Pop Write Project

My Love, My Outlandos D'Amour

2008-09-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

The memory is one I cherish. Mainly because I don't have many vivid childhood memories. The time frame for this one is somewhere between 1978 and 1984.

That puts me somewhere between four and nine…

Here's the memory:

Some neighbors from across the street were having a yard sale. We went over to peruse the junk and found great treasure: two reel-to-reel tape recorders. One was larger than the other. The smaller of the two was "portable" because it had a black plastic strap by which it could be lugged around. My parents bought both of them, one for me and one for my brother.

At the time of our tape recorder acquisition, my older brother Jon had borrowed Outlandos D'Amour from a friend's cool, much older brothers. It was already on heavy rotation in the Kapica household.

Keeping everything ultra hi-fi, I decided to record Outlandos onto my new tape recorder—right from our record player's one crackling speaker.

With my tape recorder, I would close myself in my bedroom closet and listen to The Police. My favorite song? "Be My Girl (Sally)." I would listen to this song over and over again, repeating as best I could the spoken word part-- British accent and all.

There I was, a small boy in a closet, singing a song about a man who finds love with a blow-up doll.

****

Regardless of the memories, Outlandos D'Amour is a great album. Every time I listen to it, I feel like a kid again. Whenever I teach William Carlos Williams's poem, "The Danse Russe," I mention Outlandos. The poem is essentially about those moments of joy (and horror) that we experience when there's no one else around. Williams writes of enjoying some "alone time" in the wee hours of the morning ("Who shall say I am not / the happy genius of my household?").

Whenever I listen to Outlandos-- alone at home, really loud-- I dance like a bloody fool.

And it feels good, and right.

The album is full of great, fast and furious tracks. A majority of the songs deal with typical rock themes of unrequited and spurned love, but Sting, a school teacher turned rocker, was always more literate (and pompous) than the usual bounty of rocker-wanna-be-poets (take that lizard king!). I am particularly fond of "Born in the 50s." True, it speaks of a different generation, but I have always been encouraged by Sting's assertion "We were the class they couldn't teach / Because we knew better."

I'm getting too old to dogmatically remember every song lyric of every album I purchase, but there was a time when this was simply the norm. I can sing-a-long to every single lyric on Outlandos -- while waving my shirt 'round my head nonetheless!

I'll end with this:

Outlandos D'Amour is one of those rare musical finds that will always reduce me to a singin' and dancin' fool.

Why does eveyone have to be so harsh?

2008-03-04T09:06:00.002-08:00

So I found people that like the movie “The Kingdom” just as much as I did but I also was very shocked at the number of people that I found who didn’t like this movie at all. I loved it for its great action and its tie to current war situations, the awesome characters and their roles, and overall I was just amazed at the whole plot but I guess everyone didn’t get the same joy out of this film as I did. One of the Topic Critics by the name of Terry Lawson from the website Rotten Tomatoes says the “The Kingdom is a smart picture with much to say. But in the end, it elects not to say it.” I was completely shocked when I read this because I thought that the movie said so much about life and it sat back and posed lots of questions on the way different groups of people go through and decided to live their lives. Another man by the name of Lou Lumenick says that “it is an overblown, revenge-driven action thriller that exports the Rambo mentality to the contemporary Middle East.” I can’t believe all the negative things people had to say about this movie, there were defiantly more negative than positive things said. On a lighter note a man by the name of Tom Long says that The Kingdom was “From a literally explosive beginning to its high-octane end, The Kingdom is rocking-good mainstream moviemaking: painfully topical, edge-of-the-seat thrilling and totally engrossing.” Now that was what I felt when I say this movie, it was incredible fast paste and was completely overwhelming with amazement. Overall I know that everyone is entitled to their own interpretation about something but was just taken back by the amount of disgrace that people felt with this movie, I loved it and I think that everyone should see it if you get the chance it will totally be worth it!

A Pespective on Amy Winehouse

2008-03-04T09:06:00.001-08:00

Finding a source that spoke about Amy Winehouse was not especially difficult. She has been all over the entertainment headlines not only for her music, but for her often bizarre behavior. However, Christian Hoard describes her as "nervy" and "witty" in her newest album entitled Back to Black. He also supports my claim that her Motown sounding music has a universal appeal to variety of people. He states that some of her songs from this particular album "don't hold up." I definitely have to disagree with this statement. Winehouse's album is one of few that I can listen to from start to finish. She covers a variety of emotions and situations in her lyrics. Even her most depressing songs have an upbeat quality to them. Hoard also brings up two of her most controversial songs: one that describes an ex-lover and "a wistful gem in which Winehouse chooses weed over a lover." I thought it was interesting that he, of all songs, highlighted these two. While I also believe that these are great, interesting songs, I think that there are better on the album. I disagree with his use of controversy to draw in new listeners. There are songs that are more pertinent and just as interesting that he could have easily used.
http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/amywinehouse/albums/album/13355827/review/13385056/back_to_black

So What Do I Do Now?

2008-03-03T09:47:00.000-08:00

So, I know she is in a better place now, but why am I mad at her? Why do I feel like she abandoned me? I mean, she is with my grandpa now, but not with me. He left me whenever I was only six and did not understand, but now I am eighteen, and I understand, but I just not why. So, help me.. I mean, I know she was sick, but I mean, she could have gotten better if she would have went to the doctor a year or so earlier. I mean, every time I think about graduation, she was always out in the audience with my mom and dad, being proud of me for graduation. And she was there for my first day of college, and my wedding, and everything. But that is because she has always been there. She has lived beside me all of my life. All of the holidays were celebrated there, you know, the major ones like Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. And well, what am I going to do this year? It is going to be odd not going there, it is like a tradition. And I mean, we can still go there, but she will not be there. And well, she has always been there and now she is not. And well, her house is still there, but she is not. And I do not know what to do. I mean, whenever I needed something, she was always there. She was always there for me to complain about my parents or my brother and sister to. She was always there for me to just talk to. She has just always been there and now she is not and I don’t know what to do. My school work has been slipping, and all of my relationships have fallen by the wayside, and I just do not know what to do besides cry anymore. I don’t really sleep anymore either, I just lay with my eyes closed and drift. Because maybe I am asleep, and this is all just a bad dream?

2008-03-03T09:21:00.000-08:00

So now that I have written about so many different things over the last six weeks I am going to just take some time to write about me and how much I greatly dislike writing! I do not feel like it is one of my stronger points in life and I am really glad that I went on and got this class over with, no offense Mr. Kapica it isn’t your fault. I have never been an English fan even through high school I would much rather take a Math class over English class any day. In math there is almost always one right or wrong answer, no personal interpretation and thinking critically to form a unique answer; and most of the time in math you can go back and check yourself to know whether or not you got your problem right before you actually turn something in. I also think that I am way to ADHD to be a writer, as soon as I sit down at my computer to type something up I automatically get on the internet or play games to put off what I really sat down to do. I start typing and get stuck so I tell myself well I’ll just play one game to clear my head and end up playing for like an hour and never accomplish anything. I also know that I don’t have that cool way of saying things that actually makes people want to read more, I just don’t have that graceful way of talking. So in conclusion I think that I am just going to stick to Math and Science, my two favorite subjects, and try to avoid writing anything that someone might actually have to sit down and read so I don’t make them want to stick an ink pen in their eyes!

Some Family

2008-03-03T06:38:00.000-08:00

I really hate my family. I have a stepsister that is fifteen and she is as fat as a house. I also have a little half sister that is four. Both of them are the biggest brats that I know. They get everything they want and the can do what ever they want when they want and don’t have to ask. I’m nineteen years old and god forbid if I breathe without asking first. My step mom has a big problem. It’s not just the size of her lard butt, but the fact that she spends all her money on stupid shit and buying her kids shit that they don’t need and every time I turn around she wants money from me. I bust my ass of for all the stuff that I have they do nothing to help me. They always think that I owe them something. They play the card “ well we did get you that car for graduation” yeah they sure did now I’m in dept 13,000 dollars. Some graduation present. My whole step family is a bunch of two faced red head b*tches. That is putting it nicely. The only thing that I have to took forward to be seeing James. He is the only one who knows what I have to put up with. When we first started dating my step family said that I would have a baby by the time I graduated. They were so wrong. They are the ones you have kids and married. It just makes me so mad that I have to work so hard for everything and have nothing to show for it. It gets kind of depressing. James is the only one that I can turn to. He is the love of my life and I don’t care what my dad thinks of him. If I could I would stay with him. It is pretty sad that I am nineteen and can’t do what I want. It sucks to be to some extent.

Fall in Love all over agian

2008-03-03T06:35:00.000-08:00

I love the movie Cinderella. It classic that has stud the test of time. This movie seems to come out about every seven years says Roger Ebert. He also said that when he first say it as a kid then saw it many years later that it had no changed much and is some ways neither had he. When I talked about the movie a spoke of more the meaning that I got from the movie. Ebert talks about the animation techniques and the use of unfamiliar voices. When I think of Cinderella I picture Cinderella and her prince charming falling ion love and living happily ever after. Ebert talks about the creation of the animals and how they help out Cinderella with everything from bathing and changing clothes to them helping her escape from her room when the men come to fit the girls for the slipper. Ebert says that the animals in Cinderella serve the same function as the Seven Dwarfs in Snow White. The animals provide moral support. Each animal has his or her on personality. Ebert said that the Disney people spent so much time in making the animals look alive like by making then wag their buttocks that is way they never but pants on them. He also notes that the second Disney animated classic that has been stretched into wide screen lost 25 percent of the original image. Disney would rather supervise its own wide format than allow projectionist to despoil the image.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articleAID=/19871120/REVIEWS/711200301/1023

Cinderella

2008-03-03T06:34:00.000-08:00

My favorite piece of popular culture that I wrote about was Cinderella. Not only is it a timeless classic but it really gets your imagination going. To some people it might be just another stupid fairytale but to some it maybe like a sanctuary, a place where they can escape the hard truth of reality. It’s nice to have a place to let your imagination run wild without fear of who is watching. In real life people squish all of your hopes and dreams out of you by telling you, you can’t do something. Walt Disney said “ Why do we have to grow up? I know more adults who have the children’s approach to life. They’re people who don’t give a hang what the Joneses do. You see them at Disneyland every time you go there. They are not afraid to be delighted with simple pleasures, and they have a degree of contentment with what life has brought - sometimes it isn’t much, either.” When I was little it couldn't have pleased me more than to sit and watch the pumpkin turn into a beautiful carriage. Now when my little sister and I watch it I love to see her face light up when she sees all the magic. I can’t to see when she gets older to see how much she really got from it. Cinderella had her step family to ring her dry of all her hopes of finding her prince. When she finally got her chance yet again did they try to ruin it. It goes to show that there are people out there that just can’t stand to see others happy. This movie really inspires me to go for what I want in life. In the end it comes down to whether or not you have the strength to get through the tough times to see the brighter days that will come along.

The Kigdom; The War you dont see on the News

2008-03-03T06:32:00.000-08:00

I just saw that coolest new movie called “The Kingdom.” It is a modern day war film referring to our war issues that are currently going on overseas. This film is about four F.B.I. agents that are sent to Saudi Arabia after a bombing in broad daylight at a baseball field on an American Army base. This action packed film has a lot of great new actors like Jamie Fox, Jennifer Garner, and Chris Cooper. I have never seen Jamie Fox in such a serious roll as not only a father but one of the heads of the F.B.I. but at the same time he somehow showed everyone humor in a situation that many people wouldn’t be able to pull off. Jennifer Garner is kicking butt again as usual but this time she is completely frowned upon for trying to make it in a “man’s world” according to the people of Saudi Arabia. Fox, Garner, and Cooper are all striving to figure out what happened but at the same time are risking their lives in the pursuit of justice. I love this movie because it shows what the government doesn’t want you see; you are shown just how shady people with authority can be to cover someone who might pose a threat to them. The attack in the movie came from men in Saudi military uniforms but the government insisted that they had nothing to do with it, so the whole movie you are trying to figure out who is behind the bombing and in the end you get a great twist that really opened my eyes to the people around me. I think that this movie is a great movie to see and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to see some awesome characters fight for justice in a really horrible situation.

Decision Making vs. Critical Thinking in Politics

2008-03-02T20:38:00.000-08:00

The likeness between Decision Making and Critical Thinking is a lot more different than people think. Critical Thinking is when someone discerns from mistakes and thinks about how things could be done better. It's the process of getting to conclusions that are logical. Solving problems, analyzing factual information, and taking positive action based on the conclusions is called decision-making. Critical Thinking is looking at assumptions--not really accepting arguments at face value. Critical Thinking is looking for technical support when a printer is down. We use critical thinking skills with our feedback to determine if the printer can print or not. History is full of these two interlocking values getting into conflict in politics and foreign policy. Decision making is an action. It is the destination of logical and analytical problem solving which is based on fact. These main points are what the CIA use to get into your words and what you mean. They are matters of the mind. Yes, these things show that the U.S. is not able to discern things as a great nation of peace and prosperity. We cannot learn anything from the past because our decision-making has not lived up to the standards of what decisions are. Everything in today's time is not a picture of what the past had created. It is what people have decided to make us look like. Our critical thinking is still awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is all that happens in Washington today though. We predicted it with our critical thinking, yet we have not mastered the decision-making.

Not only for teens, so take that Common Sense Media

2008-03-02T19:42:00.000-08:00

I am now considered an adult. I think that people of all ages love The Outsiders. Even though it is mainly focused on freshman in high school and teenagers. As Common Sense Media says “teenagers love this book.” Well I believe myself a teenager, even though I am 18 years old. I have loved The Outsiders since I was in middle school though. So I guess I am an exception since I was a preteen or tween that fell in love with the book. The book have idyllic views of friendship, which most teens are trying to figure out, so the book sort of helps them with it. I know that whenever I first read the book, my best friend was my cousin, even though she is almost three years older than me. Well, needless to say, she is not my best friend anymore but we still do talk. I have found friends my age, aka Sarah and Wes, that maybe, do not like the same things that I like, like The Outsiders, but they like other things that I do, like music, or clothes, or movies, or something along those lines. We all like to go to the movie theaters and listen to music. We all like to go out to lunch together, and just hang out. We do not have to be out spending money to have fun either. While Common Sense Media says that it is a book for teenagers, I think that it is a book for people of all ages. Not just teens have problems with friendship, adults do too. So I think that Common Sense Media is wrong whenever it says that “teenagers love this book” because I am not really a teenager, and I love the book, and I fell in love with it before I even became a teenager. So take that Common Sense Media. http://family.go.com/entertainment/article-csm-117702-book-review--the-outsiders-t/?CMP=KNC-YahSSPFamily

Strangly enough, I didn't change my mind...

2008-03-02T19:18:00.000-08:00

I don’t really regret picking Law & Order as my favorite pop culture, but I kind of wish that I would have narrowed it down to one of the sub series of Law and Order. Because now that I think of it, I really only watch Law & Order: SVU… and sometimes Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Don’t get me wrong, I love any and all Law & Order episodes. Man that kind of makes me sound like a loser. But, oh well! I’m a crime show junkie, I guess. I think the reason SVU is my favorite because of Mariska Hargitay. She plays Detective Olivia Benson in the show, and I’ve always loved how she handles things throughout the shows. She really seems to care about everything and everyone she deals with, and I like to think that I’d be like her if I ever chose to become part of a team like that. Her partner, Detective Stabler (Christopher Meloni), is also a great character. He’s always levelheaded and ready to do the best thing to get the job done. Vincent D'Onofrio is also one of my favorite actors, but he’s from the Criminal Intent version. He plays Detective Goren, who is a hardcore investigator. He never fails to hit just the right nerve in a criminal’s mind to get them to confess. His partner, Kathryn Erbe – who plays Detective Eames, is the perfect sidekick to him. She pays attention to the tiny details while he’s busting another bad guy. I guess what I’m trying to get at is Law & Order is a great show… because it has great characters, great plots, and everything just fits together perfectly! I like CSI, and even the new one – NCIS, too. But I’m sure it’ll never fail for me to end up watching my favorite crime show before I go to sleep. Law & Order!

