knightly post 15

When people think of summer they usually think of a fun and relaxing time to forget about school for a couple of months.  That’s exactly what the ideal summer sounds like.  That is not going to be my summer though.  I am taking classes over the summer to get ahead for my degree, along with that I also have a job.  The reason it is good to take classes over the summer is so that I can get ahead and have a lighter work load in the school year.  While all the other students might have to take a lot of hard courses I will only have to take a few because I got ahead over the summer.  It is good to have a job over the summer so that I can have money when I come back to school.  As a college student I feel like I am always broke, and I usually am.  Since I have a job I will be able to have money when the school year stars.  Nothing looks better to a college student then money.  The summer that I have planned is not the ideal summer so to speak but for the path I am taking in school it is sacrifices like these that I will have to take.

Knightly post 14

This week the speech that stood out to me was the speech about college athletes and how they don’t get paid additional money on top of their scholarship to attend college.  The speech was so compelling because of all the facts he gave.  It is crazy to think how much the NCAA makes in a single year from college athletes giving their all and not getting anything but their scholarship in return.  One of the things that stuck out to me was that after winning a national championship one of Connecticut’s basketball players went to bed hungry because he couldn’t afford anything, and while this is going on the university is making a crazy amount of money.  After hearing this speech it convinced me that athletes at universities should be paid to play the sports they play.  Universities are making way to much from there college athletes and that is why the athletes need to be reimbursed for what they do.  They work so hard while the university sits back and hopes they win.  Some coaches get paid millions and millions of dollars while athletes only get a scholarship.   A scholarship does not cover everything a student athlete needs in college.  

Knightly post 13

Maus and Eating animals use the same rhetorical skills to convince the audience of their argument.  The argument uses a lot of pathos to convey our opinion.  Maus uses pictures to show how horrible things like the holocaust were.  Eating animals doesn’t necessarily use pictures but from reading it we got some pretty gruesome pictures in our head.  Other similarity’s in these two books are that we want to help out whoever is being affected and want to get whatever it is out of that situation.  I believe these books are different then the shallows.  I didn’t really see much pathos when reading it, I just saw a book that gave a bunch of facts and not much to back up the argument.  Or it just wasn’t enough for me to believe in the argument.  Out of the three books Eating Animals uses the most pathos because you just feel so bad for the animals when you are reading about the horrible things that are happening to them.  Even the word choice in Eating Animals made me sick to my stomach.  There was just something about that book.  Although Eating Animals had a convincing argument I still eat meat because it is going to take a lot more to change my mind then a book.

Post 15

This summer shall be a summer indeed. Just to let you know, I've taken part in 12 summer breaks in between school years, so you can kind of call me an expert. I have experienced everything from vacations, parties, and trips, to work, boredom, and laziness. But I can tell you that this one may just be one I may remember for the rest of my life.
To start things off, a trip shall suffice. I don't enjoy planning and it is summer after all so why make anything too structured? To the north for some fishing, or south for a tropical getaway? It is mighty hard to say. When the say comes and feeling is right, I'll pick place, and take a fight. (Sorry, I'm done with the Dr. Suess.) Anyway, when it comes to trips, I know what it takes to make them a blast. I've seen places in tropics, visited our neighbors to the north, and i've even hopped over the pond a time or two. I'll bring the friends and fam, and we'll have a jolly old time.
'What about money John?'
Ah, yes. The great un-equalizer, cash. What to do for money, you ask. Well, a job is my best bet, I suppose. Good thing I've got a good gig lined up not too far away from home and hopefully that will help keep the old bank statement afloat.
I'll be back in the Village with all the old friends and having ball, waiting around for fall to call. (He's back again.) As the heat rises, and anticipation builds, we'll cap it  off with some final thrills.
'What thrills are you talking about John?'
Every Chicagoan's (aged 16-25) favorite holiday of the year of course, LOLLAPALOOZA! In the hottest, sweatiest, grossest, most fun packed, best three days of the year, we'll listen to our favorite bands play in grant park, get horrific sun burn, drink way too much (water, obviously) and have the time of our lives. Say our final goodbyes to summer 2014 and prepare to hustle back to the place we've been missing since May...IOWA (insert expletive here) CITY!
'Will it be the best summer ever John?'
I can't speak for you, friends. But I know that I will make the most of every day and try to be productive as possible while still having a ball. My summer will be my summer and I'm ready to see what's in store.

