blog 27 quote

Even after changing my topic last week, I am still having trouble figuring out what to research.  I feel like I keep writing about the same stuff, but maybe that’s fine?  This time I read another article about dealing with grief after the loss of a loved one.  Everyone has their own ways of dealing with this.  Some like to be alone with their thoughts and reflect back on what happened.  While others like to be surrounded by family and friends for help through this tough time.  But one thing is the same, the memory of the deceased is important.  Author Taylor Vale talks about how, “Recalling stories from the past and sharing those memories with special people seemed to help people to find connections and meaning in the present..” (Vale, Taylor).  By remember these stories, people are able to remember the happier times.  They can remember all the fun things they did with that person and all the stuff they got to do together.  By talking about this, instead of dwelling on the fact that the person is no longer alive, it helps to bring peoples spirits up.  Later on in life, when you think about the person, you think about the times you spent together.  Continuing to keep these memories alive is important.  Completing forgetting the person like November did, is not the right thing to do.     

Vale-Taylor, P. "We will remember them": a mixed-method study to explore which post-funeral remembrance activities are most significant and important to bereaved people living with loss, and why those particular activities are chosen." Palliative Medicine 23.6 (2009): 537-544. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 1 Feb. 2011.

blog 26 quote

Grief is a natural part of life.  At some point or another, everyone will experience it.  The process of grieving is an important.  By doing this people are able to get their feelings out and eventually get over what they were grieving about.  Though the person might not ever forget what happened , they will instead come to terms with it and move on.  These memories of them are important to keep.  Victoria Junior talks about how important these memories are when she said that, “..talking about the loved one, acting on the values and concerns of the deceased and celebrating rituals are examples of keeping memories of the deceased alive.  Rituals can be an important part of human existence regardless of life’s experiences” (Junior, 3).  By keeping the memories alive, people are able to focus on the positives of the deceased life instead of dwelling on the fact that they are no longer with us.  In Dollhouse, it’s learned that November is there because she wanted the memory of the death of her child erased.  It’s hard for me to understand why someone would want that memory erased.  If the memory of the death is erased, then any memory of her child would also have to be erased.  I don’t feel that a death is a good reason for completely forgetting about someone.  Like Victoria Junior said, their life needs to be celebrated.  There are better ways of dealing with death that forgetting about the person all together. 

Junior, Victoria Young. "Helping Female Inmates Cope With Grief and Loss." Corrections Today 65.3 (2003): 76. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 31 Jan. 2011.

blog 25 quote

We all experience highs and lows in our life. Most of us are able to deal with these issues and move on.  We may dwell on them for some time, but after a while we are able to move past it.  But for some people, these lows that they experience consume their lives.  They cannot get it out of their heads and end up being controlled by this memory of what happened.  These people look for relief in any way they can get it.  Unfortunately, this usually means turning to drugs or alcohol in order to cope.  By doing this, it may less the pain they feel, help them sleep, reduce their stress or just help block out the memory completely, but in the long run it’s not a good idea.  Raymond Anton from the Medical University of South Carolina states that “These initial reactions are just a sirens-song since, upon continued use, the substances are likely to increase stress and to cause the exact symptoms that they are initially meant to reduce” (Anton, 5).  Drugs and alcohol are only a short term fix.  Instead of the memory controlling your life, instead drugs and alcohol now control it since you rely on them to make you feel better.  The only way you can truly move on is to deal with the issue yourself.  Using drugs and alcohol is like running away from the problem and will only make it worse. 

Anton, Raymond. "Substance Abuse Is a Disease of the Human Brain: Focus on Alcohol." Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 38.4 (2010): 735-744. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 30 Jan. 2011.

blog 24 quote

Memories define who we are as people. We all have a collection of memories that have been built up in our minds over numerous years. Within these collections of memories, there are both good ones and unfortunately some bad memories. Though at times we might want to try and forget these less desirable memories, they are still important to us. Renee Mirkes, who is a director of the ethics division for the Pope Paul VI Institute sums up this idea when he said, “To some extent, these unchosen memories constrain us; though we may regret the shadows they cast over our pursuit of happiness, we cannot simply escape them while remaining who we really are” (Mirkes, 6). These bad memories are needed so they can be learned from. We take what is learned and try and make sure it doesn’t happen again, or at least know what we need to avoid. They make us who we are today.  This idea connects to patients with post traumatic stress disorder, whose bad memories are controlling their lives. There numerous ways of dealing with this disorder to try and lessen the effect of the memory, such as therapy. But a newer, controversial way is to take a certain drug that tries to block out the memory. This drug has many ethical issues surrounding it. These bad memories are still important to the person.  By going through therapy instead, the patient still has the memory but they are able to deal with it and move on.  By doing this, they are maintaining who they really are.     

