a commonplace book.

a mere kresge 1 commonplace book, written by a ucsc psychology major.

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Michael J Moore, “All of Us Inside Have Cried Out”

11/13/2020, 7:43 pm:

“Though these are only two incidents, they’re far from isolated as is to be expected in any environment where protest is forbidden. They took place in a small prison with a population of roughly 800″ (Moore).

Observations/Analysis:

a small prison of 800. Only in the United States is a facility filled with 800 people considered small. We have an issue with overcrowding facilities due to small insufficient charges for which judges and prosecutors believe prison time is a better option than outpatient rehabilitation.

reminiscent of UCSC and how the university reacts in response to its own students’ activism. We claim to be radical in our activism, but the university turns around and punishes their own students for advocating for themselves and their rights and beliefs. 2015 and early 2020 COLA strikes are the 2 incidents that immediately come to mind.

Moore states this after mentioning two separate incidents of police violence in Washington State Penitentiary, both of which were seemingly out of blue and lacking provocation. The fact that the correctional officers at WSP (a minimum, medium, maximum, and close security prison) feel so threatened by their inmates’ mere presence and the concept that these prisoners are human beings with family emergencies and can actually follow the rules without need for escalation and aggression is shocking, and something needs to be done.

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10/27: 3 Examples of Text and Multivocality

Example #1 (”Solito, Solita”):

Content Warning: abuse, parental abandonment

“The early factor that influence young Central Americans come primarily from within the family. Josué Nieves describes his great admiration for his father, his mother’s savory fish soup, and his deep emotional attachments to grandparents and cousins alike. Yet the current state of the family in Central America is precarious, unstable, battered by poverty, ill health, alcoholism, and violence. As Pedro Hernandez’s story illustrates, babies are coveted but often poorly nourished. Teenage parents who have been beaten, abused, or abandoned often lack the experience and wherewithal to support their children, perpetuating vicious cycles. They bear witness to catastrophes: Julio Zavala’s mother kicks him out of the house when he’s six; Noemi Tun grows up in a community fighting over land and water; Gabriel Méndez is sexually abused by his cousins and uncles. Fleeing an abusive boyfriend who has joined MS-13, Danelia Silva attempts to feed, clothe, house, and protect her children. For youth growing up in such conditions, the lure of El Norte, mythologized in popular media, is a compelling, promising escape” (Mayers and Freedman 7).

3 things that confuse me about multivocality:

it seems like one of those loaded words.

it feels like a difficult topic to encounter and analyze

not every work or article employs multivocality.

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Zoe Leonard, “I want a president”:

12/02/2020, 4:12 pm:

“I want a dyke [sic] for president. I want a person with aids for president and I want a fag [sic] for vice president and I want someone with no health insurance and I want someone who grew up in a place where the earth is so saturated with toxic waste that they didn’t have a choice about getting leukemia. I want a president that had an abortion at sixteen and I want a candidate who isn’t the lesser of two evils and I want a president who lost their last lover to aids. . .with no air conditioning, a president who has stood on [sic] at the clinic, at the dmv, at the welfare office and has been unemployed and laid [sic] off and sexually harrassed and gaybashed and deported”  (Leonard).

Observations:

wow, that’s a lot to unpack, but honestly it all goes toward one big meaning, so that’s ok.

while this piece was written in 1992, it remains true to this day. we still want a president who isn’t the lesser of two evils. Joe Biden is significantly better than 45, but that doesn’t say much. I have no political aspirations or knowledge above what I need to be a conscious voter and member of my political organization, and even I would be a better choice for president, if I were ever to be considered qualified. Joe Biden was still a major part of the administration that killed thousands of people (including civilian women and children) and started wars in the Middle East, and he still has a number of objectionable beliefs himself, but he intends to make efforts to get the United States out of the pandemic responsibly and use the advice of genuine medical experts.

a lot of the reason these social minorities can’t get into the hypothetical room of higher politics is because of actions and policies set forth by current and past presidents. LGBTQ+ rights were only recently established under the Obama-Biden administration.

it feels like Leonard wants a president who genuinely understands Americans. A president who went to community college because they couldn’t initially afford a 4-year university out of high school. A president whose parents don’t support them, one who is working class and had to work multiple minimum-wage jobs just to put them through school and get them to a place where they could feasibly campaign for president. (I feel like I just restated Leonard’s idea, kinda like how when we learned about Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech or about the 10 Commandments and then we wrote our own modern-day versions of them.)

