Mary Austin's Mesa Trail is talking about a trail used a long time a go in the past during the time of the Indians and cowboys.  The story brings you back to a much simpler time than of today and makes you sometimes wish it were like that again.  The trail follows a very flat open mesa with very little to break up the monotony of the flat land.  If you are not on horseback it takes too long to travel the lands and you will soon be bored mad.  Even on horseback it takes nearly a days ride for the landscape to change.  After the landscape changes there starts to be many a different kinds of plants and shrubs off of the trail, most have names given by children in the and have never been renamed. This land is also a land of many lizards, from small to large "salmon" sized ones,  you can get two bits for one if you catch it.  Cattle and sheep are driven across this land to make money and while the driver sleeps he trusts his dogs to keep the flock at bay.  The air is full of winds and smells all over the place. The end of the trail is the smell of the salt grass.

Mesa

 McTeague in Polk street is rather fascinated with the street that goes by his window.  The street is a bustling place and has a very rhythmic schedule to it.  The street is full of shops and stores as well as random vendors trying to sell things on the street.  Everyday there was a pungent odor of ink in the air from the factories.  Along with the smell every once in a while a cable car would rumble by taking people places.  The street was bustling at breakfast and lunch time and at the same time the school children would takeover the street on their way to or from school.  The school children would very suddenly disappear as they had some where to be.  At night time there was a much happier atmosphere when no one had any work or school left to do and they all went out for entertainment.  By the time eleven rung on the clock every one was asleep and at one the cable car quit running and everything was silent.

 A place is more than just the general definition of space.  A place is somewhere where human activity has taken place in the past or currently.  If there was no human activity in a place then there would be no knowing that the place even exited.  A place can be something as simple as a place where you went to eat lunch one day to a place where you had your first kiss or where you proposed.  A place is defined as a place of social gathering or activity.  So a house is not a place until it becomes someones home, before this it is just a space unoccupied.  This is referred to as place making.  Space is personal, meaning people all have different views on the same place.  This so called sense of place is mostly passed along through stories of past events so the later generations have the same ideas and respect for the place.  Place is a major part of our lives and is the topic of much discussion.

Plagiarism is a very bad practice in academic writing doesn't help anyone either the party plagiarizing or the victims.  There are two different types of plagiarism, one is unintentional and the other is intentional.  Unintentional plagiarism usually occurs when some one forgets to cite a quote in their paper or assumes something is common knowledge but is not.  This can happen very easily and it mostly starts in the note taking process.  People take notes in a hurry and don't put quotes around something that they think that they will remember later but then they just forget.  Intentional plagiarism is a much worse form of it and is subject to very severe punishment.  Most of the time this occurs when a person is just running out of time or just doesn't care in general about the project.  In any case plagiarism should be avoided at all costs and if you find your self in a position of plagiarizing something, DON'T.

I believe that there are many benefits to working through the lens that you have constructed from another authors text.  It seems to have opened my mind a bit more on how other people view the space and is helping me to see things differently.  Other people have their own opinion about a space and most of the time these opinions are very different from my own.  These new viewpoints seem to make it a little bit harder to write a paper being that I'm not writing though my own eyes but it is getting easier as I construct more lenses and start to write writing project one.

Notes 2 Pages:

Your Space:  Sun Angel Stadium, Joe Selleh Track

What are the intended functions of the space?              

The intended functions of the space are for the running and training for track and field events.

What overt messages does the space send (i.e., openly communicated through signs)?

There are signs for the name and the times of the runners currently running in a race.

What covert messages does the space send (i.e., hidden messages)?

There are signs that display emergency information, implying that this sport could be dangerous to participate in.

Have previous users left traces behind in the space?

Yes, they have.  From the worn down white lines of the track to the empty water bottles left out after races and workouts.

Has the space been re-appropriated (i.e., beyond its original functions)?

Certain parts of the space are currently being used to store old exercise equipment and building materials for around campus.

