Castle building 101

After reading the profile on Jim Bishop I was interested in finding out how he built it. I like to build things and this profile tells of Jim Bishop building what he wants to. Here is a link to a site that gives basic knowledge on how to build a castle. Building a castle appears to take a long time, especially if you are building it by yourself like Bishop. However because it is made of rock it stays the same temp. throughout the entire year which is nice. they also are less likely to be destroyed if a tree falls on them like one made of wood and also likely does not have problems with mold because mold does not eat rocks. so I was curious about castles an that site appears to tell you every thing that you need to build one, awesome.

Doing Your Best

One of my favorite profiles was Van Calvin, the mannequin restorer. Probably my favorite quote in the entire book is on page 177 when she says "...the thing about it is, any mannequin we ever did came out about the best we could do it. That's what makes it, isn't it? If you're trying your best all the time?". I think that no matter what your doing, that if you put forth your best effort you will be sucussful. If a person is not giving their best effort to a task, is there really even a point to doing it? I dont think so. This link that I found is focused on doing your best work specifically for scientific research, but I think that a person can apply much of this to anything in life. I hope it helps you.

http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030213

Jim Bishop, Working hard for what you love

My favorite passage in this book was Jim Bishop, the castle builder. For a little background knowledge, in 2006 he was still working on his castle and it was near completion. The dragon could throw fire 6 feet long and Bishop was working on making it shoot 30 feet! It is an unpublished tourist attraction, that visitors must sign waivers to go in an look at. Unmentioned in this story is that Jim Bishops 4 year old son died in a wind storm that knocked a tree down on him, and he is said to still play around in the castle, which gives the castle some what of a paranormal feeling. http://www.parastories.bravehost.com/dapi.html

I believe the theme to this story was working hard for what you love, a theme that is dying in todays world. The article i found describes the work life in America today. It tells us about how we work, how ften and how hard we work, and that even if we have a job know, we should still look for that job that we all love. Its unlike Bishop, for he knew what he loved from the begining and he worked at it, but for most of us, we are unsure at this point so this provides insight to us finding the career we love. http://humanresources.about.com/od/careerplanningandadvice1/a/loveyourwork_2.htm

Collecting

There are a couple different profiles that I would like to look into a little more. Both my father and my grandfather are extreme collectors. My dad is a very avid collector of Zippo lighters (among other things), I couldn't tell you how many lighters he has but I guarantee it's thousands. My Grandpa on the other hand was a avid collector of tractors. At his time of death, just a year ago, he had over 700 full size tractors. As you can see both of these stories are similar to those of Stanley Kilarr (record collector) and Virginia Belle Brewer (bell collector). These people seem to become obsessed with finding something to add to their collection. What I would like to know is why people may become collectors and is it all all genetic. I actually have a fear of become as obsessed with collecting things as my dad and grandpa were. Something else that would interest me is how to be a collector without taking to far, without being a pack rat.

http://www.onlineorganizing.com/NewslettersArticle.asp?newsletter=go&article=700 This website does a really good job of explaining different ways you can become a collector but not take this collecting overly serious. Making it fun instead of obsessive.

http://www.ehow.com/about_6324250_psychology-pack-rat.html I really like how this article talks about how collecting/becoming a pack rat gets started. Its very easy to say no I am just collecting these things and then it gets to the extreme.

I had a hard time trying to find something good about if collecting is linked to your genetics or if you are more apt to collect things if your parents did. If anyone would finds anything I would love for you to share!

The Theme of Dreams

Throughout reading Holding on, I have been inspired by the theme of dreams and holding on to them at all costs. So for me the very last profile in Holding On really hit home with me. Virginia Belle Brewer despite the sacrifices and the disappointment that not a lot of people came to her museum, she held on strongly to her bells. In this aspect her bells were not only a dream or passion for her, they were her family. Although to many of us bells could seem so trivial, nothing of true importance but that is merely because it is not our own individual dream. Everyone has dreams, everyone has something that truly means a lot to them and because of that everyone's dreams are important which is what truly makes dreams so inspiring. They can be anything you set your mind to as long as you have the passion to go for it and never give up, then be living with that in mind you can reach those dreams and be thoroughly happy despite what anyone else may ever say.
In doing research on the theme of dreams itself, I was able to learn a lot. Many people today don't understand the importance of dreams which is devastating, but yet others still do. Those that do understand that dreams give us direction, and lead us on a pathway in life, a pathway that will most likely keep us out of trouble in pursuit of those dreams. Thoreau puts it best, "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be.
Now put the foundation under them." I honestly never understood this quote until now, but by doing this research and reading the profiles in Holding On it helped me learn the importance of them.
Some links I found on why dreams are important in our lives, and why everyone should have one. They are really good reads on how to go about setting goals, founding out what your true passion is, and how you can go about them to better yourselves.
http://www.riskytalks.com/the-importance-of-having-a-goal-and-living-it/
http://personalexcellence.co/blog/6-important-reasons-why-you-should-set-goals/
Some may call them dreams others may call them goals, but in the total picture of it all they are the same thing. Dreams as I have researched provide focus and drive in our life, without them we would truly be lost. I'm glad like Virginia Belle Brewer that I have a dream in my life that provides me with focus, happiness and a plan for my life that I know someday I will truly achieve.

