Try As They Might

Throughout humanity people have always been divided into different classes, from monarchies of kings and peasants to oligarchies of the elites ruling over the bottom rung. In Richard Wright’s novel Native Son, the effects of stratification on the poor working class are portrayed through Bigger Thomas, a poor young African American male. Throughout the history of the United States blacks have always been on the bottom rung of society, starting off as property to becoming people with limited freedoms. Through mutiny and revolts they paved the way to equality for all racial minorities. Through Bigger, Richard Wright portrays the effects of class stratification. He shows people being kept powerless, which causes the poor to be disconnected from other classes of society and lash out through revolts or through violence.

In order for most societies to work, there must be a class that is kept working for the continuation of a country, be it to run factories or build buildings people are needed to keep things flowing. In the American Society, the belief that hard work will pay off and will allow people to climb up the social ladder is a false belief. If the working class were non-existent, life as we know it would be impossible due to the disappearance of the work force. If the work force were to dissipate then the ability to run the daily tasks needed to run a society would not exist causing the destruction of that society. A great example of this is near the end of the novel when Bigger’s attorney, Mr. Max, tells Bigger why people are kept poor and kept needing. “If men stopped believing, stopped having faith, they’d come tumbling down. Men like you. Men kept hungry, kept needing, and those buildings kept growing and unfolding. You once told me you wanted to do a lot of things. Well, that’s the feeling that keeps those buildings in their places….” (Wright, 426). The men who were set aside continued to build for hope. The hope that one day, their children and their children’s children can grow up and continue the struggle to climb up the ranks and be something that they never could. The people who poured their blood, sweat and dreams into those buildings, will forever be apart of that ascension. If those people were not kept in a position where they needed to work, those buildings would not have been built. People would not have been able to live there. The hope of a new generation to carry on the dream, to carry on the fight to climb up the ladder to a better position in life would be lost. And the dream where it is not just the poor who work, but the entire community, both rich and poor working together for the betterment of the whole community and country would be as dry as a raisin in the sun.

The ideal of an entire community is similar to the Communist Manifesto in that these people who are oppressed are the modern working class; they are the Proletariats who live to work and work to live. “…the modern working class — the proletarians. In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e., capital, is developed, in the same proportion is the proletariat, the modern working class, developed — a class of laborers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labor increases capital. These laborers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market.” (Marx and Engels, Part 1). The people who are exploited to work are commodities for the rich business owners. In Native Son, Bigger has to go work as a chauffer for a wealthy and powerful white man known as Mr. Dalton who owns a housing corporation that has the power to evict Bigger’s family from the housing. For people like Mr. Dalton (the Bourgeoisie), they need the Proletariats to do the physical labor to live off of the work they do and to stay rich. The Bourgeoisie weighs others down and the Proletariat continuing their life of work is for money. This is especially evident in Native Son due to the capitalist society America has stood upon for decades.

The American society is based upon capitalism, which founded on a free market that has a basis on profit. Although Mr. Dalton is a kind man who has the power to change the lives of the poor behind the Black Belt, (which he demonstrates by employing the poor and unemployed blacks), due to his wealth and position of the real estate company that owns the buildings of that area, he does nothing to aid the poor and decaying community from their plight. Instead of changing the way the real estate business is run to help the poor of the Black Belt, he follows the practice of only selling dirty, rat-infested, cramped, old and dilapidated apartments to the poor blacks and charging a greater amount for the apartments than to the richer whites. All of the events thus far reminded Bigger of a time when he was affected by such unfair treatment. “And he remembered the time when the police had come and driven him and his mother and his bother and sister out of a flat in a building which had collapsed two days after they had moved. And he had heard it said that black people, even though they could not get good jobs, paid twice as much rent as whites for the same kind of flats.” (Wright, 248). This shows the harsh position that the poor people of the Black Belt were forced to face. All because of the uncaring people with power deciding not to exercise the power they have for the betterment of humanity. This is shown in detail when Mr. Dalton is confronted with the poor conditions of his company’s housing of the Black Belt.

Despite all the things Mr. Dalton has done for the poor black community it is questionable as to why he does not help the poor with their strife of the housing conditions that are set before them. In fact his company requires the poor blacks to pay an exorbitant rate for horrible living conditions! As a result, Bigger’s attorney, Mr. Max, questions Mr. Dalton’s motives for not doing anything to help the poor community with their poor living conditions and the cost of living during the trial when Mr. Dalton was at the stand. “Why is it that you [Mr. Dalton] exact an exorbitant rent of eight dollars per week from the Thomas family for one unventilated, rat-infested room in which four people eat and sleep?” (Wright, 326) The conditions are quite unsatisfactory especially for the poor. Yet, the poor are forced into a corner and take what they can, despite the unreasonableness of it all. Despite Mr. Dalton’s position and power he does not aid the ailing community by renting out apartments that are not out of the Black Belt. This specifically limits the poor to the horrible conditions his company has left in the Black Belt and as thus the poor are continually mistreated.

Although Mr. Dalton claims to be helping the poor community with his amassed wealth he does not try to take them out of their predicament due to business purposes. Mr. Max confronts Mr. Dalton about this conundrum and receives a lame excuse in return. “Mr. Dalton, you give millions to help Negroes. May I ask why you don’t charge them less rent for fire-traps and check that against your charity budget?” “Well, to charge them less rent would be unethical.” “Unethical!” “Why, yes. I would be underselling my competitors.”(Wright, 328). It has become quite clear that Mr. Dalton will not rent out better apartments from white parts of the city to the poor because he would lose money from the rent. Mr. Dalton wants to keep them paying rent and to keep them being ripped off so that he can stay rich and allow society to continue on. It is quite apparent that Mr. Dalton is not out to help the poor black community in any tangible way, he wants them to be shut inside his mud box to keep his river of cash flowing. If he were to give the poor blacks better housing or cheaper housing, he would lose money and thus power. So he keeps the poor down in the hole by keeping them in old, dilapidating, rat-infested, “fire-traps” so that they are kept in a horrible position that is difficult to get out of.

Richard Wright’s novel demonstrates the problem of stratification and the outcome of an internal revolt and struggle through Bigger Thomas. Bigger’s revolt consisted of him accidentally smothering Mary to death. His great fear of Mary’s white blind mother finding out Bigger was in the same room as Mary gripped him to such an extent that he killed her. To keep people from finding her corpse, Bigger tossed her body into a furnace concealing his evidence. When people discovered Mary’s corpse no one suspected it was Bigger’s doing (how could a black man be smart enough to get away with a murder for so long?) until he bursted out of the room, solidifying his guilt. Countless blacks must have felt the way Bigger felt and expressed their feelings through violence, such as killing their white suppressers, or even lashing out unto friends because of the stress caused by hatred and fear of stratification.

