e-Portfolio

Hello, my name is Tessa Johnstone, and I am an undergraduate student at the Pennsylvania State University studying History and French.  In the past year, I have grown tremendously as a student and as a person.  This year was my first year away from home, and the first time I had to motivate myself to do my work.  Before, I could always count on my teachers or family to remind me to finish projects and study for tests, but when I came to Penn State, the responsibility was my own.  At first it was a challenge to do my work instead of watching TV or taking a nap, but as the year progresses, I knew that I would have to get my work finished, or receive poor grades in my classes.  Also by being an active member of the Penn State Womens' Rugby Football Club, which took up many hours a week, I learned better time management skills.  Balancing schoolwork and rugby is without a doubt a challenge, but I feel that I managed my time well enough to excel in both areas.

I have matured throughout the course of this school year, and have taken on many responsibilities I never had before coming to Penn State.  Previously, if I had to miss a class or two, I knew my teacher would gladly give me the notes or have me come in for tutoring.  My class in high school was very small, only around 130 students, so I never felt the pressure of being in a huge lecture hall knowing no one.  I have also learned the value of a good student-teacher relationship.  I took for granted in high school the fact that each teacher knew everyone and had a personal relationship with each one, but that changed when I came to Penn State.  Being in a class with 200 or more others students, there is no way the professor could possibly recognize every single one.  So I took it upon myself to introduce myself to my professor, and start to build a relationship with them.  Penn State is a wonderful university, and I hope to only better my experience here!

Tessa Johnstone's e-Portfolio

Enjoy!

Animal Abuse

I hope that all you you took my speech to the heart and are committed to saving the lives of millions of animals around the world.  The documentary I spoke of, Earthlings, is available for free at www.earthlings.com , and I have posted the trailer below.

Make the Connection. EARTHLINGS.com

Other incredible simple ways to help stop animal cruelty is to visit the webistes of the  ASPCA, PETA, and the Humane Society.  These websites have numerous ways to donate your money, or your time as a volunteer, to help animals live a good life, something which all creatures on this Earth are entitled to.

My Struggle with Policy

We've got to have our policy for our next assignments in class today, but I don't think I'm going to be able to do that for two reasons: I don't exactly know what policy is, and there are so many out in the world, I'll never be able to choose one.

Even though I took AP Government last year in high school, and I even got an A in it, I still don't know what exactly public policy is.  I probably knew the definition of it at one point, but I have since forgotten.  So I did a nifty little Google search, and came up with this: "The basic policy or set of policies forming the foundation of public laws, especially such policy not yet formally enunciated." (Thanks www.freedictionary.com) What ever happened to not using the word in the definition?  That was not very helpful at all.  So I continued my search for what exactly public policy was, and trusty old Wikipedia says, " government action is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs."  Better, but still not crystal clear.  Then it came to me; there is no east definition of public policy.  It varies based on the situation, and there is hardly ever a situation that calls for the same as the situation before it.  So now that I've got a vague idea floating around in my head of what policy is and does, it's time for the decisions.  Which policy should I write about?


I decided pretty soon after the project was introduced to us that I didn't want to do one of the run of the mill topics like sexual assault, abortion, or gay rights.  I wanted to do something that would actually keep my attention during the couple of weeks I would have to research it.  And I am somewhat of an animal freak / nature lover, so I thought it would be nice to choose something in that area.  


But then it came time to find a policy to write on.  Ugh.  This was rough.  But after a while, I've come up with a few things, none of which I am sure about.  So I need your help.  The topics that have so far sparked my interest have been: shark finning, coral reef harvesting, the clubbing to death of seals, and the deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest and other forests around the world.  So those are my ideas.  What do you think?

Graffiti / Street Art

If you've ever traveled through a city, you've most likely seen some sort of graffiti.  Whether it be an amateur scribble on a fence, and an incredible work by Banksy on a six story building, the world is covered in street art.  But whether it's graffiti or street art is up for some debate.

Watch it.  It's good.

