Pretend Everything is Fine
Thursday, September 25, 10:42 PM
The ASB system at Andrew P. Hill has turned incompetant since I have left the school, as a former student I must say I am highly disappointed.
Current students are forced to pay a $30 "athletic fee" as well as purchasing an ASB card. The problem is not that we do not RAISE enough funding for student activities, it is simply that we are not GETTING enough from the government. I urge future generations of student leadership to be aware of each situation--how it applies inside and OUTSIDE of school.
ASB-student body should be informed of what wiser actions they can take. This includes sending letters to our District 7 representative and local political leaders. ASB is not merely a popularity contest to be won, or positions to be filled. They are representing the entire student body, and they must work to keep their place in office.
Response to Tipalet Cigarette Ad
Wednesday, September 24, 11:07 PM
A man and a woman are gazing into each other’s eyes. The lighting is very dramatic on the people’s faces. An emphasis on the man's face, he seems mysterious and suave, while the woman is projected as innocent and submissive. Light shining on her face captures the woman’s beauty. In broad white text, “Blow in her face and she’ll follow you anywhere.”; this is a cigarette ad by Tipalet, introducing their new four “delicious” flavors. The Tipalet ad originates from the 1970s, promoting cigarette use. It incorporates various forms of propaganda.
The Tipalet ad employs the technique “lesser of two evil” where it falsely states that using cigarette without inhaling smoke is healthier than just plain smoking. It also states that second hand smoke is fine since the man is blowing fumes into the woman’s face. In actuality, smoking is very dangerous to the health, to both the smoker’s and the second hand victim’s. The ad focuses on the positives, suggesting that the four new flavors of cigarettes make smoking even more enjoyable. It attracts old and new smokers with its clever campaign.
It lures in potential smokers with a promise that “if you use our product, you will be like the mysterious and attractive man in the ad”. The woman stares solemnly into the man’s eyes. The ad generalizes that women are attracted to the smell of smoke, claiming that men who smoke can get any woman. There is no valid source of information from which this conclusion deprives from--yet another form of propaganda, an illogical conclusion.
The ad calls out to the “Smokers of America” to make their next cigarette a Tipalet, guaranteeing more satisfaction with their product. Tipalet provides an alternative to fume inducing -which bother the consumer- cigarettes; what they forgot about is how the fumes from their new product could still affect other people. The bandwagon technique appeals to the subject to follow the crowd to join in; essentially because everyone else seems to be doing it.
The mood projects a seductive scene; the smoke acting as mist. The yellow ambiance background let the two dark picture stand out, enclosing them in a frame of privacy. In a gown of white, the angelic woman is entranced by the man’s unfazed look-his bait, a Tipalet cigarette. “Second hand smoke is okay; in fact women are attracted to it” is the message being screamed out by the mood in this advertisement.
To say that smoking is more satisfactory without inhaling is unsupported by any facts. Simplification often reduces a complex choice to simple clear cut answer. In this case, it seems to be choosing Tipalet over other brands. This simplification technique appeals to the uneducated mass. Smokers are reeled in by the cost effective price of twenty-five cents per pack and advertisement claiming that smoking for cool people; those who want to be cool should follow this example. It dupes people into buying the cigarettes.
Burgundy, cherry, grape, or lustrous blueberry, it’s your choice of cigarette. Propaganda is present in our everyday life, even though we may not notice it. We are being bombarded with images trying to sell us products or new solutions to problems that do not exist. The tone, colors, people in the advertisement, and slogans all attribute to our acceptance of smoking in society. Since the 1970s, the side-effects of smoking are widely known yet we still have cigarette ads and constant propaganda on TV and in the media. Inspired by a friend's English assignment, and this webpage: Illogical Mind-"Truth" In Advertising
A for Artichoke
Tuesday, September 23, 8:41 PM
Following a delightful conversation I had with my friend Payam:
"Put it. Put it. Put the book down."
"Okie-Dokey Artichokie!"
If you guys play around with the rhythm and beat, it becomes a very wonderful iambic quadrameter! I really had a nice day overall. I had lots of free-time. Our Culinary Club officer's meeting was organised, and went well. I was able to go to Mr. Uhler's tutorial afterschool. I learned that I know more than I give myself credit for, and I look forward to learning even more things. I'm happy, I'm happier than yesterday. I get this section in chemistry, yes! I was bummed out during the middle of the day; I don't know why. Now I'm peachy-keen, I feel good after volunteering at Tully.
First Time Written
Friday, September 19, 8:16 PM
KayAye Tee eHchY (8:07:08 PM): ok so my beliefs:
KayAye Tee eHchY (8:07:10 PM): 1. people should have the right to find happiness, happiness is not guaranteed
nightfantasyxox (8:07:13 PM): yes
KayAye Tee eHchY (8:07:56 PM): 2. one cannot harm or deter another person while in the pursuit of happiness, it is morally wrong
nightfantasyxox (8:08:01 PM): yea
KayAye Tee eHchY (8:08:27 PM): 3. happiness is defined by each individual, we should not impose our own personal beliefs on others by force
nightfantasyxox (8:08:36 PM): yea
KayAye Tee eHchY (8:10:26 PM): lastly....4. we make up our own rules, or we follow others. ultimately, only experience is made from trial and error.
Marukawa Gum
Saturday, September 13, 2:16 PM
A small product endorsement you could say.
