Standing at twenty-nine thousand feet, Everest towers over most of the surrounding mountaintops. Climbing Everest is a task that should only be trusted by people with motivation, dedication and dependability. In the novel Into Thin Air, John Krakauer climbs Everest in the deadliest of conditions. That trip to Everest killed one and twenty-three other attempted to make it down the mountain alive. Rob Hall led his group on an expedition the he had completed many times before. The confidence was mainly what led the group to disaster, because Hall had such a great success rate to the summit, I believe that he slacked off this time.
Motivation came in many different ways in this novel. Some of the climbers were motivated just by seeing the mountain, some because they have tried scaling the mountain before and had to turn back due to lack of oxygen. Many of the climbers have attempted the mountain before but have not successfully reached the summit due to weather conditions. However they all were motivated to reach the top. The question is; when can motivation overcome physical powers to result in death or stupid decisions? In chapter 12 one of the climbers Doug told the others that he was going to keep climbing until he ran out of oxygen. In order to have this type of thinking he need some motivation so he can reach the summit.
Climbing up that mountain alone in those conditions is dedication. When Sandy Pittman was dragged down the mountain that wad hard for Jon because he had to pull her down the steep incline while her crampons were slicing through his jacket. He was dedicated to get her alive and didn’t want to leave her for dead and luckily she could climb down herself after a while. Not just Jon but all the climbers showed these traits when they stayed in the freezing conditions, risking body parts to the harsh cold, just so the can say, I conquered Everest.
Crossing a crevasse is the most dangerous part of the whole climb says Rob Hall. In chapter six when the group had to cross over the crevasses in order to get to the base camp they were required to be tied to a robe at all times. The rope was used to make sure one person didn’t fall into a crevasse. This made the climbers a lot more dependant with their climbing abilities. Being dependable as a climber helps the team as a whole. When the team is in a life or death situation, the team requires the mental and physical help of the others. None of the climbers would have been able to descend the mountain alone in horrid conditions. They depended on each other just like the whole team depended on Hall to get them down to safety alive and all in one piece.
Yes, there might have been a terrible disaster that killed one and injured many but whose fault was it you might ask. It was no ones fault, but some want to blame it on Hall because he was the one who led the group into the disaster. The qualities of everyone made them fit to climb had nothing to do with the disaster that occurred. Everyone on the expedition just got stuck in a place where they didn’t want to be. Therefore the events on Everest happened for a reason and that reason has taught all other climbers a lesson to not climb in those conditions.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Into This Air essay (rough)
Analyze how specific mental and emotional qualities make a person fit to successfully climb Everest, but also possibly lead to disaster:
When a person is going to try and achieve something that is hard for them and requires great amounts of effort physically and emotionally it becomes very hard on the body. If you say to yourself "I can Do it, and I will do it" this gives you extreme support. When you become confident in what you and set your mind to something you have a better chance to complete that task. But there is a down side to this and it is called over confidence. This happens when a person thinks they can do something that they really can't. On Everest you need to know your limits and when to stop.
The phrase if you put your mind to it you will succeed it true in many cases. When the guys on the mountain were stuck in situations where they were really pushed to their limits they really had to put their minds to work to succeed……
Physical Strength: This is the most important quality that someone needs to be fit to climb Everest. When do these become vital in situations like the ones in the book?
How these contrast to lead to disaster? What were the steps that lead up to the disaster? What happened and how did it happen? What could have happened differently to make things go better?
Conclusion: bring all these ideas together and re-visit the question
When a person is going to try and achieve something that is hard for them and requires great amounts of effort physically and emotionally it becomes very hard on the body. If you say to yourself "I can Do it, and I will do it" this gives you extreme support. When you become confident in what you and set your mind to something you have a better chance to complete that task. But there is a down side to this and it is called over confidence. This happens when a person thinks they can do something that they really can't. On Everest you need to know your limits and when to stop.
The phrase if you put your mind to it you will succeed it true in many cases. When the guys on the mountain were stuck in situations where they were really pushed to their limits they really had to put their minds to work to succeed……
Physical Strength: This is the most important quality that someone needs to be fit to climb Everest. When do these become vital in situations like the ones in the book?
How these contrast to lead to disaster? What were the steps that lead up to the disaster? What happened and how did it happen? What could have happened differently to make things go better?
Conclusion: bring all these ideas together and re-visit the question
Friday, December 4, 2009
Blog # 27
1. How do specific mental and emotional qualities (such as confidence, self-control, and more) make a person fit to climb Everest but also possibly lead to disaster?
