Nicholas Ryan Public Feed

Ryan, Nicholas Capstone

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in Capstone · Block · Wed on
​Abstract:
For my capstone, I created and edited an allegorical animation. This wasn't something I had planned since freshman year, it was something I decided to do on a whim. I had been inspired by a video essay that I watched about Genndy Tartakovsky and his process on animation. Immediately after finishing the video, I decided to make my own animation. It turned out to be one of the most fun art project that I've done in a very long time. It was incredibly challenging going into making an animation without any real prior knowledge of animation. There was a lot of trial and error involved, and I learned a lot and developed my animation skills. It was a very valuable experience and I am ecstatic that I chose to do this and followed through.

Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmUOu76I-m8 

Bibliography

"12 Video Animation Tips from the Industry Experts." Moovly - Create Videos and Video Presentations. April 03, 2017. Accessed January 25, 2019. https://www.moovly.com/blog/video-animations-tips-from-experts.

This source provides personal testimonials from experienced animators currently in the industry on what helps them individually when animating something. It also includes a video created by one of the animators interviewed. The essential tips here are: not over-animating a scene, meaning don’t include so much detail in one single animation; every scene does not need to be animated/moving, simplifying scenes; and make sure when you start, to have the end in mind as opposed to winging the ending as you go. This will be used as a guide during the actual animating of the video.


Eliasson, Olafur, and Olafur Eliasson GmbH. "Why Art Has the Power to Change the World." World Economic Forum. Accessed January 25, 2019. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/why-art-has-the-power-to-change-the-world/.  

This paper details how artists have a responsibility to educate not on a psychological/mental/chemical level, but to educate on a emotional and physiological level. It also explains how the effect of art brings people together, creating a unification of people whose sole intention is to learn from whatever piece of art is being presented and to learn about each other through their reactions. This source is very important because it means that the animation needs to create this same sense of unification in its audience in order to have the impact necessary to educating them.


Tucker, Abigail. "How Does the Brain Process Art?" Smithsonian November 01, 2012. Accessed January 25, 2019. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-does-the-brain-process-art-80541420/.

This source provides a lot of information on the connection between art and the human brain and explains the scientific impacts art has on the human brain. It details how a lot of visual information can ignite other parts of the brain responsible for other senses such as smell, touch, and even hearing. It provides the example of Michelangelo’s Expulsion from Paradise and how a lot of people who go see it in person tend to tense their wrist after seeing it, and in the painting, the man has his wrist flexed backwards in defense. This source is essential in understanding how I can create an impact on a chemical level to create a more memorable experience, creating a longer lasting impact for the message that is being provided in the final product.


McReynolds, Heather. "IB Visual Arts." 30 Investigation Ideas for Biology IA. Accessed January 25, 2019. https://www.thinkib.net/visualarts/page/11778/installation-art.

This source has a list of tips on creating the best possible installation art. This was a source I used before I had changed my project to an animation. Previously, I was going to do an art exhibit, with the same inquiry question in hand and do a series of mixed media pieces of art. This source, however, is still useful because a lot of the ideas that this article brings up also relates with any allegorical piece of art. In installation art, one must account for the entire space, leaving no space left meaningless. This same logic applies to allegorical pieces of work because it’s important that everything in the allegory has a meaning to it and that it doesn’t mislead its audience.


Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Eyes of the Skin. Chichester: Wiley. http://arts.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Pallasmaa_The-Eyes-of-the-Skin.pdf

This book goes into a lot of detail on how to use art and any medium to engage all of the senses and how to use one sense to engage another sense. There’s a lot of material in terms of the scientific, philosophical, and physiological explanation of the relationship between art and how humans perceive and experience this sensation. This will be used as a reference for the major thumbnails that are essential in teaching the audience on the lesson the animation is trying to present. It is a reference used by many artists who aim for more meaningful products.


Schwarz, Ronald. “Before Mickey Mouse: A History of American Animation.” YouTube. September 23, 2015. Accessed January 25, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-2QwZpivVg.

This episode of an A&E show is forty-five minutes long and it provides a breakdown of the history of animation in America. It details its impact on American culture and global culture and the impact that it has on the minds of millions of people. It also gives a lot of information on what animations have had made the most impact and longest lasting impact over the course of American history. This video will be used as a guide for what styles and stories will reach a much wider audience and to learn from the mistakes of previous animators.


Sharper, Jasper. "100 Years of Japanese Animation: One Great Film per Decade." Film Forever. June 26, 2017. Accessed January 25, 2019. https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/100-years-japanese-animation-one-great-film-decade.

Much like the “Before Mickey Mouse: A History of American Animation” video, this article has a detailed history of Japanese animation and its effect that it has had on Japanese culture and the people of Japan. America and Japan are superpowers in terms of animation considering the majority of the most influential animations have come from both countries. Again, this will be used as a reference of studying what makes an animation influential and as a reference for the mistakes made by many previous animators. It’s important to learn to not repeat the mistakes of those animators as is the point of learning history, and it’s extremely useful in making sure that future animations better the ones that were presented previously.


"The Top 5 Tips For Animation Beginners." Flashpoint Chicago. April 05, 2018. Accessed January 25, 2019. https://flashpoint.columbiacollege.edu/blogs/top-5-tips-animation-beginners/.

This article has a very simple, yet detailed outline on starting an animation as a beginner. It talks about starting with basic shapes and then evolving those shapes into much more detailed and complex shapes taking the forms of characters, objects, and people. That way, the animator isn’t taking on too much and is pacing themselves in constructing the animation. Then, the process is much more refined, cleaner, and easier to keep track of.


