Review Week 11

Different Strokes (Class Announcements)

I chose this picture because I have a lot of questions about it. Why is she dressed as a unicorn? How does she move in that? Where is this? Why is there a shirtless guy wearing a tutu in the back? Why are those guys dressed as prison inmates? Is that person dressed as a tomato? What?

I chose this video because Samuel L. Jackson is one of my favorite actors. Loved him in The Matrix and S.W.A.T. The video is also pretty catchy haha.

Growth Mindset: Creativity Article

me when i'm painting an apple but it's blue (MusicBakery)

I read Creativity Is Much More Than 10,000 Hours Of Deliberate Practice by Scott Kaufman

This article's main message is basically: "Practice makes perfect, but it doesn't make anything new". It summarizes some key points on creativity. Some of them are obvious, such as outsiders having a creative advantage. Of course an outside perspective would have more creative ideas! Some I disagree with, at least to an extent, such as genes being relevant. I think they're relevant to a point but I also think nurture more powerful in developing creativity. I think the article defines practice as practicing on refinement of your technique. I think practice can have a huge impact on creativity if you practice the right things. If you gain more insight on other perspectives, if you try to see your field in a different way, if you try exercises to reduce your rigidity. Of course this is possibly the opposite of practicing for refinement. I think it helps to think of it as say, drawing apples. If you draw apples as close to real life as you can 100,000 times, you're going to be damn good at drawing apples. But if someone asks you to draw an apple as creatively as you can, you're going to draw an apple then color it... blue or something. Meanwhile, if you expand your perspective and start to dabble in different mediums and art forms, maybe you could draw an apple in more creative ways than just drawing an apple and coloring it blue.

Learning Challenge: Happiness Jar revisited

Heart in a jar (Dreamstime)

Surprise! I've been keeping track of all the things I thought made me happy for the past two months or so. Looking through it, it's mostly stuff like "finally finishing x homework" or "buying a new x" though, haha. But more importantly to me, whenever I draw stuff I write down what I'm drawing in my journal. I write down how far I've gotten and what I want to do next, etc. I know these aren't things that explicitly make me happy on their own, but when I look back at these, I feel like I've achieved a lot since then. I can really see my own growth in the palm of my hand. I save old artwork too (though I've always done that) and it's always fun to look through and remind myself how far I've made it. It kind of inspires and motivates me to push even farther. I recommend everyone try this with their hobbies, actually.

Week 11 Tech Tip: Quotemaker

I have no mouth and I must scream (Quozio)

I recently read I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison and I'm very happy I finally got around to it! It's an incredibly well crafted short story that I recommend. The ending is haunting and I'm sure it really impacted those that read it during its time.

Anyways I made this quote image with Quozio

Week 11 Story: Desolation

Messier 88 (Messier Objects)

Portfolio version available: https://sites.google.com/view/sotpapepics/desolation

With my body reclined, I start to open my eyes and find my vision unfocused. I see colors but not shapes. My thoughts stand still as I understand in some innate sense what would happen if I parsed together where I am and why. A few moments pass as my mind inevitably exits the silent void.

A rumble from the ship speeds up the recovery of my cognition and a cacophony of sirens, alarms, warnings, and alerts assault my hearing. My eyes begin moving before my body does. I noticed that apart from the scattered paper and belongings, everything seemed to be in pristine condition. The screens were not cracked and nothing seemed externally broken. It seemed like a perfectly functioning ship, though this illusion is betrayed by the alarms. Sitting up, mind still devoid of emotion, I involuntarily recount what happened.

I was piloting this transport ship to move high density colony-powering fuel cells to an outpost in Messier 88. Somewhere along my journey, I figured to put my compression device, which crumples space around it to achieve speeds faster than light, into overdrive. It'd burn a hell of a lot of fuel but I did the calculations and saw that it'd shorten my travel time by 8 hours and I'd have fuel leftover to go back at normal speed by the end. I knew it was dangerous with a ship as big as this, but I had more faith in the autonomous navigation system than I should have. I overcharged the compression device and next thing I know, I'm here.

