Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Gulf oil Spill was Deadly Time for Turtles

While I was reading through the news on Yahoo, I came across an article about the sea turtles during the oil spill that occured in the Gulf. In the article it does not say exactly how many sea turtles had died, but it did say many of the 600 turtles did die from the ingestion of the oil. Another problem is that many of the sea turtles died from getting caught in the fishing nets when the crews were frantically trying to save the fish. Following the oil spill, four to six times the normal amount of sea turtles were dead and that was only counting the turtles found on the shore. Turtles take about 10 to 30 years to become adults so this loss was very damaging to many spieces of turtles. Although the living turtles died, the rescue crews saved many eggs. Sea turtles are going to have a hard time recovering from this tragedy.

After reading this article, it really saddens me. Wildlife is helpless to humans and when something like this happens the wildlife are the first creatures to suffer. If this would have been an oil spill to people's houses then it would have been made into a much larger deal but since it was animals it is easier to look over for many Americans. The article really amazed me when it said that it takes turtles 10 to 30 years to become adults. I really enjoyed reading this article and more people should pay attention to animals instead of being concerned solely with the money loss.

Monday, January 24, 2011

History of Peden Stadium

Peden Stadium

College sports are a huge part of a college campus and also my everyday life. I watch every sport out there. You name the sport and I watch it. ESPN surprisingly is usually on my television, even though typically the stereotype is that girls don’t watch sports on television. My love for sports is the number one reason that I chose to do Peden Stadium. I feel as if the history of the entire campus is valuable and needs to be integrated into the students a bit more. One of my main goals while putting together my promotional piece was to catch the attention of students who don’t find a great interest in sports. The main purpose of my promotional piece is to display the history of Peden Stadium in an interesting eye catching way that will bring out many different emotions and reactions in the audience.

My first decision in the process was to figure out what way I wanted to display my information. My thought process went back and forth between a few ways to portray the information but I ended up choosing to use a PowerPoint. I thought that PowerPoint would be the most interesting way to show my audience about Peden Stadium because it has so much history. PowerPoint is a good way to display information in chronological order and this program offers so many different ways to please the audience. Over all, I think that PowerPoint was the best way to show my audience what I wanted them to see.

PowerPoint is not the most familiar program to me but this project let me explore the ins and outs of the program which has benefited me greatly. I decided not to draw out the PowerPoint to be too long and to limit it to only ten informational slides and one musical slide at the end. The musical slide at the end was put there because it finishes out the presentation with a high note. I chose the song by Michael Jackson that was played by the Ohio University band at one of the football games. One of the biggest reasons for this choice was that it was played in Peden Stadium. The second reason would be that it is a catchy tune that regardless of age most people probably know. The third reason would be that the audience that I am trying to display my information for might be more into music and arts rather than sports so I figured it might appeal to their interests. I feel as though the music at the end really tops of the presentation.

The entire presentation is based on the same set of colors. The colors that I included in the presentation are black, white, and green, which are the school colors of Ohio University. Every year that is listed is in black except for the year 2011. 2011 is in white because I wanted the color to burst because this year is the year that Peden is the most new and renovated. Since my audience is students who are not very interested in sports I thought that maybe they have never been to Peden. The burst of the final slide would show them what it looks like and in the picture on the last slide Peden looks like a desirable place to go. The black represents more of the history and older years, while the white is supposed to catch the viewer’s attention. The background color in every slide is green because that is the dominant color at Ohio University. The entire color scheme is based on Ohio University and their colors. Green, white, and black are the colors of Ohio University pride and I wanted to show the pride that I have for my school to the audience.

The pictures on each slide are in chronological order for a reason. As the slides go on the scenes and pictures start to develop more and more. For example, the pictures start out in black and white and by the last slide Peden Stadium looks phenomenal compared to when it was first being built. The last slide really shows all of the renovations that the stadium went through to make it what it is today. I wanted that appeal for the spectators because I wanted them to feel as if they are slowly walking through the history of the stadium. Another detail of the pictures is that they go back and forth. One picture is on the right and on the next slide the picture is on the left. I just wanted to mix things up so that it didn’t seem like the same looking slide over and over again to keep the audience interested and in tune with the presentation. The last detail of the slides is the bullets that I chose. The check marks are supposed to represent that the history has already been done. In a sense I wanted the check marks to be somewhat like a checklist to show that every action had already been done. The last slide doesn’t have a check mark because it is still serving that purpose today. Every element of the slides come together to get the point across and please the eye.

At the beginning of the PowerPoint I put the first name that Peden was called, Ohio University Athletic Plant. At first if an Ohio University student was looking at this they might be a little bit confused. Many students tend to forget that it was not always called Peden Stadium. Both of the pictures are in black and white so that helps with effect of getting the history point across. Right in the middle I decided to put the history of the naming of the stadium. I gave Don Peden his own slide to get the point across of the importance of his contributions. Changing up the layout of the slide for Peden really brought out the importance. The naming of the stadium was one of my main focuses because it was one of the biggest events in the history of the stadium.

All in all my love for sports contributed to my interest in researching Peden Stadium. Its history is overlooked by many students who don’t find an interest in sports. These students would be surprised to know that it is a peaceful place for people of all kinds. The history of the stadium is important to many people at Ohio University and it will continue to influence many students’ lives throughout the coming years.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Place Questions

I feel as if everyone is put on this earth with a certain relationship with place. Every person has a place that needs to be fulfilled in order to keep the world in order and keep it working. I view my place on earth to be important. My place is to be the person that people can come to when they have problems and I will be that person to give them the real answer instead of a sugar coated answer. My place is to be the most honest friend, daughter, sister, and fellow human being that I can be. There is too many people out there that don't express the truth in things and won't be there when times truly get rough. I believe that my relationship with place is to be there for others when need be.

I think that it is important to have a sense of place because people tend to feel as if they don't serve a purpose. Everyone needs to know what their talents are and not always strive for the common goal of every American. Most people feel as if their place is to only make themselves happy. If all we had are those type of people out there then there wouldn't be teachers, social workers, and people who only care about themselves. If people strive to follow their morals and values then eventually everything will fall into place for them.