Curation Part III

       This week for my curation I have mostly focused on the rules of hockey such as, offsides, icing, legal/illegal checks, and minor/major penalties. Upon doing my research, I found a few rules that I have never seen called or heard before. For example, there is a penalty for "refusing to start play." While further researching this penalty, I found that it happens pretty much every game. Most especially on icing calls when the players aren't allowed to the leave the ice and are tired. The purposely take their time skating the faceoff dot and directing teammates, so I would think that would count as a penalty. I guess I found that they only call that for extreme cases.

       Doing this type of research this week recquired lots of video watching and a lot of more visual explanations for my curation website. I think the rules of hockey is probably one of the most boring parts of hockey that you need to know in order to comprehend the game. A lot of people would rather watch the fancy plays and the goals, but the penalties and rules is what the whole game is played and based off of, therefore it's too important just to ignore. I pretty much have all the information I need to start working on all the graphics and visualizations for the website. My research first idea has paid off, I feel much less stressed out about it now than I did last week. Of course I had to save the most boring for last though, so this week has been a little bit of a drag.

       Like I mentioned above, the next steps I'm taking is to complete all the images and the actual layout of my curation. I've been waiting patiently to do this part of the project. I love messing around with photography and pictures to create designs. It was something I was really into before high school and stopped doing it after freshman year. I also still have to work on the story part of my curation. I've gotten a better idea for what I want to do, but there is still a few parts I'm not sure about. For example, I want to start off with the complete basics of hockey, and then move into the more stuff I call "the icing on the cake." This "icing" is stuff like captaincy, moves, jersey numbers, how each position is played, etc. Can't wait to see what it all looks like on Tuesday.

Curation Part II

       This week for my curation, I have been working on getting all of my information put down onto web pages. I figured that doing that first would be the best and most time effcient way to doing things. If I put on information whenever I was finished with a graphic, it would take me forever to do this project. The most interesting thing I have found so far would be all the different videos I plan on putting on the curation. I have a specific page for "dekes" or the style moves that hockey players make in order to score goals or make a play. It is amazing how well their brain thinks and comprehends the game at such a high pace, and seeing the different moves they can make with the puck just makes it even that much better.

       The biggest obstacle for me so far, would be figuring out how to put all my information together in a way that's more than just a bunch of reading, and finding a way to word it that would make sense for everyone. For me, hockey knowledge just comes to me naturally and there are so many different terms I use to explain it that it can be hard to turn off that part of my brain since it is so prominent in everything I do in my everday life. My goal is to continue to get all my curating down first and then figure out how to put it all in a way that can create some type of story. If I can get the story part figured out, I think that all the other stuff will come much more smoothly and I'll get a better idea of what I'm trying to get at.

       As I mentioned above, one of the first steps I want to take is to find a way to make my curation into a story. I'm not 100% sure how I'll find a way to do that, but I'm sure it will come to me as I continue researching. The second step I need to take is to find more information on the rules involving head hits (what's illegal/legal). On top of finding more info, I want to create a video or something visual that can get the point across the best way possible. To try and teach a rule about head hits through text would just be plain boring, and no one would be interested in learning. Lastly, I want to start making a team starting lineup page, but since it's the playoffs it is a little harder trying to find all the lineups from the regular season. This is also another step into figuring out the story portion of my curation.

Curation Process

This week for my curation process I have been thinking of ways to layout my website. I've decided to use the wix website builder to create my site. I haven't specifically started anything for it but I have been planning where I want certain images and text placed. I want to do a curation on the easiest way to understand hockey so you can enjoy watching the games. To go a little more outside the box I'm going to try and make an interactive website with more images/pictures so people don't get bored reading a bunch of text. My goal is to show how fun and exciting hockey really is. I used to hate it so much until I looked beyond just sticks and an object to hit around. So by making the site more interactive I hope I can get people into a more entertained mindset. 

At this point in the process of curation, I haven't done any research or focused on information based ideas. I have mostly been looking at tutorials and re-learning all the photoshop and HTML tricks and tips. One tutorial I found is about making an image clickable and creating a specific path to certain parts of the website. I'm also looking for a tutorial that allows certain parts of an image to be more interactive than other parts.

My biggest obstacle, I believe, is making my whole idea come to life. I used to love doing stuff like this and working with HTML code and creating my own graphics, but it can be time consuming and sometimes it doesn't always come out like you plan. And even beyond that, some of the things I want done might be more difficult than what I could do. Either way it will be hard to create my site in a way that's totally different than what's already out there. 

The next steps in my curation process is to start finding images to edit and to touch up, or use my own images and edit all of those. I want to get the idea and layout setup first and then after that research for my topic. I need to research each individual team and create some sort if interactive lineup that can give out information about each player and that specific team. Lastly, hopefully I can put everything together enough for my topic to get officially approved by Mr. Allen. My goal by the end of the week is to have a sample/general idea page all setup.

