blog! :D

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Response #9/Final

The next, and final entry which I will be responding to is called "Science Channel Has Integrity". It was written by the author and can be found at j-walkblog.com. In all honesty, this is my favorite out of all the blogs I have responded to so far. It revolves around an interview which was broadcasted on idk what news channel, in which "Science Channel President, Clark Bunting, told reporters that his network was 'completely incapable' of watering down science any further than it already had". The entry gave some hilarious examples, which appealed to logos and ethos, and, in an abstract way, appealed strongly to pathos -- if only because it made me frustrated with the state of the media and the state of human beings in general as far as America is concerned.

This is my final responsive blog. -Dear God, bless my grade.- *gasp*

Response #8

The next post is entitled "Recycled Banjo". It can be found at J-walkblog.com. It was written by the author of the blog and posted on an unknown date at 8:38am.

It is about an artist who challenged the musical world with his or her mosaic banjo at the recycled art exhibition. The piece was called "Dangerous Music" and was built out of an old, broken banjo, some concrete and grout, and various adhesives. The author writes "Even the stand is recycled: donated from a person who was trashing it because it was broken".

This entry appeals compellingly to pathos and ethos and logos. It is wrong, and just plain illogical to throw out perfectly repairable banjos, when you could be recycling them into public statements like this one.

Response #7

Ok, so I just had the definition of ethos explained to me again. This time, I think it was correct. Ethos, while it might mean culture in Greek, it deals more with your reputation. A person's ethos is the way he presents himself. Therefore, in all following response, I will resolve this issue.

The next three entries I will be examining are from j-walkblog.com . While it has some interesting issues, I cannot condone reading it because at times it is pretty anti-Christian. It would be interesting to debate the author.

Anyway, the first entry of the next three is entitled "Pakistan President Sacrifices Goats" and it appeals to culture, and logic... wait, culture isnt necessarily a category anymore... idk, I think culture as a category is generally more useful than ethos as it is now defined. I am unsure of the date when this blog was written or posted.

The article talks about how the president of Pakistan has been sacrificing goats each day to ward off "evil eyes" and "black magic". After a few quotes, the author of the blog, (who I assume is "J-Walk",) writes "Uh... the entire religion is based on superstition". Unfortunately this seems to be J-walks stance on religious practice in general, however, the entry was still pretty funny.

Homework, Homework, Homework

It is 1:00AM right now, and I am done with homework for the night. I've kept a half-decent blog up till now on another website, but things have been slow on that lately. Maybe I can really pick things up again here.

I suppose it is time that I introduce myself for the blog.

I am Zac Slade, as the title suggests. I am 19 years old and I am studying to become a Computer Engineer. Someday I want to work R&D for the NSA, but people tell me that my apparent disposition toward "flagged" material might make that a difficult goal to reach. I am a Chaplain's kid. I have moved every six months to three years, and I love to travel. I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.

And on that note, lately I have been blessed by God in almost every way I can think of. When I pray for things, God does not fail to provide for me. Furthermore, and while I have not been meeting with Him at a regular time, I have had fairly regular meetings with God lately -- and that is great, because I had really neglected my devotions in highschool and over Christmas break. Lately, my prayer has been that I can show God's love to the people around me with my actions, and that I can be more outgoing and friendly :).

On a related note, I really like getting letters and generally dislike email, phone calls, and text messages. I would much rather talk in person... although a friend once told me I am better in print. lol. I am an introvert, and I don't do well with large groups.

... *yawn* I would much rather be playing piano right now. ^^...

Well, my roommate is trying to get some sleep, and he is telling me to go to bed. God bless :)

Response #6

As my final entry response from Dollarish.com, I chose "What I Learned About Money From My Parents", which was written by dollarish and posted on January 23, 2010.

This post appeals to logos and ethos. It talks about how nowadays the government is trying to encourage highschools to mandate financial literacy classes, and how our generation is really trying to learn from the financial mistakes of our parents, and then it includes a short list of very reasonable tips to keeping a healthy wallet. Then, it finishes with a comment-inspiring question, "What have you learned about personal finance from your parents? Are you learning from any mistakes they've made? Honestly, while I know I have learned alot about finances from my parents, especially from hearing them talk about their mistakes, I can't think of a single piece of vocable advice to add to their short, definitely incomplete list.

