Week 1&2 blog post
(sorry guys, I've been slacking)

Week 1: About Me

My name’s Julia Michaela Funtanilla. I go by Michaela or Kayla. I’m a Communication major with an emphasis in Multimedia Journalism and a minor in Design for Digital Media a.k.a Graphic Design. I was born and raised in Roy, Utah. I love Ogden. During my time at Weber State, I’ve been involved in The Signpost, KWCR and Metaphor. I hope to graduate this Spring, but we’ll see what happens.

Hobbies: music, writing, reading, drawing, designing, thinking, listening, watching, chess, cards and beer pong.

Favorite writers: Vonnegut, Salinger, Palahniuk, B.J. Novak, Bukowski

Favorite books: “SlaughterHouse-Five,” “Anthem,” “The Little Prince,” “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” (and of course) “Catcher in the Rye” and “Franny & Zooey”

Favorite magazines: SLUG, Playboy, Salt Lake Magazine

Favorite novella: “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption”

Favorite movies: “Almost Famous” and “(500) Days of Summer”

Favorite directors: Judd Apatow and Guy Ritchie

Favorite documentaries: “Amy” and “Exit Through the Gift Shop”

Favorite podcasts from NPR: Invisibilia, Ted Radio Hour and Tiny Desk

Favorite guilty pleasures: the TV show, “Girls,” Glamour Magazine and Maroon 5  

Favorite artists: Brand New, Modest Mouse, Conor Oberst/Bright Eyes, Kings of Leon

Favorite female artists: Jenny Lewis, Lana Del Rey, Joni Mitchell, Josaleigh Pollett

Favorite jam of the week: “Gooey” by Glass Animals

Favorite pizza joints: Slackwater (California or Thai), Lucky Slice (The Danimal), Pizza Runner (cheese sticks packed with veggies) and the Pie Hole (atmosphere is awesome, pizza’s okay).

I think that’s all you really need to know about me.

Week 2: Punctuation

I think punctuation is pretty interesting. It can be really powerful when you use it correctly, but it can also be powerful when you use it incorrectly—I mean this, in the creative sense. I know a lot of writers and poets who intentionally use punctuation wrong to emphasize their work. This writer I talked to once told me, in order to effectively use punctuation wrong, you have to first know the ins-and-outs of grammar. This idea is a bit off topic, because we’re obviously learning how to use punctuation correctly only to use punctuation correctly, but I thought it was worth sharing anyway.

When it comes to punctuation, I think my biggest weakness is commas. I’m not very confident with commas. I think this is because I feel like AP style does commas a lot differently than other styles. Even though I’ve been reading about commas, they still don’t make complete sense to me. A lot of the time, I feel commas are instinctive for me. The book gives an example about using a comma in this sentence, “cold, dreary Midwestern night” vs “another cold Midwestern night.” The difference between these sentences is that you can separate the adjectives in the first sentence with “and,” but you can’t do that in the second sentence. To be honest, I’m not sure I understand the “and-logic” completely. But I kind of understand why you need to add a comma between the two adjectives in the first sentence. Commas may seem like such a basic thing, but I still find them a little tricky. I blame my teachers in elementary and junior high, they explained commas to be “a pause for breath,” that’s the worst definition by far.