Tony Stark

Drawn in 1 hour with a number 2 pencil

Marilyn in progress

My art project :)

Sloths!

Chad's Tech Dungeon - Strike Tech

Right there's a mighty fine dungeon right there. Real Mordor quality. 

Chad's Tech Dungeon -
Strike Technology

Strike has been quite the technological endeavour since our company began work last spring. Be it through industry standard Adobe software or our clean online reader (via Issuu), Strike’s technology is always improving. Anyway you put it, the Strike staff is well dedicated to the cutting edge of technology to keep the company on top of things.

However, the catch about technology in business is that it’s ever changing, and the next wave needs to be implemented quickly and smoothly. Having a Tech Manager column here at Strike is something that differs us from any other publication, and is a positive addition to informing our readers of our utilization of technology.

I have a few things that I would like to see fully implemented by Strike by the summer issue. Something that the Strike staff and myself would like to see is a constant flow of new content on our brand new streamlined Foglight website; that way all of you will have less of a headache in searching through Strike content and all of our other Foglight material. So far we’ve collaborated as a team, and come up with an individual tab system that would allow for access to certain Foglight material, like Strike. Next, I would like to utilize something more streamlined to an average person’s mobile lifestyle, such as iOS’s Newstand and the magazine section on Android’s Google Play. The magazine will be delivered automatically, along with a notification, which would be beneficial to the readers.

Since the mobile arena is so important, why not optimize our whole website to be supported on mobile devices? It’s only the logical thing to do, and our visitors wouldn’t have to wait so long for the page to load, only be greeted by zooming in on unresponsive web elements. Because come on, who likes unresponsive web elements? Overall, all of these changes should allow for an overall improved user experience.

- Chad Earnest - Tech Dungeon Columnist

The Turntable - The Modern Music Formula: Flawed & Broken

The Turntable - The Modern Music Formula: Flawed & Broken

The modern music formula is flawed and broken. Present day society, technological advancements in the musical marketplace, and a growing demand of one hit wonders adds to the disaster that is the current musical standard. With this column, I’ll take a look at why this is, what causes it, and what the inevitable outcome will be. 

While it pioneered the modern way we buy and listen to music, iTunes has destroyed the need and expectation of a decent album. In the 60’s and 70’s, an artist had to take great care in writing and designing the best tracks possible, because on LP, you had to buy and listen to it all! You couldn’t pick what track you wanted, and you couldn’t really skip to one with ease, either. That’s why artists had to care about each song on the album. For a wonderful example of this, see my Classic Album Review of Born to Run to be posted later this week. 

Fun: A Band That Embodies Everything Wrong. 

When iTunes came along, artists could decide to not give a flying crap, as long as their title track was half-way decent. Let’s face it, do you honestly know, or like, any of the other songs from Some Nights aside from the title track and We Are Young? 

When you love a band of whom you only actually know one song from, an issue arises: It creates a musically shallow society with lack of diverse taste — or good taste — and it also creates an opportunity for bands to create a formula that they know you’ll keep buying. Take Mumford & Sons for example, a rare band in today’s music, considering they are creating a mainstream folk sound, and are legitimately talented. Even they have created a formula that they know you will keep buying over and over, so they really don’t have to do much work from album to album. (Will upload my Mumford & Sons Song Formula this week as well)

Finally, the latter creates one giant issue. If bands are allowed to create crappy albums with one or two good songs, and they are allowed to make each of those albums sound basically the same as the last... then where does our generation create musical legacies? Do you really think AWOL NATION is going to be our generation’s Beatles, Bob Dylan, or Bruce Springsteen? Do we really have any bands or artists that hold longevity? Every great artist who has stood the test of time hasn’t used this formula. They created masterpiece albums over a massive musical career spanning decades and generations because they were constantly updating their sound and changing their music. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see, but something tells me that when we play music for our kids, we’ll be playing them our parent’s music, not ours, because ours won’t hold the legacy or stand the time.

- Brett Stewart - Editor & Publisher of Strike - Columnist for the Turntable.

The Quantum Age and You

The Future is Awesome:

The Quantum Age and You

by Joe Redmond

Your computer is out-dated. No matter how hard you try, your tech will never keep up with ever-changing—and improving—world of computers. In the 1940’s, a computer was someone who did your taxes with a slide rule. Now, it’s the single most revolutionary piece of anything anywhere. There isn’t one aspect of life that the information age has not impacted (save possibly government).

