Experience

The best paid internship I had was at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. I interned as a "Young Artist at Work" which meant I had to participate in art activism and attend workshops to rehearse any art I was creating. What made the job enjoyable was being able to work with youth my age and I got paid to attend contemporary art performances. I also learned a lot about what it means to work as a professional artist. The skills I took out of this experience were some very basic soft skills and learning about how to manage art events and gatherings. I learned a very important lesson while interning as well. When I first started the internship we were expected to be taught some filming workshops and participate in discussions with our head director, but what ended up happening was both the filming instructor and our head director got laid off and our dance teacher took on the role of head director. We were all really disappointed about what happened but we continued to show up and work anyway. So the lesson I learned throughout this internship is the show must go on even when plans greatly change. We did suffer from some inadequacies during the internship (due to lack of support) but I would always contribute to the team everyday I had to work. 

Reading Rainbow

Reading for me is sometimes hard to start but easy to finish. I have implemented the strategy of reading on Muni and also reading before I go to bed to make it more enjoyable (if you read before you sleep you will have some pretty cool dreams; this works for me at least). As for annotating, I haven't started writing my thoughts on paper or highlighting sections I find interesting, but I do pay attention to what I'm reading, anything I may be thinking in the moment, and immediately reflect on what I read after so that when I go back to review I can remember what I payed attention to and any ideas I thought up. Mostly just paying attention to anything you found interesting or anything you thought about (relatable or not) helps to wrap your mind around the entirety of your reading. Then, simply reflecting on what you just read is very important when you want to remember it all for later. If I don't understand something while I'm reading, first, I don't panic and I read it again, if I still don't understand the content I will usualy just think about what it means to me and try to make sense of it to the best of my ability. I made sure I was keeping up with the reading by reading a couple of pages a day or even reading a chapter in one sitting. Whenever I'm at home in my bed I can read as much as I'd like but on Muni I can only read around 10 pages per sitting. But if you were to read a 200 page book at 25 pages a day you would be finished in about a week so break up the reading into chunks or chapters and it will be easier to start and finish! Patience is also key!

The First Gay President

 Obama has recently announced a switch on his stance on same sex marriage as a response to the comments of Joe Biden on the issue. Obama believes that the issue around the matter of same sex marriage is going to evolve in the next couple of years and that is why he is supporting it. Although this is not the most important issue today in politics, Obama also believes that this will help him win the November elections this year. Many voters still support Obama and will continue to support him throughout the rest of the year but some have started to change their support for Obama and his new policies based on this new decision. (Peter Baker and Dalia Sussman 2012) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/15/us/politics/poll-sees-obama-gay-marriage-support-motivated-by-politics.html
I think this new change in Obama's direction is a positive choice but still was heavily influenced by politics. This seems to have been a sudden change without much personal reasoning behind it, he just really wants to win the election this year. If this was such an important issue it shouldn't have been so sudden and should have been discussed in greater detail before the announcement. I also believe this issue was going to reach the supreme court anyway and be decided as unconstitutional sooner or later.

The Social Superiority Stigma

Many people live with stigmas attached to them by society and are easily judged immediately by everyone else because of it. I have had to deal with a stinging stigma throughout all of my schooling; I was consistently the outsider to most, and was simply labeled as "that white kid". Every grade school and  both high schools I went to about 90-95% of the population was made up of every other race and ethnicity and only a very small portion of students were the same color as myself, making me to be the only white kid in most of my classes. A lot of students liked to judge me based solely on this and would work to intimidate me or make me feel less than them because they all probably felt less than me most of their time. Having to deal with mostly white teachers, white police officers, and authority figures throughout the majority of your life makes everyone feel that there seems to be an unbalance when it comes to the color of your skin. The notion that white skinned people think that they are better or more educated than others is sadly prevalent in today's time, and when I meet people who like to look down on other races because they truly feel that they are smarter and more "proper" disgusts me but mostly just makes me sad to see the continuation of such stereotypes (I mean come on now grow up).

