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First Post For Blog Project

For my blog I am hoping to share resources for drug addicts and alcoholics to help them in their recovery during the Coronavirus Pandemic. I wish to share ideas for reaching out, different online AA meeting sources, and other self care activities. I will also add my own personal experience with these tools in order to add some credibility to why I believe they are helpful and important. I hope that these resources find someone that is in need of help and wanting to better their recovery while staying safe at home. I will also cover the journey of new sources for help as things start to re open.

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Blog #15

The peer review in this class has been helpful to my writing because I find that the comments left on my papers tend to become more and more helpful every time. The most recent peer review gave me a better insight on what I can add to my paper and how I can better expand upon it. My goal for this paper is going to be to organize my thoughts, expand my ideas, and improve my writing. The steps I plan to take is to re-read my paper with the peer review comments, re organize my thoughts throughout the paragraphs, and then expand with the specific feedback given to me. I see my biggest challenge to be making my essay more academic and using the TRIAC or Barclay ways of organizing my evidence as I get passionate talking about the topic I believe to describe beauty. I think that if challenges arise and this becomes too difficult for me to solve on my own, I plan on asking for help from my peers, and those around me who know writing well. Usually, having someone else look at my work helps me to see different ways that I can improve it.

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Blog #14

Intro.

  1. Definition of what I find beautiful.
    1. Life, people’s actions, etc.
  2. Relating it to Armstrong.
    1. Beauty is about the small things, not the material things.
    2. What I believe society’s view on beauty is.
  3. Relating it to Liv’s project.
    1. Explaining how the affects that art can have on people healing is beautiful.

Body Paragraph 1. Where I find beauty in my life.

  1. Relating to the recovery community.
    1. My history.
    2. How I came to find this beautiful.

Body Paragraph 2. The Twelve Steps.

  1. Describing the twelve steps.
    1. Image of the list of the twelve steps.
    2. Description of why these steps prove to be in my definition of beauty.
    3. Step 12- sponsoring people.

Body Paragraph 3. Armstrong’s idea of beauty.

  1. The small things being important.
    1. How this relates to people’s growth and healing.
  2. Society believing beauty is in material.
    1. How this is not helpful to the growth and well-being of our general society.
      1. Not everyone can afford fancy cars, and high end materials.

Body Paragraph 4. Working in the treatment field.

  1. Liberty Bay Recovery Center.
    1. Image of news articles on the treatment facility.
    2. What I do as an on-call recovery support staff.
    3. How clients recover.

Body Paragraph 5. Liv’s Presentation.

  1. Pictures from her presentation.
    1. Describe the beauty of art helping others heal.
    2. Relate to the healing process one goes through in alcohol and drug addiction treatment.
    3. The use of art in different treatment facilities.
    4. The correlation of the beauty of art and helping others.
      1. When people are sick they can use art as a healthy coping skill.

Conclusion.

  1. What beauty is in my life.
    1. Recovery and helping others.
    2. Seeing others grow.
  2. How Armstrong’s idea of beauty mirrors my idea of beauty.
  3. Relating Liv’s presentation of art to my idea of beauty.
  4. Concluding statement on my idea of beauty.

 

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Blog #13

“To regard beauty as a luxury adornment or a social signifier was to miss the true potential of the experience.” (John Armstrong, La bella vita) Beauty should be regarded as part of life. Beauty should not be taken for granted but it does not declare one’s class. Yes, those with more money may be able to afford more “beautiful” things such as clothes, and cars, but that does not show their beauty within. John Armstrong states, “many loathsome people own beautiful things, and the possession of these objects does not seem to make them more humane or especially gracious.” I feel that in our society, beauty is depicted in material objects. I feel many people refuse to see beauty the way I do and choose only to see beauty in their material objects.

Throughout my life, I struggled with drug and alcohol addiction. I grew to hate who I was and so two years ago I decided to change my life and leave drugs and alcohol behind. During my addiction, I grew so vein and I only saw beauty in the material world. When things got worse, I could not see beauty anywhere. When I stepped into recovery, I was finally able to see beauty again. The beauty I began to see was in other people, the good they were doing, and in the way that I, and so many others, was finally able to find hope in life. Every day I see women and men fight against a growing, horrifying epidemic and are able to find happiness and peace. That to me is beautiful. Seeing others recover and being able to be a part of their process of recovery as a sponsor, and a staff member at a treatment facility, is the beauty that I am given in life.

