E-Portfolio Introduction

Introduction
   My name is Rebecca Rice and I have a passion for literature, writing, and retro indie and vintage clothing. This past year I have struggled constantly over the decision of what I want to do with the rest of my life. To be even more specific, I have struggled over what I would like to major in while here at Penn State. In the future, I would love to have a job which combines the first two of my passions and still enables me a lifestyle to allow me to enjoy the third. Until I figure out what I consider one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make, I continue to write, read the classics, and of course peruse my favorite clothing websites.
    I began my Penn State studies in the English division of the College of Liberal Arts. While I enjoyed my classes, I unfortunately felt I was not being proactive towards finding a future career. After much deliberation, I decided to switch to the College of Education because at that time I felt I needed job security and a definitive future goal.
    However as time passed, I found that perhaps I had made my decision to switch colleges too hastily. While I have a genuine love of children and a desire to make a difference whether it is in a small or large way, I began to realize that teaching is not for me.  Often I have had to sacrifice my creative tendencies to follow guidelines or adhere to a suggested course of study. When it came down to it, I realized that I was not happy in my current field of study and that changes needed to be made.
     Through my experiences this year I have discovered crucial information about about myself. I have determined what I do and do not like, my areas of strength, and  areas that I need some help in. I have also come to the conclusion that I am not above asking for help or guidance.
     With the help of various Penn State advisers, I have come to realize that often one's major has little influence over one's eventual career. This revelation has freed me from worrying about choosing a major based entirely on what jobs are associated with it. Instead, I am now choosing based creative freedom and my areas of strength. With this as my new attitude, I look forward to next semester and all the challenges it will surely pose.

http://www.wix.com/rebeccarice/la-101h-e-portfolio#!

Beardo

Last weekend (as many of you know since I have been talking about it pretty much non-stop) I went to visit my friend who attends the University of Pittsburgh.  She is one of my best friends from high school and we have often spoke of visiting one another since we only get to see each other sporadically on school breaks or the random weekend when we can coordinate to be home at the same time.  I had planned to visit her last semester, but our plans were delayed due to schedule conflicts. However, things worked in our favor for when both her schedule and my schedule allowed a visit was the same weekend as Pittsburgh’s annual carnival.

Every year the city of Pittsburgh shuts down a few of its major streets for a weekend for the city residents (and especially the college students) to enjoy food, games, rides, and free musical entertainment.  The musicians or bands who take the stage are not just locals either, but well-known performers.  This year the performer was Ke$sha.

Ke$sha’s opening act was an interesting fellow who went by the name of Beardo. (Pronounced Beard-O)  He sported a multi-colored mullet and was in his late 30s or early 40s.  Halfway through his performance he shed his shirt to reveal haphazardly placed tattoo with emphasis placed on a large rifle tattoo on his chest.  Being from a small rural community (and yes this is a nice way of saying hick town), I know many people who have gun pride and quite a few of my hometown friends have gun tattoos ( I did  mentioned I’m from a “small rural community” right). Anyway, when the people around where I was standing saw Beardo’s gun tattoo, being mainly city-kids, they were like Dude’s got a gun tattooed on his chest!!!!

Based on how the crowd responded to that, his age, and more importantly to his music, I don’t think Beardo was a good choice in opening act for Ke$sha.  He didn’t relate to the crowd (an audience full of screaming college kids) and when it comes down to it, being able to relate to something or someone is what really matters.

presentations

            Watching the presentations, I realized (like most of my other blog posts) the topics would not have been relevant ten or twenty years ago.  The multimedia project truly was taking advantage of kairtic situations. Lets look at the Adderall or illegal downloading projects.

            Adderall is a relatively newly developed prescription drug intended to help those who have ADHD and ADD. It is now being abused in high schools and colleges for students who need to cram for test or just have focus problems. In the past, students would have crammed the old-fashion way…and by this I mean becoming hermits at the local coffee shops.  Now students would rather drink coffee when it is fashionable instead of just for the caffeine and instead pop some pills and pull and all-nighter.

