Author Archives: Joshua Sanchez

Going All-Digital and Its Flaws

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The rise of digital stores and streaming services for shows, music, and games is one I just can’t ignore anymore. I feel like streaming services and digital stores over the years have become garbage. They used to be pretty cool with stuff like Netflix and Spotify but now just getting flooded with them from every TV network to the point where we might as well just go back to having TV channels.

When streaming services for us launched they were pretty cool you were able to have everything at once. It started becoming a lot more problematic when more of them started showing up. It was fine before when it was mostly Netflix and Hulu as the big two services, in addition to specialty ones like Crunchyroll or Funimation. However, companies starting their own services so they don’t have to license out to the pre-existing services is when it starts to feel dirty. They’re just trying to get out money while we’re paying for services we were already using. One of my favourite childhood franchises, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, has shows and movies across different services and there isn’t one where I can get everything. The 2003 series is on Paramount, the 2012 series is on Hulu, and the 2007 movie is on HBO Max (which isn’t even available in Canada), I am not about to pay that much for 3 things. At this point, I would buy the stuff physically.

Ownership is a huge issue. When you pay for Netflix, you don’t actually own any of the shows. Once the licence for a show is taken away, the show gets taken off the service and you can’t watch it anymore. I don’t want the ability to watch a show taken away from me in a second. Also, if the entire service shuts down, everything gets taken away from you. Thankfully, physical releases of these shows are still a thing. However, the problem is when there isn’t a physical version. When Wandavision was initially reported to not get a physical release, people were freaking out. Once there’s no legal way to watch a show, people will have to resort to piracy. Morally speaking, it’s okay to pirate media in this case. However, people don’t like going in this direction for the most part. At least for shows, movies, and music, you can always run pirated copies without hardware limitations. Games don’t exactly get that same treatment. There’s no real way to just pirate a digital game without complicated software. The other stuff can just be recorded with screen recording software or even capture devices.

Region-locking is another thing. There are things that are only available in certain regions despite the fact it’s on the same service. People did start using VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) to get around this. However, companies are starting to crack down and can now detect when one is in use. It’s pretty dirty to do this in my opinion. You’re already paying for the service, and you’re already paying for the VPN. On top of this, people use VPNs to protect their devices whenever they are using public internet. How will people feel safe using these services at places like airports or coffee shops? The answer is quite simple. They just have to risk it. Especially since these accounts are usually linked to your banking information.

I’ve been in favour of physical copies for a long time. I’ve been against buying digital copies of games because I don’t want digital copies to take up room on my systems’ internal storage or resort to running off an external drive. There’s also something magical about opening up a game case and inserting the cartridge or disc. You don’t get that kind of experience with just selecting something on a digital store or a streaming service catalogue.

Digital releases have also ruined bonus content for me. It used to be fun to look at behind-the-scenes footage or even other weird things that would be included in physical releases. Nowadays, that stuff just gets uploaded to YouTube or somewhere else and it doesn’t feel special anymore. Also, liner notes have started to become scarce, especially with games. I used to read the instruction manual for games while playing them without being able to just pull out a guide. Nowadays, the manual is its own section on a game system. However, if I just open the manual on my phone, I’m more tempted to just pull out a full guide which isn’t fun for me.

Another main issue is having too many options. Back then, we were forced to make a decision when renting or buying stuff. That game or movie was your main entertainment for a few days which forced you to commit to it. We couldn’t just pause something and get back to it at a later date. You would have to renew or pay a late fee which at that point you might as well have bought the thing you rented. I rented games when Blockbuster was around and I played the life out of them. I actually still have one of them because I never returned it after Blockbuster closed. You can’t get that experience once a streaming service shuts down.

So what’s the solution for this? Keep physical releases around as much as possible. Fans of these things probably want to get physical copies anyways. Once the digital version is gone, people can rip their physical releases as a backup. People already back up their CD collection to high-quality FLAC files so they have something better than an MP3. Relying on digital versions being around is not a good idea because of stuff like licensing or keeping servers up. Licences and servers cost money which is why Netflix keeps raising their prices.

I don’t think technology is at a point where it can support an all-digital climate. There are too many weird difficulties that go alongside it. On top of that, it makes things feel less valued. I don’t get the same enjoyment anymore when something is released on Netflix or Disney+ anymore compared to a physical release. The physical release made it feel like something I can own rather than just be available at my own convenience. As long as these problems exist, I can’t support an all-digital future.

