Blog 8: "High School is Hell"

Reading “High School is Hell” wasn’t as interesting, in my opinion, as I thought it would be.  I suppose it wasn’t entertaining and bored me because I couldn’t relate to a lot of the metaphors the writer mentioned. Perhaps it’s even because I haven’t watched any of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I did not think high school was bad. Of course there were a few people that annoyed me and the work was stressful, but I think it described metaphors that other people can relate to daily. Probably, the main thing that interested me was that the metaphors that Tracy Little pointed out became more than our reality. Imagine if the things we said came true! “My parent’s will KILL me if I don’t get all A’s!” I would have definitely died last year. I do appreciate reading this article because it gives me another way to analyze a show, a movie, or a book. I never really put into consideration how much directors try to connect with the real world.

Then again, it scares me. I see shows like Degrassi, The Secret Life of an American Teenager, and wonder if that’s really happening. Are kids really THAT brutal? Are we really willing to harm someone to gain something for ourselves? Are kids having sex in school? (Well, they obviously do...I mean is that all kids think about?) I didn’t pay attention or see much of that during my high school years. School work was on my mind more than anything. And, well, of course there were a few pregnant girls walking around and perhaps a handful of stuck up people, but are these shows presenting how our society really is? Or is it influencing our society more than telling our real story?

By the way, sorry for probably being confusing and a little scattered. :P

"Our Mrs. Reynolds" - Firefly

I hope skipping over episode 5 doesn’t make me miss anything, but it expired on hulu.com so I had to. I watched Episode 6 of Firefly. One of the things that caught my attention was when Mal was giving his “new wife” some advice. He said something like: You’re no one’s slave. You don’t need to let people boss you around or treat you like a slave! If someone tries to hurt you, hurt them first. If someone tries to kill you, kill them first.

In the end of the episode, he did not kill his “wife”, Saffron when he had the perfect chance to. Does he not take his own advice? Saffron wasn’t having a hard time or sympathetic with trying to kill Mal, the crew, and Serenity. What made it okay to kill Crow in “The Train Job” but not Saffron in this episode? They were both against the crew. Is it because Saffron was a woman? In my opinion, Saffron did more damage than Crow ever had the chance to do. What if Saffron appears in later episodes? Why didn’t he kill her before she has another chance to do it again?

Another thing I wanted to point out in this episode was the beginning of it. A tiny village celebrates Mal killing a criminal that was causing tons of hectic in their lives by stealing. Even though it was an unpaid job, the village throws a party and gives him a wife even though he didn’t know they were going to do that. How come Mal is allowed to be a thief and steal people’s cargo, but is willing to help out catching other criminals? He basically has the exact same job. Except in cases like this, he knows when to help out. I just don’t understand how he is able to have that job and not see the wrong in it.

"The Train Job" again...

In class, Zoe is the person I chose to analyze. So, during “The Train Job” we see that Zoe is the second-in-command man....or I should say woman.  In this episode, I get the feeling that Zoe is loyal to her crew and most importantly to the captain, Mal. The few scenes I want to talk about in “The Train Job” that I can get a grasp of Zoe is, is when Mal accepts the job of stealing the cargo for Niska with Mal. I also want to talk about the scene where she is with Mal who gives back the medicine.

Niska looked like a pretty intimidating man when offering the job to Mal. To me, Zoe did not appear to be frightened one bit. Now, as a crew member, it is her job to follow with the choice of Mal. As I said in class, does she ever wonder if what she is doing is wrong? Does she ever hate her job? Does she ever wonder if being a thief is bad? Does she think it’s even a good thing? Does she ALWAYS agree with Mal? Or does she do it because she is loyal? What if Mal makes a choice that in her heart she does not believe? Will she turn on Mal? What if Wash, her husband, gets hurt or turns on the crew? Will she follow him or will she still be loyal? (I apologize for asking so many questions)

Now the scene where they gave back the medicine was awesome. It shows that they are able to care for people other than themselves. I just don’t understand how they decided that though. Why can’t Zoe or even Mal realize that them being thieves isn’t a GOOD thing. If we stole medicine in today’s society, we would have been charged with something. No one would be rooting on our sides if we were crooks. If someone stole something of mine and sold it, I’d be extremely ticked. Why is it that we actually like them? I’ll admit it, I like them. Maybe it’s because they’re not stealing my cargo. Oh well, at least I know that they are capable of knowing what is right and what is wrong. This has boggled my mind, but  class definitely helped me see more that I have been letting myself see.

"Shindig" - Firefly

I believe that the more I watch Firefly, the more entertaining and more interesting they become. Even though each episode has the same “bad” problem and comes out with a “good” ending, I still come back to watch another.

 Shindig (Episode 4) is probably my favorite episode out of all of the first four. Mal hurts Kaylee’s feelings about a dress that is fancy in her terms. He pretty much said that she wouldn’t need the dress. She’s a mechanic and she would look like a sheep standing on its two back legs.

Meanwhile, Mal finds out that Inara is going to a formal society dance with a young man who I forget his name. Mal also surprises Kaylee with the dress she wanted and took her to the dance to make it up to her but also do some business. It’s really funny because Kaylee realizes the girls at the party are stuck up, mean people when trying to have a conversation with them so she ends up hanging out with the guys at the party. They adored her when she was talking about ships and other mechanics.

So, at this party, I feel like part of the reason Mal went was because of Inara. He seems protective over his whole crew, but when it comes to Inara, he seems extremely protective over her. I can’t tell if he actually “likes” her or not but I think he does. I mean, he punched her date and got caught up in a duel just because the guy was acting like he owned Inara.

