As an honor student this past semester, I've had all kinds of different successes. The main successes, however, would have to be just simply passing the class, and getting stronger with my writing skills.
When i made the decision to be in honors, I was already prepared to work hard and put forth my best effort. Throughout the period of time that I did receive honors assignments, the work load started becoming heavier and heavier. Fortunately, with lots of determination, focusing, and energy i was able to work hard and get through obstacles.
As for my writing, i came into the 11th grade knowing how to write general essays, but by being in honors and Randy's class period, I was able to take my writing to a whole new level. I went from just writing everything that was on my mind and correcting any typos and errors, to writing filtered out thoughts that was in my mind in a more structured, organized, and creative way that was easy and interesting for the reader. Blog entries, note sessions, book readings, and Randy's teachings, were all keys that opened the door for me to better writing.
The only thing that I would do differently if I had to do this past semester of honors over again, is manage my time better. There were lots of times when I would get distracted or off task, due to out of control energy and tempting classmates. Everyone knows that I have lots of energy, but there were times when I should've controlled my energy a lot better, and tried to focus a lot harder to help not only myself, but those around me who were trying to concentrate as well. I have to admit that doing this became a little hard, because I felt like even when I tried to focus, there was always that someone that tried to either irritate me on purpose or get me of task. As a result, instead of getting further on whatever was supposed to be completed at that moment, I was actually falling behind. A solution to this problem then and for the future, is to just put forth more effort towards focusing and remembering that the only person responsible for my grades is myself, so that's who I need to worry about---myself.
My goals for next semester of honors is to just keep doing my best, controlling my energy better, getting an A, and managing my time better. The steps that I plan to take in order to achieve these goals, is to take advantage of resources (notes, books, web, Randy, etc., etc.), take good notes, remain positive no matter what, engage in class discussions and note taking sessions, and try hard to comprehend vocabulary and content.
If i were to choose any part of literature and History for our honors work, i would choose slavery. The reason why I would choose slavery, is because it's a topic that I've always been interested in, and it also leads to other possible topics such as, segregation, presidential elections, wars, and trades. So not only will we be able to learn something mew, but tie in and expand other topics that we've already learned as well.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Nature Writing Essay
Krakauer spent long chapters giving his best, most educated guesses about why climbers made certain decisions, and what happened to the people who disappeared. These are assumptions that that had to have resulted in major frustrations, as know one can really be entirely sure what took place.
After many mistakes, Krakauer manages to piece together his own puzzle of what haopened to whom and when during the climb, but the questions he struggles with in almost every situation are "why" and "how". Why does Anatoli Boukreev climb so far ahead of his clients? How does Krakuer mistake Martin Adams for Andy Harris? Why doesn't Rob Hall enforce the two o' clock turn around time? How does Beck Weathers find the strength to literaaly rais himself from the dead not once, but twice?!!! Why did no one notice the storm that hit during the afternoon of the summit? Why do the South Africans refuse to help? Why does Lopsang Sherpa exhaust himself by hauling not only his heavy equipment, but Sandy Pittman, up the mountain as well? Krakauer really struggles and hassles with these questions, attempting to answer them in a variety of different ways, all of which are worthy of further questioning and investigation. Hypoxia, or the influence of high altitude on decision-making, perception, and memory, further distorts and blurs everyones accounts of what happened on Everest, and makes it even more difficult to figure out how and why.
By being under the powerful influence of Hypoxia, Krajuer no longer had the option of functioning by himself, but becoming a puppet to Hypoxia. I'm asssuming that once Hypoxia overtook Krakauers body, his brainpower and process of thinking clearly began to decrease, during and even still after the climb, giving him no right to to still try and piece together wha he thought took place on the mountain. However, throughout the book, Krakuer did portray himself as physically being with the rest of the climbers, but mentally separated from the rest of the climbers. Loke on page 167 when Hall made it very clear to Krakauer that he was to climb no higher until the whole group caught up, his thought response was: "I felt frustrated about wasting so much time and peeved at falling behind everybody else." It was clearly obvious that Hall knew that Krakauer was getting ahead of himself and was trying to put a hold on him so that everyone could say together, however, Krakauer was becoming irritated and wanted to climb at his ow pace. Somehow, this could've benn what decreased his consideration for others, increased his frustration, and then led him to criticize other people.
