~ Project Nim ~

 Two parts of the film that struck me the most were, One, it was shared that Nim had never been around contact with other chimps besides his contact with his own mother, who was given the name Carolyn. Likely, he wouldn’t remember his mother. This was a moment that made me upset because the mother had already had her babies removed from her before Nim and didn’t get a choice of whether to hand over her own child.  Also the idea of him being humanly socialized and not getting a chance to experience a socialized setting as a chimpanzee was a wow moment.  It reminds me of Tarzan. Tarzan was raised by humans but never got the experience to meet a human of his own species till later on in his life.

He had gotten used to spoiled behavior and expected certain things to be handed to him. Like granola or pop.  He had to be taught that he could not get his way later on as he grew as not receiving his way would be a response of anger. That carried over to Nim’s adult years as he was moved back to the facility of the Institute for Primate Studies, in Cleveland. He had to go back due to the project failing. Nim was borrowed from them for the project for all those years.

Another part that stuck with me was his communication with each and every person who helped or worked on the project.  Stephanie, Joyce, Bill, Renne, Laura, Dr. Terrance, and Professor Herbert, or Herb for short, all played huge parts in the project as either teachers for Nim or directors for the project. At some moments I was happy and confused. Happy because the communication had sweet moments. He liked human contact and liked to give hugs to his teachers and to Professor Herb. Chimps mimic an ability to want to enjoy life just as much as humans do. So there were many great moments when Nim was playing and laughing with his teachers.

I was confused because sometimes Nim would get aggressive for no reason at all, and I would wonder what exactly triggered him to get to that point.  At first, it was an idea that Nim was obtaining the information as a human kid would, forming deeper thinking. Really Nim was obtaining the information handed to him and receiving it for an award outcome etc. I still thought it was interesting how he was processing what was signed to him and being able to remember and repeat exactly what they had signed to Nim. 

What surprised me or caught me off guard was At the beginning of the film, When Nim starts off being raised by Stephanie and her Husband, Wer. Also, Nim liked to smoke blunts and drink alcohol. Wer, Stephanie's husband didn’t want to be too involved with Nim as much as Stephanie did. As a baby, he was breastfed by Stephanie herself which I thought was very interesting and crazy. A human breastfed a chimp. Stephanie also had her own baby, a human child at the time along with Nim. Nim smoking blunts and drinking alcohol, was interesting to hear, considering he's a chimp doing these things. He was curious.

I haven’t had any of the ideas of the film appear in my life. But what remained with me after the film was the understanding of animals being experimented on being an issue and potentially messing with their lives from start to end. It feels like it will always be unbalanced for the animal.  It can strip them of their natural way of growing up into the species they become. Nim wasn’t the same going from socialized acts as a human, exploiting the human nature of Nim and not his experience as a chimp. They both got separated. It removed him from what his life could have been. 

Research in summaries is probably avoided due to the idea of summaries being less factual and more of a description of the book, media, etc. It’s not meant to share facts, it’s meant to share a main idea.

~Visual Literacy ~

 

                                                                   

                         To be honest I thought visual literacy was what I thought it was going to be exactly the name of it. Learning, reading, and visuals. learning through seeing or looking. What is it exactly? It's the ability to read, write, and create a visual of things. It can also affect the thought process, and the ability to think critically about certain things we see. Some examples and ways you can apply visual literacy can be Art and communication threw a specific piece of art that interests you. 

             Communication threw Art can add a better learning of what your viewing itself and a better understanding of what can be in that specific piece of Art. Such as what is this piece trying to portray,? what is its purpose? What is the meaning of its design? etc. Communication threw Visual literacy can be asking someone else the same questions to get a different perspective. What do they think about this piece?  Another example can be, advertisement.

