I've always contained a knack for analysis and picking out thematic elements, but I have a hard time quantifying them. The group had a few people that maybe weren't as good at thinking on their feet and analyzing, but were good at organizing and planning. Together I feel we learned from each other and taught the strengths and weaknesses of our techniques.
For instance, I was able to pick out the eye grabbing imagery and themes, along with the feeling the commercial evokes, but I couldn't find a way to really put that down on paper. My team then broke down each of the elements into their most basic forms and elaborated on each. I learned from this that sometimes you have take individual parts of what makes up the theme and look at them, instead of just taking the entire theme for face value. Furthermore, the group showed me that there is more to a commercial than thematic elements, that emotion plays a role as well.
All in all it was a very constructive exercise that essentially taught me to slow down and look at the human side of things, either for the viewer or what's going on in the advert itself.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
In Class Lab: Answer exercises on page 138/141
P138
Think about your own use of analysis
Everybody analyzes things on a constant basis. You look at something and then weigh the pros and cons with every movement. it happens so many times a second it's probably impossible to count. If we are barring all the miniscule analyses we make on a constant basis, then you can get a bit more specific.
Take today for example. I woke up at a leisurely 0730 in the morning, got dressed, went downstairs and grabbed a cup of coffee then went into the garage to fix the scope mount for my rifle. I finish by 1000, and take a shower and grab some breakfast. Noon rolls around and I analyze just how much I would be missing if I weren't to go class at 1300, and compare it to what I would gain if I were to take a nap, then head out and sight in my rifle. I realize that I paid a thousand bucks for this class, and that I don't want that to go to waste. After all, I could sight in my rifle tomorrow afternoon.
It's quite the shallow analysis, but is quite viable in the discussion, since I weighed the pros and cons of one action versus another.
You could also extrapolate the experience to show what I'm interested, which would appear to be guns and sleep, in which case you would be correct, but that's neither here nor there. It also shows that I have a very important set of priorities, based mostly on monetary value. In which case you would also be correct.
Think about your own use of analysis
Everybody analyzes things on a constant basis. You look at something and then weigh the pros and cons with every movement. it happens so many times a second it's probably impossible to count. If we are barring all the miniscule analyses we make on a constant basis, then you can get a bit more specific.
Take today for example. I woke up at a leisurely 0730 in the morning, got dressed, went downstairs and grabbed a cup of coffee then went into the garage to fix the scope mount for my rifle. I finish by 1000, and take a shower and grab some breakfast. Noon rolls around and I analyze just how much I would be missing if I weren't to go class at 1300, and compare it to what I would gain if I were to take a nap, then head out and sight in my rifle. I realize that I paid a thousand bucks for this class, and that I don't want that to go to waste. After all, I could sight in my rifle tomorrow afternoon.
It's quite the shallow analysis, but is quite viable in the discussion, since I weighed the pros and cons of one action versus another.
You could also extrapolate the experience to show what I'm interested, which would appear to be guns and sleep, in which case you would be correct, but that's neither here nor there. It also shows that I have a very important set of priorities, based mostly on monetary value. In which case you would also be correct.
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What I’ll eat for lunch I guess
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What new vidya gaem will I by
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What hairsyltle do I want
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How much omney to spend on lttorey
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Personal
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I considered a frozen chicken pot pie for optimal filling
vs. time taken factored, but instead opted for a more delicious grilled
cheese quesadilla. Other than that it boils down to a soft taco with rice or
a pb&j sandwich.
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I mean, I’m poor and Irish so I can’t really buy anything
right now. I’ll just settle with Diablo 3 and free-to-play games.
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I guess whatever works, I usually don’t bother with
hairstyles
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If I wanted to waste money then I’d go out back and burn
it in the fire pit.
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Professional
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I’ll take a trip to the Grub Hut. Fast, and tasty, and a
decent price.
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My co-workers and I would usually just play Clash of
Clans, a free mobile game, so I wouldn’t buy anything.
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See above. Maybe I’ll get a haircut before I get promoted.
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See above
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School
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I dunno, my classes aren’t very long so I usually just
head home and whip something up.
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I probably could pick up a cheap game to toss on my flash
drive and bring it in, so I’m not bored out of my mind. Maybe FTL, that way I
don’t have to actually buy it, and I can take all the time in the world to
play it, due to its nifty pause feature.
