Unpublished Editorial

Alright, I am not very good at updating a blog, but like I said, this is a work in progress for me. I'm still getting the hang of this. Eventually, I will use this to talk about art, design, and sustainability, which are all important to me, but for now, I'm just trying to get into writing more regularly.

Once that's down, I'll be able to start getting into this more seriously.

But as I promised, here's something more thought-provoking. This is my unpublished editorial for my university's newspaper that I did three years ago, while I had a friend as opinion editor. To make a long story short, it ended up getting shelved and I forgot about it. Until recently of course, when I started thinking about how true it still is today. Which is why I would like to share it now.

In the meantime, I'll work on my writing habits, once and for all. For reals. For science (not really, I just wanted to say that).

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“Did you know that pandas eat…” “Many Americans are faced with…” “How many times have you…” “When you were a child…” “Imagine being in line for lunch and…”

Attention grabbing devices. We must have heard 4/5ths of them by now, the last fraction making it through the strainer of boring, recycled trash to become a plate of new, tantalizing anticipation. “How difficult do you think it is to…” “Have you ever noticed…”

I went to a version of summer camp for artsy kids the number of musketeers ago. During a project that required long walking by foot forth and back from a beach, one of our teachers (this was when the whole first name calling of teachers began for me, but that’s as useful as this bad simile) talked about a philosopher ex-boyfriend whose life goal was to have an original thought.

“At the time…” “I bet you’ve had many…” “Do you know how difficult…” That memory pops into my head the way a dysfunctional Jack-in-the-box likes to pop out and scare Will Ferrell because I imagine original thoughts are rarer than unicorns and all the good attention grabbing devices are a member of their private poker club on Tuesdays.

I’m guilty of using these stale bread, don’t-stop-I-want-to-hear-this-joke-again-even-though-I’ve-heard-it-500-times, phrases every day and in everything I’ve ever written. I spend a cornucopia of my time simply rearranging words and these phrases the way I would the furniture in a room just to make them seem fresh and more new. I expect Ezra Pound to smile at me and say, “It’s good  kid,” if he indeed talked like that, over my shoulder while he disappears in and out like the Cheshire Cat. What I do is the same. Same as you. Same as her. Same as him. Same as J.K. Rowling sitting at that café writing a story on napkins about a boy with a weather related scar on his face. This one is called repetition.

“Life would be so much better …” “If we changed our old incandescent light bulbs with…” More original ideas. Scientists are inventing new advancements in technology as fast as rabbits spawn and we’re still using the same phrases of words. Anybody know why? Is there security in these phrases? Are they just that much fun to say? Am I the only one complaining?

I think it’s time for us to evolve our writing. Together we shall brandish our pencils, pens, quills, fingertips, and pointy-sticks and begin a new age of creativity – let us now write new phrases every time we write! Make our generation the ones with words! No longer shall it be the land of milk and honey, now it can be whatever you want, as long as you promise to get out there and think with ferocity and hunger! Otherwise, may Ezra Pound haunt you in the form of a broken Jack-in-the-box and follow you around until you strive for creativity. 

What I've Been Doing Instead of Blogging...

So I know it's been awhile.

I haven't forgotten about you, not at all. I've actually been thinking about you quite a bit, in that I've been trying to determine what I want to write about first. I've made some lists, weighed some options, did a bit of research...you know, all the right things. But then, I started watching cartoons and Veronica Mars.

Yes, you heard me. Cartoons. Veronica Mars.

As a kid, I had an interest in animation. I was addicted to drawing. I drew on everything. I was never into coloring books, because I wanted blank pages to draw on instead. I even drew on chalkboards. I remember one time, when I watching Bedknobs and Broomsticks for the tenth time, I paused the screen to draw the possessed knights marching to battle on my largest chalkboard. It was my favorite scene of that movie and truth be told, it still is my favorite. So I really wanted to draw it. I took out my easel and everything. So it should come as no surprise that to finish my drawing of the knights I went so far as to glue feathers to the chalkboard. You know, to get their helmets just right.

Fast forward to my phase where I would stay up late at night to watch the more 'adult' cartoon shows. By which I mean, Toon Heads, The Tex Avery Show, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, etc. Kids generally were into the newer ones, which I was into as well (who didn't like Doug, Scooby Doo, Dexter's Laboratory, or a little Courage the Cowardly Dog?), but these were the ones that were on later, closer to the average kid's bed time. My parents learned fast that they could send me to bed but not to sleep, so I was able to stretch out my bedtime more and more, until they finally would push me into bed and close my door every night. Before then though, my mind was filled with the old-school cartoons and great animators, showing me things like, "The House of Tomorrow" or the Flintstone's "The Swimming Pool" episode. I loved it. There were even sometimes these short clips that would get my imagination engine humming:

Then The Powerpuff Girls came along and I became a complete and utter slave to them, in that I watched them incessantly and drew them everywhere. I drew them so much, it's something I can do in my sleep or with my eyes closed. I have drawn them for kids I've babysat. I've left them scrawled on chalk/whiteboards from middle school to college. They're all over about 3 of my sketchbooks, cover to cover.

I'm not joking.

