Valley Fair Mall.

On February 10^th, 2011, I went to the Valley Fair Mall as planned.

My plans though were not to shop, but to analyze, observe, and research the mall, and generate some ideas of who shops or walks in mall, and where in the mall, what the architecture and design of the mall is like, what type of stores are in this mall mainly, what food places, what the atmosphere and feel it gives, and all that type of stuff.

It was an interesting mission, I arrived at the mall around 6:20 or so, and was wandering around its light cream colored environment.

As soon as I explored around a bit before meeting up at the Food court with the class, I was already noticing things.

The architecture I started to look at more in depth, the dim lighting in the mall reminded me more of a luxury hotel, it gives that sort of mood.

The Wall colors and layout was light colors, beige or something... accented at certain areas with other colors that usually give the feel of class like gold.

The Layout seemed to have the more expensive, and mostly high end fashion on the bottom floor, where the top had more of the Middle to lower income range clothing stores, and almost every other shop, since the bottom was majority wise mainly high cost women's fashion.

When I arrived at the food court to meet with my professor and the class, I even realized there that most of the food eateries at the food court were fast food of some sort, mostly American style, or Asian fast food, and a few other places here and there outside of that.

(Sabarro Pizza & Pasta, Bolden Bread and Soup, etc) I noticed there was not Mexican style food place up there, or most of anywhere in the mall, besides just only Rubios, which is kind of interesting..

Before I even started this assignment, I was starting to notice things once I looked at them in a observational way, rather then just as a consumer walking around.

The primary target demographic I started to realize for Valley Fair were higher income white women, due to what I noticed about the shops on the bottom floor, and who was shopping in them.

Although, I saw many Asian women with high income as well shopping, but unlike the white women, the Asian ones were never the intended target in advertizing, and in design likely.

San Jose's three biggest ethnic populations is White, Hispanic/Latino, and Asian, and the one that I felt seemed to be not represented, or targeted the most, were the Hispanic/Latino demographic, whether it be in advertisements for the mall, the stores, and the structure of the mall as a whole, it felt a bit like a not so welcoming environment compared to most mall around the silicon valley, being a high end mall, they would tend too look at that demographic as mostly poor I suppose.

So I had an interesting time looking at this mall from a more critical and analytical manner,

but of what possibilities could Valley Fair Mall offer, and bring to the table for their consumers, and people of San Jose?

I feel this city is one of which the chance opportunity can be high, and if someone tries hard enough, regardless of race, gender, sexual origins, income background, and such, they can get a chance at careers, and to achieve things they might not have a chance to in some other places in this country, or in the world even.

I feel this mall can do the same, offer a sort higher end shopping experience for the general public of San Jose, in which it already does, so it delivers on that at least, being one of the nicest malls in the Bay Area, that's always a good thing.

I feel that it also can offer safe and relaxing indoor environment for the people of this city to shop, hang out, and kick back, an escape from Downtown San Jose or even Santana Row across the street if needed.

But I feel what is wrong with Valley Fair Mall is a few things.

Unlike many other nearby malls, like the Great Mall in Milpitas, Oakridge Mall, Eastridge Mall, Valco Mall In Cupertino, and NewPark Mall in Fremont among some is it offers less diversity overall compared to the malls I just mentioned, where those malls I listed tend to target a wider demographic of many different type of people with the type of stores, and layout being more friendly to most people, and the shoppers being more diverse in ethnicity, class, and gender.

I feel Valley Fair does not do that, or do a very good job at that.

They offer mostly a “White Female with High Income” type of shopping experience downstairs, they only have four male only clothing stores even, which shocked me.

Unlike the malls I listed, I saw no stores with certain ethnic appeal, (Asian, Latino/Hispanic, Indian, African American, Pacific Islander/American Samoan, etc.) and only really ones that are of White American, or European brand based stores.

I feel that elitism of store employees, and some shoppers can be another thing, though mainly from an employee focus, I heard some of my fellow students of non-white ethnicity say they felt unwelcomed by some stores they went into, ether being watched, or treated rudely when they asked questions among other things, and if there is a certain level or elitism, or ignorance from some stores, then that's another issue.

Which brings me to something else I notice, this mall is right across from Santana Row, which is one of the biggest, most upscale, and expensive outdoor shopping malls in the Bay Area, and the country I recall even.

