My George I think ive got it!!

YES, thank you so much for your help Dr. Smith, finally I have a topic. My topic for this final will be on the game Sims....How the game of Sims represent contemperary life and why. I will mention dictatorship and Govt in the virtual game vs. our reality, game represent what we care about vs. what we say we care about, and more. I dont want to give it all so stay in tuned!

Pondering

Here I am........Still looking up different topics on Sims Game. So far, I have found an article by two authors; Catherine Beavis and Claire Charles "Challenging Notions of Gerndered Game Play: Teenagers playing The Sims". Im going to save the details (sorry), I rather not get into it not sure of what my topic will be as of yet. I have also been told of a game call Civilization, I played it a little.
If anyone know of any virtual game similar to Sims, feel free to leave me some comments. It would be very helpful.

Topic Ideas for Game research

I have yet to deside what I will be writing on exacly but I did jot down some ideas.

• Politics
• Race
• life
• how they portrait woman?
• judgmental
• class
• motivation/goal
• do people go too far into character?
• mental

I know that I am definatly interested in using the game Sims for my research, but then again....something else might come along. I love that game! I do know that I need to research these topics first to make sure im doing something new and different and not a research on a something thats not a popular topic. $5500 sounds very good and I am going to make sure my article is good for the editor. (not actually getting $$ for it, just going along with the situation)

Field trip experience

On my class field trip to Toys 'R' Us, it was a fun experience. I actually found games I have never heard about or ever seen. I must return to pick up some board games and video games I found interesting such as Pictionary Man, Dr. Seuss - Oh, the places you'll go! and Brokus. I also didnt think I would be interested in video games but I think I will be making an investment in Nintendo Wii, and Nintendo Fit to go with it. I thought it was funny how when we were younger and had Game Boys, it was just the hand held game itself and games to go with it (cartridges), I found that in this day in age things have upgraded so much. They have a Nintendo DS, I seen a car adapter, different veriety of cases to put it in, head phones and so many other things to choose from.

A toy is an object that you do almost whatever, its limited to what you can do. A game has many different features and levels, it require focus and problem solving as oppose to a toy. With creativity, maybe a toy can be turned into a game. I can take a doll, put it in the middle of the floor and play Steal The Bacon. (joke).

I discovered that a video game isnt much different from a computer game, the one for computers just contain a little less of the graphics a television would have depending on the year of your computer. As far as problem solving, you'll find more made for your pc then console games. Overall, it's not that great of a difference but I would prefer to use a console I guess it's a little easier to manoever that the arrow keys and so on on a PC.

Campus Clubs

I went to visit Student Clubs offered by Laguardia. They were looking to recruit Laguardia students with a GPA of at least a 2.5, also a completion of 12 credits or more. First table I stopped at was for Phi Theta Kappa, this club I found very interesting! unfortunately, I have no credits at the present moment. The benefits of being a member were very pleasing to hear, opportunities to scholarships with over $36 million available, and Press release with the ability to release your name to local newspapers.

Dr. Smith would be happy I'm sure to know they offered a Gamers Club. I asked the young lady there about the Club in which she describes it as " Oh, well its just a club where we meet every Wend. from 2 to 5 and just play games!" first thing that came to mind was the Gee Article I read. I was interested in anything dealing with poetry so I searched for Prosody: Poetry Club.

Although I don't meet all the qualifications as far as my GPA, I signed up for it. This club also meets every Wed. except the coordinator Ms. Raven Blackstone is willing to make things workable as far as scheduling.

They had so many clubs, Filmmatic, political Action club, Chinese Club, Psychology Club, Physical Therapist Club, Straight and Gay club and so many others which involve some of the courses given in school as well as things we deal with in life and entertainment.

The Gee article "Good Games Good Learning"

I find "The Gee" article to be very interesting and helpful. All the time you may hear people make negative comments on video games. Reading this article helped me to understand there are more to games and though many may not be educational, some in fact do require strategy and problem solving. When you see people playing video games you may just view it as just being fun not analyzing what techniques are required, let alone what skills your obtaining.

