52. A thing for old courthouses and town squares

I enjoy taking photos of old historical buildings like old courthouses.  These photos are of the courthouse of Gibson County, TN located in Trenton, TN.  I went out of my way to stop in this town of  4,100 people about 30 miles north of Jackson, TN.  My father grew up in this town and I wanted to see the old historic buildings so I could take photos of them.  The town square reminds me a lot of Denton , TX.  You have the square where all the shops are then the roundabout with the courthouse.  This courthouse was build in 1898 I believe and it is currently getting its second renovation ever.  This is very costly for a small county.

I took many more photos of the pre Civil War buildings but the court house stood out of them all.  The building is huge.  The inside was even more amazing but sadly they were working inside and I didn't take any photos of the interior.

I wish people would build courthouses like this today.  If I was an architect I would emulate these old historical buildings and rebuild them.  Obviously, any newer building would not have the smell or feel of something over a hundred years old because of new building codes etc.  When I walked inside the interior is still much build of wood frames and they are exposed.  The artwork inside is priceless also.  Many Civil War artifacts are inside and things of Davy Crockett.  He lived about 10 miles north of the courthouse for about two decades I believe and his original cabin still stands in Rutherford, TN.   

51. Grant

This man was the 18th President of the United States of America.  His name is Ulysses S. Grant or otherwise known as General Grant.  I took this photo at Vicksburg National Cemetery where the Siege of Vicksburg took place.  The man looks so noble and deserving.  By looking at this I want to be this man but this piece of art is deceiving if somebody really knows the history of this man.  He ruthlessly used his men to attack the other side and die.  He slaughtered his own men and yet we look to this statue as representing a man of honor.  

I wish I knew what the plaque on the statue said, I did not read it.  I wonder if it glorified the man or said he used his manpower to his advantage ruthlessly.  I just want to interpret this piece of art.  I could say this man kept the country alive tho.  He is a great hero.  By interpreting the piece of art, I am seeing how the creator must have a purpose in his art and a motive.  This piece is intentionally suppose to glorify the man by having him sit high up on a hill overlooking it on his horse.

I learned that you must be biased sometimes and glorify your work even if it is not completely true.  Make it appealing to the audience.  I enjoy taking the time to interrupt Union and Confederate pieces of work and to see what the artist motives are.       

50. Idiots or just geniuses?

Look at these two framed murals.  What do you see?  Who would think of such things?  A drunken dumb ass or is this person a genius?  I believe these two pieces of work could be the next Fountain masterpiece.  It is so stupid its brilliant.  These two pieces of art hang in my dorm in the lobby.  Somebody just put them up one night and they have stayed.

These pieces of art are why learning to not census results in enhanced creativity.  I am absolutely ashamed to have these hanging in my dorm but they have remained for months.  I have come to accept it and find it very comical.  These two pieces have actually made me open my eyes and be more accepting of things.  Our dorm had over 50 pieces of art work of old ships donated by Gary Crum whose name is on our building.  These framed murals hang alongside the thousands of dollars of paintings Crum donated.  I wonder what Mr. Crum would think of this.  I bet he would be horrified but thats because he likely censors things.   A child would see nothing wrong with this work.      

I am aspired by these two simple pieces of art and will continue to think out of the box and be more accepting of my silly yet genius ideas.  

49. Ian Cohen (textbook)

Ian Cohen is one of the cofounders at Wexley School for Girls in Seattle, WA.  His partner and creative director is Cal McAllister.  Yes, Wexley School for Girls is an ad agency and one of the strangest names I have ever heard of for anything.

Ian Cohen's process is about acting like he is not at work and going to stimulating places.  Normal everyday activity helps him deveolp ideas.  He likes using a very cheap notepad and just writing anything or drawing anything that comes to mind.  Initially he is about quantity than quality when it comes to brainstorming. 

