Random boy from the DC metro area (RbfDCma): So we're on for Saturday?

Ginette: Yeah; that should work.

RbfDCma: Great! It'll be fun. Saturday afternoon, twoish? I was thinking we could go to this funeral at my ward. I really think it should be good . . .

[Raised eyebrows, steady smile—internal giggle. Play it smooth; just don't make him feel dumb . . .]

So I've been able to do some pretty sweet things since I've been out here in DC. This, for instance, was our NPR tour. Ben was an intern at NPR and gave us a personalized tour.

I've also been able to go to the inauguration--we were on the mall, tour the US money-making facility, experience the National Art Gallery, visit the Smithsonian Castle, go to the top of the Washington Monument, and walk around the National Portrait Museum. And there's still so much more to do. I can only imagine how much more fun things will be in the summer!

Ever since Shauna has moved in, she has hinted at my blogging potential. Recently she told me she couldn't wait to see my next blog. Since I am a little tired right now, I might have to use this as a starter blog that will reach its full potential later. With that exculpatory clause, I'd like to dedicate this blog to Shauna--my mentor in so many ways.

You know, not many things bring me more happiness than driving around with my roommate Shauna. Not only is she the most organized, dedicated, self-motivated, carpe-dieming person I know, but she's also--a car-dancer. That is right.

It takes more skill than you probably think it would. Car dancing requires dancing from only your waist up. Now I must confess that prior to my car rides with Shauna, I believe I did have some budding, raw, undeveloped dancing skills. As I've referenced these skills in prior blogs, I'm sure you have no doubt that I am quite an impressive dancer (please see Chantal's testimonial in the blog post prior to this one; since she is impeccably honest, you can trust that she is 100 percent accurate in her assessment of my dancing skills). With Shauna's help, however, I've expanded my performance to new frontiers, allowing me to become the polished car-dancer that I am today.

I've learned through this mentoring process that, as you car dance, you (1) don't make eye contact with the people next to you at the stoplight or passing you on the highway. If you do, you might make them feel less than adequate about their lack of dancing skills; they might feel challenged by the eye-to-eye contact. That's why they glance uncomfortably around when you look them square in the eye--they know they can't live up to the standards set by the dancing aficionado in the car next to them (that's you); (2) however, if you don't make eye contact with your envious, green light-awaiting, or highway-speeding, neighbors, and you use your best dance moves, they can't help but laugh in uncontrollable fits as your dancing example thrills them. They realize that they too can become car dancers--you have instilled hope in them; (3) in order to reach your highest potential as a car-dancer and achieve your best moves, you must sing at the top of your lungs to Eternal Flame by the Bangles, Dancing in the Moonlight by Van Morrison, or She's a Man Eater by Nellie Furtado (please only dance to this one in honor of Colette Rozelle); and finally (4) practice makes perfect. Even when you aren't feeling like car dancing, you've had a bad day, or your lower back hurts from prior car dancing experiences, you must persist in your newfound skill--that is the quintessence of becoming a successful car-dancer.

Like Van Morrison says, "You can't dance and stay up tight."

Thank you.

Chantal doesn't want to be the center of attention on my blog anymore, so it's time to talk about another one of my favorite people--Diny. Diny and I were reading last night and talking about what we were reading, and we had the most inspiring conversation. I started to think how awesome it is to have such a great friend.

Diny really is one of the coolest people I know. She is so awesome. Why? There are a ton of reasons:

1. She laughs with me over the most random things: it makes me so happy that we can laugh over ridiculous things together that no one else would find funny.

2. She'll totally feign that she needs to go to the grocery store just because she knows I need too. Then I notice that as we're picking up food, she only has two items. Did she really need to go to the store? Nope.

3. She doesn't get embarrassed when I decide to dance in the grocery store. That's impressive. Granted it was two in the morning, so maybe it'd be easier not to be embarrassed, but, then again . . . I've done it on other occasions as well-- and she still claims me as her roommate.

4. She has a contagious laugh.

5. She never talks poorly about other people. Even if she goes on a first date with a guy who asks her how much she weighs, she still finds every single positive point about him to accentuating while enjoying a good laugh.

6. She handles stress well. She can have four hours of sleep and still be the happiest person alive.

7. She can laugh at herself.

8. Diny deals with difficult situations in her life with a maturity well beyond most people's natural ability. Isn't it impressive to see someone deal with situations in a way you wish you could?

