Decisions

In the last chapter of our rhetoric book, on page 356, it states “the decisions we make define our character.” I believe this to be a completely, 100% true statement.

Every decision I have made thus far in my life, and all the decisions I will make during the remainder of my lifetime, did and will shape who I am as a person. Growing up, I was never the one to step outside the boundaries or break the rules; I was the epitome of a “good girl.” I went through high school with this persona, and that is who I was known as (and who I am still known as by most people in my home town).  However, as I grew up, I decided to do more things for myself than to please other people and always live up to that image. I formed a completely different personality by doing so, and made completely different friends, along with completely different decisions.

Some of the decisions I made growing up, I’ll admit, weren’t the greatest or wisest of choice. However, to counter this, some of the decisions I made also have been the best I have ever made, and probably will ever make in my life. At age 22, I can say that I have chosen paths that most people will not even have to think about in their lifetime. Never a regret, however, came with my decisions. Because of every choice I made, I am a better person today with the best people around me that I can ask for.  Every step I took to be where I am today and every question I answered has formed who I am. My decisions have defined my character, and I love it. No regrets.

Gangs

I would like to take a moment and think about over population again. This time, however, I don’t want to look at the over population of human beings. This time, I would like to look at the overabundance of the squirrel population. The squirrels in this area are ridiculous. Such scatter-brained creatures, I swear they think it a good time to run half way out into the road, panic a few times, and then scurry off to the side of the road, all while an on-coming driver is approaching in a panic trying to swerve and save the life of that poor, little squirrel while in turn putting their own life in danger. These furry little critters, although cute in thought and cartoons, are becoming a nuisance to the driving population of rural areas. And not only once in a while does the life and death, squirrel life and human death, situation occur, but these clans of squirrels, in my opinion, team up in strategic locations to make for an even more terrifying driving experience. Not only is the life of the driver a concern, in this case, but the innocent life of the brown, schizophrenic animal is held most worthy in most situations, hence the swerving to hopefully avoid all casualties. However, there are the few road-kill victims that do not make it out of the battle of the Buick. These tragic situations often call for remorse and tears… until the next squirrel makes his leap-of-faith run out into the middle of the road. These squirrels are on a whole new level of suicide attempts.

Now this is a general message in concern for the overall rural population driving on back roads that these gangs of squirrels are occupying. This is not at all a rant from a frustrated Kutztown driver who would like a nice drive to school and back without being ambushed by a city of panicked creatures leaping in front of her car. No, this is in no way a personal matter.

Personality of Flower

Just as humans and animals are accompanies by unique personalities, I believe that flowers are graced with the same trait. Just looking at the appearance of a specific flower, once can come up with some sort of personality that that particular flower may have. Here are a few flowers that I have thought about:

Daisies. Daisies are quite the polite and graceful flower. They are poised and proper, while young at heart and childish. An innocent spirit, Daisies always have a smile accompanied with laughter. They are the fun-loving, adolescent flower of the bunch.

 Roses. Roses are sophisticated and high-ranking. Proper to the point of royalty, Roses look down upon other flowers as being less worthy of such praise. A sentimental and sensual flower, roses are the emblem of love, their crimson red showing the color of a heart ripened with love and beauty. Roses are the Belle of the ball.

Sunflowers. Sunflowers are the sun babe of flowers. They enjoy lazy days soaking up the sun and basking in its rays. A bright personality, sunflowers are always cheerful and bubbly, glowing with excitement in a hot summer’s day. They are the wild child of the group, a lively persona to go along with their lively color. Sunflowers are a burst of fun and sunshine.

Marigolds. Marigolds are the elders of flowers. They are reserved in size, and sometime color (although not always). Marigolds are the average flower that everyone can enjoy the company of. They possess great beauty, yet are second best. Marigolds are shy and speak little. Marigolds are the average student in class.

M.J. sings for M.E.

Michael Jackson is one of the greatest artists of all time, and one of my personal favorites. In this song, he brings awareness to listener’s ears about some of the questions we should ask on a daily basis. With the corroding earth around us, we forget to think about others living on the planet besides us (e.g. elephants, whales, nature). In the lyrics, nature is referred to as a “womb.” This particular line struck me as the most powerful. Nature is in fact the womb of Mother Earth, nourishing and giving birth to so many new, beautiful things. Mother Earth, through her womb, nurses plants, nests animals, and neglects the harm done upon her by us. As we continue to beat and batter her, she still continues to try to be resilient against our violence and feed our damaging addiction. Yet soon, sooner than hoped for, our Mother Earth will succumb to our abuse and have nothing left to give.

Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song” definitely uses a Sophist approach of rhetoric. Not only are the lyrics geared toward questioning our thoughts and reaching our emotions, but the melody behind the lyrics is soft and sentimental as well. Along with this appeal to emotion, Aristotle’s theory of rhetoric is also seen when looking at the lyrics. Several times personification is used. For example, one line of the lyrics reads “the crying earth, the weeping shores.”

Although this song is not only talking about Mother Earth, but also about war and our survival, the power behind the music MJ sings is enough to open your eyes about all three topics.

..... Hippo?

A hippo. Not the most attractive animal, but I’ll take it.

World Wildlife Fund website named my inner animal a hippo. Should I take offense to this?

I mean, hippos have ugly teeth, a massive nose and big hips.

Although I wouldn’t label the hippo a “sight for sore eyes,” they are usually portrayed as fun-loving and cute, cuddly animals on TV shows and as stuffed animals. So I guess that’s a good thing!

Not only that, but the description of the hippo, on the WWE website, describes them as a people person who also enjoys alone time. This is very true of myself.

However, it also says I’m awkward but have a graceful style. What’s that supposed to mean?!

The site does say I like away time close to water for swimming and other activities. This is also true.

So, I come to the conclusion that I’m okay with being a hippo! Call me a hippo all you want! Sure, I’m awkward, but in the best way possible! Although I wouldn’t say the physical resemblance is there (if you think differently, shut up), I would agree that, like the hippo, I am outgoing but also like alone time.

So, hippo it is!

Marxism In Bed

Advertizing sexual paraphernalia has become popular as there has been growing sex appeal in our population.  There are certain standards, or “effects” if you will, that are more favorable. For example, the newest condom commercial provides both a “fire and ice” effect for men and women’s enjoyment. Concentrating on the “big moment” is what these products are geared toward. Likewise, the KY Intense for Her commercial focuses specifically on her “moment.” To appeal to the female audience, the commercial can be looked at as using Marxist rhetorical strategies. Here are a few of the things I pin pointed.

Who is allowed to speak? The female, obviously! This product is designed specifically for the female’s use and pleasure. She is the experiment and experimenter in the situation and her voice plays a part in the product’s appeal to the consumer, and the consumer’s appeal to the product.

What is being said? This potential addition to the sex lives of women is one that comes with a hell of kick. As the ad portrays, if using this product with your partner, sexual encounters will be rather “climactic” for the woman. Not only this, but this product has the ability to allow a conservative couple to experience intensity outside of their comfort level.

What lies behind the promises being made? Pleasure, intimacy, arousal, intensity…

What actually created the message? The KY Jelly Foundation for Woman and Better Sex (Or just KY)... And unsatisfied women all over.

"Workers of the land, unite!"

As Karl Marx said in his “Manifesto of the Communist Party,” “Workers of all lands, unite!” This is exactly what the TED video on the importance of the relationship between production and consumption depicts. The video explains that at the rate we are consuming and using up the world’s resources we will deplete them at a quicker rate than scientist first anticipated, and that scientists have now proven. To aid in the preservation of what resources we have left, the video proposes that companies buying out the resources work together in production to lower the rate at which resources are being used. However, the video also spells out that the companies, for the most part, are not interested in uniting for the greater good. “You can’t wake a person who’s pretending to sleep.” This line in the video exemplifies how the companies are responding to the suggestion to work together for the greater good. Instead of having the revelation that working together will in the long run help everyone, they are turned off to the idea, not listening and “pretending to sleep.”

I found the video to be very eye opening on my part. Its description of our environmental footprint and the effect we have on the resources of the earth is actually frightening. Although the video offers a seemingly simple solution, get productivity and efficiency up and consumption down, it is obviously in no way that easy. I mean if it was, we wouldn’t be so concerned with the availability of resources tomorrow, but rather just concerned about what we have today. But this is a serious issue and needs to be addressed in an efficient manner. Kenneth E. Boulding said “I would argue, furthermore, that tomorrow is not only very close, but in many respects it is already here. I agree.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jason_clay_how_big_brands_can_save_biodiversity.html

Babies, Babies Everywhere!

