Customers

I was able to relate to todays lesson strongly. Prof Jenkins briefly spoke about customers taking advantage of your business, and of you the worker as well. I have customers who come to my work and lie straight to my face. They lie about coupons. They are either too lazy to print them, or they forget. Instead of saying,"I forgot my coupons" they say,"No I had them when I dropped off." The thing they are failing to realize is that I am the one they always drop off to. I am also the same person they usually pick up from. It's almost insulting how often these same people will do this. I like to convince myself that man-kind is on a path towards good.

LLC

We had an interesting discussion and lesson about how much it costs to wake up. The lesson eventually led to talking about LLC's. It was an interesting thing to look at from a musician stand point. If one is able to claim anything that relates to the functioning of the company, would that include gas? Gas is the thing that makes touring expensive. If a group became a LLC by paying the small fee, would we pay able claim...everything? It seems like a sleazy way to get money from the government,(which I would rather them give to artists then spend it on war exports and unrightful invasions...sigh)but it would completely change the possibilities of touring.

McDonalds

Let's throw it out there, I am a little afraid of clowns. I'm not sure if it was from seeing Pee Wee's Big Adventure too many times while growing up, or if I have always been suspicious of people. While watching the old McDonalds commercials, I could not believe how horrifying the old Ronald was. I wouldn't let my kids eat with that maniac, with the dixie cup on his nose full of spray paint, and his "make up" which I can only assume is taken from the bodies of his past victims. McDonalds had a way of cycling through the focus groups in their commercials. It would begin with the kids, then move to the parents, then to breakfast, then back to kids, then to the late nighters. The cycle would often go back to children, which made me realize that I, as a 22 year old man, have been eating childrens mush for many years. It's not that I never thought about how awful the food actually was, or how it doesn't seem to be real meat. Seeing, I guess, why I have always been craving it is what made me a bit sick. I hate how much control the media can have. They are always talking about someone who just got married. Usually, well always, the person deserves no such praise at all, and instead should be stripped of all their belongings and put in a glass box in the earths mantle. They bombard people with useless information 24/7, so that the people go on to believe that what they are hearing is actual news. Do people know that right now Tokyo is under a massive threat of needing to be evacuated? Does the news tell about Uzbekistani women having their uteris' removed with out consent? NO http://adonis49.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/uzbekistan-doctors-ordered-to-cut-out-womens-uterus-without-knowledge-or-consent/ But I'll be goddamned if you can't walk down the street and find out the latest celebrity gossip or who won the damn ball game.

Jorb

Today class was all about our cover letters. Prof Jenkins reminded us that we can still use all of our techniques and skill learned throughout the semester in many ways. When discussing the cover letter, he mentioned that we can still use a hook and that we are basically still selling an experience. He said "You are selling the hole, not the drill." By that he means you need to sell what you are going to do, not yourself as the one who will do it. It seemed like he was pretending the job was already said and done. Acting in this way gives off a real sense of confidence. It may come off as cocky even, but he said its' not. We have been conditioned to be humble and quiet, not to run about yelling our skills, though some people will do that. I totally agreed with the fact that we have been preconditioned. All through out elementary school I was a talkative kid. To the point that it would get me in trouble some times. What's strange is that, I was actually quiet. I had many friends who would always talk during class; 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, up until 7th grade. I would constantly get told that if we didn't stop talking we would get in trouble. I would always sit and stare at my thumbnails. Noticing the lighter arch in both of them near the cuticle. I never said anything because I grew up in a house where there was a final word. Even today I will simply drop conversations because I know it will only lead to anger and yelling, and it's been this way forever. We never have any sort of debate or deep conversation at my parents house. I have tried before;politics, gay rights, immigration. There seemed to be an undertone that schools were at fault for this submissive generation. I believe it is a combination of the school system, government, and parenting styles of the past.

Fear

Today we touched briefly on fear. I never thought about how ridiculous home security commercials are. They usually show some white woman, home alone at night, lying in bed or reading a book. All of the sudden a man smashes her window and she springs to life. Luckily the thief has some sort of auditory infection, so he must flee the scene immediately. I usually would see these commercials when I was younger. Sitting at home with my mother after kindergarten watching soap operas, they would come on pretty frequently. I don't see them anymore, or perhaps I am just watching at the wrong time. The only people who would see the commercials are people staying home during the day. Be it they are old, taking care of children, or simply out of work, the commercial plays on the vulnerability of the target audience. If they are able to stay home during the day, that must mean someone else is often absent from the home. Which means they are likely alone at night sometimes too. It's a little sad that they scare people into buying a false sense of security, but also a little sad that people assume certain products totally remove certain risks.

