week 15...post 15

I think that the thing I have improved on the most during this course, is been my ability to describe things better. I have a better ability to make things more clear, they have always been clear in my head, but not always was I able to put them down on paper in the same clearness. I think the thing I struggle with the most sometimes is sentence structure, I try and fit too much information into one sentence. I think that the class was ran really well, I think all of the assignments served a very good purpose, the only thing I would change is the length of the final project. I think that 12-15 pages is a bit excess. I think that you could write a well written mini-ethnography in 8-10 pages easily.

week 14...post 14

My favorite piece of data that I collected is the fieldwork I did. My subculture, in my opinion, was one of the most interesting to watch. I could sit there for 30 minutes sometimes, just watching people talk and carry on about their day. I liked to see the friendship that could be made between two people, that were complete strangers before they went out to the smoking area that day. I liked to see two people that did not know each other, sitting there smoking, and strike up a conversation, never exchange names, but just sit there and chit chat, until they were done smoking and they would go on their way. The easiest writing I have done so far is the first paper we did the Exploring Subcultures. This was my favorite, because at the time I was a smoker, so it interested me to do research on the topic, and second that paper seemed to have come to me the easiest, as far as ease of writing it.

week 7...post 7

I think that by doing my fieldwork, and doing my research on the subculture of smoking, it may disban some of the stereotypes that are out there for smokers. Even though I am not going to directly cover stereotypes in my paper, by researching in a professional matter, and not writing in a biased light, hopefully by writing the truth exactly as it happens, any readers will be able to see the truth and base their opinion on that rather than what they have heard. The only thing that my community needs, is a better reputation. The only way I can give them that, is if I do my fieldworking in a unbiased manner, and write down the truth as it is. That way when people read it they can form their own opinion. My contribution to the community is little if any, my contribution in class is that I participate in group discussions, and I'm not afraid to say what I am thinking about or wrote down on our blogs, and my contribution to my education is that I am trying really hard to get good grades, as to get a good job someday.

week 10...post 10

I am going to have my mini-ethnograpy broken up into different topics. I am going to talk about all of the topics that are related to each other, and then start a new sections with a different topic. Obviously since they are all about the same subculture, they won't be too different, but there are definitely some difference in the different areas that I am going to be talking about. I am going to start off by defining who a college smoker is, try and paint a picture of what I have found to be the typical college smoker, talk about the different smoking areas, and the differences involved there, and just try to give a good introduction to the subculture. I am going to close the mini-ethnography by summarizing the main themes in my paper. I think that the way I have chosen to lay out my paper is the best way, because it will make the most sense for the type of research I got from doing my fieldwork.

week 13...post 13

I went outside one sunny day in early March, it was warm, but it was a crisp day out. I went outside to enjoy a cigarette by myself, and when I lit up my cigarette, I noticed someone else coming outside at the same time. Since this was early March, March Madness had just started so I thought I would strike up a conversation. I asked him what team he was rooting for and he said the Butler Bulldogs, seeing as he was from the area in Indianapolis where Butler was located. We talked for several minutes, enjoying our cigarettes and the day. After we were both done, we put our cigarettes out in the trash and said our goodbyes, never exchanging names, and never knowing anything about one another. All we did was bond as people who smoke, being friendly, and enjoying the surroundings.

6 words

“Six words?, not done are you?”
“Man I’m hungry, let’s get food!”
“I want to go home, now!”
“light it up, smoke it down”
“Society doesn’t accept us, who cares?”

week 12...post 12

To me rhetoric, is the use of language and words to get your reader to better understand what you are trying to convey, and sometimes used for persuasive essays and pieces. I would say that the most common use of the word rhetoric is in a rhetorical question, or a question that doesn't need to be answered. I would say that this is usually used in a positive light, but I could see where it could be used in a negative way as well. I do not really see where I could used rhetoric, maybe to persuade someone to like smoking, or to understand the subculture better. That is the only way I could see me using rhetoric in my final portfolio and my mini-ethnography.

quotes

"Writing is like getting your wisdom teeth pulled, you don't want to do it, but you have to."

I am going to have to get my wisdom teeth pulled this summer, I don't want to do it, but I have to.

"For me writing is like pushing a heavy wheel down a hill, the hardest part is getting it going, then after that, I can watch it go all the way to the bottom."

