Eng 001: Language & Writing

Soundtrack of My Life

2008-12-18T19:27:00.010-06:00

Jessica Andrews, “Who I Am:” This song has so many different meanings that it is difficult to pinpoint them all on the dot. The old pictures and videos that flash on the screen at the beginning of the video takes the audience back to before Jessica Andrews was a famous singer. She is saying that no matter what happens, she knows who she is and where she came from, and that is how this video relates to me. By looking at old memorabilia like Jessica Andrews does in her video, I look at where I’ve came since I was younger. Like Jessica Andrews, I, too care deeply about my family and friends. She explains that she is Rosemary’s granddaughter; well, I am Norma Jeane’s granddaughter. While I may not be a spitting image of my father, my mom is my biggest fan, just as she sings in “Who I Am.” Family will always be there for her, and me, and no matter what happens, they will always be there for me. “It’s all a part of me; that’s who I am.” That phrase is the most important part of the song. This country music video has a lot of key visual elements, as well. As said before, the old pictures and videos are showing that she is looking back on her past, and pictures mean a lot to me when I am doing this, as well.

Zac Brown Band, “Chicken Fried:” This is a song about being thankful. At the beginning and end of the video, you see a man in a military uniform. Because people in the military fight for our country, we can like whatever we want, and that is what the Zac Brown Band is singing about. The images in the video of people in the military can be thought of being the bread on the sandwich. The inside of the sandwich is filled with what the members of Zac Brown Band are thankful for. Like they say, they’re most thankful for their country lifestyle. This lifestyle is similar to what I was used to when I lived at home. When they say “It’s not where you live or what you drive,” that is how I see possessions, too. Whether someone drives a brand new car or an old, beat up pickup, it is all the same to me. Another important lyric is when it says, “Ain’t it funny how the little things in life can mean the most.” This is another critical moment in the song. So many people take things for granted, but the according to this song, the members of the band are even thankful for pie. The way that the people in this video gather together and talk is so pleasant. Just like in a small town like the one I lived, everyone knows everyone. When it comes to events, everyone brings food and beverages to share with others.

Kid Rock, “All Summer Long.” A few drinks, a boat, the lake, what else could someone ask for? In this video, Kid Rock is seen just soaking up some rays and enjoying his summer. By riding around in a boat, basking in the rays of sunshine, Kid Rock is singing about the perfect summer. The lake is the perfect setting for this song. The music in the background is that of the song entitled “Sweet Home Alabama.” When I hear that song, it instantly makes me think of street dances from towns around my area. That song just rings “summertime.” Just like Kid Rock, I, too like to spend time in the summer at the lake. The boat that he rides in is a little more outdated than the one I ride in. It is my friend’s boat, and it is easy to spend hours on the lake at a time. The way the boat glides across the water as he sings is just like the peace of knowing that it is summer. The girls in the video are all dancing and having a good time, and that is what summer is all about: having a good time. The sight of the characters in the video gathering around a camp fire brings that smell to my nose. Roasting marshmallows and hotdogs by the fire is something my friend and I always do together; it is practically a tradition for anyone who goes camping. Camping just gives a reason to relax and enjoy nature.

Taylor Swift, “Love Story:” As the video begins, Taylor Swift is just a normal, average girl. She then begins to go off into a daze. She visions and sings about every girl’s dream of castles, princes, and princes. Most importantly, her song is about a love story, just like the title suggests. As the camera moves along the scenery and shows the tall castle, it reminds me of when I was younger when I would dream of those types of fairytale lands. Every girl dreams of her “Romeo” taking her away and saving the day, and that is exactly how I used to envision my future. The way that Taylor Swift carries herself on the dance floor is so graceful. In the days where they wore such elegant dresses and had formal occasions, everyone danced appropriately. Formal dance like that is what I hope to do someday. When I find my “Romeo,” we will learn to dance across ballroom floors just like Taylor Swift did in her video. Elegance and grace fills the room, and that is not easily to come by in today’s society. The only time that I have gotten my hair fixed fancily like hers was for prom, but even then, her dress in the video still has an elegant, old fashioned look to it that none of my dresses ever had. The way the video ends with Taylor coming back to reality is often how I feel after I have been day dreaming about a particular someone or something.

My Hallelujah Song @ Yahoo! Video

Julianne Hough, “My Hallelujah Song:” In the past few years, Julianne Hough has went from being an award winning dancer on the television show Dancing with the Stars to a remarkable country music singer. This song is sort of a tribute to all of her accomplishments. She is only twenty years old, but she sure presents herself as older and has enough confidence to appear more mature than just twenty. The chorus of her song is what I can relate myself to the best. Like Julianne Hough, I cannot believe I am where I am today. There are so many hardships to conquer and problems to deal with it, but I have made it through all of them to get where I am today. Wesleyan just feels like the perfect fit for me. Julianne says that she feels where she belongs, and that is exactly how I feel. Although I am not famous and do not have quite as many prestigious awards as she does, I feel just like she does in this video. Throughout the whole video, she is smiling, and she carries an energy with her. This song is like a tribute to her life up to this point; she is singing her “hallelujah song” to celebrate how happy and content she is in life right now. Singing country music is not very easy, but if I could, I would definitely sing a song similar to this one. Everyone’s hallelujah song is different, and that is why she shows different scenes to represent different moments to celebrate, like a family reuniting and teenagers graduating.

