The Daily Shoot Assignment of the Day
Make a photograph featuring a diagonal line or series of diagonal lines. Pull our attention through the photograph.
Monthly Archives: August 2010
RuneScape Game Bar’s Grand Exchange Information
A few days ago, Jagex released a news story on the RuneScape home page regarding a game bar. Upon skimming over the full story, I realized that this game bar was actually a RuneScape toolbar for your browser. I like keeping my Firefox as simple and clean as possible, so I didn’t install the game bar, but I made an assumption about this game bar after I saw that it contains information about the Grand Exchange. This assumption may be completely wrong, and I may be theorizing about something that is completely irrelevant to what the game bar actually is or has, but I thought I would write about it regardless because it involves a fight that Jagex has been a part of ever since they released RuneScape Classic – the fight against cheaters.
UPDATE: As I expected, the game bar does not have anything to do with what I originally thought was a feature I thought the game bar provided. What I saw as the toolbar notifying players of Grand Exchange updates was misinterpreted. I thought the update was when the prices for the Grand Exchange items were updated, but it was actually when the player’s offers on the Grand Exchange updated. Nevertheless, I’m leaving this article here because it does cover topic that has brought concerns to RuneScape players for a long time.
On a day like any other on RuneScape, I decided to clean out and organize my bank so I could get some coins and experience out of the random items sitting and rotting in tabs that I never opened. I came across a handful of jugs of water, and I decided to go to the Grand Exchange to buy some grapes so I could make jugs of wine, getting me cooking experience and a future food source for Thieving. I took out a couple thousand coins from my bank for my transaction, but when I typed “grapes” into the search field, I got an unpleasant surprise. The last time I had checked, grapes were only a couple hundred coins each, but now they were almost 600 coins each. Wondering how this happened, I went on the RuneScape Grand Exchange item information search engine to find out the past pricing trends of Grapes. I noticed that the 300%+ hike in cost was not a long-term change, but actually happened in a matter of a few weeks.
While accessing my bank to withdraw more coins, I asked to nobody in particular, “Why are grapes so expensive now?” After a few seconds, I got my answer – merchanting clans.
For those who don’t know, merchanting clans are groups of people that attempt to (and sometimes succeed in) manipulating the costs of particular target items. They are the prime example of “buy low, sell high” – everyone in the clan buys the item at a low price, then when the demand increases and price increases, they sell the item at a high price. Many players are annoyed that this is happening in the first place, because they believe that it is unfair for the other unrelated people who have to pay higher prices for the items they need because of the merchanting clan. However, I think it’s completely fine, as these clans are applying real-world strategies to a game they’re playing. The problem is not what they’re doing, but how they’re doing it.
Merchanting clans tell their members to buy a specific item in the Grand Exchange as much as possible with the money they have. This increase in demand will cause the price of the item to go up. The clan leader then tells everyone to dump the particular item back into the market when it reaches a particular price, making it seem fair to everyone. However, these clan leaders make sure that their items will sell regardless of how many others of the same type are released back into the Grand Exchange. They don’t wait for the target price; instead, they sell theirs a little early.
But sometimes, selling just a little bit early isn’t enough for the clan leaders to make a good profit. A lot of people realize that if they really wait for the target price, their chances of selling their items will become lower and lower. Thus, as the price approaches the tipping point, every second counts.
This is where third-party software comes in. We’ve all heard of bots that train stats or farm gold for you, but what about bots that wait in the Grand Exchange for you? The RuneScape Grand Exchange updates at a random time within a time range every day. The system is organized such that the first people to submit their offers get them fulfilled first, and all remaining offers are fulfilled in the order in which they received. As a result, it’s important for these clan leaders to get their offers in right as the Grand Exchange prices update.
