The Review: "Brainwashed" by Seth Godin

The article “Brainwashed” is an interesting idea and one that I strongly agree with. The idea is that our education system has been set up so that we are taught to stride for being average and taking the safe road through life because that is reliable. Grodin advises seven layers or ways if you will, that we can reinvent, and thrive in society by pushing or "nudging" out of line and the system.

Of these layers is the idea of "Acknowledging the Lizard". The instinct that shuts us down when there is a chance at failure, this is the so-called “Lizard”. The Lizard, it is this fraction of our DNA that tells us to follow suite, obey the higher ups, do as we are told, and behave as a cog in a machine.  When one realizes there is this fear of failure, or  “Acknowledge the Lizard”, is when one will create something greatly innovative.

Another Layer that interested me was the seventh layer. This layer stressed that it was "the key to the others” – it is learning. It suggests that school is a misnomer and that it not all encompassed in the time one spend from kindergarten to college or graduate school. But more of a Life-Long process in which you are always in a state of learning and absorbing new things. When this thoroughly understood, one will learn that people rapidly change and that one can be outside the box and still flourish.

The Lizard layer is connected to blogging in that creative writing and spreading information is a artistic venture, in which you have to step out of you shell, always revealing the possibility of f failure. But taking the risk to express thoughts is worth the chance of that failure. The seventh layer is the very essence of blogging to share information, to learn. Like the Internet our minds are constantly expending, gaining knowledge, we don’t simple stop being school when we leave the institution of school. One must continue learning, sharing information between each other. Through blogging and these blogging assignments we are gaining the ability to learn on a larger scale, a global scale. These assignments make me a better and more rounded person, for the simple face through the blog ordinary people can share their thoughts, and these people could be on the opposite sides of the earth, sharing things that they would otherwise not have known.

The Review: Ryan Nord & Juliette Rocheleau

This was a very interesting soundscape I have to say. The emotion was remorse, however the emotion I got out of it was something more along the lines of disoriented or confused. I really think I actually started to become a little dizzy. With the ‘’CooCoo” bird clock “Coo-ing” along with ticking, the hovering sound panning from right to left all in combination with baby crying being played all at once was too much.

The Review: Mark and Tanner's Soundscape

This Soundscape was definitely very dark. To me it eluded to all the cause of a premeditated murder. It definitely drew a scene in my mind. The ominous outdoor cicada sound follows by heavy foot steps hints at a darker tone of the. These minor dark pretenses are quickly dwarfed to the sudden chopping of what I could only imagine is a knife and racing heartbeat. A shrieking scream rings out but is muffled by an extremely loud gunshot. If that was it creepy enough, it is top off with a good dose of sadistic laughing. There emotion was fear and I think it definitely portrayed fear to a T, However I have to say to me the most fighting part was the laughing at the end, it reminded me of a clown at some demented circus.

The Review: Tony Hermane Soundscape

The part of this soundscape that really captured my interest was the sound of this pinball machine-ish, electronic spring-bounce noise. The sound really reminded me of one those Rock ‘em Sock’ em games back when I was little. Then the sound of the cheers really enhanced and reinstated that feeling. So when I listened to the soundscape again with this Robot boxer mindset, the beginning started to sound a little different. The hollow drips sounds, now, almost as if the could be in some sort chamber where the robots would be before the match. And as they appear in the arena the volume rises and the match begins, fans cheering for their victor.

Soundscape

By Ashton Harrell & Ryan Newell

Finding your Howl

In Flaum’s article Find your howl there are two stories, one of which is the story of the Red wolf, Mumon and the deer. While on his journey in finding his howl, Mumon hunts down a deer and before could capture it, the deer stops and speaks with the wolf. The deer asks Mumon how he learned how to hunt, Mumon replies that he didn’t get taught he just knows…the deer tells him that it’s the same way with your howl, something natural and embedded inside you. Then the deer flies only to be finally captured by Mumon and eaten, while Mumon eats he cries, he is ashamed. As he awakes after his nap a raven who finished cleaning the bones of the deer now speaks with Mumon. He tells him not to fine how he must shed himself of the shame he feels for what he is, and that it is the same as feeling shame for being born into this world. Flaum makes through this story the point that in order to survive and move ahead in this world and in life you must accept who we are.

"Pioneers, O'Pioneers" By Walt Whittman


Excerpt from the poem, read by Bryan Floyd

Ditkoff 14 Suggestions

Tolerate Ambiguity: When Thomas Edison was asked how it felt to fail 800 times before coming up with tungsten as the filament for the light bulb, his answer was a revealing one. “Fail?” he said. “I didn’t fail once. I learned 800 times what didn’t work.” Edison had the ability to tolerate ambiguity. I think that this breakthrough means that if you can withstand failure and mistakes you can achieve great accomplishments. Others may think your ideas are crazy and your time is not worthwhile but in reality the more you can take and use uncertainty, the chances of you birthing a breakthrough idea increase. So don’t dwell on your failures but rather study them, learn why they did not work and build off that.

FantasIze: n 1989, Gary kasparov, the soviet union Grand chess master, played a two game match against “Deep Blue,” the reigning supercomputer of the time. kasparov won easily. When asked by the media what his competitive advantage was, he cited two things: intuition and the ability to fantasize. Ditkoff goes on to explain why that few of us are ever encouraged to fantasize, and yet, fantasizing is exactly how many breakthrough ideas get their start—by some dreamer amusing the seemingly impossible. Fantasizing is massively important to the creation of ideas. If people didn’t dream of the extraordinary then the ordinary wouldn’t exist; for the ordinary is a branch of extraordinary thinking. A current challenge of mine is be able to make films, in a way that I could total if not major of freedom to what I would like. And If I had the ability to have a fantasy solution, I guess it would be have my own film/production company. With that I would be able to have liberal freedom to make the movies I wanted how I wanted them.

Notice and challenge existing Patterns and Trends: Noticing patterns says Ditkoff, is crucially important and it closely ties to the successes of people who make there living on noticing patterns, people in the business of futurology, meteorology, air traffic controlling, and stock brokering. Breakthrough thinkers often hit the gravy train by challenging old patterns and then reconfiguring them in new ways Ditkoff explains. I too also think that great success is related to ones ability to find patterns; patterns in the economy, in rating, demographics. Patterns are not just important to know what has happened, but is also crucial in determining what will happen. The trends in the market that I most closely follow are the trends in what people are watching. Like in film, people are very interested in vampires and zombies. However this trend will shift like all other trends in the movie industry and soon it will be on to the next crazy; in my opinion I think it will be western and UFOs that is not to say that they are already not a promenade tend now.

Hang out with Diverse Groups of People: When I first read this suggestion I really got to thinking about my own social life and the people that I hang out with. I began to realize that much of what suggestion was saying about typical behavior applied to me. Slightly embarrasses that I thought of myself as pretty well diverse, turns out that not the case. So I asked myself how many different groups of people do I spend time with on a weekly basis, I think I came up with two; two very similar groups of people. Once again I feet small and unrounded. Ditkoff suggest that one needs to break the so-called “bonds” of the familiar and hang out with different crowds. Not just stop there but to also go beyond the usual people that I would befriend and spend time with but to look for outcast and oddballs. So I challenged myself, and sort of building of off the challenge that Ditkoff confronted the reader with. His challenge asked us to make a list of ten people or groups of people out your traditional “Posse” who you can spend time with this month. I decided to not make a list but instead to actually do it. I would spend a month spending each week with a new classmate or work associate’s group of friends, hang out where they hang out and do the type of things they do. Through this activity I would hope to gain a broader knowledge of how people interact with on another, where people are from and how that measures in how they interact and view others.