Catfish Final Paper

              One day, a photographer from New York received a mysterious box from an eight year old girl from Michigan that he had never met before. Inside was a stunning exact duplicate in painting of his latest photograph. Soon, they exchanged contacts and started to write letters. He exchanged his photographs, while the little girl named Abby returned back with the paintings of them. Eventually, they added each other on Facebook and he became a family friend. On Facebook, Nev, the photographer learned of Abby’s 19 year old sister, Megan. Very quickly, they became close friends. As their relationship grew, so did their interest in each other, and before long, they both started to date, via Facebook. The photographer and Abby’s 19 year old sister got to know each other really well, however after months of online dating, Nev started to realize that the songs he asked Megan to sing for him did not sound exactly like the voice he heard over the many phone calls he had with Megan. Not only was that suspicious, but Nev also found many other supposedly “facts” were actually lies she made up. Weeks later, he decided to go on an expedition with his brothers to find the truth behind the mystery.

            The story, titled Catfish, revolves around the character, Nev. The whole thing started in 2007 at a New York magazine studio, where Nev received a painting of a photograph he published in a magazine. During this incident, Ariel --Nev’s brother-- and Henry began a documentary around this relationship between him and the little girl in Michigan. Eventually, the 19 year old sister, Megan, of the eight year old painter dated over on Facebook. Over the months of dating, Nev found that the things Megan told him were not actually true at all. After this incident, Nev’s brother got together with a producer and made a movie from the documentary called “Catfish.”

            The whole story behind the movie “Catfish” all started when Nev, the photographer, published a picture of a local dance show. Not much later, an eight year old girl from Michigan sent him the painting of Nev’s recent picture. Nev’s brother, Ariel, and Henry found that the relationship is pretty interesting, so they began to record the process of Nev’s growing relationship with Abby. Eventually, he and Abby added each other as friends on Facebook, and continued from there. As he got to know Abby’s family, he learned of her older half-sister, Megan, who was an amazing painter, dancer, and singer. Their relationship changed really fast and they soon dated on Facebook, and even called each other over an eight months period. Since Megan was such a great singer, Nev wanted her to record a couple songs he likes for himself. The odd thing is Nev found out that the singing was not exactly the voice he had heard from Megan over the many phone calls he had with him. Ariel, on the other hand, went on YouTube and found Megan’s recorded singing to be exactly the same. From there on, Nev began to research on Megan’s background. He learned that Megan did not own a barn, Abby did not open a gallery store, and lastly, Megan was not a singer. Nev was determined to get to the bottom of the story, so, his brother and Henry followed him to Michigan to film the documentary turned mystery.

            What is so special is the documentary based movie. Next was the storyline because it was so unique, especially under the recording for a documentary that makes it an original making. There was definitely a connection between the audience and the characters like their dialogue, lifestyle, language, technology, and culture. The topic, internet romance, was quite an attention grabber because the majority of the people could or may never experience the things behind it from a first person’s perspective. This movie does just that. During the “cracking” of the truth, the film did a great job at pinpointing every single important moment that a curious audience would want to know – a good selling point to this movie. With all these qualities combined together, the idea is definitely to be considered an interesting original.

There were many aspects of this movie I really like. Like what Mr. Kreb said, this was a true story, and I really like to watch movies revolving around the life of people with unique experiences. The movie “Catfish” was exactly this. Since the movie was a documentary, the “acting” of all the characters, especially Nev, was supreme. The story was definitely a catcher because the storyline was able to connect to people in this generation. The Facebook relationship got me curious because that’s not something you would see on a regular basis, and I was absolutely waiting to see what is actually coming up next. Each time there was a twist in the movie, I would pay more and more attentions to it. The background music was perfect because it matches up with the emotion in the part of the story. The camera’s angle was just right and special because it follows the character as they move and talk. Overall, I would definitely recommend any person that’s into technology or nonfiction to follow up with this hit.

Catfish, Final Day

The story is really moving. Not only does the story describe a fake romance through Facebook, but also the difficulty of a woman's life, and how it got her to do the things she did. As for Nev, I feel bad for him because he was very unfortunate to be involved in all of this, but at the same time, I think this experience is pretty memorable -- possibly a future story for Nev's children. Angela on the other hand regretted, somewhat, of her relationship with Vince because she know that she will have to give up something for other things she want. I was between her dream career or her current husband, Vince. However, she didn't just want one of the two, but both which eventually lead her to do unimaginable things such as that in the story Catfish. Catfish. The title really fits perfectly, because like Vince said, there must be someone or something to keep the person alive and excited in some ways, otherwise, life would be really dull. I can tell that Nev was really disappointed to find the truth, and all the time he sacrificed because of this fake reality. I'm glad Nev wasn't all that mad at Angela because she's already guilty of what she had done, and I really respect Nev for what he had done, forgiving her. Overall, this is a very amazing movie, especially for giving the taste of someone's life in a real perspective that a normal people would not get to experience.

Catfish Day Two

Wow, I would never have thought that Angela, Abby's mother, was actually behind the whole entire lie. The guys hypothesis that Angela is in love with Nev. And, Angela really, really doesn't look like the picture she has on Facebook. Man, really, haha. I can't imagine that a person would actually do something like this. However, I suspect that she may have minor mental problems due to her background. Instead of Abby being the incredible painter, Angela used Abby to contact Nev. I'm glad Nev eventually found out what had happen, but I guess he would anyway considering the lies made by Angela seem so obvious in a perspective. Never, never trust anyone online unless you see the person in real life. Social media just became another way for the creepers to do their things.

Catfish Free Writing

In the movie Catfish, I thought the relationship was going to evolve to some story revolving the life of a family and the guy. What surprised me even more was that Nev happens to start dating Abby's halfsister on Facebook, which is kind of unique in a perspective. I never would of thought that the real meaning was not I thought it would be. Based on the story so far, I think the story will lead to some kind of attempt scam since the start of Abby's delivery of her paintings to Nev. I'm guessing the initial relationship with Abby was actually the beginning of a scam. Possibly for money. However, so far, I have not seen any motive behind why Abby's family is cheating on Nev. All of the above are just my guesses, however, they are good guesses.

Photoshop Writing

The words are somewhat difficult to read because of the font, here's the original poem (wrote back in eighth grade):

Hospital is a place where you can go for days,

months or even years feeling scared or lonely.

It is a place where you may die or lucky enough to get out.

Hospital is a place where every person is weak,

but it is where they are healed.

It's a place where medicine are taken,

and where surgery are done.

Hospital is a place where you may see people rushing in,

 and walking out safe with no more worries.

It is a place where you may find bad news,

 or a new discovery to treat a very bad disease

Hospital is a place where you might have fainted for years,

and finally be awake with a blank stare.

It's a place where you recover,

and noticed everything has changed over the years.

Hospital is a place where everyone is doing something:

 saving people, sleeping, helping, walking, crying and talking.

It is a place where everryone leaves, the bad or the good way...

The Impact Of Social Media On Our Popular Culture

Today, communication has evolved tremendously since the creation of "newer" forms of social media. Traditional social media like the television, newspaper, and the radio are surrendering faster and faster as more forms of social media takes their place. People began to take on the core ideas of social media and embraced it in a rapid pace where we have not seen ever in history. For that reason, it has lead to numerous changes in society which includes the social culture change, the increase in online presence, and the trend in marketing cell-phones, just to name a few.

Over time since the turn of the century, new forms of communication are being developed faster and faster by years. Websites such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and more began to emerge during the last couple years. Next, these new social services would soon to alter the way we socialize with our friends, family members, and colleagues.  Today, these popular websites have earned themselves a worthy position among social media. Many folks can tell that there are tons of differences in today’s social culture.  This is due to the extensive exposure to social media that is literally integrated into our daily routine.  According to the encyclopedia, this change can be directly related to the way we communicate, “First, cultures are created through communication; that is, communication is the means of human interaction through which cultural characteristics— whether customs, roles, rules, rituals, laws, or other patterns—are created and shared… In a sense, cultures are the “residue” of social communication.” With this being said, it is very important to understand that the changes we acknowledge today is obviously the by-product from the increasing use of social media such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. To this date, the evolution of our culture has yet to slow down because the market still has the potential to capture more users and maintain growth rather quickly. To emphasize, the number of Facebook users are increasing from millions in the single digit to almost 500 million users at rates from 15.4% to 2872%, depending on the country’s statistics.

Apart from after effects of social media on our culture, it has also created a great impact on the cell-phone business. Cell-phones you see today can range from an old fashion flip-phones to sophisticated smart-phones focused on utilizing social media services. Due to this reason, cell-phones are no longer used merely for oral communication, but also for text messages to alert the friends of the user about the activities they are up to. Slowly, many other features such as a camera, Facebook mobile, and Twitter services became available on smart-phones to assist the people more easily communicate with their close ones. These signals are clear to indicate the rise of social media .

As of the moment, it is safe to bet that social media is here to stay, and to integrate completely into our popular culture. From the information in the encyclopedia, our increasing use of social media is expected to alter our culture. Soon, the market that revolves around this new found culture such as that of cell phone and other media devices will surely move forward as well. All in all, social media would definitely be consider as a major impact we have seen so far in the 21^st century, and according to the statistics, its growth rate is not going to slow down any time soon.

Julie and Julia

Before watching the movie, "Julie and Julia," I never really knew that blog existed for such a long time. At first, I thought it only came to be in the last three years. I thought the movie was really cool in some aspects, especially about the change in Julie's life through blogging. Julia, a regular house wife, really has this persistance to do what she was determined to do. That task was writing a cook book. Although it did took Julia eight years to accomplish her goal, she was not able to publish her book through numerous attempts. Forturnately toward the end of the movie, she found a publisher who was truly interested in her book in French cooking. Later, she would become very famous in teaching people to cook from her book and her television show.