Upcoming Writing Project! Birdman Analysis

Last year I had turned in a final paper on the topic of Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) for my American Literary course. The movie is riddled with references to Raymond Carver works and even a little Macbeth. It was a paper that I struggled with but enjoyed writing because I am a diehard movie lover. I adored this movie and everything about it and jumped on the chance to write about not just the literary importance, but the cinematic value and themes of "reality versus perception" that the film explores.

With the advice of one of UPJ's Literature professors, Dr, Jeremy Justus, I'm returning to this paper and focusing more on those themes of reality. I'm hoping to really dig into this project and get a bearing for film analysis. I'm hoping, too, that the material I develop has enough weight that I can present again at UPJ's undergraduate research conference, SPACE. Even without that honor in mind, I want to polish this for my own growth in writing and humanities research ability.

To give a preview on what this will be about, I'm focusing mainly on the three realities of Birdman. There is the objective reality of the film's world, the subjective reality of Riggan Thomson's (Michael Keaton) mind, and the objective reality of the audience's world. I'll be looking at the diegetic elements of the film as evidence of which reality is present at which time and explain where they parallel.

I actually made three completely different drafts for the original paper and am pulling from all four versions along with additional research for this updated project. There is still a lot to decide if I want to keep the literary allusions as a topic (because they are important still) or if I want to keep this purely cinematic. For now, I'm just excited to be working on this topic I love so much again.

Let's Talk About It

Collaborative writing is a great way to expand on ideas or create really interactive dialogue. What's even better about it is that you really don't have a set template for what makes collaborative writing or projects. Twitter threads, image storytelling, google docs, the possibilities are limitless.

I collaborated with two classmates of mine, Kayla Stockdale and Kylie Truscello, by using a Pinterest account. We came together with a common academic interest in communications. Both Kayla and Kylie have communication majors and I have a communication minor (though I'm always tempted to dual major). We decided Pinterest was a great medium for collaborative writing in that we can use shared pins and talk about them individually through captions, but organize them into a bigger idea through boards.

With this Pinterest account, the three of us all pinned different topics, tips, and infographics of why communication is important in our daily lives. Our topics include communication in the workplace, in relationships (both plutonic and romantic), when resolving conflict, and other methods like intercultural or non-verbal communication. Our goal was to demonstrate the importance of different communication strategies using Pinterest to organize our information. The project itself was actually very fun and I was impressed with just how many informative pins were available on this topic. Check out our Pinterest board and see if you learn something new!

Visit Let's Talk About's profile on Pinterest.

I'm sick

Thanks to the turning of the seasons and probably not enough Vitamin C, I am sick. All last night I was a mouth-breathing, nose blowing, dry coughing mess. Head cold, you are never welcome, so why don't you just leave?

Never have I wanted sleep so badly than when I woke up at 6:30 this morning to get ready for my internship. Thankfully I love being at the office, but I didn't know how happy I could get over a can of tomato soup and Goldfish crackers for lunch. But it's 6:30 PM now, I'm done with classes and done being in business casual.

HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OUT OF BEING SICK: 

An Excuse to Do Nothing

Step 1: Are you still in real pants? Get rid of those immediately. And take those heels off like they were illegal.

Step 2: Make enough tea to fill your whole electric kettle.

Step 3: Set up the cave that you'll be disappearing to for a few hours. A fuzzy blanket being the main priority so you can become a human burrito. Oh, and more tissues would help, you walking plague. 

Step 4: Entertainment media time (tonight, your third fourth fifth Sex and the City marathon).

Step 5: Cuddle partner options vary from a Chestburster plushie (seen above), someone with paws, or the human pillow, Sean (but better not get him sick, too).

Great, now I miss my cat, Cassie (aka bed hoglet)

Press Bistro in Johnstown

I ride the bus to my internship and I can usually get to Johnstown from UPJ about and hour before I need to be at the office. So around 8 AM, I have some nice downtime to myself to explore and take a walk in the morning.

Honestly, when I first came to UPJ I was very skeptical of how I would like being away from places that have so much to offer like Pittsburgh, Cranberry, and Monroeville. The longer I've been here, the more I'm surprised with what I found around Moxham and downtown Johnstown.

What I discovered on Thursday morning was the Press Bistro! It's located on Franklin Street and occupies the corner of a business office that, on the outside, looks extremely dated. I cannot really knock them on that considering they can't really modify the building itself. I was pleasantly surprised to walk in to a relaxed and warm atmosphere with some coffee-house-cute qualities.

Not only was the interior inviting and cute, the service was so friendly. I had missed the rush that you can usually see coming in and out of the Press Bistro every morning so I was able to ask my cheerful server a few questions about their events. I am an officer of UPJ's literary magazine, Backroads, and I wanted to know if they would mind us joining their Mic Nights. What I don't have pictured in their rather large space is their couched area and their impressive bar of craft beer and wine.

