Reflecting on my Campus Signage Project - Part 1

     As I work on this project, I am faced with a dilemma. I am a creative person, I always have been a creative person, or I've at least always associated myself with that identity. This project makes me rethink that. I recall being in high school English classes. I was not a procrastinator, but when it came to assignments where I had to write essays, I was THE procrastinator. I cold not use words in the confines the assignment required, it felt impossible, and I dreaded writing. I was a creative person who could do a lot of creative things, I was good at art, I liked to paint, I thought I had a good eye for things that were conventionally visually appealing. But, I was not a writer and I was okay with this.
     When I started college, I attended DePaul University for a rather creative major - music performance. I still had to take general education classes, which included two English courses. I didn't know what to expect other than I'd probably be writing a lot more than I had to in high school, which turned out to be true, but this time writing was different. It was easier for me. It wasn't necessarily better, but I could put words together and answer questions on paper. I think somewhere between getting better at organizing thoughts within the box of a given topic and being able to crate something visually appealing, there was a bit of a trade off for me.
     While walking around campus, I don't generally pay attention to many flyers, or signs. I notice them, but they are more of a passive thing in my field of vision. I've narrowed my work down to two different signs I think could use improvement. One is a little more appealing - it was my sorority's recruitment flyer which I thought was too wordy and could have had a better organization and flow to it. The other is an awful scholarships screen that pops up on NIU computers prior to login. The visual is boring and it's overall a pretty lazy sign. As I continue to work on redesigning this sign, I think I'll get a better feel of whether my imagination is dwindling or Microsoft Publisher is too limiting.

Radiant Ramyn vs. Roger Ebert

       There is not much comparison between me a Roger Ebert in regards to writing a review, a summary, a reflection. I guess a similarity is we both use words, but I think his make him a bit more money. His style is fairly straight forward. He touches on, what I imagine, are the personally important parts of the documentary which have stuck with him. Per the guided reflection questions, I did the same. There are a couple moments in review where it seems he is being cheeky, ("does the bathtub fill up with water when you turn on the tap?"). I think my sass to be of a more mild flavor, perhaps it may sharpen with age. I think the content of my reflection covered a similar amount of content, focusing on major plot points of the story and aspects of Balog's dedication to his project. I think his review is more in a style that might convince someone to watch Chasing Ice, whereas mine is more following a form given to me. Perhaps there'd be more similarities if I was writing without guidelines? I am not sure. To sum it up, there are some vague similarities in style and content, I don't think there are similarities in form. His review showed not only his opinions of the documentary but also which side of the matter he is on, I think I also am clearly on one side of the matter.

Chapter 1 Exercise 1

NIU's home page, I believe, embodies the 3 measures of excellence in technical communication that are to be focused on in this exercise. On the website, there is a clean design, the universities colors are used, there a well organized sections, and labels to help direct people to where they might want to go. The website is fairly clear to navigate. The website is accessible because of the clear labeling, there's tabs at the top to help navigate the site. There are also sections to select for requesting more info, for applying, and so on. For someone who is able to read, I imagine the website would be fairly easy to navigate making it accessible. Lastly, the site does have a professional appearance. It is clean looking, modern, and as university websites go, it looks nice. I think with the slideshow images of happy students across the top, the site looks pleasant.

