Maybe Funny Story

I have had many funny experiences in my life, but it seems to me that most of them are kind of you had to be there things. For example, last weekend I went with my dad and my sister down to Galveston to visit my grandmother. We went to Pleasure Pier because in the fall there's practically no one there. There's this one ride called the Iron Shark that my sister and I wanted to ride, so we dragged my dad and grandmother with us. The moment the safety bar went down, my grandmother started saying "Oh dear god, why?" The whole time we were on the ride she was screaming things like "This was a mistake!" and "What idiot built this!" The rest of us thought it was the funniest thing ever and laughed for like ten minutes, but it doesn't seem nearly as funny as it does if you were there. They took a picture of us on the ride and I think it makes it even more funny. My sister and I are laughing hysterically and my dad is screaming and my grandmother has her mouth open and appears to be shouting things.

5 interview Questions Journal

1. What was it like to move to Houston?
2. How and why did become interested in opening a chocolate shop?
3. Do you think that being an artist has effected the way you run the Chocolate Bar?
4. What was it like growing up in ____?
5. How was the community effected your business?

I think that all of these questions are really important because they should let Mr. Johnson talk about his personal experiences growing up and then moving to Houston, and then why and how the things around him have affected his business. I think the growing up question is important because how we grew up effects how we are as adults and effects everything we do for the rest of our lives. The other questions ask Mr. Johnson about how who he his and his surrounding have effected his business, which I think is the main idea of the interview.

This American Life Journal

I chose to read and listen to the Valentine's Day 2013 This American Life. I noticed that the questions that the interviewer asked that worked the best were open-ended questions. And they were questions that the interviewee was interested in, which meant that the interviewer, Ira Glass, did a lot of research on his subjects before interviewing them. In the first interview, he starts out by having David Kestenbaum, the interviewee, do math to figure out the likelyhood of him finding a girlfriend in Boston where he lives. I think this was a really smart thing to do. It got him more comfortable with Mr. Glass because they were doing math, which as a physicist, he has to enjoy somewhat, and they were doing math to figure out what the likelihood of him finding a girlfriend in Boston was. He was obviously interested in finding out the answer because the whole series of interviews were about love and relationships and he wouldn't of done the interview if he hadn't wanted to. The questions he asked were really just to move the subject along or to get them on track. Most of them seemed eager to talk, so he really just had to prod them with a "what happened?" or ask them to clarify something every once in a while. In general, I think that love and relationships are a topic that mostly people can talk a lot about without ever really going into specifics. Mr. Glass asked just the right questions to get her interviewees to tell their personal stories.

Journal #2 10/15

I would say that my spine would be responsibility. I always feel like I am responsible for everything and everyone around. I think this comes from when I was very little and had to take care of my little sister. I potty trained by sister when I was 5 because my dad was working and my mom went back to school. When my parents got divorced, I would sometimes make dinner for my sister and then my mom would put her to sleep. With my new siblings, I definitely have a lot of responsibility when it comes to taking care of them. Even with my friends, I feel like I'm responsible for me. I think that it makes me see the risks in situations more than other people, especially people my age.

Journal Entry 10/10

I thought that Debbie Harwell was really interesting to listen to. As someone who's family has lived in Houston for several generations, a lot of the things she mentioned were things that my grandmother and my great-grandmother have told me about before. I thought it was really cool how proud she was of Houston history and how invested she was in learning more about it. She was so excited about the Astrodome it made me really excited about it too. I hadn't known that it was the first dome stadium in the country before listening to her speak. The main reason I found her so interesting was that she was so passionate about Houston history. She also explained the streetcars in Houston in a way that made more sense to me. I didn't really understand why the first streetcar didn't work until she showed us the map of Houston at the time and how far away McKinney was from the actual center of trade and business. The main thing I learned from Ms. Harwell was to be interested in what you are doing so you can enjoy it.

RAWRRR

I AM A DINOSAUR HERE ME RAWR