Tag Archives: Donald Trump

tl;dr

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The internet gives us so much, but with everything it gives, it takes something away (or gives us something we don’t want).  Today I’m going to complain about the term on the internet I might hate the most, tl;dr (for those who don’t know it means: too long didn’t read).  I have always been annoyed by this phrase, mostly because after I take a lot of time to collect thoughts and write something intelligent people will simply respond “tl;dr” as a way to tell me, “You talk too much, and I’m not going to be bothered to read what you wrote.” Sometimes tl;dr is used in a less toxic way.  Sometimes people ask for a tl;dr version of things or sometimes people just offer it after a rant to summarize.  Honestly I worry that people more and more are looking for tl;dr versions and that people’s attention spans are shrinking.  We have to stop looking for shortcuts to everything, especially  with information and knowledge.  We have to stop reading headlines or thing that people send to us that sum up some small point.  We have to actually read articles and we should probably read multiple ones if it’s about something we care about to make sure we clearly understand what’s going on.  Many times people will tell me that they understand an issue or a fact fully, but after a brief conversation I realize many people only have the broad strokes, which is good for impressionist paintings, but not so good for knowledge.  Don’t get me wrong, at times I’m guilty of this and I aim to be better at this. So let’s do it together.

It’s funny/sad because I thought about writing tl;dr for a few weeks now and I drew the cartoon above about a week ago (because I thought it was possible Trump might sign an Executive Order without reading and just getting a shortened version), and now there have been several news stories about how Trump is apparently angry because he wasn’t fully briefed about the Executive Order he signed did not know he promoted Steve Bannon to the National Security Council.  Some people might blame his team, but why didn’t he just read it himself? So this may be an extreme example but it’s fitting.  We must read, we must listen, and we can’t skip over the gruesome parts to get to stuff we like or perhaps those little details will start to take over.  And those details, they often have the devil in them.

tl;dr

Please read above, it’s only 420 words

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Tranks, Lo-Bos, and The Predictions of Back to the Future II

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Marty McFly comes to the future in 11 days and while we’re not all zipping around in flying cars and lawyers haven’t been abolished there are some really interesting things I thought about while watching the film yesterday. Other than the fact that they were spot on with the prediction that Crispin Glover would be totally creepy in the future. Now I realize that I’m not the only person writing about this topic, especially with the Chicago Cubs currently in the MLB Playoff, the internet has been filled with articles like this, but hopefully you still find some entertainment in this article. Plus I’ll reference some other movies so you don’t get bored.

First off, okay I get it, so what. There have been other great predictions in films: 2001 A Space Odyssey invented tablets and Total Recall had driverless cars, but to be fair Total Recall also had that dumb window scenery channel which is a dumb prediction (side note: I know that the scenic station was also in Back to the Future 2 and it was dumb there too. Also if we discover that Kubrick was a time traveler who came back to make some of the most iconic films that wouldn’t surprise me either.) Look don’t get me wrong, other movies have gotten things right, but what’s amazing to me is how many of those things came true BECAUSE people liked the movies so much. I don’t think Lexus would be trying so hard to make hover boards a thing if it wasn’t for this movie. Nike released the iconic shoes from the movie and Pepsi is releasing those weird bottles from the movie. I also believe people are wishing extra hard that the Cubs win the World Series just to further cement the importance of this film.  I know that it’s the only reasons I call people Lo-Bo and Zipheads.

Now let’s talk about some of the accuracies that I feel like most people miss. Let me preface by saying that I honestly believe the writers weren’t trying to accurately predict the future, and I’m sure some of the ideas were meant as a joke, but some things seem like fair predictions that they were making. In the film we see Marty talking to slick punk Needles over what is presumably a Skype like device on a flatscreen television. This combined with the kids using wearable electronics, and the big movies are all sequels in 3D and already we have some spot on accuracies to modern times. Back to the Future 2 also references doors that open with fingerprints, camera drones, and video games you play without your hands. Now you have to look abstractly on some of these. Sure they don’t look exactly like the products now a days but they function similar and seem like they are worth mentioning even if they aren’t exactly part of everyday life. Well, except for the fact I refuse to unlock my iPhone any way BUT with my fingerprint.

The weirdest and perhaps most accurate prediction isn’t actually part of the 2015 portion of film, but rather in the alternate 1985 timeline. In this part of the motion picture Biff has gotten a hold of the Sports Almanac and has become a powerful billionaire. Not only that but Biff owns his own hotel/casino with his name on it, but he also has a terrible hairdo that is even more eerily similar than some 3D shark. Let’s put it this way. I hope some of Back to the Future’s predictions are correct, but there are some that I hope are completely wrong. And I’m not talking about the television windows.

Go Cubs!