blog 6

I have gone through this class; I really wanted to look at power and misinterpretation. I looked inward to a personal experience, and then to a person in a job, and now to the world. The question has always been for these: Is it morally right to do what is best for you, or what is best for everyone else? And are these two things related or separate? As I have wrote two papers about my own ideas and Dr. John Erickson, I have gone a little bit father with the questions on misinterpretation, and on a deeper note what exactly is morally right? And how is it taught? What exactly do we value? How do you balance doing exactly what you think is right, and sort of having to move around them to accommodate everything? How exactly are ethics taught differently? How does power manifest itself in your life as you gain more?

         I think for the ideas that are percolating in my head, I want to do multiple texts. I want people to be affected by it, so they question something that they thought was a truth, based off what they were told. I mean to try and do introspection on what they think society values, and how the eye can be wrong. The main point of them is to not judge. I think that the power question is one for warning, if I chose to do that as well. It would be a caution to the problem human nature could have when given rule.

         I picture a 5’7” foot freshman male, wearing Nike attire form head to toe. They are wearing the Jordan’s that just came out, and have a bull cut hair. Their dad is a high paying businessman, who owns a couple Starbucks, and the mom is marketing major who chose to stay home with the young kids. He idolizes basketball players and wants to girls to like him. I want to tell him not to judge, and that appearance does not define you.

         A businessman. Holding his I phone 6 plus that he has a belt for he was an expensive suit with a clean hair. He wears sunglasses as he gets out of the Tahoe. A man, who is running late for work, weaving in and out of traffic honking the horn at anyone going the speed limit, I picture him so that he does not get too involved with the schedule he has, to miss the world he dwells in.

         Not collect my ideas of what I want to say into one of the genres is interesting. I like the idea of a biography and an article, to show a difference in the interpretation of an individual. I also like to write stories, so maybe I could use multiple characters in a day to realize the idea of which we have of them was wrong. For the power one, I think drawing a political cartoon is great, to show something along the lines of self gain being both a good thing and a bad. For a video, I could portray a person walking down the street in different sets of clothes, to show the way other people look at them. Maybe something like a crisp suit, to shirt and jeans, to tattered dilapidated outfit. Something to show the way people perceives things as being one. Some of the modes could be putting it on a website, like a YouTube video, and putting a live chat at the bottom, get a full representation of how they saw it.

         I think that I have a pretty good idea of the conventions of this genre. I have a lot of ideas, and I would have to try them out differently or combine them. What imp thinking of mostly is a video kind of like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54G4qCceDqs

And for a cartoon, maybe something politically satirical likes this:

http://www.lagunabeachindy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/cartoon-Election-Elephant.jpg          Visual is a really important role in this, because I am veering of the decisions we make, to the way our decisions are viewed. I hope that these ideas make sense, but I think I need to choose one or two.

blog 5

My critical question deals with this balance between the views of an individual versus the collective. Is it morally right to do what is best for yourself, or what is best for everyone else? And are these things related or not? It would be really interesting for me to see the balance of power in the confines of certain occupations, and how certain people view their jobs in that regard. There is a lot of corruption as well as nobility in this world, and I want to find it out through a lens of someone in my community.

         I want to interview a profile of someone for sure, and then extrapolate the observation to how it affects the people involved in those decisions. It definitely could be called a relationship between the rich and the poor, which I think sparks the base foundation in which this question was first hatched. As for who to research, I would definitely want to attach this question to a branch of a society that I am currently in, college. I want to interview the dean of students or a financial aid person, of even the representative of the campus in the government to get a base on their ideas. Then the ethnography part would be considered the observations of their day and effects in everyday college life. The observation is really wide open considering I have no gauge of what a big problem is on campus. I surely know of the struggles to pay for college. They would shed light because they make decision both in the universities sake, and the students. Those both can be related and maybe different.

         The base of my questions will maybe be their road to get there, and what goes into the decisions they make. I’m related to the person whoever that may be because I am a new resident to the university, and the community of Lincoln. I think to start off with an email saying I would like to talk to them for my class project and then setting up a time that fits our schedules. Maybe asking the introduction questions and explaining myself then will give less ice to break once we meet.

         Here are some questions I thought of which are in no particular order:

1.   What lead you to this job?

2.   How do you see yourself in the environment of the campus?

3.   How is your day usually?

4.   What does it entail as far as the university?

5.   What goes into the decisions you have to make?

6.   Does the thought process work differently for the decisions you want to make, versus the obligations?

7.   What kind of rules do you stress when a student has to come see you?

8.   How do you balance to needs of the few people in power, with the needs of the students?

9.   Do you think the decisions you make on a day to day as far as the future, have direct help?

10.                 When you were in college, what was your view it?

11.                 Has that changed when you had power?

12.                 How do you see the people of power?

13.                 Who benefits from the decisions you have to make?

14.                 When you make a decision that is right for you, how does it relate to the collective that you work for belong and above you?

15.                 Is there a time to be selfish?

I think that my question definitely are very broad, and they can be revised. I will be recording it on an mp3 player from home or if my home has the capacity.

blog 4

These two podcasts gave a glimpse into a world, from one story. The summer camp had stories central to the happenings of that camp in Michigan, and how it was a microcosm of society and other camps. The kids felt free there. That the society and world they live in puts certain mundane regulations on them that are more expressive at camp. “ A couple years form now, these kid will turn into cynical and too cool for this”. It all of a sudden becomes a community of events that are more central to our beings natural environment in a way. No longer attached the borders that naturally happen with lines, like the lines of a room, house, street, and city. The woods and camp is an empowering experience to these kids, because of the elegant simplicity. I think of Lord of the Flies when it comes to this power, except this camp story is a positive version. There is also this freedom to be blissfully ignorant and be a kid. They did the bloody Mary challenge and they were free to do it. That environment was so accepting and vibrant, that the other days in regular life weren’t as fulfilling.

