Bryan Wojciechowski's Weblog

As of this point we’ve watched a little more than half of the movie in class. The main character, Stephen Glass, really comes off fake. He tries to always appear humble to the point where it looks almost pathetic and weak. He acts awkwardly with co-workers almost seemingly on purpose to be more approachable. One part of the movie he shares a story with a co-worker about getting slipped the tongue by some congressman’s representative which obviously seemed out of place. In the movie Stephen Glass submits a fake article to be published in The National Republic. He made up some unbelievable story about a hacker convention and some fantastical teenage hacker who signed a deal for millions to work as a security advisor for an unknown mega corporation. What I don’t understand is that in the movie they discuss the process of how a paper gets reviewed numerous times before it hits print. Supposedly the article goes through numerous legal fact checkers before ever hitting national print so I don’t understand how Stephen Glass’s paper made it through all the proper channels without ever being questioned in it’s authenticity. I also don’t understand the main character’s thought process. When cornered by his editor about certain discrepancies in his story he just makes up more and more lies expecting not to get called on this new information. When the editor asked about where they ate he didn’t make up a decent lie like “I don’t remember, I was busy writing my notes while they drove”. Instead he just says the place is right down the street as if that would be the end of the investigation even though that fact could so easily be checked. The last thing that got my attention was how much Hayden Christianson looked exactly like Anakin Skywalker because of how the pale makeup was used to make his character looked distressed.

If you’re not familiar with the man I’ll fill you in. He’s the terrible, German born, movie director who has ruined many a good name of popular video game franchises. He’s responsible for one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen: Alone in the Dark. What makes the hurt even worse is that I really enjoyed the five videogames in that series and the new one coming up looks incredible. He’s also responsible for ruining the names of the following franchises: BloodRayne, Dungeon Siege, Postal, House of the Dead, and FarCry. Like me you may be wondering who keeps giving this man fistfuls of cash to make such terrible movies. The answer was, at one point, the German government. Apparently there was some tax loophole where the foreign government would give money to struggling German entrepreneurs in America. So even if one of Boll’s movies failed miserably (which all of them did) he would still rank in the dough. Boll would intentionally make his movies as low-budget as he could so he could keep more of the money. Luckily the loophole was recently closed and now the director will actually feel the punch that he gets from his terrible work. If his professional life isn’t despicable enough it turns out he’s a terrible person as well. When Uwe Boll got tired of all the deserving terrible reviews his films were getting he issued a physical challenge to any reviewer to box him in three rounds. Too bad Uwe Boll handpicked the weakest challengers he knew he could beat up one after another. In the end, I hate Uwe Boll for all those reasons.

I was thinking that I would write my essay on the ethical dilemma of downloading movies off the internet. I would argue the two points, giving pros and cons for each side, but I would more strongly advocate the action than condemn it. For the pros I would write about how terrible of a state the film industry is in. It seems that all Hollywood is willing to pump out today are terrible cliché comedies or mindless CGI action movies. I think film studios need to come up with original ideas before I’ll just hand them my money. Just look at how many comics and videogames are being churned out into terrible films. If a studio can make some quick cash because of a loyal following to an original concept they won’t care how bad they desecrate the material. Some argue that downloading movies is stealing money from all the various people who put effort into the movie (aka the film crew, editing, musical score). My view point is that maybe if the film studios weren’t paying terrible actors 50 million dollars for a few months work, they could spread that money evenly throughout the crew. In essence I’d be arguing that downloading movies is the only way to get the fat cats in Hollywood to change their money grubbing ways. If I was going to argue against the act I would most likely talk about the morals of stealing. I would also talk about the copyright laws and the RIAA. No matter what justification you attach to a criminal act it doesn’t make it anymore lawful. I’m not positive if this is what I’m going to write about but it seems like a good topic.

