300
It is an epic movie about the ancient Battle of Thermopylae, where King Leonidas and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes and his massive Persian army. Facing terrifying odds, their strength and sacrifice inspire all of Greece to unite against their Persian enemy, drawing a line in the sand for democracy.
I enjoyed watching the movie. It was maid beautifully, and I learned some ancient legends about Spartans. Many people came to watch the movie, some of my friends saw it like 3 times or more, and I definitely will buy it on DVD to enjoy watching it again and again.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Those Crazy Ideas
Isaac Asimov addressed in his essay an issue of creative process. “How does one go about creating or inventing or dreaming up or stumbling over a new and revolutionary scientific principle?” He chose Charles Darwin as an example of a creative person.
So what qualities does a scientist need to possess to come up with “those crazy ideas?” He must be “broadly educated, intelligent, intuitive, courageous, and lucky.” I would definitely agree with him and add that a person must be persistent, accurate, and determined as Darwin was.
I enjoyed reading this piece; it felt in my head as though I heard Isaac narrating it to me.
I cannot be fascinated more with his idea of dividing information in “bits,” as in ‘information theory.” I think it was very proper and smart. I feel very captivated by mathematics and sciences, and reading about that in such a rich and formal language was quite remarkable.
Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of Dinosaurs
The effect of evolution on dinosaurs was a subject of Stephen Jay Gould’s essay. He examined several theories of their extinction. The first, “sterilization” of male dinosaurs, and the second, poisoning by the plants, theories don’t prove themselves. Since there is nothing left of these creatures except their bones, and reproductive organs and livers didn’t fossilize, we cannot support these claims. But the theory of a large comet striking the earth is a legitimate one, because there is the proof that the disaster happened and affected not only the dinosaurs but also plankton and other creatures. I stick to this idea, also. And I agree with Gould that by studying the reasons of extinction of creatures before us we may become aware of the possible dangers that could wipe us, humans, of the face of the earth.
Television Addiction
In her essay Marie Winn defined the meaning of addiction and reasoned that television addiction could be in many ways like drug or alcohol addiction. She defined television addiction as destructive in nature: its very core is in the pursuit of pleasure, repetition, and increasing need leading to damage. I definitely have the same opinion, and I think that TV doesn’t satisfy you; instead you watch it over and over again. Then the viewer is in front of the TV he enters a passive state and forgets his problems. But it doesn’t make them go away. And how much time is lost!! I read somewhere that an adult in his life by the age of 40 watches 10000 hours of TV. All this time we could use for better purposes, don’t we?
Procrastination
Psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers is focusing in her essay on procrastination, which happens when you are putting off doing what you know you should, but you still don’t get it done. She gave valuable advice on how not to procrastinate. Organization comes first. You need to make the Reinforcement list of things what you need to do and don’t have time to finish. Then you must arrange it in the order of importance, trying to picture the worst case scenario, as if you didn’t get the things done. Then, “set the goal” to do the top 3 things on the list every day. She also described her own process of setting up baskets, which she filled up in order of importance. (In the first one she puts “emergencies”, and then come things of less importance and so on.)
I personally struggled with the same problem, too. To remedy the cituation the list or basket approaches are very helpful.
A House Is Not a Home
Unfortunate Mia Farrow is describing her difficult times living with Woody Allen before their divorce. In the beginning of her essay she describes a place that she misses, her “beloved wooden House, as close to heaven as anywhere on earth.” Her portrayal is about great comfort, which then plays a big contrast with the house with Woody. She focuses on his behavior, his “neurotic” character, the way he treated her. He wouldn’t go in to the bathroom she made for him, and the new house he bought and decorated doesn’t satisfy him. It affects their relationship greatly, she doesn’t feel comfortable with him anymore, with him a “house is not a home.”
Salvation
Author, Langston Hughes, looks back on his childhood in his narrative essay. The issue of growing up arises here. Langston as a 12 year old boy lived with his aunt and uncle. “Auntee” Reed was a very religious woman and thought to convey her nephew on her side. She was telling him that he “will see Jesus and be saved.” But it didn’t turn out like that. Langston really trusted his aunt and waited patiently for “salvation,” but nothing happened. Instead, it was the biggest embarrassment of his life when he had to lie to everyone including himself about seeing Jesus. This episode made him revaluate his trust in adults and, consequently, become one.
