks up to friends and colleagues to assist her in her escape from pursuers and the UK. She receives intel of Emil’s (the suspected terrorist) whereabouts from breaking into her locked down workplace and flies to New York City, where Emil and the Watchmaker plan to Bomb the city to make stock market profits. When she arrives, she follows the incendiaries and succeeds in preventing the planned event from tasking place. She is later applaud for saving millions of lives. The film to me is a great film due to its non-stop action and intense score, but every movie has its faults and can’t be perfect. For example, Milla’s character seems to be indestructible. Every time she gets in a situation where she is face to face with her pursuers, she conveniently escapes with little to no harm. Even when she gets injured her wounds have fast healing abilities. Another criticism I have is that the plot doesn’t call enough attention to other main characters’ lore. Some of my favorite quotes from the movie include, “Fucking technology.” Because technology can be a pain, “Yeah, it is. Kate, there were over a million people out there tonight, and you saved them all.” because it showed Kate as a hero. I poked around on Netflix and found a movie I remember that I watched less than a year ago called “Survivor” which was released back in 2015. I thought it would be a great Action/Thriller movie for the Movie Madness assignment. The Movie takes place mostly in London and stars mainstream actors like Milla Jovovich, Dylan McDermott, Robert Forster, and James D'Arcy. The movie is about a Security Service Agent (Milla Jovovich) who works for the U.S. Embassy in London and is trying to find more advanced ways to prevent potential terrorists. A terrorist (Roger Rees) from Afghanistan finds her a threat and plots to kill her by sneaking a bomb into a restaurant that she and her friends planned to go eat. Due to a last minute decision to buy a gift next door to the dine-in restaurant during the hangout, she escapes with little injury and flees. The terrorist’s right hand man (Pierce Brosnan) discovers that she escaped then attempts to assassinate her but fails. Later, the Service Agent on the run from assassins, accidently shoots a coworker in defense and is framed to look as the suspect. Running from the law and assassins, she looks up to a close friend she knows and a coworker to illegally help her undercover. But what she doesn’t know is, is that she can’t trust anybody and there is a traitor who’s close to her. Only her smart thinking and training can help her survive. She is on her own and has to stop the terrorist from succeeding his bomb plans in the U.S. Will she succeed? Or will the terrorists get what they want and go through with their plan? Maybe there’s more to this than you think. An innocent woman who is just trying to protect what is most dear and important to her – America, is a fugitive. An important role that she has made high-standing officials see her as a hero, is tarnished. The tools and friends she all had is now almost all gone and can trust no one, but still must serve her duty to prevent what the inevitable is about to happen. This to me is why I believe would be a great assignment for the class because this story has a lot to say in it and can create great discussion. This can create some interesting writing topics. Topics such as the pressures and rewards of being responsible for one of the most important positions in the world. Also the risks of what you would do even if great odds were stacked against you to do what you felt was right. Maybe look at a situation from a different perspective and try to understand why a bully or offender would do such acts that are considered bad against humanity? Things such as maybe intentionally bringing somebody down mentally or physical abuse in a relationship. Maybe criminals who do terroristic acts or cyber attacks. Look into the mind of a criminal. Maybe it is to serve a purpose they feel is right? Or maybe a topic about the importance of being a writer that can be a role in changing the world just like the importance of the woman’s position in the movie can be compared. Just a selection of these topics can be discussed. For my Academic Mindset Writing Process assignment, my conduction of the task was by myself but with some help from using my computer to research some of the material being focused on. I believe this was the best approach for me because the power of the internet that we have today is at such an effortless task to access, any questions or confusions I have can be answered from easy reach. My writing process had some difficult and easy parts, but the most difficult for me was having a more understanding on the two mindsets that I was wanting to describe so I could accurately argue my points with research behind them and make valid points. To argue and describe my mindset and reason behind it, research was needed to have a clearer mind of my argument. I also needed to reflect upon my past experiences, analyze my thoughts, and then predict the future with the same mindset based on my history of it. It was a challenge but with effort, I overcame the difficult task. I typed my draft on my PC at home about a week ago on Microsoft word and I feel like was a great approach versus just manually writing on paper. Typing for me is much faster and less fatiguing because when I write, especially a long essay, my arm and hands become exhausted. Any mistakes I make, I can easily delete and restart without a physical mess due to scribbles. My draft took about two days to produce. This I believe was a good approach because I took my time on the project, re-edited, and revised it to make sure it at least made sensible points.
