Community Interaction: How Well Do You Know Your Best Friend?

There are two sets of questions. Both have six questions about the person taking it, and their best friend. All the questions revolve around relationships, since that is my concept. Also, there is a scoring system to be able to tell how good of friends somebody is.

1st set of questions:
First, some questions about yourself:
1. How many pets do you have and what are their names?
2. Is there someone you work with that's wicked annoying?
3. List three adjectives to describe one of your parents, and indicate which parent it is.
4. Do you have brothers/sisters and what are their names?
5. Are you friends with mostly boys or girls?
6. Would you rather be single or in a relationship?

Next, some questions about your best friend:
1. What was their favorite pet that they have ever had?
2. Does he/she see their co-workers outside of work?
3. Which of his/her parents does he/she look like the most?
4. Does he/she share the same friends with his/her siblings?
5. Does he/she have a lot of close friends, or mainly acquaintances?
6. How long was his/hers longest relationship?


2nd set of questions:
First, some questions about yourself:
1. Of all your pets, which one did you favor the most?
2. Do you ever make plans with your co-workers and try to see them outside of work?
3. If you had to choose just one parent, which one would you say you resemble the most?
4. Do you and your siblings share the same friends?
5. Do your friendships mainly consist of close friends, or just acquaintances?
6. How long was your longest relationship, and are you still in that relationship?

Next, some questions about your best friend:
1. How many pets does your friend have, and what are their names?
2. Does anyone at his/her job get on their nerves?
3. Guess three adjectives he/she chose to describe one of their parents and which parent they chose.
4. How many siblings does your friend have and what are their names?
5. Is he/she friends with mostly boys or girls?
6. Would your friend rather be single, or in a relationship?


Scoring:
Every question that people answer correctly about each other is worth one point. There is a possibility of 12 points:
0-3=strangers, 4-6=aquaintences, 7-9=friends, 10-12=best friends

Short Story #2

He only sees what he allows himself to see. The neighborhood he’s always wanted to live in. A failing marriage. Perfect sons. A daughter who never listens.
It’s never his fault, yet he’s the reasoning behind it all. His house, concrete gray, like the prison he creates, only looks normal on the outside. The inside is broken down and messy. A reflection of those who live there.
Susan is constantly blamed without any explanation as to what she did wrong. This man feels no need to explain himself. His wife knows her place. She knows better than to question him. It’s when she forgets to accept the error of his ways, when she shakes the hold the silence has on her, that Scott loses his temper.
The arguments begin the same way every time. No smooth transitions. No voices gradually getting louder and louder. One minute he’s fine, the next minute he’s yelling, screaming, swearing, until Susan resumes her place once again.
The arguments end the same way every time. The wife sits there and says nothing. A blank stare imprinted on her face. He storms upstairs, shaking the entire house as he does so. Then, the bedroom door slams. Everyone’s unsure as to how long he’ll be up there, but for now it is safe. The wife becomes the mother-consoled by her children.
The sons only know so much. They learned from their father how to limit what they see. Benjamin, the oldest, is frustrated. He comforts Susan with the most sincerity he can possibly offer. As soon as he leaves the room, any resentment he had for his father is forgotten, and Benjamin’s life will go on. James on the other hand, needs more than just leaving the room to put his mother’s anguish behind him. But once it is forgotten, James will forever bury the episode where his memory cannot reach it. Denial is so much easier than reliving the moment.

Crystal is the acception. If it weren’t for her mother, she’d be just as oblivious as the boys. Susan isn’t to blame. She needs someone to talk to. The women are in this together. They allow themselves to feel what the boys cannot. Crystal experiences more than just frustration or anger. When she thinks of her father, she feels resentment. She feels rage. Fury. Feelings that linger until eventually, she feels hatred. Crystal hates her father. The man who makes others around him suffer his own forgotten torment. The man who will never realize the faults he won’t allow himself to see.
It would be so different if Crystal was a boy. A final installment to a trio of perfect sons. The ones who can do no wrong. They never question, never fight back. Scott would be so proud!
But it will never happen. Crystal will always be the disappointment. The one who knows too much. It’s more than she can bare to handle. She’s never home anymore. The house brings back too many memories. Everything she tries to let go of comes back to haunt her whenever she comes home. When Crystal’s with her friends, she seems happy. She looks happy too; only a slight hint of the hatred shows through.
She does feel bad for leaving Susan. She tells her mother to get a job. Leave the house. Just do something. But Susan always has an excuse. She has to clean the house. Or she has no money. Or she has no friends. Crystal eventually gives up. Just because her mother cannot leave the house does not mean she will be trapped too.
It wasn’t always like this. Scott may have lost his temper once in a while, but at least he was happy. He used to love Crystal the most. Susan used to have a mind of her own. But everything’s so different now…

When he’s ready he will come out of his room and find the wife. She’ll accept his fake apology-a sorry said just to let everyone know he no longer wishes to argue. Nothing is talked about. Nothing is resolved. The same ending to the same pointless argument.

