Blog # 11 Media Mid-term.

Brandon Millers
ENG 101
10/31/10
Blog # 11
mid term

To call the Halo franchise a game is doing it a grave injustice. It is not just a game, it is a phenomena. One that has reached out to every corner of the world. Even if you hate the game, there is just no denying the fact it has had a huge impact on games, the gaming industry, and gamers all over the world. It has spawned six games, an anime series, several books, live action commercials, machinama, comics and graphic novels, tournaments, and a number of other merchandise. It has clearly evolved above the title of a game.
Bungie game studios started out with one guy making games in his basement in collage. That guy___ started out by creating games for the MAC. His first game was a Pong clone he called Gnop. (Pong spelled backwards.) Soon other students heard and played his game and wanted to join in, and with that Bungie slowly picked up steam. As time went on, the team picked up more members and got started on their next project. Pathways, a game also for the MAC, was also a first person shooter/RPG (Role playing game.) It was the first serious title the team worked on and the first time doing a first person shooter. The game was meet with great reviews and was a hit. It received a few awards such as MAC world game of the year. People loved it for the game play and plot. With the money earned from the game, the team was finally able to get out of the basement and into buying their first real office for business.
Not letting the money, success, or fame get to their heads the team got started on their next big projects, and probably the biggest step foreword to making Halo. The next game they created, was also for the MAC. The game was a massive hit getting many awards and lots of money. It still has a large fan base even to this day. The game was a hit for its graphics and game play, but what really made it huge was two major factors.
One was that it a a very good plot and story. Unlike many first person shooters that came before it, Marathon didn't just feature some random nobody the player had no attachment to, nor did it just give a gun and a wave and tell you “Have fun killing these guys for whatever reason.” Marathon had a nice plot and story with some interesting twists. It showed that games could be more than just mindless fun, or have violence for violence's sake. It really draw the player in. And even though some argue that the plot may not be the best, it did lay the foundation for other games soon to come such as Half-Life, and Dues Ex, two other wildly popular first person shooter titles that are will known for their plot and game play.
The other major turning point was the games online play, or network play. Online play is basically just like the internet. Instead of having to be right next two your friend in order to play with them, you connected with them by opening a 'room' and having them join you and play form across the street, the state or the country. While Marathon was not the first game to feature online play to the people, it was one of the first, FPS (First person shooter) to do so. But it was not famous for being the first, it was famous for being really fun and addictive. It was a very fun and easy game to pick up and play, and with the ability to play with any one in the country, ( World wide play had not yet been introduced.) It guaranteed that some one some where would be playing, even in the wee hours of the morning.
Finally in 2001, Bungie released their master piece to the world. Halo combat evolved was released for the original Xbox to a crowed of eager fans. With so much hype built up on it everyone was wondering if it would deliver. It did. The game had it all, vehicles cool weapons, aliens, both fully functional indoor and outdoor combat, stunning graphics, great characters and voice overs, and a huge and compelling, griping story that continues to this day. Fans and critics ate it up and Halo soon received many awards including the game of the year award from the official Xbox magazine. It got to the point where people where buying an Xbox, just so they could get and play Halo. One common thing to do was that people would pack up their Xboxs drive down to their friends houses and and play there with up to 16 other people.
The game helped to change gears in the gaming world. For a long time, computer games where looked to as being the dominant gaming device. Many did not believe that a counsel game could ever preform on the same level of the PC or Mac, especially when it came to first person shooters. . But when Halo came out it really changed peoples opinions. It preformed great with very few load times between game play which some games on the computer could not boast. It also inspired games that came after it, to have many different types of both land and air.
But these changes were not the only things that helped change the video game market. Halo changed a lot for the games not only first person shooters but really all games. For example, before Halo, first person shooters would allow the player to carry all the weapons of the game all at the same time. Halo limited the amount to any two weapons, by doing this, it increased difficulty and forced the player to come up with new strategies and ways to defeat the enemy. Many games started to do this such as Resistance 2, the Call of duty series, The Gears of War series and many others. One very famous thing they changed was the addition of regenerating shields. When the character took to much damage before, they would have to find a health pack to stay in the game. What Halo did to change this now when the player took to much damage they could seek cover away from the enemy and then their shields would charge on their own. Many, many games have since followed this example in not only first person shooters but other ganeras as well. Such examples included all the games previously mentioned as well games like Mirror's edge, Just Cause, Infamous, Uncharted, and a whole slew of over games. Halo helped change a lot in the gaming community.
But it did not stop there. With the rise of its popularity, many people would become so good that they started barging about it. Rather than let this go unchallenged, a man named Sundance DiGovanni decided to take it to the next level. He created MLG or Major League Gaming. It was to be a tournament for people around the country and even the world to show the world they could walk the walk and talk the talk. There had been a few gaming tournaments in the past but they were only for PC and MAC gaming, MLG was the first gaming tournament for the console and only console games. At first the only game for awhile was Halo but as the tournament grew so did the number of games, but even after eight years since its creation, Halo still remains to be the main game of choice and a good thing to. At first when the tournament was looked at then and many thought it was a joke, some thought it would only last one tournament. But as they kept going and using Halo as their main game, it grew in size and followers. Soon they where given sponsors and able to give out prizes such as up two $250,000 in cold hard cash. (And here you taught that gaming would get you nowhere in life.)
