Sunday, December 8, 2013

Fear Factor Part 2

4. 
I suppose I should go ahead and describe the experiment I did in class, just in case anyone who reads this wasn't there.  I had two fears in mind as to what I could do: one was the fear of drowning, and one was the fear of judgement.  I ended up choosing the latter because, quite frankly, revealing and talking about that one to the class scared me more than anything else, and so, that's why I felt like I needed to do it.

I got up and talked to the class about my fear, about how I'm terrified that everyone will judge me, and how I constantly lie to make it to where people can never actually see the real me, because I am afraid that if they do, they will abandon me.  This is perhaps the most honest thing I have ever said, and it was terrifying to say it in front of so many people, especially people who I didn't know intimately.  As I was talking, I passed out notecards and asked the class to write down on them what they honestly thought of me and then give the cards back, they were allowed to put there name on it or remain anonymous, whichever they were more comfortable with, because honestly, I wasn't sure which terrified me more: knowing who thought what about me, or knowing the thoughts but not knowing who thought them.

It took me a long time to get around to reading the notes.  A really long time, I was terrified of seeing what they were, but I did eventually read them.  I'll include them below (or at least some of them, the interesting ones)

5.
I'll include some of the thoughts that interested me/troubled me the most:
- "I do not know you very well, but from what I do know, you are a person I would want to know."
- "Awkward."
- There were two cards that were completely blank ... which troubled me more than it probably should have.
- This one was a list but I'll include the interesting parts: "socially, the class clown ... potentially a leader ... self-depreciating humor."
- "I had a hard time believing you wrote novels."  ... I might just have to link my novel here or something.  I doubt anyone will read it, so I might just include it to see what happens.  We'll see how frisky I'm feeling when I get done with this blog post.
- "I think you're lying about being scared of your presentation because you said you were a good liar." ... If only that were the case, no I was terrified.  But then again, I kind of walked into the classic paradox of 'if a person tells you that they're a habitual liar, do you believe them?'
- "People will respect you more if you tell the truth." ... I know that, but it doesn't make telling it any easier.
- "Someone I could hang out with an have a drink ... needs more confidence."
- "Dope as hell." ... Not sure what this means, but cool.
- "I think you're very attractive and a nice dresser.  From what I've seen in class, you are also very intelligent and I read what you wrote for the partner assignment, and thought it was very well done.  I'm glad you opened up.  I relate to your fear a ton."  ...This one perhaps hit me the most.  Mainly because I didn't think anyone would bother to read my story, let alone enjoy it.  Also being called attractive is always nice.  So thank you person!

There were several more, but I don't want this blog post to turn into a novel, so I'll leave them off for now.  I might add them later.  Anyway, if you are reading this and I didn't post yours, it's not because I didn't read it, I did, I just got tired.  Thank you for writing and participating.

6.
Well, reading over my original hypothesis ... it was kind of really vague, so I guess I was correct in a way.  I thought that some people would understand/go along with it, and some wouldn't (which the blank cards proved.), so I guess I was right about that.

However, I think I got a lot more out of it than I was expecting.  I have honestly never been so terrified in my life as I was getting up and talking about all that, especially admitting that I was lying.  I've never done that with anyone, and only recently did it with my counselor.  It's hard for me to admit to people, hell, it's hard for me to admit to myself that I'm a liar.  I don't know if it felt good to get off my chest or not, but it's out there now, and a class of twenty-some-odd people know about it, so there's that.

I worry about how people will see me come tomorrow (last class).  Maybe they will have forgotten, at least, that's my hope.  Writing about all this is actually pretty hard, and it's making me tear up a little honestly.  Damn you for that Beth (just kidding, I think the assignment was a good one, and something I needed to do, even if I didn't want to.  My counselor also agrees.)

7.
Changes I would've made to the experiment ... I don't know, I think that it went pretty well, like I had hoped it would.  Maybe I could've worked on my speech a little bit more, because I know I was awfully shaky up there as I was talking, and I don't think I made eye contact with anyone the whole time.  Otherwise, I think that it worked out well.

