Yume to Kibou to Ashita no Atashi

Dear Followers,


Well, yesterday instead of going to sleep I decided to do some drawing. I promised Amy Wu that I would give her something for her birthday over the course of 2011. I guess this counts. Happy birthday Amy Wu!

Somehow, this isn't the same as my MS Paint works...

Daydream Syndrome,
Noel

Memories Of Days Gone By

Dear Followers,

Bradley Dawson going ginga bishounen on Shredder and the TMNT.

Have you ever drawn straight from your subconscious? Well, today after 3 hours (shockingly the same number of hours I slept today) of JZ facecrushes I was so sleep-deprived and exhausted that I decided to pull an Ishmam Ahmed and mess around on MS Paint. The results were… interesting to say the least.

The speech team as I see them.

I haven’t doodled for a long time. After seeing what my free mind produces, I am not surprised that I refrained from doodling. What follows will disturb and provoke you. I really was just messing around, but some of these came to represent something much more than a doodle.

Bear-mounted Gundam-unicorn using a kamehameha on a rock Augumon.

In speech today, I had the pleasure of going into a round and answering a question for which we had no folder prepared. Surprisingly, I got 4th place in that round. Kudos to Evan Chen as well, who ironically got 4th place overall in the tournament and even held his own against Dillon Slinger. He surely was dazzling the stage.

When people have to deal with so many unnecessary obstructions.

Today’s post is very sporadic, something heavily representative of my sleep-deprived condition. Even though I know I will probably lower my lifespan by a few more years, I plan to stay up tonight and enjoy the SC. For once Jesus is on my side and my BNet is working fine.

My drawing of random lines which eventually became two flamboyant lovers.

On that note, anyone want to SC?


Color Me Dark,
Noel

You Make Me Feel Like Danzig

Dear Followers,


http://myanimelist.net/animelist/noelvermillion25

Three blog posts in one night? Can somebody say miracle? I am either (1) having a really rough night or (2) utilizing the time that I always wished I had over the past two months. Anyways, I had enough time today to make an account on My Anime List. If you've ever wondered how much anime I really do watch, here is what I came up with in 1 hour. There are probably many more shows that I have lost track of over the years, but this is a helpful guideline. If you watch as well, I recommend you get an account. This is a high-tech webpage. We should buddy up as well.

Eastside, Westside, Genocide,
Noel

For Cozy-Katz

Dear Followers,

This is the first time I have ever used a relevant opening for a blog post. Perhaps now is the time to break free from my own system. Hell no. I would much rather be predictably unpredictable than be predictably predictable. Any day.
Today was a mixture of happiness and sorrow. Who am I kidding? Today was a complete burst of happiness; the sorrow will come way down the road. Nostalgia will be the death of me one day. Everybody knows that a day filled with SC face-crushes is a day well spent, especially when you have the chance to combine Florence Nightingales and Zealots for a massive push. But SC is for another day, a day when Bangladesh’s demonstration of power will be revealed on the interwebs. All in good time.

Right now though, I don’t really know how I feel. I feel lost, I feel overjoyed, and I feel like a jack-ass. When things get like this my choices usually wind down to (1) watching some High School Of The Dead or (2) writing on my blog. Considering that right now I am in a University of Minnesota lab, perhaps fan service shots of high school girls killing hordes of zombies with kendo sticks and broken brooms is not the best choice.

Now with APCOMP out of the way (http://getchanceandluck.blogspot.com/2011/01/only-ones-who-should-shoot.html) I guess this blog will be somewhat more personal. I guess now would be the best time to do this.

I cannot remember the last time I cried. Granted, when Cardona-san’s room breaks into a frenzy of laughter following a wry comment (usually aimed at Bradley) I can’t help but pass a few tears to match my incessant laughter, but genuine crying is a whole new ball game. Perhaps I had convinced myself that crying was something for teenage girls. In that case, today I was a teenage girl again.

I am an idiot. Whenever I use a 1-minute transformation sequence (Star Driver reference) to enter into nostalgia-mode, I always begin asking the stupidest questions. My confidence goes down the toilet and I begin to question my self-worth. Sometimes I even find myself asking if anybody genuinely values my presence. Once again, I am an idiot.

Today I spent 30 minutes reading an essay. 8 pages. 30 minutes. One time through because two times through became three times through. I was completely thrown off guard. This can’t be right. She can’t mean this. Needless to say, I am an idiot.

