Dr. James A. Naismith

Author's Note: This piece was written as a research piece on Dr. James Naismith, the creator of basketball and inventor of the football helmet.

Dr. James A. Naismith

                Have you ever played sports in your life? If you have then you are like millions maybe even billions of people who play sports each day. Every single sport has been developed to become safer, more exciting, etc. But without the original founder of the game, none of these amazing games would be possible. Take basketball for instance; it is played worldwide by hundreds of millions of people, and still it’s growing faster than ever thanks to its founder Dr. James A. Naismith.

Naismith was a teacher/professor at a Springfield, Massachusetts YMCA (James Naismith). Naismith’s boss, Dr. Luther Halsey Gulick Jr., asked him to create a game that would be interesting, easy to play in a cold winter gym, and easy to learn. Gulick gave James 14 short days to come up with such a game. Naismith knew in order to create a new game he would need the help of other games to give him ideas. One of his ideas came from the game Duck on a Rock. During a game of Duck on a Rock the goal was to knock a rock off of a larger rock or tree stump (Duck on a Rock). Naismith played this game with his friends when he was a young boy. This game inspired him to think of the “shoot the ball into the hole” aspect of the game.

The first game of basketball was then played in the Springfield YMCA. The final score was an exciting 1-0 (James Naismith). The game immediately started getting more popular, yet Naismith wondered why. He thought that he had only invented a simple activity to occupy students, time, but he had in fact started a revolution and invented a game that many people play and love today.

Dr. Naismith also invented the football helmet. He played center on a football team and the helmet allowed every player to be much safer while not disrupting their level of play at all (Dr. James A Naismith Biography). Without the invention of the football helmet many more people would get hurt playing football.

Overall, anyone could say that Naismith has made as big an impact on sports as anyone in the world has. He invented one sport and made another sport a whole lot safer. Dr. James A. Naismith was a great man and an unbelievable innovator.

Bibliography

"Dr. James A Naismith Biography." Bio. True Story. 29 5 2013 <http://www.biography.com/people/james-a-naismith-9420059>.

"Duck on a Rock." Wikipedia. 28 5 2013 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_on_a_Rock>.

"James Naismith." Hoopedia. 28 5 2013 <http://hoopedia.nba.com/index.php?title=James_Naismith>.

Books vs Movies

Author's Note: This is an essay on the difference between books, and their respective movies, or screenings. This is also my DWA.

Books vs Movies

Typically if I go to see a movie based on a book, I have an image in my head about how everything will look. Although, often times when I go the movie based on a book it doesn’t turn out very well. Producers and directors often try to do too much when making the movie, rather than sticking specifically to the book’s storyline. When making a movie, the producer should try to consult with the author of the book.

There were many things wrong with this film "A Clean Well-Lighted Place"; the first and most obvious was when the movie showed the old man. He was sitting in a bright indoor café, in the story it says he is sitting outside of the lighted cafe and in the shadow of some leaves. This is a very important part of the story because it is a symbol that gives the story great meaning. The symbol of the old man sitting in a shadow shows that he is in the latter years of his life, and he is in the darkness.

Another thing wrong with the screening was the language. Towards the end of the movie after the older waiter walked to the bar he starts saying certain things in English. At one point in the book he keeps saying nada, nada, nada nada, nada, etc. But in the movie you hear nothing, nothing nothing, nothing, nothing nothing. In addition, during this scene in the movie the older waiter asks for a small or little cup. In the book he asks for the cup in Spanish saying copita. The whole thing takes away the foreign aspect out of the story and makes that final scene feel very creepy.

The final thing that stood out to me that I thought was wrong, was the fact that the café was a modern looking restaurant rather than a 1930’s or 1940’s café. The café should’ve been more rundown and old rather than a modern sparkling café. Although it was correct in having good lighting the café was a little too clean for the 30’s.

The Producer of this screening didn’t do the best job transforming the story into a movie. He did the most important part of the story wrong, the old man sitting in the café rather than outside, and that hurt the authenticity of this movie.

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place response

Author's Note: This is a short response about the story A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, by: Ernest Hemingway. I am comparing the two waiters from the story and explaining what the café represents.

     In the short story A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, by: Ernest Hemingway there are two waiters at a café that is open until 3 in the morning. There is a younger waiter who wants to get home as early as possible because he complains that his wife is waiting in bed for him and he states that 3 AM is a terrible hour to go to sleep. The older waiter understands what the old man at the café is thinking. He knows what it is like to want to stay up all night at a clean well-lighted place. The old man doesn't want to be alone in the dark, he wants to have people around him and feel secure.

     In this story I think that the young waiter symbolizes society now, and the old man and old waiter symbolize society as it should or used to be. Now society rushes through life always trying to get onto the next thing in their life, but society should just wait and take a moment to observe the beauty of what's around them. The café symbolizes everything wonderful about the world, or the things that society doesn't stop and think about. The young waiter wants to leave and get on with his life, while the older waiter understands that the old man wants to stay late at the café and adore the beauty, while staying out of the dark.

Mildred's Thoughts

Mildred’s Thoughts

In the book Fahrenheit 451, by: Ray Bradbury Guy Montag’s wife, Mildred is one of the most intriguing characters. Sometimes she just goes with the flow, but other times she acts like she knows what’s going on around her. When Mildred is surrounded by people who don’t think and just do what the government wants, she acts like one of them. When she is by herself she knows that she must get out of the terrible dystopian world in Fahrenheit 451.

In the beginning of the book Guy finds an empty bottle of sleeping pills near Mildred’s bed. Since she had recently been having trouble sleeping she was supposed to take 1 pill each night. However, she takes all 30 of the pills in one night. The next morning Mildred calmly tells Guy, “Didn’t sleep well. Feel terrible, god I’m hungry. I can’t figure it.” (18). When Mildred said this you can tell that she was trying to figure out what to tell Guy.  Then, after Guy asks her what she remembered from last night and she said, “What? Did we have a wild party or something? Feel like I’ve a hangover. God I’m hungry. Who was here?” (19). Mildred is trying to convince Guy that she doesn’t know what happened the night before. Additionally her thoughts are scattered, and you can tell that she isn’t sure what to say. Mildred symbolizes how this dystopian society lives, in fear of the government.

Another example of Mildred being unengaged and not thinking is when Guy comes home from work on page 49. He lays down on the couch and starts talking to Mildred about the day. He isn’t felling well and while Mildred goes to get him an aspirin he vomits on the rug. Immediately after he tells her, “We burnt an old woman with her books,” (49). Mildred, being the dumb citizen that she is states, “Well it’s a good thing the rug’s washable” (49). This just goes to show how the citizens are completely oblivious to the outside world.

Mildred is a very interesting character to say the least. She acts two different ways throughout the book. Sometimes acts like a normal person would. Other times she acts like a normal person in this dystopian society.

The Final Opportunity

The Final Opportunity

                The Pewaukee Pirates had worked so hard to get to the biggest stage in high school basketball: the state championship. They definitely didn’t want that opportunity go to waste. The Pirates had gone 23-1 in their in-conference games with their only loss coming to Whitnall. Although the Pirates did beat Whitnall at home, no one knew how the game would go at a neutral site. The Kohl Center was hardly neutral for the Wisconsin Badgers.

Pewaukee beat the Waterford Wolverines in the semifinals by a slim margin of 5 points. Jack Gohlke hit 4-4 free throws to seal the game off. Frustrated, the Waterford players leisurely walked across the floor to head into the locker room. While the Pirates fans celebrate, the players know they have to keep their mind on their next game against Whitnall.

The big game was today and the players filtered out of the hotel to get onto the team buses. Nothing seemed to be wrong, but Jack Gohlke and Jaeger Hoang were not on the bus. The coach was the only one to notice, but he presumed they had already gone to the arena and were just trying to warm up early. What the coach didn’t know was that two of his players had in fact decided to walk to the arena.

“I didn’t realize the Kohl Center was this far away,” complained an impatient Jaeger.

“Neither did I.” Jack replied, “I thought that is was only a 20 minute walk.”

“I think it’s already been like 20 years.” Jaeger retorted sarcastically.

“I doubt it has been that long. We probably only have like 10 minutes to go.” Jack answered. All of a sudden Jack thought that he saw a group of angry Whitnall fans down an alley. He asked Jaeger, “Did you see that?”

“See what?”

“Never mind,” Jack responded not wanting to sound frightened.

“What were you talking about?” Jaeger asked.

“Well I thought that I saw a group of deranged Whitnall fans.” Jack stated.

“Wow, you have issues.” Jaeger acknowledged as he laughed hysterically at Jack’s comment. They continued to walk down the street, and Jack kept peeking into alleys making sure that there weren’t any Whitnall fans looking to cause some trouble. Nervously, Jack started sprinting down the alley, with a heart beating at the speed of light, while Jaeger had to hustle to keep up.

“Let’s just get to the arena and suit up.” Jack said in a panicky tone.

“Calm down.” Jaeger replied in a voice that wasn’t quite as calm as he would have liked. Focusing on the game, Jaeger tried to slow Jack down so that he wouldn’t be so afraid of his own hallucinations so that he would be ready to go. Achieving the state championship goal would require a great amount of focus and concentration.

“Okay, I think we are almost there.” Jack stated as he finally slowed down.

Considering the circumstances, Jack and Jaeger should have been very nervous about what was around that corner, but the two of them were very good at handling these kind of circumstances. As they turned the corner they saw… the Kohl Center.

Irritating was the word that came to Jaeger’s mind when he thought about this experience with Jack. He was bored out of his mind the whole time and thought that they should’ve taken the bus along with the rest of the squad. Finally, they could relax and prepare for the biggest game of their high school career.