Shh!

            I have many questions in life. Here’s one. Why do people, in hopes of making a loud room of talkative individuals quiet, make a simple “Shh” noise? To our minds, or at least mine anyway, this would be a total oxymoron. It is like fighting fire with fire. As most people would understand, a fire plus a fire equals a bigger fire. However, this is not true in this case. When people hear this instinctive and distinctive utterance, they realize, through careful years of training, that they should cease talking.

You see, that is just it. We are trained to understand what people mean when the utter a simple “Shh.” If you do recall, as a child you were taught what this noise means. Since then, with every time you have heard this noise, it has been reinforced in your mind.

This same idea can be observed in a classroom. The children will be chatting with their friends about the weekend, but when they hear a bell or signal that releases them, without cessation, they will rush out the door. Why? It is because children are trained daily by the person operating the bell. Like the simple vocal oust I talked about earlier, the bell causes us to act according to what we have been trained to do. Hopefully, this blog has not made you feel a deep sense of paranoia (that I honestly might be feeling while writing this), but I hope I have brought this strange phenomenon to your attention.

Here's a clip illustrating what I'm talking about courtesy of YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlv7Bp-L2MM

PT For Me

            As this blog has been designated to talk about my research paper’s topic, it will. Since I am currently a high school student while writing this, I do not have a concrete career that I will definitely pursue. However, I have narrowed my choice to a few areas, one of them being physical therapy. For those who do not know, physical therapists help with the physical rehabilitation of patients after an injury or surgery.

            There are many reasons why I have chosen this career as a possibility. One of these is that around eleven years old, I had surgery to repair a herniated disc in my spine. As you can imagine, I had to get through quite a few sessions of physical therapy because of it. Like other children at this age, I was vulnerable to the world around me. During these sessions with educated and kind people, I found that physical therapy might be a great field of study to go into after high school. Also, besides my emotional ties to the career, I feel that the benefits and pay will be an excellent plus to my life.   

            My research paper will be exploring physical therapy as a career. In the paper, I will explain the odds and ends of my future career. For example, I will explain the work situations of the career such as the difference between working in a hospital environment and in an out-patient environment. Also, in my report, I plan to explain some facts of particular characteristics of the job while offering support from credible therapists. Lastly, I plan on discussing current discoveries and events relating to physical therapy.

            Through my report, I plan on sharing not only about the career itself, but reasons why it is right for me to look forward to.

Image Courtesy of http://professional-physical-therapy.com/treatment-services.php

The Brains of the Operation

            Have you ever taken time to think about how your brain thinks thoughts? The perplexity of how this mass conjures up random thought has puzzled me for a while now, ever since I did some deep study on it in my anatomy class last year. The brain develops the older a person gets, continually storing years of memory. Its physiology stuns me, and the fact that it fuels our basic thought processes and allows for new knowledge to come in daily is nothing short of amazing.

            As I have made mention of in my earlier post, memory is a strange thing to think about. We can live an event, totally forget about it, and then, once something comes along to remind us, our brain helps us remember again. It’s truly fascinating. As you know, memory is caused by the lump of mass in your skull, the brain. If you were to look at the brain, as I have in anatomy class, you would be shocked to see that it looks incredibly basic. Since I am only in high school, I can safely say I do not know much about anatomy and physiology, and if you told me to tell you the difference between a chunk of brain and a chunk of another random organ, I could not.

            Also, it’s stunning that this one mass can control all of the body’s function. Not only so, but the brain also allows us to multitask, something that sends my deep wonder for the brain’s function into a respecting awe. Even right now, while writing this, I can have thoughts about school, working, or what is for dinner for that matter, while still having continual thoughts about plenty of other things.

            The brain’s control over emotions is something I have an entirely different respect for. Beyond that, we as people have totally different emotions and levels of emotional thought. This allows for us to have different views on subjects and separate sets of values from each other. As I keep saying, the brain and its function are truly fascinating. This video explains some of the parts of the brain in typical 1990's cartoon fashion.

