Assignment #18- Liz Graves

What do I want to do with my life? That is the golden question, isn't it? This will probably be the least eloquent of my blog posts, but I guess that would make sense. One cannot very easily plan out one's life, so I guess the writing of any plan for my life should be equally difficult.

Number one goal for high school: I suppose this answer depends on whether or not we are talking about academics. Academically speaking I would like to have passed all my AP exams and get a 32 or above on my ACT. In terms of my high school career as a whole, I guess I'd just like to leave satisfied. Satisfied with the friends that I've made, the work that I've done, what I've been involved in, etc. Mostly, I'd like to be able to come to my 10 year reunion looking back on happy memories. I'd hate to think I wasted any time in these four years.

Number one goal for college: I'd like to figure out who I am apart from Lexington and my family. I want to go out of state, not because I'm desperate to leave home, but because I think it will be fun to be truly on my own. The idea of being responsible for my own survival is a little intimidating, but I think I'll be okay.

Number one goal for life: To be happy and make other people happy. I want to end my life much like I want to end high school; satisfied with how I've lived. I don't want to regret not having done something. I want to get married and have a family. I want to love my job and have fun going to work. I would also like to travel with someone, be it my best friend or my husband (although, preferably they are one in the same...). This is not really a life goal, but a death goal. I'd like people to miss me when I'm gone. I don't want anyone to be unhappy, but I want to have been a good enough person that people won't rejoice in the fact that I'm dead. Is that selfish? Probably, but there you have it.

Assignment #18 - Daniel Kolpek

High School:

• Graduate with all A's
• Get accepted into Georgia Tech
• Get a job this summer

College:

• Graduate with a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering
• Make lots of friends and have a good time

Life:

• Get married, settle down, and start a family
• Find a good stable job
• Visit Italy, Jamaica, and France

I know getting all A's is a really basic goal for high school, but I figured since I've done it up to junior year, I need to finish and do it through the rest of high school. It will be hard next year to motivate myself to study and do homework, but hopefully I'll make it.

In college I want to study Chemical Engineering and earn a bachelor's degree so I can start looking for jobs in the field. I might go back to graduate school later, but it isn't a big priority.

I don't have a ton of goals for my life as a whole right now, besides getting married and having kids. Past that I just kind of want to go wherever life takes me. I'll probably have more life goals as I get older, but for now I'm keeping it simple.

Assignment #18- Noah Tapp

High School:
*Build a  lifelong connection with the people and the place that influenced the most
*Win an individual state tennis title or a team state tennis title

College
*Play Tennis
*Get a degree in something I truly like learning about

Life
*Find an attractive life partner( inside and out, of course) and have kids
* Go to all four tennis grand slams
* Learn all I can about myself and about the world
* Have fun

 My  worst fear of graduation and college is not staying friends with the people I am now. I am excited about meeting new people and  encountering different experiences, but I do not want to forget the people that influenced me the most growing up. I also do not want to forget about Lexington. I think some of my best moments growing up will be going to all the UK football/basketball games, to church on Sundays with my grandparents, to Keeneland with my friends, and living in Chevy Chase. Although Lexington is definitely not the best place to visit, it is an awesome place to live.

In college I hope to play tennis at a challenging academic school. I hope I find a topic that truly interests me so I can form a career or living out of it.

My goals in life will probably change often but I want to live a life where I can look back and say, I put forth effort in many different things and I had fun doing it.  Tennis is a big part of my life so I want to watch the best tennis around the world. Having little people that look just like you would also be cool too.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of Insecurities: rachael gilbert

Confession time: I am secretly Gollum. I mean, the jokes on you, because it should have been obvious: I talk to myself, I’m short, my posture is terrible, I given up on the whole “caring about my appearance” thing and my life’s goal is to steal back something that was taken from me (in my case it’s a sweater my sister stole when she went off to college and not an all-powerful ring but watevs). And so for this week’s blog post I was really hoping to find a quote from Gollum I could use, but spoiler alert: Gollum never really says anything profound. He’s just kinda creepy (I mean, sammmmmeeee). So for about a week I gave up.

