Post Secret: Stand out...why not?

The audience for my post secret are young people who are influenced by media, celebrities, and fashion. My post secret focuses on the theme of being different and it is okay to not look ordinary. Essentially breaking out of conformity, is okay. I included pictures of celebrities with exotic looking hair or makeup to show that these people are incredibly famous and have a massive fan following yet still are able to obtain all of this while being different. I also included a picture of a girl eating a cupcake defying the idea that we all need to be skinny and well-mannered to be liked. My design is composed of quirky, unusual looking images of people who embrace their appearance and enjoy standing out.

Anti-Ad peer review

The peer review for my rough draft went well. It always helps me to get insight from another person regarding which way I should take my paper next and what concepts I should try to focus and expand off of. From this peer review, I am going to focus on expanding more on the description of my actual anti-ad and also be sure to include what audience it is geared towards. Also I may try to incorporate the effect these athletes are having on it's audience and how the audience may be influenced (childhood obesity, false advertising). Children see these sporty cool guys advertising McDonald's and they think by eating the food themselves they will be able to be just like them. However, by eating the food consistently their bodies will eventually transform to become less and less like these athlete's. This is an example of false, or misleading advertising.

Ad spoof

This ad is spoofing the typical fashion advertisements that appear everywhere these days. Typically, especially for high quality fashion designer advertisements, they advertise their clothes on very skinny women making atypical expressions. In the background there tends to be some sort of phrase or word that sets the mood or theme of their fashion line. This ad replaces that catch phrase with the models real thoughts. Her appearance does not even need to be changed from the way it would typically appear in an un-spoofed advertisement because it still demonstrates this look of despair; her hunger. Her body and clothes do not need to be changed either because she is already stick thin, and looks in the need of food.

Advertisments

This Covergirl advertisement, found in People Magazine, uses celebrity Taylor Swift to help sell their product. Taylor has a very sensual look on her face. She is not outwardly smiling however she does not wear a straight face either. She is speaking with her eyes and relaxing her lips. Her hair is blowing in wind which helps to enhance the covergirl catch phrase, "easy breezy beautiful covergirl." The emotion Taylor is showing also helps to enhance the display of the product on her skin. She does not have a lot of eye makeup on and is not wearing any jewelry. Her clothing is also very neutral. All of these factors play a role in attracting more attention to the foundation on her skin, which is the product in which covergirl is advertising. The advertisement also uses a quote from Taylor Swift regarding her view on the product. She states, "why do I love clean? because it's sensitive to my skin!" This adds some credibility to the product if someone were questioning whether or not the product really would be a good choice for their sensitive skin.
The ad promotes a lifestyle that puts a heavy influence on beauty. It displays a rather simple image, but one where Taylor Swift looks simply beautiful. People who are interested in having perfect skin and like trying different types of makeup would be attracted to this advertisement and product. It definitely attracts a female audience because men would most likely have no interest in using foundation for their skin. It also attracts a rather young audience especially since Taylor Swift is a young celebrity who has a fairly young fan base. Aka my grandma would not really be fascinated by a product that Taylor Swift is used to advertise. The ad invites me to believe that if I use this product my skin will be as clear and flawless as Taylor Swift's.

Great News!

It has finally happened! All of my dreams are coming true and I could not be more excited. Last night we were out by the lake sitting there and talking about what seems like everything. Now this is something that we do occasionally,and although, especially recently, I have been hoping that he would whip out a ring of his pocket and seal the deal once and for all, I was never expecting it to actually happen. But I guess someone was looking down on me and gave him the push to do so. We were sitting on the grass with the lights reflecting off of the lake and unto on our faces. We had been talking for probably about twenty minutes now and were deep into conversation. Somehow the conversation led into what the future had in store and as smooth as he is, he reached into his pocket and held out a box encasing a beautiful fourteen carrot diamond ring. I was astonished and can confidently say that that moment was by far the best moment of my life. I feel so overjoyed that I have found the person who I love and am certain that he is the one I want to spend every moment of the rest of my life with.
On Monday I returned to school where I first told my close friends. They were all so happy and some of the other teachers and I plan to go to lunch to celebrate. Next I tried to explain what had happened to my Kindergartners telling them that this man who I love very much asked me to marry him. I showed them the ring and said it was a present that I get to keep and wear forever and ever since he and I plan to be together forever and ever. They all sat there with this look of awe on their face. The little girls were so cute and all rushed to see the ring while the boys glared more hesitantly from the distance. However, there were all very interested and excited to hear my story at story time.
I can not explain to you the emotions I have been feeling these past few days. I am beyond happy and overjoyed. I can not wait to start planning the wedding and will be needing your help. I am hoping that you can fly in sometime later in the month to help getting everything started. There is so much to do and so much to think about. Who do I invited, what should the gowns look like, what kind of food should we have. I already see the stress coming. Good thing there is one thing I already knew since we were little girls playing "barbie wedding." Emily will you be my maid of honor?

