Frisky Dingo

2009-11-19T12:58:00.000-08:00

Some of my text boxes and citations.

2) What are the consequences for graffiti?
There are always consequences for wrong doings in american society and Graffiti is not left out. Graffiti is essentially vandalism. Most artist put the work on the side of a public or private building. Some go as far as putting it in museums. Shepard Fairey was arrested on the day of his first solo exhibition for defacing a Mass Pike building . He didn’t make it to his exhibition that night. The night of the arrest one of the partakers of the event, a graduate student told the Boston Globe "makes him even more of a hero to me," since it proves he is willing to be locked up for his art.
"Artist imitates art.(NEWSMAKERS)(Shepard Fairey )(Brief article)." Maclean's. 122. 6 (Feb 23, 2009): 10(1). Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Bristol Community College. 19 Nov. 2009 .

1) What are the origins of?
"For as long as people have been able to write on walls, they have been writing on walls." Before we had a writing language or words the cave men were depicting things on the walls of caves with paints they crafted from different forms of natural resources. Graffiti as an art form can be traced back as far as 1851, on the ruins of Pompeii. The Romans would actually write on the walls of towns and villages that they had conquered. Til this day Romans still consider the art form "Urban Art" Where as Americans don't quite share the same view. Graffiti can be traced back in America to the 1960’s on the west coast where the majority of trends begin. Back then graffiti was mostly a non-violent way to make political attacks. From the 60’s the trend grew rapidly. In the 70’s Tracy 168 blew up in the scene. From then on it has really grown around the world. No matter the reasoning behind it, people have been freely expressing themselves at a cost since the outbreak in the 60’s. (Sheri Cyprus "What are the origins of graffiti?" 28 Oct. 2009. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-origins-of-graffiti.htm (Killian Tobin 1995. http://www.graffiti.org/faq/tobin.html
Dedeyan, Nathaly "Where Did Graffiti Begin?." Where Did Graffiti Begin?. 24 Dec. 2008 EzineArticles.com. 19 Nov. 2009 .

3) Why do people do it?
As previously stated, one of the main reasons some artists use graffiti as expression is to act out politically. (See image.) Others over the years have used it in such ways as territory markers for gangs or others as acts of rebellion.
Dedeyan, Nathaly "Where Did Graffiti Begin?." Where Did Graffiti Begin?. 24 Dec. 2008 EzineArticles.com. 19 Nov. 2009 .

4) How has graffiti changed?
Graffiti as a whole has greatly changed overtime. As stated it started with the cave men as a form of communication, then the Romans used it as "turf markers", then it was the Americans who used it to lash out politically. As of now, graffiti has mostly become nothing more than a new art form. It isn't as much of an act of vandalism as it used to be. Some artists such as Shepard Fairey, Banksy, Blek le Rat and Mr. Brainwash hold shows in museums and put their art on canvas' as opposed to walls. Although they started as your normal everyday vandals, they have since takena a different route. On a different note there are organizations like GRL (Graffiti Research Lab) that take a completely different approach to the scene. These people actually have taken a technological stand point on graffiti, these people aren't your typical aerosol and roller type of crowd. They get very much more in depth. They do things like broadcast their art on the side of a building via a projector so when all is said and done they don't leave a permanent mark. (Sheri Cyprus "What are the origins of graffiti?" 28 Oct. 2009. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-origins-of-graffiti.htm (Killian Tobin 1995. http://www.graffiti.org/faq/tobin.html
Dedeyan, Nathaly "Where Did Graffiti Begin?." Where Did Graffiti Begin?. 24 Dec. 2008 EzineArticles.com. 19 Nov. 2009 . (http://graffitiresearchlab.com/?page_id=76#video)

5) Isn't graffiti vandalism?
Yes and no. Some great graffiti artists have gone from the streets to museums and from walls to canvas. Although the majority of the art is illegal. There is a research group called Graffiti Hurts that is dedicated to the awareness of all of the bad that comes from graffiti. These people believe that graffiti actually leads to more delinquent acts in neighborhoods where graffiti is present, that it leads to the morality of communities drop and people begin thinking that being delinquent is okay to do. I personally don't agree with people vandalizing other peoples of government property but that is not to say the art is not amazing.http://www.graffitihurts.org/getfacts/fastfacts.jsp

The Oil We Eat.