Post 15 (Bonus) - Zarif

"A person could only prepare everything up to his might, but if it things does not goes along, he just needs to change it and adapt to it positively." This old saying had always been there with me throughout my ups and down period and will always be there to keep me balance in life. Relatively, I usually based my life events just by planning the best I could, or if things just doesn't go well, then I just have to spontaneously come out with plan B, and perhaps C and etc. If I were to put it in just for this summer plans, I could perhaps put in the simplest way of spending it rather than contemplating on the best thing to do most of the times. 

In this way I could actually achieve more than one stuffs at a time, just like on my usual ways of doing thing without contemplating, or procrastinating it. A week after the finals, it is guaranteed that I'll be going to Indiana University- Bloomington in order to visit my dad's alma mater and competing for the Malaysian chess tournament there. After I'm done with that (and have returned to Iowa City), I would need to apply for any part time jobs that is acceptable for F-1 students. By keeping my options open, I believe that at the very least, I'll be content to be even get paid a little for the stuffs that I had to do so much just to brag to everyone that I'm hired. In the meantime, I could also make my driving permit; and eventually my driving license which should be ready after I had taken the driving test. While it could be prior to that or not, I could also renew my rental contract since my apartment requires it'd be done yearly, plus the addition of my country-mates studying in Iowa ! (hello fellow Malaysians). 

Once my summer session starts, in which I took like just 2 semester hours,  I believe that I'll be doing my best for the course. During the holiday after the summer session finals, I believe that traveling across the northeastern region would be my friend and I preferred destination of traveling. Since its about time my fellow Malaysians and I celebrate our traditional Raya event like we always do at our hometown, we'll be cooking more potlucks there in Philadelphia. So, as of now, that is all of what my plans could be comprise of prior to any changes; that have high percentage of occurring though it seems smooth. To be safe, I always keep my options open and I hope it paid me well during my first summer in the United States.

Post 14

Cheyenne's topic was very interesting for me as it was almost the exact opposite of my argument. I'm not sure if what she was arguing what she actually believed in or what she simply had to argue but she brought up some points I never gave very much consideration. My whole piece was based around keep the government of our private affairs and the internet a free and open place. I suppose I never took into consideration that this new age of the internet is a new frontier and parents everywhere need to change the way their own internet works in order to protect their kids. Throughout the process of writing my speech I never gave children of the world very much consideration, I suppose. I was thinking bigger picture and repeatedly reminded myself of my mentality of "big government is bad." While I am still a steadfast disbeliever in the NSA and what they do, I guess Cheyenne is right. A little more structure when it comes to overtly graphic material on the internet would probably be a good thing to protect our nation's youth. No kid should have all the keys to internet, all at once.

Post 14 - Zarif

Throughout the 3-day period of the Rhetoric class speeches, one of the issue that really stood out for me is Hannah's one, which advocates the right for plastic surgery, particularly in terms of healthcare. Though I already knew the fact that those who opts for this artificial method for enhanced beauty is getting higher after the year of its founding, it is quite shocking to know that the United States came in first in today's world. Hannah also mentions the high statistics of money spent only on this product and services which pretty much sums to where the technological research for plastic surgery had found its root demands in its very own market. Hannah also mentions that everyone has the freedom of rights to choose what they want in their lives; including what they could spend on or what we would like to enjoy in this world. 

She also mentions that while it is true that plastic surgery can make one to look way better looking than others in public, she also points out that these people had taken many considerations before undergoing such transformations which is usually accompanied by pain. By highlighting this one, it is imperative to be respectful of their decisions and support them in their pursue for the life-changing event that takes place. Although I am no fan of artificial beauty, especially for the sake of showing off, I now realize that different people have different reasons for doing this. At the same time, Hannah rhetorically tries to instill the values of humanity at a very non-humane issue. One thing that comes up to everyone's mind is that this one is effectively used. 

I also notice that Hannah speaks her points clearly and non-contradictory in overall of her speeches; implicitly promoting the self confidences that she had over her arguments. While this might wins the heart of the audiences, she also adds up to the views that might change some perspective from going against plastic surgery at all cost to considering it for personal reasons. Personally, I could notice that Hannah's speech was all but flaws, which really tells the audience that her message was sent across effectively. Last and the most importantly is her ending, where she puts everyone into the same situation where we don't have any choice but to go through plastic surgery for the sake of our own health.

Post 13 - Zarif

After finishing The Maus, there were few instances of this book section that got me thinking of its similarities with Jonathan Foer's Eating Animals and Nicholas Carr's The Shallows respectively.  If it weren't for its graphical content, it would be very hard for me to finish up The Maus compared to the other two books. One thing for sure, is the gloomy tones that all these three works had provided to the audience which rhetorically highlights the seriousness of some parts of their argument. For example, both Foer's and Carr's works tells the audience of its severity until the end and that we were in a hopeless state to start with. While similar to those books, Spiegelman's comic shows mainly stories of the past where the severities had already happened to some of us and though this events had even have slight happy endings; it does not alter the whole austerity of the happenings which had already carved the readers mindset. 

All these three books also complemented the fact that the number one antagonist of their arguments is not even a villain in todays world, with the first two coexisted because of humans errors and faults. In short, these books are blaming everything back at human for three different claims. In the case for Foer's, humans crime comprise of use being responsible of treating animals cruelly and inhumanely. Carr's case tells that basically other human invention leads to another humans degradations such as to what the internet brings negatively to us in nowadays world. As for the last book, the main race for the villain was led by Nazi germans as according to the history of mankind. Although all three of these so called antagonist had been put way much criticism throughout each respective books, it falls down to how the readers would interpret the message clearly. in terms of presentations, The Maus used similar style of presenting chapters as to The Shallows and Eating animals respectively. This is shown with many styles of swirls, lines and attractive sub-headlines that make it through our attention from our brains in general.  

Post 12 - Zarif

After finishing the first volume of The Complete Maus, I could found few moments that interestingly, yet chillingly shows its storyline pathos that intrigue my nonconservative feelings throughout the book. Spiegelman's work had gradually transitioned me from being only visually perceptive to both visual and text engaged. The Complete Maus had now become one of the book that would always be remembered for its every aspect of the plot, especially after going through weeks of discussion for the messages that were found throughout the book. I could start with the earliest part where Lucia Greenberg begged Vladek, on page 22, to marry her as Vladek had already fallen in love with Anna Zylenberg. One could tell that the image of Lucia holding on to Vladek's leg had become quite cliche yet still effective in sending the message across to the readers. This is somewhat quite exaggerating as it only occurs in the movies or dramas, or at least in my opinion that is. 

Moving onto the deeper situation in the book where Vladek was on the train heading to bielsko where he founds himself and the rest of the jews observed quite erratic incident of the Germans, where first introduced in this book, insults the Jews in many ways on page 35. This somewhat shows the lightest picture that one could imagine as the portrayed animals-reflecting-humans seems slightly intolerable since the audience had already followed along the main charcter and its story plot of this chapter. It would be very disturbing to see the very image of human themselves to be displayed in such low standards which comes to mind on the rhetorical use of dehumanizing ourselves from the beginning. The fact that it starts to turn ugly on page 50, where Vladek accidentally shot the the moving tree, which turns out to be the opposing german army. On this particular page the human-like was given to the mice Vladek which shows the trembling fear he had after shooting the person to death. 

Post 13

Maus was a very different book in comparison to Eating Animals and The shallows in one very obvious way, it was a graphic...story? (I recall hearing that it wasn't a novel, so not quite sure what to call it.) However it was till making a rhetorical appeal, just like any other collection of words, but the way it went about making its argument was very different. Obviously, because it made use of pictures and words combined. It left much less to our imaginations but was slightly more specific in the visuals in comparison to the other two books. 

