Possibly the last post on this blog :( Sniff.

BLA Documentary Assignment

I watched the documentary Food Inc. which was directed by Robert Kenner. This documentary and the book, Fast Food Nation [written by Eric Schlosser], had many differences. First of all, I found that their arguments were slightly different. In the documentary, I found that the whole purpose of the video was to inform their audience that the food industry can change their ways if the consumers (us) demand it but in the book, they focused more on how the fast food industry is impacting the meat packing industry drastically. Next, the book appealed more to logos as there were more facts and statistic. These numbers helped me, as a reader, to understand better about what they're talking about and it really emphasized on why Schlosser felt like it was becoming such a huge problem in our society. The documentary, however, didn't appeal to much to logos but to pathos instead. The documentary showed many interviews from different perspectives. For example, Moe Parr was the guy that impacted the most in this documentary. He is a soy bean farmer in Illinois and he was sued for cleaning soy beans. Moe talked about how he wanted to save these beans so that he could plant it the following year but one of his neighbors reported him and a private investigator came to check it out. He was then taken to court and sued. He ended losing 95% of his business and because he was unable to pay any more legal fees, he had to settle with Monsanto out of court. This was a really important story because it really showed how these big companies could easily control their farmers. In this documentary, it also said that these big companies know how to manipulate their farmers and treat them like slaves. The companies with a flick of a finger, they could breach a contract just because the farmer refused to upgrade to a more efficient machine or so. The last thing I found that was different was that the argument from the documentary was more straight to the point. From the beginning to the end, the purpose was clear whereas, in the book, my BLA group and I had to read several chapters before deciding on an argument. The book's layout was organized that the beginning of the book was just backgrounds of many important people in the fast food industry and how they made it big then, it slowly went into how the working conditions were horrible to the diseases that were caused by the bad treatment of the animals which were all at the end.

The similarities that the book and documentary shared was that both of them had a lot of imagery and descriptive ways of proving their point. In the book, Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser used a lot of easy and simple words so that his audience would get what he is trying to say immediately rather than to stop and look the specific work up in the dictionary. In the documentary, they showed a lot of vivid videos of what really was happening in these factories. There were many exclusive videos that was showed in the documentary like the worker from the meat packing factory that brought in a hidden camera with him so that he could share the horrors of a meat packing industry.

I think both the book and the documentary was really well done. I would like to say that I haven't eaten a piece of meat ever since I learnt about the treatments of these animals, workers, farmers, etc. in this industry. I've only been eating salads and fruits. As the documentary said, this industry can change if we demand it. So what are we waiting for? Let's come together and make a change for a better future!

Humor Assignment

One of my favorite Japanese game shows!!

The Nature of Animal Testing: STOP ANIMAL TESTING!

Or click here to watch the video on youtube.com!!!

Process Analysis:
I did my visual argument on the nature of animal testing. The point that I was trying to get through to my audience was how much pain these animals actually go through just to make sure that the new mascara wasn't going to burn off the consumers' eye lashes when they apply them.
To how I arranged my pictures, I decided to go with the milder pictures first because I wanted to build some kind of climax and suspense. I wanted to shock my audience by informing and alarming them what animal testing is doing to our poor and innocent creatures. That's why ended my slideshow with the pictures of the aftermath of animal testing. There was a bag of dead rabbits in a white bag with blood spilling out of each one. Also, while going through pictures and picking out the ones that I wanted to use, I looked for the animals with big eyes. Those pictures would eventually help to create an illusion that the animals are sad and afraid. It appeals to the audience as it stirs up their emotions. Every picture that I had, appealed to the audiences pathos. I felt that it would be the most effective way of drawing them in and showing them the different torturous kinds of experiments these animals have been going through for year. They have been locked up, chained, etc. The pictures also appealed to the audiences' ethos as majority of them were real pictures taken directly from the experiment room. It showed that it really did happen and it wasn't some kind of rumor that had been started just for the sake of stirring something up.
The music that I chose also played a big part of creating this emotional appeal. It started off with just a piano introduction that's very simple and has a sad tune to it. Then a woman starts singing in a very calm and hushed tone. The lyrics also paid a big role to why I picked this song. It had lines like, "I'm so tired of being here", "I wish that you would just leave", "these wounds won't seem to heal, this pain is just too real." I thought it related really well to what the animals must be feeling when they were held captive in their cages against their will and inhumanely experimented on.

