Owwww

I have a massive headache tonight, so I apologize to any who come expecting a blog posting today (all three of you who subscribe). More tomorrow...I hope.

Aggressive Driving

While I may not be the perfect driver, I like to think I’m pretty good and pretty safe. One of the nice parts about living where I do, is that I don’t have to worry about driving to work. Walking to and from work gives me time to think and time to decompress after a long day. 

When I was driving around town with more regularity, I noticed a few things that just made no sense to me. Other drivers are way more aggressive, and are particularly dangerous when snow hits. Many seem to just try to power through the slippery conditions, relying on their cars to take care of the rest. 

It’s also become apparent that drivers here have little regard for people who ride bicycles. Being somebody who’s been both a driver and a biker (and I’m not the only one I know), it’s kind of crazy to see the way that biker’s are treated, particularly on some of the side streets. I’ll admit it’s not the smartest of ideas for a biker to be on the street of a heavily traveled road, but at the same time drivers need to be aware of who’s out on the street. 

Many of you who read this blog I’m sure are not these kinds of offenders, so I know I’m preaching to the choir in this case. Nonetheless I felt like it had to be said. I’ve never been an aggressive driver. I’ve never felt the need to make a “Pittsburg Left” (a particularly dangerous driving maneuver for those not used to it), and I know that I should take my foot off the gas when my car hits an ice patch or starts to hydroplane. 

Being an aggressive driver doesn’t do anything for you. Laying hard on the accelerator makes you burn more gas, hard on the breaks wears them out faster, weaving in and out of traffic is just plain dangerous, and none of it gets you from point A to point B any faster. Even over a 130 mile journey, where you average 75 MPH vs 65 MPH, you only shave off an extra 16 minutes off your originally 2 hour trip. Even going 90 MPH you shave a half hour off your time, but that’s if you average 90 MPH (and don’t get busted by the cops).

In the end it’s really up to you as to how you drive, just don’t come to me when your knee deep in tickets, or have your car wrapped around a phone pole.

...Aggressnif (you know who you are)

Death of a Language

I’m no writer. I do, on occasion, put one word after another in a semi-coherent manner and then post them for other people to read. I’m just no writer.

Fortunately for me, this blog doesn’t really have to contain a plot. This blog doesn’t have to have a deep meaning behind it. It’s a dialog. If you were to ask me about these topics that I’ve posted about, you’d probably end up hearing many of the same things. 

I have to blame one of my friends for this (and they shall remain nameless), but I recently started watching “Californication”. An interesting point was made by the show about blogs in general, mainly how they are adding to a technological dumb-down of our society. 

I’m not sure I quite agree with that view point, but at the same time see the validity in it. In a cyber world of “lol”, “brb”, and the death of capital letters, the tweet, the text, and the IM seem to be in command. I’m not a pillar of perfection, I fall into this category as well, but I’m not sure how I feel about it.

My last semester in school I took a course called “Survey of Forms: Fiction”, where we looked at short stories, collections of writings, and wrote our own. I never wrote the next great story. I didn’t write something that was going to be completely riveting and that nobody could put down. What I found I was best at was writing dialog. I could write a conversation that would feel like it was actually something people would be saying. 

Is the world of the sound bite giving way to the world of the tweet? We are already a society with such a short attention span we can’t listen to one thing for more than 30 seconds. Are we now becoming a society that can’t read more than 140 characters at a time? Are we becoming a society so lazy that we can’t take the extra nanosecond it takes to type “you” as opposed to “u”? 

I regularly come across posts where people are mixing “to”, “too” and “two”, or “there”, “they’re” and “their”. With this change in mindset we may as well just have one version of the word that fits all three uses, since nobody seems to care which one they use. For that matter instead of letters we could just use “2” for all three forms and just start to phase letters out altogether. 

As I said before, I’m not a perfect writer. I am well aware that my grammar isn’t the best at times and my spelling is horrible (thank you spellchecker). However, I really fear for the day when I go to write a dialog and find myself typing a non ironic “LOL”, instead of having the character actually laugh.

Completionism in Video Games

One of my most vivid memories from my childhood was of the YMCA. It’s where I learned to swim, play basketball, and went to hang out after school. I remember going there and descending into the basement area where they had set up rooms for the kids to hang out in, complete with pool tables, foosball tables, ping-pong, and a SNES. I would play Super Mario World, Dr. Mario, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

This was an introduction to a great new world for me. Unfortunately I didn’t have a gaming system of my own for a long time. It wasn’t until many years later that my parents relented and got my little brother and I our first gaming system, a N64. Super Mario 64 was a given to go along with that, but the other game we got was one that became an instant classic and favorite: The Legend of Zelda- The Ocarina of Time.

