Jungle

What has the world come to today, chivalry and good manners used to be the most important character traits in a person. As the years go by it's like people have less and less respect for their fellow man or woman. It's almost as if people enjoy being disrespected, they enjoy being treated like shit. I've seen a lot of people I know not stand up for themselves before, and it seriously sickens me. Sometimes the only reason people get hurt is cause they don't stand up for themselves and if they did they would be much better off.

The transition between the summer semester and this semester has been quite strange. I felt in control this summer, I made my own decisions and relied on myself more than I have in the past. I put myself out there and strived to be the best I could be in school and out. I was surrounded by people who are very fun to be around and who I could spend time with. This Summer was probably the strongest i've ever been. Having the freedom to make big decisions, exploring the city through new means such as biking. I had the time of my life.

Now that it's the fall semester, It feels as if I've stepped into a Zoo. I never really had that stereotypical college attitude of partying and drinking until I puke attitude, it seems ridiculous to me. I started partying my Junior year, but I feel as if that was only a distraction from some life changes. Well it was definitely a distraction, but it turned into the normal thing to do and I stuck with it.

Is that how people get through life though? Do they have it all at one point, get struck down and then find a distraction that will outweigh their dispair? Does anyone ever truly get over anything? Once you get to know someone, you think you know them, or you think that you know that you know them. But do you really? How could all emotions just get up and leave?

I write this with hope that I will find what I'm looking for, and enjoy the search as it comes to me. Sometimes it's good to get your emotions out in written forms, even if other people were to read them.

Patience

So here I sit on a weekday with no formal employment or any class to go to. Here I sit writing this blog from a poorly temperature controlled dormitory. Listening to Pandora and attempting to do this Revit homework. It all seems so bland to me.

We all make mistakes in life, and I made a pretty big one. I let my ego and false confidence get in the way of making a decision. I thought I'd have a job, I thought I'd have something, something to keep me busy and to help me not to starve. Some new experience where I could learn more from to help me on my path in life. The Architecture firms of Boston are all stacked with either too many professionals or have already taken there mediocre intern. The rest of the failed locations are filled with maniacal egotistical bastards (Apple store).

I do my best to not worry about things so much, people ask me why I don't and I say why does it matter. But it just feels like whenever I reach a highpoint, a point in time where I feel truly happy something comes to kick me off and I have to start from the bottom again. It's been like this for a while now. My life is definitely better than it was one year six months ago, but I don't think I've found everything I've been looking for, and obviously it's going to take a while until I feel fully complete. I guess what I'm getting at is that I want to have something/someone again that's worth fighting for.

Patience is the greatest of all virtues.

Cato the Elder (234 BC - 149 BC)

Milo

Motion Control is all the rage in video game technology these days.

This fall, Microsoft is releasing a product to be used alongside the Xbox360 called 'Kinect'. Kinect makes the player the controller using motion sensing technology. The Xbox 360 user can interact with the screen simply by waving their arms or saying commands.

One of the more fascinating programs or games to run alongside the Kinect will eventually be 'Project Milo'.

Milo is the creation of Lionhead studios and is meant to change the way that the audience or the gamer interacts with the virtual world. Milo will be completely responsive to any questions or movements that the gamer performs in front of Kinect. Milo completely responds to emotions, movements, and voice.

This is one of the first groundbreaking tests in advanced virtual artificial intelligence.

The thought of being able to interact with something that doesn't exist is creepy but awesome at the same time.

See for yourself

Inception

I recently went to see 'Inception', a new movie directed by Christopher Nolan. Inception is about being able to steal ideas and information via peoples dreams, which is called extraction; however, inception is when someone plants an idea into someones brain.

There are rules of the dream world. For example, if you are injured in the dream you will feel immense pain both in the dream and in the real world; but, if you are killed, you will instantly awake from the dream and be perfectly fine in the real world.

This made me think about the Buddhist belief of reincarnation and that when you die you are reincarnated into another living vessel. I crafted a new theory based of reincarnation and the idea of being killed in a dream.

What if life is an infinite loop of dreams?

If you get killed in this world that we live in, who's to say that you don't awake in another? This cycle could continuously repeat and repeat forever, almost as if there is no such thing as death but rather waking up.

Now this theory is not about living forever, but merely shifting realms if you were to die and to continue living where you start in a new realm.

As crazy as it sounds, it is interesting to think about.

