C'est la vie.

Building our very own map in Minecraft has definitely not been the ideal situation I thought it would be. Like for example, I thought it would be fun to do since I played the game before, but apparently it’s not all that fun when you’re actually creating something for other people to play. There is a lot of things you need to think about when you are making the game for others to play, for example, you will have to consider what the player will be thinking when they’re within the game, what will work as well as what might confuse them, and will they like what we’ve created? It is definitely not easy when you’re trying to satisfy someone who you don’t know.

   Programing the game itself was rewarding once everything is in working order, but anything before that, is just a bunch of time consuming periods that repeats itself in an endless cycle.  But with the feed back we got earlier this week it was definitely helpful. For example, we were told that our game was hard to play due to the fact that players do not know where they should be going since we didn’t set a limit on where they could not reach. So as a result to that response, we did a lot of fencing within our map to make the game much more linear than before, so hopefully now everything can go according to what our group had in mind in where the player(s) should and can go.

So far, this week has been long, and tiresome, because of the math midterm on Wednesday and homework assigned from all of my other classes, it has been hard to find time to construct the Minecraft project. Even though, my team and I managed to meet up three times this week, and built the map up even more than before, this project always gives me the feeling that we are only half way there. Hardly ever close to completion.

  This week, we managed to finish most of our building structures, and red stone wiring. Now, it is all down to the specific, on how the map will actually be played out. For example, we have to work out where will the player character be teleported as well as teleported to, and where we should place the command blocks in order for it to be appropriate when the map is being played. The greatest constraint within this process is finding the right placement for the command block in order for the red stone signal to reach it when a player steps on a pressure plate or trip over a tripwire. Finding the right code is also a great constraint, as we have never tried to actually do any programming for anything before until now.

After few classes of learning how to play Minecraft, we have finally arrived at the part where we construct our game. So far, I can see the main challenge of this project is building everything from scratch. For example, the environment, in order to make the player feel how we felt what we think the environment should give off. Everything has to be exact, the trees, the grass, and the correct placement of the blocks, it all has to be in the right place in order for the player who plays the game to feel the right emotion and obtain the right idea when they progress through it.

  So far, our group has a brilliant idea on what our game would be, and how we wanted it to be. It is going to be a lot of work, but I know we will get it done. Right now, we are currently working on a wall that will surround a village to set our theme, as well as a road that will lead the Player to where they will begin their quest. We are currently thinking of using quite a few command blocks to tell a story for our future players who will be using our map; to let them know what is going on in Fredward’s life, our player character. I believe for me, it’s going to be quite tricky in getting everything for the command block right as I have never really used a command block in Minecraft to do anything before until now, and I have been only using it to reset the time of the day and changing the weather to clear so it would be less annoying when I am building stuff. For me, I think the only problem I will have is, transferring the picture that I have in mind on how a structure should look into actually building it in Minecraft.

One of my greatest literacy sponsors has been all of the teachers that I have met in my life. They have always been the ones that have either taught me grammar, help me understand different types of essay structure and identifying the best ones for the situation, as well as ideas and facts on either philosophical or historical wise. What they have done is enhancing my knowledge upon the world, allowing me to add different tastes of elements into my writing and make them more alive and more persuasive than it possible can. Even know they have assigned us countless reading assignments, countless hours of critical thinking homework, and countless hours of long boring lectures, it was all worth it in the end, as all those works, are only prep works for the future. For example, my 11th grade English teacher, Mr. Payne, we as students would always joke about how he is a Payne in the ass, but he’ll then counter us with “No Payne, no gain.” And in a sense it is true, he will assign us a novel reading assignment every three weeks or so, with a reading comprehension test at the end of each book, as well as one or two essays each week, and he is extremely strict and picky on the structure we use in order to gain a good grade on the essay. We would also be doing W.I.D.E., Word Image Definition Example, on literature techniques, movements, and figures of speech every so often. I still remember people would stay up all night just to finish them because it was so quite a bit of work that is only given a short period of time to accomplish it. But in the end that was the only year that I have ever felt in my reading comprehension and writing skills improve dramatically.

One of the many things I do that is on my lit log is fencing. Each week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday, I will go to the Crec center to join the Purdue Fencing Club in their practice. In fencing there are three types of fencing, you can either fence foil, sabre, or épée, and I, myself, choose sabre as my weapon of choice. During practice, we would first do fifteen minuets of footwork, along with some conditioning, and of the remainder of the two hours we would do battles. The rhetorical situation of this is the practice itself, and it mainly happens at the start of practice when our instructor is coaching us in our footwork. The rhetor is mainly the instructor, where he would tell us to advance, retreat or lunge, during our short footwork session, and we as the fencers would be the audience, doing as we are told. The constraint within this situation would be not to mess up the steps or else you will look silly and out of shape. Another rhetorical situation within fencing practice occurs is when we are doing our battles. There would be two fencers on each strip, and their objective is to gain five points by hitting the opponent their blade before his or her opponent could counteract the attack. The constraint would be being defending yourself while at the same time being aggressive and try to take the attack at the right time. The rhetor would be the judge of the battle, and the audience within this situation would be the fencers themselves because the judge would be making calls and they’ll have to listen to see what the judge’s point of view was so they can learn better ways to gain advantages on their opponent when the kairos is right.

The last major thing that I have noticed upon my lit log is that I text quite a bit to my friends. Often within the evening of the day, I would like to text to my friends back in California to check up on them to see how they are faring, or I might text my friends here at Purdue to see if they would fancy to grab a meal with me. Within this rhetorical situation, texting would be the situation itself and the rhetor, as well as the audience, would be the combination of exchanges between my friends and I. The constraints within this rhetorical situation would vary wildly depends on the person whom I text to. Say for example, I would be texting my friend Bryant, whom I have known since my high school freshmen year, there would not be much of a constraint at all, due to the fact that I can say something that might sound mean, but he will know it was just a joke and I never meant anything, likewise, he might say something back as well. We could often discuss on random subjects that might not be possible have we not been friends for so long. On the contrary, if I am texting my friends here at Purdue, the constraints would be greater, due to the fact that my friends here has yet to know who I am, how my humour works, and what subjects I particularly have interest upon. So in the end, constraints varies upon different people as one friend is closer to you knows who you are and doesn’t judge you as much compare to someone who is still trying to get a hold of who you are and trying to make the judgments that some of your close friends already have made since they have met you. 

Another big thing I’ve noticed upon my return to look at my lit log is that I’ve noted going to classes a lot. Here at Purdue, I have a total of four main classes, first one is English, second one is mathematics, third one is chemistry, and the last one being EDPS, which is an exploratory studies class for undecided students. Within each of these classes is a rhetorical discourse itself, and often the teachers themselves are the rhetors who has mainly the ethos and logos when teaching the class, and at times kairos, if something pops up that is worth mentioning to give their facts a better backbone. We as students are often the audience, but at times the rhetor as well, because we will ask questions that will require a response, and during the time when we are proposing the question, everyone in the room who is listening automatically becomes the audience of the person who is demanding a resolution to his or her entangled thoughts. The constraints of this rhetorical discourse would be the time of each class period, and each teacher only has fifty minuets to pour out the right information that they want the student to acquire in this short amount of time in order to be successful in their studies or homework. Often, some of the teachers would like to create a discussion with the students and when it does happen, it creates another rhetorical discourse within the rhetorical discourse itself, which is the class itself. The students and the teacher would exchange the role of being a rhetor or an audience from time to time and their constraints would be either the leftover time they have or perhaps their wording within their discussion in the fight to gain better ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos, in order to prove their point.

Out of the many things that I put on my lit log, I’ve noticed that Facebook is one of the top few things that pops up the most. I’ve often use Facebook as a source of entertainment. I like to scroll through News feed at times to see if there is anything funny that my friends have liked on Facebook, or look up pages that I liked to see what’s new and worth reading. Within this process of checking Facebook from time to time, I’ve noticed that I’ve been the audience of this rhetorical situation, and people who make the posts are the rhetors, but at times I am also the rhetor as well. Due to the fact that sometimes if I see posts that gives me the urge to reply and insert my opinion upon a stance with ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos; I then become the rhetor of the situation, and whoever will stumble upon my posts will be the audience of this situation or perhaps another rhetor when they decide to respond to my stance which will then create a discourse that might go on and on, depends on how good one side is. The constraints of this situation would be to make sure to have the right wording or ideas for the people who is making a statement or posts, because that they would never know if their future employer or school admission consoler would check up on their Facebook to see if this person is who he or she really say they are and are they the right person they want for employment or place within their school.  So the constraints for posting on Facebook is great,  since everything someone posts is so publicized that it can be find my even searching up on google.

My first impression upon reading “Sponsor of Literacy” by Deborah Brandt made me thought about my own Literacy Sponsor. It made me feel more appreciated of what all the teachers, family members, games, Youtube videos, commentators and authors had helped me out throughout my literacy journey. The story itself talked about how we are sponsored in many ways that just seem like average everyday doing, but like rhetorical situation, it’s there, until someone comes along and analyze it.

  The author, Deborah, uses mainly interesting facts to obtain the reader’s interest. She would add one here and there every so often to keep the reader reading just long enough for them to continue. Interesting how you may ask, well if we look at one of the metaphor she uses, “Literacy, is like land, is a valued commodity in this economy, a key resource in gaining profit and edge.” We can see that she likes to use facts for her audience (reader) to see things in a different perspective other than just texts, and this gives the reader’s mind a little bit of a break for the bombardment of texts after texts of facts. For her audience, the metaphor can provide a picture of a farmland that has been invested by an entrepreneur, which is constantly being take care of; trim it here and there every so often, and ultimately it becomes a great success and it blossoms with livestock and ready to be harvest. Turn it into a human perspective, and it’s like the child finally grown up went to a great college and become successful in life and enjoying it.

  After reading this article by Deborah Brandt, I believe that what the author is trying to reach out to the public is that we often don’t noticed that we are constantly being sponsored by others on a daily bases in our literacy work, and we should realize that they deserved the credits for our success more than we do for ourselves, because without their intelligence and hard work, we may not have be standing where we are today.

My first impression of reading, Born Digital, by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser, was a little bit offended. Due the fact that the authors described us, people who are born after 1980, like aliens from another planet, and themselves as the poor migrators from the old world into the new world, like the colonists before the American revolution; even know that this book might be specifically published for an older generation who are lost within this new digital age, who are constantly surrounded by this digital madness where wherever they turn a corner, there is a men or women walking down the street towards him staring at his or her iphone like they are transfixed or combined with it as one.

 In order to keep their reader interested during the reader’s reading time. The authors used a technique that I have noticed throughout my entire reading. They would specifically describe the situation that their specific targeted audience would see in their everyday daily life. For example, the intro itself, “You see them everywhere.  The teenage girl with the iPod, sitting across from you in the subway, frenetically typing messages into her cell phone.” The author does this and allows the reader to agree upon their point of view. This gives the readers a connection with the author. Like having a common interest with a friend, which allows the both of you to have something that makes the bond greater between each other to keep the friendship going. The authors exercise this technique throughout the entire story, and I believe they’ve gained a great deal of ethos, logos, pathos, as well as using the kairos on point.

 I believe that the main purpose of this story is to give people who are lost in the digital age some insight on today’s on going world, and how they may deal with situations by understanding, what is the root of it. Should a reader be a digital native, the moral of the story can change to where it is telling the reader to lay off a bit on the digital technologies, because this is how you are showing yourselves to us these days.

During my reading The Case Study of Charles Jackson, within the published story, The Future of Literacy composed by five authors and edited by Cynthia L. Selfe, I’ve learned that when the author, Charles, was raised in a home environment where his father and mother valued greatly of the practice of many different forms of literacy in multiple ways. He had learned how to type with a computer at an early age, being one of the first few of his generation due to his father’s obsession with computers. His teacher would teach him how to write, while his parents would teach him how to read. To me, my impression of Charles is that he has a pretty good start for himself at such an early stage of his life.

