Things That Make You go Huh? Volume 3

Jedi, Wookies, Storm Troopers… Oh my!

I am a major fan of Star Wars. However, I’m not a big enough fan to dress the part, but in my heart I am a Jedi in training. The whole set up of a classic struggle between good and evil (when its done right) that gets me mesmerized.

However, there is just something about 17 hours of my life sitting in a giant movie theatre and watching all six movies that really makes me wonder what I’m doing with my life. This week in Los Angeles thousands of Star Wars fans get the mother of all Star Wars conventions: 17 hours worth of Star Wars from beginning to end. Do these people get to go home and take a nap? Can you imagine 17 hours of no sleep and watching Star Wars the entire time? By the eleventh hour I’m sure everyone starts looking like Yoda.

Crazy, Crazy ‘bout… Something

Some of you may have heard of this guy, Kenneth Eng. He’s a guy with – issues – to say the least. After the shootings at Virginia Tech he released a short clip on Youtube praising the killer, Cho Seung-hui. He’s also been in the news for his not so friendly race relation talk. Just when you think strange people couldn’t get any weirder they go and surprise you.


Children’s Army Part 2

For some reason I don’t get freaked out when my eight-year-old cousin picks up a plastic, oversized gun and aims for my head. But for some reason when a 5-year-old kindergartener says :

I’m going to bomb, bomb, bomb the school and everyone in it.

After reading this story I realized how crazy it must be in live in a country where at such a young age you have the mentality that you have to liberate your country. Completely mind-boggling. I can’t even begin to imagine what they must be thinking everyday they wake up and think what’s going on outside their window, to be so young, and so aware of their environment. It puts so many of us to shame, since our own involvement with the situation is through our local news channel on TV during dinner. There is no way to even try to put yourself in these children’s shoes, no way at all.


-- Eming Piansay

Life in Full Screen/Widescreen

I went used Dvd shopping yesterday. Though, I probably shouldn't have. One of the three discs I picked up were The Usual Suspects and to my surprise it was an older version that had one side of the disc in standard fullscreen and the other side in widescreen. Too bad money has become the bottom line. If those people who distribute this stuff we're more focused on happy customers and less on the number of 0's show up in their overall bank account, ALL dvds would have this. Then, there wouldn't be that moment where you brain explodes because you like full screen but one of you TV screen is only widescreen and you can't stand the screen formats the movie. Cursive..annoying... blah.

Your DVD Player Will Love You

Sorry I haven't been doing a lot of blogging for awhile but finals are here and - well - if you are or have been in college you know what that means. NO LIFE AT ALL. Anyway, this week New Line released the Academy Award winning Pan's Labyrinth on DVD.For those of you who haven't watched it - go to your local video store and watch it. I know the trailers are really misleading, and the current trailers for the DVD aren't too great either but this movie kicks total ass.

I don't see how anyone can not fall in love with this film. I'll post more thought provoking stuff soon, pinky swear.

Awesome Jobs For the Underdog

Whoever said to be an artist requires you to starve to death should get their brain x-rayed. With the popular boom of Youtube just about anyone can show the world what they can do – art related and beyond. Recently, Youtube decided to make a portion of their audience partners in their company and would ultimately get these people paid for posting their videos.

Youtube posters like Valentina are just a few consistent uploaders who scored a large enough audience to get them paid to do it.

Valentina is an artist. And like so many of her kind, unless you’re skilled in graphic design, or computer related art chances are you probably aren’t making the million dollars you wish you were making. With the financial support of Youtube, Valentina may have helped opened a door that few artists may have known existed.

The best job an artist can hope to get is one that allows you to pretty much exploit your passion to the fullest AND getting paid for it. This, dear friend, is my ideal utopia.

-- Eming Piansay

Over Doing it a Bit

I grew up on Disney. I LOOOOOVE Disney. I think I broke the Blockbuster copy of Sleeping Beauty because I was so in love with the movie. but THIS is freakin weird. I know I am a Disney freak..but this is just.... serious... WTF.

And most of the dresses (not including the yellow one from Beauty and the Beast) doesn't even LOOK like the dresses from the movie... sheesh.

"Formal" Discrimination

This sounds like the modern day Cinderella story. Minus the fairy godmother, evil step sisters, and a dashing prince. In this case the transportation is covered, the dress is ready, and the zillion make-up and hair accessories are on standby. But replace the evil stepmother with school administrators following the student voted for restricts people going to the prom alone.

The video
explains it all. But the whole story really makes me want to bang my head against my keyboard.

And the student government’s reason for this whacked-out rule?

The student government wanted the prom to be more of a formal event. By barring the singles? Oh yeah, that's real formal. Formal discrimination.

“Formal” just sounds another word for social filtering. It could be possible we have unknowing been transported into the Victorian ages of giant ball gowns, and wigs that take up half the room, and egos so massive prom goers without any dates would just get in the way of all their twirling.

I wonder if a formal prom rule would prohibit freaking. If not, then in that case the stags are better off.

A Secret is a Secret

I don't get it. It ain't a secret, if everyone knows it.

Third Times The Charm?

I haven't seen Spider Man yet but I am timid as hell. From past experiences (such as the Matrix trilogy) it is really, really hard to pull off a trilogy. I don't even know why movie industries even bother. If the focus of these ventures weren't solely based on making money and was veered more towards the actual content of the movie then maybe -- just maybe people wouldn't walk out feeling cheated, and wouldn't make the decision to stop going to movie because they are so overpriced it could make a baby cry.

If even the main characters and director aren't totally committed to doing ANOTHER installment, does the industry really think they would be able to just replace these characters? Audiences aren't stupid. Sure... maybe some are... but that would be not only a waste of money but waste of film. If Spider Man 3 is as bad as everyone seems to think it is, the producers should have left it at 2 movies, and skipped the whole bad aftertaste.

iPod, iCheat

When I took geometry summer classes at my high school I was tearing my hair out over a problem that I could not decipher to save my life. But when I glanced up I would see a handful of my classmates very, very obviously sending each other answers to the test via text messages. I know I probably failed the test anyway but still! I would have appreciated failing and knowing that I wasn’t the only one who didn’t understand the material. Instead, whatever grading curve was originally in place and could have possibly added a little cushion between myself and the giant letter ‘F’, was cut even tighter by the text message cheaters.

Technology is the closet thing to power. When you’re at the age where technology becomes second nature everything else is fair game. School isn’t easy. Most of us can testify to that. When you’re backed into a corner and say a very, very scary test is looming, and you haven’t studied because – well – in all sincere honesty – you just had other important things to do. For many, cell phones have become the go-to device for quick and easy communication. And like the situation I showed earlier cell phones became the quick and easy way to cheat and maybe not getting caught.

With the rise of public admiration for the all-mighty iPod, cell phones may become new method preferred by 4 out of 5 classroom cheats. Though the iPod’s primary use has been for music and movie addicts, a useful feature that allows the user to upload whole documents into their little player, or recording the answers on an audio file before hand and then stealthy playing them back without anyone noticing . The iPod has become a pocket failsafe for students in a crunch, or just the ever-growing lazy generation. If kids were sneaky enough to use their phones to message answers across the room, pulling out the iPod and scrolling down the play lists probably won’t be any difficult.

If this isn’t a sign that the youth culture is on the verge of taking over the world – then the youth generation has been severely underestimated.