Post #14 5/12/09 Grin and Bear It, Boys. Grin and Bear It.

5/12/09

So, lately I’ve been reading this book (which shall go unnamed) in my English class. Actually, it’s a play but you catch my drift, right? Anyway, in said book there is a character whose…how do you say this…“natural tendencies” have elicited a very distinct response from me and the majority of the class. What is this “distinct response” you might ask?

Annoyance.

Sheer, agonizing, torturous annoyance.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I get annoyed very easily. Heavy emphasis on “very”. Which is probably why this particular character in this particular play just about did it for me. (I know, I know. I need to give her a chance, let her tell her story, etc. And I’m trying, I swear I am. But there’s only so much trying I can do.) And if you know me at all, you know that the smallest things can tick me off.

An example: the IPhone

What about the IPhone? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s the applications. The billion gazillion applications that only worsen our addiction to technology. I’ll be sitting on the couch in front of the TV, just waiting for the commercials to stop so I can get back to watching whatever show I’m watching and BAM! An IPhone ad pops on screen promoting its newest application. The car finder, the bird identifier, the level. And I’m sitting there going, “Are you serious? You’re serious?” I just don’t understand. I mean, we have brains. Use them. Use that 3 lb. organ that has developed over the past 90 million years to remember where you parked your car. Take a picture, draw a map, anything. Just don’t rely on your phone to do it for you. (That doesn’t mean I hate Apple. I swear, Mr. Jobs. In fact, I have an Ipod.) I’m sorry, I’ll stop. The applications are just one of my pet peeves.

Now, I’m sure we’ve all been in this position. Being trapped with that certain someone or something that knows the exact combination of button-pressing that will send us careening right over the edge. Of course, if they’re especially good, they can drive you so close to the edge that you think you’re about to snap but right when you’re about to get there, they reel you back in, leaving you teetering dangerously over the point of no return. It’s almost like an art albeit a cruel one.

So, for those of you who, like me, have difficulties dealing with our pet peeves in more positive ways, what’s next? “Life has a lot of cages. People living and working shoulder to shoulder get aggressive, aggravated and annoyed. It happens to all of us, and it’s our nature to react poorly.”

What to do, what to do…

I guess, to me, the most logical answer would be to simply ignore the things that tick us off. Easier said than done right? I mean, we can’t always just up and leave whenever we get annoyed by something. But there are other things we can at least try to avoid.

When that fails, breathe. Think happy thoughts. Favorite movie, celebrity crush, whatever floats your boat. Imagine that you are somewhere else, anywhere else besides where you are at that very moment. And whatever you do, don’t snap.

Don’t.

Resist the pull of the dark side.

I know it’s hard. Believe me, I know. But hey, we just have to deal with it.

Post #13 5/5/09 Battle at the Box-Office

5/5/09

It’s coming.

You can feel it in the air.

It’s gonna be epic.

Well, maybe you can’t really feel it in the air but you certainly can see it and it certainly will be epic.

To what exactly might I be referring to? The…wait for it…

SUMMER BLOCKBUSTERS!

Alright, who’s excited for this years summer movie season? I know I am. We got Harry Potter, Transformers, Ice Age, Public Enemies…the list goes on. Movie lovers’ paradise awaits you.

That is, if the current recession hasn’t caused you to put a hold on unnecessary expenditures. (Although I think any expenditures on Harry Potter or Johnny Depp related material isn’t “unnecessary”. Actually, it might even be crucial for survival.)

So, just how is this economic catastrophe going to affect our summer movies? Well, I suppose it could go both ways.

See, “when the economy is suffering, people want to escape their troubles, and going to the movies is a fairly affordable luxury.” You head to the theater with a group of friends, watch a movie, then go and hang out at a nearby restaurant or someone’s house. Sounds good right? That’s definitely how I love to spend my summer. Plus, you get to chill in an air-conditioned room that’s far cooler than what it would’ve been if you had stayed at home for about 3 hours. So, why not?

But then there’s the down side. If you haven’t noticed already, theaters have been hiking up ticket prices since…long before the recession, actually. (If you don’t believe me I have a whole ticket collection dating back to 2003 that begs to differ.) General admission has nearly doubled from $5.50 to $9.75. And while that may not yet be in the realm of “This is completely absurd. Why do I even bother going to the movies when I can buy the DVD later?” for some, for the other half, these prices just to see a two and a half hour movie have already passed the point of no return. And then there’s the little issue of pirated versions, leaked online versions *coughWolverinecough*, and so on and so forth.

Will movie sales suffer? I guess it all depends on just how much we love this year’s movies. Because, in my humble opinion, High School Musical 3 was absolutely horrendous and yet it made over $42 million. Why? The answer may be evident to some; people liked the movie. And if people liked the movie, it doesn’t matter if the world is going to pieces all around us; it will make money. I guarantee it. My point being: it’s not over until the fat lady sings-- I mean, until the fans have spoken.

So…where does this leave our blockbusters in-waiting? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

And let the summer commence!

Post #12 4/28/09 Accents: Can't Do Them, Don't Try Them

4/28/09


Wednesday April 22, 2009. Fourth period English. We’ve just opened our literature books to a copy of the Declaration of Independence. We groan as the sheer volume of words meets our eyes. We know what comes next: we’re going to read it. Our teacher offers us the hints of a smirk, amused and at the same time exasperated at our reaction. I can just imagine her thoughts: Of course we’re going to read it. This is English class. Amidst our complaints, one of my classmates has a suggestion.

“We should read it with accents!”

A cacophony of opinions immediately resound throughout the room. Our teacher laughs as do several other members of the class.

My immediate reaction: Hah. You’re funny.

My reaction once I had the chance to fully process the sentence: Oh, please no. I’m begging you. Reading the thing is torture enough; don’t make me go through it while listening to about 30 horrible variations of a British accent.

