I looked online, and found that a new piece of software had emerged, Dragon. It's a stop motion program. It's really designed to be used with DSLRs, but it will work with DV cameras. I spent some research time reading over the manual and trying a few 2-3 second things, just to get the hang of the interface. I then put together this 30 second little beauty. not awesome, but not bad. I liked the story, such as it is.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Research/Final
So, I got to thinking about this class. i think it's meant to be a place to mess around in a sanctioned way, and to pursue things that interest the student. So I looked at the things I've always wanted to try, but never really made time to learn how to do it, and I came up with stop motion. I love Robot Chicken, and I've always wanted to really try it. I've messed around with it a bit, but had never really tried to put anything together for real.
Monday, April 27, 2009
IN Innovators. Where are they?
Sorry to say, but art for art’s sake isn’t a big business in Indiana. Most practitioners of New Media around here are in it strictly for the dollars. And most of them aren’t terribly innovative. I think that’s probably true anywhere, but more true here. I’ve found a few that are interesting though. Some of these are cool because of what they make, and some are cool because of the overall effect they could have on our community. Some I think are alright just because they’ve found a way to monetize the skill we’re learning here. You can tell that graduation is rapidly approaching, and I don’t have an employer yet.
The first thing new media source I looked at in Indianapolis was artbabble.org. I’d seen it in action at the IMA, and thought it was pretty impressive. What I liked about artbabble is that it combined several aspects of the modern New Media landscape, online video and social networking, and combined them into a promotional tool for the arts. The thing that I found most impressive about it was that the IMA seemed to be a leader in this sort of thing. Generally, when I think of Indiana, I don’t think of arts leadership. But, looking at the partners involved, IMA is sharing video with MoMa, the Smithsonian, Art:21, the Smithsonian, the New York Public Library, LACMA, and SFMOMA, all pretty heavy hitters in the world of art and information. What I found innovative about it was that they were using the models that are known to work, and adapting them to art. I liked it. Not enough to sign up, but I liked it.
Next, I looked at Medical Animatics. Founded by an IUPUI New Media grad, this company is interesting to me. I don’t do 3d work or anything, but I thought this guy’s vision for the market was smart and innovative. He saw a way to take 3d modeling talent, and use it for something other than special effects in movies. There may be nothing glamorous about making informed consent videos for kidney transplants, but as a cynical, got-to-live-in-the-real-word type of guy, I like to see New Media successfully monetized, and not just used as pure art. Art is nice, but bills have to be paid, and there are only so many charitable foundations paying artists.
I don’t think that it really qualifies as artsy New Media, but I’m pretty impressed with what ChaCha is doing locally. They are a text/email/phone service that provides answers. You send them your question in human language, and somebody looks up the answer for you. It seems to me that they’ve thought their system out pretty well. They get your question, and forward it to an actual human being who looks it up, and gives you a pithy answer. Kind of cool. What I think is innovative is that it uses a system to allow people who don’t understand searching to search effectively. I think that’s clever. One of the great future threats to information brokering companies is that people will learn to use search engines effectively. ChaCha is wisely building a clientele of people who don’t care to search for things themselves, and ensuring that they never learn how to search for themselves, keeping them dependent on ChaCha. It’s so clever, I signed up to be one of their guides, who do the searching for the answers.
The Indiana State Legislature. I’m going to give it to them not as a creator of New Media, but as an advocate. The production incentives that were passed last year (over the governor’s veto), provide tax breaks for companies making media productions in Indiana. While this only applies to film and TV projects of $100,000 or more, and digital media productions of $50,000 or more, I think it will have a large effect on the type of artistic New Media creations that appear in Indiana in the future. The key to interesting stuff getting produced is to have Indianapolis be a hub for production. The more productions that happen here, the more producers will locate to the area. Hence, more interesting stuff being made.
I’ll have to list Creative Street as my fifth. They aren’t innovating in any of the flashy arts ways, but they are finding enough ways to please their clients that they can keep fifty full time employees. For Indianapolis, that’s pretty good. They must be doing something right.
Despite all my cynical talk about making money, and nothing interesting in Indiana, I have to say artbabble was my favorite subject from this little research project. I like the idea that they are promoting art videos and video about the arts right here from Indianapolis. I think their partnerships with respected museums is a wise move, and I think they’re raising the profile of new media arts in Indianapolis. They’re also providing an outlet for those arts right here in Indiana. They’re my favorite innovators.
The first thing new media source I looked at in Indianapolis was artbabble.org. I’d seen it in action at the IMA, and thought it was pretty impressive. What I liked about artbabble is that it combined several aspects of the modern New Media landscape, online video and social networking, and combined them into a promotional tool for the arts. The thing that I found most impressive about it was that the IMA seemed to be a leader in this sort of thing. Generally, when I think of Indiana, I don’t think of arts leadership. But, looking at the partners involved, IMA is sharing video with MoMa, the Smithsonian, Art:21, the Smithsonian, the New York Public Library, LACMA, and SFMOMA, all pretty heavy hitters in the world of art and information. What I found innovative about it was that they were using the models that are known to work, and adapting them to art. I liked it. Not enough to sign up, but I liked it.
Next, I looked at Medical Animatics. Founded by an IUPUI New Media grad, this company is interesting to me. I don’t do 3d work or anything, but I thought this guy’s vision for the market was smart and innovative. He saw a way to take 3d modeling talent, and use it for something other than special effects in movies. There may be nothing glamorous about making informed consent videos for kidney transplants, but as a cynical, got-to-live-in-the-real-word type of guy, I like to see New Media successfully monetized, and not just used as pure art. Art is nice, but bills have to be paid, and there are only so many charitable foundations paying artists.
I don’t think that it really qualifies as artsy New Media, but I’m pretty impressed with what ChaCha is doing locally. They are a text/email/phone service that provides answers. You send them your question in human language, and somebody looks up the answer for you. It seems to me that they’ve thought their system out pretty well. They get your question, and forward it to an actual human being who looks it up, and gives you a pithy answer. Kind of cool. What I think is innovative is that it uses a system to allow people who don’t understand searching to search effectively. I think that’s clever. One of the great future threats to information brokering companies is that people will learn to use search engines effectively. ChaCha is wisely building a clientele of people who don’t care to search for things themselves, and ensuring that they never learn how to search for themselves, keeping them dependent on ChaCha. It’s so clever, I signed up to be one of their guides, who do the searching for the answers.
