Free Write: The Perfect Guy

Just take a mix of Mr. George Knightley, Darcy, Peter Pan, and Aragorn. Add in a dash of Priesthood, and modern manners and he'd be perfect.

If only it were that easy.

The one thing that I've noticed about BYU is that marriage is on everyone's mind. EVERYONE'S! All the jokes the bishop tells about the new RM's moving into our ward were all about us freshman being married. And yeah, they are pretty funny jokes. But haven't you ever noticed that there is this overwhelming feeling that tells you that you need to find your eternal companion right now? It's not so much that people talk about it, it's just the atmosphere.

Well, in order to get married, you need to date. Since I am not on the dating scene, I decided to make up my own boyfriend. My roommate and I had a lot of fun creating him one day after dinner.

His name is James Duran (like the band). He's about six foot, maybe a little taller. Brown hair in that kinda of short messy style that looks real nice, and green eyes. Lean, and a classy dresser. He plays guitar and sings. He's an RM and served his mission in Scotland. He likes hiking and rock climbing. His major is either communications or business (we couldn't decide which). My roommate wanted him to have square glasses, but I'm just not seeing that. Maybe for reading.

Jimmy is really sweet and involved with his family. He's from Scotsdale, Arizona (just to make things interesting I should say his middle name it Scott, but it isn't.). He has an older sister and a niece and nephew, and then two little brothers. He's good with kids. James enjoys sports, but not to an extreme. He dabbles in woodworking; that's what his dad does.

So anyway James and me aren't dating seriously yet, but maybe someday I'll find him and we'll live "happily ever after."

Free Write: Plea

I wrote this poem when things with my old boyfriend starting going wrong. Well, actually things hadn't been right from the beginning, I was just too twitterpated to notice. But it was the end of my senior year and I just noticed that nothing was how I wanted it. Little did I know that it was also near the end of our relationship. But I wrote this poem on my way to work on day (and had to keep repeating it to myself so I wouldn't forget it because I didn't have the opportunity to write it down) and it just says everything I felt about us. I had just read "Their Eyes Were Watching God" and so there is a little bit of an allusion to that novel. Again, blogger is stupid and won't let me put the poem in the structure I wrote it, but I guess you--and I--will just have to deal with that.

Can’t you see I’m pleading for physical attention?
for you step out of the rut you’ve dug us?

I don’t long for the way we were
but for the way we could be,
for our potential
I long for pear blossoms and butterflies,
for the things that come with spontaneity

We’re formally comfortable together;
we laugh,
we joke,
we have fun—
we keep everything inside

I want us to say what we want to say,
to do the things we want to do

I want to feel that I am attractive to you
that you aren’t ashamed to claim me

I want to tell you why I cry at night,
that you confuse me, that you frustrate me
Will you ease my fears?
I long to tell you three words,
just three
I want to tell you why I can’t

I want to know your thoughts
Do you know I’m here for the good
and the bad?

Make me feel important, sacrifice for me:
a little of your time,
your comfort,
your love

I gave you my heart without
what ifs or
if thens
Please give me yours

Writing Technique: Grass, Dreams, and a little bit of Soap

Grass. Smooth, soft, green. They say its greener on the other side. The other side of what? Who’s they? I’ve been to a lot of ‘other sides’ and I haven’t seen it yet. They say it’s softer, sweeter, lusher. That when you get there, nothing can bother you again. Life will be perfect. Where is the other side? Everywhere I go the grass is the same, I haven’t been able to find the place of perfect grass that everyone talks about.

Dreams. Awake or asleep. A goal, something to look forward to. Beautiful or scary, broken or whole. Dreams shape through the simplest form of communication. A touch, or maybe a look; always possessing a shadow of a doubt. Was I dreaming, or did it really happen? Is my life just a dream? When will I wake up? What do my dreams say?

Soap. Cleanliness. The smell of soap means so much. It’s more than just clean. It’s memories and a soothing scent. Soap is slippery. Flying away from you, sliding on the bottom of the shower. Making bubbles with soap as you wash your hands and sing the ABC’s. Just watching everything go down the drain—the bubbles disappear as well as the dirt and yuck that you had carried with you all day. A metaphor.