The Shallows went about making its arguments based mostly in logos. There wasn't a whole lot of emotional appeal in this book and it did a good job of arguing logistical points about the past and the future. It made the readers think about their everyday lives and what the technology in their lives is doing to them. It made them think, but not feel.

Maus and Eating Animals are very similar because they both make use of a lot of pathos, noted as the most powerful rhetorical tool. These stories contain countless tugs on our heart strings. Because of this reason, they are more powerful rhetorical tools that can be used to argue points and make people take action. 

However, all three books have a high level of ethos built in. Every author uses this third rhetorical tool to remind us that they know what their talking about and that we should trust their words and opinions. 

Post 11

While reading The Shallows, Carr brought up a lot of controversial issues that led me to question the legitimacy of him and his opinions. As we get deeper and deeper into the book, we learn that Carr is very critical of technology and doesn't have very much faith in it. I found myself wondering if he's so critical because his chosen profession is the one that is slowly, but surely becoming obsolete.
Parts of his argument that i found to be realistic and believable are the parts that revolve around the fact that with the invent of the web has mad us lazier people. The web has make it incredibly easy to search the web for any type of informations we please in a matter of milliseconds. This means that we have a fountain of knowledge at our fingertips whether we're on the on the road, in class, or at home sitting on the couch.
But does this really mean we're lazier or smarter? Absolutely not. I disagree with with the fact that we're lazier (contrary to my former point). We've become a more efficient and productive human race because of the internet. Any business owner would tell you that their goal is to maximize output and minimize input effort and cost. This is a simple and easy to understand reality. Why would we work harder and longer to search though pages and pages of information to arrive at information that probably isn't as good as the information we could find on the web in a matter of seconds.
Long Live the World Wide Web.

Bender week 14

I found Dani’s speech on cochlear implants to be very interesting. I never knew any background information about them, just that they help people hear well. This being all I have heard, I only knew good things about them. When I first heard that she was arguing against them I thought why on earth would allowing someone to hear again ever be a bad thing. I think choosing to side against the implants was very risking, but she made a strong case against it and made me understand why someone would rather not want them. Her argument was basically all on the choice of the person and had nothing to due with the health or process of implanting the hearing device. I very much enjoyed her source of a women who chose to not receive them, and her detailed explanation as to why. Hearing is form a deaf person really persuaded me to believe that not having hearing aids really might not be all that bad. Her speech didn’t make me think that having cochular implants is wrong, it just gave me the understanding as to why someone would choose to not get the implants. The sign language community astounds me as to how they communicate and still live as fully as everyone else in the world. I still believe that hearing gives everyone greater opportunity in life, but I enjoyed Dani’s perspective on a topic that is usually not talked about.

Post 13 Poulsen

Although Eating Animals, The Shallows and Maus are all different I think that they all share some similar goals of how they connect with their audience.  Maus clearly paints a picture for the audience by using comics and drawings, but I feel that the Shallows and Eating Animals do a great job of having the reader paint pictures in their head about whats happening.  The Shallows for me presented very interesting concepts that I would spent long periods of time trying to fathom and walk in the shoes of the people going through the technology change.  Eating Animals on the other hand didn't beat around the bush when it came to visually descriptive words.   We always knew the brutal truth and horrible things that happened to these animals and whether we liked it or not we could easily picture what was happening through the word choice Safran Foer used in his book.  Yes, these books were very different in content and overall message but I think that they shared a similar sense of using strong imagery in their words and pictures to portray their message. I actually think that The Shallows does the best of presenting a mental images because like I said I did spend so much time think about what it must have been like for people way back when new technology was coming out and how it must have changed the world.

Post 13 Sangkyung Lee

   I think that the book Maus, by Spiegelman ,was similar to Eating Animals by Foer. Both of the authors spent more time introducing their topic and the authors wanted their readers to realize what is actually going on or what has happened in the past. With both books need we to think deeply and make us reevaluate main issue of the books. Another thing Eating Animals and Maus have in common is the use of irony as comedy but also to make a point. In order to make a point, Spiegelman used both his drawings and his words for his irony and Foer also used illustration at each beginning of chapters. The way in which it is most similar to Eating Animals is the use of animals and sympathy.The use of animals is used in ways in which we feel bad for the mice and hatred for the cats. Foer creates sympathy by revealing the reality to food processing. They each use pathos to make us upset for the humans and or animals being tortured through imagery, just in different ways.

