I feel a little torn as to pick between my community and my career.  Both aspects of my life are major and consume me equally.  I am a member of multiple communities ranging from wide to very narrow.  My home community, gay/lesbain community, female engineers, female sports players, etc. are all examples of the various communities I’m a member of.  On the other hand, my career has the general focus of engineering with a specialty in aerospace and mechanical.  Both my career and community (all of them) have various topics/concepts/issues.

Off project…

Today marked the last day of classes.  This Wednesday marks the day of completion of a hard semester with much, much learned.  My other engineering courses provoked my curiosity and left me with even more questions than I had entering.  It seems the more you know in math… the more you realize how little you really do know.  This course exposed me to a topic and concept that I had never heard before.  I greatly enjoyed being able to step out of the box and explore a region so foreign to me, but yet, applies to my lifestyle, family, and career.  I walk away from this course with inspiration and knowledgeable.  This semester was very fruitfully and I appreciate all that I learned as I continue to advance as a student.  Thank you.

Happiness emblem – an infinite swirl of the universe with love that extends beyond all measure and all infinity.  A layer of a beautiful, green earth and a blue sky.  The intertwine of two opposing elements (fire and ice) that forever exist.  A happy dream, a very happy dream I am living.

Happy caption (above) – composition of fragmented sentences.

Testimony:

California college student gets stabbed multiple times and left to fend for himself.  After the black president of California State University refused to comment back on a racial slug made by a fellow white peer, the president was stabbed 4 times in the neck, chest, stomach, and arm.  The attacker was found and expects to find charges of attempted murder and a hate crime.  The president expects full recovery.

The problem – hate crimes still exist in modern age.

The California blue wave of media exposes the crime and hate.

The never ending orange circle of the bounding… of the stabbing.

The yellow campus star.

The green life that was nearly taken.

A random swirl of a random mid-afternoon crime on a quiet campus.

With hate crimes still present in today’s age, humanity must look at the degree to which we have truly “escaped” hate.  Why does one attack another?  Do some complete such violent acts to have self-fulfillment?  Is the crime to fit-in socially?  Maybe hate crimes are purely from how the individual was raised and what parents contributed towards the racism.  Why is there racism?  One deems an entire race unworthy and others follow blindly to avoid conflict.  To be anything against the racist movement would be considered a conspirator and hung to the death (drastic, medieval type thought).

With career focus, the engineering field has very little non-white population.  With the changing age this population is quick to change.  Maybe not necessarily a hate crime in the sense of violence but the constant suppression of the academic world that non-whites have endured is definitely a hate crime.

When this black student rose to presidency and makes a mark for himself, he was quick to be attacked (literally) and beaten down.  A harsh punishment must be bestowed upon the angry man with the knife.  Was the white man purely jealous?  Is the jealousy a consequence of pressure from the parents to succeed?  However, hurting another student will not put anyone else forward in the “success line”.

As a white female, I too also take part as the minority in my courses.  A male dominated field leaves little females to graduate with the degree.  Not to compare a horrible hate crime committed by a white male on a black male, but females in my career focus face discrimination every day and affirmative action sometimes seems to be a very much so saving grace.

Basketball – Entertainment – Physical health; determination; intensity; strength

Space shuttle – Career – Motivation; curiosity; exploration

Tree – Family – Environmentalist; tree-huggers; nature; green; life

Heart – Community - Collectivity; passion; heart; love; unity

The Silver Tipped Pencil – An uniquely colored pencil always hidden away in the junk cabinet of my parent’s home.  This pencil, made from any other pencil’s traditional materials, has the distinguishing mark of silver lead.  As a child, this pencil was always favored and many sketches were drawn as a result.  It represents a freedom, liberty, creativity, and child-hood.  When analyzing my grave passion for this utensil, it stems from watching my mechanical engineer uncle as he worked on his drawing plans in his office.  He would use a silver tipped pencil when marking up his plans.  As my career continues to blossom, I always carry around my silver tipped pencil as a remembrance of my family and that of the dedication in the work force of my uncle.

Default Moods:

When waking up Saturday mornings and pulling my YMCA work polo over my head, I automatically default to my work mood.  Being a customer service representative on the weekends requires friendliness, personable, responsible, knowledgeable, etc.  Actually stepping foot onto work property transforms me from the relatively passive engineering intern to the loud and outgoing tour guide.  My state of mind was always to know the answers to the customer’s questions or find someone who did know.  And to always be happy.  The official purpose of my position is to answer questions, refer customers, provide information tours on the facilities, and have an enthusiastic, personable smile the entire time.  It is expected of us to always be positive.

The work force is an institution that almost always requires an individual to occasionally step outside of their bubble and try “risky” things.  Any shy person hired on to be a customer service rep. will quickly find out that being shy is not the key to  being a friendly agent.  After a hard day’s work, coming home and laying on the couch to chill out is almost required for anyone who has to put on an excessive front of enthusiasm.

The transformation from student to employ is remarkable.  Automatically one must go from the receiver to the giver (and yet, still always receiving because there is always still much to learn).  Even the way someone speaks in the job force will change.  I do not address my friends the way I address my customers (would almost sound too fake).

