Fall 2010 Critical Thinking First Field Notes

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Mark Alfino

Notes here

Kevin Ward

Fantasy Football

Last night, my friends and I were having our fantasy football draft. I had already picked my first and second players and had a tough decision to make in the third round. There is a running back by the name of Cedric Benson who I was contemplating drafting. When I asked my friends what they thought of this pick, they gave me multiple claims and reasons as to why I should or shouldn't draft him. Come of the claims for or against the pick were; "he always puts up good stats," or "He gets in too much trouble with the law, he'll be arrested by week three." After weighing all the thoughts, I took the gamble and drafting him with the premise that in the past, he has had great stats and can help my team win.

Cog food dilemma... oh no

Yesterday morning, I wandered into the cog in the late afternoon looking for an early lunch. But when I saw that they were still serving breakfast, I died a little inside. Thus, thinking in stereo began. I could wait it out in the long omelet line, or I could go strait for the sausage, egg, and biscuit route, no wait included. On one hand, omelets are delicious, so the wait may have been worth it. But my conclusion was to go for the eggs, sausage and biscuits with a premise that any food is good food. I was hungry.

BBQ line....oh no

Yesterday, before my friends and I were about to have our fantasy football draft, we decided to check out the DeSmet BBQ. Some of us wanted to stay, others did not. Although the food looked great, my friend made the claim that if we wait in the line, we would not make it to our fantasy draft. So our next plan was to go to Pita Pit. I made the claim that it was quick, easy, and not too expensive. I backed up my claim some reasons; The Pita Pit is close to our draft location, and with the coupons we had, it would not be too expensive. Our conclusion was to eat dinner at the Pita Pit.

Hania Burrows

On saturday I was in a situation in which I felt I was in a reflective context. Originally I wasn't going to be going home for Thanksgiving break, but I decided that I really wanted to. I started thinking about the best and cheapest way to get home. Flying would be a great option because it would only be about a 30 minute flight to Portland, but ticket prices were expensive. After thinking about it, I realized there was a simple solution. My grandparents live in Spokane, so if they came to Portland for the holiday I could just ride down with them, and the get a ride back up to Spokane as well. This exchange mostly took place with myself, I worked through the problem and came up with a rather simple solution.

Over the weekend some girls in my dorm and I were watching a TV show called "Keeping up with the Kardashians." One of the characters in the TV show lost one of her earrings, she proceeded to have a full on panic attack. This caused a discussion to develop between us about how all of the characters in that show and very materialistic, which led us to realize how sad it was that we were watching it, and were completely entertained. Someone made a claim that it isn't there fault they are like that, and that the media and fame is to blame. This sparked an argument between the rest of the us and her, as everyone disagreed with her. There are many possible explanations for why the characters in this show are so materialistic, but eventually we all came to the conclusion that their lavish lifestyle and need for a reality check is to blame.

On friday I walked into Crosby and saw a sign that said they were hiring. This got me thinking to myself weather I needed to get a job this semester. I made the claim that I won't have enough time to work with trying to balance homework, friends, clubs, and intramural sports. Then I realized I needed to think about the big picture. I took out student loans to help pay for my tuition so it would pay off in the long run to have a job now. I would not make that much money, but every bit would help, and it would be less money to back in the future. I decided to apply for the job and that I was thinking about this all wrong. I was only looking short term, when sometimes it is important to look at the big picture.

Casey Birdsell

Reflective Context Number One: New Laundry Schedule

This past week I became aware of a situation that could be considered a reflective context in my new dorm regarding a proposed laundry schedule from our RAs. After not even a week on campus the two building RAs felt a laundry plan needed to be implemented. The claim the RAs made was that there were physical fights over the two washing machines in our dorm last year. This claim did indeed turn out to be true as confirmed by a friend of my roommate who resided in the dorm for the 2010-2011 school years. About ten residents on my floor later involved themselves in a conversation about this issue because they felt the action was unfair to new freshmen residents and that the decision should have been made by the hall occupants and not just the RAs. Other residents felt that the issue should not be discussed too much until we learned of the RAs concrete plan for the laundry schedule to be implemented. Each of the individuals, regardless of their views, entered conversation with a tone of betrayal and uncertainty as nobody truly knew what was going to happen and whether the laundry schedule would mess with their own personal agendas. I began feeling as if my independence had been stripped away; we are students in college now and should be able to monitor our own laundry needs and control our emotions regarding such a simple task that everyone needed to get done. As I thought further I really felt as if our RAs should have previously discussed matters similar to this at our first hall meeting to give us all a heads up for what could potentially need to happen if conflict were to occur. I vented to my hall mates, many of whom had similar views as me, and found that there was only one realistic solution of which could have two outcomes. My solution, found with the help of my friends, was to wait until the schedule was presented to us where I would (1) express my concern that this issue should have been discussed by the hall before the schedule was enforced by the RAs if it was presented to the group unfairly, or (2) find that the schedule was satisfactory and plan to abide by it as long as it appeared in the residents best interests.

