Aristotle believed that man should include a number of necessary and desirable elements in his overall aim of and plan for having a good or happy life. These elements should be coherently integrated with one another over a person’s whole life span, including both short-term and long-term goals. This is why he believed in a life plan.

This comprehensive life plan should also elaborate ways to achieve and integrate these aims with a view toward the most completeness (teleiotes) and self-sufficiency (autarkeia). A good life plan has virtuous activity as its cornerstone, according to Aristotle, because a good life is one that is shaped and directed through the exercise of virtue.

Is a good or worthwhile life plan possible? Aristotle states that a man of practical wisdom is able to deliberate “about what sorts of thing conduce to the good life in general.” So, yes, it’s possible. Because man is a social animal, this plan will include living with and working among family, friends, and fellow citizens, “since man is born for citizenship.”

So, how should we conceive of or organize our life plan? As if it were a self-help book? A declaration of some sorts? As a sort of contract with yourself? I’m interested in your reactions.

Regardless of its final form, here are some sections we might consider including in any template or proposal for a life plan:

• Wisdom
• Knowledge
• Experience
• Identity
• Talents and strengths
• Wealth
• Spiritual development
• Identification and achievement of potentials
• Lifestyle and quality of life
• Health
• Freedom, or liberty, or personal autonomy
• Social freedom

Others? Think in terms of a mini-table of contents for these. What will should be on it? Here’s a first stab:

1. Introduction and laying out of basic assumptions
2. Description of the approach taken, and of the factors considered
3. The life plan itself, divided by section
4. Action steps, both near- and long-term
5. Conclusions, caveats, qualifications

This is merely meant to get us thinking, to start the process. It’s exciting! It’s up to us, and we get to use Reason!

Deadline for your comment to this post: Thursday, Feb. 2.

In thinking towards our first reading, might not the search for happiness entail its own undoing? Might the modern commandment to, “Be happy!” produce its own form of discontent?

And I’m deeply interested in your ideas about happiness as a sort of “right” or entitlement. Do you believe that we have a “right” to happiness? Why or why not?

Finally, in response to the Truman Show, what role does free will play in the pursuit of a good life? In other words, how authentically lived must a life be in order to be deemed “good” or, to use some good terms brought up today, “noble” or “honorable”? (Ooh, this is a good one.)

Please post a comment in response to these questions and to your classmates’ ponderings here no later than midnight Monday, Jan. 16 (so I have a chance to read them before class the next day).

I’ve put together some prompts below to help you get started. The key for each is vivid description. Don’t just tell us she was pretty; SHOW us by richly, vividly, pains-takingly describing her to us ON A PARTICULAR DAY or moment. This makes good writing.

Option A: Recall your first love. Remember the person. The emotions. The big date, or prom. Remember his or her smell. What did you talk about? What did you share in common? What drove you crazy about him or her? Looking back now, is there a sense of sadness, of loss? Something else?

Option B: Recall your brush with the stars (or a star/celebrity/public figure). How did it happen? How did it make you feel? What were you wearing? What was he or she wearing? How close did you get? What were you thinking at the time. Sights, smells, sounds.

Option C: Recall your first memorable experience with your own writing, good or bad. What did you write? What aspect of the experience was especially painful or joyous or whatever it was? How did it alter how you think about writing, or your attitudes toward the activity of writing? How did you learn from the experience? How has it changed your behavior.

And remember: Writer’s block is a fiction (ha!). An excuse. Writing is work. Imagine a plumber saying, “Oh, I have plumber’s block today. I’m just not feeling it. I’ll plumb when I get the feeling back.” You may not feel inspired, but go to work anyway. Sit your ass in the chair and write. We wall want to write well RIGHT NOW. But it takes time and work. If there is no wind, ROW!

Hi COM 303 editors!

Post your five current events questions as comments to this post. This will give me one-stop shopping to see, organize and think about your questions. Focus on “how?” and “why?” questions. These questions can come from anywhere in the newspaper — any section — but focus on the one day (Thursday). Publish your questions in the form of a comment to this post.

