- What
are your final Impressions of Colloquium?
Made by a leftist who didn't have a good idea of how to introduce people to subjects. Also, WAY too biased at times.
- What changes would you make
to the course?
1) Less leftism. As a Moderate-Aligned activist, I fight all extremes. Over the course of the course, I found alot of things which were agreeable, like the information on global resources. At the same time though, I occasionally would come across one of the very things I'd fought so hard against, mainly because it was based in irrational, incorrect, or inconsiderate viewpoints. Because of the levels of bias, I
have a prediction that many of the students will have a negative
response to alot of the material as it dawns on them how radical it was,
which is a huge problem when you're trying to convince people of real
problems.
2) Less writing. Academics are stupid: Academic rigor has been shown to be the biggest threat to our nation's intelligence. Telling people to read something and then write about it in the way that I was seeing is literally damaging to the intellect: it teaches against critical evaluation of material, and is inappropriate for such a biased curriculum. This material would be better introduced through a casual environment, without the huge mass of essays being read and written, so that students are more encouraged to think and explore the material on their own, without being bombarded by it.
- What suggestions for activities or
field trips do you have?
The FGCU campus. Not the trails, but the actual buildings: the newer stuff is LEED certified, which is pretty relevant to the course.
- What were
your impressions of the downtown area?
Being from Fort Lauderdale, it was very easy for me to start feeling at home there when I first moved here: it's a VERY small downtown area, and it doesn't have any big buildings, but it has a few places with that "tucked away" feeling, where you can go hang out for a while without hearing the cars. It's pretty too: it has alot of really nivce architecture which has been taken good care of over the years. Most importantly, there are plenty of local restaurants and shops to try out and meet cool people at. My favorite one is the Cigar Bar, which has smoke, booze, music, and fancy chairs.
- What impacted you the most during
the field experience?
Well... Most of the stuff there was stuff I'd already seen. I've been to the Edison home, and I've hung out with Ron and Scottm, who are 60+ residents of Fort Myers I know from Occupy. They've always been eager to point out some interesting historical fact, like my favorite one: the story about the bricks on the road, which were laid when the town was young, paved over, and then fixed after they were rediscovered under the pavement. You can see a picture of Fort Myers way back then in the window of Toot's Dollar Store, the "home of the $1 beer".
- How would you redesign Fort Myers and encourage
more community engagement?
I'd probably widen the alleyways a bit and make more plazas like the one with Morgan House. Also, more little green spaces to break it up, like Centennial Park and the Courthouse, where Occupy has met in the past. At the same time, there are already some cool things in downtown Fort Myers, like the old theater. If people were interested in becoming "engaged", they could look into the things that already exist, like Food Not Bombs, and the drum circle, both of which meet on Sunday nights in Centennial park.
- After
watching the documentary "Future of Food," research your own favorite
food or snack. What is it?
I'll go with Curry. That's a sort of heavily-spiced sauce with tons of veggies boiled in.
I'm pretty sure it's oriental. It's a poor-people's dish of sorts, and can be made from kitchen scraps. It's usually served over a bed of something like rice and lentils.
- What are all the
ingredients?
Well, there are 3 parts: spices, a liquid base, and veggies. I just use pre-made spice-cubes from the store, as it would be hard to get that much spice in the right quantities otherwise. I prefer coconut-milk as a base. And I can use any veggies, but I prefer sweet-potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, and beans.
- Where were the different ingredients grown?
It depends on where you get them, but veggies are pretty hardy: it's very possible to make it from locally grown ingredients. The and coconut milk I like to use the most is made from Florida coconuts. (I know some farmers through occupy) The veggies are store bought from Sweetbay, which has control policies on their vegetables which I find acceptable. As for the spices, those are from all sorts of places, but once again: they can be grown here easily.
- Are there any genetically modified ingredients?
I don't know. There's probably some GMO veggies making their way in through Sweetbay, but they're on the low-risk-factor list generally, and a small enough portion of the meal that it's not really a big deal.
- How
far did your food travel to get to your plate? How much fossil fuels
went into producing your food?
