Blog 21: Self Reflective

I never really thought of myself as a writer. Last semester up in Greeley my major was “Journalism and Mass Communication”. When people asked what I was majoring in, I would always tell them and then add “but not for the writing part”. This is because I was in it more for the communication aspect. Anyway, in the past couple of years I have found that writing is something that I am not horrible at. This was my first college semester of English and found that it was for the most part enjoyable. When I would re-read my blogs I found that what I wrote was interesting. This has been improved throughout the past few months. My first blog “Focus on the Focal points and Such” was about the search page Ask.com. Yes, I answered all the required questions with the site and finished the assignment but it wasn’t the most interesting topic. Whereas later in the semester, "Don't Judge a Book by its Cover" were interesting, more diverse, and gave me more material to work with.

This may be minute, but I loved coming up with titles of the blogs. I would always try to be creative and fun relating to the topic I wrote about. Some examples are: “My Free Write, Our Free Right”, “Golden Death”, “Look No Feet!”, “Easy as ABC”, “The $Bucks from Starbucks”, and “Bridezilla is Out!”. Creativity is always a great thing to implement in writing. I tried to do this a lot. We had many chances with the requirements of multimedia and hyperlinks. I tried to use pictures that related to my blog, whether it was in a general way or a unique way. For example in my first and second post I used simply pictures to represent the search engines I was discussing. In the next blog about the crazy bride I found a great picture of a true Bridezilla. Later on in a freewrite about profit on oil, I took advantage of pictures to truly give the audience an idea of what I was talking about. This is also true with my reflective essay, I used above and beyond the required amount of images to create more imagery.

The workshops or peer reviews were very helpful. I enjoyed getting feedback on my papers. It was also helpful reading others and critiquing their work as well. The questions on the peer review forms were detailed and insightful to assist in reviewing the essay. Also, having the teacher read our essays beforehand was helpful as well. The workshops helped especially with advice where to put hyperlinks and multimedia. It helped also because I found out if my paper and writing style was interesting to others. If it wasn’t I would want to change it to intrigue my audience more. Obviously because they are the ultimate grader and decision maker it is nice to get their input. I wish more of my classes did peer reviews it was enjoyable and useful.

I have strengths and weaknesses of being a writer. A strength I have is perhaps choosing a good topic matter and being able to incorporate a lot with that topic. Also a strength I have is creativity and using humor as well. In my post “Look No Feet!” I took advantage of making that post my own. I used first person as if I was the girl and made it humorous by making a random picture funny with the text. It is obviously a roller coaster which I made sound like a not so dangerous toy the young girl received. One line, “It is hard to carry my bike up the 85 steps up to this starting point, but it is so worth it!” is an example of some humor. He whole post itself is an example of creativity. Another blog involving humor is the recent You Tube video I posted of Will Smith. We couldn’t put any text, but I knew that alone would get some laughs. Finally, in my last post I used a humorous commercial as my rhetorical analysis piece. This aspect of humor and creativity was used as a writer throughout my posts. A weakness I have as a writer is usage of vocabulary. I know a good amount of vocabulary words but not a lot of unique, articulate words that people don’t always use. Sometime there are words that many know that I don’t always know the exact definition. As a writer the more words you know the more description and diversity you can add to your work, so I definitely would like to improve that. We all have things to work on.
Overall I think my writing improved and as a writer I think I have found myself to enjoy it better. The way we wrote in this class I really like with all the computer based technology added to a simply essay. It helped bring my creative side out.

Blog 20: Rhetorical Analysis: Bud Light Great Taste Great Ads

Bud Light takes advantage of their name and witty reputation to relate to society with incorporation of sex appeal and humor accordingly to make their wide demographic of men understand the pleasure in drinking their beer. All the rhetorical appeals are demonstrated in this short commercial and almost all the strategies of development are used to persuade the audience to drink Bud Light. Their commercials have always been renown for their sense of humor and millions look forward to them during the annual Super Bowl because of their infamous history. They preach that their beer is reliable but they show their advertisements are too, same as the beer, they never let you down.

As you watch the Bud Light commercial you can see many different appeals being utilized and they are all supported by various rhetorical strategies. Pathos, Logos, and Ethos are all in this commercial to better persuade the audience. These rhetorical appeals are very helpful to the vendor.

First, pathos dominates the ad, it relates to our emotion in a few different ways. It interrelates humor and sex appeal. In this case, humor is the main effect of pathos that is used. Budweiser is infamous for their smart marketing as most of their ads are hilarious. In a USA Today article discussing the supremacy of Anheuser-Busch’s Super Bowl ads, Kathleen Stobie, a Silver Spring, Md., resident who is a coordinator with her county government states, "Humor gets me over anything -- not stupid humor” relating to the funny Budweiser commercials (Horovitz 6B). Description adds to those affects. A description that makes an impact on persuading the audience was the tone in which the wife said she had Bud Light. It was complimenting the beer very well. It was a short phrase but told a lot about the product. It obviously is good because they way she said she has “cold Bud Light” was very seductive and emphasized the pleasure of the beer. This is an example of sex appeal and humor being used together. The sexy wife in lingerie using Bud Light as her bribe. Things such as candles, women wearing lingerie, and satin sheets are usually used for sex appeal in ads but in this case they contribute more to the humor than anything else. This is evident in the focal point when the husband slides across the sheets and out the window. Also, the analogy of the elephant sound playing as the man is running upstairs shows that he was acting wild and animalistic, this relates to our feelings of lust. Finally the compare and contrast strategy is brilliant. Sex vs. beer and the beer wins, this is a good strategy to use, especially since men are the main clients for beer companies, it helps relate to the demographic.

