My Very First Shostegigi and My StacArtistic Revelation

I had a wonderful time today. Everybody's gifts were so creative! Even though I didn't get a gift myself (which I really don't mind), I was laughing my butt off at everybody's voodoo dolls. Especially Emily's, which I still don't understand. And Michelle Marin's (it was so realistic). And Lisa's, which was just perfect. The entire affair got me in such a great spirit for Christmas.
Also, yesterday was StacArt. What first started out as a simple Inside-Outside idea in which you can see inside of a garbage can has turned into a utopian New York City where the grass in green and everybody throws away their trash. I've started getting so many ideas for incorporating different supplies and I think even though I may not be very good, this project might turn out great.

My weekend

This weekend, I went to Michelle's "Annual Ugly Sweater Holiday Potluck Party." In my opinion, my sweater was the ugliest. Anyway, we did karaoke and I sang "What Dreams Are Made Of" from the Lizzie McGuire Movie, and I was surprised to learn that almost nobody knew that I got into Stac for singing. I haven't really done any singing since the year started because I think I'm better at writing than performing. Also, my dad says I sing like a mouse, but that might be because he's partly deaf. Also, we played Taboo and one word that I had was 'jump,' and I couldn't say 'hop' or 'bunny' or 'hopscotch,' etc. I decided on, 'To propel yourself in the air, such as in a certain children's game which takes place on black rubber.' I think Taboo might become a new hobby of mine, if I ever buy it.
Lastly, I'm looking forward to my very first shoshtigigi, although I don't really know what it's like.

StacArt

Okay, so I haven't really been doing anything lately. Technically, I am writing right now, and I just finished my English essay (pure genius by the way), and I am in the middle of a Social Studies essay (also pure genius so far), but that doesn't count in my book. Today was StacArt, which is bittersweet for me. I'm not very good at drawing but I love everybody else's projects and I love watching them work. Ellen made the inside of her brain out of plaster of Paris, Emily made the sun with cray pas, Jessica drew our bedroom, and Danny drew himself as a robot-steam punk-type superhero. My work, I feel, was not as good. I did, however, learn that you can use water to make the cray pas look smoother, and ended up making the road in my picture look substantially more like a road.

White Devil

Last night, Jess, Emily, Shiana, John, Luke, and I went to see a play at Adelphi called White Devil, and I have to say, it was wonderful. I loved the costumes and the acting, although I couldn't understand the language most of the time. That's a downside to Jacobian theatre, it's from a different time where the language was so intricate, especially in plays. My favorite character was Flamineo. He was so comical, and even if I didn't understand what he was saying most of the time he kind of made me understand the gist of it. Plus, the boy who played him reminded me of Leonardo DiCaprio in his Titanic years. But the girl who played Vittoria- I feel like I've seen her before. She just seemed so familiar but I can't remember if I've actually met her before. Everybody's costumes were also so cool. I wish that since they were all in sort of dark, heavy metal costumes, the dialogue was a little more modern, too, but I guess that wouldn't have been doable since it would've changed the play drastically. I also loved the part where Vittoria was asking the judge, "What is a whore? I am unfamiliar with the term." That was just so snarky. Lastly, I liked how almost all of them died at the end, since none of the characters were extremely likeable.

Kontroll

I wasn't in STAC today because I had this awful migraine. Apparently it's going around, because a lot of people have been getting it. But anyway, on to my Pondering.
After watching Kontroll, I was still in awe. I thought it was a marvelous movie and I really enjoyed it, but it's taken a long time to decide how it personally affected me, specifically. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bag thing.
After nearly two days of thinking, I've decided that I am really like Zsofi, aka Bear Girl, not Bulcsu like I had originally thought. Zsofi wants attention, and that's why she rides the Metro in a bear suit. She wants to be special, not in a way that makes her wierd, but that's what she always does. In my opinion, she is the kind of girl who has no idea how to make herself known so she tries everything. I haven't done everything, but I've done enough to know that doesn't work.
She shows Bulcsu the tunnel where the killer was and then disappeared not because she wanted to go on an adventure, but because she knew that Bulcsu might be able to help stop the 'Jumpers' and clear his name. I think that I would've done the same thing, because I would never be able to face a killer on my own, even if his only weapon is a train track.
Another thing that I got out of Kontroll was that you don't have to listen to a movie to understand it. The only other foreign film I've ever seen is Let the Right One In, which I made the mistake of watching at midnight. I ended up falling asleep in the middle. I've learned that a great thing about films in different languages is that you have to pay close attention. You need to read the subtitles while simultaneously watching the movie or else you might miss something important. If we had seen Kontroll in English, I don't think I would've liked it as much. Also, the fact that they're speaking in Hungarian just adds to the whole 'underground, mafia-type job' feeling. It's not a childish movie at all, and I loved that.
Alas, this is my Pondering. I hope you all had a good day and I'd love to hear all about it tomorrow.

