My research process for my paper about Breaking Bad was quite different than many of my other processes for previous papers I had written. In this case, because I have seen the show multiple times before I already had an idea of what parts of the show I wanted to comment on. With such a large show with an expansive storyline and plot, there was a lot of information that possibly could have been used, and a lot of information that scholars had spoken on in their sources. Because of this, I tried to narrow down what I thought would be useful to my paper and the point that I was getting across, instead of thumbing my way through an entire show and then finding what I thought would be useful. A difficulty that I found was that because the show is so deep and has an extremely dynamic story there are many different interpretations of events or actions that I thought were only one dimensional. The show is so great, in my opinion, because everything that happens has multiple events leading up to it and multiple repercussions that all have different meanings and allows the viewers to think about the entire plot. It is difficult to analyze a certain part of the show without bringing the whole thing into consideration and thinking about why certain events happen and how they will affect the rest of the universe that has been created in the show. Many scholars had different interpretations of the show, making finding ideas that went with the point I was trying to make quite difficult.

            During this quarantine I have had an unbelievable amount of time to try to keep myself occupied and avoid absolute boredom. One way I have found to do this is to listen to music, trying to expand my taste and not be so basic. This has been fun, but I often get bored of new music or am too scared to listen to an album all of the way through. I don’t really know why I do this, because most of the time I actually give something new a chance it works out well. This is the same thing for my entertainment on Netflix, if a show doesn’t have my full attention within the first five minutes, I will stop watching it. I enjoy shows much more than movies but have an issue with committing to something, eight seasons with at least ten episodes per season and hour-long episodes is very daunting if the show kind of sucks. Movies have been a pretty solid option, although many movies leave me wondering why I spent so much of my time watching but whatever. I guess not all movies end like Toy Story where the good guys win, and I just have to think about the plot a little bit more. I have developed quite a hatred for Ohio’s weather, despite being with it for my whole life and already hating it quite a bit. It is spring, I’m stuck inside all day, please just be pretty and warm outside so I can spend some time out there. It is either cold or rainy most of the week, but those couple of beautiful days of the month are appreciated even more. Hopefully all of the problems I listed in this blog will go away soon. Also, people spelling quarantine incorrectly is very agitating.

            The representation of female characters in The Big Bang Theory has changed the way that the media expects women to be shown in a television show. Scientists often were shown or portrayed very little in the media and in pop culture, with many other professions like lawyers or doctors being used to show people with high intellect or very well-paying jobs. The Big Bang Theory began to show scientists and what they did, and how they interacted with others, but started off as a mainly male show. The profession was also male dominated, along with most scientists being white males. When the show introduced female scientists as main characters, they were often downplayed as not being as intelligent as the other male characters. The article even uses the term naïve experts, claiming that female scientists allowed their emotions to get in the way of their work. The women in this show often break out of the boundaries set by the other male characters, not allowing them to place them in a traditional female role. The women in The Big Bang Theory express their intelligence just as much as the men, even though the men often try to put them down or act as if they are the more intelligent character. Despite the show’s progressive attempts, hegemonic masculinity can still be noticed as the women are often portrayed less as scientists but as society would view their expected role because of their gender. Despite this, the women are not afraid to challenge the intelligence of the men and express their skills.

With the coronavirus being the biggest part of everyone’s lives right now, I would like to share my perspective and how it has affected me. I agree that there is so much muddled information coming from all sorts of media, some outlets that have no business commenting on the medical behaviors of a virus, that it is very hard to know what is true or what is meant to spark an emotion within a reader. It is impossible to ask to be shown only the truth and facts, but when the vast majority of the information is the furthest thing from being true it is hard to believe what you read. With that being said, there is no questioning that steps had to be taken and reading emails from professors much older and smarter than I am telling me that this is all an overreaction is quite terrifying. Yes, I love sports with my whole heart and hate that Dayton didn’t have a chance to prove itself, both the men’s and women’s teams, in the tournament, but that would put so many people at risk. I would love to be able to watch afternoon baseball while sitting in my parent’s house bored out of my mind, wishing I could be with my friends, but people would be at risk. Yes, the first couple of days that I was home I was pleading my case to be let out of the house so that I could have fun. Then I realized that this is the world right now, there is nothing that I can do to change that, and I need to do what I am told and make the best of it. This time sucks, I wish I wasn’t always stressed that an email telling me something was due is going to get lost in the billion other emails I get, but I am living in it and have to deal with it. I hope that once COVID-19 is under control a little bit people are as nice to each other face to face as they are trying to be on social media right now. 

