The Lottery

The Lottery is a short story by Shirley Jackson written in 1948, this story is not about an ordinary "lottery" that we know. It's not about winning loads of cash. This story is interesting yet sad at the same time (in my opinion). Basically this story tells about a group of villagers joining the lottery that goes every year on 27th of June. The story starts casual, but ends tragically at the end.

The lottery seems to be already done a lot of times in many years before, because it says here in the story that the black box that is used for the lottery is already worn-off, broken, and old. The head of the family represents his family who wins. And a family member must be sacrificed. Because they believed that if they sacrifice a person in the village, their corns/corps they're growing (Since they're all farmers) will be fertile. Ends up the family that "wins" is the Hutchinsons and Mrs. Hutchinson, Bill Hutchinson's wife is stoned to death by all the villagers in the lottery event.

War Horse (2011) Film Review

            War Horse is a movie based on a novel of the same name written by Michael Morpurgo. The movie was directed by Steven Spielberg in 2011 starring Jeremy Irvine as Albert Narracott, an optimictic, young, naive lad from Devon, and Joey a strong, brave horse who develops a beautiful friendship. Peter Mullen plays Albert’s father who is a drunken  war veteran after serving in the Boer War. War Horse is a historical movie set during World War I that is suitable for everyone to watch at any age. The movie begins in Devon, England.

            War Horse is a movie about a remarkable friendship between Albert and his horse Joey. When World War I starts, Ted sells Joey to Captain Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston) to pay off his debts with his landlord. Before Joey goes away, Albert promises him that they will meet again someday. The film follow the journey of Joey going through World War I meeting different people and other horses. Will Albert and Joey meet again?

            There are many elements in the movie that affect the whole atmosphere of the situation. It takes place when World War I occurs, so they try to make the film as similar as what exactly happened at that time. Those elements, like the acting and the setting, help to make the situation seem realistic. The acting, in my opinion, it is very realistic. The words that the actors use in the movie are very different from what we use now in the 21^st century. Especially Jeremy Irvine’s (Albert) acting as he acts very well. Credit to Jeremy Irvine for being such a great actor. The way he shows the emotion can even make you shed a tear. The other actors and actresses also act very well, like Peter Mullen who plays Ted Narracott. He can act as if he’s drunk and depressed. One more element that really affects the entire atmosphere in the movie is the setting. The places that they use are very similar to what it really looked like back in 1914-1918. They even chose to film the movie in Devon, England where the story actually takes place. Surprisingly, Devon is also Michael Morpurgo’s hometown. The buildings, houses (interior and exterior), village, streets and even the open fields are all really authentic. For me, it’s like going back in time and seeing how it actually looked back then.

            Overall, I personally really like this movie. It is very historical, dramatic and unique. This movie is worth seeing and it will definitely touch your heart. I really recommend this movie, not because it is a family movie, but it makes you understand more about what happened in World War I, also it is very enjoyable to watch. My rating for this movie is 9/10 because somehow I feel like there’s something missing in the movie and there are some parts that are boring. If you really want to know what you will personally think about the movie, go and see the movie yourself. You don’t want to miss this, it’s spectacular!

War Horse (2011) Movie Summary

It all started with a horse auction in the village of England in 1914. Ted Narracott, eye falls on a beautiful foal named Joey and spends 30 guineas on the horse, even if it means spending all the rent money. He determines to outbid Lyons for it. Lyons is also the landlord, which means he owns the lands in the village. The Narracott rents one of his. Rose Narracott, Ted’s wife, is distraught. He was meant to bring home a plow horse at a low price. But he bought Joey instead. Joey was named when Albert Narracott, Ted and Rose’s son first laid eye on him. Albert was very happy, unlike his mother, Rose. Albert and Joey bond, and Albert trains the horse to accept a collar and plow their field so that the family can get money from farming to pay for the rent. People in the village and Lyons looked down to him, thinking that Albert and his horse, Joey won’t make it. But then they actually made it, they plow the field and finished in the morning. The Narracott was happy and starts planting turnips for them to pay for the rent. But then it was raining hard, the turnips failed growing and the family farm was officially destroyed by the heavy rain the other night. The Narracott was once again hopeless.

