Education: part of life’s journey
May 9, 2013
As the Beatles would say, it’s been a long and winding road. I first started on my path to a college degree back in 1998 as an incoming freshmen. That means the vast majority of you reading this who are also graduating were at the ripe old age of seven, give or take a few months. It’s a sobering thought but at t...
Arcade and Dive Bars
May 2, 2013
Arcades were immensely popular in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. They helped establish the burgeoning love for the home console market and introduced video games to a wider audience. Their popularity was as bright as the flash from an explosion and unfortunately they burned out just as quick. When ...
Video game press needs fixing
May 1, 2013
Video games and journalism. Two words seemingly diametrically opposed. They are at odds with each other and on the verge of being entirely incompatible. Oftentimes the word journalism isn’t even considered to be a serious phrase when talking about video games. Enthusiast press is more ...
Boston Marathon proves the human spirit unbreakable
April 16, 2013
Monday’s terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon. How do we address this? How do we cope? Remnants of 9-11 are etched into our conscious. We struggle to find reason or sanity. It’s a virtually impossible task to understand the actions of some people in this world. Instead we are left with images...
Internet freedom threatened by ‘Six Strikes’ policy
March 19, 2013
A program titled The Copyright Alert System, or CAS, has been active since the beginning of early March. Five of the major Internet service providers and two of the major content providers collectively known as the Center for Copyright Information (CCI) have signed on to this voluntary “Six Strikes”...
New show ‘The Following’ may be worth following
January 23, 2013
An obsession with Edgar Allen Poe, empty eye sockets, lots of scars, puddles of blood, and a pile of dead puppies. This is Fox's new mid-season crime thriller show "The Following." It's an entertaining show with an interesting premise and what's been shown so far leaves me wanting a whole lot more. ...
Petraeus coverage reveals media fallacies
November 18, 2012
While the sexual revelations of former CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus have been exploding in the media, it is equally important to observe and analyze the cozy relationship the media had with Petraeus and politicians in general. Our exposure to these highly elevated leaders in our c...
Books into movies and back again: a reader’s tale
November 14, 2012
Hollywood is never one to shy away from any perceived money-making trend that can be turned into the latest, greatest and sometimes lamest blockbuster movie franchise. Heck, even intellectual properties like board games are being mined for that small nugget of profit. I’m looking at you, “B...
Long Beach Comic Con: Day 1
November 8, 2012
This past Saturday and Sunday the Long Beach Convention Center hosted the 4th annual Long Beach Comic Convention. The one room show was filled to the brim on Saturday with a wide variety of both attendees and dealers. The main attraction was the diehard fans of anything and everything geek who tak...
Why we need to eliminate the electoral college for future elections
November 7, 2012
The presidential election is finally over, as Barack Obama took more than 300 electoral votes. While many voters casted their ballots with excitement Nov. 6, the sad truth is that for a vast swath of the electorate, their votes simply did not count – at least not in the way that they should hav...
Get clubbed over the head with a lot of comedy
October 31, 2012
Within Los Angeles, there is a thriving comedy club scene. Many classic performers and funny people have made their comedic bones performing on the LA circuit and many clubs have laid the foundation for their careers. There’s alway a show to see and the variety of venues makes any show-catching sce...
Disney buys a galaxy, far, far away
October 31, 2012
Disney is making some heavy moves in the entertainment industry. They solidified their stake in Pixar with a $7.4 billion purchase in 2006. In 2009, they spent $4 billion on Marvel Comics and brought the worlds greatest super heroes into the “House of Mouse.” At the time, it was a move that shocked...