week 15 posting

I would have to say that working on this project has been the one of the hardest english assignments that i have ever been apart of.  I think that if I had chosen a different topic I could have had an easier time.  But with my strong opinions on the Christian religion and the origins of it, it has become extremely difficult to separate my biases and accurately represent this culture to its full potential.  Looking back I wish I would have chosen a culture that I was an insider in, something like golf....I have been a part of that culture for almost my whole life and there are very different aspects to it then one would think.  I would have to say that I have improved slightly on separating my opinions from the material and putting it into my paper.  It started off terrible and is now....slightly less terrible.  If i had to make a suggestions on how this could have been put together a bit better I would suggest have deadlines for the students as to when they will have there interviews and obersvations done..... GIve them a time where they have to have a few of them done so they could stay on track

Week 14 Posting

I think that the single most best piece of information that I have come across and will be incorporating in my final project is the book The God of Nowhere and Nothing  by Nels Ferre.  This book gives insight to different kinds of religious outlooks.  He also shares how him and his family all attended that same church growing up and yet they all have different outlooks on Christianity and Religion.  They would attend the exact same sermons and get completely different messages out of them.  But up until I had read this book I thought I was simply athiest and believed in nothingness, which really didnt sum it up to its fullest extent.  It gives incite to ways of Theism(Most similar to Christianity) Deism, Pantheism, Atheism, and other outlooks on the subject.  I found that pantheism is more of what I believe.  I think that people simply dont take enough time to sit down and really think about what they believe and why they believe in it so much.  There are sooo many others ways to live that are out there and it is just naive to think that they have choosen the right one out of millions of different religions.  Most people dont even make themselves aware of the other teachings, because it goes directly against what they do believe in.  We need to fill ourselves with information and then make the best decision according to ourselves, no what others show us.  To question their faith in Jesus is just too scary to imagine.   

Week 12 Posting

My understanding of the word rhetoric comes mostly from what I had learned during my English 103 class with Professor Todd McKinney.  Rhetoric is made up of logos, ethos, and pathos and deals with different ways to persuade and appeal to your reader.  The logos part of rhetoric is based on the logic and reason part of your argument.  It gives the reader the chance to take note at your resources you use as well as how you came up with your point.  The ethos component of rhetoric is the credibility and appeal that the speaker gives off.  It is the best representation of the author, what makes you different from others and how it is shown throughout your paper.  And pathos is simply the emotion driven component of your paper.  How you draw in your readers, like a personal experience.  So is it the things we say, how we act, and what we wear?  Yes, rhetoric can be all of those things.  The most common place that i have heard the word has been in an English class, and is used frequently, or at least rhetoric themes.  I will most defnitely corrolate the art of rhetoric into my project.  This is something that is relevant to my topic, it has great emotional strengths....not some much with the logic and credibility.......but yeah, pathos are there

Week 10 Posting

Shaping my mini-ethnography is still in the air as of now, I have a GENERAL idea of how to present all my findings but is far from concrete.  I know that I want to inform the readers that I am not a raging atheist who just has simply denounced God to his entirety, but has once been a Christian believer and is somewhat active in the subculture.  I will start off with some of my fondest childhood memories about spending the weekends with my g parents and always attending Church on Sundays.  How I participated in the church frequently until about the age of 14, and then to explain how I had questions that no one in the church could answer.  After trying to make a emotional connection with the reader I will try to make a smooth transition to some of the background information that I have obtained on the Christian religion and how it came to be the money making power house it is today.  Of course I will set my biased opinions aside the best that I can.  I think that I will be able to reach out to more people without the sarcastic tone throughout the paper.  Though this has become increasingly harder as I have researced the topic and found of its origins and things that have come along with it.  The use of my interviews and observation notes should be able to help me balance myself, to a more well rounded ethnography.  