Cultural resonance plays a big part in the pathos aspect. The well known symbols appear of Bud Light when it shows the infamous bottle cap. Also, in our society the male is usually willing to have sex at any opportunity he gets, when he doesn’t, especially in a common place such as a bedroom with an accepted person, his wife, our society thinks that is a bit odd and perhaps shocked that he chose something else over a very pleasurable act. This makes that something, in this case Bud Light, stand out a lot more and tells us that it is a remarkable product.

Second, logos is used too. Referring back to cultural resonance, we are shocked at the man’s decision. This shock makes us think that logically there is no choice but to think that the product is astounding to beat sex. It uses logos to make the audience think more about the product and its luxuries that we might not have thought about before. It is common sense, anything that makes someone get up that instantaneously must be pretty darn good. The ad uses example and illustration to help demonstrate logos. It shows how the product impacts a person’s life. It uses the story to exemplify how amazing the beer tastes, it wins over sex, and that must be good for a guy to choose that over sex. The product makes an impact if just its name gets a guy to react that quickly to it. Cause and effect relates to this as well. If you drink Bud Light then you will have an amazing experience and you will have never tasted anything so excellent.

Finally, ethos is used. Mainly because Bud Light in general is a very well known product. Anheuser-Busch, the speaker, is as reliable as their products. This past year it won for a record ninth-consecutive year with their funny crab commercial, USA Today’s exclusive Ad Meter real-time consumer focus group ranking of Super Bowl commercials (Horovitz 6B). Bud Light maintains great credibility with how popular they are and people keep coming back to buy it. Their descriptive, well known slogan was at the end of the commercial, “The great taste that won’t fill you up and never let you down, make it a Bud Light”. This alone is classification of their beer, it is obviously better than the rest. Although their other main form of ethos, the bull frogs, weren’t used in this ad, it was still just as effective. Their name and logo is very renown still and people keep coming back for more of that great taste.

In conclusion, this commercial does many things correctly in order to persuade its audience. Even if you don’t like beer you will still get a good laugh out of this ad, and maybe that is what their goal is as well, to not only have a good reputation for their taste but for their name as well. I saw this commercial years ago, yet it still runs in my mind from time to time, it left an imprint on my mind and that shows they did something right.
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Works Cited
Horovitz, Bruce. "Anheuser-Busch wins with crabby crawlers ." USA Today 5 Feb.2007: 6B.

Blog 18: Freewrite: Massacre vs what?

According to dictionary.com a massacre is to kill unnecessarily and indiscriminately, esp. a large number of persons. A very tragic, sad massacre happened very recently at Virginia Tech, you can read and hear all about it on the news such as CNN or any local news channels. The reason I bring up the definition is because I was t work the day it happened and was working with a girl a year younger than me. The story obviously was brought up. One of the first things she says is that she doesn’t think that it is a massacre and doesn’t know why they are calling it such. I was a tiny bit surprised, I began telling her that it is a lot of people and that they are calling it a massacre because it was one. She went on to argue about how a massacre is more people in her book, she said that maybe 50 would be enough for it to be considered a massacre. She is obviously wrong as I looked up the definition. Also our first massacre and it is very well known is the Boston Massacre, guess how many people that were killed on that day?? Five, five were killed and 7 wounded. In this Virginia Tech massacre, over thirty people died that is times as many people that died in one of the oldest well known massacre’s in our history. I hope everyone realizes how sad and tragic it was and knows that it was a mass number of people who died, people should argue against something like that.

Blog 18:Freewrite: College

My freewrite is going to about how my first year of college was.
It was a long year, not to hard, just long and seems like two years have already gone by. I started my freshman year up in Greeley at University of Northern Colorado. I remember from the tour I thought it was gorgeous I thought I would love it. I got into the dorm I wanted it was really nice, I got a corner dorm which was amazing because of its size. Also, my roommate and I got along which doesn’t always happen. I soon realized the differences between west and central campus. I was on central, the recently renovated side, that’s why the dorms were so much nicer. West campus was the other side where the dorms were more typical of a college, nice but nothing extraordinary, but this was the social side, where the fun was. Central campus not so much, very conservative and quiet. To make a long story short, I didn’t like UNC nor did I like the town of Greeley. Smelled, boring, and many other things. I came home a lot and sent my application in to CU Denver within the first two weeks of my first semester. Now, I have spent the past semester here, and I like it a lot better. The only complaint I have is like a lot of others. There are so many people here but why does no one socialize that much. I see people all the time that I want to meet. I want to meet more people!! Any way I am not going to lie it was probably boring, this free rite, but I had a long freshman year of college but overall it ended up good and I enjoy it now.

Blog17: My Freewrite Our Free Right

As you look at these photos can you guess where this hotel is...actually it is not a hotel it is a house! A mansion! It is owned by family of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nayhan, who is the former president of United Arab Emirates and of Abu-Dhabi. It is incredible!

Outside of the house, entrance, and inside of the home.(Above)

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Here are some bedrooms and their bathrooms. I am not sure which one is the master bedroom, maybe both, maybe neither, maybe just one of them. Either way they are extraordinary rooms that I would not mind staying in, would you?

And another bedroom and bath...

Just incase you want to take a swim...you have your own pool.

Need cars, they definitely have some. They are silver, oh not simply color made they are actually MADE out of sliver.

AMAZING WHAT $2.75 US A GALLON OF GAS CAN BUY ISN'T IT?

