A Good Life - LIB 200

A good life? ... a pretty broad and varied topic. To me a good life is a life with financial security, safety and happiness. Now this can either end up with me as a millionaire with a mansion in a gated community and with a large, happy family. Or it can end up with me alone, in a studio apartment in a nice urban neighborhood with a good job that pays the bills and lets me save up. In order to get this good life I know that I need to be accomplished in at-least getting a good job or working hard. This life has been in the making since I was born but as of now the best I can do to get closer to that life is to finish college and go to law school (yeah, i want to be a scumbag lawyer).

Today's society pushes on us that we should all have the car, the house, the spouse, the kids and general success. Unfortunately not everyone meets these goals, especially success in life. I was fortunate enough to be born in a stable middle class family that never had any major internal issues or financial issues thanks to my parents strong work ethics. Not everyone grows up like I did so that I can see how this can be a problem to getting a good life, but its still possible.

I judge other people by how they act and treat their lives. I have zero respect for people that are addicted or cant help themselves to better themselves. I know, I had a few low points in my life but I wouldn't be where I was if I didn't pick myself up and better myself.

LoLz We 6-maned the NYPL

Twas a cloudy, wet afternoon when Helen, Hema, George, Nick , Noel and myself walked into the NYPL for the Performing Arts. Hema, the brave and inquisitive one, took the initiative and made use of the evil yet useful "Umbrella Bag Thing". After walking around aimlessly for 10 minutes our group came up with the marvelous idea of using a library computer to look up what our blog assignment was. I quickly dispatched Noel and George to go look up the assignment while the rest of us stayed on the 2nd floor.

It was a order that I now regret...

Noel and George returned to us in defeat. They did not have the proper...clearance...to make a library card. I made my way down to the dreaded librarian and tackled a gauntlet of documents, as a reward for completing the maze of documents I was presented with a holy library card.

But some greater power did not want us to have a happy visit...

After several unsuccessful attempts to log into the Library network with my new library card I became infuriated and led our group down the hall. We would continue without the assignment, tread into unfamiliar territory and hopefully come out victorious. Initially the group protested. "It's a waste of time if we don't have the assignment"cried someone, "Your leading us into hell, you mean to damn us all!" cried another. I reminded my group that they were college students and that they should start acting like it. That quelled the group...for awhile.

While Hema, Helen and Nick investigated the 2nd floor (those concert documents sure are interesting!) Noel, George and myself took a small detour into the mens bathroom. I was then ambushed by George with Noel as his unwilling accomplice. After beating down the traitor and accepting Noel back into the group I exited the bathroom and checked the directory.

"We must go to the 3rd floor, we will find the knowledge we seek there" I said. The group looked at me with uncertainties but I am proud to say that they accepted my idea and we took the elevator up.

Immediately while stepping out of the elevator I felt a certain....change. The 3rd floor looked nothing like the 1st and 2nd. The knowledge we wanted was behind a glass barrier, we made for a opening but were ordered by a imposing guard to go check in our coats. After facing sexism at its finest at the coat check (the males were told to check-in their jackets while the females were told that they could walk in as-is) we returned to the guard and allowed entrance.

The world behind the glass barrier felt more like a laboratory doing Ebola research then a library. The immense chamber had no natural light and was getting colder by the minute. "Damn that guard!" I thought, "he told us to check-in our coats only so that we could freeze in this cold!". Wasting no time I quickly walked to a few aisles of bookcases and started my resource. I found a authentic review of Fight Club from a 1999 newspaper clipping, checking the rest of the bookcase I found that the entire section held detailed review of all movies from the 1950s - 2006.

Helen then found the holy grail, a Italian book from the 90s. It held a review for all European pornography from the 90s, a amazing find indeed. After about 20 minutes of walking around and looking at movie, play and musical reviews we left, we feared that the cold would result into frostbite. After retrieving our prized jackets and bags we headed down to the 1st floor. On our way out we noticed a glassed off room of several televisions and a couple of people sitting down without worry watching the screens. The whole scene reminded me of the "Allegory of the Cave", I chuckled to myself as we turned to leave.