Week 8 Posting

A reoccurring theme that I see through my research and interviews with informants is that people are continually relying on God to answers their questions of the unknown and to give comfort from fear and the unpredictable.  Many if not all people that I have spoken to have said that when they have hit hard times and cant seem to see the light that they simply ask God to to it in his hands.  That it all has meaning and part of a bigger picture.  Which I totally agree, we are apart of something greater, I am just not sure that my "God" is a man in the sky and can come down and directly interfere with my life.  With this theme running through my project everytime I have an interview with an informant I can tell that I would not be accepted into this way of thinking simply because I don't know what this is and it all means.  And to be a practicing Christian in this subculture that is one of the first steps.  To believe that it is this way, or have "faith."  I think that now I may be even more of an outsider in this culture than I had initally assumed, I cannot get myself to believe that their is a divine right and this holy person has a set plan for all of us.  Which is a major foundation of the subculture, but what I have found is that through my research I have found a more focused belief of mine rather then believing in nothing.  The belief of pantheism, being that something is above us it has a greater knowing than we do, I am just not sure as to what it is.....and I can go around and say that I know infact it is this.  I am thankful to have figured that out.

Week13 Posting

Though most memorable observation that I can remember doing was on March 1.  It was a little bit snowy out and the wind was something fierce.  On the drive to the church I had to battle with snow and wind going across the road. I also had to leave a few minutes early from then time i normally would have to, in fear of not making it on time.  As I drove I saw some people ready to pull out in front of me, whom looked very familiar.  I had got to high school with three of their daughters, one of which goes to Ball State with me....The Yoder family.  They were five deep in a car to go no other than them same place that I was headed.  Right then I thought that if i had driven by that same place about the same time on every Sunday, i would be sure to see them there.  As we got to the church you could see the older gentlemen dropping off their wives by the doors so they wouldnt have to walk through the cold and other families walking up hand in hand.  And despite the cold and fiercly windy wheather(the kind the hurts your face) all these people had the biggest smiles on their faces.  And as I walked through the door to be greeted by an elder all they could saw was how blessed they were to be here today and so happy about all that could join.  I was completely astonished!  Here I am being pissed off that its cold out and that I have to get up in the morning to go to this nonsense......and These people couldnt be happier.  This was the first of many motions that lead to the awesome oberservation

Six Word Memoirs

Good Music, Good Drugs, Good Friends

Questions? Comfort? Fear? Jesus Anwers Me

In Class Writing Quote

This is a quote that I found I really like:   Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.-Cyril Connolly

 

Write for one reason; to express your findings-Chase McCain

Week 11 Posting

This entire project has totally fucked up my normal writing process, I still listen to mellow music as I am typing and have to think things through a million times while I smoke my cigarette.  But usually when given the opportunity to write I can just write exactly what I feel or think and put in right into the paper, but with me having to take a closer look at something that I think is disgusting and keep my attitude to myself is damn near impossible.  I have to constantly remember to keep my feelings in check when working on this project, i just get fired up and go off on random tangents.  So yeah, this assignment has been kicking my ass.  Were any assignments unexpectedly easy?  I would have to say no.  I mean these blogs are somewhat easy, but for an english class I always felt like I could bullshit my way through it but with this project I really really cant.  Why do we write?  I guess I would have to say its because we have emotion, feelings, and beliefs that we need to get out and what a better way then to right them down so we can have them forever!  I think we write to share our emotions, feelings, and beliefs.  The roles of writing play little in mylife right now, just mostly English.  But in the future I intend on doing alot of psych research and I will have to be doing a great deal of writing so i can keep my thoughts and observations straight.  So the future looks brighter for my pen.

3-31 In Class

If I had to choose a family member that is a little be crazy and always has these outlandish stories to share with the rest of the family I would have to say that it is my older brother, Brandon.  Brandon is one of those people who lives a very carefree and spontaneous life, since as long as I can remember he has always been testing limits and pushing forward to just about everything he has put his mind too......and sometimes this leads to his adventurous stories.  He is 22 and going to school to become a RN.  Whenever our family all gets together with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins this seems to be when he takes the stage.  Since he doesn't see everyone as much as he would like to, its like he waits for holidays to have all these ridiculous stories unfold. I can just picture us all sitting around the table after eating and my brother just talking about the most recent thing that has happened to him.  Sometimes I get annoyed by all of this because I have heard them numerous times before but then I remember how much I was laughing the first time he had told me, so it makes it alright.  Although not all of his stories are funny.....he has had is fair share of the unpleasant ones, which he tells anways!!

