Youtube Artists

I've been familiarized to some great musical artists on youtube recently. I thought I would share them with you all. Lindsey Stirling is a hip hop violin performance artist. She dances while she plays and it makes the violin look like a fun instrument. It's pretty difficult to make a classical instrument fun; especially when most of the time, it's played in an extremely formal setting.

Peter Hollens is a vocal artist who utilizes his voice for every part in the song. If there was an instrumental part, he uses his voice to make the sound. He's a great singer too. He and Lindsey did a collaboration doing a Skyrim cover. In addition to it having great music in it, it also has a great skyrim-centric story with it. The video was done by Devin Graham, who is a dynamic video maker. He's done some crazy things as a super-tramp videographer.

The other artist is Eppic, a youtube rapper who is actually very good. All of these artists make fantastic music videos to go along with their music. It's very hard to stop listening to them.

First year of college reflection

As the first year of college is coming to a close, have any of you taken the time to reflect on what you have accomplished your first year away from high school in a accumulative way? It's actually pretty high up there. Now, I may not be that great at writing and english, but that's not one of my strong points.

Progress

Well, this week is going smoothly, which is very nice. I got a project done today, scheduled my classes for next semester, and finishing up another project for tomorrow. It's one productive day I would say. All I have to worry about this week is a test and portfolio meeting on Friday. I can't wait until finals week. Everyone's going to be so busy while I'm just taking excessive naps and planning my summer. Good luck on finals everyone!

Finals Week

You would expect finals week to be difficult right? Well, mine won't be so bad. Half of my classes are over with this week actually, so this was my busy week. What's cool is that I got so much work done yesterday, so I don't have to do much of anything until the end of this week. It should be a smooth sailing end to my first year in college. I'm looking forward to it.

Early move out

I moved out most of my room yesterday. My futon, refridgerator, and cabinet is now gone. The only things remaining are my microwave, desktop, and various school items. My side is now very empty. The good thing is that now I can get out of here pretty much as soon as I finish my last final. Pretty sweet, huh? Some lingering class assignments that I had forgotten are now creeping up on me and I need to get focused. Oddly enough, my busiest week will be the week before finals.

Lax Week

I've got nothing big due this week, so I actually have plenty of time to work on immediate homework and not have to worry about anything else. It's nice. Being productive is always a good feeling. And for some reason, it's easier to know if you're being productive by how much free time I have after finishing my class work. I even got an assignment done that's not due until next Monday. It was about 6 pages on different artworks and my interests in them and describing them with references to style, period, and the artists themselves.

.html

Today in Intro. to Computer Art, I learned html coding. It's pretty cool stuff. If you have TextIn, a program for making websites, you can learn it pretty quick. We also learned some CSS coding to make the design look decent and such. It kind of reminded me of the MySpace years back when facebook wasn't as big. Now that you think about it, if you had a myspace, you could've made a website, however crude it was.

<?>Questions?<?/>

The Glass Center

I don't know if many of you have been to the Glick Glass Center, but it's pretty awesome. It's right across the street from the hospital. I had to go there today because my foundations 2 class is working with glass for part of a project. While we were there however, there were two visiting artists from Guadalajara that were making an interesting piece. Profanity aside, they called it a devil-headed vagina. It had a devil's head on the top with four hands on each side. There were also about eight teeth on the inside edges too. It was really interesting to watch. It's about the closest you can get without calling it a performance art. There is a window that visitors can look through that separates you from the heat of the furnaces. If you ever get the chance to, I'd recommend checking it out. It's open until 5:30 on weekdays.

Lounge theater

Someone in my hall has a projector. I've played video games on it as well as found it to be a very good way of watching movies. Recently, when I came back to the dorms from eating out, they had set up the projector in the lounge, moved all the furniture away from one wall and had about 8 people in the lounge watching Transformers 3. It was pretty awesome. I always love it when someone finds something creative to do with college commodities.

Hunger Games

Yesterday night, I watched the Hunger Games movie. It was better than I expected taking into consideration that most book-to-movie transitions are crap. The movie captured the essence of the book quite nicely, I would say. It did a good job summarizing the book. There are a bunch of things someone could say about the movie as a critique, but they are all minor. Besides, if a movie really wanted to be exactly like the book, it would've been about a 4-6 hour movie.

