TOW #24 - (IRB Post) The Omnivore's Dilemma

I'll start off my very last TOW of the year with a question I was asked through my last IRB book: "What should I eat for dinner?" Maybe it would be better phrased, "What am I eating for dinner?" Every day, as omnivores, we have the dilemma of choosing what lands on our plates, but many times we don't consider what really lands on our plates - what it's made of, who made it, how it was made, and how it got there. To truly decide what's the right food and to make a choice that would fulfill our dilemma as omnivores, Michael Pollman says that we must understand the details of what our food is made of, and to this day, we are not really fulfilling this goal, as most people hurry to get to where our food is without properly thinking of where they come from.

Because people in this generation tend to rush, many people don't devote enough time to understand what's inside of their food and the history behind it because many times, they don't think it's very necessary. Pollman cites that 19% of American meals are eaten in cars because a car is made convenient to eat inside, and the food that we consume are comfortably tailored to be able to be eaten with one hand. The chicken nugget squished a dinner with forks and knives into a simple commodity that can be eaten with one hand. When people hurry, they choose to eat food like Wawa that can be quickly bought and eaten, but this speedy aspect of food cancels out many other factors that should be considered in resolving the omnivore's dilemma. Another factor that makes many feel it is unnecessary to know where their food comes from is from the fact that many food processing steps are convoluted.

Before reaching dinner plates, many different food has to go through processing that's often complicated and has too many steps, so many find it unnecessary to be aware of fine details. Corn, which is one of the most consumed foods in America, must go through processes such as grain mills and kernel separators that affect the quality and taste of corn but not everyone knows about in detail or specifically to the corn they buy. Meat also must go through various steps in feeding the animals and being processed in factories that people don't realize and should know about more than merely being "grass-fed". Because not everyone is informed of those aspects, not everyone feels the need to be aware of them, but as Pollman prepares an entire pork himself for a special dinner at the end of the book, he argues that people should be informed of these processes.

In this generation, there are myriads of places our food can come from, and because most people aren't directly involved in the hunting, gathering, farming, or sometimes preparing of foods, we don't know the processes that go through our food, especially in an age where we rush to get places. However, since the beginning of the human race to now, we have always asked ourselves the question: "What am I eating for dinner?" To solve this dilemma most effectively, we must know the many layers of food that reach our plates.

TOW #23 - Visual Text: Angry Birds Trailer

Over spring break, I went to the movies with my friend to watch Zootopia, which turned out to pretty good. An interesting thing about animated movies is that while the movies themselves often have pretty good qualities, a trailer or an animated short before the movies sometimes leave an impression on me that other trailers don't. For example, "Lava" caught my attention even before I watched the movie I intended to see, which was Inside Out, a movie that took me on an emotional roller coaster. When I went to watch Zootopia, I was left interested by the Angry Birds Movie trailer more than Zootopia, which was good in itself as well. Angry Birds is a movie that most people will be looking forward to watching or criticizing, because it's obviously an animation based off of a popular video game unlike other animations, which are originals or are based on traditional stories or comic books. While there usually aren't a lot of good information to base movies off of when it comes to video games, companies can make a good profit off of advertising with a video game as popular as Angry Birds is. The catch that prevents a lot of companies from doing this, however, is that people would probably have high expectations from it and expect the excitement they feel from the video game to be transferred directly into the movie, which is hard, even if the movie itself is good. Angry Birds trailer managed to catch that by having a prequel plot setting for the movie while being able to link key characters from the game into the story. Hopefully, the movie will be as good as the trailer.

TOW #22 - College Admissions Shocker!

