Babel

Recently i saw the film Babel directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. The film follows four stories.

-a married couple on vacation in Morocco.
-A deaf/mute girl in Japan
-A Mexican nanny/maid in America/Mexico
-two Moroccan boys

The film is not in chronological order so it is difficult to put together the pieces of the story but in the end everything is related. The theme of the story is communication.

"the Tower of Babel was not built for the worship and praise of Yahweh, but was instead dedicated to the glory of man, to "make a name" for the builders: "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." (Genesis 11:4). The Book of Genesis then relates how Yahweh, displeased with the builders' intent, came down and confused their languages and scattered the people throughout the earth (Genesis 11:5-8)."

the film has multiple stories of miscommunication:
-The married couple in Morocco cannot understand what the villagers are saying and vice-versa.
-people who are not handicap cannot understand the deaf/mute girl and this affected the girl emotionally.
-The border patrol officers could not understand the Mexican nanny leading to her *spoiler alert* deportation.

there are other themes in the movie such as stereotypes, selfishness and redemption.

The order of sequences really kept me interested in the film. i would highly suggest this film for anyone who enjoys dramas

Wake up and smell the coffee, or roll back over and get some more sleep.

The snooze button is your friend. That’s what I always say.

Sure, you could say that waking up early gives you a head start on the day. You could also say that waking up early causes you to miss Law and Order because you are just too tired to stay awake.

I’m not a morning person and probably never will be. But I know that someday I’m going to get a job that requires me to be awake and ready to take on the world before 10 am. Unfortunately for the world, Flagler lets me do my own scheduling and right now I’m not planning on getting into that habit any time soon.

Of course there are some things I could do to help me get up before McDonalds stops serving breakfast. One of the more obvious approaches would be going to bed earlier. That however is near impossible. Right now, it’s 1:17 in the morning and I’m only in the second paragraph of a 600-word paper.

Poor planning? Sure.

Procrastinator? You betcha.

I’m a procrastinator, big deal. So is the rest of the Flagler student body who knows they have a paper due the next morning but also knows that it’s recession night at Madre’s. No one can resist five-dollar fish burritos. I’m just saying I’m not alone.

My average day goes like this:

I hear my alarm go off at 9am. ‘Click’. Snooze button.

9:09am. ‘Click’. Snooze button.

9:18am. I should start thinking about getting up because I know I need to take a shower but this pillow is just so comfortable.

9:21am. Ah shit, I’m going to be late.

As I’m pedaling along on my sweet jet-black beach cruiser I can feel the yawns approaching. I make a quick stop at Carmelo’s to pick up some five-hour energy shots. Three of them should do the trick. I must keep that company in business because I go through these things like it’s my job.

I’m a little late to tennis class but I make up for it with my smooth talk and my ridiculous Andy Roddick like serve. However, it’s hard to fulfill my tennis potential when neither myself nor my partner can get the ball over the net due to lack of sleep and energy.

I’m looking at you Katie Bass.

After tennis I go to my opinion writing class. The topics of conversation are usually quite entertaining so I can push through the yawns and participate in whatever the hell it is we talk about.

Next is script writing and this is where things begin to get a little fuzzy. Mainly because this is when I start to close my eyes.

Why can I not get through Barry Sands script writing class without dozing off?

After being caught sleeping by Mr. Sand himself, I secretively take my first energy shot and feel a boost of life flow through my veins. My day carries on with an advertising class and another energy shot. At this point, I’m feeling pretty good.

My last class is alternative cinema where we just watch American and foreign films. I hardly ever make it through a whole movie without taking a brief catnap. Yet I persevere through the fighting z’s trying to win over my eyelids and quickly down my third and final five-hour energy shot.

I feel nauseous. This stuff cannot be good for me.

Is there something wrong with me? Am I a night owl who sleeps during class and checks my facebook from midnight to 5 am? I know that no one else is awake or online but I still stare at the screen waiting for someone to comment on those ten bumper stickers I just added.