I played that game for hours upon hours, exploring every nook and cranny of that game, trying to get all the Golden Skulltulas, Empty Bottles, Weapons, Upgrades, Magic Bean Locations, Heart Pieces, and of course trying to find if the Tri-Force was hidden anywhere (it’s not...least not that I could find). I had to find everything though. Even though I’d beaten the game I still wanted those bragging rights and the knowledge that I’d done it.

Zelda wasn’t the only game I did this with. I tried to get every Star in Mario, and every Jinjo and Note in Banjo-Kazooie. I tried every route in Star Fox 64, and tried to get every unlockable mode in GoldenEye 007. 

In these games though it only took a few hours to do all those extra things. Now we have games like Fallout 3/New Vegas, Fable 2/3, Mass Effect 1/2, and Borderlands, where you’re given a huge world to explore, and probably more side quests and collectable items than you’ll ever be able to find. For the modern completionist, this poses a problem. 

The completionist wants to go through and find everything, but they may not have the time to do so. You also have the tendency to wonder “Did I really look everywhere in that cave?” or “Which room had the box I couldn’t access because my inventory was full?”. You could spend multiple hours going over one region of a game, just to make sure that you’d gotten every little thing you could find.

That’s not to say though that the game still isn’t fun. I think that as games evolve, so do the gamers. You still have that casual gamer who goes through, plays the basic missions with some side quests involved, and beats the game with a completely satisfied feeling and experience. You also have the completionist who tries their best to really find everything out there, but now doesn’t flip out if they can’t find that one box in the corner that they think should be there.

I get just as much joy now playing games like Mass Effect 2 as I did playing Ocarina of Time when I was younger. I’m also sure that I’m having as much fun now as those who played Pong did back when that was the modern game, though I’m not sure how the completionist would achieve that goal with that game.

“Oh I beat the computer...that’s it huh?”

People Watching

I love sitting in a coffee shop.

I like it for a couple of reasons. The first being my caffeine addiction (see therssfeeds.blogspot.com/2011/02/caffeine-addiction.html), and the second is the chance to go people watching.

If you don’t know what people watching is, it’s simply sitting in a public area (usually with friends) and just observing the other people who are out and about. You might see the compulsive workout person, still dressed in their workout clothes. You might see a family out trying to control the young children who have far too much energy. If you’re really lucky you may see the awkward first date (which is one of my favorites to observe and chuckle about...when it’s not me). You also may see that guy sitting off by himself on a computer, with headphones on, typing away (that may or may not be me right now).

Once you see someone interesting go ahead and make a comment to your friends. Draw their attention to the woman who’s hair is just absolutely out of control. Make up what you think the conversation is between the awkward couple sitting down for coffee. Wonder how that girl fit into those jeans. 

You might even make up a back story for those people. You could say that slightly awkward looking guy at the front of the line is well...anyone. A undercover CIA operative, a costly gigolo, or just a CS nerd jonesing for that caffeine fix.

People watching isn’t something that can only to be done at a coffee shop. You really can take part in any public space. You could do it on the bus, where you might spot that person who has far too many bags for public transit. 

Just be sure to enjoy yourself and have some fun. A word of caution though, make sure whoever your talking about can’t hear you...that could be awkward.

Video Game Realism

Video games are blending the line between reality and fiction.

With games that strive for authenticity (like Gran Turismo 5 and Forza 3) gamers are getting a more and more realistic experience. The two games that I mentioned before are particularly know for this, and they aim for not only realistic driving physics, but also realistic sounds for those same cars. With the increased graphic capabilities of consoles like the Playstation 3 and XBox 360, these cars approach the quality of the real world as well, though they're not quite at that point yet.

Games like these also try to replicate famous race tracks from around the world, like Germany's Nürburgring. These tracks have all the turns, dips, hills, and conditions of the well known locations. While you don't experience of the G-Forces that would really be present in the real car, you also don't run the risk of wrapping a Ferrari around a tree. Also it's much cheaper to buy a $60 game, then a plane ticket all over the world.

Moving beyond racing games you have games like the Call of Duty series, which instead of realism in cars gives you realism in weapons. The way that different guns act when fired, and the sound of the different weapons are where these games shine. 

