I am writing this blog as a response to the article's "The Omnivore's Dilemma," by Pollan and "The Pleasures of Eating," by Berry. For the blog I was asked whether or not the articles have impacted how I eat.

            I love food, all food, but food causes me a great deal of anxiety. I am always worried about how many calories I am consuming, or if the food is all natural. I worry if I am feeding my family the healthiest choices. I want to make sure I am teaching my children to make healthy choices. In today's society, it seems like all food is unhealthy. One week organic is in and the only way to go, and then the next week they say organic could cause health problems. In Pollan's artice, he claims that "deciding what you eat will stir anxiety." I couldn't agree more with this statement. When I go to the grocery store to pick out weekly dinners stress overwhelms me. 
          Pollan stated in his artice that Italy and France are healthier and slimmer then our country. He says "they choose their meals based on pleasure and tradition." I wish I could do this. Growing up, my parents always made homemade dinners every night. We never worried about low fat or organic. We ate meals like homemade spaghetti and meatballs, chicken cutlets, roast, etc. We had fabulous meals, and guess what? We were all thin and none of us have any health issues to date. This makes me wonder if other countries are on to something? I make all homemade meals for my family as well, but I am always adding margarine instead of butter, or organic eggs, and low fat milk. I hardly add any salt, and try my hardest to cut down on fats. We very rarely have fast food if ever. We will take the kids once every so many months as a special treat, but we avoid it as much as possible. 
         Both articles touched on the struggles that farmers are facing today. I feel bad for farmers, but at the same time I am ignorant to most of the struggles they are facing. I am what Berry would describe as an Industrial eater. In Berry's article he defined "the industrial eater as one who does know that eating is an agricultural act, who no longer knows or imagines the connections between eating and the land, and who is therefore necessarily passive and uncritical - in short - a victim." I do make some connections between eating and the land, I try to be aware of what is organic and whats not, but I am not overly aware. I go into the grocery store and I buy what's there. I am not worried about where it came from, the transportation costs, etc. It's either a healthy food or it's not. Berry mentioned that a great way to become a better eater is to "learn what is involved in the best farming in gardening." That just seems like adding more stress and anxiety into choosing what to eat. 
     The articles have not impacted the way I eat in any way. If anything, they have only caused more anxiety about food choices.  However, I may be more aware now about where my produce is coming from but I am not going overly crazy about it. I think I will just follow the French and Italians and eat based on pleasures and traditions! :0) 
          

This blog is all about an application called Yodio. I wrote this blog so you can become familiar with this application. This may be an application that you find useful while creating your twitterive. 

   Yodio is an application that can be used to create photos or videos with your own personal narration. If you would like to see an example of what Yodio is you can visit my twitterive and click on the NICU page. This page includes a picture I downloaded to Yodio of my daughter. If you hit play you can hear myself singing the lullaby I sang to my daughter in the NICU. This application is great if you want to add your own personal narration to a photo or video.

  To create your own personal Yodio, please visit the site www.yodio.com.  Once you get to the page you must first create an account. Once you create your account Yodio will send you a confirmation email. Be sure to follow the directions in the email so that you can activate your account. Then you will have to register your phone number so that you can create your voice overs. Once your account is activated you are able to create your first project!

   First click on the tab that says "Create Yodio." Then you will have to click on the link that says "Create a standard blank Yodio and go to production system."

  The first thing that pops up is the how-to guide pictured above. It shows you exactly how to use the application. Be sure that you call the phone number first to create your recording. The phone number to call is 1-877-699-6346. It takes approximately 5 minutes for your recording to be posted to your account. Once you have your recording uploaded your can upload your photos. To create the yodio click and drag your image  to the right box that states: "Drop Image Here." Then do the same for the voice over. Once you have that done click Preview on the top to see what your Yodio will look like. If you like it, you can hit publish. The publish page will appear and you can choose whether you want your Yodio to be Private or Public. You can make your Yodio private and still publish it to your twitterive.

In order to publish your Yodio to your twitterive copy and paste the first web link on yodio. Drop the HTML element onto your twitterive and copy and paste the code! 

Congrats! You have successfully added a Yodio to your twitterive.

This blog post is about all the revisions I have made to my Twitterive project thus far.  

