I've been meaning to post for the past couple days but have been super busy with getting back into the swing of things at school. Spring semester started yesterday but I've been back in College City since Saturday evening. I have PT tomorrow, and I'm excited to tell her about all the new stuff I heard from Dr. A over break. Oh, and I saw my eye doctor yesterday morning and he said: "Whatever we're doing, it's working." Which I could have told you, but it was nice to hear his professional opinion on things. And yes, my eyes are still doing great. Someday, having pain-free eyes won't be notable enough for me to mention in EVERY SINGLE POST, but right now it still is. Hope you can deal.
The three classes I've had so far have been really good, and I'm gearing up for an intense-but-stimulating last semester of college. Oh, God. It's my last semester of college.
I'm seeing Zero Dark Thirty tonight, the movie about capturing bin Laden. Since I heard there were some torture scenes, I had decided a while ago against seeing this movie because those kinds of scenes are just too awful and stomach-turning for me to handle. But my friends are going and I've heard that the movie is otherwise worth seeing. So, will get back to you on that. Really hoping the violence isn't gratuitous.
Some tidbits from my first day of school:
- I met with my thesis adviser about a bunch of stuff and he asked me to be a STUDENT AMBASSADOR for some department event. I'll have my business cards ready soon, let me know if you'd like yours autographed. Those babies are gonna be worth something someday.
- My mom made me get a flu shot when I was home, and I'm so glad I did. There are all these articles coming out about how the flu is reaching epidemic proportions, and my school health center keeps sending e-mail notices about how severe it's supposed to be this year. UGH.
Sorry that all my updates are spastic and random lately, things are busy. I'll post something more substantial soon!
Glad that your eyes are holding up well!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the honor of being Student Ambassador! That's really wonderful! Sounds like the department really values you and recognizes your awesomeness! I definitely want a signed business card :)
Hey congrats on the ambassadorship, that's awesome! And I am SO glad to hear about your eyes; that had to have just been hellish and I hope that the trend of improvement continues.
ReplyDeleteI saw ZDT last weekend and am interested to hear what you thought of it. Some of the torture scenes are hard to stomach, but I thought that people said the movie seemed to glorify torture as a tactic clearly didn't watch the movie carefully enough. Just my opinion. I hope you liked the movie!
Sounds like your last semester is off to a really positive start!
I agree—I had my face hidden in my scarf for much of the first 30-45 minutes of the movie, but thought the violence was more indicative of a problem with the military, not the filmmaker. It seemed to me that the movie presented the torture in a way that was INTENDED to turn stomachs, not just for the physical brutality but for the humanity side of it. Plus it seemed pretty clear that the years of the "detainee program" yielded relatively little information in the search for bin Laden compared to the tech savvy dudes chasing down the cell phone lead. And what was glorified was Maya's persistence, intelligence, and single-mindedness, not so much water-boarding. I also thought the movie did a good job of showing how she became desensitized to the torture, but presented that as problematic—not admirable. Oh! and remember the opening part with the horrible 911 tapes from the WTC? I found that more disturbing than anything else. Anyways, now you have KAYLEE'S OFFICIAL FILM THEORY 101
DeleteI concur. SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN MOVIE:
DeleteI think the part where they're putting him in the box and he just starts randomly naming days of the week was a blatant statement on the fact that sometimes torture is actually counterproductive if you're trying to uncover useful information. Also, at one point the main torture guy makes a point of saying he's had too much and needs to do a "normal job" for a while. Anyway, yes I think people pounced on the movie as an opportunity for their own soapboxes, without really considering how it was done.