Fireside Chat

So I'm pretty sure that I quoted the reading for this week, in last week's post. So I'm going to talk about that reading again, but now in context with my Fireside chat.

One thing I'd like to get across that I don't think I did during my chat on belief, is that I don't feel like I'm a journal writer. Those journals are just my tool that is needed for my writing. I bleed on those pages, to paraphrase Ernest Hemingway, none of it is really journal writing, it's just me, in text, on a page.

One of the reasons why I loved James McBride's What Color is Jesus, is that the entire essay feels like what you can find at any time in my journals. My journals are where I brain dump, they are where I talk about experiences I've had, my struggles with preconceptions people have for the kind of person that I am, and writing all of this is therapy. It's redemption.

I believe it is important to get down thought processes we have on paper. I was talking to an author once, and he said that he believes that typing on a computer is too much like learning another language, so it is more difficult to really get the language of our mind in its pure form while typing. This is part of the reason why when I tell people that they should do some sort of journal keeping, I often encourage them to do it freehand (though I think it can be argued that the same problem rests with freehand, but whatever, I legitimately write better when it's on paper).

The last thing I want to talk about is why I framed it with that opening quote by Will Smith. I can actually trace back the moment when I knew that I was going to do everything in my power to succeed in a career in writing. And it was while watching an interview with Will Smith talk about his beliefs on success. I believe 100% that Will Smith is nuts, just certifiably insane. But he is so wise when it comes to his story of becoming not only one of the first black leads in movie history, but becoming one of the highest grossing movie stars in history. So it was really important to me to implement him in some way with my chat, because of the confidence I have as a writer, instilled in me by his wisdom.

Here are a few of my favorite videos:

(this is the video I watched one late night in 2007, only a few months after I bought my first journal actually):

http://video.pbs.org/video/1869183414/

(and then here is the video that has the quote I used in my chat, enjoy how cheesy and awesome this is):

Concerned Citizen

Everyone really just wants the same thing, and I believe it is said best in James McBride's The Color of Jesus, "I want the same thing every parent wants -- a good home for my wife and children, good schools, peace and quiet, a good set of wrenches, and a son big enough to hand them to me." We're lucky that for the most part here in the States, if we work hard enough, we can have any of this, or at least some form of it that gives us the same sense of contentment.

But there are so many places in the world that you may be able to have a wife and children, but that doesn't mean you'll have a good home, a good school for your children, or a good set of wrenches. There are so many people in the world who don't have the basic needs for living a comfortable life. In so many parts of the world people struggle with diseases and illnesses that we don't have to worry about here.

This is where Kyla Threlfall comes in. Kyla is a friend of Brontë's, and as we searched for who we wanted to base our Concerned Citizen project on, Kyla popped into her head. We weren't sure if we would be able to get the information we needed from her since she is in India right now. So in the meantime I started getting in contact with a girl I know who we could also work with, just in case Kyla didn't work out.

Luckily we got a very thoughtful response to Brontë's requests for information about what she does, and how she feels about all of it. It was very interesting going through these photos and all this information with Brontë in preparation for this project. The amount of good that Kyla does with Rising Star and Promethean Spark sounds amazing, and what little she told us left me wanting to know more.

With the research that I've done in organizations that help children in third-world countries, sports and other recreational activities help children out a ton. Simply organizing them and getting them in the type of situation where they can interact with each other and learn new things helps these countries out so much more than we would think. But it is important that we provide them these opportunities, and so seeing (even if only briefly), Kyla's work with the children and dancing impressed me a lot.

I also really enjoyed the format that we have for this project in this class. There are so many great youtube videos out there that help broadcast these types of organizations. One video series that comes to mind are provided by the group called Nature Conservancy. They are an organization that helps protect the natural lakes and rivers in the United States. But one way that they spread the word is by getting bands to perform a song while also talking about the organization. They've had Blind Pilot, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, Glen Hansard and even Macklemore do videos for them. The videos are effective uses of technology, music, and information.

Now granted I would have loved to take a camera crew to India and learn more about what Kyla does there, talk to the people, and experience the land, but this is the best we could do with what we had. It was still a great experience to sit down with Brontë and edit the video. It took much longer than I thought it would, so I was glad that both of us were there to switch back and forth at the helm so neither of us went too stir crazy. I'm quite proud of the results. So without further ado, here is our video:

Game For Change

Make Your Own Game for Free!

So suckiness of my video game aside, this is an issue that I've thought a lot about. I've even brought it up in a previous blog post for this class. The issue, of course is genetic modification. We are probably now all aware of the dangers of genetically modified food. It is an issue that has been well addressed, and has now come to the point where there are organic alternatives to choose from to avoid the potential side-effects of genetically modified food.

But there is one side of it that isn't spoken of as much. And that is how genetically modified organisms are already affecting the environment. Whether or not there is a link between cancer and these GMOs is something we probably won't know for sure without further studies and time. But we already know that the rampant use of genetic modification is hurting the environment in ways that we can't go back from.

