It was Friday evening. I was sat at my desk in my room, browsing YouTube like you do in the evening. Eventually I found Myrin (aka Jacob Dawson). He’s a first year student at AUT like me, but he’s studying product design and makes vlogs about design practice and self-development. 

His video on learning design drawing in 20 hours (seen above) is quite inspiring to watch. It reminded me of doing Design & Visual Communication in high school, glimpsing that first glimpse of the world of design and all the problem solving and different levels of intricacy that come with it. My teacher who I was quite close with taught me that while I was great at all the technical computer stuff, my physical drawing skills let me down. I’m missing out on being able to communicate my ideas so much more effectively!

Overall Connection: How things change over time due to modern influences?

Thinking about connection between my five subjects, I took notes on important points I felt were important for the essay. Also to make sure I didn’t forget anything while writing. Taking advice from the lecturers, I try to carry my notebook with me everywhere, so I can note down all my random thoughts throughout the day.

I found that I had quite a few good points that would surely turn out to be a lot of content so I thought about how I would present my findings and connections across the chosen topics. Seeing as art in one of my main interests, my go to was a visual installation or poster. The idea would be to draw symbols of each topic in the form of an old traditional motif and somehow link them together in a full Polynesian design. But I felt that this didn’t communicate all the points that I wanted to talk about.

So, I thought the best option for me was to write an essay.

The first link that comes to mind is Culture. But as I mentioned in an earlier post, I wanted my overall link to be something other than culture. So I thought deeper into the subject areas and thought of connecting them by emotions, seeing as it was the one subject I chose that related to almost all the other subject areas. But I couldn’t find anything in my publications that would link emotions to astronomy, star constellations or anything related to that.

Because one of my interests is art, I decided to try to come up with some sort of way to connect the subjects through art forms. But when listing possible connections, I didn’t have much content.

The next link I thought of using was movement, as each of these subjects moves/changes in some sort of way. Stars, they are constantly moving. Canoes are constantly moving etc. So following this line of thinking, I thought of something that also connected my subject areas which was movement or change over time!

Here is my  Five things that interest me

cars/mechanics

War/ non-fiction

Mysteries

Nazi/History WW2

Spiritual/ God

Publications that I chose ?

Cars

Cars that owners love and hate

War/ Non-Fiction

The american Sniper

Nazi/ History of WW1 & 2

The diary of Anne Frank

Alan Turing the enigma

Spiritual/ God

Heaven is for real

Mysteries

The Quiet American

Other books i considered?

I thought of trying to do a review of the bible but it is a massive book with 738,137 words which people take years to study. Personally i have not studied the whole book but it is an interesting thing i would like to look into in the future.

American sniper

This book is based on an American soldier who is a strong patriot who becomes a navy seal. He trains hard and becomes the ‘American Sniper’ who has more than 150 confirmed kills. Throughout the novel Chris Kyle talks about his journey to becoming the most deadliest sniper in history. Chris Kyle was a Texan who served in the military for 10 years. In the first chapter we are told about the history of Chris Kyle and how he was brought up. The next chapter then talks about meeting his wife Tanya. The rest of the chapters are situations and life experiences of the deadly soldier. He mainly talks about the stress and effects of death. The main points i got out of the novel is that Chris was a hatred filled killer which lead to his intense motivation with saving his fellow Americans. The novel also talks about the stereotypes of war and how people underestimate the effects of war and how death never leaves the mind.

Main points

That war is a never ending nightmare

There are two different worlds

Death

Chris shows no guilt

Heaven is for real

Heaven is for real is an intense story about a family who encounters an experience with God. The novel follows the Burpo family who are involved in a church. The Burpo family is about to go away on a holiday when the youngest son, Colton begins to feel sick. Throughout the trip Colton is vomiting and feeling extremely unwell. The Burpo family then rushed to the nearest hospital and finds out Colton has an intense issue which requires surgery as soon as possible. A few months later Colton fully recovers and he randomly shared with his family his experiences in the hospital. At the beginning the family struggled to believe the things coming from their young son but he was so confident in what he was saying it was hard to believe. The boy shares that he saw his own body in the hospital and went to heaven with Jesus. This novel is an emotional story about a family and spiritual encounter.

Main points

The effects of one's life can affect a whole lot of people around them

The Quiet American

The quiet American is about a American (Alden Pyle) and Englishman (Thomas Fowler) who are in vietnam. The two men are good friends but have many conflicts which results in the murder of one of the two men. Fowler was dating a Vietnamese girl during the time and he happens to meet Pyle who has much interest in Fowler's girl. Over time Phoung, the girl in high demand becomes in love with Pyle. Although there is not much conflict over the girl Fowler and Pyle clash over their different opinions on the war going on around them. Pyle is a strong believer in democracy and he tries to implement this in the vietnamese society. He does this as he has been sent to try and calm down the conflict in the area. Pyle is a strong patriot who believes in America first. Pyle supplies a rebel force with bombs which kill many people in a village. Fowler finds out about Pyle being responsible and more and more conflict grows. In the end Pyle gets murdered under Fowlers control.