What social or cultural customs did you observe (i.e., rules governing appropriate behavior)?

Which way people run on the track, what people do when a faster person comes along, what everyone does before the start of a race.

Who has access to the space?  Are there insiders and outsiders?

This space is intended to be used only by any ASU athlete, but many a non-athletes also go there to train or exercise as well.

Who owns the space?

          Arizona State University owns and operates the space.

What is the space’s value (i.e., monetary or otherwise)?

          The space is valued as a place to go to compete and display speed and skill.

Are there official representations of the space (i.e., online, in promotional materials)?  Do they accurately capture the space as you experienced it?

There is an official representation on ASU’s website but the site does not talk very about the track or stadium.  It just talks about that the track was redone in 2008 and was the home to two conference track and field championships.

Is the space in transition, a changing space?

The physical aspect of the space remains very static or unchanged as the same components are always there.

What conflicts or tensions are there in the space?

The conflicts of the space are between the people using the space and with themselves.  As the people in the space try to push themselves harder their bodies don’t want to continue.

What is the space’s history?  Do you see evidence of the past there in the present?

The space has history of holding conference championships and many other things.  Some of the evidence of past things in the present is the presence of old equipment no longer in use for anything.

How does this space differentiate itself from other spaces?  What other spaces is it similar to, but how is it different from those spaces?

The space differentiates itself from other spaces on campus in that it has a sole purpose and has few people willing to use it the way that it was intended to be used.

What questions do you have about your space?

One question would be who came up with the original idea of the track and why

Key Features / Profiles (taken from the Norton Field Guide (Goggin and Bullock) Chapter 16, pages 165-166)

An interesting subject.  What is unusual about your space?  Alternatively, is there something ordinary about it that you can show in an intriguing way?

That the space is a combination of good and bad all in one and they can change very quickly from one to the other.

Any necessary background.  What background information will you need to include about the space in order to situate readers?

          The location of the space which is west of rural road next to the tennis courts.

          It was opened in 1976 and named after a former track coach.

An interesting angle.  Rather than trying to tell readers everything about the space, what angle(s) might you use?

I can use the angle that the space has a certain beauty to it they should go see.

A firsthand account.  Did you interact with people in the space or participate in some way?  What experiences did you have there that you can write about using “I”?  (Yes, first person point of view is encouraged, especially for this paper.)

I watched the people using the space as it was intended as well as participated in the use as well.  I fully felt both the negative and the positive aspects of the space while running on the track. While using the space most of the time you get the negative side as you feel like you want to die, but then after you are done it transitions to good as you feel good about what you accomplished.

Engaging details.  What specific information must you include in your description of the space?  What potential does your space have for the use of sensory images, figurative language, dialogue, anecdotes, and showing rather than telling?  What do you want the dominant impression to be?

There is fairly good potential for using sensory imagery and other things.  Some things could be talking about the evenly spread lines of the lanes on the gradual uniform turns and straights.  The start and finish lines denoting the start and the end of something whatever that may be, to the evenly spaced towering set of stairs going up the stadium.

Generating Ideas and Text (taken from the Norton Field Guide (Goggin and Bullock) Chapter 16, pages 168-169)

Explore what you already know about your subject.  Why do you find this space interesting?  What did you already know about it?

I found this space interesting because there are few places that combine the feelings of good and bad into a single use. Prior to this I already knew the general purpose of the space.

If you’re planning to interview someone, prepare questions.  What would you like to ask someone in the space in order to better understand it?

          I would like to ask what they are using the space for and what it means to them.

Do additional research.  Does your space have an online component?  How else might you gather additional research?

I could also look at published articles about the stadium and events that have been held there.

Analyze your findings.  What patterns, images, or recurring ideas or phrases did you use to describe your space?  What contrasts or discrepancies do you see?

          I mostly used the contrast of good and bad, and pain and victory. 

Come up with an angle.  What is most memorable about your subject?  What most interests you?  What will interest your audience?

The history and the use of the space for events.  How they can participate in using the space.