Movie

Over the weekend I watched The Village. I watched it because I saw it a long time ago and thought it was terrible so I figured that I would remind myself of that. Pretty much there are some people living in a village and it has monsters that attack it so everyone has to be careful. Well it turns out the monsters aren't real and they are all just living in an amish village. The main character has to leave the village to get medicine from the outside world and that is when she discovers the truth. The movie is pretty entertaining in the beginning when you think that there are real monsters, but once you learn that it is all fake the movie is ruined. I think it is a terrible plot twist that doesn't make you more interested like a good plot twist does, but instead makes you laugh and think how horrible the movie has now become. If I were making this movie I would have made the monsters real because they were pretty cool looking and it gave the movie some decent suspense. I'm not sure what my new plot twist would be but it would be a lot better than, "Oh guess what? This is an amish village and the cool scary monsters are fake, so run along now." I would would say that I hate this movie but it is interesting to talk with others about how bad this movie is so all I can say is that the movie is annoying and horribly made.

If there was an apocalypse in the future it would be a zombie outbreak. People would randomly start to get infected and by the time people realized what was happening it would be too late. Of course I would be fine because I would never let any zombie get me. No one will know how the first zombie comes about but then all the zombies have to do is bite someone to infect them and that is easy to do on unsuspecting people. Once I learned of this outbreak I would first head over to a gun store and buy a ton of ammunition and then I would head over to my cousin's house and borrow a couple guns from them. Next I would drive over to Costco and tell any remaining people I knew to go there too. Once enough people were inside we would start to close off ever entrance to Costco so that no one could get in or out. We would survive forever with all the food in there along with all the other fun stuff they have.

My future is very different from Phillip K. Dick's because in his future the problem is nuclear weapons and androids while my problem is zombies. If we were to somehow survive until a time when there were no more zombies then it is still possible that my future will end up like Phillip K. Dick's because technology will keep advancing. Eventually people will destroy the world and make advanced robots but that takes time.

In Blade Runner there is not much lighting when Deckard meets Rachel. It is dark and it is only possible to see a little. I think this is done so that the audience is focused on only certain things in the movie at this point. The dialogue is mostly asking short questions with short responses to them. The characters keep their dialogue to the point and they only say what they have to say. They do not show a whole lot of emotion to go along with their speech either. They answer questions easily and emotionlessly. The costumes show each character's role. Deckard is dressed like a detective would with his coat, Rachel is dressed up like someone that is just there to greet you, and the Dr. is dressed like someone of importance and knowledge. The way they are dressed is so that the audience can make assumptions about a character before they even know a whole lot about them. This way the audience is always thinking and interested.

When Deckard and Roy are sitting on the rooftop at the end of the movie sound, dialogue, and music are all used together to stir up emotion and get the point across. Roy just wants Deckard to feel empathy for androids so that is why he is talking how he is. The audience hears a mixture of the dialogue, music, and sound which helps make the audience feel empathy for the androids also. The music is very peaceful and slow and it goes really well with the sounds in the backround, which is mostly just rain. Deckard is speechless throughout this because his enemy just saved his life and is now dying right in front of him. The sound and music really play a role in conveying emotion to the audience because they are not completely sure what is happening but they know how to feel due to the music.

I think after Deckard is done in the movie he goes to live a peaceful life. He hangs out with Rachel for a little and then she dies so he is all by himself again so he just sits and does nothing. That is until he get the Millennium Falcon. Deckard then changes his name to Han Solo and flies over to some galaxy far far away. He then meets a friendly giant hairy dude name Chewbacca and they become best friends. Since Deckard is bored and he still has plenty of skills he goes ahead and becomes a smuggler. Han then fights off an evil empire and gets married. He now can live happily knowing that his wife won't drop dead at any given moment.

My research topic is the future of space travel. My research is going well, I have found many good sources that are of great help. The topic is tough but there are many intelligent people out there that have good insight on it. The main solution that seems possible is faster than light travel. To do this we would simply need to make something that bends the space time continuum and then we would move through just space and not time. It is an odd idea but scientists do think it is possible to achieve one day in the future.

Fahrenheit 451

This was an interesting movie. I thought it wasn't so bad. In this time period firefighter's must burn any books that they see because the government says so. In the movie a certain firefighter named Guy Montag runs into a girl named Clarisse, who collects books. Montag becomes interested in the books and reads one. Montag is later chased into a hidden group of people who spend their whole lives just reading one book and memorizing it. Montag figures he ought to do this also so ends up just working on memorizing his book.

