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The house did not seem that impressive, but I bet back when it was built it was.  It is also very impressive that the house could be seen from the slave houses which we drove to, which seemed pretty far away.  The entertainment room in the house was very nice considering that all the detail in the room was done by hand.  The fact the glass had to be imported from England was awesome because it reached midland North Carolina without breaking.  The bed in which Paul Cameron and his wife would have slept was very short and seemed quite uncomfortable.  I never knew before where the term “sleep tight” came from, but now I understand that they used to sleep on a mattress on ropes which they would have to tighten each night before getting to bed.  Also, the idea that they would sleep sitting up to avoid sinus problems seemed very smart and uncomfortable.

Freed slaves were either born into freedom, ran away and achieved freedom, or were granted freedom in their master’s will.  The piece of wooden furniture in the Cameron’s bedroom made by the free black man, Thomas Day, was very intricate and impressive.

The slave houses which were pretty far away from the Cameron’s house were very simple and efficient.  There were other, poorer built houses there earlier, but the horrible conditions were killing slaves so the master had the new houses built.  The new houses were off the ground, insulated, and had four different rooms for different families.  It was sad to see that the slaves would usually have to sleep on the floor on these palettes which did not seem very comfortable or big.  I cannot imagine how a whole family would fit into those small rooms.

The Great Barn was amazing.  The three-story barn was built by slaves in five months during their time between crop seasons.  It was huge and showed an excellent sense for architecture.  The top of the barn and the use of “Queen Anne’s trusses” showed similar ideas that were used to build ships on the coast of North Carolina, so it believed that slaves who were from the coast were the masterminds behind the barn.  The fact that the barn is still standing today and in decent shape shows how smart the slaves were who built the barn.

Overall, Stagville was a great experience.  I learned much about the lifestyles of both plantation owners and slaves.  I have much more respect for slaves than I did because I got to first hand see their harsh living conditions and great work such as in the Great Barn.

After seeing this movie numerous times, it is still grasping and a great film to watch.  There is something about the story and characters that develops and evolves every time I watch it over.  After watching it more than once, little details done by the film makers to add to the story are noticed as well, which makes the film better.  This film deserves a ten out of ten.  Films that are viewable multiple times that still draw emotion from the viewers are deserving of a perfect rating so that is what “Saving Private Ryan” deserves.

The film begins with a scene of an old man walking through a cemetery with his family.  Then, the events of D-Day on the beaches of Normandy are shown following Captain Miller (Tom Hanks).  After the graphic scenes of D-Day, the main plot of the story begins when Captain Miller and his squad are sent of a mission to find and rescue Private James Ryan (Matt Damon).  Next, the squad undergoes various conflicts with the Nazi’s and within the squad themselves.  Then, they end up losing two men before finally finding Private Ryan.  When the squad finally reaches Ryan, he refuses to leave his post and men.  Captain Miller has a very difficult choice to make, but he eventually decides to keep his squad there with Ryan’s squad and help their post.  Then, in the final battle of the film, almost all the Americans from Ryan and Miller’s squad are killed and Captain Miller himself dies.  The final scene of the film goes back to the old man at the cemetery who we find out is Private Ryan, and he is standing over Captain Miller’s grave.

The cinematography from this film is excellent, and that is why it won the Oscar for “Best Cinematography”.  There were not many “different” or “odd” camera shots that would win this award for this film, but the little details included in the shots probably helped with the award.  One great example of this is in the final battle when you can hear tanks coming and instead of seeing them, you can see the dirt moving, which was a similar device that was used in “Jurassic Park”.  The film also uses music and long shots to express an emotion that would not have been captures otherwise.  Overall, the cinematography and use of music was excellent in this film.

Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” was an extraordinary depiction of World War II and just a great movie.  The film definitely deserves its five Oscars and a ten out of ten for the plot and character development, and cinematography.  Even after seeing the film at least five times, I still want to go watch it again.

Teenage partying can result in the serious injury of teens physically and emotionally.  A teen may break a bone or suffer a wound because of stupid things done by the influence of the party or substances consumed at the party.  Also, many adults and parents, for that matter, think that teenage partying is inappropriate, much less illegal when drinks or drugs are involved, and should be saved for college students and people older.  Even with the lack of safety and inappropriateness and illegality of the partying, parents should still allow it once a level of understanding and trust is developed.

Just because teenage partying may be illegal, does that mean that teenagers are not going to do it?  Because parents say their kids are not allowed to party, does that in turn mean their kids are going to obey and not do it?  In some rare cases, the teens might actually consider the law and listen to their parents, but for the most part, whether or not it is illegal, or their parents do not approve, teens are going to go out and party.  With this inevitability of the partying, the logical solution is to just have a level of trust and understanding between the parents and child.  Teens should be able to tell their parents where they are going and not have their parents tell on the kid who is throwing the party.  This way, the parents at least know where their teens are going so if anything goes wrong they can help.  If the alternative approach is chosen, like most families today, the teens go out and party and the parents have no idea where they are going.  I had a friend last year who during a party broke his knee jumping of a trampoline while under the influence of alcohol.  He needed to get to the hospital and his parents were contacted, but when the people who were with him called his parents, his parents did not believe what had happened because he had told them he was somewhere completely different.  It took multiple calls to his parents for the kids with my injured friend to finally convince his parents to come to a house of a kid they had never heard of to pick up their injured son.  During this wasted time, my friend was in great pain from his broken knee and his parents couldn’t believe that he had lied to them.  Teenagers just want the freedom to go have fun with their friends and do not think they should be limited to the time during the day that is supposed to be appropriate.

The basic understanding and trust between the parents and teens of a family is very important to safe living and would benefit both parties.  If parents of kids just understood that trusting their teens and giving them leeway would actually benefit them, then teens would no longer have to lie and sneak around.

The term fair is not to be confused with “getting what you, and only you, want”.  A lot of people cry that something is unfair when something does not turn out the way they wanted it to turn out.  Fair is not to be applied to just one party, therefore, you might not always get exactly what you want.  In sum, do not confuse fair with getting exactly what you want.

Many different stories can illustrate the different meanings of the word fair.  First, as I said earlier, in many cases that the word is used a little child is involved and wants something which the parents deny.  Another is the perspective of the employee that says it’s not fair that they have to work on a holiday, even though they have no clue what the boss is going through.  Next, is when a boss thinks that it is not fair that he or she is being charged late fees on the bills when they were paid late by his or her clients.  Then, there is the case when it is not fair that a baseball player takes performance enhancing drugs, even though if every player was allowed to do so, how would it be unfair?  Another case is when a 13 year-old cannot vote even though they might know more politics than a 33 year-old.

In conclusion, the term fair is used way too frequently and is a scape goat of the loser, or one that is does not favor.

The best thing to take from this is that we now can play with the big dogs and people now see that.  Another plus, is that the majority of the team will be returning next year because we have very few seniors.  Next year will be our year! GO IRISH!