Activity 3 analysis of letter Ray Chow 22

Dear Congressman
 
I have been so impressed with your past voting record, and I am hoping that you will continue to make excellent decisions on behalf of your state.  As a concerned parent who lost a child to a gun accident, I am writing to urge you to support the gun control legislation that will be on the November ballot.
(In this paragraph, the author is using Both ethos and Pathos to tell the congressman that he is doing a good job at having a lot of votes. Then, the writer pleads the congressman to listen to him. This way of persuading is very cunning and smart in a sense. )

The problem with guns is fairly straightforward: they make it easy to kill or injure a person. Did you know that, according to the F.B.I., approximately 60 percent of all murder victims in the United States in 1994 (about 16,000 people) were killed with firearms? According to estimates, firearm attacks injured another 70,000 victims, some of whom were left permanently disabled. In 1985 (the latest year for which this particular data is available), the cost of shootings--either by others, through self-inflicted wounds, or in accidents--was estimated to be more than $14 billion nationwide for medical care, long-term disability, and premature death. It is much higher now.
(in this paragraph, he uses logos . It is obvious that guns are easy to kill a person, and that he also uses facts and figures everywhere. )

One of the problems with making it easier for citizens to have handguns is that in robberies and assaults, victims are far more likely to die when the perpetrator is armed with a gun than when he or she has another weapon or is unarmed.  Opponents of gun control will say that this does not matter because most criminals buy their guns on the black market.  However, not only do a number of criminals purchase guns legally, but the majority of those that do purchase them on the black market are buying guns that were purchased legally and then stolen—ones that would therefore not be on the black market if our gun control laws were more strict to begin with. Did you know that residents of homes where a gun is present are 5 times more likely to experience a suicide than residents of homes without?  The fact remains that a gun makes it easier to commit suicide in a fit of rage, depression, or under the influence of drugs or alcohol. 
(Here, he uses pathos. He wants the reader to be angry of the people who buys guns on black markets and use them unnecessarily.)

Self-defense is commonly cited as a reason to own a gun. This is the explanation given by 20 percent of all gun owners and 40 percent of all handgun owners contacted for a household survey conducted in 1999.  However research has shown that a gun kept in the home is 43 times more likely to kill a member of the household, or friend, than an intruder.  Furthermore, when a civilian tries to use a firearm to resist a violent assault, it actually increases the victim's (civilian’s) risk of injury and death.

(Pathos again is used. He want the reader to take sympathy of the people who where killed, and brainwashes the reader to take action immediately. Or something like that. )

A study of 743 gunshot deaths by Dr. Arthur Kellermann and Dr. Donald Reay published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that 84% of these homicides occurred during fights in the home. Only 2 of the 743 gunshot deaths occurring in the home involved an intruder killed during an attempted entry.  The evidence revealed in the Kellermann study is consistent with data reported by the FBI.  In 1993, there were 24,526 people murdered, 13,980 with handguns, yet only 251 justifiable homicides by civilians using handguns.
(Yet again, pathos is used. It describes to the reader how urgent Is the need of having laws to stop this mess. )

The reason that I have such an intense interest in this topic is that my son was killed by a gun (not my own) that belonged to a person who only wanted to protect his household, but it fell into the hands of a child by mistake.  Do you want to be responsible for supporting legislation that would make more such incidents occur?
(This paragraph is using ethos to tell the reader that "Since my son was killed by a gun, I have rights to speak about this thing" attitude. )

Knowing all this, do you really think we can continue to allow citizens to buy guns so easily?  If we continue making it so easy, our nation will continue to have gun-related domestic fatalities.  I believe in our rights as citizens of the United States, especially the right to LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  These rights are unquestionably threatened by making it easy for the common citizen to buy a gun. Please, please vote for stricter laws.
( Wow. Here is a very well done paragraph by pathos. He is brainwashing the reader about the meaning of life. )

Yours sincerely

John Simmons

CCChhheeeeeeeeekkkaaaaaaaaaaannn XXXuuuuuuuuupp by Ray

I did the quiz ‘Can you handle being stabbed in the back?’ on page 175 and answered the questions as honestly as I could, given the three answer choices. For every answer, I will endeavor to say why I chose that answer, anticipate the consequences for choosing it as well as how I would handle these consequences.

Ok. Now the first question is what would I do if a slacker peeks at my science test and the invigilator caught us, I would choose C: Convince the teacher that it is that cheater that cheated, give me a retest and show that I can excel the test and shout, "IN YOUR FACE!" to her when I excel. The reason is because to me, I have this vision that is, I do what can, I get what I deserve. So, if I studied super hard for the test, I should get super high marks for it, even if a guy comes and obstructs it. But, the friend wants to cheat, give him the consequences. SO, I really do not care(not really 100%) that if the guy gets suspension, does not get a job, jumps off a building or what, but he got what he is supposed to get. 

The second question asks that if my best friend suddenly finds a new BFF and becomes friends with that guy and sweeps me aside, I would choose C. I will tell the person what I feel and if I cannot brainwash him, I will find a new friend. I do not care whether they are fated to be with each other and be friends with no one else or what, as long as I get my friend, I am happy. People have to understand what other people feel, and not be a selfish freak that only cares what they want and get without minding others. That is the reason why we have 7 billion people on a planet called Earth in the Solar System in the Milky Way in the Local Cluster for in the first place, or else, the population of Homosapiens would be 1 and 1 80 years later, 1000 years later and 1 million years later. 

Question 3 is asking me that if a guy steals "my" girl(to prevent confusions from Foo Ming Yong, Tai Chen Yu, Yu Jin Qian and Tan Siah Wei), I would go and break friendship with that guy. C. The is a saying that goes,n 'One Man stands for himself'. I will only do that during emergencies like fires, earthquakes, sinking ships, etc and many more). I really do not know about all these stuff, ok? I would kindly *AHEM* ask the guy to tell me why is he trying to date the novia española. It's very hard for guys to talk about this stuff unless I have a lovebird, ok? Now FOO MING YONG please don't post my nonsensical comments.

SO the 4th question is that there is a guy that keeps following you and does whatever you do. What would I do? I would do C, thinking that this is natural as we are friends and we should have the same interest. So if he wants to follow, let him. I would have a good competitor and I should not nose why is he following my every move. We should not be kaypohs in life and mind one's own business. Just think positive and think that your friend likes you and what you do and does what you do. OK? Settled.

FINALLY! Question 5 is when you tell your friend secrets, and he tells everybody in the whole world about it, what will I do? I will do A and then C. I mean, I will ignore my friend, and then when he comes and kneels in front of me to say sorry, I will forgive him and rebuild our friendship. However, if he does not come and say sorry, I will heck care him too. So and then I will find a new friend myself. Fullstop. It is up to that guy to confess his wrong and not me to plead him, kneel and bow to him for him just to say sorry. If he does not want to, so be it. Alright? Bye now. 

Chapter 4 Duck Soup - Wait, was it Chicken Soup? By Ray

What can you learn or take away from each of the eight chapters? Please consider information from the spotlight articles associated with the corresponding chapters.

What I can take away or learn from the articles is that why does people have to be over grieving when someone dies? We all die in the end, Barack Obama, Lee Hsien Loong, Hu Jin Tao, Kim Jong Il, George Bush, Mark Zuckerburg, Murbarak etc all die. The only thing that makes people grieving more or less is the amount of time we stay on the Milky Way or in layman terms,  the age we die. People feel that like if a grandpa dies at the age of 89 and is a healthy person that died of old age, the family would feel that he had lived life to the fullest. However, if like a small girl at the age of 9 crosses the road on the way to the granddad's funeral and got hit by a car, the family will feel super sad as they feel that that girl has not seen the whole beautiful Earth yet. But, in true fact, we are living life to the fullest, by taking a car, eating your McDonalds, taking a bath, playing your Mousehunt, hacking to people's computers or even getting scolded by some teacher *AHEM*. So the point is that we do not think positively enough when someone kicks the bucket. We have to be more positive when this happens. 

Chapter 3 - Chicken Soup is Tasty! XD LOLROLFMAO By Ray

There are times when family affairs disappoint you. On page 79 ‘Outside the Box’, there are four suggestions on how to handle disappointment. What do you think of each suggestion? If you do not have issues that are family related (include the wider family, adoptive family, guardian), consider other disappointments in your life with other people who are supposedly close to you.

1. Take it easy on yourself, especially if you are feeling down. Do something that makes you feel good about yourself.

If we take things easy and slow and steady in life, we can achieve what we can achieve faster than rushing it through. When we are sad, rushing through everything you do makes the person more stressful and worried. However, if one goes slowly, not only it relieves the stress, but also makes the person feel better and gets the job done quicker too. Most importantly, we have to relax ourselves. Everybody needs to relax, so it is fine for one to have a vacation, play some games etc once in a while to relieve stress. Also, we can obviously do something that that make us feel happy, but of course not by doing bad things. This will make one forget the hardships one suffered. 

2. No matter what the situation, try and find some sort of positive way to look at it.

I feel this statement is not entirely true. When one gets into a bad situation like being bullied or lost or scolded or etc thinking positive only help you relieve stress FOR A WHILE ONLY. I only makes the bad situation forgot as one has been teleported to Lala Land. BUT, on Earth, that person is, let's say, bullied and called names. They will keep going on and on and on and on and on but you still do not do anything but only zip to a land of happiness. One day, the stress would have build up too much such that  even dreaming of Minecraft would not help anymore. So the person would be emo and commit suicide. Alternatively one can instead seek help from an adult like a teacher, guardian, parent, councellor etc to ease the sadness and gain back the happiness and positivity in life. 

