My CPU is a neural net processor, a learning computer

We have access to more information than at anytime in history. The question remains: How much information are humans able to process?

Last time I was cleaning my room I was trying to make sure I put all of my old clothes in one bag, because I didn’t want to have to make 2 trips with 2 bags when I could try for just one. So I kept cramming clothes in and filling the bag to capacity. It got to the point where the bag couldn’t take it any more and just burst at the seems. What’s with the analogy right? Well, as humans, we can only really process so much information. Every hour of every day, something is happening somewhere. Someone is fighting a war, someone is dying, someone is inventing the next thing to change the world. But can we keep tabs on all of it? I don’t think so. I think we are only able to really process as much as we want to. We can only really process as much so that when we hear something new, what we were just thinking about sticks. If we just hear it all day, we may be processing it, but it won’t stick. It’s like throwing spaghetti at the wall. You can throw it all day, but only the good stuff is going to stick.

My blog title is a quote said by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2. Maybe he can keep up with news as it happens and remember it all. But as humans, we can’t all remember and process everything. I really think that yes, we can be hooked up to news machines all day telling us something new, but if we just keep being bombarded with the new stories, we won’t have time to think about the old ones. I think people should really just slow it down and try and process the news that is important to them, or their world. Maybe if more people played Brain Age or tried to make their brains able to process everything faster, they could, but I think it is a waste of time. Process what you can, because tomorrow is another day, there is only going to be more news, so take it one day at a time. 

What the heck is a morass?

“We know there is a vast morass of information out there that our audiences want us to try to make sense of. The danger consists in trying to leap above it, not by getting more dramatic or salient or verifiable facts, but by analyzing, speculating, predicting, interpreting – by drawing definitive conclusions while the bodies are still warm.” – Paul Knox, The Globe and Mail

Morass – Something that hinders, engulfs, or overwhelms. Ok. There we go. You learn something new every day. Anyways. The job of being a journalist seems almost daunting and scary to me sometimes. How can I excel in a job where it is really hard to get different news than someone else is getting? Thats where this quote comes in. I am a person who jumps to conclusions faster than almost everyone I know, which is something I am trying to get under control before I go into the field for this job. I can’t write a story based on assumptions. Sure, I would like to, but telling a story without any fact to back it up is the big no no for journalists. I can’t go on hearsay alone. As much as it would make for a good story, writing or reporting it without knowing all the facts can get us in trouble.

I remember just a few months ago where Howard Berger from The Fan 590 radio, reported that Sean Avery made comments about Jason Blake’s recovery from cancer. Berger reported that Avery had said something derogatory about Jason Blake without interviewing Blake or Avery. He took a story that could have been big news if it were true, and ran with it hoping it was true. This resulted in Berger getting in trouble with Avery and having to apologize on air on The Fan 590. This is something that could have been potentially destructive to Berger’s career. Luckily he apologized in time, and wasn’t affected too much by this event. But in the future for us students now, we might not be so lucky. We won’t have a track record like Berger’s was leading up to that event. Even with a track record though, don’t test the news. Reporting news that you are unsure of is just about as bad as gossiping. Might as well pack up our desks and apply at The National Enquirer and TMZ

While we should be trying to get scoops and exclusives, don’t run unless you know you have the ground underneath you to hold you up when you look down. Otherwise…

You put the load right on, right on me

Like Deja Vu All Over Again

I hate that saying. It really makes no sense. And I’m not going to lie, that’s also what I thought when Darryl told us we were having the librarian come tell us how to research using school resources again. As we had already heard from this librarian, I thought it was a bit redundant. However, after watching her presentation again, I am going to admit I was wrong.

The first time we watched it, it was just after 8 in the morning and my classmates and I were all pretty tired and disinterested, because we really didn’t care at the time. At least that’s how I felt. I was sleepy and I wasn’t planning on using much she was showing us, but I still tried to pay attention and I thought I had retained some of that knowledge. But when she came in today to show us how to do things again, I started to see a lot of things I had forgotten. I guess weight isn’t the only thing I haven’t been retaining much of lately.

