The Godfather In 3D!!!

     You know that feeling at the pit of your stomach that you had as you read the title to this blog, this is the feeling you will soon be experiencing in the near future. With the rise of 3D movies and movie companies wanting to make more money on previously released movies be it through remakes, reboots, sequels, prequels or just re-releasing, it would come as no surprise if they actually decided to show "The Godfather" in 3D in theaters, for the record they aren't, Godfather 3D is not in production, you can breath now.

      There is an appeal to 3D movies, some movies are greatly enhanced by the experience, the scary thing right now though is that for some reason there is a permeating thought around Hollywood that 3D can be applied to everything, not only that but that 3D will overtake 2D. This is even the case among television companies who have for the better part of two years been trying to work on releasing 3D TVs all across the world. The question that needs to be answered though is "when is 3D an appropriate medium for watching a film?", we believe that it is a fair question, one we intend to answer here.

      The obvious first answer is that 3D works for cartoons and animated movies, this could also apply to the genres of sci-fi/fantasy, and b-horror movies. Watching a movie like the new "Alice In Wonderland" in 3D brought the movie from ok to awesome very quickly which is a phenomenon that has occurred to other movies among that genre as well. Though there are some movies within that genre that do not depend upon the 3D factor, take any Pixar movie, one could watch any of those movies without the use of 3D and the movies will still be as awesome as with 3D, though the movie might be more 'fun' with 3D the point here is that the movie in itself can exist outside of the 3D realm.

      The problem begins when people start applying 3D to everything that is being made, which in turn actually damages the movie instead of helping it. This is the case for romance, suspense and most if not all drama movies. There is an element of 'fun' that is associated with the 3D scheme, which would detract from the seriousness found in many movies, imagine "Shawshank Redemption" in 3D, it doesn't even sound right, making it three dimensional would detract from the seriousness of the movie and the movie would not have the impact that it could have, had it been shown in its original form. 

     The best application of 3D is to animated movies, also though, 3D is a good find for discovery channel's shows and movies, this is one thing we can't disagree with television companies in. Some shows would be greatly enhanced, like watching the discovery channel's "Planet Earth" in 3D, that sounds like a fun experience, while at the same time watching "Mad Men" in 3D would destroy the show, so there needs to be a balance, an understanding made between viewer and producer that 3D does not compliment everything, in fact in many cases it destroys the emotional impact of a movie or show, thus there needs to be some sort of accountability dealing with which movies or shows can be 3D and which should never be made 3D. 

     The other major issue here is the fact that most movie companies are releasing their movies in 3D only because the tickets for the 3D movies are almost double the price than regular movies, meaning the movie companies make double the profit. This is annoying, for some movies aren't meant to be 3D and are only being shown in 3D because the producers want more money; one can only imagine what a director who is against such an action would think as he saw his masterpiece become cheap entertainment and a ploy to make more money. This is an issue which we hope will not be a case in the future, it can't be hard to come up with better technology so that the prices can be cut down again, this is a need that needs to be met, technology gurus get to work.

    How could we talk about 3D without mentioning the re-release of Star Wars Episode I 3D this weekend, there are a few points to be made here, the first is to recognize that if this first release of the series does not do well then the others will not be released, meaning Lucas Arts decided to torture us by forcing us to watch the first three episodes in 3D and only if they do well can we have episodes IV, V and VI be released, well played guys, well played. As much as it will kill some fans to go and watch Jar Jar in 3D *shudders* fans around the world will still go and support the movie only because of the promise of the original trilogy, even though Lucas included Darth Vader's "Nooooooooooo" in there. Secondly we should realize that if this movie does well that other movie companies might start thinking about doing this as well, which could mean more re-releases to come, and one of those could be an abomination like "The Godfather" in 3D.

    We hope you have had a great week and pray that you may have a glorious weekend,

Love from your humble blogger,

eBooks And The Future

     About a few weeks or so back Apple announced that the Ipad 3 will be coming out sometime soon shocking all of us for there has never been such a short gap between releases, and though they have been criticized for this move one can't help but appreciate the updates they will be bringing with it, there are a few, but none as game changing as their announcement about school books. Say what you wish about Apple, about how many "updates" they release a year and so on, without fail they change the game every few years, and this will be the next big game changer, one that might bring about many positive repercussions, while possibly causing some negative backlash in the process.

