What I Think About Things and Why

So, the dust is starting to collect on this little project. Not too many viewers left, mostly friends who occasionally pop in to check out the site. And then leave. It's dismal, really. Sad, even. Possibly, downright depressing. Here's what I think, everything. All at once. What the site needs is a punch in the arm, one of those over-arching supercool articles that gets dug up a lot and seen by cool people. And they tell two friends, and so on, and so on.

I think that the internet does have a limit. It's true, that with the shrinking cost of storing information, the cost to increase bandwidth and extrapolate the amount of "web real estate" is going down. The internet is ever expanding, much like the universe, and guess what, most of it is porn. However, you will never find anything. We are beginning to reach what I like to call "web saturation". there is so much stuff out there, and there are many sites devoted to the same stuff. The fact is, that ten years ago, if you searched for "favorite Bright Eyes song" on Google, you would have gotten a big chunk of results. Not too many to look through most of them though.

Today that search request delivers almost two and a half million results.

We swim in a vast ocean of information, constantly being produced, constantly being recorded, copied and embellished upon. In the age of modern computing and mass networking, humans have discovered the ability to speak out. No longer does "the news" apply to journalism majors and anchors and reporters. Every voice that has the courage to yell out, virtually, has the power. No one but the people of the online community can decide what happens to your editorial on the world. Digg it up, this is good, this Stumbler doesn't like that, I Reddit. We have come into contact with the first form of democratic media, in it's purest untouched, unedited form. Free at last, free at last, we are Anonymous, and our word is for all to hear, to rally to to cry out to the world. ALL THIS BASE IS BELONG TO US!

Even those who haven't been nerdy since the dawn of the dot com craze, or earlier, are starting to see the mass media appeal of the internet. Tiny antique shops have websites to hawk their old china on, every shut in with access to a PC buys and sells on eBay and Amazon, and even those who were once afraid to approach the computer are drawn to the ease of use of the internet. My Granmother has a Facebook account. About 6 out of 10 of the readers of this could probably say the same thing.

What does it mean? Does all this mainstream interneting affect the world that much? What does it matter if the elderly facebook and the tech-illiterate start blogging? Will it change the world? Will it disrupt the climate of the long forgotten internet?

About sixty years ago, a technology came to the homes of nearly every american. It was a device designed purely for the delivery and communication of information: valid, important, educational. Something to keep the people informed. We now call this TV, television, the boob tube, the idiot box. To be honest, looking back, it's hardly what we had in mind at the outset.

Television is filled with crap now. Sports broadcasts, reality shows (fake and real), celebrity gossip, game shows, cartoons, sitcoms, soap operas, made for TV movies, made for the big screen yet horribly edited movies, and worst of all, Tyler Perry. All of this garbage is interceded by scraps of news programs that last for an hour, maybe two, but only long enough to not divert you away from the more frivolous distractions. The ever chattering, always present, ad-filled bastard of a decent and innocent idea. Even as someone who can enjoy a little intelligent entertainment, it's hard to stomach about ninety percent of programming.

What changed the television sets? What made them go from newsboxes to entertainment devices? It was the push of the everyday individual. the need to expand the boundaries of what entertainment is shoved the television to cater to the needs of the generations. A look at television now reveals the inherent ADD culture. Shows rarely last longer than half an hour, and if they do, it's because of a special event. Then you get that full hour. Even then, though, all the programming is split into smaller, manageable chunks by the commercial time. Adverts, on average, last sixty seconds, sometimes a little more if it's one of those irritating infomercials, sometimes as short as the now famous one-second commercial for the Miller high Life that played during the Super Bowl this last year.

If all of this sameness is threatening to you, never fear. You can always change the channel, exponentially increase the amount of programs, commercials, reruns, etc. The simplest televisions have at least twelve channels. "Basic" cable has almost one hundred. If you had every option available on a digital cable program, it approaches one thousand. One thousand shifting, changing, miasmic frequencies of information being driven into the eyes. Bright colors, flashing lights, anything to keep a distracted mind interested.

