Suggested Reading: Why Your Creativity Needs Boundaries To Thrive

This article write by Jane Porter focuses on 5 key takeaways from the book Manage Your Day-to-Day which was put out by 99U.

• Put creative work first
• Your inbox can wait. Seriously, it can. 
• Recogize your body's limits
• Set boundaries and dive deep within them
• Start today

I think that these are all great rule to follow to harness the potential of one's creative drive and to keep it running at full speed.Creativity does take a lot of work an time and these steps will help any creator focus on their work more. 

Suggested Reading:the Outrage at Dove's 'Patches" Advertisement is Outrageous

This article written by Will Burns is a reflection on Dove's "Patches" Advertisement and the negative response to it.  He feels that this is a positive way of gaining consumer loyalty by showing the customers that there beauty starts on the inside. I believe while the results of the women growing more confidence from the patches scam was great in one instance but fraudulent in another. I would've felt upset that I was lied to, but happy to find that my growth was because of me and not some chemical.

Lead On!

Week #13- April 10^rd, 2014: Attended

Being a leader while a choice in some instances and a requirement in others, is a very hard but important task. Everyone must play a leadership role in one way or another during some point of his or her lives. The 10 characteristics of being a servant leader are all very important to have when taking charge of any group of people. I believe that the best leaders possess each of these qualities to a certain extent. I thought it was cool that you shared a lot of your life philosophy with us today! I am not looking forward to doing the last team project just because it seem so time consuming. 

A Look Into Our Future!

Week #12- April 3^rd, 2014: Attended

I think that it’s awesome that a women’s life expectancy is in the high 80’s today, but it’s said that this great fact will cause problems in our future. It’s bullcocky that social security will run out before my generation gets old. Therefore I’ve resolved to become rich so I can support myself after retirement! The ideal of no marriages by 2040 is beyond insane to me! I will choose to disagree with this theory. I believe that somewhere someone will be getting married in 2040 despite with the numbers say! I don’t really like the idea of digital wallets, I like having all of my different cards. I find the Taco Bell ads featuring the Ronald McDonalds to be very funny. I would never get brain implants just to control digital devices, unless I lost function of my hands and/or limbs. If you can do it yourself, that just laziness. I mean our country is already suffering from obesity. Walking to turn on the television, or searching for the remote may be someone’s only from of exercise! But I do think that having a robot would be cool! I did not like that the speaker pretty much read word for word off of the slides with little to no added information. What’s the point in coming to class if it is just for someone to read to me at a slower pace than I could read to myself?

My Funny Bones Are Shaking!

Week #11- March 27th, 2014:Attended

The activity in which the 3 volunteers attempted to tell their jokes was extremely funny today. I found myself laughing at times when I shouldn't have been just because of the situation. I do believe that humor is the highest form of intelligence, because it not only requires wit, but the ability to read and follow others’ minds. The “Ideas are sexy too” picture was too funny, and I highly doubt that’s what Einstein’s body looked like. The Catholic Church’s memo board’s message was walking a thin line in my opinion, but still the humor was there. I really enjoyed the wacky inventions that were sprouted from or created humor. Over all I really enjoyed this lecture. 

Week #10- March 20th, 2014: Not Attended

I was yet again sick this week. I went to Beutel on Wednesday for what I thought was a bad sinus infection, and found out that I had Strep throat! Therefore after receiving a huge shot and some medication, I did not attend the live lecture this week. I did however watch it online. The focus on communication was right up my alley since that is my major. I enjoyed the videos in this lecture, especially the disconnect to connect one and do feel that our generation is overly plugged in to technology. For this reason my friends in I do things to challenge ourselves or others to "unplug". I sometimes leave my phone at home when I need a technology free day. When I go out the eat with friends at home, we all have to put out phones face up in the middle of the table. No one is allowed to touch any of the phones and the first person who does before the bills are paid must pay for everything that was ordered. I agree that communication is very important and that it must be customized for your audience, including the generation gaps. I enjoyed this lecture very much.

IdeaMACHE:Is It Better Than Pinterest?

Week #8 – March 6^th, 2014: Attended

While this live lecture was informative, I feel that it could have easily been summed up in a short 5-10 minute tutorial. Despite my opinion on the time spent on teaching how to use the IdeaMache program, I believe that the program itself is intresting. While very similar to a Pinterest board, I like that this program allows for a more organic and controllable design. I look forward to using this in the near future. My major focus for the week was completing my soft innovations project. The hardest part was actually coming up with many ideas that weren’t thought of just yet. 

