I Like Picasso

*I can’t figure out how to post pictures so just click the links to find the (awesome) pictures.

http://maryadamart.com/Images/Picasso_Guitar_Player_1910_artchive_40pc.jpg

This is Guitar Player by Picasso. Although, E. D. and A. K. do not like Picasso, I actually do. Guitar Player is probably my favorite of his. I think that he really deserves the credit he gets because he revolutionized art and really brought Cubism into the spotlight of modern art. In this painting, it seems like several gradians and lines in a somewhat monotone color scheme, but the more you look into it you begin to see the actual guitar player. The fact that he can do that to me, make me really see what he is trying to portray is a power of its own kind.

However, I feel like so many people ridicule his style of art because of 1.) It is not realistic or proportional or just different and 2.) So many artists have emulated his style to the point that his work seems redundant and unoriginal.

1.) His style demonstrated faces with both eyes on one side, subjects in profile position although their entire face was shown, hands and limbs and hair in tangled messes. The art style itself was new and different, and sometimes seen as childish. The truth is, Picasso had already been an accomplished painter before he delved into the cubism art style and disproportionatism. He was able to paint beautiful landscapes and realistic human figures and faces, but he decided to reinvent himself and art itself and changed his style. This is why it is incorrect to say that he is a untalented artist.

2.) Many artists that came after Picasso emulated and often copied his style, which is not entirely wrong as art is never really original anymore. Artists often take ideas and concepts from other artists, and thus the passing of art continues. What I mean to say here is that so many artists have emulated Picasso’s style that it has become almost redundant.

http://www.crowvalley.com/images/Picasso%20I%20cropped%20A.jpg

This is an unknown artist’s painting inspired by Picasso.

There is really no reason why Picasso should be ridiculed. I think his artwork is amazing.

http://www.join2day.net/abc/P/picasso/picasso139.JPG

Baby, can you paint that?

Do I Have to Respond to the Mathematics Question?

Mmm, I will return to this later. Fingers crossed that I do not have to.

Revisited: October 1, 2008

Shoot! It turns out I do have to respond to this prompt.

Since this was my own presentation, one might believe that I can easily answer this question. Honestly, I cannot. Even when researching for my presentation, it was hard for me to determine one single belief: whether mathematical ratios (such as pi, Euler’s number e, and phi) exist naturally or whether we humans create them.

Like I said for my presentation, I believe that it is a combination of both beliefs. It is hard to say that those numbers exist naturally in the world, because essentially humans created the math system. We  established this system of numbers (figures for quantities) and symbols. Even if the ratios and numbers existed in the world intrinsically, humans then discovered them and named them.

However, I do not believe humans solely created (and even looked for) these constants. It is more than mere coincidence that certain aspects of everyday life, geometry, and even body structure contain the Golden Ratio. The reappearance of these numbers show that there is a relationship naturally.

One way or another, I will say that these constants have dramatically improved humans’ understandings of math and mathematics’s relationship to the world.

Ah ha!

Religion and Me

Religion.

I have always had very strong opinions about religion, but as I have grown older my scope of the world and the world’s people has grown wider, broader, and much more kind.

I will begin this blog with my thoughts on religion. I am not a religious person, but I think it is beautiful that some people find peace in their religion. That said, I still find that religious fanaticism hurts more than it is supposed to help because I find that it divides, excludes, and generates discrimination among people of different cultures and religions. Perhaps I should not say so, but I believe that spirituality should be a personal thing.

I do not believe in God, or any god for that matter. If you do I am happy for you, and I hope that you would have enough respect for me for not believing in Him. So I would say my position on religion is that of a bystander. While I lean more into skepticism, I still appreciate what others can find through religion.

The prompt is: Is religion a human science?

I would think so. Maybe I am inaccurate according to historians and anthropologists, but I think that religion was derived from peoples’ spirituality, relations to death, and used as an explanation to phenomena. Perhaps it began as reassurance to people through difficult times, a use of religion that is still apparent today.

Religion has become such a prominent element of people’s lives, and I think that is because we created it and eventually modeled different religions to our personal beliefs.

I am sorry if this blog is short. The question was kind of a Yes/No question, and I reply “YES!”.

Sometimes religion still baffles me, but perhaps that is not a bad thing. Maybe I ought to learn more, but I believe what I believe and I think that you should believe what you believe.

*I do wish for world peace, but rather peaceful coexistence.

Enthnic – n + s = Ethics

*There’s no actual reason as to why I entitled this blog “Ethnic – n + s = Ethics”. I just thought it was cool. I just thought I was cool. A little bit.

So can ethics be quanitified? Honestly, I do not believe that beliefs and standards should be quantified, but I understand that there are instances where other people think so and enact on those reasonings. Read on.

