Night

            What does it really mean to be happy, to be at peace? From my experience so far, I’ve found that the best way to achieve this is by finding these feelings in their purest and simplest forms. For me, there is no better example than a crackling fire away from civilization, where the stars shine so bright it is impossible to be afraid of the night. I’ve been around the outdoors much more than most throughout my twenty years on this earth and I’ve grown very appreciative of the nights where I get to do this. There was a night this summer in early August where I laid in the bed of a pickup truck listening to the dying flames of our once roaring fire, while staring up into the night sky unwilling to fall asleep. Never before had I been able to see the Big Dipper or Orion’s belt as clearly as I was able to in that moment. As I laid motionless in the heart of the Allegheny National Forest, I experienced a truly revitalizing moment. It wasn’t the s’mores or the company that made this night so special, but instead the pure beauty I was surrounded by. When I was around ten or eleven, my Dad told me how important it was to find ways to escape just like this because living life day by day without being at peace is not a way that I was going to want to live. Now, I am starting to figure out what that actually means because I find myself thinking about nights like this one more and more often and just the thought of these nights soothes me more than anything else can.

#HappinessInTheSimplestForm

#LightTheNight

#SearchingForPeace

Audience vs. Genre resubmission

Audience vs. Genre

Audience and Genre have two different meanings, but are often both considered by the author when composing a piece of writing. Audience can be defined as the group you are writing to or the group of people that will be reading your writing. Genre on the other hand, can be defined differently based on context and serves as a way to categorize subtopics of a larger subject. For this specific situation, genre describes different forms of writing or writing analysis such as: blog posts, research papers, fictional novels, newspaper editorials, and so on.

The similarity between these two key terms is that certain genres apply to specific audiences. For example, you wouldn't submit a research paper for a job interview. You would submit a piece of writing that follows a resume format instead. Another example would be writing a research paper for Psychology class. You wouldn't submit a short-story because that genre wouldn't answer the question as effectively as the research genre would. This is where the similarities between genre and audience really appear and the importance of writing the correct genre for a given audience becomes very apparent.

updated voiceover

Script for video voiceover:

I’ve never seen live carp in a bucket ready to be cooked.

I didn’t even know carp was a fish that people ate.

Deep Fried Carp, interesting.

This man seems very skilled, he is good with a knife and knows his way around the kitchen.

He has everything on hand and ready to go too. A quick trip outside and he has his chickens for dinner.

Oh, and it appears he has frogs to go along with that; delicious! I’ve never heard of a meal that resembles anything quite like this, especially where I’m from in Pittsburgh. Although in Pittsburgh, most people seem to stick to very simple dishes.

I’m not quite sure what the food is surrounded by the bok choy but it seems to be the most “American” or “untraditional” dish in my eyes that he has prepared.

I haven’t figured out if I am supposed to be disturbed or find this meal appetizing. Almost every image they show makes me lose my appetite!

This meal sure covers everything. We have fish, carp and squid, frogs, fresh vegetables from the garden, and chicken; as fresh as it comes too!

This man certainly seems to know what he is doing, ALMOST making me want to try what he has prepared!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs5WiddD7i0 

Australian Teen cereal/outback food RESUBMISSION

Australian Teens Try American Cereal & Australians Try Australian-American Food

            The Australian teens experimenting with American cereals came as a surprise to me; I honestly had no idea that our different varieties of cereal weren’t more widely known. In the video, the Australian teens were presented cap’n crunch, cookie crisp, trix, reeses puffs, lucky charms, and cinnamon toast crunch and not one of the kids had ever heard any a single one of these cereals. On the other hand, the kids' reactions when they tried the foods from Outback Steakhouse did not surprise me at all!

