FW: I'm not gonna talk about boys...gonna talk about anime!

I love my friends. Especially my best friend. She's someone I can call whenever and I know that she'll come over as soon as is physically possible, and that's pretty comforting. And she's as weird as I am.
So she sort of introduced me to this new anime, Death Note. I say sort of because I actually read the manga for awhile, before I came up to college. So I was familiar with it but I had never watched it...well, she got me to watch it and we watched the last episode today...it was a lot of fun. It is, in my opinion, a very profound anime. Its basic premise is rather philosophical. Light, the main character, finds a "Death Note." Basically, it's a notebook that if you write someone's name in it and think of their face, they'll die. Light decides (once he tests the book's power and realizes it works) that he's going to create a new world...one where there isn't any evil...and he's going to start by killing criminals. It's a noble cause, to rid the world of evil. Killing people and not having to reap the consequences in this life. It's also more interesting than most animes because it doesnt' rely on huge battles with swords or guns--almost all the fighting is done with the mind. Light trying rid the world of evil and L (another character) trying to track down this same mass murderer. It's really really fascinating.
But yeah, Jessica came by today and we watched the last episode. It was very powerful. Of course, me being the kind of person who smiles when nervous or when faced by angry people and the kind of person who laughs at all her friends when they cry...I totally made fun of it. But crazy people are so easy to make fun of...it's really irresistible. :)

...yeah, yeah. i'm a geek, I know.

RA: A WoW parody

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I-0badO8rc
This is a spoof of a series of commercials that Apple did...I think about the time Ipods first came out. It's a World of Warcraft-inspired video trying to convince people to switch from Alliance(the side that most people are on; humans, dwarves, gnomes, night elves) to Horde (orcs, undead, tauren, trolls).

WATCO switching from alliance to horde on your desirability as a character people need in groups?
Enthymeme: Switching from alliance to horde will increase your desirability as a character people need in groups because switching from a paladin to a shaman makes your all-around stats go up.

Logos: More than half of the "commercial" is about the problems with being a paladin. (Just as an FYI, you can only be a paladin on alliance and you can only be a shaman on the horde.) It points out the problems of being a paladin, such as everyone expecting you to be able to heal. It also points out the better attributes of shaman, such as totems.

Pathos: The entire thing is made up of jokes that are generally much more funny if you actually play World of Warcraft. None of the arguments are new; it's only the style in which they are presented that makes it interesting. Also, spoofing directly from a Apple commercial adds to their appeal, because it makes them memorable and gives them something to link to whenever they see an Apple commercial or hear this music they might think of these spoofs. I do, at least.

FW: English

I was talking to a friend in Leading Edge today, and we decided that English is the way it is because of its tragic past. It never really knew it's original parents and went through a series of foster homes with the Romans, Vikings, and Celts.
Then came puberty and the popular kids were all like "We are sooo much cooler because we're a romance language!" and considered English kind of like the kid who once wore their shirt inside-out on yearbook photo day. So English decided it wanted to be cooler and while emulating the cool kids who hung out at the mall...it assimilated all the French vocabulary.
It sort of worked. English graduated and tried to find real work in printing. But then there were people who were trying to change it to fix their requirements. English didn't have a very good resume, so it tried to make up things and pad the resume. Like...not splitting gerunds. It looked to the highly successful Latin, who had it made and was considered godly among the languages, even though Latin by now was very old and came with that "old man" smell that comes with old age.
Now, even though it's stretched itself pretty far, it's discovered that it likes hanging out with other languages and lifting their spare vocabulary when they aren't looking. It likes the adreneline rush.

FW: Dancesport

I love Dancesport. It happened last weekend. This is the second year I've gone to it...4th semester. Despite this, I've never actually seen the professionals dance. It just gets too crowded in the Wilk, and the Marriot Center is a very long way to walk for a show. So I get my kicks from watching the amateur championship. That's more fun anyways because sometimes I recognize people as being my teacher or TA in another class. And the costumes! I LOVE what people wear to dance in. The girls always have these sparkling dresses that you could never wear anywhere but a dance floor, and the guys wear those lovely latin pants that would look strange anywhere but a dance floor. There's such great energy...dance is probably one of the few sports that I'll watch. It makes me so envious...

I also danced at dancesport. That wasn't as fun. I didn't like my partner at all, and he didn't really know the steps. And he looks awful when he dances. I don't look that good either, but....yeah. So I watched this movie about dancing with Richard Gere in it? And he goes to a dance class, and that first day with the guys? The way they dance? Yeah, that's about my partner's ability. And we practiced too! A lot! Outside of class!

