Finally watching the movie I’ve heard so much about my whole life is a great feeling. I haven’t ever tried watching romance movies a lot or at least nothing this extreme but I will admit I really liked it. In Romeo and Juliet I really liked the depth of the dialogue throughout the movie although the language was very old so it was difficult to understand but I could poke out key parts and it made the moments between Romeo and Juliet amazing. Like how in the balcony scene, Romeo couldn’t leave because he loved being around her, and Juliet didn’t want him to go. The ending, a little weird take from me, but since we know nothing about the afterlife we could technically say any assumption we’d like, and I like to believe that Romeo and Juliet are still together in heaven. Seeing them die was tragic but knowing they could still be hand in hand makes me feel all the better. I’m a big guy for dialogue or quotes throughout games, movies, books, almost everything, and the weird thing, is the movie somehow communicated quotes, endless quotes, but with no words! The last thing to mention about the movie is that I really liked Shakespeare’s take on young love. He seemed to describe it as urgent, but also greatly passionate. Only thing I don’t like about how they met is how quick they fell for each other. This “Love at first sight” came to be quite fast, faster than I expected, and so fast that it almost just felt fake and desperate. But his end description on young love was, what I think, was to show how powerful it is, but also how dangerous it is (as they both die for each other at the end). Overall I might look into more romance-type movies, I’ve had my eye on Gorge so let’s see if it’s just as beautiful in dialogue as Romeo and Juliet
Author: Ryan
PW#7 Coldest Night of the Year RIP OFF
Every year there’s this event that goes on sometime in February (22nd I believe). You raise funds leading up to that date and the once it’s time you go on a walk (5km or 2.5km). For my service project this year, that’s what I did, walked and raised money for homeless youth. Honorable mention, we named our group (Me, Blake, and Theo) “The Amazing Handsome Fellers” and when we got to the event to sign up they already knew who we were. We walked up to sign in and they said “Are you guys the Amazing Handsome Fellas?”. The best feeling in the world, being recognized by a random, I’m so popular. Usually the walk is pretty calm and fun but I remembered from last year that they give out snacks halfway through the 5km walk. Knowing so, I didn’t eat as much leading up to it, and all I could think about WAS the food. Once we reached halfway, all I saw on the stand was cold granola bars… Such a tragedy. You would think after raising around 990 dollars we would be given more than just a cold granola and some drinks but apparently not! I’m gonna sign a petition for them to bring back celebration cookies and gummies!
PW#6 Halo!
No, I’m surprisingly not talking about Halo, the game. I’m talking about the TV adaptation! I’ve never played the Halo games before but I will be soon, but I have been watching the show and there’s so much amazing stuff in it I can’t get enough haha! I’m gonna try and finish the series on the weekend when I have time. If there’s anyone else that have watched Halo, they would have seen how GIANT John is compared to the others in the show, compared to one of the actors I think he was over a foot taller… Pablo Schreiber is his actual name, I think he’s like 6’4 or something!? On top of that he’s muscular as hell! Apart from me being head over heels for him, I also really like the fighting and fighting mechanics they have in that. For some reason I’ve been getting really weird when I watch gory things happen but Halo doesn’t have too much intense gore! The way too, how John dodges an attack from the corner of his eye or because of a sound-cue gets me in love with the show. Another thing that makes it really good is the dialogue and development. John was before, a Spartan (A super-soldier that has an emotion blocker) that was meant to only listen to orders and nothing else. When he had a gun pointed to his head by a marine he said “I’ve been on that side of the gun. I didn’t ask questions. I didn’t wanna know. But we always know, don’t we? But if you’re gonna kill me, at least look me in the eyes.”. It stopped the marine from shooting and it just looks amazing when you see how much character development he has. My final point is when he was flipping a coin with a doctor and guessing, it landed on heads 8 times in a row, but he said he wasn’t guessing, he knew. The reason he doesn’t get affected by deaths around him is because he knows who’ll die and who won’t. As the movie progresses though, there’s a lot of surprising deaths and it hits John hard, revealing more emotion, and SO MUCH character development, can’t wait to finish it!
