The Gear

This is a Youtube animation video I thought was pretty cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEY1Uam3TEw&feature=related

And on another note, I took another crack at Maelstrom yesterday... but the task manager, the antivirus, the built-in scanner and Trend Micro, all aren't working properly because of the infection. Which also means my music, my pictures, my programs, nothing can be used, after all the time I took to meticulously hunt down and install various programs to make my computer more functional, it was taken down by an out of date explorer and Trend Micro. Oh the Irony! *hand flat against forehead in dramatic fashion.*

Obama, the verb/Gripes of an aspiring mangaka

Redirects to this link.
http://ampontan.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/translating-obama-into-japanese/

On a sidenote, the rough draft is advancing at a steady pace. 18 pages through. Doing some rapid recalculations, drawing one page of manuscript a day would take me well into march... And that's disregarding the simple fact that there is no way I can keep up with a 1-per-day speed, especially not at the end of february... and even less so after the return from reading week. We have animation as one of our three assignments, after all.

And as I progress along with the rough, I realize that the layout quality has improved drastically starting after page 8, which is forcing me to face the reality of having to redraw the rough. Problem is though, since my layout skills are next to nil, I am growing at a pace too steady to produce a single, cohesive piece of work. Oh well. As long as the ending is really good. Storywise, it's the only decent part.

Although I like to think of myself as a comic book artist, I have taken no steps to distance myself from manga. Thus, to label myself as anything but an aspiring (a.k.a. wannabe) mangaka is to lie.

On-The-Fly, Unedited Submitted RAW

 

I will write this analysis in an artistic, subjective style. I will break traditional conventions by using the first person, by writing in a roundabout manner, straightforwardly writing like I think. This is because the Reebok ad profoundly annoys me. It deserves and shall get no reprieve. Whether this is due to my strong anti-feminism position, raving sexism or because of my abhorrence of marketing and capitalism, I leave up to the reader. To be quite honest, I do not yet know myself.

Firstly, let me say this; to truly understand the connotative and denotative meanings of this ad one would have had to have been a grown woman in the 80’s or the 90’s. I am neither, and submitting this subjective assignment to a professor who is both, wherein lies the danger. The picture shows an African-american woman practicing aerobics in what is presumably her apartment. She is dressed in trendy aerobic clothing and wears squeaking white sneakers, with the posture and facial expression of a determined and energetic hard worker. The television displaying the aerobics video is on the ground, her bed seems to be a simple mattress on the floor, her furniture is simple, her bookshelf stacked with books.

The first and most annoying thing about this advertisement is that it writes off men as a thing to be avoided first by generalizing that all men like their women soft and cuddly and therefore not successful in the career sense and secondly by reinforcing the cultural and ideological notion that successful women must be strong and tough and proud and fiercely independent. The second most annoying thing in this image is the fact that she is doing arobics,  fitness that involves no actual engagement with the outside world, a predecessor of WiiFit, and a strong precursor of the “You can do it from home” myth, which later evolves into the “you can do it easily” myth. I also cannot help but notice that Reebok plays on the stereotype of black people being physically fit while also insidiously suggesting that black people also can become successful through hard work. This is doubly insidious since it is telling consumers both that Reebok promotes racial equality but also distantly referencing the American reality that black people must fight to become successful, which is another way of saying that black people are often brought up in a defavorized environment.

The entire advertisement is really as effective as it is because of a myth that has become hugely prominent, that is the “key to success” myth. In this case; “Buy these shoes is the first step to becoming fit.” “Aerobics is what women who are fit do to keep in shape” “These are the clothes that an athletic person wears.” “This is what the room of an ambitious person looks like” “An successful person does not party.” ”A successful woman is a woman who is not fat, who works hard and never gives up” While this is partially true, it is also an early symptom of the other 21st century plague, the importance of physical appearance in success. In the end of the 20th century, women undoubtedly had it rough in the workplace. Strength and drive superior to that of men were undoubtedly needed to achieve the same level of success. In the 21’st century, beauty and youth is what is expected of women, not strength. This is a deplorable shift, admittedly, and has little to do with this shoes ad, but “I believe” that these two operate under the same basic line of thought.
But all advertisements are alike. All of them play on our definitions of things like “sportiness” to sell us recycled water, “success”, the success of self help guides, and the notion that one must choose between following the trends or adhering to their personal values. With time, following trends becomes a value in and of itself. And that is a major annoyance.

For the record, my understanding of ideology is that of a vast, culture-wide belief or mindset that contains the definitions of all the aspects of normality. It is akin to a spider’s web, tying everything together in the middle, and yet tying some things together and leaving some things apart. It is a way of thought, a way to perceive the world, and ties in to the situation of the cultures and or demographics it affects. A current day example is the opinion, shared by many youth, that the corporate world is thoroughly corrupt but essential, and that that is the paradox of our time. It is often, but not only all inclusive.