The computer changed stock trading, the classroom, social interaction, the space industry, global culture—the list goes on. Computers provide a place to communicate efficiently, organize logically, and spread ideas to the masses. That’s a revolution.

What if I told you that it isn’t over? What happens when the “digital age” goes down in the history books as nothing more than a transitional period? There’s something more on the horizon, ladies and gentlemen. Something faster. Something a little more confusing.

Traditional digital technology relies on what tech geeks have come to call “Moore’s law,” essentially stating that computer processing power will double every year and a half. What that translates to is this: if your computer is three years old, then the latest computers are four times faster. Except, this isn’t really a “law” as we might understand from science class. “Moore’s law” simply expresses how some guy at Intel expected computers to improve back in 1965. Companies have followed this claim because it’s convenient for predicting where the industry will be in a few years down the road—in essence, a self-fulfilling prophecy. Also, calling something a law is much cooler than calling it a “general guideline,” apparently.

But what happens when silicon, the basis for microprocessors and what makes your computer work, can’t get any smaller? What happens when the size of a chip becomes constrained by the very size of its atoms? That would mean that the digital computer can’t ever get any faster and more powerful without getting bigger, too. Moore’s law has a definite limit as long as we stick with silicon computers because of the way they’re structured.

Digital computers rely on “bits,” or 1’s and 0’s, corresponding to “on” or “off.” Therefore, in order to represent a number or word, digital computers have to rely on strings of 1’s and 0’s. Quantum computers, in theory, would not be restrained to such a simplistic and relatively inefficient view of information. These “qubits” (quantum bits) could be a 1, a 0, or anything in between. Quantum data could be “on,” “off,” or “sorta-on/off, depending on how you look at it.”

So, what does this mean? The human brain is different than contemporary computers in a few ways, the most prevalent being that humans can think about and do multiple things at once. Digital computers, however, are generally constrained to doing one task at a time, dividing up its power between buffering your video, playing your music, displaying your video chat, and uploading your photo to Facebook. That’s what makes it slow down. However, quantum computers will be able do all of that at once, without even breaking a sweat.

The most technically demanding processes we can devise for computers nowadays—playing beautiful video games, downloading large files, or even graphing multi-variable calculus—would be a synch for the computers of tomorrow. Like the human brain, quantum computers will be able to think about many things at once. Some humans possess the remarkable ability to juggle apples while singing (awesome), unlike your computer, which would juggle the apples, and then sing. The computer you’ll get in 20 years, however, would juggle apples, sing, teach you how to juggle apples and sing, all while making your coffee.

Crude example aside, quantum computers actually have the ability to revolutionize the world yet again into what I’m calling the “Quantum Age.” Cars will be able to talk to each other on the fly, avoiding crashes, while driving themselves via GPS. Halo 10 could have hundreds of players facing each other in a single round. Each gene could be hand-picked in newborn babies to ensure a generation of geniuses—or a generation of Coca Cola lovers.

There are still a few obstacles in the way of making commercial quantum computers, namely our understanding of quantum physics. Suffice it to say that we needed a way to measure quantum states, and now we pretty much have it, thanks to some dudes in Switzerland. (For more, look up Nobel Prize in Physics 2012, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.)

In the future, information will move even faster. Parents will become even more technologically illiterate. Your computer will become even smarter, probably smarter than you. In the Quantum Age, the best computers will be more powerful than anything we can concoct today. But more importantly, in the Quantum Age, your computer will still be out-dated.

The future is awesome.

What We Missed in the NHL

by Brian Heissenbuttel

Sadly, this years NHL season has been shortened due to the lockout. It is such a shame that we already missed some of the drama that professional hockey always provides. At least we can be thankful that everyone will not miss the opportunity to see the Toronto Maple Leafs hoist the Stanley Cup. Most analysts would’ve thought a team such as the Coyotes, Kings or Rangers would hoist the trophy this year. But they’re all wrong.