This time of the year, as a junior in high school, I constantly hear about college news from seniors, whether they got accepted, rejected, or waitlisted. Although I'm not directly experiencing it yet, I can somehow feel some secondhand stress from those dying to hear back or dying because of the sad news that someone got rejected from their dream school. Because college admittance seems to get rougher every year, Frank Bruni, writer of the New York Times, wrote a satire against this phenomena that criticized top-tier colleges, especially Stanford University, for having almost impossible standards for accepting students. Because of the current college application system and the high expectations for admission, Bruni's argument that college admissions are ridiculous can be viewed true.
Top-tier colleges like Stanford have extremely low admission rates because of the high achievements that many students seem to make. Bruni jokes, "The thousands of rejected applicants included hundreds of children of alumni who’d donated lavishly over the years, their expectations obvious in the fact that they affixed their $50,000 checks to photographs of Emma playing an obscure woodwind in an Umbrian chamber orchestra or Scott donning the traditional dress of an indigenous people for whom he tailored a special social-media network while on spring break." From the perspective of someone who has played an obscure woodwind instrument before and is currently playing one of the most played instruments, the violin, I can say that people have pointed out the academic advantage of one instrument over the other more often than they have pointed out the music or intellectual advantage. Also, there are many articles that attest that the secret to being accepted to Stanford is to have a basically nationally recognized accomplishment that no one has achieved before, like a new scientific method. Even though a student could be academically and intellectually gifted, these high standards prevent such students from being admitted. The acceptance rate has gone even farther down to 4.7% as of 2016.
While Bruni's mode of writing was obvious satire, the many rejection letters to academically and intellectually talented students are real. Although Stanford has the right to keep their own standards of what kind of students and how many students they can and want to accept, this can often be frustrating to capable students who have potential and could have a perfect life without Stanford.

TOW #21 - It's OK to feel insecure sometimes - confidence lapses aren't character flaws

Many beauty trends and feminist movements today emphasize a girl's need to be more confident with themselves at an age and in a society where different pressures lower girls' confidence levels. While loving ourselves and being able to be a girl boss have good intentions, it can sometimes denounce the importance of sometimes-important negative emotions. Jessica Valenti, in her article "It's OK to feel insecure sometimes - confidence lapses aren't character flaws" for the Guardian, Valenti emphasizes that in order to truly love oneself, a person has to forgive themselves for feeling inferior instead of simply shutting those emotions off. As important as it is to stay away from self-hate, people must understand how to face their insecurities in a healthy manner. The "self-esteem industry" emphasizes the need to be self-confident all the time, pointing out the different ways women belittle themselves knowingly or unknowingly. However, there is a difference between self-deprecation due to societal pressures and moments of low tides. In the past, self-confidence was raised often by fitting better to societal standards as portrayed in every situations or in the media, and it's nice that people are moving away from that, but insecurities can sometimes be used to actually improve oneself and reflect on their decisions and portrayal. Just focusing on keeping a high confidence level could block someone from being productive and doing things that are important in reducing those insecurities. It's okay to have bad days, whether you are a man or a woman, and to live a healthier, more respectable life, you must learn to actually look at your insecurities, forgive yourself for having them, and fixing them if necessary, instead of just ignoring it and focusing on the positives.

TOW #20 - (IRB Post) The Omnivore's Dilemma

My IRB for this cycle was about my favorite topic: food. Because we as humans are omnivores, we basically have the biggest un-selective pool out of most organisms, and with the help of technology and industry, we have an even more unlimited pool of choices for dinner. Michael Pollman, through his book  The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, shows the importance of knowing where your food comes from and what to do with that information. Because of an apparent lack of common sense in food choices, it is imperative to follow this central argument in Pollman's text.

Pollman starts his book by outlining the various different places corn appears in. When corn appears in certain places, not everyone realizes in. Pollman says, in a cup of beer, there's more corn there than one would expect, revealing the lack of knowledge most people have in their most basic food choices. When someone doesn't know everything that goes in their food, it affects their choices in eating certain foods. Because we may make choices without knowing full consequences, we must be more aware of what goes in our food.

Another place where it's evident that people lack the knowledge of food is in Whole Foods Market. Whole Foods is a very popular grocery store that most people have been to for safe and healthy food decisions. However, Pollman states that most people don't fully understand the significance of each label that Whole Foods puts on their food. There are many extravagant, appealing labels, with many different ways just to say "grass-fed cows." Because not everyone realizes the difference between those numerous labels, people tend to think they are making smart decisions, and even if they aren't, they don't know to what extent.

Although many people are well-informed in making healthy food choices and their nutritional facts, many people don't know the small things that contribute to making their food they have for dinner each night, but every single detail could affect what we do to ourselves and the environment. Just as Pollman stated, people should be aware of what they eat because being well-informed can not only help us but the environment.

