Bobby's Blog!!!! Weeeee

2004-04-22T00:13:00.000-07:00

We finished the group presentations today in class. The first group was very well organized and spoke about genetic engineering. They had a lot of concrete data to support their argument and I liked how they surveyed the class to see how we compared to the national standard. The group really knew a lot about their topic too. I was impressed with their ability to answer questions easily. Their presentation was very well planned and practiced; overall it ran very smooth except for the food. They decided to give out cokes and popcorn but did not realize all the noise and commotion that the food would have on their presentation. Between the crunching of popcorn and the popping of tops I could barely hear them speaking. Overall they were very good and knowledgeable on the subject.
The second group spoke about how technology has revolutionized the sports scene. Their presentation was very impromptu, mainly because of technical difficulties. The group’s PowerPoint did not load on the Mac computer so they had to resort to simply speaking without any visual aids. One member of their group accessed his part of the presentation through his email account but it did not make up with the rest of the group. Their topic was very intriguing as they analyzed the various changed that new technologies can have on sports and competition. They also went on to discuss the “fantasy” sports that have become popular online. In these leagues the members draft a team online and instead of playing games they earn points depending on how their players do in real life. I liked the premise of their presentation but the group failed in the execution of it. They would have done much better if their presentation had worked for them but they made the best of it.
The final group was fairly well planned. They had a nice presentation made up in PowerPoint. They used their slides mainly as visual eye-candy instead of showing facts and data. This was a good approach with their topic since they could show off many of the new technologies in space travel. Most of the information regarding deep-space travel is merely speculative anyways so they chose to show the exotic spacecrafts and planets. Their presentation was especially interesting to me since I am an AE and may very well be doing this stuff in four years when I graduate. I liked their presentation a lot.

2004-04-06T16:58:00.000-07:00

Don Delillo writes about the World Trade Center bombing in his essay “In the ruins of the future.” His essay creates many points dealing with topics such as technology, the media, and our thoughts on religion. He speaks about how people in other countries hate us for no other reason than our technological advancements and money. The United States is the most advanced and prosperous country in the world and many smaller countries are jealous and hate us for it. The religion that these terrorists follow tells them that, as soldiers for this religious war, they will reach heaven if they die while fighting. Delillo likens the prayer of a terrorist to “[pledging one’s] submission to God and [meditating] on the blood to come.” These terrorists are brainwashed from a young age to hate Americans and others who are more advanced or richer than they are. Delillo describes how these terrorists take down our technology with their attacks; the cell phones around New York stopped working after the towers fell. This consequence is symbolic because without cell phones many people were forced to communicate just as the people would over in the poor sections of the Middle East. The essay contains an account of the attacks from one of Delillo’s relatives. This serves to personalize the story and allow us to see the impact that the attacks had on a person in the vicinity. While cell phones were out, conventional phones worked and Karen called all of her relatives to tell them good-bye. While the destruction was occurring this family was thrust back into a more primitive time where they had no other worries than for their own lives. I think the terrorists are making a statement that we have become too disconnected from our own personal lives with the advent of many new technologies. The terrorists kill us because we are not “just” as they are according to their religion. Instead of living in a desert we live in towns and cities and drive automobiles around. After coming home from working we can turn on the television or computer and check up on global news or electronically talk to family across the country. I am proud of these technologies because they allow us to enjoy our lives much more than prior generations have been able to. These terrorists kill because they simply do not understand our way of life. The sad part is that the killing will continue until we can reach a mutual understanding.

2004-04-06T00:10:00.000-07:00

The other day my girlfriend and I were watching old reruns of Futurama and one episode sparked my curiosity. Earlier I had written about the impact of advertisements on our subconscious thoughts and actions and in this episode the character Fry is surprised that in the future advertisements are placed in dreams. He wakes up and tells his friends who then explain that it is a common practice at the time. They all go to the mall and feel compelled to buy certain useless items and do not know why. The advertisers send out gamma radiation which manifests itself as ads in your dreams. Are our brains free from the reaches of advertisers? Even though the show is set in the future the concept is far from science fiction. I do not know of any actual scientific studies on the matter but know that I have experienced similar results when listening to music while asleep. I will wake up after the CD finishes and be humming a tune and do not recognize it, or I’ll be singing the words and not know the song. This information goes straight into our brain without conscious thought to filter out the junk. Some people talk in their sleep and are brutally honest and will wake up and not even remember talking. The thought of advertisements invading my brain without my knowledge troubles me. I realize that the actual technology is very far off but it is still unsettling. A brain is our own private possession, if you can even say that. Advertisers will always look for new ways to promote their product and eventually it will pass on into the subconscious realm. Consider yourself warned.