Having just watched Exit Through the Gift Shop, a Banksy-directed film about graffiti artists, I am a huge fan of street art.  I've always thought it was really interesting to look at, but I never gave it much thought until watching the film.  A quick synopsis:  Theirry Guetta, a French born shop owner turned videographer living in Los Angeles, stumbles into the world of graffiti after filming his cousin, street artist Invador, putting some pieces up in Paris.  He then becomes enraptured in the world of graffiti, meets many prominent artists,  and makes it his goal to find and film Banksy, the most famous-- and elusive-- graffiti artist in the world.  But Guetta's world cyclones from being a filmer following the artists to becoming an artist himself.  Adopting the name Mr. Brainwash, Guetta begins making his own graffiti and becomes a successful artist in the LA area.  Banksy directed the film, which was made almost entirely from Guetta's old film rolls, yet manages to remain completely anonymous.  I found the film to be gripping and incredibly interesting (and so did the Acaemy: it was nominated for Best Documentary at this year's Oscars).  It delved into the to world of street artists, and showed that they have intricate plans for their art, and are more than a 'screw you' to the police.

A Banksy Classic.

As shown in Exit Through the Gift Shop, the world of graffiti and street art (are they one in the same?) is so much more than a hastily scribbled pentagram made by a couple of 14 year olds sneaking out after bed time.  The artists have elaborate plans for their art, and often need weeks of planning to pull off the perfect art.  The pieces often have a distinct meaning, sometimes political, sometimes social commentary, and all are very well put together.  But some people believe that the works of these artists are degrading the structures on which their are being painted.  I am over the opposite opinion.  I think these pieces are true works of art and should be encouraged.  They make an otherwise bland wall into something thought provoking and interesting.  On that note, I an going to leave you with my all time favorite piece by Banksy.  He took a trip to Israel and painted many pieces on the West Bank wall.  This is one of them.

What do you think?

Censorship

Living in the United States of America has a ton of perks to it.  The freedom of speech and of the press is one of them.  Imagine living in a country where your favorite books, movies, and TV shows have all been banned because the government deemed them to be inappropriate or capable of influencing you in ways they think you shouldn't be influenced.  That means that you probably wouldn't be able to read Cosmopolitan or watch Jersey Shore.  The reality is, though, that many countries around the world are struggling with censorship laws.

What is censorship?  It's when the government or organization monitors and controls what media outlets are saying and broadcasting.  The most often seen forms of censorship are banning certain books, 'bleeping' in songs, and broadcast delays of live events.  Countries all over the world use some form of censorship; it even happens in America.  While our censorship laws are not as strict as a country like China's, we still definitely have them.  You can't, for example, go around naked on television shows and be dropping the f-bomb on Sesame Street.  But in the USA we can read books like Animal Farm and The Diary of Anne Frank without having to worry about whether or not they are illegal.

Countries that do have strong censorship laws are often countries with very active political parties, such as China.  China is one of the best examples of censorship, and they censor topics such as the use of democracy, pornography (which is probably a good thing), and religion.  All forms of media are censored in China, and many common American websites are blocked on their servers, YouTube and Flickr being two examples.  International news casts such as CNN or BBC are sometimes 'blacked out' when the Chinese government feels that an issue is too controversial.

If we lived in a country where there was this much censorship, how would we react?  Would we be up in arms about the gross injustice of the situation, or would we be content to sit and watch a blank screen whenever sex or violence comes on the screen?  I believe that everyone should have the ability to watch whatever they want, and that nothing should be off limits to the people.

The Aftermath

So I've reread my last post a couple of times since I put it up, and I came to the realization that I didn't come across the way I had wanted to.  I am not vehemently against cursing at all, and I definitely think that there is an appropriate time to use certain colorful words.  What I was trying to say is that television shows are going a little too far with what they do and say.  The time slots between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. are generally reserved for those programs in which cursing often takes place.  But more and more often am I seeing profanity in earlier shows.  And most of these cases are just to make a character seem cooler.

Another issue in the topic of profanity is censoring songs on the radio.  While I don't think that the six year old in the back seat should be subjected to certain Lil' Wayne phrases, some radio edits change the entire song.  Take the edited 'Forget You' by Cee-Lo Green.  The song had been seen everywhere, from GLEE to the Grammys to blaring out of the car next to me.  But the meaning in the original version and the radio edit are quite different.  Another example is "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt (a little bit of a throwback, I know).  The original line is 'She could see from my face that I was f**king high,' and the radio edit changed it to 'flying high.'  It makes the line much more vague, and definitely less drug-related.  The artist's lyrics in songs are a way for a reason, and by changing the words to make it more publicly acceptable, it's changing what the artist was trying to say.