blog 22

The article I read this time was about human memory.  It talked about how memories work and what these memories do for us.  We have two types of memory, there is the long term memory which helps us to remember things from the past and we have short term memory.  Usually what is on our mind at any given moment is due to what is in our short term memory.  Information is transferred back and forth between these two types of memories.  When a memory is transferred from short term to long term, that’s when you learn something.  That idea or fact will be stored in your long term memory for you to be able to call upon whenever you need it.  A memory can also go the other way, from long term to short term, which is associated with recalling facts, such as remembering a person’s name.  Of course we cannot remember everything though.  Throughout our life time we will encounter and experience so many things that it’s impossible for us to remember every detail.  Even the stuff we do remember isn’t always accurate.  Our minds usually try to find patterns and group things together.  This is what causes people to have breakthroughs in science and technology.  Their brain looks for a connection in their memory and they come up with an idea. 

This article does relate to my paper so I will probably use it.  The article gives a lot of good background information about memory and how it works.  This will be good to include so that the reader has more insight into how memories work. 

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=14&sid=e2588c54-377c-46fb-be13-dc2a0d02cace%40sessionmgr12&vid=2

blog 21

The article I read this time was about learning from the past.  The main focus of it was how we need to remember the experiences from the past such as wars and other related things and to use the memories of these to make sure they don’t happen again.  As a society, we need to remember the mistakes that have been made and take the appropriate steps to correct them.  I think that this article kind of relates to my topic of how our memories define who we are.  In this case, the memories didn’t necessarily define the individual; instead they changed how that individual might act.  The change in the way they act could in the form of a new law.  After the Civil Rights movement, there were a lot of law changes.  Politicians and people saw the way that other Americans were being treated and decided that something needed to be done.  They remembered what happened and used this memory to make a change.  Learning from the past could also be as simple as remembering to study more for a test.  If you didn’t study much for a past test and ended up failing it, then when the next test comes, you’ll have this memory and remember that you need to study more.  I’m not sure if I’ll use this article in my paper but it was useful to see another way our memories affect us. 

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=22&sid=ad043b6f-9557-4451-8939-98acec4b2ee0%40sessionmgr13&vid=2

blog 20

I article I decided to read this time once again had to deal with memories and how they affect the personality of the person.  One line that I really liked is where it said how memories are like a person’s “story of my life,” and how someone will repeat it to themselves “to warn him or  comfort him, to keep him concentrated on his goals, to prepare him, by means of past experiences, and to meet future with an already tested style of action.” The author goes on to talk about how memories anchor down our identity.  Not only do memories define our personality but they also help us to figure out our goals and want we want to achieve.  We cherish these memories and rely on them which helps to explain why we are still able to remember a certain memory clearly even after many years.  This article is a lot like the others ones I’ve read.  So far they’ve all said the same thing about how memories define our personality.  This is good because it supports my argument but I think I need to start finding articles that relate to my argument in a different way.  All the information I’ve gathered so far is pretty much the same.  I know I need to try searching for something different but I’m not sure what it would be.

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=13&sid=2816653c-84d2-430f-b097-aa7b74957c5c%40sessionmgr13&vid=2

blog 19 research

This time I choose to read an article about post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  In this article, the author talks PTSD and how it affects the individuals.  PTSD is a condition that can happen after witnessing a disturbing or frightening event.  This is seen most commonly in people in the military, police officers, or firefighters.  This disorder completely changes the person’s life.  They become so traumatized by what they saw that they can’t forget it or move past it.  This is usually treated by giving the individual doses of Propranolol.  Propranolol works by blocking adrenaline which is pumped throughout your body when people get frightened.  Researchers believe that when it is blocked, it changes the way your brain stores that certain memory.  But there are a lot of ethical issues surrounding this drug.  The author talks about how he feels that every memory we have is important.  Even the bad memories, like the ones that cause people to have PTSD, are important.  One line in the article that I like is when he compared our personalities to a rug.  He said that a rug is woven one knot at a time, with each knot woven into the others and this is just like our personalities.  All these different memories we have, shape our personalities.  If you take out one memory or change the way we remember it that will cause everything else to also change.  This relates to my topic because this is the same argument I’m trying to make. All of the memories we have make us who we are today.   

