Analyze This... Analyze That

Rhetorical analysis is something we do every day. We make judgments about a place or object based on the way it is presented to us. We sometimes don't even realize it. Recently, we have been assigned a project in which we are to take an image of an artifact, structure, or website that is making an argument about that place. At first it seemed like it was going to be difficult, but as I got into it I realized that these are things we pick up on. We analyze images everyday. When I see a billboard advertisement for something like I dentist, I analyze it. If the person in the picture is smiling and showing of her pearly whites, I will most likely think to myself that I should try to go to that dentist. The girl looks happy and look how good her teeth look. I think to myself, "I want what that is selling".

That is the exact same process as analyzing a place. I searched the internet and I found a tourism website for Savannah Georgia. They aren't trying to sell you beautiful teeth, but rather a vacation destination. This website went into great detail to sell Savannah. It uses all three rhetorical appeals of ethos, logos, and pathos. They establish credibility with a seal in the background and with the website title being official Savannah guide. Logically, they post the cities founding date, trying to embellish the historical aspect of Savannah. Also, they establish Pathos with the layout. The website resembles a memory book or photo book. This makes Savannah seem like a place that memories can be made. There were many other things around the website that made Savannah seem like the best place to go. After I had finished analyzing the website I was ready to plan my trip and make an itinerary.

Overall, it was way easier than I thought it would be to analyze this display. Its funny because it is something we do everyday and we don't even realize it. I judge books by their cover. It is all in the advertisement of the item...

Amy

My first impression of this picture is excitement and joy. People are cheering. It seems that they are watch a game in a fast food restaurant. This picture gives me pleasure. Even though it’s none of my business what they cheer for, I feel happy when I see people are happy. I think it is human nature or conditioned reflex. This picture seems to tell us this is a place of diversity where people can have fun.

The picture appeals to people who enjoy watching games with others and cheering for their favorite team with fans.

From left side, we can tell that it must be a fast food restaurant. Someone is making food. There are French fries and beverage machine. It is also a place of diversity. In this picture, there are white people, black people and Asian people. It also might be a place for middle age people. The people seem to be 30 years old or more. Obviously, they are watching TV and cheering for something. Though some people turn around to pray or shout for joy, most people look in the same direction. There must be a TV on top. Someone is holding a board with “XXX The Best” on it. XXX is probably the team they cheer for. People stand very close to each other. The atmosphere seems to be very lively. Their favorite team is winning the game that can be told from their facial expressions.

Yuchen Zhu

Sleeping

Everyone's seen the Facebook bumper sticker:

"(a) adequate sleep
(b) social life
(c) good grades
Welcome to college,
Pick one."

So incredibly true. Either you sleep and don't go out or study enough; you go out with friends and don't have time to study and because you're out so late you don't sleep; or, you study so much that you never go out with your people or sleep. It's all about balance. I'm seriously trying to learn that; so far, I've gotten sick, twice, from not getting enough sleep and killing my immune system and still going out at night. It was ridiculous and my cousin told me that I just need to get more sleep, I should have listened to her. Anyways, last night, my dad was in town, so we went out to dinner and a movie, so I got back to my room around 10. Fine, right? Plenty of time to go to bed and I could have gotten at least 7 hours of sleep if I had gone to bed by at least 11, it could have been amazing. Well, I left my phone in his car, and had to find some way to call him, so after all that, it was probably 10:30 by the time I was in my room. But, I wanted to study and hang out with a friend who I haven't seen in a few weeks. Smart_Ass and I studied until 1:30 in the morning!! Don't get me wrong, I was able to accomplish options (b) and (c), but I totally sacrificed (a). (A) is possibly the most important of all of these because, if you don't get enough sleep, you won't be able to focus during your classes, this also means that you'll have no idea what's going on so you won't know what to study. If you don't sleep enough, you'll turn into a person who snaps more quickly than normal, you'll have a shorter temper, and not understand much of what people are saying and continuously have to ask them to repeat themselves. With all of these personality shifts, your friends won't want to hang out with you. If they don't want to hang out with you, how can you obtain option (b)? Without (a), you cannot get the others. I'm currently running on four hours of sleep... Four hours of sleep!! This is so not enough. Certainly not enough for me, I know how much sleep I need to get to not go all Dr. Jeckle & Mr. Hyde. It's 8 hours. 8 hours, not four. By the way, I just woke up at 6:00, it's now 8:37, and I'm fighting, literally fighting, to keep my eyes open. But that's just what keeps us up, having to go over and over our school work, and make it perfect and more perfect

Bottom line: SLEEP!

