2006 November Archive at The Blog / Ethan Bodnar

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Archive for November, 2006

I am Going to the United Nations

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on November 29, 2006

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I am heading down to the United Nations building in New York City. I have not been there before, and am looking forward to getting a tour of the place. Then, our group of fifteen is heading over to a mission to have a discussion with some actual delegates. The most exciting part is that these people directly relate to another trip I will be taking soon to the Model United Nations Conference at Harvard. What is Model UN you ask.

Model UN is a club at my school. We go to three conferences a year at Harvard, Yale, and Georgetown. At each conference we act as delegates representing the specific country that has been asigned to our school. There are seperate General Assembly committees with around 200 kids and then smaller specialized committees with around 15 to 30 kids. The topics range from Dissarmament to Decolonization to Health Issues.

We are assigned a topic to research and then go to the conference to represent our assigned countries position, not our personal views. We debate the issues and write resolutions. It may sound boring but it is really a great time. (You will find out in some future posts)

So, we will be heading down to the mission of the country that we are representing to discuss the issues and topics that we have been assigned with the actual delegates from our country. Awesome, right?

I will let you know how it goes in NYC and I look forward to being able to blog from the actual conference at Harvard.

The Nativity Story - A Good Christmas Movie

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on November 29, 2006

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What a relief. A found a Christmas movie that is actaully good. The Nativity Story is a movie that tells the story of the Birth of Christ. No more of this crazy “comedy” Christmas movie nonsense. This film seems to be nicely made and put together. I encourage you to check out the trailer.

Apple’s Favorite Color

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on November 28, 2006

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I think Apple might be favoring a certain color a little to much. Looking at my dock now I wouldn’t mind seeing a little more red, orange, or purple.

LEGOS and Creativity

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on November 27, 2006

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I was only two years old when I got my first LEGO. It was a fire engine. After that day, my life changed. I fell in love with these little pieces that stuck together to make buildings, trucks, helicopters, roads, and what ever I dreamed up. I used to have two big foldable table with a whole LEGO city. Under the table you would find plastic storage units with drawers that stored countless pieces. Playing LEGOs was the thing to do when I was young.

At around the age of ten I got LEGO Mindstorms. With these LEGOs I was able too build robots that I could program on the computer. In middle school I joined the LEGO Mindstorms Robotic Team. Here we built robots that had to do specific tasks and then took part in big competition with local schools.

I used to always play with my two younger brothers. They still play sometimes today. But no wheres as much as they used to. Today they have been corrupted by watching television, playing video games, and going on the internet. Nevertheless, all the original boxes are still saved in the attic, so that one day I can repackage them and pass them down to my kids.

LEGOs were awesome because they taught me to be creative and to imagine. Thank you LEGOS.

Saving Africa

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on November 25, 2006

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Come Together as A Community
We already started to see people come together as a worldwide community to save Africa. But, we need many more people. And we need everybody to become committed to the emergency.

Start a Global Conversation
By using the power of the internet we can create a conversation. A conversation among the a rich business man, a poor African teen, a diplomat, and a middle class women. By bringing these people together, we can empower them to share ideas and their knowledge.

Allow People to Play Along
Invite everybody to play along. Allow people to do what they love and make a difference and help change Africa for the better. A design student in China can make a T-shirt and sell it online. An African child can make a movie and share it online. A musician in Chile can create a song and upload it to the internet. A Turkish novelist can write an article on their blog. By allowing people to play along, you are also giving them the power to spread the word and message.

Educate Everyone
Tell everyone the story of what is happening in Africa. Tell them how many people die each day, each hour, each minute. Tell them what it could look like if the helped. Tell them how they can change Africa.

Give Them a More Than a Home
What if a green, modular housing unit that could be customized for different purposes, was more then just a place to live? What if the home came with food, a job, an education, healthcare, and access to the internet?

We know that Africa needs our help. This is how we need to help Africa. We need to come together and start a global conversation that allows people to play along and that educates everyone. The world needs to connect and come together to save Africa.

