Blog #3

Post due 9/22 for Mrs Brooks english class/Facebook is the subject

My thoughts this week brought me to Facebook.  It's everywhere and anywhere, even on t.v. you see an ad and your told to check them out on their facebook page.  There's even a movie coming out about this phenomena, which lead me to the question when or how did facebook start?

The network was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, it started at Harvard and was a paper that was passed around the class so you could get to know your fellow students, that is until it was introduced to the internet! Zuckerberg got the idea from his high school Philips Exeter Academy which is the school that was first to pass the paper around the student body.

The interest in facebook caught on quickly and soon half the schools in Boston were using it.  Facebook was growing so fast and wide spread that Zuckerberg brought in Dustin Moskowitz and Chris Hughes. Just four months after this merger they added thirty more colleges to the network.  They relocated to Palo Alto and that's when Zuckerberg ran into Sean Parker co founder of Napster, together they were able to get an investment from Peter Thiel co founder of PayPal.  This meeting paid off they were able to get their first investment for $500,000.  After this investment and merger they had many companies after them trying to buy them out but they turned everyone of them down. In 2005 they decided to open up facebook to high school students, they then received a $1,000,000 investment from Greylock Partners and this enabled them to open up globally to anyone who had an email address.  Facebook has now employed over 1,000 employees and growing.

Lately on the news there's widespread concern for members of Facebook that have become addicted.  I tried it out last winter, it was fun to talk to relatives out of state but I started to grow quite tired of the friends who were discussing such trivial things as what shampoo they were going to try out.  There were silly thinks like pass a drink?  It did feel like high school all over again, and I just have moved to far past that period to go back.  My personal time is so limited and so precious that I just don't make the time for useless conversation.  I would much rather see my friends and family in person, pass them a real drink and visit about everything and anything.  When you have to get a Cyber hug from someone, you realize that things have gone from personal to cold!  It makes me worry for my daughter and her generation, will they have lasting relationships? Will they make real connections? Or will they not have the time or energy to visit with someone so they would rather let them know their at home, tell them what their eating for dinner or watching on t.v! Yuck!

Movie Review

Movie Review for English Class

Forest Gump

This movie is an example of a Memoir/Dramatic Genre.  It is about the life of a loving man. When the movie ends you want to see what happens with the rest of his life.

If you want a movie that makes you feel every emotion, then this is the one for you!  It is an endearing film about one amazing man and his life's journey.  From the moment it starts, this movie will have you begging for more.  The actor Tom Hanks does an incredible job, it is by far his BEST performance ever.  He plays a person who lives and thinks in simple terms, but does the most incredible things in his life!  The things you will see him go through will have you awestruck.  Throughout the movie there are famous figures in history from the 1960's to present day.  The way that they entwined actual history and famous people of that time with this character is phenomenal!

The movie begins with a young Forest Gump and his best friend Jennie.  Of course because of his innocent behaviour and thought he is picked on unmercifully by other children at school, until Jennie she can see his kindness and they become life-long friends.  Of course as they age to their late teens/early twenties they go their separate ways.  Jennie goes off into the Hippie cult, while Forest enlists in the armed services and goes over seas to Vietnam.  The actual historical footage they show from Vietnam is spectacular, you feel as though you are there in that horrible war with Forest.  Of course Forest meets other men from the war and befriends them in the most unlikely way.  You laugh at their friendship and then minutes later you cry because of his loss of a friend and the injury of another, but of course Forest receives a medal of honor from no other but the president, and they actual show footage of President Johnson as if he's talking to Forest!  Then he sees Jennie again and just as quickly as they meet she's off to find herself, she leaves him and your heart breaks for him all over again. 

Life for Forest continues to amaze you even after the war, he becomes the captain/owner of a shrimp boat business, per his dying friends wish from the war.  He helps his friend who sustained injuries from the war live life again and all along he does it in the simplest of ways.  It's truly Amazing!  He continues on, he decides one day he's going to run and then he just starts running that simple! It just doesn't stop but there's too many endeavors  to list, You truly have to see this to believe it. The one thing that remained throughout this crazy adventure was his love for Jennie!

