Chapter 1:
Sudhir seemed to be pretty desperate or naive to enter the building. He endangered himself and the only reason he is here today is because of luck.
Chapter 2:
As it turns out, JT is a fairly smart individual. The reason he chose this lifestyle was because how he never was rewarded or paid despite the effort he put into his work.
Chapter 3:
This chapter showed an interested side of Sudhir. Sudhir witnessed someone get beat up but didn't step in to stop them. Even though he was to be protected and left unharmed, he still didn't stop the beating. This could be because he felt he deserved it instead of being scared of a retaliation.
Chapter 4:
JT challenges Sudhir to be the gang leader for a day to give Sudhir a more first person experience into the life of a gang leader. One of Sudhirs first challenges is to settle a dispute between 2 people over money.
Chapter 5:
Sudhir gets closer to Ms. Bailey in order to study her more. She is another important person who plays an important role. She is president of the Robert Taylor buildings.
Chapter 6:
At this point a lot of people are mad at Sudhir. Some find that he inadvertently has lowered the pay of some of the workers. A lot of women also believe that he is sleeping with their daughters during the womens writing workshop.
Chapter 7:
A drive by from a rival gang ends up shooting 2 people. Sudhir realizes a lot of Police Officers are crooked and are in the drug trade. The Officers start to pressure Sudhir and give him a hard time since they believe he's an informant. Sudhir gets to attend a large meeting with the Black Kings thanks to JT.
Chapter 8:
JT gets a large promotion which will put him near the top of the gang ladder. Many people are panicking due to the scheduled demolition on the housing projects, even if they are planned to happen in a couple years. Many people will be forced to move and have nowhere to go.
Book:
All in all, the book was great. This book gives me better insight into gang life. I grew up in an entirely different setting and never had a good idea of how gang life functioned.
It is interesting to see how much the gang helped out the community. They provided a lot to the community. Another thing interesting about the gang was how structured it was. The gang was systematic. I always pictured gangs being run by maybe 1 or 2 guys and only about money. This gang seemed to worry more about land or location.
I'm amazed at how often he and the gang interacted with the law enforcement. It makes me curious if the police know only a little of the gangs activities or if they are busy with other duties. Maybe they do know but do not care.
I'm interested to see how other gangs are structured and the differences in gangs based upon location and racial backgrounds.
I'm glad Sudhir has made it out alive from his entire study. I wonder how Sudhir managed his schoolwork and met with the gang. I have trouble just going to work and school, so to see someone being able to go to school and to be part of gang is impressive. I believe Sudhir has done enough to make a valuable contribution in the world of ehnographies.
One concern with the book I have though is that it is hard to tell if everything written in the book was true. Some of the events seem a little unbelievable, especially some of his actions and reactions. Sudhir might have been raised in a different life, but he seemed way too naive in certain situations Makes me wonder if he wrote his thoughts like he did in the book just to sell his book. Regardless, it's a good book and gives good insight into the gang life.
Friday, October 19, 2012
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Ethnography Ideas
College Station Running Group: This would by far by my first choice as to which ethnography I would like to study. I love to run but have not been in a running group before. I believe the people will be kind and friendly.
Amish Community: I don't know if an Amish or Amish-like community lives nearby but this would be another interesting choice. Given the fact that everyone in our class is somehow connected with technology and used to technology, it would be interesting to study a group of people who choose not to use technology.
Weightlifting Group: This group would be another interesting choice to study. I'm not much of a weight-lifter so finding and studying a group that devotes their time to lifting weights could be an interesting experience.
Paintball Group: This one would be fun. I love to play paintball and have gone to only one of the paintball group's meeting before. I know almost nothing about them. Their lifestyle must be unique and will probably provide for an interesting group to study.
Tae Kwon Do: Tae Kwon Do was something that I did and enjoy when I was a lot younger. Unfortunately since we moved, we had to leave behind our Tae Kwon Do instructor and facility. It would be interesting to see how as adults people behave in a Tae Kwon Do group. Do they do it for exercise? For competition? For self-defense? Maybe there's some other ulterior motive for taking Tae Kwon Do.
