My Online Persona

My facebook persona combines all the subcultures that I am a part of into one person.

It is nearly impossible to always be the exact same person with every group of people that you interact with: family, close personal friends, coworkers, classmates, and people that you only know by association. Facebook allows all of these personas to mix together and for people from each subculture that I am a part of to see who I am outside of the context in which they know me.

According to Facebook, I have 521 “friends.”  I do not closely know all of them, obviously. Within these 521 people there are probably a dozen different subcultures. My immediate and extended family are included, friends from church, friends from college, friends from high school, coworkers from the past and present, classmates, sorority sisters, and the list could go on  and on. Through Facebook, I am able to address and associate myself with each group. This is especially obvious in status updates, which are available to all of my “friends.” In one status I may comment about the ridiculous customer that was encountered at work, or the incredible amount of homework due for a class. I might comment on a recent mission trip, or the epic night out that I just experienced with some of my closest friends. Generally, each status update elicits a response from the group of people that are associated with the content, allowing friends from other groups to observe the types of interactions that I participate in when I am outside the culture through which they know me most directly.

 I am also able to share my unique interactions with each subculture through photos. I have albums dedicated to family trips, nights out with friends, Gator football games, sorority functions and mission trips. Within these albums it is easy to see the differences and similarities with which I conduct myself in different groups. I also do not believe that behaving differently in different groups is hypocritical, and I think that displaying these different behaviors on Facebook help to make that true. It is simply that certain types of behavior may be more appropriate for one subculture, such as a church family, than for another subculture, such as the friends that I go out with on Friday nights. It is entertaining to me, if no one else, to demonstrate through photos all the different aspects that make me the person I am.

Saturday Is My Favorite Day

Saturday is My Favorite Day

I open my eyes grudgingly, not because I have to get up, but because of the insistent stream of sunlight coming through my partially closed window. It is 6:00 in the morning in Alajuelita, Costa Rica, and the sun has been up for the last half hour. With a sigh I kick back my sheets and get out of bed.

                It’s Saturday, my favorite day. I get myself ready and walk downstairs where I am greeted by my mom, my sister, and Spencer. Spencer was the youth pastor of my church in Florida, and when he decided to move his family to Alajuelita and start a non-profit organization to help the community here, my family and I chose to accompany them for one year.

                We grab a handful of colones each and head out the door. Church bells chime in the not so far off distance as we begin our traditional Saturday morning journey through Alajuelita. Every time I walk outside I am awed by this place. Let me tell you now, the Costa Rica that you are imagining is definitely not Alajuelita. For starters, it is landlocked. I am surrounded by green mountains, blanketed by a bright blue sky. On the peak of a mountain to the northwest I can see the pale figure of a metal cross. It looks miniscule from here, but in reality it is 90 feet tall and absolutely worth the three hour uphill climb. Alajuelita is in the San Jose Valley, where it is said that in one day a person breathes the equivalent on a pack of cigarettes in polluted air. So, it’s not very touristy. In fact, these are essentially the slums. Alajuelita is the poorest county in all of Costa Rica. But it’s beautiful.

  

                I always love walking through the streets of Costa Rica. Today is no different. Our small band of gringos takes its time as we walk along the busy street. A soft cover of cloud begins to sweep across the mountain peaks and slides down the slopes towards the valley so that the green and blue of earth and sky are separated by a gentle white mist. The juxtaposition of the surrounding natural beauty and the squalor of the local streets is quite astonishing. I step delicately past an emaciated middle-aged man lying on the broken and pockmarked sidewalk. He is shirtless and sleeps with a cap pulled over his eyes, fighting off the previous night’s drunkenness. His powerful odor follows me for several steps.

                As we continue, the “huevos man” drives past. I smile as he drives past, shouting through his loudspeaker “Huevos! Huevos! Come and get your huevos!” Or something to that extent. I think of my small, close-net group of friends here and the game we invented using the sounds of Costa Rica, which includes huevos man’s sales pitch. It’s the same as the children’s game “Zoo,” but we substituted the “sounds of Alajuelita” for animal names.

                Finally we reach the short hill the signals the nearness of our final destination. We all struggle up the incline, embarrassed by the local woman who passes us while wearing four-inch stilettos. Maybe I should start working out. First we pass the bakery. In Alajuelita there are bakeries on every corner, but this one is all the gringos’ favorite. We buy our bread here each week, but the tasty treats they sell in addition are what make them really special. My sister buys something that reminds me of a scone, but I will wait. In an hour or so a fresh batch of bread pudding will be put out and it is by far my favorite treat. After Angela hands over 200 colones, the equivalent of about 40 cents in the United States, we walk the few feet further and finally reach the market. Each Saturday the square next to the central park is blocked off and local farmers set up their stands piled high with fresh produce from their farms. The market is an assault on one’s senses: vibrant reds, yellows, and greens shine from the many vender tables. The delightful scent of strawberries is replaced by the stench of rotting fruit and urine as I wander past the gutter, only to be masked by the smell of ripe bananas that lie on the next table.