2009-11-18T11:11:00.000-08:00

Michael Purcell

English 11

Holly Pappas

The Oil We Eat Summary.

In the essay The Oil We Eat by Richard Manning there is a very good topic that is presented that really gets into a problem that we are all suffering from in today’s society. In this essay Richard talks about things such as the relation between Hydrocarbons and Carbohydrates, how we are misusing our resources and how we are ruining our planet by doing such.

I am one semester into my college career and already this has been a topic that has been brought up in multiple classes I am taking. Richard talks about how we are ruining our carbon footprint and how we are ruining out biomes. He talks about how people have become greedy and how wealth has taken its toll on the destruction of our ecosystems. Next to Hydrocarbons, Carbohydrates are one of the most important resources in the world today Richard gives examples of how many civilizations have actually lived off of corn, wheat and rice. These have been important pieces to the equation of longevity in different cultures since people learned to farm. There is a lot of discussion in this essay regarding energy. Manning talks about how much of it is truly lost in the inefficient agricultural industry today, how we plow away the plains to plant wheat for our bovine, when they could have actually been eating the natural grasses that were already there.

All in all, I completely 100% agree with Richard. I believe we are using our resources very irresponsibly. If we keep this up our future generations will be in tough shape in their years to come. The way food is grossly manufactured with all sorts of additives and whatnot will make our populations all very unhealthy. With the decline of nutritious natural foods there will be nothing left to do but to manufacture even more unhealthy food. Let's hope that people start capitalizing on the mistakes we have been making for hundreds of years.

Pictureeeeee!

2009-11-05T11:10:00.000-08:00

Graffiti.

Ethnography.

2009-10-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

Michael Purcell

Eng. 11 B55

Holly Pappas

The fish keeping forum experience.

I’m not really sure what people think of a forum, nevermind what they think of a fish keeping forum. This one is like any forum; it has all of the same components that make it what it is. The people on the forums are the ones who make the forum the way it is. You have a wide variety and demographic. In the next coming paragraphs I’m going to take you for a ride through the ins and outs of Monsterfishkeepers.com by explaining some of the groups of people who make what it is.

I would like to start off by introducing myself, I am crenipterus svenagalus, my username comes from a mixture of two of my favorite fish’ names. Crenicichla Sveni and Polypterus Senegalus. I mixed the two names to be unique, a lot of usernames on this site are Latin names of fish, but only one is a mixture of two. I have been an active member of Monsterfishkeepers.com since June of 2007. The website was recommended to me by a friend so I could ask questions and get answers and not bother him anymore. I guess sometime before I started using the site I bothered him frequently for his knowledge.

When I first started on the site, I was considered a n00b. A n00b is someone who typically uses awful grammar, asks dumb questions that they themselves could answer with a bit of research, and seem to get quite offended when people try to help them. The word n00b originally used in online gaming to refer to someone who was new to the game and wasn’t very good. It was later adapted to forums, blogs, instant messaging and in many other online communities. It is spelled like that as a “Secret code” so other people unfamiliar with the language couldn’t understand it. I’m not afraid to admit it, I was totally a n00b. My grammar was terrible. As far as I’m concerned, I wasn’t that bad. Some people are almost impossible to understand. You see questions like “ my fish is dieing y whats lyke wrong wit it help plz” At least my typing was legible and understandable. These people who type like this generally get offended when you ask them to clean up there grammar a bit to make it easier for everyone else to understand. It’s a whole lot easier to help someone when you can understand the question or problem. The usual response is something like this “i lyke how i tipe leaf me alone mine ur busness” They think we are out to get them or something, when in reality, we want to help. N00bs typically ask for help, and if they don’t get the answer they’re looking for in five minutes they will ask over and over and annoy everyone. For the most part all the n00b has to do is type in the question on Google, and presto! The answer they were looking for is in one of the first three links.

