Nature, Videos Games, and Aesthetics - Juniors E.C.

I listen to MANY podcasts, one of them being “The Indoor Kids” which is a wonderful podcast from Nerdist Industries.  The podcast stars comedian Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily Gordon, both avid gamers (Kumail is hilarious check out a clip here).  While I enjoy the podcast for its discussion of video game nostalgia (I was quite the Nintendo aficionado as a child, love Sid Meier’s Civilization series, and currently anticipate the release of Diablo III), I’ve come to find the podcast raises interesting discussions while maintaining an air of comedy as well.  Recently, the Supreme Court made a ruling on whether or not video games should be considered art, defending video games as an artistic medium.  “The Indoor Kids” decided to tackle this very discussion, entering into a discussion of what is art, and in turn, a philosophical discussion of aesthetics.  So I bring it to you students, how can we discuss what makes video games art ANDDDDDD lend this discussion to nature?  How do we identify something as “beautiful” something that is of value, something that speaks us unconsciously?

You can find the New York Times article here.

You can find this episode of "The Indoor Kids" here.

Work for the week of Jan. 9th - Freshmen

 
Due Monday January 9th, 2012

Minutes: Victor Cai, David Butsko

Read Act III Scene I
Anticipate a quiz on who's who of the characters.


Due Tuesday January 10th, 2012
Minutes: Kieran Carpen, Rebecca Chang

Read Act III Scene II
Please have three sources found for your assignment.

Due Wednesday January 11th, 2012
Minutes: Calvin Chen, John Cheung

Work on your draft
Due Thursday January 12th, 2012
Minutes: Jerry Dai, Isaac Gluck

Draft Day - Please have a draft ready for peer editing
Finish Act III Scene III

Due Friday January 13th, 2012
Minutes: Ervin Flores, Zafir Hasan

For homework, Please scan through the pages found on the left hand side of this website that discuss Works Cited particular the following four pages: books, periodicals, electronic sources, other common sources.  We will discuss your findings in class tomorrow.

PLEASE NOTE, Extended Footnote Paper IS DUE TUESDAY JANUARY 17TH.

NO SCHOOL MONDAY JANAURY 16TH, 2012 - MLK'S BIRTHDAY


Due Tuesday January 17th, 2012
Extended Footnote Paper due

Work for the week of Jan. 9th - Juniors

Due Monday January 9th, 2012
Minutes: Raquel Perez, Cody Tong, Justin Wong

Reading Chapter 9-10 I2TW
Work on your thesis statement
Complete nature expedition aspect of your upcoming assignment

SAT words:
 Celerity, Maladroit

Due Tuesday January 10th, 2012
Minutes: Jaspal Singh, Jason Wong, Eric Xiao
Read Emerson's "Nature" Section IV: Language
SAT words: Dichotomy, Extrapolate

Due Wednesday January 11th, 2012
Minutes:Jack Stevenson, Annie Zhang, Andrew Xie

Read Through Chapter 13
SAT words: Didactic, Panacea

Due Thursday January 12th, 2012
Minutes: Elton Sun, Zawar Ahmed, Andrew Yu

Draft Day.  You must have a thesis and a body paragraph completed.

SAT words: Fallacious, Seminary
Due Friday January 13th, 2012
Minutes: Sam Vasilevsky, Rachel Ahn, William Yu

Read the following article about Nietzsche's Ubermensch found here.
Please respond in five sentences how the concept of the "over man" or "super man" resonates within the various men in Into the Wild that wander into the wilderness.

SAT words: Malingerer, Sentinel

NO SCHOOL MONDAY JANAURY 16TH, 2012 - MLK'S BIRTHDAY

Due Tuesday January 17th, 2012

Junior Rewrites

Those of us who are interested in rewriting our Gothic papers, I commend you on your desire to improve.  Let's get to work.  Please consider the following:

Before meeting with me, I would like you to select an A essay from my Stuy webpage and analyze it for the following:

-What is the paper's argument (thesis)?  How does it effectively convey this argument in the introduction?
-How does the paper continue to prove the argument throughout the essay?  Where do you see evidence of the thesis being proven throughout the paper?

