This is my blog for both more professional (essays, guides and things) and fanfiction writings. For my personal blog, please visit Eye of the Tiger
- Created By red tigress
BWBB #4
This is gonna be short, as wake up is in 15 minutes. My response to BWBB #4, "Maybe we still are".
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Jeanie sat upon the hilltop overlooking their small town. The sun was setting and a cool breeze was just starting to pick up, making her shiver a little bit in her tanktop. A tire swing squeaked behind her as it moved in the wind, hanging from the only tree top on the hill.
Eventually, she heard foot steps behind her, just as the top of the sun was starting to dissapear below the horizon, basking the town in a warm glow. The tire swing clinked a little, as a body settled onto it. Without turning around, she said loud enough for the person behind her to hear "I still haven't forgiven you for what you did."
"I didn't expect you to," a male's voice sounded from behind her. It was deep, but smooth, and sounded like it belonged to someone young. "It was a mistake. We both know that. I was just looking to replace something in my life that was lost."
She sighed, disappointed in Adam for never really understanding her, and disappointed in herself for going along with it. "But do you understand why I'm angry?"
"Sure," he said. But she didn't believe him.
She got up, brushing herself off, preparing to make the climb back down the darkening hill to the town below. The tire swing didn't make a sound from behind her. "I don't want to be the hateful ex who spited you anymore, Jeanie. We aren't enemies."
"Maybe we still are," she said quietly, not looking back.
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Phew! Two minutes to go!
Renji: Bleach's Lovable Loser
Please note that this essay contains spoilers for Bleach up through chapters 300+ in the manga, and episode 160+ in the anime. However, the spoilers are primarily related to Abarai Renji and I will not be discussing spoilers r...To Play or Not To Play?
To Play or Not To Play? One Student's Struggle With Video Games and College Life
When Dirk finishes classes at University for the day and comes home, he doesn’t hit the books. He hits the joystick, so to speak. Video games have always been a big part of Dirk’s life, but he thought he had it under control, even facing the added social rewards of online massive multiplayer games like World of Warcraft. The anonymity of the Internet and being able to play with people that share the same passions sometimes can seem more satisfying than real-life relationships. Before he knew it, Dirk had failed four out of five classes his first semester of university, and was facing academic probation.
But Dirk was not the only college gamer experiencing problems with school.
Last year two professors at the University of Western Ontario and Berea College found that on average college students with video game consoles at school studied 40 minutes less, which translated to a first-semester drop of 0.241 points on a 4.0 scale. The students of the study did not participate in other known activities proven to drop grade such as excessive drinking, partying, and skipping class. The rate only increases if someone is dissatisfied with school or their job. Sometimes they think “what’s the point?” To them, real world rewards are harder to come by then the ones in video games.
People can become addicted to games like World of Warcraft for not only the huge amount of activities there are to do in the game, but the social aspect too. World of Warcraft alone has over 10 million players worldwide. Most people become very good friends with people they often play with, and sometimes these friends can replace ones they see in real life or in turn become the friends that they spend time with outside of the game, provided they live close.
Sometimes a close-knit group of friends even become like a family to a player. Scott Andrews, a writer for the popular Warcraft blog WoW Insider, spoke about how important guilds, a group of players gathered together for a common purpose in the game, can be for people. “A guild can act as a family and help people through plenty of problems, even very serious ones...we've supported people through everything from becoming a new parent to having their house destroyed.” With support and friends like this, it’s no wonder people find the social aspect of the game so enjoyable.
Dirk’s love of video games overshadowed his desire for school. At the time, Dirk did not see immediate results from school, just endless work. The instant gratification of video games appealed to him, and he began to use them more and more as his form of escapism. They were fun and also “better than being a drunk,” says Dirk.
When Dirk failed four classes his first semester of freshmen year, he knew he had to get back on track. But the damage was done. He worked very hard to pass his classes in the spring, but still failed history. Even while on academic probation, Dirk was not too upset about it. He worked instead, and played video games and hung out with friends in his spare time. When he did come back to school, he still played video games, and even bought a new X-Box 360 when it came out.
The shelf under Dirk’s television is reserved for the special video game consoles that have earned their place there: a Sega Dreamcast he searched yard sale after yard sale for in order to round out his collection after the system became obsolete; the Nintendo Gamecube that was the first video game system he bought with his own money. The day he bought it he also learned how debit cards; after making six withdrawals to cover the cost, it put him into debt. Finally the Playstation 2 system that his grandfather gave to him, despite his mother forbidding it, sits center most on the shelf. Thinking about what his grandfather went through to make him happy, Dirk leans back, gazing at the system. “It’s humbling,” he says.
