the world

Given the current situation we are in... people want to turn and blame someone else. Which I think is probably the most logical thing we can think of at the present moment. But in reality, it wasn't any ONE person to blame. We are all probably in some way at fault. It all resulted from things like GREED, the increasing wants of the Americans, the use of credit, the over-reliance on credit, 'biting off more than you can chew', inflated prices, and probably false highs in the stock market.... Well now we are all getting a dose of reality. Life is a shit sandwich, and YES it tastes like shit no matter what.
What about all these McMansions that Americans want to live in? I saw a family of eleven. 11! that fit in a house that is less than 500 sq. ft....
...think about that. How big is a dorm room?...
Basically our 1200+ square foot homes are for what? So that we are comfortable? so we have our space? so we have space to store a bunch of unused junk that we will end up never using and our kids will have to sort through and sell when we finally die...
This has been some kick I've been on for a couple weeks now. The American dream is a shitty dream. If you want to be part of it, you suck. I don't want a huge house, with a nice car, and a big green lawn (and all of the debt that goes along with that...because face it, how many people do you know that have ZERO debt?)

We have to figure this problem out or this current economic 'problem' will turn into something a lot worse. Oh and our image as a country isn't going to improve either. America SUCKS. and yes I'm going to live here. I can have an opinion about our country. I'm also fully aware of what it's like in a third world country. It REALLY sucks there. and at the end of the day, we all have problems and the grass is not green on either side. Its brown and dead.

Mexicoland

So I went to Mexico for spring break... I had the greatest time and it was a huge eye opener. Seeing things there and then coming back to the States makes me appreciate everything we have a lot more...
I went down there with my mom and her best friend with the intention of helping an organization build a home for a poor family. I thought I would be doing lots of labor and working my ass off...Well I was wrong and right. I did work on a house but I didn't work my ass off.

This image shows the house that the family currently lives in... The 'house' is made of corrugated metal for the roof and walls. The door is made of clothing. It's maybe 10' x 10' and a family of 5 lives in it... There is no running water, no heating/cooling, and no electricity... It made me not be so quick to complain about some of my gripes about my computer or being a bit too warm and what not.

The house we worked on was made of an compressed earth modified adobe brick. I got to go in some of the completed adobe houses that the organization had built for other families...They felt as if they were being air conditioned but in reality, they still had no running water, no electricity, and still no heating/cooling, but the home was much more cozy and much more safe.

Here is the back end of the house... We were just starting on the vaulted roof.

and yes I did do work. I didn't just walk around and take pics. So here is some proof :P

A play through the eye of a designer

Camino Real Review
Paul Reynolds

In theatrical productions, each of Aristotle’s elements are brought together to produce what we see. All of the elements are essential to the performance, and if one of the elements is lacking, the performance could suffer. During the performance of Camino Real, the actors were all over the place, including out in the audience. While some of the choices of Emil Boulos, the lighting designer, helped get some of the ideas of the show across, one of the choices actually brought the audience out of the show.
The first successful use of the lighting was at the beginning of the play when Don Quixote entered from the back of the theatre. Quixote’s entrance was quite grand in the fact that the aisle was lit up during his journey towards the stage. The illumination of aisle helps make the action very apparent and helps draw the audience into the action. This choice by the lighting designer was a good transition from general lighting to more specific lighting of the space. The scene started with much of the space being lit; then as Quixote approached the stage, less of the space was illuminated, and most of the lighting was focused on the stage.
The second successful use of the lighting was when Kilroy ran out into the crowd as he ran from the guards. The spotlights helped bring the audience back into the action by shifting the focus of light from the stage to the crowd. Although the lighting was very random, it still lit the scene and kept the focus on the action. This shifting of focus helped the audience watch as Kilroy attempted to escape the guards. Because the lighting in the scene was arbitrary, it helped enforce the action in the scene, as the action was chaotic and Kilroy seemed confused as he ran.
After Kilroy stole his golden heart, he ran out into the crowd a second time, the spotlights and the guards following him. At the same time the spotlights and guards were chasing Kilroy, a multicolored light spun and waved around the space. This light was a rough transition from focused lighting and structured scene to a more general lighting and chaotic scene. This colored light made the action confusing to me because I was expecting some cast member from the previous scene to come out into the audience. Every time I focused my attention back on Kilroy, the colored light distracted me back up towards the stage where some of the actors still stood.
As lighting designer, Emil Boulos made many decisions on how to light the space, focus the attention, and guide the action. Most of the decisions were effective except for one, and this one decision really brought me out of the action of the play, and had a negative effect on my experience of the production. This proves that to create a successful production, all of the elements must work in a logical and cohesive manner.