Explanation

          In my post called "We're the Same" I mainly only used pathos the "emotional appeal" I choose to do this because in matter of Gay Marriage I believe it would be better to appeal to people heart to heart. I did also bring in the use of history which could be seen as using "logos" which is the "logical appeal". This part shows the progression of human beings within recent amount of years, how we can change and are willing to do that.
         I think that when making an argument on a blog the best type of argument that can be used is that of "emotional appeals" I believe this because a blog seems more like a causal place. Most blogs seem to be about a causal interaction between the writer (the blogger) and the reader. This isn't mean tot feel like I was reading an essay or even an article which I can find online. This is a place for an easy interaction between the blogger and the many readers. I think that bringing in smaller examples of "logos" of the logical appeal would be beneficial but used too much and the reader maybe become disinterested. Another important piece that a blogger could use would be "ethos" which is showing their credibility. The idea of using yourself as a creditable source is a good idea and mixing it with personal experience I believe would relate to the reader better.

Key to Persuading People

          So after checking out the video above I think that one of the top most relevant keys to persuading would be Authority. The reasoning behind my thoughts that authority would be a top choice would be because people are interested in reading information on someone who has credibility. As an example, with the idea of a review blog for food, depending on the food that is being reviewed, it would be better reviewed by someone who can understand the difference between two different foods. People want to learn from someone who knows what they are talking about.  Another huge contributing factor in blogging though would have to be the Liking key - specific blogs are going to be targets for other people. I think it is important to become part of the sub-culture that a blogger might be interested in, dabble in blogging, build a community of friends within this subculture and then in a way use those connections while giving back to them as well.
       

             I think that aside from the liking key which I mentioned before a good way for a blogger to become integrated into the type of sub-culture they are going into, another key that could be used with this idea as well would be Authority again. Not having yourself out there promoting you, but also having someone who is established into the community "market" you is a very good way to get noticed in the community. Scarcity is one that I don't think that will actually work in the case of blogging but I think that in a way reciprocity could work. It comes again to integrating yourself into the subculture. Go to other blogs that do similar things as what you as a blogger might do as well. Give them compliments on their work and they might become your "like" persuasion or the beginnings of consensus. Get a lot of people behind you, lots of people are interested in your work, your style and therefore a lot of following from authorize people, suddenly your blog might be doing a lot better than staying on the fringes trying to push your way into the blogging world. 

Becca and Becca

          Turns out there aren't a lot of names that sound like mine....well...point is I have seen the movie Julie&Julia many times. I really liked like the movie to be perfectly honest. So if you haven't seen the movie, I would recommend it, for the most part. I guess it depends on the type of movies you like, if you are like me and really go for most of everything BUT horror, because no. No thank you, a million times over NO. But if you aren't and you like more specific movies then maybe not. Anyways this movie is about Julia Child the chef. And Julie something or another, I don't remember her last name and quite frankly I am feeling a bit too lazy to look it up. So Julie is going through a woman's version of a mid-life crisis comes much sooner in our lives as woman stereo-typically mature faster then men. So point is Julie is going through hers and decides to start a blog about doing a cooking challenge. 500 or so recipes within a year. So there is the main idea of the plot, but there is so much more going on. 

           I think in the movie Julie who is doing the blog the food becomes a crutch for her, a reason to get to hide behind all the other stuff that is happening in her life. I mean for some people isn't that what a blog is for? Take the show Awkward for an example, in the show she writes a private blog to vent about her life, to be become a faceless person in the world wide web. The food in Julie's life becomes the all important theme because its easier to fix a messed up meal than it is to fix the problems we have in life. 

          So these problems are going to be appearing in her life even if she tries to avoid them. Is there such a thing though as having a personal blog about our lives, and then not including certain parts? I made a mention before of MTV's show Awkward.