I met Cozy at a Math Masters competition in fifth grade (sorry Cozy, I will have to nab pieces of your essay to make this rhetorically powerful). For several years my perception of her was the product of AIM conversations (which she has saved on her computer) and how others described her to me. I would have never known that a “Hawaiian-girl” would completely reorganize my perception of the world.

Cozy has taught me, above all, not to take things for granted. She has opened my eyes to a world in which I am only an observer, paralyzed and unable to do anything. I am so powerless sometimes. She has made me question that which I have never questioned before and she constantly knocks over my card-house of confidence. She makes me worry. She makes me smile. She cleans up the water I spill on the table. She will probably never let my buy her a milkshake to clear my debt.

Thank you Cozy, for reminding me how incredibly stupid I am. Thank you for reminding me that somebody cherishes my presence on this planet. Thank you for reminding me that all those nights working meant something more than a dehumanizing grade. Thank you for reminding me that beneath all of these walls I set up, there is somebody who wants to be the best he can be. Thank you for reminding me that I don’t need to conform or be socially acceptable or politically correct. Most of all, thank you for reminding me to be Naveen, something nobody else can do (f@$% yeah Seaking).

With all of these compliments flying around, many of you may get the idea that I am in love with Cozy. I never really liked the word love. Cozy, to me, is something like a mother, a role model, a sister, a thesaurus, a lean, mean, stress machine, and a friend. I may watch oodles of anime, but even I am not interested in such a thing as love with such a figure. Plus, I would have to deal with scarier-than-the-pope Dawson.

I cannot give you the world (right now, of course), but, as I am waiting for my samples in the PCR machine, I can give you this blog post. Cozy, I once told you that I don’t know what makes me happy. This essay makes me happy. Thank you.

Because I Don’t EVER Want You To Quit,
Noel

The Only Ones Who Should Shoot…

Dear Followers,


Disbelief. I didn’t think the day would ever come. APCOMP is over. The dragon is slain. All that’s left is to collect her valuable treasure before quietly exiting out the back door, leaving the carcass behind to rot.

Oh yeah, there is an AP test in May. FML.


Cardona-san may be one of the cleverest teachers I know. In many ways she is the closest I have come to finding a real-life Lelouch Lamperouge. She rules her classroom with an iron first and she doesn’t care who knows. She thrives on the moans and mumbles of her students. She will constantly remind even the more literate student that he or she does, indeed, not know how to read. As Jason Lee would say, “you don’t have to like her, but you will respect her.”


I can remember my first day in Cardona-san’s room. Following a prolonged APUSH introduction with Mr. Goodrich, I sauntered in and found my seat. After finding a few friends, I took my seat before I was handed a 4 page syllabus. On the first read through I knew that this was going to be a long semester. Where’s the KY?

Perhaps one of the reasons why I despise Cardona-san so much is because she makes me use my brain. Where is the cut-and-paste homework assignment? Where is the easy to follow syllabus? Where is the project rubric that will allow me to get away with an A with the least amount of work possible? Indeed, in Cardona-san’s class I was always on edge, always forced to work, always forced to go the extra mile.


The past 5 months have been some of the most stressful of my life. When I wasn’t eating, sleeping, or using the toilet, I was annotating, annotating, annotating. The number of nights that I had to forgo catching up on Darker Than Black because I was busy “annotizing” were uncountable. I had never been so frustrated in my life, in a condition of chronic uncertainty. Well, that was what I was constantly telling myself. I always am amazed at how carefree a class seems in hindsight. I was never even close to failing.

As Cardona-san will soon find out when she grades the writing section of the final, I hate writing with a passion. Why? I suck at writing. Well, I suck at writing in a relative sense (in comparison to Cozy’s godly writing techniques). Hell, I don’t know what a zeugma is even today. Even though I hate writing, Cardona-san made me want to improve. You sly dog, Cardona-san. I honestly wanted to shove an essay with an A in her face and just yell “WHAT NOW CARDONA-SAN, WHAT NOW?”


I am not going to lie, I will miss APCOMP. The number of times I found myself laughing uncontrollably in that class is in the hundreds. I don’t think any other teacher in the school would let me rant about Nietzsche, rag Bradley Dawson for 86 minutes every day, or engage in my usual shenanigans. So I guess all I have to say is thank you Cardona-san for a memorable semester. T-shirts are in productions. Be ready.

Sayonara Cardona-san!


P.S. FINDING NEMO!


Are The Ones That Are Prepared To Be Shot,
Noel

How About I Slap Your S@$%?

Dear Followers,

Blogger, thanks for wasting my time.

