Raising digital awareness 3/31/14

   When it comes down to building a web site and or blog, the traffic (viewers) that come through  can be crucial to whether your site thrives or dies. It's important to draw traffic to your site for the soul purpose of if your information is knowledgeable and important to others. If this isn't the case, then what's the point?

   On my expository blog, it's easy to address what visitors need because most of the traffic that comes through on my site happens to be other Righetti students that are also in Preston's expository composition class. There isn't really one thing over another that I find more so important than any other subject that happens to be on my blog. I say this because everything I write about are all subjects that I find an interest in therefore they go up on this blog. Other students that need certain information and or an insight into other subject matters are more than welcome to take a look at my site therefore I believe this ties into addressing the visitors needs; they are free to browse the "selection" or product that I set out to display for not just them but the world on blogger. 

   Though I feel my site right now is going well, some steps that can be taken in order to improve the value of the site for my visitors is there can be more visuals in the layout that speak more of my personality. This would be nice because it would be a fair amount of "decoration" however it shouldn't and wouldn't be to overwhelming. When it comes to research and then the actual process of publishing my findings, this value can be improved in the sense that I can go even more so into details on the subjects' matter. 

   By far I feel human ideas are more so important than digital tools because if we had not had the human ideas then we wouldn't have digital tools in the first place! An idea can be anything and that's the beauty of imagination because eventually ideas can turn into a creation, invention and in some cases a life changing phenomenon. It takes an actual human to launch something and or continue to perfect an idea or tool; the invention will work however the human intended it to work give or take. 

   

Seeking Mentor 2/27/14

  The expert that I have identified such as someone whom is involved in journalism can teach me a lot in the sense that they can teach me about everything I don't know basically. When you read this you are probably thinking: "Well that's obvious" however when I say this I mean that little key details that sometimes get left out when it comes to this profession are vital pieces of information that I would need to know in order to be a successful journalist. Sometimes this can include knowing of particular people, knowing about certain places that others don't know of, and so on…

   In order to really choose the best mentor, the questions that should be asked are these: Who is the mentor I'm interested in? Why am I interested in this mentor out of the many other ones? What exactly can this mentor help me with? How are they going to do it? The most important question to ask yourself is how is this mentor going to benefit me in the long run if I choose this particular person?

This Is Only A Test 2/24/14

                               Masterpiece Test: Journalism

1. ________  is the activity or profession of writing for newspapers or magazines or of broadcasting news on radio or television.
2. 
   
3. How many fields of journalism are there currently in the world? (source) 
4. Who was the author of Welcome To Paradise: Now Go To Hell? 
5. List 10 new things that you have learned about the journalism career of choice. 
6. What is an entrepreneur? 
7. How can entrepreneurship benefit an upcoming journalist? 
8. What are the cons of being a journalist? 
9. What are the pros? 
10. ________ is an expert candidate for just like Chas, he to was captured by Somalian Pirates. 

10) For #10, pick an article that you are interested in and read it thoroughly. Now write down 10 things you learned about that article. After that, write down 5 subjects that could be possible topics out of that particular article. What is the article about? Who is the author trying to convey their information to? Why? There is no limit on how much you can write for question #10, just write! 

Is There An Expert In The House? 2/24/14

 
  When it comes down to an expert that's involved in my field of study, ideally I would like that someone to be enthusiastic about their job for then there really is no point. This expert should have a great work, positive outlook on situations and has to be willing to  learn new skills,grammar, writing techniques,etc. When it comes down to the work side of the job, this expert must be willing to gather as many resources as they can; this includes being able to be social and talk to people that are involved in whatever the subject of study may be. At first when I first started off with trying to find an "expert" in my field of study, I thought that Preston literally meant a person however this isn't necessarily the case. An expert just has to be someone who knows that they are doing/talking about and can be a very responsible/reliable person that gets the job done.

expert must:

• Have a background with writing such as journalism, creative writing, poetry and so on... 
• Be able to constantly keep other workers updated through text,email,etc. if this person along with others (in a team setting basically) happens to be working with others in regards to the same subjects
• Be able to set a good example so I would be able to shadow them and learn exactly what they do in order to write an article, summary of a topic, etc. 
• Work well with others of course 
• Have strong communication skills 
• Grammar should have a wide range and shouldn't be limited to because description is everything
• Must be able to stay patient for if they are teaching rookie writers and students  

  This is how I would like an expert to look in the field of journalism for me because then I feel like if I have a connect like this, I would really be able to dive deep into what I have always wanted to do which is write for a living. 

