Cultural Analysis 1, Period 5

My work of pop culture will be on Georges St. Pierre ( a.k.a. Rush and GSP) and the difference between a fighter, and a martial artist. Georges St. Pierre is a UFC fighter however doesn’t consider himself a fighter, rather a martial artist, and the difference will be explained in the following paragraphs to help readers distinguish the difference. Georges St. Pierre has amazing fighting skills, however if it were not for his early life he would not have chosen to go down the path that led him to this life. He was bullied as a kid in Saint-Isodore, Quebec, where he would have his clothes and money stolen. His father taught him kyokushin karate to help him defend himself, and he would soon after train in wrestling, Jiu-jitsu, and boxing. He strives to be the best, in the beginning of this video you see him losing to Matt Serra by TKO, and how he rebuilds himself and takes his title belt back. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJIctJK_AFQ

                Georges St. Pierre is the current welter-weight champion of the world, with a record of 22 wins and 2 losses. 8 of his wins were by knock-out, 5 by submission, and 9 by decision. He has fought and won against some of the toughest and most famous fighters in the UFC, such as Josh Koscheck, Jake Shields, and Frank Trigg. He has been the “Fighter of the year” in several magazines and newsletters since 2008. His fame and success has also put him on the path to being an actor, having roles in 2 movies, more notably Never Surrender in which he starred with some fellow UFC fighters.

                Georges was quoted in Men’s Health magazine saying “I am not a fighter, I am a martial artist. The difference is a fighter trains for specific fights and opponents. I don’t. I focus on making myself the best I can possibly be, and whoever is truly better than me will defeat me.” And he holds these ideals close to heart. After a bout, or fight, even if he won as soon as he is out of the ring he is in the back room going over what he could have done better and doing his best to perfect his flaws, the few he has. In pre-fight conferences, he does not “talk trash” to opponents, and if they do it to him he simply smiles and laughs. He lets his abilities do the talking for him. After each fight he is always gracious to his opponent, being a good sport because he knows that it is just a sport, a sport that he strives to be the best in. Everything he does is to better himself as a man. He is taking a leave from the UFC to compete in Olympics wrestling for his home country of Canada.

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Dante's Inferno Music Video - Hell (Disturbed)

Saving the country

My dearest Carla,

It is the 22^nd of June and I knew that I must write to tell you I have survived the evacuation of Dunkirk. And now with France surrendering, we now know that Hitler and his troops are going to attack our islands. Most of our soldiers are tired and had to leave all of our weapons there on the beaches of France. But, we are safe now and that is all that matters. Now, we must wait for the attacks. I will admit I'm scared for my life, but I must know that you and our child are safe. I will fight for our safety and for our country’s safety. My dear, please be safe. I will write soon.

With all my love,

Bruce.

My dear,

It is now July and Hitler has begun his attacks. I think about you day and night. I cannot wait to hold you in my arms once again. It is extremely hard to be away from you for this long.

The RFA are keeping up a good job on defeating Hitler. Even though we are out numbered, we fight hard and long to make sure we are all safe. I know you must be so scared to hear the bomb sirens going off and not knowing what’s going to happen after. I go everyday thinking like that when I'm flying the planes against the Nazis. We go up almost four times a day just to fight off the Germans. Its tough and I’m not always sure if I'm going to come back but don’t worry about me I will be fine.

Its getting tougher as the days go on and I’m on duty have not much time to finish this letter. It is now august and we have lost many people its sad to see them go but I know they have served their country. I am now just waiting for my time to see you. The Germans have changed plans and sent to bomb London. We are all very furious and will take our revenge. We are all ready to take back what is rightfully ours. We are ordered to go to Berlin to have our revenge.

We have won the battle now and I will be returning home to you our bombing of Berlin has sent out a message which was that we shall now be messed with. I will be home in a few short weeks.

With all my love,

Bruce.

What's that in the sky? A bird? A plane? NO IT'S CABRERA PATEL!!!!

I remember the stories of my father, Alistair Patel, have told me when I was a child. He always tells me about his experiences in WWI. He talked about how he help defended Belgium from German invasion. He often informed me about the terrible living conditions of trench warfare. He even lived the the effects of poison gas. He hoped that I would never go through the same things he went through.


I, Cabrera Patel, was fascinated by such adventures of war. I got excited how great it must be to defend your own country. Little did i know, fate had hit me hard. Germany was angry at the restrictions placed on them by the Treaty of Versailles and they wanted to retaliate.

I was 18 at the time. So after France were breached, i was immediately drafted along with my friend Adam Savage. Were were placed in the same squad. We stuck together through thick and thin. Our first assignment was to rescue the Allied troops across the English Channel. We were stationed at the coast and see the troops off. Our mission was succcessful.



I thought our previous mission really represented what being a soldier was about. I was so wrong in so many ways. Sometime in September, Adam and I, Cabrera Patel, peeked out the window of our base and witnessed few hundred bombers flying toward London, Plymouth, and Conventry. I sounded the alarm but it was too late. London, Plymouth, and Conventry's major factories and industrial streets were reduced to rubble. I got angry thinking my own family could have been there. I questioned some of the other troops and shouted! "Why weren't they detected on the RADAR!?!" They say they already saw it coming but we weren't ready to retaliate. Few days later we set off in our aircraft carriers to share our fate with Germany.

They never saw it coming. We successfully induced maximum damage on their own factories and industrial streets and returned. We celebrated our successful mission. But it will take much more than one bombing to keep Germany down.



We were about to set off to do another assault. We were going to blow the entire city of Berlin.
There were about 1000 of us. But before we even went for a few miles we saw their fleet of 4000 of them. I remembered Churchill's words ringing through my head. This was the final stand. It was time to end this war. We flew straight in. Rockets were flying by our ships. Alistair and I witnessed a few ships behind us immediatley combusted into flames. Adam shouted to me and complained that he didn't want to die. His voice was shaking over the speakers! Then the most horrible thing happened I witnessed a rocket flying toward HIS ship! I wanted to say something but I was scared stiff as I saw his plane fall apart in a fiery explosion with pieces of the plane flying out in every direction. Holding back my tears, I took evasive actions and blew up like 3 planes! Then I felt some violent shaking! A bullet grazed my engines! I was still able to fly but one of my squad members told me over the radio to land back at the base. I went back with my head down, mourning for Adam. We had to fight like this for a few more days.
In the end, the Allies pushed Germany into submission and they surrendered. All of us back in Britain celebrated. I went back to my friends and family who wasn't hurt at all! (R.I.P. Adam Savage) We were all pleased to be together again. WWII was a big part of my life and nothing could change that.

I-Search Interview #3 Taylor James

Going into the third interview was more nerve racking then the first two. Not knowing who she was made it twice as hard for me to try to control myself being nervous at the beginning. Throughtout the interview I tried my best to not make any mistakes by focusing on the questions i had on hand, instead of worrying about how awkward and uncomfortable it made me feel. After this interview, it occurred to me that getting out there and finding information out for myself was easier and way more interesting then having to sit at a computer and do all the research from there. This experience made me open up more to talking and meeting new people and just the feeling of someone else having the same thoughts and opinions that you can relate to. Try your best to just relax, follow up on good questions, not feel uncomfortable and most importantly have fun!

I-Search Interview #2 Taylor James

My second interview was not as bad as I thought it would be. Knowing the first two people i interviewed made it way more calm and relaxing. I would have to say the only hard part about this interview was trying to figure out more questions to come up with, maintaiting the nervousness I build up right before having to do something, and just making the interview understandable to myself and my interviewee. Having to make up different questions was the hardes part because i did not want to keep asking the same questions and getting the same asnwers. Being really nervous like i am, i try really hard to not make mistakes and to let the conversation flow. When, going into the second interview be sure to make an appointement as soon as possible because learning from the first interview it might be very hard to get an appointment. Another thing, if you are as nervous as you were the first interview, dont be just think of all the positives that you can get from this experience.