Best of Week: 6 Sense Technology TED Talk

       This week we continued the TED talk presentations, but the one that stood out the most to me was Taso's about the new technological beak-through that his TED presenter came up with.
       The innovation is called 6 sense technology, I think, and it makes technology more human by integrating the computer with our lives. Now that may sound bad, but it's actually a pretty cool thing. The way that this technology works is that you have sensors on your fingers, a computer and a projector on a necklace you wear and maybe a small computer in your back pocket. You are able to use virtually any surface as a screen and are able to transfer documents and other such things from the 6 sense device to anywhere else you want it and everything is done all with your hands; and that's how easy it is and that is how he made technology more human.
       This technological innovation has got me thinking about how far the human race has come; and in all honesty, I'm pretty surprised we've come this far. I mean we don't have flying cars yet, but hey, I can work with this new cellphone/computer. It also makes me think about how much this will change the technology we use and how we create things in the future. If this technology was developed three years ago, think about how incredible it'll be ten years from now; I'd like to see Apple beat that one.
       If someone told me about this innovation, I probably would not have believed them until I saw it for myself. When Taso played the TED video of his presenter demonstrating how to use the 6 sense technology, I literally was staring at the screen in awe. I would have never thought that someone out there actually developed something like this; it was just too unreal, like something out of a movie. I now have so much faith in the human race, because if we could develop something as awesome as this, we could hopefully develop some pretty radical things in the coming future.
       What's really exciting about being part of this generation is that that are so many new things and innovations that people are coming up with right now and we're like the first people who can actually obtain these things and use them. It'll definitely be interesting and fun to see what people come up with in the next couple of decades. I'm just really excited that I get to be a part of all of this.

Metacognition: The Mashup Process

       Creating a mashup was a very different experience for me. At first, I thought that I was doing it wrong, but I figured that a mashup is supposed to feel wrong, right? I mean, I was putting quotes from here and there, pictures that had something to do with my two topics, I was using sources in the Humanities curriculum, and sources outside of the curriculum, and everything just felt wrong; but in the end, everything felt right, everything blended together and formed one meaningful mashup.
       My thinking while doing this mashup was at times all over the place and very random, but I would like to say that it was intellectual most of the time. I found quotes about solitude and writing from different parts of the book; I must admit that I stumbled upon the quotes, but they ended up being meaningful quotes that I actually really liked and that's how they ended up in my mashup. The pictures I found on Tumblr, were sprinkled all over the place and I just happened to find them which was really interesting and thought it was a hint from the universe that I should put them in my mashup. The sources that I found outside of humanities, were quotes and pictures from things that played a huge role in my life; Taylor Swift is my idol and I wanted to incorporate her in my mashup because when I feel alone (or solitary) her and her music always seems to be there for me. John Green is my new favorite author and I've only read two of his novels, but they were so incredibly written then I could just sit here and read them again and again and I can't wait to read his other work.
       I think the way that I found the parts of my mashup was very natural, and they sort of just came to me in a way, I didn't go looking for them. When we got the assignment, I also kind of knew then what i wanted to put in my mashup which made things easier; for example, the three quotes that I used for the parts from the Humanities curriculum came from three works that we studied that I really enjoyed.
       If I was asked what I wanted to change anything about my mashup, I wouldn't change a thing. I'm proud of what I did and I believe I thought of some pretty creative things to mash together.
       Because this was such a new assignment to me, I was really surprised that I was able to get myself to focus. A mashup has a very random nature to it and it was surprisingly easy to keep my mind on track and not veer off into tangents while creating a mashup about writing and solitude. I was also kind of surprised at how creative I got while creating this, because being a fourth quarter senior, my mind is totally out of school mode right now.
       I really liked how my mind just kept giving me ideas while I was working on this project. It surprises me that I have so much stored in the back of my mind that I don't use and they all just come springing forward when the time comes. I honestly would have never thought about half of the stuff I put in my mashup if it wasn't for my creative thinking. So, I was really surprised that I got through it and came up with some pretty great things to loop together.
       Overall, creating a mashup for Letter to a Young Poet was a fun new experience and it showed me that my mind isn't tuned out all the way yet.