Orlando Galan Blog #11 LAST BLOG!!

Good morning everyone! Hope y'all had a good three day weekend. It was only an extra day for me, but it was well needed lol. Anyway, can you believe it’s our last blog? And that Thanksgiving is only a week away? As a matter of fact, everywhere I go, I already see Christmas decorations. Crazy to think that the semester is almost over and that vacation is almost here. We all worked hard and earned it. 

For our last blog, I decided to talk about the process of writing my first resume, simply because resumes are a huge factor in this part of our lives right now, as it can be our ticket to our future careers.

So the first resume I ever created was back in High School. I don’t really remember the exact name of the class; it’s been about 6 years. But in that class, we practiced how to work on Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel etc. And after we learned all that towards the end of the semester, our task was to create a resume that will get us a job while we attend college. Of course, most of us have no experience or anything much to put on a resume since we were straight out of high school. So we had to put things like academic achievements, attendance rewards to show punctuality, extracurricular activities, morals and things like that which we can use for our credibility towards employers. I did so and with the help of my professor, I was able to create a solid resume that really summed up my qualifications even as a high school student. I even had a solid reference page. Now that I was about to graduate and had a resume, I had to start applying to jobs and submitting it.

I guess it was safe to say that I was a broke high school graduate who needed financial stability in order to sustain myself through college. I applied to many jobs who I would think would take a high school graduate such as KFC, Starbucks, Subway, In N Out, Best Buy and some other similar places. Then I said to myself, what do I like and what kind of job will suit me better. I like cars and being in an active environment. So duh, I applied to be a Valet lol. I asked my dad who works downtown to see if he knew any companies that provide valet. I found the one that most appealed to me and applied. Now it was time to wait. Out of every place I applied, I really wanted to valet position. Drive nice cars, be in a nice environment, make tips on the side and be active. I was upset I didn’t receive phone calls from anyone in a while. So I called them instead and turns out they took other candidates for those jobs and had no more space.

Until one day, I got a call from the valet position that I primarily wanted asking me if I was still interested and that if I was available for an interview. Of course I said yeah! And was willing to accommodate to any time they wanted. As I arrived to my interview, I introduced myself and handed my resume. The manager looked at my resume and looked at it surprised and was curious. She said, who taught you how to do this? At the time I was not sure whether she meant it in a good or bad way. Turns out she loved it because it was not just a piece of paper. I was a think practical binder with those plastic clear sleeves that contained my clean resume, reference page, and a copy of all my academic rewards and achievements to make my resumes claims credible. She was impressed and loved the work. Then she got to her questioning and interview and told me everything seemed good except my hair. I had long hair and she said if I was willing to cut it, there is a chance I will get the job. I went straight to the haircut place and cut the hair that took me forever to grow and style.

A week later, I got a phone call saying that I got a job and to meet a certain place to go through orientation and the next procedures. I been having that job all since then and plan to keep it til am done with college. I can easily say that my resume was a good reason why I got the job over other applicants. 

Orlando Galan Blog #10 Discourse Community

Good morning everyone! Hope everyone had an amazing weekend, but now it is time for school lol. So I don’t know if it’s just me, but this discourse community research paper seems to be a bit complicated due to its technicalities and so at the moment I don’t know exactly what to write about. Although, I do have an idea that I feel would be fun to pursuit.

At first I was thinking about maybe doing a research paper on the discourse community of a career that I am considering to pursuit. I was thinking maybe border patrol? Military? Police officer? But then I remembered that in class that a police officer can be very broad and would have to do more research in order to find a true discourse community.

So now I am thinking about things or small communities that I am interested in. At first I was thinking the gym (Which I am HIGHLY lagging lol). Maybe if I do start going, to focus on how gym enthusiasts like to stay fit and live a healthy lifestyle. But then I am not too involved where I can actually make a research paper from that discourse community.

