Assignment 6 - Erin

"Comment, like, share, and subscribe!" Words commonly heard in YouTube videos. I have been a creator on the platform for roughly two years. As such, I've had to problem solve my way out of a lot of the challenges that come with being an independent creator. Balancing schoolwork with video work. Finding creative solutions to a lack of professional equipment.

YouTube functions –for me– as my part-time independent film study while doing full-time high school studies. I learn from videos, and then create things to test my learning. Whether it be my home movie-esque videos of my friends' birthdays, or elaborately planned out short films –it's all a learning experience. I'm figuring out the best strategies for editing, for shooting, for organization. I'm building my skills with the camera, with people, with storytelling. And when I get stuck, all I have to do is some research and some thinking. Break down the problem. Find a solution. Get back to work.

Film is my passion. I want to spend my life telling stories that affect people. I spend so much time working on videos for YouTube, not because I see it as practice, but because it's the real thing for me. I'm building a portfolio of stories I've crafted and put part of myself into. I want to learn more. I want to get better. And right now, making videos is how I do that.

Assignment- 4 Caili Harris

At the age of seven, my friends told me the most horrifying truth. Santa Claus does not exist! Of course, I didn’t believe them.  Santa Claus is the man who flies around the earth in one night. Right?

Before I continue, I know that many of you are skimming the page, and the fact that I have yet to say my belief was debunked or I questioned the existence of Santa may concern you. Yes, I do know Santa Claus does not exist, neither does the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, or the Great Pumpkin. But, KEEP READING!

I brushed off the whole Santa Claus thing, but at age eight a craze hit our school. Fairies. Every kid would write to their “fairy” each night and in the morning, they would write back. And if you were lucky, a piece of candy would be there as well. For about three months, my mother kept up the charade, until I asked her, ”Mom, Lauren says that my fairy is you. Is that true?” My mom replied with, ”Do you want to know the truth?” to which I answered,”uuuuuuuggggghhhhhh.”

Shortly after learning about the inexistence of fairies, I went to the dentist office to have a tooth removed. In the car with my freshly pulled tooth, I sat with excitement of the Tooth… I thought for a second. Tooth Fairy! After that I figured out that since fairies aren’t real, Santa’s not real! But at least the Easter Bunny still exists (I thought for another year). I asked my mom, ”The tooth fairy and Santa aren’t real, are they?” To which my mother replied, ”Do you want to know or keep believing?” I decided in the end to keep “believing” for the quarter under my pillow that night.

Assignment 3- Caili Harris

"North America... South America... Europe, Asia, and Africa. Australia, a world to see just for you and me and Antartica too (jazz hands)." 

I sang this song in primary school along with my fellow Montessori ragamuffins as a way of learning the names of all the different continents. My primary education was built around understanding the world and the people in it. We sang songs, presented country projects (whoever brought food was the class hero), learned about art from around the world, and began learning Spanish in Kindergarten. In addition, once a year we celebrated Earth day by singing songs from all over the world, looking at how to say "May peace prevail on Earth," in about six different languages, and making wishes of peace by planting grass seeds to make our school grounds more beautiful. Days and lessons like these gave me a foundation for my love of the world and its different cultures.

Assignment 2- Caili Harris

Throughout the years, my style of reading has changed. While I love to sit down a binge a big fat book, I find less and less time to do so due to the large amount of extracurricular activities and homework I have waiting for me after school. Reading has always been something I've enjoyed, but since I lack the time to read a novel, I've needed to change the style of books I read. This is my solution: Poetry. It allows me to enjoy stories and cunning penmanship without the length of a novel.

My favorites right now are We Wear the Mask by Paul Lawrence Dunbar and Hope is the Thing with Feathers by Emily Dickinson, both of which are included in Americans’ Favorite Poems: The Favorite Poem Project Anthology edited by Robert Pinsky and Maggie Dietz. This collection of poems is filled with timeless classics from around the world that hold a special place in the hearts of America. Other poets whose works are displayed include E.E. Cummings, Lewis Carol, and Robert Frost.

Another poetry collection I enjoy to read is A Field Sing-A-Long, given to me by a friend to study hiragana (one of the Japanese alphabets). Inside the works of several Japanese artists, in Hiragana on the left and translated to English on the right, sit waiting to be enjoyed. The pieces are mainly about life and nature, and each one captures not only the sight, but the feeling of each experience as well.

Reading poetry has become a joy in my life, and it can become a joy in your life too, for the cheap price of 2 minutes paid at anytime you prefer.

Assignment 2 - Luke Webster

I have a sad confession to make in that I don't read nearly as much as I used too. The amount of schoolwork and extracurricular activities have really bogged down my free time to the point where the majority of my reading is for an assignment. However, I tried to get as much free time in my day to read over the past year and I feel like while I didn't read a lot, I read a good selection.

-The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (I read this as part of a school assignment but as soon as we started I may or may not have "borrowed" a copy from my mother to read to the very end because the book had already hooked me by a chapter and a half.)