...however, I feel guilty trying to hoist all the blame on him because it really isn't all his fault. I'm not the best dancer either and I don't tend to act like I'm having fun if I'm not having fun. As I said in an earlier blog post, I'm only a mediocre dancer.

Oh well, we got cut the first round, which was embarrassing, though not surprising. But, putting that aside, it was a lot of fun watching those more talented than I.

RA: Disneyland

I wrote this whole thing up, and when I hit "publish post," Internet Explorer died. I hate technology sometimes.
Ok, so my roommate ordered this DVD from Disneyland because she wants to go there. It was a vacation planning DVD and basically nothing but a huge advertisment. However, it was a rather effective one, so I thought I'd do my RA about this DVD.

WATCO taking a Disney vacation on your ability to re-experience child-like wonder?

Enthymeme: Taking a Disney vacation will remind you what it's like to experience child-like wonder because taking a Disney vacation is the epitome of a fairy tale dream come true.

Logos: They used a lot of comparisons for logos. Things like while buying all these seperately might cost you $10,000, using his package it's only $5000! (Of course, $5000 is still a huge chunk of change and spending more than my college tuition for only 7 days at a theme park seems a bit wrong to me...) They also spent a lot of time talking about "the more you play, the less you pay." This, in theory, means that the longer you stay at Disneyland, the less it costs per day to be there. It makes it so that spending several thousand dollars seems to be the more reasonable option.

Pathos: I never realized how much music could be a pathos. In the introduction, it shows people (ages 6-90) giving testimonials about how wonderful Disneyland is, sporadically weaved through little clips of the favorite animated characters from Disney movies. All the while, it has this background music of very wistful yet inspirational music. My roommate almost cried by the end of it.

TA: Sanity

TA: WATCO taking on more responsibility than you have time for on your level of sanity?

Taking on more responsibility than you have time for will totally decrease your level of sanity because making yourself do more than is physically possible is exhausting, mentally-draining, and it makes you hate people.

…but after I wrote that I realized that there’s no argument there. No one would argue that being an overachiever was particularly good for your sanity.

WATCO not doing homework on your sociability with other people?

Not doing one’s homework will likely cause many sad things to happen when it comes to sociability with other people because avoiding responsibility that will have repercussions weighs on the mind and effects how you interact with others.

Implicit assumption: Anything that weighs on the mind and effects how you interact with others will cause many sad things to happen when it comes to sociability with other people.

…while worded perhaps not as well as it could be, it’s arguable now because I know a lot of people that say that it doesn’t matter what’s going on in your life you should be able to be social and stuff. Like me. But…it’s not really true. So I think it works as an argument…

RA: Music Videos

RA: Music Videos

So I’ve realized that most music videos seem to be sponsored by some kind of corporation. The thing is, it’s not a big advertisement for the product. You might see the product for 3 seconds. And music videos are expensive. Is it worth advertising in music videos to get that 3-second close-up of a Nike swoosh on Cassie’s shoes?

WATCO using music videos as advertising on prospective consumers?

Using music videos as advertising can bring in prospective consumers because using music videos as advertising associates the brand with a celebrity and people will voluntarily watch music videos several times.

Implicit assumption: Anything that associates a brand with a celebrity that people will voluntarily watch several times will bring in prospective consumers.

Ethos: Associates a brand name with a famous singer that people want to emulate. For example, the most recent music video I watched was with Cassie, in her Me & U video. She wore Nike shoes. Man, if wearing Nike shoes really would get me a body like hers, I’d be very willing to buy them…

Pathos: Whatever’s being advertised is always being used and is shown as very functional. Maybe that’s logos…

FW: boys

Why am I so obsessed with boys this semester? ...I think I have some kind of mentality that because I'm graduating in a year, it's very necessary for me to start looking for that happy potential mate. Pity the guy I'm currently attracted to is...something of a player. I don't think he means to be, but he's just very friendly and physical with girls. All of our mutual friends like him. A lot. And it makes me jealous even though I know I have no business being jealous because he isn't even mine. We're going on a date. It's a date he's been bribed to go on (see my RA for last week) but I'm not bitter. Much.