However, there were some leaders were able to channel the rage of others into something constructive. Much like a needle leading thread to patch up a tear in a quilt, those brave souls managed to bind America together as one. One such “needle” was Martin Luther King Jr. who helped arrange the “March on Washington,” a revolt where not only blacks but ethnicities from all over the country gathered together at Lincoln Memorial and demanded rights and equality. The people gathered at Lincoln Memorial demanded, “an end to racial segregation in public school; meaningful civil rights legislation, including a law prohibiting racial discrimination in employment; protection of civil rights workers from police brutality; a $2 minimum wage for all workers; and self-government for the District of Columbia.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.). The people demanded these rights because of the years of stratification that they have been through which finally had been released through this revolt. Much like Bigger’s rebellion, these people grew tired of being put down and being treated like second class citizens. And so they decided to fight and revolt against the powers who kept them down.

Wright shows the stratification of society through the experiences of Bigger Thomas and through the idea that people are kept down and forced to work hard jobs everyday to ensure that society continues to function normally. Not everyone can be rich and be on a permanent vacation; society needs workers, grunts and peons and one way to attain this is to keep people down by hiring people at low rates so companies can take advantage of them and exploit their cheapness to build up power, which is what Mr. Max implies when Bigger realizes his doomed fate of death. “They hire people and they don’t pay them enough; they take what people own and build up power. They rule and regulate life. They have things arranged so that they can do those things and the people can’t fight back. …they say that all people who work are inferior. And the rich people don’t want to change things; they’ll lose too much.” (Wright, 428). The way this society is stacked may be cruel to the masses, forcing many to remain in poverty and oppressed. Yet, can the individual rise through the ashes and soar through the clouds like the man known as “Green” who was taken in and employed by the Daltons from the streets and managed to gain a job with the government? Can an individual break the chains of society and be the one who is rich with servants?

My Workplace Learning Experience this year was filled with excitement, laughter and joy. My previous internship was quite different from this year’s due to their complete opposition. In my previous occupation, I was a teacher for South of Market Child Care. For this internship my job was to observe children and teach them important information in life, such as the alphabet and counting numbers. This year I was able to commit to doing volunteer work at the Animal Resource Center, also known as the ARC located in the San Francisco Zoo. My unpaid internship there has given me an insight of the rules of the working world, the differences between my school work versus my internship work and the affect of this internship on the kind of work I want to do in the future.
My Workplace Learning Experience at the Animal Resource Center has taught me rules about the working world. These rules are to be punctual and efficient and to be courteous. The rule of punctuality is basically to arrive to work on time. Arriving late throws off staff members because they do not know if a person is coming or not. So when they assign areas to people, they have no clue when people will come in. So sometimes we had one person per each station that got out of hand and made the day a little less efficient and less productive. Where as in my previous internship we always had at the very least two teachers in every room. This was comforting for me to know that there was someone there to help me should I need it.
Efficiency is the key in all aspects of a job. When I was volunteering at the ARC the staff and volunteers were efficient on what products to use and were environmentally friendly. The staff members also showed great efficiency when doing their job by finishing their job right away. I once worked with a man named Al who would finish the job super fast! When paired with him he would just breeze through mopping up animal pens and cells so that he can take a long lunch break to let them dry quickly and have an easier time for the second half of the day.
Courtesy is also an important factor in the working world. During my internship everyone was kind and helpful towards me. They would answer my questions, teach me how to do things and tell me their secret tips to make the job go smoother. Like when I was paired with a woman named Martha in the ARC. She was very kind to me even when I messed up. One time I did not put the food dish next to an Opossum, and Martha kindly and calmly told me that I was supposed to put it in front of the Opossum. So I did and I learned my lesson without being scared off or getting into too much trouble. In return for their courtesy, I acted courteous as well which made the workday move smoothly and enjoyable.
Although school is similar to my internship in some ways I quickly realized that I enjoyed working at the ARC far more than staying in school. One major difference I noticed was that at the ARC I was able to move around, stand up and it was much more active work than school. Where as in school I tend to lose my attention to the teacher or work because of not being able to have a change in scenery for over an hour and a half. The freedom of the ARC was also a major factor in the work. When I am tired from running around and maintaining the pens or taking animal diets I can take a break get something to drink and return to my work. But in school you can not take a break and you must force yourself to try to focus on the work. Another great difference would be how the ARC learning experience is different from school work. When you learn at the ARC everything feels concrete. They can tell and show people what an animal is capable of, what defenses it has and what it looks like. But at school everything feels abstract in a classroom, like a religion. There are certain rules to follow, things you have to do and hopefully and luckily in the end you reach salvation. These are the main differences of the ARC and CAT. The ARC feels much more real as they can show people an animal’s defense mechanism, what and how it eats, how it feels and how to handle such beasts. Versus school revolving around scribbling on a piece of paper or banging on a keyboard wishing there were more to see than just words.
In my previous internship I was pretty much chained down to a room with a whole lot of kids and I was very busy trying to entertain and deal with kids. This was difficult and tiring and quite hectic due to the kids being hyper and unwilling to cooperate, which was aggravating. If it was nap time they would not want to sleep and would argue, complain and wear my patience thin! Or if it was play time, they would not want to share what so ever. I would propose taking turns with the toy or playing together, but they would not want to comply and caused me to take away the toy that was causing the problem. As such, the South of Market Childcare Center was chaotic compared to the free flowing Animal Resource Center.
This experience has opened my mind into moving into a more visually stimulating field. Sitting in class all day and learning something only to forget it a week later is a trend that I can not cope with for the rest of my life. Although I do not see myself in a field that involves me capturing animals and cleaning and caring for them my whole life, I think that I would like an active job that would allow me to move around and take my mind off of things with the views of the world.
This WLE experience has taught me much about the working world and a lot more about myself. It has taught me the rules of courtesy and efficiency in the workplace, which are two of the most important rules. I have also learned that I am a visual learner and that I learn better when I see something and can actively hold and play with the object to gain experience and learn. Yet, compared to my previous internship it taught me that dealing with animals is a lot easier than dealing with children. Although with animals it is difficult to know what they are thinking or communicate mutually, it is possible to predict what they will do in a situation. For example, every single time I would bring food into one rabbit’s enclosure, the rabbit would run away from me. But once I left the enclosure, it would hop out to the food and begin eating the same food it has been eating for probably years. But with children it is a completely different story. When I was serving children breakfast one day some would say, “I love cereal!” But the next time I work and give them cereal they would refuse to eat it and would want to eat something else. Another difference would be from when I received my volunteer badge for the Zoo WLE. Upon my first day of training at the ARC I was given a badge that had the power to bestow me with free drinks and a 10% discount on my purchases! It also let me feel powerful because I had a badge on that stated I was part of the ARC and people can come to me for information. But at SOMACC (South Of MArket Child Care), I did not receive a special badge that made me feel special. But what I did receive was the hugs of children and their toothless grins. These experiences have given me an understanding of what direction I should take in life. I would not like a job dealing with children or a job that requires me to deal with clients and people continuously throughout the day. I have learned this through my experience at SOMACC, as dealing with children is not one of my strong points. My experience at the ARC is one that showed that I would like a job that has a lot of freedom and of low stress that was also quite active and required me to physically engage in objectives.

