Week 15-Posting 15

This semester of English has probably been the most beneficial to me than any of my other English classes.  I have learned how to write in different styles and methods as well as learned new terms that I had never known about such as focal point and what a ritual is in a field sight.  The toughest part of writing for me has always been the researching process for a paper.  I would always have trouble finding sources that make no sense to my particular topic and would have trouble following the source to find the information.  I feel this is the process that I have most improved on this semester.  I enjoyed doing interviews and making surveys for the mini ethnography as well as having a library day in class to learn how to find sources in the humongous university library.  It wasn't just all about the books and the website sources.  We were able to interact with real people and get real reactions the research we were conducting.  The main thing that I feel I still struggle with in my writing process is depth or explaining things in much more description.  I have always been the person to be a bit too broad with my writing and not describe things thoroughly, thus making the reader get lost eventually.  I am really trying to work on this with my mini ethnography.  I have a couple suggestions for how the class could be conducted more efficiently in the future.  First, I think working with and learning about the annotated bibliography more would come as a big help.  I felt like the due date for this paper was a little soon and I know we had talked about it in class, but it was still one of the more hard assignments I had done.  I was not able to be descriptive enough because I felt like I was just repeating myself in the paper.  Perhaps a conference for each paper could be a suggestion as well.  That way everybody can take their drafts and present them in front of you (Professor DiSarro) and get verbal suggestions instead of the written comments because some people are just verbal learners and need to be told what it is that you're looking for in their paper to make improvement.  Overall, I feel like this has been a very educational and beneficial semester of English.  I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much if I had a different professor.  Keep up the great work Professor DiSarro. 

Week 11-Posting 11 GET OUTA JAIL FREE

I have always been one to write creatively.  No matter what the assignment or piece of work that I decided to do for fun is I always have to have a little portion of it come from my mind.  That is why research papers and I do not always get along.  My writing process was somewhat different before I started English 104.  Dr. DiSarro has made an improvement to my writing process because yes even though these blog postings might seem like a waste of time or an assignment that really gets in the way, I feel like they have actually helped me in the planning and observation process for my papers thus helping me to write a more structural paper.  None of the assignments in this class have I ever found very easy haha.  It has pretty much been a challenge for me the whole semester, but I like that because it keeps me focused and wanting to learn different styles as writing could quite possibly play a big role in my life.  I want to produce film and learn of every aspect of it.  This includes script writing.  I feel like English 104 has helped me to possibly get a head start in script writing because I know of different ways that I would want to plan out what I want to write therefore making it a stronger script. 

Week 14-Posting 14

I feel like the best piece of writing that I have done this year was the literature review/ Research Proposal.  I liked doing this because to me it was almost like writing a miniature version of the mini ethnography, the assignment that we are trying to get to all year.  Also I feel as if it allowed me to express more of my opinions as well as my research too instead of just one or the other.  I felt more comfortable because I thought it gave me more of a chance to be creative instead of having to follow absolutely specific guidelines.

Week 13-Posting 13

Joining the fieldsite that I am researching, the fitness room, was the best decision I have ever made.  It wasn't even a phase in my mind to be an insider to this subculture until my best friend had died at the age of 16 of a heart attack from unhealthy lifestyles.  It's pretty sad that it took me to lose a very good friend in order to change my life around, but I feel that it has been a tribute that I'm making to him.  For other outsiders to this subculture, some of them haven't exactly gone through what I have to want to join this field.  Many people are either scared or too intimidated to join the fitness room.  "Stereotypes are a nightmare," said Ball State University sophomore Stu Purcell. "I hear about how if you don't know how to do a lift or even give the slightest hint of unsureness, you will be made fun of."  Mr. Purcell is not the only person who feels this way. There are many people who think that there is a high possibility if there self-esteem being ruined.  I, personally, could care less, but I wanted to observe the fitness room while working out to see if I could tell the difference between the insiders and the outsiders.  I asked the employees of the fitness room if I could sit and take observations.  They gave me permission to do so.  Sitting in a chair in the back of the fitness room, with a pad of paper and a pen, I watched as each person came into the fitness room.  I watched the way they looked around the room, whether they had a specific ritual, if they knew where everything was located without the look of unsureness, whether they were with other people or just by themselves.  I obtained many different observations.  This was definitely a successful experiment.

