Box 9

The first thing that came to mind after reading Mama's Day was an old movie called "The Beverly Hillbillies". It reminded me of this because of a similar plot where a big company wants to pay off the family for the land. The main difference in the Beverly Hillbillies is that they actually take the money and move to Beverly Hills. There were definately parts of this I didn't understand and had to stop and think about them. I was entertained with the language they used even though it was hard to understand at times. I was surprised to find out about Hilton Head. That is a very popular resort spot still today. I thought there were some part where I was completely lost and began to then lose interest in the story.

When I reread the story, I gained a much better understanding of what the story was about. It took a few times through one section to understand the 18 & 23 but I realized it after Reema's boy had figured out that is was actually 81 & 23 which were the coordinates of Willow Springs. One of the most interesting characters was Reema's boy. He was very different from the group he grew up with. He sounded like he was a professional business man and had some education and common sense. My second favorite was the narrator. The narrator was interesting because of the mystery or who he or she was. For some reason I had the idea that the setting was in the country near a shore. I had imagine this because of the various companies that were interested in their land.

Box 6

Observation of the bathroom sink.

9-22 The bathroom sink is white. There are a few small pieces of hair in the bottom. There is some evidence of tooth paste in the sink. The faucet is fairly shiny but has slight residue. The caulking is a bit dirty.	The small pieces of hair are from when I shaved earlier. I usually try to wash them all out but I may have missed some today. The same goes for the tooth paste. I usually try to wash it all out.
9-23 The sink faucet is silver. There are separate controls for hot and cold. The controls have a slight cross shape to them. Each have a colored outline towards the top. One red and on blue.	I focused on the actual faucet today. There was not much change in the look of the entire sink between yesterday and today.
9-24 The sink basin is white. There is an indentation around the oval top. There are also two identical approx 3x2inch indentations on both sides of the faucet. There are to small circle holes on the back of the inside on the sink basin.	I focused on the sink basin today. The indentation on top is most likely to keep water in the sink. The two identical indentations are for placing soap. The two small holes are overflow drains.
9-25 Today there are some small bits of coarse hair around the basin of the sink. Some of them are different sizes.	These small bits of hair are most likely from someone shaving and not cleaning the sink out well.
9-26 The small bits of hair are gone today. Everything on the sink is fairly clean today except for one small toothpaste leftover.	We usually keep things fairly clean around here so someone must have cleaned the sink yesterday or this morning and then brushed their teeth.
9-27 In the bottom of the inside of the sink there is the drain. The drain is chrome. There is a cylindrical piece in the drain that moves up or down depending on the position of the lever on the faucet. If i pull the lever the cylinder goes down. If I push the lever the cylinder comes up.	The cylinder in the drains controls the water flow and a level on the faucet controls the position of that lever. When the cylinder is down completely, all the water will stay in the sink.
9-28 Today there are fresh soap bubbles in the sink. The sink also has a slight shine to it. I can faintly smell a slight soap smell.	The reason for the fresh soap bubbles, the slight shine, and the aroma is most likely because some just washed their hands.

Box 8

All through high school I was very involved in the web design industry. I worked as a web developer in the IT department of a branch or the Ohio State University. When the time for college came around I decided on the Visual Communication and Design major with a minor in Web Design and Programming at Kent State University. Kent Has a student chapter of the American Institute of the Graphic Arts (AIGA). After attending all last year, I want to study this group as my subject for this ethnography.

What surprised me?
Upon arrival to the first meeting of this semester I found it surprising that the group was much more organized than last year. They had the group meet as a whole to discuss general events and information. Then the group broke into smaller groups. Each group had an upperclassmen leader. I was also surprised to find the number of students in the group had increased and there was also a student leader.

What intrigued me?
Although it was surprising to see the group more organized it also intrigued me. When we separated into smaller groups, I joined the communication meeting. A major topic of the communication group was the redesign of the Kent AIGA website. This intrigued me because of my interest in Web design.

What disturbed me?
There wasn't really anything that disturbed me. I was a little upset that they had change the mentoring sessions to a time when it was impossible for me to come. I was also somewhat upset that they scrapped the blog I designed last year and post o a new one on a completely different platform.

Week 4 - Academic Sources

Academic sources are a very important part of academic writing and research. An academic source is a piece of information such as an essay or article the comes from a trusted location such as an educational website (.edu), a scholarly journal, or most books. There is a good reason for instructors wanting us to use these as sources. One is for the fact that they are accurate. There is a lot of inaccurate and misleading information out there that would not be good to use in a research paper. Two is to learn how to properly find real and trusted information. There are some situations you could use non-academic sources. Yo could use them in blog posts, comedy, fiction stories, and many more. In my experience I would consider an academic source information that is backed or written by someone who has a degree in the field of research they are presenting. Therefore non-academic sources would be from places such as wikipedia, where almost anyone can edit the information, or websites that don't claim any affiliation with a university. In the assignment we are currently working on, I could look at the non-academic sources for information such as stereotypes of graphic designers, events and contest for graphic and other small details I would not fond in an academic resource.

Week 3 - Research Site

After some considering and narrowing down my options I have chosen the AIGA student group as my area of study for this project. AIGA stands for the American Institute of Graphic Artists. It is a student and professional organization for graphic artists to network and communicate on topics about design. I am researching this site because of its involvement with my major (Visual Communication and Design) and also because of my interest and experience in web design. If I were to stop someone walking down the street and ask them about the group they would probably be somewhat interested. Most people don't realize how big a part graphic designers play in there every day life. I would how them any sign or website and tell them that without a graphic designer that sign or billboard would not be interesting and would not catch any attention. Saying this would probably start a conversation about where else graphic designers are involved.

