Farewell

I just wanted to say that this class has been a very good class. While it was fun it was also very informative and I'm really glad that it's a class we are supposed to take. I learned a lot about how to view movies and now I look at them in a different way than I previously had. I see great potential in all my classmates to continue on with this career path. I hope that everyone got something out of this class, cause I know I surely did.

I'm really going to miss this class. I wish it could go on forever, but alas, it cannot. We all have to move on at some point. I know I'll still be friends with most of you and that we'll talk in the future, so it's not exactly goodbye, but more of just a goodbye for now.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!! :)

Art & Fear: Part I

Following up on the perfection idea. (From Art & Fear page 29)

"The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was diving the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weight the work of the "quantity" group: fifty pounds of pots rated an "A", forty pounds a "B", and so on. Those being graded for "quality", however, needed to produce only one pot-albeit a perfect one-to get an "A". Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the "quantity" group was busily churning out piles of work-and learning from their mistakes-the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay."

I really like this story. I think it's because a lot of the time we have an idea we want to get across and we just go for it. We put all other ideas aside, even though we can learn from the mistakes of those ideas, and just strive to achieve the goal of making our idea perfect. I'd really recommend reading this book. I just read it yesterday and it's changed a lot of my ideas about being an artist. But since some of you might not read it or might want to read about some other points I'll just write down some quotes that I found helpful and the page numbers if you want to get more context.

"Control, apparently, is not the answer." page 21

"Tolerance for uncertainty is the prerequisite for succeeding." page 21

"The world is filled with people who were given great natural gifts, sometimes conspicuously flashy gifts, yet never produce anything. And when that happens, the world soon ceases to care whether they are talented." page 27

"Talent is a snare and a delusion." page 28

"Getting on with your work requires a recognition that perfection itself is (paradoxically) a flawed concept." page 31

"Whatever they have is something needed to do their work-it wouldn't help you in your work even if you had it. Their magic is theirs. You don't lack it. You don't need it. It has nothing to do with you. Period." page 34

"The lessons you are meant to learn are in your work. To see them, you need only look at the work clearly-without judgement, without need or fear, without wishes or hopes. Without emotional expectations. Ask your work what it needs, not what you need." page 36

"We abdicate artistic decision-making to others when we fear that the work itself will not bring us the understanding, acceptance, and approval of others." page 38

"We'd all love to squirm out of this one, but the undeniable fact is that your art is not some residue left when you subtract all the things you haven't done-it is the full payoff for all the things you have done." page 56

There are a lot of other good quotes I have highlighted, but I can't write them all down. So I would encourage you to read the book for yourselves. It really is a great book and it has a lot of good insights.

Endurance

Some videos are made for people to endure. Or they just find them cute for long periods of time. Most people find them annoying.

Here's an example. (Try and watch the whole thing!)



Although this one is a little more entertaining.



You're welcome. :3

NigaHiga

I just love NigaHiga. =3

And this song has been stuck in my head. It's video he did with some other guys. It just seems really funny to me (maybe sort of degrading though) and also true. I think sometimes guys assume that girls don't want someone who will be a gentlemen, that maybe they want someone to treat them poorly or to be dominant over them. And perhaps there are some girls out there who help this idea to continue on, but seriously, gentlemen are lovely.

Why I'd Make The Worst Boyfriend

Well, Abi told me to write this blog so I suppose I shall hail to her since she is awesomebeautifulcutefunhappylovelyandeverythingIwishIcouldbe. =3

Anyway, this whole thing started with my best friend. I was looking at a girl that we're mutual friends with and I noticed that she looked a little different so I was like, "Did she put foundation on?" to which my best friend gave me a weird look at said, "No, she just put on mascara today." And I was all, "Ohhh..." I'm guessing it would probably be weird to go up to someone and ask them if they've put foundation on and then find out they didn't and be all like. "Oh, well you're face looks extremely fake today, congratulations." (props to Kelsey for saying this) I also have a problem when people get haircuts, mostly girls, or they dye their hair or something. I mean, I didn't even recognize Abi after she dyed her hair red, whichlooksaboslutelygorgeousbytheway. Even if I know a person as a friend I have a hard time recognizing them when they change their hair, or even understanding what type of makeup they've put on, if any. (The makeup thing doesn't relate to guys.)

I guess this goes with the whole idea of make-up being unnecessary for girls, I mean they should let their natural beauty shine through. Also, I think it'd make it a lot easier for guys, they already have a hard enough time dealing with how emotional we can be. (cuz guys aren't emotional or anything so they can't relate) Basically what I'm saying is that I feel for the guys who don't recognize if a girl has gotten a haircut, or don't understand what kind of makeup a girl has applied or something. (The media draws the whole haircut thing out of proportion sometimes.)

