My Writing...

Writing has always been something that I can do, sometimes I can do it well, and other times I cannot. Really, like all other people, my writing skill depends on what I am writing about, and whether or not I understand what I am writing about.

When I was little, I wanted to be a teacher. Then I wanted to be a writer, and I still have the stories that I wrote when I was a child. When I was in high school, I had a teacher who encouraged me, but then the next year, I didn’t have her anymore, and I was in an AP class, without prior knowledge to anything they were talking about. My creativity fell because of this class, and it was upsetting, because I used to love it so much, and then I didn’t. In senior year, I had another teacher who was an encouragement, but the passion I once had wasn’t coming back. I had fun writing the assignments for that class, as well as the one that I was in this semester, but I think now I have learned how to write differently than what they taught me in high school.

My process of writing hasn’t changed since way back in the day. When I have to write a paper, I sit my butt down and do it, and write the entire thing in one sitting. When I finish, I re-read it to see if it’s any good. If not I take what was good, and I trash what was bad. Hours later I come back to it and see how it looks, and if it sounds bad, I trash it again. I did this in high school, but I didn’t have the time to trash it over and over again, so most of the time, my teacher just got whatever I spewed out the first time, and usually I got marked down for the trashy parts that I should have cut out. Now that I have time, I can go over these papers and fix them. Since I wasn’t really taught how to do this, the first couple posts I did were probably like this… but now they’re doing better.

Work shopping is really important to me. This last paper that we wrote, the rhetorical analysis, I didn’t understand how the heck to write it. I wrote what I could and I came to class very unprepared, but then when we did peer reviews, my partner told me that my paper sounded like a reflection rather than an analysis. Then she suggested ways that I could change what I had said to make it more analytical. With her help, I think that I at least turned my paper around and hopefully got it going in the right direction.

My writing, in my own opinion, has not changed drastically since this class started. English has always been a strong point for me, and although I don’t get “into it” like some of my peers, I do find it interesting and fun. In the first post that I did for this class, I think that my writing got awfully repetitive, and that is something that changed for the better…Yet I think that I still have a tendency to do that. My stronger point was definitely the observational essay, because it’s observation, hell anyone can do that. It was something that I was familiar with, so it made it even easier, but I had a problem with the word limit, because I went way to far over, and it was even worse before I cut things out. I had the same problem with the reflective essay, and I think it’s because I put too much detail into my writing and sometimes… I don’t know where to stop. Weaker points, besides what I just mentioned was FOR SURE the rhetorical analysis. I don’t know if I personally just didn’t get it, or if it was something that everyone had problems with. I just could not grasp the concept! It was annoying to write, because I didn’t know what I was doing, and I just tried my best, and then I took it to class, and my reviewer said that it was wrong. I was so down… but then she helped me a lot. (See, there’s my repetition again…) The other thing that gave me problems was because I am so shy, I don’t like to talk to people I don’t know. Communication is a bit part of writing, and this was hard for me.

Environmental Argument

When it comes to the environment, it seems like no one cares anymore. People drive around - polluting for the fun of it. We waste heat and electricity like it's no big deal. Our factories run day and night, but we ignore it. When I used to take the bus, and came out of the station, the difference in the air was overwhelming from the pollution. People can’t seem to take the hints that our environment is throwing at us, and it's displayed in this cartoon.

Cruising is one of the things that come to mind when I think of "polluting for the fun of it." This cartoon illustrates a hummer, an H2, towing behind it a floating vehicle that says "United Fuel in Air, (Unfair.) Ironically, it says 'unfair' which is what the human populace is to the environment. The smoke that is coming out of the vehicle is pollution the air. The theme is interesting, because usually in ads, they are "BUY OUR PRODUCT!" but here, which is not the case. It is saying "Don't buy this product!" The argument is plain and simple; H2 Hummers are driven by people who just don't care.



The 'bumper stickers' are statements displaying the ignorance/arrogance of the drivers of these vehicles. "Honk if you're high and mighty" is the first and the most generalizing of the statements and it's a great start. When people have the "Honk if..." statements, they're usually protesting something. This one, on the other hand, says "Honk if you're high and mighty," which would display your arrogance if you did. These bumper stickers are their persuasive message, and the first is the start of the sarcasm used here.

Originally, they are based on the military High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, or Humvee. The Hummer is one of the larger SUV types, with commensurate high fuel consumption. (Wikipedia.com) These vehicles are used as carriers for cargo and troops as well as weapons platforms, ambulances, missile carriers, as well as many other things. After learning that, it makes one wonder how these vehicles became used for everyday driving. Even Humvees use a ton of gas, and pollute a lot, so when you read the second bumper sticker, it makes you think. "Fe fi fo fum, I smell the oil of a hybrid scum," is kind of a bitter statement, because while it insists that hybrid cars are scum, and not as good as the H2 Hummer.

Both the wording and the imagery are equally important in this cartoon, because without one, the other wouldn't make that much sense. Without the text, it would just be a picture of an H2 Hummer dragging around another vehicle that says "Unfair" on it. Yet without that, the bumper stickers wouldn't be nearly as appealing, because a person would just glance at it, without thinking. First, the eye sees the picture, and then reads the captions, even if that is backward from the way we read; the image grabs the eye first.


