Sunday, May 26, 2013

A DIY Floor Mop!

I know I could have gotten a cheap sweatshop mop at Walmart, but I'd be jealous if my mop had done more traveling in life than I had.  My floors need a mop, so here is a plan for a quick, easy DIY floor mop.

I snip my old cutoff shorts and tshirts into strips.  I take three of the strips, tie it off at the top and braid it all the way down.  I  then tie then end off.  The ties are just strips of the clothing.  Note to self: brighten your wardrobe.




After I'm done all of the braids, I find an old broom handle in parent's garage.  I staple gun the loose ends of the braids evenly to the end of the broom stick.  This will keep them anchored against twisting forces (ringing out the mop).  I tie a big heavy elastic band around all the braids.  Then I take some thick guage steel wire and tie it around, twisting with plyers to for a tight band around the braids.  


The mop is ugly, but ready for action!


To wring it out, I stabbed a bunch of wholes in the bottom of a coffee can.  A crude but effect approach!



Monday, May 20, 2013

3 Movies on Netflix That Explore Anti-Authoritarian Themes

The Experiment

This movie tells a story that is based on the Stanford prison experiment, where random people are paid to participate in a behavioral research experiment concerning prison guards and inmates.  This movie does a very good job of portraying the process of the inmates becoming increasingly dehumanized.  The guards start out as easy going but quickly grow into their roles as violent oppressors.  This movie is so great because it is very believable.  The experiment prison cultivates the same atrocities found in modern prisons like institutionalized rape, gruesome and sardonic meals, solitary isolation and medical negligence. The rules of the experiment substitute for the laws that justify our prisons.  The movie has a great ending as well.  There is one scene that makes an Aryan Brotherhood guy look like a hero, that wasn't too cool.  Perhaps they were trying to show him renouncing his racism and fighting along side the other prisoners.

Transfer

 

This is a German sci-fi flick with subtitles.  Its a story in the future of a conservative, rich, old white couple who take part in a new medical procedure that transfers their consciousnesses into younger bodies.  The donor bodies are migrant workers from impoverished Africa and Asia.  The donors families are supposed to receive large sums of money for the young donor.  The donors do not die however, they become awake for 4 hours a day, where they find themselves imprisoned in someone else's mansion and are not allowed contact with the outside world.  The movie deals themes such as the rich exploiting the poor, closet racism, and accepting your own limitations and being at peace with age. 

Shadow (2009)

 

WARNING: IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GORE AND HORROR MOVIES, DO NOT WATCH THIS!!  This movie is f'd up, and I mean SERIOUSLY f'd up!  It makes movies like Friday 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre look like Teletubbies.  I can't go into too much detail without spoiling the movie but I included it in here for two reasons, because surprisingly it has a very strong anti-war message and the torturer mimics techniques pioneered by states like Nazi Germany and North Korea.  If your stomach can handle the imagery long enough to interpret the meaning behind it the movie becomes a powerful symbol of military atrocities specifically the Iraq War.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Megaman portraits of Lynden

We spent part of the afternoon drawing a Megaman inspired portrait of Lynden.  At least, this is how he pictures himself.



Also threw in a pixel frog animation I made.  I think the take off needs some more work.