Spring Fever

2008-03-02T19:12:00.000-08:00

I have an odd addiction of searching the internet for quotes. My quotes usually come from a movie, writer of some sorts, or character. Anyway, I thought I would form a blog around a few of my favorites.

“Try not to become a man of success, but rather to become a man of value.”- Albert Einstein
I love this quote because I chose to write about it as the topic for one of my college essays. I think the quote appropriately defines how I want to live my life.

“I’m blonde, what’s your excuse?”- Reese Witherspoon
This quote is unique because I chose it as my senior quote and because Reese Witherspoon is my favorite actress. I especially love her in “Sweet Home Alabama.”

“Has anyone seen my shoes, I kicked them off in a fit of joy.”- Dane Cook
Dane Cook is the funniest comedian ever. I listen to his acts all the time and they never get old. It helps a lot too because Dane Cook is soo adorable.

“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”- E.E. Cummings
I like this because I want to be different and to be myself. I don’t want to be pushed to give up what makes me “me” in order to become someone’s conformist picture of how society should be.

“It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!”- Mark Twain
Well, it’s the beginning of March and so I thought it would be appropriate to use a quote about spring! I have been having the feeling of “spring fever” a lot lately. I really hope the weather continues to stay warm!

I have a whole word document full of quotes that I have found to be inspirational in some way. I love reading quotes. Who knows but maybe one day I will quote you…

The Apple doesn't Fall Far from the Typewriter.

2008-03-02T19:03:00.000-08:00

OH MY GOSH! THE WORLD HAS ENDED! I enjoy writing. Ahhhh!! That is so crazy to say. It is all Mr. Kapica’s fault. I am going to be really honest when I say that I really like writing journals, blogs, and free writes. Well, I did not actually like having to do all that work, but after it was all over I really enjoyed the process. I had never written a blog in the past, but now I like to write blogs. They are fun for me because it is entertaining to be able to see the comments that people write about your opinions. Who would have known that the first essay I wrote for this class would be the same one I would write over and over again the entire time, but that was not so bad either. I love Sweeney Todd, but after writing this essay, I love it even more. My favorite was the free writes because I did not have to worry if they were grammatically correct or anything. I could express how I felt through writing. Wow. I could rant, smile, and sometimes cry. I know, I know it is a little corny, but I could really convey my emotions in a sentence. That had never happened to me before. My mom graduated from UNC with a major in journalism, but I always hated to write. After taking this class, she tells me “you really are my daughter!” It feels good to enjoy something that I inevitably have to do throughout my life. I am so glad I am finally able to enjoy what I thought was the end of the world. I may not be the best writer, but at least I take pleasure in the process. All I need now is a little practice.

There's no place like London...

2008-03-02T17:50:00.001-08:00

I have read review after review about Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and most of the critics that matter like Time Magazine, Washington Post, Newsweek, and The New York Times have agreed that this movie is pretty much awesome. Normally after a movie, the top critics will have varying opinions. I mean I guess that would be true anyways considering the fact that opinions are someone’s own personal feelings on a topic, but how often do a group of people’s opinions match? Hardly ever. That just proves that this movie really rocks. A.O. Scott from The New York Times says “Something close to a masterpiece, a work of extreme -- I am tempted to say evil – genius.” Peter Marks of Washington Post states “Admirers of Stephen Sondheim who have wondered whether a riveting movie would ever be made from one of his stage musicals can put aside their doubts and worries: Tim Burton has finally accomplished it in his ravishing Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” The critic of Time magazine, Richard Corliss, even declares, “The movie's true lyricism is less in its score than in its visual and emotional palette, and in watching Depp rise to the majesty of madness.” Ultimately, what I am trying to say is movies like this do not come around very often. I believe, along with most critics, that this movie is already borderline “classic.” What truly makes a classic? In my mind, a “classic” is a movie that is memorable, in a good sense and pertains to its enduring interest and high quality. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street will, more than likely, be one of those movies that is truly inspiring and that will never be forgotten. I am almost positive that this movie will be renowned for many generations to come.

http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/sweeneytodd?part=rss

I <3 Novak Djokovic...More Than I <3 Tennis?

2008-03-02T12:26:00.000-08:00

I read an article recently about Novak Djokovic, number three tennis player in the world, which recounted the amazing story of Djokovic’s climb to victory at the 2008 Australian Open. Djokovic is not only an inspiration to the tennis community but also hands down my favorite tennis personality. Djokovic first caught my attention a few months ago when I saw a youtube.com video where he imitated various tennis celebrities such as Maria Sharapova, Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick, and Raphael Nadal. His impersonations of each player’s character were so exact that I couldn’t help but begin falling in love. Djokovic even performed live during his quarterfinal defeat of Carlos Moya at the 2007 US Open. I think Djokovic brings something to the sport that until recently has been lacking; a lovable personality combined with charm and superior tennis skills.

Born in 1987 in Belgrad, Serbia, Novak Djokovic’s past is a true Cinderella story. The story is that while Djokovic was growing up in Belgrad, he began his tennis training in an empty swimming pool. Prompted by the lack of indoor court tennis facilities, a sports club official had the idea to drain an Olympic-size swimming pool in the winter and put down a green carpet and net.

In January of 2008, Djokovic surprised everyone by soundly defeating the world’s number one tennis player, Roger Federer, in three straight sets in order to advance to the Australian Open finals. In the finals he defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in four sets to become the new champion of the Australian Open. At twenty years old, Djokovic is the youngest player to win the Australian Open championship title since Stefan Edberg in 1985. Well apparently, Djokovic is not only good at playing in an empty swimming pool.

Novak Djokovic is just one more reason as to why I love tennis.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article3261592.ece

Don't get me wrong, I like it, but not that much....

2008-03-02T09:12:00.001-08:00

I really wished that I had not written my essay about What I Like About You that first day of class, who would have thought that I would be writing it over four more times? I was just sitting there, a little stumped by the prompt, I had no clue what kind of pop culture I wanted to write about. I guess all that I could think about was the fact that I had an hour to write a paper and it was the first one that we had to write, and there would be so many more to come, so it did not matter if it were stupid. All I could really think about was how I had always used to think that the television show was stupid, but now I had been watching it on ABC Family quite often. Don’t get me wrong, I mean I like to watch the show, but I HATE that I actually picked to write about that show for my essay. There was no way that I could really write a four or five page paper, with research in it, I am still trying to figure out how to improve it and incorporate research in it. I have never ever been a strong writer, and probably never will be. As soon as I found out that we had to write the paper over and over again, I wanted to shoot myself. How was I supposed to improve a paper that I wished I had never really written in the first place? I kind of figured it out, I was going to have make some stuff up, for why I liked it, I really do like it, but I don’t really know why I like it. I wish that I would have picked a topic that I REALLY love, like a band such as Brand New, or Cobra Starship, or maybe even something that someone else could relate to, like a popular movie, but I guess that everyone is different with different taste. I felt like my topic was so middle school. I just wish I would have known that we would be writing about it four more times, then I would have thought more critically about what I would have written about.

A Wild, Crazy, Zany Aspect to the Characters...

2008-03-02T09:12:00.000-08:00

owen_edwards from WGC, Herts, England left this comment on imdb.com about the television show What I Like About You:

"The premise and scripting of WILABT are both reasonable, and compared to many comedies out there, they're excellent. However, by the standards of Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond and Frasier, this is a distinctly average show.What makes me watch it every time it's on are Amanda Bynes and Wesley Jonathon. Jonathon is a great character actor, and livens up what could be a dull character (the "Best Friend"). The part of Henry is excellently written, which surprised me, as the Val and Jeff characters are both weak. But as I said above, Amanda Bynes makes this a good show. Easily the most talented teen on television, and in the top 10, whatever age, of current times, she's a great asset to the show. Rubber faced, with what could be described as a "beauty in repose", she takes a part that's been poorly-written, with physical humour that could easily look horrible, and makes it funny.What America may have found here is a true star - not a mildly talented actress like Lindsay Lohan..."

I agree with some of these statements made by owen_edwards and I also disagree with some of the other statements. I think that Amanda Bynes does make for a good actress, and so does Wesley Johnathon, but I do not think that the character Val, played by Jennie Garth is a weak character. I think that her and her best friend Lauren, played by Leslie Grossman are uniquely funny. I also disagree with the statement that the part played by Amanda Bynes is poorly written, and she is the reason that the part it is good. I think that the part is well written and she attributes to making the part funny, with her humor and natural ability to be comical, but even if she had not been picked to play the part, then someone else could have made her role as Holly Tyler funny and well played. I agree with what owen_edwards says about the role of the best friend, although, I think that both Wesley Johnathon and Leslie Grossman bring something that livens up the character of 'the best friends'. I think both bring a wild, crazy, and zany aspect to these characters.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0321018/usercomments

2008-03-01T08:35:00.000-08:00

I had the hardest time finding a review on Law & Order. I mean, I spent a couple hours searching last night… only to give up and decide to try again this morning. So, after another hour of searching, I’ve finally found one by “riseley” on epinions.com that I like. He begins by raging about how much he hates television and the annoying advertisements that you can’t avoid whenever you choose to turn a TV on. He goes as far as to say, “I think that television is a satan worse than a president who would lie to congress so that he could persuade his country to follow him into a futile and unwinnable military conflict.” to prove his hatred for television. The fact that he feels so strongly about not liking television, is what makes his great review for my favorite show – Law & Order even better. Luckily for him, he got the entire season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent on DVD… which allowed him to watch it through without any interruptions by his oh-so-hated advertisements. He talks about how great a couple of the detectives are in the series, highlighting some of their quirks that seem to get people talking. “Riseley” talks about how the detectives always have the same issues within any given Law & Order episode. They’ll find a body, get some clues, identify a suspect and then go to the DA and she’ll tell them to go find some cold hard evidence. This sends them back to the streets, and they always hit “road block after road block,” in “riseley’s” words. But, somehow, it always comes together in the end, which is absolutely one of my favorite parts of the show, period. In the case of the episodes with Detective Goren, he uses mind play to find mental weaknesses in the suspect and make him confess before the hour is up. In the end, “riseley” says, “I like the world in which Detective Goren can always solve the crime in 42 minutes. It's very satisfying.” And, I couldn’t agree more! Like the title of my essay the only type of crime I like is on TV – when it all gets solved in the end. If you’d like to read his entire review, you can find it here: http://www1.epinions.com/content_326059331204.

here & now

2008-02-28T09:52:00.000-08:00

Right now nothing comes to mind except the excruciating pain I’m in. I am really not much of a complainer but these past two days have been brutal. I started training at gym 365 with a trainer- and oh my goodness. I cannot move at all. My legs and arms and back, are well – dead.

Enough about that.
Let’s talk about the important thing—like how substandard conditions are at Davie high. For instance, I had a scholarship due last week, but the counselors weren’t available because they were completing freshman schedules, a process that has been going on for two months.

How many high schools have to navigate an administration with three different principals? Not many. True, every school has problems, but very few of them slap down 26 different trailers instead of building a new school.
Bottom line: I am for tax increase for a new school. We need it. Desperately.
Voters in Davie County need to come to our school for one day to see how crowded it is. Witnessing our squalor would change their votes—at least I hope it would.
Why are the county commissioners putting so much trust in common people who know nothing about education? True, it is their right to vote. But is it also their right to hamper our education?
Unfortunately, it all boils down to politics as a witless popularity contest.

Forgive my boldness. I am sorry if you have a commissioner in your family, or as a friend. But, for the sake of the students, the next time you see an elected official tell them if they had a conscience, they would do what is right for the school system and override the ignorant vote and build a new high school.

Sadly, the commissioners are more concerned with re-election than they are about what is right for the future of education in this county. Otherwise, they might have taken a stand and built a new high school regardless the consequence to the tax payers of Davie County. How bad would a small tax increase be if it ensured the future of the county?

But, in the end, it is Davie County. I don’t expect much from the leaders here anyway. What have they done to benefit me? Nothing. To benefit my parents? Nothing. And who sanctioned the clearing of land for the new hospital that was voted down by the state?! Why did we waste our money on something that wasn’t even promised? Whoever wasted money like that should be should have to go back to high school (and start all over again). Make them sleep in the bed they’ve made.

No matter what the circumstances are. Our county needs a turnaround, and fast.

Abandon All Hope.

2008-02-27T10:15:00.000-08:00

What comes naturally to me? Nothing comes to mind. Sometimes it worries me that I have no goal other than “live life.” I do have an ultimate plan: an ultimate destiny. Will I ever reach this final destination? I don’t know, but the path is set in front of me. Maybe the obstacles on the path will be too difficult to overcome. In reality, I don’t believe that. I believe all goals can be reached with the correct amount of heart and dedication put to that task. I’m going to grow up, get through school, get a job, and die. That’s my realization. I now see why people take their religions so seriously, it gives their life a purpose. Often people tell me that “you should contribute something to society.” I have too much manners to speak my mind when this is said, but how I feel is “why should I give something back to a society that’s only given me judgment and bad movies?” I love life, often more so than I think I should. My motto as a kid was “Love life, f*&^ the world.” The harsh realities and bitter truths of the world are what corrupt great things, like life. It blows my mind that I can go to school and have the same conversations with two completely different people. It blows my mind how one friend can be struggling just to find a place to sleep at night, while another is overly studying for a test that they know they will not make below a ninety-seven on. Why?

I’m so thankful that I wasn’t born in Friend A’s shoes. I’m also thankful that I can live day to day without the obnoxious pressure put on me by society and my peers to do something I truly don’t want to do. I sometimes wish I could truly be in the mind of both. I wish I could hear how their clock ticks differently from mine. All I can do is ask to hear their story, try to relate, and pray that they give me enough information to understand. I often wonder who can breathe easier at night. I often wonder why things have to be the way they are. Then, I kill these thoughts, because focusing on them for too long will only make me depressed.

I value my mind more than anything. I asked the wisest person I’ve ever met if he believed if we were truly alone. He replied “of course, people are often blinded by the superficial truth. In the end, all you have is your mind and yourself for comfort.” I believe this to be one hundred percent true. Why wouldn’t it be?
*Cough cough* will anyone really read this? I hope not LoL.

Flow through movies.

2008-02-27T09:29:00.000-08:00

Movies are a big thing for me. I watch them all the time. I like to talk about them, which is why I thought it would be a good subject for this blog.

What I like in a movie is creativity, vision, style. Some movies I enjoy watching purely because of how they look. One of my favorite movies is A Scanner Darkly. I originally wanted to see it simply because of how it looked. The movie was filmed and then animators traced over the original footage. Turns out it's a really good movie regardless, but that creativity drew me in.

Jim Jarmusch has a distinct style for his movies. He's one of my favorite directors. His movies capture the beauty that can be found in seemingly mundane, everyday experiences. His films are very slow paced with a very light plot, or no plot at all. In his words, "Life has no plot, why must films or fiction?"

Michael Gondry is another director I like. The Science of Sleep is an amazing movie. It's just such an experience, full of fantasy. It's a very creative film.

This seems to be turning into sort of a list of movies, so I've got to talk about Gerry, a film directed by Gus Van Sant. The average length of the shots in this film is sixty seconds, which is very long. This film is very slow paced, but very visionary and interesting to watch.

