Effective Arguments

The Battle of the Ants- The narrator is describing a battle scene of two different kind of ants, “one red, the other much larger, nearly half an inch long, and black”.  The author has the narrator describing the “battle scene” of the ants as if it where a really battle the narrator was witnessing.  The author uses Achilles as the example of the battle, “The legions of these Myrmidons covered all the hills and vales in my woodyard”  the myrmidons were soldiers that followed Achilles in battle and he is describing the ants as Achilles soldiers.  The way the author uses these descriptions of relating the ant battle to Greek war is effective because it gives the reader a more descriptive insight of what the narrator is seeing and it makes you feel as if you are present.  

Elephants Communicate in Sophisticated Sign Language-  I think that Joyce Poole description of the elephants is very effective.  The description of the Elephants wiggling their ears or shaking their heads gives off a playful and fun vibe. The elephants are, in the same way as humans, want attention and love and by “wiggling” they invite other elephants to play with them. 

effectve arguments

The Battle of the Ants- Henry David Thoreau describes the two different ants as a battle and was explaining their actions as if it was really happening. He says “they fought with more pertinacity than bulldogs.” He is saying that aunts can make better decisions than bulldogs which I thought was very interesting. I see ants all the time trying to get food but I never imagine it as a full on battle. I disagree with his explanation, the ants were just trying to get food from the chip I could not see it as a battle. I feel like he was just imaging everything and making it up.

Elephants Communicate in Sophisticated Sign Language- Joyce Poole says that the elephants have a sense of humor, I agree. I see elephants as playful and wanting to have fun. The elephants would play with the researcher’s vehicle, act like the elephant was tripping but just wanted attention and play. The elephants know that they are funny and like to charm. In the videos it shows how baby elephants love to play with one another and also their mother. This article helped me understand elephants and what each movement means. Not only elephants are playful they are also very smart. Elephants have very good hearing so they can tell from miles if something threatening is coming and they could move away from danger to a safe place. This is a survival skill that they need and without it they would not be able to survive  

effective arguements

The Battle of the Ants - In this story the narrator effectively describes the battle between two different kinds of ants. The author portrays the ant battle as if it were The battle of Bunker Hill. As if these different groups of ants were soldiers in a war that were fighting against each other. The red ants being one side and the black ants being the other. I thought that this was a very effective way to portray an event that the author is describing. Comparing something like that to a point in american history I thought was quite clever.

Elephants Communicate in Sophisticated Sign Language - I really liked the description of the elephant "strut" in males. With the ear wave and the head-toss and the chin-in. I believe that description is very effective because I think human males tend to have a sort of strut in them when feeling a heightened sexual feeling. I just believe this example related well to the human male.

whales

I believe the whale did want to thank the humans who saved its life. compassion is not a hard subject to understand human or not.  Clive Wynne I feel like does not look at the whale as a living creature who has feelings and understands life. I feel like he looks at the whale as a object who holds no meaning to him. What are real "human feelings"? why do we just say human feelings and think only we feel that way. whats not to say that animals feel the same way as we do, I believe even though we can not speak back and fourth to animals that they feel and understand things like we do. Animals also have to speak to one another to stay alive and work together. When you own a dog, that dog learns to love you and becomes one with your family. When something bad happens to your family the dog knows something is wrong and he comforts you while your upset. I believe animals are the same as us.   

This class blog will not let me comment

This is a response to Kay's blog

I agree completely with this blog. I was so moved by the fact that the whale actually had emotions. I mean honestly I would have figured that the whale would just swim away considering it does not have to say thanks for anything. I thought it was just so powerful that the whale actually felt the feeling of gratitude. It really moved me. Like the whale knew what had happened and the whale realized that the divers had done something really good for it. That is just so amazing.

- Travis Mooney

Humpback thanks divers for saving it

I disagree with Clive Wynne when he says it diminishes the whale to imagine it thinking of the world as people would. Clive does not think whales can have feelings because he isn’t a whale and he doesn’t know what thank you means for a whale. He goes on saying the whale was disoriented from being trapped for a day. I believe they do.

