I am NOT crazy!

I am not who I was before, and that makes things more complicated. I am a book mender, putting books back on the shelf instead of in the garbage. I am also a volunteer to the Brooklyn Public Library whenever they need me. I had always had a love for books and that love had been slowly replaced by shows over the years. However being introduced to media studies displayed a new understanding of the media I had consumed over the years. The idea of studying an image had always resonated with me as I jokingly critiqued bias media surrounding me, but I had always concluded that I “over think things”. It was a relief to know that images are not always what they seem to be, because it meant I wasn’t a crazy babbler.

I have become more aware of racism in media, not to say I believed it didn’t exist but rather not to the extent I have been redirected to assess. It was shocking to examine the underlining racism and sexism of some movies that seem innocent in appearance but degrade groups of people. We have all been categorized based on one aspect of our lives and displayed in mainstream media as extremes of that attribute. That form of media becomes a bases for others to judge us, and to combat it we must use media to defend ourselves against bias generalizations.

 underlining racism and sexism 

Write, Write and then some...

It isn't easy for someone to describe themselve as a person and worse, what their role in society is. I am a writer, not only in a educational sense, but in everyway I tend to write most things down. Of course recently there hasn't been much writing, in fact there has barely been and creativity on my part.

My name is Deborah Cruz, I'd like to think of myself as an artist, I enjoy creating and making things. It is one of the main reason why I decided to major in madia, because I have the opportunity to create. The media can create a persona for you, these days people live their lives according to the media and to social networks. Recently, I tried deleting my Facebook for personal reasons, only to find out that I couldn't "delete" I could only "deactivate" right then it hit me, with our vast fusion with social media it is now nearly imposible to erase yourself from the map. There will always be a trace of you in the media, so now it is up to us to make the best of that.

I have tried to do my part for the new social age, I began with a blog which made me realize I had nothing to write about and made me feel depressed and a little challanged when I realized I had commitment issues with the blog. That project quickly went out the window and left back where I started...wordless. So I got unfocused, left my creativity behind and focused on the most uncreative thing in the world. School.

 

Like many people I twitter and instagram, that is what my media consumption revolves around, mostly for the purpose of becoming known and getting "out there." Last semester I took part in a 3 minute film for my class when I acted in it, it was my first perfomance and hopefully my last, yet it is still currently on YouTube, where I avoid it at all cost. Ultimately, I am trying to get into the magazine world where I wish to pursue a careeer as a writer. 

https://twitter.com/Debjuzsaid

I am not a Gamer, but i play games.....

Lets start with the required image and link. I picked two guilty pleasures of mine.

An innocent pass-time of mine.

I may not be a gamer, but I do play some games...

Am I too old for Pokemon? Some people might say so, but I don't really care Pokemon is one of those things in my life that i have consistently followed and loved throughout my life. From the premiere of the first episode in my early childhood;  to the introduction of the next generation of Pokemon (Pokemon X&Y) next month; Pokemon been one of those things in my life that has changed with me.

Now on with the question at hand.......

Who do I think I am? This is often a question I constantly feel uncomfortable answering. I thought all week for an elegant way to answer the question, but I couldn't. The truth is most college students are probably in their early twenties, and have absolutely no idea. Even with my opinion of myself constantly changing, there are a certain things that are already set in stone. Like I can't change the fact that: I'm a first generation Mexican; I was born in Queens, but raised in the Bronx; I grew up and live in the projects just blocks away from Park Ave from the other side of the river; and so forth. This information probably won't even begin to provide the tools needed to paint a clear picture of me. Life is like a pixelated picture. You can either wait for it to load to get a clearer picture, or zoom out and try to make out the picture the best you can with what you have.

So who I think I am?  At this very moment I think I am person who has been fortunate to have the opportunities I've had. While thinking about what to post in this post; I realized that I may have been guilty on several occasions of taking the opportunities for granted. I never had much, but having the little i had is a hell of a lot better than nothing. I had encouraging teachers in high school that kept pushing me to graduate on time. even though most didn't think I could. I was lucky enough to get assigned quality professors & staff at BMCC that helped me get to where I am now. I am now lucky enough to be a student at Hunter college, and can't wait to see how my first semester unfolds.

Who am I?

     Right now my main answer to that question is that I'm an over-thinker.  I am writing this down to the wire because I have second guessed, over analyzed and eventually deleted all my previous attempts. So now I'm just going to jump in...I was born in Vancouver Canada on new years eve in 1988.  I have an older brother named Peter (we are pictured to the right.)  As a child my family moved around quite a bit.  When I was nine we moved from inner city Vancouver to a small fishing village in Scotland, two years later we moved back to Vancouver only to leave again within a year.  We moved to the suburbs near New York in 2000, but only lasted their a year before we moved further up state to the small town of Cold Spring. http://coldspringny.gov I like to think that all of that moving around has made me a lot more adaptable to change.  It also taught me how to play alone as a kid (it takes time to make new friends) and because of that I can both wiggle my nose and play cats cradle by myself. 
     Since graduating high school in 2007 I have traveled to Honduras, Cameroon and Paris.  I have worked at a Bed and Breakfast, A health food store, two different farms, a country club's farm to table attempt, a library and most recently at a summer camp in VT.  Some where in the middle of that I spent a year at Mt. Allison University in Sackville, NB.  This is my second year at Hunter and I'm kind of proud of myself for not dropping out again despite having itchy feet. 
     As far as media is concerned I am much more of a consumer than a creator.  I like to think that I am a savvy consumer, but that is probably not always the case.  I like to read on-line newspapers (the Guardian and sometimes the New York Times.) I often follow links in my facebook feed that my friends have posted.  This leads to a steady stream of upsetting news articles and blog posts about social injustice and human cruelty interspersed with the occasional picture of a cute cat.  I am acutely aware that I often only hear about the injustices that my facebook friends find important enough to post.  I have a weekly subscription to New York Magazine.  I bought Cosmo magazine for awhile, at first mostly to laugh at, and started to really enjoy it. I went back through my old issues recently (I stopped buying Cosmo over year ago) and was kind of horrified at the content: the images, articles and ads.  What upset me the most though was how quickly I had become desensitized to the material back when I read it regularly.  I felt that I should have known better and I might not be as savvy a media consumer as I hoped.
    