TOW #19 - Visual Text: The Good Dinosaur

The teachers told us that we're allowed to use movies for our visuals TOW, so I decided that Disney would be a good one, because we're always seeing new Disney movies, and this one for The Good Dinosaur particularly stood out to me. Of the recent Pixar posters, this emotion and pathos-oriented style seems (at least to me) the most effective one for older audiences, and should be used more often by Pixar because of its ability to draw the audience and represent the emotions established in the movie, creating an excitement among the older consumers in seeing another touching, fun Pixar movie.
When appealing to a bigger audience than merely children, Pixar should promote its unique quality of emotion to audiences. Almost every single Pixar movie is funny, at least slight action-filled for the kids, and sentimental. The movie posters that I see used most often around movie theaters and online are the ones with a lot of things happening at once, which has the intention of making the movie seem exciting and interesting. However, with so many different types of movies coming out, it's hard for adult or teenage customers to find appeal in a movie that's merely action-packed at a children's level. The aspect of Pixar movies that keep bringing fully-grown individuals back to a theater full of five-year-old kids is the emotion and warmth that they give. The dim-lit, affectionate emotions captured in this poster makes this movie seem different from other ones and draws the audience better. Because the poster was able to show that emotion other movies probably can't deliver as well, older audiences are now more likely to choose to watch this movie. Not only did the established pathos draw older audiences, but so did the simplicity of the poster.
The simplistic and concise nature of the poster appeals to older consumers, who are more likely to be focused and favor simplicity, compared to little children, who love splashes of color and lots of action. In posters for movies such as Inside Out and Zootopia, or even the alternate poster for the Good Dinosaur, everyone is looking at different things or doing different things, so the eye doesn't exactly know where to look or what's the main context and why everyone is acting that way. In the poster above, it's clear that two unlikely friends - a dinosaur and a human - are travelling together in a caring manner, looking at the same place and struggling through the same adventure while depending on each other. The message is clearly stated, the basic context is set, and the audience knows what to expect from the movie.
The main audience of Pixar isn't adults or teenagers, but children, so it's understandable as to why styles like these aren't used as often as the bold, crazy poster styles that most Pixar movies are promoted with. However, this style definitely captures the nature of Pixar that makes the audience keep coming back for Pixar movies, and also makes clear to the audience what they're in for. Most times, the audience is in for good fun and good tears, and to keep appealing to older consumers, Pixar should make their movie posters and promotions similar to this style.

TOW #18 - "Why Do We Teach Girls That It’s Cute to Be Scared?"

     As someone who read the Divergent series in middle school, articles about fear interest me pretty well, because everyone has some type of fear, and there are countless quotes about courage or fighting those fears. The article Why Do We Teach Girls That It’s Cute to Be Scared? by Caroline Paul written for the New York Times talks about fear under the light of gender. By laying her personal experiences are a brave female that contrasts with stereotypical girls and adding specific research, Paul asserts that girls should be raised and encouraged like their male counterparts to reach their potential of being just as courageous as their male counterparts.
     Paul starts off her essay with her personal experience as a female firefighter to break off the stereotypical image of easily-scared girls and demonstrate that someone raised to take risks have the power to fight their fears. She informs the readers of her adventures of having "pulled a bloated body from the bay, performed CPR on a baby and crawled down countless smoky hallways" (Paul 1). She gives credit to her mom, who had told Paul, “I had been so discouraged from having adventures, and I wanted you to have a more exciting childhood” (12). Although these are daunting tasks that not everyone might be willing to perform, she proudly lists them as her accomplishment and gives the readers a specific example of someone who was able to break the mold of a typical, fearful girl. She then expands it to a more scientific, reputable source to prove her examples true and factual.
     In addition to providing personal anecdotes, Paul adds scientific researches to establish logos and to prove that she isn't the only female capable of fighting fears and not being easily scared of objects or situations. She cites a study based around a playground fire pole, "published in The Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology and showed that parents cautioned their daughters about the dangers of the fire pole significantly more than they did their sons and were much more likely to assist them" (10). This shows that she's not an outlier, and that many girls, when given the opportunity, can be just as brave as she is.
     When parents see that precious girl running around, it is easy for them to worry about her safety. However, Paul claims through her personal anecdotes and the studies that she cites that risk-taking, injury, and the resilience to work through their failure is an important process to prepare for the real world, and boys and girls should equally be encouraged to fight their fears so that they can reach whatever possibility ahead of them.

