With a Class Like AP Comp, Who Needs MoPro?

     It's over. In all honesty, though, I don't think I'll miss AP Comp. Sure, I'll feel nostalgic, and I'll wish I could redo some assignments. But I won't miss writing essays or blog posts about things I'm not passionate about. I'm sorry that I don't write for fun, but I'm simply not a writer. You may wonder why I took AP Comp then. I only wanted to prove that I'm capable of writing, and I'm still not sure if that happened. Regardless, I've learned plenty (As I look back, I see this as a bit of non sequitor, evidence of my incomplete writing education).

I've learned not to wait for inspiration to strike before starting a project; it never will.
I've learned that stating something explicitly is actually safer than implying.
I've learned that some things simply can't be rushed.

     I'm glad I learned these lessons, even though I'm still catching up on sleep lost and looking at my GPA makes me feel lightheaded. AP Comp has made me a better person and an OK writer. I will consider continuing my blog, but I'm sure Mrs. Cardona's right. I had plenty of difficulty blogging when it was required; a grade was often the only incentive. If I manage to find the inspiration and time to continue, I will, probably on Be Controversial. For now, however, this post is my swan song.

Mrs. Cardona, thank you for a great learning experience.

Ryan Tisthammer

Posted 4 hours late only because Mrs. Cardona can't do anything about it.

Don't bother reading this

If you ever read this blog (pssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh as if), don't bother reading this. These are just my links for the blog project. I am linking to good articles, so I guess no one's stopping you from checking them out. Hell, no one stopped you from reading this, you rebel.

WHY
http://rafairman.wordpress.com/2011/05/

http://rafairman.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/surreality/

http://rafairman.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/its-not-always-pretty/

Style
http://rafairman.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/a-little-bit-of-robbie/

http://rafairman.wordpress.com/2011/12/09/crosswinds/

Poems are almost worse than visual arguments.

AP Comp -- Rhetorical boot camp. 

Arts and Crafts -- I get what we're doing, but what happened to writing?

Bitzer -- Learn about exigence three pages in, skim the next ten pages. Complain that it was too difficult.

Cardona -- Belongs next to Tom Strommen and Ishmam Ahmed in my new religion.

Diction -- One of the few Comp words you can explicitly mention in an essay.

Grammar -- Disregard at will, but NEVER misspell.

Index poem -- This art stuff doesn't make sense.

Logos, Ethos, Pathos -- Learn what they are, but God help you if you ever use their names in a paper.

Orwell -- My grade probably depends on including him in this index.

Post Card Project -- See Arts and Crafts.

Revision Essays -- Write a perfect paper, then try three more times.

Rhetoric -- How you say stuff to make it sound good

Risks -- Take them, just not at 1:30 AM.

Syntax -- See Logos, Ethos, Pathos.

Tone -- Guess mine.

Visual project -- See Arts and Crafts.

Modelling an "index poem" after Cardona's list of links? PRICELESS. I'm leaving this here, because it's quality work, believe it or not.

AP Comp
     Regrets for hours of sleep lost in, 110-112
     Regrets for GPA lost in, 113-115
     The sense of accomplishment and pride, 116
Appeals
     Logos 666
     Ethos 666
     Pathos 666
Arts and Crafts
     Post Card Project, 120
     Visual Essay, 300
Bitzer
     Exigence as described by, 75
     Repetition in works of, 76-80
     Difficulty in understanding, See other works
Cardona 700-850
Diction 40
     Why never to use the word diction 41-44
Grammar 500-550
     The merits of disregarding grammar 550-530
Index poem (See AP Lang & Comp by Ashley Cardona)
Orwell 1-1036
Revision Essays
     Drafts of 212-214, 214-215, 215-217, 217-221, 221-222, 222-230
Rhetoric 1-1035
Risks iv, vii, xxvii

Outliers

     The only thing that you can do to be successful is work hard. Everything else is luck.