Still other games give you realistic physic engines, meaning that objects in the virtual world act like they would in the real world. One of the most famous physics engines is in the Orange Box (Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Portals). The makers of that series even went beyond just making a great physics engine, they also put that engine in the hands of the players with Garry’s Mod, which gave players the ability to play with the physics in ways the original developers never would have thought to.

Bloggers Note: Just because you can do things in a realistic video game, doesn’t mean you can do it for real...you dummy.

The Get Out of Jail Free Card

Don’t take this the wrong way, but you sir, or madam, are an ass. 

You can’t be mad at me for saying that you’re an ass because I clearly stated that you shouldn’t take this the wrong way. Since I said that I could say anything I want and you wouldn’t be able to be angry with me...right?

Wrong.

People seem to think that because they preface their phrases with statements like “don’t take this the wrong way”, “no offense, but”, or “I can say this because we’re such good friends”, that they can get away with saying whatever the heck they want to.  That is a load of bull. 

If you’re going to say something critical of someone, have the backbone to stand behind your words. Don’t try to hide behind a distancing phrase in an attempt to lighten the blow to somebody’s ego. People who you’re friends with should know already that if you’re going to be criticizing them, or making a comment they may not like, that it’s coming from a good place. If it’s really not coming from a good place, you’re either a jerk and the two of you shouldn’t be friends, or you’re already not friends with the other individual and there’s no reason to sugar coat it. 

People, myself included, have started to take comments made by friends far too personally. You shouldn’t assume that just because somebody is saying something critical of you that they mean to hurt you. With friends it’s much more likely that they are actually attempting to make things better for you, or to make you a better person overall.

Could these people phrase things a little bit better, in a slightly less confrontational way? Of course they could. Could we all learn to not be so offended by these comments?

No offense, but yeah we could.

Who can catch em all anymore? There's too damn many of em.

F*** Charmander. F*** Bulbasaur. Squirtle was the man. If you disagree, you’re just wrong. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then you’ve been living under a rock for the past thirteen years. 

Pokémon was, and still is, one of the most popular and best selling game franchises that Nintendo has ever put out. The original American releases (the Red and Blue versions were games that I, my little brother, and my friends had to have. The games weren’t exactly mind blowingly difficult, but they were addictive. With each version of the game having their own set of exclusive Pokémon, it was a great marketing decision for the company. You would pair up with your friends in an attempt to trade and get that ever elusive 150 (151 if you cheated) complete the collection. The game gave kids a way to not only compete with each other (through records, linked battles, and game progress), but it also gave them ways to collaborate (through trading strategies and trading Pokémon). 

It was also a franchise that reached out into so many different mediums besides just the video game. There was the ever popular TV show, trading card game, and even a comic book (that was never really over in America). They even brought the popularity of the TV show into the game world with the release of the Yellow Version of the game. In this version you had the famous Pikachu that would not go inside a Pokéball as your starting Pokémon. You also had the chance to, by talking to other trainers within the game itself, get the original three starters.

Since 1998 there has been seventeen different video games that progressed from the original GameBoy to the modern Nintendo DS: Red/Blue, Yellow, Gold/Silver, Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, Fire Red/Leaf Green (updated remakes of Red/Blue), Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, Heart Gold/Soul Silver (updated remakes of Gold/Silver), and finally the upcoming Black/White. With each game new Pokémon have been added, bringing the total from 150 up to 649 with the latest installment.

At the beginning of each game you’re given the option of three Pokémon, each of a different type (water, grass, or fire). I personally have a tendency to, when given the choice of the three starting Pokémon, to go with the water type. I’m not quite sure why, but it always seems to be the one that I would want to work with the most.

Pokémon Black/White is going to be released on March 6th (according to Wikipedia). Even though I’m in my 20’s, I’m pretty sure I’ll still be getting it...don’t judge.

Thinking Up Goofy S***

I like smart people. I like people who can form a thought and then vocalize it well. I also like funny people. To get an idea on my view on how this all breaks down, please refer to the venn diagram below. 

George Carlin though is one of my favorite comedians of all time. His wit, charm, eloquence, and sense of humor made him one of the most successful comedians of all time. My introduction to Carlin was when I was on a trip with my dad and we were staying overnight in a hotel room. As we were flipping through the TV channels we came across one of his old standup routines. I was hooked. 

