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[ashleytoland-blog]

Tech Culture Blog Post: Women’s March on Lansing 2017

On January 21, 2017 thousands of Americans occupied the steps of the capitol building in Lansing, Michigan to assemble and demonstrate in solidarity for women’s rights.  Attendance included all gender identities;age groups; demographics; backgrounds. 

Every participant bringing with them a unique perspective to add strength to the collective rhetoric,  the Women’s March on Lansing facilitated a vastly inclusive display of various art forms, from visual arts to performance arts, offering depth of interpretation. From individual pieces through to a unified complex, I was enamored from the moment I reached the event area.

Approaching the capital was likewise to viewing a sunrise on a stormy day.  As I climbed the curve of the hill, up and around the side of the capitol building, I witnessed an emerging pattern of pink and purple knit hats modeled by impassioned protesters in the overcast scene. The emotional climate was charged with pride, celebration, and love without diluting the fury of the message delivered by the oppressed.  Echoes of the keynote speaker bounced off of the towering proximal buildings, harmonized with the cries and declarations of the crowd.

Respect existence or expect resistance. The use of playful rhymes in a weighted, aggressive demand for justice within this creative approach was particularly effective in communicating the intentions of the collection directly, but also expressing the underlying motivations that encourage an intense emotional response when viewing. This event was an amazing experience and it left me inspired to integrate it into my arts education assignments.

The ACA gave me five more years with my Mom.  An ambiguous statement, almost an answer to an unspoken question, this image requires full consideration.  The quiet strength of this woman, one of the many, she stands united in the call for justice, but decidedly alone her steadfast nature.  When I saw this, I was immediately told “I’m here with you, but I will be here with or without you.”

Bad Hombres for Nasty Women. Lighthearted and humorous, the metallic letters danced in the intermittent sun and encouraged feelings of support, while offering opposition to the barely-intelligible propaganda produced by the peoples’ current candidate for Most Likely to Get Impeached.  

[ashleytoland-blog]

Photoshop Exercise: Copy/Paste, Toolbars 1-3

[ashleytoland-blog]

Project 2: Word Research

Personality Words Research: Definition, Etymology, Synonyms

Crazy Oxford Living Dictionaries:

1. (Adj.) Mad, especially as manifested in wild or aggressive behavior 1.1 Extremely angry 1.2. Foolish

2. Extremely enthusiastic

3. Archaic (of a ship or building) full of cracks or flaws; unsound.

Origin: Late 16th century (in sense ‘full of cracks’): from craze + -y.

Synonyms: mad, insane, out of one's mind, deranged, demented, not in one's right mind, crazed, lunatic, non compos mentis, unbalanced, unhinged, unstable, disturbed, distracted, mad as a hatter, mad as a March hare, stark mad

Urban Dictionary:

1. Often misinterpreted as a bad characteristic, crazy is used to describe people that are random, hyper, creative, and flat-out fun to hang out with. 2. Used to describe someone with serious mental issues that often affect their interaction with other people

Compassionate

Oxford Living Dictionaries:

1. Feeling of sympathy or concern for others.

Origin: Late 16th century: from compassion + -ate, influenced by archaic French compassioné feeling pity.

Synonyms: pitying, sympathetic, empathetic, understanding, caring, concerned, solicitous, sensitive, tender-hearted, soft-hearted, warm-hearted, warm, loving, tender, gentle, merciful, lenient, tolerant, considerate, thoughtful, kind, kindly, kind-hearted, humanitarian, humane, charitable, benevolent, good-natured, well disposed, big-hearted

Urban Dictionary: 1. Inclined to pity or mercy

Assertive

Oxford Living Dictionaries:

1. Having or showing a confident and forceful personality.

Origin: North American English

Synonyms: confident, forceful, self-confident, positive, bold, decisive, assured, self-assured, self-possessed, believing in oneself, self-assertive, authoritative, strong-willed, insistent, firm, determined, commanding, bullish, dominant, domineering, assaultive

Urban Dictionary:

1. To do what you want to do, in an aggressive yet not overbearing way. To go for what you want.

Shameless

Oxford Living Dictionaries:

1. (of a person or their conduct) characterized by or showing a lack of shame; barefaced or brazen

Origin: Old English sc(e)amlēas (see shame, -less). (Negation of) Old English sc(e)amu (noun), sc(e)amian ‘feel shame’, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch schamen (verb) and German Scham (noun), schämen (verb).

Synonyms: flagrant, blatant, barefaced, overt, brazen, brash, audacious, outrageous, undisguised, unconcealed, transparent unabashed, unashamed, without shame, unembarrassed, unblushing, unrepentant:: brazen, bold, forward, immodest, indecorous, wanton, abandoned

Urban Dictionary: Having no shame

Progressive

Oxford Living Dictionaries:

1. (Adj.) (of a person or idea) favouring social reform. 2.1 favoring innovation or change.