      Here is the point, apparently Apple has announced that they are striking a deal with Junior/Senior High Schools which includes all of the books a student might need for class to be available for purchase on the Ipad and for all those books to be less than $50. The price range is still in negotiation, but the bottom line is the same, books will be available cheap for students. There are a few awesome things that will be available as well like teachers will be able to send full class notes to everyone in the class via the Ipad, which means that if you miss class your professor will be able to forward you all the information you missed thus you won't be as harmed by missing class as you would now.

     It is rumored that the book software on it is greatly improved as well, the feature that really caught our eye was that as you highlight terms on your book the Ipad records those terms and will make flash cards for you to be able to study those terms later, which is a huge time waster when you do it be hand, for anyone out there that knows what it is to study for a test with 300 vocab words this is good news for you. Apple has not been able to hit the college market yet for it is a mess, but surely in the coming years we will see the Ipad and other notebooks make their way into all college classrooms, not only cutting the price of books but also lowering the load in your backpack.

     The advantages to the ebook versus regular books is endless and easy to see, right now a regular college student spends about 200-300 on books, if you're going for any medical field it comes close to 500-700, which is absurd, book pricing within schools has become an absurdity, and thus explains why students cheered when they heard about this possible aid to their wallets. Apple has not been the only company trying to make headway into this direction but sometimes it feels like Apple is always the first company that actually makes it happen, soon we will see various companies follow suit making Ipads and other notebooks the way of the future.

     How could this ever have bad repercussions? Well, this would cause regular books to become less desired, thus less people would buy books and more people would opt for the electronic copy of a book versus the printed copy. This would occur for good reason, the printed copy is always more expensive than the electronic copy due to use of paper, binding and so on. The first people to feel this effect would be the small book sellers, the small stores would close first, libraries would become less and less traveled, though their book stock would grow due to people getting rid of their books, then soon the publishers would feel the damage and many binders would go out of business as well. This is a possible negative outcome.

     It would be unfortunate if that outcome came to pass but we do not believe that it will, yes some impact will be felt within the market, but we cannot make any claim about what is going to happen without analyzing the best example we have in front of us, music. When music went electronic we all thought that CD stores would go out of business, that the music industry would plummet and that lowering CD cost to $9.99 on Itunes was entertainment suicide, but look at us now, we still have music stores, we still have CDs for sale and on of top that Vinyl is actually making a come back, so do we feel that regular books will disappear?, by all means no, this will that not occur, short of a world wide book burning.

    Books being available cheaper for students is something we all need, for education, for our economy, and even for health and efficiency, it will change the way we do school for the better, it will not destroy the existence of books in print, there will always be a market for books in print, there are plenty of people out there that love the feel of a book, the smell of a new book, the ability to turn the pages yourself and so on. For those of us that grew up reading printed books going electronic will be difficult, though for some topics going electronic won't be hard at all. Besides school books, think cooking books, think aerobic books, research books, dictionaries, reference books, sports books and so on, the change to ebooks is not only more practical but it will be cheaper, more organized and won't occupy a ton of space in your home, which are all great things. 

     We tip our hats to Apple and other companies working on this new game changer, we feel that this will be a change that will greatly impact the world in a positive light, the possibilities are endless. Here is another example just in case you're not already convinced, education in poor foreign countries will become a reality, though we are already going out there aiding them, with ebooks we will be able to be more effective, have more books available to them, and do so at a more cost effective way, thus spreading literacy among the whole world and bringing about a better future for all.

    We are looking forward to the future, for it looks more and more like it will be a good one. We hope you have had a good week so far, and that you will finish this week strong.

