Option 1: Do you think that the argument in this video is better made visually? i.e. if you had read an article about this topic rather than viewed a video on it would it be more or less effective for you?

I think the visual format of this argument enhanced it significantly. Reading an article would not have had the same effect because the visual nature of the presentation made it much more interactive. It was really important to see the faces of the students who the statistics represent; it adds a level of personality to the piece, that a written form would lack. Personally, it's very difficult for me to read through a lot of statistics, but this format made each one stand out to me and kind of forced me to pay attention.

Creative Research Essay

I plan to write my creative research essay about running. Running is an activity that has been very important to me since I was about 15 years old. I tend to run solo, using the time to think things through and de-stress. My essay will be a non-fiction piece, focusing on how running helped me make it through a hard time. When I was a freshman in college, I went away to Indiana for the first semester and found myself miserable and hating it. Running helped me survive, and this is the context I plan to build my creative research essay around.

"Caring for Your Introvert"

I found Jonathan Rauch's style in writing "Caring for Your Introvert" both amusing and effective. He organizes the piece as an informal how-to guide, and speaks on behalf of all introverts. While he does manage to incorporate research, he doesn't repeatedly bash you over the head with facts and figures, rather he quotes sparingly and mostly allows his own personal voice to come through. I also enjoyed the author's semi-tongue-in-cheek allusions, including his introduction of himself as an introvert, which he states in the language of a twelve-step program. Rauch retains a clear sense of pride in his introverted nature, which makes him the perfect representative for what he claims is such a misrepresented minority. His bold-typed questions give the work a clear structure, and correspond well with his theme of educating the masses on how to better deal with the introvert population.

Underage Drinking

It’s a typically chilly Halloween night in Littleton, Colorado and a group of my 30 best friends and I are ready to start celebrating big-kid style. Our treats are bottles of Smirnoff and cheap cans of beer (not to mention the girls in costumes that are essentially nothing more than underwear); our tricks include not getting caught drinking underage. Unlike the fake politicians who legalized drinking for seventeen-year-olds on imaginary teenager Jenny Larsen’s birthday party, the law has not condoned alcohol consumption at Marissa’s Halloween party. None of us are friends with Senator Joe Lieberman, as the writers of The Onion outrageously claim Jenny is.
Nine o’clock rolls around, and everyone’s still in the early stages of revelry, mingling and commenting on each other’s costume choices. No one’s even made a motion to break out the alcohol; it’s still stashed in Marissa’s garage. We’re in no rush—we have the whole night left to turn into rebels. Suddenly the front door burst open and a football player dressed like a pimp runs through the door, fur coat tails streaming. Another man in a police costume pursues him. And then we realize the second guy isn’t dressed up for Halloween. His badge is as real as the angry look on his face. Just like that, the party’s over, practically before it even began.
Another couple of cops come in the front door and they make us all sit down, Indian-style on Marissa’s kitchen floor. They scold us like a teacher scolding kindergartners for being naughty. Cops in the suburbs see as much excitement as prematurely breaking up a high school Halloween party. Then one, by one they take us, genies and devils, ghosts and witches, Oompah-loompahs and Napoleon Dynamites, through the corridor for a breathalyzer test. Thirty breathalyzers later not a single one of us has evidence of any alcohol in our blood. If they’d given it another hour, we all would have been found guilty. Like “Senator” Barbara Boxer says in the Onion article, “They’re going to drink anyway, so we might as well make it legal.” It was sheer luck and not some bogus self-expiring law that saved my friends and I from all getting tickets that night.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/congress_lowers_drinking_age_to_17

The DNC

Political leanings aside, I was not too excited for the Democratic National Convention to come to Denver. I viewed it mostly as an interruption and as the primary reason we had to start fall semester what felt like ridiculously early this year. As with any situation however, the DNC ultimately had both negative and positive consequences for me during its week in town.

Although I personally avoided the downtown area during the DNC's reign over Denver, its presence inconvenienced many of my friends who live in that area, and thus vicariously affected me likewise. Some friends complained to me repeatedly about certain road closures, which I found tiresome after awhile. Similarly my own fear of facing potentially insane traffic and mass amounts of people convinced me not to partake in certain downtown activities that I would have otherwise. In this way, I found the Democratic National Committee a bit of an obstacle.

Although the DNC precluded my venturing downtown, I truly appreciated it for the gift of time it gave me. I enjoyed having week-long break from school (who wouldn't?!). I was able to work more hours, thus making some extra cash. Also, I used a portion of the week to move all of my stuff into my brother's old room. He moved out for good in August and, as I have been eyeing his room since I was a sophomore in high school when he originally left for college, I jumped on the opportunity to finally move down there permanently . In the process of moving, I want through a lot of stuff and got rid of significant amounts of old junk; on some level you could say the DNC afforded me a sort of cleansing experience.

Homelessness

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 2-3% of the U.S. population experience at least one night of homelessness over any given five year period. This statistic caught my attention because, even though I regularly notice homelessness people on street corners and in parks in downtown Denver, I never gave much thought to homelessness as an issue that effects what equates to 5 to 8 million individuals. With the DNC coming to Denver, the city has made many strides to put its best face forward, including preparations such as planting flowers, repainting parking lines, and assuring security. City officials have also made an effort to make the homeless population disappear during the week of the convention, offering day passes to the zoo and one-way bus tickets to anywhere in the continental U.S. I have to wonder, however, whether, instead of hiding such a blatant subsection of society in order to increase the city's prestige, perhaps politicians should attempt to make more long lasting strides in alleviating these homeless individuals' situations. After all, the Democratic Party stands on a platform of being the party of the people. They should turn their attention to the dire needs of the homeless during their convention, instead of merely pretending the problem does not exist.

First Blog Assignment

http://www.slate.com/id/2197433/

I found Jack Shafer's call for a press boycott of the upcoming political conventions highly compelling. Maybe I found myself amenable to his arguments in part because Denver's role as host for the DNC seems like nothing more than a great hassle to me, but Shafer's arguments definitely made me wonder all the more about the actual point of these conventions. Shafer's arguments about the cost and lack of actual significant happenings of the conventions made sense, yet his humorous undertones kept him from seeming overly confrontational. His subtle use of humor kept me connected to him throughout the article. I also like how he even inculpated his own organization, pointing out his embarrassment that multiple Slate reporters will attend each convention. Overall, I believe Shafer succinctly and effectively made his point.