But then my dad, with his terrible tyrannical rule, asked me to clean my room. And in the midst of grumbling over the unfairness of it all and half-heartedly throwing things across the room, I came across a piece of paper. It was crumbled up in the back of the bottom drawer of my desk, obviously put there for a reason and then forgotten. When I unrumpled it I remembered a LOTR themed retreat for my church camp, Burnamwood, that I’d gone to in seventh grade (yes, it is just as nerdy as it sounds) and a piece of advice from a small, chubby hobbit who is somehow always hungry that I’d held onto. It reads something like this:

“I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even the darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo that I do understand now. Folk in those stories has lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something; that there’s good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.”

And sure, those words were meant for Frodo Baggins, who was burdened with a glorious purpose but had somehow lost his way in the struggle. They were meant to be recited in the heart of Mordor when all hope was lost. But we’ve all been through stuff we don’t want to talk about. The regrets or fears you only think about late at night. Moments in our lives where everything was just wrong and we couldn’t do a thing about it. And I think Samwise Gamgee does a good job explaining why we keep going. Because someday far into the future, that moment, that darkness, will just be a story. A memory to resurface late at night or a moment to relive at family gatherings. The time in which we live, the here and now, will be difficult. Things will fall apart. Hope will be taken. Love will be lost. And that’s okay. It’s okay not to know where the hell you’re going or what you’re doing. Or how anything will ever be the same. That’s a part of the (to be pretentious) human condition. And whether your struggle be with family members or with a part of yourself or some other shadow, it will pass. And a new day will be upon us. Sam, I think, also does a good job of reminding us that that “new day” isn’t going to be some Gastbian “one fine morning” when you wake up one day and everything is okay again. It’s going to take months, years, decades to come across that “new day”.  But it will come.

Assignment 18 Tommy Gardner

1. Before I get out of high school I would like to get straight A's for 2 semesters in a row. I have gotten straight A's, but not for 2 semesters in a row.

2.Before I graduate college I want to hike 50 miles at The Land Between the Lakes, the Appalachian Trail, and I would also like to complete a 120 mile trek at Philmont. Philmont is a ranch in New Mexico with over 500 miles of trails.

3. Before the end of my life I want to do the coast to coast hike in England. The coast to coast hike is a trail that goes from the east side of England to the west side. It is a 192 mile hike across from the east coast to the west side. It ends at Robin Hood's Bay, and starts at St. Bees.

Assignment 19: plastics

Most of the advice we receive in our lives is unsolicited and quite frankly inane.  However, every once in a while we get a real gem and changes our trajectory.  What is the one piece of advice given to you that has stuck?  Explain its effect.


Minimum of 150 words - due Sunday, February 7th at 11:59 pm

Assignment 18-Cameron Combs

Everyone sets goals for themselves to accomplish at many points throughout their lives, and set out to achieve these goals over a certain period of time. Well I have set short term and long term goals for myself as well. First of all, by the time I graduate high school, I hope to have . Another goal I have set would be to have planned out my future by the time I graduate college would be to have seen a New Orleans Pelicans basketball game. This is my favorite NBA team as well as the team of my favorite basketball player so I would like to watch him play as soon as possible. I would like to know where I want to live, what I want to do, who I want to live with, and get a general idea of what kind of life I would like to live when I grow up. Lastly, I would like to have gone to Australia by the end of my lifetime. I have been told many times by multiple people that this is one of the greatest places to live in all of the world, and I would like to experience this first hand by the time I die. These goals are all realistic and are ones that I plan on pursuing throughout my life.