Shots in Narratives

In class we discussed the three most commonly used shots in narrative film and commercials. They consisted of Wide shots, medium shots, and close ups. After taking film classes for nearly 8 years now, all of this information was simply being retraced in my head. We then were given a few examples of the order of the shots. When ever I think of establishing shots I think of Home Alone. In my memory, at least half of the scenes begin with a wide exterior shot of the house. I was reminded of a website I frequent after Mr. Jenkins drew the story board. These Rage comics consist of basically the same visual organization and order as what we were shown in class.

http://imgur.com/1tQQ8

http://imgur.com/GjOen

As you can see, both of them have the main action taking place in the second to last frame. If the action had taken place in the second or first frame, the entire comic would have been different, and probably less funny.

On monkeys and wolves

We focused on our rewriting of the three pig story today. We decided that the monkey was a sort of puppet master, that the pigs weren’t so smart but were indeed a family. We also decide that the wolf was facing an addiction, had failed, and was being manipulated. In my tale of the wolves and pigs, the wolve calls out the monkey for his actions and leaves him to his own fate. Our class discussion was focused on character influence. If we can feel the characters drive, his reason for being in the story, then we(the audience) will attach emotions to theses characters and be hooked in the story.

Dr. Strangelove

We watched a clip form Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove in class today. I really enjoy the film so I was excited to watch the telephone scene in a different manner than I am used to. Prof. Jenkins was very intent on us seeing how well the dialog moved the story and scene. One man talking on a phone was able to give us the personalities of two men but the way the dialog was paced and phrased.

Selling with Dialog

Dialog moves the story forward. It helps us to show instead of tell the audience. Dialog can help make a short story seem to contain boatloads of information. By having the characters make implications about the universe the live in,, the audience is exposed to more information in less lines by making them do the thinking them selves. We have to realize that we are writing for the audience, so why not at least make them help once and a while.
We discussed a few of the flaws commonly found in dialog; “monologging”, sounding too real or fake, contractions, and using names too often. Prof Jenkins strongly, and repeatedly advised us to read our work aloud before turning it in. After reading a few of my pieces aloud, I saw that these problems were the same as the ones I was having with my writing.

Abstract/ Concrete

Abstract words are words that tell. We were given the example “love. Concrete words show. Words like fluffy, tiny, and happy could be considered concrete. The benefit of concrete words is that they contain dual coding. By showing instead of telling, it is more memorable.

We were also shown the ladder of abstraction, and were shown the example beginning with “asset”. From asset we went to investment, to security, to equity, to stock, to common stock. We went from something vague, to something very specific. These specific terms make stories flow better, make them seem more believable, and use dual-coding to spark emotion in the audiences’ mind.

Language

In some of the books I have read, language is discussed as this strong yet holey thing that we use to interpret and share our experiences with others. In class we discussed how it can be used to draw emotion from past experiences of our audience. By using strong adjectives, we can make the audience feel nostalgic by simply mentioning a certain product. Once we start the chain, the audiences mind wanders and they end up feeling the emotion they have tied to that product.

Soft Language

We watched a couple clips of George Carlin’s stand up today in class. It was hilarious, kind of sad to see though. He was so damn funny and used language so well. I will always remember him as Rufus in the Bill and Ted movies. So good. So good.

The clips were focused on his terms of “soft” and “hard” language. Things begin as hard language. He used “shell-shocked” as an example. Shell-shocked began to frighten people though. It had many negative connotations because of how awful people would be when they came back suffering from it. After many years of transformation it is now known as post traumatic stress disorder. He mocked the addition of so many syllables and how it now attempted to lose the audiences attention by being so long. He mentioned the use of “pass-away” over “die”, and the use of “automobile accident” as apposed to what it really is, a wreck.