Burn In H#$&,

Noel

Kanon Nakagawa

Dear Followers,


BBC Documentary – Human All Too Human


Friedrich Nietzsche is, without a doubt, one of the most profound human beings who has ever existed. Easily comparable to Albert Einstein or Sigmund Freud, Nietzsche made invaluable contributions to modern philosophy. And yet, Nietzsche will only know obscurity in the foreseeable future. He will continue to be labeled as the core philosopher of Germany’ Third Reich. He will continue to be labeled as a power-hungry maniac who was mentally unstable. He will continue to be misunderstood and mischaracterized. I feel a heavy pain to know that many will never come to know or recognize the innovation of Nietzsche’s work. Perhaps Nietzsche was correct when he explained how he had the burden of becoming “the first decent human being.”

The story is always the same. Friedrich Nietzsche’s “will to power” was one of the driving theories of the National Socialist party. I wish I had 10 minutes to sit down with every human being on the planet to clear up this misconception. Whether through translation or ignorance, there is a widespread misunderstanding of Nietzsche’s famous phrase from “Beyond Good and Evil.” Much of this misunderstanding stems from Elizabeth Nietzsche, his younger sister, who reworked his philosophy in order for Nietzsche to become forever idolized as the original Nazi. Nietzsche, a man preoccupied with the liberation of the human being to a condition of transcendentalism, would be grimacing in his grave to know that he has been associated with the tyranny, a system of government representative of the complete loss of individualism. Not to mention that he was disgusted with every form of nationalism, as evidenced by his taking leave during Richard Wagner’s Bayreuth Festival play which championed a “German culture.” Indeed, the “overman” did not overcome his peers but instead overcame himself.


No, Nietzsche’s “will to power” was an internal process rooted in the body, a continual search for oneself as a means to transcend the physical boundaries of the body. He wanted to free the human from the confines of restricted living. In a world where “God was dead, we killed him,” our knowledge of certainty was fiercely shaken. While the notion that we cannot come to know things absolutely may not be so strange today following the advent of modern scientific theories including Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity and Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, the notion of a post-God society was frightening during the nineteenth century. While individuals like Charles Darwin were shaking the moral foundations of the world, Nietzsche believed that the human condition was not prepared for this new and unlimited freedom. He saw himself as the new prophet, ushering in an age of “free spirits” who act with a fresh outlook, constantly questioning opinions and being open to new ways of living. In essence, Nietzsche truly was the first “European.”

How far must one go to reach objectivity however? Nietzsche described the challenge of the human condition as a state between the animal and his “overman.” Nietzsche was “slowly dying with each passing day,” using philosophy as an outlet to find a solution for his torment. Many thus equate Nietzsche with Arthur Schopenhauer’s pessimistic philosophy. As Schopenhauer described, human experience is depressing at best, and the best experience was not to be born but the die quickly and experience a complete release form the misery of the human world. To simply give in is weakness however, Even with Nietzsche’s physical diseases which left him an “invalid” for the rest of his life, Nietzsche continued to look for a way to transcend misery, to overcome misery instead of giving in.


However, Nietzsche was the first victim in the search for the overworld. He needed to become the new God. Sadly, nobody could take such a place. With his transvaluation of values, his answer to a society without divine restrictions, Nietzsche soon discovered the immensity of the task which he had undertaken. Nietzsche was enveloped in the questions he had posed, becoming mad in 1889 and remaining so for the remainder of his life. In his final moments, Nietzsche, the man who had denounced sympathy as the “everything born in weakness and pity, the basis of Christianity, the religion of pity,” became all too human. At the sight of a horse collapsing, Nietzsche was overwhelmed with sympathy and embraced the animal in public. One of his last sane acts involved him confirming his existence as a human, ridden with mistakes and imperfections.

There is no doubt that society consumes us. The human being today is subject to a number of “slave moralities,” including the lingering social functions of religion, the unquestionable information presented by the mass media, and a highly stylized form of “accepted thought.” Ironically, in a world without God, human beings have become more enslaved than ever. Why has this happened? Nietzsche, in “Beyond Good and Evil,” constantly explains the concept of “herd mentality.” Living beyond humanity is not easy. Transcending the constraints of the human experience in most cases involves living a life of isolation. As Nietzsche once explained, “one can only flourish among those who have identical ideals… I have none.” For the weak-willed, such a detached and lonely lifestyle is never desirable. Becoming part of the herd absolves the human being of responsibility. The human being is allowed to defer to a higher authority, and is thus absolved from the force of action. Indeed, Nietzsche’s so-called hierarchy was an explanation of how people behaved, not a recommendation for the powerful to enslave the weak. As with Nietzsche, isolation can lead even the powerful minds to insanity. After all, “if you cannot live within the law, you must construct a new law of find shelter in madness.” Nietzsche was unable to construct those new laws.