IRJE#6 Fever Code
The Fever Code like stated back in another one of my posts, is about the past of the maze and how it was built (The series Maze Runner). I can’t get enough of this book because after I watched the movies, there’s all these great moments that either foreshadow, or lead on to the future like the very start of the first movie. The quotation below has our main character Thomas and a doctor or worker for the maze, Dr. Paige. Dr. Paige is found cutting some corners in her work and is now preparing Thomas for his stay in the maze.
“It was me, Thomas. I know you won’t remember this, but I want to say the words to you anyway. Explain myself. It was me who infected Chancellor Anderson and his senior staff. They wanted to give up. And I could never allow that, could I? What we’re trying to achieve is too important.”… “You were always my favorite” Dr. Paige said… “Let’s get him prepared.”… He didn’t want them gone. WICKED had tricked him. Of course they’d tricked him… Because these people were nothing but manipulative, single-minded monsters? And Dr. Paige had confirmed it all. (pp. 336-337)
I love these quotations because WICKED finally shows their true colors to a worker or subject of theirs, Thomas. Although they were preparing him for a procedure, one to wipe his memory, so the secrets of WICKED would still never be exploited, just used to traumatize patients before they undergo the surgery. What makes this even better is It’s right before the first movie or book. When Thomas gets sent into the Glade (Maze) he has no memory of anything, reading this moment in the book was amazing because it has him going through the surgery and at the very end he describes himself in darkness. It makes me kind of want to go back and watch the first movie!
IRJE#5 The Fever Code
The Fever Code, a book written by James Dashner, is a sequel to The Kill Order and is about the overall production, format, and past about the maze itself. As you can see, I’m a huge fan of the series. I’ve watched the movies, I’ve read the books, this is the last one before I move onto something different and I’m thinking probably a sequel to the book You by Caroline Kepnes. This book got my attention at the start because it was where Ms. Mcvoy, Dr. Paige, and Mr. Ramirez recruited Thomas and Teresa to help them on a project, THE MAZE.
The cavern had to be at least a few miles square and as tall as a skyscraper. Building materials-wood and steel and stone-were scattered in piles across the floor… A huge wall was under construction, its skeletal frame almost reaching the ceiling… “You’re going to know a lot more, and you’re going to be very, very busy… You’re going to help us build this place.” (p. 68)
For anyone who hasn’t read the books or seen the movies, this quotation wouldn’t have much meaning but I find this quote the main source of guilt and death because in the future books/movies, Thomas gets put in the maze and everyone there, are people that he and others threw in, basically to die. So I like to think about this part as foreshadowing to a devastating end.
PW#5 Metro Awakening!!!
I’m very proud to talk about this game because it won the Steam VR Awards. I highly recommend people to go check it out because it has the best story I’ve ever seen on VR. The story goes as told: Moscow was bombed or nuked and it sent radiation all around the surface along with some demonic monsters. Everyone retreated to a massive shelter, the metro, although there are monsters in there as well, Nosalises. You play as Serdar, a doctor that begins to experience… darkness, when he gets lost in the metro looking for his wife. This game practically gets to show you what it’s like being schizophrenic. It spikes so much emotions within an individual. As for me, I felt empathy and literal protectiveness or happiness from the characters within the game. When people died it actually hurt, when a child came out, I was talking to him like he could actually respond, and they had great humor as well. Serdar’s wife went a little crazy and broke this mushroom farm, soon, Serdar was asking Max, the chief of the station what happened, “Is she (the wife) alright?” “Yes, yes, she’s fine, unlike our mushrooms!” The quotes are the best thing you would have ever heard. Like one of them at the start of the game is “Do we rely on our eyes too much? Are we too convinced that what we can see is real, and what we can’t see, is not?” This quote alone makes me love it because throughout the story, it gives you reasons to trust ourselves rather than our eyes. to that game, I’m proud to say I’m an addict/in love with it. I don’t want to spoil it too much though so watch it or something because this game makes me fall on my knees!
