Nearing the end

Well we are nearing the end of the semester and I feel that thanks to this class my writing has improved to some degree. This class was certainly unique and unconventional and because of that it was refreshing. My portfolio still needs some work, but I feel it will be ready by the deadline.
On another note, Thanksgiving break was certainly interesting. I caught up with many old friends and had a Thanksgiving feast like no other. It was complete with Maine lobster, filet mignon, and pork chops, but no turkey. I hate turkey.

Reflection on Initiating Action Project

I feel that my initiating action project was a bit lacking because I was missing some necessary supplies, such as a color printer and glue/ a glue stick. As a result, my poster look bland and devoid of color and as if I had just slapped on pages of text onto it. Unfortunately, I am not the artsy fartsy type so I'm not very good making designs and I'm also somewhat uncreative when it comes to presentations. After reading the comments I received, I realized that despite the appearance of my project people still gain some valuable information from it when they took the time to read it. Thus I believe that my project's content was interesting, while its presentation was not.

Genre

According to various websites and my own experience of what a good flyer is, it is not very hard to create an attractive flyer if you put effort into it. Some fundementals for flyers are to be very conservative and economical with your text. If you hit a reader with a wall of text they will probably go "tl;dr" (too long; didn't read) and toss the flyer away. It is important to keep in mind the age old cliche " a picture is worth a thousand words" and in the case of flyers pictures are infinitely more important than words. However, everything must be done in moderation because if you put too many pictures and enough words then your message might not get across. Simplicity is also a key factor in making a good flyer because fundementally things that are simple are easier to understand in a brief amount of time. This is important because if you can have the reader understand what your message as they recieve the flyer, the more likely they are to react.
The people that write in this genre all people seeking to advertise something. Another reason for using flyers is to increase awareness for a cause. I have as much freedom as my imagination allows considering my genre.

sources:
http://ezinearticles.com/?How-To-Make-Irresistible-Flyers&id=743362
http://www.esf.edu/org/seac/flyering.htm
http://www.squidoo.com/flyerdesign

Awkward

So this morning around 3.00 AM I am about to go to sleep. As I hit the sack, my roommate says, "By the way, I am gay. Hence why I care." Earlier during the week California passed Proposition 8 which banned gay marriage. My roommate was rather incised about this, but I didn't really make much of it since I am heterosexual. Anyway I was rather taken aback at his sudden confession. Personally, I don't have a problem with homosexuals and I'm not homophobic, but still his declaration was still rather unsettling. I wasn't really sure how to respond so I said, "Okay." and an awkward silence ensued. I am ashamed to say that his statement still bothers me even though I say I am not biased or prejudiced.

Midnight Release!

Wednesday night I went with two of my friends to the midnight release of the highly anticipated "Wrath of the Lich King" expansion set to the ever popular online roleplaying game World of Warcraft. As most people know WoW (World of Warcraft) has the greatest number of subscribers to any online roleplaying game so it was no surprise that the there was a fairly long line at the local GameStop. Personally, I don't play WoW because I'm not particularly fond of the visuals in that game and thus I didn't pick up a copy. The reason I went was so I could see what all the hype was about and to be part of the mania that night. While, most of the people in line waited dilligently, there were some who had dressed up as characters from the game. There was even some give away posters as trivia game prizes. All in all, it was an eventful night.

Project Idea

The main objective of my project is to raise awareness and offer some solutions to some of the problems that members of my community face. The audience to whom I am addressing with be my fellow gamers and the problem I would address would be obsession and addiction to a game. The method I would use to bring about awareness would be either flyers or a video. For the flyers I would not try to flood the reader with a wall of text, but keep my message concise and to the point while having some pictures to interest the reader. For the video, I would probably do a skit where I document the life of a "pro" gamer and demonstrate what kind of futures members of my community will have if they do not change their habits. There will 3 stages in the progression of the "pro" gamers life; the time where he is first introduced to the game, then a time where he starts neglecting things that are necessary in order to focus on the game, and finally when the gamer secludes himself "offline" society and only makes contact with the "online" society. The gamer will also ignore everything including basic needs in order to focus on the game.

Response to Prof. Scott's Suggestions

Professor Scott brought up that since my introduction didn't really seem too relevant to the rest of my piece. After rereading it, I agree with Professor Scott and the introduction seems more like unnecessary fluff. Not only is it fluff, but it could cause the reader to lose interest, which would not be conducive to my goal. I like her suggestion about starting the essay off with a story or a conversation that happened in a game. I think that adding player-to-player conversations would add a lot of humor to my essay as well as adding clearer explanations of some of the terminology and jargon that is used in my essay.