aging. by glenn foster

i don't really have much to say about this image that i found over the Internet because as you can see it really speaks for its self. basically this image symbolizes why this company sells you the liquor aged, because the message there getting across is the longer you wait it taste better for a better smoother taste to it. they show an example of this by showing a before and after aging picture of this woman being a nerd in the past and after she aged she looks like this hot sexy like wooooooowww what happened, you will bring her home to mom. this was ironic and hysterical to me.

Julio Magdaleno

As I was scanning through the internet this picture caught my eye because it is a picture of the devil driving a car. There is a sign that is on the right side of the road that says Route 666. In other words, route to hell. The car looks like it is throwing out alot of smoke, seems like it could be the tire but since I am all into the environment and alternative sources of energy Global Warming came to mind. Today, cars make up about 30% of the percentage of carbon dioxide in the air that is raising the greenhouse gases. As of today there are new alternative sources of energy being researched such as vegetable oil, bio-diesel, non-fossil methane, and hydrogen fuel cells. Currently, hydrogen fuel cells have had the greatest advancement in research and is probable to have cars out on the market that are also cost efficient probably by 2020. Basically, a hydrogen fuel cell is a device that takes stored chemical energy and converts it to chemical energy and has bi-products of liquid-water and heat; no greenhouse gases. I think that this is a better route to protect our home the earth, and will become alot more popular in the future.

red bull

It shows that red bulls gives you wings, but in fact it does not. The red bull does give you energy. It makes you really pumped up and makes you awake. Overload on caffeine The advertisement on giving you wings cant happen. When i was younger I always wanted to try it to get wings, but little did i know that you cant get wings even if you do drink it. They had so many commercials on how you take one sip and get wings. And then they fly away. That commercial was such an example of how false advertisement is. It should be illegal so that people wont get mislead and buy it. Pictures of this are also misleading making the object bigger than it is. Making the background look awesome to make the picture look cool. These are false advertisement that should be banned so that people cant fall for them.
Jamie Adishian

Here's my symbol. They're any many people out there these days trying to convince you in anyway to buy their product. A big one is the advertisement of alcohol. They will exaggerate anything and everything to trick you into buying their product. I have a picture that is an example of the false ad.This is a vodka ad and it's similar to the go-gurts ad. I know the go-gurts wasn't like a sexual related ad, but it does say you will grow with go-gurts . This is a false statement and it talks you into buying their product. This vodka ad. basically is implying that you will get with someone if you drink your product. When really this is false and they are just persuading you to buy their product. I believe a lot of people fall for this. Whether it's the red bull let says it will give you wings or the go-gurts that make you grow.


Jessica Davis

Ingrid McShan's Blog

I think graffiti is a unique kind of writing. It brings a significant style to writing. The words and letters even drawing are different from regular writing that many people might understand. The shape, size, wording and color is what brings attention to graffiti (why people read it). In my eyes many young people perform graffiti. Older people really don't agree with graffiti and think its not the right thing to do. Some people think graffiti make neighborhoods look bad and graffiti send bad messages with the style of writing. I think graffiti is not always a bad thing because it can send a message to individuals. The message are either negative or positive, but it is a way for people to get there point across and be heard. This is the reason i believe many people put graffiti an building, billboards and other things. On this website called www.graffiticreator.net it gives you options to do with graffiti. The Graffiti Creator is a flash application that gives individuals an opportunity to make there own graffiti-styled logotypes with any style text.

What have we done? -Lonnie

Is it just like what we are doing? We have been reading news that talks about the environment contamination everyday. At the same time, we are doing something that contaminating the earth. People liking seeing problems got solve. It also means, people like seeing others solving problems. However, they forgot about themselves. What can we a normal people do? Exhaust gas from cars, too may plastic bags, these small parts that we had forgotten, are becoming not small anymore. Maybe we will think, yeah, I should not use too many plastic bags, and then drive although the market is very close; or we may think that drive too much is not good, then do a long way bike riding, have a rest and continue with a plastic bottle energy drink. Unfortunately, no one wake up to it. One day, we may taste they water we had used for bath.

