Post 17 – Free Writing “First Date”

I remember the first date my wife and I had before getting married. I first met my wife at a church I used to attend, New Hope Church. It took me about a month to finally have the courage to go and introduce my self to her, and another month to invite her out to dinner. I was a very shy guy at the time, and especially around her. Surprisingly she accepted my invitation to dinner, but thought it was simply a casual friendship meeting. She had absolutely no idea that I was interested in her as a potential girlfriend.

The place I took her to dinner was Chili’s in Southwest Plaza. At first there were some moments of awkward silence and brief discussions about things at New Hope Church. As we both felt a little more comfortable around each other we started to talk about our future goals and interest. I belief this is where she started to get the feeling that I liked her the way a boy likes a girl. The one spontaneous thing about this date that to my surprise did not scare her off from the very beginning was a comment I made.

Around the time I met her I was considering going into the United States Air Force, active duty or Army National Guard. I was currently talking to two recruiters and getting all my documents situated to enlist. I informed Emily, (My wife now) at our first date, about my decision to join the military. I told her that if there was any possibility for us to start dating and eventually move on to something more serious I would join the Army National Guard and if not I would join the Air Force. This was a huge decision that I based on a first date, but to my surprise did not scare her off. Instead, she stuck around and two years later became my wife.

Post 16 - Free Writing "Compassion International"

For the past five years I have been sponsoring an amazing little girl named Kabugho, Moreen through Compassion International. This has been such a huge blessing and opportunity for me to be a part of. Moreen lives in Uganda, Africa where poverty and Aids is a rising epidemic. I have had such a great opportunity to communicate with her thru letters. I also get an annual update of her progress from her studies to physical condition through Compassion International.


Through my support Moreen gets the opportunity of getting an education, which would not be possible without my support. She also gets the proper nutrients required for her to be a healthy little girl from food to proper drinking water, and proper hygiene, which once again would not be possible without my support. The most amazing part of sponsoring Moreen is building a relationship with her. Another great thing is the chance of visiting her in Uganda Africa. This is the plan my wife and I have after graduating from college.

The most amazing part of this overall experience, is knowing that one is making a tremendous positive impact in the life of a precious child. The only thing required is a willing heart to make a difference and thirty two dollars a month. There is absolutely no obligation required. One could discontinue their sponsorship of a child whenever they wish. The reason I include this is because there are thousands of kids still living in great poverty with no education, that there only hope is a sponsorship. All it takes is a little over a dollar a day to make a difference in one child’s life. From my experience it is one of the best things one could ever do in their life.

Post 15 - Free Writing "Marriage"

Marriage is one of the most important decisions anyone will ever make in their life. This choice will either fulfill ones life or ruin it. Marriage is not what Hollywood shows to be a young beautiful girl and a handsome prince charming falling in love and living happily ever after. Marriage is a serious, long term commitment, which requires a lot of hard work and dedication. I am not saying that marriage is bad, but a wonderful and amazing thing, that does require work to keep it this way for the long run.

There are three things that everyone considering marriage should know before taking the road of no return. First, what they plan on pursuing as a career for the rest of their lives. Preparing for a career takes a tremendous amount of time and should be long considered and achieved before marriage is considered. Second thing to know is how to handle and budget money properly. One of the biggest arguments married couples face is on money issues. If one is already responsible with their money before marriage they will save themselves from hundreds of different battles with their spouse’s. Thirdly and most importantly is to know yourself. This is important because in order to know what one wants in a potential spouse, one must first understand who they are, and what they want in overall life.

One thing that marriage involves is getting to know your partner on a more personal, intimate level. One final thing to consider before marriage is to build a strong and solid friendship with a potential spouse. The saying “Friends before Lovers” has a significant truthful meaning.

Post 14 - Youtube Video

Post 13 - Cool or not Kool?

Here we have an ad of a guy with one cigarette in each hand, two in his coat pocket and one right above his left ear. The guy’s body language is communicating to the audience, “look how cool I am because I have cigarettes”, which in reality the audience is thinking he is an utter fool. The ad is making fun of Kool cigarettes.

The ad uses a selection of rhetorical strategies to communicate its message across to people. One rhetorical strategy is comparison-contrast. Comparing what the observer of the ad is thinking of the guy to what the guy in the ad is thinking of him self. The words utter fool represent what the observers are thinking of the guy, and the guy represents just the opposite of the words, he thinks he is super cool.

Cigarette companies try to relay the message that if one smokes, than they are cool. For example, the real ad seriously advertising kool cigarettes shows an individual riding a bike, which state that he must be cool. Since he is cool, he must be a smoker. The ad poking fun at the kool company relays the truth about smoking, which is that if you smoke to be cool, you really are an utter fool. There is absolutely nothing cool about smoking. Smoking is an addiction that causes sickness and gives people bad breath and a series of other unwanted effects. The ones that are most vulnerable to becoming victims of cigarette ads in our culture are adolescents. Adolescents that are unaware of what the negative seriousness of smoking is, do to lack of proper knowledge.

Post 12 - Calvin Klein Jeans

This ad is advertising Calvin Klein Jeans. The ad uses very limited sex appeal to spark the audiences’ attention. For example, the underwear of the model partially showing is somewhat sexy. The sex appeal in the ad is effective to some degree, but it is not the focal point that the ad utilizes to get its message across. The ad's focal point is using a famous singer and performer. The performer and singer is Lisa "Left Eye” Lopes, which was part of a Hip-hop and R&B group, called TLC.

The sex appeal of the ad is very appropriate for advertising jeans. There were other ads in the Calvin Klein Archives, which were very inappropriate, such as a man and woman making out. The woman was completely naked and the man had just a pair of jeans on. The ad was too sexual to be posted on this blog. As mentioned earlier, the ad in this post is quite appropriate for relaying jeans.

The ad does not over exaggerate its uses of pathos. The only serious emotional state one gets from this ad is a reminder of the terrible tragedy that happened to the model of the ad. Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes was killed in a car accident in 2002. In order for one to get this emotional state, one must first understand the history behind the model of the poster. One thing the Calving Klein ad does use, is Ethos. It does this by using Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, a famous individual, to be the focal point of this ad.