Tollast, Oscar. "Inspiring Change - Seven Tips for Storytelling." Salzburg Global Seminar. March 27, 2018. Accessed January 25, 2019. https://www.salzburgglobal.org/news/latest-news/article/inspiring-change-seven-tips-for-storytelling.html.

This article is another really good article that gives a lot of advice and tips on good storytelling, which is essential in animations, especially ones that have allegorical elements associated with it. It talks a lot about how the plot is very important because if there is no prominent issue, then the audience will have no reason to watch nor to be actively engaged in the story that is being presented. This will also be used as a reference in the storyboarding and writing of the animation and making sure that the animation has all of the essential elements of storytelling.


Wimshurst, Howard. YouTube. July 08, 2016. Accessed January 25, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHk3vyv9d3U.

This video provides a much better visual explanation of animation and the roadblocks that one will come across when animation, and provides a lot of tips and advice on getting over or through those roadblocks, improving the efficiency of the development of the animation and ensuring that no obvious errors are made or seen. This video will, again, be used as a reference in the beginning of the animation process, when the animator practices before delving into the actual final product. It will be used as so to make sure that the development process goes smoothly and without frustration, improving the efficiency of the animation.

Advanced Essay #3: Educational Discrimination - Nicholas Ryan

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in English 3 · Block · A Band on
Introduction:
My goals for this paper was to educate any unknowing reader about the injustices committed against people with disabilities. It's a huge problem to me that people still don't know about these issues that are taking place right under their noses, and they should at least be aware of that and then they can decide what to do with that knowledge. However, if there are so many people who don't know about this issue, then how can we, people with disabilities, hope to elevate our position in society? That was my goal, to give people the knowledge of a pressing issue that's taking place right now and to give them the choice of choosing what to do with that knowledge.​ I think my strong suits were the analyzations of my sources and my scene of memory. I went dug deep into these quotes and really analyzed what it meant for the disabled community. And I think I did a really good job connecting my analyses to my scene of memory too, because it created a much stronger impact for it. My weakest points of this paper was my choices for sources. A lot of my sources were outdated, but they were still relevant. It still would've helped to have more recent sources that may have quoted the old sources I used. Then, I could have more recent information on this issue.

Advanced Essay:

People with disabilities make up 15% percent of the world, and they continues to grow. They’ve been around since the dawn of humanity, and during this time, they’ve been discriminated against, had countless injustices committed against them, and have been isolated away from society. People with disabilities were caged, probed, experimented on, and left to sleep in their own feces. This incapacitated them even more than they were. It was inhumane and cruel. It fixed the perspective that disabled people have no place in society and are inferior to non-disabled people, and this still takes place today, especially in the education system.

In 1978, Ed Roberts, an impactful leader of the Disability Rights movement performed a speech at a CIL hearing, discussing the advancements the movement he had fought so much for. He was also revealing the issues that was still present regardless of the advancements made. Roberts stated, “The prevailing factor, and the most difficulty that people with disabilities have, is the underdevelopment of our communities and of our society.” Roberts is stating that due to the underdeveloped society, people with disabilities have had a lot of difficulty fitting into society and becoming a part of society. The problem with popular culture is that they have a fixated view on people with disabilities. The view being that they are inferior mentally and socially, and they enforce these views on them, making them self-conscious in their ability to live among non-disabled people. This discrimination is representative of society’s norms surrounding the culture of people with disabilities, which is to throw them into a corner and exclude them from participating in society with the rest of abled people. People who do not have any kind of disability believe themselves to be superior to those with disabilities socially because of the misconception that a disability lowers your social ability to communicate with everyone else. And the way society “takes care” of people with disabilities, especially today, has done nothing but reinforce all of these misconceptions about people with disabilities into them.

Gunnar Dybwad, who was an educator and advocate for disabled rights, wrote a book discussing how society handles people who are mentally challenged/disabled institutionally and how it worsens their conditions further than what their conditions call for. He stated, “Today’s more comprehensive knowledge has made it clear that such unilateral identification is most misleading and apt to hinder effective program development, whether in practice, teaching, or research.”(Dybwad, 1) This is just stating that categorizing mentally challenged/disabled people only worsens the way society and institutions treat them. Categorizing them is unfair since every single one is different in their own way and they need their own specialized learning plan in order for them to rehabilitate, grow, and prepare to become a part of society. They shouldn’t be categorized and receive treatment based on their category. The education system back then negatively affected children with disabilities, putting them on a path to failure. All because of the belief that they are not as good as people without disabilities.

But, with the advancement of the Disability Rights Movement in the 1960s, all of that was supposed to have changed. It didn’t. Instead, society and the government only found new ways to discriminate against people with disabilities. The discrimination now occurs within the education system, students with disabilities continue to be affected. This type of treatment, isolating children with disabilities and categorizing them as their own group in schools, is still enforced in today’s education system. Teachers and administrators of the education system continue to isolate people with disabilities, by putting them in different classrooms and separating them from all the other “normal” children. This reinforces the oppressive ideas into the children with disabilities’ heads. Raising them with negative and restrictive ideas about their ability to live and function in society. And they justify these actions through the means of pity and lack of expectation. Teachers, who are supposed to be leaders to children, have such extremely low expectations for children with disabilities and they pity them, so they “do them good” by isolating them in their own space, stuck in their bubble where they’ll never learn to become a part of society. They’re taught that they are an entirely different species compared to the “normal” kids, and they go about the rest of their lives with this attitude.

