Below is a video that is interesting for two reasons: 1) It offers an important message about Obama and abortion and 2) It was made by someone I know. I actually got to go on the shoot and operate the camera for part of the time. The extreme close-ups at the beginning, the wide overhead shots, and the shots when the girl is first looking around in the room are ones I did. Anyway, I think the girl who wrote, directed, and edited it did a great job. Please watch it if you have time.
Thursday, October 30
Wednesday, October 29
Vocabulary
I finally went on a determined hunt for vocabulary words and came up with a pretty nice list. Here it be...
Isochronal - Equal in duration
Sedulous - Persevering in effort
Gelid - Very cold
Jejune - Uninteresting; dull
Vituperate - To rebuke or criticize harshly
Edacious - Voracious; devouring
Nonpareil - Having no equal; peerless
Farrago - A mixture
Eristic - a person who disputes; one who enjoys controversy
Attrition - a wearing down by friction
Isochronal - Equal in duration
Sedulous - Persevering in effort
Gelid - Very cold
Jejune - Uninteresting; dull
Vituperate - To rebuke or criticize harshly
Edacious - Voracious; devouring
Nonpareil - Having no equal; peerless
Farrago - A mixture
Eristic - a person who disputes; one who enjoys controversy
Attrition - a wearing down by friction
Monday, October 27
Notice
Please note that the media corner has been updated...check it out if you have time!
I will also be adding my working bibliography as soon as I can--I'm just having a little bit of trouble getting it to work.
I will have something of greater substance to say later this week...but for now the media corner took all of my blog time...
I will also be adding my working bibliography as soon as I can--I'm just having a little bit of trouble getting it to work.
I will have something of greater substance to say later this week...but for now the media corner took all of my blog time...
Monday, October 20
Vocabulary and Random Thoughts
So I took the PSAT's on Wednesday and came across two words I didn't know (I think I got the question wrong because of them...grrr...) But now I'll know them for next time...
Demagogue -- a leader who obtains power by means of impassioned appeals to the emotions and prejudices of the populace
Prognosticator -- someone who makes predictions of the future
Besides this, I have a couple of writing projects on my plate. Before the end of October, I hope to finish and send off an essay for the HSLDA essay contest. Then in November I could enter the Patrick Henry short story contest, which would be fun if I can think of a plot. I'm also working on writing some monologues to maybe record when they are polished. We'll see if I ever get any of this stuff done!
I'm also working intensively on trying to narrow down my list of prospective colleges. I spent about two hours this weekend writing stuff down, then deleted it all by accident. So I'm going to have to restart that later this week. I'm planning to start with my top ten colleges and, with some helpful direction from my mom and God, see which ones really fit what I want and value in a college.
Whew...busy times...
Demagogue -- a leader who obtains power by means of impassioned appeals to the emotions and prejudices of the populace
Prognosticator -- someone who makes predictions of the future
Besides this, I have a couple of writing projects on my plate. Before the end of October, I hope to finish and send off an essay for the HSLDA essay contest. Then in November I could enter the Patrick Henry short story contest, which would be fun if I can think of a plot. I'm also working on writing some monologues to maybe record when they are polished. We'll see if I ever get any of this stuff done!
I'm also working intensively on trying to narrow down my list of prospective colleges. I spent about two hours this weekend writing stuff down, then deleted it all by accident. So I'm going to have to restart that later this week. I'm planning to start with my top ten colleges and, with some helpful direction from my mom and God, see which ones really fit what I want and value in a college.
Whew...busy times...
Thursday, October 16
A New Feature!
I am a media-loving person, and am always excited by books, movies, or music. So with that in mind I am starting a new feature in the sidebar of my blog: the Media Corner. Check it out! I'm hoping to update it every week, but since I don't think anyone but my mother and grandmother is reading this blog anymore, it might not be that regular. But for those of you who might happen along...enjoy!