In sophomore year I read a chapter in a book concerning ethics for an essay. The chapter opened with a story about a policeman who found and turned in a large amount of money, somewhere around $15,000. He was applauded for turning the money in rather than swindling it for himself. However, the media and people ignored the statement he issued, saying that he would not risk his pension/bonuses/salary which would be much greater than the $15,000 he found. The author of the book concluded that while the police officer had done the right thing and returned the money, his intentions question his ethics. As a person, and especially as a respected policeman and leader in a community, he should have returned the money for the good of it rather than weigh out the better prize. What if the money he found had amounted to three times his salary? What if he had stumbled across $1,000,000,000? According to his logic, he would steal the money without a hesitation.

I believe this is a prime example of ethics being quantified. The policeman quantifies each choice he could make: the right one and the unlawful one, and chooses the right choice based on the fact that he would receive more money in the end.

I also think that while this is an example, it certainly shows negative aspects of human nature and self-interest.

 

 

 

Stealing the Devil’s Make-up

*This blog is in response to Option 1 of “Emotions”.

This actually occurred just a few weeks ago. It’s quite embarrassing to me, but even more so I think it should be more embarrassing for my older sister. We will call her El Diablo. She’s goes psycho, no joke.

My little sister lost her favorite Maybelline eyeliner and somehow convinced me that I had lost it. (Funny enough, she found it yesterday in her room but I won’t be mad at her because she’s my baby sister).) Usually I’m not that gullible, but I’m pretty apt to losing small things so losing someone’s eyeliner wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Instantly I felt bad, so when she needed some eyeliner I “borrowed” El Diablo’s Rimmel eyeliner for her to use.

Big mistake. I had intended to return the eyeliner right away, but El Diablo bursted through the front door.  There was no chance for me to put it back. When she was getting ready to go out she immediately noticed it was gone and threw the most outrageous fit, it was hard to imagine that she was already thirty.

She pinpointed me.

I lied and said I hadn’t seen it, for my little sister’s and my own sake. I can honestly say I was scared because when I refer to her as “The Devil” I am not kidding. “El Diablo” might even be an understatement.

When she went to go hctib upstairs, I put it back in her disarray of make-up and told my little sister to just try and interact with El Diablo as little as possible. (We’ve been trying to get her to move out. She sehctib about us all the time, anyways.)

So the reason I brought this incident up is that, I questioned my own integrity and lied about something out of fear. Yes, I technically stole the make-up so my sister could use it, but normal sisters borrow to and fro all the time. That is why that’s not the focus of my blog. I hope this works under the topic because it’s something that I hate to do. Lie, that is.

But with my nightmare/failure-of-an-older-sister, I suppose I should have known better.

Boys, boys, and the Scientific Method!

When can I use the scientific method without using math? Why, here is one situation that most people probably use a lot unconscientiously.

Picking a guy or girl! It sounds mighty cheesy, but it really is a systematic know-how. For my own sake of having to write “guy or girl/him or her/his or hers”, I will only talk about picking up a guy. But it works the same the other way around.

(Don’t show this to Cheng!)

So, here goes (this is made up):

1. Ask a question: (At the mall.) That guy over there is hot and seems nice. What’s he all about? His name? His interests? Does he play guitar?

2. Background research: He’s got an American Eagle T-shirt on and Converse Chuck Taylors. Nice style. He’s holding a book! And a bag from Barnes & Nobles full of other books. Bookworm? I bet! Boyfriend material? I must go talk to him. (Proceed to talk to him.)

Me: “Hi, I like your shoes. I’ve been dying to buy a navy blue pair some time.”

Hot guy: “Hahaha, really? They were actually on sale at Footlocker the other day.”

Me: “No way! I should have been here.”

Hot guy: “Yeah, it was pretty awesome. Oh, I’m Cheng by the way. And your name is?”

Me: “It’s Ariana, but most people call me Ana.”

Hot guy: “Ana? Cool, cool. Listen, I was on my way to Footlocker to pick up another pair of Chucks. If you’re not busy, would you like to accompany me?”

Me: “Sounds good, Cheng. I figure you won’t be heading to Barnes & Nobles any time soon? (Smirk)”

Hot guy: “Yeah, I’ve got plenty of a books to keep me busy, but then again I’ve got all the time in the world today. Let’s go!”

The fact that he’s open to meeting a girl, and even asks her to go to a store with him on a whim shows he probably does not have a girlfriend. (Or he’d be one off boyfriend.)

3. Construct Hypothesis: This early chemistry will end in a date.

4. Test with experiment: We go to Footlocker and have an awesome time trying on different pairs of shoes, annoying the employees having to go back and forth for our shoe sizes, and ultimately leaving the store with nothing but a pair of Nike socks bought off the shelf out of pity. I brave up, and ask him if he’s hungry. He is. I suggest heading towards the food court. We go!

