So here I am, sitting at my computer, waiting for a delivery. I find that most deliverys take forever when I have to sit and wait for them. It's annoying. I would take a shower, but I know as soon as I walk in, the door will knock. So instead I sit, with quiet music (Loud music will end up with me missing the package). So yea. . .
I have been playing Mincraft, quote an addictive game(?). I find that it's like playing with 3d legos, which is probably what makes it so addictive. So far I have created 3 homes, a beach city, and a massive underground mine that I had to create a raidroad to get through faster.
Over all bored, waiting for monday so I can go to school. Thats really all i have. Also Kingdom Hearts Birth by sleep is Awesome!!!
I went into Gamestop today and bought a PSP, I figured I would give it a shot. I mostly wanted one because of Kingdom Hearts: Birth By sleep, which is pretty good, but i have only just started. I also picked up Star Ocean Second evolution, which is a remake of Star Ocean 2 for the PSX. I am actually playing that more than KH because I get very nostalgic playing it, and it's a blast.
Other than that nothing else to report. School is starting next week so im trying to get my sleeping back on track so I can begin. It's strange that my school begins so much later than My friends University, but it is a Community College, so I guess the standards are lowered, or they rush the material so they feel like they can skip a couple of weeks.
Anyway Ill try to post more often, but like I said, busy busy busy.
So I've cancelled all my game preorders from now till December, deciding that nothing looked that good to me. It all looks like more of the same, Ill wait till I see some games that have innovation.
The following were cancelled.
Halo:Reach - Not a big fan of halo in the first place, so I'm not sure why I placed the order, but It all looks more of the same with some new stuff, but it feels recycled from Call of Duty.
Fallout New Vegas - A friend once called New Vegas "A glorified Expansion" and the more I read, the more I agree, nothing new is added, graphics look the same and the guns are basically the same minus a couple new ones. Nothing that interests me enough to pay 60$
World Of Warcraft Cataclysm: I am free of wow. That is all I really need to say. But I admit I will probably pick this up in the future after being mildly impressed by the beta, but it does feel like more of the same and 5 years is enough murloc killing for one lifetime. Cancelled preOrder either way.
So now for my very short list of games I put on pre-Order
Deus Ex 3 - It looks amazing, and the more I hear the more I like, so I'm gonna give it a shot when it's released.
So I was reading through my junk, a collection of random thoughts or essays, or reply's I had written that I felt I needed to save (You may have seen some I have posted XD) when I cam across something I wrote about 6 months ago, Im not entirely sure what possessed me to write it but I did, and looking back I can't see why I saved it, so ill post it up.
It was supposed to be n outline of a web style series of shorts I wanted to do If i ever had the means to produce such a thing. This is a very rough outline, that is in the style of David Lynch, so I guess It's suppose to be more than it alludes to be and purposefully cryptic. Enjoy.
This series is about a man alone in a room, but the audiance clearly hears more than one voice, but nothing is in the shot aside from the lone man.
This series will allude that there is something else in the room but the room will appear empty making it up to the viewer whether the man is crazy or not. There will be subtle hints there may be a presence in the room with him but will never be stated clearly.
out of context the story will make very little sense, and it will be up to the viewer to decipher a meaning to the story.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Room 1 - Episode 1.
[Camera focus's in on a man on a couch, Trains can be heard in the background. It is dark with only enough lighting to show the man.]
(Black and white?)
Unknown: What was her name? (Played in reverse) (very quietly)
Jim: Jane?1
I found out.
Unknown: Found out what?1
She was In the room.
Unknown: I see.1
It will be night soon.1 [Lights fade a bit]
I will be there,1
This will end.1 [white noise at its peak]
Everything is fading.1
I am detached. 1 [white noise stops abruptly]
Are you coming? 1 [turn head slightly to the left looking at the wall]
___________________________________________________________________________________
Episode 2:
unknown: Yes that her name, where is she?
She went away.2
At the party.
unknown: Go on.2
I was blind. See what?2[Camera loses focus, during this phase a Black image can be seen in the background]
She will be sleeping. 2
waiting.2
She should have known better2
Shadows everywhere. 2 [red filter for rest of episode here]
There will be no more laughing. 2
____________________________________________________________________________________
Episode 3.