This is how I write, the hardest part for me is sitting down to do it.

week 11...post 11

I would say that the biggest change to my writing style has been that I am way more descriptive than I ever was before. As a whole, my writing style probably has not changed much, but I am way more descriptive than I was at the beginning of the year. I hope you have noticed this, and it is not just me that thinks this. I think so far the only thing that has given me trouble is the lit. review, not the whole thing, just the lit. review part of the lit. review. The annotated bibliography was way easier than I thought it was going to be, I had never done one before, so I did not know what to expect. I write because I have to for class, I would probably never write outside of class, and if I did, it would probably be like a screen play for a short film, because I think making short films would be fun. I do not express myself well in writing, so I do not feel better after I write. I exercise and lift weights for that. The only thing I will write for in my future, is like criminal reports, and stuff of that nature, mainly because I am a criminal justice major, and I want to go to Texas and work on the Border Patrol.

family

I do not have any interesting stories of how my family arrived here or any crazy family members. I sort of know how my family got here, since I have asked before, but I am not sure, and do not feel like I could give good detail. I am though, going to talk about my great-grandma, and her son, which would be my great-uncle. They are both from backwoods rural Tennessee, and to this day, you can tell. They are very hillbilly, and aren't afraid to show it. My uncle wears flannel like it is the hottest fashion style, and my grandma, well she is grandma. She is not afraid to say anything, and always thinks she knows whats best for her, which isn't always the case since she is 95 years old. My grandma has lost some of hillbillyness due to her age, but before that she used to make homemade cornbread, and fry everything in bacon grease, which as unhealthy as that was, tasted so good. My uncle is the same way, he used to own a small farm, mainly used for keeping chickens and pigs, that I used to go and visit the farm with my grandma.

They are not crazy by any means, but I do feel like they are probably the most interesting of my family members, based solely on the fact on where they grew up. My great-grandma and great-uncle both are still alive today, both have a whole list of health problems, and are a walking medical miracle to the rest of the family. That is about all there is to know, on a very brief summary of my great-grandma and great-uncle.

glossary

bum- to get a cigarette off somebody when you are out or don't have yours.

Can I bum a cigarette?

light- to borrow a lighter to light your cigarette with.

Hey man, you got a light?

hit- to take a drag or puff off of a cigarette.

Hey, let me get a hit of that cigarette.

pack- to tap the pack of cigarettes towards the filter, as to compact the loose tobacco in the cigarette, this helps with the burn of the cigarette, and it also leaves more paper at the end for an easier light.

Have you packed these yet?

have a smoke- to go outside and have a cigarette.

You want to go outside and have a smoke?

pg.306...3 Questions

In the scene my informant and I, are outside in the smoking area next to Clevenger hall. We are having a casual conversation as people from all over Lafollette complex come out to smoke at the smoking area. The day was a particulary nice one, it was probably about 55 or 6o degrees out, so we were both just wearing jeans and a t-shirt. My informant and I are friends from high school, and he also happens to be my roommate. Needless to say, my informant and I have a good standing friendship, I have known him for about 5 years now, and we have developed a good friendship over that time.

My informant and I come from the same high school, we both grew up for the most part in rural Indiana, and we both have the same views on topics like smoking. We have the same view on almost everything that we talk about. Us having lived in rural Indiana, in my opinion, is the reason he and I have such a laxed view of smoking. Tobacco use among teenagers where we come from is not that frowned upon, so the use of it is everywhere. There isn't a power struggle with us, we are both equal parts of the interview.

My informant, Tyler, and I come from the same area, so he and I have the same southern Indiana draw. When he speaks, he will talk for a little bit, then stop, pause, think for a second or two, then continue, usually during this pause him and I will take a drag off the cigarettes that we are usually smoking.

week 9...posting 9

The hardest things so far, has been finding quality sources to use for my paper. The easiest part so far, has been doing the field site observations, it is really easy to go outside and get observations, there is always something happening outside, and there are always people outside to observe. If I could start over, the only thing I may do, is do a bigger, more inclusive survey. A more simple way to say this, is I would have asked more questions. Other than that though, there is really nothing that I would have changed from the way I have done things so far. My blog has kept me on track with deadlines, and things that I need to get done. I think my blog will help me with my mini ethnography, because I can go back and get little clips and parts from my blog to put into my ethnography.

week 8...posting 8

My theme so far in this project, from what I can tell so far, is I want to find out why people smoke. Why they started in the first place, and why they continue to smoke, even after knowing all of the dangers of smoking. I want to take a look at both the physical and social sides of smoking addiction, because I think they both play a big part in addiction. After talking to some of the people in the smoking community, without asking them direct questions, I can see that social factors play a sizable role in smoking addiction. Everyone knows that cigarettes are physically addicting, but I do not think that people realize that social factors can play into it as well. Eight weeks ago, I was still a smoker myself, so I have changed quite a bit. Now I do not smoke, but I still visit the cultural site every once in a while to see if anything has changed. Nothing about the smoking subculture has really changed that much, but my involvement is what has changed the most.

