Okay, so instead of ranting or opining, I thought I would just give a little shoutout and thank you to all my readers.
First of all, a special thank you to everyone from California. I really have no idea how you found my blog, but thanks for taking the time to read it. For some reason, despite the fact I live in Canada, you guys are the most numerous in terms of readers. I have two theories on that: one, my one or two of my friends that live in California told all of you and you decided to come visit the site, or two, that in an attempt to study Canadian behaviour more thoroughly, you have been required to read many Canadian blogs. The latter is probably more probable, as the first delves into science fiction. So Californians, I am on to you!
Second, a equally special thank you to the rest of my American readers. Suprisingly, there have been more unique Californian viewers than all of you combined, but I expect that is because the American government believes that the Californians are more suited to the task of reconnaissance, whatever the reason for that being. Thanks for tuning in for a Canadian blog, despite the fact that Canada has been standing on top of you for a long time.
Thirdly, a slightly less special thank you to my Canadian readers. It is great that you guys are reading my thoughts, but the Americans are beating you. This is a 100% Canadian blog, yet you guys are losing in number of readers. Step it up a little guys!
Lastly, a slightly more special thank you to my readers from Hong Kong and the Bahamas. I know that I do not know that many people out there, so thanks for paying attention!
But jests aside, I really thank everyone that has spent some time out of their busy schedules to read my opinions. I do enjoy blogging, but it is nice to know that other people are getting something out of it too.
-AFR
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
A Critical Analysis of the Last Airbender
SPOILER ALERT!
So I just went to see the Last Airbender tonight and to be frank, I was very disappointed. The casting was terrible, the acting stunk, the bending took way too long in some places, and there was very little character development.
To start with, the fact that a lot of the movie was narrated by a voice over of Katara, made the acting seem repitious and unnecessary in parts. However, with that being said, the acting and the speaking parts followed that narrative style very well. For example:
"Katara, don't hit that with my boomerang," says Sokka in the opening scene. Was that necessary? It was quite obvious that she was running with his boomerang to go hit a big chunk of ice. Not in my opinion. Everything was given away before it happened, which lead to a very, very dry movie.
The pronounciation of Aang, Sokka, Avatar, and probably a couple more names were horrendous. The TV series quite clearly states exactly how each of those should be said, and the movie strays from that quite a bit. On the subject of names, every character's name appeared pretty far into the movie, after we had already met the character. And I believe, Momo's name was not mentioned at all.
The bending in many parts was very flourishy for what it accomplished. The biggest one was when about seven Earthbenders had this big "dance" routine to throw a single small stone. Now, the flourishy aspect of it was cool until the scenes that is took them five minutes to bend one small thing. However, when the bending was quick it really was quite cool to watch.
The last part I will talk about is the plot. I know condensing about seven hours of TV into a two hour movie is quite a daunting task, but they took a little too many liberties. Kyoshi Island and the Earthbenders mining on a ship was combined into one, with no mention of the Kyoshi warriors. They completely skip the part about King Bumi at the city of Omashu which is quite a critical character and part. Avatar Roku was never mentioned, only the blue dragon, who seems to end up becoming Avatar Roku for all intents and purposes. Basically most of the plot is just chopped up then stuck back together in a random order, not good for those who have seen the original series.
My review: a very subpar movie. The only thing that saved it was the bending scenes, which on a whole were absolutely fantastic. The messed up the character's personalities and races and almost completely disregarded the plot, even the main points.
So I leave you with one of the most contreversial quotes in the movie: "Waterbending teaches acceptance," Master Pakku says. Yeah, because in the original series Master Pakku is the one that does not allow Katara to learn Waterbending because he only teaches males. Way to go, M. Night.
2/5 for those who have watched the TV series.
3.5/5 for those who have not.
-AFR
So I just went to see the Last Airbender tonight and to be frank, I was very disappointed. The casting was terrible, the acting stunk, the bending took way too long in some places, and there was very little character development.
To start with, the fact that a lot of the movie was narrated by a voice over of Katara, made the acting seem repitious and unnecessary in parts. However, with that being said, the acting and the speaking parts followed that narrative style very well. For example:
"Katara, don't hit that with my boomerang," says Sokka in the opening scene. Was that necessary? It was quite obvious that she was running with his boomerang to go hit a big chunk of ice. Not in my opinion. Everything was given away before it happened, which lead to a very, very dry movie.