Sacrifice

One of my favorite movies of all time is 'The Prestige' which is directed by Christopher Nolan. One of the main themes in this movie is sacrifice, it has opened my mind to think about what sacrifice actually is, how it can be good and how it can be bad.

Everyone sacrifices, whether it's time, talent, opportunity, life, or even people.

Why is sacrifice such a powerful action?

Would you sacrifice your talents and creativity for a chance to shine?

Would you sacrifice your friends to rise to the top?

Would you sacrifice your time to help someone in need?

All of these questions require multiple levels of understanding, yet are all similar.

Sacrifice can be looked at as good or bad.

Good

Right now, as a student, I sacrifice most of my time to Architecture. I could be out exploring the world or have more time to try new and different things; but I chose to take the diligent path to become a Master Architect and to achieve an astute and profound understanding of what Architecture is and how it effects the world. Eventually this sacrifice will catch up to me in the end, because I know in my mind that down the road somewhere, the path I chose for my life will lead to good things.

Bad

Never sacrifice your time and talents for someone who does not truly appreciate what you are doing for them and why you are doing it. In the past I always fought to do the 'right thing' and to try to help everyone; but helping everyone isn't necessarily always the best course of action. There are people who will not appreciate what you do and see it as nothing. It is not worth the time you give and therefore should be saved for something more productive.

The level of sacrifice in 'The Prestige' is way more complex than my personal sacrifices, but explaining that would ruin the movie for people who have not seen it.

Next time you find yourself sacrificing your time for something, think about how it will effect you in the long run, and if actually performing the action will be rewarding to you or tragic. Everyone needs to sacrifice something at some point in their life, There is no avoiding that.

Life isn't perfect and neither are we.

Interaction

Interaction is one of the key factors which make man kind Humans.

In the documentary 'Guys and Dolls', four men from different areas of the United States and England are documented on their relationships with inanimate companionship dolls. These men would rather invest in the company of inanimate objects which look like real women, then actual women. They do not believe that they can keep a constant relationship with another human being and so they create a relationship were they are in constant control.

For me, the interaction between people is key for my day to day. I enjoy knowing that I'll always have a friend or a family member to talk to.

Interaction is a learning experience. The more you interact with something the more you learn. The more you talk with someone the more you get to know someone. The more you interact with an object, the more you know the object.

The simple emotions displayed between an interacting point between a boy and a girl are crucial. For example, if I were to receive a wave or sign of acknowledgment from a girl, i'd rather make a silly face or say something which causes a laugh then simply to wave back. Rather then receiving no other signs of aknoweldgement, I achieve something greater...

A smile :)

'Splicers'

Everything about the topic/game I am about to write about has mostly everything to do with a lot we talk about in Art & Technology; However I am going to attempt to focus on the gene splicing aspect of it.

I keep finding myself able to tie in class discussions into video games that I enjoy to play. It's really great because it allows me to have an in depth analysis and make comparisons between the game world and the real world

Bioshock is a horror-first person shooter set in an alternate 1960. It takes place in the underwater dystopian metropolis of 'Rapture' which was constructed by Andrew Ryan, a man trying to escape the "political, social, and religious anxieties of a post World War 2". The city's location is in the middle of the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in between Greenland and Iceland. The city is styled to appear as an underwater New York City in size and also in it's Art Deco appearance. The game itself has many subliminal or intricate connections to Christianity.

The goal of creating rapture was to create a paradise free from all of the people that Ryan considered parasites, people who would steal ideas for their own. Their is a connection to the actual rapture mentioned in the bible by taking the best and the brightest of everyone on earth to a place where no one can touch them. People would study and work the way they wanted, to gain a sense of knowledge for themselves rather then fulfilling the wants and needs for others. Having no social system in Rapture was it's only flaw, it caused the less fortunate citizens to resent Andrew Ryan and to think of him as naive and an elitists. Ryans paranoia of the self and of the parasite led to his mental downfall as well as the city itself. The resentment of Raptures leader and creator led to competition throughout the city; especially by one of its citizens, Frank Fontaine, a former mob boss who built a criminal empire through smuggling. Fontaine went on to start a city wide civil war which led to raptures doom.

This was just an introduction into the game world, so that you can get a sense of what it's like to live in this underwater dystopia.

The story of the main game where you play in first person perspective isn't important compared to the science aspect that I will go into; however, the story is marvelous and well worth reading into or actually trying to play the game for yourself.

