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kjmalings [userpic]

digital art

February 3rd, 2008 (05:53 pm)
accomplished

current mood: accomplished

Right then, this is a recent piece I did in photoshop. mostly just to play around with the digital medium.


kjmalings [userpic]

Over Thinking

February 1st, 2008 (02:21 pm)
indifferent

current mood: indifferent

This is an email my mother sent to me, I started writing a rebuttal, and just got carried away. Regardless, I feel it was good writing practice (something I am really not very good at). This (obviously) is my first journal entry, and I thought it might be a good Idea to start with something previously written.

This was the original email

THE SPOILED UNDER-30 CROWD!!!
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If you are 30 or older you will think this is hilarious!!!!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their
tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what, with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning .... uphill BOTH ways yadda, yadda, yadda!
And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help
but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so
easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in
Utopia!

And I hate to say it but you kids today you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we
wanted to know something, we had to go to the darn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog

There was no email! We had to actually write somebody a letter...with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and!

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the
phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it! And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with
high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Sp ace Invaders' and 'asteroids' and the graphics sucked! Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, you were just screwed!

Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like
15 channels and there was no onscreen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to walk over to the TV to change the channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons!

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove or go build a frigging fire .... imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid Jiffy Pop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot.

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled!!!!!!!!!

You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!
Oh yea, and a seatbelt was Mom throwing her arm across your chest every time she hit the brakes.
Regards,
The over 30 Crowd
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Right, with that here is my counter argument.

Back in the day a stove had knobs that told you how hot the surface would get. with this knowledge the consumer would put what they wanted to get hot on or in the surface. At the turn of the millennium most microwaves and coffee pots look like they belong in a cockpit! Televisions are the same way. Back in the day you had a nice little knob that told you what channel you were on and you usually knew what would be on because there were only 15 channels. This generation is responsible for knowing how to use an entire user interface at ages as young as 3! Not only are we responsible for knowing how to use it and filter out all the crap we don't want or shouldn't see, but we also teach every one who is over 30 how to do so as well. Because appliances in the 1980's and before had far more limitations they also offered the user an easer experience of using and understanding these products. The products of today offer limitless selection and manipulation, these advantages are only available for those who have the knowledge to understand and control these devises.

Appliances are not the only area of information that the new generations are responsible for. Wile using the internet as a source of information may seem like an extremely convenient and quick way to write a paper. Keep in mind that we are expected to only have credible sources in our papers (this rules out yahoo, google or wickipidea). In addition to that, in higher education students are expected to go to the library and look up books for information as well as use the internet. (so the younger generations have to use a library too).
Pac Man and Astroid Adventure used to be the free hearted fun loving games that only went faster to implement difficulty. now games are based on so many more things, such as story line, graphics, programing ability. The generations now who are immersed in the video game community also know what makes a good game and what does not. Entire shows are dedicated to critiquing video games (something previously reserved for conventional art is now being applied to purely recreational activities) Not only have games become harder to play, but they have also become harder to make. Aside from that, games such as leap frog and dora the explorer have been produced to jam as much academic information in to kids heads as young as possible. even as young as young as 6 months! (no kidding a new devise has been invented. It is hung on a childs crib, an interface that says colors and words). These occurrences are not negative, but they put emphasis on being not only intelligent, but an intellectual at a very young age.

In addition to the social pressure to be intellectual there is also a professional pressure. Before it was possible for an individual to complete high-school get a job at G.M. and have a stainable income to support a family. Today this is not the case. In order for the People of this generation to compete with out sourcing and other career obstacles they are required to have some form of secondary education, even for some menial jobs training of some sort is mandatory.

To say that the population under 30 is spoiled, is and insult that I feel is undeserved. With the luxury we have due to technology comes a great intellectual responsibility. Take for example a water Faust. In the 1980's the Faust of information and technology was trickling, now the handle has been turned to a gush. Over all water is good, but in the water comes impurities like bacteria, lime and such. In addition to the increased water also comes increased impurities. With this gush of water the generation of today dose not only have to place a cup in order to catch the water and occasionally empty it, we must also constantly find vessels in which to place this abundance of water. With wealth of information, comes great responsibility. This concept can also be applied to the complaints from the past generations of having to walk insanely long distances. With the luxury of having a car that can drive up hill both ways, the driver of that car takes a lot of responsibility. They must have control over that vehicle for their own safety and the safety of others. others. Long before that one could say "you kids with your fire, in my day we just ate the meat raw, and hoped to god that we didn't die from bacteria". However those with fire had the responsibility to not burn them selves or others. This yadda yadda yadda, is actually well founded, and illustrates how grateful each generation should be for the luxuries they have due to the previous generation. Arguments of this nature do create a generation bearer, and due to the wealth of information today and social repercussions, I can not simply wright off these arguments as yadda yadda. Instead I feel compelled to organize my arguments, and come to a viable conclusion.

We should be grateful and respectful for the people who came before us. Previous generations has enabled us to obtain, use, and have the responsibility for any form of information or technology. In the future I will not only remind the next generations of what we did for them, but also what your generation has done for us, and what the previous generations have done for you. I will also illustrate to them, with this progression of information comes responsibility on their part.

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ok, I am done

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