Then I realized that the discourse community I am growing to be really interested in and willing to pursuit further more in the future is the car scene or community. Since I was little, I have always had a passion for cars and their potential for customization and the thrill that I can bring somebody by just driving it. It’s called motorsports. Car enthusiasts have been around since forever. And of course there are different types of cars, modification styles and performance routes one can take, depending on one’s taste. But at the end, a car enthusiast is a car enthusiast and everyone is just aiming to accomplish a goal for their ride.

I have a 2009 Honda civic SI (Sport Injected). Nothing fancy, but PLENTY of potential in these cars as an enthusiast would know. I wanted something economical but with plenty of options and potential. Something that can fit into my college kid budget. Something that can be extremely reliable, great on gas, cheap and easy repairs, comfortable and practical, and something that can give me a chassis to work on and have many options. So this civic SI came to mind. The car out of the factory is more of an autocross or track type of car, as it is well balanced and the power delivery is coming from a I4, 16 valve, K20z3 high revving engine. Actually, the k-series or specifically the k20 engine, was voted as one of the best top 10 overall engine manufacturing in the last 20 years! That’s pretty high up there considering many cars were made in the last 20 years. But I want to clarify that top 10 definitely doesn’t mean the fastest engines built. It simply means that engineering and what it offers is generally outstanding. To have a little 2-liter engine be there against Chevy LS engines and BMW M-series motors is definitely satisfying. So I have this Honda, but I haven’t really done much to it because like I said I am a college kid with no time or financial satisfaction to start dumping thousands in the car. All I have done is put some cosmetic modifications such as factory full underbody spoiler kit, some Mugen visors, other minor JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) parts, coilover suspension and sticky street performance nitto tires. Nothing major,but hopefully in the future I will be able to have nicer and lighter wheels, suspension upgrades, and maybe some cosmetic adjustments. I want to make it quick and fun around the turns. Like I said this car has a lot of potential. The civic is probably the car that offers the most factory and aftermarket modification options out there as it is very common and popular, and parts are in demand. Another car that has similar popularity and demand is a mustang. Yall get the point. Anyway, enough with my car lol back to discourse community.

So after talking about that, maybe I can focus my discourse community around Honda enthusiast, or autocross / track enthusiast, or maybe the general car enthusiast as I rather do that, simply because it is funner to talk about different vehicle options and the way the enthusiasm all relates in order to create a discourse community. This is actually pretty exciting to talk about so hopefully this will be the topic I will write my discourse community research paper on. Kinda sucks writing a long a$$ paper on something you are definitely not interested in lol. Good luck everyone!

Orlando Galan Blog #8

Hello and good morning everyone! Hope everyone had a great weekend. It’s time to read and submit some blogs lol. I want to start with Mirabelli: Learning to Strive, simply because it catches my attention a lot more since I can somewhat relate. Also because the introduction I thought was very interesting, specially cause a lot of us college students fall into that category.

The beginning mentions criticism “If you find your job [as a waitress] so despicable, then go get an education and get a REAL job” which actually triggers me to be defensive because most college students like to have jobs as a waiter/waitress or maybe some type of job where tips are accepted.

“You are whining about something that you can fix. Stop being such a weakling, go out and learn something, anything, and go make a real contribution to society.... Wait, Iet me guess: you do not have any marketable skills, or useful knowledge, so you do what any bumbling fool can do, wait on tables. This is your own fault”

To some people especially college students, the reason why they are waiters or waitresses is because they are going to school and need a source of income which can cover most of life’s expenses a little better. Of course, everyone has different life situations. You cannot criticize and judge people by their job title especially in workforces like these. Go out and learn something? What makes somebody think that being a waiter won’t allow them to learn something? For all you know, the person taking your order and serving you coffee is studying to be a doctor.  Make a real contribution to society? Obviously, there has to be people to take your order and serve you your food and drinks. Somebody has to do it. And like I said the person who is your waiter and is studying to be a doctor might even be contributing to society by perhaps healing and treating your family members in the future. No marketable skills? Yeah no s#!t. Everyone has to start somewhere. You cannot expect people to have any skill out of nowhere. People learn things. There are stages in life where one can improve him or herself. Sacrifice and hard work must be delivered. But like I said earlier, people have different life situations where they are born into wealth or around a skill where they did not have to try hard or work hard to achieve their goal.

