First I will say this was an awesome school year. PLP is one of the many things that have made this an awesome year for me. Now onto my SLC. For this conference I will show you two pieces or work. One I am proud of that shows effort and growth and one that I could of done better on.

Alright let’s start with bad news something I could of improved on. I had a lot of options when choosing this one. Almost everyone of my projects I could of improved in some way. I ended up going with my LBS about the Selma bridge. This was not best work for multiple reasons but I have learned from mistakes and will improve on them in the future. My first problem was my plan, unlike my other LBS I really winged this one. While I was in Selma all I knew was I was going to do something on the bridge. So I didn’t have an image of what I wanted the video to look like. I didn’t have the background information on the bridge either so I didn’t know what parts were interesting so I could film certain things or ask certain questions that would enhance my video. I will definitely try to avoid that situation again by being more prepared so I can act on my feet armed with my knowledge. This was due to a lack of effort which would of been easily avoidable. It is shame as well because I was able to get some great clips but didn’t do enough of the little things to make this project great. From now on I will try to be more prepared when I enter a new environment so I can get the full learning outcome and experience.

 

 

LBS A Name Worth Keeping

 

 

Now let’s Move onto the good news a piece of work that I am proud of. This is a little bit of recency bias, but I went with my blue sky project, the Basketball Moon Boots. I am proud of this project not because of my final product but of how much I learned during the creation of it. I acquired new skills and information working with actually products such as silicon and making molds. I also learned about the commitment it takes to make something new even if it’s a variation of something else. This project took 20+ hours and I ended up with a really big silicon shoe. That silicon shoe was nothing to laugh at though. It worked but could’ve used some improvements for sure. Also working with Nash, Roger and Warren made this experience really enjoyable. That is one of the reason’s why it turned out pretty well is because I really enjoyed working on this project.

Blue Sky: Basketball Moon Boot

 

Now it’s time to talk about my goals. Ooops! It seems I didn’t make any goals last SLCs so here I will appease you with one of my personal goals. Well I have cut down on wasting a lot of time which has been a goal of mine. I have cut out video media consumption which has been a really positive for me. NO youtube, netflix or video games unless it is for school. This has given me more time to work on my school projects and basketball. That is one of the reasons I think I have had a successful 2nd half of the year.

That is the conclusion of my SLC and a great year in PLP and school. I would like to thank  Ms. Willemse, Mr. Hughes, my parents and my brother for helping me learn and enjoy this year so much.

 

 

My Blue Sky Design Project

Ok my problem is near and dear to my heart. The problem is I don’t want to ruin the bottom of my  nice basketball shoes by walking outside. Many other basketball players share the same problem. The current solution to this problem is taking off your shoes and wearing slippers. This gets a little annoying sometimes when you forgot your water bottle in the car.  You already have your ball shoes on and you don’t want to untie your shoes grab your water bottle come back in the gym and tie them up again. My solution to this problem is the basketball moon boot. Keep your basketball shoes on step into the moon boot and make your way out the car. Once you grab your bottle walk back in the gym take of the moon boots and you don’t have to untie your shoes.

How did I make it? Well first I have to introduce you to Warren my mentor for this project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z69uCI06th0

Warren was an awesome mentor. He helped me understand what I could and couldn’t do with the materials I had. Warren taught me how to use many of the tools and products I would us to construct my boot. Warren also suggested solutions to problem’s I would face during my design process.

To create my Moon Boot.

I cut a shoe in half.

Made a box for my plaster mold.

Mixed the Plaster.

Submersed the bottom of the shoe in plaster Paris.

Cut the plaster out an inch around to make the plaster replica of the moon boot.

Sand it down to make it look nice.

Suspended the plaster moon boot over 24 hour set silicon to make a mold.

Next I used the mold to make the actually moon boot which I made of silicon as well and that was my final product.