Cohen says he can't draw either but he still does which I believe is important because I can relate to this.  If I didn't try to draw things then I would be limiting myself so much.  I would basically be strangling myself in the creative process.  Also the idea of making work seem like its not work is something I relate to.  I find it similar to the idea that I like to keep my room clean but if my mom tells me to clean it then it ruins the mood.  I want to do things without being told or feeling obligated to do something which relates to creativity.  I will be creative when I feel more comfortable and less pressure to do something.  If I feel pressure then I will fail at coming up with something when brainstorming.   

  

48. David Kennedy (textbook)

David Kennedy one of the founding partners at Wieden + Kennedy.  One of the things I took from him was he is a very simple man.  He didn't get any fancy formal training or education on how to be a creative person.  He knew how to draw and he could learn from others like Push Pin Studios and Paul Davis to name a couple.  He learned from other people and influences.  That proves creativity can be learned.

For his employees he likes to get out of their way and let them work their magic.  By interfering, he interrupts the creative process and people will start to censor themselves.  I can relate to this because I remember in elementary school we had an art class and the teacher always interrupted when I did my projects.  I wanted to be left alone and let me do my thing.  Ultimately, my teacher or somebody else can critique my work at the end.  If I wanted advice I can always ask but don't actively overlook somebody when they are working because that makes people less creative.

Also I like the idea of letting your employees work in blue jeans.  Forcing somebody to work in a suit or dress up interrupts people.  Let people be themselves and that will be reflected in their work.    

47. Carvings in a cave

Over the summer, as a part of my hikes into the woods I like to go explore caves.  I carved my initials and my friends and it took over a hour.  We found an old railroad spike to use.  Hopefully the carving was deep enough to stay but its fun to go into caves that are completely pitch black inside with no lights.

I always get some type of rush of adrenaline when I am in a cave with no lights on.  Some caves you can hear the bats inside.  The echos fascinate me too.  I can whisper inside the cave and my voice is as loud as if I was talking normally.  I find it relaxing to be around nature inside caves.  I can explore and be alone.  It allows me to clear my mind and it is very peaceful.       

46. Spiritual Lecture

I thought today's lecture was interesting but very confusing.  I did not completely understand what she was referring to as "spiritual" under the very end when I believe Steve interrupted and then our speaker went on to clarify what it was.  I failed to understand at the beginning what differences if there were any at all between emotions and energy.  The commercial she showed at the end clarified it some but it could be more helpful if she showed that in the beginning to start off.

Also I wish the speaker would have given a little more background on herself... who was she?  She mentioned she took your Class Willie so shes an SMU Alumni?  But in the beginning, she said she moved to the U.S. to go to grad school at UT?  Overall, I was not the most fond of the whole speech because I failed to understand even though I was actively paying attention.  She engaged with the audience very well thought which made it much more easier to pay attention.      

45. A spider in the woods

I love to hiking through the woods.  Nature is an escape for me and it helps me find my creative side.  When I am in a crappy mood I go on trails or just through the woods randomly.  I came across this huge spider about half the size of my fist and I took a photo of it.  That day I was in a bad mood and needed to get out.  I cleared my mind and spent sometime alone.  This spider was hiding inside an old tire.  I intentionally flipped the tire looking for a snake and found this instead.  Snakes often like to hide in old abandoned tires, I often find them there.  I went ahead and took a photo of the spider.  

44. Thinking about Thinking: The Concept of Metacognition (textbook)

John Flavell, a professor at Stanford University coined the tern "metacognition". I have never heard the term nor of John Flavell.  Metacognition is about being aware of ones own cognitive abilities.  He studied young children at different ages.  He gave preschool age children something to study and memorize. Then as another group he gave elementary aged students something to memorize.  Flavell found that preschoolers were much more confident in memorizing or less aware of their cognitive abilities.  As we get older we become more aware of our metacognition.  Adults like creative directors and art directors are the most aware and that's why they know how their minds work.