I was emailed these pictures. Ironically in my political science class I just watched the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car". It was very insightful, I didn’t even know that electric cars had existed, that people owned them. Yes, I know of the hybrid but that is a combo of fuel and electricity. It is very interesting and sad how the electric car was killed. They made complete sense and were very economical. Now, we still depend on foreign fuel from countries in the Middle East. In the documentary a man was talking about how the price of a gallon of gas is rising each year by at least a dollar. It’s on average around $2.50 per gallon, he made the point that someone is making 250,000 extra billion dollars a week. It is incredible, the profits for the main gas providing industries like Texco and Exxon make over 30 billion dollars combined in profit. There are other options we can use that will not only benefit our economy but our earth as well. Air pollution is awful and we have the means to improve it, one is by using another fuel to run our vehicles on. It is out there, why not take advantage. Ethanol, corn, electricity, hybrid, hydrogen fuels, glucose, and others. In Brazil and some other South American countries they use sugar or glucose based fuels. Obviously, those Middle Eastern countries have what we are so dependent on, oil, and are definitely loving that. I would to if I got a house like that from America’s dollars. Change is good and we need to start and change to a different fueling option. If there is a will there is a way. Just something to think about.

Blog 16: My Favorite Fresh Prince Moment! I crack up every time.

Blog 15: Golden Death

This ad uses so many rhetorical strategies including cause and effect, narration, example and illustration, analogy, and definition. First, cause and effect . It saying that McDonald’s food, specifically Big Macs, are very unhealthy for your body particularly your heart. The cause being the food the effect being death, or heart problems. Next, narration is being used. A story is being told that someone is in the hospital in immediate surgery because of heart problems, and as you can see on the heart monitor the renown golden arches are the focal point (cause). Also, example is being used. They are making an example of McDonald’s and the dangers of eating their food because of how unhealthy it is. The obvious analogy is the heart monitor. The “M” is an analogy for a heart attack, also the text “Big Mac Attack” could be seen as an analogy replacing “heart attack”. Definition is demonstrated as well. The ad is defining what McDonald’s food does. The fact that the result from eating their food could be death and/or severe heart problems. Pathos and logs is used a lot in this ad. Pathos is used bringing out emotion. The emotion of fear is demonstrated very wisely in this ad. The fact that what someone thought was an innocent, cheap meal every once in a while could really add up to some serious health problems perhaps even death. It taps into people’s emotions because many fear to be in this situation, being in a hospital, let along having serious surgery while your heart may fail. Logos is obviously used as well. It is telling you to not eat McDonalds or else this will happen so logically you should make the best choice for you and your health. The only original image it portrays in the parody is the golden arches and as said before they are used to represent a heart rate on a heart monitor in a surgery room of an obvious McDonald’s client. They use a very well known icon to show potential death.

Blog 14: Sexy Tease

I chose this Calvin Klein ad because I think that it shows a lot of sex appeal. It is sexy in the way that she is in underwear, but subtle in sex appeal because she isn’t showing everything it is more of a tease. It is original because you don’t’ usually see a girl with her hand up her shirt. The typical finger in her mouth is obvious sex appeal and has been used many times in the past century as sexy. Her eyes are dark you can’t see them as you would usually because of the shadow over them, but this adds to the sexiness because again she isn’t revealing everything but it is a fierce look to captivate you. I love the Calvin Klein across the add especially the way the made it look, with paint or some material like that, as if the model wrote it. As you notice it isn’t a font we see a lot it is kind of messy in a way, naughty as well, it goes hand in hand with the look of the ad. I think that this ad is totally appropriate. It doesn’t show any private body parts like breasts or butts like other ads I saw. It is just enough to draw the audience in. It is a tease and nothing more I think it is very appropriate for the goal of the ad and gets the theme of sex appeal across decently. No I do not think that it exaggerates pathos as mentioned in Envision 2. Underwear makes people feel sexy sometimes, so the fact they use sex appeal in their add advertising underwear does not demonstrate false needs because I think it fit’s the topic appropriately. It is a great ad and I really like it and think that its subtly adds a lot to the sexiness of the image.

Blog13: Don't Judge a Book by its Cover: Analysis

There are so many elements to be analyzed in my original picture of the 3D book cover. The 3D art adds so much to the image as far as animation and realism. First, the colors. There isn’t a huge variety of different colors in this image. The contrast between the two color suits, one a dark blue color and one a light white, makes a good distinction between the two men. Perhaps, the colors represent good and evil. The man in the white suit could be the good guy fighting the evil man wearing the darker color. This is also done on the cover of “Good and Evil” shown on the left, you can see how the artist used white for good and the darker, red color for evil. The color of the skin in both men is very vivid as well, bringing more life to the men. The bright red lined pages really stick out too. In addition the little text that is shown on the page, emphasizes it is a book. Many older books around the era in which these men are dressed have a color lining on the pages, this can tell what decade this book may take place. Second, the materials. I assume it is made out of paper since most book covers are made of paper. If so, that would be very original, while keeping the same concept of a paperback book. The size of the image is very believable as well. It is the actual size of a book with a very close zoom on it from directly in front of the book, as if someone just delicately set the camera on the table and let the self timer take the picture. The isolation of the object with the void, black background makes us focus so much more on the two men, as if they really did pop out of no where. The arms are very balanced in this image. Each man’s arm tells so much about the situation. The arm ripping right through the cover with a fist at the end shows the force and anger from him and represents a fight. The other man’s arm has a deformed looking hand with its fingers beginning to coil into a fist show the amount of pain and suffering he is experiencing. Fourth, the characters. The characters in this image are the focal point, they are vital. They tell us what is going on, a fight. Their body language, as I mentioned in previous posts, lets us know how they are feeling. The material chosen I thought was genius and so creative. To bring a book cover to life the way this artist did was so fun and entertaining. The image is definitely trying to persuade us to look in to this book further and read it! It conveys the message that books can be very interesting and intense, if you use your imagination and look deeper than just the text, reading a story can be an adventure, more so than you would think.

