Blogging around

Will's Metacognition post.

Of all the organization blogs i felt that i connected with yours the most, the pack rat mentality of keeping things for the memories describes my discombobulated state of belongings  throughout my room. when i did my cleaning i too found papers from middle school which brought back nostalgia, but in the end i also threw them away holding onto the memories and letting go of the past. the part where you described the little things that you did not think about or had been looking for for ages and found them was something that i also experience  when i cleaned my desk i found several little things that i had not thought about until i found them again. overall a very good read.

Therese's origami blog post.

i had a similar experience watching this part of the video, "why ruin a good thing." was what i was thinking the entire time. i could not grasp the idea of undoing all of your work in hopes that the grass is greener on the other side. i also had a similar aha moment, i realized that he wasn't trying to make it better he was jut making it what it needed to be. translating my vague mannerism the artist was doing what he felt was needed to give the paper life. i realized that had he left it as one thing the papers potential would not be reached but through doing it and redoing it he made the paper what it needed to be. its cool knowing that i was not the only one effected by that scene.

Get Organized: A tribute to Aristotle

I spent my time totally cleaning out my desk top and all of its drawers then totally reorganizing where everything goes in said drawers. While cleaning out my desk I found papers from 6th and seventh grade, hundreds of pens and piles of random knick knacks collect over the years that had been thrown into a drawer and left to collect dust. By the end I had a trash can full of stuff that I did not even remember getting and a usable desk for the first time in months. 

Before the work there was apprehension knowing that the task ahead of me was a rather large one. It took several hours of procrastination before the combination of no good things on TV and only purple links on Reddit made me get off the couch and actually do the work. 

The work started slowly and started with the desk top which had become a display shelf for trinkets that I gathered through 18 years of life. I went through all of them and separated them into three groups, keep, donate, and trash. After I had all of them in their respected groups I performed the action assigned to the group. The ones which I kept were rearranged on the desk and I moved onto the drawers where I performed the same group process with all the junk in them. 

When I started on the drawers my mind entered a sense of calm. All of my problems moved onto the back burners and the task at hand took priority. It was as if I entered an autopilot mode and needed to complete the task. 

After I finished fully reorganizing the desk the sense of calm stayed with me for a while after. There was also a sense of pride and accomplishment that came with a job well done. When I clean I usually do a rushed half assed job to get it done, I rarely put the effort in to do a good job when cleaning.  This feeling made me want to keep it clean as well so my work lasted longer as well. 

My mind felt cleansed after I finished with my cleaning as if in cleaning the desk my mind was cleaned along with it. Like I mentioned before it was a very calm state after finishing. 

I learned by cleaning the desk that a lot of the little things I hang onto both material and metaphysical do not mean as much as I thought they did. There was a good deal that I throughout without a second thought. I have always been a collector and held onto things that I thought were important but now I am trying to let go of more and take in less

the long overdue "best of the week: origami." blog 6

Well I will admit that this is very very late and there isn't really an excuse for it not getting done but I figured that better extremely late than never at all.

               I can safely say the highlight of humanities for the week would be the documentary about origami. There are three main points that are made in this documentary that make it the best of the week which are as follows.

1.      Complexity, how complex can you make it?

2.      Simplicity, what can you do with one fold?

3.      The middle part, pushing past the difficult

In the beginning of the film they show the increasing complexity of origami and origami designs throughout the years. A point that I took out from the beginning of the film is the idea of making a design complex has found synonymy with quality which is an idea I find prosperous. While you can do amazing thinks with hundreds of folds you must remember that if you can do something in one move there is no reason to do it in two. You must find the balance of making it complex yet not going overboard and making it too busy with too much going on with the piece. That idea of complexity balance does not only apply to origami either, it can be found in all design and art as well. If an artist or designer adds too many colors with no central focus then all the artist will make is a busy mess or a sloppy design. However if they take out a few colors or simplify the design then they will end up with elegance that cannot be matched.

               This idea of complexity balance moves into the next point which is simplicity and minimalism, doing as much as possible in as few moves as possible. Minimalistic designs are a completely different animal where the idea of making a thing goes out the window and the end goal is a flow of shape. This is a concept that I find the most difficult in all of art. For a designer to make a big desk with all the bells and whistles is easy but to take that desk and strip it to bear minimum then take more off of that yet still end up with a practical design that is elegant is the most challenging feat to accomplish for me personally and for a large portion of the design world.

               Finally there is the middle, the process of making the thing. More specifically the point of no return. There is a point in every build and every piece of art where you have to make a choice about how something is going to be. There is no other option other than the choice and you can’t go back after you make it. This is the point that defines a good designer or builder. If they stall and falter at the big choice then there design or piece of art will ultimately fail. Yet if they meet the choice head on and push through the choice and complete it without hesitation then they will have a success. Even though it is easily described actually doing it in real life is extremely hard and even the greatest of designers will struggle through this middle.

