It's like Rebecca Black in a Professional Football Stadium, only different.

It's the truth. America so so involved in Freedoms and Choices that they forget to see the big picture. Rebeca Black is so worried about the seat she chooses due to third-party perception that she fails to realize that she could be witnessing a turning point in the world of professional football! Back to America, if two men fight for the right to defend their family from injustice and attempts to take the rights they have took part of originally then everyone hops on the band wagon once it hits a national scale. When the crowd recognizes that the first case of the two is a man fighting to sue Wendy's because they are taking away his right to opinion, everyone in the crowd feels lower than New Orleans compared to the Gulf. That is where America has it's largest flaw. Our freedoms allow us to life live with extraordinarily high expectations. When a man has low expectations, his life is more exciting. When a man has high expectations, nothing is ever good enough which leaves the man constantly disappointed. Americans are so consumed in self-benefit. The moment someone brings up the point of helping others, fingers begin to rise in order to find the perfect person or organization to blame. People wonder why America spends so much money on our armed services while they complain about a tax increase. If you are pushing financial borders with "reasonable taxes" then maybe you should reconsider your budget system instead of pointing fingers at those that "ruined your life." America's armed forces are one of the only remaining historically unified sections of the nation. The government isn't. The investors aren't. Most of all, the people aren't.

This is CJ Perkins, and I approve this publishing.

Social status or Mental status

Many people believe that the world revolves around money. If you are a wall street usual or a financial advisor, then I can see how that may seem true. However, I need to remind you the world revolves around an unseen axis that is relatively close to the North pole and South pole, end to end. With that reality check for the upper class comes my reality check for the lower class. Even though your wallet doesn't cost more than the amount of money in it, the world still revolves around a scientific axis. This is good news though, you see. This puts the lower class on the same dimensional playing field as everyone else. As for me, I grew up watching prosperity unfold from hard work, positive attitude and love. As cheesy as it sounds, it is the truth. My family got to where they are today because of each of those factors. As for my perception and impact of the world around me, I tend to be an optimistic realist. I see things as they are but place them side by side to what they can become with a positive mentality. After living in towns close to triple the national poverty level and pulling through to the city receiving the smallest blow from the most recent US recession, I can honestly say I am only allowed a realistic view on life because I can't remove the memories to create visual masks. All in all, my varying position in the world, geographically and financially, allow my perception of culture, identity and society to vary as well. My view of a society is that of a unit. They realize problems as a whole and solve them as a whole. As for identity on a microscopic level, I believe identity is influenced by the people around us on a daily basis. A person of true individualistic character is one that can take each of these influences, sort them out, find a moral stand point on how to use the experiences they have lived through and create a person that no one else can mentally become. Finally, I view culture as a comfort. Culture derives primarily from tradition and tradition is nothing more than an extra, sentimental sticker placed on a comfortable action to explain its place in an area.

This is CJ Perkins, and I approve this publishing.

The bigger they are, the more records they set. Oh wait...

When society shuns a particular event or activity, any person caught partaking in the activity is shunned as well. Getting the leg up takes the fun out of everything and when you lose the respect of millions, it doesn't matter if you win or not because you have already lost. When bringing up the topic of cheating, however, it depends on where you look at the effects. If a pro athlete decides to use steroids to gain an edge on their competition, it is cheating. If all of the athletes in their league do it too, to even the playing field, then there are two possible outlooks on cheating effects. The first of those would be the effect on the game. If everyone uses steroids, is it still cheating to take it or are you doing yourself a disservice by not taking them? The answer lies more in a lawful aspect. Is it punishable by some sort of negative action or is it just frowned upon. When looking at the situation from a different approach, it is about greed and self worth. If all a player gets is a slap on the hand and a few booing fans, then the only way to look at it is from the player's mentality. If they feel that steroids are the only way to go, then there is no way to convince the person that they are cheating themselves out of self worth and continue to build their sense of greed and pride rather than create a sense of accomplishment or inspiration. This is where the true sense of cheating falls. The act of degrading ones social and mental status.

This is CJ Perkins and I approve this publishing.

