The things I carry... a reminder as to why the semester always ends like this

THIS IS NOT A CLASS ASSIGNMENT I SIMPLY NEEDED DOWNLOAD SPACE FROM THE STUFF I HAVE BEEN CARRYING ALL SEMESTER if you are not Doc. Bogad or myself please read no further

January
classes start
Dee and I get yelled at/threatened with gay stuff outside Mels house
gay crisis- end up in serious therapy at LEAST once a week


February
Best friend moves away- across country
gf threatens suicide
two deaths in the family
find out mom needs surgery
dad gets in car accident
dad breaks fusion
find out dad needs surgery
Get called gay slurs outside down city diner

March
I lose a dr. for back stuff
situations with hormone dr.
pain in chest since october finally gets explained
Hate crime grafiti found all over campus right before pride month- neo-nazi concern
depression med battle ensues gets solved by upping dose late march
Nana has surgery
Nana gets a dangerous illness

April
Mom goes in for knee surgery
I find out I need surgery
Insurance denies my first claim
identity crisis
Cousin in Italy during major earth quake- 2 days without hearing from her
Pride Month stress
Friend threatens suicide, is put on watch
I end up in hospital twice- end up with flu than strep then other stuff as a result of those
finals start?
severe ptsd episode from gay bashings puts me in bed 1-2 days


May
finals?
clean up and move out of RI?
family shit

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE GIVE ME A BREAK? Who has to say suicide, surgery, hatecrime and death/illness mutltiple times in such a short time.... Im so done- and yet I can't be, the show must go on until finals are finished and yet Im not even physically able to finish them right now. Honestly-
I must pat myself on the back because I put on a pretty good show... hoping someday my monthly calendars wont look like this- because others have looked worse and im hoping the future will look better.
I just want to be free

In class blog assignment...

So- after the work we did in class today I started thinking about question 5, which was hard because I think Listen Up! is addicting and Im glad to have found a new site. I am sure you can find other site similar to this one where teens are able to "talk back" and I think the videos related to this specifically are awesome. If you search media literacy youll find a handful of videos talking about how the media is getting it all wrong when it comes to teens, and I was glad to see im not the only one who feels like this.

I dont know of any other sites strictly dedicated to teens and what they have to say in a format like this one. When I think of this site I thought of youtube too. I realize that youtube is a place for people of all age groups, however, youtube has "channels" that are teen based, teen relevant, or talk about serious issues with a higher level of discourse like the teens from Listen Up are looking for. So that is definately one possibility.

Overall, I know of teens who are doing similar work as this site, producing their own grassroots media, vlogs, etc. and are doing it well (think avant garde) and I would like to see more vehicles for them to make their work available to others. After completing this post I am going to go searching for similar sites, and if I find anything good I will defiantely come back and add another post. At this point I am just struggling to focus- and locate more of these- though with how much I am enjoying this site/organization and the stuff it is doing I am sure I will be searching for more sites like it.

Listen Up!

OH THANK GOD! This website was so refreshing, and yes in short I think of this site as "talking back." It was so cool to be able to see the different issues of teenage life- from all different areas of the world discussed in such a candid and realistic manner. One video I saw was a group of boys from an area in southeast asia discussing how they were dealing with being bullied. There was one about teenage girls and hip-hop/rapping, which reminded me of Marco's presentation. I found it interesting that these two videos were side by side in the video que and I thought it was appropriate. Such serious things as bullying, peer pressure, and teen drug use were juxtaposed with videos on hip-hop, partying, shopping etc. It seemlessly showed the complexity of the lives of teenagers, and the tumultuous nature of the many things they juggle. I was very impressed with the technical skill of these teenage "film-makers" for the refined skill, but not so surprised of the capability, afterall Prensky and my own experience have shown how much more quickly teenagers are grasping all the new stuff that is coming out and putting it into use to "talk back" I like to think of it as "biting back" because much like we discuss in class teenagers are trying to prove that they are not the other, and are not alien, or trouble. I wish I had more access to media like this, and that it had a more respected and prominant place in classrooms both in k-12 and college environments. This site makes me want to learn about video postings and productions like this.

Henry Jenkins/Testing Horace Mann

I apologize for abandoning format but since I am doing it following class discussion it is easier without it.

The Henry Jenkins and Testing Horace Mann pieces bring up a variety of issues. All of these were further supported by the experience of each of us in class, and our own relationship to social networking sites. I understand the points raised in regard to responsibility. The connection of social networking sites and the schools censorship of such raises concerns I would have never had to hear during my earlier education. In light of Prensky, I think it is more important to work with these sites than to control and abandon them as school administrations. I just see more difficulty in doing this than supporting the use of the differnet technologies by students, including losing classroom influence by using outdated methods. Overall, I think Prensky and the authors here could have some interesting debate, and it shows how complicated the ethics of these technologies and websites can be. For every helpful aspect of these things there is an issue of speech, responsiblity, and social conciousness/etiquette involved.

slimquick-what?!

I dont even know where to start with this one- absolutely revolting, and its not just this one either... slimquick has done a string of these ads. It reinforces the gender roles, and the need to make women a failure when they are not a size 0.... why does he get to be fat and happy... but she cannot?
hmmmm
C

Disney porn?

so this one hits on a bunch of stuff weve covered in class, the power of media and its hidden messages, the impact of media and advertising on women, the amount of "isms" in Disney-
It includes a handful more disney films than we saw in class.... just wanted to give some more examples-and the video is short but definately loaded

Interview with tricia Rose

Hey guys found an interview with Tricia Rose.... the sound is a little weak but thought it might be nice to put a face and personality to one of our authors