Passion Project Update #2

The past two weeks I have researched and gathered more information on Paris and London. I recorded, in a list, all the faults I remember from my experience. Also, I began to look deeper into Italy and Bora Bora. I find it difficult to find information that the destination does not want people to know. I plan to look into tourist and reviewer websites where personal experiences are exposed. I am making pretty good progress so far.

Passion Project Update #1

So far I have only had one Friday to work on my project because I was absent one day, but I think I made good progress. I have settled on researching Italy and Bora Bora as my first destinations. I have collected pictures for both locations and put them in a PowerPoint. Also, I was looking at the traveler reviews for Bora Bora and concluded that there isn't much wrong with the destination. Now I plan to dig deeper into Bora Bora and find all the hidden stuff. I plan on looking into the food and traditions for each place I look into. Overall, my passion project is on it's way.

Empathy

I think everyone has the ability to be empathetic, but not everyone utilizes it. I think it is possible to extend our empathy to the entire world if we tried, but would that be a good thing? Empathy has its pros and cons. It can be seen as the key to solve many problems but also can be the destroyer. Empathy can bring us all together or tear us apart. If we all share the same feelings and all have the same mindset, how are we different? Being human means to "have good and bad qualities". If everyone is empathetic to each other, the majority of our human "bad qualities" are eliminated. Our ability to make decisions will weaken. People will try to solve one problem but end causing a new, then attempt to solve that one another erupts so on and so forth.  Furthermore, with empathy ruling the world the meaning of family will lessen because everyone would be family. The world will be lost and get nothing done if empathy was the priority. However, with the worldwide case of bullying, empathy would be for the benefit. If bullies were more empathetic they would understand how the victim feels and will stop their acts. Same goes for abusing of all types. Problems will be solved but many will be created. After all, too much of anything is bad.

Passion Project S2 Update

Over the past 5 passion project days many things have changed. The group of Usha and I has expanded to include Vaishnavi. Our idea of focusing on parades/celebration in each state of America has gone a different route. We decided to look at holidays that are celebrated around the world and look at the ways they are celebrated. For example, New Year's is celebrated around the world but differently in every region. We have compiled pictures of the different celebrations present on this event in some states of the US and parts of other countries. Vaishnavi will incorporate her original passion project idea of dancing by looking into the dances that go along with the holidays we plan to look at. We plan to cover a lot of holidays but the number might have to get cut down due to time restrictions. We still have a lot to do but hopefully it will all get done in time.

Passion Project Updates

So far our Disney passion project has made a good amount of progress. We made a list of all Disney Channel shows and the time frame they were on air. We have a list of 51 shows, but I think there are more. Also, we made a list of Disney movies. The list consists of 310 movies so far, but we have to add the newer movies to the list. In addition, we found a few things on Mickey Mouse, showing the older designs of Mickey. I think Vaishu and I did okay so far and made pretty good progress. Over the next passion projects days we hope to gather more information. We want to learn why the Disney characters changed so much. There are a lot of little things that we can and wish to research and get information. Disney is a large topic, so an obstacle we might run into is trying to cover all the main things. 

Outlier: Ellen DeGeneres

Ellen DeGeneres is one of the many famous outliers. She has almost a dozen daytime Emmy Awards and many People Choice Awards. Even though she is very successful now she wasn't always, and had troubles getting to where she is now. To begin with, at age 13 her parents divorced leaving her mother broken. Ellen however used her comedy skills to help her mother recover, and discovered the power of humor. Before she even thought about working in the comedy world, she wanted to be a veterinarian. But Ellen dropped the idea because she wasn't "book smart". Instead she waited tables, sold vacuum cleaners, painted houses and worked as a legal secretary. It's a good thing she didn't become a veterinarian, but gained lots of experience in different categories. It allowed her to be able to connect to many through personal experiences in comedic way. If she became a vet, she wouldn't be able to bring laughter to her millions of viewers. Not have "book smarts" was a good thing for Ellen DeGeneres.

Because Ellen had a brother, it gave her a great advantage. She used her sibling rivalry to get motivated to become famous. Her brother, Vance, was getting all the attention from being actor/comedian, which made her jealous. Vance was also known as the humorous member of the DeGeneres family, but that was about to change. Ellen dropped out of college and turned to comedy. She discovered she was good at it when she had to give a public speech. She was terrified of the crowd, but used humor to get through it. The crowd loved her and she received offers to do stand-up comedy. She started performing to help support her mother and went up from there. Jay Leno actually came to one of her performances, which helped her get into the higher status. Now she hosts the hit talk-show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and is the voice of Dori from Finding Nemo. From her parents divorce to sibling rivalry to performing for the famous, Ellen DeGeneres had many hidden advantages to make her the great outlier she is now. 

Joyas Voladores

The essay, Joydas Voladoras, confused me the first few times I read it. After I read it several times, the piece of writing gained some meaning to me. The meaning I took was that no matter what size the heart is it will one day be broken. I think the essay is discouraging, because it basically says that everyone and everything is alone. It makes me think of times the heart is greatly affected in a positive or negative way. My favorite line was the last sentence because it shows that all the work someone can put in to protecting the heart can come crumbling down at the most powerful and simple touches of love. "You can brick up your heart as stout and tight and hard and cold and impregnable as you possibly can and down it comes in an instant, felled by a woman's second glance, a child's apple breath, the shatter of glass in the road, the words I have something to tell you, a cat with a broken spine dragging itself into the forest to die, the brush of your mother's papery ancient hand in a thicket of your hair, the memory of your father's voice early in the morning echoing from the kitchen where he is making pancakes for his children."