PCA ENG 333 Daily Log: December 2013

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

11/17/13

Today was the Eoto show. This time I was able to convey my thoughts into a more animalistic form. I was kind of thinking about how wild the show was and how crazy it had been so far. This led me to draw animal silhouettes. The silhouettes came out well in my opinion. The concert compared to Lotus left me in a much different mood. I felt less alive but more artificial in a way. I think it may have been because of the electronic background used for the show.

11/15/13

I am struggling to find new ideas or at least retain them. Often times I cant write my ideas write away when I come up with them, be it I am in a conversation or an important class. So often times I am coming up with minor solutions or fixes to problems in my life but I am unable to write them down. I have thought I have made good habits with my PCA but I do not know how to keep all the ideas organized in my head.

11/11/13

We are still recycling cans in the house.

11/10/13

So we went to the Lotus show today. It was completely incredible and we came through with the drawings. I drew a guitar first then turned it into a T and made it into the logo. I was really feeling mellow throughout the show. And I think my drawing reflected it pretty well.

11/6/13

I know a lot of people often times lose picks while they are playing guitar. Picks are completely inexpensive but yet it gets incredibly annoying when you are losing them constantly. My idea is to have a pouch on the side of my guitar. Probably a little attachment that could be added to it on the side. That way if your in the middle of a show and a pick breaks you have another one available. Or your playing in your room and you cant find that last pick you just had! Easy access and easy to make!

11/1-11/2

I have begun to learn how to play piano. I am still learning all the basics. I have used the practice rooms at the IKE. At one point in my life I am hoping to gain traction in a music setting. Specifically the type of place I would want to find myself in a band just like Umphrey's Mcgee. A setting where I have free reign on the piano. I will be bringing my piano next semester.

Monday, December 9, 2013

10/26-10/27

I spent the weekend in Wisconsin. It was a very different environment that I actually enjoyed more than Illinois. The Greek life is much less prominent then Illinois. There were literally zero fraternities and no one cared.

I found this to be interesting and probably a bit healthier than the way Greek Life is at Illinois. I think that the University should be harsher on the Greek life here. By reducing the frats the University will create a scene that is much friendlier in my opinion. Being in a fraternity I find it almost childish the way some people interact with each other because of their social standing. It is slightly ridiculous. Reduction in my opinion will create a friendlier campus, especially when diversity is involved. I interact very little with the international scene in a social aspect.

10/23/13

I am going to evaluate my ability to function in this class.

I do think that I am a able group member. I have not missed any meetings and I have been reliable on adding to the ideas of the group. Everytime we have met I have found that I am able to discuss in a fun and enjoyable manner with my groupmates.

I do not consider myself good at everyday habits. I am very forgetful of working on a project in the weeks before. I often times take a while to even remember to right in my PCA. I have definitely missed a few days> I cant seem to find the motivation to actively participate in it everyday. I really like my ideas and how the recycling came to happen. I am also very excited for my LOTUS and EOTO experiment and I think they are both great examples of my ideas formulating. But I still cant bring myself to sit down and write for ten minutes about something I thought of in that day.

10/21/13

I want to evaluate my group. My group is Ankit, Matthew and Benson.

Ability to work with each other-Very good! We have already developed a sense of friendship and the jokes come in and out. We connect well and there was no initial hiccup to slow us down.

Ability to meet up- We have been able to meet for every meeting. There has been no communication breakdown on any dates.

Ideas- Though Ankit seems to be the definitive leader as of now he certainly does not act like it. All of our ideas have been taken into account and there is nobody being shutdown immediately with all of their ideas.

10/20/13

Why arent rolling backpacks used everyday if they are better for your health and reliable?

10/18-10/19

In my opinion the campustown should be more local to the downtown.

By getting rid of the midtown the University attracts more people to centrally localized apartments. These include the private housing the University has available. Higher costs of living creates better revenue in general for the town and for the University. Being that I live in Champaign I rarely make my way out to Urbana. By bringing downtown closer, there is more incentive for the people who live in Urbana to want to be in Champaign.

GET RID OF MIDTOWN.

