Senior Reflection #4

This last post is me thinking about my life beyond college. What will I want to do next? Well, it's fairly obvious: film school. Preferably one of the best, so I plan on working hard in order to get into schools such a NYU or UCLA, and to maybe pick up a scholarship or two. Film school is my dream, nothing excited me more than the idea of going to a place devoted to learning how to discuss, analyze, and make cinema. I've been educating myself for the last five years, spending more time researching the history and technique of movies than I would on school itself. It's what I'm passionate about, it's what I want to do for my career, and I genuinely believe that it'll be something that I'll excel at. Right now, as I'm writing this, I'm watching Lawrence of Arabia and marveling at how it is both the most intimate and grandiose epic ever made. Before I go to sleep at night, I read about ten pages of a book that'll deal in the history of great American directors or a magazine giving the skinny on modern movies and what's ahead in the future of film. So yeah, that's what I'll be doing when I graduate college. But of course, there's that nagging question: what if something happens? What if I find interest in something else? What if it becomes economically unfeasible to pursue that kind of career? What if I simply won't have what it takes? I think about these things, and yet my gut sincerely doubts all of them.


(Note: If you'll scroll down past the four senior reflection's you will also find three blog posts. I just don't want to risk you overlooking them).

Senior Reflection #3

College. It's sort of a golden word, meaning so many things. It represents promise, fun, growing up, and is basically the end all, be all of awesomeness. I'm going to Old Dominion University, which I'm pretty thrilled about. I loved the campus when I visited; it's close to the beach but has an urban vibe, the area itself feeling as if it's run by students. Ethan, one of my best friends, is going there, and I'm already planning in my head the great times we're gonna have. My best friend, Brice Weaver, is going to be a sophomore there this year, and (call it playing it safe if you will) I'm relieved that I'll have him around. He's the closest friend I can imagine anyone having; we know each other better than anyone else does, and I'd trust him with my life. I think I'm pretty lucky to have that kind of friend. I'm not sure how I want to handle my major in college yet. My primary goal is in film, but I plan to get an education in that in film school once I wrap up four years at a normal college. ODU's film program isn't out of this world, so perhaps I'll go for literature as my major and film as my minor. These are the kind of things that are weighing on my mind.
I'm excited to live in a dorm, to have a roommate, to get out and live a life that I have to shape. It's a bit intimidating, but all the more exciting for it. I'm interested in how intense the classes will be, although I'm relieved that my mom's insisting that I only take four classes for the first semester. Apparently baby steps are the way to go, unless I want to risk becoming overwhelmed at first and ruining my GPA, which is difficult to fix in the following semesters. The thing that I'm most excited about, though, is the lion statue. At the center of ODU's courtyard is a statue of a lion (the college's mascot), ringed by a fountain. It's customary that before the end of your freshman year you climb on and ride the statue (generally you're supposed to be drunk as well). Only when I do this, will I feel like I'm out of high school.

Senior Reflection #2

This morning's first period was the last class I'll ever have to do in high school. That is a trippy realization, however it has not sunk in at all nor do I think it'll ever sink in. It feels like a natural progression, the flow I felt when I entered my freshman year. In about a little less than a week's time I'll be having my graduation. That ought to be interesting, and definitely exciting. I'm not that thrilled that senator Wolf will be speaking; he does not know any of us personally and I'm not looking forward to hearing a politician and what he might say. Any remarks that are intended to influence how we'll vote next election, and I'll boo him off the stage. The weekend's going to be filled with grad parties; whether or not I'll go to all of the ones I'm invited to I'm not sure yet. It would be rude not to, but at the same time I'm not sure I'm up for going to the same event several times over. What I am most looking forward to is the summer, when I'll be working full time, spending my time studying things that I'm specifically interested in, going to the beach, building up my music interests and collection, and spending time with my friends and family. I think that during the school year you lose sight of all of that, and how it's the best bits in life.

Senior Reflection #1

I entered high school expecting it to be wholly intimidating and intense. I remember being five years old, regarding high school students as if they were titans, reigning over all who were younger. I expected the textbooks to be epic tomes, thousands of pages in length. I expected the hallways to be massive, making me minuscule in comparison. It's funny how much larger things seem to us when we're small. I formed all of these notions when I was too short to reach the kitchen cupboards. High school was a little underwhelming, I'll admit. Not in terms of fun; it was a blast in that respect. But it wasn't as, I dunno... grandiose as I was expecting. There was no drastic change, just a couple of subtle variations from middle school. I know that I've changed drastically since then. I'm not sure if high school itself has done that; I think it's the people I've met along the way that have done that.

Gay Marriage... why the drama?

One of the most argued over issues in the 21st century is that of gay marriage. People debate the issue so fiercely that, dare I say it, froth begins to seep from their sputtering mouths. Conservatives are against it, particularly the religious right. Liberals are generally all for it. My question: why in the world is this such a definitive issue? It practically was the main topic during the 2004 Presidential election. I wonder this because I think it's a simple matter of human rights. I wonder this because there are more dire issues to be dealt with. I wonder this because I would like for humanity to move on.
I've come up with a theory as to why the religious right dislike homosexuals. Strong Christians do not approve of sex before marriage; in fact they (at least in public) believe that sex should only be reserved for procreation. Two men or two women cannot reproduce, and therefore their sex is, in the church's point-of-view, just good ol' promiscuity. It is to them a clear cut case of hedonism. That homosexuality is 99% of the time a genetic matter does not seem to compute with hardcore Christians. Then again, these are the same people who still ignore the reality of evolution. But when you have 1/10 of people being gay, you'd think that the general population would learn to be more accepting. Is it such a difficult concept to think that God loves his children equally, and doesn't give a damn about their sexuality? I think that in forty years we will look back upon this era with the same puzzlement and disappointment that we feel today when we recall segregation.
What is the problem here? That to grant homosexuals gay marriage would defy the sanctity of it? I think that sanctity was defiled already when the government turned marriage into a legal contract, complete with tax exemptions and all. What makes two people worthy of a marriage? Isn't that they are in love good enough? Apparently not so; apparently a dude and a chick who get married only to get bitterly divorced two years later are more worhy of marriage than, say, two men who want nothing more than to spend the rest of their lives together. This, I think, is obviously a matter of civil rights, only hindered by prejudice and the ignoring of God's message in favor of honoring rigid rhetoric of a time in the world where for someone to be different would be reason enough to burn them at the stake. I'm tired of this issue being argued over, and I want it resolved. Cooler heads should prevail, and then focus their energy on terorism, the economy, and genocide in Darfur.

Nuclear Power

Nuclear power. Not to be mispronounced as new-cu-lar. Nuclear power is the cleanest, most efficient energy source on the planet, as far as we know. It creates massive amounts of power with little to no effort. I looked up how it works, and it's pretty fascinating: it works when radioactive uranium rods are used to heat and boil water, which turn turbines. So it's basically like all energy sources, man finding a way to have a force create friction. As opposed to coal power, which burns its fuel to create heat, the uranium rods react to generate energy.
So why is it that we aren't capitalizing on this awesome force? Well, unfortunately the word nuclear is an unattractive title, most people associating it with something catastrophic. There have also been several accounts of nuclear power going wrong, Chernobyl being the most famous example. Radioactivity is its vice, most people regarding the energy source as just a ticking time bomb waiting to give them cancer and deform their yet-to-be-born children. President Obama have said that he thinks we can take steps in the right direction to make nuclear power a clean and efficient source of energy, but other Democrats fear it and think we have other alternatives. The problem about this is that while Democrats whine about nuclear power, they are stingy in funding research in alternative resources. So what we have are a bunch of lawmakers damning our current addiction to oil while not taking the initiative to solve issue.
I believe that a suffix should not define the noun, and that the term nuclear shouldn't be an immediate alarm-raiser. All great endeavors come with risk, and usually the greater the risk the greater the payoff. I wish that congress would buckle down and reconcile their neurotic grievances, and would give this energy resource a chance.

Antisemitism in America

Yesterday's gunman attack on the Holocaust museum has every commentator talking. They're talking about whether or not hate crimes is on the rise in America. The gunman, a white supremacist curmudgeon, shot and killed an African American security guard and was then gunned down by the other guards. Whether or not he lives (as if anyone cares at this point) remains in question. Analysts have been saying that this is perhaps a sign of the times, that hate is rising in America and that racism and antisemitism are surging again. Personally, I think that this an isolated incident, committed by a relic of an older era in America. I feel that as the generations progress, young Americans become more diverse and accepting of differences. This veteran was a product of older times, and whatever angst the next generations will produce, I don't think that they'll be primarily race-related.

I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take this anymore

I can understand the public's outrage towards AIG for bandying out million dollar bonuses to its executives. During a period when the nation and its people are under distress, it takes a helluva lot of nerve to take massive sums of of taxpayer money handed to you by the federal government and then use that cash to reward the employees responsible for driving your company into the ground. Sure I do recognize that there are two sides to every story: AIG was contractually obligated to pay its employees these bonuses. If the hadn't, they would have broken a condition listed on a contract. It would have broken the time-honored understanding between businessmen. It would not have been fair. So I understand that, technically, these bonuses are justified. However, what infuriates me most is not just that these irresponsible men are being rewarded for failing their customers, that the rules of today permit them to expect those bonuses as if they were entitlements. What infuriates me the most is that the attitude of America in the last decade had allowed this to happen. AIG is facing a PR nightmare, suffering for past mistakes. Once under the scrutiny of an unforgiving media and judgment of money-pressed Americans, these businessmen are being recognized more for their greed and disregard for responsibility than ever before. The attitude during the Bush administration, that businesses ought to use their money unchecked, is now recieving its backlash. It's about time, because I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore.

