Macbeth

On Tuesday, listening to Professor Appel's presentation was very motivating and inspiring. His story about his parents inspiring him to pursue his passion of acting and the liberal arts was a heartwarming tale to listen to, with his mother advising him to go to a good liberal arts school first. Professor Appel did something that I doubt I could truly undertake at my age. He really risked the stability of his life studying at Princeton to move out to New York to attend Julliard to put everything into his interest in acting. To be able to continue pursuing your goal after being jobless for more than a week or so in New York really stood out to me that Professor Appel was truly willing to continue pursuing his career and goal in spite of the possibility of being penniless. Professor Appel's ideal truly showed me that there was a possibility that an elective could really catch my attention. his story spoke to me and told me that I shouldn't be afraid to risk everything, the stability of my life, the comfort of my home to pursue something I'm truly passionate about.
On Friday I went and watched Macbeth, expecting a play with a full set of actors in costumes acting out a play in the medieval setting and boring me with endless talks of how to kill my traitorous incestuous uncle who killed my father for the crown of king. Professor Appel's Macbeth, however, turned out to be something entirely different, with an abstract set of actors in nothing but black acting out the characters of Macbeth as well as collaborating to form thrones and manifestations. His version of Macbeth truly awed, horrified, disgusted, yet intrigued me simultaneously. It was genuinely a dark piece of work that was much more fascinating than I had first expected.

Dr. Lubach's presentation really opened my mind to a new freedom. Critical thinking is not just reading and deciding how to interpret a passage or deciding how to format or compose an essay, its much more than that. Critical thinking is simply coming upon my own decisions and making choices for myself. Its, in a way, introspection and deciding what you want to believe and what you want to doubt and finding a compromise between faith and skepticism. Critical thinking, I realized, has been something I never really paid attention to and unconsciously ignored. I've been absent-minded to the way I've simply believed facts that I've read and been told about without considering whether or not I truly believe in these so called facts. Dr. Lubach has brought to my attention something about people, about myself that I have never noticed  and should notice.  With his presentation, I have come to see learning in a new perspective, not just as sitting in a room and listening to a lecture but as thinking about whether the information is true, whether the stories are valid. 

The library visit was another incredibly useful nifty presentation about how to obtain books, articles, PDFs, or whatever information needed online on the UCSB library website and the research databases. In addition to the Career Counseling Building and the Student Resource Center, the resources available at the library simply cover all of the questions and locations where we  can get the resources needed for any assignment or study.

Since high school we've been taught to not copy other people's work but I never really knew that plagiarism was an umbrella that covered copying another writer's phrases to another author's ideas. After reading the two articles about plagiarism and what is considered plagiarism it sounds justifiable that it is right to consider the act of taking someone's paragraph and interchanging a few words for others as plagiarism. Attributions and citations are right and only correct so as to give the person you are taking the idea from the credit that he or she deserves, but it seems like what is considered plagiarism is spreading to the point where a person's own self-produced idea could be considered plagiarism if he or she does not know that the idea or concept has already been thought of and written about. Regardless of whether or not plagiarism and the punishments that a person must accept for plagiarism are deserving or undeserving I have learned more about how to avoid being reprimanded for plagiarism by attributing and citing passages or ideas or graphs that are the works of others. Attributions and citations seem like a lot of extra unnecessary work that previous generations did not have to worry as much about, but I guess they're what writers have deemed to be mandatory and needed in order to not offend each other or claim credit for another person's work or ideas.

After Jane Faulkner's presentation at the INT lecture I learned much about what a librarian was, how to become a librarian, what research is, and how to research. To become a librarian Ms. Faulkner had to go through a lot more than what I had previously thought was needed to become a librarian, know how to find books and organize books. To become a librarian, one has to specialize in a certain subject, understand how to find references, gather certain books to complete special collections regarding a subject, and be able to pull up information and resources for research. I found out about more resources like the UC library portal page available to me if I ever needed to do some research for myself.

At the career counseling presentation I found out about a place I didn't even know was available to me, a resource that could answer a multitude of questions I never really got answered directly. What could I do later on majoring in Chemistry or majoring Psychology or a mix of both. I was always interested in both subjects but could never really find a good correlation between the two that was as exciting as the two studies individually.

Being resourceful means being able to use what you have around you to the best of your benefit. Using your time wisely and knowing where your resources are. One major resource is your friends and acquaintances which you can meet practically anywhere on the UCSB campus. You could stay in your dorm and leave your door open, go down to the laundry room, go to the library, or go to the beach. The people at UCSB are really nice and social most of the time. On Friday we went to the Student Resource Building which, I know now, is probably the best play to get whatever aid or help you need. I found out that CLAS is also conveniently located in the resource building.

I attended the Academic Faire today and was reminded of the college fairs back at high school. The tables I visited were first and foremost, Chemistry, my major, and found out that there were many different jobs and careers I could contemplate later on for being a Chemist. Next I visited the Undergraduate Opportunities and Research table and learned about the many opportunities to conduct independent research or become a research assistant for a professor who might be conducting research. I then visited the two other tables I was interested in, Psychology and Environmental Science where I gained much more knowledge about both. After I was done with all the tables I was interested I lastly visited the Black Studies table because not many people really took much interest in that table. I learned that Black Studies isn't just the study of blacks as many may have thought, but a study of many different cultures and how society was developed with each. Black Studies is just generally something that will really benefit you regardless of what major one is pursuing.

Hi, I'm Ryan. I'm from Monrovia,California the not as well known neighbor of Arcadia. You guys probably remember me as the one whose favorite book is "The Silence of the Lambs", a somewhat dark and twisted book that some people may find difficult to sit through or something not very likable. I, however, hold this book among the best that I have ever read because it was one of the first books that introduced me to the world of crime fiction, thriller, psychological genre books. The gravity and darkness of the book really drew me in. I was incredibly interested in the psychology, the way Hannibal Lecter took note of every detail of his interviewer and knew how to play with their emotions and crush his morale. I'm a person who is really interested in thought,psychology, and depth. 
As a student I can usually do well in practically any subject...I'm interested in. Math, Science, Chemistry, Greek Mythology all seem pretty interesting to me so I usually remember more about these subjects. History, however, just does not stick. I'm usually very quiet and not talkative when I'm focused on studying or understanding a concept. I enjoy discussing though and am always very open to others' opinions and ideas. I came to UCSB for the environment and the people. The first week of FSSP has been incredibly fun and the people I've met are really open and social and I'm content with coming here and meeting these people.