I agree with Leonard 100%. I want a president who understands what it means to be in what’s considered the “bottom” of American society.

Analysis Time!

I agree with Leonard wholeheartedly. Even though Leonard wrote this in 1992, it still pertains to the present day. Deportation, abortion (especially in the political climate created by 45), health insurance, LGBTQ+ equity and rights, being low-income, and not having the privileges afforded to rich white men. People come to the United States seeking freedom, opportunity, and security, and then the United States loses track of their children when they get separated and placed into detention centers, where children and adults, now separated from their loved ones, await trial, even if they are unable to defend themselves in court. Illegal immigration consequences are significantly harsher than they were, but it is not like legal immigration is getting any easier or more possible. For some, illegal immigration tactics like climbing fences, smuggling themselves in, and more have far more of an effect on prioritizing them in the immigration process than simply waiting for their number to be called from the thousands of people waiting and prioritized in front of them. I could add to Leonard’s requests for the future president, but I do not think I could exclude any of them.

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Matthew Renda, “The Betrayal of Student Activism”

‘“In the face of very bleak futures, the economic crash of 2008, an economy that is not only limping along but doesn’t seem to really need these students,” Gould said. “we should not be surprised that these students have turned to more militant forms of protest.”‘ (Renda).

Observations (this actually turned into a full-length analysis on its own, without the need to make it into paragraph form, so this is both my observations and my analysis now):

wow, a lot of things have happened in my lifetime, and it’s been so easy to forget about them.

UCSC really doesn’t seem to care about its students. I’m not talking about the teachers and TAs, etc. I mean the admin. Looking at all of the actions taken by our admin since Blumenthal and now with Chancellor Larive and Sue Matthews targeting Carlos Cruz and Carlos alone out of the grad students facing disciplinary action, they really don’t present an energy and air of caring for their students, which is interesting when you consider how expensive it is to attend UC Santa Cruz. 

Our housing costs almost $4,000 more than our total year’s tuition.

the university claims to promote our history of radical activism, but then turns around and punishes us for that same activism.

as for the off-campus argument, the university does have a right to take disciplinary action against students if what they’re doing portrays the university in a negative light. That being said, they fail to take action against reports of assault off-campus, which is an actual FELONY. they fail to take action there for reports of a felony, but when our activism (a huge part of what sets us apart as a university and is used in official university branding) merely inconveniences people, is more of a misdemeanor crime, and doesn’t actually cause a whole lot of harm to those affected, those involved get punished by both the state judicial system and the state university system, so to put it as Lori Nixon’s attorney, Eric Nelson, put it, “. . . the students continue to face heavy penalties from two government agencies” (Renda).

The university seems to punish people for practicing what the university preaches.

reminiscent of what’s currently happening at Kaiser Permanente’s Bernard J. Tyson Medical School, where Dr. Aysha Khoury, a Black professor at the medical school, was suspended the night after an in-depth discussion with her students about racism and under/overrepresentation in medicine, poor health outcomes as a result, and bias in medicine. She’s been under investigation by Kaiser for 15 weeks as of Dec 10, and remains under investigation. While she was reinstated as a physician, Dr. Khoury did nothing wrong in her duties as an educator. She was brought onto the instructional staff to include education on medical racism and biases in healthcare into the medical school’s curriculum, and she fulfilled that added responsibility. After doing what she was supposed to do as part of her job duties, she was suspended and undergoing weeks upon weeks of investigation.

Dr. Khoury’s story is also similar to that of Carlos Cruz, a history Ph.D. student and TA at UC Santa Cruz, whose 2-year suspension was recently upheld, despite the hours of student conduct board meetings in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic that determined that Carlos’s suspension should not have been upheld. Carlos is the only grad student who was targeted by AVC Sue Matthews (who wasn’t present at the student conduct board meetings and solely disregarded the student conduct board’s findings in Carlos’s case because of a small possession of charge of marijuana 7 years prior, when Carlos was an undergraduate.

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Reyna Grande, “The Impossible Choice My Father Had to Make”

‘We should be “very careful of incentivizing behavior that puts children at risk,” she [Ivanka Trump] said. She is not alone in putting the blame on immigrants. In a June poll, 54 percent of American voters said that parents are at fault when their children are taken from them’ (Grande).

