#journal1

Students: make sure you've read the assigned Forbes article on "Scannable Content" before creating your first post:

Acknowledge that writing is hard. Write it down. Then write about how you’re going to make writing happen. How will you find the balance in yourself to combine willpower with relaxation, stubbornness with joy? Write about how you’ve struck this balance in the past, with writing, a sport, a musical instrument—anything you’ve successfully learned to do.

References:

Heffron, Jack. The Writer’s Idea Book. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2000. Print.

Heffron, Jack. The Writer’s Idea Workshop. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2003. Print.

Sometimes I really get this vibe that stuff are happening too fast. Or I just can’t believe that those things are happening to me. Either the good ones or the bad ones. To be honest...there was a time that the bad came in a greater amount and I believed that I deserved them. Now, the wheel is being turned around and I’m starting to believe that both kinds of things keep happening...it depends on how you deal with them.

Since I’ve started this blog, my life got turned around. I can barely remember the bullies from my school in New York. I started this blog as one Noelle and now I’m completely another one. I feel rather new. I’ve learnt lots of stuff, went through a lot and now I’m here, wondering if I’ll keep doing this blog journal thing to track down a progress. My progress. Call me crazy, I just...today, it was the first time in years that I stopped in the middle of Central Park and looked at the view, on my way to work. And the existential crisis has struck.

Wed Aug 23rd  Entry #1 

I’ve recently begun work on a vegan activism video. It will feature a song from Bright Eyes and be inspirational, emotionally heavy, but hopefully up-lifting. I’ll use found footage from famous youtubers Earhling Ed, Joey Carbstrong, James Aspey, and more. Wish me luck! Follow me on social media to get updates on everything I’m working on and my future activism. 

Journal # 1

The subject that I saw from my scibble is originally is a rose. However, after days of looking at my paper, I felt like it lacks something. It felt like it was plain-looking that's why I colored it and added details like a butterfly to give it life. The thing is, I have nothing but an almost empty marker, my everyday ballpen, and my red, blue, and orange low-quality markers. I tried to make it pretty as much as I could though.

I think the reason why I saw a rose from my scribble is because I always get a glimpse of my boardmate's art, who also happens to enroll at an art appreciation course, illustrates a bouquet full of flowers.

This week, I have learned about Primary and Secondary Sources as part of my Readings in Philippine History class. These are the classification of where the sources are found or collected, which later on determine their reliability. For instance, a Primary Source is an information received firsthand, giving you direct access to the source of information. This means that this is raw and straight from the one sending out the information. Examples of which are speeches, autobiographies, letters, and like what I’m writing right now – a journal. These types of information or pieces of evidence come right from the speaker and are best found if doing research close to the time of the information being shared.

On the other hand, we also have Secondary Sources. These are the chunks of information that have already gone through possible rewording, filtering, and relaying since they describe, interpret, evaluate, or analyze information from primary sources. When the writers of these sources obtain information from their primaries, they are already processed to be shared with either a new or broader audience, making these types of information accessible. Examples of Secondary Sources are books, documentaries, encyclopedias, or even news articles. 

With my newly obtained and prior knowledge about this topic, I have seen both the advantages and disadvantages of both classifications of sources as they are both available and accessible to students like me who do a lot of research for my classes. Primary sources are seen to be more accurate as they come as raw as they can get, directly from the person who holds the information. This means it is more reliable to depend on. However, these pieces of information are hard to obtain, especially if you are doing research and studies about past events and phenomena. Secondary sources are easier to find as they are more available and could be constantly reproduced as new information is collected. Although, as they become more available and more writers write about topics from secondary sources as well, there could be a possibility that these pieces of information become unreliable as there might be changes in views, perspectives, opinions, and factors that affect the information. Nonetheless, I have learned from the former lessons that both sources are important as they both lead us towards the raw or primary source – which is the truth worth finding. 

Personally, I view history better and see its clarity from accounts from primary sources as they are seen in their full glory, understanding the different historical events better. However, I believe that not everyone has shared their thoughts on past historical events, thus the lack of such sources. This leads me to rely more on secondary sources as they are more available to students like me who have no prior knowledge of unraveling history in its truest form. As a student who is being opened and exposed to different historical phenomena, I greatly appreciate the authors of secondary sources as they are the reason we know a lot about the historical events, today. The only question left for me to find out is how these types of information are filtered to be produced as secondary sources or in shorter terms, historiography: How do you write secondary sources whilst making sure that the entirety of the historical account is kept? I see this as very important as this affects how people view information and the integrity of each piece’s author. 

Learning about everything in a single lesson is a chunk of information that I am glad to learn as it has renewed my perspective of how I view learning and informational materials. I have appreciated them more as I am aware of the tedious process it has to go through. 

sources:

Healey Library. (2019). Research guides: Primary sources: A research guide: Primary vs. secondary. Libguides.com. https://umb.libguides.com/PrimarySources/secondary