onThought

Archive for August, 2006

California Club

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

I totally just had lunch on the WB lot and saw George Clooney (<5 feet away) playing basketball while shooting Oceans 13. Thanks Skye!

Open Letter

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

Mr. Christianson,

I noticed that I had received about three hits to my blog from your article regarding Apple Computer’s Switch campaign this past week. While I will not respond to your straw man arguments against Apple, I will respond to your comments about me.

First, please know that my thoughts here are as an individual and not on behalf of Apple Computer.

Your statement that I am an actor is completely false. As I have stated before, I am just an average college student. I completed a survey on Apple’s website that asked for stories from people who had recently switched to the Mac. Apple liked my story and invited me to share it. Nothing more.

If I were an actor, I would have jumped at the chance to join the Screen Actors Guild after completing the commercial with Apple. However, I am still not a member and I have not pursued any acting outside of my friends’ class projects.

Second, I believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ. I believe that loving each other just as Christ showed love to the world is the greatest moral principle. I do not believe that Old Testament Mosaic laws apply after Christ ushered the Age of Grace. Therefore, I do not believe that homosexuality and the teachings of Christ are at odds. You are free to disagree, but please do not allow your opinion to discriminate.

Third, I supported President Bush in two elections. I now acknowledge that I made a mistake twice. Shame on me. I supported the military action in Iraq before the truth that President Bush lied about the weapons of mass destruction was uncovered.

My support for President Bush further declined when he halted an internal investigation to the illegal wiretapping of all Americans’ domestic calls and shut down EPA research libraries that contained information that countered his horrid environmental policies.

Make no mistake: I love America. I believe there is still more opportunity here than anywhere else in the world. I believe that American can be a shining city upon a hill again, but not under the policies of large bureaucracy, uncontrolled irresponsible corporate behavior, and world policing.

I have a gigantic 10′x6′ flag covering an entire wall in my room. I love this country. It was built upon educated dissent and I am only continuing that tradition with my pithy political posts.

Finally, the Switch campaign happened four years ago. It’s a faint memory only to tech geeks. Apple’s compelling personal technology products, not the people who appeared in its advertisements, determined its profit margin.

I have never discussed my political, spiritual, or other views with Apple and I do not believe my views were pertinent to my promotion of its products. The Switch campaign put regular people in the spotlight. We came from different parts of the country at different points in life to publicly share the enjoyment of a company’s products.

Your conclusions about Apple and me are misguided. I assure you that I have never tried to make anyone gay, hate the US, use drugs, or worship satan.

Regards,
Jeremiah Cohick

Freedom Refrain

Monday, August 28th, 2006

There’s a refrain being sung in the world that I hear wherever I travel… whether that’s Nicaragua preparing for a pinnacle election, or South Africa recovering from Apartheid more than a decade later, or everyday struggles in the ghettos of Boston. There is something fundamental about the human condition that longs to be free. Freedom is a concept that you can’t recognize until it’s absent. I know that I’m not the first to think these thoughts, but it’s only recently that I have understood them.

More so, it’s only recently that I have challenged the belief that America is free. We’re taught in our schools that America is free, so you don’t think about the absence of any freedoms in America. It’s easy, though far few do, to look at corporate behavior, politician behavior, or any other larger entity’s behavior as anti-freedom. But when do we start to question whether our own behavior is simply conditioned submission to a definition of freedom that’s incomplete?

The photo for this entry is the Equality section of the South African Constitution that protects against discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, a protection the United States federal government still does not recognize.

If you’re not offended by the direction of the United States, you’re not paying attention.

How to Make a Documentary

Saturday, August 26th, 2006

1. Form a compelling narative, not an encyclopedia entry or lecture. The story should connect the microcosm (your specific topic) to the macrocosm (your audience’s worldview). Use yourself and your anecdotes to connect an audience that might seem completely disconnected from the topic, but don’t think for the audience.

   Examples: Fast Food Nation, Fog of War

2. Find a villain: a threatening idea, person, problem, or thing. The distinction between good and evil is inherent to humans, even when we cannot fully classify something as good or evil. Complex characters are best. The audience should feel convoluted about outright hatred of the villain.

