buckets and buckets -catherine van tatenhove

I have never sat down and intently thought about a bucket list much less actually generated one, however on almost a daily basis I think about what I want to be doing and how I need to accomplish it. Bucket lists are usually a stressful concept for me because I never want to feel like it is too late for me to do something after I have "kicked the bucket." It's also difficult for me because I have abstract goals, being successful, finding my passion, and having a family ect, but specific ones get clouded and uncertain. But, with all that said I sat down and made a, only slightly stress inducing, list and here it is.

Before High School- Before high school winds down I want to travel to Thailand. Thailand has always been a destination that has interested me, and it has almost become a goal of mine to find the right time and program to travel with to have the best experience. I have appreciated growing up in Lexington and the childhood I have had here, but I know this isn't where I'll be for the rest of my life and Thailand seems like a good place to step out of my comfort zone. 

Before College- Before college ends I want to be fluent in French and Spanish. I am traveling to Costa Rica for the second time and France for the first time this spring and summer. I am in AP french now, and hope to improve upon my basis of the language with my three weeks in a foreign exchange program this summer, however I don't take Spanish. But, I have been leaning as much as I can in preparation for Costa Rica hoping one day both languages will come with ease. 

Before life- Before my life ends I hope to have written a book. I don't know what it is going to be about or if it will even be published, or if books will even be a thing when I am 90. But, I am going to accomplish that in one way or another because I love to read and will have hopefully read hundreds by the end of my life. So, being on the other side of the experience has now become an admittedly lofty but important goal.  

Assignment 18- Alexis Kirkland

Prior to this assignment I never really thought about a bucket list. Then again, all I ever think about is One Direction, so... Let's try to construct a bucket list, shall we?
Before finishing high school:
1. Pass all my classes
2. Get the 4.0 award (my only hope is senior year now)
3. Get my license

Before finishing college:
This one's a bit harder because, well, what do college kids do? Drinking and partying are not on my list of to do things before finishing college, and that's all I feel like they do besides go to classes.
1. Pass all my classes
2. Make new friends
3. Have a stable job

Before dying:
1. MEET ONE DIRECTION
2. Do something with the music I write
3. Please lose weight sometime Alexis

My priorities:
High school- of course, above all, my grades come first. There should be no reason why I would put them at any other place than the top of my list. Without my grades, I can say goodbye to everything else!
College- again, grades come first. College degrees are nearly a requirement for most jobs nowadays, so I really can't flunk out because of the new friends I make or my job taking up too much time. School always comes first!
Lifetime- NOTHING ELSE MATTERS ON THIS LIST BESIDES MEETING ONE DIRECTION OKAY? I even had a dream last night about meeting Louis... It's always Louis... It must be fate. But anyway, they're such an important part of my life, they've impacted me in ways I can never reverse. I can't even hear someone say the word "Perfect" without thinking of their song with that title. My brain proceeds to break out into song whenever someone says "at the end of the day" because of the song they wrote with that title! Even when someone says the phrase "one direction" my head whips around so fast as if it's my own name. They've been there through thick and thin and kept me entertained for 4 years now. I regret none of it. I am determined to meet these boys and tell them how much they've done for me and how much they mean to me.

Buckets and buckets - Elle Ogden

Before I finish high school: go back to Vermont

Before I finish college: travel to another continent  

Before I die: open a completely nut-free bakery

Traveling and I have a love hate relationship. Club soccer has made me hate long car rides as I am far too frequently sitting in the car for hours at a time. However, I love planes and the idea that I can go hundreds of miles in the same amount of time that I can drive to Cincinnati. Though I've never been to another continent, I really want to do that one day. Traveling out of the country can be complicated when you have allergies, but sometime in college, I'd love to just go for it. I've found that when you just go for things, not knowing any of the people or surroundings, it makes for the best memories. Whether it be studying abroad, mission work, or just vacation, I hope by the time I have my college diploma, I also have lots of stamps in my passport. 

