Everything bad is good for you

In this excerpt from the book, the author goes into detail comparing and contrasting reading books versus playing video games. Clear beneficial virtues of books consist of the information conveyed by the book and the mental work you have to do to process and store that information. The cognitive benefits derived from reading include effort, concentration, attention, the ability to make sense of words, to follow narrative threads and to sculpt imagined worlds out of mere sentences on a page. Steven Johnson does something interesting, he turns our thoughts to a parallel universe where video games were invented long before books. The argument goes on to say that a book contains a fixed linear path, creates problems of dyslexia, socially interactive children become tragically isolated and only a small part of the brain is used to process written language. The author then goes on to disagree with this argument but brings it up for a clear reason because video games do show benefit like activating the full range of sensory and motor cortices. The way I see it is they both can be beneficial in their own ways but the better you are at reading, the better off you are in general because todays educational system and job market put a high premium on reading skills. Over the past few years appearing on mainstream news stations were headlines of "Playing video games may not actually be a complete waste of time". The virtues of gaming run far deeper than hand eye coordination, gaming can actually improve your spelling, problem solving and challenge the mind to keep going after failing. You never hear on mainstream coverage that games are fiendishly/maddeningly hard to complete, adding an educational sense of determination to those who hardcore game, start to end. When the article shifts to 'Do games and pop culture make us smarter', the author states that society's maturity comes from the process of mental atrophy. The thought of a toddler sitting infront of a tv, starring with mouth and eyes wide open, a parent may say may child is becoming brain dead, sames goes for a elementary age student playing video games. Yet the real answer is that your child is focusing, this is in fact the first time I've ever heard this statement and I believe it is 100% spot on. Exploring and understanding new things is what learning is all about and is precisely what children in these situations are doing, its just nothing is going on in their material environment to learn from so they focus on the television. This article had the ups and downs of both reading and video games but when it comes down to it basically the conclusion is that if you stress/make your brain work, your learning and bettering your mind.

Random observations

East Campus Commons dining observations:
*Sitting at the tables adjacent to the condiments at the front of the cafeteria*

• Groups of friends scattered about the tables
• Doesn't seem to be very cliquey as I see a lot of interaction in between tables
• There is no shortage of diversity in the cafeteria
• Some people have finished eating and seem to have been here for some time just socializing
• The room is light up with conversation and background music
• Its quite busy today so a lot of people are in line waiting
• The food is being served at a slow rate so students are beginning to become impatient
• A girl dropped her whole tray of food on the ground and two other girls helped her pick it up
• I surprisingly witnessed a girl making fun of a guy and walked away, it seemed pretty serious and was an interesting confrontation for a cafeteria
• There are two isolated rooms in the back of the café in which a large amount of people have congregated for what looks like some sort of meeting.
• The meeting in the back does not look to be open to spectators or new members. A private group
• I see a couple flirting excessively in the middle of the cafeteria
• The cafeteria is closing in 30 minutes so people seem to be clearing out but I noticed a few stragglers coming in just now who are looking to catch the cooks before they put away the food!
• Leaving the cafeteria, a bunch of people have grouped up near the dunkin dounuts which always seems to be a little hot spot to hangout.

John Stewart: Commencement Adress

John Stewart is truly a gifted man having accomplished many great things, including The Daily Show with John Stewart, which is a show I have enjoyed on multiple occasions. He has a natural talent for bringing out the humor in everything. This is shown quite a bit in the commencement address, where he even starts his speech with "Thank you, Mr. President, I had forgotten how crushingly dull these ceremonies are." Haha funny right? This guy will throw humor in anywhere and continues to light up the audience with a humorous tone until a certain point. About half way through the address, the tone shifts. "I don't really know how to put this, so I'll be blunt. We broke it. Please don't be mad." This is the quote used to switch the tone to a more serious manner. He emphasizes how somewhere between the baby boomers and the new internet savvy world, things have died and the world is corrupt. He places the task of fixing this broken world in each graduates hand, and its true, the new generation is destined to take this world out of this state of behavior. I find it funny when he brings up the war on terror and how the generation before these graduates 'declared war on terror' and that's not even a noun, yet it is still a saying! John Stewart is truly a creative comedian. Along with this humor comes knowledge and Stewart has proven to be quite wise, "So how do you know what is the right path to choose to get the result that you desire? The honest answer is this: You won't. And accepting that greatly eases the anxiety of your life experience". He goes on to \say that life has no core curriculum. Every student at William and Mary knew what they had to do to graduate college and how many credits they needed. Stewart points out that the paths are infinite and the results are uncertain. For those who are used to achievement, life is full of experiences so you cant get tied up in all the small things. Make results turn into your own self definition of success, set your own goals. Love what you do.. or don't if that's the path you define as success, but whatever it is, get good at it. His tips for success are spot on even though the last few lines of this address may have confused me a little bit; I really liked it.

My Brother's Influence

From day one Derek Grant has been either pushing me around or teaching me something which I now realize that all these things my brother has been involved with me over the years has really molded me into the person I am today. In my earlier years it was mostly the teasing and fooling around but now I feel as if he made me a strong person. I have endured a lot with my family over the years and Derek has always been a solid figure that I looked up to. Maybe its the fact that I have never seen him cry before or maybe its because he has always had the determination for a healthy lifestyle and motivation for a active personal training job, challenging his body. I've looked up to him for multiple reasons and these are what I believe have shaped my morals and actions today. I chose to go to the gym for an hour 5 times a week, I have a easy going and social personality like him, I am motivated in almost everything I do and love people who are close to me. I do believe my parents had a large influence in shaping my lifestyle but growing up and learning a lot of technical things that parents aren't necessarily going to teach you was definitely a bonus or advantage I believe I now have over others who did not have a figure in their lives like I did with my brother.

Alter egos: Avatars and their creators

Avatars give people the ability to re-invent themselves through a virtual world. The creator has the ability to customize their characters from their physical traits to their hobbies or personality. As you can see this gives one the ability to imagine up the 'perfect' character or the person they maybe wish they could be, sounds odd but in a lot of cases it makes sense. For Jason Rowe, a young boy who was hindered by an illness, He found exceptional excitement from playing in one of these fantasy worlds. His character was a tall strong built man who stood in shining armor. I can really understand how people get lost in these games because when it means more than just a video game like it does for this boy, its addicting. He is given the ability to live a strong active life but through a virtual character called an Avatar. For Choi Seang Rak, another man who was commented in class as "creepy", He really seems like he has taken the game in to adopt another life. He created a girl character at level 55 which seems to mean he puts the work in to be good at this game. Choi actually comments "People buy more from my little girl dwarf compared to the old male dwarf I used to have, even though they sell the same things. Because I'm very polite, people think I really am a little girl." I actually found this quiet interesting. The game gives him the be the voice of a little girl in a virtual world and no one in the game would ever know the truth unless he shared. The last person met his current girlfriend through the game called world of war craft. This shows that people can actually create and gain relationships through video games. They most likely played a lot together and started to reveal their personalities creating a connection. These are other types of things that may cause a person to become addicted to games like these. I think are Avatars are great because they give a lot of benefit to people who may not be quiet so comfortable out in public or other social interactions so they chose to do so through a game. This helps some and hinders others because some people need something like this like that little boy, while others get stuck behind these. Video games promote imagination and SOME people chose to waste their potential for real life by spending the majority of their time on a fantasy world. Yet for others it is a great thing so I don't judge anyone, just voicing the opinion!