No Impact Man

What brings me the most happiness during celebrations like birthdays and holidays is that I feel at home. I connect these events with home and that’s where I’m the most comfortable. Associating these events with a particular place is also hard. When I’m away from home I start to miss it. My family and friends aren’t in my life as much and these are the people that bring me the most happiness in my life and especially during these celebrations. It’s about being in the moment with those who care about you and those that you care about.

No Impact Man is a part of the same kind of family but when Thanksgiving comes around, my family takes a big part in eating a turkey or two to celebrate while he probably thinks it’s hurting the environment. No Impact Man, as you can see from his name, doesn’t want to hurt the world in any way. He has almost hypnotized him family into thinking that no electricity is a good idea. Although not having electricity for a day might be fun, it’s unrealistic for me and many people to live without it. Energy powers almost everything in this world today that works. With technology improving everyday, it’s hard to find an appliance or tool that doesn’t need to use electricity. For the Beavan’s family, they couldn’t find a renewable source of power that could meet 100% of their energy needs because in today’s world it’s just too hard to go with out any source of electricity. When thinking about people who live in the city, it is especially hard for them to live “no impact” when it comes to electricity because they do live in a city. There’s no big green area to make a fire and cook your steak. There’s no battery that will let your phone last forever without a charge. There’s no way you can work in a 100-story building without any light. Everything using electricity if you actually think about it. That’s how the world is made today.

 Going back to the idea of food and being vegetarian, the Beavan’s chose to eat locally and seasonally through their “No Impact” year. When watching the documentary, Michelle, Colin Beavan’s wife, reversed her diabetic condition by eating locally. They were able to eat healthier, know what was in their food and where exactly it came from. The negative aspects of the experience of eating locally grown food, was the example of Michelle who depended upon coffee everyday. Her work started to drag and she was tired all the time. In the end she was healthier without it.

Consumption was another part of the Beavan’s plan. They wouldn’t use the television and not purchase anything new. Michelle and Colin thought that the TV caused several problems for the. It took them away from reality when they spent time watching reality shows. It also took them away from spending quality time with each other and their daughter. Television can cause these problems in many other people’s lives including mine. I find myself watching television when I’m bored and I could clearly be doing something more productive.

A Waitress at Duvals' Restaurant.

At first I read this waitress's expression as if she is nervous. The way she is standing makes it look like it was set up but because only one hand is on her hip it makes her look like she not yet in total control of her job. She seems hesitant and quiet and also very young. Young enough to look like she just started this job. After reading the poem, my thoughts don't change much. She seems to do her job as expected but doesn't engage in conversation or anything more than serving the man. When the man leaves, the waitresses and waiters are dancing in what seems like the streets. I don't picture this waitress dancing because she seems so shy but because it says she was maybe she feels at home with the other waitresses an waiters. Maybe since they are familiar faces, she's more comfortable around them. I don't think my reading of her expression changed because her personality seems to fit what is represented in the picture. She seems quiet and she expresses this in her job when she is serving the man.

Reaction on Activity

Picking an article was hard for me. I wasn't familiar with "The Onion" which is a a website where you can find articles. The website is based off of sarcasm and humor. I also did not know that. I tried to pick an article that was somewhat serious because of this. Probably the wrong idea when I came to class and everyones article was funnier than mine. When we were asked to find a tangible product or picture of something that represented our article there were no requirements. It could be literal or represent something the distantly could connect to the article. It was interesting but also very lenient and quick to the point.

The American Dream - Angela M. Balcita

The structure of this essay is in chronological order. The first sentence at the beginning of each paragraph is bolded to represent importance. The story tells of a man who moves from the Philippines to America. He has a son and a wife. He starts out feeling misplaced and questions if he can be both Pilipino and American. After time while he son grows up and he has baseball as a passion throughout it, he learns to live in America as an American. He faces problems as everyone does and he learns things about American's that he didn't' know before. He moves and fits in more with those surrounding him. The structure of this essay is kind of like every paragraph is one part of his life. A story that he can remember clearly and that had an impact on him. Each story has a main focus and that's the bolded sentence at the beginning. Each paragraph makes him who he is whether it's American or Pilipino-American.

