My 2 Styles

1-Exemplification. My idea for my paper is a little abstract, because you can't really measure the effect in dollars, lives, years, etc. So I'm thinking about this one.
http://www.paper-research.com/howto/22-Exemplification___Illustration_Essa.html
2-Description-I like how you take all of the context of what you are talking about and kind of run with it feel of this one. And how you take all the little facts of the journalistic approach and flush them out into ideas.
http://www.rscc.cc.tn.us/owl&writingcenter/OWL/Describe.html

A Cow, An alligator?

Ok, this may seem really juvenile, but it wasn't until my senior year in high school that I finally realized why the computer liked to put green squiggles under my a's. And it wasn't until this year that I started to regulalry put an's in my papers (without spell check) and I still have to watch myself. So, I thought I would go over the rules for a and an.
A is used in front of consonants
A Jedi kicked a Sith.
An is used in front of vowels.
A Jedi kicked an Ewok. (and frankly, they deserve it)

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/540/01/

Jean Kilbourne and Marketing

In Jean Kilbourne's interview with Campus Calm, she raised some very important points. She mentioned the targeting of younger and younger audiences for brands and products. I had heard of the tobacco companies attempts to target children with toy cigarettes and a Camel Joe cartoon show, but that they were shut down after the full effects of cigarettes and tobacco came out.
I remember getting my first letters from credit card companies and my parents firm no as they cut them apart. Instead we went and got a debit card, so that I could realize how much things really cost. When you only make $6.75 a hour, and you work out that to buy a $20 shirt would cost almost a whole day of work (4 hours a day during high school), you quickly have to think about what you want.
I liked her insight in how all of the tobacco, alcohol, gambling and clothing companies make so much money off of your being insecure. I've seen this a lot, coupled with the brand name loyalty, in some of my friends with the Hollister, American Eagle and Abercrombie brands. There is nothing wrong with any of them (except maybe with the highway robbery they use), I own several of each, but some get so wrapped in that brand that is all they will wear. They are like a walking billboard advertising for the company.
Secure and independant? I don't think so. More like a minion for the company.

Grammar Blog

Their and There and They're. Similar to my problem with its and it's. Very similar words, very different meanings.
Their-possesive. That is their lawn chair.
They're-conjunction- They're (They are) over there.
There-There goes the ball.

You don't want to mix them up, because you it looks pretty bad. I used to mix them up and my teachers would always want to know why "they are lawn chair" and how they become a lawn chair. Very embarrassing. So keep 'em straight.

Washington State University
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/their.html

Show me the money

The article "Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption" was somewhat interesting with its use of examples of TV shows and companies that I recognize, but it was quite dry. The author seemed to be stating the same thing over and over and I had to keep checking what I was reading.
But the points that were brought up, about how the media does give the public the idea of what we "should be" wearing, doing, driving, and living in. My younger brothers are constantly asking for new clothes, toys, cell phones, iPods, etc; because whoever is on the Disney channel has one. Maybe we aren't so far away from the early television shows as we thought we were. I feel lucky I don't have a TV. I guess...

20 Questions

1. US actions in South/Central American Countries-DEA and other anti-drug actinos
2. Advertisements and the Olympics
3. Macdonalds and China
4. EU and You
5. Removal of nuclear warheads in Russia
6. regulating who has nuclear weapons
7. Kyoto regulations
8. US and Cuba-Will Castro ever die?
9. US and China-everything is made there? Why so cheap?
10. Great mustaches in history and their relationship with the US
11. World Economics
12. UN peacekeeping forces-who, when, why?
13. The US's oppression of Penguin Liberation groups in Antarctica
14. NATO-A relic?
15. Nintendo and the United States
16. Nike and Kenya-A very fast story
17. Aides to Africa (money, not the disease)
18. Microsoft's Domination
19. US money in Israel
20. The World and WoW

Semicolons; they seperate; ideas;

I have always had problems trying to get the difference between semicolons and commas. Semicolons are used to connect two independent clauses with no connector word. Commas on the other hand use a connect word to join together two independent clauses.


The OWL at Purdue says that:
"You can also use a semicolon when you join two independent clauses together with one of the following conjunctive adverbs (adverbs that join independent clauses): however, moreover, therefore, consequently, otherwise, nevertheless, thus, etc."