            I really enjoyed the illegal downloading project.  I honestly did not know that if you burnt a CD and gave it to your friend that was considered “stolen” music.  Why this is questionable to me is my parents have so many CDs that I downloaded into my library, now is that considered stealing too because I was not the original purchaser? Anyway, why this takes advantage of a kairotic moment is back to the whole advances of technology debate. Yes, the conveniences that technology has provided us with are so so nice, but when you get into arguments like this, it kind of makes you wonder, would it be easier to be back in a day when it wasn’t just a click away.

www.eduhookups.com

          One of the major differences between high school and college is the connotation of the term “hooking up”.  So in junior or high school when everyone heard that “Bobby” and  “Trixie” were hooking up, it spread around school faster than you could say sex. This is vastly different than the college view. As college students, we have the image of having indiscriminate sex and are portrayed as having a lifestyle of hook up after hook up. Not to discount this lifestyle for some students, but there is a significant portion of the student body (on any collegial campus) who, while they might engage in sexual relationships, are not continuously promiscuous. 

            Have you heard of the website www.eduhookups.com? It was started by the University of Chicago to dissuade the rumor that the “U of C” wasn’t where “fun comes to die” or where “the squirrels are cuter than the girls and more aggressive than the guys”, but really where “fun comes to thrive”. It is Craigslist for college students to find one another make plans, and, depending on the individuals involved, hookup.  

            It was only at the University of Chicago for a short time before its creators began getting email request to expand it to other universities/colleges. It is currently active at Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, Loyola University Chicago, Northwestern University, and (of course) University of Chicago. As of April 1^st it will be started at Wash U in St. Louis and Yale and on the 4^th it will launch at Brown and RISD.

            The point of this is 20 or 10 years ago, this wouldn’t have occurred. College students would just go down to the bars or to the frats to find someone. So, in the new world of technology, while hooking up has become much easier (also much less of a stigma), it has also become extremely impersonal.

The Standing Ovation

You are in the commons sitting with your friends at one of the overcrowded tables basically yelling to try to be heard over the massive roar that the room seems to comprise of. More people keep piling into the room and the lines begin to look worse than they did when you waited three hours for your Lil Wayne ticket. Glancing down at the food that you now realized is significantly better than usual, you come to the revelation it an accepted students tour day. You share your newfound knowledge with your friends and together you examine the possibles standing in line, clutching their folders, making awkward small talk with one another while their parents look proudly and smugly around for their child has been accepted to Penn State.

The hearty atmosphere changes immediately when one of the tour students drops their drink glass. At the sound of the shattering glass, the dinning hall becomes instantly silent. Then, breaking the spell, one table breaks into a round of applause and rowdy cheers with more tables following suit. The movement gains momentum until most of the dinning hall is clapping and shouting with some even giving a standing ovation.  Eventually the movement dies down, the broken glass is cleared away, and the roar resumes.

This is a major kaiotic moment and honestly one I witness everytime there is a tour group. There is always some poor nervous or just plain accident-prone person (I am one of these people!) who drops something or shatters something and the student body of Penn State reverts to their elementary schools days to ridicule him/her. It is done out of necessity of the Penn State student body to show (and by that I mean humiliate) the accepted students that while they might be the big seniors now, they will be the underdog freshmen again next year.

kariotic survey

Today (Thursday) I had a major psychology exam. So, Wednesday night I found myself holed up in my floor’s study room going over my notecards and debating on whether or not to go get some sort of caffeinated drink from The Mix.  While considering this crucial choice, two girls came into the study room and asked if I had time to participate in a survey. In addition they did not tell me the subject of the survey.

Firstly, I must backtrack and must say they mentioned they were from the second floor of my building. This information is crucial to this “story”.

They asked me only three questions, but I feel if I knew the survey’s topic before I agreed to answer then I would have been better prepared. The questions were pretty close to (meaning might have been worded differently) 1) Are you a virgin? 2) Have you been more sexually active in college? 3) Do you think females are more sexually active in college?

Why I am posting this in a rhetoric blog is because it took advantage of a kariotic situation. This situation is completely full of karios because I live in one of the oldest dorms that is constantly falling apart.  For example one of the elevators is constantly broken (I live on the top floor) and we are always having the water turned off.  In addition, before spring break our building had construction done to some of the bathrooms and the entryway which along with a downed elevator caused major back-ups and dissatisfaction all around. So, when the girls said they were from the second floor and were doing a survey, but did not state the topic, I (like most people on my floor) automatically assumed it was about the building or the construction not sexuality.