Inclass 3-19-03

If I was to re do this project I would keep how they traveled around and spoke to different people but I would have mixed it up more.  It seems like in the beginning they placed to much focus on the rural farmer when it came to language in these areas.  I would have talked to other kinds of people in the same areas to get a better understanding.  I though some flaws were that they talked to male participants more than they did females, it wasnt quite balanced on something that is being done as a study.  I would have looked into taking this study over seas and tried to find out if there are any similarities to language in other countries as there are in our own.  Language is very important in how we perceive other people.  When someone uses improper grammar and constant slang it tends to make them sound less intelligent.  When we speak alot is revealed to other people, especially where we are from but also out level of education.

In Class Writing- 3-19-08

When I did my first field site observation I attended a church service near my hometown.  It is a smaller church, probably only 150 people.  The church contained large windows with stained class and wooden pews with cushions on the seat and places to hold Bibles and Hymns book on the back.  When first coming in we were told to tell someone who we didnt know why we were thankful to be here and my first informant who I didn't know told me, "I am thankful anytime I am in the presence of God and people fulfilling his missions".  I then quickly replied, "Im thankful for getting research done on my project."  Our relationship was nothing more than someone who I hadnt met and was told to tell them why I was here.  The people and environment around us all influenced our  fixed positions, his was being a practicing Christian.  The power relationship between then man and myself is only that he knew what was going on more than I did.  In the way the man spoke I could tell that he was legitimately excited about being there at church that morning. 

Week 9-Posting

For me the hardest thing that I have encountered has been being able to keep a steady focus on trying to examine the Christian beliefs without getting frustrated at the flaws that are obvious if you look.  I keep getting sidetracked on what I am doing.  There are time that I get of on tangents about how the religion isn't real and loose focus on how I am just an observer taking notes of the ways Christian life is practiced.  If I could start over I would have chosen this topic in the beginning.  I started off with the homeless and put quite a bit of time into researching that topic when infact I could have been putting that effort into my topic now.  I also would have taken advantage of the time table we have been given, I seemed to have put things off.....and cant tell whether I am on track or need to buckle down.  

Keeping the Blog is an awesome tool and a great way to organize your thoughts and concerns throughout the process.  I think that when I actually start making the draft of my mini ethnography I will come back to my blog to look at my feelings and the direction that I was taking at that time.  It should help out a great deal with the construction of the paper.  

In Class Writing- Tuesday

My readers will care about this issue because it is something that people hold very close bonds to, Religion.  Both people who believe and those who do not. 

They will need to know that the foundation of which the Religion that Christianity was built was for political benefits more than anything.  That there is more to the story than what is just found in the bible.  

Readers will probably have heard something about the christian religion through a family member, friend, or school.  I expect many of them to not know the other side of the story just what they have been told and practice now as the only way.

I want my readers to open there eyes and think rationally for a few moments rather than trying to believe in events that are untrue.  If they can just take a minute to really question the validity of the people in the bible and those who compose it.  We are in an age where these events can be proven to have not happen....through science....and now people cover up that question with the word "faith."  You have to have faith it happened....thats all?  That is blind submission.

I am thinking that most people wont be persuaded, as that has been what i have seen through previous conversations about this topic.  What I am trying to do is offer "doubt" and not sell them certainty like the christian religion does.....

My writings could be used for as a guide to help people really Question the Answers......  We are a nation that is consumed with Jesus Christ, a person who didn't exist.  This is making us unable to progress as a whole world.  Religion enslaves people and causes war.