Assignment 19: plastics

Most of the advice we receive in our lives is unsolicited and quite frankly inane.  However, every once in a while we get a real gem and changes our trajectory.  What is the one piece of advice given to you that has stuck?  Explain its effect.


Minimum of 150 words - due Sunday, February 7th at 11:59 pm

Buckets and Buckets- Braeden Bowen

High School Goals:
1. Get into a top-choice college
          -I've worked really hard for the last three years, and I plan to keep it up. I'm pretty sure I can actually do it.
2. Find someone to give me scholarships
          - I don't have an annual $40,000, so scholarships are absolutely vital.
3. Grow my resume as much as possible
          - I'm pretty close to having the resume I want, which is why it is so low on the list, but it is still worth extra work.


College Goals:
1. Graduate, maybe
          - It's sort of necessary, isn't it? I mean, I want a job.
2. Make a feature-length film   
          - As a high school student, I am not fully equipped to produce an entire film. But as a college student, that dream is more likely.
3. Sell my TV show idea
          - I would love to sell my idea while still in high school, but I'm so busy I don't have time to breathe. College, perhaps?


Life Goals:
1. Be successful in some respect
          - I just want to do well at the things I am passionate about.
2.  Go skydiving
          - I'm pretty sure this one is on everyone's list, but I think it might be fun; all the pants-peeing excitement of jumping out of a plane!
3. Own an entire house
          - I think it would be pretty great. Except for bills and taxes and stuff, none of that is any fun.

Buckets and Buckets --Lucy Whitman Sandmeyer

High School

·      Learn another language

·      Get into college

·      Accept the college I get into and GET PUMPED

·      Get a beanie

·      Go to a legit high school party (I don’t really know if I want to do this or just be in the position to observe as an outsider. It’s probably the later.)

·      Do a full Hobbit and LOTR marathon

·      Go rock climbing in the Gorge

·      Grow out of my angsty teenage phase where a resent the system and society and everything it entails.

·      Take that last goal seriously

College

·      Become a legal adult (that’s a pretty sure thing but I still think it deserves being on this list)

·      Do a study abroad some place unexpected

·      Find out if I really like to science

·      Take a humanities class that changes my perspective on the world as much as science does

·      Find one of those sketch bars where they let underage people drink to feel legit

·      Climb (part of) a mountain

Life

·      Read!!!!!!!!

·      Also, read

·      Go to space (I’m banking on tourist trips to space being a thing by the time I die, kind of like climbing Mt. Everest)

·      Smash the patriarchy

·      Find the climate I like and live there

·      Live in the city and on a farm

·      Go to every continent except Antarctica

·      Write something even if I hide it forever

·      Become a spy in some form or fashion

·      Hydrate

Katie Demetriades Assignment 18: Buckets and Buckets

1. I know for this one a lot of people are going to say, "I want to get accepted into college." But I feel like for all of us, that's inevitable. We're all incredibly smart, and some college somewhere in the world is going to want us to come to their school. To me, it's a wasted bucket wish. So I decided before I finish high school, I want to learn how to accept myself, the environment I live in, and the people I have chosen to surround myself with. Now I know that sounds beyond ridiculous to accomplish in a year and a half, but I've been working on it for a little bit now. For those of you that don't know me, my happiness comes from things being a certain way. You could call it bratty, you could call it selfish, you could call it being a control freak. No matter what you think, that's how I've always been. It may stem from the easy childhood I had where everything went my way. Now that I somewhat live in the real world, I've realized not everything goes your way. And it's the situations I can't control that make me so anxious and paranoid. I have never been one to "go with the flow." The natural occurrences of life that aren't always planned make me so upset. But soon, we will all be adults, fully living in the real world. And it's time I grew up a bit.

