"Luck"'s Unlucky End

           This article was about the recent TV series "Luck" getting cancelled. It was a show about Santa Anita horse race track and all the crazy people you meet there. The main cast is a disgruntled and pretty unlucky people. They all bet on the horses at the track and you get behind the scenes view of the trainers, horses, and jockeys. I'm guilty of watching it a few times, but I was more interested in the horse and jockey aspect, not the crazy gambling. It ended up getting canceled because of financial reasons and the fact that a third horse has to get euthanized due to injuries they got while racing for the show. I think thats extremely sad. Racing can be fairly safe, when the proper precautions are followed, but it can also be extremely dangerous and secretive. i think the racing world is extremely interesting and the horses are beautiful and talented, but the show was a bust.
          The author uses a lot of puns between the gambling and the shows end. She writes "Sometimes, you bet on the wrong horse, and instead of a long-running series, you get nine self-contained episodes of television. The only thing to do is bet again." (Paskin 1). I think thats a good way to describe it, and a clever choice of words. She uses some logos evidence as well. She explains, "the show, despite all its talent, was attracting about 500,000 viewers a pop, which is not much" (Paskin 1). She makes the articles audience broad by explaining the show, to give a non-viewer a general understanding of what's going on. 


http://www.salon.com/2012/03/15/luck_ending/

Will Red Meat Kill You?

           The Harvard School of Public Health has recently discovered that "just a single serving of red meat per day dramatically increases your risk of death – by 13 percent. The odds of developing cancer or heart disease start around 14 percent — and they climb even higher for people who eat processed meats like hot dogs and bacon." (Williams 1). Well that's unfortunate. The issue doesn't really affect me personally very much. No, I'm not a vegetarian, but I don't eat red meat very often. I'll have an occasional burger at a summer cookout or a little piece of steak if thats what's for dinner, or some bacon when we go out to breakfast. I really don't like it very much. This study is just another reason to start cutting down on red-meat consumption. 
            As the beginning of this post shows, Williams uses a lot of logos evidence. Those statistics show just how dramatically red meat can affect a person's health. She also adds her own opinion in at the end of the article, and what role red meat plays in her own life. She explains that being a sometime red meat consumer is beneficially because you get all the health benefits, and you don't have to stress out about being a dinner guest at another persons house or a restaurant menu. Eating healthy doesn't mean going hungry- and that's something I strongly agree with. I feel like her target audience is adults, but I think any teenager could understand the article as well. The question is whether they care about the topic. She also adds some humor to appeal to her audience. " Damn you, bacon." , "It doesn’t have to be a struggle against the Grim Reaper three times a day plus snacks." are just a few examples. (Williams 1).


read the article here: http://www.salon.com/2012/03/13/will_red_meat_kill_you/ 

The small, sexist joke that became a big deal

the tag found on a pair of mens pants

           Here we go again... This simple laundry tag tried to be funny and BOOM, media outrage. Leave it to us to make a huge deal out of something small. Anyways, the article was about a laundry tag that had  “Give it to your woman – it’s her job.” printed underneath the standard wash tumble dry instructions. Ha Ha very funny. It really shouldn't have exploded in the media like it did. Yes it is pretty demeaning, saying that men "wear the pants" and women wash them. But, in reality people need to learn to take a joke- and that's coming from a laundry-doing girl herself. Who even reads the wash instructions on tags anyways? 
          The author wasn't so quick to laugh it off. She believes that they took it too far. She thinks its a "pretty bold boast for a cheap pair of ugly chinos, if you ask me." (Williams 1). She's frustrated with the sexism jokes and ties in the effects of social media like Twitter that helped spread the disgust. I think she was really just trying to comment on "the revelation that somewhere, men’s trousers are telling them to pawn off their dirty laundry on the nearest set of ovaries was not met with universal amusement." (Williams 1).  Williams uses some humour to match the tone of a silly situation, but she also repeatedly points out that some people consider it a serious issue. 


http://www.salon.com/2012/03/06/the_small_sexist_joke_that_became_a_big_deal/

Cruising the street view...

For the complete slide show, visit "Dudes from Views" Blog... or don't

            This article was about a blog called "Dude's from Views". The creator decided it would be a fabulous idea to use google street view to scope out good looking guys and post them from the world to see. Each picture comes with a clever caption like “Triceps and biceps on Christopher Street.” Okay, thats taking it a too far. That is creepy. 
          The author opens her article with a question, "A blog uses the Google maps function to scope out cute guys. Is it fun, art -- or a creepy invasion of privacy?" (McKeon 1). What's the answer? -in my opinion, its the latter, a creep invasion of privacy.  First thought is that the creator of the blog is some obsessive boy crazy chick- wrong!  "Salon corresponded with the blog’s creator, Brad, over email, about his method, issues of privacy and the Google gaze." (McKeon 1). Brad. You read that correctly, its a man. I still think the whole idea of this is insanely creepy. The article is structured with a brief introduction and then into a question and answer session with the creator. I think that was a good way to set up the article and put the facts out there right from the mouth of the creator of the blog. People are crazy- the end. 


the article and more pictures
http://www.salon.com/2012/03/07/cruising_the_street_view/

Bruins lose the game, and a goalie

            I picked this article because I really couldn't find anything else remotely interesting, and I slacked on blogging over vacation and need to make up for it now. Poor Tuukka Rask left the ice favoring one leg, and left the Garden on crutches. he will not make the road trip with his fellow team. Bruins ended up losing to the Islanders, but I think the last goal was a steal. It should've been an icing call and play stoppage, but I'm not going to summarize the whole game for you, you can just read the article.
           Like I already said, this articles main purpose was to summarize the game. It obviously had a little bias in it towards the B's because it was from Boston.com. Its target audience was probably bruins fans that wanted to read more about the game. It uses some pathos evidence when talking about Tuukka's injury and many direct quotes from coach Julien and the players, which I liked. I think being a sport reported would be a cool job- and I think Shinzawa summarized the game in a straight-forward and concise way.
On a side note- hopefully we win against the Rangers today in New York!

