Final Blog...

I have improved with finding information and piecing it all together to make a successful paper. Before, I was pretty much clueless. I have learned countless pieces of important information about the writing process. For example, I have learned the different parts of an essay and how to research to find information about articles, books, etc. at the library. I have learned how to write an annotated bibliography as well as improve my skills for writing a classical argument. I really believe the work I have done in English 151 will help me in future classes. It has already helped me in writing my research paper for my Black Media class. I have learned a lot about the class theme apocalypse. I have learned a lot about Zombies, I have changed the way I look and feel about clones, and I have learned a new way to view apocalyptic films. I have learned that lighting, costumes, and the camera angles all should be looked at to get a full understanding of a film like Zombieland or BladeRunner. I enjoyed reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I found it really interesting and it was pretty easy to read. I did not like the movie BladeRunner. I hated how chrachter roles were changed from the book to the film. I did not like how the religion Mercerism was left out of the film because I feel like it was the background for the book. I liked writing the Annotated Bibliography the best because I had no idea what that even was before this class. I enjoyed doing the research and annotating the articles and booked I found useful. I thought this was a pretty easy paper to write once I learned about its different parts. Overall, I really enjoyed English 151. I think the theme made it most enjoyable because Zombies and clones are deffinately something I do not think about everyday, so it gave me the chance to learn about something new besides the new types of papers. I would suggest keeping the same theme because it makes everyone think and become interested in writing the papers.

The Social Network

I went and saw The Social Network over the weekend. Jesse Eisenbrg, one of my favorite actors plays the main charachter, Mark. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, probably because it is all about inventing Facebook. The movie is about a Harvard student named Mark. He gets drunk one night and designs a website to rate girls at Harvard.This website was called FaceMash. He ends up getting put on probation because I guess it is just not legal to break into files and look up girl's pictures without their permission. On probation, he works for twins in designing a new website, while on the side he was inventing Facebook, an online website designed for Harvard students to share information securely. The twins that he works for think that Mark is using their ideas so they want to sue him for theft. He runs into his old girlfriend who doesn't go to Harvard and Mark decides to make Facebook accessible for other schools as well because I think he missed her. As Facebook gets bigger and more popular an even international, his twin colleuges get even more upset along with his friend Tyler who also helped in the idea formation of Facebook, so they decide to sue Mark. Mark settles both lawsuits and pays both of them off. The movie ends with Mark adding his old girlfriend on Facebook and waiting for her to confirm him as her new Facebook friend. Over all, I loved this movie because I love Facbook. I never knew that Facebook was invented by a drunken Harvard student trying to look up and rate girls. It was so interesting to watch the movie and learn about the website that I use proably seventy-five percent of the time I am on my computer. The story of Facebook is so elaborate. The movie totally drew me in and made me realize that everything had to be created somehow. Everything has a history, a backgound, and Facebook is just another thing to add to that list. I would absolutely recommend The Social Network. I think it has a wide range for an audience because everyone uses Facebook.

Horror Movie

Over the weekend, I watched a few different Halloween/apocalyptic movies. I watched Halloween town on Disney channel as well as Zombieland and The Hills Have Eyes. The Hills Have Eyes was really creepy. People go out into the desert and look for basically zombies that have been affected by a nuclear explosion or leak of some sort. These zombies are so scary looking. There have numerous extra body parts and also have weird growths   all over their bodies. The male zombies look for innocent girls and raped them to make new zombie babies. They would hide in little tunnels in the sides of hills and wait for humans vacationing to stroll by or set up their camps. The zombies would kill family dogs for dinner and eat their guts. I think this has a lot to do with the apocalypse because it is about cannibalism and scary things that used to be human and then got infected. The movie was all around creepy and completely motivated me to never set foot in a desert, especially alone and unarmed. Zombieland was a better movie in my opinion. It was really funny and not as weird as The Hills Have Eyes. It was about a lot of zombies and a few remaining humans trying to kill them. We talked about this movie in class so I decided to watch it and found it thoroughly enjoyable for some odd reason.