I know this because of my own personal experience. I went to a demonstration school, which means that it is a school that specializes in demonstrating different programs that are specifically for special-needs children. There was a program for autistic children, emotionally disabled children, and deaf children. I was in the deaf children’s program. I remember many times where I was told, by my teachers, that I was not going to make it in life, not become successful because of my disability. They told me I had no chance. However, I was able to look past what all my teachers said and succeed regardless. They also tried to keep me in my own bubble with the rest of the deaf children, teaching me that I only belong with them. And in that bubble, they dumbed down the deaf kids by limiting their academic potential with overly-simplistic learning plans. But, my mother and I had fought for a better learning environment because we knew I had a lot of potential, even as a young child, so I was put into a classroom with all the other kids who didn’t have disabilities. Soon after, more deaf kids from my program followed and joined me, and they were able to do much better than they were expected to do. But, the other kids from the deaf program and other programs were not so lucky. In my program and the other programs, the students’ grades were suffering and there was no reinforcement of their capabilities. They just gave up on them and expected them to fail.

This only worsened their situation within the educational system. They were literally being set up to fail because they had no confidence in themselves, in their identity as someone who has a disability. They were not supported or taught that they can do so much better than what everyone else expects them to. The current educational system fails at rehabilitating these children and it’s designed to ensure their failure in society.

Bibliography

  • Dybwad, Gunnar. "Mental Retardation". Social Work Year Book, 1960.

  • Roberts, Ed. “C.I.L A.M Sessions.” Testimony on CIL. Testimony on CIL, 5 May 1978, Berkeley, California.

Humorous Language

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in English 3 · Block · A Band on
​Introduction
My goals for this paper is to go into depth about how literature influences my perspective on the world and my perspective towards myself. It's to learn about myself and provide my audience with a perspective on the idea and the reasoning and purpose behind humorous language. I am proud of how much this paper really exhibits my voice, it isn't just a mindless piece of writing. MY language, the way I speak, is clearly present in the paper and it provides a much more personal piece of writing that is specific to me. However, I feel that I should have used quotes more efficiently because while they do relate with what I am talking about, I don't make more of a stronger connection between the quote and my thesis.

Advanced Essay #2:
Nick Ryan

11/22/17

Block

Advanced Essay #2

When I first started high school at SLA, I was terrified. I knew going in that I was going to be the only deaf student there and I didn’t know how the other kids would respond. Would they pity me? Would they start to avoid me? I constantly thought about what everyone else would think, and as a result, I completely changed my behavior and attitude to make myself more appealing to everyone, so it would be easier for me to make friends. I often wore nice plaid shirts and jeans, which is not my style at all, and I acted bubbly and friendly. One particular day in the first couple weeks of school, I was in biochem. I was wearing my awkward SLA lab coat, feeling like a geek. We were doing a lab involving changing the color of fire with the Bunsen burner at the back of the room at the lab tables. The lab tables are connected in two’s and our group was focused on working on the lab. Across from our side of the table, one of the group members came up to me. She was curious about my deafness, and by this point, she was the first to ask me about it. Shit, now I gotta explain my whole situation and she’s gonna pull the whole pity act towards me now.

“So, what are those things in your ears?” she said.

“Hearing aids, I’m deaf.” I said, cringing at every word.

“Oh… Were you born deaf?” Here comes the feeling sorry act.

“No, but, I lost it at a pretty young age, 17 months.”

“How’d you lose it?”

A thousand thoughts ran through my mind like buffalos stampeding through the plains, migrating, each of their steps holding the same powerful impact. I didn’t know how to respond to this. I wanted to just say the truth, explain myself and get it over with. But, something bothered me, I felt like if I did, it would just make her feel bad for me. So, I did something I never normally do. I made a joke about it.

“Oh, well, these aliens came and abducted me and performed experiments on me. They messed up with their probing and screwed up my hearing. And now here I am.” She actually fell to the floor laughing. I could feel all of her nervousness exhibit through her laughs. She was nervous asking me about something so touchy. My joke helped relieve all that tension she was feeling about asking me about my hearing aids. I was amused. Her laughing made me laugh and all of a sudden, I didn’t care too much about everyone acknowledging my deafness. All I had to do was joke about it, and no one would take it so deep.

As I’ve grown over the years, I’ve realized that language, extroverted, humorous language has always been a coping mechanism for me. I’ve consistently joked about my pain as if it were a simple trick, a silly story. All the pain that I have with my family, all the pain I have being deaf, all the pain of anxiety, I told to others in a humorous manner. I believe I did this to somehow convince myself that it’s all a joke and that it isn’t at all as serious as it seems. I’ve also did this to convince others that I wasn’t this torn apart kid who felt constant loneliness, scared of being left out of society and being treated as an outcast. I strongly believe in the Whorf linguistic theory, the idea that literature can influence its audience’s perspective, except literature influenced my perspective on my world. Literature is not only words on paper, it’s how we communicate with people. In a way, it’s made me more aware of myself. James Baldwin argues that people use language to “describe and thus control their circumstances.” I agree with this statement because that is the very thought process I have when it comes to talking about pain in my life. I use humorous language to control and release the pain that resides within me. I’ve seen this to have a negative effect on those close to me because they can’t seem to take me seriously and I don’t blame them, I consistently joke around and rarely am I ever serious. Even when I try to be serious, I can’t help but go into my joking nature again. It is a habit that refuses to die. Baldwin has emphasized on the idea that “Language, incontestably reveals the speaker.” My humor reveals a lot of what I go through in life, but it also reveals my attitude towards it, and that tends to throw people off because of the idea that I should care more about the subject. It’s not that I don’t care, it’s that I have a need to dull the pain. It’s as if it will somehow dull the pain and make me sound more modest about my pain.(Sherman Alexie, 13) I’ve never seen this as necessarily a bad thing because I love making people smile, laugh and just be happy, if my pain can make them feel that way, then why should I cease to do so? I am coping with my pain by expressing it in a positive fashion and as a result, people are entertained. Humor and language is a coping mechanism for me because I’m not speaking to myself or keeping my thoughts restricted in my mind or on paper, but instead I am opening up about it to an audience and receiving a reaction to it. Humor and language is a form of therapy for me.