            When I was listening to the story of how the whale came back to a diver and pushed his chest up and down repeatedly then stared at him for a while. The whale did that to each diver including the boat, looking at its eyes they felt it was saying thank you, almost as if she was trying to embed them into her memory as those who saved her. The whale didn’t want to leave them, they had to leave the whale. The question was that can whales express emotion, they never really answered they question. I think whales do express feelings, they are social mammals they have ways to communicate, they hunt together, form clans and males have a song. They talked about spindle cells, these cells are long, and they say that these long spindle cells yell across to each other while normal brain cells talk to neighbors. The top of the spindle faces up to the modern parts of the brain and the bottom points down to the bottom part of the brain deep down where all the emotions are stored. Both Human and Humpback whales have spindle cells where the emotion takes place to connect with thought, like how the divers saw the whale’s eyes and felt that it was saying thank you for saving it.

Whales

There was a female whale that was stuck in a anchor. She was dying, had a hard time breathing. The divers saved her. The whale later "thanked" the divers. The whale had swam towards them and gently pushed their chest and made eye contact. The divers felt so moved and touched. They actually do believe that the whale was saying thank you. The whale was expressing her emotions. The whale could have just swam away happily after being saved but the fact that she came back and looked at all the divers does lead to a conclusion that the whale does have actual feelings

blog will not let me comment

The blog will not let me comment, so this is a comment to Reyna's blog. \
I agree with this blog post completely. I am also a long-term person. I am a long-term person because:
1. Being a short-term person seems like you would just get frustrated easily when something bad happens even though that in the long-term it is going to be okay.
2. I started playing tennis my freshman year of high school and I was absolutely awful, but in the long-term I got a lot better.
So, when playing tennis my freshman year I was really bad at it so it would have been really easy for me to give up on it. Since I am a long-term person i decided to stick with it. Sticking with it resulted in me becoming a pretty good tennis player. If I would have given up I would have never found out that I could be really good. This is why I am still a long-term person today.

Long term Vs. Short term

I'm more long term focused because I like to save up for a long time then buy something. For example,when I bought my truck I saved up for almost 3 years just to buy it. When you are long term focused you just think about what you want to buy and cane wait to finally get it. It makes you work so much harder when you want something really bad. Just like the reading says when you invest so much time in something it helps you achieve your goals. You have to be "self-controlling."

Team Yeti: Long-term focused or short-term focused?

      I am a long-term focused person because I am patient and wait for long-term pay off. When I set my goals, I am conscious that that goal might take years and years, but in the end, I will be able to achieve it. When I am spending time on any of my goals, or a particular activity, I know that every day I am getting closer to achieve it.

      The article, “You’re so Self-Controlling,” talks about the importance of being self-controlled. In the second test that the researchers performed suggested that when a person has a logical intuition, they tend to think that the more time they invest in something, the closer they are to achieving it. I completely agree with this study because it had happened to me before.

One of my favorite hobbies is art, and one of my goals is to get better at it every day. Every time I start a new piece, I set my goals. First, I think on the time that it will take me to finish my new piece. Doing this will help me to focus more on my goal and to be more prepared mentally to any unexpected event. I also have in mind that I will take my time, but it does not mean that I will never finish it. On the other hand, every time I spend working on my piece, the closer I am to get the final result. Being a long term focused person has helped me to get the best results of myself and my projects.

Team Yeti - Spencer Bahr

I am a short term focused when it comes to setting up my own goals. When I set my own goals, I would set up my own time frame that I would need to achieve this goal. Most of the time these goals would be unrealistic to reach. Every time I set a unrealistic goal and I couldn't reach that goal this quote would come to my mind. "Once again, they found that the more time passed without reaching the target, the more time people thought remained until they’d get there." Another example of me being short term focused is when I set up my own goals. One of my goals was running back in high school.

I set up an unrealistic goal for myself back in my senior year of high school. The goal was at the end of the month was that I would be able to run four miles within forty-five minutes. I didn't run for months and, when I first started out I could barely finish two miles. When a month passed I was able to run four miles in a hour and twenty minutes. The first thing that I did wrong was I didn't even set up a good time schedule to reach my goal. After the month passed and I didn't reach my goal I was so frustrated with myself that I quit all together. 

