Twilight

I’m not going to lie: I haven’t and do not intend to read the Twilight Series. My comments about that article were pretty straightforward in that I think it’s absurd to be so devoted to any one thing – especially a stack of paper. I personally have a dislike of mainstream type entertainment (i.e., Twilight, Harry Potter, overplayed radio songs, and bad movies). I’m inclined to believe both authors because I wouldn’t put it past some people to try to beat up/murder someone who disagrees with them. However, I’m pretty certain that the authors of Incidents #1 and #2 were making it up for theatrical effect. If they’re on a Twilight-bashing forum, they are probably going to want to make everyone hate Twilight even more, and to get attention (e.g., “Oh my god, are you okay?”)

I think I could help myself be more objective by trying to ultimately step back from my beliefs and look and what I’m reading for what it is; teenagers wanting attention and probably making up or just making their stories more theatrical than what is actually truthful. 

While reading, I sort of assumed automatically that I was reading the work of an angsty teenager who wants to be noticed because they “rebel” against popular, mainstream media. I guessed that they’re the kids who “hate the government” and “hate rap” and “hate Hannah Montana” and will go out of their way to let everyone know it. I assumed they were both females because of the writing style – I think girls have a tendency to be more wordy (like I am now) and give dramatic details. 

The author of Incident #1 uses more ethos. Their work is at least a little more believable because s/he said they were going to court and that the flare gun girl had a $50,000 fine. It was just easier to believe because the author had points in it that made it sound more credible.

I guess you could say that their opinion agreed with mine to a certain extent. I’m more of a “live and let live” type of person – meaning I’m not one to stand around and try to provoke other people who I don’t agree with, or join a forum so I can tell everyone how much I hate something. I can’t really say that I hate Twilight since I haven’t read the books, but I think the movie was awful. So I would consider myself in some form of agreement with the author. 

 

In response to Incident #2…

I’m not ruling out the possibility that this happened, but I’m pretty sure that you’re just making it up to satiate your anti-Twilight friends’ desire to make something you already hate look worse. If you’re looking to convince people with this article, you’re going about it in the wrong way – it’s way to overdramatic and theatrical. “I swear she was hugging [the book] so hard I thought the sides of the book was piercing through her shirt and to her skin.”

That’s a little bit much, don’t you think? You’re just trying to make this girl look bad. Maybe you were in a parking lot waiting for your friend and maybe some girl did yell at you for not liking Twilight. But I don’t believe that she and her friends beat you in the middle of a Wal-Mart with aluminum baseball bats. Where is your proof? Trust me, this would get more publicity than you writing about it on your forum. 

And then at the end, you play the feel-bad-for-me card with “going to school sucks now…” 

You definitely made this up.

Reason v. Rationalization

I picked the paragraph entitled Taxes because the other two articles’ authors used fairly evident rationalization to justify their beliefs or feelings. I think think this paragraph uses [more] reason than the other two – although it presents an opinion, it also shows the reader why they think that the government is taking advantage of taxpayers. They give a few examples of how the government bails out banks with taxpayers’ money, and how you have to file taxes even while in a coma. They display logic, whether or not the reader really agrees with the author’s stance.

The first paragraph about a fox trying to get grapes displays rationalization over reason. He is ultimately frustrated that he was unable to reach the grapes, so he cuts himself slack and tries to justify it by saying that he didn’t want the “sour and wormy” grapes to begin with, even though he contradicts himself with his own behavior.

The third paragraph, although written by the noteable Benjamin Franklin, also fails to display any logic/reasoning. He states at the beginning that he believes that killing animals when they posed no threat is wrong. Later on, he says that he saw that even animals feed upon one another, and thereafter tells himself that it’s okay to eat the fish because he’s just going along with the way of life. He doesn’t present any real truth that would tell him whether it is right or wrong to eat meat – it’s just opinion-based.

So, I think that the paragraph Taxes differs from these other two paragraphs in that its author does have a real reason to boycott taxpaying and to dislike the government.

Critical Thinking (?)

Task 1:

Sleeping in…

Taking care of my neighbor’s dog. Ugh.

I don’t want a dog.

Saliva is gross!

Putting off my homework.

Buying ice cream with my sister.

Playing Left 4 Dead with Haley

Airsoft

Still procrastinating…

Making good food in the morning.

Long bike rides.

God, I don’t want to wake up early on Monday.

Dreaming.

Long showers.

Watching movies.

Sleeeeeeeeping until 1.

Reminding me I don’t have a life.

Thinking.

Not going to church..

Jesus freaks irritate me.

Task 2:

I think most of my associations stemmed off of what I generally do during the weekends, and some of the thoughts associated with my associations. I also think I stayed on topic for the most part, but there were some obvious deviations (i.e., “jesus freaks irritate me). I am pretty sure that no one is capable of making a 100% unbiased judgment because everyone has a different perception of the world – no one can be unbiased because no one can escape their own reality.

What information would an outsider need to know before my thought made sense? They might want to know more about me and some of my personal beliefs.

Here we go…

This is my first blog, I guess.