Then World War I breaks out. Drunk as usual, Ted sells the horse to the British Army to pay for his family’s life. He’s Captain Nicholls, he bought Joey for 40 pounds, which is quite a lot.  But before everything is complete, Albert shows up. He's determined to stop the sale. But it’s too late, Joey was sold to Captain Nicholls. Before he (Captain Nicholls) leaves for the war, he tells Albert that he’ll take good care of Joey. Albert sure is sad, but then he promises to Joey that they will be reunited again someday. When the armies with their horses are about to leave for the war, Albert remembers that he has his father’s regimental pennant from the last war his father got into, and so he attaches the regimental pennant onto Joey “It’s for luck” Albert says.

Joey's in the army now, and he has a new rider, Corporal Samuel Perkins. Joey misses sweet little Albert a lot. Captain Nicholls gives Perkins a little talk, telling him how important horses are to the military and how he better take care of them. After that, Perkins is a little more gentle when training. Before the war starts, Nicholls takes Joey on his last maneuvers before departing for the front lines. During these final maneuvers, Joey meets a new friend, a black, big, beautiful horse named Topthorn. And so the war starts, Joey and his rider, Captain Nicholls which are departing in the front lines, starts to go on and get in the German’s camp with a brave face, whether Nicholls is going to get out alive. Sure enough, Joey ends up as a horse without a rider. He loses Captain Nicholls in the charge. Nicholls was shot, sadly. Nicholls's friend Captain Stewart tells Joey that Nicholls died leading the charge. He also says that Nicholls would have been proud of Joey.

Sadly, Joey get caught by the Germans, together with his big friend, Topthorn. Joey and Topthorn are now no longer England’s. The German brothers which are involved in the war also and are in the camp, they meet Topthorn and Joey. They fell in love with them the first time they met. They are Michael and Gunther. Gunther is only 14 and he is asked to join the war as a soldier. Long story short, Gunther and Michael hid in the windmill from the soldiers. It was Michael’s idea, he took Gunther there because he didn’t agree for Gunther to go to the war. Finally at night when they’re resting inside the windmill with Topthorn and Joey (they took them from the camp). But unfortunately, the brothers get caught by the German soldiers and they’re shot to death.

The next morning, a little French girl named Emilie found both horses in the windmill. She fell in love with them, so they took them. Emilie lives in the family farm only with her Grand-pére (Grandfather in French), her parents are dead, killed by the soldiers when Emilie was still a little child. Grand-pere knew about the horses, at first, he didn’t agree. But  Emilie convinced him. Emilie then trained Joey to jump and such, also to ride. But unfortunately, one afternoon, Emilie rides Joey up to the hill to practice. Grand-pere’s waiting for Emilie to come back, but she’s not coming back. He finally checks up to the hill and finds Emilie screaming and terrified with Joey and Topthorn get caught by the Germans. The German soldiers are now taking them away from Emilie.

It comes up to where Joey and Topthorn are in another German camp where the horses there are treated badly. Those horses are forced to pull the artillery up edge of the hill (They’re working to death). Joey and Topthorn sure are terrified seeing other horses dead. Heighlemann, the one that is taking care of the horse even says “Such a pity they found you.” Topthorn is wounded, so he can’t pull up the canon with other horses. Surprisingly, Joey volunteers to pull up the artillery. Joey then finally makes it to the top. This artillery is used to shoot canons to the English trench where we see Albert, Andrew, Lyons, and his son, David there in the trench. We can see that they are now British soldiers. All of them are surely terrified to face the German soldiers up there to the no-man’s land and kill each other. Albert and his friends enters the trench, so many soldiers die in the no-man’s land. David is wounded, so he was left outside so that somebody will pick him up later. Albert finally gets into the german trench, seeing all the german soldiers’ dead bodies on the ground. Albert is now with his friend, Andrew which later dies from the poisonous gas. Albert survived, but his eyes are injured.

The next scene shows when Heighlemann is walking through the muddy field with the other German forces pulling Joey and Topthorn. Topthorn is obviously exhausted that he fell lying on the dirty ground dying. Joey is told to run away quickly by Heighlemann when Joey is being chased by a tank trying to kill this innocent horse. Joey then runs to the trenches and got into the no-man’s land and got caught in the barb wires. Then, the British and the German soldiers notice there’s a horse in the no-man’s land. Eventually, two soldiers from different sides. One is Peter from the Germany, one is Colin from the Britain. Both of them try to free Joey from the barb wires. He is wounded. Colin and Peter then flips coin to know who gets the horse. Colin wins, so he gets Joey.

