Final Project: Movies & TV

Here you go, guys. Our final project.

Also, the presentation.

 

Knowing Where to Look: The (Mis)Information Super Highway

The Internet is the greatest invention in human history. I have no hesitation whatsoever in saying that. The human potential has grown exponentially because of it. The opportunities are limitless, the sky is no longer the limit because we are all connected, all the time. The World Wide Web has effectively shrunk the world. A message that would’ve taken days gets there in seconds. Yet somehow, as a culture, we are absolutely squandering the greatest resource the world has ever known. And there’s nothing worse than just having potential.

Let me make this clear, I’m not saying this about everyone. If the past year has proven anything, it’s that the vast majority of people have the most powerful knowledge building tools at their fingertips, yet they do absolutely nothing with them. Look at last night’s GOP debate, for example. Presidential candidates, who should be the best of the best spouting lies as fact, when a simple Google search and a half hour of reading would help them formulate proper, well informed opinions. Then again, they’re just fishing for votes.

But they were talking to specific groups of people. Pandering to the anti-vaccine minority and overly conservatives who require an authority figure to vindicate the lies they choose to believe and spread. I genuinely believe that ignorance has been justified by the internet. People know the information right there, sitting in their pocket. And as the Internet makes the world smaller, it’s also made the distance between that pocket and the mind that much wider. Ignorance has gone from not wanting to know, to thinking you know everything because you have an Internet connection.

Other than that, it’s just become another distraction. The greatest source of entertainment the world has ever seen. The Internet doesn’t sleep. It’s changing at all times. There will always be something new to click on that will keep your attention. You can’t say that about TV, radio, movies, or even books. Yeah, they make new ones every day. But from this screen, I can see all of those and then some. All you need is to know where to look.

Looking back on it’s relatively short life span, it’s amazing the impact having internet access has had. It’s really been a big thing for about fifteen years now, and it has taken over the world. He who controls information has all the power, especially when the information gets to where it needs to go at the speed of click, and it never stops.

When I was in the sixth grade we got a Dial-Up connection at my house. I had no clue what to do with it. But it didn’t take me long to figure out how powerful and dangerous this could be. An avid gamer who was up to his neck in Pokémon at that point, I chose to Google for tips for my favorite game. It did not go all that well. Actually, it was pretty horrible for a first try. I Google searched “Game Boy,” the hand-held Nintendo system in which we played. So yeah, I got porn. Lots of it. And not the type I would’ve enjoyed either.

Moral of the story: Never Google Search “Game Boy”… Unless you’re into that sort of thing.         [Photo:  Andrew _ B]

So while the learning curve was a bit steep for a sixth grader on the web for the very first time, we’re not in 1999 anymore. Dial-up is a thing of the past (thank Odin!). But now, in 2015, a year that was considered The Future in my childhood movies, I often find myself thinking about what my grade school years would’ve been if I had the resources I had now.

I recall having to call government agencies looking for information for Social Studies projects. They were never all that helpful. I can’t even imagine having to resist the temptation to just copy/paste right off of Wikipedia for a class project. Where’s that study of how plagiarism in middle-school have gone up exponentially in the past decade, huh!? I mean copy/pasting wasn’t even a thing until like my senior year in high school. And I swear, some teachers encouraged it as long as we handed something in. Literal busy work. And I would never, ever complain about it, because of how easy it was. Believe it or not, it’s even easier now.

Also, I would not like to be a teacher in this day and age. With every kid with a smart-phone on them cheating on tests has to be absolutely ridiculous. Good luck to those poor bastards, because I would’ve gotten away with it.

All in all, like with everything else, you have to take the good with the bad. And there’s plenty of bad on the World Wide Web. If you know where to look.

Movies About Space, In Space… Perfection.

[Photo: NASA HQ Photo]

Gosh darn-it I’m really excited for The Martian. And apparently, I’m not the only one. Astronauts (yes, real astronauts) up in outer space (yes, the real outer space) are apparently pretty psyched too. Stating that they’re big fans of the book novel by Andy Weir up in the International Space Station, astronaut Kjell Lindgren and crewmate Scott Kelly are both looking forward to the film’s release on October 2, as they hope to get it beamed up (*giggles*) to them as soon as possible.

This great piece up on The Guardian also details Kjell and Scott’s year long stay aboard the International Space Station. They give their thoughts on how what they’ve experienced compares to the mission to Mars that Matt Damon is set to go through in one of the most eagerly anticipated space flicks of the year. I say one of, because, ya know, there’s that other, slightly more fictitious space flick coming out this year.

Either way, keep an eye out for this one, guys. Seems like it should be a blast.

Goddammit I love space.

Right On Target: Colbert vs. The (Network) World.

[Photo: Ryan Carver]

In October 2005, a show premiered on Comedy Central that I never expected to survive. It was the strangest sort of spin-off show, because it was a comedy news show that split from another, bigger comedy news show. Unlikely as it seems in hindsight, we needed both of them all along. They fed off each other. The next ten years were nothing short of revolutionary.

I’m not sure why I’m playing coy. I mean, you read the headline (I hope?). Stephen Colbert has come a helluva long way from being Jon Stewart’s sidekick; a role I’m not sure he ever really accepted. As soon as The Colbert Report premiered, right after The Daily Show every night, they hit the ground sprinting. The world never stood a chance.

But tonight he takes a much bigger challenge. Even though I don’t think he was ever really in Stewart’s shadow (they were pretty much the Yin to the others Yang from the get-go), Colbert’s new roll on The Late Show is definitely his biggest challenge to date. He’s stepping into the twenty-two year old shoes of the now legendary David Letterman.

[Photo: Broadway Tour]

But that’s not what I’m looking forward to. While I’m sure that he’ll have plenty of fun during the remainder of 2015, election year is about to kick off. What a better time to give Stephen Colbert the biggest platform of his career?

Political pundits are probably shaking in their million dollar suits at the thought of it. You could put a Stephen Colbert / Donald Trump interview on Pay Per View, and I promise we would totally pay for it stream it illegally.

But really, you can tell from his (wonderful) interview with the New York Times that he’s excited to say the least. A reinvigorated, passionate Colbert is a dangerous beast. Put a microphone (and a good writing team) behind him and watch the magic happen.

I’m sure the show won’t be all politics, but at the same time it would genuinely surprise me if it they totally ignored his comedy news roots. Sure he won’t be playing over the top conservative Stephen. I’m sure he’s eager to reclaim his own voice. All I know is that I can’t wait.

The times, they are a-changin’…

It’s been almost two years since I’ve been in school. I’ve recently gone back to my studies and I’ve been tasked with creating a blog… Something I’ve done before, but haven’t really done for around the past two years… lets chalk that up to coincidence.

A good week for comebacks, I guess.

By the way, for you newbies (and classmates), my name is Javier, but everyone calls me Chiko. No, my name isn’t Steve. Therefore, ChikoNotSteve. Get it? Good. Now you’re basically caught up.

So, welcome to Smart-Assness 102! Not to be confused with Smart-Assness 101 which is slowly showing signs of life (I swear!) back on Tumblr.

As I mentioned, this started out as homework. But in the four hours since class ended this morning, I’ve thought it over (took a nap), and I think I’ll run with it.

Expect silliness. Probably some reviews. Plenty of opinions. And hopefully, some homework.

So yeah…

Anything you want me to write about, there’s a comments section around here somewhere. You know what to do. Anything else, I’m on Twitter, @ChikoNotSteve.

It’s gonna be a fun semester. Stay tuned.