Week 12-Posting 12

I believe rhetoric is the use of persuasion.  I think the way we act plays a great role in the usage of rhetoric and also the way we speak.  When we use rhetoric in speaking, we are getting our point across and using a great form of persuasion.  I hear the word rhetoric in American politics quite often.  On stations such as CNN and FOX News, they are constantly using rhetoric to persuade the people whether the president is doing his job well or if he's not.  It can be used in both a negative and positive context. It can be used negatively to bring attention to people for them to think it's negative and same with the positive context.  I can use rhetoric to persuade people to use the fitness room and give points about why it is a great place to meet people.  

What is writing?

I believe that writing is a way of expressing, informing, persuading, or entertaining an audience with ideas and themes.  

Family Background

My family history goes pretty far back.  My great grandfather Marcus Christopher played for the Rochester Jeffersons, a sandlot football team back in 1917 who was actually owned by a guy named Leo Lyons, one of the first fathers to create the nfl.  In about the early 1930's, my great grandfather had changed his last name to Kitt because the last name Christopher is the English name of Kitt and he was the last Christopher in the family tree to had been alive at that time, losing all his brothers, sisters, mom and dad, as well as close relatives to old age and disease.  Starting the new last name of Kitt, he married a woman and gave birth to my grandpa as well as 7 other siblings to her.  Their family had started a tradition of playing a game of football every thanksgiving with the local neighbors.  Ever since then, even though we have many cousins and siblings to play a football game with, we still go out and ask the neighbors to play.  My grandfather is now passed away dying at the age of 98.  

Week 10-Posting 10

I plan to start off my mini ethnography by giving an introduction informing what I'm going to write about and a few points that'll relate to my fieldsite.  I am planning on taking one of the interviews with one of my informants and let that information lead me into talking about the stereotypes.  Then I will describe my position in the fieldsite.  My position is an insider and I will explain that I enjoy my fieldsite, but many people may disagree with me.  I think it would be interesting to take my reader through blocks while reading my mini ethnography.  When I say blocks I mean I'm thinking about breaking it down into sections of observations.  I plan to conclude it by giving my overall opinion of the of the fieldsite and then comparing that with the others that I have interviewed.  I believe this structure is the best way to do because all the observations that I make in the fitness room contain stereotypes in itself and focal points.

page 306

My informant and I are in the Ball State Fitness Room.  We are seated in two chairs facing each other, in a corner where a treadmill and a dead-lift block meet to make a square of open space.  Mirrors surround us on one side.  He and I are sitting knees pointed in the direction of our bodies, about 12 inches of space are between us.  The words that we are conversing to each other have a meaning.  When a question is asked about a difficult or troubling subject, the tone gradually increases in volume and tension is spread through the texture of his voice.   Many gaps take place in his speaking where the air gets still and only the sound of weights and men grunting in the background are to be heard.  The rythm stayed consistent and words flowed from his mouth frequently with no breaks, showing that he knew his information undoubtedly.

Week 9-Posting 9

The hardest part of my research has definitely been the interviewing process.  In order to interview, I had to make time and base my time around other people's schedules which proved to be very difficult.  Some of the people had classes all day long, and some of them weren't from around the muncie area.  It included patience and some traveling.  The easiest part was the observations.  I had already knew many of the observations when I first started because I am an insider to my field site.  Having a good perception and idea of what a fitness room was like really helped in the observation process.  There is nothing that I would do differently.  Everything has worked out fairly well.  Keeping a blog has helped me because it helped me to brainstorm and come up with new ideas.  

Week 8-Posting 8

I have done quite a bit of research on my fieldsite of The BSU Fitness Center.  Research that I have done has came from interviews, websites, blogs, books, and magazines.  The main theme that I seem to be getting from all this research is that fitness centers are looked very highly upon for the health benefits but looked down upon for the atmosphere.  Many of the people, as I have researched, that look down upon the atmosphere of the fitness center are outsiders who have not had experience inside a fitness center.  I have talked to members of the community as well as interviews with members inside my fieldsite and the theme that I have discussed does run through it.  Throughout the eight weeks of research inside my fieldsite, my place has stayed the same because I was an insider to the fitness room when I began and I still am an insider.  The things that have changed, though, is my perception on the outsider view.  I have realized how many outsiders think that a fitness room is just a place for jocks.  I have even realized that people who are overweight and need the fitness room as a benefit the most, are afraid of going to a fitness room because of the fear of being made fun of.