We made our way out into the cold, wet Friday afternoon and made our way towards the subway. Nick, George and Hema left us and those of us that stayed decided to go to Times Square for another adventure.

But that is a story for another blog....

Oh Woe Is Me

Everywhere I turn people are talking about Grand Theft Auto 4. Being the PC gamer purist that I am I currently own not a single current-gen console. For the past week I have been trying to stave off the calling friends with GTA 4 and crashing in their places but today I hit a new low...

My 3 online friends (A Dutchman, a German and an American) have all been playing GTA 4 for the past few days over Xbox Live having a gay all time. What is a gamer to do? Wait for GTA 4 to hit the PC with bug fixes, 32 player online play and modding potential....or pool my cash and buy a dreaded Gatebox? To make matters worse without my gaming trio ill be forced to return to World of Warcraft for my online MP fix....and I really, REALLY don't want to play a MMO anytime soon.

And the most ironic part of all of this? The main character of GTA 4 is Niko Bellic, a fellow ex-Yugoslav.

It Is The Forty-First Millennium...

(The Emperor confronting his heretical son, Horus)

And there is only....War.

Such is the opening tag of Warhammer 40k, a table top game started in the 80s that today has a HUGE back story that has taken a life of its own. Ive known about 40k for a long time but Ive only started reading into it after I finished the Dune series a week ago. Like Dune 40k is set in a dark far future that would seem bizarre to us present day folk. Humanity is spread over a million worlds and is besieged on all fronts by aliens, ancient killing machines and the dark heretical forces of Chaos.

The story of 40k is so large that it would take multiple blog posts to just summon up the basics. I will just mention a bit of info and some history. (And lets face it, other then Dr. Smith who the hell is going to show any interest?)

The Imperium of Man is ruled by the God Emperor who is himself half dead after nearly being killed by his own son during the Horus Heresy (30,200 - 30,207 A.D.). The God Emperor in the 40k world is a god like deity worshiped by all loyal Imperial citizens.

The Imperium is large, from the Inquisition to the Space Marines writing about it would take time, so ill only point out my favorite organization within the Imperium, the Imperial Guard. The IG are normal men and women who are given a las-rifle and flak armor and told to fight huge insect like aliens, hordes of Orks, sadistic Dark Eldar and even the Demons of the Warp. The IG is a trillion plus army that forms the principle defense of the Imperium of Man. Unlike the superhuman skills of the Space Marines the IG's only strength is in their numbers, weaponry and near fanatical devotion to the God Emperor and Humanity.


For further reading into 40k I suggest you check out Wikipedia which has a large selection of articles.

Main 40k Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40%2C000
Imperium of Man Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperium_%28Warhammer_40%2C000%29

While 40k has dozens of books, comics and video games the table top is still played by thousands worldwide.

Games Workshop:
http://us.games-workshop.com/games/40K/default.htm
Forge World:
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/

And finally two great videos about 40k,

The intro video to a 40k video game,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiM8drnIR0Y
A tribute to the Imperial Guard,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7Ewd8OeYEA

Final word on the scope of 40k, Humanity is but one faction. Check out the Tau, Eldar, Necrons, Chaos, Orks etc and their many splinter groups and factions.

Captain Planet Aint Got Nothing on Me

Sure I don't have the power of fire, wind, earth, water and heart but I'm doing my part, probably more then a cartoon from the 90s is doing anyway...

For the past 2-3 weeks I have been watching on what I've been throwing out. I have been keeping an eye on my paper consumption and throwing away plastics in a separate trash can I set up in my room. I also started reusing scrap paper, sometimes I would take out a normal sized sheet out of my printer and scribble something on it only to throw it away within a few minutes. I also threw out and recycled many old books I had in my room, yay for spring cleaning and going green!

I replaced all 5 light bulbs in my room (one table, one night table and 3 ceiling) with fluorescents. Now that the weather is nicer and the days are longer I don't turn on my lights until 7:30ish, I get enough light from the sunlight. I also threw away my computer speakers! They were always plugged in and wasting power. I almost never used them anyway, I use my headset almost exclusively. Oh and I didn't THROW them out, just put them away.

Library = FUNZ

Well if you have any imagination at least...

