Assignment #3

      As a student, I feel inquired to do the assignment for this blog.  As a lazy person, and a procrastinator, I have decided to explain how this project is in fact pointless.  Students are distracted now more than ever by the rapid growth of media accessibility.  The chances of a student actually sitting down to read a article are immensely slim.  I started reading with the intention of doing the assignment, but soon found it to be much to trying.  I am too tempted to get on facebook and talk to friends, or go on youtube.  It makes it even more of a struggle when the assignment requires you to go onto the internet to read.  I feel less distracted at a zoo than I do on the internet.  This is why procrastination runs so high in students today.  There are simply way to many distractions for students.  The best exercises are the ones that use the internet to their advantage.  If our project was to watch a video on yourube and write an analysis on that, then I feel like the chances of a student actually participating in the assignment would increase.  It is nearly impossible to stay focused in this day and age.  The after reading the article, I do not feel any more educated towards my degree.  It would be more educational to watch a movie that was nominated for best sound production at the oscars.  That would teach us to listen and learn from others work, which is what all the best people in the film industry do.  They all study each others work.  Reading an article about how to "reinvent ourselves," may sound like a good idea, but the truth is that the message simply does not transfer over in an article like it does on a video format.  As of now I am typing this response while one of my roommates is playing a video game, and the other is listening to music on his laptop.  Focus is hard to come across, and silence is even more rare.  Reading that article did not help me become a more creative person by any means.  If anything, it made me feel as if I waisted my time.  I enjoy many articles, but not when I am required to poor all my focus into it.  Its sad, but the truth.  Not just for me, but for most teenagers today.

Blog Assignment #2

Finding Your Howl



The short story, "Finding Your Howl" by Jonathon Flaum is about the last surviving red wolfs in the wild in 1970.  These wolfs were held in captivity in order to protect them.  The captives offspring were released back into the wild, but they had lost the ability to howl. Without this important way of communicating, the wolfs could not collectively hunt.  One wolf named Mumon decides to leave the pack to find the ability to howl again.  After meeting a few helpful characters on his journey, he realizes that the ability to howl was within him the  whole time. 




What influences me? 


        RED: [narrating] I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free. 


This is some of the most beautiful writing that I have heard spoken in a movie.  In 1994, the movie The Shawshank Redemption came out, and blew audiences away.  This film starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, spoke truths about freedom, and what it really feels like to become "institutionalized."  To this day, The Shawshank Redemption is one of the most beloved films of all time among critics and general film fans alike.  This quote represents just how when humans are striped down to nothing, something so minor as the sound of music, can move the cold hearts of the prisoners.  I have no idea what it is like to be in a prison.  Hopefully I will never have to experience that.  I do know however, that if people can be that moved by "two Italian ladies" it means that they have lost a lot.  I excites me that films are still able to touch people.  To me, dialogue is the most important thing in a movie.  This is why I don't find movies like Transformers all that entertaining.  In the film, red has been in prison for nearly 40 years, and him stating that he feels free because of the music is quite amazing.  
     A big theme that this movie deals with is the idea of being institutionalized.  This is when someone is part of a system for so long, that when they are given freedom from their routine, they don't know how to handle it.  One of the characters in The Shawshank Redemption, named Brooks, finally got released from prison after being there for over fifty years.  Prison was his home, and it was what he knew.  When he was finally let go, there was now way for him to cope with the new world.  Social life had changed so much in fifty years, and he simply could not fit in.  Brooks ended up killing himself in his apartment.  Freedom seems like such an inevitable thing for the prisoners of shawshank.  Most just have to acept the fact that they are never getting out.  So from Brooks, he was more than willing to stay in shawshank if he could.  Music was not allowed in the prison, so when Red heard it playing on the loud speakers thanks to his fellow inmate, Andy Dufresne, who played the music from the warden's office.  Andy got a hefty beating after such behavior, but that didn't matter.  It was worth it to have his friends feel so free after such a long time.  
     The reason this speaks to my creative side is because, it motivates me to not settle for simple and lazy material.  The dialogue in Shawshank is outstanding, and it is the major element that lets this movie shine.  Dialogue is something that is seriously lacking in films today.  The film industry needs to step it up and start producing material that is worth viewing, especially with ticket prices being as high as they are.  This motivates me to want to write for films.

