IRB intro post

The book I am going to read is Night by Elie Wiesel. I read this in ninth grade and really enjoyed it, so I would like to read it again from my 11th grade perspective.

Vocab #13

Obstinacy
My guess: to refrain from
Definition: unyielding or stubborn adherence to one's purpose, opinion, etc.
Context: Practice Reading

Consecrated
My guess: concentrated
Definition: to make or declare sacred; set apart or dedicate to the service of a deity:
Context: Practice Reading
Sentence: to consecrate a new church building.

Pious
My guess: penetrate
Definition: having or showing a dutiful spirit of reverence for God or an earnest wish to fulfill religious obligations
Context: Practice Reading

Solicitude
My guess: alone
Definition: an attitude expressing excessive attentiveness
Context: Practice Reading
Sentence: to show great solicitude about his wife's health.

Incantation
My guess: disobey
Definition: the chanting or uttering of words purporting to have magical power
Context: Practice Reading

Subservient
My guess: subordinate
Definition: serving or acting in a subordinate capacity; subordinate
Context: Practice Reading

TOW #23- visual text

Domestic violence is something that many women face today, and something that has been largely ignored and even accepted and encouraged up until recently. This visual text works to raise awareness for the struggles many women experience.
The woman in the ad is wearing the famous dress that people aren't sure if it's white and gold or black and blue, with the caption "why is it so hard to see black and blue." This is the advertiser's way of showing people that there are more important things in the world that what's going around the internet, and the only way to penetrate the minds of young people is by using memes.
Something that this ad is arguing is that we like to cover up domestic violence, and that it's hard to see it. Many women who are victims of domestic violence are to afraid to speak out, or claim that they love their spouses, so as a society we tend to turn a blind eye and ignore what is going on. 

The bottom of the ad says, "The only illusion is if you think it was her choice. One in six women are victims of abuse. Stop abuse against women." This is a use of logos, showing a statistic for how many women actually face abuse, while calling out those who blame the women for their abuse.

Luckily, lately more has been done to help those who are suffering from domestic violence. Homes have been created, one even nearby, that helps young women who have left their husbands. Hopefully  much more will be done to put an end to domestic abuse, and women won't have to live in fear anymore. Since we've come this far, imagine where we will end up.

TOW #22

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/the-science-of-tipping?intcid=mod-latest

Whether it's after eating out at a restaurant, ordering a coffee at Starbucks, or getting a haircut, we like to tip after paying. And it doesn't really make sense. This article delves into why we tip and the psychological effects of tipping.
First of all, this article uses humor to show the ridiculousness of tipping and maintain audience's interest. The author writes, "it would probably never occur to you to tip the mechanic for your new brakes, the plastic surgeon for your magnificent face-lift, or the veterinarian for your dog’s magnificent face-lift." and "In a university experiment, scientists discovered that rats that were handed divorce papers just before a meal tipped considerably less than rats that were told they’d just won a trip to Disneyland."
The author also writes about the origin of tipping, appealing to logos. "Tipping dates all the way back to the eighteenth century, when patrons would give a few coins to their waiter/struggling scrimshaw artist “to insure promptness.”"
I'm not really sure the point this article is trying to make. Maybe that tipping doesn't make sense, or why do we only tip certain jobs, or why do we tip at all?
I think the target audience it average Americans. Apparently not all countries tip and I think this article is supposed to show us why. To show us that what we do doesn't make sense. Or perhaps it's for countries that don't tip to show them why we do. Or to show them that we don't know why we tip either.
I also think it's interesting that the article ended with "The academic world may never truly solve the mysteries of tipping. But the bottom line is that a lot of the people you look down on rely on tips to live. So the next time you’re buying an overpriced matcha drink at your local café and see the tip jar staring up at you, what will you do? Throw all your change into it? Simply walk out?" This kind of provides reason for why we tip: some people need these tips in order to support themselves, or even sometimes their families.
Though tipping doesn't make much sense, there is sort of a purpose to it all, and until we find a better option, we should continue to do it.