Alejandro Jodorowsky has written and directed some really amazing films. He creates surreal films full of symbolism and spirituality. Sometimes disturbing, and oftentimes hard to decipher, watching films like El Topo or The Holy Mountain is definitely an unforgettable experience.

Harmony Korine uses out-of-date and unconventional techniques to film his movies, which gives them a distinct look. He creates rather simple movies, in terms of plot, that investigate human actions and relations.

Well, after I started to write this I realized I don’t really have much else to say except, “I like movie title”. It’s hard for me to express feelings about movies in words so, just watch these movies, and a bunch of other movies. Or don’t.

Pomacanchi

2008-02-26T14:23:00.000-08:00

For some reason, summer seems to be just around the corner right now. I guess it shouldn’t really feel like that because I still have around three months of senior year, but my long-term way of thinking never fails, and it seems like right now is when I need to finalize my summer. Thinking of summer has definitely brought Pomacanchi to mind. I was really hoping to go there for about two weeks or so over the summer, but I’m not really sure about that at all anymore. I guess that’s okay, but I’m going to have to get used to the idea of not going on a mission trip anywhere this summer. I’ve been extremely blessed with the opportunities I’ve had to go to Peru, and so I guess I can live one summer without going overseas. Pomacanchi is a remote village in southern Peru, right in the middle of the Andes Mountains, thirteen thousand feet above sea level. I first went to Pomacanchi in April of last year, which was the firs trip there that anyone from my church had ever organized. I ended up loving everything about it. The mountains are incredible, and no matter how long I stay there, they always make me want to stop and stare. The people, of course, are far more precious than the mountains. They have no hope of anything beyond just surviving. Most families consist of mothers who work in fields in order to maintain subsistence farming, children who have to grow up way too fast and have to take care of their younger siblings, and fathers who are nowhere to be seen, completely uninvolved with their families.

So since there is so much work to be done there and so much need for the gospel that brings hope of eternal life and rest, the youth group I’m a part of has “adopted” the village. As long as God leads us, somebody will keep going back to Pomacanchi and doing the work that He’s had in store for us. I think I can confidently say that my first trip to Pomacanchi was the best week of my life so far. It was a trip where I was fully convinced that God is everywhere, that He loves all people, and that all people need Him. And it was the trip where God let me in on a little bit of His plan for my life. And of course, it was simply a trip to a beautiful place where I got to watch God work alongside some of my very best friends.
While I would love to go back to Pomacanchi, I guess I can know that if it doesn’t work out, then God has another plan for me this summer.

"In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two seperate, yet equally important groups..."

2008-02-26T13:41:00.000-08:00

If I am watching TV (which I don’t really do that often) the TV is sure to be tuned to one of the many channels that play Law and Order. Luckily for me, there’s rarely a time that my beloved show isn’t on. I know that most people watch television to wind down and not really use their brain for anything. But, I can not stand watching mindless television shows. This is one of the biggest reasons as to why I adore Law and Order. Rachel Hyland wrote in a review on my favorite show, “Even as most crime shows deplore the evil that men do, they at times also celebrate it.” I don’t want to watch some stupid “reality” TV show glorifying crime or other trivial parts of somebody’s life. I love Law and Order because it addresses real life issues, it doesn’t sugar coat anything. Rachel Hyland hit the nail on the head later in her review when she pointed out that “Law and Order does not make this mistake. Though it frequently, and most chillingly, tells tales of true crime … it also treats them with the dread, indeed, the disgust they deserve.” I couldn’t have said it better myself! Also, because it is so much like real life, it is absolutely attention-grabbing. I have never once got bored in the middle of an episode of Law and Order. Unlike most shows on MTV, which I can’t even sit through, my favorite show is sure to keep me on the edge of my seat. I love how you learn a little bit more about the detectives with each show, and you’re always along with them on the ride to solving the case. If you have never seen an episode of this wonderful television series, I urge you to go watch it! Just because you’re grandpa used to watch it does not mean it sucks. It just means it’s been great enough to stay on air all those years!

what a couple of weeks

2008-02-26T13:25:00.000-08:00

I would have to say that I really enjoyed this class. It was a very entertaining and fun eight week, Ahh, I mean six week class. But of course it was not all, as of the last week when everybody was trying to get their work in on time. Seriously though it was not all fun, we actually learned something from it. The class, in its own way, it tore down all the walls, rules, and boundaries that were given to me about writing essays and other big papers from practically all of my previous writing teachers. Before when I wrote an essay or any other major paper I always followed the same routine and the same structure. That way of writing had me writing five paragraphed papers that did not have any of my own personal thoughts and or opinions. But for the first time, in a long time I am sure, when writing my paper the teacher actually wanted us, the students, to write about what we think. That really opened up my mind to the possibilities of good writings and brought me one step closer to being able to write a good essay or paper.

I would say that I had never ever written a Blog before this class no matter how popular it may be. They are alright but I still prefer writing in journals instead. Even if I have to do a free write and a prompted journal, I still like journals better than blogs. Although blogs are or can be shorter than other papers and essays. I might even start some writing again and getting better at especially sense I want to get into the film business and eventually write or co-write my own script that will be made into a popular movie one day.

Which reminds me, anyone interested?

My version of "Asphalt Jesus"

2008-02-26T10:20:00.000-08:00

Over the summer I was on a street acting team I Brazil. I went around the second biggest city in the country and performed a mime. The mime was called "The Redeemer" and I really liked it because I could perform and change the way people think without even speaking their language. The whole idea of traveling around with a group of five or six people that you have never met before was fun too. I got to meet some very cool people but learning the skit at first was very awkward. If you have ever acted, you know that you have to be outgoing. After traveling for twenty some hours, you do not feel like being outgoing or learning a skit with people who you have never met. Anyway after six fun, long hours of practice and an awesome Brazilian pizza we learned the skit and performed for the next nine days almost non-stop.Like practicing for any improve drama, funny things always occur. For example, when performing on the side walk in Brazil, my friend was pretending to be dead in the street. She almost was not pretending when a car stopped two inches from her head. Another funny thing that happened was we were performing on the street and it was absolutely quiet. Someone said "that as soon as we got to the crucifixion scene everything would be really loud and busy." Of course, at the climax of the skit there was a lot of bustle, one of the actors almost got ran over by a horse. While the horse was passing, we were all thinking the same thing: "I hope that horse does not crap." Now that I am back in the states, I have decided to teach a group of my friends the skit. I had to make all the props and find the training video and after that find people who would be willing to learn the mime. My group and I will be performing this Saturday for an audience of 130 people. This is exciting, well it was exciting until I learned that one of the actors got hurt in a wrestling match and will not be able to fill the part of God. So now in less than a week I have to find a replacement of God, the big man himself; not exactly easy. After searching and not being able to recruit anybody, my dad finally volunteered to help me. It was really sweet because that is not my dad's cup of tea and it will be really awkward for him because he does not know any of my friends and he is much older than everyone in the mime (at least thirty some years older). But none the less my dad was very loving and volunteered to save my butt. Fortunately someone just volunteered today to help me and will be more fitting for the part and is a frequent actor.

2008-02-26T10:05:00.000-08:00

Political Triumph?

Something that has shrouded my free writings from the very beginning is the political turmoil of a world that we live in. I am so into this presidential election, and the conflicts that the U.S. is currently involved in. It is history that we are witnessing this year, with a woman and a black man running for the presidency. First of all….I really see a great turn of events for the world when a man running for the seat of the presidency does not feel obligated to say, or put his hand over his heart when the pledge of allegiance is being said. I don’t know what you feel like on this issue, but it kind of scared me. I would enjoy feedback or any kind of comment that you have about this if you have heard or seen this for yourself. In church we recently had a man come into our class and prove to us that Obama is a Muslim. Obama is a member of a church in the north and this man called that church to see if the possibility of becoming a member of a Christian oriented church without renouncing there Muslim background could be achieved. He called and told them his full name and requested info on becoming a member of that church. The lady over the phone replied that the only thing necessary to join was to come and attend one Sunday, and that they would send him membership info in the mail. And when he had made his final decision, he would walk down the aisle and they would accept him as a new member. Then this man asked the lady, if it was necessary to renounce his Muslim religion to join the church. She replied and said that he absolutely did not have to renounce his ways of a Muslim; they would never ask anyone to do that. Then he said, “So is this how Senator Barrack Obama became a member of your church?” The lady was silent, and then she answered. “Ummm Sir I am not allowed to answer these questions”. Yea kind of scary, at least for me it was.
Yea well you might say, well that doesn’t bother me I am not religious. Okay well I do not have enough room to discuss that topic with you. I am sure you have a standpoint on the war we are fighting. Do you believe in the war we are fighting is for a just cause? Or do you just join the crowed at school, and believe what the majority believes. I am sure you are more mature than that. So what do you believe that this war’s main purpose was? I do believe in the statement of the Constitution that states we are the guardians of freedom, not just for us, but for all suppressed peoples of the world. So I want this last blog to be a real feedback for me. I want to hear what you American people feel about his war and why. The only reason I mentioned the Presidential Election was to give you a glance at how these situations could change with a president who is basically Muslim, or our first woman President who will probably have(no offence ladies) a motherly look at things. Or we could elect another conservative southerner, Mike Huckabee? John McCain? Alright you have to have an opinion, so let me hear it.

My Love for Power Rangers!

2008-02-26T09:10:00.000-08:00

If you have seen my new display name, that may tell you something about me. I like, no, I love Power Rangers! I have been a fan of Power Rangers since the premiere back in 1993. I have seen nearly every episode of the series. I plan on watching the show until it the last episode airs (whether it be live-action or animated, if the rumor proves true). Common themes in all sixteen seasons are teamwork, friendship, loyalty, courage, and the forces of good being victorious against the forces of evil. Power Rangers is adapted from the Japanese Super Sentai. The series has spawned two theatrical films, only one of which takes place in the same universe as the TV show. The majority of the viewers are adults who have been watching since Mighty Morphin. Over the years, Power Rangers has lost some of its fanbase due to the switch from Saban Entertainment to Disney, less character development, and too much focus on the red ranger. Every season has a red, blue, and yellow ranger. Starting with Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, a new group of teenagers or young adults have become rangers each season. Previously, the show had the same group of teens gaining different powers and Zords, with some members leaving to move on with their lives. The show’s fandom loves to pair the rangers up romantically based on certain scenes in episodes. My favorite ranger couples are and always will be Tommy and Kimberly from Mighty Morphin and Wes and Jen from Time Force. Both were canon (actually in-show) couples. My three absolute favorite Saban seasons in chronological order are: Mighty Morphin (all three), Lost Galaxy, and Time Force. My favorite Disney-era seasons are Ninja Storm and Dino Thunder. Power Rangers Dino Thunder (2004) saw the return of Tommy Oliver. My least favorite seasons are Zeo, Turbo, and Wild Force (except for the team-up episodes). Over the years, I have accumulated a few pieces of merchandise. I still have a Kimberly (first pink Mighty Morphin ranger) doll, trading cards, a Mighty Morphin comic book, and a yellow Lightspeed Rescue figure.

a child's dream

2008-02-25T10:41:00.000-08:00

When I was younger I wanted to be in some kind of band or at least just play an instrument. So when sixth grade came around our teacher said the only time we could join band is in the sixth grade. I was definitely joining band but, which instrument would I play? I don’t want to the piano because to me it was a little too usual. I wanted to learn how to play the guitar but, it was not an option. So just like every other sixth grade student, I wanted to ply the drums. Then our band teacher tells us, the class, that playing the drums is a privilege not a right. So basically the band students with an A/B average can tryout to play the drums. So let’s just say that was out of the question for me; but not of course for the teacher’s son. I mean when were they going to tell us, when it was too late. For me, if I would have known I would have actually worked harder in school. Moving on, so I picked the saxophone. It was fun for a while but, I would have definitely picked the drums if I could have. The funny part to me was all of my other teachers would tell us that we need to join band and play the drums whenever my classmates and I would beat on our desk, and all we could say is we don’t have the right. Anyway, I would have to ply the drums, which I would have been good at. I must say though I don’t think my parent’s would like me paying the drums. If the school had guitars that we could learn to play, I would have been the first to sign-up. Still to this day I wish I could learn how to play the guitar. When I tell my family they think I want to be some rocker chick playing an electric guitar. When in fact that is not the case I just want to learn how to play an acoustic guitar. Besides my little sister likes to write songs and sing and I think it would be cool if I could play her music for her.

The Legacy of Music and the Modern Musician

2008-02-25T10:03:00.000-08:00

I want more for myself than to waste 65 minutes of my time listening to an album that I cannot cherish. I want everything in my life to have a certain timelessness, despite the fact that I probably will not. I would like my music to have its own legacy. In older music, I have found myself tied to a history that I don't necessarily have, the chance to connect to my "roots" and the ability to look at newer music in a refreshing way. When I reflect on older music, one of the most prominent figures in my mind is the late guitar player, Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix had a way of manipulating the guitar to produce a kind of sound that resonates in the ears of multiple generations. His music contains a certain quality that forces the listener to continually hear it, long after the song has finished. I often walk down the streets of downtown Winston- Salem listening to my iPod asking anyone who dares to get close enough, "Are You Experienced?" It is probably fortune on my behalf that they usually don't hear me. I feel that all music has its own historical tie which often goes undetected by the listener. What I hear from nostalgic music is not necessarily the lyrics that were written forty years ago, but instead I hear the emotions that are communicated through these records. Although rap has become a rather distorted genre, it still communicates to the listener the angry energy that stems from years of inequality and racism. Older music sometimes acts as the only association I have with previous generations. It is my connection to their time. Furthermore, many newer artist also use the associations that they find with older artist to supplement their own musical careers. Amy Winehouse, for instance, has collaborated with producer Mark Rohnson to create an album entitled "Back to Black" which features very Motown reminiscent hits. Winehouse has a soul stirring voice which could rival that of Billie Holiday. Artist such as Winehouse and John Legend have facilitated a new genre known as "retrosoul" or "retrojazz." Music has a fluidity that allows it to change into different sounds, communicating different ideas in different times. I feel that many older musicians have been able to achieve timelessness because of the emotion and drive that is reflected in their art.

Wherefore art thou Blog? Deny thy essay father and refuse thy essay name...

2008-02-25T09:58:00.000-08:00

There are many differences and similarities between blogs and essays. Blogs are essentially, essays posted on the internet with certain modifications. Blogs often lack the structure that is found in a stereotypical college essay. Many students issue essays in a more formal tone that can often be condescending or confusing to a reader. I think that blogs allow for more of an exploration into the ideas and feelings of the author. Furthermore, I feel that many students, when writing a blog, throw formalities out the window along with simple grammar and spelling. It seems easier to not proofread and rewrite when you know that you are not writing to an academic audience. I think that this is problematic for blog writers because they often do not know to whom they are writing. Essays are often easier to read because you have a targeted academic audience. In a way, you know what they want to hear and how they want to hear it. When a blog is submitted to the Internet, it is capable of reaching almost anyone. Therefore, one may not convey their thoughts in a manner that is pleasing to everyone that reads them. I think that the Internet provides a medium to be judged by your peers instead of your teachers. Of course, unbeknownst to the author, teachers could be reading their blogs too. I think that blogs and essays both have a certain patterns that simply depend on the author’s writing style. I think that blogs tend to be more “stream of consciousness,” while essays are dependent on an established structure. I also believe that blogs allow for a more free flowing form of writing instead of the usual often torturous process. Blogs break up the monotony of how ideas are expressed by the author. I think that in society, essays are more valued because of their structure. I tend to be more captivated by blogs simply because, in my opinion, blogs tend to contain more passion and emotion compared to their essay counterparts.

