Takeaway 9

Something that stuck with me in class was, "Why go left when you could go right?"  I really thought about it today and I think what it means is: why stick with what you know if you can do something new? New generally means change and generally change is terrifying.  Humans are creatures of habit. We like solid, predictable patterns and minimal change; but what if every once in a while we did something that wasn't the borm?  It could lead to new and exciting experiences that could change your entire life.  I feel sometimes its better to go against what you are used to doing and try something new.  I feel it makes us all better people.

The flavor of ___ sounds like...

So I ate a habanero pepper for this project.  Just so you know, that shit's extremely hot and uncomfortable if you aren't accustomed to such flavorful heat.  Now to create something form the sensations I got from how the habanero tasted was pretty difficult.  I tried to convey an image from a haiku that would show how hot this damn pepper is.

Searing, blistering

Pain is creeping from the sides
Crunching through the heat

Takeaway 8

You know, sometimes you think you know people and you really don't.  It's a fucked up world out there and we take solace in knowing that somethings are concrete and okay and never going to change much.  But we are all in for a surprise. People all have their dirty little secrets.  Everyone has that one side of them that they never show to anyone; not a single soul will ever see that one facet of their personality.  But, sometimes that horrible thing that is inside everyone comes out to say hello and all it leaves in it's wake is devastation and sadness because it's just so fucked up.

Just know that you may think you know someone who you have grown up with, spent your entire high school years with, and spent time with outside of graduating high school is hiding something.

You've Got This Covered!

So I don't have anything done to bring to class but I do have ideas.

Here they are:

1. Do absolutely nothing to the cover.  

Seeing as this is supposed to go loosely with the previous project of where we defined who we were and why were here on our blind contour drawings and I did nothing to mine, I thought maybe it would work for the book cover as well.

2. Cover the cover in blank, white or off-white paper.

I don't really know how I came up with this but I really like the idea.  I like how it would make the book undefined and with the beauty of the cranes it kind of seems like it's saying beauty is undefined.

Takeaway 7

I'd have to say this is the first class I have ever enjoyed so thoroughly that isn't a web design related class.  It's absolutely crazy.  I've been going through some pretty stupid shit in my life recently and I think this class came to me at the perfect time in my life to have the greatest impact on my future.

Now on to the takeaway from class.

This class session would have to be the most inspiring thus far.  Passion is something that should have a place in everyone's lives.  It's such an integral component to one's happiness it's ridiculous.  When you have passion for something, it absolutely shows in the end product.  It's obvious to look at a piece of work and see the difference between the result of someone with a passion for the project and the result of someone who is doing it just to do it.

When you have a passion it's like you have fulfillment in yourself and your life.  When you participate in your passion it's complete bliss.  Frustrations can, and definitely do, come with one's passion but the fulfillment and happiness vastly outweigh the frustrations.  It's awesome knowing that there is one or two different activities that make a person something bigger, something better.  I don't really know how to explain it, but I know it's there and I love it.

Who am I? What am I doing here?

I wasn't in class to do the whole activity or whatever that went down to get the blind contour drawing, so I was told to do a blind contour drawing of myself.  Here it is in all of it's awesome glory.  It totally looks like a real human being is you squint a lot and tilt your head a solid ninety degrees.

Ha.

Anyways.  I decided to do nothing with this drawing because I couldn't come up with anything.  I feel like that really represents me and what I'm doing here. I have no idea who I am or what I'm doing at any given moment, really.  

Right now I'm still building whatever you build to become someone.  This is a long process.  I've always lived with someone telling me what to do, where to go, what to eat, and what to dress with little to no freedom.  Now I have the opportunity to do all of those things with complete freedom.  So I would argue that I am now starting my journey to figure out who I am.

To answer "What am I doing here?" I would have to say I'm here get help and gain an insight as to where to get help with my journey to being someone.  There is nothing more to that statement and nothing less.  Pretty straight forward, really.

Takeaway 6

Procrastination sucks.  Like really, really, really, really sucks.  Procrastination drags down my motivation and destroys any and all productivity I could achieve because I get stressed out I've procrastinated so much I have mounds of things to get done with not enough time.  This takeaway is a whopping week and some odd days late for submission.  Yay.

Yay for procrastination.