It’s graduation time again and for the second year in a row I get to hear all my friends proudly declare their triumph at doing something I was unable to – finishing college. I’m not saying they are considering me at all in the happiness of their accomplishment, I’m saying I can’t help but think about my own lack of degree at a time like this.
I consider myself proficient with technology. I learned HTML and CSS on my own in order to design my website, and while it remains unfinished, I have a good chunk of functional code. I can learn programs such as the Office suite as well as those meant for design with similar ease, but when it comes to the inner workings of my computer or security threats to it, I retain little. I simply do not have an interest in the specifications of my gadgets (though I admit this might change if I ever decide to build my own). For me, it comes down to:
I don’t want detailed, multi-word explanations for each of the questions. I want a yes or a no, so when the debate predictably arises about Microsoft versus Apple, I only have one word: Continue reading
Apocalypse Rundown is a weekly series in which Hero explores end-of-the-world and dystopian scenarios. Some of these she secretly thinks would be awesome if they happened, others she is unreasonably paranoid about, but mostly she believes there’s something to gleaned about the present age by examining how it might end.
For one of my English classes in college, we were assigned to do a paper and presentation on a pop culture topic. It was a shock to exactly no one that I chose zombies. I think people were surprised to see just how much there was to say intellectually on the subject, though, since zombies are seen by many as purely ridiculous, but these undead provide a neat little study on character wrapped up in a grossly decomposing package.
In Internet time, this is old news already, but in case you haven’t heard, my new favorite show has been renewed for a second season. I am especially excited because it was originally planned to be only a nine episode miniseries. That ninth episode was quickly approaching and I had not had nearly enough of Lagertha (and Ragnar and the others, of course, but let’s be honest, she’s the biggest draw for me). Now that it’s aired, instead of being left in a state of unfulfilled wanting, something I as a fan of science fiction television am all too familiar with, I am merely in that frustrating between-seasons waiting period of angst.
I have a confession to make, dear readers. I did not make it to a comic book store today. In case you did not know, today was Free Comic Book Day, where participating stores give out comics specially selected for just this purpose. It always occurs on the first Saturday of May, and this year it was doubly special as it was also Star Wars Day! (May the 4th be with you – get it?)
Unfortunately, there is not a comic book store in my town. I looked up participating stores, and much to my dismay, the nearest ones were in Minneapolis. It isn’t that far from my town – the closest one was an estimated 26 miles away – but I was not eager to drive back towards my workplace on my day off, especially after the unpleasant wake up I had this morning.
Ordinarily I get up between 4:30 and 4:45 to get ready for work. Today, when I woke up, I sat up in panic because it was light out already and I thought I’d overslept. Turns out it was 7 am. This job is making me freak out about “sleeping in” until 7:00 on a Saturday. I don’t even want to go near Minneapolis on my day off now, so it was with a heavy heart that I decided Free Comic Book Day wasn’t worth it.
I hope some of my readers were able to get ahold of freebies today. Let me know if you discovered anything good!
It’s snowing again. My workstation is positioned next to a wall, but I can see clearly out the row of windows to the rapidly falling snow outside. My mind has been contemplating a more personal end-of-the-world scenario a lot lately. Between thinking about the Fallout series and just beginning to read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, I can’t help but imagine what all these twisting halls that make up the Minneapolis skyways would be like after the society we know ceases to exist.
If any of my readers are ever feeling generous, I will happily accept installments from the Fallout series. I saw a copy of Fallout 3 in a small store called Pixels when I was first trying to break into the gaming area of nerddom, and quickly decided to make it the first video game I ever bought. It remains to this day one of my most satisfying purchases, alongside my gold high-tops, fuzzy blanket, and ridiculously stylish messenger bag.
Apocalypse Rundown is a weekly series in which Hero explores end-of-the-world and dystopian scenarios. Some of these she secretly thinks would be awesome if they happened, others she is unreasonably paranoid about, but mostly she believes there’s something to gleaned about the present age by examining how it might end.
I want to revisit zombies next week to discuss exactly why they are frightening. In preparation for that, today I am going to tell you about the Uncanny Valley. While not an apocalypse scenario in its own right, the Uncanny Valley explains a lot of the psychology behind why humans find certain things frightening, which then plays into the kinds of things we believe will destroy us. So it fits… Kind of.
For those of you who don’t know, tonight is the NHL draft, and even though I won’t get to watch it, between that event and the Stanley Cup Playoffs beginning, I still felt I had to write something about hockey.
I know that one of the quintessential stereotypes about nerds is that they have an aversion towards sports. In some ways, I fit this typical structure – there are few physical activities I enjoy exerting myself for and I spent more time trying not to participate than actually exercising in high school gym class. Where I deviate from the nerd norm is spectating.
Hello everyone. My name is Steven and for my first post on here, I’m going to review the new Michael Bay movie out right now titled, “Pain and Gain”. Now right off the bat, I want everyone to know that I’m NOT a Michael Bay fan by any stretch of the imagination. I find his movies to be rather trashy for the most part, and not the good kind of trash (i.e. Grindhouse movies). Regardless, I can admit that I do enjoy “The Rock” but for certain reasons. That being said, the man has released a new movie for all of us to see that is based on a true story from back in the 90s in Miami, Florida.
Right away, this is a bad sign, because the last movie he did based around a true story was “Pearl Harbor” and we all know how “great” that movie was! However, to be perfectly honest, “Pain and Gain” was actually a very decent movie with plenty of surprises. The movie stays true for the most part to the heart of the true story. While the movie may seem exaggerated and mostly silly, still, most of the stuff in this movie did happen in real life, which is so bizarre when you really think about it.
The movie is about a trio of bodybuilders in Florida that find themselves caught up in an extortion ring and a kidnapping scheme that unfortunately for them, goes terribly wrong. Whereas most of Bay’s recent movies have failed due to the stupidity of his characters, this movie succeeds in showing us how stupid these people were and how everything went so wrong for them. It’s a movie that makes us as an audience both laugh at the gang’s stupidity, but yet feel terrified by their brutal tactics and attitude. For Bay, this is commendable, because it isn’t easy to get an audience to feel both those emotions watching movies nowadays.
If there’s one thing that I have to praise the movie for was its acting. The acting was really good; Mark Wahlberg and the rest of the cast sold their characters from beginning to end and showed competence in their performances. Something rare you will see in a Bay film nowadays. As for other strengths, the movie was well shot, action was effective when needed, and things were easy to follow, compared to Bay’s
other movies.
Before I end this review, I will leave all of you with a couple warnings. 1. This movie is very “out there” at times. So if you’re not a fan of movies like that, don’t go see this movie because you will probably hate it. 2. If you’re expecting Bay’s usual treatment where everything explodes and the action goes on for more than a half hour, then this movie will severely underwhelm you. Now, with that being said, I do recommend this movie. While it may not be a great movie or an excellent achievement in moviemaking, this is a movie that does show hope for a director that mostly makes crappy movies. If he gives us more movies with this level of competence, there may be hope for him to become more than the sum of his parts. This is Steven Young, signing off. Thanks for reading.