To close I would like to bring full attention to the extent of the marketing sham: The feet of people that do not wear fancy Reeboks (Reebok is actually derived from the Afrikaan word gazelle or antilope, by the way) actually develop more naturally, thus granting them a more performing  stride and a more”fit” body.

[edit] holy shit I'm super stupid why the hell did I submit this?? She's not gonna like it. Hell no. And what I meant to say (and forgot) is that people who don't wear shoes have more developed feet.

***CAD

Definitely NOT the first time this has happened.

What do I want to do? I'm in art school. I'm applying for a BFA. In what? Integrated Media? Installation? Drawing and Painting? It all sounds so dull. Couldn't I do those without a BFA? Ah, but I would lack the quality of a professional. So, what do I want to be? A professional painter? Do I want to exhibit my work in shows?

Do I even want to do this? Do I need to do this? It feels like a waste all of a sudden. I want to draw comics, but this barely helps with that. I want to create work and stuff - would I do it on my own?

I'll keep my options open. I'll apply. But what to do...?

Quote of the Day

"Do you know why they mock you? It is because they are weak."
                   -Eric Vergnas

"Time"

Time... Time towards death? Time after death? The time it takes to decompose a body; the time it takes for a dead person to die... I like time, but I don't understand it... Does time go forward? They say that on the atomic level there is no reason that time should travel forwards and not backwards. I don't understand that. "On the atomic level"... On the atomic level all actions can be reversed, given a gigantic battery to power them. But the reverse is not the same as "going back in time" It you're doing photosynthesis in reverse, you have cellular respiration. Those aren't the same, they exist in the same direction. What about an implosion, then? Is it the opposite, or the reverse? I want, and yet dont want to read blogs on quantum physics.

What is the difference between opposite and inverse? In math its pretty easy. 2+2=4 thats the base. 2-2=0, thats the opposite, instead of adding you substract, but the basic law on which the units are based upon is the same. So you're upshifting by two, or downshifting by two, but in -(2+2) you're driving in reverse. Is this time going backwards? Photosynthesis may be the contrary of cellular respiration, but they operate within the same universe, the same "time" which flows forwards.

What am I saying? Obviously it is not possible for a process to occur backwards... My thinking is limiting time as the absolute invariable, which it is supposedly not.

Anyway. What is circular time-

Did you know? Time is a human construct. It actually slows down as you move away from earth. I can't understand the mathematics of the concept, to me it seems as though this suggests that we "created" time for ourselves, and so "time" only truly exists on our planet. At least, linear time does. In our perception.

What is linear time? Did you know? Apparently, there is a certain pattern to chance, if your randomized experiments at an  infinitely great scale, you would find a pattern Apparently, computers are able to map that pattern, and it is an infinite pattern. It seems that even linear time is not actually linear.  A person's day is linear: morning, noon, evening night. And then the day ends. This is how humans perceive the world. Birth, expansion, prime, deflation?, death. And there it ends. But if you look at the greater scheme of things, after death a person's body enters a variety of complex circles, gears, whatever, is broken down and then reconstructed and becomes life anew.

Did you know? They say our universe is changing temperature. It was very warm during the big bang, and now that the universe is bigger its colder. Probably, it will get small and hot again. Will that be the ultimate death? No. Everything suggests that once it is small it will once again explode. And the universe will begin anew?

Is there a set amount of matter in the universe? Is an atom indestructibe? Is an atom only indestructible on this scale? Is life like the chance grid, infinite gears turning infinitely, inside one another infinitely in both directions? What gears are atoms a part of? What gears are the universe a part of? Is an atom the same as the universe? Is this "life"? An infinite infinity of reoccurring occurrences, each following a gear with a different size? If that is how life works, then what is life? It doesn't go straight, does it? It goes round and round, again and again. Life, death... death only exists as a part of Life, a segment in the merry go round, that's colder than the rest.

How did we get here? Were we always here? What is the dawn of time in this context? We have to come from somewhere, right? Our linear mind is unable to comprehend the unending vastness that may comprise this - universe isn't vast enough of a world - this reality. TIme in our sense flows forward, but really we have no real beginning to it nor any true end to it. That's because we're so small that the gear looks flat. That's massive, man. Truly, we have our place in the universe, if it is such. Or perhaps we are meant to understand the way life works. Perhaps we have done it before... Time and time again.

[edit] Ah... so this is where the theory of parallel universes comes from. Wow, this is really old knowledge after all... I wonder, how far ahead is the government in relation to the common folk...

Bugs are bugs and plants are plants