RESTROOMS FOR CUSTOMERS ONLY

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These are two different pictures of two different restaurants that are among the same street.

The first one on the left is Landmark Diner located right next to the Aderhold Learning Center on campus, and the second one is Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken located at Peachtree Center. These two different facilities are carrying the same messages implying that the facilities’ restrooms are for customers only.

This implies that unless an individual is planning on purchasing a meal that they are only allowed to use the restrooms of the restaurants. This tactic is used as in a way to stir away homeless individuals in particular that “if you cannot afford to eat here, you cannot use the toilet here”. I believe that this gimmick has been installed among many other food chain establishments in the city to prevent those that are not wanted because not only they cannot afford the meal ticket but would potentially drive business away if they were to be present among individuals that actually purchased the meal and are sitting down in the restaurant to eat or in other words, wealthier individuals. This can also be seen as if their consumers were to see that if they allowed strangers whether homeless or not to take advantage of their public service such as restrooms without returning the favor of purchasing something from the establishment that there would be complaints involved from these consumers.

It’s almost in a way as to where it’s okay to use the restrooms in the gas station if one is not planning on purchasing anything and is using it as a pit stop because most gas station facilities don’t mind at all who comes in or uses the restrooms because it’s publicly installed for the use of the public. However, when it comes to a restaurant that is set to cater whomever decides to dine in the establishment, it’s not built for public use. Meaning that “if you need to use the potty, you need to purchase something”.

In a way, I can see from both perspectives as to why restaurants only cater to those who buy from it and are stirring away any unwanted and unwarranted public attention that don’t plan on purchasing mainly because of the control of the business and environment itself. However, I do feel sympathy to those that seek the public use of restrooms because there’s only so many around that the nearest one could be a restaurant that wouldn’t allow you to “do your business” because you don’t have the funds for their business or really because all you want to use is the restroom.

A Long Walk to the Campus Recreation Center

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The length of time it takes to walk to the recreation center: 15 minutes.

The length of time it takes to walk to Piedmont Central’s fit room: 5 minutes.

According to my own personal vendetta at least.

In my time of being enrolled in two different institutions including visiting another, while the campuses I visited or lived in have a certain beauty to them whether big or small, open and exposed or closed off and close together, the one building that seems to struck me out is the campuses’ recreation centers. The reason being I feel so impaled about these particular buildings is because they’ve always been to the farthest building to access on campus, especially if one is a resident living on campus.

From my experience of attending and living in Valdosta, the walk from my dorm, Langdale Hall, to the student recreation center was about twenty minutes. According to Google Maps, the walk is twelve minutes. However, if you were lucky enough to catch the shuttle, the ride would be about maybe ten minutes because the shuttle still had to go around the campus and had multiple stops if you were being picked up on North Patterson Street from main campus whereas coming from the recreation center heading back to the main campus dorms only took five minutes.

Even though I did not attend University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, I remember when I visited there that their recreation was nearly a mile from the dorms. They, too, had a campus shuttle system where one could take it instead of walking to there. I feel as though had I lived in or attended the school that it would be nearly a twenty minute walk. According to Google Maps, from the main campus to the facility would only be a nine minute walk.

At Georgia State University, according to my Google Maps app on my phone, the amount of time it would take to walk to the recreation center would be approximately thirteen minutes which isn’t really a far walk. However, as my personal vendetta stated, it only takes five minutes to get from the Piedmont North dorms to the new Piedmont Central dorms. The reason I included the dorms was because Piedmont Central, a new freshmen dorm that just opened this fall semester of 2016, has a fit room with smooth wooden floor, one wall covered with mirrors and a rack full of exercise equipment such as resistance bands, yoga mats and balls. Usually, when I decide to occupy the fit room, there’s either a few other people already there or coming in and out the room to use it as well. For the past few weeks, I have encountered a number of people, including residents of the dorm, that have used the fit room and have save themselves from a trip walking to recreation center.

 

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Even though campus shuttles are available to students, depending on the time of day or day of the week, the walking trips to and from the recreation centers have always stirred students away from making it to the building. Although some would look at the walk as a pre-workout prior to their actual workouts, others would most likely beg to differ. However, I believe that the structure as to why the campus recreation centers are farther than the other buildings on campus is used as a way to promote students healthier habits and lifestyle. That, if one were to attend the rec center and if the shuttle buses weren’t running on a certain day or say the weekend that it challenges the individual to take that “long” to the center pushing them to a better health than relying on a bus to carry them to and from the facility.

However, the installment of such fit rooms will encourage students, especially residents of that building, to occupy the space themselves and save them trips to and from the recreation. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the installments of said fit rooms are most likely to keep residential students away from the campus recreation centers; however, this does encourage the students to be able to “workout at home” if you will so they would still choose the option of maintaining a healthy lifestyle within their own dormitory facility. This also includes other residential students who do not live in the dorm where the fit room is held at but takes advantage of even the slightest of recreation area that is a closer access to them than the recreation center itself. Residential students like myself for example.

