Final: Video Autobiography

Brad Paisley, "Online": The double life of the man in the video (George Costanza) is a parody that had many Americans talking about its truths. The ugly pizza boy dreams of being Brad Paisley, and uses his computer to change his image. There area a couple scenes from the video that show how it was successful and others that show how it was not. When he is chatting online on MySpace with two supposedly beautiful girls, he thinks that he is living the life. However, seconds later they change into girls that are not so attractive, showing that he is not the only one to have come up with this great idea. For a brief period of time, I had a MySpace account, and I currently have a Facebook account as well. Computers can do so many different things now, from play games to actually see a person and talk to them at the same time. There is a danger to that, however. My MySpace was deleted after a virus or something of the sort was placed on it. Family members could see something that wasn't appropriate and they were appalled. There wasn't a reason for this virus, it was random, however it definitely made people aware of the dangers of putting yourself out onto the internet for everyone to see. The video tries to tell the viewer that by ending it with the man snapping back to reality, and he sees the right path to take.

Lonestar, "Walking in Memphis": Although not the original music video, this video has the same quality and sound that makes the song so great. The video shows pictures of Lonestar performing at all sorts of locations. The song's lyrics tell of a journey to the city of Memphis, and all of the sights, sounds, and emotions that went along with being in that city. The song is very nostalgic, because as a freshman in high school, I went to a similar place, that being Louisville, Kentucky. The giant buildings, the trees turning from green to all combinations of yellow, orange, and red, the masses of people with that familiar "twang" to their voice, all were signs that I was in country music territory. The reason for traveling to Kentucky was for an FFA conference. The year I went, the sort of theme for the conference was "to make memories." The jacket that all of the FFA members wore really sticks out in my memory. The blue cordoury jacket was a tight fit for anyone, and it looked very handsome in the thousands of people that were wearing it. Since I was only in FFA that year, I think that makes the relationship between the jacket and Louisville that much stronger, as that was one of the only times I had to wear it. The southern atmosphere definitely correlates with the song.

Fountains of Wayne, "Stacey's Mom": This video is a humorous re inaction of every junior high boy, dreaming of a hot woman to fall in love with him. The boy is also shown as a sort of player in this video, as he uses the daughter to get to the mother. The pool scenes in this video are really what I enjoy the most of all. The first one is where the boy sees the mom and spills his drink all over himself. The second is where the mother gets out of the pool and is seducing the boy, and he just cannot handle himself any more. These two scenes are also similar to scenes played out at our city pool, where I worked as a lifeguard for two years. There was always something getting thrown into the pool that shouldn't be there; candy, towels, and even a bike. To control these sorts of incidents, we lifeguards would use our whistles to thwart the mischief of his or her wrong doings. The whistle was a sign of control and power. Whenever it was blown, everyone stopped what they were doing to look around. The whistle also was a distraction from the boring days when there were few to no swimmers. Twirling it around your fingers was a helpful way to pass the time. I am sure that if the girl in the video had a whistle she would have been able to control the daydreams of her junior high boyfriend.

Black Eyed Peas, "Pump It": This crazy and out of control song gets the blood flowing in me every time I see or hear it. The video jumps back and forth from a produced piece to an actual live viewing. The band members are duking it out with a couple of people who think that they are better than the Black Eyed Peas. It is mostly just an intimidation video. This song was also used in the movie "Flushed Away" as a mock music video that the slugs from the movie dance to. The cartoon movie is one of my favorite movies, as is most any animated movie that has come out in the past few years. Movies such as Over the Hedge, Walle, Ratatouille, and others are always very funny and seem like they appeal directly towards me. A Bug's Life poster hangs in my room at home on the wall opposite of my bed. The detailing and bright colors are what attract me most to animated films. The smooth curves and wacky facial features seem to bring them to life even more so than compared to humans. The funny sounds that a lot of the characters make also help in creating a well rounded character. The way computers can make the cartoons move in fast and blurred movements (like the squirrel from Over the Hedge) or the smooth gliding look that Walle the robot gives is just simply incredible.