The Art of the Tier List

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You’ve probably seen a tier list before. If you don’t, basically it’s a list ranking things from best to worst. But rather than the typical Top 10 or whatever number list, each thing is categorized within “tiers.”

How do these things even work? Typically it ranges from S (the best), A, B, C, D, and F, kind of like school grades. Sometimes A to C can have plus and minuses too if we’re going with the letter grade thing. Another way to categorize them would be top, high, mid, low, and bottom. One of the key points of a tier list is putting multiple things into a tier. Sometimes they will be ordered within tiers, other times they will be unordered. You can do this in software like photoshop or also websites such as Tier List Maker. There are pretty cool designs you can use but I feel like the one that’s provided by Tier List Maker is the best since they’re just squares.

The origins of tier lists can be traced back to the fighting game community. People would put characters into tiers to determine which characters were better than others. When people posted these online, it would set the tone for what characters people are going to be using for the game’s lifespan. There are multiple things to account for when looking at a tier list for fighting game characters. These include moveset, strengths, weaknesses, and usability. Whenever I check a tier list, I go with the best character that’s easy to use. Even if there are better characters, I wouldn’t consider them the best for me. You also need to take into account who does better against who. Just because a character is the best doesn’t mean it will be easy to fight every other character. Sometimes a mid-tier character will work better against your opponent than a top tier. Since not a lot of people play mid-tier characters, that would mean that people don’t have that much knowledge in the match-up which will make it harder to fight. There are websites dedicated to fighting game character tier lists but most of them run differently. Sometimes they are community-built, other times they don’t specify who is making them. Just don’t trust online gaming news websites that are for all kinds of games. They usually don’t know a lot about the games and will rank things that nearly everyone will disagree with

Tier lists start to really take off when people started using them for other things like fast food places, movies, bands, and other various things. As long as the topic doesn’t offend anyone, they’re pretty harmless on their own. People would start wars over others’ opinions such as ranking McDonald’s in low tier or saying that The Magic School Bus was not a good show. However, sometimes people only rank things the way they are in relation to each other. Just because one thing is in the C tier doesn’t mean they’re that horrible compared to something in B. People only do this when it’s a tier list based completely on one person’s opinion. It’s a bit different when it’s made by a group of people. You can get rid of outliers and it will give people a better idea of what is good or not.

Sometimes people will try to rank something they don’t know about. Or maybe even a bunch of things they don’t know about. In this case, I wouldn’t even rank things. That’s like me trying to rank hockey players or Star Wars characters. I wouldn’t know how to rank them because I know nothing. I even made a tier list a while ago ranking my favourite metal vocalists. For the ones I didn’t know a lot about, I was honest and said I need to listen to them more.

Tier lists are now looked down upon as a cheap way to farm interactions on the internet. However, I think it’s just a way to express how you feel about certain things. A mass audience shouldn’t be a reason why you rank certain things. Whenever a “community-built” tier list is made, most of the time it’s limited to a select group. This is for the best so we don’t have huge debates over extremely differentiating opinions. Different opinions are fine, but when it seems that everyone has a different answer, it makes it hard to build these things.

As someone who has seen my fair share of tier lists, I will admit there were times when I just yelled “YOU’RE WRONG!!” That was pretty immature of me and I should not do it again. However, this is unfortunately how most people react to tier lists. The debates I have seen on the internet over these lists are insane to the point where I feel like animals are the ones talking. I think it’s because people lack the ability to judge things for themselves and seek others’ opinions. When their opinions don’t exactly line up, they feel like they need to defend it in every way possible. There really shouldn’t be any need for this if everything is down to opinion.

https://twitter.com/lamarmvpszn/status/1593744086598656000?s=20&t=7T0Iuf310BL3sSpc1txg_w

Tier lists are just a novelty. They don’t actually hold any value to determine what is good. Unless it is a community-built list, there will always be biases when making a tier list such as personal experiences or influence from those around you. Tier lists are one of the few things that have helped people rank things over the years. Sure they’re not perfect, but they get the job done. Would I use it to determine how I perceive things? Not exactly. I’m not going to think of tier lists as the holy grail, but rather to see what the consensus is. I might disagree with them, but I’m not always going to say their opinion is invalid. I think when people stop looking at one person’s tier list as the truth, people will finally be able to judge things for themselves.

