The Future will Hold Butterflies

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A lot of people have been asking me “what do you plan to do next year?” and “what school are you going to?” and I know they all ask with good intentions but even after only a year college I feel as though I’ve already been given new insight as to what I’d like my future to look like. In my Digital Story Telling class, we would constantly look into the evolution of the multiple platforms digital story tellers would use to express their tales. In this I realized that things are always, constantly changing with the world and the people around it. And that although there may be things planned out and created ahead of time, not everything will make it to success. I believe most people have also come to realize that life’s never as simple or as destined as going to school, getting married, buying a house, and dying. We all deserve to live the life that makes us truly happy, whatever it may be.

I recently watched a TSN interview with a 14-year-old boy who lives with a rare skin disease called Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB), where the flesh on the body is extremely vulnerable, almost like the wing of a butterfly, and the way he talks about living is by far the most inspiring thing. Though treating his skin is a process which can take up to 3-hours-long daily, and though eating and drinking leave blisters in his throat and make it nearly impossible for him to ingest anything, he continues to be quite the avid hockey fan, as well as a beacon of hope for others not just living with this illness but for people globally who find it hard to even just carry on living. His story really made me rethink the way I was living and hopefully it made others reevaluate the delicate nature of our lives and bodies, as well as the certainty of our futures. Most people who have EB do not see beyond the age of 30, but our boy continues to live in both realism and optimism, he figures it’s his life and he intends to live it as fully as he possibly can, a way of thinking that we all should be striving towards.

Synthetic Drug Revolution

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I found this article on the Vice website, a widely known and popular news and culture magazine. I really enjoy their columns and the many channels they have, I find it an excellent source for digital story telling to take place. You can even watch the HBO short film on our subject matter.

Recently in these past months more and more people, specially American adolescents, have become swept up in the fascination regarding that of synthetic drugs. A global intrigue over synthetic substances that most consumers can’t even identify are now seeing themselves, specially those American teens, overdosing because of them. To shed some light on the subject synthetic drugs refer to drugs that are man-made and are often designed to mimic the effects of other illegal drugs. Most of these substances are created by mixing common and/or illegal substances in with the specific doses. This doesn’t mean that these drugs are “crazier” then real legitimate drugs, although most media (maybe even this one) would have you believing otherwise. The reason for even first producing synthetic drugs was to provide a therapeutic, stimulating sense for the buyer without the buyer having to make a sketchy, back alley drug exchange, just so they can have their thrill. It’s because users will handle the drugs without concern or enough intelligence leading to further uncertain outcomes.

China, New Zealand, and much of whats Europe currently have quite sophisticated, large manufacturing sites for these drugs. From the origins of New Zealand and China is the dangerous new drug called K2 that has been responsible for the string of overdoses in American teenagers. This could be the results of users over abusing the substances they purchase but one has to also think about the way these drugs are being regulated and sold to the people. And with the amount of concern synthetic drugs bring about, why has regulation and proper buyer-seller transactions not been enforced? The market for these drugs is a very small and specific type of people but realistically anybody with a curious mind has the ability to walk into a store selling the product and can purchase it right off the shelf with as much ease as actually taking the drugs.

This is the End.. Already?

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So this is weird.. I only remember being young and dreaming of this moment but now its happened and it’s already coming to a close. Going to college always seemed like that something you knew was eventually going to come along. You wait so long and work so hard just to make it there, though once you get in the thick of all the homework and studies you kind of almost wish you had left it off for a little while longer. Now that I’m almost finished my first year, however, I’m beginning to feel very mixed emotions about leaving. I’d really like to be over and done with it, but like anything you spend time with you end up growing an appreciation and accustomed to it. My Media Fundamentals program at Sheridan College only lasts for year anyway, which I knew about starting the course, and I’d decided that once this year was finished I would take a year off to earn and work a bit (I know most people would think this risky but I also just read today that some 16-year-old girl plans to sail around the world by herself so I could actually care less about what people are thinking or doing) which I hope will go well until I plan to return to school. I have ideas of where I’d like to see myself next and the school I’d liked to attend once the time comes but plan or no plan my life will always continue to surprise me in every way. I just hope now that with all this new found knowledge I’ve acquired I might actually be prepared for some of it.

My Definition of Digital Story Telling

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I feel like the first website that ever really gave me a good understanding of what digital story telling was was definitely the website, Pottermore.com. For those who have no idea what that even means, Pottermore is a digital story telling website that focuses on the unknown parts of the Harry Potter series by re-telling the iconic tale in an interactive, visually stimulating way. I had read most of the Harry Potter books when I was younger so when I had heard about the launch of the Pottermore website, I and my sisters practically had ourselves simultaneous conniptions. It was completely nerve-tingling the first time visiting the website. Before the site had only been open to a certain number of people globally who had, I guess, auditioned or had pleaded for an exclusive Pottermore insider position. Course I and my sister’s weren’t as fortunate to land ourselves an elite position, but on August 4th, 2009, J.K. Rowling had announced she was opening the site up to everyone, after almost six months of being initially released.

Pottermore.com is really quite great, you’re able to sort yourself into your own Hogwarts house, collect magical objects, cast and learn spells, all while learning interactively about the insides of the Harry Potter stories. I remember logging in almost everyday, multiple times even to see how I was doing in my house and the game or what else I could be doing to improve my character’s ranks. I got really obsessed for a while there, slowly though, with more homework and responsibilities falling in my lap, I had to pull away from my Pottermore obsession. Now I really only visit the website to see if it still remembers my account, thankfully it does. Even after all this time… which is why I recommend you now to visit, maybe sign up an account, and witness the excellence of the digital story telling masterpiece that is Pottermore.com.

Simple Living: The Dan Miller Project

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Try not to think of this project as devolution, but rather insight into a less then technical world. For his senior project, Dylan Miller, senior English and philosophy student at Juniata College, decided he would build himself a hut and for 8 months, since September, he has been living in the woods, as part of a final research project on simple living. He built his camp about a half-hour’s walk from the college campus to learn more first hand about living with only the necessities. His one-room structure sits on the campus’s Baker-Henry Nature Reserve. With the help of some tree logs and rope he’s managed to form a sound little dwelling that’s well insulated with plenty of vegetation. His oak plank floorboards came from a friend’s barn.

What initially impulsed Miller to start his project were the thoughts and writings of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson and their ideas on basic living. His 21-page proposal regarding the project provided a lengthy reading list that featured works by both Thoreau and Emerson. His assistant professor to his English program, with great certainty approved Miller’s project saying he ‘thought it was a fantastic idea.’ For the project to be approved, though, Miller had to follow a set list of campus and state requirements, including having a portable toilet and cellphone incase of emergency.

From what Miller describes, living in the hut off the candle light and the land isn’t as horrible as we would probably think it to be. He hopes his assignment will teach him as well as others in our generation a simpler way of living, through ‘fronting only the essentials in life and living it firsthand.’