Libby Otto

I am Libby Otto and I am currently writing this blog while also attempting to stay as warm as possible. I come from Kansas City and we have a very different climate from New Orleans. My father does not think it is cold enough to turn our heat on so I am stuck here wearing two pairs of socks and completely covered by a fleece blanket that just is not doing what I hoped it would. I will be glad once next semester kicks off because it means I will be back down south where I do not have sit uncomfortably writing while my hands slowly freeze.

I recently realized that I enjoy writing so I am feeling like a newcomer to a world of people who seem to have known that they always wanted to write. I love to write about literature and I feel as though film, although very different, is also fun to write about. Currently, I am going for an English Lit. major with a minor in Film Studies. What I am going to do after I graduate, however, is somewhat of a problem area in my life, because I have no idea.

Although I am a full-time student, I work every weekend at Cedar Grove Tchoupitoulas Plantation. It is about twenty minutes from Loyola and they host weddings, receptions, and other events. I work mostly as a server, but have also found myself cooking and bar tending when the help is needed. It is an easy job and I am saving up to hopefully live off campus next fall, as well as start paying off some of my education. I am going to be pretty busy this semester, but I am excited to begin all of my classes and dig into the reading and writing that I am sure is coming at me.

Matt Armato

I'm Matt Armato, and I'm posting this introduction so incredibly early because I know I've got a pretty busy holiday ahead of me.  I have two jobs, one flipping burgers at Tru Burger and one delivering pizzas at Nonna Mia.  Yes, I am that guy your parents told you you'd end up being if you didn't study in school.  I'll also be going to Memphis for a couple days to visit my father and brother—they live there, Mom and I live here.  I'll also be turning twenty-one over the break!  To celebrate it I'm going to go to the horse races at the Fairgrounds, a couple steps from my front door.  So yes, busy holiday.

I've always been interested in writing.  I've been trying (unsuccesfully) to finish a novel since age nine.  I write a bit of poetry, and some short stories, but that never feels like what I imagine completing a long piece would feel like.  Then, I took Feature Screenwriting here at Loyola with Prof. Hrebik and finished my first feature-length screenplay, That's Agape.  It's a comedy/thriller about four people who are all trying to vengefully murder their ex-friend, whom they've not seen since high school.  Writing a screenplay made me begin to appreciate movies in a way I never had before, and I now cannot watch a movie without noting script points that I admire and would like to tweak and borrow, and ones that I might have done differently.

Since that class I've been dead set on becoming a screenwriter.  It's the perfect outlet—it doesn't require nearly as much detail or patience as writing long fiction does, but finishing a feature-length screenplay felt like... I don't know, giving birth or something; I was just so proud and ecstatic to see this thing that had been inside of me (even though it was just my head, not my womb) for so long come into existence.  It made so much sense, too—I'd always loved movies, and I'd always loved writing, but I'd never considered the combination of the two.  This is my interest in films: the writing of them.

It would be amazing if I could become a successful screenwriter, and I have no doubt that I'm going to try for that until I'm too old to see a computer screen or hold a pen, but in the mean time I intend to teach high school English, hopefully at my alma mater, Brother Martin.  This brings me to another reason for taking this class: I'd really like to spearhead a "Film as Literature" elective course at whichever high school I do end up teaching for.  I'm so psyched that Loyola has begun offering classes dealing with film analysis, and I'd like to be a part of bringing that type of education down to younger students, because I think film is the newest genre of literature, and I think that's yet to be recognized by most educational institutions.

So all that said, I'm excited to get to know everyone (via their blogs, at least).  This is the first time I've taken a class online, and I'm a little nervous about that because I'm not the most organized person.  Hopefully I can overcome that flaw and make the most out of this class.