           In both videos, the kids were grouped together and each given different foods to try; I’d say the reactions were mixed. For the first video, regarding cereals, the consensus was that these cereals took their idea of cereal to a whole new level, in both good and bad ways. Some of the kids said they had never tasted something so good and that they good eat the cereal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. While other reactions were not as high, some said that the cereal was just a fast track to diabetes. They may be on to something because I think they were given the most sugary cereals America has to offer. Particular reactions that stuck out to me was the girl’s reaction to Cookie Crisp. She said, “It’s just cookies in a bowl? Why am I eating cookies in a bowl for breakfast?” I’ve never been much in to cookie crisp so I had never thought about that but it’s true, why are we eating cookies for breakfast? Another great reaction came from the first cereal they tried, cap’n crunch. The guy said, “It’s like the cornflakes we had when we were younger, but instead of putting sugar on it like we did, you actually have to try to take sugar off, there is just too much.” Again, I’ve never been a huge fan of cap’n crunch but he pretty much hit the nail on the head with that one. I saw reactions very similar to this in the second video about Outback and its Australian relations, however, maybe slightly more negative. The Australians didn't like most of the food, saying repeatedly, "This isn't Australian!" and even the food they liked, they were skeptical of saying it wasn't Australian at all. They were particularly amazed by the "bloomin onion," saying its incredibly gross and greasy and not Australian in any way! However, surprisingly, some people did actually like it. So unlike the first video with the cereals, there was not as strong of a passion with taste of the food in the Outback video.

            After watching the American cereal video, I can honestly say I can't relate to their reactions. I mean obviously I know these cereals are loaded with sugar, but still, I never had the same dumbfounded reaction most of them did when they tried the cereals for the first time. Maybe it was just because I was introduced to them at a younger age so they seemed normal to me, but either way, I hope we don’t choose to get rid of these cereals because they are great for a sweet snack every once in a while. For the Australians trying Outback video, I can say I have shared similar reactions. Being raised in a family that cooks authentic Italian dishes, I can very easily tell the difference between Olive Garden and a home cooked Italian meal, so I can see where they are coming from in the sense that the two are just not related in any way.

Australian Teens Try American Cereal

Script for video voiceover: I've formatted it this way so you can see which thoughts go with each section from the film.

I’ve never seen live carp in a bucket ready to be cooked.

I didn’t even know carp was a fish that people ate.

Deep Fried Carp, interesting.

This man seems very skilled, he is good with a knife and knowns his way around the kitchen.

He has everything on hand and ready to go too. A quick trip outside and he has his chickens for dinner.

Oh, and it appears he has frogs to go along with that, delicious! I’ve never heard of a meal that resembles anything quite like this.

I’m not quite sure what the food is surrounded by the bok hoy but it seems to be the most normal thing in my eyes that he has prepared.

I haven’t figured out if I am supposed to be disturbed or find this meal appetizing because almost every image they show turns off my appetite!

This meal sure covers everything. We have fish, carp and squid, frogs, fresh vegetables from the garden, and chicken, as fresh as it comes too!

I’ve definitely never seen anything quite like this back home. This man certainly seems to know what he is doing almost making me want to try what he has prepared.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs5WiddD7i0

Food Blog Proposal Reflection

Food Blog Proposal Reflections

            After reviewing the food blog proposal, I now think I have a solid idea of what direction I want to go with my blog. My blog posts are going to fall under the category of “life in the strip” and then from there, be broken down into either cultural experience posts or simply restaurant recommendation posts. Specifically, the cultural experience posts will highlight the Italian and Polish ties to the food in the strip while the restaurant recommendations will tell the readers what great options the strip has to offer. The last piece of the blog relates to how I will incorporate my evidence. I have already found old newspaper excerpts that will serve as a great resource in explaining the rich history of the strip, but what I believe will be even more useful to me will be my family’s ties to the strip district. I plan on asking them questions about the strip in the mid 1900s to full grasp how it has come about today. I won’t display these conversations as a script in the blog posts but instead summarize what they have said whenever it seems necessary.

            Now that I have separated my blog into two categories and fully defined my research goals, my blog will be set to take off once we start getting into it.