Smoking Survey

http://FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=joc3sdc6lzkjr06550106

Groundwork

When I first went out the the smoking area behind Lafollete, the first thing I noticed was the pick nick table. Then I noticed all of the cigarette butts laying all over the grass and surrounding area. The grass was all matted down from the masses of people that had stood on it at some point or another. There were a couple of stone, trashcan like objects around the smoking area, and as I walked up to them, I realized that they had sand in the top, and were meant for people to put their cigarette butts out in. Even though they had these things around, people still flicked the butts anywhere they wanted.

I was not that nervous or anxious about going out to the smoking area for the first time. I had one of my best friends and roommate with me, and that probably helped a lot. I knew from past times, that smokers can be some of the friendliest people to talk to, therefore, I walked out there with an open mind, and a willingness to talk to people I didn't know. I met some people that I would have never met out at the smoking area. My first experience at the smoking area, was definitely a good one.

I would say that I am still an outsider, because I do not smoke all of the time. I only smoke once in a while, and that makes me different then the people who feel like they have to have a cigarette, or find themselves outside several times a day. I do not know all of the insider language, though I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on it. There are not many ways that I am an outsider still, but I still think that I am at least a little bit. I do not know all of the smoking areas around campus like some of the smokers might, which makes me an outsider as well.

week 6...posting 6

"Do 'light' cigarettes deliver less nicotine to the brain than regular cigarettes?"UCLA 17 Oct. 2008. Lexis Nexis Academic.Bracken Library. Ball Sate University 19 Feb 2009.

This was an article done by the University of California Los Angeles. They did research and tests on 15 different people, testing whether or not light cigarettes delivered less nicotine to the brain than regular cigarettes. They found in the study that regular cigarettes delivered between 1.2 and 1.4 milligrams of nicotine to the brain, while light cigarettes delivered between .6 and 1 milligrams of nicotine. This is not the difference the cigarette companies portray to the public. Regular cigarettes affected 88 percent of your brain's nicotine receptors, while "light" cigarettes affected 79 percent of the same type of receptors, again not much of a difference.

I think this article could be used to explain as to why people smoke cigarettes, and as to why they are so addictive. It also said in the article, that when the nicotine reaches the receptors, it acts like a masking agent and makes the body release dopimine, a euphoric hormone. This is where the addiction comes from, your body is used to having it, and it can't be without it. This can be useful to help explain the addiction part of smokers.



Hicken, Melanie. "Delaware beaches weigh cigarette ban; For smokers, it's a line in the sand." The Washington Times. 8 Aug. 2007. Lexis Nexis Academic. Bracken Library., Ball State University. 19 Feb. 2009.


This article was talking about smoking bans on public beaches. This article was talking about locations in Delaware in specific, but also included locations from throughout the United States. The article said that California's beaches had been with smoking bans since 2003, and that many New England beach sites had either implemented smoking bans, or were considering it. It also said that the man reason for the bans was not public health concerns, but it was more concerned with the litter from all of the cigarette butts. It said that on one beach in California, they picked up 15,000 butts at the end of the summer, and this beach had a smoking ban.

I am not sure if this article has direct importance to my article. It is a little off topic, considering it is talking about beaches and smoking bans. At the same time though, I do like how it shows how the public is wanting smoking to be banned all across the country, and in every application. It also talks about one of the problems facing places that still allow smoking. The litter that cigarette smoking is an enormous problem, so many people smoke multiple times a day, and that creates a lot of waste. This article may play a small part in my paper, but I think it will help.

Box 18

I do not have any contradictions with my field site and my field notes that I have accumulated. The smoking area that I have researched so far, is located outside of Brayton/Clevenger halls. There is a pick nick table in the middle of it, and surrounding it on three sides are benches. All of this is new, considering they did construction on the smoking area right before winter started. They tore up what once was grass and put down these two foot by two foot concrete squares in its place. I can see why they did this, it is a lot easier to clean and maintain cement then it is grass, but the grass was nice to look at and gave it a better feel then the sea of gray cement. The one thing they did keep out there though, was this tiny tree at the far end of the smoking area. They took it out to do the construction, but the brought it back and re-transplanted it to a different spot not too far from the orignial spot.