I think the anonymity was a nice touch to the cards, so I might have changed it to make it be anonymous, as the cards with people's names on them seemed to be a little less honest, and a little more polite.  Not that that's bad, but I think that it would've been better to have had everyone wear the mask of anonymity so they would know that no matter what they wrote about me, I couldn't judge them back.

Which would've been strangely poetic, don't you think?

Also, to the nonbeliever out there (who will probably never read this post), here's my novel, read it and weep:

https://www.fictionpress.com/s/2813652/1/KISS-HER-KISS-HER

(I guess I was friskier than I thought I would be.)


Monday, November 25, 2013

Fear Assignment Part One

1.

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

- Frank Herbert

I use this quote because every time I think of fear, it pops into my head.  Fear is the thing that freezes you, it drops every human being from an intelligent being into a creature that knows only instinct, knows only "fight or flight".  It is the awful thing in the pit of your stomach that prevents you from doing anything at all sometimes.  

Fear is a useful tool, it keeps us alive, it keeps us safe, it makes us stronger and faster by releasing adrenaline into our bloodstream.  However sometimes we fear things that we can do nothing about, and that is when fear hurts us, paralyzes us, prevents us from accomplishing what we need to.  It is that one portion of our life that we seemingly have no control of, it's the thing that slowly creeps up on us as we lie in bed in the dark, trying to sleep.  

I think fear can inspire us and hold us back in equal measure.  Another author I read Chuck Pahlaniuk says, "Write about what scares you the most.  Write about what disgusts you, what makes you uneasy.  Those thoughts are what makes art."  I have to agree, as many of the best songs, movies, and books play with the idea of fear, or toss around various concepts of fear, but at the same time, it can be extremely difficult to confront fear head on like that, and not everyone is able to.  

Quite frankly, I'm not entirely sure how I will be with this assignment, presenting it and whatnot.  I guess we'll see.

3. 

As to how I think people will react to my experiment, I'm not entirely sure.  I'm afraid that some will not understand what I'm trying to do/won't go along with it, and I think that some people will enjoy it and go along with it just fine.  I'm really not entirely sure, as this class is interesting.  I am worried that it might hit some people kind of hard, which I really don't want, but at the same time, I'm interested to see who is okay with the concept and who is not. 

I think it will make some people think very long and hard about themselves and about what my topic is, which unfortunately I can't talk about here.

What the Bleep?

While not a bad movie, I'm not entirely sure if I agreed with everything presented in the film What the Bleep? that we were presented in class.  They did present some very interesting truths, such as the whole idea of you can force yourself to feel better and become happy just by essentially pretending to be happy, this process is sometimes labelled "fake it until you make it" and is quite often used in self-help books.  It's funny because the whole mind over matter bit does work for quite a few people.

However they continued to explore this idea and did something which I considered a load of complete crap with the water experiment, when they took water droplets, said words like "love" and "hate" around it and then froze it, and the good emotions created beautiful crystals, but the bad emotions created not good looking ones.  I could almost see this working if every time they used a specific word around the water, it would freeze in a specific way, but that was not the case.  Beauty is entirely subjective so saying one is more beautiful than the other isn't particularly scientific to begin with.  Also, the fact that water, when frozen, will create a unique pattern every single time leads me to believe that if the process were repeated thousands of times, eventually the good words would create ugly crystals and vice versa.  

Overall though, I did think the movie did a decent job at simplifying and explaining quantum mechanics in a way that almost anyone could understand, and showing how at the quantum level things begin to react with entirely different rules than what we are traditionally used to.  It's fascinating stuff really, particularly the idea that the vast majority of the universe consists of nothing.  Just simple void.  It's hard to imagine, but it's true.  It's even more interesting that everything we see, react with, touch, etc. is merely the outer layer of electrons, nothing else.

Monday, November 18, 2013

Class Take Away (11/11)

Unfortunately I was not able to be in class due to some personal issues that arose, so I really can't comment too much on what I took away from class.  At the same time though, I didn't want to not turn anything in, so I decided to send this little blog post in, hoping for the best.