Give him a chance

2008-02-25T08:33:00.000-08:00

Anti-semetic? Sure. Too white? Sure. Too manly? Back then yes. Reasons to hate Hemingway and writing? No.
Hating Jews and being too manly in the 1920 perspective does not give one reason to hate Hemingway. I know plenty of boys who call people “Jews” in a derogatory sense, but that does not mean I hate them. I do not even know where being to white comes into play in this hatred. Michael Schaub, of a thousand books, first heard of Hemingway through his “manic former journalist prone to expansive arm gestures and standing on furniture” professor- A hostile atmosphere to first recognize one of the greatest literary minds in history. To me one should not hate a person because of his personal life, but of what he has contributed to the world. If the U.S. voted for president solely on his personal life, it would be stalemate every time. No one would be able to come to a conclusion. But, because we vote on his policy and achievements, the US is more able to come to a decision. Should personal life come into play somehow? Yes, but very little. Emotion does not rule the country, action does. If the US voted on someone who would do a good job in office, not just someone they liked; we might not be in this downward spiral. The same goes to authors. We should read what we think is good writing, not just who we like as an author. There are plenty of writers who are great people, but write horrendous literature. Schaub never simply states his position on the novel, or Hemingway but comes in contact with people who should have given Hemingway a second look. Between the lesbian he thought he liked and the entirety of his Hemingway notes, I think you will find Schaub’s comments very interesting. You can find him at http://www.bookslut.com/hundred_books/2003_07_000124.php

Do you love it...

2008-02-25T06:57:00.000-08:00

You know what, I do not care what anybody says, but I consider game shows to be a big part of our popular culture just as anything else that comes on the television. They have been around since (????)…well a really long, since the television be came big. The cool part of it is, there are still people out there all over the world trying to come up with new ideas and some of them are actually being turned in to game shows. Any one could be on a game show because there are so many types. There are game shows for any body. And most of the game shows now try to stay on top by tweaking their rules and by having celebrity versions; where they have certain celebrities that play the games for charity. I like game shows because of their verity. There is, was, and probably will be a game show for anything a person can think of. When you get on the game show of you choice, you have the chance to win all kinds of stuff. That stuff can be: (most of the time) an amount of money, a title, a car; a house, or even food. The list can go on and on but, basically a prize can be anything a person could what. So I do not know about you but, I would love to go on a game show just to have a chance to win some big nice prizes. But even though there are thousands of game shows there is a chance that not everyone would be able to be on a game show. So there are take home versions of the games on television. Whether they are board games, card games, or even video games. Sure you do not get to win the prizes that you would have if you where on the game show, but that does not mean it is any less fun. So even if I do not get to be on a game show I can always get the game and play with my family. Besides it is good practice. If you can not be on a game show, then at least have fun playing the card or board game version and or watching the game show on televisions with friends and family.

to (blog or essay) or not to (blog or essay)...

2008-02-25T06:47:00.000-08:00

It would appear that blogs would be chosen over essays almost any time and every time, because it would seem like a person would have a lot more freedom with what they write about and how they write it. Of course it would seem that way when the only essays that a person has ever written has had the same restrictions, guidelines, and boundaries every single time. I have always been taught and heard, that essays are to be informative and as far as the structure you are to have your thesis and at least three reasons supporting your thesis in the opening paragraph of your essay. Then the following paragraphs should support your thesis and the last paragraph should be your essay’s conclusion. When it came to blogs I had no restrictions, guidelines, or boundaries; I wrote it the way I wanted to. The topics I chose could be any thing I wanted it to be and it do not have to be informative, it could just be my opinion and or thoughts. And I did not have to meet any ones standers but my own, it was not like I was going to turn them in. Then I realized that essays had just as many unlimited possibilities as blogs did. Just as Annie Dillard said about essays, “There is nothing that you can not do with it; no subject matter is forbidden, no structure is proscribed.” Boy did I have that wrong. But even though I realized that essays had the same freedoms as blogs, why do I still feel the same way about essays. Perhaps it is because with essays they still should be some what informative, which means there is still a little more work needed when it came to essay than with blogs. Although that does not mean that while writing essays I can not put my own opinions and thought in the paper.

The New Yorker v. Star Wars

2008-02-22T13:02:00.000-08:00

Anthony Lane of The New Yorker believes that Star Wars is “deep nonsense” and that it is “a remorseless non-comedy”. He believes that Star Wars creator George Lucas “swung out of orbit” after he created the earlier classic American Graffiti. Lane ridicules not only the names of characters (such as Jedi Master Mace Windu, asking if that is “something you spray on colicky babies”), but the characters as well. He puts down Padmé for not knowing that she and Anakin are having twins by not having an ultrasound.

I think that it is blatantly obvious that Mr. Lane hates Star Wars and has never given the saga a chance or researched it. While American Graffiti was an instant success, George Lucas became a household name due to the release of Star Wars in 1977. The Sith are a group that use the Dark Side of the Force and thirst for power. The Sith, as we know them, started out as a group of Dark Jedi who used anger to fuel their power. On the planet of Korriban, they came across a tribe called the Sith and procreated with them. Mace Windu is a revered and powerful Jedi Master. Bail Organa was a founding member of the Rebel Alliance. Had it not been for his influence on Leia, the galaxy would probably still be ruled by the evil Palpatine and his Empire. As in all fictional works, people and places must be named. I think that the exotic names of the characters, species, and locations to be unique and interesting. No one said that another galaxy had to have the same boring names that we have. As for Padmé not knowing about the twins, she had ordered her medical droid not to tell her the baby’s sex. Padmé believed that she was having a boy, while Anakin thought it was a girl. This scene can be found on page 217 of the novelization of Episode III, which is considered canon material. I think that Anthony Lane’s hate and ridicule of Star Wars is completely unfounded. But you can’t always convince people of why something is good or bad. His opinion does not seem to matter to the countless fans of the multi-million dollar franchise.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/05/23/050523crci_cinema

Johnny Depp is so amazingly gorgeous

2008-02-21T10:12:00.000-08:00

If you know me, you know that I am pretty much a movie and media junkie. Let me enlighten you with something you must know. Make no mistake, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is one of the most amazing movies that you could ever see. This movie, even though it is a musical or maybe especially because it is a musical, has some of the greatest talents of today’s cultural media. The fact that Johnny Depp, voted one of the hottest men alive, actually sings is reason enough to see this film. Even if you are a guy, Johnny Depp’s acting in this movie is outstanding. Johnny Depp actually won “Best Actor” for this role at the Golden Globes. Sweeney Todd was originally a Steven Sondheim Broadway production in the 80’s, but when Tim Burton took over the plot and put his crazy mind into the recreation, the product was simply amazing. This movie has everything. It has humor, revenge, romance, tragedy, and not to mention a slight bit of gore. I loved this movie so much that I even purchased the soundtrack. My favorite part of the movie, besides Johnny Depp, was the irony of the duets. I thought it was fascinating how two different characters were singing the same words to a song, but having meanings that were in complete opposition. For instance, Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp) was singing about his “friends,” which were his razors and at the same time Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) was singing about her “friend,” which was Sweeney because she had an enduring love for him. These characters were singing identical phrases, but the irony of the meanings was captivating. People will tell you to see movies all the time, but this one is definitely a must see. I cannot even begin to give this film the justice it deserves so what are you waiting for? Stop reading what I have to say about it and go check it out. You will not be disappointed.

From Dark to Light: Winter to Spring

2008-02-21T10:06:00.000-08:00

I am in agreement with Russ Breimeier, critic representing christianitytoday.com, when he tries to sum up Foreman’s music. I also usually “think of these EPs as the lo-fi, indie folk side of Jon Foreman, along the lines of Elliott Smith and Iron & Wine. Acoustic guitar drives most of the self-produced tracks (executive-produced by Foreman's mentor Charlie Peacock), with occasional strings, horns, woodwinds, harmonica, sparse percussion, and more thrown in for color and variation. In contrast to Switchfoot's radio-friendly pop/rock, this music is quiet and contemplative, requiring deeper engagement and more active listening to fully appreciate.” The mood is indeed deeper and requires active listening to fully appreciate lyrics that are “relatable, honest, and at times, gut-wrenchingly broken, to the point where parts of Fall and Winter can seem downright depressing.

Breimeier points out something that I did not analyze fully: “why the order of these EPs is so important.” In conversation, I had previously commented on the tempo and mood differences found between “Fall” and “Winter.” Breimeier explains how the track from “Fall” are created to “play their part in the overall theme, which becomes clearer from the Ecclesiastes-inspired "Lord, Save Me from Myself": "This world is where I breathe/Let it never be called home." Foreman's strongest composition is "Equally Skilled," which bleakly addresses humanity's capacity for good and evil, yet the melody almost seems more hopeful when it changes keys for the verse about Jesus helping us overcome our weakness. It's perfectly paced and a brilliant message overall, drawing on the text of Micah 7: "I will be patient as the Lord punishes me for the wrongs I've done against Him/After that He'll take my case, bringing me to light and to justice for all I have suffered." He then clarifies that “Winter goes further as the season often associated with death. "Learning How to Die" wrestles with how we're not meant for life on this earth: ‘All along I thought I was learning how to take/How to bend not how to break/How to live not how to cry/But really I've been learning how to die.’…concluding Winter is "In Love," an Eastern sounding lament about love permeating all things, even in the hard times.”

Breimeir tastefully concludes his review by saying “the songs represented here seem rather sad in tone, remember that lamentations are prevalent throughout the Old Testament. Perhaps the best part about Fall and Winter is that we can look ahead with hope and joy to Spring and Summer, and all that it's likely to represent.”

http://www.christianitytoday.com/music/reviews/2008/fallandwinter.html

Simply Adventure Stories

2008-02-21T10:04:00.000-08:00

Amber Cowart, an essayist on a very thorough C.S. Lewis website, emphasizes interesting aspects of Lewis’s writing. In “The Success of C.S. Lewis in The Chronicles of Narnia,” she focuses on the fact that Lewis did not write these stories with the sole purpose of relaying a religious message. Cowart points out that any Christian truth entered his Narnia stories “of its own accord.” She explains the sometimes-conspicuous metaphors by remembering that Lewis had a faith that would unavoidably impact all his works. In fact, Lewis wrote this series determined not to push away readers who do not accept Christianity. He understandably does not want to impose so much on his readers that they become resentful. Cowart says that Lewis concluded that the best way to present Christianity is to present it in a fictional world, “a world in which it would be easier to accept.” Cowart even points out that one of the reasons that the Chronicles of Narnia is so successful is that not all people acknowledge the character of Aslan as a picture of Jesus. She explains that Lewis did not intend for his novels to be a straightforward allegory, but simply adventure stories. If a reader skips right to finding symbolism in Lewis’s stories, he or she misses the beauty and excitement of them. Cowart concludes this thought by quoting that “children should be left to enjoy [The Chronicles] imaginatively and emotionally, without being asked to reflect upon [its] significance. Out of that enjoyment, meaning will come.”
Amber Cowart’s thoughts on the Chronicles as an allegory were very interesting. I agree that without a simple attitude of adventure while reading the stories, a reader can totally miss Lewis’s first intention in writing them. The fact that she admires C.S. Lewis becomes very obvious in her explanation of why he wrote these books. And I admire Lewis even more when I read that his faith inevitably became a theme in his works, even while he had a broader audience in mind.

"The Success of C.S. Lewis in The Chronicles of Narnia"

It Seems BuzzSugar Has No Appreciation For The Finer Things In Life.

2008-02-21T09:50:00.000-08:00

BuzzSugar posted a review of Joanna Newsom's Ys on his blog at buzzsugar.com and here are some of his thoughts:

"First of all, let me just say that I've tried—very hard—to fall under the enchanting spell of Joanna Newsom, to which most of my friends and fellow music fans have succumbed. Though I wasn't a fan of the baby-talk singing style and boring arrangements on the harp player's first album, 2004's The Milk-Eyed Mender, I decided to give Newsom's new album, Ys, a chance after reading a few stellar reviews and hearing good things from several Newsom-fanatic friends whose opinions I respect very much." Later he says, "Despite my best efforts, I still just can't embrace the classic-pop sound of this elvin-voiced chanteuese, who makes Bjork sound like a wise old matron."

I found it easy to be swept up in Newsom's voice and I believe her harp arrangements and the music she makes is wonderful.

"Call me, er, new-fashioned, but I like my music with just a little bit more roughness. Many people point out what they perceive as high-poeticism in Newsom's lyrics, but to me, the incredibly dense poetry often comes off as rambling and amateurish. Plus, after a few listens, I found myself yearning for lyrics about something besides bears, ponies, and "Sibyl sea-cow all done up in a bow."

I really like the old fasioned style of Newsom's poetry and I enjoy the fact that it is full of fantastical things and situations.

"If you like it, please come back and explain to me why I'd ever want to put this CD on regular rotation."

Well, Joanna Newsom's music is not something that can be explained. It's kind of a love it or hate it type thing. But if you do love it, then it is easy to listen to all the time, as I do, sometimes. I don't listen to it all the time. But I could if I wanted to.

Mr. Ebert says "MEH!"

2008-02-20T17:05:00.001-08:00

Roger Ebert on Rocky Horror (in not so many words): Rocky Horror is not really a movie; it's a “social phenomena.” No one noticed Rocky Horror, even its die hard fans, until it was aired as a midnight cult movie. Rocky Horror saw its zenith in the eighties with fans lining up in front of theaters hours before the movie aired. Inside the show the fans recite the movie line for line while dressed up as key characters in the movie. Rocky Horror cultists are dysfunctional in an interesting way. The fans make this movie more than the movie. The movie isn’t as good if you don’t have the fans. It will probably be forgotten.

Bruce Wayne on Roger Ebert (lol) on Rocky Horror (oh, that got interesting): Ok, Ebert, I know you’re still fighting the cold hand of death to keep making bad movie reviews, but why so dull? Ebert couldn’t be more right about stating that the movie is made by the fans, but I think he missed the point. However, Ebert’s a professional, and I’m just a student trying to get by. To me, Rocky Horror wasn’t just watching a movie, it was an experience. If people can not watch it with an élan point of view, the movie appears juvenile, perverse, and dumb. A person seeing Rocky Horror for the first time, or even watching it at all, can’t simply watch it to watch it. It’s like attempting to participate in Christmas when you’re dressed in a Halloween costume. What I disliked about Ebert’s criticism of Rocky Horror more than anything was how dull and disinterested it was. It’s obvious he took no pride in watching the movie, or even cared to. I had a feeling he would have this approach on the movie, so I chose him to compare and contrast to. I also believe Ebert’s the perfect person to get a contrasting opinion from about anything that could be fun.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19750101/REVIEWS/501010356/1023

What I like about 'What I Like About You'

2008-02-19T10:41:00.000-08:00

I like the show What I Like About You so much. I think that it is hilarious and so interesting. I watched it for the first time ever about two or three months ago and watch it every time I get the chance to. The very first time I watched it I was hooked, I just could not get enough of it! I could not help but to lay there in my bed and watch it without moving. I was so happy when I realized that the television station airs two episodes every Monday through Friday. It comes on at four o’clock until four-thirty and then four-thirty until five o’clock. Now, every time I get the chance, I try to watch it.

I think that I have seen almost every episode that they have ever made, and I like them so much that I could watch all the seasons all over again. I think the last season is coming to an end and then they are going to start back over at the beginning of the first season, so if you have never seen it, then you should start watching once the cycle starts back over.

