Ive already know what my topic for Lous class is going to be but im not too sure about my other class, I have another idea for my topic which is to show how music influences the media and vice versa and also how ads in the UK are different from the ads in the US.

A vision of students Today

This video made me realize how difficult it is to be a student these days when you have all this technology swimming about you. Most teachers dont even use chalkboards anymore because they believe its ancient and not stimulating enough, but I find myself wondering how stimulating can sitting infront of a screen for 4-6 hours a day can be? I find technology to be helpful because information is more acessible now than it was before but it can be mentally draining and repetitive as well just looking up pages of informations, as the girl in the video pointed out ''2300 webpages'' on top of that another girl says '' I sleep 7 hours a day'' Im pretty sure its because she needs it because she's so exhausted all the time. Im an insomniac ,but even now and then in class I just totally crash. ''I am A Multi -Tasker, I have to be'' definitely related to how I feel.
Honestly, All of this technology stuff doesnt make classes that much easier, im still rushing to meet deadlines because of work,personal issues,and the like.
The part of the film where it says ''Im one of the lucky ones, 1billion people make less than a dollar a day'' has you put things in perspective of how difficult life is in other places,yet it is still difficult here ,but atleast here in America all the work finally pays off, or you might be stuck paying off 20,000$ worth of work.

Simulation One

Simone, is a computer generated actress that is created by Viktor Taransky who is a frustrated director and his friend who had passed away ,Hank. Viktor uses Simone to replace an actress who got fed up with him that she decided not to work with him anymore. Everyone falls in love with Simone immediately setting eyes on her because shes so charming and beautiful. This reminds me of Jessica Rabbit(In who framed Roger Rabbit) how she said in ''Im not bad,Im just drawn that way''. Well if you think about it Simone is ''drawn'' to look and sound a little like every popular hollywood starlet. He combines her looks and abilities with other actresses like Audrey Hepburn and Meryl Streep in order to give her the right talents for his movies.
There's a particular scene in this movie where Taransky is editing a shot from his movie and he places Simone inside the scene ...It really did remind me of playing SIMS.Kind of how you just add a character into a certain environment.If you think about it Simone is a SIM except for the fact that she actually effects the lives of -real- people.
Viktor takes his work too seriously and suddenly becomes obsessed with Simone and of course obsessed with keeping her ''privacy'' which is really his secret. He becomes tired with the whole sherade so he decides to fake her death,which doesnt work because everything thinks that he murdered her. He then confesses that she isnt real ,but of course no one believes him because they all claim to ''know her'' when in fact no one has ever met her.
But I believe part of the reason why everyone was so obsessed is because she possessed the qualities of so many hollywood actresses to the point where it seemed familiar. Also, never being able to have real interviews had everything wondering.
Reminds me of how Andy Warhol, every time he went into public he was known for not talking alot/being very low key which was unusual ... and everyone would still flock to him. Everyone flocks to Simone in the same way because theres the air of mystery and that leads to attraction.
Simone was a good movie because it showed that maybe sometime during the future hollywood will actually make a ''Simone'' and pose it as a real person. Its completely possible with the technology that is available to us these days.

Research for a topic

Well it seems like people are going more with my idea on Symbolism(semiotics)/Subliminal messages in the media ....than my idea of Why people enjoy alien/robot movies...I guess in order to actually do that topic I would have to analyze a control group of people and develop a survey, which is way too time consuming for me to do.
Im not too sure what I want to do because I dont want to do something too difficult and not do a good job but I dont want to pick something too easy or borring.
Lately, ive been thinking about doing the Portrayal of god-like figures in movies,especially in scifi.....I think with some research I could advance from there. Some examples that I can think of is ''The Matrix'' (of course) , The Rapture, Bruce Almighty (throwing in a comedy as well), there's a few Twilight Zone episodes that come to mind, also not just the portrayal of god but the idea that this person is ''whose going to bring us all together and towards freedom'' but I could throw in a few actors that play this character.
Like Tom Cruise ...most of his roles are '' here I am to save the day!'' and I guess he does a pretty good job of this because he keeps on getting typecast as that one character.
Morgan Freeman ...Has been seen as a guy who is ''in control'' of everything. Like in Bruce Almighty when he gives Jim Carey some of his ''powers''
Will Smith....who is usually out there fighting aliens but has lately been doing movies where he finds/does something that will make the world a much better place...Seven Pounds,Ind. Day. especially I Am Legend where he finds ''the cure''

The Uncanny vs The Shadow

Sigmund Freud's Uncanny and The Shadow to me are very different. Carl Jung's approach to the situation is more positive than Freud's which is surprising because he was taught by Freud but came out with a whole different attitude of philosophy.
The Shadow is still like the idea of the Uncanny in which there is another devision beyond the Ego/Super Ego or the Anima/Animus . The Uncanny was necessary to satisfy the Id which is our animalistic sides wanting to see something spectacularly vicious or sexual to happen. The Uncanny was kind of the bait we used to reel in our thoughts on the Id. Freud was the one who gave our animalistic feelings a name and it is separate from the Ego and the Super Ego.

Carl Jung's version of this was called 'The Shadow'. This included not only animalistic thoughts but rather the thoughts that people didnt want to deal with ,kind of like pent up frustration.Just like Freud's 'id'...The shadow brings a sense of accomplishment and joy as well and is not purely negative.
For example ,when I see a movie like Wanted, in which the main character is always being shoved around and then finally explodes that satisfies my Id because deep down inside we would all like to explode in certain peoples faces, but we cant smash a keyboard against someones face in real life .
Another example is when I play video games like Dynasty Warrior or Mortal Kombat, it just feels good to release all that pent up anger and stress . Some people do nothing to satisfy their Shadow,because they are afraid of their own subconcious thoughts and to me that is very unnatural.

Abre los ojos

Ive seen a lot of strange movies,and this is definitely strange. Abre los ojos is a movie centered around the thoughts of a young Cesar who has been cryogenicized after a devastating accident with his crazed ex girlfriend Nuria, that has left him disfigured. During his ''sleep'' he thinks about his life before as a young handsome man and with his best friend's girlfriend Sofia.
I think the main theme in this movie is definitely ''beauty is only skin deep''. Cesar is one of those guys who are vain and was use to getting any girl he wanted because of his looks. He is perhaps narcissistic in the way that he obsesses about his disfigurement and because there's nothing he could do about it at the moment he decides to go down a downward spiral in which he becomes delusional and doesn't even know what is real anymore. What he is convinced that is real is his love for Sofia, and that Sofia will always be there for him,while also knowing that Nuria is the reason for his disfigurement she keeps on coming back again and again and he wants to get rid of her...with good reason of course.
A few parts of the movie I dont understand is that Sofia makes her money as a mime in a park, I dont know if this is suppose to be symbolic ,but when I think of mimes I think of a porcelain doll that comes to life and entertains you just a bit before they stand statue-esque again. I think Cesar thinks of her as some sort of doll and is only attracted to her because of her looks.He is not attracted to Nuria because she is not typical pretty,she doesn't fit into his mold so he keeps shunning her away.
Pelayo is a loyal friend and tries to help Cesar but its too late, this also hurts him in the end because the friendship was one sided.
At the end of the movie,Cesar sees this sort of ''time line'' of people in his life when he wakes up from his dream but the only way he could truly wake up is if he jumps. When he jumps I see it as a kind of re birthing process ,he finally opens his eyes and he doesn't have to spend his time in this vicious cycle anymore.

Blog 4: Ideas for ENG103 project

I dont know what I will write about as yet,but some of my ideas include:
-Alien movies vs Robot Movies - Alot of people are drawn to these two movie genre's so I think I will do a powerpoint about the differences of each and why one might be more popular than the other
- the effect of disaster movies on people who watch them
-Ive also always wondered why parents find even the small amount of violence in video games so alarming. Why they think that their kids are going to turn out bad,because they play games like GTA/Halo/Dynasty Warriors...the list goes on actually
-How reality shows on TV affects the people watching them/why they are so popular - there must be a valid reason why people are attracting to seeing celebrities (or nobodies even) searching for love.
-Subliminal messages in advertisements on TV/Radio [Semiotics in advertising]-Why pepsi changed the symbol,why when you see a coca cola truck you suddenly want a coca cola, why cable companies have ridiculous commercials ....but they work.
-How music videos and magazines portray women usually in a very submissive manner, rarely dominant.
-Comedians talking more about politics,and comedians having there own shows talking about issues