So the blogs continue and still there is so much left that can be done to promote our blogs. I have tried my best to promote my blog and to date, I have had over 500 visitors in stats. That is a big number for me because I never thought that I would be able to pull so many people. I actually am  proud of myself. So to recap what I have already mentioned, the way to promote blogs is first and fore most, chose interesting topics. People will be drawn in to a blog that has something to say and something that they have interest in and might want to get a second opinion. Then I also mentioned that tags were very helpful for people to visit your in return. By just putting key words in a sense, people will be able to find you easy just by searching for what they have an interest in.

So what is the next part in promoting our blogs? How about design? Design? Yea, designing your blog will help. Make your blog YOU! People who visit your blog want to get a sense of you and it might make them come back. If your blog is plain and simple and dull, then it will not interest people so much. Some might come and visit once or twice, then they stop. But if your blog has a design, it livens the place up. It shows the readers of your blog that you are passionate about what you write and how you handle your blog.

What else can we do? Visit other people’s blog! That way you let people know that you are out there and therefore they will know you exist, that your blog exists. Leave comments on people’s post and they will do the same. That is another way that we can get visitors to our blogs and in the end promote our blogs. Some more tips can be found in a blog that will help promote blos. So in conclusion for this part and recapping some old views, we have to choose carefully what we write about and make sure we make our topics interesting. It will help with viewers. The next thing is tags. Make sure you write keywords that will lead others to you. Then make your blog decorative. It will impress others and show them you care. Finally, go and visit other blogs and leave comments. Others will do the same to you. So go and promote your blog.

Writing a critical review can be very hard. Whether it’s critizing the bad or giving praise to the good. When evaluating a film, it is hard to pick the most compleling arguments. Others might not agree but that is the job the crtisizm is supposed to do. It is supposed to show the readers that there is truth behind the words.

The movie A walk to Remember has left an impression on me. A very good impression in fact. Even though I love the movie, I can see it’s faults. When the movie starts, We start seeing teenagers yelling and acting crazy. The first scene though when the actors are speaking, the acting seems very weak. The scene itself makes the audiance feel uncomfertable, I know it made me sort of uncomfertable. It was not convincing enough. It seemed practiced and not flowy.

But the acting between the two major characters, Jaime and Landon played by Mandy Moore and Shane West, was very pure. The softness between them pulled us in and kept us there. It was the first movie for both actors to have a dramatic role. Since then, Mandy Moore has not put a performence like she did in A Walk to Remember. Up to date, that was her most beliveble role. It had truth behind the acting.

The ending of the movie might have mixed reviews by people but sometimes sad endings are needed. The ending of A Walk To Remember is a very sad one when Jaime died. But such as an ending like that is needed and makes the story more heartfelt. It is because of that ending that drew people to like the movie. It might seem like a bad thing to say but it is true. When the film is build on such a dilemma in a case that Jaime had leukemia, if she ended up ok then it would have been a good ending and we would have loved the happy ending and we would have been happy overall with the movie but the twist that she dies makes the movie realistic. People die even at such a young age. The scene makes people cry and it is heart felting. It makes us remember the movie.

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Friday night came rolling around and usually I never have time to go out on weekdays because of school, even if that was not the case, who goes out weekdays late at night? Anyways, my fiance and I went out with his friends from upstate. After going to a club, they wanted to catch a late movie. I was so tired but still agreed. Any who, they wanted to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall because they thought it was a funny movie. There were other choices for me but overall, the vote for that particular movie won.

So we went and saw the movie. OMG…may I say hilarious. The scenes were out there. The movie was very graphic. I honestly did not expect to see so much of Jason Segel ( the main character ) but his private was out there for the audience to see and not only once. There were so may times where we saw things we should not have. The first scene where Jason drops his towel, the audience was in shock and you heard everyone saying “OMG” and “EWW”. It was hilarious. You could hear the surprise of the people because no one thought the movie would actually show what it did.

One thing that I did notice about the movie is that when it gives the preview, we see the main male character put posters up and talk badly of her to the tabloids and she says he is being childish on tv but those scenes were not in the movie. I was shocked that the whole movie took place in only Hawaii. I had something different in mind and maybe others knew that it was just for promotion but I certainly did not. I think the company did that as a promotion preview for the movie. I had the idea that the movie was about him going around all over and vandalizing billboards to get his message across but it was not the case. Still, it was a terrific movie and people should go and see it. You will laugh in the theater and be prepared to see graphics. Just do not bring any young siblings. Go out and see it with your friends or your significant other.

Everyone has a favorite movie, one that stands through time for them. It depends on what the preference of a person is such as comedy movies, romantic movies, and scary movies. Now don’t get me wrong, I love every kind of movie, well not old movies but anyways, I do like every genre but I am a romantic at heart and I love, love, love romantic movies, when two people end up together after so many struggles. I myself had an experience exactly like that where I had to overcome struggles and then ended up with my true love. So my favorite movie of all time is and will always be A Walk To Remember. This movie was a book first which is written by my favorite author, Nicholas Sparks. I truly love his stories. After many loved the book, it was finally made into a movie played by Mandy Moore and Shane West. The movie made me love these stars because of how they played the roles and the whole storyline.

