And the winner is...

The debate Friday night was an interesting one to watch. Foreign policy and national security were the focus. One thing I noticed off the bat was during the first question, Obama maintained eye contact with the camera and McCain blinked and moved his head around several times. Though this seems so insignificant, I subconsciously believed Obama more because it felt like he was talking directly to me. I felt that Obama's answer was much more clear and to the point. Obama outlined specific actions he plans to take to fix the problem, where as I felt McCain simply acknowledged there was a problem that needed to be changed. As the debate went on, I noticed little things in body language that I felt showed me the character of each candidate. When McCain criticized Obama, Obama seemed more concerned with making sure the facts were accurate. On the other hand, when McCain was criticized, he seemed to take it personally. He smirked continuously and tried to cut in several times. Not once did he even look at Obama! Next, the issue of Medicare was dicussed. Obama wanted to set a plan where all Americans receive healthcare from the government. McCain felt that Americans should pay for their own healthcare. Obama catered more towards the middle class, where as McCain dealt more with the wealthy. When the war was dicussed, McCain felt it was important to make sure we win. Obama told how he has felt that the war was unnecessary since the beginning. He said that he felt we weren't ready to enter the war because we hadn't finished with Afganistan yet. Obama also stated that he felt we should take more advantage of the oil we have at home instead of soley relying on overseas. Though we do not have enough oil here to last us, it will still reduce our absolute necessity for foreign oil. As a whole, I felt McCain consistently referred to his experience and Obama gave detailed plans of action. I think this debate went in favor of Obama. He seemed cool, calm and collected...very presidential! If you want to watch the debate again or even for the first time, I am including the link. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-nNIEduEOw

Shayna Tucker

A picture is worth a thousand words...

First of all, I must start out agreeing with Thiago by saying wow, what a day! I went to the football game and I am extremely depressed with the results! This game should have been a blow out! With one simple field goal block, our chance of a national championship went out the window. Now on to the less upsetting stuff. This week, our reading was "Family Secrets." While reading it, I felt a special connection to the author's beliefs on what a photograph represents. When looking at a photograph, I notice much more than just a simple snapshot in time. I see the before and after of that moment. I remember the smells; I remember the feelings I felt behind the smile. I am including a picture of me with my sister, dance friends, and Joey Fatone at the Super Bowl. Me and my dance group and my sister as a solo act performed at the Super Bowl VIP party before kickoff. I remember the whole day leading up to this particular moment. I remember being so excited that whole week. I remember the nervousness I felt leading up to the moment I stepped on stage. We had to arrive hours before the event started. It was raining the whole day and I remember being upset that my hair was ruined and makeup smeared. Behind the smile, I felt nervous I would look aweful on stage. I was happy to be there, yet upset I would have to remember it looking like that! After the picture, I immediately ran to the digital camera and checked what I looked like. It was definitely not my finest moment. Like the reading suggests, there is much more to a picture than meets the eye. Looking at the picture, I get overcome with a certain feeling that I can't quite put my finger on. The idea of the third meaning comes into my head. Right now I feel as though I remember the particulars of the event portrayed in the picture, but do I really? Are my memories truly descriptive of the actual event that occurred? What will happen when I look at this picture ten years from now? Will I still remember everything I remember now? Will I form new memories? Will I remember things that I don't even remember now? Certain memories are tucked away in my unconscious now, so just maybe they will come out later in life. The idea behind the third meaning intregues me. There have been many moments in my life where something sparks this familiar feeling within me. The feeling could be described as deja vu, but where does this come from? My group is assigned the third meaning, and I am very excited to try and fully understand this theory. I agree with the saying, a picture is worth a thousand words, 110%!

Shayna Tucker

family secrets blog

In Family Secrets Kuhn brings up a lot of interesting things to think about while thinking about memories and photographs. Something I found very helpful was when she outlines a way to look at a photograph to help jog the memory. She starts of by saying to “consider the human subjects of the photograph.” She adds that it is helpful to use “she rather than I.” She says that because it is a better way to see the subject how they were at the moment. Kuhn then goes on saying to consider the context of the photograph, then consider the kind of technologies used, then lastly who was the photograph made for and who has seen the photograph and who sees it now. I found knowing these steps very useful for doing the class assignment. 

The picture I have posted on here is the photograph that I brought into class and used in writing the assignment. To most people I’m sure this picture just looks like a little girl sitting with a woman, but to me it is so much more. For me this picture contains that third meaning. When I look at this picture it pierces me. My grandmother was diagnosed with cancer two years ago and passed away shortly after. I was so close with her and she was one of those grandmothers who was always so active and always came up with fun things to do which is always how I like to try and remember her as. While she was going through chemo it changed her completely she was of course weaker and for the first time she looked like an “old person.” Which is something I would have never described her as. Looking at this picture helps jog all the memories we had together.  Another thing Kuhn talks about and we spoke about in class, which I found very interesting, is the idea of simulacrum, having a copy without an original. Hearing that at first you think how is that even possible. Then you just start to really think about it and it makes a little more sense. When you take a picture of someone you are capturing that moment so indeed it is a copy but there really never was an original picture. Well this was definitely one of my favorite pieces to read and am interested in reading about the third meaning, which coincidently is what our band is assigned for. 