Free Write: Valentine's Day

I suppose that in the spirit of this so called “Holiday” which approaches us, I should do something dealing with love for my free write this week. Hmm...this is a hard one—I’m not much of a fan. Of course, I could always take the opposite point of view and talk about the tragedy of love, or as Sam put it in “Love Actually” the “total agony of being in love.”

Love isn’t really all about agony and tragedy—and even when it is, who doesn’t need a little agony and tragedy in life anyway? “A girl likes to be crossed in love now and then.” You should know where that’s from. But I don’t think that a day like Valentine’s day is really going to help any relationship flourish. All Saint Valentine really did before he became a martyr was to hold a feast of lover’s on February 14. And even then, the tradition of Valentine’s Day wasn’t started until Chaucer wrote about it in his book “Parliament of Foules.” There is no great tradition about the day; no reason, religious or otherwise, to celebrate it. All it does is give everyone a reason to spend money, get dressed up, and show off what a great catch they got.

I suppose I’m being a little too hard on the day. It’s a nice thought. A day to celebrate the love in your life. But when you’re the one celebrating a carton of ice cream, it’s a little hard to see the beauty of such a thing. Of course, ice cream can be a very attractive date. It just seems to me that everyday should be a celebration of love; that really, going out on Valentine’s doesn’t seem any different than going out any other time. Maybe you choose a more expensive restaurant or buy some roses. As for me, I think I’d rather get a bouquet of daisies unexpectedly, than a dozen roses on a day when everyone else is getting roses too.

Even though I say all of this, the truth of the matter is, I would not say no to a date and flowers from a hot guy that I’m in love with. Oh well, maybe next year.

Writing Technique: Style and -isms

For this week’s Writing Technique I’m going to attempt to take one sentence and show the different styles in which that sentence can be written.

Original Sentence:

She noticed that his eyes were blue.

Neoclassicism:

She noticed that his eyes were blue. Greyer than the sky, but bluer than the ocean.

Rococo:

She realized the blueness of his eyes as she sank into them. She felt as if they would melt every bit of her body, and yet she couldn’t turn her gaze from them. They captivated her.

Romanticism:

She noticed that his blue eyes were full of innocent wonder. It was almost as if the he saw the world as a newborn child, as if his eyes had never changed.

Impressionism:

As she handed him the book, his blue eyes looked at the door. He took the book, then turned toward the open door like a dead man walking.

Modernism:

Her heart sped up and his blue eyes pierced through her every emotion. The waves crashed inside of her. The lights sparkled over every part of her turmoil, lighting up her blackest shadows.

Whitneyism

His eyes were blue. In fact, bluer eyes she had never seen and it made her want to laugh and cry and yell all at the same time. It wasn’t so much the color of his eyes, but the way they looked at you. Maybe his eyes weren’t blue afterall.

That didn't work as well as I thought, but it was a lot of fun trying!

Rhetorical Analysis: TV Ad

The commercial I’m going to talk about is a commercial for Nike soccer shoes. In this commercial they use Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho. He tries on the shoes and then he proceeds to do a whole lot of cool tricks.

The Ethos is this commercial is clear—they used someone who knows about soccer and soccer cleats. Ronaldinho is looked up to in the soccer world, and all the little would be soccer players out there are going to see that commercial and want to buy Nike shoes. The commercial depends almost solely on this ethos. There isn’t a lot of talking, nor are there any words coming across the screen, other than “Nike” at the end. It’s effective because of the Ethos. Logos and Pathos aren’t necessary in this case. Logos is present in the knowledge of the brand—this is also ethos as the brand is a well known as a good sports shoemaker. Pathos isn’t all that present, but it isn’t necessary because the ethos of it all is enough to impress and gain everyone’s trust in the product. Nike realized all of this. Another effective way that they did this was the way they shot it. I don’t know if it counts as a rhetorical device, but it seems that the presentation is always an effective way to sway people. Nike shot this commercial like it was a home video. The quality of picture was not that great, but because of this it makes it seem like it wasn’t planned, therefore showing the general public that by wearing Nike soccer cleats, you will be able to do cool stuff like Ronaldinho everyday.

