Intro to Digital Media Arts

I would define Intro to Digital Media Arts class as the appreciation of art. This class helped me watch films differently. It helped me digest and wonder the meaning of the films. Overall, this class is about telling the truth through media and to show the world a different way to see things and to create wonders.

Before I had taken his class, I had a terrible misconception of cartoons. I thought that all of them  were meant to be for children, but after analyzing all the films we have watched in class, it took me a while to realize that few of the films are meant not for children.  Kids wouldn’t be interested on watching these stories anyway. The majority of the films carry a message of whatever the author, producer, director or anyone else wants to say. I would say it  is also a way to try to change the world by showing how the world should be, so the film will attract whoever wants to follow the idea portrayed in the film.

Because of this class, I will be able to appreciate the art and all the work that animators invest in their works. Now I understand that behind every animated character in the movies, there is someone investing his time and talent to the film.

Good, but not great...

Moana is the latest Disney's movie which many critics say that this is a good movie. Personally, I think they did an awesome job animating water because the color, appearance, and every move feels like real water. I saw this movie on 3D, and it was an awesome experience. However, I think the story is very predictable. This movie is about a girl who is chosen by the sea to return a precious stone to an enchanted island. Like every Disney movie, you know the characters will eventually sing and turn the movie into a musical. It is very easy to predict that this girl will eventually get in problems and then someone will have to save her. It is easy to tell what will come next and to know how the movie is going to end. I think it is a good entertaining movie, but I don't think it is a great film that will remain in your mind.

Inner Workings

I finally watch the new Disney's movie Moana and I think the best part of the movie is the short film they present before the movie which is very funny and entertained. I think this is one of the best short film Disney has shown recently. Inner Workings is about a constant fight inside of a man's body who lives a boring life and works at a boring office between the brain, who oversees the body, and the heart. The brain always wants the guy to follow instructions and live a strict life while the heart wants the man to have fun. Eventually, the brain realizes that the man is unhappy, so he lets the heart take control of the man. 

I think this shows how men sometimes forget to have fun, so they live an unhappy life. I relate to this short film because I have always hated routines,ironically, I have always live in one. This makes me question, am I going to die unhappy or am I already dying? Sometimes I feel like this little man.

We have missed the point...

Today in class, I realized how messed up Catholics and Protestants are. I feel like many of these churches walked away from what Jesus meant in the Bible. The whole point of going to church is to experience a spiritual growth. Unfortunately, these churches have distorted the Gospel, so spiritual growth is basically nonexistent.

Catholics want everything to follow a pattern. People have to stand up, pray, sit down, listen, pray again, sing, and walk away. Some people do not grow spiritually because Christianity is not about following a pattern, but to stand up against a sinful world and gain people for Christ.

Protestants have so many denominations within Christianity such us Calvinism, Lutherans, Baptists, Evangelism and more. Perhaps, the most dangerous denomination is the Pentecostal movement because they offer an empty spiritual growth and a distorted gospel which affects those who do not fully understand Christianity. It is more about emotions than a pure life offered to God. Their prosperity gospel consists on gaining material prosperity instead of spiritual prosperity. Because of their preaching, people believe salvation is gain by works causing a shallow faith and a weak relationship with God. These people forget that the true meaning of Christianity is to live according to Christ´s will and not based on how much material things one can get.

I admire those missionaries who left their families, friends, and everything behind in order to follow Jesus. They have taken their crosses and follow Christ besides the circumstances of life and money. They understood that following God is not about following a pattern or screaming "hallelujah" in front of a spiritless audience. They knew better that religion is nothing, and what really matters is a true relationship with God.

Piper

Going a little bit back to Pixar animation, Piper is one of Pixar’s latest short films. It was released at the beginning of Finding Dory. I watch this movie with my uncle, and I remember he said, “sometimes it scares me how real this films can be”. We were all impressed on how real the animated water, bubbles, sand, birds, rocks and everything looked. It is scary, beautiful, and amazing how technology has advanced. Personally, the bubbles and water were the best. Now that I have taken this class, I appreciate more all the work and effort that all the animators put in this film. This short film is about an adorable small baby bird that is afraid of the sea when he learns to be independent while trying to find food by himself at the beach. This is not only one the best special effects that ever seen, but it is also a short film that represents what it means to grow up and learn how to be independent. I think we all are little birds that need of our parents to feed us and show us how to grow, but at the end, we need to learn how to everything by our own. That’s basically how college works. 

