Blog #8: Thanksgiving Weekend

During the Thanksgiving weekend, I had a nice Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunt's house in western Jersey. We had a wonderful time, with all the food in the world. My favorite was the pumpkin pie however, that my sister baked. Then friday, my mother always feels that she needs to repeat a holiday if it is not hosted at our house, so she cooked a whole new Thanksgiving feast which was delicious, friday night. It was just my mother, father, sister's and their boyfriends, so it was a nice little get together. Saturday was just a fun day and Sunday my baby cousins visited, which was very fun.

Blog #7- News Log: How Cirque du Soleil re-invented the Big-Top Show

Summary- Cirque du Soleil was created in 1984 with a group of street performers in Montreal. Now, Cirque du Soleil is a billion dollar entertainment business with over 5,000 employees from all around the world. These shows have reinvented the circus to a more cultural and acrobatic level. Cirque du Soleil has invented 20 shows all with original ideas. The show ideas are open to all expertise and the production team is willing to work with anything thrown at them. If someone wants to try something new, they will explore that area and see what other various ideas it may lead to. As a result, brilliant products are made. Since the show is composed of various wild acrobats and stunts, many people question the safety of the performers. However, in an interview with Fabrice Lemire, artistic director for Quidam, he assures the interviewer that all the performers are "highly trained. they're highly quialified for what they do, so what we do is that during the training session....there are experts on all levels to supervise the process, and everything is really, really taken under the microscope." All the shows are done live and the music is created to fit each specific act. Professional musicians are able to improvise and change music in a moment, in order to accommodate any glitches or issues that may occur throughout the duration of the performance.

My Opinion? I believe Cirque du Soleil is an incredible, exciting show being as I've seen one of their recent shows, Zarkana. The amount of talent put into each show is unbelievable. Between the acrobatic talent, dancing, singing, music, art and culture portrayed within the shows, the directors do a wonderfully detailed job at incorporating all the aspects of a circus, into a more modern, riveting show. Unlike a typical circus, Cirque du Soleil adds a storyline to their shows, as well as original music and no animals! While watching the shows, you really obtain a sense of French, Russian, Italian, and Asian culture from the costumes/makeup, to the actual acts themselves. In the midst of the heavy acrobatic performances, comedic acts are placed strategically 

throughout the entirety of the show. One interesting, defining aspect of the show is the lack of speaking. There is singing, but lack of speaking. Instead, sounds are created to relay the message across to the audience. By using this technique, the actors/directors have the ability to reach the audience at a new level; a creative artist level, which, to me, puts Cirque du Soleil in a whole new category of entertainment. It is honestly the most enthralling show I have ever seen. After watching the performance, you are left in aw as you wonder about the talent these people posses as well as the cultural experience the show has just put you through. Cirque du Soleil has certainly raised the bar for the title of "circus" and has brought a sensational form of entertainment. 

http://www.npr.org/2011/11/17/142466017/cirque-du-soleil-reinvents-the-big-top-show

Blog #6- Animal

If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?
If I could be any animal, I would probably be a dog because I would be able to comfort a loving family and rest whenever I wanted. I could run and play as well as lay by the families feet while they watch a movie. Dogs are very loyal and family oriented and that's why I would like to be one because you will always be with someone and never be alone.

Blog #5- The best thing about this week was...

When at work, a patient complimented me on how I handle situations and treat him as a patient. He said I was very thorough, attentive, and kind and said "for being a high school student, I respect you very much." That was an extremely pleasant comment and really brightened my day because it almost gives me a sense of hope for my future.

Blog #4- Things that bug me

1.) Those who ask too many questions
2.) Those who smell unpleasant
3.) Those who do not give a thanking gesture after you let them go at an intersection
4.) Excessive amounts of homework
5.) Those who stop walking when you are directly behind them

Blog #3- Courage

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying 'I will try again tomorrow'." -Mary Anne Radmacher

The quote reminds me of when I had to gather the courage before going into surgery unexpectedly. It was a Tuesday afternoon, and I began to feel very ill, my stomach was causing me excruciating pain, but I proceeded through the rest of the school day. After school comes around and I'm doubled over with pain. I had never felt anything like it before. It was so unbearable that I was at the point of tears. Normally, I'd go straight to play rehearsal, but today, I needed to go home right away. I called my mom and she picked me up. She took one look at me and knew I wasn't well. I knew myself, that this was nothing I've experienced before. I had a nasty feeling of what my problem was, appendicitis. It's quite common actually, but it is still frightening. My mom took me straight to the doctor and before I knew it, I was in the Valley Hospital hooked up to IVs. Nurses were ordering an ultra sound already and the attending surgeon was examining my abdomen. He told me it was most likely appendicitis so I hit that diagnosis on the nose. I became extremely frightened at that moment when they told me I needed to have surgery to remove the appendix ASAP. Not even four hours ago I was in school! It all happened so quickly that I had no time to mentally prepare myself for going into surgery. I had forgotten what it felt like to undergo anesthesia, I had forgotten how frightening the whole process was. What if they mess something up? What if I never wake up and never get to see my family again? I was extremely tempted to just decline the surgery even though it was absolutely necessary to receive. I had to muster up a lot of courage to say "Bye, see you when I wake up. I love you guys," to my family. It was a routine surgery but I was still extremely scared. I needed that roar of courage in order to go through with it. And once that courage comes to you, you realize you are able to accomplish things you never thought possible or that seemed too outrageous to experience. But I did it and everything went smoothly. I woke up to see my family standing right at the end of my bed. Sometimes you need that boost of courage to accomplish what is unerring. 