Short Story #1

Dear Darren,
I am so sorry that I killed Buster. Karley loved that damn dog more than anything in the world! Didn’t you tell me once that she snuck him into school more times that you could even count? Well the point is that I feel terrible. Please don’t tell her that it was me who ran him over. I know she’d probably never forgive me. I think you should sit Karley down and tell her this instead:
“Now look Karley, I know you think you saw your Grandma run over Buster with her car, but what you actually saw was something else completely. What really happened, was that aliens came and abducted your dog. They wanted a souvenir to bring back to their planet and I’m sorry, but what they really wanted was Buster. And who could blame them? Buster was frickin awesome! But the aliens knew how sad you’d be. So they played some mind tricks on you and made you believe you saw Grandma running over Buster and brutally killing him. I’m sorry your dog was abducted but it’s ok. Because Grandma got you a kitten! And now you can forget all about Buster!”
This would probably be a good time to mention that I’m bringing the kitten over tomorrow. Don’t worry, I bought the litter box so that you don’t have to. And make sure she buys this story because I’m sick of feeling guilty all the time.
Thankyou!!!
Grandma

Critique #2

The family creates a sense of togetherness, since they are all sitting together and are all focused on the same thing. The bright colors set an optimistic tone. Since nothing in particular stands out, and everything is colorful, the focal point would be what the family is looking at. The woman could possibly be a palm reader, judging by her headscarf and the possibility that she’s looking at her child’s palms. Also, the white circle inbetween the mother and child looks like a crystal ball at first glance. The clothing style of the entire family is spiritual, another reason for why the woman could be a fortune teller.

The artist creates a sense of unity through the splotchy textures seen in the background and clothing. Also, the porportion is purposely off. The hands and feet are bigger than they should be. The eyes are also very large, accentuated by how light they are compared to the darkness of the smaller facial features. The child’s orange clothing contrasts with the mother’s blue ensemble. Blue is repeated not only in what the mother is wearing, but also the background. However, the same red that the father is wearing is only repeated in objects and the floor, and the orange of the child’s clothes isn’t in the background at all. This could mean that the mother is the most powerful or skillful out of the entire family.

Declaration

For my concept, I have decided to do relationships. At first, I wanted to do love but I figured that topic had been done too many times. Also, relationships give me more freedom as my concept. This way, there are still different types of love, such as parents loving their children, or the obvious one: marriage. However, I can now cover topics such as friendship, professional relationships, and even the relationship that forms between people and their pets. I would be completely lying if I said that I chose this topic on my own. I was awkwardly describing what I wanted to do for my concept with one of my classmates, when she suggested that I should do relationships.
The different ways in which people relate to each other have always fascinated me. No one ever acts the same way around their family as they would around their friends. In my portfolio, I would like to somehow portray the different ways people can show they care about each other. That is probably why I originally chose love as my concept.

Critique #1

This is a picture started by a boy with aspergers syndrome and finished by his sister and her friend. The background unifies the picture because it is the same throughout, green with streaks of blue going in the same direction. By looking at the picture, one can tell that each of the three children did one of their own hands. All the hands are facing the same way, showing that the children took the time to do this and did not just pick a random hand. Another way to tell that the kids spent time on this is just by looking at the hands. There is more than just one color in each of them, and the colors chosen in each hand are part of a color scheme.
The word on the blue hand to the left is difficult to see, but the word hope on the orange hand and the heart on the yellow hand are inspirational messages chosen by the children. Adding to the message is a heart in the middle of the painting. Although the heart somewhat clashes due to its overly bright color, it still goes with the overall theme that the children are trying to convey. The final thing that contributes to their peaceful message is the two white doves in the background.
On a more technical aspect, the picture is very well balanced. The hands are proportional to each other, the heart in the middle takes up what would have normally been an empty space, and the two white doves add to the background.