BLOG 4: Magazine Proposal

- The Funky Side of Things

- This magazine would be unique because not only would it cover the topics you see in magazines such as Cosmo, Glamour, and Maxim, talking about how to give a sultry massage or the sexiest lingerie of the season, but it would also cover the Taboo. No topic would be too controversial. For example the Furries convention which recently was in town, what a Furrie is along with other sex fetishes. Where to go for testing, and what tests are available. The magazine would be founded on the principals of education and complete openness.

- Readers of this magazine would fall in the age range of 15 - 40, rather large due to the variety of topics

All ethnicity's would be attracted to this magazine due to the complete coverage of their particular groups likes and trends

This magazine would probably target more middle class groups because of its good price and intriguing information

- Sex, Etc., Glamour, Cosmo, Maxim, Playboy would be competition for the magazine. However, this magazine would come out ahead due to its more full range information and articles. It would target the women with the fluffy romantic topics of passion and pleasure. It would target the men with lots of visuals and raw stories and self help. It would target the more hidden groups who have their fetishes and underground life styles by making it more acceptable and teaching the other readers about it. It would target the younger readers, first with intrigue and then with education on important matters along with what they may be getting themselves into.
- Advertisers would include; condom companies like Trojan, toy shops like The Castle, adoption agencies, lingerie lines like Victoria's Secret, exercise equipment companies, makeup lines such as M.A.C.

- Article 1; Furries Convention Comes to SJ; what Furries are, how they work, other fetish groups

Article 2; Sex Terms From A to Z; everything from areola to wet dream

Article 3; Where can you go for testing? What kinds of tests are available and how do they work?

Article 4; Pierced or Un-pierced? What's there to worry about...

Article 5; The Lazy Woman's Guide to Gorgeous Hair

- The cover would have a "green with envy" background with a young red head posing in her underwear. The 5 main articles would be listed vertically down the left side of the page, all in different shades of greens and browns. Key parts of the titles would be highlighted.

a perfect description of the male species...

For #12 of our online assignment, I chose this particular article; Poynter Online - Writing Tools. In it, the writer has this quote from Olivia Judson from her article "Super Sex Me" which I got a kick out of, so I thought I would share.

"'Perhaps my all-time favorite organism is Bonellia viridis, the green spoon worm. The female lives in crevices on the sea floor. She's a sedentary lady: She doesn't roam in search of adventure; she doesn't go out in search of food. Rather, she spends her life in one spot, gathering her meals by snuffling around her neighborhood with her long, extensible proboscis.

'Her mate is minuscule: The green spoon worm has one of the most extreme size differences known to exist between male and female, the male being 200,000 times smaller than his mate. Her lifespan is a couple of years. His is only a couple of months – and he spends his short life inside her reproductive tract, regurgitating sperm through his mouth to fertilize her eggs. More ignominious still, when he was first discovered, he was thought to be a nasty parasitic infestation.'"

BLOG 3: Books

1. Stephen King's "Duma Key"
This book talks about a man's horrible near death accident and all the changes it brings to his life. There are parts to this book I still crack up about, "I've seen Mexican mummies hauled through the streets of Guadalajara on the Day of the Dead who looked better than Gramma Mean Dog. She's got two basic lines of conversation. There's the inquisitive line --- 'Did you bring me a cookie?' --- and the declarative --- 'Get me a towel, Rita, I think that last fart had a lump in it.' " Entertaining, thought provoking with a twist.
http://www.amazon.com/Duma-Key-Novel-Stephen-King/dp/1416552960/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263843461&sr=8-1

2. Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander"
A woman walks through a time portal in Scotland and finds herself in the 1700s. She is quick to apply her herbal and medical knowledge to bad situations, and along the way shacks up with what I imagine to be the hottest Scotsman ever described in a book lol. They encounter ridiculous amounts of trouble and make you wish you were right there with them the whole time.
http://www.amazon.com/Outlander-Diana-Gabaldon/dp/0385319959/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263843413&sr=8-1

3. Bill Watterson's "The Essential Calvin And Hobbes"
A smart ass kid with a crazy vocabulary and equally robust imagination. Reading this as a child, I tried everything I could get away with from Calvin's world, and loved every moment of it.
http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Calvin-Hobbes-Bill-Watterson/dp/0836218051/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263843512&sr=1-1

BLOG 2: Media Impact

My research project would look at children and the affect cartoons with violence have on them, versus cartoons with no violence. My hypothesis is that the children with no violence in the home who have active parental figures will show little or no modeling of the violence they witness. The children who have a history of abuse, mistreatment, or parents who do not actively participate in their lives, will show more violent tendencies sparked when viewing the violent cartoons.

First I would need to do content analysis with the cartoons being used in the study; make sure there is violence in Group V and none in Group N.

The children being observed in the laboratory setting would all need to be in the same age group, lets say 4 - 6, and have their backgrounds logged; Do they come from a violent family? Is there strong parental guidance at home?

Then I would monitor reactions in the children (raised heartbeat, modeling of violence, interaction with others...) while they watched equal amounts of cartoons from both Group V and N.

If the results correlate with my hypothesis, then it would show that violent cartoons only emphasize a child's negative upbringing and hurtful past. Thus, showing the need for a safe and protected childhood along with parents who take an active interest in what their children are doing, watching, and how they are reacting.

BLOG 1: Media Autobiography

My relationship with the different forms of media has been interesting. Growing up in the Santa Cruz mountains, we had no electricity, which meant no TV, no cable, no satellite, no reading in a well lit room, all home work needed to be done before sundown in order to see what we needed to read and write, and so on. Once we did have TV, we only got 3 channels; Discovery, KQED, and what ever channel 2 was... Our family did not have the influences of TV programs, radio, newspapers, or latest magazines inside our home until I was about 9. Most of the time I had no clue what the children in my class were talking about when it came to things like cartoons and comic books.

I think, because of the childhood I had, where any of my free time was spent running around a forest rather than sitting in front of a TV or playing video games or reading comics and such, I connected less with media once it was available to me. This remains true today. People I know can spend hours in front of the TV or watching movies and doing any number of things on line. I just don't find them that captivating.

With the Internet, I check my email, get directions to where I need to go, occasionally look up something I want to buy and I am done. I may only spend an hour a week on the computer doing non-school related things.

TV is the same; I have a couple shows I like and if they are not on, I don't watch it.

I do love books, even though I am a slow reader. I have piles and shelves of books to be read, some for a second or third time lol.

Because I am such a cheep bastard, I refuse to pay expensive movie prices unless I am going to the first showing of the day or found a movie I really liked for a great price (like 75% off ha ha). I may go to the movies about once a month.

Magazines and Newspapers are very boring to me unfortunately. I manage to glance at the horoscope or funnies occasionally, and sneak a peek at what hilariously stupid thing some star did while I wait to pay at the grocery store, but that is about it.

As far as recordings go, I don't own an Ipod or any other gadget that could potentially hold way more music then my brain could ever absorb. I did finally get a radio put in my car, who even knew they still offered cars without radios built in? Most of my Cd's have been copied or burnt from someone else, because once again, I am a cheep bastard who refuses to pay $20 for 12 songs, only half of which I actually like ha ha.

What does capture my attention though, are quirky, funny, witty, and intellectually stimulating items. Some of my favorite bits of media are;
*Alecia Keys- music
*Pride and Prejudice- movie/book
*UP- move
*Mana- music
*Old School- movie
*Calvin and Hobbes- comics
*Pink- music
*How to lose a guy in 10 days- movie
*Clive Cussler series- books
*Sublime- music
*Elf- movie
*Lenore- comics