Main points

Morality, everything changes but you can not escape death

Guilt after being responsible for death. Pyle shows no guilt

Death and jealousy is within us

Alan Turing the enigma

Why I chose this book? Its an interesting story of how a normal person became the greatest mathematician in history. I love this story because behind every success there is a struggle and this novel talks about the struggle behind cracking the uncrackable.

This book is about World war 2 and the drama behind Alan Turing's road to creating Enigma.  Alan turing lived from 1912 - 1954 and in those years he was and still regarded as the greatest mathematician of all times. Alan turing was an oxford student who got invited to join a highly classified program decrypting the german communications system. Throughout this journey he suffers from homosexual persecution, investigation by police, betrayal and a relationship with who he called his wife. Alan was on the edge of being stopped as most people observing his thought he was insane for putting so much effort into a machine when he could be decoding messages. He completes the machine but it fails on his first attempt, this is where things start going downhill. After getting back on his feet he makes a second attempt at speeding up the process and he cracks the code. He is the greatest mathematician who not only saved the allies but he was the founder of computer science. Alan turing invented the computer and artificial intelligence. The enigma was the foundation for the future of computers and artificial intelligence.

Main points

It doesn't matter who you are or what you do anything is possible if you set your mind to it

Jealousy can stop good from happening

Cars that owners love and hate

Why i chose this article?

I love cars and i love reading about the history and how they are so important to us. I also love buying and selling cars as a hobbie.

This article is about cars and which are the most loved and hated by their owners. Cars are something which pays a very important part in this generations. Last year in New Zealand alone 43000 new cars were registered for nz roads. The roads are getting busier so that means there are a wider range of cars for owners these days to choose from. Buying a new car is important, it is an investment into your future and that's why it takes so much thought, effort, consultation and testing to find your new buddy. This article has surveyed many car owners to find the needles in the haystack. The survey goes through driving experience, styling, value and comfort. What were the high and lows of cars ? Electric/ hybrid cars were very popular especially the toyota prius. Affordable luxury is what most users look for but realistically the more you pay the more you expect to get. Entry level SUV’s and luxury cars were the most low scoring cars. So what were the most hated and most loved cars? Here are what the article shows. # 1 Tesla (91% would buy again), #2 Porsche (84%), #3 Audi (77%), #4 Subaru (76%), #5 Toyota (76%). The most hated car was the Fiat with 53% would buy again.

Main points

More you pay the more you get

You can't be a affordable luxury, either you are cheap or luxurious

The diary of Anne Frank

Why i choose this book?

I Love reading WW2 books and articles about how people came together and united to fight the evil happening around them.

This is one of the most emotional books you will read. This book is structured differently to others as it is a diary instead of a story. Although Anne Frank's diary is almost her youth story growing up during the war. The novel talks about Frank's fears, joys, insecurities, doubts and all her personal thoughts. The only thing that differs this diary from any other is the setting. Anne Frank was a jew during the WW2 holocaust. Although she doesn't talk just about the horrors of WW2 or the death in the concentration camps as she was growing up and she didn't understand the death man could bring. This was WW2 from a child's perspective while she hides from the Nazis. During the novel, Anne goes into hiding with her family while the Nazis take over Holland. Her family plus a few other hide in their father's office. Throughout living behind a swinging bookcase she grows her knowledge with their large book stock. The diary then goes to talk about her thoughts about other boys and the struggles of hiding from the outside world. Unfortunately after her diary ends, the room gets raided and they get captured so it wasn't all good for the Jews.

Main points

Good people suffer

Similarities?

After reading and studying these 6 novels and articles many ideas, themes and messages there have been similarities in they way that they all talk about us always wanting more. This can be seen in the American sniper as Chris Kyle stresses while off duty when he has nightmares about all the death happening. Chris Kyle wants to be able to protect as many people as possible , he just can't accept the fact that people die all the time. In heaven is for real, the Burpo’s want to be happy and have a normal life when really all this extraordinary things are happening around them that a lot of people would love to experience. The quiet american talks about power and how Pyle just wants Americans to have power in Vietnam. He is not satisfied with different cultures and societies happening. Pyle just want democracy and won't stop no matter how much death is involved. Alan Turing in the enigma story Alan just wants to complete the machine. He is not satisfied with a normal life and settling down with a girl, but if it means he will complete it he will do whatever it takes to finish his goal. Cars that owners love and hate talks about SUV owners wanting more of a luxury from their cars while paying for something cheap. Affordable luxury. The diary of Anne Frank talks about the things she thought she should have in order to have a better life, although I don't think it could of had gotten any worse for Anne Frank's so she has a proper reason for wanting a better life. In conclusion us humans are needy and we always want more, without being completely satisfied with the life and belongings we have.

References

https://wordcounter.net/blog/2015/12/08/10975_how-many-words-bible.html