Blog Assignment #1

HERO

Character Name: Mountain Man

COLOR:

Mountain Man is a proud man of the hills.  He was born a native to the land, and these colors represent his tribe.  His hart is always in the right place, and he has good intentions.  The orange represents the dust of the ground where his ancestors have lived for many years.  The yellow represents his future as a mountain man. He has a bright future, and a destiny.  The brown stands for his dark past.  He had many struggles as a young native boy with the cowboys trying to take over his family’s land.  This is the reason he has gone to the mountains to search for some answers.  The green represents his quest, and his journey to greener lands.  The grass is always greener on the other side.  

SHAPE:

The shape here is a butte. On mountain Man’s journey, he comes across a butte that he feels he must climb.  This is a large struggle for Mountain Main, but his manages to get to the top.  The structure is strong, tall, and sturdy, with represents himself.  Mountain Man is a very tall and brave man who is not easily knocked down.  There is a small break in the structure, and a piece of the butte seams to of departed from the rest of it. This represents Mountain Man’s departure from the rest of his tribe.

LIGHT: 

This rising sun represents his rising in society.  He has finally made the hard decision to leave his friends and family, and now he has a very important task, to find a way to take out the cowboys.  Like the sun always rises and sets, Mountain Man will not stop until he finds the answers he is looking for.  The light is not too bright, representing how Mountain Man’s mood is not too high, because he is worrying about his family that he had to leave. 

VILLAIN

Character Name: Shooter Rusty

COLOR:

The cowboy known as Shooter Rusty, is a blood thirsty killer.  Whenever he enters a town or a village, the sky turns blood red. This red represents his harsh, ruthless, murderous attitude.  He has not problem with going into a village and killing everyone in the town.   Red represents pure evil. Shooter Rusty is notorious for murdering Native Americans.  He often attacks Mountain Man’s village, and has killed many of the Indians there.  

SHAPE:

The shape of the tombstone represents the many men who are dead because of Shooter Rusty.  He kills many men, but would never lay hand on a woman or child. The classic tombstone model also represents Shooter Rusty’s old fashioned shooting ways.  He is not innovative in his killings, instead he just shoots people in cold blood. Shooter also comes from a scarred background.  His parents were murdered by a corrupt sherif when he was a young boy.  At the age of Seven he left home and found an abandoned  ranch where he raised himself.   

LIGHT:  

Whenever Shooter Rusty goes out to kill, he will come to a town at dusk, and not leave till midnight.  Was because his parents were killed at dusk, and he did not find thee ranch till midnight that same day.   He obviously has a lot of problems in his life, and he uses murder as a way of coping with his despair.  He enjoys killing indians because he believes them to be a menace to society.  He has a vary dark soul, because of his past, and the lighting in this picture represents that.

Media 203 Class Assignment - My Favorite Superhero

What makes a superhero super? That is the first question I look at when making the rational decision to pick my favorite superhero.  Peter Parker is your average high school dweeb.  Nothing special or super about him on the surface, but hidden beneath this facade is a clever and confident hero we all know as the Amazing Spiderman.  I remember when I was a clowning seven year old child. running around in a Spiderman costume that my Grandmother made for me.  When I put on that costume, I somehow felt like I was invincible, and would test that theory out by diving down stairs, or jumping off the dining room table.  Peter Parker is a character that lots of guys my age can relate to, and I believe that is the key to his comic success.   