The example that I always think of is a type of seaweed that a website I found calls, "the mutant killer seaweed of doom." The french simply call it the "killer seaweed." There are websites devoted to the superweeds and other invasive species found in the world. Granted, some of these invasive species are simply a product of something being introduced to an environment that isn't its natural habitat. But there are still plenty of examples of something we created destroying other native, natural species.

This is where Caulerpa Taxifolia comes in. This strain of seaweed was a genetically modified form of a natural seaweed simply called Caulerpa. The new invention of genetic modification was known for its large green fern like fronds, a toxin it releases that prevents fish from eating it, and it growing an average of three inches per day. The purpose was to be put in aquariums in Stuttgart, Germany. They had been having problems with fish eating the seaweed they put in the tanks, making them look ugly for when tourists came through. This new invention was exactly what the aquarium needed, and was immediately used in all of the tanks. It seemed perfect. Fish didn't eat it, it was bright green, and beautiful.

According to the official website for this invasive seaweed, "The aquarium strain of C. taxifolia was first found in the Mediterranean Sea off Monaco, adjacent to the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, around 1984." Scientists believe that it only took a piece the size of a fingernail getting flushed into the Mediterranean (likely from routine cleaning of tanks), to start causing problems. The website further says, "Since then, C. taxifolia has spread along the Mediterranean coast and dramatically altered and displaced native plant and animal communities. Early eradication was not attempted in the Mediterranean, and the infestation is now considered beyond control. As of 2001, it was estimated that C. taxifolia had infested over 30,000 acres of seafloor in Spain, France, Italy, Croatia and Tunisia."

This is a huge problem. Now granted this information is over ten years old, but with more research, I've found that it continues to be a problem, and has now spread all over the world.

In my really dumb video game, the green monsters are the seaweed, because I couldn't figure out how to make the plants in the game the bad guys. Oh well. I also chose one of the more difficult bad guys to fight because trying to get rid of this fast growing seaweed is beyond most scientists. The modern solution being a tiny snail they found will actually eat the plant.

I'll admit I struggled making the video game, I tried multiple video game makers, and once I settled on this website, tried all of its methods, trying to find some way of capturing this issue in a way that is meaningful (and really just makes sense). Maybe with a little programming experience I might have prevailed.

But in the end, I wanted to get across the fact that this is just one instance of an invasive species destroying in its path. What about the superweeds across the mid-west that are causing farmers to have to use methods that cause erosion and spread harmful fertilizers and chemicals into our water systems and affect the growth of our crops? What about Kudzu, a vine native to Asia that is slowly choking the southern states?

These are issues that are already considered "beyond control." What else will we decide is beyond control before we give up and allow our own actions to destroy species, hurt economies, cause health problems, and destroy the environment?

Updated Map showing areas where Caulerpa Taxifolia have been found:
http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?search=Caulerpa+taxifolia

Original Article I found talking about the Seaweed:

http://www.damninteresting.com/mutant-killer-seaweed-of-doom/

Several other websites I used for this article:

http://www.caulerpataxifolia.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caulerpa_taxifolia

http://www-csgc.ucsd.edu/NEWSROOM/NEWSRELEASES/Caulerpa3.html

Webspinna Battle!

Here are the links for my sounds to be used in the Webspinna battle:

Concerning Hobbits

Dumbledore Quote

Harry Potter Metal

Captain Barbossa Quote

Theoden Battle Cry

Misty Mountain Cold Metal

Gandalf - You Shall Not Pass

Harry Potter - Expecto Patronum

Helm's Deep Victory Quote

Harry Potter Theme

In Jonathan Lethem's essay entitled, The Ecstasy of Influence, he says, "Most artists are brought to their vocation when their own nascent gifts are awakened by the work of a master. That is to say, most artists are converted to art by art itself." I found this quote spoke to me, in that I didn't decide to become a writer until I had read the Lord of the Rings and understood just how amazing the prose was in that book. In my efforts to become a great writer, I've tried to emulate Tolkien (in my own small way), to be able to become better than I am.

David Farland in his book, Drawing on the Power of Resonance in Writing, said, "The truth is that you can't write any tale without drawing upon that vast pool of shared experiences, but the wisest writers, those who become most popular, learn to draw upon art and literature in order to create works that speak to audiences more strongly, more deeply, and appeal to a wider network of readers." For the longest time I felt that I was cheating if my stories were too similar to random events or themes found in other books. So this quote helped me to see that I'm not only most likely doing it subconsciously already, but that I should do it to help appeal to a wider audience. That I should draw on the power of resonance.

I was very glad that Neeko wanted to do Sci-Fi vs. Fantasy for our Webspinna battle. While I do love both genres, I would say that I have a little bit of an affinity towards fantasy, so I was eager to see what we could come up with. The important thing for both of us was the narrative. We didn't just want to have random sounds playing, we wanted our sounds to tell a story. A story that matched the character of the two genres.

