Bootcamp
Week 1
Monday February 3, 2014
Today was the first day of MPC semestre numero cuatro. Can I believe it? Nope. This has gone way too fast, it hasn’t been that long ago since I doubted into entering an unknown yet an interesting request. To this day I am not even an inch of regret of having made the decision that had lead me to where I am now. My bedroom. Doing a doodle drawing, being creative in my everyday choices. Trying new things which I would never before have dare to tried, knowing that I am not good at it and insisting in watching someone else do the job for me. But as for today, that mentality is now over. I am the creative mind behind every project and idea in my life and I want to take advantage of that as much as possible, in order for later on feel proud about myself giving me more confident when I walk around the city looking for opportunities.
Ok the mpc today was refreshing, revitalizing, and energizing. The energy in our group was so relaxed yet so profound. Every comment of my peers was full with curiosity and wonder. I was amazed on how much we’ve progressed along these few months, it has been an experience and a learning process that will never be reproducible in other part of the world, and I am very proud to be part of this selected group which I now am glad to call my friends.
We played a game called “to tell you the truth”, it was funny and it was interesting knowing a story from each of us. Afterwards we watched the call of the entrepreneur. A great film explaining the causes of wealth and the importance of capitalism and entrepreneurs spirit. We later on had a dialogue about what creates wealth and what is wealth? We got to an agreement that wealth was not about money, but about an exchange of value on something. This has to do with the spirit of an entrepreneur that in a sense every human being has it, in the way of a necessity and the imagination of one to picture oneself a better future for one or for the entire humanity. For one to be an entrepreneur one has to take risks and be brave enough to accept the consequences and that is what makes all the difference between an entrepreneur and one person with only great ideas, action.
After lunch we watched another movie called “Persepolis”, I learned the importance of not labeling someone for what he believes or his political or religious status. There is a great difference in meaning and language that as Adler says we need to come into terms before start to criticize the other person believes. Marjane was a very curious child that in her family was inculcated the interest in politics and the interest of expressing with freedom, up until the regime of totalitarianism entered to Iran. She had to leave the country in order to grow in a freer country and were she could develop her ideas more openly. She had a lot of trouble during her life and encountering herself with the law that ordered her to act in a certain way, which was unquestionable and it took her the complete freedom she has a human being.
It really hurted me to see this images and think to myself that this story is true. And in many part of the world this is happening still. In what era do politicians believe we live? Why they believe suppressing creativity and freedom is so prosperous to the nation? What is it about it that gives rise to this kind of ideals and philosophies? Under what logic is this possible?
I feel completely emphatic with Marjane in the sense that one has so many wishes and desires in life and sometimes they can be crashed just by a kind of political view and destroys an entire nation of hopeful individuals which could almost not grow spiritually nor economically because of the restrains presented by the government.
Today was the first day of MPC semestre numero cuatro. Can I believe it? Nope. This has gone way too fast, it hasn’t been that long ago since I doubted into entering an unknown yet an interesting request. To this day I am not even an inch of regret of having made the decision that had lead me to where I am now. My bedroom. Doing a doodle drawing, being creative in my everyday choices. Trying new things which I would never before have dare to tried, knowing that I am not good at it and insisting in watching someone else do the job for me. But as for today, that mentality is now over. I am the creative mind behind every project and idea in my life and I want to take advantage of that as much as possible, in order for later on feel proud about myself giving me more confident when I walk around the city looking for opportunities.
Ok the mpc today was refreshing, revitalizing, and energizing. The energy in our group was so relaxed yet so profound. Every comment of my peers was full with curiosity and wonder. I was amazed on how much we’ve progressed along these few months, it has been an experience and a learning process that will never be reproducible in other part of the world, and I am very proud to be part of this selected group which I now am glad to call my friends.
We played a game called “to tell you the truth”, it was funny and it was interesting knowing a story from each of us. Afterwards we watched the call of the entrepreneur. A great film explaining the causes of wealth and the importance of capitalism and entrepreneurs spirit. We later on had a dialogue about what creates wealth and what is wealth? We got to an agreement that wealth was not about money, but about an exchange of value on something. This has to do with the spirit of an entrepreneur that in a sense every human being has it, in the way of a necessity and the imagination of one to picture oneself a better future for one or for the entire humanity. For one to be an entrepreneur one has to take risks and be brave enough to accept the consequences and that is what makes all the difference between an entrepreneur and one person with only great ideas, action.
After lunch we watched another movie called “Persepolis”, I learned the importance of not labeling someone for what he believes or his political or religious status. There is a great difference in meaning and language that as Adler says we need to come into terms before start to criticize the other person believes. Marjane was a very curious child that in her family was inculcated the interest in politics and the interest of expressing with freedom, up until the regime of totalitarianism entered to Iran. She had to leave the country in order to grow in a freer country and were she could develop her ideas more openly. She had a lot of trouble during her life and encountering herself with the law that ordered her to act in a certain way, which was unquestionable and it took her the complete freedom she has a human being.
It really hurted me to see this images and think to myself that this story is true. And in many part of the world this is happening still. In what era do politicians believe we live? Why they believe suppressing creativity and freedom is so prosperous to the nation? What is it about it that gives rise to this kind of ideals and philosophies? Under what logic is this possible?
I feel completely emphatic with Marjane in the sense that one has so many wishes and desires in life and sometimes they can be crashed just by a kind of political view and destroys an entire nation of hopeful individuals which could almost not grow spiritually nor economically because of the restrains presented by the government.
