WRITING CULTURE 2012: Film, Food & Beyond

     So when it comes to breakfast I understand that it is the most important meal of the day but it is also the most confusing.  I find myself constantly trying to figure out what I should eat.  I can’t remember the last time I had cereal and for me oatmeal seems so old school that when I do have it I feel like I’m 10 years old again, and that’s not a cool feeling.

     On those confusing mornings when I can’t think of anything to eat, I stop thinking and just go with old faithful, the omelette.  Now in my mind, an omelette can have anything you want in it, as long as it fills you up. I like to put spinach in mine because it makes me feel like I’m being healthy and I’m sure my mother would love to know I’m eating vegetables(no I don’t like with my mother, just saying she would find it very adult that I’m getting my greens).

     An omelet is very simple to make, just crack a couple of eggs, stir it in a bowl, heat a pan and throw it in there.  The key is to make sure that your pan has grease or butter in it so that the egg doesn’t stick to it. Now when deciding what to put in an omelet I say go fro what you crave. Now I usually just put mushrooms, onions and cheese and some spinach or kale in it in my omelette.  One day I felt adventurous and made an omelet with brussel sprouts. Yup! you heard right, I put brussel sprouts in my omelet and I must say that it was sooooo good.  Now please don’t just throw a few whole brussel sprouts in there, you have to  mash them up and just put them right in the center of your omelette.  I also add pepperjack cheese for a little kick.

     Well, there you have it.  You are now in receipt of my top secret breakfast before I head out to Baruch and since you now know one of my secrets you have two choices.  The first choice is you can share one of your secrets with me so we can make it fair or you can just hang out with me on this page for a while because I won’t allow you to leave with a secret of mine, the choice is yours…

This looks sooooo good

Sean Creamer is with us in spirit, no he isn’t dead, just didn’t show up the day we took the pic

Gari- Well in the beginning I seemed a lot more spontaneous and didn’t think before did a lot of things. I was very random but now I seem to be more cautious, maybe its because I’m now in a relationship whereas when this class first started I was single like a dollar bill and not looking for change. I seem to be more focused now and when it came to blogging I found myself being intrigued by the whole process because I’ve never blogged before, only read other peoples blogs. I was able to appreciate the art form of blogging for the stressful, beautiful and educational platform it could be. I also developed a profound respect for those that have a blog because I see how demanding it can be to continuously produce fresh thoughts. This class has definitely introduced me to a world I knew nothing about and now that I am aware of it I see I’m going to stay in this world for a while.

Emmy-So here we are, at the end. It’s been a journey, a good one. I am still loving the city but more importantly I have written more, procrastinated less and learned how to put together a better, more well rounded, deeper researched and more professional looking blog. I will miss my group and the rest of you guys. See you round campus. Drops keyboard, exits stage right.

Malynda- “Much has changed since we began.” As a city we became closer, and as a class we learned to continue pursuing our goals even in the wake of disaster. As a writer, I enjoyed learning to write my own ideas, instead of news stories. I learned not only how to create a blog, but also how to market and write using my own voice and perspective.

My first thought when I heard Hurricane Sandy was coming was essentially: “Phew, thank god I managed to make it back to New York in time, because I was NOT spending another night in the Detroit airport.”

To clarify, I’d only recently gotten back from an emergency trip to China to see me ailing grandmother, so news of Sandy came really fast and leaving me with little idea of what to expect. My family took very limited precautions, moving a few bits of furniture that wasn’t tied down or heavy enough from the terrace, locking down all the windows, etc. My biggest concern wasn’t even for me or the members of my family with me at the time, it was for my father who was told by the hotel he was working for to come in for work the day before Sandy hit. They would provide him and other members of the staff rooms there, but it would essentially strand him in Upper Manhattan until the storm passed. Profit waits for no man, even during a Hurricane apparently.

As for myself, my apartment complex is several stories high, made out of solid brick and mortar, while resting on a hill in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Willamsburg, resting in land and away from the river. You couldn’t really ask for a more storm, flood, and tree proof facility, so it was all about hunkering down and waiting for Sandy to pass. Besides the howling wind and oncoming rain my family and I ran into almost no inconvenience,  both power, phone lines, water, gas, and the internet were still running for the most part. And in the event that they weren’t we had one of these nifty heavy duty flashlights on hand to help out.

There was one scary moment I do have to admit though, sometime towards the end of the night the box-crate locker on our terrace where we kept most of our heavy tools came open, and I in turn got stuck with the job of braving the storm and shutting closed. The winds had died down by then, so it wasn’t too bad, but I had no inclination to linger and bolted back inside with extra hop in my step when the job was done. Afterwards, it was just tracking the storm, and then going to bed with the howling winds for a lullaby. Not the most exciting time in life, but there was some anxiety for some of my relatives scattered across the city, in Long Island, and New Jersey  Everyone came out alright by the end though, for that I’m extremely grateful, and more then willing to take the boredom of waiting the storm out versus the consequences that could have happened otherwise.

These are the moments during an election when the lines are drawn, where you send a message to everyone, friend and foe, and establish your identity going forward. There’s a lot of symbolic value to showings like the Democratic National Convention. But none of that would probably mean much without the right coverage.

The nytimes coverage of the convention is probably one of the most immersive  experience a person can get without actually being there, possibly even more so. Every form of media outlet in every conceptualized version is used, pictures, video, graphs, and of course the printed word. On top of the professional coverage from their staff and analysts the nytimes adds another spin by including social media trackers, getting at the moment response from just about anyone across the political spectrum.