Billy Ray Cyrus, “Ready, Set, Don’t Go:” Billy Ray Cyrus is sitting by himself throughout this entire video. He is shown sitting on a stool, playing his guitar and singing. This is to create a lonely setting. This song is about his daughter growing up and leaving. He knows that it has to happen, but he is not completely ready for it. The normal phrase is “Ready, Set, Go!” However, when Billy Ray Cyrus changed it to “Ready, Set, Don’t Go,” it brought a whole different meaning. When someone one loves is moving on, one thinks that he or she can prepare him- or herself enough to be ready for it, but when it comes down to it, he or she doesn’t want that loved one to move on. Billy Ray states that he has to be strong, so that means that he wants to let her be able to move on. This is similar to when I moved to college. My father was not very happy, and he is not one to show emotion! A song like this is a perfect one to represent a daughter moving out of the house, going to further her education at a college. He says that “she’s gotta do what she’s gotta do,” and that is true for most teenage girls. They have to grown up and do what makes them happy. In this song, Billy Ray is learning how to let go and trust his daughter to make the right decisions in life, and that is what my dad did the day he told me goodbye at Wesleyan.

Rascal Flatts, “Life is a Highway:” This song by the Rascal Flatts was featured in the hit Disney movie Cars. With the use of their guitars, the Rascal Flatts put a fun rock to this song that used to just be an older country song. The fast paced, hip beat to this song helps describe what life is to me. Life is fun, and it should not be taken lightly. People should be thankful for life and live it to its fullest. “Life is a highway; I want to ride it all night long,” is what the chorus says. I want to ride the highway as long as I possibly can, and that is why I try to stay healthy. The Rascal Flatts really have fun doing this video, and I see that as a way people are supposed to live their life. Have fun, and always be thankful for the things in it. The use of the cartoon in the music video captures the child in everyone, and it brings one back to an age where it was okay to dream about racecars and such.

Self analysis

2008-12-11T14:18:00.002-06:00

The way I now see myself as a writer has changed dramatically over this course. When I was in high school, I saw myself as a good writer. I didn’t think I was over the top or anything, but I did well on my papers and such. After a few weeks in this class, I viewed myself totally different as a writer. The way my college instructor expected us to write was different than anything I’ve ever had to do. Mr. Ware had us look what we were writing about in a whole different perspective. At first, I felt helpless because writing never used to be that much of a struggle for me; however, as time has moved forward in this class, I feel just a little more confident in how he wants us to write. If I look back at my post from September 11, 2008, entitled “Diagrams,” it is written very differently than my post from December 7, 2008, entitled “Little Bracelet.” The way we progressed through this course changed slowly, but by looking at one of my first posts and my most recent one, one can see how much this class has been taught about looking and writing about objects in many different ways.

My attitude about reading and writing has changed. I now know more about pathos, ethos, and logos, and I can incorporate them into when I am reading a document or listening to a speaker. When I am writing, I know when I should tie those elements into my work. When I am writing about something for this class, I know to look at it in all different directions. We learned to take our subject apart and look at it all aspects of it. Writing like this is more difficult than just writing about an object itself. I can’t say that I like doing it, but that’s mainly just because I don’t feel like it’s a strength of mine.

I liked it when we did peer reviews on each others’ assignments. It helped me because the questions gave me guidelines that helped me write the post. Also, it made me read and judge one of my classmate’s posts, and it made me pick out the good and bad about theirs. Even though the peer reviews may have taken a while to do, I am glad that we did them because it made me think deeper about my own assignment.

Some knowledge that I have applied to places out of the classroom is the terms ethos, pathos, and logos. In the speech class that I am taking, we had to know those terms. It was very helpful when I was already familiar with them. We had to watch a recorded speech and pick those qualities out of it, and because I learned about them in this class, I felt confident in my answers.

An area that I’m still working on as a writer is the fact of not writing in a narrative view. Writing a narrative is much easier than what we are supposed to be doing, writing through an object and connecting it with other related objects. I try do this, but I think I still try to find a way to be narrative about my subjects, just because that is what comes naturally to me. In my next and last assignment, I will have to work on this tremendously, and hopefully finish this course successfully.

Little Bracelet

2008-12-07T23:46:00.003-06:00

It sits on my desk, aside from my other jewelry. The bracelet that my Aunt Linda gave me for my thirteenth birthday means the world to me. Since she does not live close by, she sent it to me in the mail that special day. The sight of that little box wrapped in a brown paper bag still lurks in my memory. After I opened the package, the bracelet was on my wrist in a flash.

The red, green, and brown beads picked up different colors in the light as I twirled my wrist a little. The silver beads in between the colored ones shined for me to gaze at. This bracelet was unlike any bracelet I had owned before. Other bracelets were from stores of lesser value, like Claire’s, but not this one. I was not sure where this bracelet was from, but I was certain that it was not from a store like Claire’s. The way I felt when I wore that bracelet was different. Once I put on that red, green, brown, and silver bracelet, I felt like more of an adult. No longer did I feel like the rest of my friends who were wearing plastic bead bracelets or necklaces because I had a nice bracelet.

The face that it made me feel older could have been because my Aunt Linda had one similar to it. Hers was much nicer, of course, but at that time, I thought they were of the same value. It gave me pride to know that I had jewelry like my aunt, a grown-up woman. I still have that bracelet. The beads are not quite as glittery in the light, and some of the silver somehow specked off. However, no matter what it looks like, it will always make me feel like a grownup while I am wearing it.

Shirt Doll

2008-12-05T22:53:00.003-06:00

One item that is very important in my life is the doll that my Grandma Sorensen made for me out of my grandpa’s old button-up shirt. “I think you’re old enough for this now,” she said to me on my thirteenth birthday. She made one for all of her granddaughters when she knew they were at an age where they would not play with it and ruin it. Because my grandpa has not been with us since I was two-years-old, this meant a lot to me to have something to remember him by.

My doll’s body is made of white cloth, stuffed to a plump, and it is wearing a dress out of my grandpa’s shirt. The white material of his shirt has dark pinstripes aligning in a vertical fashion, which adds a sense of elegance to the doll. The bottom of the dress is long and covers her white legs and feet. Around the edge of bottom, it is lined with white lace. She has no face, for her head is, too, made of the white material. A bonnet made of the same shirt material covered the top of the doll’s head; it looks like a old-fashioned bonnet like they would have worn in the olden-days.

