Trimble's Diction

When I write, I usually am so caught up and mentally focused on what I am doing that I forget the simple strategies to writing. The section Trimble writes about verbs is key to my writing. I often forget how important verbs are and how they can shape stories. They can help us make judgments about other authors and their work. Verbs are the action to every story and they bring words to life. They allow us to taste the apple and not just see it, vivid images and pictures begin revolving in our minds because of the use of verbs. Lately, I’ve been going back and revising my verbs after noticing how one of my classmate’s essays that had an incredible variety of verbs that made me eager to read more of their writing.  After doing so to my writing, it provided a more interesting piece and it also increased the “freshness”, another one of Trimble’s main pieces of advice. A terrific essay with fun verbs and that is saturated with freshness, what more could you ask for?

Is the Machine Using Us?

Imagine where we would be today without technology and most of all, the internet. It has been such an influential factor on our personal lives and our business lives. It helps us learn other cultures, it answers our questions and connects the whole world to each other. We are able to connect with old friends back home, friends in other countries or maybe even business partners to avoid having to travel just to have a simple conversation. Yes, the internet is a machine and it in fact does not breath, sleep or rest, but yes it does feed. It feeds off of us, the people. The internet started as an idea and grew into a world. It didn't invent itself, we invented it. Everyday it continues to grow and evolve because of us. When we want to create the most efficient, useful sites as possible on the web and there are millions of sites created to try to fit the category of "what people want". There are sites for everything such as social networking, advertising, religion and even business. No matter how different every site is, the one thing all these creations have in common is their creators, us.

It's Crunch Time

The Doritos commercial was a popular choice among the class as one of the favorite advertisements that was posted. This comes to no surprise as it was aired during the ever-popular super bowl in front of millions of people. It's a feel-good type of commercial and laugh out loud funny. The humour in it is for people of all ages and comes from a young boy no older than five. They are trying to show us that even kids as young as five love Doritos so much that they are willing to protect them no matter what!
It is in human nature to protect their own and their families. So when the young boy feels that his Mom is maybe being pulled out of his possession by the man that enters his house, his instincts are to protect her. The humour is how the commercial is showing us that he is just as protective over his chips as he is his mother. The fact that the boy slaps the mans hand away is showing his dominance and is surprsising to see the young boy act so old and aggressive. The commercial also stars a cute little boy who will always make peoples hearts melt when they see him!

Favorite Commercial!

http://www.youtube.com/user/KiaMotorsAmerica?v=4zJWA3Vo6TU&feature=pyv&cid=sem&ppc=y

Beer Makes You More of a Man? - Heineken Commercial

In this short commercial presented by Heineken, we observed two different versions of mens and womens "fantasy" closets. It is lead to believe that women in our society are more concerned with clothing, shoes and cosmetics than men. For the most part this is true, Women put on makeup in the mornings and have a natural expectation to "get ready" everyday. Since, the same clothing can't be worn over and over again, the more shoes and clothing a women possesses the better off they feel. For the case of men in our society, they are more looked at as the gender who does not put in as much "effort". They don't spend the same amount of time on getting dressed, doing their hair or putting on makeup that women do in the mornings. It is the same way that men are known for doing more physically demanding jobs around the house and women do the less physical jobs. For men, it is a silent, yet reassuring way to their strength and their dominance. They are stereotyped to be more masculine if they put in less effort in their looks and do more "manly" things, such as drink beer.

When people drink, they hardly ever question why men prefer beer. Maybe because people say it's not as sweet and sugary as other drinks and it is much harder to drink. The fruity, sugar-filled colorful drinks are typically viewed more as girly drinks. Men like to drink more masculine drinks around girls and it makes them feel it's more gender-appropriate. It's not a question of preference, because there are many girls who do prefer beer but they don't advertise their love for it as much as men. Hence, the men fell in love the beer-filled fridge the moment the door swung open. Heineken plucked out their target audience perfectly in this commercial.

12 Questions about Heineken

-What country are they in?
-How wealthy are they?
-Is the Heineken to share or just for one person?
-What gender is the commercial geared to?
-Do they all have the same favorite beer?
-Were they having a party in the house?
-Is the beer expensive?
-Is the beer then man's main priority in life?
-Will the fridge be used to store other beer?
-Do women not like beer?
-Why weren't women introduced to the closet full of beer?
-Is the beer some sort of status or stereotype for men?

12 Questions about AT&T

-       Did they increase sales because of the commercial

-       What phone are they really trying to sell?

-       Is new better?

-       Where are they coming from?

-       Why are in the city?

-       Why did they use the phone?

-       How did they get the phone/ did they both have one?

-       Do they notice no one is dressed like them?

-       How old are they?

-       How did they get all the way to the city?

-       Will there always be service even out in the country?

-       Why do the kids never show any emotion or concern about getting lost?