In the end I feel that we accomplished that through rehearsal and discussion. Performance was another issue though. That entire night was awesome. I got to know many of those in our class much better than I had previously, and really appreciated the wide range of impressive talents we have in this program. But man . . . those computers. I really wish I would have practiced with a mouse or even a Mac before the performance. 

We really struggled during our performance, or at least I did. Trying to navigate the computers with such insensitive mouse movements, my muting/fading abilities were shot with how different the mouse was compared to the track pad on my laptop. One clip in particular didn't even play sound because after further investigation, whoever put the clip on youtube only had sound on the left channel of the stereo mix, and my computer must have been hooked up to only play the right channel. Making a very important clip that was integral to telling the story we were trying to tell, just didn't happen. Causing a party foul with a dropped beat, and I'm pretty sure I yelled at my computer. Hopefully it wasn't an expletive, because I don't remember.

Once that happened, I panicked and got extremely nervous, no longer paying attention to what Neeko was doing and only able to think about not screwing it up more. Which meant that in a moment of silence in the middle of one of Neeko's sounds, I jumped the gun and played one of my clips too early, thinking that brief silence meant it was my turn. Later with my hands shaking, concentrating so hard on trying to use the mouse correctly, I hit the mute button for one clip twice accidentally, ruining another cool transition between the two of us. 

Neeko was a great sport though, because not only did he help me on the fly by whispering what I should play next so that our performance wasn't a complete disaster, but after the fact, instead of being negative about it like my first instinct was, he said something really positive, which helped me to not be so frustrated.

My frustration was even more short-lived because of how great everyone was. The general atmosphere and the genuine positivity of everyone there was contagious, and I couldn't help but feel awesome about the entire thing. Sure I wish that our performance had gone the way it was supposed to (because it was awesome), but thankfully that was far from the most memorable thing about that night.

World Building

 

In Julian Bleeker's piece called Design Fiction, he says, "Science fiction can be understood as a kind of writing that, in its stories, creates prototypes of other worlds, other experiences, [and] other contexts for life based on the creative insights of the author." For several years now, I've been world building a post-apocalyptic graphic novel based off of an alternate universe in which Tesla had been the celebrated inventor instead of Edison. So you can imagine my excitement when I got chosen for this group.

The best part about this though, was I hadn't given much thought to the world building of history before the apocalyptic event that spurs on my narrative.

In my research, I went back to the beginning and found an old article I had read years ago, the same article that helped me to come up with the idea I had for the graphic novel. A lot has happened since then, but this paragraph was the springboard for the lengthy world building process:

If Tesla's plans had come to fruition, the pilot plant would have been merely the first of many. Such "magnifying transmitter" towers would have peppered the globe, saturating the planet with free electricity and wireless communication as early as the 1920s. Instead, the futuristic facility's potential went untapped for over a decade, until the tower was finally demolished for salvage in 1917.

In the end, our group settled into making a newspaper that would exist in our world. We all felt this was appropriate as we could all demonstrate our strengths and our ideas equally in such a medium.

I wrote a newspaper article about Electro-Terrorism, thinking it would be fun to write about a new tower being threatened at a World's Fair. This reminded my of the Sun Tower in Knoxville Tennessee where I had served my mission, a giant tower that represented technology and energy, that had also been unveiled at the 1982 World's Fair. Everything came together when I decided that it would be more fun to make the link between our world and theirs (even using the name of the Mayor of Tennessee during that time). I'm just glad Amanda and Sam agreed to set our newspaper in 1982 after that idea. Thanks go to Amanda for finding a picture of the Sun Tower, a detail I overlooked.

I'll admit that a little bit of my world building for my graphic novel has slipped in, even providing a hint of what caused the apocalyptic event (those darn towers have to go pretty deep into the earth). But all in all this was a pretty great project, especially with Sam and Amanda's great ideas that made me look past my initial biased ones, and think deeper about the Teslonian world.

Click Here to find the article I refer to above.

Textual Poaching

Confession: I originally planned on using clips from the old Ninja Turtles cartoon and editing something fun together. But I think it is well known that I love Ninja Turtles, and is now high time for me to express other interests I have. Especially since as much as I love the Ninja Turtles, I wouldn't say that they really shaped my identity.

The words of J.R.R. Tolkien however, has shaped my identity in ways I'm probably not even aware of.

Now I understand the the Lord of the Rings movies are not older than I am. But the scenes I chose to use in this video are scenes that most of the dialogue is almost word for word from the text I've chosen to poach from. I loved Tolkien the moment I read the Hobbit in the 6th grade, and quickly devoured the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The movies came out just after I finished reading it for the first time and I was enthralled by the Middle-Earth that was portrayed on screen.

