FInal Blog Reflection

I had never been asked to carry on a Blog in any one of my classes prior to this one. I was never really familiar with blogs and never had much interest for them but surprisingly I really enjoyed doing it. Through out the semester we covered several units such as poetry, mythology, globalization, media technology and possibly other but I can't really remember. The unit that I enjoyed the most was media technology. I have never really been one to keep up with the new technology arising but with the presentations that we did in class I realized that as a future teacher I need to keep myself up to date with the current technology because a lot of it is being incorporated in today's classrooms. Not only is it being used in classrooms but I've also realized that it makes teaching a lot easier and engaging being that students nowadays are really technologically savvy. I also really enjoyed the mythology presentations. I love Mythology and found it really interesting to experience it through presentations that involved the history and different versions of the myth. I'm not a very big fan of poetry and was glad when that unit was over. I found it a bit difficult coming up with poems. Overall I really enjoyed the class and learned a lot of new strategies that I will carry over when I am finally teaching my own students.

Global Text (Final Draft)

The film lost in translation by Sofia Coppola takes a different pace and style then most films. The film is a slow paced mundane type of film where things don’t just happen in a matter of seconds but rather take time. The film's setting is in Japan and its protagonist are two American characters. These two American characters Bob Harris and Charlotte are set in a place where neither one of them knows the language or the culture. Their personal life is also suffering due to the lack of communication and interest between them and their significant others.

Bob Harris is a famous actor who is drawn to Japan not for interest in its culture or for a change in scenery but for the money that it’s offering him. Bob Harris lives a pretty dull and sad life. His wife if very distant and no longer really cares about him which can be seen through their interactions. For example, in one of the scenes where Bob is talking to his wife she says “Bob, should I be worried about you?” and he responds with “Only if you want to” this conversation between them shows the lack of interest and love in their marriage because one would assume that as a spouse you would automatically worry about your spouse without having to ask. Bob is not only lost in the sense of his marriage but he is also lost in a new culture. Bob was hired to make a commercial for one of Japan’s whiskies’ called Suntory. The director of the commercial has a translator who is “interpreting” for Bob. As the director begins to tell Bob what he is to do the translator listens and then “explains” what the director is telling him to do. The interpreter is telling him very little about what the director is actually saying causing Bob to feel clueless about what he is really supposed to do.

Charlotte our other American protagonist ends up in Japan because her famous photographer husband was sent there for a photo shoot. Charlotte similar to Bob has a spouse that shows little to no interest in her. Charlotte through out a lot of the scenes with her husband prances around in her underwear and gets no reaction whatsoever from him. Charlotte phones home in one of the scenes and says to her mother that she was not sure that she loved her husband. Her husband is out working most of the time leaving her alone in a place where she hardly knows anybody and finds it difficult relating to people.

When Bob and Charlotte finally meet which is later on in the film they instantly click and become really good friends. This good friendship turns into a friendship with strong feelings for each other but never really progresses from there. Bob and Charlotte begin enjoying their time in Tokyo once they start spending time together. I think that being that their situations were identical they found comfort in each other. They were both lonely and lost in a city they were not familiar with.

         The film Lost in Translation shows more than just the progressing relationship between two American’s who are lost and find comfort in each other but it also shows the relation between the city of Tokyo and globalization. Globalization is a term a lot of people use loosely, but do people really know what it means? Some people might say that globalization is a path to the future possibly to the Utopia described in Frederic Jameson’s “The Politics of Utopia's" but in all reality I think that globalization has to do with the spreading of western culture and making it the ideal way of living.
               In the film Lost in Translation we see what we can call western globalization happening. It seems that the city of Tokyo represented in the film has adopted the western culture and forgotten about  it's own. The film shows two sides of Japan, one is the city of Tokyo and the other is the country. The city of Tokyo is a city with a lot of lights and technology similar to the cities in California or even Las Vegas Nevada which are westernized cities.