Love from your humble blogger,

Super Bowl 2012 "Commercials and Recap"

     Unfortunately our guest writer Ryan Saunders did not get his prediction to come true, if he had we are sure it would have been a much more interesting match. Congratulations to all Giants fans out there, you did it again, color us impressed. The game in itself was rather slow though, both teams were pretty evenly matched for the majority of the game with stellar defensive teams doing their thing, which usually is a good thing except for at the Super Bow, for it meant that not only was the game slow, it was also a low scoring game, which can be boring to watch. The last 4 minutes proved to be rather interesting, though it would have been even more so if both offensive teams had been on top of their game. The underdog wins again though, and that's always a cool thing. 

As for the half time show Madonna did ok, the issue there was the marketing of her new songs, some of the songs she sang hadn't been released for a long time so few people actually knew them, and that's always a bad thing when playing a huge show, you always wanna play things that your audience knows and loves, at least that way if the show in itself is bad then at least your fans are too engaged in singing your songs to notice how bad the show really is, i.e. last Super Bowl. The performance was interesting, it reminded us of a Lady Gaga performance, that was the first thing some people said actually, so when we heard that some Gaga fans were really annoyed at the show it was no surprise to us. It wasn't all bad though, so we rank it a 3/5. Cee Lo Green and the other stars that joined her made the show great, with them being in the picture we're talking a 4/5, thus Madonna's show was saved.

Which now leaves us with the commercials, we tried to put together the best commercials but there were so many really funny ones so here are a few that stole the show:

The Doritos Bribe:

 
Camero Graduation Gift:

Vampire Audi:

Epic Volkswagen Idea:

Doritos Baby:

G. I. Joe2 Preview Blew Our Minds:

  We've decided to spare you and not place all the bad commercials here, for there were many, here is a list of companies with bad ones: Hunday, Sketchers, Kinect, Cars.com, Optima, Samsung, but the worst of all due to its weirdness was this one:

   Fiat Weird Commercial:

  And there you have it, we hope you had a fantastic Super Bowl Sunday and we pray that this week may be a good one for you all.

Love from your humble blogger,

Guest Writer: Ryan Saunders "Super Bowl XLVI 2012"

Tomorrow millions of people will gather around TVs all over America to watch commercials and eat copious amounts of food.  There will also be a football game being played, the Super Bowl to be exact.  For many people this will be the first and only game they watch this season.   If you are one of these people who are attending a party but haven’t been paying attention to football this year and aren’t sure of things like which Manning brother will be playing, it’s the younger one Eli, or aren’t sure why Chris Canty’s helmet looks like supervillian then this article is for you.  I will briefly cover the teams and issues to get you caught up to speed and surprise the football enthusiast at your party with you knowledge.

First up are the Giants.  They have won 4 games in a row and are playing great football right now.  They had to win the last game of the regular season against the Dallas Cowboys just to get into the playoffs and now, playing every playoff game on the road, have reached the Super Bowl.  They have done this with a combination of a great defensive front four, arguably the best in football, and brilliant play from quarterback Eli Manning.  The defensive has amassed 9 sacks in 3 games and constantly harried the opponents’ qbs.  Eli Manning is playing the best ball of his career and has been brilliant on 3rd down.  The Giants are a staggering 44% on third down and Eli Manning has a Quarterback Rating of 103.1 in the postseason. 

The Patriots have Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.  That is all you really need to know.  They are the all-time winningest quarterback – head coach combo in NFL history.  They have won 3 Super Bowl’s together.  Bill Belichick is one of the greatest football minds ever; he is constantly getting guys that will play hard in his system and winning games with them.  This year his new offensive wrinkle is his two dynamic tight ends, Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez.  These two guys have given New England a unique and almost unstoppable offense this year.  The Patriots are averaging 419.5 yards of offense per playoff game this year, 2nd only to the New Orleans Saints and during the regular season averaged 428 yards per game, also 2nd to the Saints.

In order for the Giants to win tomorrow they must find a way to take away either Aaron Hernandez of Rob Gronkowski.  If they can find a way to take away one or both of these dynamic New England tight ends they can win.  Rob Gronkowski injured his ankle two weeks ago in the AFC Championship game against the Baltimore Ravens.  He claims that he will be fine but it will be impossible to know for sure until game time.  They can do this by putting pressure on Tom Brady and making him make poor decisions.  It will be difficult to fluster him but the Giants front four are capable of it.  For the Patriots to win, they must stop Eli Manning on 3rd down.  If they can’t get the Giants offense off the field then Tom Brady can’t score.  They can do this by forcing the Giants into 3rd and long situations and taking away his favorite targets of Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz.

