1. I asked my family if they could remember a funny story from the holidays. They thought of one, which was when my sisters and cousins and I were younger, we would spend our Christmases up north at the lake. Apparently, my younger sister (only a year old at the time, and had just learned to walk) hit my dad's car keys in a random drawer in a bedroom upstairs. Panic ensued when the keys were nowhere to be found, as my whole family searched frantically. My dad thought he maybe lost the keys when snowmobiling. Great, that narrowed it down. They're just somewhere on the lake, all 9 square miles of it. Eventually, hours later, my little sister grabbed my grandpa's hand and led him up the stairs, pointing at the drawer where she hid the keys.
2. One funny holiday story that I can actually remember is two years ago for Thanksgiving we stayed with my dad's parents in Wisconsin, and other relatives drove in from Iowa. We figured we'd skip cooking this year and instead go out for a nice Thanksgiving dinner. My family and I were all excited as we pulled up to this nice restaurant, only to order the "Thanksgiving feast" and have a pile of brown, tasteless mush set in front of us. Actually, it was food that should be brown, such as turkey and stuffing. However it was more dull than brown, almost a gray. Everything on the plate had the same texture:mushy. This mush also had the same taste: almost like you took stuffing and mashed it up so much it became mushy, chunky soup. I looked around at everyone picking at their food, wondering if I was the only one to think that. All I ate was the side of cranberry sauce, because it was red and not brown. I whispered to my sisters, and they said they thought the same thing. So we would not waste our food, we built sculptures out of our food, because it was squishy and molded perfectly. I built a heaping volcano, because we were given enormous amounts of food. As soon as we arrived back at my grandparents we agreed to cook the meals ourselves, because we would rather cook the food ourselves than pay for that again.
3. I have a lot to talk about for this story, but I will try to just explain the highlights. This year for Thanksgiving someone had the genius idea to rent an RV with 11 of my family members and drive down to Austin, Texas to visit my aunt and uncle. Well, we made it back alive, I'll say that. It was also an experience, one I am okay with not experiencing again for a number of years. I loved being in Texas, however the 23 hour drive was somewhat brutal. I ran out of movies within the first day of driving (we drove four days, two there & two back), and so I rewatched them, and then rewatched them again. Among my favorite memories though was our last night in Austin we went to a BBQ place along a river. The river was totally like a scene from the show River Monsters because the water was dark and murky, there were no houses and the shadows of three feet long fish swam by us as we were standing on the dock. There were also about six baby turtles, and my uncle was brave enough to scoop some out of the water and watch them walk on the dock, eventually waddling back and plunging over the drop into the water. My favorite part of the evening, however, was when we got our food. Everyone ordered ribs, however my uncle ordered the "King's feast." We were not sure why it had this name until the plate was set in front of him. They were beef ribs, and were about two feet wide and a food tall. They weren't even on a plate, they were on a platter. All seven pounds of it. We have this hilarious picture of him with a bib on, the platter in front of him, and his wrists on the table, knife in one hand and fork in the other. Among other funny memories were the conversations after my relatives had visited three bars in one day, and then came home to drink some more (my aunt counted 14 corks, when we were only there for two days and only 10 of us can actually drink). Another highlight was celebrating my dad's birthday, and I got to his phone and changed his ringtone to "I'm Sexy and I Know it." His face, and everyone else's was priceless when it went off (and then kept going off in stores because he forgot to change it.) Yes, it was a memorable Thanksgiving, but I am more thankful that I am home.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Friday, November 25, 2011
Rhetorical Modes
1. Boredom is to make weary by being dull or uninterested in one's current activities. The feeling of boredom sometimes arises from not being interested in current activities. However, often when one is bored, it is because they are simply not doing anything at all. Therefore, boredom is not enjoying what you are currently doing, but more often it means that you are doing nothing, and although you are unhappy with doing nothing, you cannot find anything to do.
2. Tiresomeness is often a synonym to boredom, however boredom often results from lack of interest and not finding an activity exciting enough or worth doing. Tiresome activities at times can be boring, if the activity is repetitive and tedious, therefore boring. However, not all tiresome activities are boring. In fact, most activities that involve a lot of thinking or manual labor are tiresome, but often not bored. Tiresomeness and boredom are often linked because when you are bored, you may feel the lack of energy to get yourself out of the slump of boredom you are in.
3. Boredom is caused by lack of finding an interesting, enjoyable activity. Humans like to be doing something all the time, moving a million miles a minute. People find it hard to sit still because of the busy lives they have created for themselves. Being busy has become a habit and a lifestyle, making it hard to enjoy the feeling of being calm because they are not used to having nothing to do. When we have time to sit and rest because we do not have a million things to be doing, we take this as being bored.
4. You are sitting in the car, scrunched in the back seat with nothing in sight but open road and bland looking scenery. Your mom's classical music is quietly playing from the radio. You do not feel like doing your homework because your brain feels exhausted but your body does not feel tired. There is nothing to snack on, which we often do in place of finding something to actually do. Although you are doing nothing, your brain is weary. You are bored.