Well, considering the fact that we have a national economy, probably from all over the country. What many lefties don't understand is that food is usually grown in places where it is most efficient, like oranges in Florida and potatoes in Idaho. That's not necessarily a bad thing either: think about how much of a burden trying to grow large quantities of almonds would put on the everglades.
Consider how food-supply chains work: large trucks are
sent around to local pickup points, and go to the train station when
full. A train takes the food around the country, where it is unloaded
back onto trucks, to local storage and distribution centers within a
relatively short distance from the grocery stores where they are
eventually trucked to. In the end, it's a few gallons of gas per
truckload. Considering how much food is on one of these trucks, that's
not enough that I'm particularly worried.
Lefties have a tendency to overdramatize the effect of a bit of gas on the environment, but the fact is that gas costs money, and companies are constantly trying to minimize its usage and waste. A much larger problem is the consumption of meat, which uses animals that take TONS of food, water, and space to feed and grow. If you notice, curry is an entirely vegan food, meaning ALL the food that was grown for it went directly to the plate, meaning it actually fed me, instead of feeding an animal being raised for slaughter. Think about that: a single animal eats about as much food as a person, and it takes several years before it's slaughtered for food. This means that one day's worth of meat is the equivalent of one month of veggies.
That's some food for thought...
- Sense of place is understanding the environment around you, your comfort
zone, where you feel most at home.
Three places I feel most at home:
1) Those dingy bars and clubs where you'd expect to see some wacky punk or rap show, or get beaten up by the guy with the torn up clothing and studded-leather belt. (that would be me... Not that I beat people up...) I grew up around places like this, where people are friendly and open with each other, and everyone just wants to have a good time.
2) The uncharted wilderness, surrounded by trees so far that you can't see the road when you climb one of them. It's nice to run out there and get away from things.
3) My bedroom, which is decorated with both of those concepts in mind. Also, my computer is here.
- Take a walking trip around your
neighborhood.
I do this every night, if you'd call my apartment complex a neighborhood. I used to live in the freshman dorms, so I'll talk about that too.
- Observe special environmental features, green design,
sustainable aspects, species, wildlife etc. What sustainable or ecological features do you notice?
Well, there are some cool owls and falcons around my apartment complex. It's actually pretty naturey when you walk around it: there's a big lake in the middle which is surrounded by native plants. Actually, the area it's built on is a big scrub habitat: I can tell from the sandy ground and the burn-proof plants. The scrub is also visible in the area surrounding it, where it's mostly overgrown brush on undeveloped land, which blocks the view of the nearby highway quite nicely.
The freshman dorms were, of course, built with LEED certification in mind, so they're pretty eco-friendly. They're also surrounded by the mostly-pristine FGCU campus preserve, where I used to walk around all the time. I've seen alot of cool animals out there, including:
- Possums
- North American Raccoons (with cubs!)
- Crab Eating Raccoons (that's a different species, they are smaller and cuter and live in wetlands)
- Coyotes
- Deer
- Hogs
- Armadillos
And all sorts of wacky birds.
- What
are your initial expectations of Colloquium, feelings?
As a veteran activist, I've seen alot of Environmentalist media already. I'm also aware of the concepts of Environmental Sustainability as a business major. I didn't really expect to see anything unexpected in Colloquim.
- Consider the
following: Briefly describe any experience you have with exploring
wilderness areas here or in other regions.
I love taking walks in the wilderness, especially the mostly-untamed areas, and even more so if I can run off the paths for a bit. I know most of the campus trails pretty well too, and have a good bit of local-ecology knowledge from over the years.
- Describe your relationship
with the natural world.
- Describe any anxieties or reservations you have
about this class.
I had heard alot of bad things about this class. The only good thing I'd heard was that the field-trips were fun. Other than that, I'd heard that there was alot of writing and alot of biased material, and that some of the teachers weren't very good at their job. The main concern I had was that the writing would get really obnoxious...
- What are your personal goals for this class?
Well... To see what I might be able to learn from it in general, and to pass it so that I didn't have to retake it? I probably wouldn't have chosen to take this class if it wasn't required, because quite simply, there is no material that you can't just go learn easily and for free...
- Describe
how this class might be an important component to your education, major
or life experiences.
I thought it might reinforce what I already knew from a few years of prior experience, and maybe give me some new perspectives on things.