The story goes like this…there is a young girl, Jaime, about 17 of age who is a minister’s daughter. You can imagine what kind of life she lead or what type of father she had. Everyone always made fun of her because of how she dressed but she did not care. Then there was the bad popular boy, Landon, who everyone loved. These two didnt mix but fate happens. He gets in trouble and has to participate in the school play and she does it for fun. That is when they truly see one another for what they really are and he finds that he cant stand away from her. He wants a change in his life because of her inspiration. The movie really touches me. The school does mean things to her and he stands up for her. His friends turn on him for choosing her but they start dating. It looks like a fairytale couple because they are so cute together, but there is a twist. Jaime was sick. She had a bad illness and finally told Landon. The way the story takes from there is like no other. There are tears and there are laughter’s.  This movie is my favorite and it might be for others as well. If you havent seen the movie, go out and rent it. A Walk To Remember is great and it will make you fall in love with it.

Well, the next big speech in Speech class was a persuasive one. When I found out we had to persuade people not to do something or do something, it scared me. It is hard to persuade people to do anything and it is even harder to pick your battles. What would make others listen and take action. I of course continued the smoking topic since in my first speech, I informed my audience about smoking and cigarettes. Now it was my job to persuade them.

Smoking is very unhealthy as we all know but yet the rates still continue to go up. What is not going through in people’s mind. Actually, according to the Nemours Foundation, 90% of adult smokers started when they were young kids. Wow! That is truly a big percentage. Today we see young kids act as adults smoking on the street. I mean is there a way of putting a stop to that when they dont care who sees them. In my speech I decided to incorporate all that because facts are interesting to know the problem. I also used some personal family experience. My father started smoking when he was 13 years old and he stopped 10 years ago and he started once again two years ago when his father passed away. The reason that my father stopped smoking was because his doctor told him that if he continued then he was headed down a very bad road within years…death. Now, every night he is up coughing because he cant sleep. His lungs are doing what they used to before. Why would someone do that to themselves? Why would my dad continue? He is addicted as all others are. Nicotine is as addictive as cocaine. But there is help if people want it. We dont have to be our own death.

We all know that there are patches that we can use or gums that we can chew. Some say it doesnt work, well you need dedication and support. There are support groups that will help and hotlines which have become popular in helping people. Now there is even a laser treatment. The laser therapy helps balance the endorphin level which helps with the addiction and the cravings. It is worth to stop smoking because it kills us eventually. It might not kill us the first day or year but it will catch up to us.

From the age of 6, we are put in school and for many many years after that, that is all we know. We study to become intelligent young beings ready for life. Parents awfully tell their kids that their job is school so we don’t get off easily. While some can’t wait until they are done with school, they forget what the real world is. Some say they would rather work than go to school. Don’t they realize they have it easy when they are in school? The hours are not bad and we get vacations. Then some think does school necessarily set the life for after? Up to high school it is mandatory to be in school but college is based on what an individual wants to do. Normally, people tend to go to college to get a better job and have a better life but is that always the case? Not in some cases as there are people that get a degree in something and end up not using it because there are no jobs.

I feel like life has passed so fast these past years. One day, I am worried about starting high school and the next day I am about to finish first year of college. I made the decision like everyone else to receive a higher education so I can find something I love to do and make a better life for myself that school brings. But I feel as if when we leave school, a lot of us will be left without a job, or at least a job that we have been going to school for. I have so many questions as I move on with my college years.

Yesterday I send my records for an internal transfer for the Tobin School for Business. It just made it more realistic that my future is slowly coming into complete formation. My biggest fear into making a decision is what happens after school? Will I find a nice job? Will school pay off? There are many people who start nice careers and do well without going to college. I’m just afraid of what is ahead for our generation. There are so many questions that wait to be answered.

In English class, we saw the movie “There will be blood” and I thought that it would have been boring but I ended up liking it. I usually don’t like watching movies that are old, in a sense of the time period of the movie. Orr wrote a wonderful review of this movie but I guess he left his real criticism for the movie for another article that followed the first one. Orr was disappointed in the end of the movie. When I read one part from his article, it made sense to me because I felt the same way as he did. Orr wrote,

       “Now, I don’t think this elision is a disastrous one, just disappointing in a film that has taken its time up until this point and been very careful about setting the stage for each subsequent development. Had the film ended with some variant of the scene between Daniel and H.W.–or in its immediate aftermath, with Daniel alone and doomed in his immense mansion–it might have seemed rushed, but the overall shape would still have made perfect sense. Daniel’s decision to tell H.W. that he was an orphan would even give a certain ironic resonance to the movie’s title: For Daniel, there will be no blood.”

From the moment the movie started, there was so much emotion and very intense. The stage was set for a strong movie and as the story played out, it did not miss a beat. But the end was very disappointing. The ending did seem a little rushed. We see Daniel get H.W. back and it looks like he genially loves him and the next thing we see is H.W. grown up and Daniel wants nothing to do with him. There was no reason for him turning against him, it was unexpected.