Vodka ad - Bryan

A big alcohol market is formed in America. There are many kinds of alcohols that are popular. Vodka is one of them. This an advertisement of vodka. It is Smirnoff Vodka that is mone of the most popular vodka brand. There are many similar advertisement pictures, but i think this one is the most attracting one.
In the picture, there are a few sheep and a bottle of vodka. The picture is very simple, so you wouldn't find anything special unless you look through it very carefully. Do you find anything weird? Let me tell you. As you see, a transparent vodka bottle is placed in front of the sheeps. A sheeps head is overlapped with the bottle. Actually, its body is sheep but head is wolf.
What the advertisement is talking about is duplicity of alcohol. When you have first shot of alcohol, you'll feel good and relaxed. However, as you drink on and on, you will get drunk, and it can harm you. The advertisement is using vodka's property well: transparency. It shows us the importance of understanding characteristics of the product that is being advertised.

Heinz by Michelle Hsu

This is a Heinz ketchup advertisement. It seems like the whole picture is white and dull when I first looked at it. However, there’s little red, attention grabbing object in the bottom. It’s the Heinz’s logo that they use to represent themselves. The little red spot really grabs people’s attention, because it is the only object in the picture with color. I didn’t get what advertisement this picture was for at the first moment that I saw it, but then my eyes moved to the little red ketchup bottle in the bottom, and then I got what the advertisement is trying to say and why they used a media style like this. I laughed. I guess what the advertisement is trying to reach to its audience is that without using Heinz’s ketchup, every food will become black and white and there will be no more taste to it, or it will probably taste like cardboard if you will, and they will not seem as delicious as it should be with the ketchup. I think the person who created this used the cardboard instead of real egg is because s/he wanted to use the visual effects to make people feel disgusted by what’s being offered on the plate, then it gives a comment on the bottom that pretty much says this is how the food will look AND taste like without it. At this point in understanding the advertisement, you are probably already imagining it in your mouth. This is how they get to their audience, because we would like to have a colorful life, not a dull one like cardboard food. The use of coloring is effective and interesting as a whole because the red stands out above them all. We all know that the plate SHOULD look like, and not a big piece of cardboard and a few shredded ones. It is a straight forward and interesting advertisement that can easily get people into thinking the effectiveness of the product. -Michelle Hsu

Dance on the Air - Shu Mei

There are two kinds of performers. One of them is the one whom love to perform in front of thousands of people. They love to perform on stage and want everyone’s concurrence. This kind of performers only feels successful and fulfill when they heard the audiences’ applause and winning awards. But there’s another kind of performers; they don’t think applause and awards means successful. They think dancing freely on the air will be their happiness thing. For example, this lady who’s dancing all alone with herself and she thinks there’s nothing happier than dancing freely like a butterfly.

I think this is a great picture because this lady seems she’s connected to the nature. Her eyes are full of hopefulness and joy. She’s dancing freely on air like a butterfly. This is such a wonderful world; she can dance freely on the grass without thinking about anything. She dance without fear on the air; I think dancing is joy and artistic. There’s no need for the dancers to put everything on stage. Applause and awards doesn’t equal to happiness. In my opinion, the most important for choreographers are joyful and they enjoy the piece of art they are working on.

Earth pollution.

The earth pollution is a problem that effects all of us, and it is in our hands whether to keep on polluting it, or try to keep it as clean as possible. We may not be aware of the serious impact air pollution has in our health. The World Health Organization states that 2.4 million people die each year from causes directly attributable to air pollution, with 1.5 million of these deaths attributable to indoor air pollution. As it effects mainly our respiratory system, and many other organs, despite our not knowing this. We may not know how important our every day activities are to earth, as we are the only reason of earth's being so polluted, as we release to air fumes from paint, hair spray, varnish, aerosol sprays and other solvents. We also effect it by oil refining, and industrial activity in general. So it is important to think of all our activities, and try to help earth get cleaned as much as we can.
Megi Jani

What do we see?

