Final Prompt Shoot

dirty

Energy

Faces

Shadow

Personal Photo Illustration

Graffiti and Found Objects

   Found

Graffiti

Statesman

1.

I liked this photo, just because of how happy this man and the entire crowd look. They look absolutely happy to be there and to be cooking with this man. I also chose this  because he is taking selfie ,and thats pretty funny.



2. http://video.statesman.com/Crash-splits-car-in-half-in-South-Austin-25894972?playlistId=15517#.U20K-8bdJNJ
I chose this video because it hit very close to home. I knew the victim personally. We had played baseball together in the past and he was a great person. I can only imagine the horror his family must be going through right now.

Contest Preview, Show and Tell

(fall contest)

 I think the background of this photo makes the subject pop really well. Also it just looks cool with all of the colors in the picture. The photo is very clear and the lighting is perfect.

(fall contest)

 This photo also has a lot of very good colors in it. I love the reflection in the water.  I like how the colors in the water are stronger than in the the actual buildings. Lighting is also really good in this photo, the dark background brings out the colors an the subject.

(fall contest)

The lines in this picture are very effective, they carry your eye across the entirety of the photo. The lighting is a little to bright for my taste, i would prefer it to be a little darker it is not bad. 

My HDR Photo

My Merger Photo

5 Websites #2

1. http://photographylife.com/advanced-photography-tutorials
2. I looked at tutorial for very many things. I looked at how to read MTF charts and all kinds of things for intermediate and advanced photography students.
3A. I learned how to read MTF charts
3B. I can see what ind of lenses are good or not.




1.http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/04/22/the-ultimate-photography-round-up/
2. I read things about how to create slow motion pictures and videos. There were many examples of these types of images. They were pretty cool to look at, and  i look forward to trying some of these methods.
3. Nothing really, i just saw some really cool pictures.
                                     4.

5. I picked this photo because it just looked really cool.

5B. I see simplicity because of the black background.

5C. Didn't say.

1. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/10/35-beautiful-photography-websites/

2. I saw some pictures of beautiful photography. There were really cool subjects and effects in these photos.

3. Nothing.

4. 

5A. I think the man looks really cool and scary in this picture.

5B. There is kind of rules of thirds because of the second man at the bottom left.

5C. didn't say

1. http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/25-websites-to-have-fun-with-your-photos/

2. I saw really funny photos of people photoshopping themselves into other pictures.

3. Nothing

4.

5A. I think its funny how he photoshopped himself into all of these photos.

5B. All of them.

5C. Didn't say.

1. http://aquatilis.tv

2. I saw a bunch of pictures from deep beneath the seas, where no light reaches. They were incredible!

3. I learned of some new amazing creatures that live in the depths of the ocean.

4.

5A. I love the colors, and just the general shape of the creature.

5B. Simplicity.

5C. A team of underwater explorers.

HDR Photos.

1.High Dynamic Range and refers to a scene that includes both bright and dark elements

2. To reproduce a greater Dynamic Range of luminosity than possible using standard digital imaging or photographic techniques. HDR images can represent more accurately the range of intensity levels found in real scenes, from direct sunlight to faint starlight, and is often captured by way of a plurality of differently exposed pictures of the same subject.

3. The photographer chooses to take one picture at a given exposure, one or more brighter, and one or more darker, in order to select the most satisfactory image.

4. Yes you can do this with a video.

Final Exam Assignment Part 1

1. I read about how to tell stories and create movies using iMovie. I read about all the things that you need to do to create these things. I also read about all the features you can use in iMovie.
2. I really did not know anything about this app. Except you could make movies on it.
3. I now know about all the things on how to create these movies.
4. Im concerned that i might not know exactly how to make it work. But i will try.
5. I think i could do it early but i just don't have the time for it. I will have to do it on weekends.
6. I will do my dogs life.

Photo Illustrations

The big day

1. A man was late getting to his wedding. His wife waited for him but he didn't show up in time. So she married someone else.
2. Who: John Smith,  Evelyn Adams, William Adams
    What: John Smith and Evelyn are getting married.
    When: Last night
    Where: England
    Why:They are getting married, he is late.
    How: He is late because he encountered multiple obstacle on his way to the wedding.
3. John Smith is in his Volks Wagon on his way to a wedding. The bride is in her room waiting to be married. He encounters many obstacles on his way. The man with the bride looks like he is getting impatient, and so is the bride. John finally arrives, but the wedding has started.