After that I had to find more of his work. Since I was coming in so lat in his career I really got to see his evolution as a comedian, which was really interesting to see. His early material included things like Al Sleet: the hippy-dippy weatherman (tonight’s forecast...dark), Wonderful WINO, and other lighthearted things, but as he grew as a comedian, his topics changed as well.

As his career went on though he started to talk about one of his favorite topics: words. To be more specific the meanings that different words had. He had his famous bit “the seven words you cannot say on television” which then became the “incomplete list of inappropriate words” (incomplete because after every show some jerkoff would come up and tell him “you forgot $*#@#%&!”). To Carlin though the words weren’t bad. The words weren’t what were causing problems. The words were innocent. Its the person who puts the meanings and intentions behind the word that makes them bad. 

He also loved to dissect phrases and brought to light some of the sillier phrases in the english language. Things like “You may now get on the plane” and “Please pre-heat the oven” drove him crazy. He wanted to get in the plane not on it, and knew that the oven only existed in two states: heated and unheated. 

Along with being a very controversial comedian, Carlin also had another side to him. He also played the role of “Mr. Conductor” on Thomas the Train (a role that was held originally by former Beatle Ringo Starr and later held by Alec Baldwin). It was Carlin’s role to be the storyteller on the children’s show, and was a large departure from his normal routine. It was such a change that until I was told later on in life that it was the same man who did those edgy stand-up routines that also was on one of the best known children’s show of all time. 

Carlin was a brilliant mind, a caring man, and just one of the funniest comedians I’ve ever heard. He is missed.

Caffeine Addiction

According to one of my favorite comedians, the late George Carlin, caffeine is a legal, less potent, version of speed. While I don’t think that is technically true, they are both stimulants, so there’s that.

Every so often, as I’m going through my day, I start getting a headache and it’s one of those headaches that just won’t go away. After thinking back through the day I realize that I have not had anything with caffeine in it. It’s a sad when I then come to the conclusion that I am, once again, addicted to caffeine. There are far worse things to be addicted to I know, but this is still a tad annoying. 

Every so often I try to detox myself and go without caffeine for a while. Doing this is also a great deterrent for ever doing any serious drugs. If I hate the withdraw I go through from something  as light as caffeine, I can only imagine that the experience for something much more serious would be. If cocaine is 1000x worse or even just a 100x worse, that is something I would never want to go through (as if the drugs themselves weren’t damaging enough).

I don’t like being dependent on things. I like to have my freedom and to be able to go around and do the things I want to do. It’s not like a caffeine is a completely debilitating addiction, but it’s still an annoyance.

Where’d my coffee get off to anyway?

Friendship and manipulation

Friendship can be a great thing. It’s great having people around to support you, cheer you up, take care of you, and of course you can do all those things for them. True friendship is truly symbiotic relationship. All people involved are gaining things that make them better, and stronger, from the relationship. As english poet John Donne is often quoted (though nobody knows who they’re quoting) “No man is an island”. 

Not all friendships are this way though. The inspiration for this posting came after watching a few episodes of the English TV show “SKINS”. Two of the main characters, Sid and Tony, don’t have the positive symbiotic relationship. Instead Tony takes advantage of his timid friend, and Sid just goes with it. It’s not healthy when only one part of the relationship is benefitting from it. 

Manipulating someone, either intentionally or unintentionally, is just no way to treat a friend. You shouldn’t have to trick someone into doing what you want. They should do it for you because they know, if the rolls were reversed, you would help them. True friends are ones that you can say anything to and, while they may make fun of you a bit at first, will accept it. You don’t have to censor yourself, you don’t have to hide what you’re thinking, you don’t have to worry about them judging you. 

Sure you won’t share every little thing with your friends, and sure they won’t always agree with what you have to say. For me though it’s been when my friends disagree with a viewpoint of mine that I’ve had the most fun, and most interesting, conversations. I don’t mind a difference in opinion as long as that viewpoint is defended with intelligent thoughts and eloquent words.

Friendship is to be coveted and treasured. Count yourself lucky if you have a set of people you would call “true friends”. I know I do.

Urg

No real blog posting today. Tired. Brain tired. Urg.

Parkour

Young kids love running. There is no elementary school teacher that hasn’t had to say, at one point or another, “No running in the halls!”. They also love martial arts. If they didn’t love martial arts, shows like “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”, “Avatar: The Last Airbender” (the TV show not that horrible excuse for a movie) and any of the “Power Rangers” series (is that even on TV anymore?), wouldn’t have been as popular as they were. When you combine the two into one activity you get the city running sport “Parkour” or “Freerunning”.