But probably one of Halos greatest achievements, was one that the creators never planed for or had any thing to do with. Halo created machinama. Machinama is a compound word of machine and cinema. That is to say a movie or film that is created inside of a video game. It is done by using special capture cards in a computer that hook up to a video game console (assuming it has output capability's.) Then taking a cord and plugging it up to the T.V. By doing this, you are able to record what is being done on the T.V. And then put it on your computer. Then, using various software on the computer, you can edit it to your liking, add music and sound. Write your own story's and characters, or change something in the original game, and then upload it to the internet for all to see.
The first machinama was created using Halo. It's called Red vs Blue the blood Gulch Chronicles and was created by Rooster teeth. The team again started out with two guys in a small room with an idea. What would video games be like if you played them... while drunk! It was, of course, a strange idea, but one that led on to something bigger. The site surprisingly was a bigger hit then they thought. It featured comical videos of guys playing games while drunk laughing and having a good time. But eventually the site came under fire with lawsuits and was eventually shutdown. Then a representative from Computer Gaming World, came up to the team and asked them if they could use one of the their videos for a demo CD showcasing some of their games. The rooster teeth team agreed to this, but decided instead of showing them one of their old videos they would come up with something new while using Halo. They rolled a couple of ideas around in their heads, first coming up with a cop based theam but decided against it. Then they came up with a hunting show and soup opera but those two where scraped. Finally after much thought, they decided on a war based comedy.
And thus Red VS. Blue was born. The team at first thought it would not catch on but it did. Red vs. Blue is one the longest running and well known machinama. Spawning over nine seasons and continues on to this day after seven years and over nine seasons. It is also one of the only other machinama that was given permission from the owners of the game to make and sale DVD's, T-shirts, comics and other merchandise, So far there is no other machinama series that is allowed to do this due to licensing issues.
Although it was the first, Red vs. Blue was not the last machinama series. Many more inspiring art and film directors wanting to get a start turned to making machinama. Because it was easy and cheap to do, many people started to turn to it to show others their talent. It soon grew to a point to were a web site was soon created, simply known as Machinama.com. There, just about anyone could upload their videos and clips of any kind of machinama from any game for all to see all under one roof.
With the creation of Youtube.com, it was a no brainier for the the website to move into a new more popular home. It proved to be a very smart decision as the machinama youtube page turned in to a massive hit. It is the third most popular channel on youtube with over, 61,000,000 channel views, 1.400,000 subscribers, 11,800 videos, and over 1,500,000,000 video views. Yes that is over one billion views billion with a B.
With its incredible successes they decided to make a few spin off channels on youtube including machinama re-spawn an area where anyone can upload their game play moves and strategy, and also machinama realm, machinama trailer vault, and machinama sports. It was clear that machinama was growing in popularity and showed no real signs of slowing down. So much so that Gamestop, the largest game selling company in America, stared using it to promote games they were selling and special deals. It just keeps growing.
Bungie saw what was happening the machinama scene and noticed an interesting trend, most of the time a machinama was made, it was ether using Halo one or Halo two, They figured that this was because it was easy do due this with and the fact that since you never saw the character it was easy to pretend it was someone else. So for the next game they did something that would change both the video game world and machinama world all in one go. For Halo three, decided to do two things never fully realized in a console game, but would continue to be done even to this day. The first was a theater mode. It was a chance view and save a game a player did and watch it again when ever they felt like it. The player could also make small clips of a certain part of the game, take a picture of a epic moment, see what others were doing in the game, and even upload it for other people in the game. While this was essentially nothing new for the computer gamer, it was huge and never before done on a weaker console game. But not only was it on a console it did it even better than most computer games. The seconded big thing they did was introduce forge. A mode where a player could change rearrange and edit an already existing map and level on te game to his or her liking. Againe this was nothing new to the computer gamers but it was something huge for the console because no one thought it could be done.
Soon many games started to add these features to their games. Game such as Street fighter four allowed a player to safe a fight they had only and upload it. Little big Planet's whole game revolved around giving the player the complete control and freedom to create any kind of level they wanted and share them with any one.
Another change was the huge was that not only did they make games but all sorts of other mediums. They created nine books a small comic collection and graphic novel and even had a short anime movie. While Halo was certainly not the first to do this, for awhile, many games had stop doing this. For there had been a few others to do this, for awhile it stopped and when a game did make it to other medias, it was usually in a movie such as Tomb Raider. When Halo picked up this trait again it went all out, with now a few games doing this such as Dead Space having a comic and mini movie, Gears of War, having several comics and a short novel.
To deny Halo of it's fame is wrong, it has evolved into a major media and cultural event. It is hard to go up to a person or gamer ask them if they have heard of Halo, and have the answer be no. With what it has done to the gaming industry and with the creation of machinama, it has been a great influence to the media and the industry. Even to this day Halo continues to inspire and create new things for the industry. Truly it is the most influential game of all time.





