9.25.10

After class on Wednesday, I felt a bit overwhelmed because of the assignment I was given on having to write a treatment for the commencement film. So I have spent the last few days just thinking about ideas throughout the day before I start to write the treatment. Sometimes I have to do that, otherwise I will stress myself out when I sit in front of a blank word document for an hour because I cannot think of anything to write about. I remember writing treatments in Digital Cinema and I always got points taken off because I added too many unnecessary details. It's hard for me to write a story that is straight to the point without adding in little details. I can't even do that when I talk.

I do know that even though this assignment will be tough, I will benefit from it in the longrun. I want to prove to myself that I can do it. The class wouldn't be worth it if it weren't a challenge.

Moving on to media in the New York Times, I have been reading several articles over the past three weeks. I just haven't been writing about them. The one's I found to be most interesting were of: Michelle Obama and her wanting the public schools to provide healthy meals for students because the obesity that's on the rise; genetically engineered salmon; and a major vehicle crash leaving 6 people dead (including a pastor and his wife of a small church).

With Michelle Obama and her idea of having healthy foods provided in public schools sounds like a great idea, but honestly I don't think it will make much of a difference if the kids aren't eating healthy at home before school, after school and on the weekends. I believe it'd make more of a difference if parents were involved with the health of their children. With the amount of single parents in our country today, just making sure they can provide food for their children can be more of a focus than worrying about whether it's healthy. More health classes provided for students from an early age might also help.

The article on the genetically engineered salmon kind of grossed me out. The article was written on the 20th and covered the debate on whether the fish should be labeled that it was gentically engineered or not. The author of the article said that it would be the "first genetically engineered animal to enter the American food supply." If God gives animals the ability to naturally grow on their own, why would I want to eat it if it had been altered by a human?

I also read an article on a group of church members who suddenly lost their lives/became critically injured on a short trip to visit another church's anniversary celebration. The pastor and his wife were two who died, leaving their small hometown church of about 50 people devistated. Another woman who died on the van was the pastor's sister--mother of the pastor of the church they were going to visit. The wheel on the 10+ year old van popped off while in motion, causing the van to flip over a few times and land on its roof. What I thought was most interesting in the article was the last sentence when someone said they did not understand why this terrible thing would happen, and that even through the shock and sadness, God had a plan.