My blogging expirence

At first I was really apprehensive towards this whole blogging deal. I have never done anything even similar to a blog so I felt weird about it. It wasn’t until about a week ago or two that I have come to embrace the whole blogging experience. I can see the benefits blogs offer for the professional world. After this class assignment is finished I do not intend to start another blog until I enter the professional world. As  a Public Relations major I’m glad I had this blog to introduce me to blogs. Looking back I wish I had put more effort into this blog but at least I now know what to expect from blogs. Having a blog made me realize that blogging is huge. Everyone important and not so important is blogging. Web2.0 is expanding and reaching diverse audiences.  

Plans for summer!!!

I don’t have any exciting plans to brag about. I’m going home for the summer, which is at Pismo Beach. I have never lived away from the beach until I moved to San Jose. I now have realized that I take for granted where I live. Pismo Beach is very beautiful and the summer I plan to be at the beach a lot. The beach brings a smell to the air that I do miss a lot. Other than just chill at the beach al summer I also plan on taking a math class with my little sister at the local community college. My sister is trying to get ahead in college while in high school so I’m taking a class with her to help her out. Even though I hate math classes it will be cool to take a class with me sister and this ensures we spend time together so I’m not bummed at all about this math class. I got job the weekend I went home. I will be working at the Grub Zone in downtown Pismo Beach as a server. I have worked in downtown Pismo before and its nice because the beach it footsteps away but I can’t stand tourists. The same people flock to Pismo Beach, they are always from Fresno, Bakersfield, Visalia and the surrounding areas. All of them act like they own Pismo Beach. As a local I really don’t like them but they bring in a lot of money for Pismo Beach and give me a job. I plan work a lot since my job is so close to the beach I’m definitely going to surf this summer and get tanner.     

My First Year at San Jose State

This was my first year at San Jose State University. I transferred from San Luis Obispo area. Fall semester I only took two classes because I’m ahead in credits so I feel like I missed out fall semester. It was relaxing to only have two classes but looking back I wish I had taken at least four classes. Fall semester was fun with all my free time I hung out with friends more and took a lot of trips to San Francisco. Because I wasn’t a full time student fall semester spring semester really felt like my first semester at San José State University. I like having a full load, it keeps me on track and I had a chance to meet more people. I lived off campus this year and had my own room! While living off campus does have its benefits, next semester I’m living on campus to get the whole San José State University experience. 

Finals

Finals are very stressful. I’m definitely starting to feel the pressure. Finals came to quickly from me. It never hits me that after spring break that there is only a couple of week’s left of school. Spring semester is always hard for me to focus; the weather doesn’t put me into a studious mood. One thing that I have noticed is that people in classes and my friends who vocally express that they are stressed, anxious or anything negative about finals it rubs off on me and in return I start to freak out more than I feel like I would usually. I’m in luck that I really only have three actual standard finals with the dreadful multiple choice and essay. In a couple of my classes I have had to do presentations that I enjoy a lot more and its fun to dress for presentations. Overall I’m not super stressed. I am very aware of my procrastination habits but this semester its not as bad.  Hopefully I do well in all my classes because I am ready for this semester to be over.

Birthday Weekend

This past Saturday, May 2^nd was my birthday and I went home for the weekend. I feel like I never get a chance to celebrate my birthday because my birthday is always around finals and when I was in high school AP testing was always the week of my birthday. The timing seems to discourage me from doing anything big. I feel like the beginning of May everyone especially students are way to busy. I have not seen my mom or little sister since winter break so it was nice to see them. I went out to diner with my family and saw some people from back home. For my birthday my mom is buying a bike. I’m very excited. I’m planning on getting a used road bike from Fabers. I like old road bikes and old bikes look distinct so I know I’ll be the only person with the bike I’ll be getting. I’m hoping that it won’t get stolen that has happened to me before and it sucks. I don’t think people realize that getting a bike stolen is very much like getting our car stolen. My bikes are my primary mode of transportation. 

E-portfolio

inDesign

Audio Podcast

Dreamweaver

Photoshop

videopodcast

Visual Journalism Day

At first was a happy the school of journalism and mass communications was going to celebrate visual journalism day because that meant my classes would be cancelled for the day. I went to see two presenters, Geri Migielicz and Kim Komenich both of which were very interesting. Both presenters had a lot to say about the current shifting state of the media industry. Geri Migielicz is the former director or photography at San Jose Mercury News and currently is the executive editor of Story4, a multimedia production studio. She had a lot to say about the industry and how these days people do not hold steady jobs in media but they do "gigonmics", small jobs here and there to get by. She started sjnewsphoto.com where she learned HTML and flash. After she taught herself how use multimedia programs she started her new company which produces media stories. Geri emphasized that people need to embrace change and it is vital for students to learn all the multimedia programs. Kim Komenich preached the same message about the media industry. He is an accomplished photo journalist who now regards himself as a field producer. He spoke about interactive media which he believes is the next phase in which people tell stories, the viewer gets to participate and shape the story itself. 

