Finals, Finals, and More Finals

Millennials The Solution Or The Problem? 

The Harambe Project

1st Amendment Remake

Rcap Of The Semester Intro To Mass Comm

Sonnet 130: Modern Love  (This is a project I did for my English Final) 

Election Day:

Did SU Get Involved In This Year's Election?

Mic's Story:

Concussions

How To Project:

How To Make S'mores Brownies

When Life Gives You Lemons... Make Memes.

                           

The 1st Amendment

This project was super interesting because I got to see just exactly how much the people around me know about their freedoms and first amendment rights. I wanted to focus this project on my family--to see how much my family knows about something I am very passionate about and talk about all the time. It was interesting to see how little they did know and some people actually did surprise me with their answers. Overall, I think I educated them on the first amendment and different freedoms the constitution protects and does not protect. I interviewed people from all different ages and I think the answers are pretty interesting! I hope you guys enjoy "The First Amendment: Wessel Edition."

iMovie

This iMovie was something I threw together really quickly to show that I knew how to use iMovie--but honestly it was so much fun. It took me back down memory lane of when I went on the GCP trip to Fiji and made a brand new family here at Shenandoah University. This iMovie is just a glimpse of what I did there in Fiji and may be like 1/30th of the pictures and videos I have from the trip. Making this movie just brought me back to freshman year--a time where I was experiencing new things, meeting new people, growing into the person I am now, and it was a time where you can see on my face that I was completely stress free and genuinely happy. I need to get back to those times and ways--and incorporate that carefree, learning attitude in my life now. 

I hope you enjoy a glimpse into my trip to Fiji in 2015! 

Pumpkin Spice to Oreos

Well it is that time of the year again—fall; probably the most beautiful time of the year if you ask me. Along with some of my favorite fall activities are hiking, apple picking, corn mazes, and of course pumpkin picking. One of my least favorite things about fall though is the enormous amount of publicity around candy corn, pumpkin spice, and of course the tacky holiday decorations. This ‘New To Me’ is the most crazy, wild train of thought—but it is where my thoughts took me and I hope that you learn something new.

           

Again, I was listening to Q102 Shenandoah’s country radio and I heard them talking about pumpkin spice. Again, I am so over this fad it is not even funny. I continued to listen because I am kind of lazy and they started talking about how in Japan they are making a pumpkin spice drizzle  for McDonald’s French fries. Starting on September 28^th through October 31^st fries will come with a pumpkin and choco sauce that will have a rich pumpkin flavor for the holiday craze. What is mind blowing to me about this is that the U.S. pumpkin spice hype has made it all the way overseas! And I didn’t even know that Japan had an autumn! So I did more research.

            Did you know that starting in mid-September the “koyo front” moves south and it grows colder and the trees change colors like it does in fall here? What is more mind boggling to me is that Japan does not even celebrate Halloween in the Fall seasons though—they celebrate Matsuri or Urabon which is like Halloween but it is in July or August. So why has pumpkin spice made it overseas and to all places why McDonalds? I started to wonder if Japan even has pumpkins because how would they know about pumpkin spice if they do not even know about pumpkins. There is a Japanese pumpkin called Kabocha—which is like a western style squash so I guess that counts for something “pumpkin-like.”

            What really got me interested in this is how an American trend and style of food makes it overseas. Also, how companies like McDonald’s sell products overseas that would sell in America for promotional holidays or seasons. I started doing some more research and the first thing that popped into my head was Oreos. Oreos have promotional flavors for each season, month, holiday, etc. I am a sucker into buying a huge pack of Oreos every time a new flavor comes out. So I wondered if Oreos have special flavors for countries other than the United States and how much money does Oreo make a year selling these products.

           

            In 2014, the world spent 2.5 billion dollars in Oreo purchase. This is an insane jump from the 1.5 million dollars people spent in 2007. To top these figures off, 1 billion of these revenues were generated in developing markets like China. Who knew Oreos were big in China? Oreos can be found in 100 different countries around the world. So the seasonal flavors we get in America—have they made it overseas like pumpkin spice has in Japan?

