What Drives Me, Drives Me Crazy!

First of all, I would like to apologies for my absence from the blog world as it has been nearly a month since my last post. As you may imagine, I have been rather busy. I'm not here to make up excuses, I'm just here to write, once again.

During my freshman year of high school, we were asked to produce a project about "what drive us." Basically, we had to make a slide show for the class accompanied with our description of what we were passionate about. Essentially, it came down to what our future career choices might be, what we like to do in our free time, and generally just what makes us want to wake up every morning. Throughout high school and now college, I have had a growing interest of mass media, not only the production of it but also the consumption. I have recently discovered, that while the aspects of mass media may drive me, they also drive me completely crazy.

During a class discussion today, revolving around a documentary questioning the innocence of Disney films, I felt suffocated. I had an intensifying desire to stand up and walk out of class amid the discussion. I won't get into specific details but what amazes me is how driven people are by their personal opinions. Another instance of this occurred when another professor of mine reviewed a rough draft that I produced this past week. I was outraged to see what she had written on what I had believed were well crafted pages.

How can anyone stare blankly into your face and tell you that you are wrong because their opinion is right?!? Its called an opinion because there is no right or wrong answer! This allows people to have different views on the subject. What also puzzles me, is how the hell you can grade someone based on opinion? I did the research and my opinion is based upon what I read. You on the other hand, have read similar materials and have developed a different opinion. Of course, this must mean that I should start over and write my entire paper based on your opinion. This is preposterous!

As you can tell, certain things have been getting under my skin lately. I'm sorry if I sound angry or if you disagree with me. I have digressed. I would like to return to the class discussion. Why is it that every fucking discussion seems to relate back to racism, sexism, or some kind of ism that is negative towards others? Is this the only issue concerning people? Come on, get with the times! We are all just people, we have the same genetic parts. There is nothing that makes us different other than the thoughts and feelings we have. Therefore, we should all just be accepting of each other for who we are. It goes much deeper, beyond ethnicity or gender or sexual orientation.

In a broader sense, we just need to accept the individuality of others. Maybe it lies within the self. If we could all just get in touch with our inner self and accept ourselves for who we are, then maybe we can be accepting of everyone else. This is just what I believe. Feel free to tell me about yourself, you can admit anything at all. I won't judge you. I promise.

May you ignore the intolerance of society and accept yourself and others,
J.F.Q.

Inability to Control Creativity

The random act of creative inspiration is beautiful. I welcome it whenever it graces its presence. The only problem is that I can't control when it shows up or when it goes away. Today as I was sitting in class I couldn't help it, my professor and fellow classmates would simply have to be ignored. I entered my own world, it wasn't that class isn't interesting enough or that I wanted to be alone. The only reason for my isolation was that the unstoppable force of my creative mind took the reigns. I could do nothing but enjoy the ride and accept the fact that my classes would fall between the cracks on this particular day. It was of no worry though, the material had little importance in the grand scheme of things on this day.

A dreary and rainy day. In fact now that I think about it, my creative mind likes to come out and play quite a bit on rainy days. I was inspired by a few things, one being the rain, the second being that there is a poetry contest on campus today, the third being that many people I know seem to be writing poems lately, and finally the forth being that I have neglected to write poetry for some time now. As you may have guessed, I wrote a poem. It does happen to be about the rain but it remains unfinished, four drafts deep now. I will complete it later, but when is a poem ever really complete anyway. We simply find a good place to end the flow of masterfully combined phrases, words, and grammar.

Don't ignore creative inspirations, they come for a reason. For me, a shining light in a dreadful day. For you, maybe the same, but who really knows. Allow yourself to be carried away, it's more than okay. It is our creative minds that make this world livable.

May inspiration come your way,
J.F.Q.

Highs and Lows

I try to avoid cliches because as the definition implies, they are frequently used by a large population. Using them reduces the ability to be unique. However, life is full of cliches hence why they are frequently used and thus classified as cliches. There are certain times in life when a cliche will better describe something than any other words can. This happens to be one of those times.

Life is like a roller coaster, something we have all heard before. It has its ups and downs along with its highs and lows. We don't give it much thought until we experience the extremities of the analogy. The transition from an extraordinarily good day to a long, arduous day being a perfect example. This is something I have experienced over the course of the last two days. I do not mean to walk you through the mundane tasks of my daily life from hour to hour like many other people may do. Although, I feel it to be necessary to at least point out the noteworthy points of my life over the course of the previous 48 hours.

