This is a Blog. A Blog? A Blog...Ok....*awkward silence*

"A what?" "Noo!!" The class shouts and follows with laughter.

This is a rant. A rant? A rant. As most of my blogs are. Sorry about that. I'm not very good at this.

Monday's class was very interesting, but in Jimmy's class, when isn't it? Jimmy had us sit in a circle and we played the "This a what" game. Please refer to Julie's wonderful blog to see how it is played. I tend to dislike ice breaking games since I am a shy person and they put you on the spot. I was afraid I'd ruin it for everyone and at some points I almost did! The game, though very difficult with more than one object, was surprisingly funny, when people made honest mistakes everyone had a good laugh, though sadly at their expense, which is why it's so important to be able to laugh at your self! Laughing is the best! When you have one of those really good laughs, the kind that you can't even breathe and you tear up, its like having a great meal!

It was a really interesting experience, maybe I'm just bias because I really like the particular group of students in the class, but to me this class is special, we all understand each other so well that perhaps its why don't talk much!  That's just me though. I wish I could have these very same students with me in many other classes. You guys are all so smart and funny, I feel Jimmy was right in that we could have accomplished that second round. It just takes us a little longer. :]

For the second half of the class, we watched a Hammer talk by Sir Ken Robinson. Aside from my love of his accent, I should confess I like all sorts of exotic accents, he did a really good job of explaining his point with humor and interesting stories. I love how he poked fun of Americans' love of Independence Day, and how we assume so many things of each other. He, more importantly, made several issues quite clear. Such as how degrees can become devalued if every one's out to get one just for the money.

Robinson also pointed out how you don't have to have a degree, how your passion should lead you, and how often talent is hidden, and goes undiscovered or even put down. I think it is extremely important to do something you love to do. I am in, by no means, good at drawing, at all. REALLY! But I love to do it, so I chose art. I would have never been good as anything else, especially math. I don't think it is worth having a big pay check when you're miserable. Besides that is what these classes are for, to learn how to improve my art work. Do something you love and you'll never work a day in your life, they say, I think it holds a lot of meaning. Jimmy is a great example of this, he's told us how he's much happier as a teacher than at higher paying job. Thank you Jimmy.

“To be humble to superiors is duty, to equals courtesy, to inferiors nobleness.”

"The force? No, That's wrong!" Jimmy fired back confused. 

Wednesday's class was a mellow one. Class began with Jimmy asking us to find the next number in a series of numbers he had written on the board. He split the class between men and women. That alone meant this was going to be a fun competition. Other classmates have posted the numbers and explanations so I won't be doing so. I'll just write the fun parts.

Ladies first, so Astrid stepped up and after a miss she got Jimmy to understand our logic, without being given a number crucial to the pattern, we found another pattern. Thought it was the incorrect number the fact that the explanation was rational won the argument. The boys had the correct number, but it took three of them to finally sell it to Jimmy.  It was, of course, an exercise on how well we explained something. On how well we can convince someone. Jimmy you're straight out of a movie, the kind of teacher that teaches you without knowing. That's a amazing. First time I ever have that kind of teacher, and sorry for you but You'll be seeing me next fall.

For the last part of the class we did a circle discussion ran by Rudy. We went around talking about how we felt about it and everyone was pretty much on the same page. Jimmy made a point to mention that guest speakers always talk about how lovely we are as an audience. I must admit I was quite flattered!
Jimmy also mentioned that we're the only school that seems as if we don't feel entitled. I think that humility is wonderful, this way we will never get in over our heads. I did find it odd that we're the only school said to be doing this. In a way it made me feel special.

CSULA is not by any means one of those schools people are dying to get in too, and despite the crap we face everyday with budget cuts and what not, I think there's a charm about it. The reason I came here is familiarity. It may not sound like the best reason but I think it is. As a high school student my sister, who graduated as a microbiologist from here, would often bring me along with her. As time came for me to graduate, the fact I know the campus well gave me comfort coming here. I was overjoyed when I was accepted. Since this would later lead me to where I am now I have no regrets. Hearing that we're liked by GAUGE speakers is only the icing on the cake. Sweet, sweet CSULA cake.

We then cleared up video final questions and I came to the conclusion that I am doomed. I have no equipment or experience. Or a Mac. I'm a PC.
I will never the less do my best.

Sunshine Through the Rain and The Weeping Demon.