Sources:
1. http://www.4us2be.com/tag/animal-testing/
2. http://current.com/1kkt04c
3 & 4. http://urbanaspirines.blogspot.com/2009/11/animal-testing.html
5. http://www.animalport.com/animal-testing/animal-testing-rabbits.html
6. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1jtwKsSBDWU/TD-HPefETUI/AAAAAAAAEIk/AGy_v1rycJM/s1600/primate_testing_540x.jpg
7. http://humanityy.com/ecology/animal-protection/the-horror-animal-testing-illustrated/
8. http://www.freewebs.com/ectanow/animaltesting.htm
9. http://theanimalvoice.blogspot.com/2009/03/animal-testing-and-european-parliament.html
10. http://floridavoicesforanimals.org/issues.aspx
11. http://www.petside.com/petsideblog/2009/10/cyber-marchers-needed-to-help.php
12. http://www.animalliberationfront.com/Philosophy/Animal%20Testing/Monkey_Terror.htm
13. http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/rabbit.html
14. http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=16586
15. http://www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/animal-testing.jpg
16. http://humanityy.com/es/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/bigsmokmonkey.jpg
17. http://humanityy.com/ecology/animal-protection/the-horror-animal-testing-illustrated/
18. http://doctorbloggs.blogspot.com/2008/12/in-whose-interest-healthy-nation.html
19. http://s3-p.animoto.com/Image/s4m1003Mw9O9ZNOUFPXdow/l.jpg

Song: My Immortal by Evanescence

Inner RIng Response

When we were assigned this essay to read, I was really excited. I've heard so much about C.S. Lewis and I wanted to find out what all that rave was about.

I found out that this relates a lot to high school. Everybody is trying to find this group that the belong to. The sense of belonging is really important to human life. We need someone to be there for us when we're sad, someone to listen to us, and someone to just tell us that everything is going to be okay. But when reality and fantasy collide with each other, it may result to total chaos. If we dream too much about being in a group, all we're focused on is trying to get involved and be considered one of them instead of making them like us for who we really are.

I found that I really had a connection with what Lewis was trying to say. When I transferred to WHS, I didn't know anybody. All i know was that I had to make friends and get more involved in school so that I wouldn't stay as a loner. Once I found a friend, I tried so hard to fit in with her friends, hoping that they would include me into their clique. Unfortunately, they weren't the kind of people that I associated with. We had nothing in common. After giving up, I found myself making friends because I stopped trying so hard and people finally got to see the real me.

Mother Teresa's speech on God's mercy and forgiveness

Click here to view the video!!




Sarah Mia :D

Ugly

Synonyms of ugly: hideous, frightful, monstrous, ghastly, horrid, unsightly, gruesome, disfigured, grotesque, and unpicturesque.

1. Hideous (Adj)
-offensive to the senses and especially to sight : exceedingly ugly
-morally offensive : shocking

Examples of hideous
- The room was filled with hideous furniture.
- The hideous way in which she treated her maid after she discovered her ring was missing.
Origin of HIDEOUS

Origin of the word:
alteration of Middle English hidous, from Anglo-French hidus, hisdos, from Old French hisde, hide terror
First Known Use: 14th century

2. Frightful (Adj)
-causing intense fear or alarm : terrifying
-startling especially in being bad or objectionable

Examples of FRIGHTFUL
- As he fell, he let out a frightful scream.
- a frightful illness that causes extreme pain
- The children made a frightful mess of the kitchen.
-Many critics have expressed shock at the song's frightful lyrics.

