#9

The past two weeks have felt rough. Exceptionally rough. Like this semester is some sort of test. To see if I really want to stay in school. Tomorrow I have 2 essays and an exam due. I'm not super confident about any of them. The one silver lining to all of this is that I know all of my fellow classmates are experiencing the EXACT same thing. And it really does help. For some reason I feel comfort in the collective suffering. Like its a bond that we all share together. If someone is having a good time at this point in the semester then I think they're being selfish. I get it though. We all signed up for this. It's extremely cheesy but we go through the grind to get to the dream. It turns out this class has already been huge for me in my writing development. Pretty much a whole new world of writing has been opened up to me. One of my essays due tomorrow is something that doesn't even resemble an essay. It's more of a how to manual. And that's exactly the way I wanted it to be. It fit the subject perfectly. A year ago if I'd have had the same assignment I would've turned it into your boring conventional blocked essay that Tekla complains about lol. Anyways, even though I feel like I've accomplished nothing this semester, it's nice to see that it's only in my head.

#8

I never know how to approach these posts. This would be why I'm only at #8. Anyways, I've reflected a little bit one of the article we were assigned to read on the subject of meetings. In this article the author ran down a list of the different types of people you get in meetings. They all were the typical characters you would expect. As I was reading the section about the person who, "has no idea what's going on". I found myself assuming that this person wasn't me, as I'm sure everyone else did (I still am fairly confident it's not me.) Its natural To have this thought and I think most of us are not this person. But I think it's important to realize how easy it is for any of us to be this person at any given time. What I mean by this is-- that person in the meeting who doesn't know what's going on probably has a reason for not knowing what's going on. The reason doesn't matter in this context. What matters is that any one of us can be this person at any point in our lives. That clueless person probably isn't clueless in everything that they do. The only requirement to being that person is laziness. I learned this the other day when I went to one of our group meetings. I hadn't gone over our project plan and was sort of in the dark about what we were doing for that particular meeting. As a result, my questions were mostly irrelevant. This is because most of the questions were answered in the project plan. This didn't make me feel good. All I had to do was read some stuff before the meeting and I didn't. The reason doesn't matter. What matters to the group is that I didn't. I know that others have found themselves as this person before too. I guess my point here is that nobody is just one type of person. People are dynamic. You and I are just as capable of being the clueless one as anybody else. It's completely up to us every day to make sure we aren't that person.

I completely understand where you’re coming from, being “that guy”. Sometimes I too am that guy. Just take Tekla’s advice and “do the thing”. I missed class so I have no idea what this project is about, but congrats on getting the perfectionist. He’ll take you places. 

Blog #7

Now that spring break is behind me, another blog post must be written

My last blog post happened to be about the last proper lecture we had in this class before transitioning to midterm workshops, so instead of talking about a previous lecture, I want to talk about my thoughts on the upcoming group work we need to do.

There’s always a looming sense of doom or anxiety when you’re told about a big project that you must undertake. That happens to be my initial reaction to any new work, and I expect my group mates are a bit apprehensive as well.

Regardless, I’m actually not too worried about the whole “working with others” thing. I’ve done group work throughout my academic life, and I’m at least comfortable working with a variety of people.

I’ve got together with some classmates for this group project, including Bryan Cancel, who I look forward to working with. He’s a real perfectionist and he knows it, and tells people about. I think every strong group really needs a guy like him, someone who keeps us on our toes, evolving and improving our work. At the same time though, I know he has a lot of respect for boundaries of discussion and the input of others.

Telka mentioned 5 types of people to avoid being. Some unfortunate people in the past might say I’m closest to “the promiser” kind of group member, the kind that promises concrete things and doesn’t deliver on time or as expected. I never wanted to be that guy, and I want to make clear I won’t be that guy this time around, that’s a promise.

7

I think the midterm was a really interesting assignment. Through all of my time in school at every level I have never had to grade myself. I enjoyed it. It keeps me honest and It really opened my eyes to what I have actually accomplished this semester. And what I still have to accomplish. 

One of the main reasons I enjoyed the midterm was because it’s a reflection on what we are expected to do in the class. I love that we are expected to keep a portfolio. I think it’s an extremely effective way for us to stay organized and it’s more realistic I guess. In the professional world, there are no A’s and B’s. You’re expected to do the work. And you’re expected to be able to show what you’ve done. It’s surprising more classes don’t hold us accountable in this way. 

Another reason I enjoyed the midterm was because it was peer reviewed. The feedback I got was helpful, but the most important information I gathered from peer reviewing came from the essay’s that I reviewed. I was able to see other people’s way of breaking the assignment down. I wasn’t very satisfied with my original first draft and I was able to turn it into something much more organized. All thanks to my peers. Thanks peers. 

6

I thought that the reading for Tuesday was rather interesting. It left me looking at everyday common objects like laptops and phones a lot differently. It hadn’t really occurred to me that the objects that we use as tools to learn and communicate had so much thought go into the design. There’s a whole science behind understanding people’s unconscious tendencies and also understanding what groups of people respond well to. Much of this type of thought goes into apple products I’m sure.

