Decency

Was reading Digg today, and found a link to an article about decency. Or more specifically, an interview of a person who wrote a book about decency in America.

The upshot of it all seems to be that there is a war going on in America. A Decency War (C). This war is taking place between the religious right (a crusade against sex and nudity and such) and people who want boobs on TV.

One of the basic premises of the book seems to be that this war has been increasing in intensity over the past 30 years or so. The author seems to think that, while the issue has been around for a while, people haven't cared about it much before now.

Now, sex has been around for a while. And for as long as it has been around, sex has been described in whatever medium men had at hand. I also think that there have always been people who cared about whether or not their children had access to this media.

The change that's happened over the last 30 years isn't with the issue, or with people's opinions on it. I think that the difference we've seen over recent decades is one towards reliance on our government.

To quote the author of the book in question, "the breast-baring accidents of Hollywood actors such as Faye Emerson and Jayne Mansfield did not result in any mass campaigns for 'family values.'" This is true, but not because people didn't care.

If people have a problem with what is on TV, they should turn off the TV. Media is not forced upon us. If popular media has become too objectionable - (and, for the record, I think that popular media reflects popular culture - not the other way around) - then we should disconnect ourselves from the popular media.

But Americans today (even the radical right-wing religious folks) have become too dependent on their government. They don't have the balls to remove themselves from the popular media - they want big brother to do it for them.

An observation of college classes

I am taking 3 classes this semester that require me to spend time in a classroom. Two of them are standard business courses (ECON 211 - Macroeconomics and COMM 311 - Business Communication) and the other is a computer science course (CSCE 235 - Discrete Mathematics).

There is a marked difference between the two genres of class.

+ Everybody shows up for the computer science course. You see the same faces in class every day, because the students in that class know that you just have to go to class to do well. Attendance is spotty in the two business courses, and some of those who do show up are obviously not paying attention.

+ In computer science, you have homework to do. As soon as one is completed, another one is assigned - if not sooner! It *will* take you at least 4-6 hours to do, and it does force you to learn the material. The business classes have no homework to speak of - the worst out-of-classroom work has been some truly stupid group work in my communications class.

+ There are a lot more girls in the business classes. Seriously. There's only one girl in Discrete Mathematics.

Students in both classes complain about the same amount for their assigned workload, but the students in my computer science class have a lot more reason to complain. They're all computer science or computer engineering - I'm the only business major.

The joke's on you!

I'll bet when you saw that my blog was named "I'm not going to type here" you thought I was joking, didn't you? Didn't you? Well, I guess I showed you!

It's (A short movie review of Hoodwinked)

It's another animated movie with Patrick Wartburton! Wartburton, AKA Kronk, AKA Joe Swanson, AKA Brock Samson, is as good a reason as any to see a movie. But this movie delivers on other levels, as well!

It's funny, yet clean enough to watch with the family. It's got characters you pretty much all know, without resorting to a rehash of old fairy tales or a straight-up irreverent spoof of their Disney equivalents (Shrek).

It's a quality children's movie, that manages to avoid fart jokes for an entire 80 minutes, and still remain cool enough to watch in the pad of some frat boy on a weekend.

I realize that this review gives no synopsis of the movie whatsoever, so if you want an idea of what it's like, check out the trailer on Apple's Page. This movie receives the Duff Seal of Approval.

Movie Review: Ultraviolet

Yes, I saw this movie.

It was directed by Kurt Wimmer, director of Equilibrium (one of my favorite movies)! It stars Milla Jovovich, who did a pretty good job playing an action-heroine in the Resident Evil movies. The trailers made it look good! Action and guns and swords and stuff... I was ready to pay $2 to see this one.

I really don't know what to say about the movie overall. There wasn't much dialogue, which is a plus, since the only lines were flat, worthless, and worse than predictable (I would have predicted less cheesy lines).

There were two basic fight scenes - in the first, a small army rushes in and surrounds her. She spins around somehow with a sword, and they all fall over dead at once. In the second, they run at her one at a time, and she slashes 'em down.

Either way, half the movie is taken up with those same two fight scenes played over and over again on mildly different sets.

Let's see, bad dialogue, bad fight scenes... those were really the defining points of this movie. It's hard to say too much about the acting, since the actors weren't really given much to work with, but they didn't appear to make much of an effort anyway.

