Final Photo Essay

For this essay I am trying to find out how children start out being so innocent playing nicely on the playground, to just a few years later consumed with weapons and violent video games. I decided to use my little brother (11y.o) as my subject to observe.








These are just some of the many weapons my brother owns



On the back of this video game shows violent acts of killing people.

A game of my brother "Jaws", allows him to swim around and tear people apart. I watched him play for about 20 min. Some parts showed pieces of a person floating around, such as a severed head. At one point there was so much blood from the attack the whole screen was red.


The game even includes the people screaming for their lives.
This is a body he's carrying without a head. (he bit that off earlier)







A shooting game that doesn't have as much blood but is more realistic and violent.




He frequently plays outside with his friends acting out scenes they had played in the games.



He shoots anything from beer cans to live animals that come into our backyard.



I'm not sure exactly why kids become so violent. The only assumption I could make would be the violent games and toys that kids are frequently exposed to at a young age. I've watched my brother grow up and become a boy obsessed with weapons and killing games. He's so use to the violence and blood that it does not bother him to watch it or even act it out with his friends.

Future

Should people worry about the future?..There is no way to tell what will happen in the future. Sure you can say that you wanna do something in the future and make plans but who is to say that they will actually happen. How do you know they wont change? Maybe we shouldn't make to many plans about the future because it will just make us worry and then if they dont happen just leave us disappointed. But sometimes I can't help but keep dreaming about it. I have to know what will happen and if it will all come true. Its really have to just go with the flow sometimes...

What to do?

So lets say there is someone very special in your life and you've already made many plans for the future..you love them and want all good things for them. Then they give you this news that is life changing for them and makes their dream come true. They are very excited about it and you are to..then you realize after thinking about it, this changes all the plans for the future. Those plans can no longer happen. This also takes this person away from you. You want to be happy for them but you can't stop crying because its bad news for you. You also tell this person everything that comes into your head but this time is different. You feel like you can't tell this person how you feel because it will ruin the joy of the news for them and make them sad. But you have to tell this person how you feel because its killlllling you and you can't sleep, can't stop worrying, are anxious and cry. Is this selfish to not want your future plans to change? Should you even tell them that you hate this "good" news? or keep everything to yourself?

Dreamcatcher?

so I was driving home from school today and i love to look at different ppl that are driving too..so i look over at this person in their car and i notice a dreamcatcher hanging from their rear view. Now i thought to myself "uhh..this seriously doesnt make sense. Why would they have that their?..Heaven forbid you have a bad dream when you FALL ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL!" I honestly wanna know what was going through their head when they decided a dream catcher would look sweet hanging from their rear view. Seriously you see the strangest ppl/things when you actually open ur eyes and look around....

start of photo essay..

The first two images are of a playground in Novi at an elementary school. The last two pictures are the toy guns and weapons that my little brother owns (11yr.). I have not gotten actual photos of him playing his violent video games or playing with the guns outside with his friends yet. The photo essay I'm going to try and do is going to touch on the issue of kids becoming violent, when they were once so innocent playing on the playground.

Pics around Novi

Not knowing what I was going to write about for my paper i took pics around an elementary playground and some others up at my old high school...this is one that i believe i can now use in my photo essay. My topic that I think I might stick with is going to be about how children so innocently playing can eventually be so violent and what social and cultural things effect this process. This is still an idea in progress but I think this will end up being the main theme.

Graffiti

In the graffiti article Kriegel brought up some very valid points. At the beginning I was a little confused about how the graffiti in the tunnel made him scared. Yes, it did have words of hate but it is only paint on a wall, not a violent person. On page 202 it states graffiti is a form of visual pollution. I have to disagree. I see it as a form of expression. Sometimes there can be hateful things written and that is when i see it as a roblem. Graffiti gives a city character and color. Most artists that write the grafitti do it because they have something to say or show. There can be beautiful pieces of work done by these artists and to try and cover all of it up is a shame. On age 203, it states "graffiti is an urban statement whose ulitmate end is nothing less than the destruction of urban life." I disagree with this arguement because all graffiti does not have the intention to destruct life. It is merely artwork displayed in public in a unique fashion that only relates to its genre specifically. No other art relates. Graffiti is so flowing, colorfull, vibrant and the style/font is so unique its beautiful art to me. The following pic is a good example how how graffiti is art and not violent or out to hurt anyone....

