Gran Torino

Gran Torino
By: Heather Riley


Over the many years Clint Eastwood has produced and casted in many classic movies including “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” made in 1966, “Paint Your Wagon,” made in 1969 and “Dirty Harry,” made in 1971. Clint Eastwood won four Oscar for his film "Million Dollar Baby" and many nominations throughout the years. With his movies he has given not only great entertainment but, touching messages.
In the current film “Gran Torino,” Eastwood plays a very crotchety, racist, old veteran whose wife has just passed and is living alone in a Detroit neighborhood populated of Asians with only his golden retriever Daisy, and his Classic ’72 Gran Torino (which everyone envies, including his young and greedy granddaughter.)
As the movie plays out, Korean War veteran Walter Kowalski (Eastwood) expresses his hate for quote, unquote, “Gooks.” He soon finds, when he saves his neighbors Hmong daughter from a group of African American gangsters, that he has more in common with the foreign family then with his own flesh and blood.
Walter is faced with reality that integrity is increasingly lacking in the youth of the neighborhood when his garage is broken into one night and he finds a young boy trying to steal his Gran Torino as an initiation into a gang. As a result Walter challenges them when they make a threat on his life.
Eastwood was nominated for a Golden Globe for the best original song in a motion picture. Suprizingly, He did not win the award. In an interview with people magazine, he was asked why he chose to play the part of Walter Kowalski; Eastwood said that he felt that he knew the part well because he grew up in a different time where people weren't afraid to say what they were thinking.
I asked one of the people that viewed the movie what their opinion about the film was and a Tyler Ballard responded, ”it was an amazing movie that addressed a problem in today’s society that is overlooked a lot of the time.”
The movie came out in theatres Jan. 9 of 2009 and continues to play in theatres.

My review is going to be on the new Clint Eastwood movie "Gran Torino." I saw the movie this last weekend and will be posting it promtly.

Sex Ed. In College?

By: Heather Riley


OSU and LBCC are well known to provide many courses to help students become successful in there careers but, do these schools also provide courses to help students in they’re everyday life and decisions? One of the classes that provide this help is the Human Sexuality class in the psychology field.
This class is required for general education and many students, if not all, are required to take this class. This class informs students of the many aspects of human sexuality from each genders view.
I personally had the chance to sit in on many of these classes and I was able to learn things about not only the opposite sex and their anatomy but I also was able to learn new things about my own gender without any embarrassment or feeling uncomfortable. The professor was humorous and laid back making the students more at ease. I spoke to a student that was required to take this course for his forestry degree. Hoss Haney said that while taking this course he first thought is that he would feel uncomfortable taking the class but, after completing the first class he said his worries were gone because everything is confidential due to using private keypads when questions are asked. Many students find that they are not alone with the questions they have and the situations they may be facing. The class provides a confidential question box where students can submit a question and the professor answers them in class without exposing the identity of the student. Not only is the class easy to understand and helpful but, the book required for the class is clear and easy to read, unlike some of the confusing books provided for students.
I erg students to take this class because it provides knowledge that everyone should have that will make them more able to make clear decisions about themselves, their partners and sex.

Some questions about the human sexuality class

Questions for my "new feature story," as I said before I am working on a story about the human sexuality class. Some questions that I would like to know is: 1) Why is this class a requirement for obtaining certain degrees? 2) How do you think students will benefit from taking this class? 3) What is your opinion on the sex education in high schools? 4) What is the atmosphere like in the class (comfortable, uncomfortable, light, blunt, etc.) 5) Does this class teach things students "will actually use in life?"

Most of this story will be focused on opinions and statistics. My main goal is to try to help students get to know about this class and how it will relate to them in they're everyday life and decisions.

First week of school

Ok....the first week back from Christmas break. So far I have only missed one class and have found only three problems with classes either not the one I should be taking, too full or out of my time range......so far so good. Hope everyone else is finding their way around classes and campus because I've probly walked into two different buildings that didn't even have my class in them....ha ha good times, good times.
I like my classes this term. All of my classes are basically writting classes so I just love it! Finally getting my blog page all together and it's turning out pretty well, I just wish it showed more of my personality. I have a myspace page and it's pretty much me down to every detail. It might just be because I don't know much about blogspot stuff. Eh, I learn fast.

new feature story

Right now I'm starting work on a feature story for my "Feature Story" class. My idea was to write about a class at OSU that manny students take for some strange reasons. This class is required in order to obtain a forestry degree and my cause some students to be uncomfortable. Human sexuality is this class I speak of and is very interensting and has information that many may not have heard in high school. I'm choosing to write this because many may be unsure when they have to register for the class. Maybe it will ease some anxiety.