A couple days ago, From Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud was assigned to read. This animated cartoon was about how does people see an object, another person, or another character. S. McCloud says that humans are self-centered (Alberti 459). He shows some pictures like an outlet, a car, and a can that we sometimes look it like a face.



I found this picture a few years ago from an internet site. Unfortunately the photographer was anonymous (or it was not written on the site). If you just analyze the picture, there is nothing special. Three cranes are flying, two males are paddling a small canoe. However, I think, most of people can find another image from it; you might find a facial image from the photo.

I do not know the photo is a composite picture or a real picture. Whether or the photo is real or not, we see two different images at one photo. It could be depended on a person what image he or she sees first. I saw a smiling face first, but my sister said she saw just birds and fishermen first and took a couple seconds to see the smiling face. I think it is really amazing to see an image many different ways. Even though we do not try to find different images from it, we just recognize them.

-Min-

Volunteer Fair!!

The Image that I selected this week was for a volunteer fair the Illini Union hosted a couple of weeks ago. I thought this was a great poster/flyer promoting this volunteer fair. I love the use of color that is presented. The purple and green is really eye catching. The green is loud and bold and stands out when you look at a wall full of other signs and flyers. The purple is a dark color that focus your eyes to what the green writing is saying. The font is also GREAT! The font is simple in that it is a plain font with no funky curves or anything and is BOLD, making the font stand out and look important. The title (Volunteer Fair) is Bold and takes up most of the poster, page and center really catching the attention of the people passing by. Then if someone is interested there is the smaller font that has the important information like the date, time and location. What really makes the poster stand out even with the font, style and colors is the unique use of art. The designer did a great job by interpreting hands into the poster and the layout of the title of the poster. The hands really give the poster an emotional touch to the poster. When you look at the poster you see that there is a volunteer fair but then when you take in the details of the poster you feel the need to volunteer and use your hands to make a difference in someone else’s life!!
Ashley Hummel

Jaz blog 9/28

I saw a play on Saturday and the name of it was called “Well” and it was directed by a woman named Lisa Kron. Although this play was a required assignment for my theater class it was cool to see, even though it was confusing and I couldn’t make any sense of it, it was a great play and I a great experience for me. It was also funny as well to see the actors interacting with the audience. They actors reminded me of a lot of people I know or knew at some point in my lifetime or still do. This was my first time ever seeing a real theatrical play before and I liked it. My brother acted in a play back home I didn’t get to see it because I am in college and it was during the week. He was mad because he didn’t get the part he wanted. He wanted the part where he got to kiss the girl instead he got the part of being her boyfriend, which is a big part in this play, but they don’t get to kiss. Then he got happy again after he was told he got to punch the guy who gets to kiss her. I just started laughing and said “actors, drama, drama, drama”.

Big Burger

One thing about me is that I like to eat, so when I get ready to eat I eat. One of my favorite restaurants is Burger King and it because they got one of the biggest burgers I ever had, but its something about this particular restaurant that keeps me coming back. I think it the way the Burger King represents their self. They have a mascot that a king which is portraying that their king of all burgers. Also one of the first burger king signs had a king sitting on top of a burger which I guess was trying to say the same thing.

Also when you are a kids and you come in to eat they give you a crown which makes you fell like you are a king or you are in a place where the kings come. Burger King also has a slogan which is "home of the whopper" which is one of the biggest burgers that I can fit my mouth around. There are some Burger King locations that have the theme of the restaurants a castle.

Global Warming - Julio

Global warming, it is a term that we have all heard about, but do you really know what it means? Global warming simply means that the average surface temperature is rising and will have a catastrophic; negative outcome. Many scientists think that global warming is going to have a toll on humanity that we can not afford to pay.

The question that remains and haunts the world is, “What will be the effects of Global Warming?” The effects of Global Warming will most likely occur as a chain reaction meaning that if one thing happens, it will trigger another effect. The first effect of Global will be the melting of the Polar Ice Caps. We are already beginning to see this happening right now. If both the Polar Ice Caps melt, the sea level will rise, flooding many cities. Because of the sea level rise and Polar Ice Caps melting, there will no longer be anything to cool down the earth and heat will really start to build up causing bigger storms. From there it can only get worse. Major droughts will occur leading a downfall in the crops which will lead to bigger starvation and deaths to many. And the worst of all effects, the downfall to humanity itself. Luckily, we still have the power to change our future and mould it to a better one.