Of course, merchanting clan leaders aren’t the only people that use these Grand Exchange camping bots. Other players, such as those interested in purchasing rare items, also use Grand Exchange bots, as it’s rare for any rare items to enter the Grand Exchange on a daily basis, and the first one to place the offer will get the item first. If Jagex were able to detect these bots, they would theoretically be banned for breaking the No Third-Party Software rule, but it’s nearly impossible to prove that they were using a bot, and not staying in front of their computer, waiting for the prices to update.
Instead of trying to beat the botters, it appears as if Jagex has attempted to join them, and is inviting the rest of the RuneScape players to join them too. Instead of having to use botting software, it is possible that this game bar now as the option to notify you when the Grand Exchange has updated. Instead of wasting resources trying to fight something that gives an unfair advantage to particular people, just let everyone else have that advantage too, making it commonplace and no longer an unfair advantage. Of course, there will still be people in time zones that are asleep when the Grand Exchange prices update, but I’m assuming that Jagex is hoping that the handful of hours of range in between which the prices can update will make up for time zone differences.
Of course, I could be completely wrong with my guesses and assumptions with this article, and “Grand Exchange updates” on the toolbar could just as easily mean that the toolbar notifies you whenever new items have been added to the Grand Exchange, thus, updating it. I may install the RuneScape Game Bar just to try it out and see if the features are at all useful, and if there’s anything questionable or notable, I will analyze it in a future article.
The Daily Shoot Assignment of the Day
Make a photograph of something cold today. Ice cubes, frosty beverages, or the freezer aisle at the grocery store.
Nothing more today.
I just walked full-speed head-first into a closed door because I was looking down at my phone, and now I have a headache and don’t feel like writing anything else.
Second Bonus XP Weekend
Yesterday in the RuneScape news, Jagex revealed that a second Bonus Experience Weekend would be taking place from September 3rd to 6th, 2010. Obviously, this is more than just a weekend – Jagex decided to extend this Bonus Experience Weekend to include both the Friday before and the Monday after the actual weekend. Similar to the previous Bonus Experience Weekend, many people are complaining about how the game has become too centralized on acquiring experience and drifting away from being a fun and enjoyable game. Others are criticizing Jagex because Bonus Experience Weekend is teasing free players and taunting them into paying to become members. I, on the other hand, am going to focus on what the best stats to train are.
A stat that most people think would be awesome to train is Prayer. Prayer is currently one of the most expensive skills to train. Granting full immunity of a single type of attack from all NPCs, giving drastic boosts to combat stats, and even providing the option to save an extra item upon death, everyone is eager to get their Prayer level up as high as their budget lets them. Unfortunately, I must inform you that training Prayer is not a good way to spend your Bonus Experience Weekend. The standard and conventional way to train Prayer is to bury bones of any type into the ground. Although the bonus experience multiplier will increase experience from bones buried into the ground, most people do not train Prayer by burying bones into the ground, at least not members. The better, faster, and more commonly used method of training Prayer is to sacrifice bones onto a gilded altar with both lighters lit. This will give 3.5 times the experience received per bone, and is much easier than clicking on each individual bone to bury it. Most people see this and think, “I already get 3.5 times the experience for sacrificing a bone, but with bonus experience active, during the first 30 minutes, I’ll get an additional 2.7 times the normal experience, making my total modifier 9.45! That is almost like burying ten bones in the time it takes to bury one!” Jagex noticed how massively unbalanced this was and decided to only give bonus experience to people that were literally burying bones, not also users of gilded altars or the Ectofunctus. So, the most your modifier for Prayer can become is still only 3.5 times on gilded altars and 4 times on the Ectofunctus.
Another stat a lot of people want to train during Bonus Experience Weekend is Summoning. Summoning can get quite expensive with all the Shards and secondary ingredients, so people want to save money by training it during Bonus Experience Weekend. People started stocking up on Summoning Charms, Shards, and secondary ingredients so they could use it all at once during Bonus Experience Weekend. The problem here is that some people have more Charms stocked up than others, and those with no Charms do not have a definite way of acquiring a massive number of Charms on demand. Charm collecting is a process, and those who invest more time into it have more Charms. Jagex also saw this as slightly unbalanced and decided not to give an advantage in Summoning to people who stocked up on Charms. Citing the fact that Summoning requires lots of work before actually training the skill, it was removed from the skills that get a large bonus at the beginning of the weekend, and was given a steady 1.1 time multiplier for the entire duration of the Bonus Experience Weekend. So obviously, if you train Summoning right from the beginning, you’re missing out on the ten hours of additional experience that you could be getting in a different stay.
