September 30th, 2007 John
This Burma situation is not pretty. I found some extremely frightening YouTube videos that reveal a lot more than most of the American news outlets have been reporting. Here are a few to watch, even if they are a few days old:
Watching videos of this stuff going on just makes it that much more real and frightening. I know it is small, but I found a petition to ask the UN Security Council for help. I signed it, if you want to help you may as well too.
As well, here is the most recent NY Times article about Burma.
-John
john@addictedtowords.com
Posted in Politics, All | No Comments »
September 30th, 2007 John
My reporting skills once again come in handy…
Area Student Prefers Single Sided Tape
By John Vieira
Orange, CA - Chapman University student John Vieira finds single sided tape far superior to double sided tape, despite the fact that it has half of the adhesive. Vieira reportedly found double sided tape to be both overkill and redundant. “When I am taping something, I just don’t need adhesive on both sides of my tape. It’s far too unwieldy and it gets my fingers sticky,” Vieira said. Vieira pointed to the loop method for an alternative to double sided tape when one needs to have adhesive on both sides. Scott Byrer, roommate of Vieira, confirmed that there was indeed no double sided tape in their apartment saying that Vieira had instated a ban on it.
-John
john@addictedtowords.com
Posted in All, Breaking News | No Comments »
September 29th, 2007 John
The upcoming Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, has a lot going for it. It’s an Indiana Jones movie for one, 100 million people will go see it no matter what. It’s directed by Steven Spielburg, the story was written by George Lucas, and Harrison Ford was even talked into shaking off the cobwebs and reprising his Indy role. I firmly believe the best thing this movie has going for it is a mustached Shia Labeouf. Labeouf, who (kind of) singlehandedly saved Transformers from Michael Bay is going to be awesome in Indiana Jones. He grew a mustache for it! A mustache is possibly the single most awesome thing ever, I don’t think we can go wrong here. Labeouf’s powers, already strong, can only be strengthened by a sweet ‘stache. There are just too many good things going for this movie, I for one cannot wait.
-John
john@addictedtowords.com
Posted in All, Movies | 4 Comments »
September 29th, 2007 John
As I stretched my sore legs in anticipation of my daily run yesterday it occurred to me that I have spent an inordinate amount of time and energy exercising in my life. Since I was 15 I have gone for a run most days. Obviously I have no good way of tracking this, but if I were forced to guess I would say that I have gone running 5 out of 7 days. I have gone through long stretches of going every day, as well I have taken a week off here or there, 5 out of 7 is my best guess at an average. For the sake of this argument I am going to lump playing basketball, lacrosse, or soccer, going biking, and whatever else I may have done that day into one supergroup titled running, since the vast majority it was actually running.
5 out of 7 days, for almost 7 years now. That is a lot of running. And I don’t plan on stopping either. Physical fitness is important to me. I feel that running also clears my mind, which has become almost as important as the physical part to me. I hate to think too far ahead, but I expect a lot more years of 5 out of 7 days of runs. A lot, like as long as my body holds up.
A lot of you would think this is great, sometimes I think it’s great. I’m dedicated to runnning, and to being fit. Most of the time though it frustrates me, and almost makes me angry. Ultimately and honestly, exercising it about vanity to me. I want to be healthy of course, but more so I want to look good. I don’t want to be overweight or obese, I’ve flirted with that before and haven’t enjoyed it.
In order to set up this next point, let’s take a minute and figure out how much time I’ve probably spent doing all this running. A conservative estimation would be an hour per run. I’ve spent much longer than that playing basketball games, or lacrosse games, or going on long bike rides. I have also gone on many shorter 30-45 minute runs. Again, it’s my best guess at an average. 5 out of 7 days is 71.4%, which I will call 71%. This is not science, this is my meandering brain. 71% of 365 (days in a year) comes out to 259.15 days, which I will call 259 days. At an hour per day thats 259 hours per year. 259 hours per year times 7 comes out to 1,813 hours. According to my admittedly sketchy equation I have spent 1,813 hours running in the last 7 years.
So let’s pretend I’m not vain and imagine what I could have accomplished in those 1,813 hours. Had I spent that reading or writing I could be much more well versed in the English language right now. Hell, I could have written a book. 1,813 hours spent practicing the piano or guitar would make me pretty much a virtuoso at this point. Even 1,813 hours spent making minimum wage ($7.95 in Oregon) would have made me 14,413 dollars and 35 cents. How many people could I have helped had I spent those hours volunteering? What if I spent that time researching a cure for a disease? Couldn’t I have at least made headway on that? The list is pretty much endless. Even things that seem traditionally non-productive could have given me some sense of accomplishment. I could have watched so much television and been a pop culture whiz at this point. I could have mastered countless video games.
Another negative is the wear and tear on my body. I think I have the knees of a 35 year old. I hear them creak, they lock up, and they hurt most days even when I’m not running. Running has almost become masochistic. I know I’m hurting myself, yet I don’t stop it. I enjoy running, so therefore don’t I enjoy hurting myself? I don’t even know if I am adding or subtracting years from my life by running. I know I inhale lots of exhaust from cars (especially here in Orange County). There is no way that is healthy. Ultimately, there is a big chance by running every day I am hurting my body more than helping it. How fucked up is that?
