Blogging.

I liked blogging. I think I might keep it up after the class is over. It is fun to have kind of a soapbox. I think it was good for turning in assignments especially; it would have been a pain to bring assignments like the ones from the blog to class every week. I have enjoyed reading my peers' blogs a lot. I always get good ideas from them, and they are just fun to read in general. Blogs are great! : ) And so was the class, for the most part : )

I'm a student, I'm a friend, I love sports, my name is Alex Rasmussen, and I'm a Mormon.

It seems like with websites, less is more when it comes to written words. I chose to analyze Mormon.org and it does a really good job of letting the pictures do the talking. The main page of Mormon.org features some menus on the top and bottom of the page, giving visitors some choices, but that is not what our eyes are drawn to first. The biggest part of the main page is taken up by pictures of people. These pictures of people pull us right in and invite us to learn more about them. With words, things get confusing and it takes time to read them all, but with a picture we take it all in immediately. Pictures are not only worth a thousand words, they also give us those thousand words in a much shorter amount of time than it would take to read a thousand words. There is just enough of a caption by the pictures that we can form a positive composite image of who the people are that we're seeing and it invites us in with the promise of telling us more of their story. Different options are set in different places and with different colors on the screen. The name of the church is there but doesn't call undue attention to itself. It's separated from the menu items that it's next to by being colored black instead of white, letting us know that it falls in a different category than those other words. The white menu options on top stand out without being obnoxious. They seem to say "Hey, we're here if you want to check us out, but no pressure. You just do your thing and go at your own pace" which works on some people's view of Mormons as pushy about their religion. The menu options on the bottom of the screen are a little more specific, but have to be scrolled down to, again giving the message that the viewer is in control of this experience and that the website is just there to be as helpful as possible. The focus on the people in the pictures shares the message that the best way to learn about Mormonism is to know a Mormon. We're invited to see how normal these people are and we see just how their faith has affected their lives, which is very instructional since, to a lot of people, much of Mormonism is shrouded in myth and misconception. Most of these messages are communicated subconsciously which makes them even more effective. All-in-all, a good website, which makes it awesome for SHARING! Check it out if you haven't.

Prompt for Wed.

So first off, I think the vending machines on campus are super funny. There are WAY too many choices. All you would need to add is a toilet paper vending machine and you'd be able to live at BYU for a whole semester, while shopping only at vending machines. I also love that there are microwaves at all the vending machines, because it opens up awesome possibilities for lunch. Leftovers? Yep! Oatmeal? Easy! Corn dogs? Oh yeah!

Now that I'm finished with lunch (chicken and rice - delicious!), on to the actual post.

The biggest thing for me in my paper is poor organization. I didn't give my research the attention it deserved before I started writing, so when it came to the actual writing I was working way harder than I would have had to if I had done my research right the first time. I would have gotten more sleep too. I also wrote originally just trying to get all my thoughts on paper and back them up with good sources and that is pretty much how it came out. So to fix it, I am going to revise my introduction and thesis statement to pull everything together. The research ended up coming out alright but just took hours and hours longer than it should have. Everyone's time management suggestions on my last post were awesome and much appreciated! I am excited to try them. Next time. Because procrastination is one of my strongest natural talents : P

And now, websites. First, here are four that are pretty effective at doing what they aim to do.

1. http://www.facebook.com/havinfuninthesun

2. http://www.amazon.com/

3. http://mormon.org/

4. http://www.youtube.com/

Here are four that are ineffective, for various reasons.

1. http://www.lindoncity.org/lindon-justice-court.htm

2. http://www.masteringchemistry.com/

3. http://www.utaharsenalsc.net/

4. http://www.scoreboardsports.net/

This will be a pithy blog post:

Myths have lost their original meaning; what once were dogmas that formed the foundation of other cultures are now to us simple tales lacking any relationship to reality. Unfortunately, what has been lost is exactly what makes myths the basis of so much study.

With the issues paper, I have mostly struggled planning out enough time to complete the research and writing process. How have ya'll been able to plan and limit the time you spend working on it?

Library Instruction: A Well Thought Out Paragraph on the Merits and Lessons of Library Research Instruction with Additional Comments

Additional comments first: the iPads I could take or leave, but those library desks were awesome!!! Natalie, I think you should pull some strings and get those for our classroom. They would be so convenient for mixing up groups or passing papers around. We could take fun five-minute breaks and do things like bumper cars, desk tag, or sharks and minnows. We could even take field trips without having to get up, but we would still be getting exercise from using our legs to maneuver. We already have a pretty great class, but if anything were to make it even better, it would be getting those desks in our classroom.

