“We have all been training extremely hard to get to this moment. All of you know that if we reach the treasure room and successfully defeat ‘The Ripper,’ we will be hailed as heroes and earn one million People Points (PP) each!!”

“Yeah, let’s do this!”

“FOR LEEROY JENKINS!!”

With much cheering and enthusiasm, MasterofSword137 pushed open the gate and led us into the darkness. We were quickly surrounded by monsters of all sorts. With gargoyles and dragons flanking us left and right, our knights took the brunt of the damage while the mages and I conjured deadly bolts of lightning and waves of flaming meteors. These were easy and our group became even more raucous than ever. Celebrating our first confrontation, I wiped the blood off of my helmet and requested to speak to the leader.

“MasterofSword137, maybe we should finalize our battle plans before we confront ‘The Ripper’ in the treasure room?”

“Nay, there is no need. You saw how easy this battle was, and that was with fifty plus of the strongest creatures attacking us too! Our high DPS will allow us to easily defeat ‘The Ripper’!”

Thus, we continued our journey to the treasure room. However, after we finished killing the guards, I was quickly overcome with sense of déjà vu. Other members of my group turned to me and also looked as if they had déjà vu too, but before we could say anything, MasterofSword137 led us into the treasure room. Needless to say, it was quickly apparent that we were going to face the same fate as our ancestors once did. Five minutes, we were all dead.

“I TOLD YOU WE SHOULD HAVE CREATED A BATTLE PLAN,” I cried.

“YEA, WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU MoS!?” yelled a guildmember.

“MoS SUX, WE NEED A NEW GUILDMASTER!” decried another guildmember.

“Ok guys, I messed up. I’m sorry, but you can’t blame me for feeling confident about our group for once!” said MasterofSword137, apologetically.

“Ugh, I’m done with this game, cya later guys,” I said.

Logging out of the game, I walked out of the Massively Multiplayer Game Center to the nearest bus stop.

RING! RING! RING!

“Hello?” I answered.

“Hey dude, yd u logon so l8 2day? For a min, I thought u were actually sick of VirtuaWorld,” asked my friend, John.

“Nah, I stayed up really late last night looking for a home. All the houses around Digihood are too expensive for me,” I replied.

“Well, ull eventually find a gud one for ur avatar.”

“Yeah, I guess,” I replied. The bus was approaching the bus stop.

“Hey, u sound kinda sad. How was teh quest?”

“Oh man, it was a complete disaster, dude. Our leader pulled a Leeroy Jenkins.” I started boarding the bus.

“Wtf iz Leeroy Jenkins?”

“Well, about 50 years ago, there was a famous “Leeroy Jenkins” video on a site called “Youtube” where a group of adventurers had been in the process of creating a strategy but one of the members went rogue and ended up getting the other members killed. “ I sat down near the rear of the bus.

“Wow, u need to chillz out on teh gaming man. Thats lyke teh early 2000s, rite? No wonder u cant get any gurlz.”

“Hey, what is that supposed to mean? Just because I spend a good chunk of my time on games doesn’t mean I’m completely devoid of any social skills.”

“Y dont we put ur skillz to teh test than? Theirs a new club that opened up on VirtuaStrip. The newest update included alot of really hawt female avatars and even some guy avatars, too. May be we can get u dressed up and get u laid 2nite.”

“Yeah, alright. G2G, man.”

“TTYL.”

Feeling slightly cheerful, I disembarked the bus and walked to my apartment. “Ah, a freshly cut lawn never smelled more appealing,” I smiled. Clicking on the door, I entered my apartment and walked over to the refrigerator to feed my starving avatar. Watching him eat a cold pizza sitting on the couch watching the television, I realized how much time and money I spent buying creature comforts for my avatar. Many of the objects were purchased instead of buying a real couch because everyone’s social status is based on their virtual life, not their real life. Plus, it was a lot cheaper buying these objects than in the real world. I would never have dreamed of owning a fully furnished kitchen or a 50-inch DigiTele sitting in front of Deluxe Leather Sofa with a mini-cooler. After finishing up the pizza, I walked over to the Den and booted up my newly bought VectorGraph-X 9000 Plus. Starting up Firefox Ultimate 37.4b Professional, I accessed the VirtuaWorld homepage, hoping to download the new update John was talking about.

“Oh snap, the new update includes access to a new part of the city, graphical enhancements to VirtuaStrip, new weapon sets at the Massively Multiplayer Gaming Center, the newly opened Virtual Vacation Center, and new avatar designs for only $49.99!” I exclaimed.

CLICK!

“Transaction confirmed.”

“Yay, I can’t wait to try out the new outfits!” I said excitedly.