   In all honestly, I am constantly revising my twitterive. I started my twitterive in a notebook where I wrote down all my different ideas for the project. Then I took those ideas and slowly started creating the project. I have been adding and deleting different material for weeks now. The hardest part of the project for me is finding different genres to include in the twitterive. Today I have been revising the entire project. I added more quotes, a voice over, and a love letter and prayer to my daughter. I am hoping to have the entire twitterive published on my site by the end of the day. I am sure I will continue to revise the twitterive even more so before presenting in class tomorrow night. 
   After last weeks twitterive workshop I got a lot of good feedback and some good ideas about genres to add to my twitterive. I feel like my twitterive is really coming along nicely but I know that I will be making revisions up until the end of the semester. 

1.) Who are the character's in your story?

         The character's in my story are myself, my husband, my daughter and my two sons. Grandparents, Aunts, and Uncles are also included in my story.

2.) What is your story? What genres/modes are you using for your story?

      My story is all about the birth of my daughter. My daughter arrived two months early. I wanted to share our journey together. The modes/genres I will be using include my journal enteries, quotes, poetry, found poetry, lullabies, photographs, video's, a voice over, a love letter to my daughter, and a prayer. 

3.) When does your story take place?

      My story takes place in January/February 2010

4.) Where is your place?
 
      My place is the NICU.

5.) Why do you feel a connection to your place?

   I feel a very strong connection to my place because it is the place that my daughter spent the first month of her life. There were a lot of up's and down's in this place but in the end it is the place that saved my daughter's life.

6.) How do you show your audience your connection to place?

     I show the audience my connection to place by the emmotion in my twitterive. I include pictures, poetry, a video of the lullabies I sang to my daughter. 

     In this blog post I would like to share my twitterive writing process with you. I must admit that writing my twitterive has been very difficult. The hardest part of the twitterive assignment so far was coming up with an idea for the project. I had so many ideas to write about, but everytime I tried writing about a topic I found myself stumped. It was very frustrating. First, I was going to write about my childhood, but I couldn't chose just one theme. Then I was going to write about training for the Broad Street Run. Then I realized that the actual marathon will take place after the twitterive assignment is due, and I found everything I was writing about my training was boring and repetitive. 
     It wasn't until one of our classes on a Tuesday night that I came up with my topic. We were discussing our twitterive's and I heard a lot of people sharing personal stories as their twitterive's. That's when my idea clicked in my head, I would write about my daughter's birth.  I was going through different scenarios for my topic over and over in my head. In fact, I couldn't wait to go home and get to work on my topic. 
     Unfortunately, the writing didn't come to me as easy as I thought it would. During my daughter's NICU stay I kept a journal, it was my outlet for the roller coaster of emotions I was experiencing. The first thing I did was pull out the journal and read it from beginning to end. I never realized how difficult it would be for me to read, it brought back a lot of bad emotions and I couldn't write anything that first night. The next day, I read the journal again, taking notes of key ideas I wanted to include in my twitterive. I also highlighted some thoughts for tweets. I knew then that I wanted to share this experience as my twitterive.
     My biggest challenge with my twitterive  is where to go with my story. I want readers to feel like they are going through the experience with me. I want the readers to understand the rollercoaster of emotions I was experiencing during this time in my life. My biggest challenge now is figuring out a way to accomplish this without being corny or vague. 

     This blog post is all about my Twitterive assignment for my writing, research and technology class. Twitterive is an assignment about tweets I have shared on Twitter. I decided to write my twitterive on the birth of my youngest child, my daughter. My daughter was born almost two months early and spent the first month of her life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. This was the most difficult time of my life. I truly believe there is nothing harder in life then watching your child struggle, or in pain. During this month, I kept a journal, it was the best way I knew how to deal with my feelings. I decided to share my thoughts (from my journal) during this time in my tweets. I hope you enjoy my twitterive and maybe it could give you some insight into the life of a NICU mom.

