Little Readers

As a child, I remembered growing up reading not only goosebumps but also the babysitters club. I cant help but question where all of these great books have gone. They were made into television shows and I can help but think how much better the actual books were. I think that developing them into television shows only brought them down for me. Would anyone agree?

I couldnt help but wonder just how many others read goosebumps as a child. I loved them growing up, this is a video of one of my favorites. The books brought alive fears that were enjoyed by many and feared by some. Enjoy!

I can not help but think that, as a semi-gamer myself, video games do help children. This video is about Guitar hero. and the world record. I am an avid guitar hero player and I know personally it has taught me better hand eye coordination. I also know that the other video games I play have taught me great things, like how to multi-task and read while doing something else. In todays day and age I think that reading while also doing something else is a task that every child needs. I cant seem to find a better way then video games. This keeps the minds active as well as helps them develop reading skills.

After reading the article when the man was raping characters on the internet games I can not help but be fully mortified. This entire article made me upset. This happened for two reasons, one why did the others get so upset? I feel that this is just simply a character in a game. I do not see a reason to be so outraged. However I do feel that the person doing this has a problem. This is just disturbing to me. If he has the time and mind to think this kind of thought up I can not see putting an actual rape past him. I think he should be put into a place where he can be helped but not because of the game aspect. I would not be upset about that I am just upset about the act he did on the character.  I am left with one question, When did we as people start to combine real life with video games?

After reading the article about facebook and attempting to post this previously I just once again want to state that I think facebook is great. My first post about this which somehow came out blank was all about the great things that facebook can do. However recently I have experienced a great aspect of facebook I would like to share. I have recently been found on facebook by an old grade school friend. He was a boy that I grew up with but after moving away we lost contact. Now we are ‘facebooking” with each other and have yet again discovered out friendship. Whether its connecting with current close friends who are away at college, the original point of facebook. Whether its for finding old friends, or just simply making new friends, facebook is my lifeline. I honestly feel that i could not live with out my profile. Its a great way to keep people updated on my life with out having to call all of my friends. Its easy and great. This is why facebook is my

As I’m reading the post on Amish people, I’m also watching the news. Something interesting made me pop my head up as the newscaster stated a headline consisting of young adults putting a video on YouTube. And how we always stated that our life is based on YouTube, with everything we do. But one question, what makes people put such horrible things on YouTube? Just as the news was informing me, a group of young adults decided to beat the life out of another girl, and taping it. Not only that, they decided to post it on YouTube. Are they insane? Can people really not get enough of technology? It’s gruesome, horrible and just disgusting that people get a kick of it. It must have been so hilarious to them that they thought people across the world would enjoy watching it. Well I personally, would never watch something like that. YouTube shouldn’t be the source to show EVERYTHING the world wants to show. Where did the whole thought of privacy go?

Thank God for the internet.  I don’t feel so bad about myself knowing that Amish people abuse the internet as much as I do….Thanks to “We Are the Web,” I have just asked about 5 people if they knew that Amish people had websites.  I’m convinced there are like 3 million Amish MySpaces that we have no idea about.  I remember how obsessed I was with reading the TV Guide when I was younger.  I read all the news and gossipy stuff in the beginning, I looked at what was going to be on all week and I looked at the movie descriptions in the back.  This was back when the TV Guide was still cute and mini-sized.  Then, it turned into another Star Magazine, essentially and I was very sad.  Now (advance magically 5 yrs into the future) I just visit the websites of all my favorite channels all day long to see what’s on.  Oh, and I can’t forget my horoscope.  Becuase of the internet, I have like a moderate case of OCD about reading my horoscope.  I talk to my best friends more online than I actually see them.    My best friend lives one house away from me and instead of walking over to her house I sit in my bed with my laptop to bug her.  And, when she does come over, she usually brings her laptop so we can download music together (I have wireless internet, which she regularly hijacks).  I use CDNOW to look at track-listings for CDs so I know how to arrange things on my ITunes and I usually visit the Abercrombie website to see what’s new since the closest store is an hour away.  I have spent hours accumulating recipes from Food Network’s website and I am always reading message boards for Bravo’s numerous reality shows.  Bravo’s website consumes my life.

