CSU Nasty

Mayra Gonzalez 

Professor Marca

English 113

May 8, 2012                                                        

CSU Nasty

Have you ever been in a dirty bathroom? Has it made you hold your pee in because you are disgusted? Our website addresses the issue of the restrooms in CSUN being dirty. The message to the audience is how everyone needs to clean up after them selves in order to fix the issue. Our point gets across by using rhetorical devices throughout our website. Our website has five tabs located on the top of the page that focus on different rhetorical devices. Our decisions were directed in specific to students at CSUN and the message was delivered throughout a video we made as a group.

The website displays the colors red, white, black and grey. We broke our website into five different tabs on the top. The tabs include the homepage where pathos is displayed throughout images and a small intro located in the left to get emotion from our audience. The second tab is of a dirty restroom image located in the left and a list of the germs that a dirty restroom can cause (logos). The third tab is the interviews’ which displays two images of students. There is also a conversation I over heard between a janitor and a student at CSUN about the restrooms. The students are the ones who see this issue displayed everyday therefore they are credible in having a say  (ethos).  Our fourth tab has lyrics to our jingle located down the middle and a link that takes you to a video in which we made that displays our reaction of the issue and delivers a message of cleaning the restrooms through our jingle (pathos). The last but not least tab is an “About Us page” which is a page that we students from CSUN created for other students at CSUN and included the reasons behind our website and our emails in case they need to contact us (ethos).

Our website appeals to pathos by the pictures, colors, and interviews we have on our web. The website’s background is black and gray because the issue is something that reflects darkness in CSUN.  We used the colors red and white as the color of our text to capture the viewer’s attention because it contrasts with the darkness of the background. The title for our webpage is “CSU Nasty” and is located on the top of our home page in big white letters making a statement. The main picture that is big and located in the center of our webpage is a closer look into a restroom stall. The pictures located in the middle of the web were close ups of hair, yellow toilet seats, and paper thrown everywhere to capture an emotion from an audience. We also interviewed students to ask them their opinion of the restrooms got different emotions. A lady by the name of Kathern screamed out “ They’re awful,” while we were interviewing someone else, which clearly showed her emotion towards the restrooms. The pictures and interviews we choose to display on our site were to get an emotion from our viewers.

Logos is used in our webpage by mentioning how budget cuts have made a difference by cutting janitors, which meant restrooms get cleaned less often than before. It is logical that we should clean up after ourselves. We have links on our webpage that lead our viewers to different diseases that improper sanitation can cause. Logic plays a role in our webpage by displaying the diseases it will make students at CSUN keep restrooms clean. It is common sense that people should treat there school as if it is there second home because it is a place we, like it our not, spend a majority of time at. No one wants to catch a disease, and no one should be proud of having gross restrooms because it only makes our school look bad. This reflects back on us and can threaten our health and well-being.

Ethos is in our webpage through the interview link located on the top of our page. That page was focused on the students overall thoughts of the restrooms. Their opinion is credible on our webpage since they do pay tuition to come to this school. Students are credible to our webpage because they are the ones who witness horrifying things in the restrooms and are the ones to notice and speak the truth. Ethos is also displayed in the middle of the page in red words were it describes a certain conversation between a janitor and a student which are two credible people who play a big role on the issue of the dirty restrooms.

CSU Nasty needs to just be CSUN and we should all be able to take pride in the school we attend. We should feel safe and be able to walk in to a restroom without wanting to run out the door or hold our “business” in. The webpage has graphic images that will really get a reaction out of the viewers (pathos). The images are located everywhere and we know people automatically look at pictures first. We had to get their attention to get them to read and look through our webpage and made sure our webpage was simple for our viewers to navigate our web page. We included facts that would get students at CSUN to be more cautious and respectful to our restrooms so we wont catch a disease (logos). The interview page is credible because the issue is from us, CSUN students, to other CSUN students (ethos).

Here is our webpage enjoy

http://web.me.com/prlaverack/Site/Home.html

Mayra Gonzalez

Professor Marca

English 113

26 April 201

CSU Nasty

Have you ever been in a dirty bathroom? Has it made you held you pee in because you are disgusted? Our website addresses the issue of the restrooms in CSUN being dirty. The message to the audience is how everyone needs to clean up after themselves in order to fix the issue. Our point gets across by rhetorical devices throughout our website in which is the method we get our point across. On the top of our website we located five tabs that each focused on different rhetorical devices. Our decisions were directed in specific to students at CSUN.