Technology and Planned Obsolescence

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It seems that these days we’re constantly getting new tech every year. Whether it’s simply an upgrade for last year’s tech or something new, it’s pretty fun to see what’s coming. Because of this, older devices become irrelevant over time. This is something that people like to call planned obsolescence. Over the years I started realizing this is an issue. Why do tech companies have the need to do this?

My best guess is greed. Technology used to be upgradable so you can be somewhat up-to-date without having to buy a completely new device. Take the original MacBook for example. Steve Jobs was encouraging us to open up our MacBooks to replace stuff like the hard drive or the RAM. Over time, the MacBook started becoming more glued together until we reached the point where consumers can no longer do internal upgrades by themselves. Want to upgrade the hard drive in your 2022 MacBook Pro? Too bad. You’re not allowed to make any mods to your device. But what if there’s just one piece that will make it up to date? Again, too bad. Your device is pretty much obsolete and you can’t do anything unless you buy a whole new machine.

https://youtu.be/VJIdIrtC0jc

On the software side of things. Apple likes to update iOS every year. However, with each update more devices become unsupported. The current version of iOS, iOS 16, dropped support for the iPhone 7. I feel like it was just yesterday that it was released and for support to be dropped now is insane. There’s nothing about the iPhone 7 that feel out of date. The hardware is still fast enough and it doesn’t have a headphone jack which is a modern feature. I guess it’s just not modern enough compared to the models that came after it. It’s one thing for the main software to be maxed out since the device reach its limit. But there are some things that should still work. There are also now certain apps that no longer work on older devices. I can get behind games not being supported on older devices since games are becoming more technologically advanced. But for simple apps like social media or streaming services, it makes no sense. Streaming apps like Netflix being unsupported makes no sense to me since most of it is already internet based. Once the things you like stop getting support, you are pretty much left with no choice but to upgrade.

Sometimes, changing a thing on one device makes people buy new things. Firewire used to be a superior format to USB. Once USB started to beat firewire specs-wise, all of a sudden every device that was using firewire felt dated and people started switching over to peripherals that were USB based. Another example is when Apple switched from the 30-pin connector to lightning. Every accessory that used the 30-pin connector was obsolete and consumers were forced to buy the same things over again just to support the new connector. Now that USB-C is becoming more prominent, it won’t long until everyone is forced to buy adapters just so then we can still use all of our current devices on new machines. It’s surprising how people are able to accept this considering that they used to be furious about technology upgrades. Back when the Super Nintendo was being released, parents weren’t too happy that new games weren’t going to be released for the old Nintendo Entertainment System they just bought for their child. Now we’re okay with our old technology becoming out of style. Even when Apple removed the headphone jack starting from the iPhone 7, people were quick to defend their decision by supporting their new Airpods. I like wireless headphones but I would still pick wired headphones any day. I don’t want to resort to needing an adapter or going Bluetooth. I just want to connect my headphones to my cell phone without any issues. I love my Galaxy Buds but I still have problems connecting them. My phone sometimes doesn’t detect them right away and in the case of using them on my desktop or laptop, it took a while for them to finally be recognized. Not every technological advancement is perfect which is okay. But we still need the option to use our old tech for a while until they get it right.

Companies are becoming more greedy every year. They are always going to find a new way to make sure our device becomes obsolete. However, I think the dirtiest trick in the book is designing the device to essentially become a brick once it stops getting support. The Playstation 3 and Playstation 4 were designed to do this. Inside both consoles, there is a battery that runs things like the internal clock. However, in the case of the PS4, if the battery dies and you can’t connect to Sony’s online server (which will probably be shut down in the future), the console will no longer function. Thankfully a firmware update did resolve this issue. However, if this was ignored, then every PS4 would’ve gone to waste once the battery in all of the systems die. You wouldn’t even be able to sell it other than for parts. Technology used to be built for last but now it’s built for destruction, like IKEA furniture that moves.