            In Monsters Inc., there are many different characters who have traits unique to themselves. For example, Sully, one of the main characters, is a giant teddy bear. He looks like a monster, very large and scary, yet he is caring and has a soft side. Mike Wazowski is another main character who again is scary and a monster, but he is not always like that. The big, scary monsters are even scared at a few different points in the movie. The two main characters portray themselves as intimidating monsters, seemingly as a strong male character. Boo, a main female character, is one of the main reasons the softer sides of characters come out. Boo is seen as a helpless little girl who is expected to be scared of everything, especially Sully and Mike. On the contrary though, Boo is not intimidated by the monsters, but she finds joy in them and befriends them. Boo goes against the assumed role that she would play in the movie and acts quite unlike the little girl that her character is. Roz is another female character in the movie, portrayed as an old, grumpy lady. This portrayal goes almost hand in hand with her actual character, the person who checks everyone into and out of work. Roz also does not take any tomfoolery from anyone, not even Mike when he tries. Despite Monsters, Inc. being a very old movie and one that is shown to quite young kids, the portrayal of gender within the movie can be seen as many characters go against the assumed way they would act from their appearance. 

            My last writing class was senior year in high school, where we had many literal analysis papers on different types of stories. This included poems, short stories, nonfiction and fiction. This was a common theme for any of my papers in high school, with a very heavy focus on claim, data, and warrant. I believe this way of writing has helped my own writing, but I sometimes fall into a groove where I keep repeating the claim, data, warrant recipe over and over again. My dad has always been my proofreader, even in college, and he tells me that I have a very monotone and academic way of writing. I believe this is because of writing only research papers and very academic pieces. Our handwritten paragraphs were expected to be written this way also. I have not written a story like the audio memoir throughout my schooling, so it was different, and I could not follow my normal process. I am expecting to follow the process that I used in high school for our next paper as it is similar to the papers that I wrote previously. I believe this process is quite effective because although it can be very monotonic, it allows the writer to clearly get his or her idea across while also proving it a few sentences later. I have no plans of changing my writing process currently, but always try to be conscious not to follow the same pattern too many times in my writing and sound repetitive. 

One of my favorite TV shows of all time is Breaking Bad, in which women do not play a very large role. The show focuses greatly on Walter White and Jesse Pinkman and the people they meet and interact with while cooking and selling meth. Walter White evolves into a very intimidating, hard drug dealer who does not show much emotion. In the earlier seasons of the show, Walter was more family-oriented man who lived a very plain life. Jesse Pinkman does not play a stereotypical male character, rather a man who is broken and shows a lot of his emotions. As the show nears the falling out of the pair, Jesse can be seen crying very often and showing the audience his feelings. Jesse also changes throughout the show because Jesse used to be a harder character. Another male character in the show is Hank, Walter’s brother in law who is also a DEA agent. Hank’s character is very stereotypical of hegemonic masculinity as he never speaks or shows emotion, not even after traumatizing things happened to him during work. Hank refuses to speak about what he saw or is feeling, but it is very obvious to the audience and other characters that he is struggling. The women in Breaking Bad are a lot of spouses or partners. Walter’s wife Skylar is a stay at home mom for much of the show and see can be seen worrying about Walt a lot. Towards the end of the show Skylar begins to take a bigger role in the “business” and go back to work. Jesse also has some female characters that he interacts with but again in is mostly in romantic relationships. Breaking Bad is heavily male based, with few female characters in major roles.

My name is Aidan Quinlan and I am from Columbus, Ohio. My dad is in business and my mom was an OBGYN until she retired after my third brother was born. I have four brothers, two older and two younger. Growing up as the middle child between all brothers was interesting but I cannot imagine growing up another way. I have gone to Catholic schooling all my life and went to an all-boys high school. I have one black lab named Caragh who is 10 years old. I played baseball through high school, as sports have been in my house for my whole life with my older brothers. They have been very influential on my life, and it was very weird when they slowly moved out for college and life after. I have not explored much with my writing and view myself as a writer that writes for assignments. I never write if it is not needed of me. Through schooling, most of my writing has been research papers and book reports. I have never explored with my writing or have been extremely creative. I believe that I sometimes struggle with repeating myself in my papers and not fully knowing how to get my point across. I sometimes also struggle with not fully understanding what I am writing about which leads to more confusion when it comes time to write a paper. I would like to be able to branch out with my writing and see what I am capable of doing.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.