Empty - "Half full or half empty?"

I choose to do my final on the word EMPTY, because my apartment looks empty right now but it is not empty at all.

That got me to thinking about the saying "half full or half empty?" Most people believe that the answer picked decides whether your a optimisitc person or pessimistic. It's interesting how people can tell so much about a person just based on that. Wikipedia says that: The purpose of the question is to demonstrate that the situation may be seen in different ways depending on one's point of view and that there may be opportunity in the situation as well as trouble. Which is what this class is about in the way that it helps us not only think outside of comfort zones but to think of situations in different ways. To see all views of the situation.

I asked some friends what they thought and three of them said full and one said empty. Ever since someone asked me that question in high school I first responded with empty and still think believe that. My reasoning for that before they told me the answers was that the glass was half empty because it was full then someone drank out of it and now its almost empty they just have to finish drinking it.

Book report

"When you've been somewhere for a while, you aquire the ability to be practically invisible. This lets you operate with a minimum of interference."

- Jenny Holzer

Connections in class

For the connections project I thought of a couple ideas. At first I thought of a family tree but that is too obvious. Then I remembered what i do when im bored Thursdays at work I look up animals in the encyclopedia. Then I thought that I could make the family tree with the animals and how they all somehow probably came from each other. Then I got to thinking about the group experiments on facebook about inviting all your friends and so on to prove the point that everyone is somehow conected to each other in a circle of friends.

In class a lot of people had the start of some really good ideas but I think only two people who spoke posted stuff in their blogs. We went on random trips all over campus and explored. We did start to try to go through all the buildings on campus to see how they were all connected. In the end of class there was a little skit. I wasn't sure what to think of the skit at first but once I sat down to type this I think I get it. There was one person one all four corners giving them all something in common. Or that they can relate to each other. Beth and doug skipped in a circle together in the middle of the four cornered kids. I'm not sure what they meant by that but it may be because they were connected by the arms and went in the same motion and dirction.

My Onion Project

I choose to use pictures of trash cans of downtown Indianapolis because it was the first thing I thought of when told to find something that had layers, was more then what they appear. The trash can to most people is seen as a diposal device for stuff that they no longer want but in many ways it could be seen as a gold mine or a design of the surrounding landscape. There were two different styles of trash cans downtown, one that was a black metal frame that opened outward and a octagon shaped one made with rocks surrounding it. Some of the trash cans had a tarp wrapped around it that had a design on it that sutied the seaon of basketball. That is the desgin approch for the trash cans but more importantly is the people who go rely on there being good trash in those cans. The local homeless look for any left item like clothing, or food. They do a pretty good job making sure most of the trash downtown is taken out but I had to looked in most all of the main trash cans and all the best stuff I could find were a black pair of socks.

Onion Ideas

We stared out class with sharing ideas on the onion project. I began writting down some ideas but I was not in the direction that I wanted to be for this project. One student had an idea of making a video with music that showed how much polution there is in the canal. There was one person who did a sketch of a time period that was really important to them in their life. Then during one of our exercises in class there was a crane that was made out of the obituaries, which made it have more meaning than what it origionally had before. Another idea was a paper gun, bottle, and bat to symbolize the word intent.

Five Senses

Have you ever gone to a new place, with a different culture than your own? All five senses start going except for one. Your eyes are looking at everything they possibly can to absorb everything in as fast as possible. The smell in the air is forcing your nose to try to break each sense apart to figure out what or where it is coming from. Your ears are listening to all of the sounds from all over the area. Both of these, senses and sound, are related to your vision trying to relate that sound or smell to an image. After those senses are near done something will attract the eye and the temptation to touch something of a weird texture would be the next action. Taste is not usually used unless a local food item is tasted.

Senses could lead to curiosity, which leads to many questions. I had this Dairy Queen ice cream cake in front of me because it was my sister's birthday and I had to put her candles into this cold ice cream. Which did not work at all. Thankfully who ever designed the cake but a frosting along the edge that I put the candles in around the cake. The worst part was trying to put the cake. You could tell by looking at it that the ice cream on the top was starting to melt but the cake would not cut still.

Then there was the problem that arose. There are many layers in Dairy Queen cakes. There is the ice cream on the bottom, then the layer of fudge or caramel, then a layer of crumbs of cake, followed by the top layer of ice cream to finish it off. It was the middle layer with the fudge that was giving us trouble cutting. It was not frozen, but by the time we got the piece of cake to come out with the help of two people working on it, the piece jumped out and flipped over onto the rest of the cake. That is one of the hardest things to do that most people under estimate, taking the first piece of cake, pie, or brownie out of the pan.

If this was new to someone they could use all their senses but one. To touch the cake it is cold at first until it starts to melt where it is being touched. It can be tasted my those that are not lactose intolerant. Everyone enjoys the taste no matter how old they are. The only thing is it can not be heard. It might make some noise once it is taken out of the freezer into a warm area, but that is an observation of mine and I could of been just thinking I heard a noise.

It is like those guessing games at animal places or the zoo. Where you have to put your hand through a hole and feel different objects or types of fur and guess what they are. What if we had something like that but for food? That would be fun cause its messy and it deals with using one of the main five senses. The ice cream cake would have to be one just for the fun of it.

Two hour bliss...

This weekend I was trying to find something to do for two hours that was fun and nothing came to my mind sadly. This weekend though, one of my roommates had her sister and one of her friends come to stay over and on Sunday we had a two hour shopping trip to the Circle Center mall. Spring break is coming up and my roommates have been keeping their eye on some shorts that they wanted to get. I did not get anything at the mall because the more I was standing in the mall the more broke or poor I was feeling. Bills were coming and we have to put a deposite on a house so our trip to the mall was not that much of a bliss for me. But there was not a whole lot that went on this weekend or week besides working and doing homework. It is hard to find time to do something fun, especially if time is never usually taken to do this on a daily basis. It gets hard to think of something to do. I kept thinking of the other stuff I had to do like my web develpement homework or to do laundry or needing to clean the kitchen because looking at the mess was bothering me. Those are not fun things to do, they are things I have to do because no one else will. The trip to the mall was probably the most relaxing thing to happen all weekend.

In class today we watched a movie about the physics of wether something is really there. They were saying that, for example, when a basketball is bounced it does not really hit the ground. It creates friction with the pavement and bounces back but never hits. With the electrons acting against each other.