In class: Tuesday, March 15th

Today in class, the following people presented aspects of their projects and explained any difficulties they were having as well as the rewards they have gotten from their projects so far:
Karrie, Mary, Natanya, Dylan, Jordan, and Jimmy.

It was exciting to see the progress fellow students have made in their projects, and inspired me to do more with my own.  I could relate with Jordan about how he was feeling discouraged about his project.  I myself have been feeling the same way.  However, I have an interview with Rick Manning (Project Coordinator of the Waterfront Trails) on Thursday, and I am very much looking forward to it.

Readings assigned in class:  Two Tramps in Mud Time, and Practicing

How do these documents relate?
To me, I took these two documents to be about things that people chose as both their hobbies and their professions, and how can make a career out of a hobby.  In Practicing, the author makes a point to explain that even if someone is proficient at an instrument and can pick it up and play a song, they are not truly an "artist" (perhaps this isn't particularly the word I'm going for...) unless they devote their time to overcoming the hard things that go along with playing the instrument.  When someone can pick up an instrument, and then be handed a sheet of music they have never seen before, and be able to play it because they are comfortable with the instrument and the techniques of playing, they can consider themselves accomplished at their instrument.  The author is illustrating the point of practice makes perfect.  In Robert Frost's poem, Two Tramps in Mud Time, I see the author as someone who has been upset and is releasing his frustration on something he is good at.  He is then approached by men who cut wood for a living, and feel imposed that he is merely doing their job in order to relieve stress.  To me, this poem is an example that everyone is entitled to their professions and hobbies, but that they must differentiate between the two.  Someone's profession is the thing that should occupy their practice time, and a hobby is something that should be done just for the enjoyment and doesn't need a particular outcome.

How do these documents relate to your project?
These documents relate in the way that most of us are conducting our projects based on something that we consider a hobby, or something we want to get better at.  Of course, for many of our projects practicing is a key factor.  For many projects, there is a final outcome that has already been decided and it is up to us to manage our time in a way that illustrates we have reached that final outcome that we set as a goal.  In the sense of Robert Frost's poem, I can see that we have devoted ourselves to this project, but still have other things we must keep in order too, our professions so to speak (being a student perhaps?).