Sorry guys! The reason why I get so defensive about this is because I myself am a valet driver, similar to a waiter in a sense that the way you deliver work and provide service will determine how good of a day at work can be. I am a college student who comes from a low income family. First generation college student too. I have to work my way up in order to have an opportunity to fall into a good career. I have to go through various stages of school and perhaps internships and interview in order to land where I want. There is a lot of hard work and dedication that must be done. However, I also have to have a job that allows good financial stability to live. Being a valet driver has been an outstanding job for me as a college student because it has allowed me to learn a lot of work related skill, go to school and receive an associate’s degree and currently allowing me to pursue my bachelor’s degree. So if someone came up to me and told me to get an education and a real job and to do something where I can contribute to society, I would feel pretty offended simply because someone to say such a thing does not have any idea of who I am and what I am doing. Then again someone to come up with such criticism would also look ignorant because they are judging people without knowing them. Even if people who work in such industries are mature or middle aged or even working as a career, people shouldn’t judge. These jobs must be done by somebody. Some people prefer jobs like this because it’s not too hard, could be fun and sometimes make a lot of money depending on where. Sometimes waiters can even make more money as management, and do less. Sometimes those jobs even have benefits that support them and their families.

I just want to conclude by saying that don’t let anyone take you down with their criticism. Everyone has their way of doing things and they are doing them for a reason. Never judge a book by its cover. As long as you strive for your goals and you are happy, then that’s all that matters. Not what other people say.

Orlando Galan Blog #6

Good morning everyone! Ahh sorry I am doing this late! But at least I am doing it. I have had a hectic week but at I finally found some time to so my identity kit. It is the beginning of October already. Meaning the semester is only coming closer to an end and the stress of doing great in order to achieve a successful graduation is only increasing. Anyway, let me give you a little story to better give you an idea of my identity.

The most important parts of my life started towards the end of high school. I was the average high school kit. I went to school most of the time, did my hw, did well on assignments and made sure that I did at least the minimum to get by in order to graduate. Actually, I did the very least it required to graduate because like most of the time, I just wanted to go out and skateboard with my friends. At the time, I have had about 5 years of skateboarding. I loved it, it was my passion and it was a hobby that cleared my mind and gave me nothing but happiness. High school was ending and I thought to myself, I need to do something about my future and pursue an education. At this point in my life, I wasn’t too sure exactly what I wanted to do, but I knew I had to go to school regardless. However, since I was a kid in elementary school, I knew I always wanted to attend SDSU but obviously didn’t know for what or how. At the time I just knew it was a cool school.

I ended up going to Southwestern College, a very popular community college where I live. I knew that I was there in order to achieve an associate’s degree. After completing some general education, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to become a communication major. I felt that those studies fit me best. Now I asked myself, what do you want to do for a career? What are you going to use your communication degree for? I always wanted to travel and see new countries and cities. I also wanted to do new things that will teach me valuable lessons and prepare me for the world put there. I then came to the conclusion that I want a government job. Perhaps the military, border patrol, CHP, police officer or something along those lines. After 4 long years in Southwestern college, I was able to achieve my associates degree in communication and was also awaiting a letter from SDSU that was to state whether I was going to be accepted or not. This was a big deal to me because I always wanted to attend SDSU and did not want to go anywhere else. I didn’t even apply to different schools! Like everyone usually does for back up. Turns out that I have been denied due to being an impacted major. I was devastated and at the time, did not know what to do with my life. I decided to take my Southwestern college councilors advice and submit an appeal. I gave SDSU an appeal with legitimate reasons as why I should be accepted and have the opportunity to complete my education there. A month later around 3 in the morning, I got an acceptance letter and I was stoked! I woke up my family to break them the good news.

Now I am proud to say that I am a senior at SDSU meaning I am close to graduation, from the school that I work so hard for to attend! After graduation, my primary consideration for a career would be the military as a commissioned officer, but not too sure about which branch just yet. Leaning towards Navy or Marines, but I will go wherever I am offered the job that I want, communications officer.

To conclude, all my hard work, stress, depression, challenges and any struggles that I have faced has been worth it so far. I will keep working at it in order to achieve the success that I have been striving for!

Orlando Galan Blog #5

Hello and good evening everyone! What’s going on. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend class on Monday, so I am sure I missed out on important material discussed about the new topic concept mentioned in the email. Anyway, I thought the best way to make up for it is to read Swales article and see what I understand from it. The reason I say it like that is because this topic doesn’t really seem like the material I typically am interested in and read lol, so please bear with me. The conceptualization of discourse community gave me the realization that a lot of research and observation was involved. To come up with such material must of took a lot of hard work, so I must give Swales props for that. I would like to talk about one of the six characteristics of a discourse community, the first one. I always try to come up with my own examples because it helps me better understand the material. The first characteristic is saying that a discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals. I feel like us, college students are agreed to a set of common public goals. We arn’t necessarily a club or association like the reading says, but we are a school which consists of many individuals with a purpose or goal. Our goals are public. We are all attending SDSU because we want to increase the level of knowledge and receive an education so that we can better succeed in life. Anyone can come in to our school and realize that our purpose or goal is to receive an education. However, our individual goals remain private. I would also like to talk about the second characteristic of discourse community. The article uses the example of a café owner will most likely belong best in a social group who involves people who are likely to become café owners in their neighborhood. I again would like to relate this characteristic to school. For example, one’s major is a discourse community that has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members. As a communication major, I would best share social class with other comm majors, or even professors or comm organizations that are taken in the comm building. I probably wouldn’t have much of a mechanism of intercommunication with let’s say, a science major. The topics are related enough to build a social class. The third characteristic uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback. The best way for me to remember this characteristic is to relate it to teacher or peer reviews. If a student has completed a project or research paper, the student will typically take in to someone in the same community with knowledge in order to receive professional information and feedback, to further improve the assignment. In such a case, it is important for someone with a lot of knowledge in the same community as yours to be the one to give you info or feedback, usually because its from a credible source. The fourth characteristic says that a discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims. The title for this one confused me at first, but after analyzing the content, I understood it! For simplification, I just thought of this characteristic as it stating that every community has a certain way of being and its certain goals. Again, as comm majors lol, we all like to communicate and socialize and most of our aims after graduation involve getting a job where we can apply our communication skills and make a living out of something we are passionate about. The fifth characteristic, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis, I would say just goes into further detail of the specifics a community has. In my example, communication studies has its own terminology that differentiates its material to other majors. Of course, the terminology is specific and most of the time, only comm majors would understand. This is what makes a community unique. Its something that isn’t known or taught just anywhere. Finally the last characteristic! Haha. A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise. Sound complicated right? Well this characteristic had the smallest explanation actually, however it seemed a bit sad. It simply states that discourse communities have changing memberships weather its death or in other less involuntary ways. But in order for the community to survive, it needs to depend on a reasonable ratio between novices and experts. Im not gonna use death for my personal example, but instead use the positive example or graduation. Students graduate and leave. However it obviously doesn’t mean the communication major is done. Its survival is guaranteed due to new students studying the field of communication!

Orlando Galan Blog #4 JSTOR

Hello everyone! Took me a while to decide what 3 topics I wanted to blog about, but I finally made up my mind. The first article that I decided to blog about is Viral Black Death. The reason I decided to blog about this is because like many of you know, black deaths by police have been all over the media recently. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube you name it, black deaths by police have been occurring a lot lately and have been shared across the media. Yes police brutality has always been a big deal and very common however, the problem is not just that, it is the fact that recently the brutality is between white police officers against black population, therefore creating huge problems with African American citizens as they are being targeted and discriminated against. Thanks to the easily attained technology we have now a days, the inappropriate and highly illegal acts of these racist police officers have been caught on video for the public to see what some authorities are actually doing. The reasons I am encouraged to say “racist” is due to the fact that I have seen plenty of videos myself over the media and because in the article “Viral Black Deaths”, Da Bois mentions the presumption of black criminality “the idea that all black are assumed to be criminals” for being a reason African American citizens are being targeted. Now don’t get me wrong, as negative as I might sound on this blog towards police officers, I have absolutely no hate towards them in a general point of view. In fact, I even have being a police officer as one of my career options in the future! However, the corrupt cops...smh they have to go. We rely on the authorities to show us what is right, protect us and keep a functioning and safe community. I understand that police officers have their way of thinking and practices to protect themselves, but excessive force and using racial profiling will always be wrong and illegal and should never be the case. However, if people decide to do illegal things, I believe police officers have the right to do their job so that at the end, everyone is safe and criminals are off the streets.

And then I read “Liberals Are The Sort Of People Who…” and I gotta say, Liberals will be offended after reading that article. To conclude the article, it is pretty much saying that if the United States becomes ruined and unsuccessful, Liberals are to blame for. Personally, I don’t know much about politics so if this is an accurate description of what a Liberal believes in, it seems very contradictory and doesn’t make much sense. Any comments or point of views on this? I would like to express myself on some of the things stated in this article. Again, I don’t know much about politics, and again I don’t know if things stated in this article are accurate, so please take no offence and please educate me or elaborate it/me if wrong. But the Liberal side of politics isn’t making much sense to me. How do they believe that cops are generally racist and abuse their authority, but yet they should be the only ones who have guns? How do you call other people out for being racist yet imply African Americans are “too stupid, poor or lazy” to go vote? How do they oppose not drilling any new oil wells yet, don’t want gas prices to go up? At this point, I believe I have been somewhat educated on a Liberals views, but this article is just to bash on them and I’m assuming Liberals would have an explanation for all this. After reading the article and elaborating on it, I can see how politics can be interesting and why things can get heated sometimes.

have always known that the headline of anything needs to be creative enough to catch the reader’s attention, but after reading Chi Luu’s article on how the language of headlines work, I learned a couple things. Personally, when I see a headline that is important enough or of an interest of mine, I pick it up (assuming it’s a book, magazine etc.) or click in it if it’s a website or link. And of course I already know there is a good chance that it might not be what it is or what I want to see. So right away, I skim through it and if I don’t immediately see or read anything interesting, I disregard it. The article speaks about clickbait, which of course, everyone hates! Such a waste of time especially when it’s strictly spam or fake content that has no relevancy. I didn’t know that it has been such a problem that Facebook is planning on a way to detect clickbait, and banning it forever. That’s good to hear since I am a user myself, and rely on Facebook for some of the most important news and information, along with other social media stuff that requires links that have potential to be used as nothing but clickbait.

Orlando Galan Blog #2 Devitt

After reading Amy Divett’s article, “Teaching Critical Genre awareness”, I feel overwhelmed… in a good way! I was not aware that a genre can have such a significant meaning. I always thought that a genre was just a simply way to describe a category of music, movie, film, book etc. As time has passed, I have noticed that the amount and types of genres have expanded, even though what is projected is similar to already existing genres. For example rap to trap music or alternative to rock music. Back in the day, I didn’t think there was much significance to the difference between two similar genres. But now… after making observations over the media and seeing how Divett specifies what an individual genre is, I completely understand the importance of a “genre”. As Divett states, genres are so strong and meaningful, that the spread of genres even creates “shared aims and social structures”. It is crazy to see how a genre can actually make a person who they are is, and how their life is identifiable towards a genre. And fortunately, now a days, almost any genre is acceptable which means one can truly be who they are and can identify themselves to a genre they most feel right with. The reason why I am writing about how a genre can relate to an individual or group, is to demonstrate how strong a genre can really be. This can also be a sign of how hard Divett’s article got me thinking! Now when Divett talked about the genre of essay writing, the 5 paragraph essay paper, it intrigued me because the use of the method is true! Not saying it is bad, I use it too, but might not be useful in certain situations. Divett states how using the 5 paragraph method can reinforce distance from the subject. I agree with this to a certain extent. I truly believe this method can be useful when needed to write a quick and affective essay or paper. However, I don’t believe the 5 paragraph method should be used when writing an important paper or thesis that withholds a lot of research or studies. Overall, over time and after reading Amy Divett’s article, I have learned that the variety of genres are highly important, as it truly differentiates cultures and social structures. The expenditure of genres has really made it so that everyone can feel accommodated to their wants and needs. It is great to have options when in desire.

