Tips From The Year

Last Post of the Technical School Year!

Writing Tips!!

Connect with your audience

Writing is thinking (and so is reading!)
        Lazy thinkers are reflected in their writing.

Make meaning early
        Begin sentences with subjects/nouns and verbs. Subject, verb, then the rest of the sentence.
            Ex. 7000 fans screamed at the sold out concert last night.

Activate your verbs
        Never use the passive where you can use the active!
        Allowing = worst verb ever.
        You either did or you didn't.
            Not. She got her permit, allowing her to drive to school. (⇐ Don't know if she did drive. Even without her permit she could have driven, it wouldn't matter if she was "allowed".)
            Ex. Bond bolted the window shut but moonlight still filtered through the glass.

Avoid -ing verbs
        Avoid "-ing's"! Take it easy on the "ings", it makes verbs weaker. After a while all the words begin to sound the same.

Concerts, not pancakes!
        Make your writing like a concert: it starts off good, there are some less interesting things in the middle, and it ends good. Don't make it like a stack of pancakes: it seems like a good idea at first, but after a while the pancakes seem soggy and there's dripping syrup and it's just a bad idea now. This style of writing can be applied to essays, paragraphs, or even sentences! Start off good and leave off good!

Use quantity to improve quality
        Write too much and edit it down!

Punctuate with power and purpose!
        A sentence is like a street/highway, the period is a stop sign. Punctuation tells the reader when to pause, take a breath, what emotions are in a sentence, etc....

Echo/mirror words        The same word more than once in the same paragraph. Avoid it - it's not a good thing!

Eliminating sledgehammer words
        Sledgehammer words: Words intended to add emphasis that actually detract from the author's message because they are unnecessary, over-used, and often too powerful for the context. Sentences are better off without them. They should be used rarely for dramatic emphasis.
        Words: really, extremely, constantly, always, never, obviously, very, clearly, a lot
        Clearly and obviously makes people feel stupid. It's not obvious to everyone, it's insulting.
        Always and never are not always true.
            Ex. High school students always procrastinate. (⇐ could be rewritten...)
                Ex. Often times, high school students will procrastinate.
                Ex. Procrastination is a problem for many high school students.
            Ex. After work, she was extremely tired and alone.
                "Extremely tired" can be replaced by "exhausted", or the whole second part of the sentence could be "she felt tired and alone" or "she felt exhausted and lonely".

Consider your engine... what drives your writing?
        What is the essential question you are trying to answer?

Revisit sentence basics
        Compound sentences (conjunction: using and to join two sentences), fragment (me/I), run-on (don't do that!).
        When you're not sure whether to use me or I in a sentence, take out the other subject and see if the sentence still works. Then you know if it is the correct noun or not.
            Not. Me and my dog went to the pet store. (⇐ then becomes "Me went to the pet store" if you take out "my dog", which is the other subject.)
            Ex. My dog and I went to the pet store. (⇐ then becomes "I went to the pet store", which is correct.)

NOoooO!!!!
        Exclamation points, caps, and bold:
            Do not over-punctuate (adds too much power and not enough purpose).
            Avoid all-caps, bold, italics, and underlines.
            Instead, use a thesaurus.

Pay attention to tenses
        Don't suddenly change from past tense to present tense, etc.

Watch those adverbs
        Use them to change the meaning of the verb; at their best adverbs "spice up" a verb or adjective, and at their worst they express a meaning already contained in it (it becomes redundant). Most often ends in "-ly".
        Some redundant examples:
            The blast completely destroyed the church office.
            The cheerleader gyrated wildly before the screaming fans.
            The accident totally severed the boy's arm.
            The spy peered furtively through the bushes.
        Example of Bad and Good:
            She smiled happily. (⇐ happy is in the connotation...)
            She smiled sadly. (⇐ tells how she smiled.)

Vary the length of paragraphs
        Go short or long to match your intent.
        Coherence: When the big parts of an idea fit together.
        Cohesion: When the individual sentences connect.
        "The paragraph is essentially a unit of thought not of length." - H.W. Fowler.
        All sentences in a paragraph should be about the same thing and more in a sequence. Writers can break up long paragraphs into parts, but not paste together paragraphs that are short and disconnected.
        "The purpose of paragraphing is to give the reader a rest. The writer is saying to him, 'Have you got that? If so, I will go on to the next point'..."
            -How much rest does a reader need?

Riff on the creative language of others
        Make word lists, free associate, be surprised by language.
        Writers collect sharp phrases and colorful metaphors.
        Be careful of plagiarism (copying someone else's work - kidnapping the creative work of others).
        Riff: improvisation: to take what is already known and apply it as metaphor to the new.
            Thomas Edison explained his "new" idea with old aqueducts of Rome: currents in electricity and water (relationship)
        Use others' writing as a tool to compose your way to the next level of invention.
            "Just do it": We aren't a "just do it" society, we're a "permissions/forms" society.
                Nike: slogan is opposite of what we are.


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The Loop




* Character is looking back, seem like the present, but is in the past
* At some point, your writing (nonfiction) will loop back to the beginning ---> x
* Never "concludes", it should stay with the reader
* What does this have to do with me/you/etc.?

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News Writing 101

The Lede - First Paragraph
    - One or two sentences
    - Who, what, when, where, why, or how?
    - Main, most important actions and events of the story

Hard Lede - comprehensive thesis. All the facts.
Soft Lede - creative, attention getting. 2 sentence.
Typically 25 words or less.
"Nut Graph" - Nut shell paragraph. Optional. Paragraph 2.

Lede
NG/Nut Graph (Optional)
Quote/statistic/evidence
Transition
Quote/stat/ev.
Transition
...
↓

Soft Ledes might need an NG to explain further, hard ledes not so much.

Captions - can be tied into the writing piece - a name in the headline/the headline, the first few words of the article, on the pictures as a title, etc.

Caption Writing 101: First sentence describes (present tense) image/tells you what you're seeing, 2nd describes past tense/background information that isn't obvious.

Echo/mirror - same word more than once in the same paragraph. Avoid - it's not a good thing!

3rd person/objective - "amazing/unfortunately" is bias. Avoid it! Just give info/news, don't use words that reveal bias.

"Never use a large word when a diminutive (small) one will suffice!"
You have a job - find the smallest word that can do the job.

The more/less you have these, the further/closer it is in a paper:

Proximity - closeness (location - San Diego or Iowa? San Diego is closer.)

Importance/consequence - 10th burglary? Jailed or on the run? People will know.

Timeliness - issue yesterday or a month ago? Yesterday.

