The Blog Never Stops!

I may have hit the 12 post minimum, but the blogging never stops!

Check out my new movie review blog, Nerd Ranter:
nerdranter.blogspot.com

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The Comic Throughline--Put to the Test! (SPOILERS)

One of the biggest things I learned from The Comic Toolbox (and the entire semester of Lit and Civ, really) was “The Comic Throughline.” I was already familiar with the three-act story structure—you know, with the “expositions,” “rising actions,” “denouements,” and all that. But it was never explained to me in the short, simple, straight-forward way that Vorhaus did. In fact, I liked it so much that I decided to give it a spin with a screenplay I had written over the summer.

I will proceed to lay out my entire screenplay according to Vorhaus’s comic throughline, so if some part of you is hoping this story will someday be made into a movie and you don’t want to know the ending, in the words of River Song, “Spoilers!” Stop reading now.

But this is the first draft, so chances are this story will be altered entirely by the time it actually gets made into a movie, so you are safe.

Also, please don’t judge my story. I’m not a professional.

Anyway, let’s get to the action.

1.      Who is the hero? The hero is quite literally a hero—Maximum, an alien with brilliant superpowers from the planet Superius. He flies, runs with incredible speed, shoots energy blasts from his body, and has the ability to sense pending danger and quickly calculate attack/escape logistics. He’s the proverbial superhero from outer space.

2.      What does the hero want? Max wants to go to Earth. He hates Superius, its totalitarian regime, and its obsession with dominating the universe. He’s unhappy there. He thinks he can go to Earth, start over, and be a hero.

3.      The door opens. Max finally gets his chance to escape to planet Earth.

4.      The hero takes control. Max establishes himself as a bona fide superhero. He’s “Maximum Man,” the hero of Earth. He’s saving the old woman from the burning building and all that jazz. The U.S. government is after him, but whatever. Most importantly, he falls in love with Aurora Grace, an exceptional military captain. They marry, and Captain Grace keeps Max’s true identity secret from her commanding officers. They’ve got each other’s back. Everything is okay.

5.      A monkey wrench is thrown. The totalitarian elders from Maximum’s home planet discover he has escaped to Earth. They are NOT HAPPY. They strike Earth with a deadly weapon and make plans for an even greater assault.

6.      The hero hits bottom. The government discovers Max’s secret. Captain Grace is reprimanded and discharged. Max is sent to prison. Earth goes to war with Superius.

7.      The hero risks all. Max escapes prison. He rescues his wife and, together, they fight to protect planet Earth. Superius is defeated—at the cost of Captain Grace’s life.

8.      What does the hero get? Max goes home to bury his wife, realizing what it truly means to be a hero. (Then there’s a plot twist. That’s for me to know, and for you to discover.)

           

            I suppose my story does somehow fit Vorhaus’s comic throughline, although my story isn’t exactly a “comedy” per se. I believe Vorhaus’s formula makes for good storytelling, but you tell me. Did you think Max’s story is a good one?

Sangmin: Sixth Meeting

My final meeting with Sangmin took place in the library. I met him in the loud section, where he was using the computer to book a trip to…start spreading the news…

New York! New York!

Sangmin was quite excited to go to New York as his last trip before returning to Korea in December. The website he was booking his flight on was in both English and Korean. For some parts of the site, Sangmin asked for my help in understanding certain terms, such as “frequent flyer.” After a few minutes, he finalized his purchase and got his ticket to the city that never sleeps.

We continued talking about the types of things he would be doing in New York. He said he wanted to watch “The Lion King” on Broadway and travel to Washington, D.C., for a day. Since he’s not currently working, his parents are paying for his entire trip. I asked him if his parents gave him a budget.

“Budget? What’s a budget?” he asked.

I explained to him what a budget was, to which he replied with a laugh, “No, it’s unlimited!”

After he booked his flight, we went to a table in Bistro Burnett for our last conversation. The conversation that followed was perhaps the deepest conversation we had in our six meetings.

We got into a conversation talking about God. He said his aunt in Grandbury takes him to church whenever he visits her, but he has difficulty believing in God because he needs concrete evidence. I then told him my story about how I experienced God when changing my major last year—how, in the midst of crisis and nearly becoming a music major, God led me to journalism, because He knew what would truly make me happy (see my previous post, “Adventurous”). I told him that God is like the wind: we don’t see Him, but we can experience Him. He smiled and nodded, but still had difficulty believing. Despite our differing views, we both remained respectful to one another and continued with the rest of our conversation.

“I think my English is getting worse!” Sangmin said as we were walking out of the library.

He said he spent time having fun rather than studying for IEP. I laughed and told him that his English was fine, and he’ll get a good workout practicing English in New York. We finally reached University Drive, said "goodbye," and parted ways.

Meeting with Sangmin was an overall great experience. We shared some fun times, laughed, and went crazy together. I learned how to speak more simply and open my eyes to cultures not my own. One of the biggest things Sangmin said in our last conversation was, “America is not much different from Korea.”