Next, moving along to appeals, this ad can be seen as to appeal to all, (logos, ethos and pathos.) The appeal to logos is the rationality behind this argument, which it’s just in people’s rationality they should not driver hummers because it’s pushing along the killing of our air. There’s not really any statistics, or even facts present in this cartoon, but the statements are exaggerated truths. Logical fallacies aren’t here either, which is good, which are more common in political arguments. In a way, this is a logical appeal because it is a logical result in using such a fuel consuming vehicle.

Ethos is also strongly present in this, because it’s appeal to character, more specifically, the speakers. The speaker is the comic writer and their character is the same of the people that look for these kinds of comics, and find them funny. By reading this, you can tell that the artist/writer is someone who more than likely doesn’t drive an H2 Hummer themselves. There are no misuses of Ethos here, which makes it even more convincing. Pathos is also easy to find in this work, because it appeals to the emotions. The whole thing is full of humor, and if you find it funny it appealing to you, and the artist did their job, by making you laugh at something that you dislike. The humor in this is something that seems like it would only be seen by people who don’t agree that vehicles like this one need to be driven on our streets. These jokes are what make it an appeal to the emotion. There are no exaggerated uses of pathos here, because there is no scare tactic, over sentimentalization, or “sliding down the slippery slope fallacies” here, because this ad is simple, it says that if you support and drive H2 Hummers , you are killing the air.

Hummers have a reputation, as stated “Although the Hummer H1 has a rock-solid reputation as a go-anywhere, climb a wall, he-man machine, its historic roots run back a century to a spindly horseless carriage called the overland runabout.” (Lamm, 11) Although this is about the H1, the H2 isn’t that different. This chapter later delves into the history of the Hummer, which in fact, the vehicle later known as the Humvee, is based off a military jeep. On caption below a picture of a jeep says “The great grandfather of all Hummers is the famous Willys World War II Jeep, which was known throughout the world for its go-anywhere, four-wheel drive versatility and ruggedness.” (12) And then the next picture states; “AM General civilianized the military Humvee and created the H1, keeping the big machine’s unique proportions and making little compromise for street life.” (13)

This book does not have an argument like the comic, because it is a pretty factual book, but it makes a person wonder “WHY” have military vehicles for your personal driving?

This comic is trying to tell people that their environment is precious, and they’re destroying it by doing things like driving around in vehicles like Hummers, which treat the world unfairly.

Works cited:
Lamm, John and De Lorenzo, Matt. Hummer H2. St. Paul MN; Motorbooks International, 2002.

Revelation

Is the title of the song I am listening to at the moment.

I've had a couple of kind of important moments of revelation myself, recently. The first one was something that improved my life greatly, the middle one of utmost importance, and the other one is the thing that is ailing my life at the moment.



Firstly, when I was in high school, (it seems so long ago yet it was just last year...) I was friends with a girl who most would call a poser. I didn't see it at first but as summer break faded so did she. Along with 60 bucks she owed me, which I eventually got paid back... but let me start over.

This girl was the kind of person who only does and likes things because their friends do. She was supposedly very into Japanese culture, as I am, and she said that she really like Japanese music like me. Yet the only time she listened to it was when I was around. She not only copied my internet name but she copied my style, which is a mixture of prep, goth and punk. (Weird, I know.) She copied my strengths in school (history was the one that she mimiced) and pretty much follwed me everywhere. (Statements of a mutual friend.) She even tried to get a job at my workplace.



So I took her to the Family Values Concert last August. The only reason that I went was because Dir en Grey was there, and I desperatley wanted to see them, even if it was just once. I ended up being able to shake hands with the bassist and the lead guitarist, as did she. This was a very big thing for me, because I'm a very big fan, but she burst out sobbing. I didn't.

We lost touch.

The last one I mentioned is at my workplace, there is a girl creating hostility. It involves me, and her, obviously. We used to be friends, but she and I fell out after she went through a management certification two months later than me. She became obsesive with the job, and started acting superior to everyone that we work with, even though everyone had seniority over her, that didn't stop it.

Last week I recieved a text messege stating that we could play nice at work but we were not friends. Like that wasn't known before, but on top of that she started telling one of my best friends that I was trash talking her to everyone around the place when I did no such thing and I don't know where she got such an idea.

Work place drama sucks.

My dad said that I don't need people like that in my life, and I am better off without her friendship. Just like the previous story, I am sure once she gets over the power trip of this job, she will quit and eventually loose touch with us at work as well.

These aren't good revelations, but they are, none the less revelations.

Next month...

There are two different concerts in Los Angeles that I want to go to, and I won't be able to. The first is a Korean pop concert, which is having many different artists, some of which I listen to and some of which I don't. Later, around the 25, there is a Japanese Rock Revolution concert, which is what I would die to go to. There are going to be MANY artists there that I like. This is not fair, it's not fair that all the Japanese and Korean artists I listen to are going to L.A. and no where else, because I cannot afford to go to either and I will miss out.



You're probably thinking, "This girl is strange, she's not Asian at all but she likes this stuff?"



Allow me to ellaborate... when I was in eigth grade I was introduced back into Japanese anime by a girl I knew. I used to watch Sailor Moon and Pokemon, but this new phase was unlike any other. It launched something that has laste six or so years with me. After I got really obsessive with Dragon Ball Z (which I insisted on watching in Japanese on the International Channel,) I started to listen to the Japanese music which was on those said shows. Once I fell into the InuYasha string, I found Ayumi Hamasaki, and she launched all of what I know today. When on an Ayu fansite I found the music artist Gackt. Gackt used to be in a visual kei band known as Malice Mizer, which led into Mana, the guitarist of Malice Mizer is now in a band called Moi Dix Mois. Watching different visual bands eventually led to Dir en Grey, who led to La;Sadies, which led to X-Japan because the old drummer of X used to produce Dir en grey. X Japan then led to Luna Sea, because the drummer and the guitarist are friends. It's all a chain, all this happened because of anime and that one girl in middle school.