Tanka

Basically, Tanka is a form of poetry that originated in Japan and is now popular amongst English-speaking poets, also. Traditional Tanka is written in 5-7-5-7-7 form in terms of syllables, but it can be written free verse. Syllables do not matter so much as the words and spacing. Tanka typically does not have a title, capitalization, or punctuation unless the poet wants to include it. Tanka usually tells a story or describes an experience that the author had. The first two or three lines describe the experience, and the remaining lines provide commentary, emotions, or thoughts. Sometimes your third line can be a "pivot line" that is shared between the first two lines and the last two lines, but it's not required. A type of Tanka is Kyoka, which is more humorous, opinionated, and slightly mocking. Tanka do not usually follow rhyme schemes, but sometimes use assonance and consonance.

The Fall

The Fall taught me that you can't just do something just because someone tells you to, you have to have your own ideas and opinions and you should always have a say in your life. I think that this came up a lot during the film. Roy was a stuntman, so he made his living off of doing dangerous things. He paralyzed himself while doing a stunt that could've killed him. Even though that's his job, there should've been more precautions. That's just one of those times where it would've been better to say 'no.' Another time was when Alexandria was tricked into getting Roy morphine with the story. She got hurt herself when she was trying to help him. At the end, when Roy is finishing the story, she brings herself in so that she could save the remaining characters, because she didn't want them to die. She needed to imput her own ideas to save them. In this way, assuming that Tarsem Singh made The Fall specifically for me, he might've been trying to tell me that it's okay to say "No, I'm not doing that" or "I think we should do it like this" once in while, but also listen to other ideas like Roy did towards the middle with Alexandria. Usually it makes out for a better story.

The Math of Me

So I started out with Caring, Intelligence, and Respect, but people said that those could be further simplified. So I think that Respect spurs from Dignity, and where would I be without Dignity? Dignity is why we bother to get dressed in the morning, so we don't look like slobs and we can carry ourselves proudly. Then I thought that Pride spurs from Dignity, and vice versa, so I'll go with Pride. Everybody, especially me, wants to be Proud of themselves.
Intelligence is something I hold dear to me. From a young age I've always wanted to be the smartest. It's not like I want Intelligence for Knowledge and Knowledge for Power, because I've never been particularly powerful and I don't particularly want to be. Intelligence is just something that makes me feel like I'm not dumb, and I can actually solve a problem myself. But I don't really want to be too independent, because I always want to be able to rely on people. But maybe my need for Intelligence comes from a need for Understanding. I never want to not be able to understand things, it just gives me a feeling of inferiority that I hate. Sometimes you need to respect the fact that you are inferior, at least a little bit, but if you are able to understand fact and meaning, you can learn much more than you can without it.
That brings me to my last core value: Caring. It's not like those stupid Elementary School writing assignments where you describe your classmates: She is nice, friendly, and caring. Caring is an adjective that, ironically, people use carelessly. I think one of the most important things in my life is having people who care about me, and caring about other people. It doesn't even matter if they love me or I love them, I just want a mutual caring. Like Luke said, if I were backed into a corner and somebody threatened to take away my ability to care or feel affection, I would do anything to stop them. I feel the same for Pride and Understanding.
So if these, Caring, Pride, and Understanding, describe me as a person, I would be okay with that, because I care about them, I'm proud of them, and I understand them.

