Week 9 - Updated and Ready

This is where the blog comes to an end and the beginning of our Assignment 2. I'll have things lock and load for this blog and give it the finishing touch before blog entries are no longer accepted. I hope I didn't miss out any points or make any or much mistake.

Week 8 - Crazy thoughts

Random words and how to associate them with the situation is what we learn for this week's class.
The steps are pretty simple, we are given a situation and an item (living or non-living thing) and we have to create a mind-map and list out the main characteristics of it. From than, think up a random word that associates from the characteristics but make sure it doesn't relate with the subject matter (the main item). This is what we call random word.
And from that random word we have to come out with ideas on how solve the given situation. The random word's characteristic must be used in solving the problem.
It's a bit confusing but here's an example of how it works...

The situation is :-
How to scare, people through out the ages, from coming into a specific area that was once a place where toxins were dumped without revealing the truth. Two reason why the truth is hidden is because the authorities are afraid that if people knew, some will try to dig out the toxins and use for maybe, business purposes. And why not put a 'Don't enter' sign or something similar is because we humans are rebellious (most of us). These signs tend to provoke more people coming in than staying out due to 'the urge of wanting to know more' feeling.

The subject matter given is :-
Cat

And here's my answer for the situation above...

Week 7 - Juxtaposition 2.0

The usage of metaphor and simile is practically almost the same. Both is a figure of speech where two objects are link however they are two separated and different to one another. One rule must be applied that is obvious comparison don't count as metaphor or simile. Imaginative ways that connect both item to agree on one thing is than called metaphor. The only difference between metaphor and simile is that metaphor doesn't consist the word 'like' however simile has.
Example:
A metaphor type sentence:-
Life is a box of chocolate,you will never know what you will get!
(The Movie: “Forest Gum”)

A simile type sentence:-
Life is like a maze in which you try to avoid the exit.
( From: Roger von Oech’s A Whack on the Side of the Head )

This time, we have to come with affected analogies that are brings up emotion towards something that resembles such situation.
Here are the situation and my answers...



Create a passage/writing that describe the concept of “Pain”


Pain is like an ice cream. They'll keep on stacking one on another. But they'll sooner or later will melt away and mostly forgotten.









Create a passage/writing that describe the concept of “Life”

Life is like a candle. It's it gets shorter you'll soon run out of it.







Create a passage/writing that describe the concept of “Love”

Chillies have some characteristics of love. There both is somewhat addictive to some people. But too much of it could hurt yourself.

Week 6 - Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition is this week's topic.
1) It is defined as placing two or more variables and combine it together.
2) It usually defines an event of something and what must be done. The brain will relate the current situation with something that others commonly do or could do it differently than others, vice-versa.
3) Bottom line, juxtaposition is something literary, synonymous with contrast, that has a connection with something else (has a partner), that oppose one another.

Example:
It's raining but I'm not taking my umbrella
Here we can say that 'raining' is an event and usually when it rains people will think about 'umbrella', common sense. The brain triggers our common sense that suits the event taking place.
But this time, the obvious thing should be done is done otherwise. This is what we call Juxtaposition.

Week 5 - Research Outcome

Our assignment was based on mortar and pestle. We have to come imaginative ways to of what people from the future would think what is mortar and pestle. But before we can come out with crazy ideas, lets keep track with the facts. So here is my research outcome.

Early ancient times, primitive metate grinding slabs were used to mix and grind various plants to make mostly medicine. The grinding slab was then as simple as a rock with various size of holes. These different hole sizes help determine the quantity needed to make certain medicine. As time pass by the grinding slab gradually evolved to the item which we know to day as the mortar and pestle.

Mortar and pestle were intentionally made for medicine purposes where they can grind various herbs and plants to prepare traditional treatment. The mortar and pestle, along with other essential stuff were then symbolized as pharmacological items. In the pharmaceutical industry, the mortar is made out of porcelain, while the handle of the pestle is made of wood. It was called as the Wedgwood mortar and pestle founded in 1779. The process of mixing, grinding and or reducing the size of the food or ingredients is known as saturation. Other than preparing of food or preparation for insulation, it is also used to grind up pills to decrease the time usage of pills absorption in the digestion system.

Mortar used to pulverize plant material.
Mortar are used as cooking preparation material, to pound and grind ingredients in using pestle. It's usually used to grind spices into powder. There are many kind of version and one is the molcajete version. this version is used by pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican cultures including the Aztec and Maya. In Mexico, Mexican mortar and pestle that were made of basalt and was commonly known and used for cooking intentions.

