Shrodinger Memes

This meme is used to suggest that something is not quite as simple as it might seem, but is often used in a satirical or funny way. I think it is very appropriate for the concepts of quantum mechanics which are not only complex, but very non-intuitive. 

This second meme is a more entertaining take on the ideas of quantum mechanics. Interestingly, the idea of zombies seems to come up a lot in relation to quantum mechanics, and especially Schrodinger's Cat. 

This picture looks like it was meant to be a pretend movie poster, it would have been a complicated piece of art to make, but I am really interested in the way that they gave Schrodinger a machine gun, I guess an action movie would probably sell better than a science documentary. 

Fleetwood Mac

This meme uses a popular meme from Lord of the Rings. The original quote is "One does not simply walk into Mordor." This meme is used to show that what someone sees as simple might be more complex then you think. In the meme I chose  it is showing that Fleetwood Mac's music is so complex because of all the harmonies and different voices in the band. When you have a band of five people who can all sing you get the option of having many harmonies coming together to make one song. So, one can't just sing "The Chain", you have to decide which part you are going to sing and that can be a hard decision. In order to understand this meme you would have to have knowledge of the popular "One does not simply..." meme as well as knowledge of Fleetwood Mac's music.

 

This is my favorite meme because I am both a Taylor Swift and Fleetwood Mac fan. This meme is ultimately what made me decide to do my project on Fleetwood Mac. In order to understand this meme you would have to have knowledge of the Buckingham Nicks love affair. Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham have a very romantic and tragic love story that continues to this day. They have been quoted in interviews saying thing like, "All of my songs are about Lindsey in one way or another." When you listen to their music this becomes evident, but when you watch them perform a song live you can feel the tension and see the love and hate that are in the words of those songs through their expressions. Taylor Swift is kind of infamous for writing about her exes but no one can do scorned lovers like Stevie and Lindsey. 

The image on the left is the original art work for an album that Stevie Nicks put out. On the right is the fan art that I found. Stevie Nicks believes in things like magic and I think that is what the artist was trying to depict in this image. They had to have used photo shop to make this image. They probably pulled Stevie from the original and added her to a new background then added all the changes in the hair, bird, ears and dress. I really liked this fan art because it shows that mystical side of Stevie that I have always been curious about.

Oh the Places You'll Go

Memes are fun. They make you laugh, think deeply, and suck you into an alternate time zone until you look at the clock and say, "Oh crap". But memes can also say something take for example:

This speaks strongly to the student in me. I think pretty much every student in the history of homework has had this look and thought at one time or another. But this memes does target a certain audience. While someone who hasn't been in school for fifty years might see this and find it interesting or funny, they won't connect to it in the same way as a student who has experienced this will. In a way in order to truly get this meme the person seeing it has to have been a student the more recently they were one the more impact this meme will have for them.

The above meme is humorous. But there are some that hit a deeper note. Like:

This meme hits at a persons compassion. When I saw this meme I thought of the people in the world who don't have shoes and what I could do to help them.

Far from the relatable humor of the first meme, this meme has a strong humanitarian message. That causes those who see it to relate to an experience they may have never had. I've never not had shoes. But I can feel sympathy for Frodo( the geek in me is demanding that I say- yes, Hobbit physiology is different then a humans and no, they don't actually need shoes) this meme helps me consider the people in the world who don't have shoes and that they still have to do really hard things with out them. This meme helps me see a different point of view.

Along with memes there is fan art. Of all different skill levels and styles. Like this piece:

While I'm sure there are more technologically difficult pieces of fan art out there this one is still pretty intense. From my beginners point of view I'd guess this picture has at least three layers to it. The picture of Mycroft, the picture of Sherlock, and the words. They also night have used an opacity? gradient on Sherlock to make it so you could see Mycroft. That's my guess anyway. This piece would not be easy to create and even if the creator knew the software, this piece probably would have taken a fair bit of time.

It's a cool looking piece of fan art and looking at it I can think of several different meanings it might have. For example this picture might be showing how Sherlock as a person has been impacted by having Mycroft as a brother. But that's my own interpretation. Which is fair I suppose, but I wish I could talk to this pieces creator and ask them what they wanted this picture to say.

Memes Attack Blog Post 4

This meme requires that you know the popular song "Call Me Maybe." If you don't know the song then this meme isn't funny. I think people like cats and they want to show the world how much they like them. It almost seems like bragging or showing pride in cats. Many people don't like cats, so people may make cat memes to make cats seem more likable. 

In order to understand this meme you would have to know about or seen "The Matrix." This is mimicking the scene where the main character chooses to take a pill to see the "real world." You also have to know that most cats do not like vacuum cleaners, so it would be very weird for a cat to not be afraid of vacuum cleaners. This could be making a deeper statement about how reality isn't perhaps what it seems. Who knows, maybe everything we have ever know is an illusion.

This image had to have been created in Photoshop or some other image manipulating program. The picture is a composite of a cat picture and a Halo image. I think people believe Halo is a gruff, war game where you shoot and kill aliens. The kitten is not threatening at all, unless you become the size of something a kitten would want to chase or play with. Maybe it's a statement about how people feel so tough in Halo or other video games, but aren't that tough in the real world.

