Memento

            Memento, I love this movie. This was not the first time I have seen the film, my first time was my senior year in high school in my physiology class. We watched the movie in order to analyses Leonard's disorder because we were learning abut mental illnesses of the mind and Leonard is a perfect example of this.
            After I saw the movie the first time I was definitely confused so I got the movie and now own it. I  have since watched the movie a handful of times in order to better understand the film. Overall what I have discovered is that there is no correct way to view this movie, it is open to interpretation. Christopher Nolan has a brilliant imagination and ability to tell complex mind boggling stories, I enjoy all his films like this such as Inception. Movies to me that make you think and leave you thinking when their over are one of the best kind because I enjoy being challenged  sometimes and not having the plot be so obvious.
           Furthermore, my take on the movie has developed more and more each time i see the film because I am always finding more details and things to consider. So far what I have personally decided is that Leonard and his wife were really the couple portrayed as Sammy and his wife. Leonard dose not like to remember this though so he destroyed the part in the police report that stated it. He also does not like to remember that the reason his wife died was because he gave her insulin too many times, instead he chooses to remember her murdered in their bathroom. This allows him to continue his wild chase to find her killer and remain "happy". However, this is not a real happiness and eventually its going to destroy him. I also believe that Natalie was using and messing with Leonard the whole time. As for Teddy I believe that he was a corrupt cop who was using Leonard to his own advantage, but he was his only true ally in the film. Despite that fact the Teddy was not an honest good guy he was the only one who really new Leonard's story, he tried to keep him out of harms way unless it was to his benefit, he dose try to tell him the truth.
            Christopher Nolan ultimately  creates a brilliant story with an unconventional plot. it is a great idea to do a movie this way very unique and i admire him for being different and not following the norm.  

Final Project:Product Proposal

            For my final project the product I have chosen to create is A Guide to Great Eco-Friendly Finds. The media outlet I will use is in the form of book as well as possibly a website. My target market is going to be for all ages because I will devote a section in the book to each age group: babies, children, teenagers, young adults, adults, and elderly. I will do this in order to reach a wide market, and so that the green movement and eco-friendly products will attract all generations. In addition, I want to be able to reach all audiences because the green movement is such a positive direction to head in and everyone should being making the switch. Sometimes it is hard to know where to start with going green and it can be overwhelming so what I hope to do is ease people into it and make the transition smooth.

            My book will start off with an introduction to going green, what it is about, why you should make the change, as well as an overall overview of the movement and book. As the chapters move on from there I will offer different themes for each one. For example, I will have chapters on different green websites, organizations, companies, products, establishments, and restaurants just to name few. These chapters will include in depth detail on these topics with illustration and graphics as well as reviews.

            Overall, I am very passionate about the green movement and feel very strongly about everyone moving in this direction to insure a better future. In my book I hope to convince and show others that this is the way as well, and give them the stepping stones to transition with excitement and ease.

BBC vs. Fox- NPR fires Juan Williams

For this assignment I choose to analyze BBC, a British News Station that is know for being un-bias and Fox News, a station that is know for being bias. More specifically I choose to look at the online websites of these two news sources. The story that I choose to analysis was the firing of NPR employ Juan Williams after he made an appearance on the O’Reilly factor with the ever controversial Bill O’Reilly. I am taking a Media Literacy class as well this semester, and I have been shocked to discover how swayed and manipulated some news resources truly are. As a result of finding this out it made me want to compare two opposites to see the real specific differences.  

            First I looked at the BBC article and found that the story was very factual and straight forward, they told what happened and didn’t offer any personal opinions or twists. I admire this about any outlet of news because I want to told what happened, I want the facts and the truth so that I don’t feel like I am being lied to or have to dig further to discover the real story. This article had no fluff, I was merely informed about what happened by a creditable news source with a good reputation. Lately I have been tuning to BBC for the majority of my news information, or PBS because I know I will get un-bias information. In BBC’s article on Juan Williams they provided quotes for backup for NPR about the firing as well as from Juan to know exactly what was said to cause the firing.

