My Whacky Advertising Class - Com 443 Blog Entry No.4

Julie & Julia

Being a fan of musicals, horror, psychological thrillers,sci-fi thrillers, violent gory shows, and films with fine comedic humor, I knew this was going to be a well-scripted movie from which friends were talking about a few weeks back on about blogging and cooking. So I entered into the cinema with an open mind, deciding to watch this proper before coming to any conclusions subsequent to hearing about the food, cooking, and blogging from acquaintances. For this, I am going to share with you the elements in which I considered vital or areas that were truly important aspects, moments, and important decisions that I received from the movie. Specifically, in which, I thought were the explicit messages incorporated in the movie that would assist in the likelihood of my upcoming profession. Hopefully, it is to appropriately execute and formulate critical thinking in my day-to-day activities.

With regards to the leading characters, truly, the name Meryl Streep was no stranger to my ears, I’ve known for her leading roles in several films for instance, The Devil Wears Prada and Mama Mia. For that, I sat back, and enjoyed the movie. Thank you Professor Armstrong for including this movie into our Advertising class.

To start of, lets talk about the important things that I noted in this show, in my own opinion which I thought were meaningful. Firstly, persevering through times of hardship, whether it was occurring in a particular place or time, when we are integrating or adapting into a new working or living environment, it is always difficult to understand at first, the upcoming tribulations and circumstances one might face. In reality, in such times, we need to tranquilly grab hold of ourselves collectively, even after several attempts that resulted in letdowns, we must never give up until we achieve those goals that we set out to accomplish. Secondly, to understand that life is never fair. There will be occasions where you are receiving successful rewards. Unfortunately, however, there will be situations or mostly, disappointments, which are bound to surface, and they will discourage you as you proceed along this narrow path. The important thing is, since you are by now half way through your journey, like the movie, tell yourself to complete what you have set out to do, ignoring the criticisms, the failures, and the unfair dealings, which you are receiving from your external environments. Instead, learn to adapt and understand fully that the fact is, only you can set things right and make things happen for yourself. Thirdly, always be open to new opportunities. In many aspects of our routine lives, we often fail to surround ourselves with possibilities that could up shoot as potentially creative ideas to do(like cooking or maybe hat making, perhaps writing a book). And finally, keeping your loved ones close to you. Simply, one can never determine when we would actually require their help emotionally, and these are the people who will never ever put you down.

Blogging

When I began my first blog entry post here in Blogspot, I questioned myself wondering if this blog would ever sustain itself proper. Well, let’s just say I never had an interest in blogging, more so, updating and maintaining this blog account. Personally, I’d prefer an actual diary where I could pen down my own personal thoughts and that others would never ever get to see. Soon, blogging in my life, surfaced. Not only do I blog now, but am also looking and admiring other bloggers blogs. What’s going on? It’s the influence of new media. However, I do remind myself every time I felt like introducing a new blog entry, that is, this blog space would be visible in the Web, and that people who had accounts would view my information and leave comments should they find my ideas interesting. Honestly, did it really matter to me? Not at all, I do welcome comments at all times. Having said that, this brings me to my next section, where I would confidently say that blogging is truly a new medium that is an opportunity for anyone to express himself or herself openly.

On this positive end of the spectrum, blogging provides business propositions and opportunities for people who are often online to come together and share new insightful ideas amongst themselves. In other words, these blog spaces allows other bloggers who share commonalities in any line of work be it at art, music, food, cooking, sewing, selling, buying, marketing, advertising, and communication to the masses. Occasionally, I myself come across or discover interesting information online about politicians going about their daily political issues and advocating or enforcing their policies to no end result? In addition, I realized that there are millions or billions of bloggers all over the world, so who’s to say no one would ever drop by your blog and understand your thoughts.

