Eng. 658 - Week 7 Blog 2

The Arcade and CARP articles set my mind in motion—I’d just like to lay down a couple thoughts…

On the first day of Eng. 658, Professor Rhodes gave an outline of the mid-term and final visual projects. At the time, my limbs and gut stiffened reflexively from the fear of engaging something completely new. However, Rhodes then said we should feel nervous when approaching a new arena of work, for if we never do, we never learn. I kept this idea in mind as I approached the mid-term, practicing calming myself through a well-timed deep breath here and there when overwhelm crept in and sat beside me.

…When the mid-term passed and the final project sauntered in the room, it smirked at me—right away I forgot Rhodes’ prior words. Then that bloated figure named overwhelm came to sit on my lap—until I read the CARP and Arcade articles. Sighing, I sucked in a deep breath again…

So now I sense an opportunity to create something fun and visual, and a chance to relate it to my scholarly work. I don’t presume to make this a masterpiece, just an experiment with working in a new format. Over the past couple of years, I’ve tried to take this tact—instead of approaching a project with the old mindset that they have to be great, my focus now is to learn what I can in the process. It takes repetition, though. But no problem, there, huh. We're in the master’s program, and there’s plenty of opportunities to practice new stuff!