The one thing that startled me was during one of the actresses intros. She had the exact same face and mannerisms as a friend that moved to Korea. I don't know how to describe the feeling when you see a doppelganger of someone else.

Has anyone read the book or seen the movie? They're both pretty good

April Fools~

Hey guys! Today is April Fools Day! This should be the king of all college dorm holidays. There is so much you can work with in a college dormitory. You can do bathroom pranks, lounge pranks, door graffiti pranks, and room pranks just to name all the different categories. One thing I've always wanted to do was flip everything on someone's side of the room upside down. I was busy yesterday, so I didn't have much time to think of something extra good.

What good April Fools jokes do you have?

Good Roommate? Not..really...

I think one thing that makes a good first year in college is how well you get along with your roommate. Although I like most of the other people on my floor, my roommate might as well be nonexistent. He's got no social skills. I have to engage him just to get him to talk. And even if he does talk, it's something that usually kills a conversation. He listens to a strange variety of music which is a weird range of heavy metal and techno. Also, he uses the floor to throw his clothes, so it always looks messy even if my part is clean. It's not enough for me to get terribly angry; just peeved. Now, I know that some of you would like someone that keeps to themselves as a roommate, but to be honest, he might as well not even be in the room. It's like part of the room is reserved for someone but they never actually moved in just because he has no social presence. Other than that, I've really enjoyed college life so far. I can't wait until next semester.

Do you get along with your roommate? How so?

Busy Week: Reminder Strategies

I've been resorting to using post-its and putting them on my keyboard so they aren't ignored. They seem to work the best considering I'm on the computer quite a lot.  I know once I wrote the thing down on the back of my hand. It was funny because people thought I had a tatoo of 4:00pm on my hand just because I was bored and wrote it with OCD straight lines. It's weird that my assignment notebook doesn't get as much attention. Probably, it's just in my backpack all the time out of sight.

What are your strategies to remember to do things?

Oil Uses

So, our groups topic is oil. When first thinking of oil, one probably thinks of transportations uses. However, since we need more for our argument, here are a few more uses.

-oil in the plastic on bandages and petrochemicals go into the cloth of a bandage
-the plastics used to make compact discs
-synthetic fiber rugs made from petrochemicals
-plastic bottles (made of polyester)
-oil-based paints(dry quickly/need less layers/costs less over time)
-oil as a preservative in canned goods
-petroleum is prevalent in plant fertilizers(we need a lot of food and this gets it to us faster)
-Sneakers (the outside covering and soles)
-Synthetic rubber for car tires(safer to drive on)
-toothbrushes (the plastic and synthetic fiber hairs)
-nylon and polyester

Recess

Recently, I've been having weird memories of elementary school while in college. I found it odd, but maybe it's just a nostalgic memory of when we didn't have a care in the world. The only worry was getting in trouble for doing something that a teacher deemed bad. I remember when after lunch we would line up along the wall single-file preceding recess. The recess supervisor, Miss Stephens, was a real strict person. As if recess was so important it required a military-grade behavior drill. We would walk out in line right before the playground and wait for her to say 'Go' so we could dash off to our favorite thing. I guess that was something they were trying to make us appreciate because those were the last days of such scheduled leisure. Just imagine a time everyday in college that was dedicated towards relaxation for a set time limit. Do you think it would change anything? I think this kind of dedicated time would help with stress and actually help with stress relief.

Procrastination is a chronic syndrome

I'm having trouble on my research paper. I slightly changed up the direction of it and now I need more sources to cover the minimum. It's a bit frustrating, but I think I can get pretty close to getting most of it done tomorrow hopefully. I kind of wish that the due date wasn't on a Saturday. I think that it would actually work better if the due date was on a Friday or a Monday so I don't get that end-of-the-week feeling before I'm finished with the paper. I don't know about you guys, but if I know it's Friday, then I tend to just go through the routine with the approaching gauranteed end of immediate assignments for the weekend.

Multi-Modal Project

After watching Thanks for Smoking, I'm actually looking forward to the multi-project. The movie does a really good job of describing persuasion. I hope the project goes along the same format as the movie.

