Curation update 5/23/13

       This will be last last and final blog entry for my high school career! As sad as it will be, this will be a final update to my curation project. I have decided to scratch my prezi idea and go with a website. I feel as if users will be able to navigate through the website more easily than through prezi. With prezi I have more of a PowerPoint feel to it but you can only go one way.
       Another reason I switched back to my website was because I can more easily put videos on the page. On several of my tabs I can put multiple videos pertaining to hockey on at once. Plus I can spread them out into my liking.
       As far as content goes, I have found some helpful videos and tutorials to give viewers who aren't familiar with hockey an idea of what I'm talking about. I have also found some videos in which I ask the user whether the referee made the right call for users who are already familiar with hockey. Yesterday I finished my offsides tab and have nearly finished my icing tab. I just started my penalties tab and ironically, after watching the Chicago Blackhawks play last night, I may have found a great example of  bad penalty calls. I hope there is a video of it on YouTube.

Curation: 5/15/13

This past week I decided to restart my project with a different approach. I decided to put the website aside and make a prezi. I like the idea of a PowerPoint like structure so someone looking will go though the PowerPoint the way I feel fits best. I can set up my own transitions and segways into each topic. But I still like the idea of users being able to navigate through a website and pick what they want to look at. I think I'm going to save both ideas and as I progress through I will eventually choose one. Hopefully the choice will be easy but I guess we will see.

Curation Progress

This week I started working on my curation project. I picked the story of why the Amateur hockey league's should adopt NHL rules and play style. I wanted to inform others on certain rules that would benefit youth hockey and already benefit professional hockey. I wanted to create a website with several links to each aspect of the game I want to change.
       I struggled though decided between making the website or making a Prezi. With Prezi i can have more of an interactive power-point look to it but on a website I can individually have separate pages for each topic with its own comment and post section for viewers to express their opinion. Both offer great organization and I hope I made the right decision by making a website, right now I fell it was the right choice. The overall design is pretty simple. A home page with an about me section and some new on current hockey. Along with that I will include what this website is all about. Then I have several tabs linking one to each subtopics page explaining more about that rule. I would also like to include a reactions page, which is different reactions from people I ask.
       What I need to find out more of is how exactly this rule change would affect a player. I already know that I would like it but I need more opinions that just mine. Maybe even find someone who is against it and find out why. In my website I want to include a page just dedicated to different peoples perspective on  these rule changes. Not all just one-sided.

Best of today: curation

Today we are researching a topic for our curation project. I really like the idea of it because it gives us a chance to talk about a topic we are interested into. For me I really love hockey and I wanted to talk about my favorite hockey teams. But I decided to change it up a little. Instead I want to talk about the top 10 teams in the National Hockey League. Maybe even talk about my predictions for the playoffs.

To start I would put the Blackhawks at number one. Not only because there my favorite team but the were number one all season and have a great lineup. In describing which teams are best I would talk about who on their team has the greatest impact and maybe even what they could do better. I am really excited to make this curation 

Mashup Process: 4/22/2013

     When starting to create my mashup, I still had some thoughts about my writing prompts were still lingering in my head. One particular prompt that was stuck in my head was patience. Lucky for me this just happened to be one of the topics for the mashup. 

     So I looked through our book, Letter’s to A Young Poet, and I was able to find a couple quotes on patience. My subtopic dealt with growing up and how it’s not always an easy process. I then proceeded to find a few quotes on the internet which were pretty inspiring like, “Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come “(Robert Schuller). He is basically saying despite the bad things going on now, eventually the storm will pass and good will come.

     Doing this mashup was a very cool experience because it allowed me to play around with different works and put them all together. It was fun and inspiring to find different quotes on patience. If i could i would do it again with a different topic such as writing or religion.

Connection: Frank Gehry project & Game Design

     The past week we have been working on our Frank Gehry design projects. My group had to design a resurgent according to the specifications provided by our client. An most architects or building designers do, we created a floor plan of our project and then began building and changing things we did and did not like.
     This can relate specifically to my game design class. In my game design class, we design levels for  video games. We start by drawing a floor plan of our map and as we build our map we correct or change certain things we like. Some maps solely rely on one building as our map, which make this Frank Gehry project more like game design. Just like any good restaurant, there has to be tables, chairs lights, decorations and such. The same thing applies to game design. The more decorations and details you put into it, the more realistic it will look. You want your player to think he is inside of an actual restaurant and the only way to really do that is add details. For example, lets say I wanted to recreate GBS in my game design program (which I am currently working on). If i just make the hallways and classrooms without chairs, benches or tables it would not look the same. Even the textures I use to create the carpet and walls matter, everything down to the ceiling tiles can matter when designing houses restaurants and game design levels.
     Both the Frank Gehry project and my game design class have many similarities in that they both revolve around designing. Hopefully I will pursue a career in game design because my drawing skills are that of a blind monkey but my computer design skills are much more realistic.