In Super Bowl XVII these same two teams battled to an epic conclusion.  The undefeated New England Patriots fell to the scrappy underdog New York Giants.  An incredible play by Eli Manning and David Tyree helped to make the game one of the most memorable in Super Bowl history.  Hopefully, tomorrow will be just as epic.  This year’s game has the ability to be just as good.  The teams are very evenly matched and the Patriots are looking for revenge for Super Bowl XVII, the only Super Bowl Brady and Belichick have lost.  Seeing as how it is impossible to write or talk about the Super Bowl without making a prediction I will make mine here: New England Patriots 38 New York Giants 35.

  -- Ryan Saunders is a graduate student at Baylor University's illustrious Truett Seminary , he graduated from Gardner-Webb, he is aspiring to graduate from Truett with an MDiV with a concentration in sports ministry, his home town is Durham, North Carolina.

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    We hope you have a fantastic Super Bowl Sunday!

Love from your humble blogger,

The Importance Of Personal Growth: Heroes

      There is a difference between heroes or people we look up to and role models or mentors, at least for the sake of this entry. Heroes are people we look up to that we do not have interactions with, and probably will never do so, this could be a movie celebrity, a music artist, a sports icon and so on. We all have either a few heroes we love or just one person we idolize and follow. This does not mean you are a stalker of said person, it just means that that person is somewhat of hero to you, he or she is someone you resonate with or someone that inspires you to be better, and thus there is an inherent importance of caution when deciding who will be the heroes in your life.

      There are good celebrities and bad celebrities, there are those that we should look up to and those that are headed down a road of destruction that we should stay away from. The issue here is advertising, some celebs are horrible people lacking in good character and function more on selfish actions than anything else, we've seen plenty of those throughout the years, though through TV shows and advertising some celebs that should never be looked up to are regarded as great role models. We aren't saying here that Kim Kardashian is a horrible human being, we are also not saying that she never does anything good, what we are saying is that one should think twice before modeling their lives after hers, that Kim is not the best role model in life, we could include a series of other actors/actress, musicians and so on that one should not look up to like Lindsay Lohan for instance, though Lohan went off the deep end the example stands, there are plenty of good people to look up to and plenty of bad, be careful who you idolize for they will influence your life.

    Though there are plenty of bad people out there, there are some actresses that continually blow our minds with how awesome they are. There are so many good examples here, Natalie Portman is a clear choice, here we have a good actress who doesn't do the whole paparazzi thing and became amazing with her rap on SNL, she won our hearts that day. She is not alone though, there are plenty of other actresses that are regarded as not only good actresses but good human beings like Julia Roberts, or Emma Stone, both of which have been in amazing movies and have had the opportunity to be horrible human beings but have chosen the higher ground and seek to portray good images of themselves, here are people worth looking up to.

   The guys are a lot funnier here, only because their cases are so obvious that only a few people really miss the point here. An example of a bad hero "The Situation" from Jersey Shore, some people actually look up to the guy and every time they do our hearts die a little of sadness, we're talking a guy so ridiculous that Abercrombie and Fitch actually paid him not to wear their clothing on the show, yeah that happened. There are really cool guys out there though, this is also a solid list like Ryan Gosling, Paul Rudd, Ryan Reynolds, and so forth, though our favorite has to be Hugh Jackman. Hugh is not only an awesome actor he is also known for being best friends with his limo drivers, security and so forth, the guy just drips with charisma, he's a man worth looking up to, here is a guy that actually is attempting to live a good life.

