Art 220: Entry 12

On Tuesday, we briefly discussed our papers on Kali Nikitas and then we proceeded to play a class game. Since the class was sitting in a circle, we just needed to know the rules. Jimmy asked for two random objects and sat between two students. One object was a coffee thermos and the second was a cell phone. Jimmy looked to his left, presented the thermos and stated, "this is a who." He instructed the person to ask, "this a who?" which he would reply again, "this is a who," and then the person would confirm, "ah, this is a who." The person would then look to their left and state, "this is a who," and then that third person would ask "this is a who?" the second person would turn back to the first person, and ask again, "this is a who?" and the first person would confirm, "this is a who," the second person would confirm "this is a who," and then the third person would state, "ah, this is a who." The chain would continue to left and meanwhile the same would occur on the right with the cell phone with the variation, "this is a how." When the objects crossed on the opposite side of the circle, chaos would ensue because now, people had to be cautious and remember to question and state in both directions. At this point in the game, it became very difficult and almost always, the chain would be ruined and the class would have to start anew.

When people think of games, the first word that often comes to mind is competition. This game did not involve being competitive. In order to get around the circle, everyone had to rely on everyone else. We had to listen to the intonation in people's voice to determine if they were asking a question or stating a fact. The slight inflection at the end of the sentence determined whether we kept going or had to start again. If we hadn't been paying attention to the pattern as the objects were passed along, we couldn't answer or ask correctly when the item came to us. Removing the actual names of the objects was also very important. If we used the names of the objects, the challenge of paying attention would have been eliminated.

It was funny to see the progress as the objects went around the circle, every time they reached the opposite end of the starting point, everyone would begin to have a difficult time and contort their faces into frustration or concentration. Not only did we have to focus on what was occurring on either side but we had to speak clearly. Although the real world does not occur precisely in this manner, when it comes to working in a group setting we sometimes need to rely on others to accomplish a task and the next person relies on us as well. While only a game, in this exercise I learned the importance of building off each other and communicating clearly.

descriptor collection
(all the words for this entry involve showing off but they pertain to different styles or manners of doing so)
egregious: flagrant in an extraordinarily bad way
ostentatious: showy, crudely displaying wealth
rakish: dashing in a way related to sports