My product worked ok but I had to use Velcro to keep it on. It would be better if it was just a friction fit on the shoe. If I were to make a second prototype I would make the moon boot smaller so it fit on the shoe tight so I wouldn’t have to use Velcro to keep it on.

I learned a lot while completing this project. I learned about a silicon molds and construction of molds. This was an awesome experience one of the best I have had school related as everything was new to me so I was learning every moment.

I have learned that the name of the Edmund Pettus Bridge is a lot more than just a name. It has such a significant meaning to many people. It demonstrates that people have the ability to change their mindsets and the Edmund Pettus Bridge reminds people of that every day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrM4BUi4n5w

               That idea of the name Edmund Pettus standing as reminder is interesting and important to me. The idea to change the name of the bridge isn’t the right thing to do. Just like the people who walked across the bridge on the marches I don’t think changing the name to something new and political correct is better. I believe that’s nicks and scratches gives something more value. That’s why if you give the Edmund Pettus bridge a new name it takes away some of those nicks and scratches and it loses its meaning, value and story. Through my investigation behind the name of the Edmund Pettus bridge I gained new perspective of the importance of bad history. We need not to change history by putting a sliver lining around it. We need to keep it as a reminder of what could happen if we act incorrectly. I gained a valuable life lesson from this project which is quite rare for a school project.

 

While I was on the southern experience trip I was fortunate enough to indulge in Nashville Hot Chicken. Ms. Willemse, Nash, Jackson and Spencer joined me on this chicken extravaganza to Hattie B’s. When I arrived at Hattie B’s I loved chicken by the time I left it turned into a more love hate relationship. This change in attitude stemmed from how hot the Shut the Cluck Up Chicken was. It burned me inside and out, forehead, lips, tongue and stomach. Once I got passed the heat I realized how delicious the was chicken. I couldn’t eat another piece of chicken once I left Hattie B’s but I sure enjoyed the one’s I ate. Hattie B’s gave me an extra spicy taste of Nashville.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kVv6HelfA4

 

I thought my LBS turned out well. It was easy to create because I filmed a bunch of great video clips. Other then learning about Nashville hot chicken I learned the valuable lesson that having the right resources makes things 10x easier to create a video or a project. From now own I will try to make things easier on myself be gathering the right video clips and not be hesitant about filming when the opportunity arrives. Instead of creating video in post production which is a lot harder.

The Deep South is different than any other place I have experienced. I thought I got the most authentic tourist experience possible.

     Highlighting the trip was the Selma talk with history makers and the boys and girls club. Both were two worlds and experiences that will change my everyday thoughts. One of the youth workers at the boys and girls club told me “seven dollars is the minimum wage” and then said something along the lines of go to university or college and then you can make 11.25$ per hour and live well. That is just an example that allows to gain more perspective of the world I live in.

 

     Something else I really enjoyed about the trip was aspect of Walking in the footsteps of history. From ATL to Nashville I stood in places where action and words changed the world. The Birthplace of  MLK and the Ebenezer Church were powerful moments to me. I would also like to comment on the perspective I have gained about the positive influence of religion. I am not religious myself but my parents and a large portion of my extended family are associated with Christianity. So the Ebenezer church did have meaning to me because of my surroundings. I also really like the line of the lady who led us around the church in Montgomery “Everybody is a piece in a puzzle” she portrayed the  ability the church had to unify people towards a common goal. Even though this religious part wasn’t an intended learning outcome of the trip I put it at one of the utmost importance. Religion is the cause of many conflicts something I would like to understand and comprehend people’s motives. In the case of the civil rights movement it allowed people to come together and fight for equality which I don’t think would’ve happened without religion.

     Next the music portion which was just plain cool. I don’t listen to a lot of music and am not to into a lot of the genres we explored but I guarantee it will be something I look back and say “I watched a Grand Ole Opry show” and it was clearly rich with history but it’s just something I couldn’t really appreciate.

