Mothers Strengthening Mothers, Heavy on the Humor

Stephanie Nielson, a native to Utah, had a very successful Mormon mommy blog called The Nie Nie Dialogues (named after herself, StephaNIE NIElson.) Many people loved her wit and humor. She was a young mother who was not afraid of speaking her mind. However, her mind was always full of nothing but love for her life, family, and the crazy things that they dealt with every day. Then, her blog posts stopped. Beloved readers began to wonder and worry why their consistent and witty blogger had suddenly stopped writing. Soon they found out. On September 6^th, 2008, Stephanie along with her Husband had been in a terrible plane crash. Both were in bad shape and burned, but Stephanie had the worst wounds. She had burned 80 % of her body. While her readers waited for her and wondered about her condition, Stephanie underwent many surgeries, skin grafts, and therapy.

During this time, followers of the blog wrote in to show their support and fill the empty blog post spaces. This audience is mainly made up of people in the same life style as Stephanie, 20-40 year old mothers. Since each follower is experiencing similar family and life stories, they were easily able to come up with posts and re-posts of topics that were appealing to the whole Nie Nie Dialogue community. When the readers come to the blog and read something that they find that they had to deal with recently, they feel as if they’re not alone. The blog helps them to realize that there are other people dealing with the same things, and they are all working towards the great purpose of raising a happy family.

In Stephanie’s post “15 Steps” she exemplifies her use of humor, reality, and love so readers can easily relate their lives to hers. The powerful use imagery, tone, irony, and other forms of figurative language enable her to accomplish the mutual goal between writer and reader of getting through life by sharing stories.

The most relatable form of writing to Stephanie’s readers is her natural and genuine humor. It seems as if she can’t help but find the funny parts of every situation in her life. In the second post she wrote after returning from her accident, there is a list of 15 steps she now must do every morning. Some of them seem like they would be unbearable to deal with, such as dressing and undressing her extremely tender wounds. Yet, when reading the post, followers somehow still find the joy that Stephanie expresses in all of her writing. This is exemplified in step three of her morning, “Take out mouthpiece (it usually smells awesome).” Needing to wear a mouthpiece to bed sounds absolutely awful. To worry just about keeping a mouthpiece in the proper position all night would be annoying in itself, but to have to worry about it on top of worrying about burn care and medicine and children and a husband would seem unbearable. Yet when she does think about it, she automatically writes about the humor in it. It really does smell awful. She realizes that, knows that other people can relate to that, and thus a humorous situation is created.

Sarcasm is a strong component of Stephanie’s humor. It is used mainly to make boring, mundane, or awful times seem more light-hearted. With the mouth piece, for instance, she describes how it “smells awesome.” Everyone clearly knows that a mouthpiece that has been in a mouth overnight will not smell good the next day. However, because it was given a lighter tone, it makes the awful situation humorous.

Step number eleven of her morning describes how she must do the most basic of human functions in complicated ways, “Wobble like a hundred year old man (or c-3po-however you see it) 

to raised toilet seat… fun!” Some people would write this point in a way that could be imagined as being extremely difficult and painful, but she describes it only to show people how funny it can be. Her blog followers love to read these precious humorous parts because it enables them to find the humor in their realities.

A key component to her humor is her use of imagery in describing the funny situations. When describing the walk to the bathroom, it can only be imagined in a humorous way. She gave two examples of what the walk looked like so that any reader could imagine exactly how she had to walk down the hallway. This part of her morning routine could easily be described in a different way that would give different imagery and make the situation not nearly as funny.

Stephanie does not cover up reality. This is a huge part of what makes her blog so relatable and popular. People don’t like hearing about perfection or made up facts. She tells her life stories exactly the way they happen. This means that while she does find the best in her life, she must also relate the harder times she experiences. “Cry/pray.” It would be easy for her to leave out the crying, but Stephanie knows her readers better. They need to hear that other mothers cry as often as they do. Dealing with the needs of each individual family member can cause a mother to cry frequently. When Stephanie relates her teary experiences, it makes readers feel like they are dealing with their lives the same way everyone else is, and that their struggles are not only overwhelming to them.

Stephanie doesn’t talk about her crying to keep readers; she talks about it because it happens. She is not trying to hide anything about her life. The tone she uses in describing the sadder parts of her life is completely genuine. There is also a resounding genuine tone. Through every aspect of her writing, there is love.

Readers come to Stephanie’s blog to be reminded that life is funny, and there are good times and hard times, but the only thing that can hold life together is love. A reoccurring theme in this blog post along with others is the love of her religion. In this post alone she talks about praying three specific times to get her through just her morning routine. She later says that to get through the rest of her rigorous day, much more praying goes on. This demonstrates her love for God, and her dependence on Him to get her through the painful and happy times of her day.