2. Before I finish college, I want to have a career. I don't want to graduate and say, "What do I do now?" Before that diploma reaches my hands, I want to say, "Hi, I'm Katie Demetriades. I have a job as a _____ at ________ which is in ________, __." From relatives, I know that some people once they graduate, they want to take the summer off and lounge around for a little bit. To that I ask, what was the point of spending thousands of dollars and sucking up 4+ years of your life? You worked SO hard to get that diploma. It's time to show it off to the world. I get this inspiration from my mother, who graduated on a Friday, and started working the next Monday. It's people like my mom, who have an amazing work ethic, that I feel deserve the utmost respect.

3. Before I die, I want to have my permanent number one. Okay, let me explain. I feel like everyone deserves to have one person in their life who sticks by them and is always there to offer love and encouragement. So throughout several periods of my life, I have had one creature (I can't say person because it was a dog at one point) that I could say was my number one. Someone who loves me as much as I love them. Someone who would do anything for me. Someone who is always there to brighten up my day. Someone who sees me as their number one. I've had a couple of these in my life, but I've realized sometimes your number ones will come and go. But whether it be in the form of a friend, of a spouse, of just a boyfriend, of a child, or of a pet, I want that person in my life forever. I may already know them, or they may be many years away. As long as I have one, I know I'll live a nice life.

Assignment 17: Hooray for Hollywood (Tyler Gorman)

Over the break I went and saw, like most other sentient life forms on planet Earth, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. It was, in short, the best thing to happen to the franchise since Return of the Jedi. J.J. Abrams has taken the franchise in a direction that it desperately needed to go after the failure of the prequels, expertly avoiding a recreation of the cinematic failure that was The Phantom Menace, albeit through recreating the cinematic success of A New Hope. In many ways The Force Awakens is a retelling of the story of A New Hope with different (much better-developed) characters and some interesting plot twists, but it's different enough that critics of the movie's "unoriginality" are generally more frowned upon than agreed with. George Lucas' universe and characters mixed with Abrams' style (which, I've noticed, is very lens-flare-filled and almost felt more like Star Trek than Star Wars) makes an incredible movie that sets the story up well for Episode VIII and is perfect for Star Wars fans of all kinds, whether fanatics who have every line of the movies memorized and have read every book ever published, or a child who's never even heard of Star Wars until The Force Awakens.

Hooray for Hollywood: Jordan Strange

Pete Docter.

He's a pretty cool guy. And he also directed some pretty cool movies.

Specifically Up & The Incredibles. :)

I'm not really into movies or going to the movies. So this prompt was a little bit difficult.

Anyways. In these two movies, there's not a lot that is the same. They're very different movies with very different plot lines, but there are still very minor similarities. Such as the "underdog" villains that reappear after seemingly disappearing. They both try to dominate everyone and everything. But in both films, they fail. Because villains just cannot win in any way in a Disney movie. Also in these movies, you see a protective figure doing his best for those he cares for. You see Mr. Incredible trying very hard to protect his family from the dangers of his job, and then in Up, you see Carl doing what he can to protect Russell, who was like a grandson to him. Even if these people got hurt or risked their lives, it was okay, because it was all for the sake of the people they cared about. But this happens in a lot of movies, so it's not a huge similarity. They also both take place on very odd most likely unknown islands or countries. No one inhabits the places that are the settings in these movies. They're both exotic, too.

There are more differences than similarities. In The Incredibles, they have super powers, very unrealistic, but cool. And they are fighting against this large agency that is targeting the "Supers." In Up, we see a man pursue his biggest dreams of living in Paradise Falls. He does everything he can to avoid moving to an assisted living and to make his & his wife's dreams come true. In Up, we meet Kevin and Doug and a plethora of other animals that make the film exciting. In The Incredibles, there's a larger battle that's being fought.

Both of these films are awesome. Pete Docter is awesome. Disney is awesome.

How to...- Anya Slepyan

An unknown person once said "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." I'm not sure how true this statement is given that the root of some people's outrage clearly comes from their fundamental ignorance of various situations, but this point still stands: if you have any values or opinions, even ones that seems so fundamental as "racism is bad" or "men and women are equal," I can promise you that somewhere out there right now, there are people who are speaking or acting in a contradictory manner to your beliefs. Given that fact, being outraged is somewhat inevitable. All it requires is a conviction (any conviction) and the wherewithal to find and vocally disagree with someone.