     Right there is the thesis, summary, and synopsis of Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. Save yourself from the 285 page book and take the above statement in its place. The book isn't terrible; it's actually a fine piece of writing, but Gladwell only presents his idea and tries to support it with specific examples. The idea is never developed; the last 200 pages of the books are more examples kept from developing their own identity or meaning because they're presented and made into stories of hard work and/or luck.

     In short, Gladwell's Outliers presents a somewhat interesting idea, but that's about it. If you're interested in reading it, I'd advise stopping a third of the way through so you aren't as annoyed by the repetition as everyone in my class was. And if you are (deluded enough to be) interested in buying this book, keep in mind you're paying full price for a book three times as long as it should be.

     This book makes me think of a stew made only of carrots.

A Gift to the Four of You that Have Ever Clicked my Name and Read my Blog

Thought I'd recommend some music while I'm procrastinating on the assigned blog post and the blog study overview.

The Tempest - Pendulum (Best band ever. Buy all their albums.)

The Island - Pendulum (Find a version about 9:30 long. That will have both parts: "Dawn" and "Dusk")

Feeling Good - Muse (No, Michael Buble didn't do it better. I even compromised my masculinity to check)

White Sparrows - Billy Talent (If you like sad songs)

Prayer of the Refugee - Rise Against

A Warrior's Call - Volbeat (Both this and M.A.D are for people who like fast, aggressive songs)

The Collapse - Adelita's Way

M.A.D - Hadouken!

I'd say you should watch them in order, and stop when the songs get to loud/senseless. I'd guess it's around Prayer of the Refugee; I understand some people think there's such a thing as "too much bass." Feel free to make your own recommendations, if you like, since you all responded so well to the "Risky Business" post </sarcasm>. 

P.S. Capitalizing titles is hard.

Remember that one time we studied fonts?

On the Pledge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2BfqDUPL1I

And THAT'S my blog post.

But really. I'm a very patriotic American myself, but I've made the choice. I realized what the pledge was at an early age, so I refused to say it with feeling or just mouthed the words until I was willing to devote my life to my country. Now, however, I'm willing to recite at least most of the pledge.

We shouldn't be saying the pledge at such an early age, because it's really a verbal contract. You don't ask a four year old to sign a parent's will they can't even read, do you? I believe it makes much more sense to have us say the pledge once, when we, for instance, get our driver's license. If not, YOU'RE DEPORTED. Ok. Probably not, but there is certainly something that needs to be done if someone lives in our country while refusing to support it.

Visual Arguments!

My real, graded visual argument:

                My visual argument is meant to evoke emotions of guilt, pity and anger from the audience. My project was created to convey the message that soldiers deserve more praise and less criticism for their sacrifices. To do this, I needed to prove that soldiers indeed make sacrifices and that they are still criticized for them. My visual argument resembles a story and feels like a documentary, so more manipulative techniques like color manipulation were avoided.

            I kept my project relatively simple; all my images are photographs with the exception of the ribbon, which is commonplace enough that it makes the viewer imagine a true “Support Our Troops” ribbon. The reality of the photographs creates a type of intimacy with the viewer; the viewer feels like they’re being shown different places of the world and different sides of the war (the warfront and the homefront) over about a minute. Each photograph serves one of two purposes; they either connect the viewer to the sacrifices made by soldiers, or they show the viewer how ungrateful the public is in response. The soldiers’ side amplifies itself by becoming more gruesome, each time showing more horrible injuries, ultimately ending in death (note that each picture is a different event, thus giving the project the "power of numbers;" it can't be a fluke that soldiers die for this country, and anti-war protests of varying intensities and targets are rather commonplace). On the other hand, the protest argument evolves to show the change in ideas that has taken place, where movements have shifted from anti-war to anti-troop. These two sides are always at conflict. As soldiers save lives in Iraq, civilians protest against the invasion. As graves fill with soldiers’ remains, there are people who couldn’t be more content with the loss. This paired amplification creates an incredibly powerful crescendo of sorrow and outrage in the viewer; the quick alternation between the two emotions unsettles the viewer further. By the end of the video, the viewer is so angry that they seek a way to right the wrong I’ve showed. The final slide offers a movement to rally behind.

