Blogging Around: Maria + Melanie

Maria G.

In Maria's blog, she posts an inconvenient truth about college.  To me, it seemed like a very passionate rant, mostly all of which I agreed with strongly.  I loved this post, so I replied:

"Maria, as I am reading this, I continuously compare my life with yours. I think it is great that you have so strong of an opinion on this subject. I completely agree with everything you say, and I have found that lately, I have also been thinking about my future college. I wonder how a college can cost so much, yet give hardly any personal attention. Like you said, "They don't know me.", I don't think that they will ever know me. Throughout the 4 years of college, a college can never know me. Like I said before, I agree with a lot of what you said, and I have the same, strong opinions."

Melanie M.

Melanie's blog post was about how she organized a large pile of clothes that she needed to put away.  I know from personal experience that this is not a fun task.  It actually inspired me to be a better person!  I replied:

"Melanie, I love how I can totally relate to this post. I have a lot of clothes, as well, and I tend to hate putting them away. And honestly, sometimes I change twice a day too... As I was reading your post, I also had an epiphany: If Melanie can do it, I can too. This post has honestly made we want to keep up with my chores so that my mom won't get mad at me for not doing them. It will also help me stay organized. So, Thanks for the motivation!"

Get Organized: My Closet

     I consider myself to be a creative person, and as we have learned in class, creative people can escape gender stereotypes.  The gender stereotype that I escape is clothes.  I love clothes.  I love fashion.  I like shopping for and buying clothes.  I'm not sure why, but my best guess would either be that I love looking good, or I love spending money.  Its probably both...
      So, I have a lot of clothes. A LOT of clothes.  Its almost ridiculous.  I also have almost 10 different pairs of shoes that I wear on a regular basis as well.  Now that you know this about me, you can probably guess how my closet looks.  Needless to say, its very messy.  I have 9 different shelves and drawers on which I put my jeans, shorts, shirts, sweaters, shoes, hats, and other clothing pieces.  Now this isn't counting the 2 other places I use to hang other clothes.  I've been avoiding organizing this part of my closet for a long time, but since I had this assignment, I found a perfect opportunity to organize and do homework at the same time!
     Beforehand, I still wasn't very excited that I had to organize all the piles of clothes that were jammed into the small space.  I was thinking that I would have much rather been playing video games, or going on Facebook   However, I decided to plug in my headphones, turn on some good music, and get down to organizing.  It took me about an hour to take everything out, stack them in neat piles, and put them back in.  It took me another 15 minutes to just organize all my shoes and re-hang all of my hanging shirts, pants, and jackets.  Afterwards, however, I stepped back from the closet, took a good hard look, and felt really good about what I had just done.
     I feel like if I wasn't simply motivated by the fact that I needed to do it for a class, it would have felt much better.  That being said, I was still extremely satisfied with the work I had done.  I didn't realize how many clothes I actually have.  I knew I had quite a lot, but I didn't realize how many I actually had.  I also saw how my fashion has changed over the years.
     I like that everything is organized now, but now it is just a matter of maintaining this level of neatness.  I guess we'll see how long that lasts!

Captured Thought: Building a Longboard

     I have been longboarding for about a year and a half now, but I have known how to skateboard and snowboard since I was in the 4th grade.  I really love longboarding, and I know it's something I want to get into throughout the rest of high school and all throughout college.

     Recently I have been reading articles and watching videos about longboarding.  I didn't know that there were so many different things you could do.  I've seen tricks that I didn't think were humanly possible.  I've seen custom paint jobs that look like it was done by a professional company.  Seeing these things have only made me want to longboard more.

     One article that I stumbled upon was a video about building custom longboards.  It showed the whole process of building longboards from home.  I thought it would be so cool if I could do this myself.

     I have other friends that longboard, so I sent them the link to the video, and we started talking about it.  We figured that it would be so cool if we could build longboards that are made by us, and have our own personal touch to them.  That night, we started drawing up shapes for boards, and thinking of cool designs.

