selling war

Wars create many things and cause an extreme amount of damage. It affects the economy, politics, and the families of the conflicting countries. The film Platoon directed and written by Oliver Stone portrays his experience in the Vietnam War as an Infantryman. When ever there is a war taken place, there is always someone trying to make some money off of it. Some people do this intentionally simply because they see a promising opportunity to make money off of a war. Then some people do this unintentionally thinking that they are doing something good for the community, but when you remove all of the layers underneath it all, it is all the same. An example of this is the numerous amounts of movies and videogames made based off of war. Movies such as Full Metal Jacket, 300, Tour of Duty, and China Beach sell war as a product to the public knowing that they will indulge in it. War in movies now has its own genre because it is so popular in this country. Even in the past the government tried to sell the idea and glorification of war onto the youth of America. Almost every little boy owned a G.I Joe doll and wanted to look and be just like the doll. Some genius person thought about creating a doll for young boys that will brainwash them to grow up and enroll in the army to fight their country’s war. The same applies to little girls and their Barbie dolls, the dolls imply a certain way for how these young girls should look like when they are older. The idea of selling war is all around us. But we are just to wrapped in the glorification of war to notice that we are buying and supplying the wars to continue and exist

20 minutes at the library.....

This was my first time stepping foot into the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Mainly because the Performing Arts Library is on the Upper West Side, an area I rarely visit. The library for the performing arts has reference materials about dance, music, and theater accessible to anyone who has a library card. While walking down to the entrance there is a soundtrack from the famous musical “South Pacific.” When I cruised the website for the library I did not really find anything that interested me. But when I started to walk around the library and take a look around I began to find some intriguing. On the first floor of the library they have library information, the circulation desk, and library card registration. The only thing I found of interest on the first floor is the Orchestra Collection, the Jean and Jula Goldwurm Recorded Sound and Moving Image Reading Room, and the Sound and Video Recordings. On this floor I also found old nostalgic movies that you can only see on TCM channel and a fabulous collection of Broadway musicals. Among the many musicals I found there are “ Fiddler on the Roof” and my personal favorite “ West Side Story.” On the second floor there is the Miriam and Harold Steinberg Reading Room where there is drama, dance, films, and music references and accent and dialect tapes. What I found most occupying on this floor is looking at the music books with songs from the past. On the third floor the most profound exhibit I found was the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound and Theater on film and tapes archives. Besides finding a few useful resources and references that I could possibly use, I found the library for the performing arts to be surprisingly boring

my 20 minutes at the library.....

This was my first time stepping foot into the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Mainly because the Performing Arts Library is on the Upper West Side, an area I rarely visit. The library for the performing arts has reference materials about dance, music, and theater accessible to anyone who has a library card. While walking down to the entrance there is a soundtrack from the famous musical “South Pacific.” When I cruised the website for the library I did not really find anything that interested me. But when I started to walk around the library and take a look around I began to find some intriguing. On the first floor of the library they have library information, the circulation desk, and library card registration. The only thing I found of interest on the first floor is the Orchestra Collection, the Jean and Jula Goldwurm Recorded Sound and Moving Image Reading Room, and the Sound and Video Recordings. On this floor I also found old nostalgic movies that you can only see on TCM channel and a fabulous collection of Broadway musicals. Among the many musicals I found there are “ Fiddler on the Roof” and my personal favorite “ West Side Story.” On the second floor there is the Miriam and Harold Steinberg Reading Room where there is drama, dance, films, and music references and accent and dialect tapes. What I found most occupying on this floor is looking at the music books with songs from the past. On the third floor the most profound exhibit I found was the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound and Theater on film and tapes archives. Besides finding a few useful resources and references that I could possibly use, I found the library for the performing arts to be surprisingly boring

more sweet than bitter....

Being in a new relationship is pretty sweet. Especially when haven’t been in a relationship for a year, everything feels so shiny and brand new. The rush of liking someone comes back to you and for some reason it makes everything look better, feel better, and taste better. All you can do is think about that person and look back at the time you spend with them and anticipate your next meeting. I always disliked hopeless romantics and the way they revolve their life around that one person and completely forget about their own life and obligations. I always vowed to myself that I won’t become one of those girls who engross their lives in their boyfriends and abandon their friends and family, I have seen it happen countless times before to my friends and relatives. But I have to say I like this guy a lot and it is hard not to want to spend every minute with him. I really try not to think about him in class and at work, it is extremely distracting lol. The past year for me has been pretty hectic for me, attending school and working as much as I do. I really have not thought about guys all that much except for some occasions or parties. So now all of sudden having someone in my life is a rush of emotions that I have not been in contact with for quite awhile. Not complaining, just reveling in a bunch of tangled thoughts in my head as usual…

field day

Going to libraries is not an uncommon thing for me. Being that I am a book worm and I like to expand my knowledge on literature. Other than being interested in the books at the New York Public Library, I was also enticed with the history of the library and architecture. I learned that both libraries are extremely useful to the public with various media tools such as books, periodicals, magazines, internet, photography, and reference books. I had a lot of fun in the library because instead of just being bored like Dr. Smith claimed us college students do, my group and I had fun with our assignment in the library. During our search for media resources my group and I encountered a mean librarian that yelled at us for asking a question. Instead of getting mad at the librarian, my friends and I made a joke out of it and had a lot of laughs. When my group finished our assignment we decided to play tag at the library and started to run along the book shelves. So in stead of wallowing in boredom we enjoyed ourselves at the library and also learned how and where to find a good place to work and research .I enjoyed the tour of the library and found what our tour guide told us about how the museum works and functions interesting. Especially when he told us about the way they retrieve the books people ask for. When customers ask for books the employees send the name and author of the book down a tube all the way to the basement where the books are held. Then when they find the book they send it back through the tube up to the desk where the customer is waiting for it. Out trip to the New York Public Library was my first time there and I enjoyed it immensely and I plan to go back there in the future to do further research. Honestly I am not really sticking to my regime of trying to save the planet. The only thing I am still doing that is helping the planet is using my fluorescent light bulbs around my house. And I am also reusing my water bottles instead of buying new ones everyday. I would like to start eliminating the use of plastic bags in my house and would like to start carrying around a large eco friendly canvas bag that I can use daily. I plan on doing more things to help save the planet but I am currently to embedded in my school work to plan the way I will save the planet. Unfortunately…

the grass IS greener on the other side

My family and I have never been the type to fully “go green”. The only thing that we have been doing that is eco friendly id recycling and saving our water bottles,using them as water jugs for the house. I figured my parents do it to resist getting a fine for not recycling; and saving money by reusing the water bottles. Slowly we are reforming and making wiser decisions about what we do the environment by researching easy things to reduce the damage we do to our planet.
You will be surprised by how simple some things are to save the environment. Perhaps the simplest chore to do is to turn off a light when ever you leave a room. It is hard to remember, nut it saves a lot of energy. GE energy smart light bulbs uses 70 to 75% less energy than incandescent light bulbs, and it lasts up to ten times longer than the incandescent light bulbs. Users can save up to fifthy- nine dollars on energy costs over the life span of a light bulb. You get more bang for your buck! As I mentioned before, saving your water bottles and filling them up with tap water is a great way to improve our environment by reducing the amount of plastic thrown away; and to save money by not having to buy new water bottles every day. Avoiding fast food is both better for the environment and better for your health as well. Most fast food is over packaged and the fast food companies are responsible for creating mountains of trash including non reusable paper, plastic, cardboard, and other hazardous products. Eating organic produce is another example of improving the status of global warming and your own health. Chemicals from the produce get washed off of the fields and into rivers and streams, where they pollute our water. Also chemicals made from petroleum and non renewable resources which our harmful to your heath.
Some more useful ideas to “go green” is t grow a garden. Growing a garden reduces soil erosion and air pollution. Using few pesticides and chemical fertilizers is better for the soil and it also saves money. Creating a compost pile in a corner in your yard to throw away food wastes such as egg shells, coffee grounds, and spoiled vegetables. Mixing the wastes with the soil turns it into rich, nutritional soil that helps plants grow and is a natural way to improve the environment. Buying products made of recycled paper and not throwing away paper used on only one side saves a whole lot of paper and trees.
The ideas that would be possible for my family and I to do id bringing our own bags to the market with us instead of plastic, using fluorescent light bulbs, reusing our water bottles, and avoiding fast food. Also my family and I are able to but products made from recycled paper, eating organic produce, and of course turning off the lights when leaving a room. The other options I stated previously are not possible mainly because I do not have a backyard to do most of those things. As Dr. Smith says “ its not easy being green”, but its worth trying.

a day at the museum

Our trips to the Amercian Museum of Natural History brought about nostalgic feelings from my childhood. the moment i stepped into the museum i began to remeber all of the exhibits i seen when i was a child and now the new exhibits.at the museum we researched the affects of the greenhouse gases and how they affect the climate. from our research at the museum i discovered facts that i otherwise would not have been aware about our plant, such as ice cores, ocean sediment, and the tree rings that provide data and information about the earth's past climate. ice cores are built up slowly from a years worth of snow layers. the layers of ice show a detailed rapid change. based on fact, 3.1 meters length of ice core penetrated 3,022 meters of Greenland ice. tree rings are intricate indications of annual climate. thick tree rings indicate a rapid growth during warm and wet years. thin tree rings show slow growth and indicate old and dry years. another force that affects the climate are the greenhouse gases. greenhouse gases is when the earth's surface warms and some of the heat is radiated back to the atmosphere where it is trapped by greenhouse gases. water vapor is the most important gas, without it the world's temperture would be below freezing. some of the greenhouse gases including water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone, methane, and nitrous oxide. my group and i conducted a experiment during the museum visit where we choose the the status of a population, we choose a high population, with the amount of energy used per person is current, and the carbon current of fossil fuels is high. the combonation of the three causes the CO2 content of the atmosphere has more than tripled in only 100 years, which maked it terrible for the enviorment. some of the connections i made between the American Museum of Natural History and Al Gore's film " An Inconveniant Truth" is the affects of greenhouse gases. in Al Gore's film he displayed the causes and the tremendous affects of the greenhouse effect vividly through a near perfect powerpoint presentation.what made Gore's presentation so amazing is the simplicity of the poerpoint and how Gore made all of the scientific terms and conditions easy to understand for his viewer's. between the film and the museum i found the museum to be more believable. at the museum you could read about a topic and have the evidence right in front of you. you could see and feel a piece of the enviorment and the past instead of just viewing it in a movie. the only connections i made between the film, the museum, the reading so far, and the theme of our cluster: truth, lies, and videotape is the amount of people in the world that believe that global warming is a lie and that everthing that is happening to our enviorement is just a coincidence. i relate this claim to our past readings of "the allegory of the cave" and "the matrix" where people are denying themselves from the truth, which people today are doing about global warming. some processes by which humans "denaturalize" nature is by cutting down trees, burning fossil fuels, using too much energy, and the world's obsession with oil. we then try to "renaturalize" it by growing more trees, using less energy, driving hybrid cars, using less oil, and basically going "green".