When Life Departs

I was raised by my grandparents, and my grandmother explained to me very well what happens when we die. She always taught me that there is an afterlife, and that we must choose where to go. She had cancer when I was probably 5 years old. At that time, I didn't understand very well what was happening other than my nanny was sick. I remember my grandma and I prayed together every night asking for her recovery, and how everyone my family cried while she was sick. At the same time, one of my grandmother's friend had cancer, so they were both fighting cancer in the same hospital. Fortunately, my grandmother survived. However, the other person died. I so happy because I thought that my prayers cured her. 

I relate to this documentary because I remember when I was a kid, I didn't fully understand what cancer was. Nevertheless, I did understand that people die. I remembered I pictured God the same way that the boy in the film pictures. I strongly believe that children understand better the meaning of life because they explain everything so simple. They know that they have to behave, otherwise, there are consequences; and they also believe that one day they will get to see their dead family or their dead dog. Sometimes we ignore their opinion because we think they have nothing to say, but they have a lot to say. This is why I think this was a great documentary, because they let children explain what they think and share what they know.

The dog who was a cat inside

So far in this semester, The Dog Who Was a Cat Inside is one of my favorite films that we have watched. I think it is a funny and cute film that shows how we struggle with ourselves. The title is self-explanatory of what is the film is about. We can see that the dog and the cat are different characters that share somehow the same body.  At the beginning of the film, the dog was on top of  a tree which is something what a cat would do. It seems to me that the cat bothers the dog constantly because the cat wants to do different things. I can relate this to us humans and our sinful soul. I think that we all have the same cat that leads us to do stuff that we don't want to do. This would be the same lazy cat that tells us not to go class, church and to always be late. I would also tell that this cat represents the sin that we struggle with. We either learn how to live with it, to control it, or to kill it.

Women in animation

Since I was a kid, I've always heard the phrase, “you will  never fully understand women”. I was basically by raised by my grandmother, mom, and aunt because my dad left a year later I was born. They taught me how to respect women and to try to understand them a little bit better. However, I agree, I won’t never fully understand them. This is why I love women in animation. Women are the only ones that would make a man think straightly because they have a special ability to understand life better and to see things differently. Women are the only ones that can tell  what it is to be pregnant, raise a kid, and to be a mother. For example, Au Jour is the perfect film that shows what motherhood feels while  the mother carries the baby. Without their perspective, men would never know what it is to give birth, and finally, after they raise the baby, the grown up man goes away. For some reason women always know what to say and when to say it. Being a woman means having a different mind and perspective, so that is why art is better when women are involved.

Anger Management

I think it's funny the things we do when we are angry because it doesn’t matter how old we are; anger is an emotion that makes us say and do stupid things. We usually think that children’s reaction when they are angry is bad and aggressive, but I think adult’s behavior is worse. When a kid gets mad, eventually all the madness goes away and they forgive whoever harmed them. In the other hand, when an adult gets angry, he tends to hold a grudge. Some people have killed, raped, and harmed because of anger. It is easy to think that kids don’t have the enough tools to control anger because of their age, but do we have those tools?  If we have them, are we using them correctly? There are many things that we must learn from kids. Although they break things and they say hurtful nasty things, they know how to forgive as well. I think the power of forgiveness is the magical thing of childhood and we have to learn how to do it again. We have to manage our madness correctly.

Killing the art attack

This week we watched a short film of a little girl who was very naughty and her strict parents were trying to change that from her, then her parents called her grandfather hoping that he would teach her how to behave, but instead he took her to a very colorful celebration where it was okay to be messy. We also watched a film of a girl who loved music and she liked to hit anything that came to her hands. Unfortunately, her father didn't like this, and he killed her dreams by scolding her. 

Parents are the ones in charge to make their children's dream come true, but sometimes they kill their children's dreams and desires. It is good to raise children for good, but it is extremely important to be careful when scolding a kid because that might hurt him for the rest of his life, and some scares are not easy to heal. The old 90's TV show Art Attack use to say that we don't need much to be become great artists and I believe that art is something that everyone needs. Kids love to paint, draw, sing, dance and many other mischievous behaviors that adults tend to think it is annoying, but once in a while we need to have  those art attacks and try behave like a kid.

                                Father and Daughter

Father and Daughter is a film where a little girl loses her father one day. Every day she hopes to see her father and goes back to look for him. She dies when she was old and find her father in heaven where he was waiting for her.  that I can relate with. When I was a one-year-old, my dead left and he never came back. My mom went to med school and for that reason I grew up with my grandparents. I saw my mom every summer and Christmas. Sometimes it was hard to grew up without parents, but I was raised by amazing grandparents who were the best. My life wasn’t bad as it seems, but I always wanted to have a father. Years later my mom married with my step dad and had my siblings. I’ve learned that a father is an important figure in your life. He is who always tells you what to do, but also learned that it is possible to live without him. As long that you understand that you are not alone and that God is your father you will be able to live without a biological father.