I’m glad to report, that I am not a n00b anymore. I have taken steps to make my posts look more educated and I now type like an adult. I would say now that I fall into a class of people who don’t really rely on anyone else unless there is no other way of getting an answer other than asking. Sometimes peoples personal experiences account for more than some of the generic information on the web. I try to do as much research by myself as possible. Why take up bandwidth if you don’t have to? There is an ample amount of information to be found; sometimes it just takes a bit of time before you come across it. Some people (n00bs) just can’t find any time in their day to look up this info. They are too busy playing Xbox or watching TV. I like being self sufficient. I also like the other people on the site that are too. Doing something for yourself and accomplishing it is so much more rewarding than being annoying and childish.

The next group of people are the Mods (Short for Moderator.). These are kind of like the Police of the website. They make sure everything is running smooth behind the scenes. They give infractions for wrong doings, clean up useless posts, and are generally the most helpful and knowledgeable. They always have great insight and inspirational posts. They truly want to help you and make you a better fish keeper so you can enjoy the hobby as much as they do. Like anyone in an authority position though, some tend to abuse their power. They are quick to jump down your throat or give infractions. Lately though, a lot of the power hungry Mods have been relieved of their duties. The other Mods have seen some of the rash judgments and had a meeting. It was decided that a few of them just weren’t cut out for the job.

Another group of people would be the post whores. These people will go in any thread and post responses such as “cool” or every ones favorite, “wow.” These people are convinced that the more posts you have the smarter you are. They say things like I have 2,000 posts, so I know what I’m talking about, if confronted about something. Most of the time that isn’t the case, the majority of post whores are also n00bs, n00bs that post a lot, instead of researching or learning. There are a number of people on the site that have high posts counts but actually contribute. Again, why take up the bandwidth with nonsense?

In any society, you have different people who account for different roles in the society. On this online forum it is no different. Some of the people contribute greatly to the community, others are as useless as a kettle made of ice or a kickstand on a submarine. Some people are self sufficient and very rarely bother people, but we all account for the community. Even if some people don’t do anything important, sometimes they’re at least good for a good laugh. These are a few of the types of people you can find on Monsterfishkeepers.com. There are more, but these are the ones that seem the most important and most common to me. I hope I made things apparent for you, like you could create an account and automatically know who was worth consulting, and who was useless.

Just a quote.

2009-10-01T15:43:00.000-07:00

"Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled a great and glorious nation. Favourite amongst his subjects was the court painter of whom he was very proud. Everybody agreed this wizzened old man pianted the greatest pictures in the whole kingdom and the king would spend hours each day gazing at them in wonder. However, one day a dirty and dishevelled stranger presented himself at the court claiming that in fact he was the greatest painter in the land. The indignant king decreed a competition would be held between the two artists, confident it would teach the vagabond an embarrassing lesson. Within a month they were both to produce a masterpiece that would out do the other. After thirty days of working feverishly day and night, both artists were ready. They placed their paintings, each hidden by a cloth, on easels in the great hall of the castle. As a large crowd gathered, the king ordered the cloth be pulled first from the court artist’s easel. Everyone gasped as before them was revealed a wonderful oil painting of a table set with a feast. At its centre was an ornate bowl full of exotic fruits glistening moistly in the dawn light. As the crowd gazed admiringly, a sparrow perched high up on the rafters of the hall swooped down and hungrily tried to snatch one of the grapes from the painted bowl only to hit the canvas and fall down dead with shock at the feet of the king. ’Aha!’ exclaimed the king. ’My artist has produced a painting so wonderful it has fooled nature herself, surely you must agree that he is the greatest painter who ever lived!’ But the vagabond said nothing and stared solemnly at his feet. ’Now, pull the blanket from your painting and let us see what you have for us,’ cried the king. But the tramp remained motionless and said nothing. Growing impatient, the king stepped forward and reached out to grab the blanket only to freeze in horror at the last moment. ’You see,’ said the tramp quietly, ’there is no blanket covering the painting. This is actually just a painting of a cloth covering a painting. And whereas your famous artist is content to fool nature, I’ve made the king of the whole country look like a clueless little twat."

