Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Tsunami Before and After
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Todd Marinovich Deconstruction
In a captivating story of struggles and successes, a boy named Todd Marinovich is raised by his father, Marve Marinovich, to be the perfect quarterback. Todd struggles with drug abuse and his relationship with his father while aspiring to be the best he could be in USC, the LA Raiders, Matre Dame, and other places in his life. The film demonstrates that good things don’t come easily, and begs the questions that if you’re good at something, whatever it is, should you do it as an occupation for the rest of your life?
Drugs abuse, sports, and his relationship with his father all pose a problem in his life. Todd uses drugs at first to escape life and all his problems with football and his father. His use of drugs soon becomes abuse, leading to an addiction that causes him to go into severe withdrawal and act out at people when he doesn't get the drugs when he wants them, such as biting his sister. His love for football started strong, but slowly faded away as time went on. His use of drugs gets him in trouble with the USC coach, which compounds itself into a repetitive state. The fact that his relationship with his father is more coach - athlete doesn't help with his life either. As a viewer--and as a critic--, I would have to say that I did find it slightly interesting, wanting to find out what happens to him as his life progresses, waiting for the "super athlete" to reach his downfall.
Drugs, as with almost every story, compounded the problems Todd is(in the movie, at least) having with his football career and his relationship with his father. As the drug addiction got worse, so did his relationship with his football career. Eventually, that in turn effected his family, causing them to split apart. It took an old friend and another visit to jail to finally turn his life around. At rehab, Todd meets a girl, and they eventually get married.
The author reflects on their experience towards the end as tiny little clips of each person speaking, talking about all of the good things that they learned and that happened out of this experience. Most of it was Todd himself, reflecting on what he learned from that experience, and what he gained from it. He gained the love of his father over time, as well as a wife and kids. This inspiring film left me with final thoughts of what happened to him, whether his life just went on the way it was when the film ended. At the end, he had finally fixed his addiction and had gotten a life outside of them and football. That is where they left it. It made me feel happy for him, even though I was thinking he would never get out of the addiction or he would relapse.
A sports person, addict/ recent addict, or a person who loves recovery stories would indeed enjoy this fixating film. This story includes Todd's progression in football, from pee-wee football to his NFL career, as well as his progression into addiction and his regression out of it. Anyone who doesn't like sob stories or films about other people's lives would absolutely not feel connected. Besides those people, everybody else would feel somewhat connected to this film. Is this film worth your time? It really does depend on who you are and what you like. It may be worth you time, yet it also might not be worth it either.
Monday, February 18, 2013
1-The Spartans crushed the Panthers and Durand. Meanwhile, zombies ransacked the neighboring towns.
2- Many people believe that zombies are mindless and malevolent in nature. However, they were once humans at one time.
3- Panthers, also known as cougars, mountain lions, and pumas, have long been feared as a predator. However, the exact opposite is true for the football team.
4- Panthers have never been to Durand. Furthermore, zombies have never been to Durand, near Spartans, and they have never seen a panther, as far as we know.
5- After the Spartans, Durand is the second most likely to survive a zombie Apocalypse.
6- Before they leave, the Spartans will dominate and take home the state trophy.
7- Although moving, zombies are dead, decaying, and cold hearted.
8- To stay in shape, Spartan athletes must work out, eat right, and they must compete in exercises.
9- As they sleep and dream, the Spartans are resting their bodies, preparing for games, and they are thinking of winning.
10- Intro Phrase/Clause, CC, CC, Simple List
The theme of the day is panthers, Durand, Spartans, zombies, or any combination of the 4
2- Many people believe that zombies are mindless and malevolent in nature. However, they were once humans at one time.
3- Panthers, also known as cougars, mountain lions, and pumas, have long been feared as a predator. However, the exact opposite is true for the football team.
4- Panthers have never been to Durand. Furthermore, zombies have never been to Durand, near Spartans, and they have never seen a panther, as far as we know.
