Ol Red

I really like this music video more for the song that it is put to more than the actual video itself. The song titled Ol Red by Blake Shelton is a song that I find very creative and ironic. The song starts of by the man saying how he walked in on his wife cheating on him and it is implied that he ended up killing the man she was with. He then goes on to explain that he was sentenced ninety-nine years in prison. I can’t image what it would be like to be in prison. It would be terrible to be isolated from the entire world for the rest of your life. It would completely change you as a person; all of the things that were your normal daily routine or things that used to be important to you would no longer matter. Your Sunday priorities would go from relaxing reading the newspaper, watching some football, and maybe mowing the yard to physical labor, boring jobs, and terrible food. The artist explains that after two years he finally made friends with the warden at his prison. He made friends with him and was rewarded by only having to take care of the bloodhound that the prison would release if someone were trying to escape. He goes on to explain this is how he got out of prison he took the dog out to see a female dog every night. Ol Red got used to seeing her and so he kept him away for awhile made his escape and knowing as soon as they let the dog out he was free because he would run straight to the girl instead chase him. The closing line of this song is the best, “love got me in here and love got me out.”

Obey The Traffic Lights

Traffic lights are everywhere you go, they are an acquired knowledge with major importance, you obey them from the day you start learning to drive, and everyone one is different, but they all have the same purpose; to maintain order and provide a logical system. Traffic lights aren’t something you think about everyday, they have become second nature, you know what each color stands for and you know that you must obey each rule. These simple boxes with three simple colors are far more than what they appear they are an orchestrated series of logical, visual and ethical appeals and a remarkable demonstration of a subtle argument with enormous importance.

All streetlights appear to be the same, they all have the same general goals, but they tell such a deeper story that is always overlooked. A streetlight can tell you a lot about a town, a certain intersection or even the time of night. For example take the streetlight at the corner of 48^th and O here in Lincoln. It is at the corner of one of the busiest intersections in the city and it reflects that. It is about twice the size of a regular street light and has about twice the information. It has lights telling you when to go, when to stop, when to use caution, when to turn right, when to turn left, when to go forward and turn right, when to just turn. All of this information is needed to keep the intersection safe. On the other side of things imagine a streetlight in a small run down town that maybe sees a car three times a day. It only has the required information of when to go, stop, and use caution, or maybe it doesn’t even have that. Maybe it is a just a simple flashing yellow light, telling you to use caution at all times, it is not a busy enough intersection or town to need much more instruction.

The streetlights are making an argument for order, a sense of safety and control that must be put in place to keep our streets safe and orderly. The main point that has been put in place with a streetlight is the element of logos. Logos is the appeal to ones logic. A streetlight is filled with nothing but logic. Think about it, you’re coming up to one of the busiest intersections in the world, right at the corner of time square and suddenly the traffic light switches from green to red, do you ignore the light and cruise straight on through, of course not. You must stop there isn’t a doubt in your mind, you use common sense and apply the breaks. It wasn’t a hard decision for you, you knew that if you would have decided to disobey this critical analogy between color and safety, that has been developed through repetition of cause and effect, you would have sent yourself plummeting into a pile of cars and only rolling the dice to see if you would have survived. Moments later at the same intersection the light turns green you now know that it is safe for you to proceed, the logical tie to the color green that has been made allows you to feel safe for you to move forward.

This analogy is something that is not inherited or a piece of born knowledge it is something you must develop. Think about the exposure one gets to the analogy of red equals stop, green means go and yellow represents caution. Even when you are a young child years away from ever placing yourself behind the steering wheel of a car, when you don’t really need to know the slightest thing about driving rules you are exposed to this analogy. You develop it through playground games. The game red light green light is a way to embed in you this analogy so when it does come time for you to start driving the analogy and cause and effect that you must execute is second nature.

Cause and effect allows for this order, because the light is green you can go, because the light is yellow you will use caution and because the light is red you will stop. It is a simple matter of cause and effect. If the argument is not taken seriously, if it is seen as worthless the results are horridness. In the year of 2006 alone there were nearly 33,000 accidents reported in the state of Nebraska (Nebraska Dept of Road Accident Record Bureau). It is easy to see that the effect of not following traffic laws result in terrible effects. One can easily compare the two sides of this argument. They really aren’t hard to see, one side is obey them and the other is to not obey. Even the traffic light in itself is complete opposites. Take the colors green and red, they are opposite of each other on the color wheel having completely different make up’s, but yet they are called complementary. They work together; they make the other better, just as in the traffic light. Stop is the exact opposite of go, but they too both complement each other, working side by side to give our lives a sense of safety and order.

These simple colors of green, red, and yellow have never ending power tied to them. They are powerful enough to save your life and keep America a civilized country to travel in, but they must be in the context of a streetlight. Outside of this context there is no longer an appeal of kairos, the appeal of time and place. Time and place is the key element of this argument. If you are walking down the street and you see a man in a red shirt you don’t automatically stop walking and wait for someone in a green shirt to walk by. You know that outside of the context of a streetlight these colors have no more meaning than the colors pink and orange flashing in the sky.

Traffic lights are commonly seen as just another part of our daily lives, but when dissected into its minute parts it is easy to see the careful planning that had been put into each light. Each light gives different commands, some are telling you that you are free to proceed, this is not a place of concern for you, others let you know that you must be very alert and aware of other drivers. They all no matter how complex or how simple are a perfectly developed argument directed toward our society. They are screaming that we must have order; we cannot be left to trust one another with our lives. To make sure the argument is heard they have been carefully planned out with almost all elements of a good argument, logic, ethical appeal, time and place, compare and contrast, and visual appeal. These elements are all leading us to the desired goal of creating a system of order and logical movement.

Works Cited

Nebraska Department of Roads Accident Bureau. "Types of Motor Vehicle Traffic Accidents." Nebraska Department of Roads. 26 Oct. 2007.

Huskers Fire Steve Peterson

The state of Nebraska had one of its' wishes granted this week; Steve Peterson was fired as the Athletic Director of Nebraska University. He was let go because of "management issues," but the real reason that he was fired was because of the lack of success of the football team this year. This would be a very difficult position for anyone to fill. Nebraska has an extreme obsession over our cornhusker football. If we aren't winning we don't want you as a coach, if you are getting us wins we don't want you as an athletic director. With the struggles that the huskers have been having this season Steve Peterson was fired. He will be filled by one of the most loved men by the general public of Nebraska, Tom Osborne. Tom was a coach here at Nebraska and brought a great deal of success and tradition to our program. He is now looked at as a savior. He is put in a very difficult situation though. There are five games left in the football season and people are under the conception that since Tom is back on campus we will some how magically be immediately back to championship caliber. This is really just an unreasonable goal. Tom Osborne addressed this issue of bringing the team back to where our program should be saying that he couldn’t just wave a magic wand and bring everything back to the way it used to be. He also explained that he isn't in the same position that he used to be. He no longer deals directly with the players, he will deal more with the coaches and their staffs. Even saying this everyone still has a sense of optimism, hoping and praying that things can be as again as they used to be.

Fall Break

I am so glad it is fall break. I can't believe that we have been in school this long already. I can't believe I will be in school for this much longer. It is very interesting to me to look at the amount of time that we spend on school, grades, and things such as this throughout our lives. It is crazy to think about that you spend more of your time through high school at your high school compared to time spent in your on home. Your own home, where you are supposed to live. Maybe we should reconsider this, we should call or place of study our home. Now in college they are one in the same. The differences in the college and high school don't stop there though there are so many differences. But the one thing I do love about college is today, my last day of class for the next five days. I have so much I am going to do over fall break, well really I have so much that I am not going to do over fall break. And it is absolutely perfect, I wouldn't have it any other way. I think I will start off my day tomorrow by sleeping in until nine or ten I haven't decided yet. Somewhere in between these two times is the perfect amount of sleep. You don't sleep to long so your not drowsy the rest of the day, but you sleep just enough to feel energized all day. This crucial decision could lead to some very astonishing successes through the day or result in a wearthless day of laziness. After I have woke at the perfect time I will hopefully spend some much needed time with the ever dreaded chemistry, math, and health books. This should take up a good portion of the morning. Which will lead me to feeling that this day was actually worth something, I haven't completely wasted today. After this ever enjoyable time is spent on these items I will have another day changing event, lunch. Unfortunately I will have no control over this event it will be out of my hands and fate will rely only on the lunch crew. If there is good food it could increase the worth of the day even higher. Or if the food is bad it could lead to a day full of the nagging ache of hunger. Only the gods know how this delima will turn out. Hopefully I will leave the cafeteria with a sense of enjoyment and pleasure. If this is the case my mind will divert directly to an over due research paper outline. I am afraid that this could be a bit of a low point in the day. It is truly something I am not looking forward to. I still need more information on my topic so this really could put a damper in the enjoyment of my fall break. After this it is on to practice which is a very enjoyable time of the day. I get to release all that energy that has been condensed inside of me from that perfect night of sleep and release it in a very enjoyable way. After that the plan is not so specific, who knows what the night will in store? After such a structured day it is the night that is fun, suprising, and crazy, it to like basketball is a release from all of the activities of the day. I think that for college students or any student at that to be succesfull you must have a release, you must be able to escape and give your mind a break.

Young Criminals

"What should we do tonight?" Asks moron number one. "I know what we should do says moron number two, lets go vandalize some stuff. Wow what a great way to start out your night. I really don't understand what the thinking behind this way of entertainment is. I don't get it at all. Now don't get me wrong I have no problem and I even enjoy my fair amount of mischievous activities, but I really don't understand the logic behind smashing pumpkins and stealing stuff out of peoples cars that you don't even know. I think that if you are gonna steal something you should at least steal something worth while. In the article I read the story went on to tell about three boys that spent their last Saturday night smashing pumpkins and stealing stuff out of peoples cars that ended up amounting to an amazing total of 80 dollars. What does this say about our town on Lincoln? Does it say that, that is all there is to do around here or does it mean that there are just some kids that are mislead. I think that no matter where you live you are always going to here people talk about that there is nothing to do in the town that they live. I believe that is the most ridiculous excuse for doing something like this that I have ever heard. You begin out your night just hanging out with some friends and in these guys case the next thing you know is you are being chased by cops and getting arrested. I really just don't understand the thought process of some people.