Human interest - important news: holdup at the back > cat in a tree

Oddity/unusual - Octomom (8 children) ⇒ shocking

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Personal Statements

- Easily transferable to cover letter
- Emphasize and provide evidence for:
        1) interpersonal skill
        2) work ethic/habits
        3) problem solving
        4) academic skills and/or experience
- One page PDF
- Presented on DP as a Personal Statement - later, repurpose as a cover letter
- Challenge/optional: use terms/phrases that are meaningful to a potential employer
- Ask yourself:  what makes you the ideal worker/qualify for this job? (or internship?)
- The hidden prompt question: why are you an outstanding intern?

Tips For Cover Letter Success
- Be concise!
- Be specific!
- Use evidence and examples
- SHOW your content

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Tips for success in a complicated project

Start!! RIGHT AWAY!

Go from general to specific.

Use quantity to improve quality.

Create ⇒ Share ⇒ Critique ⇒ REPEAT!


Work on different aspects.

Read about it. (See what is out there, news, helps you understand it, sources, what to look for/ask)

Get examples.

Visit different locations.

Work on it every day!
Go back to the beginning and do it again!

Writing Reflection

I have definitely improved in my essay writing this year. In the past I would try to generalize the topic and avoid actually answering the question or prompt, but this year, especially with Ampersand, I learned how to use the engine of the writing to the very best of my ability. It helped a lot that it was me who created that engine, a question I was interested in answering and I hoped that others would be drawn in by.

An example of an essay where I tried to defer the prompt was the "Confederates in the Attic" essay, where the prompt was to talk about how the Civil War began a new revolution in the US. I spent most of my time summarizing the events I had read about and telling about points of views that weren't entirely mine--I think I read about them in the passage that the prompt was based on.

Another example was The Great Gatsby essay. I only talked a little bit about the answer to the prompt in the first paragraph, and then mostly summarize and try to make connections in the rest of the paragraphs. I think I also repeated a lot of the words in that essay, so all the echoes give me a headache now. It's almost the same with my Grapes of Wrath essay, but it seems more disorganized than trying to answer the prompt correctly. There are a lot of quotes and big chunks of quotes in there too.

By the time I got around to Ampersand, I had practically memorized all the writing tips like "vary paragraph lengths" and "watch those -ings". Not to mention, I literally made dozens of drafts of my article, so I had lots of things to look for to change until I got it perfect. I went through countless critiques and revisions, and I'm proud of the final product that went into the published book. It really helped that I was motivated to write the article, and I tried my hardest in everything--writing the driving question, gathering the evidence, staying after school to get critiques... I did a lot.

Though I think I did really well in Ampersand, I know there are still some things I have to work on. When I was writing my article, Sabrina and some others helped me take one of my drafts toward the final by helping me rearrange the entire article because it had very little organization before. It's apparent that I still need to work on my organization and structure, so that's my goal for next year.

Historical Reflection

If I were to run into a famous historical figure in college, it would probably be President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He was a huge part of my learning of the Great Depression and New Deal, and he's the first thing that comes to mind when I think about what I've learned this year in History.

He would visit my college campus and give a speech about the Great Depression and tell us not to worry about how our lives would go after this--that we would lead better lives and not worry about the horrible economy of our childhood.

"To the men and women whose lives have been darkened by the fact or the fear of unemployment, I am justified in saying a word of encouragement because the codes and the agreements already approved, or about to be passed upon, prove that the plan does raise wages, and that it does put people back to work. You can look on every employer who adopts the plan as one who is doing his part, and those employers deserve well of every-one who works for a living. It will be clear to you, as it is to me, . that while the shirking employer may undersell his competitor, the saving he thus makes is made at the expense of his country's welfare."

He would say this to reassure us and give us hope for the future. He would tell us about everything he's doing and how he's going to fix the things Hoover never dealt with. I would raise my hand and ask him what exactly he's going to do. He would give an example of one of his New Deal Programs.

"Let us use common sense and business sense. Just as one example, we know that a very hopeful and immediate means of relief, both for the unemployed and for agriculture, will come from a wide plan of the converting of many millions of acres of marginal and unused land into timberland through reforestation. There are tens of millions of acres east of the Mississippi River alone in abandoned farms, in cut-over land, now growing up in worthless brush. Why, every European Nation has a definite land policy, and has had one for generations. We have none. Having none, we face a future of soil erosion and timber famine. It is clear that economic foresight and immediate employment march hand in hand in the call for the reforestation of these vast areas. In so doing, employment can be given to a million men. That is the kind of public work that is self-sustaining, and therefore capable of being financed by the issuance of bonds which are made secure by the fact that the growth of tremendous crops will provide adequate security for the investment. Yes, I have a very definite program for providing employment by that means. I have done it, and I am doing it today in the State of New York. I know that the Democratic Party can do it successfully in the Nation. That will put men to work, and that is an example of the action that we are going to have."

He would close with a line he had said before, in his Inaugural speech.

"In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come."

Everyone would clap and rush up to shake his hand before he left because he was famous and they loved him.

Sources:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/fireside.php
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=14488
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5057/
http://130.18.140.19/stennis/FDRnewdeal.html

Literary Reflection

If I could bring to college any character from any book I've read this year, I would definitely pick Steve Sillett from The Wild Trees. He would be a really cool professor to have, since he's really outdoorsy and adventurous. (And, in real life, since he is a real person, he is a professor!)

I would bring this character to college because it would give me a great opportunity to learn more about the magnificent trees I've read about and experience the thrill of climbing them for myself. Ever since I read The Wild Trees, the images that were painted for me have stayed in my mind and influenced some of the ways I think and do things. I have found myself telling some people I know about the amazing things that redwood trees are known for. When I learned biology and got interested in it, I immediately related some of the things I learned to the redwood trees I read about. It would be so great if I could study the trees and biology of them in depth from a person who practically lived in them, to take his class and go on his field trips and climb the trees with him. And I usually don't do those kinds of things, but it would be an awesome new experience to get my hands dirty and get out in a world I never knew about.

I want to see the vertical Edens boasted about in this book: "It was a garden in the sky containing tons of dirt, along with sheets and beds of ferns, and thickets of huckleberry bushes. The canopy soil has been accumulating in Atlas for unknown numbers of centuries. It is composed of a mixture of rotting redwood needles, twigs, the roots of plants, and dust from the sky. The soil is apparently being fertilized by rotting lichens and twigs and redwood needles." (Page 149) I also want to be a part of the discovery of so many unseen things. Marie Antione, Sillett's wife even felt that "The only thing she knew for certain was that even if she spent the rest of her life studying lichen, whatever she found out about it would be almost nothing in comparison to what remained unknown about the tall temperate rain forests of the Pacific Northwest." (Page 179)

So if I could be a part of that, I would bring Steve Sillett, the person who climbed the world's tallest tree.