5- After the Spartans, Durand is the second most likely to survive a zombie Apocalypse.
6- Before they leave, the Spartans will dominate and take home the state trophy.
7- Although moving, zombies are dead, decaying, and cold hearted.
8- To stay in shape, Spartan athletes must work out, eat right, and they must compete in exercises.
9- As they sleep and dream, the Spartans are resting their bodies, preparing for games, and they are thinking of winning.
10- Intro Phrase/Clause, CC, CC, Simple List
The theme of the day is panthers, Durand, Spartans, zombies, or any combination of the 4
Friday, February 1, 2013
My Final Story (Our Puppies)
1. Squaw Lake
2. Parents
3. School
4. My brother
5. My brother's death
Potential Beginning
Waves glancing off the boat, powered by a light summer breeze, calling me into a trance. So peaceful, so quiet. "Michael!" So they figured out that I didn't do my chores, huh? Sigh. Well, I better get them done before I get grounded. The lake and my parents rarely work out in my schedule, both thoughts opposing each other unless one is done before the other. So, this begs the question of why I insist on doing both, instead of following just one.
Potential Paragraph
The lake, as well as my parents, has always been there for me. In the summer, it often pulls me towards its dark green waters and cattail lined shores, as if there was a magnetic bond connecting us. However, it has often gotten me in trouble with my parents, as it pulls me away from those more "important" things, like chores and spending time with the family.
Speaking of which, my parents have always been there to support me in whatever I have done so far. They have never let down the opportunity to accept me for who I am, as well as correct me when I am wrong.
Final Copy
Sitting at home--an old, five bedroom, wood-stove heated place--in the blue lazy boy, being a lazy boy, I figured out why my parents had taken our female dog--Gypsy--to the vet that day. Conversing with my sister, about the topic, we both knew why; she was pregnant. Earlier that month, while Gypsy was still in heat, Bandit--our other dog, a male--found a way to her. You know the rest of the story. Finally getting back, our dad gives us the knowing nod of his head, and my suspicions were confirmed. Come April, we will have a batch of puppies on our hands.
Fast forward two months, and April is here. Going to the store the past week, my dad had gotten a blue kiddy pool in anticipation for Gypsy's nesting instinct. It's time for the dogs to come back inside the house, but only Bandit comes when we call. My dad goes out looking for Gypsy with a flashlight. She comes running shortly afterward, and dad urgently tells us to get her into the kiddy pool. Apparently, she had begun to dig a depression along our house in preparation for the puppies, which were coming that night.
At about nine, I go to sleep, nothing having happened yet. I wake up around ten to my sister saying, "That is just gross". Going back to sleep, I woke up the next day at about 7 a.m., my mother needing someone to watch over Gypsy besides my sister--who had stayed up the whole night helping mom--while she went to sleep. By then, there had been seven pups, which was all that was expected due to an earlier scan of Gypsy. I don't know exactly how much later it was, but my sister suddenly says there was an eighth. In total, four blue merles--one of which was a female with two blue eyes--, and four tri-colors--one of which was a male--had been born that night and morning, each measuring to be about eight inches long. The blue merle female, named Dixie at the time, was almost all white with a few patches of grey and black. The other blue merles were a combination of brown, grey, black, and tan. The tri-colors--which, as already stated in the name--were made up of three colors; they consisted of tan/brown, white, and a lot of black. Gypsy didn't know what to do at first--she was a little scared of them--until she was helped by my mother and sister. After that, she would not let Bandit near them until we took her away, and the only things she left them for was exercise, to bark at passing cars, and food. Unfortunately, that often got in between her and the pups, and she did not like it when they got close to it.
