Inner Thoughts

  Starting off, Schnoodles [Kian], I cannot begin to express my deepest gratitude for your valuable inputs in class. With the diversity that you bring to the class and the unique (somewhat) advice you give in order to improve my essays, I can guarantee that my essay average went from an 80 to a strong 82. Partner writes with you have always been fun since you bring unique analysis into our writing. Dhruv, where do I even begin, your constant reminders to put my cellular device away has really saved me from a lot of trouble. For all the times you helped me through my assignments when I didn’t know what was going on, for all the times that you decided to be my partner knowing that you were getting yourself into a mess, thank you. Collaborating with you has always been a learning experience for me. Mithun, I really have to thank you for making me laugh almost every day at the sheer stupidity of your comments. Granted you still have those moments where you shine through and show your i...

    This week we analyzed Videotape by Don DeLillo. Reading this piece made me realize how much violence we see every day, especially through social media apps like Instagram, and what its effects really are.     Instagram is arguably one of the most addictive and popular social media platforms. It is through this app that we see so many events being played out, events ranging from sports to death of individuals (like in the Videotape). Me personally, I see at least 5 car crashes daily. In fact, I see something like this so often that it feels weird to go a couple of days without seeing an Insta reel where someone is dying.      Looking at this, we see that violence is becoming an increasingly common thing to be witnessed in our daily lives. The effect of this is not people becoming scared, but rather them underestimating the precariousness of life. It is human nature that when you see something every day, you consider it to be normal and not of signif...

    This week we wrote a synthesis essay on urban rewilding. As much as I dislike writing essays, I have to admit that this topic was somewhat interesting to write about. Mainly because this got me thinking about food. How is urban rewilding related to the food industry?      Urban rewilding is the process of bringing back and introducing nature into urban environments. In the increasingly progressive world that we are living in right now, bringing back nature into our environment is extremely important. Common arguments against this are the lack of space or the high maintenance, which do make sense. But the benefits here simply outweigh basically all the cons. Singapore is a big example of the effects of urban rewilding. As an urban city, Singapore at one time was suffering with extreme biodiversity loss. With rewilding, not only was the biodiversity improved in Singapore, but it also enhanced ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, water filtration, a...

      This week we read a couple of pieces that focused on language and how it affects peoples' lives.  This really interested me because I myself have seen and experienced how much language can impact someone's life.     Language and English in general is by far my favorite class!! (no sarcasm whatsoever). I just love walking into a classroom and seeing an inner circle and outer circle of desks. But I have to admit, English did teach me the importance of language in everyday life. This made me research more on language and its effects on people.      Firstly, what are the possible downsides in not having good literacy skills? Well biologically speaking, literacy skills are directly related to a various number of skills such as visual memory, visuomotor skills, visuospatial skills, and etc. So, the downside of not trying to develop literacy skills? All these parts of the brain not being activated. I used to just "like" writing because I wante...

    For this week, we needed to do a blog on a satire article from The Onion. I chose the article on Norway hiding its standard of living from other countries.      This article talks about Norway downplaying its standard of living in order to make the other nations to not feel too bad. The amount of irony this article has is absolutely insane. It starts of by saying "Norway did not wish to rub it in" while proceeding to give a completely rundown on why it's better than every single country. But to be honest, this does reflect many countries, mainly the US. While yes, it is true that US has a pretty developed economy compared to probably every other country, that does not necessarily make it THE BEST country. But guess how the media portrays America? As the utopia of everyone's dreams. It has become so prevalent that statistics show hundreds of thousands of people immigrating to this country in hopes for a better life. This is pretty much what the article is try...

      This week one of the prompts that we discussed was about the "talent of ridicule". This so-called "talent" in my opinion can bring many benefits to society as long as a certain line is not crossed. This talent comes in many forms, namely bullying, be it over technology or just plain in person bullying.      Bullying is taught from a young age as a very improper and impolite thing to do, and for good reason of course. But bullying can be, and is in many situations, used as a form of motivating or inspiring people out of their troubles, misery, or any bad habit they might have. The only way for this to help people though, is only when this "constructive" bullying does not cross the line into actual physical and mental abuse. The problem is that many people do not understand this and knowingly or unknowingly cause consequences from causing trauma all the way to even suicide. Statistics have shown that 27% of bullied students have said that it lowere...

