Give It Away Day

I know this isn't the most 'sideways' of ideas, but I did think of something that would contribute to the betterment of society. If there was a national holiday where everyone gave something away, cleaned out their closets, made a donation, gave of their time... think of all good that could come of it.

The holiday could be around the holidays, when everyone is giving and buying and in the spirit of sharing. It's at this time when many are in need as well. Possibly a date midway between Thanksgiving and Christmas would work.

This is something that everyone could participate in, individuals, families, businesses, communities. The benefits would be felt on the same scale, from one person to a charitable organization to the entire country overall. Anyhow, I think nothing but good could come from an excuse to help others, so this is my holiday idea.

Humorousness

Some of the funniest things I experience in my life are with my dog. I am endlessly amused by his spontaneous antics. The laughter that comes from enjoying a pet to me, sometimes trumps the humor that comes from people who consciously try to be funny.

Just the other day, my two and a half year old dog, who has never touched my shoes in life, picked my sneaker up in his mouth and carried it over to me. I have no idea what he wanted but I laughed and laughed!

Aside from spontaneous hilarity, he has many funny quirks, such as the way in which he demands water. For two years I filled his water bowl from the faucet. So when he wanted water, rather than bark at his bowl, he would bark at the kitchen sink. Well, a few months ago I started filling his bowl with water from my Brita pitcher. And now, he barks at the fridge for water! It cracks me up, he's a little dog diva insisting on filtered water.

Anyhow, for his first Halloween I dressed him up as a golfer. The pic captures the pure goofiness that only a dog can possess. If this silliness isn't funny, I don't know what is!

50 What If... Questions

1. What if people had fur?
2. If people did have fur, would we still wear clothes?
3. What if candle flames burned all different colors?
4. What if cats barked and dogs meowed?
5. What if football players wore basketball uniforms and vice versa?
6. What if your skin color changed with your mood?
7. What if it were customary for men to wear makeup instead of women?
8. What if everyone was born with an identical twin?
9. What if you woke up one morning and spoke only Chinese?
10. What if all animals were rainbow colored?
11. What if trees consider themselves naked without their leaves?
12. How many more people would smoke if cigarettes were good for your health?
13. What if people could earn wings for good deeds?
14. What if people were given horns for bad deeds?
15. What if what you dreamed about each night was guaranteed to happen the next day?
16. What if babies immediately spoke perfectly when born?
17. What if your hair grew 12" every night?
18. What if milk came out of faucets instead of water?
19. What if people never got sick, they were just naturally healthy until death?
20. What if computers and electronics had to consent to being used by people?
21. What if everyone had a theme song that played when they entered a room?
22. What if people were not physically capable of lying?
23. What if it were always dark in the daytime and light in the nighttime?
24. What if ocean water was pink and freshwater was yellow?
25. What if people could automatically transition to underwater breathing?
26. What if people had sharp teeth like lions?
27. What if the natural human lifespan was 300 years?
28. What if space travel was accessible to everyone?
29. What if floors played music every time you took a step?
30. What if sharks had flimsy rubber teeth that couldn't hurt you?
31. What if alcohol was illegal?
32. What if everyone got to meet one famous person of their choosing?
33. What if news stations could only report the truth and not opinions?
34. What if the average speed limit was 70 mph?
35. What if ink pens sang when you wrote with them?
36. What if snow was purple?
37. What if leprechauns really existed?
38. What if everyone could choose one other person and make them immortal?
39. What if peoples eyebrows were an opposite color to their hair?
40. What if pets had jobs?
41. What if women could get pregnant any day of the year?
42. What if rain poured up vertically from the ground into the sky?
43. What if all pets were given birth certificates?
44. What if all staircases turned into escalators?
45. What if your thoughts were visible to others in a bubble over your head?
46. What if it were mandatory to wear shoes at all times?
47. What if people had vending machines in their houses?
48. What if everyone was given $1,000,000 on their 18th birthday?
49. What if everything in the grocery store was arranged alphabetically?
50. What if all products or services had to include two prices - actual cost of production and the marked up cost to the customer?

Getting to Know You

Class yesterday was fun and different. It was cool to get to know another classmate. I'm not sure how easy it is to dial down to the identity of a stranger with an hour, but I think I got some sense of who he is.