          Well her personal "private" blog went live. oh oops, spoiler alert. Anyways it was a complete mess. So I wonder now, when people post certain things how they don't think it won't come back and bite them in the butt. Yet in the movie Julie writes about her husband, and how he is a saint, that is her thing, what she calls him. And then mentions in a blog post how she burnt some of her food for an important event and decided to call into work "sick". Problem here though is what if you told someone that you work with that you a) have a blog, b) twitter account c) facebook or i guess some people actually use Google+? I didn't know that but okay. 

        Point is though its dangerous if you are friends, followers, or in circles? - is that what Google+ does? Anyways its dangerous game when you are connected with people at work ESPECIALLY your boss. I mean come on... you are just asking for trouble. So in the movie when Julie starts to write blog post that start involving her personal life things get a little rocky. But then I guess keeping blog life separate from personal life is next to impossible sometimes. As a seasoned blogger long before this class, I can honesty say that lone thing a blog does, it becomes part of your life. If you are passionate about it, it really does. So when Julie starts to involve her personal life is it that shocking? Not really, should have wrote a blog post telling the whole world that she called into work sick but really was at home cooking? Hell no. Should she have talked about her fight with her husband, again, no! This is about her cooking and trust me sometimes its hard to keep things separate but somethings really need to be kept separate. 

          Julia talks about her readers a lot. Like a lot, a lot. My readers want me to do this, or that. But I wonder how do people get interested in blogs like that. The other blog I run is a reviewing blog for indie books I know why people would stop by there. Very specific. So  with Julie's blog it makes me wonder, why? I suppose though it comes right down to the target audience, people might have looked up how to make this type of food, but in a different way. And I mean wasn't that Julia's idea in the first place. To make French cooking accessible to every woman in the States? So in different times they are trying to do the same thing in a way. Unfortunately for Julie when Julia Child found out about this is was kinda rude about it and wanted nothing to do with it. In all honesty I don't really know why Julia Child didn't care for Julie's blog maybe she thought Julie was a bored house-wife trying to make money off of her legacy. 

          When it comes right down to it. Bloggers, real, true bloggers, tend to let their lives intermingle with their blog. It make take some coaxing, but it happens. When that happens the blogger needs to be very careful. Julie should have been more careful at times. In the end the blog for her I think was very helpful, she finally faced certain problems. So

Just kidding. 

Reviewer as an Author

          As a writer myself, taking various classes in college and high school for creative writing I think that I have enough experience to say that I could understand where an author's stand point would be when receiving a review. One the biggest things that I hope people can take away from the memoir that I will be that writing is not only an art form at a lot of work, people need to be respectful. Reviewing can be a very powerful tool, both as being a way to make an author feel proud of their book, or make an author feel less dirt.
         I suppose on the things I that I hope by gaining while writing this memoir is also to find a better way to express feelings on a book without coming off as harsh as I might off to other authors. There is a point of being harsh and helpful.
        I understand that reading is a very opinionated thing, while a beautiful piece of literature maybe written but what is entertaining for one reader might not be the same for the next. It becomes even more complex when new genres arrive, and when new ideas are being presented. Genres along with age limits, there are many things that should go into when even starting a book.
        While I am not an avid reader of literature with my soon to be degree it grants me some rights as a reader to make certain statements because I take in the book, I critique with evidence and research. With day to day reviewing of works of fictions I can sort of see the same here, while I will not just say this book was bad. I will explain why I thought this: was it the genre i like, was it to similar to another book, there is a lot that is considered. I hope that people also will be able to take that away from my memoir.

Evaluating Life

I am supposed to be posting three things that could be used as memoirs. Memoirs being: a personal account of an experience. This means a lot of self-evaluating, what could there be that is interesting enough for me to talk about about my past life? Excuse me while I scratch my head about that one for the next couple of days. For now I suppose I will have to do a couple though I am feeling a bit lost. What I find mundane might be extraordinary for someone else, and what I might find extraordinary may very well be mundane for someone else.

*Sigh* Let's try.

