Kenny Vloggins and the Research Project

Here it is! Finally!

Class reflection

Class was pretty chill today. I really got a kick out of the first film we watched. It's crazy how crazy some people can be and still survive. The second movie put me to sleep, but I thought some of the art was pretty inventive. Anywho, I'm still tired from that second movie, so I'm off to bed. Night!

The Triplets

The Triplets of Belleville is by far one of the strangest films I have ever seen. I was weirded out by pretty much the whole thing, and the lack of dialog didn't help much. I'm not saying it was a bad movie, however. The animation was pretty cool, and the story itself was pretty...interesting. Maybe French people are just creepy to me.

The only thing that comes to mind when trying to come up with something to compare the film to is this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad-tgbtbCEM

Not that it really has anything to do with the movie, but it is just the most recent thing I have watched that confused me in a similar manner. Great band though.

Acting like a small boy

I've never really known why, but I just don't remember being young. Maybe I'm a product of some secret bionic project from the government. I don't recall anything bad happening that would make me want to forget my childhood, so that can't be it. I honestly don't remember anything really until maybe 16 or so. I mean, I have random memories of doing stupid things, and I remember every injury I've ever had and how they happened. I just don't remember the simple times of just playing around like a small child should. Nevertheless, I did what I could for this assignment.

I enjoyed the content of the video we had to watch from what I remember. I never really thought about how much my mind has changed since I was young. It seems like at some point using my imagination to it's fullest potential and having fun that way transformed into the reckless abandon of high school and college life. I think I need to regain some of the childlike freedom of mind that I once had. Other than that, and I don't know if it was his voice or the way he carried himself, I kind of thought he was a total douche bag and I lost interest. Oh well. It was only a half an hour. Then it was play time.

Since my sister gets the whole summer off of work (she's a high school English teacher), I conned her into doing some of the things we used to do as children. I never really had cool G.I. Joe's and all that fun stuff, as I usually just went over to my cousin's house and blew them up with firecrackers. I did, however, have my sister's Barbie collection at my disposal (maybe I AM suppressing my childhood memories...). Amazingly, we still had the whole stupid (and dare I say hot) Barbie family in the storage room. We played with them for about a half an hour (about 25 minutes longer than I enjoyed), but most of the stories and lines I came up with were more mature than anything I could have possibly came up with when I was a young lad, so I decided to try something else. I also found Guess Who? in the storage room (no, not the amazing Canadian rock group from the seventies, about which I would have been infinitely more stoked on, but the annoying board game from back in the dizzay). We hadn't played it in a while, so I thought we might as well give it a shot. I must say it is a much easier game than I remember, and the people on the little flip-up tabs were rather hideous looking. I hadn't noticed this before. Anyway, that lasted about another half an hour (it didn't take me that long to figure out who the hell had blonde hair and glasses, we just played a few rounds of it). Then I decided I probably spent a large amount of my time outdoors frolicking in meadows and catching butterflys, so we went out to play catch. I remember playing catch with my dad way back when, and I haven't played catch in forever. Surprisingly, I still had the reflexes of a gazelle, so this was a fairly enjoyable venture. Then it started to rain after about 45 minutes of just playing catch and occasionally playing with the dog. My first instinct was to go inside because rain sucks, but rain did not, in fact, suck back then. So for the next half hour I chased the dog, the dog chased me, and the dog and I chased my sister in the cold rain and the mud. Needless to say, I haven't done that kind of thing in a long while, and it felt good to realize that I still have a little bit of the mind of a child in me, no matter how bad I try not to show it sometimes. Then for about 20 minutes, I hosed myself off and sat on the back deck thinking about what I had just done.

There were several times during this experiment that I felt stupid for acting like a kid again, but at the same time, it was kind of liberating. In these days of advanced technology, it seems like imagination goes out the window. At the same time though, the same technology allows people to make movies and video games involving things I would have imagined as a child. It just isn't the same. The things I used to imagine seemed so real at the time (unless I shot my cousin in a blazing war of cowboys and Indians and he claimed that I missed him...asshole), and seeing the same kinds of things in said games and movies just doesn't hold a candle to it. And as far as limiting my ideas to avoid embarassment...



It doesn't happen very often.

And as far as Guess Who? goes...



Yes, in fact, he does. They ALL do.

Makes Sense...