This was brought into the mainstream media in things like the opening scene of “Casino Royal”, where Bond chases a guy through a construction site. The guy running away uses parkour to try to escape while Bond just kind of...runs through things. The video game “Mirror’s Edge” is entirely based on the idea of parkour. The story is based on people who run across the rooftops of a futuristic society to deliver the only “free” information and take down a murderer.

Of course there are plenty of people who have uploaded videos, both good and bad, who have uploaded videos to Youtube of them “freerunning”. There are even videos that teams of people who have banded together to practice, train, compete, and also some who are hired to take part in different films or TV shows. 

It’s a really intriguing and fun for me to watch when people do it well. It brings out some of the excitement that I felt when I was a kid. That doesn’t mean I’m going to run out and try doing this though. 

Egypt and the Presidency

I don’t pretend to know what the situation in Egypt is like. I’ve tried to keep up with the news that is coming out of there, and it’s really quite mixed. 

From my understanding if President Mubarak ever steps aside the Muslim Brotherhood, seems to be the next group to be likely to step into power. Their policies would be drastic change in Egypt’s policies, particularly the long standing peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. 

We’ve seen anti-American sentiments more now with the reports that are coming out of the region. We see chants demanding Mubarak’s resignation, chants against America, and even American reporters being assaulted on camera. This isn’t exactly new though. I remember visiting Cairo when I was younger and living in Bulgaria on a vacation with my family. Two weeks after we returned there was a news report about how the hotel we’d stayed at in Cairo had been attacked by terrorists. They were targeting the hotel because they knew Americans were staying there.

When the revolts started in Egypt, the United States was put in a very precarious position. On the one hand we do try to stand for democracy across the world, but on the other we have to consider America’s relationship with Egypt. That relationship between our governments is one of the best that we have in an already highly unstable region. We don’t know how that relationship would change with the change of power.

We’ve since then changed our message, now asking President Mubarak to step down and let an interim government into power until new “free and fair” elections have taken place. Mubarak has tried to appease the masses by a complete reshuffling of his cabinet, the appointment of a new Vice-President, and the promise that he will not seek another term at the end of his 32nd year. This isn’t enough in the opinion of Egyptians though, and they’ve continued to protest, most recently with labor strikes and worker protests across the country.

I don’t remember the exact quote, but I do remember hearing during one of the past few presidential campaigns that people wanted to have a President who was just like them. I’ve always thought about this in a different way. I don’t want a President like me. I want a President who is better than I am. I want a President who is smarter than I am. I couldn’t deal with the pressures of the Presidency. I don’t know how to balance the needs of our country, and the needs of the entire region.

Some people say we should be backing Mubarak because it’s in America’s best interests to have him in power, and our needs are what we should be looking out for. By that same thought though shouldn’t we be promoting the same ideals that our country was founded on, mainly the idea of democracy and an elected government. 

I know Obama, just like every President before him, has surrounded himself with smart people who are informed and can give him the advice he needs to make the right choice. I admire him for knowing his weaknesses and finding the right people to fit those positions. If the President is smarter than I am, I want his advisors to be smarter in those areas than he is. As much as I disagreed with his policies, and thought that a lot of the decisions that he made were not ones I liked, President George W. Bush did make sure that his advisors were smarter than he was. We won’t know how the decisions that the two very different men will play out in the long run, but I am satisfied knowing that they tried to make the best decision they could with the information they were given.

In the end, it’s not the advisors that make the decisions. It’s not the political pundits. It’s not the general masses. The decisions are made by the person in the chair. I’m just glad it’s not me.

Webcomics

I talked about webcomics a bit in an earlier posting, but I thought that I'd revisit them a bit now.

There are comics that cover so many different topics. We have nerd humor in the form of XKCD, gamer comics with Penny-Arcade and Ctrl-Alt-Del, life lessons with Surviving the World and A Softer World, and just plain randomness with Dinosaur Comics (there are others obviously, but those are the ones I read).

With all of those comics we also have different updating cycles. Some update daily, others a few times a week, and others still (VG Cats) update when they feel like it.

In an attempt to explain how I envision the process would go for a webcomic creator I decided to try to create a witty flowchart (because who doesn't love flowcharts).

(This process could also be applied to the creation of blogs)

I would also like to say that anorexia in the feline community is becoming a real problem. If your pet is suffering from this please don't hesitate to call 1-800-HAIRBALL. Time wasted is time lost.

