writing ritual.

before starting a monsterous project i make sure i have the proper attire on. i put on my favorite sweatpants and a tee. even when i work on the project every day for the next week, i wear those pants every time. i have to be comfortable. i snuggle into my bed with my laptop on my lap, laying against the wall that acts as a backboard to my bed. my "chillout" playlist is select right away, i need the perfect ambiance. i have to check up on my twitter feed, maybe chat a couple of people on facebook, getting their sympathy for how much work i have to get done. after all that is taken care of, i roll. i allow myself to get what needs to be done in one big chunk. once the essentials are done, i let the distractions begin once again. tweet a little, chat a little, maybe skype a little... then if i feel like more needs to be done, i finish it. i'm not scared of pulling an all nighter if it needs to be done, i always work better when i'm working with a close deadline, because i know there is no time for distractions. when doing my rhetorical analysis, first i annotated all the different methods of rhetoric the author used. then, i made sub categories and copy and pasted all the evidence in the text for those methods. once i finished that, i created paragraphs around the evidence, including them in different sentences. after that, i worked my intro and conclusion into all of it. i hope my methods worked....... i can not stop thinking about the kind of grade i am going to get. it's safe to say even though we turned in the assignment, we are still stressing pretty hard about it.

sweet caroline.

caroline is sitting next to me in my ap comp class. i should be focusing, but she makes it hard to do. funny stories being exchanged and tips on how mack are the only things to be heard in our small group. caroline is hilarious and has enough personality to fit ten different people. like most girls, she doesn't know her true value. most girls settle for second best instead of having high standards and striving to meet them. caroline, like every other girl, needs to set her standards high. never settle for less than perfect to try to fill a void. you will always end up emptier than when you started.

drug of choice.

why am i blogging at seven on a saturday night? there really is no excuse, as pathetic as this is. i did have a tournament all day and my grandparents are visiting so i guess that's fair. plus, i did have a pretty good time over the rest of my mea break. it's really no surprise that volleyball is taking up yet another night. i don't hate it though, i'd rather be playing than doing a whole lot of other things. i don't know why anyone would chose not to play a sport because they would rather be out partying or doing "funner" things with their friends. the adrenalune rush you experience from playing is ten times better than any high. and even better, you don't have the annoying hangover or munchies, like any other drug would give you. getting a huge kill or stuffing someone on the net is sparks an energy in me that is unlike anything i've ever experienced. i feel on top of the world. when i hear my team and fans cheering for me, that only escalates my feeling of elation. the next point, if someone else makes a sick play, the excitement only continues to build up. it annoys me when people think they're too cool to go out and play a sport and they party instead. playing a sport is a way better  time than going out and getting hammed every weekend, and it actually provides benefits. i'll admit, sometimes i do feel like i'm missing out on quite a lot of social things but in the end it's all worth it. it's all worth the sweat and the time and the hard work to be on that court and get to battle it out for an opportunity to tell your opponents, "i am BETTER than you."  i feed off of the competetiveness i have. volleyball is my drug of choice. 

two million minutes. (perspective of the "average" american)

in watching two million minutes i became annoyed and i felt very guilty. i also felt inspired. i know how hard some people work in school, and i know how much some people slack. the difference is night and day. i am definitely in-between. i do go home some nights and just fall asleep after practice instead of doing the homework that's due, and usually i find a way to get away with it. i could coast by most of my classes without saying a word in each in an entire day. i've gone through days of math without taking my book out once and the teacher never said a word to me. i'm hoping she didn't notice, but what if she did? i still don't think she would have said anything to me. i think part of the problem with education in school is that students have been allowed to think they can get by with the bare minimum. i can say all i've done is the bare minimum this year so far... and i'm getting by. all b's, grades some would be honored to have. i know i can do better, but habit overrides motivation in me, and i continue to slack. just like there are two different kinds of students, i have had two different kinds of teachers. mrs. decker, my old creative writing teacher, gave me a whole new opinion about teachers. she actually cared about every one of her students, taking the time to make sure people were LEARNING things. she didn't care if she had to stop class and explain something to a lost student as long as he or she got it in the end. she didn't fill extra class time with useless acticities, everything was for a purpose. on the other hand, i've had teachers... who will go unnamed... that only care about, well, i can't really say what they care about. but i can tell you they are not interested in if their students actually understand what is being taught. i had another math teacher last year that wouldn't answer questions during class, he would make them stay after to ask them. math is a subject you just can't do that in. if i didn't get something in the beginning of class, i zoned out for the rest of the hour because there was no use in listening to something i didn't understand. i've also had teachers that look at me after i ask a question with a look that says: that was the dumbest thing i've ever heard, why are you in here? uhhh... that does not motivate me to ask another question.
students need to start caring about their education more, and some teachers need to care about their students education. it's a cycle, if the students can't do their jobs, the teachers can't do theirs. if the teachers aren't doing their jobs, the students can't do theirs, either.