Last Wednesday I went with my class to the NYPL humanity's and the Mid-Town Manhattan Library. The Mid-Town library is right across the street from the Humanities branch is a much more "normal" looking library. It holds 5 floors of literary knowledge which is divided into subsections such a art (3rd floor), tourist information (1st floor) and periodicals(4th floor). The library itself is very well organized and the librarians seem to be helpful but I noticed Angel's group had a tough time with one of them...

The Humanities branch across the street is fairly large...you wont miss it. My class met the tour guide in the lobby, we then went on a tour in which we were shown four murals on a wall that represented humanity and the written word. The murals were based on Moses and the 10 commandments, medieval monks writing down books, a Gutenberg printing press and the age of exploration and finally a typewriter and early 20th century media.

The tour guide and his assistant showed us how to use the two reading rooms and the library database and resources. They showed us the libraries copy center and the restricted sections and instructed us on how to access the special sections. All in all the trip was fun and interesting and I look forward to using the library for future research.

Going Green...oh noes

I once considered the term "Going Green" to be a fad , something the "hip" crowd would do until something else came along for them to do. After learning more about the environmental crisis the world is in today I find it hard to believe that I ever thought going green would be just a fad. After researching I have come up with a few examples on how I can do my part and become green.

1. The hallways, living room and dining room in my house are all fluorescent lights but the bedrooms, bathrooms and closets are not. I will change the lights in these areas to fluorescent ASAP.

2. Currently I use too much paper. Sometimes if my printer takes in two pieces of paper by accident I merely throw away the second paper...what a waste! I will from now on only print out what I really need and try not to throw out paper that could be reused.

3. I will try to bring in my own metal spoons and forks for lunch instead of using plastics. Not only is plastic unhealthy for your body but throwing away plastic forks and spoons is a waste, much less if done daily!

4. During the weekend I usually act as a driver for my friends. This is fine considering most of my friends are 21+ and usually get drunk out of their minds...they need SOMEONE to drive them home.I will try to make a stand and tell them to take a taxi home (if drunk). I will along with them take a subway to the city and then take a subway/taxi/bus home. This will eliminate one less gas guzzling SUV on the road.

Being a 19 year old in college I cant really try to change the environment as much as say Dr. Smith, who is a 40ish adult with a wife and a steady income. Keeping this in mind I have come up with a list of what I should as I age and become more established both fnancially and relationship wise.

1. I should sometime down the road buy a hybrid car. Hopefully by that time I should be able to buy myself a BMW, Mercedes Benz or Audi hybrid (yes, Deutsch only plz).

2. I should buy a "green" home sometime down the road. My home should have solar power and built with environmentally safe materials.

3. And last, I should teach my children at a early age the value of going green.

AMNH

I've visited the Museum of Natural History before but this was the first time I went in which I actually read allot of the exhibits. Its a bit shallow on my part but my other visits were mainly visual...the non-reading visual type, I rarely read or interactive with the exhibits. This last visit was a combination of research work and fun, and it did balance out nicely in the end.

First off let me point this out, if you paid attention to the film (An Inconvenient Truth) and read the book you didn't really find out anything that you didn't already know. Most of the info was basic knowledge such as more fossil fuel burning = more Co2 in the atmosphere. But the museum is needed to cap the the global warming lesson, the book can be accessed by any student at any time, the movie is shown to the class, and the actual touchable exhibits are the group work hands-on section. With only one form of media we would learn all we would need to know about climate change, but when you combine all three you really get the full benefit of learning.

Seeing the ice core was probably my favorite part of the visit. The core, like tree rings, visually shows which years were "clean" and which were "dirty". At a more in depth level it reveals the Co2 content of a certain year if traced back correctly, this gives scientists a clear view on how man has sped up the global warming process. As a side note, the ice core container was not cold which leads me to believe that it is a fake...but then again so are the dinosaur bones on the 4th floor(they are molds of the real thing).

On the atmosphere I learned that greenhouse gases are: water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone, methane and nitron oxide. All of these gases are natural, global climate change is natural, but humanity has squeezed itself into the equation and dumped these gases into the atmosphere at a record number.

