Room to Think

Guess what? It's TUESDAY. And I'm here. Granted, it has taken me twenty days since my last post, and I'm about to go to volleyball, but I have managed to make time for this, and all of you. So, I watched a couple TEDtalks in my quest to find one to bring to you today. One was "Why Google Glass?" by Sergey Brin. He's a Google co-founder, and now the leader of their Special Projects. The other was "How do you get your ideas to spread?" by Seth Godin. Personally, I don't think Sergey's talk was all that spectacular--not really something I would originally consider as "worthy" of the TEDtalk title. Many other people agreed with me that his talk was somewhat lacking...It was really just a commercial that introduced Google Glass, which then launched an interesting philosophical discussion in the comments. I wasn't originally going to post this as my blog topic, but then I found myself asking all sorts of questions...about...

Hello again...finally. I apologize in advance for my text-heaviness and rambling.  Someday I'll edit my thoughts. I thought I'd come back into the blogosphere with a video to share with you all, given that I finally have time to enjoy my video games after such a hectic quarter .  --Also...I'm on a video game binge, I realize.  I do have other TEDtalks in my queue. promise. =P This TEDtalk is a long one, so I'll split it into two parts (because I'm feeling lazy tonight and actually don't feel like thinking at all). Essentially, David Perry started out life learning how to program computers. And he didn't program them to help kids with their homework--he made video games. In his talk, he essentially covers the past and future of video games...he has a cool timeline video that he updated from a previous TED conference that tracks the audio and video quality over time (only until about 2007...it's a bit outdated).   W...

This talk is given by Brenda Brathwaite, a woman who has been a game designer since she was fifteen. Doesn't that just make you jealous?  I totally am. She doesn't design video games anymore, but she was a lead designer at Atari from 2001-03. Right now, though, her passion lies in making board (bored?) games for social change.  She's even got a blog about it. This talk is specifically about why she began making these types of games: her 7 yr-old half-black daughter came home after learning about the Middle Passage in school, and shrugged it off as if it were "some black people going on a cruise". Brenda couldn't stand her daughter's apathy, so she made a game to relate her daughter to the events of the Middle Passage.  And by the time they were done playing, everyone was in tears. Her daughter related to the people in the game, and superimposed her own experiences and relationships onto those characters to make meaning from the game. ...

OH GOD. Chipp Kidd is HI-lay-ri-ous. Click the video to watch him wiggle. This was the first video I clicked on in my explorations today, and I think it has just jumped to the top of my "Favorite talks of all time" list. Mr. Chipp started off his talk telling me that he is a book designer for...wait for it... ALFRED A. KNOPF. That's where my love of this man and his talk began. I said before that I'm taking Kate Trueblood's Editing and Publishing class this quarter, and she's kicking my butt with all kinds of overwhelming information about all the steps necessary to publish a book.  It's as if the second she steps into the classroom, she brings with her a history and alternate reality that is the publishing sphere. 5 weeks ago I was a creative writing senior with only a few ideas of the kinds of jobs I could secure with my English degree.  I had a general statement prepared for those who asked me what I was going to do with my creative ...

Hello, my wonderful readers! At the beginning of Spring break, before  I got sick, I promised you all I would show you what crafts my sister and I ended up making together.  I'm a little late on the uptake, I realize. Well, due to my untimely illness, I only accomplished half of what I said I was going to...But here are the final results! A handmade book for my roommate's birthday  A jewelry board to hold all my earrings (and necklaces too) And just another view of the jewelry board.   Yep, I used thumb-tacks to hold everything.  I do kinda wish it was drilled into the wall, though. Unfortunately, my apartment forces me to secure everything to my walls with Command Strips and prayers. All my projects were terribly fun to make, if not kind of mindless... But now I've started the countdown to my dreaded graduation day, and I have to set these things aside for a little while.

I suppose it's only fitting that today's Florence Friday be about The Italian Carnival, as it just ended on Tuesday. "The Carnival starts 58 days before Easter and ends on Shrove Tuesday (Fat Tuesday or Marte di Grasso, the day before Ash Wednesday." -Wikipedia It's been held (officially) in Venice every year since 1979.  The Italian government decided they needed to bring back Venitian history and culture, and Carnevale seemed like the best way to start. **So, Venice isn't Florence, but, it's close enough, right?** "Teatime" by Horst Raack It was voted 2012's La Maschera piu bella" (Best Mask) Supposedly this "Best Mask" contest is held in the last week of the Carnival and is voted on by a panel of international costume and fashion designers. I'm digging her hat.  Horst Raack also won in 2011 and 2009. There's also another fancy designer who won Best Mask three times as well: Tanja Shulz-Hess . ...