Word of the Week #5

Sacrosanct

adjective 

1. (esp. of a principle, place, or routine) regarded as too important or valuable to be interfered with.

"The idea of home rule, sacrosanct among local governments and a cherished tradition of governments as creatures of the states and, as we will see, the need to provide regional solutions to regional problems." 

-Local Politics textbook


My sentence: "The concerned resident's spiel on clean water to the city council was regarded as sacrosanct.

1. 
   
   

    

    

Fly on the Wall - Extra Credit

Though a Friday afternoon, the noise level was still very much high at the San Jose State Student Union cafeteria. 

Dried and smeared brown sauce and an unused paper-enrobed Panda Express chopstick littered the mustard yellow-colored countertop next to me. 

Blenders from Jamba Juice whizzed at high speeds, and the radio from the same place blared just to keep employees entertained as they cleaned dirty blenders and refilled empty juice containers in between rushes of thirsty customers.

The music's words were just a blur competing against the bass and melody of the tune and myriad of pandemonium of the yellow and blue, Spartan-pride painted room.

For the most part, the lines of all vendors were empty, but there was a father and a 5-year-old blonde girl with pink leggings in the line for a Peach Pleasure and Orange Dream Machine smoothie.

Water pressure harshly pierced inside plastic VitaMix blenders, scraping leftover blended debris of fruit, ice cream, and sugary juices behind the cash register. 

"Oops, sorry" a quiet, high-pitched voice articulated to me after a brush of her backpack tapped my shoulder.

High-timbre beeps in every second intervals in the corner at Subway interrupted my thoughts once again as the alarm warned the sandwich creators the toasting was complete. 

More conversations from study groups and hungry textbook-readers flooded into the cafe.

The deep tonality of dragging plastic against the linoleum floor signaled a cafe worker was nearby sweeping spilled food and trash into a black dust pan. 

"The Ziploc one... the little tiny one..." murmured a passerby with two others who sauntered away.

Beep... beep... beep...

"I thought it was this one," said a female student pointing at a page replete with black and white images.

"No, because I thought it was..." the sentence paused, unfinished, as her group reviewed the assignment once more.

 
Words: 301

Comaring Media [Newspaper, Radio and Online Articles]

Skepticism wiped the smiles off most Americans on September 16, 2013, as illustrated by various media on the impending topic of “Obamacare.”

It seems many Americans are misinformed or unsure what will happen when open enrollment for health care begins in the next couple of weeks.
 
It was an online article which gave me the information I needed conveniently.

Perhaps I'm just more acquainted with a keyboard and also enjoy listening to music while I read, which I cannot do my while listening to news via the radio or television.

I also use a tablet which I'm connected to most of the time, and I prefer that as a form of entertainment and source of all things.

Though I can listen to music while reading a hard copy of the newspaper, I found it difficult and even a hassle finding a specific paper in the metal box lineup outside buildings (and who carries $1.50 in quarters anymore?).

Most hard copy papers available were either the free ones or in Spanish, and local coffee shops didn't seem to sell them anymore.

Newspapers, such as The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, had a small piece of the skepticism piece on their front page, which lead to a continuation on another.

The Wall Street Journal had access onto the following page, whereas USA Today had readers flipping a few pages before finishing the article.

USA Today had a 4-by-4 inch box on the front page with a total of two columns at 1 5/16 and 2 3/4 inches long and 1 7/8 inches wide.

Inside featured five columns with three half sizes at 4 1/2 inches long and 2 inches wide, and the other two columns were 8 1/4 inches long and also 2 inches wide.

They featured a 4-by-6 inch circle graph with poll percentages and opinion in black and green.

The Wall Street Journal did not have a graph but instead had an image that was 4-by-5 1/8 inches (they obviously had space to fill, as the image was much larger than it should have been!).

Though both had a different approach with visuals, they both were poll facts and figures on the skepticism of the Affordable Health Care Act, which was very boring to read when it was percentage after percentage.

Radio, on the other hand, has to be interactive, so radio stations must approach stories differently than other mediums.

Instead of reporting a skepticism poll of “Obamacare,” NPR implied there are skeptics using concerned listeners's questions.

This segment was only four minutes and 31 seconds long and was a listener scenario and question with an answer from someone who understood the law.

The problem with this type of medium is timing, as I am definitely not going to wake up at 3 a.m. to catch the “Morning Edition,” yet it is a national radio, so it works for someone in New York City.

