travel

I chose this picture for two reasons: because it was the only picture I had with another person in it, and because I love the setting of it.  When my brother and I were in Colorado two summers ago we climbed Mt. Sneffles, a 14,000+ foot mountain, and on our way back down there was an incredible view of different peaks and valleys so I felt the desire to document it in a picture.  When I took the picture I wanted to focus on the background and have my brother only be a piece of the photo.  I wanted to make sure that the clouds and the jagged mountains were included in the picture; therefore I decided to take it a distance from him.  I think since I was so encompassed by the joy of climbing the mountain and being surrounded by so much beauty I was a little bit over excited about taking pictures because now that I look back at the photo I realize that it’s not as great as I once thought, especially to someone that was not actually there. 

            If my brother were to turn around and take a picture of me it would have been the opposite of the one I took.  It would have been the front of my body, and behind me would be Mt. Sneffles so it would be where we had come from instead of where we were heading.  The caption that he would put underneath would probably be something along the lines of “we just climbed that!”  My brother knows me pretty well so he would not have quite the same assumptions as if “the other” were somebody that he truly did not know.  However, he would probably make assumptions that I was exhausted judging from the look that was probably on my face.

            This activity has made me think about the way that I take pictures of people, particularly when I travel.  As I went searching for a picture to use I found it very difficult to find a picture that consisted of other people outside of myself. This has made me realize that a big part of capturing a true travel experience includes taking pictures where there are locals that are captured in their normal environment.  This is because it helps to see the culture of the place you are in.  A different way of representing others in pictures for me would be to just start representing them period which is something I am definitely going to do on the next trip I take.

Forrest Gump, The Greatest Coach Ever

            The title of The Alligator on October 18, 2010 read, “Gump Trumps: Urban finally fires Steve Addazio after the Gators’ second straight loss in The Swamp and third straight overall.  And an unlikely, but apparently qualified replacement has been put into place, Forrest Gump a former Alabama All-American, and current turf manager at UF.”  It was a joyous day on campus the day that Addazio was fired, however there was a lot of questioning about whether or not Gump was going to be a good replacement because he had never coached before, and didn’t seem like the brightest person in the world.  However, when the Georgia game rolled around he quieted all the doubters with a 70-10 old-fashioned whooping of the Bulldogs in which the offense was only stopped on a Mike Pouncey botched snap resulting in a turnover.  The Gators went on to win their next four games by a combined score of 267- 34, including huge wins over then number 10 South Carolina, and in-state rival FSU.  These wins miraculously propelled the gators into the SEC championship where they got a chance to avenge their 6-31 loss to Alabama earlier in the season.  Behind Gump’s amazingly simple play calling he was able to unleash the true talent of the team and lead them to a 31-6 victory that salvaged a season that at one point seemed like it was going to be an embarrassment for anyone associated with the team.  In a post-game interview when Gump was asked about how he chose to call his plays he simply replied, “I just opened up the book and pointed to a play and that’s what we ran.  That’s all I have to say about that.”  And another reporter asked him how it feels to win a championship he said, “good, I like winning.”

            I chose to write about Forrest Gump taking over for Addazio because even though Gator football might not be a big story nationally it certainly is a big deal to people on this campus and to me in particular.  I obviously had to alter the event greatly to have Forrest fit into it, and even talked about things that haven’t happened yet.  The post-game interviews showed Forrest reacting to his fame by being very humble, mainly due to his cluelessness as to how big of an event it was.  This is the same kind of reaction he had to the other big events he came across in the movie, like meeting the presidents.

The Vitruvian Man

Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Vitruvian Man” might be the most famous ink drawing ever created.  It was done in 1487 and since then has come to be recognized as a metonym for health.  Because of this many physical therapy places have made it their logo.  A simple Google images search for “physical therapy logos” returned 14 results that had a physical therapy practice using the “The Vitruvian Man” or their own rendition of it as their logo.