TOW #21- visual text

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMZChujwrBs#t=205.965111253 (#9)

Cats are known for knocking things over, destroying decorations and curtains, and generally wreaking havoc. The Temptations commercial recognizes this. The commercial begins with a room filled with extravagant Christmas decorations with little doors on every wall. And the cats are released. They climb the Christmas tree, knock over the dinner, play with the toy train. Then you hear the sound of Temptations treats shaking in their box through one of the doors. The cats immediately run to the treats.
The main idea of this commercial is that you need to buy your cat Temptations treats if you want to save your decorations. Your cats are guaranteed to leave your things alone as long as they have their treats.
Something that this commercial does is utilize humor. The cats look ridiculous as they all mess up the decorations and have fun. This makes it easier for cat owners to relate to this commercial. It also appeals to pathos, creating a general feeling of worry as you are forced to watch everything be destroyed. This makes cat owners feel obligated to buy these treats, because they definitely do not want this to happen at home too. Something else that the commercial does is focus on the cute aspect of cats. They show frames of little kittens playing with ribbons, and fuzzy cats pawing at the door. This also appeals to pathos, as viewers automatically associate this product with cuteness.
The target audience is cat owners during the Christmas season, who have both decorations and a cat to mess them up.
I think that they successfully convey their point, which is that you need to buy the treats. I think this commercial hits home with most cat owners and makes their product seem necessary to have. As a cat owner, I can say that I loved this commercial and I want to treat my cat with Temptations.

Vocab #10

Aberration
My guess: Irritation
Definition: the act of departing from the right, normal, or usual course
Context: French class

Punitive
My guess: small
Definition: serving for, concerned with, or inflicting punishment
Context: mom

Forays
My guess: fortress
Definition: a quick raid, usually for the purpose of taking plunder
Context: APUSH

Provincial
My guess: useless
Definition: having or showing the manners, viewpoints, etc., considered characteristic of unsophisticated inhabitants of a province; rustic; narrow or illiberal; parochial
Context: MLK, Beauty and the Beast

Tribulation
My guess: challenge
Definition: grievous trouble; severe trial or suffering
Context: Princess and the Frog

Malfeasance
My guess: bad
Definition: the performance by a public official of an act that is legally unjustified, harmful, or contrary to law; wrongdoing
Context: dictionary

Dict
My guess: to say
Definition: to say
Words: contradict, dictate, diction, edict, predict

Ject
My guess: abrupt
Definition: throw
Words: eject, inject, interject, project, reject, subject

Script
My guess: text
Definition: to write
Words: describe, description, prescribe, prescription, subscribe, subscription, transcribe, transcription

Tract
My guess: friction
Definition: to pull, drag
Words: attract, contract, detract, extract, protract, retract, traction

TOW #20

The Glass Castle tells the story of a young girl, Jeannette Walls, growing up with incompetent parents. 

Something important Walls does is utilize anecdotes to show how her parents are different from other parents. She starts the story off with a tale of how she was three years old in a bright pink dress, cooking a hot dog on the stove. Her dress caught on fire and she suffered severe burns. All of this because her parents let her use a stove at the age of three.

I think the purpose of this book is to show how she was able to grow up and become something successful despite her childhood, and to inspire others that it doesn't matter where you come from, but where you end up.

So far, I'm not sure who Walls' intended audience is, but I think it may be young adults who feel like maybe they won't be able to become anything. This story is supposed to be very inspirational. I mean. so far it's mostly humorous and shocking, but I bet later it will be inspirational.

I'm excited to see where this book goes. So far it's been really interesting, and a bit shocking and concerning. I can't wait to see where her family ends up and how her mother became homeless. Also I wonder why Walls never really helps her mom and why she's embarrassed of her. Hopefully I find out why later in the book.

TOW #19

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39032051
Last Thursday, hundreds of Americans stayed home from work and school to protest President Trump's new immigration ban. Of these many strikers, over 100 were fired from their jobs.
Personally, I don't like that these people lost their jobs. I feel like this impeaches upon their freedom of speech. They've only missed one day of work to protest for what they believe in and were punished for it.
I also think that what these people were doing was very nobel. They were demonstrating what a day without immigrants working would be like. I'm not a big fan of Trump, but if this is the reaction he gets after banning immigrants, doesn't that say something about his new policies? That, perhaps, they upset a good portion of our country and shouldn't be put into action?
The reason the author of this article posted it was to prove that very point. Many people are not happy with how Trump is handling the issues he addressed in his campaign. The author wants to show how extreme Trump is being, and how people are reacting, proving that Trump is not the president he promised he would be.
Something that I find particularly interesting is the quote, "They were warned, 'if you do this you're hurting the company, and if you go against the team you're not a member of the team'." I am guessing that the bosses of these companies are Trump supporters and are using the whole "member of the team" thing as an excuse to fire people. If your employees miss one day, is that a reasonable enough thing to fire them for?
I am worried for America's future. If we're less than a month into Trump's presidency and this is already happening to this extent, where will we be by the end of his four year term?

TOW #14

Immediately jumping into superficial action, local woman Catherine Nielson, 32, placed her cat, Reggie, on five minutes of half-assed observation Tuesday night after the gray tabby possibly ingested a small plastic thing from her apartment floor. “I saw him gnawing on some little white piece of plastic, so I’m just going to briefly and sporadically glance over at him for the next couple minutes.” The Onion writes about this not so extraordinary story about a cat who had consumed something plastic and its owner didn't really try much to observe it. This is a humorous post, filled with quotes like, "she would not let Reggie leave her peripheral vision until after the next commercial break." This mocks what people do during emergencies, and also how pet owners take their pets injuries a bit too seriously. I don't really know what the purpose of this article is, it is rather short and doesn't really have a point to it. But it is rather funny. The Onion is known for posting satirical articles that mock and poke fun at different topics. This one being pet owners. The author uses satire and parody to make fun of articles that report important articles. I think the idea was to prank readers into clicking on the article, thinking it would be an interesting story, when really it's just a dumb recap of a woman's cat who ended up eating some plastic, but was fine in the end. I personally enjoyed the article, because it was short and sarcastic.

Vocab #7

Pauperism
My guess: being in a bad position
Definition: poverty or generally the state of being poor
Context: APUSH
Own sentence: The pauperism plaguing the lower class citizens of France led to the French Revolution.
Connotation: Neutral

Penance
My guess: shame
Definition: voluntary self-punishment inflicted as an outward expression of repentance for having done wrong
Context: APUSH
Mnemonic Device: resembles the word punish
History: 1250-1300; Middle English penaunce < Anglo-French; Old French peneance < Latin paenitentia penitence

Dismal
My guess: dumb
Definition: causing gloom or dejection; gloomy; dreary; cheerless; melancholy
Context: APUSH
Own sentence: The dismal weather did little to brighten the sad girl's mood
Connotation: Neutral

Orated
My guess: self-centered
Definition: to deliver an oration; speak pompously; declaim
Context: APUSH
History: 1590-1600; back formation from oration
Own Sentence: "Everyone settle down," The teacher orated

Mandate
My guess: to control
Definition: a command or authorization to act in a particular way on a public issue given by the electorate to its representative
Context: APUSH
Own Sentence: The president had a clear mandate to end the war
History: 1540-50; < Latin mandātum, noun use of neuter of mandātus, past participle of mandāre to commission, literally, to give into (someone's) hand

Minstrel
My guess: an artist
Definition: a medieval poet and musician who sang or recited while accompanying himself on a stringed instrument, either as a member of a noble household or as an itinerant troubadour
Context: APUSH
History: 1175-1225; Middle English ministrel < Old French < Late Latin ministeriālis servant
Connotation: neutral

Stella
My guess: night
Definition: star
Words: stellar, constellation, interstellar, Stella Luna, rostella

Tres
My guess: three
Definition: three
Words: ternary, treble, tres, trois,

Verbum
My guess: action
Definition: Word
Words: Verbs, verbal, verbatim, proverb, verbose

Astron
My guess: space
Definition: star
Words: astronomy, astronomer, astronomic, astronaut, astrology