Books have messages

In the third unit of the course Forbidden Books, we studied diversity and focused on 3 particular books that were banned. One of them was the book called Color Purple, another one is Fahrenheit 451 and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-TIme Indian. We were assigned to read one of those books who were banned when they came out. Four our action project we chose one of those, read it and analyze it in different ways. I chose the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian because I have roots of Native Indians and I chose the analyze it through a diversity way, meaning that I will find part in the book that promotes diversity and how the main character is used to do that. During this project I had some difficulty in making my essay points fit together and I learned how to do in text citation.

Wikipedia

ADHD

In the second unit of the course Disease, we studied mental disorder. How some disease can affect the brain and the persons body. We specifically looked at Schizophrenia and OCD as examples. Schizophrenia is a disorder where you have negative voices in your head and has a big influence in your decisions. OCD is when someone has to do something repeatedly like checking the door lock to be safe, although the person don't want to the brain does it. For our action project we chose a mental disorder and do a simulation where other people can experience what people with the mental disorder you choose feels. I chose ADHD because someone close to me has it. During this project I had some difficulties in creating my simulation but at the end it wasn't that bad. I learned that ADHD can be combined with ADD and that their is lots of treatments for it.

Scientific Definition: A childhood mental disorder with onset before 7 years of age and involving impaired or diminished attention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. Also called hyperactive child syndrome in the twentieth century.

My definition: Someone who needs guidance in completing their everyday tasks and understanding of how their brain works differently than others.
 

KIS. ADHD Flier. 2015

Turkey vs. Freedom of Speech

In the second unit of the course Forbidden Books, we studied banned books throughout history and the figure of god for lots of religions. We read lots of readings from the Christian bible and the Muslim Koran. All of these investigations led to answering the question of why books are burned, banned and censored. For our action project we chose a country, a situation in that country and a book that has been censored in that country. I chose the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1991 in Turkey and I decided to focus on the author of articles and books, Baskin Oran. The way I presented my work was that I did a prezi.

Hypertension

In the first unit of the course Disease, we studied body disease but more specifically the different types of cancer that we can get in our body. We also studied the body systems that we have and how diseases can effect those parts either it's cancer or other diseases. For our action project, we chose a disease that someone that we know has and then interview them. I chose hypertension because my three of my family member has it. I chose to interview one of the that is really close to me, so I can understand what she is going through. Throughout this project I learned so much from my mom and how it affects her. I had difficulties in drawing my person and the parts where the disease affected her.

Hilda

Hilda is in her 30’s and has two children. She was diagnosed with Hypertension two years ago but she does not know how long she has had it. The first symptoms that she had without knowing was that her sensible eyes would her so much with the light and that let to having terrible headaches most of the time, along with nausea. One day she was feeling so bad that she went to the doctor and the doctor told her she had Hypertension (High Blood Pressure).

It is still a question today weather Hilda got Hypertension genetically because her mother and grandmother have Hypertension too. Although the doctor hasn't told her it genetically the pattern of it being is clear. The family history is very clear that most likely is genetic saying that both of her children or one of them might have the possibility of having hypertension.

After Hilda’s diagnoses more of her symptoms started to kick in. She kept getting headaches, she would get dizzy, nausea, her eyes kept hurting, few times she would have chest pain and she doesn't feel like doing anything because her body is tired or her brain is too focused on the pain that does not allow her to feel energized .

He life has changed a lot since she got diagnose of hypertension. She realized that this disease is a silent killer sickness and that she has to be very careful with it. Now she appreciates and enjoys her life and family more. The first thing she did in order to adapt to her new life with hypertension. She learned how to manage her stress, she wont worry for things she can not change and she changed her lifestyle.

Unfortunately hypertension doesn’t have a cure. Hilda haves to live with it for the rest of her life, but she can do something about it. She can control her High Blood Pressure, she can eat more healthier foods and by that she can lose weight. She can also control her stress at work and in her personal life. Hilda does not take medication, according to her “ At the moment I am not taking any medication because once you start taking it, it’ll be for the rest of my life and that’s what happened with my mother.” Hilda lives with her struggles to keep her pressure under control because she prefers to live like that than to count on medication that may cause some side effects.