XOXO
Texas_Girl [Katy S.]

Google Images. IStockPhoto "Sleeping" Web. 9 Nov. 2009. .

More about Disney

Simply to enhance the point that we were making about how Disney has been created a magical get away for children throughout the generations, here are some commercials from over the years.

1971:

1987:


1990s:


2007:


Over the years, Disney has not only bridged the gap between parents and their children, but with their movies, they have bridged the gap between grandparents and their grandchildren, and moving on into the next generation, they are continuing to bridge the gap between great-grandchildren and all the family ties above them.

remember when you believed in the magic?

XOXO
Texas_Girl [Katy S.]

Tale as old as Time

I want to expand on Texas Girls' point about Kunsler's article on Disney World, "Capitals of Unreality" . In his article he expresses the that Disney World is merely a place of extravagant unreality. He claims, "Disney World is where they escape to worship the nation in abstract, a cartoon capital of a cartoon republic enshrining the falsehoods, half-truths, and delusions that prop up the squishy thing the national character has become." I feel like Kunsler totally exaggerates the meaning and purpose of Disney World. Yes, it is a place to escape from reality. Yes, it is a place where we get away from the sprawling place we have built around us. But would you really go so far in saying that it is a place "enshrining falsehoods, half-truths, or delusions". Has Kunsler ever heard of childhood? Was he a normal kid who experienced imaginary friends, playing pirates in the back yard or wishing he could fly? I think the whimsical nature of Disney world defines our childhood. I think that one reason people love the place so much is because it reminds them of their childhood.

Now I was born in the 1990. I grew up loving Disney. That is what I watched when I was a child: the Disney classic movies that instilled moral lessons. The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Aladdin, and The Lion King. I loved all these characters too. It is what I loved about my childhood. I still like to go back and watch these movies. It makes me reminisce on all the halloween costumes where I was a belle and pocahantus. It makes me reminisce on the all my princess birthday cakes I had each year. It makes me reminisce on the Simba and Baboo stuffed animals I used to sleep with. It makes me reminisce on how fun just being a kid was. I'm sorry Kunsler if you think this unreality is full of crap.

Behind the "show-biz frosting", I still believe Disney's motivation is pure. Walt Disney believed in the same factor of a whimsical childhood that I brought up earlier. He believed in hope and simple day dreaming. I think sometimes one just needs to look past the corporate aspect of Disney. I don't think it was created to rip people off and to make people feel good because there are no cars. I think they just wanted to provide a place to let-loose, and have fun being a kid again. It's a vacation destination. And isn't the point of vacation to get away from reality? I honestly think Kunsler was just way too dramatic, made to many assumptions, and over-analyzed Disney completely.

Picture from: http://www.floridatix.co.uk/images/photos/large/walt-disney-world1.jpg

Kunsler was Wrong...

For English class, we were asked to read another chapter from Kunsler's book. In this, he spent the majority of it bashing the wonderful Disney World. When I was 7, I went to the "Most Magical Place on Earth" for the first time. It was incredible! I'll never forget flying over and seeing the ivy Mickey Mouse head, walking through the Golden Gates, and soaring through the air on the roller coasters. Kunsler says that it's a week in Hell for adults; but my dad was in Orlando on business, so me and my sister (who is 9 years older than me) got to explore the parks by ourselves. My dad came one day, but the most fun I had was running around with her, even the waiting in lines. It was nice to have him there, but I especially loved being with my sister and getting to know a whole new community. It was incredible, we got to meet the princesses, the classic disney characters (Mickey, Minnie, Chip & Dale, Goofy, and everyone else), and the characters from the movies that we grew up watching (that I still loved watching at the time). Like I said, it was magical. My whole point in explaining this isn't to convince you that Disney World is a magical place, I'm sure you already know that. My point is to tell explain why Kunsler is wrong.