I chose to write this topic because I believed it would reflect my writing process in the future and would be great practice for me to learn to become a better and more skilled writer. In the future, I plan to revise and adapt my writing process by having a new six-step process from this one:
The new six-step process I plan to follow is:
With the eye-opening discoveries made by Carol Dweck, I can describe my mental status thus helping me to better understand myself as a student at DCCC as well as in my personal life. She describes, kids with “’fixed mindsets’ stop trying when confronted with a challenge because they've convinced themselves that they're not good at math or writing or whatever the subject is.” Then she describes the second mindset as “’growth mindset’ – the belief that the brain is like a muscle that can grow stronger through hard work.” In her own website, she even explains what she has researched and her discoveries of these two mind sets. The one that best fits me is having a “growth mindset”. My growth mindset has guided me as a student to learn and has affected my abilities as a student.
I do believe my intelligence can grow to at least a certain extent with practice and effort. On that note, this has led me to overcome difficulties in my college work and carve the techniques needed to succeed in my academic progressions. Forwarding my attitude in a progressive manner, my knowledge of my ability in making breakthroughs in a colligative respect has proceeded over threats against my intellectual prosperity. For example, in my Spanish class, there is a lot to learn in such a short period with tests and quizzes almost every week. With a fixed mindset, my ability to defeat this speedbump would stagnate my motivation thus have me escape from the problem without endeavor. However, my acuity and willpower thrusts me to budget my time wisely and apply effort to the material needed to comprehend extensively. With time management and self-discipline, just about anything can be accomplish thus my growth-mindset has drawn me to accomplish what a person with a fixed-mindset wouldn’t do. Now the argument could be made that mindset isn’t really important but it is the way our education system is set up as Alfie Con argues in his article, “The perils of ‘Growth Mindset’ education: Why we’re trying to fix our kids when we should be fixing the system”. He pretty much says that having a mindset “will get you only so far” and must go beyond mindsets then focus on structure and the reason for doing projects. The problems with this is that it’s a copout. It is devoid of any real substance and mainly based on subjective thoughts with barely any evidence to support his claims. His article is mostly comprised of insipid pap. The drivel he typed is mainly derived of unenlightened ramblings that continue to dribble on long enough to suffer from finger ache from scrolling down his endless, lengthy tirade. Besides this one particular author, anyone can argue that having a certain mindset is unimportant but the strategies used outside of mindsets is important. This can be true to a certain extent; however, a certain mindset needs to be established in order to better strategize the skills and techniques used in the academic atmosphere. In conclusion to all of this, we as a collective species can learn and grow mentally and the best way to learn this is from experience. If you don’t believe that having a growth-mindset wouldn’t help you in an academic environment, at least give it a try. Test out the hypothesis and experiment to see if you can find any evidence to this hypothesis. It may not work for everybody because I do feel that it CAN help. At least for most people who are struggling to get through school whether it is kindergarten or college. It has really helped to set forth the accomplishments I’ve made and can help you as well. Start by informing yourself about the different mindsets through research and even possibly buying or checking out Carol Dweck’s book, “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”. Maybe watch some YouTube videos about it and listen to what other people have experienced with it. Then practice to overcome your challenges with effort. Through research and exercise of your brain by certain skills such as reading and judgement, you can see to it that your academic level grows and you become mentally stronger as a person. Going through college, especially is tough at times but if you apply a growth mindset, you can bust through it and celebrate your success. Carol Dweck’s discoveries have helped me to explain how I achieve my intellectual work and maybe her discoveries can explain yours and by that I wish good luck to you. In the book, “Teaching Adolescents To Become Learners” from the UCHICAGOCCSR, four academic mindsets are presented as: (1) belonging, (2) growth mindset, (3) self-efficacy, and (4) relevance/purpose. Out of one of these mindsets, I feel the best importance for my academic success at DCCC is growth mindset. This particular attitude in my educational environment has spectated to me of being the most affective mode of psyche.