The world is over populated. By the time you finish reading this, the population will have added another two hundred plus people to its existence. As you’re reading these words, about ten babies are being born with every twenty or so words. Our approach to over seven billion people on Earth is literally a few days away, and there is no slowing down after that. Sitting at your computer, people are being born and dying as you’re scanning through each word that I have written here. However, the rate at which we are creating human life is a lot greater than the rate that human life is dying off. Our average life expectancy is about 77.5 years. This number has increased about 30 years since the turn of the 20^th century, when it was 49.2 years (see second link). For this reason, since the population is growing at a quicker rate than exhausting, over-population is occurring. It might sound great that we as the human race have expanded our boundaries and extended life so much further. And it is great. However, the beauty and wonder of how we have grown as a human society only goes so far. The more people we acquire on earth, the more people we need to provide for, and thus the more resources are being used. The Earth, however, is running out of the ability to provide these resources. Like the last sip of your favorite juice box, we are sucking the life, literally, out of Mother Earth. In the future, nearer than scientists would have expected, the resources that we depend on for everyday life and that sustain our living habits, will have diminished and become absent; human life will then begin to do the same.

With all this warning you would think that people would be more concerned about the future of humankind and our high-risk over population? And yet, in the last minute or two that it took you to read though this message, another two hundred to three hundred children have been born world-wide and there is no sign of us as intelligent human beings of slowing down.

http://galen.metapath.org/popclk.html

http://aging.senate.gov/crs/aging1.pdf

Existentialism on Prom Night

I fought with this song time and time again to first figure out what the heck existentialism meant and then figure out what the entire song, title and lyrics, meant together. Here is what I came up with.

Existentialism is concerned with the concepts of self-existence and decision making. In this song, “Existentialism on Prom Night,” it’s underlying meaning is to lay out the fact that decisions need to be made. After prom night, essentially, is when the “party” ends and the next step of your life begins. As the song begins, it depicts a laid-back, lazy image of sleeping in and dreaming. This dream, however, must come to an end just as prom night had to come to an end. Decisions must be made and your “self” must be established. For this reason, the last lines of the song “sing me something soft, sad and delicate, or loud and out of key… sing like you think no one’s listening” are important to hear and grasp. These lines encourage the listener to be their own self, and “sing” as they want to be heard. To sing like you want to, and to live like you want to, is the real message of the song, I believe. The existential challenge here is to become your own person as you want to be seen and as you want to live. The decisions you make and the choices that guide you also guide your existence.

Brita©

This Brita© commercial, aired for the first time this year, really shows how much plastic us Americans use, and how much plastic we should recycle. The sentimental voice and language the narrator uses plays off the listener’s emotion and appeals to our sense of empathy. Not only the tone, but the images portrayed give a very vivid and accurate look on just how many plastic bottles are used yearly. Through the hard facts listed, ethos is established to help their campaign and boost their credibility, and the images also help to give a visual perspective of what the narrator is talking about.

From these observations, and in my opinion, I would rule this advertisement as one that uses the Roman theory of rhetoric. Although the ad is absent of tropes and figures, however, the style in which it is presented uses ethos and emotion to reach the listener. For this reason, although literary figures may not be added, the Roman theory of rhetoric and style is present.

When I first saw this add, I really couldn’t believe the facts that I was hearing. Thirty-nine billion!? That’s a lot of bottled water if you ask me. This commercial gives a solution to the problem through a persuasive ad campaign. I personally own a Brita© and think it’s awesome. However, some people may prefer their bottled water over the constant refilling of the Brita© pitcher; that’s their purgative. For those people, which I will include myself in the category of “bottled water user” because I often take a nice cold water with me to the gym or class, I have one word of advice: recycle. Although not a solution to our over usage of plastic bottles in the US, recycling is one step of the hundreds that an individual can do to help out the environment. Just a word to the wise.