~Jen


It has finally happened! Last night we were out by the lake sitting and talking. Now this is something that we do occasionally,and although, especially recently, I have been hoping that he would whip out a ring of his pocket and seal the deal once and for all, I was never expecting it to actually happen. But I guess someone was looking down on me and gave him the push to do so. We were sitting on the grass with the lights reflecting off of the lake and unto on our faces. We had been talking for probably about twenty minutes now and were deep into conversation. Somehow the conversation led into what the future had in store and as smooth as he is, he reached into his pocket and held out a box encasing a beautiful fourteen carrot diamond ring. I was astonished and can confidently say that moment was by far the best moment of my life. I feel so overjoyed that I have found the person who I love and am certain that he is the one I want to spend every moment of the rest of my life with.
On Monday I returned to school where I first told my close friends and co-workers. They were all so happy and some of the other teachers and I plan to go to lunch to celebrate. Next, I tried to explain what had happened to my Kindergartners telling them that this man, who I love very much, asked me to marry him. I showed them the ring and said it was a present that I get to keep and wear forever and ever since he and I plan to be together forever and ever. They all sat there with this look of awe on their face. The little girls were so cute and all rushed to see the ring while the boys glared more hesitantly from the distance. However, there were all very interested and excited to hear my story at story time.
I can not explain to you the emotions I have been feeling these past few days. I am beyond happy and overjoyed. I can not wait to start planning the wedding and will be needing your help. I am hoping that you can fly in sometime later in the month to help getting everything started. There is so much to do and so much to think about. Who do I invited, what should the gowns look like, what kind of food should we have. I already see the stress coming. Good thing there is one thing I already knew since we were little girls playing "barbie wedding." Emily will you be my maid of honor?

~Jen

Peer Review Reflection

I have found that I am much more confident in this paper than I was in my last. I feel that I have a much better grasp on my focus and feel like there is a lot of analysis that is already incorporated into my paper. I want to work on adding in more specific details to my paper and replacing the generalizations. I tend to make generalizations in my writing and am really trying to focus on getting away from that in this paper. I think that adding in more examples can also help make my writing more clear. There is nothing major that I want to change. I think I have a lot of good concepts included so far and definitely want to keep my same framework. I'm considering looking through my essay and seeing if my paragraphs are organized in an order than makes the paper easy to follow or if they can be arranged in a way that like topics can be closer together. All in all I see no need to make any drastic changes to this paper just simple revisions. I think that the peer revision helped me to organize my thoughts better and also help me to see where exactly I was at with my writing.

Response to feedback

The feedback on my rough drafts always helps me. I enjoy hearing about the things that I've done well because it is always reassuring to know that I am on the right track. It is also nice to see where I can improve my work and get ideas for what I can add to my paper to make it even better. When I go back and revise my paper these comments always come  in handy and help me focus on where specifically I should focus on expanding or editing my work. I like the questions that Miss Lang presents in her comments. As I read them I experience that "ah huh" moment where I am intrigued by what is being asked and am excited to answer it. All in all the feedback really helps me to improve my paper and set me on the right track for making my way up to my final draft.

Cinderella for a "partier"

Once upon there lived a hot girl next door named Cindy. Her dad died and she was left all alone with no blood relatives. The hot girls step mom made her do everything she said, including doing nasty chores like cleaning the house and catering to all of her and her daughters needs. This took up all of Cindy's time and she could never go out with her friends. She felt like an outcast and was constantly missing out on all the parties around town. However, one day her fairy god mother arrived and saved her social life. She delivers a little black dress with stilettos and a bottle of Grey Goose. After filling her glass flask, Cindy leaves for the huge party down town, traveling in a cab her god mother called for her. When she gets to the party, all eyes turn to her. No one recognizes her since she never goes out anymore. However, she becomes the life of the party and the guys can't get enough of her. After several different men purchase her many drinks she eventually finds one that she thinks she is really into. After hanging out with him for a little while she unfortunately gets too drunk and wakes up at the guys house. She is frazzled and runs out of the house leaving her glass flask behind. The next day she is forced to return to her home and continue her usual chores. Unexpectedly, the guy whose house she spent the night at shows up at her door step, glass flask in hand. He comes, determined to find the matching alcohol that is in the flask. He tries all of the girl's bottles in the house and when he gets to Cindy's room and tests the Grey Goose, he realizes it is a perfect match to the alcohol in the flask. His princess is Cindy! They make out and go rage all day and night. Together they partied and lived happily ever after.

