Group 10 Project Story Changes Blog

In my group project the story we chose was Sean’s story of how he needed to pass a math class in order to obtain acceptance into a University. We chose this particular story out of everyone else’s because it was the only story to was well correlated with that of the Hero’s Journey. Even although it was well correlated with that of the Hero’s Journey there is still much room for a number of changes in a variety of ways. Originally, our group had decided that this short story was going to be coherent with the genre of Drama and Comedy. Recently, we have decided it would be best to change this instead to the genre of Satire. The category of Satire is much more suitable, there are so many things that occur in this story that are both dramatic and humorous. With the villain being named Mr. Adolf, and the mentor’s name is Mr. Aristotle. Our main character John has a long journey ahead of him in order to get his math credit, that will ensure his acceptance into a University. One of the main things we want to change about this story is how main character John has no other options but to take the horrible villainous math teacher Mr. Adolf. Seeing how that would have a much more realistic emphasis on the story because within every college there are a number of different teachers that teach just one common subject. Our decision to emphasize this even more is to convey how he unluckily signed up for classes too late, and all the good teachers for liberal arts math filled up fast. As soon as John looks up on the website ratemyprofessor.com; he realizes waiting until last minute to sign up for classes was his biggest mistake of all. The website will reveal to him how the teacher he had no choice but too pick was down right horrible, with a rating of negative 5 on the rate professor scale. That particular rating for a professor could not get any lower. John will have no choice but to bite the bullet and take this god awful teacher. Personally I think we should make Mr. Adolf even more cruel, providing more twisted sick jokes to ridicule John. Another thing I believe we should change is to make the girlfriend Sarah come up with more plans with John, before dumping him on the spot. Making it even more of a bigger let down for John when she dumps him; indicating more in depth to how she’s the Shapeshifter in the story. Also could heighten the audiences empathy for John, after he receives an F on his mid-term exam. I think she should come up with a plan to live with him the following semester and they should go looking for apartments and what not to pick out when they go to the University together. These things are all the things I would personally like to change in the story.

Television Show Character bio Thirteen from show "House"

Thirteen is a character on the hit television show “House,” she is one of many doctors temporarily hired by House with the intention of gradually screening them out. Her real name is Dr. Remy Hadley, she is called Thirteen because all the candidates were originally given numbers. She is around 25 or 26 years old, born on March 10, 1984 in New York City. She has long wavy brown hair and blue eyes. Often seen as mysterious too many people. One of the things which originally made Thirteen interesting to House was the sheer limited amount of information she gives out about herself, so he began trying to find out as much as he possibly could. In one episode she got distracted and failed to give a patient his pills, resulting in both his death and the death of his service dog, who ate the pills off the floor. House fired the rest of her team, but kept her, arguing that she would never make such a mistake again. In another episode he figured out that she is the only one on the team who drinks decaffeinated coffee, and he replaced all her coffee with regular. Thirteen then had an overreaction to her resulting clumsiness, and House found out from her, that her mother died of Huntington's chorea, a hereditary disease with the early symptom of physical clumsiness. Thirteen did not deal well with the knowledge that she might have Huntington's at all. She refused to get tested by anyone, and when House tested her without her knowledge in the episode called "You Don't Want to Know," she refused to look at the results. She believed that by not knowing, she was giving herself the courage to do things she would never have been able to do otherwise. However in the episode titled "Wilson's Heart," the death of Amber, another young female physician, led her to self-test. The result was positive: she has Huntington's just like her mother had, turns out it was genetic after all. In "Lucky Thirteen," Thirteen is on a destructive downward spiral. Confirming that she’s bisexual, she's found partying with a girl whose name she doesn't know. The girl begins to have seizures, and so Thirteen has the girl brought to Princeton-Plainsboro. During this episode, Dr.Cuddy demands that Thirteen take a drug test after finding her giving herself fluids via an IV to deal with her hangover. House saves her from having to take the drug test, but fires her instead. By the end of the show, Thirteen is rehired by House who was only toying with her emotions. The episode closes with Thirteen continuing with her destructive habits and partying with another woman. In the latest episode with Thirteen titled “Help Me”, she requests to leave for personal reasons. There’s a scene in this episode where she is seen holding a drink and her hand is violently shaking. Indicating that Thirteens disease of Huntington’s is slowly effecting her motor skills as it progresses.

Premise for the film "With out"

After viewing the film “Without” I have came to conclude that this film could have a variety of different premises. I would say one of which could be blind trust leads to destruction, because the family left the house with that teenage girl trusting her to do everything proper and to take care of the old man. However, she abused their trust by doing things that were inappropriate. Another premise could be how great love defies even death, because the main character was sort of mourning over how her friend committed suicide because she was unhappy. Still, beyond those two premises I’ve came up with I would say many scenes in this film raised a number of questions too me that were left a little bit unanswered. For example, the scene where the main character has her male friend over and they drink, and he starts putting moves on her but she kicks him out. Then there was the other guy that she went on a date with that was apparently going out with the girl who worked at the coffee shop. On top of the old videos the main character had with her friend on her phone, when she was commenting on how she loved her breasts. I found myself asking was this girl lesbian or straight? how did the girl from the coffee shop know she went on a date with that guy? who was the other guy that came over that night and put moves on her? There was also a scene where she looked in the mirror and saw a strange scar on her back. Which had me asking myself how did she get that scar? One scene that really got my mind altered was when she had the dream of the old man being perfectly normal and eating breakfast when she woke up. Regardless of all of these unanswered questions I still found the film to be quite enjoyable and it did have some meaning about love and death. I noticed that the main characters attitude and mood changed drastically after she had visited the mother of her friend that had committed suicide. Shortly afterward, she is confronted by the girl from the coffee shop and slightly beaten. Then soon after that the family returns home outraged by the minor things the main character forgot to do. I can definitely understand at the end why she just starts bawling, all of these instances combined I think would be overwhelming for anyone. From seeing the mother of her dead friend, too being nearly attacked by someone she barely knows, then getting an unpleasant lecture from the family’s house she was watching. Despite all of these things I personally think that she was just conflicted without love, whether she was lesbian with that girl who committed suicide or not. She in my opinion felt that no one would fill the void of that girl she was close with that killed herself. Great love can defy even death.

Blog: Why a hero should have a character arc to be compelling.

I would have to say I agree with Volger on this statement for a variety of different reasons. One of which is because a good hero with in a story must be compelling to the audience as a whole. Whether it be the readers of a novel or the viewers of a film. For example, in the film “Seven” Morgan Freeman’s character of Detective Somerset evoked a lot of interest. Mostly because of his philosophy on life; on how it is a cruel world we live in. He could even be seen as a mentor that was evolved into a hero; when he try’s to reconcile with Detective Mills on why he shouldn’t kill Jon Doe for killing his wife. I think another contributing factor in making a hero compelling is showing that they have weaknesses just like anyone else. This way they are seen more like normal people; because the audience can relate to them more. For example, in Erin Brockovich, she was a single mom of two children who was jobless. Yet, she turns out to be the hero by the end of the film, when she takes down that company for poisoning water. I believe this lets audiences know that heros can be anyone, even the most unlikely people like a single out of job mom. Each one of these characters mentioned also have mentors that help them a long their journey. Erin Brockovich has her boss Ed Masry helping her battle out the company that is polluting the water. Detective Mills has Detective Somerset to guide him in catching the seven deadly sin serial killer Jon Doe. I feel that both Erin and Mills were very hard headed about thinks, whereas their mentors weren’t. Regardless, I feel that Erin was more successful with abiding by Ed Masry’s advice than Mills was to Somerset. Mills refused to listen to Somerset out of anger because Doe had murdered his wife. I believe the mentors to these heroes are another special factor in making heroes more compelling. Because, whether it be in a film or in a novel every hero has some sort of guide to achieve their goal. Someone who teaches them significant ways to obtain it. Though a lot tend to succeed like Erin Brockovich did, some still manage to be unsuccessful. I feel that Detective Mills would have been the better person if he hadn’t done what Doe wanted him to do in killing him. Applying the sin of wrath; instead of listening to Detective Somerset’s advice. Still whether the heroes succeed in obtaining their goals are not; they should always be compelling to the audience. Because if they weren’t they wouldn’t be able to relate to it or like it as much. Which is why in my opinion the main character should always have a mentor and decent background that provides him or her with foundation. No one would be intrigued in a character who is dull and doesn’t have a character arc take place.

Critique of a Story Pitch

I enjoyed the majority of all of these oral stories for the most part. However, one in particular really grabbed my attention and that was Jen Lugo’s story on how a team mate on her cheerleading squad quit on them because they didn’t win anything for many years, and continued to lose. That character in her story I believe learned the hard way to never give up on something or you could loose your chance to obtain it. She wanted to give up because she was being a soar loser, and in my opinion karma bit her in the ass in the end. Jen stated how her coach said it was her moment to shine and how they practiced a routine, went to nationals and won their competition. Her story really reminded me of the comedy movie “Bring it on” made back in 2000 because of it’s reconciliation with the subject matter of cheerleading. Though I thought this story was really good because it conveyed symbolic material within it on how to not give up on your dreams. There were some things I still would have changed or if anything elaborated on. For example, the girl who quit and wrote a nasty letter to the coach and team on why she did. I feel like her true purpose could have been something more than just because she didn’t win any awards on her team from cheerleading. Maybe she wanted to try something different with her life and was forced into cheerleading by her parents, or maybe she got hurt at a practice one day. Either way I just really felt this character played a key role in Jen’s story. I also wanted to hear a comment on her reaction when she found out the former cheerleading team that she quit on that year won their national competition. I feel that maybe, it could have been Jen all along that should have taken that role of being thrown into the air during their competitions and what not. When I really sat down to think about it I thought that if this girl had been on the squad for years, shouldn’t she have developed better skills for her competitions? Maybe I’m just thinking too much into this story but I just feel like it was really ironic on how the year she quit’s and is being a soar loser, her team goes off to nationals and wins first place in their league. Then again they could have had a new coach, or new team members along with a new routine. All of which again are some other thing’s in this story I feel should have been more elaborated on for the sake of her audience. Still, this story provided the audience with a lesson to never give up on yourself or your team to achieve a goal. It could just come back to bite you in the ass like it did with the girl who quit on her squad in this story.

Assignment 2 (Something I regret)

There are a number of things that I regreat from my past, but there is one in particular that I regret above all else, even although I felt it had a purpose. The action that I committed and regretted took place a long time ago. Way back when I was either a freshman or sophmore in highschool. I have a litter sister named Jenny and she was in middle school at the time. I have a close relationship with my sister, and I remember her coming home from school at the begining of the year telling me how she had a crush on a boy named Jason. After I heard this, I felt some what protective over her. Knowing how guys can be with girls in relationships. Based on my past experience, I told her to play it cool and just be a good friend of his. A month went by and she became close with him and his group of friends in that short amount of time. My sister Jenny would continuously come home and say how much she wanted to be his girlfriend and how much she loved him. I told her “Your way too young to understand what love is, but you will learn from your experiences with relationships”. She then asked me how she could become his girlfriend, and I told her to talk to him in private and let him know her feelings for him. The next day she did just that and luckily for her, he had feelings for her as well. They started going out, I got introduced to him and he was a nice kid. They were together for months and as time went on, I noticed a change in Jenny’s mood when she would come home from school. She would come home upset that Jason wasn’t paying enough attention to her. A week later she came home bawling her eyes out because he had dumped her. I felt so bad because not only had he dumped her, he had dumped her for another girl, and turned his friends against her as well. She told me how he had called her an “ugly anorexic bitch”, I told her to ignore him and that she could find someone better. That night however I witnessed her cut herself with a kitchen knife. After witnessing that I felt obligated to seek revenge on this kid Jason. I tracked him down on AIM made screen names and manipulated every friend and every girlfriend he had that year to go against him. He literally went through seven different girls, but by the end of the year no one wanted him, and no one wanted to be friends with him either. I had made his life a living hell, and I honestly took pride in it. One day however, my pride faded when he told me his parents had gone through a rough divorce. I soon regretted making his life more miserable by doing that stuff to him.

Week 1 Blog

Throughout my life time I have experienced many insights on many different things. A lot of which have changed my life for the better. One in particular I'll never forget was when I once had a good friend who was really intelligent, got straight A's his whole life up until his senior year of high school. Who was taking advanced placement courses, and was going to graduate number one in the class, and had schools such as Yale and Harvard looking at him. That summer before our senior year however he experimented with drugs. I never really believed all those things adults used to tell us about drugs when we were kids, until I really saw my friend go from being ultra-intelligent to just not giving a damn about his education at all. This changed me because it motivated me to keep my distance from drugs that he consumed and other people who consumed them as well. I have encountered many insights similar to this by knowing people who were arrested and others who went to rehab, but I must say this was the most extreme case in my eyes. I guess if I were to relate this insight to a character I would say the character of Sarah Goldfarber in the film "Requiem for a Dream" by Darren Aronofsky, because both my friend and she had high dreams of success that were shattered from consumption of drugs. I find that sometimes it is better for people to see others make mistakes in their lives then to make those mistakes themselves. It's a lot less painful that way, which is why I usually tend to stand by and observe others. I find that observation has been the ultimate insight in my life. Everyone makes mistakes; some can be downright horrible and often at times unforgivable to some. Sometimes we misinterpret the fact that all mistakes whether our personal individual ones or others, must be embraced to be learned from. This is why it is often said that anyone can forgive a mistake that has been made but forgetting can be nearly impossible. Within every mistake one makes there is new found knowledge of how to avoid it in each and every individual . It usually depends on the power of the mistake made, if that power was so strong to where it was considered a crisis in one’s life it might be difficult for the person who initiated the mistake to be forgiven. For example, someone who purposely killed another’s beloved family member might have trouble forgiving their family members killer.  A good example of a crisis that could be forgiven would be if a guy’s girlfriend cheats on him with his best friend. This of course would be devastating to anyone in a relationship, but can it be forgiven in time. I personally believe so because though it is a terrible thing to come across, it can be resolved in time. All insights can be given by crisis experienced.