1) My adventure in being a small little blog with big dreams. No unfortunately I am not talking about this blog, I am talking about my other blog that I started almost a year ago going in feeling concerned about a lot of things. First being I wanted to review books, not just any books but indie books. Being mean is not something I am very good at it. But when reviewing sometimes you have to be what the authors and dedicated fans would considered "mean". I have actually been part of that backlash even though I try to keep all my reviews lighthearted, and kind even if I didn't like the book. But this little blog has expanded, and has me branching out so much. On top of helping me grow as someone being a critical reader it helped me make new friends, becoming more social (even if it is online). Made me more open to a whole lot of new ideas.

2) Writing and reading with dyslexia. Yeah growing up with a twin that could read at a normal pace and you are a little farther back makes things a bit difficult not only on self-esteem but on many other aspects. I hated reading when I was younger, hated it, and it wasn't until I was in 8th grade did I finish my first really big chapter book. (At least of what I could remember). I had only started writing a few years before that, in 6th grade. Of course that story will never see the light of day, since I didn't believe in paragraphs at the time. Anyways while during English parts of Elementary classes, and even in Middle school I was pulled out to do Special Ed classes. Grammar wasn't something I learned like other people, reading was painful and it was a long road but now I read as if its my source of life. Writing is the same.

3) Riding horses, showing in horse shows, and all that comes with it is more than practicing an hour and a half every day. A lot of people might not see riding as a sport but if one has never done a show I would like to see them re-think what they say after doing one day. One class really. There is so much more to it. It's learning responsibility, sportsmanship, and patience. One can't be going off the handle especially around 1000 pound animals that are meant to be trusting of your level-head. There is also a community of people, which becomes like a little world of our own.

Taking the Good out of Goodreads

             So last year, I think it was last year? Maybe it was two years ago? I am not entirely sure on the exact amount of time, I joined Goodreads. I loved this website, it was there for me to be able to read books and express how I felt about them and talk to others about these books that I had fallen for, or not so much, or whatever the case maybe. Even better, if helped me find all these amazing books! I never really had problem with it really, and I had meet some really amazing people - one of which who I e-mail "pen-pal" with.
             So color me suspicious when I started talking to my now very close, very good friend who I will not named told me she rarely used Goodreads. And I was shocked because she is an author - indie - after all I would think she would be stalking the place like no one else's business. So when we started talking about her lack of using Goodreads I asked why? And she simply told me: Bullying.

             To say I was shocked was an understatement. Yeah all ages of people use this website, but I mean come on most of the people I had talked to were at least over 17 years old, I would think at that this point we would be done with this. And I know bullying exist even in adulthood. But I never thought that the small community I was part of would never do that. Until it happened. A book that I enjoyed I gave it a 4 stars - a really good rating and all this, well the Author started popping up in my newsfeed. So I wanted to see what was up. The author was being bullied, and I realized how bad of a problem it could be. 

              Now Goodreads is putting in a new policy, which I respect because in some cases it is truly needed, like I have heard rumors of bookshelves talking about doing horrible things to the authors. Sometimes there are bookshelves called author's behaving badly, which I find hard to disagree with having because even if some authors are being bullied, authors are bullying reviewers. In the end there really is no end in sight for this battle, and some people are going to end up beyond pissed, and some people are going to be totally alright with this. I am in the middle. I have seen both ends, an author being bullied - who I ended up contacting privately and found out she was an absolute mess, and other times when an author called her readers something not so nice. What I have learned from all this mess is that while we should focus our attention on eliminating bullying from schools, so the younger generation never grows up with it, we need to step back as adults and do it ourselves.  

The Daring Life of a College Kid

         So I chose not to write yesterday as I try to wait until the end of the day to write my post. And yesterday I finally went to go see a movie, which I hadn't done for a couple months. Oh I know I shouldn't even complain being that some people haven't been to the theaters in years, but well it is a big deal because I use to go almost every weekend. So recap of Saturday was trying to get a whole lot done, and ending up not getting a whole lot done at all. Did finally get to see that movie I was dying to see because I have an odd obsession with all things British.

