Blog Post Five: Anonymous

Here we have a video posted on YouTube by the infamous group Anonymous. The video is a message, a message to the Church of Scientology, or the Co$. If you can call them a church. Anonymous is a staunch opponent to the Co$. Scientology is a dangerous fraud and Anonymous is trying to out them by spreading the truth.
At the very beginning of the video is a short clip taken from a speech by the current leader of Co$, David Miscavige. He states, "Because if world leaders learned anything through the social aftershocks since 9/11 is that they do not necessarily posses the tools to lead. And thats where determined individual Scientologists come into the picture." It is interesting to note that the video was posted September 11, 2008 on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Following this clip that has been remixed is a catchy upbeat song set to sole shadowy figure cloaked in a Guy Fawkes mask. Many of you will have seen the Guy Fawkes mask from the semi-recent movie V for Vendetta in which a man, V, wearing the mask intends to carry out the Gunpowder Plot. The Gunpower Plot was an actual historical event in which the royal family was to be assinated by blowing up Parliament. Guy Fawkes is generally given credit for leading the escapade but he was actually in charge of the explosives. So why wear the masks? Obviously it's to hide their identities. Speaking out against the Co$ can be quite dangerous as they believe that if you are not one of them you are fair game to be destroyed (Fair game policy). The Co$ is a fraud intended to brainwash people and steal their money.
Anonymous has been linked to several seditious attacks against the Co$ and people in general. Just recently Oprah was the butt of one of their pranks. But their message has caught on and several large scale news agencies are working as well to discredit the Co$. If you don't believe the Co$ is evil then go out there and discover the abundance of information linking them to their lies and crimes. Or you can just watch the "Shrinking World of L. Ron Hubbard" and see how bat shit crazy their chief liar was.

Blog Post Four: Another Video

The title for this blog post is a little misleading. It clearly states "Another Video," but what this really is is more of a collection of images, or a slide show if you will, with music in the background. The music is "Stand Up" by the Flobots. This is the same group that made the song about riding a bike with no handlebars (okay, its probably about more than that). The images used, as well as the song itself, are not just some random objects put together collectively to form a YouTube video.
"Stand up, we shall not be moved, except by a child with no socks or shoes," is represented rather accurately by a child from a presumably third world nation who is wearing no socks or shoes. The images that follow that correlate with the different verses and lyrics of the song. Hurricane Katrina, the big one that took out New Orleans, is subtly mentioned in the song meanwhile startling images of the aftermath are displayed. Many current or semi-current events are poetically discussed throughout the course of the song. "And we won't fight a war for fossil fuel, it's time like this you want to plot a coup," is pretty obviously about the controversial war in Iraq, if you can even call it that.
Several images are presented that are anti-war. These images relate directly to the strong anti-war sentiment that the song takes. "A threat for a threat leaves the whole world terrified, blow for blow never settles the score," is essentially the Golden Rule, you know the one that you learn in church. Violence begets violence which begets even more violence. Someone has to stop the cycle, turn the other cheek and end the war. Someone has to stand up and refuse to be moved.

Blog Post Three: Video

Originally created and performed by the wonderfully talented John Lennon, the song Imagine as seen and heard in the video was performed by the band A Perfect Circle. The effect of the song, as sung with Maynard's unearthly vocals, is magnified by the stunning visuals presented in the video. At the start of the video you have an ominous feeling as the stealth bomber is flying through the night. Then the images begin to transform into more graphic images of warfare. Throughout the video there is a sort of comparison presented between life in America and life in the rest of the world. We see images of obese Americans gorging themselves on food in trivial events such as an eating competition juxtaposed with riveting images of people starving in the less fortunate places in the world. There is a staunch similarity between the image of the crowd performing the wave and that of the army marching through the street. The image of George W. Bush presented along side that of Hitler, Stalin, and Castro shows the opinion of the artist that Bush is just as evil (an opinion I agree with). We continue to see images of Americans living lavishly while the rest of the world suffers.
The original version of the song as performed by Lennon has a separate feel from this version. The images presented in the video combined with the voice of Maynard and the sounds of A Perfect Circle give the message an almost tragic feel to it. The video itself has a liking to that of a newscast. While the video is playing there is a strip along the bottom displaying various messages. If you read what is displayed on the strip there is a mixture of news headlines and sports scores. Some of this information seems to be pointless when there is an image of a dead human being displayed on your screen. The names of the sports teams are slightly humorous in that each team has names such as; Atomix, Bombers, Deathrays, and Conquerors. The team names are in of themselves a part of the message trying to be conveyed. As the song goes, "Imagine all the people, living life in peace. You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will live as one." Peace.

Blog Post Two - Diagram

To the right is a diagram of the human heart. Why would we need such a diagram or any diagram for that matter? The purpose of a diagram is to act as a sort of visual aid to help in the explanation or interpretation of an object. In this case, the object is the human heart. A diagram of a human heart would help facilitate the learning of the many parts of the hearts and possibly their functions. Someone interested in human biology or the medical field would find this diagram very helpful in their studies. In the specific area of writing a diagram can be immensely useful in helping your readers to visualize a specific point you are trying to put across. They may also help in the understanding of a selected topic. In this blog post about a diagram I have altered the original purpose of the heart diagram. Originally the heart diagram was for showing about a heart. Now, after the insertion of it into my blog, it takes on the new purpose of simply acting as an example of what a diagram can appear like. It is important to note that not all diagrams will be an exact mirror of the heart diagram I have embedded. This particular diagram uses arrows to point to the different sections of the heart associated with the correct term. It is in my opinion that since I have removed the diagram from its place of origins and stripped it of its original meaning that I need to specify what it means. I can't just insert some random diagram that has nothing to do with what I am talking about. The diagram must have a connection within the specific piece of writing. With the invention and use of digitalized media and the web the diagram is more accessible and it is possible to take a diagram out of its original context and use it for a completely different purpose. Just like I have done here. Now my readers, live long and prosper.

Blog Post One

"The essay can do everything a poem can do, and everything a short story can do - everything but fake it. The elements in any nonfiction should be true not only artistically - the connections must hold at base and must be veracious, for that is the convention and the covenant between the nonfiction writer and his reader. veracity isn't much of a drawback to the writer; there's a lot of truth out there to work with. And veracity isn't much of a drawback to the reader. The real world arguably exerts a greater fascination on people than any fictional one; many people, at least, spend their whole lives there, apparently by choice. The essayist does what we do with our lives; the essayist thinks about actual things. He can make sense of them analytically or artistically. In either case he renders the real world coherent and meaningful, even if only bits of it, and even if that coherence and meaning reside only inside small texts." (Atwan 23-24)

- Annie Dillard

So why did I choose Annie Dillard's essay, "Essays and the Real World," for this particular assignment? For one thing her opinion on what defines an essay is similar to mine. An essay does not have to be one of those uncreative, unimaginative, and downright boring 5 paragraph essays that we learned in the past. Essays do have limitations though. And that is that almost anything can be an essay, as long as it remains rooted in nonfiction. A fictional short story is not an essay. But as Dillard pointed out in her essay, nonfiction does not have to be boring for either the writer or the reader. The real world is full of interesting subjects or topics for both writing and reading an essay. A writer of fiction would weave a new world for the reader to explore but an essayist explores the real world. Just look at the current events going on around the world. We have the potential for another Cold War brewing after the whole Russia vs. Georgia war. India was just allowed to start using nuclear power, the same power we criticize the North Koreans for having. Those are just a few of the interesting events that are happening around the world and new events happen everyday. Just because you are writing about facts does not mean you can't be creative when you are writing. If a writer just displayed the facts straight up it would not be much of a piece of writing and would probably be downright boring to read. An essay can be almost anything, as long as it does not cross the boundary into fiction. Get creative.