"What is it?" Blog 10-29-10

On Monday, we were shown a pile of materials that resembled some mail to a Maria Vasquez in Arlington, Virginia. We then saw it and had to tell the two "holders of knowledge" through Oncourse mail what we thought the package's contents were. I told them what I had thought it was, though I gave both guys different answers. I had since searched through Google and then found out what it really was, but I don't want to spoil anything until Monday.

I think Mrs. Lykins wanted us to tell us what we thought the package was to create a story and/or world or to do independent research of a package's contents to discover the truth behind the contents and where they came from and to enhance problem-solving skills, though I'm leaning more towards research and problem-solving. Luckily, I was able to remember what the objects were, so that I could look their titles through Google. The internet really is a treasure-trove of information, especially in cases like this. I know it might be cheating, but none of the rules involved "not using any search engine at your disposal".

Response to the 10-25-10 Class

In today's class, we discussed our "You Call It" blogs. Mine involved a haunted house using AVL technology. There was a special blog that caught my attention: Dara Berry's blog. She was actually worried about showing people her work because she thought that it wasn't good enough. She was told that she SHOULD show it to other people so that she would make her work better. I have that same fear of critique, because I'm worried that employers wouldn't like my work either. I brought up Will Eisner's advice to "do comics for yourself". "Do what you do for yourself", but how is that possible if employers expect you to do what they tell you? Mrs. Lykins said: "I don't know because I can't do it right." She also said "Talent only takes you so far" and showed us her site Spyro Terra as an example of a portfolio. We then had an activity in which Sean randomly chose a person using a question: "Best Movie Ever?"...I can't really remember the specifics.

Beth also showed us a collection of bizarre publications. I didn't know whether they were parody or not. So she had us talk to two certain individuals and tell what we thought those publications were.

My "You Call It" blog 10-21-10

For this particular blog, I've used a combination of what I've used in the fear experiment and of the technology in the Virtual Reality Cave in the Advanced Visualization Lab to create a Virtual Reality Haunted House tour.

The haunted house would contain the following:

+3D glasses for the tour
+Virtual Reality Cave technology
+4-D technology(wind effects, water effects, etc)
+Random Monster/Ghost Appearances
+Randomly Generated Maps
+Treadmill

The reason I use random generation for this project is to play on people's fears of the unexpected and unknown, just like in Kyle's project and in my Bugaboo chair project.

Here is a "quick and dirty" mockup of what the front of the house would look like:



And this is what the inside of the house would look like:

I used "quick and dirty" sketches for the mock-ups of my creation, because I might go to Kings Island this Saturday and might spend the night at Ohio.

Response to the 10-11-10 class

In today's class, we discussed religion, stereotypes, tolerance, and beliefs. We also discussed gender in religion. There were actually religions long ago that were centered around women. We also looked at a Youtube video about the Westboro Baptist Church, after I had mentioned the Westboro Baptist Church.

We also stated that we can't live without a belief and that we are all capable of good AND evil.

We then watched the documentary "Expelled" starring Ben Stein. It's about some evolutionary professors losing their jobs simply because they mentioned "intelligent design" in their lectures. To me, that's kinda a kick in the teeth. If evolution is allowed in schools, then why not also "intelligent design"? Secular scientists, such as Richard Dawkins, state that "intelligent design" stem from ignorance.

I'm kinda in the middle when it comes to evolution vs. creationism or intelligent design. Why does it matter how we came here or how we came to be modern human beings? That was eons ago. This is now. Also, is there some secret to saving humanity by settling the God or evolution/intelligent design debate through "evidence"? Is that why they're trying to find answers? If so, then great. If not, let's just focus on the now and on the future. Or at least only keep our retrospect to at least 1000 years in the past instead of billions of years.

I believe in tolerance 10-10-10

I myself believe in God, and my family is predominantly Christian. To be honest, I haven't gone to church until my teens. Also, my family and I hadn't been going to church that often until today.

Now I don't like religious debates, especially not on the Internet, because on the Internet, I witness intolerance from either side, whether it be the skeptical, atheist side, or the religious side, be it Islam, Christian, Jewish, etc.

I believe in tolerance. I also believe that stereotypes can be used to harm or insult.

Stereotypes can affect race, gender, orientation, or religion. Mrs. Lykins discussed in the last class how a student in another class, who was an atheist, said that Christians are stupid or incapable of thinking. This is a hurtful stereotype that also applies to anyone who believes in God. As I said, I believe in God's existence, and yet I've managed to pull off a 3.92 GPA thus far in my college career.

Stereotypes have also been used in history to imprison, vilify or exterminate people of other cultures or religions. Three prime examples are:

1. The vilification of Muslims after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
2. The internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
3. The most infamous act of genocide in recent world history: the Holocaust; about 6 million Jewish people were killed in Nazi concentration camps.

Stereotypes, to me, are an example of intolerance, and should stop being used as motivation for gruesome or deplorable acts. I even made a PowerPoint presentation about stereotypes and tolerance, which I may present on class on Monday. I can turn it in and send it through Oncourse, but I can't link to it here.

Response to today's class 10-4-10

Today in class, we had two animals come to class today. Beth Lykins brought a pet cat named Puff to class, and John Weiss brought a Ball Python named King to class. At first I didn't know whose snake it was, because it just randomly appeared. I got to hold the snake and pet the cat.

Also, we discuss our fear experiments, and some of the people who didn't give their presentations last week made up for it this week. A couple of the highlights were:

• Travis Hollins' experiment with blindfolded volunteers putting their hands in food
• Blair's "mystery object experiment" and him asking people if they would eat it. They were worried that it would be a disgusting object. It smelled like chocolate to me, and I was right. It was a brownie. I ate half of it.

The class then became a discussion of different people's belief systems and gave way to a preview of the next assignment for which we discuss our beliefs and create something based on those same beliefs, and the next class, in which the students will watch the documentary "Expelled" by Ben Stein. It might not be that bad. It might be inaccurate, but it might be harmless. Hopefully, no religious debates arise from the movie. At least I have the choice the leave early if need be.