Architecture

surrounding 

patterns

detail

shapes and angles

light

Architecture Preview Blog 2

    1.

     

I think this picture meets the requirements for detail because it is a detailed shot of what makes the house special.

    2.

I think this one passes the requirements because the light is shining throughout the colored glass, creating an excellent picture.

    3.

This photo is a good pattern shot, because the the stripes and the colored walls create a very pleasant pattern to look at.

   4.

This photo is surrounding because you can see all the terrain around the house. You can see the trees, sky, ground, etc.

Sports Action Photo Submission

                                                                  photo #1

                                                               photo #2



                                                   

photo #3

photo #4

Architectural Preview Blog

Sculptured House, USA
1. Charles Deaton.
2. 1963
3. Genesee Mt. USA
4. Private.
5. it didn't say, the original architect ran out of money.
6. It was meant as a home.
7. I picked it because it has a very cool and irregular look to it. I rely like they way it looks, and i like the modern feel.


Strong National Museum of Play
1. Chaintreuil Jensen Stark Architects.
2. 1969.
3. New York, USA
4. Public
5. N/A
6. It was meant asa museum.
7. I really like the design of this building, i love the colorful blocks and just the shape of the actual buildings.


Burj Al Arab
1. Tom Wright.
2. 1995-1999
3. Dubai
4.Public
5. $650 Million
6. It was many to be a hotel.
7. This building is awesome, its shaped like a sail from a sailboat which i think is very cool. Also it is in Dubai and Dubai is awesome.


Nord LB Building.
1. Behnisch Architekten.
2. 1970.
3. Hanover.
4. Public.
5. N/A
6. It is a bank.
7. I don't know, i think i just like ho weird this building is. Also i like germany.


Nautilus House
1. Javier Senosiain
2. 2006
3. Mexico
4.Private
5.N/A
6. It is a home.
7. This house is honestly just amazing. ITs shaped like a shell!!!!!! And it has cool colors all over it. Its just awesome.

Action preview assignment

1. Its a winning shot because after a football game, the players on the team dump water on the coach if they win.
2. The shutter speed must be high because the photo is very clear and there is a lot of movement in the photo.
3. Yes this is a key moment, I don't think it could of been planed, its kind of an spontaneous action.
4. there is the rule of thirds and kind of a merger in the photo, but it works out.

Nut Graf

I believe a nut graf is a paragraph, in a feature story that further explains the topic of the story. It is kind of like a back up paragraph, that helps the reader to understand more about the story.

Student of the month Story

Who- Rachel Mason

What- She was nominated for Student of the Month!

Where- At Bowie High School, Austin Texas

When- March 1st, 2014

Why- She was nominated for good grades, and her hard work ethic.

How- Her teachers nominated her, and the Principal confirmed her as student of the month






Rachel Mason, a student at James Bowie High School, located in Austin Texas, won her school award for being student of the month. On March 1st, her teachers nominated her as student of the month and her principal officially named her as S.O.T.M. Her teachers say "We nominated Rachel for her excellent grades and her hard work ethics. We were proud to give her that award, she definitely deserved it."
Rachel says “ I am feel very honored to be able to be student of the month.” She says she think she does deserve to be student of the month, no matter what people say about her. She worked very hard to get to where she is today. When asked if she wanted to be student of the month again she said no, because there is too much stress and responsibility. She also says that since she has become student of the month, people have started to treat her differently. Maybe with more respect or kindness, now that she is a role model for many people in the school.
            When asked if she thinks if anyone else should have deserved the title, this was her response.
“Absolutely not, I definitely earned this award.”
            There are between 50-100 students nominated every month.
“I feel very honored that I was chosen to be student of the month”
           Rachel says, “I plan on attending college, at The University of Texas. I want to become a physical therapist.”
         She clearly plans to utilize her talents and have a successful life.