Design

There are many aspects of design that I have not put a great deal of thought into until now. One thing is how much work can go into one little thing. Designers work hard to make even the smallest thing pop out at you and make you like their product without even knowing what it is. Many hours are put into the tiny detail that caused you to buy a certain product. Another aspect of design that you usually don't think about is simplicity. Items that you see can stand out due to how simple they are. Their example was Apple products. Apple products have a sleek, simple design that appeal to many different people around the globe. These products were made like this specifically to appeal to certain people and to catch everyone's eye. A final quality of design that I never thought too much about is how certain objects have lagged behind in some areas. Chairs are a good example because of how easy it is to find an uncomfortable chair. We have so many objects in our lives that are easy to use and are nice to use but then we find ourselves sitting in an uncomfortable chair that was not well designed. It's funny how advanced we can be in some aspects but behind in many others at the same time, despite how simple those items can be.

Blade Runner

In the movie Blade Runner there is a scene near the end involving Deckard and Roy.  How this scene plays out can be confusing because of how it ends.  Roy ends up dying but he plays out the scene so that Deckard can understand the replicants better and feel empathy for them.  Roy realizes that he is dying while he is going after Deckard so he puts a giant nail through his hand to help slow down the process of his body shutting down.  After meeting Deckard on a rooftop, Roy scares Deckard enough that Deckard jumps off the roof onto another building.  His jump is short and he begins to hold on for his life.  Roy also makes this jump, but successfully this time.  As Deckard begins to fall Roy grabs onto him and pulls him up, saving him.  Deckard is obviously very confused at this point and Roy goes on talking about his memories and such.  Knowing that he has taught Deckard to feel empathy for the replicants, Roy lets himself die finally.  This was an interesting scene because Roy went from being crazy to being nice in an instant.  I think that he did this because since he knew that he was dying he knew he couldn't do much else to change the world directly so instead he spent his time teaching Deckard a lesson so that Deckard has a chance to change the world himself.  He knew that killing Deckard wouldn't accomplish much so he used his intelligence to end his life in the best possible way.

Androids

I thought that the climax of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep was interesting.  More information about each of the characters is unveiled along with some of their feelings.  Rick goes through a lot and is having trouble finding meaning in not just his job but himself.  Isidore has to deal with the androids and his feelings towards different groups.  I liked how John and Rick faced a lot of different things and then figured out how to deal with their problems.  I thought it was interesting that Rick overcame his dislike of killing the androids and instead decided to go after even more than he was originally supposed to.  It was good to see Rick's true self and that he doesn't like to be messed with at all.  It was also interesting to see some of John's reactions.  Since he has a low IQ he interacts with the world differently and that was a good perspective to see with everything that was going on.  He just wanted to be with others and that is why he embraced the androids, no matter their own feelings towards him.  I liked that he had to deal with the androids, the spider, and his new revelations on Mercer and Buster all at once.  Another cool thing was how Rachael messed with Rick and then how she killed his new goat.  She caused him to show his true self and I think that will be the end of her because of it.  I feel like Rick should have never trusted her in the first place but he let his feelings for her take him over.  Overall it was a good climax that I think will lead to a great ending.

The Rosen Corporation

There are many interesting things in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, all different in some way.  In my reading I enjoyed the various ways that the Rosens manipulated Rick.  When Rick first arrived he saw a couple different animals that seemed unbelievable to him.  First there was the Raccoon which Rick knew existed still, but he also knew the cost of such an animal was huge.  What surprised him way more was the owl that they had.  Owls were supposed to be extinct so that was truly unbelievable to Rick. Before Rick leaves as a failure, the Rosens try to bribe Rick with the owl but after a series of events Rick uncovers that the owl is in fact electric and everyone is back to thinking that owls are actually extinct.

Rachel Rosen was the first person Rick was to test.  Her results had her as being an android so Rick called her out on that.  Eldon Rosen said that Rick was wrong and that Rachel was simply a human that has lived in outer space most of her life.  After almost getting his electric owl Rachel says something that makes Rick still think that she is an Android.  He tests her with one last question and it is finally shown that Rachel is indeed an android and even Rachel herself did not have knowledge of that.

The Rosens manipulation was very good and they almost got their way too.  I find it weird that they would bother having an electric owl though.  Everyone on Earth assumes that they are extinct so it seems foolish to try to trick those that enter their building, though they did almost trick Rick.  Did the Rosens have any motive outside of making sure the latest Android model was safe to distribute?  It wouldn't seem that way but anything is possible in this book.

A&B Chapter 11

In chapter 11 in The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing it talks about various ways of revising a paper.  One thing it talked about was revising globally, which interested me.  Usually in papers when revising I would change a sentence here or there that would just effect that one sentence and nothing more, this would be revising locally.  When you revise globally though, you are looking at a much bigger picture.  Revising globally causes you to make revisions in several places based on whatever you just revised.  If you make certain changes in your paper it is possible you will want to go back to the thesis and make it better based on what you just changed elsewhere in the paper.  It is important to always look at the paper as a whole and not just as bits and pieces.  One other thing that I thought was interesting was using multiple drafts for one paper.  While I have never done it in the past, I can see how it would be useful.  In an important paper it is helpful to have the best possible ideas written down and shared in the best possible way.  To do this you would have to keep make new drafts as other parts of the paper change.  Having the best possible paper is important no matter what it is for.