Reflective Context Number Two: Pig Out in the Park Plans

Another situation of reflective context occurred where our neighbor, Kevin, came in saying, “We should go to Pig Out in the Park tomorrow instead of today, because our friends are out doing other things and we had planned on going with them and it doesn’t look like they’ll be able to go today.” His rationale was correct and supported his conclusion and premise; however it launched my roommate and me into a world of thought about how we should spend our Saturday. My roommate decided she wanted to go as planned while providing the claim that “If I do not go today as planned, my study schedule for tomorrow will be thrown off.” This was a reasonable claim in which I supported with the rationale of “I agree, Pig Out in the Park will take away a minimum of two hours of my time tomorrow that I had planned to spend at Foley.” In both of our claims we were thinking about the object of our thought “studying” and examining the importance we should give it in our thoughts. Were we thinking about studying too much? Was it really as important as we were letting off? Are my first week jitters causing me to think differently about this issue? Am I allowing my thoughts on studying to be altered by those around me? While I can’t completely speak for my roommate these were the thoughts flying through my head as I thought this issue through while “thinking in stereo.”

Reflective Context Number Three: Old Spaghetti Factory

My third and final reflective context happened this weekend when I needed to explain to another student from a different region of the country why I really enjoyed the restaurant, The Old Spaghetti Factory. My claim was that I enjoyed the restaurant because it was inexpensive and catered to my dietary needs seeing that I have a food allergy. I supported that claim with the rationale that I usually got a meal for ten dollars, which included a salad, entrée, and dessert, and that the OSF had more than ten gluten free pasta options that allowed me to have just as much selection as the other individuals I went to dinner with on most occasions. Therefore, the individual I explained my reasoning with could then dine at the Old Spaghetti Factory and evaluate my claim as true or false, although, their view could be slightly different with their socio-economic perception of inexpensive and their idea of selection if they did not share the same dietary restrictions as me.

Elizabeth Breen

Dinner Downtown

This week I experienced a few situations in which I was in a reflective context. One domain being when a few of my friends and I went downtown for dinner one night and we had to decide on a restaurant. At first our plan had been to go to the Nordstrom café but when we arrived we realized that it had closed thirty minuets earlier. We were then posed with the dilemma of where to get dinner. Out of the six of us only two attend school at Gonzaga and none of us are from Spokane or know the area well enough to be aware of what the good restaurants are. We walked out of the mall to see if we could find anywhere to eat; we found a café, the melting pot and a P. F. Changs. My friend Matt made the claim that we are all college students and for that reason we could not afford to eat the melting pot. I then made the claim that we should go to P.F. Changs and supported my claim with the reasons that the food is good, reasonably priced and the portions are large so instead of ordering pizza later in the night we could eat out leftovers and save money. With the premise that in the end eating at P.F. Changs would save us money our conclusion to this domain was to in fact eat at P.F. Changs. In this situation Matt and I entered into stereo thinking when we used conceptual knowledge to make a decision on where to eat dinner.

Friends for the Weekend

Another situation in which I experienced reflective context was when four of my friends from Seattle came into town. They arrived here at GU on Thursday and were posed with the problem of when to return back to Seattle. Their parents did not want them driving back on Monday because of the labor day traffic so they had the option to either leave on Sunday or stay until Tuesday. This domain was particularly complex because it involved so many people; not only my friends who were in town but also myself, my roommate and the other GU students that were to be hosts for the weekend. I made the claim that although we had a three day weekend the students here had just completed their first week of classes and would be spending some of Sunday and the majority of Monday studying and completing assignments. I also claimed that five nights was a long time to have people other than my roommate and I staying in our room; the reason for this is the dorms are small and can get extremely crowded with more people and suitcases. Although I love my friends in my eyes it made more sense for them to leave on Sunday. My friends however disagreed with me. They claimed that they drove up from Seattle and wanted to stay as long as they could. The main reason for this is that they are all moving to Santa Clara in a few weeks and we will not all be reunited again until the holiday break. The premise that they wanted to spend as much time with their GU friends as possible before moving led to the ultimate conclusion that they would be staying until Tuesday. They did make a good argument, that although we may be staying in tiny rooms for a few days it will be well worth it when we look back on the fun we had this weekend and we will be grateful that we were able to spend time together before they all left for California. I also think that this situation is one of stereo thinking because we focused mainly on facts; my friends drove to Spokane, they could not return to Seattle on Monday, GU students had studying to do, and so on.

