Church of Science?

             A religious system based on the seeking of self-knowledge and spiritual fulfillment through graded courses of study and training;  this is the definition of scientology, the religion that just can't seem to keep itself out of the media and out of the mouths of critics.  Yet, how much does the average person know about scientology?  After a little research, here are some of the pros and cons I found:


Pros:  Man alone accomplishes his own goals, solves his own problems, and gains lasting happiness
          Helps a person be in the Here and Now
          You only have to believe what you want to
          Helps people become more harmonious and relaxed
          Offers real tools for use in everyday life  


Cons:  Represents a "one-size-fits-all"
            Absence of openness
            Focuses on enemies, war, battle, or anything attacking or critical to Scientology
           Aims to be "mainstream" and is therefore seen as a scam
           Reputation for ruthlessness


In Clearwater, FL, The Church of Scientology (also known as the Flag Service Organization) is an enormous building that serves as a retreat for Scientologists from around the country, as well as their headquarters.  It is the hub of the Scientology community and today has over a dozen buildings, 1,200 staff members, and more than 2,000 out-of-town visitors every week.  The Scientology community in Clearwater alone has upwards of 12,000 people. The Church is very prominent in the world wide community of Scientology, and members of the religion look forward to the day when they can hopefully come to train and practice Scientology in Clearwater.

Free to Play

              I absolutely LOVED the film Free to Play.  Not only was it a suspenseful romance, but it was a great documentary that opened my eyes to a world I do not know much about.  The main stars of Free to Play, the hard-core professional gamers, are people that I have never really come into contact with in my life.  The "gamer" stereotype has always been something of a joke to me; thinking of these people has middle aged men living off of junk food while playing video games in their mom's basement.  In Free to Play, I was able to see the stories behind each of these gamers, and therefore was able to better understand where their love of this sport came from and why they put so much time into it.  I gained great insight to the world of gamers and it has surely banished the stereotype that I held.  As far as wondering if gaming will ever become bigger than televised sports, I honestly cannot decide what I feel.  Coming from a family, and even a culture really, that values and idolizes these professional sports and their physical aspect, I don't really see how gaming could ever compete.  That being said,  technology advances every day, and the gaming community grows with it.  In a world that also values technology, I do feel that there is a great possibility for gaming to at least become televised in the future.         In some ways this could be problematic.  If gaming becomes a big enough deal that it can be done professionally, this may further decrease the number of children getting physical activity or doing well in school,  let alone going to college.  If a child sees that they can make a living out of playing their video games, they may never have a reason to leave the couch.  Although I find the world of gaming and the way that it is advancing to be truly fascinating, this is something that should be taken seriously when we consider its future.

Pinterest: Week 1

The goal of my Pinterest project is to stick to a theme of clothing.  Pinterest is loaded with DIY t-shirt designs, and considering my "ballin' on a budget" economic status, I figure that they are something everyone has lying around and this therefore won't be a pricey project.  I have collected 3 of my own -shirts to begin cutting and transforming, and hope to collect more from the neighbors in my hall.  I expect the t-shirts to take about an hour each, and so I will create 6 different t-shirt designs.  These are just a few that I hope to accomplish: 

I actually planned to do more than one t-shirt this weekend, but this one took a surprisingly long time to finish.  The tricky part was all in the beads; it took hours to get each piece of cloth to fit through the tiny beads, and then to eventually tie the two pieces together.  The shirt probably took about 3 hours, but since it is so simple looking I will definitely be making more things than needed for the 6 hours.