All of this can be overwhelming, I know. Knowing where to begin is probably the hardest part, especially during a live event where updates are constant and oncoming. But the nytimes layout makes it all quite manageable if you take it one step at a time. Each feature is broken down into different segments on the home page, article updates at the forefront, with the Caucus Blog right next to it, providing on site thoughts and analysis from the writers. Under that is the video and slide-show segment, allowing non-viewers to either watch or catch up on memorable moments during the convention, and from there a social media tracker, providing feedback from others through twitter by following the trend tags/topics.

It’s really the total package, getting expert insight, live-feeds to form your own opinion, and being able to follow the reactions of everyone else. This type of interface will be the future model for every large-scale event coverage going forward, so long as they keep it organized, the vast quantity of choices to receive your news will be less daunting and more of a great opportunity for every viewer.

I rarely ever eat much during breakfast most days. Something quick, something light, just something to give me a little bit of energy to shake off the grogginess of the morning and get me going. Usually that’s a sweet bun, a yogurt, or a piece of fruit like a banana.

But sometimes, there are just some mornings where I’ve got this deep, gnawing pit in my stomach, that demands to be filled. It’s mornings like those when I head over to the cafeteria and order myself one of these:

*Image from beerorkid.com

Hash Browns, the guilty pleasure of my morning life and probably my favorite breakfast food of them all. Yes,yes I know what you’re going to say “Aleck, it’s a bunch of cut up potato pieces fried together!” Yes it’s probably dipped into a ton of oil. Yes, it’s probably nothing but carobs  Yes, it will probably give me a heart-attack if eaten in sufficient quantities.

But boy is it good. The rich, crisp outer crust, combined with the savory, fluffy flakes inside just provide this beautiful contrast of textures and rich flavors. Nothing satisfies me more during a hungry morning then to have that warm, melting sensation wash right through my body.

Some people see fried grease shaped into a cube, I see my salvation for the day.

Just how high can a man reach before he exceeds his grasp?

Science fiction is one of those genre’s that is much admired, but very little understood. Some of the most iconic movies have been science fiction; Star Wars, Terminator, Blade Runner, etc., that spawned dedicated following still in existence today.  It captures the imagination and, unlike fantasy, has the added advantage of having that tantalizing possibility of being real at some point in time. And the subject is versatile, able to blend in with several other different genres like romance, comedy, action, horror, or mystery.

But for all those pluses, it’s still a very niche subject that rarely breaks into mainstream popularity. The one turn off for the subject among casual viewers that I’ve seen is also the one aspect that I absolutely love the most, that it takes a lot of effort to comprehend and understand. It challenges viewers by breaking down their original conceptions of what’s possible, but that’s the beauty of science fiction in my mind. I consider myself an open-minded person    for the most part, and in this case nothing impresses me more then when creators push the boundaries of ones imagination and exploring new ideas I hadn’t even dreamed about before. It’s the immersive experience of it all that gives me my money’s worth, and by the end of it I feel this deep sense of satisfaction that all the effort I put into it paid off. If I could compare it to anything it would be like doing well with a particular subject in a classroom, it takes a lot of work, but only then can you truly appreciate it by the end. Maybe that’s not worth it to some people, but for me they just don’t know what they’re missing out on.

     Compared with other people who lost their lives or their homes, I cannot say that I was the victim of Hurricane Sandy.
Bayside,Queens,where I live wasn’t bad compared with many other areas but did not have power or Internet access for a for few days. We had so many candles that we prepared for the hurricane,and we could light the house –but it was difficult to read a book or do many things. After Sandy hit us, I was totally isolated from news coverage,and the media. and I was unable to proceed with school, work, and appointments, as planned. I found that I liked the concept of life without Internet and technologies, until Wednesday morning when I started to anxious and afraid because I felt I was losing touch with reality and the world outside seemed so apocalyptic. I also realized how much our lives are engaged with technology and that made me think of something Albert Einstein said:
“I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will be full of idiots.”

Photo by Dachan Chris Hwang

I am so disappointed that I did not know about Katherine Vaz teaching at Baruch,. That would have been such a great opportunity to read the book, ask questions about it right from the author, and ask the author about some tricks she uses in writing. We had a small chance to ask this writer several questions at the event and next day in class, which was nice. (more…)

Five of us have grown up as individual writers. We also gathered together to talk about things like film, food, music and journeys.

It was a great experience taking this JRN3450.

Alec Yin – I know now how to take that first step to getting my views out there, and I can’t wait to get started. Hopefully this will only be beginning.

Rumi –  I am super excited to launch my blog. To me this is a great achievement not only because of creating a new blog, but also learning how to manage it. Also, throughout the semester I had amazing time with this Journalistic Blogging class. I will miss the class.
Satbyul Eunice Hwang – I seriously learned so many things from this blogging class. I felt excited by writing about food, film and Sandy coverage.

Emily Bufferd – I now have a blog that reads in my voice… hopefully people will read it.  This class helped me hone in on my voice.

Kayonne Johnson– I’ve learned that I do have my own distinct voice, even though it is still in the process of development. I am learning to hone my craft and have the chutzpah to demand more from myself.

Well this is it! Time for JITZY to hang up the blog and call it a day. These passed couple of months doing this blog have been very eye opening and a lot of fun. We learned new things about each other and our cultures and even though we won’t be here, our experiences and our memories of this will always linger. Having the opportunity to have this blog with other people was great. We’ve all found out new things about ourselves on the way and we’ve all become better people along the way. We’ve become a voice for the people to inform them about New York City culture. We’ve become great friends that have learned much about each other’s traditions and lifestyles. We’ve become bloggers and we even though we won’t be around to do this blog anymore, rest assured we will each return individual and provide our own voices in the future and take every we’ve learned from this and become even better.

This is JITZY, signing off. Adios!