Class Takeaway 9/22

Yesterday's class got me thinking more about why I chose the book that I did for the Altered book project. I chose a copy of Twilight for this assignment, mostly because I couldn't think of any book in particular that I hated. Hate is a strong word. But I decided that Twilight represents something in my future field that I'm not a fan of. To me, it always seemed that Twilight was so successful based not on its story or quality of writing but by, essentially, catering to the "lowest common denominator." As a public relations major, I see a lot of catering to the lowest common denominator. It is an effective strategy for what we do and there is nothing nefarious about it (as some people like to believe), however, I've always felt that this concept was lazy and somewhat insulting to peoples' intelligence, as if people are sheep-like enough to buy whatever formulaic garbage you put in front of them. But then, a lot of people bought into Twilight. So whatever.

Class takeaway 9/15

Today, I missed most of class. Monday is my one day of the week where I'm not super busy. I have Seeing Sideways at 3pm, and otherwise it is a day to relax or do homework because I'm generally hectically busy the other days of the week. Because of this, the first half of my Mondays are a nebulous time where my brain resets and my body tries to release as much tension as possible. Sooo... I spaced that class starts at 3 instead of 4, like had been in my head all day. Imagine my surprise when I drove the half hour to school to find that I only had to be in class for maybe ten minutes before turning around and going back. Going back in the middle of rush hour/Colts game traffic.

The day went from relaxing to intensely irritating really fast and as I sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic I had plenty of time to meditate on this. Perhaps this is a good time to start "altering" (ie: destroying) that book.

Doodle assignment

I wasn't sure where to start with my doodling, so I just made some scribbles. At first, whenever anything began to look like it was coming together, I would intentionally add something completely out of place. After a while, that got boring and I drew some squares. They reminded me of picture frames with pieces of the scribbles behind them, so I made pictures out of them. Then I felt like doodling a person. So I did that. This was the result!

The ninja egg

I like ninjas. So I made a traditional ninja tool, an eggshell grenade. These were used by ninja back in the day to distract opponents and allow them a safe escape. They could be thrown at armored opponents at a distance or discreetly crushed in-hand to throw in an enemy's face.

First, I poked small holes in each end of an egg using a nail.

Then, I blew the yoke out through the holes.

While the egg dried I made a mixture of cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt, and some other unpleasant things to fill my shell with. Actual ninja would fill these with all kinds of things. Certain chemicals could create a flash or smoke, or they could be filled with glass dust or poisoned iron filings among other things.

Then I poured my pepper mixture into the shell with a paper funnel. THIS WAS WAY HARDER THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE. Use a real funnel, It'll save you a lot of time.

Close the holes up with melted wax...

And voila. One eggshell pepper grenade.

Takeaway 8-25-14

Yesterday, we watched a TED talk in which the speaker made the case that limiting yourself to a "fishbowl" of choices was the secret to happiness because, according to his argument, sometimes fewer choices make decisions easier. I don't necessarily agree with this sentiment. While I can certainly see the logic behind his argument, I don't believe in taking the easy way out by settling. It is true that life isn't always easy, nor is making tough decisions, but I believe that the key to happiness is to find confidence in whatever choices you've made. Even bad decisions have silver linings.

All decisions have pros and cons and it is far too easy to get wrapped up in the cons, as the speaker pointed out. According to him, by minimizing choice, you also minimize cons. I would argue that by minimizing choice you are merely choosing to ignore the cons. I think, that with some mental discipline and a positive outlook, one can have unlimited choice and STILL choose to ignore the cons anyway by instead focusing on the pros. It isn't always easy, but the best things in life generally aren't.

I believe in well fitting pants without pockets full of regret.