Shipping Out

In his essay "Shipping Out" David Foster Wallace recounts his experience as a first time vacationer on a cruise ship. He talks about the eccentric people he observed, his cabin #1009 will all of its interesting amenities (including a insanely powerful toilet), and what a seasick person truly looks like, but one other topic he explores is a brochure about the cruise. Wallace argues that the brochure is a powerful piece of advertisement. He talks about the how bright and glossy it is and how the statements in it make a promise that the words themselves begin to make good on. The brochure says that the cruise will pamper and make you so relaxed that you'll forget all about ever having to do anything for yourself. Even the words in the brochure are so well used that they have a relaxing effect on the people who read them. All of this would lead to a great advertising tool. If you can effect what people think about then you can convince them of a lot, which is what the brochure described in Wallace's essay did. It used its words in such a way that when they were read, you could almost instantly feel and think what the people who made the brochure intended. If you're someone who has never been on a cruise before, like David Foster Wallace, and you read the brochure, you'll become immediately interested, at least, in taking one because it's like you're getting a taste of what the cruise is like by having the words relax you in a similar way the cruise might.

Bart Simpson: The Prince of Irreverence

Bart Simpson: The Prince of Irreverence, written by Douglas Rushkoff, stars off immediately with what his entire essay is about, "The Simpsons is the closest thing to a national media literacy program." To start out with his thesis immediately is a good thing mostly because the thesis itself is very interesting. This is good for his argument because it instantly draws readers in. The structure used in the essay also strengthens his argument. To begin he tells who the Simpsons are and how they began, useful for anyone who is unfamiliar with the show. Another stylistic choice that Rushkoff makes is to use certain episodes to back up his points. For example, Rushkoff claims that The Simpsons satirizes certain aspects of media and uses an episode where Bart drops a radio into a well and fools Springfield into think a boy has fallen down there instead. Citing episodes is especially helpful to the point of this essay because it shows that Rushkoff really know what he's talking about. If he can identify specific episodes, out the very many that have come out over the past 20 years, to prove his argument, then he shows that you can trust what he says. All of these choices in style help to provide an overall effective argumentative essay.

Happy Valentines Day? ...no such thing.

This picture, taken by and starring my sister, is titled "Happy Valentines Day." Looking at the picture, one would see that the title is ironic because the point, or argument, of the picture is that she isn't having such a Happy Valentine's Day. The photograph comes to this argument in several ways. First, the focus of the picture is the iPod. Its playing a song called "No One Loves Me and Neither Do I." That pretty much says it all. With Valentines Day being what it is, a time of love and a time to be with lovers, she feels that no one loves her and in return she doesn't love anyone else. This is the only part of the photo that is in focus and in color, red cleverly being the predominant color because it's the color everyone associates with love. This color of love being surrounded by a depressing, out of focus grey reinforces the argument that the subject is out of touch with the happiness of Valentine's Day.

The argument mocking Valentine's Day employed by the title of the photo and song is furthered by the subject's expression. She has this sarcastic and almost melancholy face that says, "Yea right, Happy Valentine's Day." Obviously, she doesn't feel that way. If she did, there would be more colors and her face would be happier, in general the photo would taken on a cheerful tone, not the doom and gloom sadness that it oozes now.

Going on the expression that "misery loves company" I would say that the target audience for this photo would be all of the other Valentine's Day loners. They understand how she feels and as such would be drawn to the picture in a kind of mosquito-to-a-zapper fashion because, lets be real, with the abundant happiness that permeates such a day, they probably wish they were that mosquito.

