Cultural Event 3

My last cultural event that I saw was the Dreyfuss Initiative. It was very powerful and inspiring but also very alarming. Dreyfuss was extremely informative of the urgency in installing American Civics back into the schools for our children to learn. I found it kind of scary when he said "I can see the light at the end of the tunnel on the story of America... and our kids won't know how great of a country we had." I also found it very interesting on how he spoke of our children becoming more and more uneducated or "stupid" and "ignorant" as he referred to them frequently as generations pass by. I also thought it was great how he spoke of the way our country has lost it's way through corrupt corporations claiming to be capitalists and politicians claiming that they speak the truth. Dreyfuss desperately tries to convey the importance of educating yourself and stop listening to the untruthful media outlets. I thought it was interesting how he was explaining to a questioner how Viacom who owns CBS can tell CBS they wish not to be investigated therefore controls what the media outlet relays to the people and that this happens with all media outlets. In the end of his speech he says that there are 75 theaters in the country that he would like to reach about having an American History play and that he's contacted 25 so far and gotten all 25 to be on board. This play on American History can be written by anyone and will be picked to be used and the winner gets $300,000. He also asked everyone to donate money to his organization and to help educate not only our children but the cynical adults who may have given up on saving the history of America feeling it is a lost cause. He quoted Jimmy Stewart from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington saying, "Lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for". Alarming, yet inspiring, to say the very least.

Cultural Events 1 and 2

I was able to attend 3 cultural events over the semester which were, a Philadelphia Phillies baseball game, the movie Paranormal Activity 3 and the Richard Dreyfuss Initiative (which was full but I watched it on CSPAN). First, the Phillies game was an exciting cultural event that I attended during their race to the playoffs that has been taking the city of Philadelphia by storm every fall since they made the playoffs in 2007 for the first time since 1993. Philadelphia takes their sports VERY seriously and their fans live and die with their teams year in and year out. This game was interesting in the fact that the Phillies had held the best record in the league for most of the year but ironically this game was arguably the beginning of a sort of complacency that ended up affecting their playoff performance, ultimately helping end their season. This game ended up being a 5-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals which preceded at 10-game losing streak that followed. Media outlets began to see the Phillies as settling into their enormous lead in the standings to which the Phillies argued was untrue. In Philadelphia, fans like me, had seen this before and already began preparing for the worst as Philadelphia fans do. Philadelphia sports fans went from 1983 to 2008 without having a championship in any of the 4 major sports in the city. Although the Phillies ended that drought in 2008, we don't forget that it's possible it could be another 25 years+ before another championship comes to town. We're cynical that way.

I also went to go see the movie Paranormal Activity 3 about a week before Halloween. This was the 3rd installment of the series. For some reason like many others, I get into the spirit of Halloween and like to go watch horror movies during the Halloween season. I've always done this since high school. My girlfriend went with me and she hates being scared and seeing scary movies but said she wanted see it only because it was Halloween. It seems like Halloween is this cultural phenomenon of a holiday that somehow makes people enjoy being scared. Obviously everyone likes dressing up for Halloween but Halloween and more specifically, scary movies around Halloween make people want to be scared. That's the whole reason people go to watch movies like Paranormal Activity is to be entertained and scared. Strange phenomenon.

Burnt out!

Sorry to continue bitching but it gets me through the day. I'm feeling so burnt out from this project as well as my other classes. I guess stress comes with the territory. To comment on my progress, the project is coming along fairly well. I'm not on my schedule as much as I'd like to be but that comes with the territory as well. That schedule was a nice attempt at staying organized but things never go the way they're planned in my life so I've hit snags here and there. Never go the information promised from INOVA blood services after several attempts to contact them so I've given up on that. My research paper is coming along slowly but I'm saving that as my last deliverable to finish. My website is getting there. I FINALLY figured out how to import a stupid pie chart into my website. It's not the one I wanted but I the next best thing in there due to time constraints. I still haven't began creating my poster board (I only have the rough sketch finished). So pretty much, I feel like my head is going to explode. CAN'T WAIT FOR GRADUATION!!

So frustrated....

I'm beginning to feel very overwhelmed with this Capstone project. I don't know why I chose to make a website as one of my deliverables. I felt I had enough experience to make it, which I still do but I'm not able to do the things that I wanted to do. I can't even add a pie chart. This is ridiculous. I've been trying for days to find a way to add a pie chart to my drupal site and it's not happening. I've searched and searched and tried several different ways and it's not happening. My site isn't anywhere close to where I'd like it to be and November 14th is fast approaching. This stupid site is putting me way behind, not to mention it is driving my nerves up a wall. I was going to originally choose to do the 20 page research paper assignment as my capstone but I didn't because I felt that would be boring. Now I'm really wishing I did. Guess this is what I get for wanting to do something different and more challenging. I don't know how some people were able to get this capstone project done along with other classes. Very disappointed in how this process is going but oh well I guess. Gotta continue on. Never thought I'd be so ready for school to be over.