- Play it Loud: An Epic History of the Style, Sound, & Revolution of the Electric Guitar by Brad Tolinski, Alan Diperna, and Carlos Santana (While the title makes it sound like a middle school level book of diagrams and silly facts, this book was by far one the best and most intriguing  I read all year. The amount of insight that they took by looking into styles of music and how the electric guitar reshaped the world truly fascinated me. As a musician and guitarist myself, I really found the long intricate path of the guitar through music to be fascinating and I would recommend it to any musician or music enthusiast. )

-Dracula by Bram Stoker (This was yet another great book that I have read in the past year. I really saw how it had become a classic and it had me all the way from cover to cover .)

Assignment 5 - Erin

I grew up on television. Not literally, of course. Perhaps what I mean to say is, I grew up in front of the television. I think this exposure to this form of entertainment significantly influenced my career path. By growing up surrounded by stories, my brain was wired to think like a storyteller. 

I see television as a means of communicating, but not for advertisers. If you asked anyone off the street to name their favorite T.V. show, chances are they'll name a narrative program (this includes some "reality" television). The nature of stories and story arches attract humans; it has been like this since the beginning of mankind. Television simply functions as another method of storytelling, a step up from the paintings on the cave walls. 

Similar to filmmakers, the creators of television shows have the ability to tell just about any story they want. Stories may even touch on difficult and pertinent issues in society at the time. It may do this in a subtle way, such as symbolism, or it may address the issue outright, maybe by having a character encounter a situation involving the issue. Either way, television has long been a way of exploring conflict and the effects of that conflict on our society.

So, is television a good form of entertainment? Now more than ever it is. With new forms of television like Netflix and Amazon Prime, even more entertainment emerges. Though some will always be less than stellar (that's just the nature of media), enthralling stories will continue to grab our attention and sway us to put down the remote and just keep watching. 

Assignment 4- Anne Douglas

As you grow older, you start to actually think about the things you just always thought were undeniable truths. Santa Clause?? It baffles me that I blindly believed that a fat, old, magical man who lives in the North Pole with a new of worker elves flies around the entire world in one night to deliver children their Christmas presents. Though Santa was indeed a lie, it was an innocent lie that brought me, and many other children lots of joy. Some of the concepts I was taught to believe are less innocuous, and maturity has helped me formulate my own opinions.
Religion has been the main topic of my intellectual independence. Around age 13, I started to questioned the prophecies I grew up hearing. The way I started thinking about existence challenged the typical christian beliefs I thought I staunchly followed. My mind was entranced with questions: What do my parents really believe? If I were born in a different country, would I practice another religion? How does "loving thy neighbor" relate to all the hate within some religious communities? Who has the right answers?
My entire adolescent life I have been waiting for that one "Ah ha" moment where everything instantly makes sense. But, as a realist I know that that moment is probably never going to come. The best I can do is to keep questioning, talking to wise people with diverse beliefs, and learinng as much as I can about the way our world works.

Blog Post 5 - Delaney

Television provides a way to live an adventure while sitting on the couch or lying in bed. Anywhere you want to go, anyone you want to be, any alternate reality you want to experience. Conveniently, all at the touch of a button.

I watch television occasionally, although less frequently now than over the summer or a couple years ago when my school work took up less of my time. Watching Netflix helps me relax after a long day at school. But I must be cautious - an interesting plot line might suck me in. This leads to a night of procrastination which eventually brings a lot of stress.

It is important to limit how much television we intake. Television provides a nice little get-away from the real world but spend too much time away from reality and soon you'll realize you've missed out on life. An episode here and an episode there won't hurt. But the television promotes a fake universe. And why live behind a screen when a real world full of wonderful new windows of opportunities lies in wait?

Assignment 5 — Theodore

    Consider this Jeopardy question: In 1964, this Emmy winner in Drama starred E. G. Marshall and Robert Reed. The contestants fall silent, never having heard of The Defenders. Nobody remembers any prize winners from half a century ago — or do they? Next question: This 1964 Nobel laureate in Peace led America’s Civil Rights Movement. Every viewer leaps off their couch, sure of the answer: “Who is Martin Luther King?” Nobel Prize winners stay significant; the Emmys become historical trivia. Yet the Emmys involve so much spectacle because they allow television to pat itself on the back. It doesn’t matter if society focuses on the soon-to-be irrelevant. But the Emmys also divide society.

    Americans must move past partisanship. Informed citizens should care about issues, but America’s politics resembles a zero-sum game: Everyone wants the “other side” to lose at any cost. Unfortunately, the 2017 Emmys reminded everyone of politics, as the show and the White House crossed verbal swords. Viewers could avoid politics. The Nobel Prizes remain nonpartisan, rewarding liberal Paul Krugman but also libertarian Milton Friedman. If Americans paid more attention to the Nobel Prizes, they would notice that the USA, from Teddy Roosevelt to Bob Dylan, dominates the prizes — an overlooked source of national pride.