The website displays the colors red, white, black and grey. We broke our website into five different tabs on the top. The tabs include the homepage where pathos is displayed through images and a small intro located in the left to get emotion from our audience. The second tab is of a dirty restroom image located in the left and a list of the germs that a dirty restroom can cause (logos). The third tab is the interview’s which displays two images of students and a conversation between a janitor at CSUN who spoke out in which are people who see this issue displayed everyday (ethos).  Our fourth tab has lyrics to our jingle located down the middle and a link that takes you to a video in which we made that displays our reaction of the issue and delivers a message of cleaning the restrooms through our jingle (pathos). The last but not least tab is an about us page which is a page that we students from CSUN created to other students at CSUN and included the reason behind our website and our emails in case they need to contact us (ethos).

Our website appeals to pathos by the pictures, colors, and interviews we have on our web. The websites background is black and gray because the issue is something that reflects darkness in CSUN.  We used the colors red and white as the color of our text to capture the viewer’s attention because it contrasts with the darkness of the back round. The title for our webpage is CSU Nasty and is located on the top of our home page in big white letters making a statement. The main picture that is big and located in the center of our webpage is a closer look into a restroom stall. The pictures located in the middle of the web were close ups of hair, yellow toilet seats, and paper thrown everywhere to capture an emotion from an audience. We also interviewed students to ask them their opinion of the restrooms got different emotions. A lady by the name of Kathern screamed out “ There awful,” while we were interviewing someone else, which clearly showed her emotion towards the restrooms. The pictures, and interviews we choose to display on our site were to get an emotion from our viewers.

Logos is used in our webpage by mentioning how budget cuts have made a difference by cutting janitors, which meant restrooms get cleaned less often then before. It is logical that we should clean up after ourselves. We have links on our webpage that lead our viewers to different diseases that improper sanitation can cause. Logic plays a role in our webpage by displaying the diseases it will make students at CSUN keep restrooms clean. It is common sense that people should treat their school as if it is their second home because it is a place we like it our not we spend a majority of time at. No one wants to catch a disease and no one should be proud of having gross restroom because it only makes our school look bad in which it reflects back on us and can threaten our health being.

Ethos is in our webpage through the interview link located on the top of our page. That page was focused on the students overall thoughts of the restrooms. There opinion is credible on our webpage since they do pay tuition to come to this school, their voice matters because they are the ones who witness the mess as well. Students are credible to our webpage because they are the ones who witness horrifying things in the restrooms and are the ones to notice and speak the truth. Ethos is also displayed in the middle of the page in red words were it describes a certain conversation between a janitor and a student which are two credible people who play a big role on the issue of the dirty restrooms.

CSU Nasty needs to just be CSUN and we should all be able to take pride in the school we attend. We should feel safe and be able to walk in to a restroom without wanting to run out the door or hold our “business” in. The webpage has graphic images that will really get a reaction out of the viewers (pathos). The images are located everywhere and we know people automatically look at pictures first. We had to get their attention to get them to read and look through our webpage and made sure our webpage was simple for our viewers to navigate our web page. We included facts that would get students at CSUN to be more cautious and respectful to our restrooms so we wont catch a disease (logos). The interview page is credible because the issue is from us students to students (ethos).

Here is our webpage enjoy

http://web.me.com/prlaverack/Site/Home.html

Web Page Making Decisions

Tuesday was the first day my group and I met to actually start collaborating our ideas on to the webpage. I brought my camera and went in to different restrooms located in the library to focus on pathos, logic and credibility. That day we found hairball on the floor and hair located on the sink. We were disgusted and knew that would be a perfect picture to capture an emotional reaction from the viewers of the website. We went in to each level and noticed there was paper located in the back of the restrooms where it gives the day and time the janitors clean the restrooms and noticed it wasn’t frequently cleaned. We took a picture of it to post on our viewers so they can get a reaction of how they don’t clean it frequent but also inform them. We had a discussion whether it was the student’s fault or the school because of the budget cuts but came to an agreement that it was the student’s fault. Jennifer researched some information on budget cuts about CSUN to use in our website as logos. It is only logical that because we do not have frequent cleaning in the restrooms students should clean up after themselves. We went around the library and waited for people to walk out the restrooms to get an interview with them about what they thought of the restrooms. We took notes and only some students allowed for us to take pictures. Most students were not too proud of how the restrooms in the campus looked. We had personal interviews to post in a section on a tab for our blog to use as credibility to show others were not the only one seeing this issue. Our issue is not just happening at CSUN but we hope to get everyone of our viewers to encourage them to clean up after themselves.