A note of warning-- people are, of course, entitled to their opinions. No matter how wrong they are, your outrage should never lead to violence or threats. Rather, use your outrage to a) try to change people's opinions using nonviolence and sass or b) fuel your motivation to protect what you care about and change what you despise.

Now, we get to the part where we're actually outraged.
First, choose a conviction. This could be anything from women's equality to racial justice to LGBTQ+ rights to youtube commercials that play in the middle of the video instead of at the beginning like a normal commercial, goddamnit. I specialize in political outrage, but really you can be mad about anything.

To get you in the mood for outrage I  recommend sixties protest songs as background music. This includes artists like Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Phil Ochs, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Helen Reddy, Bruce Springsteen, and the entire soundtrack of the musical Hair.

Some people can go straight to the outrage part just from thinking about an unjust or upsetting situation, but others require more prompting. If you are in the latter category, just wait until you hear people heartlessly discussing one of your convictions. Or, if you want to be outraged RIGHT NOW just look up an article about your given issue on the internet, and then read the comments section. You can also expose yourself to hostile media outlets that guarantee a good amount of anger. For me, this includes Fox News and Republican debates, among others (no offense to anyone!).

From that point forward, your outlook can range anywhere from mild annoyance to blind rage, depending on the strength of both your convictions and your opponent's provocation.

Remember, just being outraged in and of itself does none any good. For outrage to be productive, you have to channel it and use it to create progress. Best of luck!

Buckets and Buckets- Anya Slepyan

This is the first time I've thought about having a specific bucket list, and it's kind of difficult to manufacture. I also struggle with the idea of having a bucket list for certain periods in my life. If there's a list of things that I'd like to do, there's no reason that some of them have to be completed before I'm through with college, or that others can only happen in my forties. So, I suppose I'll have one long bucket list because I dislike the idea of age-specific goals. I never want to feel like I'm too young, or too old, to cross something off my list.

Here, in no particular order, are a few things I would like to do/experience before I die:

-be a hermit
-go skydiving (very cliche but I actually want to)
-become fluent in 2 more langages
-see a platypus
-play the harmonica (with bending and everything)
-TRAVEL to all of the places
-meet Ruth Bader-Ginsburg
-be Ruth Bader-Ginsburg
-learn how to do actual out-door rock-climbing (not just gym/tower rock-climbing)
-appear on NPR as a guest or reporter
-experience zero gravity (without being an astronaut)
-hang out on a big ship
-run a half-marathon
-spend decades planning and executing an elaborate scheme to get revenge on College Board for making high school stressful
-develop hand-eye coordination



 

Buckets and Buckets-Matthew Telfer

The number one item on my bucket list before I finish high school is to run a half-marathon. I didn't really enjoy running before this year, but I've recently started to like it. It's a great way to exercise and stay in shape. It won't be easy training for a half-marathon, but if I persevere I know I can do it.

I'd love to go to Australia before I finish college. My cousin studied a semester abroad in Australia and had the time of his life. The Great Barrier Reef sounds amazing and snorkeling in it would be a once in a lifetime experience.

Skydiving. I'm not really a thrill seeker, but I will say skydiving is at the top of my bucket list. I've heard numerous people say they loved skydiving and many of them would do it again in a heartbeat. Free-falling four thousand feet up in the air may not appeal to everyone, but for some reason I can't wait to do it one day.

Buckets and Buckets -Hope Reed

1. One thing I want to do before I graduate high school- visit a state I haven't been to yet
2. One thing I want to do before I graduate college- sky dive
3. One thing I want to do before I die- climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower

Sometimes high school can really be a drag. I find myself not being able to do anything really exciting or adventurous because of my lack of time. One neat thing that I want to be able to do before I graduate is take a spontaneous road trip to a state or far away city that I haven't visited yet. That seems so fun to me. Just like a weekend (or maybe even in the middle of the week) to get away from the stress of school and constantly working to just have fun exploring somewhere new. I love traveling, even though our family can't very often, and I love being able to explore different areas that I've never laid eyes on before. Definitely one of the top things to do on my bucket list before I graduate.