AZ Trial Reflection

1. Summarize the facts of the case, as presented by the prosecution. Include relevant witnesses and testimony.

Arizona is being accused of violating the immigrant history of the US. The prosecutors were D'Vaughn and Ben.

Evidence: Their state law conflicts with the Constitution, because international affairs are to be dealt with by the Federal Government not the state. The Declaration of Independence amendments were violated by AZ's bills. The Statue of Liberty states that our country will take in the poor, homeless, etc. of other countries. The Boston Massacre where John Adams defended a British soldier even though he wasn't an American citizen, because he thought it was more important to protect the innocent rather than punish the guilty. The McDonalds woman arrested because of racial profiling, held in custody for four hours and then released with the excuse that it was a mistake. Operation Wetback and Proposition 187, brought up and explained by Raul Grijalva, were failed laws trying to remove illegal immigrants in the past.

Their witnesses: James Madison, John Adams, and Raul Grijalva.

2. Summarize the facts of the case, as presented by the defense. Include relevant witnesses and testimony.

Arizona says new bills don't violate US immigrant history. The defendants were Hallie and Dorian.

Evidence: Law is not unconstitutional because it deals with crime not immigration in particular. The bill was approved by various government officials such as Pearce and Brewer. Law is said to protect citizens and saves immigrants the grief of suffering the harsh temperatures of AZ. Various scenarios were presented, including "pulling over a driver because of suspicion of theft/possession of illegal substances/etc.", violent and disruptive illegal immigrants, and things saying that they/the police of AZ were not using racial profiling. Ellis Island was a piece of evidence that described a place where people went to come into America legally.

Witnesses: Jan Brewer, Robert Watchorn, and Senator Russell Pearce.

3. What was the most significant piece of evidence, in your personal opinion?

The Constitution and Declaration of Independence on the prosecution's behalf. They presented the evidence well and brought up good points.

4. What was the most significant argument made, in your opinion?

That the bills violate the Constitution and Declaration of Independence because of the 4th, 5th, 6th Amendments, etc... That people have a fair right to trial, they can't be seized or searched for no reason, that a state cannot make laws against/because of international affairs...

5. What do you personally believe the correct verdict should be? Do you agree with the jury? Why or why not?

I agree with the jury (I was on it), I think that the defense was guilty. They didn't make a very good argument, in my opinion, and the prosecution presented a good case and evidence and invoked sympathy. The bills didn't seem fair, well thought out and/or thoughtless, and appeared to be illegal and a crime and an attempt and excuse for racism.

I was a juror. I think I deserve a 48 out of 50 points because I played my role sufficiently and participated. I paid attention during the trial, and I did this well because I took notes in my head and on paper and formed my opinions about the facts. I could have done better at taking notes by doing it more often but in the end I knew enough facts to help decide the case.

WW2 Letters

1. who you are and how you decided
Boy in Japanese internment camp who enlisted to be a soldier. I've always been interested in the Japanese in the camps, since they were American citizens imprisoned for no reason other than that they were Japanese. I remember a play I saw once about children in the camps.

2. research! including specific links and the major topics, people, and info in your letter.
Dear Miss Breed, Japanese American National Museum, Wikipedia Letters of a Nation
In April/May 1941 over 100000 Americans of Japanese descent were imprisoned in internment/relocation camp programs because the government was suspicious of their loyalty to the nation and worried that they might be spies. Many were separated from family and friends. While they were there, some pro-Japanese groups popped up, and when a law was passed that made it possible to renounce American citizenship, they took the opportunity and the government suspicions were found true for those cases--though these Japanese Americans were speculated to do so because they felt betrayed by their country. At some point, (around Feb 1, 1943) some Japanese men were asked if they wanted to volunteer to serve the armed forces and 20000 Japanese men and several women were enlisted. They formed the 442nd Infantry Regiment that would soon become famous.

3. an overview of the tone and ideas of your letter.
I want to be a young Japanese American male who hears about the government recruiting people from the relocation/internment camps. I think I'll write about the conditions of the camp, the questionnaire the Japanese Americans had to take to enlist or the opportunity that was given to enlist, the pro-Japanese groups, and going off to war (as part of the 100th Battalion 442nd Infantry, possibly).

4. more???
Possibly want to write to a sister or an old friend (who wasn't Japanese).

Other sources I can use:
http://www.dearmissbreed.com/
http://www.dearmissbreed.com/EvacuationDay.asp
http://www.dearmissbreed.com/NextRelevant.asp
http://www.janm.org/exhibits/breed/title.htm
http://www.janm.org/collections/clara-breed-collection/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/442nd_Regimental_Combat_Team
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/442nd_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States) 
http://www.listeningforachange.org/pdfs/japanese_american_resources.pdf
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/internment1.html
http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/jarda/
http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/jarda/historical-context.html
http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/japanese_internment/index.html
http://www.goforbroke.org/history/history_historical_veterans_442nd.asp

Japanese Internment Camps by Bryan J. Grapes  (page 23-26)

An Interesting Part of History

The most intesting thing I've heard about in the last few days was the fact that the US helped rebuild Germany and Japan after WWII. I've never really thought about it, but Japan is really high tech and modern and it has a lot of traditions but at the same time everything seems so futuristic. All of the best games that are coming out are from Japan and a lot of other awesome things too--fashion, automobiles, books and stories and art, architechtural structures, computers, programs, innovations... all sorts of things. It never occurred to me that once upon a time, two atomic bombs had been dropped on this organized, efficient, and well-maintained country. Maybe this was from the help of the US. How did they build Japan into one of the most technologically advanced and booming economic/socialistic country?

I don't know all that much about modern Germany, but I hear it's a beautiful place. I wonder how the US fixed it up after defeating Hitler and practically destroying the whole place? I know they have some cars, and some really smart people too... and I hear they have good relations with the US and Japan now. I don't know the specifics of the relations after the war and in the current year, though.

Look at all that beautiful scenery and architechture (from Germany)... how is it so pristine now, when it was probably demolished during the war?

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany

History

1. What are the most interesting aspects of World Wars 1 and 2?

WWI: That it started over something that seemed really small [assassination of the archduke of Austria] and how Germany tried to drag on the war despite that it seemed like they were obviously losing.

WWII: That one man was able to bring up a nation to start a war [Hitler and the Nazis] and that almost everywehre else lots of other countries were already having wars.


2. What do you hope to learn about these wars?

WWI: I already learned about it but a refresher course would be nice.

WWII: I don't know too much about it, so I want to learn about how the war started/proceeded, and about the other wars going on at the time [like in China and Japan].