Mirkes, Renée. "DOES PHARMACOLOGICALLY-ALTERED MEMORY CHANGE PERSONAL IDENTITY?." Ethics & Medicine: An International Journal of Bioethics 26.3 (2010): 175-187. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 23 Jan. 2011.

blog 18 research

Today I did a little more research and found a few articles that I liked better than the ones I found yesterday.  One of the new ones I found is about patients with dementia and how their memory loss has affected the type of personality they have.  Dementias main effect is on the brain and its memory functions.  People with dementia have a hard time remembering simple things such as the day of the week or how to get back from the store.  It could also get as severe as the person not remembering a family member or friend.  This article talks about how they went about trying to see if there was a connection between dementia and personality.  The main thing they did was they had caretakers of patients with dementia take a questionnaire about how the patients personality was before they had dementia and then another about how their personality was after they got dementia.  The results showed that there was a difference in personality traits for the patients.  The main changes in personality traits where in their reliance on others, liking company, irritability, unhappiness, energy, enthusiasm, contact with reality and kindness.  They also performed another control test on people’s personalities before and after retirement.  The results of this showed that there wasn’t much change the subject’s personality at all.  This relates to my topic because this is what I’m trying to argue.  It seems clear from this study at least that memory does affect your personality.   

M. Trabucchi, et al. "Personality changes in Alzheimer's disease." Aging & Mental Health 11.5 (2007): 526-531. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 22 Jan. 2011.

blog 17 research

My topic is about how our memories affect our personalities and make us who we are today.  In order to do this, I need to find if there are any studies that were done along these lines.  I hope to find connections between the types of things people remember and how that affects them.  So far I’ve found a few articles that talk about traumatic experiences and how those experiences affected the person for the rest of their lives.  An example of this would be post traumatic stress disorder.  This is seen a lot in soldiers coming back from war.  They have memories of the horrible things they saw and had to do and these memories stayed with him.  These memories changed the way they behave and acted once they came back.  I also hope to find information about any new technology or drugs that are related to memory.   When I was trying to figure out what my topic should be, I did some research online and came across a few places that talked about drugs that could help you lose certain memories.  This would relate to what the Dollhouse is doing to the dolls and how they erase memories.  I don’t think I’ll be able to find lots of sources though since it’s a very narrow topic.  But hopefully I’ll be able to find enough to be able to write the paper. 

Klucharev, Vasily, Ale Smidts, and Guillén Fernández. "Brain Mechanisms of Persuasion: How ‘expert

Power’ Modulates Memory and Attitudes." Social Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience 3.4 (2008):

353-66. EBSCOhost. Web. 21 Jan. 2011.

<http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=12e04b31-7155-47e8

a503-c607de499d1b%40sessionmgr11&vid=10>.

Mirkes, Renée. "DOES PHARMACOLOGICALLY-ALTERED MEMORY CHANGE PERSONAL IDENTITY?" Ethics

& Medicine 26.3 (2010): 175-87. EBSCOhost. Web. 21 Jan. 2010. <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?hid=9&sid=a5f79664-65df-4b38-9ce9-f50ab6d13ec3%40sessionmgr14&vid=1&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=55737885>.

Modulates Memory and Attitudes..Authors:, Vasily. "Brain Mechanisms of Persuasion: How ‘expert

Power’ Modulates Memory and Attitudes." Social Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience 3.4 (2008):

353-66. EBSCOhost. Web. 21 Jan. 2011. <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?hid=9&sid=12e04b31-7155-47e8-a503-c607de499d1b%40sessionmgr11&vid=3&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=44545322>.

Monfils, Marie. "Extinction-Reconsolidation Boundaries: Key to Persistent Attenuation of Fear

Memories." Science 324.5929 (2009): 51-55. EBSCOhost. Web. 21 Jan. 2011.

<http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?hid=9&sid=ccb51659-f468-43c9-b29d-64c303affde2%40sessionmgr4&vid=1&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=40105834>.

