Log #7

l   Ten abilities I should acquire in the future:

A.          Being tough and having good flexibility of dealing with pressure.

B.          Embracing changes and keeping flexible.

C.          Passing what I have learned to the juniors.

D.         Showing the attitude that I am more eager to make process than the supervisors do.

E.          Expressing my thoughts before asking questions.

F.           Planning before doing.

G.         Doing more without asking.

H.         Working together and establishing the ability of making structure.

I.            Discovering passion, self-communicating and self-recovering ability on the job.

Log#7

Log 7

  After reading the novel Divergent, I couldn’t help but search for the series immediately. The second book of the series is called Insurgent. Although the book is mainly the story that is similar to the first one, it taught me a lot of lessons the first one did not.

 

1.      Leadership

As a college student, I usually hear people ask us to have a good leadership. However, being a leader is not as easy as people might think about. Actually, being a leader sometimes needs skills. In Insurgent, there is a leader from the faction of Erudite. She is one of the people who started the holocaust to Abnegation. She is really smart, but that’s all. She was a leader who would be willing to leave no means untried just to control everyone. After reading this books, I found that a leader should not be a dictator. People might not be obedient if you just keep giving orders.

2.      Being honest might hurt people.

In the book, the female leading role Tris killed her friend’s Christina’s boyfriend, Will. Although it happened because Will was the one trying to kill Tris first, Tris still feels really bad. As a result, when Christina asked her if she saw Will, Tris lied to Christina. She was afraid that once she tells the truth, Christina would be mad at her even it was just self-defense. However, all the truth came out when Tris was forced to insert the truth serum. She told the truth that she killed Will. Christina did not talk to her anymore.

As for Tris’s boyfriend Tobias, he noticed that there was something wrong about Tris, but he was truly surprised that Tris kept the secret to herself. he was frustrated, but he decided to forgive her in the end.

From these two perspectives, I realized that truth sometimes does hurt people. However, not telling the truth will make things worse and give people unnecessary hopes. It is better to tell the truth so that you will always feel guilty for the rest of your life.

  In the parts I just read, these two are the most impressing things I learned. I think that they are important lessons for me to keep learning in my life. Since I might get the chance to become a leader or the chance to decide whether to lie or not, I will choose better ways to deal with them. 

Log #7

2017.05.23

Log #7

McQueen's most celebrated catwalk show was his 2001 Spring/Summer collection "VOSS". The title, the name of a Norwegian town renowned as a wildlife habitat, suggested the collection would celebrate nature. With VOSS, McQueen wanted to make his audience question the notion of conventional beauty. Bodices, skirts and dresses were made out of razor-clam, mussel and oyster shells.

Figure 1. A razor clam.

"My friend George and I were walking on the beach in Norfolk, and there were thousands of razor-clam shells. They were so beautiful, I thought I had to do something with them. So, we decided to make a dress out of them. . . . The shells had outlived their usefulness on the beach, so we put them to another use on a dress. Then Erin O'Conner (the model) came out and trashed the dress, so their usefulness was over once again. Kind of like fashion, really."

Figure 2. Razor-clam-shell gown, VOSS, spring/summer 2001.

What I saw from this razor-clam-shell gown was that McQueen could discover beauty in almost everything. I mean EVERYTHING. "Beauty can come from the strangest of places, even the most disgusting of places. It's the ugly things I notice more, because other people tend to ignore the ugly things," he said. To me it is such an essential ability that an artist or a designer should embrace and run with. As a saying from the Russian artist Auguste Rodin goes, "Beauty is everywhere. It is not that she is lacking to our eye, but our eyes which fail to perceive her." Also the teamwork played a significant role in the execution of the dress. I firmly believed that McQueen and his team must have good communication with each other because if there were any quarrel, it would have shown in the works. Being a fashion designer equals being a team player. Most importantly, with his magical techniques, McQueen seemed to be able to play with the unconventional materials without losing their substances effortlessly.