My Apocalyptic Future
If it got to be the end of time and the world began to end, I don't know what I would do. I could imagine everyone would be really on edge and inconsiderate. People would probably start going crazy, killing others for loaves of bread, cutting off fingers for a new highlighter, or something really insane like that for example. I would freak out. I do not work well under pressure and especially when everyone else is going nuts. I would probably transform into that character from Zombieland, Tallahassee. I could see myself not caring about the rest of the crazies and only worrying about my wants and needs. For example, in Zombieland, all Tallahassee wants is a Twinkie and does about whatever it takes to find some. I could really see myself stealing people's cars after I killed their Zombie-selves and roaming off to look for something I really wanted.


My Future compared to Philip K. Dick's Future
My future is different from the one depicted in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? In my future, I imagine more people left on the earth and there are absolutely no androids or electric animals. I imagine people being more closed off and weird, but not to the point where you can no longer tell who is crazy and who is not. You will be able to tell in my future who is flipping out and who is under control. I imagine people in my future to be pretty kind like J.R. Isidore if they are not yet a crazy lunatic. 


Dialog, Lighting, and Costuming
The lighting of this scene is rather dark but yet soft. The sun or some light that looks like the sun is shining in through a large window. It appears to only highlight the character's faces when they are speaking. The costuming of this scene seems old. Rick Deckard is wearing a big trench coat and a plaid button up. It reminds me of an average detective or investigative cop. Rachel is wearing a black dress and her hair is pinned up with  a big swoop of hair for her bangs. She is wearing black pumps and red lipstick as well. The dialog of this scene seems cold. It is like the character's are tying to make small talk but they really want to talk about much heavier material. Deckard states that replicants can be either a hazard or a benefit, and if they are benefits then they are not his problem. Rachel seems so amused by Rick Deckard. It is unclear if he thinks he is attractive or she just likes to smile. This scene doesn't relate well to the rest of the movie. The rest of the movie is set in a much darker and rainy lighting. The characters are dressed like hookers in the rest of the movie too. For example, Pris is wearing a leotard of some sort with black face paint and crazy bleach blond hair. Also, Zora, the lady doing a gross performance with a snake appears to be dressed in only rhinestones and later a see through rain coat. Another example of different clothing is Roy Baty. I can only remember him being shirtless in this movie. He also is very angry and forceful when he speaks. The dialog in the rest of the movie moves much quicker. This scene was very soft set and the characters were very calm speaking. In the rest of the movie, the characters are fighting and yelling.  


Tears in Rain
The music of this scene should make the audience and Rick Deckard feel empathy for the almost dead Roy Baty. It is a soft piano sound that makes you feel almost sad that this crazy replicant is dead. The dialog is one that you do not even know Roy Baty could have. It is really calm and friendly, something he was not the entire movie. He says something about tears in rain and time to die. Those words mixed with his letting go of a dove into the remembered blue sky makes you feel bad for him. I think it also made Rick Deckard almost feel sorry for Roy Baty. The look on his face seems confused but yet feeling empathy for a replicant that was recently trying to kill him. It appears that Deckard might be crying, I could not really tell. It is raining so that might make him look like he is crying even more. He is definitely upset about something. This scene is so different from the rest of the movie because it is the first time you feel bad for a replicant. It helps that Roy Baty also just saved Rick from falling off of the side of the building. This scene makes you think that everyone has some sort of feelings and a heart.  


Future of Rick Dekcard
Now that Tyrell is dead and the androids are all too except for Rachel, I think that Rick Deckard will end up with Rachel. The sad thing is that she will die soon because replicants only have a four year life span. I think after the movie, Rick went and got with Rachel and he probably got a new job since there were no more replicants to retire. The two probably had a good run but it soon got destroyed by the death of Rachel. Rick probably went to go climb a mountain and found an electric animal. This electric animal is the only thing keeping him sane because he misses Rachel so much. Eventually he decides to become an inventor and creates a robot version of Rachel and feels a little better. He feels better but he still knows that it is not the original Rachel so deep down he is still depressed. Now that he has robot Rachel and an electric animal, he feels content being a sad lonely old man. He is so rich from his new invention of robot Rachel, that he decides to spend a little money and hire a maid to clean his home. The maid really likes Rick and always tries to get with him, but poor Rick can't get Rachel out of his head so he stays single forever. 