Lester Bangs

Since my essay was about a public controversy, I thought it kind of fitting to write about a rhetoric idea from it that I did not cover in my paper. My essay was about Lester Bangs’ harsh announcement of Punk groupie Nancy Spungen’s death. In its duration I went over kairos, audience, and constraints, but did not explain the logos that made Bangs the ideal writer for this piece.

            Lester Bangs was a music journalist that is most known for writing for magazines like Rolling Stone or Creem (Punk Magazine).  When Spungen was killed, the Punk movement was still relatively new and had not developed a following outside of fellow Punks. (In a nutshell, a Punk is one who deviates from social norms). Thus, the public was not accepting of Punk music, Punk musicians, or the movement itself.

            Lester Bangs would have made for an ideal bridge between the two communities if only he had been able to remain impartial.  For he was known for his music savvy so therefore he could inform the populace, but was not a musician so therefore the mass public could relate to him.

            However, (as I mentioned in my paper) Lester Bangs ultimately chose career advancement over objectively informing the population and thus the tension between the Punks and their oppressors only intensified.

Remember the Titans generates rhetoric blog

Oh Davin, I thought you were kidding when you said some of the great rhetoric conversations were going to happen late at night just sitting around talking with friends.  Well, last night it finally happened to me on a variety of topics and I can say yes, you were right.

My friends and I were sitting around (I was of course diligently preparing my speech…aka having a minor freak out!) watching what can be debated one of the best football movies of all time Remember The Titans.  While watching the movie one of my friends brought up the point that she couldn’t imagine segregation especially in school settings.  This is when we told her that this is sadly what they are doing in schools all across the nation.

The school districts are not calling it segregation. No, that would be unethical and unconstitutional. Instead, they are saying by integrating students, the students lose the ability to learn about their culture and by separating them they are given that opportunity.  Well, congratulations we just managed to undermine the Civil Rights Movement. 

However this is unfair to students of all races.  Yes, I am aware there are schools where the racial ratio is severely skewed (many rural area are often predominantly Caucasian while many intercity schools or schools with Martin Luther King Jr. associated with their name are predominately African-American…brought up by another friend), but how does further enabling this solve the problem.

We kept debating on whether this was a real issue or not. One of my friends said they discussed this in her sociology class and whenever people would comment they would say, “Well, I’m not a racist, but…(insert bogus claim).”

            In addition, I am going to be a secondary high school educator (English Teacher Waaa-Hoooo!) and I think diversity is an important characteristic to a successful learning environment. You learn as much from your peers and environment as much as from your teacher/yourself, so if you’re in a class with students that are exactly the same as you what are you truly going to learn from them?

            I will not even pretend to know the secret to world peace, but I know that re-segregating the schools is going to cause more harm than good. 

snickers peanut butter squared + sharks

While I was searching the Internet, a commercial popped up for the new Snickers peanut butter squared bars.  (If you haven’t tried one yet, they are exactly what the name implies…a Snickers bar with peanut butter ...oh and they’re really good too!)  Anyway while I was watching it, I realized it would make a pretty good topic for my rhetoric blog because it held examples of what we’ve been going over in class (ethos, logos, and pathos).

            First of all, I believe I stated before that I am quite terrified of sharks, so when this commercial popped up I kind of felt it was like a sign. The creators of the commercial played upon sharks’ reputation of being bloodthirsty man-eaters when they put together this commercial. This appeals to ethos because with “real” sharks’ reputation and the “commercial” sharks’ dialog about preferring Steve because he tasted like Snickers and peanut butter, the audience felt that claim was credible because sometimes sharks do eat people.

            The logos appeal was in a humorous kind of twisted way. The market-researcher was gathering her information by asking which human (Lisa or Steve) tasted better.  The commercial setting was in a boardroom/conference room and the research was photos of the two people that had been eaten.