      For this prompt, I chose to talk about probably my favorite toy I used to play with growing up: Legos. I was a huge fan of the lego movies and shows - shows like lego ninjago - growing up, and when I saw that there were toys made that resembled my favorite characters and everyone also had them, I knew I had to get them. Funny enough, legos helped me meet new people and make new friends. Since I had a toy what was "popular", I was able to talk about it to everyone, including people I did not know. This allowed me to make new friends, who I still talk to many years later.  Looking back though, I see that maybe these toys that are defined as "popular" are probably not liked by everyone. Speaking from my own experience, I remember how so many toys that I had my parents buy for me, such as the pokemon cards and yu-gi-oh cards, were mainly because everyone else had them and I had a sense of being left out. I think this might be a case for many people, as years pass ...

     This week we finished reading the second volume of Maus, while I liked the first volume more and would rather talk about that, I guess I have to talk about the second volume. While reading the second volume, I noticed that two specific motifs were being carried throughout the book, from volume 1 as well, these were masks and trains.      I feel like the masks represent two things, the stereotypes placed on people and the sense of identity. For example, mice were chosen to represent the Jews since there was a stereotype of Jews being known as "crafty" and "miserly" people who liked to hoard everything. But the main message that was conveyed by the masks was the loss of identity for the Jews and the lack of a sense of individualism. When Anja and Vladek were forced to leave their shelter into the town. They could not be themselves due to the fear of being killed or captured. To ensure their own safety, they had to pretend that they were polish. During th...

      For this blog I chose to analyze a couple different pages and panels. Throughout Maus, the author is trying to make an argument on trauma and how it is passed down generationally or how trauma is shaping the behavior of the affected people.     Starting off, on page 67 we see Artie and Vladek talking about Mala. Vladek mentions how all Mala does is talk about Vladek's money and will (Panels 2,3, and 4). Due to these comments on Mala, at first she might appear as someone who does not care for Vladek and only cares for his money. But thinking about it more, I realized this is her way of venting her trauma. During the war, many people were only given coupons and ration books to buy food, and most of the time the amount of food was hardly enough for a family. Due to this, money was an incredibly important aspect of every person's life, money represented probably the only way of survival for everyone. Especially to Mala, who had a job to clean up "the peop...

 For this blog on Sweat I chose the prompt regarding the career of Lynn Nottage based on "making invisible people visible".     To begin with, throughout Sweat we can see the contrast between two different worlds. One on a global scale and one within Reading (the setting for the play). This contrast can be seen before every scene. For example, in Scene 1 of Act 1, it is stated that the "Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 776.68 points"(5).This is contrasted with the people of Reading celebrating at the "Annual Fall Festival" at a farm (5). For the people of Reading, the outside world is "invisible" and vice versa. While the world is undergoing massive change, many citizens are oblivious to it. The changes to the world are quite literally "invisible" to the people of Reading. Even though the world itself is invisible, the effects are not. The effects of NAFTA for example, have influenced all areas. Even in Reading, people are being laid ...

     For this blog, I chose to analyze the poem "As I Grew Older" by Langston Hughes.       In the poem "As I Grew Older", Langston Hughes uses specific word choice to convey his message on how it is increasingly difficult for black people to achieve their dream in a racist world and the only way to move past this is to take matters into their own hands.      To begin with, Langston references the hopes of the marginalized people as a "dream" and how it is a "forgotten" one. A dream is typically referred to something that people yearn for but usually is difficult or not possible to achieve. This immediately sets up the idea that the freedom that the people are yearning for is something far out of reach and "forgotten" by the people due to the oppression. This idea is further cemented when Hughes mentions how a "wall rose" between his dream and himself. A wall so "thick" and high that it dimmed the light of his dream....

 This week we had to write a fan-fiction for The Great Gatsby. For this I decided to "continue" the story from a 3rd point of view through the actions of Henry C. Gatz.     Under the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, an old man could be seen walking into a coffee joint. Looking around, he sees a young man running the store. Gatz immediately walks upto him, asking about the recent affairs of interest. Talking about the events, the young man hesitantly mentions Wilson, intriguing the old man. "Tell me more about him" questions the old man, sliding a few coins across the table. Seeing the coins, Michael's (the young man's name) eyes lit up, "Oh that poor man, he was heartbroken at the murder of his wife and killed Gatsby before killing himself. But I'm tellin' you right now sir, it was all the Buchanans' fault." Hearing this, the old man's face suddenly tensed up. A few minutes later, much to Michael's disappointment, an unopened coffee ...

    This week while talking about the Great Gatsby, we saw countless references to wealth and how it is indicative of a person's status. For example, we saw how there was the East and West Egg, where on one side people are born into the wealth and on the other people are self-made, so to speak.     As I was reading the book, I saw how the rich somehow kept getting richer and richer while no matter how hard the poor worked. While in the book this was done through immoral means, I saw that this kind of reflected our present day and age. Even now, the rich people are the ones getting richer and more successful compared to an ordinary person. This got me thinking if being rich is really about having a lot of money or is there a different reason that makes the rich, well, rich.     To begin with the physical side of things, surprisingly, according to a study it was found that poorer people actually had a difference in the brain structure compared to rich people....

      Modernism was the time period in the twentieth century where the whole world changed. It was the age of change and innovation. Some of these innovations are so commonly used that you would not expect for them to be invented so recently. Some of these inventions include the vacuum cleaner, the television and even the band aid (I don't know how people survived without band aids before the 1900s though). Modernism was not limited to only these things though, it also had a lot of influence on the technological side as well. In fact, the first ever robot was built in the 1920s. But innovations were not limited to the age of modernism. Humanity only advanced as the years went by. Especially the post-modernism era, giving birth to a variety of technological advancements such as the invention of the first computer, mobile phone, and arguably the most significant creations of all, java and python.     Now what is the significance of these handy dandy inventions? We...

    Chemistry, the subject I enjoy the most (totally). While reading this absolute masterpiece of a book, I stumbled on a passage that stood out to me. Problem Solving! Let's take a step back and understand what problem solving really is.      Problem solving is one of the valuable skills that come with dabbling in some chemistry. This trait is one that will help you succeed in all areas of life, not only academics. There are 2 primary ways in how you can tackle a problem: memorization and conceptual problem solving.      Starting off with memorization, or the "pigeonholing method", the first thing you want to do is determine what kind of problem is it. In other words, think about what topic this problem is testing and how to approach that specific topic. This method requires you to just memorize how to address each type of problem. While you do not really understand the essence of the topic, at least it gets good grades, and that's what matters d...

Oppression, a very commonly used adjective nowadays to describe a variety of things, from your school to the government. But what is oppression?  Oppression is the act of prolonged cruelty or unfair treatment. Signs of oppression can be seen from the birth of humanity. Even now in our so called "equal rights equal fights" world, signs of oppression are present. Let's go back in time.     Oppression started quite a while ago, think 12,000 years back. Before agriculture existed, fishing and hunting were the primary ways in acquiring resources to keep the society running. But after the development of agriculture, the social hierarchy quickly started to change and the signs of oppression could be seen. The more the food and crops within a household, the greater the social status. This quick change resulted in the "peasant" social class and they were oppressed as they had a lack of money. As time went on, oppression grew through conquering and colonizing land. An exa...

     Taj Mahal, located in Agra, India by the banks of the River Yamuna, is a memorial that was constructed by Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal .  Mumtaz Mahal was Shah Jahan's third and most beloved wife. Shah Jahan went so far as to give her his imperial seal, called the Muhr Uzah. But when Mumtaz died at a young age of 38, Shah Jahan fell into the fetters of his grief, refusing to participate in any events, even postponing his sons' weddings. In remembrance of his wife, Shah Jahan ordered for the construction of the Taj Mahal, now one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world.       The entrance of the Taj is a gate of red sandstone, and as one proceeds further into the the memorial, a massive mausoleum made of white-marble can be seen with two identical buildings on either side of it. The mausoleum also is surrounded by 4 minarets, each one placed at each corner. This symmetrical structure emphasizes the significance the Mughals (Sh...