I am looking forward to the fear assignment though, I think it might be one of the most interesting assignments I'll have in any of my classes, so I am quite excited for it.  Also a bit nervous, but I suppose that is to be expected saying its supposed to be what you fear the most.

Monday, November 11, 2013

Class Take Away (11/4)

I thought the Bliss assignment was rather interesting overall, especially considering how differently everyone spent their three hours, and all the different kinds of "happy places" we all had.  Personally, for me, I think the Bliss assignment went rather well as it led me to think about what kind of state I do my best work in, and what things I enjoy the most: which are high energy experiences like punk rock shows and the like.  After the fact, I feel so energized that I feel like I can take on anything.

This feeling I think really helps me creatively as it allows me to force my way through some of the "blocks" that I hit, it also gets me in the mood to do something, which I think is the first major step that needs to be taken to be creative.  Apathy is what kills it and my "happy place" forces me to not be apathetic at all.

The whole thing was definitely an interesting experiment and I enjoyed it quite a lot, especially when I got to explain to my roommate and friends that I was going to the Rocky Horror Picture Show for class, which was totally worth it.

Vision Board

I've always sort of thought that vision boards were essentially a load of snake oil.  I mean, seriously, the whole concept is silly in my opinion.  The universe doesn't care what you write down on a board, it doesn't really care what you want either, it just ... is essentially, so the whole concept doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

I think that they fall under the whole "paradox of self-help" that exists.  Essentially the idea is this, you get a bunch of self-help books, you read them, you understand what you need to do to make things in your life better, and then that's it.  You stop there and you think that knowing what is wrong in your life is magically going to make everything better, it's going to make everything work out.  Except that it doesn't, you need to take some form of action to change things, knowledge, while important, doesn't change the world, only actions taken due to the knowledge you have change the world.  I hope that makes sense.

This vision board assignment was rather difficult for me to be completely honest, because like I said, I don't really agree with the idea fundamentally, but I think I found a method that works for me.  I made a sort of business card thing that allows me to keep track of what I'm doing, and helps me record the habits I need to work on and fix.  I don't know if it counts as a vision board per se, but I think that it will help me more than a normal vision board will.

Monday, October 21, 2013

Getting to Know You

For this project the person I got was Corey Harris, who said that if he had to describe himself in one word he would use the word "loyal".  Well, my brain, when I think of the word "loyal" instantly goes to knights, because, well, I have always liked knights, so I decided to try and do something along those lines.

I ended up deciding to do something a little different, a little less focused on the things we learn in New Media, and ended up writing a relatively long story about loyalty and friendship.  The two things Corey said he really valued.  In class, he didn't give a whole lot to go on, so I created a situation that I could see him in and ran with it.

Overall, I think it's pretty good sort of.  I'll bring a print of it in and post the link here in case people want to read it.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gj0InRMhIcz6IfD6g4VcrA5HG25N_cl7S0EMWT5UAXI/edit?usp=sharing

Class Take Away (10/7)

This week we introduced ourselves to the class in the way we thought best fit ourselves.  It was interesting to see what different people thought defined them as a person and so forth, and what some found as important aspects of their lives while others skimmed over those same aspects if they mentioned them at all.  Also, listening to the varying lengths of presentations was fun as well, some people who presented went on for well over ten minutes, and some, like myself, probably didn't even hit five minutes.

I think the stories that resonated with me the most were the ones about people who had had trouble with college, dropped out, and then got a second chance.  I too had a lot of problems my freshman year, I became depressed, went onto academic probation, etc.  I didn't drop out but I lost my scholarships and have spent the last couple years trying to pull my GPA out of the hell I let it fall into.  It's kind of nice to know that I'm not the only one who has screwed up in college, as sometimes I think that everyone else just acclimates to college very easily, at least, that's what it seems like.  So it's nice to see that that's not always the case.

It also makes me respect the people who have been through that just a little more.