The picture with the man laying on the beach is trying to say that people can see Santa's w0rishop floating by. This is telling you that the icecaps are melting, increasing sea levels. The second picture is a picture of the government finally reacting. Outside the windows you can see a very hot, desert like environment. Some helpful sites to learn more about global warming is.

the lake:glenn

This is a picture I took from my guy's high rise off lake shore drive. This is about 5 minutes away from my house in Chicago. I took this picture because it represents me and my recreation a little bit. my family own a couple of boats and every spring and summer we take it out when the weather is nice and the water is calm, we go out on the boat on the lake and do all kinds of things. We ride around some times to go to my cottage in Michigan City Indiana, and hang out with some of my guy's and boat race or see my horses. We also like to ride down to navy peer down town and watch the fireworks in July from the boat. It is a very beautiful and very romantic scenery.

I love to dock my boat in the middle of the lake and throw parties off of it. or some times spend a night on it with the nice breeze blowing of the beautiful lake and watching the sun rise across the horizon of the huge lake. i love to go swimming in the lake all the time or go water skiiing and tubing or getting on my jet ski. the lake is very fun, relaxing and romantic.

Chicago

Well this is a picture from my city Chicago. It is one of the most beautiful cities when its night time. From all the cars to all the buildings Chicago is a place you should visit. It’s a fast pace city meaning that you would get lost in a flash. When u visits my city there are several things to do. you can visit all of the museums or get in touch with your aquatic side by checking out the Shed Aquarium. Also if you’re lucky you might be able to catch one of our teams playing. The best time to come is when that Chicago Cubs play the Chicago White Socks. Also there are a lot of events that take place in my city. The best one is the taste of Chicago. That is where the entire local vendors pack in at Grant Park and sell their food, and if you come on the July 3 or 4 you might be able to catch some fireworks. The best thing about my city is seeing the sun rise over Lake Michigan. It’s the most beautiful thing u can imagine.

Night Market!

My favorite place is of course where I was born, Taipei, Taiwan. The culture here and in Asia has big differences. Since I lived in a city, I can go wherever I want just by mass transportation. We have buses, taxi, subway, and train. It is so convenient. Also there are many places to go, other than supermarket. This is a night market in Taipei. Night markets are always full of people. They usually opened at about eight o’clock at night until two or three in the morning. At night market, you can buy almost everything except brand names. They sell all cheap things. Also, there are a lot of foods, mostly like snacks. It’s so much fun that on Friday night, you can go to night market with your family and friends. I feel like that is much more fun than staying in the same space and party. It probably because I grew up there, and I am so used to the culture. This is a picture I took this summer; my friend was waiting in line for pies. Looking at this picture always reminds me the happy memories in Taiwan, and I miss everything over there! -Michelle Hsu

Ingrid McShan's Genre Blog

For this assignment, I decided to do spray painted shirts. I think wearing a shirt like this is kind of cool because it delivers a message is a different way. There are normally written in slang with words misspelled, logos, and abbreviated words. Some individuals put words/phrases on shirts people never heard of or don't even know the meaning. In that case, I think you have to understand slang to know what some people shirts might say and the message their trying to give to the audience. I've realized people that wear them are usually being creative while relaying a message with fancy writing. Spray painted shirts can send different messages such as saying R.I.P to someone, cheering for the basketball/football team or even expressing your love for someone. It might also show the persons character by illustrating that they care about someone or an event that is taking place. In addition, I feel when wearing a shirt like this it is important to get the message across because thats the reason why a person might stop an individual, just to look and read what the shirt is saying. The link that I found is called nautiks. I thinks it's interesting because it's a website for people to get a shirt custom made anyway that want it.