It was difficult to choose a sense to deprive myself of, especially during work. I decided that my sense of smell was the least important in a work environment (since depriving myself of my sense of taste for two hours seemed like it would be cheating). So I stuffed some cotton balls up the ol' nostrils and went about my work. I think the hardest part of being in such a situation for two hours was that I had to breathe through my mouth, which I generally find to be disgusting when I witness someone else doing it. Thankfully, I couldn't smell my breath, though. Anyway, breathing was difficult, especially since it was a rather warm day today. I ended up being quite thirsty over the two hour period, so water was key to my survival. Other than that, though I didn't really have any major troubles with it.

If I could create my own sense (or kind of a superpower in this case), I would choose mind control. This would be kind of like talking without speaking (Simon & Garfunkel reference), but getting people to do whatever it is you want them to. It is definitely the end all sense in my opinion. Maybe I'm just a narcissist. I dunno. I'm sure some other asshole would have their power to be to be able to resist my mind control or some such shit, but either way, I'm all about it. I would enjoy the challenge.

Career Networking Reflection

Well, obviously I didn't go to the event, but I really would have liked to. I didn't know I would miss so many cool things while on vacation with my fam, and it's kind of upsetting. Career networking is a great idea, as you can never have too many contacts in this business of New Media. Either way, we went to check out Bellingrath Gardens...for the 82nd time. Not really, but I've seen the gardens my fair share of times, and it's never anything to write home about. We also went to tour the U.S.S. Alabama for probably the 3rd time, but I always enjoy that, so that was cool with me. I also parasailed the other day for the first time, and that was pretty neat I suppose. I still want to go skydiving, and I think I'm going to do it shortly after I get back from vacation. I guess we're leaving early tomorrow even though we don't really have to be gone from here until Friday. We're going to try to stay at the Opryland Hotel again, which is another thing I've done too many times to recall, but it's kind of cool too. Then we're going to the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green on Friday before we head back to wonderful Indiana. I know it sounds lame, but I'm pretty ready for vacation to be over. I haven't gotten to sleep in at all yet, so I plan on doing so this weekend. Now I'm going to go beat Resident Evil 5 before I call it a night. This HAS to happen. Wesker has traumatized me for way too long, and I'm going to put an end to him. Unless, of course, he lives to be in another sequel, in which case I will probably break something. Wish me luck...

What If Round Robin

I picked a few of Steve's "what if" questions so I wouldn't offend someone I don't know all that well. I'm not saying that I want to offend Steve, but that I don't think the things I am saying will offend him. Fingers crossed...

"29. What if rain was made of faygo?"

Well, that's the American dream right there. Granted, Faygo isn't nearly as healthy as water, but it's almost as cheap. I have a feeling that Faygo would become sticky after a while, so it might not be as fun to play in the rain. It would be tasty, however, depending on the particular flavor it was raining at the time.

"30. What if kids could drink beer legally?"

This is a tough one. I think if I would have been able to drink beer more often as a kid that I would not drink so much of it now. In fact, if I had even TRIED beer in my quite younger day, say when I was 3 or 4, I probably would not have liked it at all. If that would have been the case, I would have a lot more pocket money these days and a lot more memories that I could remember. Also, if I would have been an alcoholic earlier in my youth, I might have had enough bad experiences by now to never want to drink alcohol again. The thought of a completely sober life scares me though, so it's hard telling.

"44. What if James Bond was a little bitch?"

See Pierce Brosnan.

"39. What if I could actually afford to buy any type of Apple Product?"

Your life would be dramatically better.

"50. What if the TV show Lost didn't always make you feel that way?"

I'll answer your question with a question. What if you found a better show to watch?

=/

Class 4 Reflection

Class was deece today. We watched some cool inspirational videos to prepare us for our research project, and I especially liked the one artist that did the magnetic stuff. I'm not sure at all what I am going to do my research project on, but I'm definitely thinking about it. I have to pack for vacation, however, so I'm going to keep it brief this eve. Oh, and I'm going to miss both classes next week. Just as a side note. =/

Class #3 Reflection

Sorry it's a bit late, but I felt like I should write this anyway. Class yesterday was cool and extremely short. I feel as though we could have done something more interesting with the door, but leaving it at your house was my idea. I hoped we could put a door on the hinges and maybe frame it and set it up in your driveway, and Steve and I were prepared to do that, but that would have taken a long time, and we didn't want to get the police called on us late at night when we would have been setting it all up. I guess delivering it to your house was almost as cool, but I would have enjoyed doing the other idea as well. Anyway, another interesting class as usual.