I realize that I probably sound like a huge hypocrite, but I feel that television and music are two distinctly separate worlds.  Using profanity in television is most of the time unnecessary, but profanity in music takes on a whole different meaning.  Artist's are always trying to convey a message to their listeners, and if their words are being changed. so is the meaning of their songs.  If that makes no sense to you, it's okay.  It sometimes doesn't even make sense to me.

Cursing: What the #@$*!

It seems as though every where I go, from class to downtown, I hear people dropping bombs.  F-bombs, that is.    I wouldn't kiss my mother with a mouth like that.  After one of my professors dropped the F-bomb in class last week, it got me to thinking: why do people curse the way that they do?  So I did a little research, and got some pretty interesting statistics.  Curse words are used, on average, 85 times a day by an American, and the phrase "Oh my God' is the most common swear among women, being about 24% of all profanity used.  Now, as a disclaimer, I am not a profanity free person; I will let something slip from time to time, but only when the situation really merits it.  I am not a profanity Puritan, but I would also feel out of place among sailors.

Profanity has been on the up in pop culture.  There was once a time when people wouldn't say certain things on television because the were deemed inappropriate, but that time is long gone.  While you still aren't really allowed to say some things on public channels, private channels such as HBO and Starz can show what ever they want.  George Carlin's famous monologue '7 Words You Can Never Say on Television' (if you haven't seen it, look it up) gives the baddest words, but there are plenty of others that can be equally rude or offensive.  But these words have become so commonplace in our culture, that people are no longer surprised if they start being said on television.  I was watching a television show the other day, and someone say 'shit' in it.  It was an 8 o'clock time slot on a major network like CBS.  Was that allowed 15 years ago?  Somehow I doubt it.  I hear younger and younger kids using profanity without even knowing what it means, and some day, someone is going to get in huge trouble with their parents for calling their younger sister a bitch.

Cussing really has no use unless someone is really emotional about their speaking topic.  Dropping the F-bomb because it makes you seem cool is pretty overrated, and gives people around you a bad first impression.  So next time you hear someone cussing up a storm on the street, tell them to 'Kiss your ascot and close the front door.'

What Should I Do?

So two of my classmates did their ad analysis speeches on the NIKE Lebron James 'Rise' ad, and I couldn't help but wonder where I had seen it before.  And then I realized that Lebron is not the only one who did a "What should I do?" commercial.

Julian Wilson is, in most professional opinions, the future of surfing.  He's only 22, but he is the talk of the town and is being prepped to become the next big thing.  He will begin his rookie season on the ASP World Tour this weekend, and is said to be a serious contender for the World Title.

But Julian come under some fire in January when he switched from his longtime sponsor, Quiksilver, to Nike 6.0.  Quiksilver was his first sponsor at the age of 13, and Julian never showed any inclinations of changing their relationship.  So when he suddenly left Quiksilver to join the Nike 6.0 team, many people were left scratching their heads.  He was also accused of being a sell-out, and only being interested in the money.  So Julian and Nike 6.0 made a teaser trailer which parallels the Lebron James 'Rise' ad.

Julian Knows Surfing from Nike 6.0 on Vimeo.

By using the same phrases, such as "What should I do?" and "I'm not a role model," Julian and Lebron are both standing up to their criticism.  They are acknowledging that people think badly of them, and they are trying to get a response from them, as if to say, "Well since you don't like what I'm doing, do you have any better ideas?"

Companies often use commercials to save face.  Nike is a great example with Lebron, Julian, and probably most famously, Tiger Woods.  Other companies that have used ad time to issue apologies have been BP after the Guld of Mexico oil spill, and Toyota following their mass brake failures.  More and more companies are using commercials not to sell a product, but to admit to their audience that they are trying their hardest to make things better.  It is not only about what they are selling, but about the attitude of the company.  If they people can get behind the companies moral standards, they will be more likely to buy the product.  

Product Placement

Last weekend my roommate and I were watching television, and we noticed something a little odd.  The show was so overwhelmed with product placement, it started to detract from the actual plot.  The main character had urgent news for her best friends, so she takes her brand new Windows phone out of her pocket to call them.  They pick up THEIR new Windows phones to talk to her, and so on.  Just a coincidence?  Not a chance.  In television and movies, the camera shot never just happens to zoom in on the Toyota symbol on the grill of the car, or accidentally show a boy playing on his Apple iPod.  All of this product placement in deliberate, and companies will pay big money to have their brand shown on a television screen.