     After that night however, we never really talked about it again.  It has still been on my mind though.  Occasionally, I find myself drawing up shapes for a longboard, or custom designs that we could put on the bottom.

     I want to remember this because I really like the idea of building my own longboard.  It would be a good thing to do instead of sitting on my butt playing video games on the weekend.  It can be a long process, up to two weeks depending on what we want to do with the boards, but I think it could be worth it.  We would have something to do in our spare time, and we would get a cool, custom longboard out of it.

Best of Week: Sophie's World

This week in class, we began reading Sophie's World.  At first, I wasn't sure how this book would be, because I hadn't heard many great things about it.  I asked my mom how she liked the book, because she had read it before, and she didn't think I would particularly enjoy the subject matter that the book describes.
We could just say that she was wrong. Dead wrong.

I don't think a book has ever made me think so hard about life before in my life.  It brings up questions like "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?".  Sophie ponders these questions while she reads the letters her philosopher is sending to her.  I find it difficult to not become distracted by these questions.  I find myself thinking about these questions for myself rather than reading the book.  I love pondering these things, but I need to read!

I had also recently been pondering questions like this, and I was very happy to see other perspectives through this novel.  When Sophie first got the "Who are you?" letter, the author described Sophie looking into the mirror, and questioning who was actually asking the question.  I think it is amazing to think about.

It connects to my beliefs in how I really love thinking of things in abstract ways.  Like in the chapter, "The Myths", it describes how people made up stories so that they could have a sort of knowledge as to how things work.  To me, science is so boring.  Facts are facts that cannot be altered.  They are set, and that is the way they will be.  I think that is why I have loved reading this book.  I can use my imagination to create.  I can create reasons to why the earth spins, or where we come from.

I see myself using these questions throughout my entire lifetime.  I believe that if I can ask these questions to myself throughout my lifetime, I will never be bored.  These are things that I could think about for hours on end without stopping.  It is one of the only things that isn't a physical activity that really can get my blood flowing.

I think that it is pretty important to think about these things, because without them, life just seems irrelevant.

Metacognition: Drama

     While memorizing lines is an important aspect of performing in my drama classes, or performing in school productions, it isn't the only thing that I need to focus on.  There are separate aspects that I need to work on in order to deliver a convincing performance.

     My first step is to analyze my character.  I find that if I can really know who my character is, then it becomes easier to actually become that character.  I think that this is one of the most important things that anyone can do as an actor.  If you can fully know who a character is, and how he would react to certain situations, then that is how you will be the most convincing in a performance.

     The next thing I'll do is memorize my lines.  This is obviously very important, because without memorization, you might just look like a fool on stage.  I try to take this relatively slow.  The process of memorization usually happens over a longer period of time, while I rehearse the scenes more.  I'll usually read through certain scenes every night.  It sometimes can be frustrating, but that's why I go slowly.  If I went faster in an attempt to cram all the lines in, I know I would mess something up.

     I'll usually analyze my scene next.  By this, I mean that i'll figure out my motives for everything I'm doing, and what is my purpose in the scene.  This is also the step where I'll analyze all my blocking, which is a theater term for the movement I do on stage.  This is important to do, because it could end up looking a bit awkward if you and whoever else is with you on stage just sits in the same spot.  With purposeful movements, it keeps the audience engaged, and it helps to avoid awkwardness.

     When I combine these steps, the first time it is rehearsed, it is usually an awkward mess.  But this is the point in my process that I work on combining everything, and perfecting all the steps. I find that the performances never are perfect, but sometimes they get pretty close.

     The thing that really surprises me about my process in this is how organized it is.  I feel that acting is very important to me, so I really put my heart into it, no matter how big or small the part.  The reason it surprises me is because I don't put this much work and passion into many things, and I found that when I do find something i'm passionate in, I really go all out with it.

     The only thing I'd like to improve about this process is that I wish I could apply it to more things.  I feel as if this process is very good, and when executed correctly, it really turns out well.  If I could apply this passion to more things, I would have improved my grades by a lot, and I could also be a much better athlete.

Blogging Around: Melanie & Murray

Melanie's post

Her post was under the, "What if?" prompt.  She began by giving examples of things that were created, that may never have been made if there were no "what if" questions.  She continues to elaborate on the questions "what if there was a cure to cancer?", and "what if creativity did not exist?".  At the end, she added a little thing to think about that involves the loop of what if questions.

I really love the statement that you posted at the end. It got me thinking of the odd circles and weird paradoxes in life. I found myself asking questions throughout the post like, "if we didn't know what creativity and beauty was, would it actually be a bore?". Things like these really get me thinking, and I love it. I truly enjoyed pondering about this post!

Murray's Post

In Murray's post, he describes how he loves writing songs, and how he would use his own creative ideas to come up with new things.  However, he said he eventually ran into a "writers block" for musicians.  He wrote about how he studied famous and influential composers and musicians, and took "snippets" and ideas from their work and applied them to his, while still keeping his own originality.

I can relate to this post a lot, but in a way that doesn't seem to match at all. When you wrote about taking ideas from other famous artists and composers, I thought of how I improve myself as an athlete. In order to better myself, and improve my skills, I look at the professionals. I studied their techniques, and their play styles. I figured out what works for me, and I feel this is basically the same things you do, but with music. When we looks at the professionals in our field, we know that they worked hard to get to where they are, and we know that they must be doing something right. I think that this theory of looking at people who are "better" than us can be applied to almost anything.

Best of Week: Big Ideas

     When I was assigned to read "The Elusive Big Idea", my first impression was that it was going to be a boring essay about ideas and how we are unable to attain them.  When I started reading it, however, I realized that it is an interesting essay about ideas and how we are unable to attain them.

     I also realized that I disagree with some of what Neal Gabler was writing about.  For one instance, Gabler states, "If our ideas seem smaller nowadays, it's not because we are dumber than our forebears but because we just don't care as much about ideas as they did".  I agree that it's not because we are dumber than generations past.  The part I disagree with is that he says that we don't care.  If I were to ask Mr. Gabler one question, it would be why are you so ignorant?  It just makes no sense to me.  If we try to imagine how far we have progressed since the beginning of the industrial age, it is almost unfathomable to size up the advancements we have made.  The technology of today is crazy.  So how could we not care?  It is much harder to come up with ideas when we already have advanced machines and strategies.  It's not that we don't care, its that it is harder to THINK of a good idea.

     In my opinion, I think that a lot of the big ideas have already been thought up.  I'm positive that there are plenty more creative ways to imagine solutions and fixes to problems.  We may be moving so fast with technology and industry that it is just too difficult for our creativity to keep up.

     Gabler states that "Ideas aren't what they used to be".  I think that he simply can't see that we do have great ideas, but they seem smaller because ideas before seemed like the greatest thing to ever happen.

     Ideas nowadays aren't elusive.  They aren't hiding from us in the corners of our minds.  Ideas are harder to see as revolutionary.  They have simply been shadowed by the ideas of the past that seemed like nothing could trump it.  I think that if Neal Gabler took a closer look into the things we do today, he would understand this concept that there are great ideas.  To me, Gabler just seems stuck in the past.

It Matters: Small Businesses

     In class, we read an article called The Televisionary by Malcolm Gladwell.  In the article, Gladwell described the success, then failure in the life of Philo T. Farnsworth.  Farnsworth was the visionary who invented the television.

     Farnsworth wasn't open to sharing the credit for his invention, so he attempted to be the lone creator of the television.  Ultimately, he failed since he couldn't sell like a big company could, and he couldn't make progress like a big company could.  It's pretty obvious that the main reason Farnsworth didn't make it big is because he wasn't part of a big company.

     Right now, our country's economy is in a poor state.  There are a lot of people who are trying to make it big, just like Farnsworth.  I think there are too many people trying to be entrepreneurs.  These people are starting up small businesses, and their businesses are failing. Well why? It has worked before, why can't it work now?  In a blog I was looking over, it gave ten reasons to why these businesses are failing. Out of all ten of the reasons he gave, the ones that I agree with the most are numbers one and nine.

     Number one is "Lack of Experience".  Nowadays, people look for the get rich quick schemes, and hope that they will magically pull their family out of debt.  If a potential small business starter takes a shot in the dark, with no experience in business at all, there is a HUGE possibility that this business they are starting will only dig them in a deeper hole.  Some people will muster up as much money as they can by taking second mortgages on their homes, taking out loans from banks, and borrowing money from any of their friends that they can so that they are able to start up a small business.  With the high chances of failure, this business probably won't make any profit.

     Bullet point number nine says "Competition".  I think this point can be most easily connected to the problems of our friend, Mr. Farnsworth.  Farnsworth was pushed out of business by a big company.  This is what is happening to the entrepreneurs of today.  These people are trying to somehow make a name for themselves by creating different and creative versions of things that can be found for much cheaper and much more readily than a small, family owned shop.  An example of this would be like trying to open a sandwich shop, when there is a Jimmy John's and a Subway on either side of it.  It is just too difficult to start up something new when today's consumers are always in a rush.  People will always go to the place where they know they can get the fastest and cheapest food.

     Simply put, things are too big nowadays to have something small blow up.  It's like the food chain.  Big, strong, and smart creatures will eat the small, weak, and unintelligent creatures.  It is the way of life.

     So how could we change this? Well it would be very difficult, but thanks to the internet, I know of one way that people are trying to "kick start" their ideas. Kick Starter is a website that was created for entrepreneurs of today.  It basically lets you share your idea on the web, and if people like the Idea that you've presented to them, then they can back the project by donating money to your project.  You would post the amount of money that you need to make your project happen, and the deadline in which you need to have all your money.  Some people might even send you messages with ideas that can help make your invention better.  It is a relatively simple way to promote your idea, and get enough money so that you can make your idea happen.

     If everyone knew about this website, I feel like the world would be a much cooler place, filled with so many creative things.  Maybe if the internet was around during Farnsworth's time, he could have been able to promote his idea to the world, and actually make a living being the sole creator of the television.  But right now, the big companies have too much power in the world, and a lot of people don't have the ability or knowledge to change they way they run their business.

NY Times Blog on Why Small Businesses Fail

What If?: We could harness creativity.

     So in class, we've been talking about creativity.  So I began pondering why some people aren't creative. Was it genetics? Was it the way they were raised? I wondered what creativity actually is in the first place! Is it an intangible thing, such as a thought? Or is it a tangible thing like a ball? Then I thought that this couldn't be possible.  You cannot harness creativity like a book in your backpack!  But what if?  What if creativity was a tangible item?

     There would be so many possibilities!

     What I want to call this tangible item is your "totem".  A totem pole that Native Americans built are representative of their tribe.  They represent things about the tribe such as accomplishments, gods, and even hardships.  That is what your totem would be like.  It would represent you, and how you are, and your whole life!
   
     So, what if your totem was a magnifying glass? Say for instance, you are stuck, locked in a room, and you need to get out.  Don't worry, because you have assistance!  If you would just take a peek through the lens, you could see all the possible ways to escape.  You would notice that there are plenty of ways you could escape this room.  You might see a way to call for help. But you would only see things that your mind could produce, not someone else's.

     The way I see it is that the tangible item could be a way to easier access the creativity in your mind.  I think that it would work like a crutch.  Whenever you needed some help, it would be right there for you to lean on, and pull ideas from.  These ideas would be original too!  They would be coming from your own mind, because when you look into the totem that is your creativity crutch, you are simply strengthening the connection to the creative part of your brain.

     I think that this would only have a positive effect on humanity.  The world would be a more creative place, and like John Updike wanted us to take from his poem, The Angels, creativity would never disappear.  Music would be better! Technology would improve!  We could even solve world problems, such as wars and poverty.

     Life just seems like it would be better if everyone had a bit of creativity.  It would give me hope to look forward to for our future generations, because I would know that things could only get better.