So I just gave examples of two stats not to train. What are some examples of stats that are good to train? Obviously, any other stat that you want to level up quickly is a good candidate. However, some stats are more time-saving or money-saving than others. For example, Construction and Herblore are good because they are expensive, and the bonus experience could end up saving you a lot of money. I personally trained Construction during the previous Bonus Experience weekend. On the other hand, although skills like Runecrafting don’t actually cost anything to train, and instead make a profit, the process of leveling it up is extremely slow and the bonus experience could end up saving you a lot of time.
I have been asked a few times what I am going to do during Bonus Experience Weekend. Surprisingly, unlike the previous Bonus Experience Weekend, I have not stocked up on any resources or other items to aid my training. Unlike the previous Bonus Experience Weekend, I am going to train something that I have been doing on a normal basis. Instead of saving massive amounts of time or money, I am just going to quicken the pace of approaching a goal. The goal I have set now is to get Level 99 Ranged. I already have enough Broad-Tipped Bolts to last me the entire weekend, so I don’t have to prepare anything else. What’s good about Ranged is that I can also train other stats at the same time with little to no additional effort. For example, all I have to do is speak with a Slayer Master beforehand and kill the assigned monster to get boosted Slayer experience too. Also, I get Constitution experience for doing damage, which is boosted and rewarded with no additional effort as I train Ranged.
Now that you know what I am going to do, it’s time to share what you are going to do. If you would like to contribute your plans to the article, let me know by using the Contact Form, telling me what stats you plan to train, and your reasoning for selecting those stat over the other stats.
Pokémon Episode 631: An Elite Coverup
The episode opens showing Team Rocket dressed up in a disguise running the Mime Jr. Day Care; they claim that they can make any customer’s Pokémon evolve, guaranteed. A young boy with a Magby approaches the Day Care, and Team Rocket lures him into leaving his Magby with them by showing him evolution charts. Ultimately, the boy gives Team Rocket his Magby in hopes that he will get it back as a Magmar.
Meanwhile, the young boy finds Ash, Dawn, and Brock, and asks to play with Ash’s Pikachu. When Ash asks the little boy if he has a Pokémon of his own, he says that his Magby is currently at a Day Care getting ready to evolve. The trio believes this is suspicious, and asks the young boy to take them to the Day Care center. When they arrive, they realize that the place where the Day Care used to be is no longer a Day Care, but an abandoned area.
The young boy says that he must find Bertha and inform her of what has happened. When they meet Bertha, Brock notices that Bertha is Bertha of the Elite Four. When Brock points that out privately to Bertha, she tells Brock that he is correct, but asks him not to share the information with anybody else. Bertha informs the young boy that he must correct his own mistakes, including his mistake of getting his Magby stolen. The trio offers to help the young boy, and they head off to the Observatory.
They end up encountering Team Rocket, but lose them after they are exposed to a pink gas. Team Rocket runs away, but the group chases them. The pursuit leads them to a field of windmills where Bertha informs them that the skill of observation is vital to success. They then notice that one of the windmills is not turning. When they approach the suspicious windmill, they realize that Team Rocket is hiding behind it. Surprised that they were found, Team Rocket releases the windmill and reveals their hot air balloon, in which they begin to fly off. Ash sends out his Staraptor to attack the hot air balloon using Aerial Ace, but some machinery built into the hot air balloon successfully helps Team Rocket fend off Staraptor and get away. Seeing how far away Team Rocket has gotten, Bertha offers to help out by giving them a ride in her car.