Amish Community: I don't know if an Amish or Amish-like community lives nearby but this would be another interesting choice. Given the fact that everyone in our class is somehow connected with technology and used to technology, it would be interesting to study a group of people who choose not to use technology.
Weightlifting Group: This group would be another interesting choice to study. I'm not much of a weight-lifter so finding and studying a group that devotes their time to lifting weights could be an interesting experience.
Paintball Group: This one would be fun. I love to play paintball and have gone to only one of the paintball group's meeting before. I know almost nothing about them. Their lifestyle must be unique and will probably provide for an interesting group to study.
Tae Kwon Do: Tae Kwon Do was something that I did and enjoy when I was a lot younger. Unfortunately since we moved, we had to leave behind our Tae Kwon Do instructor and facility. It would be interesting to see how as adults people behave in a Tae Kwon Do group. Do they do it for exercise? For competition? For self-defense? Maybe there's some other ulterior motive for taking Tae Kwon Do.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Article Reading + Book Reading: #1
I found the article to be extremely difficult to read. It was long, boring, and failed to peak any interest in me.
The book on the other hand was a better read. The book was way easier to read than the article. The book also had a very interesting subject.
In the book the fact that writing and speeches can give insight into a person. This insight is invaluable to psychologists. One of the interesting things was the use of their LIWC program. The program analyzed text and would total the number of times a word was used within a given category. This could be used to see the distribution and breakdown of someone's speech, book, or article.
Something that I wondered about though was how to improve on the LIWC program by allowing it to interpret and understand sarcasm. The program would have to use context clues in order to gain a better understanding of a words meaning. I often wonder how a program can go about doing this.
The book seems to be an interesting subject while the article was dry and boring. Hopefully, Gang Leader for a Day will be a lot better.
The book on the other hand was a better read. The book was way easier to read than the article. The book also had a very interesting subject.
In the book the fact that writing and speeches can give insight into a person. This insight is invaluable to psychologists. One of the interesting things was the use of their LIWC program. The program analyzed text and would total the number of times a word was used within a given category. This could be used to see the distribution and breakdown of someone's speech, book, or article.
Something that I wondered about though was how to improve on the LIWC program by allowing it to interpret and understand sarcasm. The program would have to use context clues in order to gain a better understanding of a words meaning. I often wonder how a program can go about doing this.
The book seems to be an interesting subject while the article was dry and boring. Hopefully, Gang Leader for a Day will be a lot better.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Article Reading #2: Coming Age of Samoa
Ethnography to me seem to be about learning about a society through a long study that usually involves participation in the group. Typically they person recording the data needs to live among the others as if they belong to the society.
This seems to be a difficult task to accomplish. The person has to do what they can to learn as much about the society as possible while living with them. This can often lead to biased data. Whether biased for the society or against it.
I found these articles to be interesting. The way that Margaret Mead recorded her ethnographic data is neat. Ethnographers have to practically live with the community that they are studying. This Can take time and be a difficult transition for people to switch from one lifestyle to another. The fact that she was able to is a cool accomplishment in the field of ethnography.
The debacle with Freeman seems to be a pointless one to me. Derek Freeman challenged many of Mead's finding. He just so happen to wait several years later before actually going to the Samoa tribe. So much has changed. Most of the Samoans converted to Christianity. The women that Mead interviewed were old and changed a lot as well. With Freeman being an older man, it also probably made some of the Samoan women uncomfortable sharing secrets and tribal practices with him.
Whatever gave Freeman the confidence that he can properly challenge Mead's finding I will probably never know. The amount of time to me is what lead to Freeman's demise in his challenging of Mead's findings. The Samoan tribe has changed too much for him to gather data on the Samoan tribe and compare that data with Mead's findings. To me, it seems obvious that Freeman has no ground in refuting Mead's findings.
This seems to be a difficult task to accomplish. The person has to do what they can to learn as much about the society as possible while living with them. This can often lead to biased data. Whether biased for the society or against it.