Blog12: Don't Judge a Book by its Cover: Reflection

I think that my picture from my previous post is such a cool picture, can you imagine if our book covers where actually like this? Like this picture to the side, another fight scene between two men. That’s the typical kind of cover we see, imagine if it was designed the same way as my original picture, wouldn’t it be so much more intense? If all covers were three dimensional it would turn our heads a little more. You wouldn’t even have to turn the book around to read the summary of the book because there would be so much being told in the cover. This picture alone tells a lot. Something was done wrong to upset them. I have a feeling that the man who was punched was taken by surprised by the hit. It is like the white suite man out found out his once friend committed adultery with his wife and went to confront him, before saying a word that he knew anything he threw his punch first. There is so much emotion in this picture and it is only a book cover. I makes me want to flip through each red lined page to see why these men are in a fight. It makes me have so many questions like who are they, why are they mad, did they other man fight back? The hands in this picture tell a majority of how he is feeling. If there were only the hands for me to analyze from I could. I could tell you that the person who belongs to the hands is in dire pain. I feel that this is a great piece of art because I have never seen anything like it before and it just attracts my attention so much, it made me see more art from this artist, Thomas Allen. I really do like it a lot.

Blog 11: Don't Judge a Book by its Cover: Observation

In this unique picture from the Foley Gallery from the 2005 exhibit. The artist makes the cover of the book more alive and more animated than the typical drawn picture with some text on a sheet of paper. The three dimension in this picture that creates the pop out effect is very fun and cool to look at. There are two men, both wearing suits, one is wearing a white suit with a blue tie, and the other is wearing a navy blue suit with a red and black striped tie. The man with the white suit is very angry and has just punched the other man in the face. It must have been a very hard hit because the man that was hit his in excruciating pain. You can tell this from the anguish you can see in his face, eyes shut, cringing, and mouth open as if he is screaming from his pain. Both of his hands are stiff with his fingers bending, as if they are on their way to forming a fist to hold in his suffering. The man in the white suit still has a furious look on his face even after he successfully socked the other man. His look is one of such strength, he just used all he had in him in this punch. Also, half of his arm and fist have gone through the cover, representing how forceful his hit was. The man’s face who was punched is a lot closer to the observer and a lot clear and defined whereas the other man’s is further in the distance with a slight blur, not as distinct but enough to tell his angry emotion.

Reflective Essay: Fresh Found Diversity

My visit to Europe last summer made me aware of cultural diversity. Spain was my favorite of the three countries I visited. It was so gorgeous and laid back, I loved it! There is a main street in Barcelona, La Rambla, it runs through the main city area. On this long strip, is located their infamous covered market, La Boqueria, originally named Mercat de Sant Josep. This is Barcelona’s most famous food market, one of the most beautiful markets in the world. It was a fun and interesting experience I will never forget.

In movies and on television markets always seem dirty and not very attractive for a place to sell food. As soon as I walked in to Barcelona’s market I knew that notion was completely wrong. The first thing I saw were different booths everywhere, every sort of food imaginable was there. There were booths filled with luscious fruits and vegetables, chicken and beef, an entire section of seafood, spices, bread, and so much more. Multiple booths for the same products. Each booth had their prices easily displayed. Everything was so fresh and vibrant looking. From only this one aspect, food, it showed great differences between my American culture and the European. I didn’t the selling of food products could make such an impact.

The first I came to were the “candy stands”, a few different booths, five feet tall, just filled with sugar coated delights. It was the most brilliant colored display of food I had ever seen. Gummies in every shape and color, from gummy fried eggs to the typical gummy bears. It was nothing compared to aisle 4 at Kings Soopers, where you scoop a pound or two of hard old candy into a bag, or purchase wrapped, labeled, name brand candy bars. Already the diversity is obvious. I think this makes it so much more fun, like a candy stand should be. The fruit stands were filled with every kind of juicy product. The strawberries and blueberries weren’t boxed like here, they were just out to grab whichever you preferred. Not one thing was packaged, everything was in straight rows or in a bunch to choose from. The banana bundles hung from the top, freshest yellowiest bananas ever. In addition there were freshly made smoothies displayed also, being made from that fruit every few minutes. It was great. At my local store we can buy packaged fruit smoothie mix, “just add milk!“. Once again, a great example of how fresh everything was. These stands also sold the greenest vegetables: full celery stick bundles, fresh long carrots, candy red tomatoes and peppers, long corn on the cob with leaves still attached, and potatoes right from the ground. Although these displays were similar to those in American stores, it was still so different, the way it was displayed and the abundance of the products.

On the other hand, meat is a different story. Like I said before everything is fresh. The sea isn’t too far, but maybe a few miles down La Rambla, therefore the seafood area was crazy. The floor was soaked from men rinsing off their new incomings, there were parts on the floor near booths from cleaning out a fish or making the shrimp presentable. Though it was gross I was distracted from all chaos around me, all the slicing and dicing. Some of the seafood that was being sold had only been caught hours ago. Usually I am used to seeing fish, lobster, clams, oysters, and shrimp for sale in that section. No, not here it was that and everything else. Alive urchins were for sale, a gooey glob thing was for sale to eat. It literally ran through my friend’s hand when she held it, I don’t know how or why you would eat that. Maybe it is only an ingredient to a bigger recipe .