Toronto’s severe lack of skilled players worked in their favor this year, thanks to an imminent lack of offseason drama. They didn’t need to worry about any contractual issues with good players, since they have none. Being the NHL’s dumpster doesn’t seem so bad all of a sudden. Also, think about how much money the Toronto franchise earned over the years selling paper bags for fans to wear. In the interval where no games were played, what would’ve happened is still very predictable.

First of all, despite being retired, Peter Forseberg will injure himself at least four times, either through a mild golfing injury and a serious lawn mower injury. Second, Roberto Luongo will have yet another fantastic season and will become Vancouver’s biggest social pariah every time the Canucks lose.

Nobody will know or care about the Central conference until the second round of the playoffs. Sure, one game when the Blackhawks play the Red Wings may be televised, the press doesn’t want to be near the division containing the Blue Jackets. The Blackhawks will have a successful regular season but have their goaltenders fail in the playoffs. So will the Red Wings, only with fewer own goals in the process.

In the Pacific division, Dallas will endure another year of sadness and remorse, while the San Jose Sharks will come into the playoffs for the sixth year in a row thinking that it’s finally their year. Warning-choking hazard.

The Eastern Conference will be simple. Florida gets back to their golf game as quickly as possible and the Capitals will suffocate once Ovechkin inevitably stops scoring.

Boston would’ve won their division, Toronto would’ve won the cup (obviously), and Montréal fans will be complaining how their team isn’t good anymore. Sorry guys, World War II is over. Do the Buffalo Sabres still exist? I’m not sure.

In the Atlantic division, Lundqvist will do well (again), Sidney Crosby will score at least 50 goals (again), and there will be a lot of controversy surrounding Martin Brodeur and his age (again).

I am just as sad as many people are about the NHL season being shortened. Though we are upset about the Joe Louis Arena having a quiet new year, at least we can all find comfort in the fact that San Jose will be torn to pieces yet again in the playoffs, and (obviously) the Toronto Maple Leafs will win the Stanley Cup.

The Beauty of a Short

There is so much beauty in a short story. People think I'm crazy, but it's true! Just take a moment to think about all the character history the author has in his head and think about how he really wanted the story to end. Of course, you'll never know any of this. But that's the fun: the guessing. Does the dragon slayer live? Does the girl kill the guy who showed up in her house? Did those people really just get into a car crash and die?

Those are the questions I have at the end of amazing short stories. The ones where you want to throw something, anything, at the wall because they end in the most fantastic and frustratingly beautiful spots. People can die in less than three pages. They can fall in love, they can have an epiphany.

A short story with a crazy ending

And you don't have to know anything about the characters to appreciate the writing. You could have an anonymous character and still feel like a part of you dies when the last period is placed. Or maybe the author left off in the middle of a sentence. That's always fun!

Maybe my sense of fun is a little bit skewered.

Reading short stories is entertaining, but so it writing them. There are pros and cons to writing a short story. It's much easier to just come up with scenes of a character's life and highlight that one moment that makes for a good story. For a novel, you have to come up with a whole world and a whole plot, with a beginning, a climax, and an end (or a thrilling cliffhanger). The length of a short story is easy and can be done fairly quickly. Unless you scrap it seventeen times.

However, sometimes a short story feels too short. You want to fall in love with your characters and your world, to make them your best friends and your worst enemies. You can't develop them in a short story, or tell your readers about their strange obsessions with foreign cheeses, especially if your story is about fighting a unicorn.

But at the same time, sometimes you can't get attached to the characters, because they all die. This is tragic, but you can usually learn a lot when this happens.

A short story where everyone dies but you learn a lot (Disclaimer: everyone dies.)

And then, of course, there are the really really weird short stories when you have no idea what happened, and might be a little grossed out. There are probably exponential amounts of stories like these on the internet, but I haven't read any that come to mind. I'm sure you could learn from those too though, if you tried.

That's where the true beauty lies. When you read a short story and discover something about the world, or others, or yourself. When you are the one who falls in love and has an epiphany. That is what really makes a short story beautiful.

Come to the dark side…Mickey?

There are few movies that stand the test of time. Star Wars is one of them. The six films

that director George Lucas released are must-watches, so much so that they are almost an adulthood “right-of-passage.” Apparently, Disney thought so too. Recently, Disney decided that it was high time for another Star Wars adventure to begin.
         