They used to air What I Like About You on the WB television station, but when it was cancelled, ABC Family picked it up as they normally do to shows that are cancelled after several seasons.
A lot of my friends did not use to not watch What I Like About You back when it was a newer television show and it aired on the WB, but now that it comes on ABC Family, and comes on at a better time and more frequently during the week, they watch it and love to watch it just as much as I love to watch it.

2008-02-18T16:25:00.000-08:00

Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises takes the reader to a place unknown to the “goody goods” of today’s society. I am in no way bashing the morally elite population of America, but simply trying to seduce them into Hemingway’s world. The Sun Also Rises includes the amoral lifestyles of both Brett and Jake. Perhaps Hemingway expresses his view on sexually independent women through Brett because of the consequences he puts her through. Brett’s sex drive prevents her from having a relationship with Jake although she loves him. The Sun Also Rises is a riveting adventure through Jake and Brett’s relationship. Both Jake and Brett manage to escape their flawed relationship by excessive drinking. Because I was born in the Bible belt, if I even had such thing as a sex drive or touched alcohol, I would be shunned. May I remind you reading, and engaging are two different verbs. Hemingway provides the world that most people lust about. The major themes in The Sun Also Rises consist of issues the post modern generation often thinks about. Hemingway writes on excessive drinking, false friendships, failure of communication, destructiveness of sex, and male insecurity. Through Hemingway’s novel one could conclude the consequences of such distressing events, in hopes to one day survive internal struggles of your own. The Sun Also Rises acts as a teaching tool, as well as a fantasy world come to life. The novel is one of my favorites, in a world of false perfection I am able to resort to Hemingway. He places the realities of my life in fictional form. By doing so, I can translate the character’s situation to my own in hopes to truly understand and resolve the conflicts I may be going through. Hemingway is a literary genius. He knows what trials people will go through if its 1920 or 2008. I would recommend the novel to every walk of life. It helps.

go check it out

2008-02-17T17:42:00.000-08:00

The first time I ever read The Outsiders was in middle school. I first saw part of the movie at my aunt’s house in Winston Salem. I was instantly hooked on the movie whenever I was filled in on what had been happening before I had gotten there. But I am not a really big movie fan unless I have already read the book. I think that there is a big difference between books and movies. In the book, you get to imagine more than you do with movies, but movies are also fun because you can compare what you came up with in your imagination from the book, into what the director came up with for the movie. The Outsiders has been my favorite book since. It is also a movie for all of those non-readers out there. It is about a group of boys that are all friends. The book goes in order of events, it doesn’t jump around from past to present like some of the other books I have read. It is really easy to follow along with, and really hard to put down in my opinion. You don’t really know what is going to happen next in the boys crazy, mixed up lives, but it is fun to be along for the ride. I know that in the book the boys get into some trouble and two of them have to get away from the city. And then an unspeakable event happens at their hideaway. The book will defiantly not let you down, and you won’t be able to put it down. In my opinion, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is one of the best books I have ever read, and you should go and check it out at your local library or go rent to movie.

blogs and essays..

2008-02-17T17:12:00.000-08:00

Essays are different than blogs. Blogs do not really have a specific style, they are just writings. They do not have to have facts or opinions or anything like that. They are just letting people know about what is going on. And sort of how you feel. I think essays are more formal than blogs. They have a few guidelines to follow where as blogs do not. They each have something that gives you something out of writing them. With the essay, you get to write something, express your opinion, and know someone will read and respond to it. But with blogs, you just write, and do not know if anybody will read it, or if they well tell you what they think. The normally would tell you if they read it, but you never know. But I think blogs are better to express how you feel about a certain topic, or how your day went, sort of like a journal. But online. Susan Orlean says in The Essay‘s Subjectivity, “As near as I can figure, an essay can be… a query, a reminiscence, a persuasive tract, an exploration; it can look inward or outward; it can crack a lot of jokes. What if need not be is objective.” I think that she is saying that essays come in many different styles. They can be from a memory, or, a prediction, or just about any topic that you want. That you need to put feeling into an essay and make it your own, and not follow the normal pattern, make it stand out. It makes me think that she wants an essay to be like a blog. Full of opinions, some facts, but mostly feelings. Feelings from thoughts, from experiences, for all of the senses that you are able to use.

What exactly is a blog?

2008-02-17T15:38:00.000-08:00

What is a Blog? To me a blog is similar to that of an essay. I think that the only major differences are that a blog lets you let out more anger and feelings in a quicker and more efficient manner than an essay does. At least that is how I have always used a blog, I guess until now. I think blogs were developed to let your friends and fellow bloggers know how you feel without having to confront them face to face or having them to read a really long five paragraph paper on how you feel about a certain subject matter. I think blogging is a short and sweet way to voice your opinion without boring your reader. You can say whatever you feel without feeling any remorse over it, because it is your blog. Alan Lightman states “In reading an essay, I want to feel that I’m communing with a real person, and a person who cares about what he or she’s writing about. The words sound sentimental and trite, but the qualities are rare. For me, the ideal essay is not an assignment, to be dispatched efficiently and intelligently, but an exploration, a questioning, an introspection.” I disagree with Lightman, I think essays are boring, I think that it is just an assignment that you express a feeling efficiently and intelligently. I believe that if you wanted to voice your opinion in a more scholarly, intelligent way then you should write an essay because they seem to take more time and effort to develop. They have less grammatical errors and usually take more time to put together. Personally, I would much rather write a blog any day. I hate having to stay up all night the night before an essay is due trying to cram in all my thoughts and all the research that is needed to make the essay seem ‘perfect’.

Tennis L<3VER

2008-02-14T18:37:00.000-08:00

I am a tennis fanatic. I LOVE tennis and everything it has brought to my life. I can not begin to explain the phenomenon of how a simple sport like tennis ever evolved into a heart felt passion but it most certainly has become a part of who I am. I have devoted myself to the sport and it has been the best decision I ever made.

I love the competitiveness of tennis. It combines the elements of precision, excitement, and power to create a very competitive sport where on any given day the best can be beaten. What the average spectator doesn’t realize is that tennis is more than a game of perfect strokes but also a battle of mental strategy. I like to think of tennis as mental warfare. I approach every match I play with the same mind frame, which is that I have the ability win, no matter my opponent’s skill level, by simply monopolizing on my opponent’s weaknesses and seizing every opportunity in the match.

Tennis provides an atmosphere for conversation which can be found enjoyable for everyone. Tennis can be played on the weekends, recreationally, or on the club level. I love the tennis community and I have met a lot of friends through playing. My older brother and I have become great friends through the many hours we have spent together practicing the sport. Tennis is a life sport that you can play for your entire life. I plan on joining the club tennis team in college and as I get older I want to join a women’s league or at least force my husband to play with me.

Tennis is also a pretty inexpensive sport to play because all you need is a racquet, a comfortable pair of shoes, and a can of balls to have fun! I feel confident that the first time you play you will be hooked.

To persuade or not to persuade?

2008-02-14T14:44:00.000-08:00

I think the main difference in an essay and a blog is the way people approach each of them. When I know I have an essay to write, I absolutely dread every minute up until I turn it in. I like what Lauren Slater had to say about essays – she said, “They occupy a quirky place in the general genre of nonfiction, a place many people seem not to understand.” This applies to me, because I am never quite sure how to set up my essays, or who I should be writing it to, etc. But, with a blog, I don’t really care who reads it! It seems to me that blogs are much more laidback pieces of writing then essays. Most of the time, people write blogs because they want to, as opposed to a student being forced to write an essay. Also, I believe that people often begin writing essays and feel that they need to adhere to the “norm” of what they are taught an essay should look like. They feel that it should be set in the standard five paragraph paper and convince the reader to believe what their thesis statement reads. Again, I agree with Lauren Slater when she said, “Essay writing is about transcribing the often convoluted process of thought, leaving your own brand of breadcrumbs in the forest so that those who want to can find their way to your door.” People who write essays are out to prove something to somebody, through their writings. Essays are usually about one topic, but blogs can be about anything and everything – within the same page! I know that I like writing blogs much more than essays, because of that laidback feeling of not having to worry about a grade, or if anybody is trying to learn from what I write. People who write blogs most likely don’t mind if their babbling changes anybody’s mind or not, and that’s what sets blogs apart from essays.

The Magic Of Ys

2008-02-14T09:34:00.000-08:00

Joanna Newsom has created a masterpiece with her new album Ys. It is a five song, fifty five minute epic full of magic and wonder.

Joanna Newsom plays a Lyon & Healy style 11 pedal harp. She has almost an obsession with melody and the harmonies in her songs. This may be due in part to the fact that she originally wanted to be a composer, and went to college to study to become a composer. All these components come together in her music to create music that is greatly unlike most music listened to by the general public. I mean, who plays a harp?

Her song narratives have a classical aesthetic full of antique speech. She has a very distinctive voice in which she sings. This may turn off the casual listener, but to a listener who is drawn in by her voice, her storytelling, and her music; it makes for an enjoyable and unique experience.

A major difference in Ys and Newsom’s previous album The Milk-Eyed Mender is the fact that she recruited Van Dyke Parks, a famous composer, to help with orchestral arrangements on the album. The orchestral arrangements accompany her harp playing on this album to create this wonderful album.

If you are interested in listening to something different than your average music, give Joanna Newsom a try. Her voice and narrative will wrap you up and take you into the world in which she is describing. The accompanying music will aid in the taking over of your surroundings in reality.

The harp is a really nice instrument to listen to, and Joanna Newsom’s melodies are astounding. She can really play that harp. Just let yourself be wrapped up in her voice and just listen to the music and just flow, and you can have an experience that is not often had with an album.

Differences between a Blog and Essay

2008-02-13T10:27:00.000-08:00

What are the differences in a blog and an essay? Well I don’t believe there are many differences between a blog and an essay. In “Essays are Not Scientific Documents,” it is said that essays aren’t necessarily all based on fact, and that they can even be “tongue-and-cheek, satire or testimony.” So this to me means that just because you are writing it down in what is considered the “essay form” it does not have to be based on a fact or just used for classroom and presentation purposes. The essay gives you information but just because it comes to you in the form of an essay doesn’t mean that it is factual and that you have to believe what it is telling you, even though they can be trying persuading you to lean towards the direction they are going with the topic at hand. Now in “What is a blog?” it also states that blogs are completely personal and are more like personal diaries. Even though I perceive an essay to have more structure and form than a blog would they really don’t have very different content. The essay can tell you about what is going on around them or what is happening but may not be presented in the personal way that a blog may be. Blogs do keep going though, essays have more closure at the end as appose to a blog where it can keep going as long as someone still has something to say about it or the blog has been posted somewhere for others to read and keep talking about . Okay so maybe the two of the have more differences than I originally thought but I still think that they are basically the same thing, just usually presented and interpreted in different ways but mostly containing similar information.

Dream Slightly Revised

2008-02-13T10:22:00.002-08:00

Growing up I always believed what everyone said pertaining my future, “Katie, you can be anything you want to be when you grow-up!” Well now at 18 and trying to figure out what it is that I want to do with the rest of my life, the rude reality has hit and I can’t be whatever I want to be just because I want to. From the age of about five I always wanted to be a surgeon. My mother use to get so mad at me for stealing her stethoscope and her scrubs and running around the house touching everything I thought might have a heartbeat, whether it did or not who’s to say, and I would get so excited when I actually heard something. Growing up I was always one of those weird kids who when someone got hurt on the playground or out back behind my house I would try to fix them in any way I knew how, even if it was just sticking band-aids all over them. I started getting into the discovery health shows about surgeries around the 3rd grade and it still kills my parents when they walk into the room and there are people’s insides and a lot of blood all over the television but I am completely fascinated by the whole process. I love everything in health care, all the way from the diagnosis to recovery. Now that I have grown up I realize that not just anyone can be a surgeon I have had to change my direction a little bit. It takes years of school and being very intelligent to become a surgeon and I have realized that I don’t think I would be able to handle all the responsibility that comes along with the job. I have realized that I would still like to pursue nursing though, and even specialize in surgery. Even though I know I’m not going to be able to obtain my childhood dream of being a surgeon I am getting very excited about starting the process to achieve my slightly revised dream.

It's just a jump to the left...

2008-02-12T17:18:00.000-08:00

Rocky Horror- I don't know if it was the atmosphere when I first saw this masterpiece, or the overly dramatic comedy, and catchy tunes that made me fall in love.

It was on new years night/morning, I was with my boss, his room mate, and her boy friend. I had never seen the movie, however, I always noticed it was referenced at random times in other forms of media. When my boss' room mate emerged with the DVD in her hand, it occurred to me- I've yet to be culturally educated by this specific work. When she put it in, I wondered what this adventure into the unknown held for me. Never actually reading a synopsis on the movie, I only went into this experience with the knowledge of "hey... this movie is referenced all the time!" The only other franchise that comes to mind that could hold a candle to Rocky Horror's fame in references would have to be Star Wars.

The movie started, and as it went along I discovered other interesting connections to this movie made in pop culture. Things like some of Manson's outfits he wore on tour, or Jimmy Urine's bisexual antics. The classic tunes took no time to introduce themselves. Who doesn't know the time warp? I was observing an epic tale of a couple, Brad and Janet, that ran into the wall of the unpredictable. When they are stranded In the middle of nowhere with only one place around for miles and miles. This place is none other than the house of Doctor Frank N. Furter (yes, he's the satirist's answer to Doctor Frankenstein). Frank N. Furter is a sweet transvestite that wants to create the perfect man. As the night goes on they are faced with "coming of age" problems, and are truly tested with moral dilemmas. If there is a correct time for anyone to watch Rocky Horror, it's when you're an older teenager. I know this movie is something i will probably take with me through the ages.

Jon for Every Season

2008-02-11T20:01:00.000-08:00

Previewing clips of unreleased music on the internet, reading reviews, and rushing to the store to buy an EP? Why would anyone go through that much trouble for only a few songs? The answer: Jon Foreman has not only reinvented the EP but also released genius music. Foreman has cleverly composed a series of four EPs that showcase his personal songwriting and musical talent leaving his audience craving for more. After hearing the digital release of “Fall,” I bought the hard copy of “Fall, Winter” the week it came out in stores. And now that I have overplayed both EPs I am in great anticipation for the third EP, “Spring.”
There is a great difference between Foreman’s musical style in his internationally-renown band, Switchfoot, and his personal EP series. Instead of an energetic rock band, Jon reforms to his acoustic guitar and harmonica to produce some of the best folk music that I have heard in a while. In his personal releases Foreman also plays some solo piano pieces that convey the same peaceful mood of his EPs.
Although his music altered, Foreman continues to write good, honest lyrics. He craftily mixes a basic topic and personal experiences and creates a song. For example, in “Somebody’s Baby” Foreman depicts a homeless woman he saw brushing her teeth and the opposition she faces from society. The homeless woman is displayed as “somebody’s baby girl” who is not cared for because “when the people don’t want you, they just throw you money for beer.” Jon realistically ends the song with her “birth and the death were both over with no one to grieve.” However, Jon is not limited to concrete themes, but also writes in metaphors. His song, “My Love Goes Free,” is based on a caged bird that has a special song to sing to the world. The song was featured in the movie “Bella” and is a metaphor relating to the issues of abortion. Both “Somebody’s Baby” and “My Love Goes Free” are evidence of Jon Foreman’s skilled writing.
Thankfully the sequel, “Spring, Summer,” will be released this upcoming year along with four other albums. Jon Foreman is involved with several different musical projects and has a unique sound for each. Switchfoot will be releasing a full-length rock album while The Real Sean Jon will release pieces from Foreman’s acoustic project with Sean Watkins. With three different projects, Jon shows his ability to capture various audiences. I was originally drawn into Foreman’s music in middle school with their radio debut on my favorite rock station. I instantly became a fan of Switchfoot but looking back on the over-popular song that first caught my attention, I realize that I have grown in my music taste. Fortunately Jon’s music has matured as well. He not only appeals to various audiences but grows with them too; true talent! The fact that Foreman has a ten-year reputation for releasing quality music makes me anticipate 2008.