Letters to a Young Contrarian: Chapters 16 and 17

            Chapter 16 of Letters to a Young Contrarian begins to discuss the topic and different types of humor.  I was very intrigued when first reading this, because I wondered if Christopher Hitchens, the dissident of all dissidents, viewed humor in the same way that I or someone of average society does.  It turned out that we had a lot in common on the subject.  The main view being that "..there is a relationship between intelligence and humor."  I couldn't have agreed more with the author upon reading this.  I have always found the funniest people in my life to be some of the wisest and to have the most common sense, all while being book smart as well.  In order to deliver and understand humor, you must be well educated on current events and on different kinds of people, and you must be able to read situations well as to see where what jokes are appropriate.  This brings me to the next statement of the chapter with which I agreed.  Hitchens writes, "He was witty enough to know when to keep quiet, which many comedians are not."  There are often people in our lives that may be funny, but simply do not know when enough is enough.  Humor is something that can have a limit, and should, because less is often more.  This once again proves the main point that one must be wise and aware as well as intelligent in order to be humorous.  
              As Chapter 17 begins, it is somewhat related back to the topic of wit and humor, but soon transforms into a discussion of sticking up for what you believe in.  The author writes, "Have no fear of being thought a monomaniac."  By this he means that if you believe in something and want to stand up for it, then you must fully commit to it.  You should not care if people become tired with your preaching, or if they label you "obsessed," because it only shows that they have been too weak to stand up for their own causes.  Hitchens ends the chapter with a truly beautiful piece of advice, one that I hope to remember, by writing, "The great reward, if that's the right word, lies in the people you will meet when engaged in the same work, the lessons you will learn, and the confidence you will acquire from having some experiences and convictions of your own, to set against the received or thirdhand opinions of so many others."  I cannot even begin to describe how much this means to me, because it is something that I have experienced, yet also something that I often forget.  It is very true that the causes you fight for or the values you hold truly become worth when you are with others that believe the same way.  You grow an incredible deal from experiences like these, and you then have what it takes to go back into a world full of opinions different than your own, and still stand strong.

Glitch Art: Robert Downey Jr.

When I first began thinking of who to showcase in my Glitch Art project, celebrities that experienced "glitches" in their lives were the only people coming to mind.  By this I mean stars who took and turn for the worst, maybe with drugs or alcohol, and fell from grace.  Divas like Lindsey Lohan or Amanda Bynes both experienced these rough patches and have not yet recovered.  However, I then thought how Glitch Art is about taking something that would normally be considered a problem or malfunction, and turning it into a piece of creative beauty.  I wanted a celebrity that worked through his or her "glitch" and came back as something better, and Robert Downey Jr. was the first that came to mind.

As a young actor, Robert Downey Jr's career started out very promising.  From making his first big-screen debut at the age of five, to being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor after his role as Charlie Chaplin in 1992, it was safe to say the boy's career was going places.  That being said, it was soon clear that Robert was not strong enough to avoid the path that too many child stars have gone down.   In 1996, Downey was ordered by the court to attend a 45-day program for cocaine and heroin addicts, with headlines labeling him as the "Most recent casualty of Hollywood's Heroin Resurgence."  It seemed to the world that what could have been a promising acting career was flushed down the toilet once again at the hand of drugs.  But Robert wasn't like the others, and in 2000, he was released from the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison and went to join the cast of the TV series Ally McBeal.  He proceeded forward to do many other films including Tropic Thunder, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.  Today he is most well known for his role as Iron Man in both the first and second movie as well as in the Avengers.  I find this to be quite a beautiful metaphor for his life, because although he went through a "glitch," he over came it and is now a real life Iron Man, stronger than ever.

Letters to a Young Contrarian: Chapters 14 and 15

           As Chapter 14 begins, it is clear that it will be discussing the topics of following the crowd vs. being independent, and of big, tyrannical government. Hitchens begins the chapter with a quote from the famous novel Catch-22 that states:
                                   
            Major Danby replied indulgently with a superior smile, "But, Yosarian, what if everyone felt that way?"
                  "Then I'd certainly be a damned fool to feel any other way, wouldn't I?"