Cooper Post 15

As I continue to get older my summer vacations haven’t been as much as a vacation as I’d like for them to be. The first week of summer however will be the only break that I will get all summer. My friends and I are going to be road tripping down to Naples, Florida and staying in my friend’s mom’s condo. I’m looking forward to kicking it back on the beach, getting a nice little tan, and not having a worry in the world especially after all of these finals. After I get back from Florida though it will be back to reality for me. I will be working for my dad’s landscaping material business all summer. My shifts will start at 6:30 A.M. and end at 4:00 P.M… I am a college student who says my 11:00 class is too early how am I going to pull that shift off all summer?! On top of going to work I will also be taking summer classes at a community college. The more I talk about my summer the more I dread for it to come. For the first time in my life I might be admitting that I will be looking forward to school starting again because by the end of the summer I am going to be so exhausted and will be in need for an actual vacation.

Post 12 Sangkyung Lee

   When I found out that Maus was about the holocaust, I figured that I would not get any new information from it. I learned all about the holocaust in middle school and read lots of stories about it. I even remember making butterflies to represent the children who died in concentration camps.I was not happy that I had to read another story about the holocaust; death and suffering is not my favorite topic. When I opened it up, I was very surprised to see that it was a comic book.
   Turning Maus into a comic book was a very creative and unique idea. It was an easy read and kept me interested the whole way through. The thing I really enjoyed was the comparisons of people to animals. It added another level to the story. I think that if Maus was a regular story, I would not have enjoyed it as much.
   Even though I already knew a lot about the holocaust, I was still able to learn things from this book. I did not know that some prisoners were ranked above the others and had better treatment. I was also surprised to know that people could get jobs in the camps. It was so interesting to see what daily life was really like in the camp.
   The main thing I enjoyed about Maus was the characters stories. It was so fascinating to learn how Valdek met his wife and to see the interactions between Valdek and his son. The way Spiegelman wrote the story was so great that it almost felt real. When I found out that Valdek really did burn Anja’s diaries, I got upset right along with Art. Even arriving to the camps felt real. On page 159, I just cannot believe that someone could be so cruel to a group of people. Every time I read a story about the holocaust I feel so bad for the survivors. On the other hand I also have a lot of respect for them. I cannot imagine the strength and determination they must have had. To live through what Valdek described was defiantly not an easy feat. At least he had some help here and there. It makes me wonder how many of the survivors were lucky enough to have help like he did, not only inside the camp but outside as well.
   Maus was such a great story that I just had to finish it. I would recommend it to anyone who either wants to learn more about the holocaust or wants a good story about hope and determination.

Post 11 Sangkyung Lee

   Firstly, I feel he's worrying too much. We may lose an afternoon to pointless Web surfing, but not an entire mind-set. I agree that the Internet is changing us, changing our culture. Perhaps some of these lab experiments are detecting the initial effects of this change. Maybe we're more distractible, more frenzied, less able to concentrate. Maybe these mental tics are part of the turbulence of the transition, a pocket of air as we soar to ever higher intellectual heights. Maybe they aren't. Whatever our destination, Carr would have us reserve a place for attentive thinking. For to judge by history, he is being not an alarmist but a realist in pointing out that the literary, attention-capable mind, though it may not quite go the way of the chanting Greek poets, will no longer reign. When that happens, our culture will lose something ineffable. And we're likely to have forgotten what it is or was.

