A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Image by  Angela Yuriko Smith  from  Pixabay   Students witness more than bookings Alex Diaz-Granados Copy Editor Miami Vice it isn't, but criminal justice majors can actually ride in a Metro-Dade patrol car and observe officers as they follow their daily routine. These students will fill out evaluation reports, evaluating what they've seen and turn them in to their professors. Then the reports will be discussed in class. Not only do these student evaluators gain a first-hand look at police work, but they also receive $7 an hour. "Most people get their ideas of what law enforcement officers' work is supposedly like from such television shows as Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice, " said criminal justice professor Ron Stearns. He said people see real police officers when the media get hold of something they did wrong or a heroic act. "An average police officer's day is filled with unexciting duties that the cops on Miami Vice wou...

Image by David Mark (Pixabay) Hi, there, Constant Reader! Welcome to yet another edition (and my 400th blog post for 2019) of Bloggin' On, the virtual space on A Certain Point of View  in which I step out of my usual personas of media product reviewer and/or occasional political commentator. Well, it's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving 2019, the fifth observance of the holiday that I spend with other folks instead of my immediate (or even extended) family. Mom died in the summer of 2015, five months before the holiday season of that year. I cut all relations with my older half-sister as a result of long-standing resentments that had been building for decades, but especially after Mom and I discovered what she had in mind for the "after-Mom-died" phase in both our lives, so I have not observed any holidays with my closest blood relation since the Fourth of July of '15. And most of my surviving cousins on both sides of my family live in Colombia, so I can'...

Photo credit: Professor Peter C. Townsend, Miami Dade Community College Talent show spotlights gifted, unusual acts Catalyst, March 12, 1987 issue Alex Diaz-Granados Diversions Editor If you want to see some of the campus' "class" acts, then you don't want to miss the fifth annual talent show, today at 12:30 in Room 6120. According to Sonia Meistrell, program coordinator of arts, "There will be 12, maybe 13 acts which give us a variety of offerings. This year's show will be a combination of bands, solo singers, a magician and even a classical music act." And it's all students only. "In the past," Meistrell said, "a few faculty members would perform with a group of students, but this year the acts are being done exclusively by students." One of last year's students was Ira Sullivan, a member of Emerald City, which recently played campus. Meistrell said, "We have a few small details to take care of still...

© 1989 Putnam Reviewer's Note: I originally wrote this in August of 1989 for the Miami-Dade Community College - South Campus student newspaper, Catalyst.  Summer, that prime time for readers, may be over, but Tom Clancy's The Cardinal of the Kremlin, the third entry in the Jack Ryan series, is a spy novel for all seasons. Ryan, a CIA analyst introduced in Clancy's first novel, The Hunt for Red October, finds himself in a web of intrigue involving a highly placed "mole" - code-named Cardinal - in the Kremlin, a husband-and-wife CIA team stationed in Moscow, KGB surveillance teams, Afghan rebels and a race between American and Soviet scientists to develop a Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars" system. Although this sounds complex, Cardinal is fast-paced and engrossing. And although there's a lot of gadgetry involved, don't expect Ryan to give you James Bond-style heroics. As in his previous novels ( Red October, Red Storm Rising an...

The cover for the Strike Fleet computer game developed by Lucasfilm Games and Electronic Arts. I had the Apple II version, which had similar artwork. Note: Strike Fleet did not feature an Iowa- class battleship in gameplay. (C) 1987 Lucasfilm Games and Electronic Arts Test your skills on these new simulations  (Originally published in the April 20, 1989 issue of Catalyst ) Alex Diaz-Granados Spectrum Editor Since the advent of the personal computer over a decade ago, millions of PC owners have enjoyed the challenge of computer games and simulations. Although arcade-style programs such as Pac-Man and Galaxian are popular, most computer game aficionados prefer the more complicated "simulations that are increasing in realism, complexity and variety. Datasoft's The Hunt for Red October, based on Tom Clancy's 1984 best-selling novel, is a simulation of a Soviet Typhoon-class nuclear missile sub which is attempting to defect to the United States. Problem i...

My sig box from Miami-Dade Community College, South Campus' student paper, circa 1987  When I was a journalism student at Miami-Dade Community College’s South (now Kendall) Campus, I worked on the campus student newspaper from 1985 to 1989. I started out as a Staff Writer and finished my “tour of duty” as Managing Editor. As a result of this unusually long stint, I had the opportunity to write for every section of the paper: News, Opinions, Diversions, Features, and even Sports. I was even the campus paper’s first foreign correspondent when I participated in the College Consortium for International Studies’ Semester in Spain – Seville program in the Fall Term of the 1988-89. One of my favorite assignments was as a contributor for an experimental Features section that we ran during the Winter Term of the ’86-87 academic year. It was called About Time. In it, we published pieces about different personal experiences, ranging from humorous to bathetic topics based on events...