The Task Force

The SMU task force finally held their vote and made some striking decisions.
A couple of points really rubbed me the wrong way.
First of all the bar. What happened. This was all over the media a few moths ago; being hailed as the solution to the drunk driving problem. Shut down!!!! Heh. Good idea guys now instead of kids being hassled bu SMU campus police, they can be hassled by drunk as rednecks on lower Greenville. Thumbs up!!
Second, there was a recommendation for teachers to assign more homework for kids. The recommended amount is 2 hours for every hour of class time. I'm taking 18 hours in the fall. That adds up to nearly 60 hours of work per week. WTF? I have a job.

You ain't artsier than me

I had never heard of this artist. I just came across it by accident. The video is really cutting edge, almost surreal. This The Grouch has an old school rap sound. He reminds me of A tribe called Quest, and Del.
I mainly like the video because of its rebellious anti-norm content. There are a lot of people out there who act like they're better than others. This song illustrates that better is a subjective term, that what he values is different from what others value but that doesn't make it less important, and it can bring just the same amount of value.

Reactable

Another great example of where innovation can take us, the Reactable is a lit table which can detect and interact with specially made cubes and emit sound.
I first saw this device online about 2 years ago. It looked so cool that I've shown this video to everyone I know.
Last week I attended an awards show and concert at Collin County Community College with my friend Randy. Lowe and behold, a Reactable!
Turns out a couple of students went to a Bjork concert where they saw her using one. The two decided that they would build their own and within one semester they had. They did all the programming themselves and figured the whole thing out. Amazing! This was as fun to play with as I had imagined.

Going to Moscow.

I just got awarded some scholarships to pay for my way to Russia in the summer and part of my tuition. I am so excited but worried at the same time.
I gotta figure out what I should take, read up on customs, and plan out this trip.
So many things are on my mind.


Am I going to be able to use my phone?
Are my papers in order?
Will I make friends?
Do I take a laptop, a camera?
Can I use my electric razor there?
Too much...
The trip is in a few months and I'm worried I may not have enough time.

Theory number three: Our expanding Universe

I took a Solar Systems class last semester. It was a fun class, but it had lots of holes in it. This was somewhat frustrating because I wasn't sure if these gaps were there because it would be too difficult to explain or if they were things we just hadn't figured out yet. As good as the class was, it simply didn't round off at the end.
One of these gaps tortured me so much that I had to ask my professor to explain it to me. The concepts he was talking about just wouldn't fit in my three dimensional brain.
Here's the problem.
According to my professor the universe is not expanding from one point outward, instead, every point in the universe is moving away from every other point at the same exact speed. Do you see the problem with this?
I do.
Let us say that we have 6 points drawn on a line(A B C D E F)
If A and C are moving away from B at the same speed, and D and F are moving away from E at the same rate, then C and D have to move toward each other.
But according to my professor C and D are indeed moving away from each other at the same speed.
Now you see why this doesn't fit in my brain?
I thought about this for weeks. I talked to my teaching assistant and my professor over and over again.
Then it came to me.
Imagine these same points drawn on a balloon. Now we inflate the balloon. Every point on there would indeed move away from every other point.
Since we took a 2 dimensional line and took it to the 3rd dimension, we would need to take the 3 dimensional Universe to the 4th.

Tough issue

Lately there has been a lot of talk about giving child molesters the death penalty. Don't get me wrong; I think a person who has taken a normal life away from a child deserves the same, but that's not the conflict I have. I know that most cases of child molestation happen within the family, I just don't think too many people would turn in a family member if it meant their death.
The ideal solution would balance punishment and humaneness.
I think these people deserve a severe punishment, but they shouldn't be killed. It would only make the problem worse.

The Question

For the last week I haven't been thinking too clearly. The time has come for the creative applications and an arduous task is ahead of me. Every year a hand full of students are chosen to be admitted to Method the creative advertising department at SMU.
The application is simple to; to answer a given question on a 17 by 11 piece of paper using any medium except for glitter, the herpes of the crafts world.
See Simple.
This year’s question is, "Why Now?"
Deep isn't it?
Well it's not quite as simple as you may think.
The challenge here is to show off your brain, so if you do something too obvious, you got a problem.

