Can you Pass Me A Skittle??

In the United States prison culture women will lick skittles and use the coloring off of them to apply makeshift makeup to their faces since they are not allowed the use of cosmetics while incarcerated. What is it about our appearance that makes even women who has lost their freedom find ways to make themselves feel as though they must look presentable for the other inmate population? An individual’s appearance is something that all societies use for judgment and placement. In different societies the ideals are unique from one another but body modification in each is unique. The quickest and easiest form of modification is make-up. Through out history in times as early as the ancient Egyptians and before, make-up has been used to signify stature, roles and increase believed beauty. In other areas of the world it had been used for ceremonies and expression. Although the ingredient components of these makeup’s may not be what we find in modern day cosmetics, the use of makeup has traveled through the ages, and evolved into the world of make up we see today. The make up world has boomed into a multi million dollar business. And does not only include what we consider average everyday wear makeup but also professional stage makeup and special effects makeup just to name a few. For a product which is supposed to hide your own imperfections but be invisible to the eye it sure is a powerful component of women’s culture worldwide.

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Use The PowerPoint Luke!!!!

PowerPoint?? The vain of all existence or a tool which if used correctly brings a visual aid to the world of business communications. I’m a firm believer in not choosing binary opposition in sides, black or white, good or evil, Sith or Jedi. I believe there is a lot of grey matter in the world and in this area. The PowerPoint itself is not what is the problem but just like the force if it is used incorrectly it could be mayhem to the effected audience. Edward Tufte, our very own Darth Vader, sees PowerPoint as only evil. He sees it as something that will dumb down our youth and communications. I have seen PowerPoint done this way. There was a presentation in my past in which I could not understand a wick of what was going on do to the crazy animation, very loud background and unusable text. This can also be said for putting too much information on a PowerPoint. In one of my courses the teacher copied and pasted from an online resource her entire PowerPoint. It was too overwhelming and I lost focus rather quickly. But if we see the world like our own PowerPoint Yoda, David Byrne, if used in the right way PowerPoint can bring out the best in presentations and allow a great visual medium for learners who are visually inclined such as myself. I had a teacher onetime who always took time in their presentations made them visually interesting but used them as an outline not a script for their class. In this way it helped me stay focuses and elaborated on their subject matter in a way in which I could understand better. In the end it is not the tool that is good or bad it’s the user. A light saber can kill just as easily as it can be used to protect. So the next time you sit down to create a presentation just remember… Let the force be with you!

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