Elijah's Blog Journal

     Family, food, and more food! Thanksgiving was a blur last week! This is one of those holidays when the love of family really comes through, and I felt the same way this year. We celebrated at not one but two different family houses, which made the day a fun run of house-hopping. Of course, the tables were groaning under the weight of standard Thanksgiving food.      My aunt's house was the first place we went. There was the delicious smell of roasted turkey and the sweet smell of pumpkin pie when we walked in. There were a lot of cousins, uncles, and aunts in the house, telling stories and getting up. There was turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and many pies at dinner, which was a very fancy affair. However, my aunt's famous green bean stew was the best part. It always makes me think of my youth. A few hours of food and family time later, we went to my in-laws' house, which was our next stop. The mood was just as happy here, and the food was a little ...

   Fresh      "Fresh" is an eye opening video that makes us think deeply about where our food comes from. It shows the harsh facts of corporate farming next to the more environmentally friendly ways of small-scale farming. The movie is meant to speak to a lot of people, not just those who care about health or the world. Its tone successfully mixes scary facts about food production with inspiring stories of change, making people think about how the foods they eat affect others.      The movie shows corporate animal farming in a very negative light, while smaller farms do things in a much more positive way. Scenes that show how monocultures hurt the environment and how medicines are used too much are especially eye-opening. However, not everything is bad; the film also shows people making good changes in sustainable farming, which gives us hope and a sense of possibility.      Overall, "Fresh" is an urge to do something. It shows how ...

     Spider-Man 2 Cover      Not a lot of games genuinely get me hyped up to play like the new spiderman 2 that just released about a week ago. I remember the first time I saw the trailer reveal. It showed an even more immersive and engaging Spider-Man than the first two Spider-Man games. From the amazing web swinging experience to the to the beautifully rendered New York skyline that Insomniac made even bigger than the first two games. They pretty much doubled the map size.  Venom     I've always been a Spider-Man fan from the classic comic books to the the multiple movie adaptations. I've played pretty much every Spider-Man game released when I was a kid on my old Wii and Xbox 360. The previous Spider-Man game had set high expectations with its smooth gameplay perfect fidelity and amazing character development. Knowing that Spider-Man 2 promised all that and more, I couldn't wait.  Peter and Miles      When...

     Tailgating        This clever car insurance ad uses a character named mayhem that personifies chaos and unexpected events that could happen to anybody. This serves two purposes it creates a humorous environment that grabs the audience attention effectively, but it also sends a serious message about how unpredictable life can be and how dangerous the road is. By having mayhem tailgate another car on the way to his tailgate party, the advertisement combines the lighthearted events of football activities with the very real dangers of aggressive driving.       Allstate also effectively creates a relatable connection to its viewers because almost everyone has been tailgated before or witnessed aggressive driving. By showing how distracted the driver is which causes him to crash into the car in front of him because of mayhem behind him. The commercial reaches into the viewers emotions and fears of the unpredictable events of driving....

     Yesterday, I went to my grandmother's house to participate in our annual craft day, which we hold for every holiday of the year. My grandmother and my godmother have been organizing these craft days for about 17 years, ever since my cousin and I were born. It's still fun to attend, even though I'm 18 years old. I would feel guilty if I stopped attending, especially considering the effort they put into coming up with ideas for craft day. Besides, it's always a fun visiting my grandparents and catching up with my cousins. This time, we crafted a spooky canvas using various items like cotton for clouds, a wooden spooky house template, and many other things to glue onto the canvas after painting it.        After crafting, we played bingo, and it turned out to be surprisingly competitive. The players included me, my two younger brothers (aged 13 and 7), and my two cousins. I won three out of the five games, which was pretty funny because my younges...

     On my birthday, my family and I gathered at Olive Garden for an Italian feast. The air was full of scents like, garlic, basil, and tomato sauce, the remnants of a huge feast that left us all feeling like balloons about to pop. Everyone was laughing sharing stories and enjoying the food. As our dinner started to end and everyone was starting to leave their was one more thing left that in my opinion was the best part of eating at Olive Garden.      There were these chocolate mints that were half mint and half chocolate that melted in your mouth. As I reached for that mint, I noticed its cool silver wrapper tightly wrapped around the mint. Unwrapping it and placing the mint on my tongue, the coolness swept over my taste my taste buds, and the chocolate instantly started to melt on my tongue. A gentle breeze cutting through the pungent flavors of italian cuisine. It was like a brief, minty cool oasis that left my mouth feeling as if it was on the top of mo...