The Usefulness (or lack thereof) of Post Secondary Education

Now, I'm not saying College or University is a BAD thing, but just not completely necessary.

A recent study that was released said that just under half of University students don't improve as far as critical thinking, reasoning and writing skills. Young adults spend thousands of dollars, borrow hundreds more from their parents and then take out risky loans for thousands of more dollars to gamble at the chance that it will lead to a better future and a successful career. For many, it doesn't and that's the main reason I myself have not attended a post-secondary institution. Many students find out half way through that they are no longer interested in what they originally picked and decide to change courses, leading to more financial woes and even longer before they get out into the workforce. And all that time they are devoting a lot of time to their studies and not working much and ergo not earning much to pay off their debts. Socializing takes up a lot of time and students spend a lot of study time being with their friends.

Now, I'm speaking on average here, not every student turns out like this, many go on to be successful in their lives. But for many it doesn't work and those people end up paying the price for the rest of their lives, spending the rest of their lives in mediocracy trying to pay their debts.

Further studies have shown that people who go from school into the workforce may not earn more per hour in their jobs, but they end up having more spending money while those who attend Univ are spending all their money paying down school debts. Again, not always the case, but not uncommon either.


The simple fact is that we need to lift this illusion that going to College or University is the only way to be successful in life. I mean if you want to be a lawyer or a doctor or work in government then yea, you should go to PS. Otherwise, it's not terribly neccesary.

Video Game studies

There seems to be a fairly obvious pattern when it comes to video game studies and how they effect people, mainly kids and teens. It seems to me that a new one will come out every month or two and will be basically the opposite of the last one. One comes out that says something to the extent of "Oh, video games don't have many downside effects to them at all. Our study proved that" and then the next one will come out saying "Video games have serious health effects and children should be banned from using them or they will become braindead morons and fail at life completely" and then after that another one will be released saying "Well, despite some minor effects like insomia and mild headaches, there are very few issues to be had with playing video games and none of them are of real consequence"


Okay, first, seriously? I mean, it's like there is a organization of people who do all these studies and rebrand them every month or so. It's sending mixed messages and it's going to leave people with more questions then answers and really won't get to the issue. Then again, if you ask me, the issue itself is a media manipulation to control people more. It's sad and not giving truth to anyone. What kicks it is that the people who are the focuses of the studies are at both ends of the extremes. Either exteremely addicted gamers who spend every waking second playing or casual gamers who rarely play, but are playing more just for the sake of the "studies"

This needs to stop.

The issue with ISPs

I read an article today that was talking about the fact that Canadian internet rates are going to be increasing over the next year.
(link)
Frankly, it proves my point about everything that is wrong with Capitalism. About how those with resources that are being needed for many points of modern life are being horded by those who have absolute power and people who cannot afford, yet are needing it, have to basically sell their bodies to pay for it. What it is, is greed at it's worst and more ways to try and control the internet as a whole. By charging as much as they can they are going to drive customers away and end up loosing money in the long run. It shows a not surprising lack of intelligence among Corporate CEOs who apparently need more money for their solid gold whores and diamond encrusted mansions.

It is going to hurt people more than it would do any amount of good, and they can't see it so they will continue to exploit the working class, most of whom can't even make ends meet. Internet usage will be the first service people get rid of and all that money will vanish. Another reason that a revolution needs to happen and capitalism needs to be abandoned. Then maybe people can start actually caring about each other and about the world around them then just about money and personal greed.

One of the issues with Rogers and Bell and Shaw and Telus is that they use their size to prevent any small companies from starting up and those that do are muscled out by outrageous fees and charges which they have no choice but to pass on to the customer. It is a cycle, but a cycle that can be broken.

People need to stand up to these big bullies we have named "corporations" and only then will they realize that they can't walk over everyone and get away with it and the best ones to start with are internet providers because even though they only make up a small part of captalist corruption, their fall will serve as a warning to the larger corporations as to what will happen if you fall out of public favour.

I'm back

After some time with being icogneto on this blog and in question about it's future I have decided to come back and begin ranting and reviewing again. So, I'll try to update as often as I have something to say.

sorry for the long interval. Happy reading.

The Expendables

I just got back from seeing this movie at the theatre and I'm still a bit pumped from it, so I'll try to keep the spoilers at a minimum, but you'll have to excuse the occasional one.

Stallone should stop acting. Right now. Simple as that. I almost needed subtitles to understand him most of the time. His slurring is reaching the levels it was when he was in South Park and it doesn't make for a good bit in a movie.

Otherwise the movie was excellent. Good acting on quite a few points. Some were more believeable than others. Stallone was not one of them. It actually had a decent story, brothers and loyalties and what not.

Good to see Arnie in film again, even if it only was for a couple minutes and Willis' preformance was highly overrated and over promoted. Rourke was not in the kind of role I expected, but he did it well. Austin was also not in the role I expected, but he also did it well. Eric Roberts, the baddie in the movie, was okay, but not terribly amazing, at least not more than usual. The team of Crews, Statham, Li, Couture and Stallone was pretty good. Lundgreen was in there too, but I won't go into that, sufficied to say, Stallone frakked that part up pretty good. Twas just an "Omfg, really? REALLY?" kind of part with that. The entire bit with Lundgreen's character could have been written out and the movie would have been just as good, if not better.

The main sequence, near the end, was pretty awesome and had a few good moments, could have been better topped off by Stallone saying "We're expendable" (watch it, you'll see where I mean) to Eric Roberts.

All in all, a pretty good movie. Worth seeing. 4 of of 5.