When they get close to Team Rocket, Bertha sends out her Gliscor to attack the hot air balloon using Guillotine. Gliscor succeeds in damaging the balloon, and Team Rocket falls to the ground. Furious of their descent, Jessie and James send out their Sevipr and Carnivine for battle. Ash sends out his Buizel and Dawn sends out her Pachirisu. Sevipr begins the battle with Bite, but Buizel counters with Sonic Boom. Carnivine uses Bullet Seed, but Pachirisu counters with Spark. Buizel then uses Sonic Boom again, creating an explosion and causing the Pokéball with Magby to return to the young boy. The young boy then joins the battle with his Magby and instructs it to use Flamethrower. Team Rocket notices that their Pokémon are losing, so they release their power-up pods, which are custom-built for Sevipr and Carnivine to make them stronger. With a single Power Vine Whip from Carnivine and a single Power Poison Tail from Sevipr, Ash’s Buizel and Dawn’s Pachirisu get knocked out.
Clearly dissatisfied with the fact that Team Rocket is using machinery to enhance the performance of their Pokémon, Bertha steps forward. She sends out her Golem to use Rock Blast, which easily destroys all of Team Rocket’s machine enhancements. Then Magby comes in to use Fire Punch, sending Team Rocket blasting off. After Team Rocket is defeated, Brock accidentally reveals that Bertha is a member of the Elite Four. Ash eagerly challenges her to a Pokémon battle, and Bertha accepts.
Bertha begins the battle by sending out her Hippowdon, and Ash sends out his Torterra. Torterra attacks with Leaf Storm. Hippowdon uses Dig to go underground, and after a short while, pops up under Torterra while using Iron Head. Torterra prepares to use Rock Climb and charges toward Hippowdon, but Hippowdon intercepts the attack and counters with Iron Head. After Torterra has taken a lot of damage, Bertha reminds Ash to use his observation skills to his advantage. Hippowdon goes underground again to use Dig, but Ash is prepared this time. He closely watches the ground for movement; he notices that some rocks are moving, and tells Torterra to avoid that area. Hippowdon appears in the area that Ash predicted while using Iron Head, but Torterra manages to evade the attack. While Hippowdon is at the surface, Torterra uses Leaf Storm and scores a hit. Once again, Hippowdon uses Dig to go underground. However, this time, Ash is unable to predict where Hippowdon is going to surface because instead of just a small portion like the previous time, the entire ground is shaking. Torterra gets attacked directly by Hippowdon’s Iron Head, then is knocked out by Hippowdon’s finishing move, Fire Fang.
As the battle ends and the episode closes, Bertha and the trio are back inside her car and are heading off towards the sunset.
Hi humans.
I haven’t been out and about too much, and I haven’t been doing any blog-worthy stuff lately. I’ve been reading a 541-page book, which is why I haven’t even been doing any “What I’m Reading” sections lately either.
What I’m Reading
Almost a month after reading the second book in the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, I finally got a hold of the third book, City of Glass.
I actually have a completely random story to share about this book that has nothing to do with the actual book.
When I scrolled through my public library’s online catalog, I noticed that this book was available, and put it on hold so nobody could check it out while I was going to the library. About three or four hours later, I went to the library to pick up the book from the shelf and saw that it wasn’t there. I thought to myself, “maybe they moved it to the hold area for me,” and went to the Items on Hold shelf near the circulation desk. I saw that it wasn’t there either, so I hopped on one of the library computers and looked it up again. To my astonishment, it showed that it was checked out, and my hold was still pending.
I went to the circulation desk to ask them why they permitted someone else to check out a book that was on hold, and nobody could give me an answer. Which is why I had to wait about three weeks more than expected to even be able to check out this book.
Back on topic. In City of Glass, the main character, Clary, continues her journey to try and break the spell cast on her mother that put her into a deep state of unconsciousness. Along the process, Clary tries to solve her other problems, including the relationship issues she has with her friends and family, the dangers brought to her and the people around her by demonic forces, and the restrictions placed on her due to her young age and inexperience. By the end of the book, we learn something revolutionary about another main character, Jace, and we find out if Valentine in fact succeeds in taking over the Shadowhunters.