There were some bad CG effects... shaky camera work... all those scenes where the picture was blurred to make up for a lack of effort in shooting... yeah, don't even get close to this one. If you ever feel tempted to check it out, go watch Equilibrium instead. There's a quality film.

I'm still alive?

It's pretty shocking to realize that it's been two and a half months since I last posted here. In my defense, I'd like to say that it only seemed like a week or so.

I'm finally done with classes, so I can concentrate on more important things - like taking classes over the summer, and working.

As the news clips on my home page change daily, there are a few issues that I have cared enough about to mention here.

As an off-and-on South Park watcher, I appreciate the writers' abilities to use satire to comment on current issues. I managed to catch Cartoon Wars Part II on Comedy Central the first day it aired. If you haven't heard anything about it yet, you can click the link, but long story short - Comedy Central censored an animated image of Muhammad giving a salmon covered football to Peter Griffin of Family Guy.

I really don't know what to say about that one - Comedy Central folded. I was disappointed. I could rant a bit about how much other stuff South Park has gotten away with without censorship, but that's not really the point. The cable channels should be able to show what they want to - if people don't like it, they won't watch.

What is disturbing is Comedy Central giving in to terrorist threats, letting them win.

I would recommend that you watch that episode (Cartoon Wars) if you get the opportunity.

Here is a direct link to a Windows Media Video of the unedited clip of Muhammad from Part II. (1.05MB)

Censorsh*p

Browsing my RSS feeds this evening, I stumbled upon an interesting read. Apparently, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft got raked over the coals recently by Congress.

There's already been controversy surrounding the major internet search players recently-developed versions of their page for Chinese citizens - created in cooperation with China's censorship policies.

China filters thousands of web pages from it's citizens. Though it seems to have blocked a few random porn pages for some reason, it's main focus seems to be blocking out news and other information (including, for unknown reasons, pages on homosexuality and sexually transmitted diseases). I tried to find a list of pages that were known to be blocked, and found some good information from a study done at Harvard. It includes a page devoted to some of the highlights of the web pages filtered by China. The website choices range from confounding, to angering.

Anyway, Google appears to be blocking everything China wants them to, and more - why they block the home pages of some beer producers, I have no idea. More information on the random website blockage on CNet News.

Google's now-famous motto ("Don't be evil") has been getting thrown around a lot in light of their recent flirting with China. I don't know, no matter how badly you want to be providing services to China's huge population, this seems like too much bad publicity - why would an internet staple like Google want to get in bed with a government so concerned with blocking the Internet from it's citizens?

It occurs to me

It seems that most men and women between the ages of 18 and 22 would like to meet those of the opposite sex in one or more of these ways:

1. By going to meeting places frequented by people with similar interests
2. By talking to someone at a meeting place they both spend time at (work, class, other organizations).
3. While under the effects of alcohol.

I just don't see the point of social events (for the purpose of meeting new people) that don't fall into one of these categories.

Those poor poor dormies

It's 3:30AM right now, and I'm still awake.

If I was living in the dorms, I would have probably been in bed by 12:00-1:00. I could have gotten 8 hours of sleep easily.

The only reason I'm still awake now is because I went downstairs to talk to one of my fraternity brothers about a social event going on tomorrow evening involving ice cream and females (simultaneously!). I didn't get upstairs until 2 and a half hours later because I got caught up in talking with my brothers about random crap while watching the show Homewreckers, featuring the crazy pranks of some guy from Jackass.

I finally managed to tear myself from the hilarity, only to get caught up in a discussion about girls with two other guys at the bottom of the stairwell. Eventually, the conversation degenerated into a discussion of what crazy movies we were going to watch this weekend. (The Japanese zombie movie "Wild Zero" is the headliner.)

Holy crap - if I lived in the dorms, I doubt I'd have more than one or two friends. My roommate would probably be the only person I knew well. And, there would be an automatic 50% chance that the person assigned to be my roommate would grate on my nerves horribly, making my life that much suckier.

I can't help but pity those dormies. I'd guess that only 10% of the campus is actively social - and I'd say half of those people are members of the greek system (7% of those on campus are in a greek house). Crazy.