References (in APA 6.0 format)

Bolton, A. (2011). Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://blog.metmuseum.org/alexandermcqueen/

Lewis, T. (2015). Why we're all still mad about Alexander McQueen. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/feb/08/why-mad-again-about-alexander-mcqueen-nick-waplington-savage-beauty

Wilson, E. (2009). McQueen Leaves Fashion in Ruins. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/fashion/12MCQUEEN.html?_r=0

Alexander McQueen: Savage beauty, dark nature. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2011/05/alexander_mcqueen

The Beautiful People. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2521

Encyclopedia of Collections: Voss. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.vam.ac.uk/museumofsavagebeauty/rel/encyclopedia-of-collections-voss/#related-objects

Log #7

      Recently, I saw my juniors in senior high school post some pictures about cheerleading on Instagram, which makes me recall the time when I was in the cheerleading school team. Cheerleading plays a very important part in my life because it makes my senior high school life more colorful and I have learned lots of things through joining the cheerleading school team. When I was a freshman in senior high school, I didn’t give cheerleading school team a thought try and thought that I would never join this school team during these three years. However, this thought was totally overwhelmed after I participated in the cheerleading summer camp in my second year of the high school. I found that cheerleading was not as boring as I thought before. It’s a very interesting and meaningful sport. When I cooperated with my partners to do some cheerleading skills successfully, I would get a sense of achievement so I decided to join the cheerleading school team.

       After joining cheerleading school team, my senior high school life became more colorful. I had to practice cheerleading skills and do some training every day after the class. Someone may say I spent a lot of time on training, so I would not have enough time to study. Nevertheless, I thought that if I did time management well, practicing cheerleading was not an excuse not to study well. Besides, I joined many competitions and had lots of performances. I gained the different experiences that I couldn’t learn from the class such as how to face the fear of performing in front of hundreds of audience. What’s more, I also learned lots of things in the cheerleading team. First, I learned how to coordinate with my partners or teammates. Cheerleading is a sport that needs every member to perform together. Hence, coordinating with each member is a crucial lesson to learn. Next, every great thing is nothing but a lot of little ones. I practiced cheerleading and did some physical training every day. It was hard to see the training result right away after doing them, but maybe a few weeks later, I would do some difficult skills that I could not do before. All our capabilities were accumulated in every training we had done. If we didn’t practice cheerleading hard, we wouldn’t have abilities to do some difficult skills. Besides, it made me more perseverant because of the training. I could bear what I couldn’t withstand before. I would keep telling myself that I could do it. To sum up, I am so proud that I have joined a meaningful team like this in my senior high school. I will never forget all the things I learn from the cheerleading school team.

Log #7

The Undomestic Goddess

Samantha has worked as a lawyer for 7 years, and she has always dreamed of being a partner in Carter Spink. When she almost got the chance of being a partner, she found that she made a big mistake— forgetting to charge a debt for a bank. Accidentally, she was mistaken as an applicant for housekeeper. However, she was unable to do household chores, such as sawing a bottom, let alone cooking like a five-star chef. Fortunately, a gardener called Nathaniel found out her secret and let his mother to teach her. After leaning for months, Samantha finally became a well-trained housekeeper and found her true love, Nathaniel. One day, she accidentally found that Mr. Arnold framed her—putting a note that missed the deadline on her desk— and decided to lay off her. Struggling to prove her innocence for a long time, she finally succeeded and kicked Ms. Arnold out of Carter Spink. After the scandal, Carter Spink offered her a partnership. Sadly, getting the partnership made her have no time with Nathaniel, and Nathaniel was forced to leave Samantha. She began to doubt her decision. A few days later, after an incident, she knew that the lawyer’s life was not suitable for her anymore. She couldn’t be a person—only focusing on business stuff and ignoring the surroundings. At the end of this story, Samantha gave up the partnership and came back to her lover Nathaniel, living a life that she like.

I think I am like Samantha, working hard to become the best person. On the other hand, when we face setbacks, we choose to escape at first, but later we will try to solve the difficulty. When I became a senior high school students, I fell behind my classmates a lot. Because I was poor at English at that time, I couldn’t understand what teachers taught, which made me feel embarrassed and sorrowful. I deeply remembered that I got 59 on my listening test, and I was the worst. It was hard for me to accept this reality because I always ranked 1 to 3 in my junior high school. To me, it seemed that I fell from the Heaven to the Hell, so I was really depressed. Like Samantha, she was originally a well-known lawyer and later became a housekeeper. Little by little, the negative thoughts engulfed me and I wanted to escape from the reality. Therefore, I told my mother that I wanted to quit the school because I couldn’t put up with the pressure that I always got awful grades and was the worst student. Even now, I still could feel the bitterness. Fortunately, I met a good teacher, Joanna, who helped me make a great progress in English and become a more positive person just as Samantha met Nathaniel’s mother, who taught her everything to become well-trained housekeeper. This story made me think of my experience and wanted to be a teacher like Joanna and Nathaniel’s mother to help those who encounter the difficulties and need a person to help them go through the down side of their lives.