    There are those though that inspire us with their words, either written or spoken words, these people come forth and establish an example of what it looks like to attempt to live a life worth re-living. Here we cannot help but mention C. S. Lewis who authored the great Narnia series, here was a good man who gave us great works of fiction and also great works on life. There are so many authors we could bring up here, one notable author who happens to be looked up to within almost all mediums of entertainment is Neil Gaiman. Neil is the author of one of the most famous comic book series out there called "The Sandman", he was also the author of books like "Coraline", "Stardust" which were both made to movies, and now there is talk about his book "American Gods" to be made into a HBO show, which is of course due to his brilliance as a writer but his character played a huge role into him getting as far as he did. Neil is a rare breed in the sense that few people do not like him, everyone that has worked with him love him, thus here is a man worth looking up to, here is a true hero.

NPH is the man, 'nough said

     One might think that who your heroes are does not influence how you behave, but this is not the case, a simple truth in life is that you will always be influenced by the people you look up to, its an inescapable truth, one you should know, for it is important to discern who those heroes are and if they are worthy of being called that, analyze your own life and seek people of good character, thus by doing so you will grow in a positive fashion. To sum up the series, one should always be careful when choosing a mentor, the friends you surround yourself with, and the heroes you look up to, choose people of good character and you will grow to possess good character, so choose wisely.

  We hope you have a great weekend, be safe, and rest well,

The Importance Of Personal Growth: Close Friends

    There is an illusion permeating school hallways and college campuses that you cannot choose who you become friends with, thus indoctrinating the populace as to who can be friends with who, who you are supposed to be close with and who you are to shun and so forth. There is some truth in this statement, in that you cannot choose specific people to be friends with, as in you can't force people to like you and want to be around you, but you can choose a type of friend or people group that you would like to be around, thus placing the responsibility of the friends you choose on you and not on "how the universe works". With this being the case there are characteristics of good friends, these are the characteristics you should seek after and thus by doing so surround yourself with people that will help you grow:

   A Dose Of Reality

     You cannot be friends with everyone, even if you think this is the case we assure you that there is someone out there that does not like you, its a good thing to understand this for by doing so you come appreciate the people you have around you more. In this same light there are groups where you will not fit in, we are not people conditioned to fit with everyone, thus when choosing a group remember that you should seek those people that are similar to you or have similar interests. If you find yourself in a group where you have nothing in common with everyone and are the one being singled out, then there is a good chance you are part of the wrong group of friends. Don't fret though, there are many groups that fit you, this is another truth, there isn't just one group that fits you there are many groups that you may choose from and learn from, for everyone has multiple interests, generally it takes 3-4 interests to get a friendship going, not always but its a good scale to follow.

    Honesty

    If your friends cannot be honest with one another then you are not truly friends, this is a core definition within friendship, the ability to be honest to each other and still retain the friendship. This is honesty with love, not hate, so caring for a friend, be it a form of encouragement, sympathy or simply worry, honesty is an important aspect of good friendship. Honesty is a crucial part of being able to be yourself, thus if you cannot be honest among your friends then that means that you cannot be your full self among your friends, and if you can't be yourself around your friends generally there is something wrong there. Honesty does not mean being harsh or mean to those around you, honesty does not mean revealing all of your thoughts, though honesty is an important aspect of friendship one must always remember that complete honesty is brutality, if you know a comment will hurt someones feelings then don't say it and be a good friend. Honesty is a tough thing to find, so when you do find it make sure to keep those people close for they are worth more than gold.

   Loyalty

    There is no point being friends with people that cannot be loyal to one another, it undermines everything that a friendship is to its core. When you seek a close group of friends you seek to find a group of people that you can be honest with, that you can share the best and worst of yourself with, a group that will love you regardless of what may take place, and thus loyalty becomes one of the most important aspects of friendship. This is also one of the most rare qualities found within people, a harsh reality is that the majority of people out there will always put themselves before you, that you at some point will be betrayed by someone close to you, this is an experience in life that all go through, thus further highlighting the importance of not only seeking loyal friends but acknowledging those friends, holding them close, for loyal friends are worth more than every gem in the world. 

     Superiority

    This is the most overlooked aspect when choosing friends, and no we don't mean you be superior to your friends, we mean finding people that are superior to you, people that have qualities you lack, that have strengths you do not possess, and surround yourself with these people. By surrounding yourself with people that are better than you you will grow and mature in ways that you would not have been able to had you chosen a group of people that are exactly like you or are inferior to you. This superiority can mean different things, it can be a skill, a social presence, a good student, someone that has more drive than you, or someone that is more patient than you, learn from all of these people and you will grow. When it comes to how you will face the world you do not grow the most through a mentor, or a through teachers, the majority of your education is passed down to you through your friendships, these are the people that will shape you and help you evolve, thus seek after people that are better than you.