[as the final episode begins the room is much darker than the previous two episodes and white noise can be heard at excessive volume]
really
Unknown: why?3
They all laughed at me.
unknown: yes they did?3
I know What I should do.3
Alone. 3 {As he finishes this un comprehensible whispering can be heard.}
they won't laugh anymore. 3
I looked like a fool.3
It's Dark now. 3 [Eyes now appear black with no soul.]
[As he says this he gets up and proceeds out of the scene.]
[Option 1 the Money shot] About 30 seconds passes. [A black shadow appears to get up from the couch and approaches the camera]
[Option 2] [As Jim leaves the room he leaves the camera running, it goes into a power saving mode and returns on to see that Jim is crying on the floor in a ball, covered in blood]
[camera stops]
fin
____________________________________________________________________________________
So there it is, I don't know, kinda stupid, but I think it has potental if I worked out some of my ideas a bit better, but this is suppose to be surreal horror, so I guess I don't have to.
Thought I would post this, written about a year ago while I was in school, it was my final for English (got a B for it). I find it pretty relevant so ill post it up.
Does reading an online article make a person less intelligent? Well, no but what it does do is make us lazy and antisocial. The arrival of internet has yielded many great things. The largest benefit being the ability to have all the information in the world at our fingertips. The downside to this being an information overload. Too much information on too many topics ready to digest at a moment's notice but the reliability of this information may not always be accurate and occasionally will be downright deceiving . Having all this information on hands is proving to be a dangerous matter because as we look up topics we find that our brains are shifting rapidly among topics, not having enough time to absorb the information we are reading. So it should come as no surprise that some columnist's like Nicholas Carr are complaining how they seem to have a shortening attention span, not being able to make it through heavy material they once were able to. If prolonged use of the Internet leads well read columnists to lose interest in long books or articles then those who are most vulnerable and malleable will become affected in the largest way. For todays youth growing up in the digital age steals them of the ability to think critically about what they are reading in favor of looking for the first article to feed their already short attention span. This change in thinking not only affects how children and teens read and write but it can also affect how they behave in a society.
Children and teens are increasingly being raised by their computers, and because of this most will spend most of their time on social networking sites, or on Instant messengers, all of these encourage skimming through your friend pages, or writing short quickly paced sentences back and forth to their friends. In school when assigned a book they would much rather read the synapses on Wikipedia. In regards to the novel as an art form and how books might be a dying format, John Keilman said in his article "Is the novel too much for the tweet--addled brain?" "Not many people pine for the daguerreotype or the epic poem these days, so who's to say the novel (at least, any novel that doesn't feature boy wizards or a hottie vampire) has not become an equally obsolete art form." (Keilman.) What he is saying is that we may be approaching a time where the modern novel is becoming a relic of the past. This observation is none truer among today's youth who if asked to read a classic like "Romeo and Juliet" would turn their faces and rather ask for a quick summery.
Teenagers are not even absorbing what they read from synopsis online or in their friends blogs. In "Google is making us stupid." author Nicholas Carr, points out a study conducted by the University College of London that found that as people used who popular Internet research sites they "Found people using the sites exhibited "a form of skimming activity," hoping from one source to another and rarely returning to any source they had already visited." (Carr.) In other words what this means is that the subjects that took part in these studies were not properly absorbing the information they were taking in lowing their understanding of what they were looking up through skimming and never looking back at what they had read. This observation is also true of most teens today who naturally have a tendency to try to finish something quickly. Teens skim through a lot of what they read, but when you have a technology that encourages this behavior, it should come as no surprise that it will become part of ones natural way of thinking.
John Keilman writes about how, like Carr, he has lost the ability to finish long pieces of literature. He also points out his attention span is not limited to only books and articles but to television shows as well "I cannot make it through half of a TV drama or three inning of a baseball game before I grow restless."(Keilman.) He observes that his loss of interest is not limited to only literary activities, but rather it extends to his viewing habits. This would aid explanations that the rise in popularity of websites such as Twitter and YouTube, which offer ten minute video clips and one sentence thoughts. These websites only show how Teens, the popular demographic, have flooded those sites. They cannot sit through an hour on television anymore without the need to check what some random celebrity on Twitter is thinking.
