Anchorman

The legend of Ron Burgundy begins with the media center piece of San Diego. Ron is the lead anchor for the number one rated channel 4 news crew. Ron is the living the high life in San Diego. He is possibly the most famous person in the city. Ron is living his dream. That is until Mrs. Verionca Corningstone steps in. After many outraged attempts to keep a women off the news crew, Veronica joins the team. After an brief absence of Ron Burgundy, she fills in the anchor position. Ron's dream life crumbles. As he hits rock bottom, he quickly fights his way back to the top, and is once again at the peak of San Diego news.

Now for my personal thoughts. Anchorman is one of the greatest movies I have ever seen. I may be a bit biased, but I still really enjoy the film. Anything involving Well Ferrell is instantly hilarious. From his Saturday night live skits to exclusive YouTube videos, Will Ferrell is a genius in comedy. He has such a sense of humor! I was very pleased to learn that a large majority of his lines in his movies are improvised. And to add to his amazing humor, is a great cast of wonderful actors. Steve Carrell is nearly as funny as Will. Steve adds a great dimension to the film. All of the cast compliment each other excellently. Many of the actors in the film are in a union, so they have many films together. I think it is great to see them in a different fashion. I guess the only criticism I would have about this movie is the story line. It seems like every movie Will Ferrell is the star in, he plays the same character (i.e. Talladega Nights, Blades of Glory, Semi-Pro). He is always on top of the world, falls down quickly and dramatically, and then finds his way back to the top for the finale. But, they have yet to displease me. Even with the same story line or Will playing the same role, they are still amazing movies. I sill continue to be a huge fan of Will Ferrell and everything he is associated with.

Shift Happens

The "Shift Happens" video on Youtube is one of my favorite videos I have ever seen. I have actually seen that in my sociology class. It was an older version, so the facts and figures in this video are more accurate. I love to think about things like that. Especially the effects of technology growing so rapidly. In this newer version, there were more statistics about college students. I found that interesting because I always think about where I will be when I graduate. Some of those statistics can be scary to think about. The extremely fast rate at which the population grows is alarming. I always find it weird when other countries have a large English speaking population. Thinking about those things make me think the world is coming to an end. It also makes me very interested in what is going to happen next. Some of the statistics even suggest that people decades ago would have never predicted things to be the way they are today, but experts continue to make predictions about what may happen in the years to come. Maybe they will be way off too, and things will be mass chaos. Who knows? I guess we will see.

Literacy Narrative

My first comment on the literacy narratives is: Who in the world would have thought Malcolm X never had a significant amount of education? I did know that he had a troubled background; however never pursing formal education beyond the eight grade? That's amazing when you think of all that he accomplished. I found that whole story about Malcolm X so fascinating I want to make my way over to Bracken and find his Autobiography. He was very motivated while in prison. I was taught a lot about Malcolm X during school, however it was not as detailed as his biography. I never knew he enjoyed his prison term because he had time to educate himself and not be interrupted or negatively influenced the way his life on the streets were. I have come to realize all they taught me in school was that he was a Muslim and tried to spread the word. And of course, they taught me he was a black nationalist, but failed to mention much of his life before then. It was also amazing how determined and dedicated he was to reading. He stayed up all night sitting by the gate reading with hardly any light and pretending to be asleep when guards passed. And to think today we struggle to get some kids through high school when everything is basically handed to them. Maybe prison does serve some well.
The story about the kid reading at the age of 3 was another interesting narrative. In one of the paragraphs off to the side it explained how giving good details will cause the readers to have vivid images of the story and want to continue reading. That could not have been said any better. When I read the part about his grandparents reading to him as a young child, I could picture grandma in her rocking chair with her small grandson on her lap reading The Little Engine That Could until she fell asleep and the child crawled off her lap and went on an adventure, like Tommy Pickles in the cartoon RugRats. The description of him crawling over the edge of the crib and going to get the newspaper and starting to read it painted another wonderful image in my head. What great magic detail can work in writing!
And of course, the proficiency test. What a good collection these literacy narratives are! That poor girl, I do not know what to say. That is something that would happen to me. I was never good on standardized tests either, but gees! Can the girl get some slack? She was a great student, and was not even sure if she would graduate high school because of some test administered by the state of Ohio. That is ludicrous! I am sure that even if she did not eventually pass it, on her third try mind you, there would be some kind of waiver program put into effect, because clearly she had the ability to be a successful student. I found it a bit strange that when she relaxed and stopped taking the test so seriously, she finally received a passing score. Although they do say nervousness on tests can work against you, one would think a straight A, honors student....could pass a simple writing section on a standardized test. But who am I to judge Ohio and their eductional standards?