The beef display was shocking to me! After a while, I was hesitant to look at some cases being displayed. Just in one case there was all the insides of a cow displayed in different parts. Tongues, stomachs, intestines, livers, testicles, kidneys, and even an entire skinned head with eyeballs still in place were all available to be purchased. Also, the ham section had simply entire legs from the upper thigh to the hoof (not removed yet) of meat for sale, or sometimes even entire pigs. It was pretty gross, compared to what I usually see here: a few big pieces of meat for steak or a slab of ribs, or packaged meat for lunch meat or breakfast meat. This was one of the strongest differences between our cultures. Most Americans who pass that display I am sure stop and stare into the case with some funny disgusted look on their face, we just aren’t used to everything being put out there like that. Because they don’t like to waste, they use every part unlike here in America. We can’t handle it if it was in our grocery store, too many people I am sure would complain. Grotesque would be our immediate thought, it even went through my mind as I kept seeing new, never seen body parts for sale, and to eat for that matter!

Moving along the meat area chickens caught my eye, hanging from the top of the booth. Most still had their heads, but the feather plucking had been done for the customers. Lines of dead chickens above me. This was definitely a new site for me. It was a brief glance as we passed quickly. I can’t imagine if that was what I saw in King’s Soopers, us Americans are too lazy to finish the job of beheading and such to the dead chicken for our dinner. Later, as we were searching for the bathrooms, I saw a bucket kind of behind a booth that had chicken legs sticking out of it, just the legs. It caught me off guard. All these little things were so surreal.

Spices were next, nothing packaged or in shaking containers. Oils being displayed as well. The garlic cloves still stranded to each other in a “garlic necklace” hung above me. Dried spices everywhere, I barely recognized the products because I had never seen spices before like this. The nut stands were overwhelming as well, so many different shapes, sizes, and flavors to choose from. Another stand I saw was selling bread. Different lengths and widths of loaves hanging or in the case looked delicious. Most of these displays looked fake, plastic because it was so picture perfect and colorful.

The cultural diversity was so apparent here in several ways. When I compare Mercat de Sant Josep to the Kings Soopers I have always gone to, there is such a huge difference. Location, prices, organization, products, displays, people, and the general atmosphere are all different. Nothing was boxed, bagged, canned, or packaged, not one thing like everything is in our stores. Wow we are so lucky you may think but in reality maybe we are the ones that have it hard. Think of how much they learn with food, cooking, and taking care of their own meals. Nothing is pre-prepared. Even their meat, the merchandiser cuts it off the animal and sometimes skin it, and that’s about it. . Our meat displays would be luxury to those consumers. In our stores there is aisle by aisle stacked with packaged and canned products, it’s all about convenience and brands. In Spain people are very relaxed and carefree, people all over Europe are healthy and look great. When you go grocery shopping and you have nothing but fresh products, no preservatives, it must be delicious and good for you. There are many options over there that aren’t presented to us here in America. We could definitely learn from other cultures to benefit us. It was so much fun to see so many different aspects of a “grocery store”, I spent so much time with just food, but the market made it that intriguing. It truly was magnificent.

Blog 8: Look Who's Talking!

I know we already did a video post but that was more about the context and focal point of the video. This video is for fun. It was just recently sent me this video of Einstein the bird talking on Animal Planet and it amazes me the intelligence we are unaware of in some animals. I am sure almost all of you own a dog or have owned a dog, and the fact it can high five you when you ask or play dead is pretty shocking. We always wonder what would happen if animals could talk. In this video Einstein can make multiple sounds including animal sounds, sound effects, word phrases and others. He does sound effects I can’t even do! I don’t even know how you would begin to teach an animal how to speak and off of cue words. Though it is probably off of only cue words it sure does make Einstein sound like he knows what he is talking about. For example in the introduction he knows his own name, that is hilarious. I noticed the judge’s jaws dropped a few times. Not only does Einstein do sounds he can move. Have you ever seen a bird get his groove on and do a little dance and be crazy? Now I have. This clip is just cute and interesting and I thought you guys would like to see it, something fun. Just imagine if that was your pet dog or cat. Your friends come over and your dog introduced himself to everyone or if you throw a party you could ask your cat for a dance. What a crazy thought, but then again it could happen.

As Einstein says,“Goodbye”.

Blog 7: Look no feet!

Look no feet! Next time I am going to try no hands! I just turned 9 years old last week and received every little girl’s dream as a present from my grandparents. Not only did I get a brand new pink and purple bike (my favorite colors) with brand new, shiny training wheels and a white helmet, I also got a crazy track to ride my new bike on. My grandparents bought the land then built the track for me. As you can see they started this project long before I was even conceived, it’s a bit old looking. The first time I tried it a few days ago I was kind of scared because we don’t have lights on it yet, but it was so much fun. It is hard to carry my bike up the 85 steps up to this starting point, but it is so worth it! It is so big, every time I go it is a good 10 minutes of craziness. My brother makes fun of me for still having training wheels but I am too scared to ride with just two wheels, no way! I just feel safer. People get out of their cars and stare and yell, I don’t know why, I think they are just jealous but they can try it if they want, I love to share my toys. I am bummed though because next Friday is show and tell and I really wanted to bring this but I can’t, so I am showing everyone on here!