This technological change is not just limited to how we read and write but it can also affect how teens behave socially. The Associated Press reported on concerns being brought up by UCLA psychologist who states that prolonged exposure to the Internet and other technology can alter how our brain operates. He argues "When the brain spends more time on technology related tasks and less time exposed to other people, it drifts away from fundamental social skills like reading facial expressions during a conversation"(Associated Press.) I agree because Kids today relate better to their computers than they do to actual people, and would rather send a text message then call someone. This increase in using computers in their lives would lead them to become socially awkward because if most of their time is spent in isolation away from society they lose the ability to relate to real people. The brain it is used to social interaction to develop, replacing a computer with that interaction would cause it to adapt to better suit it's environment, causing the adolescent to become awkward socially.
Some people may question this movement and ask whether the entire issue is being blown out of proportion. As the associated press points out John Rowe, 19--year old Internet enthusiast, who stated that he feels he is doing just fine despite being online most of the time.(Associated Press.) Although he thinks he is just fine I question whether he would be able to make it through a novel or if he would lose interest and go back to browsing online forums. Just as Socrates once rallied against the written word because he feared it would bring about the end of our ability to retain memory, it would seem some 4000 years later this same thing is happening except rather than the written word, What are we as a culture going to be when we cannot fully absorb any big articles or fully comprehend what we are reading. It appears to me as we would turn into sheep, believing the first thing we read and never question its importance. The ability to read deeply into things is our gateway into understanding motivations and increases our ability to critically thing about important issues.
I will admit right now that we do not know everything about what is changing in our brains during this technological shift, or even if this shift is indeed for the worse and not to our benefit. From the place we sit now I would say it is a negative effect, you can see this on any web page that allows comments to be posted, and you will see comments that display rapid thinking, bad grammar and poorly thought out sentences. Also looking at teens who play too many video games or isolate themselves, instead preferring to communicate with someone 3000 miles away making them socially awkward because they have not spent enough time socializing with real people over text based personalities. Looking at the these habits will make one aware of the changes we are going through in society through relying on the Internet as our main source of information and socialization.
We have gone through many changes in thought throughout the time we humans have been on this planet, from the invention of modern language, to the printing press, and now the digital revolution, this could just be growing pains as we learn to adapt and live with this new form of communication. But if society continues down this path what will the world look like when the average American cannot read anything past a few hundred pages, or how will they be able to understand complicated social if they are merely skimming the surface to get a general idea of what the writer is saying, not bothering to read any deeper. Where will society be if the average teen is attached to his modem, isolating themselves indoors lacking the social interaction of face to face communication in favor of few sentence texts and ten minute viral videos. In the end it comes down to how much of our humanity is society willing to give up in support of convenience?
Works Cited
The Associated Press. "Scientists: Is technology rewiring our brains? " Telegraph -
I figured i would post this response I made to some spam e-mails I was receiving, it was about how this country is a Christian Nation, The national day of Prayer, and how Obama is a Muslim devil.
Note: I have no Political affiliation, so Im not pro Obama, nor am I anti, but i do respond to baseless assertion and criticisms that hold no weight.
For starters, I just need to say this country was not founded as a Christian nation. To the contrary it was founded as a secular nation in which there was a clear separation of church and state look no further than the First Amendment which states : "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,". In fact many of the founding fathers were self described Deists and even what would be considered Humanist by today's standards. it's true they may have shared in some supernatural belief but they were by no means Christians(1). Aside from the Christian nation drivel, there should have never been a national day of prayer to begin with (In my opinion) as the "Holiday", enacted by Truman, was created to widen the divide between the United States and Communist Russia, who was viewed as a Godless country, and we as Americans looked at ourselves as a god-fearing people of that age. This was viewed as the main distinction between our cultures (not government's) and so the event was created (However this is speculation strangely. However, It fits with the Pledge which I address later so it makes sense).