9. Whenever I'm worried, upset, or stressed, she always--ever so subtly--offers the most logical, succinct advice that puts things back into perspective.

10. She never places herself above others.

11. We can talk and talk for hours about the most interesting subjects and never get bored.

12. She inspires me to be a better person on a daily basis.

So, she doesn't know I'm writing this blog entry about her, so don't tell her. She'd probably make me take it down.

But I definitely feel that the Lord placed her in my life for a reason. Isn't it great to know that He knows everything about us and what we need in our lives?

I was talking to Chantal on the phone the other day, and she told me I hadn’t updated my blog. I admitted to this accusation and thought to myself, “I can’t let my older sister down. What SHOULD I write about?” Who was I inspired to write about other than the person from whom I once received a letter with the return address containing the name “Chantal the Magnificent.”

Yup, Chantal is the subject I would like to address. I feel like I have an insider’s knowledge of this woman. Probably because I do. Since she is one of my best friends, I think I have some license to discuss her at length. Our relationship started when she told God that she would give up her blanket if she could just have a little sister.

While basking in the knowledge that my sister wanted me enough to give up her favorite blanket, all of a sudden, my mind raced back to a time when I was sitting in a chair. Chantal was in front of me, and we were playing “test tasters.” The game goes something like this. You sit in the chair while your sister gives you food to eat, and you have to guess what she is feeding you. At first she started out with brown sugar and apples and flour, but slowly the samples developed into butter and lemon juice and somehow evolved into—cat food. Yes. She fed me cat food.

To add to this animalistic treatment, rumor has it that initially she was obsessed with my fingers. Quite odd really; but who am I to judge what other people find interesting? Well, apparently, my fingers could bend all the way backward when I was a baby. She bent my fingers backward so much that I can still bend my pinkies back to my wrists to this very day. So I can also blame a deformity, malleable fingers, on Chantal as well.

The flood gates of memory were opening, and another flashback came to me after the first two thoughts raced through my mind: one day Chantal told me that she had a gift for me. I was thrilled! How nice of her. It was in a tin box and looked SO cool. What could it be? Since when did I ever receive gifts from my older sister? It must mean that she loves me. I sat on the edge of my bed and pried it open. Little did I know that Chantal had made little paper springs out of ripped-off edges of our computer paper, so when I opened the box, I saw little pieces of popping out at me. Chantal laughed a sardonic, mischievous laugh.

The memory of Chantal’s laughter somehow connected me to another memory. I would like to title it “jail time”. Chantal and Alyssa, a girl from the neighborhood, were so cool. Man, I wanted to be like them, so I would follow them around; unfortunately, my little legs couldn’t keep up with them at times. On this particular day in question, I saw them run into my house and slam the door. I came in a minute later, panting. The phone rang and Chantal answered it. Let’s hear what happened in her words:

“This is the police? For Ginette? Because she is the only one in our family with blues eyes? Yes, Officer, we’ll hold her until you get here.”

With that, she slammed down the receiver and came after me to “hold me down until the officer got there”. As I shrieked my mother came up the stairs and asked me what was wrong. When I told her she laughed, which of course threw me into convulsive crying fits because that meant she wanted me to go serve jail time too! Cruel and unusual punishment—need I say more?

Now I want you to know, reader, that I could continue on with plenty of other stories, but you’ll have to take my word on this one. It is my contention that Chantal Methot was not in fact praying for a little sister for companionship or even friendship; it was for the simple reason of sharpening her mischievous skills on an unsuspecting victim—me.

My very last post! This is just exciting. Well I will share somethings I learned from my Sociology class. I LOVED the concepts presented from the books we read. In particular I have loved Wendell Berry and Zygmut Bauman. In particular, Zygmut Bauman presents an idea in his book that completely contradicts the premise of sociology and many other modernistic-based philosophies. These philosophies profess that morality is dictated by society. Whatever the society says is appropriate is considered moral. So, he says, what makes Nazi Germany wrong? According to these definitions of morality, nothing, and yet we all consider this event a crime against humanity.