Post 10 Sangkyung Lee

       Recently, the most impressive book for me was. I got really immersed in a book. I read this book last semester.The original title of this book is “Lean In: Women, And The Will To Lead”. In this title “Lean In” means that ‘jump at the chance’ or ‘go out into the world’. On this book, Sheryl Sandberg, who is the author of this book and the chief operating officer of Facebook, diversely advises contemporary women how to overcome obstacles in their lives and to success in their fields.
Based on experiences in her life, she argues that contemporary women should change themselves by playing a leading role in their lives. Going one step forward, she encourages contemporary women in changing the world. After I read this book, I could believe that if more women lean in, women can change the power structure of our world and expand opportunities.In addition to this, I realized that men need to lean into their families more, especially since research has consistently found that children with involved and loving fathers have higher levels of psychological well-being and better cognitive abilities.This book inspired the fact that we can close the leadership gap now. Each individual’s success can make success a little easier for the next. We can do this—for ourselves, for one another.

Post 9 Sangkyun Lee

   In Carr’s book The Shallows, he makes the argument that the Internet is literally changing our brains, and affecting the way we think. Carr insists that the negative side effects of the Internet outweigh its efficiencies. Consider, for instance, the search engine, which Carr believes has fragmented our knowledge. While the digitization of journals made it far easier to find this information, it also coincided with a narrowing of citations, with scholars citing fewer previous articles and focusing more heavily on recent publications. Carr’s most serious charge against the Internet has nothing to do with Google and its endless sprawl of hyperlinks. Instead, he’s horrified by the way computers are destroying our powers of concentration.
   While Carr tries to ground his argument in the details of modern neuroscience, his most powerful points have nothing do with our plastic cortex. Instead, “The Shallows” is most successful when Carr sticks to cultural criticism, as he documents the losses that accompany the arrival of new technologies. The rise of the written text led to the decline of oral poetry; the invention of movable type wiped out the market for illuminated manuscripts; the television show obliterated the radio play (if hardly radio itself).
   Similarly, numerous surveys suggest that the Internet has diminished our interest in reading books.The incessant noise of the Internet has turned the difficult text into an obsolete relic.

Post 8 sangkyung lee

This ad is exactly what Jean Kilbourne was talking about. The roles of females have greatly domesticated in popular culture, especially in this advertisement. This
advertisement contain women in roles such as cooks, maids, babysitters, as well as sex objects in order to sell product. In the beginning, advertisements were once shown to sell a product, however, as years pass, advertisements begin to objectify women and begin to use women as a way to sell products. Looking at the trends of advertisements (like this ad), women continue to be one of main objects for a product. The trends have greatly changed, creating a gap between the products being sold to the objects they use to sell the product. The advertising trends began before the early 1900s until present time, where the roles of women have changed drastically beginning from products being sold on literally terms, to solving personal and social problems, to consumer association and present, as a subliminal and unconscious desire.

stukel post 15

            I am really looking forward to this summer in some ways, not so much in others. Since I have been at school, my parents moved three hours away from my hometown in the Chicago suburbs. This will be strange, because for the first time in eighteen years I won’t be coming home to the house I’ve always known. I don’t really know what to expect from the new town either, since I know no one there. I’m not especially worried about it however as I will have a lot on my plate. I decided to capitalize on the fact that we relocated from Chicago, to a small town near the quad cities, and have secured an internship at a local news station, which I am really looking forward to. Along with my internship I will be waitressing at a breakfast diner and spending a lot of quality time with my mom. Als,o my best friend from high school goes to Iowa and will be living in Iowa City this summer, which is only half an hour away. It’s funny because even though my whole life has changed, we’ll probably end up doing the same things we do every summer, just with different scenery. It really is true what they say, “the more things seem to change the more they stay the same”! 

stukel post 9

            In Carr’s book The Shallows, he makes the argument that the Internet is literally changing our brains, and affecting the way we think. One argument he makes for this that I found especially effective is his argument, about the way that scientists have literally seen the cortex of a monkey’s brain alter itself, due to certain behaviors that it adapts on page 25-26. He believes that in many ways the brains of humans can change when we adopt certain behaviors as well. This is a valid argument as it has been proven through scientific experiments. It exemplifies the rhetorical strategy of logos, as it uses logic to make its argument. It also forces the reader to think about how if adopted behaviors force the brain to change its physical structure; it is feasible that they also change our thought structure. Therefore, if using the Internet is an adopted behavior it could absolutely change the way we think.