Groovy.

I'm a deadite and I don't care who knows... Well, actually... Most people don't know what that means so um... Let me explain. Tonight I watched Evil Dead II and it doesn't matter how many times I've seen that movie, it will still be one of my favorites.

Evil Dead II is a reboot/sequel to The Evil Dead which stars Bruce Campbell and directed by Sam Raimi. This is a picture almost 30 years old but this is one of my favorites of the two best friends.

You may know Sam Raimi as the director of the upcoming movie, Oz staring James Franco. And hopefully (fingers crossed) you know Bruce Campbell from Hercules? Oh how about... Burn Notice? He's the guy that always wears the Hawaiian shirts. 

Okay, so Evil Dead II is when Ash (Bruce) and his girlfriend stay at an abandoned cabin for the weekend in the woods. He listens to a tape recorder there and he basically unleashes the evils from centuries of hibernation. So, zombie things attack and in the end Ash has to cut his hand off and attaches a chainsaw to the hand stub and save the day. It's pretty badass. (If you've ever seen The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, a guy with a chainsaw hand should seem familiar. Remember this guy?

That's Hoss Delgado. A reference to Kurt Russel's character from Escape From New York, Bruce Campbell's character from Evil Dead and his name is an ode to the comic book character Gangbuster.)

This movie series is a cult classic- literally, it's basically like a cult. Deadites live for these movies. My family and I use Bruce's brilliant one-liners in an everyday conversation. (We could be talking just about anything and if the conversation allows it, someone will just say, "Hail to the King, baby." like it made sense to the conversation.) There are horror conventions and when Bruce Campbell is there, you know it's the place to be. 

Now, a lot of us Deadites got really really really really really really really really really pissed off when they decided to remake the first movie. It looks terrifying as hell but I was so nervous as to whether I was going to see it out not. Luckily, my main man Bruce and Sam are producers on the movie and are fully behind the film. So thankfully, soon, I'll be able to be scared shitless for days on end after seeing the remake.

Oh Bruce. You worked so hard and did your own stunts so directors that weren't his best friend would hire him in action films. You are the #1 B-Movie Actor and always will be. Any man who defeats the Deadites in Army of Darkness and fights with his own hand will always on the top of my list.

Oh, also. The day before I came to campus from winter break, I tweeted a picture to Bruce Campbell stating that I was organizing all of my Army of Darkness Comics and not even a minute later, Bruce Campbell tweeted back. I squealed and ran down to my parents room and showed my half asleep mom and dad the best moment of my life.

 Bruce. I shall always have a crush on you for as long as we both shall live... Even though you are old enough to be my father, but that's besides the point.

When Reality Becomes Surreal

I'm very picky when it comes to watching television. A show has to be well written, funny, with actors who play the part. That being said, I have a secret shame:

I love Real Housewives of New Jersey. I think it's one of the greatest shows on television, possibly all time. It's horribly photographed trash TV at it's finest. The show takes five women who lead lives of luxury in the dirty Jers and follow the petty crap they argue about on a daily basis. I can't even begin to describe the suffering and emotional trauma these upper middle class citizens endure every episodes. Stolen recipes, book deals, recording careers. It's hard not to empathize with them.

I began watching Housewives when the show began following the lives of women from Orange County back in March 2006. Since then, there's been five spinoffs, three international versions, and a new executive producer, Andy Cohen.

When the show first premiered, the premise was simple: follow the everyday lives of five women who live lives of luxury. In the first season of the show, there wasn't a single fight, screaming match, or petty argument. Everyone got along and stood by each other. They actually had real people problems, such as bankruptcy, divorce, and relationships.

Six years later, the show has become a poster-child for a new genre recently coined "Docusoap." The only one I continue to watch, just because it's so ridiculous, are the women from New Jersey. The producers continue to do everything they can to pump drama into the show. Since the first season, the entire cast has just been in a cross-media war, each battle consisting of something stupid being blown completely out of proportion. It's like high school with money.

Just recently, I watched the reunion. These supposedly upstanding members of society, each worth millions of dollars, personally dug in and attacked each other for the entirety of three hours. It was something to behold. They argued about who's mom created a recipe, someone faking an Autistic child, people wearing the same dress to an event, liposuction, nose jobs, lip synching, the list goes on and on. This wouldn't seem so bad, but each reunion shoot takes fourteen hours to complete. What was previously a reflection on the season by the cast has become a therapy session.