Homework

My final reflective context began on Sunday when I went to the library to start my assignments that are to be due this week. I quickly became overwhelmed with all of the work I had in the small amount of time. I began an internal argument to decide which assignments could wait and assignment needed to be completed. I made the claim that I was not going to be able to finish the week’s homework in two days. The main reason was that I had friends in town and was distracted. In addition there was the premise that I should have spaces out my work more as to not stress myself out. In the end the conclusion was I decided to complete the assignments due earlier in the week first and then schedule time on Tuesday and Wednesday to finish my work. Due to the factual and conceptual knowledge reflected upon during this domain stereo thinking was used.

Stephanie Gosse

Movie night

My first encounter with reflective context occurred last night. My friends and I crammed into a dorm room with a box of DVDs and a TV, and we had a wide variety of movie genres to choose from. Suggestions were made to watch a scary movie, a comedy movie, or an action movie. A friend came to the conclusion that we would definitely not be watching a scary movie under the premise that she did not like the contents of the genre: gore, suspense, etc. I made the claim that we should watch a funny movie because girls outnumbered guys in the room and an action movie would not satisfy everyone in the room. We watched the comedy movie and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Studying/Reading

Saturday I had a personal, internal argument on whether or not I should start my homework and studying. One argument favored starting and completing a small portion of my reading that day so I wouldn't fall behind and succumb to procrastination. My other internal argument favored giving myself a day off and promised to start Sunday and finish by Monday. Upon reaching these two conclusions, I entered stereo thinking and really thought about each argument and their future consequences and outcomes. I decided I would give myself a day to relax and enjoy my first official weekend on campus and spend the next two days completing my assignments. So far my decision has proved nothing but success and I have not fallen behind.

Milk

This morning my roommate and I awoke only to find that our fridge lost power early that morning or sometime last night. I advised her it wouldn't be safe to drink it, so we would have to get a new carton of milk. We researched the issue further and came to the conclusion that it was possible that I accidentally hit or kicked the cord out of the power strip enough for the fridge to lose power. The conclusion and premise that I established was I caused the fridge to lose power so I should replace the carton of milk. My roommate resisted my offer to buy another carton of milk but I convinced her it would only be fair. Through stereo thinking I believe my final conclusion and decision was an effective one.

Samantha Mastaler

Country Music

On Friday night I attended a bbq at the quad. It was western themed and country music was playing. I said that I love country music and one of my friends responded that she hates country music and asked my why I liked it. I had to think it through becuase I didn't want to a pointless answer so I created a list of reasons, for example: country music has some very talented artists, it is very relatable, and I like the type of instruments used to make the country sound. She said these reasons were valid and helped her understand, but she is still not a fan.

Weather

One morning as I was getting dressed, I couldn't decide what to wear. I needed to figure out what would be most weather appropriate. It looked sunny and nice outside my window, but my experience the previous morning had showed me there could be a cool breeze. I finally checked the weather on my phone and decided since it would be a warmer day, I would just wear shorts and a tshirts. It proved to be a good decsion becuase the day did warm up.

Laundry

My roommate informed the other day that she has never done laundry before and has no idea how to do it. She asked if I would teach her and I said yes. I had to think about the best way to show her, becuase I want her to learn fast so she can do it on her own instead of waiting for me. I used an explaination rationale, becuase I was teaching her step by step. I had to explain to her what temperature of water to use with certain and colors and why. She would get confused and ask me for reasons for some of the step and I would have to think of the best way to tell her so it would make sense. Thank goodness she seemed to catch on quickly and can start doing her own.