Research: Banksy

In class this week we started watching a movie called Exit Through Thee Gift Shop about a street artist named Banksy. He is an anonymous artist and nobody knows who he is or what he looks like. His ideas are so creative and he has such a different concept of art than the average artists out there. After watching part of the movie it made me want to learn more about Banksy and see what he is doing now.

His graffiti career started in 1990 when he joined a group called DryBreadZ Crew (DBZ). While with them he focused mostly in stenciling and perfecting that technique. The message of his art was mostly anti-war, anti-establishment and anti-capitalist. To portray these messages he often used images of rats, apes, soldiers, police officers, children and the elderly.

In 2002, he began hosting exhibitions for people to come and view his artwork. Banksy's first ever show was in Los Angeles and one of the biggest controversy of this show was the fact that he painted on an elephant. Even though the paint was harmless, animal rights group everywhere were outraged. Today his work is appreciated much more and is sold for hundreds or thousands of dollars at art auctions across the world. One of his latest pieces of art had to do with the 2012 summer Olympics in London. He posted pictures online of a javelin thrower lobbing a missile and a pole vaulter soaring over a barbed-wire fence. The mysterious part of it all is that the art is painted somewhere in London, waiting to be found. 

Metacognition: Mashup Process

In class we were assigned to do a Mashup that had to do with the book, Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer M. Rilke. We did a lot ahead of time to prepare for creating this project. In class we did these free response type writings sessions where we would write down what we thought of the particular passage that Mr. Allen read out loud. There were a few passages that struck me about solitude and that is what I chose the topic of my Mashup to be. I'm not the most outgoing person in the world and maybe that's strange to some people but for me it is more relaxing and enjoyable than anything else.

The first thing I did to get into the solitude type thinking, I went back and re-read the passages about solitude and re-read my response. Since the project called for using your own responses in the Mashup, it helped to revise and add-on to my original thoughts at the time of the passage. I thought it was so cool how much my brain could think. My first reaction to the passage that I wrote down would be totally different than what I thought of the second time. Being able to relate to what I was reading about helped a lot as well. Though I hate to say it, all my English teachers were right when they said you have to make connections in order to understand what you're reading.

Another thing that surprised me about my thinking was that how much I sometimes surround myself with solitude and being by myself. I almost feel like I have given myself too much time to think. I can 100% see solidarity from my perspective but I haven't reached out to understand the perspectives of others or see what maybe they get out of it. This I felt was a little bit of a flaw in my project. Though it was easy for me to have different opinions and ideas, I still had the same perspective for each. If that makes sense. Another thing I think I need to work on is communicating better what my brain is thinking into words that can be easily understood for other people. Sometimes I go back and re-read something I wrote and it won't even make sense to me. Overall, I liked how it turned out and hopefully I was able to get my story across for solitude.

Change of Mind: Frank Gehry

In class this week we have started working on/finishing up our Frank Gehry projects. We watched a movie about a guy named Frank Gehry who designed buildings and is a really creative thinker. He has made all kinds of cool looking buildings and has built them out of the United States as well. For example, he   designed a museum that was in Bilbao, Spain and is one of his most famous buildings he created. Gehry goes beyond squares and rectangles, he likes to have curves in his art. The best thing about his work is that it is so unique and different from other architects.

I have always had an interest in buildings and architecture. If I had the patience and creativity that is what I would be doing for the rest of my life. One of my favorite types of buildings were ones that were made from glass. I love how open it is and how you can see everything that is surrounding you. A common element I see are that the buildings look so much bigger, but they really aren't that much bigger. Anytime I'm passing by the apartments on 94 east, right before the Dempster exit, I always have to look at it. It is a little dangerous while I'm driving, but it catches my eye. They way it is not just a straight up and down building, it has a gap between a few levels. The square shape of the building juts out differently for certain floors, makes it look more like a fancy building in the city than an apartment complex.

Curvy buildings are not common very much, so when I saw the Frank Gehry video it just opened my eyes to a whole another view of architecture and design. I loved how the video showed his thought process when he was designing the buildings. For me, it was cool to get insight into a mind like he has. It also was interesting to me how he would make a hair difference in one of his models, but it somehow made it all look more complete. Just to have an eye for that kind of designing and knowing how to finish is amazing. The whole video changed my view on buildings altogether. I appreciate it even more than I did before. The work that the architects and builders put into the buildings is astounding. It showed me that designing a building so complex is more than just throwing shapes on top of each other. If I could, I would travel to Bilbao just to see that museum and all the textures and curves that Gehry thought of himself. It would be great to see other people's reactions to the museum and try to see what they see. I am open for any perspectives of designing that will change the way I view buildings. It only broadens my interests and horizons even more.