Environmentalism - Lonnie Hu

Just look at this picture. The Shadow of a human does not look like what a human’s shadow should look; these scenes sometimes will show on scare movies, but, actually, we are seeing this kind of scenes everyday, everywhere.
When you decided to buy a new chair for your dinning room, will you think about something like “how many trees have to be cut by making a chair?”, or “how many wood they need for produce furniture every year?” . Almost none will do this. However, the true is, we do not need to. There are trees everywhere; we have enough trees although in the city. Nevertheless, this is America merely.
Some of Environmentalism advertisements are very very boring, I may prefer looking at a Apple advert, a coke advert, a McDonald’s advert, than looking at a big paper that say: “Stop cutting trees!” . But some companies will make some interesting thing in their adverts. Like this picture, it was make by a Environmentalism company, And I believe If you see it on your way to Ikea, you might change your mind, and go to the metal section after arrived.
Without a word, but send you all of the author’s meanning, that is the power of pictures, also one kind of messages.

Nike

NIKE is one of the most famous brands in the world. NIKE's logo is very simple, so that it is very easy to be remembered. With that advantage, NIKE advertised itself worldwidely very well. Moreover, It is easy to find Nike store everywhere in the world. As a result, many people around the world know what Nike is although have no idea who the president of the United States is.

Nike makes many kinds of goods such as basketball shoes or sports team clothes. Also, Nike sponsors many sports team and national soccer teams. Korea national soccer team's sponsor is Nike too. Not only teams, but also famous and talented sports stars are also sponsored by Nike. Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Tiger Woods are such super stars. Through such an advertisement, Nike make people think that Nike's goods are superior.

I play basketball, so I'm also intersted in basketball shoes. When I talk to my friends about basketball shoes, most of my friends also say that Nike's shoes are better than other companies' shoes, and most of basketball shoes I have are Nike's shoes.

HEEHO BYUN

Mc Donald's! Where everyone can be a kid!
Everyone likes Mc Donald's. It is a place where everyone loses the sense of time. It is a place where all of us would like to be for a long time and very often.
Mc Donald is internationally famous. You can find its advertisement anywhere, from magazines to posters, to many different web-pages. It is a place where everyone would like to go only because its being what it is, because of its being Mc Donald's!
What attracts everyone attention is the bright colors. The colors are the main way of playing with a logo to attract people’s attention. And the combination of the red and yellow in Mc Donald’s logo is a very interesting way to attract people’s attention. The nice, friendly and welcoming face of Mc Donald's is a very interesting of inviting people to go there!
It is a very interesting place, where everyone forget his age, and feels like a kid, and forgets the stress.
No one can resist to the hamburgers, cheeseburger, or big mac, the delicious fries! And which place is better than a Mc Donald! The way they advertise it, with the man’s happy face, and the interesting interaction of colors Mc Donald's is very persuasive!

Megi Jani

DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR NAME TO YOUR POST

(a friendly little reminder from your instructor)

Cell Phone -Min-

A couple days ago, I bought a new cell phone. It is my 6th or 7th phone since I had my first phone when I was like 6th grade. Before I got the first phone from my sister, not so many people had cell phone; just some of my classmates had really ugly phones. I was so glade that I can be one of the few who had phone. Even though it was not even colored screen (it was green screen with just a few lines of letters), no internet, no camera, and only simple melodies for ringer. There were not even many choices for the phones.
Now, it is different. It is hard to see someone who does not have a cell phone. I asked ten of my friends, and everyone but one friend has his or her cell phone. (The reason he does not have a phone is that he just came here a couple weeks ago so he did not have chance to get it yet, but he will get one soon.)
There are so many things people can do with a phone now. I can download some songs and can use it like MP3 player, search internet, watch TV, listen radio, take a picture, take a video, and use display call. Also, people chose phones in diverse way; for instance, some people want to have just cheap phones, some want to have nicely designed phones, and others want to have various functioned phones. Cell phone is necessity now.
-Min-

