Journal Prompt 8

Textual Artifacts

One artifact is an email that the NFL website sends to me every year reminding me when fantasy football starts and when drafts become available. Also, they recommend their own little draft pack that you can choose to buy for a certain amount of money to help you draft your team and draft day. The achieve a sense of intertextuality by saying somethings like about draft day, draft packs, and other essentials to the draft that use specific terms that outsiders wouldn't understand right away. The email is usually very colorful and right in your face with a big yellow rectangle with the words, "Draft now" in big black bold letters. The email does achieve its goal by getting the attention of the reader of the email because when you get the email you usually go right away and sign up for a league. Which is the goal of the email that is sent out.

Another artifact that I saw before the NFL season started was that ESPN was previewing the season then cut to break and present information about the fantasy football league they offer. Telling where to go online and how to set it up. Then they would bring in the fantasy football "expert" and give his opinion on who's going to surprise during the year and who's going to do nothing during the year. But they don't say it like that, they say who's going to have a breakout year and who's going to be a bust, which is terms that some outsiders don't know unless they have played fantasy football. Usually when people see this part of Sportscenter is gets their attention and leads to people signing up to fantasy football, which is the goal of them doing what they did and it is successful.

Then another sign that fantasy football is coming is the magazines that get published to the local grocery stores and convenient stores. Differing from the big companies like CBS who makes their big magazine focusing on the stars of the league all the way to little companies that are make up of geeks who predict what each player is going to do during the season stat-wise based on schedule, last year, etc. I have for sure seen people buy these magazines at the drafts I have gone to because they say it helps pick their team. It's funny though because no one can really predict the season since there are so many changes during the year and between weeks. The magazine gets bought so it definitely achieves its goal of getting the public to buy their predictions for their draft.

First Day Narrative

When I first learned about this discourse community was back maybe in the year 2004, when I first moved here to Florida. This was because my dad was in a league with all of his old friends he still had in California. Everything was new to me except for all the names of the players since I already followed football. My dad taught me all the little terms like free agents, waiver wire, player statuses, etc. but I learned it all pretty quick and wanted to have my own team right there after. The thing I didn't know was that my dad had to pay for the league and I didn't have the money, but he did tell me there were free leagues that I could sign up for and I did. I never knew I could be like a manager of a team and decide who plays and who doesn't based on their opponent. I could pick who ever I wanted as long as the person before didn't pick him before me, and if that happened I got pissed. The draft was my favorite part of the whole thing because it was a thrill waiting for it to be my turn and pick the best player available.

Journal Prompt 7

The discourse community that I chose was fantasy football. It's hard to say how many people actually play fantasy football, but I would say more than a million. But in my league I have eleven other teams including mine. Each league cuts down the community to less people since there is a limit to how many teams are allowed to be in the league. Ranging from six teams to 20 teams. There are also different websites too, including ESPN, Yahoo, NFL, etc. that allow people to create leagues for themselves and their friends. And there's no limit to how many teams someone might have.

To be in a fantasy football league there is a lot of communication that one needs to know. For example words like free agent, waiver wire, trade, add/drop, injury reports, and practice schedules. There's communication between teams for trading players through calls, text messages or even emails through the site. But, also one can send a trade to see if someone will accept it, decline it, or send a trade back. There is also communication when everyone drafts their teams unless the computer does it for the league, but that's uncommon since everyone likes picking the guys they want. While drafting there's always communication where people in the league can voice their opinion of who got drafted where.

All fantasy leagues have a purpose and the purpose to win it all. Everyone is competing for the top spot and have the privilege to brag about how good their team is and how good they picked their team. Some of the times, there is betting involved. Where the winner gets all the money in the pot, so everyone's trying to win the money involved. Also, to pick the best team during the draft is definitely another purpose to fantasy football, but that shouldn't be the case because a team can be made with free agents and trades.