Bauman comes to the conclusion that there are higher virtues. Morality is not relative. I agree. There are fixed moral laws. I disagree with Durkheim while agreeing with Levinas; morality is independent of society. There is absolute truth. There are some other things from Levinas with which I agree. He suggests that we have a moral responsibility for all people we come into contact with face-to-face. I would like to add that our responsibility extends beyond that; we have a responsibility for people we have not met. Our actions affect more than just us--they affect our contemporaries and posterities. There is nothing greater than learning how to truly love other people. It is something we all need to learn for the benefit of others and ourselves.

I am trying to figure out how to shape my enthymeme for the next paper on media. The premise of my argument is that parents who completely eliminate media venues from their homes also remove some potentially positive effects of media. Like chemotherapy, this approach eliminates the bad with the good. At least in the case of the media, there are more effective ways to reduce the negative effects of media while at the same time allowing media to be a benefit to the home. Any enthymeme suggestions?

Enthymeme 1: Completely eliminating television and internet from the home will not be strong enough to protect children from parentally-deemed bad material because completely eliminating television and internet from the home only controls the children’s immediate environment not providing for situations beyond the walls of the home.

Enythymeme 2: Parents that completely eliminate media from their home because they want to protect their children from harmful influences are actually injuring their children's ability to protect themselves from harmful influences because parents that completely eliminate media from their home because they want to protect their children from harmful influences do not allow for their children to learn how to make informed media-related decisions on their own.

Implicit assumption: Anything that does not allow for children to learn how to make informed media-related decisions on their own also injures the children's ability to protect themselves from harmful influences.

Enthymeme: Cutting television out of the home to eliminate the negative effects television has on us and our children while not considering other alternatives of controlling television consumption in the home harms us and our children more than it helps because cutting television out of the home to eliminate the negative effects television has on us and our children while not considering other alternatives of controlling television consumption in the home also limits opportunities for political involvement, cultural awareness, educational refinement, and parental mentoring on appropriate use of the media.

I figure I can't go this whole semester and not offer some thoughts on dating during my free write. My audience is single and LDS in their twenties. These are things other girls and I have noticed in LDS dating situations.

• I always find it interesting when guys become interested in a girl they were initially just friends with because all of a sudden, they start opening the door for her. This is a nice thing to do and also sends up some indication for the girl that their guy friend might be interested; although, girls might wonder, since it's a nice gesture to do in general, why not do it all the time . . . for everyone?
  
• Guys that like to hit on girls randomly might need to know that if you hit on a girl randomly, there might be two responses or a mixture of the two. First is "This guy is really bold. I'm impressed." Second is "I bet this guy hits on all girls like this. Not my style."
  
• Stay friends after you date even if it isn't working for the two of you. Hopefully you develop enough of a friendship during the relationship that you would want to stay friends with the person you date after the relationship is over. Granted, sometimes it isn't possible, but for the most part, if it was worth something then, then why not now?
• If you're not interested, tell him or her, tactfully. It's much easier in the long run.
• This is classic advice, "If that guy [or girl] isn't crazy about you, you need to be looking around."
  
• Return phone calls, texts, messages, and emails. But it's only polite. (Granted no one is perfect, myself included.)
  
• I think sometimes people get too wrapped up in the dating stage and treat it like it as a game, especially inexperienced daters. Basically it comes down to really caring about other people and treating them the way you would want to be treated in a similar situation. Be nice.

I'm sure I could go on, but I'll leave it there.

I thought the presentation about MMORPGs was fascinating. Probably because it is a whole new world to me. I can't believe that people would spend and upward of 1,600 dollars for a piece of virtual real estate--it doesn't exist folks. While I am still blown away by how people spend this much money on a concept that completely virtual (I had no idea how huge this on-line gaming business was!), I am trying to formulate an opinion on it.

My initial reaction is, "this obsession is retarded." However, I am going to try to see this from another perspective. Maybe it can be related to people who sup-up their cars. This might not be the perfect example because the objects are tangible, but I feel like there is a significant correlation. Some people spend tons of money on car parts that do little for their car's efficiency, little for its asthetic quality, little for anyone or anything besides the owner's satisfaction and maybe the other people who have the same perspective as the owner of this piece of machinery and can appreciate its significance. And yet this practice is much more widely accepted. Let's parellel this with people who belong to Second Life. These people gain a sense of importance as they own a piece of virtual land that benefits nothing besides their sense of happiness and the people that can appreciate the significance of this purchased piece of imaginary real estate. So in light of defending something I don't really believe is of any value I will try to formulate an enthymeme from the other perspective's side.