Little Store (seeing 2)

In this photograph by Welty of the Storekeeper taken in 1935 is of the Store owner in the town that Welty describes from her childhood. The store keeper is sitting on a ledge with the looks of two pumpkins His facial expression shows a solid face with a stern structure. He looks unhappy and serious. His hand lays on the pumpkin as if he wants to show that he owns the place. He is properly dressed in a tie, button down and long pants. He is crossing his legs showing proper gesture maybe to express his seriousness of owning this store. In the background there are bananas a picture and I think a telephone. The banana's are by the window that is shinning light through the glass. This gives the store keepers face some brightness and the other side shadows. The banana's are ripening in the sun and the telephone hangs on the wooden wall. This shows that maybe the store gets calls for the food he offers. Or maybe he gets shipments of food from other factories and uses the phone for business. Even though the photograph is in a small area and it's called the Little Store, i think it's got a big business.

Little Store (seeing 1)

The way Welty rights The Little Store is in chronological order. It starts off with her describing her mother and how she always gets asked to go to the Little Store and she willingly does it. She loves to walk a couple blocks away. She play with her jumping- rope and jumps hopscotch. She remembers her stories of going to the store and getting groceries. The songs she hears and the smells she smells, it's all part of her memory that she explains to the readers in order from what she remembers of her trips. THe ones she remembers most clearly are the memories that have the most affect on her, such as the lyrics of the song. The way she writes appeals to many senses including hearing, sight and smell. She makes it feel as if she's still there describing it. Her details in the writing make you feel like a child experiencing it also because they are so vivid and descriptive.

Diposesed Seeing 2

Deresiewicz focusses mainly on the upper and middle class. He tries to make the reader understand these classes so that they can see the similarities between each class besides regardless the money. He refers to documentaries and television capturing the idea that this used to not be an issue. There were shows that stared the "working class" but now shows like that don't exist. Why?

Disposed (seeing 1)

The working class to Deresiexicz is  a someone who receives an hourly wage. He then continues to say that this definition doesn't include professionals, managers etc. I think he makes it clear that he doesn't like the fact that people think of working class as people who work labor intensive jobs. Why do they have to be the only ones considered for working class? Why do they seem lower than the middle class? What is the middle class? It seems funny that even the working class could make more money than the middle class but they're still considered lower down.

Seeing 2 (page 178)

The tone os Sander's essay is wishful. I feel like he's trying to argue a point that no one will really listen to and take into consideration. As he states on page 175, "I think of my home ground as a series of nested rings, with house and family and marriage at the center, surrounded by the wider and wider hoops of neighborhood and community..." This sounds like a nice place to be and I think he's trying to get across the fact that when you make a home your home and build upon that it's the best there can be and why move? When people move it's usually because they have to due to a job, or can't afford the house, etc. Staying in one place could cause issues and problems for families and others. Everything he says is true, a home can't really be a home unless you live in it for a long period of time but I think you have to make the best of what you have and if you have to move, so be it. Make that house your new home as much as possible.
I find Richard Ford's voice more engaging and convincing. Although I've only had one home all my life, I believe that everyone may fall upon trouble or happiness and have to change where their home is. Sanders considers home as the place he lives, where he has built relationships and spent a majority of his lifetime. Home to Ford means where he lives at the moment, typically not that long considering he has lived all over America. But as he states he "never thought any of these places were home when I lived there". I feel he knows home as where he lives in the moment but his essay is intriguing. It relates to many and his tone is entertaining and also makes you think.