Goth

My title might be very misleading, because when you think of Goth, most people think of the high school kids that wear their clothes straight out of Hot Topic who are supposed to be depressed or whatever. When I think of Goth, I think of clothing and architecture styles, but even I was called a Goth a lot when I took karate classes. Black, being one of my favorite colors, is what I wear the most of, which makes many people assume I am a Goth. I am more interested in the Gothic Lolita fashion of Japan than anything, because it’s what sparked my interest in clothing design. The clothing style that interests me the most, however is the line Moi-meme-Moitie, created by Japanese rock star Mana, (who is a MAN by the way.) Though his clothing is expensive, it’s beautiful, and it’s the reason that I wanted to learn how to make clothes in the first place. Looking at Mana’s creations made me create as well, though most of them are still drawings, I hope to make them into real articles of clothing one day. Compared to Mana, I am not a Goth at all, because all of the clothing that he makes is Gothic Lolita and Aristocrat, (can you tell he’s richer than I can ever imagine?)

Not all Goth clothing is black, quite the contrary, actually. If one looks around hard enough, they can see that deep blues and purples, as well as crimson reds are used heftily in Goth fashion. Also, if you look back through Japanese rock’s fashions, most bands went through ‘Goth’ phases, which were later moved out of, like all phases. Mana stuck to it though, and continues to create amazing peices.

YouTube feat. Gackt Dressing Up!

Tommy Hilfiger Spoof

This ad is making fun of Tommy Hilfiger brand, probably making fun of one of their ads sayings. This ad says “Follow the flock” and then it portrays some sheep. It appeals to people’s sense of humor, because I think that since this is so mild, even people who like Tommy brand clothing will think this ad somewhat humorous. Theme wise, this is just a spoof, doing what spoofs do; making fun of the main brand. This particular spoof is saying that you are simply going with what everyone else goes with if you wear this particular brand. Also, this ad relies on both the words and the image, because without one, the other is insignificant, and people would have to read into the ad much more than they have to as it is right now. I haven’t seen the original picture that this would be making fun of, because I don’t follow major fashion trends, but like I said before, I think that this ad says it all when it’s read. Trend followers have a tendency to just “go with the flow,” or following the flock, like this ad states. Take the ‘emo’ fad for example. When I was in high school, senior year, it was all the rage to be emo, but the year before no one had even heard the term. This ad is saying that if you’re into fashion, you’re just going to go with it, whether you like it or not, but that’s not always true, and that’s where this ad goes wrong.

Calvin Klein's Ads

In this picture, a couple is portrayed holding each other. The sex appeal is strong, but it’s not as bad as something say like, Abercrombie and Fitch. The female is straddling the male, and she is shirtless, as is he. You can see the woman’s underwear, which says “Calvin Klein” on it, making it obvious what this ad is for. It’s not inappropriate, because it’s not showing anything but it might not be something that parents want their young children seeing. The partial nudity is hidden, but the implications aren't rated G. I don’t know the effectiveness of it, but judging from how popular of a brand Calvin Klein is, I would say that the sex appeal is pretty effective for them. Personally, I don’t really see this as an exaggerated attempt at pathos, but other people might see it that way. It is an attempt at pathos though, because it’s prying at the person’s sex appeal. Ads like this are trying to make people think, “If I wear this brand, girls will sit like that with me” and vice-versa. Do most people think that way? I doubt it. Rationally, people should know that members of the opposite sex won’t flock to them because they wear a certain brand. Advertisers like to make it seem that way, but everyone knows that won’t happen. A better example of this sort of ad is the ones for Axe body spray, because those are more exaggerated extremes of what this picture implies.

Analysis of Constellation

Like I mentioned in my last post, things like this piece take a lot of concentration, just because of the tedious nature that they invoke. Because this artist used letters, it makes me wonder how she decided which letters to put where, or if it was completely random in her choosing. The letters are so tiny, I imagine that it would be awfully time consuming, and the fact that the perspective is somewhat forced because it’s easier to tell what it is from far away makes me think so even more. I did like how where she wanted to show the blackness of the universe, she used masses of letters, and then when it came to the continents, it was less, and then islands became even less, and water became none. That showed amazing contrast, because this picture is solely black and white. Looking at this artist’s other works, she seems to favor black ink for everything and she also likes tiny things making a bigger picture. In another piece she used words instead of letters to create a spiral, but if you read the letters they don’t make much sense. Looking at both of the pictures from far away boggles my mind, because I would think to make that picture, the artist would have to see it from far away as well, but it doesn’t seem like they could do so. Unless perhaps they hung it up on the wall and went on the other side of the room, then perhaps they could do so.

(The image quality didn't save too well. If you click the above link you can see a very good smaller picture.)

