During my Writing, Research, and Technology class today I got to watch four different students present their Twitterive project to the class.  Each student was completely different and taken in a number of different directions.

First was Alissa Francisco's project.  Her Twitterive was about how she had played softball for 15 years and quit last season.  She had grown a love for the sport but this love was turned into a heartbreak after quitting at the beginning of her Junior year season.  Her place was the loss of softball and her repretend, as of right now, was the phrase "I love this sport and my teammates way too much to give up." 

Next was David Reye's project.  His project portrayed the madness he had faced while writing a paper for last semester.  He shows the battle between normal David and madness driven David.  He described his place as being a place of insomnia.  There were several different repretends that he used including a found poem and vlogs.

Then there was Christie Johnson's project.  Her Twitterive dealt with the Outer Banks and the town called Buxton.  This is her place of the project.  Buxton is the place where her family has been visiting during the summer for the last 40 years.  Throughout the 40 years her family has grown, she portrays this growth throughout the entirety of the project through the numerous collages.  As of right now she isn't sure exactly what her repretend is.  

Finally the last of the presentation for the day was Rebecca Crawford's Twitterive.  Her assignment dealt with the excitement she had for the upcoming summer.  There are three events that are happening within the summer (her 21st birthday, 2 weddings, and a new house) and broke it down into the past, present, and future of each event.  Then there were three headings for each section (change, memories, and experiences).  The repretend that she used was the number 3.  Her place, she isn't sure if that is summer in general or the memories that she is going to create.

In my Writing, Research, and Technology class last week we got into small groups.  Within these groups we critiqued each others first draft of our Twitterive projects.  Below is a list of questions that we had to answer about our personal projects:

1)      WHO are the characters in your story?
As of right now the main character of the story is me.  Within the story there are mentions of friends from high school and family.

2)      WHAT is your story? WHAT genres/modes are you using for your story?
The story is about how as a child Disney was my dream and how once I visited it has become one of the loves of my life.  It shows my travels to Disney throughout the years.  Within my story some of my genres/modes include a once upon a time story, diary entry, narrative, found poem, recipe card, quotes, narrative, video.

3)      WHEN does your story take place?
My story starts with me as a child at the age of four and it continues to the present.

4)      WHERE is your place?
I am not quite sure where my place is at yet.  It could be Disney as a physical place or childhood and the memories that were created within it.

5)      WHY do you feel a connection/lack of connection to place?
I feel a big connection with this place.  It has sort of became a member of the family and is one of the only places that my family has traveled to on vacation.

6)      HOW do you show your audience your connection/lack of connection to place?
I show the connection by including my personal experiences and incorporating them in nontraditional ways.  Also I added a video that depicts different trips that I have been on throughout my life.

One of the major projects for my Writing, Research, and Technology class was to create a Twitterive.  What is a twitterive you may ask?  Well, it is a multimodal/multigenre writing project that is inspired by tweets that we have posted thus far in the semester. 

My twitterive place was a place where dreams come true.  A place that I dream to one day have the opportunity to work for.  A place that allows every person to act like a child at heart.  Where is my place?  Well it is Walt Disney World.  I didn't think that creating this project would be that difficult but of course I procrastinated (like usual). Writers block took the best of me for a couple of hours but once I got started it seemed like everything was spilling out onto the computer screen.  I thoroughly enjoyed creating this draft.

If you couldn't tell my repetend throughout my project was the world dream I felt as though this suited the Disney World theme.  I mean they pride themselves at being the place where dreams come true.  The whole thing started with a wish from Walt and that wish turned into a dream.

There are a couple of questions that I have about my twitterive:
1. Do the pieces seem to fit together?
2. Is there any other genres that would possibly fit into the project?
3. I think that I want to add a photo essay but where should I place it?
4. Is my repetend corny?
5. How could I improve the overall effectiveness of the twitterive?

As a class we first collaborated when creating the list of characters that would be attending the wedding.  We then collaborated when describing what these characters would do and what mode of writing they would need to create.  During class time we were given the opportunity to work with either the relative/guest group or the workers/help group.  I was placed in the workers/help group.  While being in this group we got to throw ideas off of one another and then get to work.  This is where I decided what I was going to use as the first song for the couple and I tried to find the song on YouTube to show the members of the group what song that was.  The collaboration process was harmless and helpful in creating the playlist that was needed for the "wedding day".

For my Writing, Research, and Technology class we are putting together a Multimodal Wedding Day.  As a class we compiled a list of different characters that each person could play.  We then picked numbers to decide which role everyone would play.  I was given the role of being the Wedding Day DJ.  It was my duty to come up with a wedding playlist along with the couple's first song.  A lot of research went into decided the playlist but here it is:
First Dance- Candy Shop by Dan Finnerty & The Dan Band
Father Daughter Dance- I Loved Her First by Heartland
Mother Son Dance- A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong

I Got a Feeling- Black Eyed Peas
Don't Stop the Music- Rihanna
The Way You Look Tonight- Frank Sinatra
Best of My Love- Eagles
Brown Eyed Girl- Van Morrison
Twist and Shout- The Beatles
Get Rhythm- Johnny Cash
Yea (Feat. Lil Jon & Ludacris)- Usher
Thriller- Michael Jackson 
Whenever You Remember- Carrie Underwood
The Lady in Red- Chris De Burgh
Livin' on a Prayer- Bon Jovi
3- Britney Spears
Sexy and I Know It- LMFAO
I Can't Help Falling In Love With You- Elvis Presley
Hungry Like the Wolf- Duran Duran
Sweet Home Alabama- Lynyrd Skynyrd
Cha Cha Slide- Mr. C
Country Grammar- Nelly
Bottoms Up- Trey Songz
Hey Ya- Outkast
Sweet Caroline- Neil Diamond
I'm Yours- Jason Mraz
Billie Jean- Michael Jackson
Too Fast for Love- Motley Crue
You Save Me- Kenny Chesney
Home Sweet Home - Motley Crue
Pour Some Sugar on Me- Def Leppard
Breaking the Law- Judas Priest
Girls Girls Girls - Motley Crue
Soulja Boy - Soulja Boy
God Bless the Broken Road- RAscall Flatts
All the Above- Maino
Ace of Spades- Motorhead
Sweet Child O' Mine- Guns n' roses
You Give Love a Bad Name- Bon Jovi
Low- T-Pain
Paper Planes v. Lookin' At Me (dj hero soundrack)
2 Minutes to Midnight- Iron Maiden
Summer of '69- Bryan Adams

For this post I am writing a found poem based off of words taking from 10 of my tweets.  Under the poem will be a list of the tweets with bolded words that I have used to create the poem. Enjoy :)

Dreaming About Disney

Laying in my comfy bed,
Epcot at 4 am,
dreaming about,
little kids watching wishes at Magic Kingdom,
looking down main street towards the castle,
the Florida sunshine,
Disney World.


Tweets Used:

1. Wish I was looking down mainstreet towards the castle instead of seeing snow and being freezing.
   
2. A dream is a wish your heart makes.
   
3. I know its winter and its supposed to snow but the sunshine and Florida sounds so much better
   
4. Love laying in my comfy bed after a day of work and homework
   
5. Little kids using the middle finger because they thing it is cool #notokay
   
6. Wishes at Magic Kingdom is my favorite<3
   
7. Hello Disney World
   
8. Hello Epcot at 4 am
   
9. Watching movies is the perfect way to spend today
   
10. Confused about why my sister is obsessed with toddlers and tiaras #shestwelve
    

This post is going to consist of two 250-word micro fiction pieces.  In the first piece I am using the line "Leaning on his chipped chevy station wagon" from Gloria Anzaldua and a tweet from my twitter that states "Hey white liar the truth comes out a little at a time" by Miranda Lambert.  In the second piece I am using two tweets from my twitter. The first one is "I miss playing the sport that I grew up loving" and the second one was "can't wait for baseball and softball season to get here".

The Liar That Got Away   

Leaning on his chipped Chevy station wagon dressed in old jeans and a beat up sweatshirt is the man who has broken my heart.  He has on those raggedy old work boots and a hat on backwards.  He tries to small talk about the weather and how life is.  Trying to gain my sympathy he starts complaining about how his life as gone down hill since he has left. I could care less about the words coming out of his mouth and more about how I could be spending this useless time.  He was nothing but unwanted drama and a headache when he was mine.  He played mind games like it was his job.  But somehow I am falling back into his trap.  Realizing how much his life has actually gone down hill. He actually makes me feel empathetic towards him but then I remember everything that he put me through.  The tears, the heartbreak, the cheating, and the struggle to find myself again just to name a few.  I have gotten to a place in my life where I am happy, doing well in school, and found some great friends.  I have dealt with the healing of finding out you were cheated on, from someone besides him.  As he goes on I cut him out and say “Hey white liar the truth comes out a little at a time” and turn back to the house leaving him speechless and staring as I walk away just as he did to me.