When I first read this, I felt sympathy towards Yosarian.  Although I do believe that everyone should think for themselves, I thought that he made a point, that is, until I continued reading.  Hitchens goes on to discuss that being the minority is not necessarily a bad thing, and although I do tell myself that, I have to stop being a hypocrite and follow through with it.  He writes, "Those who need or want to think for themselves will always be a minority; the human race may be inherently individualistic and even narcissistic but in the mass it is quite easy to control.  People have a need for reassurance and belonging."  The last sentence is truly what hit me.  We are all very different people with very different views and thoughts, so it is only natural that we would have many different opinions.  Yet, we take such comfort in being part of a group and in having people that see things the way we do, that it sometimes brings us to alter our views.  Hitchens ends the chapter with the perfect way to sum this up by saying "Joseph Heller knew how the need to belong, and the need for security, can make people accept lethal and stupid conditions, and then act as if they had imposed them on themselves."
            Hitchens continues this discussion in Chapter 15.  The very first paragraph stood out to me as he said, "Well, no, I don't think that the solidarity of belonging is much of a prize.  I appreciate that it can bestow some pride, and that it can lead to mutual aid and even brother- and sisterhood, but it has too many suffocating qualities, and many if not most of the benefits can be acquired in other ways."  As a sister in a sorority, this really made me think.  I absolutely love the feeling of being in a sisterhood; of belonging to an organization bigger than myself.  It does in fact give me pride to say that I am a part of it, and the bonds that I have built would not have been made if I had not joined.  That being said, I understand where the author is coming from.  Belonging to a mass does have some "suffocating" qualities, such as stereotyping.  This is a problem our society continues to face, and it is, unfortunately, very easy to do when someone belongs to a large group.  However, coming from someone who has experienced the negatives and positives of belonging to a mass, I do feel the the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, and that it does help to form relationships that you could not have otherwise formed.  Overall, just like with most of this book, I am not black and white when it comes to agreeing or disagreeing with Christopher Hitchens.

Forever my Favorite

                 By the technical definition of a gamer, which states that it is anyone who "plays a game or games, typically a participant in a computer or role-playing game," then I can definitely give myself this title.  However, in today's society, a true gamer is someone who devotes the majority of their time to playing and beating games.  No matter how busy their schedule, they make time for playing games, and they take up most of their money, conversations, and thoughts.  This is something I cannot define myself as.  That being said, I have always grown up with computer and video games in the house, and once in a while I really do enjoy playing.  My favorite video game of all time would have to be Mario Kart.  Currently I have Mario Kart 7 for the Wii, and I don't think it would be that difficult for me to play for days at a time.  There are so many things to love about the game, the first of which, is that it is really simple to grasp.  For someone who is not the greatest at video games and understanding all the buttons and combinations, I can proudly say that Mario Kart is easy to catch on to.  Another reason I love it is that whether you play with up to 3 other people or alone, the game is just as fast-paced and competitive (though I do love playing with friends much more).  The main reason I love the game is because it has all of the intensity and thrill of a racing competition, with the fun sounds, classic characters, and colorful graphics of Mario.  The first of the game's series, Super Mario Kart, was released in August of 1992, and the latest, Mario Kart 8, is set to be released in May of this year. Since the beginning of Mario and Luigi, the many games that involve the brothers have had a huge cultural impact on people everywhere.  Not are they one the most popular and well known game series around the world, but they have become a part of everyday life.  You can go anywhere to find a shirt, a backpack, a keychain, a hat, and pretty much any other wearable or usable object with a scene or character from one of the Mario games.  The theme song is extremely well-known and recreated and re-used by millions of people.  And, of course, the characters are a halloween favorite.  Overall, the love of the game has shown through our culture and through the lives of the gamers everywhere.  No matter how old I get, I am sure that Mario Kart will forever be my favorite video game.

Linked In!

       My profile is definitely not as full as it could be, but I feel like it is a pretty good start!  I know that as the years go on and I gain more experience with jobs and internships and other educational opportunities, I will definitely be able to expand it greatly.

• www.linkedin.com/pub/elisabeth-dellamonica/91/b63/51

Trolling the Minaret

'Wow this is so weird to read!  I was just at the Hojo pool a few days before break with some friends and we jokingly asked some of the staff that walked by how much they would miss the kids that used to live there.  We were all giggling and didn't at all expect them to answer, but they actually gave us honest responses.  One was a younger guy and seemed really concerned that two female roommates he used to have relations with would no longer be easily at his will call.  He seemed WAY more open to talking about it than we were so that got awkward.  He also hinted at the fact that he was really bummed out about the dozens of girls that would no longer be at the pool for him to stare at.  Quite the pig if you ask me.  The other staff member was an older woman who was beyond relieved to have the students out of her hair because of all the remains of "illegal activity" that she would walk in on in the mornings.  Apparently she never reported any of it??  Either way the two were an odd pair and I probably won't be making a trip back to the Hojo any time soon."