FBED: Centennial Olympic Park

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Sitting down on Centennial Olympic, the noises you mostly hear is either the multiple conversations of other people, the splashing water of the water fountains, car tires roaring and screeching against the paved streets and the bell-like sounds alerting you that the Atlanta Streetcar is nearby. So when I took this video, I mostly wasn’t trying to get a particular sound, but what the area is surrounded with from multiple sounds going off all at once. In this video, you can also hear even the slight heaviness of the wind as it picks up because that time of the year has come: fall. And with fall, comes the wind as well.

In this video, you also are able to see a skyline view of the city of Atlanta itself from the eyes of Centennial. You are able to see Skyview, the ferris wheel, in the center move. Also, there are two things that pass through in the video: a flock of birds and a man walking by. By doing this, I captured a major sight of the city looking upon the city.

PSR: Centennial Olympic Park

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One of the brief yet most cherished memories I had a child visiting Atlanta was playing in the water fountains at what I didn’t know was at Centennial Olympic. Transferring to Georgia State University, I was eager to visit places that were said to be near the Atlanta campus. So the day before classes began for the semester, one of my roommates and I walked from our dorm all the way down to the park and right then and there my childlike heart was full as I stepped into the park. We sat on the grass and just relaxed as I was also very impressed how close everything was to the park: Skyview, World of Coke, the Georgia Aquarium, CNN and Philips Arena.

Self-timer selfie I took the day I visited Centennial Olympic Park since my childhood.

Self-timer selfie I took the day I visited Centennial Olympic Park since my childhood. August 21, 2016.

And ever since that day, I would go visit the park as often as I could or when I felt the need to step away from campus for awhile. This past weekend, I visited the park again and sat down on one of the concrete infrastructure that was near the steps of the far side of the park near the Embassy Suites and wrote in my journal. I took pictures and panoramas of the area.

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Pictures and panoramas I took at Centennial Olympic Park. October 1, 2016.

Just recently yesterday, I went back to the park after my last class that was at Aderhold. This is something I’ve been meaning to do for the past couple weeks since classes started. It was a quick five minute walk and when I arrived, the park wasn’t as full as it usually is with families. I walk over to the granite and concrete bench area that sat right before the water fountains and usually while I saw mostly children around this area playing in the water, this time I saw grown ups and adults playing with them and taking pictures in front of them. It was like their childlike playful instincts took over and with the nearly emptiness of the park, it was a perfect opportunity to play in the park.

Visiting Centennial has become one of my favorites things so far while living in Atlanta. I love visiting the park on deserted days like how it was yesterday and even on busy days such as during the weekends. It brings me a childlike wonder just like that most cherish memories I have when I was younger and was playing at the water fountains at the park.

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Picture of the water fountains at Centennial Olympic Park I took yesterday when I visited the park after my last class. October 3, 2016.

#BLACKLIVESMATTER

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Photograph of two men at a Black Lives Matter peace protest.

 

This image shows two men in a #BlackLivesMatter protest where they are holding signs asking the audience or the viewer, or in this case, those who are involved in police brutality, if a black man’s life is inferior to a white man’s. This is a powerful image because it questions the media, also America, something that has been engraved in the country for so long that they chose to live in denial for. American history has always favored the white man over the black man. So this picture with these two men coming together to peacefully protest as the white man supports his black counterpart and questions the media for their injustice, the black man also questions the media a question they chose not to directly answer.

The design of the GSU “quad” discourages unity.

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A photograph of the Georgia State University Plaza from Atlanta Preservation.

The Georgia State University quad, or as the students refer to it: plaza or courtyard, has been a wide ranged space that is in the center of all the classroom buildings and library. Although this space is provided for the students be able to hang out and for student organizations and small businesses to set up tables and tents, the space is really expanded to the point where it is so spaced out that there’s enough room for almost anybody to sit away from each other.

I was walking through the courtyard the other day and despite seeing groups of students bundled up, students also isolated themselves from such groups  by sitting on the concrete benches  or on the unused tables through the plaza and would be on their electronic devices. Because the design of the quad is divided having so many of these miniature plant gardens, this encourages students to find their own little spots to sit away from tables and benches that are being occupied. Even if the majority of the space was being currently occupied, that doesn’t stop students from sitting near each other but not interact with one another.

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A photograph of the Georgia State University Plaza taken for Georgia State University Magazine in 1985.

Referencing to this picture, as the courtyard is covered with students all over the area, despite many sitting in groups together or near one another, if you look closing there’s still some isolation occurring. So even though the plaza was designed to have enough space for students to relax before or after class, it still expands opportunities for students to stir away from one another sitting in their own spots or hangouts.

Artifact: Butterfly on the steps of the University Commons @ GSU

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A butterfly on the steps of the GSU dorm University Commons stairs.

As I was walking down the steps from the University Commons courtyard, there was a large yet petite figure on the steps. The butterfly laid there and hadn’t moved or flapped a single wing. I couldn’t tell if it was dead or not considering that it was very still. I assumed it wasn’t because when I had came back, the little thing was gone.