"Hey, I love how incredibly fake you look today!" :D
(eventhoughyou'renotexactlywearinganymakeupbesidesmascaraimsorrykaithxbye)

I'd rather be commenting on your makeup and stuff and how pretty you are instead of complimenting you on your intelligence or something trivial like that anyway. dur.

Vent

So, today was pretty much a crappy day. I've already been irritated by the discussion of women and how men see women, and skanky Halloween costumes that I had to sort through while men were walking down the aisles looking at the women posing on the costumes. The whole thing disgusted me and I had to leave the store so I wouldn't literally puke.

It started in my Sociology class, where we had taken a survey the week before about traits we would want in someone to date and in someone to marry. First of all, that question irritates me because I think that when you date someone you should see them as someone you would want to potentially marry. The results from that survey showed that personality was most important, but also physical traits were important as well. Men thought that physical traits were more important than women did. And while I should have been expecting something like that, it was still sort of disturbing to me. One of the girls in my class also said that she looks at how attractive someone is when she first meets them and decides to talk to them because of that, and then learns more about them as their relationship progresses. I was just appalled at that statement because I look at the personality of someone before making any plans to potential date them or be close friends with them. To me it doesn't matter what anyone looks like.

I was already feeling really upset and I really really didn't want to go to Leeper's class. I was feeling pretty good towards the end of the class because the videos he showed were encouraging to me, but then he showed the video "Places to Love" and I lost it again. On a different day I'm pretty sure I would've found it to be funny, but I did not find it funny at all.

I'm truly disgusted at how our society views relationships. I don't think of it on the superficial level that only focuses on looks. I wish more people would realize that there is more to a person than just a pretty face. Also, I don't think girls should have to wear make-up. I never do. If you marry someone, are you going to dress up and put on make-up all the time for them? I don't think so.

And yes, this is the world we live in, I understand that. People are going to be people and I can't change them. I'm probably going to look back at this and feel really dumb for posting it. But hey, this is how I feel.

Negativity vs. Gratitude

I went to the Forester Lecture that was...last night, I guess, since I'm writing this blog at like 2:21 in the am. Darn you NaNoWriMo, making me stay up late to write!!!

Anyway, I usually only write about one thing I got out of a lecture or a movie or something since that's probably the thing I took away from it that was most important to me. Now I'm just rambling and I probably won't make any sense. I need to go to bed soon.

Okay, so basically one of the things that was said was that there is a certain place in the brain, I think that it's where our fears are stored, where negativity and gratitude cannot coexist. It's difficult to replace all that negativity with gratitude, and it's a process that can take some time, but I know that it is possible. My best friend and I were discussing it afterwards, and it clarified for us why people in third world countries seem so happy even though they basically have nothing. It's because they are so grateful for what they have that there's no room to be negative about it. Every day that they wake up and are able to live is something that they're grateful for. And then you compare that to us, Americans, who are able to view things so negatively. Especially superficial things, like cars or houses, or jobs, or what type of cell phone we have. To be honest it completely disgusts me, the types of things we worry about on a daily basis. They aren't necessities, they aren't supposed to be all that important, yet they are.

I feel like if we could just be grateful for what we have instead of looking at it negatively and comparing it to what someone else has then our society would be much more productive and happier.

And now this post is over. Yay! Oh my goodness, it's now 2:35...I need sleep.

Tale of Three Brothers

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows there's a really good animation when they read the story Tale of Three Brothers. I was worried, probably like a lot of people, that they were going to mess up the small, but very important story within the book. I thought that this scene was probably the best part of the movie. It's extremely captivating and interesting. In the Harry Potter books the Tale of Three Brothers is known as a children's fairy tale.

Since it cannot be embed here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2a2tS-BSNs

NaNoWriMo

It's that time of year again! November is National Novel Writing Month, where everyone strives to write 50,000 words in their story from the beginning of November to the end of November. Two of my best friends have done NaNoWriMo for several years and I finally decided to join them this year. I'm not doing so well right now. I need about 5,000 words to catch up with everyone else, but I decided not to stress myself out about it. I'm just going to write as much as I can and if I hit 50,000 words then I win and if I don't then I'm pretty sure that I will have written more for a novel than I ever have before.

And this is a really awesome music video about NaNoWriMo:

Humor

So, the topic for this week was Women in Animation and I was glad that we got the opportunity to talk about it, especially since guys can be somewhat sexist towards women. What I found to be the most interesting was the type of humor women can put into their movies, and it doesn't offend women at all. When guys create humor that pokes fun at women and somewhat degrades them, women can find that offensive. In the films made by women, I found it less offensive when young boys were looking up the nurse's skirt or when the women were taking baths. I also really enjoyed the humor of the film in which the old woman bought a blow-up doll of an old man. It was poking fun at the males who just sort of see women as objects for pleasure, while women see their relationship with males as a sort of companionship.

