Thursday, January 5, 2012

Defining my Identity #15

-Create the post that describes my proudest moment. Upload the picture and describe why I chose this moment.


                My proudest moment in grade 11 was when I completed the first project in A.P 11 which was creating medium experiments. Given the object, safety pins, I had to produce more than 50 pieces in five weeks. At first time, I was afraid of doing 50 pieces while considering compositions and exploring my own techniques with various mediums. My first ten pieces were of inferior quality and substandardized; as a result I got a C on those pieces and attached them into the back of my sketchbook. Also, looking at other students’ sophisticated works put me down. Frustrated, I did not even want to start the next ten pieces using the graphite medium. By that time, I started the first one of the ten pieces, it was two days before I had to hand them in.  I was in a panic. However, I realized that they were deemed essential and thought it could be a new start to accomplishing the next 40 pieces.
             Grinding graphite sticks, mixing it with oil, and painting with water were the methods I used to develop drawing safety pins. Always, the start is uphill, but after passing that point, the next step becomes easier. Doing them one by one, eventually, I finished creating 15 pieces in total using graphite. Since then, I could plunge myself to do the other 40 pieces that I was required to make.
             I chose this moment as the thrilling moment. As I went into grade 11, I was fretting about be burdened with being assigned many projects at once. This first project awakened me to remind myself that the one who is damaged from abandonment is oneself.  It was my choice to finish this project with my own satisfaction; no one scolded me but myself. I think it is significant to realize one's own faults and try to overcome them. Therefore, this moment made me figure out the importance of learning and challenging myself.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Defining my Identity #14

- Find a hero who is currently living. Find their blog or website. Create a link to his site and explain what this person has done to attract my attention.



         
        The first (Japanese) animated movie I had watched is “Princess Mononoke” by Miyazaki Hayao. This animation grasped a nine years old child’s attention. Since then, I watched all of his animated movies; his own style of plot and characters made it easier for me to understand the themes and remember them in detail. He was the one who inspired me to become an animation artist. Miyazaki Hayao is an anime director, animator, screenwriter, manga artist, and storyboard artist. Fulfilling those works to create the final result of animated movies could overwhelm him, but there are no flaws in his animations. Instead, the movie qualities are authentic. He claimed that he would only do the traditional animated movies, not the three dimensional movies which I agree to. Moreover, even though his animation is meant for children, the depth of the storylines and concepts are intense and contains many elements, but are simply portrayed. Therefore, all can understand what he is trying to say comfortably. Like his famous works, I would like to script animation movies and design characters for everyone so that I can deliver my messages to them in a stimulating way. He says that he tries to dig deep into the well of his subconscious. At a certain moment in life, he is available to open the lid and liberate ideas and visions. Through his work and progress, I definitely see his passion for animation. I strive to become like him who can move viewers’ minds and tell noteworthy concepts in an absorbing animation. Therefore, Miyazaki Hayao is my hero.        

<My favorite animated movie by Miyazaki Hayao>
“Princess Mononoke (1997)”

Defining my Identity #13

-Find a poet on Youtube. Upload the video. then film myself responding to his/her poem.

-"The Tyger" by William Blake


-My response to his poem-


Defining my Identity #7

- Upload my favorite educational Youtube moments. Each selection must have a brief summary of the content and why I chose it.

<ENGAGE at CCA: Designing Ecology with Año Nuevo Island>


  
For my YouTube educational moment, I chose this video. This video is about an engaging project from California College of Art. The faculty and students are working together as a group to solve social needs for their community. With collaboration of the Ceramic class chair Nathan Lynch and his students from CCA, biologists, REBAR art, design, and social activism group and architectures, they all decided to design nesting modules to protect the endangered rhinoceros aucklet birds living on Año Nuevo Island which is located in northern California.  Watching this video, I was impressed with how art could react like a musical orchestra. Different fields of art participate together producing influential and impacted final results. Also, it showed me every step of the process to acquire their final nesting sculpture. Compared to the way I brainstorm and produce art projects, their's were similar. Therefore, progress is significant in developing concepts to final pieces. Unravelling social environmental issues through art inspired me a lot because I am collecting plastic water bottles for a school trash art project. This widened my thoughts in visual art. Therefore, by watching this video clip, it educated me about how art reveals itself and the steps to produce the final pieces with all avenues of art.


Defining my Identity #6

-Write 5 things I will never to do another human being and why.


1.       Humiliation:  The word, humiliate, means causing a person a painful loss of pride, self-respect, dignity or to mortify. When a person is humiliated, he or she feels stressed, depressed, and intimidated. Being criticized and humiliated are totally different stories. Criticism has a purpose which points out the mistake and helps to fix it in a better way, but abashment just increases hostility and abandonment. Everyone has their own respectful and different past. Their past lives has huge influences in their lives. There could have been serious pains or accidents that people should not mention. Whether they are close enough to talk freely or not, there is always a boundary that they should not go over. Respecting each other's matters in today’s society is important because there are diverse cultured people living together. Their religion, history, and culture are colorful. Therefore, in order to understand each other, appreciating others is very significant, instead of insulting them.