It's no secret that these women don't like each other. They apparently hadn't spoken to each other for a year before the reunion show. At the same time, how can people who have everything let something so stupid tear apart previously strong bonds?

People don't watch reality TV to see how other people live normal lives. They don't want to see people sleeping, using the bathroom, cleaning, or eating. People want to see fighting, arguing, hair pulling, drama. The producers have to do something to stir drama. While that may be the case for most shows, there's something pure about Housewives.

These women are truly pure evil. They will do anything to make each other's lives horrible. They constantly attempt to start something through twitter, magazines, celeb websites, blogs. The fights make for great reality TV. One problem: real people don't go that far out of their way to mess up someone's life. Even if they wanted to, most are too busy. The housewives primary paycheck comes from the producers at Bravo to make good TV by any means possible. Everyone involved in the show is choosing money over friendship, family, and public impression.

If the average person was asked to do this and no TV show was involved, they would likely decline. But the women of Real Housewives are incredibly heartless bitches. Therefore, I propose that the "reality tv" moniker be replaced by the much more appropriate "surreal TV."

End of the Year

So, although I wasn't in class today, I am almost done with my ADR project, I think it looks alright, I really do need someone to look at it and give me feedback though. But its the end of the year we've only got one more week till finals, and than its summer.

Also, does anyone else hate registration??????? (and i know that everyone does) but I hate how they only have one, possibly two sections open for required classes. I really think that they need to revamp the system, not the way in which we choose classes but the number of classes that are available to students.
But anyways, thats my rant about registration. Hope everyone's ADR projects are coming together well.

Think before you click

Google's data center, from Harper's magazine, March 2008

This blueprint depicts Google's data center, code named "02 PROJECT" at The Dalles, Oregon.

Google and its nemesis, Microsoft, Yahoo and Ask.com went there lured by the cheapest electricity in North America. And they need it. They are building gigantic server farms on the banks of the Columbia River.

We tend to think of the internet, the virtual worlds, our email and the "paperless society" as somehow a 'cleaner' option than the legacy of our ancestors. We talk of information and the exchange of ideas, as if these concepts reside on the sphere of intangibles that lead us to a gentler, greener world.

People are slowly realizing that driving their cars and SUV's leave a carbon "footprint" for which we will be hold accountable by generations to come. So we telecommute, we email instead of writing a letter or a note (would we write so much dribble if we had to use pen and ink?) and we search or, using the new verb, we google for information, sometimes for its own sake, the new addiction.

Little do we realize that this new industry is as heavy as they come, and like the article in Harper's 1 mentions: "...an energy glutton that is only growing hungrier." Currently Google is estimated to have in the order of a million servers. According to the article: "...the servers require a half-watt in cooling for every watt they use in processing". Some simple math will yield in the order of 103 megawatts for the Dalles plant alone. As a curious note, the Northwest Aluminum smelter across the street form the data center once used 85 megawatts before falling under soaring energy costs.

If you examine the blueprint above, you will see that 18,800 sq. ft. are devoted to the "cooling towers". Perhaps it will become fashionable again to wear the Top Hats of the 1920's to celebrate the new Information Chimneys of the New Millenium?

Can you identify the gentleman in the picture?
C'mon, I'll buy pizza for the first to name him!

And the winner is...Takumi! Choose your toppings (**>

While you are at it, look at the building on the upper right corner and you will see a suggestive label: "Transient Employee Dormitory Building". As with all things digital, employees are simply bits and blips in the flow of the new oil. And the "carbon footprint" is not pretty.

The article mentions that in 2006 American data centers "consumed more power than American televisions" and that in all locations currently active or in planning, both in America and Siberia, Shanghai and Dublin where AT&T, Microsoft and Google are heading in search (pun intended) of even cheaper electricity, most of this energy is produced by the burning of fossil fuels. I gives new meaning to the term "cloud computing"


1 The Harper's article "KEYWORD:EVIL, Google's addiction to cheap electricity", which inspired this post, was written by Ginger Strand, author of Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power and Lies, to be published this spring by Simon & Schuster