A Manifesto

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on November 25, 2006

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Do What You Love, Love What You Do
It is essential that you enjoy what you do. You should be able to wake up in the morning and be excited to go to work because you know you are going to have some fun.

Break Those Rules
As a society we have created “rules” that we follow. These rules are not meant to be followed. You should break them. When you break the rules, you will be able to imagine, explore, and create new ideas. With these new ideas you should make a change.

Change Anything, Change Everything
It can be a small group of people or it can be the world. It doesn’t matter. Change the world be spreading new ideas with everybody you meet.

And Don’t Forget
Make sure that you sell less of more, tell a story, enter the conceptual revolution, create a conversation, and make something remarkable.

If you do those four things, I can’t promise anything. What I can promise is that it will open your eyes up to new ideas. And it will give you the power to change something, by doing what you love and breaking and rules that stand in your way.

(The preceding was inspired by Hugh MacLeod over at Gapingvoid in a recent offer to help people spread their manifestos of less than 500 words through his blog)

Norman Rockwell and the Future of Museums

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on November 24, 2006

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On Wednesday, I took a visit to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Norman Rockwell was responsible for many of the Saturday Evening Post’s covers. At the museum we were able to see many of his paintings and all of the covers of the Post. To learn more about the museum, visit their website. To learn more about Norman Rockwell, click here.

The Norman Rockwell Museum is one of the nicer museums I have been too. Visiting it got me thinking about the future of museums. Here are some experiences and features that you might find as part of a museum in the near future.

Interactivity
-This should include online and in the actual museum.
-Huge digital walls where you can control what art is displayed. Drag and drop images onto the screen and arrange them how you want.
-Visitors become curators by voting for what they want to see displayed as physical, original work.
Online Experience
-Give people the tools to tell others what they saw at the museum
-Create and share art and creations online
-Museum can hold online contest or scavenger hunts throughout the museum.
-A website similar to coudal.com where it is updated with links to new online resources everyday.
-Create an online community.
Other Ideas
-The use of text messaging.
-Remix the art and the museum experience.
-Podcast tours
-Headphone jack in the wall next to the painting.

What if this was applied to education. If a teacher was a curator and the classroom was a interactive exhibit that changed each day. Stay tuned, and I will explore this idea in a future post.

Future of Learning

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on November 22, 2006

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Today, we are taught facts, methods, and other information. We, as students, are expected to memorize this information and then apply it. If you’re lucky (private school or a good teacher), there might be a little more hands on approach. Through out our high school careers we are taught to memorize and then apply. This is preparing us for college, when what we are taught is actually important to do our jobs for the rest of our lives.

Lets clear up something. I am not saying that we shouldn’t be taught the subjects that we are taught in school. We need to be taught how to write, do math, etc. And we should be interested in learning anything we can be taught. But, my friends and I fail to see where some of these skills are going to be useful in life, if we do not necessarily become scientists, move to a foreign country, or become an engineer.

So here is what I am proposing. The way classes are taught should be split into three sections: Teaching of Information and Methods, Thinking, Discussing, and Re-working, and then Producing Content and Spreading your Knowledge to others. In more detail below.

Teaching of Information and Methods
This is what you think of when you think of school. Textbooks, sitting behind desks, taking notes, and being sent home to memorize the information, only to come back and take a test. This is necessary for the next two parts.
Thinking, Discussing, and Re-working
Talking about what you learned. Focusing on current events and news. And looking to the future. This part could have a little unconference feel to it.
Producing Content and Spreading your Knowledge to others.
This is the part that the internet enables. Creating videos, podcasts, blog posts is at the heart of this part of the class. Being able to publish books through LuLu. This allows students to spread knowledge that was learned in the first part and the new ideas that were generated in the second part.