When observing Nietzsche’s example, life becomes a balancing act. How much do we allow society to consume us, and how much do we consume ourselves? Nietzsche had lost hope in society from the beginning according to a “Human All Too Human,” a BBC documentary. He lost his father and brother at age 5. The love of his life turned him down and ran off with his best friend. He was constantly inflicted with physical ailments. Philosophy, indeed, was the only thing which kept him moving forward. I seek to become a free-spirit as well. I seek to transcend the physical limitations of the human condition. From Nietzsche’s philosophy I have developed a drive for individuality. However, I will continue to be restricted by the bounds of individuality. Thus, I continue with the balancing act. I can seek to master myself and overstep my physical bounds. I can denounce Bradley’s bigotry. Yet, I will continue to be bogged down by the materialistic aspects of the human condition. Yes Mrs. Cardona, I will always be a part of the system. In the end, even the freest spirit must come to terms. We are, after all, “All Too Human.”


P.S. I could post relevant pictures, but you would be expecting that, right?


Ayumi Takahara,
Noel

Pyon Pyon Warp-Kun

Dear Followers,

PROCESS ANALYSIS:

PURPOSE/CLAIMS:


For my visual essay, I decided to do a piece on the armed forces of the United States of America. This year’s debate resolution revolved around US global military forces and installations, and I have learned a great deal about the armed forces these past few months. As such, I began to notice the recruiting commercials each respective branch of the US armed forces (Army, Navy, Air Force) made use of. In the United States, recruitment levels are at an all time low. Students are drawn away from the military because of a lack of educational and monetary incentives for enlistment, and our National Guard and troop levels are beginning to pay the price in order for us to maintain global commitments.


Therefore, the main purpose of my visual essay is recruitment. The main claim supporting this purpose is that service in the US armed forces is desirable. This is supported through visual images which equate military service with values like honor, distinction, power, and patriotism. These are values which are especially revered in American society and which help give military service a good name after so many years of condemnation by the hands of peace activists and pacifists. By returning the images of glory which once represented this nation’s men and women in uniform, I am seeking to evoke a sense of patriotism in the viewer which will lead them to recruit.


IMAGES:


For my images, I heavily edited several US armed forces recruitment commercials. I divided each of these into video clips between 3 and 6 seconds in length and arranged them in an appropriate order. Many of the video clips, coming from individual branches of the US armed forces, were focused on displaying more of the training and academic aspect of the military. Instead of using these clips, I focused on action shots, from war scenes to men and women conducting military operations. I chose to use moving images over frozen images in order to emphasize the action which my visual essay seeks to engage. Action is essential to the emotion and purpose of this piece. Frozen clips are more suited to pieces which seek to portray delicate, sensitive, and quiet emotion.


One of the most powerful images shown is that of teamwork and camaraderie. Images of squadrons and military regiments filled with men and women of every shape and size gives this argument widespread appeal. By emphasizing military functions from technicians to pilots to medics and by overall capturing the diversity between each of the three military branches, I seek to emphasize the cohesiveness of the military through diversity, a theme which is present in the characteristic of our very nation. Images of soldiers helping one another up, commanders giving orders to ready recruits, and of collective teams working together bring out the best of the military structure of order and rank. Explosions coupled with exercise courses help portray the power and masculinity of the US armed forces.


Something more subtle about the images is the color scheme. Because of the geographical makeup of the locations that each branch of the US armed forces operates on, color schemes were used to represent the Army, Navy, and Air Force throughout the film. Many people view the US armed forces as a monolithic whole, but with my visual essay I wish to demonstrate the individuality of each branch which helps form a collective whole. The Army shots are usually yellow and brown to represent the land, the Navy shots are usually black and dark blue to represent the sea, and the Air Force shots are usually white and sky blue to represent the sky. I was fortunate to find individual commercials with common color themes to help with this aspect.


RHETORIC/APPEALS:


My visual essay makes heavy use of repetition, bombarding the viewer with images of military teamwork and honor to drive home to claim that military service is desirable. This is done through the use of several similar images to represent the individual branches. For instance, helicopters and tanks are used to represent the Army, aircraft carriers and small boats are used to represent the Navy, and predator drones and jets are used to represent the Air Force. These images are repeated over and over again, making each branch more memorable as well as the visual essay as a whole.