There are many rules to fantasy football. Once a player is on another person's team, the only way he can be picked up is if the player is dropped or traded. If dropped though the team with the worst record has the first say in whether he would like to pick him up, if not then it keeps going until it finally reaches the team with the best record. If not picked up by anyone he then clears waivers and is a free agent, where anyone who pleases can pick him up if wanted. Also, not every team makes the playoffs, so everyone better hope the team that gets picked has a winning record.

This is one discourse community has many hidden terms that many people who are not apart of fantasy people wouldn't know. For example back to the injury reports, which have to looked at very carefully because it determines whether the players that are on a team will play or not. Paying close attention to P for probable, Q for questionable, and D for doubtful. Probable means he most likely will play depending on a set back, questionable is a 50-50 ordeal based on game-time decision, and doubtful is pretty straight forward meaning the player won't play. Each are vital to determine who wins during the week head to head since every point counts. Finally, it's important to keep track of the practice schedule because if a player doesn't practice then it usually means they aren't going to play. So fantasy football owners have to know DNP, did not practice, LP, limited practice, and FP, full practice.

Journal Prompt 6

Part Two

Here is some clips from SNL where there is a lot of intertextuality.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/73362/saturday-night-live-jeopardy

http://www.hulu.com/watch/12768/saturday-night-live-celebrity-jeopardy---cruise-sandler-and-connery

http://www.hulu.com/watch/60457/saturday-night-live-celebrity-jeopardy-cosby-osbourne-connery

http://www.hulu.com/watch/12203/saturday-night-live-celebrity-jeopardy---stewart-reynolds-and-connery

The reason that it has intertextuality is because Jeopardy is a show itself and SNL remade the show with their actors playing the part of the game show people. Then instead of the random people playing the game they instead play the parts of celebrities that are playing Jeopardy. Makes reference to people like Bill Cosby, Tom Cruise, Sean Connery, and Adam Sandler, which it relies on to make it funny since it makes fun of them and what they have said in the past. With most importantly Alex Trebek being recreated as the the host of the show by Will Farrell. So by recreating a whole new setting of the Jeopardy it creates this new discourse community that people can laugh about together while still poking fun at the celebrities it is making fun of.

Journal Prompt 6

Part One

Some discourse communities that I belong to are:

• Facebook
• UCF Student
• Alum from Cypress Bay High
• UCF Student section for football and basketball
• Accounting major
• iPhone user
• Playstation 3 user
• MacBook Pro user
• Lightning Lunatic
• Fantasy Football
• Dorm
• Kelapire-Barksdale Family
• 49ers fan
• Male

Core II Reflection

I actually liked this essay a lot even though I had some problems with it. I kind of got stuck with a few things like about what to write about and to stay on topic. It seemed so easy to get off topic and write about something that has nothing to do with the topic or what I was trying to prove, but I thought I did a good job. But, I liked having to analyze something and be able to say my opinion on it, without being wrong or write. Again, I felt like I could put myself in the essay very easily and tell my reader's how I felt about the magazine through my eyes. So, it was successful.

Journal Prompt 5

Part Three (Article)

The article that I chose was the main one about Ryan Reynolds, which is written from the writer's perspective and include some quotes from Ryan himself. The sentence structure is very simple, not of high level. The word choice is interesting because it is simple in some instances and intense in others. One of the best examples of this is in the writing I found was in the introduction to the article, "Trepidation." What in the world does this word mean? According to Dictionary.com, the word means tremulous fear, alarm, or agitation; perturbation. If I didn't look it up, I would have no clue what it means and I'm guessing a lot of other people don't know what it means either since I have never heard it before. Then the arrangement is in chronological order of his life from when he grew up to where he is now, since it first talks about his parents and where he was born. To when he first began to act and when his first gigs were.

Compared to the letter from the editor is a little out of nowhere. The whole letter is about quotes from other people and what not. But, it is different because there is a different style of writing. The letter uses curse words and other strong words that would never be found in the article that I read because it wouldn't be inappropriate. The advertisements I consider to be more edgy like the letter from the editor so they match more than the article, which is more informational and proper.

