I thought “The Wretched of the Earth,” was a very interesting read.  It first talks about how decolonization is always a violent phenomenon.  He talks about how problems are dealt with compromises.  Someone is always going to have to give something up in order to make both happy.  Non-Violence attempts to settle an issue always leaves gray areas and baize out on the table.  With a violent approach normally one of the sides get their point across, a winner and a loser. 

            It goes on to talk about how the mother country likes her men and natives to be clothed and accustomed to her surroundings, but they seem to feel naked.  Reading this in the preface, I had a hard time understanding the meaning.  As I read over it a few times however, I began to realize that the mother country wants the people living on it to be able to adapt and use her resources.  She doesn’t want the people living on her to lost and unsure of what to do.

            I also thought it was interesting when they article talked about forced labor.  He expresses that there is no contract made between the workers and the enforcers.  Only intimidation drives the workers to continue to work, but in return oppression grows and grows.

            This read was very difficult considering I didn’t understand the word choices and uses expressed.  However, once I read a section more than once, the main idea of that particular section began to unravel and show itself.  It was very interesting to see the view points of Frantz Fanon and how they differ from most of society.

• War- bringing the troops home, they should Fight on their home turf
• Nebraska- Worst state ever, SUV doesn’t run on corn, ethanol is a dream and a dumb one, storm chasers look for tornados to take them out of Nebraska.  People are fat in Nebraska to stay on the ground so they don’t get swept away by tornados.
• California- To expensive to live, move east, thats what the middle of the country is for.  People who gave up on their dreams
• Money- Money doesn’t buy happiness, thats untrue- try frowning on a jet ski!
• Church- Sometimes church is to long, messes with the football schedule in the west coast time zone.
• Parade vs. Fireworks- Everyone likes fireworks, Parades need to be 60 times the lap speed, cars doing 80, people falling off.

Daniel Tosh is a young and up and coming comedian who has a different way of approaching comedy.  He is a very enthusiastic and sarcastic comedian.  He uses controversial topics to make jokes like the war in Iraq.  He uses sarcasm such as the war should take place here in the U.S.  He relates it to a basketball game saying they should be the home team, where the white jersey’s for a while.  He also talks about how is would be nice for the soldiers to get to sleep in their own beds at night and have a nice breakfast.  He also uses the the thesis of Nebraska people are fat so they don’t ever have to worry about leaving the ground.  He backs this up by talking about storm chasers who want to be cared out of Nebraska because its so boring.  The people who live in Nebraska eat a lot so the tornados can’t lift them off the ground.  He talks about how lazy they are that they don’t care what shape their food comes in, just blobs.  Daniel also does a good job when he brings up the money issue in the United States.  He talks about how people enjoy themselves using money in America.  ”Try frowning on a jet ski,” is on of the lines he uses to back up his point of money making people happy.

Daniel does a good job backing up his original thesis statements and gives good examples to help us understand his main punch line.  I don’t think he could resemble a political debate because he doesn’t give the view points from the other side.  He just makes it awkward from one point of view to make a joke.  He is very comical and sarcastic, but he does back up his original punch lines.