Tuesday February 4th 2014
Today as the second day of Aanvallen started we had a very brief morning meeting with Andrew to talk about our experiences in our holiday vacation and how we managed to tackle the work which was in our table from third semester. Afterwards we joined the first years in order to debrief yesterday’s movies and be able to compare both films. It was nice to hear them talk about their understandings of Agora, as well as the thoughts they had for Persepolis. Until one point I was ok, until I said that what Marjane was looking for after all is a human pursuit and that is freedom. Nacho argued that what she did was giving value to something else, which was freedom but then again I don’t know how he seemed to contradict myself, obviously she valued freedom that’s why she did all there was to do in her part in order to grow and find that environment were she could practice her freedom.
Afterwards I had a very short chat with Kata that asked me an advice regarding some MPC work. As I had been through the same struggle I could give her an honest advice and one, which had helped me to tackle the work. After listening to her say that she always had that expectation from herself of being the one to finish things first and always be ready on time for dialogues, I noticed she is being to harsh on herself and the label which she and others have given her. I just told her she needed to relax with that and be able to allow herself for mistakes, because as time passes we all start valuing different things and stop giving certain importance to others. It is just a matter of asking yourself why are you doing the work? Because if your answer is, to turn it in, then you are missing the whole point of the MPC, it is for your own personal knowledge and what you will later on build upon that. Plus I said to her that our problems seem very small when we look the immensity of the universe that surrounds us.
We later had a workshop for Getting Things Done, with Manuel Pullilo. We went through the chart of recollecting all the information that is in your head for later on process it and organize it, reviewing and then finally doing it. Chacho later on gave us an example of his work on X-mind which was very neatly the only thing is that you need to constantly change manually each category. But it gave us great hints on how to start with the right foot.
Daniel Cuervo gave us a presentation about Debate. I forgot how much passionate I felt about this topic. I had some experience in school and now I am glad we are going to be able to practice it to the point to become great debaters. The main idea I got out of the presentation is that debate is not about arguing with people but about understanding the opponent’s idea and listening clearly where in their argument contradicts yours.
After lunch we watched a film that is called Press, Pause Play that Javi Parellada showed us, and it was amazing. I loved how they mixed the arts in this idea of technology and giving the message to expect the unexpected regarding the advancement of technology in music. Then when we gathered in the dialogue Isa asked a question which was very interesting to start exploring it: How is talent measured? Is it objective or subjective? The dialogue was so intense, I thought we were about to yell at each other, or I believe we did (as if Dani’s presentation was not clear hehe). But I understand it was a very nice topic, which could go on forever without having a definite conclusion as we were trying to define talent, and many of us have different definitions. Some said is ability and skills you are born with, others (or only I) thought that is the outcome of a serious of prior steps that took you effort to perform an outcome that you feel satisfied with. Then I asked the question that: Is someone who is followed by just one person is talented against a person that is followed by 100million?
What determines their talent as well as who? My answer to this is I am talented according to the set of value I set for myself and after accomplishing a task I will check them out as done if I feel satisfied with the outcome or not. But I am against of someone else judging your talent. Not a single person will understand the meaning behind your inspiration of creating something. That’s not logical
Well, for this I believe that there is still much more to dig and to understand that we are human beings that were born with zero abilities to walk or talk, and as we started to grow up we learned each faculty. And every step took us closer to our desire outcome. Sometimes some people have the ability to learn things faster than others but that doesn’t mean some people are not able to acquire the objective but it says that they need to take more effort to fight for it.
Today as the second day of Aanvallen started we had a very brief morning meeting with Andrew to talk about our experiences in our holiday vacation and how we managed to tackle the work which was in our table from third semester. Afterwards we joined the first years in order to debrief yesterday’s movies and be able to compare both films. It was nice to hear them talk about their understandings of Agora, as well as the thoughts they had for Persepolis. Until one point I was ok, until I said that what Marjane was looking for after all is a human pursuit and that is freedom. Nacho argued that what she did was giving value to something else, which was freedom but then again I don’t know how he seemed to contradict myself, obviously she valued freedom that’s why she did all there was to do in her part in order to grow and find that environment were she could practice her freedom.
Afterwards I had a very short chat with Kata that asked me an advice regarding some MPC work. As I had been through the same struggle I could give her an honest advice and one, which had helped me to tackle the work. After listening to her say that she always had that expectation from herself of being the one to finish things first and always be ready on time for dialogues, I noticed she is being to harsh on herself and the label which she and others have given her. I just told her she needed to relax with that and be able to allow herself for mistakes, because as time passes we all start valuing different things and stop giving certain importance to others. It is just a matter of asking yourself why are you doing the work? Because if your answer is, to turn it in, then you are missing the whole point of the MPC, it is for your own personal knowledge and what you will later on build upon that. Plus I said to her that our problems seem very small when we look the immensity of the universe that surrounds us.
We later had a workshop for Getting Things Done, with Manuel Pullilo. We went through the chart of recollecting all the information that is in your head for later on process it and organize it, reviewing and then finally doing it. Chacho later on gave us an example of his work on X-mind which was very neatly the only thing is that you need to constantly change manually each category. But it gave us great hints on how to start with the right foot.
Daniel Cuervo gave us a presentation about Debate. I forgot how much passionate I felt about this topic. I had some experience in school and now I am glad we are going to be able to practice it to the point to become great debaters. The main idea I got out of the presentation is that debate is not about arguing with people but about understanding the opponent’s idea and listening clearly where in their argument contradicts yours.