I got a couple of things brewing in there but I can't talk about it just yet.
April 29th is the deadline.
Wish me luck!

Acon calls T-Pain

I usually don't get suckered into these catchy internet videos, but this is hilarious.
I will admit that it crosses some lines and typecasts. The makers of this are notorious for blatantly criticizing the way the media portrays a variety of different croups. By really pushing the limit, they turn the mirror to the world.

The Robot

I don't know what went wrong here. I had my bristleot working and all of the sudden, after a long period of not being used, the motor went out.
So what is a bristlebot?
This is actually quite easy to make. It takes a toothbrush, a pager motor, and a battery.
Watch it go.
The one I made worked beautifully. I'm not sure how a motor can burn out, when it isn't being used.
Oh well.. I guess I have to tear open another cell phone...

Jacob Armen

I really don't believe that people are born with musical talent, but I do believe that through hard work one can make impossible things seem easy.

Jacob Armen is the drummer seen in the video performing in the 9th annual Armenian Music Awards.
If you haven't heard of him before you probably will.
This is Jacob Armen at 10


And what's even better?
Here he is at 7

What in the world is up with that?

Yesterday I was in my Russian language class when one of our students walked in late complaining that her foot hurt. She had new shoe which had cut her foot and she was bleeding on the floor. She asked if anyone has a band-aid and no one did. I volunteered to run and find her one; after all it shouldn't be that hard.

I asked at the library; no luck. I ran to the student center. At the information center I asked for one from several people the last one of which had band-aids.

His actual words were, "Yeah, I have 'em, but I can't give 'em to ya".

What? What in the world is up with that? Are you serious?

"Yup, we're supposed to refer you to the medical center", he said.

I remind you that this girl is bleeding on the floor out of her FOOT. What is the matter with band-aids that a school costing over $30,000 a year can't supply you with a band-aid. I had band-aid access in elementary school, junior high, and high school, but here at a university I would have to bleed all the way to the medical center.

Seriously. What kind of trouble do they think I'm gonna get into with a band aid?

If I had to organize my own concert...

If I were given a task to come up with a lineup consisting of bands, musicians, DJs, and live PA artists, dead or alive, together or separated, this is what I would put together.
I will limit myself to 4 headliners, 3 dead guys and 2 bands no longer together.




Headliners
Danny Tenaglia
Guns and Roses
Santana
Rage against the machine

Other acts
Armin Van Buren
Blakalicious
Del the Funky Homosapien
Mozzart
Bob Marley
Apex Twin
Lo fidelity all stars
Carl Cox
Nine Inch Nails
Tool
System of a Down
Jay Z
Binary Finary
Shpongled
Junior Vasquez
Tiesto
Rabbit in the moon
Dieselboy
Dara
Demarkus Lewis
DJ Turn@round
Allyah
Missy Eliot
DJ Shadow
Muppetfucker
Alice DJ
Craig David
Warren G
The Artful Dodger
An of course..
Gnarls Barkley

NAU

There are rumors on CNN and all over you tube that say that a secret agreement has been signed which will destroy the borders between Mexico, America, and Canada, thus creating the North American Union. There is talk about the new currency that we will all use called the Amero.
I wonder what would prompt a radical move such as this. My guess would be the strength and success of the Euro.
If this is true and it happens it could be setting the stage for a world war, but that's just my opinion. It could also lead to the eventual unification of the world.

If that happened, what do you suppose they might call the new world currency? The Blobo maybe? What do you suppose they might have on the world flag? A picture of the planet? Maybe different races holding hands? Different religious symbols? Works of art or monuments?
It's interesting to ponder.