Wikipedia Info

In class one day we were discussing how Wikipedia is not a valid source of information and I was talking to my boyfriend the other day and he shared some information about that website with me. Apparently you can go on there and change anybodys information and anything that is posted on the website. This compromises any information that is posted there because how do we know that this is what the original author wrote and how do we know that it is correct. Once I learned this information from him i lost all respect for this website and would not trust the information gathered from it, nor would i ever use it in an acedemic piece of writing.

Just thought I would let everyone know that...

Just some thoughts..

Sometimes terrible terrible things happen in life that we have no control over. Some people say everything happens for a reason and all i have to say to those people "really...then what do you say to the girls who where raped??"...cuz that really happened for a reason right?...NEVER!...no person should ever have to go through that and on top of that the effect are long term and sometimes the victim is screwed up for life. They will never be the same, never feel safe again, have trust issues, never want to get close to a guy, basically live a miserable life. How do you get them to feel safe again?..maybe they'll be lucky and find a great guy that protects them, loves them as a person and not just a sex object, makes them actually feel SAFE for the FIRST time in years....but maybe not. Most victims dont do anything about the incident because most people dont realize how hard it is to prosecute a rapist and all the humiliation involved in the trial. Most victims dont tell their families because its to hard, they dont want to have to relive it over and over again, they dont want their families to know something so terrible happened to their little girl. Sometimes you wonder how God could let something so terrible happen... is He not supposed to protect you more than any human ever could and love you with all his heart?..This topic has confused me for years...no one has answers to the questions and its very frustrating topic. There is so much heartache and tears and no one can help make it any better, no matter who you try to talk to.

This is why I am going to be a therapist for rape victims..

More From FREEP

The local issues that are getting the most coverage are still the Grant case and then there was also the Comerica leaving issue. These cases are the first that I see everytime I visit the website. Its obviously continually posting stories because that is what most people would like to hear about. The thing that stands out the most to me is the Grant case because that is what i'm always hearing about. All the other stories and headlines that I see seem so unimportant. For example there is some things about a running back that is injured or a specific stories about a superintendant, this to me is all garbage. I really do not care about such specific stories and would rather hear about global issues or even just issues that without a doubt will effect every person..not just the people in that school system or the people that like this football team. All the stories that only pertain to a small group of people are a waste of time and they should be covering stories that people actually care about. They definetly use the "drama factor" to play up there useless stupid stories so people will actually want to read them...especially in the titles of the stories they will use this factor to grab a readers attention. All the stories for Oakland county are about stabbings, killing, and attacks...this is taking the "drama factor" a little to far and people are now going to only think that terrible things happen in Oakland county. I do not think that news reporters give accurate stories or a variety of stories about what is going on in each city. They only pick the "juicy" topics because they believe that's what people want to hear. Personally all of that is NOT something i want to hear and that is why i choose to not read or watch the news because it is a bunch of garbage. The newscasters are fake and pretend like they care but they really dont at all. I think some of their stories should be about the positives that are happening in our cities and how we are changing them for the better. Right now i dont know what i might want to write about...right now there are just murder or attacks and i dont know how i could write a paper on something liek that. There is a woman that comes into my work and she works for my city counsel in Novi and I'm going to ask her what they are talking/argueing about now and see if that would be a good topic.

Free Press News

after looking around the new website i noticed it was all about the murder case and they had serveral links involving the story, the story about how she was discovered and how they got the warrant because of that and then finally pictures of her. Right now this story seems to be very consuming, repetitive and i find myself wondering why its' getting so much attention considering stuff like this happens all the time. I hate watching the news because they pretend to be so emotionally attached and sympathetic but they really dont give a shit. Quite frankly most of the stories on the news, local especially involving missing cats or a run away shopping carts I do not care about at all.

Pic of the week..

this is another picture of one of the most important people in my life...the boyfriend..my little brother took this pic when we were sleeping...

Review..

the restaurant review is going pretty well so far...still working on some things and getting it into the "review" style writing instead of just a paper, which is a little difficult for me to get use too but I think it will turn out ok. I really like the restaurant i've chosen so I have a good feeling..

Detroit..

A while back we were talkin about how people don't usually come to Detroit for a vacation..well this past weekend i was spendin a lot of time in a few airports and when i was in the philly airport i was talkin to some ppl and one girl was from virginia beach and she was going to Detroit to visit her dad, have a vacation and go to the casinos.. and when she said she was vacationing there a women talking with us was shocked that she was going to Detroit for a vacation. She said "have you ever been to Detroit?!..why would you ever want to go on vacation there??" So the conversation continues and i'm thinking about how Detroit has such a bad reputation and the only thing that this woman was going for was the casinos...