 

Tech corporations are going to continue using tactics to make sure we upgrade to the latest tech. However, the current methods feel dirty and cheap. I feel like we need innovation again rather than meaningless upgrades. We also want quality again, not something that’s going to stop working in years. They need to understand why people still love a lot of old technology. They were built to last and have almost all the features they want/need. People want their headphone jacks back. They also want to upgrade parts not buy new machines. No one wants to see the tech they spent money on go to waste in just a few years. They want something that they can always rely on.

How Different Music Genres Make Me Feel

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Whenever I don’t want to think too much about the world around me, I like to listen to some tunes. From the moment I listened to my first song, I always needed something to listen to make me feel better. Music is a universal language that anyone will understand. Even if it’s in another language, there will be something that someone will connect with. Then there are the various genres that provide people with their taste. It’s never just one genre that helps me get through the day. Classical, jazz, and metal are probably the best genres that help me get going. All three of these genres are different from each other but all provide a similar goal; to make me relaxed in various ways.

Classical music is the typical genre that people consider calm. You mostly associate it with pieces like Peer Gynt by Edvard Grieg (better known as Morning Mood) or Fur Elise by Beethoven. However, I also think that intense pieces like The Planets Suite by Gustav Holst or Gustav Mahler’s 1st symphony (specifically the fourth movement) are also calming despite the intensity. There’s something about the rich sound of the brass that gives me a sense of triumph which is necessary for me to feel like a winner. I’ve been to my fair share of classical music concerts and it does a great job of making me feel relaxed. Sometimes, it can be a little too good at doing it. There were two times when I almost fell asleep, and both times were during cello concertos. There’s something soothing about the sound of the cello that makes it perfect to sleep to. Simply piano melodies are also great at putting me to sleep. I fell asleep on road trips a few times just from hearing a piano. Even modern classical music works. The works of Frank Ticheli and Eric Whitacre are easily some of the best things that light up my mood. Some pieces that I recommend to lighten your mood would be Lux Aurumque by Eric Whitacre, Earth Song by Frank Ticheli, and Mahler’s 1st Symphony.

Jazz is another one where the entire range works for my lifestyle. When I need to cool down, I’ll listen to a ballad like Crystal Silence by Chick Corea. Or if I need intensity to counteract I’ll listen to something like Moment’s Notice by John Coltrane or Teen Town by Weather Report. I’m attracted to things that get interesting in a short amount of time and jazz is the perfect genre for that. There’s something satisfying about a sudden change that just makes my brain go bananas in a fun way. There’s nothing spicier than a nice little surprise change in a piece. The melodies that are coming out of the brass can’t fail to make anyone feel lively. Then there’s the rhythm section. Whether that would be the piano and/or guitar playing spicy chords or the bass and/or percussion laying down the groove, there’s always something to get you moving. Jazz compositions that I recommend to get you moving or relaxing would be Hang Gliding by Maria Schneider, Moment’s Notice by John Coltrane, and Windows by Chick Corea.

Finally, there’s metal. It’s not a genre that most people would think of as relaxing but they have no idea how great it actually works. Metal is mostly about aggression which makes it the perfect outlet for someone to direct their anger. I notice that I always calm down whenever I listen to metal. And I’m not talking about some lame pop metal. I’m talking about anything where the guitars sound like chainsaws and the vocals sound like a tasmanian devil. It’s kind of like how people like horror movies. There are people that like a good adrenaline rush and metal (at least the faster subgenres like death, black, or thrash metal) is pretty at giving people a way to express that. When I get that rush, all of a sudden I feel like my negativity goes away. I guess I like actually hearing brutality than letting it coop up until I let my rage out when it was clearly inappropriate. There’s also stuff that makes me feel majestic like power and symphonic metal. The operatic epicness mixed with the energy of metal essentially became a drug to me to the point where I have to listen to it otherwise my day would become an absolute dumpster. Some songs I would recommend to meet this expectation include The Violation by Fleshgod Apocalypse, Hate Über Alles by Kreator, and Slaughter Of The Soul by At The Gates.

So what do all three genres give me in general? They give me something that feels like an escape from the outside world. The music that’s mainstream such as pop, rap, and hip-hop started moulding itself into the world to the point where I just associate it with everyday life. When I listen to pop radio, it just reminds me of going to school as a child. I don’t like being reminded of how bad elementary and high school were for me and pop was the soundtrack for that. Hip-hop and rap also remind me of people that were obnoxious and gym class which makes me anxious. The last thing I want music to do for me is to make me feel scared about what’s coming up. Music is supposed to make me calm and for music to make me feel anxious feels insulting to me. The three genres I talked about aren’t too mainstream which makes it easier for me to escape into my own little world. Classical is there to give me a journey and feel like I’m on top of the world. Jazz is there to make me feel lively and feel like a little kid. Metal is there to take out my negativity and make me feel like there’s someone for me.

