Blog 19 (Object Orientated Autobiography 2)

Emily's Scar

At my second birthday I was given an African American baby doll by my grandma, which I named Emily. It turns out that Emily is an American Girl Doll. The Doll’s actual name is Bitty Baby. I did not know this until my seventh birthday when my grandma gave my sister Alex a Bitty Baby Doll. She did not realize that it was the same doll she had given me.

Emily has brown eyes with eyelids that actually closed when the baby doll was laid down to sleep. She came in a white outfit. Emily has no actual hair, but the plastic in the area that was her hair was pitted and a darker color than the rest of the doll. The plastic on top of her head made it appear that she has curly black hair. Her hands were folded into little fists like a baby’s does so often. The dolls body was made out of brown cloth and cotton even though her limbs were plastic. Under her right arm there was a long tear that occurred after my childhood best friend, Carmen, and I played tug of war with the doll. Carmen wanted to take the doll to play with, but I was not that good at sharing Emily. The cloth under Emily’s right arm tore so that her arm was almost torn off. I did not play with her for a couple of years because I did not want to break her anymore than she already was.

On Easter morning when I was six I woke up early and went downstairs. Emily was placed in a chair by the kitchen table. My mom had taken the time to sew her arm up by hand. There was a neat brown cross under her arm where the rip had once been. All of these years an Emily still posses that “scar”, even though I have had the opportunity to take her to the American Girl Doll hospital. If I did this then they would replace her body and make it like new, but I find myself attached to the unique “scar” which my mom took the time to create out of a wound.

Blog 18 (Object Autobiography 1)

Family Cookbook

There is a cook book that my grandma gave my mom. The book was made of recipes compiled by my grandma. The paper is cream colored and held together by plastic comb binding. Some of the pages are coming out of the binding, and the cover is no longer attached to the cookbook. The table of content s is only halfway attached to the binding. The pages of this cook book are now stained with age and ingredients from past dishes that the book aided in. There are little drawings of apples, old stove ovens, and rolling pins on some of the pages. The writing is the neat cursive of my grandma. The ink almost looks blue because it is so old. Each page states the name of the recipe, the section of the book it is under, the person the recipe came from, the ingredients needed, and the process used to make the dish.

This book has seen a lot of holiday moments. Every Christmas my mom pulls out this book and flips to the section on Christmas cookies. We would make Pfeffernussen, Russian Tea Cakes, White Roll Out Cookies, Springerle, Lebkuchen, and Gingerbread panels for the Gingerbread house. Then she’ll send my sisters and me around to gather the ingredients from the cabinets while she pulls out bowls, measuring cups, rolling pins, and any other kitchen item needed to make the cookies. I can remember watching my moms hands work as she kneads and rolls out the dough for Pfeffernussen cookies. Then she would cut them into strips and then cut those strips into little sections. While she would do this I would look the strange name of this delicious cookie in the cookbook. The cookbook reads:
Pfeffernussen , A German Tea Cookie
Recipe Curtesy of Grandma Grotelueschen.


My mom would always drag out the cookbook even though it seemed like she knew the recipes by heart. This cookbook which I can remember so well will some day pass to my sister Alex, mainly because I suck at cooking, which is why I only helped.

Blog 17 (Video Rhetorical Response)

Barbie Girl by Aqua
Single from Aquarium Album

The video relies on the ethos not only of the group singing but also the ethos associated with Mattel’s Barbie Doll. The video mimics the appearance of a Barbie doll house. There is a lot of pink around, which is Barbie’s trademark color. All of the people are dressed like Barbies and move in a stiff puppet like way. These little acts help video seem more like a “Barbie World”. By appearing more like a Barbie set up then the video is associated with Barbie even more. This could be a good thing if you like Mattel’s Barbie or it could discourage people from liking it if they detest Barbie. The video could also attract fans of Aqua. Their fans would know what to expect from them and thus there would be more interest in the video. The song kind of makes fun of Barbie’s and some would say paints her as a bimbo. This could be a point that would attract more interest from those who dislike Barbie. This fact that this song could be interpreted with a negative light on Barbie, was why Mattel sued Aqua for infringement on their copyright agreement.

There is also pathos in the video. It is obviously a spoof that is meant in order to make fun of Barbie. Barbie seems ditzy and materialistic in the video. The fact that it makes fun of Barbie means that it is meant to be funny. Comedy is an appeal to pathos, because it deals with emotions and making the viewer feel something for the subject matter. The song is upbeat and cheery which inspires a sense of happiness. The happiness feeling goes along with the comedy aspect of this video. The video shows a Barbie just having fun with friends, which could cause the viewer to also feel happy because of the memory of their own friendships.

Blog 16 (Video Response)

L.I.F.E. by Lil' MamaThe Voice of the Young People Album

This video by Lil’ Mama is about the turmoil life can present for youth, especially those who have family issues. Lil’ Mama takes the roles of different characters that all have some serious issue like pregnancy, drug dealer, torn family, or poverty. I know that she is not just making up things for her video. These things really happen. Some have happened to people I know and care about.

The video really makes me appreciate how good my life is. No matter how bad life seems it can always get worse. The thing is you never know how bad someone has it until they tell you. Someone could seem to have the perfect life, but it could all be a show. There could be some serious family issues that they are trying to hide from the world, because they don’t want to seem weak by asking for help. This is one of the reasons that I believe they say not to judge a person by their appearance. You never know what issues they are dealing with.

The chorus of the song is an acronym which spells out life. L-is for the liars that had surrounded me,I-insecurity: My head down in these streets, F-my future; there isn’t on, E-ternal Hope- and this is my life. The chorus sets the tone for the song. The song paints the relief that there is no hope, and your stuck with what happens. This is true to a certain extent, but I think that you can change your circumstances to a certain point. You don’t have to have the same life as your parents. In today’s society you can change your life. It is all up to how hard you work and what life throws your way.

Blog 15 (Video Observation)

Livin' La Vida Loca by Ricky MartinSingle from Ricky Martin Album

The video starts with a car crashing into a fire hydrant and water splattering all over the place. The street is dark. The whole video is dark for the most part. When the scenes show the city streets then the only lights are the car lights and the street lights. In the club scenes the light comes from the stage lights shining on the stage, the stage’s background, the spot light, and the strobe lights. These lights help the viewer to see the subject matter but still give the dark lighting affect to the video.

The camera angle is mostly from straight on or it is on by the ground and focuses up at its subject matter. The camera pans a lot and zooms in slightly sometimes. The camera also pans and zooms out a lot. The camera seems to constantly be in motion. If the camera is not panning then the scene is cutting in and out. The camera hardly ever is positioned from an upward angle and focuses down on the subject. The main time the camera is positioned up high is when it focuses on the girls dancing in the rain. Another time the camera is focused on a girl dancing on a pillar or balcony, but then the foreground becomes blurry and the background comes into focus. When the background comes into focus the camera is angled down at Ricky Martin. The camera never actually changes its angle from straight on the girl on the balcony, but by changing the focus of something up high it focuses on a subject down low.

When the video is transitioning from one scene to another it does it a few ways. One way the scene makes a transition is by zooming in or out on an object. At one point the video zooms in on the reflection in Martin’s eye, but the reflection is not a reflection of his sight but a different scene. Another example of this is a fire hydrant is knocked towards the screen and the camera zooms in on the black hole at the end of the hydrant and when it zooms out it is zooming out of the hole of a trumpet. At other times one object in the screen stays in focus while the background blurs and when the background clears a new scene is present. For this technique the camera usually focuses on Martin.