Oh, and River is weird. I’m just not sure about her anymore. One minute she’s ripping labels off of cans and the next she’s making fun of a guy named Badger. I don’t know what’s going on with her. Does anyone else have any ideas?

"Bushwhacked" - Firefly

Okay, this is embarrassing. I watched “Bushwhacked/Episode 3” at 1 a.m. in the dark and was hiding behind my pillow during certain parts. It really isn’t that bad but I’m just a big baby.

The most interesting and main part of the third episode were the Reavers. They are pretty much these human beings who aren’t really civilized. So they rape humans, eat their flesh, and sew the skin onto their clothes. In this episode, I didn’t get to see any. I imagine that they are pretty brutal though seeing how normal humans forced to watch what they do makes the normal human act like a Reaver to cope. The tortured people start harming themselves AND other people. That’s definitely whacky.

Also, does River have some sort of bad connection with Reavers? She started freaking out when the crew boarded the abandoned ship. She was hearing screams so she also ventured into the abandon ship and helped the crew find people that were killed by Reavers. After the crew found a survivor that the Reavers seemed to have diseased on the ship, she could sense him acting weird and reacted nervously (even when the survivor was nowhere near her.) It was a good thing she could though or else her and Simon could have been harmed or even killed in that episode. She has some neat powers.

Lastly, I’m glad the crew was able to come up with a plan to hide Simon and River from the Alliance. The captain is quick to react when problems jump out at them. I’m glad they are back on the ship ready for more adventures. I really enjoy Firefily.

"Serenity" - Firefly

I watched the pilot episode of Firefly today called “Serenity.” Watching the second episode the other day left a lot of confusion, but I highly recommend watching the first episode to anyone that is looking into Firefly. It let me know that Inara is a “companion” and why River was acting so insane in “The Train Job” episode. It was very entertaining and I found myself talking to the TV, like “NO! They shot Zoe!”

Anyway, I really enjoyed finding out more information on River. Putting together the first episode and the second episode, I figure she has some sort of psychic powers but I’m not exactly sure. I think this because in episode one her brother explains that she is extremely smart and attended some sort of school that the government was a part of. They did experiments on her or hurt her in some way because she is such a talented human being. He helped her escape and that’s why the government is after them. In the second episode, she kept saying “two by two, hands of blue.” I wish I knew more about her talents though.

Also, another interesting part of the episode was that at the beginning, the captain was actually in a war which they lost. He kissed his cross on his necklace. Then six years later, when he is captain of Serenity and the Shepherd comes on board, he acts weird to him. It seems like Mal lost faith. By the way, I figured out that Shepherd is a missionary.

I hope I didn’t spoil anything for anyone. Watch THIS episode though!!!! Oh! And I change my mind about Mal not being fit for a captain. He definitely seemed a lot more serious in this episode and played his role well.

"The Train Job" - Firefly

I just finished watching Episode 2 of "Firefly" and having never heard of or seen the show until this week, the most interesting part of the show that caught my eye was the ship including the members. I know that there are around nine crew members boarded on the space ship. I believe the name of the ship is called Serenity.

The captain of the ship is Mal. He doesn't really seem like the type of person that would be a captain of thieves, you know? Kaylee is the mechanic of the ship who seems a bit lazy since she left a few messes while working on Serenity. Zoe and Jayne are people who participate in the action of missions. I should say they are the sidekicks of Mal. Wash is the pilot of the ship who is also married to Zoe. Simon is the doctor. Shepherd seems to be a religious man of some sorts. Inara is obviously "well-known." I'm not sure exactly what she does. I do know that she was on the ship for around eight months. River is Simon's sister who appears to be a bit crazy. It looks like she was experimented on and possibly escaped. I know she will play an important part because two guys happened to be looking for her at the end of the show.

For the actual show, my favorite part was probably when Mal realized that stealing the medicine for money was the absolute wrong thing to do. I knew that when he learned about the community being sick he would end up being the "good guy" and giving what he stole back. However, it confuses me that he is able to be a thief to begin with if he has the heart to realize what he was doing was wrong.

I'm not absolutely sure about the roles of crew members so feel free to tell me what you guys think!

On a side note, is the actor of Mal the voice of Buck on Halo? Also, I would be upset if I went into space and it ended up being like the Wild West.

Introducing myself!

Hello, classmates! I'm Sarah Doyle and I am currently a sophomore at The Ohio State University. As of right now, I have no major but sure do wish I did. I'm looking into nursing (and could definitely use some help exploring majors if you guys have any ideas on what you think I should look into!) I am nineteen years old. I still feel and look like I'm sixteen. I'm from Chillicothe, Ohio. It's about an hour and a half away from here. Anyone familiar with that area? Has anyone heard of the book "Knockemstiff"? If so, I live there!

I used to play softball when I was in high school. I'm a lefty so I got placed as a first baseman when I was young and grew to love it. I was also in high school band and completely loved that too! I played trumpet. However, I don't do much of those activities anymore. I honestly don't know what else to say. I'm pretty much your average person and I'm really friendly so feel free to talk to me outside of the blog world or class!

Okay, I will tell you a little about my family since they're an enormous part of my life. I have three siblings: Vanessa, Amanda, and Billy. My eldest sister, Vanessa graduated from OSU a few years ago. Amanda will be graduating at OSU also after this quarter. So, I guess it's turning into a family tradition. My little brother doesn't have to worry about choosing to follow or break it any time soon because he is still in middle school. I'm extremely close to my family based on how I was raised. A little cool fact about my parents is that they met while performing in a circus. My mommy rode the elephants and my daddy played the trumpet in the band. Obviously, they ended up getting married. Where? They got married under the circus tent. It's neat and weird, yeah?

So, feel free to ask anything else if I happened to be too brief for you. I hope I didn't bore you.