Kasey Barghout

Protein Fight I was at lunch in the Cog sitting with a group of people talking about how it would be hard to be a vegetarian because I wouldn’t be good at finding other protein sources besides meat. The girl next to me, who is vegetarian, stated the claim that there are many different types of proteins vegetarians can eat. Then she gave us reason in claims like eggs, tofu, peanut butter etc. Another girl then argued that she would have to eat a lot of any of those proteins just to amount to the same amount as a small piece of meat. The argument went on for too long and neither came to an agreement.

Movie Night At our dorm we were debating what type of movie to watch. We had many choices and suggestions of movies and T V shows. Someone claimed that it was getting late and it might be nice to only watch for 30 minutes or an hour instead of a full 2 hour movie. We concluded that a TV show would be better for that reason. We watched It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and went to bed content in our decision.

Soccer Game A group of people in my dorm invited me to play soccer on the field but I reasoned with myself that I still had a lot of homework and probably shouldn’t go. I then made the claim to myself that I would eventually take a break sooner or later for fresh air, it was good exercise, and I would get to meet new people. So, I concluded that it was time for a break and went to play soccer for a while. When I got back it was actually a lot easier for me to focus on my homework because I had been away from it for a while.

Anna Brajcich

Birthday

Today is one of my brothers birthday. As much as I would love to be with him and help him celebrate, I knew that I had a lot of homework to get done. I stated the claim, that if I go to hang out with him all day, I will not be motivated to come back late tonight and start my homework. With the premise that we would have a late dinner and I would not be back to campus till late, I came to the conclusion that I would finish my homework this afternoon and go have a nice dinner and hang with him later tonight.

Restaurant Decisions

My oldest brother is visiting this weekend and I thought that it would be appropriate to take him to a fun and nice restaurant while he is in town. After debating between multiple choices such as Chilis, Olive Garden etc, I made the claim that Cyrus O'Leary's has a great menu and a very fun environment inside. My parents and I went there just a few weeks ago and my dad recommended my brothers goes there for the coconut chicken. We came to the conclusion to go to Cyrus O'Leary's for something new and exciting.

Jumping off the bridge

Many people in my hall have invited me multiple times to go jump off the bridge close to campus. As fun as it looks, it also looks scary to me. While thinking to myself, I made the claim that I am scared of heights and don't like jumping off high cliffs/bridges. With the premise that I don't like the thrill of free falling from high things, I came to the conclusion to stay back and do my homework. Maybe next time I will just go for a swim and not have to jump.

Riley Mackey

Dance

Last night was the C/M dance and I was with a group of people who were all going to go down and enjoy it. However when we eventually made it down to the basement some of us just knew that this isn't exactly what we wanted to be doing tonight. Someone made the suggestion to go back upstairs and do something else which sparked another person to say what they'd like to be doing instead. With everybody debating and offering suggestions we came to the conclusion to skip the dance and head outside in search of more fun endeavors.

Book

During History class on Friday my teacher was going over the required textbooks for the course. There was one required book and one optional book about how to write in the chicago format. I do not know personally how to write in this format as it was never taught to me in high school and I began the internal debate as to wether or not I should purchase this optional text. I knew I would need to know who to write in this format however I was confident that I could learn through over free sources like the internet. But this got me thinking to what if I could not learn through the internet and needed something more definite like this book half way through the semester and it was sold out. I eventually came to the conclusion that the risk of not buying the book was slim compared to the amount of extra money i would spend buying the book and possibly end up not using it.

Waking up

Sunday morning I was in a situation where I felt I was in a reflective context. I was lying in my bed and was still really tired from the day before. The problem was that I had made a promise to myself to start going to the gym again and that was supposed to start today. Lying in bed and contemplating my situation I told myself that it was time to follow through and start going to the gym no matter how tired I was. This lead me thinking though that as the semester progresses I am going to have less and less time to sleep so it would be harmful to start the year off already tired. But this though made me go back the the thought that I had Monday off and would be able to make up lost sleep then. In the end however I was convinced that the importance of sleep outweighed any gains that could be made going to the gym that morning so I ended up sleeping in.

Maggie Fischer

Food

The other day, my roommate was out visiting family that lived nearby, and the rest of my friends had already gone and eaten lunch. So I was left with a decision: eat alone in the cog, or eat snacks in my dorm room. I made the claim that if I stay in my room all I have to eat are fish crackers and Snickers bars, and so, on the premise that it would be much healthier than snacking in my room, I came to the conclusion that the cog was the best choice.

