A PVP Server

I haven't done a Minecraft post in a while, but I want to share a pvp server that my friend introduced to me recently. I've attached a narrated video of me showcasing the server's features. As I get ready to post my entry, I realize that some might find the Minecraft vocabulary objectionable. The words "kill" and "die" are used to describe events in the battles between two teams of Lego-like characters. There are no guns, no blood; but bows and swords are used in combat. As video games go, Minecraft doesn't contain graphic violence. In my own life, I support peaceful solutions to problems in our world. I spent yesterday working at the Little Friends for Peace organization in a D.C. neighborhood that is plagued by violence. You may have read my earlier post after the Newtown tragedy, about attending a vigil to end gun violence. I don't think my interest in gaming conflicts with my personal values or philosophy about living an ethical life. I, like most avid gamers, know the difference between fantasy and reality. I hope you take my post in the spirit that was intended, and that you have you have a hobby that you enjoy as much as I do mine.

The Great Backyard Bird Count

I've been a birder for a long time. My mom has had me birding since I was 4 or so.  Recently my mom started telling me about this thing called the great backyard bird count (GBBC) so I decided to look into it. The GBBC is where someone can just sit at their window and count the birds they see. They record their results and send their findings to Conell University of Ornithology. It's citizens' science! This is amazing to me because I love to just kick back and watch the birds come and go. Earlier today I filled up the feeders and started recording what I saw. I saw a lot of the birds that I just love, like a flock of dark eyed juncos, a cardinal, and two varites of woodpeckers (1 red bellied woodpecker, and 2 downys). This was a great way to say goodbye to Maryland as I pack my bags to spend president's day weekend in Pennsylvania. I hope I will have time to do more of this in the future, because as I've said many times in this post, I LOVE birds!

I just spent the last 30 minutes looking at birds out my window.

Eggs

Mr. Mayo challenged us to a make a 60 second video focused around a mystery prop. It was exciting and a little nerve wracking knowing that whatever item we pulled from the black plastic bag would be the inspiration for our show. One group got a bloody severed head, so we knew we had to be prepared for anything! Our "anything" turned out to be a birds nest with three eggs in it --- maybe not as exciting as a decapitated head, but we knew we could work with it. After a lengthy brainstorming session, we decided on a theme of suspense. Would the itty bitty birdies survive the fall from the treetop or end up a scrambled mess on the pavement below?
We used sound effects and music to add both drama and humor to our film. And of course Ross came through with a brilliant performance. This one minute film, from conception to final editing, took us many hours to produce. Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.
The experience will be helpful with our upcoming CAP Hollywood Project because it was a good exercise in using our skills and imaginations to create a concept and captivating story in a limited amount of time.

I took a shot...

I've always loved acting. I did a little at Imagination Stage when I was younger. I enjoy writing skits and creating characters and doing voices and accents. But I was too intimidated last year to try out for either of Blair's plays. I went to see The Three Musketeers and Les Miserables, and they were fantastic!
This fall, my parents challenged me to audition for The Taming of the Shrew. I used to run into Ms. O'Connor in the drama room she shares with Ms. Jeral. She seemed cool and very nice. Anyway, I finally got up the nerve to put my name on the audition schedule one day. Mine was actually the last name on the list of 84 hopeful students. I figured I was "safe". By the time the O'Connors got to my presentation, they'd surely have already found all the actors they needed, or maybe if I was really lucky they'd just sleep through my tryout. Who did I think I was, anyway?! To my surprise, they were wide awake and enthusiastically watching my and my partner's every move. I even made Mr. O"Connor laugh out loud.
The rest of the story is that I won a small role in the Shakespearean comedy. It's been even more fun than I imagined it would be. I feel really lucky to have had this experience and I hope to participate in future MBHS productions. Come out and see the play this weekend. I'm the guy who gets his butt kicked, literally.

Oh, and if you've been thinking of joining a club or trying out for a sport or the play --- JUST DO IT! You'll be glad you did.

What Silver Spring is to me

I'm going to have to write this post quickly. I have had a hectic past 2 weeks, what with my Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close project, and exams. But now that I'm done with this my schedule should be free. I'm probably going to have a good next few weeks with the play and the British students. So to quote Paul Revere, "The British are coming, the British are coming!" I have always wanted a reason to say that. Anyway. the video may seem a little choppy , but that was only because of the constraint on the time. Also the fact that a few clips are missing... well that's the reason  need to type  quickly. I tried to re-upload the video, and restore the video files, but my computer came up with a blue screen of death. So as I'm writing this my computer is a ticking time bomb for another blue screen and potentially an unfixable one. Hopefully if I shut it down for the rest of the night the problem will go away, and i realy hope this problem will not persist and that  the computer isn't doomed. Well untill then I better give my computer a rest.

Minecraft 1.4.6 Review

I finally had the time to do something Minecraft related! It's been so long since I last posted something Minecraft related on this blog. So today I will treat you with a visit from a long awaited minecraft video. And before you ask, no it's not a machinima. I've been having a hard time coordinating a time that my friends can log on and be actors, and when I finally coordinated a time that worked for everyone, the universe decided that that would be a good time for my server to crash making me unable to film. Well I got around it by recording my review of the new minecraft update. Remember the last update review with the picture gallery? Remember how it took up so much space? well now that I put that in a video this post will not be as long as the 1.4 update review. I did forget to mention in the video that the Minecraft programmers added a Christmas surprise that only took place on the 24th and the 25th, they made the chests in minecraft look like Christmas presents. For some reason blogger is not letting me post a picture, so I will get you a picture of that when I can. There really is not that much to cover because this wasn't as major of an update as 1.4 was. So without any further ado here's the review video. I hope you likle it!

Religulous Review

Documentary Review

Bill Maher, a self-admitted “potty mouthed, pot smoking atheist” created the documentary Religulous in 2008. This movie was his effort to expose the largest organized religions in the world as insane, irrational and destructive. Maher inserts himself into this film in the same way he runs his late night show on Fridays on HBO, “Real Time with Bill Maher”. That show mixes round table discussions that include politicians, Hollywood celebrities and academics with a healthy dose of his monologues from his stand-up comedy routines. And just like in his TV show, Maher appears in almost every shot of Religulous. He often looks straight into the camera and rolls his eyes or feigns shock to show that he and the viewer are connected and share the same opinion. That makes Religulous an interactive documentary, a documentary that is actually more entertainment than it is an exposé of the absurdities of religion.

In Religulous (a combination of the words ‘religion’ and ‘ridiculous’), Maher travels the globe speaking to every kind of religious person, including the devout as well as the hypocritical. He asks them to explain their faith and the nature of their God. Maher claims that he would like to believe in God, but says that no one has been able to say anything intelligent or convincing enough to persuade him. In this movie he talks to shop owners selling “holy” items, small town preachers, televangelists, a man from “Jews for Jesus”, a fundamentalist Christian U.S. Senator, Vatican priests, a religious astrologist, secular Muslims, gay Muslims, Mormons and ex-Mormons in Salt Lake City, and people in Jerusalem and the Arab peninsula. He reveals what is stupid, foolish and narrow-minded in the philosophy of each of these people.  

Although most of the interviewees are pretty harmless as an individual, their total intolerance of anyone with a different view hints at what Maher thinks is the worst aspect of organized religion – black and white thinking – an inability to accept those with an opposing view. There is an apocalyptic thread throughout the movie that reaches a dramatic and terrifying conclusion at the end when a montage of terrorist bombings, mushroom clouds, starving refugees and hate-filled religious demonstrators flash furiously on the screen while Maher does a voice over arguing that religion isn’t just ridiculous, it is fatal. Millions have already suffered and died in the name of various gods he says, and religion will ultimately destroy humanity.

Even so, Religulous is an entertaining movie. At first is certainly seems to give religious people a voice, but really Bill Maher has dealt himself the better hand in these interviews. The people he interviews are easy to scoff at and aren’t capable of putting up much of a fight. Maher doesn’t interview the intellectual heavy hitters of modern religion. He interviews a man who claims to be a direct descendant of Jesus Christ, because he believes that Jesus had children. To main stream Christians this idea is preposterous and presenting a fringe character like this serves to make all Christians look ridiculous. Maher also interviews a priest at the Vatican who must have had one cocktail too many before the interview because all he can do is giggle. The list of silly interviewees goes on. Maher interviews American truckers, in their small chapel in a trailer where each person makes up his own personal brand of Christianity. Maher even went so far as to conduct an interview with the actor who plays Jesus at a Disney-esque theme park called “Holy Land”.  It seems to me that if Maher really wanted to make a point he wouldn’t have interviewed this pathetic crowd of naive people, but he would speak to someone as quick witted and intellectual as himself. Since he did not choose worthy adversaries, he lost an opportunity to spark a conversation about the real place for religion in modern society. Instead he turned the movie into a bunch of cheap shots at the absurdity of religion.

As I mentioned, this is an interactive documentary. Bill Maher is on the screen about 96% of the time. Although it was filmed at various locations around the world, it is basically a series of one-on-one interviews edited together with multiple cuts to B- Roll. Maher also uses inter titles to flash his sarcastic comments and rebuttals onto the screen even as his guests attempt to explain their points of view.

I would recommend Religulous to many of my friends; but frankly if you are religious and a faithful church goer, then do not watch this documentary. Maher goes after every single religion without holding back any punches: Mormons, Muslims, Catholics, Evangelists, Christians and Jews beware. Remember that Maher is famous for his being offensive.  Then again, even church goers confess to getting their fair share of laughs from this documentary. And even though it’s not as effective as it could be, this movie does get the viewer thinking about religion and its place in our century.  If you aren’t too sensitive to this kind of humor, Religulous is a thought provoking and enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours.

Religulous, 102 minutes R (for language)