This blog is dedicated to the subject COM 2533 Critical Literacy. Everything that I posted here is based on what I learned from the subject, and my understanding of the subject.
Sadist is a person that likes to do cruel things towards
other people. It is said that sadists have pleasure when dealing pain to
others. They are also a group of people who likes to taste other people
suffering, and take it as a good feeling.
How to identify yourself whether you’re a sadist?
By doing things that other people hate, you start to
feelglad. After that, as more and more
pain is inflicted towards someone else, you will then start to feel great and
more great. You will have no feelings of sympathy. Instead, pleasure runs in
your course. If any of this should happen to you, you should consult as psychiatrist
and consult him.
Sadist is a bad thing rather than a good thing. By being
sadist, a person can impact other people’s mind and this will cause a severe
human disorder. Once this happen, rationale inside human community will not
work and socio relationship between humans will not stand up.
Well, I think this is all I had to say for now, as I will
update more on this.
From the article Are you a Romantic or a Libertine…? By M.Scott
Peck, I found myself to be inside the romantic category. From the article, love
is defined as a feeling of affection and fondness towards opposite sex. This
does not defines love in a full manner, however, but it does defines the basic
of human’s desire and feelings. Romantic
is defined as someone who had a sense of a prevailing mystery and mystery
towards the mutual attraction in love affair. Basically, it is someone who is
charming enough towards the beloved. There are two kinds of romance ritual. First is the obligatory romance.
It is defined as a lover who gave present to the beloved during certain special
occasions or celebrating the beloved’s birthday or success. The second one is
optional romance. For this type of romance, the lover will try to come out with
many different kinds of ideas in order to impress the beloved.
True love... only came true if you're as loyal as you should be.
As for libertine, this type of love is not my
characteristics. Libertine is the opposite side of romance, where the terms and
aspects of romance does not apply inside. Libertines, or should I say their
known name; Playboys and Players, have no intention to fall in love at all.
Instead, they only want to play around
and have fun. Those who fall into this category usually had troubles managing
their beloveds as they cannot entertain all of them at the same time. They will
be in more deep trouble if they are exposed, as they might be dumped and in
worst case scenario, court martial.
I, myself think that I’m in a courtly love, where my love
relationship is build on the basis of unexplained feelings towards the person.
I have it so many times. This term is also be called as an “unrequited love”.
Libertine.. such a pity.
I, myself had been into the sea of love as I delved into the
romantic world. I had a girl that I had crushed on, and I done everything that I
have to take her attention to me. Then again, she had someone else she likes as
I don’t have much charm.
Then, I had a love-like relationship with someone I knew
since little, and she was very nice to me. Though, due to my excessive romantic
feelings towards her, it became a disaster and I have lost her forever. It was
very sad, but what can I do, life goes on.
As conclusion, this article made me realize of my past love mistakes
and helped to identify our type; which is whether romance or libertine. In my
case, I’m a romance person. Yet no luck in love…..yet. well, Life goes on…so…
Anything Goes!
This time, I’m reviewing a video game based on a horror
novel, Alan Wake. Alan wake is a survival horror video game that made to
Xbox-Live 360 and Windows PC. This game is about a novel writer, Alan Wake who
went for vacation with his wife, Alice. During his vacation, Alice was
kidnapped by a force that he cannot fight alone: the darkness. Alan wants to save Alice, but he cannot find
a single method in order to save her.
Then, the “light” guides him through the darkness. As Alan venture
through the darkness deeper, he found notes from the novel Departure, which was written by Alan Wake. However, Wake did not remember
writing it, and every sequence of story that was written in the notes seems to become real as Wake ventures further
in. Through his journey, he met with Thomas Zane, the person who was actually
the “light” that guided him. After meeting him, Thomas explained that the
darkness that kidnapped Alice was actually his deceased wife, Barbara Jagger.
The relationship between Barbara Jagger and his wife is unknown, though Alan
suspects that Thomas Zane is someone he met before, as he felt familiar towards
him. Afterwards it was revealed that the
writer of the Departure novel was the “other” Alan Wake, whom creates his own
character in order for him to save his wife. Knowing this, Alan learnt that he
can write everything he wants that can turn the world to his bidding. At the
end, Alan managed to find his wife, but she was hold deep inside the darkness,
which Barbara Jagger was using her body as the medium for her to walk on the
living realm. Alan manage to use the “switch” a tool which dispels all of
darkness by engulfing light over the Sky. His reunion with his wife is short
however, as he manage to rescue her body. However, he was left inside the
darkness and he had to write again in order to make his way of escape.