     TWITTERIVE PROLOGUE: My inspiration for this project is my daughter. She is the strongest person I know, and she is my little miracle. My daughter was born at 32 weeks gestation (approximately 2 months early) and struggled every day to get bigger and stronger. I wanted to share my feelings during our long 4 week and 1 day stay in the NICU. Below are the tweets that I have shared with everyone on Twitter so far about the experience: 

"We celebrated each little burp and every wee sneeze." #twitterive #wrt1c
A mere three pounds and you were stronger then me. #twitterive #wrt1c
You are my miracle. #twitterive #wrt1cI
I can still hear the sound of the alarms in my dreams. #twitterive#wrt1c
My heart ached for four long weeks and one day. #twitterive

     My twitterive setting will be the NICU. I want readers to feel like they are going through the experience with me. I will post pictures and give readers a sense of the roller coaster range of emotions a parent experiences when their newborn is in the NICU. My theme will also be based on the emotions parents experience: joy, fear, elation, sadness, hope. My repetend will be on the size of my daughter. Through the ups and downs I will return to the fact that even though my daughter appeared tiny and fragile, in fact she was the opposite, she was strong, a fighter. 

          










          Baby so small, eyes so BIG
It happened so fast, the fear was consuming
          Baby so small, eyes so BIG
Born too early, each breathe was a struggle
          Baby so small, eyes so BIG
Wires and Tubes, all bigger then you
          Baby so small, eyes so BIG
Even on your toughest days I could still see your beautiful spirit
          Baby so small, eyes so BIG
Only three pounds, so precious and fragile
          Baby so small, eyes so BIG
You were so brave and strong, I wish I could say the same
          Baby so small, eyes so BIG
Our hearts ached for four long weeks and one day
          Baby so small, eyes so BIG
We all prayed for your survival, we already loved you so much
          Baby so small, eyes so BIG
Each day you did better, you were eager to please
          Baby so small, eyes so BIG
We celebrated each little burp and every wee sneeze
          Baby so small, eyes so BIG
Then the day came, it was time to go home, even the doctors and nurses rejoiced!
          Baby so smalll, eyes so BIG
Your are our miracle, a special gift from God.
                                   ~Baby so small, eyes so big.


Tweets:
"We celebrated each little burp and every wee sneeze." #twitterive#wrt1
A mere three pounds and you were stronger then me. #twitterive#wrt1c
You are my miracle. #twitterive #wrt1c
I can still hear the sound of the alarms in my dreams. #twitterive#wrt1cMy heart ached for four long weeks and one day. #twitterive

        The doorbell rang at two o’clock in the morning and Tessa knew instantly that her biggest fear had come true. She didn’t want to answer the door but ran in fear that the sound would wake her sleeping children. The fear that consumed her as she approached the door was unbearable, she knew who it was. After all, who else would be at the door at such an hour?

            “There’s been a terrible accident. I’m very sorry, but he did not survive. I know it may not help, but he’s a hero.” The words were resonating in her head. She wanted to wake up from this nightmare. How could this be happening? He promised her this would never happen. He promised he would never leave us. He swore that his profession was a safe one. Tessa knew better, she feared the worst and the worst has happened.

            Tessa walked away from the door in a fog. The officers followed her in the house and offered to stay with her until family arrived. Tessa ignored them and walked to her children’s room. She looked in on her sleeping children and wept for their innocence. They looked so peaceful and happy. She watched them sleep for the rest of the night and let them enjoy their last few hours of normalcy. How was Tessa supposed to tell her children that their father was killed? How could she explain that a selfish person took his life?

            Tessa wept for the life her family lost, she knew life would never be the same. Her husband sacrificed his life in the line of duty to save the lives of four young children. Life is not fair, there are horrible people in this world, but Tessa prayed that her family would find peace someday in the fact that her husband is a hero. 

    I had a difficult time deciding where my native place should be. First I thought it should be where I was raised. I was raised only ten minutes from where I currently live, and I lived there my entire life. Then I decided my native place should be where I am raising my own family. Although my childhood home holds many memories, I feel a stronger connection to my current home because I have been here for eight years and my three children are being raised there.
    My native place is always loud. There is never silence, in fact giggling, laughing, or crying can always be heard echoing in the halls. My native place is full of life and youth. There are toys everywhere and the laundry room is overwhelmed with tiny clothes. I am always cleaning in my native place, although it never appears to be cleaned. 
     My native place can be very overwhelming at times. With three young children, a large dog, and husband running around it's a wonder how I am ever able to get anything done. At times, there is nowhere else I would rather be, and other times, it's the last place I want to be. My native place is my safe place.
     Berry explains in the "Native Hill" that there is no other place like your native place. It has a sense of history. I couldn't agree more because the memories and history in my native place thus far are irreplaceable. I wonder what the future holds for my native place and I wonder if my children will feel a comfort in this native place.