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?

Eggs, Take 2

I think this is it.

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.

I'd have to say that the memorable feature of today's class for me was the failure to show my project.  Sad but true, I came home to find that the uploading page had been navigated to huffingtonpost.  The old lady made me look like a fool in class.  As a forgiving man though, I let it slide.

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.

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.

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.