author: Kazuki Takahashi
name: Rebecca
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/08/31
shelves: i-own, manga
review:
Aug 312007
author: Emura
name: Rebecca
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2007/08/01
date added: 08/31/07
shelves: borrowed, manga
review:
In many ways, W Juliet reminds me of Ranma 1/2. Emura has found a situation (a neatly tied-together set of situations, actually), and then keeps finding different ways to explore and play out the situation.
I realize I should be getting bored with it, but I’m enjoying watching how the situation plays out in each new setting, and I really like Mako. (And I have ten more volumes to go. Eep!)
Aug 302007
author: Emura
name: Rebecca
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2007/08/01
date added: 2007/08/30
shelves: borrowed, manga
review:
Aug 302007
I’m not sure how this didn’t occur to me sooner, given that I write fan fiction, and an alarmingly number of fanfics are what have been called “song fics”. In a song fic, the writer weaves a song’s lyrics through the story, tying what’s happening in the story to the song. (Most sites frown on posting these because of the copyright issues, but interestingly, none of them enforce it.) I have an accidental song fic myself (It has the title of a song, and then the song’s chorus is at the very end of the last chapter I was all but bullied to add on by the readers.)
The thing with songs is that if they’re done correctly, a song is a story in and of itself. Think about your favorite song. Think about the lyrics. Print them off if you need to, just to carefully consider them. Are they a story? It may not be a direct narrative like one of my favorite songs (”Home” by the Eric Stuart Band). It might be something more subtle, just trying to persuade. (My favorite song, “Name” by the Goo Goo Dolls, is like that.) Sometimes, it’s a problem-solution set up. (I admit it, I like “Skater Boy” by Avril Lavigne.) Songs, by and large, are a story.
The point of this post, however, is not to convince you to go write a song, or to spend your time looking for every song’s story. I actually want you to consider this lovely post from Tapping Creativity, and consider using songs as writing prompts when you’re feeling blocked.
Songs provide great material for writing prompts because you can write the story you hear in the song. You can write to a specific line that just pops for you. (You can tie the chorus of a song to a favorite character in a cartoon…) You can write a reaction to the song. You can rewrite the story by playing the What if game. What if he hadn’t come back? What if he didn’t make it big? What would have happened then? In some ways, it’s an odd form of creating fan fiction, only you’re working off a song instead of a book, television show, or movie.
Give it a try. Pull out your favorite song. Find the story within it, and write to it. (Remember to credit the song back to its creator.) If you post it somewhere online, share the link in the comments.
Aug 302007
The most important thing I want you to remember after reading this is that absolute value is a measurable distance.
The second most important thing I want you to remember is that absolute value is positive most of the time. (This is because distance is generally a positive measurement.
Absolute value is indicated by two long straight lines | |. This means you’re trying to find how far you are from 0. For example, |4| is four units from 0, and it therefore it equals 4. If you’re dealing with |-4|, that’s also 4 units away from 0, so it also equals 4.
That’s it…that’s all there is to absolute value. Of course, then you have to learn how to apply it.
Let’s say you’re given the problem -| -6|. You know the absolute value of -6 is 6, but because there’s a negative sign outside the absolute value signs, it stays with the 6 for an answer of -6.
Equations sometimes have absolute value in them. Look at the following: |2x – 4| = 8 Because the equation inside the absolute value signs can be positive or negative, we have to solve for both answers.
2x – 4 = 8 2x – 4 = -8
2x = 12 2x = -4
x = 6 x = -2
The solution to |2x – 4| = 8 is both 6 and -2.
Absolute value can also show up in inequalities. Let’s look at |3x + 9| > 6 Again, we have to solve two equations, and we have to pay very close attention to the set-up.
3x + 9 > 6 3x +9 < -6
3x > -3 3x < -15
x > -1 x < -5
Note that when we set the second equation to the negative answer, we also flipped the inequality sign. Our solution is x > -1 or x < -5. If we were to graph this out, we would have a broken line with a gap between -1 and -5.
If you’re not sure you did the inequality correctly, you can always pick a number that would make the sentence true and check your work. If it doesn’t make a true statement once you simplify the problem, you probably have the inequality sign going the wrong way.
That’s it for this week. If you have any suggestions for next week, or questions about work you’re doing in school, feel free to drop us a line at deadbunnyed@gmail.com.
Aug 292007
People often look at me funny because I tend to have so many projects and activities going. They can’t quite seem to understand that it’s just me trying to preserve what’s left of my non-existent sanity. I learned long ago that if I didn’t have activities to move between, I’d get restless. I learned long ago that if I don’t have a variety of activities to move between, I just shut down and stop doing anything.
Somehow, I’m not the only person who’s become aware of this need to vary the day.
I think Life is a Journal has become a favorite read over the past week, mainly because I feel like I’m reading someone who thinks kind of similarly. He says, “Create your own physical education program” (Did you know one of the goals of P.E. is to create the habit of activity within students?), and I look at my walking/yoga plans, and the fact I document them to make myself feel badly when I blow them off. He says “Create your own art program”, and I look at my jewelry shelf, my graphic design folder, and my attempts to figure out Illustrator.