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I don’t really need a haircut for school, it’s not like I’m
there to impress people.
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See above.
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After analyzing my daily analyses, it shows that I'm a bit more frugal when it comes to everything but food than I expected. I like food though, so it's not like I'm wasting money.
Taking stock of my writing.
How was composing Essay two different from composing Essay one?
Well, I'll just get the obvious answer out of the way. One was a narrative, two was an argument. Besides that, one required much more research, preparation, brainstorming, and drafting than the other. I had to cite things instead of arbitrarily say "This is the way it was."
I found both fun to write, but for different reasons. I found the narrative was enjoyable because it would entertain me through making visuals as I was writing them down, and providing a nice trip down memory lane. The argument paper felt like I could get passionate about something, and give reasoning as to why 'I am right, you are wrong!'. I love arguing, and I love playing Devils Advocate even more, which is why I could get more into the second paper.
That being said, essay one was much, much easier to write, since I've got a very good grasp on imagery and how to effectively use it, alongside a talent to type almost as fast as I think. Maybe that's a bad thing, considering I type at 60 words per minute on a good day. Actually, that's a bad thing. I digress. I typically find it easier to recount the story on a keyboard or a pencil as if I were reciting it orally, which helps the overall flow of the writing, and I knock it out without so much as a second draft.
All in all, I was much more efficient timewise writing essay 1 than essay 2, but I enjoyed essay 2 more since it let me get more involved emotionally.
Well, I'll just get the obvious answer out of the way. One was a narrative, two was an argument. Besides that, one required much more research, preparation, brainstorming, and drafting than the other. I had to cite things instead of arbitrarily say "This is the way it was."
I found both fun to write, but for different reasons. I found the narrative was enjoyable because it would entertain me through making visuals as I was writing them down, and providing a nice trip down memory lane. The argument paper felt like I could get passionate about something, and give reasoning as to why 'I am right, you are wrong!'. I love arguing, and I love playing Devils Advocate even more, which is why I could get more into the second paper.
That being said, essay one was much, much easier to write, since I've got a very good grasp on imagery and how to effectively use it, alongside a talent to type almost as fast as I think. Maybe that's a bad thing, considering I type at 60 words per minute on a good day. Actually, that's a bad thing. I digress. I typically find it easier to recount the story on a keyboard or a pencil as if I were reciting it orally, which helps the overall flow of the writing, and I knock it out without so much as a second draft.
All in all, I was much more efficient timewise writing essay 1 than essay 2, but I enjoyed essay 2 more since it let me get more involved emotionally.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
brainstorming for essay thing
I've got quite a few strong feelings towards and against many, many things. Luckily, our next essay is based on what we can argue for and against.
Firstly, I think that we need to dump funding back into NASA as quickly as we've pulled it out. Everything that's relevant to todays society in terms of technology probably had its grounds in the NASA program, ranging from personal computers, to cars, to cell phones, to hydrophobic materials, to things as basic as steel.
Second, I think we need to start cutting the budget for the American armed forces. While it's great that we've got enough aircraft carriers and submarines and tanks and troops to conquer a country in our navy alone, is it really necessary to pump out millions and millions worth of JDAMs and Hellfire missiles to fight wars against individuals in countries across the globe? Even if we were to slash budgets for the military, we'd still have a large enough force to stomp holes in whoever opposed us, save for the superpowers of the world, most of which we are allied with.
Thirdly, I could write about the lack of care for your average 20 something year old in the US society. We've got hundreds of things stacked against us in this day and age, that it makes it ridiculously difficult to get anywhere with any sort of speed. This is compounded by the fact the older portions of America cram down our throats how much more difficult they had it, and putting in place things that seem easy for them, having made the gauntlet, but in reality make our lives hell. I feel I could write for hours on that, but I might get a little bit too biased and go on tangents, which doesn't really help in terms of credibility.
Fourth, I could write about how teachers need a bone thrown to them in this day and age. Similar to the young adults in America, they've been downtrodden by all sorts of red tape and such throughout the last 10-20 years. They make what could widely be considered slave wages, for grueling jobs that require them to hit all the wickets instead of being passionate about what they signed up for. They have to specialize, yet remain general since it's no actual guarantee they get the job they wanted. They have to try to control more than 30 kids at a time, and by extension can't go out of their way for individuals. This leads to rapid burnout, which with the concepts of Tenure and Unions and the like, makes it impossible to bring in new teachers for these subjects. Like said by many before, this school system needs a revamp.