-Banksy

Personal essay.

2009-09-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

Michael Purcell

Eng. 11 B55

Holly Pappas

Mickey Purcell the Monster Fish Keeper.

As I sit staring at the T.V., I see what is going on and I am absorbing it all, but only one thought really sticks out, one thought stands above them all. It is over taking my brain, it’s making me anxious and nervous and excited all at the same time. The thought is this, How can I get a specific fish all the from Japan. Doesn’t sound too hard right? The right amount of money can get you what ever you want. The thing that makes it so difficult is there are so few in the world available in the fish keeping hobby. If I had to guess how many there are, I would say more than one, but less than ten. The reason it is so hard to acquire these is because Brazil has put a fishing ban in effect recently. There is no import or export right now. What ever ones were exported before the ban are the only ones available. Unfortunatley the very few that were exported were exported to Japan. I’m sure you’re asking yourself why would you go through all that trouble to get a fish? I’ll tell you why, because I have an addiction, an obsession, a passion for keeping “Monster” fish.What makes a fish “Monster”? Well size accounts for a lot of it, but aggression and attitude makes some of the smallest fish “Monster”.

My obsession began in the summer of 2007. I was working in the fish department of a local Petstore. I had always liked fish and respected them for what they were, but that was it, nothing more than that. One week after the store had received a shipment of fish my sister and her boyfriend Vinny came by the store to say hello. My sister hung by the counter talking to me, catching up on things while Vinny disappeared into the isles of fish tanks. He looked through every tank, but he wasn’t just looking at the fish, he was more or less studying them. Noticing the movements they made, the individual colors from scale to scale. After my sister and I were done talking we went off to find Vinny. When we found him he had some questions about prices and compatibility of some fish. I helped him answer the questions to the best of my abilities. There was one question I will never forget though. It was a question that stumped me. He was looking at one of the tanks in the Cichlid section (Pronounce: Sick-lid.) that was filled with Pikes. I didn’t know why they were in that section, they didn’t look like Cichlids. All of the Cichlids had a really basic fish shape to them. These Pikes were long and slender, very sleek looking, like a torpedo. He asked me something to the effect of “What kind of Pikes are these?” to which I ignorantly replied “Ummm… Regular Pikes.” He gave me that kind of confused look, you know, the one when the person cocks their head to the side with one eyebrow raised, eyes squinted, and a half smirk. He looked back into the tank and said “Heh, they look like Crenicichla Sp. Belly Crawlers, real common in the hobby. I used to have one.” At that point I returned the look of confusion. “Huh? Creni-what?” He say anything, he continued looking from tank to tank studying the fish. His nose was almost touching the glass, he seemed happy and excited, almost at ease. I could tell he really enjoyed the fish. After Vinny was done we all said our good byes and my sister and Vinny left. I had a weird feeling though. I felt almost belittled it was my job to inform people and help them with there questions and problems, but I couldn’t answer what seemed to be an easy question. I didn’t know what kind of Pike we were selling neverming that there were different types.

I later made it a point to get in touch with my sister so I could contact Vinny. I wanted to ask him what the Pikes were called so I could look them up. When I finally contacted him he told me they were called Crenicichla. He recommended that I check a fish keeping forum and if I had any further questions to post them there. The webisite he recommended was called Monsterfishkeepers.com. It was the best thing anyone could have ever recommended for the subject at hand .

Once I got to the website I immediately utilized the search feature. I typed in the word Vinny told me the Pikes were called, Crenicichla. When I searched it pages upon pages came up with that word in the links. There was a whole forum dedicated to nothing but the Crenicichla. I began to look through the threads to try to gather up some knowledge. Upon doing this though I saw some tanks that were unreal. They looked as if you just put on a pair of goggles and submerged your head into the fish’s natural environment. It wasn’t like the artificial tanks I was used to seeing. Instead of tacky colored gravel they had natural looking sand. Instead of Dragons statues or ship wrecks made of a resin material the had elegant pieces of driftwood. They didn’t have fake looking plants that you had to dig into the gravel, instead they had all sorts of different live plants rooted into the sand or hanging on to the driftwood. I was in awe. I was intrigued to learn more about these fish because of the aquascaping alone.

