Hello again to a thrilling encounter with William Miall’s Not So Interesting Blog. As I’m sure you’re unaware I seemed to have lost my wordpress blogging skills for almost a year now with my last post being in March 2010, and considering it’s now near the end of February 11 I gathered it’s time to dig up those blog skills once more.
As late as this may be, we’re into a new year and this is just some of things that have cropped up in my life as a 2011 go-er.
Outtake from my lastest video
This sadly, isn’t myself but instead is a screenshot from an outtake of my lastest video being created: Goldie Lookin’ Chain – Half man half machine music video.
Shear comical genius or crude unsatire humour? You decide, mainly because I told you to, but you may have some morals deep down inside of that black, broken and pathetic excuse you like to call ‘your heart’.
Well as lovely as this has been creating a work of art in blog form for everybody, this is as they say, the end. Thanks for reading.
I recently have been reading up on research for a few media projects I’m studying at college, one book I found particularly helpful is the book: Media Research Techniques by Arthur Asa Berger. He states that keeping a log of work is crucial, (a somewhat ironic topic as I’m blogging about it) and that a diary, a log and initial research are all very different things.
Some good tips I’ve found out are to number all your pages within a binding book allows you to not tear out or add the occasional page here and there as this may confuse yourself.
Another interesting tip (I use the term ‘interesting’ very loosely) is that when gathering information about historical times,places and figures; try not to think this is an exact record of the entire past, but a selection of data chosen to be recorded by a particular person.
Piracy as everybody knows is a crime and is most common online with the array of movies, music and software easily availible to download and share. P2P or peer to peer file sharing is the most common form of piracy today as this is simply sending a file either through an instant messenger or posting songs on torrent websites and even blogs which can have the file sources found and downloaded. Although this is so easy to do and performed millions of times each day, this is still piracy as it counts as theft. According to www.tgdaily.com Jammie Thomas was fined $222,000 for 24 songs she had file shared. That’s a huge fine of $9,250 per song! So with some authorities putting their feet down on the file sharing phenominom that is todays’ world; wouldn’t you think that with the risks being so high that people would stop? As nice as the idea may be, unforntunatly not. Even one of the major torrent websites got caight in April in 2009. The Pirate Bay’s co-founders all recieved a one year prision sentence as well as a $3.4 million fine. Did the website even close down though? No. Even today the site has over 4 million registered users and more than 2 million torrents that are all free to download. In my own personal opinion, people will do anything and take any risks to save money and effort when it comes to getting songs and films from the ‘net. So unless the Police use technology to find every single person guilty of online piracy; I see no abrupt end anytime soon.
Plagiarism is the term used for when someone is caught using material which they have not referenced to show where the information may have came from. This is similar to the school term ‘copying each other’. This can be classed as fraud and can be charged a fine whether it is performed intentionally or not. This can easily be avoided by keeping note of any websites that you have visited (even if this isn’t used but just using the ‘gist’ of the information) as well as stating clearly any external and primary sources used to get any information to use publicly and finally by keeping note of any books used to help further your studies. This should include the minimum of the author and title of the book. An example of plagiarism would be if I used the following:
Publishing rights in the United States and Canada will be given to Shaye Areheart, who was the original editor of Moonwalk. Her company is a part of Random House Inc. Moonwalk has been out of print for more than a decade. It was originally published by Doubleday and was acquired by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. If I was to then say I wrote this without using the URL: http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2009-07-23-jackson-moonwalk_N.htm to show where I got this information I could receive a fine from £100 to £1000 dependant on how severe each case is. This information came from: [1]
Although plagiarism is most commonly associated with online information and ICT based work, the same rules and laws also apply to the correct referencing of books, magazine etc. There are also websites such as www.Neilstoolbox.com which can used to paste 50 words of an essay or article into the website, this then searches a database of existing material to see whether or not it has been plagiarised. Today’s referencing system is based around the original rules set by Harvard. These rules can be found at: [2]
While there have been many great films released over the past year not many have truely moved me and engaged audiences in this film I have chosen for my favourite film of 2009; with a stunning performace from director Daniel Barber and amazing acting from Michael Caine, of course I’ve chosen about Harry Brown.
This film I have previously reviewed but I still don’t think I did this film justice. Harry Brown features Sir Michael Caine as the lead role playing an elderly man on a housing estate in London. Local thugs and yobs have driven this country into the ground for years and Harry Brown shows on many levels the pain and suffering others have to go through because of this. Ben Drew (Plan B) plays in another contraversial role in his film career as Noel Winters; the lead thug in his gang that surrounds the estate.
With a brilliant storyline that’s believable and yet shocking enough to chill even the most common chav, Harry Brown differs from other films. After seeing his best friend brutally murdered, ex-Mariner Harry goes on a revenge mission to get back at the ‘youth’ of today. This is done tactfully to avoid being caught-out by police, but done in such a way he gets the job done.
Pulp Fiction features Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta as two of the main characters in an all-star list of actors with Tim Roth, Uma Thurman and Bruce Willis just to name a few of the amazing cast. Jackson and Travolta play hit men seeking out to bring a suitcase back to their boss Marcellus Wallis (Ving Rhames). Fighting there way through many horrible challenges such as accidently shooting someone in the head in broad daylight, heroin overdoses and a Mexican stand off with some small-time criminals; Pulp Fiction will definatly have you talking at the office the next morning.
Pulp Fiction has to be one of the greatest films of all cinema history, FACT! Tarantino delivers another one of his signature fractured narratives throughout the entire film that just keeps getting more and more entwined and thrilling the more the film continues. But fear not as all does come back together after an astonishing 148 minutes that you defiantly feel has been well spent. The only advice I could give for those who haven’t seen Pulp Fiction, is just try to remember each character within the film, not all may be as simple as it first seems. Potential spoilers out of the way; Pulp Fiction not only delivers one of the best film cast’s ever, but also one of the best scripts. Almost every single character has a key line of speech that will be repeated by each viewer time and time again. “…and you will know my name is the Lord, when I lay my vengeance upon thee.” (Jules Winnfield quotation from Ezekiel 25:17)
I’m not saying everything shouldn’t be banned, but is it right for people who find non offensive programs, adverts and films to be banned by majorities? You tell me.