On the west side of this planet, native Americans bedrock carved mortars to grind acorns and other types of nuts. While the eastern side, the Japanese use large sized mortars with wooden mallets to prepare mochi. The Japanese use regular size ones too which are called suribachi and surikogi. In Southeast Asia, India and Pakistan, mortar and pestle is made out of granite and it is used commonly to mix up the ingredients to form many handmade dishes until today. The Mortar is known as 'Lesung' in the Malay language which measures up to two or three feet. Wooden pestle used in Middle East are usually to grind meat, kibbeh known as masabcha.

The usage of mortar and pestle gradually decreases as mechanical grinders were made such as the blender. Though it is used for traditional purposes such as the Hindus where they use it crush turmeric for wedding purposes.

Mortar and pestle must be made by hard substance so that they'll be strong enough to crush the ingredients and so that they'll last longer. The surface of the pestle and the inner part of the mortar should be cohesive so that the ingredients won't stick or mix with it.

Whatever was made previously shall leave a mark. This effect will add a great taste when it comes to preparing other foods. While making medication, the previous content will contaminating with the current ingredient.

When trying to grind substance to very fine powders, it requires a mortar and pestle made out of rough ceramic. But the effects of it is that easily stained and are brittle.

Mortar and pestle are made but many types of material.

-Porcelain mortars are good when it comes to give a good rougher surface to reduce the size of the food particles but with the help of grinding sands.
-Mortars and pestles made from glass are stain resistance. They are most suitable when comes to mixing liquids. But they're are fragile and don't grind finely like ceramic.
-When it comes to grinding salt and pepper, wooden mortar and pestle are the ones to count on. They are made from old grape vine wood.
-Mortar and pestle made from molcajete needs to be seasoned first before it is used. They are also other material that follows the same procedure, mostly made from stone.
-Metal mortars are kept lightly oiled.

This research was brought to you by Wikipedia. Your not-so expert research friend :P

Week 4 - Mindmap

This week we were lectured about ways of thinking.

There are two types of thinking, one is the ‘Convergent’ way of thinking, and the other is ‘Divergent’.
Convergent way of thinking is pretty much taken by almost all kinds of people. Convergent thinking is done by thinking straight forwardly or their thinking doesn’t tend to diverge far away from the main idea. These kinds of idea are okay but nowadays ideas like these are mostly considered common clichés.

The divergent thinking process is a must mostly for creative people. The divergent way of thinking consists of creating more creative ideas. Brainstorming and playing around with the problems involved in a certain situation is the divergent way. People like these usually tend to look for alternatives and come with sometimes weird but fantastic ideas. But in the divergent world, you must beware not to lose your motive. The idea usually comes when you think of several ways to solve a problem by bringing it away from the main idea, and this is why people sometimes can go off topic.

Here's an example of divergent thinking process in mind-map...

Week 3 - Mind-mapping Experience

~ Ideas produced by an individual, make sense & adaptable by the society, is called creative.

~ Creative isn't something happens in your mind but the thoughts that's interacted between others.

- Coleman Kaufman

~ Capital "C" in creative leave your kind of creative work that changes aspect of the culture, rather than personal satisfaction.

- Mihaly Csikzentimahly

Making up mind maps is not that easy, considering whom you're going to present to. But to me, creating a mind map that we ourselves can easily understand is not that hard. It's all about understanding the information given and write them in a short simple sentence that connect one to another. Visual mind-map are mind-maps made but imagery rather than words. But this can become complicated since some words can't be describe by one or two pictures easily.
The most important thing I learn when creating a mind-map that is meant for yourself or to present others is that your mind-map must be Hierarchy. The main topic to the littlest details of it's sub topic must connected and make the users know where to look first so we or them can understand which comes first. The other thing that I always keep in mind is try to make something that our eyes will tend to stay or want to look at it. Make sure it's not dull and attracts our attention in wanting to know and understand the mind-map more.
But alas, since there are dozens of different opinions, likes, dislikes from us humans is what makes our job in trying to amuse someone with our creativity can be annoying to do it. Sometimes we even tend to give after trying many different ways and still fail to attract the eyes of our viewers. And this is why we have to study our audience first and try to get their impression as soon as possible so that they won't be all moody to look at other stuffs we tend to or have already created. Bottom line, being creative means hard work, observing smartly, a tough heart and a lot encouragement to keep ourselves up and ready. But the most important thing is to never give up and try your best.