Reflection on 9/29

Alright so I walk in to class a little late today, just in time to see pudding getting stuffed into an ear. So yeah, that was different. What was interesting to me was that afterward when asked if anyone was surprised by what Amy did, everyone said that they actually expected it of her. That fact was generally ignored and from then on we talked about how in New Media we need to do things that are unexpected. The problem with that was, the demonstration with Amy was apparently expected. So I guess what I'm saying is, Amy should have gone for the butt with the pudding. Have a nice day.

Reflection on class last week

Well I missed class last week because I was asleep. At 3:00 in the afternoon. DON'T JUDGE ME. So I'm seeing a lot of mixed messages about what happened, but I'm getting the impression that groups got together and went out to do random things? I think it would've been a good time if that is indeed what happened. It sounds like it gave people a chance to get to know each other, plus I could have taken Ellis to the nudey bar. Oh well, we'll just have to do that next week instead of going to class.

What if...redux

What if the Chase Tower had a high powered laser on top of it to deter Indianapolis from a nuclear strike?

Well, basically it would be awesome.

What if...?

What if...

humans evolved intelligence but had no opposable thumbs.
humans also had opposable thumbs on their feet.
humans were herbivores.
trees were sentient.
trees went extinct.
trees have been trying to speak to us this whole time, we just didn't understand.
trees had dreams.
the color of the sky changed from blue to red.
recreational space-flight becomes common in our lifetime.
the Earth gets hit by a huge meteor.
physics is wrong.
water levels rose and our coasts were covered with water.
water levels dropped and our coasts weren't coasts anymore.
zeppelins had remained the mainstream means of travel.
Star Wars really did happen a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
there were aliens.
those aliens have not learned to be peaceful any better than we have.
we ran out of oil tomorrow.
we communicated through ballroom dancing.
video games become more real to us than reality.
as our generation ages, video games replace movies entirely.
video games had never been invented.
dinosaurs were still alive.
all birds became flightless.
ostriches could fly.
"It's Raining Men" by the Weathergirls was the national anthem.
you didn't have toes.
humans lived underwater and had no memory of living on land.
you made clothes out of spaghetti.
cars ran on extra virgin olive oil.
World War II had never happened.
humans could fly.
humans had gills.
cats could speak english.
our food was like cat food; we eat the same dry food every meal of every day.
the internet died tomorrow and never came back.
we were able to leave our bodies and live entirely on the internet.
computers had never been created.
we had never discovered microbes.
my cat wasn't fat.
ghosts are real.
the Harry Potter series is a work of historical non-fiction.
the bible had never been written.
we had never gained the ability to learn other languages.
flying machines were never invented and we had no concept of flight.
John McCain wins the presidency, then dies, and Sarah Palin becomes president.
we never invented fire.
prohibition was still in effect.
we could talk to the dead.
we learn how to time travel.

Reflection on last week

I was sick last week so I didn't make it to class, so I looked over the reflections of everyone else. It seems the egg assignment was discussed in more depth and no one seemed real enthusiastic about it at this point so I guess it's time to move on. It sounds like there was some good discussion too; enough to make someone feel like they might need to apologize on their blog. I wish I was there for that, it sounds like it might have been interesting. Most disappointing to me is that I apparently missed Beth showing off some of her photography. That is something that interests me a lot but I have never really done myself, so I'm always interested to see the work of someone that is actually good at it, particularly when they have such a unique perspective on things.

Egg Talk

I went back and reviewed several of the egg posts (admittedly not all of them) and I still have to stick with my gut and say that I liked Evan Roberts' video that we viewed in class the best. My concentration is digital storytelling so I just like to see someone actually go out and make a unique story with a visual style that is very simple, but fits perfectly with the rest of the project. In fact it makes me a little ashamed that I didn't try to make a story myself. Of course, the legs tore off my egg with just 2 seconds of stop motion animation so that sort of took away my options, but still... Anyway, I think the voice acting was probably the strongest part of the video; if I had to choose a weakest part I would probably say the ending. I know the destruction of the egg was for comedic value, but I didn't really feel like it added much and almost seemed a little crude after the animation from earlier. Regardless, well done Evan, it was great.

My Egg is Staying Alive!

Ok so first off, here is the result of my time with my egg:

click here for 640x480

Time well spent, in my opinion.  I had originally intended there to be quite a bit more to the dance, but unfortunately his legs pulled the bottom out of the shell as I tried to move them around, so this will have to do it.  The legs are just coat hangers bent into shape and glued on, with paper glued to them to form his bell bottoms.  The arms are pipe cleaners, the eyes are just typical googly eyes, and everything else is drawn on.  All I did was fix him in place on a flat surface, fix a camera to the same surface, then take a series of pictures as I made small adjustments.  Cleaned up the frames and tweaked some levels in After Effects, and here you go!

Bible Dipping

Bible dipping time!  For those playing at home, I opened to page 399; good luck finding it.  I'll describe the scene briefly.  A black-and-white photo shows a fairly normal looking young man standing on the narrow median of a 4 lane road.  He appears to be hitch-hiking or pan-handling, and he's holding a cardboard sign that says "psycho."

The first thing that struck me about this picture is the complete desolation of the scene.  There is a piece of a city visible in the background, and the road looks like it was built to accomodate a decent amount of traffic, but there is not a single other person or car in the picture.  It really makes me think of 2 things:

1)  You'd have to be a little psycho to stand along a completely barren street thinking you'll catch a ride, so maybe he really is.  In that case at least you know he's honest and that's better than a lot of people; so if someone comes along they should give him a ride.

2)  I get kind of a post-apocolyptic vibe from this.  The complete lack of other people or cars, the dead stare in his eyes, and even the grainy black and white style of the photo itself.  I'm thinking this guy hasn't seen another human for about 3 years since the plague and he's starting to lose it, evidenced by him standing alone on a dead street holding a sign proclaiming his inner feelings about his own sanity.

Also, the 'y' in psycho is really elongated and reminds me of the font from the movie "The Abyss."