This keynote presentation is an explanation of E=MC^2 and the various possibilities that it possesses. It shows E=MC^2 through images, the uses it is applied to and what I understood and learned from this project. Although the uses of E=MC^2 will be around for the time being, its usefulness may dwindle as time progresses and Quantum Physics begins to reign but the positive impact of E=MC^2 will continue on.
This keynote presentation demonstrates my understanding through the images and texts used in tandem. For every keyword or important fact there is an image to supplement it. In the explanation of E=MC^2 and its variables the use of images is applied to have a visual image of what the equation may look like. For the innovations that E=MC^2 is applied to I used images to depict the innovations. This helps those who are not familiar with the innovations have an image and an understanding on what I am talking about in the video. Having the images pop-up and having the most important texts appear on screen help people remember what the most important aspects of the presentation is.

I wanted this keynote to be as powerful. Which is why I chose images that related to what I was referring to about in my keynote presentation. This process involved my partner and I going through certain aspects of the image such as if it is clear, portrays the point and is involved in the subject matter. Another factor was what audio we wanted to take in. We wanted something that could draw in the crowd but was not too loud and jumpy. What ended up happening was that we opted for a video game background music as they tend to be in the background and not affect the action going on screen. The creation of the keynote helped convey E=MC^2 visually because my partner and I was able to get images, texts and sound to draw the crowd into paying attention. Applying these effects was simple since typing in text was just a matter of putting in a text box. Adding images was quick since we took images from the internet. But adding sound to the keynote was difficult. We had to play the song to the keynote with our voices and time button presses to change slides as the audio played. Saving the audio we had was a serious problem as well. Sometimes the computer would not save our work or it would save it but have the audio be timed incorrectly. To overcome this problem my partner and I decided to redo the audio section. This allowed us to perfect our work and we were able to save it in its correct form. The serious tone of the keynote gave the impression that E=MC^2 is of serious business and I believe it is the tone that would make the audience believe that this is a real situation going on– that the things in the keynote were not made up.
The keynote presentation was a difficult process as having to complete an audio piece and having technical issues were commonplace. But the perseverance demonstrated by partner and I is apparent in our work as it shows our understanding in a professional keynote piece. The images shown help people get a grasp on the information given but the tone of the piece helps to get the attention of the audience. Looking back at the process of searching for applicable images, writing the script, recording the audio and ultimately finishing the keynote helped me to better gauge my tenacity and ability to create a presentation of this manner.

The website that I have forged for the Eureka! Exhibition was one that showed my perseverance and devotion to my work of art. If not for my willingness to make mistakes and learn tips and tricks from Ted, my website would not be as magnificent as it is now.This process of web making has taught me many things about iWeb such as how to make buttons, copy rights, how to find and legally steal copyrighted images, set background images and overall everything on how to make a web page. When I first started this project I was in a state of being overwhelmed. It felt that this website project was like a black hole and I was on its fringes being sucked into the infinite void of cold black dimensional demise. But after getting the hang of things like how to enable images with hyperlink (click your button then the hyperlink button on the navigator and enable image as hyperlink type in URL) and thus transforming an ordinary electronic portrait into a secret window portrait wormhole to other sites. Similarly backgrounds are easy to set behind as well.
I have also learned that to set a background for a page is quite simple. To set a background you must use the navigator to enter the page tab, while in the page tab click the layout tab then on the bottom half of the layout page is background. Change background type it is currently on form the list to image fill or tinted image fill. Then a new windows should pop up asking for which image, select an image and booyaka! The background insertion is complete! But make be sure to know what images are legally usable and what is not!
One thing I took away from this project was that every image on the web is copyrighted. But like some kind of trash compactor that sifts through junk to categorize trash into different piles Creative Commons is around to help everyone find what images are usable to not infringe on copyright material. This website (creativecommons.com) helps people search for images from its search engine to hunt for images with an altered copyright on flickr, google, yahoo and other image holding sites. This means that electronic artists out there posted their works of art on the Internet for people to either alter and post-up with their permission stated by their malleable copyright, leaving those who use these images free from the shackles of fear from being sued.
My website containing these images within copyright boundaries, containing buttons and links to other sites with a stated bibliography has left me knowing that I did a great job with my time to do this website. I was able to show my website making skills through the use of what I learned in iWeb. But what helped me finish my work was my perseverance on finding usable images on the Internet. Going through Creative Commons, I was able to find awesome pictures for my website that I can alter and make some edits to. Yet, I was so elated with finding these pictures that I forgot to write everything down into a bibliography. Upon realizing my dilemma I had to backtrack to find the URL to the picture and I had to find the artist name. This took about two full days to complete, leaving me a bit shaken on whether or not I will be able to finish my website on time. But I manage to stay after school and finish my website.
By adding these images I believe my website shows the message of E=MC^2 being an awesome topic. I portray this by the fiery background that I used to symbolize energy with. I added Einstein’s pictures to a lot of my slides because he is the one who came up with the equation and since he has mass, he can represent the mass part of the equation. I would have put something to represent the speed of light, but that is impossible. The speed of light is too fast to see and unattainable for things with mass. As such it is not included but if you look hard enough at the buttons, they can resemble the speed of light. They symbolize the speed of light as being feint and difficult to attain. It remains a distant part of our future.
In my website the old pictures of Einstein give the website this flashback of when the time of the equation was created because a lot of the pictures that I used are black and white and show Einstein as this crazy haired guy. But the recent picture of Einstein in the form of graffiti on the fence shows that the equation is in much use today and that youth still remember the equation. This gives my website a contrast as the front page is red hot but the other pages are this dark old man pages. This work of art definitely is not the worst out there as it is interesting and easy to use. Out of 5, where 5 is the best, I would give this work of art a 4. The easy navigation of the website is obtainable by continually having buttons leading to each page. This allows people to jump to any page they want, except for the one they are on. Visually the website is not much to look at except for the front page. But I intentionally did this so that people can focus on what I made the website for, my research briefs, the video and basically the information about E=MC^2. I did not want people to be reading and then become pulled away from the informational part because of pretty images.
My hard-work and perseverance on this website is evident through the amount of time and effort on making the site. The mountains of finding bibliography work, setting and designing the page to look how I want it, fixing the backgrounds, finding images and setting the buttons were all major tasks for me. But despite all the struggles I am proud of my work and I especially like the front page because of the power symbols for each other buttons and the fiery background. I also like the thesis being different colors depending on what part of the background it is on. Although I like my website I know that it is far from what it can be. So, I would revise some of the pictures I used and put something else that represented E=MC^2, instead of Einstein. But other than that I would not like to stray too far from the original work because although there is more it can be, I like it just the way it is, simple. My work may be simple and not as nice as the other students who made much more handsome and fancier work but I am proud that it is simple and helps me focus more on the information aspect. I like the simplicity because it would help the reader to focus on the information that I am giving out, which is the sole reason why we made these websites.
The creation of my website has been quite a roller coaster journey of success and failures. But all in all I was able to ride it out and finish the creation of my website. Learning about how to make buttons and to search for usable images were difficult. But triumphing over these obstacles makes me feel competent in my abilities of designing digital sites. Undergoing this tough perilous journey made me realize that I do have what it takes to make a website and it is through this journey that I gained 15 electronic pointsthrough the use of iWeb.

