Blog 10 A

      In FREAK FACTOR: Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weakness, David Rendall recommends nine ways to deal with your weaknesses. Rather than suggesting improvement on weak areas, David suggests to readers that they should focus on their strengths instead. Many weaknesses are, according to David, actually hidden strengths. One story he uses as an example to support his argument that weaknesses can actually be used as strengths involves a man who struggles with addiction. Todd Crandell used to be addicted to drugs. His problems with drugs left him homeless and poor. Todd was able to change his addiction from drugs to Ironman Triathlons, races that involve a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run. He still has an addiction, but he has found a way to harness his addiction to improve his health rather than damage it. Like David says, it is more efficient and realistic to make the weakness into a strength than try to change the weakness altogether.

   The first of David's suggestions I found especially useful was number two: “What's My Problem?” David describes how he has harnessed his weaknesses and turned them into skills that help him in his life as a professor, speaker and consultant. For example, David mentions that he is hyperactive. He writes, “Now, the hyperactive guy, who can't sit down or stay quiet, gets paid to stand up and talk.” He chose careers that are not negatively impacted by his weaknesses. One of my weaknesses is that I am very easily distracted. It is literally impossible for me to focus through an entire class. Sometimes, I am so easily distracted that I can not focus enough to have a one-on-one conversation. It can be an extreme nuisance at times, but when I lose focus on the task at hand, I am usually daydreaming about abstract thoughts, concepts or creative ideas. Often, I imagine unique camera angles or interesting ways to edit a certain video sequence I have been working on. I conquer my weakness by using it to supplement my strength as a creative person.

    The next tip that I strongly agree with is number four: “Forget It: Don't Try to Fix Your Weaknesses.” David says that it is a waste of time to try to fix your weaknesses. He believes that it takes too long to correct a weakness, it is not enjoyable, it is distracting and it simply isn't worth it. By correcting a weakness, it is still not transformed into a useful strength. It is pointless to attempt to be less bad at something when you could instead use the time and effort to turn a good skill into a great skill. Another weakness of mine is that I am bad at planning ahead. Rather than trying to get better at planning ahead, it is more worth my time to develop my already strong skill to easily adapt to situations as they occur and solve problems on the spot.

    The last tip that I would like to discuss is tip number five: “Build on Your Strengths.” David says we should work to improve our strengths more than correct our weaknesses because it feels rewarding, our natural areas of strength are the areas that have the most potential and strengths make up for weaknesses. Essentially, David is encouraging specialization. People who are a jack of all trades are not those who are the most well known. For example, if Einstein had decided that relative to his physics skills, his biology skills were weak, he may have wasted his time being an average biologist instead of developing the theory of relativity. Specializing in physics is what made Einstein one of the greatest scientists of all time.

My Weaknesses: Procrastination, easily distracted, poor pre-planning skills, impulsive, overextension

My Strengths: Creativity, flexible/good at adapting, open-minded, calmness in stressful situations

Blog 9A

    I believe that my group and I were able to clearly explain all of the concepts in our game to the class because we had a very simple game. Rather than a complex, multiplayer, open-world game, like some of those proposed by other groups, my group decided on a relatively simple game that could be played online. Our strongest point was identifying the objectives. In my group's game, OU Drunken Dash, the objectives are simple: make it from the spring fests to your dorm without being arrested, buy some food from a restaurant on Court Street, and escort your friend back to his/her dorm. Our weakest point was giving the class a sample of some of the sounds they would hear in game. Unfortunately, the sounds included on the powerpoint would not work when they were on the computer in the lab. I had to manually select each sound and play it using preview since the sound would not work on the powerpoint.

    The concept that is most difficult to discuss with others is the game's goals. It is the most difficult to explain a game's goals because it is easy to confuse goals with objectives. In my group's game, the objectives are to evade capture by police, but the goals are to accomplish the objective quickly to earn a high score. The close relationship between goals and objectives can make it difficult to decide whether to classify something as a goal or objective.

My Hero/Villain Animation

Here is my animation posted on my partner's blog.

Blog 8A

Audio for Blog 8A

Blog 7

A Fools Game

My group chose to use joke number 6:

JOKE #6

A very shy guy goes into a bar and sees a beautiful woman sitting at the bar. After an hour of gathering up his courage, he finally goes over to her and asks, tentatively, "Um, would you mind if I chatted with you for a while?"

 She responds by yelling, at the top of her lungs, "NO! I won't sleep with you tonight!" 

 Everyone in the bar is now staring at them. 

 Naturally, the guy is hopelessly and completely embarrassed and he slinks back to his table.

 After a few minutes, the woman walks over to him and apologizes. She smiles at him and says, "I'm sorry if I embarrassed you. You see, I'm a graduate student in psychology, and I'm studying how people respond to embarrassing situations."

 To which he responds, at the top of his lungs, "What do you mean $200?!"

Our two approaches to presenting the joke were very different; however, due to the fact that they were both filmed in the same location, the use of line, shape, rhythm, space and movement are very similar in both videos. In the first video, Whats the Worst that Could Happen?, we used color and audio. The second video, A Fools Game, had the appearance of a 1920's silent film. The contrast in the use of color in the videos emphasized that the fact that they took place in different time periods. The video in color is intended to look modern while the black and white video is meant to take place in the late 1800's.

Both videos display affinity through the use of visual rhythm. The bottles on the shelves behind the bar establish a constant visual rhythm consistent in both videos. In both videos, there is an over the shoulder shot of two characters with the bottles in the background.

The videos also share affinity through the use of line. In Whats the Worst that Could Happen?, the lines created by the bar lead you right to Tony and Mike. In A Fools Game, the lines lead you right to Janette.