Capstone Research

So I've acquired a lot of information during my research process and also gained a information from INOVA blood services when I went to give blood last week. My contact gave me several pamphlets with important information regarding blood types, who you can donate blood to and who you can receive blood from. I learned that 3.4% of America's population has my blood type which is AB+. I also learned that unlike being able to donate whole blood at 16 years of age, you have to be 17 to donate blood platelets as I do. As I had mentioned before in earlier blogs, my whole blood is pretty much no good to donate because my AB+ blood type can only be received by other AB+ blood types. Since there's only 3.4% of AB+ types in the country it's not needed. My platelets on the other hand are in high demand. Blood platelets are what causes the blood to clot when someone is bleeding. Thousands of people in this country have what is called hemophilia which is a blood disorder where the blood does not clot properly or at all. Receiving blood platelet donations helps ease this disorder. The reason it's so important for AB+ to donate blood platelets is because they are what as known as a universal donor. So my blood platelets can be received by all blood types, which make my platelets extremely valuable. I'm continuously gathering new information and have also begun my blood website that I've created through godaddy.com. Stay tuned....

Capstone Plans

I'm not completely finished with my project schedule but it's coming along. I have a blood donation appointment scheduled for Thursday this week and I will speak with my contact then about acquiring some facts and figures INOVA Blood services has on things such as the specific demographics and populations they are trying to reach. I'm also in the process of completing some questions I'd like to as Shepherd students to formulate a type of poll of who donates, who doesn't and why. I will also begin creating my website which will be linked to the pamphlets I will be creating so students and faculty alike have several different types of informative sources to report to.

I tried to attend the Richard Dreyfuss Speech yesterday at the Byrd Center but it was completely full. I signed a sheet gave out for students who couldn't attend but I Tivo'd his speech on CSPAN so I plan on watching it this week. Tonight I am attending the Philadelphia Phillies baseball game in Philly which I am plenty excited about. I was pleased to hear I could blog about this game as one of the 5 cultural events I have to attend this semester for my Capstone. Stay tuned....

Senior Capstone Project Idea

The capstone project I'd like to do is a public relations campaign on raising awareness of the importance of knowing and learning about your blood type. I also want to raise awareness on the different ways you can utilize your blood according to it's type. Certain blood types are in need of donations much more than others. For example, my blood type is type AB positive. This type represents about 3% of America's population so it is pretty rare but what makes it important is, this type is a universal donor for blood platelets which help clot the blood. There are shortages of spare blood platelets all over the nation which creates the importance for me to donate my blood. This donation process takes approximately 2 hours to complete compared to a typical 15 minute whole blood donation.

These are some of the things I'd like to bring to people's attention in my campaign. I'm aiming to learn about Shepherd's blood drives they have and hopefully help set up a blood drive by the end of this semester, where I could hand out pamphlets explaining the ins and outs of each blood type and how to best utilize their blood during donations.

I was also thinking about maybe creating a website which provides more information on blood and blood types and putting the link on the pamphlet for others to view.
Currently I'm still in brainstorming mode but fortunately I have a contact from INOVA BLOOD SERVICES where I frequently donate who could help with some research.

Admin menu

I also forgot to blog about the admin menu that I had previously downloaded. I found an administration menu module that made my life a lot easier. I had previously been having problems remembering places I had to go with in my sight to change certain administration strategies. I would forget if I needed to go to content, structure, modules or configuration if I needed to change a certain thing. This ended up causing quite a bit of trial and error and wasted alot of class time clicking on the wrong menu. I actually began looking for a type of drop down menu bar just because I think they look nice and actually stumbled upon the very useful Admin menu module. This module is intended for new drupal users and drops down the options of each menu button when you scroll over them so you can get right to where you want to go limiting the amount of clicks needed. I found this very useful and took away a good amount of stress from my day :).

FINALLY!

I finally figured out how to get my date module working and it was actually completely by accident. I'll get to that in a second. First, I downloaded the colorbox module which was a little complicated to get set up at first. Keisha helped me get it set up. First I had to download the module then I had to download the lightbox plug-in to go along with it. After that, I had to create a library folder in my godaddy account so I could put the colorbox module and the colorbox photos in it. After that, I went to add content to make a basic page and name it Gallery so my colorbox photos could be viewed. When entering add content, I saw the option for dates, so I clicked on dates and there was everything I freakin needed all along! So I was able to create viewable date and people can access it and comment on it. I just made a quick example and put a date of when I will be back which can be commented on. I can't believe it was right there the whole time! Oh well, I guess that is part of web designing, trial and error. The greatest things in the world have been found by mistake (penicillin) :). That officially pushed me over the edge in enjoying Drupal. I guess i just needed to catch a break that way for me to be fully hooked!