At the end of the day, Krakauer knew that it is unlikely that the other clients would be capable of helping him if he were to get stranded, and he knows that in order to be as safe as possible, self-reliance is essential. As a result, Krakauer often broke away from the group, climbing ahead of his teammates. He chose to avoid packs and traffic jams and relied on his own mountain climbing experience throughout the expedition. By doing this, I felt like Krakauer both helped and hurt himself. He helped himself by not putting turning over all his trust and life into someone’s hands and being aware of things on his own, and hurt himself by strongly letting his anger get the best of him while under the influence of Hypoxia. Eventually, individualism got the best of him, verbally wounding and hurting relatives of the deceased through a criticizing piece he wrote, exposed in Outside magazine. In the magazine, Krakauer, in my opinion, did not acurately address and explain what took place on the mountain. I feel like some of the things that he said were not thought out properly, and as a result he began receiving angry letters from people who did not agree with his version of what happened. One of the angriest was received from Scott Fisher's sister, Lisa Fischer-Luckenbach, who wrote the following in her letter:
........"What I am reading is a YOUR OWN ego frantically struggling to make sense out of what happened. No amount of your analyzing, criticizing, judging, or hypothesizing will bring the peace you are looking for. There are no answers. No one is at fault. No one is to blame. Everyone was doing their best at the given time under the given circumstances."
Through her words, I could almost feel the hurt and anger she must've been feeling while she was writing this letter, and also reading what was said by Krakauer in the magazine. Although, acoording to Krakauer, his intent was not to criticize any of the climbers, but to tell the story of what happened on the mountain and be as thorough and accurate as possible, he was still in the wrong by even trying to address anthing that happened on the mountain with anyone else, when his own mind and actions weren't even in their proper state when he was on the mountain!!
In the end, even though Krakauer did recognize the anger that he brought upon lots of people, and responded by expressing his "profound condolences" that's still not the point. The point, is that no matter how many condolences or apologies that he tries to give out, what he said, to this day, is still known and recognized by readers and people all over the world, and the people that died on Mt.Everest cannot be brought back.
After many mistakes, Krakauer manages to piece together his own puzzle of what haopened to whom and when during the climb, but the questions he struggles with in almost every situation are "why" and "how". Why does Anatoli Boukreev climb so far ahead of his clients? How does Krakuer mistake Martin Adams for Andy Harris? Why doesn't Rob Hall enforce the two o' clock turn around time? How does Beck Weathers find the strength to literaaly rais himself from the dead not once, but twice?!!! Why did no one notice the storm that hit during the afternoon of the summit? Why do the South Africans refuse to help? Why does Lopsang Sherpa exhaust himself by hauling not only his heavy equipment, but Sandy Pittman, up the mountain as well? Krakauer really struggles and hassles with these questions, attempting to answer them in a variety of different ways, all of which are worthy of further questioning and investigation. Hypoxia, or the influence of high altitude on decision-making, perception, and memory, further distorts and blurs everyones accounts of what happened on Everest, and makes it even more difficult to figure out how and why.
By being under the powerful influence of Hypoxia, Krajuer no longer had the option of functioning by himself, but becoming a puppet to Hypoxia. I'm asssuming that once Hypoxia overtook Krakauers body, his brainpower and process of thinking clearly began to decrease, during and even still after the climb, giving him no right to to still try and piece together wha he thought took place on the mountain. However, throughout the book, Krakuer did portray himself as physically being with the rest of the climbers, but mentally separated from the rest of the climbers. Loke on page 167 when Hall made it very clear to Krakauer that he was to climb no higher until the whole group caught up, his thought response was: "I felt frustrated about wasting so much time and peeved at falling behind everybody else." It was clearly obvious that Hall knew that Krakauer was getting ahead of himself and was trying to put a hold on him so that everyone could say together, however, Krakauer was becoming irritated and wanted to climb at his ow pace. Somehow, this could've benn what decreased his consideration for others, increased his frustration, and then led him to criticize other people.
