Throughout our discussions in class this term we have talked a lot about how many people are aware of climate change and yet they “don’t care” or “don’t do anything about it.”  There are many explanations for this problem, some of which I am guilty of as well, that do not simply mean that a person does not care: not having the time, not having the resources, not knowing where to get involved, convenience.  For example, though I am aware of the benefits of solar panels, I do not have the resources or ability to incorporate them into my life because I live in an apartment and I am a full-time student with a limited income.  There are also the problems of people thinking that individual efforts mean nothing in the scheme of the world as a whole, or that people do not want to inconvenience themselves by make changes to their daily lives even if it would mean a better future: for example, buying a plastic bottle of water because your reusable one is in the dishwasher; instead of washing it, you choose convenience.  In doing this, we are also supporting the companies that produce this bottle of water.

Contine reading →

I recently watched the Oscar-winning film The Imitation Game and found myself comparing it to Odds Against Tomorrow, particularly the two main characters, Mitchell Zukor and Alan Turing.

For those of you not familiar with the movie, it depicts the story of Alan Turing’s time working for the British government during WWII. He was an amazing mathematician and was given the task to break “Enigma,” the German translator that accounted for all the communication on that side of the war zone. Alan’s intelligence comes with common characteristics of not completely understanding social skills, living in one’s own world, etc. While watching the film, I felt like I was seeing Mitchell Zukor on the screen.

The two characters are both obsessed with problems; they both live for finding and fantasizing about all sorts of problems and isolate themselves from others because of this character trait. The correlation between their intelligence and social skills is interesting to think about. What does an IQ number really tell about a person? Can one be either smart or social, not both? What effect does this obsession with problems and disaster have on a person’s social skills?

I think that both stories addresses the last question with the development of the main characters. Mitchell has this obsession with disaster including the odds that an event will occur, the impact of the event, etc. Alan is obsessed with problems – almost any type. His Commander mentions the Enigma and that it “isn’t difficult, it’s impossible.” Alan responds with, “Good. Let me try and we’ll know for sure, won’t we?” Alan eventually does solve the Enigma.

Both the characters seem to be hiding something behind their odd obsessions. In Mitchell’s case, he has an underlying fear of death, which really leads to a fear of living. An example of this is his first apartment. His parents were the driving force in his search for a new apartment, which lets the readers believe that he wouldn’t have moved without that push. Another example, which shows his unwillingness to experience new things, is the Korean food phase. While it is impulsive and unlike him to try a new food, he only ever tries that new food for weeks. He switches restaurants, but still eats the same exact dish, prepared the same exact way. This very specific routine shows that he is scared of change.

In Alan’s case, he uses problems to avoid dealing with his internal issues and he uses his intelligence as an excuse to be rude and arrogant to people. Also, once he solves the problem that he’s working on, he searches for or creates a new one. For example, when he and his team decoded the Enigma, he couldn’t celebrate because he seemed to find something missing from the equation. He came to the conclusion that the Germans would know that the Enigma is solved and that Alan’s hard work would have gone to waste, so he wouldn’t allow his team to tell anyone where the next attacks would be, despite one of his teammates having a family member on the ship that the Germans were planning to attack. It seems as though Alan uses problems to avoid living, just like Mitchell does.

I was able to make new observations about both characters because of my reading and watching the stories at the same time. The correlations between the characters despite the major differences between both plots – the fact that one is set in the future, one is set in the past – shows that this type of character can exist in any environment.

There are different types of pollution like, water, air and light. They all contribute to the overall global warming that is affecting the Earth. Pollution damages the environment, making water undrinkable, air unbreathable and damaging the structure and reproduction cycle of plants around us. However, people don’t really focus on how the bright city lights and lights that illuminate our towns affect both the environment and wildlife around us.

Light pollution has taken a great toll on the wildlife and just making a small switch could save so much. The luminous glow given off by cities and suburbs negatively affects the biological rhythms and interferes with the behavior of nocturnal animals. Artificial light has taken the greatest toll on nocturnal birds who use the moon and stars for navigation during migrations. These birds become so disoriented that they sometimes fly in the opposite direction towards bright cities in the distant. Birds such as the Cerulean warbler and Henslow’s sparrow have become endangered because they are at a high risk of colliding with night towers during their migrations. This also affect marine birds as well. Marine birds, like the Tiny Leach’s Storm Petrel, are particularly drawn to light so it becomes very dangerous when bright light houses and fishermen boat lights shine so bright. These birds then travel great distances to get to light that they end up dying from exhaustion. Contine reading →

For our final project I have teamed up with two other girls in our class to develop a short story using a different approach the authors we have read haven’t used. Our idea is to create a short story using the snowball effect. First, I will write two paragraphs starting off our short story of cli-fi. Next I will send those two paragraphs to the next girl and she will continue to write off of what I have started to plot out. We will continue this snowball affect in hopes of creating a strong cli-fi short story that has many different elements to it. The strong characteristic we have on our side is the element of surprise. It’s challenging enough writing a story, but to write one based off of someone’s previous plot is more challenging. The reason I want to blog about this is because I’m too excited to not share this idea with other people. It’s important that I can get feedback on my idea but also share it to excite others on how creative you can be with this opportunity Stephen has given us for our final project.

When crafting my first part of the short story I have been plotting out my characters and whom I want to introduce given the first opportunity to develop the main character. My idea was to start off with an accident, which leads to a young girl ending up in a coma. Then after 10 years of being in a coma her once present now past has changed and she wakes up in a new world. One where climate change has changed people and the gap between rich and poor has been opened wide. My thought process through this opening idea was for you as a reader to be able to experience alongside the main character what this new world looks like. So yourself and the main character are learning and understanding for the first time what this new world has become.

The best part about being able to write the opening paragraphs is that I get to set the mood, pick which tone I want the story to be written in, and decide what kind of main character I want to have. The problems with writing the first paragraph is also doing all those things because what I think might be a strong idea could be the next person brain fart on what to write next. I want to leave things open ended so my fellow partners have a lot of room to create and be creative themselves.

I believe this story will end up becoming a great success for our class to enjoy and read. It’s empowering being able to create your own story but even more empowering when you are letting other people create it alongside you.