3. How/Why are these wars important today? How do they impact and/or inform our world today? hint: think about alliances, democracies around the world, cultures, international institutions, nuclear (and other) technologies, etc.

I think WWII spawned the United Nations, which is an important political party/union/group of people [I'm not sure which one?], and it set off eras in history like the Roaring 20s [which popularized materialism] which soon set off the Stock Market Crash, which affects our economy today.

I don't know much else other than that though.

GOW Final Essay

Describe how Steinbeck's description of the characters and setting establish a specific tone for the novel.

The Grapes of Wrath novel starts off with a dull, boring, and slow tone, but as time passes, “boring” becomes optimistically dreamy, and soon after, it becomes a sense of disappointment and desperation. John Steinbeck wrote this novel to elicit sympathy for the farmers of the dust bowl, who had to migrate from their homes to find new jobs and lives, but the pace of this book brought on more pity than sympathy. The tone of The Grapes of Wrath shifts as the characters change and setting from their familiar farm shifts to the homeless west.

The first thing that sets the novel’s tone is the beginning chapters. They tell the readers about the drought full of dust and how the crops are dying, leaving the farming families with no way to make a living. The second chapter introduces one of the main characters, Tom Joad, in such a casual manner that nothing seems out of the ordinary in the slow life of the trucker or the diner—that is, until the end of the chapter, when Tom reveals that he’s been in jail. However, even then, he’s very casual about it. The chapter about the turtle makes the slow and boring tone obvious, but I saw that the turtle symbolized something of a foreshadowing when it was written: “And now a light truck approached, and as it came near, the driver saw the turtle and swerved to hit it. His front wheel struck the edge of the shell, flipped the turtle like a tiddly-wink, spun it like a coin, and rolled it off the highway. The truck went back to its course along the right side. Lying on its back, the turtle was tight in its shell for a long time. But at last its legs waved in the air, reaching for something to pull it over. Its front foot caught a piece of quartz and little by little the shell pulled over and flopped upright. The wild oat head fell out and three spear head seeds stuck in the ground. And as the turtle crawled on down the embankment, its shell dragged dirt over the seeds.” (Page 15-16.) While the pace of the book was set to slow, there was the omen of danger, hardships, luck, and new life—or the burial of an old one.

When the tone starts to move as the Joad family comes closer to California, there is a dreamlike quality to the journey that makes everything seem worth it. They think there will be lots of work, land to buy, and homes to make. Ma repeats it multiple times, “…I like to think how nice it’s gonna be, maybe, in California. Never cold. An’ fruit ever’place, an’ people just bein’ in the nicest places, little white houses in among the orange trees. I wonder—that is, if we all get jobs an’ all work—maybe we can get one of them little white houses. An’ the little fellas go out an’ pick oranges right off the tree.” (Page 91.) She has a lot of hope as they approach their new home, and likes to think the best of it. For a moment, the novel takes a lighter tone, and a “happily ever after” is, perhaps, in the making.

And then there is a sense of impending doom, especially when a man the Joads meet when they get to California tells them, “She’s a nice country. But she was stole a long time ago. You git acrost the desert an’ come into the country aroun’ Bakersfield. An’ you never seen such purty country—all orchards an’ grapes, purtiest country you ever seen. An’ you’ll pass lan’ flat an’ fine with water thirty feet down, and that lan’s layin’ fallow. But you can’t have none of that lan’. That’s a Lan’ and Cattle Company. An’ if they don’t want ta work her, she ain’t gonna git worked. You go in there an’ plant you a little corn, an’ you’ll go to jail!” This is one of few warnings they receive and choose to ignore—they move onto California anyways, and the feeling of doom only grows as the story goes on. The tone gets darker as the Joads realize that the man’s words are the truth, and more people they meet say the same thing.

The mood gets dire when they run out of money, barely have food, use up all the gas, and don’t have a permanent place to stay. They move from camp to camp, adapt to life on the road, and scrounge for work with little pay. They can barely live off of it. The family breaks up little by little—first the grandparents die, then Noah and Connie leave… When all they have is each other, soon there are less of “each other” to depend on. When they do have work, they can’t get good food, and if they can get food, there’s not much of it. There are strikes because of the low pay, and when Tom finds Casy to be the leader of the strike, he tells him, “Tonight we had meat. Not much, but we had it. Think Pa’s gonna give up his meat on account a other fellas? An’ Rosasharn oughta get milk. Think Ma’s gonna wanta starve that baby jus’ ‘cause a bunch a fellas is yellin’ outside a gate?” (Page 384.) They would take what they can get, and when winter comes, there isn’t even any work to do, so they’re especially desperate. Even if they had to work for meager bits of food, they would have to do it—that was how desperate some families were.

So the slow paced novel comes to a somber and almost peaceful ending—though it’s not really an ending. There is a somewhat incomplete ending, and it seems like the story could still go on. There seem to be more dark times ahead for the Joads, but maybe the changing tones will change again. The pace of the book shifted from slow and boring to eventful and hopeful, and maybe the sad and quiet mood will eventually become happier.

Public Work Projects

In the 1930s, the public works projects were large-scale projects like building dams and bridges and power plants, and it also provided employment for the masses of unemployed people in America. The Tennessee Valley Authority did just this. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was created to provide relief jobs too, and the Works Progress Administration provided relief to unemployed peoples until they could find jobs. The Social Security Act was another famous one--it was established to provide aid to people with disabilities, seniors, minors, and etc. Hoover also established many large Public Works Projects, but he was afraid that the people would rebel and that it would undermine the people's individual characteristics. He failed to see that those characteristics didn't matter much when the economy was falling apart.

If our society today have a huge public works project, it would have to provide many jobs--hundreds of thousands or millions. And I hear health care is an important topic nowadays too, so that should be worked on too.

Sources:

http://www.u.arizona.edu/~fishback/The%20Impact%20of%20Relief%20and%20Public%20Works%20Programs%20on%20Socioeconomic%20Welfare%20During%20the%201930s.html

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=466

Dear Meg Whitman

Dear Meg Whitman,

 I know you keep making promises to fix California with your three main plans about creating jobs, cutting spending, and improving education. But all of your promises seem vague and they don't seem specific enough. While I agree with the ideas, I don't agree with the means of making them possible, because they don't exist.

Specifically, on your address about the issues of cutting government spending. I don't see how reducing the workforce would help your other plan about creating jobs--you contradict yourself! And if you want to fix the spending on California, first you have to fix the debt. The debt is--what is it now? Something over 40 billion dollars? 100 billion? The numbers are different in every place.

There are a bunch of businesses out there that are doing charity--like Pepsi and their Refresh Everything project. They're giving away millions. Why can't you cooperate with companies like that to make a difference? They can help pay off our debt, and perhaps eventually the whole country's. There are thousands of businesses out there like that, able to help out but not. Why not ask for their assistance?