First Known Use of FRIGHTFUL
1607

3. Monstrous (Adj)
-obsolete : strange, unnatural
-having extraordinary often overwhelming size : gigantic
-having the qualities or appearance of a monster
-obsolete : teeming with monsters
-extraordinarily ugly or vicious : horrible
-shockingly wrong or ridiculous
-deviating greatly from the natural form or character : abnormal

Examples of MONSTROUS
- It was monstrous of him to keep the truth from them all those years.
- A monstrous melon that was clearly not fit to eat.

First Known Use of MONSTROUS
15th century

4. Ghastly (Adj)
-terrifyingly horrible to the senses : frightening
-intensely unpleasant, disagreeable, or objectionable
-resembling a ghost
-obsolete : filled with fear
-a ghastly mistake

Examples of GHASTLY

- You're making a ghastly mistake.
- His room was a ghastly mess.

Origin of GHASTLY
Middle English gastly, from gasten to terrify — more at gast
First Known Use: 14th century

5. Horrid (Adj)
-archaic : rough, bristling
-innately offensive or repulsive:
-inspiring horror : shocking
-inspiring disgust or loathing : nasty or a horrid man
-horrible 2

Examples of HORRID
- People there are living in horrid conditions.
- He's a horrid little man.

Origin of HORRID
Latin horridus, from horrēre
First Known Use: 1590

6. Unsightly (adj)
-not pleasing to the sight : not comely

Examples of UNSIGHTLY
- The cracks in the wall are unsightly.
- Strip-mining leaves an unsightly gash in the landscape.

First Known Use of UNSIGHTLY
15th century

7. Gruesome (Adj)
-inspiring horror or repulsion : grisly

Examples of GRUESOME
- The police report described the scene in gruesome detail.
- Didn't stick around to hear the gruesome details of the car accident.

Origin of GRUESOME
alteration of earlier growsome, from English dialect grow, grue to shiver, from Middle English gruen, probably from Middle Dutch grūwen; akin to Old High German ingrūēn to shiver
First Known Use: circa 1700


8. Disfigured (Adj)
-to impair (as in beauty) by deep and persistent injuries a face disfigured by smallpox>
-obsolete : disguise

Examples of DISFIGURE
- His face was disfigured by a scar.
- The statue was seriously disfigured by falling rubble during the earthquake.

Origin of DISFIGURE
Middle English, from Anglo-French desfigurer, from des- dis- + figure figure
First Known Use: 14th century


9. Grotesque (Adj)
-of, relating to, or having the characteristics of the grotesque: as
-fanciful, bizarre
-absurdly incongruous
-departing markedly from the natural, the expected, or the typical

Examples of GROTESQUE
- The actors wore dark capes and grotesque masks.
- A grotesque distortion of the facts

First Known Use of GROTESQUE
1603


10. Unpicturesque
-displeasing to the senses
- ugly face

Examples of UNPICTURESQUE
- His candor in depicting how unpicturesque but absorbing much of the world is — if only our hearts would admit what our eyes tell us — elevates him above all other 19th-century landscape photographers in some minds.
- The hills are barren, they are dull of color, they are unpicturesque in shape.

Part time job

I work at a chinese restaurant owned by a family. I shall name the restaurant to keep it anonymous.
Recently, they hired a new guy and his job was to help and over see everyone while working. At first, we all liked him because he really did help us out during the rush hour. He greeted the customers, treated them with respect, peel pee pods and cut string beans really fast but after a month, he is getting really mean, especially to me. He has been picking on me every time I work saying that I'm slow, I'm fat, I'm lazy, etc. I knew he was kidding so I laughed it off.

A joke is a joke. Once you tell it, you don't re-tell it over and over again. It gets really boring and irritating. I don't get why people are able to repeat a joke many times and still find it funny. Doesn't it get old? Well, if he keeps it up any longer, I'll confront him and maybe things will change.