1. (Noun) An advocate of social reform

Origin: Early 17th century: from French progressif, -ive or medieval Latin progressivus, from progress- gone forward, from the verb progredi (see progress).

Synonyms: modern, liberal, advanced, forward-looking, forward-thinking, go-ahead, enlightened, enterprising, innovative, up-and-coming, new, dynamic, avant-garde, modernistic, disruptive radical, left-wing, reforming, reformist, revolutionary, revisionist, progressivist

[Excerpt] Progressive Thinking: A Synthesis of Progressive Values, Beliefs, and Positions [Retrieved from: ThinkProgress.org]: As progressives, we believe that everyone deserves a fair shot at a decent, fulfilling, and economically secure life.  We believe that everyone should do his or her fair share to build his life through education and hard work through active participation in public life.  We believe that everyone should play by the same set of rules with no special privileges for the well-connected or wealthy.

ThinkProgress.org: Four Pillars of Progressive Thinking:

Freedom 2. Opportunity 3. Responsibility 4. Cooperation

Mom/Mother

Oxford Living Dictionaries:

1. [Mother]  A woman in relation to her child or children.

Origin: Old English mōdor, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch moeder and German Mutter, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin mater and Greek mētēr.

Synonyms: female parent, materfamilias, matriarch, biological mother, birth mother, foster mother, adoptive mother, stepmother, surrogate mother.

Urban Dictionary: The woman who loves you unconditionally from birth, the one who puts her kids before herself and the one who you can always count on above everyone else. Just telling her your problems makes you feel better because mom's always know how to make it all go away. Even if you fight, know that she's just looking out for your best interests.

Feminist/Feminism

Oxford Living Dictionaries:

1. Feminist: A person who supports feminism

1. Feminism: (mass noun) The advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes

Origin:

[Feminist] Late 19th century: from French féministe, from Latin femina woman. [Feminism] Late 19th century: from French féminisme.

Synonyms: Decent Human Being

Urban Dictionary:

[Feminist] Someone who believes in the radical notion that women are people.

[Feminism] The belief that women are and should be treated as potential intellectual equals and social equals to men. These people can be either male or female human beings, although the ideology is commonly (and perhaps falsely) associated mainly with women.The basic idea of Feminism revolves around the principle that just because human bodies are designed to perform certain procreative functions, biological elements need not dictate intellectual and social functions, capabilities, and rights.  Feminism also, by its nature, embraces the belief that all people are entitled to freedom and liberty within reason--including equal civil rights--and that discrimination should not be made based on gender, sexual orientation, skin color, ethnicity, religion, culture, or lifestyle.Feminists--and all persons interested in civil equality and intellectuality--are dedicated to fighting the ignorance that says people are controlled by and limited to their biology.

Stoner

Note: Prescription IAW MMMP 

Oxford Living Dictionaries:

1. A person who regularly takes drugs, especially cannabis. Merriam-Webster: 1. A person who habitually uses drugs or alcohol

Synonyms: addict, dopehead, druggie (also druggy), fiend, freak [slang], head, hophead [slang], hype [slang], junkie (also junky), doper, user (First Known Use) 1971

Urban Dictionary: Slang for somebody who smokes cannabis, often. Most people would talk them down as if they are better, though they often consume poisons such as alcohol and caffeine. Stoners are generally a friendly minority, peaceful, and harmless. Synonyms: stoner, pothead, junkie, junky, toker

Dysfunctional Veteran

“Dysfunctional Veteran” (DV) is a term used colloquially among former American service members who encounter acute or chronic periods of maladjustment in transition from military service.  The attitudes and experiences unite the identified population and seek to radically (and most often, offensively) destigmatize the common mental health and socioeconomic struggles endured after military service.

WARNING: The content of the following page is considered offensive and vulgar.  I do not condone any of the negative attitudes or explicitly support the views and opinions of this page, nor am I directly involved with the organization professionally. 

Dysfunctional Veterans™  Community

https://www.facebook.com/DysfunctionalVeterans/

Mission Statement: Dysfunctional Veterans is a brotherhood and sisterhood of veterans rooted in sarcasms and the things that remind us we are not alone. We strive to entertain those who served, to offend those who never did. We know there is no better sense of warped humor than that of a veteran. We endeavor to bring quality information that is easily misconstrued and offensive to the civilian populace. A Veteran is a person who understands life’s intangibles of freedom, justice and democracy. The Veteran’s motto is to live and let live. But, if a Veteran had to choose between servitude and conflict, the true Veteran would once again answer the call to duty.