God is the Revealer of Mysteries

     I have spent an abnormally long time reading through the book of Daniel in the Bible.  I started reading this book a few days after fall quarter stated at Ohio University, and finished about two weeks ago.  I chose Daniel because I wanted to reflect on some of the classic bible stories I remembered covering multiple times in sunday school at my old church.  The story of Daniel in the Lion's den immediately came to mind, so that was the deciding factor for me to engage in the book of Daniel.  
     The first few weeks of college were a little rough for me, and I had this overwhelming feeling of loneliness.  I soon found God speaking to me through the verses of Daniel.  I know now that reading Daniel at the start of college was not my plan at all, but God's plan for me.  A wise man once told me, "Your faith is strongest when you do not feel it."  Yes, choosing to love God is an emotional path, and there are many times where you can undoubtedly feel his presence with you.  However, the strength of our faith should not be determined by spiritual feelings.  It is the times when we feel sad or distressed that truly test our faith.  It's harder to stand firm in your beliefs when you are not always feeling Gods presence.  Daniel was a man of ultimate faith, and it was his testimony that helped carry me through my times of doubt.  He had a duty to interpret the King's dreams.  King Nebuchadnezzar who ruled Babylon, needed help interpreting the strange dreams he was having.  He called in magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed, and what these dreams meant.  When not one of them could do what the king had asked, he ordered to have all the wise men put to death.  Daniel was a wise man of Babylon, and volunteered to interpret the dreams.  He starts out in chapter two, verse twenty seven by saying, "27 No wise man, enchanter, magician, or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, 28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come..."  I thought it was really interesting and cool how Daniel states God to be a revealer  of mysteries.  In verse twenty nine, Daniel goes on to say, "29...the revealer of mysteries has shown you what is going to happen."  I also want to point out that Daniel always gives God the glory for his gift of interpretation.  He does not want the king to give him credit for what God has enabled him to do.  Religion in general has a mysterious overtone that comes naturally when we have to base some things strictly on faith alone.  For me, what this is saying is that even though choosing to love God may seem like a complicated and puzzling path, He will reveal to us our mysteries.  God is not trying to complicate anything, He just wants us to have faith.  If we have faith, he will reveal the mysteries of our heart.  During my first few weeks of college, there were a lot of questions I had for God.  I felt like they were not being answered the way I wanted them to be answered.  Thats the thing with God though.  He is not always just going to answer your questions right away.  I found out that I was lacking the faith to believe that God was going to answer them at all.  The hardest part for me was trusting God to work on his own time.  Once I started to have that faith for God to move in my life, He began to answer those questions I had, and reveal to me the mysteries that I was holding onto.

Mans Best Friend, Gods Chosen Soldiers

I had a dog once.  Her name was Zuzu.  Now, the people that knew this beautiful canine,  would say that her behavior was sub par at best.  I guess I just always thought more highly of her than others.  If I believed in the saying that "ignorance is bliss," I would use Zuzu as my first example.  She was very fast and powerful, being a husky-rottweiler mix, and would easily pull me off my feet on many of our walks together.  She honestly was a lot like that dog from Marley and Me, eating things off the kitchen table, and darting out the front door at any given chance.  However, no matter how many times that dog would run away, or stray from home, I still managed to care for her and love her.  Only the people who have never owned a dog would say that this post is sappy.  I just sometimes wonder if God looks on us as if we were dogs.  I mean, that sounds harsh doesn't it?  Though, the more I think about it, the more connections of humans to dogs I can make in my head.  Zuzu to me was the best dog in the world, but to anyone else, she was rotten.  I know that I have strayed from the path that God has intended for me, but I also know that he is calling for me to come back to his arms. He longs for everyone to follow him, to put complete trust in him.  If only my Zuzu could do that.  I know that if I stray, God will be waiting for me with his arms stretched open wide, ready for me to come back to him.  That puts my mind to ease.  I loved my dog Zuzu, and no matter how many times she disobeyed, I continued to love her.  God feels the same way about his people, except the feeling is amplified to a figure that we couldn't possible begin to describe.   The point is that we are human, and we mess up, but the Lord will never lose his love for us.                    

My Dog Zuzu

Dime-Dog Night featuring The Black Swan

Yesterday,  I had the honor of attending Dime-a-Dog night at the local ball park in columbus.  The place was swarming with people anticipating the dark-brown plastic like hot dogs that were to come.  It was the type of atmosphere that couldn't be matched anywhere else.  Later that night, my friends and I left the game early, to go watch a movie.  We had only come for the Dogs so it was all good.  We ended up watching The Black Swan, and I honestly was blown away. Leading actress Natalie Portman gave such a raw and shockingly honest performance, that really made the movie work.  Her character had a wide range of emotions from tense to curious (to say the least), both of which Portman played equally well.  Its not the type of movie to take your Nephew from ballet class to, but its honest and gruesome tone make this movie unique and worth seeing.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0947798/