Unrelated blog 2

My roommate just moved out today and almost all my other friends as well. This made me think a lot about moving out and studying for my calculus test tonight. In highschool we could enjoy the end of the year so much more. There was the last week of school where it was layed back and we got to kind of just hang out with friends and not worry about finals or anything. Then, there was finals week after that. The time was compartmentalized. A lot of these people I probably will never see again. We all say we're going to stay in touch but the reality of it is that we are all far too busy to do that. We want to hang out and spend our last few days all together before we separate for the summer, but we are all way to stressed out and studying like crazy to do that. There's obviously no way to change this but I just miss being able to just hang out without worrying to study for that calculus final that's still looming over my head right now.

Unrelated blog 1

Coming from New York down to Virginia, it's very interesting to see the different types of baseball fans when it comes to the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. Since we aren't near NYC or Boston, it's a toss up to what people think. For some reason, I run into more Boston fans than Yankee fans and I get a lot of crap for it. Watching the Sox sweep the Yankees a few weeks ago was terrible of course, but watching it with four Boston fans and no other Yankees was even worse.
There are two types of fans: baseball fans and Red Sox fans. Red Sox nation is the most bandwagon thing I have ever seen. No one liked the Red Sox (unless you lived in Boston) until 2004 when they won their first world series since 1918 against the St. Louis Cardinals. Every single Sox fan says I like the Red Sox, and every team that plays the Yankees OR I like baseball...but I hate the Yankees...so I like Boston. It's so stupid. We have to defend our team when we shouldn't have to. 26 World Series to 7? I don't think that's close at all. Yes, we do have the most expensive roster, but the Red Sox are right behind us. When both fans watch a game, the yankees will get a hit and red sox fan pouts and complains and we just cheer for our team. But once red sox get the lead they not only cheer for their team but trash talk us the whole rest of the lead. It's ridiculous. Yes, I prefer the Yankees by a long shot, but I respect the Red Sox and still think they are a very good team. I am a baseball fan... not a Red Sox hater.

They Say, I Say Chapter 5 Ex. 1

Julie Charlip uses other people's opinions to qualify her statements. Her first sentence quotes Marx and Engel. She gives information from different views than her own. When talking about her own opinions, she uses general statements like "it seems that..." and "If only that were true..." She doesn't take her opinions out of thin air, but bases them off of other people and then broadens her statements.

Primary Sources

Boy Meets World. Created by Michael Jacobs. Perf. Ben Savage, Rider Strong, Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle, William Daniels. ABC. 1993.

Eric Carle. The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Chicago: Phiomel, 1994.

Robert Munsch. Love You Forever. Toronto: Firefly Books Ltd., 1995.

Sharon, Lois, and Bram’s Elephant Show. Created by Sharon Hampson, Lois Lilienstein, and Bram Morrison. Perf. Sharon Hampson, Lois Lilienstein, Bram Morrison, Paula Gallivan. PBS. 1984.

Boy Meets World was one of my all-time favorite shows when I was growing up. It was the highlight of my Friday night because at that time, it was on TGIF on ABC. Friday’s were a time for family. No one was working late, my sister didn’t have dance, and I didn’t have any sports practices. Every Friday we would eat dinner and then make popcorn and have our own little individual popcorn bowls and watch TGIF together. I feel like families don’t spend quality time together anymore and I think they should. This is one memory I will definitely treasure for my whole life.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar was the first book I could ever read. My mom told me that she used to read it to me when I was a baby and when I was old enough to start learning how to read, this was the book she taught me with. I think it’s a huge part of my childhood. This may be a little dramatic, but without this book, I may never have learned how to read.

At night, before I went to bed, my mom would always read me a story. My favorite, which I made her read every night, was Love You Forever. I just thought it was funny how the little baby would chuck stuff down the toilet and the mom wouldn’t get mad. I wished that my mom wouldn’t get mad when I did that (and yes I tested it out). The only bad thing about it was that every time my mom read the story she cried and I never knew why. Obviously, now I know. She didn’t want my sister and me to grow up. She wanted us to stay little forever but I knew that the title of the book was right; she would always love us forever.

I remember waking up every morning at the crack of dawn to watch my favorite TV shows before I had to go to the babysitter. I still to this day have no idea how children can get up so early and have that much energy all day. But anyways, one of my favorite shows was Sharon, Lois, and Bram’s Elephant Show. It came on right after Mr. Roger’s changed his sweater and said goodbye to the neighborhood. I knew I would see him tomorrow anyway. Sharon, Lois, and Bram always kick started my day with songs and jokes that I would later talk to my friends about before naptime. This show was definitely one of the highlights of my childhood.

They Say, I Say - Chapter 4 ex.1

In the passage from "Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work" written by Jean Anyon, she discusses what scholars say about the differences of education within social classes. For example, Bowles and Gintis state "the working classes for docility and obedience, the managerial classes for initiative and personal assertiveness", meaning that the upper class are trained for the higher up, harder jobsm while the middle to lower classes are trained and educated for the less demanding, easier jobs. Anyon agrees with this statement, however she disagrees with it as well. She says that "there has been little or no attempt to investigate these ideas empirically in elementary or secondary schools and classrooms in this country." So Jean Anyon is both agreeing and disagreeing.

Exercise 7.j in C@VT

1 - "Fighting the Downfall: Youth and Rebellion Between 1987 and 1997" most resembles an article from a magazine. The layout of this paper is something you would see in a magazine like Rolling Stone or People. The way the author has specific quotes bold and in a bigger font in random parts of the paper makes the paper stand out more as a magazine article. The way the pictures are layed out and captioned makes the paper resemble a magazine article as well.

2 - The way the paper is portrayed definitely affects the way the audience reads it. The audience may stop at a specific point to study the pictures and read the captions. Also, the way the certain phrases are bigger and bold may cause the reader to stop and ponder what the author is saying.

3 - The paper would probably be a lot more boring to look at and the reader may not read all the way through. Because the author put pictures and phrases within the writing, it is more visually appealing to the reader and in turn makes the reader want to continue reading.

Persepolis Movie Review

I have never really heard of “Persepolis” until I was in English 1106. I thought it was really interesting, yet somewhat strange, that such a serious topic was portrayed in a graphic novel. After reading, however, I was blown away. I think this is probably one of the best ways to depict a situation like this. Since I had never heard of the novel, I definitely didn’t know there was a movie to go along with it.

I’m not going to lie, I had very different expectations of this film. I thought it was going to be a lot different than it actually was. When the lights dimmed down and the projector started running, I was expecting real, live people to pop up and start telling the story of a little girl caught in the middle of the Iranian revolution. I was hugely mistaken. It was like the comic all over again. I was a little disappointed because I didn’t think that the film would be all that great animated. It didn’t even seem animated compared to the amazing digital graphics we have today. It was almost as if it was the comic in a flipbook style. The way the pictures moved throughout the film was like a bunch of drawings shown really fast one after the other.

After I got over the fact that there weren’t actual people in the film, I began to watch it a little bit closer. The way the movie was portrayed isn’t really the traditional way of showing a film. This ties in to the reasoning for the graphic novel as well. It makes you think a little more than you would for a blockbuster film.

The film was clearly made for a French audience, yet somehow I feel like the subtitles made the movie that much better. I felt like I had to concentrate that much more on the movie and the meaning, rather than just becoming a vegetable right when the movie starts rolling.

The film starts off in present time. The characters are in color, and if you haven’t read the book, you don’t really know what’s going on. Then, Marji starts to recall the past, and that is when the story really starts. It all starts when she is a little girl. The revolution hasn’t quite started yet, but people are starting to rise up. The story goes on to tell about Marji’s life as she becomes a young woman.

The comic is quite different than the film. Of course, not everything that is written down on paper will be in the film, but there are some things that aren’t in the text either. For example, some of the language in the movie is a little more on the explicit side, whereas the text might not be able to show that.

Some scenes in the movie were a lot more drawn out than in the text. For example, when the police pulled Marji’s family over and followed them to their house, the film took more time to explain what actually happened. The novel just said that they emptied the bottles, and that was it. On the contrary, there are many scenes that are more drawn out in the text. When Marji’s family is visiting with their family friends, and the husband is telling everyone about his torture in jail, we get a lot more description in the comic.

An actual movie critic would probably have a lot more to say about this than any amateur Virginia Tech freshman. However, we have all read the book and watched the movie, which makes our credibility fairly outstanding. I would definitely recommend either the graphic novel or the film to anyone, not just people who like graphic novels, or the Iranian revolution. This novel and/or film should be read and/or watched sometime in a person’s life.