Bruce Ernest

English 111

         Euthanasia is a very debated topic that has been in question for decades.  According Wikipedia it is described as the practice of ending a life in a painless manner.  Some forms of euthanasia are legal in some countries but the two different types (voluntary and involuntary) have raised the debate questions.  Voluntary is the consent of the patient and involuntary is when the patient is unable to give consent.  The main reason for euthanasia is normally used for relieving the pain of a patient.  An easy way to describe euthanasia is by using the term-assisted suicide.  Many people believe that to take ones life is a sin.  If the person is brain dead and will never recover, some feel however, that a person should be able to take their life.  People who are in a vegetated state cannot give consent to be killed through euthanasia so it is normally up to the spouse or family members.  CNN has several cases pertaining to this topic.  A woman in Florida was in a vegetated state and after a long period of time, her husband gave the doctors consent to proceed with euthanasia.  The woman’s family didn’t want this to happen for several reasons, one being her religion.  According to CNN she was a catholic and under the catholic laws, any type of self-suicide is considered a sin.  When it came down to it however, the husband did not want his wife to be in pain and didn’t want her to suffer anymore.  I like the fact that CNN used a true story with both viewpoints for the issue at hand.  It displays an option to the reader.  The reader has the choice to either side with the husband or the family.  Under these tough circumstances, it is hard for a family to fight over how their loved one should go on with life.  When euthanasia was first put to practice, it was mainly used for the wars.  Soldiers who were in to much pain or were on the verge of dying, would take drugs to ease their pains and take their own lives.  Many states here in the U.S. have made euthanasia illegal.  The websites didn’t seem to make a stand on the issue in anyway.  They more or less just gave facts from both viewpoints.  In my eyes I believe that if a person is suffering in a lot of pain and could never get better then they should have the choice.  The problem in my eyes lies when the person is unable to make the decision for him or herself.  I personally would not like to live in a vegetated state of being.  If I was brain dead and living on machines with no way to recover, I don’t think I would want to keep on living.  I know it may be easy to say now, but when faced with the decision first hand, the thought is unbearable.  Hopefully my family members or me will never be put in that situation, as with everyone who reads this blog.  It comes down to what the person wants.  If its written down in a persons will or something of that matter then hopefully the state what to do.  Using these resources from the Internet I have come to a better understanding at the euthanasia debate.  I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer.  It comes down to an ethical/moral issue that one can only determine for oneself.

Visual Rhetoric

“Yager Stadium”

            Walking into the entrance of the stadium its big stone structure looks intimidating, warding off opposing teams as soon as they get off the buses.  A mural hangs over the entrance remember the past great coaches; a sense of history is felt.  Football championship signs hanging all around the concession stands, shows that Miami Football is not a team to mess around with.  The stadium is big and tough looking.  I think Yager stadium is most appealing to men.  It gives off a rough kind of feeling.  There are no bright colors on the stadium, only the Miami colors on the football field.  It is a concrete build with only one intent in mind, to be a place to watch football.  Most men also like hard-hitting action.  Yager stadium provides that with the football team playing there almost every other weekend.  I think Yager makes the claim that its built for the sole purpose to watch football and football only.  The support for that is it doesn’t have bright colors surrounding the stadium walls.  It is all one dull color with the only thing colorful is the football field.  The warrants surrounding Yager stadium, are the fact that you like football when you come to Yager stadium.  Another one might be that you enjoy watching good football, from the signs that show Miami’s success over the past years.  Yager stadium seems to get off a plain style of visual reference.  It gives off a vibe of being sort of boring, but it is understood for what it’s built for.  The only grand style of visual rhetoric I see is the mural of coaches and the brand new artificial turf with the bold lettering on it.  I believe those two things are trying to be persuasive to the fans that come to the games.  The mural of coaches tries to tell the fans that they are entering a history of winning and should expect to see a good game.  The new turf gives off a feeling that Miami is up to date with the new technology and gives off a flashy look.  I believe that the Yager stadium and the field are the ethos.  The fans are the pathos; they’re the ones whose emotions are impacted here.  Rather it is being overwhelmed with walking into a football stadium for the first time, or being impacted by the football team.  The fans are the ones with emotions in this case.  I think the play of the football team is the logos.  Depending on the fan size or how enthusiastic the fans can get, affects the football team.  Yager stadium might not be the most appealing structure to look at, but it serves its purpose and meaning.

Bruce Ernest

September 29, 2008

English 111

‘300’ Speech

            Rhetoric is a persuasive way of speaking.  Watching the movie ‘300’ it felt like every line was speaking in Rhetoric.  The final speech of the movie almost had me out of my seat fighting the Persians myself.  Dilios was the only lone survivor from the original 300 Spartans.  At the final battle between the Spartans and Persians, Dilios gives a moving speech that gives many great examples of rhetoric.

            Dilios speaks of his bold king Leonidas by praising his willingness to sacrifice his life for his beloved country.  Dilios makes the claim that Leonidas and his 300 soldiers were the only ones willing to fight for what they believed in.  All Greeks were free and he wasn’t just fighting for Sparta, but rather all of Greece and the promise the country holds. 

            The support for Leonidas being a brave leader is evident in the way Dilios speaks.  He speaks with passion and certainty.  Leonidas understood that if no one stood up to the Persians than they would have had to surrender their beloved country.  In the speech, Dilios cries out, “ Give thanks, men, to Leonidas and the brave 300!”  Dilios understood that no one besides Lenidas would have stood up to an entire army with just three hundred men.  He wants the current warriors to put that pride in their hearts and understand that this isn’t just a fight; it is much more than that.  He wants the soldiers to fight for their country, family, and Leonidas, may he never be forgotten.

            Dilios uses great examples of Deliberative and forensic speaking during his speech.  He uses the battle he witnessed and partook in to try and excite the Spartans for the battle that awaits.  Using past examples of Leonidas’s bravery is a good use of forensic.  Dilios tells the men, “Sheer terror gripping tight their hearts with icy fingers – knowing full well what merciless horrors they suffered… Yet they stare now across the plain at 10,000 Spartans…” This is a good example of deliberative style because he is reassuring the Spartans that the Persians are shaking in their shoes.  They are afraid of what awaits them.

            The best part of the speech, I think is the ending.  Dilios doesn’t talk about freeing themselves, but rather making the world a better place.  He uses rich description to paint a picture of a better place in the soldiers’ minds.  Confidence is built within the army as they respond with screaming, “HA-OOH!” chants after Dilios makes his remarks.  He tells the Spartans, “This day we rescue a world from mysticism and tyranny… usher in a future brighter than anything we can imagine.”  The entire movie can be related to rhetoric, but it can all be summed up in Dilios’s final speech.

Visit Speech here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFOl-QXpLc4&feature=related

First trying to understand rhetoric had me lost.  I wasn’t sure if it was just a persuasive way of speaking that was very biased.  As i read and learned about rhetoric though, i began to understand the true meaning.  It uses facts and understanding of the audience to seem so persuasive.  Doing the extra credit on Obama and McCain, i now understand their sense of speaking.  I understand why they talked about the gasoline problems so much and the economic situation we are in.  They were trying to speak from the audiences perspective.  They were being persuasive without anyone knowing.  With this new sense of knowledge, I will hopefully begin to use it in my daily life.  I am looking forward to writing my paper on Rhetoric because i feel like i understand its main objective.

3.) I am not going to lie, at the beginning of this reading I did not like the way the author was writing.  She made me feel like i hated England because she wouldn’t stop talking about it.  She even referred to England as a jewel.  The first time i started to actually pay attention to this reading is when the author said she would eat with her hands when her mother wasn’t looking.  To go from the English proper ways to eating with your hands made me smile and start to notice her rebellious attitude.  As the reading continued I saw more and more of this until she finally went to England with her friend.  She mouthed off to the tie salesman stating she hated any kind of prince and wouldn’t want the emblem of the prince of wells on a tie.  She then talks about how the people there are rude.  I liked hearing that because I thought she seemed stuck up and snotty about England.  How England was everything and how she talks about how everything she eats and wears is England made; then for her to end the novel by talking about how rude English people were made me laugh.  Overall I thought it was a good read and great use of description words.

Yeager Stadium

            I chose to do my place blogging at Yeager Stadium.  This is where the Miami University Football team conditions, practices and plays.  I was able to do my place blogging while watching a football practice.