This is a very risky decision for Disney. The entire Star Wars franchise has been on the societal popularity decline for quite some time now. Most avid Star Wars fans would agree that Star Wars Episodes One, Two, and Three were not nearly as impressive as the earlier produced Episodes, Four, Five, and Six. Some attribute this to the acting, the addition of unnecessary characters (our “favorite” Gungan Jar Jar), and many other aspects which degraded the overall reputation of the Star Wars franchise.
         
Despite all these factors, Disney must see potential. Their plan for making sixth, seventh, and eighth movies has fans everywhere trembling with uncertainty.

Fans could be in store for a world of disappointment should Disney botch this next movie. With fans already on the edge with the past three movies, they will be wary of these new movies. The largest reason that people fell in love with Episodes Four, Five, and Six was for their believable and engaging feel. When they were being made, little of today’s movie editing technology was available to them. Therefore, having to physically make most of the settings and props, the movies carried with them a feeling of realism that made you feel as though you were part of the adventure. Because we can assume that Disney will continue to use CGI and modern filming techniques, unlike the film in 1977, it would be fair to suggest that fans may still feel the same way about these new films as they did for Episodes One, Two, and Three.

However, it is important to note that Disney does have a keen eye for potential. After buying the Marvel franchise, Disney proceeded to invest in the production of the summer blockbuster, The Avengers. By recognizing this potential, Disney was able to rake in one billion dollars. While they are taking a risk, it had paid off once; might as well try their chance again.

So what does this all mean? We should plan for the seventh episode of Star Wars to be a box office smasher, or at the least, a medium grossing movie. Fans will certainly  go to it on opening night, but if after that, if it does not receive positive reviews, movie-goers everywhere will return to watch the original films instead of watching their favorite childhood franchise fall into the pit of ruined classics.

A Letter To Our Readers - Strike In 2013

To the readers of Strike Magazine,

First and foremost, let me personally thank you. Strike was a massive success in 2012. We published our fall and winter forty page publications, launched a beautiful new website with Foglight Studios, (If you haven't seen it yet, check it out here!!) significantly grew our staff, and our readership and following in the community massively increased. None of that could have happened without awesome readers like you.

So what's in store for Strike Magazine in 2013? I thought I would outline these in a series of segments instead of a large body of text, as follows:

Strike Print

After lots of mulling it over and discussions, Strike has decided to cease the quarterly print publication cycle in 2013. Now, this doesn't mean Strike will not print in 2013, but we are exploring new avenues of print, possibly a yearly publication? Stay tuned!

Online

Ceasing the quarterly print cycle, Strike will be refocusing efforts to our beautiful new home on the internet. We plan to be releasing articles just like this on a near-daily basis going into the new year! All the same content, just online!

New Staff

As always, new staff and new contributors are always welcome at Strike in 2013. The process to become involved has been significantly streamlined this year, simply head on over to this page on the Foglight website to read the guidelines and apply!

Strike's parent company, Foglight Studios, is also taking new staff. You can apply on the same page linked above. Foglight is an even larger effort and activity devoted to film and music!

Community Involvement

Strike will also be allocating quite a bit of time and resources going into 2013 in aiding our local community. Our first community project will launch within the next month, please stay tuned for how to be involved! (Once again, the best way to get involved is join a division of Foglight, again, see this page.)


With that said, thank you for your support in 2012! Please stay tuned to Strike in 2013, and spread the word! If you love an article or Strike in general, share our pages online, share articles, comment on them, get involved! If you read a short story that intrigues you, let us know! If you read a review you disagree with, let us know too! All it takes to comment here on the website is a Google account!

Strike will continue to serve you through more avenues than ever going into 2013. We look forward to another amazing year!


Best Regards,

Brett Stewart, Editor & Publisher

Reasons to Quit Facebook, and Responses to Your Excuses

I've decided to do it. It’s a big life decision, but I think I can do it. It’s like buying a new car, or becoming a Packers fan. It’s a big decision that will impact my lifestyle greatly: quitting Facebook.

So I’m sure you are asking, why quit Facebook? Where’s your beef with da Book’? I shall tell you in a bulleted list, because everything is better in a bulleted list!

• I Have Better Things to Do (And no, that doesn't mean Twitter.)

