Japanese Stuffed Animals?

Amigurumi is the art of crocheting stuffed animals. Talk about a mouthful. Pronounced ah-ME-goo-ruh-ME, the word originates from Japan where the idea of such hand-made yarn toys began. Unfortunately, its not a very well-known product and goes greatly unappreciated in this modern age of mass-produced items cheaply sold by super-stores.

Winnie-the-Pooh
(Original)
Made and photographed by Me!

My mother and grandmother taught me how to knit, crochet, and use a loom at a very young age and I sold scarves for a while to their friends and coworkers who were impressed by a 7 year old knitting shawls longer than she was tall. However, I easily bored of the repetitive, mind-numbing stitches, even more complicated patterns, and stopped selling them, instead only making them for family when the winter season swung by.

My love for stuffed animals takes up most of my room and the collection only grows each year. At the age of 11 I discovered through youtube and artist's blogs that you could combine my two passions and create an immensely gratifying product. I had never even considered it before and quickly taught myself the new style by following beginner's videos and simple patterns. I found the foreign language of round rows and increasing or decreasing slip stitches and hidden magic rings fascinating and studied it for years before producing some of my own original patterns when I couldn't find satisfactory examples online.

Project in progress
Made and Photographed by Me!

These I make for special friends when birthdays and holidays come around. An average original pattern may take anywhere from 3-15 hours of work depending on how complicated the shape and size is. The Winnie-the-Pooh above took me approximately 10 hours, not bad considering how many times I had to redo the head, and was a gift for my god-mother. She also enjoys making crafts and appreciates the work going into it. Part of her job is to interview people for company products and I asked her to survey a few people regarding the stuffed toy.

She agreed and spoke to fifteen people. She told them she purchased the toy when she visited my family and asked them to guess how much the custom-made item cost. Now think of it this way, the toy was small, less than 6 inches tall and 3 inches wide, but it took 10 hours to make. Multiply that by minimum wage, about 80 dollars, plus materials, another 10, leaving a grand total of 90 dollars. Who's going to pay that much when they can purchase a similar toy from Walmart or Target for 8 dollars, that was made in China?

A matching set of "Blob-Bunnies"
Made and Photographed by Me!

Realistically, similar craft products this size are typically sold on Etsy, or Amazon for about 30-40 dollars, depending on how popular the item is. The fifteen people my god-mother interviewed all had varying estimates: three assumed $3 and only one person would pay $19.99. The disappointing results emphasize how people in general these days are unappreciative of the small things in life. Now that things are easily obtained from any main-stream store, not many value the time and effort going into the merchandise, opting to simply grab the cheapest item on the nearest shelf. This experience serves as a reminder of quality vs. quantity in a modern world that relies heavily on company manufacturing to provide basic necessities.

A Number

A, B, C, D, and F.

Percentages.

Grade Point Average.

G.P.A.

Just some simple things that every middle and high school student is intimately aware of. And for some, their worst fear is an 89.9%.

Ever since elementary school, we have been told that to be successful and happy in life, we must first get good grades. To strive for straight A's and E citizenship grades and maybe even a 5.0 GPA in order to get into a good college or university and a high paying career, and perhaps marriage to another successful person along the way. Preferably a doctor, lawyer, or CEO of some world-wide company.

Set goals are always something good to have, but only in healthy doses. Pressure from parents usually leads to unnecessary stress and a loss of sleep while staying up late attempting to perfect an assignment due the following day. Trying to take up even more advanced, honor, or AP classes in order to meet those expectations often makes the situation worse, and rather than raising a person's overall GPA, they witness the horrifying decline of their ability to master any one subject.

While watching the movie Admission the other day, I realized that the GPA of a student shouldn't matter so much. It's just a number yet it holds a large part in determining a person's future. The film was based on true stories about University acceptances, specifically, Princeton University. To summarize, a genius child prodigy had put in no effort whatsoever into the school system and homework because it bored him. Even so, without taking any of the classes, he passed eight AP tests and the SAT's his senior year with flying colors, along with a high recommendation and other extremely positive marks, he was still rejected for having a 1.5 GPA. (Watch the scene here: Admission Movie Clip) Despite all of his obvious potential, the young prodigy was denied entrance into the university for not falling neatly within the required GPA category.

So the question is, why? Why do we allow a number to dictate so much of our future? Programs such as Common Core limit creativity and set a required norm. Students who do not follow the education system are often seen as "problem students" or "lost cases." After receiving the periodic progress report, friends compare scores and the ones with dramatically different results may be shunned by their usual group of friends. This suggests that grades not only generate high levels of stress, as well as social problems for those who struggle with school.

Why must we conform? To society's expectations? To our parents'? To follow the generic guidelines of universities? Why should we allow such a small number to influence so much of our life? We allow our grades to tell us if we are smart or stupid and rely on a number to give us the exact percentage of our intelligence as human beings.

I confess to being a person who puts in too much effort to keep that number above a 90%, and have way too many sleep deprived mornings to support that statement. I see the same exhausted looks in the eyes of too many friends who do the same, and for what? For the small satisfaction of being able to turn in a completed assignment, only to have it handed back with a disappointing mark. One could argue that yes, it is important as it is the base to what will lead to a successful life with a high-paying job someday, but is all that time spent on meticulously taking notes, studying for tests, dotting i's, and crossing t's really worth such a small number that won't matter in 30 or 40 years once we've moved on from school?

http://firewallcenters.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/gpa.jpg

Smile for the Camera!

The universal sign of happiness is a smile. Nothing but a contortion of facial muscles and a flash of bone called teeth, yet it makes people so happy. A smile equals humor, enjoyment, and happiness, but no one sees the other side of a grin that hides half-truths, vicious smirks, and pain. A smile radiates friendliness, invites openness, blurs harsh edges, camouflage dark thoughts, and disguise ulterior motives.

A smile is a tool, something people are born to use. Their contagious and shape the atmosphere, emotions, and people. They're free to give so you may as well take advantage of what you have. What's the difference between right and wrong, anyway? It's the people with the right clothes, aesthetics, and genetics, that make it to the top-glamor just hides the scars it took to claw their way there. It's weaving words like spider-webs coming from a dangerous curve of the lips and a squint of the eyes to manipulate others, that's all it takes to convince others that you're right and their wrong.

Animals bare their teeth to display dominance and aggression, so why does it equal openness with humans? The main reason is because human teeth is not commonly used as a weapon. A bite in the arm or leg is effective enough as a form of self defense to escape from certain grips but the worst it'll do is temporarily maim even if an infection sets in. For humans, casual quirks of the lips are not threats, but an illusion.

Happiness is an image to keep. At school, the stereotypical popular girl is the one with the perfect life and friends and overall happy image. She laughs and quips and pouts and gasps, but how many thoughts are truly hidden?

I am a generally happy person who smiles a lot, that's a fact. But sometimes its fake. I'm calmer and more mellow than most people think and sometimes put down the façade to be me for a while. It's when I'm myself that more people ask me if I'm upset with them or feeling okay because I'm not smiling. To them, a me who's not smiling must be angry or sad. They're asking at the wrong times.

They tell me it's my main feature and to never stop smiling, but what if it's not me?

(b.p.)

In Response to: "Community Post #1: Exposing Hidden Biases at Google to Improve Diversity"

Sexism, racism, discrimination, etc. the list goes on and on. We've all heard the casual jokes and jibes towards a person for their background or looks, and everyone has a little bit of bias in them somewhere. Usually this isn't a problem, but when there's gender inequality dominating the tech world, things have to change. The sex ratio in the technology industry shouldn't be so obviously inclined towards males. Sure, in certain regions, women simply do not have the same access to proper education required in the tech department as men, so companies like Google have established workshops to broaden their diversity within the corporation. However, this is just another example of the society that grants men with better opportunity, because despite such programs, any real improvement has yet to be revealed concerning the unjust situation (Manjoo). Employees should be hired based on their actual skill, rather than their gender.

For instance, one woman, who was hanging out with some male IT workers, was told, "You're female, you're physically incapable of understanding science." Ouch. She remained present long enough to hear the same group of men proudly discussing how they would purposely "sabotage" any female candidate's chances for a job with them. Another woman was told by a peer that, "Men's brains just work more logically." She then commented on her company's "male privilege." Many of her male coworkers were constantly earning promotions they had never expressed any effort or interest for, while she had, and earned wages twice as much as her (Tiku).

Of course, these views do not apply to everyone. 56 year old, male Robert Harker works as a Linux systems administrator in Silicon Valley and strongly disapproves of the sexism that occurs among the men in his work place. He states his disappointment in men and feels the need to apologize to women on the behalf of the male population, "I thought we were better than that. And now I find that I have to apologize for my gender" (Tiku).

There's typically a general awareness of existing prejudice in the labor force amongst it's workers, whether it is directed towards race or sex, but the knowledge means nothing if no appropriate actions are taken to balance the biased environment. Instilled judgement of a person because of society's impossible standards is only one of human nature's many flaws, but it's one that can be corrected. Nobody should automatically be given a disadvantage for being born differently.