         

Inverted Pyramid

My first interview

1. How does it feel to be student of the month? I  feel very honored.
2. Do you think you have earned it, or were you lucky? I definitely earned it.
3. What do you think you did to deserve such a title? I deserved because of my good grades and good work ethic.
4. Is there anyone that you think deserved this more than you? Absolutely not.
5. Do you think you were nominated because of your grades or hard work? I think i was nominated for both.
6. Were you surprised when you were chosen student of the work? Yes, it was quite a shock.
7. How hard did you work to get as far as you are today? I worked very hard.
8. Do you think you have more responsibility now? Yes.
9. Do you think you are anyones role model now that you are student of the month? I sure hope i am.
10. Is there more pressure on you to do better now? Yes, i feel like everyone is looking at me to do better.
11. Will you continue to strive to do better? Yes.
12. Do you think your friends have more respect for you? No.
13. Were you even aware you had a chance of becoming student of the month, or where you just doing your duty? I was just doing my duty to be a good student.
14. Are you more stressed out now that you are student of the month? Yes, i am very stressed.
15. Will you try to become student of the month again? Absolutely not.
16. Do you think you could if you wanted to? If i wanted to, yes i think i could.
17. Have people treated you differently now that you are student of the month? Yes, they kind of look up to me.
18.What are your plans after high school? I want to go to college.
 19.Where do you plan on attending in college? U.T.
20.What do you want to become when you're older? I want to become a physical therapist

School Uniforms

1. I could ask students, teachers, and the principal
2:
1. How do you feel about having to wear a uniform?(student)
2. Why do you think the district has made it mandatory to wear uniforms?(student)
3. Do you think it will have a positive or negative effect on your fellow students?(student)
4. What do you think the uniform should look like?(student)
5. Would you change the style of your uniforms, or keep them the same?(student)
6. Do you think the Teachers and Faculty should have the same dress code as you?(student)
7. Why have you agreed to make it mandatory for students to wear uniforms?(principal)
8. What do you hope to accomplish when you make students wear uniforms?(principal)
9. Do you agree that teachers and faculty should also wear uniforms?(principal)
10. Do you think changing the dress code will have a positive impact on the students?(principal)
11. How do you think the teachers will react to this new code?(principal)
12. How do you think the students will feel about this code?(principal)
13. Do you decide what they wear or the district?(principal)
14. Do you agree with the district that students should wear uniforms?(teachers)
15. Do you think teachers should have to wear uniforms also?(teachers)
16. What effect do you think it will have on the students?(teachers)
17. Will students agree with this dress code or no?(teachers)
18. How long will it take for the district to realize it will not help?(teachers)
19. Should you get an option of what to wear or should it strictly be one outfit?(teachers)
20. What should the outfit be?(teachers)

News Values PArt 7

3. Obama to meet with China's Xi next week

1. Conflict
2. Conflict because two opposing forces meet.
4. President Obama is traveling to Europe next week, but one of his meetings will be with the leader of China.

Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit being held next Monday and Tuesday at The Hague in the Netherlands.

One likely topic: Russia's military incursion into Crimea, and possible efforts to annex the Ukrainian region.

The president's trip next week will also include a stop in the Rome to meet with Pope Francis.

5.http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2014/03/17/obama-xi-jinping-china-europe-trip-nuclear-security-summit/6524053/

Newspaper Values 6

3. L.A. quake rattles locals, but no harm done

1. Impact
2. Its impact because it affected the audience watching the news.
4LOS ANGELES — A moderate earthquake rattled dishes and bolted Southern Californians out of bed Monday morning.

No damage was reported from the quake that struck at 6:25 a.m. PT. The magnitude-4.4 earthquake had initially been rated at 4.7, but was downgraded about 20 minutes after the jolt, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Still, even some locals were alarmed.

"I live in Westwood. It was really scary w/a few big jolts. It felt like it wouldn't end and the sound was horrible," tweeted ImSusanT.

@iRachelBrill had this take: "the initial jolt felt like the 94 Northridge quake only without the after roll. Now im@waiting for the aftershocks..." The Northridge earthquake in 1994 left 57 people dead and thousands injured.

VIDEO: TV anchors lose composure during quake

Monday's quake was centered in the San Fernando Valley, about 6 miles north-northwest from Westwood, an enclave in west Los Angeles, the agency said. Westwood is the home to the University of California, Los Angeles — UCLA. The location would put it close to the community of Encino. The depth was 5 miles below the surface and it occurred on the north edge of the Santa Monica mountains, the USGS said.

It was the largest earthquake to strike near Los Angeles in years. The quake lasted several seconds, shaking furniture and causing ripples in swimming pools just as many Southern Californians were awaking.

