Waste Land

I enjoyed watching the documentary about the pickers. I found them very inspiring and loved that they knew that they had to do whatever they could to support their families. In the beginning you saw that everyone was pretty okay with being a picker and it never really seemed to bother them, and they just wanted to be represented and for people to understand. As the film went on Vik included a few pickers to help him put together his art. The more involved the workers became the more they realized that they didn't really like to be in the position they were in, and they found the inspiration to strive for better things.

The argument is that people can become what they want if they never give up. As the documentary was going on you see the people start to have bigger dreams and want to do more with their lives. Once they saw their lives in a different light, as I mentioned earlier, they realized that they didn't enjoy working in the land fill as much as they thought they did. As time passed the more involved they started to become with their dreams and trying to do something different. By the end of the documentary it told you that the pickers were finally being represented and that a lot of them were doing different things.

I believe this argument can be universal because many people have dreams and they are told they can't do it. So they end up never really trying to accomplish their goal. Everyone wants to try and do something with their lives no matter where they come from and what social class you belong to. Although in the end of the film Vik talks about how he feels once you achieve everything you no longer have the drive to accomplish things. He says that you feel as though you have accomplished all that you need to and that you lose your inspiration to do more things.

So Far, So Good

To be honest it wasn't too difficult to switch to being heart healthy since I was already making the switch to a healthier lifestyle. The tough part for me is that when I was just being healthy I could eat different foods and I didn't have to worry too much about all the contents of the food I was taking into my body, and I would every now and then have a bad day that I wouldn't worry too much about. It is hard to be healthy everyday. Another thing that I am kind of grateful for is that I actually enjoy healthy food. I've always liked it and find it just as tasty as some foods.

Some things that I have found that are good for your heart that you can find on campus is a salad, and instead of getting regular lettuce try the spinach, it is just as good (I think) and it is better for your heart. There are sandwiches you can get in Woodworth that you can have them make and put the toppings you want on it. A turkey sandwich is a good substitution for the artery clogging cheeseburger, or you can get a grilled chicken sandwich, not the chicken with the breading. Also for mornings try getting oatmeal or a granola bar that has whole grains in it; when you are buying a granola bar you should look at the contents because some just aren't as healthy as they say. It is actually good for you to snack in between meals and have a smaller meal instead of three big meals. A good snack food is always fruit, but oranges are some of the healthiest for your heart.

I have been exercising daily, and it really helps that we have a Fitness Room just down the hall from my dorm. I have been running everyday and found out that I kind of enjoy it. I have never really been the runner, and I have always hated it whenever I had to do it for gym class or for two-a-day practices. I'm a swimmer to say the least, and I would love to go to the pool and swim sometime. But I am finding it difficult to get to the pool with my schedule. Now that I have actually found out that I can enjoy running, me and my friend have decided to run a 5K in March. There is actually one that's here in Muncie on March 17th, and my friend goes to Anderson so she isn't too far. So I'm not just running to be heart healthy I am starting to train for my first running race ever. I would like to think this is an improvement from my hatred of running to signing up to run in a 5K.

Research Article

Horwich, Tamara B., Samuel Broderick, and Leway Chen. "Relation Among Body Mass Index, Exercise Training, and Outcomes in Chronic Systolic Heart Failure." EBSCO Publishing Service Selection Page. American Journal of Cardiology, Dec. 2011. Web. 09 Feb. 2012. <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=7>

This article talks about the risk of heart failure and that by being more active you can decrease your chances. It takes a range of people, weight wise, and has them do exercise training to see if there are any changes. This proves to be a benefit and the exercise training proved successful in reducing the risk of heart failure.

(De)Construction

For my object I had absolutely no idea what I was going to break. I had an original idea that didn't turn out so well and I had no idea how to piece it back together. I didn't know of anything in my dorm I could break, and as it turns out I went home this past weekend so I decided to look for something there. I was looking around my house when I came upon an old shirt from high school. I decided that I was going to cut it up, this is signifying that I am done with high school and it is time to move on.

Now the next part was putting it back together. I was thinking about this when I remembered my friend one time found this thing on Pinterest where you can make bracelets out of t-shirts, this seemed like a good idea on making it into a new object. It's new meaning was that I am not going to forget where I came from and how it has influenced my life, but I am not going to let it define me. When I am wearing this bracelet no one will know that it used to be a t-shirt from my high school; they'll just think that it is some craft I did on my own. But when I look at it I will think of the fun times I had and the people that influence my life.

Something I Feel Like Sharing

This is a good video I found and it is interesting to watch him draw everything out. It touches on how exercise helps your heart, but it also talks about other diseases. It just proves how easy it is to be healthy and the facts are there to show you it doesn't take much. Hopefully this inspires you to take just the simplest step to becoming a little bit healthier everyday.

Heart Healthy

For my experiment I have chosen to start living a heart healthy. I plan on doing this by eating healthy and cutting out the foods that are most known for clogging your arteries and picking up new ones that will help strengthen my heart. I also am going to be working out regularly in order to make my heart stronger. This doesn't mean I am not going to be pushing myself too far; I am just going to bump up my regular exercise schedule from what it was.

Some people might be wondering why I chose this as my subject for my experiment. This year I have already kind of turned my life around from unhealthy habits to better choices, so I knew that I wanted to do something along the lines of health because I have been gaining new knowledge. As I was thinking about it I knew that I didn't want to do something about just becoming healthy I wanted it to be something more specific. I also wanted it to relate to my life and something that could benefit me in the long run. Then it came to me, I should do something with my heart because I have a long line of heart disease in my family. On my dad's side of the family my grandpa had congestive heart failure and my grandma died due to a heart attack, and her father had a total of 4 heart attacks in his life. My dad has also had a heart attack about 5 years ago. On my mom's side of the family my grandma Joyce had a heart attack and her older brother, Uncle Kevin, had a heart attack. Because my Uncle Kevin had a heart attack my other Uncle, Chuck, decided to get his heart checked out and found out that he had blockage in two of his arteries and needed to get stints put in. While he was on the operating table he ended up have a heart attack. As you can see there are quite a few heart problems in my close family, and I kind of have it coming at me from two directions. Once I was looking it over I knew that I needed to make a change unlike they did and try to prevent it.

The Art of Listening

The Art of Listening discusses about the way listening has been lost in the world, but in Africa listening is a guiding principle. Mankell talks about how he has noticed over the years he has noticed through interviews that he has to answer questions much faster than 10 or 5 years ago. He brings up the fact that maybe we are given two years and one mouth to listen twice as much as we speak, but in society today we talk and talk and talk and the tiniest bit of silence freaks us out. As you continue to read the article Mankell starts to talk about how African literature is different from Western literature; African literature has stories that go and back between time periods to share a story, while in Western literature typically goes from beginning to end.

In class we read Kenneth Burke’s Parlor conversation. In this it talks about coming into a conversation that is already heavily being discussed and no one is able to tell you the whole story because none of them were even there in the beginning. This can relate to the article The Art of Listening because in the Parlor conversation you have to sit there and listen to what they are discussing in order for you to actually come into the conversation. It is showing that you cannot just keep talking or you won’t be able to know what is going on in the situation or even in your surroundings.