In other news I think I'm going to write a book based on our current D&D campaign. I figure most of the characters are mine anyways...those that aren't should be pretty easy to get permission to use. Especially since I doubt it'll ever be published. And since I'm the one coming up with the plot anyways, I might as well commit it to paper, since I think it's a rather good plot, if a bit stereotypical. Maybe I'll write up little excerpts for my next free writes in this blog. Because I know everyone wants to read my drivel. It will be only slightly better than the angsty, emo poetry that floats around in most blogs.

Haha, speaking of angsty poetry, I was surfing blogs and found one that had the most black, depressing poetry I'd ever read in my entire life. "Hello, I'd like to slit my wrists" is a good way to sum up the page. This annoys me because it's so much garbage. If you hate your life, make it better. Stop complaining, no one cares. ...said the kettle to the pot.

TA: Style

This is an exercise in style. I'm going to write a paragraph for at least two different audiences and change my style to fit each audience. My topic will be "why you should give things of monetary worth to me."

Audience: My friends whom I play D&D with
Yesterday I was preparing your D&D session for that evening and I realized that I put about as much time into this campaign as I did my last job, except that this time I'm not getting paid. Every week I spend several hours planning a session that will hopefully be engaging, fun, and plot-forwarding that will last several hours. During the session itself the idea is for you guys to have as much fun as possible, though I'm usually too busy looking up rules to have fun. I don't mind this, as it puts me in a position of power and I do enjoy my little power trips. However, I need help when it comes to things like treats, snacks, and your own dice. While, as the DM, it is my responsibility to come prepared with monsters and a plot, it is your own responsibility to arrive on time, bring your materials, and to bring unnourishing nourishment for the rest of us. If all of us did this, we'd have less stressful sessions.

Audience: My mom
Over the last week I've been thinking quite a lot about being grateful. And I came to the conclusion that I wasn't a very grateful person. For instance, I've never really thanked you for all the assistance you've given me in the past. So thank-you. To this day, because of you, my education is greater than it would have been without you and I know that I have a loving, supportive family behind me should I need it. However, as much as I dislike being a burden to you, I need some more assistance now. My books this semester were expensive and I had to finally break down and go buy dancing shoes. (Be happy for me, I'm being sooo athletic in my dancing classes!) Unfortunately, because of these expenditures, I'm currently short on rent money. Could you find it in your heart to help your devoted daughter out?

RA: Analyzing friends

Are we allowed to do RA's on conversations? Because all conversations are persuasive arguments, but some arguments are done very...badly. Like one that I had with a friend this last weekend. If you can't guess from the enthymeme, I'm really

WATCO asking a friend to join you on a double date on your friendship with that particular friend?

Enthymeme: Asking a friend to join you on a double date will put a strain on your friendship with that particular friend because telling your friend that you bribed her date to take her will cause her to lose self-esteem and resent your friendship.

Audience: A friend who thought telling me that she bribed someone to take me on a date would make us better friends.

Implicit Assumption: Anything that causes a friend to lose self-esteem and resent your friendship will put a strain on your friendship.

Logos: Logically, I suppose the argument was supposed to imply that she was such a good friend that she would step in and help a friend get a date.

Pathos: This doesn’t work as an argument because of pathos. The argument basically says that “you can’t even get a pity date” which is rather hurtful.

FW: Coming up with backstories...

So I'm the DM (Dungeon Master) of a game I play with six of my friends. It's a lot of fun to come up with a backstory and try to run them through a game. They're very good at being creative, and it's hard to deal with creative players when there are specific things you want them to do. You want to give them choices without forcing them into railroad tracks, but at the same time you don't want to spend over twenty hours planning the campaign, so you want them to go in a certain direction. It's hard.
However, another hard part is that you have to figure out how to make all their backstories mesh with the plot you've come up with. You'd think this would be easy, but I don't have any control over what kind of character they choose, what they look like, how they act, or where they come from. Well, that's a lie. I can tell them "no" to outrageous, stupid things, like traumatizing pasts no one should live through or warn them away from personalities that would get them killed.

This last week I came up with a backstory to incorporate my monk/Fortune's Friend into our campaign, and it is recorded thusly (it is not well written and is only a rough draft):

So. there was this monk named Dayton, and...during his travels in the world, he met an elf named Nahele. Actually, her name was a lot longer, but that's what he called her. She was a priestess of Ehlonna

they fell in love and wanted to spend their life together, blah blah blah.

However, dayton also felt a very strong tie to the monastery that raised him. He was one of the few monk/priests there and was one of the strongest, if not the strongest monk they had produced in decades. He felt it would be remiss in his duties if he did not go back to the monastery to teach the little ones.

