Mural Update

Well it might be a bit hard to see (we need to re-size it later) but this is the updated version of the mural. You can see that we did end up ditching the hand drawn element in place of using a real picture that we simplified. We then made question mark scatter bushes that are slightly different colours then the colours in the picture. We are now in the process of painting areas of the picture with the brushes. At this point we plan to fill in all the background of the picture with the brushes but leave the people as they are. That could potentially change though.

Mural Concept

So me and sakuraanime2 are now working together on the mural project. So basically we started out with the concept of music connecting people in the world. Also sakura brought up the idea of musicians drawing inspiration from each other (or in some cases copying each other). From there we got into a conversation about inspiration in general and where it can come from. We decided the answer is just about anywhere. At this point we tried to come up with images that represent inspiration and the only one that made sense, since everyone's inspiration is different, was a question mark. As of now our idea for this mural is to create a city, with silhouetted people walking through it (we chose the city to get across the idea inspiration can happen anywhere). From there we plan to fill in buildings and streets, ect. with question marks (sorta in a pointillism type of style) to get across inspiration.

Dirty Jobs

I think we all have heard of Mike Rowe and Discovery channel show Dirty Jobs by now but if you haven't then you just have now. Mike explores the jobs that need to be done but that the majority of us don't like to think about. Things like leather tanning and steal mill working. This show is by no means new; it's been around since 2005 but we just never seem to get tired of seeing Mike get a little grungy. The show defiantly wouldn't be the same without his sarcastic comments and his occasional screw ups. I give him credit though, he tries everything he's given.

What I wanted to talk about though is how the show shows us the parts of living in a society that we don't want to think about (waste management for example) but have to be done non the less. This show does a really good job of bringing these things to light (I've certainly learned about a lot of jobs I never even knew existed). I think we need to see more of this type of thing; the dirty side of society that we all conveniently forget about. We like to forget because we don't consider it glamorous, at least that's my opinion of why. Getting muddy and such isn't honestly my idea of a job anyways but for many it is, as Dirty Jobs have shown us. In some ways it might even be better to have a job like the ones on Dirty Jobs since many actually directly keep society functioning and help people.

Mini Cows!

Well this cute little guy would be one of what's being called miniature panda cattle. It's just one breed of a growing trend of miniature cattle. We owe credit to the mini panda cow (along with many other miniature breeds) to Richard Gradwohl, of the International Miniature Cattle Breeds Society and Registry, in Covington, Washington. For many years he has been breeding down cattle to miniature size for milking, beef, and the pet industry (Actually don't think I'd mind having a panda cow as a pet but they cost way too much). These cattle run about half the size of they're bigger counterparts and are said to be more environmentally friendly as they require less food, less land and produce less methane, well at least in theory.

Though the methane thing isn't totally proved yet, I do have to say some things about requiring less food and less land things. I commend these people for trying to help the environment as cows are said to be the cause for a lot of extra greenhouse gases but I'm not sure what they're doing will help all that much. While it is true that one mini cow will need less land and food then its bigger version, I don't think they are thinking in terms of how beef and dairy farmers who are trying to make as much money as they can, would. For beef and dairy farmers wouldn't it just make sense to have double the amount of cows since they require less? Since they would be able to produce with double the mini cows on the same amount of land why not? Or why not make the same amount with the bigger cows? I could be totally wrong about this but I'm not sure the mini cow idea is actually better for the environment. I guess time will tell though.

The World's Smallest City?

This is Stan Munro,




and this is his city...

Well at least one of them. The image above is of Toothpick City. As the name implies it's a city made out of toothpicks, a lot of toothpicks. This is the first of Stan's toothpick city creations as he is currently working on Toothpick city II which he hopes will become the largest city made of toothpicks in the world. Now some of the buildings in the picture above may look familiar and they should as all of his creations are scale models of real famous buildings around the world.

Now to me making buildings out of toothpicks, to scale and still looking there real life counterparts is already saying a lot but Stan Munro is also purposing an interesting idea (whether he realizes or not). By putting these recognizable things together from all around the world together in one "city" it could be giving off the message of world corporations or at least tolerance of each other. In addition to that, like in my last post, he's getting recognized for something he loves to do and really it'd be very hard not to like that.

The World's Smallest Car

The first reaction people had when they saw my car was complete disbelief. A spilt second later they howled with laughter. It’s so tiny - Perry Watkins

Perry Watkins is the builder of the world's most recent smallest car. It is 39 inches high and 26 inches wide and is also fully functional. Now Perry is 6 foot tall making it difficult for him to even get into this car, let alone drive it. To do this he must contort his body to get in. Lucky he designed it so that the whole top of the car will flip up.
Holding the record for world's smallest car is already pretty cool but this is not Perry's first record. He also currently holds the record for world's flattest car.

When I saw this on tv I thought it was pretty interesting, I mean you NEVER see cars this small. It got me wondering though, why do these people do these things? For some people I think it's just because they want to hold the record, maybe even be remembered. But most records are broken over time as people are always trying to outdo each other. I don't believe this is why Perry does what he does though. For some people I believe they just like what they are doing and maybe don't even wish to break any records. I think this holds true for Perry too, despite holding two world records (they're both for cars though which leads me to believe he likes what he's doing). His family as even called is a hobby, further leading me to believe Perry is just doing what he loves to do. And hey if your going to get recognized for something you love, why not?

Work In Progress

This would be my current idea for the existentialism assignment (had two others that I really liked but I just couldn't find a way to show them). First off the man in the picture is NOT Rick Hansen, never was, never will be. It's still pretty rough(there's some stuff in the right bottom corner that wasn't showing up before but is now that I have to fix as well as lighting and parts of the wheelchair) but basically what I'm planning is to show something to the effect of a story. My concept is that this man has recently become disabled is now struggling to figure out who he is. Most people, I feel, would be radically changed by loosing the ability to use they're legs and would have some resulting life questions about themselves. For example, "Why did this happen to me!?" To show his inner struggle I have him looking out on a city but the city is projecting his inner thoughts and feelings (I guess it'd sorta be like his "inner world". I really didn`t want to make the whole finding himself thing too obvious. For example him looking at himself in a mirror seemed way to obvious to me. Plus its been done before). One side will lighter, the other side will be darker (hasn't been added yet but it'll be the left side) and look almost destroyed as he tries to find himself. I like to think of it as sort of like who he once thought he was was destroyed in his accident and he now has to rebuild who he is (that might change later but for now it's what I'm thinking). I've also considered "blending" the two sides together in some way in the middle but I'm still not sure if I'll go through with that. Anyways that's about it for now I think.