Beth's story was also pretty powerful and I enjoyed listening to it.  As I mentioned above, I too am depressed, diagnosed with what my psychiatrist calls lifelong depression, and I am currently being medicated for it.  Prior to the medication and constant counseling I had pretty regular thoughts of suicide and self-harm.  I won't go into all that here, as I'm not sure who all reads this, but suffice to say, it got pretty bad, so seeing that Beth, who is perhaps my favorite professor, went through all that and still managed to turn out awesome is pretty nice and gives me hope.


Monday, September 30, 2013

Curiouser and Curiouser

Honestly, this project was kind of difficult for me, as I had trouble finding something that made me specifically curious I guess.  I went a handful of days trying to find something and was coming up dry, until I was driving home and listening to the radio, as per usual, and then I started thinking about the radio itself.

I guess I hadn't really thought about the radio before, but technically, in order for it to work, the air around us has to be constantly filled with various different frequencies, so there's invisible songs and words constantly streaming about our heads every day as we go about our business, completely unaware until we tune in.

It's neat to say the least, and something that I had never really taken into much consideration before.

So I attempted to draw a picture based around that idea, and the idea that Beth offered up in class, where the illustration was actually everything drawn around the subject.  I attempted to draw a silhouette of a person and then surrounded him with words and music.

I would upload it here but for some reason my scanner is not wanting to cooperate, so I'll show it off in class.


Class Take Away 5

This week in class there was really one thing that stuck with me: while we were showing off our projects, I showed off my little collage thing, and Beth complimented it, saying that she thought the rough edges were fit quite well with the theme of the whole piece.  I brushed it off and replied that it was less a purposeful decision on my part and more of a testament to how I didn't have the ability to cut in a straight line.

At which point, Beth reprimanded me, for lack of a better word, and said that I shouldn't be so quick to judge myself so harshly, and rather to accept the project that I had created for what it was, rather than what I thought it should be, or what I thought others would want.  Instead of bemoaning the fact that I couldn't cut in a straight line and pointing it out constantly, I should accept the fact that the project had rough edges and just allow it to be.

I guess that's hard for me, not exactly because I'm a perfectionist or anything, but because I am pretty harsh about the work I turn in.  I always think that it could have been better, I could have changed something, or whatever.  I have trouble just allowing the work to speak for itself, and I have trouble just being happy with whatever I have created.

It's something I need to work on and I'm glad Beth pointed it out to me.

Also, having class outside is something that needs to happen more often.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Altered Book

Well, I think I found it, the one project I disliked, and the one where I felt like I ran into a brick wall of sorts.  I had a lot of trouble coming up with what to do, so I tried to do some sort of book carving ... which failed miserably.  The glue may not have been dry, also my cutting wasn't straight, so all in all it turned into a giant mess of a thing so I had to go back to the drawing board.

For a long time, I couldn't figure out what other thing to do.

I had different ideas, but none of them seemed to be outside of my comfort zone, so I decided to make a sort of collage using a phone book.  Why a collage?  Well, a couple of reasons, firstly because I am awful at traditional art, I can hardly draw human forms, I can't do shading, and painting is right out.  Also, as mentioned before, cutting in a straight line is a problem for me.  So I said "to hell with it" and began collaging.

I butchered a phone book with scissors, tried to do straight lines, failed, and was okay with it, and I ended up with something that I'm actually reasonably proud of.  I mean, yeah, it's not the nicest looking thing I've ever done, but it's different and I think it gets across the point I was trying to make.

What was the point?

Well, I should describe the thing, it's a picture of a person, hands in his pockets, thinking.  Surrounding him are ads from the phone book, and in his thought bubble, he's not thinking about anything.  The reason I did this is because there's a song I listen to that says, "So many ads telling us what to do, who to be, what to say, that we don't even have to think anymore."  I tried to recreate that lyric with pictures.




Class Takeaway 4

This past class wasn't terribly long, and we mainly focused on talking about our altered book and what we had done with it so far.  There weren't really any new concepts introduced for the most part.