Seeing 1 (page 178)

One argument for staying put is how can you value other places if you do not have on of your own. Those who just move on to make a home somewhere else have not made one where they were before because they don't know what home is if they're moving place to place. He also argues the fact that many root themselves in ideas rather than places. The idea of moving to a "better" place intrigues people and causes them to move. These ideas follow us and make us feel as if where we are now isn't good enough. But if you're they're long enough you can make a home for yourselves and those around you.
At the beginning he mentions a story of the family that keeps rebuilding their home because of tornado's that take off with parts of their house. This family could save money and move to a safer locations but resists changing locations. They refuse because of their time and investment in their land. It's what they're familiar with. Who would want to start over when so much hard work has already been accomplished.
I think his arguments are affective but he mentions many examples of quotes or stories that refer to moving, like Rushdie's thoughts and Newton's law. I think it would be stronger if they're was only one point that argued against his essay instead of equal examples on each side of the arguement.

River of Names

I honestly am very confused by this excerpt from Dorothy Allsion. She starts by explaining an incident where I think a families car crashed with a collapsed bridge. She mentions many names and I can't figure out who her aunt is and then it shoots right to her sister, her baby and the problems she has with her baby boy. The baby was supposedly born during a bad year and apparently they have a "tradition of bastards". This means that the parents were not married, so the sister is a single parent. Dorothy as her sister, visits and helps take care of the baby. One time, she walks in on her sister screaming at the baby, throwing a punch at him as it lands on the bed next to his face. Dorothy takes the baby away and her sister gets upset saying things like "I wasn't going to be like that". She asks Dorothy why she can't have babies and this is where I get confused. Is she a lesbian, because at one point she says "I could not come home to see her, from the woman I could not admit I'd been with" or does she hate her sister from when she thinks, "I cannon go on loving you and hating you for your diary-tale life"? Everything seems so dramatic and I don't know why. I think there's more to this story than meets the eye and the first couple of paragraphs has something to do with the whole excerpt.

Seeing 1 (page 127)

Arguments:

Auction House (American collectibles): what objects are worth value and what aren't.
Exhibition: paintings (meaning in the objects in the painting) and objects.
New Generation: we value objects for their "symbolic value", a memory or important remembrance
Design: objects valued because of it's color, technology, and craft. Meaning as well as function
Domestic Life: and how it relates to who we are, for example a kid's backpack.
World Trade Center: using objects like piece of the plane or an American flag to document a time in history when others think it's "robbing graves"
Athen's Paintings and the Greeks: their paintings and way of life are simple "domestic objects" just like ours today (books, photographs, films, etc.) which all represent stories and values

I thought the Auction house argument was the most successful because it was right off the introduction and the meaning of The Uncommon Life of Common Objects. It is a supportive example of what people find valuable and worth money. It gave examples of different objects and how some might find it more valuable than others maybe based on their own stories regarding the object.

The argument that resonates most with my own experiences is the paragraph about "domestic life". I too have objects such as clothing, jewelry, paintings etc. that mean something to me because they either represent myself, take on the role of a memorable story or keep me from forgetting someone I care/cared about.

Thinking about it now that I've read The Uncommon Life of Common Objects, all the objects in my life play a roll in my life. Depending on the object it is either used, looked at, listened to, watched, admired, loved, hugged, cried over and I could go on.

Seeing 2 (page 145)

Edward Hirsch focuses the emptiness of the painting. He first explains that this house stands out as if it's someone being stared at. Something is fishy about this house and something makes you want to look at it longer. He goes on to explain details of the house, the rooftop, the porch and it's structure. He tries to give the reader an idea of what the painter was thinking when he painted this. He states, "he (Edward) is as brutal as sunlight, and believes the house must have done something horrible to the people who once lived here". Makes the reader questions what really happened and what the painter was thinning when he produced this painting.  Edward Hirsch continues to explain detail and the loneliness of the painting. He describes the house as human. As "someone being stared at". At the end he states, "someone who is about to be left alone again, and can no longer stand it." Here he is talking about the house. How this house is now empty and no one is living in it and over time with no care is will get too hold to stand and fall. I think the repetitions and structural elements enhances the painting. You read a sentence about a man being stared at and then the second time you read it you understand that  it's talking about the house. There's just enough detail and bits of confusion scattered across the poem to make the house looks so much more interesting. It's not just a house anymore, it's whatever your imagination wants to think it is.