Advanced Essay #1: Rigor Mortis

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in English 3 · Block · A Band on
Introduction
My goal for this essay was to write something that evoked emotion into other people. I wanted to be able to write a piece that would be relatable on an emotional level and recreate the emotion that I felt during the time of this piece. I would say that I did really well with really describing how I felt during these experiences and how I feel about the whole situation overall, I feel like I really put my feelings on paper and made it MY essay. I am not sure if I evoked emotion into other people while they read this but hopefully I did. The part I needed more work on was the analytical side of the essay. My theme focused mainly on the understanding of death and how a lot of people today don't even accept it as an actual thing until they see it for themselves, but the little bits of reflection that I placed all throughout the essay, I feel like weren't strong as far as being analytical. However, I am satisfied with the final product and I hope it evokes the strong emotions, that I felt, into other people.

​Advanced Essay

Pew, pew, pew! The lasers blasted from my futuristic laser gun. I stood on the porch and in the distance, was my friend Chris. I aimed the transparent gun at him, ready to win. “I got you now!” The shots fired from the series of noises from my mouth. We loved to play pretend as soldiers from 2239, the thrill of battle filling our minds. This was an everyday thing for us, every day was a different story with different characters and a different plot.

“Agh! You killed me!” Chris shouted from the sidewalk. He proceeded to hunch over and dramatically die from being blasted with a laser.

“Oh shut up, it’s not like you’re actually dead. It isn’t like we could actually die now. Actually, I’m gonna live ‘til I am 500 years old!” I said with pride.

“Uh, no you’re not. You’ll die before then.” Chris replied.

“What do you mean?” My head was spinning. What was he talking about? I never met anyone who actually died. I thought people dying only happens in the movies or video games. I had never been so confused in my life. Was he joking?

“Yeah, everyone dies. My mom told me that.”

“Nick! Come here!” My mom called me in, looking nervous. “Nick, I have to tell you something.” Sweat formed on her forehead. “Uncle george has passed away.”

“What?”

Patter, patter, patter. It was raining. The sky was bleak and grey, the air was muggy, and I was sweating in my little suit. I traveled up the stairs, step-by-step, each time, the grip on my hand tightening. I walked in with my mother, not really knowing what to expect. The carpet was a beautiful maroon red and there was a small glass chandelier in the middle of the family room. Family members and familiar faces were all around. I stayed quiet the entire time while my mother spoke very softly with the rest of them. Then, we entered the viewing room, and the atmosphere transformed in a split second. There was a heaviness in the room. Most of the family were gathered in the seats in front of the wooden box, however, there was someone-no, something else that wasn’t accounted for in the room. My mom’s grip tightened even more, my hands turning purple. We inched closer and closer to the wooden box, the heaviness becoming thicker by each step. Half of the lid was open. I peered inside, and saw something I would never forget. My first dead body. It was my uncle. Everything in my childish mind began to fall apart. My mother had mentioned that my uncle had passed away and gone to a place called heaven. I didn’t understand it, what does it mean? I was in denial. I thought death was in video games, and even then, you came back to life. The eternal sleep that the vessel of my uncle faced in his new home. He was a phantom, so pale it made me sick. Now, he wasn’t here, just a ghost in my memories. I reached and held his hand, it was ice cold. I stared in shock, my mouth slightly gaped. I wasn’t looking at my uncle anymore, just a box within a box. Warm streams of tears ran down my cold face. I shivered in devastation, fear. This couldn’t possibly ever happen to me…

Ding! The elevator doors slid open, the muffled scratching of metal against metal emulating from the small opening on the floors. My sister, my dad, and I stepped out into the hallway. There was tension in the air and I felt as if a plastic bag was forcibly wrapped around my head. In the hallway, there were stretchers pushed against the walls, the imprint of its victim clearly visible. Nurses and doctors frantically treading from door-to-door to help any patient desperately in need of patches and painkillers. We walked towards the end of the hall, where to the left of us was the front desk. “Dr. James to the I.C.U, Dr. James to the I.C.U.” said the nurse over the loudspeaker. The hallways reeked of hand sanitizer and a mixture of various cleaning supplies. As we inched closer to our destination, the sound of small wheels frantically rolling could be heard in the distance. A horde of nurses raced down the hall with a patient that had wounds deeper than the uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Pretty soon, we were a couple steps away. I had made the mistake of turning my head to the left. An Asian woman laid in her stationary hospital bed, her blank eyes facing the ceiling. A man sat alongside her, hunched over, sobbing. I stared directly into a room of lost hope and a lost soul. In a split second, I turned away. Out of morbid curiosity, I looked into the room next to it, and I saw a black man with bruises all over and an elderly standing next to him, praying. I did not make the same mistake again. We were right at the door, the entrance to my aunt’s deathbed. A male nurse came out and advised us to wear scrubs before we entered. We all scrambled to put on the tight, light cyan blue jumpsuits and the white caps. I walked in, scanned the room and saw familiar faces, my two uncles, my cousin, and my two great aunts all with their heads bowed in gloom. And then, I saw my aunt, her eyes wide open and blank just like the lady from before. Her mouth gaped, frozen in shock. Her body was still living, but I could already see rigor mortis taking effect on her soul. This was true death. Not the pale blue body, not the gray pupils surrounded by a green hue, not the breath that fails to leave her mouth. No, death was the lack of a soul. Her soul had long departed her body and it was evident. I felt nothing holding her hand, speaking to her. I felt absolutely nothing from her, not her lively energy nor her warmth. I learned that day, Death doesn’t reap bodies, it reaps souls.


