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NinjaPhobos
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Name: Chase
Country: United States
State: Arkansas
Metro: Fayetteville
Birthday: 11/2/1984
Gender: Male
Interests: J.R.R. Tolkein, Biblical/Religious Studies, Guitar, Violin, Archaeology, WOMEN!!!, William Faulkner, Jars of Clay, Pink Floyd, Techno/Trance, Anime, Duck Tape Apparel/Weapons, Life Support Systems, Prosthetics, Language Theory
Expertise: licking stamps, eating the excess off bologna wrappers, intermittent shaving, intermittent bathing, intermittent clothes-washing, intermittent shouting of random phrases, all things intermittent...
Occupation: Engineering
Industry: Research
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  sideshowcmd
MSN: sideshowcmd@hotmail.com
ICQ:  1370300344
Yahoo:  sideshowcmd
Member Since:
2/19/2005
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| Given that LSU's defense allowed 466 yards for Ole Miss on Saturday and one of LSU's TDs was a kick-off return, and given that we spanked Ole Miss at Ole Miss and didn't allow so many yards...I think we might actually fair well at LSU...
Now, in saying that, I don't mean to say we will necessarily win...it will take the right Arkansas team showing up, but I think we could do it.
And if it comes down to it, I'd rather McFadden have the Heisman than have an SEC team in the national championship. If we manage to keep the LSU defense off McFadden by having even half the passing game we had against Mississippi State (5 passing touchdowns this last Saturday) and by thinking up more creative plays like the fake to McFadden rushes Hillis pulled off quite nicely, I think we -could- win this game. Our defense will have to show its anti-Auburn face that we lacked on Saturday. I think, perhaps, we were looking forward to LSU.
Of course, you have to give credit where credit is due. Mississippi State has played most SEC teams close this season. There were some blow-outs, but State also beat a few SEC teams that beat us...in fact, they've beaten all the teams that beat us except Tennessee...
Any given day, any given team can have the game of a lifetime. If Nutt & Co. ever needed a big upset game, this is it. We beat #2 Auburn last season...can we topple the #1 team in the country? It's very possible, very doable, but it will be very tough to pull off in reality.
GO HOGS!
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| Apparently, the Writer's Guild of America is on strike because the networks have failed to pay them "residuals" (royalties) on ad money made from web-based programming of their TV shows and films. As a relative and friend of artists who have been ripped off by 'companies' requesting the usage of their intellectual property, I tend to side with the WGA on this. I think that some of the WGA demands are overzealous, but on the other hand, I certainly believe they should be compensated with a portion of the money the network is obviously going to make as a result of these advertisements and 'sales' of a product originally written by these WGA writers.
It would be like a publishing company not paying royalties to the author of a book for online book sales. Imagine if JK Rowling didn't get paid for books that Amazon.com sold...there would be an absolute uproar, and rightfully so.
This may be the first time I truly side with a Union on a "strike-able" issue.
Of course, we're talking about pennies per ad spot, but think about how many people watch these episodes online? The networks are obviously making money off of it, the companies pay for the ad space and more for actual ad clicks. And if even 500,000 people watch the ad at $0.10 an ad spot, that's $50,000 per ad per episode. Given episodes of Heroes are currently split up into 5 sections (which means there are 6 ads per episode: 1 at the beginning and then 1 after each section), that's $300,000 a week...if 500,000 people watch it online. Now, every week, 500,000 people are not going to watch an online episode, but you get the point. And that's just if the ads are $0.10 a spot...and I can guarantee you they are NOT just $0.10 a spot. These are full-length 30 second advertisements. Need I remind you (readers) of the price of advertisements sold for the Super Bowl? Definitely more than 10 cents.
So, we have the network executives making potentially millions of dollars (more as internet-based "television" viewing picks up) and the writers who created this content, and to whom intellectual property rights belong, get no compensation whatsoever for it? Now, you can blame the WGA for not seeing this coming, but this has been talked about since May. I went back and read up on this issue a bit and the first news articles came out back in May/June 2007...at least that's as far back as I can find with a simple Google search. Who knows how long this battle has been raging? It's just that now, during the Fall line-up, the writer's contracts have reached their end.
I figured the same thing about these phone-based voting shows like American Idol. Each call you make costs $0.99 + text messaging fees. They talk about millions of people calling in each week...that equates to millions of dollars just based off text messengers, and that goes to the phone companies and execs. And then you get ad spaces for that as well. It's a huge multi-million dollar scam...and all so we can pick who looks the cutest or who sings the "best" in the country, when I've only agreed with the outcome ONCE in the 6 or 7 seasons the show has been on. 6 or 7 seasons of American Idol! And people calling in each of the last 10 weeks. If on average 3 million people called in each week (which is normal for AI), for 10 weeks each season, for 7 seasons, that would be roughly $207,900,000, or $208 billion. And that's just from text messages...