2.      Backstabbing:  Throughout history, there are always been backstabbing and betraying with people; those have always been serious problems. Losing trust from others is easy, but regaining trust from them is tough. There are many different forms of backstabbing. It is easy to betray friends who are the closest to you. For example, if a friend of someone reveals his or her secret to others, he or she would feel terribly uncomfortable and disappointed with the fact that the closest person betrayed him/her. It breaks not only the friendship, but also the conviction that would have bonded them together. Also, infidelity is same as backstabbing someone else. People have to notice that aggrieving by betraying can be crueler than murdering others. Accordingly, I would never backstab another human being.

3.      Being judgmental:  We are living in a judgmental and racist era. Judging someone who I do not know well by his appearance or background would not be an articulate way to get to know him. There are many people who  look at others with a jaundiced eye based on their past experiences or believes. However, those opinions should be changed. Contrast to the appearance, characteristics can be different and better than what people may know. Having conversions or taking some time to know each other is the best way to start thinking about them. People have to consider that their own prejudice can hurt others’ emotion and nationality. Therefore, existing judgment and racist should be eliminated.       

     - Achilles' heels (the people's weakest part in their bodies)-
4.      Picking on others’ weak points:  Everyone has his or her weak points. It can be serious illness problems or hurtful past experiences; these are personal weakness about which people have to consider. However, there are people who bring up those topics and make fun of them without any respect. In order to make themselves feel stronger, they usually put others down. When they do not want to reveal their own flaws in public, there is no right for others to do so. In fact, it can lead to suicide or serious depression. Therefore, picking on others’ weak points is an improper way to treat others.

5.      Putting others in danger:  Although people always express that being different is important, it can coexist with danger. Some people put their own friends or others in danger. For example, a friend is terribly afraid of water, but his other friends do not think seriously about it and push him into the water. This can lead to cruel danger. Like this example, they should listen carefully to the words of others and act prudently. Also, pushing others to do what they refuse to do can give them a lot of stress. It is influential in a bad way.         



Defining my Identity #9

-Create links to 5 websites that will help guide me in the future.


-  This internet site, EasyEdge, helps me to narrow down my decisions to choose the college or university I would like to attend. In this site, students can find free expert resources and tools for furthering their education. I found some books sources that I can read in order to find my interests and find careers for the future. EasyEdge is found in 1996 in order to help students who seek expert knowledge and advice. Even though I am not interested in getting a job at this very moment, there are many other teenagers who want to have part-time jobs; in this site people can upload their resumes and find jobs online and also reach the general job sites. There is a list of careers and jobs that they can choose from. For students especially, it is well organized to discover any articles related to careers. They can explore the jobs, and research other supportive sites.   

-  As for me, I am very worried about being a post-secondary student. I research a lot of sites in the internet. There are many useful websites that provide information related to careers. This is the website that I check several times and read useful articles and writings.  Helpguide, which was launched in 1999, provides free online resources that support and motivate all ages so that everyone can decide healthy choices when he or she confronts difficulties. Since it is ad-free and people do not have to make their own IDs, I can focus more on the information I need. Now, Helpguide has been realized internationally and there are 40 million visitors in 2011. This website really helps guide me in the right direction for my future. 

-  -Every time I have an assignment from school, most of the time I use Sparknotes. It does not mean that I am lazy to read the novel but it means it has a lot of information that I can get help from. There are extra questions that people can try in order to understand the details from the books. Especially, the “No Fear” catalogue provides modern English versions of Shakespearean plays. Not only does this site contain information about literature, but it also guides people in many other subjects such as biology, math, or business. As I go to post-secondary school, this site will still be with me, every time I have difficulty in novels.


-          When assigned an essay assignment or when reading a book, dictionary.com and thesaurus.com are always available on the internet. Instead of using paper-based dictionaries, these internet sites are more practical. Listening to accurate pronunciation, having many references from words, and playing with crosswords from the site helps me understand the meanings of words. Also, every time I write essays, looking up words on the thesaurus is what I do most. It helps with my lack of  different vocabulary. Obviously, in the future, the words from books and textbooks would be getting harder and the way of marking essays would be getting more tough. Thus, those two sites will keep being helpful and essential in the future.  

-          Prezi.com is an internet site that helps people to create various forms of presentations. I first used this site because of an English class presentation. Because I had never implied it before, it was worrying. However, the way I can design or utilize the template presentation forms influenced me to have interest in creating presentations. During presentations, I was always afraid of deadly silence from the audience. The three dimensional effect in the presentations, the color of the backgrounds, and the use of various designs consistently grasp the attention of the audience. Therefore, I like this site a lot and am going to use it a lot in the future. Going through university, there are always presentations I have to do. Already knowing how to use Prezi will make my life convenient.