City of Glass was originally intended to be the last installment in the Mortal Instruments series, but the author decided to add three more books to the series due to its massive popularity. Back when I read the first book, City of Bones, I said that it wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be, but for some unexplainable reason, still made me want to keep reading; at the end of the first book, I liked it. The same situation slightly continued during the second book, but it got better and better, and by the third book, it had secured my interest. I still don’t know why I feel so attracted to this series, and still cannot explain lucidly why I like this book so much. From its literal value, it seems like an average book, but it has something mysterious about it that makes it far superior than many other books I’ve read.
Like the other books in this series, I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in fantasy themes, and recommend it to just about anyone that wants to read an enigmatically good book. Like all other series, I suggest that if you decide to read this book, you should start with the first book in the series so you understand the background of all the characters; the third book makes references to things that happened in the first and second books that are necessary to fully understand what is happening.
The Daily Shoot Assignment of the Day
Please note that all three of the following pictures were taken in low-light environments, and are not as high-quality as they could have been.
Thursday, August 19, 2010: Make a photograph of something you eat today. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack. Make it look tasty.
Friday, August 20, 2010: Make a photograph with a shallow depth of field today. Get in close if you need to force it with the lens you have.
Saturday, August 21, 2010: Make a photograph from a high point of view. Get on top of a building, use a ladder, or just look down at a small object.
Back on topic. In City of Glass, the main character, Clary, continues her journey to try and break the spell cast on her mother that put her into a deep state of unconsciousness. Along the process, Clary tries to solve her other problems, including the relationship issues she has with her friends and family, the dangers brought to her and the people around her by demonic forces, and the restrictions placed on her due to her young age and inexperience. By the end of the book, we learn something revolutionary about another main character, Jace, and we find out if Valentine in fact succeeds in taking over the Shadowhunters.
City of Glass was originally intended to be the last installment in the Mortal Instruments series, but the author decided to add three more books to the series due to its massive popularity. Back when I read the first book, City of Bones, I said that it wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be, but for some unexplainable reason, still made me want to keep reading; at the end of the first book, I liked it. The same situation slightly continued during the second book, but it got better and better, and by the third book, it had secured my interest. I still don’t know why I feel so attracted to this series, and still cannot explain lucidly why I like this book so much. From its literal value, it seems like an average book, but it has something mysterious about it that makes it far superior than many other books I’ve read.
Like the other books in this series, I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in fantasy themes, and recommend it to just about anyone that wants to read an enigmatically good book. Like all other series, I suggest that if you decide to read this book, you should start with the first book in the series so you understand the background of all the characters; the third book makes references to things that happened in the first and second books that are necessary to fully understand what is happening.
The Daily Shoot Assignment of the Day
Please note that all three of the following pictures were taken in low-light environments, and are not as high-quality as they could have been.
Thursday, August 19, 2010: Make a photograph of something you eat today. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack. Make it look tasty.
Friday, August 20, 2010: Make a photograph with a shallow depth of field today. Get in close if you need to force it with the lens you have.
Saturday, August 21, 2010: Make a photograph from a high point of view. Get on top of a building, use a ladder, or just look down at a small object.
Hi humans.
Today was another average day at the family business, and wasn’t as action-packed as yesterday. Although, one of my uncles randomly showing up to visit was pretty interesting.
What I’m Watching
Earlier today, I watched Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. I chose to watch this movie because I watched the original Night at the Museum a few years ago and was interested in watching the sequel to it.
Actor Ben Stiller plays the role of the main character, Larry Daley. Larry was a former museum security guard, as shown in the original Night at the Museum but became rich and famous after he became an inventor and started his own company. Because of his busy life, he was unable to visit the museum he used to work at for a long period of time. Unfortunately, by the time he made it back, he discovered that all the exhibits were being moved out and new electronic exhibits were being moved in as part of a mass renovation.