Just something to think about.

---

Sources: Meg Whitman Website, Meg on the record, Meg on Jobs, Meg on Spending, Meg on Education, Meg on Charter Schools, CBS News, California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission, State of California Debt Affordability Report

Dust Bowl Sympathy

I think the novel definitely brings awareness to the problem, but not quite sympathy. I feel more immersed in the Joads' story more than sorry for them, and I feel like the story is not giving the real tragedies of the time. The Joads seem to run into a lot of luck on their journey, and it makes them seem less unfortunate, which makes me think that everyone wasn't as bad off as they looked. So I don't really feel like I can sympathize with the cast of the Grapes of Wrath, or the Dust Bowl farmers in general.

Reflection on Freedom and Structure

With the freedoms I've been given for Ampersand, I've chosen to create two pieces to submit, and within these pieces I've been able to write a lot and about what I want. The interview with my mentor is one of these pieces, and I got to select which questions to include. The photo essay I want to include lets me show off the project I created at Internship, so it makes me really happy and proud that I get to write it however I want. I wrote it with my own style and my own feelings, and that's a lot of freedom.

Among the structure I had to follow, there's a certain format for interviews that I know of, and the limitations on the number of captions on the photo essay really hinders what I really wanted to write about. I'm fine with the interview format, but I really wish I could write more captions to more photos. However, I was able to narrow down my "photos" to the essentials, so it was good enough. The captions for each were really long, too.

BHO & FDR

I'm not very good with presidents, but from what I can tell, FRD and BHO are very alike in the way that they've come in a time of need. Both appeared like heroes to the people when there was an economic downfall. People saw them as a light in the dark, a hope when there was none, after an era of people like Hoover who did nothing and Bush who only seemed to make things worse.

FDR changed things by interacting with his people and taking action instead of just sitting back and letting the economy take its own course. He said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," and calmed everyone's panic about the great depression.

Obama came and swept the nation off its feet with his campaign about change, and inn his inaugural speech, he said something similar to that of FDR. He said, "the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America: They will be met. On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord."

Both of them were quite popular, as well. FDR gained popularity by coming during the 1930s when everything was going wrong and he was the solution to all of the problems Hoover had left untouched. Not only that, he connected with his people through the radio air waves and amazed them with how many acts he passed to help them--billions of dollars in relief. Obama seems to be popular because he's the first black president, but not only that, he seems to be the type of person who can relate to his people. I've seen and heard news about him going bowling, visiting the Grand Canyon with his family, and working out in gyms like normal everyday people. He also seems to be changing things, as he has promised in his campaign.

Both are the heroes that emerged from a battlefield of a quick but heartbreaking war against the economy. They came to fix things that people have messed up, and they are fixing it.

Sources: FDR Chapter 4, CNN Obama's inaugural speech

In the Dust Bowl

If SkinIt or graphic design firms had existed in the Great Depression era (computers or graphic design didn't even exist at that time), I doubt it would survive. Their products are just luxuries, not necessities, so they wouldn't last very long in a time where money was scarce and people would rather spend it on food and water. However, there is the rare chance of a big cropping industry, like the ones that printed the "Come to California!" flyers in Grapes of Wrath, would go to a graphic designer and ask them to create an attractive brochure. These attractive brochures would work their magic on families like the Joads. In that case, the designer would get paid a good amount but it would only be a one-time gig, and then the designer would be out of a job too. The design industry of that time would definitely sink.

One GOW Character

4 Quotes and what they reveal about the character

Jim Casy

"Yes sir, that's my Saviour,/Je--sus is my Saviour,/Je--sus is my Saviour now./On the level/'S not the devil,/Jesus is my Saviour now." - Page 19, Chapter 4
This is the very first thing Jim Casy says, and I think it reveals his alignment of religion quickly. Right away, it states he's a Christian with this quote.

"Got a lot of sinful idears--but they seem kinda sensible." - Page 20, Chapter 4
This quote intends that Jim Casy thinks a lot and has his own mind and ideas. It's also a foreshadow that tells that he will reveal those ideas, maybe slowly, and how they go against his religion. It also says he thinks it's okay, since he did say "sensible".

"Then I'd feel bad, an' I'd pray an' pray, but it didn't do no good. Come the nex' time, them an' me was full of sperit, I'd do it again. I figgered there just wasn't no hope for me, an' I was a damned ol' hypocrite. But I didn't mean to be." - Page 22, Chapter 4
This reveals the doubt and mistrust Jim Casy has in himself, and how he feels about it. He's also mindful, as he knows what he's done wrong but doesn't fix it even if he tries.

"Before I knowed it, I was sayin' out loud, 'The hell with it! There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do. It's all part of the same thing. And some of the things folks do is nice, and some ain't nice, but that's as far as any man got a right to say.'" -Page 23, Chapter 4
Jim Casy reveals his beliefs in the matters of sin and virtue after wondering if it was okay to lay with girls in the grass. He seems to be enlightened by his ideas, but he's always mulling it over, it seems.

Examples of good student work

Dani's Photo Essay - She uses a common subject, and her essay is like a narrative story, which captivates the reader. I know I was captivated by the first few words! She uses the writing tips (make meaning early, etc.), as well as the rules of photography, really well. I love how each of her photos have a different and unique perspective too, like the one with the glass down the middle. It almost looks photoshopped but it's not! Also the first picture with the blurred foreground, and the gorilla portrait with the rule of thirds.

Audrey's Photo Essay - The photos' composition were neat and clear, and the essay had a visible theme in resources. She uses the rule of thirds, foreground/background, contrast, and other photo techniques beautifully.

Madison's DP - Organized, simple, easy on the eyes, and it doesn't stretch the page. It's also colorful in an artistically pleasing way, and the featured projects are clear on the page. The navigation is also very user-friendly.

Internship Photo Essay

The Fountain That Spurts Chocolate Flowers

Final Designs – What did I make?

Sakura

I’ve always been skilled with illustrations and design, and I’ve always thought about my future. Ever since I entered high school and I heard about internships from my brother, I thought about where I would like to be placed. At the very end of my sophomore year, a future High Tech High Media Arts teacher saw me working on a photo manipulation, and he talked to me about what I liked to do. When I mentioned internships, he offered to set up one for me with his friend at SkinIt, a company that creates vinyl stickers that protect and personalize devices. In January of 2010, I spent three and a half weeks interning for John O’Brien. I spent my first weeks working on daily production, and then I got to move onto creating my own designs, not only as a project but as a personal goal to improve my graphic design skills and put my talent to the test. I had never done anything to such a large scale like this before, and I was excited for the opportunity to get my work into a world outside my own. Cherry Blossom was my first design. It was inspired by a box pattern that I thought was cute and my fascination with the Japanese culture. I created this design in Adobe Photoshop at the end of my first full week, using it to experiment with Smart Objects. I made nine color variations on it, and when I showed it to my sister, she suggested that I create a Jacaranda version of the Cherry Blossom design, so I did. It added to the color variations, and I think it looked nice. When I was creating it, I got a few critiques from my coworkers and mentor. For instance, I added scan lines behind the flowers and John told me, “I think it adds texture, especially for something like that where it’s a plain gradient.” I personally love the vibrant colors of the design as well, and I’m glad this was my first design.