I thought the library research instruction was very enlightening. I did not know that I could chat with a librarian, or that there are so many great search engines available to help me find scholarly articles and other academically sound sources. I thought it was cool that we all had iPads so we could follow along, although a few times I got distracted looking things up and missed some of the teaching. I found a couple sources for my paper that should help me with my research. I wasn't really confused about anything. It makes sense that we can use encyclopedias in our research but not as sources. It also makes sense that we want to use the work of experts to strengthen our papers' appeals to ethos. I'm glad we are working on this right now; I have a research paper that I am working on for a different class at the same time, and I feel like what I learn in Writing will help me to do a quality job on my other paper.

Popping the question, research paper style (research paper proposal. hahaha)

For as long as I can remember, I have loved playing sports. Growing up, I played a lot of youth sports. I consider myself a sports purist--I value good sportsmanship, playing for a love of the game, and being competitive and intense but keeping things in their proper perspective. In every sport at every level, in varying degrees of severity, there will be contaminants that creep in to the game. These could have the form of a parent banking their child's college education on an athletic scholarship, and pushing their child so hard to excel that all enjoyment in playing sports is lost. These could have the form of a coach picking favorites over skill, work ethic, and fair opportunity when choosing a team because he is friends with some of the children's parents but not others'. These could have the form of an organization that withholds opportunities to participate from some children because they are poor. For lack of a more specialized term, these detracting outside influences are often referred to as politics. When framed this way, politics in sports are negative by definition. For the purpose of the article I propose to write, this definition would be expanded to include possible positive influences as well, such as a coach's use of sports to teach important life lessons or to keep kids off the street and out of gangs. Anything outside of playing sports for nothing but the sake of the game will be classed under the term politics.

This seems like a broad topic, but more than arguing the efficacy of specific examples of politics in sports, I propose to argue the concept as a whole, and use specific examples to support it when such examples would lend clarity to the argument or illustrate an essential point. Elements of the concept of sports politics to be argued would include their developmental effects on children, and whether these effects vindicate, justify, or condemn the presence of politics. They would also include a look into why these influences are introduced into youth sports and where they often come from. Finally, based on the conclusions I will draw from the thorough research I will do, I intend to argue what steps ought to be taken to maximize the positive effects of sports politics on child and adolescent development.

Preliminary research I have conducted consists of quick internet searches that yielded enough recent information to convince me that this topic is a timely one. Based on both the articles I read and my own experience, my initial stance is that politics in sports play a significant role in the psychological development of children and adolescents, and that these effects are negative more often than they are positive. I am excited about this topic because I love sports and feel like they are a very uniquely effective medium for teaching and learning on many different levels, from concepts of hard work and mental toughness to inter-personal relationships to ethics and morals. Like any form of teaching, sports and their accompanying politics are neither inherently good or bad and it matters how they are used, because by affecting the minds, morals, and perceptions of children, they influence the future in a very significant way, and the future, as a result of choices made now, has consequences for all of us.

20 Ideas!

Ok. I hope this list of 20 things does not have to be completely made up of issues-paper-ready issues. Because mine probably won't be : )

1. History of sports

2. Politics in sports

3. Sports in general

4. Old books

5. History of religion

6. History of how religion is practiced

7. Relationships between people

8. Animals

9. History of the United States

10. History of art

11. Physics

12. Exploration

13. Behavioral psychology

14. Efficiency

15. Writing

16. Reading

17. Learning

18. Influence

19. Modern technology

20. Family

There we go! A list of 20 things I am interested in. It's definitely not comprehensive. Hopefully I will be able to pick something to write about from this. The brainstorming I did while making this list did help me think of some possibilities that I hadn't thought of before.

Paper Improvements & Favorite Movies

Improvements to my paper:

1. Change all my n-dashes to m-dashes

2. Unify my voice throughout the paper

3. Clarify some confusing sentences, specifically on pages 2 and 4

And now for my favorite movies! There are a lot. And they are in no particular order.

• Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Harry Potter (I feel like these all fall in the same category)
• Pirates of the Carribean (all three, but the first one is the best)
• The Princess Bride and Stardust
• She's the Man
• High School Musical (don't judge me : P The first and third ones are the best)
• Inception
• The Lion King, The Jungle Book, and The Emperor's New Groove
• Oscar (I haven't met a ton of people who have seen or even heard of this one, but it is hilarious! The summary doesn't do it justice, but look it up and then watch it when you can: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102603/)
• 17 Miracles
• Forever Strong and Remember the Titans
• While You Were Sleeping

Well, these are a few among many, and I'm sure I'll think of more later. Although, if I can't even remember them right away, how much of a favorite can they really be, right? I think I need to start watching more movies more often : P

Love Story: Scripture Edition!

CHAPTER 1

An epistle of Kermit to his girlfriend, Miss Piggy—He expresseth his love—He asketh her on a date.

And it came to pass, that as Kermit dwelt in the swamp, he did write an epistle to his girlfriend, Miss Piggy, and these are the words which he did write:

2. O Miss Piggy, my heart is full of love for thee!

3. Behold, thou art fair, my love. Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them.

4. Thy countenance is as the shining of the sun and doth fill my soul with happiness.

5. My heart is also filled with sorrow, with sorrow my heart runneth o’er, because that thou art far from me.

6. Miss Piggy, I beseech of thee that thou wouldst go on a date with me. Doth Friday at the twelfth hour work for thee?

CHAPTER 2

An epistle written by the hand of Miss Piggy, to Kermit—She loveth him as well—She accepteth his offer of a date.

It came to pass, that Miss Piggy did receive the epistle of Kermit on the fourteenth day of the second month of the twenty-hundred and twelfth year since the coming of our Lord.

2. And when she did receive these things, her heart was filled with joy for the tender mercies of the Lord in sending her a boyfriend.

3. And it came to pass, that she did write back to him, and these are the words of Miss Piggy, written by her own hand:

4. Kermit, my love, I send thee this epistle, written by mine own hand and accompanied by my love.

5. Thy greenness doth soothe my troubled heart, and the thought of thee in my mind doth carry me through the troubled days and keepeth me warm through the cold nights.

6. Fear not, my love, for I will return to thee upon the morrow, and the time that we have been apart shall seem to me but a day, because of the love for thee that is in my heart.

7. My heart rejoiceth within me that thou didst ask me on a date, and I would that I had words to express to thee how much I would love to go!

CHAPTER 3

Kermit and Miss Piggy are married—Their generations are set forth.

And it came to pass, that on the twenty-seventh day of the third month of the twenty-hundred and twelfth year since the coming of our Lord, Kermit and Miss Piggy were married.

2. And they did multiply and replenish the earth.

3. And it came to pass that Kermit begat Kermit Jr.

4. And Kermit Jr. begat Kermit III.

5. And Kermit III begat two sons and he did name them Shadrach and Harold.

6. And Shadrach died tragically in his youth, and Harold was highly favored of his father and did receive the birthright. And Harold begat Frederick.

7. And Frederick was exceedingly righteous, and was taken up by the Lord, and thus ended the posterity of Kermit.

Similes

Simile #1: Whenever he thought of her, his heart started to pound like a jackhammer. Fortunately for him, unlike a jackhammer, his heart did not break him into little pieces as it pounded.

Simile #2: They saw each other for the first time as they passed in the crosswalk, and it was like time had stopped, but only for them, because the longer they continued to stand in the road, the angrier the drivers who were kept waiting became.

Simile #3: Their hands found each other, and their fingers interlocked like ten little pigs that had tried to run through a fence and gotten stuck.

Simile #4: It's over. With those two words his world was crushed as badly as the cat he had accidentally run over earlier that week.

Simile #5: Cathy's love for John was as strong as old velcro that doesn't really work anymore. The more she thought about it, the more she figured she had better find someone else.

The Transgression Letters. Que Triste!

Letter #1

Dear Judge,

I know I was speeding. I know that speeding is against the law. I felt that in this circumstance, my actions were justified because I was on my way to the animal hospital with my dog, who had been caught under the garage door as it closed. He was injured and needed urgent care, and because there were no other drivers or pedestrians on the road whose safety I could possibly have jeopardized by speeding, I felt justified in speeding. Luckily, I was pulled over as I reached the parking lot of the animal hospital and my brother was able to rush the dog inside while I received a ticket. We were informed that had we been a minute later, the dog would not have survived, but because we got him there on time they were able to save him. He would join me in thanking you for dismissing this speeding case, especially considering that this is my fourth ticket this month, and if it is upheld my driving privileges will be revoked. I will admit the other tickets were justified, but please consider waiving the charges and fine on this one. Thank you for understanding.