Seeing 1 (page 145)

In House by the Railroad, Hopper directs my attention to the details of the house. I read his words and try to understand them by focusing on the architecture and the structure of the house. I look at color, the windows, the red room with the chimney, the porch with the long whitish blue columns and the shadows the house produces. It is right behind the railroad track. Just a plain track that lies in the foreground of the painting. The sky is the same color as the house but the house stands out among the sky. The sky looks empty, the house looks empty and the railroad track looks empty. Overall I think it's just an empty picture but makes the viewer think a lot about why. What's the story behind this painting?

XXL, Game Informer and Cosmopolitan.

XXL is a magazine about Hip Hop life, fashion and music. I observed from XXL and Cosmo that they each have different sections dedicated to entertainment, fashion and life. Game Informer was just about video games. XXL represented it's magazine with dark colors such as red, black and navy blue as GAme Informer had brighter complementary colors such as orange, yellow, blue and white backgrounds and Cosmo had bright colors including pink, orange, blue and green. XXL and Cosmo had big fonts that changed page to page while Game Informer had the same font but different sizes. For each magazine I used three senses, visual, touch and smell. The pages were soft and smooth. Game Informers was a little more rough but all of them had that "new' magazine smell. They looked appealing with the bright colors and interesting fonts. Each magazine had many advertisements and also stories about different people. In XXL, there was a story about T.I, in Cosmo there was a story about Zooey Deschanel and in Game Informer there was a story about Rand Pitchford. Each magazine is unique in it's own way and targets to an audience that likes the same thing. I wouldn't like to read Game Informer because I don't like video games. Cosmo was my magazine and because of it's content I would like to read magazines of the like, such as Seventeen or Vogue.

Seeing 2 (page 94)

Osorio was very successful at capturing this teenagers boys bedroom. He made it seem like someone was actually living in it. It looks busy, very busy as teenagers usually are. It showed interests and hobbies. Dark colors are present which most boys enjoy and cover they're rooms with posters and collectables including trophies and other boy things like basketballs, bikes, tapes and then again more trophies. The posters feel very fictional as well as the shoes and trophies but the bed frame, the floor and the walls covered in little baseball cards seem more fantasy. It just seems to much work for a teenage boy to put together or even like. I would tell someone that fiction is something that is real, it seems realistic. Putting a big pink unicorn in a teenager boy's room is not fiction. Fantasy would be labeled as "non-fiction". Not realistic, aka the unicorn.

Seeing 1 (page 94)

The first object that draws my attention in Pepon Osorio's creation is the bed. The objects that draw my attention are the ones with bigger body surfaces like the white mural of the boys face or the little pictures covering the back wall. I notice that each object has a lot of color but mostly dark colors like red, navy and black. This boy is definitely a basketball and a Bruce Lee fan. There are posters and basketballs everywhere. Osorio's style is to create an atmosphere that shows the viewer the complete purpose right from the beginning. Clearly you can see what the teenager likes and doesn't like, what his interests and hobbies are and how he lives his life. His style is busy and full of color. It also seems very realistic. Not a lot of teenager boys would have a made bed.

Seeing 2 (page 91)

I think Cole finds another author to end her essay because she found it the best way to keep the reader engaged. Instead of her talking she switched it up and put another author in. Maybe she couldn't find the right words to say so she found someone else who could say it in other words. I think the essay would have been a little more boring if she paraphrased Schrodinger because then the readers wouldn't be able to think for themselves. They wouldn't be able to interpret it the way they wanted. if Cole changed her ending it would have a different effect. Every reader has a different opinion. I feel like if she ended it with her first sentence it would be kind of abrupt if the reader didn't know it came from the beginning and seeing how the essay is pretty long this could happen. I like the way she ended it, with a different authors perspective. Cole using different authors throughout the essay to help back up points and support statements. It helps the reader know that this isn't just a theory from Cole and that others think about this too.