Amie Orner

Paul Newman Immortalized in Film

Today was one of the worst days. Fist, the Gators lost, but worse was that one of my heroes, actor Paul Newman, died today. Cool Hand Luke is my favorite movie and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is also pretty high on my list. I highly recommend any movie with Newman: The Sting, Color of Money, The Hustler all good too. Newman's characters and persona has had a lasting influence on me. Newman always played these cool, smart allecky, nonchalant, hero type characters that I always wanted to be like. So, while it's a shame that he's gone and that I won't get to see another movie of his, I'm not too depressed because as lame and cliche as it sounds Newman will forever be immortalized in film.

In Family Secrets, Kuhn states that:

"In the process of using- producing, selecting, ordering, displaying-
photographs, the family is actuall in the process of making itself." (17)

This statement lead me to another idea that photographs themselves are a proof of our existence. For example, if there were no pictures of you, or no living person that had the memory of you; or you never published any public documents or if there were no public records of you, did you actually exist? If when you die, if there is no after life, your death is then just the death of your conscious mind. So if there are no other conscious mind (another person) that remembered you or if there were no lasting evidence of your existence (pictures, movies, books published) for a conscious mind to see, it would be as if you never existed.

***Following Contains Spoilers to endings of Butch Cassidy and Cool Hand Luke***

In the final scene in Butch Cassidy, (can watch here) Butch and Sundance are completely outnumbered by a mexican army that are after them for robbing a bank. They then rush out of their hiding and take them all head on, and the movie ends with the picture below on screen for several seconds and several shots are heard being ordered fired.




Either they ran out to their deaths or they managed to take them all on (I like to think the second even though their death is obvious). But either way they are immortalized as two guys went down fighting and became legends. So just as Butch and Sundance were immortalized in the final frame of the movie, so is Newman immortalized in his movies, for they provide proof of his existence.

Also, just as In the end of Cool Hand Luke (found here) the characters sit around remembering Luke the way he was, "with that Luke-Smile of His", I will remember Newman in the same way.

I just finished watching the presidential debate and I thought they were both very good speakers. They started off talking about the financial debt and Obama thoroughly went through a set plan of what he was going to do to help the economy. McCain on the other hand gave a more broad structure of his plan to get out of the financial debt. Obama was more for focusing spending on getting rid of the oil dependency, which I agree, is a good thing to focus spending on.  McCain said things like Medicare should not be put in the government’s hands but put in the people’s hands but not everyone is going to be able to afford their own Medicare. It then went into talking about the war in Iraq and their opinions differed greatly. Obama wants to focus on ending the war and putting more troops in Afghanistan he says that Al Qaeda is more of a threat than Iraq. Which is true Iraq just as oil and Obama is working on ways to make us less dependent on oil. McCain is concerned with our reputation and does not want us to be defeated in Iraq. He thinks that the lives that were lost will only be in vain if we win the war. Obama thinks that the lives lost are already in vain and he does not want to sacrifice more people’s lives. I agree I think that no more people should die for this unnecessary war. The closing question really affected me they ended the debate with asking about our countries safety. The scary thing is that both candidates could not say that our country is safe now. Obama made it clear that focusing on America by making it a place where people think they could go and fill their dreams is very important. To conclude I personally think that Obama did a better job in getting his point across and debating his ideas.   

Amie Orner

Thiago Thoughts

Signs of Good vs Evil in Star Wars

In Barthe’s World of Wrestling he talks about how the wrestler’s look, attire, attitude, and gestures are all signs

that symbolize the wrestler’s character. For example, here's how Barthes described Thauvin, an ignoble wrestler:

“Thauvin, a fifty year old with an obese and sagging body..displays in his flesh the characters of baseness…the classicalconcept of the bastard.”

So Thauvin’s look acts as the signifier that the audience interprets as Thauvin being pure baseness (the signified). This also let’s the audience know that all his future actions and gestures will all support that concept. The Star Wars movies also use signs to help establish the morals/roles of the characters .

In Star Wars, a character’s attitudes, look, attire, and accessories also act like signs. For example, the Jedis, who stand for good, use blue color light sabers. The color blue can be associated with peace and calmness. On the other hand, the Sith who stand for evil, use red color light sabers. The color red can be associated with rage, and danger. Furthermore, the clothes each wear also act as signs to represent good and evil. The Jedis usually wear light colored clothes or robes like monks/samurai which further support the concept that Jedis are good. The Siths, on the other hand, wear Black/Dark colored clothes, symbolizing darkness and evil.