Having a growth mindset is extremely important to me due to the history of my accomplishments with this productive mentality. Past experiences with overcoming scholastic chores in the school ecosystem have collided with my character of elastic stability. Many may think otherwise that mental growth would conflict with the social status quo. Being too soft on someone’s mind isn’t diving deep enough into the sea that is knowledge. There is a massive ocean out there waiting to be explored. Any other mentality set, alone, for me is not going to equip me with the needed tools to explore to the level of my satisfaction. Self-motivation provides me with great tools for me to reach far and beyond what is expected. I know that I can grow my intelligence by providing or being provided the tools of comprehension. The more I comprehend, the more knowledge I have to work with, therefore I get more supplied with practice and not only exercise, but anew my paths of mind exercising. The use of different varieties of techniques can improve my intelligence at least to some degree. In DCCC, my mindset can help me to achieve higher grades and more learning from the understanding that I can overcome the speedbumps in my academic setting. In conclusion, my mindset has, does, and always will be the most important tool of my life. It is very important to me to overcome difficult tasks and grow as a person, because life won’t always throw me the stick. Sometimes, I have to work for it. This can very well lead me to achieve higher standards and goals. Upon the inspection of the two articles, Teachers, Parents Often Misuse Growth Mindset Research , Carol Dweck Says (Carol Dweck) and The Perils of "Growth Mindset Education" [...] (Alfie Kohn), they both reflect the ideas of fixed mindset and growth mindsets from two different perspectives. It’s great to be exposed to different arguments because it helps to prevent a bias point of view. In the article “Teachers, Parents Often Misuse Growth Mindset Research, Carol Dweck Says”, the author explains that a Stanford University psychology professor named Carol Dweck discovered two different mentalities in students including “growth mindset” and “fixed mindset”. In the article, it is explained that the professor has studied and tested her theory of the two mindsets’ progressiveness and has concluded from her studies that students with a growth mindset have a better chance of success than students with a fixed mindset. It is later described that the educator’s discoveries have lead to widespread knowledge to many classrooms and has in fact changed status quo throughout the educational environment.
“The perils of ‘Growth Mindset’ education: Why we’re trying to fix our kids when we should be fixing the system” is an article, unlike the first one, is presented in a first person perspective and argues against Dweck’s idea of “growth mindset”. Alfie Kohn, the author quarrels in resistance to the widespread “cultural meme” as he describes it, by injecting his belief that the “growth mindset” hypothesis is a failure based on a 2010 study linked in his post. He goes on to imply that the solution for students’ academic achievements is to fix the educational system by engaging in the consultation of the children’s work and inviting to search for more answers. More of his personal beliefs are implanted throughout his thesis then ends with his conclusion that a “mindset will get you only so far.”. In a fixed mindset, the person believes that their intelligence is a fixed trait as part of a genetic happenstance, therefore cannot be improved. In a growth-mindset, the person believes that their intelligence can be improved from effort. I myself have a growth mindset because I do believe that intelligence is based on environmental upbringings and influences. Intelligence can be changed at least somewhat from skill expansion techniques. Although Scientists are not completely sure if genetics are a factor in an individual’s cognitive levels based on my searches, that is not to say that it cannot be somehow changed at least insignificantly. When I first heard about the word, “hiraeth”, I immediately began to think it was a word out of a movie that takes place in like the Medieval times or something , but then I did more research on it. It turned out that the term was not an English word and is a Welsh word. IT’s meaning is complex as it can’t be directly translated into English. Instead, the closest way to describe what the term means is – to be homesick/nostalgic for a home you have lost or never existed. It is an interesting term to me which makes me want to know more about the Celtics who came up with the word. For my assignment, I am suppose to write about something in my life that relates to that word. Some possibilities I have are of many. One possible thing I could refer to is part of my childhood. Between the ages of around 5 to 7 or 8, I felt very happy with how my life was going. Friends to play with all the time. Plenty of fun things to do, almost no harsh punishments because my father taught me in a different and more patient way, satisfying moments of bliss. It wasn’t perfect of course, but was a time I wish I could go back to and I consider home. The time of no adult responsibilities, almost no stress, good grades in school, and so on. I was very happy with my life during this period. Another possible “hiraeth” moment I guess I could put as so, is my yearning of going back to the time of High School. If I were to have finished High School years ago and gone to college right after, I would have felt much at home and not regretted my decisions. Many possibilities, many things to discuss. Hiraeth seems like a well-thought of term to spell out someone’s life or nostalgia. Thanks to this assignment, I am digging deeper into the realms of the historical literature of an ancient culture.