Life Without Softball 

Maria is a beautiful young woman, very career oriented, and focused on her studies.  She enjoys the little things in life and spending time with her family, who has had her back throughout all of her struggles she has faced thus far in her life.  High school consisted of field hockey in the fall, basketball in the winter, and softball in the spring. Every year she can’t wait for baseball and softball season to get here.  That was until the horrible accident.

It was a snowy winter night; Maria and her friends were out doing what they did on a typical weekend, when her world was turned upside down.  The car spun out of control and the dreams of becoming a professional softball player disappeared in the grey sky.  The accident left her partially paralyzed, with a shattered dream and a broken spirit.  As she woke in the hospital the realization of being able to continue playing softball was out of question crossed her mind.  She fell into a deep depression but realized that life has its way of working itself out.  While talking to her mother one day she stated, “I miss playing the sport I grew up loving but I am thankful for being a live.  Thankful I am still here to spend time with my amazing family.  Thankful for being able to still see my friends on a daily basis.  God picked this to happen to me because he knew that I could deal with it.”  Her mother sat there smiling at her brave daughter.

It took me a long time to figure out a place that I was unfamiliar with and uncomfortable with visiting.  Then it hit me over the weekend that my sister had a basketball game at a place I had never visited before and that was it.  I knew that I would get some good observations at the location where the game was at.  I expected an uneasy, high energy place in a rough part of town.  Tonight we pulled up to Salem City Middle School for my sisters game and all of my expectations were met.  If anyone doesn't know Salem is like the Camden of Salem County.  There are the "nice" areas and the "bad" areas of town.  Don't get me wrong we weren't in harms way at any point throughout the game.  Below are my observations about the building and the experience that I had.  

On Saturday I visited a familiar place and tweeted my observations that I made during the experience.  These tweets included:

Pull up and there three cars parked outside #twitterive #familiarplace
Customer walks in before store is open #twitterive #familiarplace
The fresh aroma of chocolate in the cold air #twitterive #familiarplace
Five pieces of dropped candy within the first ten minutes of being there #twitterive #familiarplace
Twenty boxes of candy checked in #twitterive #familiarplace
Customer gets angry when I ask to see their id #twitterive#familiarplace
Three balloons, two red and one pink, out front with a sign that reads "place your valentines candy orders today" #twitterive#familiarplace
The air conditioner is blowing within the building leaving behind a bone chilling coldness #twitterive#familiarplace
Five minutes until I can leave and a sense of excitement comes until I realize it is raining and cold outside#twitterive #familiarplace
The day ends with at least forty "Hi! How are you today?" asked to each person who walks in the door#familiarplace #twitterive
Where is this #familiarplace? Good ole hallmark, my second home. #twitterivehttp://yfrog.com/odlirzaj

The familiar place that I chose for this assignment was where I work, Hallmark.  All of these observations were made during my 9:30 am- 4 pm shift over the last weekend.  I have worked there for four years and it has become my second home.  I used to dread going into work and spending countless hours with ungrateful, rude customers.  Like Berry in The Art of the Common Place because he took a place and changed his relationship with it.  I tried to get away from Hallmark because I thought I was getting to a place in my life where I wanted change, I was wrong.  I worked at another job for two months before committing myself to Hallmark again.  I realized that life isn't sweeter on the other side.

Where is my twitterive going to take place?  Is it going to be a physical place? Is it going to be a mental place? I was completely unsure of the answers of all of these questions until we discussed possible topics in class today.  Then it hit me, Disney World.  Disney has been a part of my family since I was four years old.  It doesn't matter what is going on at home as soon as I see the castle all of those stresses are gone and happiness fills my body.  It is a place where my family has vacationed for years.  So it seems like a place that fits.  What direction am I going to go with this?  I have absolutely no idea.  I am not sure how to use this my memories of this place to create the perfect twitterive.  I just know that this is the first place that came to mind.  Hopefully everything will come together smoothly for this project, fingers crossed.