Blog Post 2

UCONN star Maya Moore turns down MN Lynx will instead sign with Hartford school district

Celebrated womens college basketball player Maya Moore has made her decision. She has turned down a life of economy class airplanes and a leased Prius to be a substitute teacher. Her decision came as a suprise to some as she is already one of the greatest womens basketball players to play the game. According to her mother money may have factored into the equation, "Maya can make the same amount and there is less of a chance she suffers debilitating injuries." Moore said on Tuesday, "This has always been my dream to babysit a different class everyday and I'm so excited that I was given the oppurtunity." Sources have said that even up until she signed with HSD she was struggling with turning down lifelong dreams. Maya had always wanted to meet an actual NBA player, but now that dream will go unrealized. Moore said through a statement, "...when I was drafted by the Lynx I was excited about the chance to meet pros like Kevin Love, but at the end of the day it just wasn't worth it to play in the WNBA." When asked to comment on the decision Mens coach Jim Calhoun said, "They're still letting girls play?" Geno Auriemma, Maya's coach and mentor, had this to say to an ESPN reporter: "She was a great player and from what I hear an okay teacher. At least as a teacher somebody might be interested in what she's doing." Hopefully her career will pan out and she will a healthy average life. Sometimes thats the best a women's sports star can do.

Blog post 1

"That was some adventure, huh?" said the Rattlesnake to the One-eyed baby. The small cyclops started to cry. Having just one eye there were only half the tears of a normal infant,which was good because their boat had begun to capsize. The talking Rattlesnake was right in saying that they had just had an adventure. They had been apart of a traveling freak show in the Pacific Northwest. At a small truck stop in Tacoma, Washington their cages had fallen off the back of the freak show van. Rattlesnake had wiggled through the bars of its cage and freed the baby. He was planning on eating the child, but could not bring himself to eat such a vile freak. So Rattlesnake had begun carrying him around by the neck with his mouth. He slithered down the road with the hopes of finding shelter for the night. However, a family saw a baby crying on the side of the road and pulled over. Being devoted to the Church of Latter Day Saints the father, Harold, saw two living things that could be converted. He began to preach from the book of Mormon. The baby began to cry. At the end of his long sermon Harold demanded that both baby and Rattlesnake come live as his guests in Salt Lake City. Rattlesnake tried to bargain with Harold, but he would have none of it. He threw them both in a wooden box.The baby continued crying all the way to Salt Lake City. Rattlesnake decided that he would take a short nap and then devise a plan. 25 minutes later he awoke starving. Forgetting completely where he was and of his predicament he started to gnaw at the side of the box. He gnawed and gnawed and freed himself through a small hole. Biting the first piece of food he laid eyes on he sank his teeth in to Harold's four year old daughter Karen. He made short work of Karen devouring her whole in a matter of moments. Harold was not amused and while he cried and cried he stated his intentions to send them to the local zoo. They were caged and put on view for the paying public. After three days of sitting in a cage and watching crowds go by neither had many hopes for the future. Little did they know that just 100 yards away in the Monkey house trouble was brewing. The chimpanzees, with the help of the  orangutans, had begun implementing an escape plan that was simply ingenious. The details would be to difficult to relay in a 400 word blog, but many successful human jailbreaks have not had half the organization of this attempt. At any rate, at precisely 11:45 at night the monkeys had escaped and begun freeing the rest of the zoo's animals. As planned, yet previously unbeknownst to them, One-eyed baby and talking amphibian found themselves on the dusty sidewalk outside the zoo. Still carrying the baby, but at this point unsure why, Rattlesnake slithered downhill. Then he saw something and knew where he and his only friend were headed to. At the bottom of the hill he spied the frothing, blue Great Salt Lake. And sitting on its bank was a small rusty rowboat. They boarded the rowboat and the serpent taught One-eyed baby how to row. They rowed and rowed for hours. Hours turned in to days. Days turned in to weeks. Weeks turned in to years. They still row on and on, escaping their lives as captives.