Blog #2: My Scarlet Letter

The letter that I would be wearing, would be an L. This "L" represents lackadaisical because I tend to want to sit back and enjoy life but in life, you need to work in order to reach that enjoyment sometimes but I find myself shying away from work that does not interest me or have any significance to me. Such as my math homework, I always do it but if I am having trouble, I really have to bring myself to go in for extra help because it is not something that appeals to me nor will I need a majority of it later in life. Because of these factors, it is hard for me to bring myself to complete certain tasks that I know will not be of use later on in life.
However there are times where I'm just in a lazy mood and do not want to do any form of work and just relax, give myself a break, and do what I want to do. There is rarely ever a time when I can do that though, because work never stops; something always needs to get done or something could always be improved.

MP 2 Blog #1: How are love and hate alike?

Hate and love are both two very strong emotions. They can be similar in the sense that when you love something, you are in tune with it, you want to be involved in it in a strong way. When you hate something, you do not want to be a part of whatever it may be and you do not care for it in a strong way. They are both used to connect to certain ideas/things but yet can have polar connotations.

#10: News Log- Drug Terms Reduce, Freeing Prisoners

Summary- A new law has been passed by Congress called the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which will reduce sentencing disparity to 18 to 1. This act was passed due to the numerous controversies associated with the thousands of nonviolent criminals who ended up with sentences that were "extreme" and the disparity was viewed as racially tinged as well. When the first drug law was passed, back in 1980, cocaine use and crimes associated with the drug were through the roof. This is apparently due to the turf wars once the drug first hit the streets. Now, over 12,000 inmates will have their sentences cut from 13 years, to an average of 3 years. The main objective of this law is to save money; Michael Nachmanoff states the new rule "will save tens of millions of dollars, and hopefully allow the bureau of prisons to use those beds to house more dangerous people." 

My Opinion?- Personally, I believe this is extremely outrageous. Just because these criminals have not committed a "severe" crime and are not the most "dangerous" people, does not mean they should be released from prison by such a significant difference or even released early at all. Drugs, in my mind, are substances that severely debilitate an individual's ability to cope with society and benefit to it at all for that matter. These people's emotions and actions are completely influenced with drugs, especially cocaine; cocaine is not pot or weed, it is considered the most addictive drug and causes acute euphoria.  Euphoria can cause a person to commit many dangerous actions either towards themselves or to others. Having these people on the streets, whether they've committed a crime or not, is extremely dangerous to society because at any moment, these individuals can snap, due to the effects of drugs on their body. These people benefit very little if anything to society so why should they be let go from prison? Passing this law will risk the safety of those around these drug addicts. I have never heard of one situation where a drug addict, especially one addicted to cocaine, has ever offered any positive influences on society. In fact, they provide negative influences to those around them, creating a more dangerous, pandemonium society. This law, in my opinion, is completely unnecessary and quite honestly, crazy. Yes, I am well aware that it costs the government myriads of money to keep these people in jail, but rather that, than have them roaming the streets, threatening society. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/us/terms-for-crack-cocaine-reduced-freeing-prisoners.html?_r=1&ref=us

#9: Response to News Logs

During our discussion, the movie, A Beautiful Life, was brought up after a news log about the new movie 50/50 was shared. The movie was about a boy who had cancer and his friend was helping him through the grueling process. However, the movie had a positive, optimistic attitude, which is unusual for a movie about a cancer infected teenage boy. The class had mentioned how it was a relief because the normal view taken upon movies where a person is infected with cancer, is severely depressing. Which is why the movie A Beautiful Life was mentioned. I had never seen the movie, but the title did sound familiar to me. From what I gathered from the conversation, the film portrays an Italian family living through the holocaust and typically takes on a depressing mood. However, I heard that it does have light moments mixed into the drama. After this discussion, I am highly interested in watching this film because it seems very intriguing and from what I gathered, it is not your typical holocaust story (the same old depressing story), it does show glimpses of hope and the end is supposedly very touching. Therefore A Beautiful Life, is the film i shall watch when the weekend comes around!