Blog 6: Pop Culture for all

I was assigned to look at a blog on USA’s website titled “Pop Candy, Unwrapping pop culture’s hip and hidden treasures” , written by Whitney Matheson. I really, really liked this blog it was fun and tasteful. She updates you on current events dealing with pop culture including TV shows, comic book events, news about celebrities, movies, and so on. Her blog uses so many conventions. I found myself looking at it for quite a while, it definitely caught my interest, you should check it out. The first is along the left side of her blog there are five separate sections to locate you to different places including: Recent Posts, Categories, Archives, Other USA Today blogs, and Worth Reading. Under each of those titles in the box there are about 10-18 links that if you push will direct you to whatever it says. That is so convenient, if I want just to see the gossip blogs I just have to click gossip under Categories. The second use of conventions was in her texts. She used links great in her text. The way she included them flowed well, she would just make the words links, the color is the only thing indicating it’s a link other than that it’s just part of the sentence, incorporated great. In one of her blogs she ends with headlines and she did used links very well. Here are some examples.

- Here's a preview of next week's HRG-heavy Heroes.

- ABC's Six Degrees will return with new episodes March 23.
- We give The Number 23 one-and-a-half stars.
- Are you ready for Edward Scissorhands, The Musical
-Here's a list of the 10 best moments from Reno 911! -- with video.
- Nick Cannon may have secretly married a Victoria's Secret model in Las Vegas last weekend.
Third, a convention she utilizes is pictures. She doesn’t have a lot but when she does they relate to the subject of that blog. Her blog is different from mine in a few ways. The title of her blog stands out more than mine. It is a fun font with polka dots, pink, and is a huge font. She also has advertising on her blog which of course I don’t, but this is because she is working for a newspaper corporation. I also don’t have the different sections on the side to direct views to certain places or categories. I could incorporate those in my blog somehow I suppose. Also maybe I can figure out how to make my title stand out more and be fun like hers. She also has some humor in some of her blogs, as do I, but not as much. For example in the latest blog about the comic book convention and star wars cast and fans being there she ends her blog with the quote of the day “"Dude, Chewbacca's riding the same escalator as us!" she went on to explain that the actor who played Chewbacca was walking ahead of her. I thought that was a funny way to end her blog. As I mentioned, before this blog is very entertaining and her writing obviously adds very much to it because I think she writes well and chooses great things to write about and pop culture almost everyone wants to know about. Also what a fun job, if you read her blogs you can see how she gets to meet a lot of famous people and experience numerous events.

Observational Essay: Coffee to Comfort

The aroma is pleasant , the sounds of several different conversations surround me, and the atmosphere is cozy. Caffeine, something most crave in the early hours of the day, before work or after dropping the kids off at school. A place is known for their mastery in making caffeine drinks of many flavors and sorts. Starbucks Coffee is that place. Millions all over the world love Starbucks, they offer various coffee drinks from hot mochas and sweet lattes or cold frappuchinos to just a plain black coffee. They offer tasty drinks for non-coffee lovers as well, also they make homemade delicious pastries each day including: cinnamon sugar coffee cakes, blueberry and chocolate chip muffins, big snicker doodle and sugar cookies, almond chocolate chip toffee bars, banana chocolate chip bread, and many more. Besides their great food, they always have a friendly and warm atmosphere. A local Starbucks at 64th and Ward in suburban Arvada brings people in day in and day out.

You can tell Valentine’s Day is near, holiday retail is everywhere, a red coffee mug with pink hearts holding a little teddy bear, chocolates, and gift cards with hearts all over them. This all adds to the cozy feeling. It was mid-morning around ten and still quite busy. The majority of the customers are older, most retired and joining a friend and discussing each other’s lives. As time went by a variety of people came in, showing how all ages love their coffee. A high school couple passes through to get a drink, then seconds later another couple fifty years older gets their to go coffee mugs filled with their drink of choice and are out the door. Among the retired adults, a couple of businessmen beginning their career enjoyed their coffee as well. The first one waits in line holding his briefcase, he looks sharp with his tie and collard white shirt. After a few short minutes, he takes his coffee, sits down behind me and goes through papers for work and makes phone calls on his slick, high-tech cell phone. Meanwhile, another business man with the same attire enters but goes straight back to the restroom, hurries out gets coffee and walks out while chatting on his cell phone as well. In addition, students who are in the process of learning about their desired career need their coffee too. A college looking student enters with a Stephen King novel in hand. After getting his coffee he starts reading the novel, then plays with his phone, and shortly after I catch him gazing out the window. He is pondering something, but no one knows.

I have yet to see anyone expressing any anger or even a hint of unhappiness. Everyone is very content and enjoying themselves. I hear the clinks and clanks of change falling into the register as an employee does a transaction. Laughter is heard all around me in all different pitches. One comes from a lady in the corner across the room, its a short loud shriek but it is laughter. The employees behind the counter sing along to the music playing, they joke around with each other and are laughing pretty hard, they must not hate their job, but then again it is Starbucks. “The people I work with is what makes it fun”, Ruth says with a smile. Starbucks is a place for leisure as well as a good drink. It’s apparent in this Starbucks as they provide four big, blue velvet, comfy chairs for people to use. It’s nice, not all coffee shops provide this luxury. Later, an older man enters gets his coffee and sits at the table besides me, opens a new pack of red inked pens, and begins his daily routine of filling out the crossword puzzle in the local newspaper.