I just read A Whole New Mind this week. It says that we are moving into a conceptual revolution that is moving away from the knowledge working and towards a creative mind. That is correct. We are talking about the knowledge worker that our education system is built to create. We need to change how classes work and how our students are taught.

As a result of this blog I will become a different type of learner. I hope my blog will allow me to have a conversation (blog comments) about my ideas and thoughts (blog posts). This type of learning is not based on facts, but rather on improving and growing ideas in a collaborative manner.

(The preceding was a response to a challenge by Christian from think:lab. He has written some amazing things about me and I would like to thank him for everything)

Interesting Posts

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on November 21, 2006

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I thought I would share with you some interesting posts from the last couple months.

Welcome - An introduction to this blog and myself.
Coudal.com for Education - Apply what Coudal Partners have done to Physics.
Bob Lanier - A couple feet away from NBA Hall of Famer and MVP 1974
Blockbuster vs. Local Video Store - The two dual it out, see who wins.
Threadless - The best tshirt design community.
Some Books - All Marketers Are Liars, Getting Things Done, The Long Tail

For even more posts, check out the monthly archives and categories in the sidebar on the right.

Coming up this week: I take a visit to the Norma Rockwell Museum, we will find out what Apple’s favorite color is, you can chow down on some Mixed Nuts, and a look at creativity in my childhood with LEGOS.

Assorted Flavors

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on November 20, 2006

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Invisible Children
This is a great campaign to help the children of northern Uganda. Three college film graduates bought a camera on ebay and went over to Africa to shoot a film. They went over knowing nothing and came back astonished at what they found. Check out the Invisible Children website.

Web Comics as Wrapping Paper
Have you ever gotten a present that was wrapped in the “funnies” or comics from the newspaper? What if they did the same thing for web comics. There are a lot of web comics out there. They could created a service similar to LuLu or Cafepress in which they could make their comics into wrapping paper.

A Party Instead of a Funeral
When I die, I want a party. It makes so much more sense then everybody getting together and crying. Instead, I think people should celebrate the person’s life.

Can’t Name Kids after Bloggers
When I have kids someday, I can’t name them after any bloggers whose blogs I read. Every time I said there name I would think of that blog that I read. Even though bloggers are great, you can’t blame me for not wanting to think of you when I am really thinking about my kid.

It Wasn’t Supposed to Look Like This

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on November 19, 2006

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What you are looking at right now, this blog, isn’t supposed to look like this. I had started designing this site last spring. The design had to go through at least 15 different versions. A couple months ago I finished the design and had exactly what I wanted. The next step was to start the css and html. Now the way I learn is through experimenting. Its the way I learn how to do pretty much everything with technology. Since this is the way I learn, I had been fooling around with css, html, and the wordpress php during the summer. Since September, I had been working on the code and development of the blog design. Combined with learning css during the summer and actually putting it all together in the last to months, I have gotten tired of looking at code. This is not the reason why I wanted to start a blog. I wanted to start it to be able to write. The code and development was taking away from what I really wanted. So what did I do? I stopped writing the code and developing my blog design.

Instead, I chose a wordpress template called K2. Now this is a great theme, don’t get me wrong. But I would much rather have it look the way I designed it to look. Maybe sometime soon.

The College Search

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on November 18, 2006

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The time has come to start looking at colleges. I am currently looking to got o college for graphic design somewhere in the city. I have looked at all of the college websites and have liked what I found. To apply to art school you need a portfolio. I am getting a late start at that, but it should work out. I am taking some drawing classes, designing some websites, and have a lot of graphic design opportunities coming up. Everything is good so far, until I talked to my dad for a couple minutes about everything. And I realized that maybe another route would be better. I am into creative thinking, coming up with new ideas, the internet, online communities, new media, and more stuff like that. Now graphic design is a great way to do all of those things and to spread ideas over the internet. But maybe graphic design isn’t the thing. I still think it is but right now I’m not sure.

I would love to go to Hyper Island but there is a language barrier and I dont have the money to go out of the country. I also looked at Business Week’s feature on D.Schools, which I though was interesting. But in that case I found a lot of graduate programs.

