Response to Pearl Jam Song

I found it very moving. It seemed to be about a man who had hit rock bottom then found salvation through something (never specified). The then apparently tried to help others find their way out of despair but was met by ridicule. But, according to the song, that wasn’t enough to keep him from trying. It is a very interesting song and very emotional when you listen to it. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

The Uncommon Life of Common Objects Seeing #1

1. She elaborates on how human nature and impulse is what gives ordinary objects their value. Along with this, if it is something from years before such as an antique, it holds a different value. She also briefly covers how objects communicate different things for everyone and this can add or take away from their value to certain people. Also, the way other people react to certain objects can change the value of that object for you.

The point she makes that I find most convincing is when she discusses how it is human nature to give value to ordinary objects. This is convincing to me because I believe she is correct in this respect. Our emotions play a huge role in the way we see things and this is no different to when we are holding something that belongs to a deceased relative or the shoes you wore when you won an important race.

I’d say all of the things she talked about resonated with my experience. I feel I have experiences the wonder of all of these things. I own a fair number of antiques myself that intrigue me simply because of their role in history, as well as items I have kept that have sentimental value to me because of what they remind me of, or, simply, objects that I own because they mean certain things to me.

One thing I believe Busch omitted was the simple childish wonder one can have when looking upon something that is alien to them. I remember as a child I would keep rocks that were colored differently, or grew interesting crystals on them. I kept these things not because they had any sentimental value to me but simply because I did not understand their nature so I wanted to hold on to them.

p. 94 Seeing 1&2

1. When I look at this image, the first thing I see is the poster of Jet Li. However, the object that draws my attention is the projected image of the boy on the wall in the top right corner. What I noticed about each object is that they are all very vibrantly colored, all of them except the projected image of the boy. What I can infer about this boy is that he enjoys basketball, baseball, riding his bike, he has a lot of shoes, he likes Jet Li movies, he is messy, he likes Captain America, and family is important to him. The generalization I can make about Osorio’s style is that he likes taking pictures of the ordinary in different people’s lives, specifically their bedrooms.

2. Osorio has been quite unsuccessful, I think. Because personally, my room never looked like this for a few reasons. I never had a mirror ground in my room, I never had so many posters or cards of any kind, let alone I would never glue my cards to my wall, and I never had a projector in my room. I would say the parts of the room that are based on fiction would be the mirrors on the ground as well as the projector and the numerous golden fists all around the room. I believe this is fiction because no boy, unless the boy was form a wealthy family, would ever have these things in their room. The criteria I would use to help someone differentiate form fact and fiction would be by looking at the things that are the most expensive in the room, and those things would most likely be fiction.

"A Matter of Scale" Seeing 1&2

1. In a world where everything measures bigger or small then ourselves, Cole finds that at different scales, whether you are bigger or smaller, things act differently. To Cole, this makes it magically seductive.

Cole's essay showed me how to compare things that I had learned previously in my science classes to myself if I were bigger or larger. I found it very interesting when talking about being the size of an ant or a flea, everything made sense to me I just had not thought of it in that way before.

I wouldn't say any of the new facts will change the way I think, but the perspectives offered will. I already knew that a fly or a number of other insects stick to water through learning about it in school, and before that on my own observations. The newest facts to me were not the actual facts offered, but the way they were presented. So they will not change the way I think, but the way the facts were presented will.

2. I think she ended her essay with a quote because it helps support her argument. It would have changed because it would have only partly been coming from Schrodinger and therefore not as reliable as being his own words as the entire quote.

If she had simply footnoted it, it wouldn't have been as prominent that the quote was coming from another author and therefore less valuable to the reader.

Cole uses a number of different techniques to bring other authors perspectives into her essay for a few reasons. One is because using the same quoting technique over and over becomes dry and boring. It doesn't flow as well and is less creative. Another is because wherever she uses the different quoting techniques that is where the technique fits best in comparison to the paragraph the quote was put in. It helps the essay flow.

Seeing 1 & 2

1. How would you describe Peter Menzel’s photographic portraits of ordinary people’s food in different parts of the world to someone who has not seen them?

Peter Menzel’s photographic portraits depict numerous different settings in which people live today simply by showing us the different types of foods people eat in different parts of the world. It also shows us just how poor some countries are compared to some of the richer areas of the world.

What specific words and phrases would you use to characterize what you see in the photographs?

Contrast and ironic.

Which details- for example, textures, colors, objects, shapes, and setting –stand out the most to you?

The colorful vegetables and fruits in the Guatemala picture stand out the most to me because they seem to have the most abundant amount of naturally grown food that has not been processed, which is what makes it more colorful.

Choose one of Menzel’s photographs. What reasonable inferences can you draw from the observations you have made about this photograph?

The pictures of the food from Chad allow me to infer that the country is in a state of poverty because of the substantially large difference in the amount of food they have compared to the other countries.

What story does the photograph suggest to you?

It suggests that Chad is a third world country that has seen many hardships, possibly the cause of natural disasters, isolation, or outside forces continuously changing the government of the country as they take over.

In what specific ways is your understanding and appreciation of each photograph enhanced by Faith D’Aluisio’s accompanying summary?

It gives me a broader understanding of where these pictures are coming from and what they mean, allowing me to understand and appreciate the pictures much more.

2. Choose two of Menzel’s photographs, and compare and contrast your observations about each and the inferences you draw from these observations.

The United States picture and the Guatemala picture are common in that they both are very abundant in the amount of food they have. However, they are extremely different in many ways. For one, in the Guatemala picture you see many more fruits and vegetables while in the American picture you see more meat. In the American picture, the majority of the foods are processed whereas in Guatemala they seem to all be home grown. What I can infer from this is that Guatemala has a much more healthy, natural diet then America because of the lack of processed food they have, however America has access to a wider base of foods, which allows them to get more meats and sweets then Guatemala.

How do different foods represent a “full plate” in these photographs?

In Guatemala, the majority of their food consists of fruits and vegetables with very little meats and other things, whereas in America a full plate consists of majority of meat and very little fruits and vegetables.

By highlighting different physical setting and sociocultural contexts? Different economic conditions? In what specific ways are the scenes and contexts similar?

They are similar in that although the diets are vastly different, they still have an abundant amount of resources and food.

In which instance do you find D’Aluisio’s text more informative and insightful?

I find it most informative when it tells me what everything costs in comparison to the other countries, as well as how much money is spent on different types of foods. It gives us an insight as to how much each country spends on average for an every day plate of food in the different countries as well as which food group is relied most heavily on for sustenance in different countries.