I love this gum, right now I'm chewing on the strawberry flavored gum. It's an inexpensive treat, and it can be easibly found in most Asian inspired markets in the candy isle. They around 1 US dollar a pack, with six minature "boxes" with 4 gumballs in each. There's four different flavors you can buy, but the two which I get most often are orange and strawberry. The gum also comes in avocado and grape, yum. I think the packing is really cute and simple. The ingredients of the gum isn't loaded with chemicals you can find with other gums. It contains the basics: gum arabic, sugar, Dextrose Anhydrous (grape sugar), a grape extract for color, corn syrup (more sugar) and malic/citric/tartaric acid for keeping it fresh. Thought it is artifically flavored, it's not a big deal to me. This is great gum.
Lively Enough
Thursday, September 11, 11:14 PM
The funny thing is, I didn't blog when I had the freetime on Tuesday, I decide to blog now. I really thought the workload was crazy, but it's not. I managed my time fairly well today and got the majority of my homework assignments done. I was also able to watch Zohan, um can I admit that I like it, even though I was only half paying attention? Some of the humor and jokes get lost along the movie, at times the content may offend viewers, but overall, I liked it. It was some mediorce comedy, but that's exactly what I need today. Lately, I've been sleeping alot earlier, and making to 0 period barely on time. Miss Farmer gave me the "Okay, Go" to sign our Multimedia class for the Global Virtual Classroom competition. I'm thinking we'll do fine, and I'll ask Mr. Dee to help us with the technical things later on, like FTP. Homework, like I said isn't so bad. The studying and bringing all textbooks on Monday is killer though. I know some of the students and I have been getting back pains as a result. Keeping this blog short, here's a poem:
"And here we dwell together, side by side,
Our places fixed for life upen the chart.
Two island that the roaring seas divide
Are not more apart."
~We Never said Farewell by Mary Elizabeth Coleride, second stanza
Raffaello from Ferrero
Monday, September 8, 12:49 AM
Lunar Year
Friday, September 5, 6:18 PM
My middle school years gained me a variety of friends, I went through them like series and series of books. One of the first person I met in school was N. It was only by chance did I meet her. We never shared any classes together, but on the first day of 7th grade, I made an error and came to a class, a period too early. We sat next to each other and we quickly bonded. I starting spending time with her during lunch. We would talk about anything, our childhood days -well, we never assumed middle school was childhood, but now I do-, our classes, our families. It was comforting being in her presence.
On early dismissal days, without anything better to do, I'd walk her home. I always came to these walks, even though it would take me another 40 minutes to go back home. At school one day, she brought me Banh Chung. A square green gluteneous rice covering meat and mung beans, a sight I had commonly seen but never tried. I liked it suprisingly. I realised that instance, by being a picky eater there would be regions of my tastebuds unexplored. N showered me with love. Eventually, we drifted apart, but I will forever thank her for being my first friend in middle school. Whenever I see Banh Chung, I am reminded of her. This is why I enjoy Tet, this abundance of Viet food.
Samurai Girl- A Rant
Monday, September 1, 12:06 PM
Nuh uh, shut up! This has to be one of the corniest thing ever. This 3-day movie event doesn't automatically attract the Asian audience since the lead character is admittedly the pretty actress, Jamie Chung. Okay, maybe it does...a little. But I've waited so long to rant on this topic. Why is there a need to associate Asians and the martial arts/kung fu violence/protect your honor sort of genre? So, this is Samurais...It's Japanese. But it's utterly not believable! Plot summary for you guys: Heaven, played by Jamie Chung, is a girl adopted into the wealthy Kong family after a planecrash that killed her biological parents. At the age of nineteen, ninjas invade her wedding and kill her brother. Woah, now stop right there! I don't care if it's based on a book. How tacky can you get? I've never seen any American TV show with a leading Asian , having a normal life.Is the small-screen too afraid that the audience won't be interested into such a character? Probably. But I'll let them know, Asians are an under-represented demographic not reached out to. While we're at it, why not target Native Americans, Middle Easterns, Eskimos? Our airwaves need more color. And until a change, I'll continue to indulge in foreign films and Asian dramas. Three days, and Samurai Girl will never be spoken about again.
Disney Channel. Must arth thou painst me? To begin with, Disney offers lame contracts. They take advantage of the child actors. It's an exclusive dealing, Disney expects the kids to stay a minimum of 2 years. It's creating scene, an image that all child stars can act, sing, look pretty. Are these kids naturally triple threats? I think not, they've been trained to take up all these skills. I don't see how they could have a normal fun life when they're caught up in all the fame. Poor kids, the media show lay off them. Stress, stress, stress to be perfect and sell the most records. One small mistake, and the media-sharks are all over you. Quoted my friend, "It'll be 20 years before Corey Baxter (Kyle Massey) will ever get out of Disney, and by then he'll never be offered a contract. So much for his rapping career. Shiloh Buff barely made it out alive..." It hasn't always been this bad, the few Mouseketeers made it out alive. Britney, Justin, Christina..but it's been a decade.
I got offtopic. For what I was going to say, Disney channel does a mediorce job covering the Asian demographic as well. I loved American Dragon, it's a cartoon. It's great for the action. Jake from American Dragon had a white dad, well it's expected. Some of us do live in families like that. But Wendy Wu: Homecoming Queen. What a disaster! My friends looked forward to watching it. I did as well. I was disappointed to see them show her as shallow and uncaring. Disney portrayed Wendy's family, an Asian family, accurately but they lost me with the plot. I didn't enjoy the whole storyline. It was too typical. Sorry, that chance of an real teenage Asian-American girl on TV is gone. Shall I go on about the unreleased DragonBall Movie, Jamie also happens to star in? No, I'll leave it to Angry Asian Man to explain.