Both presenters made me think about my future career. As a public relations major I need to be aware of the evolving industry. I am not sure if steady jobs will exists for PR people when I graduate. The presentations me a little bit. In the school of journalism and mass communications every student has a specialized major and these presenters told us we need to know how to do it all. But one thing they did say that was hopefully is that everyone seems to be excited about the new changes happening and there is money to be made.   

SF Salsa Festival

This past weekend I went the first annual Salsa Festival in San Francisco. When I attended Cal Poly San Luis my mother and I would often go to salsa classes. Through Cal Poly my mother got really involved in salsa festivals. My mother went to a salsa festival in Palms springs last year and met Jon. Jon is a professional dancer in the bay area and put on the salsa festival in San Francisco. The festival was a two day event. During the day salsa workshops were held and salsa competitions and at night famous professional dancers preformed and afterwards everyone would dance the night away. I’m not the best salsa dancer but I do enjoy myself. My mom who emigrated from Colombia noted some differences between the dance techniques. According to my mother salsa dancers in Colombia place emphasis on the movement of the hips while in America there is less emphasis on the hips and more emphasis is on the movement of the arms and foot work is also faster in Colombian salsa dancing. I was taught Salsa at Cal Poly so I fall into the category of American Salsa. As a beginner what I noticed was not nessecarly the technique but the comfort level of dancing. It is very obvious if a person is comfortable or not and it shows in the way a person who leads. My family is Colombian and my mother seizes every opportunity to dance salsa. She befriended Jon mainly because they are both Colombian. This was second Salsa festival but I definitely was surprised to see a good amount of whites, Asians and gay couples. My favorite act was Eli and Yen, a gay couple. Eli and Yen are the first same gender professional couple and they participated in the 2007 ESPN dance completion. 

link

Meghan Mccain is a blogger

I was watching CNN and on the Larry King Show, Larry King was interviewing Meghan McCain, Senator McCain’s daughter. I had never heard of her before and after watching her interview I was very surprised. In her interview she spoke of President Obama. As a young republican she supports the president and his actions though they might be inline with her views. She stated that any American should support their president regardless of their party affiliate. Through out the interview she kept referring to herself as progressive republican and the next or young generation of republicans. She expressed her opinions of Rush Limbaugh, who hopes the president will fail. While campaigning for her father she started blogging and recently joined Twitter. I was really surprised to hear this. It really hit me that younger people are really taking advantage of the internet and use the internet to express their ideas and opinions. As a political embodiment of the young generation I believe it is good of her to blog. She is only 24 and she can encourage young people to become informed in politics. She had a lot to say about the Republican Party. She claimed that the Republican Party is without a leader at the moment. What caught my attention was her mention of younger republicans. She spoke of the issues her and her father disagree on and mentioned the issues that the older generation of republicans and the young generation of republicans. I appreciate her opinion on politics; it is refreshing to see a young person voice their opinion on politics. Hopefully the young generation will become more engaged with politics.

This political cartoon in the New York Post enraged many. The cartoon depicts a monkey being shot with the run men remarking, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill”. This cartoon mocks the stimulus bill, brings up racial issues and violence and compares the president to a monkey. While cartoon are playful in nature this cartoon is extremely offensive and poorly crafted. The New York Post claims that the monkey being killed is making reference to Travis the chimp of Connecticut. This would have been acceptable but entangling Travis the chimp with the drafting of the stimulus bill has a low blow. It is obvious that the monkey, a stereotypically image is African Americans is meant to poke fun a President Obama. It is sad to see that our first black president is mocked in such way. What I find to be more offensive then the cartoon it self is that the New York Post published it. As a leading newspaper publication the New York Post should have thought twice about publishing such racist imagery. This cartoon though extremely offensive would have not gained so much controversy if it were published through some other media. African Americans and other minorities are constantly mocked in the media and never is the content of such media questioned. I was very glad people questioned this political cartoon. I don’t believe racist content will be erased from the media but speaking out about such content is a step in the right direction.

Valentine's Day

This Valentine's day I went to San Francisco for the weekend with a group of friends. None of us had a valentine so we took out our aggression at the Pillow Fight. There were rules but no one seemed to care so it was every man for themself. I'm short and in everyone's swinging reach so I got knocked down a couple of times. Thankfully none of us got hurt and we all had fun.
PILLOW FIGHTS ROCK!!!!

Challenges for bloggers

I have not yet thought of a direction to take for my blog. I feel inferior to the vast world of blogging.