           Today I decided things needed to get done, and I was going to get them done. And it started off not so well. Oddly for a college kid - for anyone near or around my age - I am an earlier riser, I wouldn't say I was a morning person being as most people think then I wake up at ungodly hours like 5 or 6 am, and no, I don't believe those times actually exist (kidding, sort of). Either way I woke up later than I normally would, I woke up at 9:30ish closer to 10, and of course still like the "college kid" stereotype I needed my coffee, but I don't like coffee, mostly I just wanted a blueberry muffin from Tim Hortons, and an Ice Cap even though it getting to "cold" for that to be normal. But I did it anyways.
           Getting home from taking the dogs, and a friend I was determined to get started on homework. And yet it still didn't happen. My house, is a full one. On the verge of sounding like a hermit who never wants to leave home, yes I still live at home, yes I am 22 years old, no you don't get the right to tell me I should have moved out by now. If my parents don't mind me being here, I am going to save my money and stay here. I mean eventually I will move out, but when I am not working part-time at a small business with strange turtle-saving old ladies, and customers with personal space issues. So that being all said, so I got trapped into doing other things. And so after those were finished, I sat down and said, homework time. Which of course means Facebook time.

           So homework got set back a little by my duties as a reviewer for a blog that I am running by myself at the moment. It may not seem like a lot of work, but suddenly I have new post that need to go up, e-mails to answer, finding other bloggers to take on books that I don't have time to read for. In all honestly it just more Facebook. It is a problem so a friend of mine broke me from my Facebook addiction for a moment and left me alone while she actually went and worked. So that is when I decided homework time. Only because my computer is dead set against me doing anything productive (I am convinced it hates me), a random button was pushed and while working on homework in Moodle (my universities website for homework, courses, etc) refreshed. All that hard work I had done...gone. In an instant. And I realized then how dependent people have become on computers. And how dangerous this is. Not only my addiction to doing next to nothing on Facebook where I lose half my day doing that, I could lose hard work within seconds, even on word documents. It is a lot harder to have a hand-written assignment suddenly disappear in seconds flat because of a misplaced hand. Unless of course you have one of the following: a horribly placed shredder, a notoriously bad puppy who likes paper, or possible you have a cup of water right next to your homework assignment. 

           Now I know that in a TED talk video I watched it says that the internet, e-mailing, facebooking, etc, has made us less of liars. Well I think its a little less what the internet, but more of the written word. Writing brings out the honesty in us. How could it not? I have publicly wrote twice now on this blog, how I have totally ignored the fact that my professors are reading this that I told them how I skip classes, or have procrastinated all day Saturday and mostly all day Sunday. 

          So in conclusion for today's learned lesson: Do homework first in Word, and save after every sentence. Do not send so much time doing nothing on Facebook and do something productive. 

          Lessons to be ignored today: Saving after every sentence.  Do not send some much time on Facebook and actually do something productive. 

          So in the daring life of a college kid, nothing happened this weekend, no wild parties, no crazy drinking, or stuff like that. No it was a weekend full of work on Friday, Facebook on Saturday and actually getting out of my house for another reason than school, and Sunday more Facebook and homework. Tune in tomorrow I hear that the forecast might be sadly about the same. 

Deep In Thought and Random Turtles

       
         At work today I had to work a longer than normal shift. I am big enough to say that I should not complain. I have a very good job, I have a very nice boss, and its just really nice. But I work by myself most of the time with a cat named Cheyenne. So since I had time I thought I would work on homework but every time I moved to pull out my laptop again to start reading or just doing anything, aka Facebook - because I am convinced its the next most addictive thing compared to nicotine. It's a personal feeling but there it is. While talking to some amazing people. No names sorry. We were discussing though (again no names sorry) an indie author who a blogging friend of mine tried to help and the author ignored her amazing advice, that she took a lot of time to do. There is a point to this story I swear!