Seeing 1 (page 91)

K.C. Cole finds a world where everything is either too big or too small magically seductive. The idea of things being too large in scale or too microscopic makes her feel motivated to tell others that it would be amazing. She finds the laws of nature interesting as the size changes in objects. Coles' essay shows that detail is important. Many miss detail in day to day life. We miss the bigger and smaller pictures and don't understand or see anything in sizes that aren't ours. The fact about the fly in water and how water is one of the "stickiest substance around" was very interesting. One wouldn't think about this but if we the fly's size it would be completely reasonable. I don't think any of the facts will change the way I think permanently but I think I will think about things more than I have. I think this essay was very informative but I don't think it does enough to really make me want to change the way I think. I think the essay was very interesting and I thought about everything it said but I don't think I will in the moment.

Seeing 2 (page 42)

Menzel's photographs of two families from Guatemala and Japan show their food for one week. When observing the two different pictures the first thing I notice is that they both seem to have the same amount of food. Guatemala's food is more colorful and fresh looking compared to Japan's which is mostly packaged and meats. The Guatemala's family is a family of six, a larger sized family. The table they place their food on is outside their house and wooden. It is covered in grains, vegetables, fruits spices, chicken, eggs and water. Every food group is represented and the family looks healthy. In the Japan household their food is laid out in their living room with their television in the background showing a Japanese commercial. All the fruits, vegetables and meats are wrapped in plastic packaging and their are pre made desserts also in plastic packaging. Their are fruits, vegetables, lots of fish, some different meats and many different types of grain (bread, cakes, rice, etc.) While Japan's expenditure for one week is around $320, Guatemala's expenditure for one week is $75. None of Guatemala's food is prepackaged or already made. In Japan the food industry is bigger and is growing faster causing the pre made food to be available and accessible to families. In Guatemala families make their own dishes and recipes. Both families have a very large amount of food but the price tells one that Guatemala gets more for their money. Food isn't worth much in Guatemala but is worth a lot in Japan. The country they live in depends on the food they get and how much its worth. The economy is different in each country resulting in different prices for food. D'Aluisio's text was more informative and insightful than the picture when looking at prices. You could see how much every food item was worth and what their family using when making food. One could understand their economic status more this way.

Seeing 1 (page 42)

Peter Menzel's photographic portraits of ordinary people's food in different parts of the world consists of four to six family members in each family and four different countries. The countries consist of Guatemala, United States, Japan and Chad. Each photograph is a picture of the family surrounded by all the food they purchase of one week. Typically this consists of meats, grains, vegetables, fruits and liquids. For each family the food is different based on where they are from and their background. The typical United States family, for example, will usually not have sushi seaweed in their pile of food and the family from Chad will usually not have any meats at all. Each family spends a certain amount on food each week. The food expenditure for a typical United States family is $242.48 and for Chad it is $1.23. Considering these prices, one can tell that the amount of food will vary because of the country the family is in and the background of the family. The families are dressed in custom apparel that represents where they are from and the background either consists of their home (living room or kitchen) or their home from the outside which in the Chad's family case is a tent. Each country has their own types of food and their own recipes that are used in their home. Some countries are richer or poorer than the other resulting in more or less food. One could tell the socioeconomic circumstances by these pictures. In some countries food is prepackaged but in others the food comes in linen bags that are reused all year round. Members of the family have to support each other and in some countries it is harder to do so than in others and the pictures reflect that. Each picture represents them as a family and what they eat for one week whether its one dollars worth or two-hundred dollars worth.

Faith D'Aluisio's accompanying summaries help understand what food is present and how much it is worth. It tells the reader  how much each food group costs, including beverages and whether or not their is prepared food.