Friday, September 30, 2011

Blobbing about Blogs?

I love to rhetorically analyze things; thus, I have decided to do a rhetorical analysis on this blog post http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/01/15/feminist_obsessed_with_mormon_blogs
The rhetoric situation of this blog is focusing on why mormon "mommy blogs" are so uplifting for everyday people who may or may not have religious focuses in their lives. 
1.The author is trying to show that even though her ideas of faith (or lack thereof) are inherently different from mormons, they do not seem to diminish her fascination with the messages that mormons present in their  blogs, and she appreciates their positive attitude; she wants to share her experience to persuade others to read them.
2. The author uses several different tools of logic (logos) to strengthen her argument.  For instance, she says that mormons are so good at blogging because "Church elders have long encouraged members to keep regular journals for the dual purposes of historical record-keeping and promoting spiritual insight, and as a result Mormons are champion journalers and scrapbookers," which only makes sense. The author also uses emotional connection to improve her argument through examples of her personal experience in reading mormon mommy blogs.
3. These tools that the author uses in this blog helps the audience believe that since she has had such a positive outcome with reading mormon blogs, that they too can feel the "uplifting" experience that she has.  Also, the author helps the audience think that in a general sense, people do not have to have the same beliefs, to raise each other up and encourage good morals.
4. The author needs the audience/reader to think, feel, and believe in her blog because she feels so strongly about the subject of being a feminist-athiest, but that she is able to read something by someone of completely opposite beliefs; she just wants to help others know that they can fall into the same category.

All in all, I think this blog is very interesting.  Mostly because I, myself, am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon religion), and I think it intriguing that this woman has been so affected from reading from members of my same faith and feels the obligation to share that with others.  I just think that that is a pretty cool trend of blogging about others blogs-- kind of weird, but still cool. (I'm a hypocrite, obviously. hahaha!)

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Opinion Editorial Process Evaluation

I'm not particularly sure if I have any real genuine thoughts on creating my opinion editorial concerning the subject of awkardness.  It was interesting to see how much a paper could develop with each round it went through and how much each level required for input.  I mean, the rough draft was REALLY rough and I did not take any time to edit it at all, because that is what instigates a quality rough draft paper, right? So, editing that definitely took most of the work. It was nice to get feedback on how to make the paper much more appealing, as well as how to be more specific. I enjoyed the comments people would make as they read the paper each time, so I could fix it as well. However, I have always enjoyed writing; it just seems to be a good way to spend time, so I do not know if I would say that I felt out of sorts when writing about something that I wanted to write about.  Then, the polished rough draft was nice just to get in some cleaner editing and revision.  I enjoy taking the time to get all almost all of the spelling errors or punctuation corrections, as well as getting other people to read it so I can fix any unanswered counterarguments that they might see and I had never thought of.  I tend to notice that other people have good advice because they all think completely differently, so if I want to appeal to a large audience, it's good to get their opinions beforehand.  Any who, by the time I got to the final draft of my opinion editorial, I only had to focus on minor punctuation corrections and sprinkling in better wording for the "Awkward Blob."  My favorite part of this process was the pictures, though; they were just hilarious to make and I think they really help the argument I'm trying to portray.  Plus, they add humor, which is always good. I want people to think I'm funny!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

The Awkward Blob

People are an interesting sort of specimen. In all my years of wisdom and learning (18 years, if you really want to know), I have never met another species as intriguing and as complex as humans. They are able to express so many emotions, develop so many sets of skills,  make advances in all the world’s innovations, and so on and so forth.  In all the successes of the Homo sapien, however, I find the most fascinating one to be the natural, yet somehow unnatural, capability of people to take any situation and make it exceedingly more awkward than it has to be by means of stiff silence, inappropriate moments of speech, or the making of gestures that are--well, just odd in the sight of others. However, it has been my understanding that people do not have to excel in the expertise of gawky behavior; in fact, it would be beneficial if more people would not allow themselves to participate in it.

There are several different locations and groups in order to find oneself in a situation of exemplified awkwardness.  College is a particularly good place to recognize these perfected moments of discomfort. (*Note that I mention college because that is where I am in life right now.)  Alright, so imagine going to class (especially the first day of school.) 
You want to make friends so you take a seat in a pretty good location--just in the middle of everything--in hopes that someone will sit beside you.

In a few short minutes you realize class has started and the closest people to sit next to you are exactly one seat away in distance.  Since they are not directly beside you, no initiating conversation has been made nor introductions placed; and as you look around the room during the class discussion, you are constantly reminded that you feel weird about the glances you are making with those two people that you never really got to meet.