The Indiana State Legislature. I’m going to give it to them not as a creator of New Media, but as an advocate. The production incentives that were passed last year (over the governor’s veto), provide tax breaks for companies making media productions in Indiana. While this only applies to film and TV projects of $100,000 or more, and digital media productions of $50,000 or more, I think it will have a large effect on the type of artistic New Media creations that appear in Indiana in the future. The key to interesting stuff getting produced is to have Indianapolis be a hub for production. The more productions that happen here, the more producers will locate to the area. Hence, more interesting stuff being made.
I’ll have to list Creative Street as my fifth. They aren’t innovating in any of the flashy arts ways, but they are finding enough ways to please their clients that they can keep fifty full time employees. For Indianapolis, that’s pretty good. They must be doing something right.
Despite all my cynical talk about making money, and nothing interesting in Indiana, I have to say artbabble was my favorite subject from this little research project. I like the idea that they are promoting art videos and video about the arts right here from Indianapolis. I think their partnerships with respected museums is a wise move, and I think they’re raising the profile of new media arts in Indianapolis. They’re also providing an outlet for those arts right here in Indiana. They’re my favorite innovators.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Randomness
I know this is a bit late, but I threw together a simple flash demonstration of randomness. Or the lack therof...tune in to find out if I fall on the side of randomness or determinism. Do we have free will? Can you beat the casino? Can we have any expectation of order in the universe? All this answered and more!
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
What the Fuck?
What the Bleep Do We Know was problematic for me. I was expecting some hard core quantum mechanics, and I was disappointed when it bloomed into a New Age spiritualism based in pseudoscience. I'm not well-versed enough in physics to refute any scientific claims in the movie, but I am a total skeptic when it comes to spiritual matters, and this use of science to try to create a religious setup with no morality, and the ability to control your destiny through concentrated will smacks of a blend of Scientology, The Secret, and Johnathan Livingston Seagull. The throwing away of the anti-anxiety medication was particularly reminiscent of L. Ron Hubbard & Co. I will make a science claim, and say that the scientific evidence behind the ability to alter the molecular structure of water through thoughts is dubious at best. I'd go so far as to call it ludicrous.
The sequence at the end, in which all the interviewees are identified, and all their degrees and books are listed came off as a desperate attempt to make these spokespeople appear credible, simply because they had obtained advanced degrees and gotten published. I have neither, but I've been around the block enough to know that these qualifications don't always guarantee intellectual rigor or validity of thought.
The interesting thing about the movie is that the ideas were all very loosely based on science. It seemed to me that this was a group of people who are desperate to indulge the innate human urge to see "patterns in the static" in a way that they can reconcile with their scientific training. These are people who have been trained to explain the universe thorough natural processes, and to discount supernatural causation, as it cannot be recreated or behave predictably. Science seeks to explain the universe in predictable ways, but this group has taken advantage of the limited understanding of unpredictability in quantum mechanics, and decided to fill a void of concrete knowledge with spirituality. This has not always worked out well.
What really bothers me about this school of thought is that the speakers repeatedly differentiate their beliefs from traditional religion. They do manage to keep a classic feature of religion intact, when they are careful to point out that you can only manifest change in your cellular structure, throw away your pills, and become happy when you believe that you can do it with every fiber of your being. Therefore, if this doesn't work for you, then you just don't believe it enough. This is quite reminiscent of the out that traditional religions use. You still have problems in your life because of your imperfect faith. There is always a way to shift blame to the practitioner for the failures of the system of beliefs.
The philosophies in the movie even account for my skepticism. I'm probably too much of a slave to my addictions to be able to see the light and get my act together. I'm far from having my shit together, that's for sure, but I really can't believe that this is how things work.
Also, I was surprised and sort of offended by the idea of each individual as god. The idea that each person creates reality as they experience leads to the idea that the individual is the only truly conscious being in the universe, and is simply creating the rest of the universe as he/she goes along. This is such a self-centered idea, it reminds me of Dwayne Hoover's experience in Kurt Vonnegut, Jr's novel, Breakfast of Champions. Hoover reads a sci-fi novel that is written as a letter from the Creator of the Universe, informing the reader that he is the only conscious being, and the rest of the world is populated by automatons designed to test his reactions. This ends badly, with Hoover attacking a bunch of the robots, since they aren't real people anyway. What consequences can there be, if they are designed only to test his reactions? Isn't this reaction as valid as any other. That is a possible outcome of the belief that the individual is god, creating the universe as he/she experiences it. Why not kill others, as your experience is the only one that is real? When you're not interacting with the universe, it becomes a probability rather than a certainty, so why not do anything you please?
The last point I'll make is about the insistence that there is no right or wrong. This is troublesome to me. I'm no fan of organized religion, and I think that religious beliefs cause many more problems than they solve in the world. But, as 98% of people claim to believe in a god of some sort, human beings are obviously wired for spirituality, and will believe in some sort of deity. I'd argue that it if people are going to be believers, it is at least useful for them to believe that their god is looking down at them, judging their misdeeds and brewing up a punishment. If you're going to have religious beliefs, you might as well take the morality with it, and get the social stability with it. I know that this is a spectacularly cynical and elitist view, but there you have it.
I'm sorry to ramble on, and get so upset about this. I hope that my rejection of this doesn't offend anyone who believes it. I'm not an evangelical atheist, and for the most part this seems like a harmless set of beliefs. It just rubs me the wrong way on a lot of levels.
The sequence at the end, in which all the interviewees are identified, and all their degrees and books are listed came off as a desperate attempt to make these spokespeople appear credible, simply because they had obtained advanced degrees and gotten published. I have neither, but I've been around the block enough to know that these qualifications don't always guarantee intellectual rigor or validity of thought.
The interesting thing about the movie is that the ideas were all very loosely based on science. It seemed to me that this was a group of people who are desperate to indulge the innate human urge to see "patterns in the static" in a way that they can reconcile with their scientific training. These are people who have been trained to explain the universe thorough natural processes, and to discount supernatural causation, as it cannot be recreated or behave predictably. Science seeks to explain the universe in predictable ways, but this group has taken advantage of the limited understanding of unpredictability in quantum mechanics, and decided to fill a void of concrete knowledge with spirituality. This has not always worked out well.
What really bothers me about this school of thought is that the speakers repeatedly differentiate their beliefs from traditional religion. They do manage to keep a classic feature of religion intact, when they are careful to point out that you can only manifest change in your cellular structure, throw away your pills, and become happy when you believe that you can do it with every fiber of your being. Therefore, if this doesn't work for you, then you just don't believe it enough. This is quite reminiscent of the out that traditional religions use. You still have problems in your life because of your imperfect faith. There is always a way to shift blame to the practitioner for the failures of the system of beliefs.
The philosophies in the movie even account for my skepticism. I'm probably too much of a slave to my addictions to be able to see the light and get my act together. I'm far from having my shit together, that's for sure, but I really can't believe that this is how things work.