How do I take notes? I usually right them myself, but if it comes down to theft...

How each person takes notes varies from their comfort zone and their time management. In order to take efficient notes, some people need exceedingly large amounts of time. Others require only a few moments to jot down a thought and all is well in the note taking world. Each person's lifestyle is different and each person has to adapt to their own situations and prioritize events ranging from simply taking notes to finding time to head to a family gathering.

Personally I find that quickly taking notes of my thoughts seems to be the most efficient approach for me. I am able to look back it later and see what I thought rather than just look at the material again and be just as confused about the topic. When I look back at my own personal perspective put into a short bundle of words I realize it isn't just a way I look back at studies, but the view I took on the topic. For my notes I tend to write short lines on what I think could improve my knowledge on the topic as a whole. When I take a look back I see myself writing rather than a shortened textbook. I use it for comfort.

This is CJ Perkins and I approve this publishing.

Chapter 5 - It's there. I researched it.

Where do I start? I have a paper on music and culture due soon. Do I look up logic? Do I research religious based moral standards on society? No. I research cultural effects on music and vice versa. The worst part of research isn't the research at all. It is the mentality of a student in panic mode that has been overwhelmed. All rationality seems to slip away as the difficult search for credible information begins. Chapter 5 in our textbook takes the 10 slow breathes every student needs to take and puts them into a textual reference. Each suggestion is one to be considered thoroughly as the student navigates through the unending labyrinth of research. Every topic, whether it be an attempt to map ideas or prioritize information found through research, becomes a useful tool for guiding a student to the right starting point for a paper.

This is CJ Perkins and I approve this publishing.

Avatars are Avatars. Nuff said.

Avatars are creations that depict a certain person or event. Whether or not they are significant to an outside source varies from person to person. These avatars are able to be streamlined to fit a certain crowd (unlike advertisements) because their primary goal isn't to attract everyone's individual attention.

Avatars can also be deceiving. They aren't always true to their appearance. One avatar could show a grand festival in a local town dedicated to medieval Europe but when you arrive, there is only one attraction and the crowd of people shown in the picture has died down to 2 attendees.

Avatars don't have to be tangible either, they can be mental images. For example, a college graduate is wise and can hold their own in life. They will be successful due to their academic successes. I don't know about others, but since coming to college, my depiction of a fruitful life went from gliding through a major and scraping in my earnings to just trying to survive. In all honesty, the false hope given by the mental avatar is just another addition to the pessimistic outlook I have now taken on. I don't know what major I want to pursue, nor do I know what truly interests me. I have always been academically gifted and am able to give educated retorts rather than irrational hostile replies in an argument. Of the two, only one is a career path. Using my academic skills, I can pursue a major with a good payroll and be miserable for 40 years until I am near the brink of death. With "rational" arguing, I can be a hated politician or a guy in his mother's basement arguing online with incompetent buffoons on whether or not the United States dollar holds higher value due to lasting stability vs currently rising "price" value.

All in all Avatars are a depiction of something, not the actual something. Literal people will fail to realize this and will be disappointed the rest of their lives.

This is CJ Perkins and I approve this publishing.

Engrish Paypahs Are Dah Debil.

When having a normal debate or participating in a group analysis, I don't count my words and format each one of my words to fit a rubric. Instead, I attempt to match the intensity of my words and sentences with my own personal tone. I feel as though it enforces the point I am trying to make to the general group I am speaking with or yelling at. All-in-all I really don't want to continue this blog, just as I didn't want to continue my paper beyond normal speaking terms. However, I have to do so in order to please the overseer of our classroom. Short and concise seems to be my style while the conformists in the world take over with their "following rules" and what not. So yeah.

This is CJ Perkins, and I approve this publishing.

Being Fat isn't Phat; It's real.

