Make My Day

Aftermath of Project MMD

2007-11-15T13:12:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know - the midterm project that was creating and maintaining this blog is now finally over. Unless wanted by popular demand, my blog will not be posted on a nearly as frequent basis as it has been (slash at all for that matter). For your enjoyment I have provided an excerpt from an interview with my Professor that was conducted shortly after the project was reviewed.

Professor Rubin: Could you reflect on what your experience of blogging was like? I'm interested in learning whether you felt comfortable doing it, whether it was fun and why, and whether you plan to continue blogging.

Josh: Blogging, to say the least, was very difficult for me. Not because I am incapable of it, but because it needs a strong, well though out design to truly work. The nature of the blog is to churn out new information at a rapid pace.

I have learned that there are two main ways to be able to blog successfully. Though of course - each comes with a catch. One, you can be an expert in at least one field. Through your blog, you impress your superior knowledge unto people and soon enough, your blog is now being visited by 1 million unique visitors everyday. Or two, you can use your blog as an online journal. For this one however, you'd better have a damn interesting life if you want more than that one person who accidentally stumbles onto your blog, shuts the hell off his computer, and then proceeds to go on a manic rampage beating the crap out of infants because YOUR LIFE WAS BORING AS FUCK. (*excuse*)

Sure, I see how blogging could be fun, but without a driving force such as being an expert or chronicling your remarkable life - coming up with post after post can soon start to feel as tedious as watching crappy spin-off movies that leave you asking "Why?" – like Son of the Mask.

No Mon? No Fun

2007-11-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

Hello fellow citizens of America. Just wanted to bring to your attention the value of the American dollar. Once a staple of American society, the green paper that once dominated the world is falling in value.

The euro is up. The British pound is back up. The Canadian dollar is higher than the American dollar for the first time in the last fifty years. Oil is over $90 dollars a barrell. Gold, down to $260 and ounce not so long ago, has hit $800. So what is this?

During Bush's time as President, the dollar has gone way down. Is it his fault? No. People need to start looking at the big picture. America has a HUGE trade deficit right now and it's causing the dollar to plummet. The government pushes out more and more green paper to cover the costs of these deficits - What can we do?

Post a suggestion.

News?

2007-11-02T09:39:00.000-07:00

Who here has watched the show Heroes? It's possibly THE best Television show out there right now. For those of you who don't know, actress Hayden Panettiere, the regenerating Claire on the show, has recently made her way into the celebrity spotlight.

Fortunately for us, she does not have the power to regenerate in real life - if you don't know what I'm talking about, you haven't seen her on Letterman. (Click here to see her)

In the latest breaking news, Hayden shed a few tears after watching a group of dolphins being killed. She was one in a group of 30 other protesters who were held at bay by fishermen with long boat hooks. Reports say that "she was lucky to escape the ordeal with her life".

My opinion - One, come on, is this really news? While I am in support of dolphins not being slaughtered, I am also in support of of supporting a cause in an effective manner. Swimming out to the scene of an actual slaughtering in the hope of what? Forming a human wall? What makes you think that the tools they have to slaughter a herd of dolphins can't easily slice off Hayden's head which mind you, is not going to regenerate. Two, please, in real life, this girl is a huge DQ - Drama QUEEN. On film that's okay, so she should stick with it there.

Is this real?

2007-10-30T18:06:00.000-07:00

Ok. If you are one in a million people who happened to come across this site, you may be wondering - Is this real?

The answer is no. Not a straight up no, but a no nonetheless. Yes this is real as in it exists. No as in this is a blog that was created for a school project in which we have to keep an active blog for a period of time.

By telling you this I am giving away my freebie. See, in creating a blog and having to update it three times a week, I realize how difficult such a task is. I have gained respect for those who are able to run a consistent blog and have been doing so for years.

It was upon hearing the details of this project where I met first obstacle. What can I make a blog about? Ideas raced through my mind but like a magnet trying to attract another magnet the ideas I had evaded my grasp. I could have taken the easy way out - write an anonymous journal. Document your daily life, make things up if you don't have anything interesting to write, exaggerate the norm, what could be easier? But it's not in my nature to take the easy way out. I like a challenge.

So next I turned to the other option. The option that have made most blogs popular today. That option would be to share my expertise in a particular subject with the world via a blog.

Problem.

At this point in my life I do not have enough expertise in any one subject to blog about for more than a day let alone the three weeks required for this project.
So I turn to random opinions on random topics hoping that this will give me enough freedom to allow effortless blog posts.

As you see today though, this is not the case.

And my freebie is now gone. :(

The End of Religion?

2007-10-28T17:54:00.000-07:00

It was a recent conversation that sparked me to speak a little bit about my thoughts on religion. Now this is not to be confused with God. Believing in God is one thing, believing in religion is another.

I firmly believe that religion was created my man. Before disagreeing or disregarding this statement, consider this: There are plenty of religions that are practiced by thousands of people. Can they all be right or the correct religion? No. There is either one correct religion or there are no correct religions.

So where do all these extra religions come from? Long ago, they were created by man. There is a natural driving curiosity of man to know about himself: where he came from, how he came to be, etc. In the effort to satisfy such burning questions, man or rather men, created religion. People liked the idea of having simple answers to big questions of life and accepted the idea of religion.

Some may argue that now religion is too complex, too wise, too anything to have been written my any mere mortal. Too hold such a view would be to not acknowledge the years of revision and addition that spawned books of religion. Like some believe how life formed, religion came to be through an evolutionary process.

From my personal experience, an overwhelmingly high percentage of the people I have had this discussion with agree with me. This is to say that these people are of my generation. I have not done sufficient research to support any of my claims. I am only writing one man's opinion which I am entitled to.

From my experience, I can only conclude that the evolution of religion is a continuing process. And that process may be leading to its extinction.

Flight of the Conchords

2007-10-26T10:14:00.000-07:00

I was just poking around on YouTube, like I sometimes do, when I came across some videos I haven't seen in awhile. Some of you may be familiar with Flight of the Conchords.

Who are they? What are they?

It's easier to answer who they are. There are two members to their group, Bret Mckenzie and Jemaine Clement. Both are from New Zealand where they formed the FOTC.

They are not your typical type of comedians. They combine playing music ranging from rap to funk with witty conversation creating a most enjoyable show.

They originally performed live (still do) and now have their own television show.

I'm just going to show you a clip from one of their live performances. Give it up for these masters of their craft:

Get To Know Halloween

2007-10-25T09:17:00.001-07:00

I know it may be a little early to post about Halloween, but to me right now feels like an appropriate time.

I've been seeing fully decorated houses since September. I've seen posters for Halloween parties and contests. I've seen billboards for costume stores. I've heard heated debates on what costumes people should where. All seen or heard way in advance of October 31.

There is something about the holiday that everyone just loves but what's it all about?

"Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). They celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death.

On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. The Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future.

To commemorate the event, the priests built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.
During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween."

So what's not to love about dressing up in a costume, putting up scary decorations, pulling pranks, and candy?

Happy Halloween

A Word on MMD and Guerrilla Advertising

2007-10-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

Hey all - I have to admit, my last post was even boring to myself. Looking back it, I would like to apologize for waisting the time of all who have read it.

Make My Day is still a newborn blog that is just learning to crawl. Hopefully soon we will be walking but until then it is my guess that the mission of MMD will have to be continuously refined over the next two or three weeks. So bear with us! As of now, MMD will be one man's thoughts and contemplations on various aspects of life.

Too general?

Okay. Since nowadays people spend an increasingly amount of time on the internet, (or maybe that's just me) , I will narrow my focus to internet related aspects of life.

Yes, the internet for many is now as much a part of life as is eating and sleeping.

For example, today I was just surfing the web when I came across some pictures of guerrilla advertising. For those of you who don't know, this is a way of marketing that involves spending as little as possible on advertising while maximizing profit. It also involves a tremendous amount of creativity that never fails to blow my mind.

Here are some instances of guerrilla advertisements:

This campaign lasted through winter where steam from a city sewer was most visible. I've passed by plenty of steaming sewers in my day and would never have had the creative insight to think this one up. And the cost for such an eye-catching ad? Next to nothing.

Let's look at another one of my favorites.

If you can't see it, the slogan on this ad is "Life's too short for the wrong job!" - depicting people working inside a vending machine and an ATM. Again with the creative genius. Folks, this is guerrilla advertising at its best.

Last example of an ad costing next to nothing yet more effective then ads costing up to ten times as much:

Yep, none other than Mr. Clean himself. This is the definition of guerrilla advertising right here.

Well that concludes today's post and today's example of thoughts on an aspect of the something found on the internet.

Stay tuned for more.

Elusive Illusions

2007-10-18T14:08:00.000-07:00

Most of us have seen an optical illusion before. We know that through our sense of sight they trick our brains into seeing what may or may not be real. But how do they work?

There are a number of factors that contribute to a given illusion. One of the simplest to understand is the ambiguous illusion. This type is a picture or object that simply creates a perceptual switch between two alternative interpretations. A simple well know example of this is the Rubin vase.

The next type of illusion is the distorting illusion which distorts size, length or curvature. Our brain learns to make very efficient interpretations of 3D scenes which is why when some goes away from us, we do not see them as getting shorter. Or when we stretch one arm and look at the two hands we do not see one hand smaller than the other. Below, the seemingly imperfect circle is an example of this.
Another type of illusion is the sometimes frustrating paradox illusion which is generated by objects that are paradoxical or impossible. Because of this, our brain has a hard time of interpreting these illusions such as the flow of the water below.

Sometimes it can be a little disconcerting to know how easily the mind can be tricked...

Not Short Enough

2007-10-17T18:08:00.001-07:00

As of Recent, Saturday Night Live Digital Shorts such as Andy Popping Into Frame and People Getting Punched Before Eating are lacking the comedic edge often lost when hidden camera scenes are scripted.

Specifically, the most recent short, PGPBE, scripts what is not scripted in the more humorous Neg's Urban Sports: digital shorts which appear regularly on the British comedy series Balls of Steel. See example below.

Out of the many hours that Americans watch TV a week, most have sat through an episode of Saturday Night Live. What was once a staple for good all-around comedy - a show that has been graced by the presence of some of the most popular comedians of this era - now struggles to get more than a smile out of its declining audience. Though not the first filmed shorts presented on SNL, Digital Shorts are a series of shorts specified by their digital creation. For those who aren't familiar, the SNL Digital Short, produced by The Lonely Island crew, rapidly gained popularity in 2005 with the short 'Lazy Sunday’, which viewed more than five million times before it was removed due to copyright infringement.

SNL is one of the longest running network entertainment programs in American Television history but maybe it's time for the show to cut its losses.

While it is not for me to pass judgment on what is funny and what is not, I can point out poor quality and lack of originality when I see it.

Tell me what you think. Leave a comment.