Author Archives: Corpsealot

Goodbye 2010, and Good Riddance!

Posted on by
Reply

Well folks, another year passes through the revolving door of time further progressing the endless cycle of meaningless holidays and the day-to-day smoke and mirrors of general public interaction.  We’ll begrudgingly meander through the new year as we did the this one, amped up at first at an artificial sense of optimism for what’s to come, as we did the year before, and the year before that.  At what point do we stop trying to fool ourselves into believing that life will improve simply because we have incremented the year by one and instead actually take action to make things better regardless of what part of the year we happen to be in?

Well, here’s hoping that, despite the end of one calendar year makes way for a new one, we’ll all find the drive to improve our lives and not hope on the superstitions of numerical hocus pocus.

Do You Really Have A Voice?

Posted on by
Reply

People claim that the Internet has given everyone a voice; a place to express themselves in any way they want to.  There is an inherent flaw with this philosophy though.  The reason why throughout human history, up until now, only a select few were given a platform in which to express their views and ideals.  Much like the yammering of a busy concert hall right before the lights go down, no one distinct person can be heard.  I’m sure they’ll all claim they have something important to say, but the truth of the matter is that while that may be true, what they are saying is lost in a sea of droning.

This translates well to the atmosphere of the Internet.  With billions and billions of websites and blogs (this one being no different), some may actually have something worthwhile to say, to express.  However, despite it’s legitimacy it will be buried and forgotten within the mess.  Quantity over quality devalues all ideas down to the lowest common denominator.  What you have to say is no more important than the next person’s regardless of legitimacy or validity.  So, does this mean that by being so plentiful with content that perhaps the Internet has no content at all?  Perhaps by being so saturated with voices, much like the concert hall, it becomes nothing more than a meaningless hum of complacency.  Even this post, being no different, will be lost within the mess of anonymity.

At the concert, the only voice that will be heard will be the person on the stage, but only once everyone else shuts up.  However, if everyone continues to talk, claiming their opinion carries the same weight or more than the person next to them and no one even bothers to take the time to listen, even the person on the stage will simply be part of the collective droning.  As humans we’ve mastered the ability to communicate.  What we’ve yet to master is the ability to listen.

Why Final Fantasy Pisses Me Off

Posted on by
1

Being overly critical of video games may come across as a waste of time, and in some respects I’d agree with you, but this goes way beyond the scope of any console. Final Fantasy marks the very essence of all that is wrong with video games and popular culture as a whole. For one, masking pedophilia with liberal amounts of whimsy and innocence does not make it any less creepy and abhorrent. Anyone who has played or merely even seen these games can certainly agree that Final Fantasy caters to the stereotypical demographic of nerdy fat kids and forty year old pantie sniffers. I like sex as much as the next guy, but there is a difference between sexy imagery and pornography. Final Fantasy games will bombard you with ass shots, cleavage shots, bouncing girls, and one or two shots away from being tentacle porn.

And then there’s the androgynous male characters. Good lord. This is obviously intended to appeal to the female and feminine male demographic. They’re nothing but weak voiced, squawking she-males running around with spiky hair. To me, all of this boils down to Japanese culture trying to cater to their own and American culture and failing miserably. Hey Japan, knock it the fuck off! Stop trying to play the sex appeal game that you think the American media is so good at. American advertising, television, and movies have been in the game of selling sex for years from Pepsi commercials to huge motion pictures to billboards. The successful attempts at selling sex are subtle, discrete, and just play enough on someone’s libido to get their attention and that’s it. Granted, some attempts to sell sex in media in the United States are blatant and in your face, but those tend to fail miserably.

Americans, despite the general consensus, know when someone is bullshitting them or trying too hard to patronize them. Square Enix, you guys simply have not caught on. The only reason why Final Fantasy, and other similar Anime related titles even have any sort of success here in the states is mainly due to a small niche of reality-hating social misfits who prefer the world of bouncy, shiny, huge-eyed, large-breasted, squeaking, cutesy 15 year-old girl bullshit Japan throws at us. It’s creepy. It’s irritating.

