#7- Evaluate State Patty's Day

State Patty’s day is a make believe Penn State holiday. It is just another excuse for allowing all Penn State students and actually all Pennsylvania college students to drink and party no matter what their age is.  The one benefit to this excuse is that students actually can party more on this weekend. Whoever invented the term “State Patty’s Day” should feel very proud. An excuse for drinking and acting crazy has reached its height with the make believe holiday State Patty’s Day.

State Patty’s day also has become a great way for businesses all around the town to make a gigantic amount of money. The downtown stores began selling large amounts of green gear about a month in advance. The green shirts that can be seen during this weekend are in such large amounts that one could argue we now live in Ireland. They probably make more before this weekend than they do before a lot of football game weekends. The parking decks are probably rolling in money at the end of this weekend. They now have an excuse to get 15 dollars per car just for the huge amounts of college students that pile into state college during State Patty’s weekend. Finally, the bars that actually stay open have to make more money than normal weekends just because of the mass amount of outsiders that come into state college.

            State college also has a ton of arrests and hospitalizations. My RA sent us an email with the heading “Don’t be another State Patty’s Day Statistic.” It stated that last year 157 arrests were made and 24 people were reported to have overdosed at the hospital the next day. Overdosed on what is a question to all of us. In this aspect, whether it is Penn State or outside students, the partying is taken too far. While State Patty’s day does bring a great name with lots of fun and profits to State college, it also has these pathetic statistics. If only we could balance and find a way to have fun without going too far during this memorable “Holiday.”

#6- Evaluation of YouTube video

The video I chose to evaluate was the music video The Creep feat. Nikki Minaj. I would categorize it as a spoof on rap music. The criteria for evaluating this music video would be usefulness of style, ability to draw viewer’s attention, and comedy appeal.

            The Creep, a music video featuring Nicki Minaj, created a perfect YouTube clip for viewers. At times when one is watching youtube clips that are supposed to be funny or entertaining the video takes things too far or does not even come across as funny. This video did not do that and was one of the best for many reasons. It had a good style, was great at drawing the viewer’s attention, and was, of course, comical. While this is all a matter of opinion and some may not believe that creepin’ or comedy music videos are funny, I believe that this video does a lot for even those who do not think it is funny.

First, the use of music video as a theme was perfect. It was the ideal style for this type of comedy. It seemed to take part from I’m on a boat and even some Lil Wayne songs and created a comedy music video. Using a music video was the best choice because there are many videos out there about creepers and people creepin’. Taking that to the next level and making a music video all about creepers both showed creativity and used a fresh way to make an old thing such as creepin’ funny. Going along with the idea that a music video was effective, I did not think the video called Hamlet was as effective. I did laugh at it, but I think that the way it was presented was not the way it should have been. So I personally did not get the full effect of its comedy. All in all, in my opinion, it is important to pick the correct style and The Creep did, while Hamlet did not.

This music video drew my attention for a couple of reasons. Mainly, I like Nicki Minaj. I was drawn to this video because it brought an actual rapper into it. When I noticed that it said featuring Nicki Minaj, I immediately thought that this would be something I would like. I think this is true for many people my age. We think things are funny if someone we know or “trust”            as a good entertainer is presented. Another reason why “the Creep” will draw a viewer’s attention is because it is set up like music videos one has seen before. It looks legitimate and therefore draws the viewer’s attention. I, for example, thought about I’m on a Boat when I first saw the video.  I wanted to watch it because it reminded me of that, and I thought it would be entertaining like I knew I’m on a Boat was.

The Creep also was very effective comedy. It was meant to be a comedy so it is important that it follows that role. The words and the video entertain the audience with laughs. It tells funny stories as it goes along and that also creates good comedy. For those who do not believe it was hysterical, I can completely understand you’re view. Comedy is different for all people. Although this may not make others laugh as it makes me laugh, I think we can all agree that it has the ability to entertain, even if it doesn’t make you “roll on the floor laughing.”

The creep music video presents a perfect combination of comedy, effectiveness, and style. It was well made and the viewer can tell that it wasn’t just another comedy that a child posts on YouTube. Thought went into this sketch and I believe that because of that it was very entertaining.

#5- Disney Evaluation

I think that this new Disney movie does a great job of falling in line with the rest of the Disney movies that came before it. I can see parts of it relating to the Aristocrats, the Lion King, and Aladdin. The fact that it reminds me of  my opinion of a Disney movie means that it definitely takes on its role of becoming a great Disney movie.  It contains the traditional Disney animation and reminds me of my childhood. A good Disney should do that because Disney movies are what my generation grew up with and we relate any new one to the old ones. It’s better because it has the experience of time to change things and just because technology has improved greatly. Comparing this scene to the one in the little mermaid, they are very alike. There is a villain who tries to change the protagonist for their own agenda. The protagonist eventually has to find out that they were better how they were before but sometimes it takes them a while to figure that out. Disney movies, just like the little mermaid and the princess and the frog, all contain a princess who is in distress. The princess and the frog, as said right in the title, does this in a way that it follows all of the other Disney movie outlines. I love this new Disney movie because it does this. I don’t like when good old movie theme’s change and I think I would watch this movie now because it doesn’t change much from the Disney movies I know and love. You could argue that because of the technology change it may be a little too detailed and may scare viewers off. I do not agree. Children now will watch this movie and take away from it the basic theme’s of old Disney movies while gaining some aspects of the new Disney movie’s that my generation was not lucky enough to know during our childhood. All in all, the directors of this movie did a great job of making a new Disney feature film that is as entertaining and creative as its predecessors.