2004-03-30T21:18:00.000-08:00

I went to go see a great concert last October. Thursday, Thrice, and Coheed and Cambria, three of my favorite bands played at the Masquerade. It was the first time I had seen Thursday and Coheed live, and in my opinion Coheed and Cambria truly stole the whole show. Their energetic live show and immensely talented members outperformed the two more popular bands. I had not known about Coheed as long as the other two bands, but instantly fell in love with them. They even did a nice cover of the Iron Maiden song "The Trooper." Thrice is a good band with a good live show but they do not captivate the audience as well as Thursday or Coheed. I saw Thrice at the Warped Tour over the summer and their show seemed almost the same the second time around. Thursday was very good live, and I'm sure I would have enjoyed them more if I was not still in awe at the greatness of Coheed and Cambria. Thursday catered to the audience very well and put on a very good live show. Geoff Rickly, the lead singer of Thursday, is very emotional in his singing and really gets into the music. In one of their songs he seemed to be on the verge of crying because of the song's sad theme. I would definitely recommend everyone reading this to go listen to some Coheed and Cambria, because the band is on the rise to stardom right now. Thursday and Thrice have already established themselves in the underground punk/emo scene and are staples of popular tours like the Warped Tour.

2004-03-25T23:55:00.000-08:00

On page 155 Delillo writes about how ingrained the brand names are in his brain. Jack hears the words “Toyota Celica” and it brings images of gods and ancient cultures to his brain. He then jumps to other models of Toyotas, such as the Corolla, the Cressida, and the (possibly subconscious even for Delillo) Supra. I say subconscious for Delillo because after naming off the other cars he uses the word “supranational” which is a made up word that I’m guessing means something that is able to be spoken by people of all nationalities; the irony is that the Supra was the fastest Toyota car ever made. The images invoked by the name could be past commercials used to advertise the car or they could just be images of grandeur that go along with the sporty little car. Babette obviously was dreaming of something along these lines because she mumbled the words in her sleep, prompting the whole monologue. He describes the advertisements as being “part of every child’s brain noise.” Kids are raised with advertisements all around them. Last year in English class we watched a video showing elementary school aged kids who could identify a product simply by a single letter that was displayed in the logo’s font, such as the “T” in Tide, or the “S” in Snickers. The children could guess every single one. Children are very easy to persuade at a young age, and I wonder what kind of advertisements they can hear as children in their mothers’ wombs. It has been proven that children can hear what is going on outside their mother when they are a simple fetus. Auditory advertisements on the radio or television could be heard by the growing baby who may not know what they mean but is still influenced by them. The child may not be able to consciously remember the ad but a simple jingle or slogan can quickly bring it back to their memory. This passage got me thinking about subconscious effects advertisements have on our thoughts and actions. We are exposed to millions of advertisements each year and over the years these ads just keep on adding up.

2004-03-22T21:05:00.000-08:00

The chemical Dylar suppressed Babette's fear of death by deadening some of the chemical impulses in her brain. I believe that the passage dehumanizes our traditional beliefs of the human brain and soul for that matter. It makes our brain almost seem like a computer, with a bunch of little transistors turning on and off to relay emotions as well as thoughts and opinions. I do not like Delillo's approach to the subject because it makes it seem like our brains have a set limit to what they can accomplish and hold. I guess the passage serves as a visual metaphor for how our brain works but do not agree with it at all. It takes away the whole concept of free will. We cannot truly think for ourselves if every action we take is a result of a former consequence as well as prior knowledge. How can a conscience exist if every thought is simply a set of chemical reactions occurring in a set pattern? If Heinrich's theory was true it seems like a person would be able to hook his brain up to a computer and download all of his or her memories for later viewing. This would also allow for the police to simply search through a convict's brain to see if the convict actually committed the crime; it would allow for an infinitely better judicial system since memories cannot lie. At its base Heinrich's brain theories prove true, but are a simple interpretation of how the complex human brain works.

2004-02-23T23:21:00.000-08:00

Unsilent Revolution is another useful book for writing my research paper. It is written by Robert Donovan and Ray Scherer. This book has a broad variety of topics from the past forty years in news. The book begins with the media and how they covered the civil rights movement in the south all the way up to the Persian Gulf War. Unlike TV and the National Defense this book does not have lots of graphs and direct information, but is more generalized. It is still very helpful as it gives more background information surrounding the stories and reporters. The book is not as specialized and it tells the stories found in different types of media also. Mr. Donovan tells the stories very personally and I felt like I was actually there by reading his book. He also writes about how the public and public officials respond to the news. Unsilent Revolution should give me plenty of insight into writing my research paper.

