Genius ...

In my opinion, a genius can be as big as a person who is an inventor that creates something that betters or helps out the society such as, Albert Einstein, but also, a genius could be as little as someone who is very good at problem solving or can make it out of different situations successfully. I think an example of a genius person would be my father. He was the first person to graduate from college in our family. He attended the University of Findlay for his undergrad, and then furthered his studies and received his Juris Doctorate from Duquesne University Law School. As an attorney, he owned his own practice in our small town of East Liverpool, and focused mainly on divorce cases, criminal and domestic law, estates, and social security. Not only was he good at solving his own problems, but was good at looking from different sides and helping others solve theirs. Even when the work got over bearing, he knew how to find solutions to ease it. Just because he was not a famous attorney that was well know all around the world, he was good at what he did and was one of the top around the area.

            He was also a person that even I would look to when I needed help with school, or if there was a problem between my sister and I. He would always give me a few solutions or ideas and would leave it to me to choose the best one. He was also a jack-of-all-trades, and knew a little about everything and how to fix them. All in all, I think that my father was not just a smart man, but had a genius side to him. I believe that anyone can have a genius side to them in their own, sometimes different, ways. Also, you do not have to be a famous person, or be a millionaire from an invention to be considered as “genius.”

In my opinion, education can destroy ones creative side in a way. I sit more on the fence about it. I think it depends on what type of class it is. Being in a class, such as math, one cannot get really creative because there is only a right or wrong answer, and you always want to be right. Also, one might not be good at math, so it kind of takes away from the fun that you might have in other classes. Some teachers want you to do everything their way, and there is no room for creativity. Others can be really creative with their teaching style, or assign a certain project that can help you better learn a subject.

            I think that elective classes are where you get to be the most creative. In high school, I took an art class. My teacher would give us a week to do a project that she assigned. She would then tell us an artist, and we would have to find a piece of their work we liked, and recreate it, or make it into our own work. We got to choose what colors were used, size of the paper, and the medium for the work. I actually enjoyed that class, although I wasn’t the best artist.

            Another class that I felt I was creative in was my foods and nutrition class. Once again, my teacher would give us a few general topics for the week on what we were going to be making, such as cookies, or a type of bread. My group would then look for a recipe that looked good to make, and each group would make something different. At the end of class, we would all try each other’s food and the teacher would pick whose was the best and we would get a few extra points, so we normally strived to be the top group. At the end of the year we baked our own individual cakes, made our own icing and colored it, and got to decorate however we wanted to.

I think that revision plays into your “creative process” by letting your mind expand and it allows other ideas to unfold. The article we had to read on revision said that you should take some time away from the paper, and then come back to it later. When coming back to it, you can re-read what you have wrote and you might think that it is out of order, needs things added to it, find a repetition in words or your idea might have evolved into something different then your original outlook. When you come up with an idea in writing, or just in everyday life, there might be some place needed for revision.

When it comes to writing a recipe, you can always make room to revise it because you want it to be very clear, and you want to make it as concise as you can. You can also sometimes revise the ingredients, make substitutions or make adjustments to the amount of ingredients used in the recipe.  You want the recipe to be easily understandable so a person you share it with will be successful in trying it, too.

When writing instructions or directions on how to make anything, there is always a long process. You start out with writing all of the steps, and sometimes you need to make it shorter. You should want to condense it so other people can easily follow it.

How I see him ..

The movie we watched on Henry Darger defiantly caught me a little off guard, but I’m sure anyone who never heard of him and watched this would feel the same way. I wouldn’t say that he was mentally ill, but more like one of a kind. He was a man who had faced a lot of diversity in his early years, and never really had anyone around to talk to about his feelings so he expressed himself on paper. Along with not having much of a social life, he expressed his feelings in his own way using the characters he did in his fifteen thousand page story.

The few people that he socialized with accepted him, but they didn’t know anything that was going on behind the closed doors of his apartment until he was moved into the poor house. They treated him good, and he was lucky to have such a nice landlord and neighbor that were willing to help him, especially in his older days. He acted strange toward the world, but I feel as though he didn’t know any better. Some of his characters in his story were messed up to say the least and some of the stories he told people were different, but like I said, he never had the experience of a normal life, and he never had anyone to look up to, to learn from.

I feel that Henry was a very creative man. Although he copied images, he made them him own and even more recreated them. He told the story about things that were happening in the world and added to them. We should definitely care about the art he created because it was a memory of a very creative man who was different and wanted to tell a story even though he never thought it would get out to the entire world.