 

      One more thing I almost forgot to to mention was how fun the trip was. Segway Tour, Aquarium, World of Coke road trips and chicken so much chicken was amazingly enjoyable. This trip was one of the best experiences in my life and one I will never forget.

The Lorraine Motel is monumental and the pinnacle location of the civil rights movement. The death place of MLK and the birthplace of the National Civil Rights museum. That is all fine and dandy but I wanted to look at a topic that’s not often discussed and that is the business side of the Lorraine. The Lorraine was owned by a black man by the name of Walter Baily and he served both black and white people which made the hotel very successful as it had a larger base of consumers. That idea of serving both black and white people made a lot of sense economically that’s why many shop owners didn’t mind the civil rights act of 1964 as it gave store owners an excuse to being able to serve both black and white people. In the grand scheme of things this means more then some extra twenties for the owner it allowed for pro segregationist to loosen their view on segregation. It gave them a reason to prefer breaking the color barriers and adopting a economically richer way of life. This is a very interesting way of looking at the civil rights movement behind a money point of view. This angle on the civil rights is something that can’t be underestimated as money talks. I will always have to look through the money glasses any time I took at civil rights event from now on.

This is part 3 of my podcast series the finale. I picked my BF (Pink Shirt) to help narrate this podcast with me and tried a more conversational style of podcast. Enjoy!

 

Lyndon Baines Johnson was a very interesting character to research especially in the context of the Civil Rights Movement. He was born in Texas a southern state so you would think he would be pro segregation but his religious belief steered him towards acceptance, one of his favorite bible quotes “Come now, and let us reason together …” described his approach to civil rights perfectly. Another surprising and interesting thing was how fast he acted to push for progress in civil rights after Kennedy’s death it didn’t take Johnson no time to begin working on progress. If I was in his position I would be a lot more hesitant than him, I probably wouldn’t have gone all in on the civil rights like he did. It worked out very well for him early on when he passed the civil rights act of 1964 and won the next election by a landslide. When his balls to the walls approach began to fade with civil rights so did his popularity. LBJ was a lot more resistant to sign the equal voting act of 1965. I know the Vietnam controversy also led to declining popularity but his civil rights approach probably didn’t help. LBJ has been the most interesting character to me so far in my Civil Rights research followed by RFK  as they both showed that human decency was still alive and people respected that, it’s a silver lining of the Civil Rights Movement.

 

             Why is it so important in the civil rights movement? It speed things up, with out it civil rights would still be a problem today. Brown vs Board of education was arguably the first domino to fall and it took 6 court rulings to do so. The next domino to fall a year later the montgomery bus boycott took a lot of resources as well. The domino effect really start to take control and influence the masses with lunch counter sit ins and freedom riders from all across the country protesting inequality. Everyday people got swept up in the wave of the desire for equality and all this passion came together on one day the the march on Washington in 1963 where Martin Luther King Jr. knew the domino effect would not last forever “it would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.” Martin Luther King Jr. he used that momentum to excel the agenda bringing the civil rights act of 1964 to be passed. With the help of the domino effect the black community went from 2nd class citizens and the tragic death of Emmett Till in 1955 to 1st class citizens by law in under ten years.

 

I whole heartily agree with this theory and doing all this research has really opened my eyes on the power of momentum.

I collaborated with my class mate Nash on this this explain everything project on how the right to vote went from a privilege to a right.

https://youtu.be/jraBEwsnK_U
The first step to making the project was getting the information. In class we learned about different ethnicity’s in Canada and when they were franchised and why.
After we got the information we had to get an idea for the project. We thought to bring you through the times using me and Nash’s dialogue to present stats and ideas on the right to vote in Canada. Our answer for the question was through social movements the government was put in to an awkward position forcing them to franchise all minority groups. 
When we look back at our project we were able to make a somewhat interesting intro but needed more work on our explain everything to make this a great project. The ideas are good but execution could of been better. I am overall happy with the project and might use this format again of going back in time and explain what’s going on using dialogue between two people.