Starry Night Text/ Visual Comparision

Since art is interpretive, everyone looks at the painting from a different perspective and therefore analysis is somewhat one-sided and opinionated. After looking at the "Starry Night" painting and reading the response, we see a lot of similarities and connections between what the author saw in the painting and what we see. For the most part, all of the physical aspects the author describes in his response agree with the overall image created through the abstract art. We also see these images and agree with the response. However, there are also several themes that the author responds to that we do not agree with or see. Since the Cypresses are not the main focus of the painting, it is difficult to relate to the statement about the "strength and fortitude" of the trees which the author of the poem is talking about. The grass in the foreground of the picture seems to be unproportionally big relative to the other objects and the author believed that the grass might be an important element to add to the overall image for a particular reason. We on the other hand think that it does not add any value to the picture created by the painter and therefore disagree with that part of the analysis which was written about the poem. There are several aspects of the painters life that may have influenced him to paint the picture the way he did and use such abstract of ways to demonstrate this idea. Since we have a different mindset than the painter, we see and interpret things much differently. Although we see the same colors and shapes, what exactly they are and what they mean are relative to ones perspective.

Peer Review Paper #2

In my discovery draft I worked on analyzing Michael Jackson and how his image reflected his unstable mental state. However, I had a very hard time showing this without including a summary of his life which I feel took away from my analysis and prevented me from emphasizing what I wanted too. Instead I think I am going to change my paper to analyse a magazine. I will approach it by talking about how the cover photos draw people in and then we read the text. I will also talk about how we are attracted by certain things because of the colors and the text that talks about how easy and fast can be to look like them. I want to choose this because it is a process that I experience every day when I am standing in line at a grocery store and pick up a magazine because I am awed by the cover. For my current essay my peer didn't really ask any questions because we talked about how I wanted to change my topic to something I felt I good grasp better and therefore better directly analyze.

Daily blogger reflection

I found being the class blogger to be a very stressful task. I tried to focus on the important concepts that we were talking about in class but also found it important to summarize how we got the results that we did. When I was blogging on Wednesday, we were discussing how we wanted to compose our rubric for our Digital-Media History paper. Although I could have taken the easy way out and simply posted the final rubric on my blog, I decided it was important to document the thinking process we took to come up with this final product. I also tried to help the class by including links to all the pages we were talking about in class. That way I could keep everything organized so that when people went to refer to the site in which I was talking about, it was right there. I also focused on trying to make the information we were talking about as clear as possible so that there was no confusion.
Occupying the role of "class blogger" was a challenge for me. It typically takes me awhile to process information and then take notes on the most important parts. I had trouble keeping up with everything that was going on and found it to be stressful because I wanted to take the best and most detailed notes that I could to help my classmates. Being the "class blogger" I realized that a lot goes on in class from day to day. We go through a lot of information that a lot of times I don't even pick up on. For this reason, I think it is a good idea to have a set of eyes and ears in the classroom to take notes on those things that often times I miss.

Awkward family photo analysis

This appears to be an image of an average, or somewhat average American family. Aside from the way these people look, everything else appears to be normal. There's a mom, a dad, and a little girl. It is normal for a family to go a get their portrait done, which is what one may assume this family is doing. However, looking at the picture it is awkward to say the least. The mom and daughter's hairstyle is anything but ordinary. It looks like there is a bee hive resting on tops of their heads. Especially for the mother, this hairstyle makes her head appear deformed and the little girl looks as if she is being caught off guard. The woman and girl are also wearing matching blaizers while the man is wearing a sports coat of a matching blue color. Oddly, the father looks physically normal. The normality of the father adds humor to this photo as the wife and daughter look incredibly out of place.
 The photograph is composed like a typical family photograph. The father is sitting in the front, possibly signifying that he the head of the family. Sitting behind him is a woman who appears to be his wife and behind both of them is a young girl who one would assume is their daughter. The girl has her hands on each of her parent's shoulders, possibly signifying love and care. The irregularity of the way the mom and girl look is what grabs my attention and makes me laugh.
 This photograph could simply just be a family portrait, or it could be part of a much longer story. Possibly the man in the front of the photo is running for a position in office and that is the reason why the family is wearing matching colors of blue and red (symbolizing USA).
 As a student, this photo simply looks awkward. I see it and I laugh. Awkward photos are taken all the time and usually nothing is thought of it. However, there could be a lot more behind this picture than just humor.