Active reading: Using research to satisfy our curiousity

I think our lives are incredibly busy.  Sometimes our schedule or our past experience with school (some people describe their educational experience much like time in prison?!) makes it very hard to get excited about learning new things, and developing skills and viewpoints across a wide sprectrum of knowledge.  That's what a liberal arts education at a public university is here for, but I think without individual curiousity and some hunger to know more than we do, it's easy to take the path of least resistence.  In other words, to just do what we have to, and not truly explore what we want to or could.

For me, I didn't really get hungry or curious for education (and specifically reading and writing) until I was 27 years old.  That is very late in life in some ways, but for myself, I'm just grateful it happened at all.  I was in a horrible motorcycle accident at age 27, as I hit a deer out of a ditch in southeastern Minnesota at 70 mph, and I had no helmet on.  Very stupid.  By the grace of God, I survived.  Things changed for me after that, and it was a turning point for me.

I simply realized I was too self-satisfied.  I had to accept the fact that I had intelligence, but I was very limited in what I actually knew.  I was basically ignorant in many ways and when I took a close look at myself at 27, I realized this.  It was humbling, but I think maybe the most important realization of my life.

Seeking more than just a new career, I returned to the university looking for something else: an education.  I didn't party very much this time through, I had to develop discipline that I didn't have anymore.  I had to say no to a lot of friends and family members in order to get the most out of my new found curiosity.

All I can say to you is that for me, this was really life-changing.  I changed a lot of my behaviors and habits, and it felt great to be strong enough to do that.  Things were not perfect, but I felt like I was seeking my own path and not being pushed by somebody else.  I made many mistakes, but they were acceptable because I had a larger plan.  I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do, but I held faith that if I kept an open mind and truly took advantage of what an education had to offer me, it would come to me in time.  And it did.  Not like magic or anything, as with most things in life, it took a lot of hard work!  But it was exciting because I realized this was my chance and I should take it.

I truly wish that for all of you.  I think a good teacher really should just want each individual student to realize his or her potential, and to encourage and help that person on his/her journey through school and life.  I often fail to do this as well as I could, but I do have it as my highest goal.

Okay, my little testimony is over now (smiley face goes here).


With this said, here what I would like to do next.  I have tried to encourage you to engage with these people in Holding On, and actively notice what is going on and what themes occur in the narratives, as they often have implications for us.  From the very first profile, we saw historical themes like the Great Depression, the era of the railroad monopolies, the Pullman Porters and rise of the first Black unions, the use of dialects and signs in hobo jungles, the frustrations of jobs that have a "glass ceiling", etc.  These are themes just in the first two profiles!

So here's what I want you to do now:  You have written or thought about a theme that's important to you in Holding On.  You may have even written about the profiles you think establish or exemplify these themes the best.

Now let's expand our curiosity and so for this assignment, please find, using research, a source that deepens our knowledge of this profile or theme.  In your post, tell us about the theme or profile you are curious to know more about.  Then briefly describe the source you found that offers more information related to this theme or profile, and overview what you learned.  Provide a LINK in your post for these sources.

My theme is curiosity itself, to bring us back to the start of this post, okay?  Here are two sources that I found that talk about how and why we might try to develop this habit.  As you know by now, I have my own reasons, but these offer even more, and some practical and encouraging advice.  I hope you enjoy these links, and yes, you should indeed read them.  They are meant to help.

Mike

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/10/04/how-to-be-curious/

 http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/4-reasons-why-curiosity-is-important-and-how-to-develop-it.html

My Interview

I did my interview yesterday on Tuesday and it went really well. It started off pretty shacky but ounce I got him on a topic he really liked it went really well from there. I did a lot of follow up questions because the stuff he was talking about was really interesting and I loved the part when I asked him to relate those values from his childhood to now and how he explained that to me. Then his dreams were just crazy but he was passionate about it and I dont think there is anyone or anything that will stop him from achieving it. After the interview I also felt pretty motivated. It was a really good experience and I had a lot of fun doing it.