Team Minotaur-Draw It Out

      As a little kid, I seemed to always excel in school. In every subject and I also always remember being teacher's pet. Another thing I remember as a kid was always being so excited about going to art class once a week. I loved arts and crafts, I loved the idea of making things with your hands and explaining things without words. My dad would always encourage me to draw different things. He would challenge me to draw old pictures of family members, or just people.
     Even though that was a long time ago, I still do love to show my originality, my imagination in drawings, or projects. Drawing will always be a big part of me. The process of looking at every detail, perfecting every little mark. Because of this skill I feel like I've became this perfectionist. Someone that has to make sure every single thing is the way I want it to be. The process of drawing something instead of Googling a picture, printing it out and gluing in on a project is and will always be me. I rather take my time and perfect a picture that I have done myself, and took my time on it than taking the easy and convenient way and just pulling one out on the computer. I always thought it added your own little personality on things anyway.
     

Team Minotaur

I believe my mind is more me, without it I would not be myself. I could be paralyzed and still have my mind I would still be me. The mind is something very unique and valuable to me. No one will ever be able to know everything about the mind because it’s so complex. Your mind is how you think and your point of view on things. No matter how alike two people could be their minds will always be different. As you grow your mind grows as well and it will never stop.

            Your body does not define who you are. It is just simply something to store your mind. Many people can hide who they truly are with their body and their actions but your mind, you could never hide who you are in your mind. For example you could say you like someone but really in your mind you hate that person so much but no one will ever know except you unless you tell someone. The mind can remember so many memories and keep them there forever. Did you know your mind is still thinking while you are sleeping through your dreams. In your mind you can think about so many different things and only you would know. Think about all the thoughts you think in your mind. If they all were out loud instead of in your head many people would know the true you. We will never fully understand the mind and how it works but I know that without it I would never be Brianna Pena.

Team Minotaur - Travis

The object that I just absolutely love is my phone. I am basically to the point where i can not live without it. Like, a few months ago I dropped it in water and it got water damage. I only went one whole day without a phone,but if you would have been around me that day you would have thought that a member of my family died or something. My phone is very important to me. It might not be very healthy for it to be that way, but that is just how it is. I just accept the fact that I really love my phone even though it is a material item. My phone is the one material item that I love.

Also, my phone contains a lot of needs that are necessary in life. Like, me being in college, it is used a lot for my dad to call me or for me to call my dad. It is a fantastic component for me to communicate with my friends as well. Also, it contains my music that I listen to when I workout or when I walk to class. And it contains all of my social media that I just love to look at. I understand that it actually is possible to live without a phone, but that is just not something I would want to do. That is why my phone is the object that I really love.

Forced to move on

If there was one thing that I kept dearly to my heart for about 8 years (which is a long time for these kind of entertainment devices) was my very first X Box 360(Modern Warfare 2 Edition). I was always a Playstation person but one day decided to make a change. So to me it felt like I was exploring foreign grounds in uncharted territory. Honestly I hated it, the controls were different the style of play was different and even the people who played online were different. but as the years went on I became pretty much an expert at  any X Box game and began to love it.
         At about the fourth year of having the console, a couple of friends came over and wanted to play games. The facial expressions I saw on there face when I showed them the console was outstanding. It was almost as if the X Box started talking to them. The first thing that came out of there mouth was "how old is that thing? I told them "About 4 almost 5 years!" They replied "don't you think its time to upgrade to a new X Box?" "No it does the same thing all the new consoles do." I said. Of course they would keep nagging me about it but I never budged my opinion. It just had too much meaning to me as silly as it was, it was MY first X Box! The console lasted me for another 4 years and it wasn't even because it had broken down, it was because they had come out with a new console and they were starting to make games that only worked with the new console. So I finally decided to upgrade to the new console. But every once in a while I get back on my old 360 and play games that are pretty much antiques.