Blog on Blog...

2008-02-11T18:53:00.000-08:00

I always pictured a blog as a sort of diary, just instead of writing it in a notebook with a lock on the outside. A blog is actually very public. It is like giving the whole world the key to your diary. A blog to me simply expresses your feelings and states your opinions. People all over the world write blogs. They write about how their day is, their political ideals, and some write about other useless crap, like Britney Spears, that nobody cares about. How is that any different from an essay? Cynthia Ozick even stated “A genuine essay has no educational, polemical, or sociopolitical use; it is the movement of the free mind at play.” I like the way Ozick put this because teachers make me feel like I have to learn something and instead of writing an essay about my opinion on the subject matter, I have to let my opinions go in one ear and out the other, regurgitating the information they gave me on a piece of paper. I would definitely say the two are pretty much the same thing. I would also say that an essay goes more in depth. I say that an essay goes more into detail and develops a true structure with a beginning, middle, and end. A blog can be random and all over the place. A blog is basically a summary and a blogger doesn’t necessarily have to elaborate on their opinions or prove them to their audience. A blogger can simply state “I hate cheeseburgers, deal,” and they do not have to explain themselves at all. The viewer may want to know “Why do you hate them? Are you a vegetarian?” When writing an essay I believe it is imperative to be thorough when explaining the writer wouldn’t want to leave their audience hanging. Right?

Getting Into a Galaxy Far, Far Away

2008-02-11T16:44:00.000-08:00

Star Wars has been a favorite of the public since its inception over thirty years ago. I have loved Star Wars since I was a child. It brings people together, providing them with escape from their worlds and into the large variety of media spin-offs.
People choose to celebrate their love of Star Wars in several different ways. Many go to conventions dressed up as their favorite characters such as Princess Leia or Darth Vader. I have never been to a convention before. Although, I did have to dress up as Princess Leia for a dance recital! I would absolutely love to go to one of the conventions, dressed up or not. A friend of mine and her boyfriend has a mutual love of Star Wars. They plan to get married in a Star Wars themed wedding. He wants to dress as a Jedi and have a man dressed as Yoda marry them. I have visited some of the best Star Wars fansites out of the millions that are on the Internet. My favorites are TheForce.Net, Wookieepedia, Viridity and The Other Side of the Sky. The latter two are dedicated to Jacen and Jaina Solo, respectively.
Everyone has a time where they would like to break away from reality. I choose to escape through reading a good book or by watching something on TV. I am able to do this with Star Wars. My favorites of the films are Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi. About 99% of the books I read are Star Wars books. I find the mixture of science fiction, action/adventure, romance and mythology refreshing. I can relate to most of the characters. Some of the best characters are the ones who make morally ambiguous decisions.
The saga of Star Wars is not told only in the famous film series. The stories are continued and built upon in the Expanded Universe. The Expanded Universe incorporates the officially licensed books, comics, video games, etc. I own over seventy books and have read the majority of them. My favorite is The Last Command, in which Han and Leia have their twins. I have a few comics. I am currently following the story of Luke’s descendant Cade Skywalker in the Star Wars: Legacy comics. I eagerly await the new Clone Wars TV series coming in the fall and the live action series next year.
I encourage those of you who are reading this to give Star Wars a try, if you haven’t already. Watch one of the movies. Read a book or comic. If you find that you don’t like Star Wars, that is fine. If you find that you do, great! But just give it a chance. May the Force be with you!

My Unchanging Fascination with Narnia

2008-02-11T14:28:00.000-08:00

C.S. Lewis, author and respected theologian, simply writes about what he loves in his book series, The Chronicles of Narnia. The series is full of fantasy, adventure, and spiritual truths that are a picture of C.S. Lewis’s faith. One of my favorite aspects of the Chronicles is the fact that their writer has to be one of the deepest spiritual minds in history, yet he values the simple childlike faith of the children in his books. Even though Lewis infused his faith into these books, the series has been my favorite ever since I can remember. My fascination with them as a fourth grader has not changed, even when my perception of the books has. The Chronicles of Narnia remains my favorite book series because the stories themselves are beautiful and exciting and because I can be encouraged by C.S. Lewis’s incredible faith while reading them.
My favorite books are those that provide escape into a very different world, especially into a world so beautifully different like Narnia. From the account of Narnia’s beginning in The Magician’s Nephew to the battle scenes in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the books keep me consistently captivated.
Ironically, while I love the fantasy and incredulity of the stories, The Chronicles of Narnia also encourages me because of the truths that are throughout the series. C.S. Lewis said that no novel is good unless it can be appreciated both as a child and as an adult, and I have come to agree with him. Even now, as a senior in high school, I still love to follow Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy through their adventures. Yet now, I can see a deeper level to the stories that I could not see when I was younger.
I love to read C.S. Lewis’s beautiful interpretation of the Creation story of Genesis in The Magician’s Nephew, when he accounts for the creation of Narnia. In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Aslan, a picture of Jesus Christ, takes on the sin and punishment of Edmund and is brutally killed by the White Witch. This part of the story reminds me of the need I have for that kind of grace and of how thankful I should be that Jesus made that kind of sacrifice. Later, Susan and Lucy watch as Aslan is raised to life again, just as Jesus was made alive. I love to read these books, simply because I can find incredible reminders of what God has done.

Essays vs. Blogs

2008-02-09T09:11:00.000-08:00

When I think of writing, my stomach instinctively tightens. A normal writing experience for me always includes a long night spent stressing out over a five page essay that is due the next morning. I have never done well with the constraints that are included with essay writing. I am much more relaxed when I finally have the chance to write with a little creativity. I think the amount of creativity is the biggest difference between essays and more informal writing, such as blogs. According to Joseph Epstein, “the essayist never comes out to tell you his view of the matter being discussed, never attempts directly to assert his personality, and never even slips into the first- person singular.” When writing a blog, the writer has so much more freedom to express their individuality without necessarily worrying about being criticized. No person ever writes an essay unless their English teacher has assigned it or unless they want to express more serious ideas on a more educational topic. For example, a scientist writing a lab report is required to follow certain guidelines in order to cover the details and technicalities that must be included. Basically, essays are just pretty serious stuff. I think a blog can best be compared to a person being interviewed. I agree with Edward Hoagland’s opinion that during an interview, “you are not interested in the exact words that come out of the people’s mouths but in the essence of their meaning.” A long winded conversation is not what anyone wants to hear and so in contrast, blogs allow for the writer to get straight to the point. Blogs can be developed in a few short sentences. However, an essay requires five or more paragraphs before the topic have been fully discussed and usually by that your reader has become bored with your writing. I would definitely chose blogging over an essay any day!

Strive for Sophistication

2008-02-07T14:04:00.000-08:00

Writing for college requires depth and critical thinking. When you write an essay, a research paper, a lab report, an analysis, a piece of creative fiction . . . or in this case, a blog . . . you are being asked to cogently string together pieces of your intellect, your ability to think critically about complex information, and your ability to phrase your knowledge in such a way that your reader (someone other than yourself) can understand.

There are baseline requirements for college writing: you must yield to accepted spelling, punctuation, grammar, syntax and form rules. There are sentence and paragraph level expectations: that you can use a variety of sentence patterns - simple, compound, complex, compound-complex, that you can transition from one written thought to another in a logical manner, and that you can embrace a college level vocabulary with finesse and proficiency. There are accepted patterns for writing college papers based on the traditional five paragraph model. There are expected protocols for eliminating tangential thinking on paper and keeping a thesis in focus throughout.

But when all is said and done, your grader (generally your instructor) does not want to be bored by your writing. To cinch an "A" for a college level paper, go the extra mile and strive to inspire, entertain, or at the very least, provoke.

You really have no idea how many papers professors read every single day; don't let yours be flat, stagnant, and simplistic. Let yours be sophisticated.

Importance of the Past

2008-02-07T11:39:00.000-08:00

Great moments are achieved through great opportunity. From those opportunites that have been exploited, we have made goals in life's roadway acheivable. History is not just a torture chamber of dates and names that we lived through school with. It is a rule book of past lessons learned in defeats and in victories. A lot of our life questions are about things that have already been practiced by our ancestors. Yet we find constant turmoil in the fact that we cannot seem to find the answer to life's questions when we do know that we are not the first ones to experience these questions. My point really is to drive home the part history plays in our everyday lives today. In 1914 a certain group of leaders from several Europeon countries met to discuss social and political issues. There were representaives from Germany, Italy, France, England, and a delegation from the Austrian Hungarian Empire as well. They all sat down to discuss and converse, to the betterment of the Europeon nations. One thing they could not agree on was seeing the matter from the others point of view, resulting in prideful greed. The result of this conference was not a happy one, these leaders ended up facing each other on two other occasions. The first being a meeting on several diffrent battle fields in France, and the other being in the surrender of Germany and the Austiran Hungarian Empire. This conference is laid out in a wildly acclaimed book entitled "The Guns of August". WWI was kindled by this conference of confusion and distrust that was seen across the desks of these noblemen. From this we see that confusion in our world today can be taken to such extremes that a world war can be the culmination of it. A study of our past can bring about certain advantages in our day and time. Do we still negotiate with the point of a gun? Well that's hard to answer, at times. We, the United States, do not point our gun at England and use them like a puppet, as some say we do. We have learned through history that it is more sufficient to talk things out instead of assuming and firing. This may seem hardly like an in depth look at why history is important; yet I think that history has taught me to teach things on a basic level and build the students thoughts on your subject before throwing them into something that would be way over there heads. You may think that the world is a mess, and going down and never rising again. As that may be the case, I'm just glad that we do not have the mindset of the 16th century and be in possesion of nuclear war heads. Yes! Several lessons, but all I need is one small one to make a point.

Blogssay?

2008-02-06T21:20:00.000-08:00

The general idea of both an essay and a blog is to deliver a message to another reader. Alan Lightman believes that the ideal essay “communes with a real person.” While I feel that this is true, I think that the message communed is more quantitative with an essay. With a blog, the message is more qualitative. I feel the differences in a painted portrait and a well tagged wall is much similar. One is a fine work of art that has one specific purpose; the other is a fine work of art that can be viewed from many perspectives. I hate how disconnected essays can feel. Blogs feel like they’re actually something a person wanted to right. Lightman feels that the essay “is not an assignment,” I feel he is got the concept of the essay and blog mixed up. I have never written an essay for fun. However, if I thought people valued my ideas enough, I would write blogs all the time. I find that when essays are written, they are told by some other person “write an essay about this subject.” Lightman describes how he’s “going on a journey” when he reads an essay. How can you go on a journey into the unknown when you are reading an essay that was assigned? Maybe I could agree with Lightman if he reads random essays, but who does that? Show me someone that likes to read essays for fun, and I’ll show you a liar. I can understand reading a blog (someone’s collection of ideas) for fun. However, I cannot read something someone has simply vomited on paper because some person told them to. There’s too much polish and criticism on the line with an essay. There’s no soul to it, only a shell. Shells can be pretty, but they hold no life, like essays. Blogs are like hermit crabs-moderately pretty shell, but there’s life with it. Life is much more beautiful than a pretty shell.

Regarding the essay and the blog.

2008-02-06T10:43:00.000-08:00

Essays are indeed different than blogs. The both express They are different because blogs are used to quickly and efficiently get one's thoughts out of one's head in a form that can be easily communicated to others, while an essay is a slow, arduous process of having an idea or thought and trying to communicate it to others in a more structured manner. Essays are more concerned with proper sentence stucture as well as all of those concepts of an essay.

Blogs are something that someone can just sit down out and spill their thoughts, with some leaniency on proper sentence structure and the correctness of the grammer in favor of the writing being able to be more stream of consciousness. This format has quite an appeal for those who want an outlet to easily write out their ideas.

An essay, on the other hand, has more power than a blog. The appearance of an essay itself exudes a well organized thought process, what with the paragraph structure on the page and what not. The essay is a respectable outlet to impart an idea or knowledge with your own personal flair thrown in the mix. I must agree with Joyce Carol Oates' statement that, "The essays transcend their data, or transmute it into personal meaning." When someone reads an essay it tends to have a much stronger impact because of its well thought out communication and organized structure.

In my opinion, blogs seem to say, "Here's what I think", while the essay presents thoughts along with supporting ideas; not merely a blunt statement. I believe an essay is a better format to communicate thoughts because essays are just taken more seriously, and rightly so. I like how Joyce Carol Oates states that, "Indeed, in the most brilliant essays, language is not merely the medium of communication; it is communication."

2008-02-05T17:56:00.000-08:00

The essay defines ones self, is backed up by educated opinions and is polished to
perfection. The blog, however, is the casual essay. Blogs allow for a few grammar
mistakes; they may even contain “racier” material. I value essays more than blogs,
not simply because they may have less grammatical errors but the opinion in most
essays is strong. The opinion is researched and thought over by the author many
times. Don’t get me wrong blog opinions are also researched and thought over but
honestly if one publishes a blog everyday- the opinion of the author has the tendency
to change more often than that of an essay that has been edited and edited for six
months. Blogs are casual displays of things. I love blogs, infact, I prefer reading
blogs more because I am more likely to read the real thoughts of the author before
they are thought over for months. Essays are to autobiographies as blogs are to
reality TV. Both are real however the autobiography has time to “ferment” and take
on the perfect bias of the person it is highlighting. Blogs are real they depict
the authors opinion on that day at that time there is no swaying- no editing- they
are the personal preference of the author here and now. Until the public is educated
fully on blogs and essays- the blog is always going to have “leeway” on content.
People expect essays to be professional. Take Thomas Paine’s essay Common Sense.
If Paine used incorrect grammar and forgot to site his sources the world would not
take him serious. Instead he wrote in essay form, in turn allowing political decisions
to be based upon his essay. What matters most about both essays and blogs, Susan Orlean says best, “…they convey the writer’s journey, and [do] it intelligently, gracefully, honestly, and with whatever voice or shape fit best."

How essays and blogs are different

2008-02-05T17:21:00.000-08:00

An essay is a non-fiction but often subjective piece of writing. Almost all modern essays are written in prose, which is writhing distinguished from poetry by its greater variety of rhythm and its closer resemblance to everyday speech. Annie Dillard says, “The essay is, and has been, all over the map. There’s nothing you cannot do with it; no subject is forbidden, no structure is proscribed.” Blogs unlike an essay can be used as online diary. Since blogs are online you can combine the use of text with images and links to other websites with the related topic. The people who visit and read a blog can leave comments if they would like to. Like essay having many different types, blogs do also. The different kinds of blogs are artlog, photoblog, sketchblog, vlog, MP3 blog, podcasting and micro-blogging. Essays and blogs are different in which you can respond to the Arthur right away. With essay you can respond to the writer unless the essay you read is published. An essay is in depth piece of writing on a certain topic. A blog focus on one topic also but it doesn’t go in to great detail. Another difference between essays and blogs is the length. The length really doesn’t matter as long as you cover all the details. They are also different by the type of tense the writer uses in it. In an essay a writer would not use first person but in a blog it is the writers option so he or she would use first person. Essays and blogs are the same by means that the writer is passionate about what he or she is writing or they wouldn’t write. I think that essays and blogs hold the same value it just depends on the reader. Essays are better to read if you want facts as long as the writer did some research. If you don’t like to read a lot a blog would be your best bet.