  

                Venders shout as I pass, telling me exactly why their lettuce or oranges or watermelons are the best I will find at the market that day. I stop at a table selling pineapples. I’m looking for a white pineapple, something I have yet to find at any grocery store back home in the States. They have all the flavor and sweetness of a yellow pineapple without the acidity, and it has become my favorite snack. It’s difficult to tell yellow pineapples from white pineapples, so I explain in clumsy Spanish what it is I am looking for. The woman smiles at me and helps me find the perfect fruit. 450 colones, less than one dollar, buys me my treasure for the day.

                I continue to explore the market. There are so many unique fruits and vegetables here, the likes of which I have never seen before. My family and I make up names for the items we don’t know. Snot fruit looks like an orange until you break open the orange peel. Inside is a glob of black seeds, each one cocooned by a slimy coating of God knows what. It tastes refreshingly of citrus, if you can get past the texture. Hairy beans look like a giant peapod, and inside the husk are small beans covered in soft white fuzz. I pop one of the beans in my mouth and suck off the sweet white coating before spitting out the bean. My last stop is at the juice stand, where an elderly lady and her sons have a bucket full of oranges that they juice for each customer. I’m pretty convinced that it’s the most delicious orange juice in the world. God, how I love this place. Saturday is my favorite day.

http://www.scribd.com/full/37584203?access_key=key-230hzordwmys757bpngs

Analysis:

I do not believe that the images posted without text tell the same story as the images that are accompanied by the narrative. A picture may contain symbolism but it cannot portray sounds, smells, the significance of a person, place or object, or the friendly joke that may accompany it. Without words, a still image is open to interpretation and each individual's interpretation will mean something different. However, the pairing of an image with text gives the reader an understanding of exactly what the writer intended to say through their work. This allows a more concrete message to be delivered with greater accuracy. I do not believe that all images are impossible to accurately interpret without text. A film gives viewers room for their own interpretation while still narrowing their interpretation, or parts of their interpretation, to something specific. The use of dialogue, sound, and movement within the frame direct the viewers attention and allow a specific message to be understood by the audience.

Assignment 3: Clip Analysis

The shot pans down a street with stopped traffic. *HER. Enigma: What happened? A partial answer is given to this question when a man in a dented car informs a police officer that he is ok. **ACT: Policeman lights a flare, a man whose vehicle was bumped explains that he is ok, and people stuck in traffic up and down the street get out of their cars and look out of their windows to see what is going on – all of these actions suggest an accident has occurred. ***REF: The police car’s lights are flashing and sirens are sounding in the distance – both of these are common place after an accident has occurred. ****SYM: The flare lit at the beginning of the shot is red, as are the tail lights of the cars in the shot – red is a symbolic color that appears throughout the film.

Cole and his mother sit in the car during a traffic jam.*HER. Enigma 2:  What is upsetting Cole?  Fraud: Cole’s mother suggests that he his mad because she missed his play. Suspended answer: A long silence stretches between mother and son. Promise of an answer: Cole tells his mother, “I’m ready to communicate with you now, tell you my secrets.” Blocking: Cole diverts the conversation from what is bothering him to comment on the accident. Partial answer: Cole tells his mother that the lady who died in the car accident is standing outside his window. Disclosure: Cole tells his mother that he can see ghosts, that they want him to do things. She accepts his statement and they embrace. **ACT: A camera shot shows us the dead woman from Cole’s mother’s point of view, although she clearly can’t see him. Cole nods his head in affirmation of his own claim that he can see dead people. ***SYM: The conversation moves to Cole’s grandmother. Comments concerning his mother’s past, his grandmother’s brooch, and his mother’s question to his grandmother elicit obvious grief. 

Blog Assignment 2

http://www.worldvision.org/content.nsf/sponsor/sponsorship

An image can represent something different to each person that sees it. There are many properties in an image that may alter the viewers’ interpretation, some of which are demonstrated in the image above. One of these properties is balance, or symmetry. This photo demonstrates an unbalanced image. The viewers’ focus is not drawn to the center of the image, but to the right side of the photo where the child’s face is prominently featured. Another property shown by this photo is emphasis, or methods through which the artist may draw the viewers’ attention to certain material. Emphasis is used in this image by blurring out the background and only focusing on the child’s face. A certain amount of emphasis is also placed on the person lying in the background of the image. Their brightly colored shirt and their horizontal position, which contrasts with the position of the more prominently placed child, draws a certain amount of attention. It is possible that the person in the background is ill, and the artist chose to draw attention to them in order to impress upon the viewer the conditions that the more prominently placed child must live in. Proportion is also another important feature of the photo. The child’s face is much larger than anything else featured in the image, drawing further emphasis to the child. It is clear after analyzing different properties in this photo that the artist’s purpose was to draw the viewers’ attention primarily to the child in the foreground. Although the intention of this emphasis may be different to many people, this image is similar to many others that appeal to our sense of humanity and ask for our empathy towards a child.

 Roland Barthes argued that we cannot know the exact intention of a writer. I agree with this statement and believe that this image supports Barthes’s claim. By adding a Bible verse to the image, the possible perceptions of the image are narrowed down but still not limited to just one interpretation. For example, there are three different “instructions” in the text: to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. The placement of this text with this image may emphasize a different portion of the text to each person. One person may see the child’s face and see most clearly the line about “loving mercy.” They might feel more obliged to make a donation to the cause of an organization using an image similar to this. Another person may respond more heavily to the line that says “to walk humbly with your God.” This image might impress upon them a deeper sense of humility.