I had dabbled in writing my entire life, and really enjoyed telling stories. But the criticism of many teachers often discouraged me from pursuing a path in writing. It wasn't until I flipped through the appendices of the Lord of the Rings book, and came to The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen.

But the point of this entire video is to combine two of my favorite loves from growing up (reading the Lord of the Rings, and listening to my Dad's music), into something that was the same if not similar. I chose Stairway to Heaven because this is my Dad's favorite song ever. Growing up in my house, music was very important to us, and my Dad's love of music made us eager to develop tastes of our own.

In Jenkin's How Text's Become Real, he says "The reader takes neither the position of the author, nor an author's position. He invents in the texts something different than what they intended." My love of Lord of the Rings did this for me when it came to Stairway to Heaven. Now it can be argued that this song is about Lord of the Rings since Led Zeppelin references Gollum and Mordor in their song Ramble On, but my imagining of what Robert Plant might have been referring to when writing this song most likely far exceeds any intentions he had. But nevertheless, growing up while obsessively studying Tolkien's prose, I couldn't help but see his world when listening to Led Zeppelin.

The reason why I chose these two texts, is because my entire artistic focus, came about from the combination of my love of music, and my love of prose. I don't just listen to classic rock anymore, in fact I found a little niche of music that absolutely inspires me creatively, every time I listen to music, ideas for novels and other projects I'm working on flow through me.

I am a writer. I'm not a successful author yet, but it is very much a part of my identity that I am a writer. To say that Tolkien shaped the kind of person I am would be a bit of an understatement. I probably know more about the history of Middle-Earth than I do about the history of my religion.

Music is so important to me in my artwork. And my artwork is everything about who I am, and so we see a portrayal of two things that have very much shaped my life, in a way that I created. My writing is much like this. There will always be themes and characters in my books that will resonate with those familiar with Tolkien, some of them are intentional, while others are subconscious.

But, without further ado, here is the video I created:

Fun fact, the theme that I most wanted to portray in this video, stems from the fact that the Elvish version of Heaven is in the West. It is often said that if an Elf looks upon the Western sea or hears the Gulls call, they will not be able to resist the call of the Undying Lands. So it was very important to me when portraying Aragorn and Arwen's story, that as Elrond is telling her what her fate is, the moment of Aragorn's death matches up with this particular lyric:

 There's a feeling I get when I look to the West, and my spirit is crying for leaving.

Some dude from Washington State uploaded a PDF version of the tale. Definitely illegal, but for those without a handy copy of The Lord of the Rings, I highly recommend you click the link and give it a read. It's only a few pages, and has some of the most beautiful prose I've ever read. It will also help in the understanding of the context and themes of the video.

Here's the link:

http://depts.washington.edu/uwch/documents/articles/Aragorn%20and%20Arwen.pdf

Medium Specificity

I enjoy writing quite a bit. I've written several short stories, a novel, and am currently working on several other projects. So I knew almost from the start that I wanted to have the medium I worked in be literature. For the longest time I had the idea that I was going to write a short story about an author struggling to write a story, and telling about his troubles in a blog. I figured this would be a fun way of showing that a story can appear just about anywhere, in any form. But after awhile I realized that this wasn't clear enough for my purposes in explaining something unique about literature.

It wasn't until seeing this picture:

This is what "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues" is called in Cyprus. - Imgur

That I finally came up with an idea (the picture is a foreign poster for Anchorman 2, and the title of the movie is Screwed up News).

In Scott McCloud's comic, Chapter 6, Show and Tell, there was a section that stood out to me. He is talking about the attitude that combining words and pictures is a base form of art, usually seen as juvenile or crass marketing. At one point, he mentions that "pictures predate the written word by a large margin." In fact, reading and writing is not an evolutionary trait, it is something that must be learned. In this way literature is unique. Anyone who can hear, can appreciate a piece of music. Anyone who can see, can appreciate a painting. You don't have to be an expert to enjoy such a work of art. But to enjoy a work of literature, you must learn the language. This is a huge weakness in literature, and is something I became fascinated with.

What I ultimately ended up doing for this project, was take a section of a short story I have written, and put it through Google Translate a few times before translating it back into English and seeing what I came up with. This was the only way I could think of to demonstrate the fact that literature is a work of art that is not universal. In a way, I actually feel a little betrayed by this realization. I haven't always loved to read. It wasn't until I read Ender's Game that I became interested in reading, and not even until I had read The Hobbit did I actually grow to love it. I love those books to this day, and it makes me sad that there are people in this world who are not able to experience these works of art in the way that I did.