How Essays and Blogs Relate

2008-02-04T17:18:00.000-08:00

An essay is a piece of nonfiction writing that usually expresses the writer’s point of view. The writer has to make sure that he or she will be understood by whoever reads their work. An essay is not easily defined because there are many different types. An essay can be narrative or argumentative, reflective or persuasive. In an argumentative essay, a person would address a controversial issue and give their position and support their position. In a persuasion essay, the writer tries to convince the reader to accept his or her opinion. Subjects of an abstract nature are talked about in reflective essays.
A web log, commonly known as a blog, is a website where the up to date entries are viewed first. A blog can be used as a personal diary. Someone may use their blog for commentary on politics or the latest episode of their favorite television show. An amateur journalist may use his blog to announce breaking news. A special feature of the blog is the ability for readers to publish their comments and opinions in response to the post. The blogger can decide who is able to read and comment to his or her blog.
Blogs and essays have distinct differences. Essays are written compositions but can be published online. Blogs are exclusive to the Internet. Blogs can consist of photos, art, and videos; whereas essays can only be made up of written words. A writer is required to support their position in an essay. Essays are made up of multiple paragraphs: introductory, body, and conclusion. The most commonly used form is the five paragraph essay, which has three body paragraphs. Blogs, on the other hand, have no established rules or formal structure. Sometimes, the line between essay and blog can be blurred. According to Joseph Epstein, “there is no standard essay.” Epstein also believes “what does unite almost all successful essays, no matter how divergent the subject, is that a strong personal presence is felt behind them.” This can also be said of blogs. Both essays and blogs are an organization of thoughts, usually on a particular topic. They both can give the writer a voice. Both forms of writing focus around the relationship between writer and reader.

What I want to be when I grow up

2008-02-03T09:06:00.000-08:00

When I was little what I wanted to be was not realistic at all. I wanted to be Cinderella. I was dressed up like Cinderella for Halloween every year. As I got older I knew I had to change what I wanted to be to something that was actually real. So I decided I wanted to be a lawyer because my uncle is one. Him and his family have everything that they want and I wanted to be able to have all the things I want. As school went on I found that I was not very good speaking in front of people and found out how much schooling they have to go through. The money would have been nice but there is no way I could have went through all that schooling. Then I changed my mind to doing cosmetology because I wanted to do something that would take the least amount of time in school. My mom told me that I wouldn’t be happy because they don’t make a lot of money. She told me to look at some other things. When my little sister was born and I saw the all the nursing taking care of her I knew that was what I wanted to do. I did some research on nursing. I found that it takes just about the same amount to schooling to do as it does to do hair and a nurse gets paid a lot more. I wanted to work in the nursery with all the newborn babies. I love to work with kids at least till a certain age. If you work at a hospital you have to work nights and weekends, holidays, and they can put you own any shift. Instead of working in a hospital I decided to work in a pediatric doctor office. I will be able to work kids until they start School.

Blogs and Essays: Dialogues Between Reader and Writer

2008-02-02T16:31:00.000-08:00

By definition, a blog can be both a "commentary or news on a particular subject" (Wikipedia) and, less formally, a personal online diary. A blog, because it is the expression of its writer and not merely a collection of facts, can easily be compared to an essay. Neither an essay nor a blog have many boundaries as far as the subject matter is concerned. Essays can be an expression of opinion, a narration, or any piece of writing from the author’s point of view. Similarly, a blog is an expression of its author. While blogs are created strictly online, essays are mainly printed or published as hardcopies. Because blogs are easily accessible online, they open up opportunities for feedback which essays cannot always receive. A key difference between blogs and essays is the reader's ability to comment on a blog. Probably the main reason blogs have become so popular is the fact that readers can so easily express their opinion, whether it agrees with or contradicts the writer's. Kathleen Norris insists that “always, and in glorious, mysterious ways that the author cannot control, [an essay] begins to belong to the reader.” She explains that a writer must “breathe life into the words on a page” so as to make his or her writing relative to its reader. Norris admits that the reader can either confirm the thoughts expressed in the essay or contradict them, but an essay must always be like “a dialogue between writer and reader.” I think that, according to Kathleen Norris’s description of an essay, blogs are very similar. Blogs, because they are personal, must always connect their writer and reader. And because the Internet makes blogs accessible to virtually anyone, they can acquire a diverse group of readers. These readers can immediately respond to the thoughts expressed in a blog, rather it be political, personal, etc. So blogs, more so than essays, can be an exchange between its writer and its reader.

You name it, I probably wanted to be it.

2008-02-01T22:29:00.001-08:00

When I was a little girl, I had many dreams. I aspired to be a range of things, from a paleontologist to a stay at home mom, with a rich husband. Haha. You name a job, I probably wanted to do that job. When I was about seven or so, I wanted to be a doctor, mainly because my older cousin Megan always talked about wanting to be a doctor. She was four years older than me and I always wanted to be just like her.

Then, when I was about eight or nine years old, I decided that I wanted to become a paleontologist, I guess this did not come as a big shock to my parents, since I had always had a fascination with rocks, fossils, bones, etc. When I was a tiny little girl, I would go outside in our driveway and pretend to find gems or fossils in our driveway, mainly on Sunday mornings before church. Then I would put them in bucket and wash them with a toothbrush and carry them into the house. My mom would always get upset with me because I would go dig and get into dirt in my church clothes. Soon after I decided that I was going to be a paleontologist, I began collecting every single book that I could on dinosaurs, how they lived, what type they were, and what their bones looked like. Finally, I had my mind set, I was going to travel the world scouring for fossils, mainly that of dinosaurs. I can even remember that one year for Christmas, “Santa” brought me the Paleontologist Barbie doll. It was my favorite toy that year, even though I got everything else that I asked for. Eventually, I grew out of wanting to be a paleontologist and jumped to another career.

At the age of eleven or so, I went back to the thought of being a doctor. I decided that I thought it would be cool to deliver babies, so I told my mom and she said that a gynecologist does that, I had no clue what that was, but then my mom explained all of what they did, I very quickly changed my mind to maybe a pediatrician, but I have a phobia of throw up, and I could picture a little kid throwing up on me, so that was definitely out of the question. So then that left me with the question of what am I going to do with my life?

Then, when I was about fourteen or so, I went through a personal experience that inspired me to become a lawyer. I can see myself as a future District Attorney, and I am pretty content with that decision. I have decided to pursue my career at Lenoir-Rhyne College, where I will major in Political Science and then continue on to graduate school to get my law degree.

Differences

2008-02-01T12:20:00.000-08:00

I think that an essay shares thoughts and personal beliefs with people, while presenting facts and figures to support and help you tell someone about it. It's basically building someone's knowledge of something, something that interests the author, and he or she now would like to make it a cool subject with others. It is a way of getting all your say out in one big hunk! Also, the essay is something that you would put into a paper, book or any other thing. While in a blog it's a little different. As it has been in this class, you're to share your beliefs about something that is not your favorite subject or about something you never have heard before. Mostly they are just little comments, usually answering a question, and does not go into full detail on things. In an essay, you get feedback, but not as quickly as you would through a blog. In a blog you get almost immediate feedback, and then oppinions. In a blog, you're more personal self comes out at times. You may think it wrong, but after hours of pouring over hundreds of documents of info about your essay, you would think that it would have a clear understanding of the way you stand on things. Yet blogs create the more personal account of things. When we are usually writing our blogs, we are talking on a peronal level, and being the fact that our friends comment on
it, creates a atmosphere that we are okay with. I think the reason for the blog, is to transfer our private, inner, talkative selves from our blog habits to the paper of an essay so as to not make it sound like a silly report due for class. A blog however is personal and we get more down to earth in our thinking as friends and individuals when it comes to sharing concerns and statements in blogs. Why, you ask. Well it's very simple. Blogs are statements made by us, when our minds are traveling as fast as we can type the words we see in our head. As already said, in the essay, we have made time to correct and delete anything that would not interest our readers. So basically when we are posting a blog, or responding to one, we are sharing our real personal feelings right on the spot. "The essay is a dialogue, something about a world that I didn't know"---Kathleen Norris. Norris was trying to tell us that the way things are expressed is the key in writing. So when we look at the differences between the two, essay being long thought out papers, and then the blog as on the spot real conclusions about our beliefs; we see that blogs tend to be a little more of a greater strategy in finding someone's inner self. To wrap this up, the difference I see is that one seems to be more certain to change someone's mind to your cause, and one seems to just encourage argument, and or questions.

An Upgraded Essay

2008-02-01T09:25:00.000-08:00

The conversational style displayed in both essays and blogs form an intersection in the world of literature. Joseph Epstein explains that “there is no firmly set, single style for the essayist.” Epstein comments on William Hazlitt’s “Familiar Style” that recommends the essayist set “aside all pedantic and oratorical flourishes.” Blogs and essays both allow conversational, relaxed styles and are well received if they have good personalities. Blogger labels a blog as a “personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox.” Likewise, an essay “can be literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author,” according to Wikipedia. Because blogs and essays are often personal, the liberty to add personality is not terribly difficult.
The primary differences between blogs and essays reside in their format and their time span. Blogs are strictly located on the internet while most essays are printed material. Although some essays are electronic, the ability to comment and continue the essay is not available. An admired aspect of a blog is the ability to leave personal comments. Daniel Kasman, a writer for the popular film discussion blog MilkPlus, thinks that posted comments will keep a blog “fresh and full of discourse.” The continuity of a blog is also attainable because more blogs can be posted. As Blogger writes bluntly, “a blog is a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what's new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not.” The blog comments and continual bloging add more life and personality, so in a sense a blog grows and blossoms while an essay becomes stagnant. Due to the easy access and growth, I think blogs are better than essays. I simply think that blogs are an upgraded essay; the same flexible style and personality with a few electronic enhancements.

when I grow up, I wanna be..

2008-01-31T10:19:00.000-08:00

Throughout the years of playing with barbies with my sister, Tiffany, and my cousin, Katie, and playing with legos with my cousin, Jonathan, I figured out what I wanted to do with my life whenever I grew up. I mean, does anybody ever really grow up? My dad still watches cartoons and eats ice cream at night. He sometimes even complains whenever we don't have any in the house. Temper tantrum? Wait, I thought only babies got those, well, guess not, he is 43 years old. Nobody in my family has been to college, well, two of my older cousins are currently in college, but I'm not as close to them as I use to be. My parents didn't go, and my older sister didn't either, so I'll pretty much be the first one. I actually plan on majoring in criminal justice and chemistry and being a minor in Spanish. I got everything already worked out. The crime shows on television seem fun, and cool, but that is not actually what really happens. I know that through my internship at the sheriff's office. I work with the detectives there in the detective division. They are pretty cool, but they don't do all the stuff that the television makes you think that they do. There is a lot more paper work involved than the crime shows lead you to believe. But that is what I want to do with my life. I want to be a detective. Maybe work for the FBI if I get the opportunity. I would like to do an internship there one summer break from college. That would be a hard internship to get, but it would be a dream one. I think that it would be amazing. If I don't get to work with the FBI, then I will work for a local or state branch of law enforcement in the detective part. I want to work mainly with children and sex cases. Being a woman, I know I would get that case before the men would because of motherly instinct. Also, because I have learned that those cases normally go to women through my criminal justice class. So, when I was younger, my parents use to say that I was going to be president whenever I got older. Then I would then tell whoever they were talking to that I did not want to be the president, I would much rather protect him and everyone else instead.

Where are we going?

2008-01-31T09:05:00.000-08:00

When we’re children we often want to be the people that are glorified. Some typical jobs like cops, firefighters, astronauts, maybe cowboys and doctors come to mind. As the kids grow up they see who really gets the limelight- rock stars, movie stars, and T.V. personalities.
I myself fall victim to the latter. Who doesn’t want to be the attractive and talented David Bowie? Who doesn’t want to be the ecstatic Jimmy Urine? I honestly can’t think of a single person who would rather be someone else at some point in time. Sometimes I wish I could even be the president. However, if no boundaries held me down, I would want to be God. Oh please! Don’t give me that Bruce Almighty stuff, about how being god would be hard. If he’s omnipotent, that means he’s everywhere. God can’t be a single focused entity, so how hard could it be to listen to people? There would be millions of me. Anything I could ever imagine or want, all within the snap of a finger. The only downfall that would come with being the G-Man would be the fact that things as trivial as money and lust don’t phase him. So, to be the ultimate I don’t think would be all that fun. Of course the job wouldn’t be difficult in the sense of the work that needed to be done. However, I would sit on my throne of light for all eternity, and be ultimately affected by nothing. I would watch man’s entire existence pass in less than a blink of an eye and not think twice about it. Then, snap my fingers and destroy a mountain, or shed a tear and create an ocean. Being God would be interesting, and the ultimate reality for about 10 minutes. But then being God would be boring and never ending. The occasional hurricane Katrina prank would be good for a laugh every now, but in the end it's uninteresting, and detached. It becomes like all things humans take part in.
After thinking about it all, I think I’ll settle for Del Tha Funkee or David Bowie. Perhaps I would be Johnny Depp, he makes the ladies melt. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll settle for being a little peaceful nobody, that’ll sleep his way through life. Maybe I’ll be the nobody without regrets or live without having to answer to the ever present eye of the public. Yes, that sounds like it’ll be good, I’ll take it.

Indecisive.

2008-01-30T18:57:00.000-08:00

When I was little, I tried not to think about the fact that I would eventually grow up and have to do something other than play. As a child I would have been perfectly content with playing Power Rangers with my cousin, Alex, for the rest of my life. But, I eventually came to realize that that just wasn’t an option for a career. And, just as I am now, I went from one idea to another for a career as often as I changed my shirt it seemed. For a while, for some reason, I wanted to be a librarian. I remember this because of my piano teacher’s reaction to it when I told her. Because if you know me, than you know there’s no way I could be a librarian. When I started riding horses I wanted to be a horse trainer. That lasted until my stirrup fell off and I landed face first on the ground. After that incident, I focused my energies on other animals and thought about becoming a veterinarian. Soon after that I realized I’d never be able to put up with animals, that can’t TELL you what’s wrong, all day every day. So, I thought… well, people can say what’s wrong, so maybe being a doctor would be alright. But, I hate blood. So, that was a no. Skipping ahead to the past year or so, I've flirted with the idea of becoming a social worker. But, I’m too scared to pursue that career for fear of becoming too attached to the cases and just ending up a complete emotional wreck. Throughout all of my years, I’ve thought about teaching, counseling, doctoring, and many other things… but, I’ve never been able to completely decide what I would be if I could be anything in the world. Even if there were no boundaries – nothing at all to hold me back, I’m still not sure if I could make a decision without trying a little bit of it all first.

Ruminations on what could be.

2008-01-30T18:51:00.000-08:00

As each year goes by, more and more opportunities seem to slip away. With the decisions I've made, and have yet to make, opportunities have either turned away or been awakened.

If there were no obstacles in the way of achieving my dream, I would be a musician. I would play dark venues with my customized light setup, stand in front of my equipment, and make everyone on the dance floor move.

With no time wasted on schoolwork, job searching, or listening to my parents, I could devote all of my time to my music. With money not being a priority, I could purchase all the equipment I need to produce great electronic music.

I would become specifically an electronic musician because I love spending all my time making music. I would make only electronic music because that is the music that interests me most in terms of creating it.

There are so many possibilities and so many toys to use today to create sounds and beats for electronic music that it is becomes almost like a kid in a candy store type wonderland of equipment available. One of the big things about electronic music is experimentation and that is something I find very fun. I could easily spend every waking hour experimenting with equipment creating new sounds and beats until I have a final product that I am satisfied with and am pleased with the experimentation that was involved in creating the song.