Mass Effect 3

This is a video game that I'm planning to get sooner or later. It was probably one of the most anticipated game release this year so far. It came out on the 6th. The amount of hours logged by everyone playing this game has already reached 1800 years! YEARS!! That's ridiculous. It is the end of an excellent game trilogy taking place in space. Basically, this game is where you save earth from the enemy, known as the reapers, which are like huge flying ships pretty much that spawn easier to kill enemies which is what you can take care of mostly. The first two games didn't have cooperative play, so this game was sure to get a lot of sales. Also, this game has some pretty wicked crazy cinematics. The 2nd game started out with basically a 25 minute cinematic scene.

http://youtu.be/eBktyyaV9LY

St. Patrick's

Well, it's saint patrick's day. So far, I've eaten at a delicious local restaurant in Noblesville called "Rosie's Place." It's an excellent homestyle restaurant that serves lunch and breakfast all day, every day. I had a pastrami sandwich on chiabatta. They had some holiday specials today like the shamrock pancakes with mint drizzle and an irish omelette. Although I'll be spending most of my day writing this paper, it'll be alright because I can do it outside in this beautiful springtime weather. Good luck on your papers and have a happy St. Patrick's day!

Next semester

I can't wait till next semester. I'm pumped. I have a roommate all planned out for next semester that I actually know and he actively socializes unlike my current roommate. I'm staying in the same hall in Lafollette next year too. I guess I was lucky to be on the social floor in our hall because most people hate Lafollette. Most people on my side of the floor are staying next year, so it should be pretty awesome.

For my major, I have a portfolio review to get accepted into that Animation department. Admittedly, I wasn't that nervous at first, but the classes for that major don't start until the spring semester so if I don't get in, I'd be behind in the major category. If that did happen though, I'd probably just take a bunch of core classes until the next review though. So maybe that wouldn't be that bad.

I have the feeling that this next month is going to go by fast and I'm really excited for that. I actually look forward to next semester. I actually want to take a math class. Most of my classes aren't black and white; they're based on interpretation and subjectivity mostly. Art classes are based on concept and stuff like that; project-based too. I've only been in one black-and-white class and that was art history. Even english and regular history have subjectivity.

college vs high school

Ten reasons why college is better than high school:

1. More Freedom

2. The schedule is better

3. If you don't like someone, you don't have to communicate with them

4. The food is better

5. People are more mature

6. Girls are more attractive

7. You can take classes you actually enjoy

8. You learn to appreciate your parents more

9. You meet new people

10. You figure out what kind of person you want to be


I got this courtesy of a status of a person in my dorm. I tended to agree with it, so I thought it was an appropriate blog idea. What do you wall think about this juxtaposition?

Spring

Well, spring is now officially upon us. It is so nice outside today and I hope it is this nice for the rest of the week leading up to spring break. I don't even need a jacket and I opened my window because the cool breeze feels nice. I don't usually believe in weather having any relation to positive or negative based on rain or sunshine, but I think this is going to be a relaxed week and I thank the weather.

The definition of Insanity

Far Cry 3 is a game coming out soon that deals with insanity. The player is on an island trying to escape all the insanity around him. The main bad guy has this dialogue scene about insanity that I found pretty interesting and eventually true. In reality however, the material used for this "definition" is a quote from Einstein. What's funny are the comments after the video about how the Call of Duty franchise is doing this by making the same game over and over again and expecting different results.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBDi0iM2kcU

Sorry, I couldn't figure out the embedding. It wasn't working for me.

How to make your dorm room the place to go

It's been a while since I lasted posted. I honesty don't know what happened...Anyway. This post covers the requirements to be "popular in your dorm."

In most of these cases, the requirements are technological materials. However, the first thing you need is a good amount of seating. Nobody is going to stay in your room long if there's nowhere to sit.

        1. Seating - This can range from futons, foldable chairs, or bunking beds so the bottom one can be used as a seat.

The second requirement usually involves some form of entertainment. A television works well for this requirement as it can play movies and video game consoles, a necessity to college entertainment.