Blog 7

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20110427_Marc_Lamont_Hill__Show_of_hands__What_constitutes_manhood_.html

This is an article written on philly.com which his a website for the Philadelphia newspapers, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Daily News. It is about two NBA players on the Toronto Raptors being photographed while they are holding each others hands, written by Mark Lamont Hill. The two players, Leandro Barbosa and Reggie Evans were viewed walking through the tunnel back to the locker rooms when they were caught on video grabbing eachothers hand and walking through the tunnel. This caused somewhat of a small media uproar in the sports world on whether this was appropriate male physical contact. It raised questions as to whether these athletes were gay or just simply being affectionate with one another. I think the one question that is probably most overlooked out of this whole situation is "What's the big deal?"

Hill writes not so much about the two players but mostly about the reaction by the public after the video was released on the internet. Hill states that many people responded either negatively about them being homosexual or positively stating it is "ok" if they are or are not homosexual. He mostly writes about his wonderment as to why our society is so opinionated as to what "appropriate" male-to-male behavior is and how our culture thinks they should act. He begins speaking about the contradictions of this argument compared to the "ok" male touch of hugs, butt smacks and chest bumps. He then moves on to stating how his experiences in other continents such as Europe and Africa lead him to believe male touching can be a sign of non-sexual affection. Hill does not really use any three-dimensional characters in this article, although he does seem to be insinuating that a man should allow himself to be a 3 dimensional character and our culture should view men as 3 dimensional characters, not 1-dimensional. What I mean by this is that Hill is saying that our society creates a script as to how males are supposed to act and what they're supposed to like from a young age. He states that we tend to paint our boys rooms the color blue. Hill also says we tend not to allow our boys to play with dolls unless they have guns, then they must be referred to as "action figures" (G.I. Joes). He says there is unfortunately no room for homosexuals in the profitable world of pro sports, meaning our culture is pinning athletes as 1-dimensional athletic heroes that have no personal background whatsoever or at least that no one cares about. Hill is basically stating that there are gays in all different professions so "why wouldn't there be any in pro sports?" He's stating that in our culture, whatever our boys grow up to do, we've created this persona for men to be strong, emotionless figures that don't have any soft side to them.
I thought it was interesting that after making all of these emotional, valid points in defense of Leandro Barbosa and Reggie Evans, Hill basically contradicts his own thoughts by stating that most likely this was taken out of context and the players were maybe even playing a joke. This notion to me completely invalidates any of Hill's arguments and seems as though he is essentially "selling out" from his own convictions. He began by stating that it's not a big deal for men to hold hands in other countries and they do it all the time so it should be a big deal here. He ends up stating that most likely it was a joke, insinuating that American men just don't hold hands. What if these men were being affectionate with eachother? It's very possible especially with one of the players being from Brazil (Barbosa). What if these players are gay? Hill was heading in a consistent direction with his argument until he ended his article contradicting himself.

I think its a shame that even this writer who seems to have his heart in the right place and stated his convictions thoroughly, ended up giving in to his own unconscious thoughts that even he said were instilled in him since he was young. I guess when you think about it, maybe he didn't contradict himself so much after succumbing to what he stated earlier as a script that he has been taught from the beginning.

Travel Module

I have been getting frustrated with the lack of cool drupal 7 modules I have found! I was looking for some type of travel or map module for my site. I thought it would be great for some type of geographical navigation module for planning and routing a trip to Lake Havasu, AZ. The best one I found was a travel module that had the perfect description of what I wanted/needed.... and it's only available for drupal 6! AHH! It's driving me insane, it's the 4th or 5th cool module that I found that wasn't available for drupal 7... it's such a tease!

Date Module

I have been trying for weeks to get my date module working and I am officially giving up on it. I have configured and reconfigured the module several times as well as adjusted and readjusted the permissions. I feel like I have tried everything I can to get this date module working. I've seen the date module working on other people's sites so I know the module is functioning. What I am thinking is that the module does not work on the Danland theme. I saw the date module working on Keisha's site but I think it was back when she had the Marinelli theme. Once she changed to Danland she said the Date module disappeared. So although I felt that Date module would be a great asset to my site, sometimes the modules do not work for certain themes. Ohhhh well.... moving on :)

Weather Module

I downloaded the weather module for Drupal 7 and I am very pleased with it. It is perfect for the website that I'm doing. Since my website is about my trip and ensuing return to Lake Havasu City, AZ, this module is very appropriate. It includes the weather for wherever the current visitor is as well as what the weather is like to the closest airport to Lake Havasu which is Kingman
Airport. I like this module not only because it gives you weather details other than just the temperature. It provides you with visibility reports, barometric pressure, and the wind speed/direction. I also like the little weather animation it provides for you. This module was very simple to install and did not need any other modules to be downloaded with it. It was a little complicated to set up at first, but once you learn how to operate the module it is fairly simple.