This love and devotion of religion translates to her complete love and devotion to her family. When describing her new and hard daily routine, Stephanie does tell the funny parts about how her family helps, but she never lets her appreciation for them go unsaid. There is not a single instance where she complains about how her children attempted but failed to help her. She never says that her family members don’t do enough for her. Love is the only underlying tone when she describes how her family is adjusting to their new way of living along with her. This tool of unconditional love without complaint is an example to how readers can live their own lives. The example of happiness and unconditional love helps them to know that they can achieve that same happiness in their family lives.

“15 Steps” showcases perfect examples of why readers come back to The Nie Nie Dialogues. They can relate to Stephanie, and they can all participate in the comradery of getting through motherhood while cherishing every moment of it.

Rhetorical Analysis Thesis -- Very rough draft

In the Nie Nie dialogues, the post “15 Steps” exemplifies Stephanie’s use of humor, reality, and love to convince readers that even through life’s most difficult times, pure joy can be found.

Free Posting, for the free posters

The other day I got a 91% on my test. The testing center screen told me that I did a fantastic job. I agreed with the testing center score screen.

Some people I know think that a 91% is 9% less then they should have received, and beat themselves up pretty good for it. I, however, am different. I ran outside of the testing center praising everything for all that is good in this world. I walked home, sat on my couch, and rewarded myself with sitting time.

Wonderful. What a wonderful free country, where I can choose to get A's on my tests. Let's not limit ourselves with -s or +s, let it just be an A (as the Clarke County School district would say.)

I'm going to analyze somebody's rhetoric

http://nieniedialogues.com/

For some reason, the I can't find the post's actual link... oh well. It's the one from Monday January 19, 2009.

rhetorical situation:

writer: Stephanie Nielson -- popular mommy blogger, who has recently undergone dramatic changes in her life

audience: young mothers with young children, older mothers, women in general

issue: even though life is different and very difficult, she still has to be a mom, and she still loves it

Answering some rhetorical questions.. (ha!)

1) She's trying to show that even though she has many trials, she still feels blessed in her life

2) She uses a lot of emotional and logical appeal. Her audience really appeals to the emotional struggle and hard times in her life, and logically it makes perfect sense. She has gone through a very hard time, and she is still loving her life.

3)Her techniques make the audience feel that if she can live her life, they can live their lives without the trials she has.

4) She needs her audience to feel this so that she can feel like her life is not only precious to her family, but thousands of people around the world as well. It gives her purpose to keep going day after day, and inspiring others.

What I think of my opinion

Writing the opinion editorial for me was fun. To use a less formal way of writing I think was an effective way of getting my point across to readers in an interesting way. Sometimes writing papers with deadlines for a class is stressful. The deadline was a little stressful, but the process was easier than most.

Also, my paper solidified my desire to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Nobody tells me to exercise or not eat cheeseburgers everyday, so I need to build up the self-discipline to do these things on my own. The consequences of such a lifestyle can only lead to happiness.

And you can still eat cheeseburgers sometimes.. right?

Put Physical Education Back in BYU's Curriculum!

Students are rejoicing in their potential for obesity and heart disease: Brigham Young University has removed the health education requirement from their curriculum. Now students may sit back, relax with their high sodium top-a-ramen and work on their hours of homework while their body is working on storing fat.

                    +     = College Life  

This poses problems in the image that BYU has for their students, how this will affect the image that America gives the world, people losing their jobs, and students losing their long-term health.

This action is not consistent with BYU’s goal of sending complete and well rounded people out into the world to succeed. An excellent job is done of preparing the students spiritually; basically every class or activity provides the opportunity for spiritual growth. In previous years BYU has also done exceedingly well in being ranked among the most healthy schools in the nation. However, lifting the required classes that teach how to maintain healthy lifestyles could be detrimental to the school’s prestige. Both the spiritual and physical sides of the human body should be kept in mind when determining what makes a person whole and prepared to meet the demands of this modern world we live in. Now the physical side of the students is lacking, and BYU is sending their students out into America unprepared.

Morbid obesity is rampant in the United States of America. There is a constant flow of new reality television shows made about people who have gained the most weight, and who are able to lose the most weight in the shortest amount of time. There are infomercials claiming that they have found the one and only sure fire way to lose weight as fast as possible. Advertisements for work out equipment have increased so quickly that manufacturers have had to come up with new and strange devices that look like futuristic space crafts rather than a simple way to help you lose those extra few pounds. These tactics are not effective. People need to develop their own healthy habits so that these ridiculous measures are not needed, and health education classes can ensure these habits.

I think that the health education requirement should not have been lifted. However, throughout my public school education, physical education has been my least favorite class. Two of my least favorite activities are exercise and people telling me what they think I should do. Physical education combines these two things into a class that provides something for me to loathe. As strong as my hatred is for P.E. classes, they are the classes that will have the most far reaching benefits in my life. While physical education and health classes being cut across the nation has brought me somewhat of a joy and satisfaction, at the same time it is a detriment to America’s physical well being. Students need health education classes so they can form healthy living habits, and teachers need the students so that they will still be relevant in their teaching positions.