Sincerely,

Alex

Letter #2

Mom,

I'm writing to let you know how the dog is doing. I have some good news and some bad news... the good news: he is healed! We got him to the hospital in time! The bad news: I got a ticket right as we got there. I was pretty upset about it since it's my fourth ticket this month. None of the others were for things that were really that bad, but this one especially shouldn't count. I wrote a letter to the judge, and I'm pretty sure he's going to dismiss it, so don't worry too much. If he dismisses it, I'll get to keep my license and it should be great! If you have a minute though, I'd like to call and talk to you guys about helping with the insurance, now that it's gone up...

Love,

Alex

Letter #3

Dear Classmates of mine,

I am really sorry! Who would have thought that as soon as I am irrevocably designated to be the class bus driver for our upcoming field trip, that I would get four tickets in one month after only having gotten one in my whole life up until now! This last ticket was really ridiculous, I was taking my dog to the hospital after he got smashed in the garage door and I was only going like ten miles per hour over the speed limit. I've written a letter to the judge to try to get him to dismiss the ticket, and it would be awesome if you guys would consider writing too! If this ticket stays, they'll take my license and I won't be able to drive myself anywhere, let alone take the whole class with me. I know you guys will back me up on this, because you are all great! Thanks so much! I am excited for the field trip.

-Alex

Well, here is my found poem.

Once again,

I couldn't help wondering.

Who once had been

In that head.

Who

Had lived there.

What

Had looked out

Through those eyes.

Had heard

Through those ears.

Who.

This is from some of my required reading for psychology, and it is so fun to read because it is a novel and not a textbook. I was reading it and thought it would make a good found poem, so I turned it into one.

Oh, and it is from the book I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter.

Blog Post - At the Last MInute

I chose Dear Students: Don't Let College Unplug Your Future by Gideon Burton.

1. His intent is to make college students aware of some ways that they can and must use technology to help them in their lives. He is trying to persuade them to see his point of view and act on it.

2. One of his biggest tools is to use language to try and connect with his intended audience. He tries to establish his Ethos with his audience by using a voice that relates to them.

3. I think that the audience's reaction is what the author was going for. As a result of this I started thinking about what I can do now to build my presence online in a professional way to help me out in the future. So I think it worked.

Hmm... it was interesting to google this paper and see that the author is a BYU professor. Haha and as I just wrote that, a guy who looks a lot like the old picture of him on the site I looked up walked by.

Ok. Here are five grammatical errors in my opinion editorial.

1. According to the 2010 US Census, 15.9 million people between the ages of 18 and 24 did not vote in the 2008 presidential election.

I did not put periods after the acronym "U.S."

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, 15.9 million people between the ages of 18 and 24 did not vote in the 2008 presidential election.

2. This is a tougher statistic to quantify and measure but is invaluable to the function of democracy.

There should be a comma before "but."

This is a tougher statistic to quantify and measure, but is invaluable to the function of democracy.

3&4. The process takes less than 15 minutes and is promptly submitted to the proper county clerk for approval.

There are two in this sentence, "15" should be written out, and there should be a comma before "and."

The process takes less than fifteen minutes, and is promptly submitted to the proper county clerk for approval.

5. But when it comes down to it, 16 million voices represent a significant portion of America, and without their votes, less than half the people are left to shape the future for everyone else.

This sentence starts with a conjunction, which is technically not grammatically correct, but I'm leaving it for voice. The thing that I am correcting in this sentence is the writing of 16 with numbers instead of spelled out, as it should be.

But when it comes down to it, sixteen million voices represent a significant portion of America, and without their votes, less than half the people are left to shape the future for everyone else.

Great! Now that's done, and on to my feelings about peer review of papers. I haven't seen how my peers have reviewed my paper yet, but I am excited to see their suggestions and corrections. I think peer review is great and can really help us all improve as writers and learn from each other. I wish we would not have had to include five comments on every page; sometimes I just didn't have five things to say. I think the half-page response at the end was a much more effective way to convey thoughts about the paper, and that focusing on that as the main component of the review being supported by comments throughout the paper as needed would be a good improvement.

Well, that's all. Special thanks goes to my new friend Melissa for helping me find the grammatical errors in my essay.