As you may know, I was working on a group project of which I had low expectations for. We presented our work on Monday morning and it went even better than we had planned for, I was a mixture of surprised, relieved, and thrilled. This set the tone for the remainder of my day which included a satisfying visit to the gym followed by a very relaxing shower and a nice, although accidental, two hour nap. When I woke up from my slumber, I ate dinner with some of my good friends and we continued on to an event on campus called Coffee House. This featured our friend Joe Sanchez playing his guitar and some beautiful poems in between songs. I enjoyed the opportunity to simply sit and relax with some coffee and to allow myself to become mesmerized by the arts for what was roughly an hour and a half.

It was at this point in time that the roller coaster of my life approached a peak. I headed back to my room so that I could work on my homework in hopes that I would go to sleep at a descent hour, a feat that rarely occurs for me. I got distracted and I spent time with my friends and one thing led to another until it was nearly 3AM. I love the time I get to spend with them but unfortunately sometimes having fun and enjoying the company of others has the opportunity cost of sleep. Finally I completed my work at about 4:15AM. I didn't get nearly enough sleep for the day ahead of me, which included classes starting at 9:50AM and continuing on until 6:10PM. It was far from a bad day but it certainly did not have all of the positive energy from the previous one. A small bump in the roller coaster that is my life.

May your life have more ups than downs,
J.F.Q.

The Challenge of Working in Groups

Over the course of the last two days I have been actively working on my first group project of my college career. I have found this to be a challenge to say the least. The project is a group presentation lasting 25 minutes detailing a chapter from our textbook, specifically "Communication and the Mass Media." I won't bore you with the small details, just know that we need to include a PowerPoint presentation along with an outline and a class handout. The work is not the challenging part, although the chapter is rather long.

The challenging part about this assignment is the people that I have to work with. As with any group, certain people assume certain roles. There are five of us within the group, one seems to be controlling and overbearing which is supposedly necessary for the leadership of the group. However, this person in particular has been making everything more complex than it needs to be. Another member of our little group doesn't seem to care much about the project at all but simply seems to think that she has better things to do than to waste her time doing classwork with the rest of us. The remaining two members of the group, excluding myself, are quiet and passive and have little input for the task at hand; it is my belief that either they wish the project was simply over with by now or that they are trying to avoid doing the work. I'm not sure where that leaves me, I have been simply trying to make the project as easy as possible as well as keeping it from being overly time consuming.

I made the mistake of offering my services as a graphic designer, a mistake I often make in such situations. This makes me more valuable to the group but unfortunately this leads to the group leaning on my skill set in order to complete the assignment. As a result, as usual, I will do the majority of the work. I will most likely single-handedly generate the PowerPoint presentation on my own and I predict that the handout and outline will also be products of my work. Had I not offered my talents, I wonder if I could have faded into the rest of the group and gotten away with doing a smaller amount of work. I know the answer to that. I can never simply be a small part of any group that I'm involved in; it is in my nature to take some leadership responsibilities and to help out as much as I can. Although this makes me question myself, does it make me a good leader or am I just being used for my talents to benefit the group? I'll let you be the judge.

May your work flow smoother than mine,
J.F.Q.

Deep Thought at 2:30 AM

It is early morning and I find myself growing tired. Spring Break is upon me and I don't feel accomplished. Is accomplishment something to be felt on such an occasion? It can be and I feel the need for it to. On the other hand I know that a break from our normal daily lives is necessary. We need to recompose ourselves. We need to reevaluate our lives. We need to gain a new point of view or a new perspective. Sometimes we just need to sit around the house all day in our pajamas and do nothing. Sometimes we just need to breathe.

I present to you a challenge. It is a challenge that should be easily overcome but it is often overlooked. Spend a day to think about your life and your goals. If there is something in your life that is bothering you, think about the right course of action to fix it or to solve it. If there is something you want or need in your life, figure out how to get it. Don't let any obstacle obstruct your own pursuit of happiness. All I ask of you is to engage yourself in deep thought.

May your dreams and mine be pleasant tonight,
Jordan Forrest Quimby