I took a class in college that studied the misrepresentation of the self in autobiographical works. We examined a wide variety of mediums and focused on the authenticity of works such as James Fry's "A Million Little Pieces" and ghost-written autobiographies such as Paris Hilton's "Confessions of an Heiress" (the title is itself a reference to the "Confessions of St. Augustine", one of the earliest autobiographical works).

There is a documentary called Blue - I forget who created it. It is an autobiographical work about the creator and his struggle with aids (or hiv?). The entire film is a solid blue color (the solid blue that VCR's used to display) with out any actual images. And then he has audio laid over it. It is an interesting documentary that is quite comical at moments. Basically, Blue is many things that a typical film is not

Don't worry, I'm going some place with all of this.

We also studied a guy named Roland Barthes, whom I quite enjoy. He likes to find the antithesis of things. If Blue is the opposite of a documentary, then what would a documentary by Barthes be like? Taking that thought in to mind I set out and made a video called Barthe's Bloo.

First off all, Bloo is a reference to my favorite cartoon character and personal hero Blooregard Q. Kazoo from the animated show Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. Originally I had intended for the entire video to not contain the color blue. However, I needed about 2400 images without the color blue, and it proved too much of a daunting task to collect 2400 blueless images for a personal project that hadn't even been a class assignment.

At its simplest level a video normally...

• Is made of static images that make a moving image
• Is enjoyable to a degree that at least makes it watchable
• Contains only on a few layers of sound, each of which you can focus on (ex: music + voice + sound effect)
• Has a level of organization

Almost everything is the opposite of a normal film and it is all intentional. Among other things

• Images are graphic in some instances - especially the image in the very middle of the film. Beware!
• The images are static, so you don't get motion
• You're not supposed to enjoy this video or be able to watch it in full
• The sound track contains 11 tracks laid over each other
  
• It is very chaotic

Notes:

• The dialog at the start of the video is from a pod cast a friend and I made for OSU about the Student Code of Conduct Policy that each student is bound to). My sexy voice is the one that reads "You're going to have an informal meeting..."
  
• I originally meant for this to contain a greater variety of images
• I did not intend for most of the images to be religious

I love psychology, and I miss studying it a great deal. One of the most interesting effects is called the bystander effect, which basically states that if something happens to you (mugging, fire, rape, etc), the more people there are near you the less likely someone is to help you due to diffusion of responsibility (everybody presumes someone else is going to help you, no one ends up helping you, and then you die).

After I learned about the bystander effect I've never been able to break myself from countering it. By that, I mean if I hear someone crying for help I respond. I'd rather respond and potentially save someone than not respond and participate in someone's demise.

About a year ago Laura and I were hanging out and after a bit we realized we could hear a woman screaming hysterically. "Don't touch me!" "Get away!" "Leave me alone!" I grabbed my phone and keys and headed out. I traced the sound to outside of the apartment complex and discovered two other guys about my age also trying to figure out what might be going on.

We cautiously checked around the corner and found a young man and a young woman. She was going berzerk, and he wasn't anywhere close to touching her. He claimed she was drunk, but either she was the most balanced, coordinated, and agile drunk to ever be or she was strung out on a bad trip.

He said he had called the cops, so we decided to watch the couple until the cops arrived. In this situation until the cops show up, I'm not about to believe they have been called. Waiting included chasing the couple a block or two after she bolted. Eventually the cops pulled up, said they had to press charges but that the boyfriend could later drop them. Then I realized why he might be pressing charges. She had bitten his arm - look at your right arm, now imagine how much flesh you could bite off your bicep in one bite.

A few weeks later I heard the screeching sound of car breaks, a car alarm go off, and then a car rev its engine and take off. A yell that sounded like "He's been hit by a drunk" followed soon after. Once again I sprang in to action, grabbed my keys and phone, and bolted for the door.

Outside I turned the corner of the block to find a guy laying face down with another person over him. I thought it was a pedestrian hit by a drunk driver with his friend holding him. I'm not sure why, but I'm very calm in moments like this.

But I realized this wasn't the scenario. What had happened is that someone had come in to the neighborhood and tried to steal a car. They had driven up, let out an accomplice and then waited. But the accomplice set off a car alarm. And then I heard the car speed off as the attempted criminals fled the scene.

Well, seeing as a lot of people park their car on the street, two guys had both come outside to see whose car had almost been stolen. Except the second guy had arrived about 20 seconds after the first, and when he saw the first guy he thought "Ah! There is the thief!" And had tackled him in the street and wasn't letting him up until the cops arrived.

The cops arrived, sorted out the mess, and life moved on.

Today another event happened. On my way to work I pass by a local grade school. This is fun because it means a crossing guard stops traffic for me as I cross the street, and I find that fun. But this morning I crossed the street to discover 3 girls watching 2 boys fight.

One of the boys had the other in a pretty firm headlock. I leaned down, grabbed his arms, released the headlocked boy, and told them to knock it off.

Kid Who Had Been Winning: "We're just wrestling around. We're not actually fighting."
Me: "Are you fighting or not?" - I'm not about to believe the winning kid
Kid Who Had Been Losing: "Yes, we're just wrestling around."

And he meant it, so I let them be.

I'm not sure why I feel this obligation, but I'm always amazed that more people don't react to situations. On a side note, please don't get scared for my safety. I am cautious when I approach these situations, and I've usually got 911 pulled up on my phone and ready to dial, and I always make sure someone knows where I've gone.