Los Angeles police sent out a tweet asking residents not to call 911 to report the earthquake. "We are well aware of it. Lines need to be kept open for emergencies," the message said. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the region's massive bus and rail system, said that operations were returning to normal after some quick checks to look for damage just as the morning commute was starting.

"We have no reports of damage," said USGS seismologist Robert Graves at a press conference. Damage, given the intensity of the quake, "would be slight if it occurred at all." He said one aftershock of magnitude 2.7 had occurred and there was a 5% chance that the shaker was a foreshock to a larger quake.

Co-anchors of a local KTLA broadcast were sufficiently concerned when it hit -- host Chris Schauble pointed at the ceilingand said "Earthquake! We're having an earthquake!" right before he and his co-host Megan Henderson dove under the newsdesk.

Being Los Angeles, the quake, of course, brought quick reaction from celebrities.

"Is everyone OK? Because I'm still shaking," tweeted Kendall Jenner, younger sister of pop culture phenom Kim Kardashian.

5.http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/17/earthquake-california-westwood/6517749/

Newspaper Values Part 5

3.News anchors freak out when earthquake hits

1. Prominence 

2. Its prominence because the person in the article was news worthy

4. News anchors normally are cool under pressure, nobly reporting stories of tragedy and joy with equal composure.

That's why it's really fun to watch them freak out on live TV.

When a magnitude-4.4 earthquake hit Los Angeles this morning during a local KTLA broadcast, host Chris Schauble pointed at the ceiling, looked directly at the camera and said "Earthquake! We're having an earthquake!"

Then he and his co-host Megan Henderson dove under the newsdesk.

They emerged seconds later to say everything was fine and, of course, to find out more about the disturbance.

It looked like a scary moment and we applaud their quick reflexes! After all, it serves as a good reminder for viewers of what to do in an earthquake. But, since everyone was ultimately safe, it also made for a good laugh.

5. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/03/17/ktla-anchor-california-earthquake/6523029/

News Values Part 4

3. Gravitational waves offer new insight into Big Bang

1. Novelty 
2. it`s Novelty because its something unusual, which draws people in.
4. In a landmark achievement, scientists say they have seen ripples in the weave of the universe, which would provide the first direct evidence that the universe underwent a massive and incomprehensibly fast growth spurt in its earliest infancy.

If the new findings are confirmed, they could very well earn their discoverers the Nobel Prize, says astrophysicist Xavier Siemens of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Researchers have sought to detect these ripples, known as gravitational waves, for years, and more than a dozen telescopes have been looking for them. Though Einstein predicted gravitational waves, he thought they might not be detectable, and their existence was in some doubt.

Outside scientists' early reaction included some skepticism but also amazement and admiration.

The signs in the data pointing to gravitational waves are "extraordinarily strong, huge huge news … wow," tweeted Dominique Aubert, an astronomer at the University of Strasbourg in France.

The new research provides a glimpse of the universe just after the Big Bang, when it was an infinitesimal fraction of a second old and smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. To explain how the universe evolved from that state to the form it has today, scientists have posited an event just after the Big Bang called "inflation," when space expanded violently and exponentially in the merest sliver of a second.

5.http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/03/17/big-bang-gravitational-waves/6520537/

News Values part 3

3. The Ones that get away

1. Timeliness
2. Its timeliness because it was a recent event.

4PHILADELPHIA — For a man on the run from charges that he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl, Thomas Terlecky has surprisingly little to fear from the law. The police here know exactly where to find him, but they will not go get him.

Terlecky got away by catching a Greyhound bus to Miami.

The police in his new hometown know that Terlecky is a fugitive, and they have tried repeatedly to return him to Philadelphia — both before and after he was convicted of having sex with two other underage girls in Florida. As recently as November, police handcuffed Terlecky and called Philadelphia authorities to tell them their fugitive had been found.

But just like every time before, the authorities in Philadelphia refused to take him back.

Across the United States, police and prosecutors are allowing tens of thousands of wanted felons — including more than 3,300 people accused of sexual assaults, robberies and homicides — to escape justice merely by crossing a state border, a USA TODAY investigation found. Those decisions, almost always made in secret, permit fugitives to go free in communities across the country, leaving their crimes unpunished, their victims outraged and the public at risk.