Moon Festival - Shu Mei

Moon Cake

This beautiful young lady is Chang Er, she’s working for Jade Emperor, where immoral and good people lived. One day she broke a precious jar and Jade Emperor banished her to the earth. Jade Emperor transformed Chang Er to a poor farming family. In the village, Chang Er meets her first love named Hou Yi. He’s a great hunter and an expert archer. One day, a strange miracle occurred, 10 suns arose in the sky and it’s blazing the earth. Hou Yi is the one who step up to save the earth by shooting down nine suns; he became a hero immediately. He eventually became king and married Change Er. Hou Yi became a despot; he created some kind of medicine that he can live forever. Chang Er, accidently or purposely swallow the pill. Hou Yi became so angry and goes after her, she jump out of the window. She flows to the moon instead of falling.

This is the story behind the moon festival. The Chinese Moon Festival is on the 15^th of 8^th at lunar month (which is today). Moon Festival is an important traditional event for the Chinese. It’s just like Thanksgiving and Christmas to the west. It’s the time for the family’s reunion and people can see Chang Er dancing in the moon during Moon Festival. Families get together to eat moon cake and watch the moon. People can’t help thinking it is a perfect world; that’s why the Chinese loves the Moon Festival so much.

COKE

Coke is advertised everywhere, on commercials. Its always catchy. This was a commercial and this little polar bear got lost and couldn't find its mom; then he found her and the two of them popped open a bottle of coke and celebrated. It tries to show that coke can make you feel better. One sip is just refreshing!

This advertisement is very colorful. It looks like something that makes you want to open up a bottle to give you a spark of energy! If very cool looking. It catches your attention and makes you want to open a bottle and have fun.

Coke is very appealing. It makes everyone want to have a bottle of coke. Even Santa wants some coke. This catches the attention of little kids in this advertisement. If Santa has a bottle of coke that's what the kids want as well. This message miss leads you to think that someone that you look up to when you were a little kid likes coke then you want to have some!!

Jamie Adishian

COKE

Coke is advertised everywhere!! Coke is advertised to all ages. As you can see santa even drinks coke! This shows that its okay to drink coke and makes the kids wanna drink coke as well. It makes you want to have a bottle of coke. The way they advertise it.

I don't really have a certain spot that i like to spot writing, but I have seen some interesting writing on some random places. For example, the 08 presidential race has been going on and there are a lot of interesting things I've seen on walls such as graffiti, paintings and sayings. I think this is pretty creative how people express they're opinions through writing in various ways. Whether if it's about they're religous views, political views, or maybe just to persuade someone into buying something.

 I think it's pretty interesting to see writing in these places. I believe some of this may persuade someone into changing their mind about a certain view they have on something. That's what I find interesting about writing in different places.

Jessica Davis

davis77

Who doesn't LOVE Apple!!!

Apple is a huge company that is pushing their product all over the world. They are using huge, brightly colored and interesting ads to get everyone's attention. You can't go anywhere with out seeing ads for Apple. Apple has done a  fantastic job advertising in creative places. Their advertisements range from normal magazine and paper ads to on the side of buses and subway trains, to huge billboards, to walls of buildings to even staircases. Apple’s signs and advertisements will get your attention. Apple is working with an amazing advertising company.

         College students and teens are whom Apple is targeting their product to. I think their signs/advertisements are very affective. When you walk through a college campus, I would say 8 out of 10 students have an i-pod, mac or apple product. The way Apple is targeting students is the use of fun, interesting, eye catching and unique signs. Also they are advertising many of their products with special deals or bonus buys. If you buy a mac book you get a free 8G video i-pod as well as a rebate for a free printer. What college student do you know who doesn’t need a lab top, or printer and wouldn’t love a new video i-pod!

         The text that is used in these advertisements is very simple and to the point. Usually the words in the ads are either the brand or the product name. Apple keeps the wording simple to make sure the view doesn’t forget the brand or the product name. With the simple and to the point text Apple uses brightly colored pictures that are usually of people enjoying their apple product, and their ads usually leave you wanting to be as cool as the people in the ads or wanting to have as much fun as the people in the ad.