Skype

Last week I had arranged to have a Skype conversation with my best friend from home on a Tuesday night. When the time came, he had to delay because of unforeseen chores and activities at home, until it turned out he couldn't talk until 12 am. Although I wanted to talk to him very badly, I stated the claim that if I did I wouldn't get to bed until 2 am and I had an 8 am class the next morning. So, on the premise that I needed at least 8 hours of sleep to function successfully in my classes the next day, I came to the conclusion that the Skype conversation needed to be rescheduled.

Italian Textbook

When I was looking at the textbooks I needed for school online, I found that my Italian professor had labeled our textbook as "optional", and judging by the price of $128.00, I chose not to buy it. When we began class, however, I stated the claim that the vocabulary was extremely difficult to navigate without the text, and on the premise that I needed the book to excel in the class, I came to the conclusion that I should buy it despite the steep price.

Marshall Riordan

Sleep

The other night I was heading back to my room at midnight getting ready to go to bed. On the way there, I ran into some friends who asked if I wanted to go out for a walk. I thought for a while but eventually stated the claim that I had class at 9 am and came to the conclusion that I would go to bed.

Football

I was with some friends on the way to the Rudolf Fitness Center to work out when we ran into some other guys in the hall. They were on the way to the field to play football. I came up with the rationale that football is a physical activity and would still give us a solid workout. After some discussion, we came to the conclusion to play football.

Kennel Club

One of my first days on campus, I was debating about whether or not to pay the $20 join the kennel club. I came up with the claim that school spirit is a big deal, and if I wasn't a part of the kennel club, I might miss out. So I came to the conclusion that I would pay the $20 to join the club.

Sarah Morgan

Coeur d’Alene

On Sunday I had just gotten back from working out and feeling very tired from the weekend when my friend asked me if I wanted to go to Coeur d'Alene for the afternoon with her and her roommate which meant I had to drive. I wasn’t exactly in the mood to drive 40ish minutes but that would mean that they wouldn’t go if I didn’t. I went back and forth, talking it over with my roommate and we decided it was such a nice day that we should go. I am very glad we went, it was a lot of fun and I met some nice people.

Skype

The other day my friend who I have Skyped quite a few times since I’ve been at GU wanted to Skype. I went online and had been Skyping with him for a little bit when my other friend Megan came online and Skyped me. The two friends don’t get along so I couldn’t talk to both at the same time and Megan had been having a hard time a college. I didn’t know if I should stop the conversation I was having or talk to Megan later. I decided to Skype with Megan, which was a good idea because she was really struggling and my other friend understood that I needed to be there for her.

Homework

Last week I had homework that I needed to finish by the next morning but some of my friends were next door hanging out and I wanted to watch TV with them. I knew I needed to do my homework but I also thought I could use a break considering I had just gotten out of class a bit ago. I decided to hang out with my friends and do my homework after. It ended up being perfect because I could focus when I came back to do my homework. Thorough this I also learned after each assignment I finish I need to take a five minute break, it keeps me going until I finish entirely.

Shannon Scola

Coffee

The other day my sister and I decided to meet for coffee. We were discussing where we should go and we were able to narrow it down to Dutch Brothers and Jazzman's. I made the claim that it would be better to go to Jazzman's because they accept Dining Dollars whereas Dutch Brothers does not, and therefore we could use our meal plan instead of our spending money. On this premise we decided to go to Jazzman's.

Homework

I had already completed my homework for the following day, but had not even started my homework for the day after, which I had a lot of. I was also not in the mood to do homework or reading and I wanted to leave it until the next day. I made the claim that if I did not start my homework now I would not have enough time to finish it the next day. On that premise I started my homework right away.

Jumping off the Bridge

My friends and I had wanted to jump off the bridge all week but because of our class schedules we could not find a good time to go until this weekend. When the time came for us to go jump off the bridge some of my friends wanted to postpone it again until next weekend or possibly the weekend after. I made the claim that we should go this weekend because it was a warm day and we knew we could all go, but we could not be sure it would be warm the next few weekends. On that premise we decided to jump off the bridge this weekend.

