Since my last blog post, I have finished reading The Great Gatsby, reread about half of Pride and Prejudice, and reread about half of The Picture of Dorian Grey. I would recommend The Picture of Dorian Grey because it reveals ideas regarding the influence of adults on children. Pride and Prejudice is very well-written but the plot is quite boring. The Great Gatsby was very tiring to read since I wanted to go to sleep every time I read it. My predictions for Dorian, the protagonist of the story, is that he will eventually succumb to his evil deeds and eventually redeem his mistakes by death. I think The Picture of Dorian Grey will be the best text for the independent essay. This is because the book is full of symbolism and can be discussed from several different angles. The book also provides an astonishing protagonist and includes foreshadowing of Dorian’s ending from the introduction.

In the formative socratic seminar, I did well in giving out specific text references as evidence since I “continuously refer[ed] to the text with specific text number”(Zhao 2). I still need to work on using formal style of language when discussing with my group as I “use like too much”(Dalton 2), which is a very colloquial term. My goals for next time is to speak in a formal way and to use a variety of literary terms. In addition, I also want to connect the effect of the literary terms to my theme. To achieve my goals, I will prepare a sheet of formal conjunction and descriptive word choices as well as writing a deeper, more thorough annotation of the text.

In this set, I focused on the position of the hands. Nevertheless, the contrast between the light and dark is not very clear, nor does the hands show emotions. In the next set, I aim to keep the hands in the same location but play around with different hand positions. I also want to tweak the lighting and angle of the  photographs so that they are focused on hands instead of shadows or contrasting darkness. In the next set, I also want to try to make the contrast of the light part (my hands) to dark part (piano) as stark as possible.

Black and Red Simple Mind Map by linda

Statement of Intent: The project will be titled “Piano” since the instrument has impacted my life significantly. Learning piano pulled me into classical music, introducing to me many wonderful pieces that I would not have known otherwise. It also brought me joy and frustration; happiness in completing a piece, praised by my teachers, and winning first prize in competitions but frustration in the process of comprehending new skills, techniques, music theory, as well as playing with musicality and correct rhythm. Not only creating a roller-coaster of emotion, music has also taught me the importance of rigorous hard work, the ability to be flexible and trace and mould myself to fit different styles, the  as well as that perfection can not be achieved but should be pursued.  From works of Chopin to Beethoven to Bach, the composers conveyed their ideas through different pieces; they spoke of the hard, determined inner-core under the decoration of a soft, luxurious velvet cover; they spoke of courage, dedication, and perseverance during ups and downs in one’s lifetime; they spoke of self-discipline, humbleness, accompanied with appreciation of a decent life; they spoke of simple, child-like happiness; the pieces conveyed the composer’s identity, beliefs, and spirit. Completed months before his death, Schubert’s final sonata, for instance, vocalized a calm, reflection-like gaze upon one’s lifetime, like observing the process of going from childhood to adulthood to old age, finally, to death. To note another, Chopin’s sonata in B-flat major Op. 35 revealed the hard, courageous, determined core hidden under a soft exterior. It conveyed Chopin’s resolution for Poland to achieve independence from Russia, as well as his guts to turn down the Tsar’s offer to be his royal composer. Of the above are only a few jewels in the vault of classical music. A couple of stars in the dark, endless skies, the pieces of classical convey the truest of emotions, the wisdom of different people, and finally one’s culture, beliefs, and identity as a person.

1. Albert Reneger-Patzsch inspired my project. This is because he captured photos revealing the beauty of nature
2. My image are also realistic and taken from the same angle and capture the same object but from different distance. This relates to my inspiration photos because Reneger-Patzsch also takes realistic photos from different distances.
3. I experimented with focus in my photos. As you can see, the first photo is from a farer distance compared to the third photo.
4. I realized that I did not like the more dreamy, Uta Barth styled photos so I transitions to realistic photos.
5. My idea behind my final images is to appreciate the calm and slightly cheerful feeling that somewhere very ordinary could bring us, This brings together the parts of my other projects because this set highlights both the overall hue of the photos as well as showing something that is considered to be seen daily.
6. I created my final images through tweaking the camera to change the distance between the object and the camera lence.
7. The overall strength of my project is that the triptych is cohesive- there is a clear connection between the three pictures.
8. Next time, I can change my angles and have a clearer focus point for my photos.

   The artist uses mostly muted colors and hazy filters to create a misty effect. There is light and shading, with the accented object usually darker than the rest. Barth likes to use geometric shapes as well as basic lines.

Field #20 1997 Uta Barth born 1958 Purchased with assistance from Poju and Anita Zabludowicz 2000 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/T07627

1. The photographer might be interested in capturing the hue and tone of the objects as well as the pattern that the shadows create.
2. I entitle the photograph “shadows” because the most outstanding part of the photograph is the shadows
3.  One thing that is unusual is that the photographer chose to use little tone in that picture. This is because I personally think that different, contrasting tones would make the picture a bit more interesting.
4. the shadows and the table create a difference in tone. The shadow casts a pattern onto the table and the thing next to it . The outline of the table is a curved line which contrasts with the straight lines that the pattern creates.
5. I think the best thing about this photograph is the shadows. This is because the shadows create irregular shapes that are all different but at the same time unified because every one the the shapes has straight edges

In this unit, I learned how to choose a project when there is a deadline. I also learned that the projects I chose has to be able to be finished by the due date. For example, at first, I wanted to have a reminder app where people could type lists in and the app would remind the client with a ring tone and a message pops up on the phone. However, I realized that I would not be able to complete the reminder app so I had to switch to another app. Instead of an app that reminds people, I switched to an app that teach people Chinese. I used to think that programming was basically memorizing a bunch of codes and then putting them together. Now I think that programming is more about logic and how to build a code.

People would need an app that teaches Chinese because China is a fast-growing economy. This means that there will be many new opportunities in China. However, most Chinese’s english is not so good or some people can only say “hello” in English. Therefore, foreigners will need to learn Chinese in order to communicate more efficiently. In addition, knowing Chinese will create certain advantages amongst your peers. For example, a foreigner can collaborate on a project more easily if they understood Chinese.  To conclude, knowing Chinese would make your life easier in China.

According to my first design of my app, which was a reminder app, I envisioned that the user would be able to type in to do lists with specific time for each task and the phone will ring when the designed time comes and a message will also pop up on the screen of the user’s phone. When I changed my app, my design was that the user would see a picture of the Chinese character with pin yin and the user would have to type the English word for the Chinese character below.

The function of my finished app is to teach people Chinese. It will teach Chinese by having pictures of Chinese words with pin yin and the question underneath. The user will be asked to type in the English meaning of the word. I would say the quality is not the best because some pictures might show up a little blurry and there is only “hello” in Chinese and “goodbye” in Chinese.

One strength of the product I created is that it can teach you very simple Chinese words and it has pictures with pin yin on top so the user can learn pin yin and Chinese characters at the same time. One weakness of the product is that the app can only teach very simple Chinese words, not phrases since Chinese grammar and English grammar are different. One strength of the process is that English users can type in the words and it is also easier than looking at 3 answers and determining which one is the closest. One weakness of the process is that if the user accidentally types a typo, the process will mark it wrong. Another weakness is that if the user uses a different English word, the process will also mark it as incorrect.