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.