Make Me More Innovative!

Week #7- February 27th, 2014: Attended

I feel that IDEO and the TRIZ method are  good ways of approaching any innovative or creative challenge. It helps you to look at the surroundings through different lenses. Along with all of the innovative and inventive principles, coming up with ideas is easier with IDEO and TRIZ. The team assignments are going well so far. I am starting to enjoy our meet up times. Alex and I seem to share the position of team leaders which is good so that neither one of us feels overwhelmed with responsibility.

Are You a Killer? Or Are You Stuck in a Trap?

Week #6- February 20th, 2014: Attended

I actually experienced some of these Innovation Killers and Traps in our group meetings while working of the first team assignment. Being a creative studies minor, I have had training on how to better construct and act in a group in order to foster a more creative and encouraging atmosphere. After working with the members of my group, I quickly realized that many of them did not. 
The second half of the lecture on the business model was very understandable, but i feel will be hard to complete when approaching our upcoming projects. I look forward to the challenge. 

O.L.M.
Creativity - Producing any new and original idea,design, thought, combination, or product, despite if it is useful or interesting.
This means that almost anything can be creative despite what others may think. This PomPom Rug shows creativity.

Innovation- altering an old creation, idea, design, ect. to make it new 
This means that any spin off idea is innovative.


 Design- the way something is contructed

Is it a Fit?: Team Talk

Week #5- February 13th, 2014: Attended

So, this was a long trying week not only because of classes, but due to other uncontrollable life events. This week I fought a sinus infection onset by seasonal allergies for which I visited Beutel for before going to this lecture and I spent Valentine's Day at Scott&White for unrelated health problems. Despite this circumstances a managed to not only attend this weeks lecture. but also to complete the first team assignment, attend a career fair, and plan a retreat. The highlight of this week was quitting my job, which will give me more free time to focus on school and my organizations. 

My major focus this week, concerning this course, way obviously meeting with my group to complete the group project. The first meeting ran fairly smoothly, and I feel that I will have to play the role as  team leader. The other members have slow been  standing out in specific roles but, I look forward to seeing if they change over the next few weeks. This weeks lesson over groups dynamics, norms, and roles was again a refresher lesson to me.  

Oh My! You're Too Close!

Week #4- February 6th, 2014: Attended

I really enjoyed this weeks' guest speaker Dr. Hill. His lecture on personal space, how it is interpreted by different cultures, and how it effects certain situations was not only informative, but also captivating. The videos displayed at the start of class were a creative way to introduce the subject of his lecture. The section over the different hand signals that one shouldn't use was very interesting. By having studied abroad in Italy in spring 2013, I knew about a few of those, but others were new to my knowledge. I feel that this would make a great lecture for an interpersonal communication class also. Some of the concepts learned today would be fun to use to manipulate others in an evil genius type of way. I also meet up with my team for the first time this week. It seems like everyone is quite nice. Being a communication major and creative studies minor, I've had the chance to focus on the study of group dynamics, so I am looking forward to see what role each person on our team will play. 

O.L.M. Reflection

I think that I would have to hire someone to patent an idea for me because they seem like a lot of work to do and very expensive. 

Suggested Reading: The Universal Spider

This article, written by Peter Llyod touches on the idea of a child's affinity to animals and their creative approach to novel challenges during their childhood. I think that his thought of channeling this imaginative spirit to address current issues maybe a sound concept metaphorically. Pretending that I am an elephant looking for a job probably won't help me to find a job, but metaphorically being the elephant in the room in a positive way may. I feel that this is a great idea when trying to look at new approaches to problems.

Suggested Reading: Dream vs. Reality

This article by Peter Llyod is an interesting concept. I, as a vivid dreamer, have experienced the occurrence of having a dream within a dream before and have woken myself up in a dream thinking i was waking up in real life. I do agree that dreams can be compared to creativity due to their randomness, and limitless possibilities. The idea that life as we know my also be a dream is in my opinion a far stretched idea, and most likely untrue.

Do You Trust Your Mind?

Week#3- January 30th, 2014: Not Attended 

So I didn't attend class this week. I attempt to go but I don't think it was meant to be. I drove to campus, like I do every Thursday, and when I got close to the Central Campus parking garage this is what I saw.

