I Don't...

I don't know where I am
I don't know where I'm going
I don't know where you are
I don't know who they were
I don't know this place
I don't know this time
I don't I don't I don't

I don't know why we're here
Or even how we started
I don't know what to say
Or who can help me out
I don't know what's going on
I don't understand these people
I don't I don't I don't

Nothing seems to fit
Nothing seems to run
Why will no one help me?
I just don't know

I'm lost in all this darkness
I'm lost without a light
"Won't someone save me?"
I scream out at the night
I don't know where he's at
I don't know where he's going
I don't know why I can't remember
I just don't know

Will he come and save me?
I really wish I knew
I fall deeper into darkness
I don't think I'll make it through
I just wish I knew how I got here
But none of it makes sense
All I know is that I don't know
I don't even know my prince

I don't know where I am
I don't know where I'm going
I don't know where you are
I don't know who they were
I don't know this place
I don't know this time
I don't I don't I don't

Will you come save me?
Will your answer be no?
Will you come save me?
Or are you just here for the show?

Will you make me remember what it feels like?
Will you save me from the darkness?
Will you bring me to the light?
will you save me from myself?
Or will I trip and fall?
Will you push me down?
Or help me through this haul?'

So here I stand to see
If I'll ever make it out alive
So there you are to stand
Just checking on the time

Are you going to save me?
I really have no clue
I'll fall deeper into darkness
While I wait for you

I don't know the answer
Or even what you asked
I don't know much at all
That isn't about the past
Will you come and save me?
I really can't be sure
All I know is I'll wait for you
Until I can't wait anymore

Finding my way...

They say the past is best left in the dust
To live it day and night is to stay up through dusk
But what happens when facing the problems doesn’t work
When trying to fight through the pain just makes you bleed the hurt
I’ve been told that running away doesn’t ease the pain
You’ll just keep running and have to live with the shame
But anything is better than where I am now
When did I get here…hell I can’t even remember how
So I guess I’ll try to run away
But in my heart you’re here to stay
Everywhere I turn there you are
My memories shouldn’t be able to reach this far
It seems that I can’t escape the pain anywhere I go
And you seem to just sit there and enjoy the show
I wonder if I’ll ever be happy again
Even though I will always think about you now and then
Every day I fight the good fight
And try to make it through another day without having to cry
I can only hope that one day I’ll stare into his eyes
And to my deepest and complete surprise
I won’t feel the pain anymore
I’ll stare into his eyes and be sure
I’ve found the one who can save me from your memories
And I’ll know that he’s the one to protect me
He’ll love me forever and gives whole new meaning to “forever and ever babe”

Airlines: Are They Safe Yet?

So, I am a big flier. I absolutely love to step on a plane and go see my dad in Florida. For that matter, I will step on a plane ever chance I get. However, in 2000 the hit movie 'Final Destination: Flight 180' hit theatres. Within the opening scenes an entire plane explodes due to unknown reasons. As many watched the thriller/suspense/horror they developed an irrational fear of planes and flying. What most don't know is that the odds of dying in a plane crash are very low. Well guess what, a year later we had a terrorist attack involving none other than: planes. So here we go again with people being terrified not of planes exploding but being hijacked. Okay, so years later people are getting comfortable around planes again. Security is beefed up and the FAA has all of there planes inspected and makes sure everything on the up and up. NO THEY DON'T! Just when we thought it was okay to start flying again all you have to do is pick up the news paper to realize that the FAA is slacking on regulations. Granted these episodes of 'slacking' aren't on the commercial airlines. They are for the rich few who want to use an airplane as a taxi. As said in the USA Today, 249 people died as a result of lax regulations on these 'flying taxis'. So here we are in September 2009 and it isn't the terrorist killing us. It's our own safety patrols.

A fountain for a day

Beautiful isn't it? I love this fountain because of its overall design. It's simplistic yet complicated. It begins to achieve everythign we try to achieve as designers; say as much as you can by saying very little. It lays on campus as an icon of pure elegance which is completely ironic on the IUPUI campus. The reason that it is so ironic is because IUPUI lies in the heart of downtown Indianapolis (insert screeching noises, sirens, horns, yelling, etc. etc.). So for somethign that elegent to be amidst all of the noise just makes you stop and say whoa... The fountain is sleek yet textured, quiet yet you hear the water, and elegant yet simple.

The elegence may be nice but, I can think of so many more things the money could have been spent on. We are such a diverse school! Why can't we let the artists and the engineers and the designers of our respective schools design our elegence? Why not let our own students put our elegence on our campus instead of wasting the money on a fountain that is just there. We could take that money and spend it on research. Donate it to cancer foundations or the study for diabetes. It's not so much bad design, it is bad design choice.

