This is a video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World.
This video is a CreepyPasta story inspired by some stories I read about people who had experienced homelessness. Enjoy!
Yes, I know the title was in all caps.
No, that was not a mistake.
My caps-lock was not on and for good reason. I am internally yelling at the top of my lungs as I type these words because today is the day!
It has been a long offseason. It always is when you love football as much as I do. But once again, the wait is over. I understand the season kicked off on Thursday night and Friday night with a couple of primetime games. And yes, I watched those games with the joy and excitement of a horny rabbit on crack.
But today is the day when the real meat of week one begins! At 1:00 p.m., eastern standard time, multiple games will kick off. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be sitting on my couch with a pizza, a beer, and NFL Redzone on my TV. And for the rest of the day and well into the evening, I’ll be watching every glorious moment I can process for the first week of the 2024 NFL season.
It is one of the best days of the year for me. It’s something I’ve come to treasure more and more as I’ve gotten older. And I look forward to spending every Sunday for the rest of the year enjoying every moment of NFL football.
So, to answer the question that the legendary Hank Williams Jr. often asked…yes! I am ready for some football!
This is a video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World.
It’s been a long time since Terminator fans had a reason get to excited. But with the release of Terminator Zero on Netflix, the fate of this franchise has promise. The story of Sarah and John Connor is in the past. Through this series, a new future and a new war against Skynet has begun. And I couldn’t be more thrilled with the possibilities. Enjoy!
Filed under futurism, television
This is a video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World.
In this video, I make my picks and predictions for the 2024 NFL season. Last year, I completely shocked myself by accurately predicting that the Kansas City Chiefs would win the Super Bowl. That marks the second time in three years that I’ve predicted the winner.
That is NOT normal.
So, please don’t use those past successes as proof that my next round of predictions will be just as accurate. A lot has happened in the offseason. And the NFL landscape can change in a big way from year to year.
So, once again, I’m going to try and speculate on how the 2024 season will play out. I’ll go division by division. Then, I’ll offer my pick for who I think will win Super Bowl LIX. Enjoy!
Today is Labor Day. For many, it marks the true end of summer. Pools will start closing. Beaches will close with them. And the simple joy of wearing shorts and flip-flops whenever you need to go outside soon won’t be viable.
We know fall and winter are coming.
We know the days are going to start getting shorter and the weather will get less pleasant.
But that’s all the more reason to make this day count. Labor Day certainly has a real history to it that’s worth learning. However you ultimately choose to spend it is up to you. This is our day to cap off the summer and enjoy the warmth of a long summer day before the season changes once more.
So, let’s enjoy it.
Let’s savor it.
Happy Labor Day!
Filed under Current Events
Today is August 29, 2024.
Officially, it’s just an ordinary day. It has no historical or legal significance of any kind.
But if you happen to be a serious movie buff, or a big fan of the Terminator franchise, it is the official canon date of Judgement Day. According to the events documented in “Terminator 2, Judgement Day,” Skynet became self-aware at 2:14 a.m., Eastern Standard Time, on August 29, 1997. Shortly afterwards, it launched a full-scale war on the whole of humanity.
While it is true that this date has fluctuated over the years due to numerous time travel anomalies and sub-par sequels, the August 29, 1997, date tends to be the most well-known and accepted. And in recent years, I think that date has become even more noteworthy and not just because it celebrates the greatest action movie of all time.
In recent years, artificial intelligence has emerged as something far greater than a standard movie trope. It is now a rapidly growing field, as well a multi-billion-dollar industry. I’ve discussed the possibilities in the past and tried to put more recent advancements like ChatGPT into a proper context. But even I have been astonished at how quickly artificial intelligence has gone from an intriguing possibility to something that’s very real.
At this very moment, anyone with an internet connection can utilize what is essentially a limited AI for various tasks in a manner that would’ve seemed like a futuristic dream less than 10 years ago. It’s very likely that in the next 10 years, AI will advance in plenty of other ways, some which we can’t possibly predict.
But these AI systems are nothing like Skynet. They’re very narrow in terms of their scope and capabilities. They’re not going to become self-aware or gain human-level intelligence. But make no mistake. At some point, we will have an AI that is as smart as an average human, if not smarter. This is not a technological feat that requires a huge breakthrough that defies or redefines physics. It’s largely an engineering and logistical challenge.
Whether it happens next year or several decades from now, it will happen. We will eventually create an AI that’s as capable and self-aware as Skynet. At that point, what happens next has been a huge point of contention and speculation.
Unless someone is stupid enough to give this future AI access to a nuclear weapons system, I don’t see it launching a full-scale nuclear war like Skynet did. Even if it wanted to, I doubt it would be given that level of access. That doesn’t mean it’ll be friendly. The first self-aware AI may very well be hostile in that it sees humanity as a threat. If it does choose to pursue conflict with us, that could result in some truly unprecedented dangers.
