The True Life

So for my final blog I'm going to blog about how extremely dysfunctional these people are on this show called True Life. In the first episode I watched there were three people. One was a senior in high school who has been cast from her family because all she wants to do is be a cheerleader. Another one was a teenage Indian guy who has no talent and honestly believes that he's going to get a record deal before he graduates from high school. The last person was my favorite. She was a 21 year old who still lives with her parents, doesn't have a job, asks her parent's for money, and has the extremely realistic and righteous dream of being a nude model. All of these people fail at the things they are trying to do, and I thought it was hilarious. Basically, it makes me feel really smart that I'm sitting here at college right now writing this blog. I'm not sure, but I think I made a pretty good life choice.

Katie Zimmer lol smiley face:)

NATS

So I missed classes on Friday to go to a voice competition YAY. I love competitions and all, but I don't love the competition aspect of it. I'm sure that makes no sense to you, but it does to me and i'm going to try to explain it to you.

Eight girls from my voice studio went together to this, we all go to hear each other and support each other. We all left Thursday night and spent the night in a hotel. The next morning we all drove to Rock Island Illinois to Augustana College for our voice contest. We all followed each other around and heard everyone perform. Later that day they posted who was in the semi- finals. seven out of the eight made it to the semi-final round. We went out to eat together and helped eat other decipher the judges comments to improve for the next day. My favorite part of that night was seeing how non- competitive we all are. We all just help each other. Most of us were in the same division, so technically we were competing against each other, but we never once thought about it. The next day were the semi's. we all did AMAZINGLY well, but only one of us moved into the final round. We all went to support her in the finals, and she won!!!!

I go to these things because I love to perform, not because I like competition.

I love the girls in my studio, and I love doing competitions with them. I couldn't imagine going through these without my girls and Rosemary.

Katie Zimmer lol :)

Michael Crichton video

SO I liked this video a lot more than the Al Gore one. He also had a bit of a skewed perspective also. Everyone is going to be slightly biased to one side or the other, but I feel he did a much better job of presenting the evidence in a more objective manner.

He presented the opposite views, and I think that it's always a good plan to hear both sides of the argument. In high school we ALWAYS heard the extremely liberal views and that was it. I think that if we had the opportunity to watch both sides of the argument a lot of people would have come out with different views than they did. Isn't that what education is about though, make everyone believe the same way you do or fail them.

Crichton was obviously trying to sway people, it wasn't supposed to be a video to present the facts and have people decide for themselves, but it wasn't nearly as attacking as the Al Gore one.

Katie Zimmer lol :)

Blogging

Yeah prof. Wright, I am doing all of these tonight and tomorrow night because I have no other time to sit down and do these things. I'm skipping out on my other homework to make sure that these are done by Friday. I think that blogging is a good thing, but one per class period is a little excessive in my opinion. Maybe one a week would be better. I know at least for me I just can't seem to find the time to do these without missing something else. I have classes every day, and on tuesday's and thursday when I only have three classes i work and do my homework. It's not just this class though, my German teacher seems to think that this is our only class and so she can WAAAYYY overload us with homework and online quizzes and worksheets and tests every week at least. I understand that we have to cover a lot in one semseter, but NO ONE can get this done in only a 24 hour day. I have to decide every day what is and isn't going to get done. I usually decide to do my German over most other things because we have tests so often. Blogs are the first thing that I cut out from my daily routine because I will just sit down one night and do most of them like i'm doing right now. Also being a music major screws me over with my classes. I have to practice 3 hours every day. 1 hour for every 1/2 our of lessons. I have an hour voice and a 1/2 hour of piano, so that adds up to 3 hours of practice a day. Also being a music maor you ahve to be in at least one of the music groups on campus which for me is Castle Singers. They rehearse Mon- Thurs. 4:45- 6:15 thats another 1 and 1/2 hours cut out of my homework time. I just thought I'd write a blog about blogging in my busy schedule, so you don't just think I'm a lazy procrastinator. I really am trying to keep up with everything including blogs, but i just can't seem to keep up with my blogs and all the rest of my homework.

Ok I'm done whining now, cuz i have more blogs to write
Katie Zimmer lol :)

List of Global warming facts lol

We all know the earth go in cycles of warming and cooling, hence the ice ages, but according to liberal America we are causing the world temperature to drastically increase which is causing the ice caps to melt which will eventually casue global flooding and the displacement of millions of people.
- If this is true why is it that they were worried about global cooling not 30 years ago. That just doesn't add up to me. So 30 years ago we were doing things so differently that we were causing the world to cool down, we changed our evil ways, and now all of a sudden it's getting to hot AHHH.
- If thats true what's happening to all the water that is apparently melting and not re-freezing. If the ice caps are melting and not re- freezing anywhere shouldn't there be enormous flooding already. As far as I'm aware NYC isn't being flooded causing the dispalcement of it's citizens. I know that they measure the melting of the ice, but what if they're just missing the it's re- freezing somewhere else.

I'm not a scientist, and I didn't do any research for this blog, so don't quote me in any papers or anything, but these are just the two HUGE things, that I CAN'T get over. I can't take this "problem" seriously until someone answers these questions to my satisfaction.

Katie Zimmer lol :)

inconveinent truth part 2

So after finishing Inconvienent truth for the third time I fell no different then I did before. As I said in part one I just couldn't get over the way he presented his evidence. If he would have presnted the facts in a scientific way I might have actually been slightly swayed to do something, i doubt it, but maybe. I hope i never have to watch this movie again, because if I do I will probably vomit. I hope the crichton video is better.

I never liked Al Gore in the first place, and after this movie and other recent events I hate him even more
Katie Zimmer lol :)

An Inconvienent Truth part 1

SO first of all I've already seen this movie twice, and I hated it then and I hate it now, so it's very difficult to watch it and actually take it seriously as an opposing viewpoint, but i'm tring my best. I think that if Al Gore wants people to take him sriously that he needs to present his facts in a better way. He makes personal attacks at government officials and everyone else imaginable. He uses cartoons that make fun of the opposing viewpoint. This is a horrible strategy if you want people to take you seriously. People don't respond well to mean spirited humor. No wonder not much has happened in the way of global warming bills since this movie came out!

If I were going to redo this movie, which I would never do in the first place, here are some things I would change. First I wouldn't use all the gimicks that he used to "prove his point." Like that stupid lift he used to go to the top of the chart. That makes it seem sooooo much more dramatic then it needed to be. Let the data speek for itself, if it's good enough you shouldn't have to do stuff like that prove the point. Also the stupid little cartoons area HORRIBLE idea. If you want to sway people who don't already believe the way you do with this film, making fun of them isn't going to work. That's going to turn them off even more to your ides. Lastly those voice- over/ monologues that Gore did throughout the movie. This isn't about you and your family. No one wants to hear you talk for that long. Get to the cold hard facts and stop with the guilt trips about your son almost dying. BOO HOO HOO. we all fell horrible that your son almost died, honestly we do, but REALLY that doesn't belong in a movie that is meant to persuade people that we need to take some initiative to stop global warming.

I guess that's just me. I'm sure no one else feels that way
Katie Zimmer lol :)

The Banking Concept of Education

SO I spaced the fact that we were supposed to blog on the Freire piece, so here goes. Freire compares the banking concept with the problem- posing concepts of education. Basically the banking concept sayd the teachers know everything, and are superior to their students. Since they are superior they feel that it is there duty to force- feed us all the information that they feel we need to know. They lecture, and lecture, and lecture, on and on forever. You remember what you're told for the test then you never remember it again. This way you don't really learn anything do you. I understand why some schools would do it this way though.This way you can control what the students learn and discuss. You can stay on track and make sure you get what you were supposed to get covered in class done. Even though this may seem like a plus which sounds better, having your students "learn" everything and never remember it, or them not learning as much, but remembering it for the reat of their lives? I think the latter. This would be called problem- posing education.

In problem- posing environments the teacher realizes that they don't know everything, and that they can learn from their students. They will ask discussion questions and just let the classgo. They will usually act as a moderator of debates and such, but they really have no control over the situation. By letting the students control the class they will have to pay attention, and they will learn a lot more. you may not get the same quantity of content, but it's not about quantity it's about quality. I have experinced the banking concept all of my school career until I came to Wartburg. Sinece I've been here I've noticed that I'm ACTUALLY being challenged in class and I'm learning a lot more. Yeah it's more difficult, but I love it.

Katie Zimmer lol :)

My not so restful Fall Break

So the week of fall break I had to go to campus security and the Dean of Residence Life to talk to them about my ex boyfriend. He's been following me to classes, obsessively texting me, showing up in my dorm room, and everything else you can think of. This all started 3 weeks ago when I finally broke up with him. He was being really posessive and wierd, so I broke it off, and ever since I broke up with him he wouldn't leave me alone. My parents were here homecoming weekend, so I had my dad go talk to him, and I thought that would take care of it, but it didn't. That just made the texts creepier and more frequent. The Monday of the week of Fall break I got 8 texts while I was in Music Theory about many various things, but one in particular that scared me. He mentioned very casually that he thought we needed to have sex and this fight would take care of itself. WHAT FIGHT? I BROKE UP WITH U. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to have sex with anyone right now, especially a creepy stalker. DUH. I didn't respond to any of his texts because I thought it would just make it worse, and I had no idea what to say. I went to my voice lesson ten minutes after this happened, and when I went in my teacher asked me how I was doing and I had a mental breakdown. I told her all about what was happening and I showed her my collection of texts and she immediately got on the phone with the dean of students and set up a meeting with the dean of res life. I love Rosemary! A lot of teachers would barely recognize the fact that something was wrong, and tell you just to get over it. Not Rosemary. She is my mom, my grandma, my dad, and Jesus all wrapped up into one. She can fix anything, and she will. After we took care of that she made me some hot tea and I pulled myself together long enough to sing through my songs for my upcoming voice competition.

After my lesson I had my meeting with the dean of res life and he told me that he would have a meeting with Denis and that if he didn't cut off all contact with me that I have grounds for a restraining order. Thats not exactly how I was wanting to start out my college career, but what else are you going to do, you have to keep yourself safe.

I was going to stay on campus over break because I had to work all weekend, but with this whole fiasco and my roomates and pretty much entire floor being gone I decided that wasn't a good idea. I called my mom's best friend who lives in Waterloo and she told me I could stay there. I had to pack up my stuff at the last minute and get to Waterloo. I had to bring my homework, and my laundry, and my work clothes, everything. I got to Waterloo about 4 thursday afernoon. I did some laundry and then fell asleep watching T.V. The next day I woke up and did some homework then got ready for work. I worked in Waverly until 10 pm, then ihad to drive back to Waterloo BLAH. I stopped for gas in Waterloo just before I got back, and I put 20.23 gallons in my 18 gallon tank. If that doesn't just freak you out I don't know what would. I was just driving on the intertate for 30 miles on fumes. Saturday was pretty chill until work. I worked until 10 again, then I came back to the dorm because one of my roomates was back. Sunday we got up and drove back to Waterloo for church, then back to Waverly and TOOK A NAP finally. then we got up and did our homework and went to dinner, watched a movie, and went to bed.

Well that was my ridiculously non-restful Fall break lol :) :(

Katie Zimmer

My portrait as a learner

So.... I made this AMAZING outline, but then I go to write the paper and I completely had writers block. GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't write papers. So I set that aside and worked on my T-shirt for 2 and 1/2 days, no I'm not kidding, it was seriously two and 1/2 days straight. I made a bunch of pictures that represent something about me on the front, and then to add some more personality I had people draw pictures, whatever they wanted to draw, and I wrote the lyrics to the first song that came to my head. This is me in a nutshell because I am VERY musically inclined, but also very random. I burst into random songs all the time. One word sets off whole series of songs that will be stuck in your head the reat of the day. That's just what I do. After I finished the t-shirt I sat back down to write the paper again, and I was finally able to come up with SOMETHING. It just kept coming. It was an act of God I swear, I didn't think about anything, it just kind of went. I finished in about 2 and 1/2 hours. I went through and read through it and it actually made sense YAY!!!!! I had a couple friends read through it and proof-read and they couldn't even tell that it only took me a couple hours to do it. I'm sure you really don't want to hear about me procrastinating my paper, but what can I say I was impressed.

Does it seem wrong to anyone else that I spent 2 and 1/2 days on the t-shirt, and 2 and 1/2 hours on the paper? I don't think there's anything wrong with it, it just points even more to my portrait as a learner. I am a very creative right brained person so the t-shirt was fun and easy, whereas the paper was very hard for me because I don't think that way. It's different for everyone.

Is that why you had us do both of these projects? OMGOSH epiphany. Oh you think you're tricky trying to make us learn something about our own learning in the project itself. Nicely done. lol :)

Katie Zimmer

Papers Papers Papers, and short attention spans

So in class the other day we were talking over the paper that we had to write about ourselves as learners, or at least we were trying to... SOME PEOPLE wouldn't shut up long enough to hear what Prof. Wright was saying so she had to stop and explain herself over and over again, so then we didn't get nearly as much accomplished as we should have gotten. I'm aware that listening to something you don't really want to listen to can be very hard, but you need to listen anyway. The more you listen the faster it will all be over and you can leave. I have problems with paying attention also, especially when it's close to a break and there are a million other things on my mind that may seem more important/ relevant at the time, but you can't think of it that way.
You have to tell yourself that this is the most important thing that you will ever be told. If you do this it will be over faster, and you are more likely to succeed in class, funny how that works huh. Im sure if you would listen you wouldn't have as many questions later.


I would like to take this opportunity to appologize on the behalf of our whole class for being so stupid and disrespectful to you in class.