Let me preface this by explaining the course. I apparently need a humanities credit and my advisor eagerly suggested Intro to Film. She said it was super fun and easy and I would just love all the interesting people I would meet online. All I think was, "Yay, more blog material!" Remind me to send her a fruit basket as a thank you.
It started with Steve, my instructor. He posted a detailed vitae about his work in the "lucrative baseball card industry" where he worked as a head of something or other for a "big name card manufacturer. The one that just popped into your head, yeah, that's the one." Nothing popped into my head so apparently he was unemployed. He lives in or near Berkley and from his use of Comic Sans for EVERYTHING, I am fairly sure he has a graying ponytail and wears a Fanny Pack. He was very proud that he teaches an extensive California Notary class and according to him he is "basically responsible for every document that is notarized in the state of California." Go him? He was a writer for the New York Post before all of this and conducted "numerous lucrative interviews with sports greats like Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle." However, when one of my classmates asked him a question about Joe, he said he didn't know that much about his stats. What? They weren't printed on the back of those lucrative baseball cards? As much as the man throws around the word lucrative, you'd think he was a Jew, but no. Just a guy who has taught at University of Fictitious Bird since I graduated high school. Oh, and for a man with is BA in English and his Masters in English Literature, he has terrible spelling and grammar.
As soon as the intros by each class member started to roll-in, I realized that they were no better than my bunch of genius' on ground. From the retired military guys who cannot spell military to the housewives who wrote paragraph upon paragraph about their latest recipes and knitting projects, I decided to keep mine short and sweet. I said "My name is Tiffany. I am a USAF veteran. I am a wife and mother to a 4-year-old. I am majoring in Criminal Justice and hope to work in federal law enforcement upon graduation." Bam. Easy peasy. But something about my lack of detail prompted another USAF fellow to reply.
Patrick, a former BMT instructor currently stationed in South Dakota, felt the need to grill me about what I did in the AF. I replied that I was 3P0X1 just to annoy him and he replied, "I don't know what that is." I wasn't sure why I had to explain what my AFSC (MOS for Army...basically job) was to a man who wrote in detail about how he shaped the future of the Air Force and we should all be grateful that he kept the bad ones out. I didn't reply and went about searching for other posts to respond to (because it's required...lame).
Later, I answered one of the instructor's discussion questions and Patrick responded with, "So you were a cop? You could have just said cop." People should really learn to respond to the appropriate thread. I sweetly replied that I wasn't sure what that had to do with my choice of Crash as one of my favorite movies and that any questions he had about my military experience could be posted in the Chat Forum and not in the one we were in. Steve replied that I was very diplomatic along with having excellent taste in films. Patrick must have become enraged because he proceeded to pick a fight with me on every post I commented on.
When I commented on another student's post about the movie Training Day and how I thought it was an excellent example of how easy it is to become corrupt when you are surrounded by the dredges of society, he replied, "And you know this because you were an AF cop?" Maybe I arrested this guy. Maybe I gave him a ticket. Maybe he's just pissed that he isn't the lone AF vet and I'm already the teacher's pet. Whatever it is, this shit needed to stop. Before I could reply, Steve asked us if we thought movies could teach a lesson. Realizing that this was my opportunity to meet my required daily instructor responses, I ignored Patrick and answered the question.
Me: I think most movies can teach a lesson, but all too often the viewer misses it because they're caught up in what they saw and heard and not what was implied. Unless the lesson is layed out in a Morgan Freeman voice over, people skip right over it. (Funny right? I know)
Patrick: Sure, movies can teach lesson. I have two children and the majority of the movies they watch contain some type of morall or lesson. The film Shrek comes to mind. It contained lesson (to me anyway) teaching to look past what you see on the sirface, that it is what is inside someone that counts. ("Ogers are like onions, they have layers") I think in most flims, you can pick out lessons of integrity, and self sacifice, especially flims aimed toward children. (This is a direct copy and paste)
Me: Okay, not counting children/family movies, do you think movies made for adults have as clear of a message?
Patrick: I think we can both agree that, yes, even flims geared toward adults contain a clear life lesson or massage. Forest Gump was full of them ("Life is like a box of chocolates"). I used children's flims as an example because their message is usually very prominent. (Direct copy and paste)
Me: Sure, Forrest Gump offered it up easily. But films don't just have one message and if they do, I find them to be a bit one dimensional. I prefer to look for the hidden meaning/lesson that lies underneath the movie poster tagline. Forrest Gump was about so much more than expecting the unexpected a la "Life is like a box of chocolates..." and I personally didn't feel like that was the message Winston Groom (the writer of the novel which is fantastic) was trying to portray. At least not primarily and I don't think that director Robert Zemeckis wanted to portray that either.
Patrick: John Travolta played a man that was simpel and slow but had a open heart. He went on wild adventures and changed peoples lives. (Direct copy and paste)
Me: What movie are we talking about? Because John Travolta wasn't in Forrest Gump, Tom Hanks was in it as the title character.
Patrick: No, it was John Travolta. And it was directed by Steven Speilberg. (Direct copy and paste)
Me: There's a website called IMDB and they have all the information about films. Maybe you should go on there. I can assure you, Tom Hanks played Forrest and Robert Zemeckis directed it.
Patrick: I don't need to look it up or google it. I know I am riht. (Direct copy and paste)
Everything I wrote is what I said as well and is a direct copy and paste, I just felt the need to let you know, that IS his spelling and grammar. Drill Sgt just couldn't stand being wrong. Steve and the original poster both commented and said he was incorrect but he posted "I don't have time to argue, I'm at work" and we haven't heard from him since. I wish I had a job in the AF where I could do my schoolwork. I know cops that got LOR's for having that shit on post. I think this guy is going to have a full meltdown by the time this class is done. I should ask him to be in my learning team, he'd probably throw his computer against a wall.
There are some other gems in the class, but I have a paper to write for my other one, so you'll get more next Wednesday. Or Wensday as Steve posted in the title for today's discussion question.
1 comments:
So...you were an airforce cop... LMAO. What a tool!!!
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