After lunch we watched a film that is called Press, Pause Play that Javi Parellada showed us, and it was amazing. I loved how they mixed the arts in this idea of technology and giving the message to expect the unexpected regarding the advancement of technology in music. Then when we gathered in the dialogue Isa asked a question which was very interesting to start exploring it: How is talent measured? Is it objective or subjective? The dialogue was so intense, I thought we were about to yell at each other, or I believe we did (as if Dani’s presentation was not clear hehe). But I understand it was a very nice topic, which could go on forever without having a definite conclusion as we were trying to define talent, and many of us have different definitions. Some said is ability and skills you are born with, others (or only I) thought that is the outcome of a serious of prior steps that took you effort to perform an outcome that you feel satisfied with. Then I asked the question that: Is someone who is followed by just one person is talented against a person that is followed by 100million?
What determines their talent as well as who? My answer to this is I am talented according to the set of value I set for myself and after accomplishing a task I will check them out as done if I feel satisfied with the outcome or not. But I am against of someone else judging your talent. Not a single person will understand the meaning behind your inspiration of creating something. That’s not logical
Well, for this I believe that there is still much more to dig and to understand that we are human beings that were born with zero abilities to walk or talk, and as we started to grow up we learned each faculty. And every step took us closer to our desire outcome. Sometimes some people have the ability to learn things faster than others but that doesn’t mean some people are not able to acquire the objective but it says that they need to take more effort to fight for it.
Wednesday February 5, 2014
Wow Wednesday’s are back! I once again am so thankful of studying in UFM, and in MPC, a career where I’ve found the libertarians ideas useful and can now apply them to my life and fight for them.
Throughout the day I’ve understand the importance of documenting my learning each day and why it is important. For the fact that I get to be more aware of the process and notice which topics I have enjoyed the most and specially which are the questions I’ve been asking myself.
The recurrent theme that has been along these weeks I’ve noticed is freedom. Today Fernando, a Spanish expert on communists violence came to talk to us about the horrible things the communist party did in order to defend their ideals and hoping their ideals to prevail against freedom of any kind. Up to the point were they went against nature, drying out entire seas and turning them into deserts causing 1000 deaths. This is just one example of the few he gave, another one is communist leaders exterminating towns that had under 5,000 habitants, and even killing up to 40 million of people. After listening to him I almost broke into tears. To believe in the fact that this was ordered by human beings, humans that believe to own the truth and have more power than the less privileged. My question to Fernando was that when did these people stopped killing, or how did they measured their ideals were prevailing. What he answered is that they had no measurement at all, what they expected is that everyone to be under their domain and if they refused they would kill them just like that all to defend their ideals. So to think this is incredible sad and not human at all, all this people lost their consciousness about the whole sense of belonging to a planet earth, were we are all of the same kind but yet are different and must be different in order to live in an evolving world were one can specialize in one thing and me on a another. He at last said that the best thing that could happen to a country is to be inequality, so there is room for innovation and creative of all different kinds of products and services. He couldn’t have said it more clear.
After lunch we started reading The Incredible Bread Machine, our approach was very relaxed and exciting. Bert offered us (Except pablito, diego and Grace who were missing) a cup of coffee, thanks God he did because I was falling asleep, hopefully next week I’ll be more adapted to the schedule. Well after all, we started reading the book which was written by 5 students from ages 23-26. The story that started all the discussion was about an Amish man who was in the fields with two of his horses when two IRS man came towards him to take the horses away from him, for the reason that he hadn’t payed his taxes. As they auction his horses they received $400 and because he owed $380 they gave him back $20. The main purpose of IRS is to take away money from you in order for when you are old and don’t have a monthly income you can receive that money. So the interesting part comes when this man who barely or not uses any services provided from the State, due to the fact of his religious views that the community in which he lives produces everything he needs, will be affected by the law. They will take away his income of the present in order to fulfill his income of the future. Is this logical even for a 10 year old? I don’t think so. What’s the story behind this dressed system?
Wow Wednesday’s are back! I once again am so thankful of studying in UFM, and in MPC, a career where I’ve found the libertarians ideas useful and can now apply them to my life and fight for them.
Throughout the day I’ve understand the importance of documenting my learning each day and why it is important. For the fact that I get to be more aware of the process and notice which topics I have enjoyed the most and specially which are the questions I’ve been asking myself.
The recurrent theme that has been along these weeks I’ve noticed is freedom. Today Fernando, a Spanish expert on communists violence came to talk to us about the horrible things the communist party did in order to defend their ideals and hoping their ideals to prevail against freedom of any kind. Up to the point were they went against nature, drying out entire seas and turning them into deserts causing 1000 deaths. This is just one example of the few he gave, another one is communist leaders exterminating towns that had under 5,000 habitants, and even killing up to 40 million of people. After listening to him I almost broke into tears. To believe in the fact that this was ordered by human beings, humans that believe to own the truth and have more power than the less privileged. My question to Fernando was that when did these people stopped killing, or how did they measured their ideals were prevailing. What he answered is that they had no measurement at all, what they expected is that everyone to be under their domain and if they refused they would kill them just like that all to defend their ideals. So to think this is incredible sad and not human at all, all this people lost their consciousness about the whole sense of belonging to a planet earth, were we are all of the same kind but yet are different and must be different in order to live in an evolving world were one can specialize in one thing and me on a another. He at last said that the best thing that could happen to a country is to be inequality, so there is room for innovation and creative of all different kinds of products and services. He couldn’t have said it more clear.