When Leonardo Da Vinci first drew “The Vitruvian Man” it was respected as the most accurate drawing of a proportional man.  It was sometimes referred to as the Canon of Proportions because in mirrored text on the drawing he wrote all of the perfect proportions of a man’s body.  In recent years this picture has come to symbolize health, and in particular athletic wellbeing.  This is kind of interesting though, because some research has now shown that his proportions don’t even correlate to the perfect proportions that they once thought they did, but nonetheless people still think of athletic wellbeing when they see it. Due to this drawing being a metonym for health and in particular athletic wellbeing many physical therapy practices have now adopted it as part of their logo.  On Physical Therapy At Dawn's website they have this quote underneath a picture of “The Vitruvian Man.”  “The Vitruvian Man” by Leonardo Da Vinci…is the symbol of Physical Therapy At Dawn. Da Vinci’s anatomical and mechanical drawings represented some of the finest advances in science and mechanics and epitomize what we do for and what we bring to our clients.”  This quote I feel explains exactly why so many physical therapy practices use this drawing as their symbol because exactly what it says is what people come to think of when they see “The Vitruvian Man.”

some logos from physical therapy places using "The Vitruvian Man"

group project videoessay

group project videoessay

Regarding the Pain of Iwo Jima

            In war, people do not think of “the other” as real people with families and their own lives because it would make fighting them almost unbearable for a moral person.  In Regarding the Pain of Others Susan Sontag writes, “It is easier to think of the enemy as just a savage who kills, then holds up the head of his prey for all to see.”  Sontag is saying that when we think of those that die on the “other” side we think of them as not the same as us.  We picture them instead as a savage because that makes it easier to justify the murder of them.  If you sit back and think about war and the tens of millions of deaths that coincide with it, it is really astounding the brutality that humans do to each other.  You have to wonder how it is possible for people to kill that many people just like themselves.  The answer is that they do not think of them like themselves, but as savages.  In Letters From Iwo Jima this concept is illustrated in two ways.  The first is when the American soldier burns alive the Japanese soldier in the tunnel with a flamethrower, and then attempts to kill the others with a grenade.  The Japanese subsequently capture him and they beat and stab him to death.  While they are doing this one of the Japanese soldiers yells at him, “So you thought you could blow us up, or burn us alive, did you?”  These brutalities on both sides I believe highlight the mutual feelings towards each other that they think of each other as savages.  Perhaps an even better example is when Shimizu says, “I don't know anything about the enemy. I thought all Americans were cowards. I was taught they were savages.”   These sentences show that his leader understood the concept that in war people think of the “other” not as real people with real lives because it would make it harder to kill them.  Since he understood that he told those under his command that the “other,” in this case the Americans, were savages so that they would succeed in battle.

The Social Network

After reflecting on my Facebook, I have discovered that I am displayed as an extrovert at heart.

My Facebook shows that family relationships and friendships, as well as the experiences I share with them are the most important things in my life.  A person’s profile picture is what people are going to see the most often to represent that person on Facebook.  Therefore, it is the most important contributing factor to a person’s Facebook persona.  If you take a look at all of my profile pictures throughout the years, only one of them doesn’t include either my family or friends in them.  This shows that I greatly value those two groups of people in my life and that I’m not a loner who chooses to represent myself with self-photographed solo shots.  Not only do these pictures include my family and friends but also they are taken during fun times I shared with the important people in my life.  These times vary from spring breaks, road trips, and proms to holidays and family vacations.  Because these were all taken at enjoyable points in my life I am smiling in almost all of them showing how much I enjoy spending time with others.

some of my profile pictures:

I am also very active on Facebook. I am constantly in communication with all of my different groups of friends, thus showing that I’m an extrovert on Facebook. I am one of those people that anytime I’m on my computer, Facebook is open and I check it even more on my phone. I spend much of that time posting on friends’ walls and commenting on pictures and statuses. On top of that I am on Facebook chat whenever I’m on Facebook, and especially when I’m doing homework or am by myself. These activities on Facebook are all visible to my friends so they can tell that I am constantly striving to be in constant community with others.

The Weekend That Was

           “So everyone is coming anyways?”  I questioned enthusiastically.

           “Yep,” Joel replied “there is no way we are gonna let fear keep us from living our lives!”

            I hung up the phone, ecstatic about what the weekend held in store for me, but I was also a little skeptical about going against the advice of everyone’s families. 

The plan was for all seven of my best friends to come visit for the weekend and go to the football game versus USF.  Our plans had been in the works for two months when we realized that all of us were not all going to get be together in the coming two months.  The plan was; for my three friends from USF, as well as the one from Auburn, and one from FSU to all drive down and stay with the three of us that go to UF and spend the weekend together, and of course go to the big game on Saturday.   

