Life is but a Netflix queue created by an idiot.. And that idiot would be me.

Do you ever start a thing out as a joke and just become too emotionally attached to change it that much? That's how I'm feeling about this blog post. I'm so sorry.

Get ready for the most dynamite queue for the 3 witches, and, yes, they are all movies about witches. I decided I'm going to actually try to present these seriously, wish me luck.

I like to imagine their beards looked like her hair but like.. on their chin

1. Hocus Pocus:
They said an altered version to that one line "double double toil and trouble" in this movie, I think. I never actually watched the movie. But in all the ABC family commercials during October they show this scene. I bet the witches sit back on the couch watching this like:
Unison: "yeah,"
Witch 1: "we made it fam,"
Witch 2: "we famous,"
Witch 3: "we said something like that."


Anyways, these witches are all sisters in this movie, and there is three of them. Three, the power number, the number of the Weird Sisters. These women possess supernatural powers strong enough to continue messing with people even after they had died during the Salem witch trials. It seems like they have more of an influence on the fate of everyone in the town, than the townspeople think they have. Apparently it's a good movie and these ladies know how to party. I bet Macbeth's witches do too.

2.The Witches:

Reminder: this was a kid's movie.

Once again it's about witches and supernatural forces. The lady in the caption, the Grand High Witch spent the whole movie she was using her abilities to harass children, turn one into a mouse, and try to kill them. I feel like this is perhaps a hobby the three witches have themselves. Also, the most important part, she has a beard, small, but it's there and you can see it. In this occurrence, the witches may enjoy to watch this movie, to laugh about how much of a failure this witch was for a Grand High Witch. She didn't even succeed in using her supernatural power to doom a child's fate in a long term way. That's some weak witching, lady.

In case you couldn't see that..... Also in case you wanted a close up on this image of beauty.

I also feel like the three witches would really relate to her, you know? Bearded witches aren't given enough representation in the media. It's ridiculous. These days they all look like this:

Does she count as a witch? Also I wonder if these two use the same color lipstick.. It looks pretty similar...

3. Sleeping Beauty :

The entire premise for this story was that this ol' witch/supernatural being Maleficent set a curse upon a baby, and no matter what they did to try to prevent it from occurring it was futile because it was her fate. This curse was unavoidable, however, destined to eventually be escaped, since it was cast with a loophole, a true love's kiss. 

But honestly she just wanted to be included. If she just got the invite to go party it up your baby wouldn't have been cursed.

  The movie's plot was really all about fate and destiny actually unraveling due to the supernatural's influence. Also, I feel like the 3 witches would probably enjoy themselves doing this. Just find some babies, set some curses upon them with some extremely unlikely (but not necessarily impossible) way to break the curse, then sit back and watch what unfolds. This movie would save them the effort having to do it once, they could just watch Maleficent do it instead. 

4 & 5. Twitches and Twitches Too :

They are witches.. Twin witches.. They were separated at birth and destined to meet again when they were 21 years old. I still can't get over the fact that these were actual movies. Anyways, with their magic they were destined with the responsibility to fight off some kind of dark supernatural forces in order to save the world from chaos or something. They also had some other supernatural beings that were their allies or something that used their magic in order to fulfill their destiny of meeting again (this plot man... too wild). So the entire movies are about both good and bad supernatural forces setting up these girls' to fulfill a prophecy. A few times throughout the movie the two tried to dodge their way out of their responsibilities, thinking they would be able to avoid their destiny, but in the end they had to encounter the super natural.

Also, they obviously relate to the witches because there are two of them. Although there is one more witch in Macbeth, if you count both of them from both movies, there's four, and if you subtract one from four, you get three. See? It makes perfect sense when you don't think about it. 

Spoiler: apparently they were princess twitches witches

Duuuuude they have the power to shoot glitter from their fingers?? Okay I actually have to watch this now. I only know as much as I did because the sister to this boy I used to babysit would watch it all the time. Every time I was babysitting her brother she at some point was on disney channel watching this.  

Are they talking to the mist? Also look at the cool green screen ground... It's convincing. 

I'm ready for my A++++. 

Witch-slapped: Boy Do I Appreciate this Blog Post Title, Let Me Tell Ya Mrs.G

So I'll be answering question number 4 in this blog post.

How do the values of manhood differ in modern times? What do you think it takes to be a good man? Explain how your views are like or unlike those in the play, using examples from the text.

In modern times values of manhood depend on the person, although it seems we still have this ridiculous idea of masculinity versus femininity and if a person fails to fit in to what society views as that as a man or a woman, the majority of people will judge them.

