GDP

We just started to learn a bit more about Gross Domestic Products (GDP’s) in class, and from an article that we were assigned last night.  We learned that GDP is calculated by the sum total of everything that is produced by a country.  Some examples that contribute to a country’s GDP are the consumption spending by households, investments spending by business, government spending, and net imports.  Overall this system is a pretty good indicator of a country’s well-being, but there are some things about the system that do not truly show how well off a country is. For example, there are some jobs that are used in order to prevent the bad things a country has done, like cleaning up oil spills or trying to solve climate change.  Even though people are working, they are fixing problems that the country has created for itself.  GDP also doesn’t show what people do at home, instead of at a job.  A person, taking care of their kids, does not affect a country’s GDP, but hiring a nanny or babysitter would. This is somewhat similar to what a GPA can show about a person’s academic work ethic in school.  Overall in most cases it can show how hard a person works towards getting good grades, but the GPA does not account for everything.  For example, a student could have a lower GPA than another student, but be in honors classes, which would make getting a good grade much harder.  GPA also does not take into account for the extracurriculars you do outside of school.  If you are an athlete that has multiple practices per day, it is going to be much harder to time manage for all your work, than someone that doesn’t do any practices.  Overall, the system does a pretty good job showing the well-being of a country, but there always are things that make the system not perfect.

NORDIC

It's finally Nordic skiing time. We had our first practice today and it was good. I could tell I hadn't done anything athletic since soccer ended. Apparently we're not allowed to have practices until December 12th for some reason but we are allowed to have one meeting before then. So ya, today was that one meeting. We'll have captain's practices from now until the 12th and coaches aren't allowed to be at those. So it should be fun, much more relaxed than official practices, even though those are pretty chill. I don't know why they moved the season so much farther back this year. Maybe cause we recently haven't been getting much snow earlier in the season and have been getting a lot later in the season. But pushing it back means that states will be March. I don't know if we'll have snow then. Maybe, it is at Great Glen, so hopefully they will have the snow in March still. But the fact that my March Intensive last year of Nordic skiing in Maine was cancelled due to lack of snow doesn't give me much confidence for states in March. I just hope the conditions are better than last year because that was terrible.

Colorado College Supplement

From Story to Script: Adapting Literature for the Screen.

Overview:

This course introduces the basic process of adapting literary fiction to the screen. Students will  identify characteristics of stories that can effectively be adapted for film; profile characters from written works and their screen adaptations; and compare adapted screenplays to their original counterparts, dissecting the techniques that screenwriters use to revise a text to a format suitable for visual media. By the end of the course students will write a final adapted screenplay based on an original text of their choosing.

Learning Objectives:

• Critically analyze techniques and styles used by writers in multiple genres.
• Profile characters by describing their most important qualities from screenplays and the original text.
• Effectively compose scenes from pre-existing stories, identifying key pieces of information that must be included as well as details that can be eliminated.

Course Description:

More than 60% of screenplays made into films from 2005-2014 were adapted from a medium not initially intended for film. In this course, we investigate the techniques that writers use to adapt everything from literary classics to Marvel Comics.

In the first week of the course, students will read screenplays from a variety of genres along with their original literary counterparts, discussing strategies and techniques for preparing the story for the screen. Students will profile characters from the original works, defining which traits are essential and how they are carried forward into the screenplay. In addition, students will explore techniques that are used to preserve the mood, plot, and characters that are unique to specific genres.

In the second week students will analyze selected written works and determine whether or not they are amenable to adaptation for film, considering what makes a novel translate well to the screen. We will reflect on how key characters can be incorporated into the story and, when appropriate, how to blend the features of multiple characters into one, taking into account the activity each combined character has over the entire story. Similarly we will discuss which components of the story are essential and which are unnecessary to the story, selecting the key elements of plot that should be incorporated in the context of a more limited time frame.

In the final week of the course students will learn to use the medium of film to tell a story without a first person narrator; manipulate critical aspects of internal dialogue in the narrative by either externalizing the dialogue or conveying it through the characters actions; and preserve the mood and tone of the original text through visual storytelling.

At the end of the course students will select a text and adapt it for the screen, taking into account: character profiles, overarching plot, themes, mood, and techniques discussed over the course.

Prerequisites:

• Introduction to Film Studies
• Screenwriting

Bates Supplement

I am drawn to Bates for several different reasons, but the most prominent reasons are probably because of its academics in the liberal arts, and because of the tight knit community that is dedicated to not only forwarding itself, but also the town around it. When looking for colleges, my priority was smaller sized colleges that have good science programs, but I also liked the idea of good crew and nordic teams. While looking at colleges, I found that Bates fit my first priority almost perfectly, while nailing the second. I loved how Bates had a great science program that was free for everyone to join and that allowed tons of opportunities for research and allowed for students to easily go abroad.

Another reason that Bates really called to me was because of its involvement with the town around them. I visited many other colleges that had good academics, but none of the others really had any sort of student involvement outside of the college. Bates shocked me because of the emphasis on student involvement in the community. This really calls to the Christian side of me because I love to help others and donate my time to the helping of others, in and outside of the church. Because of these two things, I feel myself being called to Bates.

Black Friday

I never understood Black Friday, and now that stores have started the Cyber Monday trend it seems even more unnecessary. Why risk getting trampled in a mall or a large store when you could casually order anything your heart desires at home on your couch? With Cyber Monday customers are getting the same deals online, why hasn't Black Friday become obsolete? Also why has the government allowed Black Friday to continue when it gets so much bad press and causes so much criminal activity? The only people who profit from it are customers and the press, and most of the time customers get trampled in the process. I don't understand how this is still a holiday.

Thanksgiving

Over the past few years, Thanksgiving has become one of my favorite holidays. It's the three fs that make it important: family, friends, and football. Even though football is awesome, and I love watching it on Thanksgiving, it's really family and friends that make the holiday so special. Having one day where there is nothing to worry about and where the sole purpose is giving thanks and being together with the people you love is truly beautiful. I don't think I used to like Thanksgiving much, but as I get older, and college approaches, I realize that days like Thanksgiving Day are few and far between. I look at my sister, who just came home today from college. She hasn't been home since August, and she's leaving the country for six months to study abroad in Dublin. For me, and for her, this is one of the only days in the near future where we will all be truly together as a family. Yes, she comes home for her Christmas break, but I've got school and my parents have got work for a portion of that, and the break itself isn't even two weeks. As Thanksgiving fast approaches, I can't wait to spend a carefree day with my family and eat some good food while doing so.

Britain at War

I was at a Model UN conference where I was a member of the British War Cabinet in WWII. We had to fight the Axis powers by invading North Africa, France, etc. I was proud when my plan on invading Indonesia was approved and subsequently successful. Some of the other people were very pompous, with one girl claiming she could veto anything anyone else proposed. Luckily, she never tried that. My chairs (the people in charge of the committee) were very friendly and helped ensure everyone had fun. They even had tea brought into us on three different occasions, to represent the British-ness of the committee. Everyone appreciated that.

In the British cabinet they had the Dominions represented: Canada, Australia, India, and Burma, as well as the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs. The last guy mentioned was really chill and he came up with a bunch of stuff to do. We had lots of directives where we reappropriated army divisions between different parts of the British Empire, including protecting Malta from Italy. Most people were cooperative in formulating plans, but several were not. Those people were aggravating.  But despite those people, I truly enjoyed participating in that committee.