Music is the one constant in my life that I will never let go away. It gives me a lot of happiness and is also a reason to look forward to my day. Without it, I might as well be nothing.

Fashion Trends and Thinking For Yourself

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It’s not uncommon for people to wear whatever is popular nowadays. I’ll even catch myself drooling over what cool piece of fashion is out. However, over the years I’ve noticed people have started falling into the trap of having to need the latest trend. I can’t blame people for that since they want to fit in. However, I think this is dangerous to individuality. If we keep going down this rabbit hole of being trendy all the time, eventually everyone will look the same. We might as well wear uniforms if we wear the same thing as everyone else all the time.

One of the main reasons I think people try to go with whatever is trending is to impress others. No one likes negative looks so people just try to look good in people’s eyes. That’s fine, but at that point, you’re just looking for people’s validation, which isn’t a healthy way to live. You should be free to wear whatever you want without thinking about what others think. Do you want to wear those checkerboard pants that make you look like you’re in a ska band? Go for it. Want to wear that fedora that makes you feel smart? Wear it. Want to wear those bright orange shoes? Get out there and wear them. There’s no one there to actually stop you. The only thing that’s preventing that is people’s judgment. If people are actually judging what you wear, then there’s a good chance they can’t think of outfits for themself and think people should just wear what everyone else does. As long as what you wear isn’t hurting anyone, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t wear what you want. Of course, there’s stuff like uniforms or dress codes, but doesn’t really qualify as following a fashion trend. Following a fashion trend would mean copying your peers in a way that feels unnecessary. My fashion sense has always been pretty wild. I would wear something that to most people feels flashy. Yet I see my peers wear the same dull clothing as the other person, which typically consists of muted colours. Nothing wrong with wearing something muted. Heck, I even like to wear all black sometimes. But I like to spice it up. Last Thursday, I wore a black turtleneck, black jeans, and a black jacket. Now it would’ve been pretty easy for me to put on black socks and black boots. However, I took a different approach and instead wore aqua blue/green socks and white sneakers. All of a sudden, I didn’t feel like I was following a fashion trend. I felt like I was wearing something I would wear. I find whatever thing I like, try it out, and see if I would keep wearing it. If I like it, then I keep it in my wardrobe until I’m not into it anymore.

https://twitter.com/nlcpraveen/status/1590916644142215168?s=20&t=Y-HZAPlkArSGDPb4pPsS0w

Another thing to think about is status. Some trends involve high-end clothing and wearing it is an indicator of how much money you have. I see people wear Gucci or Prada and can’t help but think “Wow. You just had to show off your money”. Then people are going to start trying to do the same and it will look like everyone is rich when we all know that’s not true. Another case of this was when people were following “hype” brands like Supreme and Off-White. That stuff is not only expensive for what you’re getting but also released in limited quantities. People would get them and feel like they are part of a club and had a sense of belonging. I would see groups of people wearing all of these brands such as Off-White, Anti Social Social Club, and Bape which made them look like they had no idea how to dress for themselves.

There are also fashion gurus who are mostly on YouTube but exist on other platforms too. They usually try to give tips on how to dress but they seem to try to fit their audience into a square which kind of ruins the point of being fashionable. Sometimes they put you down and say you’re dressing wrong. While it’s good for stuff like dressing up for professional environments, they don’t seem to take into account how to dress in everyday situations or for yourself. On the men’s fashion side, they normally use tactics such as “teaching” people how to dress for women or to feel like a man. This is definitely preying on most young straight cisgender men’s hypermasculinity and heteronormativity since they don’t like being seen as feminine and/or queer. The women’s side of fashion influencing is significantly more tame as they give a little bit more room for creativity when it comes to what they wear. They are given more options compared to men and they don’t normally emphasize femininity to the same extent as masculinity.