My favorite is the “Make up your own syllabus” part. I’ve been trying to figure out how to restructure my independent learning efforts into something more course-like, but haven’t found an approach that works for me yet. I used to think I was crazy for thinking that way, but… I’m really glad to see I’m not.
Maybe I’m just trying to justify how it is I juggle so many projects at once.
Boxes and Arrows recently ran a great article on Foundations of Interaction Design. The article takes various artistic concepts and analyzes interaction design against them.
My favorite part, mainly because I’d never actually thought about teaching itself as having such a thing, is the section on negative space.
Negative space
All good design disciplines have a form of negative space. In Architecture and Industrial Design it is the hollowness or the space between solids. In Graphic Design it is “white space” what is left without color, line or form, literally the white part of the paper to be printed on. Sound design looks at silence, and lighting design looks at darkness.So what is the negative of interaction?
There are many places where you can “lack” something, or more accurately there are many layers. Are we only talking about the product action? What about our action? What about the space in between either entity’s action?
Pause – So clearly a pause in time where no action is taking place by anything that is part of the interaction experience. Often in interaction design we try to fill these gaps, but maybe these gaps are useful.
Cessation of thought – What if doing nothing created a reaction from the system? Well, one student thought this up with BrainBall (http://w3.tii.se/en/index.asp?page=more&id=4) at Sweden’s Interaction Institute (http://w3.tii.se/en/). As you think less the ball moves more.
Inactivity – Doing nothing, or the product doing nothing in reaction to an action may be a negative occurrence. This differs from pause, but in this case inactivity is the reaction to activity as opposed to just a cessation of activity.
Well whatever the negative space of interaction design is, it isn’t.
If you think about it, in our teaching the negative space is wait time. I know that doesn’t really agree with the article, but it’s that point where we stop talking, and the student has the chance to process, to think, on their own. It’s our negative space because the teaching art isn’t being practiced in that space, and it’s necessary to aid in the student learning.
I don’t think there could be a total absence of thinking or work in the teaching negative space, but it’s certainly something to think about.
Multiplying and dividing integers is actually an easier process than adding and subtracting them. You should already know your basic facts. That’s the first step.
The second is to memorize these two rules.
- If you multiply/divide numbers with the same sign, the answer will be positive.
- If you multiply/divide numbers with different signs, the answer will be negative.
So, in practice. the first rule looks like +3 * +5 = +15, or -4 * -7 = +28, or +12 / +4 = +3, or -8 / -4 = +2. The second rule looks like +4 * -4 = -16, or -42 / +6 = -7. It doesn’t matter which number is negative in multiplication or division. If one is negative and the other is positive, the answer has to be negative.
So we’ve covered the rules for working with integers. Someone suggested I do a little bit on absolute value, so I’ll try to post on that tomorrow.
Aug 282007
Yesterday, we covered adding positive and negative integers. Today, let’s look at subtracting positive and negative numbers.
First, let’s remember the basic rules of adding and subtracting.
Subtraction always goes left on the number line. Addition always goes to the right.
All right, let’s start with something simple: 7-4. This problem is actually +7 – +4, and is just like the subtraction problems you’re used to doing. You start at 7 on the number line and hop down 4 spaces, landing on +3. So, +7-+4 = +3
This is all good, right? A positive minus a positive is a positive, right? Well, not exactly.
Let’s look at 4 – 7. This is now +4 – +7. We start at +4 on the number line, hop down 7 spaces (which takes us across the 0), and land on -3. When subtracting two positive numbers, the sign on the answer will match the sign on the larger number in the problem. Above, it was positive because the 7 was positive. This time it was negative because of the minus sign in front of the 7.
Now let’s look at what happens when both numbers are negative. Let’s try -2 – (-6). If you remember, yesterday I said we don’t like having two symbols in between numbers, so we combine them. Because these two signs are the same, they combine and become a plus sign. This problem is now -2 + 6. We start at -2, hop 6 spaces to the right on the number line, and arrive at +4.
Subtracting negatives is like subtracting positives because the sign on the larger number, when the expression is simplified, is the same as the sign on the answer.
Tomorrow, we’ll tackle multiplying integers.
Aug 272007
I think I’ve been writing things down my entire life. Stories, ideas, random things, song lyrics. You can sort of see that reflected in this blog because it’s my personal blog. I’ve actually had a vision for this blog that has managed to never manifest itself for unknown reasons. Oh, well. This blog tends to live in the moment. I’ve long thought about trying to make it more of a journaling experience, but I can’t seem to shift myself into a journaling frame of mind.
A journal can be whatever you want. If you want to just write, then just write. If you don’t want to feel trapped in one style of writing, then let your style suit your mood. If you’d rather journal in images, then draw or put pictures in it. A journal is personal, and should therefore reflect you.
I guess in a way, this blog is sort of a journal. I capture my thoughts on things that matter to me. I occasionally review the books and games I’m enjoying. I like to occasionally throw in song lyrics (I need to find some others to spruce up the place a bit.) I’ve thought about putting some lists here, but I’m really not sure how far inside my odd little head you readers really want to be. If I can get my act together, this blog will reflect my Web 2.0 self, and then you’ll know all my dark secrets!
For you, find your format (paper or electronic), and give journaling a try. Don’t put any boundaries on it. Just let it develop. See what it can do for you.