After lunch we started reading The Incredible Bread Machine, our approach was very relaxed and exciting. Bert offered us (Except pablito, diego and Grace who were missing) a cup of coffee, thanks God he did because I was falling asleep, hopefully next week I’ll be more adapted to the schedule. Well after all, we started reading the book which was written by 5 students from ages 23-26. The story that started all the discussion was about an Amish man who was in the fields with two of his horses when two IRS man came towards him to take the horses away from him, for the reason that he hadn’t payed his taxes. As they auction his horses they received $400 and because he owed $380 they gave him back $20. The main purpose of IRS is to take away money from you in order for when you are old and don’t have a monthly income you can receive that money. So the interesting part comes when this man who barely or not uses any services provided from the State, due to the fact of his religious views that the community in which he lives produces everything he needs, will be affected by the law. They will take away his income of the present in order to fulfill his income of the future. Is this logical even for a 10 year old? I don’t think so. What’s the story behind this dressed system?
Thursday February 6, 2014
Today I am very tired and that is the main reason why I am not writing and trying out this new app that is named Circus Ponies Notebook, which has a feature of voice recording and its awesome. Probably I am still very tired because this day was full with intense emotions, since Majo’s morning meeting was this game named Guesstures Andrew, Javi P, Isa, and, Grace were in my team. I always get nervous in this game because of the excitement and the doubt that I will not be able to act out things well. We were losing, and in exactly in the the last run we needed 14 points and Javi made a great job making the mimes and we were able to guess the 14 points, it was incredible.
Around 11:00, the most important things of the day occurred, we had Heurisitca which Rocío and Sarita came to talk about the main idea of the program and asked us about our projects and what was all about. I felt nervous because the idea of my project is not yet polished and I am afraid to be critiqued because I still not know what to do about it, I am not feeling certain of my choice. Yet. I felt excited to listen to the program syllabus and its just amazing how advanced we are in our project each of us had a very interesting project, so I am anxiously waiting on the advancements. We also had time to set rubrics for the class, and we could name them however we wanted, and one was “a calzon quitado”, I couldn’t stop laughing at this moment. I enjoy being around my peers, I completely become more creative around them. They added us to a facebook group, whatspap, and that made me feel very connected with them, because they were very attentive with us, and it’s amazing the labor they are doing with respects improving Guate by doing entrepreneurship.
After we had design and innovation, which was very cool, we learned about design thinking, and we were showed a video about innovating the supermarket’s car. Later we talked about the brief, which is a framework which helps you guide were you are to start. I was name the captain of my group because I was one of the person that most participated, in class and that made me feel very proud. I chose my peers, and we discussed some solution to a problem that UFM has to have. We got to the conclusion that students need to connect into a interdisciplinary space, getting together form different faculties and connect.
As I came back home I started using the new method for GTD, it really works, I am amazed how many things I checked off as done. Is 10:08 pm and my eyes are almost closed I am about to sleep.
Today I am very tired and that is the main reason why I am not writing and trying out this new app that is named Circus Ponies Notebook, which has a feature of voice recording and its awesome. Probably I am still very tired because this day was full with intense emotions, since Majo’s morning meeting was this game named Guesstures Andrew, Javi P, Isa, and, Grace were in my team. I always get nervous in this game because of the excitement and the doubt that I will not be able to act out things well. We were losing, and in exactly in the the last run we needed 14 points and Javi made a great job making the mimes and we were able to guess the 14 points, it was incredible.
Around 11:00, the most important things of the day occurred, we had Heurisitca which Rocío and Sarita came to talk about the main idea of the program and asked us about our projects and what was all about. I felt nervous because the idea of my project is not yet polished and I am afraid to be critiqued because I still not know what to do about it, I am not feeling certain of my choice. Yet. I felt excited to listen to the program syllabus and its just amazing how advanced we are in our project each of us had a very interesting project, so I am anxiously waiting on the advancements. We also had time to set rubrics for the class, and we could name them however we wanted, and one was “a calzon quitado”, I couldn’t stop laughing at this moment. I enjoy being around my peers, I completely become more creative around them. They added us to a facebook group, whatspap, and that made me feel very connected with them, because they were very attentive with us, and it’s amazing the labor they are doing with respects improving Guate by doing entrepreneurship.
After we had design and innovation, which was very cool, we learned about design thinking, and we were showed a video about innovating the supermarket’s car. Later we talked about the brief, which is a framework which helps you guide were you are to start. I was name the captain of my group because I was one of the person that most participated, in class and that made me feel very proud. I chose my peers, and we discussed some solution to a problem that UFM has to have. We got to the conclusion that students need to connect into a interdisciplinary space, getting together form different faculties and connect.
As I came back home I started using the new method for GTD, it really works, I am amazed how many things I checked off as done. Is 10:08 pm and my eyes are almost closed I am about to sleep.
Friday February 7, 2014
As I look back when I was about to get out of my bed, if someone would have told me a little debrief of how my day would go, I wouldn’t have even hesitated a little bit to stand up or even jump off my bed. Yes. Our day went out pretty productive and I learned so much.
First of all we had a common morning meeting with the first years and we played guesstures, my team once again won. There is something in this game that makes me feel the adrenaline in my entire body, and somehow I transmit it to the group.
Because last semester we ended up Eric Graf’s class in a hurry we retook the topic and started to talk about our sonnets, the sonnets in general and the essay of a sonnet we did for last semester. What I learned from sonnets is that the same message has different meaning for each of the individual that reads it, in a way the reader feels identified and he is the only one able to attach meaning to the words. As well as that sonnets, in the Rennaisance were created in order to answer metaphysical questions and saw the individual as a human being.
We later had a free schedule up to 11:30 to work on the handbook. I am in the team of Mpc Methodology, were we have included Morning Meetings and Debriefs, I took charge of the first and Diego of the latter. It was fun and yet serious, I went to &Café to get inspiration, but actually I only could write one more paragraph, eventhough I enjoyed a chai tea.