The link to my E=MC^2 Website that houses my Research Briefs and my Keynote Presentation about E=MC^2. http://www.es-cat.org/~ailejay/Eureka%21_E%3DMC%5E2.html

Learning a new language is a difficult task as it requires thinking in a completely different perspective. I recall a teacher of mine explaining this dilemma as a math problem. In the English language one plus one is 2. But in another language such as Spanish, one plus one is 3. It is this type of thinking that one must keep in mind as one speak another language. This type of thinking is difficult for me to comprehend as everyone around me speaks English and not being immersed in Spanish hampers my ability to retain it. So I will understand the language at some points but then completely forget what I learned a few weeks later. This roller-coaster of instability makes it difficult for me to learn the Spanish language.
Thinking about the Spanish language tends to send shivers down my spine as it has always been something I could barely understand. The first year of Spanish I was able to comprehend most of it. The simple conjugations of -o, -as, -a, -amos and -an for an -ar ending verb was easy to remember as it was simple suffixes that I repeated in all of my sentences. But that was basically all of first year. Learning a few words, how the adjectives are after the nouns and a few describing words such as lindo y guapa have their endings changed. The first year of Spanish was so easy and simple that I actually thought that it was possible for me to become fluent in it. But all that changed in my second year of Spanish.
Spanish 2 was my upset year as I was in danger of failing the class multiple times and also because the school I was enrolled in closed down. The first half of the year was ordinary review which I understood for the most part. But once I was cast into the throes of the past and future tenses and irregular verbs I was shell shocked. I could barely make a sentence with the correct conjugation. The habitual failures I endured infuriated me when nights of practice memorizing did not help. I did not know the constant barrage of Spanish words and I could not understand them due to the swiftness with which my teacher spoke. After my inability to comprehend a Spanish pre-school book known as “Pobre Ana,” the frustration became too much to bear. I gave up on the Spanish language completely. And I found myself ditching class, skipping over Spanish work and overall not participating in class. The attitude I had towards Spanish is akin to salt on a snail. Spanish was my Kryptonite and I had to have a parent, teacher and student conference to figure that out. After having this meeting I was obliged to turn my frown upside down and I managed to barely pass with a “C”.
I was put into Spanish 2 again for my third year of Spanish. Although I was retaking the same course once again it did not feel the same as I was in a new school, new classroom, with a new teacher and surrounded by a different crowd. This made my over all feeling of Spanish 2 different. I had a fresh new start. Despite this being a different scenario from my previous class, I felt I was familiar with some words and verb conjugations but I did not fully understand them. So in that sense it was a new experience but the fact that I was acquainted with the subject and was not learning made me feel pathetic. It made me relive my past failures that I did not want to man up and face. My attitude towards Spanish was somewhat the same from last year but not as uncaring. All of this changed, though, towards the end of the year when I began learning about the different religions of the world.
Learning about religions in a different language that I barely understood was frustrating. The amount of decoding that I had to undergo for a whole page of text was literally over 4hours. Despite the difficulty of it all I was able to learn a few things about other peoples’ religions. One of the religions I learned about was the Orthodox Jews. One thing I learned about the Orthodox Jews is that they cannot create or destroy on certain days. I also learned that Orthodox Jews cannot eat meat with milk because of what is stated in the Torah. Another religion I learned about was Hinduism. The Hindus worship the god Brahman. But Brahman is also different gods such as Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma. And in the Hindi culture, there are social classes that people are separated into. I also learned about the Untouchables and how they are mistreated. I found it amazing that I was able to learn these things by reading the Spanish texts and translating it into English, allowing me to grasp the Spanish language once more.

Comparing my previous years and the current one they are the similar. This year in my Spanish 3 class, I was able to man-handle the language. I was able to construct sentences and express myself with the language. This is demonstrated by an essay about how people try to change their fate by fighting death and fail using the poems “La Cogida Y La Muerte” and “Romance Sonámbulo” by Federico Garcia Lorca. It is during this time period that I was able to construct my own Spanish poem that I read to the class in Spanish. Constructing the poem was a difficult task as I had all these thoughts in English that I could not put down in Spanish because it was too advanced for me to comprehend in Spanish. I needed to keep things simple so that people of my ranking in Spanish would be able to understand. But it felt good being able to transcribe my thoughts into one of my works that was in a language that none of my family understood.
Recently Spanish has been going well for me but on a steady decline. I find myself making the simplest mistakes with para and por or putting the adjectives in front of the noun like in English. These simple mistakes may be a premonition for the impending doom soon to come but I must keep trying to understand the Spanish language and take away something from the 4 years of a new language that I will soon complete. As I see it, learning in general is a roller-coaster. You learn things some day, forget them another and find your groove the next. Learning a new language is a difficult task for me as it is hard to get into the perspective of viewing things in a different way. But by stomaching through the g-forces of projects and work can we pick up certain artifacts that cling to our mind and allow us to coalesce in a whole new world.