I found these articles to be interesting. The way that Margaret Mead recorded her ethnographic data is neat. Ethnographers have to practically live with the community that they are studying. This Can take time and be a difficult transition for people to switch from one lifestyle to another. The fact that she was able to is a cool accomplishment in the field of ethnography.
The debacle with Freeman seems to be a pointless one to me. Derek Freeman challenged many of Mead's finding. He just so happen to wait several years later before actually going to the Samoa tribe. So much has changed. Most of the Samoans converted to Christianity. The women that Mead interviewed were old and changed a lot as well. With Freeman being an older man, it also probably made some of the Samoan women uncomfortable sharing secrets and tribal practices with him.
Whatever gave Freeman the confidence that he can properly challenge Mead's finding I will probably never know. The amount of time to me is what lead to Freeman's demise in his challenging of Mead's findings. The Samoan tribe has changed too much for him to gather data on the Samoan tribe and compare that data with Mead's findings. To me, it seems obvious that Freeman has no ground in refuting Mead's findings.
Monday, October 1, 2012
Book Reading #2: Emotional Design, Chapter 1
In Emotional Design by Donald Norman beautiful devices often seem to work better than less aesthetically pleasing devices. In some studies it was shown that ATMs with the same functionality but with different user interfaces; one ugly, and one better looking showed that users performed better with the prettier looking ones. This is due to the fact the beautiful interfaces tend to invoke a positive, happy emotion in the user. When users are happy or emotionally pleased they tend to work better and become more creative. The openness to creativity then can lead to unique alternatives in problem solving or using a device for example. This can sort of coincide with what makes good design in Design of Everyday Things.
In Design of Everyday Things, devices tend to be easier to use when their a user can see how some of the parts works. This is quite interesting sense in some cases, seeing how the parts work can create a very unpleasant looking device.
Lets assume a device follows all the good design principles in Design of Everyday Things but is extremely ugly to look at. It can even be the fastest of its kind but due to the emotional response that is caused for humans, it can be considered a poor design and may be difficult to use. Users will not want to use something that is ugly or if they have to, then they will rush it's use, causing errors along the way.
This means that both the principles in Design of Everyday Things and the fact that aesthetically pleasing interfaces and devices have to be taken in to account. Devices should not be designed in the extremes of either one. Instead, there needs to be a balance between the two. The problem is that there is no clear-cut formula for how much time, effort, and money should be spent on the aesthetics, and how much should be spent on the design principles in Design of Everyday Things.
Another issue with this is that not every device is the same and some may perform better or be easier to use if more time, effort, and money are spent the aesthetics or on the design principles.
The design principles in Design of Everyday Things seem to talk more about how to design things to be easy to use. To be logical and clear in understanding and use. In emotional design however, the design principles typically follow how devices can provoke an emotional response that can help the user in using a device.
In Design of Everyday Things, devices tend to be easier to use when their a user can see how some of the parts works. This is quite interesting sense in some cases, seeing how the parts work can create a very unpleasant looking device.
Lets assume a device follows all the good design principles in Design of Everyday Things but is extremely ugly to look at. It can even be the fastest of its kind but due to the emotional response that is caused for humans, it can be considered a poor design and may be difficult to use. Users will not want to use something that is ugly or if they have to, then they will rush it's use, causing errors along the way.
This means that both the principles in Design of Everyday Things and the fact that aesthetically pleasing interfaces and devices have to be taken in to account. Devices should not be designed in the extremes of either one. Instead, there needs to be a balance between the two. The problem is that there is no clear-cut formula for how much time, effort, and money should be spent on the aesthetics, and how much should be spent on the design principles in Design of Everyday Things.
Another issue with this is that not every device is the same and some may perform better or be easier to use if more time, effort, and money are spent the aesthetics or on the design principles.
The design principles in Design of Everyday Things seem to talk more about how to design things to be easy to use. To be logical and clear in understanding and use. In emotional design however, the design principles typically follow how devices can provoke an emotional response that can help the user in using a device.
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