Blogging around

In this issue of blogging around, I commented on Taso's connection blog in racism. In his blog he talked about racism in soccer. FIFA, soccer's federation has come up with a new rule regarding racism during games. In short, if people start making racists comments towards players, the game can be called of or forfeited. I commented on my thoughts about this rule and I also enjoyed reading and learning about soccer.

    I have never heard of that rule. It is interesting how and why FIFA made this rule. It is a bit harsh but I can see how it works. I feel a little indifferent about it because on one hand you want to stop racism but on the other, the game should not be tossed just because the fans are to rowdy. But at least they are trying to do something.

For my second comment I read Brittany's  captured thought on high school. She talked about the difference of graduating middle school and high school, in particular the good bye part of it. I comments on my thoughts and the difference between each. Here is my comment below.

     Wow! I completely agree. It is much harder to say goodbye in high school than in middle school. I believe one reason for this is in high school you become more of an adult. As an adult you are more mature and closer with your friends than in middle school. So saying goodbye to a really close friend you have known for at least four years is hard.

Best of Today: Modernism & Postmodernism

     Even though it is the weekend, this particular blog is about the idea of the system and how we use/connect with it. Today everyone has a cell phone. A very good percentage of them are smart phones that can connect to social media and the Internet. In a postmodern worldview, companies hire advertising people to create ads for these technological devices we use every day. Now advertisers are taking a new spin on their ads. 

     For example, the Chrysler commercial. The first 20 seconds have nothing to do with Chrysler, more about the economy. Then towards the end, a Chrysler car appears but the still don't specifically talk about the car and then their famous slogan "imported from Detroit" appears. So why exactly do advertisers do this? From my understanding, the companies want you to think oh man the economy sucks but wait if we buy these Chrysler cars, they will fix the economy; versus a modernism view, which would state facts about the car and say it’s the best car.

Blogging Around

The first blog I read was Murray's, Get Organized Blog. Murray desperately needed to organize his computers terabyte hard drive. His hard drive consisted of papers from school, games and other miscellaneous items that were taking up space. Just like most teenagers, he was not ecstatic about it but in his very last paragraph, Murray brought up a very important part. He said although it seems like too much work at first, it was not quite as hard as he once thought. Great Job Murray and this is what I commented on.
     Wow Murray. That's great you were able to organize. I totally agree with what you said about our minds love organizations. Although its a pain, our brains will love us for doing so.


My second blog that I read was Stacey's blog. Stacey really needed to organize her movies. She loves to collect them but after some time they begin to collect dust. The were scattered to a point were it seemed to be mines that lay around her room. Eventually she got a grip and took a stand on the collection of over 150 movies and decided to get organized. She was even pacient enough to organize them alphabetically. Here is my comment to her blog:

     Wow! That is a lot of movies. I myself would not be able to organize that many movies alphabetically. I would eventually throw them all out. I do know the feeling of a nice clean environment. Its as if you walked outside for a breath of fresh air

Get Organized

Today I spent 30 minutes organizing my work desk. I work on my homework and download my music and movies to a computer on that desk. Lately that desk has been a mess of school papers and other junk from my sister. 

     Before I felt very disorganized. Everything was clumped together and piled up in small piles. During the cleanup, I felt relieved to finally organize my desk so I could find my papers. It took and extra 30 seconds to find one piece of paper. Once I finished, I took a step back and was actually able to see my desk. I was finally able to find any piece of paper I needed for homework. 

     I definitely learned that school papers can pile up very quickly. That was only about a month of school papers and it looked like I hadn't cleaned in a few months. But now I know that organization is a key to school. High school can be easier if you organize your papers.

Best of Week: The Cynics

Yesterday we taled about the five schools of Hellenism: The Cynics, The Stoics, The Epicureans, Neoplatonism and Mysticism. The one I found I could relate to the most was The Cynics. From what I understood in class, The Cynics learned to apprecriate the little things. If a king walked up to one and asked if they wanted anyhting they would say for you to move because the king is blocking the sunlight.
I am stating to learn to appreciate some of the small things in life. I have learned to save my money for important things. Over the summer I made $2,000 working on various projects. I put $1,400 in my savings account and was left with $600. 2 years ago I would have blown the money off on lunch and movies everyday. This year I have only spent $100 in 4 months. Money mangement will be vital for me in collge and on my own. I don't need to buy the newest electronics. I would be happy with a hockey stick and a ball. I would spend hours playing hockey and be happy with it.