From here, we can see Albert gets treatment from the nurses. His eyes are injured from the gas that got him. Colin brings Joey to the doctor, he asked the doctor to treat Joey’s wounds. But the doctor says no. Joey almost get killed because the doctor tells the officer to shoot him. Right after the officer pulls the trigger, Albert whistles, calling his long-lost friend, Joey. Joey comes up to Albert. Somehow, the execution is cancelled because Albert convinces the officer and the doctor that the horse is his. When the war has ended, Joey is put up in the auction because Joey is not an officer horse. But the other soldiers gave Albert 29 pounds to buy Joey back. In the auction, a random rich man was betting on Joey for a high price, when it comes to 29 pounds, an old man, which is Emilie’s grand-pere, came all the way to Britain to buy the horse back for 100 pounds. Clearly Albert is lost. Before giving Joey to the old man, Albert gave Joey one last stroke before the dramatic goodbye. Seeing Albert being so lovable to Joey, the old man gives Joey back to Albert, finally. At first, Albert resists because  the old man spends a lot of money on Joey. But finally, after the old man insists, Albert gets Joey back. The ending scene takes place in front Joey’s house, the family farm. Joey and Albert is now at home.

The themes in this movie are loyalty, love and friendship. It shows that Joey is still loyal to Albert and vice versa. Love is where the characters in the movie care for one another’s existence and well-being as well as their presence and happiness. Albert and Andrew are such great friends, they are loyal, and always be together at war even when Andrew is going to die in any moment in the movie. The friendship and loyalty is about sharing, sacrificing and also loving.

Whose fault is it?

(Argumentative Essay)

This is the case that we all know, we all have heard, we all have read, and we all have watched in the news nowadays. This is a case happened in Jakarta, Indonesia where a 13 year-old boy made a lifetime mistake and killed 7 people in total. It's Ahmad Dhani's youngest son among his three sons. His name is Abdul Qadir Jaelani. This is one crime that shocked the whole country. It was an accident that happened at midnight. I strongly agree that it is Ahmad Dhani's fault and it is his full responsible to take care and responsible for his son's action.

It is said everywhere that before the accident, he was driving her girlfriend back home to Bogor. Ahmad Dhani said that he usually sometimes has the driver to drive his car everywhere but this time, he wants to drive his girlfriend home by himself. The accident happened late at approximately 01.00 am. It happened in Tol Jagorawi when he drove back to his house. The fact is that he asked his driver to go home first so that he can drive his girlfriend back home by himself. He drove back from his girlfriend's house at Bogor to Jakarta by himself when this accident happened. He tried to avoid the car in front of him so he tried to turn right. But then, he lost control and flew to the other side of the road and crashed the cars that were in his way. This accident killed 6 people and left 9 people injured. Then, one more person died because of the bad injury he had. Dul's car was in bad condition, also Dul himself. He was injured badly and did several operations.

As you all know, he's still 13 and I think I know what all of you are thinking, "He's still 13 why is he driving a car already?!". Yes, he is underage of course. Here in Indonesia, the law states that a person should be 18 at least to drive a car. The police said that it was fully Dul's fault that the accident happened-- But I strongly disagree. I totally agree that it's actually Ahmad Dhani's fault that the accident happened. Think about it. He was the one that bought the car for him, he was the one that let him have the car by himself. And worse, Dhani doesn't even know that Dul can drive a car! To be honest, for me it's not logical. Why? Because he's the father. He should now everything that the son's do. Including his ability to drive a car. This only means one thing, Dhani did not pay attention to his child well. Although he's busy about being an artist, family should be number 1, right? Parents should be awared of their children. They should control their children well so that they won't be a "mess". Dul is now one of the examples of children that don't act the way they should be in the age of 13 which is underage. Dul is not an adult yet, not even a teenager. He's still a pre-teenager, it's a stage after the "children" stage. I'm pretty sure Dhani knows that his child is STILL a pre-teen too. He shouldn't trust his son fully. Mainly because he's still underage, and second, it's because his brain has not fully developed yet. Everyone is born with a perfect brain, but it's up to us how will we use it. For Dul, it's a misguiding from his parents (Ahmad Dhani and Maya Ahmad, both artists) that made him think the way he think now. It's all about how the parents raise him. Unfortunately, his parents didn't really pay attention to him and his development. Maybe it's because they're busy, maybe because they don't care. It could be anything. But what I know for sure is, they did a wrong thing guiding their child.