pet peeves.

i may be a total nerd for saying this, but when i'm texting people and they don't use correct grammar, i want to kill myself. or, text back correcting their mistake, which would be social suicide. same outcome. i am no expert when it comes to grammar, but i know tomorrow isn't spelled "tomorow" and embarrassed is not spelled "embarassed". i also know when someone tells me, your so cool, which, duh, happens on a regular basis, i want to cringe inside. it's YOU APOSTROPHE R E. i don't care if we're texting and things are supposed to be shorthand, i'm pretty sure the vast majority of us have full keyboards. it would not kill us to take .3 extra seconds to spell things correctly. if a guy is trying to steal my heart, he has to know that bad grammar is a big turn off. it makes the person look uneducated, and when he's a senior, i want to feel like he's smarter than me. well, those are just some current frustrations. learn to use words write. rite. wright. ....right.

obama: back to school.

obama starts his speech by being introduced at by a student. this helps reinforce his relationship with the audience, because kids can relate to the girl of similar age introducing him. if an old man in a tie had introduced obama, it wouldn't have the same effect, kids wouldn't relate to him. obama wants his ideal audience, students, not to feel inferior to him. this will help get his point across throughout the whole speech.

hey. the first word he says. this is colloquial language among teenagers, his target audience. saying this instead of something like, hello my fellow american citizens, would not put them on the same level. using language like "wanna" doesn't make him seem less educated; i think it's a tactic to use some of the same common language his audience uses. he uses a mild sense of humor to keep the audience reacting with him and to keep their interest.

obama uses pathos when he talks about the different events going on at school. tests, projects, sports...drama, those are things almost every single student can relate to. he uses this to sympathize with the audience, saying they have a lot of responsibility and duties as students. he combines the use of pathos with ethos telling the audience that they're not just kids, they are the future. they are leaders. this builds the trust between obama and the audience further, because he is magnifying the important role they play in the nation, he makes the audience feel equal to him.

he uses the metaphor to color outside of the lines. this creates an inspirational picture in the audience, motivating them to perform to the best of their ability at school.

he doesn't use over dramatic pauses, but pauses regularly as one would when having an everyday conversation with any random person. i think this makes the address seem exactly like he is just trying to have a normal conversation with the audience, which is how his target audience would most likely want to be addressed.

ethos! he tells the audience that he'll let them in on a secret, making it seem like obama is doing something out of the ordinary, and trusting the audience with his "little secret." he gives students something to relate to, slacking in class. we all know what that's like. he also uses pathos here, talking about how his class in ethics inspired him to view everyone equally and ask questions about how every single person should come together as one.

obama uses the claim that we should work hard at school, using the reasons that a good high school education will lead to further education and success, using the warrant that we think being successful and having a good education is beneficial. he uses stats to compare what we used to be ranked in the world as far as education goes, and what we are now. he almost promises the audience that if we work hard and pursue further education, almost all of our problems will be solved. this is an exaggeration of course, but it supports his claim.

he uses different evidence in each part of his speech to support his main claim. he doesn't skip around, so it makes it easy to follow.

obama doesn't have any visuals, but i think the students sitting behind him play a role in the message he is aiming to send. behind him sits various aged students of various races. this confirms that he is targeting everyone at school, not just one age or race.

obama doesn't use the same strategies as MLK, but they are still effective. i know he motivated me to work hard at school, i finished this running on one hour of sleep!