Blog12: Don't Judge a Book by its Cover: Reflection

I think that my picture from my previous post is such a cool picture, can you imagine if our book covers where actually like this? Like this picture to the side, another fight scene between two men. That’s the typical kind of cover we see, imagine if it was designed the same way as my original picture, wouldn’t it be so much more intense? If all covers were three dimensional it would turn our heads a little more. You wouldn’t even have to turn the book around to read the summary of the book because there would be so much being told in the cover. This picture alone tells a lot. Something was done wrong to upset them. I have a feeling that the man who was punched was taken by surprised by the hit. It is like the white suite man out found out his once friend committed adultery with his wife and went to confront him, before saying a word that he knew anything he threw his punch first. There is so much emotion in this picture and it is only a book cover. I makes me want to flip through each red lined page to see why these men are in a fight. It makes me have so many questions like who are they, why are they mad, did they other man fight back? The hands in this picture tell a majority of how he is feeling. If there were only the hands for me to analyze from I could. I could tell you that the person who belongs to the hands is in dire pain. I feel that this is a great piece of art because I have never seen anything like it before and it just attracts my attention so much, it made me see more art from this artist, Thomas Allen. I really do like it a lot.

Blog 11: Don't Judge a Book by its Cover: Observation

In this unique picture from the Foley Gallery from the 2005 exhibit. The artist makes the cover of the book more alive and more animated than the typical drawn picture with some text on a sheet of paper. The three dimension in this picture that creates the pop out effect is very fun and cool to look at. There are two men, both wearing suits, one is wearing a white suit with a blue tie, and the other is wearing a navy blue suit with a red and black striped tie. The man with the white suit is very angry and has just punched the other man in the face. It must have been a very hard hit because the man that was hit his in excruciating pain. You can tell this from the anguish you can see in his face, eyes shut, cringing, and mouth open as if he is screaming from his pain. Both of his hands are stiff with his fingers bending, as if they are on their way to forming a fist to hold in his suffering. The man in the white suit still has a furious look on his face even after he successfully socked the other man. His look is one of such strength, he just used all he had in him in this punch. Also, half of his arm and fist have gone through the cover, representing how forceful his hit was. The man’s face who was punched is a lot closer to the observer and a lot clear and defined whereas the other man’s is further in the distance with a slight blur, not as distinct but enough to tell his angry emotion.

Reflective Essay: Fresh Found Diversity

My visit to Europe last summer made me aware of cultural diversity. Spain was my favorite of the three countries I visited. It was so gorgeous and laid back, I loved it! There is a main street in Barcelona, La Rambla, it runs through the main city area. On this long strip, is located their infamous covered market, La Boqueria, originally named Mercat de Sant Josep. This is Barcelona’s most famous food market, one of the most beautiful markets in the world. It was a fun and interesting experience I will never forget.

In movies and on television markets always seem dirty and not very attractive for a place to sell food. As soon as I walked in to Barcelona’s market I knew that notion was completely wrong. The first thing I saw were different booths everywhere, every sort of food imaginable was there. There were booths filled with luscious fruits and vegetables, chicken and beef, an entire section of seafood, spices, bread, and so much more. Multiple booths for the same products. Each booth had their prices easily displayed. Everything was so fresh and vibrant looking. From only this one aspect, food, it showed great differences between my American culture and the European. I didn’t the selling of food products could make such an impact.

The first I came to were the “candy stands”, a few different booths, five feet tall, just filled with sugar coated delights. It was the most brilliant colored display of food I had ever seen. Gummies in every shape and color, from gummy fried eggs to the typical gummy bears. It was nothing compared to aisle 4 at Kings Soopers, where you scoop a pound or two of hard old candy into a bag, or purchase wrapped, labeled, name brand candy bars. Already the diversity is obvious. I think this makes it so much more fun, like a candy stand should be. The fruit stands were filled with every kind of juicy product. The strawberries and blueberries weren’t boxed like here, they were just out to grab whichever you preferred. Not one thing was packaged, everything was in straight rows or in a bunch to choose from. The banana bundles hung from the top, freshest yellowiest bananas ever. In addition there were freshly made smoothies displayed also, being made from that fruit every few minutes. It was great. At my local store we can buy packaged fruit smoothie mix, “just add milk!“. Once again, a great example of how fresh everything was. These stands also sold the greenest vegetables: full celery stick bundles, fresh long carrots, candy red tomatoes and peppers, long corn on the cob with leaves still attached, and potatoes right from the ground. Although these displays were similar to those in American stores, it was still so different, the way it was displayed and the abundance of the products.