Q4 Artist Statement

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in Advanced Art · Hull · e2 Band on
This quarter, I learned a variety of skills that I added to my inventory of tools. A lot of the tools were specifically for drawing, which was great for me because that is the medium of art I prefer. We did so much in this quarter, I feel like I did the most this quarter.
The first project, we did edited photos that we took. We used different methods such as coloring, cutting, and for the final method I used I put two pictures on top of each other. This, I learned about the basics of photo-editing that will be incredibly useful in the future if I have jobs related to media work.
The second project, we did work relating to form. This was useful because I learned a lot about how to proportion my drawings of full-bodied people correctly. This is incredibly useful considering I tend to draw a lot of comic book-style art.
The third project, we did line work. We had to practice a variety of exercises that strengthened the way I drew lines. For example, I had to do one line drawings meaning I had to complete a drawing of an object without taking a break and it had to be one continuous line. This was difficult considering it was uncomfortable. This lesson added on to my armory of tools relating to drawing.
The fourth project, we had to do a digital drawing. This was one of the easier projects because I already had experience in digital drawings from doing them in the past. It was fun to do again because it brought back a lot of memories.
The fifth project, we had to do drawings that utilized space. This helped a lot with my skill on perspective because space has a lot to do with perspective, so I sharpened my skills on 3D like drawings. This was a lot of fun to draw too because Muhammad Ali is one of my inspirations.
The sixth drawing was the most challenging for me. We had to practice drawing textures and we learned different methods for drawing different kinds of textures. While this was the most challenging, I also learned a lot from this one. I got better at drawing things more life-like. I was mainly used to drawing just plain line drawings, but this project helped create variety in my lines.
Then, for the final project, I just utilized everything I learned and put it all into one project. This project helped me learn how to utilize my drawing arsenal and put it all into one big final project. It also helped me sharpen each of the skills that I used in making this drawing. This quarter was the most productive for me because it focused mainly on a medium of art that I was familiar with and that I plan on pursuing.

Patakí de Ogún por Nick Ryan y Antonio DeRock

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in Spanish 2 · Manuel · B Band on

Un día, Ogún, el dios de hierro y fuerza,  iba en su santuario en una selva. Él estaba en paz y está trabajaba duro haciendo instrumentos porque él es una orisha de la arma y los instrumentos. ¡Entonces, un rayo cayó! Changó, el dios de trueno y creador de los relámpagos, vino del cielo con confianza inquebrantable. “¡Ogún! Vamos a luchar.”

“¡No, Changó!” Changó incendió la selva. Mató todos los animales y él destruyó el santuario del Ogún. Changó rió y él se escapó al cielo.

“¡Changó! ¡Nunca te perdonaré!” Ogún dijo. Estaba lleno de rabia. Ogún fue al castillo de Changó con intenciones asesinas. Cuando llegó allí, los soldados del Changó fueron esperando a Ogún. Los soldados atacaron Ogún con todas sus fuerzas pero no tuvo efecto porque solo eran humanos. Ogún mató un soldado con sus manos. Entonces, llevó sus huesos y creó armas del huesos. Ogún utilizó las armas de huesos matar todas los soldados. Él mató todos los soldados de Changó. Ogún y Changó lucharon. Ogún golpeó Changó con todas sus armas. Changó utilizó truenos y relámpagos para luchar Ogún. Changó usó su relámpago y Ogún usó su martillo. Entonces, Obatala fue a las orishas.

“¡Chicos! ¡Deja de luchar ahora!” Obatala gritado. Él separó los dos orishas por dividió la tierra. La tierra era en dos piezas y el caos fue desatado. “¡Necesito paz!” Obatala lanzó un hechizo para forzar las orishas deja de luchar. Las orishas dejaron de luchar. Entonces, Obatala dio Changó un collar de paz mantener la paz juntos. Obatala sanó la selva del Ogún y los soldados del Changó. Ellos nunca lucharon de nuevo.


Final Project Q3

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in Advanced Art · Hull · e2 Band on
This quarter, we have done a few drawings. Each drawing introduced a new technique into our arsenal. For the most part, I like how most of my drawings turned out. I learned a lot in doing these drawings, such as using the human perception to your advantage. This skill is going to be very vital in any drawing because then, you can direct people's eyes to a specific point in your drawing to emphasize that point.
For the first drawing, we had to draw a bike. This was probably the most difficult for me and the outcome of it was okay, it wasn't great. It took me about 4 hours to draw it, however, I should have spent more time because it doesn't look like it was done in 4 hours, it looks like it was done in 1 hour. This drawing helped me sharpen my skill for precision and precision is very important in any work of art.
For the second drawing, we drew optical illusions. It took me about 2 hours. I particularly liked this project because it was fun drawing illusions and messing with my viewers eyes. I don't think I was successful at it, but regardless, it was still a learning experience. I'm sure if I keep on drawing illusions, I'll get better at it.
The third drawing, we practiced shading forms. This took me 2 hours to do. I already had experience in shading through being self-taught, but I still learned from this project. When I shade, I usually do it freehand, but I never learned how to plan my shading like the .pdf document on the assignment tells you to do. So, I added a new technique into my artist arsenal.
The fourth drawing, we drew eyes. I also really liked this project too. I spent 2 hours on this project. This was a lot of fun because I love drawing eyes, they are so unique and interesting to study. You could get lost in looking in people's eyes. I tried to recreate that to the best of my ability, and I think I did good. I could've added a lot more detail to the pupil of the eyes. Nevertheless, I really liked doing this project.
Our final project, was drawing a mandala. For this one, I decided to bend the rules a little bit. Instead of using geometric shapes, I used  cartoon pictures of me, honey buns, cinnamon sticks, peppermint candy, and a strange blue flower. I didn't want to follow the geometric shape rule, so I decided to be a little bit different and use these unlikely elements for a mandala. I learned a lot about symmetry in this project. I really liked my final product because compared to everyone else's, mine looked completely different. It gives me a sense of style. This was probably my favorite project of the quarter. I learned so much about drawing this quarter and I look forward to learning a lot more in the next quarter.