Kelley Boone

Birthday

This weekend it was my roommates birthday. My other hall mates and I consulted with each other as do what to do for her considering she was working until 9:30 that night. We decided to walk to Safeway to browse their products for an idea to get her. I wanted to bake her some brownies, another girl wanted to get her a small cake, but then someone suggested the store bought cupcakes because they were already made and we weren't sure our kitchen had the right pan to bake anything in. We all agreed this was a good idea and got her the cupcakes with the number candles of a 1 and a 9 as well. My roommate was very happy and loved the cupcakes so we did good.

Lunch

Today was my hall mate's birthday and we all decided to do lunch. She wanted to go to an Indian restaurant, but there wasn't shops around it to go into for afterward so we decided to go to the sushi place at the mall instead. This was a good decision because she was able to go to Claire's and get her ear pierced like she wanted and we were able to browse at stores like we all wanted.

Bedroom furniture

On move in day my roommate and I had to decide the best way to arrange our room most comfortable and spaciously. We tried a couple different ways deliberating together along with my mom and her friends. With her bed being lofted and mine raised up high we came to the final conclusion that the best way to arrange it was for my bed would go on the wall by the door and her bed would go near the window with my desk in front of the window and hers under her bed. This left room for both our fridges and all of my things seeing as she had already put hers into the closet and drawers. and I stored my stuff under my bed. We enjoy our arrangement today.

Alicia Bies

Pig Out in the Park

My suite mates and I had decided that we would spend our Saturday at the festival in downtown Spokane. After that decision was made, our RA informed us that our dorm would be leaving Friday at 6 and walking to the festival together. After talking it over with my roommates, we decided it would be best to change our previous plans and go with our dorm. I'm glad that conclusion was made because I met a lot of nice people from my dorm!

Highlighter Dance

On Friday I had about 10 people in my room for a pre-dance get together. They all arrived around 9:30 and some had shown interest in leaving for the dance exactly at 10:00. Other people argued with them and said the dance would be better if we left around 10:30. After listening to both claims and their reasoning, I stepped in and suggested that the people that wanted to be on time should leave then and I will stay with the people that wanted to be "fasionably late". That way both groups were happy and we all enjoyed our first friday at Gonzaga.

Dinner Dillemma

My suite mates and I have been trying to experience most of the food places around the Gonzaga campus. On Thursday, I suggested that we try out Pita Pit and my roommates argued that we should go to Duff's instead. After discussing both options, we decided to go to Duff's because they accepted dining dollars and being poor college students, we didn't want to spend our own money on dinner. After eating, all three of us were happy about our decision, and we now have a new favorite food place!

Colleen Meyers

Weekend Plans

Saturday morning I was at my friend's apartment. She had tickets to the Dave Matthews Band concert at the Gorge for the Sunday part of the show and was going to go over there Saturday afternoon and camp. She asked me if I wanted to come and I debated if I should or not. She provided claims that I would have many more weekends to spend here, and that seeing the group we were going to meet up with at the Gorge was going to be the last time in a while. I was not quite sure if I wanted to spend money to go or not, but I decided it would be worth it.

Tickets

While at the Gorge, I still did not have a ticket into the actual concert. So on Saturday Lena and I walked around trying to find people who were going to sell their tickets. At first we both discussed how much we were willing to spend on a ticket. Knowing that I did not have to spend money on the camping site or on food, I made the decision to spend no more than seventy dollars. Lena agreed with me. We found a guy who was willing to sell them to us for eighty. We both discussed the situation. Lena gave the claim that we needed to be conscious about if the ticket was fake and we were getting ripped off, because eighty dollars was a lot to lose. I also stated that I did not care too much about the bands that were playing. We decided not to buy the tickets from him, which turned out to be a good decision because I later on got a ticket for free.

Coming Home

One of the other girls who came with us this weekend had to be home early on Monday morning for soccer practice. The decision we had to make was whether to come home late on Sunday night or wake up really early Monday to dirve back. The drive was two hours long. Ellen and I really wanted to stay the night and wake up early and drive back because I was not sure how safe driving back late at night would be because we were all so tired. One of the other girls pointed out that if we did drive back that night we would be able to sleep in and have a full day back home. Ellen and I both realized that the way we were thinking was primarily for our own benefit, and not of that of the other girls with us. Thinking in stereo allowed us to come to the conclusion that it would be better for the whole group if we left that night instead of early in the morning.