My comment on this article: http://theminaretonline.com/2014/02/13/article32571#comment-6527

Internet Art: Chapter 3

              When researching Maciej Wisniewski, and internet artist featured in chapter 3, I found that his contribution to internet art and the world of computers in general was far greater than the book made it out to be.  He is not only a digital artist, but a computer programmer and a pioneer in network computing who focuses on the social impact of the internet.  He is the founder of Netomat, Inc., which began merely as a net-based art project for him.  It now continues to develop as a powerful, multimedia communication platform between businesses and consumers.  His work prior to this consisted of many high-profile digital art projects, such as those mentioned in Internet Art (Internet Places, 2002), and then moving on to work for IBM before ultimately becoming his own boss in the digital world.
               A second artist from this chapter whose work I found extremely interesting was Benjamin Fry.  His piece Valence takes information rich objects and visualizes them in a three-dimensional format.  Fry received his Ph.D. from the MIT Media Lab, and has since then been featured in multiple museums including the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, and has also been honored with many design awards.  Today, he is a principle and co-developer of two different companies, and will forever be an expert in data visualization.

Internet Art: Chapter 2

           The first influence on the internet art world that I chose to highlight from this chapter is Cornelia Solfrank.  The book shows a piece that she created with a team titled "Female Extension," a feminist reaction to an internet art competition in 1997.  From this alone I knew that she was an artist I wanted to look into.  Her art is not merely for entertainment or visual aesthetics, but to get her voice out to the public while standing up for something she believes in.  Solfrank originally studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and then Fine art at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg.  In addition to her life as a  post media conceptual artist, she has also taught at a multitude of universities and written a great deal on certain issues and their relationships to the internet and media.  Solfrank's specialty lies in authorship and experimenting with different forms of geniality and originality, and her last known work was a research study in the field of intellectual property.
             The second influential internet artist I chose to research was Yael Kanarek. I did this based off of the description of her piece titled "World of Awe."  In the book it states that this piece, "…mixes colorful, clean, well-executed futuristic landscapes with love letters full of imagined visual propositions and cyborg characters."  This alone had me interested in her and her art, and after some research, she turned out to be quite interesting.  Yael was born in New York City, raised in Israel, and then returned to New York in '91 to begin to live out her dream.  She became extremely active in the Net Art scene from it's beginning, which proves just how influential she really is, and she had worked with Eyebeam for over ten years.  She has been working on and improving "World of Awe" since 1995, and it is a piece that combines storytelling, traveling, memory, and technology.  Yael has been awarding both in the United States and abroad for her work, she has been featured in many museums, and has received grants from multiple foundations.  She is truly a Wonder Woman in the internet art world.

Letters to a Young Contrarian: Chapters 12 and 13

              In Chapter 12 of Hitchens' book, he talks a bit about criticism, along with the opinions and judgements of others.  He discusses how people naturally love to impose their opinions on others, although they really have no right to do so.  He talks about the decisions we make when speaking up for or against something, and he states, "Remember that saying nothing is also a decision…"  This made me think about how it is true that we consciously choose to say nothing, whether we are too fed up with the person to give them the satisfaction of our own thoughts, or merely don't want to start an argument, we are making a choice.  Sometimes, choosing not to say anything can be the best argument, because it shows that you can be the bigger person, and that you don't need the approval of others to continue believing what you already do.
              Chapter 13 begins to talk about history.  It talks about great rulers and leaders of the past, and it also discusses human nature.  Although the chapter was difficult to comprehend, I did take something very important out of it.  Towards the end of the chapter, the author writes, "Ask in mixed company if anyone can name the last American to win the Nobel Prize for Peace.  Nobel awards are well-reported here, especially in this category.  You will find that nobody can do it.  (The answer is Jody Williams, on behalf of the international campaign to ban land mines in 1997.)  But see if you ca find anyone who doesn't know that Princess Diana once did a photo-op near a minefield."  Well, perhaps no one in my generation would know about Diana's minefield photo shoot, but this idea certainly applies to society today.  The idea that everyone is more concerned with the latest trends celebrities are wearing or which stars just got divorced than with genuine, truly important events that benefit humanity.  It is truly sad, and although we can all predict that this will never change, this really made me think about the kind of news that I value in my own life.  I will definitely be making some changes.