With Bert we talked a little about the totalitarian regimes, and who was in the far left which are the communists and socialists, and in the far right the fascist, including Nazis, and Mussolini. When we came back from lunch we gathered to talk about The Incredible Bread Machine, we decided to approach it with questions, so we threw around 50 questions per chapter in order to get our ideas organized. In that way we could define main points and have a better understanding with a clear ground. To my surprise we were not able to have a dialogue but I believe we will talk about it next week.
Afterwards we talked about the structure of the Lincoln Douglas debate which we will be practicing next week, im really very excited for this. It will help me to improve my logical reasoning and my hearing skills towards listening to others defend their point of view.
At last we had around 45 minutes to practice our oratory, time management and reasoning to develop arguments. We were given a word and we had to construct a one minute speech to say it in front of everyone. Bert gave out the words and mine was Light. This is what I wrote:
The sun is earth’s primordial source of light. We can learn so much every day just by observing the sunrise. It is nature’s way of saying to us that there is a new opportunity to go out there and move humanity forward. As well as that there is a new light of hope, a new light to the solution you’ve been looking to your problem. A new light were your destiny will take you. It is just a matter of observation and about finding the colorful part of life. By appreciating each color visible to human eye and see the different tones it is created because of the sun’s reflects. It is amazing the grandiosity of our source of light yet it seems it acts effortless. If you are not able to see the colors of life, you are seeing everything black and you are probably having a bad time coping with your own life.
Let the light shine from within as bright as the sun.
This final activity gave me a sense of satisfaction in a way that I could have never before imagined. It reaffirmed me the importance I give to the light from within that we all have, and how we are all meant to discover it and let it shine through us.
As I look back when I was about to get out of my bed, if someone would have told me a little debrief of how my day would go, I wouldn’t have even hesitated a little bit to stand up or even jump off my bed. Yes. Our day went out pretty productive and I learned so much.
First of all we had a common morning meeting with the first years and we played guesstures, my team once again won. There is something in this game that makes me feel the adrenaline in my entire body, and somehow I transmit it to the group.
Because last semester we ended up Eric Graf’s class in a hurry we retook the topic and started to talk about our sonnets, the sonnets in general and the essay of a sonnet we did for last semester. What I learned from sonnets is that the same message has different meaning for each of the individual that reads it, in a way the reader feels identified and he is the only one able to attach meaning to the words. As well as that sonnets, in the Rennaisance were created in order to answer metaphysical questions and saw the individual as a human being.
We later had a free schedule up to 11:30 to work on the handbook. I am in the team of Mpc Methodology, were we have included Morning Meetings and Debriefs, I took charge of the first and Diego of the latter. It was fun and yet serious, I went to &Café to get inspiration, but actually I only could write one more paragraph, eventhough I enjoyed a chai tea.
With Bert we talked a little about the totalitarian regimes, and who was in the far left which are the communists and socialists, and in the far right the fascist, including Nazis, and Mussolini. When we came back from lunch we gathered to talk about The Incredible Bread Machine, we decided to approach it with questions, so we threw around 50 questions per chapter in order to get our ideas organized. In that way we could define main points and have a better understanding with a clear ground. To my surprise we were not able to have a dialogue but I believe we will talk about it next week.
Afterwards we talked about the structure of the Lincoln Douglas debate which we will be practicing next week, im really very excited for this. It will help me to improve my logical reasoning and my hearing skills towards listening to others defend their point of view.
At last we had around 45 minutes to practice our oratory, time management and reasoning to develop arguments. We were given a word and we had to construct a one minute speech to say it in front of everyone. Bert gave out the words and mine was Light. This is what I wrote:
The sun is earth’s primordial source of light. We can learn so much every day just by observing the sunrise. It is nature’s way of saying to us that there is a new opportunity to go out there and move humanity forward. As well as that there is a new light of hope, a new light to the solution you’ve been looking to your problem. A new light were your destiny will take you. It is just a matter of observation and about finding the colorful part of life. By appreciating each color visible to human eye and see the different tones it is created because of the sun’s reflects. It is amazing the grandiosity of our source of light yet it seems it acts effortless. If you are not able to see the colors of life, you are seeing everything black and you are probably having a bad time coping with your own life.
Let the light shine from within as bright as the sun.
This final activity gave me a sense of satisfaction in a way that I could have never before imagined. It reaffirmed me the importance I give to the light from within that we all have, and how we are all meant to discover it and let it shine through us.
Week 2
Monday February 10, 2014
I was almost forgetting to write the daily reflection. As it has become sort of like a habit I couldn’t go to sleep without writing it.
And it is Monday and I was able to get out throughout the day just fine. Many things which made me realize I am surrounded by creative geniuses.
We watched a movie called “Freedom Writers”, about 1992 when integration of different races was permitted in the United States. Races such as African Americans, Chinese, Latinos, had opposing ideological views, each of them supported their pride and fought till death to acquire it. It was a society were hatred was inculcated in their homes as babies, and they had no notion for respect to other human beings that thought different as them. They were part of gangs in order to accomplish their ends. Ms. G, a schoolteacher took the responsibility to educate this kids. Little did she know what was she getting herself into. There were fights inside class between the classmates; there was absolutely no respect. Smarter than them, the teacher was able to take this into her advantage and look for the possibilities she had and what was in her responsibility to make these children learn authentically and have a sense of ownership in their lives, opinions, and self. She had to take 2 other jobs in order to cover expenses that the State was not willing to give more money to buy new books. She bought them the Diary of Anne Frank and they got interested in the topic of the holocaust, looking at their similarities and looking at the things in a more broader sense, was the perfect recipe to make them notice the inefficiency of their solutions, and the immensity damage they were creating in society and the world. They started to feel what freedom was, and this was all because a teacher thought they had potential, and encouraged them to write freely what they thought. She had a lot of courage to take this responsibility and sacrifice things which to many may seem impossible due to the conception of reality is it, so suck it up, we all have to suffer, making the poor suffer more. I was amazed to how we can believe in the power of our ideas and how we can influence other to think for themselves in search for that freedom.