Easy classes

There seem to be two acceptable definitions for the term "easy class." To my understanding, what most people mean when they talk about having an "easy class" this semester is that they are in a class that
1. Doesn't require homework very often
2. Doesn't have many quizzes/tests
3. Requires little in-class participation
But when I'm looking for classes (and I *do* like to have it easy) I find myself hoping for classes that
1. Have lots of take-home homework (that I can do right and be sure of 100%)
2. Lots of small quizzes that I can prepare for a little at a time
3. Chances to make up bad grades on old quizzes/homeworks
I'd rather do some more work to get a guaranteed A then do minimal work and roll the dice for a grade between B- and A.

The indie blog

Perhaps you've seen those little blurbs on other blog sidebars - the "how much is your blog worth" box with G Washington's mug front and center. A bit pretentious? Perhaps. Well, I decided to attach one to the bottom of my insignificant sidebar. Check it out - my blog is worth a grand total of $0.00!

I hereby dedicate this blog to the mysterious gods of the Indie Culture. This blog is Cool, because no one knows about it! If you are reading this, then consider yourself special - you are enjoying something that no one else has heard about! Can you feel the warm glow of being In? The fuzzy sensation of being the only person to discover a cultural product of sub-par quality?

Enjoy this new sensation of Cool. If you'd like more of the same, feel free to check out the Internet. There's an entire genre of music dedicated to chasing this euphoria you've just discovered - bands unsigned by a record label - freeballing it in the music world, as it were.

Much as I'd like to tell you more about other cool indie stuff, I'm too busy being the only person in the know. Peace out.

Time to celebrate my black heritage

It seems odd that a government that had so little reason to appreciate Martin Luther King Jr. and his annoying views of the US Government would create a national holiday in his honor.

It's almost as if a bunch of old white guys got together to discuss Ways to Make Black People Happy. Why not give them a holiday? We've got some notes on the calendar to remind us of some dead president's birthdays, and we even bother to take note of the First White Guy to visit America.

Though I may be woefully ignorant of all of MLK's opinions and speeches, I know enough to wonder if he would really appreciate by being remembered for inspiring a federal holiday observed mostly by large corporations and government institutions.

But who am I to complain? I get a 3 day weekend.

Band of the week - nay, the month!

A few months ago, I stumbled upon Pandora.com. Pandora is an online radio that builds a custom station for you based on a band you enter. It's a good way to find new bands in the same genre as your favorite artists.

I was listening to Sum 41 radio, and getting a bunch of crap punk - when all of a sudden, I hear a new sound. I was a bit worried at first - it seemed so outrageous, so ridiculous - what the junk was up with the lead singer's voice? It was almost as if he was trying to sing normally, but what he really wanted to do was be screaming at the top of his lungs.

A bit later, another song by the same artist rolled around. I was starting to get interested - this stuff sounded fresh, and I wanted more. I looked into the band - named Billy Talent, I had been catching tracks off of their self titled album from 2003.

I acquired the album, and started listening to it liberally. It's an album with a solid rock beat, appealing guitar riffs, and energetic vocals. Apparently, they're on the popularity upswing at the moment, and have a few music videos out already. They're worth noting just because they seem to have found a genre untouched by most pop bands - avoiding the ho-hum rock formula, they've got the energy to pull off the yelling and screaming that they let fly.

The lyrics might not be anything terribly special, but at least they don't try for some kind of vague deepness. The album is well executed, with an entertaining new riff in almost every song. A solid secular band - worth a listen or two, at least.

The night before class...

I stayed up a bit later then I intended to - I meant to be in bed by now, but some of the guys started a game of The Settlers of Catan and I couldn't pass it up.

Another semester about to start... the possibility of a decent education, the passing of time, insert generic deep sounding statement here. All I need to do is average an A- and make enough money to break even this semester.

Two of the three class I'm taking tomorrow are econ classes. Now, call me cynical, but I am of the opinion that it is possible to learn more about economics by going into the retail business (or another enterprise based on a free market) and learning from experience. Or, by paying attention to someone else who has already amassed experience in that area.

Alas, I am almost positive that my classes will deal with the theoretical side of economics, and involve the memorization of equations and formulas. I glanced at my books - looks like just another sort of math, which is good for my grades - but somewhat disappointing.