New Web Modules

At first as I was downloading different modules, I wasn't too happy with the modules I had found. I saw them demonstrated and began to get bored with them and did not think any of the one's I had found on my own were very special. I found a "countdown" module and a "weather widget" module which I thought were "ok" but wasn't to thrilled to present them. Finally I thought to look for a facebook type module and found the "Like button" module which I thought was awesome. It's very simple and was not hard to set up but I feel it's a great module that everyone can use to spread the word of their website. I hope I can present first tomorrow so I can show it off first and not worry about someone spotting it first! lol.

Favorite Television Program

Characters

eBay Case Study

I actually use eBay frequently, mostly for buying and I had never tried this Flex application. I first opened my eBay account and placed an item easily on my watch list. I always found it fairly simple to locate and track my watch list items by logging into my account and either going to the "My eBay" button at the top and going to "Watch List" or going to the "Watch List" button on the side. I had never previously used the Flex app for eBay.

When I first tried to download I was not impressed. I use Firefox and I guess I have the most up to date version (or at least I thought I did). When I tried to download the app for Firefox it told me it was not available for my version of Firefox. So I had to open up Safari and then downloaded it from there. It then opened up a new window and asked me to re-login to my eBay account. After doing so, the little eBay button popped up on the left side of my browser bar. I clicked on the browser bar and nothing happened. I clicked 2 more times before I realized another Safari window opened and was again asking me to login which was kind of irritating. I logged in one more time and finally the app would function. I opened up the app and noticed a small, simple window opened displaying my active, watch list item as well as my purchased, "ended" items. If I clicked buy now, the standard ebay window would open allowing me to purchase the item.

All in all, I found that the flex app was I guess fairly simple to install but I will probably never use it because I prefer Firefox over Safari. Also I don't find it that hard to login to my ebay account and use ebay from the web.

Art and Science of Interpretation

I think what was discussed in class today is a perfect example of why it is important for us to talk about the art and science of interpretation. Today we briefly discussed how many people who vote for or against things such as health care, do so while being partly or completely ignorant to it's benefits/detriments. They do so with only the contentions they hear from media such as Foxnews or MSNBC.

As stated by Max VanManen in the syllabus, research which has critical theory, thrusts aims at promoting critical consciousness and struggles to breakdown institutional structures which reproduce oppressive ideologies. Learning about the art and sciences of interpretation and cultural studies can help us distinguish these institutions that produce these oppressive ideologies (i.e. Foxnews, MSNBC). These institutions produce their own one-sided beliefs and are not focused on the people who already agree but the people who are critically unconscious and cannot think and analyze things themselves.

Critical theory and Cultural Studies will not help us know what is wrong or right. They will simply help us emancipate our minds from the oppressive ideologies fed to us by the media by teaching us to expand our minds, rationally analyze everything and think for ourselves.

Advanced Internet Technologies

After putting such hard work into creating my website last semester I do find it sad that all of the things web designers have learned are quickly becoming obsolete but that is the harsh reality of today's digital age. Although it is true that applications seem to be taking the place of the web, it was inevitable that the web would be taken over by some type of new technology. We've seen this pattern through each generation. Many would say the radio would dissolve after television was introduced, others said books and newspapers would die after the invention of the internet. These things are still possible and only time will tell, but they still continue to hang around because there are people out there who are still passionate about keeping them alive. Whether it is the passionate producers who refuse to let them die or the persistent consumers who stubbornly ignore new age technology and remain in favor of their old ways.
Life on the go is the way people live and the speed at which they live will only continue to accelerate. That is why any time a new form of technology introduced, enables someone to complete a task while "on the go" will be quickly accepted in society and will overshadow the older, slower technology. Its the way our world works. Many people feel that this technological age is something new but it's not. Ever since the Industrial Revolution, society has continued striving to find bigger, better, faster and easier ways to move through life. Now we've just entered into a digital age that is moving quickly and the web is just another unfortunate technology that is now becoming obsolete.
Personally I still use the web a lot and would have a harder time functioning without a computer than a phone. I still think the web is important and after creating my website last semester do have a new respect for web designers. Although applications may make life easier and move faster, I still do enjoy sitting on the computer and doing some old-fashioned web-surfing. Geez time goes by fast, I remember when the term web-surfing was cool.