WB 5

Dear English 110 Winter Quarter Class,

The one thing I would say about this class is that you should go in with an open mind. Even though the theme for the quarter was sci-fi, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I found that some of the sci-fi was actually somewhat interesting.

The one tip I would give you for this class is to do your work. When writing your drafts you should write them the first time so you can get comments back to improve your paper. Also, you should keep up on your blog comments. If you get behind, its a pain to catch up later.

I would definitely say that I learned a lot this quarter. I had never analyzed anything like I did in this class. It taught me to look at television shows in more detail and find the hidden meanings behind these things.

The last thing I would say is to have fun with the class. Goodluck!

Farscape

Farscape was exactly the kind of sci-fi that I expected to be watching this entire quarter. It had the space ships, aliens, and a very boring plot (as far as I was concerned). I found myself bored to tears after about 5 minutes of watching the show. I thought it might be interesting for about 2 minutes, and then next thing I know there were a bunch of aliens and I had no clue what was going on. The only part I found even remotely interesting was that first 2 minutes because of the relationship that the father and son seemed to share. He said he was proud of his son and genuinely seemed to care about him. I feel like you don't see that relationship often. After the first 2 minutes I wasn't really sure who were the good guys and who were the bad guys in this show anymore. Naturally, I found myself zoned out about 15 minutes into the show.

Overall Farscape ranks last out of all of the sci-fi that I watched this quarter. I really prefer the sci-fi that involves vampires it seems. I guess that's because I'm such a big twilight fan. I think Farscape was a lot different than all the other shows we watched. I expected it to be a lot like either BSG or Star Trek but I think it had little in common. I feel like the only thing it had in common with BSG was that the aliens were the bad guys. This show definitely did not even compare to my favorite show from this quarter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

STNG

I thought the episode "A Measure of a Man" was very interesting. It debated what made you human. I thought this episode had a very good message. When looking at the world, a lot of people are treated as if they are not human; they have no rights as a person and can not choose for themselves. I thought the ruling at the end of the episode where they said that he had the right to choose was very fitting. They said that he can feel and is aware of everything going on around him therefore he should be able to choose. I think that this should be applied across the world and everyone should be given the right to choose what they want.
When I looked at this episode verses the episode of the original Star Trek I watched I found some similarites and differences. First, the ship, the Enterprise, was in both. Also, both the episodes try to be very futuristic. One of the differences between the episodes I watched was who the conflicts were between. In the original episode, the crew was dealing with aliens that were from another planet and in Next Generation they were dealing with an internal conflict. Also, there seemed to be ships other than the Enterprise in the show.

Star Trek

I watched season 3 episode 1 of Star Trek. In this episode the Enterprise goes and lands on a planet even though Kirk was warned against it. When they land they find that they have been transported to a town from the past and they are now characters in a reenactment of a gun fight. The crew tries to prevent the fight and Chekov is killed. Spock finally realizes that nothing in this town is real and convinces everyone else of this. After everyone is convinced, history replays its self but the bullets have no affect this time. After everything is over the entire crew, including Chekov, returns to the Enterprise. Here they are confronted by Earps who says that he has gained a new respect for the Federation since they spared his life.

I think Star Trek is very different than anything we have watched before for the most part. As an older show, I think it has some different goals. Star Trek is more what I think of when I think scfy. It got the aliens and space ships and stuff like that. Also, it seems to try to be very futuristic, but almost in a cheesy way. Every other scfy episode we watched was more modern and relatable. The only thing similar to Star Trek would be Firefly, and even that was very different. It had a space ship with a captain but that seems to be the only way it relates. I feel like Star Trek didn't really have much of a message to the viewer and that it was really directed towards relating to life. I definitely prefer the other scfy shows, such as Buffy, to this because I can relate them back to my own life easier.