Here is an article I found with a bunch of different foreign titles of American movies that are pretty awesome:

Funny Movie Titles

Some of my favorites were:

I Will Marry a Prostitute to Save Money (Pretty Woman) - China

Please Do NOT Touch the Old Women (The Producers) - Italy

Because She's Ugly (Never Been Kissed) - Philippines


Just by way of interest, I took this short story, translated it into Spanish and then back into English again. It was almost identical. So I then translated it into Chinese, and translated it back into English. This is the finished result:

------------------------------------------------

Not that a famous musician came to the door from someone asking if she can be with you every day. It all started on the fact that I was unemployed , had plenty of time on my hands messed up my life. I worked in a corporate internship between junior high school semester, when the next strange situation, "I'm in the end in what I'm doing with my life?" Hit. I dropped out of school, lost my internship.

That was three months ago.

The first month, exactly what I would expect. I caught up with everything. Movies, TV shows, restaurants, I even spent half my waking hours wearing only boxer and play video games.

The most important thing is that my music consumption. I hear a lot of people. I love music, when I'm busy I do not have time to delve into the depths of the algorithm used to recommend. I went to the head this time, I decided to fill my time with the music heal my soul crushing despotism education. I'm definitely eager to catch up.

When they started the second month, I was playing a sad color. Not much, but it's enough to send me down there in the path of my current situation. In the "Road of Destiny" Some people might say .

Destiny is not as portrayed in the movie. One reason if everything in the way of destiny, but the reason is usually bother you in the most perfect way. Over the years, the destination has a billion people involved.

Undoubtedly, it has worked very well , what he does.

He had his way with me.

Sometimes at the beginning of the second month, I found a new band. They have a folk sound, usually reject me, but the bass lines and quirky guitar and talk to me ( although mandolin ) .

They have a big hit around a year ago, one is reached before 40, but basically live in a university library in the middle of the semester, this is correct. So I missed the commotion, I just discovered the existence of this band for a long time people have lost interest after.

I passed their second album, everyone hated, because it is starting from the original sound discovered this band. "They are how quickly sold out," Everyone audacity to say. This output is who can tickle the guitar, so give me shiver down my spine singer after consultation generated. Her boyfriend broke up with her in the middle of the plate for 10 years, the band exists writer, whose happy upbeat pop songs from the melancholy, sad voice went. I love the sound.

She battled depression his life, so you can imagine the cruel comments on their second album, with the recent breakthrough, put her in a more vulnerable place.

You can at this point is very strange how I know all of this information, especially since it is a backstory for staff for the band's lead singer. Of course you can not find such a large amount of information on Wikipedia, that's for sure .

Ah, you've probably gathered, singer, currently asleep on my couch.

You see, about twelve hours, I used to feel very poetic ( due to write this woman's lonely lyrics mood ), I wrote a long e-mail with the band. I think I will not get on the band's website responded that they tour ( so it is a very popular band a year ago ). I do not know is that the band has tired of the singer canceled the remainder of the tour until he gets his act together.

Leave his side just a few minutes during my test email was sent after she kicked back.

After reading my mail, you feel a little crazy ( who would not in this case ? ), All I could think of who who only know to send you e-mail the person. Who praised her lyrics and music people grew to hate her. Fans have discovered his music when everyone has left.

After a ticket is on my doorstep. Obviously, this is very easy to get someone else's address, they are connected to my community. Remind me to delete my Facebook account, when it all ends.

You can imagine my surprise when I opened the door and found what I was obsessed with the lead singer of a band at its other side. Your luggage littered the hallway in my apartment. Dressed in shabby clothes, sports shoes, his brown hair styles usually parked in a ponytail, and he generally bright blue eyes swollen , as if she had been crying. I have to admit, even though she is a stunning beauty.
"Are you Derek? " He asked.

He barely nodded, clearly shocked.

She nodded in return, grabbed his guitar case and walked beside me. "You should go to the barber, who may have the wrong idea."

"What?"

"And the beard, I do not mind them usually, but you have a real thing northwest chin now worth getting."

"Wait wait wait," I said, "What are you doing here?"

He put the guitar case on my couch, and then went back to the lobby launched two pieces of luggage, "the band broke up a few hours ago, I needed a place to live."

"What are you doing here?' I asked.

"The band broke up," she said humbly, like your sign on my door is the world 's natural look, and I was an idiot not to understand this.

"This is not an answer," I said angrily, legitimate concern that a psychopath just entered my door. "It might be a crazy person Sarah Miller! You can not come here, why are you here?"

"See that? Going to be a really crazy is reasonable? Now I believe."

"This is a joke? Really? No. Give me a real answer."

"I just gave my email instead of my career," he said suddenly, "right before my life fell apart.'s Logical, I come to you for help," she replied, as if the answer to normal time.
I am confused, can be imagined. "No, it is not illogical. Like you know me Sarah Miller, but it does not. Did not have family or friends you can stay with?"

"It's complicated," she whispered, she pulled her luggage in the corner of the living room. "I do not exactly have any place to go, now."
"A message I sent, what, five hours?" Slightly raised my voice, "Now all of a sudden you think you can stay with me? Have you heard of the hotel?"

"I live."

"You're a famous musician Sarah Miller, a stranger can not just stay at home for people who send you an e-mail. Could be dangerous! These excuses are not enough to prove this!"