This is a typical situation for any gathering amongst strangers in an auditorium-like setting; in fact, it is very similar to my first day of college.  The situation provided, however, is not necessarily the first person’s fault ( the one who sat down and found themselves with a radius of empty seats surrounding them).  While that person could have taken initiative and said, “Hey, come sit by me! No need to be shy,” the people coming in and taking seats exactly one seat away seem more responsible.  Their thought process, no doubt, is concerned that by asking to sit by someone, they would magically cause some worse situation, than sitting next to a stranger. Now, I understand that in reality people are not perfect, and some even like their space when it comes to sitting in a crowded room, but that is certainly no excuse for negligence.  Of course, we find ourselves on both sides of the awkward situation: sometimes we’re the one making it awkward, other times the opposite party is making it awkward, and in really great situations--it is a group effort! My question is, what’s so hard about just talking to people and being friendly? It really is not that difficult, and I am positive the results would only be beneficial. Of course, not every single person chooses the shy route when found in potentially disastrous atmospheres.


While shyness definitely plays a role in the transpiration of clumsy events, the results of people who have no filter for when things are appropriate or not seem to provide much stronger cases of repulsion and disbelief amongst an audience.  What I mean by this, is that there are many times that people talk because they do not want things to be weird. So, they give away more knowledge than what people actually want to hear, leaving their listeners in a perturbed state. I once experienced this in group function at church, and I am not going to lie to you, I am amazed at the amount of information people will share with others.  So, my church group was having an activity one night and we were at the part where one group of people have “the spotlight,” which basically means that they present something to everyone else so we get to know a little bit more about them.  This particular group consisted of 3 girls asking 3 boys several general questions about themselves (like one of those old, lame game shows). Everything had gone alright, you know, questions about what their best date was or whatever other marriage-related topics they could think about, until the last question came up. One of the girls spoke up, “What is your most embarrassing moment?” DOOM.  The first two boys had decently bad experiences, but nothing too terrible, and then “Patchy” answered (his name is not really “Patchy,” of course. I’m just protecting his identity). Of course, he felt inclined to tell us his actual most embarrassing moment: him eating some foreign food that inevitably did not agree with him, resulting in him having an explosion of diarrhea while cooking dinner the next night.  That’s right--no filter whatsoever with “Patchy...” and I’m not just referring to his toilet.
Besides the challenge of one-sided awkwardness, I think it is safe to say that awkwardness can come equally from both sides.  Whether it is a date where you quickly discover that you share no interests at all with the person, or a situation I’m sure I have experienced: walking into someone, muttering some unidentifiable words because you were caught off guard, and both of you confusingly make movements you had no idea your body could make, in order to move out of each other’s way and get back onto the path to your destination. These moments are pretty common, though, and while we may not put much thought into them, they are still very apparent (and very uncomfortable). All in all, classic, bumpy, inescapable routes of the common person. 
(Check out this site for more REAL awkward moments from REAL PEOPLE! Include your own moments, if you would like as well!) http://www.theawkwardmoment.com/

There are those of us, however, who can break the bonds of social entrapment; whether it is a natural gift or the product of self-motivation, I do not know, but it is possible. I have witnessed the talent of several people, who simply are immune to shyness or overbearance.   They go to a party and completely open themselves up to people they have never met before, they go to school their first day and initiate conversation with whomever they feel like talking to at that moment; however, most importantly, they talk, and they do it without saying something out of term.  The leading cause for socially awkward situations can most often be pointed out specifically to a lack of conversation.  Now, there are also plenty of cases where people say too much (we’ve all had that experience on one side or the other); but for the most part, this is true.  Whether we, as people, are afraid of receiving judgement from others or just feeling inadequate, our efforts at avoiding awkwardness fail us with every word of silence we do not take the courage to break.  


So, why continue in pointless attempts at a graceful facade, if they are not working? Take a chance and sit next to someone you have never met before.  If you are afraid of human contact with strangers, pretend like you have never felt afraid a day in your life.  You have immeasurable capabilities. When walking by someone, just smile and say, “hi.” There’s no doubt about it; the human race will find itself stumbling less on the path of life when the people stop looking at their own two feet, and look up from the ground to talk with each other.  

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

The Conceited Porpoise (This Title has No Relation to the Topic)

Ever find yourself getting paranoid over things? (Please, do not respond to that question.) Let me expound on that thought, though. I notice, sometimes, that I haven't had something happen in awhile, and then that topic/thing starts popping up everywhere. For instance, this summer I went with some friends to go on a river float and one of them mentioned the fact that they bruise easily.  I had thought about it for a second.  "I don't really bruise that often," I proceeded to comment.  Little did I know, then, that I was later going to fall in the river and get several bruises on my leg, as well as, get 2 huge bruises on my arm the next day from climbing up a stairwell (long story, but there's one of the two bruises below). 
Needless to say, I was surprised after receiving so many apparent injurious bruises, that nobody called me out for being a "bruise-easy hypocrite."  Of course, I am not sure if people want to point out bruises on a person, especially if they are to the point that they look as if someone was beating them (touchy subject, I won't expound on.) 


