Week 12: Boo-yah, It's the End of Beginning

[Read My Stuff Here]

Gosh everyone. Here we are, finally at the end.

I have little from last week to give a review about, but we shall do one final one for old times sake :).

This Week in History

Sunday and Monday were spent fervently editing my final slides. I found that I could spend more time working on them if i did some doodles along the way. And then I thought: “why keep them to my sketchbook”?! This project is all about embracing silliness after all.

So, I ended up creating 4 different cartoon mini me’s as well bordering images/graphics I wanted to include. It made everything feel much less constrained and more like those fun animated science videos on Youtube.

After some help from my internal advisor and my friends, I cut down a few slides and then polished up my speech. The intention was to be structured enough (intro, problem, solution etc.) for complete strangers to understand but without feeling cut and paste or too predictable. It helped to have bright slides, funny drawings, and good transitions (hence why making slides to match your flow of consciousness is so important).

I did most of my work at home this week because when I practice a presentation I just talk to myself for hours on end. Since I know I’m actually practicing for something it’s not weird to me. If others saw me mumbling, cackling, and gesticulating, though…. I would stay away from me too.

The Big Prezzo Bois

She was a success!

A success which I only really felt when I watched my Dad’s out of focused recording back, but still.

I got a little spooked by some slide shenanigans- they would randomly move forwards/back- so when I was presenting all I could feel was my burning hot face and small memory lapses. It was fun being able to show all of my work though and great to hear people’s laughs :D. The questions I got were fab- sorry again Dad for getting a FB account, but it was worth it to see your astonishment.

If you were not able to listen to the Sweatshop 6, who played during the breaks, then check out some of their songs on “I’m With the Band”’s YT Channel. Nivedita helped organize it all :).

Memorable Stories + Digital or Physical Media Containing Invaluable Information

Best Personal Satire Works
Trump Goes to Kumon: The first piece that I wrote, back in late Feb. I have to give credit to Trump for providing me with all the hilarious material so I only had to cobble it all together.

World Domination and Propaganda Training Course: My first time diving into the horrible parts of history and translating that into satire. Learned a lot, and I got to combine my twin passions of yapping about history and yapping about consumerism.

 

Best Comedy Inspo
Mr Meyerowitz’s Copy of the 2001 Annual of “The Best of the Onion”: I’m so sorry I will give this back to you, EOY I promise. It was so helpful though! Early 2000s Onion loves to be a bit understated, a bit against the grain, and spookily clairvoyant. My fave stories included “genocide is such a harsh word [p. 162]” and “Arabs, Israelis Sign ‘Screw Peace’ Accord [p. 171]”.

I’m a Conservative Feminist and I Believe You Should…: This satire short story and others like it showed me how epic character monologues can be. It heralded ideas such as “Communist Party Philippines MLM Scam” and “Biden Robo Calls”.

The Death of Stalin: I’ve already written this movie a full love sonnet so I shan’t do it again. But just know I love this film. It’s so perfect. It does exactly what I attempted to do with comedy/history. Highlighting how satire is the perfect medium to portray absurdism & hypocrisy.

Best News and History

Informational Autocrats- Guriev & Treisman: This journal gave my mind structure for the demagogues of the modern day. It explained why media manipulators are just as insidious as violent dictators and why we need to be on guard against them

The Phenonenom of the Personality Cult- Pisch: Again, in my head I knew idolizing political leaders is bad, but Pisch laid it out so succinctly.

Even this screenshot does not show all of the news articles and subjects I researched! There were many interesting and gruesome events that i learned about even if I did not end up writing about them.

Final Thoughts

Turns out I did have a lot to write about hehe. I guess I forgot how important it is to explain one’s resolution. It’s been a real fun ride everyone :)). I came in not expecting any great writing to come out of it but I genuinely am proud of what I have managed to create.

Attached here is a recording of my final presentation as well as another link to my writing account.

Medium (writing) Account

Final (live) recording 

Thanks for joining me, friends “and in case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night”!