Facebook is the biggest time waste on the planet. I can’t even begin to tell you how many hours I’ve spent staring at statuses from people I don’t care about, memes or literally the dumbest things. Hell, most statuses are about how people are wasting time not doing what they are supposed to be doing. So now, I’m doing my entire lab report at 3 in the morning the day its due because I wasted my time reading about other people wasting their time on the same important thing. It’s the circle of procrastination. That brings me to my next item….

Here's you IQ... now, here's your IQ after being inflicted permanent IQ loss from reading Jeremy's dumbass posts.

• Procrastination

I don’t need to explain this. You know it’s there, and you know Facebook one of the largest contributing factors to not actually doing something beneficial with your life…. And again, that doesn't mean twitter you jack-wagon.

• The Stalking & Comparing

You've Facebook stalked someone. You know you have, don’t try and hide it. Maybe you found this Facebook stalking someone who liked this. Either way, it’s a waste of time, and honestly, very dumb. More so, and this is especially for you girls, Facebook is a fantastic tool for comparing your lives to those of your peers, or that random dude you friended who has the same name as you. (You know you have him….) What I’m getting at, is that why does it benefit you to compare yourself to someone else or stalk someone else? It’s not for your betterment or theirs, and may very well end in you not feeling too great.

When searching for images for this article, I actually found this. It's an "I hate Facebook" TIMELINE COVER.

• Cyberbullying, Dumb People, and Jack-Wagons

We've already talked about how most of your Facebook browsing is directed towards dumb people, but let’s talk about the harm it does to you, on a deeper, more emotional level. Facebook lets you actively watch cyberbullying, arguments that escalate vastly past what they actually are, (C.B.A.K – Cowards Behind A Keyboard) and mean posts. I've seen derogatory posts towards people I know, I've seen personal posts who’s only intention is to single a person out emotionally, (Ie, “I have this one friends and she’s a total be—yottch!!” Yes, I know you don’t actually say it like that, but I’m going to make you seem that dumb for posting it in the first place) and I've seen groups and movements that are founded by pure hate. In fact,  this item can go all the way down to you seeing pictures of an event your friends had that you weren't invited to. All of these factors are remarkably negative, they have no benefit in your life and just hurt you.

• Facebook Games.

No explanation needed, just imagine how much better your life would be and how much less hateful you would be if you stopped having to reject invites for any virtual games dealing with farms or mafias… or both. (It has to exist; it’s too dumb to not be on Facebook.)

Common Objections and my logical answers:

• Reconnecting with Friends!

If you actually care about what certain people have to say, and actually want to stay in touch with them… get their email, phone number, or better yet, see them in person. That’s an actual friend and a legitimate relationship. If you absolutely need Facebook to talk to certain people, only keep those people in your friends. At least limit yourself… that means you, Ms. 600 friends and counting.

• I just like to share photos and memories!

Welcome to Flickr, Google Picassa, or old fashion scrap booking. It’s the same exact thing, except now your memories are yours, instead of being accessed by everyone, their brothers, and the dude who has your college application on his desk.

• I plan events and whatnot!

Google Calendar is actually much, much more effective for this, and everyone has a Google account. In fact, Google is the answer to pretty much all of this, and everything.

• I have Facebook ‘Pages’ or important Groups!

This is actually a valid concern. I too have to be part of Facebook groups for Strike and Foglight, and I need access to Facebook Pages to monitor the Strike page and the Brett Stewart page… well, create a new account, and only monitor those things on it. If you want Facebook as a legitimate tool, use it as a legitimate tool.

With all of that said… think about it.  Maybe you’ll join me and quit Facebook for good. The social network really has no benefit to your life and if you have legitimate reasons for using it, Google has better alternatives anyway. Go live your life, don’t let Facebook rule it, or even contribute to it. We lose sight of how it’s only a website. Go ride a bike. Or fly a kite. Or fly a kite on a bike.

At least pretend to be active. Still better than Facebook. 

I am in no way responsible for any inevitable injuries attempting to fly a kite from a bike

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Strike Online 2.0 Released!

Happy New Year! Strike is proud to present the release of Strike Online 2.0, a new strikemagazine.net built into the Foglight website. Head on over to strikemagazine.net for the new experience!