Poor design means I pay more

Do you personally see anything wrong with this image? Well as a designer yeah, you probably see a lot wrong with it. It's simply a designer perspective. However what you don't notice immediately is that there are no prices anywhere on the entire site. I went throughout the site looking for the prices of the various floor plans and they are simply not there. It's a good sales technique because it makes you come into contact with their leasing office. Flaw by design but of course a great money maker.

However, if you actually live at the marott this design is well beyond flawed.

As a designer it is hard for me to overlook the basic fact that the design of this website is absolutely horrible. I want to focus on a specific aspect of this site. That is the fact that there are absolutely no rent prices anywhere throughout the entire site. As previously stated this is a great sales technique. However, I reside in the appartment complex known as 'The Marott'. I have ONLY resided here for about a month. When we first moved in we had to pay all kinds of fees and rent and the price was just completely different than our actual base rent. Well over the weekend our rent came due. As it were, rent came due on non-other than labor day weekend. My family was in town and I was busy with them. As such, I let the hours of the leasing office get muddy within my thoughts and could not get a hold of them. It's not that I couldn't pay my rent because they have an overnight box and rent is due by the opening of the lease office on their next bussiness day. The problem was that my roommates nor myself knew our base rent. Long story short our rent was late even though I called as soon as the leasing office opened. We ended up owing fees. All of thsi could have been avoided simply by listing the price of the different models of rooms. As a designer that would have been the first thing I made sure was available to the residents of 'The Marott' is that they had everyway to pay and know how much they are paying for rent. It's not a hard concept nor a hard action to execute. Yet, it seems that people are so greedy for money they don't care how backhandedly they have to get it.

When I originally saw the picture of all of these newspapers the first thing that came into my mind was: design by flaw. All of the newspapers are basically saying the exact same thing only with a different author to put their ‘spin’ on what they are writing. While all of these authors are writing the same thing and printing their own version they are killing trees. I’m not trying to go on my own little environmental kick here but it is a waste of paper, trees, time, and print. It seems to me that we should focus less on who is right and who is wrong and more on improving the fragile world that we live in. It would be better if we combined all of our news papers into one or two collaborative newspapers we could reduce the amount of supplies we use and the clutter on the streets. If we took away these tons and tons and tons of newspaper dispensers we could open up space on the streets.

Have you ever noticed where all of the elders are? They are all in nursing homes or in home care or something of that sort. But, why is that? People argue that elders shouldn’t drive and they should be locked away because they are too much work. Could it be that they are too much work because they lose their quality of life? What would happen if elders could be outside and enjoy life even into their 80s and 90s instead of being locked away? There quality of life will improve and they will live not only longer but happier lives. Well how on earth does an 80 year old woman or man get around in a city like Indianapolis? Well Indy-Go already has a great system in place for people who are elder or disabled. The busses are on air suspension systems that lower and they have ramps etc. etc. The only other problem is that elders can’t stand for THAT long. Well guess what, we condensed a ton of news paper dispensers and opened up all that space. Let’s put in benches and plant trees. Now these elders can get around, enjoy a better quality of life, and we have helped the environment tremendously.

Web Page Re-Design

More or less when I saw the original sight I was confused. We’ve been talking about intuition and mine was sheer confusion. I couldn’t decide whether or not I liked this sight. What I did to deal with this problem was break apart the main points of the sight. When I broke it down I got that instant feeling of ‘yuck’. The sight, moreover, seemed cluttered in a simplistic say and at the same time took advantage of a color scheme that is growing in popularity. For the life of me, I don’t understand why people are in so captivated by the particular color scheme. It is simply a hodgepodge of some of the most opposite colors that are in the spectrum. It wasn’t that the colors displeased the eye in a straining way it was more that they are just colors that shouldn’t be together. The background takes the darker shade of that orange to keep it exactly where it is: in the background. That in itself is fine, yet it seems that they tried to brighten it up and pull other pieces of information out. However, they made everything contrast and be bright. A lot of it is that your eyes can’t figure out where in the world they want to go. The color scheme is so overwhelming that it can confuse a viewer.

Once a person can finally get past the random array of colors they may begin to feel bombarded (that is definitely how I felt). Granted I have seen more cluttered sights in my time, but this one is so overtaken by color that your brain almost can’t handle it. It is completely overwhelming in an artistic sense. It was as though someone was out to show their creativity and just went overboard with it. What sets us apart from the crowd has to stay on the correct side of the line. If we cross that theoretical line then the crowds will dissipate because they can’t handle THAT much creativity. Then, what purpose have we served? Yes, our artwork is out there but no one will look at it. We have to manipulate the so called ‘crowd’. Give things to them in small doses; keep them wanting more. Perhaps the most overlooked principle of design is that of mystery.
The first thing I did when I redesigned the sight was to keep the basic shapes behind all of the information basic. I wanted people to feel comfortable when they looked at the sight; to an extent boos their self confidence by giving them an ever so slight feeling of being smart. Shapes are something we, as the human race, have known since our earliest school days. These basic shapes, subconsciously, allow people to feel comforted because they are involved in something they are very familiar with. This instantly gives them a high level of comfort and makes them want to delve deeper into the sight.