Masterpiece Test 2/20/14

  For the masterpiece Test involving journalism, I must pick an article ( mine being a beat boxer named Dave Crowe in this case) then write a mini essay focusing on the key points to the article. I then will need to define what journalism is along with adding 10 new facts I learned about journalism that I never knew before.

Dave Crowe, professional beat boxer



What is journalism? 

•   the activity or profession of writing for newspapers or magazines or of broadcasting news on radio or television.

How can it be used? 

•  Journalism is basically just being able to observe and report back to a source in which then can be used to spread information regardless of what it is. With this being said, journalism can be used in a variety of fields including studying abroad, newspapers, sharing news going on in the world, video journalism and so on...basically ANYTHING can be written about as long as there is evident proof provided that support the authors facts.

Expert Candidate: 

Michael Scott Moore   

Why him? 

• Because this man has been through some crazy stuff in his past such as being abducted by Somalian pirates. He to is a journalist writing about a support that he absolutely loves and this interests me for I to love the whole culture that surfing brings. He is an expert that I feel I can relate to the most as well as carrying a very blunt style just like mine.

The Futre & Technology resource 3/20/14

  I came across this article that talks about what the future will lead to along with what it will bring future students as well. Because we live in a world that's constantly changing more so than ever, it's fair to say that many people don't know what's to come of our world when I along with the generation after this one grows up completely. Many critics believe that to much technology can lead to problems down the road while others continue to welcome more and more new inventions and so on... into their lives for they feel technology aids in many aspects in a life. Some come up with these crazy senarios where humans will be created not just 100 % human DNA but they will also have about a 50% makeup and or be genetically engineered all together. Some will even carry robot traits and different informational disks that get inserted into the human. With this said, many people are convinced that our world will be taken over by "robots" while others (like I said before) want to completely indulge themselves in this new world to come.

   Check out THIS article written by Marita Sturken and Douglas Thomas


 

Lit. Analysis #3 Soul Surfer 3/20/14

                                     Soul Surfer 

                                    by: Bethany Hamilton 

   Soul Surfer tells the story of a young woman named Bethany Hamilton whom lives for surfing; the culture, the style, everything about it she loves for it makes up who she is. One afternoon while surfing with a friend and her father, Bethany's worst nightmare happens. A 15 foot tiger shark bit her left arm right off that left Hamilton in a state of shock. She then was immediately taken to the hospital where surgery was performed right away to help stop the bleeding of this fatal wound. When Hamilton awoke, she didn't have her left arm which sent her into a state of depression for she wondered "How will I ever surf again?" Months later, while still in recovery, Bethany eventually had to re-teach herself how to surf and live life all over again without a second arm. Soul Surfer tells the first person story of Hamilton and what she had to do in order to sustain faith in her abilities,etc. to eventually get back on the board. As time goes by, Bethany's persistence pays off because she then became good enough at surfing with one arm to the point where she is still looked at as a pro surfer to this day! 

   After this life changing event that took place, Hamilton decided to write about her story because it was quite a story to be told in the first place. Hamilton tends to come off as someone who is very spiritual and believes in a higher power such as God. The big picture of this book was just to let readers know that they should be very fortunate for the things they have in life...such as limbs. It's fair to say that we all go throughout life wishing we could change this about ourselves or look this way blah blah blah however we also need to keep in mind that we all are living,breathing creatures that carry beating hearts that keep us alive everyday. To sustain faith and courage within ourselves is big in itself and that's explained throughout the chapters in this book. I decided to pick this book up and read it because I have always been interested in the ocean and surfing. I guess you can say that I'm a "water baby" and have been ever since I learned how to swim as a small child. Reading about Hamilton's story is very inspiring because if someone who only has one arm can re-learn everything and become a pro, then little events in my life that I struggle with can be fixed as well. 