This doll is my connection to not only my grandpa, but also my grandma. The material on the doll makes me feel closer to my grandpa, knowing that I have something that once belonged to him. The doll itself resembles my grandma’s notorious sewing ability and consistency in always thinking of others. Because she is no longer able to sew, it brings tears to my at the thought of her being incapable of creating such magnificent masterpieces such as that shirt doll.

My Object

2008-12-03T23:38:00.004-06:00

It started out as an “in case of an emergency” type of possession. I was mainly to use it if I needed anything on my way to or from school, which was a fifteen-mile drive. My sixteenth birthday hadn’t come yet, and that’s when I was supposed to get it, but since I drove to school when I was fourteen, I was an exception. My cell phone has been with me through thick and thin, and it is very important to me.

Its age is starting to show. Come January, it will have been two years since my dad brought it home in a square box with a picture of my new Motorola Razr on the side. Its dark grey appearance cannot hide any of its scratches from the countless times I have dropped it. The scratches show up as black and silver outlines emphasizing the edges of my phone. When one looks at the front screen, the first thing brought to attention is the cracked screen; I guess that’s what I get for accidently stepping on it. No matter what it looks like, I am still thankful that is has been faithful to me over the past nearly two years.

My phone reveals a key to my world. When I was younger, it was mainly my lifeline in times of need, but now, it is my tool to keep in touch with friends and family. Now that I am older, it helps me communicate with loved ones who live far away and even nearby. Without my phone, I would be lost.

As the two-year mark approaches, I wonder if my phone will make it much longer. I could get a new phone, but I know that parting with this gray, beat up Razr will be more difficult than I anticipate.

Love Story-Taylor Swift

2008-11-25T21:44:00.004-06:00

Taylor Swift’s song “Love Story” is about exactly what the title implies, and so is the video. The video is reenacting this fairytale story that Taylor Swift is singing about. The beginning scene is an ordinary scene; it is based at either a college or high school area. Once she begins singing, it transitions to another time, a time that exists in fairy tales. The elegant dress she is wearing and balcony at which she is standing helps contribute to her story she is singing about. The dresses she wears throughout the music video really add to it, also.
The lighting dims often throughout the video; it creates a more “relaxed” tone. It goes from being light to dim, accentuating different aspects of the video. When it shows her singing alone on the balcony, the sun is shining, and it is bright; however, whenever Taylor Swift is with her “prince,” the light is a little dimmer. When she is in the garden outside, it appears to be night time, and it is so dark that she needs a lantern to find her love.
It is good that parts of the video go along with the story that she is telling. After she sings, “So I sneak out to the garden to see you…” it shows trees and such, which must be the “garden” she speaks of. It is dark, and she has a lantern, which adds to the fact that she is sneaking around trying to see her “prince.”
The change of scenes is effective. Instead of just showing the story that Taylor Swift is singing of, they also show her singing the song. When she is singing the song, she is shown in the same old-fashioned dress, which keeps the audience in “dream” mode.

Observation

Taylor Swift is a country-music singer who recently graduated from high school. She is nineteen years old with her twentieth birthday approaching. For girls her age,
they dream about prince charming sweeping them off of their feet. With Disney Movies and others showing just that, what else are they supposed to think?
She begins the video walking through grass, admiring a boy sitting against a tree. After looking at him for a short while, she drifts off into a picture-perfect daydream. In her head, she goes to a moment where she is dressed in a beautiful dress, looking out from a balcony. She begins recollecting about the love story as if it had happened years ago. As time drifts back to a place where women dance in Elizabethan dresses and men dress in old-fashioned suits back before the time of technology. They dance with their hands joined in the middle, twirling and stepping to the beat of the song.
Pathos is filled throughout the song “Love Story” and its video. That feeling of love is present. Every girl dreams of being swept off of her feet by the cute guy in the video. They all want that feeling of love, that magical feeling that is present in the video. The emotion through love is heavily represented by this video and the characters in it.

