Barb is talking right now about restorative justice on the rise....

some notes made while listening:

The program began by describing the “extraordinary contribution,” of the “amazing” Barb Toews, to work that attends to the relation between environmental design and behavior. Barb kicked off the program by talking about “changing the metaphor” from criminal justice as a “boxing match,” to imagining “restorative justice as a mountain lodge, a room in which you need to face the harm you had caused, and become accountable to victims…” so that in workshops she might ask, “are you sitting in the boxing ring right now? Then go to the ‘do no harm’ room…”

I chose to make my username what I usually use to help people pronounce my name. I really like the fact it has "smile" in it because when I was younger my nickname used to be smiley and because I really do just love smiling and laughing. It is one of my automatic responses to many things; and I feel as if my day is always made when people smile at me so I try to do the same thing back! I chose this username because it still is connected to my name and my identity, without explicity stating it. As for my image, I chose an image of 'churiya' or glass bangles found in the markets of Pakistan. I really liked this image because of how colorful and vibrant it was, it really reminded me of being in the bazaars in Pakistan full of colors, lights, and smells. The bangles are also hanging with prayers beads which I also think reflects an important part of myself that I value greatly, which is my faith. 

In all honesty, I've been struggling to decide whether to present my full (and real) self to the online world or make up an anonymous symbolic name-- and it seems I've decided to use my real identity. Maybe this is me trying to take ownership over something I don't usually express with such marked intention, my words and ideas. I've never written anything with the explicit purpose to be read (except by a professor or a potential boss). So, here, I'm curious to see how this new ownership of expresssion will develop, and hopefully how it will contribute my growth as a writer and thinker.

Choosing my avatar was also difficult (can one image really represent someone's identity?) and while sifting through old facebook profile pictures, I was surprised to realize how much I have changed over time. None of those images resonate with me strongly anymore, I feel more like an outsider looking into (and judging?) someone else's life. I am no longer in any of those spaces, physically or mentally. So instead, I chose to go back to my roots, my childhood, and maybe all my different identities really are within that same little girl.

Please post here, tagging with your group's name.

Thanks!

I originally chose the photo for my avatar because it was taken outside by the sunken garden which is one of my favorite places to go on campus. It is a great area to sit when its warm and I can take in the beauty of the campus and the surrounding area. The other option I had was a photo of me with a wind turbine, which I have always had a love for (I studied the mechanics behind them in my last 360 on Renewable Energy). However I wasn't able to change the photo for some reason.

As I just realized when checking my account information, two days ago was the anniversery of the day I joined Serendip. Since then, I have fallen in love with the potential I see in this site for creating connections and communication across all kinds of disciplines. The one semester I did not use serendip in those two years, I could feel a piece of richness missing from my academics. I am excited to interact with you all more, not just in class, but here on serendip! This all being said, the reasons why I choose to use my real name today for posting are the same as when I first created my account. The simplest reason is that I couldn't come up with pseudonym that fit me. Nothing that I thought of sounded like me at all. Strangely enough, chosing a psedyonm felt confining, and some how revealing, but in an uncomfortably inadequate way. For example, if someone's name is doglover12, you are going to automatically know, first and foremost, that person is probably a dog lover. This way of naming myself felt like writing my identity into wet concrete, and when in dried all anyone would ever see when they stepped over my name in the sidewalk was just a dog lover and nothing more. My real name felt like the best representation for the very fact that it wasn't really a representation at all. Using sara.gladwin leaves you all the room to percieve me in many differing ways and through your own eyes, past the misleading concreteness I associate with crafting my own moniker. Your own various interpretations will be the best representations of my identity I could as for.

Hey, folks! So I think this is the part where I explain my user and avatar and whatnot.

Well my username is actually the one I used for twitter when I used twitter (which lasted about a week, but there you have it). I had no idea what to put as my username because I'm really bad at coming up with usernames–I can't do sudden creativity when put on the spot and under pressure, even if the pressure is imaginary–so I scoured the depths of my brain to come up with something interesting.

At that time, we'd been reading Oscar Wilde in my high school English class, so I had aphorisms and epigrams on the brain, and thus my username was born. I thought something to do with aphorisms would be kind of creative, and given the limited character form of expression that is twitter, something short and sweet like an aphorism seemed fitting. However, I am not Oscar Wilde (I only wish I could be that awesome), and I lack the ability to continually come up with witty sayings, hence the "isnt" portion.