10/16/13

I've been quite curious about the layout of campus town lately. I know that green street is the center or the hub of campus, so I am confused as to why so many people live in Urbana. I know its cheaper and very accessible for those with classes on the East side but I think the campus could have been layed out in a better fashion. I have really liked other campuses where town buildings where strewn across the middle of the campus.

My main idea is that the "downtown champaign" area should have been relocated closer to campus. At this point it is too far to walk to, especially for freshmen. Increased profits and a better social scene would have made campus town the place to be. When 50,000 more people have better access to the downtown area the only downsides I could see would be a increase in a cost of living in certain areas.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

11/14/13

At the arc I have noticed that the mats that are used for stretching, yoga and abs are being misused. The way that they are put away is bad. The ones on top are constantly being reused while the ones on bottom are consistently staying clean and unused. This is unsanitary. Not everyone cleans their mat. How can we stop this?

11/12-11/13

We were able to replace a pool stick in the house! An older graduate who was in the house saw my emails and really like the idea. He took over taking the cans to the recycling center and purchased the pool stick.

Why do none of the buildings on campus match?

10/11/13

I have begun to enjoy writing in my PCA every day. It is nice to keep a log of my doings and my creative findings. I believe that my best idea so far has been the recycling idea. I really enjoyed getting that together. I also find that my posts about the lotus concerts(which have not yet happened) is still such a cool idea. I cant wait to see how fruitful it could become.

10/8/13

http://chapul.com/

During class we talked about biocreativity and brainstormed with our new groups. We brainstormed alot about making cricket filled protein bars. During class we discussed that the use of them could maybe save costs or create a healthier and greener alternative. Lots of people are attracted to becoming more green and crickets was our first idea. Unfortunately Dr. Alleyne informed us that our idea which we spent a serious amount of time on was actually an example of biomimicry.

But we were able to find out the ingredients are relatively easy to attain. Our protein was going to the crickets. And peanut butter, chocolate and granola were all that would be needed. The costs for crickets is completely small, getting 500 crickets for 11 dollars at some websites. Using jiffy peanut butter and semi sweet chocolate chips our own home batch could be ready any day!

^^^hahahahahahaha could you imagine eating those

10/6-10/7

I have begun to think about more ways to bring calculators to be cheaper. Graphing calculators should be made available through apps on the smartphones. Phones multiple processors are years ahead of any graphing calculator. If Texas-Instruments could create a phone app that could be used for cheap would be incredible. The available calculators on the iphone are not usable for most of my calculus classes. There is no graphing options available.

The only problem I can really see with these becoming mainstream is the use of cellphones during tests. Unfortunately there is little wee way with using them as calculators in class. People could use them to go online or find other answers.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/free-graphing-calculator/id378009553

10/4/13

I have been wondering why calculators are so expensive. The same model calculator I bought in freshma year of high school is still being bought all the time by incoming kids. But the price is still sitting well above 100$. How can I come up with a way to make nonstream calculators, more mainstream.

10/2/13

I've teamed up with other guys in the house to collect cans. There are senior houses that will have people over during the week. I have been in contact with many of them and they have agreed to keep the cans for me.

9/30/13

After reading the FAQ I actually believe I may have changed my position on smoking in campus. At first I really thought that it was unfair to take away a personal right to use tobacco but I know see that people are smoking on campus owned property and they have the right to change that. I thought that I could find plenty of easy suggestions.

*Encourage the use of E-cigs. E-cigs are a healthier alternative in terms of second hand smoke. The vapor that is released leaves the air cleaner and eliminates second hand smoke. On the FAQ of the decision the university explicitly states its "want for fresher and cleaner air"

*Sectioned off smoking areas?

This does not reduce the cleaner or fresher air for non-smokers.

9/28/13

I do not smoke cigarettes but I have been wondering about solutions to the non-smoking campus. I used to smoke them and I understand why people will be completely against it. I personally do not believe banning cigarettes completely is the right decision. I do on the other hand think there are much better ways to deal with the problem.

The weekend was successful. I collected well over 200 cans. It was surprisingly easy when most of them are just laying in the hallways everywhere.

9/26-9/27

I decided to follow through with my idea for recycling.