What If?

1. What if "structure" wasn't even a word?
2. What if there was no word for what we know as "structure"?
3. What if there was no structure to words?
4. What if I wasn't watching American Idol right now? That would be nice.
6. What if there was no structure to numbering?
15. Was there if structure no sentence this to what?
7. What if I didn't want to punch Adam Lambert in the face?
8. What if there was no structure to my digestive system?
9. What if roads were just a series of wheels on which wheel-less cars rolled?
10. What if someday the eight rules for dating my teenage daughter aren't that simple at all?
11. What if ants were the same size as humans?
12. What if chocolate and cheese suddenly traded tastes?
13. What if I made a grilled chocolate sandwich?
14. What if I drink more beer than water throughout my life?
15. What if the ocean was filled with beer?
16. What if I peed beer?
17. What if I drank my pee beer?
18. What if I created my own language?
19. What if other people learned my language?
20. What if my language became more popular than English?
21. What if all roads were one way roads?
22. What if I made my own money?
23. What if I could get away with it?
24. What if i just blew my nose and snot came out of my eye?
25. What if I had split personalities?
26. What if I had no personality at all?
27. What if if was possible to have no personality at all?
28. What if trash actually enjoys being thrown on the roadside better than in a trash can?
29. What if I bit into a delicious-looking chocolate candy and there was blood inside?
30. What if that was a really weird thought?
31. What if there was a fart fairy that gave me a quarter every time I ripped a beefer?
32. What if vegetarians suddenly became barbarians?
33. What if my nose never stops running?
34. What if it ran so much it actually got smaller?
35. What if cigarettes could cure cancer?
36. What if dope was dope?
37. What if Richard Simmons was my father?
38. What if Marlin Brando was my godfather?
39. What if I put cereal in my milk?
40. What if my dog made me breakfast?
41. What if my dog WAS my breakfast?
42. What if carpet had to be mowed like grass?
43. What if I had a dollar for every time I made an "if I had a dollar for every time..." statement?
44. What if my hand suddenly despised my forearm?
50. What if this really was my 50th "what if" question?

Class 2 Thoughts

Class today was pretty legit. Some of the egg presentations were interesting, and it was cool to see what ideas the people in class came up with. The "what if" assignment should be fun, and I am stoked to see what tangents I end up on in the process. I really hope I remember to do the Quetzalcoatl thing. Fingers crossed for that. Buuuuut with the sounds of Shoot 'Em Up in the background, thoughts of work starting sooooo early in the morning, and the sight of the ice cold beer sitting next to me, I feel a bit distracted. So I should probably tell whoever the hell has the TV so loud to turn it down, finish this beer (and maybe another...or more), and go to bed. Oh, the summer life...

Ryan vs. The Egg

So I had a lot of great ideas for what to do with my egg, but it turned out that all of them involved the destruction of private property. Therefore, I let my egg ride around with me in my car for a few days before putting it into my fridge, where it has sat motionless for the last couple of days. I get pissed off every time I look into the fridge, knowing that there are soooooo many fun/mean things to do with eggs, but also knowing that putting an egg in someone's shoe or in with my roommate's load of laundry will both end with mixed results - me laughing hysterically, and the victim wanting to kill me. At the same time, it HAS brought about a certain creativity in my life since it has been sitting sadly in the fridge. Granted, the twisted and evil plots I create in my head are unhealthy ones to have, but nonetheless, it keeps me thinking every time I open the door and peek inside. And how often did I actually THINK about things when I rummaged through the fridge before Mr. Egg was chilling in there? I can't really put a percentage to it, but I would say far less than 50% of the time. So maybe the egg is doing just what it is supposed to be doing by stirring up ideas in my skull, even though it continues to sit there untouched on the top shelf. *sigh*

That Golb Nayr Blog: Initial Thougts

This class is going to be awesome. I've been really trying to explore my creativity since the beginning of the fall '08 semester, and this is just going to be an awesome way to do so. I almost I would have taken this class earlier in my college career, but it's better late than never, I suppose. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with my egg. I've had sooooooo many good ideas, but i feel like an excellent one is coming. Fingers crossed...