IP Blog #4

I really dislike people who go out of their way to hurt the feelings of others. I don’t understand why they do it, I don’t understand how it could benefit them in any way. Everyone says that people like this are always just really insecure about themselves, but it’s hard for me to accept that as an excuse. Everyone’s insecure about themselves, there isn’t one person on this planet who isn’t the least bit insecure about themself in some way. There are plenty of things that I’m insecure about, but you don’t see me going around trying to make other people feel awful about themselves because of it. I don’t understand how people can treat others like absolute crap 90% of the time, and then expect to be liked and included in return. Why would anyone want to include a person in their life who feels the need to criticize everyone else? Eventually people like this will realize that by acting this way, they’re pushing away everyone in their lives. And eventually, they’re not going to have anyone in their lives, because I know that when I meet people like I run away as fast I can, because I don’t need any more negative energy in my life than I already have.

Maybe I’m just saying too much.

But then again, what really is saying too much? I honestly think that sometimes we don’t say enough. Sometimes it’s hard for us to find the confidence to speak out about the things that really bother us. I’m definitely that way, sometimes no matter how strongly I feel about something, I don’t say anything about it because I am afraid of saying too much.

And I don’t think that saying too much is something to be afraid of.

IP Blog #3

I’d always known that Jacob had had a kind of ardent infatuation for me, but this was getting a little out of hand.

                I was one of the only people that talked to Jacob at school, maybe the only one. Our interactions were very limited, maybe a smile in the hallway, a quick hello, and a goodbye conversation at the end of the day­ – our lockers were right next to each other, just as they had been every year for the past three years of high school.

                I always walked home from school with my boyfriend, Mark. We lived next door together and had since we were both born, our parents were best friends. But today was different, today someone else was walking with us. It was Jacob, walking about 50 feet behind us, following us.

                “Don’t worry about it honey,” said Mark, noticing my panic. “It’s just Jacob, he’s harmless. I’m coming over after work, you won’t be alone for long. Just relax.”

                Both of our parents were going out tonight for my mom’s birthday, so I was going to be home alone all night. That is, until Mark gets off work and comes over, we always take advantage of time we get to spend alone together. It was nice to hang out with my boyfriend without an authority figure constantly watching us.

                Mark walked me to my door and kissed my goodbye. “Relax,” he said, and then he turned around and got into his car to head to work. Maybe all of my worries were superfluous. I was always nice to Jacob, what would he possibly want to do to me?

                It was 9:30, a half an hour after Mark was supposed to come over. I was starting to get really worried, so I decided to call him.

                No answer.

                I really needed to calm down, nothing was wrong with Mark, he probably just got held up at work. 

                It wasn’t until 10:00 when I finally got a call back from Mark.

                “Hello?” I said, anxious to hear his voice.

                “Hey sweetheart,” a voice who was not Mark’s answered.

                “Hello? Who is this? Jacob?” what was he doing with Mark’s phone?

                “Let’s not talk about Mark now, he’s not here. You look very nice tonight by the way.”

                “Jacob, what do you mean Mark’s not here, and how do you know what I look like?”

                There was no answer. I heard the back door of my house being opened.

                I dropped my phone and started to run. I ran out of my living room into the hallway and out of my front door. When I got to the end of my front yard and I tripped over something dank. When I saw what it was I started screaming and crying hysterically.

                It was Mark, lifeless, laying in a pool of his own blood.

                I went for my pocket to grab my phone to call 911, but I realized I’d dropped it in my house. I thought about running to my neighbor’s house to try and get some help. But it was too late.  There he was, walking to me from my front door. I told myself to stand up and start running, but I couldn’t feel my legs.

                And then Jacob got to me, leaned down, looked into my eyes, and smiled a horrifying smile.

IP Blog #2

Local Child Discovers How Many Licks it takes to get to the Center of a Tootsie Pop

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Adam Johnson, 8 years of age, received a tootsie pop on Monday, April 4^th for his perfect attendance in March. Little to his knowledge, Adam was about to solve one of life’s greatest mysteries. It was a blue tootsie roll pop, his favorite flavor.

                “This wasn’t the first time he’s received an award for perfect attendance,” his teacher, Ms. King, told us. “He’s gotten perfect attendance every other month this year, except for November, he missed the first week after receiving multiple fillings from eating too much candy on Halloween.” Adam evidently had quite a liking for candy, we were told by his classmates that the free piece of candy was the only reason Adam made sure to have perfect attendance each month.

                When we spoke to Adam, we initially thought he wasn’t open to discussing his experience with us. Only when we offered him a king size snickers candy bar did he begin to talk about it.

                “I knew that I was going to try and figure it out as soon as she had handed me the tootsie pop,” Adam told us, gazing at the snickers bar I was holding in my hand. “I tried to count the number of licks before, but I can’t count higher than 100, so I couldn’t do it myself.”

                “When Adam had asked me to help him count how many licks it took to get to the center of a tootsie pop, I was honored,” his teacher informed us, as she began to blush. “At first I admired his bravery, for dedicating himself to solving this age-old mystery. Then I began to question my abilities, I was afraid of letting Adam down, what if I accidentally skipped a number when I was counting? But then I realized that it was my obligation as a teacher to help my students with difficult tasks such as this, and I am just so proud of Adam,” said Ms. King, as she began to wipe a tear from her eye.

                We then asked Ms. King what the grand total number of licks was, and a great smile spread across her face. Tears began to pour out of her eyes as she was overcome with emotion. All of this excitement proved to be too much for Ms. King, within a minute of us asking her what the total number of licks was, she passed out and fell out of her chair.

                Silence filled the room and all eyes turned to little Adam, who was only concentrating on his newly acquired king size snickers candy bar.

                We rushed over to Adam, begging him to recall the total number. He merely looked up and said, “I can’t count over 100, so I’d say… a ton. It took a ton of licks to get to the center of a tootsie pop… is my tongue blue?!”

IP Blog #1

It's August 19th, 2011, two days before my eighteenth birthday. Two of my closest friends and my mom are helping me pack up the last of my clothes into suitcases, trying my hardest to not only fit everything into the suitcases, but also to successfully zip the suitcases up.

                "I don't know how you plan on fitting all of these clothes into your tiny dorm closet when you get to school." my mom said, smiling.

We laughed, and it finally began to hit that I'd actually be leaving for college the next day. I'd spent the last four years waiting for this moment, but now that it was here I would've given anything to slow down time. My mom asked if we wanted her to go pick up some food, we told her what we wanted and she left to go get it. The three of us sat on the floor of my now completely empty bedroom, and we began to talk about the past four years.

 "I can't believe that we're going to three different schools, in three different states!"

 It was very hard to believe. The three of us had all attended the same middle school and high school, but now we were going to split up.

 "But it's okay, we're going to keep in touch!"

                I nodded and smiled in agreement. But in my head, I wasn't so sure. Don't get me wrong, I love these girls to death and of course I want to keep in touch with them, I just wasn't sure how realistic it was. But then I really looked at my friends, looked at these two faces, and thought about how these two faces were ones I could always look to when I needed their help. I thought about how these two girls had always dropped whatever they were doing to help me when I needed it. I began to imagine my life without these two girls, and what I saw wasn’t anything that I liked. I decided then that along with my other friends, I would try especially hard to keep in touch with these two girls, no matter what it took.

                After my mom came back and we got our food, we began to talk about that first day of freshman year, and how afraid we were of what was about to come. How we didn’t want to leave the comfort of our middle school, and how now we’re going through the same thing, being afraid of college and not wanting to leave the comfort of our high school.

                We began to reminisce about the good and bad times of high school: The fights, the parties, the Harry Potter movie nights, the boys, the heartbreak that came along with those boys, and just the fact that even though there was so much craziness in high school, we managed to stay good friends through it all.

                It was getting late and it was time for my friends to leave so I could get to sleep. After all, I had a pretty big day ahead of me. It was a strange experience, saying goodbye to my friends, knowing that I wouldn’t see them in a long time.

                After the long hugs, and after the tears were wiped off of our faces, I looked at my two friends and said, “That was some adventure, huh?”

Documentary Project Blog Entry #9

Defending Freedom and Freedom of Speech - Luis Aguilar

I think that it's really sad that not all countries have the same rights and freedom that we do in the United States. I definitely think that we take our freedom of speeck for granted, we don't very often think about how people in other countries don't have it as good as we do, and I think that if we thought about how lucky we truly are, we would lead a lot happier lives.

I am very pleased with how our project is doing. We've edited at MTN every day this week, but we are not going on Friday. We have about two minutes of our documentary interview's all edited. We just need to figure out which interviews are going in the rest of the documentary, and add our b-roll and music to it. It feels really good to have all of our shooting done, and to have a clear idea of what we're trying to show in our documentary, and how we're going to do it.

Documentary Project Blog Entry #7

A Bed for the Night - Bertolt Brecht
I think the poem starts where it does so it can kind of create a setting for the rest of the poem. New York, corner of 26th and Broadway, winter months. The poem is telling us that although it "won't change the world," "improve relations among men," or "shorten the age of exploitation," it still does good because some men have a bed for the night, a place to sleep. When he says "the snow meant for them falls on the roadway," it's saying that normally, they'd be sleeping on that rodway, and having the snow fall on them, if they didn't have a bed for the night.

I feel good about our project after making the trailer. Now we have to do a few more interviews, like Leah, Maya, and some from the adoption agency. We also want to get a little mrore b-roll, because although we have a lot of cute stuff of Maya when she was younger, we still believe that we need more current b-roll of them interacting as a family. I really liked the way our trailer turned out, and I am excited to finish the rest of our project.

Documentary Project Blog Entry #6

For our work day tomorrow, we're going to MTN to edit out project. We're still getting used to the final cut pro system, so it's taking longer than it did to edit the PSA. We've already uploaded some footage, and the interviews from Leah's parents. Tomorrow I think we're just going to cut down the interviews for our trailer, and then on Sunday we'll upload footage of Maya's adoption, and when she met her new family for the first time. I don't feel super behind for this, but I'm still a little worried about what we're going to put into the trailer, we don't really know how to organize it.

"Fellowship" - Franz Kafka
I don't know why the group of five wouldn't let the sixth join them. They said it was because they thought he was annoying, and that they didn't know him. But they also said that the five of them didn't really know each  other. I think that they won't give him a long explanation of why they don't want him to be the sixth one, because they're afraid that by tellling him why he will become the sixth member of their group.