A Strange Coincidence

"If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed."- Stanley Kubric

In the 60's my dad went to the movie theater and watched "Spartacus". This event had a great impact on my life. My dad decided that if he ever had a daughter he would name her just like Spartacus' wife. Years later, I was born and named as Spartacus' wife. For many years of my life I had no idea what my name meant, but I always knew where my name came from and who had directed the movie.

Who would've thought that the director of that movie would become one of my favorite directors of all times?

All my life I've been a movie fan and I was always fascinated with the making of them. A year ago, I found myself with the opportunity to work on a commercial as a production assistant, it was awesome. After this experience and helping out some friends with other short films, I decided I wanted to be a filmmaker.

The whole process of making a movie is chaotic and exhausting.It involves creativity, imagination, collaboration and thrusting others. It's a lot of people working together for one thing only, the film. After working for 10 days, 13 hours a day, and sleeping almost anywhere you can, you only want to go back to your own bed and never do this again. However, when you see the results of what you so arduously worked for you just can't wait to go again on other filmmaking adventure. What can I say, it's just addictive.

"Pain is temporary, film is forever". -Anonymous

Aloha from Hawaii!

Image courtesy of Mrs. Nelson's Class

Aloha Equity! I am thankful for you!

I also miss you a whole lot. It's really nice here in Hawaii, but nothing beats coming to class each day and being part of the craziness that is Equity.

Make sure to keep Mr. Sanders in check. I hope that when I return I'll get to bring Ramona to a Watta game and a basketball game. In the meantime, have a blast with your school year and take every opportunity to be intellectually curious.

Anyway, I'll stop by this here blog every once in a while to see what you're up to.

Mahalo!

Mr. AB

Nudibranchs!

CC Image courtesy of Hani Amir on Flickr

Nudibranchs are my favorite animal. Nowhere in nature is such incredible diversity of appearance as evident as in the glorious nudibranch. These sea slugs live in shallow tide pools in oceans all over the world. Their remarkable colors and shapes warn predators of the toxic poison they use as a defense mechanism.

CC Image courtesy of Boogies with Fish on Flickr

Why do I love the nudibranch so? I love their weirdness, their paradox, their contradiction: a slug with glorious plumage and a toxic kiss.

Click here to see some AMAZING pictures of diverse nudibranchs.

What do you think about this one-eyed shark?

News image courtesy of The Korea Times

I found this surprising photo by reading korean internet news. A Mexican man named Enrique Lucero León is a fisherman who caught this shark and posted the photo on his Facebook. Researcher Felipe Galvan Magana said, "This is extremely rare. As far as I know, less than 50 examples of an abnormality like this have been recorded."

This cyclops fetus was born from a bull shark caught in the Gulf of California beginning of this year. This one-eyed shark was born with a cyclopia and is a rare congenital disorder that causes a brain to stay a whole instead of having two distinct hemispheres.

Do you think that this cyclops shark is still alive?

-Kye Ri-

Russians read this blog.

What you're looking at is the all time pageviews (as of November 4th, 2011) for The English Department. What it means is that people in from Russia to Singapore to England are viewing what you write. What do you think of the reality that people in such far-flung parts of the globe are part of our little blog community?

The Used - Blue and Yellow

Many of you may have a song that is your absolute favorite, a song that no matter how many times you listen to it, you just never have enough of that beat and lyrics that you can't get off your head. Everyone has a different favorite song, and maybe there's someone who's favorite song is the same as yours. Well my favorite song so far is called Blue and Yellow, and it's by The Used. They are a "scremo" or "emo" band. They have have many good songs, but this is my absolute favorite! Did you like the song? why? or why not? Also, what is your favorite song?

By: Pablo Arimany

Dan draws detailed dinosaurs (and other cool stuff).

CC Image courtesy of Jenny Addison on Flickr

Dan McCarthy is one of my favorite artists working today. Visit his site and check out his work. You won't be disappointed.