PR to “Brave New World”
Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley, provoked controversial thoughts within me. Standing at one side, I liked the book for its futuristic palette including the Greek alphabet to characterize humans (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon). But on the other hand, I really despised the constant sex throughout the book. it was a bit much, although I understand that sex throughout movies, shows, books, and games, can be used to show a strengthened relationship, this just seemed overused and I really hated it, especially the children in chapter three learning about it and running around naked. I can never get that out of my head. I would be fine reading a book that had hints of it and light sprinkles of intimacy but having a book revolving around sex seems overwhelming. Apart from all this, I liked the format of everything about the book. The way Aldous Huxley changed the year from ACE (After Common Era), to AF (After Ford) really shows his growth in imagination. His indifferent idea of happiness also reflects on his wide imagination, instead of superpowers or being a kid getting whatever you want, he drifted towards something a little more… personal. The book really struck the thought of what the future could be like as well. Technically, Aldous Huxley did write about a Utopia with happiness through physical intimacy, and it strikes the thought, what if the government actually allowed this? Would Huxley be right or would this provoke other dangers within a couple? Mainly what scares me is the control others would have over us, people in power would literally have the control to manufacture humans as they like, and if one of them decides to sabotage it, the world goes to hell. A BIG thing that I think about though is truly, is this a utopia or a dystopia? Because the only reason for it being a utopia is the pleasures of society, literally, but it could be characterized as a dystopia due to the separation of old and new society, freedom, and some old knowledge is suppressed to keep order, and soma is used to basically stop you from having an intimate relationship with someone (some might call it mind-control or something). Overall I would say that this book is like a 5-10, I like the format of society, and the intense thoughts it can heighten about the world today, BUT, the repetitive mention and acts of physical intimacy is really irritating.
PW#4 Christmas!
Christmas just recently passed so I thought this would be great to write about. I understand that to some people Christmas might not feel the same but with me even if there’s no snow, or no Christmas activities, it doesn’t matter too much because I do appreciate the small hours of anticipation and watching everyone’s inner kid come out. I got some pretty silly gifts too which was amazing, and was one of the reasons I really love it. I got the classical oranges in my Christmas stocking. For some reason it’s tradition for us and I’m yet to understand why haha. I also didn’t wish for too much either so watching myself be surprised was great, I got a little necklace, It’s amazing, best part is I don’t have to take it off! I also got an amazing gift from my home-stay-student, a harmonica! I’ve been screwing around with it a lot and I can make some sad war type music and some iconic movie whistles as well. All that I’m waiting for now is the snow so I can walk around at night, build a snowman, throw snowballs at my friends, and just lay outside for like an hour or two! Snow is what I’m really waiting for. To make the Christmas even better, our home-stay stayed with us throughout the break, I don’t want him to leave but it was really nice that he stayed around with us. Overall, this Christmas was great and I can’t wait for more holidays and even more breaks from school!!
IRJE#4 The Kill Order
The Kill Order is written by James Dashner. This is a prequel to the popular Maze Runner books he writes, along with the next I will be reading, The Fever Code which is about how the maze itself was made. What I’m going over is the ending of this book which had a great turn. This is where Mark had infiltrated a government building/bunker or one similar to that where he finds an electronic tablet that shows important information on the virus “The Flare” that made the whole world fall.
We the Coalition hereby grant the PCC express permission to fully implement their PC initiative #1 as presented in full and attached below. We the Coalition take full responsibility for this action and will monitor developments and offer assistance to the fullest extent of our resources. The virus will be released in the locations recommended by the PCC and agreed upon by the Coalition. Armed forces will be stationed to ensure that the process ensues in as orderly a manner as possible. (p. 295)
This quotation talks about how government organizations, PCC and the Coalition, both gave permission and selected specific spots to release this deadly, world-dominating virus out to as stated before in the book, to “control the overall world population”. Which clearly wasn’t maintained at a safe level.