Reflection of Constellation

This was amazing, because it made me see something that I didn’t see the first time I looked at it. Something like this would have taken immense concentration and I don’t think that I would be able to do it myself. The title “Constellation” threw me off a bit, because I see this as a quarter of the globe, not a section of stars like the title portrays. Other than that, there wasn’t anything else that I found interesting or cool. I used to take a lot of art classes in high school, and if I had more time, I would still be active in this area. This reminded me of something that I had to do for a beginning class, where we used multi-media, and then we had to use hatching and cross-hatching (hatching is like /// and cross-hatching is like making a lot of x’s) to make a picture. The teacher set up a still life, and we had to use that to portray an apple, a flag, a pear and a vase. It was one of the most challenging things I have done, but it was also one of the pictures I did that I was the most proud of. Making something such as this would be an amazing feat for me, because it just seems like it would take so much time, and could cause a lot of frustration.

Observation on Constellation

Constellation by Alice Attie, is a series of letters all meshed together to make a quarter of the globe. When it is up close you can’t tell what it is at all, because it all looks like a bunch of shapes made of letters. Once it is seen from a distance, it’s clear: It is indeed a globe, showing some parts of Europe, North America and North Africa. The left half is more than likely supposed to be the universe, a dark, black mass that comes from putting letters really close together showing little spaces for breathing. It progresses down into the North American areas, Canada and some of the United States, and some of Greenland, which are put together much more lightly, showing that they are separated from the blackened mass. At the same time this also displays that this is not supposed to be white, like the water. The one clear thing is Italy; the boot shape is very distinct in this picture, even when it is seen at a close angle. It does seem like Europe is very close to North America, but maybe it was meant to see it like you are looking at the area where Italy is, so you see North America off to the side, making it look a little closer than it actually is.

Reflective Essay; Dir en Grey in Colorado

It was freezing outside, no joke. When we arrived at the Gothic Theatre, about 3 pm on Friday, February 16, it was nice and sunny out, but that didn’t last. By the time it actually started snowing, the line was still fairly small, only about 50 people, but there were a lot of people (girls mostly) running around in tank tops and wanna-be gothic Lolita clothing. Last time Dir en Grey was here, it was so hot, probably about 80 degrees if not more, and now it was snowing. I had Jimmy’s coat and my hoodie, and I was shivering. After about an hour of standing around shivering, I begged my friend Jimmy to go buy us a blanket. Jimmy returned, and as Katie and I mused, he bought a huge comforter. All I could think about was how cold I was, but anticipation rushed through me as well.



They finally let us in at 7 pm. They searched us, which I didn’t get at first. As soon as we got in, Katie and I plopped down in some chairs behind the pit. Jimmy wasn’t happy with that, he looked up and noticed a balcony, where he dragged us up, and found stools that were about 10 feet away from the left side of the stage. Once everyone was let in, the anticipation rushed across the crowd again, we were going to get to see Dir en Grey. After sitting for what seemed like hours, the opening band Bleed the Dream came out. Their performance was actually pretty good, but it was weird that an American band was opening for a Japanese one. Then another band Fair to Midland came out, and I didn’t like them, the vocalist weirded me out because he kept drooling and making seizure like motions.

That band finished around 8:30, and more anticipation rushed across the small venue. My stomach started to churn, just like it did the last time I saw this band perform, and I felt like I was about to be sick. Thankfully that didn’t happen, and when the two main techs for Dir en Grey came out, the whole venue erupted with screams once again. They messed with the guitars and the bass, and it seemed like it took them hours. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one feeling this way. The song “G.D.S.” started to play, the opening song of every concert since the song was made, and the fans started to go wild again. The song chants “KILL, KILL, KILL” numerous times throughout it and some people chanted it too many times. After G.D.S. was over, they really started.

This particular day of the event was the vocalist’s, Kyo’s birthday. Between the songs “Mr. Newsman” and “Agitated Screams of Maggots,” the whole venue started to sing happy birthday to him. As soon as we started, Shinya slowed his drumming and Kyo just stood on the stage. As soon as people started to repeat it, starting over the song, the band started to go into “Agitated Screams of Maggots” which is so much better performed live. Kyo leaned over the audience and got a snarl on his face and flipped them off while the highly disturbing video played in the back round. Also, jumping back a little bit, I noticed during the song “The Final” that Kyo stopped singing his parts of the chorus and let us scream the song along with him. That song is the most amazing by far.



After Obscure ended, they left the stage, and I was downcast, thinking “That’s all they’re going to do?” Everyone else in the venue was going crazy, chanting “Dir en Grey” over and over again. It was only about five or six minutes later that Shinya reappeared, along with everyone else, and Kyo came last, a bit after the rest. During this last part of the show, I really wished that I had the guts to shove myself to the front of the mosh pit, because Toshiya, Die and Kaoru all got really close to the edge of the stage and started interacting with the audience. Kaoru did his trademark of putting his arms in the air and mouthing what looked like “WHAT?” and Toshiya spit water on the people underneath me a few times.

During “IllD Empire,” everyone screamed “Spark and Spark” along with Kyo, and then right before they started “Clever Sleazoid,” Kyo put one finger in the air and said “last song” into the microphone. After they finished, Kyo took a bucket of water and dumped it on his head, the buckets only word was “Rape.” During all this it was chaotic; all the fans were going nuts, again screaming “Dir en Grey” over and over again. It was really disappointing for me, because Die threw one of his guitar picks right at Jimmy, and he caught it, but then it fell. He and another guy behind me started to look for it on the floor and gave up. This was when I took my chance, and I found it. The guy who was looking earlier saw me looking and grabbed it right before I could get it. I wanted to kick him.



