FW... That's what makes the world go round!

Loverly. FREEEEEEWRIIIITE! I like these.... obviously....

My ASL class has a project to do a personal interpretation of a concept through a song, story, poetry, whatever, and to translate it into sign and present it. The topic I'd previously had was on a theater production, so my related topics are broad and wonderful... and, as possibly overused and cop-outish as it sounds, I'm really digging the idea of translating "Not That Girl" from Wicked. *Happy sigh*. I got to see the musical this past summer, through several miracles, and it was hands down the absolute best play I have ever seen, and the music is touching with a geniously-written plot. Sooo cool how they adapted it from the movie version and put in so many ties and twists... and it still fits together as a prequel. It's probably even better than if it really had been written first. --Anyway, my instructor said she wanted the songs to really display a sense of emotion, power... so that the audience could really feel it. I remember the feeling of being in junior high or high school, and not being 'That Girl'... as a kid, you feel invisible, and I'd see the happy, seemingly-carefree girls flirting away and looking like they were having the time of their life. I found out later that they weren't actually happy all the time, and they were wishing for things too... which is exactly what Glinda reveals. We're all insecure, at one point and to some degree or another, and I can sympathize, and thus it would be easier to express the song through sign. Ah... these are the kinds of assignments I can sink my teeth into-- so very easily :)

RA: More on our favorite subject

Yay, now we'll talk about the second group's presentation. I liked this one more, for some reason. Perhaps it was because the discussion was just as involved, but calmer. I also think it helps when the people leading the discussion don't have as strong of an agenda... I think I remember the one girl saying that sex ed was her platform for her beauty pageant, and that naturally makes people vie for one side or the other. [Aaand, add to the fact that I was having a really, really crummy day, so I liked the second one better.]

Anyway... I thought it was ingenious how they split up the class into several different groups. It can be more intimidating to propose comments to the entire class cold turkey, rather than presenting them to a smaller group first and feeling comfortable with how it was received, or having more arguments to back up your thought or claim. That, and you can bounce ideas off of each other, and come up with more things to talk about. So. Kudos for that one.

It was unfortunate that the filters on the internet prevented group 2 from showing what they wanted to show. I hate when you prepare something, put the time into it, and have things set up in just the way you want it presented, and then find out that the technology is blocking you. (Happens rather often, unfortunately.) It's another reminder that you usually should have backup plans or alternate ways of accessing things... I guess just another facet of being prepared.

I felt a bit bad for the vocal performance major kid who put out his opinion and then had everyboy jump on him for it. That's why we talk about things openly, to realize that there are more opinions out there, but that's also why it can be scary. You don't want anyone to be upset with you or jump down your throat, so often when people have "deviant" opinions, they'll simply shut their mouths. [That's actually one reason why I hate political discussions... people have a tendency to jump all over you and scream at you that you're wrong, and then talk over you and not listen at all to your POV. Seriously annoying, and usually it accomplishes nada except promoting bad feelings and people leaving frustrated.] I'm glad our class was decent about it, though, and hope it doesn't discourage future "deviant" comments.