Revealed!

1. Definition
2. Compare/Contrast
3. Narration
4. Process Analysis
5. Cause and Effect
6. Argument

Happiness

Happiness is one of the most wonderful feelings in the world. It is what someone feels at the highest moments of his or her lives. Even if something horrible is happening, happiness makes one forget the trouble and feel joy for that moment. It can be the result of one of your actions, or the actions of another. Happiness is being pleased with something, someone, or some event. It is a feeling that people need in their lives, at least at some point, to make them have a joyful life, or even a livable life really. Everyone needs happiness, and everyone is able to feel happiness if they want it. 

Happiness is like the feeling one gets on Christmas morning if they celebrate Christmas. Or when one meets someone they love, like a family member, after an extended period of time. Happiness is like being a little kid and having no worries. It's like traveling to a place you have been waiting to visit all of your life. It's like being with the one's you love, doing the things you enjoy. Happiness can be found in great things, as well as small. Happiness is being as far away from sadness, even for a moment.

This weekend has been one of the best weekends of my life, one where I have been happy with my life and my family and friends. I went up to my cabin with my two brother, mom, dad, and dog. We left on Wednesday and arrived back home only a couple minutes ago. My grandma and her husband, who are from North Dakota, came on Thursday and left this morning as well. We did absolutely nothing except watch movies, play games, and sit by the fire. We talked and laughed and everyone was simply happy. 

It doesn't take a winning ticket to the lottery, or a big promotion at a job, happiness can be found in the simple things in life. Although these things would just as well make a person happy, sitting with family and enjoying dinner can cause happiness easily. As long as a person allows for himself to have a good time, and enjoys the company around him, he will feel happiness. It is really easy if you surround yourself with others who are happy, it's like something contagious, if one person is happy, others will be too. 

If one surrounds himself with people who are very happy with their lives and express it in a pleasing, or not annoying way, then he will eventually find himself just as happy. If he surrounds himself with people who see the glass half empty, then he will also see the glass half empty, and therefore will most likely not feel happiness, or at least not as much as in the other scenario.

When someone feels happiness, they live a better life. This is because they enjoy the things they do and people they are surrounded by, and as a result simply enjoy living more. If you enjoy living, then life is better. If you are not happy, people will not want to be around you, there won't be things in life to live for really, and your life will not be even close to as pleasurable as one who is happy. It's a fact, you can't live a good life without being happy.

Holiday Season

The traditions assignment really got me thinking about the holiday season, and to be completely honest, I was about to jump out of my chair I was so excited. And NOW it's snowing. I can't even believe that it's almost Christmas time again! For me, it is absolutely the most wonderful time of the year. I would take the snowy, snowmobiling weather over any 80 degree beach. But not just the weather, because believe me, I am not one of those people who actually like the freezing wind that nearly slashes your face open when it hits you, but only because it means that Christmas is almost here. And even if you don't celebrate Christmas, the entire season is the most wonderful experience. Everyone is happy. Everyone is helping, and giving, and receiving, and it is just the best time ever. I love Christmas. I love the season of Christmas. And I love being able to snowmobile, sled, four-wheel, and so on during this time. I AM SO EXCITED!

.....I wrote this on Saturday night, I know I have no life, but I realized I didn't post it until right now. Great.

The Rhetoric of Communication

The different messages people send out may not be recognized by the person, but when looking at the situation from a different perspective, a message can be perceived as very rude even though it may not have been meant to be rude. A couple examples include:

• When a businessperson leaves a restaurant table to answer a page, he may think that he is doing his work and it's okay, but really the message is that work is more important than the person you are at the restaurant with, and that means that the person is not very important at all.
• A doctor leaving the table to answer a page is an excusable act, but it also puts a damper on the night considering the doctor now has to leave and the dinner is ruined. 
• An answering machine that cuts off after 30 seconds is basically saying, say something quickly because by the time you hit 30 seconds, I probably will be tuned out anyways. It gives off a message that you have better things to be doing than hearing from the person leaving the message.
• When a telephone solicitor mispronounces my name I instantly know that what they are about to talk about in completely unimportant, and usually I'll just hang up. But the message they are portraying is that they don't care enough to figure out how to pronounce your name, they don't even know you at all, and they really don't give a crap but only want slash need to get paid.
• When a fax is marked "Urgent", a person instantly feels a rush of most likely dread, anxiety, and anticipation.  At the same time, the situation is probably not as urgent as one may think, otherwise the sender of the message would say what happened straight up.

These are some examples of what your message can give off, even if you don't mean to. This is how technology has changed us and how a message is perceived.

Babysitting Horrors

Babysitting is the easiest way to make money. And if you agree with this statement then I am very sorry to be the one to tell you that you are completely wrong. Actually I take that back, you are completely wrong and I really don't mind shoving it down your throat, so you know get to enjoy as I enlighten you about my night last night. 

I get inside and I am welcomed by their stupid, loud dog trying to bite my hand off. This dog is pretty small, but if I had the choice, I would throw it out the back window. Then the parents come downstairs and the seven year old Adam, who is too cute for words but is a little devil, informs me that his dad was naked upstairs and he saw his "pee-pee". He used a couple of other words I won't share, but you can imagine the awkward silence that followed that comment. They were out the door within the minute. 

The next couple of hours went pretty well, I got yelled at for making PB&J's on wheat bread, and for making them turn off the TV and play with me, but other than those few things, it went pretty well. That is, until bedtime started.

Every single babysitter knows the difficulty of putting little kids to sleep because you really aren't allowed to yell at them or spank them or argue other threats that the parents of the children can, so we have to resort to the significantly less effective threats like calling their parents or not coming back again. Those are the best i've come up with, and they usually do squat. 

So last night Adam and Annie (the two seven year old twins), started out the night by fighting over who gets the iPad in bed. They are supposed to switch every night, but it seems that every single time I go over there, they simply can't remember who had it the night before. Right. So we all agreed to flip a coin. Annie won. That meant hell for the next hour and ten minutes. I knew that if Adam didn't get the iPad then he would make a much bigger fuss, but I didn't predict this big.

Let's recap:

He started by running for the iPad, punching and kicking Annie on the way. As she was sitting on the ground crying as I pried the little devil off her, Jacob (the third kid who's older and can put himself to sleep, thank God), sat on the stairs and cheered them on. Adam had the iPad so I had to get that from him, Annie was still crying. Adam was screaming at me how it wasn't fair at all, when really, it was pretty fair. I sent Annie up with the iPad and Adam to bed, which I knew was not going to happen. After a whole lot of yelling and threatening, I read him a book and he was in bed. Finally. But when I got downstairs and just unloaded my backpack, Adam comes down the stairs. You have GOT to be kidding me. Long story short, he had a headache, so I went upstairs and rubbed his back, he argued with me about sleep until two minutes later he couldn't even get out another word, and soon enough he was snoring. Oh happy day. 

The parents came home and of coursed asked, "How were the kids?"....I said good. That's the lie of the year.