The other big problem is trying to keep up with fashion trends. One day one thing is going to be popular and then the next day it’s no longer the case. Everyone has moved on to the latest thing while you’re stuck with yesterday’s hot thing. Then you catch up for a bit before you get behind again. You’re now stuck in this endless cycle of trying to be fashionable. You can stop this right now and start dressing for yourself. Good fashion means taking risks. When people are designing clothes, they have no idea how it’s actually going to work in real life. However, we never actually give it that much hate since some of these things is only out for a bit.

Fashion is subjective. If you like something, you can wear it. If you don’t like something, you’re not obligated to wear it. Just don’t put others down for wearing something that you despise. The only thing that matter is whatever you’re wearing is comfortable and appropriate. Besides, everyone will eventually forget what you wore that one day. And if they do for negative reasons, they’re just a bunch of losers who think people’s validations are what drives society.

Why AI “Art” Isn’t Good For Art

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You may have seen some similar-looking art recently. They look nicely shaded, textured, and have other bells and whistles. But what if I told you they were all done without drawing a single thing? All of these pieces were made using AI. All you need to do is input a few prompts into AI software such as Midjourney or Wombo and get a “work of art without any artistic knowledge.

This is causing problems in the art community as they don’t consider AI art. I’m going to agree with the art community on this one and say that AI “artists” aren’t real artists. Art is about personal expression and inputting a bunch of prompts and letting a computer do it for you doesn’t sound like self-expression to me.

One way to look at this is as if you hired someone else to do it for you. I can commission someone to make a piece of art for me and get something amazing. However, I’m not the artist in this situation, but rather the person I commissioned. Same for AI. You didn’t do it. The computer did.

I have some experience with AI Art in the form of poetry. There’s a website out there that allows you to input a few words and you can get an auto-generated poem. I used it before to quickly do an assignment but it spewed out similar-looking poems every time. This is another huge flaw of AI art as pieces look similar. In fact, if you look up anything made using Midjourney, you’ll start noticing how similar they look. Artists having similar styles isn’t uncommon, but people using the same software is not right. Pieces start losing identity as a result of this. When I see individual artists, I can start putting names into each piece. Even musical compositions are identifiable. I can hear Mahler, Mendelssohn, and Grainger when I hear them because they are all coming from different worlds. The AI doesn’t come from a different world even if other prompts are inputted.

So why does this matter? Think about some of your favourite logos, album covers, or anything else that can be represented by a piece of art. Imagine if those were drawn by AI rather than a real person. It wouldn’t be capable of getting the iconic looks we got for our favourite things.

Look at the cover of August Burns Red’s upcoming album Death Below. I don’t know what this is supposed to represent. From what I got from my friends, they believe the prompts that were inputted were “post-apocalyptic Disneyland” and “molten volcano”. Older August Burns Red album covers meant a lot more. For example, the album cover for Messengers is a hand holding a candle. This ties in well with the vaguely Christian themes of the album. Or Rescue & Restore where it shows someone reaching out for a bird. These simple yet effective album covers would have not been possible when using AI. It would’ve spit out the generic garbage that was used for Death Below; soulless, meaningless, garbage.

Some people might see the benefits such as allowing artists who lost the ability to draw a chance to still create something. Or it gives a chance for those that don’t know a lot about art to make something that looks “good”. That’s something I can get behind, but the software that’s out doesn’t do a good job of doing what people want; art. Some of the things that people with limited abilities have conjured up still feel like art compared to what a robot is able to produce. I don’t really care if you don’t consider yourself a good artist. A child’s scribbly drawing is more pleasing to me than whatever the hell Midjounrey produced since it doesn’t think like a person.

So while the technology in itself isn’t bad, the fact that people are abusing it is another story. People are eventually going to drive artists out of business. Art is one of the last things that make us human and for robots to take over is the ultimate insult. This is going to give schools a reason to start cutting out art programs and will deprive children of their creativity. Art was one of my favourite things to do in elementary school because it gave me a way to express myself in a way that no other subject can. Art is about creativity and while you may argue it still takes creativity to think of a prompt, it takes another level to make decisions that fit your piece best. Not every piece of art needs to be technically perfect. Look at modern art for example. They’re doing crazy things now that would only be possible with the human mind alone. The use of AI would make it pretty sterile, just like how autotune is taking away human talent. We really shouldn’t need robots in place of brilliance.

