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September, 2012

  1. Rhetorical Burrito

    September 27, 2012 by Sam Lebold

    I was going to make this a sort of hodge-podge blog that wrapped up all the little details of this week, almost like a rhetorical burrito, but instead I found myself really thinking about one small, wuick incidence that occurred this week, so I’ll actually be blogging about that. Sorry, rhetorical burrito of hodge-podgy-ness. There’s always next week.

    Speaking of burritos, this week I found myself getting a tad sick of dining hall food, and so a friend and I ventured downtown to grab some lunch at an old favorite, Chipotle. Let me first just take a moment to say that I LOVE Chipotle, almost as much as I love putting words in all caps in order to emphasize them. So there I was, happy as a clam, with my friend and some burritos, when I stumbled upon some intriguing non-verbal or written rhetoric . We were having a blast simply sitting and people watching, which is one of my favorite pass times. For the most part, we encountered college students like ourselves, waiting in line to pay way too much for their Mexican treat of choice. However, we did notice a few outliers in the population, and one that caught the attention of my friend right away. This man was sitting at a table with a large group of others, happily stuffing his face like the rest of us. The people he was with were all casual, with back packs and comfortable looking clothes. But not this guy. Rather, he was dressed in a well tailored three piece suit, with a brief case instead of a backpack.

    Upon spotting him, my friend went “Woah. Someone’s important.” I laughed and nodded, before I took a second to think about it. In all actuality, I had no idea if this guy was important. In fact, he looked to be about the age of a college student, so he most likely wasn’t really all that “important” or different than the rest of us eating there. I realized that by dressing this way, this young man was utilizing ethos to make us automatically assume that just based on the way he looked, he knew what he was doing and he was in fact “important”. It made me start to think about how often we judge a book by its cover and miss the real underlying argument, because we’re so wrapped up in the rhetoric that surrounds any given work. We didn’t even take time to ponder why this guy was wearing a suit or where he might of been coming from. We just let the ethos wash over us and sink in, without really looking into the “argument” at hand.

    Now I realize this is a stretch because it’s not actually an argument that I was looking at, and there’s no real, physical rhetoric at work here. However, it’s almost like a metaphor. A metaphor for how sometimes, rhetorical strategies can help enhance or highlight and argument, making it more appealing to the viewer or listener. But more often than not, they can give off, to the average observer, a false sense of why an argument is good. We assume that we should listen to someone just because they display ethos, we give money to a charity simply because the commercial tugged on our hearts. But how many times do we sign up or sign on to something because we actually agree with or support the argument presented? How many times do we support something that we actually know and understand, versus acting because of an emotional appeal, or because we thought we should agree with someone (and not their argument?)

    Food for thought, huh?

    (Get it, food? I like to think I’m witty sometimes.)


  2. (Insert witty blog name for the flavor Alumni Swirl)

    September 27, 2012 by Sam Lebold

    Another week, another Creamery flavor.

    And just for clarification, no, I didn’t post this without a title. That’s just me running out of fun names for these blogs, and it’s only week three. How sad.

    This week, again, I found myself taking the easy route and getting ice cream in the dining hall. One, it’s free, and I’m a cheap college student. Two, I can choose how much I scoop for myself, which allows me to fool myself into thinking that I won’t get fat from eating all this ice cream as long as I control my potion, and three, I’m simply lazy. It’s a hike up to Berkley Creamery!

    Anyway, back to the good stuff. Again, I found myself highly limited by the choices that Pollock had to offer me. They only put out 4 to 6 flavors a day on average, and usually two of them are chocolate and vanilla. So really, your options are limited when you go to the dining hall, but hey, I kind of like it. This way, I’m forced to try whatever other flavors are there, even if they’re ones I wouldn’t normally choose.

    So I found myself this fine Thursday evening sitting in the dining hall, realizing I had yet to grab another new flavor for the week. So I shuffled over to the ice cream station, expecting there to be a huge line, but much to my great fortune, there was no one there! I hurried over, thinking how lucky I was. That was, until I saw the flavor options. As usual, there was good ol’ Vanilla and Strawberry, which my eyes quickly scanned over. Then, much to my horror, for the second week in a row, there it sat. Bittersweet Mint in all its glory. All I could think was “Are you KIDDING me?” Two weeks in a row now, someone has placed it there to taunt me, I’m sure of it.

    This left me with the last flavor at the station, Alumni Swirl. Once I calmed down over my minty rage, I realized that this actually sounded like a flavor I should try. The name itself implies some significance, simply because it’s attached to the alumni of the school. And if you get a Creamery flavor named after you, you must be pretty important. Once again I chose a cone, simply because I feel as if eating from a cone really adds to the experience of eating ice cream. Alumni Swirl has a vanilla base with swirls of blueberry flavoring and chunks of some sort of chocolate substance that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I looked it up on the Creamery website (who knew?), they’re listed as “Swiss Mocha chips”. They were a flakier version of a chocolate chip, with quite an interesting flavor.
    At first, I didn’t expect much. I’m not a huge fan of fruit-flavored ice cream, but like with Espresso Fudge Pie, I was pleasantly surprised– it was great! The ice cream to mix in ratio was perfect, and I was never overwhelmed with any of the three flavors. The blueberry was subtle, and quite sweet, which was offset nicely by the plan vanilla base. The Swiss Mocha chips were interspersed evenly, adding a nice rich bit of flavor every once in a while too.

    Overall, I would describe the flavor as light and slightly whimsical. It’s certainly not for the chocoholics, but it’s sweet and pleasing to the taste buds. I honestly loved Alumni Swirl, and I would both get it again and recommend it to a friend. I see a trend here…


  3. Well She Certainly Rocked My Vote

    September 20, 2012 by Sam Lebold

    Firstly, let me just say that all the people presenting their speeches on Wednesday did a really good job!

    The speeches are, however, not what I will be blogging on for my RCL blog this week. I encountered another event that, like the September 11th article in the New York Times, angered me quite a bit. Hopefully, this won’t be a trend of angry blogs, but I guess that’s just what inspires me.

    On Wednesday afternoon, I was waiting in line to get my free ticket to the Rock the Vote concert on campus. I had already registered to vote, so really I was just there because Jack Johnson was performing at the concert later that night, and I’m a big fan. I was waiting in line with one of my other friends who had already registered to vote as well, so in essence we were ignoring all of the civically involved people around us that were trying to get other students to register to vote.

    Let me just quickly say that I really support this whole “Rock the Vote” movement on campus. Voting is an extremely civic thing to do, and it’s something that I think all citizens should participate in, no matter their opinions or political views. The younger generation is highly under-represented in the polls, because a lot of people who are in their late teens or early twenties either don’t have time or don’t care to vote. Who is in positions of leadership in the government affects all citizens, which means that voting is a great way to be civically engaged.

    But anyway, back to my story. As I said, my friend and I were ignoring all the political and civic activity around us. That is, until I heard one of the volunteers (who, I should mention, looked to be a college student herself) for Rock the Vote who was walking down the line with voter registration forms shout “Hey, you guys should all vote!” I thought to myself, “Yes indeed- what a great-” but then my thoughts were interrupted by her next sentence: “Why? Because voting is f***ing cool!”

    Well then. She had my attention now, didn’t she? People laughed in response, but personally I was a little bit angry. I’m not a huge fan of profanity to begin with, because I think it’s overused in the modern day. I’m not trying to be particularly judgmental, but I’ve always felt that those who use profanity in everyday conversation have poor vocabularies and aren’t very skilled in the art of rhetoric. Rhetoric can be a really beautiful and persuasive thing, as nerdy as that sounds. Rhetoric really has the power to change how people view the world, especially in terms of civic acts and civic duty. So when people reduce their arguments with such profanity, it really makes me sad, and it usually turns me off to whatever they’re trying to argue. It simply doesn’t sound intelligent or motivating to use such language, and truth be told it’s flat out inappropriate to be used in a public setting like that.

    Now believe me, I’ll still vote come November. But I really wish that the other people in line who hadn’t registered to vote had wanted to, and had heard a better argument than “voting is f***ing cool”. Because let’s be honest. Who is going to stand up and say, “Oh really, voting is not only cool, but f***ing cool? Count me in!” It’s simply not going to happen. No one is going to be convinced by that. And when we’re in a time when we need everyone’s vote, yes, I found myself just a little angry.


  4. Time for a Coffee Break

    September 20, 2012 by Sam Lebold

    This week marks the true beginning of my challenge to try a new flavor of Creamery ice cream every week. Not only am I going to be trying a new flavor (or flavors, if I’ve had the time and burned off enough calories at the gym) every week, but I’m also going to be abstaining from eating my beloved Bittersweet Mint. It will surely be a challenge, but I’m looking forward to pushing myself to the limit and broadening my horizons, no matter how clichéd that sounds!

