Fancytoothbrush's Blog

RJ23
For this free write, I just want to clear my head of all thoughts. I have been doing a lot as far as getting information from a variety resources. I have organized and created a code for things that motivate these runners. At this point, I am just not sure how I relate them to the literary conversation. I mean, some of the things that motivate them are literature, but most of the motivations are things like other people or intangible things. This is something that feels like a huge obstacle. And I’m not sure how to get around it. It’s not like I can just start over at this point. I’m just not sure what direction I can turn this in to make something “more literary.”

RJ22
My research is going well. I have had feedback from four key people that I think will tremendously contribute to my project. I had previously planned on writing a paper on my findings because I wasn’t sure that I had enough images for a media project. Since then, I have found resources that will allow me to use some of their photographs that they have taken personally. I also think that I can simply search images that are not specifically from my research that will aid in portraying of motivation and literature that promote motivation to the cross country runners here at TAMU Commerce. I think I can provoke a lot of emotion and provide an accurate representation of my research through a media project that will include photos, text, and music. I don’t really have any questions or needs outside of myself. I just know I have to take care of some things personally and my project should be just fine. My table of contents is still the same. All my new stuff, like a beginning to my media project is on my computer. That seems to be the obstacle to my research portfolio. Half of my research information is on my hard drive and half of it in my folder. And the problem is that a lot of the stuff on my computer is stuff I can print off but some of it, like pictures and my media project would be difficult to print off. What I think I may do is create a story board to place inside my folder research portfolio that represents my media project and its contents.

RJ22
My research is going well. I have had feedback from four key people that I think will tremendously contribute to my project. I had previously planned on writing a paper on my findings because I wasn’t sure that I had enough images for a media project. Since then, I have found resources that will allow me to use some of their photographs that they have taken personally. I also think that I can simply search images that are not specifically from my research that will aid in portraying of motivation and literature that promote motivation to the cross country runners here at TAMU Commerce. I think I can provoke a lot of emotion and provide an accurate representation of my research through a media project that will include photos, text, and music. I don’t really have any questions or needs outside of myself. I just know I have to take care of some things personally and my project should be just fine. My table of contents is still the same. All my new stuff, like a beginning to my media project is on my computer. That seems to be the obstacle to my research portfolio. Half of my research information is on my hard drive and half of it in my folder. And the problem is that a lot of the stuff on my computer is stuff I can print off but some of it, like pictures and my media project would be difficult to print off. What I think I may do is create a story board to place inside my folder research portfolio that represents my media project and its contents.

RJ22
My research is going well. I have had feedback from four key people that I think will tremendously contribute to my project. I had previously planned on writing a paper on my findings because I wasn’t sure that I had enough images for a media project. Since then, I have found resources that will allow me to use some of their photographs that they have taken personally. I also think that I can simply search images that are not specifically from my research that will aid in portraying of motivation and literature that promote motivation to the cross country runners here at TAMU Commerce. I think I can provoke a lot of emotion and provide an accurate representation of my research through a media project that will include photos, text, and music. I don’t really have any questions or needs outside of myself. I just know I have to take care of some things personally and my project should be just fine. My table of contents is still the same. All my new stuff, like a beginning to my media project is on my computer. That seems to be the obstacle to my research portfolio. Half of my research information is on my hard drive and half of it in my folder. And the problem is that a lot of the stuff on my computer is stuff I can print off but some of it, like pictures and my media project would be difficult to print off. What I think I may do is create a story board to place inside my folder research portfolio that represents my media project and its contents.

RJ 21
My plan for WA4 is iffy right now. I’m not sure if I want to do a text-based WA4 or a media-based one. Either one can capture my idea in an interesting way. It’ll probably just come down to which one will produce the biggest impact and provoke the most emotion. My interview was with one of the runners on the cross country team. I had a set of questions that I started with and answers came naturally from there. I had another “interview” was actually just sending someone the questions and having them send me the answers in an email, but this did not create the same effect. The answers did not seem as genuine and was more like a job interview type response. It may be because of the way I did the “interview” or it might just be the comfort level between myself and the person that was answering the questions. These interviews will let me provoke the emotion that these runners really do have. Running is something that engulfs their whole lives and I think that revealing the motivation behind this lifestyle is important. My codes consist of different emotions, relationships, people, objects, fears, character qualities, and social influences. They help me to categorize motivation and really look at what motivates them. It’s very interesting to see the similarities between the motivation, but the differences in the background and character or personalities of the people.