With the warm weather dwindling, it was great to sit outside and chat rather than be in a normal class getting a lecture. But not much about this class is 'normal' anyhow. In a good way!

We are the....Sick as a Damn Dog.

Well, I'm sick and it sucks. I won't be in class today, which is stressful in itself. Even illness doesn't relieve my anxiety over missing class.

For the exercise, I thought of many things, none of which I had the ability to physically create. But the thing that I thought about the most is the following...

A little background... I turned 30 this year. Thanks to Facebook, I'm in touch with a lot of girls I graduated from high school with, over 10 years ago. Back when I was in school, tanning was just becoming way popular with teenagers. All these years later, some of these girls are still tanning non-stop.

I agree that a tan looks great. But years and years of tanning doesn't wear well. So many of my beautiful friends look aged beyond their years. And how ironic that they would destroy their looks in search of "beauty"! Not to mention the health risks for overexposing themselves to all those UV rays.

Anyhow, I wish there was an easy tool that would show women what kind of damage they are doing. To try to keep it New Media related, maybe a filter in Photoshop could be applied to an image that would accentuate the sun damage. I've seen these types of effects done on TV for illustration but I don't think the average woman has access to it. I was going to try to create something like this myself this weekend but have been in bed. Which is exactly where I am headed back to.

I wish I was going to see what everyone did today but will have to check the blogs instead. Bummer. :(

Class in a Nutshell

It was a good class yesterday. It wasn't the most impactful class for me. At some point the conversation got redundant and kind of watered down. I like to hear all the different experiences of everyone, but there's just not time to individually relate to each point. Most of us could offer a story or personal insight to each and every conversation, but it just doesn't always add value. Ha, I had a real shitty night last night and it seems to carry over into my blog today. So I'll just cut my bitching short for now. Happy Tuesday! :P

Breakin the Law!

I thought about this challenge to 'break the rules' using a new media tool. I thought back to Photoshop class with Beth...and one dire warning we were given to NEVER resize fonts using the transform tool. In fact, we were told that if she ever saw us doing that, she would KILL US.

So, now that the threat of death is off the table, I thought I would do some transform resizing of some letters in Photoshop. For extra kicks, I ran some text vertically, I think this was another one of Beth's pet peeves.

I also threw any regard for complimentary colors out the window. I have to admit, the resulting image isn't pretty.

Janice + Senji = Bliss

For the bliss portion of this exercise, I decided to bond with my dog, Senji. First, we took a long walk along the canal near my house. As the warm weather is dwindling, this was a good excuse to be out in the fresh air. I didn't take my phone or ipod, just left with me, my dog, and a key. We didn't encounter any people or any dogs, not even the turtles were out that day. It was just me and my boy, which is pretty much perfection.

When we came home, I spent almost two hours grooming him. This was surprisingly the more 'blissful' part for me. Even though we were back in the house, and this task seems to be more of a chore, it was very relaxing after the activity of the walk.

I heard once that things you do on autopilot can be very meditative. A good indicator of this is when you find yourself finishing something and not being conscious of all the individual parts along the way. Like when you are driving and you don't directly think about each turn you need to make, you just find yourself at home without noticing each leg of the trip. Or when you start to wash the dishes and all of a sudden they are done, because you've done it so many times that you don't need to concentrate on each tiny step.

Anyhow, this is how I felt when I was brushing Senji's coat. I was aware of doing it, but not directly focused on it. I let my mind wander to other things in my life. By the time I was done, I had a beautiful dog and a relaxed mind. And a giant mountain of hair.

I included a pic of the end result. Just because it's so damn cute!

Facebook Friends Ain't All What They Seem

So, I took a bit of a different approach to this exercise. Rather than make something, I thought about what in my life is more than what it seems, and might surprise me if I peel back its layers. And I started thinking about my Facebook friends, or "collection" as my sister calls them.

A lot of people on FB have a lot of "friends". But how many of those "friends" are actual friends? I decided to give my list a closer review.

Out of 184 peeps, I would count 13 of them as my close actual friends that I actually care about. That's a measly 7%! Most of the rest are old friends from high school and childhood. Some are friends of friends that I've partied with. Some are just guys that liked my profile pic, LOL.

And there's even one creepy guy that keeps adding people from my class that doesn't appear in not one single yearbook. And yet I keep him on my list!

