Allison Brock's Blog

In my backpack of intangibles, I chose to bring my whole family! The first picture is my dad and me at a gala for my sorority, Alpha Phi. I also included a picture of my mom and me from when I took senior pictures. Additionally, I included a picture from Christmas of my twin brother, Ross and my older sister, Amanda. Family means so much to me so I would absolutely have to bring my siblings and parents with me on this adventure. I also included my dogs, Boo, Lola, Marley, and Tiger because all trips are more exciting when they’re with us. For entertainment I brought my two favorite books: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and The Iliad by Homer. These books are not only my all time favorites, but they’re great to travel with because they’re filled with so much excitement and information; each time I read them I pick up something I didn’t catch before.

            One of the most shocking and controversial scandals in present day America is the sex abuse cases against leaders in the Catholic Church. The movie Spotlight, directed by Tom McCarthy, tells the true story of the Boston Globe’s investigative journalism team known as Spotlight and their journey to unearth the covered-up cases of child abuse and molestation. The team, portrayed by Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, and Brian d’Arcy James, not only unveils the findings of sexual abuse in Boston but also all over America and all over the world.

            In these cases, the notion of separation of church and state plays a huge role. However, in many cases it seems as though the judicial system is aiding the Catholic Church in keeping these scandals secret from the public. Damien Cave and Livia Albeck-Ripka for the New York Times describe the media blackout ordered by the judge in the case of Cardinal Pell. In their article, “How We Reported on the Cardinal Pell Sex Abuse Case That for Months Was Kept Secret from the Public,” Damien says, “a judge’s suppression order prohibited publishing details on the proceedings while they were going on” (Damien & Albeck-Ripka). This ultimately created a media blackout. Similarly, in Spotlight, Brian d’Arcy James’ character, Matt Carroll is searching desperately for court records that prove the abuses against Catholic Church leaders. These records should have been public record but for some reason they were being hidden from the public. After filing several lawsuits the court ultimately had to release them to Carroll, but this was after a great deal of stalling and outside pressure against him from the Catholic Church and the judiciary system.

the homepage I created was for the online shopping store, ZARA. ZARA is one of my favorite stores to shop at but I absolutely hate using the website and pretty much never do. I tried to make the website more user-friendly by adding a drop down menu that is supposed to come down when the user scrolls over either the Men, Women, or Kids tab. This is shown on my homepage creation for the women’s tab. I also added the social media’s at the bottom as a “link” for user’s to go directly to ZARA’S social media pages.

A very pressing concern in America today is sexual abuse to children and young adults. Each day there are new scandals across the country describing the latest abuse of power. In a time like this when you can never be too concerned with the well-being of a child, the movie Spotlight shows that children might not even be safe at the one place that should be a guaranteed safe zone: the church. This crime-drama movie tells the story of the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team and their year-long journey to unveiling one of the longest and most covered-up stories in Boston history. The Spotlight team of reporters begin discovering case after case of sexual abuse and child molestation committed by leaders in the Catholic Church. As the story continues, not only does the Spotlight team discover the truths of the Church in Boston, but also all over the world. This huge societal issue makes people wonder, where are their children safe from this abuse? How far will people of power and money go to in order to keep their indiscretions private? Should the affairs of the Church and State really be separate when the issue has grown to this magnitude?

I believe in many things that make this issue so compelling to me. Not only am I a Christian, but I grew up in Catholic school for a majority of my schooling. It was at my Catholic high school I discovered a passion for government and history. I believe in the law and I believe in equality. I also believe in God and the Church. While in some cases I truly believe in the separation of Church and State, in this specific case I do not. Spotlight shows that this is not just in happening in other countries; it is happening right here in America. Great lengths are being made to cover this scandal. After the Spotlight team published their first article about the scandal in 2002, masses of victims of sexual abuse by leaders in the Catholic Church began calling in with their similar stories. Spotlight published nearly 600 stories about this in 2002 alone. In these stories almost 250 priests and brothers in the Boston Archdiocese were identified as the culprits of these acts. The stories have only continued to grow today.

I cannot say that I am very knowledgeable of this issue outside of what I have learned from the movie Spotlight. However, recently I learned that Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of the Galveston-Houston area was heavily involved in a case handling the wrongdoings of a priest in Texas. Houston is my home. This happened in my own backyard. Bishop DiNardo has come to my high school and even blessed me at mass one time. I am a believer in the laws set to protect American citizens, especially the ones that protect children and minors. I am also a believer in the church. This issue does not sit well with me at all. I would like to learn about why separation of Church and State is granted in this situation. To me this seems very straightforward: sexual abuse is taking place and those involved should be processed accordingly.

In my promo ad, I was the designer of the product, Serious Spray. I spent a lot of time and a lot of detail on this assignment and it’s actually the first one I feel very confident about. I mostly used InDesign for my promo ad but I used Photoshop to crop and erase all of the pictures. I know my background of confetti doesn’t seem to make much sense but I wanted to stay with the creator of the product’s vision, which is that this product is much like Silly String. I did however change the location to purchase Serious Spray from Party City to Academy Sports & Outdoors. After getting class critiques, I still decided to keep the confetti background the same because I really think it pulls the whole ad together.

Since the origins of the United States of America, racial inequality and injustice from the government has always been a pressing topic. In Henry David Thoreau’s, “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau discusses the unfair treatment of African Americans in slavery and protests the Mexican War. Martin Luther King, Jr. address the clergymen’s blind eye to the very present racial injustice in Birmingham, Alabama in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Both men believe government is held together by laws that are just and laws that are unjust. Each author approaches the means to solve and prevent these unjust laws in different ways by quoting and referring to outside authorities to establish what they define as moral code.

In my phototag, I decided to make a fairytale. My background was the big castle, there is a pet dragon on the lawn, Cinderella is on the side walk with her dog and the missing slipper. I struggled most with trying to figure out of if everything was scaled realistically.

I didn’t really understand what this quote meant until Mrs. McCaughey said to think about the strings attached to our possessions. I really understand the quote when thinking about it that way. I constantly see the strings attached in everyday life, in the decisions I make and in the relationships I have with other people. When I wake up in the morning do I want to make coffee? Usually the answer is yes, but I lose those 5 extra minutes of sleep. This seems so small and simple but to me it makes sense. I really see this in the more luxurious possessions I have. Usually after I buy myself something nice, I always wonder if it was the right decision now that the money has left my savings. I think if you look for it, you see that every possession is one with loss.

In my ad redo I took in my critiques and applied them and now I feel much more confident in my final product. I don’t really remember why I chose to use so many different text boxes for my writing but I deleted them all and just made one whole text box. That made it so much easier to make sure everything was centered. I also centered the Albertsons’ logo with the text as well, which I had not done in my original. I still couldn’t quite figure out how to make my orange text color brighter but I think overall my ad redo looks much better than my original.

In my redo of the original ad for Albertsons’ Pharmacy, I wanted to make the ad more exciting than the original by adding a bit more pop of color. I really loved the background I got for my ad because the blue and orange created what I think is great contrast. I really wanted to make my text an orange that matched the prescription bottle but I couldn’t really figure out how to do that. I found this assignment our toughest one yet just because I think my original ad was a good one, it was in our A category. However, I think the blue and orange color scheme I went with is much more exciting than the basic blue and red color scheme in the original.