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Blog #12

One presentation I enjoyed was Liv’s because of the new perspective it gave me on art being involved in science. Before her presentation I did not associate the art in hospitals with the treatment of their patients. After her presentation I was able to see how art can be helpful to medicine because of the positive outlet it can give to patients undergoing treatment. Her mode of communication was through a slideshow presentation. I believe that this affected my opinion of her presentation a lot because it was creative and very thoughtful. I did not realize how a slideshow would come across to the audience better than just an essay. I believe that with her slideshow which included both words and pictures, I was visually able to learn more about her view point. Another presentation that stood out to me was Emma’s. She did podcast with a painting which was very different from most presentations I saw. Her presentation was interesting to listen to and look at. After listening to her podcast I felt challenged to go deeper into art and really investigate meaning in each painting I come across. Emma went in depth into the emotions she saw in the painting and also a story behind it which I did not think of before. I believe that watching other people present is giving me more insight into different perspectives.

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Blog #10

1)John Lehrer’s main argument is that there are major questions in the science world that have been left unanswered and that we must combine the world of science and art to help answer those questions. One thing that stood out to me was how he uses metaphors as an argument to support this as he states how most scientists use metaphors to help them understand the great scientific implications and mathematical equations that the brain may have a hard time grasping. He talks about how not all metaphors are perfect and how artists can help perfect these metaphors for example poets and their use of words to help better define their metaphors at a more meaningful and specific level. I believe he has a strong argument because it is true that in science we use metaphors to better understand difficult concepts and if we are trying to understand something more, we may need the help of art to perfect and better our metaphors. Metaphors are also a good example of art as when we use them we often use images to help connect the concepts together.

2) Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle- that the position and velocity of an object cannot both be measured exactly, at the same time, even in theory.

“the bridging principle”- in neuroscience what explains how the activity of our brain cells creates the subjective experience of consciousness

Reductionism related philosophical ideas that regard the associations between phenomena that can be broken down into simpler phenomena

Synapse a junction between two nerve cells

Epiphenomenon a secondary effect that comes from but does not necessarily influence a process.

Holistic perspective a perspective in which many different factors are taken into account.

Metaphor- a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.

3) A physicist Albert Einstein created the theory of relativity which states that the laws of physics are the same for all non-accelerating observers. He was able to understand this by thinking of moving trains. Einstein is used as a support for Lehrer’s argument that many scientists use metaphors to understand theory. Richard Serra is an artist who created sculptures using sheet metal usually in large scales in different shapes. Richard Serra was also used as a support for Lehrer’s argument of how art can be used to help scientific metaphors as he says how his sculptures may help you see curves in space-time in a different view.

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Blog #9

1)The immediate context of this essay, “Necessary Edges: Arts, Empathy, and Education”: Yo-Yo Ma is the author of this essay, and it was published by a website called the World Post in January of 2014. I noticed in Yo-Yo Ma’s bio that he started performing at the young age of five years old and also that he has won many awards. The bio states that he won over seventeen Grammy’s and numerous other awards. I also noticed that he graduated from two prestigious schools, The Julliard School and Harvard University.

2)The imposed context, including why I am reading this, is to learn about Yo-Yo Ma’s ideas of STEAM education and to form my own opinions on an important topic. I personally believe strongly in the arts as I grew up in dance doing ballet which I believe lead me to be more outgoing and lead me to want to pursue a doctorate in physical therapy. I believe arts are very impactful in sciences and mathematics because for me, arts gave me the opportunity to broaden my horizon and be more well-rounded.

3)The internal context of this text was the explaining of different ways that integrating more arts into educational systems will be helpful. One way that was talked about was that Yo-Yo Ma believed that in the world we live in today, it is important to have the skills of “collaboration, flexibility, imagination, and innovation” and that art is a good way to teach those skills. He also talked about art helping students become more empathetic. This is because Yo-Yo Ma believes that art helps develop connection between everyone and a better awareness of this connection.

4) Bandwidth- The range of frequencies between a band.

Genome- The complete set of genes in a cell.

Lemmings- A rodent.

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Blog #8

During the revision process with help from They Say, I Say, I was able to edit two quotes from my paper to make it more understandable and concise. I changed the first quote from: EA’s believe that when creating artwork, artists “paint the beautiful landscape in front of them while the rest of the world burns.” To: Rhys Southan states, “artists paint the beautiful landscape in front of them while the rest of the world burns.” In other words, the idea of EA’s on artists creating artwork is insinuating that the artists, because they are painting, are choosing not to save the children in need. The second quote was changed from:Another way that artwork helps is by the way it brings communities together to get through struggle. Haas and Haahn talked about how during the drug war in Vila Cruzeiro, the community got close to each other. The project brought to their town gave them more opportunities to form a stronger community. One way this was done was during the many barbecues that Haas and Hahn held. They stated how they “decided to throw one almost every other week, and we got to know everybody in the neighborhood.” The revised quote was: Artwork helps by bringing communities together to get through struggle. Haas and Haahn talked about how during the drug war in Vila Cruzeiro, the community got close to each other. The project brought to their town gave them more opportunities to form a stronger community. They stated how they “decided to throw one (a barbeque) almost every other week, and we got to know everybody in the neighborhood.” Hahn is talking about how they brought the community closer together during the many barbecues that they held.