I checked the system logs and discover I've been out for 22 hours and the ship's been burning fuel for the past 18. Ship status shows a heavy hull impact, probably what put me out of commission in the first place. After the collision, the ship's autopilot was compromised, so it pointed toward a direction and kept flying. Fuel reserves were depleted, only emergency battery cell power was powering core systems and life support. The plotted route finally told me what I was afraid of knowing, and what was burning a hole in my back the entire time I've been awake. I overshot the outpost, on the edge of Messier 88, by thirty-six thousand light years. I thought of my options one at a time. Calling for support would be futile, as it would tens of thousands of years to reach anyone. I know that nobody can tell where I am either, otherwise my ship would have been interdicted during travel. All I'm left with is a few days worth of life support in this vast expanse.

I lay back in my reclined seat and bend my head back towards the rear of the ship. A beautiful, sparkling, violet cloud of gases and stars envelop my cone of vision. It all seems so close, as if I could reach out and touch it. Gazing into the spiral of color and life, my thoughts start fading. I start to surrender my ability to make out shapes, leaving only vibrant color. I close my eyes and drift to sleep.

Author's Note: Hmm... the story this time seems kind of depressing, huh? Anyways, this story is influenced by The Sandy Road from The Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. It was about a group of traders who threw away all the water for their oxen because they thought they'd get to a town in a day. The oxen end up walking in a circle after the navigator falls asleep and they have to find water by digging into the ground. They end up finding the water in the end and learn a good lesson. My story is pretty similar, with the main character (the only character, in this case,) taking a risk and overcharging his compression device. It ends up stranding him outside of the galaxy, tens of thousands of light years away from any other lifeform. I ended up having the main character become very apathetic from the start. I suppose the only reason he really got up from his seat was to gain some sense of closure, and after he found it he returned to the state he was in when the story started. I ended up with a very neutral language in the first, second, and fourth paragraphs to show the character's apathy, but during the third paragraph I added a little bit of less neutral feeling words and expressed the character's feelings more clearly to show that he wasn't always like this. I'm not sure how effective it was. The fifth paragraph represents the main character's acceptance of his fate so I gave it a more uplifting tone, which still turned out to be pretty sad since it carries that implication.

Bibliography: The Sandy Road from The Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt

Reading Notes: More Jatakas Part B

Elephant (Wikipedia)

I read The Foolhardy Wolf and was surprised to see the wolf get killed at the end. Anyways, I like the idea of a story where someone faces the absolute limit of what they can do as they are. The idea of facing an opponent that transcends the upper bounds of what humans can endure is something I'm fond of in fiction. Though usually it's about a hero who goes up against impossible odds and wins. It'd be neat to make a realistic story about a hero in a fantasy world who goes around slaying monsters, but ends up taking a contract for monsters that can't be slain by humans. The story could talk about his previous adventures and how he bravely defeated 20 goblins at once. Stuff like that. And then when he goes to defeat the monster he was contracted for, his arrogance fades as he realizes just how fearsome real monsters are. In this version I'd have him flee though, instead of get killed.

Bibliography: More Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt

Reading Notes: More Jatakas Part A

Wolf on its hind legs (Pinterest)

I read The Tricky Wolf and the Rats. I thought the idea of a person feigning innocence/injury taking out others who are unsuspecting as a result of the lie was interesting. My first thought would be that I could turn it into a murder mystery story. I'd make a change where the viewer is surprised too at the end. I'd have to make sure not to make it some copout like "It was the chef of the mansion all along! By the way there was a chef" and have some clues that make the reader go back and think "How did I not see it coming?" I really like stories that do that. Where really subtle actions can have a lot of meaning after you read the story.

I also read The Stupid Monkeys and I thought of adapting the story to a more modern format. I could make it so the crew of a bomber is flying around when the pilot sees a foreign object blockage in the bomb bays. He tells the rest of the crew he'll fix it after he goes to the restroom. Other members of the crew figure they can fix it themselves and open the bomb bay doors to quickly clean the bomb bays. They end up dropping all the bombs and the pilot comes back unalarmed until the plane starts shaking.

Bibliography: More Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt