Assignement #9 - Video Games - Hobby or Addiction?

Personally I don't get how people can sit in front of the television for hours on end and find that entertaining. Ill admit it, I have a Wii and play it a lot, but not all day everyday. I am a gamer but not even close to what some consider a true gamer. My brother can literally sit on Xbox live all night playing Halo 3 and talking smack to little kids, and actually enjoy it. I don't get it, what happened to a game that had a start and a finish. A goal that you could actually attain to get, for Super Mario Brothers it was to save the princess from King Kupa, for Donkey Kong it was again to save the princess from...well King Kong, now a days with cames like EverQuest there is no point to playing them, the game go on and on forever. You can play it forever and never accomplish anything, no first place trophy, not even one princess saved.

So is this considered a good hobby to have of a potentially life ruining addiction? People can argue both sides, for one, the parents know where their children are when they are playing video games. They are not out on the streets running wild and causing trouble. However with childhood obesity on the rise sitting indoors all day, with no physical activity of social interaction can be a death sentence making them much more likely to be over weight as an adult, not to mention a nerd.


Even if you don't consider yourself a "gamer" something as simple as playing a game on your cell phone to help pass the time in that boring lecture that never seems to end puts you in that category. In the assigned article on a video game designer, it is shocking for quickly people shun her for what she does and blame her for ruining the minds of our youth. When in fact the opposite is true, in an article from the USA Today from 2007 entitled Wii Speeds Up The Rehab Process, it goes on the describe how the Wii can help people with everything from a car accident to Parkinson's disease. It is good for hand eye coordination. Going through the motions of the sports without the impact is greatly beneficial.

So whether video games are harmful or helpful is dependent upon who you ask, as for me, the jury is still out.

Assignment #8 - Mojitos And The Internet...A Perfect Combination

For this blog assignment I thought it would be fun to do a little something different so when Art of The Drink webisodes caught my eye, I knew right away that I wanted to learn more.

The Art of The Drink was created by writer/director/host by Anthony Caporale. Art of the Drink is a Video Podcast that plays out in a simple format, first Anthony prepares the drink of the day and then he has his co-host make the drink following his instructions. The first episode was released on May 1, 2006, and the episodes usually run anywhere from 1:46 to 11:02 but on average the episodes are 6 minutes long, and running about 24 shows a season.

In the episodes they differ from regular television shows obviously in the length of time that they run, but also in the content they talk about, and most importantly, no commercials. There is no filler or any other information then what the point of the show is, to learn how to make a perfect mixed drink. This is a very interesting and informative show to watch. Its like taking bartending school without have to pay the 300 dollar charge, and with drink names like The Blue Motorcycle, Snake Bite, World Cup and Godfather, who wouldn't want to watch this show.

Another plus of the online shows is that you can watch it whenever you please, even though today DVR's and TiVo are getting more popular the ease of watching there shows when and pretty much where ever you want to, makes it very convenient.

Art of The Drink has received numerous awards and was even commended as best of 2006 in the New York Times. The episodes are a great tool to have and are just fun to watch with some episodes containing trivia contests about previous episodes and outtakes of the cast. Art of The Drink is fun, interesting and informative webisode to watch.

Assignemt #7 - Radio...The Soundtrack Of Our Life

As we go about in our daily lives we are affected by the music and don't even know it. I know for me when I burn CD's and then go back and listen to them a while later it can take me back to that summer or back to my junior year in high school when I made it. In the past 24 hours of actually thinking about what kind of an effect music has on our lives ive come to realize it plays quite a large part.

I pretty much have a routine that I go through every day, in the morning on the way to school I usually listen to talk radio like WGR 550 or Opie and Anthony, I never really understood how people can be blasting their radio at 8:00 in the morning. After school on the way home i'll catch Shredd and Ragan if I can on 103.3 the edge, they usually give you the top stories of the day, but in a funny way that makes if fun to hear about, and the Niagara Falls Police Blotter is hilarious. I usually listen to that if im alone, but with my friends we like to hear all the latest song and sing along. Whats the point of going to a club if there isn't any good, loud music playing? While I'm with my friends I have a different taste in music then I do when I'm alone.

Music can have positive and negative effects on people mood, im sure everyone has come across someone that has the ipod to loud when there sitting next to you on the computers in Capen. It is annoying to everyone around then when we are all trying to study or write a paper. Then again a specific song can make you think of a loved one or make a part in a movie even more touching, I mean come on, what would Titanic be without My Heart Will Go On? Music can even get you pumped up for an athletic event, for my varsity soccer team in high school we had a warm up tape that we listened to before each game that motivate us and got us mentally ready for the up commig event.

Music also influence how we judge someone, wether we hear someone listening to country, 80's or rap, we can instantly get a look into that persons tastes and maybe even their way of thinking. Knowing that someone likes the same kind of music as you might influence your social influence with that person and make you want to talk to or become friends with them because you have similar tastes in music.

Music can have different effects on different people, a song that makes you happy might make another person mad or sad. Music definitely has an impact on me and my life, as I think it does or most people, it just might not be the same genre of music. It effectes up so much that we have to take it everwhere we go with portable mp3 players and even download it to our cell phones as a ringtone. Wether we know it or not, music is all around us influencing us every day in different ways.