Can You Be Too Curious?

With the title, you may be reminded of the saying, "curiosity killed the cat", and you would be right on topic with that saying. Would being too curious lead to worse outcomes than to simply leave the question alone? A particular line Phillips includes catches my attention, "Maybe it's a question we shouldn't try to answer,'...'But I can't help it. If someone asks me a question, or if I think up a question , I feel like I have to try to answer it. I'm too curious!" (Phillips 199). This is from the perspective of an elementary school student thinking about the question posed. Phillips goes on about how Socrates eventually got executed for his "heretical" standpoints, and if that was for the better or worse, specifically in the curiosity that got him killed.

 This is this kind of question that seems to get back at the roots of what philosophy is really about. Though i cannot get a definite answer, this question has opened my mind to other possibilities that I may have not seen before.

Clarity of Speech

- - - (Powell 106-11)

Consonants are formed by blocking and releasing air movement, and using either your voice or just air movement to make a sound. Very slight differences in the shape of your mouth or the amount air flows can affect the entire sound that is being made. Learning how to control the energy in your tongue, lips, and soft palate can help improve the clarity of your speech.

My book explains that some consonants are formed by blocking air movement and suddenly releasing it. To observe this, say "tah." While saying "tah," you can notice how all air and sound is momentarily blocked until you release into the "ah" vowel. Other letters that do this are P (say "puh") and D (say "dah").

While doing this, I noticed that all consonants either have a sudden air release or let the air flow through the sound. Letters that are released suddenly are those that are like my previous examples of T, P, or D, while letters where the air flows can be held for as long as you want, like M or S. I also noticed that all consonants either use your voice to create sound, or are just made through air movement. For example, the only difference between "buh" and "puh" is that you use your voice for B and not for P. The same rule applies for D and T, G and K, V and F, and Z and S. These two realizations inspired me to draw a chart of consonants, mapping how the sound is created for each one:

While creating this chart and adding consonants to it, I realized there are three categories consonants can fit in when it comes to the speed air is released at. While B and K block air and then suddenly release it, and M and S the air moves right through, letters such as J and W release air suddenly and can't be held, and yet they don't block air movement before hand. For letters like this, I created a third row.

Try saying the letters in each of the six categories to figure out what the difference between categories is for yourself! Doing this will be the best way to truly figure out what makes each sound unique.

My book suggests exercises in order to improve the strength and flexibility of the muscles in your mouth. It suggests starting by saying syllables such as "lah," "tah," "dah," and "nah." As you say them, notice how your mouth and tongue moves. For "tah" and "dah," if you don't feel the momentary air blockage, it means your tongue tip needs to be strengthened. After doing this a few times, speed up and increase the number of syllables so that you're saying "lahlahlahlaaaah," "tahtahtahtaaaah," "dahdahdahdaaaah," or "nahnahnahnaaaah." While doing this make sure to keep the jaw free and tongue relaxed, because tightening either of these affects articulation and vocal resonance. If your jaw feels tight, massaging the jawline and the ears helps loosen it.

If you want to become an actor, or just want to speak clearly, these exercises will help you achieve it. According to Cicely Berry, the voice director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, "The voice will never be as good in exercise as it will be when you done the exercises, forgotten them, and are using the voice imaginatively."

I'm curious, do you ever just investigate and play around with random sounds, like I did while writing this post (and honestly, I've done before too)? Do you find these facts about the sounds we make on a daily basis interesting? Do you think it's fun to say the nonsense words in the speech exercises above, like "nahnahnahnaaaah"? Let me know!

Thank you for reading my last post :)

Post 5 - The verb 'Aller' - French Fluency

Another verb in French is aller, which translates to 'to go'.
According to the book,"the verb aller is irregular in the present tense" (Rodchester) meaning that it has a different set of conjugated endings than regular -er verbs.

For example;
"Nous allons au resto" translates to "We are going to the restaurant"
A more common one is;
"Comment allez-vous?" translates to " How are you?"
This phrase makes sense because allez is the conjugated form for vous. Another thing to note when saying this phrase is that because allez begins with 'a', there is a liason, a verbal linkage, of the 't' from comment and the 'a' from allez, producing the pronunciation of 'tally' before the vous.

Note: Fans of Doctor Who may recognize the phrase "Allons-y", which translates to "Let's go", as allons in the conjugated form to nous, which means we.

Rochester, Myrna Bell. Easy French Step-by-step: Master High-frequency Grammar for French Proficiency--fast! New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.

Post 5--Multicolored Watercolor Landscape



*Note: I was unable to center a lot of the photos for this post so the layout is a little different than that of my other posts so far.




Now that I know I'm capable of painting monochromatic landscapes, I decided to push myself to create a slightly more challenging multicolored landscape with more textures and values. For my final post, I wanted to paint a beach landscape with mountains in the background and sand and grasses in the foreground.

I'm a very visual learner, so it's easiest for me to copy the basic paintings that the author provided in the book and then put my own variation on them. Here's the final version of her landscape:

This final painting looks pretty daunting, especially because of all of the different textures the author used in the sand and grasses, but according to her, the simple colors and shapes prevent the painting from becoming too confusing (Robertson 42). Although I was worried that I wouldn't be able to complete such a difficult-looking painting, Robertson is right; the color placement is the only hard part of this landscape.

First, I began by sketching the grass and horizon line where I wanted the sea to meet the sky. Next, Robertson recommends to "soak your paper in a clean container for a few minutes. Remove the paper and gently shake out the excess water. Place it on your board and remove the air bubbles with your 1-inch flat brush" (Robertson 43). Wetting the paper before hand enables the colors to spread better and creates softer lines. However, the watercolor paper I have will fall apart if wet, so I was unable to do that step. 

Next, I mixed yellow, orange, and brown to get a cheddar color, and then diluted it with water to create a butter yellow color. I brushed this color all over the sky and ground, but left the sea blank. Then I went in with a slightly diluted shade of blue and brushed that around the yellow in the sky.

Then, I took a dark blue and filled in the ocean, using darker values near the horizon and lighter ones near the coastline.

At this point, I realized that I had smudged some of the ocean above the horizon, and since I don't have white paint to cover up my mistake, I decided to turn it into mountains.

I added more brown to the grasses/sand and also created a light green by mixing green and yellow. I layered the light green over the sand and grass areas to add more depth to the painting.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to give the painting as much depth as I would have liked to because I didn't have the correct brushes to create textures with, so everything is the same texture. However, if I were to do this again, I would create the sandy texture by splattering black and white paint onto the sand with a toothbrush. I would also create a wider variety of grass colors and sized using a fan brush and varying shades of brown. All in all, I think I did a good job creating my first multicolored landscape with the limited tools that I had.

What would you use to create the appearance of waves in a watercolor painting (both tools and colors)?

Final Landscape

Robertson, Jeanette. Watercolor 101: Techniques for the Absolute Beginner. New York: Sterling Pub., 2007. Print.