IRJE#3 The Kill Order
The Kill Order is a novel written by James Dashner, the same man that wrote The Maze Runner books. If you have read the first 3 Maze Runner books then you would know that the entire world is slowly being killed off and turned into a dystopian wasteland by a virus called “The Flare”. The virus feeds off of the victims brain and drives them to the brink of insanity, soon enough turning into bloodthirsty monsters which are soon referred to as “Cranks”. In the quotation I’m about to show, it has an old friend, the Toad, returning but seems to have gone crazy and in need of help.
The Toad dropped to his knees and held the lit match closer to his face. He looked gaunt, and his eyes were moist and haunted.
“Are… You okay?” Mark asked, hoping his friend was just tired.
“I’m not,” the Toad answered, his face quivering as if he were about to cry. “I’m not, Mark. I’m not okay at all, There are things living inside my skull.” (p.81)
And
“I have things in my skull. I need help getting them out of there. Before they eat my brain and start heading for my heart” (p.82)
Both of these quotations show the character the Toad, experiencing symptoms of The Flare, having it thrive on his brain. Later in the story he proceeds to do inhuman screeches and wails, and he gets violent and angry. The whole reason I showed this is because it gives us good insight on the mutating process the virus has on the brain, driving someone mentally ill. And a little theory of mine is that the violent intentions to soon come might have been from the voices in his head, maybe telling him to.
PW#3 Good Will Hunting
a few weeks ago I watched Good Will Hunting for the first time, yes, I am well aware I’m a few centuries late to watching it. Mostly on the weekends (because I don’t have time on school days), I watch movies with my dad, Interstellar is next, I can’t wait! If you are like me and have been living under a rock for a while and you don’t know the movie, it’s about a guy named Will, he’s a really smart kid but he doesn’t exactly have anything exciting going on. He’s a janitor at this school and this really difficult problem gets put up in the halls on a board, when Will solves it, the teachers try to get through to him but can’t so they try to get a therapist to help him loosen up and help him (The 4th and last therapist was Robin Williams!). Each session goes on and they get more and more in depth with talk about romance, relationships, deaths, weird stuff like that, maybe I’m into light romance type movies? Not too sure… One thing I really like about movies though is when they bring a quote or action from the start of the movie and reintroduce it at the end. Good Will Hunting did EXACTLY that. Will’s therapist is telling him that he missed out on a great baseball game to “go see about a girl”. Then at the end of the movie, Will decided to go chase this girl he recently had a fight with, he missed the therapy lesson but left a note saying, “I gotta go see about a girl”. Sweet things like that, that I like. Also the way the therapist worded a lot of things, it had deep meanings it was a great movie, awesome movie (I might watch more like that, I’ll be in touch!).
My reflection of “The Moral Equivalent of War” and “Can Real Men Live in a Peaceful Society”
In The Moral Equivalent of War I see that William James assumes that men have this, war-like urge in them that can not be fought back. He believes in wanting peace but he says “Our ancestors have bred pugnacity into our bone and marrow, and thousands of years of peace won’t breed it out of us…”, which says that we are born with a set of a sense of brutal, strong, dominance. That the history has shaped our human nature and engraved it into our future along with another quote near the end, “The martial type of character can be bred without war…”. William James is basically saying that with or without war, men are eager savages at heart, they can develop these traits throughout their journey, both good and bad, they can learn discipline and courage along with venerating savagery. Next, in Can Real Men Live in a Peaceful Society, Macknight describes how textbook chivalry has been destroyed due to social media, as men would brush off a “woman in peril”. He also says how men in the bourgeoise society have become too… Soft, after the war as if all that hardness disappeared. Then stated that women in the bourgeoise society would look for these so called “bad boys” just to come to the realization that they are terrible people, mean and brutal men that couldn’t live in a peaceful society. Something I feel worth mentioning is that I was pretty surprised to see but it was said that people were thinking to castrate violent, out of line men, just like they do dogs, to try and tame them again.
IRJE#2 Catcher in the Rye
I must say that I’ve really loved this book. Mr. MacKnight, thank you for sharing this book with me it has been a great one. Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger is about a guy, Holden, he’s an adult although seems to be disconnected from the adulthood world. He struggles academically, struggles with being social, struggles with being normal altogether. I have two quotes, one on his social awkwardness and another on his sadness or depression.