I have finally visited my cultural site after much debate on whether or not I could continue with the my original topic of the homeless.  I was unable to and now and pursuing the Christian Religion and people who practice it.  After I spent time at my cultural site, which was at a local church in a rural farm community I had a lot to think about when looking over my field notes.  The benefits that I have gotten from my research are monumental, sitting there listening to the sermon and Deccan's of the church speak to the congregation is quite comical.  As I sat there listening and taking notes of both the sermon and people around me I kept finding myself laughing a bit to myself.  People were listening so intently to the Deccan's of the church and they all were nothing more than old farmers spilling their guts about what the lord has said to them and why we should listen.  So what do I plan on giving back to my community......?  Hopefully the awareness that someone who has to use religion have a hole somewhere and in order to fulfill the hole they turn to religion.  It sounded like the community church that I was at needs some good medical care or better doctors, it seemed like most prayers and prayer requests were directly related to peoples health.  So why not pray to our doctors instead of "God."  They seemed to actually have the answers......why not use of offering money to go towards a medical charity.  My only contribution is to inform these people and figure out why someone needs to turn to religion.

Survey

http://FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=2y28h4mnaruzjj7550102

First Impressions

My cultural site will be at a local church in my hometown.  I have been to many services there and is made up of people from all ages.  When you walk in there are people there to greet you and then hand you an Bulletin of the events that will be happening for that days service along with events that the church will be holding later on in the week.  They usually involve a men's and women's bible study, where they gather and talk about how they interpret certain readings from the Bible and how one should act and carry out the "will of God."  

When first visiting the field site I was a little bit anxious, mostly because I was having to see and speak with people that I hadn't seen in a while.  Although everyone seems to be very nice and approachable its almost like its a fake gesture.  After the initial meet and greet of the people joining the service everyone takes their seats and waits on the pastor to start the sermon.  

With me being an outsider I find it interesting that all these people gathering take what the pastor says as absolute truth, when all he is doing is sharing with everyone how he is interpreting certain passages from the bible.  Everyone is just blindly submitting to these statements and accepting them as facts.  They all have been told since they were knee high that this was the truth and if you didn't follow along you were "wrong" and essentially would end up in the firery pits of hell.  In modern terms these are scare tactics.  As an outsider it seems odd that their is a Man in the sky who has a list of principles that everyone must follow, but if you dont......you will spend all of eternity doing laps in a lake of fire.........BUT HE LOVES YOU......?  

Annotations

Perry, Marvin.  Western Civilization: A Brief History.  6th ed.  New York:  Houghton Mifflin 

Company, 2008.

-This source is actually a text book that I am using for my History 150 class.  Their are a few chapters that talk in detail about the Rise of the Christian Religion and why it was created.  It gives incite into how the spreading the the religion was done and the penalties that went along with questioning the word of God.  When people take a more in depth look at how the Christian Religion came about they see all the lies and manipulations coming with it.  It was devised to restore public order in a civilization needing just that.  The christian religion described in the book is much different than of todays.  

Till, Farrell.  "The Christian Nation Myth."  Free Thought and Rationalism Discussion Board.  

18 Feb. 2009.  

-This source speaks about how most people think that the Nation was built on "biblical principles."   Whereas our founding fathers were deist and didn't believe that "God" intervened in our lives.  More that "God" created the world and left us here to play it out.  

In Class- Cultural Shock

One of my friends is a member of a Fraternity on Ball State campus. One night when we were hanging out we decided to stop by the house and see what was going on there. It was still kinda early to be expecting anything all that fun and when we walked in I was stunned at how these individuals were acting. First off just about any frat house smells of stale beer and this was no exception. When we walked in I could hear guys screaming and being loud as hell, they must have been on the next floor but I could hear them plain as day. We went up the stairs to stop by his buddys room and it was the size of a large closet and had about 15 people jammed into this small room. They were watching a football game, drinking, and being really fucking loud. Like Im not even sure someone could understand what each person was saying, they were all just being really fucking loud and screaming at the game.

I still have a lot of research to do as far focusing in on a certain aspect of homelessness.  I have found that there is a lot of information on all areas resulting in homelessness from the military, domestic abuse, drug/alcohol problems, and many others.  I have yet to visit any field sites.  When I visited a shelter back in my hometown there weren't people inside.  They had a check in time between 7-9 pm and then the residents had to be out the next morning by 7 am.  So that ended up being a bust, but I e mailed a local shelter here in Muncie to see when a good time to stop by would be.  I explained to them what I would be doing and asked if they would be able to accommodate.  