Adios!

Blog Post #1

Part #1

When I was looking for an example of a fallacy I could blog about, I looked and looked but couldn't find anything. Then I remembered politics! Watch this ad for Ron Paul and look for the fallacies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUNIeOB0whI

Several fallacies are committed, including but not limited to: straw people, stacking the deck, and lots of unsubstantiated claims and assertions. It is only a one-minute commercial which makes it tough, but political discussion and campaigning seems to be so full of rhetorical fallacy that it is not a good time trying to decide what candidates really stand for and believe and will do vs. what they are just saying to try and get elected.

Part #2

How yet resolves the governor of the town?
This is the latest parle we will admit;
Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves;
Or like to men proud of destruction
Defy us to our worst: for, as I am a soldier,
A name that in my thoughts becomes me best,
If I begin the battery once again,
I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur
Till in her ashes she lie buried.
The gates of mercy shall be all shut up,
And the flesh'd soldier, rough and hard of heart,
In liberty of bloody hand shall range
With conscience wide as hell, mowing like grass
Your fresh-fair virgins and your flowering infants.
What is it then to me, if impious war,
Array'd in flames like to the prince of fiends,
Do, with his smirch'd complexion, all fell feats
Enlink'd to waste and desolation?
What is't to me, when you yourselves are cause,
If your pure maidens fall into the hand
Of hot and forcing violation?
What rein can hold licentious wickedness
When down the hill he holds his fierce career?
We may as bootless spend our vain command
Upon the enraged soldiers in their spoil
As send precepts to the leviathan
To come ashore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur,
Take pity of your town and of your people,
Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command;
Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace
O'erblows the filthy and contagious clouds
Of heady murder, spoil and villany.
If not, why, in a moment look to see
The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand
Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters;
Your fathers taken by the silver beards,
And their most reverend heads dash'd to the walls,
Your naked infants spitted upon pikes,
Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused
Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry
At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen.
What say you? will you yield, and this avoid,
Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy'd?

Well, for my rhetorical analysis of this excerpt from Henry V, I decided to color-code different lines to show ethos, logos, and pathos. Yellow highlighting signifies ethos. In these passages, King Henry is building his credibility by making it seem like he has the power to save or destroy the town. He also speaks of himself as being all that stands between the town and the "licentious wickedness" of blood-thirsty soldiers, making his demand for their surrender sound like an offer of mercy.

Red highlighting shows the parts of the speech where Henry uses pathos. His graphic descriptions of the violence that will happen are intended to intimidate the townspeople into surrender. No one wants those things to happen to them or their neighbors.

Blue highlighting is used on the parts of this speech where logos is present. Henry twists logic to shift the responsibility of potential destruction and bloodshed from himself to the people of the town with words like "when you yourselves are the cause..." This logic is based on his earlier assertion that he is there to offer the people mercy and implies that if they choose to keep fighting, anything bad that happens will be their fault. He also tells them that if they are going to accept his offer of surrender, they need to do it quickly because he will not be able to keep back his soldiers for long. This logic makes sense in the context of his speech, where he has framed the issues at hand (for example, the destruction of the town and his control of the soldiers) in a way that makes it make sense. The assumptions that his logic is based on are very subjective though.

All About Me

Hi everyone! My name is Alex Rasmussen. I am from right here in Utah. I was born up in Salt Lake and lived in Murray (a suburb of Salt Lake) until I was 11, and then I moved to Lehi with my family. I have two brothers and a sister and they are all younger. We are close and love spending time as a family. I served a mission in San Jose, California and I loved it. I don't know where or who I would be without the experiences and friends that I had on my mission.

There is not much in this world that I love more than sports. Soccer is the only one I've played competitively, but I have never played a sport I didn't like. My favorite class this semester is ice hockey. Did you know we could take an ice hockey class here at BYU? It is so much fun and a good break from my more difficult classes. Along with team sports, I love to snowboard in the winter. I think that sports have a lot of value in society, not for their own sake, but because we can learn so many important life skills from them. Self-control, communication and cooperation, and mental focus are just a few.

I like to have fun. I can't stand being bored or doing something boring. Luckily, I believe that just about anything can be made fun with a friend and the right attitude. I love doing anything with friends. One of the worst things I could imagine would be spending any extended period of time completely alone. Hopefully that never happens.

Well, that about sums it up. Good to meet you!