Also, I was surprised and sort of offended by the idea of each individual as god. The idea that each person creates reality as they experience leads to the idea that the individual is the only truly conscious being in the universe, and is simply creating the rest of the universe as he/she goes along. This is such a self-centered idea, it reminds me of Dwayne Hoover's experience in Kurt Vonnegut, Jr's novel, Breakfast of Champions. Hoover reads a sci-fi novel that is written as a letter from the Creator of the Universe, informing the reader that he is the only conscious being, and the rest of the world is populated by automatons designed to test his reactions. This ends badly, with Hoover attacking a bunch of the robots, since they aren't real people anyway. What consequences can there be, if they are designed only to test his reactions? Isn't this reaction as valid as any other. That is a possible outcome of the belief that the individual is god, creating the universe as he/she experiences it. Why not kill others, as your experience is the only one that is real? When you're not interacting with the universe, it becomes a probability rather than a certainty, so why not do anything you please?
The last point I'll make is about the insistence that there is no right or wrong. This is troublesome to me. I'm no fan of organized religion, and I think that religious beliefs cause many more problems than they solve in the world. But, as 98% of people claim to believe in a god of some sort, human beings are obviously wired for spirituality, and will believe in some sort of deity. I'd argue that it if people are going to be believers, it is at least useful for them to believe that their god is looking down at them, judging their misdeeds and brewing up a punishment. If you're going to have religious beliefs, you might as well take the morality with it, and get the social stability with it. I know that this is a spectacularly cynical and elitist view, but there you have it.
I'm sorry to ramble on, and get so upset about this. I hope that my rejection of this doesn't offend anyone who believes it. I'm not an evangelical atheist, and for the most part this seems like a harmless set of beliefs. It just rubs me the wrong way on a lot of levels.
Monday, March 30, 2009
The Word Part 3
All this thinking about words got me thinking about words. My original word was structure. The thing I found most interesting about the word after spending some time with it was it’s variability. While not the most diverse word in English, it shows a little bit about how many meanings a word can have. Structure is a little boring. All of it’s meanings have to do with how things are put together. But it got me thinking about shades of meaning. And that led me to the word set. Set supposedly has more definitions than any other English word. About.com said that the Oxford English Dictionary has 464 definitions for the word set. And 396 for run. So this got me thinking about the variability of meaning in English words. These words with many meanings are called homonyms.
When I emailed Beth for my final step, I got told to relate this idea to the word “deer.” As in the animal. It turns out, this word had only one meaning. How deflating. I couldn’t have been more disappointed, because the word deer provided no insight into my fascination with variation. It was a literal, concrete word that could only mean one thing. Unless you didn’t see it but only heard it. Dear. As in Dear John. So now we’re into homophones. Words that sound the same, but have different meanings and spellings. Confusing. I’m glad I learned English before I had time to think about it. This is a crazy language.
So what does this all mean? Why is this important that words can mean different things, and words can seem to be the same and mean different things. It means language is interesting. It means you can use homonyms and homophones and all sorts of different linguistic tricks and oddities to make something interesting with language. I know this class is about New Media, but I think it all comes down to good writing. Whether you want to be a web designer, movie maker, or create graphic novels, all of these things are just manifestations of written language. So if you can’t control the English language in an effective and interesting way, you can’t create things in other media that connect with people. Not very easily anyway. I guess that what I’m saying is that most media products have their origin in the written language. And that’s how structure and deer work together.
I tried to come up with a way to put all of this into a New Media-ish project with after effects and such, but I think that since all of this stuff led me to think about language, it was best served in essay form. Now if that isn't seeing sideways, I don't know what is. Or is it a cop out, falling back on the medium in which I'm most comfortable, writing? I guess we'll never know for sure, as it would have been a subconcious impulse for me. I would certainly never take the easy way out on purpose.
When I emailed Beth for my final step, I got told to relate this idea to the word “deer.” As in the animal. It turns out, this word had only one meaning. How deflating. I couldn’t have been more disappointed, because the word deer provided no insight into my fascination with variation. It was a literal, concrete word that could only mean one thing. Unless you didn’t see it but only heard it. Dear. As in Dear John. So now we’re into homophones. Words that sound the same, but have different meanings and spellings. Confusing. I’m glad I learned English before I had time to think about it. This is a crazy language.
So what does this all mean? Why is this important that words can mean different things, and words can seem to be the same and mean different things. It means language is interesting. It means you can use homonyms and homophones and all sorts of different linguistic tricks and oddities to make something interesting with language. I know this class is about New Media, but I think it all comes down to good writing. Whether you want to be a web designer, movie maker, or create graphic novels, all of these things are just manifestations of written language. So if you can’t control the English language in an effective and interesting way, you can’t create things in other media that connect with people. Not very easily anyway. I guess that what I’m saying is that most media products have their origin in the written language. And that’s how structure and deer work together.
I tried to come up with a way to put all of this into a New Media-ish project with after effects and such, but I think that since all of this stuff led me to think about language, it was best served in essay form. Now if that isn't seeing sideways, I don't know what is. Or is it a cop out, falling back on the medium in which I'm most comfortable, writing? I guess we'll never know for sure, as it would have been a subconcious impulse for me. I would certainly never take the easy way out on purpose.
Monday, March 23, 2009
The Word, Part 2
I see now I never got to the final part of this assignment. Ah, well. Sorry about that. The word, structure, I have to admit, didn't get me thinking a lot in specific terms. One thing it did make me think about is the variability of meaning in English language vocabulary. The same word can mean so many different things. For example, I found 11 meanings listed for the word structure. it's interesting to me that the language has such a variety of definition for simple words. This led me to playing the dictionary game a little bit, in which I basically look through a print dictionary. It's not as easy to pick out random words in an online dictionary. "Stock" was a near neighbor of structure, and had 63 meanings in my dictionary (61 online). I'd be interested to know how true this is in other cultures and languages, and if this phenomenon make English difficult to learn. I suppose if I were going to propose a project, it would be a in-depth linguistic study to see how much variability of meaning exists in other languages. Off the top of my head, I would guess that Asian languages have little overlap, what with their huge character sets, each conveying very specific meanings. But that's just a jumping off point for some reading, I guess.