Happiness is so subjective as it is different for most everyone.  Some may have the same idea of happy but different levels.  For example, my little sister gets incredibly happy about purchasing new clothes.  Although shopping does bring a smile to my face, I do not go bouncing off the walls with excitement like she does.  We both are happy about shopping, but one more than the other.  A killer might associate happy thoughts by killing (pretty extreme but covers a range of different “happy”).

Ulmer ventures to talk about deviating away from home and back again to raise awareness and understanding about where one stands in their life.  Through analysis of what makes us happy, looking as a third party, we can assess where we stand in certain areas.  Maybe by asking the simple question”what makes me happy?” or “why this does or doesn’t make me happy?”… we can be better suited in our career, family, community, and entertainment life (popcycle).

The Way She Feels by Between the Trees

Found above are the lyrics to one of my all-time favorite songs, The Way She Feels by Between the Trees. After seeing this band perform this song live, I can provide a first hand experience of the atmosphere that this song provokes from the band, the audience, and myself. It is through this atmosphere that I will connect it to the actual narrative from the song lyrics.

To give a brief narrative meaning of the song:
Young girl is a cuter. She is constantly hiding her knifes and pain from her parents who are always intruding upon her. They don’t understand her; she’s deeply depressed. She meets a boy and finds comfort in his arms and life. He tells her how much it hurts him to see her cut herself. She puts down her knife and finds relief in his eyes.

The rock music style expresses this theme by beginning the song in a very solemn, constant rhythm. Prior to the chorus, she has not cut herself. The chorus peaks up a little bit as she begins to cut herself. The next verse is solemn and constant in rhythm as she is recovering from her cuts. The music style becomes almost helpless or desperate sounding with the lower pitch in his tone to express the words that the boy is telling her “the deeper you cut, the deeper i hurt.”. The drums amplify then die down a little when she opens her eyes to find relief in his life. The ending of the song ends almost in a celebration with a quicker tempo (celebration as she stops cutting).

The atmosphere of this song is very hurtful and painful that ultimately ends in inspiration. Physically the band members strain and cry out as if they, themselves, are the cutters in the story. The audience relates to the narrative and reflects to either a past or a loved ones’ past. The ending mood results in some tears and an overall feeling of inspiration.

Being Singular:

Orality – with an identity as a part of a whole (member of the family; member of the community).  I have multiple, clear, defined roles in both the family and community aspect.  As with my family, I have the responsibility as an older sister, the humbleness as my father’s daughter, and the admiration as my mother’s daughter.  My role is to continue my family’s hard work and dedication.  I must maintain the family farm and the family’s honorable respect in the community.  In the community, I am an aspiring engineering to physically built a future and improve a present.  State of mind for both family and community is to be pro-active, reliable, motivated, reasonable, inspiring, and helpful.

Literacy – I play the role of a student who is determined, motivated, and passionate.  To go to the stars requires going above and beyond your own personal limits.  If planet Earth is a box then my career literally and physically requires me to step outside the box.  For athletes, practice makes perfect.  For math students, repetition of math problems makes perfect.  For engineering students, repetition of math problems with physical applications with constantly changing variables and situations makes (near) perfect.

Electracy – I play the role as an inputer.  I input data and information to the electracy system to output an avatar.  I am merely the X in the X+Y=Z equation.  To define my variables: X=my brain, Y=internet/media processes, Z=output Avatar/creation/new form thought.  My state of mind is to inform or tell or write or express.  In turn, the media transmitted to everyone else is an evolution of thought processes.

It is our collective singularities that make a family or a community or a business or world-wide electracy across the web or movie database.  To reach inside and fully develop your role would help in producing your wide-image and role in all electracy aspects and community and career components.

Fancy java scripts and image manipulations have existed in all of the new media we have been exposed to thus far (to some degree).  Each of the scripts and all the images all have a particular meaning and reason that the creator included them.  Maybe the reason was to reflect their personal feelings, or maybe from the influence of others, or maybe there was purely no meaning… but expression of free flowing thought with no ties.

There will always be one underground meaning to all the new media sights… MEDIA!   Literacy to Electracy must have technology/media/internet/etc.  Technological coding exists in all the new media.  Most just overlook the importance and influence that Electracy has on us and the world.

The image above has individual blocks of creativity.  (Each new media site has its own creativity and individuality).  But all the blocks together make a collective whole of a pattern.  (All the new media sites together make electracy.)

I suppose the topic of commercials sparked my interest especially from Monday’s activity of designing our own 15-30 second commercial.  It is remarkable to sit-down and really think of all the different commercials that exist today.  Even the ones promoting not necessarily a product but a behavioral change or lifestyle change or “awareness to the environment” ultimately have some effect on us (negative or positive or maybe neutral but with some thought process).  Commercials at a younger age especially influenced us.  It is interesting to analysis all the ways that TV and commercials have affect us and society and our popcycle.

Project 2 is now fully complete.

Many, many hours later + 1,100 words = project 2

[always trying to throw some mathematics into things]

Have a great and happy Saturday!