Darth Vader (left) a sith. Old Ben Kenobi (right) a jedi

By using these various signs to reinforce the character’s morals, I think it makes the story more dramatic for the viewer because the characters fighting represent pure good and evil. And in the end with the triumph of good over evil, we can’t help but cheer because it appeals to our sense of justice and goodness.

Iv'e also added a video of a battle between two jedis and one Sith from The Phantom Menace. Here you can clearly see how the difference in their attire, demeanor, voice tone, light saber colors, and especially the Sith makeup.act as signs to establish good and evil. and also because it's a sweet fight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPLXwrj7i7Q

And so it begins...

I guess it is my turn to write on the big, bad blog. I'm just kidding: I know its not quite that bad. After reading the two entrees of my fellow blogmates, a few things come to mind. First, I helped Amie pick which template to use so thanks Thiago! As we were sitting in Library West (or at Club West, which it is often called) waiting for Thiago, Amie and I decided to get a head start on the creation of the blog. At first we thought it would be funny if we picked a template that was pink and girly (that will teach Thiago to be late!), but then we saw this one and it was love at first sight. This class deals with the use of technology in literacy, and there was something about all those polka dots that screamed high-tech! Like Amie and Thiago have both already said, there was a little bit of a debate on what our image should be. At first, Amie suggested taking a picture of the three of us, but I felt it lacked any deeper meaning. I felt our image should represent something and should be looked at past face value. I then suggested just a picture of Amie giving the thumbs up. I was of course joking around with this suggestion, and Amie was quick to veto the idea. I thought it would be hilarious! It is almost a play on Tom from Myspace: everyone knows that iconic image! Personally, I was not too fond of Telly the Friendly Cell phone. Right now, I have moved past my initial dislikes and the image has finally grown on me, but I am still not the biggest fan of the name or catch phrase that accompanies it. I would like to end with telling the world that Amie Orner is the biggest copycat for using my smiley face! To reclaim my idea, I decided to still use a smiley face...multiple times! Take that Amie Orner! :)

~Shayna Tucker

oops sorry i ment to make the color of the font this color.. but i forgot..

- Amie Orner

Thiago Thoughts

Coming up with an image or icon that defines us as a group or that had some connection to the topic of "writing through media" proved to be a harder task than it looked. So our group started to come up with different ideas such as a picture of all three of us, a picture of just Amie giving a “thumbs up” gesture and even “let’s use the Starbucks logo since we all like coffee." Although, I'm not going to argue with Amie that I enjoy Starbucks coffee, Shayna was right to point out that the Starbucks logo is their logo and that we needed our own. So we finally settled on the idea that cell phones play a big role in our daily lives and that our constant use of text messaging on our cell phone applied to the concept of writing through media.

After searching Google images for cell phone pictures, we stumbled upon a picture of a friendly humanoid cell phone who we thought might fit the profile for our band mascot. At first I wasn't crazy about "Celly the friendly Cell phone" and was open to other suggestions, but after awhile he started to grow on me a little, and I also liked the idea of having a friendly cell phone as our mascot since technology can me frightening for some.

The blog layout was chosen by Amie and I agreed with her pick because it had a futuristic feel to it which I think goes well with the whole importance of technology vibe we are trying to give out in our band.

Instead of posting a picture, I am posting a video clip from the TV show “Family guy” which somehow connects with the idea of how electricity/technology is important in our lives and how miserable life would have been had Thomas Edison been a jerk and not shared his discovery.

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

The first post

Well guys I really enjoyed our little meet today in the library. We worked really well together trying to decide on stuff for our blog. At first for our image we thought we would use a picture of the three of us.. but that ended quickly and we then decided to choose a friendly looking cellphone as our band image because the cellphone seems to be the epitome of our generation. Even though you guys made fun of me at first for the idea on the naming and phrase of the cellphone, I think it ended up working out well. Our cellphone is also a friendly looking cellphone because we are all nice and friendly people. The cellphone sort of reminded me of Casper the Friendly Ghost and I really like that movie. Our cellphones catch phrase is "You Won't Be Able to take Your Hands off of Me" because it's definitely a gadget that I could not live without. I just can never take my hands off of my cellphone, when my cellphone is not on me I feel incomplete. To make the actual website we had to go on google and make an email which is bandfour0@gmail.com. We then went to a blog making site called blogger.com to make our blog. It was pretty easy to make everything was pretty much spelt out for you. The layout we have right now is just a pre-made template we are probably going to fix it up and change it a little more. We liked this template the best, which is why we chose it. We decided to color coordinate how we posted so we each have our own color that we will post in. Wow to write 300 words is a lot harder than I thought. This project doesn’t seem too bad though. I would rather be doing this than writing 5 page papers. My first image I am going to use is a happy face because I'm happy this is all coming together. Shayna also wanted a happy face as our band image so i figured I'd stick it in here. 

Amie Orner