That being said, the national day of Prayer did occur on May 7th, 2009, only difference being the current President decided not to openly take part in this fastidious event(2). He was not however, the first President to do so, in fact Clinton during his 8 years never attended the event and Former presidents Bush(Sr) and Reagan only attended one during their terms.(3). As far as Muslim prayers being used as a National day of prayer, that too was false a Muslim organization (Having been inspired by Obamas inauguration speech) sent in a letter asking to pray for Americas soul and it was granted and was attended by thousands (not tens of thousands as the message would have you believe.) and televised on CNN(2). Of course the implication of this E-mail is to misinform and villianize the current president as a Muslim, which of course is verifiably false(5). However, I do not see why his beliefs would come into play. Because as detestable and ridiculous as I find the Muslim religion, I find Christianity to be equally offensive upon reading the doctrine when followed at a fundamental level but at a moderate level is quite harmless to others (However willful ignorance, or lack of honest investigation may be harmful to yourself).
Muslims may glorify virtues such as self sacrifice and death for apostasy, but Christianity are, in many respects, exactly the same way ( Main point being that Fundamentalist Muslims do believe everyone who does not accept Allah will go to hell and needs to die, in the same way that Fundamentalist Christians believe that we need to outlaw science and in extreme cases kill those who advocate the teaching of verifiable natural science. Even the moderate Christians still believe that rejecting their one true book results in eternal damnation while they look down with joy. This last part is interpretation based but ive been told personally this will happen to me and I guess they are happy looking at people being burned forever as this (to me) would be a most horrible sight for anyone). As they are both based off of the Abrahamic Religions of the Bronze Age desert, both share various similarities and borrow from other myths in history that go beyond the scope of this article. But the Difference between this country and a Fundamentalist Theocracy like Iran is that we live in a Secular Nation where we don't have a state religious government telling us how we need to live our lives and what we need to believe. And yes, im damn glad he declared this was no longer a Christian nation (However given the misinformation spread throughout this e-mail I would not doubt that that too is false, only wishful thinking on my part.)
Lastly, I also must wander if we are REALLY suppose to live by the 10 commandments (as supported by the end of the e-mail), including all the other Old Testament rules like Stoning people for working on the Sabbath ext, ext, ext.
Or if we are to follow the Pledge of allegiance that was prior to the Cold war
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands; one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all."(4)
Ironically "Under god" was added in the 50's, about the same time that the national day of prayer was instituted.(4)
Basically what this e-mail boils down to is spreading doubt and misinformation to a vulnerable demographic who will generally buy into anything as long as it fits within their little bubble. This blind attitude against others is what leads to extremism, as in if someone feels that these messages are accurate and true, they might turn militant and extremist. After all our beliefs inform our actions, especially those that are held close. This can be seen in recent cases such as people suspecting the government is being taken over by a New World Order because they read a very convincing e-mail and decided to barricade themselves indoors, rather than do some objective research to see if the claims made are true or false, like in this case im positive of the millions this has been filtered to many people will read it and take it to heart and get their guns ready for a Muslim Holy war or some such nonsense. All over a Spam message that was, from start to finish, all FALSE.
Now I realize this is kind of a blanket statement and a radical hypothetical statement, but I feel it necessary to reply to this Spam message as I have a lot to say about the subject of Misinformation, and propaganda among people of faith and the blatant cherry picking that goes on in one's own beliefs not only about politics, but also Religion and what you decide is true or false and how we come to that decision.
Although It must make one wonder if they are only spreading deceit and lies then what is their true intention.
Anyway I hope you enjoyed the read, even if you didn't agree with my little rant I hope it made you ponder what gets sent around here on the internet.
Chris H. (and yes I wrote this entire article)
Anyway as a side note I hope everything's going good up there are you guys are keeping in high spirits!
Now for some RELIABLE Sources. (Something people should use more of!
1. Iron Chariots - Website dedicated to debunking a lot of the wild claims made by Christian Apologists.
America is a Christian Nation - http://wiki.ironchariots.org/index.php?title=America_is_a_Christian_nation
2. Muslim Prayer Day Sept. 25th - http://www.factcheck.org/2009/09/muslim-prayer-day-sept-25/
3. National Day of Prayer - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Day_of_Prayer
4. Pledge of Allegiance - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_Allegiance
Notice: Ive been supporting everyone yet, no one is supporting me, minus a couple of people. Now I get that im not commenting but I am supporting. Either way It's understandable because I have not posted anything new in a couple of days while I am recovering. I will try to be more active this week but I will be busy and I am still sick.