The Making of our Video on our webpage ( CSU Nasty)

On April 20 my group and I met at the library to concentrate on the video we made for our webpage. We discussed what the main point of our video was a couple days before then began to work on the lyrics to our jingle. The purpose of the jingle was to get a reaction out of our viewers in a different way.  We knew that most viewers and how professor Marca mentioned people don’t really like to read, and the first thing they look for is what is located in the middle or the bigger items on the webpage because it gets the viewers attention. Our jingle has a catchy beat from a famous song in Hip Hop from a website (Incompetech). We all came together in the making of our lyrics to the beat. We dressed like girl gangsters catch the viewers’ attention to click on the video. We also dressed like girl gangsters to make the audience laugh but then they will get a different sense of emotion once they really pay attention to the lyrics and the restrooms images. In our video we capture different angles of the bathroom being a mess and deliver a message to the viewers. We have a certain verse that Sally sang saying “ Clean it up, clean it up…” basically we are telling everyone to clean up after them selves because at the end of the day we are the ones who use the restrooms and get it dirty. If everyone wasn’t so lazy because it isn’t so hard to make sure you flush the toilet, put paper trash in the trash and use seat covers it would be less of a chance for anyone to catch a disease and be disgusted. We found out from a website (WebMD) that germs are everywhere and without proper care we are all in danger of a lot of diseases. We completed our jingle and hope our viewers think of our song when they hear the original song because our point was for it to be catchy but also have a message. In our video decision making we made sure it would get emotions out of our viewers ( Pathos).

El Mercado

                                             

My group and I went to EL Mercado that was located in the first street in East Los Angeles. El Mercado is a three-story market place that has a multiple of things to enjoy. El Mercado is famous for the restaurant that is located on the third floor with mariachi playing to enjoy. El Mercado has so many small shops located in each level with so many items that are imported from Mexico to buy. It is a place a place that has the feel and items to make people feel as if they were in Mexico.

As we were there we explored each level and store as we interviewed and took notes. El Mercado has been a place that I have gone a couple of times with my family but never really paid to the issues. We found many social problems within the place, the more people we asked to interview the more we got turned down. It was frustrating but later noticed they were afraid of deportation which caused a lack of trust within their own culture (us).

One of the few interviews was with a jewelry storeowner inside the Mercado mentioned that we looked undercover and was shocking to us. We were dressed in jeans and sweaters but I guess the big clipboard and cameras scared them away too. He mentioned that people go there because they feel at home and find Mexican goodies there.  He mentioned how it is a place that is always full so makes businesses there get money.

Inside the jewelry shop there was a guy by the name of Jaime that was Carlos the jewelry shop owner. As Carlos was busy with a client he showed me a gun that was located in the side of the jewelry clear box. He also pointed out how there was allot of empty alcoholic beverages that were out in the open because they drink there with friends. I asked them if they had bought the gun from someone and if it was registered. He said it wasn’t registered and was a gun that Carlos bought of a person. I told them if they even knew it was a clean gun (meaning it wasn’t a murder weapon or something that made him sell it).  I quick learned that the gun they bought was in no way safe and he even told me they buy guns they like to just resell and it was all about money.

Allot of the businesses there have illegal items like medicines. As we walked around we noticed there are even needles that are easy to purpose in some shops. Another social issue was that allot of items there are not FDA (Food Drug Administration).  We noticed allot of the candy was and food was in the out and made it easy for any bug to fall in one of the Mexican candy like the tamarindo (dark, sticky, thick, candy in a big bucket).

            I was asking questions and those few people like Angelica, Jaime, Carlos and a older man gave me their point of view of why it is a place where allot people go but mostly Hispanics. They said it was because the place does give a small feel of Mexico like boots, food, candy, corn, clothes, cd’s, and more. Something I captured from three different people I interviewed of different ages was that they said appearance was one really important reason why many didn’t talk to us. They said that when they are there they dress in a cowboy manner but when they are in the streets they dress with shoes and jeans. Jaime which was in his mid twenties and a older man in the age of seventy something both agreed is a place where the people shape the environment with the way they decorate (with Mexican flags and Virgin Mary) and what they decide to sell. The place also shapes a person because they dress in a certain way when they go and speaks Spanish when they are there.

 ( Virgin Mary painting located in the parking lot of El Mercado)

 (Mariachi playing in El Mercado)

(  Los Angles City Council Richard Alacron talking about some social issues in El Mercado)

Experiences

Throughout these couple of weeks we have continued with our Project text and have kept reading a number of different stories from “ Another City.” We have had many different interesting conversations and assignments that have made us think and connect somehow back to the book. From all the stories that we all have read think I finally found some I really was able to dig deeper and connect to some situations in the stories. I learned that Los Angeles is a space but we all don’t live the same way or go through the same struggles, it is us who shape and mold our spaces.

