Blog 5 - Zine yelps

         Our subject is a Zine talking about the parking situation in BC. As we know, the scale of BC has grown up fast in the recent years and now it serves about 37,000 students. Buildings for education have been established each year. But the parking of this college has been more and more serious. Since 2008, students have begun to complain about parking problems on Yelp.com using words such as “suck”, “bad” and “insane”. The problem has really been prominent and the purpose of our Zine is to show our dissatisfaction and to require a better parking condition.

         I still remember the first time I went to BC. We turned right to SE 28 Street and soon found that a lot of students’ cars were heading home or going to school. We passed unconsciously the only mark (I didn’t find it at that time but finally saw it until last Saturday) indicating where the visitors can park because many cars were followed behind. When we found the garage and the guideboard from which we were told to park at level 5 as visitors at the entry, we happily entered the garage but found the entry was so small. Ah, a drive skill test was taken on that day. I have to say, the payment machine worked so slowly. It didn’t response for quite a while after sliding our card so that we thought it was broken and nearly wanted to change to another machine. Hum, not easy.

         For this subject, I especially went to college to do a field research last Saturday morning and to take some photos or evidences. I finally found the direction mark before the roundabout and was able to stop to read the small words on it since it was not a weekday. (Can you see that in the following picture?) 

         Another issue I found inside the garage is that each level is not numbered. This is not good to those new comers and visitors because they cannot locate which level they are at and have no idea to go up or go down.

        I took the same entry as that when I visited BC for the first time. I wanted to go to level 5 but I missed the way near the entry to go up and had to go down in no time since I didn’t notice it as soon as possible. All right, it was weekend and I moved back a little and turned left right away. I remember one time we were in the garage, the leaving line encumbered the way going up so we gave up in the end because the cars were rushing out.

         I found an interesting thing standing outside the entry. It is a garage parking monitor. I do think it has been built for more than 15 years. Only “FULL” can be indicated. It is supposed to monitor the situation of the whole garage, right? I think the light works rarely because that every stall is taken cannot happen usually. We need a newer monitor which can display the parking situation for each floor while it is better to build a new garage since the lack of stalls is the basic problem.

        Students spend much time on searching a stall, which is not encouraged and may damage students’ confidences to their schools.

Blog 4 – As Shelley’s poem predicted?

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         To be honest, the research process had been encumbered before Tuesday’s class ended. No new and strong evidences were found. That was really terrible. My precedent drafts behaved so weak that it cannot persuade even me. What I have written is just some thoughtful stuff in my mind. I don’t even make quite clear on what to argue and the draft was only stated something ambiguous. Since I began to search the etymology of melancholy, I found it, really found it. It is explained that melancholy means not only sadness, gloominess, mournfulness, but also introspection, pensiveness, meditativeness, sentimentality. The deeper or unknown properties of melancholy are the important points as I thought before. I felt more confident. Those properties make melancholy different from sadness and can be argued against.

         I can see there is something interesting on my survey. 100% of the surveyed selected that “Happiness” was the best way to understand Shelley’s poem, which is completely opposite with my opinion and anticipation. Why is that? If Shelly wanted to express one kind of expectation or hope, what was “Winter” used for? Is it necessary to think out more profound meaning? Maybe we feel difficult in modem times, we need to think about more happiness.

         Because I changed the direction of my topic, only one of my original annotated bibliographies can be used for my essay. One point that “Depression is melancholy, minus its charms” claimed by Susan Sontag from the annotated bibliography is most shinning source I found by now. It is inspiring and has a power to overturn our clichés. Melancholy is aesthetic due to its meditativeness and sentimentality in some sense, I think. If happiness is the only emotion to pursue, the world could be so dull. I would feel ashamed and sorry that Adam and Eve ate the wisdom apple.

         Though I have been trying to search more resources that would help on my essay, only a few found were really valuable that can help me in the exact position. While among those valuable claims, not every single sentence will be cited. Then a question or a selection comes out that how I combine them with my own words suitably into strong and persuasive paragraphs.

Blog 3 - A Bunch of Grapes

         I'm sure whether it is a bias, but I do always deem that the only one at the bottom of a bunch of grapes is the sweetest. Each time with a kind of esteem and expectation eating beads of grapes down from the top, there is infinite experience and the last one is finished without taste and commemoration.

         (Having been working painfully on subject 2 for dozens of hours, I really need to pause temporally and write this blog first while sentimental music is still cheering me up.)

         “Q-H-Q” looks like a bunch of grapes.

         What makes a good question?

         Free-write is a good way to note ideas in a short time. But sometimes the writing is disordered and easy to wander. Q-H-Q is a way to pop up questions continuously against a specific topic. It is pretty purposive. But sometimes it is really difficult to propose more valuable questions on the topic because the realm is already narrowed down small enough in the end. My topic is talking that melancholy is positive. The key terms are melancholy, sensitivity, reflection and creation. How did “sensitivity” come to my mind? When I was discussing the characteristics of melancholy with others, it just appeared. How did “reflection” come to my mind? When I searched out an essay talking about the relations between melancholy and philosophy, it occurred to me a scene that philosopher looks so painful when thinking about the philosophy. What about “creation”? Because poet is sensitive, a lot of wonderful poems are created. Philosopher always reflects on something and then writes down (“temporary”) truth. All of these are creations. Hence, the word popped up in my mind. When I was listening to some sentimental or sorrowful music, I felt the melancholy and it occurred to me a poetic sentence by Percy Bysshe Shelley, “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”. Such beautiful poem full of melancholy has been enchanting thousands of people, young and old, women and men.

         I’m not going to say if those key terms are good or not. I cannot. But I gained them due to discussion, research, sensing, interest, experiences and persistence.

         As the world has been developed and materialized, there are less chances and less time for people in cities to think deeply. Move fast, eat fast, walk fast. They are easy to get melancholy but feel blank at well. Some even have melancholia, or do something much more horrific. Because glitz and simpleness? There is some misunderstanding. Actually, melancholy is an emotion and not a sickness. Melancholia is a disease. Over melancholy can lead to melancholia. I just realized that when working on the topic. My ideology was destroyed and re-built. Some professors link the melancholy to aesthetic. Then the topic could be huge. Though I cannot interpret their theories well, I’m trying. Know melancholy and don’t go to the extreme of it. Move it brightly by a certain way, writing, telling, reading or appreciating. OK?

         “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”

Percy Bysshe Shelley