Sutin, Angelina. "Going Forward by Drawing From the Past: Personal Strivings, Personally Meaningful

Memories, and Personality Traits." Journal of Personality 76.3 (2008): 631-64. EBSCOhost. Web.

21 Jan. 2011. <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?hid=21&sid=3a088faf-3f04-4949-bc25-2a9f61616bd9%40sessionmgr11&vid=1&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=31803854>.

blog 16 prospectus

Since I’ve been watching Dollhouse, of course I decided to write my paper about a theme shown in this show.  I think I am going to write about how memory defines our character and the personality we have.  I choose this topic because in the seventh episode, it surprised me how much Echo’s character changed once she started getting some of her old memories back.  Her personality changed completely.  This idea is also played out in all the episodes after the dolls memories are wiped.  Once their memories are gone, they walk around the dollhouse aimlessly and none of the dolls have any personality at all.  I can relate this to the real world because all the memories that we have is what made us into the people we are today.  An example is someone who has had their house robbed might become a little more paranoid about security and take a few extra minutes before leaving to make sure everything is locked.  They remembered what happened last time and use this memory to make sure it doesn’t happen again.  This becomes part of their personality.  I also read about some new advances in medicine and technology that was tested on animals which caused them to forget certain memories.  This might not be as extreme as what’s going on in the dollhouse, but it still relates.  I still think it’s going to be hard to write such a long paper on this topic though. 

Blog 15 Grammar mistakes

For this blog we are supposed to write about a common grammatical error that messes us up.  One rule that I always confuse is where to place apostrophes.  I always confuse where you are supposed to put the apostrophe to show different types of possession.  Like if you say “the dogs”, “the dogs’ “ or “the dog’s.”  I never remember when you are supposed to use what.  I learned this rule a long time ago back in grade school but even then I wasn’t sure which one to use.  Another grammar mistake I make is when I write, I include words like “their” and “they” when it should really be singular.  An example of this would be a sentence like:  Everybody must bring their own lunch.  When it should really be: Everyone should bring his or her own lunch.  I guess I think it sounds better to say their instead of his or her but that’s not grammatical correct.  I also use commas more than I probably should when I write.  I usually add them in places they shouldn’t be or forget to add them altogether.  We went over in class when to use them so that should help me decide in my future writings.  I feel that there are so many rules in the English language.  Maybe every language is like this?  There are probably still lots of other grammar rules that I’ve forgotten or just don’t even know.  Hopefully I’ll learn more of them this quarter.    

Blog 14

For my paper, the topic I choose to write about is how memories define who we are.  I thought that this topic was best showed in episode 7.  This is the episode where Echo is on a mission with another man when she sees the news of a suicide at a college on television.  Upon seeing this, a sudden a flood of memories come back to her.  She is overwhelmed with emotion and decides that she has to go to that college and try to help.  I choose this episode because it shows how much these memories affected her.  She was a completely different person before she saw the news, but once she did see it, her original personality started to show through.  The caring and compassionate side of her personality overcame her and she immediately left.  The memories that came to her changed the way she would have otherwise acted without them.  Even the memories that aren’t hers that are implanted in her mind change the way she and the other dolls act.  When all the dolls memories are wiped after their missions, they don’t have any personalities; they wonder around aimlessly.  But once they are given memories and talents for a mission, they take on a whole new persona.  These memories change the way they act. 

Blog 13 Dollhouse s1e8

In this episode of Dollhouse, the employees take it to a whole new level.  Four dolls are given the opportunity to escape the Dollhouse and be free. But it all turns out to be a plan made up by the doctor and DeWitt in order to try and get the dolls to stop having reoccurring memories.  Echo, Victor, Sierra and November are the dolls that are having the most problems with their memories coming back.  So the Dollhouse decides that in order to get this to stop, they need to be able to go out in the real world and have closure to these memories.  It was nice to be able to see how these characters really act when they are not under the control of the Dollhouse.  Echo was so determined to be the hero and save everyone in the Dollhouse which doesn’t come as a surprise.  In all the other episodes, Echo always wants to help and try to save the day.  One line in this episode that I liked is when Echo was talking to Tropher and said how he is, “looking down on everyone, playing God.”  I never really thought about it like that but it makes sense.  Tropher has almost completely control over the dolls; he can make them into whatever he wants.  He is able to decide what their skills will be and what type of personalities they will have.  Echo then went on to say how bad the stuff they are doing is and how bad of people they are for doing it.  I wonder if all the stuff Echo said to him will have any effect on how he views his job and what he does to these people. 