When I opened the door, this prostitute was standing there… “You the guy Maurice said?” she asked me… “Yes, I am. Come in, won’t you?” I said…
She put down the menu and looked at me. “Let’s go, hey. I haven’t got all-”
“Look” I said. “I don’t feel very much like myself tonight. I’ve had a rough night. Honest to God. I’ll pay you and all, but do you mind very much if we don’t do it? Do you mind very much?”
This quotation has Holden getting in contact with a prostitute but instead of doing what any normal guy would do he asks if they can just talk. it show his distance with adulthood, fear of being vulnerable, and his desire for connection and attention (hiring a prostitute to only have a conversation to connect).
Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.
In this quotation it shows Holden’s bad habit of isolation, pushing everybody away to protect himself from emotional damage, which basically means that the odd regrets of having memories with people makes him vulnerable and easily hurt. It also showed a little character development, I think, because despite all the bad memories, arguments, and what not that Holden had with everyone, he still remains sad, and missing them, showing his development in viewing the positive side of things at the end of his story.
PW#2 My experience with the ceremony
I didn’t exactly have a straight idea on what to write about, so instead I thought why not share my experience on the Remembrance Day Ceremony? To start it off though I was already really damn scared about it because probably like most people, I hate going up and speaking in front of multiple people, it makes me feel my heart in my throat and feel a heartbeat in my head. From the beginning one of my partners weren’t showing and I needed them for a slide and since I was already a bit vulnerable it gave me a heart attack (not actually), and then math marks got brought up, checked my grade and in the moment I thought I got low grades for a test I was confident, later I found out he put the marks on the wrong test (thank GOD), but in the moment that made my day even worse, panicking more.
Then around came the ceremony, my partners were there, all I had to do was walk up there and read but I was so nervous, practically shaking! when I walked up on that stage I was shocked to see how many people were actually there, how many people were staring dead blank at me, how many people were there to see every little mistake, it scared me so much I kind of found it funny how many minion sized people there were. After doing my part I came to the realization that it wasn’t too hard to do but that doesn’t suppress the mass anxiety haha. Once we finished, my god you can not imagine the happiness of being done with that, god it felt GREAT!
IRJE#1 “YOU”
You is a book made by Caroline Kepnes. She made I believe four books on this series and it got changed into a show on Netflix as well! That’s where I got the idea to read it. I recently finished the book as well and I hope to find the second, called Hidden Bodies. This book is about a guy named Joe Goldberg, Joe is a psychopath and he stalks and woman he is into.
You are dead.
I dig. I have never been and will never be as alone as I am while I dig… I, alone, sweat and shiver and prepare to put you into the dirt… I am breathing normally now and the revelers are doing the Electric Slide and would we have had a wedding like this? (p. 415-416)
In this quotation (or his thoughts), he is obsessing over a woman named Guinevere Beck, his first love obsession. Earlier on, Beck found out that Joe had been stalking her, and killing people around her (friends, ex’s, etc), and even found out that some of her “lost” possessions were taken by him. Joe put her in a cage not knowing what to do with her because she would most likely go to the police if she got out. At one point she manipulated Joe into thinking she loved him, and she tried to escape but Joe stopped her. Not wanting to risk anything, he killed her. Then in the quotation you can find how his emotions of his words are describing his actions as if he was forced to kill her, not by choice.
PW#1 Horne Lake!