At the end of class we were asked if it is possible to advertise without lying. It is a weird thing to think about. I often notice that car commercials don’t actually say anything about the car. They only show it driving on mountains and show some character using it to their full advantage. I think it is possible to advertise without lying, but that doesn’t mean they have to tell the truth.

Brands

We were told to make a list of brands that we use in a day. I realized that I don’t have a very consistent brand in my life. I use colgate tooth paste, because it was on sale. I have Levi jeans and sketcher shoes. The jeans a from a good will, and the shoes were 50% off making them affordable. Sketcher was the first brand the I could immediately draw an ad to. I remember silly animated commercials would come on saying “It’s the S.” Seeing that slogan written down reminds me of the slogar for a place I used to get my hair cut at. Fantastic Sam’s has ads in their waiting area that have “It’s gotta be the hair,” written all over them. Maybe I am drawn to ads that have a strongly confirmative message about the success of their product. Maybe I appreciate confidence, but that doesn’t sound like me.

I noticed that my music equipment is the only portion of my possessions that has a repeated brand. I have many effect pedals from Boss, and my last purchase was a Fender as well as the purchase before that. I don’t look for brand in guitars. I often spend way to much time at a Guitar Center playing around with all of their guitars before making a decision. I will then check forums online to see other people’s opinions, see how they last over time, and see if there are any upgrade suggestions made by others online.
I do seem to have an attachment to Boss brand pedals. They are generally affordable and I do like how they are all the same dimensions. What’s strange is that I know there are better pedals out there right now, but I can’t remember if I did much research before buying them. I know I played with them at a store before buying but I can’t remember if I did the whole online investigation process.
I kept recalling the scene about product placement in Wayne’s World. In one shot, Garth is wearing nothing but Reebok clothing I believe, and he says something about people accepting corporate sponsorships being very sad. I am glad I don’t buy only one brand for everything. I think the only way that would be possible is if you bought all Best Choice of Great Value things.

3/19

We were discussing an ad campaign made up by the class about corn. We were discussing the views of three different age groups; College folk, Family folk, and retired folk. The collegians we decided, from experience, were lazy, young, busy, had a lot of energy, and were curious and tempted to rebel. The family folk were thinking about budgets, appreciate together time, and are thinking about more than one person at a time. The retired people are concerned about their health. They have money likely saved up from the past and are looking for something to tell them they will live to see another day. (Last part is a little grim). I laughed to myself when thinking about the needs of college aged people and applying them to an ad for corn. I pictured a slurpable tube of creamed corn that came in a bright yellow box with 6 tubes in it. They need something portable, check. The ad would have a kid studying and slurping on the tube, another running and slurping the tube, and have another shot of a whole group of people slurping the tubes. I figure the whole slurping part would remind them of their childhood, bring a whole nostalgia thing to the product.

Attention

We focused mainly on the Attention part of A.I.D.A. today. Every day we are subjected to thousands of advertisements. Each one trying to grab our attention more than all the others. Trying to get everyone to buy it’s product, even though more than likely it serves no function at all. The billboards along streets are like all seeing eyes, piercing down at the petty mortals below trying to use their powers to control our brains. Okay, maybe they aren’t that bad. However, walking below them I always feel a little weary. I can hear the wood snapping in my head and then picture my body disappearing to a loud thud and dust shooting out in all directions. I have that same fear of trains. On I-70, just W of the Noland Road exit, there is a railroad bridge that crosses above the highway. I drive under it two times a week. I go out to my parents for dinner each Sunday. Returning home, there is usually a train crossing this bridge as a approach it. I can always imagine it tipping over as I go underneath and smashing my car.
I guess if an advertiser really wanted to get my attention fully and quickly, all they would have to do is put a train whistle in their ad. Not only would they have my attention immediately, they would have started a crazy chain thought reaction in my head. And knowing me I would likely end up tracing my thoughts back to the ad. I drink a lot of Coke around Christmas time.

