Saturday, March 26, 2011

My favorite piece

This  is my favorite piece that I did for drawing class last term. It was done with charcoal pencil and vine charcoal.  I like drawing faces and i think this one came out well. The original picture that we drew  from was by michaelangelo:
 

Sunday, March 13, 2011

If Google had all the answers

     If I could ask Google any question, I would ask where I should go and what I should major in for college. This would be after I googled the answers to world hunger and peace, of course. It's really stressful trying to decide what to do, when your whole future lies in your decision. It would be awesome to just let someone else (Google) make the decision and feel totally confidant that I'm doing the right thing.  Then I would feel a lot better that I'm not wasting my money in college learning things that will be useless to me, or wasting my time in a major that I will end up switching.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Individual Responsibility

     I actually had to bring this topic up to my family to see what they thought before I could begin to organize my thoughts enough to write something about this. This is definitely a big subject, and my opinion on it changes as does the situation. In a situation like the dog example, I think that if an individual was at all in doubt that the animal is okay, it is their individual responsibility to act on it if there is no one else doing so.
     When I was talking to my family, my sister said that a situation that involves individual responsibility that she is most familiar with is bullying. She brought up the point that sometimes it is hard to tell if two people are teasing each other as friends, or if someone is being harassed. I think that people are reluctant to get involved and find out the real case because they are afraid of making a big deal out of it when in fact there was nothing going on at all. On the other hand, if it was later found out that the person was being harassed and ended up having emotional issues or having to transfer schools, anyone would feel guilty for not speaking up when they had the chance.
     Sometimes in situations like these people think 'why should I stop to help when the next person or the next person will stop to help?' Well, that just may be what every other person is thinking, and there is no guarantee that anyone will stop and help unless you yourself stop and take the individual responsibility to make sure that everything is okay.
     I think that my dad has a great sense of individual responsibility. Many times I have waited in the car when he stopped on the side of the road to see if the people in the broken down car needed any help, or watched as he took the initiative to make sure the person struggling with a heavy load could make it okay. I think part of this is because he has often been in similar situations himself when no one has come to help, and knows how much just someone asking 'are you okay?' can help to let them know that at least someone stopped to think about the problems they may be having.
    When we were talking about individual responsibility, my dad brought up the point that in some cases, it is our individual responsibility not to take action. He gave the example of a physical fight, where we might be hurt trying to break it up. He said it is our responsibility to make it some other person's responsibility, such as a teacher or a police officer.
     Another example that I can think of is when I had my training to be a CNA. As a worker in a medical facility, CNAs are considered 'mandatory reporters' and must report any abuse or negligence that they may have witnessed. They are not required to step in themselves to stop the abuse or wrongdoing, only to report the incident so that it can be intervened professionally.
    I could probably go on about this for a long time, but I already wrote more than I planned to. Main point: I think that any kind person would take individual responsibility in a case where there are many people who could react, just to take the extra step in making sure that everything is okay.