E2U4 Mural by Nick Ryan

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in Spanish 2 · Manuel · B Band on
Spanish Mural
Spanish Mural

Vivo en Norte Filadelfia, en Mayfair. Hace que once años que vivía aquí. Debido a la droga abusa, mi barrio es muy peligroso. Mi barrio es Mayfair. Mayfair es la casa de muchos Americanos Irlandeses. Los orgullos de Mayfair son los bars. La mayoría de bars son irlandesas también. Mayfair se estableció en 1930 por una comunidad de Americanas Irlandesas. Los problemas de Mayfair son las drogas, traficantes de drogas y la violencia. Mayfair necesita más control en drogas porque es un problema muy grande. La pared está ubicada en 7118 Gilespie Street. La tienda es dueño de la propiedad.

A pesar de que hay drogas, mi barrio puede ser bueno. Aunque las personas son amigables, de vez en cuando, tenemos luchas con otros barrios. Aunque siempre resolvemos estos problemos. Además, nosotros tenemos una comunidad unida. De hecho, planeamos fiestas de barrio en verano. Conozco a todos y me siento seguro en el barrio. Sin embargo, no me gusta las drogas que veo en las calles. Deseo que esas drogas no estes en mi barrio, para que mi barrio son un lugar mejor. No hay personas famosas en mi barrio. Para mi, mi barrio puede ser un buen barrio pero necesita cambiar. El mural necesita ser en esta pared porque tiene mucha de la historia. También, la pared es ubicación de muchas luchas.

Mi mural tiene dos propósitos. El propósito de mi mural es representar la violencia y las drogas en mi barrio. El propósito segundo es apoderar las personas de mi barrio porque son fuertes. Las dos personas simbolizan las luchas de mi barrio. El área de juegos es significativo para mi barrio porque es Parque Princeton y todos voy allí. Las imágenes parecen que fotos. El mensaje del mural es “Fight On” porqué luchas es común en aquí. Quiero la gente ver nosotros son fuerte y unido y esta es mensaje de mi mural toda.

Mi mural representa las personas todas en mi barrio. También, mi mural es visible por todo del mundo. El fin, mi mural es arte público. Para mi, mi mural es único y fresco. Me gusta mi mural porque representa mis recuerdos de la infancia. Espero poder pintar este mural.

Tarea: Foto

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in Spanish 2 · Manuel · B Band on
20170305_135243
20170305_135243

Mi barrio es Mayfair. Mayfair es la casa de mucho de Americanos irlandeses. Los orgullos de Mayfair es las barras. La mayoría de barras son irlandeses también. Mayfair se estableció en 1930 por una comunidad de americanos irlandeses. Las problemas de Mayfair son las drogas y traficantes de drogas. Mayfair necesita más control en drogas porque es problema muy grande.

Tacony Lab por Mariel Capanna

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in Spanish 2 · Manuel · B Band on
taconylab
taconylab

Ubicado en 6918 Torresdale Avenue

3 cosas que este mural revela sobre la comunidad:

  1. Historias personales de Filadelfia
  2. Pasado de Filadelfia
  3. La unidad de la communidad

2 objetos, imagenes, frases o palabras encontrados en el mural:

  1. El río de Delaware
  2. El parque de Keystone

1 razón que es significativo para esta comunidad:

  1. Es significativo porque la mural representa el pasado y el presente de la communidad.

Q2 Artist Statement by Nick Ryan

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in Advanced Art · Hull · e2 Band on

This quarter, I created a lot of pieces of art. The first thing we did was blind contour drawings. We had to find at least 5 items and draw it without looking at the paper and do it all with one line. This was difficult as I had to predict my hand movement and proportion the drawing correctly. The second project we had to make a painting. I recreated Van Gogh’s piece “At Eternity’s Gate.” I used watercolor and oil pastels to create this painting. I dealt with a lot of trial and error with this project because my watercolor wasn’t vibrant and it leaked on other parts of the paper. This was not difficult, but it was frustrating and time-consuming. The third project we had to recreate a piece of art. I recreated the cover of “CAGE” a comic book created by Genndy Tartakovsky. I used my Copic markers and my Sakura pens to create this piece. I had a lot of fun doing this particular project because I love drawing cartoony things like this and it was a little difficult because I had to learn Tartakovsky’s style of drawing. The fourth project we had to create an illustration from a piece of writing. My illustration was based off the song “Changes” by Tupac. I drew Tupac sitting on a stool looking at the viewer, with a city which is supposed to be Compton bleeding in the background. I did this to symbolize Tupac’s pain he suffered in his hometown and his struggles to try to help it, but like he said, nothing changes. I used my Copic markers, my sakura pens, and color pencils. The final project we had to edit a bunch of photos. For this, I took a picture out of the window of the SLA school building, a picture of city hall, and a picture from when I went camping. The first picture, it was originally a gloomy picture but I increased the brightness and warmth of the picture to create a positive effect on the picture. The second picture, I did the same except I created a vintage old photo effect. It looks like an old photo taken from the 60s. And then the last photo, I created a weird effect. It was a picture from the summer and I changed the atmosphere from a warm, spring-like environment to a wintery cold environment. I changed the ambiance so that it has a purple effect. It looked cool to me. I learned a lot this quarter. I learned to proportion my drawings better so that the sizes in my drawings are better proportioned. I’ve learned to adapt my style so that it fits other artists’ styles. I’ve also learned to develop my own style of drawing. Finally, I learned the basics of photo-editing. Reflecting back on my artwork, my art has become clearer, cleaner, and more organized. This creates a more pleasing effect on the eyes of my viewers.