When a person is going to try and achieve something that is hard for them and requires great amounts of effort physically and emotionally it becomes very hard on the body. If you say to yourself "I can Do it, and I will do it" this gives you extreme support. When you become confident in what you and set your mind to something you have a better chance to complete that task. But there is a down side to this and it is called over confidence. This happens when a person thinks they can do something that they really can't. On Everest you need to know your limits and when to stop.
2. What is the significance that more guides than clients died on Everest in the events of the story?
I think that this is significant because it shows that the guides took their lives to try and help their clients which is what they were supposed to do. The guides could have been over confident in their climbing which caused them to come across this problem.
When a person is going to try and achieve something that is hard for them and requires great amounts of effort physically and emotionally it becomes very hard on the body. If you say to yourself "I can Do it, and I will do it" this gives you extreme support. When you become confident in what you and set your mind to something you have a better chance to complete that task. But there is a down side to this and it is called over confidence. This happens when a person thinks they can do something that they really can't. On Everest you need to know your limits and when to stop.
2. What is the significance that more guides than clients died on Everest in the events of the story?
I think that this is significant because it shows that the guides took their lives to try and help their clients which is what they were supposed to do. The guides could have been over confident in their climbing which caused them to come across this problem.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Blog # 26
http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/contests.html
Up to 5 pictures.
November 2nd is the deadline.
must be in jpg or gif format and cannot exceed 4mb in size
My work will be accepted based on these requirements.
Up to 5 pictures.
November 2nd is the deadline.
must be in jpg or gif format and cannot exceed 4mb in size
My work will be accepted based on these requirements.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Gatsby
The American Dream is seen in many different ways. The dream of the Americans today is different than the Americans in the 1900’s. In the early years of the 1900’s the American Dream was perceived at freedom and as immigrants coming here for freedom. As the years went on a couple decades later the dream changed to money and power. This changed the values of the Americans to possessions and making money, which made them greedier, and want more. The story of the “The Great Gatsby” F. Scott Fitzgerald narrates the life of Nick who is caught up in the middle of the wealth and greed his friends are going through.
As the values change for Americans the author shows this through a series of events that makes it very clear that the lifestyle was different. Fitzgerald shows the how different the rich act than the poor and how women don’t love the men for who they are only what they have. Fitzgerald uses a symbol in the book to represent god looking over the characters by a billboard with eyes looking over this run down city called the city of ashes. Tom and Gatsby represent the rich as the main characters and Gatsby has these extravagant parties while tom is cheating on his wife with a poor woman from this city of ashes. The billboard is referred to many times in the book to signify that god is always watching what they are doing.The locations of Gatsby and Tom are very different because Gatsby lives in the new money town and Tom lives in the old money. This shows how their type of money classified people and not just by whom they were.
Another way the American Dream was changed was the way women saw the men. In the book Tom is cheating on his wife Daisy for this poor woman who is married to a man of the same class as her. The only reason why she is with Tom is because he is so wealthy and he buys her whatever she wants. Gatsby, who is in love with Daisy Toms wife, throws these big parties to get the attention of Daisy. The way he gets her attention is by spending money and she only likes him for his class. If Gatsby didn’t have as much money as he did then Daisy would not have noticed him. Tom who is cheating on his wife thinks he is tough and he can do whatever he wants. He has the reputation of kind of a hard ass who gets away whit everything. When he gets pulled over by a cop he just flashes a card and the cop says sorry and walks away. Also he breaks the woman’s nose he is cheating on. This symbolizes his power that he has in the book.
The way Fitzgerald writes the book is meant to make you think about the little details that are going on for example towards the end of the book the weather is getting really hot when everyone in the story is reaching their boiling points with each other and they are about to explode. The values of the characters have not changed much at all it is just the actions they do to change the way you think of them and that was the point of Fitzgerald. For example Gatsby was very mysterious in the beginning and seemed like this great guy who spent all this money just to have fun. In the end you find out that he didn’t do it for himself but just to get attention. Fitzgerald leaves you thinking what the real meaning and value of the situations mean. Its not a book that you can just read page by page, you need to gather the information from events and link ideas together to gather the real meaning of the book.
As the values change for Americans the author shows this through a series of events that makes it very clear that the lifestyle was different. Fitzgerald shows the how different the rich act than the poor and how women don’t love the men for who they are only what they have. Fitzgerald uses a symbol in the book to represent god looking over the characters by a billboard with eyes looking over this run down city called the city of ashes. Tom and Gatsby represent the rich as the main characters and Gatsby has these extravagant parties while tom is cheating on his wife with a poor woman from this city of ashes. The billboard is referred to many times in the book to signify that god is always watching what they are doing.The locations of Gatsby and Tom are very different because Gatsby lives in the new money town and Tom lives in the old money. This shows how their type of money classified people and not just by whom they were.
