Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, it of marks the beginning of the best part of the year which are the Holidays such as Halloween itself, The Day of the Dead, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. A lot of religious people believe that Halloween has a Satanic meaning, or that it is the “Devil’s Birthday” or something along those lines. Hollywood and the media have also portrayed Halloween as something that is supposed to be scary or demonic. “Halloween has its roots in the pagan traditions of the Celts..they believed that this night marked the night that the door between this world and the next was open and spirits could pass through”, this is the perfect night to play the Ouija board or stand in front of a mirror and say “Bloody Mary” three times am I right? Supposedly it is a night were people like to do rituals to call the dead, and therefore are some shelters that prohibit the adoption of black cats on Halloween because of this superstition. They fear that some of this cats will be killed or harmed in these rituals or invokements. Halloween is also known as All Hallow’s Eve or the Eve of All Saint’s Day (which is celebrated on November 1st). Also, Halloween is a night were children and adults of all ages dress up in all sorts of costumes, which is what it basically is known as around many countries. I believe that people choose to be scared because of their superstitions and because of how the media portrays Halloween. It is just like our fear of the dark, we are not scared of the darkness itself, we are scared of what is lurking in the dark. We are not scared of the actual holiday, we are scared that there are real ghosts and monsters that come out on this holiday.

Over the Holidays, I don’t really receive anything, and I don’t really complain. I don’t worry too much about the materialistic items, if I get something great, and if not whatever, there is always next year. I don’t really ask for much either, if I were to ask for something though it would have to be clothes. It is an unusual thing to ask for because people don’t ask for clothes, little children ask for toys or for an ipad. Most adults want expensive electronics such as cameras, iphones, or even cars. If you Google “What do people want for the Holidays?”, you will get a million articles saying “How to Give Holiday Gifts That People Really Want“. (They are lists of very expensive things).

I always wonder “Why don’t people ask for clothes?” If someone gives me something small such as socks or a t-shirt, I’ll be extremely happy with that and I will shriek the same way a little girl shrieks if she gets the Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse house she has always wanted. Clothes are nice and you use them every day, who in their right mind would not want clothes? I mean, come on its an essential part of life, it is a need according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory (which says that clothes are a basic physiological need for humans).

I know that when we were all young, we probably hated our parents’ guts for getting us clothes instead of the new Barbie doll clothes. We probably thought that our parents were the lamest parents on the entire planet. As I have been getting older I have learned how to appreciate getting clothes.  And I have learned to appreciate whatever gift is given to me, because it is free, and I like free stuff.

I ended up going over two reviews, I have never seen these movies in my life, but I have heard that they are good movies. The first one was Beatriz at Dinner, to be brief this movie is about a massage therapist named Beatriz (portrayed by Salma Hayek) who after visiting a patient who lives in a gated community, kind of gets stuck there because her car breaks down. Her patient offers her a place to stay while her mechanic can get to her in the morning, and she ends up inviting her for dinner. At dinner, she meets very racist people. But they weren’t straight-up racists. The writer of this review uses personal experiences to relate to the movie. The writer, who was born in Mexico, shares how the movie and its jokes are seen by two different audiences, I’m pretty sure you can guess who those audiences are. This writer used the topic of discrimination to talk about this movie because it is what the movie is about. Even, Salma Hayek, a very well known actress, talked about how she’s been discriminated and almost made fun of because of her accent.

The second review was about the movie Annihilation, now this movie is about an all women’s team of scientists who embark on a mission to explore a “shimmer” that was left behind after a comet hit a lighthouse (watch the trailer because it’s really hard to explain). This writer uses a lot of gifs throughout the review, which is very appealing to audiences. Also, the writer uses curse words such as “bad shit” to describe the stuff that went down in the movie, using this type of language made it seem like he/she wasn’t trying to be formal with their audience. Also, it seemed interesting when they said something along the lines of “now we know humans are stupid, and these dumbass characters did the most expected thing ever”. I feel like using this type of language may appeal to the type of audiences that watch Sci-Fi films, knowing what your audience is like is key.