The country which I believe the scenes that showed the real culture of Japan take place show a completely different view of Japan. As we can see in the picture above Charlotte is visiting a temple which looks nothing like the places in the city. The image above does not show any signs of globalization but rather more of a quiet and technologically free environment.
              In the film we see two worlds on which is westernized and another which is away from the city that shows more of what Japan's culture really is.  The separation that is shown in the film reminded me of something that was said in Frederic Jameson's "The Politics of Utopia" which reads
"If it no longer does so, then perhaps the explanation lies in that extraordinary historical dissociation into two distinct worlds which characterizes globalization today. In one of these worlds, the disintegration of the social is so absolute" which describes the two distinct places that we experience in the film. The film Lost in Translation shows a pair of humans being that are still trying to figure out what they need in life to really be happy. The depictions of the two cities is very crucial in supporting my thesis about globalization being another way of saying westernizing a non-western culture. The city of Tokyo along with the songs that the people were singing during karaoke show how Tokyo is accepting and transforming into a western like culture while the places away from the city show a lot more culture and less if any globalization.

Work cited

Lost in Translation. Dir. Sofia Coppola. Perf. Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson. Focus Features, 2003. Film.
Martin, Randy. “Where Did the Future Go?” California State University Northridge. Web. 9 Dec 2013.

 

Avicii - Wake Me Up (Official Video)

Wake me up

Feeling my way through the darkness
Guided by a beating heart
I can't tell where the journey will end
But I know where to start
They tell me I'm too young to understand
They say I'm caught up in a dream
Life will pass me by if I don't open up my eyes
Well that's fine by me

So wake me up when it's all over
When I'm wiser and I'm older
All this time I was finding myself
And I didn't know I was lost
[x2]

I tried carrying the weight of the world
But I only have two hands
I hope I get the chance to travel the world
But I don't have any plans
Wish that I could stay forever this young
Not afraid to close my eyes
Life's a game made for everyone
And love is the prize

So wake me up when it's all over
When I'm wiser and I'm older
All this time I was finding myself
And I didn't know I was lost
[x2]

I didn't know I was lost
I didn't know I was lost
I didn't know I was lost
I didn't know I was lost

Media Presentation

Yesterday's presentations were really intriguing. I didn't know about the sites and techniques that were presented. Our presentation was on Google drive. Prior to this presentation I didn't know that Google had so many functions that could facilitate school work. We explored Google docs, hangout, and Google presentations making collaborative projects really easy and fun. Through Google we were able to create our presentation without having to actually meet in person. Finding the time to drive to school and meet up is very difficult especially when you have every minute of the day planned out with tasks that need to get done. I really like the idea of being able to have access to documents and to work on presentations anywhere as long as you can access the internet and also about not having to worry about a file being on your computer. Google Drive is a great program that is free and accessible to everyone. Below is a fun video that we used which sums up the usefulness of Google Drive (Docs).

Google Docs in Plain English

Poetry by Maria Bautista

Free Verse poem

I chose to write about the playground that I used to play in because I recently drove by passed it and decided to take a look at it.

Everything was so different as I figured it would but to my surprise something still remained the same and it was a little plastic hippo that I used to love riding on.

Little Red Plastic Hippo

 

The playground I grew up playing in

It used to be so simple

It was a small sand box with two swings and a little red plastic hippo

The last time that I played in it I must have been ten

That was fourteen years ago and now it’s really different

The two swings turned to four and the sand box got much bigger

A whole new playground took its place because it used to be so simple

It now has slides, monkey bars, and an entire little water park

My childhood playground is gone and a new one took its place

But something still remained the same

and that was my little not so red anymore little plastic hippo

These poems are  a Haiku's

As I was walking to class I noticed for the first time in a long time that the leaves on the trees were turning into autumn colors and well that's how I decided the topic of my Haiku. Nature lets us know what season we're in by changing certain things and well right now Autumn is here and nature lets us know by changing the colors of the leaves on trees.

With changing in seasons

Leaves turn red, orange, and brown

Autumn's finally here

Second Haiku


Delicate flower

Playing with the wind

Autumn perfume



 

 

Alliteration and Assonance list:

·         Big Ben

·         Peter Piper

·         Busy Bee

·         Out of Order

·         Mickey Mouse

·         Krispy Kreme

·         Porky Pig

·         Daffy Duck

·         Bugs Bunny

·         Minnie Mouse

Assonance:

·         Kitty cat

·         Tootsie roll

 

 Metaphors and Similes (like):

·         Life (metaphor):  “Life is a sunny day”

·         Life (simile): “Life is like the first day of winter”

·         death (metaphor): “death is the end”

·         Having children (simile): “death is like an endless sleep”     

·         Marriage (metaphor): “Marriage is the icing on the cake”

·         Marriage (simile): “Marriage is like a bittersweet fruit”

 

Sublime- Santeria

Original lyrics:

 I don't practice Santeria

I ain't got no crystal ball

Well, I had a million dollars but I, I'd spend it all.