We followed the kids around and made it more of a fly on the wall way of looking. There were minimal questions, and it was all things dealing with what they were doing. In our process to make things better, maybe we have destroyed our solution. The fake Indianess" is such a powerful moral to have considering the appreciation and the authenticity of our lives can be prosaic to theirs. With the summer camp, it was probably better to do ethnography because it was a point that is showered over most of the kids. It wasn’t one story, acting like a megaphone or a can opener to a world not known yet.

         This world I did not know yet was about the blind. The social constructions we put on the impaired have handicapped them more than what they are already. I think of the Fault in Our Stars, and how in the book the cancer perks and the eyes that watched Hazel made her feel like the reality the reality she had was different than what others would consider a bad one. It is not only the blind; it is the maybe the quiet kid that doesn’t have the confidence in school because of the way he or she is treated. “Blind people can do those things” is the quote that is radiated on the whole society of handicaps and hurt people. So many people don’t tap into their potential, and the barriers that those people go through are both internal and external. From this podcast, it seems like all external. That they would believe if society did and didn’t patronize them with what is considered help, but it only makes them feel more impaired. “A blind kid crashing into a pole, is a drag. A blind kid not being able to crash into a pole, is a disaster”.

In this podcast, you heard mostly from the people experiencing it. We sat as an observer and then triggered questions form that. It was a lot more form the people outside the realm of the situation, than the camp story. This was a microspore, were the camp story was uncovering something. We heard form doctors and sociologists, but it was all coming form the web spun by Daniel, the leading blind person. This one was definitely a more chronological view, and how Daniel’s life was and now, with his thoughts on the world being consistent with his motives. One more idea that stuck with me was I thought it was the best symbol of appreciation for the world around you and to trust everyone when the blind person helped the fully sighted journalist out of the woods, that they could be the leaders of not only the blind, but for everyone. We could take a lot from their vision of the world. “There is life, and then there is living your life”. That is if we let them.

part 2

With my question, I think that I could go both ways. I think that the personal aspect of what this question entails would be very represented with a profile. However, when I try to draw this back to people in power, maybe seeing the spectrum of others is better and hearing all of their talking points. I was thinking if I could sit in meeting at some board of directors or unicameral here in Lincoln, how much information on what was best for people would di be able to acquire? With issues that concern both the rich, middle class, and poor it would be significant to see the people talking points. With profile, maybe I would go on a platform like a regular occupation. Maybe a community social worker, and tie it into how and why they do the thing they do. However, that role that those powerful people go into is very important to se what is within them. Maybe a psychiatrist that wants to try and help the patient, but is pressured into writing for pharmaceuticals that may not be in the best interest of the patient, but for money.

The paradox could be represented in both ways, but strongly in when a person does well for themselves, and the common good with how they see themselves in that role. I could talk about the indecision maybe a lot of them face with really how much effect they see themselves happening like construction workers or local business owners. I think a strong pint of my critical question is how is the balance between the way others perceive someone and how they see the environment.

Stories around us

Bones in Morril hall

They all look in awe, to see what is inside the glass case. The children are looking at the objects and seeing the beauty of the world that used to be. This museum is a trip to a world that was something so different than now. These museums are the anecdotes of a time that has been buried in the ground or books for hundreds of years, now out for the public to see. Each of these fossils have a story, and each cannot be told anymore because all they have left to show is their bones. I wonder why it is a museum that people look and see with awe, when in present day we do everything we can to destroy it with pollution. What would all these ancestors of life have to say? Good people preserve their life, so 4 year olds can look at their might. But in the end, they are just bones. Looking at the past, do they see that? These three toed horses couldn’t have imagine a smartphone dominating the attention of the futures children. I wonder what life was like for them? They didn’t have the time or the resources to worry about student loans or what major to be. Was it better for them? Or do they miss out? Its hard to imagine a world that has these creatures. To the eye they look like monsters. Given humans, and there recent history, what would they call us. What would they call nuclear bombs? Maybe their ignorance is bliss and once again we are only left with some of their bones.

14th and P

Streets are paths to going somewhere. The people that commute in cars, bike, or shoes feel the need to get somewhere. I wonder how many experiences looking forward can lose. What if you missed seeing a squirrel running up a tree to collect something, or a small smile that stranger gave. You always want to get to where you want to go in life, but I wonder how much time we spend looking out the window. I think a lot of adolescent life is wondering how can I get notices later in life, and how can I change the world. What if it starts with that observation? I think observing can help when a man stands there with a cardboard sign and a solemn face, and hasn’t been looked at once in the 5 minutes that I have sat here. Is it our fears that control our thinking, and wonder all the negative of what is going around us? And is it that thing we are walking to that seems so much better? The walkways are crowded with destinations, like a public transportation system. If our paths met like a web, what would be different? He is finally met with the goodness of a stranger. And the people look at it like a reality tv show. Are we so close in contact with it that we don’t feel the need to act? Whatever it is that holds us back, is it our business to worry if it is for the good? I know people worry that they take advantage of you, but if you have the heart to give, there is hopefully more where that came from.

bus stop

This is a destination and a stop. The gates in front show the possibilities of a university, and an across the street is something to go to, so you can leave. I wonder if college is for everyone. I wonder about the man you works in construction and that is all he wanted to do. I wonder about the dreamer who’s colors are too bright for the halls of a classroom. Is it really that much of a saving place? Doesn’t it start with your mind, and this university is a place to amplify? I think going to college is fantastic opportunity, but it is what we do there that does its good. That is probably why the gates are there, to hopefully be open to welcoming and providing mental health. I hope it isn’t a fortified castle that is worth it to me.