        2. Entertainment - A television is a plus; a television with a gaming console is a double plus. This requirement is only helpful if you have the seating requirement.

The third is superfluous consumable goods. Any college student worth his/her frugality would be drawn by this category.

        3. Consumable Goods - food and drink add on to the 1st and 2nd requirements perfectly. Food and drink is the cherry that tops the banana split sundae. This can only be helpful if you have the first requirement. The second requirement is not necessary, but this depends on the fourth category.

The fourth category is a winning personality. Having a good personality helps with attracting people to your room. However, this doesn't mean that people will be in your room for long. Winning personalities usually go to other people's rooms because they are heavily social individuals. It can be argued that this category can surpass the 2nd and 3rd categories. Unfortunately, there has been no recorded case of the fourth surpassing the good seating category.

        4. Personality- This category will increase the time that someone stays in your room if you do not have the 2nd and/or 3rd categories. Most people will not mind an annoying personality if they have access the the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd categories. Why? One theory is because college students are poor and they will deal with anything to get their hands on free food/drink.

This list has been a recorded observation from the author.

Resulting from research

The more I research my country, the more I want to visit it someday. There really doesn't seem to be much of a downside to going to Cambodia. With the exception of $1000 plane flight over there, I could experience so many foods and go to so many different places for a mere $50. Currency differences always astonish me. It's probably the last thing someone thinks of if they were to go to a third world country. I guess that's the nice thing about countries being third-world, no offense Cambodia and every other developing nation.

Wally Ball

The most fun I've had in the Rec Center here at BSU has by far been playing Wally Ball. I think all of you should play just because it's a very fun and competitive thing to do with your friends. 

If you were one that took advantage of the nice weather at the beginning of the school year, you probably played volleyball or at least saw people playing. Well, Wally ball is just indoor volleyball with some modifications. 

In Wallyball, players are able to hit off the wall. Here are the general rules.

Wallyball Rules:

-The wall directly behind the players is considered 'out'

-The ceiling is considered 'out' (This isn't off the ceiling)

-Players can NOT hit a wall on a serve. It must hit the ground first

Regular Volleyball Rules:

-No 'carrying'

-The ball can be hit 3 times by one side before going over the net (maximum)

-On serves, 

         the ball can not touch the net if it is to be counted

         if it hits the net, it's a 'fault' and the player has another chance to get it over the net

         if it hits the net twice, it counts as a point to the other team

I'm not really sure how long games usually last, but I've played games to 21 and 25. That's really up to the players I guess. I must've played 5 games of this yesterday and it's a decent workout. I'd recommend a team of at least 3 no more than 4/5. Five players is kind of cramped and isn't as fun just because there are usually two people who get most of the hits. Also, the room echos a lot, so it's perfectly fine to be obnoxious in them since nobody can hear you. 

         

Review Papers So Far

Reading other people's papers has been very helpful to me actually. I'd like to commend David Blankenship on his paper organization  and format. It's just like a tourist brochure for Vietnam. My apologies, David. I will be stealing your format after my horrible intensive review. I realize now that this is an exercise for the reviewers as well to find new ideas for their papers that others incorporated into their papers. Good luck on your papers, people!

Snapple Caps

I started collecting snapple caps last semester for the interesting facts inside in the hopes that I'd learn something new everyday. Unfortunately, they don't always have new facts and I got a lot of repeats. So far I have about 172 caps. Naturally, I developed an addiction for these almost unnaturally fruity drinks. Sometimes, I just spend my breakfast meal on these and get 3 for $4.20. I think that in college everyone should make a collection of something. It gives me something to look forward to in each day even if my day is shit because you never know what you'll get when you pop the cap.

Life is like a snapple cap. You never know what you're going to get.

Yes, that just happened.

Being Tall

Currently, I am approximately 6'6"; more like 6'5" since I slouch

Being tall has its advantages. You can see over people and walk faster more confidently because you can see what's coming, you can reach high things, climbing walls aren't such a challenge because of lengthy extensions, and it helps with some sports. I can give good hugs I've been told (maybe because people feel like kids when I hug them?). I might seem imposing to some potential mugger or something...I don't know. Never been in a fight or anything, so I guess that's unproven.