             What is this ad trying to sell, and what is its effectiveness? Does it make you really want to purchase what you're viewing or is it something you would skip. Now you know some ways that visual Literacy can affect the thought process, or maybe you already do these things. With visual literacy, we can help connect communication with others and create better learning and understanding of what we view

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~My NC Experience So Far ~

 

      Lately, I've been really comfortable staying here. I lived in Plainfield before coming to North Central. It's about half an hour away. Not too far, But a far enough distance. Coming here, my First week into school, I didn't know if I would be able to connect with others well and was unsure if I would feel out of place. But people here seem nice and friendly so far which helped and I like how mostly everyone just does their own thing.  I love my roommate (Alexa) and have gotten pretty close with her since school started. 

I usually like talking to people and socializing but it took me a minute to rip the small shell. I just remembered to take it a few steps at a time, especially being around many new people. When I went back home for Labor Day weekend I realized I wanted to go back to NC. I thought, shouldn't I want to stay at home? Of course, I love my family and wanted to see them, but I had just gotten used to the environment I had become familiar with and surrounded myself in.  

 it's so interesting how so much can change in just a few weeks.                                     

~ My Micro theme Challenges ~

 

    ~  The struggle I had with the micro theme was for starters trying to figure out what my topic was going to be about. I know there are multiple things to discuss.  Yet it was difficult to find out what that topic would be.  Also,  I had to continuously figure out what to add and remove. It's  a new way of writing. I was very previously used to structured writing. Where it has to go in a specific order and sources were needed. 

With the micro theme, I have more freedom with certain things I want to say, without a specific structure I have to go by.  I will say the freedom writing is hard when it comes to writing about anything because an essay for example, gives you something to discuss, then you write based on the given discussion. Even though I like having more freedom when it comes to writing, the main struggle is figuring out what your still going to say exactly in the writing, even with the option to write about mostly what you want. 

With this writing, It's like I have to think a lot more On what I'm going to write, Because it's based off of my thought. So I have to keep that in mind when putting my thoughts into the micro theme. You have to put your thoughts into an essay as well, but like I had said, It's more structured almost like they give you an idea of what to already think about, based on the topic your receiving. ~

~Ace Drive In ~

 

  

This is a picture of a meal I got over the summer. A older-styled restaurant named Ace Drive in at Joliet. I thought it would be nice to talk about this restaurant and this picture, since I associate it with many things related to Ace Drive-In. Mostly memories. It's a seasonal restaurant so it only opens around the summer and spring. you pull up while a staff member comes to your window and brings your order straight to your car on a tray, that actually, attaches to your window. One thing I will always come back for is The root beer, It tastes amazing. I wonder sometimes if they have a special recipe for there root beers since each one I have drank has a very distinctive taste that makes it different from other root beers I have had.  I had found out that Ace has been around since 1949!. I'll add a link if you are interested in looking at some of it's history.

Every time I look at this picture it always makes my mouth water and wish I would have ordered more and saved some as leftovers. The menu also comes with a good variety, ranging from burgers, hoagies, fries, hot dogs, pork tenderloin, etc. The meal that I show in this picture is a grilled chicken sandwich meal only lettuce, tomato, some fries, and a root beer. The usual meal I get from Ace. I think Most of their meals are nothing more than 12 dollars unless you get a BBQ quart beef which is 30 dollars. 

Ace drive in has car shows on Thursday's during the summer and spring. You get to enjoy some food and look at so many different types of cars as well as socialize with other people. I remember some of the owners would give people a chance to sit in the car and look around. Many of the Car owners have had their vehicles for years and kept them in neat condition. Sitting in them I would think about how The antique Cars seemed much more sturdier than cars today.  Every time I go to ace I remember the good food and events like the car show that connect me to here, the spring and summer. What was also so nice about eating there was sitting and enjoying the weather. if you go closer to noon, you can sometimes see a beautiful sunset. It closes down this fall and won't be opening up till next spring, and I'll be right there ordering another grilled chicken sand which with fries and a root beer. 

http://acedrivein.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4&Itemid=3