Monday, November 15, 2010

Last Blog

Overall, i really enjoyed this class. It has taught me a lot about writing while also teaching me about myself.  Some of the papers we had to write pushed my limits and I really do believe I have improved as a writer. I've improved my writing by developing ideas instead of simply just writing what comes to mind. I learned that you must think through what you write instead of just writing what pops into your head first. I have learned that free writing really seems to work for me. By just writing what comes to my mind in the matter of 10 or so minutes it's unbelievable what actually comes to mind which usually leads to my paper. My favorite paper was by far the argument paper. For some reason I really got attached to my topic and enjoyed reading and researching about it. Researching is what I'm good at, and this paper is proving that. My dislikes about the class was basically everything about Do Androids Dream and Blade Runner. It's not that i hated either one of them, I just felt as if I didn't connect with them as other people in class did. Unfortunately, it showed in my analysis paper. In the end, I believe this class really improved my writing skills and taught me a lot. It made me actually work, which was nothing like high school. So with that, I believe this class was extremely enjoyable and pushed my limits.

Monday, November 8, 2010

The Social Network

A few weekends ago, I went to my hometown and watched The Social Network. I must say, this movie was one of my favorite movies I've seen all year. The movie begins with Mark Zuckerberg, a student at Harvard University who can be cinsidered a genius in my eyes. He is a very smart and successful computer nerd who is always working on computers. He and his group of friends set up different websites that allow students at Harvard to veiw them for a short period of time before they shut down the site. They set up a site, the rates girls on campus. It compares the girls beauty to other girls. The website gains so much attention in so little time that it actually crashed the Harvard network. The school catches him and he is put on academic probation, the worse part is now that every female on campus knows what he did and can't stand him! Although, after Mark created this website, he caught the attention of the Winklevoss twins. They wanted to create a website that allowed all Harvard students to connect with eachother. They hired Mark to put the website together. Later, Mark pretty much steals the idea from the twins and comes up with his own site caleld The Facebook. He got into business with his bestfriend at the time and made it a huge success at Harvard. They slowly began to expand the website throughout other college universitys until it became huge as is it today. The twins try everything they can to get credit for the site and to get Mark in trouble but they can't do it. They eventually hire an attorny and take him to court. This is all occuring while Mark and his bestfriend meet with the creator of Napster (Justin Timberlake). Eventually Mark and his bestfriend who share the company break apart and the Napster creator basically takes the bestfriends place in the company.Then soon after Mark's bestfriend also sues Mark for the rights of the creation of Facebook. Mark is then going through 2 lawsuits at the same time. He ends up settling with both of the parties involved in the lawsuit. Although he settled for a huge amount, facebook is a huge success where Mark made millions of dollars. In the final credits, it states that Mark is the youngest billionare in the world.

This movie was a fantastic movie. Everything about it, I loved. This movie had to be such a success because now a days almsot every college student has a facebook. It's simply a new way of life. The first thing many people do when they get up in the morning is check their facebooks. It's a faster way to understand everything that is going on. This movie opened my eyes to new things though. No matter what situation you are in, you most learn who you are working with. Mark simply stole the idea from the Winklevoss twins and became a billionare. Although he had to go through court and pay them, he still is a BILLIONARE! If I were the Winklevoss twins, I would be extremely upset at myself for trusting Mark with my idea. If they would of simply created the website themselves, they would now be the rich ones. Also it teaches what people will do to succeed in life. People will break friendships, such as Mark did with his bestfriend Eduardo. Mark was a businessman, who wanted his company to succeed and I understand that. But to treat your friends like that and loss friends over a job is different for me. Maybe because I haven't had a career yet, but i don't believe I could break so many relationships and tell so many lies to my friends, just for a job. Who knows though, everyones future changes at different times and people will do many things to get money. In the end, I believe this movie was a good lesson to learn for many.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Horror Movie