Goals- Meriwether Carling

High School-

1. Start a small online necklace business
2. Have HCWSA go to state
3. Get good grades

Since sophomore year, I have made and sold small pearl necklaces for friends and family who want them. Part of the money that I earned went towards the CF foundation to help find a cure for the disease.  I used to always think that I was too busy and didn't have enough time to make the necklaces but in reality I knew that I could make time to get them done. Before I graduate high school and go off to college I want to start a small business to sell more of these necklaces to people around Lexington. It wouldn't be huge thing but I enjoy making them and the money would still go towards the CF foundation so it would be for a good cause. 

College-

1. Study Abroad
2. Get into vet school

College. I don't even know where I want to go to college, let alone what country I want to study abroad in. But, I do know it is something I want to do for part of my time in college. This past summer I visited Switzerland and Italy and learned a lot about both of their cultures in the ten days I was there. Emerging myself in another way of life while learning is something that interests me and by doing so I will also become more aware of how others live in comparison to me.

Life-

1. Marry/ Kids
2. Becoming a vet
3. Being content in life 

Eventually after college I want to become a vet, get married, and have kids. I would like to have kids of my own and adopt one as well. The idea that I could help kids in need, even if it is just one, by giving them a loving home and a better life is something I want to do in my lifetime. Also I want to be a vet because I love animals and I want to be able to heal them when they are sick and help them with problems they may have.

Movie Review- Meriwether Carling

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/user/id/973007183/ratings

Goals - Emily Sandford

So all in all at this day in my life I've accomplished more than I ever thought I would. Which really isn't saying much. But there is so much more that I want to do.

High School
1.) Make a name for myself
2.) Extend my presence in 4-H

College
1.) Seek new oppurtunitues
2.)Disney college program in Engineering - Jungle Cruise Skipper
Life
1.) Work for disney
2.) Be happy

 Before the end of high school I want to  make a name for myself. This is probably what people want in general, but I'm not talking about fame, or popularity I want people to know my name. I know I'm quite and I make it easy for people to overlook me. I don't want to be known as the quiet kid that noboby knows the name of (I currently own that position), I want it so that when people are like "hey you know Emily?" The other person will at least know there are three in the junior class of the academy, and two of them have a last name beginning with an S.

By the time I finish college I want to be able to say that I go seek new oppurtunities and I'm not presented them (because I'll be way too old for 4-H :( ). I want to be able to say I spoke up, I participated, maybe I even shared my idea even if it was only once.

By the time I finish life ( that sounds really morbid ) I want to work for Disney. As cheesy as it sounds, and as much as you already know about it, it's true. I want to be an audio-animatronic imagineer, I want to make people smile from the background. Yes this kind've goes against my previous points but those will have helped me get into college then into the Disney college program and finally get me a job at the happiest place on earth making people happy.

Brad Bird - Emily Sandford

So Brad Bird directed some pretty cool Pixar movies which ones you ask? Brad Bird directed the Incredibles, and Ratatouille (he's also soon the director of the highly anticipated Incredibles 2)
Being pixar movies they are both directed towards audiences of the young and the young at heart.

Some of the differences are style of storytelling. Incredibles uses a family of superheroes settling into subarban life as the main focus. Ratatouille uses a rat with a passion of cooking and a kid who can't cook to save his life as the main focus.

There are two similarities between the movies the first being the positive messages the movies present. Ratatouille presents the message that anyone can cook, while the Incredibles presents that we shouldn't hide what makes us special from the world. The themes are very similar in their self-impowerment nature. The other similarity is the role of women in the films. Helen Parr (Elastagirl), and Collette, are both women succeeding in a man's world. Collette the only women in the kitchen of Gusteaus. Helen is a superhero, and a pretty great one at that.

Both of these films strike cords with the viewers, and thats amazing because neither of the main protagonists are what we would consider human, or "normal".

Goals????????- Rachel Roberts

I have never really been one to set goals. Set the bar low and you always will achieve. For me, there are dreams and there are things have to do in order to function in this world (like graduate high school and college). So here is my sorry attempt at blending those two together and putting them in list form.

