GSpark Reviews: Star Wars

Yay! About time I covered this series. I probably won't do it justice, but that's for you, the reader, to tell me. But before that, I hereby implement the first gimmick for this blog, and I like to call it... the GSpark Preview!!! Heh, original name, right? Anyway, GSpark Previews are simply just me reviewing something in addition to my normal post, just shorter. So today, I'll go over... this topic!

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GSpark Previews: iPhone 5

Wow, seriously, the fifth version of iPhone is out? Now that iPhone 4 which I totally don't have is obsolete! Must... buy... newness! Or... not. Okay, I get the craze behind the smartphone revolution; it's a phone that lets you go through whatever you want on the Internet easier than boring, old cell phones do. And I'll admit that the idea of the iPad intrigues me. But come on, Apple! Let the iPhone 4 customers get a decent amount of time to use them! At least the video game companies give us 4-5 years to enjoy our current consoles before they thrust the next great thing at us in E3! Whoever has an iPhone 4 will need to work fast to resell their "outdated" technology. Or they could... hold on to #4 for a little while longer? It's not the end of the world if you don't have the latest, greatest technology out there. If you still have iPhone4s, keep using them! ...At least until the iPhone 6 is unveiled in a couple of months or so.

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Okay, now Star Wars!

Sigh, where to begin? Well, before Pokemon, which I'll cover in my next big review, I was introduced to the videocassette. You know, the four-inch pieces of plastic with rolls of film inside? I then mostly lived off of watching these cheesy Disney cartoon videos that kids love and Kingdom Hearts references. Then my mom showed me Star Trek: The Next Generation. I mostly enjoyed that, but it was mostly on TV, not video. But then... I saw this tape with the cover, and saw that it was titled Star Wars. Well, Star Trek, Star Wars, my four year old brain didn't see much difference between the two. So I popped the video in and sat down on this ugly-patterned couch that was all the rage in the 90s. 20th Century came up, then Lucasfilms (I had no idea what those could've possibly been at the time). Then the phrase: "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..."

I was enthralled by it the moment the first two notes of the overture sounded and the title jumped out at me, zoning out until the text started scrolling up. Episode IV: A New Hope. I then tried to watch The Empire Strikes Back, but as a kid, I remember being very scared by it, and I refused to watch it until I grew up enough, so I skipped it and watched Return of the Jedi (which could've been titled Revenge of the Jedi, but I'm pretty thankful Lucas decided against it). I loved that too, and I would love rewatching IV and VI time and time again. Then Episodes I-III came out, and while I loved watching the cooler, edgier graphics and nice backstory into Anakin at the time, I now share similar feelings with the rest of the nerds out there in saying the older trilogy was better.

GSpark Light Says: It was the older trilogy that opened the floodgates for me and cultivated in me the mustard seed of nerdiness that has grown into a flourishing plant today. I also like the graphics in both the old and new movies. That it has a huge plot also helps; I always love a good story. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is also a really cool set of videogames, plus it really captures the idea of Star Wars Episode 3.5. My brother would chime in right about now and say C3PO and R2D2 have the best parts of every movie, and I'm somewhat inclined to agree with him. Who doesn't like the comic relief these two provide?

GSpark Dark Says: Yeah, you shouldn't come into the new trilogy with too much expectations. Jar Jar? NO. And Hayden Christensen's acting? Totally flat. It just grates on me after a while. Also, Holiday Special. That is all. No, seriously, if you come across anything that remotely resembles the Star Wars Holiday Special, you are under strict orders to avoid it. It is worse than pornography. And pornography is pretty "bombad"- Oh, I'm so sorry, I lapsed into Jar Jar speak for a second there, I totally apologize.

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So there you have it, Star Wars! Later on down the road, I plan on going through the episodes into a little bigger detail, but if you've watched Star Wars as much as I have, you know the story. Anyway, like I said, Pokemon is next! And I may actually break that up into five separate posts for each generation of Pokemon that has happened. We'll see, but until then... waving out!

--G$park

GSpark Lives! ...And Reviews: Technology

Okay, so 10000 gp and one proverbial cleric later, and I have now successfully revived this blog to its former glory! Which didn't have much glory to begin with, but anyway... I am hereby branching out in this blog to include a few reflections I have while I am in another writing class, this one inspiring me to give up the aforementioned 10000 gp to a cleric of the cyberworld. I'll still have some talk about videogames, anime, etc., in the foreseeable future (how about that Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, huh?), but don't be surprised if I suddenly go off on a different route than normal. Like I'm doing right now!

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Today, we look at two discussions, one put forth by an author named Neil Postman and Elder Dallin H. Oaks, an Apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Both refer to the pros and cons of technology--and as I post here it's worth noting that today's world is so full of tech we might as well be Cybermen. Postman's overarching theme was that technology changes culture, and, if we're not careful, we may lose it. Elder Oaks talked about using focus and priorities to develop a technological discipline so technology doesn't get in the way of what matters more. Put them together, and we ultimately need to ask ourselves: what are we doing with our tech? Are we getting smarter wiser by using it, or are we just wasting bandwidth on Reddit or [insert social media website here]? Maybe if we had a purpose in mind when using "teh interwebz"... we'd get more out of it than we think.

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Coming Soon: I promise I'll post about Star Wars soon! It's likelier to happen over the weekend; I just hope I have enough time to fit this AND homework AND social life AND Pokemon... yeah, one of those may end up getting crowded out. >_< Okay, waving out again!

--G$park