Correllation between income inequality and social problems

In this video, British sociologist Richard Wilkinson argues that there is a relationship between income inequality (the gap between the rich and the poor) and lots of social problems, like violence, unhappiness, and even mental illness.

Given that the income inequality in Guatemala is so great (the rich are REALLY rich and the poor are REALLY poor), what do you think of the argument set forth in this video?

Mario Kart Fan?

By: Amir Mubarak

Remi Gaillard is a filthy rich person that has no other thing to do in life tan these types of things. I posted this video for two reasons. Firstly, because it is funny to watch someone do these things in real life. And secondly, because it caught my attention when I realized that, how could a person do all these things and never get properly accounted for it? If you want to see more videos like these were he stirs up havoc, go to YouTube and type “Remi Gaillard”. Everything Remi Gaillard does against the law does go down on him. However, because he is so filthy rich, he can always get bailed out of jail in no time! What do you think may be done to stop these things from ever happening again? Because if he keeps bailing out of jail, these situations will never stop. Does the bailing system that we live by work properly? Feel free to watch the other videos of him before commenting if you need a little more feedback on exactly what he does.

HACIA Democracy

HACIA Democracy is about sending kids to solve real world issues. The bad side to this is our ideas count for squat. The good side is we get to go to Panama to solve the problems. It is to complicated for me to explain how it works but I can tell you it resembles a court room. If you want to know more about the rules and guidelines go here HACIA Democracy. The deserving/lucky students that will be attending are Adriana, Edie, Ganzie, Sang Eui, Amir, Luciano, Brian, Hyun Eui and Gio. These esteemed students were chosen by their abilities in debate club. If you haven't been to HACIA before what do think it would look like? It can't be worse then what I pictured.


By Gio Aboujaoude

Music Is Everywhere!

Music can be everywhere, music it's the universal language, music is eternal. Music is 24/7 you can hear it any time you want. Music has influenced many people; there are many kind of styles of music that were inspired genres they like. New genres of music are coming, and are created by people who are completely involved to create music. New music are coming will come in purpose to influence others to create music what they like.

No matter what they like or what you like; music is music and no-one can stop it, because music is everywhere. This video it's a good example of how can music can influence people, these guys don't care what others say, they just do what music does to them: "influence." They are influenced by the music, and they like it, that why they do this video for influence others, to do what they want for the music. Do you think that music is everywhere? Why? Have you experienced that music has influenced you in any way? According to the website Music Everywhere, Inc. "Music is everywhere, everyone listens to it in one form or another and it affects people like no other medium. Music lovers tend to enjoy listening wherever they are. They enjoy music thundering in their theaters, quietly in their offices and gently lofting through the air while relaxing poolside. The concept of music invokes a feeling of relaxation, with simplicity in it’s melodic overtures and predictability in it’s tempo and rhythms." Do you agree with the website?

By: German Paredes

Athletes shouldn't run like this!

How do the thighs and the calves in our legs work? In what order do they move. This game shows you that if you don’t know how to control them you fall and flatten your nose. I know you guys won’t be able to pass at least 10 meters from the starting line because this game you need patience and also a lot of brainwork. We can control our legs but many of use don’t know how to control all the part in it simultaneously. This game shows you how unknowledgeable and ignorant you are about the human legs. The character in this game moves like a weird puppet with deformed legs when he starts walking. It’s truly impossible to make the character in the game move like a decent human. If you know how thighs, calves and your entire leg move in your body, you might be in this game. This game is more about your knowledge about the body instead your experience in games.

Billion of Songs

There's a lot of songs to pick from!
And I can´t decide which one is my favorite song.
Its like picking which of my three dogs I like the most
I can´t do that possibly I love the three of them!!!!
So anytime anybody ask me "hey whats your favorie song?"
I will say
"You mean my favorite song of the day,week, or month?"
An example If I am in a good mood and I wanna hear a happy song "I am walking on sunshine." is an example I feel nothing can ruin this day and that is my favorite song of the day.

