Saturday, July 19, 2008

Interests

1) I love music. I'm planning on majoring in music performance. I'm a percussionist and have been playing my instrument, marimba, for eight years. I have been playing the piano since 2nd grade, but I am kind of self teaching myself. I was the section leader in concert band and drumline since my sophomore year and was the drum major my senior year in high school. 


2) I love to running around. Outside of music, doing things is the next biggest things I do. I ran cross country for two years in high school and loved it. I think the reason I love to run so much is because of the challenge it is. It takes so much effort to finish that last part of each race and training every day almost kills you. But after it's all over, you feel so amazingly good that it's worth every ounce of pain.


3) I love drama. I love acting and being someone I'm not. I've been in many plays and being able to pretend you are someone else is so much fun. I takes time to learn your character and you get to make them your own with any fun twist you think they need. Not only do you work alone as one person, but you are with other characters and you have to know how to react and respond to what they are doing and saying.


4) I love people. I like to hang out with friends and I love helping others. I love being able to help talk people through problems and giving advice. I am the oldest of five and I am alway watching out for and giving advice for my family. In high school, I was also the oldest of all my friends and was the leader of the band for most of high school. I care a lot about people and want to help in any way I can.


5) I love teaching. After college, I'm planning on majoring in music performance and owning a private music studio and teaching private lessons to kids. In high school I taught piano to five younger kids. At times it was hard, but when I teach I feel like I get progressively better and now I'm starting to love it. As the section leader in the percussion section I also had to teach a lot of people how to play each of their parts.


Thursday, July 17, 2008

Ad

The company ad for the brand Fila-Real Runners is effective in their message by appealing to the audience’s sense of happiness and humor. The ad entitled Fila: First Steps, which sells sports wear, tries to tell the audience that if you are an athlete then you are simply an athlete and you must face that fact by going out and buying sport products. The first thing you see as you watch the ad is a baby taking his first steps at a family barbeque with his dad recording the moment. As the baby walks closer to the front door he suddenly runs out the house and into the street away from the house faster than his father could run.
The first thing a person would notice as the ad started is the family having fun at a barbeque. The creators of the ad want you to feel the happiness and have fond memories of family get-togethers. It makes the mood of the ad upbeat and draws you in by making the viewers wish they were there. Family events bring together people you love and most people always feel comfortable in their own family settings. This relaxes the viewers and makes the shock at the end of the ad even greater. The biggest happiness indicator is the baby taking his first steps as his father records his boy walking for the first time. Any ad with a baby grabs attention because of the cute innocence of the baby. For one thing, it gets all the women’s attention as they see the cutest little baby and it also show the gentleness of a loving father watching out for daddy’s boy.
The whole purpose is of the ad is to get your attention and make the audience laugh. As the baby starts to run out the door it confuses the audience and they wonder what just happened. It’s funny for one reason, because that could never happen to anyone and no one in their right minds would expect that to happen. The punch line then comes up, born to run, implied that even babies can be athletes and you are ‘born with it’. This sudden shock drives the audience to laugh because of the confusion and fear they felt as the baby suddenly started running. The creators are selling their products by saying that some are just natural runners and should go buy their sport wear. Athletes are athletes and you have to face that fact and go get the equipment you need if you are one.
The ad was very good with appealing to emotion, but it wasn’t perfect. The first time you see the ad the viewer knows that what just happened could not logically just happen. At first a person may be confused what they are trying to tell the viewers. The purpose of the ad is to make you think and if a person isn’t in the mood to ‘get the joke’, then the viewer wouldn’t like the ad as much.
I think the ad for Fila-Real Runners was very effective and caught my attention. The biggest parts that I noticed were the emotions they were trying to put out with the family and suddenness at the end of the ad. The creators thought through how to create a comfortable appearing environment that distracted you from any way of knowing what was going to happen next and then surprised you with something really random that had to grab your attention. I think that anyone that watched the ad, without knowing anything about it ahead of time, would find the ad funny and did what it was suppose to do which is get your attention and laugh.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Whitney's Water Bottle Analysis

The article "Putting a Cap on the Bottled Water Industry" argues the reasons we should get rid of the water bottle industries going into different states and taking away the states water. The author is very effective by using our emotions such as guilt and anger to go against water bottle industries. They used words such as 'taxpayers money' trying to say that you as a taxpayer are getting your money taken away without any say. 

In the article it states "yet Beacon Hill has been strangely silent about- and invested not one penny in defense of- small - and often low-income rural towns that stand alone against what many see as a threat to their drinking water supplies: Swiss-based Nestle Waters." The author uses this line to grab the readers attention by implying that Nestle Water is the bad 'prince John' who wants to steal all the money from the poor people in the small towns. It also says that the water is a greedy company that would spend any amount of money to fix their company. The article also talked about them stealing water from nature making it harmful to fish hatchers. The author does this to make the reader angry and not want to drink their water because the water may have killed many fish and drinking it would be like supporting animal killings.

In the end, the author wants action and tells the reader to act now or it will be to late. I found the article to be effect because of all the emotions and symbols they used to describe the water bottle companies.


Friday, July 11, 2008