The Circle: A look at a Character

There are just so many characters I want to talk about: Mae, Kalden, creepy Francis...
But there is one I actually want to focus on for the sake of this response: Mercer.

Mercer is the ex-boyfriend of protagonist Mae Holland. They really don't seem to get along, and he isn't took keen on her new job, while she's just not to keen on... him.

I found a real problem with Mercer. He actually seems like an interesting person, and he was the only other person in the book that had some sense about him, though he seemed high minded about it.

But there lies the problem: His portrayal. It was what conflicted me most about his character. What he had to say to Mae and about everything that about her job and the modern age they were advancing into were valid points, but he is portrayed as this putrid human being. He's fat and ugly and not worth giving a damn about because he won't conform. Or this is how Mae sees it, and this is the only way we can see it. We can never see him in a view that doesn't have Mae painted all over it. I probably would have taken him more seriously earlier in the book if it wasn't for how Mae was so dismissive and rejecting of him from the get go.

I would have actually liked to know more about Mercer, and I'm actually  a bit sorry that I didn't get to see him beyond what we did see of him.

The Circle: Aphorisms

ALL THAT HAPPENS MUST BE KNOWN

It is one of the earlier aphorisms we see in The Circle, probably, as the story goes on, one of the least... unsettling (surprising, I know). It is here we start to get a feel of what The Circle (as a company) entails. The practices and words that seem to make them tick. It shows the reader just a taste of what we're in for (granted, the everything that happens afterwards doesn't compare, but still...).

To explain a bit further, it's all knowing every aspect in the world around them. It could be history, or it could be what's happening in the thrilling of little Timmy and his training wheel saga in the next town over. They don't care how large scale or small scale the information is, they still want to know, want it to be available for public consumption.

It's still a bit creepy nonetheless. I won't deny that. All that happens must be known? So if you really want to know if Kathy picked her nose, or if Amber broke a nail on her way through the turnstile? These are things that must be known?

Certain things, sure. But not all the things... Right?

Daily Create: Make A Creative Photo in an Unremarkable Place

Daily Create: Three is a Magic Number

 A rose by another name, would smell as sweet.

                                                      -William Shakespeare

Story Board for Chloe's first trip! (And Commentary)

Okay.
So, I know I was supposed to post this a while back, but things got a little hectic. It's a really simple layout some of the blanks that previously existed filled out with what was on the final project.

So commentary:
I originally had no idea what I wanted to do, but as ideas bounced around in groups, and it seemed like everyone was doing a personal experience, I thought: why not use a personal experience of my own? After I had that pegged, the next question was, which experience?
Then it just hit me: Disney World. And not just any random trip. My cousin's trip. Partly because I had a lot of pictures. Mostly because it got me thinking.

I honestly don't remember any of my first trips to Disney World (I had apparently went often as a kid. One time involved me sitting on a goat? I really couldn't tell you.) But my mother has all these memories of the times we went. And I began to realize with Chloe, I have those memories. I have that little chubby excited face imprinted on my brain as we went throughout the park. I remember her getting a free cookie because the ladies at one of the restaurants found her so adorable. I remember her "conning" me into getting her a baby zero plush doll, which, considering the price, turned into her birthday gift.

And I quite honestly love having that memory, more than trying to remember my own. Being able to experience someone else's first trip to Disney is really heartwarming, and makes you realize why it's considered  to be, the happiest place on earth.

Daily Create: Argument Time

So, today's daily create involved reading an article about social media and writing your stance on it's argument about the subject.

I chose this article which asks the question of whether or not Youtube is is a bad influence on society.

While the article doesn't exactly take a stance, I'd like to make one in the case that Youtube is actually a good influence on society. Thanks in part to having Youtube, you have people, across all generations, taking sides on today's political and social issues and making their voices heard.

People, of my generation especially, are showing that they can be taken seriously, that though the older generations like to write us off, we do have an honest and thoughtful (surprising, I know) opinion on the policies and practices that effect our everyday lives. We actually WANT that opinion to be known, to be able to say that yes, I want to make a difference, or I want people to know that I care just as much as that crotchety old dude down the block that sits in his rocking chair on his front porch day after day mumbling about roadkill. Or maybe we just want to say that Senator so and so from bible belt USA doesn't speak for me or my values.

Why should Youtube be put down for allowing us to have a platform, no, the power to speak our minds? Why is it considered something awful if we actually speak?

Newsflash: It really isn't.

My Digital Story

After many a trial and tribulation, I have finally completed my digital story.
Story board and thoughts will follow in a later post.
Hope you enjoy!