Over the weekend, I watched the Skeleton Key. This movie stars Kate Hudson. The Skeleton Key begins with Kate Hudson, who is a nurse, going to this home in the middle of nowhere. She is going to this home to watch over an elderly man who is on hospice. The nurse is assigned to watch over him and do anything she can to make him feel comfortable. The elderly man can not speak therefore can not communicate with the nurse to tell her what is going on. The elderly man's wife is also living in the house but can not take care of him on her own. The nurse begins wondering around the huge house and she has a skeleton key. The skeleton key opens up every room in the house. Due to the fact that the house was old, each room had it's own separate key. The nurse begins to realize something is wrong and believes the house is haunted. The movie continues with different scenes trying to scare the audience. Then the nurse realizes after the elderly man tries escaping multiple times that the wife is the bad guy. A flashback occurs and it shows a black man and woman, who were slaves in this house, being hung after the possessed the white children. Although when they were hung it was actually the white children's spirits. The slaves have been changing there spirits throughout different peoples bodies this entire movie. So the wife was trying to transfer her spirit into the younger nurse so she could stay with her husband who was in a younger lawyers body.


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My Future
If there was an apocalypse the future would change. In my head, the apocalypse would cause many changes. First, there would of course be zombies. These zombies would have the ability to do everything humans could do but at a much faster pace. They would also be able to do certain things humans could not do. Such as some of the clips we watched on Friday in class. Such as Cherry with the automatic gun as a leg or the guy with a chainsaw arm. These zombies would be the villains and the humans would have to figure a way to fight them off. The humans will have to work together to build a new robot that could take on these huge zombies because it is impossible for humans to destroy it. The zombie will simply kill a human if they got in there way. In certain apocalyptic films there is a character that could kill the zombies. But in my world, the humans will have to work together to fight off these zombies.
Compared to Philip K. Dick, my world is kind of similar. The androids in this book much be fought off by a human, Deckard. It is the same in my story. The humans must work together to kill off all the zombies. If they don't work together the zombies will simply take over the universe and the humans will quickly die off. It is up to the humans, to create something that can outsmart the zombies and kill them all off before they kill all of the humans. A difference between Dick's and my story is that  Deckard is the only person brave enough to take on the androids and is successful. In my story, multiple humans must come together and create something that can take down the zombies.

Blade Runner: Dialogue, Lighting, and Costumes
In this scene where Deckard and Rachael first meet, the dialogue is very simple yet straightforward. The words they speak to each other are straightforward remarks. One will ask a simple question and the other will come back with a simple answer. Very quick and fast moving but at the same time easy to understand without getting confused. The lighting is very dark. The lighting is set this way to create the mood that they are still living in an apocalyptic world even when they are inside the Tyrell Company. It sets the mood of the scene. The costumes were also quite simple. Rachael in a simple black dress with her hair pinned back while Deckard was in a long trench coat. I believe that by combining all these simple elements such as dialogue, lighting, and costumes it brings the scene to life. Not allowing the audience to focus on one things at a time. It allows the audience to focus on the whole overall picture instead of one small detail. These elements relate to the rest of the movie in the same way. The lighting is always dark. There is never a part of the movie that i can remember that is bright and lively. The costumes also remain the same throughout the film. They are simple, yet interesting. The clothes attract the audience but don't allow the audience to get stuck to them. In certain films, the outfits are insane and the audience gets caught off guard and get distracted with the clothes and don't focus on the plot. This movie, doesn't allow the audience to do so. The dialogue throughout also remains the same. It is simple yet catches the audiences attention by the way they communicate with each other.

Tears in the Rain
There are many different effects from this scene. The music was very soft, almost emotionless. It made the audience connect with the words that Roy was speaking over the music. It was as if the music was just another thing added in to give a little extra to the scene itself. The dialogue spoken by Roy was all emotional. It was very heartfelt and deep. It was proving that the androids do have emotions and so does Deckard. Roy's speech when he was dying connected with the audience at a whole different level than did the other androids throughout the film. The other androids seemed emotionless and if they didn't have emotions. At this point in the movie, it changes your thoughts completely about the androids and that they do actually have feelings. Roy's heartfelt emotions changed the whole movie by this one simple speech. The effect of Roy's speech hit Deckard hard. I believe Deckard was crying while Roy was giving his speech. I believe Deckard was crying because at that point he believed that he was doing the wrong this. He had hunted and killed multiple androids that all have emotions. He felt as if he had been killing people when he shouldn't have been. He also started crying due to the fact that he was in love with Rachael. He knew that he didn't have much longer with her and wanted to spend as much time as possible with her.

