My Final Post

Man, this year seemed to fly by at a speed that Barry Allen would be jealous of. I have had one of the most fulfilling years of my high school career this year by a wide margin. I took the most challenging selection of courses I have ever had at this school and managed to get pretty damn good grades in just about all of them (lets not talk about calculus). I survived the college application and acceptance process with only mild cases of complete mental breakdowns and crippling anxiety and got into one of my top choices for schools. I plan on going on to study electrical engineering as well as studying audio engineering and studio recording. At this point in my life, I would say that my dream would be to move out to LA and open a music studio with some of my closest friends, but aside from that there are plenty of other more realistic options that sound appealing as well. I know that as long as I enjoy what I'm doing with my life I wont care if its lucrative or whether I could live more comfortably doing something else. The most important thing to me at this point in my life is enjoying everything around, trying new things and trying to reach new heights in the activities I love the most. I plan on really trying to improve my music abilities in the near future so that I can try my hand at professional musicianship as I have already been offered an opportunity to show what I can do. To be honest, I cant say that I am glad this year is over but at the same time the future seems so bright that I just can help but be drawn towards it and wonder if I really can do the things I have always wanted to do. I hope those of you reading this are filled with the same passion and drive to go out and live you dreams because now is the time and I cant wait to get started.

The Power of the Internet Hivemind

Seeing as last weeks post was so well received I have decided to once again do a write up on one of the many aspects of world wide web. Tonight I will once again be delving into the mystical world of the internet and how this lawless frontier decides what becomes popular and what does not. When talking about the internet, many people relish in their ability to share their opinions freely without having to worry much about others judging their decisions. However, many people also form their opinions based solely upon what they read or see is popular on the internet, wanting to seem up to speed and in with what everyone else deems is the social norm. In real life, this is called peer pressure and is relatively harmless compared to the grotesque form it takes on the internet which is usually referred to as the internet hive mind. The hive mind of the internet is more or less made up of the vocal majority on the internet who all share the same views on the world and believe them to be the only correct ways to experience life. This can pertain to anything from what musical group is the most trendy to what politician should become the next president. One thing each aspect has in common is that no matter how insignificant the opinion, those members of the hive mind will stop at nothing to berate you, tell you why what you believe in is wrong and tell you that what they believe in is correct. One of the most recent examples of this comes with the new announcement trailers for the latest Call of Duty and Battlefield video games. In the eyes of most on the internet, Call of Duty is regarded as a trash game run produced by a corrupt company who puts no effort in re skinning last years game and charging full price for the new modern shoot em up IN SPAAAACE. Battlefield on the other hand has a much better reputation due to the fact that each new battlefield feels like a new battlefield with epic large scale combat that Call of Duty simply cannot hold a candle to. When the trailers dropped for each new installment in the series, history was made as the Battlefield 1 trailer became the most liked trailer of any kind on YouTube while the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare trailer became the most disliked trailer of all time. many attribute it to the fact that Battlefield is breaking new ground and basing their game in WW1, something never done before by a AAA shooter title, while COD is once again creating a futuristic warfare game that will most likely be very similar in play style to the one before it, and the one before that and the one before that... Yet I also see the workings of the internet hivemind at work as even those people that I have talked to that have never played a game from either series have joined the dislike parade just so they can rejoice with the rest of the internet as they try their hardest to tell Activision how bad they're game series has become by flooding it with dislikes and hate speeches. I personally couldn't give a rats ass about Call of Duty, but I will definitely be buying the new battlefield if only to live out my dream of dive-bombing the french countryside while blasting Black Sabbath's War Pigs over my external speakers.

Mixin It Up

This week on my blog I decided to have my good friend Dan Sullivan from thealphabet123 blog come in and collaborate on a post with me. Today, we watched one of Dan's favorite videos on the internet, a highly educational video that outlines how family's viewed the internet and computers before they became a staple in every household. Through the use of clever editing and stark social commentary, the video aims to provide what any other educational video does, informed education on the subject matter. Dan and I tried to offer our most sincere criticisms of the video as well as any other insights we may have had about the internet and it's culture while we watched this video. So without further ado, I present one of hopefully many collabs with my friend Dan on this blog.