Why I Hate Politics

Today, there is a lot going on in the world: probably too much for anyone to keep track of. Last night was the big presidential election and I can tell just by Facebook statuses that Obama won. This really should not be a surprise to anyone and I doubt that it is. Still, I know a lot of people are disappointed. Someone is every election. I voted, but I decided way back that whatever happens I would be happier when the whole election was. You may wonder why, but I bet most of you know exactly why. Years ago if you watched TV, you would expect a few political ads. Now they are everywhere. You can't go on YouTube without seeing an ad about Tammy Baldwin's liberal extremism or Mitt Romney's secret hidden money. I think at this point everyone is sick of this. No one believes political ads because they are always meant to deceive you. Even attack ads that are totally true are created just to get you to ignore the problems of the person making them. It is so bad, I felt bad voting because I feel like it encourages politicians.

Don't take that the wrong way. I know that kind of feeling is not the most rational. Please vote. It really is important. But if I were in charge, I would make a law banning political ads (or at least try). No one would miss them. In fact, I think that it would make everyone happy; probably happy enough to re-elect me.

The Scooby-Doo Mystery

There is one television show that never seems to end, no matter how long it is on. That show is Scooby-Doo. Ever since the first episode almost 50 years ago, we seem to just end one Scooby-Doo series so a new one will replace it next week. This all seems rather strange. How many episodes can you make about teenagers and a dog catching people disguised as monsters? Apparently, you can make thousands of episodes. The biggest mystery still remains. Why is such a random mystery show, staring a dog and his owner, who seems to be a stoner, so successful?

I think there are multiple reasons Scooby-Doo is such a success. First of all, there is a talking dog. Who doesn't like dogs? A few people, but Scooby-Doo is more than an average talking dog. He is quite funny. He never fails to entertain with his antics and his desire to stay away from the mystery that needs to be solved. He may be a dog, but in that sense, he is also very human. The second reason is a little deeper. We all like to be excited by the idea that there are things that cannot be explained: the supernatural. That is why we celebrate Halloween every year. This show always has that. But, more importantly, in the end, they always prove the monster is nothing but a harmless fraud. No matter how much we are fascinated by the supernatural, we feel better knowing that it can't hurt us.

Winning Isn't Everything

The David Maraniss article “Winning actually isn't the only thing” was about the Monday Night Football game where the Seahawks beat the Packers due to a bad call made by replacement officials. While much of the article talked about the many people whose mistakes led to his team losing, the argument he made is that the Seahawk’s coach, Pete Carroll, and the Quarterback, Russell Wilson, should not have acted as if they had won the game fairly. According to him, they clearly should have lost and the fact that they pretended that they had deserved a victory showed bad sportsmanship.

I do agree with the argument made in the article. I saw the game and it was very clear that the packers should have won. Like Maraniss, I was disappointed that members of the Seahawks pretended that they deserved to win. They had to have known that the call was bad. I know it is probably too much to ask these days for someone to acknowledge that they should have lost, but it would have been the right thing for them to do and they know that. Personally, I am not sure what I would have done in the position of Russell Wilson. I know admitting defeat is hard. Still, I know it would be the right thing, no matter what happened as a result.

The Trouble with Soda

With all the research that is done today, it feels like everything out there can be bad for your health. For all I know, the plastic in my laptop may cause cancer. With all this fear, it makes people wonder if anything is as unsafe as people say. I just read an article where the question was brought up: Is soda really that bad for you? As it turns out soda really is very bad for you if you drink too much. And in America, most people do.
The article said the most soda you should drink is about three cans in a week. It is very common for people to drink at least one a day. This is probably why America has one of the highest obesity rates in the world. Soda is full of high fructose corn syrup and empty liquid calories. Too much leads to being overweight, which can lead to diabetes, stroke, heart disease, and even cancer.
In a perfect world, we would not have to worry about these problems and there would be no need for all the warnings that are out there. There would even be healthy soda. However, soda really is bad if over-consumed. It is very smart to limit yourself. If you need to, stop drinking soda. I guarantee, it won't be bad for you.

The Scooby-Doo Mystery

There is one television show that never seems to end, no matter how long it is on. That show is Scooby-Doo. Ever since the first episode almost 50 years ago, we seem to just end one Scooby-Doo series so a new one will replace it next week. This all seems rather strange. How many episodes can you make about teenagers and a dog catching people disguised as monsters? Apparently you can make thousands of episodes. The biggest mystery still remains. Why is such a random mystery show, staring a dog and his owner, who seems to be a stoner, so successful?
I think there are multiple reasons Scooby-Doo is such a success. First of all, there is a talking dog. Who doesn't like dogs? And Scooby-Doo is more than an average talking dog. He is quite funny. He never fails to entertain with his antics and his desire to stay away from the mystery that needs to be solved. He may be a dog, but he is also very human. The second reason is a little deeper. We all like to be excited by the idea that there are things that can not be explained: the supernatural. This show always has that. But, more importantly, in the end, they always prove the monster is nothing but a harmless fraud. No matter how much we are fascinated by the supernatural, we feel better knowing that it can't hurt us.

