Film Noir le a bein

I finished "watching" Out of the Past today in class and I didn't like it very much, but I think Film Noir may have some potential. The problems that I had with Out of the Past is that the plot was too confusing. I didn't know what was going on for most of the time. At first I thought that the main character was part of the mob, but I was sadly misinformed when it's revealed that he is a private investigator. There are a couple of other things that I didn't like about Out of the Past that I won't get into. Although I didn't like Out of the Past, I see some potential in the other Noir films we will watch. The hardcore gritty vibe of these films remind me of Mob Movies and hopefully we will watch something as interesting as The Godfather.

The Odyssey #1.5

After cooling down a bit, I realized that I got a little off topic. This time I promise to stay on topic and will rant about our flawed school system. As I said, I hate the book. There is a lot you have to know before you even start reading. You need to know about Greek Gods and the whole history of the Trojan War. Another thing that I hate is how long a this book is. Something that could be summed up in a sentence is expanded for a good two to three pages. Also I hate the amount of names that thrown around. Most of the names we hear only once and have nothing to do with the plot of the Odyssey, even though we will have to read a three page history of the character that has nothing to do with the plot because Homer must have been running out of things to talk about. Lastly I don’t understand what is taking him so long to get home. Plenty of other Trojan Warriors got home fine, but not him. If I was a general and my men were constantly causing trouble, I’d let them mutiny against me while I sail home on a passenger boat. Simple as that.

The Odyssey #1

Personally I am a fan of ancient mythology. I love sitting down and wikipedia-ing about the Ancient Gods and Goddesses. In the past I thought that I would love to read The Odyssey on my own time outside of school, but now that I think back on it I realized how right I was. School does some amazing things to a person. We get an education, meet new people, make friends that we will have for the rest of their lives, but also put enormous amount of pressure of us to do the best they can, be categorized as a Foundations-Student or a Normal-student or as a Enriched-student, have 50+ year old teachers say they know what is going on in our lives and know why we act the way we do, our smartness defined as a simple A, B, C, D, or F. We are taught things many will never use in real life, and are likely to forget in the days and weeks and months to come, while no one seems to teach us how file taxes, pay taxes, deal with money, anything about dealing with a bank, or my generation's social security problem to name a few. No, we are taught that if AB = CD and CD = EF, then AB = EF. When will that come up in my future? College? Probably. After that though? Maybe I can get a tax break if I can prove that I know that AB = EF. School also takes people's genuine interests and turns them into chores. If someone handed me the Odyssey and told me "Have fun," I would read it. Not only that, I wouldn't read just to get through it, like I do in school, I would take in every word and enjoy every second Homer's words wash over my brain. In school, I'm handed a book and told "Pay attention to the minute details, if you don't like it I don't care, and there will be a 100 point test on it", and adults wonder why we kids turn to television, and adults wonder why no kids ever seem to read on their own time. Adults turned reading into a chore. I hate the Odyssey. I hate how a simple sentence is turned into 3 pages worth of torture. I hate having to read this with minimal energy after an 8 hour day, I hate having to reread the same page again because I couldn't get it the first time. I hate having to read the Odyssey because if I don't, I have no future. Bad grades leads to no college, and in today’s standards, no college means no future. No college means that I will have to work my ass off in some job I hate in order to retire. I hate the Odyssey because I am forced to read it with my future on the line. My future shouldn't be determined by how well I did on a test, or what my GPA is, or the years of college I've taken. My future should be determined by my will to learn, my interest in learning, and my dedication to learn.

Rant Over.

I have love probelms too...

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) is a film by Nicholas Segal starring Nicholas Segal, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, and Russel Brand. Peter Bretter (Nicholas Segal) is a composer who has spent five years dating actress Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) and is heart broken when they break up. After a month of one night stands and one night stands, Peter decides to take a vacation to Hawaii. Upon reaching the Hawaiian hotel, Peter meets receptionist Rachel (Mila Kunis) who he starts to fall for. This movie is a romantic comendy because the majority of the plot centers around Peter either trying to get over Sarah, or falling in love with Rachel.