Each fugitive's case is chronicled in a confidential FBI database that police use to track outstanding warrants. In 186,873 of those cases, police indicated that they would not spend the time or money to retrieve the fugitive from another state, a process known as extradition. That's true even if the fugitives are just across a bridge in the state next door. Another 78,878 felony suspects won't be extradited from anyplace but neighboring states.

Few places are immune. Police in Philadelphia, Atlanta and Little Rock — all among the nation's highest-crime cities — told the FBI they wouldn't pursue 90% or more of their felony suspects into other states. Los Angeles police said they would not extradite 77 people for murder or attempted murder, 141 for robbery and 84 for sexual assault.

The FBI refuses to say who or where those fugitives are. But USA TODAY identified thousands of them using records and databases from courts and law enforcement agencies. Among the fugitives police said they would not pursue: a man accused in Collier County, Fla., of hacking his roommate's neck with a machete during a fight over two cans of beer; a man charged with drawing a gun on a Newport News, Va., store manager during a robbery, and even one of the men Pittsburgh identified as among its "most wanted" fugitives.

Such fugitives should be among the easiest targets in the nation's fragmented justice system. The police typically don't hunt them; instead, they wait for officers to come across them again, during traffic stops or when they're arrested on new charges.

More often than not, the suspects are found locked up in another city's jail.

But if that jail happens to be in a different state, local law-enforcement officials regularly refuse to get them because they don't want to pay the cost or jump through the legal hoops required to extradite them. That process can be either swift or surreal: In many cases, it costs no more than a few hundred dollars, but it can also require months of paperwork and the signature of both states' governors.

The police let them get away instead.

Even Terlecky, wanted in Philadelphia for a first-degree felony, was surprised. "Why would they not extradite on a felony warrant?" he said in an interview. His only guess: "This wasn't a case where I forcefully grabbed the kid. That's the only reason I'm thinking why they won't push to bring me back."

5. http://www.usatoday.com/longform/news/nation/2014/03/11/fugitives-next-door/6262719

News Values Part 2

                             3. SXSW crash claims 3rd life

1. Proximity

2. I think its proximity because it happened in Austin.

4. AUSTIN, Texas — A third person died Monday from injuries sustained in last week's tragedy in which a drunk driver plowed through a crowd outside a nightclub at the South By Southwest music festival.

A car hit the victim, Sandy Le, on Thursday outside The Mohawk nightclub, according to the Travis County Medical Examiner's Office.

Le was an Austin resident but was a native of Pass Christian, Miss., according to her family.

Jamie West, 27, of Austin; and Steven Craenmehr, 35, of Amsterdam, were killed. Twenty-two others were injured. Seven people remain hospitalized.

Rashad Owens, 21, of Killeen, Texas, has been charged with capital murder and aggravated assault with a motor vehicle. He's accused of driving drunk, fleeing from police and intentionally driving into a crowd of festival-goers.

Police say Craenmehr was on a bicycle, and West was on a moped with her husband. West's husband remains in the hospital.

SXSW ended its 28th year early Sunday.. 

5. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/17/sxsw-accident-third-death/6523431/

News values Part 1.

3.Mom tormented by inability to end her sons life

1. Human interest.
2. i think it shows Human Interest because the character in the story is conflicted by emotions.



4.When Diane Anderson comes to visit her son, sitting quietly by his bed as he lies there with his clenched fists resting on his upper chest, she has to wonder.

Does he know she's there? Does the radio playing in the background mean anything to him? Is the part of his brain that once made Ryan "Ryan" now lost, or does a voice inside scream to be released from this horror?

Not that the answers matter much any more.

Though others might dispute this, Diane Anderson has no doubt: The human being who was her fun-loving-if-not-hyperactive 18-year-old son died May 20, 2000, when a bullet ripped through his mouth and filled his throat with a pool of blood that blocked the oxygen to his brain.

They were left with this body confined to a bed in a persistent vegetative state that breathes and sleeps and is fed through a tube but doesn't talk, doesn't respond, doesn't move beyond an occasional reflex and can't push a button to summon help.

Her son doesn't want to live this way, Diane Anderson says. Nobody, she insists, wants to live this way. So for 14 years, she has pleaded and begged and fought this end-of-life battle with his South Dakota health care providers over allowing him to die.

Every time, she says, the answer has been "no."

