My Weekend: Talking to a Computer

My weekend consisted of many things.  It consisted of a lot of stress as I had to memorize a 5 stanza poem and create an academic poster for a class project.  It also consisted of a loud and rowdy Grey Cup game with a plentiful audience in the Student Life Center.  I did not watch the game in great detail.  I was in the same room as a TV that was playing the Grey Cup.  I watched the game by judging audience reaction.  I rejoiced at the end of the game when the Montreal Alouettes won due to a technicality.  Not that I am an Alouettes fan of course.  I am a Winnipeg Blue Bombers fan, thus I can not bring myself to cheer for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

The most significant part of my weekend that deserves a blog mention is the discovery of an AI avatar called Joan.  I spent at least a solid two hours in two sessions talking to this thing the past three days.  You can carry on a decent conversation with her.  Apparently, she formulates her responses based on context and past user responses.  Sometimes, she gives lame responses, but the majority of the time, her responses are intelligent and witty.  I even tried engaging in a debate with her about God and evolution.  She gave intelligent responses for a good amount of time before she started contradicting herself.  Of course, if you wish to engage in some cheap entertainment, you can start hitting on her as well.  Either way, it is almost addicting and quite entertaining either way.  I recommend you check it out.

Here is the link.  http://www.icogno.com/joan.html.

Biography of Aspiration

Jeremy Bergen, the man, the myth, the legend.  Just kidding, he’s just a regular guy with far-reaching aspirations, aspirations expanding into the creative realms of writing and filmmaking.  Throughout the years, he engaged with multiple story streams and concepts covering media all across the creative board, but mostly just novels, short stories, films, and, more recently, theatre. 

According to Bergen, his official start came back when he was 9 years old.  He wrote a short, uncomplicated mystery story starring 10 year old twins as the detectives, sort of like The Hardy Boys, The Boxcar Children, or The Bobbsey Twins.  Most of Bergen’s subsequent narratives were based on stories made up when he played as child.  (For instance, playing with cars on the roll-out carpet town would provide a scenario for a creative narrative.)  Using these ideas as a foundation, he would build and expand on the story and let it develop into something more substantial. 

There was a stint in his lifetime where he would have so many ideas and concepts for superheroes.  He used to draw them and explain their origins, supplementary characters, and, of course, superpowers.  Most of these ideas have been stashed away in a drawer somewhere with other childhood memories.  Only one of these ideas has survived the dust.  One of these ideas is currently under idle development in the form of a feature length, full-budget screenplay.  Bergen has stated that “this project is simply going to sit in his creative archives and hopefully someday get submitted professionally.” 

One of Bergen’s goals was to become a published writer by the age of 20.  Although the goal did not come true in a fashion that was as grand as he might have hoped, it did technically come true.  He submitted a Christmas story to a local newspaper at the age of 16 that got editor’s pick.  This past summer, he also submitted a short story for a contest run by a Canadian publisher.  The top 33% of all entries submitted would be placed in the anthology.  Bergen made the top third of submissions and is happy that his fiction has been released to the public. 

As far as filmmaking goes, he loves being in front of and behind the camera.  Although not as experienced with film (as much as he would like to be), he just cannot seem to get enough on the theatre stage, with a grand total of 10 characters portrayed on the main stage by the end of his third year here at Providence.  He is hoping that the acting experience will transfer well into film.

Aspirations that Jeremy Bergen holds for the future is completing a film for his Communications and Media Practicum, as well as possibly writing a play based on his short story, a fantasy novel, the superhero screenplay (as mentioned before), and an alien Conworld which will serve as a basis for a trilogy of novels.  Bergen asks everyone to “wish [him] luck!”