            Finally, my song. I needed a song that conveyed innocence, and the need to help in changing the world that every soldier feels.  “Hero of War,” by Rise Against, was a great song, as long as I kept the song from continuing into the second verse. The song starts out with a simple story of one man’s enlistment, but goes on to describe the effect of trauma on the soldiers. It describes the civilian casualties and prisoner torture that sometimes took place, and this point of argument did not belong in the project. I was lucky enough to have this song because, in addition to the simple yet powerful and relevant lyrics, it features an acoustic guitar and singer, and nothing more. This adds to the intimacy and realism that I’m trying to create in the project.

            My visual argument was very focused on the claim that troops deserve our support and succeeded in conveying that message by relying on photographs and simple, yet touching, music to personally involve the reader and shift the topic from opinion to fact.


Works Cited 

"The 3000 Understatement." Pissed on Politics. 01 Jan. 2007. Web. 02 Jan. 2012. <http://www.pissedonpolitics.com/?p=1272>.

"Dr. Martin Luther King  War and Militarism The WE News Archives." The WE   a Journey of Life. Web. 01 Jan. 2012. <http://thewe.cc/weplanet/news/armed_force/us/martin_luther_king.html>.

"EMT Catalog: EMS Awareness." Roberts Company EMT Catalog. Roberts Company, Inc., 2010. Web. 01 Jan. 2012. <http://www.emtcatalog.com/index.php?cPath=29>.

"File:Iraq War Protesters in Parliment Square.PNG." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 7 Jan. 2008. Web. 2 Jan. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Iraq_War_Protesters_in_Parliment_Square.PNG>.

"Happy Family With Two Children Playing On Floor In Living Room.. Royalty Free Stock Photo, Pictures, Images And Stock Photography. Image 6374487." Stock Photos and Royalty Free Image Subscription from 123RF Stock Photography. 123RF. Web. 02 Jan. 2012. <http://www.123rf.com/photo_6374487_happy-family-with-two-children-playing-on-floor-in-living-room-at-home-sitting-on-floor-in-front-of-.html>.

"Happy Veteran's Day from Rainbow | Rainbow Blog." Rainbow International. Rainbow International, 11 Nov. 2010. Web. 02 Jan. 2012. <http://www.rainbowintl.com/blog/2010/11/rainbow-international-wishes-our-active-duty-military-and-veterans-a-blessed-veterans-day/>.

"July 2011." Holy Hexes from Mediamonarchy.com. 09 July 2011. Web. 02 Jan. 2012. <http://holyhexes.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html>.

"Military Tradition Is Bad for Society." Composed on HubPages. Web. 02 Jan. 2012. <http://composed.hubpages.com/hub/Military-Tradition-is-Bad-for-Society>.

Papercuts, 1000. "IOwnTheWorld.com » Blog Archive » Soldiers-flag[1]." IOwnTheWorld.com. 8 Feb. 2011. Web. 02 Jan. 2012. <http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?attachment_id=59873>.

"The Seattle Times: Conflict with Iraq." The Seattle Times | Seattle Times Newspaper. 27 Mar. 2003. Web. 01 Jan. 2012. <http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/photogalleries/iraqnationworld59/2.html>.

Great job finding the SECRET VIDEO hiding behind the boring stuff! Here's Abram in a banana suit.

Dear You Four (New Blog!)

No open letter to see here. Move along. I wouldn't dare put something as critical of individual people on this blog, since it's all scholarly and stuff, so I will put it on my second blog, be-controversial.blogspot.com. That's where all my controversial posts will go when I want to take a scholarly approach to topics like sexism, racism, and poverty where people will be enraged by my forced apathy. I also feel free to use vulgarity.