         Apples advertising defiantly had an effect on why I bought my i-pod and mac!!! Best decisions I have made! Creative and fun advertising really does a great deal for companies and the amount of product they sell.

Ashley Hummel

Pic bio by jaz

This sign lets people know what kind and which building it is they are looking at and it is the building.This sign lets the people know that in this building do not eat in this room and that the safety or handicap ramp is this way. This sign lets people know to throw away only their cans and bottles here only. So that they can be recycled.
This sign lets people know where the chemistry lab is located. If you need to call someone look for this sign because this sign lets people know where to locate or use a telephone.
This sign lets people know that they can take a paper for free.
This sign lets people know where the handicap can go and get into the building.
This sign lets people know what time the MTD buses are departing or arriving.
This sign lets people know if they can park here or not.
This sign lets people know that there are dangerous chemical or construction going on up ahead or in that area.
This sign lets people know if they can park there motorcycles here or not.
This sign lets people know if they need something to dry that here it is and that they can use it.
This sign lets people know the exit roots when there is a fire, tornado, or etc…..
This sign lets people know to stop and don't drive by. This sign lets people know don't use this unless it is an emergency or fire. This sign lets people know what hockey team it is, when they are playing, what sport it is, and when they are not playing. This sign lets people know not to remove chairs from the lounge. This sign lets people know when the showers will be cleaned and what time they will be cleaned. This sign lets people know that this is a women’s bathroom and not men’s. This sign lets people know the stadium "Chief" wants to come back.

Car Writing

I have some favorite places to spot writing. One is on cars. Bumper stickers and other forms of writing on cars say so much about the people driving them--often presenting personal information ranging from political views, music interests, product likes and dislikes, etc. One kind of car writing I love to hate are the Calvin--from Calvin and Hobbes--peeing stickers . They are not as popular as they were, say 5-7 years ago, but for a while there--and maybe this was an Arizona thing--they were EVERYWHERE. They loved to pee-battle over what kind of car was better, what sports team deserved to be dry and which should be peed on. And then, in a kind of a self-righteous, still horribly tacky move, Calvin had stopped peeing and instead was worshiping under a cross or something like that. It's good to know that he took time off from his busy peeing schedule for the Lord. My link has a variety of types of the sticker in a choose-your-own-adventure kind of arrangement. Have fun!

Driving home from the library the other day, this car writing made me smile. As you can see, the car is a nice one--maybe because a previous car was wrecked in a nasty rear-ender? The man driving the car, slowly I might add, was a senior citizen. I can imagine him getting worked up enough over the issue to go to Walmart or somewhere and buy those sticker letters. And then, carefully deciding what he was going to write to persuade people to keep their distance (the all caps second phrase is especially persuasive, don't you think?) What do you think? Maybe he should have gone here. Effective? I sure as heck was tailgating when I took this photo with my phone:

What is it about writing on cars that intrigues us? I have a buddy who advertised his business on his car and no where else--crazy? I think not. There are trucks--IKEA is one company that comes to mind--that drive around all day in bigger cities with a big billboard on the back of the truck. That's all they do. All day. Which reminds me, I've been needing a new bedroom set.

-Jon

Tong Cheng

Hey guys~  My name is Cheng Tong, 18 years old, and I am a Chinese. You can also call me Kyle. I am a freshman in U of I, and I major in Mathematics. I live in FAR, which is quite far away from classroom.... But I enjoy walking on the beautiful campus everyday.

This is my first trip to America, and of course I live in China for 18 years. My hometown is Hangzhou, one of the most beautiful cities in China, so it is famous for its tourism. I am also crazy in traveling. I love to go out to other cities or countries. As a saying goes, the one never travels only reads one page of the world. I have been to Canada, Australia, Singapore, countless cities in China and of course America~

I like sports. Playing basketball, table-tennis, badminton, pool, and so on. Playing basketball and watching NBA were my 2 main hobbies during my high school life. I am fan of Yao-ming and Kobe. I am in America, and now, I have chance to watch a real NBA, cuz NBA is coming to UIUC next month! I am so excited!