After that Katie and I headed to the merchandise booth, which was hell all over again. People were shoving and elbowing, not at all like how kind they were before the show started. Every time I told the lady what I would like, she told me the price right away and expected me to be done. That made me sad because I took a large amount of money out of my checking account for this concert, and all got was the shirt I wanted and a wrist band as well, but man, did I want to get my hands on a couple of those cds.

It was still snowing when we got out, about 10:30, and Jimmy found Katie and me when we came out of the hot theatre. Outside, I saw an ambulance and wondered if that was what all the chaos and screaming was about. We were all screaming because we couldn’t hear, being so close to the stage made our ears ring like crazy so I’m sure we got a lot of weird looks walking down Broadway back to Jimmy’s car. Then Jimmy asked the question, “That bassist, what’s his name?” Toshiya, I replied without missing a beat. “He’s really hot, even I’d do him.” That got Katie going as well, because during the performance she told me she’d fallen in love with the drummer. She said something similar, and I just kept walking, excited to have gotten to see them again. All those songs are so much more amazing performed live, but Dir en Grey is an amazing band to see. Shinya’s drumming and Toshiya’s bass mesh so well together and then they’re also nothing without Kaoru and Die’s guitars, and they’re nothing without Kyo’s vocals. I would probably drop dead at the chance to meet them (again, because I got to meet Kaoru and Toshiya at the last concert.) This time, though, I wasn’t that lucky.

Freewrite; My Fat Cat

My cat, his name is Adam and he has got to be one of the puffiest cats I have ever seen in my life. He weighs about 20 pounds, on a good day, and sometimes he can be more annoying than my little brother.

We got him when he was a year old, about three years ago, from Petsmart. Now, instead of cowering away from people like he used to, he trots up to the front door any time it’s opened. He loves to go outside, but as part of our contract with Petsmart we couldn’t let him be an outdoor cat… so instead he has a harness and a leash. It’s really odd to see a cat being walked on a leash and I really wish that I had some pictures of it.

All of my friends say that he’s an adorable cat, and one of my friends from high school told off another kid because he was saying things about how fat he is. She said “Shut up! Her cat’s adorable!” Oh if only she knew how bad things can get. I’m in the process of learning how to construct clothing and I have a whole table in the back of my family room devoted to it. This is where I keep my sewing machine, my pins, scissors, thread, and everything else that I might need. This is also where Adam has a field day, because of all the thread that’s on rolls. Once he gets wired up on catnip, he jumps up onto my table, scattering thread, knocking over the pin cushions, and generally making a mess of everything that I have laid out. Just last night, he knocked over my newest project, the top part of a dress (which I failed at making my own pattern to) and ripped some of the older patterns I had sitting out. This morning, as I was looking at the dress shirt patterns I have, he came and pounced on the thin paper, which wrinkled and tore some of it.

Cute. Okay, if you say so.

Another tendency that everyone thinks odd of Adam is cleaning up. Let’s face it; he throws up, a lot. It’s quite an annoyance, because guess who has to clean it up most of the time? Yet, he makes it easier, because after he vomits, he paws at it, pulling it all into a little pile. While this experience is still revolting, he makes it a little easier by doing that, and it’s also something that’s very odd. No one else I have talked to has told me their cats do that. So, yeah he is interesting, and he is cute. But he is also annoying, and a little brat.

Costumes for the Famous...

In this picture, we used Red [EM] dye for the hair, while the hair stylist had a hard time because of the hair length, it turned out very wonderfully. The complaints about how long it took were dismissed after the final result came about, but then there was the make-up to worry about. After that was all finished, the costume came on. Hand made, out of nylon and leather, this particular outfit took days of work to make. It had to be lined because the model’s allergy to nylon, and that made it take even longer to make. The final touches to the outfit consisted of adding studs to it, which looks easy, but it’s a really long, complicated process. The tedious nature of studding the outfit added on about a day’s length of work alone, but when it came to the making of the mask, nothing compared to it. After much complaining from Die (model shown, guitarist in band Dir en Grey) the mask fit him how he wanted it. It had to be made five to six different times to make him happy about it, but in the end it was all worth the effort. The mask is made of the same material, and that too, had to be lined over and over again as to not make his allergy act up. Replacing the studs on the mask was not an easy task either, because of the patterns that they were wanted in, they had to be removed every time.

Starbucks Blog; about Coffee, really?

Starbucks. My best friend says that to drink Starbucks makes you a yuppie. I didn’t even know they had this kind of blog site for Starbucks. And what’s even more surprising is that my dictionary on my word processor isn’t saying I spelled it wrong. There are ads covering the left side of this blog, and they all have to do with Starbucks. I find it funny, I don’t know if anyone else does. After reading all the blogs, it’s interesting to see what each of them have to say. My favorite is the one at the very bottom, where it says “The worst thing is when customers have their drink orders pre-printed on a Post-It note.” I mean, who would expect the barista to wash their dirty mug? I certainly wouldn’t, because I just think that’d be really rude. This blog reminds me a lot of Live Journal.com because of the way that the actual blog part is set up. Live journal is a typical blog site, and it has the left toolbar on the side just as this site does. Some of the layouts even have the little calendar that this site has its archives on.

One thing that I really do like about this site is that it has the comment bar on the right hand side, where it displays recent comments made by… users I suppose. Not quite sure about that. The header on the page says “Monitoring America’s favorite drug dealer” which is really ironic because after the first time I tried Starbucks, that’s what my father called it. He went on this rant telling me that some of the ladies that work at Westminster’s City Hall drink Starbucks four times a day, and spend about forty dollars on it. I was taken aghast. How could someone spend that much money on coffee? After seeing their Menu Board, I understood.