           So the point I am making with that little story is that it got me wondering. Indie authors sometimes get a bad rap, and some people go as far to say they are not real authors. Being that I am a firm believer, and supporter I have to highly disagree. If anything Indie authors are more dedicated to what they do then regular published authors. And I do truly mean that. Indie authors have to work twice, if not more than that, as hard. They have be to willing to do all the work that a "regularly" published author has to do and more. And I admire these women and men. I do completely, they work incredibly hard for their success and I am not trying to say that "regularly" published authors don't work hard too, but they have people to do somethings for them.
           As these powerful thoughts are overwhelming me with admiration and the need to feel as if I need to work harder for them as well I was interrupted. Did I mention that I work at a small, locally owned pet store? Well as these thoughts are plaguing me, I have someone come in looking for a new dog food. Normally I don't mind doing this, in fact I enjoy it. Only the customer had a bit of personal space issues. Namely my personal space. Finally after playing the fun game of I step back, she steps forward in my direction, we got her squared away and checked out. I was back to thinking about all the hard work these authors put in.
          Of course before I could get too far back into any work for blogging, or other homework. I am interrupted again! This time the lady has a black plastic crate. She announces to me: "I have a new friend."

So this about my reaction:

         And I am hoping, so, so hoping that there isn't a squirrel or something like that in the crate that was injured. We are not a vet clinic, nor do we take strays. So getting closer, I breathe a breath of relief. It was only a painted turtle. But still painted turtles are wild animals - yes that image doesn't do well with me either but there it is. And she asked if we had food for it. So she paid for pet turtle food and was on her way. So as I am about to sit down and really get into work, what happens but the doorbell again. And so continues the day. 

         

          The biggest thing I learned today from personal spaced impaired customers, turtle saving old ladies, and an incident with Cheyenne. I have even more respect for these Indie authors. Most of the ones I know are mothers, workers, wives/husbands, and so much more. They manage to not only promote themselves, getting their books out there, but writing, editing, and all the small workings of publishing/writing one probably doesn't even think about. 

         In the end, writing is a passion of mine. I love it. And of course with writing - I don't care what anyone else says I firmly believe this - that writing and reading go hand in hand. And while even blogging can become very time consuming, one doesn't even realize how much until they do it. It's worth it. It's worth helping these amazing people out and being part of such an amazing community. I don't think I would trade anything for this. 

The Tragedy Of Thursday

            Today I came to the overwhelming conclusion that I have become completely lazy - this week. I know school has started - we are what in our third week now. And I find myself even falling behind in my other activities as well. Outside of school I am an avid reader of Indie books, and run a blog with a friend. On top of school work I am receiving books that need to be read as well but I find myself doing absolutely nothing really then coming away from the day thinking...wow I was so busy.  All I know is that I am deluding myself into believing that what I am doing is okay. I am tempted to say as Lana Del Rey sings: "I got the summertime sadness" but I don't particularly care for summer all that much.  In the end today was probably the worst case yet.

           

              Certainly though I found reasons to justify my need to skip classes today, and have a "Becca" day. The night before I got scolded - yes scolded for a private matter, that ended in tears. Rather horrible for me being that I don't normally cry all that much. I woke up at 5 am with a splitting headache - took some Advil and waited an hour for it to work. (Was this the best reason to excuse myself from classes? No it wasn't. Would I have called into work because of this, no, I would have grinned and bared it like a normal person.) So I reasoned with myself and said well I will got to my night class because I was still feeling rather horrible in the morning, and work on other stuff. Instead I got next to nothing done ... again.
             So the time was getting closer for me to get ready for my night class - that isn't really a night class. And again I was finding excuses not to go. I have to commute 45 minutes out of my way. I don't have the book yet - still hasn't come in the mail, do I really want to be that student who keeps using her neighbors? More excuses, more reasons just to be blah today. I find it totally unfair of me while others actually got off their bums and did what they needed to do today. Will this stop me in the future from skipping classes? No. I am feeling guilty because I did nothing to make up for it. I did nothing for my blog, I did no reading for the authors I have been promising reviews for, and I have done no writing of my own...besides this.
             After watching the TED talk video I knew that honesty is probably "the best policy". Hence why I am being brutally honest now to a professor, and my peers on how on their hard-worked day I decided to do next to nothing. Also I am being brutally honest with myself, the pizza pinwheels I made for lunch was not worth saying home from school.
         