The puppies daily schedule was nothing special. All they did then was eat, sleep, play a little, and yep, you guessed it, poop. They didn't do very much then that was particularly fun. But, in time they got bigger and were able to maneuver better and were able to play with their parents. "Playing", mind you, consisted of the puppies attempting to chase Bandit and Gypsy around a three-foot tall fenced-in enclosure--which, after a week, was reduced to bits of grass and a mud puddle--that was about half of our yard. In which, both Gypsy and Bandit would simply jump over the fence if the puppies got to close to catching them, resulting in immediate stops and pups rolling on top of one another. Needless to say, the puppies did not like that. They would often attempt to follow their parents out of the fence, which never worked until Gypsy held down the fence for them. This caused much running around and playing catch-the-puppy almost every day. At the time, we tried not to think about when we would have to sell them, becuase it brought about it to much sorrow. Oh, and lying down within their reach meant a smothering and biting sentence. Imagine, soft, fluffy, and yet heavy, puppies scrambling over each other and you to bite at anything they could get a hold of, which included hair, which tended to be very funny while being painful.
What was even more painful though, was eight weeks after they were born when we started finding owners for them. The first ones to respond to an add in the paper was a couple who needed a dog to herd animals. What animals you ask? Goats. Yes, you read right. So, the man picked the biggest pup, a very chubby and sluggish blue merle named Rio. My family cried after he was gone, and after each other pup left us. Unfortunately, a week or two afterwards he got hit by a truck when the driver didn't see him and died. By then, I thought I had cried all of my tears out for all of the other puppies that left our home. I was wrong. After all of the other puppies were gone except one, the male tri-color named Sebastian, they came back and took him--they still needed a dog to herd the goats. By then, he was already as big as Rio, which was what they needed. He eventually grew up to be a sixty-plus dog, bigger than both Bandit and Gypsy have ever been, and still bigger than either of them now.
Rarely do breeders ever see the pups they have sold again. However, we do keep in touch with a few of the families that bought our puppies. We have seen one of the blue merle males--which we called Janus, and is now called Max--a few times in the time that has passed. Whenever Gypsy sees him--or any other dog besides Bandit for that matter--she is never happy. We always kid around, even though we know that she hates other dogs, that she is saying "Don't you dare come back here". Bandit, however, loves other dogs but hates people, so he's often the only one of the two who sees Max.
And so, that is how it was raising eight little dogs for eight weeks. That's weird, I never noticed that before(the previous sentence). It was the best of times and the worst of times. Oh, and by the way, it's going to happen again. Bandit and Gypsy are going to have puppies this coming spring. Here we go again.
2. Parents
3. School
4. My brother
5. My brother's death
Potential Beginning
Waves glancing off the boat, powered by a light summer breeze, calling me into a trance. So peaceful, so quiet. "Michael!" So they figured out that I didn't do my chores, huh? Sigh. Well, I better get them done before I get grounded. The lake and my parents rarely work out in my schedule, both thoughts opposing each other unless one is done before the other. So, this begs the question of why I insist on doing both, instead of following just one.
Potential Paragraph
The lake, as well as my parents, has always been there for me. In the summer, it often pulls me towards its dark green waters and cattail lined shores, as if there was a magnetic bond connecting us. However, it has often gotten me in trouble with my parents, as it pulls me away from those more "important" things, like chores and spending time with the family.
Speaking of which, my parents have always been there to support me in whatever I have done so far. They have never let down the opportunity to accept me for who I am, as well as correct me when I am wrong.
Final Copy
Sitting at home--an old, five bedroom, wood-stove heated place--in the blue lazy boy, being a lazy boy, I figured out why my parents had taken our female dog--Gypsy--to the vet that day. Conversing with my sister, about the topic, we both knew why; she was pregnant. Earlier that month, while Gypsy was still in heat, Bandit--our other dog, a male--found a way to her. You know the rest of the story. Finally getting back, our dad gives us the knowing nod of his head, and my suspicions were confirmed. Come April, we will have a batch of puppies on our hands.
Fast forward two months, and April is here. Going to the store the past week, my dad had gotten a blue kiddy pool in anticipation for Gypsy's nesting instinct. It's time for the dogs to come back inside the house, but only Bandit comes when we call. My dad goes out looking for Gypsy with a flashlight. She comes running shortly afterward, and dad urgently tells us to get her into the kiddy pool. Apparently, she had begun to dig a depression along our house in preparation for the puppies, which were coming that night.