Today I learned that we have no idea about scarcity when the government has control over natural resources. It is their way to control people to use less, and pay high price. There wouldn’t be any kind of waste if we are aware of how much left of something we still have. Yet government takes that responsibility and we forget about someday that resource ending. Still, if the moment comes we should already be prepared to create a new way of substituting the resource. And we would take more care of the resource if we have a notion of how much there’s still of something.
I learned also that I am being very aware of everyone’s comments, and answering with awe. Javi Tabush pointed out that to me today and I felt very happy, as it is something that I hadn’t noticed. It feels great to do something positive to the group.
I changed my great work project, something very big of today 10.02.14. I actually had already decided by yesterday. The other project was just being a drag and had too many complications on how I would measure their appreciation to nature now that they can feel the ground, it was just being my case and I was trying to pluralize it. Well, I still love the name the idea, I just think there might be other better ways to get my idea to get to others.
I had already have been thinking about an application which helps you save money for your future projects. It also incentives trades between your social group of friends by exchanging a product for other service I valued more.
This day was also great because in Pablito’s morning meeting we wrote a letter to our future selves, one to the end of this semester and the other I decided to write it for 2016. So I hope the letter will encourage me to pursue what I now value the most.
I was almost forgetting to write the daily reflection. As it has become sort of like a habit I couldn’t go to sleep without writing it.
And it is Monday and I was able to get out throughout the day just fine. Many things which made me realize I am surrounded by creative geniuses.
We watched a movie called “Freedom Writers”, about 1992 when integration of different races was permitted in the United States. Races such as African Americans, Chinese, Latinos, had opposing ideological views, each of them supported their pride and fought till death to acquire it. It was a society were hatred was inculcated in their homes as babies, and they had no notion for respect to other human beings that thought different as them. They were part of gangs in order to accomplish their ends. Ms. G, a schoolteacher took the responsibility to educate this kids. Little did she know what was she getting herself into. There were fights inside class between the classmates; there was absolutely no respect. Smarter than them, the teacher was able to take this into her advantage and look for the possibilities she had and what was in her responsibility to make these children learn authentically and have a sense of ownership in their lives, opinions, and self. She had to take 2 other jobs in order to cover expenses that the State was not willing to give more money to buy new books. She bought them the Diary of Anne Frank and they got interested in the topic of the holocaust, looking at their similarities and looking at the things in a more broader sense, was the perfect recipe to make them notice the inefficiency of their solutions, and the immensity damage they were creating in society and the world. They started to feel what freedom was, and this was all because a teacher thought they had potential, and encouraged them to write freely what they thought. She had a lot of courage to take this responsibility and sacrifice things which to many may seem impossible due to the conception of reality is it, so suck it up, we all have to suffer, making the poor suffer more. I was amazed to how we can believe in the power of our ideas and how we can influence other to think for themselves in search for that freedom.
Today I learned that we have no idea about scarcity when the government has control over natural resources. It is their way to control people to use less, and pay high price. There wouldn’t be any kind of waste if we are aware of how much left of something we still have. Yet government takes that responsibility and we forget about someday that resource ending. Still, if the moment comes we should already be prepared to create a new way of substituting the resource. And we would take more care of the resource if we have a notion of how much there’s still of something.
I learned also that I am being very aware of everyone’s comments, and answering with awe. Javi Tabush pointed out that to me today and I felt very happy, as it is something that I hadn’t noticed. It feels great to do something positive to the group.
I changed my great work project, something very big of today 10.02.14. I actually had already decided by yesterday. The other project was just being a drag and had too many complications on how I would measure their appreciation to nature now that they can feel the ground, it was just being my case and I was trying to pluralize it. Well, I still love the name the idea, I just think there might be other better ways to get my idea to get to others.
I had already have been thinking about an application which helps you save money for your future projects. It also incentives trades between your social group of friends by exchanging a product for other service I valued more.
This day was also great because in Pablito’s morning meeting we wrote a letter to our future selves, one to the end of this semester and the other I decided to write it for 2016. So I hope the letter will encourage me to pursue what I now value the most.
Tuesday February 11th, 2014
Hi you, consciousness, mind, how can I start to call you. Who are you? Are you te only one inside of me that is the observer? I am not sure. I just now I am once again tired, it’s a Tuesday night and I just got back from Heuristica class. YES! I suppose to feel excited because it was our first pitch. But I felt so unsatisfied after I pitched, that I am feeling physically and mentally tired. There has come every time in my life were I have pictured myself accomplishing great things, but after several intents thing just don’t get better. As if I am so ambitious with the idea of something that once I don’t reach it I become completely sad, not proud of myself, and specially I am affected when I have to tell others that I have failed, or others have seen the failure for themselves. It has been hard, it is hard to live constantly with memories about when you failed, and not pitcturing yourself anymore reaching certain goals in your life. My eyes now started to fill with tears. I have always have thought about it, that I want to become the person everyone admires, because she is genuine, and can inspire others, but I only see the incredible work I have to accomplish in order to fulfill all this criteria. Yet others see the potential I have, and not me. I doubt to much of my capabilities of achieving greatness, I have taken the role that probably other people will do better but not me, because that is impossible. So it is easy to me to receive consolation prices, or even receive the mediocre critiques by others, I know I more than deserved it because it seems like I don’t give too much time, or the necessary time to the projects in my life, and focus on each of them to reach up to an standard that I can beat the person who I was before.
