hirakismail's blog

Hira Ismail

Final Web Paper # 4

Attached are the geometric shapes and our attempt to represent them!

They have been scanned side to side so it is easier to see the original and the drawing on one single page.

Enjoy :)

(This is for Sruthi, Graham, and I )

So as I decided last time, I wanted to walk the stone bridge at night. I went this time as the sun had already started setting, and it struck me how quiet it was. Or rather how quiet it became, because as I was descending the hill, I could clearly hear the ducks/geese quacking in the pond. When I got down to the lake however and decided to cross the fence, they quieted down, probably sensing my presence. When I go in the late afternoons, there is often so much background noise; either the athletics teams are cheering or there is some traffic noise. Eventually though, they quacked lightly and shifted their positions in the pond. I think some were settling and trying to sleep. This is the first time in all my visits that I've gotten to see ducks, so I was very pleased and excited by this. As I stood out on the bridge, I remember thinking that animal life can be very noisy too; it's not just humans who can be loud. I could hear the ducks all the way from Goodhart when I was approaching.

I find the Mill Creek excursion or the prospect of walking along a river the most appealing. In my 2nd Web Paper, I proposed picking up the litter along Rhoads Pond, and Prof Dalke suggested possibly fitting that activity into our walk along Mill Creek, if that is what we end up choosing. As for the walk along a river, I think that would be a useful trip; we could treat it like a Thoreauvian Walk and amble and let things happen along the way. Part of the class might be structured, maybe we could have some activities, but I think kind of letting the experience happen along the way might have its merits too.

I visited the site in the snow/sleet and at night. These were two major changes to how I am used to seeing the Pond, so I found this to be a new experience. The water was dark, the trees were barely lit up by the lights from Rhoads dorm, so I did not venture out on the rock bridge this time. I did however stand at the fence and freeze. The cold has a way of waking me up, and it was snowing and the wind was very strong. I was so distracted by all these elements that I could barely pay attention to the site itself. It's been such a long time since I've seen snow, and coming from Arizona originally, I only really get to experience it when I'm here. So I was ecstatic, couldn't stay still, or pay attention to my surroundings much. The one thing I did notice though was the water. It was glistening in the surrounding lamplight and it literally looked like it was casting its own light rather than reflecting projected light. Once I noticed the water, I paid more attention; it was easy to see the rain drops cutting into the water, melding with it, and moving it. The water levels grew slowly higher and it was so so cold. I remeber feeling so overjoyed and all of my surroundings were friendly this time, rather than intimidating like they were during my Thoreauvian walk in the night. I thought of Sara G.'s post about how we project our own feelings onto our surroundings, perceiving our surroundings through the tunnel of our emotions. That felt just about right; I feel like that was precisely what was happening in this situation.

Hira Ismail

November 5, 2012 

Web Paper Event # 2

Class Proposal

     In my initial Thoreauvian walk, what I concentrated on was my walk amongst the trees, and my varying reactions to the trees at night versus in the day. This time, I ended up concentrating on something that has been tugging at the back of my mind, which made me wonder about its presence on the rest of the campus. While doing my site-sits throughout this semester, I’ve been noticing how much waste has been left around the area of Rhoads Pond. This made me wonder how often people actually do visit the pond, not just to look at it from afar, but to explore and walk along the edges. There are wine bottles and plastic bags and forgotten balls. I’ve seen cigarette packs and many other various items strewn around the bridge, and some have made their way into the water itself. My proposal for a class session then would be to have our entire class go to Rhoads Pond in order to clean up the area. Throughout the class, we have explored ways in which to represent our environment, in order to influence our community to help restore it. I think it would be useful to participate in restoration ourselves. The site-sits have been designed with the idea that we as students should really know and understand our campus before we graduate and lose the chance. Having a class in which we clean and leave the grounds on which our campus lies healthy would be the natural next step.