Monday, December 28, 2009

Justarant (yes, a rant)

As this blog slowly drifts to a place that actually has meaning and is not just the rants and raves of a student in Boise, I find that the real world seems to change with it. As I find purpose in this grand theater that we call life, so much changes. In the next few months, my whole life is going to be flipped upside down. Currently, I am living with three of my best friends, and have been for years now. As circumstances would have it, this is all coming to a crashing halt in the months to come.

Not only am I completely occupied with school and work, (as I should be, I am getting close to graduation; it's crunch time!) but I am losing one of my best friends for a year as he is deploying to Afghanistan. This is not the entire reason for everything breaking apart either. One of my other roommates is moving in with family, and the other is yet undecided. This leaves me in a peculiar situation, where for the first time in years I am looking for a roommate who is not someone in my very close group of friends.

In any case, this is a time that really snuck up on me. It seems that for so long it has been me and this very tight knit group, and now for some reason everything feels as if it will never be the same again. It is a scary, yet very liberating feeling. This will give me the opportunity to really focus on school and my career, as I need to at this very important section of my life. I expect the next year to be a great one, even though some of the people who I have shared every experience with in the past years will not be present. I look forward to next semester, and I look forward to furthering myself as a student and a professional.

Have a safe and happy holiday season everyone, I'll be back soon - I promise :)

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Tumbling back to Tumblr

I discovered Tumblr quite some time ago when it was brand new. It was a site that I created an account for, and set up direct updating from Twitter, FaceBook, and my Blog. I then completely forgot about it! It just didn't offer what I was looking for at the time. This was about the point in my life where I was engulfed with Twitter and this blog didn't exist yet. If my memory serves me correctly, this was also the time I was discovering public relations - but that story is to be saved for another day.

I recently have rediscovered Tumblr and I am very impressed. I had almost completely forgotten about it, but I was linked to a friends Tumblr account through their Twitter. When I when to their Tumblr profile I was in shock at how different it was than I remembered. It has evolved into a very functional, user friendly social media platform. I will be playing around over the next few days, trying to discover what else Tumblr has to offer - If you are on Tumblr, you should add me! My Tumblr URL is - http://seanwinnett.tumblr.com/.

Also, if you have any fun thoughts or cool applications for Tumblr, let me know! I want to hear all your cool uses for this very cool site!

Sean
PS - I LOVE the way that Tags are done for this site :) - Very impressive guys.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Looking Forward

With yet another semester coming to a close, I am extremely looking forward to the one month break that is only days away. I have actually managed to finish up all my projects and papers, and only have one final left, which is not until Thursday. Next semester is looking to be just as busy as this semester was, if not even more. I am set to take 19 credits next semester, including classes such as PR Writing, Reporting and News Writing, Advanced Studies in Media, Mass Communications and Democracy and a few other upper division Comm classes that I have left to take before I graduate.

Another change for next semester is that I am now the Project Manager for the Boise State chapter of PRSSA. I think this will be one of the more fun aspects of next semester, and I am really looking forward to another great semester in PRSSA. We have a really great group of members, and I believe that we will have a lot of fun next semester.


Looking forward to it!

Sean

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Promotional Public Relations






Once again the semester is winding to a close. WIth finals quickly approaching, my free time is dwindling away. Haven't had a bunch of time to post lately, but trust me when I say more is to come. Christmas break will be a great time for me to do a bit of catching up with the thingsin my life that I have fallen a bit behind with. In the meantime, please watch this awesome video we made in my promotional public relationsclass last week. We had 25 minutes to concept a video for YouTube and then shoot it, and I think it turned out pretty good. It's about going green and encourages college students to recycle.


More to come in the upcoming weeks, I promise :) Good luck with finals everyone!


Sean Winnett

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Leadership in Public Relations - PRSSA National Conference 2009

Hello All,

I recently had the amazing opportunity of attending the PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society of America) National Conference in San Diego, CA. The conference was a great place for students to connect with other students and professionals in the industry, as well as to get a better feel for where PR is at and where it is going. There were many workshops that I attended, but I am going to focus on two of my personal favorites from the event.