Sorry again that I didn't complete this appropriately. The complexity level was a touch high for me. I don't really have time for such convoluted processes at this time in my life. I'm operating on a just-in-time manufacturing structure around here.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
50 Qs, Take 2
My final project idea was not really clearly stated, largely because I don't yet have a clear idea about what I want to do. I want to tell a story in video, using only the sound effects and music in concert with video to tell the story, without resorting to any dialog. So on that pretty nebulous structure, I will cast my net of what if questions, and see what filters out.
what if the Main Character (MC) could hear sounds other people can't?
what if MC heard things differently?
what if MC heard dog whistles?
what if MC heard plant sounds?
what if MC could hear plants being cut down or picked (stolen from R. Dahl)?
what if MC's voice made instrument sounds?
what if MC's body made different sounds as he moved through the scene?
what if actions and sounds were completely mismatched?
what if this were a really simple story?
what if MC had to interact with other characters?
what if they had to communicate through instrument or sfx sounds?
what if the music wasn't a 'song' per se?
what if the music were all instrument sounds in place of regular foley?
what if this ended up as crappy as the dogs barking jingle bells stuff?
what if it was really cool?
what if it started when the guy woke up, and followed him through his day through sound?
what if he became synchronized with others during his day?
what if santa claus got involved?
what if it were stop animation?
what if the project didn't require any actors?
what if it was stop motion with actors?
what if the characters were toys?
what if I planned it out frame by frame, beat by beat?
-for example, at 100 bpm, in 15 fps animation, I would need the foot to hit the ground every nine frames to land on the beat.
what if this is far too complicated?
what if i ask my friends to act in this thing?
what if they're terrible?
what if i shot the models against the greenscreen?
what if i built a set, but composited in backgrounds?
what if i just did a stop animation story, and scrapped the whole audio specific idea?
what if these were two separate, and good ideas?
what if I sat on one for later?
what if I went for it, and tried to do it all?
what if I had time to actually do this well?
what if I stopped paying my bills, and became a bankrupt and went to debter's prison because I spent too much time on my homework?
Not quite 50, but it certainly has put some flesh on the project's bones. Too much, but that's good, for the moment.
what if the Main Character (MC) could hear sounds other people can't?
what if MC heard things differently?
what if MC heard dog whistles?
what if MC heard plant sounds?
what if MC could hear plants being cut down or picked (stolen from R. Dahl)?
what if MC's voice made instrument sounds?
what if MC's body made different sounds as he moved through the scene?
what if actions and sounds were completely mismatched?
what if this were a really simple story?
what if MC had to interact with other characters?
what if they had to communicate through instrument or sfx sounds?
what if the music wasn't a 'song' per se?
what if the music were all instrument sounds in place of regular foley?
what if this ended up as crappy as the dogs barking jingle bells stuff?
what if it was really cool?
what if it started when the guy woke up, and followed him through his day through sound?
what if he became synchronized with others during his day?
what if santa claus got involved?
what if it were stop animation?
what if the project didn't require any actors?
what if it was stop motion with actors?
what if the characters were toys?
what if I planned it out frame by frame, beat by beat?
-for example, at 100 bpm, in 15 fps animation, I would need the foot to hit the ground every nine frames to land on the beat.
what if this is far too complicated?
what if i ask my friends to act in this thing?
what if they're terrible?
what if i shot the models against the greenscreen?
what if i built a set, but composited in backgrounds?
what if i just did a stop animation story, and scrapped the whole audio specific idea?
what if these were two separate, and good ideas?
what if I sat on one for later?
what if I went for it, and tried to do it all?
what if I had time to actually do this well?
what if I stopped paying my bills, and became a bankrupt and went to debter's prison because I spent too much time on my homework?
Not quite 50, but it certainly has put some flesh on the project's bones. Too much, but that's good, for the moment.
Reaction to Class 3/2
Honestly, I don't remember much. I forgot to post about it at the time, and now its gone. Ah, the transient nature of the memory. Is there such a thing as true memory? This book I'm reading, Vertigo, has a lot to say about memory, and whether we can actually remember anything, what with the myriad memory replacements that exist now. When we see pictures of places we've been, and read descriptions of events we witnessed, the recorded version of it tends to displace our own memories. We see a picture of the Eiffel Tower from below, and remember seeing it like that, even if we never had that particular vantage point. The picture replaces our memory, and when we think of our own experience there, the photo has replaced our actual experience of the place. So therefore, it doesn't matter that I can't remember class, because it probably wouldn't be a true memory anyway.
Just kidding. The Plato discussion was about what I expected.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Republican Plato
Well, you don't stay in print for 2400 years without delivering some pretty good stuff. Here we have the foundations of the liberal arts education, and the idea that intellect trumps opinion, and science trumps faith. It's pretty impressive to me that Socrates, via Plato, is still relevant today, as we enter the era of recovery from leadership that never got out of the cave. It's also pretty sad commentary on the immutability of human nature. These ideas were out there, clearly stated 2400 years ago, and we still have to deal with leadership that is in it for the power. We still struggle with the unenlightened elevating rulers who value opinion and action over intellect, and faith over science. You'd think we're programmed that way, and we'll never get over it.
I can only point to history as a pendulum. Human society seems to swing back and forth between enlightened and unenlightened eras. I hope that we're on our way back to secular, educated, and intelligent, but it's hard to say. I think the new guy in charge is more likely to think that way than the last guy, but hard times are coming. And hard times are pretty bad for secular, enlightened thinking.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Reaction to Class 2/23
I figured I should do this fast, before I fall asleep. What's the story with group work? Nobody likes it. Me either. At least the people in my group were interesting to talk to. None of us had super-creative ideas that we were really on fire about. Man, two sentences ending in prepositions in a row. I am mangling the English language. Anyway, though none of us were enthusiastic about talking up our projects, I found the exercise helpful. It made me think a bit more about an idea that I had just thrown out, with no real thought about it's feasibility.
The idea to make a full album related music videos using different techniques is definitely exciting to me, but I don't think it is at all feasible in the given time frame, and taking in to account my other obligations. i do think I could get a duo or trilogy done though. Talking about the project even made me think about what songs to do, and how. So yeah, I think that will work. The class was useful, even if we didn't talk about the projects for a full hour.
Really, it was motivating to talk about the poor job market that I'll be graduating into in June. It made me want to really focus on my few remaining projects and get some really good After Effects stuff on my reel. So that's the deal. I've been sort of kicking around the idea of doing this stuff anyway, and this gives me an excuse to do it well. So there. I had a useful day.
The idea to make a full album related music videos using different techniques is definitely exciting to me, but I don't think it is at all feasible in the given time frame, and taking in to account my other obligations. i do think I could get a duo or trilogy done though. Talking about the project even made me think about what songs to do, and how. So yeah, I think that will work. The class was useful, even if we didn't talk about the projects for a full hour.
Really, it was motivating to talk about the poor job market that I'll be graduating into in June. It made me want to really focus on my few remaining projects and get some really good After Effects stuff on my reel. So that's the deal. I've been sort of kicking around the idea of doing this stuff anyway, and this gives me an excuse to do it well. So there. I had a useful day.
