Google's +1 Feature

In the wake of all things Google, such as the Chromebooks and the Chrome Web App Store, Google has come out with something else. A +1 feature. Apparently, it is for when you find something particularly witty or amazing and want to recommend it. It's like putting your badge of honor on it and saying that it was a good thing. Kind of like the Facebook "like" button, however overused, the Facebook like button is you telling people who troll your site that yes you "like" the fact that your friend who you haven't seen in person for the past five or so years, got a new haircut, so that it looks exactly like the haircut that they had five years ago when you last saw them on the street.

The reason why I even know about this feature is not because I'm hip and keep up with all things Google, but simply because when I loaded my blogger site, on which this post appears, this little logo thing parks itself on the right of "share this" bar (you know the one with facebook and twitter on it and other social networking sites that no one goes to). Now I'm seeing it everywhere. News outlets, fiction sites, the whole shebang. I'm not frightened, but think about it, Google implemented something, and just like that *the snap of my fingers* it's everywhere. Which makes me think of what else Google can do. 

The End of Everything

I couldn't think of anything to post today but I wanted to post today, so I'm going to share with you a poem I wrote.

The End of Everything

Movie Recommendation of the Week : Taxi Driver

Made in 1976 and featuring a skinny Robert DeNiro. a young Jodie Foster, and a gangster Harvey Keitel, this movie confused me. Maybe it was just the DVD that I had but it just started, like an old VHS tape. No menu, no nothing. Part of me likes that because of the era that it is from and part of me feels like it is very much out of my control. This movie was recommended by that film analytics teacher that I told you doesn't like Ellen Page, for some stupid reason. Anyway, I got around to watching it last night and this morning. After the initial issue with the DVD itself, (I paused it for close to thirty minutes) it was interesting. I was disturbed, which is new for me. There were so many things that were vulgar and crude. I felt dirty watching it, but it was all very beautiful. It was odd to see DeNiro as a young man, so open and expressive and talkative,  I think that took away from the movie a little, because he talked so much that after a while I got annoyed with it. I had always known about DeNiro's "You Talkin' to Me"thing but I never knew where it was from. His language was so vulgar that sometimes it was hard to listen to. I think he felt guilty for taking a life. Harvey Keitel as a skinny pimp is odd to see. I kept thinking that the presidential candidate Palantine wasn't a very good speaker. In any case, DeNiro's character was believable, but I couldn't get into the movie.

Don't get me wrong; I didn't hate it but I didn't understand the motivation behind a lot of his acts. Until the last one. I think that it's a good movie, if you have the will to sit through a bunch of monologues and voiceovers by Robert DeNiro. I think it's a movie that people tell you to watch because of the pop culture references. My opinion, if you are watching it for the performance of Jodie Foster, I recommend it. 

Books vs. Movies : Part One

Since it’s the beginning of the month, I would like to introduce a segment that I like to call Books vs. Movies. I do a lot of versus articles on here and something I hear a lot when a book is going to be made into a movie is that “they are going to mess it up”, and sometimes “they” do, but here is the arena where they duke it out and where I am the judge and you are the jury. 

We all know that Hollywood is pretty much fresh out of original ideas, so let’s talk about those adaptations and if you think of any that you want me to talk about, feel free to comment below. 

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief: 

Based on a children’s series called Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan, this movie confused audiences when it came out at the same time as Clash of the Titans, whose main character is also named Perseus. The confusion came over the fact that the fathers were different; in Clash, Perseus’ father is Zeus and in Lightning Thief, Perseus’s father is Poseidon. I don’t think people were aware that Lightning Thief was a work of fiction and that Clash of the Titans was meant to be an adaptation of an actual myth, however inaccurate it was. Nevertheless, the inconsistencies between the novel and the movie are not too great, however the little things have large consequences. Like the fact that in the first book, Percy is 12 and in the movie, he’s more along the lines of 16. I assume the reason why they did that is so that Percy could have a romantic interest in Athena’s daughter, Annabelle, which I think wasn’t necessary because the building of it through a series of movies, like for instance Hermione and Ron from the Harry Potter series, would have gone over better, in my opinion. The reason why I think the age change wasn’t a good idea is because there are five books and it’s a gradual progression of age, by the end of the series, he’s 17 and done with adolescence. By starting the series in movie form with Percy being older, it is going to be hard to make the rest of the books in the series without encountering the whole college thing. Besides that, the movie did a good job of portraying the particulars of the Greek mythology. When I read the books, and generally when I read books like this, I try to cast them in my head because a lot of books are becoming movies, like the Hunger Games. I think it was well cast. I was surprised by the choice of Pierce Brosnan as Chiron/ Mr. Brunner, though happy surprised. When it comes to being true to the words, sometimes there are things that you cannot do when converting to paper to film, but I believe that there was a great effort made and that should be acknowledged. 


However, only one can win. So I'm leaving it up to you. Leave in the comments below which you think is better.