The first workshop I attended was "A View From the Top: How to stand out as a young professional". This workshop was lead by Ron Culp and Kevin Saghy from Ketchum PR. This was a great presentation in my opinion because it gave both an upper and lower management view of young professionals coming into the field of PR. They posed four questions, and then gave the responses that they received from both upper and lower management across many different agencies and corporations.

The four questions they asked were:
1. How can young talent stand out in your organization?
2. What example comes to mind of a young professional who advanced quickly in your organization, and why have they done so well?
3. How can/have employees hurt themselves by trying to raise their profile?
4. If you could anonymously say one sentence to your junior staff, what would it be?

There were many responses and quotes given for each question, so I will briefly go over the most common and relevant responses.

1. How can young talent stand out in your organization?

Senior Management - They show initiative, and they are a team player.

Junior Staff - They go the extra mile, and they show a positive attitude.

2. What example comes to mind of a young professional who advanced quickly in your organization, and why have they done so well?

Senior Management - They know the business, they show quality work, engage us with intelligent ideas, and they go the extra mile.

Junior Staff - Quality work, they present smart ideas, they work hard and they are willing to explore new learning opportunities.

3. How can/have employees hurt themselves by trying to raise their profile?

Senior Management - They should not seek credit all of the time, or follow own agenda instead of the agenda of the team.

Junior Staff - Don't throw co-workers under the bus, and don't skip the tactical work. The ones who succeed are the ones who do not have a sense of entitlement.

4. If you could anonymously say one sentence to your junior staff, what would it be?

Senior Management - What are you doing to prepare yourself for the next level? There is not a bad idea in a brainstorming session.

Junior Staff - Become known for your willingness to take on the most challenging, difficult assignments no matter how big or boring. Be the 3 C's: current, curious, and creative!

I have about 10 pages or so worth of notes from this seminar, as I felt they addressed a lot of the prominent questions a young professional has when going from college into the "real world". I also had the opportunity to stay after the seminar with about five other students to hang out and talk with Kevin and Ron for about 40 minutes. This was where the real insights came out, and allowed for some great one on one discussion about how the industry is evolving and where they feel it is going from here.

The other event I am going to talk about was the speech given at the PRSA National Conference by Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/)Arianna was a great speaker, and had some great insights on the industry. The most important piece of information she shared I felt was how drama is a necessary component in the news and in public relations. This is the driving force behind passion, and getting people to care about what you have to say.



Arianna Huffington speaking at the PRSA National Conference in San Diego, CA


Overall, I would say this was an amazing conference where I had the opportunity to meet a bunch of students and professionals in the field and get some great insight on how Public Relations is changing. Since the day I started at Drake Cooper, I have witnessed a passion and desire to always be ahead of the game by everyone here in the shop. This conference strengthened my view on how important this fact is not only for young professionals going into the field, but for professionals already in the public relations field, and any field for that matter. This drive to always improve ourselves, our work, and Drake Cooper in general is what will keep us ahead of the game in years to come! Thanks guys :)


Sean Winnett

Monday, October 26, 2009

The new ROI (Return on Influence)

I recently stumbled across this video on YouTube from Digital Royalty (Their channel can be found here, and their homepage here) showing their method of social media measurement.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI) :
Digital Royalty recommends picking at least two KPI's from each of the following categories for social media measurement.
  • Volume - This includes number of fans or followers, tweets per minute (TPM), trending topics, etc. Anything that represents reach and frequency.
  • Engagement - ReTweets, subscribers, sentiment, comments, "likes" on FaceBook, etc. Things that people are using to "spend time" with your brand.
  • Conversion - Click through, leads generated, sales. Anything showing activity and action.
Return on Influence (New ROI) Formula:
  • Cold (engagement metric)- (Reach x Frequency) / Time Spent
  • Hot- Sentiment and Ecosystem size
I thought that this was a very interesting video that does a great job of showing how one can measure social media with both traditional and non-traditional methods.

Digital Royalty's ROI (measuring social media) -


Once again, please send anything that you guys run across related to social media that you find interesting my way. Thanks!

Sean Winnett

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

How Public Relations Has Taken Over My Life

Hello all,

I have tried many very random ideas with this blog, and rest assured more randomness will follow. Lately however, I have been overwhelming busy with school and work. I am taking primarily PR related classes this semester, I'm doing work with PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society of America) which I am a member of, and work is 100% PR all the time. I don't think I have ever been happier, and I honestly mean that. The title of this post may seem negative towards PR, but I can honestly say that I have never been this driven towards one topic. I wouldn't be doing it this much if I didn't love it. Public relations has truly taken over my life, and I don't think I would have it any other way.