Firstly, I think that we need to dump funding back into NASA as quickly as we've pulled it out. Everything that's relevant to todays society in terms of technology probably had its grounds in the NASA program, ranging from personal computers, to cars, to cell phones, to hydrophobic materials, to things as basic as steel.
Second, I think we need to start cutting the budget for the American armed forces. While it's great that we've got enough aircraft carriers and submarines and tanks and troops to conquer a country in our navy alone, is it really necessary to pump out millions and millions worth of JDAMs and Hellfire missiles to fight wars against individuals in countries across the globe? Even if we were to slash budgets for the military, we'd still have a large enough force to stomp holes in whoever opposed us, save for the superpowers of the world, most of which we are allied with.
Thirdly, I could write about the lack of care for your average 20 something year old in the US society. We've got hundreds of things stacked against us in this day and age, that it makes it ridiculously difficult to get anywhere with any sort of speed. This is compounded by the fact the older portions of America cram down our throats how much more difficult they had it, and putting in place things that seem easy for them, having made the gauntlet, but in reality make our lives hell. I feel I could write for hours on that, but I might get a little bit too biased and go on tangents, which doesn't really help in terms of credibility.
Fourth, I could write about how teachers need a bone thrown to them in this day and age. Similar to the young adults in America, they've been downtrodden by all sorts of red tape and such throughout the last 10-20 years. They make what could widely be considered slave wages, for grueling jobs that require them to hit all the wickets instead of being passionate about what they signed up for. They have to specialize, yet remain general since it's no actual guarantee they get the job they wanted. They have to try to control more than 30 kids at a time, and by extension can't go out of their way for individuals. This leads to rapid burnout, which with the concepts of Tenure and Unions and the like, makes it impossible to bring in new teachers for these subjects. Like said by many before, this school system needs a revamp.
Herperts essay response
So, Herpert is tackling the issue of the lack of education for the average American child. By extension, he's bringing to light the many issues that culminate in this issue. He states that the most important, is the Teacher quality. He says that there's so many teachers that are just there to punch in and punch out, just go through the motions that it's impacting the children. How are they supposed to be enthusiastic about learning if the teachers aren't? He also states the cause of this is a lack of regulation and straight up lack of pay for the teachers, which comes from the states cutting education funding. The other reason is because the teaching industry focuses on credentials, just how many passes and fails there are, vs. the quality of what's being taught. He proposes changes such as increasing budgets for school, or even overhauling the school system in general by introducing more specialized schools dedicated to what the children want to learn, which in it's testing phases has showed huge improvements.
Thursday, February 5, 2015
What do I feel strongly about
I feel strongly about a lot of things, and most of which seem trivial to the average person. Mostly stuff about videogames, like the corruption present in reviewers, big name publishers singlehandedly flushing the game industry down the toilet, etc. I don't really like discussing big topics like racism and the like, since 9 times out of ten it transforms into me talking to a brick wall calling me a bigot and a racist.
I'll just ramble about that then. Racism is a very, very ugly thing that's got a lot of forces behind it. Today we try to say we aren't racist, and I'm sure anyone reading this will agree. After all, that's part of being a decent human being. But, (again, as much as I hate to say it,) the media is a special kind of racist, that's trained us all to react in knee jerk fashion at the slightest mention of skin color. Mexicans jumping the border, blacks shooting each other, white people running the country, the list goes on. It garners interest because of how blatant it is. But, it's not your standard type of racist, like I said before. It's a freaky form of reverse racism. It's constantly telling us to feel sorry for 'X' race, to hate 'Y' race because they are always stealing and shooting, etc.
I'll even use a real life case, because it paints the most vivid picture of what I'm describing. Remember the Micheal Brown case? The one sparking the Ferguson riots? It's the most blatant display of reverse racism I think I've ever seen the media get away with. 30 minutes after it happened it was "Man shot to death". An hour it was "Black man shot to death." 5 hours later it was "Black teen shot to death by police." 15 hours later it was "Young unarmed black teen shot to death by white police officer." In reality, the 6'4" 280lb 19 year old grabbed for the cops gun after punching him in the face, then after backing off, charged him while reaching under his shirt, despite the cop telling him to stop before he had to exercise deadly force. The cop had originally showed up to stop a robbery, which Brown had committed. The media villainized the cop, turned Brown into a civil rights martyr, and blew it so far out of proportion that there was no sense being used about it whatsoever.
