Writing Practice

I choose this image because I think that is displays a great amount of irony. When I typed into the search engine “21st century,” this was one of the pictures that was offered to me. It automatically called to my attention simply because it was such and artistic piece of work but it was also just a toilet.

After I clicked on the attachment, I read more about the origin on this strange “statue.” This was a toilet created by an American designer for some new age housing contest. Further on I read that while touring in America, the toilet received much positive attention but when the show traveled overseas, the toilet didn’t get quite the positive review.

After reading those points, I realized that there is so much to this picture that most people aren’t even going to consider. I started to think of other ironies that were connected with this painting. For one, it was created by an American man. What other countries look at toilets like that? Another point is how the American’s ideas of the toilet totally clashed with the ideas of all the foreign countries.

One other point that this toilet reminded me of is how many old time art critics constantly say that we have lost all good forms of art in these days. Many critics believe that nothing created now is art because it’s so far from where art started. It’s so far from the traditional ideas that they don’t believe it is truly art. This present day toilet portrait seems to symbolizes the old critics ideas that recent day art has gone into the toilet.

Post #14 The Boy's House

I have a certain group of friends that mean the world to me. The problem is, each of them are spread out all over the place, so it’s hard for me to visit them all. But I do see one group of my friends pretty frequently. They are a group of boys that I hung out with a lot in high school. I call them my “Lincoln Boys” only because of the place that they live. They're home is my home away from...well, shitty dorm, actually. (On the sidie you can see a picture of what their living room looks like but I've realized that I've never really taken a picture of just their house, only the people inside of it.)

I go visit them every time that I need a little time away from Wesleyan, so pretty frequently, actually. They own a house around 27th street and it is nothing short of a stereotypical bachelor pad. They have the beer posters on the wall and the very reveling posters of girls. I mean, this house is exactly what the movies make all those boys who live together in college look like. Everything is perfect.

The only thing that could make it better was if their house wasn't directly located in the middle of one of Lincoln's ghettos. But, I'm not going to lie, every day there is pretty exciting and no two days are alike.

So many people ask me, “why in the world do you like hanging out in this environment?” The answer is simple. I love it because they are my boys. I’ve always gotten along better with boys than I do with girls and I’ve hung out with these guys long enough that they don’t look for anything in me. They see me as just another one of the guys and I love that feeling. I love the fact that they don’t act any different around me. When other girls come, they all act differently, each trying to impress her, but when I’m there, it’s like all the boys don’t even see me as a girl. I feel so open and free there, like I don’t have to impress anyone.

It’s nice to have a place to escape to every once in awhile.

Post #13 Halloween

I know, I'm taking the cop-out subject for this writing but there is nothing I want to talk about more than Halloween!

This last week was Halloween, one of my favorite holidays. Halloween gives anyone who wants to participate the opportunity to be anything you want to be. This is the day where you can be whoever or whatever you want with no restrictions. Have you ever wanted to be Superman? Well, here’s your chance! Ever dreamed of being a doctor? Grab your stethoscope and have a ball! What about your life-long dream of becoming a star? Well, Sugar, today is your lucky day.

Halloween is a holiday that someone of any age can enjoy, but in very different ways. The children get to go out and ask people for candy while adorning themselves in whatever the latest TV or movie character is. The teenagers get an excuse to dress promiscuously (as can be seen by SOME of the girls in the picture above) or for the guys, a time to dress in drag and, for once, be considered cool. The adults get the joy of taking their kids out trick-or-treating and watching their faces light up with every new piece of candy that is dropped into their bag. Not to mention, the wonderful joy of getting to deal with their sugar-high a few hours later. The amount of candy that is created for this holiday is insaine. Did you know that 35 million pounds of candy corn will be produced this year? That's pretty much 9 billion pieces and if you laid them end to end it would be enough to circle the moon 4 times. See, isn't this holiday just amazing?

October 31st is the day where you can scare anyone you want without the fear of getting slapped or yelled at. No one can call you weird, no one can say that you’re not normal, no one can tell you that you can’t do that because it’s Halloween. It’s the day for freedom from the norm.