I Am a Door..........A Song............A Light..........I Am.

                  Evelyn Almonte

I believe every human being is born with an inherent need to discover his or her mission, in life.  The mission needs a solid voice able to transcend space and time; then it will be able to impact an infinite number of generations.  Whether the message is positive or negative it will always depend upon the one exposed to the message to profit from it.  Drawing from experience I can attest to the fact that we can always learn from both spectrums. 

There was a time when I didn’t have my own voice; and the one I had could not be understood by the people in my new home, New York City.   I came to the United States at a very young age and could only communicate in Spanish.  School was a tedious and dangerous place for me.  I was constantly bullied because I didn’t speak or understand English.  Today I can proudly say that I owe the ability to comprehend, write and speak English to those that put me between a rock and a hard place.  I must also pay homage to my inseparable Spanish/English dictionary who became the closest friend I ever had.   That negative message gave me the courage to learn, conquer and succeed.   It is this voice that can now point the way for those passing through the same storm.

Endowed with the splendid power of words and enhanced by audio visual technology, Media is the most ingenious tool we can use to empower others.  I chose to major in Media Studies with a concentration in Documentaries to unleash my message to those ready, willing and able to hear it.

 

http://www.spanishdict.com/

www.wordreference.com

Who I Am Today -- Julie

            Like most people, I’m a complex individual who assumes many different roles around many different people, but ultimately I feel as if I boil down to this:  A girl with small goals and simple interests.  I realize that this sounds uninspiring and somewhat obnoxious, and maybe it is, but I’m okay with that. Some people seek excitement in their lives, but after walking down that road for a bit I’ve decided that a glitzy, adventurous life is just not for me.  Mind you, when I say “excitement”, I don’t necessarily mean crazy, drug-filled nights out on the town, or boarding a shuttle to outer space—although that would be included.  What I really mean is having big dreams:  being a household name, an Olympic hero, groundbreaking scientist, or anybody who wants to be “the best” in their field. I sincerely admire those people, but I do not feel like one of them.  I don’t have lofty aspirations and I don’t seek attention, even if it is for the noblest reasons.  

            I can’t say that I’ve always had this attitude.  I’ve never wanted to be famous, but I did used to indulge in some form of “flashiness”.  I wanted to be seen.  And not by anybody in particular-- it wasn’t as if I’d sit around in bars waiting to be discovered by a photographer or the guy of dreams.  I really just wanted to be gawked at and complimented on some aspect of my appearance—face, clothes, body, whatever I was feeling proud of at the moment. Several things contributed to this kind of attitude, but I believe it was largely fashion and lifestyle magazines that taught me to place this kind of emphasis on beauty.  I was more or less obsessed with looking at the women in these magazines and brainstorming of ways I could transform into them.  I was particularly fond of the Calvin Klein ads from back in the day; to me, Kate Moss was the ideal woman.  Hopefully from that you can just imagine that at certain points in my life my values were completely twisted and lead me down some dangerous paths. But as I got older and exhausted of playing the vanity game, the reality started to sink in that I am what I am, I look like what I look like, and I can’t change it.  This “it is what it is” attitude started to spread to all spheres of my life, and I let all the pretention melt away (or at least as much as possible, because living in NYC, I’m sure it’s still lingering in ways I’m not even aware of).  I no longer want to mentally or physically transform myself into something that doesn’t feel natural to me.  This is not to say that I don’t challenge myself, I’ve just learned to let go of losing battles.

            Some people are movers and shakers, while others do their part, carrying on with their lives on a smaller scale, and they are no less important.  I’m one of those people. I’m comfortable in my own skin, and I’m settling into a life where I have the things I need to keep me happy.

                                               _______________        

My sister works in advertising.  A few years ago we went out to dinner and she told me her newest product to sell was denim baby diapers.  They're essentially daisy dukes for babies.  We both found the idea of them somewhat disturbing yet wildly hysterical.  Here's the finished product:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o85Wi-nk0x8

This picture has nothing to do with anything, I've just always liked it.

Who Am I?

Not too sure what the answer to this question is. I consider myself a media maker. I design websites, do photography, and videography (www.zlander.com www.intagram.com/zlandermedia). I'm still trying to find my niche though. Over the past two years, I've been very successful but I'm still not content. I work full-time, making a great salary, with great benefits, but I'm still not content. So I guess I'm not sure who I am.



I've decided to return to Hunter to continue my education this semester after a two year break for two reasons. First; to obtain my B.A as a security blanket. Secondly; to possibly help me figure out what I really want to do in my life. I know I love creating media, whether it be taking photographs, shooting a music video, or just tweeting. But I am also very comfortable in my professional life and considered successful for my age. Hopefully finally getting my degree helps my figure out an answer to this question.