RING! RING! RING!

“Hello?”

“Yo, its John. I juz saw dat u dled teh newest update. R u rdy 2 go 2 teh club?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there in 30 minutes.”

“K, ttyl.”

“Cya.”

Turning back to the my avatar, I tried on a sleek black shirt, black pant outfit with a slick black hair. No, maybe for another night. Then, I tried on a red afro with high heels and a full leather suit: definitely not. I finally settled upon a blue striped date shirt with jeans and sneakers. Directing my avatar out of the apartment, I boarded the bus and thought of my youth when going out to the club in the real world was still popular. Now, everything everyone does is done in VirtuaWorld, even including ordering food or getting an education. Plus, it’s easier and much more convenient when you have complete and instant control over what you look like in a virtual world compared to the real world.

“VirtuaStrip.”

Getting off of the bus, I spotted John talking to a few female avatars.

“Hey John.”

“Wazzup man! I wanna introduce u 2 Yvonne and Amanda,” said John.

“Hi ladies, you’re both looking very beautiful tonight.”

“Enough of teh small talk, lets get 2 teh club!”

Walking through the Strip, the effect of the update was apparent. People everywhere were donning their new outfits and high quality lights peppered the walkways and nothing was pixilated anymore. For the first time in a long time, I felt extremely proud of myself. Even my avatar cracked a smile. Upon arriving at the club, it became obvious that I lacked the social skills of my friend. Seeing a crowd of women by the bar, he immediately left us and went to introduce himself. Standing there with two beautiful avatars next to me, I instantly froze up.

“So, what do you guys want to do?” I asked.

“I think we’ll go dance, see you later,” they replied.

“How pathetic,” I thought. “Even when I’m behind the guise of an avatar, I still have absolutely no game.”

Needless to say, after trying to mingle with a few other groups of women, I couldn’t take any more acts of rejection and left the club. Walking back to my apartment, I thought back to what John challenged to me earlier.

“Y dont we put ur skillz to a lot test than? Theirs a new club that opened up on VirtuaStrip. The newest update included a lot of really hawt female avatars and even some guy avatars, too. May be we can get u dressed up and get u laid 2nite.”

“Well John, looks like I failed your challenge,” I said.

Arriving at my apartment, I sent my avatar to the bedroom and logged off.

Turning off my monitor, I noticed a light flooding through my door in the other room. Yawning, I walked over to investigate. Seeing the light shining through the window, I stuck my head out and saw a great orb floating in the sky. A strange feeling came over me as I realized that there may be something else out there in the real world worth experiencing.

The satirical subject of my short story is “Technology is destroying humanness.” To achieve this, my short story will be based in the future somewhere around 2100 where technology has spread all over the world. I chose a short story format over a screen play, newspaper, and poem mainly because writing short stories are more natural to me and I’ve had plenty of more practice writing in that format. I ended up choosing this topic (even though I dismissed technology at first) because it was one that I understood very well and has many effects on society and mankind, giving me variety and a large chance that I wouldn’t write about the same topic as someone else in the class. As mentioned earlier, the plot will be set in the future, and in order for me to create a viable world, I will pull ideas from movies such as I, Robot, Wall-E and Minority Report as well as my own knowledge of technology.

To explain my subject, technology has taken over many functions that humans had to do. For the Big Three automotive companies, automated robots take over many functions that required people to do the task, and in an efficient and much cheaper fashion. Another example is that with cell phones becoming commodities, remembering phone numbers have been delegated to the phone’s contact list. People become dependent on their cell phones. Filing taxes have been taken care of by software such as TaxCut which only requires data from the user. This effectively eliminates the knowledge of actually knowing how to fix out taxes. Google has become a second brain to people, where searching any desired idea or concept can be found within seconds, for good or for worse. For me to create a successful satire, I will most likely be exaggerating the extent of how technology has dumbed down the human race in the future. My main premise is that people will have lost many of their skills and abilities and rely on technology to help them get through their daily lives.

As for ideas I will pull from movies, I, Robot was set in the year 2035 and after seeing the movie, much of society was affected by technology. The completely automated driving system for cars was perfected by that time period and would be a decent example. The main concept of robots being able to assist humans in everyday tasks will likely be included in my short story because they are the perfect example. Plus, all the movies I mentioned above include them. Artificial Intelligence will be a dominant idea. Wall-E especially has many ideas to pull from, with Wall-E “himself” being part of a group of robots that disposed of trash. Also, robots are seen to run many functions, many of them being important.