I found this place that accepts the trash.

http://www.yellowpages.com/champaign-il/mip/marco-recycling-div-of-mervis-industries-inc-21881570?lid=1000295272808

Over the next week I plan on collecting keystone cans. I have sent an email about it to my house and plan on recycling the cans. I want to use the profit to help pay for new pool sticks in our house.

9/24/13

I have been thinking about switching my majors. I am curious to find out more about the Agricultural and Biological Engineering program. I am curious about Bio-fuels. I have thought of recycling all the beer cans my fraternity has. I have been wondering how I could use all of those extra beer cans to our benefit.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

9/20/13

Yesterday was my first time ever at the Art Museum. It was an interesting place to be with lots of good pieces. I do think that the downstairs was lacking in my opinion. I was not excited by all the traditional pottery taking place in the basement. I thought it was almost like it was down there on purpose. The atmosphere was dull, the color of the walls and floor were dull. There was nothing down there to excite me. On the other hand I found my mind to be enthralled by the "African bike". It was a antelope type animal made out of bike parts. But for some key features the bike part didn't totally fit. For some reason I found myself having trouble trying to compare them to how a normal antelope type animal should look like. I was totally intrigued by that.

9/16/13

Having met in Morril Hall I really found some topics pretty interesting. Dr. Alleyne took me a few floors below to the cockroach tubs. These tubs are essentially big garbage bins full of cockroaches. It was seriously one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen in my life. But it was pretty interesting listening to her talk about them. They are grown at Illinois and will only be used experimentally. Each bin had at least 200 cockroaches in them. She explained how very easy they are to breed and that it is useful to keep them on hand.

http://guardianlv.com/2013/08/1-5-million-cockroaches-escape-dafeng-facility-in-china/
heres an insanely freaky article

9/15/13

Today was a Sunday. Sundays in college are essentially a battle for me. All day I sit around and mentally battle with myself. It usually consists of me fighting the urge to melt into a couch. If only this was an effective way to get homework done. Sometimes I like to think in the future I can harness all of my supposed potential energy in the terms of getting work done. This could be incredible. My efficiency could expand ten fold with all the stored energy that could be used for homework.

9/13-9/14

Obviously the experiment is completely a subjective thing but I really like the idea of it plus I get to go to two of my favorite bands. I think that one factor that may also affect the shows directly is the actual music. I wonder how could that could affect it. Lotus is much more soothing and slower. There music is a fully encompassing experience. They take you on a ride that can not be replicated in terms of overall emotion. Eoto on the other hand is a straight up DANCE party. Your groove to their riffs and drum beats. With some headbanging you can really get into it.

I would assume the EOTO drawing would be so much more drastically different than the Lotus one. The tone in the drawings would differ.

9/11/13

Chart Comparison of Eoto and Lotus

Band	Lotus	Eoto

Music Genre	Trans Fusion	Electronic
	Jazz	Improv
	Jam	Jam
Fan Base	Hippies	Hippies


Group Dynamic	5 Piece	2 Piece
	2 Guitars	Both play multiple
	1 Keyboard 1 Drum	instruments

Stage	Led Lights	"Lotus Flower"
	Strobes and Multi	Psyachelic Images
	Colored Lights

9/9/13

I have found the two shows I will be going to.

http://canopyclub.com/tickets/

The two shows are

Lotus & Eoto

9/8/13

I have been thinking of an experiment that could be modeled. I want to compare the next to shows I go to the canopy club. I am thinking that there is a possibility that two bands with two different stages could cause a different reaction in different people. I am thinking about having a few friends of mine (who would already attend the shows most likely) to sit down in the back for a small amount of time and draw whatever is going on their mind. Of course the art they draw is completely subjective, but their state of mind is not completely objective. I believe that some of my friends could tell me if they felt more stimulated.

9/6-9/7

Visual creativity is a topic that has taken my eye recently. I want to know how I can get more creatively visually. I've been thinking recently about the psychadelicness of the stages and I want to know if those can cause brain stimulations. A lot of famous celebrities have been linked to the psychedelic movement. I am interested in knowing how creativity can be affected by a show or even the music. People can claim that psychedelic art transcends a normal mind state but I wonder if it actually can.