Field Observation 1:

Last week I was at my Coach's house for our start of the season dinner where we discuss practice and get our gear. This year we got Sun Mountain golf bags instead of PING. This caused quite a controversey because we all liked the PING bags a lot and have never been fans of the Sun Mountain bags. We all started giving Coach reasons as to why the PING bags were better such as lighter, more stylish, etc... to make it known we weren't happy about the change and to voice our opinion that PING is better. The overall tone was very argumentative and focused on reasons why PING bags are better. None of the participants used thinking in stereo to my knowledge. The resolution amongst our team was that PING bags are better and our coach realized that but gave his reasoning for switching which was that the PING bags would have taken 7months to get off back order and we wouldn't have had them in time.

Chris Atkinson

Over the weekend I found myself in a reflective context. It was Saturday afternoon and I was in my friends truck with some of my friends. we were listening to music when a Skrillex song came on. My friend Patrick mentioned that Skrillex, the talented electronic musician, was coming to Spokane in late October for a concert at the Knitting factory downtown. We both agreed that this event would be glorious so we began talking about buying tickets. However, our friend Evan seemed skeptical about going to the concert. At the time he thought the concert would be expensive but we informed him it was only 26 dollars. We also reminded him how much he enjoyed the music of Skrillex. With more and more reasons to go to this event we found ourselves in unanimous agreement for making this night reality. In the end we all decided to buy tickets for the concert.

Looking back on Saturday night i now realize I was in another reflective context without even knowing it. My buddy Devin also from CM has an older brother at Gonzaga who is a senior. He was having a small party at his house on saturday night. The small group we made up consisting of freshmen had a decision to make, either go to the house party or attend the dance at CM. A few of us weren't fully convinced that the CM dance we be good so we finally came to the conclusion to go to the house and it ended up being a good night. Being able to have a discussion about our opinions, views , and thoughts towards our dilemma made it easier to agree in our decision making.

Just like everyone else I was in a relflective context in deciding what to eat and where to eat it. Once again i was in a group and when of my friends suggested eating at the Cog before it closed. We all checked our watches and phones realizing it was about to close because it was 6:40. Other options for eating were also thrown into the discussion. These suggestions included Spikes or going off campus. We eventually all agreed upon how exhausted we were so we decided to stay close thus eating at the cog.

Luis Alza

Safeway After a long weekend my roommate and I were exhausted but we had nothing in our fridge. It was already about 10 so we thought about going to Safeway the next day instead. I told my roommate that we should go that same night because we could both go for sure. The next day our schedules didn’t really match up so there was a possibility that we wouldn’t be able to go. Due to this claim we went that same night.

Laundry Laundry can sometimes be very annoying, especially when there are only 2 washers and dryers for a good amount of people. It was a weekday so all I wanted to focus on was class and no other activities. I began to think and figured out that if I didn’t do at least some of my laundry then, later I would be fighting for a washer with many other guys. This claim made me do some laundry on that weekday.

Packing In order to bring all my belongings to college I had to put them all in luggage bags. This is usually a tedious job because for one, it might take forever, and there are other things that we could be doing with that time that are much more fun. As I thought about this I began to realize how stressing it would be if I decided to do all this packing the day before I left for school. It was a much better idea to begin packing a few days in advanced so that this process would not be so stressful. This claim made me decide to pack all my belongings with a few days in advanced.

Logan Torres

The other night myself and a few of my friends decided to go to the gym and play a few pick-up games of basketball. When we arrived at the gym we noticed that both of the courts we usually play on were already occupied by other students. It was already pretty late and some of us had class early the next day. One of my friends made the claim that we should just head back to the dorm and study or get some sleep under the premise that we would be at the gym too late. I then made the claim that if we wait a few minutes we may be able to jump into a game before we have to head back. In the end we decided to stay and wait for one of the games to finish.

One day after class I decided I was going to get some lunch. I was not sure if I wanted to eat at the COG or go to Spike's. I knew that if I went to the COG I would not have to use Flex in order to get lunch, but on the other hand if I went to Spike's I would have to use Flex. I made the claim that I would rather save money so I decided to eat at the COG instead.

On my floor in my dorm we do not have a set plan to do our laundry, it is basically first come first serve. Because of this it is hard to get your laundry done most of the time. One day our RA Will made the claim that we should set up a whiteboard in the laundry room and write certain times at which everyone could do their laundry. Some people on our floor thought this was a great plan including myself, but others made the claim that if everyone just did their laundry in a timely manner we would not have to set certain times. We came to a conclusion that everyone should just do their laundry in a timely manner.