Week 1 Review: The Caffeine Loop

Announcement for Wednesday, August 24th

Cartoon by John Atkinson
Source: WrongHands

Certainly something for me to keep in mind as I reach for the third cup of coffee at 3:00 in the afternoon...

On that note: 

For anyone interested in getting more involved on campus, I currently maintain a Google Document of open applications and opportunities (primarily for the freshmen that I mentor, but very much useful for all OU students) that can be found here.

Cheers!

Famous Last Words: Syllabus Week

I am generally an incredibly organized person. I pride myself on my spreadsheets and my Google calendar and my well-labeled files.

Stock Calendar Photo
Source: Pixabay

You would think, then, that I would thrive during syllabus week, which is basically a gift given to University students that allows us to prepare for the storm to come. However, this specific syllabus week hit me particularly hard. For the most part, I highlighted and sorted and classified with my usual flair, but I made far more mistakes than I intended to. I submitted event reservation forms for the wrong day, ordered equipment for an event that didn't actually exist, and proceeded to repeat the process only to find out that I had, again, erred. This sequence of events took me the entirety of an hour, and then took me the entirety of a forty-eight hour period to fix. As the workload intensifies this semester, and as the systems that I put into place to make my life easier become more strained and burdened, I need to remember that efficiency involves speech AND accuracy. One without the other makes for an entirely ineffective process, and while I wish I had the time for ineffective processes, that is not the case.

On the other hand, I need to remember to take more time for myself. I need to take time to sing, write, eat bad food, and watch trashy television. To that end, I have reserved Saturday nights (and by reserved, I mean that from 7PM on Saturday to 8AM on Sunday my Google Calendar is marked with an event named "Don't Even Think About Scheduling Works Here Jake, You Need This Time". I also need to make sure to go to the gym at least once every few days. Working out makes me feel so much better, and combats the fact that, although I am constantly working, that working generally involves me being fairly physically inactive.

*takes a deep breath*

And those. I need to do more of those.

Tech Tip: First Tweet

I've had a Twitter account for a while, and I must say, I really enjoy it because it serves its own unique purpose within my social media "portfolio" (including things like Twitter, Blogger, Facebook, etc.)

One aspect of Twitter that I really enjoy is the ability to restrict who can see your Tweets, also known as "protecting". As someone who uses Twitter both as a personal diary of sorts and as a way to speak out about social justice issues, I appreciate the level of privacy that I can have on Twitter, while using other platforms like Facebook or Instagram to communicate the less controversial aspects of my life (accomplishments, jobs, events) to my family that wouldn't appreciate or benefit from seeing my Twitter feed.

Wikipedia Trail- From Nursery Rhymes to The United States Commission on Civil Rights

Page 1- Nursery Rhymes

I revisited Nursery Rhymes after my original re-telling post because I was interested to see what Wikipedia had to say about the ability of these childish poems to influence how children think. I was reminded that these works are also overwhelmingly English; as you see from the picture below, even characters that aren't explicitly explained as wearing certain clothing are dressed in traditional English attire.

And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon by Randolph Caldecott
Source: Wikipedia

Page 2- Political Correctness

Its not surprising that I found this page, considering what I was looking for on my first page. I'm primarily interested in political correctness because, as a Social Justice/LGBTQ Studies minor and an activist, I believe in the power of words. Therefore, I was wondering what Wikipedia would have to say about the issue, especially considering what a buzz-phrase political correctness can be. I was also very interested in the fact that the phrase was hardly used before the 90's... its introduction into modern-day rhetoric is a recent concept.

Page 3- Affirmative Action

I ended up on the Affirmative Action page because I was wanting to find other court cases aside from the recent/popular ones that created the case law surrounding affirmative action. However, I was far more interested to learn how other nations practice Affirmative Action in their hiring process. For example, there is a system in India that imposes quotas for certain subsets of people; considering India's background, its not surprising that the caste system is being recreated in its governing structure.  

Page 4- The United States Commission on Civil Rights

I ended up on this page because, despite my intending to pursue a career as a civil rights attorney, I've never heard of this Commission. It was created in the 50's and still exists, with a membership composed primarily of Democratic and Independent political leaders. However, in theory, it is supposed to be bipartisan. 

My Mindset about the Growth Mindset

Although I have not heard of Carol Dweck specifically before, I have heard of the growth mindset, specifically as it relates to education. I find it to be a fantastic conceptual idea; unfortunately, the institutions we have in place in the educational sphere are not conducive to its implementation.

Having a growth-mindset is something that I'm really trying to work on, but sometimes, I'm not entirely successful. In order to stay in school, I need scholarship money, and for better or for worse, scholarships generally reward those who succeed in a fixed-mindset way (read: a 4.0 GPA is usually more compelling to a scholarship committee than a lower GPA with an explanation that, although you didn't perform at the same level as other students, you learned something important). I currently actually have a scholarship that requires me to keep a perfect GPA in order to renew the award, meaning that the classes I take are carefully vetted in order to ensure that I'm able to earn an A in the class. This sometimes keeps me from taking classes that might be fascinating and growth-oriented, but absent some degree of confidence that I can get an A, I can't logically take the class.

I think what I've learned at OU is that you have to balance attempting to have a growth-mindset with the realization that the world around you isn't fully, or even mostly, committed to the same pedagogical ideology. Classes like this are a rare chance to explore without fear of grade-based retribution, but by design, they can't be the norm. 

I wouldn't necessarily be interested in learning more about the growth-mindset, as I believe that its basic tenets are pretty easy to grasp, and I'd rather spend time delving into the Indian Epics we have to study. That being said, I am hoping to apply some aspects of the growth mindset to my LGBTQ Movements class. By understanding the stories and actions of the people that came before me, I hope to grow personally in order to better understand my role as an activist. 

Finally, if there's one area of my life where the growth-mindset is omnipresent is in the intersection between academics and my friends. My best friend is also the person that challenges me the most and is constantly pushing me to be a better version of myself. It is in honor of him that I have the image below. He's a pretty rocking person.

Growth- Mindset meme created by Laura Gibbs
Source: Growth Mindset Memes

Starting the Semester

I think that everyone else in this class has really hit it home with organizational tips in terms of organizing schedules and creating systems to help with secretarial tasks, so I'm going to focus on meta-organization. You will not execute your organized plan successfully if you are not getting enough sleep/eating enough/taking care of yourself/indulging every once in awhile. For me, taking care of myself means going to the gym and avoiding the temptation to eat bad foods that sap my energy for the day.

Generic Workout Room, taken by Wikipedia user seanmurphy27
Source: Wikipedia

For other people, it means remembering to eat or making sure to sit down after a long day on your feet.

The main point is to make sure that whatever plan you create includes times for self-care. Otherwise, your perfect plan is doomed to fail.

My Reading Options

I'm intending to read the online, public domain version of the Ramayana for two primary reasons:

1. Its free and accessible at all times.
2. I think that the older versions of the work are going to be more authentic and more true to the original author's intent of the Ramayana.

The thing that has most caught my eye so far was the image that I posted in my previous post from the Herculean blog; I don't know why, but the image really caught my eye. Outside of that, I really enjoyed the opportunity to experiment with a form of writing that I'm not particularity familiar with within the story re-telling assignment.

I'm also excited for this class because, outside of AP English Literature, I've never taken an epic literature course. As an International Studies major (among other things), I'm excited to delve into non-Western literature and explore the rich traditions of India. I have always been fascinated by mythology... when I was a kid, I would check out huge volumes from our local library on the Egyptian gods or the Greek pantheon. It was something that just enthralled me. Regarding Eastern traditions, my academic exposure is relatively limited... I took Arabic in the first semester of my freshmen year, but that's about it. Outside of a lecture or two on Indian history in AP World History, I'm not particularly familiar with the history of the sub-continent. However, I am a huge fan of modern-day Indian performance groups, specifically Penn Masala, which is an East Asian a Cappella group (picture below). They were featured in Pitch Perfect 2 at the International competition, and are a fantastically musical group.