Culture Shock

Coming to Ball State university was a huge culture shock for me. I came from a high school where I had 97 students in my graduating class. Then I moved to a college where I almost have that many people living on my floor in Clevenger. I was not used to having to walk far to class; seeing as how my school was really tiny. I was also not used to having 200 students in my class at one time, like I did in some of my lectures first semester. My classes back at my high school were more like 20 students at best. My high school back home was all white, we lived out in a relatively rural community is why I think that was, but then I come to Ball State, where there is a huge cultural diversity here. The college eating schedule was also a lot different than what I was used to at home. At high school, they tell you when to go to lunch, becuase they have special times for that, here at college it is up to you to find time. They also in high school tell you what you are going to eat, here at Ball State, they give you a wide selection of lunches.

week 5...post 5

I plan on doing a little bit of my research every day. I also plan on going to my fieldsite and observing whenever I get some free time. My interviews I plan on doing in the next week or so to get those out of the way. I am still not sure if I am going to do surveys, and if I do I will probably do that last. I do not need more research on a particular facet of my subculture, I just need more research in general. I do not need to spend more time in my fieldsite, that is something I have been doing very well on. I need to do my interviews, because I have not done them yet. In the next two weeks hopefully it stays warm, which will incline more people to come out to the smoking area. This will be the perfect time to go out and do m y surveys and take care of all of the interviews. I just simply need to go to the library and get more books and articles, I have plenty of online articles as of now. As of right now, I do not have any questions for you, but I am sure I will when I start to do my interviews.

Box 15

I remember going hunting in the fall with my grandfather. I remember getting up early in the morning, waking up to the smell of bacon, eggs, and coffee. That was the best smell to wake up to in the morning. After we got done eating breakfast, we would go outside to go hunting, and this is where I have the most memories. The smell of a crisp fall morning is something I will never forget. The look of the leaves and grass as they have a slight layer of frost on the ground, I could wake up to that every morning. The crunch of leaves under our feet as me and my grandfather went on our way hunting was always a constant reminder of the temperature outside. No matter how long I stay away from the woods as I go to college, and get a career, I will never forget the wonderful smells and sounds of waking up in the morning and going hunting with my grandfather.

Doc.: Dogtown and Z Boys

I think this is both an ethnography and has great entertainment value. It has great historical and factual background. It gives you great insight on how the sport got started and what the ear and time period was about. At the same time, it was intersting and entertaining to watch. It was not just a presentation of facts, they gave you facts, but did it in a fascinating and entertaining way. The interviews are what makes the documentary in my eyes. They were the original team of Z Boy skaters. They gave a huge amount on insight into what was going on during the time. There is no better way to present information than straight from the horses mouth so to speak. These people skated when nobody else did. They were looked at as outcasts of society and they didn't care. They were doing what they loved to do and nothing got in their way. They would build there own boards out of scrap pieces of wood and old roller skates. They made it into a following. They show clips of them skating and surfing as they interview all of the old team. I think the clips aid as a really good way to give us a visual picture as to what the interview was talking about. I did not hold any stereotypes against skaters.

Week 4...Post 4

I do not have many general conclusions about my subculture. I do however have some generalizations about my subculture, I am just not sure if they are the same thing. I have been to the field site a couple of times. I would so far conclude that the typical smoker is male, between the ages of 18 and 20, not in sports, and would probably be considered weird or different by society. What is weird and normal though who knows. I would have to say that these descriptions are probably true everywhere throughout the country accept for the age. There are obviously many smokers of all ages in the United States. Another description that might not be true is the outcast part, a lot of older people who hold quality, high position jobs smoke because when they were growing up, smoking was not looked down upon. I do not think geography plays a role in who does or does not smoke, but I do think that males are the dominant smoking gender by a vast majority. I also do not think that religion plays a role in smoking if you stay in the realm of Christianity. I do not know enough about other cultures to make assumptions about them.

Box 12

I got into college through my hard work
I paid for part of my car
I have a car
i have a cell phone
i have a lap top
18, caucasain, male, american, in college, middle-class

This may have a impact on how I look at my field work, maybe not everyone came from a middle-class family. Maybe not everyone's family looked down upon and discouraged smoking. Everyone I talk to will be in college so that will not be an issue. I do not think that having a car or having a lap top will have an effect on how I look at my research, but I will still make an effort no to bias my information either way. I think the biggest thing that may impact my research, will be the fact that I am middle-class, and the fact that I had two parents that looked down upon smoking, and openly discouraged it.

week 3...post 3

I have not started any of my research yet, but at the same time I have. I am somewhat of an insider, so I know a lot of the insider phrases and most of the ins and outs of smoking. When I do start to do my interviews, I am going to ask questions like: How old are you?, When did you start to smoke?, How much do you smoke a day?, Why do you think you smoke?, etc. I have already visited two of my cultural sites, I have smoked cigarettes at the one quite often, and have a pretty good feel for the environment there. The most interesting thing I have witnessed, is when it was warmer outside, there would be 5 groups or so sitting around hookahs, just hanging out and smoking tobacco. I have not done any academic research yet. I think the main difference between academic and non academic, would be that academic research is written by a person with a masters or some sort of graduate degree in the field. I also believe to be academic it should be a published work. Non-academic would be me going and doing field research, non formal interviews, and other things like that.

