Well I Won't Be Taking Any Trips to Harlem Anytime Soon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/nyregion/20suitcase.html?_r=1

This is definitely another reason why I'm paranoid and don't want to do that project for this class where we have to meet new people. I want to carry my suitcase when I go on a trip....not be in one.

The victim was Betty Willams, 28. Williams was a "strung-out prostitute" who had been to Rikers Island, a prison in NYC, several times. Hassan Malik, her murderer, is a 55 year old Navy Veteran with a long criminal history. Williams went by the name of Jackie.

Williams was a crack addict and had been renting a place from Malik to use for sex. One night Williams brought a drug dealer back to her apartment to buy drugs after he left she took a hit to get high, whereas Malik had taken Seroquel, a sedative and had fallen asleep.

When he woke up he found Williams over him hitting him with the iron bottom end of a frying pan. She was screaming "Where's my money at?" and threatened to have him killed. Malik took the frying pan away from Williams and hit her over the head twice. She continued to fight him and she grabbed a wire from his VCR and wound it around his neck, but again he grabbed it away from her and used it against her, choking her with it, killing her.

After that he called a friend to come to help him hide the evidence. They put her body in a black garbage bag and shoved her body into a suitcase. He wheeled the suitcase out of his building at 11:30 PM on Dec. 21. He walked the suitcase up First Avenue and down 114th St and then decided to leave it by some garbage cans. A few moments later a homeless man found the suitcase with a leg popping out, he then called the police.

It kills me to live in world where horrible things like this happen. I can't understand why anyone would kill another and have no guilt.

Let Me Crochet You a Necklace?

I found this interesting European Artist, Julianata, that crochets jewelry. Some of the designs are a little out there, but the pieces I posted are something I would actually wear.

I think her thought process behind making jewelry out of yarn is because women today wear scarves as a fashion statement. Most women when they leave their place to go to casual event they leave the jewelry at home and instead wear a knit scarf.

Pop Art....Literally.

Walton Creel's Pop-Pop-Pop Art

Even though I probably wouldn't see an Art Showing of this type of art, I respect the meaning behind Creel's work. Creel states, "My main goal was to take the destructive power away from the gun. To manipulate the gun into a tool of creation and use it in a way that removed it from its original purpose..." Other artists have used guns in their work in other ways besides hunting. They have melted guns and shaped them differently or have taken photos using high speed film to capture a bullet in action hitting its target. When Creel first started using a gun in his work he wasn't sure what direction to take, but he knew he wanted to "deweaponize" the gun. The artist uses aluminum instead of canvas because the canvas would be too stressed with the amount of bullets he would shoot through it. He also paints the aluminum before shooting because when the gun fires it knocks off a little paint around the bullet holes, which adds something to each piece.

Lost Technology Through the Ages?

How Were The Egyptian Pyramids Built?

I know this wasn't one of the sites we were supposed to visit, but I found this article really interesting. I've always found Ancient Egypt to be fascinating ever since I was a kid. This morning, my sister, Jackie said she had watched the movie, "The Fourth Kind," which is about, as IMDB describes, "An ongoing unsolved mystery in Alaska, where one town has seen an extraordinary number of unexplained disappearances during the past 40 years and there are accusations of a federal cover up." She said after she was scarred by the movie she stayed up until 4 am. watching a scifi show about the Wonders of the World. The show explored the suspicions of how they came to be. She continued to say that they were created by Aliens. I thought that was crazy because that would mean that Pyramids were created by aliens and not Egyptians, which I didn't believe to be true. I researched it and I found a few articles, but this one stood out to me because it stated how scientists found pyramids to be built and how it has been proven in some ways. I learned that 20,000 to 30,000 workers were paid in tax breaks to build the pyramids and statues of the pharaohs we see in Egypt today. Some were suspicious because The Notre Dame Cathedral took almost 200 years to construct. Whereas the pyramids were to take no longer than 23 years to build, which some believed to be impossible.

Photoshop

February 3, 2011

In photoshop we learned how to crop our pictures to a specific size.

We also learned the terminology for the light areas and dark areas of a photo. The light areas are highlights and the dark areas are shadows. We briefly discussed how to change the lightness and darkness in a photo and how to use curves.

We also discussed how to speak while presenting. The presenter should engage their audience by using eye contact, speaking in an upbeat and enthusiastic tone, asking their audience if they have any questions or would like to comment, and the presenter should not look at the powerpoint presentation if they have one projected.

I am mostly looking forward to working with photoshop. I have used photoshop before for photography projects outside of school. I have it on my laptop, so I am familiar with what we did today.

I added the picture above because I thought it was funny. =)

Mubarak Speaks

http://www.boingboing.net/2011/02/01/egypt-mubarak-speaks.html

I read this short post on boingboing.com and it was about the massive protests in Egypt and Egypt's president Hosni Mobarak. He announced that he will not be running for president after 30 years. Egyptians were happy that his 30 year run was finally over, but they do not want him to remain in the country. Protestors said they will continue to protest unless Mobarak flees. Mobarak stated that he will not leave and he will remain in Egypt until he dies. On the news, he apparently said he wanted his son to run, but our president, Obama sent word to Mobarak that his son should not run because Egyptians are unhappy with the direction Egypt has been going in. I'm honestly angry about all of this because Americans who were currently in Egypt were rushed out of Cairo's airport and Obama advises that he does not want anyone traveling to or through Egypt at this time. I have been planning on going to Egypt since I was a kid for my 21st birthday and I have a strong feeling that these political and social problems will not be resolved by the time my birthday comes next winter.