Some good sample questions:

1. Mitt Romney just won the New Hampshire primary. Why are Iowa and New Hampshire — two fairly small states in terms of population — the first two primaries? Why not, say, California and Texas?
2. In 2012, how is that the government still can regulate television? Doesn’t the First Amendment immune broadcasters from government censorship?
3. Why does Iran think that a U.S. citizen, Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, is a spy? (Iran has sentenced Hekmati to death.)

Use either tomorrow’s print or online versions of the New York Times.

Deadline: 8 p.m. Thursday, January 12.

Here’s what to do:

Watch one local TV news broadcast (please note which one you viewed – date, time, call letters). Make sure it’s local.

Chart and describe what in the news broadcast is borrowed from entertainment, or what is (or is trying to be) entertaining. What is the news borrowing or using from entertainment as a part of its own rhetoric. Here are a few examples:

• The makeup, hairdos and clothing of the newscasters. Real people don’t do this, don’t look like this. The TV news people are “made up.” Actors playing roles. And the clothing suggests that these roles have something to do with “business.” Suits, ties, pantsuits. “We’re professionals, doing business.”
• Every TV news show has theme music. Real life doesn’t come with theme music. This theme music is upbeat, dramatic, punctuated. And regardless of how much news actually occurred during the day, you can set your watch by the expectation that in exactly 29 minutes, you will hear the same theme music again.

You might comment also on what in the rhetoric of television pre-determined what kind of news you saw? To get at this, think of other types of news, news you might read about in a newspaper or magazine, hear about on radio, or interact with online. Another lens to use: How much of what you saw was staged, or pre-arranged, managed? Think of press conferences, product releases, awards presentations, “events.” Remember: The medium is an important, inseparable part of the message. The form determines in part the content.

Before you are finished, write down what you learn from the broadcast. What has the news taught you that you did not already know? Be as specific as you can.

Describe something about the emotion the news is supposed to evoke? What is the appropriate reaction to what you are seeing? How do you know that this is in fact the appropriate reaction? What are some other reactions?

What are you supposed to do about what you’ve just seen? What action, if any, is suggested? If no action is suggested, what was the point of having seen it, of having watched it?

To think about the essential element of the rhetorics of cinema and television that has to do with verb tense – NOW! – note how far into the past or the future the local news broadcast delves or even references. How much of the news is that day and that day only, and how much is part of a longer timeline, a historical context, if you will? “Now this!”

If you’re really adventurous, or need to impress the prof one last time before grading ;D, then watch also one The Daily Show, at least through the first 15 minutes. Simply look for and chart conventions borrowed from TV news, like Stewart at a desk, with paper, wearing a suit and tie, ‘reading’ the news. In other words, what of the comedy show’s rhetoric is co-opted or hijacked from TV news?

Another way to think about this is to ask how much of what is presented on this comedic expression is actually a fairly serious commentary on the medium itself, on television, as well as on specifically TV news.

DUE as a comment to this post noon, Wednesday, Dec. 7

There is no need to go into plot here, to develop a storyline; that’s not the point. You should, however, highlight what would be different about the adaptation from the form we already know. In other words, what would mark the film version of The Office as different from the 22-minute show? (Imagine that the movie is the world’s first exposure to “The Office” and its characters, by the way. In this thought experiment, the TV show has never existed.) Use some of the concepts, terms and artifacts explored in class and in the textbook. Your post should be analytical, in other words, not mere opinion.

“The form in which ideas are expressed affects what those ideas will be.” –Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

Your post due by 9am (EST) Wednesday, Nov. 30.