"I will get hate mail," Anderson, 56, predicts, "because this kind of thing generates that kind of stuff.

"But I would challenge anybody, before they send me hate mail about being uncaring and all that. ... to either personally or to have their child spend 30 days like my son does."


She rattles the chains of Karen Ann Quinlan, Nancy Cruzan and Terri Schiavo — three women, all incapacitated, who have driven the national conversation about how and when families can decide to withdraw nourishment or medical treatment to bring about the death of loved ones.

The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed an individual's right to die with Cruzan but established no national guidelines, leaving it to states to set those standards. With no advance directive, and no "clear and convincing" evidence initially that Cruzan had told anyone about her desire to die in such a situation, the Missouri Supreme Court had denied her parents' request to remove her feeding tube.

It was only later, after friends and co-workers came forward and testified that she had indeed said she never wanted to live "like a vegetable" that the state eventually let the feeding tube to be removed, and she died.

State requires 'clear, convincing evidence'

South Dakota has similar "clear and convincing evidence" language in its laws, and Ryan's siblings say he had talked about not wanting to live in such a condition. But Anderson hasn't tested it yet. Beyond friends, relatives and acquaintances, she's never talked publicly about this before. Only recently, when the national spotlight turned to a pregnant woman in Texas and a teen in California — both brain dead — did she reluctantly agree to share her son's story.




Diane Anderson talks about her son, Ryan, 32, who has been in a persistent vegetative state for 14 years, Feb 24, 2014.(Photo: Elisha Page, The Sioux Falls, S.D., Argus Leader)



"This is why I agreed" to talk, says Anderson. It might not help her son. It might not help her. But maybe by speaking out, "some other mother won't have to suffer for 14 years," she says. "There has to be a limit."

What can she tell you about her son, Anderson says? He was 6-foot-4. He loved dill pickles. He would ask for them when he went to area high school football games. If the concession stands didn't have them then, they do now, in Ryan's honor.

He played football for about one month in high school "so he could get the jersey with his name on it," his mother says. He ran cross country for a while "so he could run in front of a car carrying the game ball (for a football game) and get his picture in the paper."

Kelli Doyle remembers when her younger brother borrowed her video camera once for what he said was a class project. Instead he drove around town, honking the car horn, making conversation with anyone outside his window and videotaping it all. He even followed a student teacher he liked around the school with the camera rolling, asking her for a date as she scolded him and told him to stop.

"He was kind of a jokester," Doyle, 38, says.

Joking with friend went horribly wrong

On the day it all changed, just hours before his high school graduation, Ryan had stopped at the community hall to reserve a table for a surprise celebration he planned to spring on family members who weren't even sure he was going to graduate.

I would challenge anybody, before they send me hate mail about being uncaring and all that. ... to either personally or to have their child spend 30 days like my son does.
Diane Anderson

Later, he swung by a buddy's place out in the country. The friend had something he wanted to show Ryan. As he went to retrieve it — a gun he had found in a safe — Ryan the prankster was off filling up a water pistol he had brought with him.

When the friend returned, Diane Anderson understands that her son started squirting him. The friend told him to stop; he didn't want to get wet. As the hijinks escalated, the two were standing on opposite sides of a door, their arms reaching around it as each held a pistol that was pointed at the other.

That's when the friend's gun went off. The bullet caught Ryan in the side of the mouth and blew out six teeth. As he collapsed to the floor, his throat filled with blood, cutting off the oxygen to his brain.

His mother says his heart stopped on the way to a hospital in Brookings and again in the helicopter on his way to Avera McKennan in Sioux Falls. Because Ryan had indicated on his driver's license that he wanted to be a donor, emergency personnel worked feverishly to preserve his organs.

In Sioux Falls, he was hooked up to a ventilator to keep his lungs moving. A feeding tube was inserted into his stomach, and another tube was inserted into his trachea.

Seven weeks, he remained on the Avera campus. On July 6, 2000, having spent the Fourth of July weekend with an old friend in Aberdeen, Diane Anderson returned to Sioux Falls to hear this news from Ryan's doctor:

"He said, 'the part of Ryan's brain that allows him to see works. The part of Ryan's brain that allows him to hear works. The part of Ryan's brain that feels and does all those things works,'" Anderson recalls. "'The part of Ryan's brain that makes Ryan Ryan and interprets all that stuff is gone.' So for me at least, Ryan died that day."