This wouldn’t be a problem, except that Nahele was still completing her priestess training and couldn’t leave her forest yet. She was very obviously favored by her goddess and the high priestess of Ehlonna predicted many adventures and great things to be accomplished by Nahele's hands. However, the young elf maiden, very full of love...decided to follow her monk...at least for a little while. But it would be five years before they would meet again, and at that time, she would come and live at the monastery for maybe a few years. After that he would serve as her personal bodyguard while she accomplished her tasks.

During those five years, Dayton became an incredible warrior and an exceptional healer. He was an example to all those he taught. Nahele learned quickly in the ways of the forest and of healing.

After five years was up, Nahele made ready to go see the love of her life. However, the day before she was supposed to leave she became suddenly ill. Something that none of the priests/priestesses could cure

Instead of Nahele showing up at his doorstep, Dayton received a letter detailing how sick she was. However, he was not a very good scholar in elven and took the letter to mean she was dead, or at least close enough to it that it wouldn't matter. Barely a week into when she should have been at the monastery, an epidemic broke out at one of the local villages. It was a strange one, one that resisted much divine healing and drained an unusually high amount of energy from the healer for very little result. Dayton, overwrought with grief and determined to help in anyway possible, went to the village and tried to heal those that he could. Had this been a normal plague, he could have saved many. But it was a cursed thing, and it drained him of much energy. Even then, since he was so strong, he could have survived, but in his grief and desire to meet his love again, he overtaxed himself to the point of death.

(if you so desire to make this apply to your story, he could have noticed her at the last still alive and untainted and he set up wards and such to keep her untainted and so other monks could find her, and that was his last act before he died)

However, Nahele was not dead. In fact, she made a splendid recovery about three weeks later. It was, unfortunately, too late to save her love. She controlled her grief, however, and became a splendid tool for her goddess

FW: Knowledge is stress

I read the Sunday's Dilbert strip...and Ratbert declares in it that "knowledge is stress" and I'm inclined to agree with him. What's even more stressful is the knowledge that you should have a lot of knowledge, and yet you don't...like it's all slipped away. And that's what has stressed me out all weekend.
Let's see, I think today I'll rant about being social. I was social yesterday. I was out with friends from 10am to 1am the next day. However, instead of being socially rejuvenated, I was instead in one of the worst moods I've been in since school started this year. This could be because the majority of the time was spent with people I only partially like and it culminated with going to a Halloween party just in time to help clean up and be one of the last ones to leave without so much as dancing once. It also included seeing the guy I like flirting with other girls. And being called a...I believe it was a "lazy whore" by some random guy on the street while we walked home.

...This is why I stay at home on the weekends. Because even if I play video games, if they find out I'm a girl, I'm not a slut, but a goddess practically. And this is much healthier for my self-esteem. And then I don't have to parade around in a costume and wear high heels that hurt my feet.
I also would have gotten at least some of my homework done. As it stands, I'm so behind now that I've past the turbulent rapids of panic and am now in the calm waters of apathy. Woo.

RA: Ikea lamp ad

So this is another of my favorite ads. Ikea ran this lamp ad awhile back, so it isn't that recent, but it's a different take on the normal ad, I think. There's a great deal of pathos in it that makes it memorable. It has a 'twist ending' so I'm not sure how an enthymeme works for it: does it go with the twist or does it go with the rest of the ad?

WATCO making it obvious that you're manipulating emotion on your target audience and it's ability to remember your ad?
Enthymeme: Making it obvious that you're manipulating emotion will greatly help your audience remember your ad because making the viewer feel sorry for an inanimate object and then laughing at them is out of the ordinary for decor ads.
Implicit assumption: Anything that is out of the ordinary for decor ads will greatly help your audience remember your ad.

Pathos: The whole ad is geared for pathos. It plays really sad music in the background, makes it rain, and generally creates a very depressed mood for almost the entire ad. Within twenty seconds, the average viewer feels absolutely outraged that someone would have the audacity to throw out an old lamp. The memorable part comes in when the guy comes in at the end and points out that a lamp has no feelings and the viewer shouldn’t feel sorry for it.

Ethos: I think it’s an appeal to ethos that they seem so obvious about their manipulation of emotion that the viewer feels this is a very ‘honest’ ad, in a weird way.