However, I think it was one of the most useful classes we've had just because of a simple line that was said at the end of class by Beth, as we were trying to figure out what to tell Steven Malander to work on.  A couple of us tossed out some ideas that mostly consisted of destroying the object, a can of walnuts, in the most violent way possible, at which point, Beth admonished us a little, saying we were thinking too much along what we were used to, rather than seeing sideways and attempting to try something new.

Which made me realize how much I had been doing that this class.  I mean, sure, I guess my ideas were somewhat original, it involved me working on board games based on odd concepts, but at the end of the day, it was something within my comfort zone: board games.  Rather than trying something completely new, or at least something I wasn't so experienced in, I stuck with the things I was used to, I stuck with what was easiest, instead of trying something new.

Why?  Probably because I was afraid of failing miserably.

But now, I know that there's a problem, and I'm trying to fix it.  I mean, if there has ever been a class where I"m allowed to mess up, it's this one.  So I decided to go off the wall a little for my book project.  I mean, I guess it's not that crazy, but it is certainly different for me, but there will be more on that next post.

Oh, in the meantime, found an interesting comic that reminded me of Seeing Sideways, so here's that.

Monday, September 16, 2013

How to "Read" a Book

When I first saw this assignment, I was like, "Really Beth..?"  Then I sighed and got down to it.  It was fun.

Take your book and point to a random page:
I pointed to a page full of notes about math with an image of a robot arm that I drew in the margins.  There are three p's which I used as variables in various math problems.  As for the robot arm, it's full of straight lines, something like 30-32 of them (I can't tell if some of them are lines or if I meant to erase them and they still exist)

Use your other senses, explain what it feels like:
It's somewhat rough, I mean not terribly so, but there is definitely a texture of sorts to it.  The cover is Red and hard, and also textured, it says "Spiral Bound 70 pages" on it.  Colors don't feel different with my eyes closed, mainly because besides the cover, there are no colors.  Paper is college ruled, there's one piece that was cut incorrectly, so it's a bit longer than the rest of the book and was folded over when the book was made.

How is the book constructed?
It's spiral bound, so they cut multiple holes in the pages and then thread a wire through it holding it together.  It is designed to hold the paper in pretty well, while still allowing tear outs easily enough.  The signature, which I guess isn't exactly a signature, is 70 pages, the complete contents of the notebook.

Look at the end papers:
There is writing in the book, it is mine.  On the last page, it's an old piece of poetry I wrote in ten minutes while I was waiting for a concert that I was filming to start.  The poem got published in the campus magazine Genesis.  I hate it, but here it is:

"Cheap laughter, cheap cigarettes, cheap booze
A house so full, people so empty
Personalities thinner than skin
A dozen a dime these ones.
But then there's you
Across the room
Bright and beautiful
Priceless.
Nothing like the busted mannequins
Littering every room.
If only I had the guts, the gall
If only I knew the words, the moves
Call me a coward
Coward.
Call me a damned fool
Damned fool.
But both escape me.
So I sit and scrawl
Hoping you will read this

And know it was meant for you."

Examine the book more:
There's a couple stains throughout the pages, some I think are from me touching it with grubby fingers while I was writing and eating or something.  There's what I think may be a blood stain in there, I'm assuming from one of my many chronic nosebleeds, but I can't be entirely sure.  It may just be another generic stain and not blood at all.

Look at the pages of the book:
The pages are pretty much white, I mean I guess it's a bit of an off-white, like eggshell or something, but I've never been terribly good at those ... weird colors. (I mean, a white is a white is a white, but whatever.)  There's also the blue and pink lines there as well. 

History of the book:
I think I'm the only one who has used it, maybe my roommate might have borrowed some paper once or twice but I doubt even that.  If someone tried to read it, they would be rather confused I think, it is a horrible amalgamation of five different sets of class notes written in my chicken scratch, so even if they could read it (which I doubt), they wouldn't get anything out of it, I don't think.