At the end of the day, Krakauer knew that it is unlikely that the other clients would be capable of helping him if he were to get stranded, and he knows that in order to be as safe as possible, self-reliance is essential. As a result, Krakauer often broke away from the group, climbing ahead of his teammates. He chose to avoid packs and traffic jams and relied on his own mountain climbing experience throughout the expedition. By doing this, I felt like Krakauer both helped and hurt himself. He helped himself by not putting turning over all his trust and life into someone’s hands and being aware of things on his own, and hurt himself by strongly letting his anger get the best of him while under the influence of Hypoxia. Eventually, individualism got the best of him, verbally wounding and hurting relatives of the deceased through a criticizing piece he wrote, exposed in Outside magazine. In the magazine, Krakauer, in my opinion, did not acurately address and explain what took place on the mountain. I feel like some of the things that he said were not thought out properly, and as a result he began receiving angry letters from people who did not agree with his version of what happened. One of the angriest was received from Scott Fisher's sister, Lisa Fischer-Luckenbach, who wrote the following in her letter:
........"What I am reading is a YOUR OWN ego frantically struggling to make sense out of what happened. No amount of your analyzing, criticizing, judging, or hypothesizing will bring the peace you are looking for. There are no answers. No one is at fault. No one is to blame. Everyone was doing their best at the given time under the given circumstances."
Through her words, I could almost feel the hurt and anger she must've been feeling while she was writing this letter, and also reading what was said by Krakauer in the magazine. Although, acoording to Krakauer, his intent was not to criticize any of the climbers, but to tell the story of what happened on the mountain and be as thorough and accurate as possible, he was still in the wrong by even trying to address anthing that happened on the mountain with anyone else, when his own mind and actions weren't even in their proper state when he was on the mountain!!
In the end, even though Krakauer did recognize the anger that he brought upon lots of people, and responded by expressing his "profound condolences" that's still not the point. The point, is that no matter how many condolences or apologies that he tries to give out, what he said, to this day, is still known and recognized by readers and people all over the world, and the people that died on Mt.Everest cannot be brought back.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Nature Writing~~Essay Draft
I believe that endurance and self-control are the two main qualities that make a person fit to climb Everest and possibly lead to disaster.
By being mentally prepared to endure the harsh conditions, obstacles, and hardhips that are presented to a climber while trying to climb Everst before you even began climbing on the mountain itself, you are already placing yourself further and further towards the top. Endurance can really go a long ways, simply because it's an emotional quality that can not only help mentally but physically as well. It's one thing to know your mind set before you get to the battle, but it's another when you actuakky began to fight it. Once you're on the mountain, the winds, risks, weather, thin air, and limited oxygen, are all external forces that a climber gas to be ready and wiling to deal with when climbing Everest. However, no matter how mentally or prepared a climber might be, having endurance can also possibly lead to a disaster.
It is possible for a climber to focus so much on endurance that they actually end up using all their energy, leaving them with nothing but hope and the little bit of frozed mind they have left to continue on. Eventually as a result, their body will slowly began to shut down, having to either be carried by a sherpa, freeze to death, or fall hundreds of feet down the side of Everese itself. That's why if a climber wants to even have a good chance of enduring the hardships of Everset, they need to be able to pace all the endurance out, saving and using energy when time to do so.
~End of Essay Beginning~
I Believe that the sugnificance of more guides dying than clients is simple. Most of the time when a person has to repeatedly do simething, they eventually start to beliieve that they know what they're doing and they're going to do it reat every time since they've done it so many times, resulting in relaxed caution and constant careful thinking. Whereas a person who's doing something for the first time, does do everything a lot more careful, and uses caution to the fullest. So maybe when it was time for the guides to lead the clients, they became a little too relaxed about their duty and their goal of getting the clents to the top, while the clients remained focus on safely getting to the top and being a lot more aware of what was going on since it was their first time.
Also, the guides' bodies have been exposed to those kind of altitudes and thin airs more than the clients so the cllients' bodies might have had more energy stored in them than the guides did.
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