A lot of teachers and authority figures have also given me this "extra privilege" or "free pass" to behave differently than others in my classes or to not receive as harsh a punishment than the other kids ALL throughout my school days. For some reason people would like to treat me as separate than the rest because of who I appeared to be but now I am glad to finally be treated as equal in Year Up where we all receive the same amount of attention and resources. I plan to change the minds of youth about this stigma in my future and really get children to appreciate who they are and to not feel less than anybody else or put down by these seemingly powerful greedy white authority figures who are way better off than everybody else because they were treated as better and they took advantage of their position in society. Right now I'm guessing that this stigma is the residue of all the crazy history in this country and really it is up to all of our generation now and ahead of us to change our thinking around it and finally put an end to past and make our own history.

Proper Pledges

For the next two modules of my learning and development phase at Year Up I am pledging to myself and my colleagues to succeed and achieve all of my goals. I have detailed these pledges below.

I Ray James Fleming, pledge to give my full focus and attention to all the tasks in front of me and to complete them with all of my knowledge and skills, on time. I can accomplish this by listening and following instructions and allotting myself the proper time to work in a non-distracting environment. In class I will need to stay focused on all current tasks and remain genuinely compassionate and helpful towards others completing the same tasks.

I Ray James Fleming, also pledge to avoid earning any infractions for being late or unprepared in class. I can accomplish this by always showing up at least five minutes early to class and never missing a deadline for an assignment.

I Ray James Fleming, finally pledge to bring a positive attitude to Year Up and contribute some more to class discussions and activities. This can be accomplished by positive self encouragement and also avoiding any negative distractions outside of Year Up. I can also practice public speaking and talking in front of groups during class as much as once or twice a day to develop this skill.

These are my pledges and I promise to keep them now that they are public. I am looking forward to the more productive and positive weeks ahead. Thank youuu~

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

I have lived in a cozy little town house in Parkmerced all of my life. The neighborhood is made up of ever repeating patterns of houses and courtyards with hidden passages and corners scattered all over the place. It's a very nice place to wander around in and you will easily get lost unless you've done some exploring of your own. The community extends to a large lake/golf course on the west side of the village and this is all very close to the packed SF State University campus. My house, being only two blocks away from the campus, means I've had to pass by it everyday and watch the college kids as they partook in their nice quiet college activities (I also have had to be neighbors with a few noisy students). In this neighborhood every house is the exact same, all painted the same colors, all with the same square footage, and all with the same courtyards and garages, making it seem like you're living in some gated communist society (a lot of old Russian people do live here).

This neighborhood has shaped me and the way I view my outside world for life. I can say I am who I am because of the neighborhood I live in. I am packed close to my neighbors and have developed life long relationships because of it. Because of all these experiences with neighbors and exploring as a young boy I am the man you see today. The quiet and transient courtyards are always a reminder to me of all the time I've spent playing in them as a child. Now I just like to go for a walk or a light jog up and around the pathways, and I am always running into someone I know.

A Whole Lotta Advertisements

There are very few advertisements I can enjoy, but there are a couple that do stand out to me as original and creative, or simply ones I don't mind listening to or watching. True, there are TONS of advertisements I see and hear on the daily, but most of them are easily marketed without any effort so often they won't stand out at all. Television ads for example are now getting very creative; using many different fast paced shots, angles, and pictorial titles with flashy pictures to market something quickly. I enjoy any well made commercial that ventures outside of the box to entertain me or keep me guessing as to what they are actually advertising!

This video is of two ads in the British Television Ad Awards I went to see last year at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. There was a whole lotta advertisements that were just plain silly but some stood out as very well made and kept my full attention while I watched.

This six minute long advertisement won third place in the advertising awards for its perfection because it was all filmed in one take and tells a story about a whiskey company, (that isn't too interesting) but I enjoyed watching it because I wondered how many takes it must of taken them to finally get everything right.