A long line of cars waiting to get into the same garage. Class was going to start in about seven minutes, and the line wasn't moving so I decided to cut my losses and headed to HEB instead. At HEB i saw these.

I love tulips! They're my favorite flower!

Any who, I watched the recording of the live lecture once it was posted to eCampus, and I wish I would've been in class that day! I thought the idea of dancing on your brain was an interesting metaphor for provoking imagination. All of the mind tricks were very intriguing , and now I'm beginning to build a slight level of distrust of how my mind interprets what my eyes take in visually. I find it slightly scary that we can play tricks on ourselves so easily. Another concept that I found scary in the lesson is the truth of how technology is so easily replacing humans in the workplace. Mentioning work, I completed and turned in the personal branding profile assignment this week. I took a lot longer to create my presentation than I thought it was going to take, but I am pretty satisfied with the final product. The section over Gardner's Seven Intelligences made me look at the work smart in a different light. I would think of many of the intelligences such as body, picture, people, or self smart to be personal traits of talents, but I feel looking at it in this was gives these skills more value.   

 I look forward to attending next week's live lecture and hopefully meeting up with my team soon. 

O.L.M. Reflection
My flow is listening to music such as The Nature of Daylight by Max Richter. I am a polychronic person. My personal space is brightly colored, slightly disorganized to others, and filled with lite background noise. A mental block I have is when giving strict guidelines my brain tends to stop thinking. From this lecture i took away that each people has their own quirky ways to increase their creative process in order to hit the flow mark. 

Suggested Reading: 7 Ways to be Creative by Bengt Järrehult

I like how the author Bengt Järrehult defines these seven different ways of being creative. I feel that many people link the word creativity and the idea of being creative with just the arts, but it encompasses so much more. According to Järrehult's one can be/use

1.) Quantitatively Creative 

2.) Creative Combinations Finder

3.) Creatively Find New Gains and Delights

4.) Creative Exploitation

5.) Creative Refinement

6.) Creative Focus Finding

7.) Creatively Swapping Perspectives

These 7 ways to be creative are perspective that any person can focus on to help see the world, problems, and opportunities in a more creative light. 

Suggested Reading: Heavy Rain, Beyond chief David Cage declares: "sequels kill creativity and innovation"

It makes total sense that the video game creator David Cage feels that sequels kill creativity and innovation. Many game sequels follow the same design, objectives and characters as the first game. Because of this programmers have to rely less on creativity and innovation. 

Swimming in a World of Blue

Week#2- January 23rd, 2014: Attended 

As a creative studies minor, I have learned a few different thinking processes before attending this course. My prior knowledge helped to make this weeks’ lessons easily understandable and more like a review than anything. The two processes focused on, the Divergent, Convergent, Provocative, and Lateral Thinking process and the Think/Share/Discuss/Agree/Select/Present Process, look to be useful tools that when applied correctly, will help make group and individual creations possible. Some of the responses to this weeks’ in class activities were interesting, including my groups' idea of a contact lens that scans the pages of book and transmits all of the information to the brain so books can be read faster. I began working on the first individual assignment this week, it has been challenging answering some of the questions posed. I am still trying to decide how I would like to present all of this information, and hopefully and idea with hit me soon.

It All Started With A Big Bang!

First Day of Class- January 16th, 2014: Attended

After searching for the correct Architecture building and only finding it with the help of a few helpful Aggies, I arrived to the first Thursday ENDS 101 lecture about 15 minutes late. I missed the section over the syllabus, but the parts of the lecture I did view were not only very informative but also engaging, due to the class participation exercises and the videos integrated into the lesson. When Dr. Vanegas selected a few creative members of the class to display their talents, it was not only entertaining, but showed the freedom and range of creative power that we, as students, will be in control over in this course. Being a creative studies minor, I feel that I will be able to allow my ideas to flourish and not feel constrained by non-clarified standards when working on the assignments later. I also reviewed the online education module for the week, which confirmed my mindset to approaching this course, that it will require work in order to earn an A and that we will be taught by a highly established professor.  I will take some time to get used to the duality of learning in the course but I am looking forward to what the rest of the semester has to offer. I haven't started working on the first individual assignment just yet, but I look forward to beginning it this upcoming week. Sidebar: The Big Bang Theory is one of my favorite shows!