MP1 Artwork by Nick Ryan

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in Advanced Art · Hull · e2 Band on

This quarter, we worked on two art projects. The first project we did was we made a design and painted it on a ceiling tile. On my ceiling tile, I drew and painted a pop art of Samurai Jack. Samurai Jack is a cartoon character and I chose to draw this because Samurai Jack was a part of my childhood and the art style of the show is what inspired me to become an artist. The hardest part about doing this project was getting the proportions right, I had to sketch and erase a lot in order to ensure I had the proportions correct. It took me over 5 hours to complete this project and I’m proud of it. I love seeing it when I walk onto the third floor every morning.

The second project was my self-portrait. I had a lot of fun doing this because I was able to draw myself in any style I wanted, and I chose a weird one. I decided to draw myself as a caricature because I’ve always viewed myself as not very serious. In the portrait, you’ll notice that I look very sleepy and calm, but happy. I made sure I looked like this because that is how I usually am. Then, for the background, I put my fingerprints all over it. It started out as a mistake, but then I decided that could be my “signature” for the portrait. Using the charcoal was challenging because it takes a level of precision to differentiate between hard and soft lines. Also, the charcoal doesn’t always stick to the paper, sometimes it falls off and becomes smudged on other parts of your drawing. It was still fun. I enjoyed doing this project.

E1 U5 El Arte de Manos Hablantes by Nick Ryan

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in Spanish 1 - Manuel - B on

Nicholas Ryan.

Soy sordo,

Mi familia es oyente,

Tengo una hermana,

Soy de Filadelfia,

Yo hablo señas.


¡Soy differente!

¡Soy complicado!

¡No soy similar a todos!


Veo movimientos de labios de chicos alrededor,

Oigo voces confusas de mi familia,

Huelo la respiración de mis amigos,

Saboreo la comida en mi boca,

Siento que soy de dos lugares differentes.

Soy en la encrucijada.


¡Soy differente!

¡Soy complicado!

¡No soy similar a todos!


Mis manos son mi oficio,

Ayudo a los chicos sin voz,

Escucho a los chicos hablando con manos,

Yo conecto al sordo con el oyente.


Practicamos artes diferentes,

Mi mamá practica el arte de globos,

Mi papá practica el arte de carpintería,

Mi hermana practica el arte de hablar,

Nacimos y vivimos en Filadelfia,

Pero lo que queremos lograr,

Es hacer sueños realidad.


¡Soy differente!

¡Soy complicado!

¡No soy similar a todos!
El Arte de Manos Hablante

It's Complicated Reflection by Nick Ryan

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in Technology - Freshman - Hull - y1 on
Nick Ryan
1/28/16
Blue Stream

Reflection

This chapter in It's Complicated was very controversial but, informative. It brought up so many good points about cyber-bullying and bullying itself. When I was reading this, I started to question what I defined as bullying. The author tells her audience about Olweus' definition of bullying, Abigail and Ashley's story(among many others such as Taylor and Chris), and how we describe bullying.
The author kept telling her audience that teenagers such as me, use "drama" as a replacement for the word bullying. I started to think, "Wait I do that don't I?" Then, I started to wonder where have I done this. I realized that I use the word "drama" to describe what could be described as acts of bullying(not in this school of course.) Then, I started to think why do teenagers do this?
I started to think about our motives behind calling bullying "drama." I thought maybe it's because we just came up with a new word for bullying, like a slang word for it. I soon began to understand our motives. I think it is because the media makes bullying look so horrible and inhumane, we start to reject the word. So, whenever we see what would be bullying, we get a little bit scared. We go into denial about the situation and call it drama. This was the conclusion I came to while reflecting on reading this book.

Ryan, Nicholas; U2-#8 Reflection

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in Technology - Freshman - Hull - y1 on
Nick Ryan
Blue Stream
1/14/16

Reflection
We watched Growing Up Online

1. This show was about the lives of kids in this generation who describe how the internet affected their lives.
2. The most memorable thing about this show was the anorexic girl and how tells us that being anorexic was praised on the internet.
3. I do believe it is very important to watch these types of shows. I believe this because instead of learning from our mistakes(which tends to be the "hard way") we can learn from the mistakes of others and never repeat their mistakes. This helps us increase our chances of a successful life which is something we need because nowadays, we live in a very critical society where if you made one stupid mistake, that mistake will follow you for the rest of your life.
4. I will keep my future family safe online in a bunch of different ways. First, I will put parental control restrictions on my home network. Second, I will teach my kids to always think before they act and not to view unhealthy and potentially dangerous content. Lastly, I will teach my kids to not talk to strangers and tell them why they shouldn't talk with strangers.
5. It is very important to talk with your family about internet safety because you don't want your family to suffer because of one silly mistake. You also do not want your family to repeat the same mistakes that other people have done and ruin their lives.
6. I would tell parents who do not know how to keep their kids safe online to research many ways of preventing access to dangerous content, access to talking with strangers, and ways to counter cyber-bullying.