Saturday, October 11
Tapping into Pain
I roll out of bed with a groan, deciding once again that 6:00--in the dark--is too early for any sane human. Grinding out my electric toothbrush, I sigh to the mirror about how tough it is that I have to brush my teeth more than the average person. Oh, yeah. I really need to charge up my phone and iPod this morning--they're almost dead. Maybe I won't get the paper this morning--it's cold out there and I don't really care about reading it. If my brother wants the comics badly enough, he'll get it himself. And hey, wonderful. The only oatmeal flavor left is banana--that stuff is disgusting. I guess I'll just have some bread. Yuk. Or maybe nothing. Anyway, I really need to get started on my history paper. My computer is taking a long time to boot up this morning. Come on, hurry up. Ah, here's my brother with the paper--hey, stop deconstructing the entertainment section! I want to read the movie reviews...Man, isn't life hard? As I turn away, the front page of the paper catches my eye. "Genocide Continues in Africa" or "Thousands Die in Iraq" or "Teen Murders Family". I slide the paper away and turn back to my computer screen. Can't it load any faster than this?
****
I hadn't looked at myself in this way, really, not until our pastor challanged us in his Sunday sermon. "We worry more about our investment portfolio than about the AIDS crisis. We get more upset about a ding in our car than about the genocide in Sudan." And so he continued. I returned home with a cold hesitation in my mind, a new way of reading the paper in the morning. Our world is so full of death and pain; it washes over us in waves every day, every hour. If we let each thing break our heart, we would be incapacitated with constant grief.
Occasionally, I have been stopped in my tracks by a sudden interaction with the pain in our world. The first time was when I was probably twelve or thirteen, and completely focused on myself and my own little world. I never read the paper, but one day when I was sitting at the table a picture of a child with only one arm caught my eye, and I started idly reading the related article. By the end of it, I was in shock. It had to do with the court testimonies of various villagers in some place I cannot even remember--as these people related the atrocities they had suffered at the hands of young radical militants. This was the first time something so awful had confronted me, and I went my way in stunned silence. Several weeks later, I was in the middle of some everyday task when I suddenly broke down crying, lost in the terrible pain of people I didn't even know.
Then I got older. I read the newspaper every day. My heart grew harder, and the sympathy hid itself away somewhere. Once I paused over a photograph of a little boy crying at his father's funeral. Another time over an article about an abused child who went on to shoot up a school. I caught glimpses of a pain greater that my everyday frustrations--something great and terrible, something that breaks even the heart of God. Once I tried to put my sudden, raw frustration into writing:
"The world weeps.
There is blood
There is sweat
There are tears
Smeared across faces
Stinging gritty eyes
Tearily void of innocence.
It isn't right.
Dreamers grow cynical.
Lovers are wounded.
The world weeps
Because its surface is scarred with
The unimaginable
The unexplainable."
So what can we do? Will we close ourselves away, making oatmeal flavors our greatest concern, pretending we cannot read those headlines? Will we descent into hopeless dispair?
My favorite band--Jars of Clay--once wrote a song called "Oh My God". It is a powerful, prayerful lament for all of the evil and pain in the world. For a long time, there was a line of this song I couldn't figure out.
"Oh my God, can I complain?
Take away my firm belief,
And graft my soul upon your grief."
Why, I wondered, would I want to pray for God to take away my firm belief? I think I know now. I have a firm belief. I go to church and sit at home and believe firmly in God and truth. And yet I miss the heart of God. Of course God mourns for every agony in the world. His heart breaks. And to truly find the heart of God, I must be willing to tap into the agony, to feel the pain, to weep for the whole aching world.
Of course, there is hope. God will judge the evildoers and will bring the world to right. This cannot be forgotten. But as I write this, someone has died in agony somewhere. Satan has destroyed one of God's precious children. Pain wraps itself around our planet. We tear ourselves apart from the inside out. I cannot lock myself behind church doors. I cannot hide in the comforts of a loving home. I must let myself feel the same grief God does for every shock of pain. Alone, I am utterly selfish, as evidenced by the opening of this post. But I must be willing to feel the pain, to love the oppressed, to reach out my hands to something larger than myself.