RJ 20
Portfolio Table of Contents
1. In class notes (Brain storming)
a. Questions developed from class conversation
b. Notes over RJ2
c. To do list
d. My own answers to questions asked in class
e. WA3 notes
2. Fieldnotes
a. Audio in class
b. Computer programming
c. Story Slam
d. Writing Local History
3. Writing Handouts
a. WA1 Assignment
b. WA3 Assignment
c. Ethnography
d. Preparing for Research Proposal
e. Fieldnotes: A Guide for Researchers
f. FAQ
4. Assignments
a. WA1
b. WA1 Peer Review
c. WA1 Revised
d. RJ1
e. RJ2
5. In the field
a. Pictures
b. Survey
c. Questions
d. Permission Form
e. Other Questions
f. Responses
g. CC Roster
h. Fieldnotes over Workout Log

Analysis
As I look at all my information, I notice that everything in my research portfolio will be useful. The in class notes have helped me to brainstorm along the way and kept track of thoughts that enter my head and rush right out the other side. I find myself going back to these notes to see what the project started off as and see if I can get some ideas from those original ideas I had, even though the topic is not exactly the same. My fieldnotes were useful to practice for fieldnotes about my topic. The writing handouts have been useful the whole way and will be useful in creating my final project. The assignments I will be able to use as reminders of ideas and strategies and resources I have used along the way. My final project will basically be putting together all my ideas from the whole semester and this aspect of my research portfolio will give me easy access to those ideas. Not all of my assignments are printed off and in my portfolio yet, but I will be printing them all off of my blog soon and making sure they get to my portfolio so they are all in one place. And finally, everything I have done in the field will directly relate to my final project. I have not yet printed off the pictures that I have taken, but they are on both my camera and my computer. The questions and responses will give me an idea of trends that occur and bring significance to my project and research question. Everything else that is in my “field” section has made it all come together.
Basically, my research portfolio has put everything in one place where I can compare and contrast different ideas and findings that I have had throughout the semester. It is a great organizing tool that is the core of my project, sort of like the back stage of a performance.

RJ 19
I already responded to Chapter 7.
BOX 30
p.385
Some public archives that I would be able to find on cross country runners at TAMU-Commerce would most likely be records of meets.
1. My sister was in the field house at Sachse High School in Sachse, TX. This is the same high school that Robert Reed and I went to. Robert Reed still holds cross country/track records on the record board at Sachse High School that is posted in the field house.
2. The TAMU-Commerce athletics website holds information on each of the cross country runners. It includes their former high school and/or junior college. It also holds information on what they study here at Commerce as well as achievements in cross country at TAMU-Commerce.
3. I can google any of the cross country runner’s names and find articles written about them. I know for sure that there are articles on Robert Reed from his first meets in high school. I also know that Tyler Tyndell was written about online because he won some runner of the week award for a runners’ website. I’m sure there are articles on others that I just have not gotten a chance to look at.
4. If I were to go to the TAMU-Commerce school records of athletics, I would be able to find the times of all the meets that our athletes have participated in.
5. An easy way to find pictures of runners actually running and being a cross country team would be to look at their Facebook. Their Facebook may also have articles they have personally written about their feelings or questions about running.
Although these resources may be useful, they do not necessarily tell me anything specific about motivation.

RJ 18
CHAPTER 6
p. 307
Cross country runners use a language similar to that of athletes. They use terms that refer to the body or to challenges that the body go through. A lot of emotions and feelings are felt or referenced through the body. For instance, stress can be felt through body aches or tightness. It can refer to the lack of time to take care of the body properly, both emotionally and physically. Cross country runners also talk a lot about what they felt during a run, what they thought about, or what they witnessed, or even what happened to them. Often times, runners can see running as therapeutic because of the thinking and contemplating that happens when on the long-distance runs. Another bunch of terms that cross country runners use are terms referring to certain work outs or techniques or sometimes stretches. The jargon is sometimes general to athletes, but often times specific to the cross country runners of TAMU-Commerce. This jargon simply displays the knowledge of their passion. I also notice in interaction between cross country runners, there are sometimes references to the past. Kind of like an inside joke, these key words or phrases reference back to an event that they experienced together that was entertaining or powerful in some way.

BOX 25
p.314
run(s)
time trial
mile pace the average time per mile
xK in reference to the distance ran in a meet

