Will said this was important

(This is my ‘About Me’ page. It some how was removed as a tab on the main page so i am reposting it here for you to see…. The title of the page link was “Don’t Click This”)

Why would you do that?

The title specifically asked you not to click. I have personal information on this page. So please stop reading. NOW.

Dude, you just don’t quit do you.

Well, if you just have to know, my name is Erik. You may possibly see some of my work under the name Nicholas Holcomb, but that is just the name they have me as in “The System”.

Ill be posting here at bloggathehut 3-5 times per week. Every post will be about Barbie. But just to clarify, the whole ‘Barbie’ thing was NOT my idea. Again, I’m just following the rules of ‘The System’.

There will be 54 post up by the end of the semester. Some will make you laugh, some may make you cry, there will be a few that will make you say “MORE!”, and others that make you click that red X in the top right. I highly encourage comments, so please, tell me what you think after you read a post. Even if you think my work sucked, let me know, you won’t hurt my feelings.

The more feedback I get, the better I can make this blog. Which, for me, is awesome cause it could help me get a badly needed A in the class. And it’s pretty cool for you cause you will see cooler and cooler ideas.

Thank you in advance for reading. It means a lot that you have already made it this far.

49. Goodbye

This is it. The grand finale. The last post.

This Project has been an awesome experience, but I am so relieved that it is finally over.

This class and project is definitely one I won’t forget. And before I officially say good-bye, I would like to take a minute and reflect back on how my work has progressed.

I was pretty nervous to begin posting, but after I started on my first few ideas, I realized they were actually a lot of fun to make (most of them at least). And for this I am thankful. If the first few posts I made were a hassle and I didn’t have a great time with them, I think my motivation would have been killed early, and my whole blog would have sucked.

But after making my first 2 post, I was having a lot of fun and really into the whole blog thing. I loved the fact I could show anyone my work, no matter their location. I was super motivated and I think it shows in my early work.

On week 2, we were given our first directive to relate to Barbie. Looking back, I can tell I was a little bit thrown off by having a directive because my ideas were still either a bit basic or kind of a rip off of an idea I had seen before. I even started falling behind at this point, thinking I had run out of ideas.

I think it was around week 3 or 4, with the ‘quintessence’ directive that my work really started going in its own direction. It was probably the crazy topic made me realize that not only was it ok to come up with wild ideas, it was encouraged.

It was also around this time that thinking about Barbie became a habit. An addiction almost. I couldn’t help but to started thinking about things in Barbie terms. I wanted to turn everything into a post. And during the next couple weeks, I did just that.

Everything I thought about or did became a post. I made a post about star wars, of me playing guitar, of games I like to play, and of current events (like birthdays and hurricanes) going on outside of class and my blog. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to relate things that I personally liked doing to the given directives and the Barbie brand.

I think the project really started getting tough when I began running out of ways to relate Barbie to things that I liked. I began running out of ideas after I did everything I already knew how to do. I think my best work came from my early post when I was dealing with things I knew about, but I think I learned the most from my later post when I was trying to figure out something new.

But really, I guess I should let you, the reader, decide which pieces of my work were the best. I really want to thank you for reading, and hope you enjoyed my work.

-Erik Holcomb

48. It’s whats on the inside that counts

I think a common theme throughout my blog has been about how no matter what personality Barbie has, that personality say more about the dolls owner than it does the doll.

A Barbie doll is just a piece of plastic with hair and a face. She might have clothes that suggest a certain personality, but come on, it was the owner who put those close on her (or bought that style).

If my writing hasn’t drilled that message into your head by this point, then I must assume either that you are a visual person or my writing is terrible.

So I am going to hope and pray my writing has done at least an ok job so far, and that you are just a visual kinda person. And to help a picture-person understand this idea, I made this image.

I made this picture in photoshop and yes, I know, it’s really sketchy. But hopefully with a little explanation it will make a bit more sense.
Here is the original unedited picture next to the ‘masterpiece’ I have made.

I was copying the classic picture in the mirror idea, but edited in my Barbie (Franken-Barbie) over top of my reflection. So instead of the mirror showing how I look, it metaphorically reflects my personality through FrankenBarbie.

47.Stick your thumbs out and say “‘Eeeeeyyyyy!”

Everyone knows the king of Happy Days, Arthur Fonzarrelli, right?

The Fonz was a character on the Happy Days (with Ron Howard) played by the actor Henry Winkler and was best known for his popularity and great looks.

Today, Henry Winkler is much older and has recently acted in the show Arrested Development (again with Ron Howard) as a character named Barry Zuckerkorn. Zuckerkorn is a clumsy lawyer and has a completely different personality than The Fonz.

…By this point, I bet you are starting to wonder what this all has to do with Barbie and the ‘Reflect’ directive.

