Topic for digital storytelling

As I was drawing the memory picture of my neighborhood, I realized how neighborhood in Vietnam is different from what in the U.S. In the country of over 80 million people, living in a neighborhood has brought me closure to others and memory of childhood I will never forget in my life. My topic is probably about my childhood of being borned and raising up in such a wonderful place like that!

A Stand Against Wikipedia

By saying that "it is not itself an appropriate source of citation,", the chair of history department at Middlebury College implied there would be a peril when a student cite Wikipedia for their paper. I think this is a really good advice to every other college students. However, despite the inaccuracy on a lot of its entries, I believe Wikipedia still has helped college student have a good judgment about what sources they use for their papers.

Although Wikipedia has good as well as bad sources of information, among every sources over the Internet, it has the most organizing format, informative content, and excellent writings. I feel it brings me more certainty about what I try to find for my topic when I compare the information in other sources with it. Therefore, it is sometimes a measure of 'what is right or wrong' for me.

However, I would never consider and use Wikipedia as a great source for my citation. My reason is that the content in Wikipedia entries is too general. It makes me feel like writing Wikipedia entries is just gather different sources into one. On the other hand, other sources, over the Internet, include more detailed and trustworthy information, that I believe the author spend time doing a lot of research on it.

For others policies on Wikipedia, I totally agree with them. Internet is truly a much more complex environment, so it is very hard to find reliable materials. Also, it is a very good idea to consider that judging the source could help students develop their critical thinking skills.

I think faculty could allocate a group of students (or assistants) to check the reliability of the sources to make sure if they are proper to be put on papers!

Comparisons between the movie and the book

Personally, I think the movie did a better job than the book on presenting who Chris McCandless was. I love his smiley faces when he wandered a lot of places. I love how he shouted to express his freedom when he got to the 'magic' bus or his calm expression when stepping into Alaska bush. I strongly agree that cinema plays an important role describing the characters, also in this case, showing the reality and drawing the romantic tragedy.

Apparently, the book did well in providing readers with a lot of details. However, it repeats over and over the same thing and unnecessary information that makes me feel the story becomes less romantic and imaginable. It talks too much about his family, people who met him, and what others thought about, not digging into the main character.

Chris was clearly shown in the movie even if there is of course less information in there than the book. In the movie, I believe the cameraman did really excellently in picturing the romantic but scary scenes of nature. Chris was so excited and happy to be out there, while we can see he was really alone during that time. The perception of reality in it was much better!

Bravery

My perceptions of Chris McCandless actually have not changed since I started and finished this book. I recalled the first pages when I thought he was still an idealistic, enthusiastic young man, whom I believe deserved to have such freedom like that. However, there are somehow a few changes in my thoughts about Chris I have noticed throughout the story.

First, I understand more why Chris wanted to abandon his future, society, and especially his family to be reborn and live to the fullest. I saw his disgust to his parents who created an unhappy life for their child, Chris. They should have prepared him for the path, not the path for him. The path made Chris live in the life he does not want to live despite the fact he's a very talented kid.

Second, I understand how Chris got influenced from Jack London and Thoreau to fell in love with the nature. It is amazing to survive in such a long time out there like Chris did. He is not foolish but very brave and praiseworthy. Unfortunately, Chris was just a little unprepared and unlucky as well.

Despite his death, I think he was happy to finally achieve his goal and find his idea of living life. He won over the materialistic life and all the obligations.

Not an outcast at all

Brought up in chapter 8 to 9, alike stories about McCandless-type, "outcasts" show not only connections but also differences between them and McCandless. However, why this interruption appeared in the middle of the story? Like Rosellini, Waterman, and McCunn, Chris McCandless had a somewhat similar journey to the wilderness and a tragic ending.

At first it seems like they were all young idealistic but foolish men who risked their life out there to simply prove something. Nevetheless, the author mentioned these characters to show the reader how Chris McCandless differs from the rest. Reading through the chapters, I feft these guys all have the same love for the nature like Chris but they are not the situations like his. In fact Chris cut all of his connection to the society and only remained a little intimacy to friends along the way to Alaska. He came to Alaska not to prove something, instead he found this place where he can stay away from all the displeasures in his materialistic life before and tried to reinvent himself by enjoying the romance of nature. He is definitely not an outcast, instead he just tried to become who he wanted to be.