To add to the excitement of the weekend, a crazy group of people decided that they wanted to burn a Koran that same day, which as the whole world heard ignited terrorist threats from Muslim Extremists. There was rumor of plans for suicide bombings and airplane hijackings directed at the sleepy little town of Gainesville Florida, and more specifically The Swamp where there was going to be 90,000+ crazy football fans gathered to cheer on the Gators as they took on USF on Saturday.  Because of these threats, my friends and I decided to rethink our weekend reunion plans and almost heeded the advice of our mom’s to stay as far away from Gainesville as possible.  After a couple days of arguing and bickering over whether or not to go on with our plan everyone decided to throw caution by the wayside and come anyways. 

            Everyone arrived Friday afternoon and we hung out, swapping stories for hours and carrying on like the good old days of high school.  We awoke Saturday morning pumped for the game and got right to tailgating, playing corn hole and redneck bowling and of course talking trash about each other’s team.  We then moseyed down to the Swamp for the kickoff of “The Battle of I-75” as the game was dubbed. 

         

   We entered the Swamp right as the game began and the place was electric.  90,000 people decked out in Gator orange and blue screaming their heads off in the sweltering 95-degree Florida heat.  The game started out similar to the previous one though with Pouncey and Brantley not able to complete a snap, and before we knew it USF had marched down the field, 96 yards, and had already taken the lead.  The whole first half was spend with my friends from USF screaming in my ear, play after play after play, about how they were gonna win.  Luckily though in the second half the Gators came roaring back behind some of Jeff Demps’ signature, dynamic runs.  The second half was truly incredible with the gators outscoring the Bulls 31-7.  It was the most fun I had had in 3 years at a Florida game because we played tremendously well and I was celebrating a 38-14 victory with some of my friends, and getting to rub it in the faces of others.  I gloated all the way home and the victory just added to a nearly perfect weekend. 

            The single highlight of the weekend though was the Koran burning being called off.  Obviously this was convenient because it pretty much ended any threats of a terrorist attack occurring, but it also was a huge plus for the world in general.  The cancelling of the burning saved face for the United Sates and more importantly it saved Christians all over the world from being misrepresented by one small church.

            That night we took a trip to CiCi’s where we all stuffed our faces with countless slices of pizza and fat bombs sometimes known as cinnamon rolls.  And finally we capped off our weekend reunion with everyone sleeping on couches and the floor at my place and doing what we like to call “bro-ing out” and catching up on each others lives which is by far my favorite thing to do in life.  I’m lucky to have such great friends and that I got to spend an incredible weekend with all of them.  At the end of the weekend I think we were all glad that we threw caution and fear to the wayside and just lived our lives.

        

            I chose to write this narrative on my reunion with all my best friends because it is the most recent big event in my life.  As someone looks at the pictures at the beginning of this entry they would get the general idea of what my story was saying, but only on a surface level.  I would say that someone looking at my pictures at the beginning of the entry would be able to deduce that I was writing about lots of different experiences with my friends and probably describing all of my different relationships with them. The seemingly random photos from a Florida game, and Koran burning right in the middle of all the other seemingly connected pictures would probably puzzle them.  To prove that people would interpret the pictures like that I asked a friend to look at the pictures and deduce what they meant.  He simply said that I was writing about my best friends, which is true in a sense.  However he did not understand that it was a specific experience with my friends.  He also said that the pictures of The Swamp, and Koran burning seemed to be misfits, but when they read the story it all made sense.

            When placing my photos amidst my narrative I mainly kept them in the same order except for the pictures of the Koran and the game, which I placed to coincide with the story.

            I also added two cheers played by the Gator band to a playlist on my blog in order to add a little more description, particularly to the paragraph about going to the game.  

Barthes and The Sixth Sense

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLyYYHqVTsE

A police officer lights a flare and the camera, from a person’s perspective, floats down a heavily congested street and comes to Cole and his mom in a car.  *HER: Enigma 1: What happened?  Partial Answer: We see a dented car, and police officers all around the scene.  Blocking: There is no actual showcase of the accident by the camera.  Promise of an answer:  Cole’s mom starts talking about the accident.  **ACT: Police officers are in the traffic jam meaning there probably was an accident.  ***SEM: There is a flare, which generally means someone is seriously injured because it is placed so a helicopter can see where it needs to land in order to heli-vac a person to a hospital.  ****REF: The suburban setting as well as the sound of the sirens give the viewer clues that the scene takes place in the suburbs of a large American city.