Another way the American Dream was changed was the way women saw the men. In the book Tom is cheating on his wife Daisy for this poor woman who is married to a man of the same class as her. The only reason why she is with Tom is because he is so wealthy and he buys her whatever she wants. Gatsby, who is in love with Daisy Toms wife, throws these big parties to get the attention of Daisy. The way he gets her attention is by spending money and she only likes him for his class. If Gatsby didn’t have as much money as he did then Daisy would not have noticed him. Tom who is cheating on his wife thinks he is tough and he can do whatever he wants. He has the reputation of kind of a hard ass who gets away whit everything. When he gets pulled over by a cop he just flashes a card and the cop says sorry and walks away. Also he breaks the woman’s nose he is cheating on. This symbolizes his power that he has in the book.
The way Fitzgerald writes the book is meant to make you think about the little details that are going on for example towards the end of the book the weather is getting really hot when everyone in the story is reaching their boiling points with each other and they are about to explode. The values of the characters have not changed much at all it is just the actions they do to change the way you think of them and that was the point of Fitzgerald. For example Gatsby was very mysterious in the beginning and seemed like this great guy who spent all this money just to have fun. In the end you find out that he didn’t do it for himself but just to get attention. Fitzgerald leaves you thinking what the real meaning and value of the situations mean. Its not a book that you can just read page by page, you need to gather the information from events and link ideas together to gather the real meaning of the book.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Blog # 24
http://www.sandiego6.com/news/local/story/Sewage-Spill-from-Mission-Valley-to-Ocean-Beach/qWYuIGp6oEeMp2ZNMf20lQ.cspx
There was a sewage spill in mission valley that caused beach closures in OB. This is useful to my project because the spills in mission valley are related to the ones at PB point because sewage water goes into both of the bodys of water.
http://www.thelog.com/news/logNewsArticle.aspx?x=10147
A lawsuit is going on against the city of San Diego and the SD bay over sewage spills. The clean up costs exceed $100 million. This relates to my project because it is another sewage spill controversy that is going on in San Diego
http://legacy.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050526/news_7m26beach.html
This is an article about the beach pollution in San Diego after it rains and how bad it is. It talks about PB point and how people get sick from the water. This relates to my project because it is about my question and it is useful information that I can use.
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/11/13/tiny-robots-to-monitor-the-oceans/
Some micro robots are being invented to map out the oceans. These can be used to see how pollution moves through the water and even how far it can travel. This can be used for my project because these are the types of things that can be useful to find what the polluted water does.
http://www.fws.gov/Endangered/bulletin/95/coastal.html
Dani's article that she found interested me because I really haven't heard much about the protection of any birds in San Diego so it was good to hear that they are being protected.
There was a sewage spill in mission valley that caused beach closures in OB. This is useful to my project because the spills in mission valley are related to the ones at PB point because sewage water goes into both of the bodys of water.
http://www.thelog.com/news/logNewsArticle.aspx?x=10147
A lawsuit is going on against the city of San Diego and the SD bay over sewage spills. The clean up costs exceed $100 million. This relates to my project because it is another sewage spill controversy that is going on in San Diego
http://legacy.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050526/news_7m26beach.html
This is an article about the beach pollution in San Diego after it rains and how bad it is. It talks about PB point and how people get sick from the water. This relates to my project because it is about my question and it is useful information that I can use.
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/11/13/tiny-robots-to-monitor-the-oceans/
Some micro robots are being invented to map out the oceans. These can be used to see how pollution moves through the water and even how far it can travel. This can be used for my project because these are the types of things that can be useful to find what the polluted water does.
http://www.fws.gov/Endangered/bulletin/95/coastal.html
Dani's article that she found interested me because I really haven't heard much about the protection of any birds in San Diego so it was good to hear that they are being protected.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Blog # 23
The city has filed a lawsuit against the San Diego Unified Port District.
The most important information is the numbers they show and how specific they are.
What is missing is some information that could have been presented about how they propose to change this problem and not just state the problem.
This plays a role in my project because this is an example of the big issue of pollution that is going on around San Diego and how much of a controversy it is.
The most important information is the numbers they show and how specific they are.
What is missing is some information that could have been presented about how they propose to change this problem and not just state the problem.
This plays a role in my project because this is an example of the big issue of pollution that is going on around San Diego and how much of a controversy it is.
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