Ingress Genius Curtosy of Google

As some people may or may not be aware Google has made a game. Actually that is extremely vague and nonspecific. Specifically they have made an Augmented Reality Massive Multi-player Online (armmo). This game is called Ingress and as of late I find myself quite engrossed with playing this game. First off though you cannot sit at home and play this game. It is locational, meaning you have to travel to different landmarks around you're area and such to play the game. The premise is there are 2 opposing sides the Resistance and Enlightened. In this game both sides are fighting for control of a mysterious energy called exotic matter (XM), but with polar opposite intentions for it. But I could go on for this entire post detailing it. Instead I will just say if this interests you any Google "Ingress" and you will find out all the information that is necessary up until this point in time for it. Which leads me to my point of why I think this game is truly genius. If you recall I stated you are able to find the Ingress story up until this point. This is not a typo because there is only a partially set. As it goes the story can bend any way toward any side currently as of me writing this the Resistance is areas are ahead. As I have said before it can go either way, recently there was a global live event that was taken by the resistance but it could have gone the other way completely. That is what I like about a game like this there is a back story to it but that is about it but that is that. I like that there is a constantly unfolding story that once you get into are stuck to it like glue.

I mean even now there is an upcoming event that can go any way, No one knows the exact story. To me this looks like a giant leap of faith when nantic@google launched this in closed beta in 2012 and finally in 2013 this could have easily been another flunk but with the massive following this has gained (its global I mean at an event in California there were people from literally everywhere except Antarctica) it was anything but that. I think this game is genius because its new, yes there are other AR games but they aren't on the global scale Ingress has or really any like ingress for the matter. It encourages people to come together and go places. It is a social network while encouraging you to get out and play a strategy game all in the same app. I know since I  seriously started it my Google plus page (yes I will use it) has been getting tons of followers thanks to it. But that's besides the point. This is truly genus and we have never seen anything like it. And guess what? This is only going to keep getting bigger.

what I *didnt* like about the column

It would be easy for me to make this post about what I likes about what I read [pg 1-14] but i will be pointing out what I didn't like. For the sake of the post I will use the "What will Kate Middleton's wedding dress look like". First off In no way am I saying I have a problem with the royal family, This post is about what I don't like about this article. First off think back to the over-hype of the royal wedding, I mean you couldn't go anywhere and not see a magazine without a story about it. This article to me is just more over hyping it. I get that people went crazy about it however, you saw everything capitalizing off the hype. As I read this I am thinking why should people and especially why should I care what her dress looks like because it is purely her choice what it will be. Why should we care if its "traditional" or "traditional with a twist"? But obviously as we all saw any and every magazine, tabloid, webpage went crazy picking apart every single thing about them they could.

Another thing with this coloumn was it was actually kind of boring to me. Now I know not everything I read can be a mind blowing piece of writing like Lord of the Rings/Hobbit or Throne of Glass but I couldn't help but feel bored reading it. It could be I just was never caught up in the hype of the royal family. But I just was bored reading this article; I do recognize that not every article/ column was like this believe me there were good ones out there. Then again the style of columns are  pretty new to me, but this one just was UN-interesting to me. I do appreciate what It was trying to do. I'm not so dense as to let what I don't like about a paper ruin me from seeing what it was trying to do.

 But as I have said before It would be easy for me to point out everything I liked about the columns and call it a post. But I wanted to do something a bit different and say what I found unappealing rather than appealing.

Fahrenheit 451 Theme Handout

Bross: Bell 2

Theme Statement:

“People should take action rather than watch a society falter and possibly crumble”

Our Quotes:

“Didn’t firemen prevent fires rather than stoke them up and get them going?” (Bradbury, 34)     -Montag

“Plant the books, turn in an alarm, and see the firemen’s houses burn, is that what you mean?” (Bradbury, 85)    -Faber

“Carried out on a national scale, it might have worked beautifully… All we want to do is keep the knowledge we think we will need intact and safe… For if we are destroyed, the knowledge is dead perhaps for good.” (Bradbury, 152)     -Granger

How this theme is important to the book and modern-day society.

• This theme is important in order to understand the story because it shows characters who would rather stand up for their beliefs, whether it has a positive or negative effect on society.
• This theme connects to our modern-day society because many people take action for their beliefs whether it’s through violence or their voices to stand up.

It is important for us to study and be aware of this theme because if we stop standing up for our own thoughts and opinions then it can affect us negatively in the future. 

Farenhight 451: Montag just screwed up

Can I say it now? Montag is an idiot. As I described in my last post he was reading to thoes people who were too indoctrinated to know any different that books must be destroyed. And here is Montag reading to them. I can understand that he wanted to bring change and show books aren't evil but he went about it in the wrong way completely. And look where he is he had to burn his house down and is now on the run because of his recklessness.
Honestly for an extremely indoctrinated society such as this just coming out flinging books everywhere isn't the way to go. Personally I think Montag could have been more careful and slowly built up a following or found like minded people to help him out. You see it all the time you find those like-minded people to aid in your revolution and then once you have a big enough movement then you act. In a situation like when the alarm was pulled on him it was a classic example of him thinking he could take on anything. He is one person up against a whole [messed up] society he alone can't do much and recklessly acting would only be a major set back to his plans.
All in all I do recognize this had its addition to the story and plot but I personally think that Montag's character could have carried out his plans in a much better manor than he did. For one thing he wouldn't have to burn his house down and become a fugitive. But he did that and the story will have to progress from there.