I find this fascinating because I have never thought about this topic or the idea of how younger people are more naive maybe.  As people get older they become more aware and I am curious why this is.  I wonder if metacognition is more about thinking about thinking or... understanding how you think.  The book does not elaborate on that second idea.  I think it involves both components very closely.    

  

43. The elephant hand

When I was very young like 6 or so my dad showed me this.  My dad used his hand and made it into an elephant.  The middle finger acts as a trunk of an elephant and he raised it.  You can make it walk to by lifting each finger or walk side by side lifting two fingers at once.  I remember laughing so hard when I was younger by this.  It fascinated me.  I have continued the legacy and made my friends laugh quite hard too.  I also get some very very strange looks but I don't mind acting like a goof.

I enjoy acting goofy and the looks people give me.  I have come to appreciate myself more and build up confidence by being a little strange or unconventional.  I have learned that creativity is the act same thing... confidence in doing something different and taking the judgement.  To everybody I have shown this to, nobody has said they have seen somebody do it and that makes me happy.  I get a boost of confidence from being unique and creative even if I borrowed the idea from my father.   

42. A drawing I found in the dorms

I woke up one morning and found this on the whiteboard in my dorm's hallway.  I found it interesting because I didn't know quite what it was.  I still don't exactly know what it is but its intriguing.  The drawing looks like a frog in the bottom right referring to Donald Trump.  Why is it a frog?  It has the wall in it that Trump wants to build.  It has "The Don supports legal immigration".  What is that suppose to mean?   A couple days before this I saw a similar photo of the frog looking thing behind the wall with a hat that said "Make America Great Again". 

The other frog drawings look like they mimic Futurama the tv show.  Also the bottom right drawing has a handle of #damnmemes4trump,  I wonder if this person posted this on reddit or something like that because I have tried reasearching what it means and found very little or no other knockoffs. 

41. Another politcal cartoon

I hate drawing but sometimes I do enjoy drawing political figures.  Nobody can judge you for how bad you draw them because everybody loves to portray them so stupidly.  Therefore, I can draw political figures with confidence and think I actually drew something pretty good.

Bernie with a peace sign or portraying Ted Cruz as a big rat.  I enjoy drawing these things.  The stupider they look the better because normal political cartoons exaggerate body features anyway. 

40. Traceing of my hand

In class we were told to trace your hand and make something of it besides a turkey.  I saw everybody still tracing their hand upright and I wanted to come up with something different.  I traced my hand sideways and made it into a pistol.  My thumb made a perfect handle for a pistol and my fingers are the barrel.  I think it is a fresh idea instead of the normal upright drawing.

The hardest part of creativity is finding what to draw first, its helpful to have a tip and then make something out of it.   I needed the idea of making something from tracing my hand and the rest was my work.

39. Fading Kitty

When someone tells you to draw your own version of "Goodbye Kitty" as a knockoff "Hello Kitty", I came up with my fading kitty.  I just drew the cat then took an unfocused photo intentionally.  The kitty is fading and disappearing.  That was what my thought process was at least.  I tried a filter but it didn't look as good.  This looks more authentic.

Whats your version of Goodbye Kitty?     

38. Roof Photo of Football Practice

This photo is taken from the roof of the stadium where we film from across the street from the practice field.  The guys in the purple circles are our guys.  There are a lot more guys filming but it shows the guy on the lift and the guy in the top left corner filming ground.  Then the guy in blue is the football video director who goes around making sure everybody is filming the correct drill at the correct time.  There are at least 7 video cameras per practice.  Everybody has a radio and they have to jump into the action filming.

I have been run over by the players a couple times and tackled because we have to be in the middle of the drill if we want to get good ground footage.  Filming ground for the linemen can be scary because the guys are 6 foot 8 inches and huge.   

37. Football Drone

I'll admit I have only flown the drone twice for couple minutes but its an experience.  This particular drone has a 4k camera on it and is extremely fast.  This drone is a few thousand dollars when we bought it last year and we rarely use this one.  We have another two drones we use majority of the time.  We have to film drills with the drone.  We have it hover behind the QB and film the plays.  The editing of the drone files takes forever because it is all one continuous file and I have to split it into how many plays which is typically around 30 or 40 with a lot of dead time. 

