The Bad Side of Social Media

There is a lot of noise on the Internet nowadays.  When you log on to check what is happening you immediately see some people embarrassing themselves by doing something stupid. You browse further and you see a lot of people complaining about the most ridiculous things. And then you have some people currently emoting about how miserable lives are even though they seem to be luckier than most people. If your routine is to check the Internet during the morning, then you will find out that you've just ruined the rest of your day.

There is too much noise, too much nonsense.  Ahhh. There is a need to turn it all off.

Tragedy in Central Philippines

Before Super Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan hit Central Philippines I was thinking, Oh Filipinos won't feel the brunt of this typhoon. They would probably just shrug their shoulders and move on. Because we have been through this before. More than two dozen times every year.

Even here in Metro Manila we have suffered strong typhoons and extreme floods. We suffered some loses but people just move on with their lives as if nothing out of the ordinary is happened.

But Super Typhoon Haiyan is different. Before it hit land, I was among those who would think that “You are just a typhoon but we are Filipinos.” I'm referring of course to my countrymen's incredible resilience in the face of challenges.

But a day after the storm, when the images and videos from Tacloban started coming in, you can't help but cry at the sight of the devastation and for the people who are suffering.

You can't help but think – What if it has been me? How would I take losing love ones and properties.

To add to their misery, there is currently no working local government. Because everyone in the area is affected. There is no water, no food, no shelter, no electricity, and no means communication. Even if you have money in your pocket it is worthless because where will you spend it. Almost everything has been destroyed.

It is like the area has been knocked back to the stone age but there are no food to hunt.

It is really bad there. Some are saying it would take months for the area to recover. But I say it will probably take years. We all know that it takes decades for a community form. And everything has been wiped out by the Typhoon in just one day.

Random Musings: Web User's Current Internet Behavior

People used to hang around websites and blogs when they are online. But things have changed when social media came into the picture. These days we first log into Facebook and Twitter to see what our friends are up to. These two social networks are also where we first check for news. To see what's the latest topic in our city, what everyone is currently talking about. Only when we have an urgent need to find something, do we use the search engine, which is by default Google.

Man of Steel Review

I really wanted Man of Steel to be a success. After all, I am a big fan of the Superman character. Initially, I saw critics in RottenTomatoes.com a very bad score. And I said to myself, “It doesn't matter. Because sometimes critics would give a movie a low score but when I get to see the movie, it turns out pretty good and enjoyable. I find that critics don't always get it right.”

But after seeing the movie I went out of the cinema feeling like I wanted to punch someone and I would prefer to punch the writer who wrote this movie. Can anybody please straggle him for me?

I wonder if he was drunk when he wrote this movie. Or he maybe he got his pay and he does not really care about the character, so went like – “I'm just going to write this damn script and be over with it!”

So what do I think is wrong with this movie?

If you haven't seen the movie yet, I advice you not to read further because this review contains a lot of SPOILERS.

If you are a fan of Superman, I think the fight scenes are atleast worth seeing on the big screen.

Anyway, so what is wrong?

A lot. But for this article let us just focus on the logic flaws.

1. There was the scene were Superman was fighting in town with Fiora and her big Kryptonian companion.

The townfolks were naturally frightened from seeing powerful aliens fighting on their street. And then one of the townfolks, a middle aged man shouted to his wife and son (if I remember it correctly) to stay inside and not to go near the window.

And Superman agreed by saying “Stay inside the house. It is not safe.”

But when the fighting resumed Superman and his opponents punch it out. Sometimes they go flying through the neighborhood knocking through walls and falling through roofs. And then here comes the military with their helicopters and heavy machine guns. A moment later groups of jet fighter comes intent of bombing the aliens with their heavy missiles.

Turns out staying inside the home within the area is the dumbest advice you could give. Because you may die from falling sections of your own home or you can get hit by machine guns or missiles.

The better advice would be to tell people to evacuate and go far away.

Why did the writer not see that and make the proper correction in his script? Maybe perhaps he was too lazy to rewrite it. He was hoping that no one would notice.

2. After the terra-forming was stopped Superman had to fight only one villain. But he could have fought elsewhere so that the city can be saved from further destruction or avoid accidentally killing bystanders while they slug it out.

But instead superman went at it with the guy. He knocked him through the city. Sometimes they would crash through walls and collapsing buildings, museums, and populated homes.

Superman would not do that. He would grab his opponent and take him to a desert or outer space and continue their fight there.

Okay so the producers decided to do it. Because they need to have a big fight with lots of explosions and destruction. That is what sells blockbusters now a days. Right?

There is nothing wrong with big explosions just make it believable and integral to the story. Don't put it in a movie just for the sake of - “We need to have big explosions.”

3. Lastly, the death of Jonathan Kent. There was this big tornado approaching. The family had to get out of the car and go to a nearby shelter. But then they remembered that they forgot their dog in the car. So Jonathan had to go back and get the dog even though the tornado has gotten impossibly close. In the end the dog got away but Jonathan was swept by a tornado.

