World Premiere of LA Movies

It's here. 

It's what you've been waiting for! 

Are you ready for a Scare? Suspense? Gore? 

"Erin" and "Aaron"
Friday, April 5, 2013
7pm in RMPAC

Student Winterim produced movies made in the 
Return of The Horror, The Horror! 

Check out the blooper video from 
the movie "Aaron."

Show Me the Green

Students in Be Your Own Boss are pitching the ideas for their business ventures to a board of investors. The three groups came up with one idea each. The ideas are as follows:

• A laundry service for the  LA community
• Cabs and Coffee- an on call taxi service
• Welcome Home!- a dog training service that trains people how to care for a dog.

The students also went to small businesses to educate themselves about the life of a business owner. The two most recent businesses they visited were Plaster Fun Time, and Harvard Sweets Boutique.

Plaster Fun Time

Harvard Sweets

Creative Endgame

The creativity and reasoning at LA 
is producing astounding products.

The final prep work for a creative strategy game.

Some final Watermedia paintings.

                                        

Final editing for two horror movies.

 

Clay and Kiln ceramic work

Turn, Baby, Turn! final work.

 


Stained Glass Creations

Smoking in New Hampshire

It's so cold!

The studio

Smokey

Yesterday, Clay and Kiln traveled to Rooted in Clay, the business that their instructor, Shana Brautigam, runs out of Ringde, New Hampshire. The facility has multiple pizza ovens as well as the clay ovens and fire pits. They were wood-firing their ceramic pieces. Copper Sulfate (a blue crystal like chemical) was added to the pit after the saw dust was dumped in.  The prepared pieces were systematically placed with the heaviest on the bottom to lightest in the upper layer. While the ceramic creations baked the students made pizza in the home made pizza oven.

Prodding the fire

Enjoying the heat 

Beyond the Mat

The full title for the Yoga Winterim is "Yoga Beyond the Mat."  The "Beyond the Mat" part takes various forms.  They have had speakers come to them here at LA to talk about nutrition and meditation, they have taken field trips off campus and attended various workshops off campus.

For example, yesterday the Yoga group went to Groton Wellness and participated in a three-hour cooking workshop. They learned to cook with fresh and organic foods.  On another day earlier this week, they also learned about shopping for organic foods at the nearby Groton Natural Market.

Today, Thursday, the group traveled to Hollis, NH where they learned a different form of yoga called Kundalini. This afternoon they did Ashtanga Yoga and tomorrow they will visit Durga Yoga Studio in Harvard, MA to learn Prana Flow, a form of yoga centered around the universal rhythms of life.  Two other forms they have learned over these two weeks are Baptiste Yoga and Hath/Vinyasa Yoga.

The students in Yoga have definitely gone "beyond the mat" these two weeks.

Dive!, Dive!, Dive!

Today we finally were able to test our underwater vehicles. We evaluated their maneuvering capabilities in the pool and nearly all designs worked as originally planned, although some tweaking may need to happen. Next, we will be mounting sensors for temperature and depth of the water on our vehicles. 

Click here to see our video!

Continued Production

The "set" - Waters House (my home)

Production continues on the horror films coming out of Waters House. The dorm was transformed into a movie set for much of the time. The make-up artist is here today and the "blood" is flowing.

Tools of the Artist

Jug of fake blood

Poor Teddy Bear

Discussing important matters

Creativity in Various Forms

On campus today three groups continued to meet, learn and use their creative minds.

Beyond Monopoly has split into two groups and is using creativity to design and build an original strategy game.  Each has come up with some basic concept of a game and they are working to create the game board/pieces and flush out the details of how to play (and win) the game.  Neither group has a name for their game yet, but one group has a clear "one-liner" to explain what it will be:  A futuristic territorial acquisition game played on a modular board where players need to explore unknown planets and establish a new civilization on one of them.

The Chess group is also involved with strategy gaming but of another sort, which also requires creative thinking.  There is a game board and pieces and the game requires you to "think ahead" and plan for various moves your opponent might make.  At first chess may not appear to be "creative" thinking  but since a person needs to recognize several alternatives or possibilities at one time, it is in fact a highly "creative" game.  Actually, playing chess will help you to develop this type of flexible thinking. (Today, Tuesday, the group is having a tournament.)

Just down the hall from Chess is the Watermedia Painting group.  They went off campus this afternoon to visit Sharon Wooding's studio and an art gallery.  It was a perfect time to capture some finish products and those in process on camera.  Here we see creativity in a specific art form.

 

Mind, Body and Spirit Interconnected

The Yoga Beyond the Mat Winterim is quite interesting. (I'm trying to imagine being that relaxed all through Winterim!)

They spent the first week learning about the techniques of Yoga.  They had speakers come to LA to teach them about nutrition, martial arts, and breathing as well.  They visited Nashua Community College to learn about massage therapy, a degree program they offer. They planned to visit Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, MA on Friday, but the snow day cancelled this visit.  In the first week, they also set goals with their instructor, Kim Johnson, who has been a yoga practitioner for over 12 years.

Yesterday, Monday, Peter Dolan, a meditation and yoga expert, came to speak with them about meditation techniques and benefits. He said meditation will allow us to feel more a part of relationships with our personal self, others and nature.  It is about opening yourself up to the connectedness of everything in life. Once you become more aware of your thoughts and connections, you will be more in control of these things, as well. He says you should be relaxed, in a quiet place, be stretched out or warmed up, use breathing techniques for focus and don't "force" the conscious awareness.  Mr. Dolan also said that meditation is cumulative - you get more from it the more you do it. So it's best to meditate for a short time each day than try to meditate only once a week or month for longer durations.

Switches, Buoys, and Thrusters Are a Go!

Over the last few days, we have been busy testing and designing various models of our underwater vehicles and measuring linear, vertical, and rotational speed based on thruster placement. We applied our findings to our vehicle designs as we prepared for our first full scale pool test at UMass Lowell's Costello indoor pool. Much of our time has been spent wiring motors and switches, balancing and stabilizing our vehicles, and prioritizing our design criteria.