   I remember when the movie Soul Surfer came out everyone was very interested and curious as to what came about of this girl that majority of us had never heard of. Was she going to give up? Had she lost who she was forever? Would she become a success story then burn out like some celebrities do? All of these questions were being thrown around within the community so I decided to do a little more research and find out what exactly was the big craze about this Bethany Hamilton woman. One day as I was in the library, I came across the book "Soul Surfer". At the time I was living in Utah where there is absolutely no beaches and or anything in general around the city where I lived so I decided to just pick up this book and read about the descriptions of the waves/beach. I later came across something that was far more interesting which was the whole story of pro surfer Bethany Hamilton and her survival story. Within the first chapter, it talked about sharks and what not so I was interested right away (sharks scare me). After that, I just couldn't get myself to put this book down until it was finished! 

   I found this book to be very realistic in the sense that all the vivid descriptions Hamilton wrote about made me feel like I could picture exactly everything she was saying. When it comes to connections with other people that I have in my life, there wasn't any one person I was able to compare Hamilton to because honestly, she seems to be a much better person that anyone I know. She's down to earth, has great morals, sustains faith in something that puts her family before anything. Being that she only has one arm, I feel that if I was in her situation I would feel sorry for myself all the time and not get back in the water however she didn't want to let her physical deficiencies hold her back from doing what she really loves to do.

    The biggest thing that I learned after reading this book was this: if you have a passion that you really love, then you would do anything for that passion regardless of how hard the work being put in really is. Two characters that stick out to me the most would be Bethany Hamilton and her brother Timmy (the youngest) because the bond they both share reminds me of the bond my sister and I share which is inseparable. I would definitely encourage others to pick up a copy of Soul Surfer and read it for themselves so they to can experience the different emotions that come up after reading this book.

   

 

   

   

                                                           

CARGO Human Trafficking 3/17/14

  Last night there happened to be this movie on called "Cargo" which basically told the story of a young Russian woman by the names of Natasha trying to come to the states without any trouble. She hires this man that promises her and a hand full of other girls that they will make it across the border safe and in time however trusting this stranger was the first mistake Natasha made in the process of trying to come into a country that has so much opportunity. From start to finish, this movie really opened up my eyes because sex trafficking still happens in our world today all over, even the United States sadly. The big idea that stuck with me the most
is that there is no such thing as being "to young" when it comes
to the torturous act of being trafficked. Most victims that are
trafficked tend to be women between the ages 12-25.




  This is an article I came across that told a survivors story in regards to being forced into the trafficking world. What Brianna thought would be a nice change turned into a world of nightmare for this young woman...

Robert Rucobo Santa Maria, CA Artist post 2/14/14

  "Graffiti is my style of art and I hate water colors and ceramics, one thing I love about art is the open expression and how you can do so many things with art because its so diverse. I don't hate anything about art I love art I just hate it when people talk down about Graffiti because it's the most expressive art form out there!" - Robert Rucobo, age: 18, Santa Maria, CA

Today's resource of the day happens to be one of my peers in admiration for his art style, skills and perseverance in pursuing a career to becoming a professional freestyle artist. That young man goes by the name of Robert Rucobo AKA Bobby from a small city called Santa Maria. Bobby has been drawing ever since he was able to pick up a pencil as a young-
child however he didn't start getting into it on a serious note until he was 16. His favorite styles of art include Graffiti and street art that mostly stems from underground artists some of which being Shepard Fairey, Banksy AROE MSK and the whole Seventh Letter Crew. Though his strong point is art on paper, Rucobo also is a musician so he carries a broad range of artistic abilities which is pretty amazing in itself.  When the time comes, Rucobo plans on continuing his education in art through the Art Institute in Hollywood because there are some of the best artists around in that area where young Bobby can learn much of.
 
                   

                                   

Surfing Journalist - Chas Smith 2/13/14

  Lately I have been exploring a lot of journalism ideas that catch my interest. A recent one that I have come across happens to do with the ocean; surfing. Its origins, culture and lifestyle are all aspects that interest me and because I have some experience with this sport, I feel that it would be a great opportunity to write about. While in the middle of my research, I came across a surfing journalist by the name of Chas Smith. He is known for writing the book Welcome To Paradise: Now Go To Hell  along with his unique articulate style of writing. It was this article  I came across that really interested me because Chas is someone who carries a tough exterior however seems like a very brilliant person at the same time. It would be such an honor to travel the world and write about a sport that I absolutely love for everyone should like their job and more importantly love what they are doing! I really felt the obligation to write about this wonderful dude because his life is very interesting. You can read the passage below that explains why exactly this man is well known in the surf community as a reporter/journalist.       

