Last Blog, about Blog

Before I take this class, I wrote blog sometimes. I have my own blog, and sometimes I feel like I have something to say, but if the posting page doesn't open, I forget about it soon. Blogs is a very special component of play analysis class, especially the quanlity demand -- 50. That is a lot! I write about 10 blogs a semester in my own blog, so when I first told that we need to write that much in one semester, I was worried if I have that much things to say. But then, I found out that the quanlity requirement is actually good for me because I'm not that lazy then. When I have a thought, the idea of writing a blog about it would come to my mind really fast, so I developed the habit of writing down my throughts instantly. Now I'm about to finish my blog, but I think I will keep writing blogs even though no one force me to do so. Reading past posts is interesting, and sometimes I forget that I had fantastic ideas like that, so my blog often surprise me.

One Little Thing Happened in Stony Brook

Before I came to Stony Brook, I was studying in a private college in Penn State. It was much different than here. We have about one thousand students in school, and people were familiar with each other, even though we never knew someone officially, we could tell if he or she is from our school. People say hello and smile to every one in school. Professors are like friends to us, and faculty even organise trips to big outlets and cities. I thought that was what universities look like. However, transferring to Stony Brook changed my mind. I still remember when I just came here, I came to Health Center again and again just for the certificate of vaccines. They didn't accept anything except translated copy by any doctor. I insist that anyone know Chinese can translate the document for me because it is obvious that no one will cheat in such a certain thing, and no one will sign name in copy of wrong information. But finally I lost, so I had them took my blood to do the test and refused to take another shoot of vaccine. I think if this is happened in my previous school, they will take my certificate and have a Chinese to look at it, and then let me go. I don't believe there were no Chinese doctor in their office. I just wanted to prove that I had the antibody, and my certificate is real without doctor's translation (I had a Chinese student translated for me and they said no). I know no one really cares, but that's what I did, and I am upset about the inflexible rules. This is the only thing I don't satisfied with big university.

TANK PICS

Finally we had our final project holding in new york city yesterday. We drove there and the small theater was already filled with people. I was excited to have "final" in this kind of form. We worked for it and we were expecting to see the result. Such a fulfilling day!

Cat Diaries

I watched a special movie today, which is performed by cats. Friskies company put cameras in 25 cats' necks, and let them live with the cameras for five days, and then made this movie. This is interesting because cats' view are different than human. We are taking advantages of a commanding position, but actually I think animals are equal in this world. We can't see us like the controller of the world because lack of any other animals, we will not live a good life like now. Cats are lucky because people love them. A cute part of the movie is that cats are similar to human. They stay at home in breakfast time, and then jump out of the window when people leave for work or school. They are looking for something fun. A cat's life is easy and interesting. Maybe this worth learning.

Dreams

I had dreams almost everyday recently. I didn't dream much, but these days I really dreamt a lot, especially nightmares. One day I dreamt of the end day of the world, for real this time. I said this because once I had this end of world dream but finally we conquered the disaster even though I didn't understand how we could rebuild the world like the disaster never happened, and another day, my friends and I adapted a little human-like monster. I also dreamt that I had a test to be math minister of the country but fortunately it was not true because I hate math. There were also sweet dreams. I travelled in universe in my dream, maybe because I just watched The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy at that time. One time I owned a garden in my dream and the plants talk to me. I also had a dream about strawberry. I went to a world of strawberry, in which everyone was stawberry and the world smelled really stawberry! I got used to it when I stayed there for a few days, and I think I became a strawberry at last. Yesterday I dreamt I got killed by two of my high school classmates, and I couldn't walk very fast in my dream, but I was not very sad about being killed... Anyway dream world is fantastic whether I had good dreams or bad ones, I experienced amazing things which will never happen in real life.

Hamlet and Ophelia in Korea

This is our final project. We made a 30-page comic book and put Hamlet and Ophelia in Korea. Their personality are kept and the gender is changed. You can see Hamlet in girl version becomes mighty woman, and Ophelia is a weak boy. We found this idea interesting so we made this comic book. The part is adapted from Act 1Scene 7. Enjoy it! =)

Hamlet and Ophelia in Korea

Hamlet and Ophelia in Korea

Hamlet and Ophelia in Korea

Hamlet and Ophelia in Korea

Hamlet and Ophelia in Korea

Hamlet and Ophelia in Korea

Hamlet and Ophelia in Korea

Hamlet and Ophelia in Korea

we will post our final project -- the comic book -- from the end page.

Details are Important

I will consider House of Games a female character study movie. All the changes of dark and light help telling the story. What do we think of the main character Margaret? She was a psychiatrist, who studys human behavior and trys to explain them. However, in this movie, we found that she is actually the most interesting person that needed to be study. There are a lot of interesting details in this movie that need to be watched carefully because they are the truth teller. In this case, David Mamet made himself -- the direct the most important person for the movie, and actors are just doing minimized performance, so we don't expect them to tell the deep stuff directly. And what I like the most for the movie is that he made the trick, the crime and the bad things a kind of art. And it's beautiful. Exploring, hiding, resisting, appearing are parts of the art. A bridge that connect the reality with art is built here.

Main Roles After Gender Change

Hamlet:
A courageous, ambitious and brave woman who hates her aunt because she killed her mother and took her position. Lover of Ophelia at the same time.