You starting to get my point? Yeah...so is WGA....and so are these network execs.
The sad thing is, the networks rebuttal is that they don't have a "business plan" worked up for the distribution of residuals from "new media" (DVD sales of TV series, webisodes and online promotionals written by screen writers, and online re-airing of made-for-TV episodes). BULL CRAP! You guys come up with business plans and contingencies for EVERYTHING, but you don't have a way to give the screen writers $0.01 an ad in royalties? That's just weak. You need to hire better lawyers (or perhaps one of your WGA writers) to come up with a better line than that. Everyone knows it's a half-truth at best, and could be an outright lie.
I don't like Unions, I think they're an opportunity for greedy people just as much as the networks who have the "power", but you know what? I'm generally tired of seeing the media moguls making bazillions of dollars while people starve for 20 years to get their ideas, their comedic genius, etc. on TV, on CD, on air, etc.
So while I want my Heroes and Office episodes just as much as anyone else...I have to go with the WGA on this one. Keep it up, guys/gals. Maybe...JUST MAYBE...you'll get some just compensation.
The only thing I think would be better is if they came to the table and agreed that all online proceeds would go to a charity/scholarship fund for actors/writers/etc. or go to fund some kind of research. Let's see some veritable altruism from the figureheads of all these "save the children" pseudo-aid groups that Hollywood is famous for starting.
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| Isn't it strange how things that should bring us joy, comfort, and hope sometimes cause us stress and discouragement? I find myself in that situation sometimes, and right now is one of them. There are some things that are just too big, too good to comprehend. Things that will last forever. But what is forever? How long is forever? Is forever really forever? How much of forever is forever? Does forever ever end? Is there something after forever? If it never ends, will we get bored with it and want something else?
Everything in the human experience is based upon time. We have time to do things, we do them (or don't) and then the time we had to do them (or not) expires and goes away. The time that passes never returns, but we look forward to the next unit of time (hours, days, weeks, years, decades, centuries, millenia). When we get married, we say that we will love each other forever, but really it's "til death do us part." Even our forevers aren't really forever...they're for 50 or 60 years (if you're lucky). What happens when we are first faced with forever? What happens when we enter into eternity? On earth, we look forward to the "day" when we no longer have these cursed bodies and desires and look forward to the day when we no longer have to worry about death. What happens when we have nothing "more" to look forward to? When we have an infinite amount of time to do anything we want? What happens when we, after a "smaller" infinite amount of time, eventually run through every possible experience that a human can have? Will we just do it all over again? After doing that 2 or 3 times, what would we do? Will we even recognize the passage of time? Will there even be time that passes as we think of it here? If there is no time, how will we know our own existence?
I know that eternity, forever, the infinite, is a good thing. It has been promised as a good thing, and I believe in that promise. But in my current state, in my finite mind, finite body, existing in finite space, with a finite amount of time to think, the infinite is entirely incomprehensible. Something that is infinite exists only in theory...and in math if you actually "counted" to a "number" that you represent as "infinite" because it's so huge, you could just add 1 to it and get a bigger "infinite"...unless you're in polar coordinates, but that's just silly talk. I digress. Eternity is entirely unfathomable. We cannot fully understand it from this "corporeal" side of it. It is something about which not enough can be said because it literally extends beyond what we can ever know here on Earth. The entire universe cannot be filled with enough "stuff" to describe eternity...because it is eternal. It is infinite. You can't divide it up into smaller units because there is no endpoint, unless you count the point at which you enter eternity...but then once you've been there "a while", would you even recognize your starting point from any other "point"?
Talking about it helps...and I hope no one thinks I do not desire eternity...I do...and I know that, in the end, I won't have all these issues once I get there...it's just that here and now, my brain is working itself overtime trying to figure it out...and I don't know why except that the idea I can't understand it scares me and makes me want to understand it all the more. The same with death. Having not experienced it, it scares me and makes me want to understand it more. The same with anything I haven't done, seen, touched, experienced.
I want to know so that I can tell others. I want to know so that I can both be comforted and be a comfort to others. I don't want to be afraid or cautious or skeptical of forever, especially a good forever...a perfect forever.
*Please allow me to gain some glimpse and understand as much as I can, or shut up my mind and calm my storm. I don't want to be afraid anymore. I know it's irrational to fear an eternity of good. Comfort me.*
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| As of about 2 hours ago, I turned 23. So far, I've slept in, washed dishes, made my lunch, showered, run to class, got an A on a test, picked up homework to grade, and returned home. Today's lab meeting with Dr. Kim was canceled (before they knew it was my birthday) so my day is now 'over.' *sigh* Just like any other Friday.
So, uh, when do I turn 24?
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| Written 8-5-2006
Turn away my eyes
From my vanity
Revive me in Your ways
Establish in me
Your Word, that
Produces reverence for You.
Take away my shame
which I fear because
Your words are true.
Lord, I long for you.
Revive in me Your justice.
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