"Fun Day at the Zoo" (travel story) 3/23/14

I have been to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, and the San Diego Zoo, but never, until last Saturday, the San Francisco Zoo. Mid-day, soap bubbles from children’s toys filled the air as I waited in line to enter the Zoo. I could hear the sounds of animals, nature, and seagulls from Ocean Beach, playing over and over in my head like a song. The weather was quite chilly; and I had to leave my sweater on at all times. Next! A cashier yells, as I snapped out of my daydream and rushed to the window. I asked her I wanted to purchase a “one adult resident ticket,” and shared my address with her (so that I could get three dollar discount). After purchasing I set for my journey.

As I walked inside, on my right were giraffes; this must have been the African Region I thought, and began my quest around the zoo. All the animals seemed to be peaceful and tired. Here and there zebras, gorillas, ostriches, the sight was beautiful. I then moved on to the Primate Discovery Center, where there were chimps, monkeys, and lemurs. A specific detail I remember from the chimp’s habitat was a mother playing with her baby chimp, stroking his head while he slept on her arm, such a memorable, and adorable scene, I wanted to cry. At this time I was a bit hungry, I stopped at the Leaping Lemur Café, and ate a greasy dripping pizza with a small soda pop. I ate on the way to the cat kingdom to that I would not miss a single moment. Right in the center as you enter this kingdom is the penguins and the rhinos on the left. The air smelled of fish and salt water, as I kept walking through to the hippos, bobcats, and other cats. Then came the terrifying part, the lions and the tigers. Remembering the incident that happened on December 25, 2007, I got a little uneasy to see these cats. There have been two tiger attacks at the San Francisco Zoo, both involving a four-year-old Siberian Tiger named Tatiana. In the first incident, a zookeeper was bitten on the arm during a public feeding. The second incident two people were injured and one killed, before the tiger was fatally shot by police officers. The story goes that in 2007, Tatiana escaped from her open-air enclosure, and attacked three visitors shortly after closing time. After escaping from the tiger grotto, Tatiana killed one patron, Carlos Eduardo Sousa Jr., and injured two brothers, “Paul, and Kulbir Dhaliwal. The scene was chaotic, and 13 minutes after the initial 9-1-1 call, police officers and fire department paramedics reached Carlos Sousa’s dead body and found his throat slashed. When four officers and a zoo shooting team member reached the tiger, they found her with one of the brothers (back in enclosure). They did not shoot Tatiana immediately; just to be sure the brother would be okay. After some distraction, the tiger turned towards the officers and was shot through her forehead and was killed instantly. After shooting, Tatiana’s head, paws, and tail were removed by SF Police Department forensic investigation unit. Soon after the zoo was closed in order to make better security for the animals in case of escape again. The zoo remained closed until January 3, 2008. Sources told the SF Chronicle that pinecones and sticks that might have been thrown at Tatiana had been found; later one of the brothers admitted that the three of the men were yelling and waving at the tiger before the attack had happened. The wall the tiger jumped was 12.5 feet tall; she also could have used her claws in order to climb up the wall, sources are not sure of how the escape had happened. Knowing about this story and I just around the corner of these habitats not sure what was to come. I walked calmly around, and immediately saw electric fences and tall glass windows making it safer for them not to escape or being thrown things at. Later I enter the South America Region where I saw a huge anteater, capybaras, and the greater rhea (a type of bird). The only disappointment was that the South America Tropical Forest was closed for renovations. Going further the Bear Country Region was next, polar bears, grizzly bears, bald eagles, and sea lions. Entering the Outback Trail, there were kangaroo’s and koalas. Lastly I entered my last region on the map the exploration zone. I moved forward to the insect zoo, ewe! I felt as I walked in with giant cockroaches right in front of me, I quickly ran out and decided to move on. Then came the Native American animals together with the family farm. There were horses, goats, sheep, rams, pigs, alpacas, and wild turkeys. The goats were roaming around me leaving its droppings in site and people were able to pet them. I felt like it was time to head home. With my last two animals (meerkats and prairie dogs) I was ready to finish up. I had filled up my phone with pictures and videos of these majestic creatures. The last mental thing I noticed that throughout the park are these shh signs, telling the people to be silent when in fact the zoo was roaring with noises of kids yelling and bothering their moms for food, while I on the other hand was calm and quiet enjoying the animals.