 

 

I can’t really say that I have a list of my top favorite movies and books or a least favorite. I do enjoy a lot of movie genres, I also do not have a favorite or least favorite genre. I enjoy a lot of movies that are emotional, movies that make me feel something, whether it makes me feel sad, scared, anxious, or happy, as long as what I am reading or watching makes me feel something, it’s good. I also believe that movies or books are neither good or bad, everything has their good and bad moments. Of course, there are some that I would say I really enjoyed. An example would be the movie Frida, this movie portrays the life of Frida Kahlo, the actress Salma Hayek, does a fantastic job in playing her role, this movie made me feel a lot of things, Frida’s life was a roller coaster, it was sad because of what she suffered (her accident, being cheated on by Diego), and good at the same time because of what she accomplished as an artist. Another example would be the horror movie As Above So Below, this movie was wild from start to finish, and it made me wonder about the legend about the philosopher’s stone, it had me at the edge of my seat, chewing on my nails. Speaking of the philosopher’s stone, I the Harry Potter series are a 100/10; both the books and the movies. Of course the movies leave out a lot of things from the book, but the actors did so great, and I loved how the directors were consistent with keeping the same actors throughout the entire series. The Conjuring movies are also really amazing movies, they will have you shook throughout the whole movies, 10/10 really recommend, good actors and storyline, it is truly one of the best horror movies.

Good writing. When you google “What is good writing?”, the first sentence that pops up is “writing is a process”. It is true, writing does take time. In my own words, good writing, is writing that comes from the heart, something that you put a lot of effort and critical thinking into. Writing IS a process, and you cannot just jump from a benning to a middle to an end, you must think of all the small details that go in between. There are also multiple steps to writing, and you must also take the time to go through each one of those step, for example when we do background research about our topics, that is one step, which I learned to improve on. Another thing I learned about writing this trimester is that, I really enjoy it, but it takes time. I can’t just cram 500 words into one hour of writing, I mean it is possible, but for big essays and pieces, I should take my time with them, to actually come out with good and strong pieces of writing. That is probably what I need to work on the most. Taking my time with my writing. I learned that I should also show instead of tell, this might have to do with the amount of time I give myself, maybe because I do not give myself enough time, is the reason why I am not very specific in my writing,  Also, I should find the time to dedicate time to my writing. I understand, it is one thing to say it, or in this case, type it out, and another thing to actually do it. I have found that I do have a lot to say, and I have to find a way to let all of that out, and I believe that I have found that “better” way than by writing.

There is nothing really trending in my topic are. The sky will always be the sky. It will always be above us, hopefully. You look up, whether it’s raining or not and the sky will always be there, or appears to be there. Unless you are Chicken Little, in that case, you would say that the sky is falling, which hopefully will never happen. Recently though it has rained a lot. Which is depressing, like I have said in the past. I do want to talk about what I learned from writing about the sky.

I first want to talk about “why is the sky blue?”, I learned from this blog that a large population of us will agree and say that the sky IS definitely blue, But we only say that because that is what we are told. As we grow up we are told certain things, and we believe those things, because it’s what we were told. As for science, we believe a certain theory up until that theory is proven otherwise or more evidence is added to that theory. Also, that humans want to believe what they want, and what seems beneficial. We don’t want to think that the sky is anything other than blue because thinking about the other answers seems way too complicated.

Secondly, I learned that as much as there exists the possibility of us being alone, there exists the possibility of someone or something being out there. But I seriously believe that we are selfish for thinking that we are unique, that our planet is the only one that can sustain life. There are trillions of galaxies out there, and I’m pretty sure (not just me) that one of those galaxies has a planet capable of sustaining life.

Lastly, I came to a realization, that we could be killed for thinking crazy things like this. Or we were getting killed. Well, back then, really getting killed. Maybe today it would be social suicide. But I believe that we should think like this, no matter how crazy it may seem.

It is crazy to think about the times when people were killed for thinking outside of the box that they put around us. Or to present crazy new ideas. In this era we aren’t burned down, hung, or get our heads chopped off for thinking crazy things. You just get classified as a crazy son of a you know what. People believe that everything we are told is what is true. For example the Big Bang THEORY, it seems logical to think that it is true, that our universe was created after an accidental collision, but after all it is just a theory. Maybe we are told these theories to make us believe that we are here by accident and without a purpose.

I feel bad for all those people that came up with all these theories, and ideas and were seen as crazy. For example Nicholas Copernicus, whose idea of heliocentrism got him in trouble. I didn’t really research how he came up with the theory that the earth and all the other planets orbit around the sun. Who’s crazy idea was it that the earth was at the center, and were they almost killed for thinking “Oh wow, we are orbiting and we are moving at a super crazy speed.”? Before him they believed the Ptolemaic model, “Ptolemy’s version of the solar system, assumed that the Earth was the center of not only the solar system, but the entire universe.” I guess that back then we were more religious and we believed that we were at the center of the universe, and that we were put here for a purpose. I understand why we went from one model to the next, but what I don’t understand is why with this new ideas and models, we stop thinking of ourselves as purposeful.

 

I have talked about this, in my previous blog, but it is worth bringing it up. It is controversial believing that we are not alone. It is crazy to think that all these things could be true, we are, or I am crazy for talking about these things, or whatever you say. But you are not human if you do not question these things, if you do not wonder about these things. It is human nature to think. I do not understand how some people conform themselves when they are told something. We are told a certain color is blue, but what if it isn’t?

 

Here are my views on extraterrestrial beings, the universe, and what is out there:
The idea that we are not alone is extremely terrifying, it also crazy to think that we are alone. No one has been able to answer the question “Are we alone?”. Even NASA answers this question with more questions “Are we alone? This question is as old as humankind itself. For millennia, people have turned their eyes to the stars and wondered if there are others like themselves out there. Does life, be it similar to our own or not, exist elsewhere in our Solar System? Our Galaxy?”. I mean there have been people who claim they have seen UFOs, but how much are they lying? There are various videos and photographs, in which people claim that shows a UFO or extraterrestrial being, some of them seem extremely fake and have been debunked. But the footage and pictures that seem realistic, COULD be true, there is always that possibility. I do believe that as our technology advances we will someday in the future find something else living out there, even scientists believe this, ““I was heartened or at least surprised about a year ago when the chief scientist for NASA, Ellen Stofan, said, yes, we’ll find life within 20 years,”” (Search for Extraterrestrial Life Is Accelerating, Astronomer Says)

“We might see aliens” says my sister as she spaces off. I haven’t really thought about how technology can affect the way we view the sky. We have powerful telescopes and now we are able to send robots to outer space to explore the unexplored. If we don’t end up killing ourselves before we can make any more further technological advances, I feel as if we could get far. It is scary to think that there could be life out there, and that we are not alone. Actually, that’s scary, but it is equally scary to think that WE ARE alone. We have not gone beyond our galaxy and it would be, out of this world, if we, someday in the future could. “What they do know is that based on measurements of portions of the sky and extrapolation, that there are about 100 billion stars in our galaxy and up to 10 trillion galaxies in the universe.” (Forbes.com). Us humans have not been able to go see those stars, but we are able to study small portions of it, and I believe that someday in the future we will have the technology, the robots, the rockets to visit those stars and its accompanying planets. NASA will someday finally be able to answer the question “Are we alone?” with a YES OR A NO, instead of answering back with even more questions.

I believe that we will end up killing ourselves and the planet that we live in. We are ungrateful human beings, we are selfish, and careless. The pollution that reigns over the planet will be ten times worse, I see thick clouds of smoke, covering the bright sun during the daytime and the precious stars at night. In the future I feel like we won’t be able to tell the difference between what is night time and what the day looks like. We are already blinded by the brightness of big cities, we don’t look up at the stars anymore, simply because we can’t. One day, our cities will light up brighter than they are today, and completely cover our view of the sky. Either that, or we will end up contaminating our planet with toxic airs, that it will be impossible to see the stars, because of the toxic clouds of air. . The skies will simply disappear right before our own eyes, and we will do nothing to stop it. I believe future generations won’t even know what the stars look like, or what color the sky looked when its sun was setting, or the way the milky way shined, or what the word “sky” meant. We will probably create an illusion, of what the sky actually looked like, just to fill that void. I believe that we will kill ourselves and our planet, the most beautiful things like the sky, will go first.