Week 7-Posting 7

I can show my subculture that there are people who are unfamiliar of the fitness room environment and take the stereotypes into perspective.  People of the community do not truly know what the fitness room is all about and you can't just judge it upon the stereotypes that they have heard.  To the community, I would like to give everybody a chance to visit the fitness room.  I would talk with the management of the fitness room and athletic department at Ball State and I would get the permission from them to have a whole day for anyone and everyone to come in and experience the fitness room with no charge.  Coming in for free, hopefully, will attract more people and also give the ones who are outsiders, a taste of what being an insider is like.  The contribution that I would make to my class and my own education is just the information that I gathered from the research.  Hopefully, I can make a difference in how outsiders feel about the fitness room and help them to ignore all the stereotypes so that they may see for themselves.

Week 6-Posting 6

1. Shaver, Jennipher.  "Defy Stereotypes and Expectations." Weblog Posting.  "Fitness Business."                   1 April 2008.  Club Industry.  18 Feb. 2009

In this blog, Jennipher talks about how many stereotypes come with being an insider to a fitness room.  She mentions how many people think of a fitness being a place where non-stop activity is going on with very loud pump-music in the background.  Then she mentions how she owns her own fitness room and she does yoga which is a relaxing activity with very calming music.

This website will help me in my mini ethnography.  It gives me great examples of certain stereotypes that come with my fieldsite.  It also shows how many of these stereotypes are wrong because the person who wrote the blog was an insider.

2.  Andrews, Gavin J.  "Towards a geography of fitness:  an ethnographic case study of the gym in British bodybuilding culture."  Social Science and Medicine.  8 Aug. 2004.  18 Feb. 2009   

This article talks about how the fitness room is the leading factor for a healthy lifestyle and cure against harmful diseases.  It also gives the fact that bodybuilding and fitness health in Britain has grown and the British are using fitness centers much more.  

I can use this in my mini ethnography because it gives me the proper research that not all fitness rooms are the same.  Even though the same activities may go on inside the fitness room, the culture, being in a different country, can bring different traits like what type of music they listen to and what activities they do instead of just the original weight lifting and cardiovascular activites. 

Box 18 writing assignment

In the fitness room there are many focal points.  One focal point is the spot where the weights are where people lift weights and separate themselves from the cardio equipment which is another focal point.  In the free weight focal point I see just people working on biceps and triceps.  The people around this focal point look at the other people lifting and try to figure out some new lifts that they could do to improve themselves.  The guys lifting the weights have veins bulging and breathe excessively trying to get that last rep in.  My perspective is a bit biased and does help in what I see because I am an insider and I do many of the same things.  My perspective is also based on my own personal experience.

Trip to Canada

Nine years ago I had gone on a trip with my dad for the very first time in my life to Canada.  I had always been told that Canada was much different from the United States in terms of space and culture, but I wanted to experience this for myself.  Crossing the gargantuan bridge from my home nation into the foreign country, I was a bit nervous for what I would experience since it was all very new and alien to me.  As we crossed the border and drove for about another two miles, all the buildings, businesses, and homes had disappeared.  A vast landscape of 80 foot pine trees and sides of mountains draped my eyes.  The very core of some mountains had been blown out with dynamite to make it passable for roads to go through.  We decided to take a break and stop at a rest area.  I got out of the car and already I knew we were somewhere much different from home.  The smell of pine and virgin air went up through my nostrils and teased my brain into thinking the atmosphere was heaven.  The sounds of birds chirping and leaves on the trees brushing in the wind.  A very cool breeze, much cooler than the breeze back home, made the hair on the back of my neck and arms stand up.  Gray and dark blue skies folded out like fresh bread dough over the mountains, bringing with it the fresh, cool northern breeze.

Week 5-Posting 5

I could definitely obtain more information on my subculture of fitness rooms.  I could use fitness magazines or books to focus on the certain things that go on in different fitness rooms besides just the one here at Ball State.  I could examine the different products that are sold to body builders and what most weight lifters eat and drink as a certain diet plan.  I can spend more time in my subculture interviewing and observing every single exercise unit in the facility and watch how the person is using it and reacting to it.  I plan on finishing up this assignment by visiting the Muncie YMCA and two fitness places in my hometown Huntington, Indiana. 