Flip through the pages of the book:
It's kind of difficult to flip them as they almost seem stuck together in a way.  It's odd to say the least.  When they flip it sounds kind of like a breeze through a maple tree ... or whatever tree has those helicopter seeds, it reminds me of that sound.  You can feel a breeze, but the only thing I could get to move with it was a piece of paper, and even that was a little bit of a struggle.

Drop the book on the floor:
It hit with a splat, I couldn't feel any vibrations from it.  I don't think it's heavy enough to cause them.

Hold the book and close your eyes:
I wouldn't say the book is cold, more like its lukewarm.  I mean, it's very much room temperature and the room is like 70 degrees, so the book is about that, and 70 degrees certainly isn't cold or even hardly cool.  However I did notice that my heat transferred into it and the book was warmer after a minute.  I never really thought about heat transfer into the book, I mean, I think I always knew in the back of my mind that it was happening, I just never noticed it.

Smell the book:
The book smell reminds me of crushed leaves and cinnamon.  Which is odd to say the least.

Read the first page:
The book is called "Spiral Bound 70 page", the first page of the book has notes about English and sentence structure.  I'm not sure if the two are related.  

Class Take Away 3 (As Well as an Update on my Book Project)

Today we once again covered what everyone's (or mostly everyone, as it was whoever wanted to talk) projects.  Overall I thought that everyone's project was pretty well done and interesting, particularly the video about slightly illegal/frowned upon activities. (Although, granted, it could have been rather bad for the filmmaker...)  I have to say though that I was pretty impressed with the various ways people broke rules.

After that we took some time to talk about book covers/repurposing books to make art/first impressions.  I have to say, that even though the adage "Don't judge a book by its cover" exists, I've purchased the vast majority of books that I own based almost entirely off the cover. (Whoops)  Call me superficial, but I don't care how well written the book is, if the cover looks like it was designed by a 3 year old, I don't care, I probably won't buy it unless I've already read a decent portion/know I like the author.  The inverse is also true: if the book has a kickass cover, I'll be more likely to purchase it, even if it reads like it was written by a three year old.

First impressions are extremely important and cover design is very important.  Cover design can also be moved into other realms, like website/homepage design, opening scene of a movie/trailer, etc.  I've always been told that in person, you have approximately 60 seconds to impress someone when you first meet them, and if you fail to do so, it takes a lot more effort to fix the problem later and impress the person.  I think the same is true with any sort of media.

Now as for the repurposing book part and the update on that, I'm going to have to dump some back story to explain what I'm doing.  Second semester of my freshman year, I almost failed out of college.  Long story short, it's taken me awhile to get back into good standing with the university.  Anyway, I still have my notebook from that second semester filled with various class notes (or lack thereof) and doodles, and I'm going to be cutting them up and turning them into one of my favorite quotes which I think is relevant to my situation (and also happens to be from one of my favorite books, so I thought it fit):

“The only thing all men have in common with one another is their inherent capacity to make mistakes. But there is wonder in the attempt, knowing we are all destined to fall short, but forgoing reason and fear time and time again so deliberately.” - Joe Meno

Monday, September 9, 2013

Rules

So, I'm going to be completely honest here and say that what my original thought was for this project was to just turn nothing in at all and call it a day.  However I figured that you've probably had a million students do that over the years and so it would probably be tiresome, plus it wouldn't really do anything to help me at all, so I decided to actually do a real project.

My first thoughts were once again to do some sort of board game, because when you think about it, board games are the easiest way to watch people and rules communicate.  Essentially people read the rule book, follow it, and try to have fun following these rules set before them.  What I thought I'd do was try to make a game where the players can actively change the rules as part of the game.

Of course, I decided to do a little research to see if this had already been done before, and sure enough it has been.  Twice.  The first one is a game called "Nomic" which was created by a philosopher in the 80s, it's very intellectual, very complicated, but also it's supposedly one of the most thought-provoking and satisfying games out there.  The second game is a card game called Fluxx, which in order to win, you have to play cards that change the rules, win conditions, etc.  I've played this game once and it's incredibly fun though it's extremely random and limited in how you change the rules, since you can only change the rules in a way that the cards let you.