Not even before DVD completely wiped out it’s meager competition of VHS there was already another format war being brought to the forefront. The two new contenders were (Sony backed) Blu-Ray in one corner and (Toshiba backed) HD-DVD in the other. These were two completely different formats although they didn’t differentiate much in appearance. The movies that would come out on each format would not be interchangeable so consumers would have to commit to one of the two formats. The greatest pro in regards to Blu-Ray was how much more information it could hold on one disc compared to HD-DVD. The biggest pro for HD-DVD was that it was much cheaper to manufacture so it would be cheaper for the consumer as well. Sony had the smart sense to use it’s foothold in the video game industry to install a base market for Blu-Ray. When the Playstation 3 was released it came standard with Blu-Ray capability. At that same time Blu-Ray players were going for over $1000. With millions of Playstation 3 consoles sold over the first few months, Blu-Ray was already in more living rooms then HD-DVD which came out first. Microsoft (Sony’s competition when it comes to video games) placed their bets on the opposing format offering a HD-DVD player attachment for the Xbox 360. Over time the scales have tipped in Blu-Ray’s favor and Toshiba has officially announced it will bail out on it’s high definition format. Blu-Ray will be the next media format but it will be quite a few years before it replaces the original DVD.

I was promised virtual reality a long time ago. I first really got excited about the possibilities in Stephen King’s movie version of “The Lawnmower Man”. Granted in the movie virtual reality made a man go crazy with lust for power but think its really got unlimited potential. Virtual reality is currently being used for both military and medical training, helping soldiers learn to fly jetfighters and letting doctors practice complicated operations. Too bad this virtual reality is nothing but a glorified videogame. What I want is a reality as real as this one yet doesn’t have any consequences, a place where I can live every dangerous car chase I made up when I was bored in class. The closest thing I’ve experienced is the Nintendo Virtual Boy. If you don’t recall this horrifyingly disabilitating toy, it consisted of a stand like a telescope which had lead up to these goggles. When a person looked into these goggles they almost instantly went blind. Apparently Nintendo thought they could pass this eye burning combination of a black background and red lines as virtual reality. They even tried another attempt at virtual reality with the Wii but really no company has successfully tapped into the virtual market. It’s interesting to imagine a future where everyone has a place to experience anything at anytime. Would people commit crime if they could experience everything money could ever buy virtually? It’s a possibility that virtually reality, a place where everyone can have anything, could solve all the world’s problems.

Barely making it to national television newscasts yet followed day-by-day on numerous internet sites is the internet group “Anonymous” and their attempt to take down scientology. I haven’t been personally following every little story but I try to catch the groups’ internet press videos where they use a really creepy, jagged, robotic voice with a background of only fast moving clouds. One honorable aspect of the group is that they actually aren’t attacking the ideals behind the religion of Scientology. They don’t believe it’s their place to judge any religion. Instead they are trying to expose the corrupt leaders behind the religion and their violent, abusive practices against people who try to escape. Some of the groups’ direct objectives are to get rid of Scientology’s tax exempt status which places Scientology even above other religions. They also work to expose the religion’s criminal practices to public scrutiny. I remember reading a story of a women who tried to escape from one of their compounds but was found, dragged back to a church of Scientology and then locked in a room for days with no food or water. When she died a medical autopsy revealed so many bug bites that it’s safe to use the phrase “eaten alive”. Recently the group has rallied and staged protests at Scientology churches where they wear masks to represent “Anonymous”. I don’t really believe these protests will get anywhere but I’m all for using actual political power to revoke tax exempt status. This seems like a great move forward that could hamper the tainted religion’s explosive growth.