Observations/Analysis (I guess this is becoming a bit less observations and more straight into analysis after I find what I want to talk about):

first of all, Ivanka Trump comes from wealth. she has no place telling immigrant families, especially immigrant families who have no choice in the matter, that they are responsible for their family’s separation, when Ivanka Trump clings onto her family like it’s the only thing keeping her afloat. she has never had to flee her home that she can barely afford with the money she makes with hard work because of a life or death matter.

her father authorized making it significantly more impossible to legally immigrate to the United States while at the same time punishing illegal immigration far more than in years past. as Moodymann said in his 2010 performance at the Cutloose Club and is sampled saying in the beginning of Canadian recording artist Drake (Aubrey Graham)’s hit song, “Passionfruit”, “fuck that shit” (Dixon).

For many parents, the sentiments represented in that poll are unrealistic, and I’d like to take a second to put those results in context. The New York Times’ readership consists of primarily younger men who are often college-educated. 38% of the New York Times’ readers come from families who made $75,000 a year or more, making them relatively financially successful, and 31% of readers have significant basic political knowledge (Pew Research Center). In addition, when you consider that most don’t tend to answer a poll if they don’t feel too strongly about it, you can start to see how there is bias within the results quoted. That being said, while it is not representative of the American population as a whole (also note that the poll indicated American voters, not everyone who reads the New York Times is American or can vote in the United States), it has value in it 54% of the people who voted in this poll felt strongly enough about the topic to participate in this poll and vote in favor of parents being the ones to blame when they are separated from their children.

[auditionanxiety]

Peter Orner, “Excerpts of Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives”

“Undocumented immigrants have no way to tell you what they have experienced, or why, or who they are, or what they think. They are, by the very nature of their experience, invisible. Most of us pass them by-some of us might say a prayer for them, some of us wish they would return back to their countries of origin. But nobody asks them what they think. Nobody stops and simply asks” (Orner 1).

Observations/Analysis:

so then how can we make a way for undocumented immigrants to tell us their experiences? more often than not, their experiences are more valuable to us than we could have imagined. they have faced multiple threats that drew them here, only to be met with more threats from a government who despises undocumented immigrants and blames them for a lot that is wrong in the country. we claim to be a melting pot and accepting, but only to people who run the risk of death while trying to enter the country legally. their experiences in coming to the united states come with a significant amount of reflection and introspection on everyone’s part as to why we have become so averse to illegal immigration.

The DACA program was suspended for some time. I remember when that happened, and it concerned me a lot because of my friends, some of whom are undocumented themselves or have family members who are undocumented as well. Thankfully the recent ruling that DACA should be reinstated and new applications should be accepted was a turning point in a bleak time of deportation and fear of ICE. It is good that as a system, the UC has created a number of resources for undocumented students and made their universities safe spaces for undocumented students, but we still need to do more. Undocumented students still face a number of barriers to even get into a number of programs that would help them stay afloat through the school system and then further into and through colleges, and we as a society need to learn how to further accept undocumented immigrants and not base someone’s worth or freedoms or the person themselves on a matter of documentation that has become incredibly difficult to get a hold of nowadays.

it is difficult for someone to be openly undocumented in 45′s America. there is a sense of worry and panic that someone will retaliate against you using your immigration status or that someone will hold that against you, particularly so in academia, even in a “radical university” like UCSC. We can’t have openly undocumented voices and faces behind those voices unless we reduce the stigma and the stakes surrounding a lack of immigration documentation.

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11/17: Analyzing Interviewing Techniques in “Solito, Solita”

‘. . . we explained the purpose of our mission. We assured her, “We can only imagine what you’ve been through and respect your courage to tell your story. We will do our utmost to both faithfully record and edit your story and protect your safety and privacy.” We asked open-ended questions’ (Mayers and Freedman 8).

Observations/Analysis:

Mayers and Freedman are very clear about their mission around this point in the introduction. They understand the potential risks that are inherent in their oral history project, and they manage that by addressing a potential solution for those risks before interviewing anyone. They seem to care about the safety and security of their interviewees, which was especially nice.

They also asked more open-ended questions with no definite answer. This allows interviewees to speak more openly and solely about their experiences, and seems to make each answer more personalized despite the standardization of the questions to maintain similar storylines.

