Self and human nature in a song.

I chose the song "The Lost Get Found" by Britt Nicole because I feel that the song is telling people to reach out to others everyday, people who need help, hope or just someone to give them a helping hand. It ties into our readings about human nature and self because people often think just about themselves and don't care about the other people around them in need.

Don't let your lights go down
Don't let your fire burn out
somewhere, somebody needs a reason to believe
Why don't you rise up now?
Don't be afraid to stand out
That's how the lost get found
The lost get found

So when you get the chance
Are you gonna take it?
There's a really big world at your fingertips
And you know you have the chance to change it
There's a girl on the streets, she's cryin'
There's a man whose faith is dyin'
Love is calling you

Why do we go with the flow
Or take an easier road?
Why are we playin' it safe?
Love came to show us the way
Love is a chance we should take
I'm movin' out of the way

I feel that Britt Nicole is saying don't be afraid to go out of your way for other people. People like to go for the safer road. She is saying you have the chance to help and change someone so why not take that chance. If everyone in the world went out of there way to help at least one person everyday the world could be a much better place. This ties in with order and chaos because if people would go out of there way to help people in need this choatic world we could bring some order into it.

(Britt Nicole. "The Lost Get Found." The Lost Get Found. Sparrow Records, 2009)

Observing Conversations

1) Describe a small speech community to which you belong: What language(s) and/or dialect(s) do you regularly use (=the code), and what are the social norms for their use? Note the kinds of interactions you all engage in over one "typical" day: What are the topics discussed, the settings, the purposes, the "key," the types or genres of speech, etc?


Setting and Scene:
The setting is Feb. 4th in Macks. I was observing my group of friends as they ate dinner after cheerleading practice.

Key:
Their tones in the conversation is high and fast because they were discussing practice and how we have lost another teammate due to illness. Everyone is trying to get their opinion in.

Ends:
The purpose of this conversation was the girls sharing their opinions and feelings about the stressful situation. The cheerleading team has a competition in the next few weeks so they were worrying on how the coach was going to handle losing another teammate for 2 weeks due to illness.

Norms:
The girls were interrupting each other a lot when the conversation got heavy and everyone had their own opinions. Since the purpose of the conversation was to get each others ideas about the situation the girls did not mind it. Though at times the conversation got chaotic for me to understand it seemed to me as the girls knew exactly what was going on.

Professor Lovett's lecture on the brain.

In listening to Professor Lovett's lecture on the brain I learn alot of interesting information. Some information that stuck out to me the most was that we actually do use a lot more then 10% of our brain. Since I was in elementary school I have been told and I believed that we barely used any of our brain. Another interesting fact about the brain that stuck out to me was if the part of your brain that controls hunger, the hypothalamus was cut out then you would never be full no matter how much you ate, you would just want to continuously eat and never want to stop. From the readings, to the lecture, and the movies we watched in class I learned a lot about the brain and "self". Another thing that really stuck out to me that we saw in class was the women who had the split brain operation and when she went to grab the shirt that she wanted to wear out of her closet both her arms would go for the shirts and she would end up grabbing the shirt she wanted to wear and another. Learning about the brain and "self" comes back to order and chaos because the brain is what makes you who you are, you could not get a brain transplant surgery because you would be know where near the same person.

"Self" articles

Bejamin Frankin was a man that believed highly in being organized and having a plan. He also believes in finding the mistakes within ourselves and fixing them. I am also the same way and lately I have been having a hard time doing so and it is driving me nuts. It is hard to stay organized when you have so much going on which is currently what is going on with me so my life is now choas. Just like Franklin I like to keep a to do list of everything I need to do that way I wont forget anything and it will keep me on task and organized. Being in college has definitely made my life chaotic which often stresses me out since I am a person that likes to be organized. In reading Juahn's article I learned that everyone develops a strong conservatism which helps us avoid making the same mistakes that we have made in the past. Without this things could get very chaotic because we would be making the same mistakes that we have made in the past and never learn from them.