This takes courage.
And I have it
I know its inside
Somewhere hidden
Under a layer of “shoulds” of society
There is the ambition I see in myself
The picture of where I will be in the future
And that future I desire it so much, to reach it
That I will take all my effort necessary to accomplish it
And I will not rest until I am a complete human being
Today we learned about different types of autobiographies, it got me very excited to tell my story. To motivate and inspire human beings to persue a life of meaning, a life were they can be themselves in every kind of environment and most importantly were they can find themselves.
I had the opportunity to listen to my peers pitches, and it amazes me how each of them has a piece of what I would have love to accomplish in my life. And how it all is integrated with the values of being an MPCer student. The MPCers haven’t even realized the persons we’ve become throughout this process. It gives me chills and my throat even feels funny, we are no longer holding our opinions back but finding our own voice and making our opinions count in the real world.
I belive I have accomplished the most important material I had to cover for this day. My head hurts, I even wrote hearts like that because I am exhausted.
Another great thing of today was that Andres Descamps brought me a butterfly with pink wings. It was a very nice act on his behalf and it got me back to started me thinking about the collection I want to start doing. They represent to me a value of change and from being a “parasite” one that snuggles in the dirt, they go though a process of metamorfosis in order to fly, as high as the mountains. So I am anxiously waiting for my metamorfosis final destination. Not disregarding the start of the journey which started at the MPC because that is what matters also, but it intrigues me up until were I will reach my destination. I better hope for enjoying the entire process or journey , than the destination.
Hi you, consciousness, mind, how can I start to call you. Who are you? Are you te only one inside of me that is the observer? I am not sure. I just now I am once again tired, it’s a Tuesday night and I just got back from Heuristica class. YES! I suppose to feel excited because it was our first pitch. But I felt so unsatisfied after I pitched, that I am feeling physically and mentally tired. There has come every time in my life were I have pictured myself accomplishing great things, but after several intents thing just don’t get better. As if I am so ambitious with the idea of something that once I don’t reach it I become completely sad, not proud of myself, and specially I am affected when I have to tell others that I have failed, or others have seen the failure for themselves. It has been hard, it is hard to live constantly with memories about when you failed, and not pitcturing yourself anymore reaching certain goals in your life. My eyes now started to fill with tears. I have always have thought about it, that I want to become the person everyone admires, because she is genuine, and can inspire others, but I only see the incredible work I have to accomplish in order to fulfill all this criteria. Yet others see the potential I have, and not me. I doubt to much of my capabilities of achieving greatness, I have taken the role that probably other people will do better but not me, because that is impossible. So it is easy to me to receive consolation prices, or even receive the mediocre critiques by others, I know I more than deserved it because it seems like I don’t give too much time, or the necessary time to the projects in my life, and focus on each of them to reach up to an standard that I can beat the person who I was before.
This takes courage.
And I have it
I know its inside
Somewhere hidden
Under a layer of “shoulds” of society
There is the ambition I see in myself
The picture of where I will be in the future
And that future I desire it so much, to reach it
That I will take all my effort necessary to accomplish it
And I will not rest until I am a complete human being
Today we learned about different types of autobiographies, it got me very excited to tell my story. To motivate and inspire human beings to persue a life of meaning, a life were they can be themselves in every kind of environment and most importantly were they can find themselves.
I had the opportunity to listen to my peers pitches, and it amazes me how each of them has a piece of what I would have love to accomplish in my life. And how it all is integrated with the values of being an MPCer student. The MPCers haven’t even realized the persons we’ve become throughout this process. It gives me chills and my throat even feels funny, we are no longer holding our opinions back but finding our own voice and making our opinions count in the real world.
I belive I have accomplished the most important material I had to cover for this day. My head hurts, I even wrote hearts like that because I am exhausted.
Another great thing of today was that Andres Descamps brought me a butterfly with pink wings. It was a very nice act on his behalf and it got me back to started me thinking about the collection I want to start doing. They represent to me a value of change and from being a “parasite” one that snuggles in the dirt, they go though a process of metamorfosis in order to fly, as high as the mountains. So I am anxiously waiting for my metamorfosis final destination. Not disregarding the start of the journey which started at the MPC because that is what matters also, but it intrigues me up until were I will reach my destination. I better hope for enjoying the entire process or journey , than the destination.
Wednesday February 12th, 2014
Today it was my morning meeting. Coincidence but I love Wednesday’s there is a special something about this day and I still can’t articulate it. My morning meeting after giving it a though I came to the conclusion that we need more movement in the mornings, so that’s why I decided to move our bodies off by dancing. As soon as I played the music my classmates were very shy and didn’t moved. But grace and I, I did an extra effort only because it was my morning meeting and in a way I felt responsible for letting them go through this shame. But as the time went by, we couldn’t rest our hips, I couldn’t even stop laughing to see the different dance moves. I suggested that anyone who wanted put some music, and so they went, and by this I was able to see the personality of each of us. It was one of the most incredible mornings I ever had. I had so much fun, as well as my friends, after the morning meeting should’ve ended we continued 10 minutes more. And you know how we ended? With a vals. It was incredible.