My subculture is going to be Smokers. My field sites will be the designated smoking areas around the Ball State campus, with the majority of my time being spent at the smoking area next to the Lafollette complex. I have been there a few times, and there are some benches out there, and there is also a pick nick table out there as well. I am somewhat of an insider, seeing as I smoke on occasion, so what I hope to learn is why the people smoke, why and when they started, any plans of quitting, do they know the health hazards, and other questions of that nature. I really want to take a look at the psychological reasons as to why college kids smoke. Is it the cool thing to do? Is it a stress reliever? Or is there other reasons as to why they do it?

Sites and postions of my subculture

The sites of my research will be the designated smoking areas at Ball State University. My topic for the paper will be smokers. My fixed positions I believe will not have any affect on my paper, but my subjective positions might. I am a non-traditional smoker as I call it. I do not smoke everyday on a regular basis, but I do enjoy having a cigarette every couple of days when I feel like it. This may have an impact on how my paper is written, cause I do not really have a negative view on smoking.

Subculture...Jan 20

I am planning on doing my paper on smokers of any kind. Hopefully my main source of information will be collected using informal interviews, and field observations. I will go to designated smoking areas around campus and take notes and do interviews. I will suppliment this information with books and internet research. I think that the most beneficial source of data will be the interviews and field notes that I take. The most difficult thing will be to get people to open up to the idea of an interview and to answer my questions. One of the good things about my topic is the abundance of subjects and informants.

Box 2...Making the Ordinary Extraordinary

If I were to describe to someone, the events and procedures of a baseball game, and they had no knowledge about baseball, it would probably seem difficult to understand. To get ready for a baseball game, first of all you have to put your uniform on. This would include clothing items such as baseball socks, and sliding shorts, which go under your baseball pants, and are meant to help protect from gettin scratched up while sliding. Then you also have you uniform top which is usually just a t-shirt of some sort. Baseball spikes are also required, and they are just shoes with metal spikes that help you get footing in the dirt. To go along with these items, baseball players also usually have a baseball bat, batting helmet to protect you from the ball while you are up to bat, and batting gloves, to help grip the bat, and protect from blisters on your hands. These are all of the things that you would need to get ready for a baseball game.

Box 1

Criminal Justice Major
1.What classes are you taking?
2.What your focus is.
3.What you want to do for your senrior internship.
4.What you want to do after college.

3rd Floor Clevenger
1.C3
2.Knowing who to hang with, and what people like to do.
3. Knowing what James (our R.A.), will let you do and not do, a.k.a. his pet peeves.


On the third floor of Clevenger live some of the coolest kids here at Ball State. We are always out and about, being socially interactive, and communicating with everyone on our floor. Lil' Wayne once said in one of his songs "C3", this has became almost like our calling card for our floor. The "C" standing for clevenger, and the "3" for the third floor. If you were out and about on campus and seen two members of C3, you would witness a pretty special spectacle. We have our own "gang" sign for C3 (although as a floor we strongly discourage gangs and their activites), and the yelling of C3 fairly loud. We are a pretty tight knit group on the third floor of Clevenger, everybody knows what people like to do, when they have classes, and when people like to eat. We tend to pretty much go as a floor at night to eat. Every day there are footballs games, you will not see anybody out and about on the floor, everybody is watching their favorite team, whether it be on tv, or through streaming video, and or radio on the web. Most of the noise is when people yell and root for their team of choice, mine personally is the Detroit Lions since I was born in Detroit.

Week 1...Post 1

The paper I am going to write about, is a paper I wrote last semester. It was a paper designed to help me figure out information about my major of Criminal Justice. I already knew quite a bit of information about my major, but part of this paper was to have an interview with a counselor from the Criminal Justice department. Along with the interview I also had to use the library website to find information like salary, job openings, and other things of that nature. I wrote this paper two nights before it was due, partly because I procrastinated, and also because of the interviews I had to wait until I had all of my data collected. I really like to listen to music while I am writing, because writing in silence makes it really hard to concentrate, and I find myself staring at the wall or something. I think that the main difference between editing and revising, is that revising is just looking over your paper for simple grammar mistakes, and possible misspellings. Editing though, would be going through your paper and changing the mistakes, and making parts of the paper flow better and changing parts around to make a better paper. In other words editing is the work you do after revising.