c.fan4 – Freshman Seminar Fall 17 CRA

My Whitney Experience

It wasn’t enough for our rising english teacher to just teach us about english. He proposed a class trip to a museum. Why? He wanted us to see in the language of art as he has shown in a video titled “Ways of Seeing” by John Berger. Go watch it if you want a glimpse into the world you have never seen before. Anyways, we ended up choosing the Whitney for it is less mainstream compared to the MOMA.

Just going to the Whitney is a experience itself. Not knowing where you are in a new neighborhood has it’s own terror and wonder. The neighborhood is laden with construction projects and probably 30ish floors max buildings. The Whitney is situated next to the Hudson river. Just sitting nearby and watching the sky and the people is art itself.

The Whitney itself rotates exhibits every season or so. Not all the art may be interesting, but you are bound to find something of interest. Each exhibit holds a new journey to be traversed through. I personally loved a exhibit of trash. I didn’t even know what was going on. Pitch black and just strobe lights and a handheld flashlight to guide your way through the heaps of garbage while a video played in our view. I loved it. Even though i don’t what i experienced. Thats what the Whitney can do.

Also the roof provides a luxurious view of mid-manhatten. I highly recommend going to the whitney cause art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. ~ some random google quote

Pulling through

Sword and the stone. A Disney movie I loved as a kid. To summarize a kingdom lost it’s king and the next ruler is to be chosen by pulling a sword out of a stone. The sword is special because it can only be pulled from the stone by one with a pure heart.

I loved the movie not because Arthur, the main character, obviously pulled the sword, but because he learnt. Arthur already had innocent humble open personality but that doesn’t mean he is perfect. Merlin, Arthurs mentor, showed Arthur how the world worked and how vast it is.

I long to have a mentor like Merlin who will teach me. But unlike the movie where the plot pushed Arthur to his greatness and mentor, reality relies upon the individual to get out of his comfort zone and start somewhere. I have not made that step yet, and I am not ready. But I know that that i will in time pull the sword from the stone.

Reading the lines

It was a trade-off going to this workshop.

Me and my friends were contemplating going to the 6th floor computer lab to enjoy some quality bonding game time. Instead we ended up taking seats in front of computers not really knowing what was going to happen.

The computer we sat in front of was open and had a program running. Bloomberg, shortly afterwards introduced as a overpriced program with functions that are highly specialized. Honestly we didn’t know know what was going on but we knew how to read a line chart. We tried as best we can to follow the directions provided for the next hour and struggled to stay awake. As interesting as trading seems this session was like telling us to play the piano without learning the theory. We can play with it and hopefully learn a few things along the way but without knowing the basics we are disadvantaged at playing this game.

Nonetheless, I hope my friends at least got something out of it that I missed. I can’t think of a reason to come back in the future but will continue in my endevours to learn to play this game that has so much to offer depending on our knowledge.

This experience probably leveled me up. If we just went to the computer lab to play games we could have had a fun time but not really learn anything new. By going to something that we had no clue what was about we were able to note another perspective life has to offer. Like jumping out a plane and experiencing parachuting for the first time, ive never done it but wish to, we can feel the thrill of something new rushing past us and if it leaves us feeling elevated then you only have yourself to thank for taking the first step towards you.

E(A) Sports – it’s in the game

Albeit not being the club I intended to join, coming here made me realize that there are more people that enjoy similar things and we don’t have to feel left out or geeky.

I do play games at home and enjoy doing so, so coming to clubs that match ones interest should be second nature. But nowadays, games don’t make me feel joy anymore for lack of a better word. I would get seriously affected by the game and sometimes ignore my own needs like hunger or just ignore my parents.

It’s all a trap that once we experience feel the instant gratification of but lose touch of important aspect of. I don’t mean to say games are bad and I love games but I want to do something more than gaming.

Of course if you are a professional gamer than my words don’t apply as games are their life and everyone’s life is different and should be respected.

But, being the first club I have visited I was quite grateful to see how people are friendly and willing to meet new people. Just these qualities alone are able to captivate people into joining the family.

The room was also packed full even though we were in a tiny classroom the interest in the club was apparently on many peoples faces.

Although the esports club isn’t one I intend to fully partake in I would like to enjoy the special computers of the club and meet people who has interests in similar things as myself and perhaps can rekindle the joy I once had playing games.