A Chase
As a little girl Anne Dillard was a tomboy, she played football and was friends with boys. The narrative, though, centers around one episode in her life, when she was 7 years old. She and her friends were fooling around and throwing snowballs into the passing cars. But suddenly a black Buick that they targeted stopped and a man came out running after them. He was chasing them and they ran fearlessly “block after block.” Dillard expressed her strange feeling of fear combined with excitement. She liked being chased by an adult, and when he caught them her high spirits came crushing down. He just said: “You stupid kids.” But she wanted more, she pictured him cut off their heads, which when she would “die happy.” But real life is more prosaic and there was nothing else in her life since that required “so much of her.”
A Hanging
In this essay George Orwell describes a hanging he witnessed in India. In the center of the essay is his conflict between the feeling of sympathy for the prisoner and making fun of him. When he sees that the prisoner on the way to be hanged steps aside to avoid the puddle, he realizes that he is a human, too. And with his death there will be “one mind less, one world less.”
But shortly after he is hanged Orwell finds himself laughing with the guards and talking about meaningless things like “silver case.” He is troubled by his contradictory behavior and goes to have a drink just 100 yards away from the dead man.
Embalming in the U.S.A.
Jessica Mitford describes the process of embalming the body by listing the necessary steps and equipment to be used. Mr. Jones is the body they are embalming step-by-step in front of the audience, us. The process of embalming is not very talked about topic and it made me feel uncomfortable, so I’m not going to describe each step.
The final step, casketing, prepares the body for viewing. The body is laid in a special way to “soften” the appearance. Also, the few items are added like the favorite pipe or for kids a Teddy bear. This is being done to make the dead person not look so negative, because death is really distressing for his family.
Slice of Life
In this piece Russell Baker describes step by step a process of carving turkey. The tone of the essay is rather sarcastic; he makes fun of Americans trying to take everything so seriously. First, you need to get the necessary tools ready. Then, you remove the turkey and put it “suitable carving area.” He remarks to avoid dropping it on the floor. After that you can begin carving. He mentions to be careful with the thumb! He even gives instructions for carving with an axe.
I enjoyed reading an essay; it was funny, but also educational, because it uses many transitional words in the chronological order.
A Fable for Tomorrow
Rachel Carson wrote an example of contrast essay. She begins by describing the beautiful picturesque town, where “all life” is in harmony. She first focuses on trees, then describes the “abundance” of birds and fish.
And then she contrasts that with negative effects of the pesticides, but she calls it “evil spell.” People were the ones who put “a shadow of death” over the city. And then everything started to die and disappear: people, birds, pigs, and, finally, trees.
I think with this essay author was trying to give us the warning that this could happen in the near future. We did it to ourselves with the use of pesticides, cars, factories, and waste. We should stop it before it is too late!
Why We Crave Horror Movies
Stephen King in his essay tries to find the causes that make people watch horror movies. He remarks that “we are all mentally ill.” He finds following reasons: to show that we are not scared, to prove to ourselves that we are normal, and to have fun. We like to watch others get killed because we can let go; we have our “anticivilization” side. When we keep these bad “alligators fed,” we keep them from letting out and destroying our lives and that of others. If you feel a little on a negative side, maybe watching a horror flick will make you relax and forget about you problems.
The Holocaust
Bruno Bettelheim argues over the validity of the term holocaust. In his words it were Americans who called these terrible actions a Holocaust. The term creates detachment from the word and the event. Many people are limited in their knowledge of World War II, like me. So reading this essay opened up my eyes. After Nurnberg it was called genocide (mass killings). Another term used was martyrdom. The problem here arises from the fact that Jewish people absolutely didn’t undergo this terrifying ordeal voluntarily. It was also thought by Nazi people that it was the “final solution.” When considering what happened we need to find the ways how to not let something so terrible to happen again.
I Have Dream
Martin Luther King presented this speech at the hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. He argued that the status of African Americans hasn’t change a lot. In his speech he used “pathos,” appeal to the audience’s emotions. The language he used was almost poetic. He called the Constitution the “promissory note” of rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But America gave black people the “invalid check with insufficient fund.”
He also sang the popular song “let freedom ring.” It made people listen to him. The last words were that he was and all the people around him “free al last.” People of different races came together, and we can make a world a better place if we diminish racism.
A Modest Proposal
Jonathan Swift, satirist, proposes a humorous solution to the issue of the overpopulation. He said that eating children can actually be beneficial to the society. Besides, “a good fat child will make four dishes of excellent nutritive meal.” And in Dublin people begun hunting on children instead of deers.
The purpose of the essay is to make fun of the way that upper-class Irish people looked down to the poor people. All Swift really wants is to fix the social inequalities between the classes.
Isaac Asimov addressed in his essay an issue of creative process. “How does one go about creating or inventing or dreaming up or stumbling over a new and revolutionary scientific principle?” He chose Charles Darwin as an example of a creative person.
So what qualities does a scientist need to possess to come up with “those crazy ideas?” He must be “broadly educated, intelligent, intuitive, courageous, and lucky.” I would definitely agree with him and add that a person must be persistent, accurate, and determined as Darwin was.
I enjoyed reading this piece; it felt in my head as though I heard Isaac narrating it to me.
I cannot be fascinated more with his idea of dividing information in “bits,” as in ‘information theory.” I think it was very proper and smart. I feel very captivated by mathematics and sciences, and reading about that in such a rich and formal language was quite remarkable.
Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of Dinosaurs
The effect of evolution on dinosaurs was a subject of Stephen Jay Gould’s essay. He examined several theories of their extinction. The first, “sterilization” of male dinosaurs, and the second, poisoning by the plants, theories don’t prove themselves. Since there is nothing left of these creatures except their bones, and reproductive organs and livers didn’t fossilize, we cannot support these claims. But the theory of a large comet striking the earth is a legitimate one, because there is the proof that the disaster happened and affected not only the dinosaurs but also plankton and other creatures. I stick to this idea, also. And I agree with Gould that by studying the reasons of extinction of creatures before us we may become aware of the possible dangers that could wipe us, humans, of the face of the earth.
Television Addiction
In her essay Marie Winn defined the meaning of addiction and reasoned that television addiction could be in many ways like drug or alcohol addiction. She defined television addiction as destructive in nature: its very core is in the pursuit of pleasure, repetition, and increasing need leading to damage. I definitely have the same opinion, and I think that TV doesn’t satisfy you; instead you watch it over and over again. Then the viewer is in front of the TV he enters a passive state and forgets his problems. But it doesn’t make them go away. And how much time is lost!! I read somewhere that an adult in his life by the age of 40 watches 10000 hours of TV. All this time we could use for better purposes, don’t we?
Procrastination
Psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers is focusing in her essay on procrastination, which happens when you are putting off doing what you know you should, but you still don’t get it done. She gave valuable advice on how not to procrastinate. Organization comes first. You need to make the Reinforcement list of things what you need to do and don’t have time to finish. Then you must arrange it in the order of importance, trying to picture the worst case scenario, as if you didn’t get the things done. Then, “set the goal” to do the top 3 things on the list every day. She also described her own process of setting up baskets, which she filled up in order of importance. (In the first one she puts “emergencies”, and then come things of less importance and so on.)
I personally struggled with the same problem, too. To remedy the cituation the list or basket approaches are very helpful.
A House Is Not a Home
Unfortunate Mia Farrow is describing her difficult times living with Woody Allen before their divorce. In the beginning of her essay she describes a place that she misses, her “beloved wooden House, as close to heaven as anywhere on earth.” Her portrayal is about great comfort, which then plays a big contrast with the house with Woody. She focuses on his behavior, his “neurotic” character, the way he treated her. He wouldn’t go in to the bathroom she made for him, and the new house he bought and decorated doesn’t satisfy him. It affects their relationship greatly, she doesn’t feel comfortable with him anymore, with him a “house is not a home.”
Salvation
Author, Langston Hughes, looks back on his childhood in his narrative essay. The issue of growing up arises here. Langston as a 12 year old boy lived with his aunt and uncle. “Auntee” Reed was a very religious woman and thought to convey her nephew on her side. She was telling him that he “will see Jesus and be saved.” But it didn’t turn out like that. Langston really trusted his aunt and waited patiently for “salvation,” but nothing happened. Instead, it was the biggest embarrassment of his life when he had to lie to everyone including himself about seeing Jesus. This episode made him revaluate his trust in adults and, consequently, become one.
A Chase
As a little girl Anne Dillard was a tomboy, she played football and was friends with boys. The narrative, though, centers around one episode in her life, when she was 7 years old. She and her friends were fooling around and throwing snowballs into the passing cars. But suddenly a black Buick that they targeted stopped and a man came out running after them. He was chasing them and they ran fearlessly “block after block.” Dillard expressed her strange feeling of fear combined with excitement. She liked being chased by an adult, and when he caught them her high spirits came crushing down. He just said: “You stupid kids.” But she wanted more, she pictured him cut off their heads, which when she would “die happy.” But real life is more prosaic and there was nothing else in her life since that required “so much of her.”
A Hanging
In this essay George Orwell describes a hanging he witnessed in India. In the center of the essay is his conflict between the feeling of sympathy for the prisoner and making fun of him. When he sees that the prisoner on the way to be hanged steps aside to avoid the puddle, he realizes that he is a human, too. And with his death there will be “one mind less, one world less.”
But shortly after he is hanged Orwell finds himself laughing with the guards and talking about meaningless things like “silver case.” He is troubled by his contradictory behavior and goes to have a drink just 100 yards away from the dead man.
Embalming in the U.S.A.
Jessica Mitford describes the process of embalming the body by listing the necessary steps and equipment to be used. Mr. Jones is the body they are embalming step-by-step in front of the audience, us. The process of embalming is not very talked about topic and it made me feel uncomfortable, so I’m not going to describe each step.
The final step, casketing, prepares the body for viewing. The body is laid in a special way to “soften” the appearance. Also, the few items are added like the favorite pipe or for kids a Teddy bear. This is being done to make the dead person not look so negative, because death is really distressing for his family.
Slice of Life
In this piece Russell Baker describes step by step a process of carving turkey. The tone of the essay is rather sarcastic; he makes fun of Americans trying to take everything so seriously. First, you need to get the necessary tools ready. Then, you remove the turkey and put it “suitable carving area.” He remarks to avoid dropping it on the floor. After that you can begin carving. He mentions to be careful with the thumb! He even gives instructions for carving with an axe.
I enjoyed reading an essay; it was funny, but also educational, because it uses many transitional words in the chronological order.
A Fable for Tomorrow
Rachel Carson wrote an example of contrast essay. She begins by describing the beautiful picturesque town, where “all life” is in harmony. She first focuses on trees, then describes the “abundance” of birds and fish.
And then she contrasts that with negative effects of the pesticides, but she calls it “evil spell.” People were the ones who put “a shadow of death” over the city. And then everything started to die and disappear: people, birds, pigs, and, finally, trees.
I think with this essay author was trying to give us the warning that this could happen in the near future. We did it to ourselves with the use of pesticides, cars, factories, and waste. We should stop it before it is too late!
Why We Crave Horror Movies
Stephen King in his essay tries to find the causes that make people watch horror movies. He remarks that “we are all mentally ill.” He finds following reasons: to show that we are not scared, to prove to ourselves that we are normal, and to have fun. We like to watch others get killed because we can let go; we have our “anticivilization” side. When we keep these bad “alligators fed,” we keep them from letting out and destroying our lives and that of others. If you feel a little on a negative side, maybe watching a horror flick will make you relax and forget about you problems.
The Holocaust
Bruno Bettelheim argues over the validity of the term holocaust. In his words it were Americans who called these terrible actions a Holocaust. The term creates detachment from the word and the event. Many people are limited in their knowledge of World War II, like me. So reading this essay opened up my eyes. After Nurnberg it was called genocide (mass killings). Another term used was martyrdom. The problem here arises from the fact that Jewish people absolutely didn’t undergo this terrifying ordeal voluntarily. It was also thought by Nazi people that it was the “final solution.” When considering what happened we need to find the ways how to not let something so terrible to happen again.
I Have Dream
Martin Luther King presented this speech at the hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. He argued that the status of African Americans hasn’t change a lot. In his speech he used “pathos,” appeal to the audience’s emotions. The language he used was almost poetic. He called the Constitution the “promissory note” of rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But America gave black people the “invalid check with insufficient fund.”
He also sang the popular song “let freedom ring.” It made people listen to him. The last words were that he was and all the people around him “free al last.” People of different races came together, and we can make a world a better place if we diminish racism.
A Modest Proposal
Jonathan Swift, satirist, proposes a humorous solution to the issue of the overpopulation. He said that eating children can actually be beneficial to the society. Besides, “a good fat child will make four dishes of excellent nutritive meal.” And in Dublin people begun hunting on children instead of deers.
The purpose of the essay is to make fun of the way that upper-class Irish people looked down to the poor people. All Swift really wants is to fix the social inequalities between the classes.
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