(#6) The End

1.) This semester in english 15 was interesting to say the least. Being an engineering major, I was initially frustrated that I had to take the class in the first place. As if it isn't hard enough to get my chemistry, math, physics and whatever other 3 million classes homework done, now I have to write papers that I probably will lack interest in. This was my initial assessment on taking english 15. This initial assumption was immediately proven wrong within the first week. While sometimes I found the papers tough to write, they always managed to teach me a little bit about myself. I've always been interested in the arts and with that I love to draw things. I say things because I myself usually have a tough time making out exactly what my creations are. Having taken this course I came to the realization that I was extremely narrow minded about  the definition of art before. I've now come to the conclusion that art is essentially what you think it is. No one is technically correct, making it so that no one can actually be wrong. My perception on art probably would have changed somewhere down the road, but I like to think I will be a better person having gained an understanding for it this early. I figured at the beginning of the class that the papers we would told to write would be these boring research papers that no one would ever read and ever care about. Again, to my surprise I was wrong. WIth the writing of the memoir, I gained an understanding of family and the love that exists therein through my own writing and experiences. It's as though it was there the entire time, but it took writing about it to figure that out. The next paper was the visual analysis paper. This may have been the single best paper I have ever written. The parameters of this paper allowed my creativity and thoughts to flow in a manner I had yet to experience. I have always considered myself a decent writer, however, I would only ever do what I had to in order to get by. I now realize that I completely undermined my potential and I regret that. Moving on to the research paper. I absolutely hate research papers. However, this one was the exception. Allow me to write a paper on one of my favorite bands and speak my mind, sign me up. I was stoked to write that research paper. I never thought stoked and research paper could go in the same sentence. In the end, I learned more about myself by simply writing papers than I ever thought possible. I can't say enough good things about english 15 or my lovely teacher Ms. Squillante. I know that I will feel a bit of sadness not being in this class next semester.

2.)
http://danalandis.blogspot.com/2012/02/first.html#comment-form
http://chelsea-quinn.blogspot.com/2012/02/here-goes-nothin.html#comment-form
http://ew4acm.blogspot.com/2012/03/my-take-on-art.html?showComment=1335728905459#c8770925288704620844

3.)
I COMPLETED MY SRTE's!!

(#5) God of War 3 review

The climb to the summit of Mount Olympus is no simple task for a mere mortal. However, with rage and vengeance coursing through his veins, Kratos will overcome any obstacle and kill any man, god or creature that stands in his way. In the end, there will only be chaos.

“God of War 3” has managed to surpass the awesomeness that was God of War 1 and 2 with flying colors. The graphics are nothing short of astonishing. Never has the blood and gore of a video game appeared so real. The game places you right beside Kratos in every battle, eagerly awaiting the next opponent. With every ork, ogre, siren, fury, gorgon and god you slaughter, you are left with nothing but a taste for more. Whether it’s tearing the head off of Helios (god of the sun) or ripping the legs off of Hermes (herald of the gods), you never quite reach your fill.

God of War 3, being the sequel to God of War 2, begins with Kratos and the Titian, Gaia, ascending Mount Olympus with the ultimate goal of killing Zeus (King of the Gods). Unfortunately, when they reach the top of Mount Olympus, Zeus is ready for them and outdoes them in this first battle. Kratos and Gaia are knocked sent hurling down Mount Olympus. Gaia manages to get ahold of the mountain half way down with Kratos on her back. Kratos needs her help in order to survive, but instead Gaia betrays him and sends him to his death at the foot of the mountain. Kratos wakes up in the realm of Hades (hell) and is forced to kill the god in order to get out. Once free, Kratos continues his ascent to the top of Mount Olympus where he seeks vengeance with Zeus, killing every creature, Titian, and God along the way.

To my knowledge, this epic game has only one downfall. You (Kratos) are awarded a myriad of weapons throughout the game, of which, you cannot decide what one to use. All of the weapons have different strengths and are unique in their own way. The possibilities are endless and yet they are so overwhelming.