FW: Writing Papers and arguments

I feel it appropriate to write my free response about papers since that's what I'm still doing at this moment and will continue doing until it's time to turn the paper in tomorrow. You know what my problem is with papers? I hate my subjects. Even if I like my subject at the beginning, I manage to, in my paper, turn it into this trite, stupid argument that no longer makes any sense for why anyone would want to write about this subject in the first place. And it's really annoying. I don't think my enthymeme even holds up for anyone save a very very very specific audience, and then they aren't really a neutral audience, they're an audience in denial of being the recipients of the lecture. I just hope I don't fail the paper. My rewrite will probably be on a different subject. This is actually the 2.5th paper I've written. I wrote the rough of another one and the outline of yet another subject. I just can't find what I'm looking for, and I'm not even interested in the arguments...I'd like to talk about asians, but there isn't much to persuade out there about them, except that maybe they aren't as smart as people think they are, which isn't much of a standpoint to...well, stand by.

Maybe it stems from the fact that I'm not an interesting person, or that I can't actually argue in real life. I don't think I've ever won an argument that wasn't superficial. I blame my lack of ability to be persuasive on my genes! It's not my fault that I was made this way! Enthymemes can't fix what's wrong with the head! I in fact hate arguments. This class goes against the very core of my being. I should be offended, dangit.

...or maybe I should have taken technical writing, which would have been a lot more boring but would have had enough rules that even a monkey could do it. Well, a monkey well-versed in English and it's technicalities, I suppose.

TA: Pros and Cons

I've been having a lot of trouble with coming up with a subject. My biggest problem is that I come up with subjects that don't seem to have two sides. Originally I wanted to do standardized testing with an emphasis in exit examinations. However, I think I found a new subject. But I thought doing a pros/cons on my original subject would make a good practice, since that's what we're doing in class, sort of.
Pros for standardized exit testing:
1)You could cut down standardized test to a single exit exam in junior high and one in high school.
2) It would theoretically guarantee a minimum standard between all schools in America.
3) It would make a high school diploma much less subjective for each school.
4) You could use these tests to help sort students into magnet schools or into classes that they need.
5) It would be a good standardized test to base a school's academic achievement off of.

Cons for a standardized exit test:
1) Standardized tests can show racial/social discrimination which could adversely affect students.
2) This still leaves the problem of teaching how to take tests instead of studying actual material. It’s the problem of teaching kids what to think instead of how to think.
3) It’s not the exit test that’s important, but the entrance test into college, because no one can do much with a high school diploma anyways, even if it did guarantee certain skills.
4) It would keep back students who didn’t want to go to school, which would create a great deal of dead-weight in the senior classes of high schools.
5) It’s possible a national standardized test would create even more useless bureaucracy in the government that would hinder instead of hurt people.

6) If it doesn't directly work for the student's interest, then it probably isn't a good policy, and it's hard to make this work for a majority of student's best interest.

FW: Dancing

I used to dance when I was little. Like, when I was between the ages of six and eight. This dancing was ballet, usually around the time of the nutcracker. I was very bad at dancing. In my class, even though they were all my same age, I was at least a head taller than everyone else, I was awkward, and generally did not have the makings of a dancer. So I stopped and played soccer instead, where my innate clumsiness led to the parents making bets on how many times I would fall over myself per game. They used to congratulate me if the number was less than three.
Years past and I finally graduated high school and came to college. And I wanted to dance. I wanted it so bad. So, after spending hours trying to add a dance class, I finally got into social dance. I was abysmal at it. I would go to every practice session every week and that would make me about a "B" student in those classes. I've never gotten above a "B+" in any of the four dance classes I've taken.
It really bothers me that I just don't seem to get it when it comes to dancing. I can practice and barely get the steps, or do minimal practice and do only SLIGHTLY worse. But I never do good. One of my mini-goals for my college career was that I wanted to learn how to dance, and make it look good when I dance. It seems like one of those skills that would make you more comfortable with your own body and it would be nice if I wasn't clumsy for the rest of my life.

RA: Not beer, but its still a vice.

I almost did another beer commercial, but I resisted. I really recommend checking out this commercial. It was an advertisement for XBox that was banned from television, but was very, very widely watched on the internet. That particular upload has more than 900k views for it. There are two things you could ask for this, one about the ad itself, and one about the method in distributing it. Since the latter is more intriguing, that's what this RA will be about.
WATCO placing a commercial online on the memorability and visibility of the ad?
Enthymeme: Placing a commercial online will increase the memorability and visibility of an ad because placing a banned commercial online will put the commercial where the target audience is.
Implicit Assumption: Anything that puts the commercial where the target audience is will increase the memorability and visibility of an ad.
Intended Audience: The intended audience of the ad is geeks, video gamers, and other people that would spend a great deal of time on electronic devices.
The intended audience for this argument would be the stockholders and other inquiring minds in the company when they find out their expensive ad is banned from television.
Logos: Which is all you can really give right now for this argument I’m building. The ad itself is pathos, ethos, and logos, but we’re arguing the idea of putting a banned ad online to get full benefits. And the logos for that is the results they received when this ad went on youtube and other such places. Ethos would have come from the advertising agency itself and pathos doesn’t work in a big business setting.
Sorry, this was a slightly different RA, but I hope it still made sense.

FW: I love my roommates...but....

I really do like my roommates. They're really good girls, they sometimes do their chores, and generally help pay the bills on time. They usually knock before entering my room and only once in awhile do I get blamed for things that aren't my fault.
In the meantime, when they have midterms..or are busy....or have relationship troubles..and forget to do their chores...or whatever...I'll pick up the slack and do them. Because I'm anal retentive and I hate messy floors. And while I don't expect the favor to be returned...it wouldn't hurt if once in awhile they could help me when I'm having trouble. No, I don't want to talk about it. I want someone to pick up what I might forget to do. But no. It doesn't happen. Which is fine, I guess. Such is the way of justice and of life, and I shouldn't expect more. I don't. But it would be nice.

And you know what my current beef is with one of my roommates? It's probably the most dumbest thing I've ever been mad over...but she's my visiting teaching companion. And we were VTing this girl in our ward...and my roommate mentioned that she's just working full time this semester...and how she "takes care of all of us" and that she feels "just like a mother now." And this really upset me. She's never home, she spends most of her time at work or with her boyfriend. I've seen her doing chores once...and she's a great girl, i know she is. And I'm sure when she said that she meant that she has to take responsibility for herself and redecorating the living room is almost like being a mother. But I still resented the comment. Isn't that the dumbest thing? Maybe it's my fault and I just don't know her well enough. And if I got to know her it would indeed turn out that she's this silent, surrogate mother figure for me thats been there all along.
..just like I'm sure that when I cry at night it's really because of PMS and not because of my ex boyfriend.
...and that the guy I like doesn't really hate me...
...and that I'm not really an absolutely pitiful human being with really petty problems. I just never matured past teenagerhood.
Yeah. Right.

TA: More practice

Another random enthymeme practice
WATCO the ability to ‘chat’ on the internet on a college student’s social capital?
Enthymeme: The ability to chat on the internet reduces the value of a college student’s social capital because chatting on the internet reduces the amount of face-to-face time with friends and makes relationships more impersonal.
Implicit Assumption: Anything that reduces the amount of face-to-face time with friends and makes relationships more impersonal will reduce the value of a college student’s social capital.
Intended Audience: Students who spend more time talking to people on the internet, whether through games or a chat engine, than in real life.

WATCO listening to angry music while in a negative mood on a teenager’s ability to handle his or her emotions.
Enthymeme: Listening to angry music while in a negative mood will help teenagers handle their emotions in a more positive way because listening to angry music will help teenagers work through the anger process faster.
Implicit Assumption: Anything that helps teenagers work through the anger process faster will help teenagers handle their emotions in a more positive way.
Intended Audience: Parents or guardians of teenagers that don’t approve of the music their teenagers are listening to.

RA: Analyzing a picture

So I have a lot of art that I like, but it seems that just because it's a picture doesn't mean it has a WATCO. I was going to do the photograph that's from the Great Depression...the one with the mom and her two kids? However, I thought I'd do a picture you haven't seen before and it's really really gorgeous. Go here if you want to see a larger version. It's an artist's rendition of Vanity, one of the seven deadly sins.

WATCO of someone who is excessively prideful on their perception of the world?
Enthymeme: Someone who is excessively prideful will distort their perception of the world because someone who is excessively prideful will only notice the parts of the world that pertain to themselves and ignore the rest.
Implicit Assumption: Anything that causes people to notice the parts of the world that pertain to themselves and ignore the rest will distort their perception of the world.
Intended Audience: People who like contemplating gorgeous artwork. (It sounds bad, but it's true!) Also for other artists who would notice the small symbols she uses in her drawings.
Ethos: I think her ability as an artist lends to her ethos
Pathos: The color purple, which is often associated with vanity, is the primary color of the picture.
Logos: The peacock tail pattern, the mirror, and the desolate landscape in the background are all familiar symbols that have been associated with vanity before, so it makes for a good argument? Or this might need to be in ethos...

FW: My aspiration in life is pleasure.

I've been playing a game called Sims2. I'm not obsessive, but I'm terribly fond of its textures and..despite it's mundane premise, it's actually quite entertaining. Who knew that playing god was so much fun? It's especially fun to have them set their house on fire. However, this post isn't about my love for flame (which actually scares me in real life).
Everytime I play Sims2, I wonder why life can't be more like a video game. It would be much more simpler. Relationships are easier and can be broken down in 1's and 0's. Even fitness is easier: you work out for a day and you can go from tubby to poster boy for Gold's Gym. I work out and I'm still not skinny. What's wrong with the world?
Also, aspirations in life are easier. From the time of teenage-hood, you're already on your career path and, as long as you know at least 10 friends, you can practically become a CEO! Now, I know 10 people rather well, but none of them are going to help me in my road to be...well, whatever it is I'll be when I graduate. Not only do I not know my own career, but I'm not sure what I aspire to be. My current aspiration is to be able to fit into my pants. I'm sure Sonic the Hedgehog never had to worry about such mundane aspirations.
You know what else? In video games, there's no such thing as PMS. And you get pregnant by calling the stork. How convenient is that?
But no, our lives have to be chaotic, inconvenient, and full of too many choices and possibilities.
I've been asked several times how on earth can I stand playing a game that's like real life. And it's very simple. Because sometimes its the life I wish I had. Complete with heroes who believe in what they fight and a happy ending.

RA: 24-hour fitness

WATCO joining a gym for female college students?
Enthymeme: Joining a gym will increase overall health in any female college student because 24 hour fitness believes in personal trainers.
Assumption: Whatever believes in personal trainers will increase the overall health in any female college students.
Audience: Me
Ethos: The guy was obviously someone who worked at 24-hour fitness and knew what he was doing.
Pathos: Talked about the greatness of a personal trainer...
Logos: He started out with the really expensive deals to make the normal ones sound very cheap by comparison.
Sufficient: Yes, but not succinct. I finally got the information I wanted...almost an hour later.
Typical:
Accurate: I'm sure it was accurate.
Relevant: I just wanted to go in with my friend who was a member of 24 hour fitness and get one of her 3-day passes that she can give to friends. Because of some reason I couldn't understand, they refused to give those to us, and instead after a long deliberation decided we could have a 1 day pass because they were that generous. They next, instead of letting us go work out and go to the class we wanted to go to, led us over to a desk and had us fill out our information and then proceed to tell us about the different plans they had. This would have been nice, since I was looking for a gym at the time, except that most of the plans cost over $100/month, which is way too much for a poor college student to be paying. Most of them included personal trainers that would not only help us work out, but dictate what we should eat in order to lose weight. Now, I'm not a model, but I'd like to think that I'm not so fat that I need a personal trainer telling me what to do. Not for the price they charge anyways. It took them forever to get to a package I would have been remotely interested in, but by that time I felt it was pretty obvious that they were in it for the money and I was really tired of hearing their sales representative talk. So most of their argument wasn't relevant for the audience and it's a pity they didn't notice.

FW: Of love and vampires

During the first week of school I read a trilogy entitled "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer. It was a very good series. Rory, a friend of mine, says the reason this series is so popular with females is because Bella, the main character in the books, is everygirl, and she finds the man of her dreams: Edward, who just happens to be a vampire.
After I read the books, all my friends simply gushed about how wonderful Edward was. My response was that I already had an Edward. Same intense personality, same dislike for the sun. Same intense love for me as Edward had for Bella, and vice-versa.
However, there's the whole "becoming a vampire is an abomination before God and by sheer force of being one damns you". Which is why Edward--in the beginning--doesn't want Bella to fall in love with him...he doesn't want to compromise her ability to get into heaven. Well, they break up, and Bella goes crazy. Then they get back together and figure that the whole "damnation" thing might not actually happen. Hooray, happiness for fictional characters.
However, that's been on my mind all week: Is love worth damnation? Because that's what marrying outside of the church is, right? Not in the sense of fire and brimstone, but a distinct lack of eternal progression, children who aren't raised in the church, marriages that are more likely to not last....so the answer would have to be no, it’s not worth it. Because God comes before everything. We used to make little diagrams in seminary about this. God was the center, family was the second one…and I don’t remember the rest. But God came first. It wasn’t love, unless you count that holy love that he has for us, which has nothing to do with this situation.
But breaking up with my Edward has been the most painful thing I think I’ve ever done. God might give vampires a chance (hypothetically) because they can’t help what they are, just what they choose to do with their undead powers. But if I made the same choice…I think I’d be held accountable for my choices when I knew better.
And in the end, it’ll all be fine because in a few months time will heal everything and I can date close-minded, handsome, ultra-conservative LDS boys. Because that’s what God obviously wants me to do.