Everett Ruess is somebody like Chris. They had the same ideas and feelings. During the journey, while Chris changed his name to Alex Supertramp, Everett did his to Nemo. As I said, they tried to reinvent themselves, in there, they just used the new names to identify themselves.

Reflection on epigraphs

I think Leo Tolstoy and Wallace Stegner both come to me with the same wisdom of living life. I strongly agree with both that when you're out of all the burdens coming from daily life, history, law and any kinds of obligation you live your life as yourself. Being a footloose is not a problem; it just helps you release all the hidden energy from the ordinary boring life.

Chris is in that situation. It makes him happy when he has nothing to do with all the expectations from parents and society any more.

If I had a chance to reinvent myself ...

I would say a big no to that chance because I just love the person who I represent.

I am happy to be born and raised up by my parents and be part of my wonderful family. I can understand Chris's situation throughout the beginning chapters of the story. Apparently, this guys feels so frustrated with his own family when his parents have great plans and expectations for him in every steps of life time. He refuses their gift because he does not want to owe them anything or rely on them while he's capable of making his own life at that age. Moreover, the problem with Chris is that he disgusted everything from the society - its materialistic, ambitions, and competitions. He wants to leave them behind like he does in the book and go for the beautiful nature in which he thinks he can find his spirit. However, I can see from Chris that he is somehow negative. If he does not appreciate what he currently has, happiness becomes somewhat more difficult to find. Chris has to look at the bright side and see how lucky he is. For example, I am now supported by my family to continue my education which always makes me grateful to my parents. I think I will try my best to pay them back after getting a job with my degree. Independence is only good when it reaches to some degree. Without family, I cannot go on in life.

I do not want to turn into a different person because I love who I am now. I built up my knowledge, ability, and experience by different ways and environments. In those experiences and range of knowledge, I have some that others do not have. Therefore, I can develop it to stand out of the crowd.

Nevertheless, I sometimes feel that my past is full of mistakes because of my personality, so I want to change myself a little. I know it's a process of learning and growing up, but I always think that at that age I would do something more special than at current age I have no hopes to do, for like: playing the piano, learning how to paint, etc. It's the long-term built-in ability that I cannot fully achieve when I have so many other things to do and more responsibilities to carry with.

I know I will get better and really excellent at something though!

The powerful spirit

I think I have a great admiration and respect toward Chris McCandless after reading the short summary "Death of an Innocent." People probably think this guy is in a nut case or being weird and different from normal people. Some professional traveler would think he'd better prepare if he is on an adventure like that. However, I like his determination, care-free, and love to the nature. Maybe Chris was not spending a lot of time planning about this, but he is a man of freedom in his mind and spirit. He just did not want to live with all the expectations and materials coming from his family and society. That's why he threw all the money, watch, food, help and a lot of stuff away.

So if I suppose you're being put in his situation, would you be able to survive in 116 days? Personally it would be very hard. However, Chris did it, his hope, joy, and spirit made a wonderful story!

The Beauty of Nature

I am a person who enjoy both big cities and nature. Big cities always make me feel excited and willing to learn something interesting from it, to meet new people, and to enjoy a busy lifestyle. Dung the time in middle school, I annually visited my grandparents who live in the countryside 100 miles away from my city, Hanoi. It was totally a different world: the landscape, the people, and the way people love their nature. The world is where I later always wanted to come back and expressed my spirit.

Nature is where you can relax your mind and find the inner peace. There is no more traffic congestions, noisy markets, or turbulent factories, but alone relaxing moments in the countryside. Day by day, I went fishing near the river, where fishermen earn their livings . It was fun to catch first fishes by your own hand first time in life. I went to the paddy field, where farmers collected their crops. It was too tiring to spend time outside harvesting the crops under the 40 degree Celcious. It was also scary to climb up a tree just to find delicious waterapples, the distinct fruit of tropical area. Neverthess, the sweetness from waterapples, a simple fruit, or the catfish I caught made me very happy. What I found there was the joy to be productive and received what I dedicated to do. The confusion or stress of daily life work was completely gone.

As those summer visit passed, I always wanted to get back to the lovely countryside to mediate myself for all the pressure from busy city life. It is always good to be back, forget about the fancies, and feel involed in that place. Nature is like a close friend. He helps me cool down when I go to the river. He helps strengthen my mind when I go climbing or hiking. He also relaxes me by lovely breezes, warm sunshine, or cool showers. When I am with him, I am me. And, the spirit of feeling free and involving in it is phenomenal!