Penn Masala at a concert in Atalanta, taken by Wikipedia user Brndnmcmns
Source: Wikipedia

I also love getting the opportunity to see Indian art, especially sculpture. The image below from the Indian Epics Images site reminds me of an installation at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City that I love to look at.

12th Century stone sculpture of Vishnu
Source: Wikipedia

Other than those instances, I'm not well-versed in Indian history, traditions, or culture, but I'm very excited to learn!

My Own Storybook Favorites

I was thoroughly impressed by the creativity in a number of the Storybooks that I looked through, but below are three of my favorites that I saw.

1. Blogging for Bad Guys

I love this blog because it gives a voice to those whose narratives are often monopolized within storytelling (the villains) while also telling a traditional story in an anachronistic way. The title itself led me to initially question whether this blog was intended for "bad boys" in the masculine sense or for villains, but those questions were quickly answered. I love how the page resembles an actual notebook, with a broken paper spiral on the side and easily navigable titles along the left-hand side. It felt very much like I was looking into someone's notebook, which gave the stories an intimate, personal feel.

2. Paranormal: The Ayodhya Files
What really stuck out to me about this blog was the color scheme and organization of the different stories into "Case Files". As someone who watches a lot of Supernatural and other similar shows, the mystic/demonic element combined with a crime-fighting vibe caught my attention immediately. The details the author uses in the story are also very descriptive, which adds to the eerie vibe of the site/its construction. The simplicity of the pictures and images used also allows the reader to create a mental schema of the scene, instead of relying entirely on the author to provide an image of exactly what a certain scene looks like. By uniting enjoyable content with an equally enjoyable visual aspect, this blog really creates an experience for the reader.

3. The Herculean Hanuman
The first thing that really caught my eye in this blog were the stunning pictures. The landscape (pictured below) and Indian artwork in the Introduction was stunning, and only made the text more engaging. I also appreciated the blend of Greek tradition ("Herculean") with Indian tradition; as someone who really enjoys mythology, I found this blend to be particularly intriguing. However, the strongest part of this blog for me was the language used by the author. Their use of figurative language was, to me, exceptional, and it really contributed to the goal of storytelling.

Desolate landscape by DeviantArt user John-Genova

Source: DeviantArt

Introduction to a Singing Scholar (Tech Tip: Embedded YouTube)

Hello everyone! 

My name is Jake, and I'm an International Studies/Letters (Constitutional Studies) double major sophomore with minors in Social Justice and LGBTQ Studies. I'm from Kansas City (for more information about the best hometown in the world, check out my location post here). As you might be able to surmise from my field of study, I'm largely interested in public policy, especially as it affects queer-identifying people, and hope to become a civil rights attorney in order to litigate for the rights of queer people both domestically and abroad. 

Outside of my professional and academic pursuits, I'm also largely involved on campus. I'm a Peer Educator for the Gender + Equality Center's Step In, Speak Out program (picture below taken from our first training, I'm the one standing),

Picture taken by the Director of the Gender + Equality Center
at the 2016 Step In, Speak Out Training at OU, Source: Facebook

as well as a Small Group Leader for Camp Crimson (my small group is shown below).

Picture taken by Camp Crimson Staff at OU's Camp Crimson 2016 (OKU Session)
Source: Facebook

I'm also actively involved in the Student Government Association, the Informed Citizens Discussion Group, the Honors College, and a number of other organizations on campus.

In addition to my extracurricular pursuits, I am also a classically trained vocalist/musical theater fanatic. Below is a picture of me from my Junior year of high school playing The Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera.

Personal Photo of myself as The Phantom in Park Hill South's production of The Phantom of the Opera

At OU, I also had the opportunity to participate in The Crimson Chords, OU's premier student-led, co-ed a Cappella group, which was a lot of fun. A video of our performance of Bastille's Pompeii at our mid-semester concert can be found below (that's me in the black cardigan).

Video of the Crimson Chords performing at Gray Owl as recorded by a member's father

Source: Facebook

Unfortunately, due to conflicts with a job during this semester, I had to quit the organization, but I still try to sing when/where I can.