To explain my actual storyline, humans have literally become meat bags in the year 2100. As with the movie Harrison Bergeron, there is a small group that is not under this rule, but unlike the movie, they are not the elite group, but rather a minority of people that have escaped technology’s grasp and are trying to regain their humanness. The story will follow a “renegade” adult from a first person view. My definition of humanness in this case is that people in the year 2100 have everything taken care of for them, with tasks such as walking (in which case they would just sit on robots, much like Wall-E) and even thinking. While they haven’t become brainwashed, their level of creativity and intelligence have become null since everyone has technology to do it for them. The small group, mentioned earlier, is regarded as renegade and “highly dangerous.” However, this labeling is not due to technology becoming “evil”, but simply just humans utilizing technology. Humor may be used, but not in copious amounts. And example may be kids in school are trying to “outsmart” each other using technology and their argument elevates to such a ridiculous degree that everyone starts laughing over it.

While I haven’t exactly figured out every tidbit of the short story, I know that it’s not showing an sense of evil or wrongdoing, much unlike I, Robot or Wall-E. Instead, it is more of a struggle for the small group of “renegades” to wean mankind off of technology and regain their humanness of creativity, imagination, and even intelligence.

For as long as I can remember, I have always been passionate about music. Whether it was dancing to a hypnotic rhythm or making my own melodies, music has shaped and molded my life. During the nine months I spent in my mother’s womb, my parents would often play classical music for me due to the notion that it would make me smarter. During my early childhood, I was addicted to music and would dance in the family room, often times rolling around or jumping off of furniture. This coincided with the fact that I was very active when I was young, participating in multiple sports such as soccer and hockey. However, I didn’t stop there. I wanted to be able to make my own music, to evoke emotions similar to what I had felt when I listened the classical recordings. Piano was the first instrument I picked up and I would often try to mimic classical recordings my parents bought for me. Since the piano and the sound system were in two different rooms, I would often scurry back and forth to replay difficult musical sections and turn the sound system up so I could hear it. This routine held true when I started to play the alto saxophone, and I ended up spending more time than I needed to just to play and listen to a section. Thus, it was the combination of a need to conduct practice sessions more efficiently and the need of a portable source of music that drove me to buy my first portable audio player.

However, I had a slight problem. With the industry slowly switching over from CD players to flash and hard drive players, I had a wide selection of portable audio players to choose from. Thus, I created a couple of requirements that had to be met to narrow my choices. My first requirement of my new portable audio player was it had to be easy to switch between songs. A CD player definitely flopped in this category because carrying multiple CDs, not to mention the physical loading and unloading of the discs, was extremely inconvenient. This was neither efficient nor pocket friendly. My second requirement was which held more value to me. Most of the flash players had internal microphones, FM radio, backlit screens, easy-to-use software, and supported the popular file formats, such as MP3. Hard drive players were centered on how much music they could hold, but seemed to lack most of the features that flash players included. The pivotal point that finally pushed me toward a flash player was the durability of having non-moving parts. This meant that accidentally dropping it or exposing it to extreme movements would not hinder the functions of the device. The player that met and exceeded my requirements was the iRiver iFP-190TC MP3 player.

This iRiver iFP-190TC MP3 player houses a 256 MB flash drive inside of a prism-style casing. This casing measures 1.2 by 0.1 by 3.2 inches in size and only weighs a miniscule 1.6 ounces. Due to its unique design, it is easy to transport and carry around. The ingenuity of the case design is it allows all of the hardware to be located on the side of the screen while the battery is rests next to it. When examined on its side, the front face has an internal microphone, the iRiver logo, the screen, and the navigation joystick from left to right, respectively. Going to the side above, there are engraved symbols on three buttons and labels above them. The sections where the buttons are located are slightly recessed, making it easier to push the buttons and allowing them to stay true to the overall design of the device. Moving on to the last facet, a switch is located near the left side, where it again is located in a slightly recessed area. This switch is labeled with “HOLD.” Looking at the top of the device, there are two ports and a hook bezel. The exposed port is the headphone jack and the other port is covered by a rubber strip which masks the USB 1.1 connection. The hook bezel allows for the device to be strung around the neck, which incidentally comes with a neck strap. It’s also rotatable and quite sturdy. At the base, there is a switch, which when slid open, reveals the battery compartment. Both the top and bottom of the device are chrome-like, while the rest of the device is a silver-and-gray color.

For its time, the iRiver iFP-190TC MP3 player was one of the best flash players around. Compared to the hard drive players, it was grossly out of their price range, costing nearly $200 for only 256 megabytes of storage. However, as this was new technology and it created smaller and more durable devices, the price was justified. The main appeal of this flash player was its versatility. As mentioned earlier, I was very active growing up and having a flash player that could keep up with my daily lifestyle was a huge deal. The hook bezel was perfect since I could sling the player around my neck instead of stowing it in my pocket, which would make for very uncomfortable jogging sessions. This characteristic is available on many small audio players today.

Music has been a huge part of today’s society. An important note is jazz, hip hop, rock, classical, and a multitude of other genres of music are listened to every day. With all of these kinds of genres, they all have different effects on people, namely classical music being sophisticated, but soothing. This effect is so great that there are a large number of industries that rely on the power of music! The movie industry is extremely dependent on this and often times, the soundtrack can make or break a movie. The music for something as simple as a television commercial can evoke positive feelings to its viewers, possibly creating new customers of the product being shown. With all of this in mind, it’s safe to say our society runs on music. Before the cassette player, people were usually confined to listening to music in their homes or in their cars. With the evolution of portable audio players from cassettes to CDs to flash drives and hard drives, people can enjoy music wherever they want.

The iRiver wasn’t the singular item that resulted in the explosion of multifunctional portable devices. The portable audio player was the concept that rocked the world and lets us carry our music around and listen to it wherever and whenever we wanted. The iPod from Apple Inc. exploded into popular culture with its innovation and simplicity. As the front runner, it accelerated the evolution of the audio player and now, nearly everyone in America has some form of portable audio device. A notable difference between the iRiver and the iPod was the iRiver incorporated many features that now come standard on most brands of audio players, but the iPod turned those features into accessories, which it still does today. This has created an additional market and many portable audio players have a selection of accessories to complement and personalize it.

As an embodiment of a personal music hub, a few other significant changes that came with popularity of portable audio players were improved file formats and compatibility with other devices. These changes were extremely significant and often ensured success or defeat for portable audio players, regardless of physical features of the player itself. Multiple audio formats were created and competed against each other. A current example of this format war is between Microsoft’s Zune and Apple’s iPod. Each has their own specialized formats, Windows Media Audio (WMA) for Microsoft and Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) for Apple in order to enforce brand loyalty. Luckily, the MP3 is universal in all portable audio players. However, in order to get this music to the player, the bundled software must be user friendly. As with most audio players, the iRiver initially suffered in this category since content could only be uploaded to the player, not vice versa. In today’s society, having a functional piece of software is the bare minimum, and once again, Apple’s iTunes is a prime example of this. Not only does it upload and download content from its players flawlessly, it also has a built-in media player as well as a store to download music, movies, and games. This all-in-one package is a perfect example of the growth of purchasing content online instead of purchasing CDs. Most of these changes were credited with Apple’s iPod and are fast becoming standard in today’s society.

Growing up as a kid with music as one of my greatest passions, owning a portable audio player has made it easier to stay with my passion. Before I purchased my iRiver audio player, it was difficult to enjoy listening to music and practicing my instruments. Playing my music too loudly would incur complaints from my parents and running around the house just to listen to a song again was a major hassle as well. My iRiver iFP-190TC MP3 player has allowed me to cut the cord and enjoy my music freely, and it definitely shows. Having owned it for over four years, I have put its durability to the test and the results of scratches, bumps, and even missing parts of the shell have proven that I made the right choice. As a proud owner of a device that has shaped so many lives and allowed for the growth and expansion of multiple industries, I’m hopeful for the future has in store next.

—

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=IFP-190-R&sourceid=qIqiQ4bm@gQfAlnvzOED&cm_ven=CJ&cm_pla=0039448524&cm_ite=IFP-190-R

http://www.3dxtreme.net/index.php?id=iriverifp190tc2

http://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-players/iriver-ifp-180t/4505-6490_7-20597637.html

The first part of the movie before Flynn was teleported into the digital world was pretty boring. At first, I had no idea who Flynn was and why he was trying to hack into ENCOM. This not only made me confused, but disinterested. However, it started to pick up after Dillinger had shown up. Also, the digitization of the orange sparked my interest. These were clearly foreshadowing events that might happen in the future, especially when it was revealed that Flynn was trying to claim his rights to all the games he coded. Neo from “The Matrix” flashed in the back of my mind and similarities between the two films popped up in the back of my mind. When Flynn was finally in the digital world, I expected a shift to indicate that it really was the digital world, and not a bunch of people dressed in suits, and the movie delivered. However, it didn’t seem there was enough plot development throughout this part of the movie, as everything was said about once and moved on.

