Visual Timeline Proposal Idea

As many of you know and have seen I love photography, and I am always taking photos. Whether it is with a DSLR or more frequently now with my just using my phone. I figures since writing in my journal on a daily basis are a written record for what has been going on this quarter, and during my time here at Antioch University. I thought I would sift through my phone and create a mosaic of all the photos I have taken over the last few months, maybe even years. 

As it is my last quarter I thought this could serve as not only as an excellent memoir piece but also a visual diary for everyone to see. I think that this will be more meaningful to me, and more of a reminder of my time here during this class and my past two years here at this school. A journal to me is really enjoyable but we as people are more visual than anything. I wanted to create something that I will enjoy as well as have up for other to enjoy as well. I think it will be a fun representation of myself and of my college career. Something I can look back on and see the fun experiences I had and the time frames of different years as well. My idea behind it though is to create something that even a stranger will enjoy and be able to stand in front of and look at for a while.

I plan on printing these all out in a timely manner that is as cost effective as possible and then mounting them all to a piece of foam board from Kinko’s so that I can have some rigidity. Then I think once all the photo tiles are all on the board I will writing in a permanent pen some of the dates near the photos that were most important to me and why. I possibly may even frame it we will all have to wait and see. The hard part is going to be selecting the photos from my phone and seeing which ones are better suited for this piece. 

Most importantly however I think I want to do this because the idea came to me about a year ago and due to work and school never got the chance to fill that void. So I am very happy to say that I will be able to finally make this idea a reality by some miracle or another and I hope that every one will be able to enjoy it as much as I will. Plus if everything goes to plan and it turns out nice I can share with friends and family how I put it together.

Bus Waiting Meditation

Through I loved the section most on the gratitude journal I found that once the idea of the meditation bus was uncovered I felt like the author knew exactly what I was experiencing before I even got to that part in the book. I do my best to talk about all the thinks that mean most to me in my journal and stay away from the negativity but still it can be hard.

So once the bus waiting idea of mediation was brought up I found myself feeling relived and excited. This notion of creating happiness by being happy and thankful for mundane every day things is a great way to brighten your day and just to feel better over all. After all there is a lot one can appreciate by just waiting around for a bus to arrive depending on where you are waiting. 

Digging deeper I was shown this idea of “act the way you want to feel”. Well yeah duh that sounds easy but how easy is it really? Probably pretty hard actually but I have been trying it so far today after reading and I think its working. Calling friends bright and early and make them feel good by waling them with a friendly voice. Making food for myself walking my dog unexpectedly at the crack of dawn all of these things are a great part of self-actualization and can lend themselves to make you happier. If this is how we all generated happiness on top of the two times a week gratefulness journal we would all be so much more content. 

So far so good, I urge my classmates to do the same if you haven’t already started!

Ethnocentrimsm in Writing.

Ethnocentrism. As mentioned, I always thought this was an anthropological kind of issue and when I was reading about how it could possibly pertain to writing and reading I thought it was kind of strange. HOWEVER I think that this is a kind of weird way of saying you need to experience certain things in life to really be able to express them in words. 

In short I feel like the goal was to show how perspective could give you a better idea of what you are writing about given the different point of view. I sure hope that made sense because I also am still wrapping my head around it. Kind of a real life compare and contrast but instead of comparing two opinions or viewpoints you are comparing yours hands on experience with that of a second hand source? I believe that is actually what I meant. 

Being able to compare and contrast your life and that of another basing it off of what you have learned in life is the key really to writing in an ethnocentric kid of way. But viewing yourself as the primary source of information that is both important and correct in your eyes as a writer. The purest form of human culture interconnecting with writing.