High School
1. Get into GSA
2. Run a Spartan Race
3. Learn to play guitar

College
1. Work as a character performer in the Disney College Program
2. Run a half marathon
3. Go hiking in Norway

Life
1. Work for Disney
2. Get married and have/adopt kids
3. Open my own private lesson music studio



Get into GSA: This is really important to me because I need to prove to myself I can actually audition. This is a weird reason, but its the main reason why. I always always always choke. I don't know why either. I'm totally fine once on stage, but auditioning to get to that point makes me a total mess. IF I got in, it would prove to myself that yes, I can do it, I can audition, which would help take nerves away in the future. Music is my passion and to be able to take three weeks of my summer to working on my craft for free would mean everything to me.



Work as a character performer in the Disney College Program: Ok, I am aware that I've mentioned this in several blogs and if you know me, about every 5 minutes. I've spent a decent amount of time researching the audition process and the program in general, so its only natural that I want to do it. my obsession began in the summer of 2010 when I was in line at Disneyworld for Toy Story Mania behind a guy in the program, who was telling the people around him how great the program was. I got home googled it, and it was all down hill from there. I originally wanted to be a princess, specifically Ariel. But I stop growing at 4 foot 10 and that goal was shot, thus began my obsession with Tinker Bell. So I hope to work as a Tinker Bell face character, but I will be happy as a face character since that's more conducive with my height. But either way, I will be happy in the place I love doing a job I dreamed of.




Work for Disney: Like you couldn't already guess this one. I don't want this to be my job/career path for my whole working life (because I actually need to make real money), but I do want to do this as a 20 something and then enter the real world (ew) as a music teacher. But I want to continue my work as a character performer or be in one of the park shows, specifically the Finding Nemo show as Nemo. But this will be like my last well really fun job before having to have a real job and family and life. Plus I will have some great stories to tell. Disney has been such an important part of my life, that I feel like working there would be my way of kind of paying back the mouse and giving the next generation of children wonderful park memories like I got to have and hopefully inspire some of them to take the same path as me.

Welch's Grape Juice, Bernie Sanders and Assholes. Rachael Gilbert

I’m kinda terrible at keeping promises and also making reasonable goals, but I am good at making lists so we’ll see how this goes. (*note from me after I finished writing this: it is sappy. I’m sorry. I’m pretty sure all goals are toasted in sorrow and baked in dreams (ewwww) or whatever and are thus required to be sappy, but just fair warning, these follow that same rule.*)

1.)    Before high school ends I’d like to say or do something that actually matters. A lot of high school is pretty self-centered. It’s about my grades and my life and my career. I get caught up in that. And a lot of times I care more about what I’m going to get on the next calc test (or how the hell I’m going to finish all of my homework) than the person sitting next to me. I want to change that. I want to be there for my friends (my grand total of 1.8) or even for that random guy who always cries in the hallway (shout out to green hallway stairway cry man. Actually maybe not him, I low-key think he’s a drug dealer). I mean, in ten years I’m not going to give two fucks about whether or not I did my physics homework (and to be completely honest, I don’t really care now), I’m going to care if I was there for the people that mattered to me.

2.)    In a similar vein, before college is over (dear god, watch out 2021) I want to be a good friend. As previously established, I’m the kind of the sarcastic asshole you only keep around for the puns (but they’re really good puns). I want to be more than that.

I think about that a lot actually, it’s like, you know when you wake up in the middle of the night and somehow by the grace of Lucifer himself, you’ve remembered that you completely forgot to do “x” and you feel like you’re about to die in the hell depths beneath? That happened over winter break (as it often does when I am given Welch’s sparkling grape juice, a copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and too much time on my hands). I “woke up” (to use the overly used and stereotypical phrase) and realized: I’m a kind of shitty friend. I talk over people, I sometimes care more about myself than others, I’m overly concerned with how I’m perceived, sometimes I’m overbearing, I cry a lot which isn’t a real selling point in the friendship market, etc. And I want to change that. I don’t really know how to do that, or how that can possibly happen by 2021, but I hope it will.

