Sugru: Challenge Accepted

First hearing about this project, I was certain that there was nothing in my small world that I could possibly fix or improve. I felt that all the good ideas were already taken and posted on the website for all the world to see, so I was forced to think of something brand new. I was experiencing fixation, the inability to see a problem from a new perspective. In this day and age, almost everything has something to improve it, so how could I possibly improve it more? I'm no Thomas Edison.

I went through every room in my house, thinking of things that could be fixed or improved. In the bathroom, you could caulk your bathtub with Sugru, but you could probably just go out and buy caulk, or it's readily available for you in the garage or something. In the kitchen, I questioned whether I could hang utensils up somehow. It didn't seem very practical to me, and you'd probably need a lot more Sugru. With all these little household items, I couldn't think of any unique functions that the Sugru could possibly provide. Functional fixedness was dominating my thoughts.

But the utensil idea got me thinking, what else could I hang up? What never has a place? Sunglasses. I created a hook out of the Sugru that a pair of sunglasses could nonchalantly hang out on. Now they can't be forgotten and broken from sitting on them.

I was feeling a bit more creative at this point, so I thought back to my childhood. What little things bothered me the most? When shoelaces frayed after the little plastic tip broke off from overuse. So I molded some Sugru over the shoelace tips. Hopefully it's a bit more effective than a flimsy piece of plastic.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Before I begin, I have a serious question for Mr. Dreier. How many pistachio colored shirts do you have? Seriously. You should answer this.

OCD is interesting to me because I've always felt that my mom had obsessive compulsive disorder. She cleans the house like it's buried under piles of dirt. Neat freak doesn't even begin to describe her, but she insists that she does not have OCD. To learn more about this disorder, I put my faith in the ever trustworth Google and found this article.

Some of the symptoms fit my mom perfectly, while others do not. Which leads me to believe that maybe she just has a mild form of the disorder. It's not as though she does the same exact thing every day, but she gets extremely anxious when things aren't in their place and spotless. But what exactly causes OCD?

There are parts of the brain involved in fear and anxiety, and scientists believe this is the root cause of the disorder. To learn more about what causes it, click here. Basically, if you have OCD, your brain has difficulty turning off or ignoring impulses from a certain circuit. So, does this mean that the fear and anxiety are amplified, and they aren't able to relieve those feelings until they complete a certain action?

I guess my next question is, if this lack of circuit impulse ignoring could be fixed, what would the solution be? I mean, of course a drug could be a temporary fix, but that means they'd have to take that drug for the rest of their lives, and that's not exactly incredibly exciting. What if a permanent solution could be found?

Shwauby PSA

After careful consideration and many long minutes watching videos, I was able to come up with my top three favorite PSAs.

Nicole, Emily, and Collin
This video was extremely entertaining and held my interest throughout. I loved the creative ideas for Piaget's stages of development. I never would have thought of Chuck E. Cheeses. (Pssst...it's not just for small children (; hehe) The slides introducing each new location helped a lot with knowing where they were in Ashwaubenon.

Zac, Jake, and Jenello
Fine acting. Yes, fine acting indeed. I quite enjoyed this one. Overall, it was well done, except at the Tundra Lodge, I couldn't quite hear what was being said. My favorite definitely had to be at the Lambeau Field. Normally, you wouldn't think that it could contribute in anyway to development, but I was proved wrong. It is true, there is no I in Team....but there is a Me.

Kelly, Marissa, Rilee
The music in the beginning captured my attention right away. It really appeals to an audience. The explanations of each individual place were easy to understand, and it wasn't an overload of information. It's also not too long, so it doesn't really have the chance to become boring. Me gusta (: