Journals

My life through baseball

Even before I could walk my father told me I would crawl around with a plastic bat in my hands.

Photo taken by: Margarita Ortiz

At the age of 10 I had already traveled to states like Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia.
Photo taken by: Orlando Rivera Sr.



I was on the baseball from Friday-Sunday, from 8am-8pm from the age of 7 till I entered high school
Photo taken by: Orlando Rivera Sr.

Coach Joe Urso is one of two coaches to give me an opportunity to continue playing baseball at the college level by offering me a scholarship to the University of Tampa.

A former elite player by the name of Tino Martinez, who not only attended the University of Tampa but also played for my favorite Major League team the New York Yankees

Baseball has allowed me to meet a lot of great people one of them being my brother up the middle Gio Alfonzo who I also played against when we were about 15-16 years old.
Photo taken by: Todd Montgomery

I've gotten to travel the not only the states but also part of the world, as you can tell by this great sketch made by a man in a restaurant when we attended Cuba.

Here is a shot of me signing my Letter of Intent to attend college on a scholarship and play baseball, I have my close friends included in the picture.
Photo taken by: Dr. Harold Border

He are am on my last home game of my high school career with my closest friends and one of the most influential coaches and person I have ever met Coach Anderson.
Photo taken by: Orlando Rivera Sr.

My first ever travel ball coach with his wife and daughter attending my last high school home game. Basically treated me as one of his kids and I am very thankful to have met them.

Unfortunately baseball doesn't only bring good but also bad things like injuries. You can get knocked down but only the strong will get back up.

The sport doesn't only bring you to a competitive field but also brings you around a group of people that are willing to battle with you.
Photo taken by: Nico Milan

I have known Evan Rivera since I first move from Puerto Rico, even when playing on opposites we don't forget the bond that we shared especially having the same last names.

Photo taken by: Rebecca Jimenez

Throughout my 18+ plus years of playing baseball I have learned to enjoy the game, here I am dressed up as John Travolta from the movie Grease.

Photo taken by: Kathleen Gavern

Being an student-athlete causes you to have higher responsibilities, you are held to a higher standard and are expected to set an example.

You go through many stages in your life and sometimes you are lucky enough to capture images from sporting events to remind you.

Photo taken by: Orlando Rivera Sr.

The game of baseball has brought not temporary teammates but forever long friends. The friendships I have built will never be forgotten. 

Photo taken by: Marta Woods

I enjoy being able to go out everyday and play the game I love for the University of Tampa and I am proud to call myself a Spartan.

Photo taken by: Todd Montgomery

Lucky enough to play for this team, with each win we keep making history and I am honored to have the opportunity to go out every single day and compete with these guys.

Photo taken by: Todd Montgomery

Without the support of my parents I truly believe I would not be where I am today. So I am completely thankful for everything they have done for me they are truly a blessing.

My journal tells the story of my life through baseball. Baseball has been a big part of my life ever since I was born. From going to watch my dad play, to going to watch my grandfather play, and then eventually going to my own games. I started playing baseball at the age of three, and ever since then I have been in love with the game. 

Growing up in Puerto Rico at a young age, not many kids get the opportunity to play baseball whether it's due to money or to where one lives. Luckily enough, I had the opportunity to play at a young age; and not only to play, but to succeed. Eventually I got the opportunity to move to the Americas thanks to my dad establishing himself in the country first. Of course, the first thing we looked for was a baseball league for me to play. We found one by our home in Kissimmee; and from there on the rest is history. 

A coach scouted me at the age of eight to join his travel ball team and travel throughout Florida to play in tournaments.  Luckily the cost to join the team was not too much, and my parents allowed me to play.  With that opportunity I was able to meet a lot of great people, many of whom remain friends of mine to this day. The amount of friendships you build through a sport is unreal. Baseball teaches you a lot more than just friendship though;  it also builds character and discipline. My favorite picture from my journal is the one of me and my parents. The reason being is that they are my #1 fans their supports means the world to me. They try to attend as many games as they can and try to help me out with as much as I can on a daily basis. 

I remember at the age of eleven when I got struck by a ball in the chest and my heart stopped. I was rushed to the hospital, where I stayed for a week.  I was truly lucky to have survived.  I never thought I would have the courage to step foot back on the field; but with the help of my parents, friends, and coaches, I fought through the fear and got back on the diamond. That was the best choice I could have ever made, because now I am a student-athlete at the number one school in the nation for baseball, the University of Tampa.

I have had a tremendous opportunity not only to play ball but to excel as a student in this great university.  I am truly thankful for all of the people that have supported me and given me the chance to live out my dream. 

 

Assignments

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

summary of skype

The fact that she and her friend who used to alternate babysitting to get work done ended up getting together to do work is very intriguing. The fact that they used each other to blend their work together is pretty cool. Also the fact the she has her children included in her artwork and they also want to get involved with what she does is amazing.

5Qs&5Os

Questions
1. What was the thought process with the strains on the wall?
2. What is the meaning of the cinderblocks stacked up?
3. What was the poles standing up suppose to be a look alike of a tea pea?
4. What was the setting with the blocks stacked up suppose to dictate?
5. Is the quote meaningful to your personal life?

Observations
1. The cone looking objects on the wall all have different textures.
2. All the circles on the walls have different designs.
3. The rug looking design follows the same pattern.
4. The objects on the wall look like cakes with frosting on top.
5. The lady in the push up position is focusing on the dust.

Monday, March 3, 2014

Notice what you notice

1. The G in the middle of the bottle

2. The lightning symbol going through the G

3. Lightning bolt on the grey paper

4. Number of calories per bottle

5. Flavor of Gatorade

6. All orange caps

7. 3 different color dots

8. Number of fluids per ounce

9. Cost of bottle if recycled 

10. Direction of Gatorade company

11. Prime, Perform, Recover tag

12. Number to contact Gatorade 

13. Little G on side of bottle

14. The words  "Thirst Quencher"

15. Best to use by date

16. Says not for individual sale

17. Ingredients for the product

18. Little lightning symbols on bottle

19. Recycle symbol on the bottom of the bottle

20. Lets you know it came in a 12-pack

21. A little "u" symbol, don't know what it means though

22. Little "r" located about the main G on bottle

23. Random numbers above barcode

24. Different size compared to regular sized bottle

25. Gatorade frost on white label 

26. Does have same grip as regular bottle

27. Numbers I don't understand under expiration date

28. Contains no fruit juice 

29. The series under the G on the side

30. Barcode is vertical not horizontal

31. Two rims after the label

32. The change from white to grey on wrapper

33. Light, crisp flavor label on side

34. The word Pete on bottom part of bottle

35. The bottom rim before label

36. Two lines going down the bottle 

37. Random letter at bottom with 3 numbers

38. Random letter "e" at the bottom

39. 6 bumps on the bottom of the bottle

40. Swirl rim when cap removed

41. Random number inside cap

42. Covering inside the cap

43. 12 rings inside cap

44. Multiple vertical lines on cap

45. Also a little "r" above glacier freeze

46. The registered trademark is on bottle

47. Code of numbers right below label

48. The percent daily value 

49. 6 dashes at bottom of bottle 

50. 3 dashes on every grip 

Color

                                       http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/69/Stop_sign(standard).svg

My favorite color since I have been a little boy is red. Since being a little boy I was told to stop doing anything and everything. I was basically a little devil child and its ironic that when you think devil you think red. For some odd reason I would never listen to my parents telling me to stop. But little did I know that later on in life a simple red sign with the word stop would actually make me stop every time I saw it. 

5Qs and 5 Observations

1. What was your thought process with the potatoes being nailed on to that pole?
2. How many shots did it take to get the perfect one of the eagle? Or were you trying to get a perfect picture?
3. What were you trying to show with the multiple pictures of the bus?
4. Where did you take the picture of the 4 red dots?
5. How big were the penguins in the picture? Were the actual size?


1. I was very intrigued with the sculpture of the foot tongue.
2. The picture of the cane hanging up really captures my eye because it is the only thing in the room.
3. The boat gets my attention because it reminded of my trip to cuba.
4. The video of the lady going in circles really gets me paying attention.
5. You throwing the camera was a pretty cool idea.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Summary of Skype

What I was really impressed by was the fact that he uses his own home to do his work. He really doesn't even need to go a lot to get most of his images. Also the fact that he has his family in most of his portraits I feel like is pretty neat. 

Thursday, February 27, 2014

5Qs and 5 Observations

1. What was his thought with the little kid head on the big body?

2. The meaning of the Afro guy with a gun?

3. Why does he use all the kids in the pictures?

4. Do the pictures in some way all connect?

5. Why did he chose the countries he did?

1. The little kids with the masks working on some object. 

2. The lady hugging all the little kids at once. 

3. The couple kissing while the little kids are crying. 

4. The kid sitting on one end of the bench and the lady sitting on the other end. 

5. Little kid head on a grown mans body. 

 

Projects

Worlds biggest baseball bat

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/10053

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Rankings for point of view

1. Wendy&Elizabeth: Showing the lighter in the picture really makes it good. Using the point of view from the cigarette is good. Also the circle not being perfect helps it out.

2. Berkley&Jeslyn: You can clearly see what they are doing. The different perspective of the person who is getting kidnapped was a good way to go, that view has not really been captured in many situations.

3. Ben&Spencer: A great thought process with the cake having the point of view. Also the all white kind of lets you know that the person is a baker.

4. Dom&Connor&Mike: Real straight forward, obviously you can tell the point of view is coming from the goalie waiting for the ball to be kicked. Also the clock being involved lets you know it is an important shot.

5. Erin&Alex: You can see exactly what is going on in the picture, makes real clear how most students go on blackboard for school work.

6. Liz&Kofi: I can see what they are going for, but needed an explanation just to be exactly sure. Great concept with going with the view of a person's mind.

7. Peter&Andrea: The concept was good and easy to understand. But better placement of the picture could of helped other people who don't clearly understand the picture would've helped. Like maybe an actual picture from behind the counter.

8. Stevie&Megan: The image is not as easy to understand. The perspective though was pretty interesting and once you put the pictures together it helps out.

9. Frank&Tara: Good job getting the views across but the multiple pictures can cause a lot of confusion for others.

10. Jennifer&Micaela: The thought process was really good but the multiple pictures just throws it off for me.

Point of view

This right here is the point of view of a spectator. It shows what you see from the bleachers. As you can tell there is a net that separates the athletes from the fans. A spectator sometimes doesn't get the full action as of a player or even an umpire. But they closer then many people can think, they are basically the support of a lot of players and of specific teams.

Monday, March 3, 2014

3 frames

Barcodes

"Animals"

Life and Death

http://www.elfwood.com/~jazafirestar/Hands-That-Bring-Life-and-Death.2833098.html

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Terms

Movement: The splashing and ripple of the water, as well as the blurriness allows this picture to demonstrate movement. 

Unity : the different shapes colors and lines creates a complete piece of art.

Harmony: the multicolored beads all the same shape creates a unique mesh

Emphasis: When looking at these targets the emphasis is on the 10 in the center of the chest, because all the circular shapes lead your eye directly to that spot.

Texture: The tree's bark is textural due to the bumpy and rough feeling.

Proportion:   Although in reality the finger and the building are two very different sizes, because of the distance between them they look to be proportional or of scale.

 Color:  The lights on the building is in fact colorful. It uses secondary colors such as purple and primary colors such as the blue on the far left and red. 

Balance:  A basketball court is representational of balance because the markings on the court are perfect matches if you were to cut the picture in half.

 Line: The way the halls walls are lined up, the floor and ceiling draw your eyes in creating a visible line for your eyes to follow.

RhythmThe bricks found around UT's campus are an example of rhythm because each brick is the same size and shape, and space between each brick is the same.

 Variety:  These library books are an example of variety because they are all different/conflicting shapes, colors, width and heights.

 Shapes: The mailboxes in the UT post office use many shapes. Each mail box is a vertical rectangle. Inside this rectangle there is then a smaller horizontal rectangle, a square and a circle dial. 

                                  

Space: 

The builders of Plant Hall used the element of space when putting the windows in place. Each window is the same size and have an equal amount of space used between each window frame.

Project 9

Final Group Project

 

Group Roster

	Sense	Project(s)
Jennifer	Sight	Life & Death, Multiframes
Micaela	Smell	Point of View, Metaphor
Orlando	Touch	Notice What You Notice
Stevie	Taste	Double Entendre
Jeslin	Sound	Sound Recording

 

Process

In our first meeting we began to brainstorm ideas for what we wanted to do in our group of five.  We came up with the idea of using the five senses as an aspect for our project. Jennifer is sight, Micaela is smell, Jeslin is sound, Stevie is taste, and Orlando is touch. We decided to have our five senses focus on a cup of tea. All five of us went to Oxford Exchange on our own time, and the restaurant which is across the street from the University of Tampa campus.  We each ordered a cup of tea and observed what we needed to in order to complete our individual part of the project. 

Synopsis

Jennifer McElroy:  I show life and death by placing three photos in a row of the cup of tea full, half full, and empty. I use lighting to also present the theme of life and death.  The bright light used in the top picture of the full cup of tea presents that life is bright and full when we are first young and learning.  The middle picture is when the cup is half full and the light is a bit dimmer, this symbolizes when we are middle aged and half of our life is already over.  The bottom picture is an empty cup of tea and there is not much lighting.  This represents that the end of our life brings us our darkest and scariest moment, death.

Orlando Rivera: I represented touch with the 50 things to notice. In the first picture I use a gentle touch and sort of a bright lighting to basically show as if it were day time and that the tea is still a little hot which doesn't allow me to follow grip the cup as you can also see the yea still bubbling from it's hear. On the second picture I made it a little bit darker to make it seem as it if it were night time so the tea a little cooler and allows me to fully grip the cup and as you can see the tea is a lot calmer and no longer bubbling. 

Micaela Figueroa: We wanted to show the point of view of a cup of steaming hot tea and decided to add the smoke and the individual consuming the delicious beverage. Also, the flowers in the air is a metaphor for the aroma of the cup of London Fog Tea at Oxford exchange.

Stevie Ruzich: The musical notes as the steam of the tea symbolize the emotional correlation between two seemingly unrelated activities. For many people, drinking tea and listening to music are de-stressors. Incorporating flowers into the cup juxtaposes the refreshing nature of drinking the tea (e.g. the stimulation) against the calming effect of it (e.g. the relaxation). 
 

Catalogue

This process occurred on our own time when we were available to make it to Oxford Exchange.

 

Jennifer McElroy:

 

 

Micaela Figueroa:

 

 

 

Stevie Ruzich:

 

Orlando Rivera:

Jeslin Ritz: