Month: October 2013

Monsters!

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This summer, a movie called “Monster University” was fairly popular. I watched it with my friends, my family three times in total. And I still love it.

Monsters University is a 2013 American 3D computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures.It was directed by Dan Scanlon and produced by Kori Rae.

If you have seen the “Monsters Inc.” you would then be really familiar with the two main characters – the one-eyed goblin Mike and the fuzzy blue scare-master Sully.

“Monsters University” told the story of the two monsters as students attending Scare U. The movie began with a brief prologue of Mike as a young monster. He studied hard and finally got accepted into his dream school – the MU. Mike believed in everything said in the books but lacked talent. Sully, on the other hand, got the gift of scaring ability. The story mainly showed how these two monsters learned from each other in order to achieve their goals and eventually became friends from enemies.

My personal favorite part from the movie is how different types of monsters have their own features and all their expressions are vividly portrayed.

The movie is both comical and meaningful. From the movie, people can not only find amusement, but can also discover some life lessons, such as how to communicate and treat others appreciation and honesty.

However, I am not really trying to dig out the very profound meanings from this movie, because it is still produced as an entertainment cartoon. I just found that each monster kind of represents different kind of people.

Well, human beings do look better.

No Name Woman.

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This summer I read a story about the old traditional Chinese family back to the 1920s. It was called “No Name Woman,” extracted from the book “Woman Warrior“written by Maxine Hong Kingston. I was really shocked by the situation that Kingston portrays about her family.

The story is mainly about an American-Chinese family story in which Kingston’s aunt died in the family well after her child’s birth. Several years after her father and uncles sailed for America, “the Gold Mountain.” In 1924, her mother noticed that her husband’s sister was pregnant. Nobody said anything about the unacceptable activity, but the villagers had been counting and planning to raid their house. The villagers were violent and crazy. They were crying and tearing rice. “They also threw mud and rocks at the house,” the mother told the child. Even the animals were attacked and screamed their deaths. The villagers encircled them with horrific faces. They broke the doors and their knives dripped with the blood of the animals.

As a family, they stood together in the middle of their house. When the men came back, the family would build more wings to enclose the courtyard. However, the villagers pushed through both wings to get the aunt. They ripped up her clothes and shoes and broke her combs. After all they ruined the house and left with sugar and oranges to bless themselves. The aunt gave birth in the pigsty that night and the next morning she was found the baby “plugging up the family well.” The father denied his sister and the mother told the child not to humiliate the family by doing the same thing as his/her aunt.

As the story goes on, Kingston begins to have her own thoughts and finally thinks that her aunt’s story actually represents lots of old Chinese immigrants. She imagines all the past her aunt has been suffering until her death which she thinks might be what the old Chinese world is like back to the 1920s. She describes the world of her aunt which “at peace, they could act like gods, not ghosts.”(Kingston, “No Name Woman”) She regards the old Chinese world as her “no-name” aunt, who could not be defined and identified.

The end of the story is Kingston’s reflection about her aunt’s story. She said, “people who can comfort the dead can also chase after them to hurt them further – a reverse ancestor worship.”(Kingston, “No Name Woman”) I can feel Kingston’s confusion and struggle about what a real Chinese world was like in the old times and she spent her life trying to discover the truth of the society.

And after reading this story, I became more curious about the history of old Chinese immigrants. And I just want to know more about my family history, probably there is also a “no-name woman or man” in my family.
Who knows?

The Missing Lynx

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One of the animals I was most interested in during camp was Jazz, the Canadian Lynx.

I waited a long two sessions (four weeks!) before finally capturing a slight glimpse of him.

I remember always, always craning my neck to see if I could spot Jazz in his enclosure. Missouri is always hot, and Jazz has quite a bit of fur, so it was obvious that he wouldn’t like to be outside in the heat. Yet somehow, many people said that they would spot Jazz while on their way to the nursery or barn, so I would always pause for a few moments to see if I could spot Jazz.

I stayed at camp for three two-week sessions and by the start of the third and last session I had almost nearly given up hope on seeing Jazz.

There was a counselor sitting in his enclosure feeding him a hunk of meat. I could hear the crunch of the bones from where I stood, outside the cage fence, staring in.

It was really dark in the enclosure, and I think it was cloudy that day too. Jazz had a slight glint in his eyes while he chewed, keeping a careful eye on the counselor, some other campers, and I while we watched him.

As the days at camp got cooler I saw Jazz more and more, though I never had the time to really watch him. Campers weren’t allowed in his enclosure anymore, though while he was a kit he was allowed to be held and bottle fed.

I’m still quite upset that I couldn’t pet Jazz, or at least sit in his enclosure with him or even toss him a dead, bloody chicken. I sort of just wanted to sit on the ground and watch him, creepy as that sounds.

Rush

Daphne PsaledakisLeave a comment

On Saturday night, I went to see the movie Rush. Going into it, I wasn’t sure how I would feel about a movie that focused solely on car racing. But the movie exceeded my expectations in every way.

Rush is a movie that focuses on the rivalry during the 1970’s between Formula 1 racers James Hunt and Niki Lauda. The film does a phenomenal job of creating three-dimensional characters who push each other to the breaking point, and at times, to the brink of death.

The filming of the movie was very well done, as was the soundtrack, the combination of which turned the races into intense and extreme moments, even for the audience. The actors fit perfectly together and managed to re-create a time and a lifestyle that we would never be able to experience for ourselves.

I was thoroughly impressed by the movie for many reasons. It was definitely one of the better ones I have seen this year, if not ever. Rush was very well done.

Worst Person 31-Raptors Mascot

backinphillyLeave a comment

Well, I’m back and ready to get another worst person in sports out. This episode doesn’t even involve an athlete or a coach or even an owner. There’s no front office propaganda or anything like that. No crimes were committed, but a MASCOT tore his Achilles.

Yup, you read that right.

The Toronto Raptors’ mascot tore his Achilles tendon during a performance for a school in Halifax.

The main problem with this is that now Toronto doesn’t have a mascot. For some reason, every article I’ve read about this “injury” classifies the Raptors as a team with playoff aspirations.

Let’s take a more in-depth look at this accusation. I feel a little weird writing about basketball during football season, considering that of the big four professional sports in the US, basketball is at the bottom of my list.

Other than Rudy Gay and Kyle Lowry, there’s not a whole lot of talent on their predicted starting five.

Quite honestly, I don’t even remotely care about the state of the Toronto Raptors, or basketball at all right now. It’s football season.

I just think it’s a little bit strange how a MASCOT is getting national recognition when his team plays in Canada.

That’s just two things that don’t register with me.

Are Electronic Cigarettes safe?

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The use of Electronic cigarettes has sky rocketed during the last 3 years with the promise of providing a safe alternative to the pesky, cancer causing tobacco cigarettes. However, is that promise true? Or are the users  getting their money snatched out of their hands in an elaborate scam?

Considering that Electronic cigarettes contain no tobacco, they are not subject to the United States tobacco laws, which means that it’s not necessary to be 18 or older to buy one of these nicotine-filled tubes and enjoy it on the side of road.

Electronic Cigarette

Even though the e-cigs appear to be harmless, scientists have performed tests that suggest the contrary. Harmful chemicals have been found in the vapor of the electronic cigarettes; however, they still prove to be considerably healthier than the conventional tobacco ones.

It has yet to be determined if the E-cigs cause cancer. The FDA website claims that not enough studies have been performed on electronic cigarettes to know if they are harmful or not.

However, E-Cigs should remain available to all public because they offer an alternative to the tobacco cigarette that is considerably healthier.

Pasta

Daphne PsaledakisLeave a comment

One of my all time favorite foods is pasta. I realize that it’s not very exciting, or gourmet. But it’s just so good, and there’s so many different things you can do with it.

Ravioli, one of my favorites, is best with a tomato sauce. Tortellini is best with Alfredo sauce. Gnocchi goes perfectly with either. And then there is every other kind of pasta that you just can’t go wrong with.

Living in the dorms, pretty much all I eat on weekends is pasta. We don’t have to check in at the cafeteria, so I like to make my own food instead. One of my go-to’s is the Annie’s Mac and Cheese. It’s a lot healthier than the Kraft stuff, and it’s way better. I also like to make just regular penne or rigatoni with vodka or tomato sauce.

When I’m home though, my dad gets a little bit more creative. When he has plenty of time before dinner, he’ll make his own tomato sauce starting from scratch. He boils the tomatoes, then cuts them up and adds them into a pan with garlic, onion and basil. He then generously pours it over bow-tie pasta. It is so good.

A lot of my friends say pasta is all I eat. While they’re exaggerating a little, they’re not far off base. It’s easy to make, delicious, filling and there are so many different variations possible. Pasta is definitely one of my favorite foods.

Armadillo Escape

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While Stevie was one of the loudest creatures in the habitat area, people would often double back and investigate the out-of-place scratching noise coming from one of the habitats.

At first glance the habitat seemed to be occupied by a single prehensile-tail porcupine perched up on a tree. Once a camper enters the enclosure Ned might pop out of the wood shavings and trot happily around your feet, the little tree, his den, before pausing to scratch at the wall.

Ned was a six-banded armadillo and almost reminded me of a little old man due to his small tufts of hair and wrinkled skin. His back plates were hard like nails, though kinda weirdly fuzzy…

When I first entered his enclosure he was already running around, zooming along the walls and pausing to scratch at a worringly large hole on the rightmost corner of the wall.

I personally think that Ned is planning an escape. He charms newcomers by running circles around them.  Then while they’re distracted, he makes a dash at the door. Which is what he did when I didn’t close it quick enough.

I quickly used my foot to block his escape but wasn’t sure how to handle him. Should I pick him up? Scoot him away with my foot? With the help of a counselor I managed to keep him inside before snapping the door shut. “You know you can just pick him up, right?” he says.

Often times when things are slow in the habitats, counselors like to let Ned out and he’ll skitter along the small hallway the same way he does in his enclosure. Each time I visit his habitat the hole seems to be a few chips larger and maybe a little deeper.

I wonder if Ned’ll still be there when I go back next summer.

A Deadly Chariot

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The chariot rode throughout the sacred city.
It hoped for the defaulted nation’s pity.

Weapon in hand and courage in tow.
Intentions, one does not know.

Doesn’t matter in the end.
Soon enough the violence begins.

Citizens were not suspected of such crimes.
Now is the end of those times.

One was dead and the rest were hurt.
The nation has not seen the worst.

A child remained sill alive.
His mind was rotted from the inside.

Once again the circle spins.
The nation will go through it again.

A Government Shutdown?

frog3Leave a comment

f4r

What is a government shutdown? One would expect that it involves a government shutting down. In the United States however this is not the case. Instead government shutdown is a term Democrats and Republicans use to blame each other. It is also used to stir up fury in the American people, who would fear a dreaded shutdown.

A more accurate term for this “ government shutdown” would be a limited government cutback. In its current state the federal government is shutting down non-essential services and unfortunately jobs. Approximately 800,000 federal workers will, temporarily, lose their jobs.

A true government could occur if Democrats and Republicans cannot pass a federal budget that both agree to. The longer this government cutback lasts the larger the effect it will have on the United States and the American people. Most likely one side will cave in to the other sides demands. I find the possibility of a true compromise remote, if a budget is not created then the federal government will cease to function.