Seeing as how the game takes place in alternate 1960 but was created in our 2007, you would think that the technology surrounded the game would be like our 1960 technology; and it is, with a twist. Ryan believed that scientific achievement was being restricted by 'petty moralitly', he wanted the people of rapture to explore all possible scientific achievements no matter the cost, for greatness. One of the greatest scientific achievements that occured in Rapture was the discovery of 'ADAM'. ADAM is the raw form of unstable stem cells which have been harvested and processed from a parasitic sea slug. ADAM has the ability to produce cells which normally don't exist in the human body. It acts like cancer by replacing cells with unstable cells of it's own accord. It gives the host amazing physical powers but also causes mental damage to people who use it habitually.

ADAM was eventually used to create 'Plasmids', special serums made from processed ADAM that introduced special stem cells into the body and allowed for genetic modification and real time mutation. In other words, plasmids gave whoever injected themselves with it 'super powers', powers which no human can control. Plasmids are very powerful but cause physical and mental breakdowns in a person, addiction, and insanity. The use of plasmids was limited to the amount of EVE a person had, which is another modified version of ADAM. (Adam and Eve, parallels to the fall of rapture)

Plasmids introduced different kinds of elemental and natural powers to the bearer. Elements such as electric bolts, fire, ice, and wind were among some of the plasmids used in the game. (which you will see an example of in the videos below). The scary thing is that our society is coming close to the point of a major breakthrough with stems cells. Now all of this is fun to do in a video game but in real life it seems really scary. If people had the power to wield lightning in their finger tips I would be truly scared. Humans are always searching for more power, it's not instinctive but almost like a life goal. People are raised to believe that power is everything and power consumes themselves almost like ADAM consumes it's host and breaks them down mentally.

Genetic researchers have officially produced clones and other things using stem cells. What's next, will they bring back the dinosaurs? Has anyone watched Jurassic Park. Yea i'm totally joking dinosaurs would be awesome. It's scary to think of what humanity is capable of but has the morals to control, at least some.

I feel as if Bioshock shows what people would be like if society let them off their chain. Ryan's idea of releasing 'petty morality' is scary but interesting to see in a game considering it isn't real. But this game is based off real human beings, and for it to be even thought up makes it possible to happen. What would the world be like if it was set up more like rapture? Would we be more advanced in technology seeing how their was no moral law against what you would be studying?

Below is the first level of Bioshock, everything mentioned above is pretty much featured in the video, watching them you might have a better understanding of what's going on. Pay close attention to what they say as well as what they do if you decide to watch.

Welcome to Rapture Part 1/3


Welcome to Rapture Part 2/3


Welcome to Rapture Part 3/3

Alternate Universe

To anyone who's ever wondered about intelligent life in other galaxies, this post is for you.

This thought originated while playing the popular action role-playing game Fable II, it takes place in the fictional world of Albion which has just arrived to it's early modern period (Similar to our colonial period). This is a world full of adventure and wonder, creatures that we would find very odd in our world. It's filled with swords, guns and magic, but that is far from the point. In this game you play the role of an orphan who loses his sister and is almost killed. You are faced with choices throughout you're characters life, good or bad. The choices you make shapes and molds the world in which you play into what it will become. For example, at the beginning of the game you and you're sister are trying to scrounge up 5 gold pieces to buy a magical song box which may or may not grant the user 1 wish. So you run around the town doing deeds nobly or you can decide that you want to be mischievous and take the bad route. The fifth and final gold piece requires you to hand over 5 warrants for arrest for criminals around the town. The life changing decision that you must make is whether to give the warrants over to the towns guard so he can put away the criminals and save the day, or to give the warrants to the criminal so that he can rip them up and cause more crime around the city.

Depending on the choice you make the future can be bright or it can be bleak. If you hand over the warrants to the guard, the city will be thriving, the town will be wealthy, the guard you gave them to will be the Head Guard of the city, and you will be praised by everyone. However, if you decided to hand the warrants to the criminal, the town will be a slum, the people will be suffering, the people will despise you, but the criminals will love you.

This was just a little introduction and an example into my own thought. The universe is vast, it doesn't end it only expands. We have only set off so little into the everlasting nothingness and we really don't know what's out there when it comes to intelligent life. Other than having planets that populate life which is different then our humanity, think about planets that might be exactly like earth, solar systems that might be exactly like our Milky Way Galaxy.

