My Final Blog Post

So the title pretty much says it all.

Due to the overall insane pace of this semester, I have decided that this would be my very last blog post. I'm willing to bet big money that the only person who will read this will likely be Harriette, which is fine.

I have decided to incorporate some Frida Kahlo into both my paper and my presentation. Three reasons why I have elected to do this (albeit quasi-last minute): 1) Frida Kahlo's bizarre sexual relationships in real life and their influence in her art are some of the reasons I even decided to do this project, 2) I figured some of Kahlo's blending of indigenous heritage with modern Mexican art would be a good transition in the presentation, and 3) I just purchased a super-sweet book on Kahlo from the discount section of Barnes and Noble.

I have enjoyed everyone's presentations and some of the projects have been incredibly fascinating. I wish everyone luck in their future endeavors!

Dilemmas and project

I really despise the fact that appalnet is not working right now. There were several people I wanted to either contact or hear from (including some for this project). Other than that, I am coming right along with this paper. I don't have too many more pages left, but I am also in the process of going over some minor blunders and strengthening the conclusions at the end of each of the chapters.

Time is running out, but I have an idea as far as how I am going to be demonstrating my thesis to the class and whoever else is coming on the 20th. Since art, literature, and film all play a big part in my project, I am going to involve all of them, but small selections demonstrating some of the themes that were discussed in one of my books. I definately want to feature Kiss of the Spider Woman, which is not only an Oscar winner (Best Actor), but it ties in with the theme perfectly.

New Additions to my project

As I have gone over material that I have put together for my paper, I noticed that I have left out a piece of work that I discovered in another one of my classes that inspired me to do the project in the first place. The book is True Tales of Another Mexico. It is a really good book, very fascinating and there were some poignant points about vestidas in there.

I have not heard back from Summer or any of the other SAGA people, but I am planning to announce the date of my speech, which is going to be 9:45 on 11/20.

In the meantime, I have found some interesting art books (relevant to my topic) in the library of my brother's school.
I also want to get into contact with Jessica Burke in the art department. I definately think that she will have some cool things to show me.

Little by little, I am moving on.

SAGA meeting and what I have been working on so far

Thursday night I met with the SAGA group at 8 p.m. in I.G. Greer. I did not have time to stay due to the fact I commute and did not want to get back to my hometown after midnight. I thought that my announcement was very clear and concise. I even had contact information for those that were interested in helping me. I told them that they were all invited to attend my speech.

In the meantime, I am working on bits and pieces of my thesis. So far I think that I am going to divide it up like this:

1) Cover sheet
2) Introduction to my thesis topic
3) Chapter 1: History of Homophobia in the 'old' world and the 'new'
4) Chapter 2: Poltical progress and special interest topics through literature
5) Chapter 3: Representing homosexuals and transgenders in film
6) [possible] Interviews with SAGA members or others who would add 'color' to my project
7) Bibiography

This is subject to change, but this is what I have to go by as of late.

Presentation comments

I wanted to say to everyone that I sincerely hope that I did not hurt any one's feelings with any of the comment cards. Anything negative was purely meant as a constructive criticism and not a mean, nasty comment. There were a few speakers that I did not want to put anything negative down, and everyone did well overall, but I wanted to be fair, so everyone had a positive and negative.

When I took a speech class, the main things my professor looked for were:
1) Volume
2) Delivery speed
3) Eye contact
4) Hand gestures
5) Anything special (i.e. humor)

So this is what I based my comments on as far as what I had to go through.

Maybe this is an asinine post, but I want everyone in this course to graduate and succeed immensely.

Finishing notes, timing myself

As of 10/14/07, I have finished transcribing my notes from the stickies to my paper. Now, in order to see them more clearly I am going to print them out. It has been fairly time-consuming, but enjoyable at the same time.

I have completed what I am going to present tomorrow, and have timed myself. I should be an ol' pro at giving speeches, and I am a lot more comfortable now than say, oh a high school freshman. My big problem would be going on too long, but as this has to be five minutes, I am obviously going to have to truncate and remove unnecessary information.

Bibliography

As of late, I have just updated my bibliography.

I am now in the process of reading my book on Latin American Masses and Minorities, which was available on Interlibrary loan.