Writing and Reading

              I wouldn't say that writing has "forced" me to look at the world in a different light, but I would have to say that writing has "allowed" me to look at the world differently. Anyone can piece together letters to form words (aka writing), however it takes practice and dedication to piece together these words into something powerful, something surprising and something with meaning. I find it interesting how we spend a lot of our time studying rhetorical strategies and how they are different strategies are emphasized in a writer's work. While writing my own work, I do not put certain rhetorical devices in it on purpose, however when reading through it again and really picking it apart, I notice all the rhetorical devices that I incorporated subconsciously. This brings me to wonder whether experienced writers try to include strategies or does it just come naturally to them after a lot of practice? I also read differently than at the start of the year because when going through a book, I make sure I grasp the main concept, but do not spend majority of my time focusing and memorizing it. I think that if a reader is reading an essay by a very experienced writer, than they will not have to focus on memorizing the plot, but instead because of the devices implemented bits and pieces of information will piece together in their head without having to think about it.

Things I Would Like to Learn to do...

1. Play guitar. In sixth grade I came back from a week-long overnight horse camp, and I was so upset that I would have to leave horses and return to my family that I cried the whole night. My mom brought out a guitar she had brought me while I was gone at camp, and she told me that she had signed me up for guitar lessons starting in a few weeks. I was so ecstatic, yet my excitement was short-lived. Who knew guitar playing was such hard work? Definitely not me. To this day I only remember three chords...and just because I remember them does not by any means mean that they sound good. As far as guitar playing, my dreams have always been to be just like Taylor Swift. However, I am currently too lazy to pick up the guitar and learn to play a few more chords, and so hopefully in the future I will start taking lessons again. While in Texas over Thanksgiving I saw this guitar in a store, it was hand-made and on sale for a lot of money. I thought, "wow, that looks so cool, and not that hard to do." So because my guitar is currently sitting dormant in my room (hopefully only for a little while) my goal is to decorate is just like this guitar, without all the Texas symbols and stuff of course. (If this ever happens, I will try to post it to my blog.) Once it's all blinged out and pretty maybe I will have the urge to pick it up more often and learn a few new chords.

 

2. Cook. I know how to make anything that at one time was sitting on a shelf in the freezer aisle...and goes in the microwave. I would like to learn to cook like my grandma, because she makes these extravagant homemade meals everytime I am over there (even just for a casual occasion). She even makes her own potato salad! (I had no idea that was possible! I guess I just figured the heavens parted and plop, down came potato salad right onto the grocery store shelf.) My goal in life is to have recipe that I thought of myself, and when I bring the dish to parties people will be asking me for that recipe. That would be nice.

3. Learn to sew. Over the summer I really got into project runway, and after watching everyone sew for hours on end I got really inspired to make my own dress. I went down to the sewing machine in the basement, fabric in hand, and figured that I would start and that it would turn out okay. The direction book was huge, too many words (after all, your brain is turned off in the summer) and I was too lazy to read them all. So, not knowing how to turn the sewing machine on or how to operate it whatsoever, I played with knobs and switches until it finally turned on. The result to what I pictured in my head as a masterpiece was less than satisfying. Actually, I couldn't keep the needle in a straight line, so there was a big red thread running in a crazy line (like someone attempting to walk in a straight line, but instead wobbling all over the place-right before they get a DUI). Then suddenly it got all jammed up in a huge tangled mess of thread in one spot, and then the machine got jammed and stopped. Now someone who had read the instructions might know what to do in this situation, but I had no idea so I just forcefully ripped the fabric out from under the needle and then fidgited with something that holds the thread and needless to say, I am no longer allowed to touch the sewing machine. When I am older I would like to buy one of my own, where no one can prohibit me from using it when I please, and learn how to sew something that actually looks like what I was intending on making.

A Word That Should Not Be in the English Language

      Chunky is defined as "bulky and solid," either referring to a stocky person, or an object. When someone hears the word "chunky," their mind often thinks of it as something solid within something somwhat liquidy, such as potato chunks within Campbell's soup, or pieces of chocolate in your dog's throw up the morning after Halloween. Chunky is a good description word, and often an object cannot be described as anything but chunky. The reason we are so repulsed by this word is because when we hear the word, our brain immediately visualizes an image to go along with it. When referring to a person, we should instead use the word "stocky," to avoid a negative connotation, and confusion with an object being chunky.

Holiday Stories

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.

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.

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.

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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.