3. Know that everyone goes through disappointment, and the feelings that go along with it will not last forever.

Disappointment is a very common thing for Homo Sapiens and if I did not exist in one, you can call him an alien. If it does not exist in the universe, the Earth would have reached its Armageddon long long time ago. Also, we hardly experience it such that when we experience it, we say that we experience more disappointment than happiness but we are experiencing joy right now as you reading this blog post. Moreover, it does not last for like more than a day, so, it is fine and there is no need to jump in front of an approaching car. 

4. Find a healthy way to express your emotions.

PLEASE, express your emotions healthily. DO NOT express it by shouting at your dad, shouting at your mum, shouting at your cat, shouting at your dog, shouting at your Toyota, shouting at yourself etc. We have to express it nicely, like typing out a journal and locking it up of typing it out and password protect it. Not by jumping off a building or cutting oneself. One must express our emotions as if one hides them, one will explode like TNT, which is not beautiful for your family members to see. We cannot vomit what we feel out like choking on a fishball. This will hurt others' feelings. One must like tell a guardian, parent, discipline master etc to share the feelings with. This will make our stress level deflate like a balloon out of air. 

5. Try and keep things in perspective.

One must know his priorities, and not go Facebooking or playing Angry Birds everyday without doing any homework. We must keep track of what we are doing everyday and not get distracted. Like me. I always get distracted. Anyway, we can like use iProcrastinate to keep track of our homework, do some reflection everyday. By the way iProcrastinate is free form the Mac App Store. Look I got sidetracked again. 

EMOTIONAL BASKET CASE Ray Chow 22

When one feel depressed, lonely, or heartbreaks, being different form my peers or having to put up a front, I will try to think positively and look on the bright side. All these feelings are just part of our own minds and if we try not to think it, it solves everything. Hiding one's feelings is as if they are bottling up one's emotions which is bad for them, as people can reach their breaking point quickly that way, and be driven to suicide. The best way to prevent such issues is by consulting a teacher, parent, or a relative, before it gets too serious.

If one feels depressed, one should relieve this by having fun like playing computer games, board games, GBA games, stabbing-yourself-with-a-knife games or whatever games you like to play or having quality time together with my family members. Also, have a pet to share and express your feelings with.

If one feels lonely, they should mix around and hang out with people more often and try not to be shy and have fun activities, eat and talk with one's new friends, and share their feelings with them. Also, ask to be invited to parties and celebrations to feel less lonely.

If one has heartbreaks, the can relieve their stress by crush a stress ball, forgetting the bad times and think  of good times, or other stuff that makes one feel better, or talk to their dear Macs, or go suicidal, I don't care. As long as one must also prepare yourself for the real world, things will not always be good and in favor for one. If happiness was everlasting, it wouldn't exist.  If pain was simple, it would leave us. One must be flexible and be able to adapt to all kinds of situations.

If one is different from others, it is ok. Everybody is different and that every difference will only make you more special. This is the nature of hemō hūmānus and it is natural. One does not need to fret or freak out when one is being teased as I told before, it is the social norm of the cosmopolitan species.

If one is having to put up a front, then one should not hide his feelings. One should seek help or approach a teacher, parent, friend, cousin, grandparents, guardian, pet dog, cat, frog, whatever and share with them what is bothering you and what one is experiencing now and maybe they can have a solution for you, like make more friends, listen to relaxing music, jump of a building, or jump into an approaching car or something like that.

It is me and my clothes only to trust, rely and believe to get out of the pit of emotional distress and find a greater light within. Although we can have someone to lend a hand, but by doing this we will not be independent and will in contrast, create a bigger pit to climb out of.

After I explained so much, I feel that we should not compare ourselves with our peers because everyone of us Homo Sapiens has both positive and negative points, though some may have the same stuff. Fair enough, it is fine and okay to be with friends sometimes but we should not just plainly focus on our strong points and turn a blind eye on our weak points.

About Wrc Ynapmoc

Hi there!

I am Wan Ray Chow. I am currently 410701247 seconds old as of 2140hrs, Sunday, 7th November 2010 Anno Domini.

I am currently living in Pasir Ris, Singapore, Singapore, Earth,  The Solar System, Local Spur, Sagittarius Spiral Arm, The Milky Way Galaxy, Our Local Group, Virgo Supercluster.

My hobbies are editing Wikipedia, Astronomy, Stargazing, I'm an avid railfan and other stuff. Ok? Bye!

BTW, I've made my picture big enough for you guys to me but too small for you guys to download and save it into your desktop to stalk me. XD