In addition, since I won't be writing about the play I saw last night now, I will post a link for it so that you can still learn about it if you are still curious.  http://bit.ly/6AyVq5

Hungry Man

Today was an interesting day.  It was not as super-de-duper like yesterday, but it was different as far as days go.  I cannot say it was a bad day because I did go to a play in the city in the evening.  However, I once again I did miss my 8:30 class for no other reason than a late night, a sleepy morning, and getting my butt out of be at 1 o’clock. (What can I say?  I was up until 5 writing madly my film script.)  As a result of this rather late evening, and late wake-up time, I missed out on lunch.  Not willing to miss out on food, I purchased a meal from the Bistro.  I then had the afternoon to finish an assignment that was due before I could leave for the play at 5:10.  As what usually happens, focus and concentration seemed to have eluded me and took me way to long to finish the assignment.  As a result, I also missed out on the supper.  Here is a list of what I ate and drank today (whether you care or not):

1)      sandwich from the Bistro

2)      500mL of chocolate milk

3)      a poppy seed muffin

4)      Arizona fruit punch

5)      a bag of Stacy’s pita chips

6)      Coffee Crisp

7)      can of Pepsi

8)      two Hershey’s Kisses

9)      two cherry candy canes

10)   half a bottle of Coca-Cola

The one sandwich is the closest thing I’ve had to a meal all day.  I am a man that likes having his meals.  I miss my meals.  Right now much stomach is telling me that it needs sustenance.  I could write about the play tonight, but I think the smarter idea right now would be to go to sleep and then the next meal would come that much faster.  (Plus, then I stand a better chance of making it to class tomorrow.)  I welcome breakfast with open arms.  (It didn’t help this evening that the cast was making bacon and eggs on stage, but I shall tell you about that some other time.)

A Happy Day!

Today, I slept in as usual.  Today was different though.  Last night, I just completed the one and only performance of For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again, which was the one-act play directed by senior student Tracy Doerksen.  Although exhausting, it was a very rewarding experience.  It also is another tick on the list of plays I have been in during my time here at Providence College.  (The list has been tabulated to 6 now, with 3 more to go this year.) 

Apart from that, I was quite pleased with the meals offered today.  At lunchtime, I was treated to a whistle dog, fries, and a bowl of tomato soup.  A hot dog with bacon and cheese!  How great is that?!  That was a satisfying lunch.  At suppertime, again I was treated with spaghetti and garlic toast.  Even though the line was long, the servers were systematically serving people so it was a rather quick-moving line.  On top of that (not literally) there was cookie-dough ice cream.  I was one of the lucky people to get at it, because the whole tub was empty within half an hour. 

This was not the end of my goodness.  On Mondays, I usually have two regularly scheduled classes, a 2:00 and a 6:30.  However, they are taught by Michael Gilmour and Cameron McKenzie and since they are away, I had no classes instead of two classes. 

Since I had this wonderful abnormal break, I tried to make the most out of my day by doing some work.  I wrote some of my movie script for my Com & Media Practicum, I did some laundry, and I wrote this blog.  Hopefully I get more work done this evening.  Especially before DANCE DANCE DORM tonight!

For The Pleasure of Seeing Her Again: a Student-Directed One-Act (aka Wednesday's Blog Post)

Sipping his hot tea and clutching script in hand, Jeremy Bergen walks towards the school in preparation of the final rehearsal of the student directed one-act play, For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again.  The past two months of work have lead up to this weekend.  “Believe me,” Bergen says, “in an hour and a half play with a cast of two, this is the most memorizing I’ve ever had to do for a single play.” 

Jay Berg Daily takes you on a special backstage peek at the production of For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again from the perspective of actor, Jeremy Bergen, and his preparations during the process.  It started in September with auditions.  Bergen claims that he initially had a good feeling about his audition, considering he was the only male participant.  Soon after, he received the script.  Shocked by the size of the one-act script, but nevertheless determined to stick to his commitment, Bergen went forth and began work on the dialogue-heavy script. 

The play consists of a Narrator (played by Bergen) who is recalling past memories of his mother who has passed on.  Throughout the course of the play, Narrator recreates his memories from his chair while his mother, Nana, plays them out in front of his eyes, exchanging dialogue throughout but almost never interacting physically.  It is a story of appreciation and gratitude of a person’s roots and the most preliminary source of creative success.