5. Analysis: The rest of the day at the mall is wonderful. He asks if I’d like to hang out again sometime. I suggest shooting some pool at Rack’em Up billiards. And the rest is history.

Boys, boys, boys. Who knew you could say “boys” and “scientific method” in one sentence?

Reason & Language: Two things we probably need in life.

This is a hard topic for me. I am not one to be bring up personal stories of my own on a whim, but neither am I one to lie and make one up. So I hope this story that is supposed to contain a situation where I used reason without language suffices:

“I bought two mangos from a Cambodian flea market booth.”

I know it does not seem very in-depth nor really convey the whole point of this topic, but I want to say that there is more to this exchange of money and (delicious) fruit:

The elderly woman did not speak any English to me. When I asked (in English) if I could purchase the mangos she smiled and responded in Cambodian. Despite this language barrier, I was able to use actions and money to tell her how many I wanted. I just really want to say that actual language and speaking is not always needed to communicate.

And a situation where I used reason with language?

Easy! A debate.

I can be specific and mention the debate in World Literature 11 IB, when Taylor Kryjeski asked us ”Do you agree with the phrase: Ignorance is power. (Deriving from George Orwell’s 1984.)

I was on the “Disagree” side. I said that ignorance can be bliss, but in no way is it power. Ignorance limits one.

Fi-nay!

The E-”sense”-tials

Which sense do humans use most? That’s a hard one.

Let me go through the five (or six?) senses and decide which one people probably use the most:

Taste – Well, in order to survive people need to eat. However, ingesting food and actually tasting it are two different things if you-know-what-I’m-sayin’. I mean, I just ate a quarter of a strawberry two seconds ago. I can say that not only did I eat it, I tasted it. It was slightly tart as all strawberries go, but still sweet and tasting of everything red. Or I could have just eaten it and that would be that. Just something going down my digestive system and all, meaning I did not really taste it. 

Taste is a key sense of course, but I would not say it’s the one we humans use most.

Smell – This is kind of like taste. We use it when we choose to. For example, you walk by a bush of lovely pink roses, and you suddenly get the urge to sniff one. You know it will smell wonderful and want to take in their fragance; so you lean over and “turn on” your nose. Surprise! It smells awful. You then “turn off” your nose (and begin breathing solely through your mouth) and walk away.

So yes, we are aware of our sense of smell. I think we tend to control this sense more so than the others. However, I do not believe that means it is used the most either.

Touch – I touch Cheng a lot, I know that. You might think that’s a bit irrelevent, but it’s actually not! It is natural the way I brush my leg against his, hug him, hold his hands, it is something I always do. I used to think the ‘touch sense’ was just whatever. Yes, I use it. Sure, sure. But now that I think about it, everyone is using this sense in one way or another every millisecond. Just to get around I touch some sort of surface, be it pens, pencils, papers, books, even the keys on this keyboard.

So the question is, do we use this sense the most in order to register an inquiry? Does it always give us information? Probably not. I can touch the table and it could be any smooth surface and it would not immediately tell me that it was a table. So perhaps touch is not the most used sense.

Hearing – Noises are all around us. That’s for sure. One moment someone is talking, another someone closes a book, and in the far background there is a child crying. When you are speaking to someone on the phone, you are listening to (and thus, hearing) them talk. Yes, hearing is one important sense. I think it is used extensively in our world full of communication and bustle and life. But why do I not believe it is not used the most either? Simply put, I think sight in the most used sense. Not that hearing is not as important, it just is not used as much as sight.

Sight – I think this sense is used the most for a multiple of reasons, but especially because of the fact that it is really out of our control. We can close our eyes, but even then we see images and memories. We can metaphorically be “blind to the world”, but that does not mean outside forces do not affect us. You are always looking at something. Reading and written language is all about sight and the recognization of characters. I think that although all the other senses are just important as sight, this is the one sense that we have almost no control over. It cannot render us or the world around us invisible, if that makes sense.

I hope that answers your question, Gully!

And on to the next: which sense would I give up?

Probably taste. To me, it is not vital. I can live a perfectly normal life smelling, seeing, touching, and perhaps hearing my food. Taste is wonderful, but I do not need it.

Ariana, out.

Apples & Oranges

As a kid I never understood this phrase. Apples and oranges? They were both fruit to me. Sweet, sour, always juicy. I remembered thinking, Why in the world do grown-ups describe two completely different things as apples and oranges? Could they not have chosen two totally extreme pieces of food (considering the usage of food as a metaphor was necessary) like a bowl o’cereal (preferrably Honey Bunches of Oat) and a Taiwanese fermented pigeon egg (I saw this on Andrew Zimmern’s “Bizarre Foods” show on the Travel Channel). That would immediately say “Object #1″ and “Object #2″ to me, y’know?

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