Artistic Mediums (Part Two)- Video Games

We’ve gotten to a point now in video games where the sheer cinematic aspects of them border on those of the highest budget Hollywood films.  As a child I remember some of the most entertaining books I read were the “choose your own adventures”.  I would read through a section, get to the decision, and then mark it with a finger so I could quickly go back and redo the choice if it led somewhere I didn’t want to go. With video games you get that same excitement, but with objects that move and talk on the screen in front of you. 

I think this is part of the reason why video games are becoming more popular and accepted as art. You can now look at something like the “Mass Effect” series, or the “Half-Life 2” episodes and really get into them. I think this is because because not only are the games visually stunning, but they also give the viewer/player the ability to interact with the narrative even more. 

People like having input on the world. They like feeling like they are creating something special and video games are now a way for them to do that.  Not everyone can sit down with a paintbrush and paint van Gogh’s “Starry Night” or Hopper’s “Nighthawks”. It’s much simpler for them to sit down, pick up a controller, and begin to paint their own unique narrative in the virtual space. You can get much more bang for your buck when you buy something like a video game.  A game like “Mass Effect” or “Red Dead Redemption” or “Fallout 3” has about 60 hours of play time for just the main story line alone.  Add in all the extra side missions, downloadable content, and just general exploring, and you get a game that can be played for over 100 hours.  

To add to that, games are now including multiple endings depending on the choices you have made. This is giving your $40 game re-playability and just adding even more to your experience.  We like things that can end many different ways,  just take a look at the cult classic “Clue”. The movie had three different endings, and depending on the theater that you went to a different ending was shown. This gave the moviegoers a different experience each time.  

Video games are also starting to use motion capture to really get the facial motions of the voice actors, as well as for the characters actual motions. 

These games are also putting the ability to create in the hands of the user. With games like "Little Big Planet" (and it's sequel), Halo: REACH, and extras like "Gary's Mod" for "Half-Life 2" you, as the gamer, have the ability to create their own content. Media Molecule in particular has been very up front about the fact that, while their programmers can come up with some amazing things, there are just some amazing ideas that they could never come up with. They just provide the tools for people to create new worlds and art in an entirely new way.

The art wold is always changing, who knows what will happen in the future.

National Anthem and Half-time

The Super Bowl, while it didn't have the desired outcome many of us were hoping for, was still a great game. It was exciting, entertaining, and had us on the edge of our seats until the last moments.

The musical performances, on the other hand, were not.

Christina Aguilera put on a poor performance of our nations National Anthem. Sadly this seems to be the norm now when it comes to major sporting events. You grab a big celebrity and shove a mic in their face and say "have fun with one of the most important songs to our country". I get artistic liberties and choices, but when you have no sense of musical phrasing, it's time to go back to the basics.

It was so horrible that in our criticism of the phrasing, pitch, and tone, my friends and I missed the slip up that she had with the lyrics. There is absolutely no excuse for forgetting the words. I get that it's not their song, and that it's a huge stage to be performing on, but these musicians are supposed to be used to performing in front of huge crowds. That's why they get paid an absurdly large amount of money to do these things.

I know so many talented musicians who can sing on pitch, with proper phrasing, and who would get all the words right that would love to have a chance to perform on a stage that large. Sadly we now hold fame in higher regard than actual talent.

We've gotten into an era where most of the popular musicians use Auto-tune in order to achieve the sounds and pitches they want. This leads to the Black Eyed Peas having a great studio sound, but leave something to be desired when it comes to a live performance. In a show that has little margin for error in terms of the technology that has to go along with it, the Super Bowl is no place for it to happen. Assembling the stage, getting the sound right, and getting performing takes place in a matter of minutes. The second the teams step off the field the crews are moving to set up for the performance. All that rush and movement leads to mistakes. Add to that the fact that the BEP just seemed not at their best and you get a mediocre performance.

The only good moment was when Slash came out and started playing "Sweet Child o' Mine". Fergie singing it...not so much.

Television of Today.

“Salute Your Shorts” was one of the best shows on television.  

Period.  

What has happened since the 1990’s? When I was growing up we had a great set of shows to entertain us.  Nickelodeon wasn’t just random high pitched voices like Spongebob.  Even the “Angry Beavers” (sexual connotations aside) was a great show that could keep people coming back for more. 