On the other hand, meat is a different story. Like I said before everything is fresh. The sea isn’t too far, but maybe a few miles down La Rambla, therefore the seafood area was crazy. The floor was soaked from men rinsing off their new incomings, there were parts on the floor near booths from cleaning out a fish or making the shrimp presentable. Though it was gross I was distracted from all chaos around me, all the slicing and dicing. Some of the seafood that was being sold had only been caught hours ago. Usually I am used to seeing fish, lobster, clams, oysters, and shrimp for sale in that section. No, not here it was that and everything else. Alive urchins were for sale, a gooey glob thing was for sale to eat. It literally ran through my friend’s hand when she held it, I don’t know how or why you would eat that. Maybe it is only an ingredient to a bigger recipe .

The beef display was shocking to me! After a while, I was hesitant to look at some cases being displayed. Just in one case there was all the insides of a cow displayed in different parts. Tongues, stomachs, intestines, livers, testicles, kidneys, and even an entire skinned head with eyeballs still in place were all available to be purchased. Also, the ham section had simply entire legs from the upper thigh to the hoof (not removed yet) of meat for sale, or sometimes even entire pigs. It was pretty gross, compared to what I usually see here: a few big pieces of meat for steak or a slab of ribs, or packaged meat for lunch meat or breakfast meat. This was one of the strongest differences between our cultures. Most Americans who pass that display I am sure stop and stare into the case with some funny disgusted look on their face, we just aren’t used to everything being put out there like that. Because they don’t like to waste, they use every part unlike here in America. We can’t handle it if it was in our grocery store, too many people I am sure would complain. Grotesque would be our immediate thought, it even went through my mind as I kept seeing new, never seen body parts for sale, and to eat for that matter!

Moving along the meat area chickens caught my eye, hanging from the top of the booth. Most still had their heads, but the feather plucking had been done for the customers. Lines of dead chickens above me. This was definitely a new site for me. It was a brief glance as we passed quickly. I can’t imagine if that was what I saw in King’s Soopers, us Americans are too lazy to finish the job of beheading and such to the dead chicken for our dinner. Later, as we were searching for the bathrooms, I saw a bucket kind of behind a booth that had chicken legs sticking out of it, just the legs. It caught me off guard. All these little things were so surreal.

Spices were next, nothing packaged or in shaking containers. Oils being displayed as well. The garlic cloves still stranded to each other in a “garlic necklace” hung above me. Dried spices everywhere, I barely recognized the products because I had never seen spices before like this. The nut stands were overwhelming as well, so many different shapes, sizes, and flavors to choose from. Another stand I saw was selling bread. Different lengths and widths of loaves hanging or in the case looked delicious. Most of these displays looked fake, plastic because it was so picture perfect and colorful.

The cultural diversity was so apparent here in several ways. When I compare Mercat de Sant Josep to the Kings Soopers I have always gone to, there is such a huge difference. Location, prices, organization, products, displays, people, and the general atmosphere are all different. Nothing was boxed, bagged, canned, or packaged, not one thing like everything is in our stores. Wow we are so lucky you may think but in reality maybe we are the ones that have it hard. Think of how much they learn with food, cooking, and taking care of their own meals. Nothing is pre-prepared. Even their meat, the merchandiser cuts it off the animal and sometimes skin it, and that’s about it. . Our meat displays would be luxury to those consumers. In our stores there is aisle by aisle stacked with packaged and canned products, it’s all about convenience and brands. In Spain people are very relaxed and carefree, people all over Europe are healthy and look great. When you go grocery shopping and you have nothing but fresh products, no preservatives, it must be delicious and good for you. There are many options over there that aren’t presented to us here in America. We could definitely learn from other cultures to benefit us. It was so much fun to see so many different aspects of a “grocery store”, I spent so much time with just food, but the market made it that intriguing. It truly was magnificent.

Blog 8: Look Who's Talking!

I know we already did a video post but that was more about the context and focal point of the video. This video is for fun. It was just recently sent me this video of Einstein the bird talking on Animal Planet and it amazes me the intelligence we are unaware of in some animals. I am sure almost all of you own a dog or have owned a dog, and the fact it can high five you when you ask or play dead is pretty shocking. We always wonder what would happen if animals could talk. In this video Einstein can make multiple sounds including animal sounds, sound effects, word phrases and others. He does sound effects I can’t even do! I don’t even know how you would begin to teach an animal how to speak and off of cue words. Though it is probably off of only cue words it sure does make Einstein sound like he knows what he is talking about. For example in the introduction he knows his own name, that is hilarious. I noticed the judge’s jaws dropped a few times. Not only does Einstein do sounds he can move. Have you ever seen a bird get his groove on and do a little dance and be crazy? Now I have. This clip is just cute and interesting and I thought you guys would like to see it, something fun. Just imagine if that was your pet dog or cat. Your friends come over and your dog introduced himself to everyone or if you throw a party you could ask your cat for a dance. What a crazy thought, but then again it could happen.