What if there is another planet like earth, it is populated by humans just like our earth. Let's call this other planet Xearth. It could be possible that Xearth started at the same time that our earth did, and everything was exactly the same. Of course everything starts off the same in the universe, but then things begin to change. Remember everything is unique, nothing is quite like the other, just like two snowflakes. At one point in time, something that happened on earth changed it's course of history, and at the same time something on Xearth happened, but it was completely different than what happened on our earth. And so begins our paradox.

Now here is the tie in to the video game that I mentioned. In the game you only had two roads to pick, the good or the bad, which subsequently led to two more roads along the way. This forms a whole branching of events to unfold in the world. All it takes is one wrong turn. What's to stop us from saying that maybe we made all of the wrong choices, and Xearth made all of the right choices, it's obviously a rhetorical question since this is just a theory, and knowing that is impossible. With all of the war, natural disasters, man made disasters, and anything else which may go wrong in this world, I don't believe it's crazy to say that there might be a world out there which made better choices then we have. If this is true though, Xearth might be more advanced in certain ways of living life, faith, health, technology... and peace.

Philosophy & Mantra

Before I start writing out my philosophy I would like to point out that most of the things I will be discussing have never really left my mind, I've always wanted to share my thoughts but for some reason was scared to. I've had a lot of moments where that's happened and I feel as it's time to finally let everything out, and this is a good way to start.

My Philosophy

I believe that the manner in which you are brought up by your parents is a starting point to a persons own abstract thought of how to present themselves in society. When you are young you're parents mold you into who you are, but they don't complete the mold, they only create about 30% to 50%. (not real statistics). It's your job to finish you're own mold, because if you don't then what kind of person will you be? Certainly not the person you want to be, but the person that society wants you to be. You live by what you're parents taught you but soon enough you branch out and gain new experiences which lead you to think differently about everything.

I try to be kind hearted to everyone I meet in life, everyone deserves compassion. I hear a lot of people say this but I don't see all of them take the very simple action. I believe in trying to have as many friends/know as many people as you can, not for the desire to be popular but for the gratitude to be able to say that you have met numerous amounts of people in your life. And of course when it comes to the friends who are most dear to me in my life, I would do anything for them. Their have been countless times were a friend of mine has taught me something new, helped me to overcome a mental breakdown or have just been there, friends to the end.

One thing that I appreciate in life that i've never really heard anyone talk about are simple emotions. A smile or an emotion of happiness is the greatest gift that you can ever witness. It displays pure joy. I would hope that my cheery almost upbeat attitude can carry over to someone else and hopefully bring the same attitude to that person. I always try to bring smiles to peoples faces, if anyone I know were to be upset I will always be there to attempt to cheer them up, and a smile is all I need to know that I've done something to help achieve that goal.

I'm not a very religious person, and what I'm going to type here might stir some opinions from people but I want them to keep in mind that this is only my opinion and I don't dislike religion, I just don't fully understand it. I wasn't really brought up under any specific religion. One side of my family is Lutheran and one side of my family is Jewish. My brother and I were raised learning about both religions and were able to see how each culture is different and yet similar; however, I still don't understand how religion can cause so much happiness and at the same time so much grief. A thought that I have been playing with my mind which has to do with religion is that 'Time & Opportunity is greater than Faith'. You as an individual and free person and allowed to believe in whatever you want, but all that a belief is, is a mystery itself. Of course, it is very late and I cannot fully remember the entire argument I had for this though, so I will leave it at that for now.

There is still much more in my head waiting to get out and to be explained, but sometimes the thoughts escape me and thinking about them will just make it worse. So for now I leave my philosophy at that, and will come back to it when I have more to add

Mantra

I try to always stay conscious and aware of my surroundings, I look out for people behind me when I'm opening a door and I make sure I always look around if I can't hear my surroundings due to headphones. It's just something i'm always doing, almost like a habit. I people watch all the time, not to be creepy but just to see how people react to certain situations they are placed in. You can learn a lot by just watching and observing other people.

Art and Technology

Summer semester at Wentworth Institute of Technology has begun! Now I know what you're thinking, going to school during the summer sounds really lame and boring, and quite frankly you are absolutely correct!

It's not all that bad though, I have come to a point in my life where school is a necessity and I am excited to learn new things and to apply my knowledge in different situations as to better my understanding of what I'm being taught and the world itself. I feel mature.

So, students in Gloria Monaghans 'Art and Technology' class were asked to write blogs to express our thoughts and ideas about topics we discuss in class.