So why make a big fuss? I’m tired of seeing things that looked pretty become dull. I don’t want to see character in my art, not nothingness. I want to see what a person can think of, not a robot. I want to see imperfections and flaws, not something that’s predictable. I just want art to be art again, not something that can just be produced and be lifeless. It won’t be a matter of time until corporations start using it to make money like mass producing paintings for people to buy or using it in place of hiring a designer. I’ve seen some terrible art and designs my whole life. But at least I can remember them instead of what thing is being produced by a machine. I can even remember the abomination known as “behold the Monkey” which was supposed to be a retouch of “Behold the Man”. I would rather see more of those than poetic garbage piece number 96024. Imperfection is what makes us human and having something that we can relate to is a lot better than trying to make something that doesn’t hold any meaning.

Aspiring Actor Believes There Is A Future For Him

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There are now more people that want to get into acting in Vancouver, but are they ready for the real world?

Movie clapper with Action text on blue background

(Marco Verch Professional Photographer / Flickr)

In the modern age of filmmaking, it seems that getting into acting is easier than back then. Resources for getting into the film industry are becoming more available now, according to Vancouver Film School Student, Anmol Sandhu.

“And the thing about my acting experience is that all my instructors are working actors. They’re industry professionals. So we’re able to learn from the experiences they had and use those practical skills and apply it to us and help us grow.”- Anmol Sandhu

Sandhu also talked about his experience in film school. He said that film school allowed him to connect with people that made him feel as if they knew him for years. They take risks and support each other in a field that requires it. He also mentioned that the advent of streaming services also allows them to distribute their work easier.

Of course, not everything about going into acting is easy. Sandhu has heard from the people around him that acting is not a sustainable career. Despite this hurdle, he still decided to pursue acting. He has no regrets about going down this path.

Will Summer In B.C. Be Safe Enough For Residents This Year?

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With the summer season coming around, people are wondering what it can look like this year with mandates being lifted.

Sitting On the Dock of a Bay

(G. Lamar / Flickr)

Over the last two years, summer was taken over by mask mandates and other restrictions due to the ongoing pandemic. However, since the rise of vaccines and mandates being dropped, people are having a positive outlook on what summer will look like. Sammuel Zalameda, a B.C. resident, shares his thoughts about what summer can look like.

“Us as individuals, we’re free to do whatever we want, wherever we want now because of the removal of those restrictions, so it gives us a lot more freedom to do things that we want now.” – Sammuel Zalameda

  • Although he is optimistic, he points out that COVID can still exist regardless of restrictions being lifted and more vaccines being rolled out. Despite some of his doubts, he still looks forward to spending time with friends and family.

Should You Wear Ear Protection When Going Back To Concerts?

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More concerts are coming to Vancouver in the upcoming months. However, the topic of noise levels is a concern for concertgoers and people wonder whether they should wear ear protection or not.

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(Paul Hudson / Flickr)

Earlier this week, there were back-to-back concerts in downtown Vancouver. These are places that are known to have high sound levels. Some people, like Andy Kovacs, like to remember a time when this issue wasn’t talked about.

“Every decibel at a concert reminded us of the few small joys we had to share. We craved concerts that shook our bones” – Andy Kovacs

Despite this, people are still wearing ear protection to these shows. Kovacs himself also said that loud concerts are no longer for him. While the sound levels may not be harmful the first time, they can start causing damage after going to more shows. Medical experts advise wearing ear protection when going to shows.

New Challenges Arise for Finals Season

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Finals season has finally come for post-secondary students. However, things are looking different for those who have started college during the pandemic. This year, finals are taking place in more traditional learning environments.

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(Alberto G. / Flickr)

For Jackie Yang, a computer science student at the University of Alberta, it was a struggle to adjust.

It was the first final he had after restrictions were lifted. He said that it was significantly different than what he had online.

“There was way more pressure to do good than let’s say high school finals or online finals, and I felt like I had a lot of things to get ready for and it was pretty overwhelming at times” -Jackie Yang

He also said that his study habits changed during this time. He would stay in his dorm all day studying so he doesn’t stay up at night. This was important to him as his tests were early in the morning. Despite these struggles, he managed to leave his tests with confidence.  He celebrated the end of his tests by getting some rest.

He is now back in Surrey, waiting for next year to come.