Blog 12 Dollhouse S1E7

After watching the 7^th episode of Dollhouse, I’m still not sure what to choose as my topic for the paper.  I have a few ideas but none of them are that great.  Hopefully in the next couple days ill think of an idea. 

In this episode of Dollhouse, I thought there were a lot of surprises.  One of the things that supposed me the most was the fact that the girl that lives across from the FBI agent is a doll.  The Dollhouse company must really be worried about Paul and seems to be doing everything they can to try and keep him off their case.  But even after all the stuff they are doing, I don’t think Paul will be able to forget about the case and move on.  He has too much time invested in it and has come too far to just forget about it all.  Even though It has cost him his job, he is probably just as determined, if not more now, to figure it all out.  Also in this episode, we once again see Echo doing things that she wasn’t assigned to do.  Usually she does things that she wasn’t meant to do but still ends up completing what she was assigned to do, but not this time.  She does something completely different that want she was meant to do.  The whole time she was at the college she kept remembering things from when she was there.  This must mean that she still has some memory and that it all isn’t completely erased.  Once again though, she was able to save the day.

Blog 11 Dollhouse S1E6

In past episodes of Dollhouse, the main focus of the show was on the dolls missions.  But for episode 6, they decided to take a different approach.  In this episode they went further into depth of the other stories surrounding the Dollhouse.  One of the main stories they focused on was FBI agent Paul Ballard’s.  We learn a lot more about the information he has concerning the Dollhouse and what he is doing to stop it.  Since the first episode, he has been trying to find Echo but has been unsuccessful.  But he finally finds her in this episode when he breaks into a person’s house that he thinks is a client for the Dollhouse.  When Paul sees her, he can’t believe his eyes.  This whole time people have been telling him that she doesn’t exist and now he is face to face with her.  He later comes face to face with her again when she tries to attack him at the Chinese restaurant.  After the fight he is given valuable information from her saying how the Dollhouse is real and that he needs to back off for a while since the organization is so powerful.  I don’t think he is going to be able to do this though.  He’s spent so much time trying to find this place and convince people that its real and now that he knows it’s real, I don’t think he’ll be able to back off.  I’m not really sure who implanted that speech into Echo’s head though.  Did DeWitt do it in order to try and get Paul to back off?  Or was it someone else?  Overall it was a good episode. 

Blog 10 Dollhouse S1E5

For blog 10 I decided to watch the 5^th episode of Dollhouse.  This episode had a lot of interesting things going on with it.  I was really surprised at the technology they were able to do.  As if wiping people’s memories and replacing them with other ones isn’t crazy enough, this time they implanted cameras into Echo’s eyes.  What is even more remarkable is that afterwards when they were taken out; it didn’t have any effect on her eyesight.  But I guess that’s what you should expect in a sci-fi show.

Once again in this episode, we see the adaptability of Echo.  She was supposed to be blind but after being smacked around by the cult leader, she regains her eye sight.  She still continues with what she was supposed to do and completes the mission.  What also caught my attention is how in the beginning when they were talking about the cult and how all the members have no personality since they follow the leader blindly without thinking for themselves.  To me, that sounds exactly like Echo.  Because they are always wiping her memory, Echo doesn’t have a personality either.  She is also constantly forced to do whatever mission they want her to do without being able to choose for herself.  There was also some irony at the end when the cop showed the AFT agent the picture of Echo and he said that, “she could be anyone.”  What ironic about that is that she literally can be anyone.  She can become any person just by what is put in her head.  

Blog 9 Dollhouse S1E4

Once again I decided to watch Dollhouse.  This time I watched the forth episode in season one.  I actually liked this episode a lot.  It kept my interest throughout and kept me wondering how there were going to get out.  In this episode, Echo is a master thief.  She knows how to break into all these different places and has all the tools to do so.  But for some reason, mid way through the heist, she hears a noise over the phone that wipes her memory away and she returns to the state that she is in when she is back at the Dollhouse.  In this episode we learn a lot about what all has been going on.  We see that the guy the police officer has been talking to is one of the dolls in the dollhouse.  I guess the people that work at the Dollhouse somehow heard that the police officer was catching on to what they were doing so they sent him out to try and convince him that the Dollhouse isn’t real.  This seemed pretty smart of them to do.  Another thing we learn is that the rumors about Alpha being alive are true.  He must want something to do with Echo since when he went on his killing rampage at the Dollhouse, he killed everyone in the shower except Echo, and now he used a sound to wipe away her memory.  Hopefully in the next few episodes it will become clear why he is doing all this stuff. 