What interesting about this game is the story. The game’s
story creates premises that leaves a question mark at the end. It’s like it
wants the players to decide the ending. It
made me conjures up conclusion that made me do some critical thinking. My first
theory of conclusion of the game is that whether Alan did not survive the
darkness or he became the darkness. My second theory of point is that Alan did
write up the story, but it reverted back to all before everything started and
he had prevent his wife from getting kidnapped. Lastly, my third theory is that
Alan were just having delusional and he had been in an asylum for years, and
his wife had already died.
Nevertheless, this video game has its own interesting side
of the story and every sentences from the game seems like a mind play on the
players. From my opinion, I think this game is good for critical thinking as it
boggles up our own imagination for every next sequence that was about to happen.
I’ve watched the movie Sherlock Holmes : Game of Shadows,
and I find it’s worth to watch. The movie is about Sherlock Holmes, acted by
Robert Downey Jr. and his aide, Doctor Watson, acted by Jude Law. The story is
all about Sherlock Holmes and his aide, Dr.Watson takes on his arch-nemesis,
Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris) with the aid of Holmes older brother, Mycroft
Holmes. Together they unveil the mystery of Professor Moriarty and everything
that happened behind them.
What makes me intrigued with this movie is that it had many
eureka moment, which Holmes came up with after he observed his surroundings.
For example, during the first scene where he read his opponents move and came
up with tricks to dodge them. He can calculate the impact he might get from the
hit and thus came the eureka moment where he find black spots that he can use
as advantage.
Holmes and Wattson
Holmes brother, Mycroft Holmes
The other example include the scene where he had to fight a
lot of men inside a train. He used his critical thinking skills, and from it he
came to his eureka moment. He calculates the distance the bullet of the canon would travel and the impact it
would give off. And so, he modified the canon’s bullet with phosphorus which makes the gun fire to produce a spark of
fire in which if one’s would pull the wire it shall cause heavy explosions. He
then tricks his opponents in using these canons, and they fell for his trick
which later cause their death.
The movie also applies creative skills. The most
interesting
example is during the scene Watson paid him a visit at his house. He was looking for Holmes but Holmes is
nowhere to be found. As it turns out, he was camouflaging to his wallpaper
background which was quite funny, yet brilliant. This same act is used again
during the end of the movie where he camouflaging with his chair after Watson
presumed of his death.
In conclusion, this movie is creative, yet funny. I think
the producers and directors have made a good job in making this movie, and I must say, this movie really does boggles
our mind with imagination and expands our way of thinking. Like people use to
say, think out of the box.
Watch the movie! i highly reccomend it. :D Here's the trailer.
One day in class, my lecturer put on a movie of The
Adventures of Tintin. At first, I thought the movie was going to be boring as I
saw the movie’s cover kind of… dull. However, as the movie starts, it was quite
surprising, as the 3D animation that was nicely done, which every character
looked real. The way they interact, talk inthe movie seems like they were actually real people, rather than 3Ds.
The movie is about TinTIn, a reporter who bought a model ship for a pound off
from the market stall. After he brought the ship home, Snowy was fighting with
the neighbour’s cat. The result of the fight causes the ship to broke in two
which the mast of the ship came off and a scroll came out. Tintin hold on to
the scroll as he tries to solve the puzzle. The next day, a man namedcame to told TInTin to be careful with the
ship. The man was shot and TinTin came run away. The next day, Mr.Sakharine
came and made a deal with Tintin to hand
over the ship, which TInTin refuses. That night, The ship was stolen and TinTin
suspects it was Mr.Sakharine and he went to go on research about the Haddock’s
family. He then sneaks away to the Haddock’s Manor and came to steal back the
ship. As he enters, he was captured by Sakharine, and he told TinTin that there
were two ship model that are the same. And now he wants to look for the third.
Mr.Sakharine kidnaps and sent him to Morocco via the old cargo ship. Inside the
ship, he had hired all men to kept watch for TinTin and the captain Haddock.