Team Minotaur

Rituals of Embodiness

em-body: to represent (something) in a clear and obvious way : to be a symbol or example of (something)

em·bod·iedem·body·ing: to give a body to (a spirit) a :  to deprive of spirituality

While reading this text all i could do is nod my head in agreement. This article was great. I do agree with the writer. Everything me do now a days we only do because it is convenient. People used to do things with barely any help of technology. In his article he states "It’s a far cry from pulling your chair closer to the fire. Whether it’s central heating or the App Store, we trade control for convenience. We just want our stuff to work, which means that we want it to do what we want it to do, when we want it done.",which is nothing but the truth. We are so caught up in making even the simplest things we come across in our everyday lives just a little easier, for what? Because we're lazy? Because we want to be up-to-date with all new technology. These material things we talk to everyday are doing the thinking for us. We need to be in control of our lives and do at least the little things, even if they are not the fastest was of doing it, you never know what you will gain.

My Real Car

This was the cutest little story with a big point. Just like Rituals of Embodiness, the woman talks about an object that was probably not the most convenient thing in the world but it got the job done, even if that meant a little manual work. The object in the story is her car. She says how she pretty much wore it out in those 20 years. But how she still loved it.

The whole point of this I believe is that even the smallest things have the most value. Like the man in Rituals of Embodiness and his morning coffee, or the woman in My Real Car and her old, but spiritual valuable car. 

Unicorns

The Positive Power of Negative Thinking -

I thought that this was a very interesting topic. I had never even thought of "having too much positive thoughts" was a bad thing. The article was mentioning how people should have a healthy balance of positive and negative thoughts. They noted how, "imagining that you might lose the relationships and possessions you currently enjoy increases your gratitude for having them now." 

Metaphors for Life - 

I have never realized how often we should metaphors in real life. I thought that metaphors was more often used in books or movies. However, this article was mentioning how we use metaphors in cooking, marriages, even the job title stockbroker. Metaphors can also help our weaknesses. It can help us understand things better and connecting thoughts to other thoughts.

Team unicorn

The Power Of Negative Thinking - even though most people believe in a positive way of looking at things the negative way is sometimes just as helpful. It showed me no matter where I am in life it will keep on going.




"metaphors for life" - From this text I picked up how much metaphors affect us and how often we use them with out knowing. We use metaphors when describing the stock market, food, clothing and also other people. Also metaphors can sometimes slip right by us with out us knowing or realizing it was an actual metaphor. The central idea from both reads can be described as we live everyday not realizing whats going on around us even if we really think we do. From the text 'metaphor for life" it says "most of us, when asked to stop and think about it, are by now aware of the pervasiveness of metaphorical thinking..." which proves my point on even if we think we are aware of whats going on around us sometimes we miss important things, "but in the normal rush of events, we often see straight through metaphors unaware of how they refract perceptions."(brooks 616). I agree with what both authors are saying in there articles. After reading I realized how I as well let things slip by me and not even know it. Also after reading i noticed how I think and work and how much its changed just from reading both articles.

Team Unicorn : Alexia Zuniga

The Power Of Negative Thinking -

" Ancient Philosophers and spiritual teachers understood the need to balance the positive with the negative, *optimism with* pessimism, a striving for success and security with and openness to failure and uncertainty "

*optimism- hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something.

* pessimism- a tendency to see the worst aspect of things or believe that the worst will happen; a lack of hope or confidence in the future.

Metaphors For Life  -

" Metaphors help us *compensate for our natural weaknesses "

*compensate - make up for (something unwelcome or unpleasant) by exerting an opposite force or effect.

To me the central idea of both these Thesis's is that  you need to see both the good and bad in life to actually set forth to your goals. Metaphors help us maintain a stable balance of that good and bad. I agree with both of these authors because in a way they fit exactly for each other. In the power of negative thinking  people were asked to unleash the power within them. Telling them to think that the coal is something coal and it won't seem hot... its burning coal, what do you expect? Metaphors For Life  squeezes right in there because it is like a band aid to our natural weaknesses as human beings. We often numb  ourselves with soothing words to get us through everyday life. You use metaphors to pick yourself up and keep going and sometimes use it to just get out of that negative mood.