Thankful...

I was excited to write about this...It is something I could go on about for hours, maybe even days. I am thankful for so many things. One thing that I am very thankful for is my family, as I think most are. I could be all literal and be thankful for them because "without them I would not be here", but I am mostly thankful for them for all that they provide me: a house, food, love, care, other needs, and wants. I do not know what I would do without my family. I am thankful for all of my relatives as well, including both of my 90 year old Grandmas who are still going strong. I am so lucky to have them both be here and be in such great health. I am thankful for my boyfriend Cameron as well because he has brought so much happiness to my life over the past year. I really do not know what it would be like without him. I am thankful for an education and teachers who respect and teach me what I need to suceed. Also, I am thankful for having such great friends who I can relax with. I am thankful that I have the ability to dance as well, because dance is my life. Like I said, I could keep going on and on..but I think I will stop here. All in all, this is a great time of year to really appreciate and be thankful for what you have, and thats exactly what I plan on doing. :)

Child Abuse

I chose to do my visual essay on child abuse because I feel that it needs to be prevented. With that being said, my claim is that child abuse does not achieve happiness and therefore needs to be stopped. I support my claim with pictures and texts that grab at audiences hearts. Pictures of physical abuse is shown in my essay and this helps emphasize how badly abused children need help and support. Also, I show pictures of how sad and lonely abused children are. They are too afraid to tell people about the problem and all they want is someone to reach out and help them. So, as for my warrant? Children do not deserve to grow up being hurt, so it is not right to harm them.

The pictures I chose fit my statement appropriately. I did not want to be too graphic, but I showed enough to get the audiences attention and sympathy. Most of the pictures show lonely/sad children who come off as being afraid. Some of my pictures even include text to emphasize my stance. I decided to have one slide of only text which says "It shouldn't hurt to be a kid." I wanted to be plain and simple with what I said, yet make a bold statement. The first picture (the eye with a tear drop) fits because it sets the overall tone of sadness for my essay. Also, the last picture fits appropriately because it goes beyond just my stance and comes from the actual child as he holds up his hand that says "Stop the Abuse Pretty Please." This is very touching and a good way to get out the final point that not only do I want to help, but that they beg for ours. My pictures switch from isolated to children to semi-graphic photos of actualy abuse. I thought this was effevtive because it shows that not only are they being hurt, but they are afraid and fear to be out right about it.

As for my musical selection, I thought it to be a perfect fit. The song is called "After Afterall" by William Fitzsimmons. The way the song flows with the pictures is really effective. Also, the lyrics match well. "Please don't leave me" and "please don't keep me" describes the struggles that abused children face everyday. They want a family, but they are unhappy and afraid of their own (therefore being tossed up with what they truely want). The tone of the music gives off sadness, and that defenitely fits with the statement my visual essay has. The song says "Please don't leave me" right as my text comes across saying "It shouldn't hurt to be a kid." This is a strong statement because its expressing two powerful things, not to leave me and that it shouldn't hurt to be a child. I feel that that is almost a solution. Since it shouldn't hurt to be a child, then do not harm them and they won't have to leave you. I sense that the "child" is actually saying that life shouldn't be like this for them and they shouldn't have to suffer with pain and no family.

Overall, it is important to help those in need and I hope my essay helps illustrate how critical this truely is.

Video Essay

Enlightenment

Enlightenment acts as an understandment and spread of knowledge. To enlighten someone is to broaden their view on something. I think that this blog post relates to what we have been talking about in class the past few days.
The articles we have read about eatting disorders, media, fashion, looks, etc is all examples of enlightenment. The authors are spreading what they know about the issue to us. Most of it is positive enlightenment as well because it is allowing us to know that no one is perfect.
The word enlightenment can be looked at in so many different ways. It can be thought of as learining, or as teaching. It can be looked at as education or wisdom. Also, it can be thought of as open mindedness or broad mindedness. Instruction and insight also describe enlightenment.
Overall, thinking about this blog post really enlightened;) me to looking deep for the meaning of a term.

A Commercial Remembered- Blog #6

I recently saw a commercial for comcast. It was about, as usual, their service being fast. Something that stuck out to me about this commercial was the overall structure of it. It was hard to understand at first, but at the end of the 30 second clip, it turned out to be very clever. It used a metaphor to make the service seem more effective and fast. It compared the speed of comcast to that of a race car and a cheetah, without directly saying that it was comcast that it was being compared to.
The words spoken at the very end stick out to me. They said "Comcast, we make fast faster." Once this was said, it made sense why the "man" (comcast) was outrunning the cheetah and the racecar. I thought this was very effective.
As for its purpose, it was clear to me from the start that the purpose of whatever the product was was speed. They really emphasized this. No voice was used until the very end, so the cadence was short and direct. The voice is memorable and the actual words are even more memorable. The overall effectiveness of this commercial was good and it was really well planned and produced.

School All Year Round?!

I give lots of credit to students who go to school all year round. To me, this seems almost absurd. At the end of the nine month school year, I am beyond ready to have a break. Then, at the end of summer I am ready to re group and start up the school year again. I feel that summer break helps get my mind back on track and focused. School all year round would make it really hard to focus on my studies, especially during the summer months when the weather becomes distracting. I feel bad for kids who have no summer break. However, they probablly do not know what it feels like and are use to what the routine they have.
All in all, I strongly feel that a summer break is needed. Not only only so students can stay sane, but so they can take family trips and spend time with their friends. I think WHS has a perfect routine just how it is. But, maybe we could have a few extra breaks throughout the year? Just kidding. :)

After reading the article about American students and their work ethic, I felt a little bit offended. I think that American's work ethic may be a lot less than other countires, but the article was a little too stereotypical. We work and strive for perfection as well. We are not all just one big party, as the ethnic girl referred to us as in the movie. My reaction to the video was that it was dissing American students. However, it also may just be trying to prove a point or bring upon an argument.
I feel bad for the students in China and other countires who spend every moment of their day studying and doing school work. It also makes me feel a little bit guilty, like I should live up to their standards. I try my best in all that I do so I know that that must count for something right? Your reward for so much work is success. But, does this mean that I won't be as successful as students in other countries? I hope not. I think that the article was zooming in on a group of students in America, not American students as a whole. Because I know that there are some very smart and hard working students here, a ton even in our own school.
All in all, the movie and the article were interesting to read because it lead me to see how other people categorize us. Whether or not their categorization be correct is up to us as individuals (and maybe as a whole too.)