2004-02-14T17:38:00.000-08:00

I went to the library today and checked out a couple of books about my research paper. One of the more interesting books that I got is Ernest W. Lefever's TV and National Defense: An Analysis of CBS News, 1972-1973. The book is about how CBS News portrayed important events during 1972. I mainly used the book for its section on the Vietnam War. The book had many important statistics about news stories at the time. It also showed how the news changed the public opinion regarding the good-guys and bad-guys, a line often blurred during war times. There were charts showing the frequency of certain stories and the resulting viewership. Lefever tells about how CBS was overly critical of the US government at the time and less critical of the Communist, Northern Vietnamese government. During 1972 there were 76 stories about how poorly the Army was running, and a measly 33 about how good the Army was. In the news stories about the American government and its policies only 25% were supportive. This book clearly outlines the tactics that a news corporation can use to influence the public's perception of an overseas war.

2004-02-08T19:40:00.000-08:00

The Ring had a very obvious visual motif with bland colors. It seemed as if the director used a red blocker lens to enhance the greens in the scenes. The darker colors make the movie appear very gloomy and dismal. The filter also makes the movie seem a little more like a traditional black and white horror movie, albeit with a little color definition. The dreary green denotes despair and enhances darker colors of evil. The color filter made the movie seem like there was always bad weather, which means bad news in most horror movies. The filter allows just enough color into the movie to make the black and white video tape seem odd. The entity of evil Samara is shown with midnight black hair juxtaposed with a holy white gown. Her mother is shown similarly in the horse show pictures, in which all the other riders wore white gowns and she wore a black gown.

2004-01-27T22:39:00.000-08:00

Each of the essays was written with a specific audience in mind. Sirc’s essay is aimed at college aged students who are the main target of consumerism in today’s society. He uses many mainstream topics as evidence, such as Eminem, punk music, and Abercrombie and Fitch. The Giroux and Szeman essay is geared for a broader and more mature audience and is laced with evidence about labor force and working environments. Most of Sirc’s audience is heavily influenced by pop culture, and thus he uses topics they can relate to so as to effectively demonstrate his argument. He also makes numerous references to Chris Burden, an artist from the 70s, to link the growth of consumerism to a past era. Students of his are used as examples for his arguments; he shows how Eminem’s music reaches from the high school aged students to the college girl with a shrine in her dorm room to the shy mixed race student who can rap along to every song. The Sirc essay aims more at making its readers more independent thinking than showing viewpoints on society as a whole which the Szeman/ Giroux essay tries. The Szeman/ Giroux essay also is more of a commentary of Fight Club rather than an analysis of pop culture. Szeman and Giroux wrote their essay for a popular movie magazine or journal and are mainly just writing about the movie instead of trying to persuade their readers to a set of values.

2004-01-23T17:14:00.000-08:00

I have decided to write my essay on the similarities between Office Space and Fight Club. I am using the Giroux/Szeman essay as evidence. Many of the conclusions that Giroux and Szeman make can be used in both movies though their essay was originally a response to Fight Club. Both characters create chaos in their workplace and it eventually leads to destruction and disorder. Peter Gibbons and Jack from Fight Club are unique because they are the only characters that are transformed despite each having a large following. Both movies make a social commentary on capitalism and mainstream consumerism. The movies also emit a hyper-masculine image of their protagonists. Peter Gibbons transforms from a basic computer programmer to a gangster and thief who is ready to take on the evil that manifests itself at Initech.

2004-01-15T21:27:00.000-08:00

The initial meeting between Tyler and Jack is a blissful moment on a beach. Tyler seems very intelligent and almost artsy in his take on perfection, and the creation of his sculpture. Palahniuk describes Tyler as an artist making a beautiful masterpiece, albeit only lasting a minute in time. The metaphor of Tyler as an artist continues throughout the novel as he sculpts society through the methods of Project Mayhem. He stresses that perfection is very hard to reach, but even though it only lasts for a minute, is worth the labor involved in creating it. Tyler’s hand initially looks stretched out until the time is right and then the proportions line up and complete his hand with him sitting in the middle of perfection. Led by Tyler, Project Mayhem does not create perfection, instead it creates a society with terror to make people savor every day they are alive. This terror filled society fills church pews with men and women looking for redemption and perfection in the eyes of God. Unlike material perfection which can be destroyed in an instant, redemption makes a person perfect for eternity. Jack thought he had perfection with his condo and all of the decorations inside of it but it was destroyed in an instant by the artist himself, Tyler Durden. The novel is teaching its readers to give up material perfection and instead strive for personal perfection. Tyler accepted nothing less than perfect work by his workers and punished them harshly for a failed homework assignment. Palahniuk stresses the construction of Tyler’s sculpture more than the actual result; the novel stresses the journey to perfection as being greater than the actual goal and achievement.

2004-01-12T15:45:00.000-08:00

Beuller . . . Beuller . . .