Clark wanted to save him but he waves his son, no. 

What was wrong with that scenario?

First, you don't trade a person's life for a pet life. Pets are good to have but basic logic says that a person's life is more important. If Jonathan was half intelligent, he would not have gone back.

Second, everybody knows that Superman has super speed. He could have run to his father and whisk him away safely and gone back to were he was standing as if he were always there.

Okay let us assume he has not learned super speed yet.

But Clark could have gone to Jonathan anyway. Since he is super strong they could have rode the tornado together. Then pretend that they both died. Turn up alive a few days later and cook up a story that they survived by some form of luck or miracle.

These are just the most glaring logic flaws I've noticed. There are still a lot of other things I can complain about (like how Superman came on a small rocket ship but it turned out there was another big kryptonian ship that fell in the Artic. What? Who sent it there? Jor-El?).

Superman is an interesting character. There are a lot of interesting situations you can put him in. But David S. Goyer gave us a half assed script.

It makes me wonder – does he even like Superman even just remotely or did he just went about writing this script because it was another job he had to do?

Me and Digital Art

Sometimes I feel so down while I am drawing. After sketching I look at it. I see limbs out of shape, too long or too short. And then I also struggle with try to draw the proper perspective. I just want to give up and I tell my self -”this is not for me. Maybe I should just stick to 3D modeling where I don't have to deal with certain issues”.

But then the next day I return to look at the drawing. I see all the mistakes I made with a fresh eye. I make the necessary corrections and the drawing no longer looks as bad. Then I think to myself, - “Bad drawing on the first day to pretty good drawing the next day. It's not a bad trade off.”

I just envy those artist who can make amazing drawings on their first couple four hours. But I guess I have to accept that I produce a little slower. Because every time I draw, I have to leave it for a while so I can properly see the mistakes later.

It is very similar when I am writing an article. After I write I have to leave the article for a while so I can edit it later with a fresh eye.

Neo Basic BB1EL Laptop/Netbook Performance Review

My nephews like to play Flash games. They like to play puzzle games, point and click games, side scrolling games, pet management games, store management games. And they are just four and five years old.

They also like watching cartoons on Youtube like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Tayo the Little Bus, Looney Tunes Old Donald Duck and Chipmunks cartoons, SpongeBob Squarepants, Pink Panther, Jungle Junction, and fan made Angry Bird cartoons,.

The problem is I usually get interrupted when I am working. So I've decided that I needed to buy a cheap laptop or notebook so that they won't disturb me anymore.

I've canvased in the malls and I've decided a Neo Basic BB1EL Laptop/ Netbook is my best option. After all, they are just going to use it to watch only videos and play Flash games.

So during the Christmas break I bought my chosen laptop/netbook.

BB1EL Performance

I replaced the default Ubuntu OS with Windows 7 Ultimate. Neo Basic BB1EL has no problem playing videos. It seems to play videos extremely well thanks to its APU/Graphic Processor AMD Radeon HD 6320. But I noticed that it lags on Flash games like Bubble Shooter and especially Farmville 2 on Facebook.

I checked the resources using Windows 7 Resource Monitors and I found out that Flash games are eating up most of the available memories.

Upgrading the RAM

When you open the Laptop you will see that it comes with only 1 SODIMM slot. So you will have no choice but to just replace the default 2Gig RAM that comes with it.

I made a mistake when I bought my new 4Gig SODIMM 1333 DDR3. I thought the laptop could only handle a 1333 but it can actually handle 10600. So be sure to buy a higher RAM model. My laptop could have been a little bit faster if I bought the correct RAM.

BB1EL Performance After Memory Upgrade

After upgrading the memory, my laptop has become a lot faster. No more frame skips while playing Flash games.

Come to think of it, the laptop would have been a lot faster if I used Windows XP. But that OS is less secure and is no longer supported. So that is just another option but not a recommended one.

Conclusion

If you are going to buy Neo Basic BB1EL Laptop/ Netbook just make sure to increase your RAM and I am sure you will be happy with its performance.

Happy New Year - 2013

First of all, Happy New Year to everyone whom by chance may pass by this  obscure blog of mine. I am sure you are full of hope that this year. You are thinking about  acquiring wealth, more possessions, accomplishments, and having good health this year.

That is just like us. We imagine good things every beginning of the year. As if they will happen by themselves, by chance of luck, magic, or some miracle.

But at the end of this year we will look  back and see that not everything turned out the way we imagined. Some sad things happened. And there were disappointments too. And our plans at the start - it turns out that not much were accomplished. Just like last year.

That is why this year, I'm not expecting anything. I am not going to think that 2013 will be good or bad.  If anything good is going to happen, it is because I willed it, I worked for it. With my own two hands and my intellect.

So how about you? What are you thinking this year?