So there is tons of music to pick from.
But which is your favorite song right this second,day,week,month, or if you do have a
favorite song which is it?"  

By:Sofia

Reactable

Sofia Braun-Valle posted a really great video by Joan Jett a few weeks ago, sparking a memory of one of my very favorite woman musicians, Bjork. Bjork is from Iceland and she is well known for writing music that is challenging and crazy and wild. For example, she wrote a whole record, called Medulla, in which the only instrument is the human voice. I know that sounds normal, but check out what she did using just the human voice.

Anyway, along with trying wild and unconventional compositions, she's also known for using wild and unconventional musical instruments, like the Reactable.

"The Reactable is a tangible computer music instrument based on a table." I just think this is such a wonderful way to think about creating music. Instead of working with notes in time, you work with blocks in space. Oh, and it seems as though there's also a Reactable iPad app for those of us who can't afford the full sized thing.

And just 'cause I'm a nice guy, here's one more video of the Reactable in action. I think this is what it's intended to sound like:

EAS vs. Christian Academy

By: Amir

On Tuesday, October 25th, the girls’ basketball team made their first appearance in an official friendly against an experienced and powerful Christian Academy at around 3:40 to 4:30. Unfortunately, our team wasn't able to win the game. HOWEVER, from my perspective, they all played an exceptionally well fought match even though the balance was tilted towards Christian Academy for a number of reasons. Firstly, they were much more experienced than us. Secondly, they've had more practice time than us. And thirdly, they were all talented and their strategy was killing us because of lack of preparation. Anyways, that’s how I saw it. Girls you did exceptionally well, but I expect you to win next game! Every one in the basketball, tell us what you felt before, during, and after the game, we all want to know!

Diet Coke and Mentos Madness

By: Arturo Girona

I posted this video because I love how the people in the video make like a whole show based on what happens when you put a Mento in Diet Coke. I'm curious about how they got all those bottles of Diet Coke and all those Mentos, and I'm also curious about why does that happen when you drop a Mento into Diet Coke. For any of you who want to figure out the answer to my last curiosity, watch this video too:

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a

The state fish of Hawaii is the humuhumunukunukuapua'a. I love this fact firstly because it is such a wonderful name for a fish, especially when you consider that there are only 12 letters in the traditional Hawaiian alphabet. Humuhumunukunukuapua'a has 7 distinct letters in it and 21 letters altogether, which means that this is a word which has almost double the amount of letters as the alphabet and in which over 50% of the alphabet is represented.

Secondly, Leon Redbone recorded a song with Ringo Starr in 1994 called "My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii" which mentions the little fish with the long name. Kealakekua also happens to be where Lyla and I will be staying in preparation for Ramona's arrival. So while she may be born in Waimea further north, arguably Kealakekua will be Ramona's first home. Oh, and it's also noteworthy for this.

The song was written in 1933 for Kona's annual 4th of July canoe races, which explains the video version above. I recommend the Leon Redbone version myself, but there's a certain je ne sais quois about the video. Enjoy.

What's the difference?

By: Amir Mubarak

A couple of weeks ago Mr. AB showed us this exact same video during class. We were considering and talking about the differences and similarities of non-fiction as opposed to fiction. Hence, the video above. I'm sure many of you have seen or read non-fiction as well as fiction. According to dictionary.reference.com, fiction is defined as, "the class of literature comprising works of imaginative narration especially in prose form." However, non-fiction is defined as, "the branch of literature comprising works of narrative prose dealing with or offering opinions or conjectures upon facts and reality , including biography, history, and the essay." Watch the video above - and, in your opinion - tell me in what category does this fall in? Fiction, or non-fiction? What's the difference between non-fiction and fiction? Their similarities?

advancing to the future

This is the new trailer for the Iphone S. This new Iphone has a characteristic called Siri that is a personal assistant. You give it commands and it responds to them, like remiding you for a dinner.
It is amazing to see how people have advanced since humanity first started. What do you think is going to be a new invention in the future?

