Monthly Archives: November 2014

Winter Fan

I’ve been wasting a lot of energy this winter. I can’t sleep in a warm room; I need some sort of ventilation or air.  Not to say that I don’t waste energy in the summer because the air conditioner is constantly turned on.  Back home I would keep my window open in the winter and I would turn the heater on. My room was the coldest room in the house.  Here I have to deal with central heating and having a roommate, who happens to be always cold. There is no escaping the central heating in the dorm. We have no control over it! It doesn’t turn off! In order to deal with my extremely warm dorm room this winter I had to buy a fan, which is on the whole night, and whenever I’m in my room. How stupid is that? I’ve never experienced a winter this cold back home, and I can say that I’ve never used a fan in the winter. Not only is energy being wasted for heating, but also energy is being wasted on cooling at the same time!

The only solution I can think of is having the fan on, unless by some miracle the dorm would let me control the temperature. Opening the window is not an option because of my roommate, and the only reason she is okay with that fan is because it is directed strait at me.

Environmental Injustice

After my trip to the UN I started thinking more about climate change and the variety of effects it has on the world. While back home the results of climate change are rises in temperate. Now I realize that environmental justice is a huge part of climate change. Not only in NY, but also everywhere.

After seeing the presentations I came to realize that environmental injustice is a real thing. Not everyone in New York was as effected by climate change as the lower class. I’ve come to realize that environmental injustice is very much happening back home. Now the rises in temperate can be traced back to carbon dioxide being released into the air, which happens when we drive cars, use electricity and so on.  Now the poor aren’t doing all of these things.  While we are sitting at home with out AC’s they are suffering the consequences; they are really experiencing climate change.  Now that I realize this I feel much more strongly about climate change.

Pit bull Sculpture

Think of a Pit bull sculpture? What do you see?  Do you see a Pit bull standing strong and tall, or a Pit bull crouching in defeat? We normally think of Pit nulls as powerful and dangerous dogs, but never seem to think of them as the victim.  My sculpture will be placed in front of the Animal Care and Control adoption center in Manhattan, as they have been strong supporters of Pit bulls. Unfortunately Pit bulls are very rarely adopted because of the perception people have of them and thus suffer horrible fates such as being put to sleep. This sculpture is made out of strong stone because this material resembles the perception of Pit bulls, but the stance of this dog will indicate otherwise. The Pit bull stands with its tail between its legs in fear of its fate, and it’s head crouching downward in sadness. To foreshadow it’s fate an injection meant to put the Pit bull to sleep lays by it.  Not only is this meant to promote the adoption of Pit bulls, but encourage people to look at Pit bull in a new way. This sculpture is the start to making the Pit bull the new face of dog adoption. I want to see Pit bulls everywhere, even on merchandise: let them become the new pug.

Standing before my sculpture I want the viewer to really think about what there seeing. Does the dog sculpted before them really look like an enemy. All I need from the viewer is some major rethinking.

I’m a dog lover, but that’s not the only reason I’m doing this. I’ve noticed people are really selective and opinionated about dog breeds, which annoys me quiet a lot, as I own three dogs each completely different than the over, but loved equally by me. I believe a dog’s breed shouldn’t define them.

 


PitbullSculpturePitbullAtAC&C

 

 

http://www.nycacc.org/Locations.htm

http://www.nycacc.org

http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/guest-diary/2012/animal-adoption-centers-in-nyc-part-ii

The Faces of Emotion: 3 Frames

    A dog, in human form (person wearing a dog mask), is treated like garbage by its human owner (wearing a mask), This owner believes she has the right to treat the dog in an inhumane way; this person shows contempt. Facial features of a contempt person like the tightening of a corner of the mouth, and a head moving away from the source of contempt cover the mask.

     The dog stands there before the human as an equal, but the human won’t take that. This human stares at the dog with nothing but contempt, showing scorn, disdain, and a snobbish attitude. The owner stands in her messy room with clothes all over the place, garbage all over the room, and a bed that has yet to be made, looking snobbish, holding a box of cereal not giving a thought to her poor dog staring up at her with hunger in it’s eyes. Instead the owner responds to her dog with anger for daring to even beg for food, and orders the dog to sit.  The poor dog obediently crouches in fear, and sits down, looking up to his owner.

In front of the camera the back of a head covers most of the frame. Facial features on the back of this persons head like lowered eyebrows, an open mouth with the upper lip raised, and narrowed eyes are glued to the back of this persons head; this unknown observer is showing disgust. She is feeling revolution to what has just happened before her.  Watching the dog owner show contempt towards the dog feels sickening to the disapproving observer

Frame1 Frame2 3Frames IMG_6020

 

Waterways, Parks, and Resiliency: Reading+Reflection 12

Waterways parks and resiliency barely exist where I’m from. Jordan is currently dealing with water shortages, so waterways are definitely out of the question, although one thing I can say for sure is that if we had water and rivers available Jordanians would use them to their full extent. Occasionally is rains quiet heavily in the winter and we are left with floods, which lead to huge sort of ponds. Hilariously, I have even witnessed people using little boats in those “ponds. On the plus side of all of this we don’t  deal with major floods occasionally, and when we do it’s because of heavy rain, and not the flooding of rivers or seas.  Resiliency in Jordan has not been going quiet well for the past several years. The country cannot deal well with unexpected changes.  When it snowed last year, some of the streets were even blocked for a week. There is never a plan. “If only we could accept climate change as a way of life just likes the Dutch. I think we’d be able to come up with innovative solutions and plans once and for all, but most of us have trouble thinking outside the box.

 

UN Visit

Reducing CO2 emissions isn’t as crazy and impossible as I thought it was! It’s actually much easier than expected. If Denmark can do it why can’t we all do it. Denmark is not only creating change, but also wants to spread awareness about sustainability around the world. Step by step Copenhagen took action to reduce carbon emissions, aiming to be completely fossil fuel free by 2050. They may not be complete fossil fuel free at the moment, but they are proving to be capable of such huge changes as 40% of their energy is renewable wind powered energy. By 2025 it is very possible that it’ll be a carbon neutral capital.

    Before everyone else jumps in this wagon it is most important that cuties start making these changes because cities obviously produce more carbon emissions than most. Creating a plan is the first step. Copenhagen made changes with their cooling and heating systems, and made it more easy for people to choose to cycle rather than use personal transportation such as a car. This is not impossible to do for a city such as NY. If bikes fit in taxis, if subways became more bucks accessible and friendly, and if there were bike highways more and more people would choose bike transportation. NY plans to reduce emissions of CO2 by 30% by the year 2030, which from what I’ve seen so far is quiet a feasible plan, as New Yorkers seem keen to have a more sustainable city. Trees are growing as the city grows, demonstrating the challenge of reducing emissions while the population and city continues to grow. Economic growth and reducing CO2 email a don’t have to work against each other. There are other options.

Halloween 2.0

  Halloween, the scariest time of the year, the day everyone has an excuse to dress up, and a day celebrated by many around the world, specifically in the US, on October 31st. You would think this day would be celebrated in the same way  all around the world, but apparently not. My first Halloween day in NY was on October 31st 2014, and one thing I can say for sure is that it was nothing like all those Halloween days I spent in Jordan, since all I can remember.

     I am the type of person who gets into Halloween; I’ve always loved wearing costumes, participating in all the scary activities I could gat my hands on, like going into haunted houses, or watching scary movies, and even going trick or treating, enjoying all the candy I could stuff my face with during the night. I’ve worn costumes from a Dalmatian to Pikachu to a vampire to a witch to Scooby Doo to a teletubby to a clown to a cook, with a huge and inflatable bum, to an inflatable headless costumes, and those are all just the costumes I can think of from the top of my head!

    This year I started my Halloween celebrations earlier than most, or at least earlier than all those last minute costume shoppers filling the store on the day of Halloween, which I could not understand at all. Well, I was prepared. The first thing I did was go to party city, unfortunately I left empty handed, and overwhelmed by the amount of costumes I could choose from. Not only was I overwhelmed by the amount of costumes, but I was also shocked by the amount of revealing costumes I saw, which made my mission of picking a not too revealing costume quiet hard. I needed the help of my family and friends, as this was a serious issue, at least to me! So, I started my online search for a costume, making it easier for me to send picture to anyone I wanted the opinions of.  My search was narrowed to Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones, a Pop art character that looked like she came strait out of a comic book, Maleficent from the movie Maleficent, and finally Sully from one of my all time favorite Disney movies, Monsters Ink.

     The day has finally arrived! October 31st 2014, today is the day I am going to attend the largest Halloween parade in the world, a parade that is even meant to be televised, but I had no idea the Parade was not the only time of the day I would be celebrating Halloween in some shape or form.  There were people dressed up in Costumes even at 8:00 am, making Halloween a full day thing rather than just a holiday we celebrate at night. Leaving my last class of the day, I had to rush back to get ready for the parade, but I sure felt like I was walking through a parade on my way home! Thousands of people in costume were filling the streets, making it difficult for me to even walk on the pavement, passing through Union Square. Even the usually empty roads I took when needing some quiet time seemed full. I had never seen so many people celebrating an event, and my Halloween celebrations hadn’t even started!

