I saw this comic and figured if you haven’t yet you can be one of today’s lucky 10,000.
Photo Caption: From http://xkcd.com/
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Below are photos from my Fine Arts Center photography class this year (but not all of them, I need to add the rest later). I also included a few photos of art pieces from my audition portfolio that I used to get in to the FAC in the first place (the red chicken finger painting of Combustion Spur Lava Beak, the monster-me mosaic, and the skull still life). Click to see larger photos.
Photo Caption: Part of a series that my Grandpa drove me around for. The image is titled “Reflect” and was taken with a film camera and got in to the FAC end of year gallery contest.
Photo Caption: My Grandpa holding 2 foam pieces.
Photo Caption: Forest area from the same series with my Grandpa.
Photo Caption: Hans and Thor
Photo Caption: Hans with his sheep
Photo Caption: Hans with a pitchfork… in his mom’s bathroom for some reason.
Photo Caption: Digital photo of logs that reminded me of caves.
Photo Caption: Shutter speed experiment of me jumping off a picnic table
Photo Caption: Scratch plate, unnamed
Photo Caption: Milkweed fibers
Photo Caption: Pinhole titled “Dreadlock Clothespins”
Photo Caption: Pinhole “Clothespins at the Picnic Table”
Photo Caption: Pinhole “Spilled Jar Lids”
Photo Caption: Finger painting of Combustion Spur Lava Beak (from my audition portfolio prior to getting in the Fine Arts Center)
Photo Caption: Mosaic self-portrait (from audition portfolio)
Photo Caption: Still life of deer skull (from audition portfolio)
Photo Caption: “The Beekeeper’s Gear”
Photo Caption: “Oblivious”
Photo Caption: Experimental piece called “Machine Gun Volcano Giant”
Photo Caption: “Teenager”
Photo Caption: “The Straggler”
Photo Caption: Random objects
Photo Caption: Scratch plate, unnamed
Advertising Analysis
Oct. 11, 2012
Find an advertisement in a magazine, newspaper, journal, online or on television. Using the advertising techniques information from our session on Tuesday, analyze the advertisement.
Who is the intended audience? Young girls
How do you know this? Partially because our culture expects girls to like dolls and there are pink aisles in the toy store devoted to this, and partially because the dolls in the drawing are supposed to be young girls.
What persuasive techniques were used? There could be a lot of techniques being used here. First, I notice the slogan to “shop till you drop” and “Start shopping now!” These slogans identify Bratz dolls with the idea that girls should love to shop. There is a logo for the Bratz brand that has the name and a shimmering halo. I think that this image is trying to promote being materialistic and shallow as a good thing. I also think this ad has snob appeal, it seems to be trying to say that fashionable young girls buy Bratz dolls. It also has emotional appeal to say that girls will be happy if they have Bratz dolls and shop a lot. I’m horrified at this but it also seems to have sex appeal even though it is a product for little kids. It seems to want all the girls to get on the bandwagon of being cool and having Bratz dolls and great clothes. The ad is probably trying to transfer the idea of wealth, fashion, and materialism to the idea of owning a Bratz doll: buy this doll and you’ll have all the purses and diamonds you ever wanted!
Were they effective? I think this was effective to market to the majority of girls but not to me.
How so? The product is targeted towards girls at a young age so they start learning early on to behave like the product suggests. Plus the more materialistic Bratz convinces a girl to be, the more Bratz dolls the girl will buy.
If you were a member of the target audience, would you purchase this product? No.
Why or why not? When I was two someone bought me a Barbie doll and my mom says I took one look and flung it across the room. She also says that when I was given My Little Pony toys, I took them out to the compost pile and pretended to feed them worms. My “teddy bear” for years was a Beanie Baby tarantula that I kept under my pillow and wore in my shirt when I went out. From that point on I have probably been one of the weirdest girls I know. I only recently started to wear a small amount of pink and skirts now that I feel old enough to do it ironically. Most of the time my pink clothes have funny slogans and I wear my skirts over pants. I think girls and guys should be able to do or wear whatever they want, and I don’t think they should be asked to objectify themselves. Bratz is a terrible toy for kids that does not promote this freedom at all.
This was my final project in English II and I thought I’d share since my grandparents are currently in New Mexico, where Carlsbad Caverns is. We have our own photos from our trip but I just used some from Wikimedia Commons since I didn’t want to look for them.
Photo Caption: From Wikimedia Commons, inside the caverns.
Our Day at Carlsbad Caverns
In June of 2010 my entire family (Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, and Aunt Lynne), rented a van and spent several weeks of our summer driving to California and back. The only thing that could have made it better is if my stepdad Nathaniel could have gone, too. However, my parents weren’t married yet plus he couldn’t get off work. We stopped at so many great places along the way, but the one I remember most fondly is Carlsbad Caverns.