Now the game I created is kind of a happy medium between the two.  It's not as complex as Nomic and not quite as simple as Fluxx.  I don't have a name for it yet, so we'll just call it "The Rules Game" to make it easier.  The components are simple, you just need a pen/marker and a handful of post-it notes/notecards.

You start with five notecards already written out with five rules.  These rules are as follows:

0. All players must play by the rules.
1. Rule 0 must not be changed or removed.
2. All rules must have their own unique number.  When proposing a rule, you must include the number.  All rules must be initialed by the player who created them.
3. All players must agree to all rules, changes to existing rules, the addition of rules, and the removal of all rules.
4. No rule change can have any sort of retro-active effect.
5. Play proceeds counter-clockwise.
6. On a player's turn they are allowed to do one of the following:
   - Propose a new rule
   - Propose a change to an existing rule
   - Propose to remove a rule.
7. Oldest person playing goes first.

So that's pretty much it.  It's extremely fun with a group of three-four people.  It never ends well though.  If you're paying attention, you'll notice that if you manage to change rule 1, you can then change rule 0 which makes things ... interesting to say the least. (It happened to us)

Now then I'm going to turn this in through Oncourse and also email it to you, because you explicitly told us not to email you any assignments and that's just the kind of guy I am.  Cheers.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Class Take Away 2

This past week (or rather two weeks as I'm getting to this rather late) we looked at everyone's egg project and saw what interesting things people had done with their eggs.  It was interesting to see where people went with it, as I went straight to the idea of a board game almost without a second thought, and it seemed that some people had similar reactions, but in completely different areas.

I think the two that interested me the most were the two based around music: the egg rap and the song made entirely out of sounds an egg can make.  These interested me the most I think because, I don't have a single musical bone in my body, so it always impresses the heck out of me when someone has that talent, and they also seemed like extremely "sideways" ideas''.

Of course after that we talked about rules and why they existed and if they were a hindrance or help to people.  Personally, even though I don't really like them, I have to think that they fall into both categories.  On the one hand, they can be extremely stifling, and on the other, they can be quite helpful by giving you some sort of outline to work with.

To explain more on the first point, I particularly hate some rules, especially if I can't see the logic behind them.  For instance, in class we talked about how all papers had to be 12 point font, double spaced, with 1" margins.  I've never understood that, particularly the whole idea of "double spacing" especially now in this day and age.  Seeing as how everything is turned in online anyway, the whole reason for double spacing a paper is now moot, since it used to be used for the professor to fit comments on the page, now they don't comment hardly at all, and if they do it's not directly on the digital copy, so what's the point?

They are just there for tradition and quite frankly it's stupid.  I type quickly and I absolutely abhor having to stop typing and yank the scroll bar down every few minutes so I can fill up another blank page.  Not to mention the whole double spaced thing isn't really pleasing to my eyes, but whatever, that's a small thing.

However it still bugs me.

Perhaps it's partially because I grew up religiously listening to every punk rock group I could get my hands on, but I've always had some problems with the "establishment" (for lack of a better term) and tradition.  I mean tradition is there and it's usually there for a purpose, but I hate it when the tradition prevents someone from doing what they want to do.  It seems that a lot of times people cling to tradition because "that's the way it's always been done" and they're afraid of stepping out into new waters.  I do understand the hesitation with that, as I sometimes have trouble adjusting to new situations as well, but at the same time, tradition is like a suit of plate armor, sure it might protect you, but at the same time, it also prevents full movement.

(Maybe that analogy wasn't the best ever but I think it works)

I grew up in a small town in southern Indiana that was far too focused on tradition. (Part of the reason I turned to punk rock.)  In that town there were certain things that were just expected, unspoken rules, if you will.  For instance, there were certain last names that if you had them there was no way you'd ever be in trouble and it earned you essentially a free pass through high school. (If you've ever been in a small town, you understand)  On the other hand, if you had another last name, things were going to be harder for you, that's just the way it was and the way it always had been, so there was no deviation from that.