           

The list of Oreo cookie flavors is endless in the Untied States, but Oreo caters flavors to specific countries and regions. In China, there is a green tea ice cream Oreo cookie. They also have fruity flavors like Orange & Mango and Raspberry & Blueberry.  In Indonesia they have a specialties like Oreo Vanilla, Oreo Strawberry, Oreo Blueberry Ice Cream, and Oreo Orange Ice Cream. In Argentina they have the Oreo X3 or Por Tres, which is three layers of cookie and two layers of crème! Lastly, in Mexico they have Oreo Trio Chocolate, which is three different flavors of chocolate in one, they have Oreo Dark Fudge, and Oreo White Fudge. It is crazy to me how a business can go abroad and make products for specific people. Everyone loves the classic Oreo—but what is impressive is that the different flavored Oreos have become a craze internationally as well and Oreo as a company is catering flavors for specific areas.

            Is this a phase of flavored wonders, an economic plan of excellence, or just dumbfounded luck? I am not sure. But from McDonalds with pumpkin spice fries to different flavored Oreos in China—it seems that U.S. trends are spreading faster than we think they are!  

Three Picture Projects

This was probably the most challenging project we have had to complete this semester. Doing the three different picture projects did get me thinking differently about myself, my environment, and the way I view different objects.

First, we had to complete a self portrait of ourselves over the weekend. This was the most challenging out of all of the assignments we've had because I absolutely hate taking pictures of myself. I am not a selfie taker. I think I am awkward when I smile, I do not understand where to look on the camera or the screen, and I just feel like taking selfies is not an accurate self portrait of how I want to be represented. I feel like it is too posed and boring. I am a fun person. I love using snapchat because I love sending funny and weird faces to people about different situations. So majority of my selfie pictures this weekend are not me being serious and just smiling--but rather making a funny face or having fun with my friends. It is hard for me to just take a picture of myself, so I incorporated some of my friends in them too! Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of the "selfie" craze so this was challenging for me to complete but I hope you enjoy A Weekend of Me.

Second, we had to get to know our neighborhood. Frankly, I do not know my neighborhood very well because the townhouse community I live in is very confusing to navigate. I know how to get to and from my house and that is about it. I started taking pictures of the first things I see as soon as I step outside of my front door. Majority of the people in my neighborhood keep to themselves and not many people are ever outside so it was hard to capture people on their front porches, working on their cars, etc. I decided to photograph pictures that made the neighborhood special to me. I live in townhouse 225 and I love how on my parking spot my house number is there. To me that is home. I also took a picture of the street where there are two huge potholes in the middle of the road. These potholes, to me, make my neighborhood unique because if someone does not live here--they usually don't see them and sometimes you can hear people bottom out when driving over them to quickly. When you see people that do not know how to swerve around them you quietly say to yourself "they clearly are not from around here." It makes me feel like my neighbors, even though we are very diverse, are connected from where we live and the characteristics that we both understandingly know and can laugh about together. In addition, I took pictures during the day and at night. I think the most favorite part about living where I do are the sunsets. I try to time it perfectly but I love coming home between 7:30-8:30pm because the way the sunsets over the mountains just paints the sky perfectly every night. It is a simple pleasure of mine every night and it is probably the only time I go under the speed limit when driving because I want to soak it in as much as I possibly can. After I drive my favorite stretch of road I usually walk back out to the main road and sit on the curb and continue to watch the sky light up with different colors. To me, it is one of the prettiest things to witness--and you cannot see the sky like this from any house. I think taking these pictures were challenging at times--because my neighborhood is not structured to be pretty--rather functional and crammed. I feel like I did find beauty in the smallest places though. Just take a stroll through my hood: 225 Surrey Club Lane and see the hidden treasures for yourself!

