As far as learning is concerned, college really is just one big guide. Universities test your knowledge, but the student is absolutely ultimately responsible for himself and his learning. If tests and accreditation do not matter, then university is merely a  guide — a very expensive guide.

But, I ask, why don’t we have guides? There are so very many books out there, but no books that help guide our purchasing habits.

Of course, some may argue that this is simply intellectual copping out — a new sort of “top 10″ list. I hope this doesn’t happen.

Anyway, I would like to create some guides, for my own sake, if no one else’s.

The PHP maintainers have been adding support for a number of different things– type hinting, more OO ability, and the like. I think this is a bad thing. PHP’s beauty was its simplicity. It had the logical functionality of C and none of the lower-level headaches, and this allowed newer programmers to play and learn while still creating something useful.

Soon PHP will be Java but with variables prefixed with $. When this happens, there will be no good reason to write in one or the other.

I propose that if a language is suited for a certain task, then leave it at that. I mean, PHP used to stand for Personal Home Page. Can you get any more home-grown than that? I say move to Python for high-end, extremely complex web development. It has some super features, and there are great frameworks out there already that simplify coding.

Art can be entertainment. A great movie can be amazingly enjoyable and spark much discussion among friends. However, though art may be valuable in this way, the benefit is rather shallow. If I ask someone what is the value of sports, he may reply that sports are fun entertainment. However, he would be missing the real value of athleticism: improving health, mastering body, and pressing ourselves to various limits. Thus, if we guide ourselves by looking for the art that is most fun, we may get poor results. We can then appropriately reword as: how does art enhance one’s character?

I think that the issue gets murky because of the elitism among those who study art. I will admit that on some levels I have been tempted by the “I’m better than you, the unenlightened fool” attitude held by some artists. Knowing something for the sake of knowing it is foolish.

Art can be beautiful, and make us better in the process. I know personally when I am in beautiful surroundings I tend to think well. When I am in ugly, sad surroundings, it is very hard for me to concentrate.

Art can also be used as a creative medium for individuals. Many people feel the need to create art and to express their thoughts. I’ve read about how therapeutic this can be, and I feel that this is very useful.

The highest value of art is its ability to both show and hide something at the same time. I few semesters ago, I took a class titled Vampire: Blood and Empire. One of the class points was that Vampires as a mythology both expose certain human desires and hide them behind the curtain of a monster, and that this is the habit of any good art.

Thus art will stir up thoughts that we would not normally think and to see truths that we would not normally see. An excellent example of this is The Lord of the Flies. Golding effectively shows us various elements of the nature of society, and thus sparks much thought on the subject that may not normally have been thought about.

One of the more important consequences of this reasoning is that art is essentially irrelevant. There are books that already consider these same subjects. For those people who are able to objectively reason about themselves, their lives, the lives of others, their beliefs, and their environments, non-fiction may be a much better choice.

Let me give my own example: In Les Miserables, Hugo uses the context of revolution-era France to show a great number of human evils. This book sparked my great interest in society, people, politics, and the ideal. Other, non-fiction books may actually discuss these things, but I would never have read them. However, now it is more worthwhile for me to read books that actually consider these important subjects, unadulterated by the constraints of plot and believability.

Using these, we can say that art can be more or less useful to various people. If you are already searching for good and ideal, then it may only be useful as entertainment or as a means of creative expression. However, to those who still aren’t ready to look at themselves on a detached, analytical level, art may be very useful as a “stepping stone” toward enlightenment.

The Secret tells us the secret of life. You can have whatever you want, as long as you believe that you already have it and focus on these things. Similarly, if you focus on the bad aspects of your life, you’ll get more bad things. You’ll get more of whatever you focus on.

So, how do we use this to our advantage? Think about what you want, not the problems you are having. Imagine yourself living up to all of the expectations that you have. Think about how it will feel having attained those goals. Write a paper saying “It sure feels great now that I have….”, and fill in your goals.

If this sounds interesting, I encourage you to check it out. I don’t want to give too much away about the program. There are some amazing first-hand experiences related on the film that are very much worth watching, and it goes into greater depth than I feel appropriate to discuss.

If I happen to know you IRL, I can show you the program myself.

I’ve recently realized a strong personal motivational factor — that is, doing what you’re proud of. The trick is in the approach, though. Imagine that, whatever you’re doing at that moment, it is being recorded in someone’s blog and is stuck on-line somewhere. Pictures, chat history, etc. If this happened, would you find it shameful or happy? The next time you reach for a bowl of ice cream, imagine everyone hearing about how you pigged out on ice cream. Seems less appealing, right?