Class Blog: Wednesday September 26th

Today in class...

We started off by drafting out ideas for the rubric in which our Digital-Media History paper would be graded on. Miss Lang instructed the class to go to the class blog where we would find a list of instructions telling us to individually make a list of five things in which we found would be important to include in our paper in order to properly respond to the prompt and create an overall good paper. After completing this on our own, we got into groups where each person shared their list. Collectively the group talked about what they found to be the most important and created a new list with these items listed and ranked by the order of importance. Once each of the groups agreed on a list, they typed them into the document posted on the class blog site so that they could be displayed on the overhead projector and the class could talk about it as a whole. The complete list of these instructions is found on the class blog page which can be found below.

http://enc1101-26.blogspot.com/

When all of the lists were presented to the class we found that many of the concepts we included we very similar. Together we went through each groups list, talked about what they included and went through and clarified any uncertainties. The document including what each of the five groups found to be the five most important concepts is posted below. The things highlighted are what we collectively found to be most important and are what Miss Lang will most heavily take into consideration when creating a final rubric which will be posted on the class blog tonight, September 26th.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_AgE0Eq-gwcWB3Pi7Yy3DaP1Q7R94BDmX6LJVOM7bKg/edit


We then turned to page 379 in The McGraw Hill Handbook, where Miss Lang introduced to us a sample MLA paper. This is a good resource to turn to in order to verify that your paper is in the correct format and follows the MLA style. Some of the most important things to remember about MLA format are:

~Heading should follow the format of

Name
Teacher
Course
Date (16 May 2008)

~ Paper should be double-spaced throughout

~ 1'' margins on all sides

~Heading should be at the top right of the page with a 1/2'' margin and structured as Last name page number ( Hoffman 1). This header should carry on to each of the pages that follow with only the page number changing from page to page.

~Paper should include a title that is NOT Digital-Media History, and should be centered NOT bold, underlined, or italicized.

Listed below is a website which also goes over the important aspects of MLA format or you should refer to page 379 in the Handbook.

http://www.csus.edu/owl/index/mla/mla_format.htm

In order to prepare our papers for final revision, we referred to an editing exercise posted on the class blog page. During this exercise we read sentences posted on the website focusing on some aspect of writing (ex. commas, voice, wordiness, etc). We then referred to The McGraw-Hill Handbook to learn the rules about the specified topic and then fixed the sentences. These sentences can be found on the link to the enc1101 blog (class blog page) which is posted above.

The class wrapped up after editing these sentences. The class was instructed to have the final draft ready to be turned in for next class (Friday October 28) along with all other rough drafts. Also the class should read The McGraw Hill Handbook, "Image Interpretations," and bring the handbook to the next class. In addition the class should bring an album cover along with song lyrics to the next class for analysis. A complete list of these assignments along with other upcoming assignments can be found through the link below which will redirect you to the class calendar.

http://enc1101-26.blogspot.com/p/class-calendar.html

Helpful Links:

How to put your paper in MLA format using Microsoft word on a mac: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjP4jUVE8i0


DIGITAL-MEDIA HISTORY PAPER OFFICIAL RUBRIC:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y0PBpDk_aUAoIXZ_oxmXcgDlts-OXoNxNcbDv7aynt0/edit

Picture of the day

Introductions/ Conclusions

 In my own introduction, I focus on the general progression through life. I start by touching on the simplicities of childhood and work my way up to talk about how as you grow, so do responsibilities. As we grow up we get closer and closer to being exposed to "real life." I start with a commonly held view but expand of off it and take a deeper look into it.
 In my conclusion I touch back on how growing up happens in stages, which is what I focused a lot on in my introduction. I connect back to how things gradually get harder and more real as we grow up and how what we watch on TV changes due to what stage of life we are at. I think I need to focus more on the readers question of "so what." Although I talk about how our values change and growing up brings new challenges, I would like to leave the audience with a harder hitting image or possibly leave the reader thinking by presenting some possible implications for the future.

Peer Review #2

This peer review session went very well. I felt that after taking time and working on my essay for the past week has really helped me to get a better grasp as to where this paper should be going and what details and concepts should be included in order to get there. As a result, I felt that I was able to revise my peer's essay much better. I tried to really highlight what was good and touch on what could be expanded on to help her improve her paper. By doing this, it also helped me be aware of things I should look out for when going back and improving my revisions.

