Monday, June 18, 2007

Project "What if..." Questions

These are the questions I thought of concerning my project, after my bliss time.
- to be answered soon...

What if you couldn't convey an image by sight? You had to use sound instead?

What if humans didn't have sympathy/empathy for others?

What if images didn't provoke controversy or move people?

What if (to quote Lennon) there was no religion?

What really makes us different from each other? is it tangible or even definable? What if it was gone?

My Bliss...

3 hours for whatever I want...

Here's what I did:

  1. Took a super-long bath using unprecedented amounts of chocolate milk shampoo


  2. Pet and pampered my kitty, Frank


  3. Watched that day's episode of General Hospital, unmolested by the phone, boyfriend, email or any other distractions. I love my stories!


  4. I went outside and walked around a bit, then sat in the grass....just to enjoy the setting.


  5. I got to read without being bothered...I never get the time to just sit and do this..and it's what I really enjoy!
I often feel so scheduled...I almost didn't know what to do with myself. I had to really think about what I wanted to do to truly enjoy myself. This makes me think I don't do this often enough..I don't spend enough time out of the day for myself...

Answering "What if..."

"What if there was no fear of aging?"

First I had to decide if this meant "we still age but don't fear it" or "we don't age at all". I'm going with we still age, but do it with grace and don't mind it. The fear of age, looking bad, or losing someone because of the way we look is absent from our directory of feelings now.

Hundreds of businesses or at least, anti-aging products, wouldn't exist. Like Oil of Olay, Estee Lauder, all those people...Maybe the scientists who worked in the labs developing those products instead grew up to discover, oh I don't know, a cure for cancer or something useful. Who knows, without having to undergo pressure to lessen wrinkles maybe they could do other great things..

Women wouldn't inject poison into their faces to paralyze their muscles. I don't see the appeal here to begin with, but I hear botox parties are real popular, even here, now. Gross...but I shouldn't judge..

Everyone would live without the pressure of always trying to appear younger or different looking. (I think after a certain age, even men attempt to do this..) We should enjoy every stage of our live, instead of always wishing for it to be different. Hmm..Maybe other problems would magnify, like "how big your feet are" or something, to take the place of the missing worry over looks....something to ponder...

Monday, June 11, 2007

What if?

Assignment 4: What if...

What if…donuts were good for you?
What if…money reproduced like starfish?
What if…no one cared about Paris Hilton?
What if…MTV played music videos?
What if…people were actually paid according to the value of their work?
What if…rain hurt when it fell?
What if…people over 70 had to stop driving?
What if…you could ride tigers like horses? ..without fear of being consumed…
What if…college was free?
What if…we could all be part-human, part-animal of our choice?


What if…conservation was as big of a political topic as gas prices?
What if…you could shoot lasers from your eyes?
What if…looks really didn’t matter?
What if…you could pick an age to be your whole life?
What if…we had tails like a monkey?
What if…when you got hot you turned light blue?
What if…food never spoiled?
What if…J.R. never got shot?
What if…there were no political parties, and everyone just voted for the best person for the job?
What if… when someone said something mean to you, your ears shut off until they were done?


What if… you could rewind within the span of 1 day?
What if…the cold war never ended?
What if…the power went out….for good?
What if…you had to hunt/gather your food?
What if…golf was easy?
What if…we were never introduced to shame?
What if…Coke finally beat Pepsi, once and for all?
What if…they redid the musical Cabaret, using cats for the cast?
What if…other countries liked us?
What if…we could have cities underwater?

What if… forever is a reality, not a concept?
What if…God laughs at us?
What if…Wacom pens were easy to use instead of frustratingly inaccurate?
What if… healthcare was free like Canada?
What if… TV showed what was really happening around the world?
What if… you could take pill to change the way you looked for a day?
What if… the pets in your neighborhood had weekly meetings to discuss the termination of your block?
What if… you could just get the security sticker for your door from the Brinks man, instead of the whole system?
What if…people had to get certified before they had children?
What if…life was like it is on The Jetsons?

What if…bees didn’t sting and they made candy?
What if…all the spiders got shipped to space?
What if…pet rocks acted more like pets?
What if…kids weren’t sticky? (..maybe I’d want one..)
What if…people discovered Starbucks was actually freeze-dried Folgers in pretty cups?
What if…ponchos came back into style?
What if…people stopped fighting over things you can’t see? (boundaries, religion..etc..)
What if…the cookie didn’t crumble, it imploded?
What if…medicines that “may cause death” were removed from the market?
What if…we had gills on our feet?

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

What moves me...

Assignment 3: What moves me?

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket



This is Figment....He moves me. Figment was the main character in the Epcot ride "Journey into the Imagination." He is of course, the figment of your imagination. The ride opened in 1983, right before my first big trip to Disney World. I don't remember this trip, but I did come home with some Figment memoriabilia, a stuffed animal version, and a small plastic toy of him. Who knows where the stuffed Figment is, but I keep the plastic one on my desk at home. I later took trips to Disney and Epcot that I could remember, and what sticks out is, Epcot is super-boring, except for Figment and the singing/dancing fruit and veggies in the Kitchen Kabaret... :) Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket




So I always looked forward to Figment. Now when I look at it, it reminds me of being a kid, and a time where things didn't change too much. I don't deal well with change...but I'm aware it's always coming. Figment reminds me that I need to be a kid sometimes and to be happy, because life is too short to be a serious grown-up all the time...and that's no fun. I like that I've had this toy since I was little. I have always known where it is and kept it visible.




I did bring him to class, but I would not have been very graceful speaking about it. I didn't really know what to say. And I had another item, a storybook my dad used to read me.... I wouldn't have even been able to say anything about it without crying...but I guess that's the definition of "moving me".....

I was a little blown away by everyone sharing what moved them though...it was very inspiring..and awesome that you all were willing to tell such intimate stories. I would not have been able to make it through mine without becoming a blubbering mess...So I admire all of you who were clearly braver than I was. The class moved me.

Questions to answer:

What is New Media?
Oh man...the communication of an idea using technology to produce it?

What is an Image?
What someone sees before them...it can be a single object, a picture, a landscape or the whole feeling, what your senses pick up combined with what your eyes see.

What is Music?
A sound (or lack thereof) made with the intent to entertain.

What am I doing in New Media?
I'm really bad at writing papers.