http://www.bungie.net/

Machinima web http://www.youtube.com/user/machinima

“Red vs Blue” web http://roosterteeth.com/home.php

http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

"Reach (Halo Rap Video)." http://www.youtube.com. Web. 17 Oct 2010. .

“Halo's reach.” Official Xbox Magazine. Fall 2010: ½. Print

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/default.htm

"Halo Ep. 1: All Your History S1E1 (Game Development History) ." Youtube.com. Web. 17 Oct 2010.

blog # 9 Eassy # 2 revise.

Brandon Miller
10/26/10
Blog # 9 Essay # 2 Revise


The definition of an American hero is someone who is strong, brave, honest,and is willing to help anyone for the greater good. They put their lives on the line to help a person only because they want to help. They do not do this for a reward but to help the lives of every American. That is what it means to be an 'All American hero'. The definition of an actual hero is completely different. One that the movie Hero points out very well.
The movie takes the focus of Bernie Laplant. He is a local lowlife who before we even hear him talk, we see him in court on trial and stealing money from his own lawyer. He is divorced , forgets his sons name and age, and when he finally does see him he teach him to steal and tells him to only look out for himself. He lies a lot and gets fired from his job because he comes in late to many times and comes up with excuses all the time. Even when a plane crashes in front of him he is still reluctant to do anything to help. He worries about his shows getting messed up in the water and puts them away for safe keeping. He slowy goes through the water until he gets to the jammed door. Even then he struggles, telling the passengers they need to push harder. To top it all of, he, a perfectly fine uninjured man, almost refuse to help save the rest of the people inside until a boy asks him to safe his father.
But even for all of his faults, does this make him any less of a hero? He is not seen as what an all American Hero is seen to be. He is far from honest and cares little for anyone outside of himself. But regardless, for whatever the motive may be he still pulled those people out and saved 54 lives. No matter how selfish the reason may be.
It is because of this that we as Americans need to expand our definition of a hero. A hero is not born, nor can he really be made. A hero in essences is really a person who was at the right place at the right time and had the courage and knowledge to know what to do and actually do it. There is no heroic gene in your DNA and it does not course through your veins. The closets you can come to training to be a hero is in the army or police force. But even then training to do something and actually doing it are two different things. You might lock up or get scared when faced with the actual thing. That could costs someones life and maybe even your own.
A hero does not even have to be someone who is strong ether. About a year ago, a man saw a suspicious van parked outside, he called the cops and they were able to find out there was a bomb in the car and they where able to defuse it. How much upper body strength do you need to pick up a phone and dial nine one one? That disproves the fact that a hero needs to be strong. It also shows you do not need to be to intelligent either. Another example is the time a child pulled another kid out of the water and gave him CPR, which he learned to do after watching an episode of SpongeBob Squarepants. The kid was no older than seven and yet he was able to save another from drowning. There is no age requirement to being a hero either. Not falling under the stereotype that an adult is the only one who can preform a heroic act.
A hero is a person who see's a situation and decides to help. There is no right or wrong hero. It is not gender, age, or race specific. Any one person is capable of doing any a great thing. All we have do to is have the courage to do so.

blog # 10 gattaca response

Brandon Miller
10/21/10
Blog # 10 Gattgaaca response


Old school or new school? Modern or contemporary? Old fashioned or new wave?


Perfect or normal?