The unstoppable greed

There is always a devil part in every people. That devil part makes people forget to appreciate what they currently possess, let luxurious dreams attract and take their consciousness away. The miserable price they have to pay at the end of the day is sadly their lives. That's what Tolstoy tries to tell the readers through his wonderful short story "How much land does a man need?" The story of Pahom definitely makes us stop a minute to think about ourselves and learn a valuable lesson about materialist culture, in the words, our greed. I believe a simpler life is great, but if you know how to control your greed, there is definitely not always some ending like Pahom's.

So why a simple life is great? Throughout the story, the readers can notice how much Pahom has changed and then suffered by his changing personality. He had a happy stable life at first with his wife, his farm, his crops, and his herds of cattle. They did not even care for a luxurious, fancy, and nonsense life like the Elders had. However, the evil greed for land makes him become a totally different person because he lost his personality to it. Therefore, if he did not care about having more lands at first, he would have a better ending of the story. He would stay away from anxiety and ambitions and enjoy the simple life.

The greed appears everywhere and every time, especially now. For example, buying land is merely just like every business transactions, including buying stocks from stock markets. It's a risky 'game' that I have seen a lot of people start losing everything as soon as they get involved in it. The magical attraction of money with a big profitability has made people who are so rich one day fall into bankrupted the next day, while making people who are poor become a millionaire. So what is the process of destruction of qualities on this? At first, people, who are probably novices, always want to try buying stocks. If they win, most of them want to continue by buying more and more stocks. However, the stock market is a very unpredictable place that gives you a big profit at a moment but take it and your assets away in a blink. They might even make some loans from the creditors to invest more in the stocks but what will happen if the worse comes to worse: they are not able to pay when the debts are due?

Nevertheless, no matter you buy land or stocks, you need to stay conscious and know when to stop during the 'game'. In stock markets, a lot of people learn the rules of the game very well: surfing which means when you feel you get a good enough amount of profit, you just do not rush to buy more, stop real fast and wait for the next opportunity. They are a very calm and smart people that might lose money for a little advantage ahead of them but wait for the big opportunities to come.

Life is always a journey. It's good to live a normal life, but sometimes we need to take a risk. The risk might bring you failures but a lot of invaluable lessons as well. Just to remember that you can lose everything except for your personality and your own life when taking that lesson.

My First CWS Blog Spot!

Sometimes, people asked me how I like America, or what America is about in my mind? My answer is that America is a wonderful place. I said that not because my life or anyone's life in this country is wonderful, because American's history, lifestyle, and belief have made this country great and made a change inside me.

In fact, I have been so far on the half way of freshman year in college. The first semester was very busy but successful with everything: school work, college life, and new friendship. Most importantly, I feel myself different from who came to here 5 months ago.

I miss home a lot. I know it's been my second time being away from the family. Some Vietnamese friends told me that they no longer have homesick anymore, still I think everybody does. Nevertheless, studying abroad, especially in America, has brought a lot of good experiences to me. It, first of all, taught me how to live independently. During the first months, I have not managed my daily time well that always made me frustrated. Then, I got used to it little by little although I still have some problems managing my time occasionally.

The study environment is actually very satisfying. Although Juniata College is located in a pretty isolated area, I have more time to focus on studying. In the liberal arts environment, I can take different classes coming from different areas: natural science, humanities, foreign language, social science, and fine arts. The interaction with classes, friends, and professors shapes my ideas about who I want to be after graduating college.

I also become like a world traveler. Even though it is very expensive to go around now, every trips I have been were always worth it. I spent time traveling in the east coast with some friends at the beginning. Amazingly, I felt I was so lucky to see big cities like New York City, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Fort Worth besides Hanoi, where I grew up. I wish my family could come to enjoy cultures, people, languages, food, and especially history here like I did. New York City was one of my favorite cities. Having lived here for a short time, I have experienced with the chill of East Coast, the hotness of Mid-west, and the comfort of West Coast. Different meals, different friends, and different nationalities are really awesome.

For the rest, I just want to say that I learned a lot of things from you. All the advices have helped me understand and improved my English a lot. Thanks!