As Einstein says,“Goodbye”.

Blog 7: Look no feet!

Look no feet! Next time I am going to try no hands! I just turned 9 years old last week and received every little girl’s dream as a present from my grandparents. Not only did I get a brand new pink and purple bike (my favorite colors) with brand new, shiny training wheels and a white helmet, I also got a crazy track to ride my new bike on. My grandparents bought the land then built the track for me. As you can see they started this project long before I was even conceived, it’s a bit old looking. The first time I tried it a few days ago I was kind of scared because we don’t have lights on it yet, but it was so much fun. It is hard to carry my bike up the 85 steps up to this starting point, but it is so worth it! It is so big, every time I go it is a good 10 minutes of craziness. My brother makes fun of me for still having training wheels but I am too scared to ride with just two wheels, no way! I just feel safer. People get out of their cars and stare and yell, I don’t know why, I think they are just jealous but they can try it if they want, I love to share my toys. I am bummed though because next Friday is show and tell and I really wanted to bring this but I can’t, so I am showing everyone on here!

Blog 6: Pop Culture for all

I was assigned to look at a blog on USA’s website titled “Pop Candy, Unwrapping pop culture’s hip and hidden treasures” , written by Whitney Matheson. I really, really liked this blog it was fun and tasteful. She updates you on current events dealing with pop culture including TV shows, comic book events, news about celebrities, movies, and so on. Her blog uses so many conventions. I found myself looking at it for quite a while, it definitely caught my interest, you should check it out. The first is along the left side of her blog there are five separate sections to locate you to different places including: Recent Posts, Categories, Archives, Other USA Today blogs, and Worth Reading. Under each of those titles in the box there are about 10-18 links that if you push will direct you to whatever it says. That is so convenient, if I want just to see the gossip blogs I just have to click gossip under Categories. The second use of conventions was in her texts. She used links great in her text. The way she included them flowed well, she would just make the words links, the color is the only thing indicating it’s a link other than that it’s just part of the sentence, incorporated great. In one of her blogs she ends with headlines and she did used links very well. Here are some examples.

- Here's a preview of next week's HRG-heavy Heroes.

- ABC's Six Degrees will return with new episodes March 23.
- We give The Number 23 one-and-a-half stars.
- Are you ready for Edward Scissorhands, The Musical
-Here's a list of the 10 best moments from Reno 911! -- with video.
- Nick Cannon may have secretly married a Victoria's Secret model in Las Vegas last weekend.
Third, a convention she utilizes is pictures. She doesn’t have a lot but when she does they relate to the subject of that blog. Her blog is different from mine in a few ways. The title of her blog stands out more than mine. It is a fun font with polka dots, pink, and is a huge font. She also has advertising on her blog which of course I don’t, but this is because she is working for a newspaper corporation. I also don’t have the different sections on the side to direct views to certain places or categories. I could incorporate those in my blog somehow I suppose. Also maybe I can figure out how to make my title stand out more and be fun like hers. She also has some humor in some of her blogs, as do I, but not as much. For example in the latest blog about the comic book convention and star wars cast and fans being there she ends her blog with the quote of the day “"Dude, Chewbacca's riding the same escalator as us!" she went on to explain that the actor who played Chewbacca was walking ahead of her. I thought that was a funny way to end her blog. As I mentioned, before this blog is very entertaining and her writing obviously adds very much to it because I think she writes well and chooses great things to write about and pop culture almost everyone wants to know about. Also what a fun job, if you read her blogs you can see how she gets to meet a lot of famous people and experience numerous events.

Observational Essay: Coffee to Comfort

The aroma is pleasant , the sounds of several different conversations surround me, and the atmosphere is cozy. Caffeine, something most crave in the early hours of the day, before work or after dropping the kids off at school. A place is known for their mastery in making caffeine drinks of many flavors and sorts. Starbucks Coffee is that place. Millions all over the world love Starbucks, they offer various coffee drinks from hot mochas and sweet lattes or cold frappuchinos to just a plain black coffee. They offer tasty drinks for non-coffee lovers as well, also they make homemade delicious pastries each day including: cinnamon sugar coffee cakes, blueberry and chocolate chip muffins, big snicker doodle and sugar cookies, almond chocolate chip toffee bars, banana chocolate chip bread, and many more. Besides their great food, they always have a friendly and warm atmosphere. A local Starbucks at 64th and Ward in suburban Arvada brings people in day in and day out.