Before I departed home I went to the souvenir shop in the main entrance. I got a small stuffed white tiger plush. After purchasing the animal I waited for the muni train to take me home. I had such an exhilarating day at the zoo, and cannot wait to come back.  

"Let me tweet on your wall" (trend story) 3/16/14

            What is a trend? Who says it is a trend? Why do they matter? When thinking about a trend it becomes seamless and changes every five minutes (figuratively speaking). A trend is defined as a general direction in which something is developing or changing. There are many types of trends: cultural, business like, political, and scientific. A cultural trend refers to a measureable change in behavior that develops among a population of individuals. Trends are usually long lasting and indicative of a broader cultural shift. While trends can result from technological change, the reverse is more common, as exemplified by the broad adoption of green technologies in response to a widespread cultural embrace of environmentalism. One specific trend invading our intelligence is the many faces of social media. Targeting preteens, teens, adults, and even older folk today: keeping up with selfies, tweeting, and with the latest news from second hand sources. Social media has been around since humans began to talk. One of the first signs of human social media was cave wall paintings. Some of the earliest forms of social media were not digital, they were primitive and did not involve a computer, but did involve some type of technology to convey a message. All living things communicate to each other in some way or another, but humans leave lasting impressions intentionally. Social media refers to interaction among people in which they create, share, and/or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. One popular social networking service of social media is Twitter. “Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables users to send and read “tweets,” which are text messages limited to 140 characters. Registered users can read and post tweets, but unregistered users can only read them. Users access Twitter through the website interface, SMS, or mobile device application. Twitter Inc. is based in San Francisco and has offices in New York City, Boston, San Antonio, and Detroit. Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass created Twitter in March 2006. By July 2006 the site was launched and available to use immediately. The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity, with 500 million registered users in 2012, who posted 340 million tweets per day. The service also handled 1.6 billion search queries per day. Twitter is now one of the ten-most visited websites, and has been described as “the SMS of the internet.” It is also one on the most successful startup companies of all time by market capitalization, revenue, growth, and cultural impact” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter). People say that Facebook (another popular social media network service) is for connecting with the people you went to school with and Twitter is for people you wished you had gone to school with. While Facebook is a multi-purpose social networking platform, allowing users to chat, post photos, post notes, and play games, Twitter is built around the posting of short 140 character messages, or “tweets.” These are the two most popular social networks in the world. Which should we chose? Why must we choose one? Which is better? The differences between the two are substantial and in some ways direct, comparison between the two is actually difficult to make. Twitter is simple and feels like Google did in 1998, while Facebook offers a portal-like inference somewhat reminiscent of Yahoo. The only effect social media has on society is separating correlation from causation in data. There is abundant evidence that human behaviors tend to cluster in social networks over time—friends tend to adopt the same behavior or purchase the same products at approximately the same time. Other effects include; bullying, sexual assaults, anti-socialism, vision problems, and separation of the “outside world,” these examples are only a small portion of problems many people face today because of social media. According to (pewinternet.org), “13% of online adults use Twitter, and half of Twitter users access the service on a cell phone.” “Non-white Internet users continue to have higher rates of Twitter use than their white counterparts; indeed, the Twitter adoption gap between African-Americans and Whites has increased over the past six months.” “Although young adults continue to have relatively high rates of Twitter usage, the number of 30-49 year olds who use the service has doubled since late 2010-from 7%of such users in November to 14% in May 2011. This growth trend is especially pronounced among 25-35 year olds.” This is why we can call Twitter a popular trend in our culture; we have mom’s, celebrities, students, older folk, and everyone else using this social media to stay connected with everything Twitter has to offer. When I polled 100 students and faculty at the University of San Francisco to choose between Facebook and Twitter most said, “Twitter was the new Facebook.” Others chose: Vine, Tumblr, Instagram, and YouTube. Choosing between only Facebook and Twitter; 56% said Twitter and 30% said Facebook and 14% said neither, and chose other networks. This is what Facebookers said about Facebook; “it appeals to social animals and can be very addicting to people who have an insatiable appetite to stay connected with friends and make new acquaintances. In fact, some people report they rarely use email anymore, relying almost entirely on Facebook for email, chat, image, and video sharing.” On the contrary this is what Tweeters said about Twitter; “it may be more addictive once you get the hang of tweeting; you get more immediate responses and it seems to live somewhere between the worlds of email, instant messaging and blogging. Twitter encourages constant “linking out” to anywhere and, in that respect, is more analogous to a pure search engine; another way to find people and content all over the Net.” In the end, both Twitter and Facebook are simply communication tools; both will continue to evolve and morph as users find new ways to extract value. Network may or may not become a long-term winner in the rapidly evolving social networking space. But, will either Twitter or Facebook become the next Google? Or will they fade into the rear view mirror of technological and social evolution? Not sure, what do you think?      