Week 2 - Topic Exploration

As I begin my exploration for a topic there are many factors that I will help me narrow down my choices for the final research topic. Some of the factors include: my interest, my current job, my major, and also meeting time. Between these factors I will be able to choose the best area to study. In this list of factors the most important to me is my interests. If I choose something that I have interest in, it will lead to a better written research paper. After that factor next would be my major, my job then meeting time. In my research I am looking to learn something I can use almost every day for the rest of my life. That is why interest and major are the most important on my list. If I choose something with in my interest or major it will probably be something that will be a big part of my future career. My current list is: web design (AIGA), music and radio (Black Squirrel Radio), and church and worship (H2O Church Kent). With my interest in computers and web design, my major in Visual Communication and Design, and my job at a web design company I will most likely choose AIGA as my research site.

6 Word Memoir

Graphic Designers, we make things better.

Box 3

The swine flu has been a main concern around Kent's campus and recently the student health culture speaks out against ways to protect themselves from getting this life threatening illness. To gain more information on this culture one may ask the following questions:
What are some of the symptoms?
Is there a vaccine?
Are students scared?
And, What are ways to protect yourself?
Students perspectives are different than one who is writing strictly for news content, field workers are focused more on gaining public information and opinions rather than facts and figures.
The student input is not the only resource used for a field researcher, other credible sources would be doctors, other campus health services who have experienced this phenomenon, and news articles.
The internet is the easiest and most accurate way to gain information on symptoms and doctors knowledge with out going directly to a doctor. However to get information from students and to gain opinions the most reliable information is gained through interviews because the information is better gained through an interpersonal experience.

http://media.www.kentnewsnet.com/media/storage/paper867/news/2009/09/14/News/Students.Speak.Out.On.Swine.Flu-3770222.shtml

Box 11

There are some factors that may affect what I see at the field site. I would like to study the subculture of AIGA. AIGA is a student organization of graphic designers, that discuss new and old design techniques and tools and also attend various design events and tours. With my major being visual communication and design, I have been involved with this organization in the past. I also work for a web design company. With both of these factors, I will have to study the group in a different way. I will have to come to the meetings with the thought of being a person who doesn't know anything in the field. This will help with the details that I would usually miss if I just attended as myself. This organization only meets once every other week for approx 45 min. This will good also because I spend most of my time working on projects for classes.

On the other hand I will enjoy attending the groups meetings because the topics are interesting and very helpful in my major and field of work. I will also meet people in this group that have similar interests as I and will be good connections to have in later business and school questions.

Box 2

When I am doing homework or working I like to listen to music. I pull out my rectangle contraption, that only has one button. Into this contraption I may plug in little buds that I stuff into my ears. From these little buds I will hear sound. If I want a much louder sound. I may plug my rectangle contraption into large box. To play the music I press the single button on my rectangle box. The entire front plate lights up with 3d-looking animated buttons. I press one of the buttons that has a music note. This brings up an animated list of all the music on the rectangle contraption. It's crazy how they stuff all these musicians into this box. There's got to be close to 40 different musicians in there. I select the musician I want and also the song. All of a sudden I hear the music playing out of either the buds I stuffed into my ears or the large box. Then I proceed with my homework or work.

Student Groups

• AIGA - American Institute for Graphic Arts
• Black Squirrel Radio
• H2O Church Kent
• American Marketing Association
• TV2
• Kent News Net
  

5 Subcultures

Web Designers

• Group - computer savvy people, graphic designers, programmers,
  
• Rituals - building and maintaining web sites, writing code, working with clients, fixing bugs
• Insider Phrases - error log, php, ajax calls, zend framework, mvc, syntax
• Behaviors - usually sit at a computer most of the day. Person can have a wide range of behaviors

Christians

• Group - people associated with the church, small group
  
• Rituals - church, small groups, prayer, worship
• Insider Phrases - messages, prayer, savior, worship, bible, verse, serving
  
• Behaviors - often very nice, high morals, sacrifices for other, giving

Drummers

• Group - musicians, people who have good beat
• Rituals - often practice, playing drums, listening to drum parts in different songs, tuning drum set, study different styles of drumming
• Insider phrases - drum stick, cymbals, heads, toms, lugs, snare
• Behaviors - loud, energetic,
  

DJs

• Group - People who like music, people who have good beat
• Rituals - study new music, beat matching, playing music for other people at events
• Insider phrases - mixer, speakers, beat matching, remix, dB level, microphone, sub,
• Behaviors - Able to entertain, out going, always listen to music

Skiers

• Group - people who like snow, people who like to ski
• Rituals - going to a ski resort and skiing down the slopes
• Insider Phrases - slope, binding, edge, poles, gates, moguls, black diamonds
• Behaviors - very wide range

Response for Web Designers
I belong to many different subcultures. A few are Web Designers, Christians, Drummers, DJs, and Skiers.

A web designer is a person who builds and maintains a website. Learning to build a website is largely self taught. A person may spend a lot of time learning the basics and receiving a college degree but with technology changing rapidly, web designers have to constantly learn new things. It is not uncommon to find a web designer working from home. For the most part, the only thing a web designer needs is a computer with necessary software, an internet connection, and the necessary knowledge to build a web site.

In larger companies the task for web design a usually split up. They are often divided between programmers and designers. The programmer would focus more on code and database integration and the designer would focus on the design, look and overall navigation of the site. In smaller companies both programming and designing may be done by the same person. Web designers may work for either a web design firm, with an in-house design team, or may be self employed. Overall web with technology advancing and becoming a large part of people's lives, web design is a very good sub culture to take interest.