One More Day

Last day for revising my essay, kind of not sure how im going to do on my paper. Been working on it all weekend and now I'm sitting here reading being like Ugh why did I write about my topic. I've learned alot about the Battle Creek area and the Kellogg company which I find interesting and all but at the same time I can tell while I was writing my paper I wasn't feeling it. Normal when I have a topic I actually care about and like I can free-flow write like 3-4  pages without even thinking. For this paper I would get maybe a page sometimes half a page for one thought even with connections to other topics in my paper, maybe thats the nature of research papers. You need more actually facts than fancy writing to get you through the paper. After this experience and my previous research papers, im glad my planned job doesnt involve writing even longer research papers on obscure historical topics. 

Found the Most Amazing Youtube Video

So I already posted today, but as luck would have it out of my boredom I was like oh hey I wonder if people put videos of Kellogg stuff on youtube and guess what, they did! These random kids make videos on random historical events or places while slightly...how shall I say....inebriate, which is why I feel it is incredible inappropriate for me to actually post on this blog, but its called High History, search it on youtube if you want. But it is, as I already said totally offensive....so don't watch it if your going to get offended.

Class is ending soon

Well class is ending soonish and I feel like everything is coming together. I still have some revising to do on my paper, but that should come together pretty well. The one thing that I'm nervous about is that I have no idea what grade I have in this class, I can guess since I know what I got on the majority of the big assignments but since I can't go in and have the computer show me exactly what I have, slightly apprehensive about it. While I guess I'll see ya all on thursday and tuesday for presentations!

Disgusting Sickness

I am so glad that we don't have class tomorrow. I currently sound like I have black lung. revisions on my paper are coming along though. Basically after going over my paper and finding that while yes I did do it at the last possible minute, the vast majority of it sucks. Good thing we have awhile to work on it cause mine needs alot of work.

This Damn Rough Draft

So here I am thinking that oh hey I have all of this research done and have an idea of what I want to say. I even had about the first two pages done of the paper previous, being just a intro to the paper. Now that I've gotten down to the actually meat of the writing, the important stuff I've realized I barely had any idea before I sat down what I actually wanted my paper to say, or to mean, if anything. I'm not finding it hard to put words on the page. That's easy, the problem I'm having is when I go back and reread it I'm like that just sounds like complete BS and it doesn't matter at all. Basically I'm having trouble to get my paper to have a real meaning, for it to be something that isn't just about Battle Creek but connecting it to something broader that affects people.

Whats the Minimum Requierment for This Paper Again?

So in our proposals we had that time line set up on how long it was going to take us to do everything and when we wanted stuff done by...yeah I've come to the realization that I'm behind my on my own agenda. I thought I had given myself plenty of time to get everything do that I wanted, apparently my supremely awesome ability to be lazy has once again out done itself. I need to kick this research paper into high gear cause I know once it hits middle of November I'm going to be even lazier. Off to read some books on Battle Creek, hopefully I can finish this by the end of the weekend

OOps

So last week I forgot to even write a blog, laziness in general doesn't pay off but I still like to practice it. Anyway I've found several books on the kellogg cereal company now at the MSU library. One that I found is called "Kellogg's Six Hour Day" which talked about how Kellogg during the depression changed his factory from three eight hour shifts to four six hour shifts that way he could hire more people during the depression and allow all of his workers to keep their jobs, which is exactly what I'm writing about in my paper, so now I have a whole 200 page book to support my idea, YAY!! Also I meant to the Library of Michigan and was readying several papers on Kellogg himself and found some very interesting information about him that doesn't actually pertain to my paper. Like the fact that he started the cereal company as a health food because he believe that human health was extremely important. He was also a doctor that went to Harvard and was a vegetarian. He said the vegetarianism was the natural human state because it allowed for a healthier life style.

Pictures

These are some random pictures I found of Kellogg related things

Kellogg had the Kellogg High school built in 1932. Providing jobs for thousands of local construction workers during the depression.

Corn Flakes was the very first cereal produced my Kellogg, when the business was originally founded as the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flakes Company in 1906.

 The main problem I've been having with doing a city like Battle Creek isn't that there is not enough information but that there is almost too much. There is information about Battle Creek for years and years involving a ton of different topics. I maybe changing my topic because it maybe easier to shuffle through information on a town that only started because of a single industry as opposed to an industry that keep a city afloat during the depression that was already established.

Possible Paper Topic

I'm thinking about possible using Battle Creek as my research paper city and the effect the cereal company's, mainly Kellogg and how it affected the city during the great depression.

I found an short article online about it.

"As the speculators were converging on the “Health City” looking for easy money, W. K. Kellogg was working for his brother at the San.  He, too, had dreams of starting his own company, building on the expertise he had gained in managing the San’s complex business operations.  In 1902 he was finally ready to “go out for himself” when a disastrous fire destroyed the San.  Unable to walk away from his brother and the institution to which he had devoted almost a quarter of a century, W. K. stayed and supervised the rebuilding of the San.  It was not until 1906 that he was able to realize his dream and start the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company.

Through the use of sophisticated advertising techniques, technical advances in manufacturing and packaging and a shrewd sense of the public taste, Kellogg soon built a thriving company.  As the company expanded and his personal fortune increased, W. K. became increasingly mindful of the obligations which wealth imposed.  In 1925 he decided to “invest his money in people” and asked three friends to organize the Fellowship Corporation to study the needs of children in the community.  This was the beginning of one of the most far reaching philanthropic efforts in the nation, known since 1930 as the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

Many feel that the citizens of Battle Creek escaped the worst effects of the Depression, partially due to the creative work of W. K. Kellogg, the Kellogg Company and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.  In 1930 the Kellogg Company adopted a six-hour work day and added a fourth shift, to increase the factory’s work force by 25%, while still keeping wages relatively stable.  Work on the W. K. Kellogg Junior High School and Auditorium began in 1932, to create construction jobs for local men. 

In addition, since cereal was a relatively inexpensive, good tasting and filling food, Battle Creek’s cereal companies were busy during the 1930s, keeping thousands of local men and women employed during the 1930s."

from http://www.heritagebattlecreek.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=58&Itemid=61

I can't decide if using a bigger industrial city like Battle Creek will work well for the type of research paper that were doing. It maybe easier to find a city, like the coal mining towns that there is really only one industry or company that makes the city thrive.

First Post......

My name is Jason Allen and I'm a Junior with History as my major. I transferred to MSU from LCC and this is my first semester at MSU. The area of history I'm most interested in is European history with no particular specific time period. I'm also thinking about minoring Italian and concentrating on Italian history. The majority of my experience with history is through textbooks, though I have traveled to Italy. I've had mostly American history courses, though have had British, African, and General World History courses also.