Jarrett’s Journal

           Everyone can help to make the world a better place.  The truth is that there is always some way to help or change things for the better.  It doesn’t matter how big or small the contribution is, it is important.  Everyone helps in there own way and everyone way of helping is different.  Some choose to not be part of the problem.  Some choose to actually get in there and change something drastically.  Some people even just offer support.  The fact is that everyone has a part to play no matter how old or young or who smart or dumb we must all help out.  It is our job as individuals in the world.  People are depending on us to help.

            The next generation group, from the article are playing a big role.  They are changing the world in big ways.  It is hard to measure up to these people but anything will help.  The Next generation of peacekeepers is looking for help.  I believe if you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem.  This is basically saying that helping out is the only way to make progress.  It is our responsibility to pitch in and earn the stuff that is given to us on a daily basis.

       This video is of a man that turned his life around to help other people and be a better person.  He was once a bad person but now he divotes his life to making the world a better place. 

       Here is some more information about the green children.  Some like the man in the video above. 

        At some point in everyones life they doubt themselves.  it happens to everyone but to some people more often.  I tend to doubt myself a lot and I think it is because I am afraid to make a mistake.  There is lots of reasons for doubting yourself.  The main one being that you are afraid to make a mistake.  Second I think it is because you lack self confidence and do not have faith in your decisions.  These are the main reasons why people may doubt themselves.  There are many other reasons why people doubt themselves.  There are also results caused by doubting yourself.

         Some of the more common results of doubting yourself are that you may miss out on what it is you were doing or acquiring.  You will end up making the mistake that you were afraid of making in the first place or you will fight with yourself about if you made the right decision or not.  Another reslut of doubting yourself is that you will always doubt yourself and it may become a problem and in the end it will lower your self confidence.  So doubting yourself has many downfalls so i advise that you be consise with your decisions and follow through with them.    

         This video is a song about trusting yourself.  if the video doesn’t work click here.  This is  also a site that will teach you to overcome self doubt.

         Hamlet is a very interesting character.  He is smart and witty and manipulating.  I can connect with this part of his character because I have been told I am all of these things.  He can also trick people into doing and thinking things that they don’t want to do.  I have many similarities with Hamlet when it comes to his personality and characteristics. 

         Parts of Hamlet i do not relate to include his background, his current situation and his setting.  First of all I come from a more present era.  Hamlet lived in a setting many years and had different ideas and beliefs.  Secondly he is from a royal family and has power and money.  Lastly the situation he is in.  His father was just murdered by his uncle and he is about to kill his uncle to get him back.  This is something that will never happen to me.  it is a problem that often occured in medival times but not now.  So I can relate to Hamlet but not in a physical or literal way.  

         This video is an example of Hamlet.  It is one of this speeches that he says to the crowd that no one else can hear.  If this video doesn’t work click here.  At this web page you can see a whole list of the charcters in Hamlet.  If you click on the indepth analysis of Hamlet there is a good write up about him. 

          I have choosen to change topics from, does procrastination affect your fate to how i like the play so far. 

          So far we have read about a third of the play.  I have found it to be very interesting so far.  I like how we read some parts, listen to some parts, act some parts, and even watch video or some parts.  I believe this is affective because some part you just ahve to see to get the actual feeling behind it.  It is a very interesting and thought provocing story.  Its plot has lots of suspense and foreshadowing in it.  So far out of all my shakespeare plays i have read in school it is the most enjoyable. 

          So far what i have learnt from the play is that Hamlet is the only one that found his father death a little odd.  He is still sad after many months and he is beginning to act crazy on purpose and he is planning to kill his uncle because he killed his dad.  I have also learnt that hamlets uncle is a bad man that is looking out of no one but himself at this point and he is very greedy and has no remorse.  The queen is either clueless to what is going on or had something to do with the murder but I am not sure yet.  But out of all the main character in the movie the one i find most interesting is the Ghost.  he is hard to judge.  I can not tell if he is good and trusting or if he is a bad ghost because he seems trusting but we know that in the end they all die and the ghost might have something to do with it but im not sure.  So this is what I think of the play and what I know about the characters in the play so far.     

This is a video that shows the kinds of things we have been watching in class.  As you can see it makes it more interesting and more effective.

if this video doesn’t work click here.  And for more information on the play click here.

     Relationships are all basically the same.  They follow the same basic outline and idea.  This doesn’t mean they are perdictable in any means.  Even though they do follow the same idea they can get take many different ways of doing it.  Some relationships move fast and others move slow.  Some relationships are very intament and other are not.  Relationship can be over and back on again in a very short or long period of time.  Relationship can in some cases be predictable but in most cases you can not tell what will happen next and when it will happen.         

     People believe that relationships are predictable because sometime you can tell went people like each other and most people act the same toward each other when they like each other.  You often see people bugging and making fun of the people they like.  It is very elementary but it does happen.  People also believe relationships are predicatble because people in a relationship can also act the same.  i think they are not predictable because relationships involve two human beings and humans are very unperdictable.  People are also constantly changing and growing so it is impossible to say if they will act the same as they did yesterday.  So some relationships may seem perdictable but in my opinion relationships are not all that perdictable.

     This video shows a little about how relationships do have similarities which make them kinda perdicatable to a certain point.  If this video doesn’t work click here.  There is more information on the stages of a relationship on the web.

        In my debate we had the topic of quantity being better that quality (for info on the debate format click here).  My partner was Graeme and we debated against Brodie and Curtis.  We had to prove that quality was worse than quantity.  I had trouble with this because I believe the complete opposite.  I believe quanitity is superior but it was okay because we just had to prove who theres was worse not how ours was better and we did not have to make points about it just prove theres wrong.  We did end up coming out with less point but i believe we did well for the situation we were put into.