Class on March 23rd

Class on March 23rd

A.I.D.A stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. It is a little acronym that sort of sets the structure for most advertising styles. It begins with getting the attention of the audience. It can be anything from bright colors to a loud noise. “Hey you!” was what we were given in class. The second part is addressing their needs. (“You want”) I couldn’t help but think of infomercials during class. It reminded me of someone selling a cheap closet organizer. I use cheap knowing how Prof. Jenkins feels about it. I could imagine a voice saying “HEY! TIRED OF HAVING A MESSY CLOSET? HOLY CRAP! LOOK AT THIS THING! NOW ALL YOUR CLOTHES WILL BE TURNED INTO ORGANIZEABLE ONE-INCH CUBES! TO THE POWER OF 3! STACKABLE!” The next stage in the acronym is Desire. It involves letting them know that you have the answer to all of their problems. Now they can relax and not have to worry about silly problems like life. “I’ve got”, we were told to remember. The last letter in A.I.D.A, is in fact an “A”. This “A” stands for action. Telling the audience to buy now. It was stressed that we persuade them to buy immediately. We talked about “limited time offers” and how people feel more inclined to buy something when they feel like now could be their only chance. It is sad to think that people would actually believe that they are getting some sort of rare memorabilia or item from a TV station or store. I was reminded of watching the first four minutes of infomercials on Saturday afternoons. Every week the same one would come on and the same timer would always be on the bottom left hand of the screen. It’s strange to think that people still believe these things.

Ladder of abstraction 2

We made some more ladders of abstraction today
Engine Food
Car Engine Spicy food
V8 Cajun food
Audi V8 Popeyes
1940 V8 Engine Popeyes spicy chicken wings

It makes sense that being so specific would have its obvious narrative and descriptive functions. I suppose I am used to doing this process in my mind, so having it written down is a bit weird.
We were told a story about a boy losing a dog in hurricane Katrina. The story was especially sad, or so we were told, mainly because the narrator gives the name of the dog. When dog’s have names in stories, we as humans can’t help but feel a bit attached. It reminded me of a lesson in my Hitchcock class. Sir Alfred Hitchcock has a famous scene with a dog. The dog is one of the main reasons the scene is so infamous. In the scene a boy and his dog are delivering a package, however only the audience knows that he is carrying a bomb the whole time. The bomb ends up going off killing the boy and the dog. Hitchcock is quoted on the scene saying that you can’t kill the dog, because the audience gets mad!

Class on April 2nd

Today we talked about the sort of wave like value change of people over time. Those born in the 1920’s began life in a depression. At time when homes were being taken away, and a time when coffins weren’t an uncommon site to see on street sides. Disease was taking lives and many of these 20’s born would go on to fight and die in wars. When WWII ended, they were ecstatic and returned to…well, become known as baby boomers. (Tugs at collar) Their values at this point took a swift change. We were told they turned conservative around the 50’s. This was the time when many of their children were growing up. According to the wave like pattern we were given in class their children would be totally opposite as them. Naturally it seems, the children would be in a sort of rebellious stage of life at a time when their parents aren’t going to be in the mood to tolerate it.

soft language

Watching George Carlin talk about hard and soft language was extremely entertaining and also thought incisive. Soft language seems to be used only to make awful things sound less awful. His example of the term shell-shock changing to battle fatigue, and then that to operational exhaustion, then that to posttraumatic stress disorder, wonderfully showed the use of soft language hiding the true meaning of something behind long jargon filled terms.

When trying to think how soft language has an affect on me, the first thing that pops to mind is my language at work.
I'm not sure if it is a professional side in me or what, but while I am at work and talking to customers, it seems as if I am constantly forced to make up "soft language" versions of everything I say.

I can't say,"Well the plant couldn't get your dirt out, if you'd like I can have them try again." Instead I am forced to basically extend everything by multiple syllables and throw in jargon, in hopes that the customer will not ask me for specifics about the cleaning process.

I become a robot and speak,"Well it looks like there are some remaining spots, some residual stains come out after a second processing, so if you'd like I can send it back for no charge and a plant manager will apply an ammonia based stain remover."

The soft language being the transformation from dirt to spot, from spot then to residual stain in the same sentence. Honestly, as the one controlling the language, the situations become a lot more manageable/less stressful. It can leave the customer in a fog of information that basically forces them to trust the opinion of the speaker.

The sort language around us now seems to be strongly concerned with the changing of the words that have to do with death. The press changes deaths to casualties, which seems a little insulting, they change dying to passing, and a kill count is now a "body count".

They really take the life out of everything. Making it seems as if one man killing another is a natural, casual thing.