My second semester, I took a business communication class one evening a week that happened to be taught by a local businessman. I consider that class the most useful one I have taken so far - he followed the curriculum prescribed by the College of Journalism, but managed to teach useful and practical things on written business communication.

Looking back at the 14 classes I've taken to date, I can count 3 classes - one per semester - that I enjoyed/felt like I benefited from. I suppose I should be glad that the scholarship money wasn't completely wasted each semester. With any luck, I might learn something this semester too.

A gem of a joke

I'm not the kind of guy who usually links to other people's blond jokes, but this one is just too good to pass up.

Why can't they just pick my pockets like an honest robber?

I can stand useless classes, crappy teachers, and the fact that attendance is a major factor in my grade. Whatever. But why does the university have to rape me once a semester when it comes to textbooks?

I'm aware of the fact that the publishers charge exorbitant prices in the first place. A standardized textbook for a class like economics, math, or computer science is just going to be expensive - because the publisher knows that hundreds of thousands of students will pay whatever they ask in a desperate attempt to succeed at their classes.

But why does the university have to play along? For the love of all that is good and cheap, the principals of algebra have not changed that much over the last two years. What could possibly justifying spending over $100 on a book to learn, say, economics - when you could be learning from a book dated (gasp) two years back - for $20?

The university doesn't move up to the latest edition when the books become dated. They have an equation based on the number of used books being sold versus the number of new books being sold. Once the ratio of used books sold to new books sold gets high enough, they move up to the next edition.

It's a good racket - hard to beat. I can get through my computer science classes without cracking the book, so I saved myself $120 on books for that class this semester. I don't feel optimistic enough to try my economics and statistics classes without the aid of books, though - I paid $20 for a $100 book for my economics class by searching used books on Amazon, but I couldn't find any worthwhile deals for my statistics books. I spent $190 on (USED) books for that class.

I still have to get some books for my history class, but since it's not one of the huge general classes (like American History after 1877, for example) it only has a few cheaper books - I should only end up dropping $30 to get the books for that class.

If I only knew that they would give me a decent price at the end of the year, it wouldn't be so bad - heck, I'd settle for 50% of the used price. But I know I'll be doing good to get 10% of the used price, if they decide to pay me anything at all. Once they move up to the next edition, they won't even give you a dumpster to throw your books in.

Movie review: King Kong

I don't usually pay full price to watch a movie in theatres, and King Kong reminded me of why this is.

Being a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings movies, how could I not be interested in watching Peter Jackson's latest production? I mean, it may have been based on a cheesy movie that I never cared enough about to bother watching, but still - I was willing to give Jackson the benefit of the doubt.

But not even an optimistically attitude could make this movie any more than a forgettable CG fest. Flanked fore and aft by half hours of corny tripe, the most interesting parts of the movie are the ones full of expensive looking computer generated dinosaurs and people getting crushed.

It turns out that the most interesting aspects of the movie are the details surrounding it, not the movie itself - the special effects were done by Weta Workshop, of Lord of the Rings (and Narnia!) fame, and they did look top-notch. The big monkey looked real, and the dinosaur/Kong battles were downright exciting. And yes, the bugs were creepy.

Apparently, I almost got to enjoy another Howard Shore soundtrack, but he had a falling out with Jackson a few months before the movie's release. The final soundtrack was composed by some guy named James Newton Howard, who's written soundtracks for other movies that are pretty well known (though perhaps not for their soundtracks, as LotR was).

I wanted to enjoy a Jackson movie between Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit - but it's starting to look like Hobbit might not get made in the near future after all. Peter Jackson's next two scheduled movies are The Lovely Bones and Halo - not Tolkien related at all! Maybe Peter Jackson is just good at remaking old stories. With lots of pretty CG.

He certainly had the budget to make it look all fancified and shiny - apparently, the film had a budget of $207 million. They've made about 75% of that back already. Jackson got paid $20 million in advance to direct the movie - setting a record, as well as emphasizing a Hollywood trend equating quantity with quality. Eh well, I should stop ragging on Jackson - I still owe him plenty of props for his big trilogy.

The nightly paradox

To go to bed, where I have to lay still and feel useless until sleep takes me, or to stay up late and be too tired to pull myself out of bed in the morning? Logic dictates an earlier bed time, but alas, the flesh is weak.