In conclusion, I think it IS the parents' fault. He should be responsible for whatever the child's do. His actions, his attitude, and how does he act everyday to people around or to the media. Parents should take care of their children well and keep an eye on them so that they won't be misguided.

What I have learned....

“How can we use blogs to explore new ideas, opinons, and interact with the world around us?”

I have learned a lot in this blogging unit. Although I only posted 3 posts, I have learned a lot. I’ve learned on how to be more creative, I’ve changed my layout for several times until I actually like what I see on my blog. Sharing is also one of the things that I have learned in blogging. Me and my friends share a lot of things on our posts, whether it’s about sharing themes, sharing informations about the new things that are happening, sharing tips, sharing experiences, our thoughts, our opinions, etc. I personally like blogging because I think it is fun to share ideas, being creative and put some widgets, accessories, decorations on our blog, also I like to compliment other people’s works.

In commenting, I also have learned a lot. A lot of times back then I commented on other social medias or other posts online not in the right way. Now I know that the content must include compliment, feedback, relating the post with our experience, and ending the comment with a question. Also, one big thing, I never really proof read my comment. I directly comment without reading my comment all over again. Now that I know that I shouldn’t be doing that, I always proof read my comment everytime I want to comment on somebody else’s post.

Now I know more about blogging/online safety. Since it’s not really safe to be online nowadays. I don’t give my personal informations online, and I don’t really write much about myself (My full name, where I live, my number, etc.) These blogging guidelines that I have learned in this unit actually make me more aware of what I post and what I write online.

I need to improve lots and lots of things in blogging such as the type of language that I use in my posts, it might be too formal, and sometimes it might be a little too casual for school work. Also, I need to have more ideas on posting something. Sometimes I run out of ideas of what should I write on my blog. Let’s just hope I can post another things on my blog.

Things you can do with a lemon!

There are so many things we can do with lemons. Lemons are rich in vitamin C and of course, they're very good for your health and your body. Here's the list of things that you can do with this fruit:

1. When life gives you lemons, make lemon water! Start your day with water added with lemon juice for an instant energizer

2. Put a leftover pieces of lemon in your garbage disposal to freshen the smell

3. Add a squeeze of lemon to the water when you're cooking rice. It'll prevent sticking.

4. Natural highlights: put a small amount of lemon juice to your hair then go out in the sun! See what happens ;)

5. Clean a wooden cutting board: sprinkle it with coarse salt then then rub it down with lemon juice

6. Clear out phlegmy cold with lemon juice, honey and hot water

7. Keep the bugs away: A little lemon juice around doorways will keep them away

8. Make fruits and veggies last longer. Squeeze a little lemon juice on them

9. Add a teaspoon of lemon zest on something you bake. It'll add flavor

10. Lemon sugar body scrub: Sugar+Jojoba oil+zest of one lemon

11. Dry some lemon peel and add mint for some homemade herbal tea

12. Use half a lemon to your dishes to freshen them up

13. Use lemon juice to get ballpoint pen off your clothing

14. Make limoncello :9

15. Skip the bleach. Soak in white stuffs in equal part of lemon with baking soda

16. Use it as a toner for skin

17. Skip the candles. Let some sliced lemons and rosemary or lavender simmer on the stove

18. Squeeze them into people's eyes

19. Just kidding! Skip number 18, make lemonades instead ;D

I hope you find this post helpful, comment below if you think it is and let me know if you want other posts like this. Thanks for reading everyone, have a great day!

This Is Us: Documentary Movie by One Direction

So recently this documentary movie called This Is Us is already out in some cinemas. This Is Us is a 2013 British-Irish 3D concert/documentary movie centering the famous boyband, One Direction. I found some informations about this movie in the US. In the US, This Is Us is on the first rank in the Box Office Chart. This movie has made $15,815,000 even though it's a new movie that just came out a week ago.

One Direction members are Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, and Liam Payne. The fans are going crazy to see this movie. They're dying to watch the boys in the cinema. Also, this movie actually make the fans know better about their idols. This is a way how popular boybands can "interract" with the fans all around the world.

Now go to the best cinema in town and watch this movie! <3