The Red, White, and Blue

2008-11-18T12:02:00.015-06:00

The Statue of Liberty has many important meanings to her presence and is known all around the world. She was originally called Liberty Enlightening the World. Her statue in New York has her wearing an elegant robe and spiked crown that has seven spokes branching from it, which represent the seven oceans and continents. Her right hand holds up a torch while her left hand grasps a book of law that reads, “July 4, 1776.” At her feet lie busted chains, showing the United States’ conquering of tyranny. France gave the Statue of Liberty to the United States as a gift of friendship, but since, it has become a well-known, world-wide representation of freedom. The message the statue of liberty is trying to relay to the audience is much more than just freedom. When many look at the Statue of Liberty, they think of the United States of America. It brings makes foreigners imagine life in the States filled with freedom and happiness. It is known as the first sign of American that immigrants see on their way to America.
September 11, 2001 was a horrible day in the United States. It now marks the anniversary of when terrorists destroyed the two Towers in New York by running into them with planes. Hatred and spite made many American’s blood boil while people at home were watching the tragedy on their television sets. Many rescue teams risked their lives, and many gave their lives, trying to save people trapped in the burning buildings. The terrorists who did this were trying to tear apart the United States, thinking these acts would cause conflict among citizens; however, it did the opposite. Rather than turn United States residents against one another, it made them closer, stronger. The flag had been neglected, but once these acts happened, everyone brought back their patriotic spirits and came together, united, as a nation.
Ione Citrin is an artist who has based some of her work on world catastrophes. She focused this piece of work on the tragedy of September 11, 2001. She used many different techniques to reveal a meaningful message through her artwork. In this piece, she depicts the message through analogy and use of widely-known symbolic images like the Statue of Liberty and the American Flag.
By bringing out select colors, Ione Citrin illustrates analogy in her artwork titled 9/11/01. The first object brought to attention is the red, white, and blue American Flag. This icon brings out ethos. It is draped over the statue of liberty like a sort of poncho, covering everything but her two hands, neck, and head. The way it wrinkles and does not lie flat shows that it is not perfect, just as though the United States is not perfect. Many people come to the United States thinking that this country is perfect, but it is far from. The next color of importance is gold, and this is where pathos shines through. The statue’s hands, neck, face, and crown are shown in gold. The real Statue of Liberty appears to be a tint of green, so why is she gold? This is an instance of conflating icons. If one compares this to a picture of Christ on the cross, he or she will see a resemblance. The way at which her arms are stretched open are the same as Jesus’ were on the cross. As she stands there, holding onto what’s left behind of the Twin Towers, she is representing a higher standing that just any ordinary statue. The sky behind the statue is blue, and it goes from being darker at the bottom to getting lighter towards the top. This goes along with the religious view of the picture. With the light shining from the top, it’s as if the heavens are shining down on her. The color red, which is also present in the flag, is also seen on the remains from the Twin Towers. The red is showing that it is still glowing with warmth from the fire that was set to the two buildings. Although the red could possibly be standing for the fire, it could also be symbolizing all of the deaths that were caused on that tragic day of September 11, 2001. This is how the color is an aspect of Ione Citrin’s artwork, but the objects in this artwork are very symbolic, as well.
The real statue’s crown has seven spokes, but the one in this picture has eleven. This could be symbolizing the eleventh day of September, the day of the terrorist attacks. The way that they are extending out from her crown is much like rays of light from the heaven are shining down from on her, helping her bring out unity among the citizens of the United States. Both her left and right hands are grasping the two pieces left of the Twin Towers. The flag that is covering her is filling the gap between the two weak structures. This is much of what the United States had to do after the terrorists invaded the country. They were torn apart by the devastating acts and harm done to the United States, but it was not a time for them to go their separate ways. Instead of driving the United States away from one another, it actually brought them together. Many more residents of the United States pulled through for their country, becoming more supportive of the colors of the flag: red, white, and blue. This is what the nation did; it did not get torn apart, but it did become closer as a whole. The focus of this picture is Lady Liberty bringing the two structures together, holding them together by the flag. Two things that distinguish the United States are the flag and Statue of Liberty, and those two objects are centered in this art.
The 9/11/01 picture reveals more than one might realize at a glance. To figure out the entire message, one must closely examine it from all directions, picking it apart and looking at it in a different perspective. Ione Citrin created this piece of art with great care, and now that one has done that, they will be able to look at 9/11/01 with great thought.

Works Cited
“World Catastrophes.” Ione Citrin. 16 Nov. 2008 .

“9/11 By the Numbers: Death, destruction, charity, salvation, war, money, real estate, spouses, babies, and other September 11 statistics.” 2008. 18 Nov. 2008 .

Music

2008-11-09T23:23:00.003-06:00

Art in the 21st century is a very broad topic. There are paintings, drawing, objects, and many other types of art. All of them revolve around different messages and include different themes. The Harp of Love by Michael McCrinck portrays many different aspects of art.
At first glance, one sees musical instruments that seem to be joined in the middle of the painting. The painting has a center of median. All five of the musical instruments seem to be being pulled into the center point as if there is some kind of a vacuum sucking them in. None of the instruments are showed in whole. With things like part of the piano keyboard twisting and half of the violin faded out, they still seem complete. This represents the connection of music.
Music can be a person walking down the street humming or a musician playing a piano piece. Music is music. However, when multiple objects that produce music are put together, they form a beautiful sound. The single instruments by themselves do not matter much after that because once they are put together, they are a whole. In this picture, the reason parts of the instruments are gone is because they are meshing together to form one thing, and that thing is music.
This contemporary piece was done in the 21st century. It brings back the feeling of relaxing, classical music. Today’s world is filled with such fierce music by artists like Eminem, it sometimes feels like that harsh music is all that Americans hear. When it comes down to it, classical music will always be relaxing to the soul. All of the objects are surrounded by a harp, which helps pull it all together.
Music is all around. Sometimes it is good, and sometimes it is bad. However, no matter what type of music one likes to listen to, instruments make up most musical tunes for the public to listen to.

2008-11-01T23:20:00.003-05:00

Everyone has something they love doing that they’re good at. Some like to sit back and read, but I like to play sports. In high school, I was involved in just about every extracurricular activity that was offered. Until my junior year, I didn’t really like track. I didn’t even go out for it my freshman year, and my sophomore year wasn’t too extraordinary. When my junior year strolled around, my friend and I agreed not to go out for track. After all, it wasn’t that fun to us, so why do it? When it came down to it, our other friends talked us into going out, and I am so glad that we did. My junior year was my best year of track. This was the year that I finally got down my rhythm when it came to hurdles. I cut several seconds off of both my 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles; I even broke my school’s record in the 100 hurdles. I loved them. The year went so well; I went to state in both hurdle races, the 400 meter dash, and the 4x100 meter relay. When the year got over, I couldn’t wait for my senior year of track. My senior year came, and my volleyball season went quickly. When basketball began, I couldn’t play until December because I had a severe case of mononucleosis. I was so excited to start basketball once my doctor released me, but I was a little out of shape. When it came to my third game, I had finally earned the position of starting and being a captain. That game went to the worst. I tore my ACL in the third quarter. Sports were my life; I had no idea what to do without participating in them. I didn’t do much in track, and that’s what helped me decide to do it here at Wesleyan. I want a second chance, and even though I’m still working on building my strength back up, I am getting excited for track. Sometimes I forget about how much I love the hurdles, but it doesn’t take much to remind me of the one-two-three rhythm of the three-stepping of 100 hurdles.