In “Fried Chicken” there was a boy who had a friend by the name of Shane and just stopped talking. I was so moved with that story because I could just connect to Shane. It made me think how many people out there do something wrong and later wishes they wouldn’t have made that discussion. This story took me back to the pain of loosing a “friend.” It was something hard but later on just how he regretted saying the things he said and doing what he did, so did my “friend.” Sometimes in life you need to be careful with the decisions you make, because you can both hurt someone’s feeling and later wish you could take back all the stupid decisions you have made but it might be to late. We might live in a place were it is all about competition and change but honestly you shape your life.

When I read “ Interesting Times” it just took me back to the poem “ The Beach At Sunset.” It was two stories I could just relate to allot. The cancer theme of the poem was something hard for any one and can relate to the lines in the poem. The same way of going through the Northridge earthquake, the 1992 riots, being afraid to get of the wrong exit to her cars breaking down is also not easy. I learned that regardless anything you go through in life it is the experiences in life that shape you to the person you are today. Without knowing what pain is, or without the negative situations we go through how will we ever be thankful of the good. I wrote my essay on a situation that was hard for me which was cancer but regardless of everything I have witnessed, and gone through just like in “Interesting Times” I was ambivalence at the beginning but my interesting experiences have shaped me.

In class we have had a whole lot of different conversations but one that really began to get me to think was this week. We were told to share the stories we have written to one another as we did I learned a lot from my peers. Every face has a story behind it, allot of put our negative experiences aside but does not mean there gone. I enjoyed to see how we all had a different story that some how shaped us being the environment we were but somehow turned it positive in our life’s. We all may not have the same families, the same friends, the same house, the same material stuff but what I do know is that we all shape our environment and our environment shapes us

Los Angeles

Throughout project text we have been reading the book “ Another City” edited by David L. Ulin. This book has made me stop and really try to see Los Angeles as an outsider. It wasn’t easy at first but I have to admit reading some of this story really makes you look at Los Angeles as an outsider. I say that because some of the stories have brought me to the state of shock, and some situations that were just unnecessary or important. I understand that Los Angeles is not perfect; it is a place that many will not agree on what it is.  

Los Angeles is what? Chaos, misunderstood, disconnected, scattered, opportunity, money, what? Some words my fellow classmates mentioned when Professor Marca asked what was one word that described Los Angeles. Not one soul in the classroom said the same word. I have to admit that when other words were mentioned I could see how it played a role in Los Angeles. Everyone has a different mentality and how Paul mentioned “ perhaps our own personal life’s have some kind of role in the word we say?” I have to admit it has to be true if you ask a wealthy person what they think of Los Angeles they wont have the same perspective then a poor. It has to be what you make of your life that really makes an impact on Los Angeles.

            I thought Los Angeles was described with chaos. Los Angeles doesn’t sleep, always someone walking the streets. Not a dull moment, always crime happening when you turn the news on. There is always a police officer or an ambulance on the run to try to do their duty. Everyone has a different day at work, at school, with family, yet alone problems. Some people may laugh at a joke while others cry themselves to sleep. I can speak for myself when I say I cant walk the streets on Los Angeles without having my phone on speed dial on 911 just in case anything happens. I have seen and heard of to many stories of girls being taken, robbed, raped, beat, and killed. Nothing less to expect when all your life you might have witnessed some kind of crime or situation, how they say expect the unexpected in LA.

A story and discussion I was in shock was reading Los Angeles. I could not believe the disturbing graphics yet alone the whole incident happening only a year before I was born. I felt a sense of betrayal in not knowing this all my life till now. It was like it was hidden from us in the LAUSD district. My thoughts were how horrible it was and how fast it all escalated. I couldn’t wrap my head around how Los Angeles was once a place of total dysfunction. It was a marking stone for Los Angeles that changed so many people lives and yet I had no clue.

Throughout the reading I noticed how there was graphic details in the stories “Cactus” and “Maternity.” Even though at a point at the beginning I couldn’t understand why there was so much detail was necessary. The conversation between Professor Marca and Sally made me see how having details in a story just really makes us want to read and keeps us interested. It is a way of actually taking the reader to whatever scene is happening in the story. It is going to definitely make me really think about having details in my future stories.

Overall, hearing all the different stories and conversations that went on in the class made me really want to shape my future writing. I also was inspired to look back in to the 1992 riots and ask my parents about it as well. Doing these reading projects have made me really catch a lot of details I miss when I read alone. It excites me to go to class and share what I got from the stories and hear my peer’s opinions as well.  It has pushed me and Sally views on getting together and doing future readings together to really be able to work on a future poems or stories we both might be having a hard time on. Adding details and having a conversation with others about a text has made me realize it makes a difference.