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.