Log #7

Log#7

"Let’s cross over." －Eat, Pray, Love

Eat, Pray, Love is one of the novels I read in my childhood. Liz had a marriage but failed it because she finally couldn’t really feel herself in this relationship. She escaped. Escaping from one relationship into another one but failed again, she couldn’t put up with “This is not me anymore”. Then, she was afraid to fall in love again. Due to the failure of love, Liz tried to find herself and explore through traveling. She prayed and loved and met many people during this journey. Without this self-exploration, she would not have found herself and found what she needed at last.  

I just reread this book. Different from me before, this time, it feels like reviewing myself. I think I am somehow similar to Liz. Or, I believe I must more or less have mimicked her since I knew her. For example, I pray like Liz does. I can’t remember when I started it, but at my miserable time, I pray. For the first time when I was praying, I felt a little bit weird and doubtful (just like Liz’s first pray); nonetheless, I’d done it, because I thought I must do it to offset my cynicism and pessimism. And it usually works. I pray every time when I think my life goes wrong－arguments with friends or family, broken heart of my love, pressure from academic and school clubs, and confusion on mu future…… Although I pray, I’m not pray to any religion or any God. Frankly speaking, I don’t exactly whom I am praying to. (Maybe to the sky, I guess.) However, it is pray that makes me appreciate people and things around me. It makes my attitude toward life better than before. More relieved. After rereading this book, I was reminded of my connection to Liz’s pray.

“Dear saint, please, please, please let me win the lottery.”
“My son, please, please, please buy a ticket.”

This is an Old Italian joke stated in this novel. Praying makes us relieved; however, we still have to take some action. This is also the main point of this book－dare to try. I think I’m alike Liz, but one thing I am lack of is courage. The courage to try. Therefore, after the college, after twice failed solo travel, after I was too confused to life, I finally decided to try something new: school club.

I joined in dance club in my first year of college because I adored and admired one of my friends as a dancer. I didn’t want to just envy her. Thus, I was with some of my classmates, with the hope that we would have a colorful freshman year, participating in this big club. However, things went below my expectation. We had to prepare for the final performance in the end of that year, but I found it challenging to learn the dance. With the same experience and the same practice, I was always behind others. Worse yet, I feared to make friends with others due to my uncofidence. I danced badly. And I thought I was even worse than any other one in that group. I lost all of my confidence in these days, but I was still praying. Yet, you know, things would not be better if you just pray for it. Additionally, dance practice took so much time that I had little time to take care for my relationship and thus, my boyfriend (now is ex-one) always had quarrels with me due to my neglect of him. I felt so miserable during these days. Everything went wrong.

I could either quit that stupid performance, but if I did, I might be blame by my peers (my dance group then) and had to bear the pressure. So I was on the stage on that day, eventually. At the very last moment, I was still anxious, fearful, strained. Up to the stage, I tried to finish the performance. Down the stage, I sobbed. I lost all my confidence from it because I knew I didn’t get it well done. You must want to blame me: why don’t you practice it perfectly before the performance? But it’s just because I couldn’t! It’s just like telling a tone-deaf to sing! I was disappointed with myself, too. Every time for practice dancing, I blamed myself before others blamed me. I was still devaluating myself.    

“I'm going for it. I have no interest in being obese. I'm just through with the guilt.”

Dance becomes one of my most fear things so that I will never, ever dance for performance anymore. Nevertheless, I know if I didn’t buy the ticket to dance, I will never have a chance to try, and I will regret for it, even I never won that "lottery". More importantly, I will never know I am not for there. Actually, I got nothing there, neither a good performance nor a group of good friends, but the experience. The experience to dance on the stage in front of hundreds of people (I danced badly, though). The experience to try something I have adored for. The experience to waste my time. The experience to quit everything I love and bury myself into one thing which I had lost my passion on. Life gives us chances to experience, and we’d better make as many as mistakes before we have a chance to experience all these mistakes. I doubted myself and felt isolated for several time during these three months effort; nevertheless, when it’s all ended, I felt relieved and became more independent. Still, I want to try something new, but next time, I know how to carefully make the choice.