Being tall has its disadvantages. People say "You're so tall" often even if they have said it before. Somehow they forget about it because they are shocked be your height. People are more comfortable when you are sitting down. If I'm with a group of friends, I tend to stand out, literally, making me look like part of the analogy that doesn't belong. There is a higher probably of brain damage to multiple head damaging. School buses are not made for people over 6' 2". People assume I was on the high school basketball team with an expectation of athleticism (I have played on a team, just not for a few years).

Fun Fact: I have a longer wingspan than my vertical height.

Rough Draft

I had some trouble finding good sources for my paper. For typical tourism destination information, all I could find was a tour agency website with some basic info. However, I did find some good books at the library. I guess that library session last Wednesday worked pretty well because they were really easy to find. Now that I've used it for something, I'll have more confidence in finding sources in libraries because one reason I didn't use them was because the organization of the books isn't always the same.

Random side thought. I passed my history professor in the library today as well. For some reason, I always think it's weird to see teachers/professors in public, but I don't know why that is. Does that happen with anyone else?

Duct Tape

Duct Tape. It's probably one of the most useful and versatile inventions of this era. As college students, we are inclined to fix things and modify them so they fit our cheap, temporary needs. In this function, duct tape is the perfect tool.

Things I've seen duct tape used for:
-sticking rug to the slippery dorm room floors
-attaching a tissue box sideways on a wall for convenience and saving space
-taping bed sheets to the bottom of the mattress so it doesn't have to be remade if the bed is high from the ground and therefore difficult to rearrange sheets.
-waterproofing shoes (actually did this one myself)
-taping long wires (i.e. long cable wires) to the floor so it isn't all tangled up
-makeshift portfolios for keeping works from being exposed to the elements
-makeshift pocket on bedpost for easy access to phone alarm when waking up for the day
-repairing a gamecube controller that is falling apart

These are all just examples of things that I've seen duct tape used for inside my dorm. Has anyone seen any other creative uses for duct tape?

Come to Noblesville

I'd like to make this post about my hometown of Noblesville since that was the main focus in our english exercise today.

Noblesville has many things to do for someone that is willing to look. Downtown Noblesville has many family owned shops and restaurants that range from hardware and antique stores to asian and traditional dining locales. This area of downtown is called 'The Square' because there is a big square in the middle of four intersections where the old courthouse is located.

Local events that occur downtown have always brought people to the square. Noblesville participates in the First Friday celebrations that occur on the first friday of every month. There is dancing, food, and a guaranteed good time. Added to that, there are car shows that happen every Saturday night on the square. People drive their classic old cars and flaunt them off. During this event, most if not all parking on the square is occupied by old-fashioned, classic american cars.

In addition to the old-school shops on the square, there is a relatively new shopping mall on the east edge of Noblesville called the Hamilton Town Center. We call it 'HTC' for short if you would like to know where all the more modern/contemporary shops are such as JCPenny, Aeropostale, and many different restaurant chains. With the exception of one nice McDonald's in that area, the restaurants are generally of higher quality and have no drive through. The HTC is also home to IMAX 16 which has been a great hangout spot for many locals of the surrounding areas. The HTC is basically easy access for anyone living in Hamilton County.

Within eye-shot of the HTC is the Klipsch Music Center (formerly named the Verizon Wireless Music Center). This center is totally dedicated towards rock concerts and a plethora of tours that come through town on designated days of the year; Warped Tour, Mayday, Xfest.

Noblesville has a rapidly growing population which puts a lot of emphasis on the school system. The quality of education in Noblesville has a high standard with four of the several elementary schools getting a 4-star designation and the high school being a top school in the Indianapolis area.

First week back

My first week back from school has been reminiscent of welcome week earlier in the fall. Yes, I did have to get up early, but I still haven't had enough classwork to really consider it back in the flow of a college semester. I made my schedule this semester so that I get done with classes earlier and that motivated me to choose my two morning classes to be at 8 a.m. in the morning. Waking up at 7 doesn't really bother me as much as I thought it would. It just means that I'll be awake for more of the day than many of my fellow students. Now I have more time to do homework and have the same time last semester to socialize. I look forward to this class and the rest of this semester.