Also, NPR has been doing a series of questions and answers for a couple weeks now, which I have missed, so I am not in the complete loop of what has been asked and answered.

Breaking up stories into parts and encouraging to call in and ask questions are how radio stations engages listeners and keep listeners wanting more, but I figured I would just get more questions answered sooner if I checked different online sources.

Online articles varied from 268 words (CBS News), 615 words (The National Memo) and even 1,369 words (Insurance Journal), allowing readers to pick and receive different perspectives in one location.

Though online sources can easily allow for multitasking (and listen to music and not running around looking for a hard copy!), the downside is how easily one can get distracted, but the articles still provided either graphs and pictures or social media and comments to keep the allure.

What both radio and newspapers do not offer are the witty, user comments below an online article.

The user comments are funny, debatable, and sometimes true, which I dub as the new “comic” section from traditional newspapers.

Words: 680

Online articles:

http://www.nationalmemo.com/majority-of-americans-skeptical-of-obamacare-yet-few-want-to-defund/

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57603078/uninsured-skeptical-about-obamacare-poll-shows/

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2013/09/10/304665.htm

Word of the Week #4

Vitriolic

adjective

1. 1.

   filled with bitter criticism or malice.

    

Opinion piece on CNN called Hey atheists, let's make a deal (http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/09/14/hey-atheists-lets-make-a-deal/?hpt=hp_c4). 

"I can’t bring myself to do it because I know just how frustrating and unfair it is when atheists point to the most extreme, vitriolic voices within Christianity and proclaim that they are representative of the whole."

 My sentence: Anonymity brings out vitriolic expressions when it comes to cyber bullying.

My Favorite Writing

Ever ran through a forest hoping to not get killed?

Or be a teenager girl with the hopes of getting a green or yellow Volkswagen bug for Christmas?

Nope.

Never.

But my imagination has with the help of black words printed on ivory sheets of pulp material.

Writing in the first person enlivened what reading meant to me as a freshman in high school.

I hated reading.

I hated book reports, and perhaps the coercive assignments lead toward hating reading in general.

When I read Diary of a Teenage Girl by Melody Carlson (2000), I felt it was my own diary, er, “journal” - I refuse to be acquainted with the tween, frou-frou privacy books.

I could relate to the character so well that when I did begin documenting my life before I turned 15-years-old, I used the book's format as a basis for my writing (and discovered I love parenthesis).

There was nothing particular about the passage, just someone similar in age that allowed time to pass as I read – a rarity at the time.

That moment sprung my love for reading.

Another first person book I read in a matter of days is The Hunger Games (2010) by Suzanne Collins.

Page six reads, “In the woods waits the only person with whom I can be myself.

Gale.

I can feel the muscles in my face relaxing, my

pace quickening as I climb the hills to our place, a rock

ledge overlooking a valley.

A thicket of berry bushes protects

it from unwanted eyes.

The sight of him waiting there brings on a smile.

Gale says I never smile except in the woods.”

Being in the first person allows for more sensory images because the author needs to make the reader become the character, as opposed to reading a scene with sensory details.

Stories like these engage me, challenging my stubborn self to cry or turn the page with excitement because it feels like a personal experience.

Perception is why the first person storyline is my favorite writing.

Word of the Week #3

av·a·rice

noun

1. 1.

   extreme greed for wealth or material gain.

   
   

   
   

   Came across this word in a Bill Waterson comic (no title).

   
   

   
   

   "In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life... a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not subversive."

   
   

   
   

   My sentence: Kids these days grow up watching young celebrity stars act with no care about humanity and want a similar lifestyle filled with avarice.

   
   

   
   

Revised Lead: "About Me"

I was freezing falling through a cloud while water droplets formed on my goggles.

Five seconds passed and I could see a teal, Hawaiian coast and was immediately yanked into a seated position. 

I am Brenda Norrie, and I have a knack for jumping off things.

Word of the Week #2

pe·jo·ra·tive

adjective

1. 1.

   expressing contempt or disapproval.

noun

1. 1.

   a word expressing contempt or disapproval.

"It's why 'McJob' has been a pejorative term for so long." 
From this article: http://news.yahoo.com/workers-protests-highlight-fast-food-130129184.html


My sentence: "The girlfriend gave a long, pejorative sigh before telling her boyfriend she wanted to break up."