It is hard to describe which I felt more believable. I am a very visual person and movies tend to be real for me to an extent, but then again actually seeing a ice core with my own eyes was extremely interesting. Frankly I find both believable. If I must choose it would be the exhibits, simply because they lack the sometimes annoying Al Gore.

The museum is defiantly a sort of media, it allows humanity to use its original investigation methods, our five senses. It lets us touch, hear, smell, sight and in some exhibits maybe even taste in a clean, contained environment. Most of us wouldn't go to the Grand Canyon to see first hand on how rock layers are form (I know I would!) so the museums brings it to us, to experience what many of us wouldn't normally experience while living in or around Manhattan.

Gnosti-wha?

I have always been a fact based person, facts are straight forward and easy to comprehend and use. I admit that before college I had almost no experience with philosophy, so when I was given this assignment I...well..broke down and cried like a little girl (in a psychological sort of way).

First off Gnosticism is not a Platonic philosophy, it is a religious philosophy of sorts. Reading the first paragraph on Gnosticism on Wikipedia makes me feel like I'm reading something from L. Ron Hubbard.

So after struggling with the text I have this info:

1. Gnosticism is heretical Christian.
2. Gnosticism is Muslim.
3. Gnosticism is Jewish.
4. World peace would be achievable if we all followed Gnosticism.

AFTER further reading I came up with this,

Did the heretical Christians believe in dualism with one supreme "good" Archon (ruler, God) and another lower, more "bad" Archon that attempts to overthrow and destroy the good? The followers of Gnosticism believe in heaven and hell and finally how old is gnosticism?

To be honest Gnosticism sounds like a Christian offshoot attempting a weak attempt to return to polytheism, and with that in mind is it just a philosophy that Greek and Roman polytheistic worshipers came up with so that they could find middle ground between the coming battle over Rome and Christianity?

The Matrix has some similarity's with Gnosticism, the concept of our souls being trapped in a material world is similar to what Gnosticism preaches. But questions come out, is the crew of the Nebakanezer the lowly evil god trying to destroy the material world? I believe that they are in a sense. In their minds they are doing man a favor but isn't the Matrix itself the last part down a long chain of techno-evolution in which we are in right now? Another thing comes to mind over the dualism issue, is Agent Smith the lowly archon and Neo, the hero to millions in Zion, the good natured archon?

So with closing I have found Gnosticism a interesting topic, but like I said in my opening statements I have never been one for string philosophy. Hopefully down the road of life I will find a greater appreciation for philosophy, then I will attempt to revisit Gnosticism and hopefully find some enlightenment.

I miss the late 90s

Did something happen in the late 90s that I missed? Fight Club and The Matrix and you can even throw in Sphere and Event Horizon and now The Truman Show. These movies were fun to watch yet made you think, this in my opinion is what defines a good movie. I watched The Truman Show when I was a kid and completely forgot about until a few days ago the title caught my eye while browsing the channel index.

The Truman Show is about Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey), a well to do insurance agent who is playing the lead role in the most watched TV show in human history....a 24 hour TV show that revolves around Truman's life. I wont spoil any more and I suggest you watch it for yourself, don't expect to be wowed but The Truman Show is a perfect movie for a lazy weekend afternoon.

More Info:
Trailer
Wiki

R.I.P. Starchild, Rest in Peace....

(CNN) -- Arthur C. Clarke, whose science fiction and non-fiction works ranged from the script for "2001: A Space Odyssey" to an early proposal for communications satellites, has died at age 90, associates have said.

I enjoyed reading the 200- books and watching the movie even tho I didn't get it much the first time, but not many people get it during their first viewing anyway. Arthur C. Clarke's legacy will live on for a great while as we humans hopefully expand into space.

For more information on Mr. Clarke,
Author C. Clarke Wiki
2001: A Space Odyssey Wiki
2001: A Space Odyssey IMDB
2001: A Space Odyssey Opening (A classic!)

Neo-Platoism

The matrix is a cave, sure it doesn't look like one but for the millions(or billions?) living in it the truth is only what the matrix projects. This is where we see Neo at the start of the Matrix, Neo is completely ignorant about his virtual world and so are most of his fellow humans with the exception of a few "red pills" who are aware of the real world and who have freed themselves from the cave.