Rehearsing for two hours twice a week, trying to get through the dialogue-heavy, 70 page script, complete with plentiful monologues for both characters (the biggest being about four pages for the Nana character), the cast and the director worked through it bit by bit every week, scene by scene.  When people are immersed in school, other theatre commitments, and life in general, memorization on some scenes, unfortunately, took second priority. 

Jeremy Bergen, and his fellow cast member, Alexandra Smith, have both attended Providence College for a number of years and have worked together in previous years, but never in such an intimate environment as a cast of two and 15 foot wide set.  Over the course of rehearsal, Bergen claims that certain mother-son chemistry is present when on set. 

The big challenges for the production of this play were the sheer amount of words that were needed to commit to memory, the time restraints of needing to get it performance ready in less than a semester (which resulted in lack of some helpful characterization exercises), and the logical configuration of the supernatural elements of the plot, and the alteration of the rather expensive-sounding original ending. 

This weekend wraps up the production process of For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again, with a tech rehearsal on Friday night, a dress rehearsal on Saturday night, and the final performance on Sunday night at 7:00pm, in the R.W. Affleck Chapel at Providence College.  Admission is free and is on a first come, first serve basis. 

To quote a line from the play (with minor alteration), Bergen had this to say about the nerve-wracking, yet rewarding performance, “Hark, [it] cometh this way.”

Jack's Back (Today's Post)

In a follow up to my other video that I posted today (because I didn’t post yesterday...oops), there were some wonderful related videos.  Such videos included other parodies, such as “Must Love Jaws” and “Brokeback to the Future” (just guess what those ones are about).  One that stuck out to me was “Titanic: The Sequel.”  I laughed at this because I was going through my DVD collection the other day (which includes Titanic) and that goofy guy, Allan Rempel, commented on movies that I had that should not and will not have sequels (because we all know how much Hollywood likes to turn a successful stand-alone movie into a franchise.  Pirates of the Caribbean for instance.)  Anyways, I watched this obviously fake trailer for a laugh or two.  The experience I got was actually not comedy at all.  It was funny because of how unrealistic and campy it was, but it was otherwise a serious trailer and very well edited using clips from Titanic and other movies including The Basketball Diaries, The Shawshank Redemption, Hulk, and Catch Me If You Can.  I don’t want to ruin the plot for you, other than revealing that there is a lot of Leonardo DiCaprio featured in the trailer.  I was quite impressed at the number of clips used of him as young as he was in Titanic.  Anyways, watch it.

I must say though, it is sad because this trailer would actually be believable as a Hollywood sequel. What's even sadder is that I actually want to watch it.

Charlton Heston Stars In....10 Things I Hate About Commandments (Monday's Post)

This weekend, I was intensely working on a project for the Old Testament and the Arts course.  I was compiling a portfolio on works of art depicting Moses and the Exodus.  In this portfolio, I included the Cecile B. DeMille’s 1956 film The Ten Commandments.  While finding clips of this movie on YouTube, and, being the easily distracted person that I am when I am doing homework, I followed a rabbit trail that led me to a video called “10 Things I Hate About Commandments.”  What this video does is create a trailer for a teen comedy using clips from The Ten Commandments.  I laughed when I watched it and I felt it was quite well done.  The clips chosen fit perfectly and they were smoothly edited together, as well as the choices of contemporary music from Usher, Fat Boy Slim, Beyonce, and The Romantics, making it seem more like a contemporary teen comedy.  The trailer had a lovely voice over, which sounds quite professional, yet the dialogue just seems too perfect for this trailer for it to be voice-over clips.  The final punch-line of this video includes the featured cameo by Samuel L. Jackson (that guy has got to be in everything). 

Anyways, enough of me yammering on.  Here is the video.

DISCLAIMER: One F-bomb is dropped in this video.  If this sort of thing offends you, just leave now.

The Ultimate in Time Sucking

Since the past couple of days I have been talking about things that I do when I am procrastinating, I shall mention a current time suck that almost everyone knows about...FACEBOOK!  Do you want to hear some statistics for the most popular social networking site today?  No?  I’m going to give them to you anyway.  (These are statistics related to being a time suck.)