Blog 8 High School is Hell

The author of this article did a really good job of picking a small aspect of the show and expanding on it.  They didn’t pick such a small topic that they would be repeating information over and over again and also didn’t pick one to large.  What really helped this paper were all the quotations that were added.  The quotes flowed right along with the paper and didn’t seem out of place.  It seemed like lots of thought was put into each and where to put it in the paper.  The author frequently referenced back to the show and real life which furthered strengthened the point he or she was trying to get across.  The author also wrote about something that the reader could identify with.  We’ve all been in high school once and can relate to it.  This was a good example to show what the articles we have to write will look like.  The hardest part is going to be choosing which topic to actually write about.  In each episode of any show on the list, there are many different topics to pick from.  Numerous themes come up that can easily relate back to the real word.  But it’s finding the one that interest you the most and have the most support for that’s going to be hard. 

Blog 7: Dollhouse Season 1 epsiode 3

I decided to again watch the next episode of Dollhouse.  Like the last one, this one was also a little weird.  I can’t imagine someone being that obsessed with someone else; although I’m sure there are plenty of people like him in the world.  One thing that caught my attention is what the singer was saying to Echo towards the end of the show when they got into the argument.  After Echo had saved her, she started trying to justify why she wanted to be killed.  One of the things she said was how she’s not a real person.   This relates right to Echo.  If it weren’t for the personalities the company implants in her head, she wouldn’t be anything.  It’s the personalities they implant in her mind that make her “normal”.  Also, the signer talked about how she is living everyone else’s fantasy.  Just like her, each time a person comes to buy one of the dolls for something, they are sort of making Echo live their fantasy.  Echo isn’t busy doing what she wants to do, instead she’s doing what everyone else wants her to do.  But what the singer wanted most of all she said, was to have freedom, something that neither girl has.  Maybe all of this is foreshadowing what’s to come later in the series.  Especially since now we know that Echo is much different than all the other dolls.  She has the ability to think outside the box and not just do strictly what she was told.    

Bog 6 Dollhouse season 1 epsiode 2

Since I liked the first Dollhouse episode, I decided to watch the second episode.  This episode had a much darker side and gave more insight into how Boyd became Echo’s handler.  Echo and Boyd have a very strong relationship together.  Boyd trusts Echo with whatever she wants to do.  He knows that she is capable of doing whatever she says even if she wasn’t programmed to do that certain task.  Boyd could have easily called in help when he was trying to rescue Echo, but instead he listens to her when she says that she wants to go and kill him.  I thought that the whole idea of one human hunting another as a sport was pretty messed up.  This reminded me of a book I had to read a long time ago in grade school called The Most Dangerous Game.  Just like in the show, the book is about a guy who gets tired of hunting animals because they become too easy for him so instead he turns to humans. But just like Echo, the one that is being hunted is determined not just to survive, but to kill the hunter.  The person that’s being hunted tries many different ways to trap him and killing him but none are successful until he sneaks into the hunter’s house.  Just as Echo did, after a long fight the hunter is the one that ultimately ends up dead.   

Blog 5: Dollhouse 1

This time I decided to watch the first episode of Dollhouse.  I show turned out to be a lot better than I thought it would be.  It didn’t have as much of a sci-fi feel as Firefly, which I liked better.  One thing that caught my attention in this was when Boyd and the guy who wipes people’s memories were talking about how they were great humanitarians.  They feel that they are helping people out by performing this service.  Boyd then goes on to say that even though that’s what they think, there are still plenty of people who don’t agree with what they are doing and would throw them in jail if they ever found out.  When he was talking about this, it made me think about all the new advancements in medicine and technology that are being developed now.  In the past few years there has been lots of talk about cloning, stem cell research and other things like that.  Just like in Dollhouse, some people think that things like that are necessary and will help society, while others are completely against it.  Although these issues might not be as extreme as wiping people’s memories, they still have the same moral and ethical dilemmas that are associated with them.       