So lets see here, some of the similar things we see about manhood since then are:
1. A penis. Apparently, this is seen as the ultimate necessity to be a man. Even today, which is condemning to transmen or men that are intersexual (you may know this as the term hermaphrodite).
2. Strength is a value; physical strength, mental strength, and emotional strength. If you are a man and you show what would be considered weakness, such as not being able to lift things, not being able to mentally handle things, or showing emotions,  you will in fact be mocked.
3. Cannot be effeminate.

If there are differences it is that you can argue society today is a little more accepting, however this sexism and societal gender roles still exists, which are not only detrimental to women, but to men as well if they do not align perfectly to these values.

So, now, what do I think it takes to be a good man?
I think all the qualities that a good human should have makes a good man. If you identify as a man that's good enough for me, congratulations you're a man. A good man would be a person that isn't an overall terrible person, maybe they are nice, they aren't mean to people. I do not think they have to fit into gender roles in order to be considered 'good'.

I think my views of this whole thing are very different from those in the play. The simplest example I have from the text is Lady Macbeth's views which are very prominent. About how weak Macbeth was in fact, not man enough, and how she wanted to be a man so that she would be powerful enough. As if she would make a 'better' man than he would in the long run, because of him not taking action immediately, thinking things out, expressing feelings such as guilt rather than going ahead and fearlessly killing the King.
However, it could also be argued that because of the fact Shakespeare reversed Lady Macbeth's and Macbeth's gender roles maybe he viewed them differently. In the long run, however, the views of the characters in the text display these 'normal' views about masculinity and femininity that do not necessarily fit with my own views.

Blog Post #4

As soon as I saw this week’s prompt, I knew I would end up writing about one of the most recent Hardees’ commercials for their “Mile High Bacon Thickburger” which has been playing frequently on several television channels since September (their YouTube account uploaded it on September 25th). Here's a link to see the commercial for yourself.

So in case you didn't know anything about Hardees, it's an american restaurant chain that's been around since the 1960s. They are also notorious for using the female body in their advertisements in order to entice their predominately male audience into purchasing burgers from their restaurants.

In this commercial, titled 'PROPOSITIONING', one could argue that at least two of the seven deadly sins were demonstrated and used as devices to persuade the audience that they should buy a Mile High Bacon Thickburger®. Lust and gluttony are the most obvious sins demonstrated, but I would like to argue that avarice is also used in the commercial, just to a smaller scale.

I'm a little worried that boys will start associating hunger hand in hand with lust... Pavlov conditioning anybody?
But seriously, that would be such an uncomfortable mix of feelings, good luck to them.

The commercial depicts an upper class, white, heterosexual couple on an airplane. The woman of the pair was deliberately wearing a dress suit top, cut low enough to display her cleavage. She then asks if he wants to, "join the mile high club," which of course has sexual connotation, but he declines. When she turns to the other guy, a white man that's dressed professionally,  she asks the same thing, however, this time the camera is positioned to make sure both her face and her cleavage take the center of the screen, which is usually the center point of concentration when it comes to the layout of an image. The guy nods, and we all know where he's looking. 

Who cares about eye contact? Not this gentleman.

Then, to their target audience's amusement and to everyone else's relief she pulls out two of those massive burgers. 

Hey look! Eye contact restored.. I can't tell if he's disappointed or if he's just like "whatever, this works too.."

Keeping in mind the size and the name of the burger, it seems safe to say that everything about the product is excessive, and thus gluttony is revealed to be another persuasive device they are using. Avarice can kind of be seen, when their wardrobe is taken into consideration along with this idea that the consumer can get a massive meal for pretty cheap. Of course, the advertisement swings back into lust, when the camera pans over to the woman eating. 

Who actually eats like that. Get a napkin or something, what the heck.

So if this description didn't make you feel uncomfortable, maybe it just so happens you are a part of their target audience, and if that's the case you probably want one of those, misleading, Mile High Thickburgers®. 

I would just like to point out that this is not a mile high, contrary to popular belief, and, also, chances are when you buy the burger it won't shimmer in the sunlight/moonlight/florescent lighting quite as well as they'll have you believe....

Blog post #3

5. Reread the following passages and complete the task that follows:

“And, ma’am,” he continued, “the laundress tells me some of the girls have two clean tuckers in the week: it is too much; the rules limit them to one.”

“Julia Severn, ma’am! And why has she, or any other, curled hair? Why, in defiance of every precept and principle of this house, does she conform to the world so openly—here in an evangelical, charitable establishment—as to wear her hair one mass of curls?”

“Naturally! Yes, but we are not to conform to nature; I wish these girls to be the children of Grace: and why that abundance? I have again and again intimated that I desire the hair to be arranged closely, modestly, plainly. Miss Temple, that girl’s hair must be cut off entirely; I will send a barber to-morrow.”

“(T)hree other visitors, ladies, now entered the room. They ought to have come a little sooner to have heard his lecture on dress, for they were splendidly attired in velvet, silk, and furs. The two younger of the trio (fine girls of sixteen and seventeen) had grey beaver hats, then in fashion, shaded with ostrich plumes, and from under the brim of this graceful head-dress fell a profusion of light tresses, elaborately curled; the elder lady was enveloped in a costly velvet shawl, trimmed with ermine, and she wore a false front of French curls.”
Analyze the author’s use of irony in describing Mr. Brocklehurst’s family in the second passage. How does the author contrast this description with Mr. Brocklehurst’s lecture to Miss Temple to provide social commentary on perceptions of class during this time? 

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Charlotte Bronte executes an excellent usage of irony when Mr. Brocklehurst lectures Miss Temple followed by introducing his own family. He deems that the girls will be greedy and lustful if they are given more than one outfit, and two good meals. While his own family obviously has been very well fed their entire lives and were dressed in extremely elaborate clothing. While he spoke about Julia's hair naturally curling he deemed that it was inappropriate despite it being natural, thus she would have to have her hair cut off completely, even though it was completely acceptable for his own family to wear "a false front of French curls." 

He was certain that these poor girls receiving "luxuries" that did not fit their class would spoil them. At least he used that as justification during his argument, which in itself was clearly ironic. Bronte clearly contrasted this description with Mr. Brocklehurst's lectures in order to clearly provide a social commentary on the hypocrisies possessed within perceptions of class during this time. If anybody dared step out of the 'norm' of their class they must have been blasphemous, and be spoiled, despite the higher class having access to things of greater luxuriousness every day of their lives. Yet, they would not be perceived in the same manner, obviously, they must have already been suitable for society if they did not deserve that kind of treatment. At least that's how a biased person would view oneself. 

In society nobody wants to admit that their views may be hypocritical, or that they were possibly wrong. While people can easily criticize those in completely different circumstances, circumstances of which they may never have encountered thus may never begin to completely grasp, they can still figuratively tear them and their actions to shreds. While it may have been more prevalent during this time frame thus the focus of the author's social commentary, it is still a very relevant issue within today's society as well.

Blog Post #2

What's in a name

Dumais is a surname, which my father claims to have meant "of many" as in of many riches, or "to be well" in health. What his, better yet our, ancestors didn't realize is that when translating it to English, Goodrich did not have the same meaning. Goodrich was a British surname that originally meant "Godric' or "God-rule". Now whenever we try to research our family's origins from Cuba, we have no luck in finding relatives all because of a faulty translation. Sometimes I like to imagine what the conversation between my great-grandfather and an American trying to figure out how to translate it was like. It'd probably have been something like, "Oh, it means to be healthy and wealthy? I heard some people go by Goodrich, get it? Good and Rich? That's probably what Goodrich means. Boom, there's your name, say goodbye to your entire family's history!", but just imagine them speaking in whatever jargon that actually fit that time-frame, more specifically, on the coast of Florida. I think my last name, Goodrich, has shown me my family had way too much trust in white people, but, hey, now that we are white people there was really no harm done. My father and his family were mistaken for white Americans, which was the plan all along, so props to you however-many-greats-grandpappy. In all seriousness, if it hadn't been for the name change my family may not have even stayed in America. With prejudice and several other factors they could have faced they may not have been able to stabilize business here. Which means that I wouldn't exist. If you look at it that way, the name Goodrich defined both my family's erasure and, ultimately, our survival.

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"Two" of yourself

 When it comes to being a person, having only two halves doesn't really seem to fit it. You can be an individual and then be a part of a larger whole. This group in some instances could be a smaller part in another bigger whole too though, couldn't it be? You could be part of several larger wholes as well. I do not think this means there are "two" or more of you. You can be a part of a club and still be yourself. You just happen to be within a club.

For instance, I am a coach for Special Olympics soccer and track and field. I am also a martial artist, I used to be on an extreme martial arts demonstration team where we would do gymnastics and fighting performances. I am also a member of a family as I am a member of several clubs at school. When I'm coaching I'm still myself, this does not make two of me. There is not a 'Sam that is just Sam and does nothing', and a 'Coach Sam'. On the demonstration team I was not suddenly just a performer. I am Sam, who happens to coach, does martial arts, has a family, participates in clubs at school, and who goes to school. These are just subcategories that further define me as an individual. 

While I understand what Anna Quindlen was saying in her article, I personally do not agree with what she is saying. You are an individual, you can be an individual within a group of people, but you are not the entire group of people. The individual and the individual in a group is the same individual. She was herself, she just happens to be a mother and wife as well.

Calling in my Freebie