Third, and lastly we had to take pictures of people on a park bench--or the movement around a park bench around every 10 minutes. I decided to not go to a park because I had already spent hours at a park sitting on a bench taking pictures of random strangers as they walked by, so I went ahead and photographed something more personal to me--I decided to focus in on my team bench. This bench is where we get our cleats and shin guards on, have team meetings, have team talks, where we sit for home games, where we cheers our butts off when we play big games, where I have laughed some of my hardest laughs, shed some lonely fought tears, and lastly this bench has personally victimized me because I have fallen off of it many times. This to me is not just a bench--but more like a kitchen table that brings everyone together. It is a place where some of my best friends all gather around to spend time together and play the sport we all love. Being on a team you share a bunch of trials and tribulations together. This bench is the first place I sat down during preseason of freshman year. I remember sitting down, lacing my cleats up, my heart was beating fast because we were about to run a fitness test, and I had already started to sweat. A piece of metal with the worn off words of "Shenandoah" are some of the first memories I remember on campus. I think I will always remember that feeling of first sitting there thinking "what am I getting myself into? Why am I doing this our coach is already screaming and it is not even 8:00am? Is it too late to quit?" I remember all of these memories so vividly--but I often times forget the object in which allowed you to experience these memories--this bench. This bench is where girls make best friends with teammates, where girls clean up each others turf burned knees, and where some of the most fond college memories of playing soccer are made. Sometimes after practice I just sit on this bench and think "wow, i've made it really far since freshman year." Without this bench, would these memories be the same or hold the same value? Sunday during practice I decided to take photos every once in awhile when I could (my coach was getting a little annoyed but she got over it because she knows to me school will always come first). I did not take the pictures from the same angle for every picture because I really wanted to capture the essence of the movement that goes on during a daily practice and how people use the bench. I also tried to use different angles with the bench in the background because although the girls were not sitting there at that time, they always will go "back home" before we all part our ways. It is the starting point and ending point for all of use playing together for one practice, one season, or playing with one another for one last time. The bench is home. Furthermore, I tried to capture how the bench being used by some while others prefer the ground--but either way the entire team is gathered around the bench. I am not sure if I captured the time lapse portion of this but the bench, things on and around the bench, and the view of the bench definitely changed over the course of three hours. Here's my cheesy pun about benches and my bench pictures!

Overall, it is fun taking pictures and looking at things in different perspectives. Before even starting this, I never realized how big my forehead is or how awkward my right eye is in every picture. I never realized how much I go and watch the sunset every night and how the little things in my neighborhood like sharing a mailbox or swerving around the potholes could make me feel like a part of a community. Or how a metal, uncomfortable bench holds such fond memories and friendships. I guess sometimes you have to take a step back, view things from a different angle, and look at things through a different lens--in this case a camera lens--in order to find the true beauty behind something. For this project the true beauty for me was the memories that I cherish because of these nonmoving, objects that surround me everyday and that are the focal points in my everyday life.

Two Dozen

I chose to do the "Two Dozen" project at my favorite spot at Shenandoah University. I love going and sitting at Wilkins Lake and just watching people walk by. First, it is a really pretty place to just go and sit. In my opinion it is one of the prettier places on campus. I especially love to go at night when the moon and stars are out because it is a little escape from reality for me. There is something peaceful about being at a lake with children running around and people just enjoying one another's company and being outdoors. In today's society and age it is rare that people go outside and step away from electronics so it is nice to see families on walks and having fun together. Second, I wanted to try and capture strangers faces. My last picture project I photographed pictures of my friends and their cute little pups. This time I wanted it to be less personal and more about the pictures. I thought going to sit in my favorite spot at SU would be perfect for this project because its pretty scenery and there are a ton of strangers!

I decided to do this project on Sunday because the park is usually busy on Sundays. Unfortunately the weather was cloudy and rainy all day so the scenery around the lake was not as visually esthetic as I hoped it would have been. I sat at my favorite bench and pretended to study the entire time I was creepily taking pictures of strangers. A lot of people made eye contact with me, smiled, and waved--so it was quite uncomfortable taking pictures of them. I think there are a lot of things that could have gone better with this project. First, I wish I had a better camera. I think if I would have had a nice Nikon camera with a good zoom on it my pictures would have turned out better. I did have to use the zoom on some of the pictures which I think takes away from the quality of the picture. Second, I think that if I was sitting at a different angle I would have been able to get a more frontward shot of their faces than their side angle. Third, I think if I would have gone to a place where people were not moving as much it would have been easier to get the pictures. Everyone I was photographing was either walking or on the move and that is pretty hard to capture and have the photo be 100% focused and not blurry.

Overall, I had a couple set backs then what I was envisioning--but I think some of the pictures I captured tell an interesting story. It took me around two and a half hours to just get around 30 useable photos. I am not the best photographer by any means. I tried to use the rule of thirds as best as I could for this exercise. I felt like the biggest creep in the world because I took pictures of strangers without consent. Is that illegal? I'm not quite sure, but it was really hard to look like you are texting while actually taking a picture of a stranger. I hope you enjoy my project Two Dozens Pictures "The People of Winchester: Wilkins Lake."

Faces and Places

https://spark.adobe.com/page/XjoWTeQoz3dcd/