****
I hadn't looked at myself in this way, really, not until our pastor challanged us in his Sunday sermon. "We worry more about our investment portfolio than about the AIDS crisis. We get more upset about a ding in our car than about the genocide in Sudan." And so he continued. I returned home with a cold hesitation in my mind, a new way of reading the paper in the morning. Our world is so full of death and pain; it washes over us in waves every day, every hour. If we let each thing break our heart, we would be incapacitated with constant grief.
Occasionally, I have been stopped in my tracks by a sudden interaction with the pain in our world. The first time was when I was probably twelve or thirteen, and completely focused on myself and my own little world. I never read the paper, but one day when I was sitting at the table a picture of a child with only one arm caught my eye, and I started idly reading the related article. By the end of it, I was in shock. It had to do with the court testimonies of various villagers in some place I cannot even remember--as these people related the atrocities they had suffered at the hands of young radical militants. This was the first time something so awful had confronted me, and I went my way in stunned silence. Several weeks later, I was in the middle of some everyday task when I suddenly broke down crying, lost in the terrible pain of people I didn't even know.
Then I got older. I read the newspaper every day. My heart grew harder, and the sympathy hid itself away somewhere. Once I paused over a photograph of a little boy crying at his father's funeral. Another time over an article about an abused child who went on to shoot up a school. I caught glimpses of a pain greater that my everyday frustrations--something great and terrible, something that breaks even the heart of God. Once I tried to put my sudden, raw frustration into writing:
"The world weeps.
There is blood
There is sweat
There are tears
Smeared across faces
Stinging gritty eyes
Tearily void of innocence.
It isn't right.
Dreamers grow cynical.
Lovers are wounded.
The world weeps
Because its surface is scarred with
The unimaginable
The unexplainable."
So what can we do? Will we close ourselves away, making oatmeal flavors our greatest concern, pretending we cannot read those headlines? Will we descent into hopeless dispair?
My favorite band--Jars of Clay--once wrote a song called "Oh My God". It is a powerful, prayerful lament for all of the evil and pain in the world. For a long time, there was a line of this song I couldn't figure out.
"Oh my God, can I complain?
Take away my firm belief,
And graft my soul upon your grief."
Why, I wondered, would I want to pray for God to take away my firm belief? I think I know now. I have a firm belief. I go to church and sit at home and believe firmly in God and truth. And yet I miss the heart of God. Of course God mourns for every agony in the world. His heart breaks. And to truly find the heart of God, I must be willing to tap into the agony, to feel the pain, to weep for the whole aching world.
Of course, there is hope. God will judge the evildoers and will bring the world to right. This cannot be forgotten. But as I write this, someone has died in agony somewhere. Satan has destroyed one of God's precious children. Pain wraps itself around our planet. We tear ourselves apart from the inside out. I cannot lock myself behind church doors. I cannot hide in the comforts of a loving home. I must let myself feel the same grief God does for every shock of pain. Alone, I am utterly selfish, as evidenced by the opening of this post. But I must be willing to feel the pain, to love the oppressed, to reach out my hands to something larger than myself.
Thursday, October 9
Some Rhetorical Strategies...
A few weeks ago I posted some vocabulary words, which are honestly the only words I have found so far. I always have trouble with that sort of thing because I have a pretty big vocabulary to start with and I've gotten so used in my reading to charging right through unfamiliar words without stopping to note them. So I'll work more on that later. For now, I realized that I was happily working on implementing rhetorical strategies without ever having posted much about them here. So here is a list of the major ones I have noticed so far:
1. METHODS OF ARGUMENT:
a) Ethos--this is an appeal to the identity of the speaker/writer. They are establishing "who they are" so that audiences will know that when the award-winning Russian history professor lectures on Russian history, they can probably rely on what he says. Ethos really should open an argument, because it will assure people that your later arguments are authoritative. You can also establish the ethos of people you quote. For example, in my paper on the public school system, I had almost no ethos of my own to present. I wasn't an authority. However, I balanced that by carefully noting the identity of who I was quoting. This wasn't just a quote from Bill the concerned parent, it was a quote from the Horace Mann, father of American public education.