Creativity

Sometimes I think about the people in my life, and whether or not they have any sort of creative release. Most of them do, whether it is in music, painting, or reading, most of them are being exposed to or are engaging in something that originates solely from human creation. Some of them however tend to focus more on things that involve building physical strength and awareness. I'm not intending to down talk sports, I played multiple team sports all through grade school and can see the importance of team building experience gained during, but I don't think it qualifies as a release. When painting or writing or doing anything creative, you are making physical a portion of the universe hidden in your conscious. We are able to forget all the limitations we live in and are free to go, see, and hear whatever we so choose.
Sports don't force you to use your imagination. Yes you are using your imagination by trying to predict what the other teams may do, but it all must fit with in a set of rules. Nothing unexpected will ever happen. In basketball the only unpredictable thing that could happen would be if players got in a fight or the backboard shattered, and those have nothing to do with the game of basketball.
I wonder if people who have an output are happier, or at least more able to adjust because they are used to the unexpected?

The only parts I every really enjoyed about sports were the times when I would have a chance to do something great. However skinny 13 year old boys can't dunk from half court, make a baseball explode in mid-air, or summon UFOs into right field.

Imagine if I had kept my head in the game.

Out there

In class we were reminded as to why we write in the first place. We write for the audience. We write to convey a message or encapsulate part of the human experience, in a manner that is understood clearly by an audience.
The Audience was something I had trouble keeping in mind when writing music with my friends. Music to me has always been something I am able to pour myself into. Allowing my consciousness to sort of free flow in to sound waves has and always will be something very important to me. I enjoy writing music in a sort of therapeutic sense. When I sit down and write I don’t think about whether or not a specific group of people will like it. I just do what feels right, and it becomes this entity that will always have an attachment to my life.
When I try to think about writing for the audience my mind turns to dull and repetitive ideas. Whenever I listen to the radio everything sounds the same. Obviously there are many different stations that play many different genres of music, but these stations are often playing the same list of songs a few other stations are. There are the stations that have nothing but dance beats and wubs, stations with country songs full of the same four chords and the same song structures on repeat, and the stations that have the pop singers and rock bands which combine the previously described stations to form audible vomit.
The class seems a little shocked to hear the statistics about the average reading level being between 5th and 7th grade. We were told that this statistic must be kept in mind when writing. This doesn’t mean that you should write like the audience is stupid, I think it has more to do with attention span. We are used to everything being so quick, quick, quick, with instant gratification, so our audience needs to have this same pace present in order to enjoy and comprehend the story.
This doesn’t mean that every thing has to be short. Artistic commitment shown through detail and complexity will always be extremely adored and appreciated, but Prof. Jenkins did have an interesting point to make. It was less a point, more so an ambiguous yet clear observation about old tales. Most of the fairy tales and memorable stories we hear throughout life have short and direct morals. For some reason or another the only thing I can think of now is “Don’t cry wolf”. It is only three words but the message that comes with them is powerful and relevant.


It makes me think of “don’t cry wolf” as being

Hierarchy

The hierarchy of needs came up in one of my mass media classes last semester. It is interesting to think about how people will react in situations. Whenever I get cold, I stop and ask myself why I am cold. I usually answer myself with something involving temperature and nerve endings but then immediately follow with a question asking myself how it is affecting me. The fact that I am still able to think about these kinds of things while being cold, makes me believe my ability to think, to examine and react, are unaffected.. I can look down and see my legs moving and feel my body moving, so my mobility isn’t affected either. What appears to be happening is a communication between my nerves and my brain, telling it the temperature is lower than what it finds comfortable. I don’t believe I have ever been in a situation where I was unable to think about what my best reaction could be. There are times at work when a customer will have some sort of issue and get upset. They aren’t ever physically aggressive, but it isn’t unusual for people to raise their voices a bit. Whenever someone does raise their voice, I am able to hear what they say and understand their situation, but whenever I go to speak I am at a hold. The things I want and need to say are lined up and ready but my body doesn’t respond. My tongue feels like a slug and my voice shrinks. The words that make it out are either mumbled or chopped up by a nervous jaw. I don’t know why this happens, and it can be very frustrating. It’s not like I am afraid of these people, and the problems are usually easily solved and done with in a matter of minutes. The google machine shows me a version of Maslow’s Hierarchy that was shown in an interpersonal comm. class I took in a previous semester. It shows the fear of safety and employment as the second block from the bottom. Could these people really be pushing me down the pyramid that much? Or does that mean I am constantly living in the middle of this chart? The step above the fear of safety consists of the fear of a loss of love and belonging.

