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Weekly Blog: The Rhetorical Argument

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  Coming up with a topic to make an argument about wasn't too difficult of a time for me as I expected.  Normally, I tend to be incredibly picky about these prompts that allow plenty of freedom to write on what we want to write about. It's been clear to me through years of English classes and speeches classes that my best work tends to be on topics that I'm passionate about. I'm sure that could be said for many people as well. The topics where we're allowed the freedom to do as we please. Not just being assigned something I'm not interested in and pretend to know what I'm talking about like I'm an expert.  Ahead of this project my biggest concern is not that I'm able to present compelling information that will make someone curious and open their mind to. Hopefully,  I can manage to maintain fidelity to the prompt while presenting an argument that fascinates you and makes you think. My biggest concern is sticking to those guidelines that make a "...

Weekly Post:

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  Every so often the YouTube algorithm blesses me with a gem of a video from several years ago that has nothing to do with my current interests or viewing history. It's like being handed a Christmas gift from your Uncle who really couldn't think of one thing that you personally have some interest in to make a meaningful gift. You open it with little to no expectations, yet, we're pleasantly surprised. We actually... kinda like it.. Is it because of the quality of the gift itself? Or are we pleased because we didn't know what to expect? Or that he'd even give us a gift in the first place? This hidden gem of a video that popped into my feed today is very... bizarre, but innocently hilarious. But it made my day. Maybe that due to my dad being a drummer most of his life, we got to enjoy this random video more because he appreciated the absurdity this situation. Whatever takeaway you leave with, I hope it surprises you too and could make you smile a bit.

What Does This Image Mean to Me?

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     Immediately upon looking at the image the first thing I notice is the beautiful night sky. It's beautiful & simple, we've seen the night sky every night of our lives but yet we still are taken back each time we look up at night and look into the vast universe. The sky is dark at the top of the image, but blends into the colors of the sunset. To me, the image itself says how there can be beauty even within the darkness. Darkness represents times of tribulation & difficulty & the lighter sky's sunset represents the hope and happiness that may come out of it. It's within the hard patches of life that we learn lessons and grow. We can grow to be the person we're meant to be. 

Lessons Learned Through 8 Months of COVID

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  The effects of Covid-19 have had tremendous impacts worldwide for the lives of most citizens in their home. For some, it was a nightmare being forced to stay at home and be limited to the amount of time we spend outside and out in public. For me, through the ways our society has adapted to life living with this virus, not much has changed to my typical college lifestyle because I'm spending my first semester at home in my first semester since transferring from ISU. I never planned on being out a whole lot aside from work and getting out for hobbies , but these months spent at home has made me appreciative of things in life I normally take for granted.  Time with others. In my household there's so much going on. My dad works in the dining room all day, my sister has a much longer school day than me in her 5th grade classes, and my older brother is working through his senior year of college. The days wane by slowly yet somehow the weeks fly by at the same time --and we're a...

Mr. Rogers and the Power of Persuasion Reflection

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  This video was very well constructed and edited by the creator and expressed an important point in an effective manner. The combination of different visuals and clips added value to the key points he was expressing as he discussed the effective ways of persuading one's point in a way that states the point without coming off as confrontational. While certain pieces of his claim I've already understood through previous English classes in high school, he breaks down each part of Ethos Pathos and Logos efficiently that provided new insight to me. There were also many new ideas that he provided that I took away --including the clip of someone explaining the idea of a mind being represented by a rider and elephant that make up 1% and 99% of the mind respectively. The rider representing our conscious reasoning and the elephant representing the bulk of our mind, which deals with intuition and emotion. There wasn't a single thing from this video I didn't like. It displ...

Weekly Post: Creating a Summary

      Creating a summary of the documentary for me was a tough task. I can't think of the last time I was assigned to summarize any kind of film, so for me deciding which elements of the plot were significant enough to include in the summary was a difficult task. I watched the film twice --once just to view it for my first time and take mental notes of important takeaways, and the second time was when I had my summary document open and writing things. It took much more time than I thought it would take while watching the film a second time and summarizing bits and pieces of the film. It was a tedious task having to pause and rewind so often so that I can summarize each plot point effectively.     The easiest part of the Documentary Project for me was choosing which film to watch. I went down the list of available films to watch and there were plenty that caught my eye that may intrigue me to watch on my own free time, but when I saw the descriptio...

Born Into Brothels Reflection

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1. Was there a specific scene that got to you? Describe and explain how it moved you (Angry? Curious?  Delighted? Motivated?). Give a lot of detail, and really dive in to how it affected you. Don’t hold back. Overall, I could say this entire film in its entirely largely got to me, but there were a few moments that stuck out. I have a soft spot in my heart for children. The summers entering my junior and senior years of high school I saved up my income of a year working part time as a bus boy to pay for my mission trip with my mom and members of my church to travel to her home country of the Philippines. In-between outreaches and group work, we returned to the camp where we spent our free time hanging out with a group of about 25 children that all found their way into this boarding school that saved them from home lives filled with sexual abuse, homelessness, domestic violence, and the most horrid poverty any child should ever go through. Many of these children's living conditions p...