Blog 4

Since I wasn’t able to find a site to watch Dollhouse on that worked, I decided to watch the next episode of Firefly.  One thing that stood out to me is how ready Mal and his crew were to look for survivors on the other ship and help them.  The entire crew was ready to go over there and see if anyone was hurt.  Even when they found the dead bodies, they still didn’t leave the ship.  If that was me, I would have gotten out of there right away. Not even the gun fire that was heard later deterred them.  The crew wanted to do everything they could to help.  What really surprised me is how they took the guy that tried to attack them back onto their ship to try and help him.  They didn’t know whether he was good or bad but they still took him aboard.  Even though they are against the main government and steal, when faced with tough decisions, they always want to do what is morally right.  Just like in the past episode when they returned the medicine.  I think this shows the true character of the crew.   Another thing that I found interesting is how the girl that has all the problem could sense when the guy they brought on the ship was around.  This must mean that there’s something special about her and that she has special abilities.  We keep learning a little more about her in each episode. 

Blog 3: The Train Job

One thing that really stands out to me is how in this episode, we see completely different sides of Mal.  When he and Zoe are on the train about to go steal the cargo, Mal is overcome with excitement.  Zoe seems to be nervous about the situation especially when they see the military people, but not Mal.  Mal sees this as an opportunity to not only embarrass them but make their theft more exciting.  He seems like a hardened criminal ready to do whatever it is he was told to do.  Later when Mal returns to the ship we see another side of him when the people that wanted him to do the job come to find him.  At one point Mal has the tattooed face guy handcuffed and knelt in front of him.  After trying to tell him what he would like him to do, Mal kicks him and he is sucked into the engine of the ship.  Mal seems completely unremorseful.  When just looking at these two incidents, it appears that Mal is a heartless thief and murderer.   But there is one other scene that is completely different from these two.  In another scene, once Mal figures out that the cargo he has stolen is medicine, he feels guilty.  When the sheriff is talking to him about what the cargo was for, Mal completely changes.  His good side takes over and he decides to return the cargo.  So from this episode it’s clear that there are many different sides of Mal. 

Blog 2: The Train Job

I have never seen or heard about this show before so when I started watching it, I was a little confused as to what was going on.  Besides the fact that there was a war of some kind, it’s hard to tell what brought them all to this point.  But while I watched this episode the thing that stuck out most to me was the difference between Jayne Cobb and the rest of the crew.  Everyone but Cobb seemed real laid back and polite.  Before the goods were stolen, when Cobb was getting ready to go, he was already demanding people around.  It seems like he thinks he is the most important person and everyone should do what he says.  Just like when he made it back on the ship but Mal and Zoe didn’t, he immediately wanted to leave.  Cobb didn’t care about them and how they were going to make it back to the ship.  He just wanted to fly away and meet up to get the money for the job.  The entire crew wanted to stay and wait except for him.  When Mal did make it back on the ship and told his plans of returning the stolen goods Cobb was against this idea.  Cobb is all about getting money, no matter what it involves.  He saw this as a fairly easy way to earn some cash and after completing it, the last thing he wanted to do was give it all back.  I think that in future episodes, Mal and Cobb will continue to butt heads over various issues.   

Blog 1

My name is Brian Riley.  I was born on June 19^th 1991 in Cincinnati, Ohio.  When I was little, I first lived in West Chester, Ohio and then moved to Mason, Ohio.  I come from a large high school that had around 800 students in my class.  While in high school I wrestled and played baseball.  I have been playing baseball since I was a little kid and have always loved it.  I always enjoyed going to Cincinnati Reds baseball games and still go whenever I can.   I was really surprised that they made it to the playoffs this past season since it was the first time in fifteen years.  My favorite football team is the Cincinnati Bengals.  Unfortunately they didn’t have as good of a season as they did last year, but hopefully that will change next season.  I also like LeBron James a lot and feel that he didn’t deserve all the negativity that he got from people all over the U.S.

When choosing colleges, I applied to Ohio State, University of Cincinnati and Purdue.  I ended up picking Ohio State though because I have always liked their football team and it seemed like just as good of a school as the others.  The major I choose to study here is mechanical engineering.  Both my dad and my grandparents were engineers so growing up I always heard them talking about it which started my interest in it.  I like the design aspect of engineering and hope to be doing that later in life.