TOW #17 - New, Reading-Heavy SAT Has Students Worried

Last week, the juniors and sophomores received their PSAT scores, and the new PSAT that we took reflected the redesigned PSAT that people have been talking about. Collegeboard redesigned the SAT for various reasons, and there has already been many discussions about its seemingly dramatic changes. This New York Times article written by Anemona Hartocollis reveals a potential issue of the new design that could enlarge success gaps between the privileged and the underprivileged through its use of statistics and quotes from authority figures.

While describing the new redesigned format, Hartocollis lays the potential problems that led to Collegeboard's decision. According to studies, "Competition for market share has been growing, and in 2012, the ACT surpassed the SAT" (Hartcollis 8). This shows through numbers how the decisions came about for Collegeboard, and also establishes logos for the readers to know.

In addition to adding statistics, Hartcollis also adds quotes from authority figures to lay the potential damages of this redesigned format. According to experts, "Chief among the changes, experts say: longer and harder reading passages and more words in math problems. The shift is leading some educators and college admissions officers to fear that the revised test will penalize students who have not been exposed to a lot of reading, or who speak a different language at home — like immigrants and the poor" (2). This shows the problems that would be exacerbated by this new change of the SATs. Because she quoted an expert on the issue, she could establish ethos through this quote as well as clearly show readers what the new SAT could bring.

This was a mainly informative article that addressed the reasons behind the new change and the potential outcomes of this new change. Through the use of statistics, numbers, and quoting authority figures, Hartocollis shows that the new designed SAT could harm students coming from underprivileged backgrounds.

IRB Intro Post #3

My next IRB will be The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollman. It explores the different options for food that we have as omnivores, how those many choices came by humans, and how we can make choices. A couple of my friends have read this book and have recommended it to me, so I'm looking forward to reading a book about my favorite subject: food.

TOW #16 - (IRB Post) Nickel and Dimed

As the snow’s piling down in front of my house and I’m lying down inside of my warm blanket right now, Nickel and Dimed shows me the working conditions of the low-wage workers that prohibit people from getting the commodities that I’m fortunate to have during this weather and basically, anytime else. Barbara Ehrenreich, after working low-paying jobs to experience what it’s like to live minimum wage, realizes firsthand the uncountable issues and problems one encounters when working many hours for little money. She sheds light on the different layers of problems that surround the low wage working environment through her usage of facts and figures and disproving common misconceptions.

After she experienced firsthand of what it was like to earn a low wage while working in different cities in America, she recorded her income and necessary prices she had to pay, then compared them with numbers of the average working class and what was needed for them to survive. She recounts, “In Key West, I earned $1039 in one month and spent $517 on food, gas, toiletries, and laundry. Rent was the deal breaker…my move to the trailer park …made me responsible for $625 a month in rent alone, utilities not included” (Ehrenreich 197). By listing such figures, she establishes logos and shows the severity of the problem, which she wraps by saying, “Something is wrong, very wrong, when a single person in good health…can barely support herself by the sweat of her brow. You don’t need a degree in economics to see that wages are too low and rents to high” (199). She shows that there are many things one must pay for in order to sustain a stable life, and that’s simply impossible. By proving this through her numbers, the reader can understand that this is a problem that needs to be fixed.

Besides using numbers, Ehrenreich also lists and challenges common misconceptions people have about poverty or the minimum wage situation. Many people, including Ehrenreich, “…grow up hearing over and over, to the point of tedium, that ‘hard work’ was the secret of success…No one ever said that you could work hard – harder even than you ever thought possible – and still find yourself sinking ever deeper into poverty and debt” (220). Many people grow up hearing this idea, so it becomes eye-opening when Ehrenreich strikes it down as false. It forces readers to abandon the idea they’ve been drilled to think with and look from the perspective of the minimum wage, where hard work is not the only factor, and it is not the workers' fault that they are in the situation that they are in.

