Doctor Who 50th Anniversary

Doctor Who is one of the greatest shows to have ever been televised on television. It’s jam packed with action, drama, and suspense mixed in with some great writing, characters, and story plots. It’s one of the longest running series in the UK. It has been on the air since 1963 and one of my all time favorite episode of the series is the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary episode.

The Doctor is the main character of the show and he is hails from an alien race called the Timelords. They have 12 lives, have 2 hearts, and live for over thousands of years. Each time the Doctor dies he regenerates with a new face and a new body. In the 50th Anniversary special episode we meet The Doctor in one of his past lives that we didn’t know about. In this particular part of his life he didn’t call himself The Doctor. The Doctor symbolizes hope, protection, and love but he’s been keeping a dark secret all this time. He was keeping one of his past lives a secret and that is what the 50th Anniversary explores.

A very long time ago The Doctor was part of the Time Wars. It was great war that was waged over all of time and space. The Timelords and their arch enemy the Daleks fought and created much suffering and pain for all unfortunate enough to be sucked in to their holy war. The Doctor in a life when we wasn’t called The Doctor was faced with a decision a decision that his previous lives and future lives didn’t look kindly upon.

Every time The Doctor dies a new Doctor takes his place. He is essentially “reborn” but with a different face, different body, different personality, but with the same memories. What’s peculiar is that The Doctors that came after the “War Doctor” chose to forget about him. He committed a huge atrocity that resulted with his entire species being wiped out. He wanted to stop the war that was causing so much suffering for everyone in the universe so he decided to push a button and eradicate the Daleks, his arch enemies and his people the Timelords at the same time.

This is what The Doctor said when he was explaining himself.

“I’ve had many faces, many lives. But I don’t admit to all of them. There’s one life I’ve tried very hard to forget. He was the Doctor who fought in the Time War and that was the day he did it. The day I did it. The day he killed them all. The last day of the Time War. The war to end all wars. Between my people and the Daleks. And in that battle there was a man with more blood on his hands than any other. A man who would commit a crime that would silence the universe. And that man was me.”

The Doctor was ashamed of his actions, he was filled with regret with his actions which at the time seemed perfectly reasonable to him. He was filled with so much anguish and pain noticing the suffering his people and the Daleks have cause because of the war…so he decided to end it. He decided to end the suffering that everyone was experiencing. He believed that ending the war this way was better than watching children suffer and watching the entire universe bleed because of his war.

The War Doctor:

“Time Lords of Gallifrey, Daleks of Skaro. I serve notice on you all. Too long I have stayed my hand. No more. Today you leave me no choice. Today this war will end. No more. No more.”

You can really feel the emotion behind his words. Even just reading it you can imagine that this man has been and see through so much. Anyway I wanted to leave you with a question. Can a man be forgiven for killing off an entire race because his reason for doing so was to end all suffering? Is sacrificing another life to end suffering justifiable?

Artifacts

Artifact: MALOWSKI’S ROSARY

 

 

 

 

 

This artifact is one of the more important artifacts in the Humiston collection. This wooden rosary belong to a Lt. Colonel Daniel Francis Malaski. He along with his fellow soldiers were captured by North Vietnam forces just over the border of South Vietnam. Malowski created the rosary with his his personal parachute chord and some bamboo. It was the source of his strength during his stay as a prisoner of war.

I chose this item as an artifact because the story behind it fascinated me. I wanted to know more about how Malowski felt and what he saw and how the rosary helped him get through the three years he was held prisoner in Cambodia.

Some research questions I’d like to explore concerning this rosary are: What significance do symbolic/religious items play in war. Does the unconventional shape of the rosary have any special meaning? Where there any others like Malowski which participated in the war, who created religious objects as a source of strength?

Methods I would use: Historical background on Malowski and his mission. Comparisons of religious objects.

Artifact: VINTAGE VIETNAM WAR US ARMY USMC GENTEX APH-5 HELICOPTER FLIGHT

 

 

 

 

 

This artifact is really interesting. I found it on a website that sells items that came from the Vietnam War. This helmet was used by a helicopter pilot during his missions in Vietnam. It holds very sentimental value and while studying it I came up with a topic for my research essay rather quickly.

If I were to choose this as my artifact I would ask about how helmets have evolved because of war through out history. What significance do different type of helmets have in ancient war and in modern war?

I think the best method for analyzing this artifact is cross  examination of the other helicopter helmets in accordance to their rank. Other ways are background research on how these helmets are made and their unique design. Historical backgrounds on other helmets would hep out as well in constructing my essay.

