Week 8 - Crane

 This week, I had a new approach to learning a new origami design by being taught in person! My wife actually knew this design and she wanted to show me how to make it for this week. Having someone there in person who I could ask questions to made it significantly easier to make. I appreciated how much less stressful it felt to be exact because I didn't have to squint and stare at a screen to find the precise folding points. 

Social support has been a resource that very positively affected my new occupation this week. The encouragement and participation from my wife made it easy to start and follow through with. It also helped me to attempt a new design that I may have felt is a bit too daunting at first. A resource mentioned in the Cantor and Sanderson (1999) reading that has felt not very relevant has been power and status. I feel unsure how I would apply that principle with my experience so far with origami. 

A past principle that we have learned about that I reflect on are "space" and "place." I realized after my experience this week with origami that no matter what "place" I find myself in, which has been a variety of places, that it can become a genuine "space" for creating origami. This tells me that meaningful occupations don't have to always take place in the same... well, place!



Comments

  1. Flytying208October 26, 2021 at 3:22 PM

    Matt!
    You finally made the crane! It looks awesome. I agree that the social support is important in enjoying the experience of new occupations. My son is my favorite part of my occupation. How have you experienced the concept of space vs place now that your wife has joined this week? Is your crafting area a set location?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Matthew BlakeOctober 27, 2021 at 4:46 PM

      Glenn,
      My crafting area is not a set location. I've done it in around half a dozen different places. That's why I think it goes to show that you can make a "space" out of different "places." The "space" I experienced was significantly more enjoyable this week because my wife was involved. Thanks!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 1 Origami Project

Image
For my first project, I wanted to attempt something that origami guides call “simple.” I found a project with that label, but it was still more complicated than expected. This proved to me that perhaps I have a lot to learn about what really goes in to making an appealing piece of origami. I found myself stopping and repeating most of the steps involved. I stressed to make my folds in the same exact places and with the same sharpness. You can see a picture of the folding in progress before the finished project. However, I was able to make this fish origami shape and I believe that going through the fundamentals of the process will become easier as I get more practice!  On the continuum of relative influence of self vs. society, I believe that this activity represents much more of a "poverty of experience." This means to me that I have a lack of experience and that I do not seek it out for individualism, but rather a form of social conformity perhaps in a way that I would not ...
Read more

Week 9 - Whale

Image
I had a whaley good time this week with origami!😏 I wanted to try a design that can stand on its own. I felt like this week, especially compared to the first two weeks, origami has gotten considerably easier and more enjoyable. I still probably couldn't invent a new design by myself on-demand, but it feels less stressful to follow the precise and intricate folds. Something that origami has taught me, as well as other difficult challenges in life, is that much of how learning how to do something new is learning how to learn it.  Something that came to mind during the "Flowers on the Wall" song was that perhaps meaningful occupations can be very different for different people. They suggested through the song that perhaps their everyday occupations seemed boring to onlookers. However, their chorus sang "I'm having lots of fun countin' flowers on the wall, that don't bother me at all." They sounded completely content with the simple things in life that ...
Read more

Origami Week 2 - Butterfly

Image
This week, I attempted a butterfly for my second project of origami. I still tried to accomplish something that was around the beginner level, but I still felt that I struggled to do it exactly right. Emotionally, I started to feel a bit frustrated at myself for how many times I needed to stop or rewind a tutorial video. However, I also felt after a little while that perhaps I just needed to have a bit more patience with myself because this is still a new occupation for me! This occupation seems to relate to a couple of definitions of occupations in the reading, but not to all of them. The issue that keeps it from relating to each definition of occupation is that it is not something I perform every single day. However, it is still something that is "self-initiated, self-directed, and purposeful." In addition, it is something that I do to occupy myself. Origami is a new occupation in my life, but I'm not sure if I could consider it to be something that is an integral part ...
Read more