The point of what I'm saying is that even this "friend" list represents things not being what they seem. I think it says a lot about people, and it basically comes down to their need to belong. Even though I'm not close with 93% of these people, I still like having them around!

I Heart This Class

Class was fun and interesting! In my opinion, it was the best class yet. It was entertaining and thought provoking, who could ask for anything more. And it seemed like more students are engaging in discussion, which furthers our sideways exploration.

There were some unique takes on the pizza/fear assignment. Some were metaphorical, some were literal. Some were serious, some were lighthearted. I enjoy hearing about other peoples concepts more than I like sharing my own.

I'm way looking forward to see what is born from this week's exercise. The concept intrigues me most so far. It's being pondered in a corner of my mind until I hit on something that excites me!

Till then!

I Don't Even Like Pizza

I thought a lot about this assignment and couldn't come up with any clever ideas related to fear and pizza. But I do want to write about my own relationship with pizza.

I've never liked it.

Which sucks, because everyone else does.

So, I'm usually the freak in the group that doesn't like pizza and always has to answer questions about why I'm not American, human, etc.

So while I don't fear everyone's favorite communal food, I dread the suggestion of "Let's order a pizza!"

Plus, I'm really not a fan of everyone's hands all dipping in the same box. It's kinda gross. When Beth mentioned h1n1 after last week's pizza party I took a small pause. I seem to have escaped illness though. :)

Seeing Sideways in the Dark

Today's class was weird. Lots of fun though! I felt much of my initial anxiety over this class start to fade, and am starting to feel excitement take over.

A short recap...we had a group discussion...sat in the dark...had one creepy moment (awesome)...and had a pizza party.

I'd type more but thinking of anything other than football at the moment is just not within my capabilities. Nothing gets between me and my stattrackin.

Down with Brady!

It’s a Bird. It’s a Plane. It’s a Flying Worm!

How can something so easy seem so hard?

When this exercise was first presented, I had no idea how to wrap my mind around it. I’m still not so sure about it. I want to be shorn of the dreaded sheep label, but the semester is young, and I find myself anxious to see how others interpreted this assignment.

Anyhow, on the afternoon of class, as I lay in the grass my eyes were too singed by the sun to see anything. I lay with my eyes squinted shut and tried to take in the experience with my other senses. But with eyeballs scorched and assignment panic setting in, I couldn’t focus and decided to call it a day.

Later in the week I decided to try again. My sister has a quiet backyard with a hammock. I stretched out with nothing to see but a window of sky between my two trees supports. As the clouds passed, nothing stood out, just peaceful drifting shapes slowly gliding by. Then one formation caught my eye. A stretch of clouds had the shape of a worm, with a big upright head and smile. I chuckled at the thought, but it made me think about my first semester in New Media and the first time I heard of the concept of a “worm’s eye view.” And here I was, from the worm’s eye perspective, looking up at a worm that had the bird’s eye view. Interesting, well maybe not so much, but ironic, surely. And maybe there’s some symbolic “seeing sideways” lesson in there. Who says a worm can’t enjoy an aerial view? Hell, maybe my flying worm cloud is up there exacting revenge on the early birds. Can’t prove it’s not!

So, I would’ve taken a picture if I had a camera on me. I did think to myself, I’ll keep my eyes out and will surely see another at least “wormlike” arrangement of clouds in the sky at some point. Ha! I’ll be searching the skies for the rest of my life to ever catch another worm cloud.

Well, I decided to make my own picture for illustration purposes. It’s a little silly and a little sucky. I need to brush up on my Photoshoppin’, but my need for cloud creation skillz is next to zero. But enough disclaimers...
Behold, the flying worm!

T-Shirt Wigs and Milk Carton Tanks

First class done! I can already see my biggest challenge is going to be rediscovering my imagination. I think of the way a kid's imagination runs amok without direction and want to recapture that feeling. Give a kid a rock and they'll entertain themselves. When my sister and I were kids we'd pull an extra t-shirt over our head and pretend it was long, flowing hair. At school lunch, I remember folding a milk carton down with the straw inside to make an army tank. These things sound really lame now, but the power of a kid's mind can transform any ordinary object.

Fast forward twenty-five years and I'm living in corporate zombieland. Creative licenses aren't issued there, just marching orders. I've learned to make a cozy home inside the box, and tuck it safely in my comfort zone. Venturing out is going to be scary, but here I go!