TinTin discovers Haddock and rescued him from his capture. TinTin explains the situation to
Haddock and the two agrees to join force to look for the third ship. Haddock
later reveal at TinTin that his ancestor,Sir Francis Haddock had a fight on board of his ship with Milanese
Nightgale. Sir Francis lost the fight, but with his brilliance, he managed to
escape and hid part of his treasure somewhere. He wrote the location of his
treasure map inside a scroll and each scroll seperates to complete the full
map. He put each inside a ship model’s mast and inherited it to his three sons.Then the two discovers the third ship
location and learnt that Sakharine is there. They approached the scene where he
met the third ship which was now in possession of a Sultan. TinTin discovers
that Sakharine was about to use the Soprano’s voice to break the glass that was
holding the ship model. Sakaharine managed to break the glass and steal the
ship model. He break the ship’s mast and discovers the third scroll. TinTin and
Haddock pursues him and the two had a trouble time catching him. As the game
cat and mouse between them is at the climax, Haddock managed to capture
Sakharine and they get all three scrolls. TinTIn and Haddock combines the
scroll which turns to a full set of Sir Francis’s location of the treasure. Surprisingly,
the location of the treasure was at Haddock’s manor, beneath the manor. The two
overjoyed, having solved the treasure location and the mystery behind the
scrolls. At the end, TinTin invites him to go on for another adventure.
What I like about this movie is that it applies many of
critical literacy skills. The scene where the two police officers, Thompsons
where they tried to catch the wallet thief intrigues me. This is because they
used thread at their wallets and they managed to discoversthe thief by the thread that was pulled off
by the thief. The way they managed to discovers the thief is somehow brilliant,
as they are not just identified the culprit, but they get to know the home of
the culprit.
The other scene that amazed is where TinTin used rifle to
shoot over the plane so that it would go down in the sea, but it does not fall
into sea. He then take over the plane
and fly it, but the plane fuel was about to empty and he looked for other
resources, and he found out that the plane was filled with alcohol. He wanted
to use the alcohol as fuel, which turned to be a smart move. However, Haddock
drank it all and TinTin forced him to vomit the alcohol he drank; and it proved
successful as the alcohol came out as well which then fuels up the plane.It was funny, though at the same time creative.
The last scene that really catches my eye is that when
Sakharine used the Soprano to break the glass that holds the ship model. This
scene is really interesting as even if it was obvious that loud voice can break
glass, no one there seemed to be realized of this. This shows that people’s own
consciousness can be perceived and it made me realize that even in a slightest,
humans cannot notice what exactly happened if they are not alert.
For my food for the thought, I think this movie is really
interesting, and it really had some fun and creative elements to it, which
makes it enjoyable to watch and suitable to watch for all ages. If you had not watch it yet, i reccomend you to watch it!
The
blog title says it all. My entry this time is about a video game i
played, Phoenix Wright. Why did i write about this game? Well, this game
has a lot of relation in terms of applying the critical thinking
elements. This game is made for the Nintendo DS system and has about
four main series, with the third bring the last of the original
protagonist, Phoenix Wright starred in. The Fourth game has his protege,
Apollo Justice as the main character. Well, enough about that, let me
gave my short summary of the game. This game genre is investigative
adventure. The game is more of a courtroom drama rather than just any
other video game that you would normally knew of. The main character in
the game, Phoenix Wright, a new rookie District Attorney who had just
began his career with little knowledge of the law world. He, along with
his mentor, Mia Fey, take on murder cases and they defend defendant of
each cases. In Episode 1, Phoenix Wright is just introduced to the law
world, as he took on his very first case. The victim of the murder was a
female postman named Lee that came to deliver parcel to the witness
house, Frank Sahwit. The accused was Larry, Wright's best friend.
Wright, with his mentor, Mia Fey by his side, solve the case by applying
the rule of every Attorney must have: think out of the box. The murder
happened at 12.00 P.M and at that time, Larry found the body. As he was
there, Mr Sahwit was just came back from his trip and was shocked to see
what happened and called the police which came to Larry's eventual
arrest. Sahwit testifies that he had just came back home at 12.10 P.M.
from his trip.Wright tries to piece things together as he came up to the
conclusion. Larry found the body exactly at 12.00 P.M. which
contradicts with Sahwit's statement. Wright asked him why he was there.
Larry replied that he was supposed to meet by 12.10 P.M. in the given
location which he arrived early so that he wouldn't have that person to
wait. Wright sorts out all the information that he gets from Larry and
he came up to a conclusion. The murderer of the victim was actually
Mr.Sahwit.Larry did not know Mr. Sahwit but he does know Larry. The
whole thing was because of Larry who stole Mr.Sahwit's ex-girlfriend
which made him feel jelaous towards him. So, he sets up a murder case
for him to be alleged with. However, he made a mistake, as Mr.Sahwit's
clock was set up to the international clock that oppose with Larry's
clock which is the local time. And the fact that Mr.Sahwit knows Larry
name is another proof as Larry did not know him. The two was supposed to
be strangers, but with Sahwit's own mistake of saying Larry's name it
makes up the fact that he had already knew Larry from the beginning
which contradicts with Larry's own dubious knowledge of Sahwit's
existence in his life. Larry is then deemed to be not guilty. As for
Episode 2, A year have passed, and Wright has came to the top as an Ace
Attorney. However, darkness looms as Wright's mentor, Mia Fey was
murdered. Her sister, Maya fey was alleged to murder her sister. At the
end, Wright managed to save her from her execution, and the murderer was
the District Attorney from another firm who had revenge towards Mia.