Theory number two: on time

There are some psychics that can really tap into the future. Some Brazilian shamans talk to spirits that guide them and forecast phenomena like natural disasters with, and sometimes, without the use of mind altering substances. The bible claims that God is all knowing. He knows the past, the present, and the future.
How to explain all this?
In my mind time exists in a physical reality in a different dimension and is an infinite realm of possibilities that has not occurred, will not occur, and isn't occurring. It's just simply there. It's not necessarily arranged in a grid with squares, but it would make it easier to visualize. So imagine cubes of instances stretching infinitely along an x-axis (representing time passing) and a y-axis (representing different possibilities). As time goes on we simply move through this realm of possibility. At each instance moving forward in the y-axis while jumping through possibilities. It is arranged in a logical manner so that things that are impossible would not be close to each other.
So all things in the future, past, and present already exist. At times very special people tap into this and foresee the future or connect with the past.

Movie Review

Mermaid

By Anna Melikian

I attended this movie on the late Sunday night that it played. At first it was slightly strange like most independent films tend to be. The movie is set in a small Russian city. It follows a little girl named Alissa from her birth through her eighteenth birthday in Moscow. Alissa tells her story in an omniscient point of view. The film is in Russian but it’s subtitled and easy to follow.

We can definitely see stylistic differences between what classical Hollywood cinema tries to do and what we see in this movie. Armenian director and writer Anna Melikian has a uniquely perceptive eye. After watching this I realize just how much is missing from even the most realistic classical Hollywood cinema film. Her characters are curious. They stop to think and feel. They manage to bring humor into an otherwise serious plot. In everyday life people do goofy things that make others around them laugh. I was also laughing almost the whole time although this wasn’t a comedy.

The movie reminded me of a fairy tale in the way it was told. Once upon a time…

The underlying lesson; be careful what you wish for. At leas that’s what I took from it. There are many layers in this movie, it’s psychologically challenging.

Visually the film was clever. They put a lot of subliminal messages in various places in the movie. Had it not been for the subtitles I might not have realized that all the advertising posters that she passes by direct her with encouraging words and forshadowing.

I can’t tell too much here but I could say that the movie, although temporally progressive, breaks the typical Aristotelian curve that most Hollywood films tend to follow.

This movie recently claimed the top prise in the AFI international movie festival.

Invisible force

http://www.emigre.com/Editorial.php?sect=1&id=25

Jelly Helm makes many food points in his article. Advertising drives consumption and overadvertising drives overconsumption. Five of the richest countries in the world account for nearly 90% of the worlds consumption. Advertising is ranked 43 out of 45 proffessions based on ethics yet we have so much control and impact on the world and it's resources. Helm says enough! It's time for us to change the way we impact the world around us.
Deborah Morrison has written on the same issue as wel, but as it pertains to teaching.
Her article on social responsibility was intriguing. Where Helm is writing about change in the industry, Deborah encourages change from the start. When I was taking my AP art test in high school, I took a Macintosh computer and made it into a sculpture. I put antenae on top with a light bulb and painted a porn site on the screen. This offended my teacher beyond belief, but I was in school to learn these things. Had she allowed me to turn something like that in, I would be in a world of trouble now.

The point is that by teaching advertising students social responsibility is not only important, but critical for a revolution in the industry.

volunteering

The first student organization I joined at SMU is the Russian club. I am fascinated with the language and I love the culture. As a member of the club I hve helped promote SMU-in-Moscow, which is a five week study abroad program, and the Russian winter festival which happened last Saturday. I made flyers for both events, passed them out to students, and told many people about the events.

I took the day off of work to be at the festival. I arrived early and began setting up. People started arriving soon. Mostly members of the Dallas Russian community. Several SMU students showed up here and there and before I knew it, the event was sold out.

I only got to see some of the performances because I was busy making sure that the show ran smoothly. We featured two performers; an SMU student and the winner of the international Tchaikovski competition Andrey Ponochevny, and an angelic soloist marina Khankhaleva who sang in a divine mezzo-soprano.

The experience was fun. I did not get paid for this event but I worked it as if it was mine. My Russian teacher undoubtebly recognizes my efforts and I have gained a favorable status with her.

Through volunteering I have made a strong connection who will give me strong refferences if need be. As you may already know, in business and in life it isn't about what you know, but whom you know that makes all the difference.