Larry finds out where the old exhibits are being shipped to, and goes there to take care of things himself. What he doesn’t realize is that the magical tablet that brings the entire museum to life is being shipped along with everything else. After the sun sets, Larry finds himself trapped in a museum full of live exhibits in quantities far greater than what he was used to at the old museum. He must now make sure the exhibits belonging to the old museum are returned, and at the same time make sure he stays alive.
I thought that Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian was a pretty good, action-packed, attention-holding movie for something meant to be family-friendly. It was nice to see the return of some good actors from the previous movie, as well as new comedic ones like Jonah Hill as a security guard.
I would recommend this movie to anyone, including young children. The idea of this movie is based somewhat on fantasy, and there are no other movies that I have seen or heard of before that are based on a similar concept. I suggest that anyone watching this movie watch the first Night at the Museum first, as it gives some vital background information about the museum that Larry used to work in, and explains why he has such a close relationship with all the exhibits.
The Daily Shoot Assignment of the Day
Go meta and make a photo of a photo today. Don’t just be a copy machine, however. Get creative with composition.
That’s not exactly a photo of a photo, but a photo of a painting is close enough.
That’s not exactly a photo of a photo, but a photo of a painting is close enough.
Hi humans.
Today was just another regular day spent at the family business. My day consisted of action-packed activities like cleaning up some rotten apple juice that someone spilled, catching people that try to steal our door stoppers, and answering the endless questions and requests of two college-aged girls while they did their laundry.
Oh, and seeing this on the TV:
… then checking back in ten minutes and noticing that the text was changed to:
So apparently there was a unanimous decision by the jury that the former governor is guilty of supplying false declarations to an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, but was no final decision made for the other 23 counts that he was tried for.
What I’m Watching
Earlier today, I watched Knocked Up, a movie featuring Seth Rogen and Katherine Hiegl.
Knocked Up is about a man named Ben Stone who lives in an apartment with four of his male friends. He doesn’t have a job, and aspires to be successful via a website he and his friends are creating called Flesh of the Stars. One evening, he goes to a club where he meets Allison Scott, a reporter for the E! channel. They go home together, have a one night stand, and think that everything is going to be fine…
… until Allison discovers that she is pregnant with Ben’s baby. From that point on, mass chaos breaks out as Allison and Ben’s personalities clash, and the unstable relationship of Allison’s older sister makes the situation worse.
I thought this was a pretty good movie. The relationships between the characters are well developed. The plot has a comical twist to it that takes an emergency-level situation and makes it funny while still having the characters act sincerely towards the problem.
What I’m Reading
After reading and being intrigued by Malcolm Gladwell’s books Blink and The Tipping Point, I went on to read Outliers.
Outliers is a book about the special people in the world – the people that are different enough to be noticed as different when placed in a regular societal setting. These people have gifts and advantages starting from birth that define who they are and how much they will succeed later on in their lives. The main concept of this book is that the fortunate opportunities that affect these people are what makes them so special, not the individual effort they put into their work. Although effort and determination is important, luck is the catalyst for success.
Gladwell goes on and gives examples of how this is true, like the explanation behind why people born in the last quarter of the calendar year should not even bother trying out for professional hockey. He also follows the story of the lives of famous people like Bill Gates, who, due to a bit of luck, was able to fall under the 10,000-Hour Rule for programming and become the successful founder of Microsoft.
Like all of Gladwell’s other books, I recommend this book to everybody, as it gives insight on a facet of life that not many people realize is important. The ideas of this book may explain to some people why they are unsuccessful, and how they could change they way they live to place themselves in the path of luck. The time invested in reading this book could result in massive benefits in the future.
The Daily Shoot Assignment of the Day
Make a photograph that features a sign of some sort today. Maybe a stop sign. Maybe an information sign. Or an advert.
