WB 4

The episode of the original Star Trek that I watched was “The Savage Curtain” (Season 3, Episode 22). This episode was very interesting and immediately grabbed my attention. The episode begins when the Enterprise is flying in space and is approaching an unknown planet. Rather suddenly, Abraham Lincoln appears before the ship and tells them to hover over the planet, pick him up, and take him aboard. This is strange enough because, as we all know, Abraham Lincoln was killed a long time ago. The crew beams him onboard where they examine him and determine that he is in fact a human. He invites Captain Kirk and Spock down for a visit on his home planet. They agree and beam themselves to the surface. When they arrive, none of their electronics work. A rock then forms into a life form and talks to them. He tells Kirk and Spock that they can alter minerals to create whatever life forms they want and can make them take any form (hence the Abraham Lincoln). Anyways, the rock that came to life tells Kirk that he is curious about which force is stronger; good or evil. He brings back notorious evil figures, such as Genghis Khan, to fight against the good forces. Initially, Kirk and Spock refuse to fight because they have no reason to, however, when the rock that came to life tells them that if they refuse to fight, their ship will blow up and all the crew members will die, they decide to take action. In the end, Captain Kirk and Spock defeat the villains and good triumphs over evil.
This original episode of Star Trek was surprisingly interesting. I could draw many similarities between the episode and modern science fiction television shows, like the setting being in outer space, the use of aliens or strange creatures, and epic fight scenes. However, I also was able to notice some major differences between the two. First of all, this episode goes back to the past and brings back historical figures (both heroes and villains) to grab the audience’s attention. It seems as though modern science fiction moves away from this technique of incorporating figures from the past and focuses only on the future.
Another major difference between this episode and modern science fiction television shows has to do with the development of the timeless theme of “Good v Evil”. This theme can be seen in both “The Savage Curtain” as well as in almost every science fiction television show that is on the air now. However, the episode of Star Trek that I watched was different from most current sci fi shows because it did not use robots. Yes it still had the heartless enemies, however, they were real people with hearts rather than cylons or other robots that do not have hearts or a conscience. Another major development was how different the fight scenes were. In Star Trek, the fate of mankind did not rest on the shoulders of Captain Kirk. The enemies’ goal was not to completely destroy humanity or exterminate entire civilizations. The goal of what the enemy was doing was to learn (to learn whether good or evil was stronger). The fight scene that took place was on a smaller scale and would only affect those who were immediately involved in it. This is very different from modern science fiction. Nowadays, the goal of the enemies always seems to be to wipe of civilization and completely take over a planet. Usually, the enemies are robots or some other sort of heartless alien, not well-known people from the past. I feel as though the use of the historical figures grabbed my attention more so than the use of robots.
All in all, I would say that the original episode of Star Trek was more effective in grabbing my attention and keeping it throughout than modern science fiction television shows. Maybe it is because all modern sci fi seems the same to me because they all use the concept of destroying humanity and heartless robots, which gets old after awhile.

Battlestar Galactica

Today I just saw my first episode of Battlestar Galactica. When I first heard of the show, I expected it to be some dumb knock-off of Star Trek or Star Wars or something like that. I was surprised though. It had a completely different plot, with only some minor similarities (like the space battles). I thought that the episode was very interesting and exciting. The plot of a future world of humans v cylons was new to me and immediately grabbed my attention. Although I was confused at first what Number Six’s purpose was on Earth, I felt that the rest of the episode was easy to follow along with.
However, I do have some criticism about the miniseries we watched. First of all, although the show did a good job grabbing my attention, it had some trouble keeping it throughout the entire episode. I felt as though the episode was very slow-moving and sometimes difficult to pay attention to. I also felt as though there were some unnecessary sex scenes in this episode that I thought had no relevance whatsoever. They may have had relevance later in the season, but from just watching a part of the first miniseries, they seemed rather irrelevant. I also found it disturbing how the cylon on Earth handled the whole baby situation. I know that they are robots and don’t have feelings, but I found it to be disturbing how she broke the baby’s neck while the mother was just standing there. I feel as though that was an unnecessary way to show how cruel the cylons could be.
All in all, I would have to say that I enjoyed watching Battlestar Galactica. Although it was slow moving and had some unnecessary scenes , I feel as though it had a great plot and actually was sending an important message to the viewers. This message can be seen in many movies, such as “Jurassic Park” and “I, Robot”. This message has to do with “playing God”. It shows us that we must be careful with what we choose to do with our technology and what we decide to create. We have to have respect the power of the animals or robots or whatever we are creating and acknowledge that we are not “Godly” and are not always going to be able to control that power. I felt that this was a very interesting sci fi television show and I would not mind watching it again.

Bring Your Own Lunch

Bring Your Own Lunch


by Bruce Lansky



Don’t eat school lunches—
not even a lick.
They might make you nauseous.
They might make you sick.
Just take a small bite
andyou’ll start to feel ill.
If the veggies don’t get you,
the meatloaf sure will.


This poem hit home for me. Back in the day (as in since I first started going to school), there has yet to be a school that has good lunches. Even in elementary school, the lunches always made people sick. I remember that the meatloaf actually was the worst meal, which is funny because that's what it says in this poem. I chose this poem not only because it related to me because of the history I've had with terrible lunches at school, but also because of its tone. It is an upbeat poem and isn't serious at all. Too often (especially during high school and now in college) we have to focus on serious poems and try and pull out some hidden meaning. This gets tiresome and boring, and a lot of the time, it ruins my liking of the poem. This poem is nice because it doesn't have some hidden meaning and says what it needs to in a happy and cheerful way.

Buffy Episode From Class

I found this episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to be particularly interesting. It did a great job grabbing my attention right off the bat and keeping it throughout the entire episode. The aspect of this episode I liked most was the fact that due to all of Buffy's flash backs, the audience never actually knows which of Buffy's worlds are real and which one is her imagination. It keeps the audience guessing and intrigued, as they try to figure out what is really going on. Whedon does a great job of making both of Buffy's worlds seem just as realistic and I know that for me personally, I was torn between what I wanted to happen and which world I wanted Buffy to choose to be in. At one time, I would want Buffy to choose the world with her friends because they are in every episode and I felt connected to them. However, I would then want her to choose the world with her parents and the doctor, as I sympathized with them and their attempts to bring Buffy back to the real world and help her so that she can go home and be normal. All in all, I thought that this was a good and interesting episode of Buffy because it immediately grabbed my attention and kept it throughout with its action-packed plot and because it made me think throughout the entire episode.

GLADIATOR

My favorite movie of all time would have to be “Gladiator”. It was made in 2000 and stars Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix. This is my favorite movie not just because of the awesome action and fight scenes, but also because of the message it sends to the audience. In this movie, Russell Crowe plays a Roman General. After the emperor is murdered, along with his family, he is sent to be executed for treason by the new emperor (The new emperor is intimidated by the general and wants him dead because of this). The general survives the execution by killing the guards and escapes. After riding for a long time, he collapses from exhaustion. He is picked up by a slave owner and made into a gladiator. Because of his military training, he becomes the best gladiator in Roman history. He works his way up from fighting in a run-down Roman Province to fighting epic battles in the Coliseum. Through his victories against all odds, he wins the love of the crowd and gains power. Even when the emperor orders the general to do something, he defies him and does the opposite, just to prove a point; that everyone can make their own choices. Every act of defiance wins over the crowd more. In the end, the general faces off against the emperor in the Coliseum. The emperor wants to win, so before the match, he goes to the general’s cell and stabs him (then covers up the wound so no one can see). In the Coliseum, the general kills the greedy emperor and wins his freedom, however, his previous stab wound is too much for him and he also dies in the sand.
This movie is very inspirational for the audience viewing it. It shows that no matter how far down and out you may seem to be, it is so important to keep trying. The human heart can achieve anything. In this movie, a man goes from being Rome’s most glorified general, to a slave who lost everything, to a gladiator that defied an emperor, and then back to being a hero in the eyes of the citizens of Rome. It would be easy for one to give up after being sentenced to death and losing your whole family at once, but the general’s perseverance shows us that if we set our minds to something and never give up, that we can achieve anything. It shows that no matter what your situation may be, if you don’t give up and keep working, you can make your way to the top.

Commonplace paper problem

Alright. So my commonplace paper is going alright so far, but I do have some problems. I'm not really too sure which parts of my analytical research paper to include, and which ones to leave out. My topic for the commonlplace paper is about peer pressure and teens. I talk about how it is a complex issue and difficult to deal with and how "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" does a great job bringing the problem of teen peer pressure (the different forms it takes and how the teens react to it) to the public's eyes. I was thinking about connecting examples from Buffy to real life examples that are similar. Doing that alone takes up about 3 pages and I know Leslie said that the papers shouldn't be much more than three. I was also thinking about including some of my sources from my ARP about how adults oversimplify peer pressure and even programs like DARE do the same thing, which actually makes it tougher for teens. I'm not really sure what I should include and not include, so any thoughts would be great!

CP idea...

So I was thinking for my Commonplace Paper I would keep to the general idea of my analytical research paper: that peer pressure is a much more complex issue than adults will admit and that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is compelling and relevant to this topic because of how Joss Whedon makes the teenage characters in Buffy so relatable to the audience. For example, the characters in Buffy face many similar situations dealing with peer pressure as teens today do. They also go about reacting to the peer pressure in a similar way. They will change how they act or how they dress just to be accepted. Although adults make it seem as though peer pressure is simple and easy to avoid or rise above, nothing could be farther from the truth. Joss Whedon recognizes this and sympathizes with America’s teens by showing through Buffy how difficult it can be to deal with. Adults make it seem as though peer pressure is easy to rise above. However, oftentimes, teens do not even realize that they are being pressured, so how can they effectively rise above it? Throughout the pilot episode of season one of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, there are countless examples of main characters, like Buffy and Willow (Buffy’s best friend), facing peer pressure and just being pressured to do things they don’t want to. These examples range from Buffy feeling pressured to dress a certain way when she goes to the club in order to be accepted to Willow acting out of character and approaching a random guy, initiating a conversation with him so that she doesn’t feel as though she is a loner and so that she can be seen as “normal”. A perfect example of a teen not realizing that they are being pressured is when Buffy is talking to Giles at the club. He is pressuring her to resume her position as the slayer, even though she does not want to. I was thinking about relating some of these examples from Buffy to examples from real teenagers in America, like the one I talked about in class today about the middle school girl who came home from school on the first day and told her mother that they needed to go buy her clothes that looked “cool” so that she wouldn’t be made fun of. Let me know what you think of these ideas, it’s just a start.

Mike's Problems

Alright, so here's the problem I'm having. My paper is at 6.5 full pages, but I cannot get it to 7 and I don't really know what to do. I've gone through the whole thing multiple times, expanding each paragraph and adding my own analysis. I've introduced, incorporated, and explained all of my quotes and I'm still falling short. Any suggestions?