Ehrenreich, by putting herself in the shoes of the working class, puts the readers into the shoes of the working class, where the minimum wage situation is more than what privileged people think they are. Her calculated numbers and arguments that strike down the myths of minimum wage forces readers to consider the truth and the different things that are caused by situations we could not possibly imagine.

TOW #15 - Visual Text: Congress

This political cartoon was created by Paul Combs, an award-winning illustrator. He's the author of the cartoons Drawn by Fire, and often draws political cartoons, one of which was featured on U.S. News. This political cartoon addresses the slow and seemingly nonexistent progress of congress frequently dubbed by people as the "Do-Nothing Congress." Incorporating an everyday farmer as the typical American, along with twisting a familiar sci-fi plot, emphasizes the mocking humor used against Congress by Combs in this political cartoon.
Interestingly, the human figure used to represent America is a farmer, rather than a businessman or formal-styled, typical American worker. The very rural setting that he's placed in, right next to a barn, along with the overalls, makes him seem like he's very distant from the city, where political business happens. Congress seems very distant and unaffiliated with this everyday citizen, and the only ties he has with Congress is only through the newspaper. The facial expression he has also seems to show that he's given up with Congress and the world. Congress, as demonstrated by Comb, is very separate from its everyday citizen and has reached a point where the citizens gave up on them.
Another way this political cartoon is made humorous is through its use of the aliens. Alien invasion is a story development that most are familiar with, and it includes aliens asking people, "Take me to your leader." That line is implied, and the farmer responds by saying, "Our leaders? Good question. Let us know if you find any." This clearly states that America does not have leaders, or at least leaders who don't actually lead anything. The aliens respond with puzzled looks, and this is obviously a ridiculous situation even to extraterrestrial beings. This creates sarcastic humor that any viewer can enjoy.
Set in a place seemingly far away from the capitol city, this political cartoon undermines the efficiency and outcomes of Congress by criticizing its low progress in a different twist of the familiar alien invasion. Paul Combs has a very cynical view of Congress, and wants to shed light on its ridiculousness that he believes even aliens wouldn't think that makes sense. Through his humor, he asserts that we need a working Congress that's not distant from the citizens but rather helps the citizens.

TOW #14 - "You Don’t Need More Free Time"

After winter break last week, many students and teachers, having to go back to their regular schedules, are dearly missing the free time they got. Although many Americans - not just students and teachers - yearn for free time, "free time" is measured not just by the free time one has but the free time that everyone has. Happiness resulting from free time mostly comes from the fact that people can socialize with their friends and families during common free times such as weekends, and any free time one has without others to share it with tend not to have as much of an effect as one that's shared. Cristobal Young, editor for the New York Times, uses an example of a common situation and belief and then his studies that refute that common belief to show that workplaces should not focus on free time of the individual but rather free time of the group.

Young starts off by setting a general situation, where "Americans work some of the longest hours in the Western world, and many struggle to achieve a healthy balance between work and life. As a result, there is an understandable tendency to assume that the problem we face is one of quantity: We simply do not have enough free time. 'If I could just get a few more hours off work each week,' you might think, 'I would be happier'” (Young 1). This is indeed how many people have the tendency to think, and introducing the text with an idea that the readers are well acquainted with gives the readers and insight into what the common belief is right now. The reader is engaged with what the text is saying, since they can relate, and now that an idea that is commonly believed by many is explicitly stated, the readers can see how that will be challenged later in the text by research that Young includes.

Using figures from the Gallup Daily Poll, Young informs readers of his study which showed, "As measured by things such as anxiety, stress, laughter and enjoyment, our well-being is lowest Monday through Thursday...The surprising finding was that this is also true of unemployed people. We found that...their positive emotions soared on the weekend, and dropped back down again on Monday" (5). This well-established study shows the patterns and effects different times of free time have on people. It gives the readers good insight in a hard topic that shows that people enjoy free time more if they have other people to share it with, just has jobless people, although they have free time, enjoy the free time they have with their working friends and families better.

Young ties his ideas back to the situation where many companies and offices are tweaking the free time of their workers and their flexibility levels to increase the free time an employee has. However, he shows through his refutation of this common belief with research how this wouldn't be an effective method.