WATCO of Second Life on an individual's quality of life?

Enthymeme: Second Life increases an individual's quality of life because Second Life provides a sense of satisfaction for its consumer.

My thoughts on media bias have also been affected by a conversation I had with a guy I know, who served in Iraq. I was surprised to find that he felt we were doing more good than harm in Iraq; he felt our presence there was important and that the media skewed the truth. I was completely surprised because all I had heard up to this point was negative comments about the conflict. I still don't feel that I know enough about the situation to have an opinion (basically because I don't trust the media), but the more I hear from grass-roots level participants in the Iraq war, the more I realize how misconceived my notions are from the media.

A media bias causes an uninformed reaction from the citizens, which in light of the information they are given seems rational. Many times, however, the average citizen does not do enough research on his or her own to know the opposite face of the debate cube. Even a citizen who researches a topic may not be completely informed if not all of the information in the debate is available. This makes it seem like the battle of well-rounded information is impossible to win; however, if the media does what they are supposed to do, present all sides of the story no matter how much the individuals who report the story agree with one side or the other, at least information would be available for individuals to have a glimpse of the other side of the story.

I was trying to think of something I could write about that is actually interesting. Then I remembered . . . So my first day of work was this past Thursday. I don't have a car, so I checked out the bus schedule and figured out what bus I was supposed to catch and at what time. The schedule said a specific time, so I decided to finish up the footnotes on my English paper before running down to catch it. Go figure, the bus LEAVES on the time it says on the schedule; it doesn't arrive at that time. So I missed it. Normally I would be stressed out about this sad news, but for some reason I figured there wasn't much I could do about an honest mistake besides either call someone for a ride, hitch hike, or walk down there.

Well I work about three miles off campus, so I figure maybe I could just walk fast. I only had a half hour, so as you can calculate I definitely couldn't just walk. I have my backpack on, in work clothes--no jeans, so nice pants--and definitely not running shoes. As I'm walking, I realize I have to start booking it or else I'm not going to make it on time to my first day of work! WHAT? How bad does that look. So I'm totally laughing about this situation, glad it's a nice day, and running down a pretty busy road. Everyone is looking at me like I'm crazy running with a backpack on and in nice clothes. It was hilarious. So I got there twenty minutes late. My employer asked me how my day had been, and all I could say at that point was--great but a little crazy. So then I couldn't help but tell her the story because I thought it was funny. At first she didn't believe me because I wasn't really sweating that much, but then she went and wrote an email to all my new coworkers about my running to work! Hahaha. What a way to start a reputation.

Based on my previous post and an idea for my next rhetorical analysis post, I will develop some enthymemes that I could use for my paper.

1. WATCO of media bias on American politic decisions?

A-term: Media bias
B-term: American political decisions

Enthymeme: The media bias hurts American political decisions because the media skewing the Iraq war hurts important decision-making points in Iraq.

Here I employ an A1 term.

A1-term: The media skewing the Iraq war
C-term: Important decision-making points in Iraq

I think I might have a difficult time proving this enthymeme. I would need to define media bias. As we've discussed in class, this would be difficult with out solid, peer-reviewed articles. I could always compare different articles from different papers about the war to show that there is a bias; unfortunately, it might be hard to find pro-war articles. It would also be hard to prove the effects of the A term on the B term because we only see the effects of decisions made. The effects of what hasn't been done is strictly hypothetical and extremely hard to prove. (I'm talking myself out of this enthymeme as I write this blog.) It would also be hard to prove that media is skewing the Iraq war. What sources would I use? I can't personally interview at a grass-roots level and the people I know who served there might not offer enough ethos for my audience to buy my argument (also they might think I could have made up the interview). I could, however, use international sources, but they would be newspapers and other sources that might not be considered reputable. I would also have to research specific decisions that were "hindered" (an objective term) by a media bias. It looks like I won't be doing this enthymeme.