Gamestop is that giant monopoly that crushes my soul and spirit every time I want to buy a new videogame. When I step into any Gamestop store I’m usually immediately harassed by some teenage failure whose first introduction to anything videogame related was his Gamestop employee orientation. Every store clerk I’ve encountered at Gamestop has usually been completely oblivious about the product they’re trying to force feed me. They attack you in hopes of getting you to reserve a game (a practice which the company is notoriously known for not honoring), buy a discount card/gift card, or buy a subscription to Game Informer magazine. Even with all these pushy salesman tactics Gamestop makes most of it’s money off used games. If you’re a casual gamer who doesn’t care about replay value and would instead sell a beaten game to help pay for future video games by all means avoid Gamestop. They will offer you a terrible price and turn around and sell that game used for triple what you where offered. Even buying new games isn’t safe. I’ve read on a few gaming sites that employees are allowed to take home new games, play them, and then restock them on the shelf to be sold as new. I read one story where a guy bought a game he thought had never been opened and when he took it home a note from a Gamestop employee to his girlfriend fell out of the game’s instruction manual. I also liked learning that when all three new consoles launched Gamestop employees were allowed to reserve consoles for themselves so they could later sell them on eBay for outrageous prices. I hate you Gamestop.

Of the four choices given in class I’d say I would put myself under “Not usually but..”. Usually I look down on the homeless as people who’ve let themselves be swallowed by addiction. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that all homeless people are addicted to either drugs, alcohol, or some vice. I know it doesn’t seem very kind of me but I think most bums are the epitome of weak and worthless. I would however consider some situations exceptions. I don’t believe the children of terrible parents deserve to live on the street so I would give money to a person who had no choice but to beg with their children for money. Also if I saw a wounded veteran I think I’d be more likely to give. Most of today’s veterans have suffered if not debilitating wounds then terrible mental anguish because of what they’ve seen in the battlefield. There is a different kind of disparate person that I don’t look down upon at all, a man in a bad situation whose not looking for a handout but is looking for work so he can honestly make something of himself. That’s the kind of person I’d try to help the most. Not just give that man a measly dollar but try to help that man put his life back on track. My whole answer is pretty much theoretical though because it’s been a long time since I’ve found myself passing a homeless person on the street. Living at the USF campus has really cut down my face-to-face time with bums.

The Obama commercial most identifies with the pathos (emotion) element of an argument. It really tries to appeal the viewer by showing how Obama gave up on a lucrative career such as working for wall street to become a community leader among local churches. The commercial establishes ethos (authority) by telling how Obama graduated from Harvard Law School to portray him as an intellectual and right after they tell how he decided to return to his old community to help civil rights and to lead a voter registration to drive home some more pathos. I would say using testimonials from noted people such as a Harvard Law professor establish both ethos and logos (logic). One testimonial pictures Barack as someone who stayed organized while everything around him collapsed which would make him logically a great choice to be one of the most powerful men in the world. Visually in the commercial there’s only one instance where Barack Obama is by himself and I think that’s an attempt to use pathos to show he’s always cared for the community. Even in the title of the commercial, “Choices”, they try to emphasize how Obama’s life choices were for the better of the community and not himself.

Nintendo’s a household name. Old people will tell you stop playing Nintendo if you were using an iPhone. It’s been the staple of the videogame industry for so long that some people get so washed up in their loyalty (stemming from some badass memories of playing Mario Bros. 3 on SNES) they don’t notice that Nintendo doesn’t love them back. Nintendo is a company out to make money. So much so that they have no problem tricking you into shelling out $200+ for a whole new console when you really only want to play three of their trademark franchises (Zelda, Mario, and Metroid). Now more than ever Nintendo is trying to piss off the core gaming community by peddling their “casual games”. This onslaught of terrible mini games is making my Wii collect dust. It seems that their innovative motion sensing controller is just for pretending to swing a stick and nothing more. If you’re going to make a whole console based on the concept of virtual reality there better at least be a huge damn helmet to put on. Not to mention that this whole gimmick is Nintendo’s excuse for the Wii having terrible graphical limitations. The upcoming Bomberman looks ripped off the N64. I’m going to try to put a picture of the upcoming Wii title “Target: Terror”. Also you think after the huge success of Xbox Live it would be obvious to at least make your internet multiplayer at least functional but with Nintendo you‘re lucky if there‘s even multiplayer present. By the way Nintendo has terrible customer service; a friend of mine had his Wii brake on him a while ago and they‘ve yet to fix the situation. I hate you Nintendo