The Day Off
I found this assignment to be very difficult. One thing I don't have in my life right now is free time. At least 50 hours per work week, along with a 15 credit hour course load means that I find it very difficult to find a three hour block of time that I don't have things to do. So, rather than a slacker attitude holding me up on this deal, it was the fact that I had too much to do.
This is a change from my traditional lifestyle as a lazy-ass. Generally, the time when I do my best thinking is when I'm at work, with a particular client. I work with adults with developmental disabilities. One of my fellas is autistic. He is non-verbal, and just likes to walk in the woods. During nice weather, we'll go to Ft. Ben and walk for hours in silence. I take a notebook with me, and all sorts of ideas come to me during that time. Sadly, the fact that it is very cold stopped that from being a viable option.
The only time that I was able to set aside for thinking this week was during a three hour drive over the weekend. I should pay more attention to driving, but I find it boring, and my mind wanders. While the silent walk in the woods is good for some types of thinking, I need some stimulation in the car, or I'll fall asleep. So before my trip, I synced a few episodes of This American Life to my ipod. For those of you not familiar with This American Life, it is a radio show on NPR. (Although I think they're officially affiliated with American Public Media, but you get the idea)
This American Life is what I like to call, "the best thing on the radio, ever." The show usually has a theme, and there are four or five stories on that theme during the course of the episode. What makes the show magical is the quality of storytelling that these people do. They find all sorts of people with stories that range from fantastic to mundane, and they're all told skillfully, and just make the stories real, with nothing more than voices and music. I'm not doing it justice in my description, but these stories are just perfect.
What does listening to a radio show have to do with my own creative process? Well, this show is inspiring to me. I'm interested in storytelling, and this show is the ultimate in my book. When I listen to the show, I not only think about how they put the shows together structurally, to reveal the key plot points at the correct times, but how they put the shows together thematically. Often, the different stories in the show will approach the theme idea from radically different directions.
In lots of cases, the show will even inspire me to write down my own stories that fit the theme. If I have an experience that fits the subject of the week, I'll often write it down and see where my story fits in with the stories of other people. Listening to this show gets me excited about telling my own stories, and seeking out the experience of others to relate them. Lots of the projects i want to undertake come from ideas sparked by This American Life Episodes.
Now, on to the Final Project. I'm not sure what I'd like to do. If time and scope were no object, I'd like to make a series of music videos for an entire album. I envision many different types of animation, and a few of the songs in live action. They're not necessarily a continuous story, but they have some common themes. The biggest barrier to this is that I don't have the After Effects skills to play out a lot of the ideas that I have. I guess I should start messing with them, and perhaps I could get a couple knocked out by the end of the semester. Or maybe I should come up with a less intimidating plan.
This is a change from my traditional lifestyle as a lazy-ass. Generally, the time when I do my best thinking is when I'm at work, with a particular client. I work with adults with developmental disabilities. One of my fellas is autistic. He is non-verbal, and just likes to walk in the woods. During nice weather, we'll go to Ft. Ben and walk for hours in silence. I take a notebook with me, and all sorts of ideas come to me during that time. Sadly, the fact that it is very cold stopped that from being a viable option.
The only time that I was able to set aside for thinking this week was during a three hour drive over the weekend. I should pay more attention to driving, but I find it boring, and my mind wanders. While the silent walk in the woods is good for some types of thinking, I need some stimulation in the car, or I'll fall asleep. So before my trip, I synced a few episodes of This American Life to my ipod. For those of you not familiar with This American Life, it is a radio show on NPR. (Although I think they're officially affiliated with American Public Media, but you get the idea)
This American Life is what I like to call, "the best thing on the radio, ever." The show usually has a theme, and there are four or five stories on that theme during the course of the episode. What makes the show magical is the quality of storytelling that these people do. They find all sorts of people with stories that range from fantastic to mundane, and they're all told skillfully, and just make the stories real, with nothing more than voices and music. I'm not doing it justice in my description, but these stories are just perfect.
What does listening to a radio show have to do with my own creative process? Well, this show is inspiring to me. I'm interested in storytelling, and this show is the ultimate in my book. When I listen to the show, I not only think about how they put the shows together structurally, to reveal the key plot points at the correct times, but how they put the shows together thematically. Often, the different stories in the show will approach the theme idea from radically different directions.
In lots of cases, the show will even inspire me to write down my own stories that fit the theme. If I have an experience that fits the subject of the week, I'll often write it down and see where my story fits in with the stories of other people. Listening to this show gets me excited about telling my own stories, and seeking out the experience of others to relate them. Lots of the projects i want to undertake come from ideas sparked by This American Life Episodes.
Now, on to the Final Project. I'm not sure what I'd like to do. If time and scope were no object, I'd like to make a series of music videos for an entire album. I envision many different types of animation, and a few of the songs in live action. They're not necessarily a continuous story, but they have some common themes. The biggest barrier to this is that I don't have the After Effects skills to play out a lot of the ideas that I have. I guess I should start messing with them, and perhaps I could get a couple knocked out by the end of the semester. Or maybe I should come up with a less intimidating plan.
PS: As I've been thinking about this, I did do some reading this week, which is surely a passion of mine. I find that reading, like the radio show above, is great training for storytelling. This week I spent a few hours with "Little, Big" by John Crowley. Not enough people read his stuff. It's fantastic. Check it out.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Deaf Percussion Jam
I'll blog with the caveat that I have a real problem with improvised music. I could make a big fuss and argument about what music is, and what makes it music, but I'm not going to. It's a tired argument, and it's so subjective that there's no sense in even discussing it. It's like religion. No one is going to convince a convicted person of anything.
I will say I enjoyed the movie. And I was very happy to hear melodic lines emerging at the end of the part we saw. The marimba and the guitar came together in something very musical. I do think that Evelyn is a very talented musician. Extraordinarily talented, to be able to overcome a disability that significantly impairs the fundamental experience of music. It's interesting that she feels her hearing impairment expands her concept of music. Again, I'm not going to get into a technical definition of what I think music is, but I see Evelyn as blending music and sound, rather than making pure music. Some of what she is doing is music, some is an exploration of sound textures. She combines them into what I'll call her schtick. Schtick is non-judgemental by the way. I'm not negatively judging her work. She can do whatever she wants, it's just of no interest to me.
I'll admit that I have a very narrow conception of what makes for good music. I also make no apologies for having very narrow tastes when it comes to music.
