Gran Torino

On Tuesday in class we watched Gran Torino. This movie was one of the best movies I've ever seen. I really didn't think that any movie with Clint Eastwood could be in the any least bit a movie with an actual meaning other than violence, or at least that was my way of thinking. After watching this movie about a man whose wife had just died. One could definatly say that this man was racist. He lived on a block with mostly Hmong people, an asian culture, in a town of a very diverse demographic. Throughout this movie he learns that being open to learning about differant peoples cultures is not a bad thing, and ends up making friends, and becoming a part of a whole other family. I believe this movie was incredibly powerful in the way that it protrays the fact that being open to learning about other people and their culture is a very good idea. This movie was amazing and left me not only entertained and informed, which in my eyes is the best thing a movie can do for a person.

Kanye and Taylor Swift

So, were aloud to write about anything that happens in class the previous week. So I'm going to write about the Kanye and Taylor Swift incidence at the VMA's. When we first started talking about it in class, I hadn't heard about it and I didn't know what had happened, so I went home and researched it. Well, I thought what Kanye did, going and hopping up on stage while Taylor Swift was giving her acceptance speech and announced that Beyonce had the all time best music video and hopped back off stage. Seriously, how rude could one person be? I did think it was rather sweet how Beyonce did later on after accepting her own award allow Taylor Swift to come back on stage to say her acceptance speech officially. So then Kanye went on Jay Leno and Leno asked him how he thought his mother, who had recently passed, would react to his out burst. Kanye started crying and what not. Though this was a rather low blow for Leno to use, I did think the whole episode Kanye put on, was a little over the top. Than, on top of all this publicity, I guess Obama was talking with a reporter, thinking their recorder was turned off, and the reporter asked Obama what he thought about the Kanye West incidence, Obama replied, he's a jackass, or something along those lines. He also said, I think I have some bigger things on my plate right now. I think this is simply hilarious. I just think that it's sad that something this stupid and unimportant makes the news, seriously isn't there more important issues in the news today?

Obama's Speech To Children

There has been tons of controversy over the idea of Obama speaking to children about their schooling. Many people thought that it would be a bad idea. When I heard about this, I didn't think that this speech could possibly be as bad as these negative thinkers were making it out to be. When my professor allowed us to watch this speech I loved what the president had to say and the way he was encouraging the students to stay in school. He tells the children that "everyone has something their good at" and "the future of America depends on you". He even stressed that the government is trying their hardest to give the students a great learning environment, which struck a cord with me, thinking that the government has a lot to do with the way our learning occurs. Obama stress's the need for an education to get good jobs in the future and gives example of school and real life such as "you could create the newest cancer vaccine but you won't know until you do your science homework". It rubbed me the wrong way when Obama said "You quit on your school you quit on your country", I could not tell you why that statement rubbed me the wrong way, but it did. He also said things along the line no one has written your own destiny, which is a big belief of mine. He also added that not every piece of homework is relevant but its needed to succeed which is something I struggled with when I was in school. He also said that you can't let your failures define you, and that if you fail, try try again, which is very good encouragement. He also said that America was built on people that worked hard, which was something that I needed to hear. One thing that he said that I didn't like was the fact that he mentioned kids look at football players and reality television stars and thinking that they won't have to go to school, he then added that you will probably never achieve such things, which I did not like considering the fact that he is telling the students they won't achieve something, and I did not like him saying that. All in all, there were more things in his speech that I liked than disliked, and I thought it was a very good, encouraging speech.

America's obsession with negativity.

Today in speech class, we had to present a speech on a momentous event in history that occured on the date of our birthday. I was not so amazed with the fact that most of the speeches had to do with a depressing and or negative event in history. For example, when searching for my topic for the speech, The great fire of London, I googled the date and saw several differant things that occured on my birth date, but the one event that caught my eye was a mass fire that spread across London in three days. Other speeches throughout class today followed suit. We had several speeches about earthquakes, and other such depressing things. I believe that our class had so many depressing events presented because America is obsessed with negative activity, as long as it does'nt occuer to them. I believe this is because American's are naturally curious beings, and a headline for a negative event will catch a persons attention much faster than a headline of something pleasant happening. I also believe that for some strange, almost sick reason, American's find the tragedy of others an incredibly interesting subject. I believe that America's obsession with negativity is sick, but as I stated before, only natural.