The Government, Air Traffic Control, and You

Reason.TV takes a look at our airplane industry and why it's plagued with delays. The libertarian news source seems to believe it's because of  the industries use of extremely outdated technology that has been in use ever since the invention of air traffic control. The reason why the technology is so old, they explain, is because of politicians and their bureaucracy and tons red tape. "The problem is how politicians spend money." says Reason.TV. The poor use of appropriated funds and the constant struggle of red tape all combine to cause old technology to remain in use. Reason.TV brings up suggestions that have been made about the U.S. turning over its air traffic control system from the government to a privately owned company. Politicians disagree citing that giving control to a private company could endanger airline passengers because selling air traffic control is like selling safety to the highest bidder. Canada has already implemented such a plan. A private company, Canada Air, runs air traffic control in Canada. Even though a private company runs such a vital part of air travel, Reason.TV reports that air flight has become safer. Why? Because a private corporation can more easily spend money to appropriately update equipment as necessary. With such compelling positive evidence of a privately run air traffic control scheme, it has yet to be seen whether or not the US will relent control in exchange for safer flights.

The Dreaded First Draft

     I thoroughly enjoyed a recent excerpt we read from Blackboard called, "Shitty First Drafts" by Anne Lamott. Lamott gives a humorous take on having the chore of writing the first draft of a paper. She begins by announcing that few writers, no matter how good, can pull off an amazing first draft. Most writers, like herself, agonize over having to being the writing process as it is not a simple accomplishment. To help herself begin, she likens the writing of a first draft to becoming a child and letting whatever nonsense you can imagine to come through onto the paper. She says that writing unrestrained could produce something brilliant that couldn't be had through more mature means.

     Personally, I enjoy this take on writing a first draft. Usually, when I sit down to write something I can feel dread creeping up because writing isn't something that comes easily to me. However, I do feel that after reading this article that I was doing my first drafts all wrong. I had the feeling that my first draft should be close to my subsequent drafts in substance and quality, but now I realize that this way of writing is unnecessary. The "child's draft" idea showed me that the first draft should be whatever first comes to mind when writing and all the other attempts made should be more refined. Putting myself in some stuffy writer's shoes, it's easy to understand how this way of writing could be seen as a bit sloppy and unhinged. What in the world could writing like a child accomplish? But I say give it a try, it could make writing more engaging and fun. I know that when I'm writing my first drafts, especially this upcoming one, I'll let the words come fluidly and see what happens. Who knows? With the right start I could come out in the end with something to actually be proud of.

Response to Sarah's "Sky News Orders All Journalists to Install Tweetdeck."

Sarah wrote about the article "Sky News Orders All Journalists to Install Tweetdeck" which discusses Sky News' decision to make tweetdeck a mandatory application for it journalists. Sarah had some criticisms against Sky News dictating their journalists social networking options and had thoughts that it could become a distraction. I believe, however, that Sky News could be on to something. With sites existing like Twitter that can be up to date with the latest news down to the second, it seems like a journalist would thrilled to have access to such a tool. Journalists are always looking for the biggest news story, and they want to be the first to report it. An app like twitterdeck could be extremely useful to help accomplish that. When these reporters are up to date with the latest news, it means that the listeners and viewers of the news will be too. With these kinds of benefits it hardly appears like a minute or two of simple distraction could be a serious problem.

Too Many Facebook Friends?

I read the article, "Sorry, Facebook friends: Our brains can't keep up" by Don Reisinger. In this article, Reisinger discussed how the number of Facebook friends we have isn't necessarily the same number of relationships that we maintain in real life. Robin Dunbar, a professor of Anthropology at Oxford, says that our brain can only maintain about 150 relationships online and in reality. While his research is still in the process of being completed, I tend to agree with Dunbar, 150 does seem like quite enough. Most of my friends that I have on my Facebook are acquaintances that I don't have any real relationship with. I have a small group of people on Facebook that I talk to often and keep a healthy relationship with, for instance family, friends, and a couple old classmates from high school. On occasion I have seen other people's profiles with more than 500 friends, but I think it's unlikely that they really know all of them. Actually, I'm almost certain some people just get on Facebook and send out friend requests to whoever's page they come across. I've gotten (and ignored) a lot of those types of requests. Who knows why people waste time friending complete strangers? All I know is that sometimes I have enough trouble maintaining what few relationships I already have, anything more than 150 and I would have to call the whole Facebook situation quits.