BUT IT DID NOT END THERE! Yeah, I thought that it was kind of weird to get bruises after thinking that I rarely get them, but seriously. Now, it seems like I cannot go an entire week without getting a new bruise to replace the last one to start fading. I honestly believe I have had about 17 bruises in the last 2 months, not even joking. I just got my newest one from volleyball last Friday. 
I think it might continue on forever at this rate. It is actually a VERY big deal.  (Actually, it really isn't.)  Anyways! So, enough about my silly little bruises and observations. I would like to hear about YOU.  Have you ever had a similar situation to this? Not necessarily the bruises thing, but just something that involved you noticing some particular object that kept appearing in your life? Maybe you would always run into a certain cat every day or end up parking next to the same type of car all the time... who knows! Just, SHARE IT! :D

Friday, September 9, 2011

My Purpose

So, I just wanted to let any future "BLOB" followers (that sounds gross) know that the purpose of my blob is just to relay any thoughts I may have been thinking. I might share tips on how to look more attractive, create fun little cartoons to depict a story, or just share whatever is on my mind at the time. So, if you're not interested in that sort of conceited purpose, then you should definitely follow me!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

How to Seem Creative

Today, while pondering over typical college work (lots of reading), I wondered what denotes the level of creativity in a person. I mean, I have received the gratification of being placed into the class of "creative" people; but honestly, I do not know why. I assume that 'creativity' denotes originality of a thought or concept. Maybe this is why I do not consider myself all as creative as other people. But, who are the truly creative? Are they the ones that hype up on crazy drugs and paint some intense abstract art?

I do not typically indulge in drug use, though (actually, I never do).  So, how would one go about earning the title of 'creative?'

Well, I think for one, most people only occasionally have extremely creative ideas that are not influenced by any outside forces.  I can admit to being influenced by many different things to exhibit creativity of some form.  For instance, imagine going to a party.  You're snacking on Doritos (the best flavor, of course; use your imagination) with friends and a battle of wits breaks out amongst the group.  You were at a party last week and a similar situation took place where one of the members of last week's party outsmarted you.  Nobody at this party was at last week's party, so what do you do? Well, DUH. You use something similar (if not, exactly the same) to what the clever person at last week's party used on you.  This way, you appear much more clever than anyone else there, and you redeem a few, "Wow! You're so creative!" compliments, as well. 

So, if you ever wonder why you do not seem as creative as other people, you now know that they probably are not all as creative as you think. 

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Only Blob

This story begins like any other: BRAIN VOMITING.

That is not really how it begins, but it's a start, I suppose.  So, let's start with the real story:

Kelli is my name. You know, the one that my parents gave me, after the street I grew up on as a child (that's right, they ran out of names).  So, I had the normal childhood: one in a family of nine children and two parents; wanted to grow up to be a vet, but realized at a young age that I did not want to attend TEN YEARS of education beyond high school; and experienced several strange occurrences of karma for being a bratty child (like breaking the exact same arm as my sister 5 minutes after making fun of her for breaking hers).
As a relatively normal person, it is evident that I would follow the route of normal people.  The "normal" people I knew, all went to college; thus, I went to college.  After getting credit for first year english from my AP English class in high school, I figured I would get out of a class, but upon my arrival to college, I received the unwelcome news.  The school basically mocked me as if to say, "S-U-R-P-R-I-S-E! Your communications major requires you take the first-year writing with or without AP credit, sucker!"  I was fine with it because I like writing, and soon discovered my specific writing 150 class would be focused on blogging, as an experiment-- that's right, BLOGGING.
Of course, who wants to just fit into a category of people? (That's a rhetorical question.) I don't want to be just another "blogger."  Instead, I decided to take the route my teacher, Christopher, suggested by accident while stumbling over some of the words in our course syllabus describing what was supposed to be, "the academic blog."  Thus, "The Academic Blob" was born.
The trend will catch on; people will be "blobbing" all over the internet.  After all, who would not want to be able to tell their friends, "yeah, I blob a lot?" (Another rhetorical question.)  I am not 100% positive, but I am going to go with my gut feeling, or woman's intuition, or sixth sense, or whatever other kind of powers I could obtain to say that the likeliness of "blobbing" becoming popular among crowds has a 99.99723% chance.

SO, obviously this "blob" has a purpose besides brain vomit and blob fish with horribly done Microsoft paint skills editing (did that sentence make sense?);  it is to correlate how blobs and brain vomit can come together in order to unify the specific point that there are several problems in the world that can easily be voiced by means of opinion editorials.  Sure, I do not exactly know how to define opinion editorials, but I am sure that wikipedia will do a fine job in the meantime. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editorial

Anyways, back to the subject of problems.  What are problems? How does one solve them? Well, that has yet to be answered, BUT! Coming to a university campus setting, I have been able to find several small problems within the young adult committee. The main one: going to a class with lots of people and managing to be awkward enough so that the entire room feels stuffy. Any idea what I mean by that? Well, to put it simply in ANY given situation with ANY type of people (pretty, young, old, sci-fi readers, etc.), the strangers will most often arrange their seating so that they never sit next to anyone they do not know (unless seats are low) AND they avoid talking to each but regularly make eye contact with the stranger as they peer around the room in hopes to find someone they know or someone they find attractive.  It is basically the most unsatisfying feeling I have ever dealt with in my life. Definitely an opinion editorial I could expound on. That is... if anyone is interested to hear more? So, I think you have got to take this moment to ask yourself, "Can I handle this amount of truth?"