Vice Presidential Debate

2008-10-26T22:45:00.001-05:00

Sarah Palin seems very confident in her response to Gwen Ifill’s question, “What promises will your campaign not be able to keep because of bailout?” Although it is not the only rhetorical appeal Palin uses, she uses pathos throughout her response to help get her point across to Americans viewing the debate. By starting out by saying, “The nice thing about running with John McCain is I can assure you he doesn’t tell one thing to one group and then turns around and tells something else to another group, including his plans that will make this bail out plain, this rescue plan, even better.” To further support herself, she then uses pathos by telling a story. She mentioned how Barack Obama voted for a bill that gave a huge tax break to oil companies. “You know what I had to do in the state of Alaska? I had to take on those oil companies and tell them…that wasn’t going to happen in my state. And that’s why Tillerson and…Conoco Philips—bless their hearts; they’re doing what they need to do as a corporate C.E.O.’s, but they’re not my biggest fans.” She said that in Alaska, she had to break up a monopoly because the people come first, and she for sure wanted to guarantee that values were given to the people from those resources. Long story short, she explained that she had to undo in her state what Obama did. Once she finished explaining that, Gwen Ifill asked again that she didn’t make any promises that she wasn’t going to keep because of the financial crisis. Palin replies by saying that she has only been at this for about five weeks, so there’s not a lot that she has promised except “…to do what is right for the American People…” That is such a broad answer, but with that answer, she can’t go wrong. If, in fact, she and McCain would get into office, no one could go back and accuse her of making promises not following through with them. Isn’t that would every president does, or should, want—the best for America? I think that it is. To someone who does not know that much about politics, they might be very pleased with this answer, but I think that a well-informed voter would see that answer as a little broad. Because of that, it is a good thing that she went further to give some examples of what she and McCain would like to do for America that’s a little bit more specific that just “the best” for it. She considers the following to be what is right for the American people: put government back on the side of the American People, stop the greed and corruption on Wall Street, and include a massive oversight in the rescue plan. The preceding examples are ways that Sarah Palin used the rhetorical appeal of pathos. By smiling throughout her response and referring to past experiences, she displayed pathos in a good way.

Presidential Debate

2008-10-21T22:01:00.002-05:00

Pathos-they both use pathos by giving new ways to do things in the government. Obama give me the sense that he wants to do the best for us and use the “pay as you go” method that he speaks of. He said that for every new spending plan he has made, he has made an equal cut so that we aren’t drowning ourselves into more debt. When asked about spending money, McCain stated that he would, “…eliminate programs…one of them would be the marketing assistant program. Another one would be a number of subsidies for ethanol.”
Logos-Obama gives the audience an example by using Medicare. He said that he would cut that insurance because “…it doesn’t help seniors get any better. It’s not improving our healthcare system…” He states that if we invest in health studies, it will save us from diseases and such in the future. McCain tells us that we’re giving “a trillion dollar debt” to our kids, and then he goes on to say that he knows how to save those dollars. He gives examples like I stated in the pathos response to help save money.
Ethos-In a way, they both had some bad ethos going for them. For instance, at three minutes and about fifty seconds into my clip, Obama smiles after McCain makes a statement about something Obama supposedly opposes, but you can tell that Obama disagrees. At about five minutes and thirty seconds into the clip, McCain gets done with a spiel, and Obama starts to talk in a more mature way instead of pointing fingers. This makes me thing more of Obama’s character than McCain’s.
McCain used comparison-contrast to sell some of his ideas. When he was explaining what he would cut, he said he would cut back on a lot of drilling and such, which Obama opposed, he says. He wants to do that so that we can become energy independent, which will also create millions of jobs.
Obama also used sort of a definition because he went back and referred to when President Bush went into office. He gave us an example that our debt has doubled over the past 10 or so years, which brings it to our attention why it is so very important to start cutting back on our spending. That brings to our attention that he wants to look at all of our programs and cut the ones that are not of importance and give more attention to those that are low funded and are effective. By giving that reflection on when Bush came into office, if makes us realize our needs now.
This event is meant to be professional. It is the last two presidential candidates going back and forth on their views about spending, but in my opinion, this debate makes them look childish at times. When they point the finger at the other, implying that one’s opinions are better than the other’s, they look childish. They need to be more mature about the way they go about stating the nation’s problems and stating their remedies.

Questions over Envisions

2008-10-16T12:17:00.002-05:00

Chapter 1
(1) How does using visual rhetoric in our everyday lives benefit us? Or does it benefit us?
(2) What can help us when considering a visual rhetoric image?
(3) Are visual rhetorics ever unnecessary? Why or why not?

Chapter 2
(1) What specific strategies of argumentation work the best for advertisements?
(2) What is meant by logos, pathos, and ethos?
(3) What are some examples of logical fallacies?

