Gamer Avatars

In gaming everyone has an alter ego and this ego is called an avatar.  It is a person that is you and not you at the same time. This person is the gamer version of yourself.  Everyone that is playing the game with you or against you only knows you as this person.  I think that avatars are interesting because of the freedom it gives the gamer.  It makes it so that you can be a completely different person to a different kind of people.  Whatever persona you want you can have.  Plus for however long you play you can escape from reality.  So I really think that having avatars in games is a great thing for a lot of people.  I have multiple avatars myself in the xbox realm on FIFA soccer and Madden football. I always have fun being my avatar and plan to keep on gaming forever.

Wasn't Sure About Topic

For this blog post I was not sure what we were supposed to write about.  So I decided to write about finishing up my paper.  When I went to the meeting on Friday to discuss my paper I had a very positive attitude, I thought that my paper was good and had a nice balance of facts and opinion.  But I was way off my paper had marks all over it and my way of writing was frowned upon to say the least.  I was being to opinionated about how I perceived the image.  I was not aware of the fact that I had to make facts out of my opinion.  But oh well you live and learn.  My paper had a few shaky sentences which I think I corrected in the best way possible.  I do think that my paper sounds a good bit better than it did before but I guess the f=grade will tell.  Overall I enjoyed doing this project because it required me to think and analyze something that I had never done before.

Visual Rhetoric Assignment Thus Far

This project is one that I find quite interesting because of how different it is.  I have never really analyzed anything before this class, especially a cartoon.  I thought that cartoons were simple drawings with very little text that didn't really say much.  But I was off by a long shot.  Within these adds that we were given or the one we chose there is a lot of value.  The ad is not only interesting but it is also able to tell a story of the subject and what the author was/ is thinking.  But as I got the details of this paper it scared me because I didn't think that there was any way to write five pages about a picture with two sentences.  In fact I wanted to ask if it was ok to write three pages, but I didn't.  So I began making an outline of the paper and as my outline grew so did my confidence.  After my outline was complete I thought that this project seemed a lot easier than before and I preceded to start it.  What I have done so far is pretty good but due to other circumstances I have not completed the paper.  But overall my thoughts about this project are positive because in order to do it you have to stretch the mind.  I would not change anything about this project.

Other Interesting Observances

While in class I specifically remember there being a picture that we went over.  This picture involved a swarm of people under a helicopter that were trying to get food that was being dropped.  In one instance the people were described as chaotic savages that as if they were bloodthirsty or if they were to uncivilized for a person to just hand them food.  In the other instance they were described as poor people who were just trying to make it in the harsh world.  Thing about this that intrigues me is that even though it is the same picture two completely different articles and captions were represented by it.  This specific example really opened my eyes to how people can make something innocent seem as if it is the most wretched thing in the world.  Which brings me to the next point of, people using different emotions to try and persuade people.  Even though they are both using pathos to get people to read the article, one is trying to make you angry at the people and the other is trying to make you feel sorry for them.  I found this extremely interesting because of how opposite perspectives are showing the same story.

Text Analysis: What I Have Found Interesting Thus Far

When enrolling in English 103 I thought that it would be some boring class about nouns, verbs, and adjectives but as usual I was wrong.  Thus far there have been quite a few interesting topics that I have come across and rhetoric(in general) is my favorite.  Rhetoric is the art of persuasion through some sort of medium.  Whether it be text, TV, or pictures they are all used to try and sway our opinions.  The reason that I found this so interesting is because rhetoric is everywhere I turn.  Also the fact that it is broken up into three main categories is neat to me.  Pathos, logos, and ethos are these three categories.  Pathos has to do with feeling and emotion.  Logos has to do with facts and information.  Ethos has to do with reputation and representation.  Rhetoric itself not only interests me but the way that I am now able to look at pretty much any add or commercial and I am able to analyze it is awesome.  I can analyze it to the point that I can write a fairly lengthy blog post about any of it.  Whereas before this class a couple of sentences is essentially all that I could do.  I hope that as this class goes on more interesting and useful information comes from it! 

TV Ad Analysis

As I approached this assignment I didn't even know where to start until I opened my fridge.  BEER!!!! It is not only a great beverage but also a great topic for a commercial.  The premise of the commercial is set in a house at a party and the woman is showing her room to her girlfriends, so of course the walk-in closet is shown last.  In amazement from the sight all the girls scream but as they begin to die down they here a louder scream in a manly tone.  The commercial cuts to the men and they are celebrating because they are in a walk-in fridge full of Heineken and seem a lot happier than the women.  The ad is obviously selling beer but it is also selling the idea that Heineken Beer will make you happier than you can even imagine.  The people in the commercial are in their mid twenties to thirties which is the target audience for the majority of alcohol inspired companies.  The medium for this commercial is clearly TV because without it the commercial wouldn't have been nearly as funny.  There wasn't much historical context in it but I do know that it was produced in the Netherlands.  Within the commercial the only real relationship between words and imagery is the sound of both parties screaming due to a scene.  My favorite element in the commercial is the fact that it starts out looking like an average fashion commercial for women but turns into a great beer commercial that is purely for men.  As far as rhetorical appeals the name Heineken brings a significant amount of ethos whereas the commercial itself brings pathos through comedy and joy.  Also I love the comparison between the two screams as well as the two walk-in rooms.  Other than the pure brand Heineken there wasn't much cultural persuasiveness.  Overall I love this commercial and laughed the first few times I watched it.

Heineken Walk-In Fridge Commercial

2nd Blog- Political Cartoon

I chose this cartoon because its on a topic that is on the news 24/7.  The issue is the economy.  The economy is in a really rough place right now and quite honestly I don't believe it will ever get better.  But anyway in this cartoon Obama is in a firetruck and is talking to a burning building.  The clear an obvious point of this cartoon is to show that he talks and talks but nothing gets done.  In other words it's one thing to say something but it's a completely different thing to act on it.  This cartoon shows a perfect example of what has been going on with the economy and the government in genera;.  They have plenty of ideas but none of them have been executed effectively.  The target audience for this cartoon is anyone that knows about the US economy.  The cartoon was originally published online and the author(Eric Allie) usually does political cartoons that are aimed at Obama.  The argument in this editorial is a valid one because not much is being done, or it seems that way because the economy is plummeting.  The cartoon is full of color and there are a couple of different text fonts but the colors aren't that important and neither is the varying text.  But the labeled smoke cloud is absolutely necessary because without it you wouldn't know what the cartoon was about.  The tone of this a pretty much a comic but it is about a serious subject so essentially its an average editorial.  In closing I think that this is a clearly stated and not to complex of a c cartoon because there is not much of a reading that goes into it.  But the important thing is that it's a good example of a political cartoon.  I hope you enjoy it!          

http://www.cagle.com/news/ObamaEconomy11/main.asp