Coffee

Spiral Dots, my second design, is, in my own opinion, my most original design. The inspiration for this came out of nowhere, almost literally, but I’m pretty sure it had something to do with coffee, which is interesting because I don’t even drink coffee. This design started off as a grid of dots on Photoshop, which I tried to warp and transform in various ways, but it didn’t quite work the way I wanted it to. I tried bigger dots and smaller dots and it still didn’t look right. I had to then place every dot exactly where I wanted it, and exactly the size I wanted it. The whole process was really annoying, and there were so many layers that Photoshop became extremely slow, but it mostly came out the way I imagined it would look in my head, so I was happy. However, it caused me a lot of trouble, since after I got the dots arranged the way I wanted them to be, I couldn’t apply any Smart Filters to it because the file took up so much space that my computer ran out of space to render anything. Eventually I found the alternative in a fisheye warp, which looked a lot better than I thought it would. Then there was a problem with saving it—it took half an hour. I had to do a lot of waiting for this design, and then some more for the color variations of this design—there were over two dozen! I loved this design, but I also hated it. Well, as John said to me once, not being satisfied is part of being a good designer.

Sprout

Dream Fountain was the design I made after Spiral Dots. I hadn’t actually planned this to be my third design to begin with, and I had something more along the floral and going-green kind of theme in mind, but when I talked to my sister this idea came up and I started working on this at home on a weekend. I learned my lessons with Cherry Blossom and Spiral Dots, and I created the shapes for this design in Adobe Illustrator to save myself the trouble of a boatload of layers. I finished it at the art department office where I worked, and made a little over a dozen color variations. While I was laying this design out on some skin templates, John gave me some pointers on how to lay it out, since the lace at the top had a feminine touch to it and the design was somewhat gender-neutral. The top got cut off a little on a cell phone with a screen on the front or an iPod, but I didn’t mind it too much. I personally love this design—it’s simple and elegant, and it’s dedicated to my sister.

Skinners

After I created my designs and laid them out on the three archetype templates for laptops, cell phones, and music players, I used a premade Photoshop action to create skinners of them. Skinners are photorealistic models of the skin on a device. I did this because obviously, I had many designs and color variations, so instead of printing it all and wasting resources, I printed only a few and created 3D models of the rest. That way I could see how all the designs look, since I didn’t have three iPods to put my designs on or a Motorola Razor to skin. After I created the skinners, I arranged them in Adobe InDesign, so that I could have some comp sheets to print out. Comp sheets are layouts used to present some of the designs, along with the skinners to show how they looked on the devices. They were useful because my designs could be presented without actually having a skinned device with me. After all, the point of creating a skin design was to see it on a product!

Skinned Devices

After I created the comp sheets, the designs were printed and I actually skinned some of my own personal devices, along with some of my sister’s devices too. My final skinned devices look positively beautiful. I skinned my phone, my sister’s phone, both of our Game Boy Advance SP handheld gaming platforms, my Nintendo DS, and my Compaq laptop. A majority of my devices are decorated with my Dream Fountain design, but I absolutely adore my Cherry Blossom laptop. I’m very satisfied with the outcome of my project, my time at SkinIt, and my new personalized devices! SkinIt is something that is really addicting and I would definitely skin more things in the future. Unfortunately, my designs are unique to my own devices right now, since they are not up on the website, but I’ve talked to John and maybe someday everyone else can enjoy them too.

Hopes, Dreams, & Aspirations for Ampersand

On my part, I kind of want to have two of my articles published. My mentor interview is something I feel is really good, and it gives advice to beginners and lots of wise words. However, I also want to show off my project a bit, so maybe I'll write a second article or use my photo essay to detail my project.

As a published book, I like the title of Ampersand and I hope we can keep it. Maybe a uniform look for the covers, too, because I like the contrast of black and white, but perhaps we can change the image. I remember seeing a beautiful night scape on my way home yesterday, and I thought it would make a wonderful eye-catching cover.

My Mentor Interview Piece

John O’Brien: The Design of the Job
Things move quickly in the art and design industry, and SkinIt’s Creative Director John O’Brien gives a few words of advice to keep it fresh.

By Lynn Le

I pass many gargantuan, almost monumental structures on my way to work, one of which is the huge, wiry white pyramid that is Ashley’s Furniture Home Store. As I turn the corner of its mirror-windowed exterior, a long building comes into sight. At the end of it, a large black and green logo reads “SkinIt” as if it owns the whole edifice. I straighten my suit, enter through the front door, try not to get lost, and hope that I don’t seem too shy. I’m still intimidated by the whole idea of being an intern and working in a world outside my school. It’s just after 9:00 AM. I’m early.

John O’Brien walks into the art department office soon after I arrive. He’s wearing a T-shirt with a black polo over it, and there’s a striped collared shirt draped on the back of his chair that never seems to be worn. He sits down at his messy desk and gets straight to work, ignoring the scatters of paper around him. He checks his email, opens Adobe Bridge and Photoshop, and starts designing. Within the hour, he gets countless phone calls and rushes off to go to various meetings. When he comes back he talks to a coworker about what was said at this meeting or that thing that the sales department wanted them to do. The ideas bounce, they get back to work, and the office falls awkwardly quiet.

John is a native San Diegan who went to school at Chico State in northern California, where he was an avid art student. With encouragement from his friends and family, he pursued his passion for design, and AP art classes in high school and the Otis College of Art and Design pushed him along the path to his career. However, he didn’t quite get out of college with the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree he had aimed for. He had been two classes short of getting it because he switched from Bachelor’s Fine Arts. He was okay with it, though. “I’ve realized, in my particular field, a degree is a nice thing to show people, but it’s not necessarily going to help you get a job depending on where you’re going. Some people look for it more than others,” he told me with a smile. The experience of college was enough for him. When he was going to school he worked at the Instructional Media Center on the campus and took glass art and steel sculpture classes.

