More than a Word was a very interesting documentary — I did not think that there would be so much controversy over people portraying Indians in an offensive way like that in sports. It’s very very interesting what the different arguments were for keeping or not keeping Indian faces / names and it was sad to see natives caught in the middle of this issue.
Author Archives: ljc239
Leaf making
Making paper leaves was so fun! It was a nice way to spend my time and get to know how to make some leaf art. Since I signed up a little late, I had to make some out of some post-its, but it was still fun to make some arts and crafts with people nevertheless!
First Man
The movie First Man was really interesting to me as I didn’t really know a lot of the intricate details of the first moon landing. Seeing this film really allowed me to see the intricacies of this, and it was overall a very eye-opening experience.
A japanese adventure
I really liked the movie “My Neighbor Totoro”. At first, I didn’t expect it to be animated or did I expect it to be in Japanese. However, I grew very fond of the style and found it to be a nice contrast to the other movies I have seen through this program. When you watch this movie you can very much relate to the characters, and the main characters go through a lot of character development, being multifaceted and complex.
I found the story of two girls’ (Satsuki and Mei) exploring a new home heartwarming. The way they were able to play outside and have fun while also not getting into much conflict was wonderful, and their sense of exploration was very interesting and fitting for their characters. Their family was the definition of perfect, save for the mother. I hated to see them argue about the mother not leaving the hospital though — they both wanted the same thing but Mei was too impatient and wanted to see her mother so badly.
Chernobyl, the first episode
I didn’t know much about what had happened at Chernobyl except for how a lot of people died from radiation, so I decided to watch with movie to get a better understanding of it. I definitely was not prepared for the the movie had to show.
I didn’t know that the core LITERALLY EXPLODED — I thought there was just a minor meltdown. It turned out to be much more serious than I had expected. The number of people that were injured and/or died just because of someone’s mistakes at a power plant is terrible. The Russian government trying to pass it off as a lie / ensure everyone else that it wasn’t serious is also terrible.
Chernobyl 2
The second episode of Chernobyl was very interesting in that we were able to see what the outcomes of the reactor exploding were, and how the Russian government tried to cover the situation up while also look for a solution.
They ended up using sand and boron to cover the plant, which assumed that there was no water in the tanks below, but there was water and if the boron/sand lava hit the tanks it would create a radioactive explosion. That must have been super stressful — dropping the ball twice in that way, with so many people at stake — is crazy.
Talking with Ryan Lombardi
I really felt that this was a great way to connect with the higher-ups of the school without having to feel any sort of mediation or secrecy. It felt personal, even though we were in a Zoom call. We were able to find out a bit about how the departure process would go, and ultimately how coming back to school would be.
Perhaps when we come back in February we’ll be able to get closer to the normal we had before COVID-19.
Chernobyl Episodes 4 and 5 – What stood out to me
I definitely liked these episodes. They really stood out to me as one of the peaks of the situation with Chernobyl, with Russia saying “look this power core isn’t a big deal, it’s only 2K roentgen (what one officer referred to a sthe propaganda number)” when in actuality the radiation was way above that.
However, one thing that really stood out to me was when the animal control people were trying to kill all of the radioactive animals, and the new person didn’t want to kill any pets at first because he thought it was wrong, but eventually got used to doing it so much that he eventually numbed himself to it. Numbing oneself to such grueling and emotioning taxing challenges in that way is quite astonishing. I would not be able to get a hold of myself after killing an animal, much less a pet that someone used to own and love.