Charlie Bit Me Remix Song

As a lot of people probably know, Charlie Bit My Finger is a famous video watched by millions of people all over the world. Now, this video is a remix, auto-tuned song from the Charlie Bit My Finger video. I wanted to post this because I saw that Luciano Wolf had posted the original video, so I wanted to make sure you guys saw this one. In my opinion, this song is hilarious! What do you guys think about it? Do you think the original one is better than this one?

By: Arige

A Different Type of Music

I have always enjoyed listening to new music, especially the music that my friends introduce to me. The type of music I have enjoyed the most is "Indie", or Independent music, which is a very different type of music. This song is the best example of Indie music, becasue it's different to regular music in every way. The singer of this song is called Andrew Bird. He's my favorite Indie singer because he is the reason why I started listening to Indie songs.
Indie music is known for doing a development in popular music, and it dosen't have major commercial records. That's why often, you won't listen to Indie music on the radio. This is one of the reasons why I like it. Becasue not everyone knows this songs.
As you listen to this song, think what makes it good or bad, and why, in your opinion, is it different. And why do you think it's called "Independent music"?

By: Pablo Arimany

CR7 or Messi? Who's the Best? You Choose

By Amir Mubarak

For a couple of years debate has waged on about who is currently the best soccer player in the world. On one hand, we have Cristiano Ronaldo (tall man in white), A.K.A CR7. While on the other hand, we take a look at current Barcelona player, Lionel Messi (short man in blue and red), A.K.A. La Pulga. Arguments in favor of Cristiano Ronaldo are that he is the more complete player. Meaning his overall statistics are higher. His speed is better. His jump is higher. His strength is more balanced. Arguments in favor of Messi is that he is a better dribbler. Some might even say his speed is the better one. However, we must all keep in mind that these are only opinions. How hard do you imagine these individuals worked to get labeled as "The best"? Was it hard work and determination? Or was it mere talent? Watch the video and then post your opinion on who is the better player below. Why did you make this decision?

Girls can Rock n Roll

Joan Jett a girl that truly can rock n roll she is called the "The queen of Rock n roll".
The hit that made her famous was "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", which was 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 from March 20 to May 1, 1982 and many other more like "Crimson and Clover.","I hate myself for loving you",and "Bad Reputation."
she was former of two bands "The Runaways" where she would play the guitar, and "The Blackhearts." where she was the lead singer.
She was recently nominated in the Rock n Roll hall of fame for 2011 with many other more rock musicians.
Come on know tell me who thinks a girl can´t rock n roll?

By:Sofia

Special bonds

This video is about a couple that adopted a baby lion. Eventually they left him in African because he was a full lion. This video shows them after the couple visits the lion a few years later. It is incredible to see how such strong bonds can be made even with other species even if they are known to be ferocious like the lions.

Do you think people should be allowed to have exotic animals as pets?

Luciano Wolff

The Internet Has Connected The World

It is most likely that you have already seen this video.

The Reason I say this is because this video has gotten 377,285,572. I posted this video for the reason that this amount of people are more than the population of the U.S which is 308,688,000. It is amazing to think that so many people have gotten a computer in the little time that computers have been in the world.

I also give promps to Charlie and his brother who managed to get so many views on such a simple but innocent and funny video.

My question for whoever reads this post is what is the video with most views you have seen, and why did you saw it?

luciano wolff

Mongolia

Courtesy of tiarescott (Wikimedia Commons)

I've been wondering what it would be like to live in Mongolia. Pictures of this land, like this one, make me want to fly over its mountains and oceans of plains. I think that the part of why Mongolia inspires me is it's vast ruggedness, and the fact that I don't know hardly anything about it. The grass is always greener on the other side.

My fascination with this land of soaringly wide grasslands and rough stone has led me to add it to my list of Places to Live, which grows longer every year, and includes places such as Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, New Zealand, and South Africa. What lands call out to you, and why? What are the countries on your Places to Live list?

--edie