About The Author

Who I am is important to the type of media that I listen to. Around the world media and technology is influencing the thoughts and actions of people. I am no exception to any of these things and what is around me, automatically influences what I enjoy.
If I was erased from existence in a physical form and all that was left was a digital imprint - my sole form being the type of media I consume regularly- what would be left would still be interesting. From this imprint you could still define my entire personality, because the type of person we are also influences the media we consume.

Instead of me blabbing about how I came about being who I am, lets get down to the hard cold facts. I am young, but I work hard. I do all I can, for as long as I can. I want to go places, and believe that the only way to succeed is through hard work. I have had to work to get where I am today, and have no intention of ever letting up.

I have a select set of interests that are usually somewhat different from the average persons. They are specific to me and shade me a different colour than anyone else. Like I said, who I am can be defined through my interests.

Sports

I have a strong interest in certain sports. My favourite sport to watch (but not play) is Hockey. My favourite hockey team is the San Jose Sharks.




Why do I like this team ? This team has never won the Stanley Cup and has only advanced to the Western Conference Finals twice but still I like them. Well, they are the underdogs, with an immense talent pool. They have, consistently for the past 6 years, been one of the best teams in the NHL, and sometimes its more exciting to be on the brink of something great rather than actually being there. Plus they have an awesome logo.

Work

Before we continue, lets talk about where I work. I work for the large lumber company (and the only real lumber franchise in town) Rona. I do a lot of physical labour there. As of recently, I have started driving the trucks.

Books

Moving back onto the interests part of my life, I enjoy reading books and am heavily into the sciences. I am trying to make a career in the medical field with a leaning towards radiology or family practice. More likely, however, I will specialize. Books have played a large part in this and currently I am reading "This is your Brain on Music" by Daniel Levitin . This book focuses on the cognitive and psychological aspects of the brain when listening to music. Questions like why jingles are so catchy are answered. I am currently investigating a new side project for myself which me and a friend are going to enter into a science fair. This is called the "theremin". Essentially, it generates new frequencies by mixing two oscillating waveforms. In the theremin there is one oscillator and the other is your hand (which is grounded to the floor), and you manipulate the frequency expressed by moving your hand. Its an interesting project and my interest in science has sparked an interest to experiment further.

Music

This project leads into the biggest interest of my life-Music. Music is everywhere I go. It makes me who I am. I listen to a wide variety of music and have a vast Itunes library that spans every different genre. I can appreciate almost any song, but there a few different types I do dislike. In general, I do not like the genres of death metal or country. They are, obviously, vast contrasts to each other, and I find them generally to be disliked by myself. Death metal I find invokes too harsh of an angry emotion, whereas I find country to be generally too much of a "poor man's ballad" for lack of a better term.

I do enjoy many other different types of music though.

Before I continue, I should tell you my favourite band.

AFI is my favourite band and consists of four different musicians; Davey Havok, Jade Puget, Adam Carson and Hunter Burgan. They have been on the top of my list since grade 5 when I first was introduced to the song "Girls Not Grey" from the album "Sing the Sorrow". I heard it on the radio station 89x from Windsor/ Detroit ( I am originally from the Chatham-Kent area). I was amazed at its originality while still maintaining the essence of a mainstream single. Considering I was only 10 at the time being this was a young age to start listening to mainstream music. Most kids at this age are still listening to their parents music. I did do this, but I also started dipping my feet into the music stream. Anyways, back to AFI. They have a long discography from 1992 until the current day with their own genre constantly changing. They have ranged from Hardcore Punk to Alternative. My favourite album is the influential "Sing The Sorow", but my favourite song is Love Like Winter. Although it is not the epitome of AF's discography it is unique to my life.

Of all the genres I listen to I listen to a select type of music more than others. This is has been classified stereotypically as "Emo". Emo has been given a label that is untrue. Emo is a derivative form of hardcore punk that was mixed with deep emotional feeling, switching heavy guitars for lighter sounding acoustics and electrics. Emo has been classified to bands such as Fall Out Boy and Panic! at the Disco due to their aesthetics over their music. Actually they are closer to punk and alternative than anything else. Bands that I absolutely love usually fall under the "emo" category. They include : Jimmy Eat World, Motion City Soundtrack, Say Anything, Saves the Day and Taking Back Sunday.

I do, however, vary greatly and my tastes can change depending on my mood. I will vary from classical to techno. I do enjoy other bands especially in the punk rock genre (alkaline trio, AFI) as well as in the Indie genre (Metric, Tokyo Police Club). Depending on my mood I will listen to the ambiance of the Alchemy Volumes of Thrice and the mystery of Radiohead. I love everything about music, the way it falls into my head, the way it is so easily remembered. It is this type of media that has changed my life forever.

Movies

Movies are a huge part of my life. What I love about them is the ambiance and sometimes surreal emotions they invoke. When you watch the planet earth fly by, its like your almost in space. Certain movies just seem to catch me quicker than others, they just draw my eye. Movies like this are Lord of the Rings, The Watchmen, The Spirit, Scott Pilgrim vs The World. These are just visually appealing movies. I love the aesthetic of movies and the organization that is seen in their frames is unreal. It's like ordering a world of chaos.





I do love older movies, but have not experienced a full background in film yet. I like movies usually from the 50's up. I love movies such as Blazing Sadles and older actors like Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Martin Mull, Tim Curry and others. There are so many actors and actresses whom I also admire (Morgan Freeman.) but the list could go on forever. If I had to pick a favourite movie though, just for the sheer fun of it, instead of normally saying Lord of The Rings, I would have to say it would be Alice in Wonderland ( Original Disney Cartoon Edition). It is a masterpiece mixing harsh lessons of the real world into a child's theme. Although it is roughly (movies never follow the book) following Lewis Carrols version, it is fantastic. The animation is another visual masterpiece with such a unique use of language, I will always admire it.

Television

Moving into the last of the types of media I commonly use, it is the television. I watch a wide variety of shows but most of them relate to science, or other odd concepts. I have religiously followed shows like V, Fringe, Eli Stone and Flash Forward, but my favourite show is Lost.

Iam a Lost fanatic, I have tched every show that was made, up until the interesting ending this year. I loved the fact that everything was connected. It related well to the real world that everything can be connected in one way or another. Lost had so many subtle plot lines, hidden innuendos, pop culture references, it was not just a plot line. If you looked into every line that was said and every plot aspect you would be surprised. An example of this is the "numbers"- 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42. They appeared in every episode randomly, and often multiple times. It connected to the plot, but it was these little Easter eggs that kept me glued to the tube. It is a modern day television masterpiece.

Other shows that I watch are science based, but not fiction based. An example of this is Genius of Britain, a five-part television show on British television stations. Its layout is brilliant and the facts accurate as well as interesting. I highly recommend watching it. Here's the start.

This is just about a small fraction of all the things I really digitally consume. I could continue on to talk my cell phone, my favourite websites, but I feel as though in time you will come to learn of all these things and more. Throughout the semesters I will post more things, and together these will create a media collage of my personality. It is through the things we associate ourselves with, that creates and shows who we are.