When dove target's women of lower self-esteem, they do more than just degrade them and their mentality. In fact, they take young women to the lowest of lows so all the energy they have left is used reaching for the remote to change the channel when the commercial changes tone. Now instead of a degrading tone, it is one of reassurance. It is forged of pure sincerity. With this sympathetic outreach to the freshly wounded women, they are able to draw their attention to their products that can make amends to their previously gross, atrocious habits. Instead of being fat, they can be beautiful. Not just in their own eyes, but in the eyes of everyone. Orbach approaches the response to the ad with all of this in mind. Not only does her response appeal to the people curious of her response, but she makes it broad enough to where even the average woman, critic or standard civilian can read and connect to her words. I agree with Orbach on many of her points involving Dove, however, her most powerful points were the ones that drew a generic outlook from the wrongdoing of Dove's advertisements. She wasn't just responding on what she had seen, she was responding on what she felt and believed. That is where the strength lies in her argument, but it grows with her ability to appeal to all audiences.

This is CJ Perkins, and I approve this publishing.

Youtube vs Eyetube

Although the blog today was supposed to analyze multiple essays, I personally found that the short essay by Strangelove was concise yet true on many levels. Strangelove notes that watching goofy and seemingly redundant videos on the famous website "youtube" is not a shameful, time-wasting act. As Strangelove states, we see ourselves in the videos we decide to watch. Our natural instinct in both finding humor and humility is to find something we can relate to. Whether we watch a kid get sedated at a dentist's office and wonder "was I like that?" or watch a heavy-set woman fall from a table and think "oh man, that is embarrassing." we notice either our own actions or those similar to them being displayed in front of our eyes. The ties to this easily accessed media are unbelievable. Such a simple concept, yet it can appeal to everyone. It doesn't matter if you are in the mood for a laugh, a political recap over a speech or even the highlight reel from a football game, Youtube has become a phenomenon amongst all internet trends. How it made it was mass appeal and how it continues is just as simple. Strangelove is dead on when he says we can relate to these videos and he is dead on when he states it is an act with no shame involved. It just goes to show how any media can flourish with the right connection to it's viewers and we have to right our papers in the same light. We as students need to appeal to our audience. We must convince them beyond shadow-of-a-doubt that they can relate with what we are saying. This is the lock and our pens are the keys. We just need to find the one that fits perfectly.

This is CJ Perkins, and I approve this publishing.

Photographs: How wide is too wide of a lens?

You are already being verbally dragged into the family car by your parents, what else could go wrong? The moment that thought crosses your mind, your mom turns and looks you in the eyes. No matter which way you move, you can't escape her gaze. Take a picture. At this moment, you know what is coming. "Just force a smile" she says. "We are just going to make sure your grandmother is stocked up on groceries this week." You know that is code for "We will be there a few hours, but please just smile for your grandmother."

Ten years later you are riding in the new family car. This time you were ready. You had everything ready to go. Your emotions, your attire and most of all, your smile. As you arrive to the site of the funeral you remember each mental snapshot, but you remember one in particular. This mental picture wasn't the brightest, but it spoke the loudest. You having lived the picture know the surrounding area of the photo. Going to grandmother's was a dull experience to begin with but you always enjoyed hearing her stories whether or not you wanted to admit it. Then, you frowned but now you look back and smile. Take a picture. This time, with the lens wide open. The dark setting of the funeral home is now offset by your vibrant smile formed by looking at the picture.

If a third party were to view both mental photos in a large framed picture, they may not understand the scenario. Narrowing the lens isn't always the best way to fine tune a situation. In the first picture, all you see is a disappointed child. The scenario looks sad. Combined with the second picture, however, the lens in opened up. Everything makes sense. A once small child is now grown and appreciating the world around them. In the reading, it is made clear that pictures aren't always supposed to capture happy times, but instead, should be used to capture reality. No one wants to have a blindfold on at all times. No one wants to live a fake life. The pictures on the wall may say "happy family" when the lives around the picture are all about a father losing a job or a mother fighting sickness. In relation to the story above, it isn't always a bad thing to capture reality. We as people can look back and learn, appreciate and respect what we have in life.

This is CJ Perkins, and I approve this publishing.