The work behind the Eureka! Project has helped me discover a few things about myself and about E=MC^2. I learned a few things about my topic such as the meaning of E, M and C in E=MC^2 and why we would square C. In the process of finishing this project, I learned a few things about myself and my work ethics and how I believe my work ethics are at a sufficient level where I am able to work with my own set deadlines and not have people breathe down my back.
E=MC^2 is an interesting equation as there are many factors that you must know to understand the equation. You must know the speed of light, why it is squared and you must be able to understand that mass and energy are interchangeable. To grasp E=MC^2 we must understand what each variable stands for. E is for energy, M is the mass of an object, C is for the speed of light known as celeritas which is squared. Knowing the variables meant that I had to learn a few things about light. I researched that light moves at 299,792,458 m/s which is the “speed limit” of our world as nothing can go faster than the speed of light. We use C in the equation because energy travels at the speed of light. In E=MC^2 we find that the speed of light (C or celeritas) is squared. We square C (celeritas) because when an object hits another object, it hits it with four times as much force than its speed. I also learned that the loss of mass from two atoms coming together or splitting apart into an atom with less mass is transformed into energy. This is evident through Nuclear Fusion and Nuclear Fission as atoms are split and fused into one so that they would lose mass and turn the missing mass into energy. A fun fact I learned about E=MC^2 was that the amount of atoms in a paper clip can have the same effect of 18 kilotons of TNT if we were able to transform every single atom into energy! This shows the magnitude of power wielded by this small equation. This means that at the moment our current technology forbids us from truly harnessing the full potential of an objects energy. But in order for us to fully vaporize an object into energy we would need to use anti-matter that has the potential to completely annihilate every atom in the paper clip to turn every bit of mass into energy. The role E=MC^2 has played in our society is present in every Nuclear Reactor through nuclear fission and fusion, satellites and the Mars Rovers to keep them functioning in cold climates. It is present in celestial bodies such as the sun and in black holes with the idea of hawking radiation. Learning these facts would not have been achievable should I have not done research and I believe how I researched and took notes played a major role in my remembrance of such facts.
Researching these facts was quite simple. I would search websites and when I would find notes and important ideas and read them. Then I would copy and past them onto somewhere to reference them later. Absorbing these key facts and fully understanding the concepts behind them was the most difficult part of the whole project. Forgetting all of my predetermined notions about the physical world and jumping into something so abstract that it seems incomprehensible. This was brain boggling. The time I spent trying to understand how people can grasp the idea that mass can be turned to energy is incalculable. Luckily enough I did not have many deadlines to rush my understanding.
Not having dead lines and steps on when to do things allowed me to run my own pace and take my time to do things. Not rushing to meet a deadline allowed me to take my time, and like a snowball I was able to roll over and pick up facts as I went. I did not feel rushed need to put random facts down to meet certain time constraints. The fact that this was not rushed allowed me the time to fully soak up the information and retain it. This allowed me to understand the research better than I would have if I was rushing through trying to meet deadlines.
This freedom is what made this project enjoyable and understandable. The fact that there was not a set time for certain things to be done was a great way for me to test how efficiently I managed my time. With this I was able to retain information and I felt well in the fact that I was in control of what I did with my time. Having this freedom was something new to me as I was always controlled by benchmarks and the like. But in the end I believe that I did a good job managing my time wisely by the amount of work that I managed to complete.
Another little factoid I learned about myself through this project was that I do not do the best work at home at the end of the day. When I am at home I am unable to sit down and truly focus on my work. It may be due to all the distractions at home such as my parents watching T.V. or the smell of a home cooked meal but what ever it is studying at home is difficult task for me. This has taught me to study elsewhere that is not at home but still has Internet, such as school. This lead me to use my time wisely while I was at school because every free work period I had I used it to study and work on my research briefs and the math application.
Finding the math application towards E=MC^2 was a difficulty. This was difficult because I viewed this equation as an equation and I only saw the mathematical part of was why we square the speed of light. Everything else was just basic multiplication with BIG numbers. Finding the math application was difficult but the research briefs were quite difficult as well.
Despite all these challenges I managed to get my research and website done while simultaneously with my partner, we were able to finish our keynote presentation that was the main of our presentation. Come great gain there comes great sacrifice as I was not able to fully keep up with the work from all of my classes.
The information I used for my research briefs was from a myriad of different sources. I watched a few documentaries upon Einstein and his big idea of E=MC^2. I mainly used one website by NOVA and all the links that led to the different pages and sites of the NOVA website. I also used a few books for my research. These books include E=MC^2: A Biography of the World’s Most Famous Equation by David Bodanis, the big black Einstein book about his troubled past in the physics room, Five Equations That Changed the World: The Power and Poetry of Mathematics by Michael Guillen, Albert Einsteins letters to President Roosevelt and a few other articles printed from the internet. During my research the very first thing upon arriving at a website is to check the validity of it. If it seems very home made and unprofessional like then I would move on. But if it was part of a business or a hospital, I knew it would be trustworthy because it was an organization or group doing this website. Which is why once I Found that NOVA site I knew it would contain accurate information because I have seen their documentaries and their other sites and they do a great job explaining things. Also NOVA has renown physicists such as Dr. Michio Kaku and Neil deGrasse Tyson. This makes their website about Einstein and E=MC^2 more trustworthy.
I believe what I drew from this project was more than just about E=MC^2 and how it was used in life, innovations and in other equations. But what I have gained was a deeper understanding of myself and my work habits. Habits such as working away from home where distractions are grand and how I would note important facts on each article I read like on the research brief. In all this project was not just about E=MC^2 for me but about my work habits and how I deal with reading articles and learning on such a grand scale. These concepts have given me an understanding of what college was like and how one would go about doing their own research without a teacher laying the red carpet down for people. The fact that I have an understanding of what one way to do research briefs give me a trampoline to bounce back upon should I begin to free fall on not knowing what to do. While learning about work habits and a little about the impending future, I was able to learn more about one of the most famous equations, E=MC^2. This allowed me to have an understanding of our life and how things are the way they are. I recall reading somewhere while researching that “There are no explanations as to why these specific functions happens in the world, no explanations as to why nature is so. But the best we can do is to understand nature and live with it.” and I believe that the more we understand the more we can live harmoniously with nature. Furthermore, the fact that Einstein came from humble beginnings was just a curious person gives me strength in the idea that maybe one day I may have a great after thought like he did. That maybe if a guy with boundless curiosity such as Einstein was able to accomplish such a taxing feat of coming up with E=MC^2, the equation that has changed the way we perceive the world today, maybe I may make a discovery as well. The processes that I have learned throughout this process will serve to shed light upon the depths of tomorrow. Yet, time will be the only revealing factor for what lays in wait for the future.

Statement

The job that I took was a problem about how the new land of San Francisco should be allotted. First piece of land was the 300 acres of land from the Presidio, (L), that George Lucas gave back to the city after he decided he did not need that much land. After the closure of the Navy’s 100-acre shipyard in Hunter’s Point (S), the government gave it back to San Francisco. Then, with the lease on the 150 acres of land that allowed parking lots for AT&T Park, (P), ending, the city can use the area as they wish. The total usable land is 550 acres. But there are some conditions that must be met.
The city is going to divide the land between business areas (stores, housing, etc…(B)) and nature areas (parks, hiking trails, etc…(N)). One of the conditions that must be met is that there must be a maximum of 200 acres of the Shipyard and the Parking lots be devoted to nature, (SN+PN<200). Another condition that has to be met is that the amount of Shipyard being used for nature and the amount of Presidio land being used for business had to equal 100 acres, (SN+LB=100). Then at least 300 acres of land must go to business, (LB+SB+PB>300). Each acre of land has a different cost depending on it being devoted to nature (N) or if it is dedicated to Business (B).
Each acre of Lucas’s Presidio (L), which is devoted to nature, is $50, while each acre dedicated to business is $500. With the Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyard (S), each acre devoted to nature is $200, compared to the $2000 per business acre. For the AT&T Park parking lots (P), it is $100 per nature acre and $1000 per business acre.
What my task is that I have to find the most economic solution for the city, and then I have to find a solution that I think is the best for the city in the long run. I will find out the most economic solution through the use of matrices, constraints and the elimination of combinations I have made by pairing certain constraints together. The way I will use matrices is by picking 6 constraints to check them by marking each constraint to a variable. Also, I will put each constraint answer on a separate matrix to set boundaries that everything will be equal to those answers. Next I will multiply the inverse of the first matrix to the answer matrix to get a bunch of possible land solutions. I will then check if these solutions fit the constraints, should one of them not then this combination will not work and I have to cross it out. But if it fits the constraints I have to calculate the costs. Once I eliminate all the impossible combinations and narrowed down to the combinations that work, I will get the cost by multiplying the amount of acres being used on the area by the cost of the type of land. For example, if there is 200 acres of nature land in Lucas’s Presidio then I will multiply 200 by $50.
After multiplying each acre being used on the area by the cost of the type of the land, I will add up each total together, to make the final cost of how much this specific land plan is. I will then do this to other combinations and compare their cost to find the most cost effective solution.

