Reflective Essay - Euan Martin
To all nerds, gamers, otaku’s and all the weird and wonderful individuals. Comic-con is the place for you. It is an event where anyone can feel accepted. It is an environment where no one feels the beady-eyed judgement we all get on a day-to-day basis by the people around us. This is a time where no matter what you wear or what you look like, you can be yourself. You are surrounded by others like yourself, and you feel accepted for once by everyone in this community.
The day I went to Comic-con for the first time was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. The very thought of this day always gives me pleasant memories to look back on. This day, arriving at the Scottish Exhibition centre in Glasgow,
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Whereas the other voice, the more persuasive side, was screaming ‘Oh who cares, it will look awesome in your bedroom!’ I asked myself, why am I so indecisive? In the end, I made my mind up. The persuasive side won the battle.
Being there was surreal, like being on a different planet, weird and wonderful characters as far as the eye could see. I felt so excited, so many people had ‘cosplayed’ recognisable characters that were fantastically done as if they were almost identical to the character they were meant to be. In the distance, I could see ‘Batman‘. His appearance was so realistic, it was as if Christian Bale had just walked off his movie set, still geared up. I could see that he was surrounded by his eager fans, begging to have a selfie taken with him. Then deep down, the memories of being a child reawakened. I remembered when I was a kid how much I adored the Gotham world with all its heroes and villains. However, my obsession was mainly focussed on the superhero ‘Batman’ to me he was the ultimate hero. I had loads of his memorabilia, action hero figures, DVDs, clothes you name it, anything that was connected to this fantasy figure. As I regained my senses, I took a deep breath and nervously walked over to him. With every tentative step I took, a little bit more of my nerves kicked in. As I approached ‘Batman’ with trepidation I quietly asked him for a selfie which he gladly accepted. I wonder why I am so insecure?
A year on
If you’ve ever been to a comic convention you might’ve accidently mistaken it to be Halloween day. The diversity of people walking in and out of those convention doors is limitless. Most people at a glance just see a bunch of random nerds in costumes. If you ever attended any comic conventions you’ll be able to pick out certain types of people like cliques in a high school. Some are harder to figure out and some standout like Chewbacca at a star trek convention. The one thing that they all have in common is that they are all dedicated and have a passion for some nerdy movie, TV, or comic book at comic convention. If you ever happen to stumble into a comic convention, these are some of the people you may run into.
While reading The Stranger I noticed that traits that Albert Camus character depicts in the book are closely related to the theories of Sigmund Freud on moral human behavior. Albert Camus portrays his character of Meursault as a numb, emotionless person that seems to mindlessly play out his role in society, acting in a manner that he sees as the way he’s supposed to act, always living in the moment with his instincts driving him, and if the right circumstance presents itself the primal deep seeded animal will come out. I believe that most of the character’s traits fall under Freud’s notion of the Id and Ego mental apparatus, and don’t believe that his idea of the super-ego is represented in this book.
Stanley Kubrick’s sexual parody, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, illustrates an unfathomed nuclear catastrophe. Released in the midst of the Cold War, this 1964 film satirizes the heightened tensions between America and Russia. Many sexual insinuations are implemented to ridicule the serious issue of a global nuclear holocaust, in an effort to countervail the terror that plagued America at that time. Organizing principles, such as Kubrick’s blunt political attitudes about the absurdity of war and the satirical genre, are echoed by the film style of his anti-war black comedy, Dr. Strangelove.
In An Argument for Being a Poser, Liz Armstrong describes the crucial dilemma every young person faces about their identity, and to which subgenre do they belong to. Armstrong argues that such question can be both totally ridiculous, and actually very important; which leads to beginning of the process of discovering “who you are.” Furthermore, she describes the fictional subculture that you chose for your escape; within your chosen subgenre you don’t have to pretend to be different, and people understand you. In other words, your chosen subgenre is your place of escape, it is the place where acceptance and freedom is present. Besides, the fact of looking for a hidey-hole, she informs us with a life changing situation at the age of 16 years old. She describes the experience as being life changing, the kids she came across were simultaneously were role-playing and professing as being someone which they weren’t part of. Consequently, Armstrong used that moment to adapt to new change, which she describes as “not dressing up or being normal again.” She describes herself looking like a punk one day with a spiked collar, a crushed-velvet mini skirt the another day. Thus, for that reason she couldn’t fit in with honor students, nor the art kids. She couldn’t fit in with the honor student because for them she was too weird, but for the art kids she couldn’t draw. For this reason, she went from being a straight-A student to a what she describes a poser. Furthermore, Armstrong argues
The Stranger The Stranger exhibits a society that has confined itself with a specific set of social standards that dictate the manner in which people are supposed to act. This ideology determines the level of morality, and how much emphasis should placed on following this certain "ethical" structure. Albert Camus's main character, Meursault, is depicted as a nonconformist that is unwilling to play society's game. Through Meursault's failure to comply with society's values and conform to the norm, he is rejected and also condemned to death by society.