I will say I enjoyed the movie. And I was very happy to hear melodic lines emerging at the end of the part we saw. The marimba and the guitar came together in something very musical. I do think that Evelyn is a very talented musician. Extraordinarily talented, to be able to overcome a disability that significantly impairs the fundamental experience of music. It's interesting that she feels her hearing impairment expands her concept of music. Again, I'm not going to get into a technical definition of what I think music is, but I see Evelyn as blending music and sound, rather than making pure music. Some of what she is doing is music, some is an exploration of sound textures. She combines them into what I'll call her schtick. Schtick is non-judgemental by the way. I'm not negatively judging her work. She can do whatever she wants, it's just of no interest to me.
I'll admit that I have a very narrow conception of what makes for good music. I also make no apologies for having very narrow tastes when it comes to music.
The Deafness
I decided that the only sense I had the time to do without for three hours was my hearing. Also, I happened to have a fine handicap, as Harrison Bergeron would say. I am the proud owner of custom molded earplugs, which were perfect for this exercise. On Saturday, I popped the -9 dB filters out of my earplugs, and put in the total blocking filters. I popped them in, and viola, I couldn't hear anything except my own breathing. There was a bit of background noise, seeing as I couldn't stop my eardrums from working, and some of the sound waves we hear are transmitted by the skull. No matter how completely I blocked my ear canals, there was still a bit of sound, but nothing I must admit, I found this experience to be kind of nice. I had already planned to spend much of the day catching up on homework, and truth be told, I found the earplugs to be a great help in getting this done.
I was able to sit down and work without being distracted by the TV, which is important at my workspace. I did find that I'd missed a couple of calls that I had to return, but as someone who doesn't really care for phone calls, I wasn't too disappointed to miss them. In actuality, the first three hours of the experience were really rather enjoyable.
As I've gotten older, I've somewhat lost my ability to tune things out. I'm much more easily distracted, and have a harder time focusing like I did when I was a youth. The earplugs were very good for my long-lost concentration. The deafness allowed me to withdraw into the bubble that I used to be able to move to anytime I picked up a book. I don't think I'd like to be deaf though. I'd likely start to miss it eventually.
As I got toward the three hour mark, I decided to try and interact a little bit, and went upstairs to hang with the old lady for a bit. She was watching TV, and I found that not being able to hear anything was good for paying attention to the editing of the shows. She was watching some arts and crafts show, and without having to listen to the awful people on the screen spout their drivel, the show was a lot more interesting to watch from a structural standpoint. I did have some trouble communicating with the lady friend, but after nearly six years together, I haven't listened to her in quite some time anyway, so it wasn't very different.
I think that this exercise was made a lot easier by the foreknowledge that I would be getting my hearing back in a couple of hours. The actual loss of a sense is easy to recreate in the physical sense, but the psychological impact of a loss like that is impossible to imagine. What I found myself thinking about is the difference between being born with a missing sense, or losing a sense. It's tough to pick which scenario would be harder. If you were born without hearing, I suppose you wouldn't have the memory of it to miss. But, wouldn't the memory of sound be something you'd want. I imagine it would make communication easier, to have had some concept of what speech is before losing your hearing. I don't know. It would be pretty crappy, except for the freedom to ignore anyone.
While I was living in my mostly silent universe, I got to thinking about what sense people should have that they don't already. Almost all of my initial thoughts were really just extensions of our current senses, such as being able to see atoms, or hear in a greater range. It's kind of tough to imagine another sense, as I've been limited to the five (or six, if you count balance) that I've always had. An interesting sense to have would be the ability to detect and send thoughts and images through radio waves in addition to audible spectrum sound waves, but that ability would effectively be ESP, and so is discounted for this exercise. The truly new is hard to come by.
I was able to sit down and work without being distracted by the TV, which is important at my workspace. I did find that I'd missed a couple of calls that I had to return, but as someone who doesn't really care for phone calls, I wasn't too disappointed to miss them. In actuality, the first three hours of the experience were really rather enjoyable.
As I've gotten older, I've somewhat lost my ability to tune things out. I'm much more easily distracted, and have a harder time focusing like I did when I was a youth. The earplugs were very good for my long-lost concentration. The deafness allowed me to withdraw into the bubble that I used to be able to move to anytime I picked up a book. I don't think I'd like to be deaf though. I'd likely start to miss it eventually.
As I got toward the three hour mark, I decided to try and interact a little bit, and went upstairs to hang with the old lady for a bit. She was watching TV, and I found that not being able to hear anything was good for paying attention to the editing of the shows. She was watching some arts and crafts show, and without having to listen to the awful people on the screen spout their drivel, the show was a lot more interesting to watch from a structural standpoint. I did have some trouble communicating with the lady friend, but after nearly six years together, I haven't listened to her in quite some time anyway, so it wasn't very different.
I think that this exercise was made a lot easier by the foreknowledge that I would be getting my hearing back in a couple of hours. The actual loss of a sense is easy to recreate in the physical sense, but the psychological impact of a loss like that is impossible to imagine. What I found myself thinking about is the difference between being born with a missing sense, or losing a sense. It's tough to pick which scenario would be harder. If you were born without hearing, I suppose you wouldn't have the memory of it to miss. But, wouldn't the memory of sound be something you'd want. I imagine it would make communication easier, to have had some concept of what speech is before losing your hearing. I don't know. It would be pretty crappy, except for the freedom to ignore anyone.
While I was living in my mostly silent universe, I got to thinking about what sense people should have that they don't already. Almost all of my initial thoughts were really just extensions of our current senses, such as being able to see atoms, or hear in a greater range. It's kind of tough to imagine another sense, as I've been limited to the five (or six, if you count balance) that I've always had. An interesting sense to have would be the ability to detect and send thoughts and images through radio waves in addition to audible spectrum sound waves, but that ability would effectively be ESP, and so is discounted for this exercise. The truly new is hard to come by.
So I guess that my attempt to create a new sense would involve an instant emotional thermometer. This would be an apparatus located just above the Adam's Apple which would be able to detect the mood that people nearby were experiencing. Called by some, "the empathetic organ," this wouldn't be about reading minds but more about deciding how or even if one should approach another person, and how to interact with them appropriately. Although people have adapted to this lack of empathy pretty well, by using crude indicators like body language, tone of voice, and facial expressions, this new sense would make things quite a bit easier, and cut out all sorts of faux pas. No longer would you tell someone how great you feel on the same day that they get dumped by their wife. On the downside though, I guess you couldn't help but be read by the emotional thermometer. So one could still make others feel bad by being in a good mood. Or you could have a contagious bad mood. Man, this thing could be a downer.