"Look," his voice now lifted, "Why are all my reasons here are perfectly healthy and perfectly reasonable, I was not completely honest to tell all of you, and now I feel very vulnerable at this time I can not be alone, or you can do something stupid."

I looked at her in a daze. I do not know what to say. I do not know how to do. So I did not leave the room, and in the next half hour, almost called the police, almost called a few friends, and even my mom was almost shouting alternating between. Instead I sat there.

An hour later, I went to the room to find her staring into space, her cheeks wet. "What happened?" I asked.

So, once a famous musician appeared on my doorstep . . . .

But make sure to write it all. Because I think if it is ( not kill crazy, just crazy headache ), then it may be able to get into a movie choice, she is so crazy.

---
(I'm not going to tell you what this is actually about, because that would be defeating the purpose)

Historical Story

You know how in High School when you worked in a group there was always that one kid who kind of coasted through and didn't do a lot of work? Everybody dreads having that kid in their group. For this project I was the kid who got sick and kind of showed up halfway through when most of the work was already done, and for that I feel bad.

Spencer and Neil were kind enough to allow me to crash their group and work on their (already mostly finished) assignment with them. A fun little historical piece called Squeaky Milk.

In preparing for this assignment, I had read Satrapi's The Veil, an autobiographical comic about the feelings of a young girl as she grows up, finding her place in her changing world. The piece is called The Veil, and we find the main center of the story surrounding the fact that due to sudden changes in government, all girls were required to wear a veil. It's interesting to see such a huge cultural moment told in a story where the veil wasn't necessarily the most important subject being covered.

I think that is the main purpose for this assignment's particular parameters. We were to write a screenplay for a historical event, but write it from the perspective of a fictional character. In this way perhaps we could contextualize a cultural moment in a way that is interesting and from a perspective that we might not expect.

The movie, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close reminds me of this type of story telling. The movie revolves around a young boy who I suspect may have a form of Aspergers (or certainly some form of autism), and tells the story of how he makes sense of his father's death in the 9/11 attack. But in the end, this movie is not about September 11th, but about a little boy who finds his place in the world, comes to terms with his father's death, and improves understanding between himself and his mother. These are the best kinds of stories in my opinion, taking a cultural moment or certainly a changing moment in our history, and telling the story of the ordinary person being affected by such a moment.

So in the end, we have our script. The one that I helped revise and that's about it. It is a fantastic script, with a fun story about the discovery of cheese. I enjoyed helping fine-tune the story, working on the puns and making sure the names were fun while also being believable. Here are all of the links required for the assignment, and please enjoy.

Actual Script:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7A2YAV1gQ4cYkZWb0d4V0U4LUVYdjl2NDZsN1gzVHBHdjN3/edit?usp=sharing

Inspirations for the Story:

I Love Girl, Simon Rich:
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2012/12/17/121217sh_shouts_rich?currentPage=all

And then a fun video by the people over at Cracked, explaining the invention of Homelessness, as told from the perspective of a man who missed out on the progression of being mere cavemen to the cultural progression of the stone age.

Round Robin

Installment 1: (Jacob Gibson)

Peter the OCD Poltergeist organized the silverware alphabetically and then by size. He couldn't help but straighten up after the disgusting college kids whose dorm he was forced to haunt.

Installment 2: (Mike Gordon)

But Peter the OCD Poltergeist didn't know that the silverware was haunted too! Glenda the Ghost moved it all back from whence it came: the girls dorm.

Installment 3: (Madeline Hall)

Long ago where the girls dorm lay was a grand castle. It was filled with riches of all sorts, including the precious silverware that Glenda cared for so much in life.

Installment 4: (Jon Hammond)

Glenda noticed the silverware patterns to be exact replicas of the tattoo on her ankle that she hid beneath her many styles of colored socks.

Installment 5: (Sam Hill)

The spinach was all that was left of the djinn. His laughter having subsided, the boy picked up the dirty spinach, threw it away, and went home to bed. 

"We've lost him. said the doctor, "He was disconnected too long." His family sobbed. The Twitter outage death toll climbed higher" This is a tiny story from the twitter page Very Short Story. I'm glad that you had us look at this twitter page as the only other tiny story I can think of is Ernest Hemingway's six word short story about the baby shoes for sale.

My only other tiny short story experience was when my older brother showed me a subreddit dedicated to writing two sentence horror stories. We brainstormed a few, becoming more and more impressed with the few that we had already seen posted, our best ideas turning out to be only mildly creepy with a hint of stupid.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/12-absolutely-terrifying-two-sentence-horror-stories

The point is, I love telling stories, especially writing them into short stories, novellas, or full-length novels. But the idea of writing a story with a distinct beginning, middle, and end in under thirty words was definitely a challenge. It helped to be able to create images to go along with our stories, since imagery is half the battle. I really struggled with trying to make my installments stand out. I didn't want to just barf out the first story that came to my mind, so I usually tried to find one defining aspect from the installment before mine to really help me come up with ideas.