Despite mother's pleas, Ryan can't be let go

Let's just let him go then, Anderson told the doctor. Just unplug him. He told her he couldn't, that once the feeding tube is in, it must stay.

A month later, in a Sioux Falls nursing home where he had been transferred after Avera, his oxygen levels plummeted one night. Anderson says her phone rang at 2 in the morning. If you want to see your son before he goes, the caller said, you better get here now.

Friends and family scrambled to his bedside, but Ryan began to pull through. Let's just let him go, Anderson says she advised the doctors again. Her son has been through enough. Everyone's been through enough.

We can't do that, she was told.

In the first years after the accident, Anderson says her son became sick with pneumonia or flu a half-dozen times and started vomiting. As his legal guardian, with the ability to make medical decisions for him, she was prepared to let him die each time his feeding tube was turned off. In South Dakota, state law allows for artificial hydration and nutrition to be withheld and the feeding tube to be turned off if food and water make the patient sick. That's often how most people in persistent vegetative states end up dying.

But each time in those first few years, nursing home staff pushed Anderson to give Ryan antibiotics to treat the illnesses, and she says she relented.




Diane Anderson talks about her son, Ryan, 32, who has been in a persistent vegetative state for 14 years, since being shot in May 2000.(Photo: Elisha Page, The Sioux Falls, S.D., Argus Leader)

But Ryan, now 32, has been resilient under the nursing home's care. The past eight years, his mother says he's tested positive for pneumonia only once. That lasted only 48 hours.

And so he just lies there in his bed as he has for years. His long legs are pulled up under the sheet to keep him comfortable. His head occasionally moves from side to side. Rubbing the back of his neck seems to calm him. At other times, he becomes rigid and contorted, a sign that something is bothering him.

His family doesn't always agree on what any of this means.

"On one hand, I would like to see ... just see him go to sleep and be done and it be over," Doyle, his oldest sister, says. "But part of me feels like he is still serving a purpose here. I've had many sleepless nights over the whys, the what ifs. It isn't fair, but I get no answers for that. So I have to believe that he's here for a reason."

Keeping Ryan alive in minds of his family

Family members have tried to keep Ryan in their lives. Because he had dyed his hair blond in high school, they continued to dye it after the accident. "It got expensive," Anderson says. "It got hard, and after a while, it didn't make sense."

An injured Ryan is there in his sister's wedding photograph that hangs on the wall in his room. He's there surrounded by his high school classmates in a 10-year reunion photo. He even has his own Facebook page, something his mother started about four years ago so friends had a place to go and share photos and memories of Ryan.

Anderson wanted Ryan's friends to remember him, "but I don't know that I'll do that any more," she says of the Facebook page. "I'm not sure what to say; nothing much changes for him any more. It's hard on everybody."

Among Ryan's five siblings, at least some of them believe he wouldn't want to go on like this.

His sister, Diana Stacy, 33, remembers the casual conversations where they talked about patients and residents in nursing homes, and Ryan's comment that he wouldn't want to live like that.

His brother, Jason, says Ryan came to that realization even before he was exposed to nursing home life as an employee.

"He never wanted to be like a vegetable," Jason says. "I do remember" him saying that.

Whether that's the "clear and convincing evidence" that ultimately gives Anderson the power to turn off her son's feeding tube, allowing him to die, probably will have to be tested.

Anderson says the physician who manages Ryan's care, Dr. Daniel Cecil of the Avera Brookings Medical Clinic, has told her he will not turn the feeding tube off. Cecil declined to comment when reached through Avera's marketing department.

Though state law says Cecil is obligated to transfer Ryan to another physician who will honor Anderson's wishes, she has not yet found a doctor who will grant that request.

She has looked at putting him in different nursing homes as well. But they have told her they won't take him because their staff is unable to deal with his tracheotomy tube.

And so as she ponders her next step, he continues to lie in that bed, every day, every week, every year.

"Of all the people in this world that love Ryan, I love him more than anybody," she says. But what is the right decision here, she asks?

"I don't want him dead, but he died 14 years ago," she says, "It's time to let him go; I've said that for 14 years now. And I've said this, too, 'this isn't living;' this is inhumane. Really, that's what this is."

5. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/17/mom-wants-to-end-son-life-14-years-in-coma/6522021/