My Invocation

I liked how my Invocation turned out so I thought I'd post it here.

My Invocation

Rob Haarstad

1 Tell me, Muse, a story to end all.

A story, hopefully not a bore at all.

A story of a man more famous than none at all.

With skin so pale, lighter than buttocks of I.

5 With hair so great, point and laugh old men do, no one can relate.

With a voice smoother than a donkey of the fringes of death.

Eyes more blue than the night sky times negative dye.

Hero of females, yet “friend zoned” always is.

Knower of all excluding logic, reason, common sense, French, math,

10 reading, science, and basic heterogeneous skills.

With facial hair manlier than a twelve year old girl

Talent so few, reduced to the line of offense.

Youthful still, laughs at jokes of own,

mother still picks garments to bestow upon her own.

15 Tamer of the horseless carriage, always give, never thanked.

Jealous of all, for no hockey he plays.

Sing to me, muse, for I need a fright,

a story of a man with no delight in sight.

A story where he conquered all in end,

20 glory and fame in future, yet still sleeps in single bed.

The Champion of Edina School of High.

a story, still, not as big as his thigh.

A story of a man simply known as:

Stad Number Two.

E=MC^2

For the last three years in my science class we have watched E=MC^2, a video all about Albert Einstein's famous equation. Every year we had to fill out the same yellow packet, with the same number of questions, while watching the stale, boring, and over the top acting. Not only that, but I have seen this video outside of school twice! Why? Why do teachers enjoy torturing us? Why couldn't we watch Bill Nye the Science Guy instead? Do the teachers not hear how we cheer and cheer when they announce we are going to watch an entertaining episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy, and do they not hear us cry and moan when we watch a long, boring, uninteresting video we have seen the last three years? And you know what really grind my gears? THE FACT THAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT E=MC^2 EVEN MEANS! I HAVE SEEN THE VIDEO AT LEAST SIX TIMES AND I STILL DON'T GET IT! WHY WOULD TIME SLOW AND EVENTUALLY STOP AS YOU APPROACH THE SPEED OF LIGHT? SINCE WHEN ARE LIGHT AND TIME RELATED?

On a side note, Siddhartha, there is such a thing called time. Your example about how the river is everywhere at once doesn't prove a thing. In fact that whole long speech you gave at the end of the book to Govinda made no sense at all. Just because you use big words and run on sentences does not prove that you are smart.

Back on topic. After watching E=MC^2 for the sixth time I finally asked my science teacher what it means, why is it important, and when will I ever need to know this in every day life, she told me it was a theory.

...Are you kidding me...

I have spent about nine hours of my life watching a video about something that isn't even proven!

Why was the PLAN test such a pain?

Today sucked, to put it simply. It was because of the PLAN test. Why did we need to take this test? It started out really slow, write you name, school ID number, and address. Then we get asked all these stupid questions about what we like to do, and they are so vague that you really don't have any idea what to write, or are just so random that you have to wonder if the person who made these questions pulled paper out of a hat with different jobs written on them. "Would you like to be a tour guide?" No, I would like to make money in my lifetime. "Would you like to watch for forest fires?" No, I would want to have a job where I actually do something. After that long and tiring process, we finally start the actual test. Why weren't we ever told what was going to be on the test? It would of been helpful if I had some idea of what to look over, I mean, this is my future we're talking about. And why is this thing timed? If we are trying to prove what we know, then why are we being pressured to answer fifty questions in twenty five minutes? How long did it take Einstein to come up with E=MC^2? If it was under a month, then I'll be impressed. And why was the "Science" portion of the test really more like "Read a bunch of tables, graphs, and charts about useless information"? I thought the questions were going to be like "Why is the sky blue?" not "Read table 3, what happened to the tomato after the third day?"