Rewrite of Box 15

Warmth puzzled my skin as it was just bitten by Jack Frost.  Sounds of laughter, secrets, sighs, and satisfaction decorate the air and my ears as would the gentle wind blowing outside the domain.  Only to smell the refreshment of Thanksgiving do I feel the warm touch of my grandmother's arms and the greetings of other relatives.

Box 15 writing assignment

Walking in the house from the cold winter air, I feel a sudden warmth roll onto my skin, washing away the bitter coldness.  The faint sound of people talking and sharing laughs in the background fill my ears and let my brain know that it's a calm and happy environment.  I slip off my shoes and hang up my coat in a nearby closet.  I begin to walk closer to the room that holds the laughter and the light.  A pungent smell of comforting food wrap around my nostrils and hug my sinuses setting off the juices in my mouth and the hunger in my stomach.  I approach the room and see all my relatives sitting around the dinner table indulging in ham, turkey, potatoes and corn.  Before I begin to get my plate full of food, I feel a couple warm arms wrap around my chest and lips pressing on my cheek.  A raspy voice asks how I am doing.  The place where all these sensory details happen is my grandma's house on Thanksgiving day.

Dogtown Skaters

I believe it's both an ethnographic study and a work of entertainment because they are discussing a type of subculture that has both outsiders and insiders of skateboarding and what it meant to be in this subculture while at the same time showing clips of how the kids ripped the waves and skateboarded empty pools.  The interviews came from the major insiders of the culture and they talk about the old times and help the story move.  The attitudes toward this subculture was that either you were good at what you do or you shouldn't be there at all.  Surfing and skateboarding are the subcultures and the organization did help me understand it.  The stereotypes of a skateboarder before I watched the film was that they wear extremely tight jeans and shirts with long, scraggly hair and they act like nothing can bother them and that the law doesn't apply to them.  They still do hold true because the kids in this movie looked just like those descriptions.

Week 4-Posting 4

I have came up with some conclusions for my subculture.  I know that not all body builders are the same and they don't all fit the stereotype of being stupid and jocky.  They are people like us and many of them just do it because they want to be healthy.  Of course the guys do it because they want to be attractive to the girls.  I do believe that most fitness rooms are the same.  They probably aren't the same in size and population and the certain types of workout machines they aquire.  But they mainly consist of the same people.  People wanting to do something to better their health and get fit.

Effort:

Driver's License

Going to college

Eagle Scout

Non Effort: 

White Male

Ability to work

American citizen

Have a job

Have a home

Good math skills

Library for research

Some of these privileges will help me in the researching of my subculture.  Having a driver's license is a huge privilege because I am going to research more than just one site of my subculture so I will need a reliable source of transportation.  Being a white male is another advantage for my site since I am researching a fitness room.  The stereotype of a fitness room paints a picture of big, burly guys lifting great amounts of weight.  Since I am a male and also enjoy lifting in the fitness room, it will give me an advantage of attitude.  They will see that I have a similar interest that they do and will be glad to talk about the subculture and converse on different subjects.  Having a library is a very vital privilege because most of the research that I will conduct academically for my subculture will come from the library.

Week 3-Posting 3

I have interviewed possible informants for my first subculture assignment.  I interviewed a girl who was running on a treadmill and a guy who played on the football team who was lifting free weights.  The girl on the treadmill was very patient and understanding to the fact that I was doing research for a paper in English 104.  I asked her how she feels after running and some other questions pertaining to that and she answered by saying that running helps her by alleviating the stress and anxiety from a normal day of school.  They weight lifter on the other hand was somewhat more in a hurry to get the interview done and through.  I asked him how many times he lifts on a normal week and why he does it.  He gave me straight forward answers like "4" and "because it feels good."  The most interesting and last informant that I interviewed was a gentleman I had noticed before I left the fitness room.  He was doing bench press which is a lift where you are lying down on an elevated bench-like seat and you push the weights up and down from the sternum to the air.  I noticed that when he racked the weights, or stopped lifting, he sat up with a disgusted and despaired look on his face after a few slight cuss words escaping his mouth.  I asked him why he was stressed or angry at what he just did.  He was surprisingly calm.  He said that one year ago exactly, he was in a car accident and broke his back.  He explained that the weight that he used to be able to lift has dropped by triple the amount and that made him upset.  The gentleman told me that after accidents like that happen, everything changes, but the fitness room is what can bring him back to normal.  I observed many things while I was in the fitness room such as the smell of sweat and antiperspirant, the sounds of music from the top 30 charts and clanking of weights, the feel of the wet and soggy towels that the weight lifters use after using equipment to sterilize it for the next user.  I have not yet attempted some academic research.  I do believe there is a difference between academic and non academic research  because you can either read books, journals, or magazines from somebody else's published research, or you can take you own observations into perspective and use that as non academic such as interviews, personal experience, or surveys.