Unlike the girl in the video, I will not have a dad who will be waiting for me when I die, but I will have my grandparents, my mom and my step dad which is better that a father. But the most important is that I’ll have God waiting for me.

                             Bunny

Bunny is film about an old widow bunny who lived alone. She was fighting to a moth who didn’t leave her alone. The moth was inviting her to the afterlife, but she didn’t want. At the end, we assume that the moth was her husband who came for her.

Why are we afraid of death? Is death a bad thing?  What is the purpose of life? We say that our purpose in life to worship God and to follow his commandments, but if that the case we wouldn’t be afraid to die. Paul said, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Sometimes is meaningless to live if we are going to die anyway. I think that we are not afraid to die. I think we are afraid of going to hell. We are afraid to know that we will spend eternity burning. I think the afterlife is not bad as we think, unless you’re to hell. If you follow the Bible there will be no more suffering, tears, illness, or debts. We shouldn’t be afraid to death because it is a gain. I know something for sure, one day a moth will come and will drag you to either heaven or hell and we will be frightened. bunnies.

                                          The Lunch Date

People disliking each other because of the color of their skin is ridiculous. This is what The Lunch Date by Adam Davidson is about. A woman who discriminates others thinks that a black man is eating her salad based only on his skin color. The most ridiculous part is when she later eats from the same plate with him. Where did all the discrimination go? What a laugh!
I think the world has belittled who to me is the best race. The Afro American community has contributed greatly to the American heritage. I think that having a darker skin color should be considered a blessing. Afro Americans are very talented. They have amazing athletic skills and have proved to be among the greatest athletes around the world. Their great artistic skills gave us the best comedians, dancers, actors, writers, musicians, singers, and many others. They have a great potential to change the world and take it as their own. Black people don’t need us, we need them.
It is very sad to see that discrimination is still happening in our society. Stereotypes make us believe that the minorities are inferior, and we tend to underestimate the potential of these people. Skin color doesn’t determine the intelligence or skillfulness of an individual.
So the next time we underestimate someone because of their skin color let’s stop and think that maybe that person is better than us at something. Let’s bring together all of our potentials to make the world a better 
place. 

The true tragedy

This Tuesday we heard the testimony of a woman who had breast cancer and how she suffered during this process and how she lost her car, friend, boyfriend and many other things. While many people were playing Pokémon GO and texting, I was thinking. What would have happened if she had breast cancer in Africa or in any third world country? Would she have had the same treatment as in the USA? I don’t think so… Believe it or not, misery not only exists in Africa; it is also present in this side of the world.

I think she was lucky to be in America. She had a good treatment to fight cancer or at least she had an opportunity to treat it. Most of the people that live in third world countries don’t have the opportunity to treat their cancer. We are privileged to live in a country where you can go to a clinic simply because you have a fever. In other countries, people die of a simple fever. I write because I’ve seen it. Every year I work with a medical team that offers free clinics and medicines in Honduras. In most third world countries, people have to walk miles to get to the nearest clinic or hospital, and when they get there, they don’t receive their medicine because the clinic doesn’t have it. I wonder if God loves these people. Why would a loving God let children die this way? This is a tragedy without any sense of comedy.

Recently, I have heard in many debates and speeches the phrase “how to make America great again”. If you are reading this, you need to know that America is already great. It always was and will always be. Last week we read Gospel as a tragedy and I didn’t realize that the book’s title is ‘Telling the Truth’. Well, truth is that the majority of the people who live in a first world country don’t get to see what true tragedy is because while America is going up, the rest of the world is burning down. I hope that as an American you feel blessed and happy to live in a country where you can live instead of survive. 

The late introduction

Hola! Oh! I mean… Hello! My name is Josue Monroy. I know this is a late introduction of myself, but I’m Latino, what can you expect from me? I am from La Ceiba, a very touristic port in Honduras. I am a business management major and my dream is to work on the tourism field someday.
Honduras is a small country in Central America where most of the bananas that you eat come from. Even though it is a third world country, many tourists visit us every year because you can find many types of touristic experiences there. We have the second largest coral reef in the world, mountains, different types of forests and beaches for tourist to enjoy. Yes! Everything in the same country and many times in the same city! Honduras also has a rich cultural and historical heritage. You can find the oldest churches made by the Spanish conquerors and the oldest clock in America (about 910 years). Honduras was home of the Mayan Empire and now you can visit their ruins.

I’ve traveled inside my country a lot, working as a translator for an American medical team every year. We visit small villages and provide free medical assistance and medicines for those in need, but this is the first time I travel outside of my country.