He says that even the experience of waiting in lines makes the entire park horrible for children, I was a child, it wasn't horrible. The waiting in lines made the experience all the more enjoyable. It made the wait fun because we would look at people and giggle, and talk about the rides that we had been on and the one that we were about to go on, and all the rides that we still had left to go on. When we were bored, we would pull out maps and route out where we were going and what the "quickest" way would be to go to them. It was incredible, those are some of the best memories of my childhood, and even my pre-teen years. I went almost every year for eight years. I loved every minute of it, and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't wish I could go back to Disney world, to the "Most Magical Place on Earth." Because, to me, it truly is the most magical place I've every been. Disney World makes magic real for children, it makes them believe that things can happen, that elephants can fly, than pirates still exist, that princesses are beautiful and kind and have fairy godmothers. Disney World takes children to the highest hopes of their imaginations. I know this because that's what it did to me.

We've learned about sprawl, and suburbia, and all the horrible things that it causes; but no one ever talks about the good things. The good things are that it creates places like the Mall of America, Six Flags, Orlando Studios, and Disney World. These places were created because of the land and the revenue that they could offer for the states in which they are located. Personally, I like to believe that the visionaries behinds these modern civil engineering marvels had a different goal in mind: to make kids happy, and to restore their belief in magic.

keep believing,

Texas_Girl [Katy S.]

Visit to Little Five Points

Halloween is drawing near. Many shops are selling Halloween stuff in Little Five Points. I was fascinated by those costumes such as vampire's teeth and ghost masks. I'm looking forward to the Halloween costume party which will be my first Halloween experience in America.

Little five points impressed me by its diversity. All kinds of music could be heard in different restaurants, shops or snack bars. Even different languages could be heard. I met some cute girls talking in Russian or another European languages. But i'm not sure where they come from. There were some people doing arts. I met a guy who could make a story with whatever word we gave him. That was interesting. He made a story about the four words right after we gave him four words randomly. He even didn't need time to think.

People were having food and drinks at cafe, talking to each other. Public places like that provides a good opportunity for people to communicate. It was a short visit to record sounds for English class project. I believe that there must be more interesting things. I'm looking forward to another visit.

Yuchen Zhu

Rain in Atlanta

How awful my last week was! Amy said she got a swine flu. I know how terrible the feeling is. Because I got a flu last week and missed some classes. But i'm lucky enough to catch up with everybody. It rained a lot recently. I read the blog "Live Apartment Fire" and found an interesting article called "Should i stay or should i go?". It was raining heavily. Two photographers were supposed to deliver a compelling live coverage. Unfortunately, the rain was too big. They stopped at a restaurant and the rain started to soak into the restaurant from the parking lot. Even worse was the thunderstorm.

I hated the rain. It ruined the six flags night. The six flags park was under water. You can see it from the picture. Last weekend, my friends walked to a guitar shop. It was a long walk. It was not raining when we left campus and we didn't bring umbrellas. It proved to be a mistake. It began to rain when we left campus. Fortunately, there were some fast-food restaurants along the street where we could shelter from the rain. However, it was a lot fun. We walked when the rain was not too heavy. While it became bigger, we had to hurry to a shelter. The rain made the long walk longer, because we had to stop to shelter from the rain. It was so annoying that we spent almost one afternoon shelter from the rain.

Yuchen Zhu

Going Greek!!

I'm Greek. Was that a smart idea? As of now, I'm really not sure. I don't even know if the whole RUSH process was worth it. But I am really enjoying being a part of my sorority.

For now, I'm going to pretend like these endings have justified the means, because I'm getting a Big_Sis. I can't wait to meet her because she gives me great gifts! I'm not crazy about yellow, and she's realy sweet....