If you have any suggestions or know of any schools that you think my work well for me, please leave a comment and let me know. Right now I am going to keep on working on the portfolio.

Get Offline and Go Play

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on November 16, 2006

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I find today’s world a little sad. Today we communicate and network with people over the internet. We rent movies on DVD from Netflix. We watch television that is available to us twenty four hours a day. We don’t talk face to face with people as often. We don’t see the outside world enough as we should. To be frank with you…Im scared.

Im scared that I won’t see you in the park because you have a million other things to do. Im scared that I won’t go out to get ice cream with you, because instead you will pull it out of your fridge and go back in front of the television. Im scared that my children and grandchildren will not have fun interacting with real people.

What can be done about this you ask. For starters just go outside and play. Play whatever you like, shoot some hoops or throw the football around. If you still have work to do you can still go outside, just bring your laptop with you. A little fresh air can do some good in the middle of a busy work day. Go to the movies or get a bite to eat with some friends. Most of all take a break and have some fun, cause if you don’t life will pass you by.

Dwell Magazine

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on November 13, 2006

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The other day when I was in Stop and Shop, I went to check out the magazine isle. There I found “Dwell”. I had seen it before on the internet and picked it up at the store. I thought it was designed very well and it had a lot of good content. The best part was, of course, the pictures. Go check out Dwell’s website

Sunday Afternoon

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on November 11, 2006

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Every weekend it become that time: Sunday afternoon. This is the worst time of the weekend. At this point, I have realized that the weekend is pretty much over. I most likely have left all my work until this time. There is no time to really do anything else. I know that I am eventually going to bed only to wake up to the alarm clock, informing me that it is time for school. Maybe, a simple change of my mind set is needed. Maybe I shouldn’t leave all my work to then. Or maybe, Sunday afternoon is not fun at all, no matter what.

Great IKEA Store, Bad Website

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on November 10, 2006

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An IKEA store just opened up near where I live. Obviously, I wanted to go. So, I turned it into a day trip for the entire family. It was probably the best shopping experience I have ever had. The way the store was laid out worked really well. Upstairs there was all the showrooms and downstairs was the self serve warehouse and the smaller items shopping section. They had informational signs that were beautiful. They provided you with rulers, pencils, and shopping lists for you to use. We even ate lunch there at the cafe/foodcourt. Oh, and of course their products are awesome as I am sure some of you know.

When I came home from the store, I went onto their website. I had been on if before but this time was different. I just had a really nice shopping experience at their store and was looking to have one on their website. However, their website was terrible compared to the store. Heres some stuff I would like to see changed.

New simple design and navigation.
An information footer like http://www.elsewares.com
Larger product images and the use of Slideshow Pro for image galleries.
Redesign the shopping cart.
Create shopping lists that you can print and bring to the store.
Email Newsletters.
Customer Reviews.
Designer Intreviews.
Blogs of course.
Gift Certificates.
Tell a friend.
Photo sharing of IKEA products in people actual homes.

I think that these things would really improve the IKEA website.

M&Ms and Jogging

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on November 5, 2006

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I have been seeing a lot of the TRUTH and ABOVE THE INFLUENCE commercials lately. One caught my attention and I thought I might share it with you. It shows a guy who jogs around to many addiction help centers, if you would. And he goes in and asks if they treat addictions to M&Ms and Jogging. Of course they all reply No with a unsure look on their face.

The point is that cigarette company analysts compared the addiction of M&Ms and jogging of that to cigarettes. That is ridiculous which makes this commercial great because it tells a story. (Im currently reading All Marketers are Liars)

Good People

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on November 1, 2006

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Most people in today’s world are good people and have good intentions in live. This is something alot of us seem to forget. We can’t always be scared of the world in which we live. This doesn’t mean that we should protect ourselves and use common sense. Just remember that most people are good.

medicine-area.com

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