Letters to a Young Contrarian: Chapters 10 and 11

                  Chapter 10 of Letters to a Young Contrarian is once again used to discuss religion.  The author discusses how people of strong religious faith will often bring up courageous people, such as Dr. Martin Luther King and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, when arguing that religion can lead to a life of doing good.  He responds by asking, "Are you saying that their religious belief was a sufficient or a necessary condition for their moral actions?  In other words, that without such faith they would not have opposed racism or Nazism?"  This really made me think.  Many times when I see a religious person that has committed their life to doing good for others and fighting for what they believe in, I relate the two.  It is true that they can be very directly related, however, that is not say that a person of no religious belief could not or does not do the same good work.  Religion is not the only way for people to learn right and wrong and to gain good morals, and I think this is an important point that the author makes.  Too often are we led to believe that people of no faith are worse people than those that are religious.  This was the main point that stuck out to me in this chapter.
                   As the author moves into chapter 11, he finishes his discussion on religion and begins to discuss populism and public opinion.  From this, there were a few lessons that I learned, one being this paragraph: "Nowadays, "public opinion"is more smoothly and easily ventriloquized.  I am sure you have had the experience of making up your own mind on a question and then discovering, on the evening news of the same day, that only 23.6 percent of people agree with you.  Ought you to be depressed or disconcerted by this alarmingly exact dissection of the collective brain?  Only if you believe that a squadron of under talented but overpaid pseudo-scientists have truly and verifiably arrived at this conclusion.  And perhaps, indeed I would argue, in any case, to even then."  I was really glad that Hitchens brought this up.  It is true that a lot of the public opinion that we see today is fabricated.  They do this to turn these fake public opinions into real ones by making people think they need to believe what the majority believes.  This brings me to the next highlight that I took from this chapter.  Hitchens writes, "It's a mark of sophistication to understand these things, and occasionally to announce that one distrusts or suspects them."  I completely agree with these statement and I do think that it takes a lot of courage to disagree with the public opinion. People that do know that they will face arguments and negativity, and that is why it takes a truly strong mind.  I need to remember this more often, it is never good to go with the majority on something you truly don't believe in, and this book is helping me to see that even more.

Letters to a Young Contrarian: Chapters 8 and 9

                      Throughout this book, Christopher Hitchens switches gears from chapter to chapter and discusses different subtopics under the umbrella of being a dissenter.  In these two chapters, he begins to discuss religion, a very touchy subject for most of society.  As I would have expected, he does not believe in religion, he would not even call himself an atheist.  I would not label myself as a very religious person, but my beliefs do lie with the Catholic Church.  That being said, the author made some points that did cause me to think into religion further than I already do.  For example, he describes the idea of an all-powerful, all-seeing God as "a permanent surveillance and monitoring."  Upon reading this, I couldn't help but to think of how true it was.  People usually think of God as a being that is looking out for us, but no one ever reverses the view and sees him as someone who judges our every decision.  It reminds me a lot of the book 1984, and later in the chapter the author even states, "This is somewhat worse than a Big Brother state, because there could be no hope of its eventually passing away."  I have never before thought of religion in this way, and that is not to say that now I do.  I definitely view it in a more positive light, yet these statements gave me a lot to think about, and that is what good writing does.

Remix Project: Paparazzi Mash Up

Paparazzi Mash Up

For my remix project, I chose to highlight some of the most uncomfortable, angry, and violent encounters between celebrities and the paparazzi.  I set this mash up to Lady Gaga's hit "Paparazzi," a song that romanticizes that field of work.  Her song describes the paparazzi as an adoring fan base, when really it can be shown that they are selfish people who will do anything to get the money shot.