There’s an appreciation for each and every story that is told. The interviewees have power in their stories, and the interviewers acknowledge that and yield the space primarily to the interviewees, with small stylistic choices made to differentiate and provide context. For example, in books, the italics often signify stage directions, and the normal text is often considered the meat of the book. In “Solito, Solita”, the interviewees’ every word from their introductory page to the final page of their chapter is in normal text. They are the meat of their story, not the authors and interviewers.

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11/10: Redoing the Module 1 Project (as a “group”)

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11/5: “Shrek”, and how the movie pertains to the Kresge theme of “Power and Representation”:

First of all, I’d just like to mention that “Shrek” joined 799 other movies in being preserved by the National Film Registry for being culturally significant. That was definitely important to mention here. “Shrek” is such a ubiquitous part of our society that I can’t even talk to a person for an hour without “Shrek” coming up in some form or another. I have a friend with whom our mutual friendship is based on our combined love of the series, we watch the movie on a regular basis. “Shrek” appeals to kids and adults alike, and that has a lot to do with the pseudo-fairytale storyline and the soundtrack, but that’s not what this is supposed to be about.

“Shrek” has a LOT to do with power and representation. From Farquaad causing a housing crisis, to the idea that ogres are these superficially disgusting, heartless creatures. Starting at the beginning of the movie, with the hunt for fairytale creatures, where we meet Donkey, it is evident who has the power over the swamp. Despite the fact that these fairytale creatures have lived within the swamp for years, Lord Farquaad finds it necessary to take over more of the grasslands and forest leading up to Shrek’s swamp, and relocating the fairytale creatures to a small patch of swampland and kicking them out of their natural habitats and homes. The only reason Shrek takes initiative and goes to Farquaad to campaign for his land and to move the fairytale creatures is initially out of self-interest. Shrek is a homebody who prides himself in his scariness and his public image as a fear-inducing, disgusting ogre, and he likes his solitude. He wants to go back to being alone, hence his initial quest to get his swamp back under his ownership. But upon his arrival and subsequent victories in Duloc, he ends up being rerouted, with the promise that once he rescues and brings Princess Fiona from the dragon’s keep, he will get his swamp back. The whole reason Shrek gets rerouted is because Lord Farquaad’s desire to gain further power as Duloc’s dictator, but he believes himself to be too important to go rescue the princess himself. Even Fiona comments on this after she realizes Shrek is not a prince, but an ogre. 

It’s initially believed that Fiona reacts like this because she, like most people, thinks ogres are gross, disgusting, and vile, but as more is revealed, it is noted that she is cursed to become an ogre upon nightfall, and that when she kisses her true love, she is supposed to permanently remain as the same creature as her true love, hence her desire to fall in love with a human being, due to the internalized and widespread belief that ogres are vile, disgusting, and incapable creatures. However, over the course of the movie’s story, Fiona discovers her love for Shrek, and while she initially feels guilt and denial over her love for Shrek, with time and introspection, she realizes that it doesn’t matter, but by this point, it is too late. Shrek has brought Farquaad and his miniature army to bring Princess Fiona back to Duloc, and appears to have regressed from the internal progress he made as an ogre during his atypical hero’s journey. After a conversation with Donkey that clarifies the situation Shrek and Fiona are in, Donkey and Shrek, with the help of Dragon (who I’ll get back to in a bit), make it back to Duloc in time for Fiona and Farquaad’s wedding. Shrek objects to their marriage, stating the truth, that Farquaad solely wants to marry Fiona to become a king and gain more power, and that Farquaad doesn’t care about her like he (Shrek) does. They kiss, and Fiona takes her true love’s true form, which, as Shrek is an ogre, is her ogre form. Farquaad then becomes enraged, and continues with his plan to achieve maximum power and control over Duloc, having Shrek and Fiona taken away by guards, but Shrek whistles for Donkey and Dragon, who then take care of Farquaad and his thirst for power. From there on, the movie ends with Shrek and Fiona’s wedding, and that’s where the first movie ends: with the message that being yourself is more important and powerful than anything else.

