Adventures in New York: Day 1 + 2

Well, here I am in New York, and let me tell you, it was exactly what I expected. Busy streets, crowded buses, overstuffed terminals, and impossibly fast subways make up this bustling metropolis, but it is also a city of beauty. The first nine hours of our trip was a grand adventure through multiple airport terminals, followed by a trip into our hotel. After we checked in and got settled, we all went to grand central station to eat dinner and look around. Apparently, their was an apple exposition going on in the station, because they were showcasing their new device models, and it made me desire to purchase one. After the great Indian food and the cool company, we made our way back to the hotel, where I proceeded to sleep. I accidentally slept longer than I planned, but it all worked out in the end because I saw that Tim Burton was staying in our hotel. It was a magical experience. Today we went to the museum of natural history and Central Park, and I got to eat a hotdog from a corner hot dog stand, which was also magical. We are about to go to a Yankee's game, and I am looking forward to it. Keeping everyone updated as we go.

With Love, Gary

The Creation of Man (an artistic criticism about artistic criticism)

     Ok, so it's not entirely to the artistic scale of Michelangelo, but this post is slightly important. I haven't posted in a few days due to a severe case of sickness, and I feel like it is important to cover the third mission statement of my blog: the Writer. Many people go their whole lives without stopping to consider just how much depth, how much thought, how much planning, time, heart, etc... goes into any work of art. People in our modern era consider themselves "connoisseurs" or "critics" by pointing out plot holes or character flaws or some other "clever" flaw left out by the author/director/actor/etc...However, these people should not be considered true artistic analyzers (unless they prove their artistic affinities otherwise).
     Something that irks me slightly (although I was once a part of this category of people) is people who take a great movie and just destroy it by pointing out plot holes, logical fallacies, and other minor mistakes. Things that annoy me are simple things such as "When did Batman find the time to paint the bat on the side of the bridge?" or "Why don't they just ride the eagles?" Rather than simply enjoying the story for what it is, all the emotion, all the imagery, all the amazing shots, and all of the amazing writing that makes up the movie. Sadly, in our modern era, there are those who fancy themselves geniuses based from their abilities to point out small mistakes made in a movie or literature. Those people almost never understand the painstaking emotion, time, effort, creativity, imagination, and everything else that is poured into a work over years of time. I'm not saying stop viewing movies with a critical eye. Do not mistake my words, but if you're going to be critical about a movie, make sure it's not simply pointing out plot holes and fallacies. Make your arguments valid points of artistic or literary criticism based on study, analysis, and careful consideration of all the data.
     Why am I writing about this at this point in time? Because recently I have seriously begun writing my novel, and it has forced me to see just how painstakingly difficult the creative process can be. Taking on this new point of view, I have gained a higher esteem for literary and cinematic artists for the time and effort they put into their art on such a grand scale, and it just annoys me now when others don't understand that process. Some people have actually made it a career to point out these "clever" observations to the world, and the worst part about the entire thing is that people believe that they are clever or intelligent or artistically inclined to do so. Just concluding, if you ever get into an argument with someone who tries to point something out to you (such as a plot hole or a fallacy or something) just speak to them about something intelligent and artistic to see if they can answer you.
     We'll use spongebob as an example.

yes, spongebob
     I once won an argument against my friend because he stated that spongebob "lowers the intelligence of the viewing audience", but I argued that it was the Neo-Progressivist, Postmodern representation of the modern day animated weekly feature. Basically, it is the show that takes everything a cartoon should be and goes completely against the canonical views in an attempt to criticize the cannon of the time. Because I sounded intelligent and was able to back up my statements with my near-encyclopedic knowledge of spongebob,

imagine this, but all Spongebob.
I was able to successfully refute his argument from an artistic and critical viewpoint. My point is, speak from an artistic point of view to separate the true critics from the "plot hole punchers" (as I call them). Do not allow yourself to become one of those people either; always view them as you would any other piece of art. As a object of beauty and entertainment to be enjoyed and studied for thousands of years after their creation.

Time Travel Project So Far

     As I've mentioned Previously, I have been working on a Time Traveling Project for my Physics Class. Being the nerd I am, I, of course, used many sources for this project to ensure that it is the best ever, but this is all I have so far:

Theory of Relative Space and Time

Time Travel!

What is Time?

Some believe that it is a continuum that exists in a multidimensional state of incomprehensibly complex statistics and variables that affect the continuum’s state at any moment in time.

What is Time?