Note to self (and, maybe Howard Gardner):  I am by no means a visual learner.  “The Vocabular of Comics” gave me a headache.  That was one of the most all over the place pieces I’ve ever tried to read.  It didn’t help that all I kept thinking was that the guy in the comic resembled Dave from Alvin & the Chipmunks.  I had to re-read the dialogue about the pipe and how it “wasn’t really a pipe” 20 times before I got what “Dave,” if you will, was saying.  And, who in the free world doesn’t think a circle with 2 dots and whatever you want to call what we perceive to be the mouth, is NOT a face!?!  Yeah, I got the part about how I probably wouldn’t want to read the cartoons had the little guy been drawn completely life-like, but I don’t think it benefitted me all that much either.  I was thinking to myself, “OMG, just give me 20 pgs of something theory-heavy and in block format!”  I found the part about the sword gradually becoming more realistic interesting, because I easily see and think of comics that are examples of what the author is saying.  Still, my confusion persists….I never really read comics.  When I was very young and there used to be a Barbie comic, I read that.  But, that was mostly to see who Barbie was going out with and when the new dollhouse was going to be released.  My point, if it’s really a point, I’m not sure, is that I just had a difficult time reading something that was so messy.  I’m sure to some it was perfectly unmessy and sequential, but I spent more time reading this than the article on MUDs.

I love the fact that we get to blog our responses to all these reading assignments (DEFINTITELY THE COOLEST MODULE OF ITW).  I have more of an interest in blogging than I do sitting on Microsoft Word and typing a stupid, perfectly-formatted paper.  I hate formality, as a matter of fact.  Blogging is so limitless.  Not so much for these academic blogs, but in my own personal blogs, I write in a stream of consciousness and I don’t even follow grammar guidelines and there is this fluidity about that, that I can’t even really explain.  Some of my blogs are even love and hate lists.  One night, I was angry at the world and I wrote an entire blog about the corrupt antics of New Jersey politicians and then a list of why I hate war protesters.  Without my blog, I probably never would have utilized any of that creative energy.  I’ve never been a diary-type person (my handwriting sucks and I was always afraid someone would find it in the first place).  But, I blog often, usually when I’m angry about something.  But, writers usually have a niche, right?  I enjoy satire and raging political rants – that’s like the discourse I feel at home in.  The weird thing is I don’t really read others.  Not that I’m not concerned with what other people have to say, but I think I’m “blogotystical” and only am entertained by my own.  I like how people can read my blogs and get an overall sense of the tone I’m trying to convey.  And, my personal blog is dark and has stars all over it and it came to me while I was watching Project Runway.  I love how the scheme of a blog can reveal so much about you.  I love how my blog is full of humor and sarcasm and well….mostly inside jokes.  I can write a great 6 pgs of utter seriousness anytime and use more legal terminology that I ever dreamed, but when is that ever fun?

I don’t see how people play these stupid MUD things day and night as it is.  But, what is with the Dibbel article reporting about people feeling seriously violated and traumatized when their avatar (whatever the hell that is) is brutally attacked.  I’m not seeing the personal effect here.  If, hypothetically, I had some silly character that I played entirely too much online, who was raped by another beyond-silly character, I would just shut off my damn computer.  Now, I understand the consequence of returning to the site and being thrown back into the exact situation, but why continue to do it?  Can’t you just not go to the MUD site anymore?  That would be novel, wouldn’t it?  I think people who feel raped in the literal sense when their online persona is attacked is simply irrational and quite unjustifiable.  I think it has something to do with not having much of a real life to begin with.  There is a certain stigma that is usually directly correlated with the types who play these RPG games for endless years.  I think there were some D&D players who actually murdered people in real life or something.  I remember those kinds of kids from high school – they sat in the back of our biology class playing D&D and being stereotypically creepy.  And, World of Warcraft is the modern-day homewrecker.  I think people have gotten divorced over this stupid game.  There are CLASSES on how to play World of Warcraft!!!  When did we decide it ok to run around as a damn elf and cast spells on dragons?