Take Hawaii Five-0.  I personally love this show, and watch it every Monday night.  But every time the character need to go anywhere, they hop in their Chevrolet, and off they go.  Especially in their Camaro.  They LOVE the Camaro.  Even during commercial breaks, you can't escape Chevrolet.  At least one commercial every break is for Chevrolet cars, and another might be for some other kind of General Motors company.  It's good for Chevy, because they are getting so much advertisement time, but it gets pretty annoying after a while.  I honestly don't care about what kind of car they drive, or what kind of cell phone they use, I just want to watch the show.

THE Hawaii Five-0 Car

The use of product placement has been so blown out of proportion in the past decade or so that you can hardly go to a movie of watch a TV show without seeing some sort of product advertising.  Another, not so obvious example is in the Spider-Man movie.  When Peter Parker first discovers his abilities, he is seen shooting webs around his room, and he tries to grab a Dr. Pepper can.  This is a great example of product placement.  The can could have been any generic type of soda, but the Dr. Pepper emblem is very clearly shown.  Companies love product placement because it endorses their product in an arena that might not otherwise show what they are selling.  And many times product placement is so subtle, that you consciously don't even realize it  is there.  And that is exactly what the companies want.  So next time you are watching a TV show or at the movie theater, see if any product placement is used, and is it actually effective?

Super Bowl Commercials: How far is too far?

I'm sure just about all of you watched the Super Bowl this weekend, and some of you didn't watch it for the football.  If you don't care about football, you watch the Super Bowl for the commercials.  These aren't just any old commercials, the Super Bowl is the mack-daddy of advertising.  Companies pull out all of the stops to secure a 30 second slot on that Sunday night.  A successful commercial will be the talk of the town; and a flop can cause companies to stall.  In the recent years, each commercial tries to go bigger than the last, with some being drop dead hilarious and others leaving you saying, "Huh?"

The commercial that had the most buzz about it pre-Super Bowl was without a doubt the Kim Kardashian Sketchers Shape-Ups ad.  Kim Kardashian is, along with Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie, famous for being famous.  She's got a TV show, a shoe collection, perfume, and her own Silly Bandz, yet she really has no marketable skills, except for being pretty.

This commercial was, frankly, absolutely ridiculous.  The only reason people were so excited about it was because Kim was not wearing a lot of clothing, and people think she's hot.  The whole concept is that if you buy these shoes, you won't have to have a personal trainer to keep you fit.  All she did was act like she was having sex with a dude, then walk around some, then compliment another dude on his ugly shoes.  It is just me, or was everyone else confused?  Advertisements in the past 20 years or so have gone from informing people about the good qualities of product X to trying to grab people's attention, even if it has nothing to do with the product.

This commercial blurs the line between being sexy but appropriate and being plain inappropriate.  The sexual innuendos are so overpowering that this commercial could never be played during regular prime-time hours.  Yet Sketchers just paid a lot of money to have it shown during the 4th quarter of the biggest football game in America.  Why?  Because that football game is watched mostly by men over the age of 18.  And what gets a man more excited than a slightly sweaty Kim Kardashian?  Advertising companies need to focus more on the product and less on getting a reaction from a commercial.  People might actually buy their products.

President Obama's National Prayer Breakfast Speech

So today in class, while many of our classmates were attending President Obama's speech in Rec Hall, those of us who actually came to class watched his first speech of the day, at the National Prayer Breakfast.  For those who are unaware of what the National Prayer Breakfast is, it is an event which takes place on the first Thursday of February in which a few thousand American and international political figures gather for a celebration of faith over breakfast.  The President has spoken at this event ever since Dwight Eisenhower, and this year was no different.

President Obama gave a fairly normal speech for this breakfast.  He hit all of the important points, and displayed his Christian faith, but I personally felt that there was something off with his speech, both in presentation and within the speech itself.  President Obama has always very charismatic, but I felt that this morning, he seemed very awkward behind the microphone.  I know that the speech was directed at the people at the Breakfast, but he must have known that he was being filmed.  So why did he NEVER look at the camera, or even anywhere close to the camera?  His eyes went from his notes, to stage right, to his notes. to stage left, and so on.  I felt that this made a sort of disconnect between the President and the audience (at least the online audience).  His speech could have been very poignant, but his lack of connection with the cameras, or even the people sitting by the cameras, kind of ruined it for me.