             During our debate we made some good points.  We found that most successful companys and organizations are more concerned by quantity.  For example, Farmers are looking for quantity.  They can make more money with more grain or hay or cattle.  Todays industries are all concerned with quantity but in the past we were about quality.  Time are changing.  In todays world we often associate quantity with better and that is how the world is viewed.  We also made point about Walmart and other companies and they rely on quantity to make them money.  These were just a few of the point we made and argued aqainst the pros side. 

 In the beginning of this video it shows some of the points that could have been made for our debate.  We did not use this preticular point but it would have been a good idea for the other team to use it.  The end of the video is not as relavant.  It was to hard to find a video that supported our topic and this was part of the reason why our debate was so hard.   If this video doesn’t work click here. 

               We read a story in class called Shooting an Elephant  by Orwell.  Orwell was the man in the story that had a problem.  He was a police officer in Burma that was assigned to make sure the people followed British rules.  He did not completely believe in forcing the rules on the people but he did it anyway.  This was his first decision.  Whether or not to be loyal to his country or to follow his beliefs.  He was loyal to his country and enforced the rules.  I think I might have let them have more freedom because my personal belief is that it is there land and country and they should be able to practice what they want.

            During the story he came along to another decision.  He had to decide to shoot and elephant or not.  The elephant had gone on a rampage and killed a man in the streets.  When he had to shoot it the elephant had settled and was doing no harm.  He was surrounded by a group of Burmans who had come to see the elephant shot but Orwell did not particularly want to kill the creature because it was of value to someone. He ended up shooting the elephant because the people wanted him to.  After he shot it he was watching it die and he had to leave because he was mad at himself for being the villager’s puppet.  He did exactly what they wanted him to.  Personally I would not have shot the elephant because it was not harming anyone at the moment.  He fell into peer pressure and it got the better of him.  He was in a tough spot but I would have let the animal live and not give into the crowd.  But it is easy to say that sitting here because there is other factors and actually being in the situation is much more difficult.    

This video might have been helpful to Orwell.  It is about peer pressure and how to deal with it.  Orwell was under lots of pressure and that is why he makes the wrong decision about the elephant.   If the video doesn’t work click here.  For more information about Orwell and the writer this is a great site for info. 

            When you look around in a crowded place all you see is differences.  People tend to concentrate on how people are different and not alike.  This is the cause of bullying and people being left out.  Being different is often portrayed as a bad thing but in truth being different is good.  It lets you be unique.  Even though people are only looking for differences all people have things in common with each other.  They are there and people don’t even know it.              Even though our appearance, beliefs, ideas, values, and language may not be the same we do have similarities.  The similarities of human beings are very simple but they are present.  Some of the similarities of human beings are as simple as the characteristics people have.  All the people in the world at some point in time have shown some kind of decency, care, love, courage, etc.  At some point in time everyone has shown these characteristics, so it can be classified as a similarity.                

              Other similarities among humans are the ways they think.  Every human is born with instincts just like animals.  They know what to do in certain situations even though it has never happened to them before. Instincts are something everyone has, thus it is a similarity among us all.  So there are common qualities among all of us regardless of cultural and beliefs but they are not as clear as other similarities.                  This video is a song.  I think it could mean that we are all different but in the end we are all the same and thus it says we should all have a drink together. This site is about how being different is good.

What can we compare our identity to?

            In order to compare ourselves we must compare to someone that is in a similar background.  They can not be from a different area or different culture.  In order to have a fair comparison it must be compared to someone from your society with similar beliefs and ideas because there society will or may have different ideas and expectations for there people.  Comparing myself to my siblings is most common because they are just like me and my parents have the same expectations for all of us.  I can also compare to my friends but it is not very beneficial because they do not have the same priorities as me.  I think that comparing identities is a problem in itself.    

            Your identity can be something you keep private or share with the people around you.  Most people have two parts to there identity which are the parts they share and the parts they don’t.  This is one of the reasons why it is hard to compare or measure your identity.  Another reason it can be difficult is because not everyone you know will have the same experiences or environment as you so it will make a very unfair comparison.  It is often hard to tell if someone is like you or not.  Some people may seem very different but inside they may be very alike.  One of the only ways you may be able to compare your identity is to yourself.  You could compare your current identity to who you have been, who you want to be, or who you are becoming.  It is common for people to set goal for themselves and look forward to what they can change to be a better person.  It is very important to be honest with yourself when it comes to comparing your identity, especially if you are comparing to it to yourself.     

 In this video there is a man talking about how it is not good to compare yourself to other people.  If this video doesn’t work click here.  There are also many sites on the web that help to stop you from comparing yourself to others. 

             Some believe that identity is based and influenced by your genetics.  I believe that identity is influenced more by your environment.  The things and people around you play the biggest role on your identity.  I think the biggest influence on your identity is your parents and close family.  Your parents have been around you and interacting with you since you were born.  They have taught you everything you know and there for play the biggest role in shaping who you are and who you will be.  Your siblings also play a similar role as your parents and can also help to influence you in places your parents can’t like at school.  So in my opinion you are influenced by your environment and your identity is constantly changing.

            One thing about today’s society is that people are always being pressured into changing there Identity to be like the norm.  This causes people to be more alike and less unique.  People naturally want to be accepted by everyone and people will do things that they do not want to do so they will be accepted.  So people can influence your identity in a positive way or in a negative way and you can choose to let them pressure you into things or you can be unique and make your own decisions and be a better person for it.  So out of all the ways your identity can be influenced you get the final decision.  It is up to you to choose “who you are.”    

This video shows a little about what influences us and what should influence our identity.   If the video doesn’t work click here.  To read another essay about this click here.