Maybe I do seriously need to reconsider my sleep schedule but it isn’t the easiest thing to do. I’ve attempted to go to bed early after a very long sleep in session that morning. I was quite proud of myself too. I laid in bed for a bit, set my alarm for 9 am and thought about my plans for tomorrow. About two hours later I was tossing and turning, wide-awake still and not even close to having a single dream yet. I tried everything and nothing worked: reading, watching the food network, praying, counting sheep, drinking warm milk, etc.

Maybe sleeping in isn’t such a great idea after all. Maybe I should start going to sleep before the sunrises. Perhaps then I can experience a full nights rest and be completely energized for the day. That way when I wake up I won’t need to hit the snooze button every nine minutes or put my head under my pillow in order to block out the sun.

Either way, there is one thing I’m sure of; I’m never going to watch Paranormal Activity before I go to sleep again. That movie kept me awake for days.

Magnolia

A few weeks ago my friend suggested the movie Magnolia to me. I'm very open to movie suggestions to i went and rented the film this past weekend. i must say, if you have not seen this film yet, GO RENT IT!

The film starts out with three unusual stories of chance that happened in the 20's, 50's and 90's. next the movie introduces one storyline with nine strangers who in the end are all related in a way.

There are about a million themes in this movie. a lot of the film hits on forgiveness. forgive your dad, forgive your husband, forgive yourself. another theme in the movie is loneliness. a lot of the characters are alone in the film and just want to find love. some can't find it, some have found it but abuse it and others are too scared to love.

the number 82 is hidden throughout the film which refers to Exodus 8:2 "But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs." this is the turning point in the film, towards the end, but still the turning point.

all of the acting was phenomenal, even John C. Reilly(opposite Will Ferrell in Step Brothers) was outstanding. The rest of the all-star cast includes Tom Cruise, William H. Macy, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore and Philip Baker Hall.

There was a shot towards the end where *spoiler alert* an ambulance is turning over on its side and you can see inside the ambulance. medical supplies and people are falling from one side of the vehical to another. wonderful shot.

I would highly suggest renting this film by Paul thomas Anderson who also wrote and directed Boogie Nights, Punch-Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood.

i was fat and black, now im slim and white.

I was aimlessly flipping through the Sunday edition of the Saint Augustine Record Sports Section when I came across an advertisement that I normally would never bother to look at. For some reason this Jacksonville Weight Loss Program ad caught my eye and I began scanning the page filled with eight people who had participated in the program. They were all standing in a line next to each other with giant smiles of success printed on their faces.

A line drew from each participant to a photo of what they looked like before they began the program. I’ve seen these weight loss ads before on television and I usually ask myself if these stories of great weight loss are true. I end up giving the “actor” and the product the benefit of the doubt and tip my hat even though in the back of my mind I’m sure that bodies have been edited to make them more lean and cut than they really are.

This particular advertisement however, seemed like there was no evidence of editing or Photoshopping. No person in the photo has their shirt off or is wearing a bikini. This advertisement seems to be trying to reach out to the everyday, average Joe six pack and hockey mom. If I were someone trying to lose weight and saw this ad, I may consider signing up for this program. The layout of the ad is very professional and giving examples of people who have completed the program helps the viewer know that it does work.

There is a turn off on this ad that I noticed very early on. When I first started scanning the ad, I was looking at the before and after photos of the participants. The man second from the right is a bald white man who wears glasses named Roger. I followed the line from the top of Rogers’s head that directed me towards his before picture. In the photo, Roger was also bald, wore glasses and was 119 lbs heavier. Congratulations to Roger for losing so much weight.

The only problem with this before photo of Roger is that he was black. After Roger is white. So if I attend this 12-week weight loss class, will my skin color change too? This makes the advertisement and the program look foolish and very unprofessional. I began looking at the ad as if it were a joke and not so much a way to lose weight. This mess up could potentially lose the program more clients than weight.