Deckard's life now
Deckard's life changing completely now. After killing off all the androids and after Tyrell is killed, Rick's life is going to change. Rick goes back and runs away with Rachael. Rachael and Deckard leave together and move far away. Their lives have changed now due to the fact that Rachael is still a Nexus-6 and she is still wanted. Rick now is devoting his entire life to Rachael. He does everything for her and will protect her at any cost. Soon after they run away together, multiple bounty hunters begin looking for Rachael. Rick continues his bounty hunt but simply on the humans now that are looking for Rachael. If any bounty hunter gets close to Rachael he fights them off and kills them. So Deckard is now wanted too, for murder. They continue to run around the country in hopes they will find somewhere to hide where nobody will find them. The same thing continues over and over and Deckard continues killing multiple bounty hunters. Then after running for so long, it is time for Rachael to die. Her four year life span is up and she can't go on living any longer because there is no way to prevent her from dying. Rachael ends up dying while Deckard is still fighting off bounty hunters. When Deckard finds Rachael dead, he then kills himself to "be with her" wherever that may be.

Research
So far, I have not done a lot of my research. I still need to do a lot to add to my research by Wednesday. My research question is how can we subsidize cars? So far i have found bits and pieces of information about my topic. So far, the best way to subsidize cars in my opinion is to use electronic cars. These electronic cars may cost more to the average person to begin with but will save a lot of money in the long run if they actually work. By using cars that need gas, it is destroying the environment while also costing a fortune to the average person to pay for gas each week. The best solution so far seems to be create a car that will last forever. Using electric power instead of gasoline will save the environment while also saving people money in the future. This solution seems best due to the fact that if all people get electronic cars, it will save millions of dollars.


Friday, October 22, 2010

Summary/Response and Image Analysis Process

A summary/ response paper is very simple to follow. It is a summary to the article or piece you are writing about and is followed by your response to the piece. It is very straight forward and easy to understand. An image analysis paper is a little more challenging. You must review the techniques the author uses and it is more difficult, for at least me, to follow.

Typing content was actually a little challenging for me. To gather thoughts and try to tie them all into a paper was more difficult than I would of imagined. Blogging did help in some ways. It allowed me to free write all the ideas in my head and get them all written down before I would forget certain things. In other ways, it is easier for me to plot things out such as using a web map. Different techniques always help though to use something fresh and not the same thing every time.

When writing the two papers, the image analysis paper was much more difficult. It was more challenging due to the fact that its comparing what other authors have wrote. In the summary/ response it is all about what you believe. In this paper, you must compare the two pieces and think of why the authors changed them and used different angles of vision. The easiest part was to pick out what scenes I wanted to use. I knew from the beginning which ones I wanted to use. The hard part was tying the all together into one paper that hopefully makes sense.

I have various weaknesses when it comes to the writing process. Most are the introduction and conclusion. These two paragraphs tie your paper together completely. If your introduction is bad then people won't want to read it. If the conclusion is bad, then people will forget everything you wrote throughout the whole paper. It's a difficult process learning how to write papers, and one can only get better with time.