The batteries only last about 10 to 15mins and we have to continually switch them out.  You have to make sure your flying and getting the footage you need without wasting the battery.  We have a screen on our iphones that allows you to see the drones view when flying.  I hope to continue to learn how to fly the drone so I can be the guy who gets to fly it full time. 

36. Photo Naming

Every photo taken for the football team has to be renamed and uploaded to our Flickr page.  When you finally narrow it down to 100 to 200 good photos each one having to be renamed is a huge pain.  Everybody is rotating positions so sometimes I will take photos or film practice or do the editing.

When its my job to rename and upload the photos I have full authority to put whatever I want on the Flickr page, nobody is checking it so I need to make sure they are quality photos and that we have no high school recruits in the background.  We can get in trouble for having recruits and that is very serious.  

SMU FOOTBALL FLICKR PAGE:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/smu_football/albums

35. Football Team Editing

Also a big part of my job is editing the clips of each play and breaking them video into separate clips that correspond with each play.  I work on up to four computers at once which are all connected to a server for the players and coaches film.  The coaches expect the film to be in the computer instantly and they call our office each day saying hurry up when you can only load the clips and edit them so quickly.

I have learned what good filming and bad filming is by watching everybody's footage.  We have 7 or 8 video cameras filming per practice and each changes memory cards every 20 minutes up to 5 times per practice. Typically its about 25 or so cards per practice and every single play has to be mark what it is and trimmed.     

34. Filiming Sideline

The other main angle is filming sideline where we are on top of the roof of the stadium in the camera wells.  The view is awesome but its not the most fun of work.  I think sideline is a little easier than filming endzone because the main rule is just to keep all 22 guys in the shot.  Rarely do you not have to get everyone.  The sideline shot is the most important and it is nerve racking you will mess up because all the coaches watch this angle for most of the film.

I have learned a lot working for the football video guys.  I have learned how to operate video cameras and the type of filters etc.  Learning how to zoom in and out steadily.  I was awful at using the camera when I started but I have definitely improved and continue to do so.

33. Filming Endzone

Working for the football team we have multiple angles to film- Endzone, Sideline, Ground (Practices) and other jobs.  Here I am filming the endzone on the game field for a scrimmage.  I think endzone is little harder the sideline because there are times you don't know if you just want the guys in box (linemen only) or if you want to zoom out to get the receivers.

The sun is so hot and a lot of days I still get a little sunburn even with sunscreen.  I had the other guy take the photo and had him include the sun shining on me on purpose.    

32. Working as a videographer for football team

I work in the football team's video department as a videographer.  I have an important job where I take turns filming the practices and other tasks.  It keeps me very busy in the fall and also in the spring for about 6 weeks when they have spring practice.

I have learned how to use a video camera, DSLR camera, and the software where we trim and compile the video files onto a server so all the players and coaches have access to the video.  The job is quite stressful because the coaches want to immediately look at it after practices and it all has to be perfect.  I have learned many things about video as a part of the football team and I continue to improve my filming skills everyday.  

31. A research paper about Texas prisons

I have finally decided on a research paper topic for my Texas Politics class.  I choose to talk about the Texas prison system.  I will breakdown my paper into talking about the history of the system, the demographics of the state and how it relates to prison population, and the crime data of the prisoners.  A lot of the paper will be about comparing Texas to the national average levels.  It was difficult to decide what part topic to choose because people need to decide what they are passionate about and find interesting.  I think Texas prisons are interesting because they have the largest prison population in the country yet they don't have the highest incarceration rate per 100,000.  Louisiana leads in that category.

I will be spending multiple days working on my paper.  It has to be 15 pages and I absolutely hate writing.  It will be interesting in how I will breakdown my paper and make it flow.