If you go back even further you get other classics like “AHHH..Real Monsters”, “The Secret World of Alex Mack”, and “Hey Arnold”.  These iconic shows not only entertained us, but also showed us what it was like to be a kid. Sure Alex Mack was a science fiction story, but it also was a great way to show how friends should support each other.  “Salute Your Shorts” made me want to go to summer camp, which gave me an experience away from home and prepped me for actually being independent. “Hey Arnold” gave us all a great view on how you can have a great time without spending money. Also who didn’t want to have that awesome room that Arnold had with that pulldown skylight exit. 

All these are iconic things from my childhood that are realistic, not like a anthropomorphic sponge living in a pineapple at the bottom of the ocean.  

We also got phrases and songs that were universal to pretty much any kid. If you go up to a group of 20-somethings and chant “Stoop Kid’s afraid to leave the stoop!” you bet your ass they’d be right along with you chanting a beat later.  There probably aren’t many people my age who couldn’t sing the opening rap to “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air”, which is a lot more challenging than “Whoooooo lives in a pineapple under the sea?”.  

Moving away from Nick we get shows like “The Fresh Prince”, “Boy Meets World”, and “Saved by the Bell”.  These characters were great and we got to see them grow up right along with us. We got characters like Mr. Feeney, who made us all wish for a teacher of that caliber, Zack Morris, who made us all want tot be that charismatic smart-ass, and Carlton, who reminded us that there are far worse things then a fiercely loyal cousin.  

These shows gave us far more realistic (though admittedly still not entirely so) view on relationships, families, and interacting with the world.  Now we get things like “Jersey Shore”, which makes me fear for the future of civilization as we know it.

Also, what happened to kids game shows? What happened to “GUTS”, “Legends of the Hidden Temple”, “Double Dare”, and “Wild and Crazy Kids”? I wanted a shot at the Silver Monkey. I wanted to take a bit of the Aggro Crag home. Now kids don’t have those things to pine for.  It’s unfortunate that they never were exposed to those shows, except when they hear people of our generation talk about it.


My younger brother also reminded me of another classic Nick show, "All That". Our parents had "Saturday Night Live", and to a point that's still around. For us though, "All That" was our sketch comedy show. Everyday French with Pierre Escargo. Vital Information with Lori Beth Densberg (later Danny Tamberelli). Ask Ashley. All were classic sketches that as kids, had us literally rolling on the floor with laughter. And later on, Kenan Thompson went on to be a part of Saturday Night Live, making the connection between the two shows concrete. 

I miss those days. I miss those shows. I miss knowing what I was going to do every night.

Try to take over the world.

The Zombie Apocalypse

OK kids, look out your window.  Do you see that group of horribly disfigured individuals walking down the street towards you? No that's not your Aunt Ida's bride club. That's the coming Zombie Hoard.

What. Do. You. Do.

How we're going to survive the seemingly inevitable coming of the undead hoards has become a very popular topic in recent years.

Movies like "Zombieland" and "Shaun of the Dead" provide us with an interesting take on how to survive, while games like "Left 4 Dead" and "Half-Life 2" give us that video game training. Even shows like NPR's "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" (the comedic news quiz show) has referenced a, sadly fictional, Zombie Apocalypse Bootcamp.

It's also been a topic of conversation I've had in many different social settings.  When I was still in school my roommates and I would discuss how we would do things around campus and what would make for the most defensible position around.  At work I've discussed how we could survive in the store fairly well against the zombie hoards, or try our luck running to the nearest Armory (located just a few blocks away) and be very well armed.

I've also had debates...well discussions really, on the differences in zombies as well.  Do we think they'll be slow moving zombies? Much easier to get away from, slightly more annoying because you have to really completely dismember them. Or will they be the runners? Faster, but slightly easier to kill.  Can they swim? Do they only come out at night?

All of these are important questions that need to be answered in order to come across the right plan.  Obviously a shotgun will do a good job at long range, or even close up.  A chainsaw would really get you protected close up, but leaves you open to infection from zombie blood as it gets on you, so then you have to get a protective suit.  There are just so many variables so the really important thing to be aware of is to be flexible with your plans.

Also remember "Double tap to make sure they're really dead"

Artistic Mediums (Part I)

What do you think of when you think “artistic mediums”?

Music. Literature. Movies. Painting. Sculptures. These are the ones that I would think of when asked this question.  I would venture a guess that this is the case for most people out and about these days as well.  I’d also say that when I think of the phrase “artistic mediums”, I think of the snobby aristocrats who hold wine parties and debate how tortured Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky was by his suppressed homosexuality.  

