The Emotional Spectrum

Last semester I did exploration # 17, Instant Sculpture. I thought it was really cool but I realized that last semester I never really took the time to analyze it. In the slide show below are the seven symbols of the emotional spectrum along with the symbols for life and death from the Green Lantern Comic Book Series. I have always loved comic book, especially the Green Lantern and I found this exploration to be incredibly enjoyable. However, aside from it being a lot of fun, It also made me realize how much thought and effort the original designers put into these symbols. As I was making each symbol, I realized that the simple shape of each symbol actually made me feel the emotion it represented. It gave me a deeper understanding of the comic series and made me love comic books even more. I also found it interesting that recently in class we began talking about ethos, pathos and logos, and I cant think of a better example of pathos than the Green Lantern series. the entire series is built upon emotion and the writer are able to make their readers feel strong emotions toward their characters. In conclusions, this exploration is awesome and everyone should do it.

Side Note: everyone should also read a Green Lantern Comic.

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Oh So Ironic

When I came across this image, my first thought was that this is a perfect example of how people view each other. This image makes a statement that it immediately contradicts. This is just like how some people are so quick to judge others simple mistakes that they themselves maybe guilty of. This image is attempting to tell people what to do, however because of its contradiction, it automatically loses all authority it may have had and becomes a joke. Throughout my life I have met numerous people who do this constantly and because of it they, just like this sign, lose all integrity they may have had by constantly contradicting themselves.

My Memory Palace Experience

When I began doing this Memory Palace thing I didn’t really think that it was going to be as effective as it ended up being. Before I started I had no idea how to differentiate the three rhetorical appeals Ethos, Pathos and Logos. However by the time I was done I had established that there was no way I would ever forget them. I sat in my dorm room looking at the definitions of each of the words and then looking at the things in my room and, to be honest, I thought it was kind of dumb. However the longer I worked on it, the easier it was to make connections to tangible objects in my room. Pathos was symbolized by my collections of Green Lantern Blackest Night Novels, Logos was represented as my stack of text books sitting on my desk chair, and finally Ethos, the hardest of the three to place, I visualized as the smoke detector on the ceiling of my room. When I finally finished placing everything in my memory palace, I was amazed at the progress I had made in memorizing these difficult concepts. I can say now though that my original assumption about memory palaces was completely wrong.

Conspicuous Consumption

Conspicuous Consumption: The acquisition and display of expensive items to attract attention to one’s
wealth or to suggest that one is wealthy.

When I was looking for the best definition of Conspicuous Consumption, it quickly became clear what the definition was. Conspicuous consumption, in the simplest terms, is when someone buys something to appear wealthy or to show off their wealth. My whole life I have seen examples of this, but until now, I never knew there was a word for it. I’m sure everyone has seen someone with an overly nice car, name brand clothing, and especially jewelry. All of these things are unnecessary, yet we all buy them to impress other people. It’s amazing that this idea of Conspicuous Consumption has become so prevalent that not only does it have its own word, but it can be applied to almost everyone you meet.

The Consumer

Exploration #15: Consumer

• Donut Hole
• 2 Big Truck Tacos
• Chips
• Queso
• 2 pieces of gum
• Toothpaste
• Water, Lots of Water
• Air
• Dust Particles
• A small piece of a toothbrush bristle
• A small amount of Old Spice Body wash
• A piece of Hawaiian Bread
• Some grape Juice
• Some of my shampoo
• Saliva
• Whatever comes out of the heater by my bed

As I wrote about the things that I consumed today I began to realize that was not thinking abstractly enough. I began by writing only the things that I had intentionally eaten. I had to go back through my day and think about all the things that I did and try to remember everything that entered my system during my daily routine.  This exploration really opened my eyed to how I view the word consumption. Consumption is more than just what you ate for dinner; consumption is everything that you let into your body. Also, as the word consumption changes, so does the word consumer. Is a consumer someone who buys things at a store, or is a consumer someone who simply uses the things that surround them every day?

Altered States

Earlier this afternoon I sat in my room and decided to try and watch TV with ear plugs in. Exploration #40 in Keri Smith’s book How to be and Explorer of the World tells you to block one of your senses and try to experience things. As I sat watching TV, I realized how much my eyes and ears worked together to help me process information. It almost seems as if you need the combination of eyes and ears to give you the correct context for most situations. Although the only show I watched in my handicapped state was Family Guy I know the effect would be the same for any other situation requiring proper context.

The Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial

As I spent my time wandering through the memorial I was shocked at the details of the events of April 19, 1995. While everything I looked at struck an emotional chord with me, there was one room that I felt was more powerful than any other. Roughly half way through the memorial there is a room filled with pictures of the 168 innocent men, women and children who were killed in this tragic event.

As I walked in the room I became very emotional. When you hear about it on the news or read the reports from the police, its hard to believe that it could actually happen. However, once you walk into that room and look into the faces of all the victims, its impossible to deny the fact that this was one of the most horrific events in American history. The faces on the wall have more effect on visitors than anything else in the memorial, the emotional toll it took on me just to walk through that 20 foot long room is something I will never be able to for get for as long as I live.

While the room of faces as a whole is very emotional alone, there are 19 pictures among them that made my heart sink. Among the faces of the victims, there are the pictures of 19 children who were kill long before it was their time. Looking into the face of those young children who were not much older than I was on the day of the bombing is a scary thought that affected me greatly. Nobody deserves to die in such a tragic and evil manner, but for a child, let alone 19 children, to die is a tragedy that should never be experienced by anyone. The Oklahoma City Bombing memorial is something that I believe everyone should experience at some point in their lives. While it is very graphic and sad, we cannot ignore our past no matter how much we wish we could.