Category Archives: mumbles

Journal #17

ARCS 257-262

Terminology

enargeia – using emotional appeals to give the audience a reason to identify with the issue, and moving them away from indifference.  The way a rhetor uses persuasion to create an image so realistic that the audience feels it is happening in front of them (starving childen in foreign countries, dogs and cats in the pound)

honorific language – treats people and things with respect

pejorative language – disparages and downplays people and things

Commonplaces

Composing to learn

The use of enargeia is something I hear everyday, even though I didn’t know it until today.  I think music uses it a lot, as well as in some of the older movies that I’ve seen in the past.  Kanye West does that for me, whenever I listen to his music, I get a vivid picture about what’s going on, at least my perception that is, and maybe that’s why I haven’t gotten tired of him or his music.  I also think of Gone with the Wind as a movie with many speeches that use enargeia, when Rhett Butler talks about going to war, when Scarlett tries to trick Rhett at the jail, and when she’s hungry at Tara.

Since I just married into a Punjabi family, I’ve been learning to speak with honorific language, at least more than what I’m used to, and I tend to be more formal than the people I know.  I can’t speak for any of the other Indians, since I am not familiar with their customs, but my new family places a lot of importance on honorifics, such as using the -ji (not sure about the spelling, could be jhi) and using specific honorifics to family members (mother’s older brother, younger brother, dad’s sisters, etc).  There are a lot and I’m still learning to place everyone since I didn’t grow up with this particular system (just tio/tia, padrino/padrina, sobrina, madre/padre, abuelo/a).  I even get my own honorific since I’m a sister-in-law, and I’m an aunt  and maybe even an older cousin.  I think that some people might wonder why bother, but in fact, I like having some sort of system to remember everyone, and I think most people know that I’m trying to show them respect even if I don’t have the correct pronunciation down yet.  Showing people respect makes me feel good, and it makes other people feel good too, which is a great way to begin with my new family.

Questions

Does a lot of hip hop and/or rap music use a lot of pejorative language?  I think it does in a way, although I’m trying to remember that specific word that talks about the rhetor playing up their good points in order to build ethos with their audience.  I love hip hop, even now when I wonder where it’s going at times, but I’m starting to see how these players are building up their ethos in order for the audience to respect what they have, what they do and how they do it, all while using pejorative language to “disparage and downplay them”.

Journal #16

ARCS 246-256

Terminology

pathos – appealing to human emotion, a quality that arouses emotions

psychagogia – leader of souls, an enchanter (and rhetoric), where a rhetor could change an audience’s mood by using emotional persuasion

Commonplaces

semper fi

be all you can be

Composing to learn

So for the Aristotle/Cicero set, there are pairs of emotions:

  • anger/calm
  • love/hate
  • fear/confidence
  • shame/shamelessness, compassion
  • pity/indignation
  • envy/emulation, joy and hope

There are also appetites:

  • pleasure
  • pain

There are also values:

  • justice
  • goodness

According to the ancients, emotional appeals in rhetoric are acceptable, because people respond to the pathetic proof.  I thought it was interesting that the book mentions the link between emotions and reason (that they are intertwined).  I believe that if I want a certain person who leans to the modern to believe this, I will have to give more proof than that, but it’s an interesting idea to pursue.

I really liked the passage from the Illiad, and how they showed the use of emotional persuasion to show how King Priam attempts to get Achilles to give up the dead body of Prince Hector.  I haven’t read the Illiad since high school, (although I did see Troy, the movie) and don’t remember all the details, but I bet I’d probably enjoy it more now that I can look for these ideas within it.  It seems that Homer knew how to utilize the big three of pathetic proofs in storytelling:

  1. Understand the audience’s state of mind
  2. Know how to excite or subdue these emotions in the audience
  3. Understand the reasons why the audience gets emotional

Questions

I wonder how modern ( contemporary as well) rhetoric has progressed to the point where emotional appeals are not as valuable as logic?