These same people are the ones who would look at something like a comic book, video game, or cartoon as “low brow” and not “art” at all.  This, however, isn’t true. More and more society is accepting these “alternative” forms of art, and are recognizing them for what they are.  

We’ve gotten to a point where a single comic strip can address things as light hearted as “oh man that chick is super cute, but I am too shy to talk to her”, all the way up to “I witnessed my dad kill himself in our back yard”. From as mundane as “this video game sucks” to “my apartment burned down and I lost everything I owned”.  

The way people access comics have changed as well. It used to be that the only way that you got to see a comic was if it was being published by the big companies or carried in a newspaper. This has changed though. The new sub-genre of “web-comics” has emerged to take a stand in the foreground of modern media and art. While some people think that web-comics are only for the tech nerds out there, it’s truly amazing how many different topics are out there. If you can think of it, somebody has probably made a comic of it and it’s out there on the web for you to view. 

If not, get sketching.

Music

Music has an interesting place in our society. It's something that unifies people from many different ways of life and gives them a common ground to bond over. It can also be very polarizing for those same people.

I like to think that I have a very open mind when it comes to music, and that the music that I listen to on a regular basis is fairly eclectic. My iPod, when on shuffle, is almost as likely to go from "Chop Suey" (System of a Down) to "Landed" (Ben Folds) as it is from "Kids" (MGMT) to Mahler's 3rd Symphony.

A while ago I posted a link on my Facebook to a song by Mumford and Sons called "Little Lion Man" (seen below). I just found it to be an amusing song with a unique style to it. It's by no means on the same artistic level as songs like Parker's "Anthropology" or Monk's "Round Midnight", it still fills a spot for me in my music listening needs.

I don't need to constantly be thinking at a high level about my music. Sometimes I just want something simple that is going to be relaxing and easy to listen to.  I have the ability to analyze magnificent symphonies, dissect critiques, and talk intelligently on the choices of using a secondary dominant as a pivot point to shift to a new key (yes this all sounds very stuck up I know).  This doesn't mean that I don't enjoy the strumming of a banjo and the sounds of an Englishman singing folk music.

Music is not exclusive.  It isn't something where you can only be a fan of one genre.  In my opinion music listening would get far too boring if that were the case.

In any case, music is personal preferences.  While I may find a song fantastic and something I could listen to over and over again, another person might think it's the worst bit of aural drivel ever created by mankind.  Awesome.  I'm glad to hear you have a strong viewpoint on this, but don't come crying to me when I call your whiny repetitive Justin Bieber song utter crap.  It's just my opinion, and I'm allowed to have it.

Steam Punk

That's right we're getting right into it here.  No "hey so like welcome to my blog" bullshit here.

Steam-punk is an awesome sub-genre within the Sci-fi world.  There are so many different stories that, if retold in a Steam-punk universe, would have a completely different (yet still awesome) feel to them.


Lets try the golden Science Fiction movie standby, Star Wars.

"But RSS", one might cry. "You can't possibly improve upon the sheer genius that is George Lucas' masterpiece".

Ah my good reader you must realize that I am not attempting to improve upon anything, just put my own little spin on it in this new fashion.

First lets take a look at the name "Star Wars".  The easy change would be "Steam Wars", and to me this actually is a slightly more descriptive name than the original.  Yes the original took place in space amongst the stars, but it doesn't quite show exactly how the war is being fought.

Imagine, if you will, the opening of "Steam Wars".  Instead of Princess Leia's starship being chased by the Imperial Star Destroyer we have a carriage being pulled by mechanical horses, charging through the desert with steam pouring out of their nostrils.  Behind them a black, menacing, rugged off-road car with large tubes pointing skyward, billowing clouds of white.  Out of each lean goggled men firing laser guns at each other a puff of smoke being emitted with each bolt arcing across the desert.

Instead of R2-D2 storing a floppy disk (because lets face it that's what it was) he actually takes what looks like a rolled up piece of parchment and stores it inside of a hidden compartment.  When we actually see the parchment get delivered to Ben Kenobi (decked out in the latest monocle ware), we see that it's not the traditional parchment, but rather a moving picture that is displayed on the paper.

That's just the tip of how this adaptation could go.  There's obviously so much more that could happen with the lightsabers, Chewbacca, and of course the sinister Darth Vader (there could be some awesome interpretations of his suit in the steampunk world)

How does that not sound badass to you?