On the far side, the Internet can be time consuming, and this may lead to an unhealthful way of life. From the characters depicted in the movie, it appears that the female actress Amy Adams or Julie Powell experienced several imbalances in her life because of her blog, her career, and her husband. Constantly informing her readers on her next dish,which she will partake on. Eventually, her life started to experience several impediments and she began loosing herself. From this, its goes to show that success requires lots and lots of time and hard work. Therefore, it is important to note that, although blogging is insightful, informative, communicative, and perhaps, the Internet is "my life" for some (not me though), it is crucially important to always make time to be with your loved ones - without a doubt.

Inferring from the movie, one cannot help but observe the passion of Julie Powell as she whips up recipe after recipe after watching videos and reading from Julia’s cookbook. Inspiration, determination, and the desire to succeed by completing a certain amount of recipes within a year.

Here are my personal inputs:

• Being honest goes along way.

• Trust and treasure your good friends.

• Never ever be put down by one failure. Pick yourself up and try again.

• Welcome feedback from others openly, so we can grow and improve on areas that require "maintenance".

• Enjoy the things you love doing most.

• Keeping a positive mindset

• Be open and patient towards others.

• Make the best out of this life.

At the end of the film, I was left with good humor, loved every bit of particular scenes that included the cooking and the eating, the wine, friends, and more importantly, being around loved ones.

A winning movie worthy of an Oscar!!!

My Whacky Advertising Class - Com 443 Blog Entry No.3

Sweeping Me Off My Seat

Imagine an open field, with beautiful views unobstructed, and imagine a camp fire, with tents. Also, people dressed in nothing you have ever seen before, feathers, markings on their faces with stripes for tribal identity, cross bows, arrows, knives, a warriors lair. Next, you hear music and the people dancing around this fire, singing to the gods with dances that exemplified the rituals of a Red Indian’s Tribe.

This film embodied me with an impression that I would never have forgotten, and for that, I am going to share with you my understanding with this wonderful movie which came to Singapore sometime during the early 90’s and this movie was named “Dances With Wolves.”

Yes indeed, an award winning film well written by Greg Bole. This film is a sweeping epic that you'll never forget whether you liked it or not. It enlightens the tale of love, loyalty, friendship, and self-realization in a magnificent setting among different people, places, and during an era of strife, which was the time of the Civil War. This film was my first encounter with Hollywood actor Kevin Costner and I believed this film was the start of his acting stardom. During the show, the first thing a viewer is struck by is the amazing landscape of western South Dakota. Though, having not been there myself, I have heard about the wonderful lush landscape about that situate. It is not clear to me though, but I remember watching the movie and the music or composition, which accompanied the film, was pleasantly unforgettable. Overall I must say, the depiction of the characters in the movie were not only breathtaking, but also enriching because viewers get to experience an insight tribal life of a native Red Indian living in the open fields.

After reading from The Internet Movie Database, the story deals with Lt. John Dunbar (Kevin Costner), a disillusioned Civil War vet who was ask over to be transferred to a western post so he can see the west "before it's gone". He is then sent to a deserted fort where he finds himself in an insecure position of being the only white man (the last I recalled, it’s been too long) in a land of Indians who seems intent on stealing his horse. He decides to try to get to know the Indian tribe and eventually becomes one of them. During his acculturation, I recalled very vaguely, Dunbar constantly recording his experiences into his little brown diary, in which, he would refer to, and continue to document his findings, and this diary was dear to him.

Dances With Wolves is a very very good film!!!!

On a Personal note

For me, the most important take home message which I got from the movie, was how the director was able illustrate how easy it was for humans to stereotype other cultures that was unfamiliar to us. In fact, this is prevalent up till this day of age whether it was between Red Indians and U.S. soldiers or people of different skin color. On the other hand, it was because Lt. Dunbar witnessed the death of his parents when he was a little boy, and this past experience has allowed his bitterness to evolve and detest against the Red Indians. On the contrary, Dunbar realized that not all Red Indians were bad, but instead, they were actually people with good hearts with true virtues.