I will admit that the format of the project was the cause for some difficulty; confusion, problems with messaging through Learningsuite, and mixing up of installments definitely seemed to be a problem. I noticed that some of the installments I worked on had similar characters to other series, and I wondered if in our creative process, we all kind of blended our stories together. An interesting, if perhaps unintended consequence.

With a little tweaking, I think this exercise could be a fantastic group project. Already it was a lot of fun to see what people came up with, and to wonder what came before to cause such interesting story ideas.

Music Mosaic

In paragraph sixteen of Seeing, an essay by Annie Dillard, she speaks of clouds that are completely invisible when looking in the sky, but are visible when looking in the reflection of the water. Much like those clouds, the world we live in can be invisible in its beauty.

As human beings, we have a desire to build things. To take seemingly random ingredients and assemble them in such a way that is either useful, or beautiful. This process is an undeniably human trait.

While preparing for this assignment, I was building a set of Lord of the Rings LEGOs I had just received in the mail. One of the minifigures that I received for the set was intricately detailed. The print that it had on the back and front of its torso was beautifully done, and I marveled at the quality of workmanship from this minifigure, a workmanship that is now much higher than when I played with LEGOs as a child. But the character also came with a cape, and a long brown beard. Once I had put together the minifigure, I noticed that very little of the detailed printing remained visible.

It amazed me that LEGO even bothered to add that level of detail when it knew that the beard and cape were an integral part of the minifigure, and would not be complete without them. The designer knew that his work would be covered in the end.

The adolescent in me would be very proud of what happened next. In choosing the song for this project, I came across an instrumental song entitled Demian by the Folk Pop band "Hey Marseilles." A morose song filled with low tones from a Cello, lending a heaviness to the piece, juxtaposed with the light high notes of a Piano. In the roughly 2 and a half minute song, we are taken on a journey that reminded me much of our current topic, and the LEGOs I was building.

The song promises a path of darkness and loneliness. One with melancholy and regret. But in between these heavy chords, the sound of a Viola pops through. At exactly two minutes, the tone of the song changes though the atmosphere does not. The Cello goes from the dominant instrument, to one tamed by the gentleness of the Piano.

But still that LEGO minifigure invaded my mind. There are layers in art. A true reflection of life if there ever was one. There is the obvious first glance of a work of art. This is when we notice the glaring details, though we miss the soul of the work. It isn't until later, when we sift past the attention seeking Cellos that the Piano is allowed to ring true. So it is with art, and the LEGO minifigure.

In creating the pieces presented in this blog, I really tried to capture the essence of this idea. That beauty is deeper than first glance, that sometimes it must be reflected in another medium unfamiliar to us. Naturally I chose LEGOs to frame these photos, feeling it appropriate given my thought process.

I used my own home, or campus as a setting for these photos, desiring to use something I was familiar with to add the necessary layers I felt were necessary. Hoping to have the excitement and fantasy of the LEGOs emphasize the beauty that can be had, but so often go unnoticed in settings we often frequent. 

I feel it necessary to add that I am not a photographer. I say this not out of a need to forgive my photos (though granted several are of less than savory quality), but I feel the need because at times the camera captured something I did not intend. Like the photo above; I tried desperately to have the foreground and the background in focus, and on my tiny LCD screen on my camera, the background looked like it had been in focus. It wasn't until I was picking which photos would work for this project that I noticed with chagrin that the background was out of focus. But that didn't stop me from trying to find meaning, and I did. This is a view from my bedroom window. It isn't a view that would be featured in a magazine, but for the static nature of my bedroom, it is a beautiful view to be enjoyed. The fact that it is slightly out of focus may be a testament to my lack of talent as a photographer, but I believe it can be interpreted as a reflection of how I feel about my surroundings.

The Cello may be beautiful with its deep tones, but there is so much more than what we see on the surface. Even if what we see is represented in a poor manner (like the photo above). We try and see things for their intent and purpose, looking past weaknesses and ignoring the crumbs on the carpet in need of being vacuumed.

I wish I had manual focus on my camera, but that's okay. I chose the minifigure of Boromir as the subject of these last few photos because of the kind of person he represents in the Lord of the Rings. He may have had the best of intentions, but his single-mindedness was what destroyed him in the end. Seeing is important when viewing art, and when experiencing life. If we don't look past the surface and try to see things for what they really are, we stand to risk missing out on the invisible clouds above us, the subtlety of the Viola, and the details of a LEGO minifigure.

So enjoy this song; listen to it a few times, but really try and let it seep in.