3.)    On a lighter note, before I finish living, I just really want to be a good parent. I don’t really see myself getting married, but I do see myself adopting a couple of kids (*channels inner Angelina Jolie*). I want to be the family who drives up to parks in a minivan and unloads an equal number of children and dogs, the kind who make waffles (note: no pancakes will be allowed in the Gilbert household as they are the literal spawn of satan) on Saturday mornings and have weird holiday traditions. I want us to spend weekend hiking or stargazing, on the first snow of the year I want us to have a LOTR marathon (yes that will be a legitimate opt out of school card in my children’s future), I want to read them Harry Potter and make terrible, yet adorable, crafts with them. I want to be a person they can cry to when they get a boo boo (and subsequently an Avenger’s Band-Aid), or when school is terrible (thanks American education system) or when they’re sad and they don’t know quite why, but everything is going wrong. I want to be there.

4.)    Okay, also, one last goal (for America really), by the time I die Bernie Sanders had better have been president at some point or I will come haunt all your asses. #FeeltheBern.

18 Alec Dupont

High School
Spend a whole entire day in bed

College
visit machu pichu

Life
Become veterinarian
Go to a world cup finals match
Visit all the continents besides Antarctica
run a marathon

Ok so as you can see I have such great ideas for high school. Of course they reflect my over all feeling towards the whole process. I look at high school as a long process to be overcome by drudging my way through each and every day, depriving myself of sleep in order to make the days go faster. I have no items for a bucket list for high school, so im just gonna do nothing one for one day. I think it would be a refreshing change from the monotony of school to go to the monotony of nothing.

I TOTALLY put a lot of thought into this as you can see, i clearly need to visit this amazing historic monument. In reality I just needed a decent idea to put down, that I probably wont accomplish because I will be a college student with no funds. I would like to see the ancient ruins, but they aren't really that special to me

This is the real list, the life bucket list. my favorite on here would be to go to a world cup finals match.I love soccer, and the world cup engrosses me every four years. I think that it would be fantastic to see some of the best players in the world play in the largest sporting event in the world. and that is my list

Assignment 18: Buckets and Buckets - Matthew Logsdon

Welcome to your first blog prompt for 2015! Yay!

A bucket list is a list of everything you want to accomplish before you kick the bucket. That doesn't mean you can't have such a list for specific aspects of your life as well.

To begin the year, generate your own bucket lists - one for high school, one for college, and one for life. Then, write about the priority on each list.

1. What is the number one item on your bucket list before you finish high school?
2. What is the number one item on your bucket list before you finish college?
3. What is the number one item on your bucket list before you finish living?

(This blog is inspired by Axel Liimatta - former academy teacher - my friend and former colleague that inspires me to live every day more fully)

Minimum of 150 words - due Sunday, January 24th  at 11:59 pm

Assignment 17: Noah Tapp

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/in_the_heart_of_the_sea/?search=the%20heart%20of%20the

Tarararanintino- Henry Walther

The first Tarantino movie I watched was Django: Unchained which unchained all my preconceived notions about a movie could and couldn't do. Cartoony violence to the point of almost comedy? The use of the N word in nearly every sentence? No pure protagonist? It was near blasphemous. And I loved it.

Since then I have grown more and more interested in movies. I have made it my goal to watch every movie that is nominated for best picture. To date I've watched every best picture hopeful except Room and Joy.

My favorite movie this year by far was Tarantino's Hateful Eight. It ranks as my second favorite Quentin movie behind Pulp and ahead of Dogs, Django, Inglorious Basterds, and Kill Bill(s).