After posting some questions and getting some answers, I felt as if I was capable of doing research on my own. I learned that not only was there one than one type of Pike, that there was many different families of them. All in different families cause of certain traits and variations. From the litte dwarf species Wallici who are said to be the most aggressive pound for pound to the Lugubris group who grow the largest and have the most flashy and eye catching colors, I was amazed. I was so intrigued and interested in these fish. I wanted to get some, I wanted to experience these fish. There had to be a reason so many people owned them and went through such trouble to make there tanks as natural as possible.

So my obsession began. One day at work, I took the plunge. I bought myself a 29 gallon tank and set it up in my apartment. I cycled the tank with goldfish for close to 2 months to make sure the water was suitable for a Crenicichla to live in. I waited and waited for our store to get in a shipment with some Crenicichla in it because the batch we had when Vinny came in was already sold out.

Finally, the day came, I was putting away a new shipment of fish and I saw it, a bag labled Brown Pike. I immediately rushed to it. I grabbed the bag and held it up at eye level so I could see inside the bag. These fish were identical to the last ones we had. They were Crenicihla Sp. Belly Crawlers. They were called Belly Crawlers because of the way they swim. They live in flast flowing rivers in South America so they keep close to the bottom and only move with their Belly hugging the ground. They were about four inches long and very thin. I guess the whole saler we bought them from didn’t make it a point to feed them for what ever reason. I picked the one I wanted and brought it home.

I had that Belly Crawler for close to eight months. She finally met her demise one day when the heater I had in the tank stopped working during a cold winter day. The water got far too cold for her and she ceased to live. I say she because the females have a spot on their dorsal fin. That is the fin on top of the fish. There was a spot on it’s dorsal which concluded it was a she. I had such a great respect for her though. In the eight months I had her I learned so much about her. What foods she liked, how to get her to eat foods she didn’t like, what levels to keep the water parameters at and so on. I really liked how bold and curious she was though. When I looked at her through the glass she came right to the front of the tank and returned the favor. She would sit there and stare at me. Her eyes would move in what ever direction I went. I had such a great respect for her.

From that day on I have constantly studied these fish. Learning all there is to know about them. I have kept the at least one of all of the available species. I am now obsessed. I love these creatures. So here I find myself without a tank. When I moved from my apartment back to my mothers house I couldn’t bring my tanks. I had to get rid of all of my precious specimens. It was like giving up my children. Recently I have work out a deal with a fellow fish keeping friend, Vinny. I am going to be setting up a tank at his house in the event that I can acquire a pair of Crenicichla Rosemariae. These are probably the rarest Crenicichla in the hobby, and they are by far one of the most beautiful. They are Lime green on the top half with small Red spots through the green and the bottom half is flourecent orange. It is probably going to cost me thousands of dollars to get them here if I can even find them. I would even settle for a single specimen at this point. This hobby has taken over though. It isnt a hobby anymore though, it’s a passion, a life style. Even though I don’t have any now, I still surround myself with thoughts of them. I am constantly reading about different species and always waiting for the ban in Brazil to be up. No matter what though even if I never own the Crenicichla Rosemariae, I will always be curious about them. From experiences with other Crenicichla I can only imagine what they would be like to keep. So that’s my story, I am a Monster Fish Keeper.

Ideas for my personal essay.

2009-09-21T11:17:00.000-07:00

When trying tyo select ideas for my essay I went through a few thoughts. The first of which was I wanted it to be something that meant something to me. I wanted it to be something that affected me everyday. I also wanted it to be something interesting, something that people didn't know about to try to lure people in. I thought about something touching, or something heartfelt, but those subjects are kind of played out. Ninety percent of essays I read have some mushy, touchy feely aspects that I wanted to try to steer away from to be different. I know the ninety percent comment is a bit far fectched, but I wanted it to be about something a mojority of people wouldn't know anout.