Best of Week

Best of week:

Over this past week, we discussed the idea of aesthetics, myths and form is content. Aesthetics are the rules and structures for creating and appreciating BEAUTY. We talked about how the book Sophie's world has aesthetics. It also is a great example of form is content and myths. This book is almost a philosophy lesson. Philosophers are myth killers. A myth is a fictional story created to explain something in the real world. Myths may incorporate a god of some sort and philosophers ideas of how the world came to be ruin this idea. Philosophers can admit they don't know everything but want to know. They want to know more about the world. Reading Sophie's World has opened up my eyes to what philosophy really is.

Blogging Around

In response to Danny's "Best of Week: Big Ideas" I shared an agreement with Danny's opinion on Neal Gabler's statement "If our ideas seem smaller nowadays, it's not because we are dumber than our forebears but because we just don't care as much about ideas as they did". My response was:

Wow I totally agree. That is so ignorant of him to judge our ideas. Just because they seem small doesn't mean we don't care. Think of alexander graham Bell and the telephone. If we look at his invention today it seems so small and of no use to us. But who would have thought that we would then create wireless calling, texting, surfing the web. His small idea of talking through a wire became a major part of todays society.

In response to Victor's "Carry It Foreward: Creativity Crisis", I agreed on some aspects of his idea but I put in my own opinion as well.

I can agree in some aspects to your idea that screens weaken our creativity. But not all screens do this. For example, if I were in my graphics class I would spend the entire class period in front of a computer, but while i'm on that computer, I am creating something in photoshop. So t a computer can be used as a tool for creativity. Thats how TV works. They use computers to come up with what their imaginations think of. Us watching it may take away the creative process but the people who create them are still using their creativity to make them.

Best of Week: Born into Brothels

This past week we watched a documentary if you will on Indian kids Born Into Brothels. The documentary is about Indian kids who are born in a terrible part of India were their parents are crimminals and there lifes look very bleek.
     An American teacher decided while in India studying this area, that these kids are a story in and of itself. So she decided to teach them about photography. She held her own photography class to help teach kids about photography and the hope of puting these kids into a good school.
     I thought this was a good idea to help these kids. There are so many bad neighborhoods and to give a child, whose life looks to be meaningless, a chance to be able to make a difference is a true gift and means a lot to that child.
     While watching the moviei could tell that most parents wanted their child to succeed but they had their own vision of success and it wasn't the best option for them. So i was very happy to see these kids have a good life based on the fact that someone took the time to help these kids find something they love.

Connection: Creativity Crisis & My mother. 09/18/2012

Connection: Creativity & My mothers classroom

After first reading the article, Creativity Crisis, my first impression was that the United States was headed in a bad direction, creativity wise. I needed a real life example, something I could relate to. I asked my mom, who teaches kindergarten at Joseph Sears School, what she thought about the article and this is what she said.

     My mom was very intrigued by the article and how it almost perfectly reflects what she thinks is wrong with American schools. I always here my mom talk about how she never has time to let her kids have fun. There is a schedule almost as heavy as middle school. She even complains on the fact that her class doesn't have gym or recess everyday. Some days are only filled with curriculum. Many of her parents, whose kids are already excelling in her class, are asking her to tudor her kids beaches they feel they aren't smart enough. 

     As the article mentions, there is only one answer in the curriculum she is handed. She has to come up with material in which her kids need to think of more than one answer in order to engage their minds. She knows that some things only have one answer and that it would be to much trouble to create more answers but she does anyway. 

     My mom wishes some scientist would come to her school and experiment with her kids to let others know that the current teaching system is not beneficial to the kids creativity. Hopefully one day someone will convince her school that they need to change their ways.

Captured Thought: A World WIthout Creativity

Where would the world be if there was no creativity? Would that mean any creative invention ever made not exist? What is the importance of creativity? In my opinion, a world without creativity means no hockey or sport activities of any kind. Everyone would just sit and do nothing. I believe this world was built off creativity. If it had not been for Einstein's creative mind, would we still have electricity? Wow would the world have been a depressing place to live. Everyone would wear black and white clothing and have black and white lives. There would be no fun and everyday would be the exact same. Wake up to your plain and bland spouse, the go to you plain old job, go home to your plain old house and family and go to bed only to start the same damn routine all over again. The importance of creativity is to bring liveliness to our world. Creativity gives kids and adults the ability to think outside the box and not just draw one conclusion but hundreds of conclusions and even more questions. Why is the sky blue? Does it have something to do with the mixture of Gases that lie in our planets atmosphere? These questions and answers are a part of the basis of creativity. Which in turn makes this world so enjoyable to live in. There are days were a never think about what a world would be like without creativity, and I am glad that I live in a very creative world.