In a world were you can have the perfect little girl, smart, charming, perfect manners, blond hair and blue eyed, an excellent cook and care giver, motherly, without any disease. Would you you do it? If you could have the perfect young man, wise and strong, a great atahlate, able to solve any problem, destroy any obstical, would you do it? If it meant having your child grown, and not conceived, have them be made in a lab and not in God's loving hands, would you do it? Is it better this way or the old way? For years man has turned it's back on God, turning to science instead. They choose to go with what can be explained and if it can't be proven, it is not true. Now man sets about trying to correct “God's mistakes.” make the perfect ideal human being. One with no flaws, no disease, no accidents. But at what cost, when do we say enough is enough, when are we no longer human?
That is what the movie Gattaca and the aritical Man on the Moon, try to explain. A world where we can grow a human to be perfect. But what happens to the other humans, the ones that are not created in such a way, the humans that are grown, the old fashioned way? Would they accept the new, perfect humans? Would the perfect humans accept the regular ones.
From the movie's stand point, a human who is grown is the ideal child. The ones who are born are looked down upon for their inferiority. The ones who are born will probably not get the same job or treatment as the ones who are grown. After all, why choose the normal one when you can choose the one who is incapable of making a mistake? I think if the movie were to continue, it would have gotten worse for the normal humans.
When the director died they sweeped the area for any possible genetic possibility for a suspect. As soon as they found someone who was not grown, he is considered an invalid, and is instantly considered to be the killer. Once they have that, they immediately start an investigation on this guy because he was born. They line up a bunch of them and if they try to run they grab him and trow him near his car. What if this behavior continued? What if the grown humans decided that the born humans inferiority was a threat that needed to be 'dealt with'
But the same can be said about the ones who are born. Look at X-men for example. The humans hated and feared the others to the point of calling them 'Mutants' They beat them, say they are a plage that needs to be cured, round them up and trow them in jail or worse, do theses horrible experiments on them. All because they were born differently.
That is another problem the movie pulls up. The people judge others because of how they were born. I think this is a horrible way to judge a person. They had no choice in how they were born, no say in it what so ever. It was completely up to the parents and there for them that should be judged. The only crime or wrong doing the child had in that case was being born. Judgment should be placed on a persons actions, ideals and character. Not on something that they had absolutely no control or say over.
Another point is the fact at how the government will treat this. When ever a government comes up with a new invention or idea the first thing, the very first thing they think about is how this can be used as a weapon. Can you even fathom how horrible a situation that will be if we ever found out how to grow a human? Imagine a soldire that we can grow to the peak of physical strength,who never gets tired, fights even when in great pain, faster, stronger, smarter, more obedient, always focused on the mission. A soldier that will fight at all costs. Growing canon fodder. The reason we as citizens have the right to bear arms is for the poupuse of if the government went out of control we could defend ourselves. How could we possibly defend against a limitless army far more powerful than a human ever could be. And what could we do if the country that can grow a human decided they where more powerful and decided to go on a conquest of world domination. It would end in either two ways, complete domination, or complete annihilation.
All in all this is a horibale idea with clearly more cons than pros. It will not end will for etier the borns or the growns. Just because it's new doesn't mean it's improved. Just because it's old doesn't mean it's classic.