You can tell Valentine’s Day is near, holiday retail is everywhere, a red coffee mug with pink hearts holding a little teddy bear, chocolates, and gift cards with hearts all over them. This all adds to the cozy feeling. It was mid-morning around ten and still quite busy. The majority of the customers are older, most retired and joining a friend and discussing each other’s lives. As time went by a variety of people came in, showing how all ages love their coffee. A high school couple passes through to get a drink, then seconds later another couple fifty years older gets their to go coffee mugs filled with their drink of choice and are out the door. Among the retired adults, a couple of businessmen beginning their career enjoyed their coffee as well. The first one waits in line holding his briefcase, he looks sharp with his tie and collard white shirt. After a few short minutes, he takes his coffee, sits down behind me and goes through papers for work and makes phone calls on his slick, high-tech cell phone. Meanwhile, another business man with the same attire enters but goes straight back to the restroom, hurries out gets coffee and walks out while chatting on his cell phone as well. In addition, students who are in the process of learning about their desired career need their coffee too. A college looking student enters with a Stephen King novel in hand. After getting his coffee he starts reading the novel, then plays with his phone, and shortly after I catch him gazing out the window. He is pondering something, but no one knows.

I have yet to see anyone expressing any anger or even a hint of unhappiness. Everyone is very content and enjoying themselves. I hear the clinks and clanks of change falling into the register as an employee does a transaction. Laughter is heard all around me in all different pitches. One comes from a lady in the corner across the room, its a short loud shriek but it is laughter. The employees behind the counter sing along to the music playing, they joke around with each other and are laughing pretty hard, they must not hate their job, but then again it is Starbucks. “The people I work with is what makes it fun”, Ruth says with a smile. Starbucks is a place for leisure as well as a good drink. It’s apparent in this Starbucks as they provide four big, blue velvet, comfy chairs for people to use. It’s nice, not all coffee shops provide this luxury. Later, an older man enters gets his coffee and sits at the table besides me, opens a new pack of red inked pens, and begins his daily routine of filling out the crossword puzzle in the local newspaper.

I hear the sounds of creating a caramel macchiato while they top the drink with whip cream, and I hear a steamer go off several times to heat someone’s drink to just the right temperature. Starbucks’ hot drinks are never too hot to drink right away, many appreciate this Starbuck‘s specialty as everyone sips their coffee seconds after picking it up. On the other hand, as cold drinks are ordered I see and hear a woman scooping ice and the blender going off. Usually people think a blender’s noise is the most annoying sound, not here it fits in and just works with all the other sounds that are going off, no one even notices. Alarms are going off and the phone rings once while I am there; who needs to call Starbucks? Everyone knows their drink they always get. It’s not like you need directions to one. A great thing is that they are everywhere. You just need step outside your neighborhood and you are bound to see one, there is a Starbucks at every block.
There is a cart to the side of where you pick up your order. The cart contains three different pitchers of milk, several different kinds of sugars, sleeves for your coffee, stir sticks, and napkins. An older man with a duffle bag awaits for his coffee as he leans on his cane. His order, two coffees in the middle size, a box with a pastry, and a bag with another pastry came up quickly. This was ironic because he had ordered the most out of anyone so far, yet has only one available hand to carry anything with because the other is occupied with his cane. Will anyone help him? As a man goes over to the cart to add cream, they exchange conversation, I assume the man offers help. The man must have declined, next he puts his pastries in his duffle, asks for a to go holder for his coffee and leaves full handed. I feel sorry for him, though he leaves pleased.

Busy, busy, busy, everyone is so busy in their lives, they need to get coffee so they can continue staying busy. It’s the norm but Starbucks is different from the norm and that’s why it’s not the ordinary coffee shop, their variety makes them the one that everyone wants. Many come to this well known coffee place to pause that busy lifestyle for either a few seconds or several minutes. I noticed how they sell everything possible to create your own Starbucks at home. The exact machines and steamers, several different kinds of coffee beans, flavored syrups (caramel, white chocolate, vanilla…), and other Starbucks’ items, yet only one woman bought something other than coffee. Even so, she only bought a simple mug. People don’t buy these things to create a Starbucks at home because part of getting your Starbucks is going there and enjoying the people you run into, the leisure reading, or even the meaningless gaze out the window. Whatever it may be people like going to Starbucks and look forward to the warm atmosphere where disappoint is seldom and relaxation is guaranteed whether it’s a tall, grande, or veinte.