At about nine, I go to sleep, nothing having happened yet. I wake up around ten to my sister saying, "That is just gross". Going back to sleep, I woke up the next day at about 7 a.m., my mother needing someone to watch over Gypsy besides my sister--who had stayed up the whole night helping mom--while she went to sleep. By then, there had been seven pups, which was all that was expected due to an earlier scan of Gypsy. I don't know exactly how much later it was, but my sister suddenly says there was an eighth. In total, four blue merles--one of which was a female with two blue eyes--, and four tri-colors--one of which was a male--had been born that night and morning, each measuring to be about eight inches long. The blue merle female, named Dixie at the time, was almost all white with a few patches of grey and black. The other blue merles were a combination of brown, grey, black, and tan. The tri-colors--which, as already stated in the name--were made up of three colors; they consisted of tan/brown, white, and a lot of black. Gypsy didn't know what to do at first--she was a little scared of them--until she was helped by my mother and sister. After that, she would not let Bandit near them until we took her away, and the only things she left them for was exercise, to bark at passing cars, and food. Unfortunately, that often got in between her and the pups, and she did not like it when they got close to it.
The puppies daily schedule was nothing special. All they did then was eat, sleep, play a little, and yep, you guessed it, poop. They didn't do very much then that was particularly fun. But, in time they got bigger and were able to maneuver better and were able to play with their parents. "Playing", mind you, consisted of the puppies attempting to chase Bandit and Gypsy around a three-foot tall fenced-in enclosure--which, after a week, was reduced to bits of grass and a mud puddle--that was about half of our yard. In which, both Gypsy and Bandit would simply jump over the fence if the puppies got to close to catching them, resulting in immediate stops and pups rolling on top of one another. Needless to say, the puppies did not like that. They would often attempt to follow their parents out of the fence, which never worked until Gypsy held down the fence for them. This caused much running around and playing catch-the-puppy almost every day. At the time, we tried not to think about when we would have to sell them, becuase it brought about it to much sorrow. Oh, and lying down within their reach meant a smothering and biting sentence. Imagine, soft, fluffy, and yet heavy, puppies scrambling over each other and you to bite at anything they could get a hold of, which included hair, which tended to be very funny while being painful.
What was even more painful though, was eight weeks after they were born when we started finding owners for them. The first ones to respond to an add in the paper was a couple who needed a dog to herd animals. What animals you ask? Goats. Yes, you read right. So, the man picked the biggest pup, a very chubby and sluggish blue merle named Rio. My family cried after he was gone, and after each other pup left us. Unfortunately, a week or two afterwards he got hit by a truck when the driver didn't see him and died. By then, I thought I had cried all of my tears out for all of the other puppies that left our home. I was wrong. After all of the other puppies were gone except one, the male tri-color named Sebastian, they came back and took him--they still needed a dog to herd the goats. By then, he was already as big as Rio, which was what they needed. He eventually grew up to be a sixty-plus dog, bigger than both Bandit and Gypsy have ever been, and still bigger than either of them now.
Rarely do breeders ever see the pups they have sold again. However, we do keep in touch with a few of the families that bought our puppies. We have seen one of the blue merle males--which we called Janus, and is now called Max--a few times in the time that has passed. Whenever Gypsy sees him--or any other dog besides Bandit for that matter--she is never happy. We always kid around, even though we know that she hates other dogs, that she is saying "Don't you dare come back here". Bandit, however, loves other dogs but hates people, so he's often the only one of the two who sees Max.
And so, that is how it was raising eight little dogs for eight weeks. That's weird, I never noticed that before(the previous sentence). It was the best of times and the worst of times. Oh, and by the way, it's going to happen again. Bandit and Gypsy are going to have puppies this coming spring. Here we go again.
Bandit (left) and one of the puppies, Max (right).
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