Blog #2- Sherlock's New Debut

             I watched a stunning movie recently. The movie was Warner Bros. Sherlock Holmes, a tale that was obviously based around the ideas of the book series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Going into the movie, my thoughts were telling me that the film would just be “one of those movies based on a book series,” but I was surely wrong. Of course, I was stereotyping the genre, something that most viewers and readers do, when I clearly should have been open to the movie. The movie's usage of style and the way it fits the genre make it very entertaining, to the point where it is hard not to watch it.

            The movie fits into the “action-mystery” genre, and it gave the viewer a good supply of both parts. That is my normal criteria for a mixed genres, I normally need an equal balance of both pieces. Also, considering the mystery genre, the mystery and plot not only have to be good, but they have to be great. Action is also important in this combination, because it keeps the viewer watching and excited. Sherlock Holmes did not disrupt any of my preconceived notions about the two genres.

            There were plenty of fights and explosions to keep the overall action level high and the mystery was amazing, each revealing Sherlock’s exceptional charm. Throughout the movie, Holmes’s exquisite wit created another mystery in the story, making the viewer question how reliable the character was. The moviemakers also included a slow-motion feature in certain complex situations, letting the viewer in on some of the hero's thoughts and plans of action pinpointed on the weaknesses of the people that he would brawl with. As the movie progressed, the storyline unveiled more about Sherlock and Dr. Watson, fixating the audience to see what would happen next. The story also included a touch of romance, which I feel was due to the era portrayed in the film, thus creating a female foil to Holmes that competes with him throughout the film. Like I spoke of before, the action and romance might have even added more captivation than the mystery, giving another type of uncertainty to the viewer. Nevertheless, this film was truly awesome in my opinion.

            As you can tell from the vague bits of the story that I have informed you about, reader, you can tell that there was a healthy amount of play with the stereotypical genre, but not too much that the viewer could not follow and was frustrated. If you know me personally, then you know that I am one to get frustrated in a fit of confusion after seeing a movie that breaks the mold of a genre too extremely. As you probably have heard, when using genres, certain criteria fit within them, expectations that the reader or viewer subconsciously has based on what they have seen or read previously. Rest assured, this movie fits in its genre quite snug, giving the viewer a good story while also helping them identify the movie with the genre. Between the characters and the enigmatic storyline, you should be able to notice how great the movie really is. I have included a video link to the movie's trailer at the bottom of this post.



Picture courtesy of: http://www.yourmoviestuff.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Sherlock-Holmes-movie-poster_600.jpg

The trailer can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7aROdTxt6M

Blog #1- Good times, Good times

Childhood is a time of exploration, a time in which the world transforms into something to be discovered. During childhood, a person’s personality normally involves curiosity. As the person gets older, the feeling of curiosity slowly develops into apathy toward new discoveries and experiences. Imagine who we could be if we could get back to that mindset.

Every once in a while, I think about childhood and the events that occurred then because it fascinates me to see the person that I am and my personality was based on those events. An important part of my upbringing was the years I spent living in Florida. Growing up there, I viewed the world as something to explore, almost as a conqueror, with no true concerns about life itself.  Seeing things that remind me of those times brings back the confident memories of childhood, which, assuming I am not alone in this thought, we constantly desire to bring back.

No matter how much you want to look toward the future, some events make you remember your past, such as childhood. Surely, reader, you have picked up something with your senses that induces the recollection of the memories in your past, as have I, such as smelling food that you associate with a time or maybe seeing an image that brings back a memory. For instance, while watching some TV, I’ll come across a show that I used to watch and still be able to remember everything about the series and also what I remember doing back when I watched the show. It reveals how our brain works: when we pick up something with our senses, we reveal our past.

As you can tell, I’m very interested in this subject. I do not try to live in the future, but like you I’m sure, I almost fear it. However, no matter how many fond memories I have of my child years, I don’t want to live in the past either. I try to live my life in the present, the convenient space in between the two.

As I gave an example before, certain things will bring back many memories. I saw this recently and remembered many bits and pieces of my childhood years. You might remember a bit while watching this, too, courtesy of Youtube.com.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKXvtQNvM-g