recipe

We spoke in class about the recipe of stories. Prof. Jenkins used the word "manufactured" to emphasize this skeletal structure to narratives. He challenged us to come up with more than 10 different plot lines, telling us before hand that there are only ten. It was difficult to believe. How could it be that in all of the stories written and spoken around the world, throughout the course of human history could, lays one of ten event lines that the protagonist could take?
When I hear “manufactured” I think of an assembly line. When I think about stories being manufactured, it makes me think of people lazily repainting the covers of old stories and calling them new. It has a sort of negative feel to it, but I don’t think it was intended. Manufactured, also makes me think of human ingenuity and our ability to tinker. I once heard someone drunkenly murmur “creation is just distorted memory”, and applying “manufactured” to this saying gives me a much more positive feeling.
It gives these plots, these timeless structures, a reincarnate property that I’m sure have some psychological ties to our psyche.

Character

I found our discussion about characters and characterization very interesting. It makes sense that to build a character you must constantly being putting them into new situations, I believe Mr. Jenkins put in terms of "piling stress, to force the character to reveal how they will behave in all situations. It became almost a game as I was walking home, trying to recall all of the characterizations I had seen recently. I kept trying to think of characters who always act the same no matter how the situation changes. The first thing that came to my mind were all of the muscle men films, with characters who seem to always get out of a situation by lifting something over their head. I also began to think about sit-coms, and I couldn't help but wonder if these are truly characters. While yes these characters are put into different situations each week, but none of them seem to have any sort of increased pressure, you have no sense that anything can go wrong. It may simply be that because they are sit-coms that are shown every week, the audience loses the ability to feel any sort of slight risk. Family Guy has often poked fun at the non-linear, non-existent for the most part, timelines of sitcoms and maybe it is this "no loss" guarantee that makes sitcoms so effective. When people come home from a nine to five job, they don't want to sit and think about how miserably they are living their lives. They don't want to be asked and presented with questions about their mortality and consciousness, they want be told when to laugh. They want to watch fake beings live out fake lives, and the sit-com gives them a chance to go inside the conscious of these fake beings for the ultimate voyeur experience. It allows them to gain a false sense of happiness. They laugh on queue as if the studio applause light was mounted above their mantle, and continue to live in agony only to find comfort in being able to participate in the life of someone who has everything, someone who knows not death or sorrow.
I will admit that I enjoy television. The film major inside of me wants to smack myself for some of the shows that I watch. To be honest the cinematography and camera work in television is very disheartening. The constant cuts and boring composition may be some of the factors controlling our attention span and turning us to zombies.

A story

In class some interesting stories from told by my classmates about their past. We were asked after everyone had shared to find the messages in each of the stories. Some of the stories held messages about making decisions under the influence of alcohol, and others held some more somber truths. One classmate shared a story about his janitorial work in the past, and about how a fellow worker instead of him had to clean up some sort of rancid mess in a restroom stall. The message was difficult for me to find, but the student who told the story seemed very regretful of his actions in the story so I knew he at least was conveying some sort of message. The only message I was able to come up with was that sometimes the universe makes you do gross things, and sometimes it lets you off and someone else has to do it. In the end the task must be completed but one conscious-mind will not always be forced to do the undesirable tasks. It is a positive message when taken in the first person, but in when taken in the third person it is not so positive. It reminds you that life will not always be a breeze, and one day something will happen that bursts your bubble of happiness. I'm sure in the mind of the man who had to clean up the mess he was having some very interesting thoughts. Perhaps he thought about why he had his current job, and whether he was happy with his life. Maybe being forced to do something completely disgusting forced him to recall his childhood dreams and the event finally pushed him over the edge, inspiring him to start living his life for himself again. It could have also thrown him into some sort of depressed spiral, which is what my classmate fear, but if that was the case the man had some other psychological issues that may have been more a cause.
Perspective of events involving multiple people is a very interesting topic to talk about, it is sad however how some people can totally disregardful the others and assume that their perspective is the only one that matters.