"こんな夢を見た"

^{Konna Yume o Mita}

^{"I saw a dream like this"}

^{I saw a dream like this. Today's film was Dreams by Akira Kurasawa,  a film made up of eight different small stories, said to be based off Kurasawa's dream through out his lifetime, I also picked up on some Japanese folklore in it. I admit I'm ashamed that I couldn't read that, Konna Yume o Mita, I took  three quarters of Japanese, this was an easy one, but I couldn't figure it out? Shame on me! That phrase was at the beginning of each dream story.}

^{When we first started class, Jimmy gave us an option of two films, I and about three other people wanted to see an actual documentary on dreams. So did Jimmy by the way. I was disappointed everyone wanted to see this film, but that's just me since I had seen the film on the primarily Asian media site Crunchy Roll out of interest. So when Jimmy showed this as an option, while I had found it beautiful, I really wanted to see that documentary, maybe we could have learned some interesting techniques! I love lucid dreaming.} 

^{Dreams are something amazing to me. They can be absolutely ridiculous, nonsensical and down right stupid. But they're something we create! We dream every night and don't remember most of it. I find it amusing when dreams aren't silly and could be something that actually happened. I find those weird, when they follow a story line that could make sense.}

I wondered, What dreams did he have?

^{One of the most amazing aspects to me about dreams are the emotions that come in them. It amazes me that I have had certain dreams which make me feel emotions very strongly. As an empath, they are very very important to me. I have had dreams where my great grandmother grabbed my arm and told me something, I didn't hear her, but I felt her grip. She had passed away a couple of year before I had it. My cat, who passed away almost a year go and that I don't go a day without missing, constantly appears in my dreams. They're simply fascinating. That and I'm a total daydreamer.}

My Profile Pic

 ^{I'm curious as to who else has had a lucid dream? Lucid dreams are, for those who don't know, dreams where you realize you are dreaming and you can control what happens. With enough practice, you can lucid dream, control the dream, and thus have the ability to do anything you want. I have only come as close as to knowing I'm dreaming, but I have yet to get control over it. I have made it a personal goal to pay more attention to my dreams, and base art work on them. I particularly hate that I don't write down my dreams, I did for sometime but fell out of it, and I thought it was a great thing. When you look back on them its amazing what you dreamed up. I think it's something very unique, after all dreams are extremely personal. Perhaps this is why his film was so successful, because he took something from his dreams and showed us all.}

"A Story of Transformation and Transcendence"

Shin'en Kan, Work by John Coy

On Thursday night we had a lovely and lucky opportunity to meet a John Coy, a well known man in the Design community. I must admit that as a design student, I am terrible at my information when it comes to other designers, I recently declared and I am just learning more about the entirety of the field. I am glad to know who John is now and how much he has contributed to our community. 

Thursday for me started at 7 am. I hate that. No sleeping in for me any day of the week. That makes me cringe. I got up after repeatedly abusing my snooze button, well not really, my phone's touch screen. I lugged around my wire sculpture to class, dreaded presenting, got coffee while at school, presented got over it and headed home. I only have one class on Thursdays and Tuesdays, so admittedly I was a bit annoyed that I had to return to school. But not to worry Jimmy, it wasn't  because of the meeting, it was because I had to get up for work early the next day. I should have used it as an excuse to call off. 

I made sure to leave early because traffic doesn't move for hours. I got there too early though. So I went to eat. From every one's blogs it seems I'm the only loner in class! Everyone seems to find each other and do all sorts of fun things to get to know each other. Ouch guys, ouch. I did find a group of my classmates near by afterwards (Ow, loner again)  and joined in, sorry if I totally butted in!

Soon the music hall was filled with my classmates and other students, and we patiently waited for the meeting to start, cracking jokes, Kum bay ya circles and random things. I will also admit I was a bit annoyed at the technical difficulties, it seems it was only the slides and that is something that I would expect to have had fixed before the start, it is part of preparing for a presentation. That and the room was awfully hot. Astrid is amusing and energetic I love that, it was entertaining and kept us on hold. I love you guys. 

We went in around 8 and were seated in the center. John Coy is an enigma. There in front of me was a person I assumed to be incredibly well know and super talented (and he was), and yet he seemed so down to earth. I think that's what I liked most about him. I assumed he would be there in his 'highness' and lecture us onto what we should and shouldn't do. He did not. He asked us to ask him any questions we had. He showed us his work, how he had lived as a student, as a designer and what his experiences have been like. He was so..like us, with you know a super repertoire of amazing work. (I shouldn't say that I'm sure some of my classmates have as well.) He mentioned he liked meditating, awesome, that he didn't know the computer all too well, how down to earth? I don't either!...eh..not too proud of that. 