-more than 300 million active users

-50% of active users log onto Facebook on any given day

-more than 8 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide)

-more than 45 million status updates each day

-more than 2 billion photos uploaded to the site each month

-more than 2 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each week

-people that use Facebook on their mobile devices are almost 50%  more active on Facebook than non-mobile users (although this would not be true for everyone because applications are not present on mobile Facebook, which can be a big time suck.)

I am a victim of the Facebook bug in which I check it every day.  If I did not have wireless internet everywhere I went on campus, then I would have Facebook on my phone.  I am also a victim of the Farmville bug, but I will not discuss that today as I have written enough for today’s post and I have other work to do.

Until next time, keep fit and have fun.

Quote of the day:

(refer to last sentence of this post)

   -Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod (from the Body Break commercials)

Word of the day: carapace:

\KAIR-uh-pace\ , noun;

1. The thick shell that covers the back of the turtle, the crab, and other animals.

2. Something likened to a shell that serves to protect or isolate from external influence.

Today...

Yesterday, I talked about procrastination and things that get my attention while I am doing my homework.  Instead of talking about addicting games, there is another couple of little websites that I find myself attached to, especially since I have friends who are also attached to them and we like to discuss such websites over Windows Live Messenger.  What I am talking about is the two websites known as mylifeisaverage.com and fmylife.com.  Both feature interesting stories that are often quite humorous.  Both are set up in a format where the stories begin with “Today…” and end with “MLIA” or “FML.”  

FML is set up in such as way that allows people to say something that happened to them that really sucks, and these stories are usually quite extreme (and funny), often prompting a "yes, your life sucks" vote.  The alternative vote is "you totally deserve that."  I feel that I like reading these stories because of the hilarity, but also because it can provide a sense of catharsis (as in, you don't feel so bad because you realize that their life sucks even more). As an alternative for those who did not order catharsis, MLIA tells stories that are ironically not average at all for the most part, and are usually rather funny because of the unusual nature that most of them take.  Or, if you prefer, you can write a story that really is incredibly average, such as "Today, I took the cap off of my toothpaste and squeeze toothpaste onto the toothbrush so that I could brush my teeth.  Then I brushed my teeth.  MLIA."  

I have found that when a number of friends are all reading MLIA or FML, they tend to tell the stories that are listed there whether or not they think that their friends have already read them.  Thus providing a bonding experience and a sense of community.  Mmm, I heart bonding experiences.  (Get your mind out of the gutter.  I didn't mean it like that.)

For today, instead of posting a quote and a word, I shall post a story from MLIA and from FML.

Today, I bought some toilet paper and noticed that the side of the package said, "Now flushable." I'm now afraid that I've been using it wrong all these years. MLIA

Today, I proposed to my girlfriend of 4 years. Her response? First, she threw up all over me and then she started crying hysterically. I'll take that as a no. FML 

Taking Time to Remember

Today is Remembrance Day (or Veteran's Day to the American friends of mine).  It is a day to remember the efforts of the people that fought for peace and freedom in this country.  We must remember those that fought in both World Wars, but also those brave people that are still fighting in the wars today.  So today, show your gratitude by taking special time out of your day to reflect on what has been done for this country, and/or wear a red poppy.

It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you.  

  ~Author unknown, sometimes attributed to M. Grundler

Caught up in the Addictive Game Net

Last night, as I sat in my room and decided I would not tackle the homework before me just yet, I meandered to miniclip.com, which is arguably one of the better sites for finding addicting games online.  I found some quick games whose gameplay was structured to not necessarily take up a lot of your time, in theory at least.  In actuality, games that are considered to not take a lot of time are often those that coerce you into getting a high score by doing something really simple, which makes me think about what make an online game so addictive.  Games that are made with Flash (it’s a computer language if you don’t know) seem to be the most addictive when they are simplistic in appearance, are quick to start up, and easy to understand but difficult to master.  Even when you are doing the same routine task over and over again, you want to keep playing because of the sense of accomplishment that you receive.  When addicting games have levels, it makes it even worse.  Eventually, it does happen that you actually finish the game or you simply get bored with it, but then there usually is another addicting game waiting for you around the corner.  It is a never-ending cycle, until you finally get fed up with being attached to these games and you decide that it is time to stop procrastinating and go and post your blog.

