Carry It Forward: Innovating to Zero

     When I think of Bill  Gates I think of Microsoft Word and how he was the richest man in the world.  Although this is what he is most known for, I discovered him covering a topic much different from technology.  Recently, I wrote a paper and did a presentation about Bill Gate's project involving CO2 Emissions.  His goal is to have the CO2 emissions down to zero by 2050.  He said is may be a miracle, but it is a miracle that is totally possible to achieve.
     The stuff Gates brought up was very interesting to me.  I never really thought our environment was that big of a deal right now, but it is! Like he said, the government should be putting in more research funding to help this cause.  To be honest, I do not go out of my way to recycle things or reuse them.  It was never on the top of my mind.
     It should have been.  His TED Talk has made me realize that I need to make my contribution to the environment.
    I am going to start by making sure my family recycles more, or simply use reusable water bottles instead of plastic ones everyday.  I want my children and my grandchildren to be able to experience the planet I did, so that is why I need to do my part.  The outcomes that Gates presented really stuck with me.  To have crops failing and people starving scares me.  I do not want that to happen.  I want to make a difference.
    Like Bill Gates said, this not on the top of the governments to-do list, and it was not on the top of mine either.  It is now.  I am going to make a change with my habits of recycling, reusing materials, and  reusing things.  Gates made a huge impression on me and changed my outlook on this topic very much.

Metacognition: MashUp

     
     When I think of a mashup, I think of a collage.  To me, mashup means a lot of things randomly put together.  I never knew there was a way of doing this other than in a collage.  This assignment introduced me to a new way of doing this.   The assignment was so new to me that I did not understand how I was suppose to construct this mashup.
     Picking out the theme was pretty easy for me.  I knew the assignment required five reflections from the in class responses.  I also remember writing a lot about solitude in my reflections.  The concept of solitude also really intrigues me because I still do not one hundred percent understand it.  There were a lot of quotes that stood out to me about solitude, so finding quotes from Letters to a Young Poet was very easy.
    Although I had already selected the quotes, I had no idea what other elements to put in the mashup, or how to incorporate them.  It was very difficult to find a place to start with this mashup.  I kept re-reading the rubric, yet I was not sure how to get a decent grade on this assignment because I have never done anything like it before.  Then, I realized something about this assignment.
     There is no right answer.
     The project started making more sense to me.  It was meant for us to explore our creativity and use the books we have read and the other various elements we chose to connect them with the theme we selected in the beginning.  There was no right way to do it, because everyone can interpret a connection in a different way.   So thats when I just went with what I thought made sense.  Although it may not make sense to someone else, it makes sense to me so I think I ended up putting these various elements together in a meaningful way.

Mash Up: Solitude

Solitude:

"It is only alone, truly alone that one bursts apart, spring forth"-Maria Isabel Barreno

1. A man stands there just now, absently emptying his pockets and weeping.  Without reason, his friends have abandoned him. 

2.  In solitude I remain 

    With absolutely nothing to gain 
    Perhaps in time I will be strong 
    You see! Solitude is not my favorite song

3.

4.   At its source you will find the answer to the question of whether you must create.  Accept that answer, just as it is given to you, without trying to interpret it.

5. A crazy thought just occurred to me.  Babies are essentially in solitude.  They can not talk to anyone, and they are alone with their thoughts.  Sometimes I wonder what goes through a babies mind, or even what went through my mind when I was a baby.

6.

7.  Solitude, a heightened and deepened kind of aloneness for the person who loves. 

8.    In my opinion, solitude would be very lonely.  I cant even imagine what I would do with myself if I was kept in a room, alone, for a certain amount of time.  I think I might go crazy if that were to happen to me.  Not being able to talk to anyone would be terrible!  I feel like everyone needs someone just to keep them company and avoid solitude.  

9. I sit in my chair

And filled with despair
There's no one could be so sad
With gloom everywhere
I sit and I stare
I know that I'll soon go mad

10. But with your solitude will be a support and a home for you, even in the midst of very unfamiliar circumstances, and from it you will find all your paths. 

11.

12. And if the body speaks, it is the speaking only of so many levers and forces.  The body is a thing to be ordered, not obeyed.  

13.  Your personality will grow stronger, your solitude will expand and become a place where you can live in the twilight, where the noise of other people passes by, far in the distance. 

14.   It is impressive that Rilke can find it in himself to admit that he pushes things and other people away from him.  For all that I know I am not aware that i push people or things away.  Then again, I can not be so sure because like Rilke said, he did not realize this habit of his until after he was married.  I wonder if I do push things away from myself to stay in solitude.  

15.  It is vast, heavy, difficult to bear, and almost everyone has hours when he would gladly exchange it for any kind of sociability, however trivial or cheap, for the tiniest outward agreement with the first person who comes along, the most unworthy... 

16.   Sometimes I feel alone, but then I realize I am everything but alone.  I just had to realize that I have the strength to be able to handle solitude.  It takes a lot of courage to accept solitude, well at least it does for me.  Solitude does not mean to be alone, it means to be alone with your thoughts.  While sometimes I have thought that I was alone, I was just coming to terms with the meaning of solitude.  

17.  Most people have turned their solutions toward what is easy and toward the easiest side of the easy; but it is clear that we must trust in what is difficult

18.  The solution solitude can vary from person to person but I can tell you what I think the solution for me was.  Learn to live with it, and experience your thoughts.  I think being in solitude is very similar to what we are doing at this very second.  We are left alone with our thoughts to write what comes to our minds.  That is just how being in solitude may feel, just alone with your thoughts.  

19. It had occurred to her while sitting there that everyone she would encounter in her life from now on would be a stranger.  

1. Lightman, Alan. Einstein's Dreams.  New York: Random House, 1993 (29)

2.  Chidi, Sylvia.  In Solitude

3. Ipod nano. Google Search

4. Rilke, Rainer Maria. Letters to a Young Poet. New York: Random House, 1984 (9)

5. Personal Reflection 

6. The Forgotten Art of Silence and Solitude.  Google Search 

7. Rilke, Rainer Maria. (69)

8.  Personal Reflection

9. Ellington, Duke. Solitude

10. Rilke, Rainer Maria.  (44)

11. Many Paths. Google Search

12. Lightman, Alan. (20)

13. Rilke, Rainer Maria. (8)

14. Personal Reflection

15.  Rilke, Rainer Maria. (54)

16.  Personal Reflection

17. Rilke, Rainer Maria. (67)

18. Personal Reflection

19.  Wiggins, Marianne.  The Shadow Catcher. New York, 2007 (77)