5. Everyone has had a point in their life when they are bored. Nothing to do but are often too tired from being bored to actually do something about it. There is a simple solution to fix the boredom slump so many of us are in. Boredom is caused by not having something to do. If we program our bodies to not have something to do more often, they we will be forced to sit still or be creative and make something to do. When we are loaded down with things to do, we do not feel bored. However, the best way to go about fixing the problem is to never be super busy, but instead constantly have small things to keep you busy throughout the day.
6. I had been in the car for over twelve hours straight and my brain was unfortunately not in the right mindset to do homework. I had already blazed through every decent movie we had already packed, and had probably consumed a whole day's worth of food just in snacks. I rested my head on my hand and stared blankly through the window at nothing. We were about halfway to our destination, but for how sore my butt was I was hoping we were farther. I have been bored many times in my life, so it was easy to tell that I was, at that moment, undoubtedly bored.
2. Tiresomeness is often a synonym to boredom, however boredom often results from lack of interest and not finding an activity exciting enough or worth doing. Tiresome activities at times can be boring, if the activity is repetitive and tedious, therefore boring. However, not all tiresome activities are boring. In fact, most activities that involve a lot of thinking or manual labor are tiresome, but often not bored. Tiresomeness and boredom are often linked because when you are bored, you may feel the lack of energy to get yourself out of the slump of boredom you are in.
3. Boredom is caused by lack of finding an interesting, enjoyable activity. Humans like to be doing something all the time, moving a million miles a minute. People find it hard to sit still because of the busy lives they have created for themselves. Being busy has become a habit and a lifestyle, making it hard to enjoy the feeling of being calm because they are not used to having nothing to do. When we have time to sit and rest because we do not have a million things to be doing, we take this as being bored.
4. You are sitting in the car, scrunched in the back seat with nothing in sight but open road and bland looking scenery. Your mom's classical music is quietly playing from the radio. You do not feel like doing your homework because your brain feels exhausted but your body does not feel tired. There is nothing to snack on, which we often do in place of finding something to actually do. Although you are doing nothing, your brain is weary. You are bored.
5. Everyone has had a point in their life when they are bored. Nothing to do but are often too tired from being bored to actually do something about it. There is a simple solution to fix the boredom slump so many of us are in. Boredom is caused by not having something to do. If we program our bodies to not have something to do more often, they we will be forced to sit still or be creative and make something to do. When we are loaded down with things to do, we do not feel bored. However, the best way to go about fixing the problem is to never be super busy, but instead constantly have small things to keep you busy throughout the day.
6. I had been in the car for over twelve hours straight and my brain was unfortunately not in the right mindset to do homework. I had already blazed through every decent movie we had already packed, and had probably consumed a whole day's worth of food just in snacks. I rested my head on my hand and stared blankly through the window at nothing. We were about halfway to our destination, but for how sore my butt was I was hoping we were farther. I have been bored many times in my life, so it was easy to tell that I was, at that moment, undoubtedly bored.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Think Green
Agent: From a 2008 English writing class
Act: Beneath the rubble and garbage is a plant sprouting, showing that by thinking green we can break through the garbage building up, and turn the planet into a better place. Nature is in trouble, and one way to help it out is reduce this giant pile of garbage. Obviously, we are never going to get rid of garbage. However, reducing our amount of garbage, going green and recycling are all small things that have a huge impact on the environment.
Agency: It is a photo, however it is most likely staged so the lighting and arrangement of items is perfect.
Scene: It is to promote recycling and reducing our amount of garbage, because this may be what the planet looks like in the future (life merely poking through piles of garbage).
Purpose: To encourage recycling and going green.
This picture has a strong visual argument, however some of the reasoning behind it is not because of what is in the picture, but rather what draws the reader in to the picture. The plant is centered in the middle, giving the clear impression that that is what is to be focused on. The garbage surrounding the plant is colorful, unlike real garbage. I think it would be a better statement if the garbage was lacking color and dirty, while the plant was more lively. The bright colors provide contrast between the garbage, the plant and the sky, allowing reader to focus on each component fully and individually. If everything was dirty and grungy looking, then it would be hard to distinguish each piece of the picture. The solid blue backgrounds shows that is is outside, however does nothing more than provide a contrasting enough color to make the other components stand out, but do not distract the reader from the main point. If you observe the garbage, all of them are crinkled up just enough and positioned so that you are unable to see any of the labels. This is helpful in the argument because it does not advertise or target any specific companies, rather just referring to garbage in general.
The argument in this article can be looked at in many different ways. It could be saying that this may be the future if we continue on the path we're on because the garbage will overtake and consume the life. Soon, rather than grass on the ground with the occassional piece of garbage scattered throughout, it will be all garbage and there will be the small, occassional piece of life poking through. The fear of what become of the futurue will encourage more to recycle. It could also be looked as at life and nature will persevere no matter what we put it through, but either way to help nature out this picture inspires us to recycle and "think green" so no one will have to see this sight.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
X2 P. 113
Words I just can't spell!