Hypertension 

Hypertension can occur anywhere and to anyone it just depends on where you life, your gender and your race. For example, a study conducted by Dr. Levine shows that there is a 46% risk of hypertension occurring black women than in black men. Also Birmingham, Alabama has a higher risk of hypertension than Chicago, Minneapolis, and Oakland, California because Birmingham has a higher 20-year incidence of hypertension by 33.6 % while Chicago has 23.4%, Minneapolis has 19% and Oakland has 27.4%.

Hypertension is caused smoking, having too much salt in the diet, the lack of physical activity, stress, older age, genetics, chronic kidney disease, too much alcohol consumption, being overweight or obese, adrenal and thyroid disorders.

The symptoms that people should look out for are severe headaches, vision problems, chest pain, difficulty in breathing, irregular heartbeat, blood in the urine, and fatigue or confusion. A crisis of hypertension can lead to a heart attack or stroke and if untreated it can lead to serious diseases, including stroke, heart disease, kidney failure and eye problems.





Hypertension starts off in the cardiovascular system. The heart t is the first to organ to have problem then moves into the arteries. This disease can cause coronary artery disease, enlarged heart and heart failure. Healthy arteries are strong, elastic, flexible and the inner lining is smooth so that blood flows to organs and tissues to give nutrients and oxygen. With hypertension there is too much pressure of blood flowing and it cause problem such as aneurysm, artery damage and narrowing.

With damaged arteries the nervous system is affected, specifically your brain because your brain depends on the blood to work properly. High blood pressure can cause severe problem such as transient ischemic attack, strokes, dementia and mild cognitive impairment.

Also by having injured blood vessels going to your kidneys, which this is part of your endocrine system. It damages them and can cause kidney failure, kidney scarring, and kidney artery aneurysm.

As you can see hypertension may seem like it is not a big deal but it is because it affects important parts of your body that can lead you to serious consequences. If not treated this disease is not only damage your heart but also your brain and kidneys because they are all connected.





Jody Charnow. “Geography, Race, Gender Affect Hypertension Risk.” Renal and Urology News. N.p. Web. Feb 13, 2015.

Mayo Clinic Staff. “High blood pressure.” Mayo Clinic. N.p. Web. Feb 12, 2015.

What is Truth?

In the first unit of the course Forbidden Books, we studied the philosophical method of Socrates. Socrates was born 469 B.C. in Athens and he was told that he was the wisest man. Socrates didn't think it was true so he set out to find someone wiser then him. He used the socratic method; this method helped him find out if the wisest people known are really wise, so he observe them and asked them a lot of questions. He found no success but he found out that the reason why he is considered the wisest man is because he knew that he didn't know. Meaning that he did not think that he knew everything, if there was something he didn't know he would admit it and the others would not. For our action project, we chose a topic and find out the meaning of it. I chose Truth because it's a choice that we make everyday, the choice to speak the truth or lie. To fully understand the definition of truth I asked people I knew to tell me what they think it is. After that I picked a situation related to truth and made a script and that lead to making a video. Throughout this project I had difficulties with the script but that is the thing I am most proud of.



Script:

Siena: Hello Astrid how are you doing on this beautiful day in Blue Bell Chicago? You look troubled.

Astrid: Well… my cousin told me that my best friend is talking bad behind my back…. I don’t know who to believe. I don’t know who is telling the truth.

Siena: Well then what do you think is truth? And how do you know who is telling the truth?

Astrid: Everyone knows that truth is something that is believed to be true.

Siena: Believed to be true by whom? And how do you know what is true?

Astrid: By me! And I know it’s true because I know.

Siena: From your perspective what is truth? What do you feel when you know something is true?

Astrid: Truth is honesty in what someone tells you. Having honesty with people gives you confidence to tell them anything and you just feel happy.

Siena: Will you feel happy if someone tells you that your dog died? It’s the truth but it doesn’t make you happy.

Astrid: I would not be happy, I would be sad.

Siena: The truth doesn’t always make you feel happy. What evidence do you have of your cousin or best friend telling the truth? Does truth need evidence? If so what type of evidence?

Astrid: Siena these are really hard questions! I dont know what type of evidence I will need to discover to know if my cousin or best friend is telling the truth. I guess truth is more than a feeling because I feel confused about who is telling the truth.

Siena: What type of evidence do you think you will need to find out the truth? And how will you pursue it?

Astrid: I would put a recorder in both of their book bags, so in that way I can hear everything they say and the recording will be my evidence.

Siena: What if they are both telling the truth and the evidence show that? Do you believe that there are different interpretations of truth?

Astrid: Um…….I think you are right. There could be different versions of the truth.

Siena: What is true for one person might not be true for another, thats why evidence help us identify truth.

Astrid: I agree, thank you for helping me in this dilemma.

Siena: You are welcome, I am glad to help.

Astrid: Have a good day, bye.

Siena: Thank you, you too, bye.

Stand By Me Critique

In the third unit of the course Ollywood, we studied post-production and different ways to approach a film critique. Post-production includes music, sound effects, editing, and special effects. For our action project we had to make a podcast of a movie review, I chose the to critique the movie "Stand By Me" because I like the song and because I like journey movies. Through out this project I had difficulty choosing an approach and finding extra information. I learned different approaches to critique a film and how to use one.



Hello everyone! Thank you for tuning into my review of Stand By Me, its a Drama/ Adventure film inspired by a Stephen King novella. The director of this film is Rob Reiner and it was released on August 8,1986, The film stars River Phoenix who plays Chris Chambers, Will Wheaton who plays Gordie Lachance, Corey Feldman who plays Teddy Duchamp, and Jerry O’Connell who plays Vern Tessio.

I will critique the movie through a genetic approach. This approach follows the film through all stages of its creation and release which means I will be reviewing the film for elements of pre-production, production, and post-production.

The film is based on a short story called “The Body” by Stephen King. Stand By Me is narrated by Gordie Lachance who is writing a book about an adventure that he had with his three closest friends when he was 12 years old. Gordie along with Teddy, Chris and Vern embarked on a journey to find a dead body. The journey is emotional for all of the boys, especially for Gordie who learned that his best friend, Chris was capable of looking after him like his older brother Dennis,who passed away in an accident.

I will start by critiquing the use of set design, location, and cinematography. The movie is set in Castle Rock, a fictional town in Oregon created by Rob Reiner. Many of Stephen King’s novels that became movies used the set of Castle Rock because King liked how Reiner created the set. Many of the scenes were shot in different locations throughout Oregon and many of them had little value. The set designers and Rob Reiner created mostly everything that we saw on screen including the train tracks that the boys guide themselves through.

An example of this would be the tracks, they were actually just a dirt path to which the set-design crew added train tracks. One of my favorite scenes happens sometime in the middle of their journey and the boys find themselves on an elevated train track as a train is approaching. Chris and Teddy get to the other side, while the speeding train appears to be inches from Gordie and Vern who are running as fast as they can. This scene was very realistic and very suspenseful, even though the train was actually very far away from the two actors. Through the use of a 60omm long-focus lens, the cinematographers made the train appear much closer than it actually was.

There was a recurring prop and action from the actors that really stood out to me. Throughout the film, the 12-year-old boys are often seen smoking. Even though, the smoking was something that appeared in the background, it was important in telling the story of what young boys do when unsupervised. When watching the film, I was surprised that the young actors were directed to smoke. But, Rob Reiner, the director is actually an anti-smoker. The cigarettes were made from cabbage leaves. I thought the actors did a good job in the scenes they smoke because I believed they were actually smoking. I believed it because their faces expressed that if the adults can smoke then they can too.

I am going to critique the use of film-cuts used in the film. At the start of their journey, Gordie goes to the store to buy food for his friends before starting their journey. After picking up the snacks, we see Gordie run back to the junkyard to find his friends jumping the fence of the junkyard. The scene starts with us looking at Gordie standing in the junkyard and through the use of the look-off film cut, the scene cuts to three friends climbing the fence. We see the scene through Gordie’s eyes, as if we’ve become Gordie in that moment and we can feel his disappointment with his friends for leaving him behind.

I really liked the scene where the young group of friends are on the train tracks walking, they put on the radio and the song Lollipop comes on. Vern and Teddy are ahead of Gordie and Chris. Vern has the radio so as soon as the song starts playing they make a choreography. Two steps to the right advancing and two steps left and when the pop sound happens they do it too, then continue doing the same thing. I thought that in this scene the actors did a good job in portraying their youth because they are not only going to see a dead body but they are spending time together as friends and discovering more who they are. Also this shows that kids can be fun, joke around, and express a little of themselves in acting.

Another prime example of the quality of acting and directing was in a scene when the group of boys are about halfway through their journey. In the campfire scene the boys are taking turns keeping watch for coyotes while the others sleep. When it was Chris turn to keep watch Gordie was having a nightmare so he woke up and kept watch with Chris.

Chris started telling Gordie how everyone think he is a thief and that when things go missing they blame him because of his family’s reputation. But he is not like that and he starts crying and saying that he want to go to a place where nobody knows him so he can start fresh. When filming this scene Chris faked cry but Reiner knew he could do better so he asked him to think of a time in his own life when an adult has let him down and use it.

Chris did but his emotions were too strong that the director had to comfort him after the scene was done. This shows that the actor put lots of his own emotions to the movie and also it shows that he actually relates to the character he is playing.

Also in this scene an effective film cut was when Gordie was telling a story he created to his friends about people bullied an overweight kid and how he got revenge. This scene used dialogue referent cut, the scene starts with Gordie starting to tell the storie then it cuts to the main character planning his revenge. I felt like that was a good cut because it made me see what the main character was doing and how his revenge ended up with everyone vomiting on each other.

Mostly all the music the director put in the movie was coming from the radio that Vern brought for their journey and they were just popular songs from that time like the songs Lollipop, Come go with me, Let the good times roll, and more. The only songs that didn't come from the radio was the song Stand by me and some instrumentals. The song Stand By Me would play when mostly every time they continue their journey. I also notice that when they played the song it would be different like it still has the same beat but something is added. The instrumentals would only play when dramatic things happened.

I give this movie 4.5 stars because it took me on a journey and it kept things real like the older guys bullied the younger ones and the way the actors acted. I liked it a lot and I recommend watching this movie especially if you like seeing calm adventure movies. Well thank you for listening my film review! Bye!

Fare Foods

In our course Fare we studied Italian and learned how to cook Italian food using the new vocabulary that we learned. In our last action project we created a community dinner, where we cook and serve people who attended our restaurant. My role for that day is to create the menu and be host. During this project I learned that making a menu is not hard as I thought it would be. Below you will find the menu, hope it looks appetizing to you.

Fare Foods

Antipasti/Appetizers

Supplí- Supplií is classic, commonly found in the region of Lazio, but also found elsewhere in Italy. The name Suppli originally comes from the French word for surprise, referring to the surprise which one would find in the center of these delicious rice balls.

                    

                 

Bruschetta- Bruschetta is a Tuscan tradition, it's a slice of toasted bread covered with garlic and slices of tomatoes on top with basil.

                                            

Primi/Entre


Parmigiana di Melanzane-It is originally from Sicily, but it is cooked all over Italy and can be an excellent vegetarian main course.

                                                              

                                   

Gnocchi con salsiccia italiano                   

Dolci/Dessert
Tiramisu- The name “tiramisu” translates into “pick-me-up”. There are two different reasons in why the dish has this name. The first reason is that the name mean “ pick me up,” referring to the two caffeinated ingredients that are in the dish, espresso and cocoa.The second reason is that since the dish is so delicious it makes peoples mouth watery and wanting it to eat the tiramisu. People don't know where Tiramisu comes from but there are theories. One theory is that a restaurant called Le Beccherie, in Treviso is most often created with having invented this heavenly dessert in 1971. Another theory is that tiramisu was created in the 17th century because of its layering , in that time there were similar desserts with lots of layering.

                                             

   Crostata

                                                 

Bevande/Beverages                    

• La limonata          
  
     
  My experience is the community day restaurant was amazing because although I was nervous to talk in front of people (I was the host) I liked to see the peoples faces when they try the food and the positive comments about the food. I liked that people actually learned the little Italian that the servers teach them. I also liked how we all as students from the fare class we helped one another in what was needed.