What is the meaning to life? (This is going to be a long blog post)

Oooh I love this question. I love it for many reasons. It’s not that I love answering this question for other people or that people even ask me this question, in fact the only one that has ever asked me this question is none other than myself. It’s crazy because of all my eighteen years of living I’ve never found an answer to this question.

I remember watching this movie as a child called “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and it took a super computer, named Deep Thought, seven  and a half million years to calculate this ultimate question. And after seven and a half million years of calculation Deep Thought’s answer was…42. It made no sense to me, it was such an enigma that eluded my tiny brain at the time and I just gave up on the question itself. But recently I realized that humcore is exactly like thinking about the most important question in the universe.

If by some random chance you happen to stumble into my blog because you decided to take Humanities Core in UCI then I got some good news for you. Humanities Core will definitely help you to think critically and question everything. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from HumCore is the process of being self reliant and thinking for myself. It’s important to take every piece information with a grain of salt.

Back when I was learning about slavery earlier this quarter I learned how to think. That might have sounded like a stupid statement but it’s true I learned how to think. I learned how to take information and make connection. The topic of slavery isn’t just a flat piece of information it’s three dimensional. You can’t just memorize all of the lectures and expect to pass. You have to make connections and figure stuff out for yourself. You have to trust yourself when making these connections, it’s up to your opinion BUT your opinion requires a warrant, an explanation, a reason.

So what is the meaning to life? Well that’s ultimately up to you. It’s whatever you think it is and whatever you want it to be, just have a warrant.

Smartphones Bro

I absolutely despise little kids from the ages of 7 years old through 12 years old…who own smart phones. I find it irresponsible and highly unnecessary to let a child own such a device. This article is not about how a parent should be raising their child because at the end of the day parents can raise their child however they want. Smart phones are expensive and it allow children to have access to many inappropriate things found in the internet. Kid’s shouldn’t have smart phones.

Smart phones are a great gadget to have but it is can lead kids to do many inappropriate things. Having a smart phone can open a path to cyber bullying. Having a smart phone and having apps like Snapchat have led to child pornography. Little kids are being exposed to these types of things way too early.

 

Smartphones Bro

I absolutely despise little kids from the ages of 7 years old through 12 years old…who own smart phones. I find it irresponsible and highly unnecessary to let a child own such a device. This article is not about how a parent should be raising their child because at the end of the day parents can raise their child however they want. Smart phones are expensive and it allow children to have access to many inappropriate things found in the internet. Kid’s shouldn’t have smart phones.

Smart phones are a great gadget to have but it is can lead kids to do many inappropriate things. Having a smart phone can open a path to cyber bullying. Having a smart phone and having apps like Snapchat have led to child pornography. Little kids are being exposed to these types of things way too early.

 

24

I used to watch a show on television named “24.” The show debuted in November 1, 2001 and it continued to run until it’s very last season in 2010. This show has been running for 10 years strong and I’m still kind of sad the series ended.

Jack Bauer is the protagonist of the show and he is a highly skilled Counter Terrorist Agent who might be even cooler than James Bond. He is the epitome of badass. Agent Bauer is the cool guy in T.V. if you ever had the opportunity of seeing him in action. He runs, he fights, he flies helicopters, conducts espionage, and he sometimes even tortures terrorists.j

Recently I came to realize that torturing somebody in real life isn’t the same as watching somebody get tortured in television. I always grew up think that it was okay to inflict pain onto someone else IF it was to save the lives of other people. That isn’t the case anymore. I’m just now realizing that Hollywood desensitizes the public, especially young moldable minds, to cruel acts of violence such as torture.

Friday Forum- Image Analysis

This Friday forum was a blessing. I was having somewhat of a hard time with my Image Analysis Essay up until now. I wasn’t really sure about how I should be analyzing a picture and determining what it’s key factors were. Writing a six page essay on one image alone is challenging, especially since writing is my strong suit to begin with.

This Friday Forum made me understand that image analysis is all about common sense. There isn’t a scientific way of analyzing an image. Image analysis isn’t about measuring the spectral radiancy in an image with an electron microscope or whatever doo-hickey that measures the intensity of colors. There’s three methods that historians use to scrutinize an object for meaning: formal analysis,  iconographic analysis, and social art historical analysis.

Formal analysis is about recognizing the objects basic forms like lines, shapes, and colors. This is the part about image analysis that is all about common sense. If you see a painting and a guy is wearing a fancy suit, with lavish furniture surrounding him, and he is staring out into a window with some French architecture in the back ground…then it is safe to say that this man isn’t poor, he’s either rich or well off, and he is living in France. BOOM common sense.

One thing that I found helpful and interesting was this phrase:

“When describing an image to someone who can’t see, what’s the most important thing you think you should convey?”

Iconographic analysis is about determining what the image is saying to you. What does the image symbolize? Historical analysis focuses on the context of the image. When was the image created? How was it created? Why was it created? Whom was it created for? What is it meant to do?

In the end it is all a big guessing game but with a little research thrown into the mix. You have to research your image, the time it came from, and the cultural events that was happening at the time. Do this and you can make an “educated guess” about what your image represents.

Hypothesize it!

The Importance of Slave’s Stories

Why are autobiographies like the ones Frederick Douglass wrote important? Chill…lemme tell you a story.

As I was thinking about this blog’s topic my mind slowly swerved off topic and drifted to my favorite anime, One Piece. This cartoon, childish as it may seem, has many mature themes, including that of slavery and oppression. It explorers this theme through the World Nobles, the oppressors, and the Fishmen and the Merlfolk (mermaids), the oppressed.

In the One Piece universe the World Nobles are exactly what their name implies, they are the rulers of the world. The entire world is controlled by the World Government and the ones who have the most power and privilege are the World Nobles. These nobles are known to capture anyone and turn them into their unwilling servant, no one is safe but they particularly like to target fishmen.

Fishmen and Merfolk are people who live under the sea down in Fishman Island. Whenever these underwater creatures, who are basically the same as humans, surface up from the water they are hunted down, captured, and made into slaves. World Nobles treat them like animals, they are branded, chained, and made to do menial tasks. I read this part of the story during middle school and it really made me mad to see these Fishmen and Merfolk treated with no consideration to their well being. It disgusted me that these World Nobles could treat anyone like an object, it didn’t make sense to me that any living creature would treat some other person the way that they treated these people.

Whenever I think about the slavery and the history that America has seen I can’t produce the same emotion of disgust and hate for the oppressors. I know that slaves from the 1800’s have probably suffered much worse than these Fishmen but I just can’t seem to produce the same feelings I had when I see Fishmen being oppressed. I guess that is why autobiographies like the ones produced from freed slaves were important in fighting slavery. These story give the reader a connection to the oppressed and it triggers a powerful emotion that appeals to the human side of the reader that they can’t deny. Stories told by former slaves hold a great deal of importance and relevance than a story about a slave written by anyone other than the slave experiencing it.

That last sentence was confusing I know. Just read it again until you get it. Until then watch this scene from One Piece that really hit my heart.

Image Comparison- Media’s Depiction of Slaves

Both these images are illustrations of the same scene where African American refugees are seen coming into the federal camp in Virginia.

Have you ever played the game “Spot the Difference?” It’s a game in which two alike images are placed side by side and the object of the game is to spot the differences between them. It’s a fun activity and it’s one of the things I did in my Humanities class today. My professor showed me these two images and explained the reasons why the second picture is different from the first one. In short the first illustration was drawn by an artist who was witnessing what these former slaves making their way into the federal camp in Virginia. When this artist sent his drawing to the newspapers to be presented in an article his drawing had been edited into the second image…but why?

Why did they changed the image like that? One of the reasons that my professor gave me was because the first image showed a woman carrying a child on her back and that was a big problem. You can even see in the second picture  that the woman carrying that kid is out of the picture, she’s been erased.

Social norms at the time dictated that women were supposed to be these small fragile creatures that need the protection and guidance of men. But the first image depicts exactly the opposite. That woman, that former slave woman, is shown as a strong. She’s walking in the front and she isn’t depending on an man for help, and for that reason she was erased. This was what my professor explained about the image before she moved on to another.

Going back and looking at the two pictures a second time I realized that there were more changes to the image that I’d overlooked. For example there are less people in the edited picture than in the original. There are 5 less people, including the woman carrying the child, in the edited picture than in the original. There are also no leaves on the trees in the background. What’s even more random and surprising to find is that the two of the horses in the original picture have been transformed into an ox and a donkey.

These changes make a big difference when they are all added up. The atmosphere of the second picture feels barren and sad. It makes the slaves in the picture look weak and beaten up. The newspaper probably planned to portray former slaves this way as a salute to themselves, the white men, that they are still superior. Even though northern newspapers were using slaves as a weapon to combat slavery they were still portraying them as something lesser. They were threatened by these former slaves, threatened by the change. They didn’t fully accept in their hearts, yet, that these slaves are actual human beings.