I think he might be right.

Sangmin: Fifth Meeting

One of my favorite times is “Mind-Losing Time.” As an Honors student taking 17 hours of classes and trying to maintain a GPA for scholarship, I believe that sometimes Mind-Losing Time is necessary in order to preserve personal sanity. To go insane in order to stay sane might sound absurd, but these small moments of Mind-Losing Time help ease the overwhelming moments of the semester. You should try it.

What exactly is Mind-Losing Time? Mind-Losing Time is just a time to be silly—to laugh and not worry about what others think of you.

When Sangmin and I met for the fifth time, we had Mind-Losing Time indeed. Before we met, I texted Sangmin asking him if we wanted to do anything different besides have a normal conversation. We decided to play a video game online.

We ended up doing something entirely different. And crazy.

My friend Alexandra, who is a bit of a game nerd, came with me to the meeting. The three of us tried to find a game to play online, but none of us could decide on what to play. Somehow the conversation went from games to movies to TV shows. Since my computer was on (as we were searching for a game on the computer), I asked Sangmin if he recognized the characters on my desktop.

He paused for a moment, working on his pronunciation. Then he replied, “Doctor Who!”

I was so glad he knew! After all, “Doctor Who” is a British television show, and I was surprised a Korean was familiar with it. But we did notice something weirdly wrong about the desktop.

The characters didn’t have faces.

Don’t ask me why they don’t have faces. I suppose the picture was made in an artistic sense (You know how some artists draw people without faces? Nevermind…). Nevertheless, it did puzzle us.

So Sangmin decided to fix it. He grabbed my computer and screenshot the desktop. He opened up Paint and worked some magic. I decided to add my own touch to the picture as well. The three of us had a good laugh throughout the artistic process. The end result looked like this:

There you go. The Doctor, his companion Amy Pond, a Pokéball and Pikachu. Worlds collide. It’s beautiful.

We had a great time losing our minds for about an hour or so, talking, laughing and recreating a picture of Doctor Who. Every time I meet with Sangmin, a young man from a different country with a different background and speaking a different language, the same theme rings true—we are all the same. Whether you are from Korea, the Philippines, or the United States, we all need Mind-Losing Time once in a while.

You Should Be Studying

The semester is almost over, friends. Already I’m on the last page of my syllabi in several classes. And on the last page of every syllabus (most of the time, unless your teacher is so wonderful and gracious), there is that big, bold, all-caps statement that makes all college students shudder: FINAL EXAM.

Gasp! Shock! Awe! Face it—it’s coming whether you like it or not. In my two-and-a-half years of college, I still shudder at the thought of finals, especially cumulative finals with make-or-break percentages on your final grade. I can say, however, that over the years I have developed my own studying methods and techniques. This semester, in particular, I have analyzed the methods to successful academic results—that is, what works and what doesn’t work to produce desirable, Honors College-worthy test grades.  I’ve summed up everything I’ve learned in four easy points:

1.      Take “good” notes. This sounds like the no-brainer. Everybody can take notes. Just copy the professor’s PowerPoint onto a Word Document, right? Well, in my experience, I’ve realized that the PowerPoint presentation alone isn’t going to cut it. Most of the time, a PowerPoint is a general framework of everything else the professor says. The professor may put a few bullet-pointed terms on the screen, but are the definitions there? No. That’s why listening to the professor is key to understanding the essence of the topic. Taking notes without understanding is like drawing a picture without coloring it. It looks nice, but it’s boring. 

2.      Cover all bases. Your good notes are just one piece of the puzzle. The rest of the pieces include what the teacher said, what the readings said, what your friends said, what the PowerPoint said, and what Quizlet said. Now for some classes, professors will tell you to focus more on the lectures, or more on the readings. But if they give you the fateful phrase “everything is fair game,” it’s always better to be more prepared than less prepared. So after you study your notes, go back and look at everything else at least once.

3.      Start early. “But there’s so much to study!” I know. I’ve felt that way every day since freshman year. Something that proved especially effective for me this semester is starting early. For example, if I have ten pages of notes for the next exam, I would start eleven days early—studying one page each day for ten days, and bringing everything together on the eleventh day. I always found this method much more effective than cramming everything the night before the exam. That way I’m not spending all night teaching myself the material, because I had looked at the previous pages in advance. I used the latter method (i.e., cramming the night before) a couple of times this semester. It did not produce as successful grades as the former method.

4.      Bullet-bite. This is the hardest part. Let’s face it—the path to an undergraduate degree is hard work. Sometimes, all you have to do is bite the bullet. Just do it! “Okay, it’s bullet-biting time!” I tell myself. Time to put the phone away, log out of Facebook, get started, focus and don’t stop.

I realize that some of these methods might not work for you. These are just methods I’ve learned over the years and formulated over the course of this semester. You might have your own sure-fire way to study. Nevertheless, I hope that somehow what I’ve learned could help you survive the rest of this whirlwind semester and undeniable joy of Finals Week.