RJ17
Analysis Memo p.106 Fieldworking
Over Story Slam!
What surprised me? I was surprised of the crowd that was there. I really thought that some of my classmates would be there. There were actually none of my classmates there. The kind of people there were middle-aged folks along with some younger foreign students.
What intrigues me? It was interesting how The Spot was set up. I had been there the Wednesday before and it looked nothing like that. Friday, there was a line of tables that went down the middle of the building leading up to a microphone. I don’t know if this set the most attention towards the person speaking at the time, but it gave an opportunity to those who were not interested in the event to be at the bar and not have to be in the middle of the action.
What disturbed me? This one woman named Mary Kay disturbed me. I first saw her as a middle-aged woman lacking a sense of style-no big deal. But, as she began to tell her story over the microphone, she became so much stranger. I saw the large gaps in her teeth, her large knit pancho, her long stringy hair down to beyond her butt. Her appearance was not the strangest thing. It was really her story telling. The story she told was extremely long. Once she felt like people stopped paying attention, or she just got into the story, she took the microphone off the stand and moved around. She would raise her voice with each repetition of a certain phrase. Not just that. She began to dance. Talk about disturbing. I was glad she didn’t approach me when she was walking around with the microphone.
CH.7 p.359
Artifacts will play a big role in my research. I want to see what these runners use over time for motivation. I anticipate that there will be some religious motivation and some personal motivation as well as some motivation put forth by the runners’ family. My artifacts will come personally from each runner, so I won’t be researching them online or anything, but I will be online for some websites that probably motivate runners.
BOX 29
ARCHIVE: Pair of running shoes
These running shoes were used during high school. They are navy and orange Nikes- the same colors as his high school team.
1. Diachronic approach: Which points in time should I select to compare this artifact? Or how about asking how they were broken in over time? When did he decide they were to not be used anymore? What made him get these shoes? How were they used(practice and meets?)?
2. Synchronic approach: High School Years-Why Nike brand? Were these colors chosen to match the school colors? Where did he buy them? How much was spent on them? Were they worn in practice and meets? What year did he buy them in? When did he stop using them? Why did he stop using them? How did they compare to other shoes on the track team?

Story Slam Expanded Fieldnotes
10/23/09
I walk into The Spot- much different crowd than the one that was there Wednesday night. Tonight the front is free of people, a few men and women sit at the bar, but the concentration of people was in the center where there was a line of tables set up leading to the microphone, where the stories were to be told. I can’t help but to feel out of place. Number one, I am under age. A bar has no use to me, and me no use to it. Number two, I came alone, dressed in bright pink, in a room with groups of people conversing and wearing mostly dark clothes. There are young people, sure, but the majority of people look like flower children that came straight out of the hippie movement. Some women had long, stringy hair, some women had short, spiky or short and wavy hair. The majority of men, the older ones, had long hair; at least shoulder length, some longer. Number three reason I feel out of place: smoke is in the air. I do not smoke, I will never smoke, and I don’t like to particularly smell like smoke. It burns my throat, it hurts my eyes, and it makes me just not want to breath. But again, that’s another part of the bar scene that I don’t have any interest in. Maybe that is telling of the people that smoke. They are mostly the older, “flower children” as I described them so maybe that;s just a habit that a lot of people picked up at that time. Or maybe it’s just people that go to a bar like to smoke. Or that smokers like to go to the bar. Or like that country song, “She Only Smokes When She Drinks.” I do not know the answer to that question, and I guess it doesn’t really matter, it’s just a thought that came to mind. One ma, of the flower child kind, had this story about him signing a paper for two years of probation; then he was found with 1/10 ounce of cocaine, which led to him having to go to prison. This is sort of a story that I did not quite expect coming into this situation, but when I saw who all was there, I could have guessed that some of these people had experienced something like that. Another interesting, but more disturbing story came from a lady named Mary Kay, also a flower child. How her story became more disturbing than cocaine, being naked in front of everyone, sexually harassing a guard, and bending over for inspection, I did not know was possible. It wasn’t really the story I guess, more of the telling of the story was strange, and somewhat repulsive. She was dressed in this pancho that looked like it came out of Ugly Betty’s wardrobe. She had long, wavy, gray hair. She also had either teeth missing or large gaps in her teeth that you would be able to stick your finger through if you wanted to. Thankfully, she did not come close enough to me for me to tell which one it was. But, as she told her story, she was very animated. She even took the mic off the stand and started to approach people as she was telling her story. The story was nothing true, I’m not even sure that it applied to the topic of “I shouldn’t have written that down,” but she sure told it and was proud of it, and got louder and louder as the story went on. By that time, most of the people at The Spot had stopped paying attention, went back to their own conversations, or simply sat and drank. I fortunately had no such distractions and sat and listed to the whole damn story. What a night.

RJ16
Fieldworking CHAPTER 5
Reading about open-ended and close-ended questions helped me notice the type of questions I ask. I thought I was asking all open-ended questions, but this is giving me second thoughts. I mean, most of my questions are open-ended, just some of them I may no longer consider to not be open-ended. I will definitely take a look at my questions and might twist the close-ended questions in a way that makes them open-ended. Also, I will do more research so I can ask better questions, and not have to ask the factual ones not pertaining to the person I’m interviewing. I don’t believe that I’ll be using tape recorders. For one, I don’t have one; two, I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable, because I might feel uncomfortable if I was being recorded. I will be very detailed with my notes though. All my notes will be dated and assigned a place of interview. I will expand my notes and keep record of them on my computer. This should keep track of them and make it easy to compile them later.