Opinion: 2020 and the War for America's Soul

The world is a different place than it was five years ago. I'm a different person than I was five years ago, as I'm sure we all are. I see the world differently. My views and perspectives, once fresh and open to possibility, have been hardened and jaded with the cold, ugly truth of reality.

I had a faith in our government -- that the United States would be better than the worst of its people in the overall grand scheme of things.

Then the 2016 election happened. Donald Trump won handily. It doesn't matter whether there was foreign interference in the election. It doesn't matter that he now faces an impeachment inquiry. It doesn't matter that his approval ratings have never really broken 50% in national polls. Hillary Clinton's emails don't matter.

He is in office. He is President of the United States. Enough people decided he deserved that position that they voted for him.

September 11, 2001 - In Hindsight, 18 Years Later

I wish I had a powerful, beautiful statement I could make in tribute to today. I wish I could say something that hasn't already been said probably hundreds of times today, or over the 18 years passed.

Why There Isn't Much from 2018 & 2019

An important think you might notice coming here is that I have several stories listed from 2016, 2017, and 2019, but very little for 2018.

The answer for that is actually very simple.

In 2018, I started my second and final year at Penn State. At the time, I wanted to challenge myself and expand and properly understand my skill sets. I can take good photos and work with graphic design software, but I don't take it to mean it makes me a total expert at these fields.

Because of that, over the course of the year, a majority of my work was directed away from writing assignments. Instead, during the early and latter months of the year, I had to focus my effort and attention into courses on photography, graphic design and video/film production. My summer was devoted to working an intense part-time third shift job that left me physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted.

Because of all this, writing was a reduced priority for me in 2018 than other years. I wrote, yes, but I feel the quality of my work, while still on par with my other work, doesn't quite meet the standards I strive to.

When 2019 came around, things changed. I lost the drive, the motivation... the spark, if you will, that made me truly take pride in things I wrote. Did I write and work on anything during this time? Absolutely. But other things in my life took precedent -- certain things that, for personal reasons, I don't feel compelled to share. But it has been an active, physical and at times, stressful year for me.

To sum this up, the reason for the lack of posts from 2018 and 2019 was for both quantity and quality. But I have rediscovered that spark and it's born fruit for me, so I intend to post more often as the year continues.

Baudrillard and Simulated Reality in 2017

For this, I was assigned to read and analyze an excerpt of postmodernist writer and theorist Jean Baudrillard's writings on simulacra. I then had to summarize his theory and find a relevant argument to make about them.

Admittedly, this was a difficult read, since Baudrillard's points aren't always entirely clear. Still, I found his points about simulations and reality to be fairly relevant in 2017. Below I explain why.

The Walt Disney Corporation: Providing Entertainment with Messages

The point to this was simple: study a media agency, find a point about it and argue that point. It seemed a daunting challenge until I thought of Walt Disney and The Walt Disney Company.

Before reading, I want to emphasize the point I aimed to make here: I am not condoning the actions of The Walt Disney Corporation or Disney himself that potentially speak to corruption, greed or other unfavorable aspects. The point I strove to make is that I believe that Walt Disney and The Walt Disney Company, for all of their failings and flaws, are a fundamentally good and beneficial organization.

I chose this angle because I felt I related to Walt Disney as a storyteller. As I write below, Disney never aimed to underestimate his audience's intelligence, no matter how childish his works may have come off as. He also so little reason to hide the ugly nature of the world from the children viewing his films. Since one of my aims is to write fiction, I understand and can relate to this.

It was from that angle that I decided I wanted to write about Disney in a positive way, looking for the inherent good in the apparent ugliness.

A Short Analysis of Malcom F**king Tucker

To most people, Peter Capaldi is best known for the Twelfth Doctor on BBC's Doctor Who. Before that, he'd starred in handful of other productions, in particular as John Frobisher in Torchwood: Children of Earth, Cardinal Richelieu in The Musketeers, and as the ironically named W.H.O. Doctor in World War Z.

Before all of that, though, he was Malcolm Tucker, the profane head of the Department of Social Affairs in The Thick of It, a political satire/drama series. Below is a short analysis I wrote of the man as a leader and a character.

Opinion: Why Attacking Net Neutrality is a Precursor to State-Run News

Updated 8/23/2017

While I’ve been signing a number of petitions to make my opinions known about political matters over the past few months, I very rarely comment on them.

However, with this one, I felt a special connection and an obligation to post my thoughts. Below is what I said and why.