Chasing Ice Guided Reflection

       In watching Chasing Ice I was mesmerized by all the beautiful ice-scapes shown, and it's all just ice. I was seeing, for the first time in video and not just pictures, how beautiful ice is. And it seeing these massive ice sheets, this man's passion to capture what's happening to them, and seeing the culmination of his work over a few years time was just mesmerizing. What he set out to do was show us something is happening and we don't have to agree why it's happening to take steps towards stopping it. Before watching this film, I had never heard of calving as it pertains to the splitting of ice from a larger glacier or ice sheet, and still, to see what was caught on video, I was enthralled. If I wasn't concerned about climate change before seeing this beautiful yet tragic human caused phenomenon, I was now.
       As much as this film opened my eyes to something I knew I already cared about, it was something James Balog said that really solidified it for me. At one point, when he was standing near a glacier which he had seen the massive changes that had taken place, he referred to the pictures saved onto the memory card. Those pictures captured a landscape that once existed on this Earth, and this landscape no longer exists. Those images capture the only time in our history where that landscape existed. It's all ice, ice melts. It's not the same as the landscape we're used to here in Illinois. This is a landscape which has existed for a long time. We don't cry when the snow here in Illinois melts at the end of the winter - quite the opposite, in fact. The thought that what I do everyday, along with 7.5 billion other members of this planet, can destroy something so beautiful and natural is tragic.
       What really surprised me in watching Chasing Ice was Balog's perseverance. He was so dedicated to this project, and all it took was when he saw the change that occurred to a glacier in 6 month's time. Once he saw this, he was determined to show the public these changes. Through all the camera malfunctions and through his complications with a knee injury, he still managed to complete this project. Once he had received his knee operation, the project seemed to be at an acceptable point which would have shown the public the difference in glacier size. It would have sufficed. But, to Balog, this was not enough. The Extreme Ice Survey team kept going.
       After finishing Chasing Ice, I wonder, why isn't this news more mainstream? Why isn't the work of Balog and his EIS team more in the news? There must be so many other researchers who have come to these conclusions, who have witnessed what Balog himself captured, and yet this isn't plastered all over media outlets. This is our planet, the place we live and call home, and because these glaciers are melting thousands of miles away from us and we can carry on without seeing the effects of our actions, can we just ignore it until it's right in front of our eyes? In my home, I believe I am safe, warm, I have things that make my life easier, and I can exist comfortably. Except... I can't. I am conscious of the impacts my existence has on the environment, and this film reiterates that. I can continue to exist without thought for what my actions do to the home I share with 7.5 billion other people, but I do not want to. In my personal life, I do things that I know to lessen my footprint on this planet, and I do these things not for myself, but for everyone. This film reminds me that more people need to care because 1 person can only care enough to lessen the impact of so many. At some point, someone else has to carry that burden with them.

Summary of Scaredycat by Andy Blubaugh

Andy Blubaugh’s “Scaredycat” is a short film documentary which takes a deeper look at fear and how a crime effects a victim. This short film begins by introducing some information about Andy, including references to conversations with his father and friends regarding rituals he performed starting as a young boy. These rituals involved actions such as lining up a magazine such that it laid parallel to the edge of what it was resting on, or avoiding stepping on the cracks on the sidewalk. By doing these things, he is able to better control his fears. what Andy believes he’s able to There are also scenes that give a glimpse into one of his fears, black men, due to Andy being the victim of a robbery.

In the next scene, Andy is shown as a victim of robbery, this is shown in a quirky cartoon style. He believed that all those that attacked him were black, but they were actually white, black, and Hispanic. Instead of being shown in a dramatized way with real actors, which might instill fear in the viewer, the same fear Andy has, the cartoon style serves more of a story telling purpose. Because of his belief, Andy now has a fear of black men. He realizes this fear is wrong, and he knows that those who robbed him and beat him up were not all black, but avoiding black men was what he could do to alleviate fear, so this is what he did. In what is possibly the most powerful scene of this documentary, Andy contacts one of the men who attacked him. Andy asks questions of his attacker in attempts to get to know him better and to understand what he did and why he did it. It is in this part of the film that we learn about Oregon’s Measure Eleven, which is a mandatory sentencing law. This raises the question – is this fair? To the victim, in this case Andy, he seems to be able to detach himself from the crime committed against him to see his attacker’s side, but he still recalls that night and acknowledges for his own sake, he is content with the jail sentence.

Andy Blubaugh’s short documentary on the fear he has based on being a victim of a robbery also addresses some of the negative impacts on the attackers. These consequences, while deserved, raise questions about how effective minimum sentencing laws are. Do these laws assist a prison in accomplishing the task it set out to do, which is to rehabilitate criminals? Or does taking away the opportunity to get out on good behavior actually prevent a prison from proper rehabilitation or inmates? While the film never answers these questions, it is a thought provoking topic that viewers are left with. However, the focus of the film, Andy’s fear, is resolved in a sense. It is acknowledged that he has fears and that he does things to mitigate the impact of these fears on his day to day life. The end of the film sees Andy sitting across from a black man on a train, but this time, he is not shown getting up and off the train. He might not be over the fear, but there is an implication that his fear is no longer controlling his every move. He may never stop lining up a newspaper with the edges of the seat upon which it is resting, but maybe he can sit across from a reminder of the night he was attacked without getting off of the train.