   Examples: Robert McNamara in Fog of War, human behavior’s impact upon the environment in An Inconvenient Truth, National Riffle Association in Bowling for Columbine

3. Find a hero. This is more important than finding the villain because the audience should leave motivated to be part of the hero.

   Examples: Morgan Spurlock in Supersize Me, closing credits for An Inconvenient Truth

4. Be visually stunning. If you don’t have content, at least be pretty. or appalling.

   Example: March of the Penguins

Link: Michigan Guys

Friday, August 25th, 2006

Overhead at College: Steph’s premiere I’m the “Gay Dude”. She’s the “Hag”.

Truly Fair & Balanced

Friday, August 25th, 2006

I get nearly all of my news online. I only pick up a newspaper to play Sudoku and I don’t watch television regularly. I recognize the value of being an informed participant in the world, but don’t like to sift through the opinions anymore.

While I enjoy it, FOX News Channel is biased. Other news outlets are biased equally, and worse, poorly implement FNC-style tactics while making accusations of bias.

I tried to balance the mass media bias by subscribing to the XML feeds of a large quantity of news outlets. My NetNewsWire was overwhelmed with AP, Reuters, BBC, FOX, and more. Every update resulted in hundreds of stories, many similar or duplicates.

I became frustrated with the narrow breadth of the news. Granted, the scope was better than BBC World News, which I watched hopelessly in Nicaragua for two-weeks over winter break. The channel ran the same three headline stories repeatedly, only interrupted by weather and American entertainment news. I still fail to understand why celebrities having babies in Africa is important to everyone in the world. or anyone at all.

“Surely, there has to be one unbiased news outlet with some scope,” I thought. I dropped the XML feeds and tried Drudge for a few weeks.

When Drudge only posted links to stories critical of Al Gore’s phenomenal An Inconvenient Truth, I looked to PBS to be my BBC. News Hour is so undeveloped that I question why PBS even tries.

Then, I Googled for awhile and found The Epoch Times. While the writing is great and seemingly more independent, the coverage was not that as diverse.

While Googling, I decided to visit Google News, which is a wonderful assortment of every major news outlet prioritized by algorithms and delivered in an Atom XML feed. The site categorizes similar stories under a single headline. The scope is satisfactory and the ability to read the same story from several sources at once is convenient.

I’ll get my news from Google for now.

Backblog: July 28, 2006

When It’s Time to Change

Friday, August 25th, 2006

Why do you visit this blog?

Over the past four months, I have been asking myself

• why do I blog?
• should I continue blogging?
• what is my blog really?

I started blogging before it was termed blogging. (Unfortunately, I don’t have most of my original posts.) I enjoyed sharing links and quick thoughts when the internet was still geek. The web is mainstream now. The novelty of posting for other geeks in our secret clubhouse is gone.

Now, daily journals are cliche and I don’t like feeding creepy stalkers.

I already expound on new media stuff on the Emersive Digital Media Blog and the web doesn’t need another web standards advocate. (Really, supposed big name web developers or supposed “a-list” bloggers don’t have anything worthwhile to say anymore.)

I don’t have anything new to add to the political dialog. My posting on political issues is primarily to vent.

My only other hot issues are intellectual property and environmental concerns. Again, my eloquence is eclipsed (but not by any supposed “a-list” bloggers).

While I ponder the future of this space online, I am going to post several back blogs. These are posts that I started writing, but did not have time to complete and post.

The back blogs start tomorrow. I hope you enjoy! (Another question: Who am I doing this for?)

Link: Bob Dylan

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006

Bob Dylan: The music industry has no right to bitch about piracy when its modern recording technology only screws up good music anyway. I couldn’t agree more.

City of Angels. and Me.

Sunday, August 20th, 2006

Arthur & I have arrived in Los Angeles, CA.

Link: Who Needs Harvard

Monday, August 14th, 2006

Time: Who Needs Harvard? Emerson is the Harvard of Media Arts