I was also able to alter one of my quotes to better support my message. The original quote was:When speaking with a friend of theirs that ran an organization in Vila Cruzeiro, he told them “everybody here would pretty much love to have their houses plastered and painted. It’s when a house is finished.” This shows how finishing the houses in Vila Cruzeiro meant a lot to the people who lived there. It was changed to: When speaking with a friend of theirs that ran an organization in Vila Cruzeiro, he told them “everybody here would pretty much love to have their houses plastered and painted. It’s when a house is finished.” In making this comment, Hahn’s friend believes the people in Vila Cruzeiro were feeling poorly about having unfinished homes and having their homes finished meant more to them. 

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Blog #7

Original Paragraphs:

Southan’s text states that artwork “demands resources that, in good hands, could have saved lives.” This is basically saying that when people spend money on art supplies that they are taking away money from those in need. In the project created by Haas and Haan, money was raised in order to help those directly by the use of art. Although they were spending money, they were still putting it towards bettering the lives of others. Haahn stated that “more than 1,500 people put together and donated over 100,000 dollars.” This money was very important to them because they were able to gain the ability to create their project “from the ground on up.”

With the donated and earned money, Haas and Hahn were able to hire and teach people in the communities a new skill that gave them a positive outlet and an income. By hiring many people in these towns, they not only were able to help the whole community with their project but also give some the ability to earn money to help kick start a better life. This also gave some a sense of purpose as “together they transformed their own neighborhood.” Each place Haas and Haan had painted, they hired new people. This not only gave people an income, but also helped people see themselves as artists and no longer view their city as negative.

Revised Paragraphs:

Putting money toward artwork is controversial in the eyes of the EAs because they believe that it is taking away from those in need. In the project created by Haas and Haan, money was spent toward creating artwork that would benefit those in need. I believe that although Haas and Haan were spending money, it was going towards bettering the lives of others and therefore, justified. Haas and Haan were able to raise over 100,000 dollars in order to be able to create more artwork but they also were able to teach people a skill that can get them a job and give a higher income to the residents who helped.

By training and hiring people at each city they had painted, Haas and Haan gave the city a better look. These towns used to be in the news and in the papers because of the crimes that occurred in them and now they were in the papers for their beautiful look. Outside people started to see the locals as painters instead of criminals. This also helped the people that lived in the town to see themselves as useful and worth it. In my opinion, this can give many people hope that they can become successful and use something they love to provide for themselves and others.

            The changes I made to my paragraphs were done by picking the main points of each paragraphs, adding a topic sentence, and then using some transitions to make them flow better. I tried to stick to my main point in each paragraph and took out the sentences that did not relate it. This helped me get down to my main point and make the paragraphs more concise. I reread each paragraph and when I chose the main point I was able to come up with a topic sentence to place at the front of each paragraph which the paragraph clear. I believe each of these changes have affected my overall composition by making my ideas more understandable and identifiable.

 

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Blog #6

My goal is to incorporate my own opinion and more specifics into each section of my paper. I think that it will be important when revising my paper to include my own opinion so the paper will be more specific. It will also make it clearer for the reader to understand my stance on the argument that is stated. By adding my own opinion I can help the reader understand my writing better. With the addition of more details into the text, I will better be able to support and argue my claim. I also plan on summarizing some of the original quotes that were placed in the text.

First, I plan to reread my essay and summarize the paragraphs that have many quotes. After, I will create an outline of what I already have down in the paper. With the outline I will then be able to choose where I want to incorporate my own opinion and where I have room to add more specificity. After I do that, I will choose what I want to add. I will then re type the paper with the new opinions and details.

I think the most difficult part of this will be choosing where it is necessary to summarize and explain quotes that I already have as I will have to remove and replace many sentences. I believe that this will be confusing and if I do not do this in an organized fashion, there can be much room for mistakes. In order to prevent this challenge from coming up, I think it will be very helpful to physically print out a copy of my paper and write directly on that. If the problem still does come up or any other problems, and I get too overwhelmed to fix it, I will simply ask for help. It is so important for students to know that they do not have to do this alone and that we have so many resources, like the student academic support center, office hours for each teacher, and even peers who are doing the same work.