Box 11 writing assignement

The subculture that I chose to do is the fitness room at Irving Gym in Ball State University.  I chose this subculture because I regularly go to the Irving fitness room on a daily basis and have come accustomed to the atmosphere and the certain people that workout there on a daily basis as so do I.  Some fixed positions that I can use to my advantage would be my age.  The majority of the people that I workout with are not but 2 years of difference from my age.  Gender is another big one.  Mainly males are in the fitness room when I am present, but I would also like to survey the female side of things in the fitness room.  Some subjective postitions I have date back to my early childhood.  As a boy and going into adolescence I was quite heavy and was not in good shape at all.  I was overweight and I knew that if I kept it up, my future would be in jeopardy, so I have began to eat healthier and live a physical lifestyle and this is why I spend an average of 2 hours in the fitness room per day.  

Week 2 Posting 2

I chose to do my culture on the dining area in the lafollette complex.  I have been a part of this so obviously I am going to give an insider observation on the dining area.  The sound, to start with, was very loud and filled with conversations because the time was around noon, and that's when everybody gets hungry for lunch and decides to eat.  The atmosphere was very relaxed.  People would go to their seats of choice, sit down, start a conversation, have a few laughs or expression of surprise, and then begin eating.  The smell of hamburger and pizza filled the air as that was the main dish for the restaurant.  If I were an outsider and never experienced this, I would probably me overwhelmed by the noise.  The smell, determining what your main dish is, could be either pleasant, curious, or disgusting. 

Box 2 Writing Assignment

Waking up every morning, I slowly and groggily walk to the restroom with half opened eyes.  The thoughts in my mind are going to class and looking decently presentable for it.  Looking in the mirror, I see the strands of follicles going every which way or flattened like a pancake on the top of my skull.  The imprints of static and my pillow sculpture a hideous piece of art on this soft and crazy landmass.  Two handfuls of water are washed over my face and then through my hair to make it moist and ready for it's awakening. Taking a tube of sculpting gel, I put the substance on the palm of my hand and smooth it out with the other.  Then I take both my hands and graze it through the undefined strands.  The gel then takes its course.  It crystalizes and stiffens to bring about a style in which proves to my satisfaction.  Suddenly, the mess that was once conceived from a long night's sleep, is perfected for a long day's labor. 

Box 1 writing assignment

Group: Weight lifting

Rituals: Daily stretches, Warm-up jog, Pump-up music, upper body, then lower body, then cardio/treadmill

Insider Phrases: “Bigger, Faster, Stronger” – “Never Say Never” – “No pain no gain”

Rules: Always put the weights back in the place that they belong once they’re used.  Always stretch the muscles that will be used.  Do not do a lift that you are not familiar with.  Always sanitize the workout station that you have finished using.

Locations: BSU Irving Gym Fitness Room

Behaviors: Intensity, Courage, Determination, Will power

 

            Determination is a major factor in the weight lifting process.  Without the extra boost of motivation and strength, you won’t get the full results in the end.  Determination could be driven by wanting to get a more physically fit body or an improved cardio respiratory system to sustain running for long distances.  The determination could even be driven to impress the ladies.  Unless you have a girlfriend…then you’re just committed to impressing her.

Week 1-Posting 1

I have written many papers back when I was in high school.  Some were interesting and a few were just boring topics to write about.  The most interesting paper I have ever written though would have to be a research paper that I wrote last semester for English 103.  I wrote about a personal experience that I had with gang intimidation's in my home community and did some research to find solutions that other communities around the nation had used.  While writing this paper, I had a specific process.  I put my headphones on and listened to my favorite songs to motivate me and keep me awake.  Then after about thirty minutes of typing, I would get up out of my bed, do some stretches, and get back to writing.  I did all of this a week in advance of the due because knowing that I have time takes a great deal of stress off my chest.  I feel that the difference between editing and revising is that editing is when we correct the grammatical and little errors.  Revising is when we look over it again and check the structure and make sure the paper is suitable for the type of audience we are writing it for.