In my vast experience of gaming I have yet to encounter a game with the ability to keep my interest throughout the entire story. God of War 3 easily kept my attention with its excellent story line, in depth character development, awesome graphics, and overall badass style. All I can hope for now is that the producers at Santa Monica Studios create a sequel to this masterpiece.

(Art Event #2)

This is definitely one of the top five most repulsive things I have ever seen in my life. My love for those awesome little Cadbury Creme Eggs has been forever ruined. On the other hand, I have often wondered what it would be like if those eggs actually contained some form of life. This little display of "art" has left me wondering no more. In fact, I will probably try to stay away from those eggs from now on. I did however enjoy the artists various types of lifeforms located inside the eggs. While all of them appeared similar, none of them were the same. I found myself focused more on what little creature was going to come out of them next rather than my ruined childhood. This was overall a cool project and is now scarred in the back of my mind.

Looking into the next link with the "Patton Pottery," I found a pleasant surprise. Pottery crafted in the shape of human faces! Thankfully this managed to take my mind off of the horror that were the Cadbury Creatures. I have seen faces on pottery before, but not this good or as creative. To me, all of the faces resembled that of old people, some wise, some happy, and a lot of them a bit crazy.

(Art Event #1)

On friday April 6th I attended a cultural event at the Eisenhower auditorium. The speaker that night was Aron Ralston (yes, the guy who cut his own arm off). His story is a very interesting one that,in the end, taught him more about himself and his ideals then he could have ever imagined. In summary, Aron was out climbing canyons by himself, slipped on a rock, and managed to get his hand caught in-between the canyon wall and a huge boulder. He managed to survive down in the canyon for 127 hours before amputating his arm, allowing him to make his escape. With the exception of the some gruesome details, the event was excellent. Aron puts you right next to him in the canyon as he retells the hardships he encountered and life lessons he learned. He talks about the capabilities of the human body and the value he now places in his family.  While I could never relate to the situation Aron was in, I was able to find a commonality in his thoughts on family. He talked about how he was a loner and while he did not resent his family, he never spent as much time with them as he should have. Aron Ralston is an amazing person with an even more amazing story to tell. If you are lacking motivation or think your life is/has been tough, I would suggest listening to Aron talk. You are bound to come away with a different perspective on life.

(#4) Penn State Party School

After listening to the podcast about Penn State, I couldn't help but laugh. I found it humorous that people were walking around with stop signs, peeing wherever they felt necessary, and taking cover in the local residents homes after a late night of drinking. Obviously these things sound immature and childish to most people, but to those who have experienced college and found themselves a couple beers deep know exactly where these crazy kids heads are at. All and all I thought this podcast displayed a very true, but unfortunate side of Penn State students. Sure we like to cut loose on the weekends and partake in shenanigans will almost for certain be regretted at a later date, however through all of this negativity, our true colors sometimes fail to shine through all the crap. First and for most, we are Penn State STUDENTS. We slave over a mess of books and papers, monday through friday, week after week just trying to maintain that GPA that runs our lives. It's very easy to overlook the effort we put into our school work when someone only sees what happens on the weekends. Looking back on the podcast, for the most part, I wasn't angry, but I did feel misunderstood. I hate to be associated with a negative connotation just because one year my college voted itself the number one party school. This to me is the epitome of judging a book by its cover. One of the first things we learn is not to base one's character off of how their outside appears. Get to know them and you might be surprised. Yet situations such as this continue to occur. What I found to be pretty amazing about the pod cast was the narrators voice. In the beginning, the narrator had a very condescending voice, as though they were going into this with the idea that Penn State was a bad place and they were just trying to bash the school. However, towards the end, you begin to notice that they are sympathizing with the college students and can't help but feel a commonality. Hopefully we never make the mistake of voting ourselves into that position again. It will be ten times worse the next time due to the more recent events having occurred here.

