Bad lip reading

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-6BsMzc9mMs

This is the bad lip reading for The Walking Dead! So funny.
Enjoy.

-Laura

Austin's "Wish Fulfillment Fable"

Today in class when we were discussing the zombie apocalypse as a "wish-fulfillment fables” I started to think about what I would do if a zombie apocalypse broke out when I was here at Shepherd. I’ve always thought I’d have pretty low chances of surviving, seeing as I have very little experience with survival skills, and have never even picked up a real gun, but if it happened while I was at school I’d be really screwed.

Let me go ahead and mention that I am not from around here. Prior to this fall semester I’d never set foot in this part of the state, so if the residence halls got overrun, I’d have nowhere to go. I also don’t own a vehicle. This makes a trip to Food Lion difficult enough. Escaping from a herd would be all but impossible.

So what would my plan be? Well, arming myself would be almost out of the question. Even if I could get my hands on a weapon it wouldn’t be much use to me. I’m going by Walking Dead rules here, and me scoring a headshot is a statistical impossibility. No, my best shot would be getting the heck out of here. I would have to find a car to steal (and please keep in mind that under no circumstances short of an apocalyptic scenario would I actually steal a car) and make my way back to the southern part of the state. My hope would be that Charleston wouldn’t have been overrun. Down there I have family and friends with guns and places to hide out. I could walk that city with my eyes closed. If I could get there I might have a chance.

"Wish-Fulfillment"

The conversation we had in class today about the article was very intriguing. I have to say that Laura’s idea about the idea of being able to survive an apocalypse may be more of a reason these could be seen as wish-fulfillment is a very good one and is kind of along the lines of what I was thinking as well. I don’t think that these shows are necessarily wish-fulfilling in that people want an apocalypse to happen, but that it is a scary thing to think about so the idea of people surviving gives a sense of comfort. People are obsessed with the apocalypse because they don’t know what’s going to happen, who or what will survive, or what will exist in the world. There are so many ideas out there for the end of the world, and I think that the fact that people can’t control what will happen, how it will happen, and when it will happen scares people more than knowing that it is going to happen. If you know the answer to all of or most of the previously stated questions, it is easier to prepare for. How do you prepare for something if you don’t know when it is going to happen, or what exactly is going to happen? These movies and shows give people hope that even though an apocalypse could happen at any minute, survival is possible.

Do you think the motives of these shows could be to give people a sense of hope with all the things going wrong in the world and people fearing the end more than ever? Or are they a nightmare far worse than what we deal with now so that they can distract us and create a sense of comfort in our own world?

Past Wounds: The Undead

 

 

The blog is rich with conversation about the various themes surrounding the zombie genre, and I am deeply intrigued with one particular conversation that hinted at an important question. What does a zombie represent? There was a former blog post about how zombies represent the evil of man that will eventually bring about the destruction of society. I understand your point of view. Man’s evil and wicked ways will eventually tear down our society, and that makes perfect sense to me, but let me pitch this idea to you. Zombies are symbolic of adversity.

The zombie is a representation of the adversity. Adversitiy you have faced in your life time. Recall some of the  the negativity, horror and pain in the hard times. Those are all hings you had to overcome to get where you are now. If you reason it ,makes perfect sense. The zombie is you, well former you; if you never recovered from your life wounds.

What I am saying is every time we got hurt, whether it was emotional or physical, we were wounded! Life is hard, we get beaten, cut, battered and busied, but we endure! We Survive! Imagine, what would look like if we could show the world all those scars. What would we look like if we didn’t survive?

Ill tell you what I would look like; an unholy, dead, rotten corpse straight from the deepest pit in hell. Zombies do indeed represent the worst of us, but in restrospect, they also represent how far we have come. The survivor is also you, the better you who had resiliency and survived the trials and tribulations of life. You are a survivor, and your past is the walking dead.

Perhaps my idea may seem a bit far fetched but what do you think?

That podcast episode I mentioned...

In class on Wednesday, I mentioned an episode of the Judge John Hodgman Podcast that featured a husband and wife arguing about whether to ride out the theoretical apocalypse in a Walmart. I thought you might find it interesting and funny. Here's the link.

7 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Outbreak Would Fail

7 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Outbreak Would Fail

This meme is for the last reason on the article. As I have continued with the show (almost on season 3 now!) I can't help but notice all the improbabilities that happen on the show.

     My biggest problem with the theory of a zombie outbreak is the lack of decay that the zombies have. As the article explains, if there was a zombie outbreak somewhere in the deep south like Atlanta (I'm looking at you Walking Dead) the zombies would decay at such a rate in the heat that their limbs would not be able to support their movement. I thought of arguments to this reasoning, maybe the blood flowing through them keeps the body from decaying like a normal dead body, but this would also mean that normal fatal blows to the body would be sufficient to kill the zombies.
But that leads to a more important question. Why do reasonable people accept zombies as entertainment when there is no way that it could ever occur? While as a class we have read articles that suggest that it is because it allows a release of anger and satisfies gore that comes from social-political situations that is not normally accepted in society. This is the main reason why gun targets have made a drastic switch from human silhouettes to zombies. Humans don't feel as guilty shooting something that isn't alive.
This brings me to my main point. Last night I watched the "Nebraska" episode of the Walking Dead. *******SPOILER ALERT*************

Herschel kept the members of his family that had turned in his barn. He fed them and held out hope for a cure to be found. Why is it acceptable for society that we shoot zombies? Zombies that look like humans because they were humans? How is it any different, since we know that zombies can't really exist, for people to accept the gory killings?

Analysis....

           After reading Chapter 9 in the book and learning more about analysis, I decided it couldn’t hurt to include an analysis link for you guys to read. I also decided this would be a helpful idea because I realized a lot of us are using analysis for our two genre essays and I wanted to share this useful analysis I found online about what better than the topic we’ve been discussing.. ZOMBIES. This post is similar to the articles we have been reading in class. It raises the question as the first article we read by Sirota, “What’s With All the Zombies?” Well this one is called, “Why We’re Obsessed with the Zombie Apocalypse” This is a brief analysis but it raises the question what is the deal with zombies? I also wanted you guys to read it because I am going to somehow link it to my analysis for the two genre essay as well. Well anyways, here’s the link: http://m.livescience.com/27287-zombie-apocalypse-world-war-ii.html         

In this article, Stephanie Pappas suggested that this spike in popularity, “may trace back to an unexpected source”. In the article, she suggested that zombies may actually be helping us with the aftermath of World War II. She then referenced Vindergar, a doctoral student in comparative literature. Vindegar mentioned the shows, “The Walking Dead and 28 Weeks Later” saying society enjoys these zombie survival films because we want to see how they’d act in a “survivalist situation”. Vindegar also suggested that “zombies are important as a reflection of ourselves”. I found this incredibly interesting because this is the claim people have made the entire time, including myself. Humans are drawn to zombies because they are in fact a reflection of what the human race has potential to become. Zombies are mindless beings which were once living, breathing humans. This theory is one of the many that claims responsibility for striking an interest in the zombie flicks in society presently. Vindegar then went on to say, “Even as a society we have lost a lot of our belief in a positive future and instead have more of an idea of a disaster to come, we still think that we are survivors, we still want to believe that we would survive.” I find this quote interesting as well, watching these films and series and watching these people have no choice but to survive gives us humans hope if we are in fact fearing a disastrous future. While watching these zombie films we imagine ourselves surviving in this situation. What things would we do differently? What techniques would we use? I will validate my point because in our last assigned article, “What Don’t People Do In Zombie Apocalypse Movies That You Would Do?” by Williams. This article effectively displays that in our society, we have thought about techniques in which we would survive. These zombie movies are pulling on our instinctive behaviors and techniques we would use if we were in the shoes of these characters. Essentially, if our society is fearing disaster, watching zombie apocalyptic films in which survival is the main goal would help cope with this fear.

So, here's my question for you guys: What is a technique (or multiple techniques) you would use (given our current knowledge of zombies) to help survive a zombie apocalypse?

Snow Day Post: Narratives and the "Pick Two" Assignment

If we had a regular class meeting today, we would have spent a lot of time talking about writing narratives and how to do so successfully for the essays you are working on. One point I would have made is that these narratives should be non-fiction (I know I was a bit wishy-washy on that before). In other words, don't make stuff up.

Are any of you thinking about a narrative option? If so, tell us about it in the comments.

Snow Day Post: Seitz Article

Like I mentioned in class on Friday, the Seitz article is both frustrating (in its small factual inaccuracies) and insightful. We could spend time talking about what we didn't like or those inaccuracies, but that's a bit boring and reductive. Instead, talk about what you think of his larger arguments.

Snow Day Post: "Literacy: A Lineage"

Read over Melanie Luken's narrative, beginning on page 132. Using the list of characteristic features of a narrative provided on page 108, evaluate her narrative. Where do you see her making sure her narrative hits those marks? What does she do quite well? Do not focus on what you didn't like: we are focusing on strengths here.

Snow Day Post: "Lydia's Story"

Read over Jan Brideau's narrative, beginning on page 128. Using the list of characteristic features of a narrative provided on page 108, evaluate her narrative. Where do you see her making sure her narrative hits those marks? What does she do quite well? Do not focus on what you didn't like: we are focusing on strengths here.

Snow Day Post: "Bidding Farewell to Arms"

Read over Roman Skaskiw's narrative, beginning on page 118. Using the list of characteristic features of a narrative provided on page 108, evaluate Skaskiw's narrative. Where do you see him making sure his narrative hits those marks? What does he do quite well? Do not focus on what you didn't like: we are focusing on strengths here.

HERO VS. ZOMBIE

    In comparison, a hero: is a mythological or legendary figure of great strength or ability(Merriam-Webster's Dictionary)...a zombie, as said by Meghan, a person who moves slowly and is not aware of what is happening especially because of being tired.
   Zombies could not survive off of humans, if they did not allow; either the humans give up, or their alter ego gives. Tired could be a factor, or laziness, or loss of hope.
   Whatever it may be, a lot of inspiration may resort to dedication, only a human would know. Zombies only represent the worst of ourselves and we do admire them for that.
   Zombies are amazing to think and dream about, but, there always has to be an explanation.   
Therefore I am committing, zombies are in an everyday life situations, we encounter them, "everywhere". Zombies grab, push, pull, and still move accordingly. They justify every movement like a hero.
   As shown in the pilot of ,"Walking Dead," the scene of the twisting doorknob, I believe, represents a struggle between the living and the dead. We as humans choose fight or flight. The zombie pushes the limits to connect, in that scene, she proves her power of the situation. Their sense of smell is amazing, their height of hearing is only wished for on the birthday cake, and still they move as someone better than me. They will be talked about for many years to come and memorialized as someone we might have known. 
   
 
   I, AS A HUMAN, BELIEVE TO BE IN CHARGE OF MY OWN LIFE.    
  
    


   
 
   

Three Interesting Facts

Good evening or good morning everyone!

Let me start out by saying that when I went to click on making a new blog post, I saw that stats for all of our previous blog posts. Have you seen how many times some of the posts have been looked at? A lot of them are above 40 views, which isn't a ton of people, but I still find it amusing that other people take the time to read what everyone says.

So, a few people were out when we got to hear a gist of everyone's interesting facts, and I would like to hear what everyone thinks to be their most interesting fact!

I'm just going to leave a video here that I made for one of my old English classes describing my interesting facts. It should sum up everything quite nicely.

Now onto the zombie topic. I can almost assure every single one of you will be sick and tired of zombies by the end of this class. See, I just finished reading the little article, "Walking Dead": Zombies for a recession-age America by Matt Seitz. I completely agree with his assumption that most audiences don't watch the zombie flicks for the zombies. People watch zombie flicks to see how others would react to survival like situations. I would also agree with his point that zombie flicks basically start and end the same exact way, making the genre a tough one to get into. That's where The Walking Dead is different, because the story line is expanded upon. I wouldn't trust Seitz's judgment too much though, because when he was analyzing the first Walking Dead episode, he didn't understand that there was a flashback involved, and not just that he forgot about an entire zombie apocalypse. He very well may be missing key parts of other movies he is mentioning in his post as well.

Anyhow, that was just my two cents on the reading.

We may see each other on Monday, or we may not? I heard there's supposed to be 4-6 inches of snow.
Stay safe everyone!


Love,

Laura

"Don't Open, Dead Inside"

“DON’T OPEN,” read a sign on a barricaded double-door back at the hospital. “DEAD INSIDE.” That statement does double-duty as a truth-in-advertising proclamation and as an allusion to the series’ real agenda. As the pandemic goes on, things will only get worse, and people will only act worse, and eventually it’ll get to the point where there won’t be any discernible difference between zombies and non-zombies other than the temperature of their bodies and their preference in nourishment (and maybe not even that). “DEAD INSIDE” is what Rick and his family and any other survivors will be, and “DON’T OPEN” will be the watchword for protecting what’s left of your feelings, the imperative to look out for No. 1 and not get too attached to anything or anybody for fear of being exploited, manipulated, robbed or killed. “Walking Dead,” indeed.

http://www.salon.com/2010/11/01/walking_dead/

As I was reading the article “Walking Dead”: Zombies for a recession-age America by Matt Zoller Seitz these words of his really stood out to me.  The fact that Matt found this connection is very intriguing and shows that the characters in the “Walking Dead” are kind of the zombies themselves. I really love reading the articles on the zombie topic, just because there is so many different scenarios for different meanings.

Now, I kind of want to stray into a topic a little far from just the show…. I personally feel like a zombie at times, especially with the quotes “DON’T OPEN, DEAD INSIDE”. I am diagnosed with depression and have to even be on medical watch at sometimes. I think that this part in the article by Seitz stands out to me so much because, sometimes, I feel like a walking dead character… holding on to whatever can keep me going, but struggling and wishing to just be “put out of my misery”. Im sorry for making a sad situation out of this. I just found it interesting that these words have a huge connection to the show as a whole.

Since I made this post kind of lame with my sadness here is a video of a panda playing in the snow for your enjoyment!!! I hope you guys are having a good weekend!

Panda Playing in the snow

Military Zombie

I am currently sitting in an Army safety stand down, and let me tell you what I see. I see a large amount of troops zombified! Death by powerpoint. Every singe soldier in this room is in a slouched position,  drooling slightly,  and barely awake. Doesnt help that the instructor sounds like engine drone.

The  bordem is slowly eating my brain away. It reminds me of a post that discusses drunken fools as zombies. Please add bored troops to that list. We really are a bunch of mindless grunts at the momenet.

Zombies, Parties, and Comparisons... Oh My!

Ok, I thought long and hard to think of a new approach to our zombie topic. I had no inspiration until my friend Wednesday night asked me if I wanted to go to a party. Yes, there was a party on a Wednesday night. Shockingly enough, I turned down the invitation. If it had been later on in this semester, I would have gone in a heartbeat, but that isn’t relevant to my point. This might be the most hypocritical thing I have ever written in my life, but I believe college partiers could be compared to zombies with their lack of thought or care about the after effects of their actions at a party. As a party goer, I have had done quite a few things mindlessly, like a zombie, that later on I realized that if I weren’t in a party mindset I would not have ever done them normally.

The partiers of my generation only think about the moment. We do things ‘for the vine.’ At parties, people tend to become mindless idiots letting either the atmosphere or some type of substance they have consumed infect them into a zombie-like mindset. (I just called myself a mindless idiot…wow)

Though not all partiers are not brain dead. The ones who get the task of designated driver are far from mindless. I could compare DDs to zombie killers. DDs chop off the head of a party zombie, when the infection of the party has gone too far, by taking home the party goer.

I hope my comparison makes sense. What do you think is this comparison too far-fetched?

The Definition of Zombie

Today in class we discussed the definition given by Roush in his article "Zombie Terror Alert!". He described zombies as "the human animal reduced to its most primitive and soulless state, compelled by only one need: to feed. All you can do is run." This got me thinking about what the actual definition in a dictionary would be. Merriam-Webster defines a zombie as: 1. a person who moves slowly and is not aware of what is happening especially because of being tired. 2. a dead person who is able to move because of magic according to some religions and in stories, movies, etc.

    The first definition is, of course, a colloquialism that describes someone's state based on the myth of zombies, so we can ignore it for the purpose of the class. Or we could, until Leah suggested in her blog post that technology is creating modern day zombies. Austin's commentary that he forgot to acknowledge his friends while walking because he was too busy listening to music just furthers the point. This point of view is something that is always brought up with our generation. It has lead to Facebook being listed in ground for divorce in over a third of all divorce proceedings in the past 5 years. 

     So I have to ask. Are we zombies? We, of course, are not dead. We are not existing solely to consume human flesh and there is no magic that is allowing us to walk around. But we are not truly living.  Are we so consumed by our phones and tablets and computers that we are missing out on life? Does staying up late checking Facebook and Twitter or reading Buzzfeed and Cracked articles really make us so tired that we cannot function as humans?

     Technology also creates a worse problem if we were to face a zombie apocalypse. We have gone so far from the days when people knew how to survive without grocery stores and gps that most people would die.