My initial observation is that the article is very simple and easy to read. No big deal. The letter from the editor was different and didn't understand where they were coming from because I didn't read any other articles before then. Maybe if they would have explained the reason to where they were writing it would have been better, but they didn't. The writers keep it easy on the audience since they don't use big words and don't have much writing, it's mostly pictures and advertisements. Then they try to connect to the audience of men by including pictures of women or well dressed men that some guys aspire to look like when they have the money to spend on clothes. But keeps it easy, so people don't give up on reading after one sentence. The purpose of the article is to give a background about Ryan Reynolds and what he wants to do in the future with his acting career. The author wants the audience to feel like they can accomplish their dreams like how Ryan Reynolds did, since he did it and everything is possible.

Based on the article it tells us that the author wants to encourage its reader that they can accomplish whatever they put their mind to and to not give up their dreams if it hasn't come easy. Because you have to work for what you want. GQ wants guys to get their dreams so they can buy all of the stuff that they advertise, so that it makes us feel better about ourselves and to gain confidence.

Journal Prompt 5

Part Three

The table of contents of GQ is broken down into four different segments. Black is for the different departments, red for intelligence, blue for fashion, and green for features. What is weird about the table of contents is that the features part is on a different page with a picture of Ryan Reynolds on it. Then, the others are on the other page together with some advertisements that have been shrunk to fit on the page, which also include the page that you can find the whole page that it is on. The one part of the table of contents that I think is funny is the little picture of the cover in the lower right hand part of the page that tells the prices of each article of clothing that Ryan Reynolds is wearing.

There isn't much text involved, mostly just the title of the article in bold then a very brief description of what the article is about and where you can find it. To me, the fonts are very small and if someone were to have a problem with their eyes, they would find it difficult to read and probably need glasses. So, when someone wants to read about new ways to dress, 25 sexiest women in rock, or the punch list, they might need to get their reading glasses before opening the magazine. Based on the table of contents the magazine wants me to look at the different articles that they wrote, but mostly they want me to just look at the advertisements and buy the products. This is because the table of contents is 65 pages into the magazine, with all advertisements before. Money, money, money! The advertisements make up a big portion of the magazine because that's how the magazine stays in business even if people don't buy the magazine, and that's why the table of contents is that far from the cover. It's far from a regular book or magazine that has their table of contents on the first page because of the money factor.

Journal Prompt 5

Ryan Reynolds brings the swagger. GQ magazine usually features a women that all the guys want or a very sophisticated, attractive male that all the women want. This months edition has Ryan Reynolds on the cover wearing a light blue button down shirt with a wool tie, hair slick back, and a very expensive gold watch. All the captions are black since the background is white and the captions on the side are trying to portray the manliest of men that dress well and have an edgy side to them too. With captions like "Sex & Thugs & Rock & Roll, Your complete fall guide to men's style, coolest gangster movies of all time, and the best new show since The Sopranos." It just illustrates that they are trying to be sophisticated and edgy at the same time, to get all the girls. Finally, the caption that sticks out the most is, "Where can a guy get a decent cocktail? The 25 best bars in America," which again shows a classy, sophisticated male.

The slogan alone speaks for the magazine being look sharp, live smart. This magazine is trying to get the attention of men to try and make them manly, but at the same time sophisticated and intelligent. The purpose is to get men's attention so that they will read this magazine so they can get all the girls they want. Anyone who would pick this magazine up would want high aspirations to be very wealthy to be able to buy all the clothing, cologne, jewelry, and accessories that they advertise in this magazine.

Overall, advertisements eat up the pages in magazine by taking up over 155 pages out of the 245 total pages. This is because advertisements are the way of up-keeping the magazine and making the company money. Predominating the magazine was clothing and cologne advertisements of high end companies like that of Gucci, Prada, Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs, and Dolce & Gabbana. Because they are high end companies this means that they want to their readers to be very high scaled people who care about the products they buy and buy quality products.