http://www.boston.com/sports/hockey/bruins/articles/2012/03/04/bruins_goalie_tuukka_rask_injured_in_3_2_loss_to_islanders/?page=full

"Bully" Movie Rating Outrage

           This article was about a movie called "Bully" to be released at the end of March. It supposedly is about 5 teens who are bullied and their stories. One scene uses the F word In "rapid succession" so the MPPA gave the movie rating as rated R. Producers think that its a poor decision. In my personal opinion, I think making the movie rated R makes it much less accessible to its target audience. If they wants teenagers to watch it they should change the words or cut the scene so that the MPPA's standard for PG13 will be met. I also don't agree with one scene including a few certain words affect the whole movies rating. I mean, to be honest, any kid who goes to high school has heard the F-bomb get dropped- they will survive. The director doesn't want to cut the scene because its a "real situation" and he thinks the country is sugarcoating bullying and need to see just how bad it is. I'm curious to see what happens.
          The article uses a lot of pathos to get people on board the anti-bullying and this-will-be-a-great-movie train. I'm not sure if its something anyone will watch because, put bluntly, it seems depressing and preachy. It sounds like one of those anti-bullying presentations all high schools receive every year. If those seminars worked, we wouldn't be having this issue. I think it might need to be addressed in a different way, I'm just not sure how. A technique the author used was opening the article with recent accounts of suicides or school shootings to show the relevancy of the issue. I thought that was a good technique to use. Overall, I agree with the author when he says "teenagers themselves are not living in a PG-13 world" (Chandler 1). They should find a way to change the rating, or else I don't believe it will be a successful movie at all. They have to reach out to their target audience, or the whole thing will be pointless.

http://entertainment.salon.com/2012/02/29/the_mpaas_bully_outrage/

The Sickness Closet

             "One of the few things about illness people can control is whom to tell. That's why so many choose to keep it secret." (Willaims). Sounds like the introduction to some dramatic reality show or soap opera, doesn't it? But as I continued to read the article I realize how true that statement was. Who would want to be viewed as weak, fragile, or "sick"? Nobody. People are worried that if they go public, "come out of the closet", with their disease, that people will pity them or it will affect their business or job. If you lose your job, and therefore your healthcare, while having a serious illness- well, that sucks. So i guess I understand why some people choose to keep it a secret.
            Mary Elizabeth Williams opens the article with a statement about just a seemily normal guy, who turns out to have cancer, but be keeping his illness a secret. She writes, "If a potential client’s choice comes down to the healthy 30-year-old and the middle-aged man with a tumor, well, who would you choose? So he presses on in secret, cleverly arranging his business schedule around doctor visits and scans. He’s in the cancer closet." (Williams 1). And so begins the sickness closet idea. She uses a lot of real life example of people who choose to keep their diagnosis as a secret, or make it public. She also includes quotes from them to explain their reasoning. I think that is an effective strategy because it allows the reader to identify with their personal issues. She also uses some striking imagery and statements. She writes, "And Ginger notes that even in this day and age, when you can’t swing a cat without hitting a LIVESTRONG bracelet, “There’s such a death sentence that people put on cancer.” The reality of illness is that there are plenty of days when you’re going through the rigors of treatment and its side effects, that you just don’t want to be the official spokesperson and explainer for This Is What My Disease Looks Like. (Williams 1). I never really thought about it that way before, and i think its a powerfully true and enlightening statement. Another one that caught my attention is, "There are other reasons beyond the fear of career repercussions for keeping illness a secret. Nobody wants to be viewed as an invalid, or the one who might be circling the drain." (Williams 1).

http://www.salon.com/2012/02/29/the_sickness_closet/singleton/

Jealous Valentine- how the internet is turning everyone into stalkers

           This article was about technology, specifically the internet, making it extremely easy to "stalk" someone from afar, completely in secret. It ties nto Valentine's Day because it focuses on someone's ex-boyfriend/girlfriend consistently stalking them on Facebook. It does bring up a few good points though. (and it goes back to our discussion we had yesterday in class). I believe that everyone who uses Facebook etc is a stalker. Those websites  are DESIGNED to disclose your personal information in an organized, easy to access way. People go on Facebook to see what other people are doing and to see if anything involves them (notifications). Some people don't even care what other people are doing, but are more focused on whether they get a notification saying that it involves them. It makes them feel "important" or "loved" when someone has 40 notifications on their profile from other people. It's not anyones fault. We are all stalkers, whether we know it or not. Other peoples beeswax is enticing and obviously taken advantage of if it is so easily accessed.
           The article makes a good point about technological explosion, Facebook changes, and smart phones and their contributions to social networking becoming stalker-ish. His target audience is anyone who uses social media like Facebook, making it a pretty wide one of over 800 million. Basulto also keeps the article timely by mentioning ex-lovers and online dating to keep with the Valentine's day theme. He addresses readers directly when in parentheses he questions " (How many times would you check out the Facebook profile of a former lover if you could?)" (Basulto 1). It almost sounds accusing, and forces the readers to admit that the juicy information is almost too easy to access and too tempting. He leaves the readers with a warning, "To turn our personal lives upside down, however, all it takes is for some of this data to get out into the wrong hands at the wrong time." (Basulto 1). I think it was a good article and went along nicely with the article we read, the quick write, and our class discussion form yesterday. 


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/post/my-jealous-valentine-how-the-internet-may-be-turning-you-into-a-stalker/2010/12/20/gIQAooV4CR_blog.html