I really like the layout of the site, and that’s why I keep jumping back to talking about it. The top is very… not cute… but it’s cool. It’s creative, because it’s got a coffee cup with beans in it, but there are coffee rings on the white area below, showing that it is indeed, a site about coffee. It looks like a genuine blog, because I don’t know who’s familiar with blogging, but when it’s something that someone uses frequently, that’s what the posts look like. Some are very long and detailed and some are short and sweet, just telling some random information pertinent to the readers. It’s what my Live Journal looks like usually. When I used it a lot, I used to write about something every day, such as when I got into a design school in California, the post looked like one of the shorter ones; simply stating “I got in.” I also filled it with random rants about people that I worked with, and even concert reviews of those I went to, and those had a tendency to be longer, such as the second post on this blog.

Observational Essay: Going Out to Eat Anytime?

It’s only three o’clock and everyone is already getting prepared for the Friday night dinner rush. Managers sit out in the dining room, holding their weekly meeting while the cooks prepare pizzas, lasagna, and other popular items. The lone cashier prepares salads, tossing three tomatoes on to each. None of them are sure what’s going to happen tonight, because working in a fast food place such as this, the flow of people coming in changes every day. By four, the manager’s meeting is over, and the opening crew has vanished from the scene. All the prep work is done, and all the crew can do now is sit around waiting. Not any to stand around, the cooks head back, into the back of the house and pull dozens of trays out of the dishwashing area. They pile the trays on the tables and put tons of breadsticks on them. When the bread is all laid out, the butter comes out, which I have found is the most strenuous part of this tedious process. When these amazing people do it, it’s almost a second nature to them because they do it every day.

The drive thru headset beeps, scaring the cashier wearing it on her head, it’s annoyingly loud today, but, she answers it cheerfully. There’s a slight tension in the room, because this one car could be the start of a massive rush, or it could be nothing. Friday nights are always the busiest nights of the week, and it’s proven by how many people are on the shift. Night crews tend to be 7 to 8 people maximum. Friday and Saturday nights, however, have at least 8 people on them. As more people head into the restaurant, the drive thru beeps again. This time, for sure, this is the beginning of the rush.

When they’re asked the worst part of the job, most associates will not answer “The rushes” like one might think. The rushes are the thrill of the night, and they make time go by faster, and actually, the least favorite parts about the job are things like “All the stupid high school teenager drama!” Which is what Jaimie told me, and it’s the one thing that she wants to get rid of completely. Another hard aspect of the job is dealing with all the different kind of people. “You get some people who want you to talk to them, and then other’s who are like ‘Leave me the hell alone or I’ll eat you!’” which, is an exaggeration said by Alicia. Despite what people think, it’s harder to work in food service, especially at Fazoli’s. Fazoli’s is a combination of fast food and fine dining, because of the way that the company philosophy is, “To become America’s favorite family Italian restaurant.”

The drive thru beeps again, this time being the fifth time in the past three minutes, and the cashier starts to freak out a little. When working the drive thru, guests expect their food to be ready, and they want to get out of there as fast as possible. The timers on the register start to flash at 300 seconds, and she knows that she’s done. Her times are all messed up now, and she calls for help from someone from the front. Taking constant orders, bagging, and handing out food all at once won’t work for her tonight, and the extra in the front hurries into the kitchen to help her. “Can I get a turkey sub with the number six?” the screechy female voice asks over the speaker; the frantic cashier looks at the extra from the front, “Let me ask a manager, can you hold on please?” she replies to the woman’s request. Looking at the tall Mexican man beside her, he shakes his head saying “No” to the question. When the cashier goes back to talking to the woman, she gets very disgruntled because her request was denied. “Fine,” she said, “I’ll just get…” When she pulled up to the window, she questioned the manager, “Why can’t I get it this way?” she said, annoyed. He replied calmly that he could not give it to her that way because it's not on the menu. She huffs, and waits for her food to get to her.

This is an often reoccurrence in the food industry, and people place odd requests every day. Roberto, the general manager (who is referred to more than not by “Mr. Boss Man”) was surprised when asked the strangest request he’s ever gotten. “Other than a burger and fries you mean? Well there was this one lady who wanted a cold salad, with hot noodles, like spaghetti, and then she wanted cold shrimp on it.” Alicia, who was standing next to him, said that she once had someone request “ball-sanga.” That was a late night one, right before closing, and the guy said he wanted “ball-sanga” and he wanted the cooks to open up the lasagna and put meatballs in it. She told him no, and not to her surprise, when he got to the pick up window, he seemed a little tipsy, or even high. “Other than that,” she said “Someone requested a fettuccine alfredo with extra cheese… and I’ve gotten ‘ravioli marinara with meat sauce’ a lot. Oh! Then one time, there was this guy who asked for extra grits on a salad. …We don’t even have grits!”

“Where’s Ryan?” has been the question of the evening on this particular night. The newest addition to the night crew has not shown up at all this evening. The shift is running with 7 people, instead of the normal 8. They’re fine right now, but if they get another slam, they’re going to be in trouble.