Then the last scene with Daniel and Eli seems pointless. It actually made me a bit uncomfortable. As Orr wrote, “It is loud, silly, unpersuasive, out of control, simultaneously obvious and ridiculous, and, to my mind, utterly unworthy of such a thoughtful, well-crafted film.”  It made no sense to have that scene at all in there. The movie was not about Daniel and Eli but with him and his “son”. The movie shold have been better in the end. That way it might have not taken away from the movie.

Who might be considered an icon these days? Well for me, when I think of the word icon, I automatically think of Britney Spears. Some might look down upon those that might like her but I have no problem saying I like her and her music. In fact, I listen to her new cd all the time when I am driving. But why is she such an icon … maybe because she is known all over the world and she has had so much success. I will admit, she does not have the best voice like some others but she is a performer and that has won her the success she has today.

This icon has started dancing and singing since a very young age and has had a commitment ever since. Plus she had the best manager out there, I think, Larry Rudolph. He turned her into the icon she is today. She came out with her first cd at age 17 and had the big hit, “… Baby One More Time”. With that song, she set her place in the music industry. She continued to have hit with her other singles like, “Opps I did It Again”, “Slave 4 U”, “Toxic” and “Gimme More”. Her albums had always debuted at number one except her last one that debuted at number two. That was disappointing even for me when I found out especially with what she has been going through.

I have grown up with Britney’s music ever since she came out. Lately we have all been left in awe with her actions but we have also found out that she suffers from bipolar. It is sad to see one of music’s biggest names like that. Almost everyone blame Kevin, her ex husband. Ever since she met him, she has gone in a down turn. She had two kids with him and she cant even see them when she wants to. That is very sad for her as a mother. She has a lot of support from fans and we are hoping for that big comeback. She is a superstar and an icon and she will prove herself again. We are waiting for that day since we see that she is in the right direction lately. BRITNEY WILL BE BACK!

As I was reading Orr’s (movie critic) review, the first thing that I automatically noticed is that his review was very easy to follow. He wrote in a simple yet elegant way. He started off the review with exactly how the movie started out and went to describe the intense scene that had everyone closely watching. I know that when I started watching the movie, the first moments were intense…there was action but no words and that is exactly what Orr mentions in his review too. Orr wrote as part of his review,

 ”In these dialogue-free opening scenes, set to a score that buzzes like a plague of locusts, There Will Be Blood establishes itself as a film of Darwinian ferocity, a stark and pitiless parable of American capitalism. One man lives and one man dies. One hoists himself from the Earth’s embrace; the other is sucked into it. One winner, one loser.”

Then Orr went on and basically wrote the whole movie in a few paragraphs and took the highlights and put them in a very nice short reading. He went and described the meaning beneath everything that was happening. He also went about to describe the main character, Daniel. His review made it very easy for readers to understand because I know that sometimes when I read review, they lose me because they get so complicated.

If I was to follow the way that Orr wrote the review, I would do everything just as he did. His review was in my opinion very well done. I would start the review with the opening of the movie and I would take the readers on the most important parts of the movie with my review and then I would also mention the main characters and how the actors portrayed them.

When I compare Orr’s review with the one from Scott, the first thing that I notice is the fact that both reviews start with how the movie start. They both plunge into the scene and make it intense. But Scott focus’s more on the behind the movie meaning talking about the characters and really looking at them using a microscope while Orr does his review in a summary sort of way.

In English class, we were given an article to read from a critic named Scott. Scott is a film critic from New York Times and he wrote an article on the movie Good Night, and Good Luck which was directed by George Clooney. The movie was about the second “The Red Scare” which is the period from the late 1940s to the late 1950s where there was an intense anti-communist suspension. There was suspicion that there were Soviet agents in the government and were influencing communism. Scott does say in the article,       

 ”And be prepared to pay attention. “Good Night, and Good Luck” is not the kind of historical picture that dumbs down its material, or walks you carefully through events that may be unfamiliar. Instead, it unfolds, cinéma-vérité style, in the fast, sometimes frantic present tense, following Murrow and his colleagues as they deal with the petty annoyances and larger anxieties of news gathering at a moment of political turmoil. The story flashes back from a famous, cautionary speech that Murrow gave at an industry convention in 1958 to one of the most notable episodes in his career – his war of words and images with Senator Joseph R. McCarthy.”

 It defiantly sets the tone for the movie. When the movie starts, it plunges right in the whole action of what is going on and for those that had no idea what the movie was about, it would be hard to keep up. Scott did a very good job in describing that and having it in the article. It was hard for me to understand at first because I was just pushed into the scene and all the action. Scott’s review of the movie was a really strong one and everything that he had written and described was right on point and I personally would not change much. The one thing that made it hard to keep up was the order of the essay and how it was written. I felt as if it was all over the place but probably it was meant to be that way. The essay was strong overall.