Blink 182, "Feeling This": This song was featured on the PlayStation One game made by EA (Electronic Arts) Sports entitled Madden 2003. The song has a really good rhythm and the rock just fits the mold for background music on a football game. The video shows a class of disciplined school kids breaking out in a revolt against their teacher and destroying everything in the school. At a jail cell, a couple doesn't let a glass pane seperate their feelings for each other. There is a lot of emotional build up through out the entire video.There are attempts made to calm the students but they fail. They continue partying while at certain points the video flashes to clips of Blink 182 performing the song. The Madden 2003 game was played on a PlayStation One. The video game system was the first by Sony, who was trying to compete with the other big game systems. My brother and I spent many summer days and evenings after school playing against each other. Each time we played we used our favorite teams (I was the St. Louis Rams) and we would battle for bragging rights. The hard hitting collisions and the fast tempo of the game put us in the mind set to hurt someone. We would get done playing a game and would wrestle just for fun. It was a tough fight, always, and we would always play the soundtrack for this game, which included this song.

Asia, "Heat of the Moment": The live music video fully embraces the era of the 1980's. The lighting and visual effects such as the clothing and the hairstyles also adds to the antiquity of the video. The song is a classic that my parents generation listened to. My parents introduced me to this song and to this decade of music. The song is also featured on one of the most popular games for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Guitar Hero: Rock the '80's for PlayStation Three. The game's control is a guitar with colored buttons for the frets and a clicking stummer for the strings. There are five of those colored buttons that correspond to the tabs on the screen. There is also a whammy bar that gives you extra points the faster you hit it back and forth. To add more effects, the guitar is motion sensitive to allow the player to "rock out" with star power, doubling the amount of points you can earn. The game provided and still provides hours upon hours of intense fun for my friends and me throughout high school. There were many places to play the game, from the downtown youth center to two or three friend's houses, and now the many dorm rooms located on our floor in the dorms at college. The amount of time put into the game is well evident by the level of play and the rediculously high point totals that some people can score.

Emerson Drive, "I Should Be Sleeping": The homely effect of this down to earth video really strikes a feeds a sense of relationship into the viewers head. The band members are shown fooling around playing in what looks like a garage. They also play at other locations through out the video, such as a local cafe. After seeing this band in concert, it seems like the lyrics are even more profound then they ever were before then. At a friend's house, we would lip sync this song while jumping and running around on her bed, falling down every time he said the word sleeping. The bed was small and sat on a wooden box with no room for storing anything underneath. The High School Musical posters on the wall said that she was still a little kid at heart, only now she was jumping on the bed for probably a different reason. The beginning of the Emerson Drive video shows a few of the band members tossing and turning in there beds in their tour bus. The musicians probably haven't slept in their own beds for quite some time. The transformation from a high school student to a college student also means a lot of sleep lost over getting used to a new bed. From a plush, long double bed room to toss and turn to a cramped, stiff single three feet from the ceiling, there is a drastic different and takes a while to get used to.

Self - Analysis Blog

This class has opened a lot of doors for me as far as writing is concerned. Before this class, I saw myself as an average high school writer that basically did what needed to be done for the assignment and I never really put extra time into my work. After this semester, I feel like I have improved a fair amount in this area. Now I can say that I have a more diversified outlook on the types of writing, including the rhetoric view as well as the the observational and relflective styles that we have discussed in class. I have learned to respect all styles of writing as well, even if I don't completely understand the purpose of it. I have also learned to write in a more spaced out format. I work on an assignment chunk by chunk, in order to have time to think about it longer, instead of sitting down at one session and putting an entire paper together.

In communicating with other classmates, I have learned to bounce ideas back and forth to create a better understanding of a particular assignment, as well as get that person's perspective (a peer review) on a piece of work that maybe I thought was ok. The peer reviews that were done in class this year provided a lot of constructive feedback for helping me complete the first two writing projects. Communicating with my teacher, when I did communicate, was a good experience. He provides complete answers to my questions and that made the assignment a lot easier.

I think I can say that the strengths of my writing skills are a fairly well-educated vocabulary and grammar skills (although I am sure everyone can say the same about the grammar). I think that I struggled this semester in comprehending all that the rhetoric assignment was to be composed of. My imagination when it comes to deciding what to write for freewrites was a strength as well, as there was a lot of opportunity to write those. In reference to the "What is good writing?" question, I think it is safe to say that good writing is composed of a few things. First, if there is a topic or question that needs to be discussed, make sure the writer is effectively doing that. Also, there needs to be a feel that the writer has put a little time and effort into it by creating a sort of flowing work that makes sense in general.