Afterwards we rearranged the desks in a position were we could see each other and work in a more effective way. We accomplished in 3 hours a great part of the handbook. I really enjoyed working first with Diego, because he is very organized and prisice with what we wants and needs, so the communication went very good. Later on, I worked with Chacho, it was also very effective our communication, plus he has a great understanding in the organization and time management section so he helped out a lot.
We later presented what we had and we were very positive about tackling this material for the next semester. It will help us to be more organized and try new material.
After lunch we read and discussed “The Law” by Bastiat. I love this man! No one has ever put so clearly the reasons to live by and to protect our individuality our liberty and our property. The collective cannot do what the individual cannot do as well. I am amazed of how he predicted so many things that were going to happen to the US, France if the law was to be corrupted.
Diego did a great reflection on this day and you'll find the link to this webpage below.
http://diegoriverac.weebly.com/bootcamp.html
Today it was my morning meeting. Coincidence but I love Wednesday’s there is a special something about this day and I still can’t articulate it. My morning meeting after giving it a though I came to the conclusion that we need more movement in the mornings, so that’s why I decided to move our bodies off by dancing. As soon as I played the music my classmates were very shy and didn’t moved. But grace and I, I did an extra effort only because it was my morning meeting and in a way I felt responsible for letting them go through this shame. But as the time went by, we couldn’t rest our hips, I couldn’t even stop laughing to see the different dance moves. I suggested that anyone who wanted put some music, and so they went, and by this I was able to see the personality of each of us. It was one of the most incredible mornings I ever had. I had so much fun, as well as my friends, after the morning meeting should’ve ended we continued 10 minutes more. And you know how we ended? With a vals. It was incredible.
Afterwards we rearranged the desks in a position were we could see each other and work in a more effective way. We accomplished in 3 hours a great part of the handbook. I really enjoyed working first with Diego, because he is very organized and prisice with what we wants and needs, so the communication went very good. Later on, I worked with Chacho, it was also very effective our communication, plus he has a great understanding in the organization and time management section so he helped out a lot.
We later presented what we had and we were very positive about tackling this material for the next semester. It will help us to be more organized and try new material.
After lunch we read and discussed “The Law” by Bastiat. I love this man! No one has ever put so clearly the reasons to live by and to protect our individuality our liberty and our property. The collective cannot do what the individual cannot do as well. I am amazed of how he predicted so many things that were going to happen to the US, France if the law was to be corrupted.
Diego did a great reflection on this day and you'll find the link to this webpage below.
http://diegoriverac.weebly.com/bootcamp.html
Thursday February 13, 2014
Today was another great day. First of all because we started a common morning meeting stating what learning’s we had from this past couple of weeks. It was great listening to my classmates express such content with the process of learning they’ve been experiencing here in the MPC. Some of them expressed that this was a very unique environment, to be surrounded by students eager to learn and that are authentic in their learning. I expressed that I was amazed at the great communications I’ve had with my classmates and how we can express ourselves in a more formal and clear manner. Our teamwork has improved a lot from the couple of semesters and we are more aware of our work and our time remaining
Afterwards we watched some videos for a debate round in order to get some skills and see the abilities of the competitors and their arguments. I was amazed at the rhetoric of the girl who won the round; she spoke so fast and had clear arguments which obviously bit her opponent. While spending around 3 hours discussing this and listening to the debaters I couldn’t stop thinking the food buffet that we were having as a closure for Aanvallen!, we were having an International Food day. I was in charge in bringing my Carpaccio zucchini but when I arrived home I noticed I didn’t had the necessary ingredients. I later decided to bring torta de patatas from España, that my grandma loves so much.
But first, Kata and I had a meeting with the students from Asociación de Estudiantes. The meeting was about preparing for future projects to present to Cayo on Thursday. We concluded that UFM, needs an interdisciplinary space to meet with other faculty members and create this UFM spirit amongst different faculties. To accomplish this we were dreaming in having a space to express ourselves artistically, and others could join us if we were having a recital of a poem, a painting exposure, or a guitar mini concerto. I left very eager to have said my opinions, and finally feeling as the power to live something meaningful for students to connect between each others.
Ok it was 2:30 and the lunch had started. The plates were arranged beautifully with each of their flags. As soon as my classmates started to fill their plates with these different foods, I saw Sebas connecting the plancha to make pupusas. I see on the back and the ingredients were cheese (mozzarella) and chicharron (the one for chips), I couldn’t stop laughing at this, normally is cheese quesillo, and chicharron molido. But well, anything would do fine. So the next weird thing happened, I saw myself making pupusas for the first time at UFM in Guatemala. It was one of those moments, which never in your dreams you can picture yourself in. it was great, it made me feel so proud of my roots and where I was standing in that same moment. I could handle 3 pupusas only, but hey! They were delicious and it was not bad for my first time. (pat in the back )
I later joined Majo for her comeback of Agora Café, I was so happy to support her and join an incredible conversation. We were around 8 persons in total, and Majo had cupcakes for us with little heart shaped. The questions that arouse first was: Es possible amar demasiado? Y si sí, es malo? Great conversations, later there was another questions of love, which I cannot remember. We ended up talking about liberty, morality, rights and animal rights. It was lovely to see new faces and discuss for about 2 hours ideas.
AT 6:30, we had our first class of Heuristica with Francisco Castillo, he introduced the concept of start up, and showed us a video about advices of entrepreneurs who vision facebook and dropbox to be a worldwide hit. Entrepreneurs tend to invest in people and not in ideas, they need to see the power of your working abilities with other people, your capacity to transmit your idea with passion and just your spirit to learn more.
I arrived home at around 10:00p.m it has been a long day, but very loaded of activities and fun learning experiences. Thumbs up for today!