Starting from this point, Wright take over his mentor firm, and Maya
become his apprentice. As the story progresses, Maya became his partner,
rather than his apprentice, and the two take on cases together which
makes up the premises throughout the Phoenix Wright Series.
From Left: Phoenix Wright, Mia and Maya. Wright and Maya continues Mia's Legacy.
The basic of this game is that each court cases separate into five
episodes. All of the cases are murder cases, and some case relates to
other cases; for example the murder of Mask De Masque who is the culprit
of the mass theft case. Players have to complete each episode in order to
reach the other. The mechanics of the game is that in every court
session, players will be pit against the prosecutor and they have to
solve each of the murder cases by identifying the statements given by
witnesses and contradiction that they gave in their cross examination.
For each evidence that is presented, players will have to relate each of
the evidence and profiles with the witness statements. The evidence
sometimes are insufficient to present. This is where investigation mode
came to, where the judge gave time for the player to investigate the
crime scene and other places that have to do with the cases and come up
with every evidence that they can find. After all necessary evidences
are found, the court session will be held later on.
Players will find through Evidences throughout the game. Testimonial From WItness will later followed by the Cross examination, where players can press the witness for information and present their evidence towards the statement that contradicts with the information given.
If
the player found a statement that is quite vague, they can press more
for information or present evidence for any inconsistencies with the
statement. The player may scream Objection! at the Nintendo DS
microphone, or simply just press the Present button to present their
evidence.
My final thoughts about this game
is that it really teaches me how to think critically, and it also gave
me a look on how a court procodure is done. The game is splendid,
and i even rate it 9 over 10 marks for its great puzzle which makes up
the large part of the game. The story are also incredible, as each
character have their unique background story, and the developer of this
game, Capcom had made a really great job in making a mind thinking,
interactive video game. I think students should play this game as it
really boggles your mind to think up more critically.
Oh yeah, a movie that was based on this game is also in production. Check out the trailers :)
Humans. What is the purpose of us as humans? It is a
question that many wise men and philosophers over the course of years left
unanswered. Many believe, that as a human, we can live in any way we wanted. It
is not true though. What actually came off from that little piece of thought of
a human mind was only an illusion. In truth, we humans; which consisted of men
and women are merely players.
It is an illusion towards our own perception; the way we want to live
You guys won’t probably believe this, but it’s true. What
Robert Greene says is true. We humans
had our own roles to play. When we were born to this world, we had already
assigned to our roles. Each of us had roles that actually affects the other.
For example, person A was destined to be someone who had been accused of a
murder, but actually innocent. Person B was destined to be a defense attorney.
Through this context, it can be viewed that Person B will help Person A in
getting through of their problems and fulfilling their roles. They will also affects
each other roles, which is more closer to a symbiotic relationship.
Alliance is born through roles.
The role that we have taken also based on our own performance.
Like a presentation of drama; the most appealed actor would be taking the grand
role. In this case, those who have their way in this world can rule over those who are not. However, when striving to fulfilling each of our own roles, we tend to forget the most important thing to success: giving some more thoughts to what we are trying to achieve. Without any thinking, we cannot make decisions which eventually decide our fate in the future.
In conclusion, every men and women are clearly and obviously
chosen for their roles in life. What they need to do is simply follow them; in
order to fulfill their roles and thus having their way in this world.
Happiness is a state of emotion that we feel through the course of events that we went through. Basically, we won't feel any sorts of happiness until we achieved the needs and goal that causes us to bring the happiness. Don't understand? Well take a look at the picture above. It shows a couple happy with each other. How did they reach that level of happiness? It is simple really. From the article I have read, "The Degree of Happiness" by Betrand Russell, he stated that Happiness can be distinguished as plain and fancy, or animal and spiritual or of the heart and of the head. These couples shared the same interest and ideas, suggesting they had their mutual feelings to each other, which then brings them up their own happiness. By seeing each other, they develop a sense of love and throughout the relationship they felt some sort of happiness.