BSG Miniseries

This was not at all what I was expecting. I thought this show would be somewhat similar to Star trek, but I was definitely wrong. The entire show didn't take place in space as I expected it to. Instead it took place on what I believe was planet earth. There were no space monsters per say, just normal humans for the most part. Even the cylons were in human form.
I thought there were several very interesting things about this show. The first was when number 6 killed the baby. I didn't quite understand why she did this, and I thought it was unnecessary and that it was also very disturbing. The second thing that I thought was interesting was number 6 and her power over men. She seemed very manipulative. I think this was a good portrayal of many women in the real world, because they can often have this affect on men, but the sex scenes were definitely not needed either. The next thing that I thought was interesting was the cylons attack on the planet. This seemed very similar to 9/11 to me. No one was expecting it and they didn't know what to do. Everything was pure chaos when the attack started. I think the people on this ship handled the attack very well though. They seemed to stay very calm and cool headed.
Overall, I thought this miniseries what pretty good, but that was probably just because I thought I was going to hate it. I don't think I would mind finishing this or maybe even watching another episode some time.

The Road Not Taken

http://www.bartleby.com/104/67.html

The Road Not Taken was written by Robert Frost in 1875. This is one of my favorite poems of all times. This poem talks about the different paths that can be taken in life. The first stanza talks about wanting to take both paths, but not being able to. The traveler stood and looked down both paths to see a far as they could down them. The next stanza talks about finally taking one of the two paths. The traveler picked the grassier of the two paths because it had the least travel. In the travels they decide that the paths are worn "really about the same". The third stanza talks about "leaves no step had trodden black". This is once again saying that no one has taken that path for quite a while. He then goes on to say that maybe he'll take the other path someday, but because decisions that are made about life are building blocks for everything else that will happen, he doubts he will ever come back to take the other path. The last stanza starts with, "I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence". This entire last stanza talks about what he will say about the path he took in the future. We don't know if that sigh is a sigh of relief or regret, because he does not yet know. He has yet to live the path he chose, but when he tells this story, he will tell everyone he took the road less traveled by and that it has made all the difference.

Normal Again

I thought this episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was by far the most interesting one that I have seen yet. In this episode Buffy was presented with a huge conflict. She had to decide what was real and what wasn't. There were two realities that she could choose from. The first, was that she was the vampire slayer and Sunnydale was real. The second option, was that Buffy was a patient in a mental institution who made Sunnydale and being a slayer up. Both of these options were very tempting for her. In the first, there was everything she knew and believed to be real. After 6 years of this life it is hard to turn away and believe that it isn't real. In the second reality, Buffy's parents were both there. This really made Buffy struggle with her decision because she had not seen both of her parents together in a very long time. Buffy then makes the decision to get rid of her friends in Sunnydale so she wouldn't be tempted to go back to that world. After almost killing her friends, Buffy finally realizes which world she wants to live in. In the end she chooses Sunnydale over her parents and sets her friends free. I think that any person woud have made the same decision that Buffy made because it is what they know and what they are comfortable with.

One Tree Hill

One Tree Hill is probably my favorite show. I have been watching it since the first episode and it is now in season 7. The show started out focussing on two half brothers, Nathan and Lucas, through their high school years. Their relationship evolves from the two being heartless enemies to caring brothers. The basketball drama and all the relationships in the series create a very interesting drama show. After the first 4 seasons, the series skips ahead 4 years and shows the lives of all the characters after they have gone to college. Then in season 7 the series skips another year forward. In season 7 two of the main characters, Peyton and Lucas, left the show. Now the show focuses more on Nathan and the rest of the gang from high school who has now all returned to One Tree Hill. Even though 2 of the main characters are gone, it is still a great show. There are always new plot twists that keep the viewer guessing what will happen next. It has always kept me on my toes and kept me interested which is why I like this show so much.

commonplace paper problem

The problem with my paper is that I don't know where to start. I have a paragraph explaining the show Next by MTV and I'm not sure if I should start with this or if I should introduce my topic more first. I want to talk about how magazines and television degrade men and women and how people try to change themselves to be like those people they see. This can cause serious health issues.
Another problem I'm having is where to put Buffy back into my paper. I seem to base a lot of it on the show Next and I'm not sure where buffy fits into my paper anymore.

Commonplace Proposal

For my commonplace paper I am thinking about writing about how guys want the kind of girls that they see in magazines. They have this idea in their heads about the perfect girl, and they won't except anything less. Instead of guys liking a nice girl, they would rather lust after an unobtainable girl. Girls should not have to change their bodies to look like the girls in the magazines to get a guys attention. You see tv shows like MTV's Next, where a guy can look at a girl and simply say next, and another girl will come out for a date with him. This is degrading to women, because this is based purely on looks. If the guy would have stopped to have a conversation with the girl he may have found that she was very smart and had a great sense of humor. I want to relate this back to my analytical research paper by using supporting evidence from my episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Xander's lust for Buffy supports my thesis that guys want what they can't have and have an idea of the ideal woman that they want.

Non-Intigrated Quotes

Here's a paragraph from my paper:

The external sabotage of the relationship comes from other girls most of the time. Jealously is a major concept in high school relationships, and it has ruined many before they even get started. As stated in aggression and adaptation: the bright side to bad behavior, “social aggression among some girls may emerge as a function of increased feelings of competitiveness towards other girls-particularly for the attention of males- during the transition to heterosexual relationships in adolescence”(Hawley 160). Jealousy can also have a sort of “domino effect”; meaning that if one girl ruins a relationship between two other people, the girl in the relationship that was ruined will most likely want to seek revenge. “Their competitive strategies in this regard include the humiliation of other girls, the collection of boys who admire and worship them, and managing their image with others so as to be perceived as successful in the social realm” (163). This can be an endless cycle with no clear winner.

Problems with My Paper

One of the problems I'm having with my paper is just the introduction. Yesterday in class I came up with part of an introduction that said, "Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a great portrayal of the typical high school relationship. The episode, "When She Went Bad", shows the viewer, by using metaphors such as vampires, all the different kinds of tihngs that ruin high school relationships such as the one between Xander and Willow." I want to talk about internal and external conflicts in my paper but I'm not quite sure how to add that in to the introduction.

Another problem that I'm having is length. I'm not sure how to make my paper 7-8 pages long without repeating myself and adding irrelevant information. I think if I find another source and add it into my paper it might help a little bit with this issue. I haven't had much time to revise my paper yet, but once I work on it more I think most of my other problems will be solved.

Axe

This was the first Axe ad that I looked at. It shows a man and a woman on top of a wedding cake with several women trying to climb up to the top. The man is wearing the Axe and every other girl wants him even though he is married. This ad, I believe, is sending a negative message to the public. Although the point of the ad is to say that Axe will attract women, it is saying that no one is off limits. People could look at this the wrong way and be turned off by this ad. Married men should not be included like they are in this ad. I believe that in a way this could be promoting adultry because not only is the man married, but all the women that are climbing the wedding cake are in white dresses. This shows that they are also married. I believe this ad could turn off married men to the product because they do not want that kind of attention from girls other than their wives.



This is the next Axe add that I looked at. I believe this is a better ad than the first one that I looked at for this product. It uses the can of Axe and a story where they took a bunch of words out of it and wrapped them around the can. The words that they used to put up next to the can were names of many different girls. By wrapping the names around teh can of Axe they are associating all of them with the can of Axe. It's saying that if you use the product all of those girls would be attracted to you. The names being wrapped around the can represents all of the girls being "wrapped around your finger", as the saying goes. This could be saying that girls would do anything for a guy wearing Axe. This is a good add because it uses this picture and incorporates the words with it.

The World's Greatest

The song The World's Greatest, by R Kelly, is probably one of my favorite songs. I had never even heard the song before about April of this past year, but once I heard it once, I was hooked. Seeing as I was about to graduate at this time, it really seemed to apply to my life. With lyrics like, "Im that star up in the sky, I'm that mountain peak up high, Hey I made it, I'm the world's greatest" it really seemed to be about my life. Graduating from high school is a big accomplishment and a huge step in life. The song also applies to the next step that we take in life, whether its college, the armed forces, or starting in the work force, the lyrics, "I'm that little bit of hope, when my back's against the ropes" are very motivational. I think that these lyrics apply to the people that you have in your life. They can give you hope and strength when you're going through hard times, like adjusting to something brand new, like college. I can really relate to this song because I am going through a new experience like this. I'm in a brand new place, with all new people and I'm trying to adjust to everything. This song makes me remember that when I'm going through hard times I can't give up and that people are always there to help me through those times.

The Princess Screamed Once

I think that it is very interesting that in this episode Buffy assumes that she is the hero. When Giles says that the monsters were killed when the princess screamed once, Buffy automatically wrote, "How do I get my voice back?" (Wilcox 148). She knows that because she is the slayer, this is her responsibility. I really like that the girl is always the hero in this series, and this episode reinforces that even more. By saying that the princess defeats the monsters, it is empowering girls. The only thing that I think would be even more interesting is if there were other girls that could possibly be the princess. This would show that one girl does not always have to save the world. It would send the message that it could be any girl, and not just a vampire slayer. Basically, I think it would send the message that you don't have to do something big to save the world.

Is It Art?

I think it is very interesting how old television shows that the younger generation would never watch can have so much affect on the newer television shows. The Yellow Submarine has a very similar plot to the episode of "Hush" in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The only difference is that the monster in The Yellow Submarine is something called a blue meanie instead of a vampire. Another difference is how it was made. In Buffy, they use airbrush and a warping program to make the effects seem real and almost somewhat believable. The Yellow Submarine on the other hand, "can at times be weak as it relates to animation, with too many stills and many grainy, jumpy movements" (Moeller 100). So the only difference between these two shows seem to be the change of characters and the newer effects. I think its very interesting that those two things can make this episode appeal to the younger generation of viewers.

Grimm Realities

The article, Grimm Realities, focuses on the vulnerability of children. The article shows how in three different episodes, children were being killed. All of the episodes centered around fairytales. This seems like a strange thing to center the episode around because we think of fairytales as stories with happy endings for the children. In these episodes teenagers were, "left isolated and vulnerable to forces beyond their control " (Bridges 99). Even though the episodes were not all about little kids, it shows how teenagers are still kids. In the episode "Killed by Death" Buffy was shown as a kid again. I liked how this episode showed Buffy as a kid, because I think everyone feels very vulnerable when they are sick. Everyone wants to be taken care of when they are sick just like they were when they were little kids.

Hush

I thought that the one of the most important scenes in the episode "Hush" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was when Buffy and Riley both showed up to fight the Gentlemen and saw each other. Both of them had been lying to each other because they both live double lives. Buffy is the vampire slayer, while Riley works for a secret government program made to fight demons. The relationship between the two of them had not progressed very far because they were both keeping things from the other. Neither of them could tell the other the truth, despite the fact that they both really wanted to. They had a deep connection that you can feel in the opening scene of this episode, but it led nowhere for the two of them. In this scene the two fought the Gentlemen side by side and realized that they both had been keeping secrets from each other. At the end of this episode the two sit down to discuss what had just happened. I think that now that they know about the other's secret they can move forward in their relationship. This goes to show that relationships are based on honesty, and that you can't have a working relationship when someone is hiding something about themself.

Free Writing 2

In a high school setting, relationships are everywhere. Whether they are bonds of friendship or romantic bonds, they are all complicated, and they always seem to be changing. The show Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a great portrayal of your typical high school relationship. Xander and Willow are hanging out and are about to share their first kiss; a vampire appears and tries to kill them, and then Buffy shows up out of no where and slays vampire. Sounds like a typical high school relationship, right? Well, almost. Think of it this way, Xander and Willow are actually two best friends, the vampire is the rest of the world and a few unconscious thoughts, and Buffy is their best friend. No one knows it, but Xander and Willow have this thing for each other. Xander is finally about to make the first move that he has been so nervous to make, when all of a sudden this vampire appears and ruins the moment. Xander and Willow try and act like nothing was happening after Buffy shows up and slays the vampire. The only difference between this scene and high school is that it's not really a real vampire.

The vampire is just the metaphor used in the show. The vampire can represent a million different things when we look at high school relationships. First, there are all the unconscious thoughts that both the boy and girl have going in to a relationship, or even when asking the other out for the first time. They're always wondering, "does she like me?", "will this work out?", "what if he says no?", and many other questions to that effect. Not only are both of them thinking about the others reaction, but also what everyone else will think. Will they approve? What will they say? All of these things are going through a teenagers mind and sometimes they're just not sure what to do, which leads me to the next thing that this vampire can represent, sabotage of the relationship. I believe there can be internal and external sabotage in a relationship. Internal sabotage occurs when the teen gives in to peer pressure. They don't want to be the new object of gossip at school, so they make sure that the relationship never develops into anything more than innocent flirting. The external sabotage of the relationship comes from other girls most of the time. Jealously is a major concept in high school relationships, and it has ruined many before they even get started. As stated in aggression and adaption: the bright side to bad behavior, "social aggression among some girls may emerge as a function of increased feelings of competitiveness towards other girls-particularly for the attention of males- during the transition to heterosexual relationships in adolescence."

As you can see, the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer really is a true portrayal of a high school relationship. The metaphors used can be related back to everyday life in high school. See, there really are vampires ruining relationships in high school.

Works Cited

Hawley, Patricia. Little, Todd. Rodkin, Philip. Aggression and adaption: the bright side to bad behavior. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence erlbaum associates, 2007.

Free Writing 1

In a high school setting, relationships are everywhere. Whether they are bonds of friendship or romantic bonds, they are all complicated, and they always seem to be changing. The show Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a great portrayal of your typical high school relationship. Xander and Willow are hanging out and are about to share their first kiss; a vampire appears and tries to kill them, and then Buffy shows up out of no where and slays vampire. Sounds like a typical high school relationship, right? Well, almost. Think of it this way, Xander and Willow are actually two best friends, the vampire is the rest of the world and a few unconscious thoughts, and Buffy is their best friend. No one knows it, but Xander and Willow have this thing for each other. Xander is finally about to make the first move that he has been so nervous to make, when all of a sudden this vampire appears and ruins the moment. Xander and Willow try and act like nothing was happening after Buffy shows up and slays the vampire. The only difference between this scene and high school is that it's not really a real vampire.
The vampire is just the metaphor used in the show. The vampire can represent a million different things when we look at high school relationships. First, there are all the unconscious thoughts that both the boy and girl have going in to a relationship, or even when asking the other out for the first time. They're always wondering, "does she like me?", "will this work out?", "what if he says no?", and many other questions to that effect. Not only are both of them thinking about the others reaction, but also what everyone else will think. Will they approve? What will they say? All of these things are going through a teenagers mind and sometimes they're just not sure what to do, which leads me to the next thing that this vampire can represent, sabotage of the relationship. I believe there can be internal and external sabotage in a relationship. Internal sabotage occurs when the teen gives in to peer pressure. They don't want to be the new object of gossip at school, so they make sure that the relationship never develops into anything more than innocent flirting. The external sabotage of the relationship comes from other girls most of the time. Jealously is a major concept in high school relationships, and it has ruined many before they even get started.
As you can see, the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer really is a true portrayal of a high school relationship. The metaphors used can be related back to everyday life in high school. See, there really are vampires ruining relationships in high school.

The Nobel Peace Prize

I was shocked when it was first announced that President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. I would have to say that I was not the only person who was caught a little off guard by this decision. After discussing it with several people I decided this would be an interesting topic to blog on in order to see what everyone else thought about this. I decided to do a little research on the topic and found some even more interesting things about it.

First, nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize had to be postmarked by February 1, 2009. This was only 12 days after Obama took office! How can you nominate someone who has yet to make an impact on anything in our country, let alone the world? The next thing that caused this to be a shock, was that Obama was not even mentioned in the front runners for this award. Both of these things make me stop and wonder about the decision that was made. I also found the committee's reasons for choosing Obama surprising. The committee said it honored Obama for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future." Jagland said the decision was "unanimous" and came with ease.

Not only was I shocked, but Obama himself was shocked when he found out that he had won the award. Obama is the 4th president, and 3rd sitting president to win this award, but the fact that it came so early in his term makes me question the committee's decision.

My Desk

The place that I seem to spend most of my time seemed like the best thing to write about. My desk is very cluttered, but that's just the way I like things. I like being surrounded by pictures. There are so many pictures on my desk, but they all remind me of home. My desk represent all the things that I like. I have an Ohio State notepad because I'm at Ohio State and I'm a huge football fan. The One Tree Hill Poster is on my desk because that is probably my favorite show to watch. I also have some books on my desk that I brought just to read for fun, if I ever get around to reading them. I also have a pink K representing my name and one of my favorite colors. The next item on my desk is my desk lamp. Not only is this a lamp, but it also hold things like pens, pencils and scissors. I also have a printer on my desk, but it serves no purpose at the moment because no one can seem to get it to work. Finally, I have my computer. This is the most important thing on my desk just because it is so useful. I can do lots of things on it.

Even with all the decorations on my desk, it still serves a purpose. Actually, I believe my desk serves a few purposes. The first being studying. Most of the time, I prefer just to sit at my desk and study because most of my homework requires the internet. Another purpose served by my desk is to entertain. Although I should by studying, most of the time I end up surfing the web and checking my facebook page. This is probably how my desk is used most of the time. The last reason that I like my desk so much is that it feels like home. My room was always covered in pictures, so my desk is the closet thing to that. My desk makes my dorm feel more like home.

Primary Source 2

For my second primary source option I watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "The Witch". In this episode, we learn about the pressure that parents can put on their children. In this case, Amy's mother wants her to become a cheerleader just like she was. Her mother was trying to live through her daughter which we see a lot in high school by parents. Her mother went so far as to switch bodies with her daughter through witchcraft to live out her high school career again. After she switched bodies, she tried to kill to get on the cheerleading squad. This is an example of high school today. Teens are so pressured that they would do almost anything to be accepted. This is true in almost every high school. I think this would be an ok subject to write a paper on, but I would have to expand on this topic a lot.

Primary Source 1

For my first source option I watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "When She was Bad". This episode seemed to focus on relationships. There were relationships between Xander and Willow, Xander and Buffy, Buffy and Angel and finally the relationship between the three friends, Willow, Xander and Buffy. The relationship between Xander and Willow was more hidden than any of the others. It seemed that they had a love/hate, relationship. In the first scene we see these two about to kiss when all of the sudden a vampire comes along and ruins their moment. Later in the episode we have almost the same situation between Xander and Willlow and nothing like that happens between the two of them. The next relationship is between Buffy and Xander. This relationship is very obvious, because Xander is so attracted to Buffy, yet Buffy has absolutely no interest in Xander. The only time that this relationship seems to change is when Buffy and Angel's relationship comes into play. Buffy and Angel obviously have a thing for each other, but Buffy is angry at Angel and wants to make him jealous. This is when Buffy and Xander's relationship changes. She comes onto him at the club in front of Angel to prove to Angel that she really has moved on. This scene makes it obvious that Buffy is not over Angel yet. All of this conflict between Buffy and Angel causes a lot of tension for everyone. Willow becomes very angry at Buffy for leading Xander on like that, and also because she has hidden feelings for Xander. This puts a strain on the relationship between Buffy, Xander and Willow. There's also a lot more to their relationships in this episode, but I'm trying to decide if this is a good topic to write about for my paper. Anyone have any thoughts on this topic?

"But she was naked"

The article "But she was naked" was very interesting. I had never thought about how much of a role seduction can play in some things. Seduction seems to be a very prominent theme in Firefly. It is used both positively and negatively in this series. We can see the affects it has on the characters in the different episodes. It makes women very powerful. Be seducing men, women can seem to get whatever they want out of them. In the last episode I watched, it was used to sabotage the ship and hurt the crew. The new Mrs. Reynolds fooled everyone into believing that she was just an innocent girl. This is just an example of the things that seduction can do.

Our Mrs. Reynolds

The episode of Firefly, "Our Mrs. Reynolds", had many interesting scenes with implicit meanings, but I want to take a closer look at the bedroom scene. In this scene, Mr. Reynolds walks into his bedroom to find his new wife lying in bed completely naked. They had just married and Mr. Reynolds had no intention of keeping her as his wife and had told her such; yet, you have this young, innocent girl lying in his bed. This seems a little odd, even if she is just trying to please her new husband. What is the point of giving herself to this man if she will no longer be with him in just a few short days? Shouldn't she wait til she arrives at her destination to find a new husband who wants to be with her? These were the first things that I thought of when this was happening. A girl like this should have been terrified, but instead she seemed very eager, almost too eager. When Mr. Reynolds told her that it was morrally wrong and that he wouldn't do it, she became even more aggressive. She got up out of the bed and went over to Mr. Reynolds and was trying to persuade him. Mr. Reynolds finally gave in and started kissing his new wife. This is when the scene gets even more interesting; while kissing her, Mr. Reynolds steps back, says "that was interesting", and falls to the ground. His new wife had just poisoned him with her lips. This part is very ironic; just when Mr. Reynolds gives in to his new wife and goes against his morals, he gets poisoned. Could the writer possibly be trying to tell the viewer something here?

High School is Hell

The article, "High School is Hell", shows how the show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, uses metaphors to relate the show to things that affect us in the real world. All the metaphors in the show relate to how teenagers feel in high school and the challenges that they face. After I watched the show the first time, I didn't pick up on any of these metaphors that were explained in the article. I did think it was ironic that during the show, even though Buffy is always fighting the demons and vampires, she makes going to high school look harder. There are so many social issues in high school that she just doesn't have to deal with when she is fighting the bad guys. This article shows the viewers that going to high school isn't easy, but if Buffy can do it, so can they.

Buffy's Beginnings

Last night I watched the pilot episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The pilot episode is about Buffy realizing who she is and what she was born to do. After moving to a new school, Buffy just wants to be a normal teenager. Even though she was chosen as the "vampire slayer", she tries to run from her destiny. She tells the librarian, who knows who she is, that she just isn't interested in being a slayer anymore. As the episode progresses, Buffy starts to realize that she can't just stop being the slayer that she was born to be. The most interesting part of this episode is when Buffy goes to a club with the other kids from her high school, and runs into the librarian again who tells her to point out the vampires in the club. Buffy immediately points out the vampire who is talking to her new friend, Willow. When Willow leaves the club with the vampire, Buffy realizes what she has to do. This is when Buffy's protective nature comes out. She immediately starts searching for Willow. When she finds Willow, she ushers all the students out of immediate danger by putting herself between the vampires and the students. She then risks her life to save them. This part of the episode is very important because Buffy finally realizes that she can't run from this job, and that it will always be a part of her life.

Magazines for Teens

When I stand in the checkout line at the supermarket, I always pass my time by grabbing a magazine. As I skim through the titles, I always seem to grab the same type of magazines. I always find myself reading and rereading the latest Seventeen or Cosmo Girl Magazines. As a reader, I always seem to gravitate toward a certain kind of material. Seventeen and Cosmo Girl Magazines are probably two of my favorite magazines to read. The reason I always pick them isn’t because of who’s on the cover, what cute clothes they are showing me this month or what coupons they could possibly have inside of them, it’s the content that they offer the reader. These magazines have my favorite type of articles in them, true life stories. The stories are written about teenagers, for teenagers. As a reader, I can often relate the stories back to something in my own life, which is why I like them so much. They show you that it’s possible to do things like cope with pressure being put on you from your parents, teachers and coaches. Even the articles that I can’t relate to my life are very informative and useful. I can always learn something new from them. These magazines cover topics like teen depression, sex, hazing, bullying, eating disorders, being a college freshman and many, many other things as well. Not only are the articles informative, but they also make me feel very fortunate to have never had to deal with these types of things when I was growing up. I would have to recommend that teenage girls read these magazines so they can learn the same things I have learned from them.

Serenity

I finally made myself watch the episode of Serenity today. I was dreading this assignment all weekend and put it off as long as i could. When I finally did start watching it today, after the first 15 minutes or so, I knew I would be completely bored with the episode. After about 40 minutes, this didn't seem to be the case anymore. It wasn't the kind of sci-fi that I expected. As more character were introduced, the plot thickened and I found it a little more enjoyable.

My favorite part in this episode was probably the climax of the episode. The mole was discovered on the ship, and then the doctor's sister was found in the container he brought on board. I thought this was the most interesting part of the episode because everything kind of fell into place once this happened. The reason for the mole was explained and the episode seemed to gain momentum. After this happened I found that I enjoyed the episode. I believe that after watching the first episode, I wouldn't mind watching another.

All About Me

My name is Kristina Marion and I'm a freshmen at The Ohio State University majoring in chemical engineering. I'm also in the Mount Leadership Society Scholars program here at Ohio State. My hometown is Tipp City, Ohio, which is about 20 minutes north of Dayton. I graduated from Bethel High School where I played varisty soccer for 4 years, was in the National Honor Society for 3 years and vice president for 1 of those years, was on the newspaper staff for 4 years and also ran track for 3 years. My favorite color is purple, my favorite sport to play is soccer and my favorite sport to watch is Ohio State football. I like pretty much like all music except rap, but I'd have to say my favorite it pop or country and I love Taylor Swift and Yellowcard.