I am getting extremely excited for the PRSSA National Conference that is coming up on November 6 - 10 in San Diego, California. This is the first PRSSA conference I will have attended, and it looks like there is going to be a ton of great industry related workshops. Be looking for some updates while I'm down there. I'm sure there will be a bunch of new photos on Flickr and maybe even a blog post or two. Have a good one guys!

Sean

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Artist Watch: LIGHTS

Hello all once again,

As this blog seems to be heading in a different direction every week, I figured it was time for a music related post.

Today, I am going to talk about an artist I discovered just over a year ago. LIGHTS is a young 22 year old up-and-coming artist from Canada. What sets LIGHTS apart in my eyes from the slew of other pop artists out there is her extremely unique personality, and her keen use of platforms such as MySpace, Twitter and YouTube to really establish a connection and start conversations with her fan base. LIGHTS does weekly videos during her tours to talk to her fans, which does an amazing job of bringing her fans into her world. It makes fans truly feel as though the artist cares about them, and honestly you don't see too much of that these days. She talks about how the tour is going, does special acoustic versions of her songs, and creates a place for her fans to truly get to know LIGHTS. This is a very intuitive PR tactic, even if it isn't meant to be.

LIGHTS truly seems to be ahead of the curve with her use of social media to reach out to her fans, and really gives them something back. Keep your eye out for this one, she appears to be coming up very fast. Her first full album "The Listening" was recently released and can be purchased through her site, and is available on iTunes.

To visit her very cool interactive site, click here.

Here is her latest video, "Savior":





Saturday, October 10, 2009

Changing times

Hey all,

Sorry for the lack of posts as of late. School and work has totally taken over my life. 19 credits is more than I have taken on before, and working three days a week at Drake Cooper has filled what is left of my free time. It will all be worth it in the end, especially if I am able to graduate in May like I am planning. Then I will be fully immersed in what I call the real world. Though, I am curious as to how much more real things can get.

Anyway, I thought a quick update was in order. I will hopefully be back soon with something important to say. Until then, back to reading "Putting the Public Back in Public Relations" by Brian Solis. -- Amazing book! I recommend it to everyone in the PR profession. If you have read it, leave me a comment and let me know what you think. I'm always in the mood for a riveting conversation about the public relations profession. Thanks guys, and have a good one ;)

Sean

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

The Boise River


The Boise river
Originally uploaded by Swinnett
I took this picture while walking home from school today. This spot on the Boise River is one of my favorite places to stop and relax -- even though I really don't get to do much of that lately. It's a nice little reprieve from the normal daily grind while walking to and from school. Just thought I'd share a nice part of my day with you guys. Have a good one :)

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Public Relations Vs. Marketing

Earlier this week I attended a speech on Public Relations vs. Marketing. The speech didn't end up being what I had originally thought, and delved deeply into the fact that these two are not competitors, and how they must work hand in hand with each other to hold a successful Marketing or Public Relations Campaign. At times, the presentation seemed to dive from PR and Marketing into the Advertising world as well. As a student of Journalism and Public Relations, it was a great way to see how every aspect of the industry works together, as opposed to working independently from one another. Some of the key points that were touched on included-
  1. Campaign Components
  2. Key Audiences
  3. Crisis Communication
  4. Communications with Journalists
  5. Various Public Relations Resources (HARO, PRWeek, PRSA, Bulldog Reporter, etc.)
Each subject could have been discussed for hours upon hours, and unfortunately we had just under an hour and a half to cover all the material. It was a very good intro to the many ways that PR, Marketing, and Advertising work together to increase the effectiveness of a campaign, and how when one component is missing you may miss out on completing a successful campaign.

I hope to attend more of these presentations in the future to find out more ways to contribute to the success of campaigns that I am working on.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

The Guild Music Video

Hey All,

Recently stumbled upon this and I love it! (well the Guild, and maybe Felicia Day lol).
No I don't play any sort of MMO, but I have dabbled in a few in previously.
Let's just say I am not much for WoW or anything else out on the market currently.





