I saw this cartoon and just thought it was SO perfect for this blog! It emphasizes the point that we really need to be living a "speculative life" because some media sources are just so bounded to their tablet of virtues that they only present their point of view.

Rob watching the Red Wings game. I snapped this photo right after the Wings scored. While he was watching the game he was also surfing the internet and playing a game on his ipod.

I thought this was so awesome. On Thursday, President Haas held virtual office hours. Anyone could log on and ask him any question they wanted. I didn't ask anything, but I watched the live stream. Sometimes I am anti-technology, but I think this is a great way to allow the president to really interact with the students and staff. I even wonder if this kind of thing could be used with government figures.

I was eating my chocolate that I had gotten for Valentine's day and I realized that there was a love poem written on the inside of the wrapper. I thought it was such a cute idea! But then it got me thinking about poetry and how it has pretty much disappeared in recent years. The only poems that most people in this generation know are Dr. Seuss and Shell Silverstein. I'm curious what will come of classic poetry in the future.

Again, sorry about the poor quality of the picture. I took this photo because I was on the bus one morning and there was literally no one sitting next to each other. I think this really says a lot about our individualistic culture. If there is totally an open seat, people are going to take that over sitting next to a stranger.

I mentor a 10 year old girl and over the weekend we went to an art event about the "self." We created self portraits/collages and clay masks of ourselves. I think this was an awesome way to nonverbally demonstrate your personal self-image.

Spotlight Productions held a comedy contest over the weekend. I think the audience was really engaged and enjoying the show. The host, Pete Dominick has a radio show. I personally hate talk radio, but I definitely wouldn't mind listening to comedy on the radio! He was really funny!

Unfortunately this isn't a very good photo, but that guy is watching tv on his phone while on a 5 minute bus ride! Kind of goes to show how media is really creeping into every aspect of our lives.

I think this was a dad visiting Grand Valley. He was catching up on all the local happenings by reading an off campus apartment newsletter, Revue Magazine, and the Lanthorn.

My boyfriend focuses best when he listens to music. He usually listens to instrumental rock so that the words of the songs don't distract him.

A guy playing video games in Kirkhoff. I'm noticing with these media-use pictures that most people are alone and in their own little worlds.

Someone put a sticker on this road sign to give the 'person' wings. If someone wasn't familiar with this nonverbal symbol, that sticker could really change the meaning of the sign! Or at least be confusing.

I think this girl was trying to study, but kept getting distracted by the TV.

I went to President's Ball this weekend. Here's a picture of everyone dancing to the music.

My sister's boyfriend gave her 100 roses for Valentine's day. I personally thought it was a bit overboard considering they are in high school, but still very romantic! When I told my boyfriend that she got 100 roses he said it was weird because 100 roses means "I will love you until death, or for 100 years." I always knew that different types of flowers and colors of roses had nonverbal significance, but I thought it was really interesting that the number meant something too!

I was studying in Kirkhoff and I heard this annoying clicking sound.. turns out this guy brought his typewriter to campus! Cool!

Proctor and Gamble made an oopsies by placing two nearly identical ads in the same exact magazine. I first saw the Olay ad and thought the fake scratch and sniff was really clever, I'm a little embarrassed to admit I actually tried to scratch it! But when I saw the second ad for Head and Shoulders shampoo I was really disappointed. In my opinion they took a great ad, and killed it by trying to stretch the creativity too far.

For one of my organizations we are required to log office hours every week. Here, Brad is passing the time by reading a magazine.

I was watching the office this week and there was a scene (sorry the one before this scene- didn't get my camera fast enough) where Pam and Jim are carefully decoding text messages from their boss. They discuss how much the message changes by using two question marks versus just one. This critical analysis is so common in text messages today. I think it's kind of ridiculous!

At my boyfriend's house the TV is ALWAYS on. The guys are usually watching sports, sitcoms, or stupid adult cartoons like Family Guy. It drives me crazy when I watch TV with Travis (in this pic) because he is constantly changing channels when he gets bored with what's on or there's a commercial. He has the attention span of a hyperactive child! Just pick something a stick to it!

Unfortunately, I have a lame camera and it wouldn't focus on the conversation heart, but I thought this was a cute way to demonstrate nonverbal communication. My boyfriend was giving me a candy heart that says I <3 you.

Folding laundry while listening to Spotify- my new favorite music discovery. I think that this is the future of radio. Its a free program that connects to your Itunes and Facebook and attempts to combat music piracy. Basically this program lets you choose to listen to any music that you want! You can see what your Facebook friends are listening to, or type in any artist into the search box. The idea is that if the music is easily available for people to listen to, it won't be stolen. I'm not totally sure about the legal details but I love using it!

Sharell and I have to work together in a group we are in even though we don't particularly get along.. Whenever we're together she puts on her headphones to listen to her music and completely tunes me out. I find it so incredibly rude. Is it really that horrible to hold a conversation with me.. or does she just really love her music? I will probably never know the answer!

I see this wall mural every day when I go to work. I love the bright colors and its abstractness really fascinates me. Even though Grand Rapids is really supportive of art, I'm kind of surprised the city allowed this to be painted onto a building. It really stands out amongst the gray/brown buildings. I'm still trying to figure out what this painting says nonverbally...

My mom bought me this Valentine's Day pasta. It represents the holiday nonverbally because the noodles are shaped into hearts, and they are colored pink and white. I just thought it was pretty cute!

Reading a magazine while getting a pedicure. This salon had a huge selection of magazines, all targeted to women- which makes sense because probably 99% of their customers are women.

I saw this commercial for Macy's and immediately saw Friedman's social responsibility. They were having a "Wear Red Sale" in support of the Red Hat Society. Apparently with every purchase on a certain day, Macy's would donate money to this cause.

I took this picture to demonstrate how rapidly technology is changing - especially with radio media. This is my stereo at home with my entire cd collection. I got it when I was probably 10 years old. I didn't even bother dragging all of this to school with me because A) it's so huge and takes up a lot of room and B) I didn't need to because all of this fit into my tiny little Ipod! I personally like that this stereo has not one, but TWO cassette players.. I don't even own a cassette!

Continued from my last post.. Even though my parents cancelled their newspaper subscription, they still like to keep up-to-date on whats going on. My mom checks local news websites such as annarbor.com and salinepatch.com regularly. Like we learned in class, reading news online is a lot different from reading a hard-copy.

Whenever I think of my dad, I picture him in this chair, reading a newspaper. Recently though, my parents cancelled their newspaper subscription because they felt it had significantly decreased in quality and wasn't writing about things that they found important (connects to class lecture!). Now, he spends a lot of time reading books. Currently he is reading the biographies of every US President.

Since I don't have cable at school, I always watch a lot of TV when I come home. I was watching The Mask and there was a scene where a man got really angry with Jim Carrey for being in the middle of the road and he honked his horn. Carrey said something along the lines of "looks like he's trying to communicate" and then honked his horn which was so loud it shattered all the windows. I thought this example of honking to express anger demonstrated nonverbal communication really well.

I went home to Saline this weekend. I love riding in the car with my sister because when a rap song comes on the radio she never fails to surprise me by spitting out every single word to the song. Seeing this innocent little white girl rap is always one of the highlights of me coming home.