b) Pathos--this is an appeal to emotion. Just because pathos is often used opposite of humor doesn't mean that rhetorical pathos has to relate to negative emotion--sadness, for example. It sometimes does--a politician telling stories of families whose sons have died in the war, for example. However, pathos could also appeal to emotions like patriotism or nostalgia. In a sense of strict rhetoric, pure pathos is a weak method of argument. However, when presented to ordinary people, it is often very effective.
c) Logos--this is an appeal to logic--citing facts or statistics, for example. If used truthfully, logos can be a very powerful argument. A startling statistic can stun people into listening, can make them rethink their presuppositions. However, one of the downfalls of logos appears if the speaker/writer forgets that he is addressing a crowd of emotional humans. Pure logos, lists of facts and numbers, will often cause people to blank out if they do not have an emotion, a personal connection, to tag it to. Therefore, logos and pathos work really well together if combined in the right fashion.
2. ARTFUL LANGUAGE:
You can use ethos, pathos, and logos up one side and down the other, but your method will detract from your meaning if you ignore the artful employment of language. Part of this comes simply from knowing your mechanics: say "there ain't no reason for babies to be aborted", and you've just lost your audience. There are two other extra tools, however, that people will not be able to positively identify in your arguments--unless they are trying purposefully--but which will leave a gaping hole if you don't employ them.
a) Schemes--schemes are types of artful syntax. Syntax is the way you lay out a sentence--should you try flipping your subject and verb around, should you add your modifying phrases before or after the key idea, should you ask a rhetorical question. All of these methods and more can really add to your argument. Shaking up your syntax is a lot better than saying "I am Mike. I oppose abortion. Abortion is evil. Voting for abortion is not Christian." Take for an example the conclusion to John McCain's acceptance speech. He utilized a string of hortative (exorting) sentences, which got everyone all excited and gave him a great ending.
b) Tropes--tropes are types of artful diction. Most poetic divices--simile, metaphor, hyperbole, alliteration, euphony, etc.--fall into this category. You can pack a lot more punch with a simile than with a simple statement; that's just the nature of people. Be careful, however, not to overuse these. Alliteration might sound lovely, but encouraging people to "alertly abolish an abominable act of abortion against all argument" will not go over particularly well.
Well, these some of the key rhetorical strategies, for now. Same time, same station, in a couple weeks, ladies and gentlemen.
1. METHODS OF ARGUMENT:
a) Ethos--this is an appeal to the identity of the speaker/writer. They are establishing "who they are" so that audiences will know that when the award-winning Russian history professor lectures on Russian history, they can probably rely on what he says. Ethos really should open an argument, because it will assure people that your later arguments are authoritative. You can also establish the ethos of people you quote. For example, in my paper on the public school system, I had almost no ethos of my own to present. I wasn't an authority. However, I balanced that by carefully noting the identity of who I was quoting. This wasn't just a quote from Bill the concerned parent, it was a quote from the Horace Mann, father of American public education.
b) Pathos--this is an appeal to emotion. Just because pathos is often used opposite of humor doesn't mean that rhetorical pathos has to relate to negative emotion--sadness, for example. It sometimes does--a politician telling stories of families whose sons have died in the war, for example. However, pathos could also appeal to emotions like patriotism or nostalgia. In a sense of strict rhetoric, pure pathos is a weak method of argument. However, when presented to ordinary people, it is often very effective.
c) Logos--this is an appeal to logic--citing facts or statistics, for example. If used truthfully, logos can be a very powerful argument. A startling statistic can stun people into listening, can make them rethink their presuppositions. However, one of the downfalls of logos appears if the speaker/writer forgets that he is addressing a crowd of emotional humans. Pure logos, lists of facts and numbers, will often cause people to blank out if they do not have an emotion, a personal connection, to tag it to. Therefore, logos and pathos work really well together if combined in the right fashion.