Blog Post 10

This wasn't my favorite reading and I thought even though it was short it was kind of dull. I think that the theme of some people don't fit in and the establishment works to make everyone the same is overused. Her take on the way that people react to it is a little different. I wasn't sure if she actually lives in a country that is different than the one she was born in. The reason I think it might be meant to take literally is because her voice sounds different so maybe she has an accent from somewhere else. The article did make me think about how fitting in is difficult for some people and that kindness should be shown to everyone.

Our Documentary is looking pretty good. We were a little behind on the editing and our footage didn't seem as good as some other groups. But, I think that this week we've realized that our interviews are really strong and our topic is a good one. We currently have a pretty good couple of minutes, but we need to iron out audio and transitions andn make some B-roll changes, but I think by Monday we'll have a really good documentary.

Blog Post 9

We got our most important interview done and feel like we have enough interview footage for our documentary. We could use some more B-roll, but have decided to start editing down and decide what extra footage we need.   All of us are feeling really good about reaching the deadlines and being ready to do our best. Hopefully we will be able to complete it well. Our biggest obstacles now will be getting in to edit and using the software correctly. I think that we wish that we had gotten our filming done early but sill have enough time.

The article is really provoking because a lot of the time we forget that a lot of the people in the world don't enjoy the freedoms that we do. To not be able to speak your mind and have one source of media and only one way that you are allowed to think would be terrible. It makes one appreciate the privileged life that we enjoy. I think that it is really sad that people in a country's government could show such little care for their citizens.

New Blog Post

Our group has made some really good progress in the last week. We got some really good interview footage form Alex and Jason and I think that right now we could make an acceptable 3 minute documentary. We are looking to take it to the next level and are setting up an interview with Adrienne and thinking about how we want our documentary to flow. One thing we need to work on is getting better B-roll because what we have in that category as of now isn't very good.

This reading was really powerful and well-written. I liked the way that King started with themes that are traditionally associated with Christmas and applied them to the situation in Chicago. The over-arching message that nonviolence triumphs in all venues is one that would be foreign to the gang-members living in the Chicago slums. King gives the boys the gift of this outlook on life and teaching new ways to get what they want without hurting others. Then they in turn apply what they have learned and spread this gift to the whole city of Chicago. They were able to bring about change and learn how to continue to deal with socially issues peacefully.

Blog Post 4

1. Our documentary is really starting to pick up speed. We finally decided on a topic that we are sticking to and the whole group is really excited about that. We are seeing a direction for our idea and are ready to begin doing research and filming for our trailer. We need to do a better job of managing time and collaborating as a team, but I think that we are starting to do a better job on this. Hopefully our late start won't hurt us too much and we will be able to make the best documentary that we are capable of.

2. I though that the article was very helpful to us as budding documentary makers. I don't have much experience formally interviewing people and the tips and rules in this article will be in the back of my head when I set up interviews with subjects. I think that the article echoed much of what our speakers have said about how to get good interview footage, but its nice to have it all written down. The story about Dr. Spock was really interesting and something that I don't think anyone would've thought would be a problem in advance of reading the article. The idea of trying different things to get the subject in the right mindset is one that my group will have to try and use.

Blog Post 2

1. This week my group has been struggling to decide on a topic for our documentary. We have come up with a lot of ideas but none that all three of us have been able to agree on. We have set Tuesday as the day when we have to decide and I think that this is a needed and attainable goal. I think that we could all be a little bit more accepting of others ideas, and I think we will as we get closer to our deadline.

2. I thought that this was a really interesting take on documentary films. Even only talking about this year he was able to come up with so many documentary and documentary-like films and that really shows just how popular the genre is. He argues that audiences want to believe that what their seeing is real, but often know that the director has taken some liberties. I thought it was interesting when the author went in to the parts of style that make a movie feel like a documentary, like jolty camerawork. I could relate to the article because one of my favorite shows, The Office, plays on documentary styling. I thought that it was a really good question: What is actually a documentary?