The Hateful Eight is essentially a mashup of Dogs and Django; it's set in the wild west but the enemy isn't nature or Injins, it's betrayal. Eight (duh) people are stuck in Minnie's Haberdashery and a certain number of them are trying to free a prisoner. There are twists are turns that are reminiscent to Dogs but it is much more grandiose like Django. Tarantino regulars Samuel L Jackson, Tim Roth, and Michael Madson return and all have great roles with Roth's being my favorite. The Hateful Eight is stylistically closer to Dogs since it is mainly confided to small spaces where Django played with sprawling vistas and elaborate sets.  

Conclusion: Tarantino is a genius. I'll see anything with his name on it.

Assignment #17 - Daniel Kolpek

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/user/id/973008615/ratings

17 Clara

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/user/id/855912726/ratings

JOHN LASSETER IS MY FAVORITE- Rachel Roberts

 I have an unhealthy addiction to Disney, especially Pixar. John Lasseter is basically the king of Pixar. He's directed two of my absolute favorite Pixar movies, A Bug's Life and Toy story. Both movies are incredibly imaginative, toys that come to life when you leave the room and a society of bugs living on an island aren't really normal. The animation phenomenal. The voice actors do an amazing job. And John Lasseter does this thing with all the Pixar movies where he puts "A113" and the Pizza Planet Truck (as seen below). In Toy Story, humans (like Andy) play a very important part in the plot, but in Bug's Life there is no human contact at all. I find the color scheme of Bug's Life more visually pleasing than Toy Story. But I like how Toy Story explores that "what if" question I had as a child of if my toys had thoughts and feelings. Bug's Life could have been people instead of bugs, they where basically bugs in human form, but for me, that made it easier to relate to the characters. Which is another great thing about Lasseter's movies, all of his insanely imaginative characters are incredibly relatable. Like at some point in our lives we have felt like Flick or Woody. Or Lightening McQueen or Lotso. Even though they aren't people, you can still totally understand what they are going though.




                                                                           



                                                                                         


              
                                                                                                     

17 Alec Dupont

Comedies quote often end up on a scale, carefully balanced on a knife edge. They will either rise to hilarity or fall flat on their face. To examine this we will examine the difference between the comedy classic "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and the pathetic misstep "Zoolander". Now, as you all should know, Monty Python is one of the classics of comedy cinema, with such incredibly quotable lines like "Its just a flesh wound" from the dismembered black knight and "Your Mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries" from the angry french. Zoolander on the other hand, has none of the memorability of Monty Python, and it has the intelligence of caterpillar. Zoolander appeals to the least desirable aspects of american society, the stupid and the boring. It is everything wrong with Hollywood cinema, with lazy writing and ridiculous acting. It falls flat on its face because it is unoriginal and gaudy, with no redeeming qualities. Monty python is the exact opposite, with out any renown actors, it relies on wit and satire to entertain, and that is what makes it so great. And so it is with all comedies, the one that put the time in to actually make their script witty will succeed, and the ones that appeal to the lowest  common denominator will fall face first into the concrete.

Assignment 17- Cameron Combs

Over winter break, our family took many trips with long car rides, and watching movies was our main way to pass time while doing so. Being in a family with four kids though does often times cause conflict in finding movies that entertain all of us. The movies picked are usually those that appeal most to my little sister, so many of the movies we watch are from Pixar and Disney. Two movies that we watched were Up and Toy Story which were both created by Pete Docter of Pixar. Although the plot lines of these movies differed greatly, they were still created under the same general idea. This idea is to make children use their imagination and try to make the impossible seem to be a reality, and each of these movies does this very well. Toy Story makes the children think that it may actually be a possibility for toys to come alive and Up makes a house flying on the power of balloons alone not seem to be too unrealistic. While as we get older we come to the realization that these are both impossible, each of these movies make children think otherwise. This is the goal of any kids movie, and while each one has a different story, they are all accomplishing the same goal.