Story Time

Storytelling is something that happens on a daily basis, you just may not even realize it. Just telling a friend about how your day went, is like telling them a recap story. Of course, with this topic being examined in class, I just had to take the topic home with me when I went to visit this past weekend. 

As a child, I always enjoyed listening to stories, and being read to. Whenever we were going on a long trip, I would always ask either my mother or my father to tell me a story about someone in my family, seeing as how I have trouble falling asleep in the car, having motion sickness and all. Loving story time made me become so aware and informed about family members, whether they be deceased, or still alive and well. On my visit back home, my father decided to barbecue, so I of course, decided to have my folks tell me a story to pass the time. I wanted to hear about how my father's father's family came to live in Texas, more specifically Los Saenz/Roma, Texas. My grandfather's family, about three or four generations back, was given land by the king of Spain to start getting others to settle there. I will not bore you all with ALL the minor details, but  here we go. The king gave them roughly a 15mile by 1 mile plot of land to settle in, and so they did. The areas were also inhabited by Indians, and my great great great grandfather found himself being chased by some angry ones. He ended up riding his horse under a low lying branch, got knocked off, and attacked, and killed by the Indians. Luckily he did not leave this world without having a few youngsters first. One of those children had my great grandfather, along with my great uncles and aunts. My great grandfather had seven children, one of which was named Noe. Noe was the second born, but he died at a young age, so the fifth child was also named Noe. Noe is my grandfather, and my father's father. Two of my uncles and my grandfather all served in WWII. My grandpa Noe was stationed in England, where he met my grandmother, Gladys. During the time that his son's were gone, my great grandfather passed away. They were married in England, and had there first born son, Noe, there as well. My grandfather had to come back to the U.S, but as soon as my uncle Noe was old enough to travel, my grandmother and uncle hopped on a boat, and later arrived in Elis Island. From there they rode a train all the way down to Los Saenz where they lived in the house my great grandfather used to live in. Then a few years later, they had their second child, which just so happened to be my father. They had four more children after that, two girls, and two boys. A couple years passed, about 35 or so, my father married my mother, and well, the rest, is history. 

My family used to be very close, literally because everyone lived in the same areas, and because we all used to get along so well and loved being around one another. Though we do not see each other much anymore, telling these stories makes me feel that much closer to all of them. Story telling has always been a huge part of my life, and without it, I wouldn't know the things about my family that I know now.

Who Stole The Cookies From The Cookie Jar

The high increase in obesity has become a very popular topic in the United States over the past decade or so, especially the increase in childhood obesity. And why shouldn't it be when a child can be considered obese at the prime age of 2?!? Let's see how Pat Hartman and the bloggers at Spark are able to convey their opinions by using different forms of rhetoric.

Throughout More Emotions, Eating, and Obesity, Hartman describes obesity as being an "addiction" more than just a normal ole medical condition. Dr. Pretlow, being a doctor that specializes in childhood obesity, hears stories from other doctors around him all the time. In basing his blog on a man such as Pretlow, gives Hartman the credentials to form such a credible post about this topic because Pretlow is "obsessed with emotional eating!" Hartman is able to really catch the readers attention with his use of Ethos, in the form of personal anecdotes, that Pretlow has heard from individuals who have gone through childhood obesity themselves. There was one individual Pretlow heard from that said she had been overweight ever since McDonald's came to her home town when she was just 9 years old. Pretlow continues by saying that "she said she was in her clinic, and nurses had brought in some dark chocolate brownies, and this pediatrician said she kept trying to stay away from them until finally she just overdosed on the whole 12 brownies on the tray. She said afterwards she was sweaty and had palpitations and turned gray, and the nurses even worried that she was having a heart attack. At that point, she said, she realized that she was just like an alcoholic, an addict in the gutter. It was a stark realization to her, what was going on." Such an extreme case gives the reader more reason to also agree that obesity can, and is caused by the having an addiction to food. This story can also be seen as using pathos because it is quite an emotional story of a woman struggling with her own self worth and self control over food in her life. Hartman also includes information from Elizabeth Hartney, who just so happens to be a journalist. Hartney says that "in laboratories full of expensive equipment, experiments have been shown that both substances produce opiates in the body, which the brain welcomes just as it does any other opiates." Hartney's use of parallels with sugar, fats, and drugs can give the reader a different understanding of how food really can be seen as an addictive substance, through the use of pathos.

In Child Obesity Research Studies and Facts, the bloggers at Spark on the other hand start their blog off with Michelle Obama's action to battle with the epidemic the country is having with childhood obesity. Michelle Obama is a very influential person today, and by using her gives Spark's blog the credibility it needs to form a good sense of ethos. Spark's also is able to give a very vivid image of just how extreme the obesity problem is in the U.S., by having charts and images of how childhood obesity has progressed over the past 30 years. Spark's uses mainly logos throughout their blog to explain the ever prevalent existence and progression of childhood obesity.

When you compare the blogs of Hartman and Spark, you find that Hartman was able to base his blog off of patients' testimonies, and the use of emotions to get the readers attention. Spark was more about giving the reader figures and numbers to persuade the reader that there is in fact a problem going on here. Hartman sees obesity as being caused by a psychological problem with food addiction, while Spark blames obesity on bad lifestyle habbits, such as poor diets and not having enough physical activity. Whatever the case, obesity has quickly become a huge problem for the children in the world today, and needs to be changed before it gets even more out of hand.

TV ain't so bad

I do not understand how certain people just don't watch television at all. Sometimes I feel as though that is all that I do. Sure it can get a little boring at times because there might not be anything to watch, but with the amount of channels there are available nowadays, how can you not find something? I can always find a defeat movie, or a decent television show to numb my brain with. And what's better than that? I love watching movies. If I could watch movies all day, everyday, for the rest of my life, I would definitely do that. If I could make a living off of watching movies all the time, I would be the happiest person in the world. People say that watching too much TV turns your brain to much. Well I'm here to tell you that I've been able to learn countless things from turning on the boob tube. Maybe it does have negative effects on other people, but I don't feel as though it's doin anything bad for me.