               While these are just few of the ideas in the film they are the big three that I see affecting my life both as a person and as a designer. They are not just points that you deal with for a short time either, they are ideas that you people will encounter during their entire life. this is why learning about them has made this documentary the best of my week. 

iMedia: Goldfish, we come together

There is so much that goes on in this video i suggest at least three viewings to try and see it all. The high energy and fast beat compliments the 8 bit art style and dramatic use of colors. There is also a lot of nostalgia for the older video gamers in the crowd due to the countless references to a multitude of different video games of all ages. The nostalgia also has excitement with it as well because a lot of these references are well hidden and take a trained eye to spot. For example at 1:38 there is a scene where the band sneaks through an ally in a cardboard box. This happens for only a few seconds and is a reference to Metal Gear Solid, a stealth game where the main character uses the same tactic to sneak through a factory. This box sneaking method became an inside joke for gamers and a form of amusement. There are not only video game references there are references to viral internet videos, angry birds, cartoons, and the entire video plays on the cat fighting the fish idea. So if someone is not a gamer they will still find something in the video which they recognize something the gamer might not recognize and they will have their own experience watching. So not only does it offer a unique experience for the individual watcher it lets the audience discuss after word about what they did and did not see in the video.

As for the video itself more specifically the animation it is a perfect combination of 3d, claymation and 8 bit. The colors are very similar to classic nintendo and sega colors. There is also a dominating color in most of the scenes which fits with the music behind it, darker for when the beat is slower than brighter for when it is a faster beat. There are also time when the animation emulates a certain game or style such as the bowser jump from the end of the first mario game or the speed runs from sonic. This fits into the reference aspect but also keeps the video new enough to keep it interesting.

As for the song it is about a group of friends fighting to save a princess. the lyrics are just like the video, energetic. the main chores "we come together  no matter the weather we gonna love each other till the end of time" is not only sweet it is also motivating showing what people will go through for love.

all in all a great song by a great band with a great video to back it up.

Metacognition: Web of History.

For the most recent writing project “Web of History” I was originally going to write about my experience in freshman year english. i had a few rough ideas about how I was going to write the thing but I couldn't get past a problem that doomed the piece before it was even started. There was no way I could write the essay without it turning into a three page bash of the teacher. The teacher was in no way goo, as a matter of fact she was probably the worst teacher I have ever had and would very much enjoy writing three pages of complaints but  if i did it would be a sullen and rotten piece of writing that would accomplish nothing. So I threw those ideas away and thought of the only other class that could qualify for the essay, US history. While this wasn't nearly as bad (all be it not good) a class but I knew that I could make it flow much better in an essay.

               After I had my topic class chosen I simply started writing it in my own voice. The key to this was that it was me talking and that it wasn't restricted to a format deemed mandatory by old men who call themselves MLA. After I had my voice I put in some humor making it easier for the reader to read and relate. I feel as if this made the essay better as a whole and made it more fun to write. It also allowed a smoother transition into the meat or content of the essay. In past MLA essays they transition would always be clunky; with the free writing essays they have more of a flow. The content was my mind on a soap box telling others how it should be done. This was particularly enjoyable as it satisfied my narcissistic tendencies.

               If I could rewrite this essay I would start sooner and give up on flawed ideas sooner allowing more time to spend on the actual essay. The end product was a little bit rushed and suffered in quality from it. The other major improvement would be more work on conciseness, taking out the unnecessary bits and improving the good parts. 

Blogging around

Eva Tumanova's connection post

she connected Fernando Botero and Richard Feynman describing their divergent monds and misunderstood work. 

I thought that your connection between the artist and the physicist was a very unique one required several different angles of view and complex thought in order to find good connections between the two men. Despite the challenge your connection does not seem forced but rather very natural and true. It shows your passion for the work not only for the artist but presumably found passion for Feynman's life and work. I thought the part in the middle paragraph where you mentioned some shortcomings or negatives in Fernando Botero's such as copying other artist styles made the blog much more interesting to read because it makes it seem much more real. Instead of just shoving happy fun facts down the readers throat you make it real and say this guy wasn't perfect then you take his imperfection and connect it to Feynman which make the writing truly special.



nigel howards captured thought blog. 

he described how academia block out creativity and how creativity is not recognized in school

i really enjoyed reading this. it got to the heart of problems i have seen in school since early middle school. i don't fully agree with your statement that the talented in the fine arts don't stand out but i do see where you are coming from in saying it. however i feel as if school stresses academia over art and flaunts the good student over the creative ones so i definitely see validity in your point. i also really like the part where you mention the amazing student misses out on school. i could not agree more, i see students bury their nose in a book that block their view of the outside world. all in all i thought it was very well written and a good read. 