And if you are wondering game in particular I was caught up this time, it was Monkey Kick Off, a simple game of trying to get the monkey to kick the giant coconut as far as you can.

http://www.miniclip.com/games/monkey-kick-off/en/

Quote of the day: 

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

   -Friedrich Engels (1820 - 1895)-

Word of the day: forfend:

\for-FEND\ , transitive verb;

1. a. (Archaic) To prohibit; to forbid.

    b. To ward off; to prevent; to avert.
2. To defend, to protect, to preserve.

One of the Worst Sermons Ever

As previously advertised on a blog post from last week, I would like to go over the video for “One of the Worst Sermons Ever.”  It is a man preaching in what apparently seems like a small congregation.  Almost right off the bat, he says “You’re not going to like this, but you haven’t liked the sermon up ‘till now so why would I try and please you now.”  How correct he was.  This is about the last 5 minutes of his sermon.  The main point he seems to be making is based off of a phrase in the King James Version Bible that shows up 6 times.  “He that pisseth against the wall.”  When translated to newer editions, the word “male” or “man” is used.  Seemingly, this preacher’s argument is what makes a man a man and not a male is that he pees standing up.  He states that a lot of leaders in our country, including a lot of pastors and the president himself (back when Bush was president) probably pees sitting down and that the problem with this country is that these leaders need to learn to be men.  Not that I am against sermons that make one uncomfortable and challenge a viewpoint, but this one just seems ridiculous, is theology seems a little off and seems to be reading into the text with possibly a wrong interpretation, and his message is in the wrong direction.

I invite you to watch the video and then tell what you think in the comments.  I find this sermon quite funny (in a shocking, face-palming kind of way), but controversial and likely easily challengeable.  

Quote of the day:

Free advice is worth the price.

   -Robert Half-

Word of the day: fungible:

\FUHN-juh-buhl\ , adjective;

1. (Law) Freely exchangeable for or replaceable by another of like nature or kind in the satisfaction of an obligation.

2. Interchangeable.

noun:

1. Something that is exchangeable or substitutable. Usually used in the plural.

Obituary: Allan C. Rempel, 1991-2009

Today, I regret to announce the fictional passing of Allan Rempel.  I was self-chosen carefully to write the fake obituary in the event of his not-so-tragic demise.  It goes as follows:

Allan Curtis Rempel has suddenly, tragically, and epically passed on and left for the spiritual realm, leaving prematurely at the age of 18 on November 1, 2009.  He was born on June 4, 1991 and raised in Winnipegosis, Manitoba.  Even though he had no biological siblings, he grew up surrounded by a close extended family, and a supportive church family.  Gifted with an intelligent mind, he had many aspirations and possessed much potential.  Fortunate enough to graduate from high school, his last days were spent attending his first year of college at Providence College in Otterburne, Manitoba, with a goal to move on to Brandon University and earn his degree in computer sciences.

Survived by his parents, Dan and Evelyn Rempel, as well as many friends, including his pretend family consisting of oldest twin brothers Kai Jolley and Dan Johnson, older twins Kirsty Buhler and David Engbrecht, younger sister Kelly Klassen, and pretend parents Jessica Buhler and his recently late father, Jeremy Bergen.  (That’s not to say that his father is recently deceased.  That’s just to say that he is, in fact, late writing this entry on his blog.)   Predeceased by Kelly’s twin Tarrah Tanaka (who unfortunately is no longer with us) and imaginary twin Kwok-Ming. 

Funeral arrangements have been made and due to the nature of the death, a cremation was chosen and a memorial service will be held in Bergen lounge this Saturday at 2 PM, before his ashes will be taken back home.  The memorial service will consist of telling stories about Allan, any jokes about Allan, and then to follow there will be meat, cheese, crackers and a recorded tape of the last Grey Cup game that the Winnipeg Blue Bombers won.