The entrance of the cavern was an enormous hole in the side of the desert landscape. Lots of tourists sat on benches and even more streamed down into the cavern. We could see and smell bat guano that had piled up naturally at the entrance over countless years. There was a pathway that started outside and snaked its way all the way down.
My Grandma was not fond of cave conditions so she did not walk down the winding main entrance trail with us. We went down the seemingly endless concrete pathway; there were rails alongside the entire thing to prevent people from falling. A short way down, we could no longer see or smell the bat guano. The rocks were slick and wet and the air was comfortably cool. It was humid, but not sticky humid like hot South Carolina weather. It was a welcome change since I had been dealing with a stuffy nose for the past week due the dry western conditions. I almost wanted to move in and live with the bats.
At some point, I looked up and the entrance was only a tiny white speck of light vanishing as we descended under the Earth. My mom was keeping her hands on the rails due to her fear of heights and claustrophobia. The end of the trail opened into a man-influenced cavern with a little dining area, flickering electricity, and a few fridges stocked full of Gatorade and fruit salads. My mom bought us one with chunks of honeydew melon which we ate while we waited for the tour guide. When we had finished we got up to look around and to my surprise, my Grandma was walking towards us. She said she had taken the elevator.
Photo Caption: From Wikimedia Commons, the way the entrance looks as you descend into the cave.
Our tour guide explained that they used to cook hamburgers here a few years ago but stopped because the smoke was blackening the cavern ceiling. Instead, they now shipped the tourist food all the way down the entrance precooked. We were rounded up and taken on a guided tour of the caverns and passageways. We walked for hours through tunnels and past spectacular formations like the “Lion’s Tail” and several others I can no longer remember the name of. In the tunnels there were patches of cave water so clear and still you could see every pebble at their bottoms in detail. Halfway through the tour, there was an underground waterfall. I thought it was one of the most impressive things we’d seen until we got to the “Big Room”. Gawking in awe is an understatement; no one was able to speak when they saw the sheer size of this part of the cavern and its enormous collections of stalactites that spanned across the ceiling.
Photo Caption: From Wikimedia Commons, formations in Carlsbad Caverns.
Photo Caption: From Wikimedia Commons, formations in Carlsbad Caverns.
Photo Caption: From Wikimedia Commons, formations in Carlsbad Caverns.
When our tour was over, we exited the cave and walked around the gift shop while we waited for the bat show. I had already bought a glow-in-the-dark bat t-shirt when I was in the underground gift shop but I also purchased some magnets, a piece of calcite, and a mug. When it was time for the show, we all went back to the entrance of the cave and walked to the amphitheater. The sun was starting to set and we sat and talked for 30 minutes while we waited. Finally, some park rangers arrived and told the audience about the millions of Mexican free-tailed bats that live in the cave.
Photo Caption: From Wikimedia Commons, Mexican free-tailed bats exiting the cave in the evening.
The sky turned a darker blue and we heard crackling sounds coming from a couple of large speakers. The rangers explained that the speakers were able to pick up the high-pitched sounds of the bats and that the fact we were hearing them meant that they were on their way out. A few minutes later, bats were pouring en masse from the cave entrance. We were all so awed that we barely said anything. We stayed there and watched millions of bats fly over our heads for over an hour. When we got in the car, we couldn’t stop talking about our adventure that day. I only wish Nathaniel could have been there too, since he loves bats as much as I do.
Brooding is when a chicken goes through a phase triggered by a natural release of hormones. Instead of foraging and interacting with other chickens, they stop laying eggs and sit in their nesting box for 21 days in an attempt to hatch their own or their flock’s eggs. During this time they get very irritable and rarely if ever leave to eat or drink.
LaZertron Eggonator has been broody all week! We don’t have a rooster because there’s a noise limit in the city. That means her unfertilized eggs won’t hatch. I don’t think she knows that, or cares, considering I’ve caught her a number of times sitting on imaginary eggs. If nothing else, she’s creative — I’ll give her points for that at least… anyone up for an imaginary omelet?
LaZertron Eggonator was named by my stepdad and her nickname is “Ol’ LaZertron.”
Photo Caption: LaZertron is the chicken on the right (the chicken on the left is Miss Lilac Luna Pumpkintoes, Fairy Killer Extraordinaire).
LaZertron is a cuckoo maran (a type of chicken breed). Marans originated in France and they are a medium, dual purpose breed that gained popularity in England. They are also well known for their dark brown eggs and are often referred to as chocolate eggers.
Cuckoo marans are prone to brooding. They lay eggs at least five days a week and are not normally big on socializing with people. LaZertron Eggonator is abnormally tame for her breed.
Photo Caption: LaZertron lays the dark brown speckled eggs in this carton, except when she is broody.
In the picture above, our two rose comb brown leghorns (also a chicken breed) lay the white eggs. Our three ameraucanas lay the green eggs, and the brown eggs are LaZertron’s.