1. Painting a Picture:  Walking into the stadium, the outside is Gray, almost a concrete build, with colorful signs of different schools lining the top of the entrance.  Red and white jerseys running into each other, silver bleachers lining the stadium.  Bright green grass, with white lines every 10 yards.  There’s a big red, black, and white capital M in the middle of the field, with Miami in the end zones.  The end zones are red and the Field goal posts are yellow.  A black fence surrounds the open end of the stadium along with a scoreboard.  Green Gatorade bottles being tossed from blue water coolers to players’ hands.  The sky is covered in dark gray clouds with only a then yellow shadow outlining the sun.
2. Using other sense, sound:  Walking up the bleachers I hear the creaking and cracks of the metal bending. Birds chirping.  Football coaches whistles blowing and football pads crashing into each other.  Players cursing under there breathe and trash talking like I’ve never heard before.  A cool breeze whistles by as I sit back and relax against the vibrating sounds of the bleachers.
4. Position yourself in your place:  Sitting in the bleachers, making a radius three feet all around me, I start to notice things I may have overlooked when I first arrived.  For starters I see ants crawling around, scavenging for food leftovers.  Birds come swooping down trying to get old dried up pieces of soft pretzels.  I notice the grooves in the bleachers as I run my fingers over their rough surface.  The hard, scratchy cement surface me feet rest on are covered with spilled pop stains and covered with litter.  It smells like the outdoors with a mix of a football locker room.  I still hear the sounds of the football team practicing but I feel more at peace, less nervous focusing on the small area around me.  The wind hitting my face relaxes my body and the fact that a football practice is going on seems to slip my mind.  The sweat that was dripping from my hair has ceased and I feel my body shiver as the wind picks up.  Those are the things my senses picked up on as I focused in on a small area around me.
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7. Mood and/or emotional associations in your place:  When I first arrived at Yeager Stadium it was peaceful and calmed me down from my long walk over to it.  The wind was blowing and the clouds covered up the sun.  Then, like a bullet out of a gun my emotions and mood went from relaxed to tense as I heard football coaches blowing their whistles and football players yelling.  I started to notice myself wrapped up in everything that was going on, on the field.  At first I didn’t notice it but my legs were shaking and I started to sweat.  The feeling of excitement and nervousness picked up as the team started to do hitting drills.  I started to feel intense and as I watched my mood switched from relaxed to excited.  Adrenaline kicked in and I pictured myself making tackles and catching the football ball.  It went from a calm peaceful environment to a battlefield type of atmosphere.  I thought sitting ten rows back from the field wouldn’t make me feel the excitement but I was all to wrong.  My relaxed mood turned quickly and I found myself sitting, watching the practice for over an hour; lost in a world of hitting, interceptions, and touchdowns.

Different Attitudes to Using Pencils, by Qing Ji

After coming from another country something as small as a pencil shows the cultural difference between the U.S. and China.  He explains how the use of pencils in China become extinct pretty much after kindergarten.  Chinese are very serious about their writing so all papers are written in black or blue ink.  In China, turning in a paper that is written in pencil can result in a “F”; here in the U.S. most teachers expect, tests, rough drafts, homework, and other writings to be turned in with pencil.  He believes that the China view on pencils, stems from their type of government Feudalism.  China emphasizes on rules and regulations, such as no pencil rule.  The U.S. have free flowing ideas which can maybe help explain the use of pencils in our every day lives.

I think this short ethnography was very effective.  He hit on more than one cultural conflict.  The pens and pencils, and also the different ways of living such as government.  I also thought he did a good job writing to an audience, and he gave an opportunity to explain the cultural boundaries.  I do think the author lacked thick description and seemed to focus more on the major details.  Well, in some instances he had thick description, but if he had more time i think it would have been better to add some more.  Overall, i think Qing Ji did i good job with his writing, considering he is a foreign exchange student which means English isn’t his first language.

Rusted Roots, by Jacky Gerzema

“Rusted Boots,” is about how as a young girl, Jacky Gerzema was teased and picked on for her red hair.  In grade school, the boys would chase her and call her names like “Fire Engine” all because of her red hair.  She never felt like she fit in, all because of her hair color.  When she was on the cheerleading team she still wasn’t “part” of the squad.  She envied the other blonde and brunette’s hair and couldn’t come to grasp her own self confidence.  As she began to transition from high school, to college, to her adult hood, slowly but surely Jacky began to embrace and love her hair color.  She realized that her hair made her unique and that she stood out from the norm, in her own way.

I feel like this example of an ethnography displays some good characteristics, but overall lake major points of an ethnography.  Gerzema does a good job with the thick description of her childhood and high school days.  I think she focuses this paper around herself thought, rather than the conflicts that she could write about.  She made the story about her and didn’t seem to write to an audience; but i felt like her story were more directed at a certain group of people.  I couldn’t relate that well to the story because i felt like i needed red hair to understand where she was coming from.  She made it seem like having red would have made this reading more understanding.  She could have talked about the conflicts between hair colors a lot more, but she only mentions the differences sparingly and the rest of the time its more like a personal narrative.