Personally, I believe that this is one of the greatest holidays ever. You get to have a great time dressing up as whoever you want to be and doing whatever you want to do without the judgment of the rest of the world. Not to mention, you don’t have to worry about buying presents for anyone else before this holiday comes. Another thing, this holiday is totally optional. No one is going to think you’re a bad person just because you don’t celebrate Halloween. Do you think you’d get the same reaction if you told someone that you don’t celebrate Christmas?

Joe Biden's Ethos

Throughout this essay, Biden shows many examples of different styles of ethos. Some of the most obvious examples that can be found in this debate are the simple ideas such as when he is constantly critisizing the opponent's character. Even though the question proposed what "What are some of the promises that YOUR campaign made that they aren't going to be able to uphold?" He speaks about Obama and his plan for about five seconds and then continues to talk about how horrible McCain's plan is for the rest of his time. He talks about what McCain is doing wrong with his plans and how all of the tax cuts are ridiculous and not what America needs right now and so on. Then at the end of his time to speak he says that he WOULD say many more things about what his campaign would do but the light was blinking at him and telling him that he was out of time to talk. He spent so much time ragging on his opponent and making him look worse that he couldn't even properly answer the proposed question. This is a perfect example of Ad Hominen.

Biden also trys to make himself look like a "regular old joe." He wants to be seen as just another citizen who cares and wants to make a change in the world. He works to create the correct image with his suit and the flag pin properly placed on his collar. I remember when the press had a huge fit with Obama when he wasn't wearing his flag pin because they wanted to all be able to pull the card and say that he isn't patriotic. I think that Biden understands that he is already behind other people in the ethos race because many people know about his outspoken personality and many aren't too huge of fans of him. He has to create a guarded character to make sure that he can be what the people want from their Vice President. So throughout the whole debate he tries very hard to keep his cool and not offend anyone because he knows that many of the critics are just waiting for him to slip up so that they can slit his throat in the media.

Post #11 Presidential Elections

In this clip, Senator John McCain brings up the idea of Senator Barack Obama's tax plans and how that would effect small business owners. He uses the example of "Joe the Plumber" by saying that he has worked at the same job for many years and worked many hours, probably 10 to 12 hours a day, and now he wants to buy the business and become it's owner. Because of Obama's tax plan, McCain fights that Joe the Plumber didn't get the chance to own the business because his taxes would become so much higher that he couldn't afford to pay his workers. Obama fights back by saying that he's cutting the taxes for over 90% of the people in America and that Joe the Plumber wouldn't be as effected as McCain said. Pretty much, it's two men arguing over the same thing again and again.

McCain appeals to logos when he says the line "nobody likes taxes so why raise them." It's a pretty, "well duh..." kind of statement. Obviously no one likes taxes and all the people would love to be able to beleive in that statement. It's only logical that the people don't like the taxes so it will make the people happier if you promise not to raise the taxes. I think he makes this statement because he just wants to be able to say what everyone's been thinking all along. Why raise them any higher? Everyone is already stressed enough about what they have to pay now, why in the world would to people be happy to hear that they are yet again going to have to pay more.

McCain appeals to pathos here when he says the line "why would you want to raise taxes now? when the economy is so horrible?" This appeals to pathos because many of the American people are very scared with the economy and the recent stock crashes. It really plays of people's emotions when the each senator talks about taxes because they are all scared of loosing all of their money. with things being so bad as they are right now, the last thing the American people want to hear is that their taxes are going up. By doing this McCain is making Obama out to be the bad guy in the situation because McCain makes it seem that he is the only one who is going to be raising any taxes.

Both candidates appeal to ethoes when they talk about each other. They seem to never stop criticizing each other and what the other stands for. Neither of the men seem to be able to even see the other man's point of view. I hate it how in politics they talk down each other by calling them hypicites and liars. It makes it seem as if the men for get that they even have any beliefs in common. In this situation they use ethos in a very negative and degrating way towards each other. All they focus about is the other person's flaws.

I think it's so hard to not be jaded in these present day elections because of all the slander the politicians use against each other. I wish that there exsisted some person who what truely unbiased who could just come on and say, "This is what McCain stands for and doesn't stand for and this is what Obama stands for and doesn't stand for. Now you make your decision." I want the facts without all the crap and petty topics. I just want to know simply what YOU want to do for our country, not what your oponent DOESNT want to do.