Domestic Disturbances

Sometimes I wonder if there is a sickness in society. Do sociopaths form from purely internal means, or are they created by society? After reading the story of a man who had killed five of his family members, critically injured his wife, and then finally committed suicide. He had killed his young son, his very young daughter, his brother-in-law, his brother-in-law's wife and their baby. He did all of this with two semi-automatic pistols. This reminded me of a previous event a few months ago, when a father who had lost his job decided to kill all of his five children, his wife, and himself. Both events are horrific, but what struck me was how the article reporting the first massacre took note that he was in no way in danger of losing his job. As if that would supply a rationale. However, that these acts of horrendous violence are repeating themselves is very disconcerting. Just today, a brother killed two of his sisters, decapitating one of them. What in our culture could influence individuals to act so inhumanly towards their own family members? I would like to think that our society's atmosphere has nothing to do with the actions of these men, but the consistency and rate of these massacres is so deeply troubling. We as a people value retribution, success, and violence. Could the combination of all of these factors actually influence sick people to take such drastically terrifying actions in order to achieve catharsis? I certainly hope not.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/31/california.shooting/index.html

Immigrant Tragedy

One benefit of living overseas is that you are given a wider perception of the immigrant issue. When I hear the word immigrant, the image of desperate South Americans hopping across the Mexican border into the United States is not the only image that comes to my mind. I vividly remember a friend of mine named Coen (pronounced Koon), who was Dutch, complaining to me about the influx of Arab immigrants into Holland. He described the problems the immigrants posed the same way that some Americans complain about illegal immigrant Latinos. The Arabs were, according to him, ruining his country's culture, bringing crime, and taking all of the lower-paying jobs. I then realized that the immigrant issue is not unique to one country but a universal fact. I have since then been more sympathetic to the immigrant cause, albeit with certain reservations. So it strikes me as deeply sad when I read about the situation in the Meditteranean sea, where many African workers have lost their lives being shipped to Europe. Apparently, the trade works this way: many impoverished Africans travel to Libya because of its relative success as an economy and because it's a good starting point for migrating to Europe. Resulting from the recent worldwide economic hardship, many of the migrants will illegally travel to Europe via an intricate smuggling system that involves a halfway point on an island in the Mediterranean. This comes at great risk, the sailing is rough and sometimes a boat will capsize. One did very recently, roughly 200 African migrants dying in the sea. I find all of this horrifying: that people would put themselves through such terrifying and treacherous circumstances out of such desperation, that their desperation is growing from the economic downturn that the world (no thanks to our economy) has found itself in, and simply the image of hundreds of bodies floating in the ocean. It's awfully sad to contemplate, and I think it ought to be a reminder to us that while we Americans are surely going through hard times, it is people in the third world countries who are getting the worst of it. And that is simply not right and not fair.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/03/31/libya.migrants.plight/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

The War on Drugs- Insanity?

I read a very thought-provoking commentary by CNN writer Jeff Cafferty, who makes a strong case on how the war on drugs is not just unfeasible, but straight up crazy. The government spends $44 billion a year to try and keep an uncontrollable cause under control. A huge percentage of law enforcement is preoccupied with incarcerating people who partake in substances many would call no more destructive than alcohol. That it is illegal gives great economic incentive to drug cartels and criminals. To me, this situation sounds very much like prohibition; a war waged on the pretense of morality that becomes very unattractive once the economy drops. The Great Depression prompted the lift on the illegalization of liquor. Perhaps this economic panic will spur lawmakers to recognize that by legalizing, regulating, and taxing narcotics, they could, according to a Harvard economist Cafferty cites, profit them $33 billion. That would be a turnaround of $77 billion, not to mention a huge blow to criminal organizations who make most of their revenue on narcotics. So I must agree with Cafferty that, while drugs aren't the most pleasant of products, it's insane for the government to put so much effort into ridding the country of them (which is an impossibility) when they could control them. Pure craziness.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/31/cafferty.legal.drugs/index.html

What is it with the chimp?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/18/martin.cartoon/index.html?iref=mpstoryview


I must say that, observing the cartoon, I can definitely understand why it would be very offensive to most people. It lacks wit, isn't very funny, and it lack any clear target for its joke, leaving us with nothing but to suspect that the cartoonist is in fact comparing President Obama to a chimpanzee. I am unsettled that a respectable newspaper such as the New York Post would publish this cartoon, but I do give them credit for not apologizing for it and standing by their cartoonist. In the field of journalism the publisher's ought to have a great amount of loyalty to their staff, and this newspaper has exhibited that. Nonetheless, this cartoon is very bizarre and I fail to see how it "broadly mocks" Washington's attempts to jumpstart the economy. If that were the case, then the cartoonist should have scrawled "Congress" across the damn chimp's belly. There seems to be no joke being made here other than that the President is black and somehow that makes him comparable to a chimpanzee.
All this said, I don't appreciate the amount of attention that this cartoon is recieving. Yes, I do find it offensive, but at the end of the day it is scribbled satire and doesn't really amount to anything impactful. Hell, the controversy this thing has drawn outweighed the publicity on the stimulus package being passed, which to me is stupefying. It's a petty distraction, something that's easy for us to rant and rage against because it isn't a tangible issue, simply a case of bad taste.