     Every October 31st back home seemed like a completely normal day, and the only Halloween part of it I attended was the trick or treating event I attended every year, hosted by the same families every year. An event not everyone could take a part in, one, which you could only attend if you bought what I would call their exclusive tickets! This event was not open to the public, and the same families attended this event every year, since getting a ticket depended on who you knew and if paying for a ticket was an available option to you. I could only go out in costume in the streets of the neighborhood trick or treating route because going anywhere else would be dangerous. Halloween was not a holiday celebrated by everyone at home. Two years ago there was this huge party at this abandoned building on one of the main roads, and after the event had to be closed off due to angry crowds, articles with titles like “Teenagers were seen worshipping the devil last night…” came up on newspaper pages and all over the internet’s news blogs. Halloween only existed in the little community of people I trick or treated with, and celebrating Halloween anywhere outside the bounds of that neighborhood seemed like an insane idea, considering there were very angry people on the outside.

I was all dressed up and ready for my first Halloween parade in New York. My costume choice finally came down to Sully! It was a dress appropriating the male cartoon monster into a female costume. It was a furry blue dress with purple patches all over, furry leg warmers, a miniature tale, a hat with horns, and gloves, which where actually quite useful, considering the cold weather was trying to get in the way of my Halloween celebrations. Unfortunately I had to where a coat over my costume, but other than that I would not let anything else come in my way, not even the endless warnings I got from everyone I told I was going to attend the parade. Someone even warned me about the deaths that occur during this event. I’ll admit she scared me, but I was ready for the parade I had planned to go to weeks ahead. My friends weren’t as ready to risk going to the Parade, so three out of four of my friends ditched out at the last minute!

 I was beginning my journey, along with my friend,  who was dressed in a pirate costume, to 6th avenue and Crosby Street, where the Parade was meant to start on and then head on to 14th street. On our way we came across too many crowds to get to the starting point on time. Every street we tried to enter the Parade from, a cop seemed to come out of nowhere and stop us, so we had no choice but to head on to Crosby Street, but we made a few stops along the way, as not to miss the creative floats already going through the Parade, but even getting a glimpse at the Parade was seeming like an impossible task, as I could not see anything from above all those heads standing before me. So we walked, and we walked past all those dressed in all sorts of costumes, some creative, some way too revealing, some scary, and some very realistic ones that seemed to be coming right out of the movie they came from. I wasn’t walking through the parade yet, but again I felt like I was. Halloween was everywhere! You could where whatever you wanted and no one could say a thing about it!

      Just when it seemed like I couldn’t enter the Parade, I finally got to Crosby Street and waited in line for our chance to join the parade, not knowing if I would even get the chance to enter the Parade before it was over.  The unmoving line was worrying me, but finally those in front of us started cheering, and the line got moving! We were entering the Parade! As we started to go through the crowds of people watching the parade we weren’t the only ones cheering, we were being cheered at! This night finally seeming to finally work out. My panic subsided and I got into the fun of the Parade, having time to take photos with those dressed in interesting costumes. I even took a photo with a man in a matching costume, dressed as Sully! Every step I would take a step I would find a very creatively dressed individual, or even group. There was even a group of ‘rioters’, rioting over beer! There were bands and music all over! Although I spent more time trying to get into the parade than actually being in it, the whole thing was worth it because the whole day felt like a parade!

I can’t say my night ended after the Parade because really you can’t spend Halloween in New York and not attend one of the hundreds of parties going on, but I can leave that part to your imagination. Most importantly, from what I witnessed this day I can tell that Halloween in New York is a community thing, and not an event closed up to the public. This is what Halloween is meant to be like.  It was not separating the people, but bringing them together in celebration of one of the most fun holidays of the year!

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Emotion in One Frame

The human face stares down at the fearful dog, showing contempt, belittling the dog. Although both faces are physically almost the same size, the dog seems smaller, put in the corner of the box. The purple human mask is taking over the box, believing he is much better and more powerful than the dog.  From outside the box the face of the observer stares in disgust at what he\she sees before him\her. The light turns on and all of a sudden the scene seems to become a whole lot more dramatic, and my story, which originally consisted of three frames is explained in one frame. IMG_6023

Winter

As it is starting to get quiet cold in realizing that it is becoming more and more difficult for me to be a sustainable individual. I am trying to avoid the outdoors at all cost, which obviously is a pathetic abd impossible mission since I’m living in NYC.

My avoidance of the outdoors is not only bad for my health, but the environments health as well.  not walking or biking means using a taxi. Not leaving my room means the lights and tv are left on. All of this is not good, but what can I do?

WiBret won’t go away. I need to change. I have to adapt to this new lifestyle because staying indoors is not a good option. all I can do now is wear as many layers as possible!