Saturday morning, the truck day, the early day… on Saturdays half of the morning crew arrives up to forty five minutes early to put away freight. Delmy and Horlando come in the building, dragging their feet. “Is cold!” Delmy says to me, like every morning that we work together and it’s cold outside, this morning is no different. Once we are all on the clock, we head to the back of the building to begin the task. Horlando takes the heavy things, I take the stuff that has to go upstairs, and Delmy takes the fridge/freezer area. Putting away all the boxes and unpacking some of it is tedious and it involves a lot of heavy lifting. From the top of the stairs, the radio can be heard. Horlando just turned it on, and his random singing along can be heard up to the front of the store. Sometimes when we’re doing the Saturday morning truck, I’ll pop in my ear phones, so I don’t have to listen to the same music over and over again.

There’s a lot of controversy over the radio. If the associates want to listen to it, it’s fine as long as it’s not too loud. The radio in the back of the house is broken though, so it’s hard to find the stations if it’s changed. Some of the cashiers are scared to change the station when they’re back there, because they think that Horlando or Delmy will get mad at them, and Roberto’s mentioned that as well. “It’s not so much that they’ll get mad, they’ll get annoyed when they try and change it back,” said Roberto.

When we’re finished with that, I have to head to the bank and make salads while Delmy and Horlando make pizza, broccoli, chicken, lasagna, and anything else that they might need. By now it’s almost 10 o’clock, and both of them take their breaks, so that we can open the store at 10:30. Jaimie arrives, a little late, like usual, and pesters me, asking what she should do. I hand her the drive thru headset, and I tell her to make me some cheesecake. Since its Saturday morning, the drive thru isn’t nearly as busy as it was the night before, and Jaimie has little to do when she finishes the cake. Heidi comes in at 11, and gets the dining room ready. This shift passes by slowly and dully, it’s so slow. Around 2, Heidi and Jaimie are both off soon, and much to our dismay, a lady walks in.

She wobbles up to the counter and starts to talk to Jaimie, saying “I want the noodles, with the white gravy. And I want six meatballs. I’m disabled so you have to talk to me slow…” All of the cashiers refer to this woman as the “Rock lady.” She comes in often enough, and she always has a coupon, because even with good service she calls and complains about something or another being wrong. The first time that anyone encountered her was this past summer. “I remember that she ordered her food, and she went outside to smoke. She sat down on your drive thru curb and started to put rocks in her purse! She stole our rocks! And then Alan saw her, and he told me that when she comes back in, if she swings that thing to duck.” Heidi said. When she’s finished with her order, she goes outside to smoke, and Jaimie walks away muttering something about meth. heads.

When I get back from taking the deposit, Sal looks at me and tells me that we’re over on labor, and anyone who can needs to go home. If we send everyone, that would leave me, Sal, Delmy and Horlando. After Jaimie and Heidi cut out, Sal looks at me and says “You wanna go home?” I ask him if he’d be okay, telling him I’ll stay if he thinks we’ll get another rush. He says “No, no go home Korin. Thank you, but go home. I be okay.”

Randomly Selected Words

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Out to Eat

The activity I decided upon was to watch people who come and go from a fast food restaurant. I haven’t decided which to do, to sit in the dining room and watch the guests go to and from the counter, or to stay up near the front and see how the staff of the restaurant handle people. The fast food place I am choosing is Fazoli’s, where I am employed, but because I am not very well known by the guests that come in during times that I do not work, I think that this will turn out well. This certain chain of restaurants has held a certain goal since it began, and it’s all over any of the training books. “To become America’s favorite family Italian restaurant,” which was drilled into all of the trainee’s heads on their first day. Initially, I wanted to do an observation of a new associate, on their first day of either cooking or learning to do cash. I asked the boss, (who most of the associates refer to as “Boss man”) and he said that there weren’t going to be any new hires for quite a while still. What a bummer, because writing about that would have been a lot more interesting for me, it’s been a while since I was in that position. The intimidation and the fear that leaks from the newly appointed cashiers is amazing. Since I can’t do that, I have to decide on the two I listed before.

Honestly, knowing who the audience is and isn’t is a little hard to consider. Wondering who and who has not worked in food service before isn’t something that I like to do. The best way to go about that, is to assume that no one reading this has worked in this field. Fazoli’s is different than all other fast food restaurants in the sense that the employees are to be more than considerate to the guests. The people that come into any store aren’t considered “customers” either, they’re guests. Guests differ than customers, the training videos also repeated that over and over. Fazoli’s is also healthy compared to most places, and the nutrition menu is aptly available to any guest that wants it, and it’s also on their website. Often enough, people outside don’t read the menu and ask if Fazoli’s has French fries. There are no fryers of any sort in Fazoli’s, and there are actually banners hanging all over the dining room area that say “Baked or Boiled, not Fried.”

I do, admittedly, already know a lot about this. That’s why I want to be an onlooker and not a participant this time. There are times when the employees are laughing so loud that they can be heard throughout the whole store, and then there are times when something goes wrong and the guests get mad and do rash things and throw soup at the employees, (I heard that, I didn’t see it.) and then there are tears, fights, and everything in between. The “Boss Man” said that the associates can’t take things personally when the guests are mean, and sometimes it’s easily ignorable, but other times it’s not.

My main reason for using YouTube

The video I chose is a “fan video” made up of clips of one of my favorite bands. These clips are all about five to ten years old, so the quality isn’t the best on some of them. As in most fan videos, this one has a lot of clips from live performances. Despite what the song says, as well as the people in the video itself, I have to assure you that all of the people in this video are men.