Work
What I will be doing is: (1) write out all the constraints being used in the problem:
1.LN+LB=300
2.SN+SB=100
3.PN+PB=150
4.SN+LB=100
5.SN+PN<200
6.LB+SB+PB>300
7.LN>0
8.LB>0
9.SN>0
10.SB>0
11.PN>0
12.PB>0
(2) Find all the constraints that will not work together: 7 and 8 violate 1, 9 and 10 violate 2, 11 and 12 violates 3, 8 and 9 violates 4, 8 and 10 violates 6, 10 and 12 violates 6, 8 and 12 violates 6, 9 and 11 violates 5, 6 and 7 violates 1, 2, 3, and 4, and finally 5 and 9 violates 3.
(3) Find combinations that can work together; (1,2,3,4,5,6), (1,2,3,4,5,8), (1,2,3,4,5,10), (1,2,3,4,5,12), (1,2,3,4,6,8), (1,2,3,4,6,9), (1,2,3,4,6,11), (1,2,3,4,6,12), (1,2,3,4,9,12), (1,2,3,4,10,11), (1,2,3,4,10, 12). Notice that the constraints 1, 2, 3, and 4 are in every combination. That is because they are each the conditions that each side (nature and business) has fought for, therefore I must abide by them. If I do not use them then I would be neglecting their conditions. Some combinations failed because certain constraints only work with others. Some constraints do not fit with other constraints, which is why some combinations are eliminated right off the bat.
• (4) Now I will use matrices to solve the land problem. I used matrices because it is a much more efficient way to calculate all the variables and constraints. Matrices work by being put into squares that can only be added or multiplied to. Since you cannot divide matrices, you have to take the inverse of the matrix in order to “divide” them. To take the inverse you have to get the reciprocal of the matrix. Obtaining the reciprocal of a matrix is simple, you take the matrix and put it under a one so that it is the denominator, turning it into the inverse of the matrix. An example of this is, [A][X]=[B] and I am trying to isolate [X]. So to move [A], we take the inverse of it and multiply it on both sides, 1/[A]x[A][X]=[B]1/[A]. When you multiply a number by its inverse it equals one. Thus cancelling out the first half of the first section, 1/[A]x[A]=1, 1[X]=[B][A]^-1. Which leaves [X]=[B][A]^-1. Additionally, to multiply matrices the columns of the first matrix have to be equal to the rows of the second matrix. Then the columns of the second matrix multiply the rows of the first matrix.
Combination: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6
LN LB SN SB PN PB Inverse Totals
1 1 1 0 0 0 0 LN 300 50
2 0 0 1 1 0 0 LB 100 250
3 0 0 0 0 1 1 SN 150 -150
4 0 1 1 0 0 0 SB 100 250
5 0 0 1 0 1 0 PN 200 350
6 0 1 0 1 0 1 PB 0 -200
Violates constraints 9 and 12. Therefore it does not work.

Combination: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 8
LN LB SN SB PN PB Inverse Totals
1 1 1 0 0 0 0 LN 300 0
2 0 0 1 1 0 0 LB 100 300
3 0 0 0 0 1 1 SN 150 -200
4 0 1 1 0 0 0 SB 100 300
5 0 0 1 0 1 0 PN 200 400
8 0 1 0 0 0 0 PB 0 -250
Violates constraints 9 and12. Therefore it does not work.
Combination: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10
LN LB SN SB PN PB Inverse Totals
1 1 1 0 0 0 0 LN 300 0
2 0 0 1 1 0 0 LB 100 300
3 0 0 0 0 1 1 SN 150 -200
4 0 1 1 0 0 0 SB 100 300
5 0 0 1 0 1 0 PN 200 400
10 0 0 0 1 0 0 PB 0 -250
Violates constraints 9 and 12. Therefore it does not work.
Combination: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 12
LN LB SN SB PN PB Inverse Totals
1 1 1 0 0 0 0 LN 300 250
2 0 0 1 1 0 0 LB 100 50
3 0 0 0 0 1 1 SN 150 50
4 0 1 1 0 0 0 SB 100 50
5 0 0 1 0 1 0 PN 200 150
12 0 0 0 0 0 1 PB 0 0
Violates constraint number 6. Therefore it does not work
Combination: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8
LN LB SN SB PN PB Inverse Totals
1 1 1 0 0 0 0 LN 300 300
2 0 0 1 1 0 0 LB 100 0
3 0 0 0 0 1 1 SN 150 100
4 0 1 1 0 0 0 SB 100 0
6 0 1 0 1 0 1 PN 300 -150
8 0 1 0 0 0 0 PB 0 300
Violates constraint 11.
Combination: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 9
LN LB SN SB PN PB Inverse Totals
1 1 1 0 0 0 0 LN 300 200
2 0 0 1 1 0 0 LB 100 100
3 0 0 0 0 1 1 SN 150 0
4 0 1 1 0 0 0 SB 100 100
6 0 1 0 1 0 1 PN 300 50
8 0 0 1 0 0 0 PB 0 100
This combination works! YEAH! *
Combination: 1, 2, 3, 4,6 and 11
LN LB SN SB PN PB Inverse Totals
1 1 1 0 0 0 0 LN 300 225
2 0 0 1 1 0 0 LB 100 75
3 0 0 0 0 1 1 SN 150 25
4 0 1 1 0 0 0 SB 100 75
6 0 1 0 1 0 1 PN 300 0
11 0 0 0 1 0 0 PB 0 150
This combination works! YEAH! *
Combination: 1, 2, 3, 4,6 and 12
LN LB SN SB PN PB Inverse Totals
1 1 1 0 0 0 0 LN 300 150
2 0 0 1 1 0 0 LB 100 150
3 0 0 0 0 1 1 SN 150 -50
4 0 1 1 0 0 0 SB 100 150
6 0 1 0 1 0 1 PN 300 150
12 0 0 0 0 0 1 PB 0 0
Violates constraint 9.
Combination: 1, 2, 3, 4, 9 and 12
LN LB SN SB PN PB Inverse Totals
1 1 1 0 0 0 0 LN 300 300
2 0 0 1 1 0 0 LB 100 0
3 0 0 0 0 1 1 SN 150 100
4 0 1 1 0 0 0 SB 100 0
9 0 0 1 0 1 0 PN 200 150
12 0 0 0 0 0 1 PB 0 0
Violates constraint 5.
Combination: 1, 2, 3, 4, 10 and 11
LN LB SN SB PN PB Inverse Totals
1 1 1 0 0 0 0 LN 300 300
2 0 0 1 1 0 0 LB 100 0
3 0 0 0 0 1 1 SN 150 100
4 0 1 1 0 0 0 SB 100 0
10 0 0 0 1 0 0 PN 0 150
11 0 0 0 0 1 0 PB 0 0
Violates constraint 5.
Combination: 1, 2, 3, 4, 10 and 12
LN LB SN SB PN PB Inverse Totals
1 1 1 0 0 0 0 LN 300 300
2 0 0 1 1 0 0 LB 100 0
3 0 0 0 0 1 1 SN 150 100
4 0 1 1 0 0 0 SB 100 0
10 0 0 0 1 0 0 PN 0 150
12 0 0 0 0 0 1 PB 0 0
Violates constraint 5.

Answer
Now that I know which combinations that work, I have to find their cost. So I take the combinations that work (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9 and 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 11), and multiply their total acres by the cost per acre.