Peer review is nice due to the fact that even when you are reviewing and helping other classmates you can learn from their papers. You can learn what different techniques they are using and learn from different classmates. To end, I believe I have made small improvements in my writing but hopefully large improvements are to come.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

3 interesting points

During this documentary there was multiple points that stuck out to me. First, and this was basically the whole plot of the film, how much design goes into each object that is made. For example, chairs. There are millions of chairs throughout the world and to design a new chair can be extremely difficult. You must add your own details to the chair while still making in unique and comfortable. One man brought up the topic of that are are millions of chairs but why are some still not comfortable. Isn't that the whole point of chairs or is it now turning into the design and look of the chair only. Second, probably my favorite part was when the people wanted to design a new toothbrush. Who would ever think, that much design and thinking has to go into making a new toothbrush. Who knows how much effort it would take to make a new computer or a new car. The toothbrush scene made me realize that technology is always growing no matter how big or small it is. It grows from cars and computers all the way down to a tiny little toothbrush. Last, another interesting scene was with the potato peeler. Who knew that a potato peeler is always getting changed. From one designer watching his wife have a hard time peeling a potato, he and his team changed the peeler completely to help those with arthritis. By doing this small little change, it made the potato peeler a lot more efficient to all. The main point I learned from this movie was, with technology you don't have to help everyone. If you design something that one specific group likes it will carry on down the line to where it can help all citizens.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

A boy and his dog

To being, this movie completely creeped me out. The twists and different scenes were so weird and so out there that at some points I found the movie difficult to follow. The movie starts with Vic and his old dog Blood walking and searching for a bunker. He comes upon a bunker where he finds a girl who has been raped.  Vic becomes upset because he doesn't want to have sex with a dead body. Vic's main mission throughout this movie to to find as many girls as possible and hook up with each and every girl. Vic and Blood continue on their journey going bunker to bunker when they come upon the smell of a woman that heavily attacks Vic. They follow this woman into an underground town. The girl is Quilla who is the daughter of the head master in the underground town. She was sent to find Vic, because the town needed him.
Vic determined to have sex with Quilla follows her into the underground town, ditching Blood. Quilla leads Vic into a town where everyone wears makeup and looks like mimes. It is then revealed that Quilla brought Vic down because the town needs donors. In the beginning Vic agrees because he believes he will be having sex with multiple woman but that changes when he is forced onto a table and they extract his sperm from his body. After Quilla had set up Vic, she ends up helping him escape along with a few other teenagers. When running away, a mechanical robot, also know as an android, begins killing the other teenagers with his bare hands. He tries to get to Vic and Quilla but Vic kills him off before he has the chance. Vic then takes Quilla back up to the surface where they were safe from the underground town. They find Blood sick and dying due to a broken leg and he was starving. Now heres the weird and disgusting twist. Vic ends up killing Quilla to help save his old dog. They end up killing and cooking her body over an open fire.
To begin, how disgusting? This movie completely creeped me out. How can you cook and eat someone! This film was one of the most shocking and disturbing movies I have ever seen. When i first began to watch the movie, I was extremely bored and had a hard time following the movie. I didn't find the movie interesting in any way. I thought it was way too weird, for a dog to be talking and the main character to only care about sex. It defiantly was not my kind of movie. As the film continued, I became more and more interested. For a director, to think of a plot this out there is kind of smart. The director surely took a risk with making this movie, but in the end I believe it was a success. At times, it was creepy and disgusting I found the movie entertaining and it surely keeps the audience of their toes. In the end, I enjoyed watching the movie and would recommend it to someone who is into Apocalyptic theme.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Scene from Blade Runner

Overall I disliked the movie. But I believe that the opening scene was a really good scene. It set up the whole movie without giving too much away. It was a hook, and caught almost everyones eye. In the opening scene the android, Leon was being questioned by Holden. It started off kind of slow but built up to the climax or the scene very quickly. Holden was asking Leon multiple questions to determine if Leon was an android. Leon was obviously extremely nervous and didn't seem to be doing well on the test and Leon knew this. He got very frustrated fairly quickly. On the first couple questions he seemed to answer them alright until Holden brought up a question about Leon's mother. When the question about Leon's mother was brought up, Leon killed Holden. At this particular moment in the movie, almost all of the audience is interested. Especially those people who have never read the book. It set up the plot for the rest of the movie, and the audience knew something was wrong right away instead of being dragged along like most movies. Overall, I didn't like the movie due to the fact that I had read the book first. I believe if I never would have read the book I would of been much more interested in the movie. Overall, I think by watching the movie again, I will get more out of the movie and understand it better.