15 lenses

15 brains scrambling with introspective ideas, theories, observations and empty thoughts.
Intuitive beings observing with their ears, others with microscopic eyes noticing the smallest words.
Categories being formed by scrutinizing eyes.
1 fish being watched by 30 other eyes, 15 others being watched by 2 eyes.
Psychological examining- athletic speculation.
15 lenses looking through an "observer of beautiful forms".

weekend plan: research, research and probably some more research

As I continue to work on my now approaching annotated bibliography, I find myself with 8 tabs open, none of which give me any background information on one of the most vital authors for my research project.
I guess now is a good time to really acknowledge that quote that so many of us ignore:
be careful what you wish for...
And yes I've had my warning, and although I have very little information pertaining to this particular author, it isn't stopping me from really understanding the value of research in order to put together a quality research project. Thus my journey begins... I'm not exactly sure where, but I know it has started and that it's time to really go the extra mile.
I got what I wished for.... something that would push my limits and force me to go beyond what I've been accustomed to.

light bulb (!)

After an interesting week of practice interviews and methods and tips on how we should conduct them, I had an epiphany and decided to completely discard my research proposal and come up with a new one. Although it may seem a bit foolish in doing so considering I already had feedback on my previous one, yet I still felt compelled to embark on something that would really push me out of my comfort zone.... seeing as how my project had already been pretty much done for me, as proven by ProQuest. I saw the other proposals and how my fellow classmates were really excited and eager to start and start stacking up the information and immediately knew that if I wanted to be as passionate as they were on their topics that I would need to change mine asap!
I have just concluded my second proposal.....I'm hoping I get a better response to this one with useful feedback (it always is, but more this time around :] ) and that -cross my fingers- I come up with a project that leaves me content with the work I've done.

Palm Spring North....Florida...not California, Google!

Our second mock interview this week was based around the research we could come up with about our respondents hometown. I found basic information online abouth the small town of Palm Spring North (Florida), such as resident age, income, occupations and surrounding schools. As I was reading about this town my immediate impression was that this small town was like a Pleasantville type of town, where you would find a sweet little girl with two cute ponytails skipping down the sidewalk with a balloon in hand.... But as "Jennifer" told me that this is just a residential community, where previous generations grew up and have continued on their families upbringing there as well. Her mother grew up there and later moved down the block, where "Jennifer" grew up. She now lives in Davie with her family but recalls growing up with a sense of unity due to the small community where everyone knew everybody else. She appreciated (when living there) the fact that she had two surrounding larger metropolitan cities to the North and South of where she lived. She contributes her sense of security in her childhood to growing up in PSN (Palm Spring North). Although she said that as my first misconception of her town, that it isn't a Pleasantville type of living. A crime occured in this small town about 18 years ago, when she was in elementary school. A residential shooting occurred not to far from her elementary school, where helicopters had to land in her school's field in order to take the victim to the hospital. She says that it has changed, the houses are further away from each other, but that the general sense of the town has remained - the same daily commute out of the town for work and schools.

quick interview practice

During today's class we did a mock interview of what we need to apply and subtract from our interviewing skills. I interviewed a fellow classmate, a female, giving me her answers to her literacy background. Like myself she is a bilingual speaking student. During the interview I found out that between the two of us; she had not read any books in Spanish. Now I don't know if this has to do with me attending a high school in Costa Rica and being required to read books in Spanish for class or just that I had a genuine interest in reading the translated book in English to see if the meaning changed a bit (which for me it did). I asked her what it was like to be bilingual at home, she answered saying that she spoke 80% of spanish at home and that the only time she spoke english entirely was in class, but even so she still employed her spanglish if she was unable to get her point across. On a tangent, I myself mostly speak english at home even though I am fluent in both english and spanish. the reason I do so is to help my mother familiarize herself with english all day every day, because even though she has lived in the United States for over 35 years she stills has a pretty thick accent.
One thing from the interview that i found extremely interesting was that she mentioned that her brother who is older than her only speaks English, he never found the need to further his spanish literacy and knowledge. Whereas she, learned Spanish first and used it until the age of 5 when she first attended school. She then mentioned that all she spoke from that age on until 6th grade (approximately 13) was English even though she was in a school with mostly bilingual speaking students such as herself. It was after that age that she started to speak entirely with spanish as a way to form a bond with her fellow classmates and friends.
To be continued I guess....

really....?

So after this week's class, I have to be completely honest - I was extremely discouraged! Every thing I looked up came in as exactly how I wanted to do my research as. But after talking to Benson today, he quickly put me at ease by saying - hey, you know it's not like we're all going to come up with groundbreaking research-. And then I breathed again... it can be daunting to find out that your idea has already been researched on, but like Dr.Dvorak said, you need to look at those previous topics that were done and really study them and see what worked out for one or the other, what they lacked or missed and what I can incorporate from those into my own  research.
Hopefully as the semester comes along I come across things that weren't mentioned in a previous research document.

axe commercial

This is a bit of just a comment on what's on TV and what our society has become.

I just saw an AXE commercial, with Jamie Pressley talking about how guys can get their balls clean. Obviously if relating the two... AXE is after all, a shower gel for guys... oh but of course the sexual innuendos that abound in the media...the screen then lowers to show her cleaning.....none other than....a soccer ball, she hands them over to the girl who asked "how can guys get clean balls"....she holds them in her hands (of course, she's in awe)...then a guy appears and says, what about my ball sack....and he's holding a bag of soccer balls. 

enough said, I'm sure.

struggle with religion and youth

Can a young adult such as myself and those around me on campus truly lead a life, a religious life and be a part of the pop culture that en wraps them, and either ignore temptations or succumb to them...?
Why is it that when so many young adults reach that higher education level (college, university) religion seems to be completely forgotten or has just taken a back seat to everything else that consumes our time - or whatever is more amusing and time gratifying..?
How do we balance the two without falling to stereotypes?
????
???
??
?

doubtful

As the hours slowly drift from me, I find myself still not at ease with my original idea/proposal. At first I noticed myself extremely excited to embark on such an academic journey - a puppy with a new toy. But was almost instantly brought down to earth with the realization that one: this is just one course, of the many that make up my college career, and two: that time is of the essence, and realistically, as much as I'd want to delve into this topic like a true journalist, I must snip that fantasy in the bud and shrink my idea down to size that can fit my required task. Hopefully my proposal is just as enticing as I thought it was, possibly still is.