Personally, I love watching Malice Mizer’s old lives. They’re generally hilarious, and involve either Mana or Gackt doing something ridiculous every time. This video in particular focuses on the two, and most of it shows stupid stunts that they are doing. Mana is the prime focus, the song that was chosen was chosen because of him. Mana’s elegance is what makes him appealing, and it’s quite entertaining to see him running around in three to four inch plat form shoes. Making Mana a focal point was smart of the video maker, because Mana is so… different. He’s always very extreme, his clothes are always elegant, and the way he runs around would make one think that he would tear them. Yet he does not. His hair is also very large, and when you watch the videos, you think “What the hell is this? Why are they dressed that way?” It’s all part of their image, their songs (mostly) dark, about vampires, or anything of the like. (They even had a song called “Beast of Blood” which was what kept the band popular after Gackt (the vocalist) left.) If you watch this video, you’ll note that Mana’s hair changed colors a couple of times, as well as the style. When he made those changes, it was when the whole bands style was changing. Mana’s hair isn’t his real hair, generally he wore wigs.

Everything was slightly altered by the poster “Mistoline” because she is the one that ‘made’ the video. To understand what’s going on, some things have to be explained though. Malice Mizer is a visual kei band, which were really popular in the 90’s in Japan. Visual kei bands made the music, but they also dressed extremely. In particular, Malice Mizer was a gothic styled band, who had a lot of French as well as Japanese influence. Visual kei is a style that is still about in Japan today, though they’re not as extreme. If that doesn’t help too much, then just think about how the band “Kiss” is in the United States. The music style of Japanese artists was different, but visually, it was similar. These videos are available from shopping sites, but it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s not. There have been a lot of bootlegged things out and about, and the reason why I watch performances on YouTube instead of purchasing them is because of how much they cost. Anything by Malice Mizer, as far as concerts go, if I can find them, cost up to $200, and that’s a little too much for my budget.

A little finality

In a way, the Starlite Café can apply to everyone. There are issues there that apply to everyone around the world. Everyone has to deal with grieving and loss, (which is one of the headings on the site’s links.) Yet, there are some things that don’t apply to everyone. There is a section called “For the Troops” which I highly doubt that anyone that doesn’t have someone involved in a war, or perhaps their country isn’t involved in a war, cares about. Though, like I said, everyone can relate to at least one kind of poetry there. This website is available to people all around the world, and it (I believe) is offered in a bunch of languages. When I think about it though, I know that not everyone likes poetry… but this site is easy enough to understand, where if the site is accessed, it’s obvious it’s for poems.

If one is just browsing for poetry, then the place to check out is the newer stuff. This section holds all of the new poetry for the hour, and while it may not be exactly what you’re looking for, it probably will help send you in the right direction. The better poems are aimed at something that everyone can enjoy, and they hold a sense of professionalism. If one was visiting the site for the first time, looking through all the genres might help, but here too, there is an issue. Some of the poems are deep, painful, or something that only the author understands. Then there are generics, the people such as this lady here --who post only daily proverbs on their sites. Though this isn’t the author’s original work, certain people (like me,) like seeing little inspirational things such as this. There’s not much else to it, because it doesn’t have a whole lot of complexity. Something that just came to mind is that the entire site’s theme is pink. While some people can look past their dislike (if they have one) of the color, it may turn some people away from the site. Sometimes, when I’m down, I go and read something uplifting to cheer me up from this site. It’s not flashy, attention grabbing or a seizure flashing site, but it’s a nice change from the rest of the internet.

Visit to the Starlite Cafe

The strongest impression that a website has ever made on me has to be the Starlite Cafe. This site is for poetry, for poets, or readers, or both. Really for whoever wants to be there, they can go. When it comes down to it, the majority of the site is love poems. That in turn isn't that surprising, because most poems are that; about love. Yet, depending on what you select, there are vast amounts of political, spiritual, and dark poems there as well. The main page of the site has a huge rose on it, and that’s the first place anyone will look. Under the rose, it says “Bringing poets together, worldwide” as well as, “For the love of it!” displayed under that. Way to the right of that, there is a column of the genres of poems the site holds. Just very basic website conventions are here, links to the poems of others, and once you click the link, it takes you to another site where the most recently updated authors’ poems are first. Overall, I do find this site quite hard to use because the organization method used. If you are a poet, and registered with their services though, it’s quite easy. Once a poem is posted, you head to the “backroom” area, and once you are there, all of the poems posted under your username are there, in chronological order. The harder thing is when you favorite a user, it’s complicated to get to their poetry and find what you want to read, or what they want you to read. There is, however, a nifty little search down way at the bottom of the page, and it’s really helpful if there’s something specific you want to find.

When it comes down to it, this website is a bit less practical than some sites where authors can put things up. It is quite confusing, but once you get used to it, it’s alright. Most people, (like myself) wouldn’t try to get their poems published, or ever have their work read, but this website changes that, because with this site, it opens poetry up to all the people who never thought their work might be liked. When I was a sophomore in high school, a girl that was in my history class got some of her poetry published, yet I never saw it available anywhere. I personally don’t use Starlite Café that much anymore, because I do not write poetry as much anymore. When I was using it though, I got a lot of nice feedback from people that I have never encountered before otherwise. Compared to a book, well yes, obviously if it gets published and it sells, people like it – But, when something is published, unless the writer gets letters of feedback, the writer never knows what was good, as well as what was bad, or what could have been different. Though, I am on the fence about that, because a lot of the times when people comment on poems, it just says “NICE WORK!” or something of the like, nothing that helpful, as to where if someone took the time to write a letter, it would probably be more thought out than just a ‘good job.’