10 things baseball players do

1. chew gum
2. wear hats
3. yell
4. sing chats
5. slide
6. catch
7. drink
8. pitch
9. run
10. stand around

Modern Society - AT&T Commercial

In this short commercial by AT&T, there were plenty of observations and questions formulated. Hansel and Gretel, two fairytale characters, waltz all through and imaginary big city dropping bread crumbs in order to find their way home. In comparison to all our maps and technology today, they were using the hardest way to find their way home. As we noticed, their breadcrumbs would get lost and misplaced where they dropped them, suggesting that this old way of thinking does not fit in with our modern society.
The use of a "fake city" built to look like the AT&T logo and their anachronistic clothing styles, also suggests that this old kind of thinking with the breadcrumbs does not belong in real life and it is unrealistic with our modern technologic society. AT&T is inferring that people need to catch up in modern society because the old ways won't work with the direction that cell phones and technology are heading. AT&T demonstrates that even fairytale characters possess the newest technology so why can't real people do the same? They are showing us how "easy" new technology makes it for people even of all ages. Children even of all ages, even as young as the fairytale Hansel and Gretel are able to easily find their way home, even in the most complicated of situations. People imagine what the two children from the commercial would have done without the phone and most could not think of another solution because we are so wrapped up and dependant on all our technology to save us. It indirectly convinces parents that their kids will be safer with a phone at a young age and that they will always be able to find their way home with one. Every year, the ages of cell phone users gets younger and younger due to parents wanting safety for their kids along with giving into modern society's technological demands. And, I mean, if two little fairytale kids can use then why can't we?

Anything is Possible - Pantene Hair Commercial

It was evident that in this commercial the young deaf girl was overwhelmed with struggle and frustration in her life, and yet she still managed to find the determination and perseverance to strive for her goals. Being deaf, the girl was held back in many ways. She could not communicate as efficiently as other people are able to and the possibility of playing or hearing music for her is impossible. Knowing this, the girl was not only determined to try learning the violin but to prove to people that she believed she could learn it and that she had the heart to try. After seeing a homeless man play music in the streets, she only wished she could play like him, but was unfortunately held back by her disability.  The man knew how bad she wanted to play and he was eager to help her out to put a smile on her face. Most importantly, he wanted her to believe it is possible. 

            After being born deaf, playing an instrument is certainly something that you would never say is possible. Somehow, this young girl, who grew up in an under-privileged lifestyle had the confidence that she was playing the violin. When the time for the girl to get up on stage and play in front of her audience, it left the audience in awe. To her, the important thing was not going up and being a musical mastermind, it was the fact that she was up there in the first place. In the short four minutes we viewed the commercial we were never quite sure if she actually could play the violin or if she made no sound at all. Not matter what the outcome be, she believed in herself and was proud of her accomplishments. She was up in front of the crowd to prove a point, that even a deaf girl could try to play the violin. She might not be able to produce the most impressive songs but her presence is the only thing that matters. Despite being told by others that she couldn't do it, she put it all behind her and confidently went up on stage knowing that the only goal she had was to prove to others that she was brave enough to try.

FFW 9/12

John Trimble makes a good point when he says that all writers are like warriors, defending claims and fortifying arguments. All writing is written for a purpose. Whether the author is trying to or not, all writing expresses the authors opinions and feelings. They may write it in the form of a story, a persuasive essay, poetry or even as song lyrics. No matter what context the writing is in, the author has a purpose to his piece of literature and will try to support his own claims and opinions. If you think as your thoughts and opinions that you write as the control center, it is protected by other words and paragraphs you write to back it up. This is the same way that the middle of the castle is also like the control center and it is protected by walls and warriors protecting what they know. It is only human nature to protect yourself and what you care about.

Blogging - Day One.

Here I am at Hofstra and I am blogging for the first time ever. To be honest, it's something I've always wanted to try out, but I never got around to doing it. But here I am, starting a blog. I've been told that I should start a blog by many people simply because it's a good way to keep everyone updated on your life. It would be the perfect way for all of my family and friends who live back in Canada to keep tabs on my life, EH?! We really don't say "Eh" all too often, but I have to admit it is funny when I catch myself saying it here... I've told a few people that I speak Canadian and I've actually had some people ask me to say something in Canadian. Do they not realize we also speak english!
Writing online makes me feel a little exposed. I have never really had someplace to just post all these random thoughts and opinions for everyone to see, but knowing that millions of people are right there with me it's a little more comforting. It will be fun to read up on other blogs and see everyone's posts. After a few weeks of doing this I hope to be a bit more of an experienced blogger and get used to this whole thing. Is there such thing as an expert blogger? We are growing up in such a technology based generation that I am wondering why I didn't start a blog earlier and take advantage of all these great things. Oh well, here goes nothing. Hope you enjoy my blog! :)