Finally, I'm a huge proponent of debate in high schools. I spend a good number of weekends volunteering to judge debate and speech events in the OK community, because I have such a passion and belief in the activities' ability to change lives like it changed mine. I'm considering becoming a speech and debate coach either immediately following undergrad or after I retire from being an attorney. Below is a picture of me at Dallas Nationals my Senior year of high school with two of my best friends.

Photo of my friends and I at Dallas Nationals taken by my coach
Source: Facebook

Anyways, that's about it for me! The gist of this introduction is that I'm passionate, outspoken, and can generally be found singing. Can't wait to spend the semester learning with all of you!

Story: Nursery Rhyme? More Like Gender Role Story Time

"What are little boys made of?

What are little boys made of?

Snips and snails

And puppy-dogs' tails

That's what little boys are made of

What are little girls made of?

What are little girls made of?

Sugar and spice

And everything nice (or all things nice)

That's what little girls are made of"

-The Nursery Rhyme Book by Andrew Lang

This specific nursery rhyme caught my eye as I was paging through different options because of how it entrenches gender into something as basic and formulative as a nursery rhyme. These rhymes are often children's first introduction to complex structures within the English language, and a heavily gendered construction of language, especially so early on, only serves to permit and promote the permeation of gender roles in society. The picture below is actually a map of Europe that shows what countries have gendered grammatical constructs (light blue- non-gendered language/red- gendered languge). For more information, check out the Wikipedia article here. As such, I rewrote the poem in order to make readers a little more aware of the underlying assumptions in the original rhyme. Its also my first attempt at a "slam" poem, which was fun to experiment with! 

Map created by Wikipedia user Arhadro

Source: Wikipedia

What are little boys made of, made of, what are little boys made of?

Cells and hormones and hands and feet; that’s what little boys are made of.

But unfortunately, we expect them to be

Made of chivalry and machismo and emotions we can’t see

Out of the womb, they are allowed to cry

But as time goes on, their eyes learn to lie

In our society, a man who refuses to feel

Is held up as the picturesque ideal

A ruthless machine of primordial instinct

Power and status is what makes them distinct

So little boys might be made of biological parts,

Stomachs and eyes and ears and hearts

But we fill their brains and it takes a toll

On our collective health and collective soul

Because when we tell someone who they are,

We’ve crossed a line, we’ve gone too far.

And maybe one day, we wont ex-

Pect a boy to be defined by a characteristic sex

Maybe he was born a she or a they,

But it isn’t for us to have a say.

Little boys are made of whatever they want to be made of.

But what are little girls made of, made of, what are little girls made of?

Sugar, and spice, and everything nice; that’s what we think they’re made of

We act as though a Barbie figure is the default,

And anyone who doesn’t have her frame is at fault

For not being pretty or beautiful or demure

And I doubt that this poem is going to be the cure

To our convoluted way of evaluating 

Assessing a body and assigning a rating,

Telling her to leave science to the boys,

And to play with her pretty pink toys,

And much like boys, not all girls are born women,

Some are supposed to be tough and mean and masculine,

But like I said before, and I’d say every day,

It isn’t up to us to have a say.

Bibliography:

"What are Little Boys made of?" from The Nursery Rhyme Book by Andrew Lang 

Raindrops on Roses, Whiskers on Kittens... A Few of My Favorite Places (well, just one)

There's really nothing as beautiful to me as the Kansas City skyline. When I'm lucky enough to be perched on top of the Liberty Memorial (the building that provides the view in the picture below), I'm able to see the history of my childhood laid out before me. I see City Hall in the background, where I spent a summer working with the City Council. I see Union Station, where I had my first ever date with another guy. I see the courtyard where my city congregated to celebrate the Royals national title. I see the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, where I attended more shows than I can count. 

Picture taken from the Liberty Memorial by flickr user Allen Brewer

Source

Kansas City isn't the biggest city in the Midwest. It isn't the most cultured place in the world (though it makes my Top 5), and it has more one-way streets than I really care for. That being said, Kansas City is thrilling. Its a breeding ground for technological innovation and health care research, a place where my mom teaches terminally ill patients in the hope that they feel somewhat normal. It is a place where people come together to create and express and love and work and care and embrace life. Its pretty beautiful, and its home. I can't wait to head back.