With that being said, let me show you an MMO I am truly excited for, and will end up paying
the monthly fee to play. Here it is:


Now that looks like a game I am going to invest some hours in. Hopefully it is better than Star Wars: Galaxies. It's made by Bioware
though, and I just don't see them messing things up. I have faith in you Bioware, don't let me down :)


So I have some free time over the next day or so as I wait for school to start.
Expect a few mini posts like this, I have found a bunch of new video
content I feel like sharing. Have a good one guys

Sean


Sunday, June 28, 2009

End of month wrap-up: Revenge of the Fallen review

Hey all,

Welcome back -- I'm sorry I've been gone so long. I have been extremely busy doing the whole real world work thing. It's good though, but I promise I have much more in store for this blog that what currently is happening. I really would like to do the whole movie review angle, but I don't want to classify it to just that. Think of "The Digital Drifter" blog as an all purpose home for all those Gen-Y kids such as myself. With that said, here are my thoughts on "Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen" :

For those of us who grew up with "Transformers", the thought of a live action movie a few years back made us weak in the knees. I did enjoy both movies for what they were, and that is a reason to Oggle Megan Fox for two hours. Who really cares about the action scenes? (Oh that's right... everyone) The problem with these movies is that they are trying to appeal to multiple markets, and really satisfying no one. What we grew up with is not going to appeal to the kids of this generation, and vice versa.

On the plus side, there were a few very cool new Transformers in the film, both Autobot and Deceptacon. Then we get to the "Jar Jar Binks" of "Transformers": the twins. I will not spoil anything for those of you who haven't seen it, but you will know exactly what I am talking about, probably ten minutes in to the film, if that. I understand why they did it, but it took a bit a way from the movie for me. Overall, keeping this review spoiler free, I would have to say it gets a mildly disappointing 2.5 out of 5. Granted I gave the first one about a 2.8 or so (C+ equivalent), so just slightly under the par set by the first film. Let's just hope Megan Fox reprises her role in the next film and isn't too busy stealing Angelia Jolie's roles; otherwise we might see the franchise drop into the 1's.

For those of you who haven't heard, there are rumors running rampant that Megan Fox has been asked to star in the upcoming prequel to the "Tomb Raider" franchise as Lara Croft. Apparently Jolie is furious that she was not asked to reprise her role as she is one who helped "build the franchise." What I find most entertaining about this is that it is a Prequel. I will admit Angelina is a very attractive woman, but she is not twenty years old anymore. If it was a sequel to the last films I would say go for it, but there is no way Angelina is passing for any role under 30. Jolie was cited criticizing Fox's acting ability, and saying she didn't deserve the role. Oh well, if nothing else, the new "Tomb Raider" will do really well at the box office due to the fact that every nerd will make an appearance just to see Megan Fox donning Lara Croft attire for a few hours. Sorry Angelina, if this does well you can say bye-bye to any future roles as the Tomb Raiding heroine.

Thanks for joining me in my little corner of the Internet -- Stay tuned

--The Digital Drifter

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

E3 - What I'm Most Excited For

Borderlands Preview - http://e3.g4tv.com/videos/38774/Borderlands-Preview/ 

I've been excited about this game for awhile now. Looks like it is coming along nicely, now if it can live up to the hype. 

Heavy Rain Preview - http://e3.g4tv.com/videos/38779/Heavy_Rain_E3_2009_Trailer

Don't have a PS3, but I might just have to borrow one to play this. Looks beautiful, and has a very unique feel to it. Could be great. 

WET Preview - http://e3.g4tv.com/videos/38724/WET-E3-2009-Trailer

Is it just me, or is the narrator of this preview the same guy who does the trailer for Grindhouse? This game also has some potential. I have come to expect nothing but the best from Bethesda, I really hope it isn't a letdown. 

Fallout 3: Point Lookout DLC Preview - http://e3.g4tv.com/videos/38723/Fallout-3-Point-Lookout-DLC-E3-Trailer/

More DLC for Fallout 3! This is awesome, I never expected to get this much gameplay out of Fallout when I bought it. This was also my first Fallout game, and Bethesda really has come through with making the game ludicrously large. I doubt I will ever be able to do everything in this game. Hell, I'm still trying to do everything in Oblivion.