The Siege of Magdeburg

1. Peter Hagendorf’s Diary Excerpt (1631)
This piece of text was written by Peter Hagendorf who was a mercenary who participated in The Siege of Magdeburg. The diary is in first person with Hagendorf narrating his point of view of being an active participant in the 30 Years War. Since this text was not a summary or overview of the war but rather the perspective of a single soldier and the obstacles he had to overcome it’s more easily relatable. This passage shows us that wars are not always about the the two sides that are fighting with each other but it’s also about the individuals fighting in the war. We learn that mercenaries employed in the war bring along their family with them in their journey. When Hagendorf was shot through the stomach he showed great concern for his wife who “went into the city, even though it was completely on fire, since she wished to fetch a cushion and cloth for me to lie on…” One of the strategies used in this passage was the use of the informal writing style. Short excerpts and diary entries were not really edited and revised. Therefore the content was authentic and easier to empathize with due to the fact that what this mercenary wrote wasn’t premeditated but rather the true accounts of the war. This primary account of the Siege of Magdeburg that showed history from below, true account not from the side that won but from a single soldier who experience first hand what happened in The Siege of Magdeburg.

2. Otto von Guericke, Fragment
This eyewitness account was written in Germany in 1860 by Magdeburg Mayor Otto von Guericke. A historical summary is provided in the beginning explaining some of the details of the war before Guericke’s narration of The Siege of Magdeburg is presented. The summary in the beginning of the passage is definitely an example of history from above, because it was written focusing on the events relative to the two warring sides as a whole; not focusing on the lives of ordinary people. Unlike Peter Hagendorf’s Diary Excerpt, the mayor Guericke experienced the horror of the events from inside the walls of Magderburg. The events that took place are narrated in a well thought out manner. Each paragraph follows a simple paradigm leading to the conclusion that the city of Magdeburg was in tatters when the enemy soldiers came. We learn in this excerpt that many innocent people were killed that “the number of those murdered and killed within the city cannot be known with any certainty…” This text is a portrayal of history from above because it did not focus the lives of ordinary people, it focused on mainly on the destruction of Magdeburg and its people. The mayor described scenarios were soldiers came into a person’s house they would take all of that persons valuables in exchanged for his life and his household “until another came along to take whatever he had.” This passage focused mainly on the deaths of the citizens of Magdeburg and the horrors that laid waste to Mayor Otto von Guericke’s city.

3. B. Brecht, Mother Courage, Scene 5
In Scene 5 of Mother Courage we see Mother Courage at a very low point in her life. At this point in the story she had just lost her son and is trying her best to hold on tight to what she has left, her wagon. This passage is history from below because it follows an ordinary woman, Mother Courage, as she makes her way through the Thirty Years War. In this scene in the book portrays the idea that the Thirty Years War was brutal to not only soldiers but the ordinary people as well. I liked what Mother Courage says to the second soldier:”I don’t need to hear about it, I can see they’ve had a victory. I’ve had only losses from your victory.” She makes a clear point that emphasizes the toll of the war on regular people. And war does not only hit the side that lost, they hit everyone and anybody can be affected. For example when the Second Soldier explains that that the farmers who were hit were Catholics like himself, the First Soldier replies, “That’s the trouble with artillery shells, they’re indiscriminate.” The artillery shells are a metaphor for war, in a sense that the destruction of war can affect anyone.

4. J. P. Abelin’s Engraving, The Sack of Magdeburg

This is a hand-colored engraving by Johann Philipp Abelin (1659). This engraving shows the imperial troops conquering the redoubt (temporary fort) and the suburbs in April 1631. As you can see in the picture provided above there are many soldiers on horseback lined up gearing up for the the city. This image is a representation of history from above. The Siege of Magdeburg wasn’t as organized at it is represented in the picture above. There were accounts of violence, rape, blundering, fire, and much more. In the image it shows soldiers filed in order with their flags held up high while the city in the background is looking bright and visible. This image is history from above because it is glorifying the events that occurred at Magdeburg. It’s history from above because it is showing soldiers and what they are accomplishing in the city. We see the backs of soldiers and not really their faces so it’s hard to form an emotional connection with the picture. We are not being pulled in by the image, so that we can only admire what’s happening from a distance.

5. J. Clavell’s Film, The Last Valley

The Last Valley is a film from 1971 that was directed by James Clavell. In the right hand side of the dvd cover we see