Qvestions #1 and #2

Part 1
1)You've worked on a group film and on your own. In which situation are you most comfortable - group or solo? Which do you work best in?
I liked the solo work better, just because it was sort of a neutral between being completely alone and collaborating. People were always there if I needed opinions but I was able to have the solitude when I needed it.
2)What did you learn that you expected to learn?
I learned how to be genuinely productive in a small amount of time. I'm usually horrible under pressure, but with the Big Week project it was more relaxed than anxious.
3)What did you learn that you didn't expect to learn?
There wasn't much that I really expected out of Big Week, but as with most school projects, I expected to improve on my writing. But I didn't, not really. It was basically me just vomitting words onto the screen, and I realized that a good story is the first priority and format and other such rules come second.
4)What didn't you learn that you expected to learn?
As I said before, I didn't have many expectations of Big Week, therefore I was not disappointed in any way. Maybe one thing is that I thought I would learn how to do something from other peoples' projects, but it's not like I that was the only thing I was looking forward to.
5)Praise your amazing achievement and explain your brilliant plan for pulling it off.The play that I wrote was simply a heartbreaking work of pure and unadulterated genius. It explores the relationship between mother and child, as well as between two siblings in such a way that it ponders the value of life itself. If any other play has the ability to affect you in such a way as mine does, then that playwright must be Sir William Shakespeare himself.

Part 2
1) How much time did you spend working?
I would say that I spent a good 90% of each class working, not counting the majority of seventh period and the one Thursday that I was sick. So that means about six hours of real work plus about three hours on Thursday, for a grand total of nine hours.
2)How much time did you spend thinking about the work - sort of sitting there and staring at it, or listening to it over and over again, etc.?
Every waking moment of that entire week. On Wednesday, there were some moments when I just left my laptop and walked around, and seeing everybody being productive gave me inspiration.
3)How much time did you spend doing other stuff that seems like work to you that make you think you're working but you're not?
Maybe about an hour out of that entire week. I find that I don't benefit from procrastinating with things that don't pertain to my work at all. I'd rather just go for a walk around my own mind so that I can keep track of where I am.
4)How much time did you spend socializing?
Well, not counting the majority of seventh period, I only spent a little bit of time talking to people. Sometimes I had to ask people questions, but I tried to keep the dilly-dallying to a minimum. Although, on Tuesday, we in the hallway did have a small break.
5)How did you use your community?
I asked the people around me quite a few questions, especially on the first day. I would ask anybody who was listening, "How long should a play be?", "Am I supposed to italicize this?", "Is it weird that I'm referring to Mother as 'Mother?'", etc.
6)Rip apart your awful project and how did such a disaster happen?
The play that I wrote was dreadful, just dreadful. If every playwright that ever lived came back from the grave, each and every one of them would punch me in the face. It represented such an unrealistic connection between human beings and the last scene was like something straight out of The Exorcist.
7)You've completed a step on your path. What is your next step?
I'm going to work on it a little bit, and maybe I can have my play performed.

Final Intention Statement

This week, I wrote a stage play called "Sleep Will Come." It is about a girl named Madeleine who has brain cancer and decides that she'd rather die than live out the rest of her life in a hospital bed. Madeleine and her brother, Danny, try to persuade their mother into allowing this. They play is entitled "Sleep Will Come" because I associate sleep with tranquility and a certain sense of enlightenment, which is a recurring theme. Madeleine was sure of what she wanted and it gave her a peace of mind. In fact, I think that it was the assurance that eternal sleep will come soon that allowed her to go on. I believe that no matter how you die, everyone receives a relief of some kind in the end.
“After all to the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.”-Albus Dumbledore

Big Week Day #4

Even though I stayed home today due to my Tiny Chicken Disease (DFTBA) I got a lot of work done. I finished the entire play and worked out the title, "Sleep Will Come." I am looking forward to handing it in tomorrow and seeing all of the Oldies' projects.

Big Week Day #3

So it's Wednesday, and I haven't gotten any memos about blog themes, so I guess it couldn't hurt to just write what I've done today.
I wrote a lot. So far, I have the equivalent of eight pages on Microsoft Word, which worries me. I don't know how long a play should be, especially one that's written in four days, but the story isn't over yet so I guess I'll just keep writing until I'm done. I'll admit that I procrastinated a bit today, but who doesn't? I did get a lot done, and when I took a break from writing I was still "writing" in my head, if that makes any sense. I also learned that I have a neurological condition called "grapheme-color synesthesia," which means that my brain associates certain letters and numbers with colors. For example, I associate the word Thursday with the color green and the letter S with pink. I have no idea why.
Anyway, I think that I am making sufficient progress and I'll see you all tomorrow.

