DongMen Site Reflections

For Dance class, we worked on a few choreographs, and filmed them at the DongMen market site. Here are some of my reflections to the filming.

• How did the site of DongMen alter the choreography that you created in the classroom?

We were told in the classroom that there were going to be clothing lines on the roof. He created cool ideas of draping clothes over the clothing line, and our dancers dancing in between the line with repeating "dead-looking" movements and gestures. We also planned to suggest the art class to film us with the camera going in between the clothes, making it look like a maze. However, there weren't any clothing lines on the roof, and we had to cut out that part of our choreography. 

• Now that you know this site better; If you were to go back to Dongmen what would you add or subtract from your choreography to make it stronger?

I feel that the students don't really fit into the "old and dirty" mall, because we are all dressed in clean clothing. Of course, that would be okay if the role of the student was, a student. However, it would be great if students costumes fit into the setting better. 

I also thought that our movements were a bit too small for the wide and big rooftop. I would make movements bigger, if we were to film it over.

Energy Bar Project: FIRST TRIAL!!!!

It was our first time making and experimenting with our energy bar (energy balls) on Tuesday, November 11th. We were pretty successful with the making of the energy balls, and they tasted a lot better than we expected. We were able to observe the energy balls and decide on a lot of changes we could make.

We realized that they would look better with crushed almonds(very healthy) on the outside, and would taste even better with crispier granola filling. We were able to settle the procedure and steps of making the energy balls. 

Many things were made better and refined after our first experiment. However, it feels like we are still unsure about the effects of the "energy" from the energy bar. It was rather hard to try and observe whether or not we felt more energized after eating only one ball. Even though the research tells us the ingredients help, we have not yet proved that OUR energy balls actually had those effects.

"Obama Elected President as Racial Barrier Falls" on The New York Times

This article on The New York Times talks about Obama's victory in the 44th presidential election of the United States. The article calls Obama's victory the last racial barrier in American politics. Many quotes from others are included to support and relate to the theme of the article. The majority of the opinion based statements in the article is within the quotes of other people such as McCain and Obama himself, making the article itself very fact-based and believable. However, it contains the bias of others who made the comments and reactions toward the election. 

The article is very significant considering its topic. Many people see this election as a turning point for the politics of United States. Almost everyone is talking about it, even in countries other than the United States itself. Almost everybody knows about this event. The 44th presidential election, with Obama winning, could be called a world-known headlines.

Current Event

This is an article about the decease of a  very well-known and successful business man: Yong Ching Wang (王永慶). His death was very significant is now very widely being talked about all over Taiwan. A great amount of people praised him during his glorious lifetime, and after his death, they continue to pay him their respect by visiting and praying at his tomb. The article names many great things that Yong Ching Wang has done for others. The article quotes the taiwanese olympic player who has won a first place medal saying that he couldn't have gotten it if there wasn't Yong Ching Wang, who made donations to the Taoyuan Sports College sports stadiums and tracks. The article claims many great things that Wang has done, and certainly claims his significance. However, the article could be called biased because the fact that it says nothing bad about Wang leaves us in doubt. 

What Is the "Rule" for living things

My impression of life varies very broadly. At one extreme would be humans walking around on streets carrying gadgets of technology, and at the other would be microscopic plankton floating in the ocean. I believe in the "scientific" definitions that life must be consisted of one or more cells, and it must be able to grow and reproduce.

 

NOVA and thoughts afterwards

In physics class today we watched a movie called Nova. This movie introduces the scientific theories and concepts we humans have came up with on how the universe works. The movie introduces the concepts of newton, einstein, maxwell... etc... concepts of electromagnetism and gravity, the strong and weak nuclear force and how these all connect and work with one another. Basically, the film challenges a mind to imagine and understand science that is based on theory and idea.

Thinking about the concepts in the movie and trying to figure out which of these concepts I believed and didn't made me realize that I am a really scientifically based person. I love to imagine different ideas and concepts, but yet most of the time I choose not to believe them because of the lack of solid support that I can understand with my mathematic abilities. I feel like I can connect to other things about myself too. I am not religious, but the beauty of religion interests me. 

I realized that this is probably why I like science, there are so many possibilities and so many different ways to look at the world. However, I never choose a side. To me, choosing sides seem to limit so many ideas and thoughts... After watching this movie, I find myself an observer who appreciates, but not a believer who puts themselves as part of a concept.

Reflection for Physics Project

In class, we were given a ramp and a weighted cardboard box. We were told to study the action and the forces acting on the box as it slides down the ramp, especially the force of friction and the coefficients. It was fun and frustrating at the same time to try and figure out what we needed to know on our own for this project. Our group worked together nicely. I was always the one who refused to calculate anything for my dislike of math, and Gene was always more than willing to do so. It was nice having a group who were all willing to work hard and keep trying even if we had no idea what the heck we were facing.

The concepts and the forces were really fascinating, so fascinating that we eventually forgot that the whole point of the assignment was COEFFICIENTS OF FRICTION. That was a bummer 'cause it seemed to have cost us a lot of points. However, I believe we all enjoyed the assignment, even if it was filled with frustration and confusion from time to time. It paid off because now as I type sitting at my desk, I imagine gravity suddenly disappearing for an unknown reason and every single piece of junk falling and crashing, breaking through the wooden desk and onto the ground. Sound fun and exciting enough?

I liked how the assignment was organized so that we could work independently, but it still has a negative effect. This was not a major problem for our group but some groups didn't seem to be able to get the attention and help from the teacher all the time when they needed it. I think I learned alot because I could keep going on at my own pace this time. There's not much to ask for on my side, maybe just multiple Mr Loken's. :D