My Tweeps

So I finally added a "List Widget" to my blog to fulfill the "Find Your Tweeps" quest.

The two individuals that I chose to include in my list are people who literally have nothing in common, but I look up to both of them all the same. These two people are Ron Paul, one of the Republican candidates for the upcoming election, and Chase Gabor, skateboarder and skateboard film guru.

Although most people may not agree with me, I personally believe that Ron Paul would be the best Republican candidate that American's could vote into office. Sure, he's a bit older than the other candidates, but should looks and age really play any role in the decision making process that occurs when once decided to support a candidate? I say no. When an individual opts to support a possible Republican candidate, I feel as if proposed policies and solutions to the problems we are currently experiencing are the only variables that should help execute a decision. Ron Paul wants to cut spending, $1 Trillion in his first year,  lowers taxes in order to bring jobs back to America, and stop regulations, such as Obamacare, from occurring. I personally do not understand what's not to like. I admit, I am no where near being the most politically savvy person, but all of Dr. Paul's ideas sounds great to me. Although I do realize the chances of him being chosen for the Republican candidate are very slim, it would still be nice to get someone into office who can truly balance the budget and turn this country around.

Next I would like to talk about Chase Gabor. This guy is a pretty ordinary dude, and is far from being a political figure in every sense of the term. The only attribute that sets Mr. Gabor apart from a good majority of the rest of this country is his career. Chase Gabor films various videos for the most popular skateboarding website in the world, The Berrics. Chase gets to do what he LOVES to do every single day of the week, which is push  around a piece of wood while holding an extremely high definition and extremely pricey camera. And what's better is that he makes a decent salary off of what he loves doing. This is what I like about Mr. Gabor, he made something out of nothing. Skateboarding usually only will result in two outcomes after a certain number of year: 1.) Going pro and making mad bank or 2.) Having a broken body by the age of twenty five. Yet, Gabor was able to take what he loves to do and make a living at it. After all, isn't that what most people want to get out of life? (Sarcasm)

But in all honesty, I truly respect both of these advocates that made it onto my list. And in fact, it turns out that they may actually have something in common, the motivation and courage to continue to fight for what they want. Whether it be Dr. Paul, and his continuing commitment to attempt to sway the American people to see things his way, or Mr. Gabor, who has relentlessly pursued his dreams in becoming the best skateboard videographer to ever walk the planet.

Reading Quest 1

During Chapter 2, I became extremely interested in the fact that Riley was able to identify a radar blip as an enemy missile based on basically a feeling in his gut. This is simply incredible. I became curious to see if there have been other instances of an unconscious decision ending up being the best decision to make. I found that the human brain is actually a great decision maker, that is when the decisions are made unconsciously. According to Alex Pouget, a professor at the University of Rochester,

"You don’t consciously decide to stop at a red light or steer around an obstacle in the road. Once we started looking at the decisions our brains make without our knowledge, we found that they almost always reach the right decision, given the information they had to work with."

During a study conducted by Pouget, participants were asked to stare at a computer screen with multiple dots. Most of these dots are moving randomly about the screen, but a set and controlled number of dots are moving either to the left or to the right. The longer that the participants stared at the dots, the more information was obtained and stored subconsciously, until the brain was able to ensure the participant that the dots were either moving to the left or moving to the right. At this moment the participant instantly realizes which way they dots are moving with out even thinking about the complex process that it took to gain this information.

I guess this is why when one spots something laying in the road, that person is instantly "encouraged" to swerve in order to avoid the object. This type of thinking is extremely affective in the way that it allows for good decisions to be made in a reasonable amount of time based on the information presented to the brain.

Fads And Trends.

Both fads and trends come and go, there is no denying this. Here are some of the trends and fads that I personally believe will either leave an impact on our society, or fade into the abyss of useless information that Google has so kindly been able to make accessible to the people of this world. Anyways, let's start with the (more than likely) useless fads that my generation will (more than likely) look back on years from now and laugh at.

1.) Being A Hipster


I can honestly say I have no idea where this whole thing came from, but literally overnight it seemed as if the word "Hipster" was a common household term. Apparently, this is a hipster.>>>
Now, you may think that image is a little over exaggerated, but I dare to disagree. Hipsters love big framed sun glasses, v-necks, cardigans, tight pants, and vans. I can almost guarantee if you were to walk into any Starbucks anywhere in this country, there would be some form of Hipster sitting in the corner playing with his or her iPhone or blogging about something related to foreign policy. Being a Hipster isn't such a bad thing though, they support open-thinking and progressive movement towards a better world. They tend to be well educated, although not all of them are, and are very current on the happenings in the different parts of the world. For more information on Hipsters, click here. This may have sounded like a rant on this new counterculture that has emerged, but really I have nothing against Hipsters. I believe this may be a fad simply because it seems to be mainly focused around fashion. If you don't dress a certain way, you aren't hip enough to be a hipster. Different fashion fads change so rapidly it's ridiculous. I could be wrong, but that's the way I see it.

2.) The iPhone

So, is it just me or does everyone have an iPhone these days? It's incredible the amount of marketing Apple put into this device in order to make everyone believe that their lives suck without it. All you have to is take a look at Apple's stock history since last October compared to today!