The advertisement that popped out the most was the one by Guess, which took up two pages. The picture is of a male and a female in black and white. The male on the right is sitting in a chair reading a newspaper and getting his hair cut. His hair doesn't even look like he needs it to be cut since it looks perfect all around, with perfectly cut side burns and even length. The man looks very edgy because of his denim jacket, slicked hair, and multiple bracelets. Then, the girl on the left looks like a singer. She is in front of a microphone with a tambourine in her left hand. So, she definitely has a musical talent. She has a striped shirt with a poke a dot bow in her hair. Both are in black and white because I believe the advertisement is trying to be old school, so that it looks classy. This advertisement is trying to say that their clothes, Guess Brand, is classy and elegant, and trying to please a young crowd since the two models are young adults.

Journal Prompt 4

Part Two

After walking around the magazine isle, I found that one magazine that fit my future was GQ. I felt that this magazine fit me most because I want to be fancy and in future be a business man who wears suits around, so I always look nice. Also all the guys in it looked very sophisticated, which is another look I want to fulfill. Most of the advertisements are for high end clothes or other very expensive products that cost way more money than I have ever had. Those are my future aspirations. All of the pictures in the magazine are very elegant and the models who are posing in this magazine look like they are worth a million bucks.

Another magazine I found to be intriguing was Men's Health. Not going to lie but what got my attention was when Drew Brees was on the cover. I wouldn't have looked at it with anyone else since I probably wouldn't have noticed it. But after flipping through the pages I noticed the ways to be health and which ones they recommended to people. All the advertisements were of healthy food or other healthy things for the body. Then the pictures were of fit guys or girls, which is what I want to look like when I get older. I don't wanna be that father that's overweight with a beer gut.

Then the Automobile magazine was appealing to me because I love cars. I have always been into cars since I was little and even to this day I love looking at cars. Plus I want to drive one of those cars when I get older because I am going to have a lot of money and drive an expensive car. All the advertisements were about car parts that they think that would improve your car or to make it nicer, and all the pictures were of really nice cars that I would love to have.

Finally the last magazine that caught my attention was Esquire. The dude on the front cover looked like a badass. He had a lit cigarette in his hand with a very sophisticated look. Then the advertisements were basically the same as GQ, I swear that I saw the same clothing advertisements and cologne advertisements. If I didn't see the cover I couldn't tell which one is which, so I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But, when I saw this magazine it reminded me of the same aspirations as GQ.

Journal Prompt 4

Part One

In 10-15 years from now I see myself living in California on the beach. I would say San Diego where there can be a nice breeze coming from the west, right through my house during the day, so I won't have to use my air conditioning. I hope to wear more of a business attire since I want to be an accountant, and I am going to be driving either a Dodge Ram 1500 or some type of sporty looking car. Overall I want to be able to own my house to where I don't have to pay for a mortgage and own some other valuable things without going over the top and being too flashy. By then I will probably have kids and be married so my values will be a lot different since I will be a parent, and with my free time I would be spending a lot more time with my family and trying to spend as much time with my kids as possible. The family life will be really important to me if I have kids by then and be married.

On my coffee table I will want to have magazines like Highlight, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated for Kids. The Highlight magazine and Sports Illustrated for my kids hoping they are boys and the ESPN will be for me when football season comes around for my fantasy football insight. Then, my wife can have any magazine she reads since I know I won't be reading the garbage. Okay maybe I'll have one cooking magazine since I want to cook for my kids instead of going out to restaurants every night. The advertisements that I will see will be ones for Bud Light and all the other beer companies, razor blades, and any other types of useful stuff for men. I, also, think there will be advertisements about cars but by then they will be so futuristic we might even have hover cars. The advice I expect to get from the magazines is who I should pick for my fantasy football draft, how to make certain plates of food, how I can spend time with my kids, showing my kids how to play hide and seek, and how to color. The magazine should speak to me like I am the only one who is reading it and that I have something that other people don't, making me feel special. The magazines will cover important new events in sports as well as new recipes that I can use to cook for my family.