Also, it would really please me if other people connected with and enjoyed my musical creations. To play a show and have the crowd bouncing at a rave or something would just be amazing. It would be amazing to have that sort of connection with everyone, especially because it would be my music bringing everyone together.

Making my dreams a reality…

2008-01-30T16:11:00.000-08:00

When I was little, kids would always say they wanted to be a police officer, doctor, or teacher. I was different. I have wanted to be the same thing since I was 4 years old. I have never changed my mind and I think that is pretty cool. Still today I say, “I want to be a dolphin trainer when I grow up!” I am very passionate about my dream. It is somewhat crazy, but just talking about my future career makes me really excited and I even have a few butterflies. When I was about 4 years old, I was picked from an audience at SeaWorld to be in the dolphin show. Since then, I guess you could say, my life has been drastically changed.
When I ask people at school about what they want to be, not many people truly know what they want to do with their lives. These people keep changing their minds, especially in high school, and even during their senior year. I have even heard of people changing their minds half way through college! I think that career opportunities have changed significantly in the last few decades. When I was talking to my teacher, Mrs. Callison, she told me that when she was in school, a person pretty much knew what they were going to do with their lives almost as late as freshman year in high school. She told me that people in her generation did not really change their minds, they picked one career and stuck with it for life. Especially for women (and the major disappearance of most of the glass ceiling), careers are more accessible and you are able to make your dreams come true.
For me personally, I want to have a job where I love to get up for work every single day regardless of the size of the paycheck. Ultimately, I am working to make my dreams a reality. I am going to UNC Wilmington to study psychology and marine biology to someday become what I have always wanted to be when I grow up.

Creepy Crawlies and Everything Nice

2008-01-29T19:11:00.000-08:00

As a child, my interests and thoughts changed like the weather. I had a best friend whom I spent most everyday day with during the summer. We would bike to each others houses and it was always a mystery what we might be up to that day. I don’t know if it was her or I who came up with idea to be “explorers” but I do remember the game was something we played quite often. Infact, for one summer the game became more of a way of life. It became necessary to carry survival back packs with us at all times. I always carried a pair of binoculars and she always carried a bird watching book (incase we ever need to identify an unknown species!). For fear that we might lose our way; we also always carried a hand drawn map of the neighborhood. Exploring was hard work and we prided ourselves on the ability to compromise work before play. My brother, being a devout Boy Scout, shared with us the Boy Scout way of life and so we took to heart the idea that we always had to be prepared. In order to get ready for big expeditions, we would practice drawing treasure maps on her driveway, studiously study the Mary Kate and Ashley detective movies, and earn funds for our planned trip by setting up a lemonade stand. We also had several trial camping trips in the middle of her living room. Anyway, the game of “explorers” ended as quickly as it started because we both came to the realization that I was too afraid of the dark and she was too afraid of creepy crawlies for us to ever have enough courage to enter into the unknown (or woods!).
Thinking back to my childhood, I see that my accomplishments and failures, such as not becoming the next great explorer, are not only a part of my past and who I am today but also a part of my future. If there were no obstacles in my way, I would love nothing more then to travel the world and experience other cultures firsthand.

When I Grow Up

2008-01-29T07:34:00.000-08:00

In elementary school I did not want to grow up at all. As a matter of fact, my friends and I would pretend that we had a time machine that could reverse our ages. I look back on this embarrassing memory and find myself to be a very creative little kid. Every afternoon during recess we would race to the flag pole located in the middle of the school playground. The four of us would hang on the pole with one hand and run around it pretending to spin through imaginary time portals. It only made sense to us that our ages would change forwards or backwards depending on the direction that we went around the pole. When we finished spinning we would act a different age and then spin back through time just before the bell rang. It’s not that I dreaded being older; I just did not want to be forced into adulthood. Although we often ran backwards and acted like babies, I enjoyed it most when we ran forwards and acted like we were teenagers. I thought that being a teenager was the best thing that I could be when I grew up. The ideas of being able to drive, being in high school, and having a job sounded like fun.
Now that I drive, am in high school, and have a job I think my childhood mindset was a little off. Independence if something that I enjoy; however, schoolwork and work are not necessarily fun. Instead I find school as a big, never-ending “to do” list. While work is more like indentured servitude that will pay of my college bills. A little older now I realize that I do not mind growing up into an adult with responsibility. At times I look forward to the opportunities that come with age such as marriage, kids, and retirement. I wonder if my friends feel the same way I do, or if they still race back to the flag pole trying to outsmart the fate of time.

what i want to be!

2008-01-28T19:50:00.000-08:00

I always ways liked to work the people, and i loved being in plays and stuff at the performing arts center and other places. So i always pictured myself being a guyt on the stage or something like that. Yet i foud a more interesting topic of greater interest. when i was outside one day when i was 7 i klooked up, and i heard this noise, scared but it sounded really amazing, i peeked up into the sy and say my very first fighter jet. It didn't last long, but that image of that plane stayed with me for a long time. then i wentr on and looked at all the super hero aspects, batman and his skils really made a impression. but then one day aftre i had tried to zoom from my roof to the gournd safely, i knew that the moment my feet touched the ground that i was not going o t like doind that time and time again. Especially if it meant i twisted foot everytime too. Soooooooo!, that day i landed, i again saw a plane high up, and i knew that i would love to be seated on thousands of pounds of thrust then depend on my twisted foot again. Everyday since i have tested and and come over many obstacles to meet the goal of becoming what Tom Cruise portrayed so very well in the movie "Top Gun". so i want to become a fighter pilot and then use those skills i learn in the military to use it in foreign missions in the future, as a mission aviation pilot.

Prosecuting to the full extent of the law

2008-01-28T17:23:00.000-08:00

Boundaries, education, work experience: If none of it mattered, I would be a prosecuting lawyer. I grew up with an argumentative family, and was constantly struggling to prove my point. Being raised as a republican, my view towards capital punishment can be summarized as, “Kill them all, let God sort them out.” I have no tolerance for illegal acts, be it drugs, murder or rape. Most small children dream of saving people, rather it be by saving the world, being a firefighter, or the popular doctor. Prosecuting and sending away felons, is my way of saving the innocent victims.
My grandfather has always been a patron of Law & Order and his love for courtroom television seeped into my brain early in life. Given, the television version of the court room is not at like reality, I have always envisioned myself playing the role of the district attorney, telling her lawyers what to do and what not to do, in hopes that I still have a job tomorrow. My dream goes further than simply putting people in jail. I love the chemistry in a law office, and the fact that both the prosecuting and defending lawyer go out to dinner as friends after the case…its great! Another deciding factor to my childhood dreams: Reese Witherspoon. Legally Blonde,he original, sent the cold chill of law school running through my bones. It was a cold chill, but a wonderful chill. That same chill that inspired me not only to use scented paper for a resume, but also to learn more about perms so I could put a murderer behind bars. Witherspoon, as Elle Woods, brought women back to the law office. Yes, I know what you’re thinking…women’s rights who cares. I am no Susan B. Anthony but it is refreshing to see a woman in such a commanding role. As a little girl Elle Woods was a hero of mine and I aspired to be just like her. She was a beautiful high school girl who broke up with her boyfriend and much to her ex boyfriend’s surprise she was accepted into Harvard, one of the most prestigious law schools in the country. What girl wouldn’t want to be her? Not the mention the murderer she put behind bars was a nappy headed, spoiled brat who did in fact kill her father for her inheritance!
Prosecuting law won me over. Between Law & Order and Elle Woods, I could save the world by sending wrong-doers behind bars while looking cute.

A Few Steps up from Nurse Ratched

2008-01-28T16:40:00.000-08:00

I have always been what my mom calls a "third shift baby." During the majority of my life, my mom has worked as a third shift nurse at the local medical center. Ironically, the fact that she slept during the day, resulted in me having strange sleeping patterns. My insomnia aside, her work also helped me to sculpt my idea of a dream job.
My mother would constantly bring home random little hospital trinkets to appease my need to play doctor. However, I was anything but a normal doctor. As a 6 year old child, I felt that it was my duty to save lives, one tragic emergency room patient after another. I can remember making CAT scans with Microsoft Paint, and drawing up MRI brain scans with my crayons. My mom would be working in our garage as I would create a appalling story of how her darling infant little girl tumbled down two flights of stairs and received massive brain damage. As the child's doctor and neurosurgeon, I would report to the mother every few minutes. Due to my early pessimism, things would take a turn for the worse fairly quickly. The unsuspecting infant doll would enter my E.R in fairly stable condition. I would then quickly assess the situation as critical, screaming commands as I ran around my house. After I obtained the results of the x-rays and scans, I would diagram parts of the brain and then debrief the grief stricken mother in my garage. Her child, as always, would probably not make it. Meanwhile, I had the wretched doll strapped down to my kitchen table. She had I.V's coming out of every vein and orifice and at least two casts on somewhere on her decrepit body. I would give the "child" shots of "morphine" which was slightly reminiscent of salt water, as I checked the data from her chart.
With my imaginary doctorate from John Hopkins University, the kid never had a chance. I would have to tell the mother that her child had entered a comatose state that she would probably never come out of. I had to pronounce the child, brain dead. It was one of the hardest moments of my imaginary career. Although it was hard, I got some kind of sick sense of pleasure that I had the child's imaginary life in my hands. With one piece of fictional scientific data, I could bring a smile or a tear. I was God, or so I thought and I was sure that I was destined to be on an episode of Trauma: Life in The E.R.
It turned out that John Hopkins University was a bit harder to get into than I anticipated and I hated math. I soon realized that I would have to settle for portraying a doctor as an actor. Indeed, this was what I was actually good at. I am a pretender.

what i dreamt of becoming

2008-01-28T15:44:00.001-08:00

When I reminisce on what I wanted to be when I was growing up one memory seems to keep coming to mind. When I was about ten or eleven I wanted to become a back up dancer for Britney Spears. I would spend hours upon hours choreographing dances to her songs up in my room. The night that her second CD came out I rushed out to buy it. For the rest of the night I was upstairs listening to and dancing to my new obsession. On many occasions I requested my parents to come and watch me preform one of the many dances that I had come up with to her songs. Thinking back I am sure that the dances were all horrible, but never the less my parents were understanding. I thought that Britney was the best thing that had ever hit the music scene in the ‘90s. I like many girls were so caught up in the innocence and charm that she brought to MTV that I would tune in to TRL religiously to see where her videos landed for the day. One year Britney hosted one of the award shows, I recall trying to convince my parents into letting me stay up to watch it. I was so fascinated by what she was wearing and such that I distinctly remember throwing a fit when my parents told me it was finally time for me to go to bed. Furthermore, many of my friends were also into Britney, but looking back I think that I was the most hardcore about it. When she came through Charlotte my fourth grade year I begged my Dad to take me to her concert. I absolutely loved the emotion and excitement that she and her dancers brought to the stage. When we got home my Dad said he hated it, but I suppose that is expected. Over the years I began to grow out of my fantasy of becoming one of Britney’s dancers. Now I thank god that I did not follow through with my aspiration, since I am actually somewhat uncoordinated and more mature in knowing what I want to become.

What I Thought I Would Be

2008-01-28T14:46:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid I wanted to be many different things. I remember when I was around five years old I wanted to be a police officer. I wanted to be one because my daddy is. Then for a couple of years I wanted to be a teacher. I had some of the sweetest teachers that were inspiring. If there were no obstacles in my way, I would probably want to do something in film or television. A couple of years ago, my dad jokingly said that I should be a film critic. I took it pretty seriously. I did think about being a director. I think that I might like to be involved in the casting process. When I read Star Wars books or comics, I like to make my own fantasy casting call. I look for actors that fit the physical description, have qualities that show that they could do the role and I need to have seen something that they acted in. For example, I think that Sophia Bush and Jared Padalecki would be great as twins Jaina and Jacen Solo. She looks the most like Jaina out of all actresses I have considered. I can not quite pinpoint what about her makes think of Jaina. Padalecki looks exactly like Jacen on the Japanese cover of The Joiner King. After watching a few season 3 reruns of Supernatural, I think he can play dark and dangerous incredibly well. Being that Jacen becomes a Sith Lord, the ability to play a dark and dangerous character is very important. I had also thought about being a writer for a television show. I care a great deal about what the fans think. I frequent the message boards everyday for their opinions. Probably, the two shows that I would like to contribute to would be either General Hospital or Power Rangers. Ever since Disney bought Power Rangers, the writing has gone down hill for the past couple of years. It seems like the red ranger is the center of attention seventy percent of the time. I would make sure that the other rangers (especially the girls) get some character development. As for General Hospital, I would put less focus on mob wars, Sonny, Jason and Carly. I think more time should be spent on the other characters and couples. And most importantly, I would put the focus back on the doctors, nurses, and the hospital! Today, I have no idea what I would like to do.

Dreams of Pop Stardom

2008-01-28T12:54:00.000-08:00

When I think about my dreams and interests as a kid, my first realization is that a lot of things have changed, that I am a very different person now. But if I think a little longer, I realize that I have not really changed that much. The dreams I had when I was little involved people and friends who are still very much a part of my life. I think that my most endearing childhood dream is my idea of being in a rock/pop band. I spent several years of my childhood with three best friends in a club that centered around our common love for the Backstreet Boys. The whole idea seems humorous to me now, but we took ourselves very seriously at the time. I would dream about growing up and becoming a female version of the Backstreet Boys, even touring with them. The goal seemed very attainable at the time; my sister and I would sing together, and it sounded like girl band material. My sister, an anonymous friend who may or may not be in this class, and I would spend hours making up complex dances to various pop songs, all the while envisioning ourselves on stage opening for our beloved Backstreet Boys. I was convinced that we were more familiar with all of their songs than any other fourth-grade girl. I knew that with our obvious talent, it was a sure and steady road to fame. Even in junior high school, I still dreamed with four of my best friends about forming a band and opening for our favorite artists. While my dream of becoming famous has admittedly faded, my love for music remains. I guess my childhood dream about being in a pop band was just my way of loving music at the time. And my best friends with whom I made up Backstreet Boy dances are still my best friends as a senior in high school. So when I think about my thoughts about the future as a fourth grader, I realize that my perceptions were not terribly off track.

What is Pop Write?

2007-11-26T14:16:00.000-08:00

Initially, I came up with “Pop Write” from "popular culture writing." This project (this blog) would focus on the things that populate our lives. Advertisements, television shows, movies, comic books, the internet, ipods, cell phones, music, magazines, sports, etc.

All of these things are worth writing about— if only to help understand their hold on us.

But the more I thought about it, the more “Pop Write” came to represent something bigger.

I went looking for definitions of “pop.” And for each one, I thought, “Yeah, that fits.”

Pop (verb):
to strike or knock sharply
to push, put, or thrust suddenly and often deftly
to cause to explode or burst open
to fire at
to take (pills) especially frequently or habitually
to open with a pop
to go, come, or appear suddenly
to escape or break away from something (as a point of attachment) usually suddenly or unexpectedly
to make or burst with a sharp sound
to protrude from the sockets
to shoot with a firearm

Pop (noun):
a sharp explosive sound
a shot from a gun
soda pop
pop fly
power to hit a baseball
a drink or shot of alcohol
apiece
for each attempt
father
population
popular
popular music
pop art
pop culture

And so, “Pop Write” is more than just a blog.

It’s a place where our culture intersects with our words and pops!

Welcome to the Pop Write Project!

2007-11-21T08:18:00.000-08:00

This blog will be authored by students in an Expository Writing course at Davidson County Community College...

The purpose of this project is to think, write, and reflect on the culture that shapes us.

Enjoy!