Response #5

This entry will cover "Dollarish Poll Results: Credit Cards", which was written by and posted on the Dollarish blog on January 23, 2010.

The blog definitely appealed to logos and ethos, with little or no pathos involved. After all, it was just the results of a poll. The results were that 56% of responders have credit cards, 43% dont, and 12.5% have debit cards instead, and the majority of responders to the following got their credit card around age 18. God I hope I never get wrapped up in credit card debt.

Response #4

The next blog which I will be writing about is called "dollarish" and can be found at dollarish.com . The entry is called "Mandatory Drug Testing for Welfare?" and was written on January 23, 2010. It was written by guest author MagisterTom@xanga .

While the entry was about an "ethos" topic, it was written from a left-wing point of view and appealed very much to the pathos. (A trend which seems characteristic of left wing literature, where as right wing seems to appeal more to the logos.) It was written in opposition to the proposed mandatory drug tests on welfare applicants. MagisterTom used the phrase "what about the children" to back up "Do we punish the child of the mother who refuses to get off the drugs by not providing for them?"

Response #3

The next entry which I read, also from ireallylikefood.com, was called "Forget Conan, Forget Jay; Starving Billion NEEDS US TODAY", and it was posted on January 20, 2010. It was written by the normal author of the blog, and it was about how he had been deeply inspired by a TV special on that earthquake in Haiti to send $5 to the World Food Programme. In this blog, he appealed to the reader's Ethos, and Pathos, by talking about how we have lots of food but the people in Haiti do not, and then saying that we should each send them $5.

Sometimes I can't help but think that situations like the one in Haiti are hopeless. What is the statistic? *looks it up* ok, as of 2001, 36 million people die of starvation each year, 6 million of which are children. Honestly, i fail to see how that kind of statistic can be resolved, even if an organization is lucky and gets 100 million people to send $5 to those people, and assuming that a meal is $1, thats 500 million meals, and it amounts to about 36.89 meals per person. That's just roughly only one meal a day for a month.... you know, with organizations like WorldVision, maybe that isn't so far out of reach, except that 100 million is a whole third of the us population, and that doesn't even include the 10 percent who don't have jobs, and the whatever percent who just don't give a damn. Learning about things like this just make me angry at the world.

Response #2

The next entry which I will respond to is also from ireallylikefood.com. It was a guest post from Christies Corner, which is also about food, and can be found at christiescorner.com . The post was written on January 23, 2010, and is called Recipe: Vanilla Cupcakes.

The entry starts with a story about why the recipe was posted, and how the author came about the recipe. This is so that the recipe will carry some emotional value (pathos), and also so that when people relate to the story, it will carry through and appeal to them culturally as well (ethos). Then it has a recipe for some delicious (delicos) cupcakes.

Response #1

The blog, ireallylikefood@xanga.com appeals to the American culture (ethos), especially inasmuch as it is comfort centered.

The entry which I am writing about was written by the main author of the blog (some are submitted by readers). It was posted Saturday, January 23, 2010, and it is called "Daily Q: What Do You Picnic With?". This entry, in particular was meant to attract responses concerning the food which a responder might take on a picnic. (I suppose the title was fairly self-explaining.) Aside from the way the blog as a whole appeals to our culture, this one also appeals the American ethos in that it is about picnics, which are generally ideal for dates and such.

Blog Introduction

This blog is for my English Comp I class. It will probably not follow any real trend as far as theme, subject, or temperament.

Among the first blogs will be nine "reading log entries", which will summarize the contents of entries in 3 other people's blogs, respond to them, and analyze how the writer appeals to the reader. That is, specifically, whether the writer appeals more to the reader's "ethos", "logos", or "pathos".

For the layman, and for my future reference, "ethos" means culture. If a writer is appealing to a reader's ethos, it means that he is writing about cultural issues or nuances. "Logos" means logic. If a writer is appealing to the logos, then he is writing logically, or about issues which involve logic or can be explained logically. And finally, "pathos" has to do with emotions. A writer who appeals to this will be writing about emotional issues, or at least using emotional words.