The pronounciation of Aang, Sokka, Avatar, and probably a couple more names were horrendous. The TV series quite clearly states exactly how each of those should be said, and the movie strays from that quite a bit. On the subject of names, every character's name appeared pretty far into the movie, after we had already met the character. And I believe, Momo's name was not mentioned at all.
The bending in many parts was very flourishy for what it accomplished. The biggest one was when about seven Earthbenders had this big "dance" routine to throw a single small stone. Now, the flourishy aspect of it was cool until the scenes that is took them five minutes to bend one small thing. However, when the bending was quick it really was quite cool to watch.
The last part I will talk about is the plot. I know condensing about seven hours of TV into a two hour movie is quite a daunting task, but they took a little too many liberties. Kyoshi Island and the Earthbenders mining on a ship was combined into one, with no mention of the Kyoshi warriors. They completely skip the part about King Bumi at the city of Omashu which is quite a critical character and part. Avatar Roku was never mentioned, only the blue dragon, who seems to end up becoming Avatar Roku for all intents and purposes. Basically most of the plot is just chopped up then stuck back together in a random order, not good for those who have seen the original series.
My review: a very subpar movie. The only thing that saved it was the bending scenes, which on a whole were absolutely fantastic. The messed up the character's personalities and races and almost completely disregarded the plot, even the main points.
So I leave you with one of the most contreversial quotes in the movie: "Waterbending teaches acceptance," Master Pakku says. Yeah, because in the original series Master Pakku is the one that does not allow Katara to learn Waterbending because he only teaches males. Way to go, M. Night.
2/5 for those who have watched the TV series.
3.5/5 for those who have not.
-AFR
Thursday, July 8, 2010
How Texting is Making the Teens Stupider
Might I say, before starting my rant, that I absolutely love Korean music. Even if I cannot understand it much. Anyways, back on topic.
Texting. It has become a worldwide phenomenon. So many people text now, that I would say it is the most used form of communication, mayhaps besides email. So why did I think it is making people stupider? Do not get me started. Oh wait, you want to hear my opinion. Here goes.
Texting itself is not the problem. I find it an extremely useful tool in contacting my friends that I would otherwise have to spend long-distance fees upon. (Not that they are not worth it.) Texting is actually a pretty great form of communication. It is the way people text that is the biggest problem.
Me, I usually do not use contractions and always use correct punctuation, capitalization, and grammar when texting. Most other people do not. And that is what the problem is. When I see a text message like this: i totaly wnt ppl 2 eat mre lnch cz it is awsme, I vomit. Literally. That is possibly the hardest thing in the world to read, and it makes my eyes bleed. Almost all the vowels are omitted, so the message is just merely a shell of its possible glory.
Now why are these shortened phrases so bad? To begin with, they lose the distinction between very similar words. For example, "there", "their", and "they're" are often shortened or just intermeshed regardless of actual grammatical meaning. So a phrase like "I eat there" could easily be misinterpreted. This creates all kinds of confusion and just furthers the possible wrong applications of the word.
Grammar saves lives. To show you why, here is another example:
"Let's eat, grandpa."
"Let's eat grandpa."
One implies consuming food with a grandfather, the other implies consuming a grandfather. So people miss this fact, and I know that I have, for one, started eating someone because of not understanding the meaning of a text.
So all these misinterpretations and errors lead to young adults misunderstanding the meaning of a word. And these shortforms are allowing teens to almost form their own language. They end of using some words differently then they should and create a set of rules that goes against the current laws of correct writing. So if I end up seeing a student's essay when I am a professor, and it contains any shortforms, I will instantly fail them.
I am sure my thoughts are somewhat all over the place in the post, but if any grammar Nazis come and correct me, I will find you and that comment may be the last you ever make.
-AFR
Texting. It has become a worldwide phenomenon. So many people text now, that I would say it is the most used form of communication, mayhaps besides email. So why did I think it is making people stupider? Do not get me started. Oh wait, you want to hear my opinion. Here goes.
Texting itself is not the problem. I find it an extremely useful tool in contacting my friends that I would otherwise have to spend long-distance fees upon. (Not that they are not worth it.) Texting is actually a pretty great form of communication. It is the way people text that is the biggest problem.
Me, I usually do not use contractions and always use correct punctuation, capitalization, and grammar when texting. Most other people do not. And that is what the problem is. When I see a text message like this: i totaly wnt ppl 2 eat mre lnch cz it is awsme, I vomit. Literally. That is possibly the hardest thing in the world to read, and it makes my eyes bleed. Almost all the vowels are omitted, so the message is just merely a shell of its possible glory.
Now why are these shortened phrases so bad? To begin with, they lose the distinction between very similar words. For example, "there", "their", and "they're" are often shortened or just intermeshed regardless of actual grammatical meaning. So a phrase like "I eat there
Grammar saves lives. To show you why, here is another example:
"Let's eat, grandpa."
"Let's eat grandpa."
One implies consuming food with a grandfather, the other implies consuming a grandfather. So people miss this fact, and I know that I have, for one, started eating someone because of not understanding the meaning of a text.
So all these misinterpretations and errors lead to young adults misunderstanding the meaning of a word. And these shortforms are allowing teens to almost form their own language. They end of using some words differently then they should and create a set of rules that goes against the current laws of correct writing. So if I end up seeing a student's essay when I am a professor, and it contains any shortforms, I will instantly fail them.
I am sure my thoughts are somewhat all over the place in the post, but if any grammar Nazis come and correct me, I will find you and that comment may be the last you ever make.
-AFR
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
The Degradation of Music?
So among the many topics I thought of today, this one stood out the most. As I was cutting greens, (yet again) I had a mini argument with myself on this topic. (By the way, I won the argument). So I thought I would pose the question immediately: has music degraded over the years?
The reason I bring this up is because with all the new songs and artists coming out, there is a striking similarity in their music. Not the lyrics per say, but more of the way the songs are presented. So within the answer to my question, I have constructed a list of important things to do to become a one hit wonder.
1. Have a catchy, easy pronounceable title. For example, Justine Bieber's "Baby". This is the most important step in the marketing of your song. To help you conceptualize this, I will name my song "Bananas for Love".
2. Get a repetitive, annoying background beat. This will allow the listener to get the beat stuck in their head, even though the beat is somewhat irritating. This will bring the listener into the song and force them to pay attention.
3. Repeat the title in the chorus. This is the most important step. It ensures that your listener will "learn" the title, even if they did not hear it or know it before. This repetition will unconsciously give the reader an assumption of what the title of the song is and makes it so if they search those trigger words, they will easily find your song. To continue my example, the chorus to "Bananas for Love" would go something like this:
I'm going bananas for love, darling
I'll give you bananas for love, baby.
Have some bananas for love, honey.
Bananas for love!
4. Fill in the rest of your song with lyrics that center around love or some such stuff. Make sure that they are not as catchy as the chorus, but speak to the listener so that the listener can relate. An example of lyrics for our song would be:
Have you ever eaten a banana?
The ones that you love.
Well I give those bananas to you,
In hopes that you may return some love to me.
Note the usage of the world love and bananas and the feelings that the giving of the "love" to a nameless girl invoke. I am sure most of you guys (and lesbians) have felt some of the feelings before, correct?
So there you have it. A beautiful song that would hit top ten in a week. And it is about bananas. Sad, is it not?
So the crux of the issue is this: music has become a repetition of the title of the song, and of a relate-able theme. Take "Bad Romance", "Baby", and "Tik Tok" as examples. All repeat the title and all take about some theme to do with teens and young adults. (Don't believe about Justine Bieber's "Baby. Well she says "baby", 55 times during the song. 55 times.)
But ultimately, has this caused the degradation of music? No. Music has almost always been like this. Think about "Rock Lobster" and "Whip It". They were all repetitious. However, I believe that those songs were not all about love, alcohol, and partying. So ultimately, probably better songs.
And if rappers say anything about how they have brought about a new, popular genre, well I have two words for you: Justine Bieber. Yeah, you got beat by a 16-year old girl.
And to all those people that listen to World and Alternative music, I commend you. Most of that is pretty good stuff. Personally, I prefer it most of the time.
-AFR
The reason I bring this up is because with all the new songs and artists coming out, there is a striking similarity in their music. Not the lyrics per say, but more of the way the songs are presented. So within the answer to my question, I have constructed a list of important things to do to become a one hit wonder.
1. Have a catchy, easy pronounceable title. For example, Justine Bieber's "Baby". This is the most important step in the marketing of your song. To help you conceptualize this, I will name my song "Bananas for Love".
2. Get a repetitive, annoying background beat. This will allow the listener to get the beat stuck in their head, even though the beat is somewhat irritating. This will bring the listener into the song and force them to pay attention.
3. Repeat the title in the chorus. This is the most important step. It ensures that your listener will "learn" the title, even if they did not hear it or know it before. This repetition will unconsciously give the reader an assumption of what the title of the song is and makes it so if they search those trigger words, they will easily find your song. To continue my example, the chorus to "Bananas for Love" would go something like this:
I'm going bananas for love, darling
I'll give you bananas for love, baby.
Have some bananas for love, honey.
Bananas for love!
4. Fill in the rest of your song with lyrics that center around love or some such stuff. Make sure that they are not as catchy as the chorus, but speak to the listener so that the listener can relate. An example of lyrics for our song would be:
Have you ever eaten a banana?
The ones that you love.
Well I give those bananas to you,
In hopes that you may return some love to me.
Note the usage of the world love and bananas and the feelings that the giving of the "love" to a nameless girl invoke. I am sure most of you guys (and lesbians) have felt some of the feelings before, correct?
So there you have it. A beautiful song that would hit top ten in a week. And it is about bananas. Sad, is it not?
So the crux of the issue is this: music has become a repetition of the title of the song, and of a relate-able theme. Take "Bad Romance", "Baby", and "Tik Tok" as examples. All repeat the title and all take about some theme to do with teens and young adults. (Don't believe about Justine Bieber's "Baby. Well she says "baby", 55 times during the song. 55 times.)
But ultimately, has this caused the degradation of music? No. Music has almost always been like this. Think about "Rock Lobster" and "Whip It". They were all repetitious. However, I believe that those songs were not all about love, alcohol, and partying. So ultimately, probably better songs.
And if rappers say anything about how they have brought about a new, popular genre, well I have two words for you: Justine Bieber. Yeah, you got beat by a 16-year old girl.
And to all those people that listen to World and Alternative music, I commend you. Most of that is pretty good stuff. Personally, I prefer it most of the time.
-AFR
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
New Projects
Currently, I am beginning to start a new project. This one is a very large project, but I hope to finish this by the end of the summer. What exactly is this project? Well, I am assembling, converting, basing, and painting a new Warhammer army.
The reason: I am not very good at any of those things. We have some old models lying around, so I thought that I would improve my talent on those, rather than improve my talent on models that I care more about. Because this project is using spare models, this will be a very intense and trying project, but it will better my skills considerably as a gamer and as a hobbyist.
Why am I telling you, my readers, about this? Frankly, I am sure most of you do not care or even know exactly what Warhammer is, and wished that I would take about something more contreversial or humourous, like seal hunting in Saskatchewan or the eventual brunches of a manatee. Well, to answer that question, I thought I would allow you a brief look into my life, to help you understand me a little better.
Regardless of whether you care or not, I figure you need to get something informative out of this blog post. So here you go: the sunbeam snake's Latin name Xenopeltis means "strange covering".
The reason: I am not very good at any of those things. We have some old models lying around, so I thought that I would improve my talent on those, rather than improve my talent on models that I care more about. Because this project is using spare models, this will be a very intense and trying project, but it will better my skills considerably as a gamer and as a hobbyist.
Why am I telling you, my readers, about this? Frankly, I am sure most of you do not care or even know exactly what Warhammer is, and wished that I would take about something more contreversial or humourous, like seal hunting in Saskatchewan or the eventual brunches of a manatee. Well, to answer that question, I thought I would allow you a brief look into my life, to help you understand me a little better.
Regardless of whether you care or not, I figure you need to get something informative out of this blog post. So here you go: the sunbeam snake's Latin name Xenopeltis means "strange covering".
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