The Matrix is a sci-fi look at Plato's "allegory of the cave" mainly in the way that Neo acts and experiences the real world. The first hour or so of the movie is dedicated to Neo escaping the cave and learning about the non digitalized world. The similarities end their as Neo does not attempt to educate those that are still in the Matrix, instead he attacks the root of the problem, Neo attempts to put out the fire.

The Wachowski brothers were clearly inspired by Plato, the story of a person living in unknown isolation and then somehow whether by force or just plain curiousness discovering a world greater then his/her own has been a common theme in movies. From the The Last Starfigher to Men in Black this theme can be seen throughout movie history.

Meet the Crew

For those of you who are wondering about the blog name, Vent-Talk is a reference to the Ventrilo server I frequent almost daily. In later posts ill get more into it but for now ill give a brief description of the locals:

Herman - Martin AKA Herman the German AKA Gianthurtball, a crazy but lovable viking wannabe who I wouldn't be around when angry.

Morrison - Yuri, a uber cool Dutchy who will probably one day commit suicide by blowing the dyke's and drowning the Netherlands. Reason?...he wasted his life on video games.

Duck - Unkown name, usually goes by Duck, Duckers, nub and comp-nub. Other then that he pretty much fails.....oh yeah and his mom is the hot.

Moldy - Dean aka Moldymilk. The redneck Alpha and Omega, Dean packs some serious firepower and is joining the Army sometime before the US invades Iran.

The Matrix Review Part Two

After a visit to the Oracle Neo and his new companions are ambushed by the police who are under the command of the Agents. The ambush was set up with the help of a fellow crew member by the name of Cypher.

Cypher hates the real world, he would rather live a normal, carefree life then live and fight for his very existence. The question is then raised... is being ignorant and happy better then being enlightened and suffering?

After dispatching Cypher but with most of the crew dead with the exception of Neo, Morpheus, Trinity and Tank (a operator). Morpheus while alive in the real world is held captive by the Agents, and without a exit point cannot exit the Matrix. Trinity and Neo then hatch a plan to free Morpheus.

During Morpheus captivity with the Agents we find out (during a long monologue that is a habit of Agents Smith) that Smith is deeply anti human and finds humans to be no better then a biological virus. Smith also expresses his hate for the system and his wishes to be free from it, this will be shown later in the two sequels.

During a extensive action scene, Neo and Trinity rescue Morpheus. The team is then pressed hard to reach a exit point because of a Sentinel attack in the real world. Neo then uses his "The One" powers and destroys Smith.

The Matrix Review Part One

While I missed the class I've seen the Matrix plenty of times so writing a review shouldn't be a problem.

The Matrix Review - Part I

The Matrix is known for two things, for the action loving male in his teens and 20s its the "bullet time" scene. Whenever you see any slow motion scene in any movie / game / tv show someone will always say "Thats some Matrix sh!t!". For the more serious person its the philosophy behind the whole red pill / blue pill argument. Between the establishment (Cypher) and the rebel (Morpheus), and between messiah (Neo) and the outcast (Smith), but this is explored more in the two sequels.

The movie begins with Mr. Anderson (aka Neo) who is shown leading a life that is split between his corporate cubical and his hacker den apartment. His known hacking skills eventually bring him to the attention of Trinity who works for a mysterious man named Morpheus. Due to a rather...odd..experience with Agents, the peace keeps of the Matrix, Neo takes the extended hand of Trinity and is taken to Morpheus. The ever famous pill scene unfolds and Neo chooses the red pill and then Neo is reborn into the Real world.

After learning and adopting to the real mankind and to the Matrix itself, Neo is sent by Morpheus to see the Oracle and to find out his true purpose as "The One".

But every journey has its road bumps, and a faulty Agent and insane(or is he?) crew member of Morpheus ragtag band of freedom fighters will prove to be quite large bumps.

Greetings

My first post...yay i guess.

My name is Dino Dobrijevic and while ive read alot of blogs this is the first one I am creating/writing.... I'm hoping that it will be a good experience.