Core 1 Reflection

The core 1 essay is harder than I first thought. At first, I didn't think anything could be wrong, but there are still guidelines and still have to end where I began. But, the biggest problem I am having is with my overall essay right now. I don't feel very confident in what I have because I don't know whether it's good enough and I don't think my work is the best. I know I can always improve my work, but right now I'm stuck because I don't know where it needs improvement or which parts have too much information. I do feel good about what I wanna talk about and the different ways I am going about it. After doing the other journals it gives me a good lead on my essay, which has helped a lot. Also, I feel like my work could be a little more detailed in some areas to get rid of the broad statements and some areas are detailed enough.

The shitty first draft was a good start too because I found more of my outline than anything else. I got all my ideas on paper and have a pretty good foundation. I just need to get rid and add some key stuff so that it can be perfect. Right now I have a little more than the 4-6 pages, but that will be cut down when I have to revise. Hopefully.

Writer's Journal #3 (part b)

After class (Friday)

For the college application essay I remember sitting back on my recliner couch in the living room with an icy cold water on the wooden coffee table in front of me. Still sweat dripping down my back after walking to my car from when the bell rang to end the school day. I would always turn on the television while I was on the couch and this was no different because for me to write on my computer, I need some kind, whether it's music to ESPN, in the background. To finish the essay it took around three to four hardworking weeks, with the assistance from my family. My dad as the editor and my mom as the one to bounce ideas off of. In the end, I believe it should've taken a week or two but with all the distractions it added the two others that were unnecessary.

Saturday Morning (Right out of bed)

How about sitting in a room for four to five long hours taking a standardized test and writing an essay? That's the SAT and ACT for you. To me this was a new experience, which seemed to be very difficult and boring. I just didn't understand why or what the reason was for these tests. All I did on the days was sit in a freezing desk that had been sitting there unused for the whole weekend in an abandon classroom that wasn't going to be used for another couple of days. As they told us on our admission ticket, I had two pencil lined up one next to the other, newly sharpened laying on the desk. Not to forget the rectangular pink eraser and calculator on the desk right next to the pencils.

The classroom was so quiet, you could hear the person in the room next to writing on their paper. It had to be one of the weirdest places I have ever been and didn't want to go back. I just remember hearing my stomach grumble since I didn't eat breakfast, and worrying whether other people in the room heard my stomach speaking. Once I left I was dead tired. All I wanted to do is get in my bed and cuddle with all my soft, feathered pillows. I would've suffocated in all those feathers, but it would have been heaven.

Sunday Night (During the football game)

While writing my essay for World Civilization this summer, which was an enjoyable experience, I was typically bored and it gave me something to do during the day or really late at night. I would be laying in bed with no distractions around, just me and my computer on my lap. Didn't matter if it was after class, right when I woke up, or right before bed. I was in the same spot every time I opened the file on my computer. iTunes would be on the same song that I left off on and I would press play and continue. I just felt like if I did that the same ideas would pop in to my head and I would continue my creative writing the same way as when I left off. The air conditioning temperature was at 62 degrees, with all the lights off, and blinds shut, therefore no light could interrupt me.

End Results

I found out that my best writing came when I was in a controlled environment. Not in the classroom or in my living room. It was actually in my dorm while I was laying in bed while listening to music. I am guessing this is the case because I had no distractions around me and I was completely focused on my work. Then while writing this journal I found that right after class it was the easiest time to remember my ideas and to think of very detailed sentences. I noticed that while I was writing in the morning I was very confused and didn't know where to start because I wasn't completely awake. Then, the worst came when I was writing during the Cowboys versus Redskins game because every time there was a big play the announcers spoke louder and it got my attention on the tv, instead of my work. After this I believe i can become a better writer because I know the environments that I should and shouldn't be writing in.

Journal Prompt 3

By far the hardest essay I have ever written was the college application essay. This is because I was facing writer's block for about 4 hours at a time, 7 days a week. I had no clue what to write about and didn't know where to start since all the universities only asked for more about myself. How am I suppose to know what to write about myself in less than 500 words when I have been living now for 18 years? How do I sum up all those years into such a short essay?

