Blogging for ENG121

Blogging is a good way to have small writing assignments mixed in with the larger essays. On the other hand it can be difficult to remember to write blogs each week if it is an unfamiliar activity or if you simply don't want to write. This kind of writing can also be fun though because writing about whatever comes to mind is a productive way to spend time. Being required to write makes for a lot of stuff that is written purely to meet the set requirement. This entry is a good example of this because I have been doing so much writing this semester that I don't even want to finish the writing that I have left to do. Being who I am, I will still shoulder my way through it all but that doesn't make me any less sick of it.

The influences of Technology

I use technology every day but then everybody does. I often don't think about how much technology changes over even short periods such as portable cd players being replaced by mp3 players. I listen to music everyday but it is uncommon for me to think about times when people could only hear music by being at a performance. I appreciate the technology that I have at my disposal partly because my mom reminds me how impressive it is. She only knows enough about how to use computers to turn them off when my younger siblings forget to, but she also knows how useful they are. The rate that computers progress is astonishing whenever I care to think about it and whenever I do I realize that is not always good. I say it is not good because when I was the same age as my younger brother (7 years old) one of my favorite forms of entertainment was a book: games on the computer, though good, were not as interesting; I might have read fewer books if I had games like Star Wars Racer at that age like he does. Technology is nice but it is important to be able to get along without it. TV is one form of technology that holds almost no sway over me though it is readily available because there are very few TV shows that interest me and there are over 700 movies in my house that I can watch that don't have commercials. VCR/DVD players are great because they allow for the sharing of thousands of films that take less time than reading the same story (though the book is almost inevitably better than the movie).

Quantum of Solace

This weekend I went to see Quantum of Solace, the newest James Bond movie at the Bowles Crossing theater with my older brother and a family friend. The movie was slightly better than my low expectations had predicted but it could have been improved by simply having the camera shots for a few of the scenes backed out to show more of the surroundings. The theater contributed a touch of its own by having the volume turned up to the point where it became the loudest movie I have ever watched. That is impressive considering that the Death Star explosion in Star Wars: A New Hope on The Continental theater bigscreen could be felt through the concrete floor and padded seats. It was so loud in some parts that the high quality commercial speakers in the theater began to overload. The conversation on the way back to my house was filled with musings as to how even the deaf could hear it if it was any louder and shouts of "WHAT?" as if they were nearly deaf, after anyone said something directly to someone else.

James Bond movies

In my opinion the James Bond movies after The World is not Enough don't really classify as James Bond movies. Sure the main actor is called Agent 007: James Bond but that doesn't mean that he meets the standards of that character. Take Die Another Day for example: 007 is held captive and tortured, presumably for a month at least, in the first part of the movie. Not only has that never happened before but Bond escapes because he is practically released. Casino Royal is even less Bond like for many reasons. The main thing that stands out as a major flaw to me is how physics was ignored during the section where 007 crashes which doesn't make sense for his character.

From Die Another Day on the Bond movies aren't as good as the old ones. The new ones don't have the expected charm or cartoon characteristics that make the others so good. The point of 007 is that he is a spy instead of some random American action hero that seems to be what the new ones are shooting for.

James Bond: classic British spy or semi-realistic action hero: you decide! Do you like the suave British super agent or do you prefer watching a hero that wanders around acting stupid on occasion to advance the plot of a movie that defies realistic conventions at every turn? If you like the romantic British agent then the first nineteen 007 films are the ones to watch for! If you prefer the random hero and optional realism you should keep an eye out for Die Another Day, Casino Royale, and the all new Qantum of Solace.

Cat's Cradle

Cat's cradle is a way of passing time that I picked up again recently after years of having forgotten about it. Cat's cradle is one name for games played with a loop of string and was popular a long time ago. I got back into it one night when my younger siblings were looking for something to do and my younger brother did the one cat's cradle trick he knew with a loop of yarn: he cut my hand off. I then realized that I had not played with my cat's cradle strings for a really long time so I went to my room and brought one back down to the kitchen with me. The only trick I remembered was my favorite one, which was an instant hit with my younger siblings partly because I acted silly at the appropriate moments. The trick of cutting my own head of with a piece of string met with roars of laughter as I pretended to choke then with one final jerk pulled the string off, freezing cross-eyed with my tongue out, gargling my last and starting to fall over. The immediate encore was to cut my younger brother's head off, followed by performing my younger sister's demand that I cut her head off. My mom and I were laughing because how many mothers get to hear their 5 year old daughter commanding their 19 year old brother to cut off their head and respond by saying that only he is allowed to do that and she should finish her supper before he does it again. Of course after that I taught them both how to cut their own heads off and let my younger brother try to cut mine off a couple times. After he succeeded a couple times my mom told me where I could find her book of string games so I could start refreshing my memory of patterns that I hadn't done for years. My younger brother picked up the trick for cutting his fingers off right away and I think my sister now knows it as well. When I played with my string at college during the next two days I found that at least 4 people recognized it as a game they used to know and enjoy but had forgotten about. Maybe they will relearn some of these games too since they all seemed happy to see the string patterns and be reminded of the times when they used to play them too.

Ideas for my essay argument

I like the idea of arguing that the old James Bond films up to Goldeneye are better than any of the ones after that. I could argue about motorcycles being better than cars in most situations I could also argue against most immunizations and drugs. There is also plenty of material for making arguments on any major issue that can be conceived but I don't want to go into those. If I want to do an obscure one I could argue for changing all computer keyboards to the Devorak keysetting from the qwerty keyboard that is the current standard. If I wanted to do something related to what I am often told by friends/parental hinting I could go into the advantages and disadvantages of having a girlfriend. Perhaps I will do something along the lines of a completely random topic or decide by pulling one from a hat. There is also the decision of how silly or serious I want to make it because a silly argument about why purple is the coolest color would be very different from a logical argument against war. I could also come up with a few arguments related to games; for example, cat's cradle could be a really fun one to write an essay on.

Halloween

I went to a party on Halloween with some of my friends from high school. To be honest it wasn't very interesting. We spent lots of time using a computer to play random things such as typing band names and "Naruto" into the search bar of youtube with the goal of not finding any entries that involve both. Aside from that, random conversations were how most of the time was passed until a couple of us watched "A Nightmare Before Christmas". I went home after that because there was nothing else interesting for me to do, a few others had already left, it was midnight, and I had no inclination attempt talking to the ones smoking or drinking or both.