Well, as I said before, Winkler’s characters had completely different personalities. He switched from being the cool kid in class that everyone idolizes to being the idiotic attorney who can’t do anything right. It’s also worth noting that he frequently adds little bits of his true personality into each of his roles. The bits of character he adds are very subtle, and can only really be noticed if you are familiar with all of Winkler’s work.

Winkler’s ability to mimic these roles that are on different ends of the emotional spectrum makes me think about how the personalities given to Barbie are just as diverse (if not more) and as easily interchangeable. Also, I bet if you are familiar with a person playing with a Barbie, you would probably be able to see some of the person’s personality showing through their interactions with Barbie, even if their real personality did not match the personality they have given to the Barbie.

This fact may shed some light on what acting has to do with Barbie, but still leaves questions about the ‘reflection’ directive and about why I have so specifically mentioned Henry Winkler.

To this I respond it’s all about the looks.

No matter what character Barbie or Henry Winkler are imitating, they will always be looking their best. And by ‘looking their best’, I don’t not simply mean, ‘looking pretty good’. I mean LOOKING THEIR BEST.

When Barbie or Winkler looks at their reflection in the mirror, they make same EXACT move every time, no matter which character they are today.

Found this video online. Left image is Zuckerkorn. Right image is The Fonz. Both are played by Winkler.

 

46. Upvote

If you noticed from my last post (the mind map), I had ‘Meme’ as a branch closely related to Success. This is mainly because I spend way too much time on the website Reddit, where I am exposed to this little guy on practically a daily basis.

This is the ‘Success Kid’ meme. He is one of many different pictures with large customizable text matching the expression on his face and is wildly popular on the internet.
Like Barbie, there are many different types of Memes, and each one conveying a unique expression. So for this post, I thought it would be appropriate to create a couple of my own memes.
The ones on the left are original Memes I have found on the internet, and the ones on the right are the Memes I made.

The Success Kid meme is obviously all about success. When he forgets to wake up for class, he has nothing to worry about because class happened to be cancelled. And when everyone is playin with barbies and there is only 1 ken available, there is no guessing who gets it.

Bad Luck Brian is quite the opposite though.

This meme is all about a guy who can just never catch a break.

Next up is the First World Problem Meme. The FWP Meme is about people who have everything, but still manage a problem.

Even with food on the table, and the house of their dreams, the FWP Meme is still upset.

This last one is my favorite.

The Erma Gerd Meme full captures the desire this girl expresses the love this girls has for Goosebumps and I have replaced her books with Barbies. (Maybe only 90s kids would get it?).

 

 

 

45. A Successful Mind Map

To be honest, this is my first ‘real’ mind mapping experience.

I have tried doing this before, but would only get a few words on the page before I got bored and gave up. I’m not sure if I was able to complete this one because of the gratuitous amounts of coffee I had this morning or the fact that there is less than 48 hours before the blog due date.

I started out with ‘Success’ in the middle and branched off with ‘Money’, ‘Victory’, ‘Failure’, and ‘Memes’. From there I just started writing whatever came to mind.
I began with ‘Money’ and went clock wise around the page. After review, I think the direction I went around the page in is obvious because of the size of my writing and the space between the bubbles.

My writing is sloppy and my thoughts are wild, but here is a closer look.

I circled each thought and tied drew a line between connected thoughts and sometimes found 2 thoughts next to each other that were related and went ahead and connected them as well.

I think it is worth noting that Barbie did cross my mind at some point in all that mess. In my mind map, the sequence of thoughts that took me to Barbie was ‘Success’ > ’Failure’ > ‘Class’ > ‘Blog’ > ‘Barbie’. So, unfortunately, it was kind of straight forward and not to creative of a connection.

But I do think the Barbie brand connects to my success word map in a more creative way. The Barbie brand is about being able to express your own unique personality. And by mind mapping, I have expressed my own unique personality and thoughts.

44. Get Swole

What’s the key to Barbie’s success?
Her bangin’ body, that’s what.
How did Barbie get that fantastic body?

SUPPS BRO!

Barbie has been spending time at the gym and has come up with an easy 3 Step Plan for Success to turn YOUR body from flab to fab today!

Step 1: Buy Supps

http://www.orbitnutrition.com/cart/

Orbit Nutrition Supplements offer you a helping hand in achieving that rockin’ Barbie body.
Use Coupon Code: NEEDEF   and get 5% off your order today!

Step 2: Take Supps
Supplementing Orbit Nutrition products with a healthy diet and active lifestyle is the key to success.

Just add water!

 

Step 3: Get swole

Now that you have provided your body with the fuel it needs to thrive, all it takes is a few push-ups, pull-ups, and sit-ups each day.