I have a feeling Jimmy was disappointed we didn't ask enough questions. I must admit that I, like Astrid, didn't feel like I learned anything knew, but I am very glad I got to meet John. He is clearly a very accomplished man. I can only hope to live and work half as well as he does. He does work he genuinely enjoys and that's all I could wish for in a career. His work is inspiring and I hope to see him again at some point. 

Thanks for making it a requirement, it might not be the most desirable thing to do on a work night, but I got to meet a great designer and experience my classmates outside of class.

Oh and in searching up John Coy, I found Jimmy!

Increase the Volume- Reading #6

This week's reading is all about communication. They begin with the most obvious connection of communication and design. Design is "the art of communicating an idea" and because of this, most of the process is an issue dealing with communication. They emphasize three parts: Encoding, the message itself, and decoding. They introduce us to various types of possible audiences. They are the Client, Corporations, Manufacturing,  and Associates. 

This was one of those long chapters with so much information, its hard to choose which to talk about without just spitting out what you read. What I liked about he chapter was the section on methods of presentations. They present the methods in musical terms. they use Andante, Crescendo, and forte-piano. My favorite part is the illustration techniques, they go through several materials we already use and the pictures used in the book are wonderful. I loved that it reminded us of our limitations when using color in Photoshop and computer related programs.

Feel Better Jimmy!

Professor Dustin

I walked in today looking forward to the film we were suppose to see, but around 7:59 and no sign of Jimmy meant something. That it was about to be 8. Just kidding. I need to stop with the lame jokes.
Today's class was non existent. Well somewhat, Jimmy's assistant came in and told us he was sick, for those who didn't attend class today.  It was odd. Jimmy is not here. Sick?? But Jimmy's invincible!
We all looked around awkwardly for a bit. We then decided it was a test! "Jimmy! You can come out now!" Astrid shouted. We laughed and then I realized, Jimmy wasn't hiding! He's much more clever. He was disguised as one of us. It was genius! But I guess we were wrong.

Our very simple Goal..and Julie :D

We then got to work, Jimmy's message was to discuss our final project goal for at least 10 minutes. With Angel settling down the class, Dustin got up and began to write down what we all agreed on.
We decided that, especially because of time, we should have a video that is no less than 3 minutes long but no more than 5 minutes. We clashed a bit on what the exact goal was. Since everyone had something different we agreed on a broad phrase. It was to simply demonstrate your creative process. We figured that in this way we could have many options with few limitations on what we can choose to do.

We all agreed, turned in our Creative Briefs that were homework to Astrid, and headed out.
I found it interesting, as Gilbert pointed out, that someone mentioned how it was possible for Jimmy to still be directing the class even when he wasn't present. I think it goes to show how well Jimmy has installed his power onto us! Just joking. But not really, it is true to some extent, it shows how much of an influence you've had on us. That we know what you expect, and we do it so that you're not upset. As well that we're not completely irresponsible, after all we stayed well over 20 minutes. =]

My only regret? I spent an hour in traffic getting back to school. I do not have another class until one thirty, and I was not gonna sit around school for..well I don't even want to count the hours. At least during that time sitting in traffic I was day dreaming of all the fun things we could have chosen to do instead of heading home!  They were all in a musical montage style since I was blasting music.
We could have gone to Olvera street, carpool style and gotten a churro from Mr. Churro! They're amazing! Alamada Swap meet for cheap candy and food! No? Anyone? Can you tell I'm Mexican yet? Picnic on the grass by the building from snacks hastily bought at the student store? Karaoke in the class- OK there were many, and I'm sure no one would have wanted to.

Yum.

I look forward, yet again to next class, I hope we still see the film.

"The Dream I weaved last night, Entangle it onto that little finger

Title derived from the lyric: 夕べ紡夢をどうぞ その小指に絡めなさい

from

Ichinuke by Mamiko Noto

 I do believe I'm running out of good titles. The title is my over excitement at Jimmy's mention of the next class having a film about dreams..is it inception?? Because if it is then I got excited for nothing. And by that I mean that I thought we'd learn how to decipher our dreams and find the meaning of the universe and life...so by comparison Inception isn't that significant is it? OK enough bad jokes. I'm a dreamer, dreams and their interpretations always interest me, the fact that our mind comes up with such irrational images and wonderful ways of presenting our selves with our problems and possible solutions. Of course that depends on what you believe dreams to be. Either way I find them incredibly fascinating and complex.  

