The End

Well, this is it. The end of the blogs for the class. My swan song, the last hurrah, the fat lady's song.

It's been a pretty fun ride, doing these blogs. I mean, I got kinda writer's blocked at one point, but I think it came out pretty well in the end.

And to think, I'm now halfway through my college career. I graduated from high school two years ago. I thought it was weird seeing a friend graduate last year, what with realizing that I was down there the year before...but two years later now. Time has flown by so fast. High school never seemed to go by this fast. But no, FWOOM, two years of my life, gone. My last day at CSUMB is tomorrow. After that, I will go to Sac State. From there, who knows?

I looked through all of my high school year books a few weekends ago. It's hard to imagine that most of my friends from high school I may never see again. A lot have already fallen out of contact. I don't know where they went to college, how they are doing, what they are doing...life has marched on, me none the wiser. Sure, there is Facebook, and I keep in contact with a lot of people that way...but it's just not the same.

But wow, two years. Where did they go? Two years since I threw my tiny hat in the air, two years since I dropped my ex-girlfriend, two years since I moved out on my own. And so much has happened in between.

But, I digress.

Readers, stay awesome. Be well. Do well in class or in life, if you are graduating. Make me proud to have been your classmate. Good luck.

Can't stop the signal. Can never stop the signal.

We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty.

Interwebz

So, I went home yesterday, and the weirdest thing happened.

My girlfriend was freelanced out to a friend of ours online, whom we play the online game Guild Wars with. She worked for about 3 hours, sent him her writing.

Well, to pick up her money, we actually had to meet him.

It was a surreal experience. Someone who I have seen pictures of, but never heard his voice, only seen his avatar and typing online...I met in person. It's so...odd. I've known him for about a year and a half, but finally meeting him, even though he has lived only about an hour away from the college...It's so strange.

I mean, I've had something like that happen, where a friend of my girlfriend's who she had talked to for years decided to drop by while on his trip around the country, that was kinda odd. Showed up at the door with his backpack, after telling us the week before he would be in the area...Surreal. He was a pretty cool guy, though, glad he spent the weekend.

But, back to my friend. He's almost exactly as I pictured him. A middle-aged surfer dude, father of a few girls, pretty laid back. Exactly as I had imagined him in my head.

Anyway, have any of you met anyone you've only known online?

Sac State

So, here it is. I'm finally applying to Sac State. I've become fed up with the state of affairs with HCOM and Journalism here. I mean, I'm not even really getting a degree in journalism here, I'm getting Human Communication with an emphasis in Journalism. At Sac State, I'll get Journalism, period. My girlfriend is going, too, which only serves to sweeten the deal.

My reasons are varied for leaving. First, the new journalism teacher. I'm guessing she is going to edge the current teacher out, something I cannot stand for. That's just not cool, especially since the new teach has spent her entire career inside the classroom, and the old one is an actual journalist still freelance writing for local papers. The decision does not make sense.

Second, the decision for the Otter Realm's Editor in Chief. The person who is going to be it is not bad, per se. She is a pretty good editor. But, I don't think she has the personality to really make the Otter Realm shine. The other candidate who was up for EiC was a better editor (I've worked with both) and has a strong personality, with the potential to lead the paper to greatness. But, she was not picked, because she did not have as much experience in the production aspect. This decision also does not make sense.

So, really, I'm leaving because I'm fed up with how my emphasis is going. I'm sick of the insane administration at this school. I love the weather, I love the beach, I love the size of the dorms, I love my friends whom I rarely get to see anyway...but I won't really miss this place that much. It was a great place for me to go when I was a World Languages and Culture with an Emphasis in Japanese major...but now that I'm in journalism, I want a better education than CSUMB can give me here.

Television

Ok, so this is spurred on by the fact that our cable on campus has just changed. We went from something like 50 good, quality-signal channels to a little over 100 not-so-good quality channels. But it's free! you say. Yeah, free and horrible quality. Every other channel, most of those the ones I watch, give static audio along with the actual audio to the point where I just can't watch. What's up with that? I'd rather have less channels, better quality. Especially since we now have something like 20 sports channels.

I'm in class (sorry, Professor), and we are talking about six companies that own many, many media outlets. Basically, these six companies own all the major news outlets. What does this mean? They can limit what news is aired, how much time it is given, everything. It limits free speech because, really, that means there are only 6 major opinions spread out over the networks. The audience may not get the entire story if it is just these 6 companies. It's flawed, for sure. We may not get the full story, assuming we get the story at all, or it might be misinformation. Then again, with the whole Swine Flu thing that the media blew WAY out of proportion, milking a disease for ratings...I dunno. If it bleeds, it leads, as we journalists say. Oh, and the whole ZOMG PEOPLE DYING IN MEXICO DUE TO FLU! thing? Yeah, well, how good of medical care does Mexico have? Exactly. What does Mexican water make you do? Exactly. It's no wonder people are dying from a simple flu. It's nothing to go GLOBAL PANDEMIC SWEET MOTHER OF GOD on.

Anyway, that's it for now. Gonna watch a movie in class! Woo! Media!

Can't stop the signal, Mal (prize for someone who can name the quote by next week!)

Ok, so, Konami, a pretty big video game company, pulled its recent game, Six Days in Fallujah. It was to basically be a tactical, squad-based shooter, where the protagonist takes the role of a soldier in Fallujah, recreating the feel of what it would be like during the battle. However, because of an uproar from stupid people, Konami has pulled the plug.

Just because it's a video game.

Movies have been made. TV shows could probably be made. Countless books have probably been made. But nooooo, video games are too juvenile to be taken seriously! How could something so important be put in to game form, for entertainment? How cruel to those who lived through it! It's like it's mocking them!

...Ok, really? It's a video game. Movies have been made about Iraq, to little outrage. But when a video game is announced, it's shut down. Konami has already invested millions of dollars into this game, and it actually looked really good. Who says video games cannot be a moving experience? They can be just as emotional as movies; perhaps more so, considering that the player feels they ARE the character. Seriously, Call of Duty 4 was set in Iraq, and it's one of the best-selling games of last year. People claim that when one of the two main characters dies from radiation poisoning after his helicopter crashes as a result of a nuclear bomb going off is one of the most moving experiences they have had. And these are gamers who shoot things in video games! For hours on end! And are portrayed by the media as being heartless!

It just pisses me off that video games are not seen as being serious, as not being able to carry emotion and weight as a movie does.

Anyway, what do you all think, those few who read my blog?

Can't stop the signal, Mal.