Author Archives: philip.chen1

Power

Due to my obsession with the word power and power itself, I chose a poem that defines my personality. The following poem by Edwina Matthews is the poem I have chosen for my digital project or essay.

To some power is guns
To some power is knifes
To some power is the ability to read, and write.
To some power is control
To some power is a fist
To some like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. power was words.
To some power is like a trapped animal trying to get out of a cage.
To some power is love
To some power is art
To some power is money
To me power is knowledge
So what is power to you?

I’ve always been fascinated with the concept of utter dominance and supremacy. The most interesting people in history to me were conquerors and generals. These people to me, wielded by far the most power. They were able to control the masses of weak-minded individuals during a time with no internet or media. Individuals such as Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Atilla the Hun, Napoleon Bonaparte, Julius Caesar, Pope Alexander Borgia, and many other omnipotent figures. These are the people you hear of that change the course of history, the people that caused great change. Although these people wielded such power, they had their lives cut short. Perhaps power has a drawback? Or perhaps a consequence. Nonetheless, power is something that is still strived for today. From the defiant ruler of Libya Gaddafi to our power hungry politicians, power still exists.

I am a bit worried about the digital presentation of this project. I have no experience with any software dealing with art or anything similar to that. In addition to this, I have no creativity whatsoever and I never draw or write during my free-time. I really hope that our lecture class on how to do these presentations will be useful. I’ve seen the presentations done by other students and they were quite superb. That said, I am looking forward to doing something like this. I have never done anything similar to such a project in any of my other classes. The project looks fun and doesn’t look like a chore.

Prior to watching those two clips in class, I always perceived creativity as being something worthless. I still do but I have more sympathy for it. First off, let me begin by stating that I’m seeing this from a business perspective and no other. Yes you might think I’m some sort of monster but I really don’t care. The reason we are all in school, especially BARUCH College is to receive a degree in a business field ( most of us anyway ). The corporate world is cut-throat and there is no time for moral and ethical behavior. It’s all about maximizing profit and minimizing cost. It doesn’t matter if you take advantage of cheap-labor or outsource in third-world countries, as long as you are making the big bucks, it’s all good. Creativity from my own perspective is needed no doubt, but it should reside in a specialized department within a company or corporation. There is no chance in showing off your creativity if you are merely interpreting graphs or crunching numbers. For example, if I’m an Accountant at a firm. My job is to calculate the balance sheets, income statements, financial reports and predict future revenue and losses. Creativity plays no part in that role.

Creativity is almost non-existent anymore in the corporate world. Take a look at the iPod for example. It’s basically the same piece of technology but in a different form. No creativity whatsoever. The only time creativity even exists if when the invention was first created. The iPod was just one of the few MP3 players that really took off. All companies need to do now is just rearrange pieces of technology to create something “new” but in reality it’s still the same shit. But people still buy millions of them and companies rake in billions of dollars in revenue. This just proves that creativity necessary AT THE MOMENT in the corporate world. Who knows? It might all change and our world will be completely based on creativity.

Personally, I have little to no creativity whatsoever. Whenever I read a book or passage, I’m unable to see any images. I have much difficulty reading fiction novels or anything not related to non-fiction. I have an extremely tough time conjuring up images in my head as I read. Also whenever I’m doing any sort of work that involves creativity, it’s like someone putting a brick wall in front of my face. When someone tells me “Do something creative!”, it’s essentially telling me to do nothing. It’s one of the reasons why I do poorly in Language arts classes or any class that deals with an “Artsy” subject. I dislike being forced to take certain classes in order to graduate, I hope they will change that in the future. With that said, I do like CERTAIN things that are ambiguous so that its open to interpretation. I admire all the ambiguity in the works of philosophers and critical thinkers because it allows you to think for yourself rather than be told. However, I still prefer to work on problems that have an answer rather than no answer. I think it’s funny how there are still philosophers to this day attempting to answer questions that Plato or Aristotle has brought up. Some things just don’t have an answer. I’m going to end my response with one of my favorite expressions: “Cash Is King”.

OPTION 2:

This option is an exercise in comparing and contrasting. Select two of the four stories we’ve read thus far (“Cathedral,” “The Birth-mark,” “Hills Like White Elephants,” and “The Story of an Hour”). Think about what these stories say about “happiness”–do they depict a uniform view of how people experience happiness? Why or why not? How?

You might even want to pick two specific characters to work with. For example, how does Jig’s experience of happiness differ from Georgiana’s?

