Post 4 my plan to persuade my audience

I am going to persuade the class Greenthumb is a worthy cultural space to study because they have a great goal. I think everyone cares for the environment at least in a small way (pathos). It is our home after all and on some level we all hear about global warming or another issue and it may scare or intrigue you. My logos will be some of the ways the club has helped the university become more “green” in the past like geothermal heating. This will show that the club is really doing something and it’s only logical that if something is doing good it is worth looking into and being a part of. My ethos will be that I’ve gone to several meetings and took an environmental science class in high school. I have some knowledge already about this subject and feel very strongly about it.

post 6 sucked into the tunnels beneath las vegas

When I heard sucked into the tunnels beneath Las Vegas the one thing that really stood out to me was how Steve lives. It was very interesting and I had no idea anyone could actually make a living doing what he does. He dresses up really nice and goes silver mining taking the credits someone left behind at a slot machine and cashing them in. To do this he dresses up really nicely to blend in with the crowds of people who visit the nicer casinos. He disguises himself to fool everyone into thinking he’s not homeless. If they found out he was homeless they would watch him or throw him out. It surprises me that he has not been caught taking money. I’m sure a casino would throw him out if they found him just walking around looking for credits to take and not actually gambling his own away. The casino would want to maximize profits and not just give out money. Thinking about all the surveillance casinos have to catch cheaters it would be surprising he hasn’t been caught and banned from some places. The way he lives in the sewer almost sounds like a little kids paradise with the cardboard house with a queen sized bed and other furniture it sounds like a hangout. His system of getting money sounds like he could really make a living by just walking around and collecting money. If he did not have the drug and gambling problem he could probable make a decent amount of money off of it, especially on top of a stable job. Did he do this before he got into this position? Did he lose it all gambling? Did he lose everything he had to his drug habit? He must have had something to start off with since he owns nice clothes.

WRD 110 proposal speech review

I'm not sure how to feel about the speech I gave about Greenthumb. Watching myself talk was very weird for me and I could not get over it and cringed the whole time. I noticed a lot of bad stuff like pausing in between thoughts a lot to think about what I was going to say next. I wasn’t very smooth with my transitions and did things like say “um” or pause for too long. One of the main mistakes I made was I didn’t mention my research plan. I only mentioned that I wanted to be part of it in the future. I focused a lot on what the club has done and what it will do in the future. I tried to tie this into the culture by saying things like “everyone wants renewable energy” or “everyone hates fracking” which both are true and are what really brings the club together, that and everyone is really friendly. I’m not sure that point came across very easily though since I skipped around a little. It just sort of came across like I was just trying to teach everyone what fracking is. I rushed myself at the end a little because I missed the 1 minute mark. I guess my head didn’t always swivel all the way across the room. When I saw the 30 second marker I forgot how long 30 seconds was so I cut my thoughts short and tried to end hastily by saying they have a great goal and I want to do my part for the earth.

Descriptive web text

I walked into the class room which is now the permanent meeting place of Greenthumb. The room is large, white and has no decorations on the cinderblock walls. The desks were arranged in a large circle but not very filled. They were expecting more people since the apparently record breaking amount of people that were there last week but the size thinned out pretty quick. A few more people walked in and take a piece of cardboard looking pizza from the box, which actually smelled pretty good but didn’t look the part, and sat down. Realizing the club is not as popular as last week we were all asked to scoot in and form a smaller circle, that after all the screeching and banging was over, was more tear shaped than anything. Everyone was different, some nerdy looking, wearing collared shirts and glasses, some with a hippy look with dreads and beards, and some what is considered normal looking for college students, relaxed look with shorts and t-shirts. The girls were all in jeans and t-shirts or dresses and the room felt very accepting of anybody who walked through that giant door. The room was quiet and respectful giving it the feeling of a real class it felt like I couldn’t even pull out my phone to check the time even though there was no clock. Our guest speaker, who was talking about an environmental protest march in Pittsburg, had no shoes on and doesn’t wear them because to her it is a “whole sensory world we are missing out on”. Her speech was very fast paced and contained a ton of information to take in, which she noticed and apologized for “word vomiting on us”. The room was silent except for her high pitched fast paced voice splitting the air. Later they passed a sheet around so people can recruit or participate in the march. Since it was so public there was a tension and pressure to put your name on the sheet, you couldn’t just pass it on or everyone might notice and if they all signed up so should you. Everyone signed up for the proposal but I’m curious to see how many people actually go since most people looked bored especially the kid next to me who was doing homework on his computer.

After more screeching of desks moving into small groups we had discussions about the club including ideas about what should be done in the club and a natural gas pipeline that is being laid through Kentucky. Natural gas is not good for the environment they said and didn’t go to much detail for why besides “fracking is nasty”. I knew why it is nasty though the workers pump the ground full of chemicals and water and using pressure the blow up and fracture the ground. This leads to environmental destruction and has a habit of leaking and polluting ground water destroying more wildlife and poisoning people’s water. Visions of videos of people lighting their tap water on fire comes to mind. To others who might not know what it is or the consequences of it may be confused and won’t know why they should join the cause and stop this pipeline from being installed in Kentucky. The small groups started off awkwardly also a returning representative came to each group to start conversations which still didn’t start very quickly. When conversation started flowing better some kids in my small group showed that they had some great contributions and ideas to add to the club. Some were showing that they already had background experience with the environment, at least more than I did in my high school environmental science class. They already have connections in the area and are setting up a field trip to a college with an almost zero environmental footprint. UK is very far from that goal and is converting from coal to a more cleanly burning natural gas, which is better but brings the evil of fracking to campus. The meeting ended with confusion after a club representative struggled with words to bring everything to a close and told us if we wanted more info to stick around but I don’t think anyone actually did. The windows were dark now and we were finally allowed to leave.

  

Sites I'd like to explore.

My first choice would be the environmental club Greenthumb that meets once a week. The environment has always been interesting to me and I have recently been opened up to it in the past year.

My second choice would be the Newman center because I was raised catholic but I have never been very involved in the faith and I would like to see what goes on outside of the church.

Marche and Mathieu quotes

"So if social media let you organize a game of football among your friends, that’s healthy. If you turn to social media instead of playing football, however, that’s unhealthy."
-Marche essay

This quote stuck out to me because I think it is very true. Social media being good or evil is judged by opinions on how it is used. In my opinion it can be used in a healthy way, reconnecting old friends, keeping in touch with people who may live far away, or starting social events. It may be seen as bad when it is used to hurt people by saying rude things about them or unfriending them. If it has gotten to the point of being someone's only social life it can make them feel lonely because they may not have any real contact with people. It all depends on what you think is a healthy amount of social networking.

"We live in a country that sells both escalators and stair- masters. We drink gourmet coffee and take sleeping pills. We eat McDonald's and drink Slim-fast"
-Mathieu essay pg. 3

I have never really thought about this and it's funny when you think about it. We live in a country where we are so lazy that we will take an electronic staircase or elevator instead of walking up a small set of stairs. We do everything in our power to make life easier on ourselves and then get angry and appalled when we start to gain wait and blame other people like the ones who make our food for us. Or we spend more money trying to get rid of the weight by buying machines that make us do everyday things like climb stairs or walk more. Something to laugh about or be offended that some people in our country can be so hypocritical.