As far as the future of my writing experiences, I think that a lot of this education will be used in many other papers, classes, or even jobs. There will be times I am sure that I will need to address the emotional standpoint of some issue. I would feel confident in my knowledge of pathos to develop a strong argument on an issue of that type. This class has been a learning experience that I will definitely take with me after this semester.

O-O #3

This red Motorola Razor can be considered a big lifeline for many Americans in today's society. The cell phone about the size of the palm of a person's hand, and flips open to almost one hundred and eighty degrees. There are three buttons on the outside of the phone on the left side. The top two control the volume of the ringer. The bottom button turns the speakerphone on and off. There is a small silver circle on the cover that has the Motorola logo on it. The silver circle has small horizontal lines over it giving it a rough feel. There is a camera lens at the top of the phone. On the back, there is another Motorola logo and a white alltel logo as well. On the inside, the silver keyboard is highlighted by light blue lights. The color screen on the top half shows the date, time, and other things such as signal strength, ringer volume, and battery power. The screen, as well as the outside cover, is scratched from constant use. The numbers and the other buttons are beginning to rub off and are becoming harder to see.

This phone has a lot to do with my everyday life. From calling my parents to texting classmates for last minute homework questions, there is so much this phone can offer me. There have been many important calls that have come through this phone. I can remember hearing of how friends turned out at a basketball game or how someone had just hit a deer in Lincoln, NE. Without a cell phone they would have had to wait to see the person or to call them off a land line to tell them the same thing.

O -O #2

MP3 players come in all shapes and sizes. Mine happens to be very small. The small black Creative MuVo V100 digital music player can easily fit in the palm of my hand. The glossy black surface highlights the scratchs and smudges that come with the everyday wear and tear of it. The silver buttons on the sides are tiny as well and the skip wheel are easy to press while running or just sitting there. The memory stick attached to the console of the MP3 player smoothly slides in and out. It directly connects to a computer and allows one to easily place files onto the stick. The player can hold approximately twenty gigabytes of files, or something like five hundred songs. On the back of the MP3 player is the area for the battery. This cover also slides off easily so that one triple A battery to power the player. The size of the MP3 player makes it easy to use but sometimes hard to find.

The music that plays from this player can impact my life everyday. Whether using it to run or to relax while browsing the world wide web, it helps put me into moods of all kinds. While running, it can be a motivator to help stay focused. When relaxing at home or on a bus ride, it can play soothing music to help me further relax. It can also adjust to the type of music I am interested in at a certain time. Dividing the music into folders, it creates playlists. These playlists can be divided up into different genres of music, and that helps when wanting to listen a certain band or two.

O - O #1

Of course they weren't the first pair I ever had, but they were the pair I held on to the longest. The running shoes that had logged so many miles were finally laid to rest underneath my futon now at college. Long before that, well over a year ago, the crisp and clean shoes arrived at my house after a typical purchase from Eastbay. The vamps were so white they could have blinded a person, while the three green adidas stripes slashed across the toes of the shoe. The ventilated tops caused a breeze to gently pass through to the runners feet for sweat control. Another amazing feature of these light-as-a-feather shoes was the vented bottoms. Three stratigically placed gaps in the bottom of the shoe enhanced the ventilation even further.
These adidas shoes provided many wonderous moments throughout the past year, from worldly accomplishments to forming relationships. A fellow runner on our cross country team had purchased the same pair of shoes, on the same day, with no knowledge of my purchase. The friend and I seemed to become closer over the next few months, running every night together in the same shoes. This daily habit produced great results, and at the end of the year we were celebrating a title together. For the rest of the year, that title was a common discussion topic amongst us whenever we were together.
Recently, I replaced these nostalgic shoes with a new pair. While the physical use of these shoes are over, I am sure that they will provide a spark of thought every time I see them. Hopefully, the current pair I am wearing will eventually cause the same thing, with even better memories behind them.