The next objective was simplistic, yet it takes a lot of thought to accomplish; I tackled the colors. I used dark yet warm colors to make people feel comfortable and welcome. It gave them the opportunity to look around the sight on their at their own free will instead of having their eyes ‘torn’ from place to place by a radical color scheme. I tried to make the background darker than normal, but at the same time not so dark that every color I presented against it would pop in a very bright way straining a person’s eyes. A theory I have is that: the more comfortable a person feels on a website the more apt they are to stay there. I used certain color schemes that were noticeable enough to lead the eye but at the same time not bright enough to force it somewhere. I tried to find a happy medium within those two points for the login box. I wanted people to be able to instantly know where to log in, but at the same time I wanted them to be able to ignore it if they were not there to log into a particular profile.

Now the other thing that ‘bugged’ me about the original sight was how cluttered it seemed. The first panel I thought was pretty good. It was more or less a title and a picture with an explanation of what the sight was in simplest terms. Of course, all of this was followed by the sights on version of a join button which I labeled ‘click me’. The next two panels presented a little bit of a challenge to me. They both seemed cluttered and empty at the same time. I understood what they were trying to do but at the same time they didn’t do a very good job of it. To solve the problem in both of the panels I limited them each to one excerpt of their given topic and added a ‘see more’ button at the bottom the panel. In addition, on the third panel, I added a picture to give it a little more body. Lastly, I decided to keep the buttons along the top for navigation purposes. I examined different ways to remove them but quickly realized they were essential to the navigation of the sight not necessarily on the home page but on other pages on the site.

Musical Stereotype

First of all please view the following link. It is crucial to the blog's topic.
http://yadogg.com/pictures/6-phases-of-work-explained-with-cat-pics/

When I saw this for the first time I laughed and laughed. It really brightened up my day. While I was reading through it I noticed some of the MAJOR musical stero-types coupled with how much people hate their jobs. Please note that I am speaking in the stereotypical forms and they do not represent my actuall feelings towards said type of music.

Phase one uses Jazz music. More or less Jazz music is listened to by people who are laid back, mellow, and overall are relaxed. Also, Jazz music is a good way to relax. First day of work you're feeling awesome and 'wishaw' esque. You are just kind of chilling and loving work and of course loving life.

Phase two uses Pop music. Pop music is up beat and makes you want to dance. It is frequently used when somone needs to feel more up-tempo or work out etc. etc. At work things have gotten VERY busy; sign here, initial there, type this, answer the phone, watch your email. Oh, man it's hectic. You're bouncing off the walls trying to keep up. Are you at work or have you been transposed into a music video for a popular Pop artist?

Phase 3 uses Heavy Metal. Heavy metal is that deep, sometimes dark, and always loud music that makes you want to 'head bang'. You want to thrust your head back and forth and scream along with the music. You've been working now for 6 months. You know how to handle the speed of everythign but man this job has gotten stressful. Time for some headbanging. Maybe something will get in your way and you will slam your head. Wohoo a day off!!(even if it does result in a headache and possible medical bills)!!!

Phase 4 uses Hip-Hop. Hip hop is listened to by stoners. People who lay around and get fat. They wear baggy clothes to make themselves look even fatter OR if they are a skinny whiteboy that wears layers of baggy close to make themselves look fatter. You have the general feeling of 'Oh yeah man...the walls are moving'. You're at work with a bandage on your head. You had a little to much fun with the headbanging. You are having hard time fitting into your cubical. You are convinced it has gotten smaller; the walls are moving...closing in! In all actuality you have just gotten super fat.

Phase 5 uses Gangsta Rap. Gangsta rap is the screwed up hybrid between Hip-Hop and Heavy Metal. You don't go full out headbanging but you are bobbing you're head around and dancing in your chair a little bit. Your at work completely convinced that your cubicle has it out for you. Your doing your little dance when the chair breaks. You have become so freaking fat that you can't even function. Your hair is a mess and you belly is falling out of your shirt. This is completely pathetic but your are almost to your mental breaking point.

Phase 6 are the Voices in Your Head!!! Over another period of time you have lost all of the weight you put on and thensome. You have been pushed past your psycological limit and are listening to the voices in your head. You are twitchy and don't trust anyone. You have moved on from believing your cubical has it out for you to believing your over cheary co-workers are coming for you. You mumble to yourself and type continously on your computer. But today is your lucky day!! Your best friends are here to see you!! You smile and wave to the men in the white suites. You are so ecstatic that you are going on a field trip as they escort you from your cubicle and into the plush van.

A lot of people would look at these stereotypes and laugh. They are extreme but two some degree they are all the ways that people actually look at those types of music. There is no real way to fix a stereotype. People are always going to have their opinions and that is what is great about the lives we live. we are free to believe what we want and how we want.