The Ninja Turtles and the Dangers of Genetic Modification

A few years ago I was going through a $5 bin of DVDs at Walmart when I found one of my favorite childhood films, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. I bought it on a whim, excited to watch a movie I hadn't seen in years, hoping that it had retained its watchability, though I wasn't optimistic. Luckily I loved every moment of it. I loved the action, impressed with the men in the costumes skateboarding and fighting believably, and I even loved the campy humor and terrible puns. But the point of this article isn't to justify my almost biannual screening of this movie, it is to talk about the message in this movie that surprised me while watching it for the first time as an adult.

We know that in the mythology of the Ninja Turtles, four baby turtles were exposed to a green ooze that spilled into the sewer, mutating them into half human half turtle organisms. A man nick-named Splinter, was also exposed to the ooze, and he himself was mutated into a huge sewer rat. This is a kid’s movie, and they could have glossed over the details about their creation, but instead the movie makers decide to make their mutated nature the main message of the movie. A cautionary tale about genetic modification.

When I watched Ninja Turtles, I had recently read several fascinating articles about a genetic modification experiment gone wrong. The French call it the “Killer Algae” (Johnson), and the website where I originally found the article calls it “The Mutant Killer Seaweed of Doom” (Solensky). Either way, it is not a B-Movie villain from the 30s, but a genetically modified seaweed developed in Germany. This mutant killer seaweed known as Caulerpa taxifolia. is known for its large green fern like fronds, a toxin it releases that prevents fish from eating it, and it growing an average of three inches per day. It was exactly what the aquarium needed, and was immediately used in all of the tanks. It seemed perfect. 

But all that needed to happen to ruin everything, was for a piece of the plant the size of a fingernail getting flushed down the toilet to create the thousands of acres of Caulerpa fields that now exist on the floor of the Mediterranean Ocean (Johnson). It grows so quickly, that before anyone could do anything about it, it had grown over other plants, and had effectively taken over thousands of acres of the ocean. Because of the degrading effect this seaweed has had on tourism through scuba diving, the fishing industry, and natural wildlife in the Mediterranean, when pieces appeared off the San Diego coast the mutant seaweed was met with being covered in tarps and then chlorinated to achieve total destruction. This incident not only proves how little we know about genetic modification, but shows the kind of impact one failure can have on the environment, the kind of failure that results in the destruction of many plants and animals on the seafloor.

With this article fresh on my mind, imagine my surprise at the message this children’s movie told. The movie concentrates on the problems caused by a company called TGRI, or Techno Global Research Industries, and how in an effort to clean up their public image, they are cleaning up the sites where they dumped an ooze known for genetically modifying organisms. The huge corporate disposal attracts the attention of master Splinter who raised the turtles and trained them to be ninjas, but the ooze also attracts their enemies.

In my research for this article, I found an article in an African business magazine where Stuart Price wrote about the dangers of GM crops, in it he writes about the unpredictability of genetic modification. He says that many times, the companies that produce these GM crops make it seem like they know exactly what they are doing, when in reality in the process of genetically modifying an organism, “you get lots of weird and wonderful versions. These are normally just thrown out and ignored” (Price 16).

In the Ninja Turtles, the Shredder (the main bad guy and arch nemesis of the Turtles), uses the mutating ooze to transform a wolf and snapping turtle into huge monsters. His intention is to use these monsters to draw out the Turtles and destroy them. Unfortunately he realizes that the monsters are babies and he wants to toss them aside, thinking them useless, much like many failed genetic modification experiments that Price mentions. It isn't until he sees the destruction they can still cause (witnessing them knock down telephone poles and turn over cars), that he begins to see their value.

Stuart Price explains in the article already referenced, about what the dangers of genetic modification could be, “...GM crops have a much higher probability of containing mutations of the genome....These may have consequences, such as the production of toxins, which could take years to manifest themselves as harmful to consumers” (16). The important thing we need to remember about the introduction of a GM organism into the environment is that there is no going back. Once those genetic properties are outside of the lab, their effects will be felt for generations (16).

My love for the Ninja Turtles has never faltered. I follow the new animated series on Nickelodeon, have and regularly watch several of their movies, and even have a Ninja Turtles LEGO set that I display in my bedroom. For all of the early nineties awesomeness, and awesome terribleness (a brief cameo by Vanilla Ice), this movie and this franchise in general isn’t trying to be anything it’s not; lots of fun and lots of action. But we can learn something from this movie, and should listen to the message it contains, and remember that while the benefits of the genetic modification of organisms are vast (the Ninja Turtles definitely being a value to justice in New York), the side effects which will certainly happen, could undo all of that.

Johnson, Christina S. "KILLER ALGAE FOUND!!" California Sea Grant Home. University of

California, San Diego, 12 May 2002. Web. 30 May 2011.

Solensky, Richard. "Mutant Killer Seaweed of Doom." Damn Interesting. Alan Bellows, 25 Jan.

2008. Web. 25 May 2011.

Stuart Price. "Danger! The hidden perils of GM crops. " African Business, 1 Dec. 2004:

Research Library, ProQuest. Web. 30 May. 2011.