Farenhight 451 extension "Dover Beach"

Walking home Mrs. Bowles started crying. She thought that man is out of his mind. What compelled him to say such foolish and wretched things? Staggering home unaware of how much she was crying, she walked into her house and collapsed in her parlor. Still sobbing she began to think "where did I go wrong? This has been a sad way to live." But she was still angry for all those things he said, even though they were true. Aside from being stricken with grief, she was furious because this firemen knew about her and her past. She was appalled that he knew all those painful details that she desperately had tried to seal away."HOW!"she screamed. "HOW IS HE ABLE TO FIND THIS OUT?" "I swear I never want anything to do with those people again. This is why I hate poetry and writing. All writing is hurtful and evil and it should never exits!"

As she thought all of this, she remembered something. She remembered since they were in possession of books, she is able to call the real firemen to burn their house down. But she began to think this poem is kind of describing her life and how it is sad to live like this. She wiped a tear from her eye and thought to herself "I do need to change." But Montag and Milderd still need to be reported because they have books. "I need to do this" she thinks as she slowly walks to the fire alarm ready to report them...

Cell Phones & Sattire

Recently I came across an article on the website articlesbase.com and it had an article entitled "The Cell Cycle: Development of a productive life". And let me say this article not only is funny it points out things we do with phones and pokes fun at it. pure satire. So the premise of this article is it follows around a boy presumably in high school who's life revolves around his cell phone. He starts the day with his phone alarm going off, the he hits snooze pretty normal right. But the thing is his phone is represented as its own character/person with a personality. he even names his phone, get this its "Ringo". "Ringo" is his best friend because he reminds him to do "all the important stuff" like checking e-mail as you wake up for "special offers". Personally I just ignore those or spam block them all (I usually clean it out..about when I have nothing to do and its over 100 or so emails).  And what's any story about a cell phone addict with out the references to Candy crush Snap-chat and Facebook.
 From reading this article it is obviously horatian satire because it has that element of ridiculousness . It is making fun of people that are absolutely glued to their phones. It is not hard to find the points it pokes at. I mean putting your phone on charge at 90%? I mean what ever happened to "all day battery" that phone makers boast in their commercials. Well I guess that means nothing here.But back to the point the main point of this article is to make humor of phones which has became a staple in our lives. And to be honest this does a pretty good job of it. I got some good laughs out of it (even though I was in the computer lab while reading it probably not the best place to laugh). So all in all this article did a good job it brought the point people can be addicted to their phones, but did it in a way that made you think while you were laughing at it.

Link: http://www.articlesbase.com/satire-articles/the-cell-cycle-development-of-a-productive-life-6980981.html

This semester

This semester the independent reading books I have gone through are first Throne of Glass by Sarah J.Maas.I selected this book first because of the summer reading assignment but then it became an independent read for me, Next I read the Crown of midnight by Sarah J. Maas. I chose that because I took a liking to the Throne of glass book so I decided I would read the next book in the sires which by the way was an excellent choice to continue the sires. There was also the time when i re-read the Hobbit By J.R.R Tolkien. I had read this book before but I missed some details so I decided to go back through the book to catch what I missed and trust me that paid off big time.Lastly this semester I found my self reading the third implementation to the Throne of Glass sires Heir of fire .After I had finished the first two I had to know what is going to happen in the series and how It will all end, so that is how i ended up reading the third book.

As for the quality of my posts from looking back I have missed some of the posts but for the most part the quality of my posts have been good. In my opinion there is A lot I can improve on in terms of my posts. For my posts the biggest items were length and content. Bot looking back I have made the points I have intended to make with my posts. While some used there was not that much writer's choice present in my posts defiantly a point that I need to work on next semester. All in all for what I did this semester for my blog i could have done a lot better but I would call it acceptable.

For next semester I have 3 main goals and its not just the plain old run of the mill "read more books" kind of stuff honestly you hear it so much it barely has a meaning. I mean of course you'd want to read more its honors English. But back on point my first goal with my blog is to create more in-depth posts that show deeper thought toward my topic. That Is one area I can afford greatly to improve with my posts over all. My next goal for the new semester is not to just read more that is too easy but to challenge myself with books that I find challenging to read than I am currently reading. To me this means reading longer books at a much higher level like Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. I have already read all 3 of them but I used that as an example. My third and final goal for next semester is to not see blogging as another assignment that needed to be done at a certain time. I will admit that I saw blogging as almost a chore but my goal is to enjoy crafting my posts into better works and keep improving from each post.