Pennance
I think I’m going to be heartless, and say that we needn’t do anything to make up for what we did to the room last week. I feel like what was done was done as the result of a legitimate exercise in creativity, and was therefore a class activity. What is a legitimate exercise in creativity is a very subjective, so we’re probably in the clear on that one. I think that this university is always putting people in a bad position for the benefit of others, so we shouldn’t feel bad about inconveniencing the class who came in after us. I’ll tell you that I’ve been extremely inconvenienced by paying the athletic development fee every semester here at IUPUI, which annoys and upsets me to no end, as I not only have no interest in college sports or athletics of any sort, but also feel that shit has no place in the academic setting. I won’t go into too much detail about my dislike for the system of universities as minor leagues for professional basketball and football leagues, but suffice it to say, people are frequently inconvenienced by the “educational” activities of others.
I’ll also say that people need to lighten up. If a classroom in disarray really has the capacity to ruin your day, you need to think a little more realistically about what upsets you. If you’re getting agitated about having to move a few chairs, then you don’t have a real and immediate idea of what could be going wrong in your life. I don’t want to be a complete goof, who goes around reminding people that they could have it worse, and to think about others, but come on. Get over it, I say.
Now, in the interest of not being completely heartless, maybe we should offer some peace offering, so as to avoid being glared at by people in the following class as we leave. None of them looked very school-shootery, but you never know. Perhaps we could make some overture, such as leaving a note that we plan to leave the room in decent order for the rest of the semester. I think this overture may defuse any sort of bad feelings those people have, and save our lives.
Reading back over this, I see that I appear to be a complete sociopath, with no regard for the feelings of others. The truth is, I do care about the feelings of others. I think that the sort of activity we engaged in is the same as vandalism and littering, leaving the next guy to clean up the mess. It’s what I like to think of as asshole behavior when I see other people doing it. I’d say that the mess we made in class was a microcosm of the worst of human behavior, when I really think about it. Lack of caring about others combined with mob mentality.
While I think there isn’t much we can do to smooth things over with the class after us, I think that we can take some important lessons into the future from this exercise. I know it’s probably more of the same sociopathy to write people off, but there are 6 billion other people in the world who don’t hate us personally, and we should probably just try to not piss them off, rather than spend a lot of time groveling to general studies students.
If we really want to improve the situation though, maybe baking some cookies would be good. Fat and sugar always improve people’s moods.
I’ll also say that people need to lighten up. If a classroom in disarray really has the capacity to ruin your day, you need to think a little more realistically about what upsets you. If you’re getting agitated about having to move a few chairs, then you don’t have a real and immediate idea of what could be going wrong in your life. I don’t want to be a complete goof, who goes around reminding people that they could have it worse, and to think about others, but come on. Get over it, I say.
Now, in the interest of not being completely heartless, maybe we should offer some peace offering, so as to avoid being glared at by people in the following class as we leave. None of them looked very school-shootery, but you never know. Perhaps we could make some overture, such as leaving a note that we plan to leave the room in decent order for the rest of the semester. I think this overture may defuse any sort of bad feelings those people have, and save our lives.
Reading back over this, I see that I appear to be a complete sociopath, with no regard for the feelings of others. The truth is, I do care about the feelings of others. I think that the sort of activity we engaged in is the same as vandalism and littering, leaving the next guy to clean up the mess. It’s what I like to think of as asshole behavior when I see other people doing it. I’d say that the mess we made in class was a microcosm of the worst of human behavior, when I really think about it. Lack of caring about others combined with mob mentality.
While I think there isn’t much we can do to smooth things over with the class after us, I think that we can take some important lessons into the future from this exercise. I know it’s probably more of the same sociopathy to write people off, but there are 6 billion other people in the world who don’t hate us personally, and we should probably just try to not piss them off, rather than spend a lot of time groveling to general studies students.
If we really want to improve the situation though, maybe baking some cookies would be good. Fat and sugar always improve people’s moods.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Reaction to Class 2/3
From the perspective of an avid scrabble player, I enjoyed the exercise of word finishing at the beginning of class. I liked the discussion of what 'creative' means. Creativity has always been an interesting concept to me. In today's educational environment, almost nothing is placed before creativity. It seems to me that this emphasis on creativity causes a lot of bad creativity.
While creativity is completely subjective, and my characterization of other people's work as 'bad,' is pretty inappropriate, I'll stick with it. I think that creativity has been commodified in a lot of ways by the Hobby Lobbies and Jo-Anns Crafts stores of the world. There are thousands of examples of creativity as commodity in these places, but I think I'll go with the scrapbooking phenomenon. This is the classic case of selling a creative endeavor to the masses. It is a minimally creative activity, in which people combine prefabricated elements with their own photos and memorabilia to 'create' a scrapbook. I think it isn't terribly creative.
I should leave the frustrated housewives of the world alone though, and quit invalidating people's creative outlets. Live and let live, I guess. Their output is good for them, and I don't have to look at it, so I'll leave them be.
While creativity is completely subjective, and my characterization of other people's work as 'bad,' is pretty inappropriate, I'll stick with it. I think that creativity has been commodified in a lot of ways by the Hobby Lobbies and Jo-Anns Crafts stores of the world. There are thousands of examples of creativity as commodity in these places, but I think I'll go with the scrapbooking phenomenon. This is the classic case of selling a creative endeavor to the masses. It is a minimally creative activity, in which people combine prefabricated elements with their own photos and memorabilia to 'create' a scrapbook. I think it isn't terribly creative.
I should leave the frustrated housewives of the world alone though, and quit invalidating people's creative outlets. Live and let live, I guess. Their output is good for them, and I don't have to look at it, so I'll leave them be.
Monday, February 2, 2009
50 What Ifs...
Here are the rest of my what ifs. They probably are pretty telling about what's on my mind. The future, you know?
What if I could throw objects perfectly, like throwing coins into a soda machine from 30 feet?
That one is new. Just popped out now. so 51 questions it is. I didn't find this to be too difficult. I'm a man who's proposed a hypothetical or two in my day. They come easy to me. Oh regarding my comments to my classmates, I didn't remember the real name of Pontious Omlette (the crucifier of our egg and savior), so his comment isn't on his blog, but does appear in my list of questions.
What if I figured out how to manage my time?
What if bacon weren't bad for you?
what if my dogs could talk?
what if I moved to Oregon?
What if I had effectively unlimited resources?
what if I knew how to work?
What if I liked auto racing?
What if teleporters were available?
What if sweatsuits weren't acceptable public attire?
What if I could talk to people?
What if I were a good salesman?
What if Indianapolis had acceptable public transit?
What if people didn't have thumbs?
What if half of people didn't have thumbs?
What if I'd chosen a financially lucrative field?