Orlando Galan Introductory Blog

Good evening class, my name is Orlando Galan and I am a 23 year old senior here at SDSU majoring in communication, with an expected graduation in May 2017. I decided to major in communication because I believe communication is the essential key for the success of any action or goal, weather it is for businesses or every day interactions. I believe the outcome of anything really is based on how communication is delivered. Before transferring to SDSU, I attended community college at Southwestern College. It took me a good 4 years of completing all the transfer requirements and figuring out what I wanted to major in, as it would be an important decision over the next few years in continuing my education. In my 3rd year of attending community college, I was really close to graduating, and was time for me to decide what universities I wanted to apply to based of what suits me better and my likings. However, all my life I have had the goal of attending SDSU, the "chillist" school that belongs to my home town of San Diego. For this reason, I got stubborn and decided to apply only to SDSU and no other university. I was confident in my acceptance, due to the fact that I successfully completed all the requirements SDSU was asking for and had an Associate’s Degree in communication. I even had a good GPA and a good academic record. Little did I know, I was denied admission and was heartbroken. Reason for denial was not due to incomplete requirements or bad grades, but because my communication major was one of the most impacted majors, therefore had no space for me, and only accepted students with well and above GPA's. At this point in my academic standpoint, I felt helpless and felt like giving up because it seemed like that was the end. After seeing a councilor about the issue, she recommended me to appeal because I had a great chance of acceptance due to their reconsideration after viewing my letter, so I did. For months, I was clueless about where my education was headed. I even graduated and walked and received my Associate’s Degree. I was waiting anxiously throughout the summer, waiting for an answer from SDSU. I really wanted to get accepted to SDSU because it has been a dream since I was a kid, and wanted to continue to make my family proud, since I am first generation college student. Until one night, I was playing video games at 3 o’clock in the morning, and received an email from SDSU stating and congratulating me for acceptance after reviewing my appeal letter. I was the happiest I ever been in a while at that time and I even woke my family at that time to give them the surprise. And after a long journey and some hard work, here I am pursuing my Bachelor’s degree at SDSU and should be graduating in Spring 2017. There might even be a chance that I will pursue a Master’s Degree. My current goal upon graduating, is to find a government job. I always wanted to try out the military to gain and receive the unique experience that workforce has to offer. I would be able to put my degree to use and gain officer rank. I also like the idea to pursue a career as a police officer, city highway patrol, border patrol or any government related job. The reason why I decided to talk about school a lot and the near future, is because this is the important stage in life that I am in now.

Now to talk about myself a little. I was born and raised here in San Diego, Lucky, right? I actually have a large family, but they are nowhere near. My immediate family is the only family I have nearby so I can say I am pretty close to them. I work downtown as a valet driver which is awesome, because I am a car enthusiast and having to see the newest designs and technology in resent cars really interests me. I also like this job because I like to interact with new people and create connections. On my time off, I like going to the gym (which I have been extremely lagging lately), go out with friends Downtown, Pacific Beach, La Jolla, Los Angeles and other fun places. Speaking of places, I started traveling this year. So far, I have gone to Miami and Las Vegas, and plan to go to Hawaii, Cabo and Japan in the near future. This is just a little bit about me, and if you would like to get to know me better, let’s talk. I am always down to make new friends. Wish you all good luck in this class and in your academic and future goals!