    Why is it important to emphasize shared national achievements? The ancient Greeks had that opportunity: Archimedes expanded the borders of mathematics, Socrates developed critical philosophy, and Aristotle advanced both rhetoric and science. But the Greeks failed to recognize their accomplishments as a people (Athens executed Socrates for asking inconvenient questions); they instead vied against each other for power. Eventually, this quarreling smashed their web of alliances, pitting Athens against Sparta, exhausting the city-states with war, and allowing Alexander the Great to take over. Greece’s Golden Age ended.

    Let’s pay more attention to the Nobel Prizes; our country needs reason, not politics.

Assignment 5 – Dilni Abeyrathne

The television—the bane of entertainment, it seems, in the modern era. So many people see it as a revolutionary device: moving pictures, exciting adventures, and all else associated with the technological entertainment device we call TV. The way I view this entertainment source may, nay, will differ from the norm.

My thoughts on television: it is a decent form of entertainment. My views do not border on hate, nor do they on love. Sometimes, I find myself watching TV, other times I find myself hidden behind a flurry of words and pages. On the days I watch TV, a variety of reasons may be the cause, including, but not limited to, boredom, curiosity, and the desire to experience something new.

Some days I feel the urge to watch TV simply because I have nothing else to do. Other days, I am lured in by the prospect of learning something new. It provides a welcome distraction and an encouraging attraction to daily life. Perhaps there would be a show on Ancient Greece, or Atlantis, or curious weather, or wildlife, or nature. Just think of all the interesting facts I could learn! These represent just a few of the thoughts going through my head whenever a show I like is broadcasted.

On the topic of shows, there are some I like, and some that I extremely dislike, for lack of a better word. First, the likes: I love any show associated with history, astronomy, nature, the weather, and the like. My fondness for those shows stems from their interesting context—I love learning about new things. One of my favorite shows includes “Strangest Weather on Earth”. It is a lovely and curiously interesting show about strange weather across the globe, ranging from iridescent clouds to spherical lightning. Earth’s weather is truly fascinating!

Now, onto the shows that strike me as less than interesting.  If it hasn’t been inferred already, I do not like shows that do not offer me any opportunities to gain new knowledge, such as the shows focused on comedy, drama, and all other manner of genres. These shows typically do not hold my interest for long if I see them. As for the reason, I can’t provide a specific explanation, because I simply cannot express any interest in them; they just don’t click with me.

Television as a whole does not seem like a good form of entertainment, though it certainly succeeds in providing a wide array of interesting shows. The bad part comes from the fact that TV, and technology for that matter, serves as a distracter from physical entertainment, such as reading a book or writing a story. Why sit on a couch and stare at a glowing screen when you could be doing something much more entertaining? Quite frankly, thinking back to the days when television was all but alien to the general population, there were other forms of entertainment that certainly kept people satisfied. What can be found in television that cannot be found in, say, a good book? While a TV provides visual entertainment, a book provides an immersed entertainment, one where it feels like the reader is in the book itself, sharing the adventure with its characters.

In addition, modern television features an unsurprising and, to some, annoying array of advertisements, ranging from beauty products to insurance to whatever else an advertiser feels the need to advertise to the masses. While TV is certainly entertaining to the population, it is also a rich ground for advertisers to gain potential customers. Interjecting ads between the break times of a television show, though irritating to the viewers, provides a prime opportunity to reel in unsuspecting people into believing that their product or service is a must-have to better that unglorified life of theirs without their product.

Entertainment and advertisement, what else is there? Time, of course! Think of everything else one could do with that time spent staring at a screen with moving pictures? Drawing, reading, contemplating, doing something productive. What happened to those activities that were so prevalent without the need of a TV? A story could be written or a book read using the time spent to watch TV, providing people with a personal experience that TV cannot generally provide. A TV cannot whisk one away on a daring adventure, like a book can, and TV cannot generate lovable characters and a well-written plot, like writing can. What about everything else? What about exploring outside, taking a walk, or crafting something new? The time given to TV could be used for those, and for many other things as well, but yet, TV still eats up a portion of our lives which we could’ve used to do something exciting.

Although TV can be seen either as bad or good, it still remains a part of our lives today. For some, television is certainly an exciting and thrilling form of entertainment. For others, it is the quite the opposite. Nevertheless, there are always two sides to a coin.   

Assignment 6: Create Your Own Adventure (College)

What interests you? What is your point of exigence? What's on your mind?  What do you want to chat about? Rant about? Learn about? What intellectual experience (course, project, book, discussion, paper, poetry, or research topic in engineering, mathematics, science, or other modes of inquiry) that has meant the most to you: 

'Cause really, isn't it all about you? <wink wink nudge nudge>

This response allows you to discuss something that is important to you and to demonstrate how you think about intellectual problems. This is an exercise in creative and critical thinking. It also provides a platform for you to convey your enthusiasm for learning. What excites you about this intellectual experience? How did the experience challenge your preconceptions? How did it impact your way of thinking? What was your reaction? How did it change your perspective?

Ready...

Go!

Due Sunday, October 1st at 11:59 pm

October 15 is last day to make up Blogs 1-8