"Foul-mouthed and notoriously outspoken Oregon-native Chas ‘Charlie’ Smith is a globetrotting, gonzo journalist with a predilection for fashion, surfing, whiskey, and danger. He was the first to ride the waves of Yemen, he has run from gun-wielding pirates in Somalia, and he did a brief stint as a prisoner of Hezbollah, and then lived to write about it, and many other international conflicts and topics, for the likes of GQ, theNew York Times Magazine, Blackbook,and Vice." - Resource   

I, Entrepreneur post 2/11/14

 
  Question 1 response:

  When it comes to self employment and entrepreneurship, I can say that when it comes to journalism most journalist that start out are indeed entrepreneurs because they need to be disciplined enough to gather enough information in order to organize it then present it when they write. Just like the 16 year old boy in this article, students to can be entrepreneurs if they feel motivated enough and even passionate enough to pursue anything for that matter.

   Question 2 response:

  Would I consider myself an entrepreneur in a way? Yes, I say yes because I to have had to acquire certain information in order to keep my journalism project up and running because it happens to be something that I'm extremely passionate about. With this said, I will admit that there are times where I don't do anything really at  all that can better and or worsen the current information that I have already come across. I am an entrepreneur in the sense that I do have to find my own research, make sure it's valid then collaborate with other students within my fields of interest but when it comes down to money, I do all of this for free. To be honest, after reading the prompt in order to do this assignment, it was hard for me to make sense of the word "entrepreneur" because the way I see it is yes I am self promoting however I'm also a student that does my personal assigned work for this course…

Question 3 response:

  When it comes down to it, our culture today associates entrepreneurship mostly with that of music and other individuals that happened to become successful through the work they were committed to. It's nice because whether we are aware of it or not, this sets up role models,inspirations,etc. because it's setting an example as to what we all can really make of ourselves IF we CHOOSE to really buckle down and handle our work. This basically is the biggest message I get out of self employed people that become extremely successful however I don't think a lot of people sometimes can see along these lines so clearly. Consequentially, I believe this idea should be reinforced in the sense that the message should become more clearer for other individuals to really understand for there is no limit (as cliche as it sounds) on what we can do.
 
 

10 Questions 3/10/14

  If I were to ask a professional writer/journalist 10 things that I have always wondered about, these would be my questions: 

1. When did you decide that you wanted to make writing a living?

2. How long did it take for you to get things up and running?

3. Did you ever have doubts that you wouldn't be so successful like you are today?

4. Where do you draw most of your inspirations from?

5. Can you see yourself doing this 10 years from now or would you want to move onto something different?

6. How often (if ever) do you get writers block?

7. Do you get offended when people criticize your writing or are you grateful for this?

8. If you had one thing to say to other young writers, what would it be?

9. Other than the writing, what's like dealing with publishing companies,etc.?

10. How long does it usually take you to complete a piece of yours?

Benchmark Project 3/9/14

                                           

                                        Benchmark Project 


Based on all of the previous work/research that I have been working on from these past weeks, I feel that

 my bench mark project shouldn't focus on just one subject that I have addressed but the many others that

 fallow. With this said, those subjects would consist of human computer interaction based research,

 psychology findings and my latest work which would be journalism. All 3 of these subjects had to do with

 my interests that I possibly wanted to pursue in the future for work or something once I'm able to graduate

 college,extra schooling,etc.

 

The first "career" of choice that caught my interest happened to be network administration which then

 evolved into human computer interaction, working with the public on technology based things and educating

 those that may have trouble getting certain programs, interfaces,etc. up and running. What first caught my

 attention about this field of work was that it had to do with helping people. By far I feel that all the jobs I

 want to major in involve helping people for that plays a big part in my passion throughout this life so why not

 do it for a living? I then took this into account and decided that working with computers would be nice

 because although I'm not incredibly great with computers, I'm not incredibly horrible either so I feel like I

 would survive in this line of work.

 

 Later on, I decided that this wasn't really my "passion" however it did sound like a great career of choice in

 the beginning of this whole project. My second choice then turned to psychology because there are different

 lines of psychology thus involve working directly with people which I would prefer. I find the human mind

 and everything about it to be very complicated yet interesting to me; I also have had an intensive experience

 with psychology and therapy related matters which I understand like the back of my hand so this would be a

 field of study I would definitely thrive in. Why I didn't stick with this subject? Because ultimately although

 psychology is one of my strong points, it still wasn't something that suited me life long wise.