(#3) What is art

There might be a million and one ways to go about looking at what exactly art is. I'll start with the most broad generalization I know... a piece of art is anything the evokes a reaction. Tired, sad, happy or down right pissed off at the world. It doesn't matter. If you felt differently after you viewed this "art" than when you walked in, then it did it's job. As far as substance goes, art can range from a painting to a piece of music to a diesel engine. It all depends on what your craft is. Art is not only limited to what Picasso was capable of creating or what Hemingway was able to write down, it runs much deeper than that. Art could be a quarterback threading a pass between two defenders, Michael Jordan dunking from the free-throw line, or perhaps crafting the perfect rocking chair. What one person views as art may be completely different than another persons take on it. Sort of changing my own view on art... I feel like art could be described as one person perfecting their craft in whatever way appeals to them. If you manage to parallel park in only three moves then I suppose this could be called art. I've successfully managed to further my confusion on this topic by writing this blog...

( #2) Art Museum Visit

Title: The Artist and the Seven Deadly Sins

Artist: Fritz Eichenberg

Materials: Wood engraving

Year: 1975

In this particular portrait, Eichenberg depicts himself at work surrounded by seven deadly sins. It appears that these sins seem to drive his creative process. Despite the sins; gluttony, greed, envy, laziness, wrath, pride and lust, the artist appears to be working diligently. This piece displays, in a unique way, how the negative things in life (sins) are able to drive a creative force rather than slowing progress. To me, this piece of art displays the way that our human faults can sometimes define who we are. Bad habits may lead to bad actions, but they may also breed creation. The first time I looked over this piece I felt as though something was looking over my shoulder. I think I might have even turned to make sure no one was there. After looking over the carving a couple of times I realized how many of our actions are influenced by the negative influences in our lives. I've never considered my faults as a possible force behind the positive things I've done in my life. Looking back on some of the things I've drawn, my best work was done when I was angry or thinking about something I shouldn't have been thinking about. Listening to music also helped me see the significant role our negative influences play on our creative thinking. Kurt Cobain was notorious for writing songs which originated from a troubled soul. Speaking of notorious (hehe), Biggy Smalls wrote rap lyrics about murder and the horrible things he did while trying to live with the struggles of life. These are two incredibly awesome, well respected artists whose creative passion came from something far from positive and happy.

Eichenberg is an artist known for his works concerned with religion, social justice and non violence. This particular piece does not seem to display any or his trademarks making it a bit of a stray. Eichenberg developed his anti war sentiments after world war 1. Despite the aberration I think he still managed to get his point across. I feel as though this particular piece speaks more to our creative side. It sort of encourages you to expand your horizons by considering the negative or evil side that everyone has from time to time. Don't allow it to consume you, but rather embrace it and use it to your advantage. Allow it to instill you with another perspective on art.

To be honest, I was so happy when I heard we were going to visit the art museum. Partially because I could sleep another 15 minutes, but also because I've been looking for a reason to check it out. It turned out to be much better than I had anticipated and I will for sure be returning, even if it is just to evoke creative thoughts. Visiting this art museum has caused me to want more! I will find bigger museums and run through them with an open mind.

( #1) Blogging about my English blog...

Being a newb at blogging I really had no idea how to go about creating one. It was sort of overwhelming with the many options you had to chose from. I felt that the background was one of the most vital parts in reflecting yourself through the blog, so I started there. After half an hour of searching for something that displayed my interests best, I came across a picture of a wall that was covered in a mash of spray paintings. It absolutely screamed the way I in which I think, so I chose it. The picture was so chaotic that it made sense! Perfect description of my personal interests. Since my background was so crazy, I decided to make the fonts and colors sort of calm and easily read. As far as the links go I have yet to add any, however, I will be sure to throw on some with my favorite wake boarding videos and songs from my favorite bands. In describing myself I tried to make it as simplistic and straight forward as possible, which is completely backwards to the way I think.

So far I think that my blog depicts an accurate image of myself. I feel that since I am a person who enjoys variation my blog will constantly be changing, possibly for the worst at times. It will definitely be a constant work in progress. At first, like I said, making the blog was overwhelming and I really didn't want to do it. However, once I slept on my thoughts, I can confidently say that my individuality is being expressed through my creation and that's what I was striving for. Hopefully in creating this blog I will learn to better express my thoughts and opinions as well as accept others.