There is an importance in the design of the instruments we use on an everyday basis. I think that is why Professor Hawkins kept bringing up the desk in the front of the classroom. It has a purpose, it exist as a techńe. A tool used to bridge the unseen (knowledge/information) with the seen (us humans.) It does this by supporting the information we are taking in. Professor Hawkins emphasized that it was obviously a product of our military industrial complex. At first that assumption puzzled me. I wondered how she came to that conclusion. Had she seen these desks all over military bases she’d been to? I don’t know. But after I read the WunderKrammer project I sort of made my own meaning of that statement. I think she said that because the desk is about as standard of a desk as you could imagine. There’s nothing special about it. It is what you would expect from the military. But the blandness of the desk works against it. It doesn’t inspire creativity, it doesn’t do anything for the user other than support weight. There are no features that make the desk more useful than other desks. Those are the reasons, I believe, that most of us don’t own a standard boring desk, and it’s at the front of a classroom doing nothing more than serving as a barrier. Blandness and boring design do nothing for products, writing, architecture, etc. Even tools that are essential for humans need to have some visual appeal. Because the more we’re drawn to the tool, the more likely we are to use it.

blog 5

The recurring theme in the past couple of reading assignments has been relation to intended audience. Whether the text was talking about entrepreneurs or musical improvisation, they all revolved around that central theme. It got me thinking about how most of what we do as humans is in relation to other humans. 

Our society and human civilization completely depends on audience relationship. Countries can’t form without being able to relate to neighboring countries, businesses can’t stay in business without relating to their customers. Even from a computer science point of view, audience relationships are important for us because we need jobs. If we can’t produce code that is clear to our classmates (coworkers in the future) then it’s going to be much harder to get a job coding. This also goes for pretty much any other profession. So writing needs to be the same way. Our writing needs to have a feel for who is reading it. Just like a performer can read a  crowd and know what to do next. There is an established structure to writing, but like improvisation, the best writing comes when you can form a connection to the reader.  

Knowing all of this, it is much easier to see why we work in groups so often. It also easier to see the recurring themes of the group work. It’s all about trying to understand the audience. 

#2

One of the most interesting features to most songs written is the fact that there’s usually a clear and concise meaning to each one. They all differ. Even when songs sample from other songs. 

MIA’s “Paper Planes” sampling from The Clash may have rustled some jimmies (because when someone from a different genre samples, jimmies get rustled) but I’d say that she merely made a rebuttal to the original song, using roughly the same beat. 

If you listen to the lyrics of The Clashes version, “Straight to Hell”, it’s written in some sense about the miss treatment of immigrants. How their culture gets trashed in their new country etc. But what I really enjoy about the MIA song (MIA being from a family of immigrants) is that she takes extreme pride in her background. The chorus is a perfect example. She’s flaunts the idea some people have about immigrants, how they only want to commit crime and they take everyone’s money. This idea is countered by the rest of the song. She talks about how she hustles, and can make whatever she makes, really fast. 

To close, I’d like to say that I think copyrighting is getting out of hand. I’m not sure how prevalent it is in the music industry as a whole, but from our discussion, I learned that it has been abused in the past. Obviously you can’t just outright copy another person and make money off of it, but there should be some more leniency for creativity. 

#1

Oh, hey everyone. I’ll just jump in and start off by saying that I enjoy writing. I enjoy it very much and I think that I’m good at it. There’s one slight exception though. I find it really tough to write about myself. Usually when I’m composing a piece of writing I just let my imagination wonder and I’ll make up some stuff here and there (except if I’m doing a research paper, of course.) This style really helps my ideas flow. It makes writing so simple and enjoyable. But this, this is difficult. I have to describe me, in a way. And that’s hard.

Contrary to the consensus made in class about research papers; I happen to love them. Research is tons of fun. Every time I write a research paper I feel like an expert on that particular topic. And who doesn’t like that feeling? I was kind of bummed when I learned we weren’t going to write any. Soooooo anyways, I’d like to think that I’m strong in every subcategory of the course strands. Writing hasn’t ever been an issue for me. 

My weaknesses... I don’t have supreme confidence about sharing my thoughts out loud with the class. I can easily do it via writing. But speaking is different. It’s something I have to get used to. Another weakness of mine has to be the skills and strategy section along with the reflection section. I literally have no technique when it comes to school stuff. Honestly, I just start and sometimes it’s a great result, and other times not so much. This especially applies to writing. I just start writing and things fall into place (most of the time.) 

I’d love to get better at everything listed in the course assessment section. But especially “skills and strategies”. I dream of a day when I have an established way of tackling assignments or tasks. 

The beauty of pending destruction

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Just wow!  An incredible photos of Chile’s Calbuco Volcano erupting. 

After 42-years of lying dormant, Calbuco volcano in Chile has erupted on April 22/23.

Just wow!  An incredible photos of Chile’s Calbuco Volcano erupting. 

After 42-years of lying dormant, Calbuco volcano in Chile has erupted on April 22/23.

Why are women constantly being judged for clothes they wear yet it’s socially acceptable for men to wear sexist t-shirts?

Like, they have got this:

but also those referring to women as to dogs:

Disrespectful and objecting:

JUSTIFYING AND CALLING TO RAPE 

this madness has to stop.

Bruce Jenner Comes Out As Transgender

Bruce Jenner has come out as transgender.The 65-year-old made the revelation during a special with Diane Sawyer on ABC’s “20/20” Friday night.

Watch the full interview here. 

11 John Oliver Quotes That Make The Truth Easier To Swallow

Watching John Oliver is like having a really good brunch. It happens on Sundays and afterwards, if you do it right, you feel both culturally satisfied and a little drunk.Okay, so Oliver’s analogies are better than that, but that’s exactly why we’re celebrating the host of “Last Week Tonight”

on his birthday

, April 23.