Interestingly, John admits to having about twenty jobs over the years. He’s done everything from oddball things like being a driver and moving man to construction and glass-blowing. Of course, he’s had plenty of design experience, as he had worked as an Art Director in Silicon Valley, a freelance designer, and he’s worked in places like the media arts lab. His hands are rough and sometimes he wears a wrap around them, because if it’s not hot metal and melted glass that hurts him, it’s the tablet mouse. He sits at a desk in a somewhat small cubicle all day with his hand in one position, only his index finger moving to click down the dirty white Wacom mouse. He only gets up to go to meetings, but even then he’s just sitting. It was no wonder he hurts himself so often. When I first arrived at my internship, he gave me a little guide titled “Repetitive Strain Injury”, which detailed things to do so I wouldn’t cramp up or hurt myself by sitting at work too long like he did. Though his work might cause carpal tunnel or back problems, he still went into the office every day, and he persevered. It’s obvious that he’s a very hard worker.

John has a few hobbies outside of work, though. He hangs out with his friends, runs and surfs, reads, watches movies, and he likes to travel—but he’s constantly checking his email, at home and on the go. It’s what takes up a lot of his morning when he comes into work. When I went out to lunch with him, he took out his phone when we finished and commented, “I got thirty emails in just my lunch hour.” He’s an important man in SkinIt, and half his emails aren’t even addressed to him. “People CC me and some people just hit ‘reply to all’.” He’s in on almost everything going on in the company.

He first joined SkinIt by answering a Craigslist advertisement, and he’s been with it since the beginning. It started in Colorado about five years ago, but it merged with the San Diegan personalization company Cellfan a year later and moved to California. It’s become a large company that helps its customers personalize their devices using professional-grade vinyl and popular licensed designs, which are more than just gumball-machine stickers. Their products are high quality, protective, and they leave little adhesive residue, which makes it easy for a customer—like me for example—to take off the skins or switch them out. They “skin” everything from laptops to music players to cell phones and more. The business is booming, and I had the chance to work with them for a while.

While John is a busy man, he put aside half an hour to sit down with me in the office and answer some questions.

Lynn Le: When you were in high school, where did you see yourself headed? Did you ever expect that you would be working at SkinIt or in graphic design?

John O’Brien: I don’t think anyone even knew that skins would be something people would buy when I was in high school. Cell phones didn’t exist at that point. Things move pretty fast, and I had no idea I would be doing this. I really thought I would be doing something more along the fine arts side of things, or maybe a college art teacher.

LL: You studied glass and steel sculpting in college and had a glass-blowing job. Was that job fun? How does it help you now?

JO: I like working with my hands and doing that kind of work. I think it is definitely helpful as a designer. I saw a lot of people who just studied design, and their work was pretty stale. I don’t think it necessarily has to be, but I think if you’re not exposing yourself to a wide range of what’s out there, you’re going to be kind of weak as a designer. A big part of being a designer is problem solving: it’s how creatively you can approach the situation and how good you can make something look. In design there’s a lot of compromise, and that was one of the things I liked about art: there was very little compromise.

LL: What do you do around the office? Do you just design or work on daily production?

JO: It ranges a lot. I’m trying to manage the team and get the best work out of the ten-person art department, while at the same time it’s basically going back to compromising. I’m getting requests from people in sales and marketing, who often have concepts that are challenging for one reason or another. As a designer you always have a client and there’s always someone paying, so it’s basically trying to get the best possible design when you’re given often very difficult constraints. But basically what I do here, ranges tremendously. We’re working on projects for the web, we’re working on projects for print, we’re doing stuff for retail, we’re building a community website, we’ve got white label websites, we have all sorts of marketing initiatives, and we have a busy production environment… There’s a lot going on.

LL: How do you deal with your collaboration with others?

JO: In design, you’re almost always in a form of collaboration. Generally, someone’s coming to you asking you to solve a creative problem, to make something look good, to communicate a message effectively, to help sell a product. So if it’s someone in sales, they’re coming to you asking for something, whether it’s a packaging project or a POP [point of purchase display], or something for a trade show. That can be trade show graphics or marketing collateral. Whether it’s a brochure or something like that, you’re basically trying to put it together so they look good and they can make their sale. When we’re collaborating with the tech department, we’re working with them to design something for the web. It’s my job to make sure there’s a good user interface, following the tenets of Heuristics. It’s basically common sense, so that someone can know where to click, so the user has a good experience. They know where to go, it makes sense. So collaboration can be really fun and really inspiring. Other times it can be frustrating, especially if you’re collaborating with someone you’re not on the same page with.

LL: Is what you do rewarding to you? Are you happy when people buy your design?

JO: Yeah, there are times when you feel a certain satisfaction, when you design something well. Basically, you’re taking pride in your work. It’s more a personal thing for me, where if I design something well, I’m generally happy. The flip side of that coin is when I don’t have the time to put my best effort into something, or a lot of time we’re rushing and I don’t get to do the best possible job, and I like to do quality work. When I get to do quality work, I enjoy that, and if for whatever reason if there isn’t time for that, that could be de-motivating.

LL: So is it worth it to do all this work, the project managing, listening to clients, etcetera?

JO: There are elements I like, and there are elements that drive me insane. My favorite aspect of my job is when I actually get to spend time designing, or when I get to work with the designers in the room on a project that comes out well or I think is successful.

LL: Do you ever take your work home?

JO: Yes. Basically, I’m always doing email, sometimes managing projects on the Base Camp software from home, and actually doing design at home. I used to do a lot more, but I don’t have a home office set up anymore, so I do less of that, and if I need to come in on a weekend, I’ll come in. I like designing stuff at home though. I prefer working at home to working at the office because there’s less distraction.

LL: Do you feel successful? What is your idea of success?

JO: I feel alright. Though I guess when I was your age, I thought I would probably be more successful. My idea of success is being more in-control of your own destiny. I assumed I would have something that was more mine.

LL: What would you advise aspiring graphic designers to do?

JO: For anyone who wants to be a designer, you have to put in way more work than you probably think you do. There are so many people who think they’re designers, but are lacking. They either lack the drive, the intelligence, the creativity or the motivation to be really successful with it, there are a lot of mediocre and bad designers out there. The flip side is that there are a lot of good designers out there as well, so there’s a lot of competition, and if you don’t offer something really special, you’re a dime a dozen. Part of design is having a unique perspective, especially if you’re getting more into illustration. Design is also challenging because of the competition from overseas, it’s a very global marketplace. You’re competing with people in China, India, Europe, Brazil, and people all over the world.

There are only a handful of people who are design-stars. They’re the kind of designers who get to pick their clients. If Nike or Apple or whoever is going to them and saying, “We want you to do the work,” they get to choose who to work for. To be a star in design is something like being a star in professional sports, where you’re going to have to put a lot of effort in and on top of that you have to have the talent to back it up.

