Post #5-Rhetorical Analysis Reflection:

The reason why I chose to write a rhetorical analysis on James Garfield's Inaugural Address was because I read a book called "Destiny of the Republic" about him over my summer vacation. Garfield was a representative and a Civil War general from Ohio. He was a very jolly and studious man, who excelled in college and as a general. He went to the 1880 Republican Convention to give a nominating speech for  John Sherman, but after a voting deadlock, he was nominated as a compromise candidate. The two factions in the Republican Party, the Stalwarts and the Half-Breeds, viewed him as a compromise candidate. After gaining a slim margin of the popular vote and a fair margin of the electoral vote, James Garfield became the twentieth President of the United States. However, a delusional office-seeker, Charles Guiteau, shot Garfield at a train station in Washington, D.C. in the back and the arm. Garfield spent the next two months suffering on a bed as he lost a third of his body weight and as doctors introduced infection by probing the would. President Garfield died in September 1881, just six months after his inauguration. President Garfield stood up against the entrenched political philosophy of the spoils system (where those who helped a president get elected got desirable government jobs) by sponsoring civil service reform. He was also viewed as a unifier of North and South, and both sections mourned his loss dramatically.
Writing this rhetorical analysis has been somewhat hard for me. The most difficult task was summoning up the will power to sit down at my desk and work on the paper, and then staying on task while I was working. While I was writing the rough draft, I prayed to my Father in Heaven to help me to stay focused and to write well, and he blessed me to do those things while I wrote.

Post #4-Science-Oriented Observation II

There are two types of isomers: spin isomers and fission isomers. Spin isomers are the ones I talked about in my previous Science-Oriented Observation where a ground state can be given extra energy and spin and can become more stable through higher-spin and lower-energy gamma emissions. However, fission isomers are nuclei that are the deformed into a prolate or oblate shape, and have extra energy as well. For exampe, the reaction 235U+n=fission products+2n has an intermediary fission isomer of 236U called 236fU. When 235U absorbes a neutron, it usually deformes and fissions almost immediately. Fission isomers may also be observed in nuclear fusion reactions. In the 208Pb(48Ca,2n)254No (lead-208+calcium-48=nobelium-254+2 neutrons) reaction, the americium-244 fission isomer can be formed through the transfer of nucleons from the calcium to the lead. Therefore, the fission of americium-244f is also observed with the 0.31% spontaneous fission branching ratio of 254No.

Post #3-Families Bound by Stories

The New York Times is known to be a pretty left-leaning newspaper, so it came as a bit of a surprise when I saw a pro-family article entitled: "The Stories that Bind Us". The premise of this article was to offer some ways of strengthening families to wondering parents. The main point in this article that I noticed was families with their stories of their past tend to be stronger and more cohesive. It is possible that families with their stories known have past examples to live up to. I remember when my family went on a night walk in the park, my dad told stories about his former pets in his adolescent and teenage years. The stories entailed my dad being excited about getting a certain pet, and unfortunate mistakes that were made in the pet's care. I felt a stronger sense of pride and familial unity after I heard these stories. My grandpa once told me about his college experience in how he once used a typewriter to type a paper for his English class. However, the typewriter had shifted over by 1 key, so his paper turned into gibberish. This story, in a way, can give me strength to succeed in English class due to its humor and my similar, less bad experiences. My family also has a set of traditions, such as stopping to eat at Farr West, Utah, watching "A Christmas Carol" around Christmas, or going to vacation to my grandparent's house on Camano Island, Washington.

Post #2-Science-Oriented Observation I

A long-lived nuclear isomer can only exist if its change of nuclear spin in its decay is high, and if its decay energy is low. Gamma and beta decay are suppressed by 4-5 orders of magnitude with every increase in spin and with a constant decay energy. A normal gamma emission half-life of an excited state is on the order of 1e-12 seconds (one trillionth of a second), but this can lengthen dramatically with integer changes of nuclear spin of more than one.

Post #1-This is How "Things as They Really Are" Really is

My favorite part of Elder Bednar's "Things as They Really Are" is when he says:"Our physical bodies make possible a breadth, a depth, and an intensity of experience that simply could not be obtained in our premortal estate." Having a physical body is part of the Plan of Salvation that we all agreed to before our present life on earth. It is also how we fulfill our ordinances. For those in the postmortal spirit world who did not perform their ordinances in their prior earthly life, we must step in and do proxy ordinances for them. After death, one does not have the same ability to progress that those who have bodies enjoy.