The Gee article also compared biology with games. I understand how biology can be compared to a game because in order to see how scientific things operate, you have to play with it and do different things to see which one works.

Simulation

The definition of simulation is an object that is not genuine, so it is not real and authentic. When thinking of the word simulation, you may think of video games as an example. Many people play video games which are a simulation of reality or fantasy worlds.

When we use the word “play”, we refer to an action opposite from being serious. Play is a particular act or maneuver in a game, which is absent of seriousness or actual harm. We use the word play very often when we are joking with our loved ones. The phrase “I’m just playing” or “all work and no play” are used often. Play is how children learn to receive rewards for hard work or to cope with a loss. It is important for everyone to devote time to relieve the stress of daily life and put a pause on seriousness even if just for one game.

We define a game as amusement and a diversion. A procedure or strategy for gaining an end. My definition of what a game is an act of challenging yourself to win a reward or just have fun trying to win. You know when someone is playing a game because they are competing or just passing the time with activity.

In our daily experiences in life we use the terms game and play very often. We wouldn’t want someone we love to “play games” with us. It’s important for adults and children to know when its “play time” and when to be serious.

The Matrix

The Matrix was very interesting. I watched the movie in the past and thought it was just a movie based on action. Now that I am in this course I am learning to understand more about movies and films. I cannot remember all of the characters but I do remember some.

This movie in my opinion was about reality vs. illusion, technology vs. human and how in some ways it control the world. They used many metaphors, they used terms from the wizord of Oz as well as Alice in Wonderland. They used those terms because they differ from the Matrix very little, both Dorothy and Alice was pretty much stuck in a world different from their own reality. In this illusion they seen things that would or could never happen in the reality in which they were from, they experienced things outside from what they do. In the Matrix they mentioned the rabbit (from alice and wonderland) and when the agents were talking to Morpheous, they mentioned Dorothy (from Wizard of Oz), these were terms used because, again, they compared to the matrix as far as being in a whole different dimension. Neo the most important character was stuck between two worlds.

In the Matrix, many things and objects appeared to be unreal, of course in the Matrix your mind controled whatever you wanted,a computer generated dream, it was about control according to one of the characters in the movie. It was all started by an option to either learn what the Matrix was or the "Normal Life" they would quote. Neo chose the red pill again which was symbolic for the Matrix instead of the blue pill. Everything in this movie seemed to be very symbolic.

Morpheous described the Matrix, his words said that the Matrix is a construct, you can load anything from clothes to weapons, into a computer program, even residual self image and he said something about electrical signals through the brain. They also had enemies, they were "the Agents", thats where I think race comes into play. The Agents felt as if everything was just a computer generated dream and they wanted to be free and in control. When Morpheous told Neo about how things were started he used humans. He said mankind united in celebration early 21st century and humans scortched the sky, thats why the sky was filled with dark clouds.....basically it represented humans and human life and those in the Matrix were machines.

According to http://thereisnospoon.moviefever.comhttp://www.geocities.com/hollywood/theater/9175

The names and each definition is posted there. Morpheus means the God of dreams in greek mythology. Trinity stands for the number three, body,mind and spirit for example. Neo means one or "the one". Cypher means zero,having no value or importance which would explain the reason for jealousy in the movie. Agents are machine police of the matrix simulated world and enemies of the human race.

I am who I am!

It took me a while to get this page together, but I did it!!

You can call me Tay.
My title says "I am who I am", because I AM! I like poetry,I hate liars, I love candy/junk food, I enjoy hanging out and meeting new people. Sometimes I can be very outspoken but I know how to control myself, I learned that in many situations its just best to walk away. I am ambitious and yeah it's a cliche but.....I am unique, most important....I am human. I say that to say that I believe in Karma, I dont do things to people I dont want done to myself. I am woman enough to admit when im wrong and can respect a persons opinion, JUST BE HONEST!
I respect honesty, have to because so many people would lie and take their lies to their grave and I despise that. I have went through so many trial in my life to where I have a whole different outlook on things and consider me ~a work in progress~ and still learning how to keep the little things little. I do think I have slight anxiety (lol) because I worry a little too much and then later find out it wasnt that major......but, thats what makes me,ME!