My advice to anyone who wants to pursue a career in design is that you need to be working really hard and you have to always be looking at what else is out there. Don’t compare yourself against other students. Compare yourself against the best work you can find in the world, because that’s what you’re up against, not the other kids in your class. When I was in high school I was always thinking, “Oh, I’m the best artist in my class,” but it’s really, “Alright well, that’s thirty kids, so what?” It’s not whether you’re better than the thirty kids in your class, it’s whether you’re better than the five hundred thousand people you’re competing against. There’s a lot of people going into design, so I’d say it’s basically finding something that’s original about you and working really hard at it, not being satisfied with where you’re at.

LL: So not being satisfied is a good thing as being part of a designer?

JO: I think not being satisfied is a good thing as a person. I mean it’s fine if you want to be a Zen monk, “hey it’s cool, I’m happy with how things are,” but if you want to grow professionally and keep pushing yourself, you shouldn’t be satisfied. If you’re doing something “artistic” or you’re in any type of creative profession and you find yourself satisfied, then I’d be curious to see if you find anyone else that’s satisfied in the work you’re doing. The people whose work I liked were the ones who were more unsure, they were challenging themselves and always trying to grow, to one-up themselves.

LL: Where do you see yourself in a few years? Is there someplace better you want to be (promotion, better-paying job, etc.), or are you satisfied with working at SkinIt?

JO: I really don’t know. I have no idea. It depends on what sort of time frame we’re talking about, but I think I’d be here, maybe. I worked as a freelance designer for a while, so having my own design studio would be cool. I did that for four years prior to SkinIt, so maybe I’d go back to that, or maybe I’ll work for another firm or do something totally different. Maybe I’ll get into teaching, perhaps.

LL: Maybe at High Tech High Media Arts?

JO: Maybe I’ll be a bartender, I don’t know. People always need drinks.

Introductory Article Draft

My intro draft is below. Some things to consider while critiquing:
-Is it too long? What can be omitted?
-What isn't clear/needs to be added?
-Are there any spelling/grammatical errors?
-Does it flow?
Anything else that can be critiqued, please do critique it. Thanks.
---

I pass many large, almost monumental structures on my way to work. I pass a huge white church that looks more like a modern day palace, the Hyatt Regency on La Jolla Village Drive, and the huge, wiry white pyramid that is Ashley’s Furniture Home Store that anyone driving along Miramar Road can see. As I turn the corner of the mirror-windowed pyramid that’s currently having a rug expo, a long building comes into sight. At the end of it, a large black and green logo reads “SkinIt” as if it owns the whole place. I straightened my suit, entered through the front door, tried not to get lost, and hoped I don’t seem too shy. I was still intimidated by the whole idea of being an intern and working in a world outside my school. It’s just after 9:00 AM. I’m early.

John O’Brien walks into the office at around 9:30 AM. He’s wearing a T-shirt with a black polo shirt over it, but there’s a striped collared shirt draped on the back of his chair that never seems to be worn. He drops his black backpack under his desk and sits down in the black chair, and he gets straight to work. He checks his email, opens Adobe Bridge and photoshop, gets a phone call, checks his schedule, and goes off to a meeting. When he comes back he’s talking to Michael Miller about what was said at this meeting or that thing that the sales department wants them to do. The ideas bounce, they get back to work, and the office falls awkwardly quiet.

John is a native San Diegan who went to school in northern California, and he’s an avid art student with a passion for design. With encouragement from friends and family, he pursued this path. Classes of AP art in high school and scholarship classes of Otis Parsons Art Institute pushed him along as well. However, he didn’t quite get out of college with the degree he was aiming for, being just two classes short of getting his Bachelor of Arts degree when he switched from trying to get a Bachelor’s Fine Arts degree. He was okay with it, though. “I’ve realized, in my particular field... I guess it’s like anywhere else, a degree is kind of a nice thing to show people, but it’s not necessarily going to help you get a job depending on where you’re going. Some people look for it more than others,” he told me with a smile when I asked about it. The experience of college was enough for him. He had a good time at Chico State University, working at the Instructional Media Center on his school campus and taking glass art and steel sculpture classes.

Interestingly, John admits to having about twenty jobs over the years. He’s done everything from oddball things like being a driver and moving man to construction and glass-blowing. Of course, he’s had plenty of design experience, having worked as a freelance designer and in places like the media arts lab. His hands are rough and sometimes he wears a wrap around them, because if it’s not hot metal and melted glass that hurts him, it’s the tablet mouse. He sits at a desk in a somewhat small cubicle all day with his hand in one position, only his index finger moving to click down the dirty white Wacom mouse. He only gets up to go to meetings, but even then he’s just sitting. It was no wonder he hurts himself so often. When I got to my internship, he gave me a little guide titled “Repetitive Strain Injury”, which detailed things to do so I wouldn’t cramp up or hurt myself by sitting at work too long like he did. Though his work might cause carpal tunnel syndrome or back problems, he’ll still go to work every day and persevere. It’s obvious that he’s a very hard worker.

John has always been that diligent, but he is also a guy who likes to get out and do things whenever he can, especially with his hands. However, despite being an art student, he doesn’t draw or spend his free time doing that sort of stuff. He hangs out with his friends, goes running and surfing, and he likes reading and watching movies. But he’s constantly checking his email, at home and on the go, and it’s what takes up a lot of his morning when he comes into work. When I went out to lunch with him, he took out his phone when we finished and commented, “I got like, thirty emails in just my lunch hour.” He’s an important man in Skinit, and half his emails aren’t even addressed to him. “People just like to CC [carbon copy] me and some people just hit ‘reply to all’.” He’s in on almost everything going on in the company.

He first joined SkinIt by answering a Craigslist advertisement. It started in Colorado about five years ago, but it merged with the San Diegan company Cellfan a year later and moved to California. He’s been with it since the beginning, and currently he’s the Creative Director and the business is booming.

Semester 2 Blog 1

Rolling Stone: The Battle For Facebook

Five Questions For Bill Gates

Some things that I think make a good interview is that it contains content that people want to know about, things that are interesting. And sometimes, making the interview short and to the point would work too--I know that I don't want to spend too much time reading one thing. Like the nightly news, people are always going from one story to the next quickly so that they can fit everything into a short amount of time and get on with their lives.

However, even if things are short, concise, and to the point, they still have to make sense. That's what the editing and revision is for--to take an interview that took half an hour to conduct (and then some for follow ups), three hours to transcribe, and ten minutes to read--and turn it into something that takes less that two minutes to read. Not only that, it flows and has some sort of chronological time line or order. In all of this, it's only highlighting the most important information, the things that matter most.