What if if I try to sell my house?
what if i had any interest at all in programming?
what if history really is cyclical?
what if history is exclusively linear?
what if there were no term limits?
what if an asteroid hits the earth?
what if i keep eating poorly?
what if pigs did in fact fly?
what if ice skating were less terrifying?
what if pickles tasted good?
what if i could ride a bike?
what if talk radio were less crazy?
what if i start my own business?
what if people cared about their pasts?
what if humans could learn from their mistakes a bit better?
what if i learned to tie a necktie?
what if people move to the moon?
what if people don't find another planet to live on?
what if cows and pigs were more sympathetic characters?
what if i had a hard drive in my brain?
what if i find a steady job, and keep the one i have?
what if i stopped sleeping altogether?
what if there were a pill that made it possible to go without sleep and not die?
what if people didn't have nationalistic tendencies?
what if telepathy worked?
what if RYAN had full control of his own facial hair, and could have kept his sweet moustache?
What if there was still an Inquisition?
What if this became a carer in egg melting/painting?
what if someone managed to take offense at your egg message?
What if this creates a craze for egg beers?
What if I could throw objects perfectly, like throwing coins into a soda machine from 30 feet?
That one is new. Just popped out now. so 51 questions it is. I didn't find this to be too difficult. I'm a man who's proposed a hypothetical or two in my day. They come easy to me. Oh regarding my comments to my classmates, I didn't remember the real name of Pontious Omlette (the crucifier of our egg and savior), so his comment isn't on his blog, but does appear in my list of questions.
What if I figured out how to manage my time?
What if bacon weren't bad for you?
what if my dogs could talk?
what if I moved to Oregon?
What if I had effectively unlimited resources?
what if I knew how to work?
What if I liked auto racing?
What if teleporters were available?
What if sweatsuits weren't acceptable public attire?
What if I could talk to people?
What if I were a good salesman?
What if Indianapolis had acceptable public transit?
What if people didn't have thumbs?
What if half of people didn't have thumbs?
What if I'd chosen a financially lucrative field?
What if if I try to sell my house?
what if i had any interest at all in programming?
what if history really is cyclical?
what if history is exclusively linear?
what if there were no term limits?
what if an asteroid hits the earth?
what if i keep eating poorly?
what if pigs did in fact fly?
what if ice skating were less terrifying?
what if pickles tasted good?
what if i could ride a bike?
what if talk radio were less crazy?
what if i start my own business?
what if people cared about their pasts?
what if humans could learn from their mistakes a bit better?
what if i learned to tie a necktie?
what if people move to the moon?
what if people don't find another planet to live on?
what if cows and pigs were more sympathetic characters?
what if i had a hard drive in my brain?
what if i find a steady job, and keep the one i have?
what if i stopped sleeping altogether?
what if there were a pill that made it possible to go without sleep and not die?
what if people didn't have nationalistic tendencies?
what if telepathy worked?
what if RYAN had full control of his own facial hair, and could have kept his sweet moustache?
What if there was still an Inquisition?
What if this became a carer in egg melting/painting?
what if someone managed to take offense at your egg message?
What if this creates a craze for egg beers?
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
50 Questions, Round One
What if I didn't bother to graduate?
What if I hadn't spent the last thirty years jacklegging around?
What if I decided to go on to grad school?
What if I can't find a job?
What if I do find a job?
What if I hadn't spent the last thirty years jacklegging around?
What if I decided to go on to grad school?
What if I can't find a job?
What if I do find a job?
Monday, January 26, 2009
Class Reaction 1/26
**UPDATE**
I have to clear my ladyfriend's name. She did not in fact screw up my upload. It was just spinning forever.
Otherwise class was interesting. I enjoyed seeing other people's take on the project. I felt a bit literalist and obvious, but there you go. My old mind has lost it's limberness. The crushing realities of life will do that to you as you get old.
Egg & Eye
Talk about last minute. Anyway, this project got me thinking about something round all right, circular logic. I explored the classic Chicken and the Egg question in this short piece featuring my egg. Just so there's no tension, I don't resolve the big questions of existence here. That classic conundrum will continue to confound us a bit longer.
Here's the real downside of doing this at the last minute. The video is still uploading to youtube as I'm posting this and leaving for class. It should be here by the time class starts.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
And so, it begins...
In what I've come to think of as my style, I have missed the first deadline of the semester. This, to me, is always a bad omen, but generally works out well in the end. Which indicates that I should stop thinking of it as a bad omen. But if I stopped thinking of it as a bad omen, I wouldn't then spend the rest of the semester in terror of missing deadlines, which ends up with me doing well in the class. It's all a vicious circle, which is round.
Though I've missed the deadline, I'll go ahead and talk about class. We sat in a circle, which is round. I generally don't like talking classes, because I don't like talking, but this class will be good. I need to get better at talking anyway. Oral communication is a skill I'm looking to develop.
I addressed some of this in the post above, but I've decided that I'll probably like this class. Though it is comprised of elements that I generally think don't work well for me, I have a pretty good feeling about it, for whatever reason. I'm generally the type that likes to sit quietly in class, spend lots of time working alone on my projects, and go about my life. When I was getting my first degree, I had much more idealism about education. I thought that it didn't matter what I majored in, as long as I had degree, some company that needed a well-rounded educated person would hire me. Ha. So here I am in school again, and I'm a little embarrassed to say that this time around it is simply a means to an end. I want an editing job at a production company, doing documentary television work for national networks. The upside is that it seems to be working, which is nice. On the downside, I feel a bit jaded about education.
This has wandered a bit from the recap of class. I guess what I'm trying to say is that this class will require me to step back into a less cynical mind set than the one I've developed over the last ten years or so. I think that's good. In the more technically oriented classes I've taken, there wasn't a lot of emphasis on thinking or knowing things, just learning how to use software. I look forward to being less obsessed with skill acquisition in this class, and thinking about why I do things rather than just how. A little pure knowledge, with no ulterior motive, is a good thing. So to wrap it up, and lightly tap the theme of the day on the way out, it seems this class has the potential to bring me full circle (round) to the way I used to feel about education. Maybe I'll feel young again.
Monday, January 12, 2009
My Brand Spankin' New Blog
Welcome. This is my new blog, which I've started as a container for my thoughts and reactions to NEWM N485, seeing sideways. I guess I'm kind of pumped about pushing my boundaries, but comfort zones do have their comforts. I'll admit, the touchy-feely classes about breaking out of your shell and pushing your limits usually seem hokey to me, but I'm game. I think my comfort zones are wider than those of the general population, but I'm sure they can always expand. Whether I become an idea machine or not, the class seems like it will be enjoyable.
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