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Stretch Quest #2 - Mental

For my second stretch quest I endured babysitting the two cats above. While this wouldn't be a difficult task for most people, this was difficult for me on two levels. The first, would be my allergies to cats and how as soon as I'm in the same room as them I begin to sneeze, my nose stuffs up, and my eyes are constantly red and itchy. My second difficulty for watching these cats is I believe cats to be jerks and mean and i tense up whenever Im around them. Clearly, I am a full on dog person. But spending the 24 hours I did looking after these two, I may have kept my distance most of the time, but I eventually got used to them and don't think they're all that bad. Allergies aside, I would rate the beginning of this stretch quest at a 5 and by the end rate it at a 2.

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A shot of some magazines that Blackwater Creative has produced: Freq Magazine and a promotion piece for Theatre Junction Grand

Stretch Quest #2: Professional

Activity: Interview a Graphic Designer

Discomfort before: 4/5

Discomfort after: 3/5

A few weeks back, I was given a pamphlet for Theatre Junction Grand, a theatre company in Calgary. Impressed by the design of it, I noticed that it was done by a local agency, called Blackwater Creative. It was the first time that I had seen design work that came specifically out of Calgary, and I was impressed with it. Since I might like to work in an agency one day, I decided to ask Alannah Pohran, a designer at Blackwater for a quick interview.

To start, calling up a complete stranger and asking them to go for a coffee and chat felt weird enough on its own. I’m not the type of person to approach a stranger anywhere and definitely not to ask them to go out of their way for me. I was afraid of trivial things, like if I would be able to recognize her (I didn’t; thankfully, she approached me first), if my questions were to pretentious or uneducated (I managed to do both), and if I would be able to offer anything back in the conversation (who knows if I did or not). She was very open and friendly towards me, which eased my comfort more as it went on. We talked about the appeal of design, working with clients, building reputation, agencies, freelancing, and some of her experiences learning as a designer.

One of the major things that I learned from Alannah is that in design, as much as you want it to be about your own work and your own process, it’s not about you. The first thing that you ask a client is what they like. The work that you do with them is based on what they like. The final product is all about what they like, and that’s the bottom line. As a professional, you have every right to your opinion and to explain your perspective to them. But, when people are paying you for a service, you need to find a way to deliver. It can be done, but very often not how you planned. To work in the design industry, you cannot afford to get attached to your projects. You have to learn to move quickly and creatively, especially after a critique. Sometimes, it’s a hard pill to swallow, but you will almost always come out with a better product than before.

The conversation was certainly eye-opening, and it showed me that I’ll be entering a very unique industry. But, I have to say that I’ve never felt more confident in my choice to study and hopefully work in information design.

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STRETCH QUEST: Curiosity Conversation

This stretch quest was interesting for me because I love talking to people and I find that conversation comes very naturally to me. For the most part. There are just some people in life that I get nervous around because of how incredibly far out of my league they are. For me, Dr. Gil Wilkes was one of those people.

Throughout the semester I adored his class and was crushing it, but couldn’t work up the courage to go to his office and have a conversation with him, simply because I didn’t want to say anything too stupid and wreck the decent impression of myself that I had given through my work.

The minute I asked myself with whom should I have a curiosity conversation, I knew Gil was the only honest answer. It went great! We talked about art, social media and my paper due on Friday. I would highly recommend the experience to a friend, and will surely have more conversations with him in the future.

HA.

It should be noted that I felt intensely silly while writing this.

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Stretch Quest: Curiosity Conversation

For this stretch quest I went and had two coffee with two friends that work in a economics lab at Foothills Medical Centre.

The truth is that they weren’t really friends - I met them at a friend’s Christmas party. So I was pretty nervous to talk to these people who were clearly data people. All numbers, all data.

I was at a 4/5 for uncomfortable going into this meeting.

At the end of it I have to say that it went better than I though. While I dont know a while lot about economics, I was able to talk about what I learned in out Usability class in term of handling data, and user experience, which as a surprise to me, they were very interested in. At the end of the coffee I was feeling way better, probably a 1/5!

Blue!

Refreshing, and positive! This conversation made me feel confident in my education.

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Stretch Quest: Mental

For this stretch quest I decided to watch a TedTalk that I would not usually pick. I wanted to chose a topic that would make me uncomfortable to listen to, but at the same time have an important message that I would otherwise miss out on. The talk I listened to was titled “The conversation we're not having about digital child abuse” given by Sebastián Bortnik, who is an information security expert. This is the introduction, or abstract, to the talk:

“We need to talk to kids about the risks they face online, says information security expert Sebastián Bortnik. In this talk, Bortnik discusses the issue of "grooming" — the sexual predation of children by adults on the internet — and outlines the conversations we need to start having about technology to keep our kids safe. (In Spanish with English subtitles)”

Going into the talk I was at about a 2/5 for uncomfortable - I knew I would have a hard time listening to him talk about child abuse, and the way that predators think.

I left at about the same level, a 2/5. It was uncomfortable, and difficult as I had to read subtitles, but I did learn something new, which i think was worth it.

Green: Learning, growth, new.

I learned something new, despite the face that it was difficult.

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Curiosity Stretch Quest

I was heating up my lunch last week and I saw a group of people doing a native dance. They were stomping their feet and using different instruments. I was so curious to know what they were doing that I forgot I had lunch heating up in the microwave.

I usually don't talk to people that I don't know never mind ask them random questions. I walked up to one of the girls and asked her what they were doing. She looked at me as if I have been living under a rock but I honestly had no clue. She told me they were doing the Native Ghost dance. I asked her what it does and she said that its a spiritual dance that the Indians use to drive out their common enemy. I thought it was the coolest thing ever!!!! I asked her to teach me and she laughed saying anytime that I am free, I can join their “cult” of dancers. I learned that if I am really curios about something, I should just ask there is no harm in doing so. I wish I took a picture of their dance....I was too focused on watching them.

Comfort level after task: 4/5

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Professional Stretch Quest

Comfort Level before task: 2/5

For this stretch quest, I was very interested in publishing articles for a magazine that I am working on. The website was is called PinkShirt day which is an awareness campaign against bullying. Let me just say how much I hate bullies so any awareness to stop them, count me in. Anyways, I was told that any articles that I pull from their website must be granted permission by the organization. I was so nervous because I’ve never published anything before and knowing that I had to contact the head marketing team made me so anxious. I had to search hard for an email to contact and ask for permission which I was scared because I wasn't sure if they'll grant a university student permission. But I decided to take a shot and do it anyways even if I didn't get a response back. I sent a kind email contacting their marketing team. It took several days to get a response which made me so anxious and upset that I didn't have the proper qualifications to publish their articles. BUT I got an email back from their marketing team generously granting me permission. It felt so good to be in contact with people who are highly known in the industry. The lesson I learned is just take your chance and go for it even if you get rejected.

Comfort level after task: 4/5

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Mental StretchQuest

Comfort Task: 3/5

I decided to play a brain trainer game off mindgames.com This game analyzed my memory and reaction modes. Everyone that I know says I have a bad memory. Surprisingly with this game I opted for the harder version and I still managed to score 120/180 which is huge for me. I also played the logic challenge which plays with your mind using different colours, numbers and letters to see if you can fill them in. Overall I also did very well on this game. I never use to play any mind games but after gives these a shot, I slightly got addicted and kept going. I think it helped me focus more and helped build up my brains performance. I would say I'm sitting at a 4/5 now after playing a few mind games to boost my brain skills