The way this could have been fixed, is if you were to omit any mention of race whatsoever. "Man shot to death by police" is much less inflammatory than "Young unarmed black teen shot to death by white police officer." Especially if it mentions said man had already committed a crime, and charged the cop. Double especially if it mentions how the surrounding area is plagues by gang violence and is heavily anti-police.
Anyways, my ramble comes down to this. Todays issue on racism isn't hating blacks, whites, Mexicans, Jews, etc., it's old people choosing what other people need to get offended about, and the media blowing any case out of proportion. The media involvement then turns into people getting pissed at the wrong parties. In the above case, they shouldn't have been angry at the officer. They should have been angry at the Police department for not issuing the officer a tazer, for having backup near, for example.
Finally finishing this up, I feel that race is an issue due to the jacked-up backwards racism being flaunted by the media, which is responsible for the hysteria surrounding it.
I'll just ramble about that then. Racism is a very, very ugly thing that's got a lot of forces behind it. Today we try to say we aren't racist, and I'm sure anyone reading this will agree. After all, that's part of being a decent human being. But, (again, as much as I hate to say it,) the media is a special kind of racist, that's trained us all to react in knee jerk fashion at the slightest mention of skin color. Mexicans jumping the border, blacks shooting each other, white people running the country, the list goes on. It garners interest because of how blatant it is. But, it's not your standard type of racist, like I said before. It's a freaky form of reverse racism. It's constantly telling us to feel sorry for 'X' race, to hate 'Y' race because they are always stealing and shooting, etc.
I'll even use a real life case, because it paints the most vivid picture of what I'm describing. Remember the Micheal Brown case? The one sparking the Ferguson riots? It's the most blatant display of reverse racism I think I've ever seen the media get away with. 30 minutes after it happened it was "Man shot to death". An hour it was "Black man shot to death." 5 hours later it was "Black teen shot to death by police." 15 hours later it was "Young unarmed black teen shot to death by white police officer." In reality, the 6'4" 280lb 19 year old grabbed for the cops gun after punching him in the face, then after backing off, charged him while reaching under his shirt, despite the cop telling him to stop before he had to exercise deadly force. The cop had originally showed up to stop a robbery, which Brown had committed. The media villainized the cop, turned Brown into a civil rights martyr, and blew it so far out of proportion that there was no sense being used about it whatsoever.
The way this could have been fixed, is if you were to omit any mention of race whatsoever. "Man shot to death by police" is much less inflammatory than "Young unarmed black teen shot to death by white police officer." Especially if it mentions said man had already committed a crime, and charged the cop. Double especially if it mentions how the surrounding area is plagues by gang violence and is heavily anti-police.
Anyways, my ramble comes down to this. Todays issue on racism isn't hating blacks, whites, Mexicans, Jews, etc., it's old people choosing what other people need to get offended about, and the media blowing any case out of proportion. The media involvement then turns into people getting pissed at the wrong parties. In the above case, they shouldn't have been angry at the officer. They should have been angry at the Police department for not issuing the officer a tazer, for having backup near, for example.
Finally finishing this up, I feel that race is an issue due to the jacked-up backwards racism being flaunted by the media, which is responsible for the hysteria surrounding it.
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
The N word, Tim Wise
His position is that the usage of the N word should be reserved for those in the Black community in the same way that the word Redneck be reserved for those in the south. It's a term of endearment, and that anyone else using it is taken as an insult, since they aren't in the "in" group. Wise's audience is, sadly, either a bunch of middle-aged or young adults, probably mixed in race. These people are probably smarter than your average e-mail forwarder, or facebook poster, since they are actually going out of their way to see this guy and probably agree with him. They already see his argument in a positive light, so he's basically preaching to the choir. His reasons for taking this stance is because he's just sick and tired of old people getting offended for others, and wants to set it straight on how terms of endearment are to be used, and explain why a bad word in the right context doesn't make it a bad word.
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