Halo 3: ODST Preview - http://e3.g4tv.com/videos/38753/Halo-3-ODST-Preview-Hands-On/?exclude=38723

Oh Halo... I have put so many hours into Halo 3, and was so utterly disappointed by Halo Wars. This one could go either way, it's a bit of a "tactical" Halo. It is also an open environment, which I will admit, doesn't seem the smartest way to go with the Halo franchise. Why fix something that isn't broken? I'm not saying don't innovate, but I hate to see a great game change how it fundamentally runs only to turn into a very bad game. (ahem, Halo Wars). I will hope for the best, and I hope to be proven wrong. Until then I will be playing Team SWAT. 


Honorable Mention:

Left 4 Dead 2 Preview -http://e3.g4tv.com/videos/38780/Left-4-Dead-2-Game-Preview-Interview/

I put Left 4 Dead 2 in here as an honorable mention because I doubt I will be buying it. I bought the first one and played it quite a bit the first week or so and then never touched it again. If the game had a bit more variety of weapons and environments, and maybe some DLC to liven the gameplay up a bit I would invest in it. This looks like it may just have some changes in the right direction. We will see once it is launched later this year!

Well guys, this is what I am most excited from E3 this year thus far. I am sure much more is to come in the next day or so, and I will post another update if anything jumps out at me. Until then, leave me some comments with your favorite stuff from E3. Thanks!

Monday, April 27, 2009

Moving on ...

Hey all,

Once again, welcome to my little corner of the internet. Glad you could join me :) -- 

So quite a bit has happened since my last posting. I have been so busy with school and my NEW job! Well, internship... but that point is moot. I quit my job at the mall working in an unnamed Shoe Store. I am currently working for Drake Cooper -- an all purpose Advertising, Marketing, and Public Relations Agency here in Boise, ID. I LOVE it! This is quite possibly the best job I have ever had. No more retail for Sean!

In other news, I have about 3 weeks or so left of school, including Finals. This has been tough semester, but I think it might just be my best one as well. I have put a lot of work into school this semester and it is paying off. I finally have a bit of direction in my life, which is something I never though I would say. 

I am really thinking of taking this blogging thing more seriously. I really would like to do it more often and actually write about something other than my life or Heroes and LOST. I am not sure where I want to go with this though. I have heard of people becoming "Professional Bloggers", where companies pay them to write posts and review products and whatnot. If anyone has any info on this please shoot me an e-mail at SeanWinnett@u.boisestate.edu -- much appreciated!

Anyway, I have a bit of Political Science homework to do before class starts --

Have a good one

Sean


Oh and if you aren't already--follow me on Twitter -- @Sean_Winnett

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Finally! A New update that isn't related to LOST or to Heroes

Hello all,

First off w00t for spring break!

How are you on this amazing day.... well not so amazing, but it could be worse... right? I had a fun filled day of work related let downs and financial woes, but in this economy, that's everyday isn't it? But this is not a downer post, so don't get discouraged.

Last Friday I had the opportunity and pleasure to interview for an internship at Drake Cooper, which is a local (Boise) Advertising and Public Relations firm. Keep your fingers crossed for me ;). I really need an internship and this seems like my dream job if you will. I have looked at other options for internships here in Boise, and this seems to be the most promising. I am a Journalism major with an emphasis in Public Relations, but what I am most excited about is getting to see how the advertising and marketing sides work. I have always been fascinated by advertising, and hope that I get the opportunity to learn all that I can from the amazing team at Drake Cooper. Who knows, stay tuned to see if I get the job. I am hoping to find out before I leave for San Diego on Thursday (w00t warm weather! and In-N-Out Burger, which I haven't had in years!)

Until Next time folks, thanks for listening


Sean/Locke

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

No I'm not dead

I just have been extremely busy with school and work as of late. Updates soon, I promise ;) 

Remember to leave me some <3

Comment please


Sean

Monday, March 2, 2009

"Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li"

I went into the theater with the absolute lowest expectations for this film. And after the 1990's version featuring Jean Claude Van Dam as Guile, who wouldn't? With that all being said, I walked out of the theater somehow somewhat pleasantly surprised. I am not saying this is a great film, or even really very good for that matter, but it does have a sort of charm to it if you are a fan of the Street Fighter games. It doesn't make the same mistakes it's predecessor did by trying to jam every character ever into the game, as a matter of fact, it does a great job of keeping the number of characters fairly low for how many there are.