It’s unlikely it will manifest like the war we saw unfold in multiple Terminator movies. It’s also unlikely it’ll operate in any body that resembles Arnold Schwarzenegger. Whatever form it does ultimately take, it will still likely mark a turning point for technology and human history, as a whole.
Whether we call it Judgement Day, the technological singularity, Doomsday, or just another day that ends in Y, it’s a date we should take seriously. Because with all technology, there are risks and benefits. There are also best-case scenarios to go along with the worst case. “Terminator 2, Judgement Day” offered us a cinematic experience of how bad it can get if AI becomes hostile.
But we also shouldn’t let that obscure how good it could potentially be if utilized properly. I would even argue that, as the world continues to face unprecedented dangers and uncertainty, we need to advance AI. It might very well be our most important tool in solving critical issues having to do with climate change, medicine, ecological destruction, power generation, and surviving the eventual destruction of our planet.
As such, we should continue to proceed carefully. We should remain cautious as we journey into the future. As Sarah Conner once said, there is no fate but what we make. And when it comes to developing an AI that will eventually become self-aware, let’s make that fate a good one for everyone, be that human or machine.
Filed under Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, technology
This is a video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World.
In this video, I highlight and explore one of my favorite episodes of Batman: The Animated Series. While Batman has one of the best rogue’s gallery in all of comics, this episode had him clash with a different kind of enemy.
Like Bruce Wayne, they’re billionaires.
Unlike Bruce Wayne, they choose to be villains.
But it’s why they make such a choice that’s truly remarkable. And the nature of that choice does a lot to affirm why Batman’s story is so powerful. Enjoy!
Filed under DC Comics, superhero comics, television, YouTube
These days, it’s easy to look back on old movies and TV shows you once found funny and cringe. Sometimes, it’s just part of changing trends. Sometimes, it’s just part of getting older. What you found hilarious when you were 10-years-old isn’t going to be as funny when you’re 40. It’s just a sad fact of life.
But then, there’s a movie like “Airplane!” And I submit that, in terms of comedies that have aged like the finest of wines, this movie is the gold standard.
I certainly understand that comedy and tastes are objective. I also don’t doubt that some people will watch a movie like this, not get the jokes, or take offense to it. But I would also argue that, while you can levy those kinds of criticisms about many comedies from that era, you can’t reasonably apply it to “Airplane!“
This movie isn’t just a classic comedy gem from the early 1980s. It’s one of those rare movies that takes a simple, but effective approach at being funny. It doesn’t try to be too smart for its own good. It doesn’t try to be too crude, so as only to appeal to a specific demographic and/or stoners. It just uses the basics of what makes good, endearing comedy and runs with it.
The story itself is not really that complicated. A traumatized ex-fighter pilot, Ted Striker, tries to win back his stewardess girlfriend, Elaine Dickinson, before she moves away and leaves him for good. He follows her to the airport, ends up on a plane with her to Chicago, and just happens to be there when disaster strikes and the flight crew falls ill. Along the way, some truly remarkable comedy gold ensues.
In essence, this movie is largely a parody of common tropes from that era regarding romance, war, and disaster movies. It also used the premise of a far more serious, less funny movie from 1957 called “Zero Hour!” But you don’t have to have seen that movie to appreciate plot, jokes, and comedy of “Airplane!” You just have to have the smallest semblance of a sense of humor.
It does get crude at times, but not so crude as to be juvenile.
It does get quirky with recurring gags, but it never overuses them.
It also gets more than a little suggestive at times, but not to the point where it needs to be rated R.
This movie came out before I was born. However, it was a movie my parents loved. Every time my mother watched it, she would keel over and laugh. I was only around nine-years-old when I first saw it. And even though some of the jokes flew over my head, I still found it funny.
Years later, when I rewatched it, I laughed even harder once I actually got the jokes. To this day, I can re-watch the movie any time of year and still find it hilarious. I still crack up at the scenes that involve speaking Jive. I still laugh every time Leslie Nielson says “And don’t call me Shirley!” And the autopilot steals the show every time.
While I wouldn’t go so far as to call “Airplane!” my favorite movie or even my favorite comedy, I can’t recall a single movie or TV show that has consistently made me laugh over the years. And at a time when so many other TV shows and movies are aging poorly, it just makes me appreciate “Airplane!” that much more.
So, for that, I thank David and Jerry Zucker, and all those involved in making this movie, for giving the world this timeless comedy gem. And if you haven’t seen it yet and are in the mood for some quality comedy, give “Airplane!” a watch. If laughter truly is good for the soul, this movie should give you plenty of nourishment.
Filed under movies