Combination: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 9
Acres Cost/Acre Total Ttl Cost
LN 200 x $50 = 10,000 $365,000
LB 100 x $500 = 50,000
SN 0 x $200 = $0
SB 100 x $2,000 = 200,000
PN 50 x $100 = 5,000
PB 100 x $1,000 = 100,000
This answer works because it complies with all of the constraints and there is a total of 550 acres. The total cost for it is rather high though. Let us compare this one to the other possible solution.
Combination: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 11
Acres Cost/Acre Total Ttl Cost
LN 225 x $50 = 11,250 $353,750
LB 75 x $500 = 37,500
SN 25 x $200 = $5,000
SB 75 x $2,000 = 150,000
PN 0 x $100 = 0
PB 150 x $1,000 = 150,000
This answer also works because it fits with the constraints. The total amount of acres is also 550. Its’ total cost is cheaper than the previous problem, making this one the more economic of the two possible combinations. Making this solution the one to use.

If I had the freedom to allocate the land however I choose without being binded to the constraints I would give all 150 acres of the parking lots to business as that area is a very urban area and having nature just smack dab in the middle of it would seem awkward and it would destroy the nature atmosphere if there are cars driving by and just overall being noisy since it is very close to busy streets. Then I would give all 300 acres of George Lucas’s Presidio land to nature, due to the very green atmosphere there, and if I made it into a business area it would destroy its’ natural beauty and I am sure that the people in the Arts Center that George Lucas set up over there would benefit from having parks and such near their center. Followed by making the Shipyard committed to business and housing. Due to the fact that if I gave it to nature then it would not be balanced between nature and business acres. Since there are houses close by they can make more houses or they can put stores there. Which would be convenient for the residents. I believe that this solution is better than the economic solution due to the fact that the nature area is not very close to urban areas, which would give the area a more nature feeling considering there will not be as much cars driving by there all the time unlike the parking lots and shipyard. Since the parking lot and shipyard are close to urban areas, it is more natural to have them become business areas. Since that people will be around there all the time, stores would benefit from that kind of atmosphere.

Reflection
The process that I undertook was to first find the constraints that would be used in the problem, which was already done for me by the very bright orange paper I received. Next I knew I had to eliminate some constraints that will not work together, so that it narrows down the amount of work I have to do for checking possibilities. Once I listed all the violations and impossible constraint groups, I started writing the possible combinations. After that I had to check which combinations worked, through the use of matrices.
I used matrices to solve this problem because it is one of the most efficient ways to solve these types of problems, with the matrices ability to find which combinations work and which ones do not, while it simultaneously makes it easier to solve for the variables makes it the ideal choice for these types of problems.
Although I messed up when I was calculating the combinations by not changing the second matrix, I compared my answers to a classmate found that we had different answers. So I checked what I did wrong and it turns out I did not change the answers for the second matrix. From then on it was smooth sailing.
My answers would not be correct if there were changes I was not notified about. Changes such as there being more land than what was previously told, the costs per acre went up, or if the amount of land the groups wanted was incorrect and they actually wanted more land. If there was more land than what I was told then there could be more possibilities that we are not aware of. If costs went up then I would have to recalculate the costs of the possible combinations. If the information about the amount of land each group wanted was incorrect then I would have to set up the problem all over again and reset the values for the constraints. Which means I would have to go back to step one. This type of math can be used to solve real world problems like if someone is redoing their floors and is deciding between wooden floors and carpet floors for different rooms. While each type of floor costs a different amount per foot. Or maybe farmers can use this type of math to decide what kind of crops to plant in their fields, how to plant them, or what combination of crops to plant would yield the highest amount of income.

Brain Projector Canvas

The way we read affects the way we absorb the information, the message of the text we are currently reading. Some people like to breeze by texts, only consuming the most important, the most juicy of the text. Others prefer to completely read everything and soak up the scene like a sponge and be this shadow or director in a movie, knowing, seeing and watching the characters in action. But for me, I like to be in the scene, to paint the scene in my head, paint the rolling meadows of grass, lilies, the one tree on top of the biggest meadow casting the elongated shadow of itself across the mound it stands on. To show the bright clouds rolling along the sun’s shining rays with the smell of fresh air buzzing out and about like a bee whizzing from flower to flower. Then apply characters to the meadows as they sat down next to the tree happy that the sun is gracing them with its rays, eating sandwiches, talking like it was summer and school was finally over. I would mentally paint the scene in my head and “visualize” what it would be like in that scenario.
What started this sense of visualization was when I was around 4 and my mother bestowed upon me a tome of epic proportions for my age. This book was known as “Here Comes A Bus” by Harriet Ziefert and Richard Brown. This book was a hardcover book that had pop up windows on the buses that passed by showing the distinct beings for the destination of the bus. A bus heading for an aquarium was filled with different kinds of fish with lift-able bus windows to expose secret fish and an octopus! A bus going to the zoo was filled with different kinds of animals such as lions and tigers and many other animals hiding beneath those flip-able cover windows! It was quite an exciting book for me! My mother recalls that I was so enthralled in this book, its’ colorful pages of animals, the children waiting with their mother, the flipping action of the windows to peer inside the bus amazed me. I memorized each page and the order the buses would come and which windows would flap open. I guess what intrigued me the most was how it was similar to my life. I do not mean it in the way animals being on the bus, but how the children with their mother waiting for the bus and how it would always be the last bus was the right bus.
My first bus ride was when I was 2 years old (and I’ve been a bus rider ever since). I vaguely recall the impatience of wanting to go someplace and move instead of standing still or sitting and waiting. I wanted to see, to smell, to feel where ever we (my mother, sister and I) would be going to next. A new museum? Another one? The same one? All these questions oozed out of my head until fully quenched upon the arrival of the target destination only to catch myself droopy eyed on my mommy’s lap as I began to slip into the darkened theater. I believe that the way we read is directly affected by the way we learn, since everyone has their own way of absorbing information.
Having to construct a “movie” in my head to advance through the story must be reflective of my learning ability. Some people learn better while hearing things, others prefer to write things down while there are people like me who have to visually see the something to learn well. Being a visual learner I prefer to see how things are done, replaying the scene from my head and then following the same action. This was and continues to be relative to my driving experience. When I was learning how to drive from the shopping center a couple of miles away from my house I did not know what streets to take or where to go. All I had was a yahoo map to help me learn how to reach the shopping center. My sister was riding shotgun in case of the highly probable and unfortunate emergency of us getting lost she would help guide me back on track. Well let’s just say reading while driving was not a strong point for me. I would drive past turns and forget what streets I would have to take. But I failed. My sister began coaching me on where to go what street to take and I managed to botch her instructions too. I remember forgetting when to turn within 10 seconds of my sister telling me and was awarded with frustration and anger. “Turn left on Georgia.” (Ten seconds later). “HOLY CRAP ARGE! YOU’RE A HORRIBLE DRIVER! PARK THE CAR AND GET OUT!” After her little outburst she became so fed up she drove to the center herself with me woebegone riding shotgun. But from that point of view I was able to visually see where to go. I began to mark landmarks on where to turn, like if you saw the high school up two blocks then you would have to turn left. On every distinctive object we happened to pass by became a lamp post towards our final destination. It was through this technique that I was able to navigate to this destination and back before I was able to fully remember which streets to take. The impact of knowing how I read and learn has been evident through the way I write and conceptualize text I try to understand.
Everything starts with a vision when I read. From the descriptions to the actions I visualize what is happening. After “seeing” what goes on only then am I able to analyze and think critically of the message behind the words, the secret within the pages. To think critically one must leave no stone unturned and fully understand the idea of the book. This is evident in my Native Son essay of viewing life through a Marxist Lens and how society is made to keep certain people down so that those people can keep struggling and work lowly jobs. Imagine if the American Dream became true for every person in America. Everyone with enough money to live on their own without having to work, without having to run buses, planes, agriculture and other daily needs. Life would be difficult and everyone would have to revert back to working. Our daily existence would be troubling and life would be difficult. This is apparent in Native Son as the main character, Bigger Thomas, is kept down due to his current financial problems of being poor. Although Bigger is poor he manages to work for the Mr. Dalton, a wealthy man that owns the company that regulates Bigger’s housing complex, hires Bigger as a driver for his family. After a series of unfortunate events we learn of Mr. Daltons’ donation to black charities for the benefit of the black race, but Mr. Dalton does not try to fix the current situation that blacks are in. I recall that Mr. Dalton donated pool tables to a black hangout spot but he did absolutely nothing to improve the living conditions of the apartment complex his company owns. These complexes were “rodent infested fire traps” that many blacks on the south side of the “black belt” were “designated” to live in. Mr. Dalton did not even try to help these people obtain houses out of this “designated area”. In a sense this is similar to what our society does today. It takes a handful of people (symbolized in Native Son as Bigger being hired by Mr. Dalton) and aids them in growth to become wealthy and have an American Dream. For those who are not lucky, they are doomed to a life of labor (symbolized as the poor blacks who were not hired) and must continue to strive for the American Dream through their offspring. Thinking critically and visualizing what was going on in the story has helped me to derive these ideas from the book and as a result I was able to get a glimpse of the American Reality. The reality of how the American Dream is similar to a lotto, where only a select few may win enough money to improve their lives dramatically.
The importance of knowing how we read is important as it helps us understand ourselves and our own strengths. For me to know how I learn helps me in the future as I will begin to look for examples or videos of what ever I want and need to learn. If I want to learn where to go I would first ask someone to take me there and so that I can see where to go and what points to the destination. In my Native Son piece, I was able to obtain the foresight into the American Reality through the tribulations of Bigger Thomas by thinking about how this relates to the American life and the struggles of poor black folk who had lived in harsh times of poverty and racism. These challenges showed how life is not fair by keeping people down to slave away in servitude and how only a select few can rise up and live the American Dream. Knowing how we read and comprehend things is practical in visualizing what is going on in a scene of a book. Getting to know about ourselves and how we read is as important as knowing what we like and dislike. In a sense, only when we are able to understand who we are as a person are we able to grow.