Kristen Kruek takes on the role of Chun-Li, one I really never saw her fit for. Lana Lang, yes... But never our beloved Chun-Li. Robin Shou who played Lui Kang in the Mortal Kombat movies plays Gen, one of the trainers of Chun-Li. Michael Clark Duncan plays Balrog, and actually is probably my favorite character in this film. Chris Klein plays the role of Charlie Nash, who in reality sounds like a cheap Duke Nukem rip off the whole film. I really am not a fan of Chris Klein, but if they ever make a Duke Nukem movie... he'd probably mess that one up somehow too. Bison, the main villain,  is played by Neil McDonough. He does a good job portraying Bison in an odd way. He didn't feel like Bison, but then again, Kruek at times didn't feel like Chun-Li. He still does a great job acting,  however cheesy it comes across at times(but again, this movie is supposed to feel this way).

The story follows Chun-Li on an attempt to rescue her father from Bison. There are a lot of random action sequences, some of which I felt should have been longer. I would have liked to have seen more of Vega, who does maybe a whopping total of 3 minutes of actual on camera fighting in the whole film. This is a fun film if you like the video games, however if you are not a fan I would make it a point to avoid. If you still feel you must see it, wait for it to hit Netflix. I'm sure it won't be too long before this hits the shelves in stores. 

Thursday, February 26, 2009

LOST Season 5, "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" : A look at John Locke *Spoilers*

"The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" is in my opinion, one of the most important episodes in LOST to date. This episode is all that I had hoped it to be, full of action and answered questions. We get the whole story from when John turned the wheel to his returning to the Island. 

We get a great opening showing the new "Losties" going through the Hydra Station, when news comes they have found a man standing in some water, dressed in a suit. Come to find out this is none other than John Locke. When asked out about why no one saw him on the plane, he is very open with the fact that he remembers dying. He is not the scared John Locke from season 1. 

Speaking of Season 1, has anyone noticed the extreme parallels that the last few episodes have had with it? Last episode when the Oceanic 6 returned to the Island, it was eerily similar, and now with the Ajira 316 crash. The main question I have now, is why did the Oceanic 6 return to the past, and the Ajira "Losties" and Locke and Lapidus land in "Normal Time". I have faith that all will be explained. I will say that the moment I look forward to most is the reuniting of Jack and John. I expect this scene to be nothing less than spectacular. 

One of the most important parts in this episode and one of my favorites is when John went and visited Walt. Walt mentions dreaming of Locke on the island wearing a suit, very similar to how this episode began. We all know Walt is special, but does he have a greater role to play than he is currently. Will we see a return of Walt to the island?

We got more mind games on the Linus vs. Widmore front. I doubt we will find out the truth about who is right in this matter for a very long time. Let me just say that the point at the end of the show after Ben talks Locke out of killing himself gave me a small hope that Ben is finally becoming the character I have hoped he is all along. And then he kills Locke. I still hope that it is for the greater good, and Ben looked legitimately upset after doing it. I doubt he had any knowledge that John would return to life.

And on that note, why did John come back to life? Apparently he is special after all. I have been under the impression most of the show that Locke was just a small fish in a big pond, a pawn in a greater game between Widmore and Ben; But now I see that Locke is not a pawn, and the game is not just between Widmore and Ben. Locke is a third player in the game of power, the alternative to both the evils that Widmore and Ben are. 

There is still much to happen in the last season and a half or so of LOST, and if it keeps at this pace the end will not disappoint. LOST is only getting better. I'd love to talk LOST with any of you so please comment, or get ahold of me on Twitter (@Sean_Winnett). Thanks for reading! Until next week.