Mafia 2 demo

I just finished playing the Mafia 2 demo. It was basically what I had expected, Set in 1950s USA, the game featured one mission that showed off most of the key parts of the game - driving, shooting and most of the mechanics.

You start off playing Vito, an Italian immigrant trying grab a slice of the cake that is the "American dream". The mission that you are given is basically a hit mission and it shows off several of the game systems. You get to use a small variety of weapons, and I have a feeling that the small variety isn't going to change. Over the course of the demo, you use a wall-mounted machine gun and then you have your fists as well as a 9mm pistol, shotgun and the infamous gangster "Tommy Gun" Thompson Submachine gun. As well as you have to drive through bits of the city. Now, the driving bit is where I noticed the hardest part of the game. And while I won't say too much, I will say that it does need some tweaking, but I think by now 2K Czech is well beyond that. Either that, or the cars really do handle like 1950's Chevy autos.

I'm not sure which I would prefer....

All in all, the game is amazingly well done, so far anyway.

Also, I got enough into it that I had to bribe a cop. I didn't see that coming.

The demo is now available on Playstation Network, Xbox Live Marketplace and Steam. I highly recommend downloading it.

The real downside is that you only get 10 minutes ingame play, which is just enough time to finish the mission or play around. Your choice.

Sucker Punch Impressions

Released today was the trailer for the newest project from acclaimed awesomeman, Zack Snyder

<- him



The title of the project, is called Sucker Punch

I didn't think too much of it either, when I heard of it. Especially when I heard it had Vanessa Hudgens in it (commentary: blargh).

But then several posters were released, showing the female leads from the film and it suddenly became interesting. And then the trailer was released today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpGmrF_1JUI
And a whole new level of awesome was created.
The trailer, which comes in at 1:26, shows a world that is only limited by imagination. A world where giant, minigun wielding samurai and regular samurai clash with Nazis and and US Black Ops agents decked out in Medieval armor and carrying machine guns. A world where strippers and mob bosses rule over insane asylums and dragons fly through the skies fighting scantaly clad female badasses who arm themselves with the latest in high tech assault rifles. And a real look inside the mind and how spending too much time can blur reality.

A really fair comparison would be to the recent Alice in Wonderland. But with that said, Alice in Wonderland didn't have assault rifles or heavy weapons.

The Avengers news

So, in case you are one of the few people on this planet that hasn't heard the news, Joss Whedon has been OFFICIALLY attached to direct The Avengers movie.

I'll give you a minute to come down from that orgasmic high.



All done? good.

Anyway. With this announcement, the internet rumor mill has been buzzing on this subject. A lot of people, most in fact, are saying that this would make the movie basically a total win, even though even pre-production hasn't even started.

Do I agree? well, lets see what else Joss has done..........

I see no problem with giving it the stamp of internet win already.

Not to mention the other talent already attached to this project *cough* Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson *cough* it may just be the most awesome movie of the decade.

My advice to the theaters that are going to show the film, is to have Paramedics onsite for every showing in case of rabid fangirls, overawesome orgasmiming (and yes, I know that is not a word), hysteria and unconciousness.

On second thought, maybe just showing the movie stricting in hospitals would be a better idea. You know, so help is right there when needed, and it will be needed

Game Review - Beat Hazard (2010)

I just found this game and decided to play a few rounds.


Holy crap. It was the most trippy thing I have ever played. It goes through your music files and you can select tracks to play too. It's like Rock Band or Guitar Hero or even DJ Hero, but you know, ACTUALLY GOOD, which was suprising, and not unpleasant.

the gameplay is fairly simple, it plays like Asteroids and those kind of "top down" shooter games, but adds in the whole music element which adds in a whole new element of awesome.

It looks simple. and it is. W A S D and a mouse is all that is needed (well, music tracks too, I suppose). And the filesize is small, but amazingly impressive. The game comes with several tracks built in, but you can also mess around and do really crazy stuff like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIbNBkRx8gg

OH THE HUMANITY.

Go out and get this game. Now. If you don't, you are the most lame person on the planet.
http://rs758tl4.rapidshare.com/files/388649550/2623707/Beat_WarezFreaks.Org.rar
^if you are too cheap to buy it.

annonimity and the internet

I've been reading some articles that have been saying that the times of anonymous posting on the internet is basically over. And I'm relieved. Soon the days where every 13 year old will be able to wander into an internet forum and start flaming everyone with no one knowing who he is.

The Koreans have the right idea,creating a 6-15 digit PIN number that everyone is issued. Probably from the day they are born. This pin would be linked to the Department of Justice (or it's counterparts in other countries) and would allow internet police (or whatever they are) to enforce spam laws on users. The PIN would be like an online profile, having your data about where you posted, when and what was in the post. Simply put, it would be like a credit card number, and most people protect those with their lives.

Now, there will be privacy groups who will cry foul and say that this would invade a person's rights and freedoms. I can see how that could be seen, but there is a solution: have it so that the PIN doesn't contain any actual information. But it links to the CRA or IRS or whatever. They are required to keep tabs on people, so their information would be up to date and accurate. Therefore, no actual important information is used with the PIN. It would only link to the account at the DoJ and come up as a number, and if there was a problem, then the CRA would look up the number in their system and say "Okay, that's so and so and they live at this address".  If the PIN was email linked to send a message to the PIN owners email account, then any slanderous use of the PIN would be quickly and easily reported.

Simply put, it would be a new credit card like system, but without any important data kept with it.

Might sound kind of harsh, but if it gets rid of all these "FIRST" and "LOL FAIL" comments on sites everywhere, then it's worth it.



/b/ would, of course, be exempt from this system. Because let's face it, that's basically the whole site anyway.