Hollywood-Spencer Parsons

Ok, so the reason I am doing this a week late is because I knew I was going to see Hateful Eight this weekend. I also watched Django over the break for the first time and both of these movies were directed by Quentin Terentino. i have only seen one other Terentino film and that was Pulp Fiction, but after seeing these two I am a huge fan.

The two movies are fairly similar, but each have their own twists that make it original. I would have to say I like Cristoph Waltz and Jamie Fox together more than Kurt Russel and Samuel L. Jackson, and would rank Django as a better movie over all. I am starting to get a strong sense for Terentino's specific style choices. For example, he uses a ton of bloody scenes which I think are awesome. and, in Hateful Eight, there is only one set for the whole movie. It is very difficult t keep someone captivated for three hours with just one set, but for this movie it works. I would say Hateful Eight has more comedy, but the story in Django is just so awesome. Not to mention, that movie has the most epic cast.

Some of the most vulgar scenes occur in these two movies which seems to be a Terentino trend. In Hatfeul Eight you watch someone get hung very clearly with a close face shot and in Django you see numerous harsh torture scenes. In some cases it becomes hard to watch, but it makes the movies better and I really enjoyed them.

Hollywood- Anya Slepyan

I tried to do the rotten tomatoes review thing but I'm not sure if the link is working so I included the text of my review below just in case. My computer also thought I was my mom, so you're looking for the review under Karen Petrone (sorry!)


http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_big_short/?search=the%20big%20sho#


Over the holidays I had the opportunity to see The Big Short, which I watched for the second time last Friday. I was pleased to see that the movie held up throughout repeated viewings, a feat which I attribute to the spectacular acting, sardonic humor, and the profound subject matter. The Big Short focuses on Wall Street investors who predict the financial crash of 2008 by doing what no one else at the time was doing- paying attention. The film follows the Wall Street misfits as they discover the corrupt and fraudulent systems upon which the American economy is based. What separates The Big Short from other financial films is that the creators go through enormous pains to make sure that the audience understands the transactions taking place, rather than merely having to accept it as Wall Street mumbo-jumbo. By cleverly utilizing celebrities and simple analogies, the directors reduce abstruse Wall Street jargon into understandable terms and concepts for lay people. (For example, Margot Robbie clarifies that "sub-prime" just means "shit" as she soaks in a bubble bath, sipping champagne.) This feature of the movie is exactly what makes The Big Short so important- yes, it's entertainment (honestly, it's hilarious), but it is also a worthy educational tool that explains the largest financial crisis in modern history to a broad public audience.

Assignment 18: Buckets and Buckets - Matthew Logsdon

Welcome to your first blog prompt for 2015! Yay!

A bucket list is a list of everything you want to accomplish before you kick the bucket. That doesn't mean you can't have such a list for specific aspects of your life as well.

To begin the year, generate your own bucket lists - one for high school, one for college, and one for life. Then, write about the priority on each list.

1. What is the number one item on your bucket list before you finish high school?
2. What is the number one item on your bucket list before you finish college?
3. What is the number one item on your bucket list before you finish living?

(This blog is inspired by Axel Liimatta - former academy teacher - my friend and former colleague that inspires me to live every day more fully)

Minimum of 150 words - due Sunday, January 24th  at 11:59 pm

Hooray for Hollywood -Hope Reed

For some reason Rotten tomatoes won't let me link my review on to here, but here's what I said on "Silver Linings Playbook" 2012:

"This movie is one of my all-time personal favorites. I loved the acting of Cooper and Lawrence; they made me fall in love with both of them, flaws and all.  It was funny, chaotic, and yet sweet all in one. I like a good movie that makes me feel a lot of different emotions, and this movie did just that. And I absolutely loved the ending, and wouldn't have changed a thing about it to make me happier. I've watched it three times since the first time I saw it, which was about a month ago, and I don't like re-watching movies unless they're real good... so this movie was beyond real good. I loved it, and I would recommend it to anyone in high school or older, because it does have some language in it. I'm so glad I ran across this movie, it had a great plot line, made me laugh, and had a great message."