Further on the topic of representation, and as promised, I’m going to talk about Dragon. Dragon is portrayed throughout the first half of the movie as this ferocious and merciless creature, who would rather kill you than look at you. She’s killed multiple men, and guards the tower fairly well. But once Dragon is discovered and Donkey starts talking to her, it’s clear Dragon is misunderstood. For one, it is assumed that because of her ferocious and powerful role in Fiona’s protection that she is actually male, but as Donkey mentions, “. . . [Dragon’s] a girl dragon! I mean, of course you’re a girl dragon. . . you’re just reeking of feminine beauty” (”Shrek”). Secondly, it’s assumed that Dragon prefers to kill and that Dragon does not like company, but as evidenced by how she treats Donkey, she’s just lonely. Guarding a tower with a singular princess and multiple annoying stereotypical “manly” men trying to kill you on a regular basis takes its toll, especially when there’s no one to talk to or fall in love with, and that’s probably why she seems okay with Fiona getting rescued by Shrek and Donkey. As evidenced towards the end of the first movie and the remainder of the movies, Donkey and Dragon fall in love, and at the end of second movie, it is seen that they have children. Dragon is actually incredibly sad when Donkey leaves, and so when they reunite during the climax of the movie, it plants the seed for the two to fall in love, and have Donkey see Dragon for who she really is.

I could probably write multiple theses on how outstanding “Shrek” is, but I’ll let the accomplishments the movie has attained speak for themselves. In conclusion, “Shrek” is an extraordinary movie with themes of both power and representation weaved into the fabric of the movie with ease.

[auditionanxiety]

11/3 Commonplace Book Entry (prompted):

Prompt: What effects did Election Day have on you? How did you feel about it?

Election Day was stressful. I think that’s a thought that everyone had. I couldn’t vote this year (my birthday’s next year), which made me more irate. I didn’t get a voice in what was essentially a turning point in my life. I started and ended high school within the majority of President? Trump’s reign. I spent the majority of my high school years being force fed the rhetoric he force fed everyone else and witnessed my mom completely change her beliefs to fit 45′s, no matter how outlandish and problematic it was.

I worked as a bilingual student clerk during the November 2020 General Election, and it was stressful, but amazing. I worked 4 days, and I couldn’t pick up a shift for Election Day, but I definitely would have if I could. I worked at the Asian Pacific Islander Public Affairs Association headquarters in Sacramento, and I was the center’s ASL and Telugu translators, as well as one of the Spanish translators. I worked most positions in the vote center, but my favorite was check-in. I also had the additional responsibility of wiping down all surfaces that were touched over the course of the day, and helping with the end-of-day security procedures.

All of that having been said, Election Week, as it came to be, was so incredibly frightening and frustrating. The election was so close, and because of the increased amount of mail-in ballots, it took longer for votes to be completely counted and certified. I personally swing pretty left, so every time I saw a state turn blue, it brought me a sense of relief. My family and I would not have been able to live another 4 years of anguish, especially when it’s caused by the government the people elected. To calm down, I started drinking coffee, and I never consume caffeine because of how bad it makes my anxiety. That being said, because of the tension surrounding the election, a lot of my classes were cancelled or made much simpler, which was comforting and especially nice, since I got sick immediately after my last day of working as a student clerk.

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short plenary notes, 11/17 (I wasn’t feeling well)

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notes from 10/22-11/17

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Steven Mayers and Jonathan Freedman, “Solito, Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America”

11/5/2020, 3:14 am:

“Those who seek asylum at the border are often placed in detention in la hielera, “the freezer”, where guards are known to crank up the air conditioning and toss frozen ham sandwiches to them once a day” (Mayers and Freedman 1).

Observations:

the guards seem like they’re trying to freeze them out of the country, literally and metaphorically. (“cold shoulder” = ignored, “acting cold” = acting closed off, like giving the “cold shoulder”)

frozen ham sandwiches is quite literally the bare minimum. that’s what they gave the kids at my elementary school who didn’t have enough money in their account.

why are people seeking asylum treated like this??? especially families with children? especially unaccompanied children? I understand it’s a right sight better than what legal adults have to go through to seek asylum at the border but it’s still inhumane! especially since they’re neglected in the full sense of the word, and vulnerable to abuse, and often younger children are separated from older children, which means that at least if they were together, they’d be in a better state of care, but now younger children are having to learn how to take care of even younger children and living in what’s essentially a freezer with some ham sandwiches and ignorance thrown inside of it by guards. hundreds of children are MISSING.

Analysis:

This quote is, quite honestly, sad and terrifying. The fact that children have to endure these experiences alone, without their family or older siblings (because this is a sad occurrence that happens), and the added fact that hundreds of children are missing is just disheartening. These children endure such persecution that for some, these conditions could be considered generous, and that should never be the case, but the fact that the United States proclaims itself a first-world country with pride while experiencing and allowing third-world problems to exist well within their control. We doesn’t even have the decency to treat people fleeing to the United States in pursuit of safety and security and the promise of a better life with basic human decency. We treat them like prisoners on the assumption that perhaps they are secretly potential future prisoners, just so we have justification in the unlikely scenario that they are, in fact, criminals and future prisoners, and that is something we as a country need to work toward fixing.