If I could find that Heina and that Sancho that she's found.

Well I'd pop a cap in Sancho & I'd slap her down.

Rewrite:

I don’t really like my job now

But I have to pay my bills

If I won the mega millions I’d jump, jump up and down

If I could find that ticket with the winning numbers marked

Well I’d run around in circles and I’d quit right now

 

 

Dylan Thomas reciting his villanelle 'Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Ni...

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Fight Until The Very End

            “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” is an inspiring and emotional poem written by Dylan Thomas. The poem is a Villanelle which means that it’s a nineteen-line form of poetry. The speaker of the poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” is communicating his frustration that comes with simply giving up when one is dying. As we all know death is inevitable but instead of simply letting death happen the speaker of the poem urges everyone to fight until the very end. This poem speaks to everyone because death is a universal tragedy but in this poem he is specifically talking to his dying father as stated in the book Poetry for Students " 'Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,' is a moving plea to his dying father". By using frequent and consistent repetition and poetic devices Dylan Thomas succeeds in the powerful communication of the poems theme about fighting against death until the very end. The poems repetition and poetic devices help the theme develop. The tone and repetition of certain words bring the poem to life and create an emotional connection with the reader and helps deliver the theme even stronger. 

“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” is a \Villanelle with five three-line stanzas and one four line stanza. The first five stanzas have a rhyme of an A-B-A format and the last stanza has a rhyme scheme of A-B-A-A. Dylan Thomas used poetic devices, such as repetition, lyrical tone, and similes to exemplify the theme. For example, the phrase “Do not go gentle into that good night” (Thomas 1) is repeated four times in the entire poem. The use of repetition shows the urgency in the speaker’s message about not dying without a fight. I think that the phrase not only reminds you of the prominent message or theme but it also shows very deep and personal emotions. The poem has a lyrical tone to it in the sense that it expresses and evokes personal emotions. The tone in the speakers words such as in the phrase “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” (Thomas 3) shows and gives the feeling of urgency and desperation of the message that the speaker is trying to get across to his dying father. Thomas also uses several similes such as the one shown in the phrase “Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,” (Thomas 14). Thomas uses “meteors” to describe what “blind eyes”(Thomas 14) could look like. The use of similes in the poem help the reader paint a clearer picture of what the speaker is saying. The poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” evokes intense emotions from the reader, by using repetition and a variety of poetic devices.

The meaning that the speaker is trying to communicate through this poem is that death although inevitable can be defeated, but the only way that it can be defeated is by retaliating and fighting for your life rather than simply accepting that fact that you’re going to die and dying in a “gentle” manner. When the speaker says “Do not go gentle into that good night,” he is urging his father to stay strong and is also communicating to him that if it is his time to die then he should die the same way that he entered this world, which was kicking and screaming. From the moment that a woman starts going into labor the child that is about to be born is fighting to live. When a baby comes into this world it fights in whatever way possible, the baby will scream and kick. The speaker in the same way is telling his father to fight when he says “Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray/ Do not go gentle into that good night” (Thomas 17-18) the speaker is telling his father to do anything even if it means cursing him out or crying but to not simply go quietly without a fight. The emotions in the last stanza are immense and the reader is able to capture the hurt, pain, sadness, and desperation of the speaker as he talks to his dying father.

The speaker talks about four different men in his poem to show the universal relevance of his theme. By using the four men that are described in the middle stanzas the speaker is delivering the message to his father by showing him examples of great men. who were smart enough to realize that death isn't unbeatable. All the men described are very different and have succeeded in many ways during their life so far. First, he talks about wise men who understand that knowledge and intelligence aren’t the cores meaning of their lives “Though wise men at their end know dark is right. . . ” (Thomas 4) He then talks about good men who become conscious that their good deeds won’t define their identity “Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright. . . “(Thomas 7) The poet brings up the third men, who are wild “Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight. . .” (Thomas 10)  Finally, grave men are exemplified in the fifth stanza “Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight/ Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay.” (Thomas 13-14) Even though all four men described lived completely distinct lives and did great things while they were young in the end the speaker is indicating that their success doesn’t mean anything if they die without a fight. The speaker is trying to tell his father that they fought while they were young and healthy and did great things as well but if they gave up in the end when death was near then their entire life meant nothing which is why he constantly and urgently pleas with his dad to fight until the very end.