I also felt that his speech was slightly disjointed.  He began the speech by saying how people nowadays are too caught up in the quest for money and power to appreciate the real gifts of life.  I feel that this is completely true, and to have the President acknowledge it is great.  He then somewhat abruptly switched to speaking about his faith.  I realize that he was speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast, and the point is pretty much to celebrate religion, but his speech turned somewhat weird.  Maybe it is because I believe in a distinct separation of Church and State, and to have the President speak about one religion is a little biased, but I believe that many other people were put off by this.  But I don't feel that he really had his heart behind what he said.  He seemed distant, and almost bored.  Why do President's feel obligated to make a speech at a function such as this?  I would much rather them not make a speech than make a half-hearted speech like his.

See his speech here.

This I Believe

This I Believe

Bob Dylan: The Master of the Protest Song

That's a lie.

I was in a funky mood earlier.  Nothing on my iPod was matching my mood, until I shuffled into some Bob Dylan.  Has their ever been a musician quite like him in terms of protest songs?  The 1960's were years of turmoil in the USA, and Dylan captured the uneasy feelings in his songs.  Rarely using anything more than his guitar, his harmonica, and his voice, Dylan voiced his opinions on the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the lives of Middle-Americans.  His weapon of choice was his tongue, with which he wrote one the the most instrumental protest songs ever, "Blowin' In The Wind."

This song blows my mind.  Really.  The more I listen to it, the more profound it becomes.  Musically, it's phenomenal.  It's genre-bending, not quite folk, not quite country, but whatever it is, it works.  Now on to the lyrics.  Wow.  If any of you have not heard this song, you are truly missing out on the crowning jewel of America's finest songwriter.  


"How many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn’t see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind"

Dylan is commenting on the average American's reaction to what was currently going on in the world.  The 60's were pretty tumultuous, yet the majority of the people were either oblivious, or indifferent, to what was going on.  Dylan is basically saying that people will just continue to pretend that bad things are happening, while they are happening right in front of them.  The fact that the answers to all of these questions are 'blowin' in the wind' gives it a sense of uncertainty.  Wind is a real thing, yet how can you describe it?  We are constantly surrounded by wind, but to actually SEE wind is nigh impossible.  So basically what Dylan is saying is that the answers could be right in front of our face, we just can see them properly.  

Dylan was very strongly anti-Vietnam, and to this day, is against the War in Iraq.  He also participated strongly in the Civil Rights Movement and worked to raise awareness of the incredibly harsh living and working conditions of farmers in the Mid-West.  And 'Blowin' In The Wind' was not his only protest song (it was just the one I like best).  Others include 'Masters of War,' 'A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall,' and 'Chimes of Freedom.'  His songs surpass any that came before, and have been used as the classic example of songs used for protest even to this day.  Dylan changed this country's view on the use of music to spread a message.  
Full Lyrics

Make the Audience Listen

How many times have you really tried to listen to a speaker, but they just couldn't hold your attention?  It's happened a fair few times to me, I'll admit it.  There are just some times when the speaker's presentation is too bland for human consumption.  Whether its their monotonous voice, or sometimes their all-around lack of enthusiasm, speeches too often lose the attention of the listener, and therefore become pointless.

I have heard too many speeches than I can count that, while having interesting topics that otherwise would hold my attention, were presented in such a dull way that I couldn't have paid attention for more then thirty seconds.  The biggest faux-pas in speech making is a monotonous, dead voice.  The speaker could be presenting on the single most captivating topic in the world, but if the way they present it is boring, the audience will zone out before you finish your first paragraph.  Think about the parents in the Charlie Brown movies.  I know it sounds harsh, but that is what kids think that most speeches sound like.  Remember in elementary school when you studied Abraham Lincoln?  Everyone read the Gettysburg Address, yet all I could ever remember of it was, "Four score and seven years..." and then I was off in a day dream.  It was because my teacher read it off of the paper in that Charlie Brown voice!

On the flip side, if a speaker was talking about the most boring thing in the world (health care? the sex lives of snails? Jello? Take your pick.) but delivered their speech with incredible enthusiasm, you would be more likely to actually listen.  A totally captivating speaker will win the contest every time because they kept you on your toes.  So next time you go to make a speech, think of the poor audience that is forced to listen to it.  I'd rather them waste an hour of their time being thoroughly entertained than they waste an hour wanting to stick pins in their eyes.