Magical

I have never owned and may never own a Kindle or a Nook or any of those things. I love technology. I love that I have access to almost anything in the tips of my fingers. But reading books on a screen is not something that I enjoy. Reading is magical. Turning the pages, underlining my favorite passages, making notes in the margins. All of these things are irreplaceable. Reading literature on a screen takes away all of the magic. I hate that bookstores are becoming lost. No one buys books from bookstores anymore (except me, but even I go for the cheaper version when I can find it online). I have always had a dream of opening my own bookstore someday (my favorite movie is You’ve Got Mail) but that will never happen. I dread the day that books are no longer printed but only accessible through technology. How sad would it be to write a novel and get it “published” but not in paper form? That would be incredibly unfulfilling.

I stream all of my music through Spotify. It is, and may always be, the best ten dollars I spend every month. I have access to almost any song I want at all times. But if you’d have met my in my middle-high school days you would know that I spend the majority of my free time burning CDs. Illegally, most likely. I was an avid mixed CD maker (cassette tapes, sadly, were before my time). In my car I still have a very large CD case full of all my best mixes. Anyone who gets in my back seat picks it up and makes a comment about it. They then proceed to go through my horrendously named mixes and make fun of the girly handwriting I had back then. I always have those CDs on hand for the times I’m sick of Spotify. Like printed novels, CDs are magical.

I’d really like to talk about communication BUT we’d be here for hours because I have a lot of ideas on that...I’ll save it for another time.

Best of Both Worlds

I am one of very few people my age who owns and uses a vinyl record player. I don't have an extensive record collection but it is growing. I love the sound and vibe you get from a vinyl record. The pops and cracks are not something you will find on iTunes. When listening to music through an iPhone or iPod you lose the authenticity you get from a vinyl. But, because music is such a huge part of my life, I also listen to music on my phone. So, even though I don't get all the perks of the vinyl player I still can listen to my music. Some people probably don't like the pops and cracks of a vinyl so the mp3 world is better for them; I think it kind of depends on the type of music you listen to. Most of my records are "oldies" that I found at a thrift shop or yard sale. The music on these records was made for the record not the mp3 so it gives the authentic and natural feel when you are listening to the songs on vinyl.  I am just grateful to be able to have both vinyl and mp3 in my world.

When it comes to books, I prefer to have the hard copy of the book. There is just something about turning a page and smelling the paper of a new book. I have always loved to read and growing up I didn't have a kindle or an iPad to read books from. I do now own a kindle, but I only use it for convenience. I would rather buy a text book for class on my kindle then carry a giant book to school everyday, but when it comes to reading for pleasure I will always chose the hard copy. I think with both books and music the changes that have been made center around convenience. Say you go on vacation and forget to bring a book to read on the beach. If you have your kindle and internet connection you can easily download a book and enjoy your day reading. While on this vacation you realize your favorite artists just released their new album, rather then having to drive to the store and buy the cd you can download it straight to your phone.

In conclusion, I guess you could say I like to have the best of both worlds. I want to be able to go home and listen to my vinyl while I read an old novel that was originally my grandmas, but I also want to be able to bring my text book to class on my kindle and listen to music from my phone while I walk to class. I think that both of these types of media new and old can thrive in our world if people remember to appreciate the beauty of a vinyl record or an original print of a novel.

Keeping it Real- response 3

I recently read a story where a teacher from the year 1900 gave her students drawing supplies and told them to draw about growing up in a coal mining camp. When the teacher got the pictures back there were drawings ranging from one little girl learning how to make oat bread from her mother; to a boy who, at younger then ten, was already working in the mine sorting rocks out of coal when he wasn't in school.

As I read that story I heartbroken that there was no good way for those precious drawings to be duplicated so that they would have a better chance of surviving.

It made me realize how much I've come to rely on things like digital cameras that even dumb phones have now. With digital cameras we can take snap shots of whatever we want and, with almost no effort, scatter the places that picture is stored until there are so many duplicates of that picture that it has a much better chance of surviving.

In a way, the ease we have in duplicating pictures is a good thing. I wonder how valuable those precious pictures drawn by children in a mining camp would be if they had been easily duplicated. Looking at them now they would still have value as a unique insight into history.

Still, I sometimes wonder if we sacrifice worth, uniqueness, for security of that picture being so easily replicated? So easily replaced?

I'm still not sure.

On another completely unrelated note. Did you know that only 7% of conversation is verbal? The other 93% is non-verbal. I found this very gratifying because I prefer talking to people in person. Yes, texting is a lot less intimidating. But, when I'm face-to-face with someone I can look for those non-verbal cues that tell me wether what I said was understood in away words alone wouldn't be able to.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you write a text and read through it before sending it that it could be taken the wrong way? And then of you try and reword it so the text won't be taken the wrong way. But this new text could also be taken the wrong way. Eventually you give up on trying to fix it and you send it. Hoping, that the person receiving it will understand what you meant.

I do believe that something in conversation is lost when you don't talk face-to-face. But, I also think there are really good uses for the digital ways we have of communicating now.

For example: Skype. My family live three states away from Utah. Skype isn't quite the same as seeing them in person it's glitchy and sometimes it freezes. But I still get to see them. Which is really great.

So, digital communication has it's uses, but don't forget the worth of talking face-to-face.