            Next, I went over to the Fox website and began to read their article, and in the beginning it did closely resemble the BBC story with the quote about what Juan said and how NPR released a statement. However, the story was longer than the BBC one and that gave me a clue that I was going to see some more gossip like news about the situation, and not just facts, and I was right. The Fox article definitely swayed more towards the gossipy side offering opinions and swayed comments. In addition, this story hits close to home for them because Bill O’Reilly is in fact an employ of Fox so they had something to say about that as well. Bill O’Reilly being extremely controversial and right winged himself found no problem with Juan’s comment “I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous,”. However, this comment is not appropriate and that is why he was let go from NPR, he swayed from their standards and image, and I agree with their reaction.

             Overall, I found it very interesting to actually critique two versions of the same news occurrence and I learned a lot.

BBC- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11600084
Fox- http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/10/21/npr-fires-juan-williams-oreilly-appearance/

War of the Worlds by Orson Welles Essay

The War of the Worlds Broadcast by Orson Welles which was an episode of the American radio series Mercury Theater on the Air aired on October 30, 1938. It was preformed as a Halloween special and was 60 minutes long. The act included fake news bulletins, which actually sounded quite real and aired without any commercials which greatly added to the panic because for 60 straight minutes unless you listened from the beginning you didn’t know what was going on.

Personally, I can not even imagine the full extent of what the people who heard this radio broadcast were thinking or feeling. To have there only source of immediate news be via the radio with just sounds and no images I would be utterly terrified after hearing this broadcast. In addition, during a time period where there was less knowledge about space there was a greater chance of panic. It has also been said that because this all happened shortly before World War II, and there was already panic as a result this only added to peoples outcries. Some even stated that they believed the Martian attack to really be a German attack. Another factor that played a key role in the elevated fear from this broadcast was the fact that listeners could tune in at different times, therefore they would not have the background of the broadcast and did not realize that it was merely an act. As a result of all this and what I feel was poor execution, there was hysteria that greatly impacted many people.

            What happened in the aftermath of the broadcast was what I feel exactly what would have happened had it been real, because for many they did indeed believe it to be real. Anxiety swept over the people, and like anyone would most likely do if faced with this scenario, they began to gather up there things and flee to safety. Families were uprooted and this must have become a very traumatizing experience for the children it affected. Things even got to the point where people believed they smelt poison gas and saw flashes of light in the distance. It is really incredible to me how far ones imagination can carry them during a state of panic. The area that was most greatly affected by this incident was New Jersey, especially Grover’s Mill where crowds gathered to see the supposed “crash site”.  However, as crowds arrived and saw nothing the truth began to spread back around.

            CBS the station on which the program was broadcasted got a good deal of heat for everything, although Welles was not punished at all. CBS supposedly said that they would not longer use the phrase “We interrupt this program” again because of the seriousness the phrase has. However, even today this phrase is used, I feel though with all our other outlets of media today it is very unlikely for us to be fooled. Overall, I feel the outcome of this incident made people think twice about what they were hearing, but also showed the media how much influence they could actually have over their listeners.

Right & Left Brain Thinking

This is not the first time right and left brain thinking has been brought up to me this semester. I am also taking a stress management class and we are learning about this right now as well. I have learned that at a certain age most people use more left brain logical thinking than they do right brain simply because of our lifestyles and having to adapt. However, it is important to not forget about right brain thinking because it is as beneficial as left brain thinking but in completely different ways. Left brain is more logic and right brain is more creative. Personally because I am in school and have a job as an office assistant at a chiropractors office I tend to use more left brain thinking in order to stay focused as well as on task. However when is comes to the weekends when I'm not doing homework I feel as though my brain switches over to right thinking a lot more. I find that being in a right brain mindset is more peaceful, relaxing, and creative. I love to take pictures, listen to music, draw, and write in my journal. Recently I have been trying to have more of a balance between my time right and left brain thinking and I have found that I am making progress and not letting my mind automatically slip into left brain thinking. Instead a take a deep breath for get all my worries and float over to my right.