Then, after coveted evenings spent watching Kim Possible, Darkwing Duck, and Teacher's Pet passed, reruns of The Powerpuff Girls feigned to hold my attention, and I had seen almost every episode of Pokemon and Digimon worth seeing, it suddenly stopped.

And for a long time, it stayed that way. Years passed and the most animation I saw was the yearly Pixar film.

Until in the last few years of college, it came back to me. Suddenly, I was hooked by Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away. I had to see Coraline. I wanted to re-watch my favorite Disney film, The Great Mouse Detective. I had to get my hands on Gay Purr-ee and Cats Don't Dance again. It was necessary to watch the entirety of Brendon Small's Home Movies. I made lists of foreign animation films I needed to see, from The Triplets of Belleville to Persepolis.

Anyways, this is my explanation for watching cartoons: because I'm still that little girl that loves drawing and seeing other people's drawings. It doesn't matter to me if they're in a gallery, or if they're playing on the television to a bunch of kids; I see art.

Cartoons, or rather animation, are under-appreciated sometimes, because they are generally thought of as for children. Yes, some actual 'adult' cartoons exist, like Futurama, Family Guy, The Simpsons, and all that, and while they have their place, they're not what I'm talking about. Cartoons have the capacity to appeal to both children and adults, whether it be because the adults are kids at heart or just parents trying to keep their child quiet for 90 minutes. Pixar has been changing the way animation is perceived for years, making adults fall in love with their films and shorts, not just the kids they aim to please. Other studios have started stepping up, creating films like Despicable Me or How to Train Your Dragon, which have big followings of their own, particularly in the tween/early twenties crowd.

And don't forget, it's a lot harder to actually create characters, write a story, and animate it to last anywhere from 10-90 minutes or less, than you think. Even more effort if you're doing something like stop motion, such as Coraline or The Nightmare Before Christmas. Wrapping my brain around that sort of animation makes my brain hurt; it requires a completely different set of dedication. Can you even imagine spending more than 5 minutes just making a character blink and wave their hand? Now think about how long it must have taken Disney's animators to create the first Disney full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves back in 1938. Without computers.

I'm proud to watch cartoons. I will quote Regular Show in my daily life. I will watch Adventure Time with Finn and Jake by myself. I will spend nights re-watching Teen Titans and admiring the style and use of expressions. I will watch Hey Arnold! and reminisce about my own childhood. I hope other people my age and older will join me, but if they don't, it won't stop me.

As for Veronica Mars?

I can only ask why it has taken me this long to get on the bandwagon in the first place. It's amazing.

New, and more serious entry, next week.

Salutations & Explanations.

Hi there.

If you were looking for me, you found me. If you weren't, then let me introduce myself; my name is Davalyn L. Stepzinski. I graduated from Iowa State University in December of 2012 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Design and a minor in Performing Arts. In other words, I'm a big fan of the arts and I have a fancy piece of paper to prove it. 

I am a interior designer looking to use her knowledge and skills to make the world a better place. 

I believe that design is important to our well-being, because it is apart of all aspects of our lives, from your bed, to your coffee-maker, to your desk, to your computer, to your clothes, to even the collar on your fuzzy friend lying on the floor in slumber. Yes, that's a generalization of the term, but you get my point, being that design is running rampant in your life and shockingly important. 

My next point being, that so are your surroundings, because they're what helps you get your job done or your good times rolling, whether that be creating rocket ships, writing the news, flipping burgers, or sharing a round at your favorite hole-in-the-wall. Unless you're sitting outside in a field somewhere, you're sitting in a space created by man that was meant to fit your needs as a human functioning within society. 

If it's not helping you function, then that's where me and my fellow interior designers come in; we're here to help make your surroundings better, in both function and aesthetics, because we want you to be able to work comfortably and enjoy life. 

Because seriously, life is beautiful. Have you looked out your window lately? It's great out there!

In all seriousness, that's what I do. It's pretty important stuff that usually goes unnoticed, but it's still there, like the slumbering fuzzy friend that you forgot was still in the room. 

Which reminds me, I also think being good to our surroundings is essential, in the 'being kind to the planet and our fellow man and animals' kinda way. Just like I think art is important and essential to life. My life is all about finding ways to live in harmony with the planet without sacrificing the creature comforts we have grown to love so much. In other words, finding the perfect balance between it all.

And that is what this blog is about in a nutshell: design and sustainability. Oh, and humor because who doesn't love to laugh while they're learning? Let's have fun here in my little writing adventure, shall we?

Two last thoughts. 

One, if you want to learn more about me that my blogger profile can't give you, my website URL will soon be on this page. I'm still working out the kinks, like the perfectionist I am, but as soon it's up, you'll be one of the first to know! ;c) 

Two, leave me lots of comments. I love feedback and I hope to get a lot of it, positive and constructive. I'm constantly improving.

Until my next entry, sláinte.*

*sláinte (Irish Gaelic. Pronounced slawn-cha, meaning cheers/health.) 

EDIT. WEBSITE IS NOW ACTIVE! You can find the link under my 'About Me' and right here: http://dstepzinski.wix.com/davinmotion. Thanks!