Depending on who I interview at my field sites, I would like to focus on someone who had been in the military or someone who is facing drug and alcohol problems.  I read a statistic somewhere when I was doing research and said that 1 in 4 veterans are homeless.  I couldn't believe that, for a country that says they just love their veterans it sure doesn't look that way.   But also with this being an ethnography I need to look at homelessness as a whole.  So yes I do need to spend more time in my field sites.  

As we moved through the barns we would carefully be plotting our next move.  When you walked in you could see the sun falling through the cracks in the walls illuminating dust and grain as it fell from the ceiling. The hardest part of this operation was to make sure the pigs and horses would be quite as we snuck through stalking the birds.  

yeah this sucks 

Recalling a Sense of Place

I would wake up especially early on these days and would always be second to my Grandma who would already be up at the breakfast table with her Bible and highlighter in her hand.  My morning would start with Rice Crispies and I would always have to add sugar, by myself, so I could hear the ceral make noises.  After my glass of juice and shower, my brother and I would head outside to the barns to see what we could find.  Between my grandparents and aunt and uncle who lived across the Highway we would have four barns at our disposal.  This would be equivilent to heaven as a pre-teen boy.  

As soon as we would step outside you would be hit in the face with the smell of a typical farm, hog shit.  We would be armed each with a Red Ryder BB gun and plenty of BBs to go with.  The barns were old and some still had hogs or horses, they were also full with all sorts of tools and such.  My brother and I would also creep around the outside of the barns looking for bird nests and trying to be as sneaky as possible.  We didn't want to scare the birds.  I would shoot the first warning shot against the roof and the birds would come pouring down.  As the birds flew from side to side at the top of the barn we would take turns firing at will.  Though I never really remember getting any, but that wouldn't be the story I told.

After are rompings in the barn I can remember waiting on my grandpa to come in from the fields for lunch.  When lunch was over, if it was planting/harvesting season my grandpa woulds occasionally let us ride with him in his combine.  There was an extra seat where my brother would sit and I would be sitting on my grandpa's  lap, where I could smell the hogs from the farm and be stepping all over sun flower seed shells from his afternoon snack.  

In Class Writing- The Birth of Extreme

This could definitely be considered and ethnography or a documentary.  This piece took an inside look at how the new and free spirits of surfing was transformed into skating.  The interviews played a huge role in the arrangement and credibility of the movie.  They interviews were conducted with the founders of this revolution who knew all about insider language and places.  Each person helped move along the movie with their different takes on why and what was happening.  Most of them had come from broken homes and were looking for a way to escape home-life and had found it in skating.  Most of the early skaters thought it was rough and often didn't let people join unless they were a part of the "in" crowd.  Some of the most early artifacts were pieces of wood and clay roller skate wheels.  It became nearly impossible to find commercial boards so many had to construct their own.  

This movie was structured pretty much chronologically.  It starts off telling about the birth through Venice, and how is was a amusement attraction.  My attitudes still hold true to how I pictured skaters.  A carefree attitude that doesnt care to  much about what others think.  We can totally trust who is telling us the story because these people were there, and watched the revolution unfold in person.  If the movie maker was also one of the skaters I would look at it more skeptically.

Week 4-Posting

The only general conclusions that I can make about my Subculture is that they tend to have lil or no money and are without a home.  This has caused many to find refuge in different shelters that can take them in for the cold night.  I am sure that someone who is homeless in say Florida or California has it a little bit easier as far as the weather goes.  One would think that maybe they would have to deal with crime and other things going on besides weather.  I will need to conduct observations at different locations so I can tell if they culture changes on location or not.  

19
College Student
Caucasian Male
Middle Class
American
No Religion
Liberal
Father Police Officer


These are all positions that will cause bias opinions in my reseach so it is up to me to address these positions and make sure that they do not get in the way of

Week 3-Posting

I have yet to start my actual fieldwork.  I plan on stopping in at some shelters and soup kitchens when I am back home this weekend.  I have came up with about 10 questions that I think are going to be important to ask.  These questions can also lead to other questions and stories that may be compelling to use in my final project.