Animation

So, I think I've been mislead by the media in my opinion of animation. While I'm not an animation major, I'm glad I get to see the different forms of animation. I'm glad that animation is not just all drawing because it gives more opportunities for a variety of things. I was talking to an animation major who is a sophomore about this very subject. We were talking about the different forms of animation like sand, glass, 3D, charcoal drawings, all of them. I have to say that I'm very grateful for this class. My whole view of what animation is has completely changed.

My Favorite Movie Trailer

I really liked the movie trailer for The Karate Kid, the 2010 movie that Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith star in. (Link to the trailer.) It's not even the premise for the film or the actors in it that caught my attention. It was just the scenes that went into the trailer and the timing of it all that blew me away. I really liked the editing in the trailer, and I admired it a lot. I think trailers should give people an idea of the movie, but also if you have a really well put together trailer more people might be interested in seeing the movie. That's what happened for me.

Sherlock Holmes

So I was watching the newer Sherlock Holmes movie with some friends tonight, and I'm eagerly waiting for the next movie in the series, Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows. Previously I would only pay attention to the actors in the movies, but now I tend to focus on certain
shots, the music, and the consistency in the scenes. I found a lot of really neat shots in the first movie. It makes me appreciate how hard it must be to get certain shots in films.

Also, another Sherlock Holmes I would recommend is the new BBC

Sherlock Holmes series, with Martin Freeman playing Watson and Benedict Cumberbatch playing Sherlock. Currently there are only

three episodes that last 90 minutes, but they are really funny and interesting. You can find the series on Netflix if you have it.

I like reading the Sherlock Holmes stories as well. I have a book of them in my room, whenever I get time to read more of them.

Real Steel

Last weekend, my birthday weekend, I went with my two best friends to view the newest Hugh Jackman movie, Real Steel. Now, the preview makes it seem like it's going to be just another action film with robots fighting each other (<----trailer), but I was pleasantly surprised when I went to the movie theater and the movie exceeded my expectations. The main aspect of the movie is robots fighting each other, but from the very beginning it draws you into each character and gives you a sense of who they are. You can see the process in the movie of how the main character Charlie, Hugh Jackman, begins to change as the events unfold. It's not just another action movie where you get no sense of who the characters are and there's no character development involved. Also, Bailey, the girl that is Hugh Jackman's love interest, has a really strong, independent, and caring personality, not like so many girls in action movies who are there just to be seen. For an action movie, it really did have heart.

On Rotten Tomatoes 59% of 173 critics gave it a positive review, with it earning a rating average of 5.9 out of 10. The consensus for website on the film states, "Silly premise notwithstanding, this is a well-made Hollywood movie: Thrilling and exciting action with just enough characterization." CinemaScore polls also reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was an A, on a scale from A+ to F.

And I'm pretty sure there's going to be a sequel to this movie.

Eating Disorders

So today at chapel we had a speaker who had, and still is, struggling with anorexia. The first thing that came to my mind about it was a commercial I had seen on YouTube awhile ago showing how girls with anorexia truly feel. It was really short and there's not much to it, but it was extremely powerful to me. That 40 seconds was very critical to me in my perspective of eating disorders. Some people think that when girls say they're fat that they're just being silly or joking about it, especially girls who look anorexic. But sometimes they don't see how they actually look, they just see all the flaws in their body.

Take a look at this commercial. <----

Why wasn't Leeper there?

Once upon a time

There was a knight

He was a sad excuse

Since he couldn't fight

He was invited to attend a wonderful ball

The grandest of his time

Yet he didn't expect the unexpected brawl

That was to come that very night

The beast spat flames

And shook the ground

"This is not a game,"

He said as he looked around

Leeper started to run

But the beast just laughed

"Why don't we have some fun?"

He said as he revealed the family he had stolen

Leeper grew very enraged

The beast just smirked

As he knew he'd get what he craved

...but maybe more than he bargained for.

So Leeper took on the dragon

His sword broke in half

So he just started smacking him

Finally the dragon was beaten

"That's wasn't so tough,"

Leeper said with a smile

As he rescued his stuff

His family, I mean...

But it was way too late to go to the ball

That didn't faze him

He had had an interesting brawl

And now he needed sleep.

To the Pringles Mobile!

The Kite Runner

Somebody posted about Slumdog Millionaire (I still haven’t seen it yet) and it reminded me of a book I read in my AP Literature class my senior year. There’s also a movie that goes along with the book, but I’m one of those people that think the books are better than the movies. There are just certain details that aren’t included in the movies that make the book so much better. I know the movie can’t include everything in the book, but sometimes it leaves out things and the audience gets confused and they start asking obnoxious questions in the movie theatre, like my mom asking me if Snape was going to kill Dumbledore during the sixth Harry Potter movie every time he came on the screen because I read the books and she didn’t…but I’m getting off topic here.

The trailer for The Kite Runner really irks me, because it says that the two boys who were best friends were separated by a war and if you’ve read the book this is certainly not true. It is true that they were then separated by continents, but the events leading up to his best friend leaving did not have anything to do with the war. I guess in the trailer they don’t want to give anything away, but it’s being misleading. Here’s a link for the trailer: The Kite Runner

The whole story behind The Kite Runner is basically redemption and finding a “way to be good again.” The boy who ends up leaving is a Hazura, which is the lowest class in Afghanistan (like the dirt underneath your shoes), while the boy who ends up leaving the continent has a rich father, but was still close friends with his servant. Basically something happens in which the rich boy, Amir, does not protect his servant/”friend” and ends up feeling guilty about it; feeling like he has to redeem himself by finding a “way to be good again” like I mentioned before. If you’re looking for a good read I would recommend The Kite Runner. I reflected a lot on this book, as it hit me emotionally and also spiritually.

One thing we talked about in my AP Lit class was how the Hazuras had such a strong faith and prayed every day, hoping for a better life than the one they were leading, while Amir and his father already had the riches they needed so they didn’t rely on faith as much, and pretty much not at all. Later on Amir reconsiders his faith, but I won’t go into that.

Please think about taking a look at this book, especially if you love reading thought provoking novels. I will talk with you about it if you end up reading it, but only if you want to.

And as I will always end my posts…

To the Pringles Mobile!!!

H2O

Every Wednesday night I usually leave with my best friend to attend rehearsal for H2O, which is a family service our church provides every Sunday. My best friend was a dancer/singer at H2O last year, and this year I was going to be a dancer as well, but there was an opportunity for me to play one of the main acting parts so I do that instead.

Sometimes I don't have a part to act on Sunday, so I sit and watch the service. It's pretty entertaining to watch kids get up and dance, and also their parents. There's an enthusiasm involved in the service that you don't see during the regular service with the minister. H2O is a lot lighter and fun, while still portraying an important message every week.

I find the songs to be very powerful, not the usual songs you would hear during worship on Sunday morning. I also think it's refreshing to see the realistic situations the kids/actors go through, but adding a biblical twist to them. Most of the situations are seen in elementary schools or middle schools, but there are no Bible verses to tell kids to treat your neighbor as yourself or that you should bring your worries to God.

I really enjoy participating in the family service and I'm glad that my church has it, because most churches don't. I appreciate every single parent that sits with their kids and dances with their kids, because they embrace the experience along with their children instead of just sending them off to Sunday school. It's something that both of them can reflect on at the end of the day.

To the Pringles Mobile!

Happy Phagwah

So today we watched the movie Colorforms and I was wondering what Professor Leeper meant when he said that the grandpa had taken the little girl to a pagan festival. I decided to research exactly what people meant when they said "Happy Phagwah!" (Although I had written it as pagua at first.) I found out that Holi, or Phagwah/Pagwa, is a spring festival that is celebrated by Hindus, Buddhists, and Sikhs. Holi is usually celebrated in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, but there is also a celebration for it in New York. It lasts 16 days and it is celebrated on the last full moon of winter. The celebration is a way to mark the beginning of spring. The major part of the festival consists of throwing color powder (Gulal) at other people. The bright colors are said to signify life, energy, and joy.

Before reading up on what festival the grandpa had taken the little girl to, I thought about what the movie was trying to say. I didn't think about the child's creativity as much as I thought it had to do with religion. I thought that the strictness of the parents towards the little girl was more like the Christian foundations, or how Christians have all these strict rules about how they need to act. When the grandpa took the girl to the festival I felt that she was experiencing freedom from those strict rules and was exploring other options.

Now that I realize what the bright colors of the powders signify I think of it differently. I still think that the girl was held down by her routine and limited lifestyle. I think that she was trying to express herself as best as she could, but no one was listening to her or realizing the joy that she had. When her grandpa came along I think it was refreshing for her to experience the joy of life and to let her energy out in a healthy way.


To the Pringles Mobile!

Karaoke Time!

So, I've seen karaoke bars in movies and stuff, but I've never actually been to one. That changed last night, though it wasn't exactly a bar, it was at Cafe of Hope. I guess they have karaoke Friday nights from 8 to 12. Which makes me think that they should have Rebecca Black's song Friday as one of the song choices...or maybe not. All of you just kill me now.

Anyway, I found the experience interesting. I was nervous about it at first, but it can be really fun with friends, especially with other college students. Like when I sang a Britney Spears song with some people on my floor.

I think using a Karaoke Bar for the background of a scene would be neat, and it might also add a comedic effect to the scene as well.

Well, that's my opinion for the day.

To the Pringles Mobile!!!