Thankfully, Final Fantasy is losing steam in all this crap. If only the title would finally live up to its namesake.

Meaningless Messages

Posted on by
Reply

spamI know I’ve mentioned this before so pardon me for repeating myself. I must comment on the ridiculousness of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and the like. While all of these tools can present useful and helpful ways for groups of people to stay connected, I find that the power these sites offer is greatly overqualified for the people using them. It’s like using a bazooka to unlock a locked door. Sure, it’ll open the door, but the power of the tool being used far outweighs the need.

Sites like Twitter have amazing potential to be used as real-time connections to people and devices. It allows simple, short, and precise messages to be broadcast to groups of people or even a single recipient. The problem though is that while Twitter is a monumentally powerful tool, the people’s hands this tool is used in most frequently use it to broadcast nothing more interesting than the frequency of their bowel movements. I guess the biggest flaw with social networking sites isn’t the technology, but the people who are using said technology.

People feel the need to say anything, anytime, to anyone, regardless of importance, relevance, or even accuracy. They just type in anything. I don’t expect everyone to live an exciting life full of intrigue and drama, but be mindful of who you are sending these messages out to; the entire world.

“Well, my friends care!”

That is a statement I hear quite often when I bring up my complaints about social networking sites. Well, let’s focus on this for a moment. Let’s pretend for a moment that this is true and your friends really do have empty enough lives to hang on your every word in the hopes of living vicariously through you. What you don’t understand is, in respect to Twitter, if you are posting to the global timeline, more than just your friends are seeing this message. Effectively what you are doing is causing internet pollution with your senseless drivel to ~25 people. Not only is that horribly inefficient, it’s a misuse of the technology. A simple mass email to those ~25 people would be the appropriate action. You wouldn’t put up a billboard on a busy highway to let your friends know you got a new puppy, would you? Sure, you could if you so desired, but like above it would be a gross waste of resources and far too inefficient.

People should just start using the technology for what it is designed to do. Email, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, are all viable forms of technology each with their own use. Use them for what they were designed to do and stop polluting the Internet as if it was your own personal diary. Unless your fame rises to international status, every post you make will probably only be seen by <1% of your intended targets.

Facebook, a site designed around the notion of bringing people who might have lost contact with each other back into each others’ lives now has more to do with fire-and-forget posts than anything else; Post and ignore. Occasionally you might see a conversation going on a post someone made, but unless you are taking the time to praise someone’s pictures of their kids or “liking” their post, nothing much will come from it. Facebook, in a sense, is a massive waste of time with little to no output.

Social Networking means being social and networking with people. If neither of these things are a product of a site, it fails to meet any level of usefulness if that is what the site if trying to achieve. Oddly enough, one-on-one messaging is still far more effective and efficient than mass-messaging in the hopes your intended audience actually sees it.

iPadding

Posted on by
Reply

This thing is a true test to consumer stupidity.

When Steve Jobs comes out and says something akin to this being the notebook killer, he is insinuating that this thing is a computer. Technically, a calculator is a computer, so let’s be clear here.

This is tech-bling, plain and simple. This is that device you pull out of your backpack at the Bistro in downtown Manhattan while you sip your gourmet coffee and tap away on your sheet of glass you call a tablet. Yes, you are sure to attract the attention of passersby as you feign interest in some NY Times article you’re reading on your iPad while you passively adjust your turtleneck ever so slightly for maximum neck coverage.

It’s a toy. That’s all. An over-priced toy. I think people just have a fascination with moving colorful icons around on a piece of dark reflective glass.

I’m sorry Mr. Jobs, while I thought the iPhone was a cool idea, this time you’re just insulting my intelligence. I never did like Apple, and while my opinion of them might have started to change slightly, once I saw the iPad and Macbook Air, my opinion was locked down. I’ll stick to using real computers, Mr. Jobs.