Some believe that it is constant, and only certain things (or people) are present in any point in time at any moment and can alter the flow of time because they have always existed in it. However, things that have happened must happen, like a sphere of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey…stuff.

What is Time?

Some People consider it to simply be a rate at which something is travelling through the universe and cannot be reversed or altered as a whole, but objects can accelerate or decelerate to alter the rate at which they travel.

What is Time?

Some people…don’t care what it is, but I am here to answer that question with multiple theories from other scientists and people and also my personal belief.


     That's all I have so far, but I'll be working on it all this week and into the weekend. I will be speaking about different paradoxes and fallacies in the continuum, and I will be presenting crazy theories such as "Time Travel has already been created, but we don't know about it because the one who created it exited the space/time continuum and ceased to exist indefinitely." I'll keep you dudes and dudettes posted as I make progress, so please enjoy what I have so far.

Coding in School

Day 2: Coding in School and Time Travel Project

     I read a very interesting article on the interwebs today. Mark Zuckerburg, Bill Gates, Gabe Newell, and a bunch of other famous computer programers spoke on why computer coding should be taught in schools. It was an interesting article and it gave some valid points about our modern dependence on Computers and the lack of qualified programmers available today. It was an interesting article and it can be read here.
     Anyway, the thing in the article that caught my attention was this website called "Code.org". It is a website used to teach children and High Schoolers basic computer coding. I believe that it is good for everyone to know how computers work both on the software and the hardware aspects. I'm not saying that everyone should be U83R h4x0R5, but everyone should have some sort of knowledge so that they don't have to rely so heavily on those that do have knowledge to fix every little problem that is present in the computer. If everyone in the world could tell you how programs operate at the most basic level, then the cybernetic world could operate more smoothly than it does now. Also, adding, having the knowledge to code the most basic programs would give men a broader basis of mathematical knowledge. So if you're a wannabe programmer who wants All their base are belong to you, then check out the website and get started at the most basic level.
     If you want to know more, you can comment and I can give you some links I used to learn how to code and program at a slightly, slightly more advanced level.

My Most and Least Anticipated Movies of March

   Today, although I posted already about technology and cool timey wimey stuff, I'm going to talk about movies I am excited about seeing this March. Follow me on this adventure through many fantastic worlds worlds, daring adventures, deep and sophisticated plots, and stuff like that.
     The First Movie, Oz the Great and Powerful, to be released on March 8, while this nerd has been HIGHLY, highly skeptical as to the quality and validity of this movie's being called a worthy prequel to arguably the greatest film of all time, after discovering that James Franco is the lead actor, this nerd has decided that he would give the movie a chance. The movie, directed by Sam Raimi(a well known horror director branching into another field [also directing a reboot of poltergeist currently in production]), will take place in the time before Dorothy entered the land of Oz, telling the story all about how his life got flip twisted upside down so we'd like to take a minute, just hold the applause, I will tell you all about how I became the wizard of Oz...anyway, it's telling the story about The four witches and the wizard. I will go see it, but I swear if they try to computer animate Judy Garland in there, I'm going to walk out of the theatre. It's a disney movie, so it can't be TOO bad.
     In other news, Steve Carell and Jim Carey star in the new movie The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. Directed by Don Scardino (a director known for his T.V. Shows that last for one season of funny and many, many more of painful, terrible quality), this film follows the tale of Burt Wonderstone as he battles his rival magician (Jim Carey) in an epic showdown of magic and trickery, but along the way, Burt (Carell) rediscovers why he loved magic in the first place. The film combines two of the greatest comedians of my era together in a movie that can only disappoint at the worst. I don't think it will be a terrible movie, but I am worried about the quality of the comedy and whether or not it will be clever humor or just physical or situational comedy due to the director and the writers (Goldstein and Daily[Daily plays Swedes from Bones]). If they allow Jim Carey to do a good deal of ad lib and just be Jim Carey (unlike Mr. Popper's Penguins), and Steve Carell to be that ridiculously serious character that messes everything up, then it will be a good movie. Ok, I'm ranting, so on to my animation segment.
     The Croods, a Dreamworks animation about a caveman family, premiers March 22nd. The movie looks like a break from the basic animation Dreamworks has created and into a creative, colorful, and incredible animation. The trailer itself shows that change from the monochromatic world into a colorful, vibrant, and living world! I've been a fan of animation for a long time (I call it animated arts because it sounds more sophisticated) and I had grown tired of the lack in either story or animation quality in animation over the last couple of years. This probably will have a basic story of a teenage daughter wanting something other than what her family is offering her and finding a boy who can offer that and the family disapproving of said boy and she running away with said boy after a conflict and finding out that family values were important all along. If they don't use this tactic, then I will be surprised and I will pay all of my 1 followers a dollar. All in all, it could be a great triumph or a terrible failure (depending on how the studio did).
     So this month looks like a fairly decent month when it comes to movies, and I am eager to see how everything plays out. By the way, my least anticipated movie (that I will never, EVER see) is The Host by Stephane Meyers. Terrible. Absolutely Terrible.

