Comparison of the Two Scenes

In this blog post, I am going to compare the two opening scenes in the two Romeo and Juliet movies (1968 and 1996). I've already watched the 1996 version's opening a long time ago, and after watching the 1968 version, I realized that there is a huge gap between the two. The two movies, with about a 30 year difference between their produced date, were drastically different. The 1996 version of Romeo and Juliet was quite obviously a lot more modern and realistic in all aspects such as events, clothing, cars, locations, etc. compared to the 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet. Although the 1968 one was much more logical (at least according to me), because it was old-fashioned and includes sword fights and old-fashioned clothing and that seemed to match up more closely to what one might imagine when reading the script. The 1996 version of Romeo and Juliet on the other hand was a lot more modern seeing as the the sides wield guns instead of swords and they actually have the fight at a gas station and then they blew it up (BEST PART OF THE MOVIE...). I personally liked the 1996 version better, because it's original, and much more relateable for a young person like me. The action in the 1996 version is also much more advanced and exciting compared to the 1968 version, where you just see a horde of people wielding swords around and you can't actually see who dies. I would not change anything if i were the director of the 1996 version, but I would definitely show people actually dying if I were the 1968 version's director (but I'm not sure if that was allowed in films at that period of time...)

Animal Farm Double Blog Post

What could any of the animals besides Napoleon have done differently, that would have made a difference in the outcome?

The animals could have led rebellion when they realized something has gone amiss like when a lot of them are starting to realize how corrupt Napoleon is and also when they realized that Boxer has been taken to a torture place. If they had risen up and voiced their opinions, then they may have been able to overthrow Napoleon and take back control. Snowball could also have fought harder and stood up to Napoleon's evil little tricks, and take control instead. In fact, if Snowball had taken control instead of Napoleon then the animals may have had a better life and their lives would most definitely have been improved seeing as Snowball, unlike Napoleon, had actually wanted to improve Animal Farm and he was a muct better leader even though he is still a bit corrupt. Other animals, especially animals like Benjamin, who actually knew much earlier than all the other animals that the things Napoleon had been doing are actualy pretty terrible and also that they were quite purposefully bad, they should have told the other animals aout what they have observed and they should really share their thoughts. If they had shared their opinions with everyone, then they could have maybe figured out how to overthrow Napoleon and been able to regain freedom. They also ould have probably asked the other farms to help them and get them out of communism and become democrats just like in actual history which happened just like that I think. They could also just have killed Squealer since he was the one that was always spewing lies and lying to everyone about ridiculous things that the animals actually do believe.

Privacy Debate Reflection

I think this debate was really fun and interesting for me. I think I did a pretty nice job and some great things such as making a lot of analogies and also attacking the points the opposition team proposed. However, I think I could have included more specific examples and also incidents that happened like the opposing team with Amanda Todd. Thankfully, though, I knew about Amanda Todd and was able to argue about that succesfully. Another great thing that I'm very proud of not doing (and pleasantly surprised that I did not do) was that I did not stutter and add things like "um" and "like" in my speeches! I also used some pretty long and complicated words which I'm very glad of doing. My team was awesome, I mean the teammates. They were confident and pointed out all the important points and we also cooperated perfectly, everyone contributing actively and sharing their opinions and everyone's voices were heard. However, we definitely could have researched more and not just base our evidences on general things and instead focus on providing statistics (we only had 1).

Is Privacy An Illusion?

I absolutely agree that my privacy is in peril. There is no such thing as privacy in this world anymore. What with Facebook and Google and surveillance cameras and recorded cell phone conversations. Everything can be recorded and everything you every do, write, or say can be used against you. All phone calls are recorded and can be given to the government if they requested so, in fact, every conversation is being monitored and scanned for potential threatening words. Skype chats can be retrieved and your account can't be withdrawn. A lot of email sites sell your private information to others who are willing to pay the price. Google can track every single search you have ever typed into the searching engine. There is no such thing as privacy in the modern world anymore! Always be careful and never let anything or any word that you don't want to be responsible for saying!

How Do You Sell An Idea?

So another example of an ad can be the ad from Airwaves Company trying to sell their delicious and spicy gum. In the ad, there was a guy who was falling asleep at work, I believe, and then he pops one of the airwaves into his mouth and he appears much more awake and has little blue spiraling things going up into his brain. It uses the transfer technique of persuasive techniques, because it shows that you can stay alert with the gum and that is a positive image. Another ad can be one of the 7-11 ads which was trying to promote its "collect 10 points in exchange for a cute bear cup" (my sister's obsessed with that). It uses the testimonial technique because it asked some popular celebrities from Taiwan to hold the cup around and talk about how they use it and how good it is when they use it. 

Can A Dream Change The World?

My vision for a better world involves better food for everyone, and less people stuck in poverty. Hopefully, also less annoying people, but that's probably not possible. In the future, I hope there will be no shortages of food. I know right now there are numerous people starving to death because of the huge population of people we have on Earth. So I hope that we can all share our food and maybe that will even solve another problem! The problem of obesity. Obesity is quite widespread among prosperous countries right now, so if the richer countries with more food resources are willing to give some of their share of food to the ones that need it, then not only can they save a life, they can also get skinnier! I also hope that less people will have to be in poverty or be jobless. It is definitely very sad to think about such things, but I have no solutions to that, because people do have to work hard to get where they want to get, or else it'll be like communism which, when regarding the ideal communism system, is almost impossible to achieve. Lastly, getting rid of annoying people will be the hardest, but it can still be done. Perhaps we can just get rid of them and that will reduce the population, thus creating more food resources for everyone and less poverty and more jobs! What a great solution! But of course I was just kidding.

How Does Friendship Begin?

"Think about an unusual or unlikely friendship you might have had? This could be someone who is much younger or older or very different from you. What started the friendship? What is it that makes people connect that can create a friendship?"

Last summer, I went to this summer camp called CTY where there were a bunch of freakishly smart people, and I made a lot of my usual friends but I also made a quite unusual friend, one that I never would've made intentionally. Her name is Carissa and she was my hall mate. When I first met her, I never thought I'd get close to her at all. She seemed like those annoyingly smart people who I've always hated. I went to CTY with Angela and she became friends with Carissa. Since she and I were friends, I became acquainted to her as well, but I didn't become friends with her yet. Then, we started hanging out more and we became closer. She then taught me how to play this card game that was really popular in CTY called ERS and it was the best game in the world, I swear. The more we played, the closer we got and we actually became great friends. We then had many sleepovers together playing cards, talking about our own school lives, cute guys, and gossip. We're really close friends and I'm absolutely glad that we became friends and my first impression of her didn't stop our friendship from developing. I guess you really can't and shouldn't judge a person by their covers.