   Character

     Due to the fact that you will be shaped by the people you surround yourself with, it is important for you to seek after people that have good character. A truth of this world is that you cannot escape being influenced by those around you, another truth is that it is easier to destroy than to build, it is easier to do that which is wrong than to persevere and seek after that which is right. Thus be wise when choosing friends for it will matter when it comes to your personal growth, surround yourself with people of good character and you will grow in a positive light, surround yourself with people that lack character and you might destroy all chances of ever being able to grow. Personal growth is important, not only for your career but also when it comes to living a good life, a life worth re-living, thus seek after those friends that will be truthful with you while being loyal at all times, thus aiding in your growth with wisdom, and helping you evolve in a positive light.

    We hope you surround yourself with great friends that will love you till the end.

Love from your humble blogger,

The Importance Of Personal Growth: Mentoring

   You are not perfect, no one is, this is one of many facts of life that you must accept. Another fact to remember is that you will never be perfect, no matter how hard you try you will never be without fault, these are things one must know prior to facing the world head on, and by accepting this you will have taken step one to your journey of personal growth. Though being true that perfection is unattainable, it is not true that you cannot become a better person and grow to impact the world in a positive light, we should always be striving to become better men and women, striving to grow and mature, specially in your relationship with others and yourself, only through constant growth can one truly live a life worth re-living.

    Mentoring might sound strange, this is not a concept we are grown up with within our culture. We have grown up in a time where individualism is valued above all else, and your personal accomplishments done by your own strengths are recognized highly, though this is a truth and one we should value, there is another truth permeating this phenomenon and that is that the majority of people cannot succeed within an individualistic world, and even those that do, do not do so to the extent that they could for they were not sharpened by a mentor.

      This might shock you but all great athletes have a coach, and all of the genius scientists of our time and past have all had teachers that at some point were smarter than them, shocking I know. The point here is that these people found value within those that sought to teach them and learned as much as they could from that person before proceeding to the next level in their career, this is called wisdom, learning from others so that you might yourself grow. A person can only have one set of experiences, by learning from others you are combining different experience sets and thus molding, shaping, evolving your own person by the good you find in others.  

     No matter what field you are aiming towards, be it competitive dance, be it sports, be it engineering, or teaching know that there is always someone better than you, this will forever be the case. So find those people, find the people that are better than you in all the ways you are weak and learn from them, allow yourself to be mentored by them, and by doing so you will evolve. You must place yourself bellow that person and create a teachable spirit within yourself, placing your pride aside in order to soak up as much knowledge and experience from that person as possible. This is a crucial step in personal growth.

    Know this, if you do not seek out others in order to grow, then others will seek out those mentors and you will be left behind, no one can succeed alone, it doesn't matter what you were taught about individualism, no one can succeed alone. There is always room for growth, always room for improvement, thus if you seek to be the best, if you seek to live your dream, then find those mentors and learn as much as you can.

     There is another key element in mentoring which you must remember and that is character, not your character, but the character of your mentor. When seeking a mentor one must always find someone who is better than you in order for you to grow, this also applies to character, to wisdom, kindness, integrity, and honesty, if your mentor is lacking good character you will end up picking up some of those negative character traits yourself, this cannot be avoided, thus seek after mentors that have good character, and in doing so you will grow to be better than you are now.

     Personal growth for some reason is not something usually talked about, we talk about the shallow ways by which you may grow in beauty or power within the world, but we do not talk about character that much. In everything that you do character will be important, if you are a likeable person you will go further than an annoying person, if you are teachable then mentors will instruct you further than if you retain your pride, if you are kind to those around you, you will always have friends to count on, these are facts of life. Thus work not only on your personal craft but also on your own character.

     We hope you had a great weekend and we pray that this week will be one filled with joy,

Love from your humble blogger,