Happy Halloween

2008-10-07T12:16:00.004-05:00

The parking lot was filled with cars, and the cars kept pulling in. Since it was getting near Halloween, everyone wanted to get their costumes. Two glass doors stood there, waiting to be opened to reveal the contents behind them. Getting closer, a reflection could be seen; just an average, blonde-haired girl with two French braids to hold her hair back. She took a deep breath to help her because she knew if she reached her hand forward to push one of the doors open, there was no going back. She braved up and put her right hand forward and pushed the glass door open. Finally she worked up enough nerve to get where she wanted to be: inside the Halloween store.
The door shut with a loud, hard thunk. The first thing to be seen was a huge, hairy black spider hanging by a thin string from the ceiling. A mannequin stood by the doors of the Halloween shop greeting customers as they came. It was dressed in a plum suit jacket and pinstriped pants. The vest under the mannequin’s jacket was puke green with three black buttons down the middle. There was a mask over its face. This face on the mask was as white as a ghost with dark black outlining the holes cut out for one’s eyes. Even though a smile was not cut out of the mask, it appeared to be drawn-on, tracing the lips and then went up to where the cheek bones would be with a blood-red outline. This was no ordinary costume; this was meant to be of the Joker from the movie The Dark Knight. The mannequin’s green eyes followed shoppers as they walked by, proving there was something mysterious about it.
Halloween decorations were all around. Just to the left of the store entrance, a young girl with two French braids stopped abruptly in her tracks. There was a man, and all one could see was from his shoulders up. It was a machine; the outside of it smelled and looked as though it was made of rubber, like a rubber mask, and it was attached to a neck. There was a motion sensor so that whenever someone walked by, the head turned in a full circle, and the crunching and crackling of bones could be heard. The look on the man’s face looked as though he was in excruciating pain; his nose was scrunched up, eyes squinting, and mouth open, showing his teeth gritting. Once the head returned to where it began, the girl was able to walk away from his gaze.
To the right, there was an aisle. Each side of the isle was filled with square, plastic bags with pictures of girls modeling the costumes that were inside each of the bags. Each bag read “Do not remove costumes from bags! Ask for assistance.” There was such a variety of costumes. In one bag, there was a bee costume. It was a tube-top styled dress with black and gold horizontal stripes. The very bottom had ruffles on it to add a little frill, and it just barely covered the model’s rear. Right beside the bee getup was a diva costume. The girl modeling the outfit was wearing a shiny silver, retro dress and tall, white go-go boots. Her hair looked as though it was not going to move; it was plastered to the side of her head, flipped out at the ends just like a ‘70’s diva. The next costume that caught my eye was that of a fairy. This model was wearing a tight blue one-piece outfit. It was light green, and the top fit her like a tube top, similar style to the bee costume, and the bottom was like a swimsuit with a frilly white skirt to help cover her up. Silver glitter outlined her seams like pixie dust. On her back, there were two wings made of see-through green material. It seemed as though she had just came out of a fairy-tale book.
The two owners of the store were behind a big counter that stretched by the dressing rooms. They just sat there and took outfits out of their plastic bags for the customers who wanted to try on costumes. “Does this look okay?” a girl asked her friend as she let out a little laugh. A blonde, about five foot nine inches tall, came out of the dressing room wearing an outfit that resembled that of a nurse. The top buttoned up, and the bottom stopped unexpectedly right at her hip bones. It was obvious that this costume was not made for girls over five-five. One of the employees said, “Oh, I think that would be cute with some stalking!” Her friend who was sitting in the corner, judging her friend’s costumes she tried on, let out a loud, “HA! I think it’s a little short, Car.” The girl with the outfit on smiled and went back into the dressing room. The workers at the store seemed to always be doing this. No matter how awful the costumes looked on the people who tried them on, they always gave good reviews to the customers. These people were surely trying to sell their merchandise rather than help their customers
The word “Morgue” appeared to be carved into a piece of wood above a narrow doorway towards the back of the store. Near the morgue, thunder crashing and rain pouring down could be heard from a machine in the left back corner of the room producing these stormy sounds. The “morgue” was lit by a black light. On the walls around me, there were various images and words written with bright lime-green paint. It glowed brightly on the dull gray walls due to the black light. On the wall to my right, it read “I still know what you did last summer,” in the neon paint, and to my left, the wall read “Help me!” Pictures of skulls and cross bones were all over the walls, along with hand prints on the wall clawing down as if someone was trying to escape. Deeper into the morgue, there was a large black coffin. The lid was open, tempting anyone who came near to take a peak inside. The contents of the coffin contained a pale white skeleton dressed in a ragged blue tee-shirt. On his chest, there were four black tarantellas (fake, of course).
Right outside of the morgue, there were gory weapons made of plastic and fake blood. For being phony knives and swords, they looked more realistic than they used to appear. Rather than the old dull and gray plastic used for knives and swords, all of the weapons now were made of silver and shiny plastic, resembling that of a sharp object; however, they were just fake. Two little boys ran down an aisle. They looked like they were about five- and seven-years old. The older boy had fiery red hair and freckles that filled up his face, unlike the younger brother who was shorter and had chestnut-colored curly locks framing his face. “I’m going to get you!” said the older boy, chasing the younger one around with one of the realistic swords. The mother of the two demanded in a harsh voice, “Danny, come here right now!” It didn’t take long for the older boy named Danny to start marching in his mom’s direction, his head down in embarrassment.
The decorations, the costumes, and the people were still shopping at Drac’s Place, ready to celebrate the spooky holiday of Halloween. The two glass doors still stood still. The experience of the spine-tingling store brought much to one’s attention. Halloween is a holiday that just about everyone enjoys preparing for. The decorations, the costumes, and the candy can be overwhelming sometimes, though. This holiday helps create some laughs, screams, and tummy aches. The new swords and knives show that people these days are constantly demanding bigger and better possessions. What once was used, the dull gray knives, is now considered to be less effective compared to the shiny silver weapons. The store owners proved that instead of caring about their customers’ well being, they were simply eager to sell more Halloween décor. Halloween is one of the most fun prepared holidays; people should just take a breath to enjoy it.

Cubing Exercise

2008-10-06T19:32:00.001-05:00

1.Generalizing: consider what you have learned from the event or experience that will be the occasion for your reflections. What ideas does it suggest to you? What does it suggest about people in general or about the society in which you live?
People are a lot about status. It doesn’t matter if it’s about clothes, money, fancy cars, or even holidays. I learned there are a lot of Halloween odds and ends out there. I learned that many people are concerned with having a Halloween costume and having Halloween decorations. It makes me want to explore the Halloween holiday more.

2. Giving examples: illustrate your ideas with specific examples. What examples would best help your readers understand your ideas?
All of the fancy and gory Halloween decorations I saw are examples of this. Some are taken to another extreme. Does anyone really need a creepy guy whose head spins completely around and makes a crackling noise? Our lives are not simple anymore; we constantly need more and better entertainment. People need bigger, more modern television sets. People need faster computers. It never ends.

3. Comparing & contrasting: think of a subject that could be compared with yours & explore the similarities & the differences.
Halloween is even simpler than Christmas. Halloween is more about the decorations, costumes, and candy, while Christmas is about those things, but also presents. In a way, they are alike, but they are also different. Christmas is seen as a religious celebration, but Halloween is seen as a festival.

4. Extending: take your subject to its logical limits & speculate about its implications. Where does it lead?
Halloween actually started as a Catholic day. They started it to celebrate All Hallow’s Eve, but now it has turned into a big show of who can be the spookiest. Like I said before, life has gone away from being simple. No one is content with just being a plain black-dressed witch; now, people have to have sparkles and more frills like feathers on the brim of their hats. The simplicity is gone.

5. Analyzing: take apart your subject. What is it made of? How are the parts related to one another? Are they all of equal importance?
My subject is the Halloween store I was in. It is made up of costumes, mannequins dressed in costumes, tarantellas, goofy hats, people talking, lime green paint on the walls, a black light, coffin, skeletons, noises of a thunder storm, and creepy music. They are not all of importance, but I can use certain ones to highlight others. They are all dealing with Halloween. Some are common items you would think of for Halloween shopping, but others are more extravagant.

6. Applying: think about your subject in practical terms. How can you use it or act on it? What difference would it make to you & to others?
I will mainly describe the items in the Halloween store and how I viewed them as I came across them. I will describe how the simplicity of the holiday has gone away, and how it is now about the biggest and fanciest Halloween items. It will make people realize how our world constantly wants everything to be bigger and better.

Mean Girls

2008-10-05T18:15:00.005-05:00

The lives of teenage girls are always full of all sorts of drama, but for the four main characters in the popular movie Mean Girls, their drama is raised to a whole new level. With silly rules like wearing pink on Wednesdays and not eating at lunch time, I have no idea why anyone would want to be friends with them. Other students refer to them as “The Plastics” because they are so fake. The four of them claim to be the best of friends, but they are constantly putting each other down behind one another’s backs and saying hurtful remarks. They judge everyone around them. They even have a “Burn Book,” which is a book with pictures and negative comments about their fellow classmates. This movie is funny, but that fact that some girls actually are like this is revolting. Girls in every school have drama, but I have never witnessed any actions that are as horrible as what these girls did. At one point in the movie, their pranks went a little too far, one of the “Plastics” ended up with a severe spinal injury. By the end of the movie, the Plastics broke up, and the four girls went their own ways because they realized that life shouldn’t be that way. Life is too short to always be causing some sort of drama, so why even do it? There was a time in my life where there was a lot of drama. Once I stopped hanging out so often with a particular person, it was like I waved a magic wand because the drama was gone. People need to look at the bright side and not fight all the time. Fighting and lies lead to drama, and nobody needs as much drama as the characters from Mean Girls create.

Picture to Burn-Due 9-28

2008-09-28T23:22:00.002-05:00

The song and music video Picture to Burn by Taylor Swift is very intense. If the lyrics of the song do not get her message through, her actions through the video sure do.
Fire. It can have different meanings. In this video, Taylor Swift uses it as something to leave her past in the dust. Teenage love is the same way; with all the ups and downs, no one knows what damage will be done behind after a teenage heartbreak. Because a boy broke her heart, Taylor is seeking revenge; after all, her ex-boyfriend is “just another picture to burn.” The beautiful young blonde is gazing at a picture of the two when they were dating. She finds out that boys aren’t always all they’re cracked up to be. Even though everything seemed happy at the beginning, he ended up being just another jerk. The video shows six people dressed from head to toe in black suits, sunglasses, hats, and shoes. They shine their flashlights in the heartbreaker’s dark house, rummaging through all of his possessions like raccoons in a garbage can. They play a game of hate by throwing darts at his picture on a dart board. Just in case he does not get the big picture, they paint it out for him by using shaving cream to spell out the word loser in capital letters on one of his mirrors. They parade around the house, draping toilet paper over and under furniture. One of the house wreckers, a red-headed girl, takes a swig of his blue mouthwash, swishes it around in her mouth, and then spits it back to in the container. As the end of the night tolls, the super-secret agents make their exit. He comes home with his new girlfriend only to find his house completely trashed. His whole world comes to a halt as he looks around at chaotic mess of toilet paper. “Taylor,” he mutters under his breath. Taylor is brought back to reality, realizing she was only envisioning the preceding actions.

Explanation
I wrote about the video in chronological order. By using the lyrics she sang, I mixed in some of the visual and audio together. In some cases, I included comparison, such as when I said, “…rummaging through all of his possessions like raccoons in a garbage can.” Everyone can picture annoying raccoons going through a trash can and making a mess of things, so that is why I used that here. I also tied in the effects if fire, and how fire can be used to describe moods as well as flames.

Freedom is Always Worth the Price-Due Sept. 23

2008-09-21T15:13:00.003-05:00

With John McCain supporting the war in Iraq and Barack Obama wanting to bring our troops home, there are many mixed feelings about our presidential candidates among fellow Americans. In this particular video, it features a veteran of the Iraqi war. Inspiration is one word that describes this short campaign video for John McCain. This soldier obviously is a strong supporter of McCain, and this video proves how important it is to vote for the right candidate for the upcoming election. The man states that he was in Iraq for twelve months and has seen the sacrifices made for the people of Iraq. According to him, the war is not full of mistakes as many people think. He gives us an insider’s prospective of the Iraqi war. Because the people of Iraq are like us deep down, he says that they want to live in a “secure world” with freedom from the laws that currently tie them down. Confidence is in his voice when he asks “Are they better off than they were in 2002? You bet.” He used very good comparisons that make the person watching the video really think about their views on the war. By asking if one would save a fireman who was going to save a child, he proves a good point. Why take our troops out of Iraq as we are starting to make a difference there? Wouldn’t we rather have our troops over there helping their country rather than have the bad people of their country come to America and start a war? The best part of the video is when the music starts to slowly get louder, and then he turns to walk away. No more is said about him being a soldier, but you can tell that he made a sacrifice. The little limp and prosthetic leg says it all, and I admire him for what he did for our country.

McDrama

2008-09-21T14:19:00.004-05:00

Many people have heard of the popular ABC series Grey’s Anatomy. It’s getting ready to kick off its fifth season on Thursday, September 25, at 8:00 PM. For those who are not familiar with this spectacular television series, it is a show that has been packed full of drama since the very first episode. The setting of the show is in Seattle Grace Hospital in Seattle, Washington. When it began, it mainly revolved around the five new interns at Seattle Grace: Meredith Grey, Cristina Yang, Izzie Stevens, Alex Karev, and George O’Malley. That was the start this hospital’s romance of hooking up and falling in love. The whole show revolves around the love-hate relationship between Dr. Derek Shepherd and now Dr. Meredith Grey. In the first season, Dr. Shepherd was married and had an affair with Meredith. Since then, he has divorced his wife and had an on-off relationship with Meredith Grey. Over time, Meredith and Derek have dated other people, but they always wind up falling for each other again. In the last episode of season four, Meredith and Derek are together on land that Derek owns. There is an outline made of candles in paper bags of a house that Derek has wanted to build, but he only has intentions of building it to settle down with someone like Meredith. In the last part of the episode, the audience sees Meredith and Derek them touring their “house.” When Derek realizes how much he truly loves Meredith, he tells her to wait there because he has to go do something before they go any further. He doesn’t directly tell her, but the audience knows that he has to go tell Rose, the nurse he has been seeing, that he no longer has feelings for her. The writers of the series left the audience hanging on that last Meredith-Derek moment, and that is why season five has been greatly anticipated. Will Meredith and Derek finally be together forever, or will something go terribly wrong like usual? Tune in to ABC Thursday at 8:00 for the two-hour premier to find out; I know I will!

Total Eclipse of the Heart

2008-09-14T22:56:00.002-05:00

This video is meant for entertainment purposes. One watching this video can tell that they were doing this video for fun. They knew the words pretty well, so that was definitely a good thing. The song they sang is from the Disney movie Aladdin.
They did not have a lot of visual effects. A good visual effect they had was during the first chorus when the guy singing the male part pulled out an inflatable globe to represent “A whole new world.” The guy who sang the female part tried to act in character. He did some movements, like trying to twirl his hair, that related to that of a girl. Their arm movements were big, and they tried to move around on the screen some, but since the camera didn’t move, they didn’t have many places to go.
The video does not appear to have been edited. It looks as though they may have rehearsed it a few times, and then once they recorded it, they kept it as it was. I cannot know this for a fact, but it is my guess because there are moments that show this, like at the very end when they think it is done recording, so one of them walks back in where the camera is and starts laughing. I assume that they either used a camera propped on a shelf or a webcam on a computer to video their clip.
The meaning of the song is about love. It is hard to convey this message with two guys, one singing a guy part and one singing a girl part. They didn’t try too hard to get this message of love across to the viewers. There were a few times in the video where the one singing the girl part would bat his eyes at the other, but that was more comedic than romantic to me. As I said before, I don’t think that the two guys doing this video were really trying to create a romantic scene; I believe it was two guys bored in their dorm room, so they decided to make some people laugh.

Diagrams

2008-09-11T12:35:00.006-05:00

The diagram that I chose would help someone trying to learn more about volcanoes’ structures. The picture of it uses different colors to represent the different parts of the volcano and the substances that make it up. There is text on the diagram; each section of text is connected to the part of the volcano it is describing by a straight line. Even if a paragraph descriptively tells how the volcano works and explains its parts, a diagram gives the reader a better visual of what the construction of the volcano looks like. It helps someone who is reading it to mentally put things where they belong on the volcano. That is one way making a diagram may help one when before writing. If one would make a diagram before starting a piece, it could be helpful organizational tool. Or, if one includes a diagram in his or her writing, it may help to get the point across by showing the reader something visual, just as a speaker may have a visual aide when presenting a speech. When a writer is writing, he or she may not be able to explain the topic as a speaker can while giving a speech. Speakers can talk with their hands and make gestures; however, because pieces of writing can be understood differently, writers must be concise. If they include diagrams in their writing, they can use them to help readers visually absorb the information they are trying to share a little easier because they are not standing physically there in person to explain themselves. This is why diagrams need to have some sort of a focus. Whether it be used for organization or visual. The diagram of the volcano is visual. I’m not completely sure what this all has to do with writing. Like I said before, diagrams can be helpful when starting to write. They also may help the reader understand a concept better, so maybe that is why our teacher Josh Ware had us write a three hundred word response.

Blog Post 1

2008-09-04T14:19:00.005-05:00

"The essayist does what we do with our lives; the essayist thinks about actual things. He can make sense of them analytically or artistically. In either case he renders the real world coherent and meaningful, even if only bits of it, and even if that coherence and meaning reside only inside small texts." (Atwan 24)

-Annie Dillard

Test Post

2008-08-28T14:47:00.000-05:00

Test Post