Big Week Day #2

While I've been writing my play, I've been keeping in mind different books that I've read. Since the play is about a girl who is trying to face her impending death, I've been thinking about books like The Fault in Our Stars by John Green while still trying to remain original. I've also been drawing on my own experiences of trying (and failing) of sticking it to the man (namely my mother). I really didn't go very far with the story today because of my problems with accessing what I did yesterday. My laptop wouldn't let me go on my Celtx account, or the internet, or most of the websites I tried going on. I think I really need a new laptop. Technology has obviously changed since 2008. Since I couldn't access my Celtx account or my gmail to reactivate my account, I had to rewrite everything. ALL OF IT.
So, what I learned today: ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP FOR YOUR WORK. After Luke helped me download Celtx from a thumbdrive, I saved the script there, on Microsoft Word, and a flashdrive, just to be safe.

Big Week Day #1

     Today, I wrote the first two pages of my play and I have to say, it's going pretty well so far. The only problem I ran into was finding a place to work. I didn't know where the computer lab was, so Ellen brought me there, but there wasn't anybody in there so we went to the other computer lab. The guy in there (I don't know his name) said that I could work in there. The computer I was on didn't have Celtx so I tried downloading it. When I went to open it, it said that I couldn't use Internet Explorer, so I had to download Mozilla Firefox, which took a long time. Finally, I got to work for a good one and a half periods before getting kicked out. The man said that I couldn't be in there without a teacher since he was leaving. I went back to the other computer lab, and asked the lady who came in if I could work in there. Problem is, those computers didn't have Celtx either for some reason. I decided to go through the process again, but the system kept crashing every time I tried downloading Firefox. It was then that I decided to come back to the STAC room. Anika, Ellen, and Jessica told me to go to the library and try it there. I didn't know where the library was either, so Ellen brought me. The librarians told me that I couldn't use the computers because a class was coming and they didn't have Celtx anyway. Lo and behold, I decided to just go back to the STAC room and resume my work with the good old-fashioned pencil and paper.
     And out of all of this, I learned: next time, bring my laptop.

The Seven Questions

1. What is the first creative moment you can remember?

     

The first creative moment I remember is when I was about five and I was at my nana's house. I was always really bored there because my Nana, aunts, and cousin, Chris never wanted to play with me. My sister hated me and I hated my brother, so we never really wanted to play together. I got the crayons and the paper and sat on the couch to draw. Soon after, I got very bored. I was never much of an artist. My aunt Betty had a cold so there were tissues on the table (the same table that took my vision not too long before- but that's another story). I got an idea and took the tissues. I found tape and started taping the tissues together to make clothes for my American Girl doll. They were pretty awesome, if I do say so myself, but these clothes met their tragic end when I got mad at my brother the next day. I ripped up the clothes while my parents were in another room and blamed him. I was diabolical even at that age...

2. Was anyone there to witness or appreciate it?

My mom thought that the clothes were adorable, up until my "brother" ripped them up.

3. What was the best idea you've ever had?

Once when I was seven I was eating Ferrero Rocher chocolates and I thought, "What if they just sold the chocolately-hazelnutty part seperately, and people could put it on sandwiches?" Soon after, I discovered the cosmic deliciousness that is Nutella. This might also work as my worst idea, but Nutella is simply one of the best things on the planet.

4. What made it great in your mind? 

At the time, I thought that maybe I could pitch my idea to the Ferrero company, sell it, and make millions.

5. What is the dumbest idea?

The dumbest idea I've ever had was when I thought, not too long ago, that maybe scientists could find a way to air condition the entire world, so that you don't get hot and sweaty when you're walking around outside (or in underbudgeted classrooms).

6. What made it stupid?

Obviously, there is no way to air condition the world, plus some places need to be a little hotter or cooler than other places so that life as we know it can survive.

7. Can you connect the dots that led you to this idea?

I was at Camel Beach with Jessica and Emily and it was very hot. Whenever I would go inside, I would think, "Why can't everywhere be as cool as this?",  which led me to thinking about global air conditioning.