It is an incredible phone though, it's able to visit almost any website ever made, the camera is better than many digital cameras, Siri is super helpful, and have you seen that display?! But in all honesty, although smartphones seem to have changed the world we live in such a short amount of time, the iPhone 4S is just a fad. In about 8-12 months, Apple will once again announce it's latest and greatest iPhone, which I'm sure will be able to do something I can't even imagine yet. Which in turn will start the fad of everyone owning an iPhone 5. Yay.

3.) KONY 2012

First of all, if you haven't already, I would highly recommend watching the video above. This thing went live 2 days ago, and already has over 11,500,000 views. Um, DAMN! This video is dedicated to the all of the children in Africa constantly being kidnapped and being forced to fight for the Lords Resistance Army lead by Joseph Kony. Basically this guy is a scum bag and needs to be stopped as soon as possible. This video is all over Facebook, and people are already taking to the streets in order to attempt to bring Kony to his knees. As much as I hate to say it, because I fully support the efforts of Invisible Children Inc., I believe that this may just be a fad. Unless people actually listen and participate in the instructions given during this video, this whole thing may just fade in the darkness. But I guess we'll see. More on the war and what you can do to stop Kony.

4.) Planking

This is such a dumb one, and I'm glad it died as quickly as it came alive. Planking is the act of laying on something, belly down, stiff as a board. Strange, right? It seems the objective is just climb onto something, lay down, have a friend take a picture, then post it to Facebook. I don't know where this originated from or why, nor do I really care. I actually know a kid who fell off of a building and broke both his legs while attempting to blank. Needless to say at laughed at him. But in all reality, people have died form participating in this ridiculous activity, and here's the proof.





5.) Instagram

Ahhh, Instagram! What a great little application. This app allows for the user to take a photo, apply a filter to the photograph, then post it to the social network that is Instagram. Much like Twitter, Instagram allows you to follow people and comment on their posts, except for Instagram replaces Tweets with the photographs mentioned above. Here's an example of one of the many different filters once may apply to a photograph. It's quite an interesting concept, but I just don't see it sticking around for that long. Sort of like how the whole MySpace thing died off.



Now it's time for the trends that I believe have or will eventually make an actual impact on our society.

1.) Social Networking

I feel like this one is pretty obvious. Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and even YouTube has changed the way the world communicates. All of these different ideas come together in one place, it's quite incredible if you take a step back and look at the whole picture. I even believe that the revolution taking place in Egypt can partially be accredited to Facebook. Even the whole Occupy movement can easily be traced back to Facebook. It's this ability to openly communicate different ideas that will change our future drastically. Facebook can and will be used as a tool to gather people with a common interest to achieve a goal. This is why I consider social networking to be a trend, and not just a fad. Social networking will never go away, although it may change from one company to another, such as Google+ now challenging Facebook, or Facebook shutting down all together (eh, this is probably false) the concept will always remain the same. To bring people together and allow them to express themselves as they wish.

2.) Texting

Although at times, an actual phone call may be more appropriate, texting has made communicating with the people you know extremely convenient. Forget something at home? Boom, take 10 seconds out of your day to ask your roommate to bring it to you at lunch. Although it may be turning our society into one without emotion by decreasing "face-to-face" communication, I believe it has made us a more efficiently operating society. I don't believe texting will die off for a very long time. For another example how texting, and cell phones in general, have changed the world, click here.


3.) Gas Prices

It's no secret that gas prices are soaring past $4.00. Apparently, they aren't supposed to come back down either. This sort of sucks if you ask me. But this continuous increase in gas prices will affect each and every one of us. Obviously it will be taking more money out of our pockets. What if this increase doesn't slow down? I believe that anything over $5.00 could easily shut our country down. I don't think that the truckers who keep our country stitched together will not fancy paying that much for fuel. Sure, this scenario may be farfetched, but it could happen. 

4.) TV Talent Competitions

Most of us are aware of American Idol, and the tons of other singing, dancing, or straight up talent shows that are out there right now. It's impressive, there seems to be a new one being produced every couple months! This is a trend that started with the creation of American Idol, really the only talent show that seems to have prevailed throughout the last decade, although it is begginning to look like "The Voice" is giving Idol a run for it's money.. Whether or not American Idol will stick around for another 10 seasons is hard to know, but it seems obvious that this trend of America voting for a particular participant, or the whole talent show trend in general, will not be taking a back seat anytime soon.







5.) 3D Movies

Like a flash from the past, 3D movies have made a huge comeback over the last couple years, and people love it! I saw Avatar in 3D, and I couldn't believe how beautiful it was. Yeah that sounds really nerdy and stuff, but it's true. I don't believe I would have had the same experience if I had choose not see that movie in 3D. And these days it seems that every feature film with some sort of action happening is produced in both a 3D and 2D version. To see whether or not 3D movies gross more than 2D movies, click here. But really, this isn't your dads 3D movie going experience. If done correctly, 3D movies can be amazing. It seems that more and more movies are being produced in 3D, and I doubt this trend will slow down in the near future.