    On Wednesday afternoon of this week, I found myself in Pollock dining commons. Knowing that I probably wouldn’t make it to the Creamery that day or the next and that I had to be my passion blog done soon, I ventured over to the ice cream station in Pollock to assess the flavor options. Every day, there are four different flavors available for students to choose from, so I thought that I’d have many options. However, I was sorely disappointed. Two of the flavor options were chocolate and vanilla, which I’d like to try from the Creamery at some point, but which I already had a general concept of. The two other flavors were: Espresso Fudge Pie and, much to my horror… my beloved Bittersweet Mint. “How cruel of the people who set out the ice cream every day to taunt me like this!” I thought angrily to myself as I grabbed a cone and went for my only real option, Espresso Fudge Pie.

    It was hard for me not to grab a scoop or two of the delicious and minty green Bittersweet Mint as well, but in the end I was quite please with the selection of Espresso Fudge Pie. It was delicious! I would highly recommend this flavor to anyone who loves ice cream, whether they are a coffee drinker or not.  I, myself, am not a huge fan of coffee, just because I really don’t like the flavor. I love how it smells, but really can’t stand how it tastes. You know what I mean by that, how sometimes things taste differently than they smell? Well, Espresso Fudge Pie tasted like coffee smells, which is delicious. It wasn’t too overpowering, but it was also different than your typical coffee/chocolaty blend. I also enjoyed the large chunks of fudge interspersed with the espresso ice cream– they were plentiful, which made me quite happy. There’s nothing worse than an ice cream whose chocolate chunks or chips are few and far between (just another reason why Bittersweet Mint is so wonderful… but I really should stop talking about that, shouldn’t I?). In short, a great option for anyone looking for a fresh, fun and new flavor from the creamery that doesn’t push it too far. Go out and try it!


  5. WIP Post-Speech

    September 20, 2012 by Sam Lebold

    Let me first just say that I am so relieved that my speech is over! I personally was a little worried about it because I’m not the best public speaker, but I think it went well in general. Looking back over my notes that I had done in preparation, I only missed a few points in my speech, but they were minor. I hit all the major points that I was trying to get across, and I thought that my body language read calm and that I kept my tone even without being monotone. Hopefully my nerves didn’t show too much.

    In retrospect I think that I definitely could have practiced more. I took a note card up to the podium with me, but when I looked at it, it was hard to remember all the details of the specific bullet points that I had placed on the card. More practice would have made it easier to remember all those details. Another thing I think I could have done more is practiced in front of a larger group. I only practiced in front of one friend, and I’m really comfortable around her. While I’m comfortable in English class as well, it was certainly very different than how I had practiced, just in front of my one friend.

    All in all though, I think I did well, and the improvements I need to make will come with more time and experience.


  6. Extra extra… The NYTimes Doesn’t “Do The Right Thing”

    September 13, 2012 by Sam Lebold

    Over the past few weeks here at Penn State, I’ve started reading the New York Times, for a multitude of reasons, one among many of them being to find potential topics for this very blog…

    Which is why I’m breaking the mold of blogging about the film Do The Right Thing (don’t worry, I cleared it with Dr. Miles!) and will instead be blogging about something that really caught my attention while I was reading the Times this Tuesday. Tuesday, as hopefully everyone knows, was the 11 year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. The attacks were so traumatic and they touched such a widespread group of people that most of us feel a connection in some way or another to the event. We might even feel a connection to the event simply because we’re American citizens or live currently in America. September 11th, 2001 was, for some, the ultimate act of civic duty. For all of the emergency responders, volunteers, and average citizens that gave their lives, 9/11 was a day to put the good of the whole above the good of the individual. So many people overcame their differences to solve a common goal because in the moment, that was all that mattered. Out of 9/11 came a different mindset, a different ideology, because of the way Americans reacted. So many ideals have become commonplaces for Americans in the last decade because of the events of 9/11, and in my opinion they’re good ones: that we need to be proud of our country, that sometimes we need to put aside our differences for something bigger, and that we are part of a country where civic duty is important and should be recognized.

    Which is why it angered me beyond belief to see that a mere 11 years after this life-altering event that rocked our country, the New York Times did not mention the fact that it was the anniversary of 9/11 until the 17th page of the newspaper. Let me say it again: the 17th page. Not the second or the third, but the 17th. Almost every other newspaper I found that day or looked up featured a story on the front page, and if not on the front page, somewhere close to the front of the paper. But not the Times. They didn’t even acknowledge it until the end of the news section, with a small article that discussed how we should begin to scale back on the remembrance and memorial of 9/11, now that it’s been more than a decade. I was so shocked and frustrated that the newspaper based in the city where the attacks occurred was taking such a viewpoint. I understand that we should make progress and move forward from the event, but in no way does that mean that we should forget that it happened and forget the incredible acts of so many who gave their lives that day. What happened to the phrase “Never forget” that has become so commonplace in our vocabulary that we all know what it refers to, even out of context? There’s a reason that no one has forgotten and that no one should forget. 9/11 was such an emotionally scarring experience for so many, and such an incredible act of patriotism and civic duty for others. It deserves respect, and acknowledgement from the media, especially in this day and age when we’re so shaped by the way the media portrays things.