PS4 and Other News

Day 1: Sony Love and Time Travel

     So I am blagging for the first time today. Why? Because I am a nerdy writer; it's in the job description. Sadly, however, I have never done this before, so I will attempt to the best of my abilities to entertain you with my stories and pictures of all things nerdy and relating to those who enjoy writing as a hobby. Starting now, I shall bring you wondrous news relating to video games, sci-fi, movies (especially movies) and T.V. shows, and much much more. (This is becoming more like a news article) So here I go, blog one.
     As MOST of you know, the PS4 was announced on the 20th, and it has already received mixed reviews on the internet and in magazines and in every other medium imaginable. From what I've seen, the reviews have mostly been written in hate. I, as a long-standing SONY fanboy, have read about the PS4 and am exited about what could be.
     Sony has announced the specs and some of the software capabilities of the PS4 (yes I'm going to bold print PS4 every time, and I have to say that I may have joined in the mass of gamers who sang out in an immaculate chorus of "Meh..." It sounds weird, what with its 8gigs of RAM, its double x86 cores, based from AMD's "Jaguar" processing unit, its RADEON HD 7850 graphics card, its improved blu ray drive (6x faster), and its USB 3.0 capabilities, what does all this techno Mumbo jumbo even mean to all of us? Well, the 8G's of extra RAM allow for MUCH higher quality game aspects such as improved AI (which we've needed for a long time) and higher graphics resolution and larger world capabilities. This is a 15.625x increase over the much smaller 512 RAM PS3, and that is a big plus in my book. Another really cool thing (Though it may sound disappointing) is the new RADEON graphics card. Though the card only pushes 1.84 TFLOPS (roughly the amount of a mid-range GPU), it is still fully capable of running 720-1080p games, but it does disappoint in the inability to run the 4k resolution in some games. Sony displayed their graphics capabilities by partnering with Quantic Dream (An Amazing Game Studio responsible for Heavy Rain and KARA) to show its new capabilities which far exceed 20000 polygons. The graphics will only be a slight improvement over the current "1080p rendering"(I place this in quotes because I have yet to play a game in full 1080p graphics on my PS3), so that is a minus in my book. The USB upgrade is long overdue, so that one is a plus (I don't really need to go into any detail about that one), but "what about the cores," you may ask. The new PS4 will have two 8core x86 64 bit processors, but let me stop there and explain that. The x86 processor has roughly the power of a ultrabook or a macbook air style computer, less powerful than a traditional gaming PC. This sounds disappointing because we were expecting a huge increase in raw power available in the PS4, but, do not be disappointed my friends, because the PS4 will make up for the lack of raw power by coupling this lower quality processor with its Blu Ray hard drive and RADEON x86 chip. All three of these components are optimized for the best performance possible from the new system, and, don't you forget, I mentioned that they are equipping this bad boy with TWO, count'em, TWO 8 core processors. One will process all the information in the foreground (I.E. games, movies, and pictures) while the second processor will be used to process all of the information in the background (i.e. downloads, video recordings, and uploads.
     With all of these hardware specs announced, what sort of software will the PS4 support? SONY announced an improved GUI, the ability to record and edit game video directly onto your system, live stream content for others to watch, live video chat during live stream sessions, and controller passing over the internet (if I read it correctly, I could be wrong). SONY has already announced release titles such as Infamous: Second Son, Killzone something, Final Fantasy (enter huge number here) and a few more titles (Link to full list here), but all in all, it looks like a very good system and I am exited about the release.
     In other news, I am working on a Time Traveling project for my physics class, and I'm not allowed to simply put "it's a bunch of Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey stuff", so I will post new pictures and findings as I go...like this one: A man has successfully created a particle acceleration field that can affect the entropy and speed of an object. This means that the object is moving faster or slower than the objects surrounding it. It sounds like a really cool idea, and I'd like to see it developed further. Link Here That guy looks like Doc Brown