Comparing Tron to “The Matrix”, Flynn is the main protagonist that is sent to the digital world to destroy the Master Control Program. He gets help from other programs, similar to Neo getting help from Morpheus, Trinity, and The Oracle, to name a few. Flynn’s journey through the digital world helps him understand how the digital world works and leas to the discovery of his powers. While the games were meant to be interesting, it seemed boring to me. Obviously, I had been thinking about it way too much. Other similarities included Flynn’s lost interest, Lora/Cindy, and his ability to bring her back, much like Neo giving life back to Trinity. Another huge similarity is that they both sacrificed themselves to destroy the main antagonist, MCP/Agent Smith, Flynn was returned to the real world.

While the plot of the movie was definitely original comparing it to The Matrix, what amazed and irked me was the lack of CG, but creative ways of making up for it. I thought the suits were an ingenious way of not only distinguishing the good programs from the bad programs, but a way to give the actors the look of a program without adding any bulk. Plus, the lights on the suit served multiple purposes and just look really cool. While the CG in this film was lacking, for a 1980’s film, it was excellent for its time. Also, the scenes where CG was involved made them seem like Flynn and the others were actually in a digital world.

All in all, Tron was truly a revolutionary movie of its time. The CG was incredible and the idea was original. However, seeing more plot development and more CG would have taken the cake. Adding another half an hour to just slow things down and let them unravel would have made the film more understandable and, most importantly, more enjoyable.

My review of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ato7BtisXzE

From the first 15 seconds, I was already feeling a little bit inspired and it reminded me about charismatic nature of Obama. For the next couple of minutes, the never-ending applause and the chanting of “Obama” gave me a sense how welcoming the people were of Obama. This kind of opening felt like Obama had already won the bid for President of the United States.

With his opening remarks about applauding some of his fellow Democrats, I believe they, and previous speeches from other Democrats, were to show that the Democrats were united. With the year long battle for the Democratic nomination between Hillary and Obama, this was a way to downplay the past. After these remarks, Obama went straight to addressing the issues that concern the American people and that only we could fix these issues: higher gas prices, ongoing wars, higher unemployment, home values dropping, and higher bills. This, as Obama put it, was a “direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush.” Clearly, as the speech progresses, Obama sticks Bush and McCain in the same boat. Vote Republican? Another four years of Bush. It also seems like Obama takes a new twist in this speech, because he bashes the Bush Administration for literally every single bad thing that has happened. While it could be an exaggeration, I felt Obama made it feel true with very realistic examples that were, or could have been, a direct result of the “failures” of the Bush Administration. Whether this is brainwashing or simple just a good attack, the audience undoubtedly agrees with Obama. Another point I found interesting was when Obama said McCain has voted with Bush 90 percent of the time and he was “not ready to take a 10 percent chance on change.” Lines such as these added comic relief and really made the speech feel livelier.

As the speech progresses, Obama speaks directly to the people. I find this part of the speech appealing because it really brought up the troubles the American people were having. This led into Obama’s plan for change when he becomes elected, and while it is a huge list of problems he is proposing to fix, he is at least acknowledging that these problems exist and that he will try to fix them. Some of these fixes were way over the top, such as his plan to completely end dependence on foreign oil in 10 years, but even reducing the dependence by 30% would be a huge accomplishment.

“We are the Party of Roosevelt, we are the Party of Kennedy…we are here to restore that legacy.” Those two lines gave me chills. By this point, I was already rooting for Obama. But wait, there’s more! The next part where Obama said patriotism was not tied to a specific Party and the men and women who serve not under a red America or a blue America, but under the United States of America reinforced my image of envisioning Obama as the next President.

Near the end of his speech, Obama requested everyone to join him in his bid for a brighter future for America. His delivery also slightly echoed Martin Luther King Jr. which he alluded to. The country song played at the end further made the convention seem like more like a concert. I definitely will say that this speech will make me vote for Obama in the coming months.

Going into specifics, The Brief McGraw-Hill Handbook will stay an excellent reference for the rest of my college career and beyond. By just glancing at the Table of Contents, I can see that at least half of it will be relevant to me no matter where I’m studying or working. After a previous homework assignment about reading a few chapters from the book, it wasn’t so much of a reference book that I thought it was due to the numerous exercises and “Questioning the text” scattered around the chapters. This allowed me to test and reinforce what I just read, forcing me to read comprehensively and improving my writing skills at the same time. While McGraw was busy teaching me the tricks of the trade, Text Messaging was busy teaching me the rules of the game, with the game being popular culture. While it still repeated the traditional rules of writing, it was mixed in with a repertoire of expressions: text messaging, instant messaging, movie poster advertising, etc. One thing I really like about Text Messaging is it has many images to back up its claims and increase the reader’s interest in whichever topic is currently being talked about.

While both books have their own differences and similarities, having access to both allows me to combine their strengths so that I can refer to them if I am ever in distress due to a looming essay or a friendly instant messaging chat.