So, what can we do in order to reach happiness? Well, firstly, you need to know the happiness itself. How can we know when we are happy? In order to be happy, one's need to carter their own desire and fulfilling their needs. As I wrote this, i too can reach happiness as I finished writing this review (haha). Anyway, Happiness can also comes naturally, or with some kind of event that can trigger happiness itself. For example, happiness that comes naturally is when we spend some quality times with family, friends, our special someone, in any way that makes us happy. Even being with them will bring us some kind of happiness inside ourself as we are comfortable with them. For the happiness that came with an event, I give my experience for example. I, as an avid gamer, have been playing role-playing video games which I acted as a hero and experiencing what the hero is going through and reaching the ending which gives some twist from sadness to a level of a happiness. One of the games I have played and I reached a total happiness and bliss is Tales of Symphonia. The same goes if you are reading a novel that have a good ending.
Tales of Symphonia
Harley & Joker
In any case, Happiness can also be in a form where we don't even realize it. Such cases are bound to happen with psychology disorder or hypnosis. This kind of happiness is usually a fake kind of happiness and it can lead to harming others and eventually, despair. As an example to this is the fictional character Harley Quinn, from the comic books and story Batman. She is thought to be in love with the villain, The Joker, by the process of overwriting the mind. She then becomes obsess to find happiness with Joker which led most of her mind filled only with delusional thoughts of her and The Joker. For your information, this also happened in real life. There are many news nowadays regarding delusional happiness, the same as Harley's. Remember, too much pressure towards gaining happiness will lead you to mental breakdown.
Whatever it is, in our life, Happiness is the key to all sorts of wonder. Just being happy, you can affect others too. Just a smile to other people and they can feel some sort of happiness in their selves. remember, always to:
Everyone has their own dark side of their selves. Well, since we are humans, envy and jealousy are a part of our life. From the article, I can understand the writer's resentment towards the late Steve Jobs. However, I think most of what he writes is based on his own personal feelings. Sure, I know he had an abrasive personality, but didn't the writer think that the abrasive personality is what makes the technology we see today? Without his unapologetic brutality, the technology advancements would not be so much better. Although many people had bad memories about him, he still strives to make for better or worse for these people.
Without him, there's no technology advancements.
Apple's invention and Innovation
Well, I got to admit, even though he made a great
contribution to the technology world, he himself made a controversy to his
daily life, where he prioritize his technology more so than his own daughter. Even
though he is a control freak, I personally think that it is a good thing. He
believed himself to be right rather than the customer. Even if consumer might
be protested against him, but I, as a consumer will stood for him. Why?
Because, I think by being true to your own intuition, we can get the final product taht is much better. many people seems unsatisfied with his "control freak" personality. To me,by being a control freak, it is what that
made one’s achievement great. His perfectionist side is also what made his
inventions seems flawless. He introduced many updates and security measures
that made the Apple Company well known for its products.
Even though Steve Jobs had many flaws in his life, he
strives to make a better technology for the future generations. All of you who
condemned him, should let it all go. He has passed to another life, talking
about his mistakes won’t change anything. Let him rest in peace. Nobody is perfect.
From the article Jews and their deceits, written by Adolf
Hitler, I found that the article amusing. Adolf Hitler is considered to be the
20th century most powerful and notorious dictator. He had converted
Germany to a full militarized society and had launched World War II
itself. To be honest, when I first heard
of him, I thought him to be the most despicable man that had ever lived in this
world. Well, after reading through his
sacred text, the Mein Kampf (My Struggle) I had a better understanding of his
view.
The Mein Kampf
From the text that he had written, He had exposed many secrets regarding
the Jews. As I read the exposure, he had
stated that the Jews are liars, pretender and leaches. They were also
deceptive. I had to agree, as I have seen many dark secrets of the Jews on the
internet. One source stated that the Jews main enemies are the Muslims. They
had overtaken the Islam’s major city, Palestine. How did they do it? It’s easy,
by pretending. They had been fooled Muslims, pretending to be one of them,
until they had increased in number where they overtakes the Muslims population
and eventually the Palestine itself. As Hitler wrote, “the Jews are liars and
hide their true feelings, for complete free expression is a social
impossibility for them” I strongly agree on this statement. Not to be a racist,
but it’s a fact. A common characteristic of a Jew. They spread their lies all
around the world. They had been thought
to conceal their minds, and by learning their enemies weakness, they will
continue to spread lies so that their enemies will be lax towards their
surroundings. This is where they strike, as what they done to most of the
Islam’s countries.
Jews Conspiracy
As I wrote this, however, I am not a hundred percent agrees
with Hitler’s goal though. He wants to create a new religion that had him as
the prophet, and he wants to eradicate
all of those who he considered inferior. Even though he had his struggles
towards the Jewish, which in turn had actually helped the world to make a
better place, his ideals is still not to be taken seriously. Only the teachings from Al-Quran will guide us
to the right path.