English 489

Final Thoughts

2009-12-07T08:00:00.001-08:00

I've always held the belief that anything worth working for is hard. Far too often I've gone through classes feeling as if I was only going through the motions. What some teachers fail to realize is that students NEED to be pushed (although you probably wouldn't hear me say it in the first days of class). I feel like this class greatly prepared me for a progressive world of higher education. We focused on some interesting concepts and completed a major composition that I not only learned a lot from but I feel will benefit me when I have to complete a thesis and become a teacher. I also like to think I've enabled my technological horizons. It was also great getting to know everyone in class as well.
Good luck to everyone, Kirk

The Home Stretch

2009-12-01T06:03:00.000-08:00

As of this moment, 9:04 a.m. of December 1st, I currently have several more post it notes to transfer into my research paper but I'm mainly in the revision stages. Its been a seemingly endless project but I can't believe we as a class have finally made it to this point. I honestly feel that although at times the paper and class was stressful, I enjoyed and got more out of this class than any other I've had for quite a while. We were introduced to some heavy concepts and interesting forms of media composition and production.

Putting it Together

2009-11-24T07:29:00.000-08:00

If you're reading this and you happen to be waiting for an update on my research paper (especially if your name happens to be Mr. Jim Ridolfo), all I can ask at this point is to please be patient. My method in writing this paper has consisted mainly of writing my thoughts on post-it notes and transferring to my paper. At this point I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 post-it notes that need to be transferred to my paper with more work to be done. I'm hoping that insurmountable amounts of tryptophan that I'm sure to ingest on Thursday won't inhibit my ability to finish with ferocity on this paper. Fellow students; good luck. I look forward to reading your works. Have a great holiday.

Finally A Breakthrough

2009-11-19T08:05:00.000-08:00

Just a mere 24 hours since my last post, I find myself to be in a far greater position than where I was yesterday at this time. In all my research I've found books that have helped me piece together what I currently have but not a single one of those books encompassed what it was that I wanted to narrow my research in on. I've since obtained the book titled I Shop, Therefore I Am: Compulsive Buying and The Search for Self. This book has proven to be incredibly useful. Every single chapter extensively details exactly what it is that I wish to intend to narrow my topical realm of focus on. I'm still just in the beginning stages of researching this book but it seems to now be my most valuable research resource.

Cross Roads or Road Block?

2009-11-18T07:39:00.000-08:00

I'm currently at a pivotal point within my writing. Earlier in my writing, I naively thought that if I continued my research I would eventually find a subtopic or a more specific point of interest within my work. Well that time has come and gone. It became clear to me that I'm looking at consumerism in its broadest sense and narrowing it down to make a specific inference would prove to be the most daunting task of the whole project. I feel like I've invested so much into this paper; I want to not only finish this paper and receive a good grade but I want to be proud of it. I'm still very optimistic but it still feels like a an ominous, dark cloud looming over my life right now.

Neck Deep

2009-10-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

So here I am, only inches from being totally being submerged in perpetual research for this monster of a paper. I do have to say that the only thing about doing this paper that I'm not especially fond of is the time commitment and balancing this assignment with all of my life's irksome obligations. Everything else is currently working out okay. Since I've began I've found nearly twelve sources. About ten books and two online journal articles. My two biggest fears about this assignment have totally subsided. The first one was just simply getting started. The other fear (and more detrimental fear) was that I was going to hit a dead end in my research and figure out that the topic I committed to was not going to work. This is definitely not the case. I've been enthralled with much of the insightful analysis on the issues surrounding consumerism in contemporary societies. I'm loving the feeling of developing and organizing one robust work. Hopefully it continues to go well.

You can run but you can't hide

2009-10-13T07:21:00.000-07:00

So I've jumped face first into researching for my upcoming research paper and I can say its nothing short of refreshing to be able to find so much material on the subject of consumerism and the psychology of the modern consumer. There's been a considerable amount of research on the topic and the career field of marketing research in itself plays a substantial role in the hidden underlying psychological thought processes of the American Consumer.
I feel like another part of the beauty of my topic is that examples of my topic are not just limited to some elite research journal but even when I go somewhere to take a break from my work for a few hours (particularly this research paper), I as an American consumer feel like I'm perpetually berated by images that try to influence my desire to feel like I need a product. For example, my fiance and I went to the movies this weekend and not only did I feel overstimulated by the advertising from the time we walked from the parking garage to the theater, before the previews we sat through at least 15 minutes of commercials that propelled sound at us that was characteristic of a class 4 tornado. Sometimes it feels like the only way to escape consumerism is to either go camping in the middle of no where or lock yourself in your house all the while distancing yourself from any media outlet. It's simply everywhere we turn.

Finally Blogging

2009-10-08T08:39:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, I feel like I'm the class laggard at blogging but I'm finally on board. When brain storming for ideas for my research topic, I knew that I wanted to tackle issues of modern day contemporary American culture. You know, something that's a relatively modern phenomenon that we see in almost our everyday lives but don't pay too close attention to. One of the first things that came to mind was the practicing of new age religions i.e. Crossroads here in Cincinnati. There was also the potential topic of media bias but I kind of felt that this is a subject that's been done to death. However, there is one subject matter that I can never seem to get over and that's how much of a consumer based society that we are. Recently I watched a George Carlin stand up special in which he stated "Baseball used to be America's past time. Now it's buying s@#*". It often befuddles me the lack of emphasis people (families in particular) place on creating their own recreation, and as a result it seems that countless people default to packing up the car and driving to the closest outlet malls and spending money they might not actually have on things they don't really need. America seems to have lost it's romanticism. A time in which a family would take a country drive and have a picnic. In my paper, I intend to delve into such issues as consumer psychology, exploration of marketing and other underlying consumerism issues.