I ordered their medium Chai Latte. I'm admittedly obsessed with tea (anyone close to me has seen each of my purses has a small pocket dedicated to tea bags), and I'm kind of picky about chai. If it's in the morning, I like sweet pick-me-ups and any other time I'm just looking for some warm spices. The Press Bistro's latte was a perfect mixture of strong, sweet chai and a whole lot of creaminess. Also, before I smothered it in lipstick, the cup is adorable. My favorite color is grey and I love the satin-like look of this cup that is distinctive to the Press Bistro.

The price was around average, a little on the higher side for my college girl budget but not high enough to keep me away. I'm excited to try out their dinner soon and even more excited to attend an event or two.

UPDATE: After grabbing a small coffee a few weeks after this visit, I saw that they give college students 12% discounts!

Day of Digital Humanities

UPJ held the "Day of Digital Humanities" conference on Saturday and I was able to attend several panels and workshops. The panels were packed full of information about different subjects in the digital humanities including narrative structures, several genres and art forms, and scholarship approaches. It was a huge learning experience for me to see different uses of digital humanities in a wide range of mediums such as writing, video games and art installations, and data formatting. The majority of the speakers present were UPJ's own Humanity Division professors so it added another level of intrigue seeing them speak about mediums they have experience in or speaking about humanities in general.

What I personally benefitted from the most were the two workshops held in between some of the panels. The first I attended was taught by UPJ's Dr. Justus and was called "Making Stuff by Breaking Stuff." What I enjoyed most about this workshop was some hands on HTML play, which is something I've been trying to teach myself and gain experience in. We were able to learn a few tricks in image source manipulation and self generating poetry and I believe it was a valuable session.

The second workshop I was able to attend was about creating some digital narratives through resources like google maps, something I had never even thought to use before. This workshop was taught by a Robert Morris professor. Both sessions opened up new resources and mediums for me to use and I'm excited to try these new things out.

The last panel I attended was an art installation that really displayed the wide range of mediums that can be found in digital humanities. It had tumblr stories, audio of poetry to related footage, and interactive pieces. The whole experience in the panels and workshops was very inspiring to really bunker down and develop something new and exciting.

Of course what tied the whole thing in to being a perfect Saturday to muse about was the rain. I adore rain and grey is one of my favorite colors, so that mixed into the slowly turning leaves made for a beautiful view in between panels and the lunch hour.

...

I'm an Intern!

This week started an incredible professional opportunity I have this semester at Johnstown's Community Foundation for the Alleghenies (CFA). The Community Foundation for the Alleghenies is a philanthropic group dedicated to the betterment of the Somerset, Bedford, Indiana, and Cambria counties through donor contributions. I will be their marketing and public relations intern with most of my work will be towards their press releases, E-newsletters, Social Media, and other such professional writing for CFA. I'll be under the guidance of their experienced communication specialists Angie Berzonski and Danielle Krout-Kaza.

This year actually marks CFA's 25th Anniversary and there is a major project in particular that I am fortunate to have been a part of today. They are taking on the usually intimidating task of redesigning a website. Fortunately, they have discovered a fantastic developer called JMG Systems. 

JMG is located out of Hollidaysburg, PA and is actually looking to expand thanks to their growing number of clients. The CFA has been one of their larger projects because of the large amounts of funds, scholarships, news feeds, and data. JMG has been working so diligently with CFA to create a website that is clean, effective, and still meeting every wish of the CFA. 

I was able to sit in on a meeting today at their Hollidaysburg office and reviewed the new website as it's closer to the final product. The meeting was extremely interesting and informative and really had me thinking about collaboration, something I will be exploring in several of my courses. From just this one staging I was able to see three members of JMG's team at work. They were the ultimate combination of technical prowess and creativity.

They were a perfect trio to deliver a clean and effective revamping to the CFA website and a great representation of what collaboration can create. They were communicative, personable, and definitely deserve their upcoming expansion.

I'm a Junior

It is my first week into my Junior year at UPJ. The summer beforehand had given me a lot of unease and feelings of inadequacy and now I'm not sure why I was so stressed. This is the first year I've felt that I am in control of my future. In fact, I am genuinely excited for each course I have this fall partly because they are all of my choosing. I am done with the gen-ed game, these classes are my actual interest with use to my future's path.

I am studying as a Professional Writing (in Media) Major with Art History and Communication Minors. My dream career is something in the public relations field but I have a lot to learn. I really need to crack down on software experience. Which is why I am so looking forward to getting hands-on-experience in both multi-media formats and public relation projects this semester. I'm really hoping to learn as much software and mediums as I can this fall.

Digital media is something we use on a daily (if not hourly) basis so it's a big deal. I really want to become a part of that world. I want to have that ability to be an outreach, modification, or resource to entire networks of people. 

I can feel that I'm as over eager as a Freshman on move-in day to eat this shit up. But now I'm a Junior, and while my fellow upperclassmen are jaded or distracted, I've never felt so new and so ready.