Free Write: Classic Love

I received the idea for this poem while in the shower one morning. I have a shower radio and a song came on that said "I'll be your Romeo in black jeans." And I thought to myself..."Hmmm not a bad thought." And some where around that same time I watched "Tristan and Isolde" with my brother. I just noticed that in all those stories about love (or lust) the male character has some "fatal flaw." I'm a really big romantic and I always sigh during those sorts of stories, and wish that I had a Mr. Darcy. But once you think about it, really, those love stories and interests are sorta messed up. This took a lot of revision because I have a problem with the "show don't tell" concept of poems. So my brother--who's an awesome writer--and my old creative writing/English/Lit Mag advisor helped me out.( You won't be able to get some of the emphasis since blogger is wierd and won't let me italicize and tab over. Sorry about that.)

Be a Romeo in blue jeans,
not a de Bergerac
(without the nose)
or a Darcy too shy
to show true feelings

Do not be a Rochester
and play with emotions
Be more faithful than Hamlet
and Othello,
have Heathcliff’s chivalry

Possess Tristan’s tenderness
be like Orpheus and
persevere to the end
Just combine all into one
and --

On second thought, Don’t --
Romeo and Tristan were
too impulsive
and lost their loves,
their lives

Heathcliff’s vanity left
much to be desired
Without Orpheus’s overeagerness
she would have survived

Every Classic Love has flaws.

Rhetorical Analysis: The Oil-Addicated Ayatollahs

“It is hard to come to Moscow and not notice what the last five years of high oil prices have done for middleclass consumption here. Five years ago, it took me 35 minutes to drive from Kremlin to Moscow’s airport. On Monday, it took me two and half hours. There was one long traffic jam from central Moscow to the airport, because a city built for 30,000 cars, which 10 years ago had 300,000 cars, today has three million cars and a ring of new suburbs. How Russia deals with its oil and gas windfall is going to be a huge issue. But today I’d like to focus on how the Soviet Union was killed, in part, by its addiction to oil and why Iran could succumb tot he same disease.”

This paragraph is from the editorial “The Oil-Addicted Ayatollahs” by Thomas L. Friedman in the New York Times. This paragraph contains Pathos, Ethos, and Logos, in order to support his claims. Pathos is set up by using the words “killed,” “addiction,” and “disease.” These words contain a negative connotation which appeals to readers for empathy. The Ethos of Friedman is set up when he talks about his previous trips to Moscow and the drive that he took twice; once five years ago, and then now. He talks about the changes that have taken place within those three years. And then the Logos. Logos is contained by talking about the number of cars. Numbers and statistics are a good way to set up Logos. Another effective strategy is Friedman’s word choice. He uses strong wording which helps establish his ethos as well has interest the reader. He also uses the Soviet Union, which was communist and therefore against the human way of life, and compares it to Iran, which being in the Middle East is also against our way of life. If he had decided to use Alaska and compare it to Iran, it probably wouldn’t have been as effective and would have upset reader as Alaska is part of our United States and therefore part of our daily life—though the controversy about the wildlife parks and getting oil and fossil fuels from there might have helped a bit. Friedman’s article was effective in conveying it’s message about the problem with the countries that have become dependent on oil.

I know this doesn't mean anything, but the internet was down at Heritage Yesterday. So, it's late, but it's here.

Writing Techniques: Counter Argument and Organization

The two writing techniques we talked about this week were counterarguments and organization.

For counterarguments I think that the most effective way to counter an argument would be to; First, acknowledge the argument as politely as possible. No one is going to listen to you if all you do is beat down something that may be their opinion. Second, tell why your argument is better than the counter. Again, no rudeness should be involved in this; every time a derogatory comment is made, another listener/reader is lost. And third, disprove the argument. There is a reason you are making your own argument and you should be able to stay true to that argument no matter what others say about it.

As for organization. My ENGL 251 teacher told my class that your first draft should be “crummy.” Then, as you revise, you should be able to organize your thoughts better. The organization of your paper should make sense. Each new thought should follow the next in a reasonable order. Without a clear organization the reader will lose interest because it’s harder to understand. A good way I’ve found to have good organization is to make an outline. I an very much a Roman numeral outline maker, and it really does help me figure out how I’m going to organize, not just my paper, but the paragraphs and sections within my paper.