I believe that I might have a completely different perspective on the story “Cathedral” than some other people, but I’m going to be a rebel and write it anyway. To me, happiness in this story is marijuana. The scenes where all three central characters smoked pot were a very memorable one to me. The narrator was passing around the “dope” to his wife and her blind friend Robert. One quote from this scene is “My wife sat on the sofa between the blind man and me, I passed her the number. She took it and toked and then passed it back to me.  “Which way is this going?” she said. Then she said, “I shouldn’t be smoking this. I can hardly keep my eyes open as it is. That dinner did me in. I shouldn’t have eaten so much”.  This is pretty much what happens in real life except for the dinner part. It reminds me of That 70’s Show when all the characters would sit in a circle smoking pot while talking random mumble jumble. I would not personally do pot however, but it sure does seem like a pleasant and enjoyable experience. The high school I used to attend had a ton of potheads sitting around the parking lot close to my school. They seemed like a happy bunch and they reminded me of the three characters in the “Cathedral”. I was not able to completely comprehend the ending of “Cathedral” but I interpreted as an awakening for the narrator. Although the narrator smoked pot daily, he wasn’t able to fully embrace the power of marijuana until he met Robert. Robert allowed the narrator to see what it’s like to be blind and smoke marijuana at the same time. The narrator ended with “It’s really something”, which to me is a sign that he achieved ultimate relaxation and happiness with his marijuana. Perhaps the uniform view of how people experience happiness is through marijuana usage. I don’t think I’ve seen an angry marijuana user ever in my life or have even heard of one. You see angry drug (crack, cocaine, heroin) addicts, angry alcoholics and angry drivers but you never see any angry marijuana addicts. Maybe this story is really telling us something here.

The moral of the story “The Birth-Mark” is perfection is unachievable. Happiness to Alymer is perfection. That is all he cares about and is willing to do anything to obtain his goal. He wants his wife Georgiana to be completely perfect physically and her birth mark turns him into a mad scientist. While he was finally able to get rid of the birth mark, his loving wife died from the removal of it. This short story definitely does not depict a uniform view of happiness. None of us can be perfect and those that strive for perfection often times end up with many consequences as we see here. We all must sacrifice something in order to become almost perfect. For example, Michael Phelps has to devote 10 hours of his life swimming in order to become the best swimmer in the world. Constantly striving and seeking perfection is not a way someone should live their lives. Many of us accept that we aren’t perfect, but we accept who we are and we are happy because of that. (Philip Chen)

Philip Chen

OPTION 1:

Write a movie review of “Best In Show.” Do NOT just summarize the film. In fact, for this response paper, you are to use no summary unless it is a detail or scene that helps you to prove the argument you are trying to make about the film.

The movie Best In Show was probably one of the funnier films I’ve ever seen in class.  The actors were brilliant in their roles and it really showed the different social backgrounds of American people. From the typical American yuppie family to the American redneck, had it all. I especially liked the family from Florida, the average everyday Joe family who had a Norwich Terrier that won the competition. That family to me made the entire movie. The wife had sex with a million guys and the husband had two left feet. Furthermore, the husband was “quite the looker”. The husband also had a facial expression that made me laugh my ass off when he saw one of his wife’s old sex partners.  I looked up the actor for the husband and he was also in a bunch of other comedy films. The most prominent one being American Pie, a movie involving men trying to lose their virginity. The actor of the wife was in the movie Home Alone, a movie that I remember watching when I was a little boy. Another family I enjoyed watching was the yuppie couple from Chicago. Yuppie stands for Young Urban Professionals in case you don’t know what it means. The family’s constant bickering and fights added a certain flare to the movie. In short, it was great seeing another couple fight even though deep inside they loved each other.

Although the movie was about a dog show, I felt that the movie dealt a lot with sex. The Florida family dealt with sex the entire movie. The husband had to deal with much jealousy and confusion during the entire movie due to his wife’s former sexual partners. It just shows that you can never escape from your past. So think twice before having sex with a bunch of men =P – you don’t want your husband jealous, do you? The Chicago family dealt with sex in the beginning and at the end of the movie. The movie started off with the Chicago family in a therapy room because they were scared that they had mentally damaged their dog when he watched them have sex. In the end of the movie, the family finds a dog that disregards their sexual behavior and they live happily ever after. The movie also dealt with a gay couple and a lesbian couple. Although I cannot help but shudder when I hear a man with a feminine voice, I thought he was also a great character. Seeing a man talking like a girl makes me laugh and made the movie much more funny for me. I especially liked the scene where he packs 50 pounds of clothes for one weekend. That is something only a girl would do and trust me, I know. The only “couple” that didn’t deal with any sort of sex issue or sex was the redneck and his bloodhound. But he was a bit on the eccentric side with his SCARY puppet. I swear that thing gave me nightmares when I was a kid and I still get some chills when I see it.

I would rate the movie an A+ and would recommend everyone to watch it. Remember kids, think twice about having sex with every person you meet. You never know if you will bump into them again :P.