I've been brainstorming for the next paper we have to write, and I find my thoughts returning to a theme I've had on my mind for at least the past year--media and propaganda/media bias. This topic has been on my mind for the past year. One conversation that I had which really catalyzed my thoughts on the subject was with a friend of mine after watching V for Vendetta (edited version of course) last summer. It's about a futuristic tyrannical government in England . I was sharing my opinion about how the despotism represented in this movie could never happen in today's world; we've seen the holocaust; we're aware of how it developed; it can't happen again. He, who is pretty knowledgeable about history, was on the opposite side of my argument. He said he believed it can happen again very easily.

I have to admit I didn't believe him, even though he has a much more broad knowledge base than I do. I just couldn't buy how it could happen again when we were aware of it. It seemed like an anomaly. Now I am taking a Racial and Minority Relations class, and we are reading Modernity and the Holocaust by Zygmunt Bauman. The whole premise of this book is that the Holocaust isn't an anomaly; it could very likely happen again. It talks about the media and propaganda used during the Reich. It shows how media and propaganda can manipulate people into believing the most contorted messages. This is a topic I might want to research and present in my paper.

For some reason I am thrilled when random things happen in my life. I think it's just the idea of an adventure. So I just moved out of the house I was living in because of Provo zoning laws. My roommate and I wanted to abide by the laws when we found out we were basically breaking them. So in one day we moved everything over to our new house. I don't know why it was so fun to me; I was just thrilled at the idea of change maybe? It was way cute because my roommate had decided first to move out. I didn't even know she was going to until she told me she almost teared up when she realized we weren't going to be roommates anymore. So when she told me she was moving, I told her I would love to move with her. She found this basement apartment with a girl we both know that has an extra bedroom. She talked to the owners of the place; we found out it was okay; and then we moved in the next day! What?! Yes it is so cool. I'm even smiling as I am writing this.

I saw all the cute little kids running around playing soccer across the street, and I told my roommate how excited I was to get to know the little kids in our neighborhood by name. She laughed and told me I was such an idealist. Another thing that is so cool is that my upstairs neighbors are a married couple with two cute kids. I love that a cute little family is living above us. I heard their kid movies playing yesterday as I moved my stuff into my room. It's great. Also my third roommate is from Taiwan. I am so excited to learn more about her culture. I seriously am so excited. That's all.

After researching several articles on the guest worker program, I can honestly say I am torn. This doesn't help considering our enthymeme is due tomorrow. After reading some articles, I do believe that the cause of illegal immigration is our country's insatiable demand for labor. Looking at the supply and demand curve, we have a demand and illegal immigrants want to fill it. The truth is Americans would do any job that would pay them enough. Employers don't want to pay the wages Americans would demand. If employers were to hire American workers at the wages Americans would demand, our cost of living would sky rocket.

The business people are saying that it would benefit our economy to have cheap labor. Well how do we fill this cheap labor demand? We have a couple options: we can keep our illegal immigrant situation, or we can bring people in legally to work in the United States through legislation. So there are options for filling these demands but at what expense? On the other side of the issue, people ask, "will we be sacrificing our American principles to fill these demands?" I think it is possible that we will be. So the ultimate questions are--how much are we we willing to sacrifice for our economy?

Enthymeme:

United State’s public policies that do not limit job opportunities for illegal immigrants in the United States will not be strong enough to terminate illegal immigration because United State’s public policies that do not limit job opportunities for illegal immigrants in the United States do not provide strong enough incentive for illegal immigrants to stay out of the United States.

Implicit assumption: Whatever does not provide strong enough incentive for illegal immigrants to stay out of the United States also will not be strong enough to terminate illegal immigration.

The premise of this enthymeme is that no matter what barriers we put on illegal immigration, illegal immigrants will still come to the United States if the incentives are strong enough. While I agree with this enthymeme, I feel that it is too broad for a 1000-2000 word paper. I need to narrow my topic to something more manageable within that restriction.

Two potential audiences I could have for this enthymeme are (1) United States Congressmen in states with less concern for immigration. My purpose for directing my paper to this audience is based on the idea that they are probably the most borderline states because they are the least affected. (2) Borderline, potentially interested, and yet uninformed potential voters for the 2008 presidential election.

So I am adopting a new philosophy on life--que sera sera. There are so many unpredictable aspects of life and so many things that I don't have answers to right now, and I've decided--que sera sera (whatever will be will be). I am totally an analyzer and someone who tries to figure out mysteries, so it can be hard for me sometimes not to know what the future will hold, but I don't want to care anymore. I heard a story once about a lady who lived to be in the hundreds, and someone asked her what her secret was; she told them she didn't stress.