This movie is so inspiring, this man was able to achieve spectacular things.  He didn't even realize the significance of what he accomplished and the people he met.  He just lived life his way, and you as the viewer root for him every step of the way.  The simple lines that he said in this movie, people refer to and mimic all the time.  It has become a pop icon, and will go down in history as one the best movies of all time!  And just when you think it's over Jennie returns and gives Forest an amazing gift.  You'll have to see it to believe it.  So grab a comfortable chair and a snack and get ready for a wonderful adventure!

Blog #4

To my fellow bow hunters, or to non-hunters I would like to give you a glimpse of what early season bow hunting is to me.  Most people welcome the cooler weather because they know football is coming, or maybe it's because of the comfort food that comes with the season, and to other's it may be the beauty of the great outdoors, this is the part that I like Best!  There really is nothing like October 1st,  you wake up at the crack of dawn and while your getting in your gear to go into the woods you can't help but take clear cool breaths of the morning air, it makes your lungs feel so cleansed.  You look at your hunting partner, and can't help but smile because you know you are about to share a glorious spiritual experience. I love when I finally get situated in my tree stand, the quiet blankets you, there's time to yourself to get lost in your thoughts or personal time to talk and pray to God, if only there were more hours in the day for this.  Then it happens, the sun's rays start to filter through the woods, they look like streams of golden color and appear like the band's of color you would see in a rainbow.  The sounds of the woods come alive at this time as well, the birds sing their songs and talk to each other and the squirrel's are busy gathering their winter bounty.  The color's of the tree's around you are so vibrant that you become mesmerized and you know how lucky you are to see this beautiful gift.  Then the time comes for the magnificent deer, this creature is so beautiful, and yet so cunning.  Their senses are always on full alert, they could spot you before you spot them.  Their eye's, their ears, their sense of smell is truly amazing, and it is extremely difficult to have a deer get close to you.  If you are able to take the animal it is such an intense feeling, you know that you have provided for your family.  You know that they are going to be fed with lean, organic, non-chemical food and it makes you feel so humble and honored.  We have brought up our daughter to respect nature and it's animal's and to take hunting very seriously, it sickens me that hunting has become a weekend excuse to go to a deer camp and drink yourself stupid, or that it's an excuse to go shopping for the family's at home.  Where did the bonding go, and the sense of family and tradition.  My family and I have not forgotten to take the time to appreciate nature and to thank God for yet another incredible gift.  I hope for the non-hunter's that read this Blog, you will see how beautiful  hunting can be and even if hunting is not for you, that you take the time this fall to get lost in nature and lost in yourself.

Melissa Gross

Owls for English 102-28 Class@MCC Instructor Tanisha Brooks

Recently I was in a waiting room at my dentist office and I decided to flip through the pages of

a Birds & Blooms magazine.  There was an article about Owls and all the myths associated with
them.  I personally have always liked Owls, and as I've gotten older I seem to like them even
more.  I just didn't realize how many "myths" were associated with these birds.  One of the
fascinating myths the magazine article decided to uncover was the one that all owls are nocturnal.
It turns out this is not true, there are some species of this bird that are awake at all times of the day.
This is especially true if food is scarce for these predators.  Another myth that I once believed to
be true, was that Owls can see in complete darkness.  This is definitely not the case, it seems the
eyes are not the keys for a successful night capturing their prey, their sense of hearing is what aid them
in their hunt.  It's the Owls facial disk that locates the prey for these birds, they can hear the quietest
of sounds because of funnel indentations by their eyes that direct the sounds directly to their ears.  There
 is also the myth that female and male Owls are the same, when in fact female Owls are forty percent
 larger than male Owls.  Scientists are not sure as to why the females are so much larger than the males,
they can only go by the theory that it may be for better nest protection but again this has not been scientifically proven.   Their plumage is almost the same as in most birds, where the males have the more magnificent colors and markings. The most fascinating of my myth discoveries however is the fact that
Owls do not hate water!  They like to bathe and of course drink water, and depending on the species
and where it lives it may actually use a residential birdbath.  I believe there will always be a fascination
between humans and Owls, whether it's the spooky images that come to mind whenever someone

mention and Owl or it's the wise old friendly Owl you may recognise from Winnie The Pooh and various Walt Disney cartoons.