My hiraeth. A term that can describe a yearning for a home that I can’t get back to. Or at least I have never had. The word as I’ve learned comes from Wales which is part of the UK. The word was used by the Welsh people. A clever word that has no direct definition in the English language. As quick-witted as the word is, it is a perfect expression to describe an anecdote I can reflect and visualize my hiraeth. Morning time. A time to get up, and breathe the crisp air of a tranquil dream that cascaded in my childhood life. I yawned and stretched as I prepared to wake from my bed. The sun was shining through my window blinders on my window and front of me. The sunlight beamed onto my tube TV and the stand in which a toy Pokémon ball sat on. The sunrays waved across my room with some glistening dust floating across the air in my room. I could see as I sat upright in my bed, the light cast upon my shiny toys that I enjoyed much so. Many game consoles and a Mac computer perched on a desk with a blue lamp that paralleled the color of my walls. As I jumped out of my bed, musings flashed across my noggin. Exhilarated to play with some of my friends in my neighborhood, my actions to dress up were of the past in a flash. I sped past the front door and scampered to my closest friend, Cody. He was appreciable and our time together could last an eternity. We played multiplayer videogames in a room, we explored our countryside neighborhood. Rode bikes, drove go karts, and all kinds of other fun activities. The instant I got to their front door, I rang the doorbell. His dad answered the door. I asked, “Is Cody home?” He replied with a “yes” nod and turned around to get him. I waited a couple minutes outside the door, leaning on a tree with a few wind pinwheels on the ground surrounding the tree. He came out and we headed out to our bikes while yelling at each other about what we planned to do. We separated, then he jumped on his bike in the car driveway and I jumped on mine in the car garage. We met each other on the road in front of his house, next to mine. We were next-door neighbors so it didn’t take much time to visit each other. We decided to see who could ride a bike the fastest. We both had a little analog speedometer on our bikes. We counted down, then pushed on the bike pedals. We coasted down the road and Into a winding curve that steeped downhill around an old tree faster and faster. The road made a circle down and back up around a huge tree, then back to Cody’s house. Cody won the race but still was very fun. We threw down our bikes after the race to go into his house and play videogames. We jolted through his front door, past his parents and ran upstairs into his room, then crashed on the floor and turned on the Nintendo 64. We both had a controller and played Vigilante 8. It was a game that had a car-warfare theme. We played for hours on the Nintendo and then played Halo on the original Xbox. Halo was a shooting game that had aliens in it. We had so much fun shooting aliens together and playing against each other. After hours of beating aliens and shooting rockets at cars, we departed for the day and enjoyed the rest of our day at home, eating dinner and enjoying the rest of the free time we had. At home while it was dawn, I had a great dinner my Dad made, then watched a Digimon movie from 1999. It was a really thrilling movie at my age. This wasn’t just a one-day thing. For a few years my childhood life was filled with moments like this. I had other friends I played with at the time. The yearning for those moments have crafted the perfect term that exists not in the English language. It exists in the language in which the Welsh cleverly weaved together. The word is Hiraeth. The youthful years I enjoyed, was a time I wish I could go back to, but can’t. It is a time I yearn for. My Hiraeth.
After reading two articles online, I was surprised to learn how much small distractions can lead to so much loss in work such as writing. In one short story called “How Can You Create Fiction When Reality Comes to Call?” by Carolyn Chute, the author presents us with how she has so many distractions in her day-to-day life that keep from her writing career. Distractions such as dogs barking, neighbors visiting, taking care of her pets, and negativity that is going in hers’ and other peoples’ lives stagnate her work. In an article called “6 Ways To Be A Hemingway-Level Productive Badass” by Drake Baer, the author states that Ernest Hemingway was very willful and showed it in his first statement, “To say that Ernest Hemingway is a writer's writer is an understatement…”. He then presents a list of six ways Hemingway “got it done” by making a list from one to six and a description for each number of things he did that helped him become a success in his work. Both writings mention distraction as a tool that yields a writer’s prosperity. Distraction is a dilemma that all of us face that halt whatever work we are trying to get done such as writing. I myself face many aberrations when trying to get college work done for example. I have many hobbies like many other people do and unfortunately get in the way of my effort such as watching videos on YouTube. Whenever I have for example, an essay that is due, I get to work on it but takes more time than would be reasonably needed. I do believe I can improve as a writer and can start by doing these 6 steps:
In Joan Didion's, "Why I Write", she explains in her essay exactly as the title suggests – the reason she writes. As mentioned in the essay, an idea in which gratifies her proposition of writing is that it aids her in the analysis of the world she witnesses around her. Having a pen to convey her reflections and senses, benefits her understanding of what she sees and how she thinks. To clarify, writing is thought-provoking and therefore can think more clearly when she records on paper as she describes on page two of her dissertation, “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.”. She also expresses that if it weren’t for her limited thinking, she wouldn’t have become a writer, which shows more clarity for the idea of her proposition.
I myself write and type also, but usually only in short spurts, not essays. When I watch videos on YouTube, read a blog, or when I scroll up and down the Facebook page, I type a response to what I see. Sometimes my response may be a compound argument, a short reply, or sometimes a post on Facebook about an event in my life. I write notes when needed in class or when playing a video game. The times I compose an essay is when it is a requirement for college. I have multiple reasons for writing, and one is – it helps me to remember things that I believe I’ll forget if I don’t record important thoughts instantly on a paper or phone. Another reason is to fulfill a graded assignment in school. But the most important reason of all is to express my thoughts as a response to what I see as a reflection of my character. When it comes to writing whether it is a quick note or a book proposition, there is much learning involved in literature. Reading someone’s writing can be a life-changing experience because it shows different perspectives of peoples’ reality. Learning from each other’s thoughts and experiences helps us to grow and can change the world through knowledge. |
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