  When the author wrote his autobiography, he wanted to make few particular part of his life stand out towards his audience, which he had. Within the autobiography, he told that he was only age four or five when he could read well, and usually whenever the audience see the number four or five, their logic and reason begins to tell them and picture what usually a kid at the age of four or five would do. To the wide array of audience, kids at that age usually loves to spend time at the playground, playing around with other kids, instead of wanting to sit still and read a book. By doing this, the author now have impress the audience and allowing them to believe that this autobiography is worth reading than and gives the readers the impression that they will soon be amused with more interesting facts about what the author might reveal later.

  The twist within this autobiography of Charles Jackson is that one would think that he would only become an English professor later on after he has received his Masters or PhD, but instead, the author later branched out of his path and designed an amazing game called, THE QUEST OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE, which the author said it was a mythological game where the player can free roam within in it as well as interact with the Greek gods. It was yet another surprise that the author had in store for his audience that no one would’ve expected it.

  After reading the autobiography, I believed that the author’s main purpose of publishing his life story is because that he believes people can learn literacy at a young age, either if the text is printed or digitalized. It doesn’t matter if it’s a game or a book, as long as there are text and subjects, one could learn from it and let it become a useable literacy for whoever have read or played it.

  Youtube, the vast media video website where millions of people go on to it everyday just to either upload their own video or watch the videos for themselves. It can be used as an entertainment, or learning center depends on the user. But for me, it is my very own literacy sponsor. I was probably around the age of thirteen or fourteen when I first came in contact with Youtube. I would search up guides upon games that I play and are having trouble with the quest or level. But then I started to watch videos of other gameplays that has people commentating over them, either having their opinions upon this game or making the gameplay of the game they’re playing much more entertaining. I’ve also like to watch some documentary that has to do with either science, astronomy, airplanes, or even a new theory that was proposed and being debated all over the world. Now, this may seem like nothing else but just something for one’s own personal time, but however, it is only because I’ve watched these videos, within some writings of mine their a essay or a novel, that I could add my knowledge into these texts to give the readers a broad range of new insights that they may have never came into contact with. It is also because I’ve watched some of these videos that I’ve learned a whole new different way of phrasing sentences or words to make them sound much more sophisticated and understandable at the same time. Ever since the start of this semester when we started to interact and learn about rhetoric, I’ve started to focus more on what each video has in ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos. After that, I would start to break down the techniques used and apply them for myself in order to be more effective and persuasive within my own writing  or speech as well; doing a little bit of literacy analysis.   

For me, my literacy sponsor has been the author Anthony Horowitz, who is an English science fiction writer. It was the book Stormbreaker, part of his Alex Rider series book, which had inspired me to find the joy within reading, after reading all eight books of his brilliant work, it makes me want to write science fiction stories myself too. I have been follow the technique in which he writes in ever since. How the dialogues usually carries, the trend of rising action, to the point of the climax and unexpected climax at the end of the novel, all the factors that make the readers interested. Constantly creating new bizarre and unexpected situations, as well as a foreshadow here or there. Also the technique of imagery used within his novels that can often help the reader create a perfect image of either the scene or characters’ expression. His works has also give me a different perspective upon reading and writing, as I remember when I was young, I could never have written anything when a teacher required us to write an essay upon a given topic for the weekend nor read a book and find joy and meaning when doing so.

   Every now and so often, whenever I want to start writing a new novel, I will always flip back to his book that I’ve read during my childhood for a reference point to set a perfect exposition for the beginning of my new story, because so often, the start of every chapter of his books lures the reader into a inescapable transition and allows the reader to put themselves on the spot as if he or she was seeing the whole thing in their dreams from a third person point of view. To me, this just allows the readers to free roam in the world of imagination, and it often gives the reader joy and relaxation while reading them and it is what I am trying to achieve these days with my writing.