 

The last and most up to date/current choice is journalism because writing is my ultimate passion over

 anything. Journalism is great because you don't  have to research and write about just one thing, journalism

 carries a broad range so whatever you may interested in that's what you tend to write about. I find it

 amazing because I tend to like music and writing; and to my surprise there definitely is a line of writing that

 involves interviewing music groups, traveling with them, working in the studio with musicians,etc. which

 seems very exciting in itself.

 

Due to only being a rookie at the whole journalism idea, I decided to gather some information on some of my

 peers and write a little article about them so they could post it to their own blogs in order to get their names

 out there and for some help them get their names known through certain networks and media based things.

 I love doing this because I'm not just benefiting myself but I'm helping others in the sense (like I said) that

 certain people are getting their names out there with their work as well. The first student that I decided to

 use for this test run would be Robert Rucobbo, a street artist that I happen to see everyday when I come to

 class. Robby a.k.a Robert has been drawing ever since he was able to pick up a pen as a child. He enjoys

 different artists works however he leans more so towards graffiti and other street forms of art such as this

 one.

 

Based on just the certain amount of information I was able to acquire through constant research, I came

 across many journalist that all had different styles of writing and different subjects that they tended to focus

 on primarily. In regards to the whole benchmark project, I feel that letting my readers know that I am

 sticking with the journalism path is very important because now if it's needed, I can be a great  person to

 contact within a network to use as a resource if someone needs some writing done for them. Though this is

 technically the "final" project, I still feel like there is definitely more research to be done here in order to

 ultimately become big with this idea that I have going now.

Resource Of The Day 2/6/14

  My resource of the day is the Journalist Resource Organization  because this site carries not just one but multiple resources and journal topics that relate to what's happening in our world today. Out of the broad range of listed topics though, the one that I chose to focus on the most would have to be Homelessness in the United States. How is it even possible for people to become homeless in the United States!? We have so much more than other countries don't even compare to so sadly how is homelessness still possible in this country?
   Based off of my own findings and observations in Santa Maria, I can say that majority of the homeless here weren't always like that obviously. Some of the homeless I have talked to, majority of them say that they had it pretty good growing up. It was the choices here and there they made that added up and consequentially contributed to their present time. Regardless, I'm still amazed that even if these people are homeless, we as the vast amount of the rest of the population choose to turn our heads the other way and continue on with our own lives. This is to be expected however not enough of us actually take the time out of our days to stop and genuinely help others that are in need. Personally I feel ashamed that our country is like this, it can change if we really want it to however not enough contribute to the causes out there that are targeted directly for the homeless/less fortunate.
   I could go on and on about why it's unfair that many citizens in this country are homeless and how it shouldn't be that way blah blah blah... however, I think something that would definitely speak louder than words would be facilitating yet another non profit organization that would help these people out so they can at least get back up on their feet and have another shot at life.

Resource Of The Day "Dog Pound" 2/5/14

 

  For my resource of the day, I chose to write a little about the movie "Dog Pound" because when I saw this movie yesterday it reminded me a lot about some of the career choices that some of my peers have chosen to dive into. Because I'm studying to be a journalist, I decided to just use this movie as my "resource" for I feel that I can build off of the overall idea of the movie. A peer of mine by the name of Sierra wants to become a probation officer so when I told her about this movie I was surprised to find out that she to had already seen it. Although this is a movie, some of the events that take place in this movie are actually based off of some reality for the horrible things that happen behind bars happen to teenagers that are sentenced time to serve. After talking to Sierra a little, I was happy to hear that regardless of how tough the juvenile system can be, it's the amount of people that get helped by the end of the day that really matters.

   I personally have not interviewed a probation officer and or corrections officer that works in these kinds of conditions however I think it's easy to draw the conclusion that this line of work takes serious guts people! Especially when it comes down to dealing with teenagers male or female. I do admit that this movie wasn't a direct source along the lines of journalism however I do consider this movie to be a resource for me because it's something I can write about which happens to involve a peer of mine as well for they are choosing to work in this type of environment for a living. To be able to connect 2 ideas together is great practice when it comes to journalism.