-How does the writer utilize evidence and explanation to prove his/her point?
-What mistakes did you make on your essay?  How does the essay that you are analyzing approach this issue?  How does this writer avoid making the mistakes that you made?

Obviously your papers won't become magically better by reading someone else's work, but I wanted to provide you with:

(1) The opportunity to see what I deem as worthy of an A.
(2) The opportunity to analyze another student's writing to help you recognize that you are fully capable of such achievement in writing.
(3) The opportunity to read an essay that does not simply EXPOSE your flaws in writing, but perhaps provides suggestion or practices that could help you IMPROVE your writing.

We are all trying to get better.  That's what writing is all about.  Keep it up.  I know the grades were not what we wanted in most cases, but I'm damn proud of you guys and know that you will continue working hard.

Sponge Bob and Family Guy

Juniors, Daryl showed me an episode of Sponge Bob that mirrors our reading of Into the Wild.  Sponge Bob wants to leave the "cold, industrial" world and seek out the natural life of a jellyfish.  He quits his job flipping burgers and gives away his possessions before going out in search of a better life.  It's uncanny how the stories parallel.

HERE!

This picture of Peter is from a scene in North by Northwest, an Alfred Hitchcock film.  See it here.

Freshmen, as per our discussion of allusions in "Family Guy", here's a great YouTube video that highlights some of those allusions.  BTW, the video incorrectly references an allusion as being from the the film The Shining when instead it is a scene from Misery.

HERE!
and HERE!

Work for the week of Jan. 3rd - Freshmen

Tuesday January 3rd, 2012
Presentation of new assignments, can be found on Stuy website
Handbacks from previous assignment
Mistakes in writing

Minutes: Carmen Yeung, Jimmy Yan

Due Wednesday January 4th, 2012
Reading Assignment : Act I Scene II

Anticipate a quiz

Minutes: Daniel Zarotsky, Daniel Zabari


Due Thursday January 5th, 2012
Reading Assignment Act II Scene I
Pay special attention to the particular scene where Katherine and Petruchio meet.

Minutes: Charlie Zhen, Olivia Zhang


Due Friday January 6th, 2012
Reading Assignment Act II Scene I
Bring in a piece of research for your assignment

Anticipate a quiz

Minutes: Daisy Zheng, Sabrina Bari

To Do Over the Weekend -
Reading Assignment - Act III Scene I

Work for the week of Jan. 3rd - Juniors

Due Tuesday January 3rd, 2012 - Welcome back
Presentation of new assignments, can be found on website
Examples of A papers are uploaded to website

Minutes:

SAT Words: Stoke, Bilk


Due Wednesday January 4th, 2012
For your upcoming assignment, I'd like you to find 5 quotes from Into the Wild that you could hypothetically use in your upcoming paper.  Please provide a one sentence explanation as to why you chose this quote and how you could utilize this quote in the future.  This will be checked as homework.

Reading assignment - Chapter 6 I2TW

Minutes: Cristina Luo, Shariar Siam, Ivan Smirnov

SAT Words: Harangue, Replete

Due Thursday January 5th, 2012
For your upcoming assignment, I'd like you to find 5 quotes from Emerson's Nature that you could hypothetically use in your upcoming paper.  Please provide a one sentence explanation as to why you chose this quote and how you could utilize this quote in the future.  This will be checked as homework.

Reading assignment - Chapter 7 I2TW

Minutes: Lenny Mamut, Malik Smith, Anthony Tsui

SAT Words: Tangible, Abrogate

Due Friday January 6th, 2012
Please write a thesis statement.  Bring it in to class for peer review.
Reading Assignment - Finish up to Chapter 8-9 I2TW

Minutes: Miles McKey, Darion Stevens, Ben Wang

SAT Words: Reprieve, Tawdry

To Complete Over the Weekend
Reading Assignment - chapters 10-11 I2TW
Complete nature expedition for final paper