final evaluation

Thinking that my freshman year is coming to a close is a crazy thought for me. My first year flew by as it seems like the first week of classes was only a week ago. On the other hand it is strange to think that this time last year I was not friends with any of the people I know now and it is weird to think about how quickly friendships and relationships were built this year.

When first coming to Penn State I was not excited. I heard that it was easy to get lost because there were so many kids and that it was a “cookie cutter campus”. I ended up choosing the school for my major and nothing else. After a year has passed I am very glad I ended up choosing Penn State. The campus seems small but between clubs and classes and my dorm I do not feel like a number. The people I met in the past year are great and I am glad that my first year of college played out like it did.

Classes were definitely a part of why my experience went so well. I loved finally being able to take classes I wanted to take rather than classes everyone took like in high school. The classes I was required to take that were not related to my major were a nice change of pace from science and math classes. English 15 was one of these. English 15 forced me to think critically and forced me to think about myself and others in a new light. It opened my eyes to new cultural and artistic events around campus that I can attend for the next four years. Overall it allowed me to think more deeply and reflect on the beginning of my college life.

http://meeten3.blogspot.com/2012/04/aron-ralston-artculture-event-1.html?showComment=1335660148032#c2919772590850712019

http://meeten3.blogspot.com/2012/02/for-first-time.html#comment-form

http://welcome2myworld-2015.blogspot.com/2012/03/we-party-hard-but-study-harder.html#comment-form

http://voiceoflaurenrhoden.blogspot.com/2012/04/fairy-tale-new-years-eve.html?showComment=1335661207759#c6926373459571688417

http://findyourselfthroughwriting.blogspot.com/2012/03/art-of-swagger.html?showComment=1335661937005#c6590073124736164481

I did my SRTE!

Cultural Event number Two

On Monday March 19, 2012 I went to see Morgan Spurlock Speak in the Schwab Auditorium. I remembered watching his movie  "Supersize Me" in high school and enjoying it so thought it would be great to see him speak in person. I got to the auditorium and expected to hear all about fast food in our society and McDonalds and everything in the movie but was pleasantly surprised when the talk was about something different.

I very obviously did not do my homework for the event when Morgan Spurlock began to talk about his new movie.  I heard about supersize me and his show "thirty days" (which is a very similar idea to "supersize me" where Spurlock does something for thirty days to try to get people to gain a new perspective on certain lifestyles and social issues) and I thought that these types of project were all that he did. Instead, Spurlock talked about his new movie "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold". The movie is about branding and product placement in movies that was funding 100% by product placement.

I was shocked when Spurlock talked about advertising in certain schools. He talked about walking down the hall of a grade school that seemed like talking around the outfield of a baseball field. Many schools have had extreme budget cuts so have resorted to advertising as their only way on income to keep certain academic and arts programs.  He brought up a many good questions about advertising to children. Are children unable to sort through the mush of advertising to find the truth? Is product placement in children s movies okay? and if so, how about advertising in schools? Are we not allowing these young students to think for themselves?

The most interesting part of the night was learning about how integrated product placement is in movie making. Getting sponsors, pitching to sponsors, talking up their products, advertising your movie in stores, all of these are things I have overlooked. We are surrounded by thousands of brands and products a day that I seem to overlook them. Every stadium, movie, team, and event seems to have a sponsor. The talk made me look at movies and advertisements differently  and made me more aware of just how inundated with brands we truly are.

review

You think all crime shows are dimly lit intense drama filled with forensics and yellow tape: think again. ABC’s Pushing Daises takes solving crime to a new level combing whimsy, wit, and humor to recreate the classic crime show into something completely new.  

Combine a Pie-maker with a supernatural gift, a sassy overweight knitting detective, a dead girl brought back to life, and an overly excitable waitress, throw in a love triangle and a dog and you have a show like no other show you have seen before.

The premise of the show is that Pie-Maker Ned (played by Golden Globe nominee, Lee Pace) has the gift to touch living things and bring them back to life. The catch is that he can only bring them back to life for one minute or something else dies in its place and if he touches them, they will die again with no chance of another revival. Ned teams up with knitting detective Emerson Cod (Chi McBride) to solve crimes. Things get sticky however when Ned brings his childhood sweetheart, Charlotte Charles (played by Golden Globe nominee Anna Friel), back to life. The cherry on top of this group is the bubbly waitress and ex horse jocky, Olive Snook (played by Emmy Winner Kristin Chenoweth), who secretly loves Ned and does not know the true identity of dead girl Charlotte Charles.  This knockout cast fits their roles perfectly as they create a magical world never seen before on the television screen.

Every family has that one person who wants to watch their nightly murder mystery while the others want to watch their sitcom, or vice versa. The fight over which to watch can easily turn into an arduous and hard fought battle over the remote.  ABC’s Emmy winning show, Pushing Daisies, allows us to stop fighting over the remote and have both, neatly baked together and served a la mode.