Research Project
My research project question is how can we make airplanes more fuel efficient? or something like that. So far I have found most of my sources. Eight out of ten to be exact. I found all of my articles but could not find my books. I asked for help twice in the library and I still couldn't find them, so I ended up picking up random books about fuel and energy. I have found a little information about I can make airplanes more fuel efficient and subsidized. The first answer I found is this new kind of fuel they are testing that is apparently a lot safer for the environment and a lot cheaper. The second source I found is about this new kind of airplane. I can't remember what the name of it was but it is a lot safer for the environment some how. I have not done very much research for this paper due to the crazy Halloween weekend, but I plan to spend the night in Alden library making my paper amazing. At least make the rough draft as good as I can in one night. 

Long Blog About Sum/Response

Writing in the begininng of this class was very difficult to begin with, but blogging helped tremendously. Blogging allows you to free write quickly and get your thoughts out in the open to review. Comparing the two papers, one was deffinately more difficult. They were both tough, however I seemed to have more  trouble with the first paper. I am unsure if it was because I have not written a paper in a long time or if I was unfocussed. The second paper seemed easier to me, I think because I was getting used to writing again and was so intruiged by the book and the movie. The hardest part of writing both of these papers is starting out and trying to brainstorm ideas to write about. The easiest part was revision, going back and proofreading, changing things, and adding things. Once you get the basic structure, it all falls into place it seems like. I have noticed that I always want to summarize everything and not stick to my thesis. That is my weakness in writing. My strength in writing is revision. I think once I get the basics out of the way, I am pretty good at going back and making my paper better. I feel that peer review is a good thing. I think it really helps you with revision. You get other people's perspectives and opinions which only strengthen your writing. I have noticed little improvements, like making stronger thesis statements. I hope to improve the next paper by having no grammatical errors, a great thesis statement, and strong structure with tension.

Possible topics

-making new products rather than reusing the old versions
-make vehicles more environmentally friendly
-expensive music
-cheaper air transportaion
-make solar power products stronger

3 Interesting things about technology

In this documentary, I found the "air chair" in the first scene to be really cool. It seemed like it was made from rubber or some really comfortable medium. Hence the name, "air chair." I also found it interesting that there are so many designers thinking and designing everything. For example, I would have never known that so many people thought about the grip on a potato pealer that intensely. I never thought so many people were involved in the process of designing something like that. Also, I was very intrigued by the thought that designers had about their products ending up in landfills. That thought alone kind of draws me away of ever wanting to design because there are always going to be new products surfacing on the market that people will want more over your product. It was interesting that designers still work so hard even though they know their product will probably not be around forever. It was really cool that the designers in this documentary were aware of environmental safety. For example, mentioning that their products will end up in landfills, they said that their designs should be made of bio-plastic or sugar cane so that they can be broken down in the landfills. I wasn't sure of whether they were actually making their designs of that material but at least they were aware of the pollution factor of old products that consumers no longer want to purchase. Overall, the documentary was very informative and interesting.

A Boy and his Dog...

A boy and his dog was very interesting to say the least. Not only was it weird, but it was down right uncomfortable to view. Almost every ten minutes, someone was having sex and using crude language referring to women. The film was literally about a boy and his dog after a nuclear explosion ocurred. It appeared that there were two worlds left after the explosion, the underworld and the other world that the boy and his dog lived for the most part. After the explosion, the boy and his dog had to search for food by digging to the underworld or they often stole other's food while they were digging. The dog also spoke to the boy and only the boy could hear him speak. The two got into some altercations, but could always work it out. The film was really weird and uncomfortable in the sense that all of the men in the film would search for females and use them for sex. They would line up and wait for the next man to get done with a girl and just keep going. I think the dog had a sensor that would sound every time a girl was present. The boy found a girl thanks to the dog's help and tried to use her like the rest of the men. It ended up being interrupted, but then the two finally hooked up. The girl fell in love with the boy and wanted him to go and live with her in the underworld. He was not having that at all. However, he did go down to the underworld for some reason and was then used to impregnate 35 females. After the 35, he was going to be killed, but the girl who loved him saved his life. Then, they were hunted down by some robot, but the boy killed him. The two return to the other world where the nuclear explosion actually occured, and the boy's dog is hurt. He tries to comfort him. All the dog wants is food so the boy says he will get him some. The scene after that is of a fire and the dog and the boy pretty full. It appeared to be that the boy and his dog ate the girl that fell in love with the boy! All in all, I hated this movie. It was probably the worst movie I have ever watched. It was disgusting and so unbelievably uncomfortable to sit through. It was not only extremely boring, it was creepy, gross, and weird.