So I wonder if that's why maybe this mall is a bit rich in taste, and can make those who don't make a lot of money feel un-welcomed, Santana Row can indeed give that feeling to some who visit it, and don't look, or make as much as the many people who are there who shop, or live in the lofts or luxury condos at Santana Row, or a few miles away in their expensive 2-3 story owned home in the suburbs, its a yuppies paradise, and it can be intimidating for some who don't fall under that sort of class of people.

So I wonder if maybe the reason Valley Fair might be the way it is due to the location of being right across from Santana Row, and the type of people that go there.

I feel if this mall want's to not alienate certain people, and potential customers, they should advertize towards people they usually never do to, have more diversity overall with the shops in their mall, such as opening more Male clothing store places, some businesses geared towards certain races that are not Asian food or one Mexican fast food place, I feel they need to treat everyone who Is shopping, and giving them business equally, regardless of race, gender, or class, if were giving you business, it should not matter, don't judge a book by its cover as they say.

I feel they need to make it basically more welcoming for a city as diverse as San Jose, more Variety, because despite how nice Valley Fair Mall, if there is something they lack compared to their customers, among some key things, its diversity and variety in the stores, and those who shop in them.

IWA assignment 2-Matrix-red pill or blue pill?

There is a well know line in the movie "The Matrix" where Morpheus ask The main protagonist and hero to be, Neo, a very important question in the movie, in a major scene in the film the leads to where the path goes in which Neo, the main character, ends up taking.

The question that Morpheus ask is this" You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes."

Now, here's the thing... if this question was asked to me, and i was in Neo's shoes...which would i pick?
Well that's a good question, and a tough choices as you can see if you seen the film.
One choice being the blue pill would let you continue to live life the same as you always have, in the world your familiar with, but one in which is being questioned, and told to you to be not real.
Or you can take the red pill, and go explore a world you never seen, what is considered real by those who are trying to find you, and lead the way for you to go with that choice, as Morpheus said with the Alice and Wonderland line as example, but you go where you cannot return, and have to cope, and deal with the suppose "truth" of what is the real world.

I guess being a realistic though, i would pick the Red pill, even if it is tough to swallow (no pun intended)
I would like to be take the chance, and take a risk, and see what the "real world is" regardless of life or death, seeing as i tend to challenge life, and question things within it, i would take the adventure, to be in charge of my own life possibly, bend the rules, make it all my own, and not get out of my head about it, to be hero, to seek what is the truth, and challenge myself to decide for myself, and live with my choice.

Neo accepted his choice, and if i were to be one, i hope i would as well myself.

Examined Life-My Reponse to Kwame Anthony Appiah's part

My video/vlog response to Kwame Anthony Appiah's part in the documentary "Examined Life".
I had issues getting the file off my phone, but finally found a way to do so thankfully.
Enjoy.
(PS: sorry the video came out side ways D: it was short notice, and didn't have time to fix that...sorry)

Scavenger Hunt-January 6th-2011

Me, and two classmates. (Erik, Linna.) were assigned as a team.
Our first mission for the Creative Mind class as announced by Apryl Berney was a scavenger hunt, we had around 35 minutes or so to find all 14 things that are listed below.
Me and Erik were in most of the shots, since Linna was doing most of the camera work for the assignment.

Here is the list of what we had to find.
1. a duck or goose
2. Bus stop
3. A copy of James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time.
4. Euphrat Museum of Art
5. A student sleeping in the library.
6. Jamba juice cup
7. De Anza President Brian Murphy
8. The Creative Minds class blog.
9. Coke bottle in Bookstore
10. Two Honda civics of the same color, parked side by side in the parking lot
11. Someone wearing Converse tennis shoes
12. Someone who has seen Tron in 3D.
13. Someone other than Prof. Berney whose first name is Apryl/April (proof of that person’s name must be included in the photo).
14. Someone who knows a popular dance move and who can teach that dance move to group members.

We found 11 out of 14 of the things.

Me and Erik Standing in front of the Euphrat Museum of Art.

Me and Erik with Pepsi®....yeah...sorry....DeAnza has no Coca Cola® for sale it seems. I am going to guess they have a contract or something with PepsiCo® lol.

 We stopped a fellow student with Converse on, and told him to show off his canvas kicks for our hunt, and he was totally cool with it, and seemed to understand what we were doing... a Scavenger hunt of course.

The Creative Minds Homepage @ Creativemindsatdeanza.wordpress.com
This one goes out to our Professor April Berney. B]

We almost did not find the book of James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time,  we had 10 minutes left, and could not find it, and thought someone maybe was hid it. (Creative Minds being cutthroat in competition? thankfully not) but nope, we gave another shot at looking for it, and found the book.