I had forgotten a lot of the little tricks she had shown us, like using the dollar sign at the end of a term to search all words including those first letters, such as putting scien$ for scientist, science, etc. I had forgotten about using the word “and”, like how it narrowed down the search field, but maybe not in a good way. It was good for her to show us the ways to search more than one word but not exclusively.

I also hadn’t realized the extended list of resources we had at our fingertips. It was cool to see that you can search by magazine, or by newspaper, such as by Time or by The Spectator. It was also helpful to see that we can just simply check the stories we want and save them for later. I am realizing that maybe I shouldn’t always just rely on mainstream search engines, because as much as I have been told that before, it was the presentation today that really brought that idea home.

I am excited to use what I learned in being able to maybe find stories in different magazines and books for when I am working on a story of my own and maybe need to refer back to a report that was done before. Learning what I did makes that process much easier now. I will also use Clusty now when I am researching to help me narrow down my search, because it will help me cut down on time looking through all the search results. That extra time may just help me out one time with a story, you never know. Having tried to use some of the resources without knowing the tricks and how to enter the terms properly, I can honestly say that it was not easy and just made me want to Google it. But now I think knowing what I am doing is really going to help me with my stories because I will have much better sources of information than I used to, and it will look much more professional.

So while I won’t lie and say it was the most entertaining class, I will say I did learn some interesting things and I am glad I came to class.

Final Assignment Video Blog

I talked to someone in my life who knows more about life and how to live it than anyone else I know, as well as what movie I can put on depending on my mood. He talked about movies and reality, and how the 2 have managed to balance each other out in some people’s lives

Perhaps the briefest statement imaginable of the basic appeal of movies

Today’s entry into my blog is a review of a great movie that I saw because I had never heard of, but someone told me I would love it. Suffice it to say, they were right. I am realizing more and more that some of the best movies that I’ve seen in recent times are just a modernization of a classic style: the film noir. The who-dunnit kind of movie where someone is trying to figure out how to put the pieces of the puzzle together, and there is always a twist, and more often than not, a beautiful girl. This is one of my favourite modern film noirs, although suffice it to say, I have a lot of favourites. But I can tell you more about those later.

Movie: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Yes, what an odd title for a film. It shares its name with numerous books and albums, most notably however is Pauline Kael’s second published book of film reviews. Her quote on why she chose the title is the name of this blog entry. Now however, enough about old reviews. On to a new one.

The movie stars Robert Downey Jr, an actor whom many of you may know more about his drug issues than about his acting pursuits. The other lead in this film is Val Kilmer, whom you either know as Jim Morrison, or the first Batman with nipples. Downey Jr plays Harry Lockhart, a man who has failed at almost everything he has attempted, including the robbery he and an accomplice are committing at the beginning of the film. When he and his partner in crime are shot leaving the scene of the crime, Harry has no choice but to make a run for it. To escape from the cops, he runs in to an open door, which happens to be a casting room where auditions are being held for a crime film. After faking his way through, he is snatched up, patched up, and flown out to Hollywood. Here he meets Gay Perry (Kilmer), a private eye whom the film studio wants Harry to shadow to prepare for the part he has landed. Their first day on the job together is regular private eye kind of stuff, just taking pictures of a couple. But that small case gets turned into a murder filled who-dunnit, where nothing goes as planned. Their investigation leads them all over L.A, and they meet some interesting people on the way, such as the gorgeous girl of the story, Harmony Lane (Michelle Monaghan). I can’t say much more about the plot without giving it away, but needless to say, there is no shortage of twists.

One of the things I love the most about this movie is it’s quick witted, sharp writing. It was written and directed by Shane Black, who wrote Lethal Weapon, The Monster Squad, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and many other action movies. It is his first time directing, but he doesn’t trip over his own two feet with this superb movie. He sticks with classic noir style and storytelling, including having the main character narating the movie.

The movie itself is split up into chapters, all of which are named after Raymond Chandler novels, which were some of the best noir style novels written back in the 30s and 40s. The pacing is great, the acting is superb, and the jokes will leave your sides actually hurting from laughing. So if you’re looking for a good film noir, or just wanna see some great acting, this is definitely a movie to check out.