Dylan Thomas’ poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” is a great and very emotional poem. The poetic devices that Thomas used in the poem really helps speak to his audience. This poem is a lyrical type of poem in the sense that it evokes personal emotion from the speaker which transcends into the reader as well. The theme of death is universal and this poem does a great job of showing that. Thomas makes it clear that even though death is inevitable it is urgent that we understand that death does not defeat us. We live our entire lives fighting to make ourselves into successful and great people so at the time of our death we should still continue to fight as Thomas says through the poems speaker “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night/ Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” (Thomas 18-19)

                                                                           Work cited

Philip K. Jason College Literature, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Spring, 1980), pp. 136-145

        Published by: College Literature Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25111324

"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night." Poetry for Students, 1 (1998): 49-60.

The Scarecrow "Pure Imagination"

"Pure Imagination"- Willy Wonka

Come with me and you'll be
In a world of pure imagination
Take a look and you'll see
Into your imagination

We'll begin with a spin
Traveling in the world
Of my creation
What we'll see
Will defy explanation

If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Wanna change the world?
There's nothing to it

There is no life I know
To compare with
Pure imagination
Living there, you'll be free
If you truly wish to be

If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Wanna change the world?
There's nothing to it

There is no life I know
To compare with
Pure imagination
Living there, you'll be free
If you truly wish to be

The song that I have chosen is called "Pure Imagination" In this version of the song the person singing is Fiona Apple. This song has been covered by many but it is mainly known for the movie "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" which I believe it was originally made for. It’s a fantastic song! Magical, childish, catchy, Beautiful! I love this song and I feel that even though the video I chose is advertising for Chipotle that it really tells the story and meaning of the song. This song talks about a world that many of us forget about. The older we grow the less imagination we have and the more we begin to settle for whatever we can get. The music and the lyrics of this song go hand on hand. The song is whimsical and kind of takes you into a trance of “pure imagination”. Personally every time I listen to this song I forget about my surroundings and start imagining a world in which everything is possible. “Pure Imagination” is a fantastic song and it tells the listener that you can make the world or whatever situation you might find yourself in currently into something positive but only if you let your imagination run wild and come to life. The scarecrow in the movie after being extremely saddened with the fakeness all around the world is inspired to do something good. In the scarecrows case it involved real, healthier and fresher food. This song inspires hope and reminds you to never let your imagination die because without it we’d live in a boring unhappy world.

“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams” – Willy Wonka

Hello every one out there in blogger world! I'm Maria. This blog is going to contain a lot of random things, mainly school related. I've never used a blog before and have no clue as to what I'm doing. I think my ten year old brother knows how to use a blog better then I do! I've noticed that little kids are learning how to use electronics at a very young age. I have a three year old cousin who can navigate through a tablet and Skype a lot better then I can. Now you might be asking yourself why is this girl embarrassing herself by telling the world that 3 year olds are way more technologically savvy then herself?! Well, the answer is simple. I have an assignment to talk about media technology. I'm being asked to write a blog about my thoughts on the role media technology should play in teaching. Like any question there are always two sides, those who say it should play an important role and those who say it should not. Now, I know we always have those in between people which I would categorize myself as but for the sake of giving a direct answer I am going to side with those who say that it should play an important role in teaching. In current times it is rare to find someone who still reads an actual newspaper to see what is going on in the world. A lot of people get their news from  online sources such as Yahoo and even Facebook, Twitter etc. . . Information travels a lot faster thanks to media technology. When ever something occurs in the world the information about the event gets out in a matter of seconds. I've heard the phrase "we live in a technology driven world" many times and I believe that phrase to be true. That being said is the reason for why I think it is very important for media technology to be used in teaching. Children who have not even started school are already into electronics and I think are probably going to be more interested in school learning if technology is incorporated.