Climactic order, usually found in speeches, makes an appearance here in a more subtle form. The images move from that of individuals operating single machines, to groups operating larger machines, and finally of whole units, standing in uniform and in rank. This ordering emphasizes the hierarchy found within the military structure of the US armed forces, emphasizing the obey and command functions of the military. The music enhances this order, by increasing with tempo as the order becomes more complex and massive. This helps bring out the emotion of each section as well.


Finally, my essay makes heavy use of appeals to emotion and values. Every scenes seeks to invoke emotion from the viewer, from the honor and camaraderie that is represented in the images of fellow soldiers to the power represented in the images of explosions to the respect represented in the closing images of soldiers returning home. Everything about my visual essay is loaded with emotion in order to bypass the more undesirable aspects of war. We live in a generation that is more aware of war than any before with the advent of televised warfare. As such, the public has developed a hatred of war when subject to graphic images. Therefore, arguments which invoke emotion are especially important to convince the viewer to bypass these associations of war for a more favorable one.


AUDIENCE:


Unfortunately, the US armed forces have, does, and will continue to appeal to mainly young males. Militarism has adopted the characteristics of a patriarchal society as troops have been conditioned for warfare through a practice in the arts of domination. As such, a hypermasculine character has developed in the process. While more and more females have joined the military in the modern era, the masculine images of power shown in my visual essay will tend to appeal more to males than females due to a natural tendency for males to constantly seek to prove themselves, which historically has been accomplished through warfare.


While this may be the case, this does not mean that the military can be portrayed as a solely masculine activity. Just like professional military recruitment organizations, I made use of images which show both men and women of varying ethnic background to make the argument have more widespread appeal. With women training alongside men, women are convinced that the military is a space for females as well while men are not demasculinized because of the presence of explosions and demonstrations of military power. By balancing these two aspects of the visual essay, I can maintain a win-win situation for both genders.


ORGANIZATION/MUSIC:


The organization of the clips was based heavily on the music choice. The song I chose is called “Prologue” by Martin O’Donnell. Many of you may recognize this song from the Halo videogame series. The song is in a minor key, giving the quiet and loud sections a chilling feeling. Beginning slowly, “Prologue” quickly speeds up as the percussion section suddenly joins in. Drums have constantly been associated with war, representing tribal rituals of past warfare and the explosions of modern warfare. They help add energy to the faster sections of the song, and give enhance the feeling of power and dominance that militarism represents. Choir singers accompany the main string and horn sections, enhancing the empty feeling of the quiet sections and adding energy to the loud sections.


I would have never been happy with myself if I hadn’t used the whole song in my visual essay. In terms of organization, the music choice worked perfectly with the images and emotions I wanted to portray because of the song’s impeccable timing. Whenever there was a clash of symbols, I placed images of explosions or of dirty flying across the screen to enhance these sounds. I aimed to place transitions from one set of images to another at the major transitions within the song, moving from passive images to action shots in the beginning, moving from action shots to training shots in the middle, and moving from training shots to passive shots at the end. This organization followed the natural ups and downs of “Prologue,” which starts and ends slow and gives the visual essay closure.


More specifically, in terms of organization, my visual essay makes use of several “image sets” which correspond with the music. The very beginning contains preparatory images, as members of the armed forces get prepared for war just as the song is preparing for a crescendo. Here I make use of powerful statements in order to develop the mood for the next section, ending with a comment on the power of the military before suddenly switching to images of war and military operations as the music picks up. When the music switches to an intermissionary section following the refrain, I used images of military training which represent growth as the music grows in volume. Finally, I end with images of soldiers being congratulated as they return home to enhance to diminuendo.


SOURCES:
The following videos were downloaded using http://keepvid.com/:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ysBQ5OxFLk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnR8CDygeAM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YFUfuglke0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlzdZqSVbJ4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDXK1dFY_Pc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUrf6Qg4T4E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq-ZVIZJaI8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DvCxSGo-Lo


The following images were downloaded using Google Images:
http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2003/photorelease/q4/R071720.jpg
http://shop.theexecutivedesktopfurniturecompany.com/images/1228939692429-675787592.jpg


The following songs were downloaded using http://www.video2mp3.net/:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjvo0SPAOiQ&feature=related


All of the above was edited and compiled in Windows Live Movie Maker 2010.


Maru Maru Change-Kun,

Noel