October 20, 2001


Last night i watched "training day" starring denzel washington and ethan hawke. it was a good movie. entertaining definitely. the acting was good-denzel did a great job, as did hawke, who at first appears to be a pushover but shows his tough side when he needs to. the movie also did a good job of blurring the right and wrong. the only problem was the ending, which was a bit trite compared to all the buildup. i was reading reviews and info about this movie on rottentomatoes, and i saw that the writer did a good amount of research, and went as far as put real gang members as extras in the movie. this movie i think is good, but very grim and disturbing. the idea of justice and law enforcement that this movie portrays is definitely not easy to swallow. but the thing is i can see law enforcement actually being this way in the real world, especially in places where abiding by the law as a police officer can appear to be handicapping. so in this way, this movie asks some good questions about police conduct.
i thought it was great how this movie was dark and disturbing. for some reason i really dig these sorts of movies. i cant think of any other examples right now except for "seven" which was EXCELLENT, i thought, with a dark, twisted ending. i dont know, maybe it's from all the years of watching movies with happy endings that when one comes along with one that is not so trim and nice and happy, it's cool.

on thursday, i went to a potluck that one of my professors put on just for our class. this class, i think, has been one of the most interesting classes of my college career. it is a public health course, a grad course at that. but undergrads are allowed, and im glad i enrolled. we get to talk about real issues dealing with public health in this world, and although i wish it were a bit more structured and lecture-like, it is good nonetheless. the professor is amazing, i must say. he has done much in the world of health policy throughout his life and career. anyway, back to the potluck. our entire class was invited, and most of the students showed up. considering there are only about 15 students at most in the class, it wasnt too hard to coordinate everything. but it was a nice time getting to know people, hear where they are from and just eat together. it's pretty amazing how diverse our class is. i guess this just goes to show the diversity of people in grad school. in our class, we have people from all over the world, literally--including nigeria, palestine, iran, the philippines, and all over the US. this is in a small group of 15 students too. on top of that is the age difference...some students are close to 30, some are married with kids, and then there are the few undergrads, such as myself. all in all, a great class.
so anyway, i recommend this class, public health 222, to all who are interested in public health policy, and especially those who are development studies majors, because it fulfills one of the requirements for the class.

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