The Art of Listening

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/opinion/sunday/in-africa-the-art-of-listening.html?_r=1

This has always been a key element to my lifestyle, listening more than talking. It has come up many times throughout my life that we learn more when we listen, so that's what I do. Hence, I liked this article.
If I were to take away one thing from this, it would be the parable. "human beings have two ears but only one tongue. Why is this? Probably so that we have to listen twice as much as we speak."  Now that is just so true. He talks about getting away from the egocentric community, and I am %100 in agreement with that. It seems like anything anyone wants to do is talk and never return the favor by listening.

The story we read in class and this article have an ironic similarity in which neither of the conversations ended. Although the two conversations have different tones and can be interpreted differently I think we can come to an agreement on this quote by Henning Mankell, "What differentiates us from animals is the fact that we can listen to other people’s dreams, fears, joys, sorrows, desires and defeats — and they in turn can listen to ours." This quote says how in anyway way we express ourselves, that is what makes us human . You can learn something from an old man telling his life story or from a professor giving a lecture, but you are still listening which in turn is learning. 

When we do our experiments, we are going to be gathering as much information as we can. And in order to learn more, we must listen more. That is simply the key.

Library Session

I have already attended those library introductions before, but I still learned some new useful information. I like the reference articles and being able to find a related article. The Multi-Link icon was never really explained before, and I now know how it works and why it sometimes fails. I will definitely be using these resources to gather more information on fish oil. There should be a lot of useful, scholarly articles to read from and gather research. Not only will I be using the library website for research to come and future research but I will use it to hold books and find them as well.

Find Out Whats Important To Me

This was a great method to give me more to write about and even show me what I value. I made four different lists of what's important to me in four communities, which are: personal, professional, academic, and civic. I tried to keep it short in each category, so I will just say all of them and let you guess which community they fall under.
Without a doubt my little brother is the most important thing to me. He deserves so much more than he has been given and I make it my effort to fill in the gaps. Video games have been a big part of my life. Although I don't play them as much as I used to, I still find it useful to relieve stress every once in a while by diving in that imaginary world. I worked at Papa Johns throughout all of high school so it has really been a big part of my life. I want to be a Math Professor after I get my PhD. Being on a University is one of the GREATEST feelings and I absolutely love Ball State. Finally, what I couldn't do without would be Church. Being around Christians and being uplifted has really been the only way I have made it through my life.
1. What discussions (in writing, on the Internet, verbally) engage you and other members of the community?
The biggest way I engage with my brother and even my family is by writing. It is a great way to say how you really feel and get all of your point across. When It comes to my job or school. I really believe verbal conversion is the only way to get things done most efficiently.
2. What events or experiences have happened that you still remember that left you with concerns?
-Being at Papa Johns so long, I had a lot of different General Managers. I became a shift manager not even a year after working there. Eventually they found a concrete General Manager and they didn't really respect my seniority, and I didn't really respect their authority.
-My brother had been taken out of our family and put into a correctional facility, and that caused me to fall away from the church.
3. What problems or concerns exist in this particular community?
-They dont respect me as much. Although I don't work there anymore.
-My brother is back but is on probation, and it is just a gamble that he will stay out of trouble and stay home.

I am going to skip 4-6 because I answered them in the previous questions. If there are any readers curious of what they are. Just ask

7. Why is the discussion,event, or problem significant to the community members?
-By working at Papa Johns so long, I am very talented at making pizza. I know that sounds funny. But I seriously am and thats why it is significant because I deserve to be treated as such.
-It is my brother. You can assume why it is significant

8. How does the community usually start to resolve the discussion, event, or problem?
-I am actually really good friends with all of my coworkers at Papa Johns now. I still stop by to say hi to the GM and his wife. I just had to be nice, continue to work hard, prove what I had, and it didn't take long for them to see that I knew how to control the store.
-My brother has been doing very well also. We went about that by having weekly family meetings and discussing how to cope with our problems better as individuals and as a family.