Blog # 9 eassy # 2

Brandon Miller
10/20/10
Blog # 9



Defining a hero is hard. In American culture, we define a hero as someone who is hard working, honest, helpful, intellectual, dependable/reliable, and puts others life's above them self's because it is 'the right thing to do. But this is hardly the rule. Most of the time, a hero is really just someone who was at the right place at the right time and decided to help. That is exactly the case in the Movie Hero, where we ask, what is a hero and who can be one.


First off, anyone can be a 'hero'. It is not something you are born with, its not in your blood, and you cant train to be a hero. There is no test, or special right of passage. There is no wrong or right person to be a hero. Hero proves this by having Bernie Laplante a low life, con artiest, who clearly only looks out for himself. And yet he is the hero of the movie, who pulls 54 people out of a crashed burning plane. Given the description of a hero, you would NEVER expect this lieing, excuses making, thief to do anything heroic. And yet he does. Does his characteristics, make him any less of a hero? Even though he saved so many people, does his past actions make him any less of a hero?


Now, lets take another character, John Bubber. A Vietnam war veteran, who is now homeless and living in his car. He constantly thinks of others, he helps Bernie when he needs a ride and even decides to to give someone else a shoe when he could have used it. Would you ever expect him to claim HE was the one that pulled all those people out of the plane and take the Million dollar reword? The only person to try and stick their neck out for others, and has any quality's that would make for a hero, is the one that tells the lie in order to get the money. He puts up this whole charade and continues to lie about saving the people, mean while Bernie is serving time in jail and could really use the money.


Now, lets take a deeper look at this. John was wrong for doing what he did, But as they say there is a method to the madness. One thing that needs to be considered is that, John was homeless and kind hearted. He was not some corporate big shot, who already had a home and money. He could really use the million dollars, and he could have helped others with it. He still shouldn't have done it. Now with Bernie He also could have used the money and he earned it. And even with his crocked past, he still deserved it for helping them.


What is interesting about the movie to me is that the movie doesn't really chooses a side on which one is wrong and which is right. They try to show them both from a neutral stand point. With Bubber, they show how uncomfortable he is at what he is doing in that he was not expecting all the money and did not want to take advantage of the news reporter Gayle. Then again when he wanted to commit suicide and leave to note saying what he did wrong. But they also show he was the right man when he try's to convince the people to bring the poor blankets and also how when laplant talks to the bartender and asks him if he told him he did it would he believe him? I think the movie try to let us decide who is right and who is wrong by showing us the positives and negatives of both characters so it really comes done to us.



I think the bar scene poses a very important question for all of us and is the focal point of the movie. When Berrni asks the bartender, “If I said I was the one who pulled them out of the plane, would you believe me?” The bar tender looks at him and tells him no. That he and Bernie do not have that spirit that Bubber has. I think this is a critical point in the movie because it asks another important question. Not only who IS a hero but what do we in today's 'society who would be accepted as a hero. After the events of 9/11 and the Iraq war, if a person from Iraq or that area but has nothing to do with the war. If he save those people from the plane, would the people accepted that? Would the media even show him? Would they accept someone who was a criminal or a prostitute? It is not only did you do the act but are you presentable to the public.


Are you marketable?



So, what is a hero? Because Bernie certainly dose not fit the bill. But even so he still risked his life for the sake of others. Not to mention Bubber who had the makings of the hero still did something wrong but tried to make it right. Lets say it was Hitler who saved those people from the plane. Would he still be consider a hero despite everything else he has done? Yes, no, I don't know. After doing this assignment and thinking about it, I now have no idea what makes a hero.

Brandon Miller Follow up to blog #8

Brandon Miller
Follow up to blog #8

I am a fun loving happy go lucky kind of guy. I love to play around and crack a joke and just have fun, I love movies and gaming, and lot of comics and manga/Anime. I however get a lot of flak for this when I was in middle school and High school. I was teased unmercifully for this and unliked by a lot of people. People would make fun of me on an hourly biases and hit me, calling me a loser and a nerd. It kind of got a little better and worse in high school because I usually just tried to hang with everyone and just be funny. But because I went to an all boys school there were some pretty big egos and again being me started to suck. But I held on, not about to change who I am for anyone.

Brandon Miller Blog # 8 The concept of the other

Brandon Miller
Blog # 8 The concept of the other


Nobody is the same; we all have different types and styles. Things that I love will probably not be what you like. Different strokes for different folks, as it where. Although we have these differences and preferences’, there is nothing wrong with your choice (unless your choice is something illegal.) But while this is the case, we all have an ‘other’ a concept, person or thing that we just completely do not see eye to eye with. Form me, my other is jerks and/or people who are mean.
I always try to be a nice guy, getting along with everyone. I try to never judge someone based on their race or gender and always to be nice and courteous to those around me. But I can’t stand it when a person or person's will go out of their way to harm another in anyway. I just don’t see or understand how someone can get any joy out of it. And while some say they do this at an early age because of problems at home or issues with self confidence, I never understood how harming another would help.
Even at an older age when a person learns more on people, to continue in this way is just mean. And now that they are older they now know how to hurt someone more emotnally, such as playing with their heart in a relationship or stealing money from a person that trusts you. I see no real reason on purposely trying to harm another in such a way.
That is not to say we can never be friends. For instances I have made friends with a lot of “bullies” and people I had fights with in school. And I even became cool with the person who pointed a gun at me and tried to kill me, (What a crazy 16 birthday present that was.) I don’t get to attached to all of them but still it is good to try and at least get to know their full version. I may not like that they can be a jerk or mean but I at least try to be cool with them.At the very least they will not be a jerk to me and I might change them.
Basically what I am trying to say is, my favorite color is orange, for someone else its blue, (The opposite color on the color wheel.) Just because we are opposites, doesn’t mean we can never like each other and try to get along. I think if we all try hard enough, we can live better with each other than without. Accept the differences.

Blog #7 Outline and annotaded bibliography

Brandon Miller
Blog 7 Outline and Annotated Bibliography


Thesis for first few pages will be on the creation and history on Bungie and their games and how they laid the foundation for Halo and other games.
Next will be on the a very brief history on Halo itself and its six title library.After that is how Halo it self and how it had such huge impact on the gaming industry and gamers.The next few pages will be on what Machinama is and how Halo helped spar headed that .as well as Machinama today.I will also talk about The red vs Blue One of the most will know and popular machinama



http://www.bungie.net/

Machinima web http://www.youtube.com/user/machinima
“Red vs Blue” web http://roosterteeth.com/home.php

"Halo." Web. .

http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

"Reach (Halo Rap Video)." http://www.youtube.com. Web. 17 Oct 2010. .

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/default.htm

"Halo Ep. 1: All Your History S1E1 (Game Development History) ." Youtube.com. Web. 17 Oct 2010. .

Blog 6: What is a Hero?

Brandon Miller
Blog 6 Hero?




Defining a hero is hard. In American culture, we define a hero as someone who is hard working, honest, helpful, intellectual, dependable/reliable, and puts others life's above them self's because it is 'the right thing to do'. But this is hardly the rule. Most of the time, a hero is really just someone who was at the right place at the right time and decided to help. That is exactly the case in the Movie Hero, where we ask, what is a hero and who can be one.


First off, anyone can be a 'hero'. It is not something you are born with, its not in your blood, and you cant train to be a hero. There is no test, or special right of passage. There is no wrong or right person to be a hero. Hero proves this by having Bernie Laplante a low life, con artiest, who clearly only looks out for himself. And yet he is the hero of the movie, who pulls 54 people out of a crashed burning plane. Given the description of a hero, you would NEVER expect this lieing, excuses making, thief to do anything heroic. And yet he does. Does his characteristics, make him any less of a hero? Even though he saved so many people, does his past actions make him any less of a hero?


Now, lets take another character, John Bubber. A Vietnam war veteran, who is now homeless and living in his car. He constantly thinks of others, he helps Bernie when he needs a ride and even decides to to give someone else a shoe when he could have used it. Would you ever expect him to claim HE was the one that pulled all those people out of the plane and take the Million dollar reword? The only person to try and stick their neck out for others, and has any quality's that would make for a hero, is the one that tells the lie in order to get the money. He puts up this whole charade and continues to lie about saving the people, mean while Bernie is serving time in jail and could really use the money.


Now, lets take a deeper look at this. John was wrong for doing what he did, But as they say there is a method to the madness. One thing that needs to be considered is that, John was homeless and kind hearted. He was not some corporate big shot, who already had a home and money. He could really use the million dollars, and he could have helped others with it. He still shouldn't have done it. Now with Bernie He also could have used the money and he earned it. And even with his crocked past, he still deserved it for helping them.


So, what is a hero? Because Bernie certainly dose not fit the bill. But even so he still risked his life for the sake of others. Not to mention Bubber who had the makings of the hero still did something wrong but tried to make it right. Lets say it was Hitler who saved those people from the plane. Would he still be consider a hero despite everything else he has done? Yes, no, I don't know. After doing this assignment and thinking about it, I now have no idea what makes a hero.

Blog 5: Plan for media paper.

Brandon Miller
10/05/10
Blog 5

My topic for the mass media midterm is on Halo; quite possibly the biggest and most important video game series ever. I chose Halo for a few reasons. One halo is a game very near and dear to my heart, I have every game in the series including the special editions for all of them. Two is because halo is not just a game, it is a worldwide phenomena. It has one of the largest cults following for a game ever. It is also not just a video game; it has comic book, live action commercials, books, a possible movie, tournaments, TV air time, hordes of websites, anime episodes, and internet shows. Legions of fans have given it great live and meaning. There are dozens of news articles magazines and interviews that involve halo and its following.

Blog 4: Reflection.

Brandon Miller
10/05/10
Blog 4: Reflections.

This class has been so far very enlighten. I have learned new techniques and am becoming a better writer. For example I have always heard about free writing and pre writhing before but it never really worked for me. I think that by having the first sentence given to me, it has really made me be abele to focus on what needed to be written. For me, the intro to any thing I write is the only real obstacle. But with having the first sentence I do not have to worry and get the creative juices flowing. I also like the idea of writing without stopping to a degree. I like it because when you are just writing in the moment, you focus more on the writing aspect and not the editing one. That way you can write more and hopefully, get more ideas has you write. But, I also have a problem with it. See I am just writing now as we speak and I am going to look up. There are seven miss spellings on this which is not to bad, but the problem is if I keep typing for too long, I totally forget what was supposed to be said due to the misspelling. It doesn’t happen often, but it is a real pain when it does. I really need to work on my spelling. I also really like the class we had on a thesis. I had done a lot on it in my high school, but it is nice to brush up on it and even go into a little bit more detail with it.

The way I see it, for me you won’t learn by yourself, not all the time. That is why I like working in groups. If I can have feedback from people in and out of my class critiquing my work, I learn better. That is why I think it was a good Idea to work with ENG99 class. I got to help out someone who probably works the same way. For how can you know if you need improvement if no one tells you? In the case of Keith in ENG99, he had a well written paragraph that only needed small tweaks to it. I’m glad I was able to give advice, and I hope I have another opportunity to do so in the future, as well as have someone do it for me as well. I also really like the idea of fellow class meats commenting on our blogs they make them fell more worthwhile and cool having someone we know giving us critical advice, and giving their own opinions on our work. It makes it fell that I actually wrote this for a reason, and not just something I hand in, is only read by the teacher and then forgotten forever in time. I fell more confidants in myself knowing that someone is giving me good reviews. And trust me, I do read the comments and love them, and need them.

Oh one more thing, Ever since the first day of school, when I mentioned that I play video games, a lot of you guys have taken that idea and ran with it. I just want to clarify. Just because I like video games does NOT mean that that is all I ever do. I am a smart fun loving guy who loves to read and write, I am very multilayered, I love to watch movies and hang out with my family and friends. I love dancing I Brandon dance (It is like break dancing only…. crazier.) I am not just some video game obsessed junky. Thank you, for listing and reading.

Blog 3: The Matrix. Analysis

Brandon Miller
10/03/10
Blog 3:The Matrix. Analysis

“Why do my eyes hurt?” Neo asked “Because you never used them.” Was Morpheus reply. I love this quote because it is so relateable to modern society. So many time are we completely blind to what is going on around the world or even around the corner. The media keeps things from us, the government and even our family. And most of the time we have no clue that what they are telling us is a fabrication of the truth. In a way we are all living in a matrix of some kind.


I will give you an example, nine times out of ten, when you crack open a history text book, it is mainly going to be about U.S history. Even when they do mention another country, it is very brief and it still is related to the U.S in some way. We never really get the full story of what really happened in other parts of the world. It is almost as if the government wants to always show that America is the superior country. They try to always show the U.S. in a good light and make the other country's look wrong. They keep away the truth from us like the machines did in the movie, trying to keep us under control.


It is like the book Science Fiction and Philosophy said, our brain is a vat being told things about their surroundings that is completely different then the truth. The news is a great example, the major news network almost always talk only what is going on in America, unless something monumental happens. They lie to us and try to scare us in order to keep us buying things and prevent us from asking the bigger questions. For example, the swine flu or H1N1 was completely hipped. The news kept trying to scare us into buying things for our protection. Meanwhile, the swine flu only killed about 25174 (http://www.flucount.org/) while the regular flu as killed millions of people within the same year. It is all in order to control us and point us in the same direction. It is like the book Science Fiction and Philosophy said, our brain is a vat being told things about their surroundings that is completely different then the truth.


The allegory of the cave says that when one person learns the truth and tries to preach it to others, they will refuse to believe them. Or worse, they will turn their backs on them. I feel that is true in The Matrix and real life. Whenever some one writs a book on a particular political subject you have the people who instantly go with and the people who challenge it. It is human nature to agree with the first thing they hear, get used to it, but when being told they are wrong, they cant handle it. Like Neo did when he learned his whole life he was a battery.


I think the The Matrix did a very good job of challenging the question of what is reality and how we are forced to believe things that are not. America while a good country, consistently covers our faces with the veil of lies. We try to learn new things about the world and are shunned for it. But we can inprove if we all learn the truth, together.