Shame can be a powerful motivating factor, but it can be used as a decision-making device. Sometimes that bowl of ice cream doesn’t seem too bad; heck, one bowl wont hurt. Sleeping with your coworker won’t hurt, as long as your wife won’t find out. But simple shame can keep you from actually doing it. More, if you live your life so that all your actions are actions to be proud of, you can be honest with yourself and others. A simple bit of honesty can take a huge weight off your shoulders.

When I go to see a movie at a theater, I ONLY go because it is the only place that I can see the movie.     Theaters are preconditions for seeing new movies. The trouble is, they are completely unnecessary. Theaters provide no value, and thus, are dieing, especially with the coming of ultra-convenient ways of getting movies like Netflix.

A typical theater experience  probably starts with an annoying wait at the ticket line. Around Pittsburgh, the tickets cost between 8 and 10 dollars, depending on where you go. If I want a drink and a snack, I have to pay about $3 per item; one drink and snack each, thats $12. So far, I’m just about at $30 for a movie that I have no idea if I will enjoy. Once I get into the theater, I will not be able to get a seat that I want. There is spilled soda and spilled popcorn by my feet. There is at least one loud person in the crowd that is there to annoy me. Finally, as I leave the theater, I’ll be stuck in traffic. For whatever reason, as soon as people finish watching a movie, they forget how to drive.

Complain, complain, complain, you say. I say this: all of these issues add up to me not wanting to see movies. Times have changed. Netflix makes getting all of the movies that I want painless. I can sit at home, have three movies to pick from, and eat or drink whatever I want, all for less than ~$25 per month.

Notice that I NEVER said that I don’t like going to theaters because I can download the movie illegally anyway. Unless it is an old movie (IE a dvd rip), the movie will have horrible quality. If it is an old one, when I do download it, there is the problem of getting it from my computer to my TV. While I’m downloading it, there is a high chance that I will not actually get the movie that I thought I was. Downloading movies illegally sucks.

I don’t mind paying for things that I want. I just hate paying for things that I don’t want.

How to convince ME to go to the theaters:

1. Make good movies. That way, I’ll be sure to enjoy whatever movie that I’m going to see.
2. Give me cheaper concessions. McDonalds can make money by selling soda much cheaper than you, so why don’t you? Know what happens whenever you charge as much as you do for food? I do not buy it. That is 0 profit. IF I want something, I’ll just sneak it in.
3. Clean the theaters well.
4. Reduce crowds.

Notice that I did not ask that the tickets be cheaper. I think they are high, but I’m not opposed to paying high prices for good services (Lowes theaters: I do not mean that I want to pay 14$ for premium seats, you cheap jerks).

Point is, stop blaming the downloaders. You, the collective media system, are killing yourselves.

VA writes that the government is full of lies. Notices a few things, however:

I consider myself an Average Joe in that I have lost faith in it all. I have turned my television off and I have canceled my subscription to the newspaper. I have lost the will to sift through partial truths, minor falsities, purposeful deceptions, and bald face lies. Instead, I have focused all of my attention on My World and I pay little mind to what goes in The World.

I agree wholeheartedly. How can anyone stand the garbage that the traditional media outlets claim as news? How can we make any sort of intelligent decision as a society and as a culture if we can’t get accurate information.

Anyone, please. Hear our cries. We don’t want to be lied to. We just want honesty.

As for those at MTV, if you REALLY wanted young Americans to “Rock the Vote”, give us the resources that we need to make an informed decision.

Almost everyone that I talk to feels the same way. For those of you with money that you want to invest, you could do VERY WELL in providing an unbiased source of information. Without this information, there is no way to hold the liars in the government accountable for their actions.

• HORRIBLE lines
• No acting (not that the actors cant act, simply that the roles don’t require any)
• AMAZING special-effects

“But Joel” you say, “I like action-packed, shootemups. What is wrong with them?” Well, you may. And I honestly do enjoy a good action movie. I ask you, though — Which did you prefer, Ghost Rider or Spiderman? Wasn’t Spiderman full of emotion, acting, and touch on fundamental issues which made it a deep, good movie?

I can imagine that most everyone prefers Spiderman to the garbage mentioned above.

And yet, I continue to frequent these movies. Why oh why do I do it?