  

"ADDitude's Magazine Analysis" (magazine analysis) 3/1/14

            Ellen Kingsley founded ADDitude's Magazine in 1998. She thought about it after noticing that her son expressed symptoms of ADD. Then in 2000 the magazine was published as print. In April 2007, the website launched with free searchable archives, expert Q&A’s, ADHD bloggers, ADHD discussions forums, and directory of ADHD service provides. ADDitude's Magazine is a quarterly consumer publication about ADD created and distributed by New Hope Media in New York, New York. New Hope Media is the leading source of trusted parenting and health information across all channels for families and professionals in two high-growth special interest communities: Adoptive Families Magazine- how to adopt, parenting information, and before & after adoption; ADDitude's Magazine- helps adults and families living with ADD lead successful lives at home, school, and at work. If I would rate this magazine it would be thumbs up, because it contains feature and service articles about ADD, ADHD, and other important illnesses. Topics include diagnosing ADHD in both adults and children, providing medication and or alternative therapies, parenting children with the disability, school and learning challenges, living with Adult ADD. One critic Keath Low is a child psychotherapist; he described the magazine as “the happy, healthy lifestyle magazine for people with ADD.  

            If I were to submit to this magazine, I would put my article in the personal stories section, it would fit because it deals with personal issues and resolutions for the struggles with ADD. The Writer’s Guidelines is based on the journalists and mental-health professionals that write most of the articles in the magazine. However, they are willing to consider first-person articles by parents, employers, teachers, etc. who have personal experience with ADHD or LD and whose insights might be helpful to ADDitude's readers (most of whom are parents of children with ADHD or a learning disability and/or adults with ADHD). According to the guidelines, if I were to propose an article idea or submit a manuscript I would have to send a query letter to ADDitude. In which includes a brief description or outline of the idea; why I think it belongs to the magazine, why I should be the one to write the story, and any recent clips. If they approve of the idea they are going to get in contact within six weeks with details about the assignment the payment and the deadline. They prefer the submission to be via e-mail as an attachment but they do accept via US mail as well. The Editorial & Planning Calendar for 2014 is only four issues per year: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. For spring the issue will include “specialized camps, schools, summer programs for students with ADD” (Publication date 2/04/2014). For the summer issue includes “ women & girls with ADHD, and planning successful summers” (Publication date 5/01/2014). For autumn it will include “back to school, and success at school special section” (Publication date 7/31/2014). Lastly in winter the issue will include “alternative and augmentative ADHD therapies, and holiday tips” (Publication date 11/06/2014). Advertisements are only promotions and sponsorships to help support fundraisers for ADD and other illnesses. According to Quantcast the demographic breakdown for Additudemagazine.com has 79,862 readers, as of February 2014 and ranked 19,856 in the US.

I thought this publication was appropriate for the person I chose to profile. ADD is a struggle to live with and I want to express the issue further. If I were to position to serve the magazine, I would pitch the idea as part of a personal struggle for college students, and the affects of their lives and relationships with friends, family and love interests. I am profoundly comfortable with the frame this magazine has, it has a main focus on just ADD and many other illnesses the audience should be aware about. It does not just go into fashion articles and other uncommon manners; it generally just has articles on how to deal with children with these disabilities. In 2007 it was nominated as best health magazine and now awards the “Ellen Kingsley award” for ADD advocacy. I want my audience to feel an understanding of the publication; I want it to be appropriate for anyone who is struggling with ADD or any other illness. This would not contradict anything that would not fit for the magazine, the only thing I might do wrong is not get my idea published. I have read some articles from the magazine, some are very interesting and helpful while some seem to be positive, and there are negative stories that just suggest that the illness could not be cured. I would try my best to do a well-formatted story for the editor and if it makes the publication, it would give the audience a personal feel on struggling with the illness in their lives. That is how I would submit to ADDitude magazine.