Blogging Around

Nigel H (Connection: Tenacity and College):
He talks about freedom he will have at college and being able to push through his hardships. He views these hardships as a way to better himself and get into a good college.

"I can relate to your feeling of freedom that college offers. I am the same exact way. I just want to be on my own and not having to deal with other famil member's drama. It's cool that your mom is able to help you push through the hardships, even though she can create some drama. I think it is best learning from other peoples mistakes. You get to see the results before you even do anything. I also think humanities is a great class for this type of thinking. Being able to make connections like this is important."


Brittany B (Captured Thought: Saying Good-bye):
She talks about not wanting to say good-bye after high school like we all did in middle school. She views good-bye as something permanent.

"I agree with you about good-bye's. middle school was sad for me, I don't even want to begin imagining saying good-bye after high school. It gets annoying after awhile. Making friends, changing schools and then losing those friends. You don't even have to say good-bye, people leave on their own and never look back on the memories. Everybody should think more like you. People always say that they hated high school, yet a majority of those people would go back in a heart beat if they could. Going into college not regretting anything you have done will be a great advantage. The memories will help you realize that there are positives in high school."

Best of Week: Corporate Space

In class this week we have been going over Modernism and Postmodernism. An idea of postmodernism that we discussed more in depth was corporate space. The name is pretty much self explanatory. As postmodernist humans we have allowed business and networks to control our own personal space. Everything we do and everywhere we go is all controlled by corporate space. I feel so oblivious to the whole idea, it never had really crossed my mind. 

The light bulb in my brain immediately went on, the whole realization of corporate space has just made me think about my surroundings so much more. Every piece of clothing I wear has the name of the company somewhere on it. My iPhone is corporate space. I am connected through so many different networks that are controlled by businesses like Apple. What is sad to me is that it has taken me 18 years to realize that I am just a walking advertisement. Everything I do and say has all been a result of a corporation. It is just how people are raised. No one ever even knows that they are being raised in a certain way controlled by a large network. Maybe once you are older, but by that time you have already been brain washed.

This whole idea brings me back to free will. In Sophie's World we discussed not having free will based on nature, or a god. In postmodernism, free will is based on networks and corporations. The whole idea of fashion and what people wear is a perfect example of the lack of free will. People want to wear whatever the models are wearing, and all models are just advertising the biggest designer names. So when girls go to a store, they look for something that looks like what the models are wearing. We think we are choosing our own clothes and our own style, but really we are just designing ourselves to be the way corporations want us to be. Even slang terms like "swag" or "yolo" has become a way of advertising. Companies take advantage of unaware teenagers and put these words into TV shows and movies. Without even realizing it, we are using these terms in our everyday life. We think we're saying whatever we want to whoever we want on our own time, by choice. Meanwhile, there is a business making loads of money off of these words, who could care less about your free will.

I could say that I'm going to be more aware of what I am doing and how I am being used as corporate space, but I won't. I know that I am 18 years too late to try and change the only way of life that I know. I can't even think of where to begin to change. This is the reality of the world, and this is how we have created it to be. So while I'm sitting here frustrated about corporate space, everyone else continues their daily routine  having no clue what they are really doing with their lives. Or the reality, what corporations have chosen them to do with their lives.

Connections: Time Traveler's Wife

In class we are reading "Einstein's Dreams." So far I have enjoyed the different ideas that the author makes you think about. One idea that stood out to me was people being transported back in time. Not the cliche version of that, but a more realistic view of what it is. The guy being transported back in time is quiet and hidden, but watches everything happen all over again, trying not to disrupt the past.

This idea further elaborates how much tiny things can affect our future. For example, if I wouldn't have sneezed a week ago, I wouldn't have wasted time I could have used for other things. It can be one second situations that have the ability to alter everything. Life literally happens by the millisecond. It all happens so fast that none of us have even thought of how a sneeze or an itch has affected our lives. 

One of the first things I thought of after reading was the movie "The Time Traveler's Wife." Probably one of my top five favorite movies. The movie is about how a guy travels back in time for every event that has been the most important in his life. It isn't really by choice, it's some kind of gene disorder and he just disappears in his present day life to travel back to past events. This later creates problems with his wife, who met the time traveler when she was 6 years old. She met the grown up version of him, on accident, and he would visit her every week until she was a teenager and had to leave for school.

The time traveler, Henry, is the guy that is hidden behind the scenes re-living his life over again. Moments he wants to change and moments he doesn't wanna change. He has to swim through the river, only to be swimming back to where he started. Thinking of time travel in a way like Henry went through is more realistic. It is the realistic moments or realizations that I have is what helps me understand a concept even more. Being able to somehow apply what I'm learning to thoughts I have thought of before, or movies I have seen is cool. I feel some sort of accomplishment for being able to do so. What I am enjoying the most, so far, are the constant connections I am making while reading. It is not just this chapter I have connected with. I find some connection in all the chapters.