Do I hate British accents? Heck no. Actually, that’s as far away from the truth as you could possibly get.

See, I have this little thing that if I wasn’t American I’d be British. Why? Well, to be completely honest, a big reason is because of their accents. I’ve always (and I can’t stress that enough) adored the English accent. And the Scottish. And the Australian. And…well, you get my point. There have been several occasions when I’ve even tried imitating a Scottish, Australian, and Irish accent to name a few with my friends but those attempts failed horrifically so I now restrict myself to a much more private audience: myself.

Now I have another little story. So, I was on YouTube the other day just looking up videos and I stumbled across an interview of one of my favorite actresses, Yvonne Strahovski who happens to be Australian. As I was scrolling down the list of comments, I found one, by an Australian, that interested me. Here it is:

Haha, me and my friends are always talking in an american accent (its usually
always the southern american accent :P) and we love it! i would love to have an
american accent but i'm stuck with an aussie one

Now, I’ve always had the absurd idea that no one wanted an American accent. In fact, my reply to that previous comment was exactly that. Why would someone with an accent as cool as an Australian one ever want an American accent? It’s so…boring. I mean, we don’t have fantastically awesome pronunciations for words like “fish and chips“ or “no”, which, as parodied by another great actor, Zac Levi, is pronounced in Australia as “naeiou”. But then again I suppose it’s a matter of perspective.

This leads me to my next point. We all seem to want an accent other than our own, for the most part at least. Australians want American, Americans want British, etc. Agreed? So riddle me this: why is it that foreigners are, in general, so good at imitating an American accent while we lousy Americans couldn’t copy a decent foreign accent even if someone phonetically recited the pronunciations to us? Really. It’s a mystery me. And I’m not even talking about foreign actors playing Americans in movies and TV shows (Who are phenomenal, by the way. Have you heard Hugh Laurie and Christian Bale’s American accents? One word: whoa) Take my Australian cousins, for example. They have pure Australian accents complete with words like “mate” and “bloody” in their daily vocabulary but can switch to near flawless American accents in a second. I, on the other hand, managed to get out, “Hey, mate.” before my cousins burst out laughing at my ridiculous rendition of their accent.

Personally, I have a have a theory as to why exactly this is the case.

American TV is popular, right? Not only here in the U.S. but around the world as well. I mean, I went to the Philippines over Christmas break and I was watching “Lost” and “Grey’s Anatomy” along with my cousins. “And American TV is so popular that the UK independent Channel Five is starting a new digital channel called Five US, which will show nothing but American programming.” So it’s safe to say that shows like “CSI: Miami”, “ER”, “Bones”, and all those other primetime programs that we love so much are just as popular abroad as they are here.

But what about foreign shows? Do you ever see much of them on our channels? No, right? Personally, I make it my duty to watch some BBC World News and an episode or two of “Extras” and “MI-5” which are both British shows but it’s not like you can just tune in to ABC and see a mob of MI-5 agents led by the dashing Matthew Macfadyen take down a group of terrorists in the London Underground (which is basically what they do on “MI-5”).

Because of this, it seems that foreigners get much more exposure to our American accents than we do of their accents. Therefore, they’re able to pick it up a lot easier since they’re so familiar with it. Our exposure to English, Irish, Scottish, and Australian accents, on the other hand, are limited to the occasional British news correspondents stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan and, of course, dear, sweet Simon Cowell.

Pathetic? I sure think so. What’s up with that, America? Are we that conceited that literally the only thing dominating almost every other channel is our oh-so-phenomenal accent? That we even expect foreigners to perfect our accent when we can’t even say something as simple as, “Hey, mate.” with a decent imitation of an Australian twang?

*sigh* This makes me sad.

Answer to riddle: Both of them! Kevin is from Scotland and Simon is from Australia. Gotcha didn't I? Haha.

Post #11 4/21/09 The Real Life in the ER

4/21/09

Enter Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, Princeton, New Jersey.

45 year old pregnant Caucasian female is undergoing exploratory surgery. Suddenly, a monitor that had been beeping regularly only a second before, emits a warning. Doctors look up in alarm.

DOCTOR 1
It’s the mother. She’s in v-fib.

DOCTOR 2

(with defibrilator)
Charging! Clear!

DOCTOR 3
(steps away)
I’m clear.

Doctor 2 administers one shock. Nothing.

DOCTOR 1
Looks like asystole. Paddling isn’t gonna do anything.

DOCTOR 2
It’s fine v-fib. I’m going again. Clear!

DOCTOR 1
We’re gonna loose them both. Clamp!
(takes clamp)
The surgery’s not doing this to her. The fetus is.
(moves to cut umbilical cord)

DOCTOR 2
Step away, House. I’m going again.

DOCTOR 1
The only way to save her is to cut off the anchor holding her
down.

DOCTOR 2
You keep going, you’re gonna get electrocuted. Clear!
Doctor 2 administers second shock.

DOCTOR 1
(jumps away from table)

Nothing.

DOCTOR 2
Going again! Clear!

Doctor 2 administers third shock. Normal beeping resumes.

DOCTOR 3
Heart rate’s returning to normal.

Believable? David Shore and Katie Jacobs sure hope so. And why do they care? Because, they’re the creators of House, M.D., the show from which the above scenario was taken. No, there really isn’t a Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in Princeton, New Jersey and no, there really wasn’t a 45 year old pregnant Caucasian female that went into full cardiac arrest 15 minutes are being put under while her attendings worked furiously to revive her. The entire thing is completely fabricated.

