Spring Break

For the first half of spring break I mainly just hung out with friends, the second half was much more eventful in a horribly interesting way. On Wednesday my parents and I went to Oklahoma to visit my oldest brother and his family. While we were there, my brother, my dad, and I went backpacking. We planned on going for three days but we had to cut it short to only two days, and here's the story as to why it we cut the trip short. We went out to this huge wilderness area in the middle of no where in a desert type place in Oklahoma to go backpacking, and while we backpack, we usually use water filters to get clean water. But the only water source we found was ten miles away across a very rough terrain. So we decided to walk there on the first day (we also had to carry 40 pound backpacks by the way.) It takes all day to get there, but we finally arrive at the river around 5 pm. We set up camp, then go to the river to get more water because we already drank all of the water we brought with us. My brother tastes the river water, it's more salty than seawater in all seriousness. Saltwater in Oklahoma, makes sense right? Well our water filters can't desalinate water. So we were screwed. Nightfall comes, and the temperature drops to the thirty degree. I hardly got any sleep that night due to trying to keep myself warm all night. Morning finally comes, we decide to pack up camp and go searching for water. We come up on two streams, both of which were saltwater once again. Apparently all the water out there is saltwater. Now we know we need to get back to the truck because we can start feeling dehydration setting in. Remember, it's ten miles back to the truck through a desert with rough terrain. By the time we are two miles away from the truck, I have a headache, I'm pretty dizzy, and I feel delusion starting to set in. Dehydration at that level messes with your mind in some pretty sketchy ways. I was hearing car noises as if there was someone on our way to pick us up, and I was having conversations with a few of my friends that weren't even there. I never want to experience that again, the mental side of it was way worse than the physical side of it in my opinion. We finally make back to the truck and drive about an hour away to a sonic and begin to gorge ourselves with water. It only takes three days to die of dehydration, but for our case it could have taken only two days due to the heat and strenuous activity. It's good thing we decided not to stay out there one more night how we originally planned, or else I probably wouldn't be at school today. All in all, it was a horrible experience but I still enjoyed it, it was quite interesting.

Dead Poet's Society Theme

Wednesday

The theme for The Dead Poet's Society first appears when Mr. Keating gives the boys the "Carpe Diem" speech. Throughout the movie this theme become stronger and stronger, because the boys all start doing things in the name of carpe diem. For example, when Knox reads Tina the poem at her school, he would have never done that if Mr. Keating wouldn't have ever given him the carpe diem speech. Another example would be when Charlie told the principal of the school that god is calling him and then offered him the phone in front of everyone at the assembly. Of course there are other themes in the movie, but "Carpe Diem" is the most prevalent of all the themes.

Thursday

1. No I do not think Neil would have committed suicide if he had never met Mr. Keating. But that does not mean that Mr. Keating is responsible for Neil's death. Neil interpreted Mr. Keating's teaching in a very radical way. Only Neil is to blame for his death, it was his choice to kill himself.

2. The bravest of all the boys would be Charlie. Not only would he do whatever he wanted, he would accept the consequences that came afterwards. The most cowardly of all the boys was Cameron, he was too scared to accept change because he wasn't willing to accept the consequences.

3. Yes I do believe that Mr. Keating put the poetry book in Neil's room. He did that because even though he knew the administration wouldn't look favorably upon it, he was living up to his own carpe diem speech he had given the boys just a few days before.

Friday

1. I don't really have or ever have had anyone in my life that I looked up to as a leader.

2. He's saying that even though all of these professions keep us alive, all of the aspects of poetry is why we want to keep living. No I don't agree with him, it's just his opinion. It's impossible to give one answer as to why people read poetry, everybody has their own reason. I do it because I like it, simple as that.

3. Yes I agree with what Mr. Keating said. If no one ever looked at things from their own point of view, there would never be an original thought from anybody. I try to find all sorts of different perspectives in every situation I'm in, but that doesn't mean I agree with every perspective.

4. How am I supposed to know what "verse" I will leave behind? Nobody knows what their life will be like until they've lived it. I also don't really care what people think about me after I die or just simply move away. Therefore, I don't care what my lasting impression will be. It will be whatever it will be.

Character Questions

1. Most people would say that Todd changed the most out of all the characters in the movie, but I think Knox changed the even more than Todd did. I think Todd didn't permanently, I believe that he just had this one outburst of being outspoken about how he feels but he will retreat back into his shell after everything settles down. But Knox changed permanently. I know this because he didn't just have one big outburst like Todd did, he had a a turning point in his life when he got the courage to call the girl he liked. That courage stayed with him throughout the rest of the movie, as opposed to just one outburst then back to how he was.
2. Cameron didn't change and neither did the principal. They didn't change because they were too focused on following how things were "supposed" to be.
3. Yes he is changed by the experience. I think that when he finds another teaching job, he will teach the students to be themselves but also have restraint and not let their passions consume them.
4. Todd: His fear was that he was scared to vocalize his thoughts/feelings. I don't think he completely overcame his fear.
   Neil: He was scared of his fathers rage and punishment. He did not overcome his fear because he stayed silent and then killed himself.
  Knox: His fear was telling people how he really felt about them. He did overcome this fear when he told Tina that he liked her.
  Charlie: His fear was to appear fearful in front of his friends. He did not overcome this fear because he never showed any restraint.

Mona Lisa Smile Questions

1. Betty's marriage to Spencer – do you think she was happy? Note her mother's refusal to let her stay with her. Why?
2. The movie shows relationships of several characters. Were they acceptable in the society at that time? Why / not? 

No I do not think Betty was happy at all. At first she tried to cover up her emotions towards Spencer cheating on her and pretend that everything was fine, but of course living in denial can only last so long until you break. Her mom refused to let her stay with her because it would make their family look bad, her mom is all about appearances. In fact, she loved her families appearance more than she loved her own daughter.

As for the relationships shown in the movie, the majority of them either appeared to be socially acceptable but actually weren't, or they were obviously unacceptable and everyone gossiped about it. These relationships were not socially acceptable during that time because people were very appearance oriented. If the relationship didn't fit how society wanted them to appear, they were deemed as socially unacceptable. 

Progressive teaching vs. Factual teaching

Factual teaching has it's place in the world, but not for most things. I think the only place factual teaching has is in science and math. Since both of those subjects use all sorts of numbers and experiments, they have to be factual in order to be taught. I say this because numbers and experiments have to be constant and factual in order for us to learn anything or else they wouldn't have any credibility. But if factual teaching is used for almost anything else, it defeats the purpose of teaching. Teaching is meant to let the students grow in their own intellect, not the intellect of the facts they are told. Which is why progressive teaching should be the preferred method of learning.

Thoughts on Mona Lisa Smile

I thought the movie was okay. It is a good story and shows how there are many people who try to keep up with their appearance rather than being their self. I didn't really have a favorite scene because I didn't really like the movie. The message behind the movie was good but it had too much side drama that was quite annoying and was unnecessary.  

Mona Lisa Smile

I believe that "Mona Lisa Smile" will be about girls who go to college but aren't expecting to ever use their degree because they are expected to get married and only raise the kids while the husband provides for them. But then a new lady professor comes and tries to get the girls to realize that they can make their own choices and not let society tell them how they need to live their lives. In result, the girls slowly start to realize that the new professor is trying to help them and they listen to what she tells them about how they can be independent.