Ophelia:
An innocent, weak, pretty boy who loves Hamlet. Hamlet is everything for him, but he is controlled by the shackles of the old conventions, which keeps him away from Hamlet, and he is sad.

Gertrude:
This is a useless king, opportunistic, and cunning that doesn't care who the queen is, just want his life.

Claudius:
A crafty, selfish and authoritative queen that killed her sister and became queen. She rules the country because the king is weak.

Final Project Idea

I work with a bunch of Korean people in the final project, and we are planning to change the gender of main roles, and then adding oriental factors into Hamlet. First of all, we want to see something new in Hamlet, because the play is metioning constantly by people, so we can only make it special to acctracting people. So we think of changing gender. What we want to show is that male and female are naturally different from each other, including the way of thinking, acting and presenting themselves in front of others, but in modern world, it seems like men and women are getting similar, and we often see tomboy and girlish guys. Changing gender, but keeping the characteristics of main roles hopefully will make dramatic effect that help people see their differences most distinctly but also find some kind of connections between them. Korean custome is another idea we have because we found that there are many similarities in Western and Eastern of the world, even though the manifestation is different, I believe the philosophies of love, hate, revenge are amazingly coincident. To free heart, to get liberty, to animadvert on hidebound traditions are writting again and again all over the world. For me, I am not Korean, but I am good at integrate concepts and make them completed, and I know some useful software well, so my job is mostly this part.

Bubble Shooter Games

Recently I am interested in bubble shooter game, and I tried some apps in iPod and found that even though they are all bubble shooter games, but every one is different. Actually very very very different. I kind of know why the same concept is repeat and repeat in every field, and similar stuff are either loved by many people or hated by users.

Bouncing balls is the first app i got in my iPod, and actually it is the reason I love it. I played it many times and be better and better every time. I am so proud, but there are some shortages. First, when Ilose, I want to play again, then I much start from level 1. That's not sweet because I often hate level 7 or level 8, and want to practice them. But what i played the most is the easiest level 1. Another thing is that it doesn't accumulate awards, everytime i finish a hard level, it says "congratulations, you earned your first golden award"... Every time is the "first time"! Anyway I still like the one. It is easy to control and everything else is fine.

Bubbles lab is free for a limited time (If i remember), so I got it for free. It is different from the first game, and the control area is under the "bubble room", and i must find the right angle instead of targetting in the bubbles, so the way make it a little bit difficult to control, and I am not familiar with the mode that the ball sending set is moving after a I sent a few balls, so i have to wait, which makes the game not that exciting then. The concept is good, to put bubbles in a "bab".

Ibubble shooter is another bubble shooter game that i don't like it that much even though the effects are the best that make bubbles look like real bubbles when they move or disapear. But the game is just to slow when you want to send bubbles, and too fast for the remaining bubbles to grow. I am kind of hurry-scurry because I am afraid that bubbles will growing uncontrollably that reach the red line, then I will fail in this game.

Bubble island in Facebook is like many other facebook applications with cute figures and settings. There is a squirrel in its advanture, and you must help it with the barriers. It is so cute that when you disappear a lot of bubbles at one time, it will be happy, so I am happy when it is happy. But the game may not suitable for every one because some people doesn't like cute stuff, and I actually think in this game, the format, the story and form is much more emphasized than the game part. I like game, but I can also accept the effects.

These games make me think that making a successful app is really hard, because every one's taste is different, and you can't satisfy all people. There are very few 5-star apps in the App store, and i see a lot of 1-star rating without technical or setting reasons, but just "I don't like it"...

Poor Children

Mother Courage's poor children are the truly direct victims of the war. Their death are related to their characteristics, and the background force the tragedy happen. Eilif, her oldest son, is a brave person, but he died because he wants to show his heriocal spirit in a wrong time. Swiss Cheese is a frank person, but he is kind of fatuous which kills him eventually. Kattrin, the mute daughter is kind and sympathetic, but her action disobeyed the aggressor's plan, so she is dead as well. Another reason for them to die is Mother Courage's attiutute towards the war. When Eilif was recruited, she was busy bargaining. Swiss Cheese was in danger, but she didn't rescue him because she doesn't want to lose anything in business. Kattrin is an significant figure in the play, even though she is mute, she speaks out what those normal person doesn't say, "to be kind". She teaches people what to do, and she opposes the belief that small potatoes are useless in war. She is my favourite role in the play.

Mother Courage Irony

Mother Courage is a work against fascism. The background is thirty years' war in Germany. Mother Courage trying to make a living in the war with her three children. The woman who put her whole life on war and run risks all the time, finally end up with tragedy. The "courage" strands for the necessary characteristic of a "nobody" to earn a life in such a big war. Brecht writes about a small potato because he wants to show that war brings nothing good for roughscuff. They are not heroes that recorded in history, but sacrificial lamb in the conflicts. No matter who win, common people always lose the most.

In Mother Courage's opinion, war is a profitable business for big cheeses, and common people like her should share a little bit of the pie, to feed family. But when her children leave her, and daughter hurt, she curses the war. So, first of all, her attitude toward the war is contradictory. She sell stuff which actually support the war, but the war destroys her family. She is a victim and supporter of the war at the same time.And from the beginning to the end, she doesn't learn a lesson in the process, even not recognize that she herself should be responsible for destroying the family. how ironic it is!