Math Reflection

Throughout my life math was and still is a major concept for me to grasp and understand. Math is similar to grabbing water with your fist; you reach in and shut your fist thinking your have a fistful of water only to realize it slips out of your fist, leaving only trace amounts of water on your hands. In my experience this sums up my experience with math. I manage to reach into the pool of math knowledge and grasp some concepts, yet as quickly as I learned them I would lose track and forget them. As such math has been a roller coaster ride of great heights and large slopes. Yet, similar to any scholar, past or present, my experiences have dictated my beliefs in this math centric universe. It is these beliefs that govern my math lives.

Drawing from 12 years of mathematical experience I have learned that math is something that must be used and reinforced and expanded upon. Math does not seem to cease expansion. It nips and yawns at almost every science’s heels. Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy and Engineering all contain some form of math. As such mathematics is the lifeblood to advancement and technology. This causes the very basics needing to be expanded and improved upon in order to learn more advanced equations and formulas that must be applied to todays technological matters. This is why I believe that math must be constantly improved upon.

Equations are the compasses or maps of a mathematical journey, leading you in the right direction. Although the memorization of these maps is important, lacking when or how to use them renders the memorization useless. The simple analogy a grand vizier once told me was, “You don’t bring a map of San Francisco to L.A. and hope to find downtown.” And I believe this statement holds true for the memorization of equations. Memorizing an equation is one thing but if you’re trying to apply the Pythagorean Theorem to a circle you’re better off forgetting it. This is akin to me memorizing E=MC², I know the equation, what the variables stand for (E=Energy, M=Mass, C=Speed of Light which is squared because when it is traveling at the speed of light and it hits something with four times the amount of speed in force) and how we would derive these variables and plug them in. But as of yet, i have not applied this equation to anything in my entire life. It is similar to the Pythagorean Theorem of A²+B²=C², I know the equation, what it stands for (C is the hypotenuse, B is a side and A is another side and ² due to the Pythagorean proof). As so, I memorized the equation but I have never used the equation and I feel as if I will not use the equation outside my life.

As a human I know that I am prone to errors and experience has taught me that math is generally based upon finding one correct answer. I remember my father once teaching simple divisional problems. I came up with different answers and he told me that; “Math is unlike any other thing. There is only one answer, only one correct answer. And it is your job, your duty, to find that answer with the tools that you have been given.” This statement has been one that has stuck with me from whence I heard. Now my take on math is similar to finding the exact height of a diver jumping off a gigantic wheel, so you know when you need to bring a pool of water under him at the right time, thus saving him.

In math I know that to every problem there is a solution. And to solve those problems you need an equation. Thus, logically every problem has an equation that leads it to a solution. Much like a Q and an U. Every problem (Q) has an equation (U). A Q never enters a word without its best friend U. I came about this ideal when I first started using letters in equations when I noticed that in every problem there was some sort of way to go about getting an answer. I discovered this sometime in middle school. I told my mother this and she told me, “There is always a way to solve your problem just the way is not always clear.” As such I concluded that all problems are solvable since every problem has an equation used to solve it, you just need to find the equation.

In math formulas are pathways to success. They lead you out of the maze of numbers and into the open plains. But if you take the wrong step with a formula, you take a wrong step in the maze and you get lost and bring about your destruction or the wrong answer. This is why I believe that formulas are paths to success if you follow them to the number; everything is going to be alright. This is evident in all my years. When I mess up and do not follow an equation I get the answer wrong and my data is rendered inaccurate. Like in my sophomore year of high school, my class was doing exponential equations. This was difficult for me to do as there was many steps I had to do such as, raising numbers to powers and dividing numbers by each other. With all these steps I had to remember what to do and when so I can receive the correct answer and have my data be correct.

Throughout my whole math career I have always been stumped on POWs (Problems of the Week) and other exponentially difficult problems. Although I managed to best these conundrums in mathematical duels, I won because I never gave up on it. I kept on working and thinking on how to solve this. Difficult equations such as POWs require a lot of thought and perseverance to get any where. If I had given up any of the times I felt helpless and shackled on any of the problems that has happened to me, I do not think I would have even been able to take anything higher than simple division! As such I believe persevering through the hard times and working your way through difficult problems is the key to success.