… then checking back in ten minutes and noticing that the text was changed to:
So apparently there was a unanimous decision by the jury that the former governor is guilty of supplying false declarations to an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, but was no final decision made for the other 23 counts that he was tried for.
What I’m Watching
Earlier today, I watched Knocked Up, a movie featuring Seth Rogen and Katherine Hiegl.
Knocked Up is about a man named Ben Stone who lives in an apartment with four of his male friends. He doesn’t have a job, and aspires to be successful via a website he and his friends are creating called Flesh of the Stars. One evening, he goes to a club where he meets Allison Scott, a reporter for the E! channel. They go home together, have a one night stand, and think that everything is going to be fine…
… until Allison discovers that she is pregnant with Ben’s baby. From that point on, mass chaos breaks out as Allison and Ben’s personalities clash, and the unstable relationship of Allison’s older sister makes the situation worse.
I thought this was a pretty good movie. The relationships between the characters are well developed. The plot has a comical twist to it that takes an emergency-level situation and makes it funny while still having the characters act sincerely towards the problem.
What I’m Reading
After reading and being intrigued by Malcolm Gladwell’s books Blink and The Tipping Point, I went on to read Outliers.
Outliers is a book about the special people in the world – the people that are different enough to be noticed as different when placed in a regular societal setting. These people have gifts and advantages starting from birth that define who they are and how much they will succeed later on in their lives. The main concept of this book is that the fortunate opportunities that affect these people are what makes them so special, not the individual effort they put into their work. Although effort and determination is important, luck is the catalyst for success.
Gladwell goes on and gives examples of how this is true, like the explanation behind why people born in the last quarter of the calendar year should not even bother trying out for professional hockey. He also follows the story of the lives of famous people like Bill Gates, who, due to a bit of luck, was able to fall under the 10,000-Hour Rule for programming and become the successful founder of Microsoft.
Like all of Gladwell’s other books, I recommend this book to everybody, as it gives insight on a facet of life that not many people realize is important. The ideas of this book may explain to some people why they are unsuccessful, and how they could change they way they live to place themselves in the path of luck. The time invested in reading this book could result in massive benefits in the future.
The Daily Shoot Assignment of the Day
Make a photograph that features a sign of some sort today. Maybe a stop sign. Maybe an information sign. Or an advert.
The Dangers of the Internet: The Story of Jessi Slaughter
One month ago, a young girl posted an intriguing video on YouTube. The video showed this girl and her father, the girl crying and her father enraged. In his fury, the father sputtered out nonsensical phrases like “I’ve backtraced your emails and the cyberpolice are on their way,” “You dun goofed,” and “Consequences will never be the same.” The interesting thing about this circumstance, however, was that the father was not yelling at his daughter, and his daughter was not crying because of her father’s scolding. The father was yelling at the webcam, directing his anger at the viewers, and the girl was crying about what had happened to her as a result of previous events. How did this all happen? You’re about to find out.
Meet Jessi Slaughter, an ordinary eleven-year-old girl who wishes to be anything but ordinary. Being involved with a band called Blood on the Dance Floor, Jessi Slaughter flaunts her slight advantage in popularity, and feels like she has the right to insult the general population by threatening them over YouTube. And that’s exactly what she did.
On a fine morning, Jessi Slaughter got on her computer and started recording a video. She was addressing haters and trolls – people who say negative things about something for the sole purpose of a feeling of self empowerment and enraging others. Generally, people combat haters by either saying “Stop” (which usually doesn’t work) or “I don’t care what you think” (which also usually doesn’t work, but tends to be slightly more effective than telling them to stop). Jessi Slaughter, on the other hand, chose to say “I’ll pop a glock in your mouth and make a brain slushie.”
Now we change the scene to a place called 4Chan. If you have any friends obsessed with the internet, you have most likely heard of it, but may not know what it is. 4Chan started out as an image board, a website that people can use to communicate with one another and share pictures. However, as the 4Chan community grew, things started to get out of hand. 4Chan is now popular for its disturbed participants, stupid memes, and occasional outbursts of child pornography, among other creepy things.
