Author: Zoey

"No Thanks, Pete."

New Media 10 Core Competency Assessment

Zoey on

I can do many things. One of which is being able to relate to Christopher with his experiences of both being neurodivergent and struggling to communicate to various people he interacts with. For our podcast we used Audacity, which no one knew how to use. It all came together in the end after some fumbling with the program. As for the content we discussed, I really wish that I was able to talk more about the relatability of the story, but the time constraint made it very difficult to do so. The only good part was that I was able to squeeze a little in. I was unable to properly express it concisely. It felt as though I barely contributed to the book’s discussion. Hopefully I didn’t talk too much about things that would spoil the book, since it was also hard to describe it all without spoiling what happened. My group and I never had any major complications with one another, which made it fairly easy to record the audio. It was awkward at first, but it didn’t take long for the tension to settle. I would say that Luca and Andrew had done a great job with the podcast. They said a lot of very good and interesting points during the recording. I’m probably going to be docked marks for being unable to edit the audio (because I couldn’t bear to hear myself speak), but the rest of my group was good to edit it instead.

John Henderson Talk Reflection

Zoey on

All of what he shared about how he was treated and how his friends were treated as children stood out to me. It was all shocking, despite having read numerous articles and watched multiple videos on the topic. None of it would ever dampen the impact of trauma, let alone make me less shocked by it. The enabling of tyranny (as Henderson described it) had metaphorically burned a hole in me, especially when he started talking about physical abuse. That instance made me remember some things that had happened in my life, which I will not specify for obvious reasons. If my experience with physical abuse managed to affect me how it did, I could only imagine how it would have been like at a Residential School. 

Henderson said that “they tried to take my tongue,” which is similar to Rita Joe’s poem. She wrote “the talk you took away,” and “Let me find my talk / So I can teach you about me,” where both go hand-in-hand with what both of them went through. They were told by the Residential School workers that they were “stupid,” or “no good,” only because they couldn’t speak English. 

Last week, I wanted to help him with painting the tables and still want to. It wasn’t because I felt bad, or felt obligated to do; It was out of my innate desire to help people. I also find it to be really cool to learn about and help with. Hearing his story does inspire me to want to help him and other people, though my extreme amounts of fear (due to overstepping, or coming off as someone who enjoys tokenism) stops me from doing that.

Art Studio 11 Core Competency Self-Assessment Final

Zoey on

Critical Thinking

I deleted the original photo. This is a screenshot from Discord.

Really wanted to do more with it, but of course I absolutely flunked it. As a final project, I had no idea what I wanted to do. It felt like a piece that was supposed to convey how my about something, so I chose to draw how I felt about myself. Don’t get me wrong, I am terrible at bringing in my perspective in a confident way. Ironically, it did convey my terrible mindset in the process. Maybe I should have seen that before and worked with it.

This is a stark contrast to my earlier reflection, which doesn’t lighten this one up any further.

Art Studio Core Competency Self-Assessment

Zoey on

Personal/Social

A sort of terrible picture of an unfinished neurographic test piece.

I may not have gotten far with the piece, but I have managed to get closer to completing something for the first time. It is a bland piece of work I tried to finish. With the mistakes in clear view, it did not deter me from continuing my work on it. In the future, I will continue my attempts of sticking to my plans in art; “Trust the process,” if you will. Identifying my self worth would also benefit my growth as an artist and as a person.

Comparative Cultures Core Competency Self-Assessment

Zoey on

Collaboration

An image of a portion of the End Project of the Late Qing Dynasty.

I demonstrated the Core Competency through clear communication to the people in my group. Each one of us made sure that we were always aware of what changes are being made and possible ideas for the layout. The only contingency we had was working out the website Canva. The website’s layout and formatting took time to get used to, though we all managed to figure it out. Everyone was very enthusiastic about working together, which built a positive group structure. This led to the project going quite smoothly without too much unnecessary stress. Next time, we can work on reducing procrastination by reminding each other, or find a time where we can all work outside of school.

Most Memorable Food Experience

Zoey on
A photo of Bún bò Huế

My most memorable food experience is when my mom makes Bún bò Huế (a Vietnamese dish). My mom rarely makes it, but when she does it tastes amazing. She would be standing in the kitchen carefully adding ingredients for at least 3 hours. The house would have a rich savory smell when I come home from school, instantly looking at the large pot of boiling broth. Bún bò Huế is significant to me because it tastes good and the restaurant I go to eat (When my mom doesn’t make it) at is the same one when there is some family gatherings (In a sense), but it started with a dentist appointment. When I was 11 or 12, I went to get fillings at a dentist’s office with my dad and sister but (and when I was able to eat without messing up said fillings) I was hungry after, so my dad decided to go to a nearby restaurant so satisfy my ever so growing hunger. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant not knowing that the family who runs the business has a daughter who works at the desk in the dentist’s office. As my dad was mingling with the staff I was thinking about what to order. My dad decided to get Bún bò Huế, so I wanted to try it too. In the end, I had a blast eating at the place. The food I ate that day made me crave it whenever we drive to Vancouver.

Cheek Cell Lab

Zoey on

In the science lab, we looked at slides with our cheek cells on them under a microscope. The slides were made by using a toothpick to scrape cheek cells from inside the mouth, and spread it onto a slide. after getting it on the slide, we put one drop of blue dye to make the cells visible (they appear as blue/purple blobs), and finally topping our slides off with a cover slip.

Cheek Cells under a microscope at medium power (100x magnification)
Cells under the microscope at high power (400x magnification)

Although it may have been hard for other people to take the photos of their cells, I found it to be very easy. Zooming on the cell wasn’t as difficult as I thought. My slide didn’t have as many cells as most people, so I found that looking for cells to take photos of was the hardest part for me.