1.  How long have you been living without a home?

2. Is your family with you?

3. Do you still have contact with your extended family?

4. Where are you from?

5. Have you made any friends or people you would consider family?

6. Where are your favorite places to go to eat/wash up or just go for personal time?

7. What is the Current job outlook?

8. What do you think the government could do to help ensure that this doesn't happen to people?

9. How do you get by day to day for money?

10. Have you seen/been apart of any violence?

I am still not sure what my expectations are, I have no idea what I will be seeing or what the individuals will be sharing with me.  I haven't visited the library for any text books yet, but yes there is definitely a difference between academic research and hands on.  I think that both our of equal value, if anything the hands on or observing being more important.  

Week 2 Posting

As of now I have been thinking about doing my culture/subculture on the homeless.  When it comes to me having to do my fieldwork there are two place that I have in mind, shelters and soup kitchens.  I know that there are a few in the city where I live at back home.  I can also do some research to see if there are a few here in the Muncie area.  I have yet to visit any of these places personally so I am not quite sure of what to expect.  I am hoping to find and speak to people of all ages and find out their story if they are willing to share.  With them being in a somewhat familiar and safe place I am hoping that it makes them easier to open up and share parts of their experiences, whether it be good or bad.  With me being an such an outsider on this subculture I am totally open to learning anything and everything about the culture.  I would like to find out where things tend to turn bad and what we can do as society to help people who are less fortunate.  We tend to turn our backs on a problem that doesn't affect our day to day lives and this is one of them.  

Box 2

It usually begins very early in the morning.  Men gather to stand, talk, and size each other up for competition.  They each carry sacks in which hold many sticks at different lengths.  They repeatedly use these sticks to smack small white objects far away only to go and chase them down.  There is water, sand, and grass all throughout the layout.  When the men reach the short grass the use their shortest stick from their bag and continually smack the white object until it has disappeared into the earth.  The process is continued seventeen more times.

Box 11- Positioning Yourself

When I begin to conduct research, there are a few fixed positions that I know will come into effect.  These being that I'm a young male, I would think that most of the people that I talk to will look at me like I don't really know how "hard" life can be since I haven't seen much.  Another position that I think might play a factor in my research is my class status.  Some people may look at me and think that I may trying to make a mockery of the situation and cause them not to open up to me.  I do not have any previous experiences with the homeless other than only seeing them on the streets and maybe donating money.  I have not had a conversation with anyone that I knew was homeless so I am not quite sure what language I will need to know or pick up as of now.

Subculture- Homelessness

I intend on reading various books to help me gain a better understanding of the subculture before i jump in and start conducting interviews for my research.  My sources for research will be made up of a lot of interviews hopefully. Visiting shelters may help me find people that will be willing to participate in my understanding of there cultures.   Also I saw a video in my Sociology class last semester that talked about a different kind of homeless person that most people are not aware of, which is the "hidden homeless."  Videos may also provide good information.  

I can't really imagine what types of behaviors, patterns, rituals, and rules. etc to run into, but I think that I may run into people with maybe some sort of mental disorder.  Only from what I have gathered from previous experiences. 

Posting 1

When I start writing a paper, I usually start out by reading and re-reading what exactly I have to cover in my paper over and over.  After I come to the Point where I really understand what is being asked of me to write I usually go and some a cigarette.  I then begin to think of ways that I will be able to answer the questions being asked of me or how to set my paper up in the direction that I intend on it too.  When I make it back inside I begin to start the heading of my paper and maybe get a little mellow music playing (John Butler).

I usually don't make an actual outline.  I have some sort of vision, in my head, of how I want the paper to go.  This is how I wrote my term paper in my Senior English class.  This paper required that I did a lot of research.  It was over Scientology, and I wasn't familiar with the Religion very well so I had to do my homework on the topic.  Usually I just jump right into the paper and write.  I don't even think of the grammatical errors of where the paper will end up.  When i reach the required length of the paper, I go back and make sure that is has the proper flow and organization.