So this line is my new philosophy. I don't like getting stressed; I don't want to stress out. Life is too short. So I've found one way not to stress out is to plan. Another is not to stress out when the plan doesn't work, and just be flexible. This is much easier said than done for me. There are times when I am so busy that if I am interrupted by a leisure conversation, I get stressed out. But I have a roommate that is so good at dropping everything and just focusing on the people around her. But how do you balance both? I've learned life is all about a balance.

As I've been researching immigration, I've noticed different recurring conflicts. Border control has interesting pros and cons. Some people say tightening border control will do little if we don't stop the high demand for cheap labor; as long as we have a demand for cheap labor, we will have illegal immigrants. I agree with this assessment to a degree; however, there will be a decrease of illegal immigrants if we tighten up our borders. Tightening up the borders might not take care of all the illegal immigrants, but it will reduce them.

A new approach to this illegal immigrant issue that is in hot debate right now is the "real ID" issue. The proposed legislation suggests we make driver's licenses harder to obtain. Supporters say this policy will reduce illegal immigrant’s functionality in the country. If we make these "real ID" cards necessary, only people that have these cards will be able to be hired. The opponents against this legislation say it is like a national card. It is crossing the line into too much control into the lives of citizens. Soon the government will be able to track its citizen's movement around the country. This is too much power for the government to have. They cite Nazi Germany.

Bad Paragraph: The jumping Kangaroo was running fast past the slow tortoise while the hot brush fire was pushing up against the animals, and it was driving them out of their homes. The bright lightening had begun the fire when the quick lightening hit the dry brush. The fire was spreading. Flames were sending smoke into the air.

Bad Paragraph Edited: This paragraph has too many "to be" verbs. Several descriptions are obvious: Kangaroos generally jump, tortoises are almost always slow, lightening is always bright, flames always send smoke into the air. The writing could improve by replacing the to be verbs with more active and specific verbs. The paragraph could also benefit from stating less of the obvious.

Better Paragraph: The tortoise stared at the kangaroo as it sped past him into the shadows. Lightening had ignited the brush several hours earlier causing animals to flee to safety. The brush exploded like a tinder box under a match and the flames spread like water from a broken dam. Precipitation had always been scarce, but this year's rainfall record didn't even have one drop to add to its ledger book.

While this paragraph isn't picture perfect, it improves on the first paragraph by implementing the editing suggestions.

Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.

I was tagged by my older sister, Chantal.


Six Facts about myself:

1. I want to ride a camel and an elephant some day.
2. I can turn my innie belly button into an outie. (Chantal, you probably didn't even know that one!)
3. I have commitment problems.
4. I'm extremely gullible.
5. I had surgery on my lip.
6. I like to be crazy; The bus system in El Sal is run privately by individuals that can get a hold of a beat up, old school bus from the United States. Bus owners ruthlessly compete for customers. The way it works is one guy drives like a maniac while the other guy jumps off at the bus stops to recruit potential patrons. (You should see these guys jumping off while the bus is speeding down the road. It's gotta become an Olympic sport one of these days.) At times, it can be chaotic on the sidewalks when recruiters are trying to shout above their competitors.

The guys that owned the bus Sadie and I got onto that night tricked us; they told us they were going to our stop when they really weren't going directly there. After an hour and a half, Sadie and I were the only ones left on the bus. I was getting really bored, and I was tired after a full day of work, so I just wanted to get home. Eventually, I decided that since there was nothing we could do about our situation, I wanted a good laugh. I told Sadie to get ready with her camera because I had a sweet plan. I decided to ask the guy if I could jump off the bus with him and yell at potential customers to get on his bus. I figured he couldn't say no from a business perspective because how could a white girl jumping off the bus as a recruiter not attract attention in a diversity-less country? So this kid who was younger than me smirked and told me what to say to the customers when I jumped off.

I think Sadie had the best time laughing, but I had the second best time just hanging out of the door with the wind in my face and jumping off the bus before it stopped and yelling at the people on the sidewalk. The expressions of the El Salvadorians was just what I was hoping for--they were totally at a loss of what to do. It was worth the memory and worth the laughs.