            I should have gone or at the very least pushed myself to do more homework, or blog stuff - as I feel as if I am falling behind in that as well. So total brutal honesty? This has been the Tragedy of Thursday. I just couldn't wait for Friday (which will be filled with work anyways) to take a break like a normal person. Doesn't seem fair to me.

Private Writing

Shh...its a secret. But not really.
Writing is an expression of the inner most thoughts right? In the article Writing as a Self-Revelation, it seems that the author feels that way though. A subconscious act that pours out from our minds to the page to write what we dare not say. I find this fascinating and unable to find a reason to disagree. Part of me - I think the part that loves to write says this cannot be true, its something that I have carefully formed in my mind, and allowed to grow on its own. But where would it have learned to have grown other than in my head? Its something I think is slightly hard to accept because in the end its agreeing to the idea that our minds aren't as infinitely limitless. Its through experience of our own, and fears of our own, or whatever it maybe fueling us at the moment.
If writing is an expression of our inner most thoughts, and the author of this article also believes in the basic human concept of wanting to understand and be understood is true, then the subconscious working out our feelings in the forms of poetry, fiction, blogging even is a form of this. Then right now I suppose I am trying to get you to understand that while I see the logic in what the author says I still hope to believe in the unbelievable. Writing gives me a piece of that, to believe in the unbelievable.

Goody-Two Shoes Article

In the article Goody-Two Shoes, the author of the article says that writing isn't a chore and people shouldn't force themselves to sit down and write for an hour a day just to do it. While mostly I agree with this statement, I have to also disagree. Yes forcing one's self to write for an hour could turn your passion into this much hated chore. Not writing at all for long extended periods of time can be dangerous as well in my opinion. In my own experience when taking workshops I am writing most of all the time, even if its little stories that won't ever become anything other than that, a little story. I found this to be helpful to get even something down for one day because it kept me thinking about the idea of writing. It kept me focused on wanting to get the larger project done. It also gave me an outlet, if I am feeling rather cheery at the time, but the part I need to write is not, then take that happy feeling write a fun short story, and the next day hopefully you will be in a better setting to write "darker" themed things.
The idea of for at least a couple minutes a day is the same as telling an athlete that they have to practice their sport for at least a half an hour a day as well. They might not like the idea of running around in circles for a half an hour but in the end it makes them better in shape, and better prepared than the person who sat around all summer doing other things. The concept for a writer should be the same, while I am not saying send a complete hour forcing yourself to write, you should sit down for 10 minutes write a little bit, walk away come back to it and do this 5 times a day, or rather cut down the amount of time you are practicing and do it for 15 minutes twice a day and you will be getting 30 minutes of practice without making yourself feel completely forced.
I do agree that the article Goody-Two Shoes does bring up a valid point that one doesn't want to make writing a chore, and make it unpleasant then what the person in question should do is to find a way to make writing a more entertaining for the day. Make a game out of it again using the sport's metaphor, athlete's don't always just run around in circles, or do drills practice after practice. Once in awhile, or at least once a week if not every practice get to do scrimmages. While I understand doing a scrimmage for writing is not quite the same thing, it is all about finding new techniques to keep up with your writing even on those days you would prefer to do nothing at all. Writing is as much as a muscle to be used as legs are for soccer, or any other sport. Up-keep is an important part of it all.