I hear the sounds of creating a caramel macchiato while they top the drink with whip cream, and I hear a steamer go off several times to heat someone’s drink to just the right temperature. Starbucks’ hot drinks are never too hot to drink right away, many appreciate this Starbuck‘s specialty as everyone sips their coffee seconds after picking it up. On the other hand, as cold drinks are ordered I see and hear a woman scooping ice and the blender going off. Usually people think a blender’s noise is the most annoying sound, not here it fits in and just works with all the other sounds that are going off, no one even notices. Alarms are going off and the phone rings once while I am there; who needs to call Starbucks? Everyone knows their drink they always get. It’s not like you need directions to one. A great thing is that they are everywhere. You just need step outside your neighborhood and you are bound to see one, there is a Starbucks at every block.
There is a cart to the side of where you pick up your order. The cart contains three different pitchers of milk, several different kinds of sugars, sleeves for your coffee, stir sticks, and napkins. An older man with a duffle bag awaits for his coffee as he leans on his cane. His order, two coffees in the middle size, a box with a pastry, and a bag with another pastry came up quickly. This was ironic because he had ordered the most out of anyone so far, yet has only one available hand to carry anything with because the other is occupied with his cane. Will anyone help him? As a man goes over to the cart to add cream, they exchange conversation, I assume the man offers help. The man must have declined, next he puts his pastries in his duffle, asks for a to go holder for his coffee and leaves full handed. I feel sorry for him, though he leaves pleased.

Busy, busy, busy, everyone is so busy in their lives, they need to get coffee so they can continue staying busy. It’s the norm but Starbucks is different from the norm and that’s why it’s not the ordinary coffee shop, their variety makes them the one that everyone wants. Many come to this well known coffee place to pause that busy lifestyle for either a few seconds or several minutes. I noticed how they sell everything possible to create your own Starbucks at home. The exact machines and steamers, several different kinds of coffee beans, flavored syrups (caramel, white chocolate, vanilla…), and other Starbucks’ items, yet only one woman bought something other than coffee. Even so, she only bought a simple mug. People don’t buy these things to create a Starbucks at home because part of getting your Starbucks is going there and enjoying the people you run into, the leisure reading, or even the meaningless gaze out the window. Whatever it may be people like going to Starbucks and look forward to the warm atmosphere where disappoint is seldom and relaxation is guaranteed whether it’s a tall, grande, or veinte.

Blog:5 Easy as A B C

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Blog:4 The $Bucks from Starbucks

The place that I have chosen to observe is the infamous Starbucks. You may think that is not very original, but honestly I am not as “related” to Starbucks than most. Yes, I like their drinks but nearly not as much as some people, as you will find out. I am not even a big fan of coffee in general so that reduces my choices by a few. I chose Starbucks because I don’t go in that much and it is a huge enterprise for coffee and I want to observe why and exactly how hectic a morning in Starbucks gets. Obviously, one of the sites I researched on was Starbuck’s homepage. On their site there are several different options relating to their stores like where to find store locations, how to reload your Starbucks card, nutrition facts, and many more. They have places if you want to hear live music or you can buy retail items on the site such as shirts or coffee mugs and even coffee machines and coffee beans. This is such a great source of marketing for them, not that they don’t have enough. This site shows all the aspects of Starbucks besides just coffee. According to Starbucks Fact Sheet, I found on Wikipedia, there are a total of 12,440 locations of Starbucks Coffee in the world, that was updated November 2006. Of that total 8,830 are located within the U.S. and 3,604 are located in 36 other countries worldwide. That is incredible. Seattle is where the headquarters is for Starbucks, and on a local online news source, Seattle Pi talks about how Starbucks will most likely have as many locations as McDonalds or more. McDonald’s has around 29,000 locations throughout the world as of now, Starbucks is well on their way to reaching their goal. Another interesting site I found was the Starbucks Gossip site , a very popular site for people who love the coffee. As I tried to find out how much the average Starbucks customer spends annually on their coffee I found it was hard to find that so I found this similar fact instead. The average customer visits Starbucks 6 times a month, but the same spokesperson said that the loyal customers will visit 18 times a month. Since we are involved in blogging so much in this class, you can scroll down on the page with this statistic and see what others have to say in response. One person comments how she has a Starbucks built into her apartment complex and that she visits at least three times a day!! I guess it varies with each person, but I definitely know people that go six times a week let alone a month. Starbucks has definitely become a phenomenon for coffee and they have such a huge diverse demographic. My audience for this next observation blog is within this demographic and I know most of you have had a Starbucks coffee more than once in your lifetime. I am interested in observing all the different kinds of people that visit such a common place for a simple product of coffee, and I want to see how much people really do spend for it. There are probably questions that will be answered that I didn’t even think of when I am sitting in a local Starbucks at a peak time.

Blog:3 Bridezilla is out!

The video from Youtube I chose is titled “Bride Has Massive Hair Wig Out”, as you watch you can see it’s about a bride who gets her hair done for her wedding and ends up hating it. This is all an hour before her wedding begins, so her solution is to cut the curls off. The beginning is not as amusing, but it leads up to the focal point. It is the introduction, it kind of gives you a setting of where they are what is going on. Also, it shows you how fast everyone’s mood changed once the bride entered the room, it was instantaneously. I was told about this video by my mother who owns a bridal store so the interest is obvious. This clip got so much attention on Youtube that it appeared on the Today show last week.