    In summary, I’m just extremely disappointed that the New York Times, in this case did NOT Do The Right Thing.


  7. Minty Madness

    September 11, 2012 by Sam Lebold

    Ah, and the Creamery Dream begins, with a blog title that is cliched and corny.

    Where to even start?

    How about I give a little background into why I chose to eat my way through the sweetest place on d been on earth, next to Hershey Park. I have been a Penn Stater all my life, because both of my parents attended Penn State for their undergraduate degrees. Even in infancy, I was forced to wear cute little lion suits and PSU gear, and throughout my childhood, I had been on campus more times than I could even count and thus visited the Creamery altogether too often for what I’m thinking is healthy for a growing child. However, I’ve come to know and love the Creamery and it’s ice cream, and I have always had quite a sweet tooth.

    Yet the other day as a friend and I were waiting in line to get some ice cream there, I glanced at the board of flavors and glanced back down at my phone. I always get the same thing when I go to the Creamery- Bittersweet Mint. Bittersweet Mint is my absolute favorite, and in my humble opinion it is the best variation on mint chocolate chip out there, so let me just start off this first passion blog with a quick review of the flavor… The mint to chocolate ratio is perfect, the color is minty fresh without being nauseatingly neon, the slivers of chocolate are large enough to be noticed without taking away from the mint, and the thick and creamy concoction’s minty flavor is cool and refreshing, despite the rich nature of Creamery ice cream in general.

    As I looked away from the board without a second thought, I realized that Bittersweet Mint was the best flavor from the Creamery in my mind because it was the only flavor I had ever really tried. As an avid fan of anything and everything Penn State, this made my heart skip a beat. How on EARTH could I have gone all these years and not tried any other flavors at the Creamery? Quite frankly it’s embarrassing, now that I’m a student here. So I set a goal for myself: try some new flavors. And as soon as this assignment came along, it was made clear to me exactly how I’ll go about broadening my knowledge of the Creamery flavors: each week, I’ll try at least one new flavor, one that I never thought I would try before. I’ll comment on it and review it for others to read, so that hopefully someone else might be inspired to try that flavor too.

    And as I roll my way through the sweet options, I’ll comment on other things about and related to the Creamery, such as the atmosphere of the Creamery, how the Creamery has become a symbol of the University, the fact that Creamery ice cream is now offered in the dining halls, how I manage to maintain my weight as I go on this fattening endeavor, etc. In all honesty, I’m ridiculously excited for this blog, and I hope it’s informative, fun to follow and a pleasure to read. No ripping apart of diction or syntax, no looking for hidden meaning…. just ice cream. Here goes nothing!


  8. Work In Progress Blog #1

    September 11, 2012 by Sam Lebold

    For the upcoming speech that we’ll be presenting in class sometime next week, I have decided to go with option one, and I already have the civic engagement artifact in mind that I would like to use. As an incoming freshman on campus, it was drilled into my brain that I needed to, in some way shape or form, get involved with THON, which is a great example of civic engagement. I signed up for a couple different clubs, took their information and read their e-mails. While all the groups that benefit THON do incredible things and support a terrific cause, I narrowed it down to Springfield, simply because of one flier that I had seen floating around campus. It’s a simple yet colorful flier that reads “Cancer… may the odds be NEVER in your favor”. Most, in light of the recent explosion of popularity of the trilogy The Hunger Games, understand this reference, and it really caught my attention. Ever since then I’ve been looking at and thinking about this artifact, and I realized that a lot of design and composition went into this, and it is certainly a rhetorical work. So for my speech, that is the artifact that I’ll be analyzing, and I’ve already got some ideas on what I would like to say about it.


  9. Creamery Dream

    September 7, 2012 by Sam Lebold

    For a few weeks now, I’ve decided what I will be blogging about for my passion blog. I’ve been familiar with the Penn State campus since I was a small child, and I’ve always loved the Creamery, and I would say that I’m quite passionate about my sweets! However, I usually get the exact same thing every time I go to the Creamery, and now that I’m a student here, I would really like to branch out and try some new flavors. I’m sure that there will be some I don’t like, some that are delicious and some that I really have no opinion on. So for the next 12 or so weeks, I’ll be sampling different flavors at the Creamery and commenting on them, reviewing them and blogging about my experience as I do so. So here we go! Hello freshman 15…


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