Right?

TA: A Modest Proposal

I read this article back in high school and thought it would be a decent article to dissect. You can google “A Modest Proposal” and the article shows up.
WATCO instituting the consumption of children on Ireland’s economy and prosperity?
Enthymeme: Instituting the consumption of children will greatly benefit Ireland’s economy and prosperity because instituting the consumption of children will decrease the burden that poor people are on Ireland’s society.
Assumption: Whatever decreases the burden that poor people are on Ireland’s society also is good for Ireland’s economy and prosperity.
Audience: Anyone who wanted to help Ireland’s economy.
Ethos: He begins the argument with telling of his own personal experiences in Ireland and seeing the poor. It also says he’s “Dr.” Jonathan Swift, which automatically gives him more status than if he was a random citizen.
Pathos: He appeals to greed and logic, but there’s a very distinct lack of any “warmer” emotions.
Logos: He quotes several sources that endorse his ideas.
Sufficient: Yes, he goes into great detail of exactly how each part of a child could be useful to society.
Typical: No, this entire satire has a very atypical argument for trying to get people to get involved in society. Cannibalism is usually not one of the answers put forward as a solution to end all problems.
Accurate: I sincerely doubt anyone would wear clothes made out of baby skin. He probably also made up all his sources. So it’s most likely very inaccurate.
Relevant: Yes

RA1: Analyzing Captain Morgan ad

Go Here for the site with the actual ad (it's a video)

Recently Captain Morgan—a brand of rum sold in the United States—has started up a new ad campaign called the Ultimate Pose-off. Using this successful ad campaign, Captain Morgan hopes to target men— preferably ones who are single and in that “bachelor” stage of life—by creating a contest where men pose in the same way as Captain Morgan.

As per a typical alcohol ad, it's pretty obvious that the ad is focused on the male audience with obligatory pretty girls and an appeal to physical fitness. Despite the fact that the pose of Captain Morgan is standing straight up with one leg up, the commercials treat this pose as something requires a great deal of training, blood, sweat, and tears. Of course, since there is very little fitness actually required for this, it becomes almost a parody for physical fitness and something almost anyone can do. Instead of a normal passive ad, it also is a contest, where people can send themselves doing the Captain Morgan pose, vote on other people's poses, and someone somewhere will win something. And what sums up alcohol better than people doing harmless acts that still compromise dignity?

While this is a rather ineffective ad in the Provo, Utah area, I think it's well known in the circles that actually drink alcohol. I have heard references to this ad in casual conversation, and any ad that can be referred to in casual conversation where all the listeners know the ad is pretty effective.

The most fascinating thing about this ad is that it's an effective argument even though the ad isn't even about consuming liquor, it's about posing as a figure on the bottle. The effects of association, I suppose. Of course, many alcohol ads have nothing to do with how it tastes, which could be considered odd since most food-related products base their ads around taste. However, alcohol isn't about taste, it's about the 'culture' around what one drinks.

A first post

I was disappointed they didn't have the name I usually use for usernames. It was already taken by someone who enjoys writing very angsty poetry. I felt embarrassed for whoever that was...i hope no one ever does a google search for my normal username and finds that and thinks that I wrote that stuff. I can't abide that stuff. =/
So this is a new name for me...it's based on a RP character of mine. A priestess of either light or dark powers, depending on the story or setting. In WoW she's currently a shadowpriest who melts faces. ^_^

However, this blog isn't to be about my exploits on MMORPGS, but it's for a class in my university. I think it's supposed to teach me how to be persuasive, though I could be wrong. That's what it's called though. Persuasive writing, that is, not "though I could be wrong" because who would pay to go to a class called that?

Anyways, this was a post to make sure I can blog correctly. I know, it's pushing the button that says "publish post" but I can be very technologically inept sometimes. I've spent over 6 hours fighting with routers and internet connections in the last week, so I'm under the distinct impression that if something was to not work, it would do that for me. Because I'm special like that.