The one essay that I thought was the most pointless and boring were the SAT essays. I feel like I didn't even get into those essays and all I was doing was making up information just to get it done. I feel like the SAT readers didn't care how good of a writer I am and rather see how much I can write about a worthless topic in 30 minutes. I couldn't afford writer's block or else I wouldn't have enough to get a passing grade. The thing I never understood is why don't they care if you finish or not, isn't that the whole reason of writing an essay?

In 5th grade I remember making my first outline for an essay about any topic we may choose. I chose baseball because this was a new thing in my life since I had just began starting to play and it was currently in the middle of the little league season. The outline that I made look horrendous, it turned out to be the worst one in the class and looked like the paper was the floor mat right after everyone got back to class from playing in the dirt. I would have never done it if it wasn't a part of our essay grade because I felt it was more confusing then helpful.

One of my favorite essays to write was in 11th grade. The essay was to be about our lives and how we have changed over time. When I heard this at my desk I got really excited because this was a moment for me to open up about my personal life and how interesting has been. It ended up not being what she was looking for, but I didn't care because I liked what I wrote. The grade didn't matter to me because either way I was going to make up for it.

The last essay and most recent one I have written I would also consider to be fantastic to write. I had to create a man (warrior) from ancient Greece and create journal entries about his life. Since I am a big fan of the whole creative writing thing, I didn't feel like it was that bad since I had no struggle in what to write about. The only thing that sucked was having to pick events, and was so hard to do because there were so many crucial events that had a lot of information on. Writing the essay was actually a lot of fun and it was my first college essay.

Writing Timeline

• The first piece of writing I remember producing was an alphabet log when I was in 1st grade.
• This was repeating every letter of the alphabet until that letter filled up the whole line over and over again.
• The first essay I remember writing was back when I was in 4th grade when I had to write a book report on my summer readings.
• The most successful writing assignment that I made was when I won award for the best summer reading essay.
• Or the other essay I consider to be the most successful was my essays for college applications because I feel like that was the make or break with my whole application.
• 9th grade I got a 5 on the FCAT writing.
• 11th grade, I got 8 on the SAT and ACT writing.

Reading Timeline

• First books were Loser, Bud, Not Buddy, Holes, Caps for Sale, and The Cat in the Hat.
• I never really wanted to write a book because they were so many pages that it disinterested me in writing since I was lazy and didn't want to spend my time writing.
• Reading back then wasn't as bad because I would always want to read since those books were interesting to me, and it seemed like I had fun reading them.
• One of the greatest milestones was actually finish reading the first Harry Potter book, I believe in the 4th or 5th grade.
• That was a milestone because everyone loved those books back then and it was like the first book that was over like 200 pages long that I had ever read.
• I first knew I could read around the age of 5, when I started reading beginner books and street signs.
• I always would use my imagination even before 5 because I would go to Burger King with my mom and go in the playhouses, there I would imagine to be the king of the playhouse and beat other little kids up if they wanted to climb to the top of it.
• I always thought I knew complex literary concepts when I first began reading, but in reality I didn't end up knowing some by the age of about 12, when I read Harry Potter.
• Books that had an effect on me were Bud, Not Buddy and Jackie and Me.
• Bud, Not Buddy effected me because I didn't know how much slavery was a problem back in the old days, so it struck my attention.
• Jackie and Me effected me because Jackie Robinson was the first black player to play major league baseball and broke the baseball barrier that I didn't think was a problem since I see baseball now and there are a lot of African Americans playing.
• Books that I have read recently include: The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Hamlet, Beowulf, Macbeth, and Othello by William Shakespeare, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
• I read all those books because that is what we read during 11th and 12th grade, recently I haven't read a book.

Written Rules

• Always indent new paragraph
• Paragraph needs to be 3-5 sentences
• Never start introduction with a quote
• Use transition words
• Don't ask questions
• Use three big words
• 1 statistic, 1 example, 1 story
• Restate thesis in conclusion but in two sentences
• Introduction, 3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion
• First sentence to restate the idea
• 3 sentences of support
• Last sentence to restate the idea