Don't even get me started on what it was like if you happened to deviate at all from being a white heterosexual extrovert.  You'd essentially be crucified.

So I guess, when it really comes down to it, I don't really mind rules in general, but rather rules that only exist as part of a tradition.

I also do think that rules are somewhat important.  When I was younger, I was reading a book, which I can't for the life of me remember what it was called, that, although the book itself was rather lackluster, certain passages really stuck with me.  The passage that applies in this instance is when the character in the book is going through an existential crisis of sorts and he's trying to peace things together.  He says that he wants to be free of all the bullshit, so he is transported to a realm where he has absolute freedom.

Of course, in this realm of absolute freedom, there is nothing, just void essentially, and the main character just drifts along, doing nothing, because there is nothing he can do.  Noticing this, he decides to create, so he creates the concept of the ground and gravity.  Suddenly he can do things, he can walk around, he can jump and so forth, but at the same time he has gotten rid of a chunk of his freedom in order to do so.

It really stuck with me because I personally have trouble making decisions, and I need to have some sort of structure in order to make them (haha signed up for the wrong class, didn't I?).  Total freedom scares me a little bit honestly, it almost paralyzes me, so I could really understand where the author of the passage was coming from.

We need something out there to limit us a bit so we can succeed in a way.

Anyway, that little ramble is what I think about rules, and what class made me think about.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

The Egg and the Eye (Or: Candy Land, Over Easy)

So when I was originally given the egg, the first thing I thought of was to try and create some sort of simple game involving the egg.  The original idea was a type of Jenga style falling game, where the egg balanced on top of a tower and whoever made it fall lost.  However, that seemed a little too easy and forced, so I went back to the drawing board.

Anyway, I came up with the concept of Eggy-Land, a very simple board game that fits along the lines of younger children games like Chutes and Ladders and Candy Land. (The latter being the biggest inspiration.)  I wrote up the rules, designed the board, got the pieces together, and it's a fully functioning, albeit, simple board game.  Below are the rules and the board design itself, I would include pictures of actual play, but I don't have a camera, so you'll just have to see it in class.

Cheers.

Rules:
1.      1.  Each person picks a colored pawn to represent their character and places them on the word “start”.
2.      2. The person who ate eggs most recently starts first.
3.      3.  Player spins egg spinner, then moves his pawn to the nearest egg that matches the color the spinner is pointing to.
a.       If there is a frying pan symbol on the space, that player loses their next turn
b.      If there’s a sunny side up egg on the space, that player moves to the next space that shares the color with the spinner.
4.       4. Play proceeds clockwise.
5.       5. The first person to reach the red egg space next to the word “finish” wins and can throw the egg spinner at whomever they desire.

6.       6. The person hit by the egg spinner is responsible for providing the egg for the spinner next game.

     And, here's the board itself:


Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Class Take Away 1

Well let's see, fortunately, this was the first, and so far only class that I had this week that didn't spend the entire class time focusing on the syllabus, so there's that.

However, more than that, we talked about why the class existed in the first place and why we all decided to take it, it seemed that pretty much everyone's story was similar: they needed a 300 level class, this one fit they bill, and they liked Beth's teaching style/had heard good things about Seeing Sideways.  We also talked a little about what creativity was, and how the whole concept of "out of the box" was actually very in the box, so to speak.

We also watched a Ted talk about how everyone seems to think they want more choice, but with more choice comes more responsibility for our actions, and therefore more unhappiness overall.  It was an interesting concept, one that I know I have felt in the past.  I know that I seize up with fear any time someone asks me, "What do you want to be when you grow up?", and I'm a senior this year.  Still don't know, and the thought of all the choices that I have at my disposal scare me a little.  Like I said, I do understand very much where he's coming from.

I think the class is going to be interesting to say the least.

Now, I just have to figure out what the hell I'm going to do with the egg.