[auditionanxiety]

Evan Narcisse, “The Natural: The Trouble Portraying Blackness in Video Games”

10/27/2020, 2:45 am:

“My hair doesn’t really qualify as an Afro or even a baby Afro. It’s kind of a dark taper fade, with the sides grown out a bit. It’s exactly the kind of haircut that millions of black men all over the world have been wearing for centuries. Millennia, even. And yet it remains exactly the kind of detail that the science-fiction wizardry of modern-day game-making hasn’t figured out how to replicate” (Narcisse).

Observations:

just because it doesn’t fit into a box or mold, doesn’t mean that people discard it. Narcisse’s hairstyle is common, and yet the closest to his actual hair he achieves is the occasional Afro or high-top fade (Narcisse).

no, really. Narcisse states that millions of black men wear their hair that way and have been, likely for millennia (Narcisse).

thinking about Afros, where else do you see them in popular media? my first thought goes to clowns. You know, comedic relief with the red nose and the big rainbow Afro? that’s a little worrisome. Even Narcisse addresses this in his article: ‘[. . . Afros are] now understood in a comedic way, a style so outlandish that only the truly ludicrous would wear it. . . it’s telling that the equivalent for straight hair-locks that go down past the shoulders, say- isn’t a signifier of imminent hijinks. . .”. . . what’s that?! An Afro?! Boy, this Black guy must [sic] really funny! Get ready to laugh at him, players!”’ (Narcisse).

Analysis:

Just because it doesn’t fit into a box or mold, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist and that it is not ubiquitous. The hypothetical box is not the limit by any means, it’s just a guideline. Evan Narcisse’s hairstyle is worn by millions of Black men, and it’s still not accurately represented in video games, even ones that mean to depict Black characters, like NBA 2K. Maybe in the early stages of video game development that was acceptable, but with the current advancements in game design allowing for players to see minuscule details of the game and individual characters, having hairstyles that allow all people to feel represented and seen in the industry is a necessity. By not including inclusive hairstyles and skin types, especially for a person’s avatar (a reflection of themselves and who they want to be in the game), it feels as though you are telling the person that they are not enough. That the person they had to settle for is all they can and should be. That that avatar that looks nothing like them is who they should want to be. Only this specific type of person can exist in this setting, only this person can be a war hero, only this person can do all this crazy cool stuff. And that rhetoric is both exclusionary and insulting.

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oh here are my class and plenary notes from the last 2 weeks! (sorry about disappearing mid-class, A.M., physical illness wasn’t having it today :(()

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Checklist for future entries

Da Rules:

maintain a consistent format

use the same process to analyze each text, but adapt to specific genres or texts with specific audiences/intentions

start observing right away. look at the structure of the text, what text it is, the words on the paper, the language it’s in, etc.

keep adding to the observations, but maybe add a timestamp so you know when you added it

work on your analysis. make it a crown jewel, like your sociology video project conclusion projects

create a consistent motif and schedule with time.

add citations to clarify which text you’re talking about!!

keep adding to and clarifying this post.

never stop reflecting, thinking, and making connections between things

keep in mind the theme of kresge 1: academic literacy and ethos: power and representation and also the theme of writing 2: rhetoric and inquiry.

ask questions.

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Reflection on the last two entries

That felt nice to do. Writing is always nice, and quite therapeutic as well. I learned pretty quickly that I like annotating texts entirely before writing my entries, as well as getting time to thoroughly research the background or backstory of the text in question. Doing it by hand before doing it electronically allows for some kind of connection to a text that only, for me, exists when I put a physical pen (with actual ink) to an actual piece of paper and sit and write. Even if what I’m writing makes absolutely no sense, eventually it allows me to see connections I never could have seen beforehand. I also noticed that I tend to holistically analyze as I go, rather than going motif by motif, which helps me contain and work on controlling my (very wild and random) thought process. Moving forward, I hope to work on doing more research beforehand and do multiple reads before notating my initial observations and potential connections. I might get rid of choosing super long chunks of text that have no combined meaning, as well as my general disorganization these first few entries. Hopefully I can create a basic format for these entries going forward.