The objective is to immerse the rest of us in your era or design school, saturating us with images of material culture representative of your particular era. Think in terms of:

• home furnishings, especially chairs
• architecture
• posters
• typography
• flatware and tabletop
• rugs and floor coverings
• cars and motorbikes
• clocks and clockfaces

Here are the presentation groups:

• Art Nouveau/Beaux Arts: John, Brian, Abigail, Darren and Rob
• Arts & Crafts/Mission/Glasgow School: Brenna, Joey, Emma, Kelly, Bonny
• Art Deco/Moderne: Kristin, Stacey, Sydney, Audra, Lyndsey
• Constructivism/de Stijl/Bauhaus: Jonathan, Michelle, Caroline
• International School/Grid: Cari, Alyssa and Rachel

I look forward to being dazzled by your creativity.

For the type safaris, I’m commissioning Darren, Emma, Caroline, Brenna and Kelly to choose a typeface for a re-issue of Pride & Prejudice, to introduce the classic novel to a new generation. Choose a typeface for the cover, and a typeface for the body text, and provide a paragraph justification for each as to why it’s the right typeface for the job. Your priority for the body text type choice is of course readability and legibility.

I’m commissioning Audra, Stacey, Kristin, Bonny and  Lindsey to choose a typeface for the new iPhone4S, for all of the display type – email, texts, etc. Provide a paragraph justification as to why it’s the right typeface for the job. This is a typeface that has to work in really small or tight spaces, so do some testing. Make sure the typeface is readable even when really small, so look for letters that bump into each other, and make sure “ones” are distinguishable from lowercase “L”s. Helvetica won’t work, in other words.

Group three (john, Alyssa, Sydney, Rob, Jonathan, Cari), I’d like you all to walk from your dorm room to your first appointment of the day, taking photographs of all signage you encounter in between those two points. Write up a brief narrative of your safari, pointing out especially effective type (and why) and really poor type (and why). You will find that poor display type abounds. Think about signage type as interface. It’s supposed to help you quickly find what you’re looking for. So, ask, does it work? Or was there a better choice?

Finally, I’m commissioning Abigail, Rachel, Michelle, Brian, and Joey to imagine themselves running for the office Emperor or Empress of Berryland, an idyllic and wholesome land of milk, honey and someday soon, football. This office makes you an all-powerful ruler. You have to design a campaign poster, like Obama’s HOPE. And you have to choose a typeface for your campaign. This typeface has to embody and communicate your core values as a candidate. Choose a typeface and provide a paragraph justification as to why it’s the right typeface for your campaign, identifying what those core values are. Give us a sample of your choice if you can.

I’m making these safari catches due at class time on Friday.

I also want each student to take two of the surveys at UnderstandingPrejudice.org. You are going to love these, I think. After you’ve taken the four tests (two at each website), comment to this post about what you learned, if anything. Did you learn or were you made aware of anything useful? Surprising? Did the surveys change your thinking in any way? Share your experiences with these surveys here, and do so before midnight Thursday, Oct. 27. I look forward to reading your responses.

Here’s what I’d like you to do: View the ad again (and maybe a third time). With the principle of Gestalt in mind, break down the ad’s component parts. How do they add up to what you see? But here’s the real exercise here. View it with Barthes’s notions of myth and mythic truth in mind. What is the “truth” of this ad? How is the ad attempting to persuade us of this truth?

This ad is not unlike the people throwing a basketball, with the gorilla we don’t see walking across the screen. What we attend to is interesting for what that attention obscures. What is it that we don’t see (or hear)? This ad is a study in human (in)attention. And it works. Sales spiked after this campaign broke, so even though we know that we’re being sold, even though we know that’s a really long list of horrible side effects, this ad works. It is effective.

Also of use to us here is Berger’s idea of a condensed code. Think of all the elements chucked into the visual funnel at the top that get condensed into a composite meaning of happiness, success and well-being. I want us to see this.

So, post your reaction to this ad answering one or more of these questions, and using one or more of these concepts as we’ve been discussing them in class. I would like many people to comment on the “mythic truth” of the ad, in your opinion. Post your response by 9 a.m. Wednesday, please.