Blade Runner Changed My Life Essay -- Personal Narrative essay about m

Blade Runner Changed my Life    Sitting in the New Yorker Theater on 88th street and Broadway, having been intrigued and fascinated by the long-running previews, I saw Blade Runner for the first time. I was just out of eighth grade, about to move on to high school, and trying to hold on to a middle-school friendship with a girl named Angela. We'd met to see Ridley Scott's new movie with Harrison Ford. Earlier in the summer, I'd seen 70mm booming previews in the giant Loews' Theaters around Manhattan. My head was still filled with dark-skied images of a dark urban future mixed with muted 1940's radio music. Harrison Ford was a hard-boiled detective in an ever-raining city, dwarfed by several-hundred-story spacescrapers and color TV billboards, with musical accompaniment by the Ink Spots.    I thought the film was quite a failure. There were several voiceovers and explanations in dialogue that insulted the viewers' intelligence, and a few last-minute, fear-driven decisions to lighten the touch and the message of the story. Visually, it was a masterpiece, but I would not have been drawn back to the film by its cinematography alone.    Although my grades at the time were still in their pre-highschool mediocrity, and I had only just started that year to read books for pleasure, I was beginning to fancy myself a young intellectual of sorts. I'd grown up assuming my family had money and was just keeping it from me. I had only ever had one torn blazer to wear to school with my plastic clip-on tie and sneakers, but how many kids have the good fortune to attend private school in the first place? I resented not having the money for better clothes, but didn't think I was poor. The five dollars I could never get f... .... The voice-overs and last-minute explanations I've come to ignore, and I watch the film with a nostalgic fondness and respect. Its strongest effect upon me was certainly philosophical, but I can see other influences as well. My general aesthetic is high-tech, dark and ominous.    I've come to think of the anachronistic, multi-cultural and sensuous, post-Information Age world of Ridley Scott and Cyberpunk as a rich playground for the imagination. Granted, this may all seem old-hat and backwards to my 21st-century students when I finally become a professor in a liberal philosophy department somewhere, but I'll keep my finger on the pulse of future philosophy and questions of mind and sentience, long after the science fiction scenarios of my youth have either become the familiar background of a new generation or the cynical prophecy of a past century.   

Food and Tradition Essay

Culture has been existence since the time man came on the earth. Many ethnic groups have their own ways of living. Due to the new technologies and globalization, culture of many societies and families have been affected and altered in one way or the other. Some of the cultural traditions, practices, values and beliefs, values and virtues have faded away never to be heard again in within this new era with new generations. The roots of culture originate from families and clan. So the life styles are now being influenced from their fundamental points of source. This is not saying that culture will come to an end. Several families, clans which grow up to make communities and ethnic groups have struggled to this very far to preserve their culture. The survival of such cultural activities has created major concern over the last few decades. Most people have recently aroused the interest in cultural practices and this has contributed a lot to the tourism industry in our home country. Thousands of tourists are visiting our country entirely to watch over the oldest plays and cultural activities as well as to enjoy our traditional foods during such cultural occasions. This has resulted in dynamic, creative cultural practices of the oldest periods of our fore fathers. Food is something which is taken in the lightest manner possible by the new generations which we have in the entire world. They simply term it as nourishment that sustains growth or furnishes energy or does both to our bodies. They feebly attach much concentration on other importance of food other than the above. They have not known how much it contributes to the social and cultural welfare throughout our life. The role of various foods has deeper implications which are more than satisfying our hungers and other physical requirements. It may structures families schedules or it provide social activities which nurtures the family relation ships as people from one family interacts among themselves or with other family members. To a larger extend, it is used as a representation of certain ethnic identities. Thus, food is used in as part of family cerebrations or ceremonies as well as in our rituals. I as an indigenous person who hails from the northern parts of china, we have varieties of food stuffs. This ranges from the simplest agricultural products both from land cultivations and livestock. Although, the place has no reliable and sustainable rainfalls, many families produce farm products of horticultural natural through irrigation methods. Some of the produces includes vegetables and fruit, cabbages, squashes, pears grapes and apples. From livestock, they are vast lands in which people keep sheep for mutton and lamb. Generally, it is rare to get pork in such a place. This seems to have been influenced by the religion of the people. Most of the inhabitants are Muslims; hence they forbid the practice of taking pork. Pork is seriously fear by this people. The belief the eating of pork is like eating of the fresh of ones supreme being. So, the utilization of food is a very important part of the processes of life. Sometimes we fail to appreciate that food is more than just fundamental. The only other action that we connect in that is of analogous importance to our lives and to the life of our species is a sexual characteristic. But these two activities are quite different. The range of variations is substantially wider in food than in sex. In fact, the importance of food in understanding human culture lies precisely in its infinite inconsistency. For endurance needs, all men everywhere could eat the same food measured only in calories. However, people are of different backgrounds and eat very differently. Chinese eat varieties of foods in their meals which are characterized by quite notable flexibility and adaptabilities. The mixture of different meals in their ingredients remains to be distinctive in the appearance and tastes as well as the flavours. This varies from one cultural activity to another. During the festive occasion of circumcision, children are circumcised to graduate from their childhood to youthful hood. At this particular occasion, people use legume in higher quantities. This includes soybeans, broadens, pea nut and mung beans. They are used to make rapid healing of the wounds. It is also necessary to take bitter spices such as garlic and cinnamons which acts as reminder of the bitter activity they have gone through. (Gernet, 1962) Apart from circumcision ceremonies, many families do not eat meat products during the periods of tragedy such as death. In our culture, meat products are as result of shedding blood to the ground. Shedding of blood is one the acts which are sternly against the practices of our traditions. So, at such time of mourning, people cease from using the meat products which results from blood shed of animals. They believe that this is a sign of maintain peace with their super natural being. Once we eat such products, it like we are provoking the anger of the supreme nature. Thus, the common meals that are taken contain foods full of starch. Reference: Gernet, J. (1962): Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion: Stanford University Press

My Faith And Science Concepts Essay - 1267 Words

Throughout the curriculum of Faith and Science, my worldview has been challenged and strengthened due to new faith and science concepts. I began this course with an uncanny ability to explain what I believe and why; and ended with a solid factual framework that can be both understood and shared. The various topics and ideas presented by Dr. Tackett not only pricked my spirit but enriched my mind as well. His teachings sharpened my eyes and cleared my lenses so that I might see Christ in everything. Now, more than ever, I realize how important it is to be able to reference your beliefs with God’s word. I believe that faith is the foundation to everything I am and everything I am a part of. There is no separation or gray area in which to push my faith aside. Science only exists under the conviction of God’s authority and his divine order for which he should receive the glory for his works (Lennox 2009). My faith in God overpowers man’s words or ideas and even my ow n thoughts or concerns. Who I am and what I believe must be a replica of who God says I am and what his word says is truth. My current worldview motivates me to not just be a hearer but also a doer of God’s word ( James 1:22 NKJV). The various topics explored throughout the Truth Project curriculum has throttled me into new dimensions of discovering God’s truth and has challenged me to adjust the lens in which I view the world. Dr. Tackett emphasized the importance of remembering and why it is critical for yourShow MoreRelated4-Mat-Review1471 Words   |  6 Pages4-MAT-Entwistle Alton Dawson Liberty University 4-MAT-Entwistle Entwistle’s concept on psychology and Christianity allows the student to foster a better understanding the importance of integrating the concepts of science (psychology) and religion. 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