Today, there is a lot going on in the world: probably too much for anyone to keep track of. Last night was the big presidential election and I can tell just by facebook statuses that Obama won. This really should not be a surprise to anyone and I doubt that it is. Still, I know a lot of people are disappointed. I voted, but I decided way back that whatever happens I would be happier than I am now. You may wonder why, but I bet most of you know exactly why. Years ago if you watched TV, you would expect a few political ads. Now they are everywhere. You can't go on Youtube without seeing an ad about Tammy Baldwin's liberal extremism or Mitt Romney's secret hidden money. I think at this point everyone is sick of this. No one believes political ads because they are always meant to deceive you. Even attack ads that are totally true created to get you to ignore the problems of the person making them. It is so bad, I sort of felt bad voting because I feel like it encourages politicians.
Don't take that the wrong way. Please vote. It really is important. But if I were in charge, I would make a law banning political ads. I think that would make everyone happy; probably happy enough to re-elect me.

The Prestige has a scene at the very end that really beats just about any movie before it in how shocking it really is. There is a lot in the movie hinting at the shocking twist. The entire movie, there is a man with Borden, named Mr. Fallon, who almost never talks, not even when he is being buried alive. There is also the way Sarah asks Borden quite frequently if he loves her. He always say yes, but she knows that some days, he does not mean it, but other days, he does. There is also the way Borden got into Sarah's house when they first meant. It is suppose to be just an innocent magic trick. But there is something a lot more to it.
In the actual scene where all of this is explained, Angier is watching Borden get hanged for his own death. Just as Borden dies, a figure appears and shoots Angier. Out of the shadows Borden is seen, very much alive. That is when Angier figures it out. There were always two Alfred Bordens. They were identical twins who pretended to be only one person while the other would be Fallon. They did it all to become the only people in the world to do the transporting man trick. Angier also reveals, as he is dying, that the machine Tesla had made made duplicates of himself. The person who had drowned was another one of Angier's duplicates who he had killed to keep out of the way. I don't know about you, but I saw none of that coming.

The movie I watched was The Prestige. I saw this movie last year, but to be honest I was really confused with the ending. It really made no sense to me. Despite that, I tried watching it again and I am glad I did. This time I actually understood much of the movie that I didn't before. For example, I will not give away the ending because it is way too good, but the way Alfred Borden pulled off the transported man was epic and I never saw it coming. But this time I noticed there were clues through the entire movie. For example, in one scene, number 17, he seems to forget that he promised to take his daughter to the zoo. Of course, you would think that has nothing to do with an illusion and you would think nothing of it. That is the trick to any illusion like the movie say; making people look where they shouldn't be. Another important fact is that Mr. Fallon is in the movie a lot but never talks. Again, a person may find that weird, but it does not mean anything until you actually figure out what is going on.

But this movie does more than explore the complexities of a magic trick. It also has a deep message about obsession and the cost of pursuing it. This message is one repeatedly visited including one scene where Tesla specifically tells Robert Angier that pursuing the secret to the transported man will only cause trouble. I believe this is a lesson we can all learn from since we all at some time try too hard for something we shouldn't. Overall I thought the movie was great but watching it just once is a bad idea.

As a sidenote, much of the movie takes place in Colorado Springs where I use to live. That is awesome.

The David Maraniss article “Winning actually isn't the only thing” was about the Monday Night Football game where the Seahawks beat the Packers due to a bad call made by replacement officials. While much of the article talked about the many people whose mistakes led to his team losing, the argument he made is that the Seahawk’s coach, Pete Carroll, and the Quarterback, Russell Wilson, should not have acted as if they had won the game fairly. According to him, they clearly should have lost and the fact that they pretended that they had deserved a victory showed bad sportsmanship.

                I do agree with the argument made in the article. I saw the game and it was very clear that the packers should have won. Like Maraniss, I was disappointed that members of the Seahawks pretended that they deserved to win. They had to have known that the call was bad. I know it is probably too much to ask these days for someone to acknowledge that they should have lost, but it would have been the right thing for them to do and they know that.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20120926/SPORTS/709269933/1004

Macs are the computers that people should use. It is true that PCs are what people are use to, but why? Macs can do things that PCs could never do. I have never been able to use things like logger pro or the new word settings. If people only took a few extra minutes to learn the new computer, they would discover a computer far easier and more useful.

Macs are not good computers. Not at all. PCs are much better. PCs make sense and are easy to use. Macs take hours to figure out. They don't always let open and close files and the scrolling is inverted. What's even the point of that? I don't know who came up with Macs, but they could definately use a lesson or five from PC makers.

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