Cole and his mom talking in the car about him being ready to communicate with her.  *HER: Enigma 2:  Cole’s mom wondering what Cole means by communicate with her.  Promise of an answer: Cole saying to his mom that he will tell her his secrets.  Fraud: Cole saying, “someone got hurt” when he already knew that the lady was dead.  Equivocation: Cole tells his mom that he can see the dead lady but not in the sense that his mom thinks of seeing her.  Blocking: She is standing next to Cole’s window, but she is dead.  Disclosure:  the camera shows the bloodied lady right next to Cole’s window, and Cole tells his mom that he can see ghosts.  **ACT: The Shot-reverse-shot shows both Cole’s mom’s skepticism of Cole’s ability to see ghosts as well as Cole’s very serious face.

Cole and his mom’s continuing conversation in the car about his ability to see ghosts.  *HER: Enigma 3:  Does Cole’s mom really believe that Cole can see ghosts?  Promise of an answer: Cole’s mom taking a minute to think about how she feels about the whole thing.  Partial Answer: Cole tells about memories that his grandma told him that he would not otherwise know.  Disclosure: Cole’s mom admitting that Cole had seen his Grandma by answering his question.  **ACT: Cole and his mom crying and then embracing each other.  ***SYM: His mom crying showing that she is starting to believe what he is saying about his grandma.  ****REF: Cole talking about dead people being alive is not normal in American culture so his mom tells him to quit talking about his grandma because he knows she is “gone.”  Also talking about where she was buried is something that is distinct to only certain cultures.

Image Analysis

http://www.drivethrudiet.com/menu

Taco Bell’s new “Drive-Thru Diet Menu,” it certainly provides an easy way to eat healthy, or does it? This advertisement looks pretty much like any other food advertisement you see out there. All of the tacos and burritos look absolutely perfect with vibrant colors that make their food look to die for, even though when you see it in real life, as well as with the way you feel after eating it, you feel more like you want to die. There are some reasons why this advertisement makes these sloppy globs of meat, sauce, and potentially E. coli infested veggies look delectable. To make it look as appealing as possible the designer applied balance and emphasis to this image. The order of these tacos provides balance by placing two tacos and a burrito on either side of the central burrito. The background coloring also gives the image balance in that the top has lighter colors surrounded by darker colors on each side and then the reverse is present on the bottom part of the image. This advertisement also emphasizes the Fresco Ranchero Chicken Soft Taco by having an arrow pointing straight at it causing the viewer’s eyes to be drawn there.

When people talk about a diet they are almost always referring to it being a diet to lose weight, as is the case with this advertisement originally. I took the word diet and by adding some text at the bottom I made it into a less conventional way to use the word diet, as in just food that you consume be it to lose weight or not. People from our modern American society I feel are obsessed with diets, clearly shown by the prevalence of commercials for things like the Subway diet, the South Beach Diet, Lean Cuisine, The Atkins Diet, and countless others. This diet adds to those others to create what Barthes (Mythologies) would likely refer to as a signified that diets are the trendy thing to do and that you can make a diet out of any food, no matter how unhealthy it normally is for you. I find it quite remarkable that our society today buys into things like this. I feel this way because if they really just took the time to look at the facts they would realize that 1,010 calories, 24g of fat, and 4,040mg of sodium in one meal is really not going to help you lose weight or get healthier.

Introduction

I am creating this blog for my Writing Through Media English class. Ten times throughout the semester my teacher will post an assignment and I am going to respond in about 300 words through this blog to convey my thoughts on the matter.  The assignments are going to focus on analyzing things we view in class such as images or movies, as well as personal things like my facebook profile pic.  I will also be incorporating other kinds of text into my blog such as images or videos that should help to spice up my potentially boring blog.

I'm going to be doing this blog throughout the fall semester of my sophomore year at the University of Florida!  (hopefully my classes don't get in the way of watching some great Florida football in The Swamp!) Like any kid these days I spend a lot of my time, probably too much time, on the internet but I have never had my own blog let alone spent much time even reading other people's blogs.  So I'm excited to see if my blog turns out well or if I even do it correctly.  I'm really hoping that I'm not gonna be this guy at some points during the semester, although I very well could be.

I spend most of my time on the internet on three sites, espn, facebook, and youtube so naturally I am most looking forward to our blog assignments evaluating my profile picture and also analyzing a youtube video.  I haven't really gotten many specifics on our youtube blog assignments but I am hoping that I get to pick whatever videos I want so I can include some of my favorites from today such as the double rainbow video, the bed intruder song, or the leprechaun video, which you can check out by clicking on this link Leprechaun in Mobile, Alabama.