Another major issue that BYU is dealing with is the hiring freeze. Once employees are gone, new ones cannot be hired. Since the classes are being cut, not as many health education teachers are needed. These People go to school for years to learn how to teach people good habits. They have been blessed in this life with the ability to be sports-minded. They not only can play the—seemingly complicated to me—sports , but they are gifted with the ability to be able to teach them. They take this gift and make it flourish by getting a degree in physical education. They come to acquire the knowledge of all of the ins and outs of all sports ever created, and can play and teach them all. Some may say that due to the financial crisis, that sports and physical education classes should be the first to go. After all they are not as important as the quantum physics or trigonometry classes that students must take in order to achieve the status of being a decent human. So the P.E. classes are cut leaving many teachers without employment and many students with useless information in their minds and flab on their bones.

            There are those among the student population of BYU who eat well, walk across campus all day, and then go running every night. The sports teams get regular exercise every day and also get a healthy dose of competition. BYU’s very successful dance program is rigorous and requires a lot of time and effort to be put into them in order to be anywhere near the standard. Many of these students may feel as if they do not need a health requirement, and adding something else would be overwhelming. However, the majority of the student population is not on a sports team, and many of them are too busy to use their precious amounts of free time to exercise. In order to accommodate the majority of the student population’s needs, a standard health program should be put into place. It would be an easy requirement to fulfill for the already sports-minded, and a necessary investment to those that are not endowed with this gift.

            BYU students, and students across the nation, would greatly benefit from being taught how to continually maintain a healthy lifestyle. No matter the monetary cost or time cost, the health of our bodies is priceless. I want to be able to move and function when I am older, not to be in constant pain and decrepit. Decide for yourself whether BYU’s curriculum would be helpful for you in maintaining a permanent healthy lifestyle by looking at the following core curriculum link.

http://saas.byu.edu/classSchedule/policy/fall/univcore.php

            

sleepy, exhausted, loving it!

After a long summer of sleeping in, working a little here and there, eating ice cream, star gazing, road trips.. plus infinity more wonderful summer activities, I chose to have a crazy school/life schedule starting this fall semester. I have 8 o'clock class Monday through Thursday, dance everyday, running (er.. sometimes) at night, homework, work work... all day everyday. Actually, I love it. I love being so active everyday, and I love the feeling of accomplishing assignments and learning. Who new?

Also, I love birthdays, more than anything in the whole world. And my 20th is on Monday, and I am extremely excited. I get to eat a corn pizza, and that to me, is heaven.

Giving my blog a push in the right direction

I love blogging. My thoughts get typed out, and I learn more about what I am thinking. When I read blogs, my mind is exposed to the way other people's minds work. Sometimes I really don't care for what the people have to say. That is another beautiful part about blogging; you don't have to finish reading them. They will never know, and never be offended.

I suppose that's what I want my blog to be more geared to. Expanding the way my mind thinks. Thinking about different insights and ways of life that I had never considered before. Hopefully, people will read my blog, think about expanding and challenging their minds, write it in their blogs about it, I'll read them, and then add more to my blog. The ultimate on-going goal then is to achieve a well-rounded way of thinking and expressing views. And for everyone else to do so if they please.

Op-Ed topic ideas

Possible topics for my opinion editorial could be any which of the following, or perhaps something completely different:

BYU should have escalators outdoors.
-the campus is on a hill, and it takes way too much effort to walk to school
-if there were better parking, then students would not have to walk, but since there isn't there should be escalators as too minimize school travel fatigue.
Possible opposition could include that students need the exercise, escalators are not a good use of tithing funds, there could be more accidents due to mechanical mobility.

The need for physical education in America.
Americans are generally very large and unhealthy. To improve American image, self-image, and self-esteem, education on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle should be maintained.
Opposition: Americans should already know how to do this themselves. Funds should be used elsewhere.

Music at LDS dances
-I firmly believe that music at LDS church funded dances are not filtered enough.
-for a church that promotes listening to uplifting music, the music played should be carefully listened to and approved
-Hymns should be played at dances before bad messages should be implanted into the minds of youth and young single adults.
Opposition: popular songs should be played so that people might actually attend the dance, the songs only have one bad part and may be edited.

Wait, When did this happen?

Have you ever been so completely happy and simply did not know what to do with yourself?

Let me lay down a little time line:
January - Cheeseburgers didn't even taste good.
March......... something or another. Began one of my favorite weeks of life. Literally everyday of that week could not have been more perfect.
March 23, 2011 - hallelujah!

I feel super... watched over and loved. I myself could not have put together a better timeline of events. Which is the point I suppose.

Instead of a clever emoticon, this song song will serve as a representation of how I feel:

Sometimes it lasts in love, but sometimes it hurts instead.

Nevermind, I'll find someone like you.