Thus ends a chapter of history in which Allan Rempel was with us.  Again, I stress that Allan has not died.  Save your party decorations for another time.  Tarrah Tanaka also has not died.  She has simply gone to a “better” place (aka home).

Worst Worship Ever?

I sit here in my room during the dark of night, sipping (no, more like gulping) from my 2L bottle of Pepsi, snacking on Chips Ahoy! and Pizza Pops, and figuring out what to blog about.  Then I remember a couple of YouTube videos I came across when during the weekend. 

The first one is described as “Worst Worship Ever?”  I am not sure if this is the worst, but it is definitely odd and I find it slightly offensive to the idea of worship.  Being quite the travesty it is, let me describe it to you.  The worship leader asks everyone to be like Moses and remove their shoes in this holy place (fair enough), but he also asks them “...and while you’re down there, grab a couple of socks.”  Pardon me?  The purpose of the socks is to use them to spin in the air while they sing the next song.  He insists that everyone gets something to spin in the air.  Then he starts singing.  “You spin me right round Jesus, right round, like a record Jesus, right round round round.”  What! 

At first listen, some people’s heads go to the song “Right Round” by Flo Rida, which is far from a Christian theme.  However, a closer listen to the lyrics reveals that the song is actually based off of the original (and better) song from the ‘80’s by Dead or Alive, “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)”.  This choice of song isn’t much better because of the controversy that this “love” song is possibly supposed to be from a man to a man.  Putting all of the controversy of the secular songs aside, this version isn’t really a good worship version of the songs anyway.  The only mention that this song is intended for worship is the inclusion of the word Jesus.  I’m not saying that all worship songs need a certain standard of spiritual language in order to be considered worship, but to take a “love” song and just add the word Jesus does not constitute a good song parody, never mind appropriate worship.  Seriously, I’ve made better song parodies than that during a slow afternoon working at Tim Horton’s.  

Come back tomorrow and I will discuss the video of the Worst Sermon Ever.

Quote of the day: (in "honour" of the release of the new release of the next part of the Hitchhiker's Trilogy, written by Eoin Colfer, taken over for the late Douglas Adams)

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

   -Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)-

Word of the day: sommelier:

\suhm-uhl-YEY; Fr. saw-muh-LYEY\ , noun;

1. A restaurant employee who orders and maintains the wines sold in the restaurant and usually has extensive knowledge about wine and food pairings.

"Saw" Saturday (for one week only)

Due to the theme of the night, I decided to watch a scary movie today.  I decided that tonight was as good as night as any to watch Saw II.  Drawn by the complexity and fabulous writing of the first Saw movie, I figured that I would continue watching the rest of the franchise.  Although not disappointed, it does not carry the same quality of craftsmanship as the first.  If you are not familiar with the Saw franchise, essentially there is a man who kidnaps people that he thinks are taking their lives for granted, and he places them in various life-or-death traps, which often require thought and/or self-inflicted trauma in order to survive.  I love the levels of this plot line in which there is a morality to be learned, however twisted it might be.  However, it does seem to be an over-saturated blood-bath at times.  Oh well, that is what I expected, considering the tagline for this was "Oh yes, there will be blood."  I also kind of missed the edge-of-your-seat suspense and jumping scares that horror movies usually come with.  As is mentioned in a previous blog post of mine, the Saw franchise is all about shock.  It has been described by some as "torture porn."  Some horror movies have what I like to call post-horror-movie paranoia (self explanatory).  The effect that Saw has on me is body writhing.  The images I am seeing are so graphic and disturbing that I my whole body engages in a sort of "gag" reflex. 


Anyways, those are my thoughts at the moment on the movie that I just saw (no pun intended).  I recommend Saw and Saw II (as those are the only two I have seen) to those that appreciate well thought-out plot, don't mind a little (okay, maybe a lot) of blood and grossness, and wish to participate in some body writhing.


Quote of the day:
The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, then having the two as close together as possible.
   -George Burns (1896 - 1996)-


Word of the day: draconian:
(dray-KO-nee-uhn, druh-); adjective:
1. Unusually harsh.