Journal entry about "Stand Against Wikipedia

After reading Scott Jalchik’s “A Stand against Wikipedia”, I found that some of the educators do not like Wikipedia to be the source of research works for students.  Some think that Wikipedia is the good source to practice for research for the students but it is not at the university level for citing for a paper or exam. Also, some of them told that sometimes, students cited incorrect information from Wikipedia for their papers or tests. Therefore, some colleges such as Middlebury College plan to ban students from using Wikipedia. In my opinion, I partially agree with their plan.

As I am a college student and have done a lot of searching online information, I found that Wikipedia is really useful. It is useful for general information, not the every detailed, specified information about one topic. As people talked about Wikipedia in the article, many Wikipedia entries have good bibliographies, and even found it as accurate as or more than the other traditional encyclopedias. However, for some more specific topic, the Wikipedia is not that useful. In my view, one can see, know and search easily online for something they want but not in details or in advanced ways. For example, when I was doing some research for my bio lab, I need to search for many peer reviewed articles. Though I found it by Google it and using Wikipedia, I could not find the article in the scientific format. Therefore, I could not make citation with specific facts. Therefore, it is not useful for the college paper writing about some projects.

On the other hand, people can get general knowledge about some topics such as person’s profile and the other summaries of arts, music and so on from Wikipedia. Therefore, people should not ban students from using Wikipedia but students should be trained or guided by the appropriate persons to use the sources for their research about papers.

Analysis of Chris McCandless story from the movie.

When I have done reading the book and watching the movie about "Into The Wild".I feel differently and have changed my thoughts and views on Chris McCandless. I love movie more than the book. I found it the movie drew me from the beginning to the end and I cannot help myself crying for Chris's death. He should not die. I feel really sorry for his death.
Also, the music and the sceneries chosen for the movie are so similar and appropriate so that people will have better understanding about Chris actions. When I first read the book, I feel Chris is really foolish to made himself die alone,but when I watched the movie,I knew that Chris is admirable. My opinion about Chris,disappearing and searching the life he wants are because of his parents. Chris had a little bit different family type. Because of his parents, he becomes uncomfortable with the society. He becomes so stuck with the bounds between humans,position,status. He acted strangely since he was young even though he is so smart and intelligent. For example, on his graduation day, he jumped onto the stage while the other people walked; and also, he refused to have a new car from his parents in the movie.
The music in the movie is so great that it makes me cry and correctly guessing about what kind of mood Chris can have for every scene. I like the main solo guitar music,which, I think, have meaningful relationship to the Chris character and the story. I could feel the beauty of nature by the music, and also feeling scary and bit exciting when he killed the moose and tried to preserve the meat in the movie. I understood more about  Chris feeling  disappointed when he preserve meat. It was somewhat disgusting and disappointing.Mostly, the background music made me feel and understand the story and the characters more.I guessed that the background music are kind of similar to country and folk styles.
I found Chris was really happy while he was living in the wild(in the Magic bus). I found his happy expressions and peaceful smile when he saw the herd of deer, and when he plays with the herd of horses. Sometimes, I like the scene of Chris talking alone in the car,playing different roles. Also,the scenes I love most in the whole movie are the scene that he talks to the apple and the last scene he nearly has to leave the world. he talked to the apple that "I am Alex Supertramp and you are super apple and so organic". I found it was funny and also Chris's cute action when talking to the apple.Sometimes, I talked alone to my dolls or sometimes with the food. I really feel sad and sorry to let Chris die in the end, but I found his eyes were telling that he found the life he wanted and he is happy. He even left notes ,telling that he is happy.However, I saw that he missed his old Chris McCandless life before he dies.I do not want him to die.
The actors and actress chosen for the story are so much match with the characters in the book.what I  mostly like is the actions of speaking with the eyes. Although the actors and actresses do not speak much in some scenes, I can know what they want us to see by looking their eyes. They are really talented.However, I noticed some movie mistakes such as the clothe designs and the cars on the road. It was around 1991 ,1992 when Chris's story took place,but the cars and the trucks on the road are modern. First, I was mistaken that these car brands available in 1991. Also, the clothes people in the movies wore do not look like the design of 1991 and 1992. Apart from those careless mistakes, the whole movie is so great and talentedly directed.
To sum up, I understand Chris more when I watched the movie. I first thought of him as foolish and selfish man because he cut all the attachment with his surrounding and just aiming for his desire,but finally I get to know what Chris actually wanted.

rethinking of Chris McCandless character .

After reading the whole story of "Into The Wild",my thoughts on Chris McCandless have changed. At first, I thought Chris is a bit foolish to make himself died in the wild,but , I admire him for his bravery to follow him dream without hesitation, his donation to OXFAM and trying to cut all the attachments such as contacts with family or money and car. Mostly, I admire him more than I think of him as a crazy person. His actions are very difficult for a normal person to do.

However, I found something that Chris is unexperienced about the nature of the wild,which somewhat affect him to get trouble and make him died at the end.When Chris hunted Moose and tried to preserve meat, I found that Chris became so annoyed and angry about doing that. In the book , we can see Chris told that trying to preserve meat was the greatest tragedy of his life. Also, I can understand his feeling when he was so weak because he was poisoned and asked for help. I can understand his family and people who know him well would feel really sorry for Chris death. I think people will usually act like that when they lose someone they love ,they treasure and someone who is so smart and great. However, I see that his family cannot understand Chris action about going into the wild, they see Chris as so brave to find what he wants and needs.I also see that sometimes, Chris act like a normal ,ordinary person like scared, feel lonely,and disappointed.

One thing I really like Chirs is his writing journals and sending cards. Had he had not written journals, we might not have chance to know what was actually happened in the wild, how did he feel over time.People could learn lessons and get the experiences about the wild from Chris journals. All in all, Chris is more idealist for me than the other people think of him as crazy or ignorant.

opinion on "Into the Wild" chapter 8 to 9

From chapter 8-9 ,the author described some people who had done the same situation like Chris do. people like Rosellini,Waterman ,.McCunn and Everett Ruess had adventures in their own way.Though they might have the similar situation for their adventure, Chris is not totally like them- not just a seeker,not mentally ill.and not go to the bush. He has his own style of doing in his own way for what he wants to find.
Mostly, chapter 9 tells about the background history of Ruess.One interesting thing is that in the story, Ruess adopted a series of names,which have their particular meaning in particular languages. So, I consider one thing after reading about Russe and about his changing names. Does name relate with our life in some part? is it part of expressing our personality and the identity? For me, I accept that our name can identify us,who we are, what we are,but I do no think that name relates with our personality and people change names to fit into their personality.The reason I consider like this is that the naming method in my country is totally different from most of the other countries. We do not have family name or first /middle names. If you are given one particular name,it is yours. May be because of that, I have no attachment and attention on the names. In the case of McCandless ,he called himself Alex  is the resonable changing because he did not want anyone to find out where he is and what he is doing and who he is.For Russe, he changed his name alot with repect to the other people's thinking about his name but he and McCandless are admirable for trying to follow their dreams that many cannot do like them.

ideas on epigraphs from "Into The Wild"

When reading the Leo Tolstoy's "Family Happiness"epigraph, I found that Leo is the active person. He told that he wants excitement and danger, and he is full of motivation and energy for those excitements. So, he won't be able to enjoy in the normal life. I think I can accept some of his ideas but I do not strongly on his whole idea of going out and actively moving, and searching excitement. 
I really like Wallace Stegner's epigraph and I feel like it is true to be free from any attachment on physically or emotionally on something.Sometimes, I feel like man kind are living in the bounded community upon which they have to try to fit  in that community. People struggle for their lives,sometimes hiding their desire and dreams and doing what they should do ,sometimes to impress the other. So, they feel stress a lot,become tired of earning a living. So, we have to let our minds free and do not let anything which can make us feel depress and tired come to us.
By reading those two epigraphs, I think they have a huge effect and influence on Chris McCandless. Chris originally is the man who always thinks about the answer to figure out why people are bad to each other and always tries to make sense to the world. So, he has got influence from Stegner about freedom thinking ideas and escape from any attachment .So ,he even donated all the funds for his college and burnt his last cash,and he went  into the wild with much influence by Leo's ideas, finding adventure.
All in all, by reading these epigraphs and a breif summary about "Into the wild",I have a thought that too much is never good. Although Tolstoy and Stegner are right in their own way but we cannot say that it will always true on many people. If you take in the wrong way, it will hurt yourself. In this case, Chris died in the end for finding the answer he wants and trying to escape from any attachment.