Today, Dirk still finds time for video games, but school usually comes first. He has become more diligent about school work in the years that have passed, and considers himself a decent student. He tries to limit the hours a day he plays so that he has time for other things. He’s fast approaching graduation, so the light at the end of the tunnel is becoming clearer. He is not sure what he wants to do after graduation. Even though the future is unclear, he knows video games will be an integral part of it. Dirk doesn’t blame video games for what happened. He knows that as with every activity, there has to be a limit and a person has to exercise self-control. If anything, it was video games that taught him that.
I wrote this story for my final news writing and reporting class. I've left out Dirk's last name to afford him some privacy. If you are interested in any of my other sources, feel free to PM me.
The Forbidden Kingdom Review.
This is a review I wrote after seeing the Forbidden Kingdom and submitted it to the school paper. Just in case you were interested.
Jet Li has always said that he wanted to make a movie with Jackie Chan before he retired from film. The Forbidden Kingdom, based loosely off a Chinese legend, finally brings the two martial arts legends together.
The movie has somewhat of a Never-Ending Story feel to it, as rather than focusing on Jet Li or Jackie Chan as one might expect, the film follows a young martial arts fan, a predictably nerdy boy named Jason, who is transported through time and space to a world set in a Chinese fairy tale. Jason is played by relative newcomer to film Michael Angarano, who seems to have been tapped as a cheaper alternative to Shia LeBuff. Jason must return a magical staff to the imprisoned monkey king; of course, along the way he has to learn Kung Fu to fight an elite army of villains. But most of the audience did not care about the plot and were just there to see Jackie Chan and Jet Li in the same movie. I was somewhat disappointed the movie even had a plot. It was marketed as a “kung fu explosion”, and at times it felt like I was watching a prettier version of The Karate Kid. There was even a training montage. Unfortunately, Jackie Chan did not show up until about twenty minutes into the movie, and Jet Li came about fifteen minutes after that. The movie was only an hour and fifty-three minutes long.
But silly plotlines aside, the real reason people were there was to see the martial arts, and they did not disappoint. Woo-ping Yuen, who also choreographed the martial arts for films such as The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, produced another excellent martial arts film. While the audience sometimes snickered at the silly plot and jokes, they were utterly silent for the fights which were truly a spectacle.
Besides that, the film had some pretty stunning visuals. While some of the settings were made with computer graphics, most of the film was shot in China with beautiful, colorful backdrops. It is a movie that takes full advantage of being shown on a large screen. Between the fight scenes, the sets and the scenery, the movie features some great eye candy.
This movie was made to bring two of the greatest masters kung fu together, and that is the reason people should see it. The movie certainly delivers in that respect, even though it is brief and falls short in certain aspects such as romance and comedy. One should see this movie for strictly the action aspect, and pay no attention to the plot. But the type of audience the film is marketed to already knows that.
My Gaming News Story-Draft
Just a draft, but my journalism professor (who's been nominated for a pulitzer TWICE) said it was "perfect". I just wanted to show a few peeps and the MSN thing isn't working for me.
The shelf under Dirk Auman’s television is reserved for the special video game consoles that have earned their place there. A Sega Dreamcast he searched yard sale after yard sale for in order to round out his collection after the system became obsolete. The Nintendo Gamecube that was the first video game system he bought with his own money. The day he bought it he also learned how debit cards; after making six withdrawals to cover the cost, it put him into debt. Finally the Playstation 2 system that his grandfather gave to him, despite his mother forbidding it, sits centermost on the shelf. Thinking about what his grandfather went through to make him happy, Dirk leans back, gazing at the system. “It’s humbling,” he says.
Video games have always been a big part of Dirk’s life, as well as millions of other gamers around the world. But as a busy college student, sometimes Dirk’s love of gaming conflicts with actual work that needs to be done for school. Dirk and others like him are not lazy, violent adolescents like the media sometimes makes gamers out to be. But Dirk’s freshman year, school work would often come second to more leisurely activities. With classes he sometimes didn’t care about, the instant gratification and often rewarding experience that comes with playing a well-designed game took precedent. There was also the added social rewards of online massive multiplayer games like World of Warcraft. Both the anonymity of the Internet and being able to play with people that share the same passions sometimes can seem more satisfying than real-life relationships. Before he knew it, Dirk had failed four out of five classes his first semester of university, and was facing academic probation.
Even though Dirk passed four of his five classes the next semester, the five failed classes in one year was enough to put him on probation. But Dirk was not the only college gamer experiencing problems with school.
Last year two professors at the University of Western Ontario and Berea college found that on average college students with video game consoles at school studied 40 minutes less which translated to a first-semester drop of 0.241 points on a 4.0 scale. The students of the study did not participate in other known activities proven to drop grade such as excessive drinking, partying, and skipping class.
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Let me know what you think!