This is just one example of the many medical dramas that air on our primetime channels. As procedurals, these shows more-or-less strive for one thing: medical accuracy. “We want to be as accurate as possible," says Marc Platt, executive producer of ER. Unfortunately, these shows often fall short of their so called goal. “Experts say medical dramas often inaccurately portray organ donation, the range of doctors’ expertise and nurses’ roles, not to mention the level of hospital romance that takes place.” Yes, Grey’s Anatomy fans, that’s right. Hospital life isn’t anywhere near as glamorous as the show depicts. The same goes for ER, House, Private Practice, and whatever other medical dramas there are out there.

You can try your very hardest to make your show as close to the facts as possible by having on-site medical advisors who are real doctors but the truth of the matter is that the only way you’re going to make that happen is if you shoot at an actual hospital with actual doctors. Because Drs. Gregory House and Derek Shepherd aren’t real people; they’re fictional characters played by actors and it doesn’t matter how many years their show has been on the air. They don’t have a medical degree. QED: they usually have absolutely no clue what half of the words they say on screen really mean. Like… “He could just as easily have too much dopamine as serotonin, but if it’s dopamine the cyproheptadine will kill him.”

Now, you can imagine how crushed I was to learn that there really isn’t a Department of Diagnostic Medicine in actual hospitals like how there is on House. Because if you know me at all, you’d know that I adore that show and it was actually all of those hours spent watching House berate his team for their so called “idiotic ideas” then miraculously come up with the diagnoses in the final act of the show that prompted me to seriously consider becoming a doctor.

But alas, as my mom likes to say, “It’s about 25% fact and 75% entertainment.”

3/7/09 Forum #5 Homemade No More

At the end of "The Restaurant Owner", Huang Xiaoqiang is depicted making chaoshou. Not with a machine or an army of workers slaving away in a factory but with his own two hands and a chopstick. This brought to mind an episode I saw of "Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations", a cultural food show in which Bourdain travels the world, sampling various regional dishes and delicacies. In this particular episode, Bourdain travels to China and witnesses a quickly fading art: the creation of noodles. Like Huang Xiaoqiang, the man making the noodles uses no modern technology. With his bare hands, he creates a slab of dough with flour and duck eggs then uses a giant bamboo pole as a sort of rolling pin to flatten the dough so that he can form the stringy substance. Just as his father taught him and just as his father's father taught him, and so on for as long as the family had been making noodles.

These two instances really got me thinking. There really aren't too many things nowadays that can honestly bear the title of being "homemade". Because now, no one makes apple pie from scratch. Who does that? That's what Marie Calendar's and Baker's Square are for. But this is also a sad reality. The fact that these traditions are slowly but surely being erased from our world. The fact that there will definitely come a time when we rely solely on machines or on others to create what would once be considered as "homemade". The fact that we are basically loosing our ability to create something that has been passed on from generation to generation.

And that just makes me sad. Because I love homemade lumpia as do many other people, I'm sure. And if I'm the only one who can make them in some 30 odd years (because my mom made sure that I can make them), that won't be too much fun.

Post #10 3/31/09 When East Meets West

3/31/09

So I was flipping through the latest edition of Newsweek over the weekend, trying desperately to find something, anything that wouldn’t be such a pain in the butt to blog about. And as I was flipping the pages into the late hours of the night, a single word caught my eye.

Irish.

Admittedly, that one word wouldn’t spark very much interest from many people but with me it’s a completely different story.

I did not fully understand the dread term “terminal illness” until I saw
Heathrow for myself. ~Dennis Potter, 1978

I guess if you’ve never been to Heathrow International Airport you wouldn’t really get that quote. I have though. Back in the summer of 2004, I went on a trip to the British Isles as part of the People to People Student Ambassador Program. I’ve always loved traveling so naturally I jumped on this opportunity to see a part of Europe in a heartbeat.

So, I flew into Heathrow with a group of about 20 other students on June 23, 2004. Then, get this, we had to take a bus just to get from one terminal to the next. That’s how big that airport is. People use mass transport to get from one place to another. Anyway, in that other terminal we hopped on our connecting flight to Dublin, Ireland, the country of potatoes, U2, whiskey, and Colin Farrell.

Now, I’ve been to many different countries in my life but Ireland is definitely one of my favorites. Why? Well, that’s an excellent question and in all honesty, I don’t think I can even do my own answer justice in this post. I only stayed in the country for four days before boarding a ferry for Wales but in that small amount of time I completely immersed myself into the Irish culture. Food, sports, dance, you name it.

Like Peter Hessler after being thrown headlong into the very heart of China, I was awkward at first, hesitant. Despite the fact that I had traveled internationally in the past, the thrill of being a foreigner in a strange country once again took me by surprise. I didn’t know the customs, places, or even the strange jargon spoken by the locals with their sharp, distinct accents. I mean, yeah, it was English but try making sense out of something like, “Leave your rucksacks in the coach, please and be sure to pick up your rubbish.” while suffering from jetlag after an 11 hour flight.
Yeah. Exactly.

I was, quite literally, a fish out of water, gawking and gaping at all the different sights and sounds. And if that wasn’t enough to clearly mark me as a tourist, my conspicuous American drawl stuck out like a sore thumb among the slew of Irish accents. I can’t even remember how many times a friendly and inquisitive Irishman came up to me and asked, “So, you’re American?” Aye, sir, I sure am.

Nearly five years later, as I sit reading River Town back in a more familiar setting, those feelings of being completely out of place come rushing back. True, I didn’t need to learn a totally new language just to communicate with the locals (although British English is arguably its own language altogether) nor was I stuck with only one other American in a foreign country but I understood what it was like to be the foreigner everyone talked about with the accent everyone was fascinated by. I got that. Because while Hessler was one of only two white men in the Chinese province of Sichuan, I was one of a few Asian students traveling through the strange country that was Ireland. Ironic, wouldn’t you say?

But amidst the sideways glances and passing smiles, I found myself mesmerized by the land and scenery. Reminiscent of Hessler’s own attitude toward the Chinese countryside, I reveled in the majesty of Ireland’s lush hills and brisk seaside. Coming from an area in which nothing remained green for long, seeing the verdancy of the land amazed me beyond all reason. It really was like stepping into another world altogether. A world that I wouldn’t mind at all being stuck in for the next 100 years or so. There were no electrical lines, billboards, or any other reminders of 21st century life. Just…the simplicity of the land.

One particularly striking memory I have is of a hike I took one day in a place called Glendalough, literally “Glen of Two Lakes” in the Irish language, “renowned for its early medieval monastic settlement founded in the 6th century by St. Kevin”. Dusk was barely settling over the lake, the mountain fog slowly creeping down the hills. The temperature was dropping but despite this, my friends and I were determined to continue our trek. So, we kept walking, right through an ancient cemetery with crumbling tombstones and unkempt grass until we reached the lake’s edge. By then, the hazy mist was hovering over the water’s surface, the biting cold fiercely attacking any inch of exposed skin. But as I stood there, taking in the rolling hills poking over the top of the fog and the murky water below, I forgot all about the screaming protests of my freezing body and realized that this was about as good as it was going to get.

Post #9 3/24/09 Budui!

3/24/09

“Budui!” It meant, literally, “Not correct.” You could also translate it as no,
wrong, nope, uh-uh. Flatly and clearly incorrect.”

Uplifting, right? To be told, point-blank, “You’re wrong.”

Yea, right.

No doubt some would find this Chinese custom extremely disheartening. As Peter Hessler illustrates in his book River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, “You were right or you were budui; there was no middle ground.” To Americans, this concept of flat-out criticism is relatively unheard of. If someone’s wrong, they’re corrected but in a gentle, cautious fashion. This is especially true in the more elementary years of schooling. After all, you never hear anything like this on the campus of a grade school:

Student: *raises hand* Did I do this problem right?

Teacher: No.

Am I right? See, conversations like those most often go a little more like this:

Student: *raises hand* Did I do this problem right?

Teacher: Well, that was a good try but you forgot one little step…

See the difference? Americans are just too nice. I mean, I’ve heard of some pretty, how do I say this…interesting customs from other cultures that the Western world would be completely scandalizied by.

Personally, I side with the Chinese. Why pussyfoot around it? They’re going to end up crushed anyway. Might as well get it over with. It’s like pulling off a band-aid. You do it fast and with a clean jerk. The sting of budui is sharp and quick but you learn to get over it. However, pull that band-aid off slowly and you’re in for about ten seconds of pain as the detestable adhesive is gradually pried from your skin. Likewise, words of gentle correction may sound more appealing from the get-go but once you hear them you spend your time cringing as you wait for the “but” of the sentence.

So, why all this sugarcoating? I mean, the bottom line is going to be the same no matter how eloquently you phrase it. “You were wrong.” Now, you can either cry about it or take active steps to change your next attempt. Actually, I think this way would be much more effective. After all, no one wants to get shot down again and again for yet another failed attempt. So, they try even harder as Peter Hessler did in his endeavor to not completely butcher the Chinese language. They try harder which leads to fewer wrong attempts which ultimately results in them no longer being wrong. There’s no sugarcoating, no roundabout open-ended banalities aimed at stroking our ego as opposed to criticizing it. Just the plain, honest truth.

In fact, this is actually an underlying principle in psychologist B.F. Skinner’s theory about learning: negative reinforcement. “In negative reinforcement a particular behavior is strengthened by the consequence of the stopping or avoiding of a negative condition.” What does this mean in English? Well, basically for the purposes of this blog, the “particular behavior” could be anything someone is learning: tying a shoe, graphing hyperbolas, memorizing vocab words, etc. The negative condition is hearing someone tell you that you’re wrong when you screw something up. People don’t like being told they’re wrong (considered from a psychological standpoint as an unpleasant stimuli) so they try real hard to not be wrong, thus avoiding the unpleasant stimuli. Pretty soon, whatever it is they’re learning is engrained in their head, having connected the fact that if they do it right they don’t have to hear someone tell them that they were wrong.

I know it’s a bit confusing. I actually had a rough time figuring all that out when it came up in my psychology class.

Yes, it’s a bit harsh. But hey, the world isn’t made of sunshine and daisies anyway. No reason to delude ourselves any further.

Post #8 3/17/09 The Young and the Restless

3/17/09

Zac Efron. Megan Fox. Hayden Panettiere. Robert Pattinson.

If you were a reasonably well-informed person you would probably know, if not at least recognize, those names. Now, let’s try another list shall we?

Jeremy Irons. Helen Mirren. Viggo Mortensen. Ed Harris.

Being a movie junkie, those actors are just as recognizable to me as anyone for the first list. In fact, I probably know a lot more about one of them than that first list combined. However, I’m pretty sure those names mean little, if not nothing, to you. If I was a gambler, I would’ve put money on it.

So…why’d you blank out?

The answer, it would appear, lies in what that first list had in common with one other: they were celebrities, all under 25 years old, that have appeared in recent major blockbusters and/or popular tv shows. Movies and shows well known to millions upon millions of people around the world. High School Musical, Transformers, Heroes, and of course, Twilight respectively. Ok, now I want you to do something. For the people listed above, I want you to name the ones who have been nominated for and/or have won an Academy Award. Even if you don’t really know, take a guess. No cheating. Got it? Good.

Here are the answers:

Zac Efron: 0

Megan Fox: 0

Hayden Panettiere: 0

Robert Pattinson: 0

Jeremy Irons: 1 win

Helen Mirren: 1 win, 2 nominations

Viggo Mortensen: 1 nomination

Ed Harris: 4 nominations

Notice something? Yup. The latter group was actually the ones with the wins and/or nominations. So, if this is the case, if those group of actors were the ones with the more prestigious recognition, then why don’t we tend to hear about them? Again, it’s all about the ages.

It seems that in today’s age-fearing society, we tend to gravitate toward the younger generation. Fresh, young faces are getting fresher and younger while the older, more experienced actors remain mostly under the radar (unless they happen to be…oh, I don’t know…George Clooney or Johnny Depp or Angelina Jolie). New talent is constantly being “discovered” before kids have even entered high school. Take Dakota Fanning or Abigail Breslin for example. They were young like, really young, when they started working the entertainment business but people loved them. In fact, people loved Dakota Fanning so much that she was getting paid $3 million per movie before she even hit 13. “She’s definitely an old soul,” said actress Glenn Close. So, I guess being “an old soul” automatically wins you the respect of just about every other credible name in Hollywood. Apparently, Tom Cruise adores her as well.

However, with this surge of new, young talent, older actors, actors who have not completely made a name for themselves, are finding it harder and harder to make it in the brutal business that is show business. 30 and 40 something year old unknowns show up for auditions along side 20 something year old unknowns and guess who wins the part? The younger ones. True, the older actors may have the experience but it’s the 25 year olds who have the looks, the charm, and the moves to capture audiences. And that’s what directors, producers, and production studios want.

And along with this problem comes the slow demise and decreasing popularity of the so called “Hollywood royalty”. Audiences want younger, faster, bolder and since we still haven’t managed to age backwards (aside from Benjamin Button), the older, more experienced actors are slowly being left in the dust. It doesn’t really matter if they’ve won one Oscar or ten. What really counts is whether or not they can connect with younger audiences especially when “there are 48 million teens and college aged moviegoers.” Because chances are an 18-year-old girl is more likely to watch a movie with Robert Pattinson in the leading role as opposed to Ed Harris (personally, I’d beg to differ though) and a 20-year-old guy is more likely to be dragged off to a movie with his girlfriend when said movie stars Megan Fox instead of Helen Mirren.

But, hey. Nothing much we can do about it. After all, there’s no business like show business.

Answer to trivia question: Jeremy Irons, left; Robert Pattinson, right

Post #7 3/10/09 Moderation: Love it. Hate it. Gotta have it

3/10/09

The world’s complicated is it not? I sure think so and I’m sure at least 90% of the rest of the reasonable population would agree (I’m not quite sure what planet those other 10% have been living on though). Anyway, since the world is already twisted enough long before your milk even hits your cereal in the morning, I feel that adding to the world’s convolutedness is so incredibly unnecessary.

Take writing for example. Being a writer myself, I work hard to make my work the best it can be. I really do. That means endless hours of taking this out, putting that in, switching that around, and so on and so forth. I even have to go through this process for other people since I act as something like an editor to certain “clients” (The technical term is “beta”. I’m a beta-reader). As a writer, I know that I can’t always use sentences like, “Billy opened the door.” because 1) I’m not in third grade and 2) a sentence like that can’t always convey the emotion I may want my piece to convey. I also know that I can’t just start rambling on about the door knob on the door, the wood the door was made of, what Billy was wearing at the time, and the color of the ceiling. People don’t want to read half a page of text describing exactly what it was like to open that door. Heck, I don’t want to read that so I certainly wouldn’t make other people do it either. Moderation is the key.

It’s like drinking (not that I have, by the way). Sober, most people are boring like the sentence, “It was dark.” Great. It was dark. I don’t know where it was dark, I don’t know when it was dark, I don’t know what was dark but hey, it’s dark. After a drink or two, that’s when people start to get a little more interesting. They’re a little louder, start talking a little bit more, and they’re excited. “The first thing he sees when he opens his eyes is the jet black abyss of the night sky.” A little more interesting, wouldn’t you say? It’s descriptive (yes, it was dark), it’s coherent (you actually understand that he’s looking at the sky), and yet the description ends before you’ve reached 101 years old. And then comes the buzz. People are no longer coherent, they’re grating, and just don’t know when to stop. “His eyes flutter open and for a second, due to the momentary wave of confusion that washes over him in finding himself in this predicament, he doesn’t realize that he has since the empty voids of the backs of his eyelids and the evening sky are virtually indistinguishable. He blinks again then shudders, attempting to rid his body of a strange sensation that has come over him as a bone-chilling breeze blows past.” Really? Really? I mean, come on. Would it really have killed you to say something to the tune of, “It was dark and cold and you-saved-us-the-pain-of-reading-that-long-rambling-thing-by-writing-something-that’s-so-much-more-simpler.”? There’s even a term for this: prolixity or “speech or writing which uses an excess of words.” Now, I’m not saying that consuming alcohol is necessary to achieve that happy middle ground. That’s not my point at all. What I’m trying to get at is that it is possible to get your point across without going completely overboard with the word use. Because more often than not, your original point may become “lost in translation” as it were, muddled and weighed down by all the other words attached to that main idea. Unless you’re a pro at this so called “purple prose”. Then your writing is a little more discernible.

However, I admit that there are certain times when it is necessary to be a little more generous with your words like if you’re trying to make a point with your excessive word use or if the situation actually calls for some verbosity. But remember our little magic word? Moderation. That is what migraines are not made of.

So, just my humble and honest opinion, please keep this in mind the next time you start writing something. You’ll be doing the world (and yourself) a huge favor.

Post #6 3/3/09 The Curious Case of...Wait, what?

3/3/09

I’m sure we’ve all heard of the movie. I mean, come on, it’s Brad Pitt. Arguably one of the most famous people, celebrity or otherwise, on the face of this planet. Therefore, I’m fairly certain that at least a good majority of you know the plot of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. In the event that you don’t, you sad, sad person (Just kidding. But seriously, what’s up, man?), stay tuned. You’ll find out soon enough.

So why am I bringing this up? Well, 1) it was in one of the Newsweeks I brought home over the weekend and I’m in desperate need of a decent topic and 2) I personally think that its main theme is extremely significant especially now in our current society.

I’m talking, of course, about aging.

It’s a very funny issue in our society because there seems to be two completely polar opposite sides to it: those who want to get older and those who will do whatever it takes not to. And by “whatever it takes”, I mean “whatever it takes”. Whatever. It. takes. But we’ll get into that later.

Anyways, what of this first side? Who would want to get older? From experience, I’d say teenagers and the younger generation. Come on, we’ve all been there right? “God, I can’t wait ‘til I’m older. I’d finally be able to leave home.” or “I want to turn 21 so badly!” (And you know what that implies). Sounds familiar? I should think so. We are, were, and have been teenagers at some point. True, these wishes are mostly reactions to the so called “growing pains” and stresses of this particular stage of life (SATs, anyone?) but can you really blame them? Of course, there’s the whole notion of, “You don’t know what you’re wishing for.” or “Being an adult is everything short of glamorous.” or “Are you out of your mind?” But then again, do teenagers ever truly fathom the responsibilities that come with being an adult? I’d say nine times out of ten, no, they don’t really. Most of what teenagers perceive as “being an adult” is the extremely sugar-coated version. But there’s an uglier side to it. Taxes, work, money, taxes, housing, taxes…the list of headaches goes on. But, hey. Teenagers are teenagers and they won’t be for very long. So I say, let them keep wishing. Because one day that wish will most definitely become a reality. And suddenly they’ll be wishing for the exact opposite.

Which brings me to the flip side of the coin: the people who don’t want to get older. Arguably, this side consists mostly of the older generation but I’ve met some precocious little eight year olds who are adamant that they will always remain their little eight year old self. Anyways, this group has got to be the most fascinating of the two. I mean, who doesn’t want to hear about the crazy new invention someone somewhere in the world came up with that will, get this, reduce your wrinkles? Ok, fine I’m being a tad bit sarcastic but seriously. There are some pretty interesting, albeit controversial, ways to “turn back the clock” as the saying goes. Take human cloning, for example. Here’s the gist of it: people clone themselves so that when their heart fails, or their liver fails, or they lose an eye, or whatever, they are able to take the part from their clone and thus, continue to live on. There was even a major movie based on this called The Island. Futuristic? Yes. Impossible? No. In fact, “the U.S. Department of Defense is developing cutting-edge medical technology that’s regrowing human tissue, in some cases, on the backs of mice”. Freaky? I sure think so. Although I’m not quite sure which part is more alarming: cloning or the fact that there are mice out there with human body parts growing from their own furry little bodies. Needless to say, this particular tactic of anti-aging has undergone a lot of fire due to the moral controversy surrounding the very nature of human cloning. Of course, this is just one example of the extremes people will go to avoid the inevitable. I’m sure there are so many other ones out there.

And then there’s the dear Ben Button who, much to the resentment of others I’m sure, doesn’t have the problem of getting older. Born a tiny and frail old man, he begins his bizarre life in a nursing home. However, it quickly becomes obvious that while his body may be old, his mind is exactly like that of a child. He then proceeds to age but in the opposite direction. Thus, while his childhood friend Daisy gets older, he gets younger which, obviously, causes problems for the two as time goes on. Interesting, right? Definitely.

So where does that leave you? Are you the rebellious teen who so desperately wants the supposed freedom that comes with adult life? Or are you longing to hit the “Pause” button or even the “Rewind” button on the remote control of life? Or are you, like myself, not too bothered by either prospect of aging and are perfectly content living life as it comes not matter what the direction?

Post #5 2/24/09 Your John Hancock, Please

2/24/09

So, I was reading the latest issue of Newsweek the other day and I came across an interesting article: “The Curse of Cursive”. It discussed the quickly fading art of…you guessed it: penmanship. In an age dominated by IM, MySpace, E-mail, blogging, and whatever else you can think of, the good old-fashioned technique of getting your point across is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Unfortunate for some. A godsend for others.

Me? I’m split right down the middle. See, I remember when I was learning to write. Those long hours spent at my little plastic-top table in kindergarten copying each letter of the alphabet onto my piece of manuscript paper (Remember those? Exactly. That’s how old we are.) over and over and over until the letters were so engrained in my head that I’d continue on past the paper and write on the desk, much to the dismay of my teacher. Yup, I remember those days. Pure and utter torture. Because while all my other friends were diligently perfecting to dot their i’s and cross their t’s, I gave up somewhere along the way. The heck with it, I thought. My handwriting doesn’t need practice. Not when there are more important things like math I need to figure out. Little did I know that for the rest of my school years, heck, for the rest of my life, practicing was exactly what I’d be doing.

But then I discovered that I had a talent: writing. Kind of ironic, don’t you think? It was third grade. Looking back at it now, years later, it was one of the most atrocious things I’d ever created. But for a third grader, I’d say it was pretty darn good. And so it began. Since computers were not something every other family had then, I was stuck hand writing each and every page, my small hand flying across the paper. My first project in third grade was short, nothing elaborate really although I did go through the trouble of editing it with a red pen the way I was taught by my teachers. The plot was ill-conceived, the spelling horrendous but I got my point across, beginning, middle, and end. I still have the original papers and after taking a peek at them the other day, I noticed a funny thing: my handwriting is almost exactly the same. True, I had a lot more space between letters the way that many kids do when they’re still getting the hang of this strange concept and my y’s were a bit different but other than that, it was a carbon copy. Anyway, I kept up this new found hobby, hand writing each poem and short story that I came up with. And in sixth grade I actually completed my first full-length story. It filled two 70 page notebooks and was no where near brilliant but I hand wrote it. All of it. So that was an accomplishment. The following year, I completed yet another project. This time, it filled a 2-inch binder including pre-write, research, and other information I had regarding the subject. But the age of the computer was fast approaching and as life began to demand more and more essays, reports, and theses, I, along with the rest of the world, gradually got sucked into the vortex of the cyber world.

Which brings us back to my original point: the issue of handwriting’s diminishing importance. Having struggled all my life to make my messy scrawl at least somewhat legible, a part of me wouldn’t be all that depressed if it did just fall off the face of the earth. And yet, the other part of me, the part that spent hours and hours toiling away, furiously scribbling all of my various projects throughout the years, would be absolutely devastated if handwriting was no longer part of our world. Because then what would happen to that individuality that came with everyone’s distinct script? That includes your signature. All of that. Gone. If handwriting disappears from modern society, a small part of what makes us who we are, what makes us human is erased. Furthermore, studies have shown that “handwriting fluency is a fundamental building block of learning”. Without it, I guess you could say that we’d be missing a window or a 2×4 in the metaphorical house of learning.

So the next time you open your computer to send your distant cousin in Weehawken an e-mail or to type up that 50 page report on global interdependence due tomorrow, take a moment to think about your handwriting and the long, agonizing journey you embarked on to achieve a script that is at least somewhat decipherable. You’ll either feel accomplished.

Post #4 2/17/09 To Trek or Not to Trek?

2/17/09

Ok, who’s excited to see the new Star Trek movie in May? I know I am. I’m no Trekkie but I can’t help but feel the air of anticipation along with avid Star Trek fans. It’s a bit like…the Harry Potter movies. It doesn’t really matter if you’ve read the books or not; you’re going to end up watching the movie at one point or another. Now, apart from it being the one and only Star Trek, I have my own reasons to be excited for this movie.

Number 1: It’s directed by the amazing J.J. Abrams, co-creator of what has to be one of the greatest tv shows of all time, Lost. I’ve been a fan of that show ever since I saw it’s fourth episode, “Walkabout”, back in 2004 while I was bored one weekend so naturally, anything that has to do with it gets an automatic A in my book.

Number 2: It’s score is composed by Michael Giacchino, who also composes the music for Lost. I know that may not mean anything to most people but musical score is one of the things I value in a movie or tv show. I just love the way a good composer can get the emotion of a scene to come across in the music. Trying listening to the scores of Pirates of the Caribbean or The Lord of the Rings if you don’t get what I mean. Furthermore, I’m pretty sure we’ve all heard the Star Trek theme at one point or another in our lives, although we may not remember it too clearly and while the composer may be different from the original series’, Giacchino has said that “he would retain at least the original theme…by Alexander Courage”.

Number 3: It has a few of my favorite actors in it. First, Jennifer Morrison who will play James Kirk’s mother, Winona. On another one of my favorite tv shows, House, she plays Dr. Allison Cameron. Funny stuff, that show. But if you find yourself appalled by extremely rude people I suggest that you stay clear of it since the main character has a bit of a prickly and at times abrasive disposition. Second, Eric Bana playing Romulan villan, Nero.

Bit of a scary character, isn’t he? I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t want to get on his bad side. You probably won’t recognize Bana as Nero but he played Bruce Banner in The Hulk (the first one, not the second one). Third, Karl Urban as Dr. Leonard McCoy. Now, unless you’re a movie junkie like I am, you probably wouldn’t have the slightest clue as to who he is. He’s been in a bunch of movies though that I’m sure you’ve at least heard of, if not seen. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and The Bourne Supremacy to name a few.

Great reasons, huh? And the best part is that they basically have nothing to do with the plot so if the movie went to pieces in the eyes of Trekkies, I wouldn’t know the difference since I have nothing to compare it to, having seen only one episode of TNG. Fantastic don’t you think? And now, the long wait for May 8, 2009. Bring it on, Abrams. Bring it on.

Post #3 2/10/09 Redemption: Reloaded

2/9/09

I know we've been hearing a lot about The Crucible and what not so I decided to talk about something that is tangentially related to the book. Actually, it's directly related to the book but not in the way you might think.

So, I bombed that timed write the other day. Considering that my grade will now drop precipitously because of it, I thought I'd better redeem myself by writing something that reflects that I at least appear to know what the heck I'm talking about when it comes to that wonderful theme of redemption. Because if you read my timed write, you'd think that...well, actually I don't know what you'd think but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be handing me a Nobel Peace Prize for literature for it.

Anyways, I've been reading this book called Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. And guess what? One of the themes is redemption. Convienient right? I sure thought so. It's about the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup in Paris, France, one of France's most notorious colaborations with Nazi Germany during World War II. On July 16, 1942, thousands of Jewish men, women, and children were arrested by the French police at the break of dawn and escorted to the Velodrome d'Hiver, a famous stadium that was host to countless bike races. There they waited in atrocious conditions until they were herded onto trains headed for camps in the French countryside. For many, that was to be their last glimpse of their country before men were separated from their families and women from their children, and once again forced onto trains this time headed for the dreaded concentration camp, Auschwitch-Birkenau.

At the center of all this is ten-year-old Sirka "Sarah" Starzynski, the daughter of Jewish immigrants living a simple life in Paris. Through her eyes, we see the events of Vel' d'Hiv unfold as she is striped of the life she knew. She is separated from her father and mother and everything she holds dear. But the most devastating fact of all, her four-year-old brother, Michel, who she locked in their secret hidding spot when the French police came to arrest the family on that unforgettable day with every intention of coming back to get him, is now alone in their Parisian apartment and time is running out.

Sixty years later, Julia Jarmond, an American journalist living with her French husband and eleven-year-old daughter in Paris, is assigned to write an article commemorating Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary. As she investigates one of the darkest moments in French history, she soon discovers a family secret that connects her with Sarah. As we go back and forth between Sarah's point-of-view and Julia's, the pieces slowly come together and their interconnected lives gradually begin to take shape.

Now, I haven't finished it yet but I've gotten far enough that I know what that family secret is. If you want to know what it is, highlight the following area. But in the instance that you feel like reading the book and don't want to be spoiled, just skip ahead.

After the roundup, land lords and conceirges of the apartments formerly occupied by Jews scramble in a mad dash to find new occupants for the deserted flats, not at all concerned about the fates of the Jewish families that had been taken. As it turns out, Julia's father-in-law Edouard, with whom she's always had somewhat of a strained relationship, had moved into Sarah's old apartment with his family as a 12-year-old, with not even the slightest knowledge of the family that used to live there before him. That is, until young Sarah shows up at his door one day. She had escaped the French camp near Orleans and had now returned to get her brother. Unfortunately for Sarah, Edouard, and Andre, Edouard's father, a horrific discovery awaits them when she opens the secret compartment: the tiny body of a blond, four-year-old boy.

Sarah is devasted. Edouard is speechless. And Andre is guilt-ridden. Sarah leaves the apartment, vowing never to come back, leaving Andre to blame himself for the terrible fate of little Michel. He then makes Edouard swear to never tell anyone, especially his mother, of what had happened, knowing that the truth would be the family's shame. In the years that followed, Edouard kept his promise but grew to resent his father for not even attempting to reach out to Sarah. Now, with Julia delving deep into the past, the truth about what happened to Sarah is brought into the light. Contrary to what Edouard believed about his father's apathy, Andre had actually sent a large sum of money every year for ten years to the family that had taken Sarah in. He had sent letters, asking after her health, her life, her happiness, wanting to know if she was safe, if she was alright. Despite not really knowing her, he cared for her as best could given the circumstances. It was the least he could do for a girl who had lost everything to the horrors of war. He wasn't looking for her forgiveness, knowing that no amount of money could ever earn it. But he wanted to know that if there was one decent thing he did in his life, it was that he had helped that traumatized little girl that had shown up at his doorstep to live a somewhat decent life.

It really is a great story. I highly recommend it if you just so happen to have some spare time on your hands. As Naomi Ragen, author of The Saturday Wife and The Covenant said of it, “This is a remarkable historical novel, a book which brings to light a disturbing and deliberately hidden aspect of French behavior towards Jews during World War II. Like Sophie's Choice, it's a book that impresses itself upon one's heart and soul forever."

For more information and reviews on the book visit:

http://www.amazon.com/Sarahs-Key-Tatiana-Rosnay/dp/0312370830

Post #2 2/2/09 Acting. It's What We Do.

2/2/09

As Oscar Wilde once said, “I love acting. It is so much more real than life.”

I couldn’t agree more, Mr. Wilde. Because what is life, if not a façade that we’ve cared for and nurtured since the beginning of our very existence? Every single day, whether we’re aware of it or not, we act. We act like we know what the heck our friend is rambling on about when, in reality, they lost us the moment they opened their mouth. We act like we don’t care that the barista handed us a caffe macchiato instead of a mocha cappuccino for the second day in a row. We act because as humans, that’s exactly what we’re programmed to do.

Never mind Johnny or Brad or Julia or any other celebrity for that matter. They’ve just taken acting and gone pro. I’m talking about the regular, day to day performances that we put on whether it’s simply for ourselves or a wider audience. We act because we all got something to hide. It may not be the most interesting or scandalous of things but granted, it’s there. The question is: how well do we hide them? Like celebrities, there is a vast spectrum of categories we can fit into from the A-listers to the D-listers. The A-listers are impeccable. On the outside, their façade is flawless. They could be through an emotional nuclear war and we would suspect nothing about them. The D-listers, on the other hand, are…well, let’s face it, not everyone can be a star.

Now, personally, I see a direct link between acting and lying. When you act, you lie about who you really are. When you lie, you act like something you’re really not. So in a sense, we’re all guilty of being liars, just not necessarily to the extreme that we normally associate the word. So lie to me all you want because chances are, I’m lying to you. About what, that’s for me to know and for you to, hopefully, never find out.

Does that then mean that there isn’t any truth in anything that we do? Is our facade limited to simply being smoke in mirrors? Not necessarily. Because we may also act (or lie) if it serves a greater purpose and does not just benefit ourselves. Our motives may be to strive to work toward the virtue of truth though even if the means to achieve this are less virtuous. The ability to do this, however, is debateable as discussed in “Lying and Ethics” an article by Tim. C Mazur, since “the ideal person we continuously strive to be, cannot achieve one virtue without achieving them all.”

Post #1 1/27/09 17th Century Capital Punishment

1/27/09

During the 17th century, there were several execution methods being employed at the time. However, according to About Punishments for Witches in Salem, an online article, “Hanging was a common form of capital punishment in the 17th century, both in America and abroad.” This particular method has been popularized in our modern world through the use of film, literature, art, and other forms of media. There even exists a common word game by the same name. However, this early form of capital punishment was by no means an enjoyable experience. Aside from the well-known breaking of the neck, which may or may not kill the victim, hanging may also induce several symptoms before the death including closure of the carotid arteries (resulting in a loss of blood flow to the brain), closure of the jugular veins, and induction of carotid reflex (resulting in terminal cardiac arrest) (taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging).

For more information, please refer to the following sites: http://www.ehow.com/about_4570612_punishments-witches-salem.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging