McCain Library

McCain Library

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Philosophy of Love.


I wrote a paper on the Philosophy of Love. I think it is interesting to look into different people's point of views on love. Their views can differ so greatly. Some people in love so much while others question if it's really real. When writing the paper, I talked to my friends a lot about the subject.

In the paper, I learned that love is divided into three categories if you go by Greek terminology. The three categories are Eros, Philia, and Agape. Eros love is mostly desire. Philia is when you have a fondness for someone, in a sense. Agape is a "brotherly love for all humanity." It was interesting to read about how love is broken down and to what categories each relationship would be placed into. Their is a place for romantic love, for family love, and for friendships. It is cool to see how each develops and how each is actually defined.

Movies.


I am in a film class where each week we watch and discuss a new movie each week. We started watching movies that were from a while back and started moving to more recent films. The first one we watched was Citizen Kane. This week we watched Leon, The Professional. It is interesting to see the changes between the two films besides how they look visually.

When films first started being made they were a lot more out of the box than the movies today. Movies today are more cliche than they used to be. I did not realize that until this class. There are very few movies today that make you think and that are different. We watched the movie Brazil and that was a movie that could not have been guessed. It was very different. Once films started selling more because of people being attracted to them, it became more common to make more cliche movies. I think that's an interesting aspect to look at.


Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Spanish.


The Spanish language is quickly becoming widespread. It is a valuable thing to be bilingual. I have been considering minoring in Spanish for this reason. I am an English major but I feel that having a minor in Spanish would be very beneficial to me. I have heard that in certain areas it can make a person be paid more. But besides that, it can look very good on resumes. It may help you get hired more quickly than people you may be competing for in a job. Of course, I am sure that depends on your job field. I am going to be an English teacher but it is a good thing to be well rounded. It makes you look more prepared and more educated.

Citizen Kane.


I am taking a Film class. It was more out 0f curiosity than for my major, since I am an English major. We started watching movies last week. Our first movie was Citizen Kane, which on different lists is supposedly the best movie of all time. It was released in 1941. It was directed by Orson Welles. He also played the main character, Charles Kane. In this movie, it involved a man who was taken away from his family at an early age. He was given to a man who he lived with throughout his life. When Kane got older, he started working for a newspaper. He soon began running it. He was also married and seemingly in love. It would be thought had everything in life--success and the love of a woman. But this marriage soon failed when he was caught cheating on her with a younger girl. He chose the younger girl over his previous wife. His career soon failed as well, along with certain friendships. The viewer finds all of this information out throughout flashbacks. A man is investigating Kane's life after Kane died and spoke his last word, which was "Rosebud." He wanted to know what this meant. At the end, the viewer sees all of Kane's belongings burning. It zooms in and you see the sled from his childhood. On the sled is the word "Rosebud." This can symbolize his want for love. He could never return love, but he always wanted to receive it. It can symbolize how he tried filling his life with belongings, his career, and love. Or it can symbolize absolutely nothing. It can show a man's life cannot be summed up into one word.

I think it is good for everyone to watch this film. It was made so long ago. Even if the person does not enjoy the film, it is interesting to see how much filming and movies have changed.

Freedom Summer


I did a lot of reading while doing my citations and the annotations. The topic on which I did research was the Freedom Summer which occurred in 1964. This was a big year in Mississippi. Tons of volunteers came to Mississippi to help out with these events that were happening. Three of the boys that came here to help were brutally murdered. Their murders were not solved until about forty-one years after they happened. All of the volunteers during the Freedom Summer had a purpose in which they believed was worth fighting.

All of the Freedom Summer volunteers suffered through a lot of hardships but they believed in their cause. This Freedom Summer's purpose was helping African-Americans get the right to vote. There was a lot of protesting to achieve this. They wanted equality, which they rightly deserved. This was a fight that had been going on and people from other places decided it was time to step in and help.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Technology.


I was required to do an "E-media Fast" for one of my classes before. We were made to go twenty-four hours without technology. That meant no cell phones, no music, no television, or anything of the sort. Even riding in our cars, we had to turn off the radio. Our class was given the whole semester to choose one day to do this fast. It seemed like it'd be such a hard task. Texting is something I constantly do and I am always, like the rest of the world, checking my Facebook. Technology has become a crutch for many people as a cure to boredom as well as for many other things.

I finally chose a day. The day turned out a lot easier than I expected. It was very relaxing. I read a book for the majority of the day. I also took a run. For the last part of my day, I hung out with friends. We made it into a game night. It was a lot of fun. The day ended up being nice and also productive. I got a lot more done than I would have if I would have been texting or on Facebook.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Jobs.




I am an English major. I am debating different jobs I can pursue with this degree. Journalism is one of my top options. I love writing and I do a lot of it in my free time. Journalism is something that would enable me to continue doing something that I enjoy. I think that written works is something that should be thought of as important.


Journalists can work as various types of positions. They can work for a newspaper, a magazine, or different other things. I have been looking into this job and also talking to others who have this as their goal. It can involve traveling, which would be an interesting aspect to it.