1. Embarrassing (ugh, gets me every time)
2. Then there are some words that you just never know if you should combine the words or not, such as a lot and cannot.
3. I never knew how to spell definitely until my 9th grade comm. gave us a way to remember it
4. License - I always manage to add an extra "s" somewhere (same with exercise).
5. Recommend-I get confused on how many c's and m's to add.
I gave up on spell check a long time ago because I find it hurts me more than helps. As far as grammar it underlines it in blue or green, and then when I right click the suggestions make even less sense! I like it though when if you spell a word incorrectly, but only by a letter or two it auto corrects it for you. We have gotten so used to spell check doing the work for us, that I'm expecting those little colorful squiggly lines to appear under some of my words (even though this program doesn't have spell check. Spell check is a helpful tool, as long as you pay attention to what you're correcting the word to and don't get fooled easily.
If we could spell as we pleased, then many word's meanings would be lost. Often, there are words that are pronounced the same, but written differently because they have a different meaning. If we could spell these words however we wanted, then how is one to know what they are trying to say? You never know, it may be taken as an insult rather than a compliment, or the other way around. For example, you may not want to mix around "axe" and "acts," or "son" and "sun" in the sentence "wow, the sun looks really hot today", and be mistaken for "son" (especially if you're standing by someone's mother).
So many stores are spelled incorrectly, such as Kwik Trip and (the one that bothered me as a kid)...Kit Kat. These play on words simply stand out to the consumer. You see so many words every day, and so the ones spelled incorrectly always seem to remain in your brain at the end of the day, which helps out the companies.
1. Embarrassing (ugh, gets me every time)
2. Then there are some words that you just never know if you should combine the words or not, such as a lot and cannot.
3. I never knew how to spell definitely until my 9th grade comm. gave us a way to remember it
4. License - I always manage to add an extra "s" somewhere (same with exercise).
5. Recommend-I get confused on how many c's and m's to add.
I gave up on spell check a long time ago because I find it hurts me more than helps. As far as grammar it underlines it in blue or green, and then when I right click the suggestions make even less sense! I like it though when if you spell a word incorrectly, but only by a letter or two it auto corrects it for you. We have gotten so used to spell check doing the work for us, that I'm expecting those little colorful squiggly lines to appear under some of my words (even though this program doesn't have spell check. Spell check is a helpful tool, as long as you pay attention to what you're correcting the word to and don't get fooled easily.
If we could spell as we pleased, then many word's meanings would be lost. Often, there are words that are pronounced the same, but written differently because they have a different meaning. If we could spell these words however we wanted, then how is one to know what they are trying to say? You never know, it may be taken as an insult rather than a compliment, or the other way around. For example, you may not want to mix around "axe" and "acts," or "son" and "sun" in the sentence "wow, the sun looks really hot today", and be mistaken for "son" (especially if you're standing by someone's mother).
So many stores are spelled incorrectly, such as Kwik Trip and (the one that bothered me as a kid)...Kit Kat. These play on words simply stand out to the consumer. You see so many words every day, and so the ones spelled incorrectly always seem to remain in your brain at the end of the day, which helps out the companies.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Weekend!
This weekend was fairly...boring. Friday I worked pretty much all night (yuck). Saturday morning I woke up super early (like 7:30 early, which for a weekend is too early), and my friend Elise picked me up to go to a tack sale. For those who have no idea what a tack sale is, and think it maybe has to do with those pointy things you stick on a bulletin board, you're really off. It's horse "equiptment" so to speak, and the sale was packed! It began at 11:00, but of course it had to be like an hour away (in my opinion, it wasn't worth the gas to get there because I didn't really find much). We arrived at around 10:15, and the line waiting for the doors to open was already out the door and down the block. Everyone was shoving eachother, kinda like the halls at WHS, so you have to make sure you get there early. All the good stuff goes fast! I ran around frantically for about half an hour, not finding much so instead I stocked up on Christmas presents for our secret Santa gift exchange at the barn. I got back home around 12:30 and then I had to go to work...again. I got off work at 5:30 and then went out to dinner with friends and then watched Paranormal Activity (I didn't find this movie scary at all...and for anybody that knows me well I get scared super easily! When we're playing hide and seek and someone startles me it takes me awhile to recover I get so scared). Sunday morning I had to get up at, yup you guessed it, 7:30...for work. I worked until 1:30 and then I got home and was so lazy and exhausted I just made an omelette and watched A Walk To Remember on Lifetime Network. I didn't cry, but I normally would have if I wasn't half asleep. Oh dang, I have an AP Comp test tomorrow, and a busy week to come. I just...can't...wait (no hint of sarcasm).
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