The most important thing about 4Chan, however, is how powerful it is as a group. A majority of the people that go on 4Chan are people that are not a part of the real world and do not actively participate in society. As a result, these people have tons of time on their hands to do whatever they wish. “Whatever they wish” can range anywhere from masturbating while watching bestiality porn to utterly destroying the life of an eleven-year-old girl with poor judgment.
Remember the “pop a glock in your mouth and make a brain slushie” video I referred to earlier? 4Chan got a hold of it and passed it around from member to member. Thousands of people watched it and saw a small girl threatening to do something that she would never actually be able to do. One thing I forgot to mention is that many people on 4Chan are pathetic in real life. To make up for how weak they are, they act like vicious monsters when they are behind the safety of the electronic barrier we call the internet. The 4Channers decided that it would be funny to take what this girl was saying seriously and fight back.
Jessi Slaughter began receiving more hate mail than she had ever received before. 4Chan found out her home address, phone number, and information about her parents. The harassment went on for a few days and became more severe; people started making death threats and the releasing Photoshopped pornographic pictures of Jessi Slaughter. Eventually, the police department decided it would be best to (attempt to) take control of this situation, and put Jessi Slaughter under police protection. Three days later, Jessi Slaughter was released from police protection and did an interview for Good Morning America. Following suite, other news broadcasts, such as CBS, also did segments about Jessi Slaughter and how her life took a drastic turn.
The depressing part is, it didn’t stop there. Shortly after posting her breakdown video of her dad screaming into the camera, Jessi went into her video chat room and appeared perfectly fine, even saying “any type of fame I’ll take.” She continued making more threats to the haters, and started fueling people’s ideas of her having a sexual relationship with the lead singer of Blood on the Dance Floor. On August 2 and August 4, she was heard on Tinychat while she was arguing with her dad; there is a distinct slapping noise, and Jessi threatens that she will curb stomp her father.
Time to start pointing fingers. Who’s at fault? Most people say that Jessi Slaughter is responsible for all the trouble she’s caused. I say her parents are mostly to blame.
First, we have to keep in mind that Jessi Slaughter is still a preteen. She was eleven years old when a majority of this happened, and recently turned twelve on July 27, 2010 (according to one of her online profiles). This is usually the age when kids start going to middle school. In the United States, an individual must be eighteen years or older to be considered an adult; until then, the actions of the child is the responsibility of his or her parents. Furthermore, science has proven that the brain does not even finish fully developing until someone is in their early to mid-20s. What’s the point of blaming someone who is around half that age?
Next, according to an interview by a website called Mom Logic, Jessi Slaughter’s mother did not even know about what Jessi was doing online. Jessi’s mother claims that she has not yet watched any of her daughter’s videos – that means, Jessi’s mother has never seen her daughter announcing that she’ll “pop a glock in your mouth and make a brain slushie,” even though millions of other people worldwide have seen this video. I dunno if it’s just me, but that sounds a little bit ignorant.
Finally, aside from being ignorant, her parents have not made a reasonable attempt to take control of this situation. Jessi is twelve years old now, and is under the full authority of her parents. With over 40 years of life experience each, her parents should know how to handle a situation like this (and so should anyone with a brain). Are her videos causing the problem? Take away her webcam and microphone. Is she still chatting with strangers? Get an internet filter and block chat websites she uses most frequently like Tinychat and Xat. Is she still causing trouble? Move the computer to the family room or kitchen where her online activity can easily be seen, or just don’t let her use a computer all together. As you can see, it’s not very hard to control a child.
So what have we learned from Jessi Slaughter? Simply put, make sure children know how to stay safe on the internet and realize how dangerous it can be. Never allow them to give out any personal information without getting permission first. Closely monitor their internet activity and start asking questions if something suspicious shows up. And most importantly, if you sense trouble approaching, act immediately.