On average, chickens lay an egg a day, 6 days a week. With our chickens we’ve found that each leghorn lays seven eggs a week, each ameraucana lays 6 eggs a week, and our cuckoo maran lays five eggs a week.
Photo Caption: Our hen LaZertron is determined to sit on the nest even though the eggs aren't fertilized. If broody chickens aren't discouraged from sitting they can die from starvation.
On a normal day, LaZertron Eggonator eats almost anything edible, and a lot of it. Like all chickens, she poops every 15 minutes! She will let you pick her up, but unlike most of our other chickens, she will not let you hold her for more than a few seconds. However, she will eagerly eat food out of your hand.
When she is broody she just sits in the egg box all day and hogs the nest.
Other broody behaviors include pulling out breast feathers to line the nest and constipation, which results in really gross looking “broody poops.” When I interrupt her attempts to hatch eggs, she puffs up her feathers, extends her wings a little bit, then raises and fans out her tail feathers to make herself look bigger. It makes her resemble a classic wild turkey, only in black and white because of her cuckoo coloring (the picture above is not an accurate example of her goofy turkey impersonation). She also makes a funny irritated growling sound.
Photo Caption: It looks mean, but separating a broody chicken from the flock is one of the kindest ways to break them of the brooding habit. Food, water, and shade are necessities for a penned chicken. We used an empty segment of our compost bin for LaZertron's pen.
When chickens get broody it is best to interrupt them constantly. Make sure they’re eating and drinking. If your chicken is still stubbornly refusing to give up, you can pen her up in a separate spot close to the other chickens. This enclosure should have food, water, and shelter but no bedding for the next few days so she can’t continue brooding. If she starts laying eggs again, it’s a sure sign that its time to let the chicken out of her pen.
Remember, if a chicken is brooding infertile eggs, do not allow it because she may not stop before she starves to death. Fertile eggs can be hatched in an incubator or by a broody chicken. If you let your chicken hatch her eggs, watch closely and be alert for signs of illness or starvation. Make sure she’s eating, drinking, and pooping. If your chicken still isn’t eating, even after she’s started laying again, there may be another reason for her behavior. This can also be true if she is absolutely refusing food and water for days on end. If this happens, it may be a good idea to contact a vet, an experienced chicken owner, or an online chicken community such as Backyard Chickens.com.
Photo Caption: At least LaZertron isn't too isolated. She can see the rest of her flock foraging outside her pen, which reduces her stress. We hope she'll stop being broody soon so she can rejoin the group.
In our yard, it’s so far, so good. LaZertron has been penned in a bird mesh enclosure next to the compost pile. She has her own food bowl and waterer. Fairy Killer keeps getting in the enclosure and eating her food. We always put Ol’ LaZertron back in the coop at night so she’ll be safe from predators.
My stepdad showed me this comic called Nedroid. There’s a “Beartato.” That’s a bear + potato. Awesome.
Photo Caption: Click on the image if you want to visit the official website.
I accidentally typed “Missing My Fried” for the subject at first, but that’s way too silly for how I feel about this problem.
I haven’t seen one of my best friends in months and I haven’t even been able to write to her. It makes me feel so helpless because I know she is going through so much and I’m not there for her. It’s a situation where the government got involved. My family was helping out before that happened, but now we’re not allowed to. My mom and I both think a lot of what has happened is very unfair and surprising. We thought that the system worked better than it apparently does.
I wish I was allowed to complain to someone. My mom says that we don’t have rights in this instance because we aren’t blood related. I felt so close to my friend that we might as well have been.
Ever since it happened I’ve felt like I had no say in anything and no way to deal with how sad I felt. I already said I felt helpless but it doesn’t seem like a strong enough word. I wish I could at least invite my friend over so she could tell me her troubles and we could do something fun to make her feel better. I wish I could be sure she knew that we didn’t want any of this to happen to her.
I’m losing trust in how the justice system works. My mom says it doesn’t always mess up like this and that she didn’t think this could happen. She thought things were going to get better, not worse. It’s sad and overwhelming to realize the adults in my life can’t fix problems like this.
We’re both hoping things will get better and I can see my friend again. I miss her so much!
I took this picture and modified it while I was in A.R.M.E.S. class at the Fine Arts Center. It’s for the digital images assignment. I based it off of a game called Dino Run. What do you think?
Sorry I haven’t written in a while! I’ve got some great posts planned but I don’t have much time tonight. So, here’s a quick one.
Does anyone know the classical music piece called “O Fortuna?” It’s apparently a poem from the 13th century that a German composer set to music in 1935. At this point it is one of the most popular pieces of music ever. It gets played in movies and even commercials. I think it is in the preview for the documentary called Walking with Prehistoric Beasts (also available for instant play on Netflix).
At any rate no one can understand the lyrics of “O Fortuna” unless you can speak Latin. Which I can’t, so I’m going to go along with this person’s version of what they are saying:
Artificial Cucumbers 