#4- Contested Word

Republican

a. Of a person or party: favoring, supporting, or advocating the republic as a form of state or government.

http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/primaries/republicanprimaries/index.html?ref=republicanparty

            This article defines Republicans as just one of the groups that are running for President and different political positions in the upcoming elections. It focuses on the number of votes and seems to primarily think of Republicans as needing to take over for the Democrats who haven’t been getting the correct job done. This article is about Republicans that want to get nominated and how that is happening. I think that this article and many others online and in the newspapers tend to skip over the real point of being a republican. Republican seems to be just another group like field hockey players, or Penn state teachers. This article completely overlooks the real meaning of the word Republican.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism_in_the_United_States

This article on the other hand is defining the root of what the word Republican means. It talks about how conservativism means a respect for republican principles and for tradition. I believe that the Republican Party should be defined more like this article and follow their principles. This article brings the word conservative and the word republican together. I believe that these words interlock and should be used together when one is trying to find the real meaning of republican values.

            This article speaks about the history of republican which I believe is important in the present and the future. Everyone thinks of the Republican Party as just that, a party that runs for office. I believe if republicans and other party members look back to the history of what it means to be republican, like this article does, it will have more meaning to them.

The second article that I have shown is more of my idea of the definition of the word republican. I think it summarizes the history of the values and goals of the Republicans. The first article is the belief that most people have today. It shows the statistics of Republicans, and how they are doing in the polls. This is a very shallow way of looking at Republicans and politics in general. I think that most people follow this way of thinking and their way of thinking should be changed. The definition of a Republican is not how they are doing in popularity but instead working toward that popularity because of goals for the good of the people and values.

           

#3- My narrative work

I am very glad to have been able to write a narrative. In high school we never got to write personal stories with a meaning and I believe that writing this helped me to become more creative as a writer. All of my previous papers seem to be dull and without much detail to keep my reader interested. Writing a narrative helped me to be more creative and put some stories and details in my writing. I also liked that we needed to use dialogue. I think that using dialogues helps the characters and the entire story to come alive. When I read through my partner’s paper I felt much more involved in the story because the characters were talking and involved. Previously, I was also not aware of exigence. I always was given a problem or something that needed to be changed, but never before was I allowed to pick my exigence and turn it into the point of my story. I liked being able to incorporate a thoughtful meaning into a story that happened in my life. It helped me to sum up my writing and give it some sort of moral. Also my learning of the concept of rhetoric in general helped me to be able to write a more effective and though provoking paper. I followed all of the steps of rhetoric and my narrative seemed to flow much better than any paper I have written in the past. I finally liked having a specific audience. I planned who my audience would be and wrote my narrative to them. I think that by doing this I was able to get down to my point and keep it simple but interesting. Writing a narrative was by far the most fun an enjoyable piece of work I have done in a long time.

#2- telling a story

My last speech that I made in high school was a farewell address. My class was given very vague instructions. At first I was nervous about the speech because I had never done a speech that was about me. As I thought about the speech more, I came to the conclusion that this speech would be easier and more fun that any speech I had done before because it was the story of my life. We were told to write a speech to say goodbye, but to also tell the story of our school careers. I decided to tell a little bit about the stages of my life. I had the typical awkward stage, middle school stage, and then high school. I wanted to tell different stories to create the bigger story. I wanted to evoke emotion from my classmates through these stories. To do that I used a PowerPoint of pictures throughout my life and the song; I will remember you by Sarah McLaughlin to evoke that emotion. I thought that adding extra factors other than just talking would help my story telling even more. After it was over, my speech was a great success. I made my class laugh with the story of my awkward years and my rather large, puffy hair. My best friends and sister were moved to tears when I talked about how important they were and how that would never change. I wanted my speech to be an accurate sum up of my time in school by telling the stories that meant so much to me to my classmates. I used anecdote and satire to make a point and I believe that it worked because my class was moved by the speech. I think overall, it was necessary to tell the story of my life in this situation and the speech would not have been the same without it.

#1- past writing experience

During my freshman year of high school I had to read a book and write a five page response on an issue of the book. I loved the idea of this, because I love to read, pick apart what I’m reading, and think about it in more detail. I was excited to pick the biggest book that I could and pick an issue to write about. When the time came to choose a book I decided to read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. It was big enough to find a idea to write about and to discuss it in a lot of detail. After reading the book, I decided to write my essay on love and marriage. Soon I realized that this topic was much harder than I thought it would be. The book has many complex marriage and love situations. These situations were way too numerous for me to write about them all.  I then had to begin narrowing down the many topics and I finally decided to write about the main character Jane and her love interest. Since this was a five page paper, and one of my first major papers, I had to begin with an introduction, have five body paragraphs, and a conclusion. I realized that after I wrote an introduction and conclusion and came up with a topic sentence, the body of the paper seemed to flow quickly from my mind onto the computer. My teacher encouraged us to make many drafts and keep revising until we thought that we had no errors. I asked my parents to proofread, and went to my teacher as often as I could to make sure I had done everything correctly. Before this I had never envisioned myself to be much of a writer. I loved to read, but I wasn’t interested much in writing. After I finished this essay I realized that what I needed to do to write a good paper was pick a topic that I really enjoyed. From then on I chose topics that I was very interested in and had a passion for writing. This helped me to do increasingly better in Writing and English as I went through High School.