The focal point of this video is when she is actually cutting her own hair in angry rage. There is a lot of content in the video. It contains home video catching this unplanned action taking place. There is the bride and bridesmaids which include her sister and close friends. They try to calm her down but once she goes crazy with nearby scissors, they have no control, later the bride asks, “Why did you let me cut my hair”. She should look back on the video because as she would see, there was nothing they could do, she was seriously in a state of temporary insanity. They even tried getting her to down champagne. I think the calmest part was when she was cutting her hair and telling the other girls “to relax”. There is a little example of irony. Honestly, I don’t think that the video was altered at all. It is funny because I am sure the bride wishes the video was altered in some way to make her look not as crazy, but it was not. The video ends in her curdling scream, “TURN THE CAMERA OFF!”. Very amusing. The reason I am watching this strangers’ crisis online is because it’s funny and shocks me how crazy we humans can get from stress. If you notice her friend can’t even keep her giggles in because it is so outrageous. Throughout my childhood I hated the phrase “We aren’t laughing at you, we are laughing with you”, I hated it, because I would have a bad fall or do something humiliating and my friends would laugh and say that phrase. I would be crying which is why they couldn’t be laughing with me because I wasn’t laughing! This video reminds me of all those times because here is a woman freaking out, humiliated, and so upset, yet there is still humor within the situation as her friend laughs at it. I can relate in that way, but I still chuckled when I saw this video. At my mom’s shop they have a joke, that some of the brides shopping have P.M.S, Pre-Martial Stress, and this video can prove that. This poor woman is so unhappy and thinks she is so terrifyingly ugly with the hairstyle given to her, that she really thinks cutting off the curls will improve the look? All the girls reading this, would you ever do that? You would think not, but stress and anxiety can bring the worst out of us. This online video caught so much attention that it was shown on National television, that has to show you the different kinds of entertainment in this world of media. Therefore, this video’s context, involving the bride’s discomfort and pain, helps me understand what she is going through and although I chuckle while watching it helps me have sympathy as well.

Blog:2 www.WhatWhereWhyWhenWho.?

Who, what, why, when, and where? All essential questions to determine the cultural context of a piece or work or in this case a web site. I will do my very best to provide and answer to each of the questions to determine the cultural context of my chosen site ask.com. In one of my comments written by another student on my first blog, someone mentioned how a search engine is a hard site to work with because it doesn’t give you much. They are right, if you go to the site ask.com you can see that it is very plain with not much on there. Not many images, not many words but even so it has an amazing plethora of resources and information and is what is important for our technology driven age. Each search engine is different Google, Yahoo, MSN, and others some have so much else going on when you go to their initial site, but my focus was just the search engine so ask was a great specific example although this applies to a larger context.
Who? Who uses this site? Who creates this site? We do, we do, we do. Everyone in this world, from businesses using the site for advertisement or students for their projects or the juvenile youngster looking for addicting games to play. We all use this site because it provides virtually anything anyone needs it finds it for you. So I can say it’s nearly impossible to narrow that answer to one because its billions.
What? What is this? It’s easy access to the world wide web, in an organized manner. Technically the world wide web is the internet not ask jeeves, but it sure helps us acquire what we need on the internet. The internet is a huge place and any help we can get to make it easier most of us will take, so it’s a helper to us. Why? Why goes along with the same ideas as what, as I just explained we need help because technology is increasing immensely year by year so we need little assistants to help us manage those technologies sometimes, and a search engine will help us start that.
When? The twentieth first century is when a.k.a “age of technology“. Yea, I bet that is getting repetitive, but what is our whole reason for blogging instead of writing essays and turning them on? Because now is the time that computers and the web is becoming our right hand. It’s no longer the new thing and few people are in awe of the idea of the internet anymore. When? Everyday I use this resource to my advantage because seems that using the internet is a daily task and as mentioned earlier I don’t know where everything is on this thing, so daily I ask my assistant.
Where? The world wide web. Where does ask.com get us? Wherever we want, whatever site we need. My case, it’s found on my homepage as I sign on everyday, that’s where it awaits. It’s always there for everyone you just have to utilize it and I highly recommend asking for that help when needed.

Blog:1 Focus on Focal Points and Such.

My home page is Ask.com. It is a general page to have as my home page, but I use this page very frequently. I think that it is a great site and very helpful. As I write this blog you can view the page as well to get a visual of my examples just click here.
The focal point of this site is the area right in the center of the page where you can place your search in. I believe this is the focal point and not their display of their name which many would assume. It is already set up for you to start typing whatever you need to enter in; there is no need to get back on the mouse and click there to let the site know you are ready to search. It provides it immediately and is a fast way to get going. This will enable the user to be focused on using the site in a quicker way.
Ask.com’s would fall under the genre of search engines with the convention of receiving information in an amazingly short time. Instead of spending hours in the library using their search engines, whether, that be their catalog or librarian, then proceeding to sit down and find what page the exact information you want is on, you can easily type in specifically what you want and Ask.com will do it for you. Other conventions of this site are the "search tools" on the right including specified search categories i.e. images, dictionary, encylopedia, weather, ask for kids, and even blogs and feeds. This is a widely accepted and convenient device used on the internet today. It is easily accessible and not hard to learn how it works, this helps the site remain a successful search engine.
Now, although this seems great, it can be too good to be true sometimes. It altars the conventions in some ways. Yes, you may search a certain subject and hundreds of sites come up with options of what you need, unfortunately since the internet is so accessible to everyone else as well and not as secure, not every tad bit of information found is necessarily true. I am not saying because it is fast it’s not true, I am saying it might be a little less reliable then a book with your subject’s information found in a library or bookstore. People can make the decision to take more time for a more accurate source or sometimes take more of a chance with an online search engine. That chance could very well turn out in their favor, much of the information is true, but just as much of it is false.
As subtly mentioned before, the online medium and its blogging differs from print/paper based writing. A book is a published piece of work that was approved by professional firms with publishers and editors, whereas, a site about panda bears in China could well be written by a five year old as it could by a professional veterinarian. Almost anyone can put anything on the world wide web from across seas, you have to be sure of what you are distinguishing as fact and fiction.