Sean

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Heroes Season 4- Episode 4 "Cold Wars" *Spoilers*

First off, I want to say how excited I was for last night's episode of Heroes. It promised to answer the question of where Noah's loyalty stands. This is a question we have pondered on different levels since season one. Noah has been the villain at points, and the hero at others. I was excited to finally have the opportunity for Parkman to search around in his head and finally get the truth.
That said, I really enjoyed the episode. Even though it was mainly comprised of flashbacks with little real action, it was a very interesting look into not only the mind of Noah, but the state of the fugitives psyche. Parkman is losing it, which may change now that they know Daphne is alive. Peter is the only one who has his head on straight. 
I was glad to find out Noah at least seems to have his loyalties in the right corner. I have always liked Noah, even when I hated him ;) . Even though Noah has no powers, he is one of the most influential people in the entirety of the show. He has been around since day one, and I doubt we will see him go any time soon. I would say aside from Mohinder, he has been the most influential "normal" person on the show, and even Mohinder has powers by this point. 
Next's weeks episode should be a good one as well. Hopes include finding out more about why Peter can only hold onto one power at a time now, who the mystery character "Rebel" is, and what will become of our beloved Fugitives. Well everyone, until Thursday when I write about this weeks "LOST", have a good one!

Sunday, February 22, 2009

LOST: Season 5, My thoughts *Spoilers*

This season of LOST has been an amazing turn for the show. Don't get me wrong, the entire series is amazing; however, this season has been filled with non stop action and major developments every episode. This is where things get interesting folks! With what appears to be the return of the Oceanic 6, another plane crash (more on that in a minute), Jin wearing Dharma apparel, and what appears to be inevitable : The resurrection of John Locke. 

First things first, the return of the 06 to the island. This is huge, mainly because I thought it would take them more than five episodes! Now the real question is, who got sent back to Dharma time, and who didn't. I'm willing to bet all of the 06, Ben, and possibly Frank got sent back, and the rest of the plane crashed on the island in what I will call "Normal Time". "Normal Time" is the present, completely free of any time travel. So that would mean they crashed on the Island roughly three years after the original plane crash in Season 1. Remember that "Ajira Air" stuff we saw a few episodes back when Faraday and everyone else stole the rafts they found. I think that was the future, and was all the people who crashed on the flight that brought the 06 back.

Now for the important part : John Locke. Why is Locke so special? I still am not sure if Locke is the key to the mystery of the Island, or just another bystander being used as a pawn in the grander scheme of things. If John truly does come back to life, what is in store for him? That truly sets John up as the Christ like character of this story. I loved the reference Ben gave in the last episode about St. thomas (i believe), being remembered for speaking against the resurrection of Christ because he did not believe. That is until he saw Christ and could touch his wounds, and then he believed. I believe that once Jack see's Locke alive, he too will become a believer, transforming from a man of science to a man of Faith.

Well before I get too wordy, I think this should be enough food for thought until next time. Ponder on these questions, but remember that for every one question they answer on LOST, three more arise. Thanks for reading

Sean

Saturday, February 7, 2009

This whole blogging thing

So I have contemplated much on the subject of what direction I would like to take this blog. I really don't feel that anyone is interested in hearing about the mundane details of my life, so I will not subject you to them. I have tried this whole Blog thing before and didn't really know what I was doing. Anyway, whichever direction this ends up going, I hope you enjoy. Any sort of direction you would like to give me as well is much appreciated. Thanks for tuning in!

Sean

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Just the beginning

Hey everyone. My name is Sean, as you probably already figured out. I am just a normal 20 something college student studying Journalism and Public Relations at Boise State University. I play guitar, well, I'm learning to play guitar. I'm not half bad, but that doesn't mean I'm good just because I can play some Oasis and some Beatles. Someday I hope to be what I consider truly good. I love music, film, and everything online. I am an avid "Twitterer" and I've been using MySpace since High School. Oh, and I am an avid Mac user. I made the conversion just about a year and a half ago and I will never look back!
A bit of background on myself. I was born in Boise, ID in April of 1987, and have lived here ever since. That is except for a short stint I had at the University of Idaho. I attended Bishop Kelly High School and graduated in 2005. I have an amazing group of friends, however crazy things get (almost constantly, but I wouldn't have it any other way!). 
You know, I'm not very good at this whole blogging thing, but its something I want to work at. If any of you have ideas for what you want to see in my blog, get ahold of me on Twitter, MySpace or e-mail me at SeanWinnett@u.Boisestate.edu.

Thanks a lot guys, I'll update you soon.

Sean