Supernatural

Supernatural is a dramatic/comedic television that is also full of angst, violence, and brotherly feelings. Never have I felt so strongly about a television show, not even when I was hooked on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. At first, you stay for the Winchester boys, because dang they have nice-looking bodies (especially Dean, I mean daaaaaaang), but then you end up staying for the emotions the show invokes inside you. It ranges from happiness to sadness to all other feelings in-between. Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki are great actors that portray the emotions of these boys so realistically. I've even fallen in love with background characters, who've been in maybe one or two episodes (I'm looking at you Corbett, you adorable gay intern).

The show begins with Sam and Dean Winchesters' mother being killed by a yellow-eyed demon while he's dripping his blood into baby Sam's mouth. Sam and Dean grow up as hunters, who find and kill the supernatural with their father, John, who's not exactly father-of-the-year. After John goes missing, Sam and Dean try to find him, but Sam must return to college. He finds his girlfriend dead, having been murdered by the yellow-eyed demon once again. The first two seasons are Sam and Dean searching for this demon and their father, only to discover Sam's psychic abilities on the way. They kill many ghosts, demons, and other creatures, and are even hunted by the police in some episodes. Things get hairy when Sam dies and Dean has to make a deal with a demon to return him to life. (As I'm only about 6 episodes into season 4, I'll just stop here and leave a bit of mystery about the rest of season 3.)

Even though it is a show that plays once a week, it does not look at all cheap or fake. It looks vibrantly real (despite being quite a dark-toned show). The jump-scares are frightening and there are copious amounts of blood. All-in-all, this show is captivating and fantastic. The actors are amazing and the chemistry between Jensen and Jared is intense. They almost seem like they could really be brothers. I think anyone with access to this show should watch it, as it is fast-paced and wonderful. You'll probably love it as much as I do. 

Controversy

Recently, in the news, there have been many stories out concerning Jason Collins, an openly gay athlete. The treatment and rights of the gay community are issues that have seen many heated debates in the courtroom, and now apparently on the courts. My question, though, is this: why do we care about what a man does in the private of his own home when there are people are starving in third world countries, being slaughtered with bombs and guns, and when people are dying of easily curable diseases?

If we, as human beings, care more about who someone is sleeping with than the family being senselessly murdered in their beds, than we are no better than those who are killing those inoccents. We are turning away from true issues here, life or death situations. While some religious people might say that the issue of homosexuality is life or death, I offer this: the deity you worship most likely says something along the lines of "love your neighbor." Isn't loving your neighbor allowing them the freedom to choose what they want to do with their life?

We need to band together to stop actual criminals here. Two men or two women that love each other is NOT a crime, and we need to stop treating it as one. The murderers, the bombers, the silent killers, these are what needs to be stopped. They are the ones going against everything that being human means. Shouldn't humans love each other and treat each other with respect? Respect that everyone deserves? Murderers are taking away human lives, they are cutting lives short, and all the media seems to have any interest in is a man and a man getting married. Oh, a bomb went off in Syria? Who cares, happens every day. Two women want to get married? This is front page news, right here!

I'm not saying that the gay rights issue should be taken off the table, because I believe that gays need to gain the freedoms denied to them for a long time. I'm simply saying that, until some of the other horrific goings-on in the world end, we need to push it back a bit, take it off the front page. Who someone loves is none of the rest of the world's business. Someone killing entire families and half of a city is the world's business. We need to band together to stop people that are actually violating the rights of others.

I'm done ranting now.

Poetry

It is the feeling of infinity

 

Like the vast expanse of space and time

Of galaxies stretching far past our imaginations

I feel it running under my skin

Flowing like blood through my body

It pounds on drums in my ears

Boom, boom

It is almost startling

The way this internal dubstep feels

The way this silent music plays inside me

It is a machine, humming and vibrating

But it has no “off” switch

And when my internal Skrillex drops the bass

You’ll know my swag can’t be stopped.

Line 1 contains a metaphor. I compare my glorious swag with the feeling of infinity without using “like” or “as” in my comparison. This is done to emphasize how I feel about my trait and how awesome I feel it is.

Line 2 is a simile. I am comparing my swag to space this time, but I am using the word “like,” which defines it as a simile. Once again, I am simply exaggerating how amazing my swag is.

Lines 4 and 6 are personification. Swag is just a feeling, it cannot run or play the drums, though it would be pretty awesome if it could. The feeling, though, is that of a rhythm pounding inside, a beat begging to be played.

Line 7 is an onomatopoeia. I used the word boom because it sounded like the noise a drum might make when someone hits it really hard. I thought long and hard about using another word, like baboom or kaboom, but boom just felt right for a drum noise. This is mainly done to emphasize the feeling of swag.

Line 10 is an oxymoron. Music is not silent, unless it is on mute, but then you cannot hear it and it is not technically music because it has no sound, just silence. This shows that the feeling is internal and emphasizes the effects of my swag.

Line 11 is imagery. I compare the music to machine and create a picture of my swag in the reader’s mind and emphasize, yet again, the effects of my swag. The machine is moving and making noise, so it is both a visual and an auditory image.

Line 13 is an allusion. Skrillex is a popular dubstep artist that is frequently associated with the term “drop the bass.” "He" is the one creating this feeling inside me I would never want him to live inside my head, though. Too noisy.


For the record, I have no swag and this is all a joke. "Haha, you're so funny Maddy." Thanks, I know.

The Host

Spoilers, ahoy.

I went to this movie with extremely high expections (which was a mistake, by the way) and came out feeling extremely disappointed. Having read the book, I was sorely upset by the lack of information that they put into the movie. I felt that they could have put in everything and made the movie four hours long and it would've been fantastic. There was no background information on the "souls," too little "getting to know you" time with Ian, and just really, really poor acting.

This book is about an alien invasion of Earth and one girl's journey back to her family. She is taken over, though, and has to host an alien inside her body. These aliens make everything pretty peaceful, they don't kill, steal, lie, cheat. They make Earth "perfect," or it would be if there weren't false people living inside bodies. The last of the human resistance is hiding out, with the entirety of the population already having been taken over. The girl, Melanie Stryder, is trying to get back to her brother and her boyfriend (Jared) by manipulating the alien inside her, named Wanderer. On the way, though, Wanda (as she comes to be called) falls in love with them, as well. When they find the boys, they are living in a cave system and do not trust Wanda in Melanie's body. After a long period of mistrust, Wanda gains the humans' affection by saving Jamie. She falls in love with a man, Ian, along the way. At the very end, she shows the humans how to take aliens out of the humans and, in return, asks them to take her out. She "gives Mel back" and is put in another body, against her wishes, but stays in it because the body would not regain consciousness. The group meets another rebel cell and they have their very own alien living among them. Wanda reflects on how odd it would be if, someday, some of her people live in peace with some of the humans.

The movie does not play up relationship to Jamie enough, for starters. I felt no connection to the boy in the movie like I did with the boy in the book. Jamie is essentially a background character that Mel and Wanda have to save a few times. He seems much less important than Jared or Ian, and even Ian is pretty downplayed. In general, the movie just seems too fast-paced. Everything happens too quickly, people die too quickly, and things are resolved too quickly.

There was also no background information on the other planets and species in the galaxy. In the book, Wanda tells us all about the other worlds and how beautiful they are, but we get none of that in the movie. It would've been awesome if they could have stuck that in and then showed off what they looked like. I also think we could've stood to learn a bit more about the souls themselves, as they are the main antagonists in this movie (without trying to antagonize).

All in all, if you are going to see this movie, don't read the book first. And if you have read the books, well tough luck. If I had not read the books first for this movie, I would probably give it about a six out of ten, but having read the book, I would give it about a four. Meh.

Evil Dead

Spoilers I guess? This is a remake of a movie made in the 80's, so unless you haven't seen or heard of it, you should be good...

This was it. My first "R" rated movie. The first one I'd ever been to in a theater. I didn't have to sneak in either because I'm legally allowed. That's not what this blog is about, though. This is about a movie that was extremely gory and had a plot that was mediocre at best. For a horror movie, it had a decent amount of psychological chills and physical jump-scares to keep me occupied. A movie about kids staying in the woods and some evil being finds them, though? Done before. A girl is possessed and tries to kill everyone around her? Seen it. Girl is filled with angst and drug-related problems but instead of helping, her friends leave her isolated somewhere to murder them all? Yawwwwn.

The gore and intensity of the scares in this movie were pretty extreme. Everybody is hacking off limbs, cutting things open, and spreading nasty bodily fluids. At one point, the sky literally rains blood. I mean, how metal is that? As for how scary the movie was, I was on the edge of my seat with my head buried in my hands for pretty much the whole movie. The dead girl would pop out from behind a corner every five seconds, or she'd be crawling on the ground like a freaky, demented crab, or she would be yelling extremely colorful obscenities at someone.

One distinct scene I found frightening was right after the demon-thing is release and the sister is trying to escape. She sees the evil entity in the middle of the road and swerves into a pond to avoid it. Now, instead of going the way she came, she swims through the pond onto a muddy bank surrounded by forest. The evil being rises from the water, covered in mud, and the girl runs off into the forest. She is trapped by a tree possessed by the demon and it um... violates her. The demon is now inside of her and got there in a very personal way. This was scene was chilling because it incorporated a psychological fear of being helpless and not being able to do anything about a violent act towards yourself and the physical fear of just being really darn scary.

As for the movie's plot, it wasn't very original. Granted, this movie first came out in the 80's, and we've had so many new horror movies since then. They probably shouldn't have remade this one, though. The acting was okay, everything seemed decently terrified, but the storyline was just... bleh. It was really easy to follow and really simple to understand, though.

I would give this movie about a five out of ten, as it was gory, but had an awful plot. If you're into horror for the spookiness, go for it, but if you're like me, and actually like stories, don't waste $8.50 on it and rent it when it comes out on DVD.

Mass Effect 3

Spoilerzzz.

I recently finished playing the Mass Effect series of games. Three words: so many feels. This game drew me in and I couldn't stop playing until I had defeated all my enemies and lived with the knowledge that I had done what I could to save the (fictional) galaxy. It was so beautiful and poetic, almost art, with the way characters interacted with you and how your choices carried the story up to the final stretch of the game (for the most part). I am unashamed to say that I broke down and sobbed at more than one part in this game, as it creates attachments inside of you to characters and places that are so well-developed and almost seem real.

The Mass Effect series follows Commander Shepard (a male/female of various backgrounds) through her quest, and the galaxy's quest, to defeat an ancient enemy: the Reapers. The Reapers are a race of machines that seek to destroy organic civilizations at their peak. Shepard is pretty much the only person that can stop them, as he/she has communicated with them and proven her worth, and with the help of his/her friends,  recruits all possible allies in the galaxy to have a strong enough force to destroy them. Shepard can develop relationships along the way, she can make friends and enemies, and she can choose to be the epitome of goodness or a ruthless leader.

The three most heart-wrenching scenes in this final installment, for me at least, are as follows:

1. Mordin's death. Mordin is a salarian (an amphibious alien) doctor and the only hope another race, called the krogans, has of curing the genophage, which has essentially sterilized their people. Mordin works tirelessly to develop a cure and even develops a friendship with a female krogan. He sacrifices himself in the end to give life to future generations of the krogans. His death scene was beautiful. I bawled like a baby because of the (fictional) sacrifice of once-sketchy man who gave his life for the greater good.

2. Saving Rannoch. Rannoch was the home of a race of people called the quarians, who live in suits after being exiled onto ships by a race of artificially intelligent machines that they had created. It is vaguely reminiscent of Earth and to win it back for the quarians was heart-warming. When Tali, a quarian friend that Shepard must bring along, talks about setting up a home with the living room "right over there," I was touched. To finally bring closure to a race of people, and to give them a home again, was a beautiful moment.

3. Shepard's death. There is only one possible way that Shepard can live at the end of this game among about 16 ways the game can end. You must have a high enough military score and gathered enough allies for the final stretch of the game. This is difficult if you don't have downloadable game content or don't play multiplayer. In fact, it is impossible if you don't import an old save file from the other two games. So, at the end of the game, as my character said her goodbyes to her friends, I started tearing up. This was the end of Shepard. The end of the game. The end of my restraint. My Shepard was going to die and there was nothing I could do to stop it. When you are able to choose the final outcome of the Reapers (synthesis, destroy, or control), I chose destroy. I had no intention of saving Shepard because I did not believe she could be saved, so when the final scene cut in, and Shepard was breathing under a pile of rubble, I lost all control. I was able to save every possible person I could. And that was beautiful.

I sincerely recommend this game franchise. It draws you and gives you so many feelings toward everything that happens. It is completely tailored to your choices and mistakes. It is so wonderful and so realistic (for the most part) that I suggest that everyone should play it.

Synthesis

There are many problems facing high school education these days, but most prominent are the issues of whether or not high school is preparing students for life after college and if high school is providing enough responsibility to keep children challenged and in school. High school education in today’s society focuses on many different subjects, not all of which are important to peoples’ future careers. While some information on these disregardable topics would be acceptable, not all of it is necessary. Much of it is not even challenging to some children. They see high school as useless and slack off because there is not enough responsibility for them. Failing does not come back to bite people as much until they drop out or are expelled from the school.

Life after college is going to be rough for many students today. They are not being properly taught useful skills they will need to know, like how mass media has affected and is affecting our culture and how this will endure or diminish over time. This is something that should be taught to all students, as it will help these high school students to perceive the trends in the media, which has taken over today’s society as we are exposed to thousands of pieces of the media every month (source 3). Learning about liberal arts will, at the very least, help prepare the students for college and provide them with a better understanding of themselves and their history. Providing a basis of topics that are imperative for the students to learn before they enter life after college would be a great way to keep them interested. They need to learn things that will be applicable to their lives and not subjects that are not going to apply to their careers (i.e. learning physics when you are going to be a language arts teacher). Students must also be challenged by this new information being presented.

High school students will lose interest in the material they are supposed to be learning if there is no responsibility being placed on them to learn it. This in itself can challenge students, but they are not being provided with the challenge they need to keep them interested. The Gateway experiment in Portland, Oregon shows that with enough responsibility being placed on them, even students that appear to have problems (low grade-point averages and possible personal dilemmas) will be able to pick themselves up and work hard enough to be able to obtain an associate’s degree (source 4). With evidence like this study, it is proven that students need to have responsibility placed on them just as it is in the real world to challenge them and make them more well-rounded people. As of 2003, the United States, when given a standardized math test, was ranked twenty eighth out of forty countries, showing that the America is over-simplifying some of the topics that are being taught (source 5). Providing more of a challenge in core subjects, if nothing else, will make students more able to easily work out easy problems and show them how to handle difficult real-world challenges.

There are many issues with today’s education system. Students are not being taught real-world skills that they will need for their lives after college. They are also not being challenged to the full extent, ranking lower than twenty seven other countries in mathematics. The United States needs new types of schools to teach students the skills they will need to get through life while providing an acceptable, gradual challenge for them. This will ensure that they are not overwhelmed by school and that its difficulty level will seem moderate but manageable. Given a significant amount of responsibility, students can succeed in school and later in life.