But it doesn’t stop me.
Now that I’ve somehow concluded that I am a vain masochist due to my penchant to run every day, let’s add another unfortunate adjective to me: addict. According to the dictionary’s definition of addicted, I am addicted to running.
Addicted: physically and mentally dependent on a particular substance and unable to stop taking it without incurring adverse effects, enthusiastically devoted to a particular thing or activity.
I am literally addicted to running.
This all just brings up the issues of my singlemindedness and whether that is even healthy? My running time certainly could have been better spent, but is it a good idea to spend that much time doing anything? I don’t think it is. It is probably better to spread your interests around, and the time you spend on them. Frustratingly, I am going to try and avoid being regretful about time spent running. I made my choice and need to deal with it, which is OK, yet… I can’t change the time spent, but it is definitely worth thinking about. If only somebody had told me what I could have done.
-John
john@addictedtowords.com
Posted in All, Sports | 3 Comments »
September 28th, 2007 John
Just like I reported before with Arby’s mascot Oven Mitt, only this time it’s for real: Mitt Romney has a communist connection, as reported by Charles Cooper. Yikes! This certainly isn’t going to help his campaign. On the bright side though, at least he has the whole “Mormon communist” vote locked up now.
-John
john@addictedtowords.com
Posted in Politics, All | 1 Comment »
September 28th, 2007 John
I am unapologetically enamored with Prison Break. This show just enthralls me. It’s such an absurd concept, Lincoln Burrows is wrongly on Death Row, falsely accused of killing the Vice President’s brother. Lincoln’s brother, Michael Scofield, is an engineer, who also happens to be extremely smart. He has access to the blueprints of the prison where Lincoln is being held, as he had a hand in the planning for it. Michael gets the blueprints tattooed on his body, cleverly disguised within very intricate art, and spends month planning how a prison break. He then pretends to rob a bank so he gets thrown into the same prison where Lincoln is being held to break him out.
If that sounds pretty intense, it’s because it is. Michael Scofield is possibly the most clever man to have ever lived. He is seriously on Benjamin Franklin type levels. Or would be, if he was not a fictional character.
Scofield’s cleverness I think is the main reason why this show continues to live on despite it’s weird weird storylines. For instance, Scofield broke into to prison to break out in season 1, and then got back into prison in season 2 and has to break out again now in season 3. That is a pretty vicious cycle and would be kind of lame if Scofield wasn’t always there to make some focused facial expressions and use a completely unlikely tool to get his task done. He is McGuyver with better writers, and I love it.
Admittedly, season 2 lagged a little bit, and spent far too much time focusing on T-Bag and his child molesting ways, but judging by the first two episodes of season 3 Prison Break is better than ever. Watch it on Mondays at 8 on Fox.
-John
john@addictedtowords.com
Posted in All, TV | 3 Comments »
September 28th, 2007 John
Starcraft II is coming out before long, and from what I can tell it’s pretty highly anticipated. It’s highly probable you may not know that Starcraft II is a PC game by the way. I found this Q&A session with some of the developers and it’s probably the best interview I have ever read. Also, it is Q&A session round 14. First of all, how awesome is that? There have been 14 sessions of these awesome awesome questions. This has to be one of the most unintentionally funny things I have ever read. Here are some tantalizing examples of the questions and answers:
- What happens if you initiate the warp-in of a Protoss Stalker but the pylon providing power is destroyed before warp-in completes? If you lose the pylon providing power for the unit warping in, you will lose that unit, and the purchasing credits will likely be refunded.
- Could the Colossus be transported by the Phase Prism, since the Prism’s crystal can turn any matter into energy? Yes, the new Phase Prism now transports by changing the unit they wish to transport into energy, which is stored in the Phase Prism for transport. This allows the Phase Prism to be able to transport even gigantic units such as the Colossus.
- Will Dark Templars be invisible when warping in, or susceptible to attack for a few seconds before it fades out? No, currently the Dark Templar will be invisible the instant it begins to warp-in, though of course we are still testing this for balance as it makes the Dark Templar quite strong in back door drops.
I know I’m kind of a nerd, for instance take the fact I am typing on my blog right now, that I usually update more than once per day, but this is even beyond my level of nerdiness. I understood like two words of the interview. This is just too good. I can only hope to someday reach this level of nerdiness, and I’m going to do my best to achieve this gold standard. Expect a serious regiment of lots of Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, Everquest, and soldering irons. Wish me luck!
-John
john@addictedtowords.com
Posted in Video Games, All | No Comments »
September 28th, 2007 John
I remember learning in a film class I had freshman year about Mulholland Drive. This film made no sense to me at the time, and even after studying it and explicitly being told what it was about, it still made no sense to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a movie that makes you think. I really liked Donnie Darko, and that one surely took some thinking. Mulholland Drive though, goes beyond that, it’s conversations don’t make sense, it’s scenes don’t make sense, the fact that the Cowboy has no eyebrows doesn’t make sense. I can not fathom why this would be appealing to anybody. Yet, everybody seems to love it. Or at least all the hip film students I go to school with.
We learned that David Lynch (the director and writer) described the narrative of his films as being in the shape of a duck. This made even less sense to me, possibly the most nonsensical thing I’ve ever heard in my life in fact. This is about the time I stopped contemplating changing my major to Film Production. I’m not sure why anybody would like this movie, unless you like being confused. As well, I don’t think anybody actually does like Mulholland Drive. They just say they do because it seems like they should like it, and I hate that. It seems like there are examples of this phenomenon in most mediums. Tolkien fans all claim to love the Silmarillion, when in reality it’s nowhere near as good as Rings or the Hobbit. I don’t think this says anything good about our culture…
I challenge anybody that actually likes Mulholland Drive to:
A. Explain to me what it’s actually about, which means go beyond saying it was a movie about a dream.
and
B. Tell me why people like it, and I want solid thought out reasons. Also, I don’t want to hear it if you like Mulholland Drive solely because of the lesbian scene. I’m sorry, that is not a valid reason, just go buy some porn or something. You don’t need to sit through two extra hours of codswallop just to get your hot girl on girl action.
Answers please!
-John
john@addictedtowords.com
Posted in All, Movies | No Comments »
September 27th, 2007 John
I did some serious digging, and I found quite the blockbuster story. AddictedToWords.com continues to be your first and foremost news source. I’m about to send this off to the AP feeds, thought I’d let you guys in on it first.
Mitt Romney, Oven Mitt connection found.
By John Vieira
Boston, Massachusetts - Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s campaign took a serious hit today when it was discovered that he is related to the Arby’s mascot, Oven Mitt. Romney and Oven were discovered to be cousins, reportedly estranged over Romney’s involvement in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games Organizing Committee. Some of Oven’s beliefs are in direct conflict with Romney’s, seriously bringing into question the integrity of Romney’s campaign. Romney is pro-life, anti-gay marriage, and is also in favor of the Iraq War, wherein Oven is pro-roast beef sandwich, pro-Jamocha milkshakes, and is in favor of protecting people’s hands from hot dishes.
Romney released an official press release: “While I am indeed related to the Arby’s mascot Oven Mitt, I am not in communication with him and am in no way affiliated with either Oven Mitt, or Arby’s and their relentless Market Fresh propaganda.”
-John
john@addictedtowords.com
Posted in Politics, All, Breaking News | 70 Comments »
September 27th, 2007 John
My previous post got me thinking, and I remembered this gem. I wrote this last year for my entertainment reporting class. I can’t believe Ghost Rider was the #1 movie in America. It hurts to watch. Also, I can’t believe I left Ghost Rider out the lame superhero paragraph. He belonged right there with Aquaman, he was terrible!
Ghost Rider #1 during record breaking President’s weekend.
By John Vieira, Chapman News
Possibly inspired by a patriotic love for Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, the masses flocked to spend their money at the multiplex this President’s weekend. The Nicholas Cage movie Ghost Rider was the top movie at the box office this weekend as it opened at 45.5 million dollars and helped propel the most successful President’s day weekend at the box office ever. Cage expressed joy in finally being able to portray a superhero, even if it ended up being the worst super hero to date, except for possibly the Punisher.
Ghost Rider’s power is that his head turns into a skull made out of fire and can drive really fast on a motorcycle. The Chapman News Comic Book Adaptation Team did some further digging and found out that while the average viewer enjoyed Ghost Rider, they said that his super power would have been cooler if the fiery skull had swords for teeth and possibly poison for blood.
Marvel comics fired back at fans saying “swords for teeth was something we looked into but to make them that small they would be more like knives and poison for blood is just not believable as it would be too hardcore and probably kill Ghost Rider when he was in human form. Grow up and start being logical.”
Another controversy was Ghost Rider’s choice of vehicle. Mothers Against Drunk Driving are worried that the motorcycle is not a viable safe vehicle, since Ghost Rider is usually drunk with rage when he rides it.
After hitting the streets, the Chapman News Comic Book Adaptation Team: Vehicle Department proposed some alternatives, saying that Ghost Rider could drive either an Acura RDX, a Hyundai Entourage, a tank, an armored bank car, a battleship or an Aston Martin that turns into a submarine. All of those vehicles are on 2007’s list of the safest cars, published by consumer reports. Marvel Comics argued that Ghost Rider needs to ride a motorcycle as his flaming head would catch an enclosed vehicle’s roof on fire and again pointed to the believability issue, saying that a fireproof roof is simply not feasible.
Ghost Rider just barely edged out the number two movie Norbit, which stars Eddie Murphy having sex with himself.
-John
john@addictedtowords.com
Posted in All, Movies, Breaking News | 1 Comment »