So what about the internet? The tool for connecting every computer in the world to one another via a glorified phone line. Intended for the transfer and sharing of information across towns, states, nations, continents, all in an instant. The crowning acheivements of all of this technology, making it faster, making it clearer, making it smoother, what are they? LOLcats. FAILblog. The ultimate integration of internet technology is the ability to combine a multimedia experience of visuals, audio, information and present it with ease. the most advanced website designers spend their time devoting energy to making people falling off of skateboards and onto their crotches intensely well run.

We are suffering from a downfall of the worst kind, allowing our nature as easily distracted and hedonistic individuals to control what we view and produce online. The web is now filled with what television has been filled up with: Perez Hilton celebrity gossip, videos of "real-life" wipeouts, sports highlights by the second, online gaming and gambling, cartoons made on Macromedia Flash, misguided series of web comedies, bootleg movies. Tyler Perry has a website.

Is it too late? It might be, but just like global warming, we can slow the process, take our time to realize how valuable the Internet is. We need to consider that just because the internet is a place that we are free to say whatever we want doesn't mean we have to say everything. Let every blog be meaningful, let every article you Digg be at least a little bit informational, and let every funny picture be hosted only once, because it really only needs to be there one time, right? We can save ourselves from drowning, if we can realize that it's happening. the internet can still be funny, but it also needs to be smart. We have the power, we are the rulers, and we decide what floats to the top and what doesn't.

Good night, and good luck.

The Nintendo Press Conference at E3: Read while you watch as a companion!

Huh.

Where to begin over the announcements made at the biggest Exposition of Gaming Glory about the Juggernaut of the console market?

How about the beginning...

The latest foray into Mario's universe looks very interesting. Take the two very popular DS Mario games and combine them. Four players, two dimensions, and some interesting dynamics on the Wii, for sure.

More Wii Fit BS. Oh, and now you can BE Mario. People are going to be breaking those balance boards...

Still no Zelda...

Oooooh...the MotionPlus with a new Red Steel Game...maybe they can get all the motion right this time. That game could have been great, and this is just what it needs. SportsResort looks fun, but where is the core attraction?

Oh. Golden Sun. There it is.

Now to complain.

Why doesn't Square release REAL games for the Nintendo systems?

FF: Crystal Chronicles, but not FF: XIII.

This new Kingdom Hearts spinoff, but not KH3.

Still no Zelda...

I wish this woman would go away, I liked it when Shigeru used to do these things and they would combine his broken Engrish with dubbed Japanese.

Do it yourself WarioWare? That's gonna be naughty in the future. People are twisted.

LOZ: Spirit Tracks. Saw this trailer. Love Zelda. Want Zelda for Wii. Where is Miyamoto?

Iwata is coming on now. Finally a Japanese guy. Haha. Love the Engrish.

Oy...no more with these "Maybe gamers". I want you to appeal to me, the Core gamer. Don't do this Iwata.

Wii vitality Sensor...Hospital equipment?

This could be interesting...imagine a Resident Evil Game where the horror is based on your heart rate...

Crazy Woman back...more Mario News?

Full 3d Mario Game...sweet.

Yoshi.

Galaxy Style Gravity Manipulation...

64 style large worlds too, though...

An atypically unoriginal name. Super Mario Galaxy...2. Oh well. Looks cool, looks fun.

Still no Zelda...

Oh Reggie, I DO Want more.

Third Party Titles with a "harder edge".

"The Conduit" from Sega.

Trailer makes it look like Terminator, Bioshock, and Metroid combined.

"Resident Evil: The Dark Side Chronicles" from Capcom.

Old Characters, RE4 style Gameplay. Kinda skimpy on the trailer budget...

"Dead Space: Extraction" from EA.

Re-Make/Prequel.

Edgier game from Nintendo themselves?

With Team Ninja...

Metroid: Other M.

Oh wow. That looks in tents...so cool...

Miyamoto isn't here yet. Still no Zelda...

Waaaah. It's over.

Well, once again, we have seen a lot of attractions for those "new" gamers that need less challenging titles. However, this year at least provided some interesting titles for the core gamer. New Metroid, some third party up and comings. New Mario Galaxy. I can live with that.

So. No Zelda Wii. Yet. No Miyamoto on stage AT ALL. Way too much talking, not enough games.

Overall. An exciting year is ahead of us.