week 3

My sub-culture that I am exploring is the freshman male at ball state. So naturally, from interacting with my friends and peers daily, I immerse myself in this culture. However, formally I have interviewed several of my colleges, some of which are not people I see frequently. Last weekend, I sat down with one of my close friends Jeremy, to attempt my first interview. It went rather smoothly, we were both just hanging out in his dorm room playing rock band and eating day old pizza. I ran through some questions with him, such as “so run through a typical day with me. What do you do, how long, where do you spend most of your time, and what do you think about college life in general, ECT.” He whipped off the answers to me. Most of which I expected (mostly because I am with him most of the time), however, there were some that caught me off guard. When I asked him about his and most other freshman’s love life, he seemed to be caught off guard, then answered with a smirk saying, “well, I can’t say that it’s all that older people made it cracked up to be.” The reason this caught me off guard, is because Jeremy and I spent the first semester studying “anatomy” and “social studies” rather than our academics. After I finished interviewing Jeremy, his response to my love life question stuck with me. I immediately started asking around with the rest of my friends. I was almost all struck when the majority of them replied with similar answers. It turns out, that contrary to popular belief; most freshmen males aren’t looking for as many one night stands as possible.
Next on the list, was to observe the field site. This is where we as ethnographers are supposed to step outside our usual comfort zone, and look from an outsider’s point of view. Unfortunately, looking into greater detail at a boy’s dorm room can get a little scary. As I stepped into one of my classmate’s dorm room, it seems to fit the regular description of a boy’s living quarters. Clothes are scattered about in heaps on the floor, trash overflowing onto the floor, unmade bed with little but a pillow covering it, and Adam sitting in the middle of it all playing Call Of Duty on his X Box. “Grab a seat man” as he knocks off a pile of dirty clothes uncovering a chair hidden from view before. Before I started this project, none of this would faze me at all; however, now that I have forced myself to open my eyes, walking into a dorm almost sends chills up my spine. After I finished my session with Adam, I went immediately back to my own dorm, and proceeded to clean it thoroughly.
I have attempted to research my sub-culture, but generally, it is unsuccessful. I feel that the difference between academic and non-academic research is, that with academic, you look up a formal source from something that already is in existence. Things like books and magazine articles can be “academically” researched. Non-academic research is research that you perform interviews and taking field notes fall under this category.

Week 2

Being a freshman male at BSU, I continuously wonder why myself and my fellow peers do things the way we due. So I thought, “If I have to do this assignment, why not do it on something that I’m interested in.” I should have a fairly substantial advantage, because I fit the criteria for the subculture I want to investigate. On the same hand though it could prove to be a disadvantage if I can’t open my eyes to see more than what I normally perceive. I feel that the best place to perform my field work would be in the dorm complexes (dorm rooms, study areas, lounges, and food courts). Also, I think that going to sports complexes and concerts could help to provide broader evidence for the study. In the dorms I expect to find messy, cluttered rooms. They’ll probably smell and have half eaten food strewn about.

week 2 box 2

I spend countless hours of my time torturing myself for something that is supposed to be "fun". After school every day, I sprint down to a designated spot where 50 young men confine themselves in a ridiculously hot and vile smelling room. In that room we strap on amour constricting and heavy, preparing for battle. We then run a half mile in the blazing sun and bone chilling cold only to reach another torturous area. On this field of sparse rough grass and compacted dirt as hard as concrete, we punish our bodies. We are then forced to bash and beat upon our friends and peers. The Dictating figure is a short middle-aged man who is thirty pounds to heavy for his body. Any one of the strong males he condemns to this relentless anguish could easily end. We endure these harsh criticisms and commands so that once every Friday night for about twelve months in the fall, we can attempt to bring glory and honor to our community.

week 1

Before we get started, there is something you have to know about me. I’m a “sports-aholic”, and what better to write about than one of my favorite papers ever, A Football Story. Cheesy, I know, however, it doesn’t make me any less passionate about the topic.
I wrote this paper last term in 103, and I was just begging to ENJOY writing. It came much easier than I expected, when my brilliant teacher Miss Yuan Yuan Liao suggested to me that I write what inspires me. Now this was a creative peace, but it did require a little bit of research to make it chronologically correct.
I started off excited and bold about finally being able to write what I wanted. However, my excitement quickly turned to dismay whenever I hit writers block around page three of a five to six page paper. So I went back to Prof. Liao for a little bit of guidance, and before long I had a fairly well planned outline-if I do say so myself.
After my conference with the professor, it was write back to writing. Feeling rejuvenated, I cranked the J-Z and went to work. Unfortunately, I only had a two days until the final draft, but I was confident in my new found vigor. I worked on the paper relentlessly for about three hours just churning out the pages, and before I knew it, I was done; Or so I thought.
I immediatley took the paper to one of my most dear (and coincidentaley most intelligent) friends Nick Wiggins. After a moment of glancing at it, to my dismay, he began to grin slightly. When Nick grins at anything other than a comedian, it is his “polite” way of saying, “WOW, this sucks”. After a few more moments his grin subsided into a slight nod. Afterward he explained to me that the content of my paper was fantastic, however, it gramatically stunk.
With a short time with Nick and his keen I for his best friends idiocy, he kindly helped me to edit my paper. And after I switched a paragraph or two around, I was finished with my final revision. I walked away with a great paper, not to mention and A.