            Finally, like me, most people are afraid of getting eaten by sharks and by capitalizing on this fear the commercial creators are playing on the commercial’s pathos.  In addition, this commercial defies audience expectations.  The viewers don’t expect to see sharks essentially judging a candy bar by which person tasted better and are surprised when the man is pushed through the door to ultimately be sacrificed to the sharks.

Bon Jovi Concert

“OHHHHH WE’RE HALFWAY THERE OHHHHH LIVIN’ ON A PRAYER!” Oh yes I was at the Bon Jovi concert. I am a huge fan and lucked into getting pretty cheap tickets at the last minute. It was my first concert at the Bryce Jordan Center and in all honesty it was amazing.

Now you might be wondering how does a Bon Jovi concert might relate to rhetoric? Well, Jon Bon Jovi’s appearance and his speeches were rhetoric all the way.

First of all, Jon Bon Jovi had several outfit changes during the show. And when I say outfits, I mean shirts. He started out in a leather-like button shirt, then changed to a button dress shirt, then finished in a leather vest.  What these three “shirts” had in common were that they all showed a fair amount of skin for they were buttoned just one button too far. (yes even for Jon Bon Jovi the unspoken button rule exists) When his shirts kept gaping further open he began to look more and more messy (not rock-star) and he began to look his age.  In contrast when he emerged after a quick break when guitarist Richie Sambora sang a song, he had re-buttoned some of his shirt and looked more put together.

Secondly, the speeches and just the way Jon Bon Jovi talked between songs were pure rhetoric. He knew how and when to excite and to pump up the crowd. He also knew what to say when introducing a slower calmer song.  During the encore he gave a motivational speech that touched every audience members and made them feel like he was talking to them personally. He concluded his motivational speech by continually repeating “I can I will, I can I will, I can I will, I can I will…” So, not were the audience members blown away by the sheer awesomeness of the concert they had witnessed, but they were touched that he had taken the time to inspire them.

texting vs. calling

As mentioned in the chapter 5 reading, sometimes we do not choose the best option for our communication needs.  I, along with so many of my generation, am guilty of relying on text messaging as my primary source of communicating to others. Studies have shown that while our technology skills are increasing, our interpersonal skills are decreasing.  Also with this decrease in interpersonal skills, goes our ability to judge what we should say orally and what we instead type frantically away on our cell phones.  

            Most college students (and many high school students too) know and are contributors of www.textsfromlastnight.com. Texts from Last Night is a website that was founded in February 2009 with the intent of posting anonymous texts and parts of conversations from the previous night. They are often funny, sometimes crude, but always amusing.  

            How Texts from Last Night relates to the reading is when you read some of the texts posted on the site, you know if they had just called each other instead of texting, things would have gone much much smoother. An example of this is:

            “Im lying in the gutter can u come get me?”

            “Where r u?”

            “Under the stars!”

Person 1 clearly had no idea where they were and person 2 had no way to find person 1.  If they had called each other they might have been able to put together a general location for person 1.

            Sometimes texting is easier than calling someone, but you have to realize what is appropriate when the situation calls for it.  

Free Love Graffiti

An article in the Wednesday January 26, 2011 issue of The Daily Collegain really struck me as interesting while I was reading. The article was written by Collegain staff writer Vera Greene and was titled Graffiti defaces concrete walls of Forum Building. The article describes the vandalism that was done to a well-known academic building at Penn State. The building was tagged with graffiti that stated the somewhat incorrectly spelled and punctuated “If love were a (smiley face) vegegtable id grow it”.

The article came across slightly comical at times with its assertive unwavering stance that the graffiti was nothing but a criminal act committed by rambunctious hooligans. The article states “ Police don’t believe the markings to be gang-related”.  I disagree. I believe this is the mark of the hopeless romantic gang and what makes them so dangerous is sheer numbers and the fact that they are located all over the world.  Also, members of the elusive hopeless romantic gang have no distinguishing marks so identifying them on sight alone is almost impossible.  However all kidding aside, the stance on which they are presenting seems to be a bit extreme.      

I am aware that graffiti is against the law, but I also believe in self-expression.  This cute witticism proclaims the graffiter’s opinion about love, but is not accepted because of the crude manner in which it was proclaimed.