Editing my work

I definitely need to focus more about how my views changed throughout time and not necessarily media. Although media has changed and evolved throughout the years, I was the one changing what I watched on tv. Specifically as a little kid my parents did not allow me to watch shows such a teen mom, which I talk about later on in my paper. Instead I was exposed to shows where the endings were always happy and important values were always emphasized, even though they were not always that realistic. As I grew up I naturally went through stages where my ideals changed. When I got older I wanted to watch shows such as Lizzie McGuire because instead of being like cute little Michelle Tanner on Full House I now wanted to be that cool teenager. Instead of admiring how cute Michelle is, I wanted to be sophicated and hip. Watching this show exposed me to some of the things I would experience at this stage in my life and therefore I was intrigued by it. Now that I am much older, I choose to watch shows such as Teen Mom because it relates to people directly my age. I would have never been able to watch something like this when I was younger because it exposes its viewers to issues that are much more serious, issues that can not be solved with a hug and in a 30 minute episode. I choose to watch this because this is now my reality. Although I am not expecting a child, it could happen. The consequences are no longer "time-out" or being "grounded" but instead they are getting pregnant and going to jail. Especially being a college student I am no longer surrounded by puppies and play dates, but rather by drugs, alcohol and sex. Although I can confidently say I am wise about the choices I make, this is my new reality, this is how my life has evolved.

Writing workshop #1

I found my first writing conference to be very productive. My partner and I both started off on the same page approaching this assignment, and therefore it really helped to sit down and talk about where exactly we wanted to go with our paper and how we planned on getting there. Surprisingly, I didn't find looking over each others papers to be all that helpful. I found that discussing the general topic, the format of the paper, and what we wanted to portray through our work to be a lot more productive. Once I understand exactly what the prompt wants me to show and the structure I am expected to write in, I have a much easier time getting to where I want to go. I expect to be a lot more confident in my next draft, especially now that I know what is expected of me. I feel I can dive into my ideas more now that I know where I want to go with it.

The man of all men, John Wayne

As a child, Didion had this obsession with John Wayne. Young and naive, she saw him to be indestructible. Some may relate this fixation to a crush, which it absolutely was, but it also way more than that. Didion continued to follow John Wayne as she got older. Eventually John Wayne fell very ill, which was a monumental event in Didions life. Many would not find this as a big deal, for people get sick every day, especially elders. However, Didion saw John Wayne as a hero and the man of all men. This guy who played all these "bad ass" roles in all of these movies and courted women around in his fancy cars and extravagant dates, was weak for the first time. This stumbled Didion as her ideals were now beginning to change regarding the world and life around her.

I enjoy watching movies and television, however I have never taken what I've watched too seriously. Recently I watched the movie Crash, and I was surprised by the lasting effect it left on me. There are billions and billions of people in this world. Not everyone is going to get along and there are going to be people out there who make horrible mistakes and treat others poorly. I was impressed and admired at how this movie tied everything together in the end to show that no matter what we are individually made up of, we are all one united population. It made me realize the importance of helping others and made me aware of how we really are all put on this Earth together to help each other, especially in their time of need.

All writers write "Shitty First Drafts"

In this piece, author Anne Lamott takes us into the mind of a writer. She begins with a piece of advice, when writing, dive right in and start from the beginning, always telling the truth. "Shitty First Drafts" are the result of this, as even the best writers can not immediately sit down and produce a piece of writing that they are amazed by and conifdent with. This may lead one to wonder why she would offer others this advice when the outcome is always poor. However, she goes on to tell how after editting and editting good will come out of these drafts. I found it interesting how Lamott connected children trying to write down a story to authors trying to write best selling books. It is interesting how everyone faces the same struggles and starts out on the same page when trying to get their ideas out, literally.  

It should be easy to put your ideas in words right? This would probably make the most sense, however it is in fact the opposite. For some reason the things going on in your head are nothing but jumbled up thoughts buzzing and whirling by at one hundred miles per hour making it incredibly hard to not only catch them, but catch them, translate them into English, and then get them out on paper. Personally, I like to scribble down my main idea for my writing piece. This way at least I know where I'm trying to go and just need to figure out how I'm going to get there and which route to take once I'm there. Additionally, I like to write down those random phrases or minor details I want to include. These tend to be the few quirky ideas I manage to catch and spit out as then rush through my head. Although minor, these things serve as a great guide to get me to where I'm trying to go.
Writing is a major brain freeze. Worse than all of those you've experienced while drinking a milkshake to fast or slurping down that large slushie within sixty seconds. The task it nothing more than staring at a blank screen, waiting for your brain to finally pull through for you. That first sentence is the rising sun. Will it be a sunny day or a day with nothing but clouds? No matter what the sun always rises, it is what happens after that in which we are not sure of.