Slide #2 by Nick Ryan

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in Technology - Freshman - Hull - y1 on
​Reflection

From doing this slide, I learned a lot of things. I learned that symmetry, spacing, and wording is the key to a good slide. I also learned about the different tools designers use when creating billboards, like the rule of thirds, making the words big, contrasting the words and the background, and a lot more. I made changes to my first slide presentation. I changed the font, cleaned up the spacing, and got rid of the underlines. I changed the font because I wanted it to be interesting to my viewers and so I put it in Acme font. I cleaned up the spacing because it was sloppy. Each line seemed too close to each other and some of the letters touched the other words. Finally, I got rid of the underlines because it made the slide look messy and it touched the letters below it. These were the things I learned about in making this slide and these were the changes I made to my slide.
Media Fluency Slide by Nick Ryan

Media Fluency Slide by Nick Ryan

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in Technology - Freshman - Hull - y1 on
Media Fluency Slide by Nick Ryan
Nick Ryan
Blue Stream
11/30/15

​Slide Script

1. First, I created a slide and named it "Media Fluency Slide".
2. Secondly, I changed the theme from Simple White to Simple Black.
3. Thirdly, I changed the font to Anton.
4. Then, I typed the words "Step out of your comfort zone".
5. Then, I centered the words in the middle of the slide.
6. Finally, I underlined all the words and put the word "zone" in a bold font.

The purpose of doing this was to make my slide simple, eye catching, and clear. I did not want to add pictures or a lot of words because they are not what my overall message of my "Me Magazine" is. All those words and pictures were going to take the viewers' eyes away from what I am really saying. All of my experiences that I wrote about in my "Me Magazine" happened because I stepped out of my comfort zone, and I want others to receive this message and do the same.

Mi Poema by Nick Ryan

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in Spanish 1 - Manuel - B on
Nick Ryan
11/23/15
Blue Stream

Mi Poema

Mi nombre es Nicholas.
Soy problemas de audición y sordo
Pero yo todavía poder oir todo.
Yo amar escuchar música,
Y hablar con amigos y familia.

Soy de decendencia europea.
Soy irlandés y alemána.
Es por eso que soy blanco
y tengo cabello rojo.
Y ese soy yo.
Profile Picture
Profile Picture

Bill Withers by Nick Ryan

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in Spanish 1 - Manuel - B on
Hola, mi nombre es Bill Withers. Tengo 77 años. Soy de West Virginia pero vivo en Los Angeles, California.

Soy alto. Soy delgado también. Soy moreno africano-americano. Soy muy viejo.

Me gusta escuchar música, es por eso que me encanta fabricación música. Me gusta mucho escuchar alma y R&B música. Te gusta Taylor Swift sin embargo no me gusta nada la música de Katy Perry. Me encanta Big Bang Theory, es muy cómico!

¿Te gusta mi música?
bill withers
bill withers

Proyecto: Parte 2 by Nick R., Vivian P., Kristian R., Grant S.

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in Spanish 1 - Manuel - B on
Spanish 1: Unit 1 Benchmark
Proyecto: Parte 2 Videos

Video #1: In Unit 1 of Spanish 1, we learned our restaurant manners using Spanish. We learned terms like "Me gustaria un ____, quiero ___, discuple," etc. In this video, there is a couple who are ordering bananas and a waiter to serve them.

Video #2: In spanish 1, we learned all about how to ask what the weather is outside along with the degrees. We also learned how to respond to that question like if it's nice weather outside we say "Hace Buen Tiempo" and many more phrases.

Video #3: For our numbers video, we wanted to apply what we learned about numbers in real life situations like our setting was in a math class with a teacher going over homework.

Video #4: We wanted to show the class what we learned about Y tu vs Y usted, and we applied it to real life situations like meeting a new friend or talking to someone who is older than you. 

Reflection - Nick Ryan

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in Technology - Freshman - Hull - y1 on

  1. Google Yourself.

  1. I did not find anything that is under my name.

  2. I found a lot of people with the same name as me. They were the following: author, doctor, someone who works at the economics department at Yale, and someone who works at the economics department at MIT.

  3. I did not find myself.

  4. The fact that I did not find myself matters because then, if I wanted to get a job and my employer searches me on Google, then he/she will find all of these false things about me. They could either ruin or enhance my chances of getting that job.

2.  My partner is Ashley De la cruz. After searching her name on google, I could not find her but I found someone else. My five word impression of this person are brave, self-absorbed, hard-working, depressed, and transgender.

3. My partner’s five word impression of someone under my name: wannabe, self-absorbed, rich, confident, and cocky.

​Reflection

1. In class today, we watched a video about a boy named Jack on iwitnessbullying.org. The video is about Jack. He goes to school and he is bullied at the bus stop, then at the lockers, then in class, and finally, on the internet. In the video, you get a choice to make Jack's day better.
2. This video makes me feel bad about the people who get bullied. Personally, I have never had any serious issues about bullying because I don't take any insults or anything seriously. I feel that people who do get bullied shouldn't have to suffer because of someone else's insecurities. Everyone should lead a positive lifestyle and be friends with everyone around them.
3. I haven't found anything about myself online but there were other people with my name. They all appeared to be really smart people because they worked at MIT, Yale University, worked as an author, and a doctor.
4. If someone who didn't know what I looked like or how old I am looked me up on Google, they would perceive me as a really well educated person.
5. An internet troll's purpose is to lie, exaggerate, and offend to get a response.
6. The positive effects of online anonymity are that people can freely express themselves and their opinions without being restricted by the views of the person's family, friends, and peers. The negative effects of online anonymity are that people who are anonymous can bully others without being found out.
Profile Picture
Profile Picture

Home Network, Nicholas Ryan

Posted by Nicholas Ryan in Technology - Freshman - Hull - y1 on
Home Network, Ryan (1)
​Reflection

1.There are eight devices connected to my L.A.N. They include: my desktop, printer, laptop, kindle, PS4(gaming console), and my two cable boxes.
2. I learned a lot about networks. I learned about the names of the different wires such as the coax and ethernet wires, I learned about what a network consists of in your home, and I learned about the history of the internet.
3. I would tell people there are information that they need to know about their ISP/home network and it would be how they get their internet, what connects to the internet in their homes, and the different ways to improve their internet speed.
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