Cleese Summary

John Cleese tells us in his video that creativity cannot really be explained, and I agree with that. We talk about this topic in class and we have a hard time coming up with something or we do and we are unsure if it’s really creative or not. I feel that a lot of things are creative, but they are just creative in their own way. He feels as though your childhood can be a factor in the ability of your creativity. The simplest thing as a child with a big box can be useful and show creativity as to what they do with it.

We need to not only keep an open mind when looking to solve a solution or come up with an idea, but transition from an open mode to a closed mode. To be in open mode, we need to be relaxed, playful, and be open to humor. He says that when being in a closed mode, creativity is not possible. In a closed mode, you can be active, impatient and become stressed. It is easy to go into a closed mode and get stuck in it. Certain conditions can help when you are trying to get into an open mode. Having space, time, time, confidence, and humor are all necessities for coming up with an original idea. We need to seclude ourselves, set a time for yourself, find out when your decision is due, don’t be afraid to take risks or make mistakes, and be inclined to humor.  We need to stay on topic and not let things get us side tracked. Being around other playful people can help us come up with ideas easier. When being a helpful person, you need to be a more positive person than a critic. In the end of his speech, he says that creativity is like humor and throughout his whole speech he makes jokes and that is a form of him being creative.

A few tips of my own for being creative is to brain-storm with diverse people. Surround yourself with others who like to have fun, can laugh at themselves and look at things from a different perspective. I feel that being creative can come when you least expect it and sometimes when you have to improvise. For example, when people cook sometimes they don’t always have an ingredient for the recipe. Instead of going out and buying it, they use something else in place and come up with a different dish or one better than the original.

Creativity, what is it?

My own definition of creativity is when it comes from someone who is ingenious, and who can think outside the box.  An example of creativity is someone who can take a simple object, and re-purpose it using either their imagination, or adds things to it to make something that was not its intended purpose. It could range from an artist sitting in front of a blank canvas, to a small child playing with a big box.  Creativity can go a long way, as we saw in class that the three objects we had in front of us were made into several different tools to help us survive on our island.  I feel that everyone is creative, but some just don’t chose to explore it. Everyone can be creative in their own way, and some may use it differently. Some people can use their creativity for music, art, speeches, crafts, lessons, or to solve problems. I think that creativity can be developed over time and practice can make you more creative. In music, composers use creativity to rhyme words or make the notes flow together. There are many art portraits that can tell a story, or if you and a friend look at it, you can get two different ideas from it. Public speakers can use interesting facts or words in their speeches to make it more appealing for the listeners. All of the decorations you see in stores or at craft shows are made by someone who came up with the idea using their creativity. I feel that in lessons, the more creative way it is taught, the better understanding you are going to get from it. You are learning, but also are enjoying the process. Sometimes there could be different outcomes to a situation, and some ideas might be a better way than others on how to handle them.

Hi, my name is ..

Hi, I am Alyson Yajko. I am from East Liverpool, Ohio. It’s about forty-five minutes south right on the Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and obviously Ohio border. I went to school at Beaver Local, K-12, and have lived in the same house since I was born. My town is one of the most boring places ever, but my friends and I make the best of it. We spend our time going to the river, riding horses, kayaking, swimming at the tubs, going to the mall, and anything else that we can find to help our boredom. Although we have gone our separate ways going to different colleges and all, I know that we will still stay close no matter how far apart we are. My family consists of my mother, Barb, and sister, Mallory. My mom is my biggest role model and my #1 fan. She is the strongest person I know and is always there for me no matter what. My sister is one of my best friends and also a role model to me. I have looked up to her my whole life and have learned many things from her including: life lessons, things about sports, ect.. Although we fought every day when we were younger, maturity and going through life changing experiences together has brought us closer. She is getting married in December to Josh Ludwig, who played football and graduated from Mount. I'm very excited and also nervous because it's coming up quick and I am the maid of honor and that's a pretty deal being the one that pretty much puts everything together. Coming from a small town and school kind of helped make the transition easier coming to Mount having the same kind of atmosphere. It defiantly is a big change and I am still getting use to it. I came to Mount Union because I thought it was a wonderful school and it was close enough to home, yet far enough away. My second decision was going to Westminster and playing volleyball. I visited with them and the team and I just didn't get the homey feeling that I got out of Mount. I plan to major in Early Childhood Education and I am unsure of a minor still. I feel as though I am a creative person, and writing these blogs weekly will help me find more and more creativity in my mind. I like to look at pictures, and see how people make things, and read people’s ideas or feelings on topics that I can relate to.