Smokey the Kind vs Smokey the Vengeful

We all know what happens when we are going camping with the family over the upcoming weekend, Smokey the Bear appears all over our television screens to remind us to be cautious. Whether or not we pay attention to this ad doesn't matter much when our small camp fire bursts into a raging inferno that spreads faster than the thought of Smokey the Bear appearing at your side to say "I told you so." How Smokey dishes out these consequences is not as clear as his original message which leaves imagination to fill in the gaps.

Shown above is a twisted version of a Smokey the Bear ad. This may have come from the mind of some paranoid teenager that accidentally started a fire once, or it comes from the mind of an ad artist trying to appeal to the emotions of a viewer. Two major emotions can truly be deriven from the ad itself, the first of which can be noted as sympathy. The viewer may see this as an equivalent punishment due to the forest being Smokey's home. This would probably be the typical reaction if Smokey were not put into a violent twist of a character. The sympathetic emotion comes from Smokey's original character, the caring one. With the twist of credibility, noting the viewer's original take on Smokey's image, the emotion coming from the ad is a vengeful one. A once sympathetic viewer now see's Smokey as a type of mercenary. He no longer asks politely but instead decides to take matters into his own hands. With the cigar lit and gasoline container in hand, Smokey now walks a way with a more content state of mind when he would normally walk away in disappointment from a burning forest. Although the ad is slightly humorous, it speaks with a sense of reality while appealing to the emotions (pathos) of the reader and the credibility (ethos) of Smokey the Bear.

This is CJ Perkins and I approve this publishing.

Editorial Cartoons: Funny or Serious? Or Seriously funny?

Many times in a government based class, a teacher will present a cartoon. The cartoon has familiar faces and familiar places, however, some aspects of the cartoon seem foreign. While one can't help but laugh at the skewed and sometimes bulbous depictions of out country's leaders, when we read the text underlining the cartoon, unique thoughts fill every individual's mind. For example, when analyzing a cartoon of a snail racing to put out the fuse of a bomb, no immediate reactions come through our mind. When introduced with names, things tend to make a little more sense. Written on the snail is the word "Congress" and written on the bomb are the words "Tax Cuts Expire Dec 31." Above the snail, a thought bubble appears that ties the entire situation together. "Now for my famous burst of speed." emits from the snail's thoughts and the time to decide on an emotion has come. Whether or not we decide to chuckle or fully bellow out a bold laugh tells how serious we take this comic. Sure, everyone knows Congress is much like a snail in the fact they take forever to act. The main point of perception, however, comes from the word "famous." Does Congress actually know how slow it is yet places the sarcastic "famous burst of speed" into their arsenal of reassurance? Is Congress in such an arrogant, oblivious state that they fail to recognize their people's true outlook on their speed? Either way, the fact of Congress being notoriously slow brings a grin to any reader's face. I personally love the brutal statements that are made within editorials because they are practically visual euphemisms, yet no one argues the fact.

This is CJ Perkins and I approve this publication

Attached is the URL to the cartoon I analyzed.
http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/gfo/lowres/gfon637l.jpg

Daily Examples of Rhetoric

Everyday students like myself are influenced on many levels. How we see each piece of persuasion or if we see it at all really doesn't come to mind often, yet it plays a huge role in daily decisions. Being a college student at a major university, I feel as though I have a larger list of things that can affect my choices. For example, the 2012 election campaigns have started swiftly this year and are being displayed in many different forms. Of course campaigns are intended to make us think about the election decision, but when I see certain claims being made about different pieces of our society, I tend to look in retrospect to analyze my own decisions. This appeal to the logos portion of rhetoric persuasion is abundant, yet rarely recognized. I myself seem to be most vulnerable to ads or pieces pertaining to the ethos portion of rhetoric. Since I grew up in a small town where hospitality reigned and moral values were heavily taught, I sincerely care about the actions and feeling of the people around me. When I see an ad of how a certain activity is affecting others, I tend to react on a personal level. The fact that I was always taught how to respect other's emotions and reactions makes me more vulnerable to these styles of persuasion. It doesn't necessarily change my outlook completely but it may alter a particular way I respond to a situation. Long story short, rhetoric studies are in use all around us but it just takes a little extra motivation to notice it.

This is CJ Perkins and I approve this publishing.