Ahh!!! But I found out who my Big_Sis is... She will now be known as Roma. She's basically like me, only older. Let's put it this way; she began her revelation letter with:
"Dear Katy,
Let's just face it, we're both basically mean and sarcastic people..."
Ha-ha. Needless to say, we are two pees in a pod. Well, two pees, same pod mold, but she's a third year here at Georgia Tech and in Alpha Phi. I knew who my Big_Sis was before I was even on the 15th word of my letter.

I began this post a few weeks ago, before I met Roma. I met one girl, Leong and she's who really made me want to join Alpha Phi. I met her on preferentials night, and she made me feel more at home there than I had anywhere else. But when I met Roma, the head of New Member Education, I decided that I really did want to stay in Alpha Phi. I have since then decided that the ends are justifying the means. The new member meetings are over, I absolutely love dressing up, I'm being initiated tonight, and will be a Alpha Phi girl for life.

Anyhoo, back to my not-so-favorite-class... Biology (grrr)... Caio

XOXO
Texas_Girl [Katy S.]

Explore the Opportunities...

Well, It has been at least two weeks since I have written! And that is because I was lucky enough to get the swine flu. How awesome is that? So I have been playing catch-up. While in high school is it fun to miss school, it isn't in college. I got so behind, but I am glad to see all the cool videos and maps my fellow bloggers have put up. They are really cool if you haven't checked them out already.
So this week, I want to revisit a blog that I talked about earlier in one of my posts called "Drive a Faster Car". I mentioned how much I loved it because of its interest and spotlight on art, music and culture in Atlanta. Well I want to address it's stance on community and it's uses of multimodal media. While this blog doesn't assess it's neighborhood problems or provide solutions to make things better it is awesome because it introduces you to the rich and vibrant life Atlanta has to offer. What is community to the authors of Drive a Faster Car? Community is something you should be actively involved in. It is life. It is culture, music, art and independence. These bloggers implicitly note that community is something that is exciting. Things are happening all around you, all the time. There is so much community has to offer to you. There is so much Atlanta has to offer if you just get out on the streets! Because I am a HUGE fan of music and art this blog has a special place in my heart. It is now bookmarked on my favorites. I like it because it reminds me that there is so much more going on outside of Georgia Tech. Sometimes I forget that there is a huge lively city out there. This blog is my daily reminder. They have menu bars on the side that list upcoming events, links to Atlanta art, media, blogs, music, social events, clubs, shops, parties, film, comedy, and restaurants. If you have nothing to do you can certainly find something rocking to do on this blog.
Another great thing about this blog is it's use of multimedia. First of all it is filled with visual communication. There are many many pictures that capture your attention. There are a lot of pictures of artwork, bands and their albums. They not only communicate visually through images but also through the entire design of the page. A large title dominates the top, the sides are filled with sub menus to links, and the middle is the core and heart of the site:the blog. Also, the color scheme isn't over-the-top or too busy. It is not distracting or overbearing. It is very simple and sophisticated. Design and pictures show visual imagery to go along with their written communication. Of course this blog has written communication. That is the main component of a blog. The bloggers write about upcoming events and review them. They also voice their opinions on recent art shows and concerts that they have been to. It is very interesting. Another type of communication displayed is electronic. There are many videos, menus, and user applications available to users. Overall, this site uses many different modes of media and communication that attract quite a large audience.
So, what have I done about this. What have I done because of this blog. I will tell you what. I have EXPLORED. With the weather in Atlanta being amazing over the past week I haven't been able to help myself. Sunday I went to Piedmont Park. My friend and I had no set route. We just wanted to walk around and stumble upon the treasures of Midtown. We found tons of beautiful buildings, yummy smelling restaurants, happening bars, intricate water fountains and one big beautiful open park. I had such a good time getting to know my way around.
Also, my english teacher recently assigned a group project to become familiar with the sounds of Atlanta. So I have been going out with my group to different restaurants and spots in Midtown to capture the essence of the neighborhood. It has actually been really fun.
All in all, Atlanta is amazing. All I can say is that if you don't have swine flu, then GET OUT THERE. It is exciting. There are many exciting things. You check out my favorite blog "Drive a Faster Car" to get some ideas, or just do what I did: start walking.