Yes Blake, I’m writing about this, I loved it. I’ve been wanting to write a personal writing for a bit because I can say whatever I’d like no instructions. Now, I get to talk about my trip to Horne Lake, along with my date, Blake. I don’t get the chance to travel too much because of you know, money. So when I went to Horne Lake, it. Was. Beautiful. The views that we went to see, the things that we did, amazing. I thought I would be somewhat bored there, nope. It was full of activity and it was amazing. Sometimes me and Blake would sit in our trailer (We shared it!) and I would pull out some mini sour cream donuts and some drinks, and we would just sit and chat haha. My favorite part was Blake taking me to high mountain places pretty far away using his Wolverine (the vehicle not the hero)! I love drives like that I don’t know why. Going somewhere random on bumpy rides are fun for me (apart from when I got brutally impaled by dry branches, BLAKE haha). We went to such cool places, with amazing views of the entire lake. I would kill to go back there just me and Blake. we even went out on the water and visited a cave nearby, a giant spider lurked in there, I wanted out, fast. We went to some islands, and man it was amazing, who knew a cabin in the woods would be the best thing ever. I won’t reveal the secrets of everything there, but that was the best time I’ve had in a long while. Now Blake all I ask, is please let me go back in winter, I wanna walk or drive across the lake!
WWI Readings, Personal Response
After reading through the World War One books, All Quiet On The Western Side And the readings part 1 and part 2 with Barthas, Chevallier, and some others, it has been brought to my attention how insanely brutal war is.
I have been wanting to read the famous All Quiet On The Western Front for quite some time now because I was always curious to learn about the war, what it was like, and its effects. One thing I didn’t expect to find though, was the mental effect on the soldiers as it’s somewhat described in the book. It describes how Paul’s mental state adapts to the war and becomes very different from what we would see now. As like when multiple soldiers got killed, Paul and his group focused on the fact they would have more rations. It also explains the effects of the fighting, like as when Paul killed the Frenchman and went through his things to find out that he had a family, it made him feel guilty and scared.
The World War One readings were good to read as they described with more visuals, mental side effects, and the looks of war. The readings, gave me a visual of how it was having dead bodies around every corner, rotting and smelling like hell. It also explained common side effect of trauma, known as shell shock, caused from artillery, and what happened as soldiers watched their friends get pummeled by dropping shells or gunned down in front of them. it also explained more in depth with tactics of crawling around at night and little hidden details that most things might not teach you.
Overall I liked reading and learning about the first world war. especially how at near the end of part 2 of the prose, it explained how the soldiers didn’t pay enough attention to the small things they had like warmth in their house, comfy couches, a bed, so that once they were transferred to the front lines, they finally found out what absolute hell was and missed their home greatly. Although, I apologize but I must say, I enjoyed the book a lot more than the prose, not even because I was already wanting to read it, but because it had a plot, where the prose didn’t follow much of one. Reading these expanded my knowledge which will most likely help in I & S, and it made the soldiers have a certain significance to me after learning the terror they had to go through.
Ryan’s World!
Welcome to Ryan’s World of wonders and imagination. I am from here, Victoria, and I am a returning student from Brookes and this is my 4th year, going on 5th. To get to know me, some things I really enjoy are TV, watching shows more on the side of murder, like Dexter which portrays the main character as a serial killer that is a part of Miami Metro Homicide, I highly recommend watching this. I also enjoy going on walks out in the sun or just walk in general. Night walks are good too but I’m usually quite tired. Up at my mom’s though there is a dirt pile/construction site and I love to go up there, get drenched in sand and climb some construction vehicles. I also enjoy doing Tennis with my parents late at night around 8:00pm. My all time favorite thing to do though is video games, yes I’m one of those people haha. I have both a VR (Quest 3) and a PC, my preferred genre of game is fighting, action and adventure. Sadness and deep cuts are also a must for the games. Now onto the writing tasks on here, here’s my stunning opinion, ‘Personal Writing’ on the blog is the best because I can talk about whatever I’d like, and someone has the chance of coming across it and reading it, same as you are! I also love to listen to music, if you hadn’t noticed haha. I do everything with my headphones or background music, my music taste I admit, is very limited since I’m weird and I loop songs. A lot. My favorite bands that I consistently listen to multiple music from, would be Coldplay and Red Hot Chili Peppers!! I’m gonna bring this up because I love it but I have really high hopes for the Tofino trip in April (my birth month!) and I hope everyone, or most of our class goes because me personally that trip was the BEST. My patience is running very thin with the long wait. And to Blake and Sydney, let’s recreate the breakfast hazard… I hope to learn some random facts about you all and I hope new students here enjoy their time and maybe come back next year.