Brilliant Blogging

 Friday, June 28th, 2024 3 Books to Consider Reading (Entry #6) Hello Everyone,  Although I would say I've been desensitized to reading books, I still wouldn't consider myself a novel-enjoyer, but I want to introduce you to some books that have piqued my interests over the last year that I think other people should read too. I personally enjoy the classics such as The Odyssey , The Brothers Karamazov , or The Nicomachean Ethics , but today I want to also show some love to more modern books.  #1 "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness I actually have this copy of the book, only difference is that it's been sitting on my bookshelf. But other than that, I'm still excited to read this book as it was actually gifted to me by my Greek teacher, on my last day of high school. This book explores the horrors of Western colonialism, with the story set in the Belgian Congo. The book also dives into the darkness of imperialism and the main character's ps...

 Friday, June 28th, 2024 AllState Mayhem Commercial (Entry #5) Hello Everyone,  In this blog post, I'll be diving into a rhetorical analysis of an Allstate Mayhem commercial. I guess now is as good as any other time to start practicing on how to write about rhetorical analysis when we have a big essay on it. Let's not jump in too quickly to all the rhetorical devices and persuasive techniques without watching one of their ads.  video link:  Cat vs Insurance Agent Almost every American household nowadays has pets, so Allstate has already broadened its audience because almost everybody can relate to owning a pet. And in order to further relate to this pet-owning audience, Allstate targets them by showing the difficulties and mayhem that comes with raising a pet. But Allstate doesn't actually include a cat in the ad, but rather literally personifies "Mayhem" only having the actor act as your typical housecat. This plays into Allstate's genre as they try to amuse ...

 Sunday, June 23rd, 2024 3 Fitness Myths (Entry #4) Hello Everyone,  I'm not the biggest fitness nerd, but I still enjoy reading or watching about fitness myths. Whenever you get into fitness, it's always daunting because it feels like there's a vast amount of knowledge that you need to know about working out like range of motion, number of reps, and so on, but alongside the helpful information for fitness there's also false information about fitness. This false information ruins how enjoyable and helpful exercising could be. So, I'm going to provide you some debunked fitness myths to spread more awareness about false information within the fitness world. Myth #1: Spot Reduction Works This is one of the worst myths, as many believe that exercising a specific muscle or area will help reduce fat in that area. Doing thousands of sit-ups won't get rid of belly fat. These types of myths ruin the image of fitness as people become discouraged when they don't see th...

 Sunday, June 23, 2024 Mint/Gum (Entry #3) Hello Everybody,  I've never really been fond of mints, because of how overpowering they are, but looks like I have no choice today. So today, I had to scavenge around the pantry to see if I had any mints readily available to me and it turns out that I don't. I also didn't want to go to the store just to buy mints, so I just decided to use a substitute. I do enjoy gum, so I have decided to use mint flavored mentos gum. Here's an image of what I'm going to try (I'm eating the gum that's inside, not the packaging, DON'T WORRY!) and if you also want to try these out here's a link to buy them:  Mentos Pure Fresh Gum Fresh Mint The first thing I notice is the texture, which oddly feels like a marble if it were coated with a bit of wax, so definitely not something that you would want to necessarily put in your mouth. The packaging is fun though as it sounds like maracas as you shake up the package. I have mixed fe...

 Sunday, June 9, 2024 A Guide to Growing Cilantro? Hello everyone,  I'm going to try to provide a helpful guide on how to grow cilantro. Why the question mark at the end of the title? That's because I myself am just a newcomer to gardening and so I wouldn't classify myself as an expert nor want to be responsible if any of my information kills your cilantro.  This is cilantro (Coriandrum sativum)  image source First, let's understand what cilantro is. Cilantro or Coriander is an herb in the family Apiaceae. All of the parts of the plant are edible, but traditionally the leaves and dried seeds are used in cooking.  Now that we have that out of the way, choosing the right environment and climate for cilantro is the first step. Cilantro thrives in cool weather so planting them in early spring or fall is the best time with temperatures consistently around 50 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Cilantro is a full sun plant meaning that it requires 6-8 hours of sunlight per day ...

Sunday, June 9, 2024 Meet Tristan (Entry #1) Hello Everyone,  Let me introduce myself—I'm Tristan, in case that wasn't clear with from the title or account name. But I guess I have to share with all of you something more than just my name. One of my favorite activities is listening to music. I'm going to share with you 3 of my favorite albums so that you can better understand my musical taste and how I look at music.  1. What's Going On  by Marvin Gaye image source Even though I've never played an instrument nor thoroughly studied music theory, I think that there are more ways to experience the greatness of music. For me when I listen to this album, I take into account the cultural significance of Gaye's music. This album focused on confronting the social issues of the urban black person in the 1970s, the impact/ dissatisfaction of the Vietnam war, and environmental problems. And Gaye produced this album in a time where sharing such ideas would have been career ...

 Sunday, June 2, 2024 The First of Many Blogs (Practice Entry) Hello Everyone,  Well I want to just first say that it sure feels weird that the first blog is just a blog about comparing and contrasting other blogs. I also want to say that blogs for me are quite a new and strange world because I never been keen on reading blogs nor do I have experiencing writing them. But from the blogs that I did chose I decided to stay in an area that I am familiar in, SPORTS! I decided to do my research on Yahoo! Sports   and  Bleacher Report . I wanted to do these two because they have the same audience (sports lovers like me), so comparing how they format it and what direction the author choses would be easier to compare. As I was analyzing one blog from each website, I found Bleacher Report to be the superior one not just for their stylistic structure but also the greater sense of personality from the author to the audience.  First off, in the Yahoo! Sports, I found an arti...