A duck...yep, none were outside that night, so we took a loophole like many did with the Internet.
Thank goodness for the internet...
Also, giving my best "DuckFace" expression for this shot specifically haha.

DeAnza President Brian Murphy, not sure he was on campus then, so we googled him instead.

Me, Erik, and Linna, i am pointing at her because she was the only so far of our group who went to see the new Tron movie. *phew* good thing she did, because we have not seen it.

Jamba Juice cup via Google Image search.....see the pattern now? haha. We should have been able to find a Jamba Juice cup on Campus, in the campus garbage cans, or by going across the street, but we were running out of time, and had to go this route for likely one of the easier ones.

Caught a sleeping student in the Library *Wags finger* Tsk Tsk.....wait! i can't judge or criticize someone about this, i have been guilty of this as well in my time in college as well haha, i have no room to talk.

The first shot in which i took, before Linna realized her camera would be better suited for this assignment, at the bus stop near Panda Express.

~[In Conclusion]~

I felt this was a fun first assignment, and that it was a good way for us classmates to get to know each other a a bit, and go out for a little adventure, in which we work together as a group, make decisions, sometimes they go as planned, sometimes they don't.
We ended up using problem solving skills in the scenarios in which things did not go as planned, and used some improvising when needed.
These are good things to experience toghether as classmates, as these skills can translate well into class likely, as we learn to co-exist and work well among our fellow students.

Other then that, if we had to hunt again, what should maybe we have done differently?
Well, i feel on my end i realize i likely should have lead them to the bus stop at the front of the campus, rather then towards one of the side ones near the street, i feel i wasted us time taking them to that one.
Other then that, maybe more time searching for a Jamba Juice Cup, since they are likely not hard to find on campus trashcans, or cafeteria.
Other then that, i think we should have started off the whole time maybe using Linna's camera haha, since mine does not work well in the dark.

Strategy wise, we just went with the flow of it (no pun intended, heh.) but we decided first off to go to a bus stop, along the way we tried to "kill two birds with one stone" to speak figuratively while heading to the bus stop, by also along the walk trying to spot two matching Honda Civics lined up while head to the best stop.
I still feel that was a good idea, but unfortunately we did not spot any matching Honda Civics lined up near each other, and i think many others in the hunt did not find any as well at that time of the night it seems.
We go to the bus stop, but as i stated earlier, i feel strategy wise we maybe should have headed to the Bus stop at the front of campus instead, so that's something strategy wise i felt could have been better when look back at it now. I feel overall our way of doing it worked, could have it been done better? of course? could of it been better time managed? why yes, but i still feel it was a decent way we choose to go.

Some of the problems, as listed above in some of the pictures captions, were that there was no Coca Cola on campus, only Pepsi for sale, which we could not do anything about, nor could most of the other students, unless they had a Coke bottle in their backpack/bag or something, we lost a good amount of time trying to find a Coke bottle to buy, before i told my two teammates that DeAnza likely does not sell cokes it seems, and that they may have a contract under Pepsico, and that we may have to just go with Pepsi due to that.
Not finding any matching Honda Civics lined up, and the darkness certainly did not help with that.
Having a hard time finding the book, which we almost did not find, and were running low on time.
As just mentioned....time constraints...
Some dark shots that were hard to see, my camera being even worse for night time shots though then Linna's.

So yeah...those were some of the issues we did run into, but we had solutions for most issues, using google image search was one of them, finding out there is not Coca Cola on campus was something we brought up later to our Professor, which she realized was not our fault, and many others in the hunt noticed the same thing and pointed out that Coke was not sold on campus.
We found the book eventually, and i am glad we gave one last shot at searching for it in the section it was located at.
When my camera was not cutting it outdoors, Linna offered to take the shots with phone, which worked better for taking pics, and yea, we at least solved some of these issues by working together, and figuring things out.

I feel this hunt was fun, yet whether some of us realized it or not at first, it showed how we all have our own differing ways of thinking, and ideas that we explore.
The creativity of people were showcased, showing how we as individuals are different, and similar.
So its nice to get insight into the ways others think, act, or go about with this Scavenger Hunt, where it was indeed fun, it was also an interesting way to see how we each go about, and work with each other to get things done, despite our differences, and some of our similarities in which we were exposed of in this assignment.

~Flow