Weeks 6 and 7

10/13/09- Today, I presented my oral presentation on Beowulf to my English class. It was a very difficult assignment, but one that I only had to do once, so I am happy that it is finally over. My emotions about the project were very interesting and deserve analysis. At first, I was disheartened and angry that we had to memorize a 12 minute presentation, and I continued to get angrier as the night became later and I realized how difficult the memorization was. The day of my presentation, I was tired and nervous, too feelings that do not go well together. In the class before English, I was so nervous that I could barely concentrate due to the massive knot in my stomach. This feeling escalated until right before I started my presentation. The strange part was, the second the presentation started, I was instantly relieved, even though I had not finished presenting or knew how well I did. I am confused as to why this stress vanished at the most climatic point of my day, instead of getting more intense. Maybe the mind has a mechanism to fight off stress to avoid going insane. Regardless I found it very interesting.

10/16/09- We went to Kent to research for our extended essays today. I

originally hoped to write my essay on the philosophies and question about morality in the video game, Bioshock, but realized this may be too specific as an essay topic. Instead, I opted to search the database for "ethics in videogames." To my surprise, the third or fourth scholarly journal was titled, Bioshock, the Art of Rapture. I quickly downloaded the file and was amazed to find that it was a 17 page essay published earlier this year about specifically philosophy and ethics in Bioshock. I was very excited to see that their are other scholarly people out there that think like I do and realize the value of a video game and its ability to teach the player about ethics. I have not beaten Bioshock yet, but hope to conclude the story soon and use it as my main topic in my extended essay.

10/23/09- "I haven't checked the forecast, but it's a friday night football game, so it's going to rain." Mr. Perez told us this last wednesday, and he was entirely correct. I find it strange that the world can follow such patterns. What truly is the likelihood of it raining almost every friday? This also raises the question. "Is this purely coincidental?" While the average mind would assume that this is indeed a coincidence, I can not help but wonder if there is a master plan that Earth is following. I don't mean to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I just find it so odd that Mr. Perez could easily predict the weather based on the "luc

k" the marching band has been having all year.

10/24/09- I saw Where the Wild Things Are today and thought it was a phenomenal, insightful film. The story follows the life of a young boy who lives with his sister and mother. Max and his mother get along very well, but Max reacts poorly to his mother dating and runs away from home. While running in the forest, he comes across a boat that takes him to an island "where the wild things are." Each wild thing seems to be a representation of the different parts of Max's mind or people he has known in life. For example, Carol represents Max in temperament, full of ambition but child-like and easily hurt, while KW represents reason. Through his adventures with the wild things, Max realizes that he must be accepting and mature. He returns home the same night, leading the viewer to believe that he never truly visited the island, but imagined the entire adventure, probably in the span of one hour. The movie was very philosophical with the many contrasting characters, and also made me laugh with how awkward it was at some points. My favorite part was when Carol, upset and angry, rips of the arm of Douglas, the always optimistic friend. While the viewer would assume this moment to be horrific and terrible, Douglas responds with a hilarious comment. "That was my favorite arm..."