The poet orders his listener to behold a “solitary Highland lass” reaping and singing by herself in a field. He says that anyone passing by should either stop here, or “gently pass” so as not to disturb her. As she “cuts and binds the grain” she “sings a melancholy strain,” and the valley overflows with the beautiful, sad sound. The speaker says that the sound is more welcome than any chant of the nightingale to weary travelers in the desert, and that the cuckoo-bird in spring never sang with a voice so thrilling. Impatient, the poet asks, “Will no one tell me what she sings?” He speculates that her song might be about “old, unhappy, far-off things, / And battles long ago,” or that it might be humbler, a simple song about “matter of today.” Whatever she sings about, he says, he listened “motionless and still,” and as he traveled up the
African American racial tension has decreased drastically, since the fifties our country has leaps and bounds towards equality. James Baldwin wrote Stranger in the Village, and he wrote about his experience living in a small Swiss village and how he was able to evaluate the American society and its issues of race. Baldwin specifically focused on African American racial issues. Baldwin makes arguments about how race is treated much different in Europe, he also argued how there are still a lot of problems with American society that need to be changed. I agree with Baldwin's thoughts however this essay is outdated and isn't completely relevant to our society today; however some of the broader ideas are.
Overall the conference was great but there was one con. There was a guy who was such a douche excuse my language, but just the way he carried himself had some things he said, for instance "I don't mind being a token black guy at a firm".
As a new immigrant, I took the accuplacer test and went straight to 111 English level. So, English 111 course became my first college English class. It seems like a great achievement for a French speaker. Nonetheless, this performance linked to significant challenges. Even though I am a fighter and an optimist, I was frightened about my academic achievement for this semester. The problems became bigger when I took my first practice test on sentence structure (fragments and run-ons) and got a D. I was frightened and felt that I will have to drop the class. However, I decided not to give up. I started working hard and had a V+ on the next test. This positive grade energized me until now. During this semester, I have much homework and practices which allow me to identify some strengths, weaknesses, and gave me lots of skills for my English 112 class and the future.
There comes times where we wonder why we are standing here on this ground. This could occur in any scenario, whether it is times of depression, anger, or even enjoyment. A very famous landmark African American baseball player Jackie Robinson said “A life isn’t significant expect for its impact on other lives.” As most know, Robinson began as a person inferior to society, almost meaningless to the sport of baseball due to the color of his skin. However, he let his skills at the game, hard work, and consistency to prove he had to stay in Major League Baseball alongside challenging white men. He started at the bottom of the barrel to the top, identifying his role in life was to become the first African American to start in the white dominated
Have you seen those weird music festival T-shirts that people wear and wonder what someone could possibly want to wear that for? While they’re sometimes meant to catch attention of people so they may want to look up the festival, it also serves as a reminder for many amazing memories for the two or three-day event. For a long time now music has changed people’s lives in many ways. It has brought people to fame and lifted many out of depressions. But, to those who haven’t experienced a festival, or even live music in general, you have been missing out an amazing social experience like no other. From the kings of festivals like Woodstock or Coachella to the lesser known ones like Rock on the Range (Hard rock/metal based) and Day for Night (variety) there are hundreds to pick from. One of my favorites is Carolina Rebellion which takes place right in this state.
Reflecting on this course over this semester, there have been many lessons learned that will be valuable, as we enter the business world. Our first lesson was to learn to work together, as a team, to prepare a short memo, long memo, letter, and email for use in the business world. This is a lesson that will experience many times as we do our daily work. Punctuation and grammar are so important to present to the client and other organizations that we are professionals. It could mean the loss of a sale or acquiring new business. It’s like dressing for work; looking professional or unprofessional.
Albert Camus creates a series of characters in The Stranger whose personality traits and motivations mirror those that are overlooked upon by the average man. Camus develops various characters and scenarios that show true humanity which tends to have been ignored due to the fact of how typical it has become. Camus incorporates abominable personality traits of the characters, variety, consistency, and everyone’s fate.
Thesis Statement: Comic Books are not just enjoyable to read for most but have changed everyday life more than people realize.
Entrails torn from the body with bare hands, eyes gouged out with razor blades, battery cables, rats borrowing inside the human body, power drills to the face, cannibalism, credit cards, business cards, Dorsia, Testoni, Armani, Wall Street; all of these things are Patrick Bateman’s world. The only difference between Bateman and anybody else is what is repulsive to Bateman and what is repulsive to the rest of the world. Bateman has great interest in the upper class life, fashions, and social existence, but at the same time he is, at times, sickened by the constant struggle to be one up on everybody else. On the other hand Bateman’s nightlife reveals a side of him never seen during the day. Bateman is relaxed, impulsive, and confident