Art and Copy, what I got from it

I'm sure I am in the minority when I say this....but I really enjoyed the documentary. I have always been struggling to find my place with what I want to do "when I grow up". My dad was a successful entrepreneur who graduated high school and then had to work to support his family. He managed to work hard and then came up with the idea that started his first business. Even though the business was doing really well, he sold it when I was two to help raise me. After I turned 13 he created another one and brought it from a three man team to a multimillion dollar business in four years. After living around him and seeing this story myself I decided that I would follow in his steps and create my own company.



But the struggle I had was what industry I wanted to work in. Corporate business is so traditional and set in stone that I couldn't handle even thinking of working in it.  I have always been drawn to social media and the ".com rebels:" of Silicon Valley. So after watching this documentary and seeing how these people talked about advertising, I have decided to follow my dream even harder. These influential people didn't talk about how many people they had under them, or how much money they made, instead they talked about content. They were successful because they were driven to work hard intrinsically, and that is something I admire.  I found each speaker as a source of inspiration for relentlessly working toward your goal and not regretting it. It gave me hope that if they could do this with advertising, I could do the same with whatever field I went into.

The suprise in Advertising

Today we talked about the creative roles in agencies, and I have to say I found the lecture very enlightening. I have always thought of myself as a creative visionary with no follow through due to skill. I can come up with some awesome ideas and see them come to fruition in my head, but when it comes to drawing or creating them I falter. Because of this, I thought that I would have to move to the business and account management side of advertising, but after today I am rethinking that.

Art director seemed like a great position for me because I know I can explain my ideas to artist and help keep an overall project going, but I thought that the lack of artistic experience would really hold me back. Now I know that I can at least try to break into this position with the skills I already have. Today's lecture really helped me put my major in perspective and to see what I want to do with this degree after I graduate.

social psych lab happenings

Today I had my extra credit appointment at the Holden lab. I was told the test would include me watching a video while hooked up to some monitors to see how I am feeling during it. The initial survey was about parents and abuse so when the video started and it was about how to write a paper, I was a little confused. After the clip ended the person monitoring me got agitated and told me that I must have messed with the equipment and that I had to rewatch the clip. At first I was surprised by how he was acting and then it hit me, that he was the test. The true measurement was how I reacted to negative comments about my actions, and how that affected me.


What I realized today was how fast I process my surroundings and compare them to previous experiences.  After his comments I realized that someone conducting an experiment would never treat a voluntary subject that way, which triggered my previous thoughts on how this reacted to my parents and how they raised me. As humans we all want to take the unknown and make it more manageable by  comparing it to what we already know. An example is how we compare new foods to ones we already know, or how we relate bands to each other. I guess this experiment just made me realize how fast your mind can process situations when you aren't even aware what is happening.

Not enough hours in the day

Between school, social media, my startup, and gaming I usually do not find a time to relax. Over the last couple of months some of my projects have really ramped up and its getting harder and harder to find free time. My startup's newest application, Proxomo, is about to be released next month and with that, the start of my major responsibilities. I am the social media expert for our company and it's my duty to drive traffic to my site. Because of the nature of this job, I'm not sure how much time its going to take to get the required amount of people to start making our business profitable.



Even with all of this going on, I know I need to make time for myself. I have been trying to set aside an hour or so for tea and reading, but sticking to this schedule is hard. Hopefully I can keep my grades up with all of this going on, and I still need to remember that I am just 19 and should not have this much stress in my life at this time. 

SMU pride, a recent discovery

Last week was the infamous football rivalry game between TCU and SMU. I used to not think too much of school spirit, but that weekend really showed me something I didnt know about the school. The "beat tcu" campaign was so strong around campus that it really put a feeling of community into the game. You could see that phrase posted on buildings, on posters around campus, and even in teachers' power point slides. The school gathered to show their support against TCU, even though the odds of winning were slim.


My dad came into town for the weekend and I brought him to the boulevard before the game. As you saw the entire campus in red and cheering it really made me feel like I became part of something greater over the year here. This event truly showed the power of a common goal and how people can really set aside differences and get along. It didn't matter if people were in a rival Greek organization, or even not in one at all, people were still talking and cheering for the same team. 
I guess I'm trying to say that sometimes the power of community is hard to see unless you witness an event like the boulevard before the game, but it is always there.

Definition of: Mastery

David Belle is considered the father of free running and has inspired thousands to pick up the activity. When I look at his work the word that comes to mind is Mastery, and not just over free running. David has a mastery over his body, and his limitations. He knows his body more than most people ever will, and can understand how to use it in creative ways. David also has mastery over his environment. He does not see walls as restrictions, but instead as a vehicle for movement, as a challenge, as something to use. He has a different view of the world, and can see opportunities for creativity that others cannot.
I see him as an inspiration because I picked up the sport after watching him and have used the principles of free running in life. When I am held back by something I try to see how I can use it to motivate me instead of trying to avoid it. Also, the constant pushing of my limits has really helped me feel more familiar with myself.

Anything for the grade

Today in accounting we had a major project due. We were basically auditing a company and using everything we have learned from the text book in real life. My partner and I worked for around ten hours in total and after it was done I felt a sense of pride in my work. I took a companies expenses and revenues from a year and basically turned them into a readable document. While I know I will never do accounting for a job, it was a cool feeling to know I got a taste of what they do for a living. When I talked to my partner he was only worried about getting an A on the project and passing the class.
 This made me realize how different mastery and performance oriented learners truly are in a college world. Some people wish for nothing else but a perfect transcript to get a job straight out of college. They do not care what material they learn, they see it the same as they have seen every course from high school; a set of data to memorize in order to pass a test. This makes me worried for the future of our work force because people who do this are seen as the best coming out of college, but hey may not truly understand what they have learned.
On the other hand, mastery learners do not care about the grade, but instead how well they understand the material. These people will retain the knowledge from classes much better than there performance oriented counterparts. But these people may not have the same drive to get perfect marks, which makes them look less desirable in the eyes of employers. This schism needs to be resolved or I feel like the system will only perpetuate. The highest end of learning may need to stop giving grades and instead use a non-numerical grade system to really show how hard the students worked.

When I realized my dad really did rub off on me

  My father is the kind who will do anything to make someone laugh. As a child I loved the effort he put into making me and my brother laugh and have fun. But of course, as we grow up, children find that annoying and I shut myself off from him doing that. It took me till I was around 17 to realize that he acts this way because his father died and he didn't get a chance to have someone there for him like this.



  This past weekend my friends were having a fight due to normal drama and I decided I was going to end it. I just started saying and doing the stupidest things I could think of until even the maddest people were laughing. The feeling I got when I saw that everyone was feeling better really made me realize why my dad did it all these years. As long as people are laughing they forget about small stresses and details, and just enjoy life for a moment.

What I Learned from my Mindmap

The mindmap project has been the first hand made project I have done since I can remember. Between school and my work I have always used computers. This mindset gives you a comfort zone of having text and spell check and basically makes you feel like you have complete control. But when I started the mindmap I realized how overwhelming it was.

Every letter, every line I drew was coming from my hand. It became about my hand eye coordination, not about my skills with computers and knowledge of formatting.  I became obsessed with planning it out because I was afraid to make mistakes, the fact that I was writing something permanent really scared me, but I soon found it freeing. It gave me the mentality of freedom, that I would have to let stuff go. I usually obsess over writing for my blogs because I always have the option to edit.



 Another feeling that came from this project was the sense of accomplishment. Seeing that paper filled with words and images felt much better than seeing a post written on my site. I felt a much more personal connection to my work because it was actually drawn by hand, not through a program. Overall, I learned that sometimes its nice to work offline and actually create something in the world.