I gave it a 5/5 star ranking.

Assignment 17: Hooray for Hollywood!- Braeden Bowen

George Lucas is known for several masterpieces of cinematography, namely Star Wars: A New Hope and American Graffiti. He is also known for... lower-quality films, chiefly The Phantom Menace and 2012's Red Tails. For the purpose of this post (and partially due to timeliness) I will analyze Star Wars and The Phantom Menace.

For starters, the reception between these two films is remarkable. While Star Wars is one of the most recognizable movies all time, The Phantom Menace is generally rejected and looked down upon as awkward, poorly-paced, Jar-Jar filled movie. The 1977 Star Wars film, on the other hand, is... well, hold on. This film is full of clunky dialogue, rushed shots, poor acting, and terrible, terrible 1997 edits. Does this mean that Lucas' style is no style at all?

Don't get me wrong. Both films have several amazing scenes and sequences, with TPM's Duel of the Fates and SW's Mos Eisley Cantina among them. However, Lucas had plenty of time in between the original release and the 1999 prequel to master his design and style, and yet the film, so full of CGI, new heroes, villians, and Gungans, did not display Lucas' great strides in directing. In fact, it appears that there were few at all.

Perhaps Lucas' style in between those two movies isn't so different after all, despite the deficit in popularity from one movie to the next. Maybe it was the spark of imagination, not the expertise and perfection, that Star Wars brought out in audiences that caused it to be the icon that The Phantom Menace definitely isn't.

horray for hollywood -catherine van tatenhove

Arguably the most illustrious, successful, talented, and enigmatic director has been forcing us to hide under a blanket to hide half the screen in utter disturbance while also making us cry because of a small boys love for an equally small alien. Steven Spielberg has been a brilliant mind for as far back as my first cinematic experience began with The Sound of Music no less, but he actually found his start in 1961. Since he began his journey in directing he has made a plethora of films,  some stemming from his personal and hardship stricken childhood, while still others depict pivotal historical events with incredible precision and passion. ET and Schindler's List are both perfect examples of the aforementioned genre descriptions. ET being about a boy named Elliott who inadvertently befriends an alien and Schindler's List encompassing the atrocities of the Holocaust. These movies are threaded with differences in style including usage of shots and angles, music, and props. However, one aspect remains the same through out. Through out all of Spielberg's films there's always a moment of perfectly orchestrated but still completely natural emotion. Whether it's the horrifying death of a small girl in a red coat amongst the black and white film representing hope, or a young boy begging for the safety of his new best friend. Spielberg makes us cry, scream, and laugh regardless of which of his movies we are glued to. It's inevitable. And, for me, it's been priceless.

Hooray for Hollywood-Matthew Telfer

Spectre Review
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/user/id/973006945/ratings

Alexis Kirkland- Hooray for Hollywood

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/user/id/973008149/ratings

One Direction This Is Us: I have seen this film over 25 times, at least. Over my winter break, I proceeded to watch it again. Not that any new content mysteriously shows up the more times I watch it, but I loved this film so much, I am never bored while viewing and always impressed. From the original theatrical version, to the extended cut, to the 3D version seen in films, it never ceases to amaze. I love the look at the boys' normal lives that we are fortunate enough to see. We can view how they all interact with each other, with the crew, how they react to their fame. and so on. Not only does it serve as an intimate documentary of One Direction's personal lives, but it also serves as a concert film for their second world tour, the Take Me Home Tour. This film, needless to say, is my favorite movie of all time.