2. ARTFUL LANGUAGE:
You can use ethos, pathos, and logos up one side and down the other, but your method will detract from your meaning if you ignore the artful employment of language. Part of this comes simply from knowing your mechanics: say "there ain't no reason for babies to be aborted", and you've just lost your audience. There are two other extra tools, however, that people will not be able to positively identify in your arguments--unless they are trying purposefully--but which will leave a gaping hole if you don't employ them.
a) Schemes--schemes are types of artful syntax. Syntax is the way you lay out a sentence--should you try flipping your subject and verb around, should you add your modifying phrases before or after the key idea, should you ask a rhetorical question. All of these methods and more can really add to your argument. Shaking up your syntax is a lot better than saying "I am Mike. I oppose abortion. Abortion is evil. Voting for abortion is not Christian." Take for an example the conclusion to John McCain's acceptance speech. He utilized a string of hortative (exorting) sentences, which got everyone all excited and gave him a great ending.
b) Tropes--tropes are types of artful diction. Most poetic divices--simile, metaphor, hyperbole, alliteration, euphony, etc.--fall into this category. You can pack a lot more punch with a simile than with a simple statement; that's just the nature of people. Be careful, however, not to overuse these. Alliteration might sound lovely, but encouraging people to "alertly abolish an abominable act of abortion against all argument" will not go over particularly well.
Well, these some of the key rhetorical strategies, for now. Same time, same station, in a couple weeks, ladies and gentlemen.
Saturday, October 4
A Dialogue
Well, this has been quite a week, and I hadn't even realized how I was neglecting my little blog. So I thought I'd better get on here before he dies of malnourishment. Anyway, I've been working so much on my synthesis essay that I haven't really had time to formulate any original thoughts. I'm reading an interesting book that I'll probably post on when I'm done...and I have some interesting thoughts on life in general that are starting to formulate...but at the moment, I'm going to be quite unoriginal and post something I wrote several months ago, but which I still enjoy going back and reading sometimes. I guess it would be called a poem...I mean, that's what I've been calling it. But it really turned into something more like a dialogue between two imaginary people laid out in a strange way. Mainly because I can't write poetry worth anything. And no, it doesn't rhyme. It came out after I read Psalm 15, actually, so it makes more sense if you read that first. If you don't feel like going and getting your Bible out, here it is:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm%2015&version=31
And here is the pseudo-poem-dialogue-thingamajigger...p.s. You've got to read the lines back and forth, not one column and then the other...
Psalm 15 Response:
"Hail, my teacher."
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm%2015&version=31
And here is the pseudo-poem-dialogue-thingamajigger...p.s. You've got to read the lines back and forth, not one column and then the other...
Psalm 15 Response:
"Hail, my teacher."
"Who passes?"
"One who seeks truth."
"God's truth or man's?"
"Only one of those is true."
"Ask away."
"There is a Sanctuary."
"Yes."
"There is a Holy Hill."
"Yes."
"Why may reach them? Why may climb?"
"There is a plan for building foundations."
"A plan? A foundation?"
"Without a path, you will never climb the hill."
"I build the path?"
"According to the Lord's plan."
"Ok, I'm ready to begin."
"Brick 1: righteousness."
"Ah, righteous deeds. Alright."
"Brick 2: truth."
"In heart as in speech. I see."
"Brick 3: honesty."
"Alright, well. Not lying."
"Brick 4: kindness."
"Yes, to all my neighbors."
"Brick 5: courtesy."
"True, for we are all men together."
"Brick 6: purity."
"Hating evil, yes, and now I..."
"Brick 7: reverence."
"Oh...um, among Christians."
"Brick 8: reliability."
"Whew...even when it costs. Now I..."
"Brick 9: generosity."
"Yes...but...can we review the first..."
"Brick 10: integrity."
"No more! I can't keep up!"
"Or-"
"Or?"
"There is one other way."
"Besides building my own way?"
"Another can build it for you."
"Who? Who would--who could?"
"Christ alone."
"Teacher--tell me something."
"Hmmm?"
"Has anyone ever made it up the hill by any road other than Christ's?"
"No."
"Never? I thought so."
"You thought wisely. Never."
"Well, then there's only one thing to say."
"What?"
"Amen for Christ."
"Amen."
THE END
I repeat: amen for Christ! I never stop needing to be reminded of this...
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