Best of the week: the challenges of poverty and how to escape them

After finishing the documentary “Born into Brothels” the class received a firsthand view of an entire neighborhood that lived in extreme poverty and deal with hardships that suburbanite kids will most likely never have to face in first class, first world America. The ideas that just because the kids lost the birthing lottery they are going to be stuck in poverty and live their life in squalor is one that hits you right in the gut. The only way these kids were able to escape their surroundings is through the help of an outsider, a person who left their comfortable life behind to assist those who have none of the benefits she had received at home. She entered the red-light district and gave the kids something to work for, to live for, photography. This was the kids saving grace, had she not come and given them the ability to travel and capture the country their life would be no different than their moms and their grandparents, pimps and prostitutes. The outsider not only taught them but she fought for them as well. She contacted countless boarding schools to try and find a spot for these kids so they could get and education and leave their surroundings. She spent hours waiting in line and fighting the diplomatic process to get these kids documents allowing them to escape the red light district. She effectively gave them life.

The great deeds of an outsider and poor conditions that these kids live in are not what make this best conversation of the week.  To answer the best of the week question you have to consider another question, could these kids have made it without her help? What if the outsider never entered the red light? What if other kids were chosen for her photography classis? Would these kids still have been successful or would the fall into the same pitfalls that countless other had. As sad as it may be I think the answer to this question no. I don’t think there is any way these kids could have finished school, gotten into college and get degrees in medicine and law if someone had not come and fought for them to succeed. I don’t think they would have found the necessary support, the determination or the craving for education. I think they would continue to live in the brothels, continue to work for pennies and eventually sell their bodies to support them. So while the greatest thing for the week was in no way a good thing the thoughts and discussions that stemmed out of it as well as the extreme acts of kindness from a person who owed nothing to these kids make it the greatest thing for the week.

Connection: Richard Feynman and Hunter S. Thompson

A New York physicist who let his creativity guide him through life and a Kentucky journalist who straddled the line of reality to provide unique firsthand accounts of American culture, two men who followed a similar path even if didn’t appear so on the surface. There are obvious connections to make right off the bat, both Thompson and Feynman limited themselves to subject that only interested them and would both become infatuated in their work, obsessing about it, tweaking and adjusting to make it as good as it could be. They both also hit a major depression that almost destroyed them and hope for their work. For Feynman it was his part in the development of the atomic bomb. For Thompson it was the combination of drugs, alcohol, and the slow realization that he was no longer the great writer, his work had reached its peak. For these men to pull themselves out of their nosedives it took life changing decisions and the help of close friends. As these men struggled to pull their life back together they both reached the same outcome, working for fun instead of working for work.

           While there are the glaring similarities in the two men’s life there are also less obvious similarities that the men shared. Both Feynman and Thompson had divergent minds that blanketed a large variety of topics. Feynman loved everything from nature to the aerodynamics of a spinning plate flying through the air while Thompson was a lover of guns, drugs, American muscle cars. They chased down the rabbit hole to learn and experience their loves and interests and alloyed allowed their respective lists to grow and change. For me their lives spent chasing their interests and having fun doing it serves an example for how a life should be lived. Instead of throwing away a rare chance of being human they spent it how they wanted, breaking rules and raising hell. When life came back and bit hard they refused to let themselves be beaten, they picked themselves off the floor, unslumped themselves and kept right on kicking till their time on life expired or they felt that they had done enough and it was time for them to go. 

What if?: kids taught other kids.

The idea is simple, what if you took a bunch of children with varying strengths and weaknesses and placed them all into one class. There would be no set curriculum or subject in this class, but rather a mass of thoughts and ideas that challenge or support, combine or separate. Each kid contributes in his own way, adding what he wants to make the class better for all involved. This environment would allow for individual interests to be taught and shared to those who may not know anything of the subject. The class would essentially be one giant conversation on every topic under the sun. As the class moved on everything from math to philosophy would somehow be covered informally but productively. Hopefully kids would be forced from their comfort zone and encounter ideas that challenge their core beliefs. They would be able to learn about the opposing sides and learn how to defend their ideas or allow them to be swayed to a side they never thought they would take.

               A teacher may be present but not to teach or facilitate discussion. They would essentially be just another student and encounter the same environment that the students find themselves in. the only difference between the students and the teachers would be a single responsibility, to prevent a repeat of Lord of the Fly’s, or let it happen under supervision, which ever he/she would think would be more beneficial for the class. The classroom would be a member as well, being modified by the students to fit with the times. For example say you don’t like desks throw your desk away and bring a sitting apparatus that pleases you. Don’t like the corny inspirational posters hanging on the walls replace them with a poster of your favorite band or bring in a can of spray paint or other color making device and make your own wall art. As the year went on the room would go on constantly changing to provide the optimal learning environment custom made for its inhabitants.

               Would this work? Who knows but it would a hell of a thing to try.