Premium Postcards

Here’s a little bump for the postal service, go to https://www.premiumpostcard.com/index.php and use the code US1288 to get some freebies, 50 free postcards.  They are pretty amazing, my mom printed a few and I got one in the mail from her fiance, the quality is very good.  I’m thinking of using them to display my design ideas, or send some cute pictures to my friends.

Have fun!

New Spring Pantone 2011 Colors

Since I’m a freelancer (web, print, photography, etc.) and a makeup junkie, it is super important to me to know the color trends for the next season. So when Pantone comes out with its pdf on color trends, I always make sure I go through it to learn what I’ll be using, as well as think about how the trends will effect my ideas on web design.

Here’s the link to the Spring Pantone 2011 pdf, check it out!

It isn’t dry at all, it’s full of color, designers, sketches and lots of visuals to whet your appetite for spring.

Welcome

new space, no old shtuff, hopefully I’ll be here permanently.

I plan to use this as a place to store all my potential portfolio work, and anything I want to share with the world.  Rants will be semi-private, and hopefully guised in some sort of code so people don’t throw rocks at me (like before).

Honeymoon 2010

As I wrote the title, I stopped and wondered if I was planning to have a honeymoon EVERY year, haha. In my mind, yes, I plan to have one, even if it is something simple like going somewhere with Gogu-ji and staying off the computer.

We had a great time in Seaside, Oregon, and also got to visit Cannon Beach and revisit all our old haunts (except for the Happy Clam, RIP). We also got to try out some new places, and believe me, it was worth exploring new restaurants. As luck had it, Junior and his girlfriend Corina were visiting Seaside as well, so we ended up having dinner and a bonfire on Junior’s birthday. From what they told us, Corina planned out the birthday trip for Junior, what a great girlfriend!

We met a few characters at the bonfire, which made things really hilarious because everyone seemed to be “clam digging” which is basically saying they were wandering the beach while super drunk and/or stoned. Our group wasn’t, so we had a good laugh at all their antics, and just enjoyed the ambiance of a warm fire and a beautiful ocean right in front of us.

It was a really great night, especially since we had fresh seafood earlier. I had fresh crab and Gus had fresh halibut at…I want to say Broogies, but that isn’t right. Ah it was Dooger’s! Their service was okay, the waitress forgot our salads and gave us a bit of attitude, but the fresh seafood was very good. Gus preferred Norma’s Ocean Diner and I agree on principle because my chowder was really good, with lots of chunky clam bits (and without pork to flavor it up), and his grilled halibut sandwich was really amazing. The prices were a bit better as well, and we noticed that the clam appetizer was filled all the way at Norma’s, and didn’t look dried out in comparison. The environment is definitely more casual, but we were there at lunch so it isn’t a fair comparison.

One thing I’ve noticed, especially with me working on web design/development is the state of small local websites. Dooger’s website isn’t too bad, but it could use a little help but Norma’s needs a design update, badly. I think if I was to go with social networking, I’d do updates on specials, maybe mention what’s fresh that day, etc. It doesn’t take much to give information, especially with Twitter’s API, which you can use in your website, or even a Google map so people can look up the location.

That’s just me though. Anyway, I’m back to bed, I had to get up at 3:45 am to get Gus off to an early workday, and now it’s hitting me hard.

Pre-Wedding Wait

So I’m just hanging out, smelling like olive oil because I’m done cleaning up around my brother’s home. In true Indian bride fashion, I got my mehndi done yesterday and all the little henna crumbs made a mess on my brother’s carpet, whoops!

It turned out beautiful, photos will be shown I’m sure.

Wedding Morning

Here I am! Just woke up, time to get this all started, I’m happy and excited, no nerves, except that I want everyone to have a good time. :)

Time is almost up

So the question is, how do you know if people are coming to your wedding if there are no RSVP cards? I don’t know either, but it’s scary and cool at the same time.