How does this tie in with that link up there? Well the title is a translation of the song in the link, one of my most favorite pieces, it is from the Anime Series Hell Girl, and to those who saw my doll in the exhibition, that's who she is. Our ceramics teacher Stacey, who's awesome by the way, asked us to pick a song or poem and make something that we see or feel about it. As seen in the clip, which is the short version of the song, its all about her, so that's what I saw and that's what I did. The lyrics are somewhat nonsensical but are haunting if you know the story. Too bad the clip is not of very good quality. 

But enough of things off topic, I just felt I had to express how interesting I find dreams. Today was a very informative day in class. Jimmy warned us that it would be him talking most of the class time. Oh Jimmy you know we rarely talk. I still don't know what keeps me speaking up. Perhaps my ideas are just not good enough to those I hear around me, so I feel no need to express them. Yeah that's probably it. Besides, I like hearing Jimmy's ideas and thoughts they've got experience all over them. Its like having a TED talk every time, and I get most of his jokes! I think it was one of the most informative, as much as Jimmy hates speaking for the whole class, because we learned so much about the actual paying and work aspect of being designers. 

The creative briefs that were our homework got us one step closer gaining experience. Jimmy showed us actual creative briefs from a wide variety of works, from a website project to Pasadena logos. Mine were no where near as good as they should have been that's for sure. I appreciate that Jimmy went through the trouble it was useful to see how close we were to the actual briefs. When he asked us if we had any questions relating to the design field in general we had a couple of people ask about how pay works and couple other questions. I found these to be of great use as well. I had always wondered how one should decide to and how much to charge for our services. I never stopped to think, as Jimmy explained that we should consider the time limit, project and the client's budget to see if we should take the job. So that was very informative, Towards the end of the class we always got away with no homework, but since we couldn't figure out the entire creative brief for the final project in time, it was then our homework. Bummer.  I do look forward to next class though. 

The Edge of the Universe to the Power of Ten

Post Man, the Game of Racing Letter Men!..or Women

That title is completely inaccurate, disregard it please, I couldn't come up with a good one today.
In today's class we all brought in one of the games fully developed and in a presentation board to be discussed or presented, which ever is more fitting.

I don't know about everyone else, but I had no idea that a large, if not most or all of the presentation, was on the actual physical board. It's probably my fault for missing class, but I will accept the consequences. After every one's project was on the board Jimmy asked us to pick one that was the most presentable, the one that looked cleanest and professional. I kicked my own right off the list. I had focused most of my time on making my game not have so many flaws that my presentation was thoughtless. My papers were just a bit uneven, noticeable basically, I like many of the others did not remove the sticker behind my board. And in all honesty I didn't because it was a class presentation. I completely understand Jimmy's point in professionalism, but, and maybe I'm the only one, you don't think about these things because your job isn't dependant on it. Of course this brings up the point that Jimmy made on how he would suggest us were we showing that we were reliant and professional. I would say the same thing. If the project were presented to potential clients, yes I would have gone through the extra effort to remove said sticker...but I needed it for my name show up well on the back. Just kidding.

I guess I'm trying to find an excuse, I can get it perfectly done if I need to. I looked at the situation and I felt I didn't need to. I learned my lesson. But I can't say I wont do it again. If I have use the back of the board after ruining the front I will, I need all the money I can save, and I wont spend it if is for a point. So Jimmy don't get upset! Smile more, and trust us to do the right thing when the time comes to present it to clients..unless you want to hire us =] I think we were all just so rushed we didn't stop to think about all aspects of it. I will try, I will.
The second half of the project was how we presented our ideas. A couple of students, including my self, went up to pitch the idea of the game. I learned from what others were told but that didn't stop me from doing my usual mannerisms. I was told it was good that I stood behind my work. I did this because previous students had to stand to the side and blocked it for a while, so I wanted mine visible. But that was the only good thing. I had planned everything I wanted to say, it was simple to the point and clear.
Then I got up there. I stuttered, I forgot my lines and ruined it. I have a tendency to speak super fast when I'm nervous. Man do I need to work on that. After wards I didn't know what to do with my self, knowing that you're being judged on body language, how do you not do the opposite of what you normally do?
                                               Post Man Rulesss

I feel uneasy about body language, it feels like you're judging someone by looks, and you are, but how much does the way we sit and hold our hands really reflect how we feel. I cross my arms, yes, but I am not a closed minded person, nor am I protecting my self, this is the most comfortable I can be standing up!
In the end it was a good class. We got to know a little more in terms of our grade. We have to be more professional! And we learned about body language, we got some good laughs out of that as well. Evey one's different take on the games and their layout were incredibly interesting. Mine could not help but look like the simplest, pardon my french, crap up there. But anythings good I guess.
See you guys in class next Monday, have a good weekend, we all need it.