Yellow Butterfly

After a discussion in class about John Burroughs, particular his quote “love is the measure of life; only so far as we love do we live,” I was inspired to take some time to myself and think about what love meant to me. I retreated to a secluded lake where I recently had done my nature experiment. Instead of being completely cut off from technology, however, I took my iPod along with me. As a kind of guide to who I was and what I loved, I put my iPod on shuffle and let it play as I sat there in silence myself. You can tell so much about a person from the type of music they listen to, so I thought I’d reevaluate my musical selections. Song after song played, an array of rap, house, pop, acoustic, alternative, and screamo music all came through my earphones. As all these different sounds played back to me, different feelings accompanied the melodies. I had trouble putting my finger on just what in these songs appealed to me. The similarities were few and far between, and the differences were plentiful. About fifteen songs played through until one song, a song I know and keep close because of the story it tells, began to play. With the first note I was brought to tears. This song, an agonizing story about death and the struggle to deal, gives me a heavy heart and I can barely contain my tears each time I hear it. This song, however depressing and disheartening it may be, gave me the clearest perception of what love is to me, and what thrives me to live: people. All the people around me, my family, friends, acquaintances, even enemies, make living worthwhile. To lose them, for me, is to lose life. My family members bring me the most unconditional love one can ask for. They are the foundation and backbone to who I have become. My friends bring me sanity in a crazy reality. They ground me and lift me up. My acquaintances keep me wanting more. They are the faces that I crave to meet, that I long for. And my enemies bring me challenge. They keep me aware of who I don’t want to become and why.

It’s hard to imagine that a five minute song, after a series of about an hour worth of other songs, can bring about these ideas of love and the art of living. I love people. So in congruence with Burroughs’ quote, people are what let me live.

Now Playing: Yellow Butterfly, Meg and Dia

Alligator Handbags

Let’s talk about privileges. In class, we had a discussion on what is nature and what is natural, which led into a discussion of the privileges among our society. The interesting comment of alligator handbags came up by one of my classmates and it got the wheels in my head turning. Let’s think about some of the other obscene privileges and ridiculous trends that our society has come to embrace and love. These inventions and miscellaneous items are not to be taken to heart as useless or meaningless, because, let’s face it, we all need portable purse hangers for our desks and hats that hold multiple beers to satisfy our excessive drinking habits. So here’s a few “privileges” or otherwise pointless creations that make our every day American lives easier:

Umbrella hats: Good thing your head isn’t getting wet! What about the rest of you?

Sporks: The invention of the spork is truly brilliant. The creative balance of spoon and fork make for a more well-oiled eating experience at your local Taco Bell. How could anyone eat their cheesy fiesta potatoes with just a spoon OR a fork? That question is beyond me.

Phone Kick Stands: This handy device would have not even been known to me if I had not been at the bar the other night and a lonely looking gentleman pulls out his Smartphone, kicks out the stand, and starts watching a TV show. Seriously? One, why would you come to a bar to watch That 70’s Show? And two, why the hell does your phone have a kick stand?

Bump-Its: Not everyone can master the “poof” as well as Snooki on their own, so Bump-Its were brought into the picture to allow for the perfect hair style. No more struggling for hours to get complete symmetry in your “bump,” just slip the Bump-It in and you’re set!

Heated Driveways/Tiles: There are two words that can substitute for this energy inefficient and frankly lazy creation: salt and shoves. The use of these two things, when combine, make for an excellent way to diminish the fallen snow and ice and defeat the feat of winter. Another alternative, although not as rustic as the good ‘ol shove would be a snow blower or snow plow. Any of these substitutions would work great in replace of a heated driveway. And as for heated tiles, socks and/or slippers are great for the task of keeping your feet warm.

Hair extensions: I myself have purple and green hair extensions, so this is in no way saying that they are pointless. They obviously serve crucial fashion purposes and add spice to the perfect outfit. No, they’re not meaningless by any means. Of course, there are those girls, and guys for that matter, that would just love their short, bobbed hair to transform into long, luscious locks by the snap of a clip. For both these reasons, trendy accessory and compensatory device, hair extensions are absolutely necessary.

These are just a few pointless/meaningless creations.

i am me. i am wild and free.

To jump into a lengthy description of myself would be pointless, in my eyes, because I can sum myself up in one short statement: wild and free. These two words are not to be taken to heart as meaning that I am a party animal, rage-a-holic (although I would not deny that description of myself either), but are meant to take on meaning in a completely different way. This statement, in description of myself, takes hold of saying that I am an open-minded, crazy-hearted, fun-loving, hard-working, free-spirited and optimistic person (just to name a few). Having a good time and enjoying every day that passes is important to me, along with the achievements made on a day-to-day basis. Whether it be an A on an assignment or test, or simply fixing the broken knob on my kitchen cabinet (which I did this morning), everything counts for something... Make everything count for something. Why stumble through the days with a half-corcked smirk and a chip on your shoulder, when you can dance through life with a smile, living wild and free?