Observation

One of my favorite things about my job is the fact that we have a southwestern wall made entirely of glass. My job isn't exactly difficult, so I often find myself gazing or watching people as they go by, and from this I have learned how little people observe. After my manager was robber at the store, the company put in a few cameras and an electromagnetic lock on the door to help her feel safe. After the first few days of using the lock we noticed that people were failing to see the large red button that says "Press to Exit". We figured the problem would go away if we put up a sign that instructed people how to use the door, but it did not. I put up a sign with an arrow, we put up a sign on yellow paper, but eventually I just began turning the lock off due to frustration.
Through this window I can also see our parking lot. It's nothing too spectacular, rectangular shape with one corner cut out to spill into another lot. Ten spots on one side, and maybe six or seven on the other. Much like every other parking lot in the city, we have a designated handicapped parking spot. I believe I have seen this spot properly used twice. More often than not people will pull into the area marked for unloading handicapped friendly vehicles, but they won't be straight the first time, so they will back up, look down in front their car to obviously see these bright yellow lines and pull forward anyway.
Perhaps I am overly observant. Through our window I get to spot Venus as it becomes visible around 5:30. I get to watch people trip over the same crack everyday, and watch them get parking tickets only to seem baffled as if this "No Parking Anytime" sign appeared from thin air while they were away. But that's not to say I see everything, I too miss what others may see as obvious, and that's what I find so interesting. Because of my interests and life-style I am able to notice and appreciate the small things with-in these fields. Whenever I notice these small things or changes, I can't help but become frustrated when people can't appreciate their magnificence. However I must think of my same view but from the outside. My interests and beliefs are totally unique, as are everyone's, and they force me to see things others do not, but this can't mean I am the only one to notice them. I wish I could be part of another conscious mind to see if the changes are as bold and beautiful to witness.

WIFM

WIFM
What's in it for me?
Whenever we discuss the WIFM barrier, which describes the mindset of the receiver, I can't help but become frustrated. I become frustrated because of my interest in the universe and when trying to explain the value of space exploration, the WIFM barrier becomes a shell that with out something tangible to show value, becomes impenetrable. You can explain to them that there are billions of stars in our galaxy, and that there are billions of galaxies containing billions of stars, but the populace seems to be more focused on short term and trivial things than trying to understand the truly unbelievable. I feel mean when I say things like that but it seems like being mean is an effective way to instill a message. All of the advertisements I see on TV seem like they are trying to tell me that my life is pointless unless I have their product. One day I am shown that only if I have a clean shaven face will I get an attractive woman to touch my cheek, the next I am told my masculinity will be questioned if I do not drink some soda. Maybe it is just my abortive reception of advertising but that doesn't seem like anyway to gain customers. It's not just on television, even walking around I recently saw an advertisement that said "You just proved these signs work." All I can imagine when I read that is some guy talking to me with his mouth full. I assume that phrase is used to answer the question; why should I advertise on this small sign on the side of a trash can? Instead of giving information on how much it costs to advertise, the dimensions of the sign, or any large print contact information, the company saved their sweet breath by telling the interested clients that they are an idiot if they don't make the obvious choice and show this alleyway what their business is all about!

Power

In class on Monday we discussed the use of writing to gain power. What I find interesting is how powerful writing truly can be. Whenever I listen to the radio at work they are often playing older blues music, or the occasional classical piece. They always follow every few songs with a little blurb about the artist or the song they had played. One of the most important things they emphasize is the timelessness either the lyrics or the composition. I often find the same trait being given to poems, literature, and films. This timelessness gives it infinite relevance to anyone because they discuss a problem always found in the human experience or they challenge the normal structures and limits of human creativity. The most powerful pieces of literature seem to be religious texts. Granted these stories tend to carry the same message, one which most of the followers can't seem to grasp, they were all written by humans who wanted people to think a different way. Machiavelli's The Prince shows us how people will do terrible things for power, and I believe it carries with it the message for us to be aware. If we are aware of how dreadful people can be when they have a thirst for power we can be more cautious and aware of the actions they take. By being aware of these things we can prepare ourselves and counter these manipulative tactics. This message can be found in the bible I found out. Matthew 10:16 says, "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves." I am sure the message of awareness can be found in many tales and stories from the past.