Video Games :/

I can't believe how fast the semester is coming to a close. Right now I have three essays due in the next week and a half, and two of them are extremely similar in topic. Both are going to be a bout Video Games, specifically Second Life. One will be how Second Life is used as an educational tool and the other will be about how Video Games affect children with mental disorders, such as Autism and Aspergers.

So video games are a teaching tool now?

Isn't that funny how are education system is changing? Because of these new technologies and new mediums that arise, I am studying how an online universe, that has a penchant for getting people obsessed on it and is used as entertainment now suddenly has real world implications. Where are the real world implications for Mario Kart and Donkey Kong Kountry? Beside violence, what can I take away from Halo and Modern Warfare? If I had no previous knowledge about the military, would my assumptions be based on that game? And when a little boy walks off the "field" in Madden does he take the same lesson he would have got if he was on an actual football field?

I don't know these answers...but in the next two papers I'm going to find out!

The Book

Last week I walked past my roommate's desk and happened to see that she had the book. Not just any book but the book. For the past 40-50 years of his life, my grandfather followed a strict health regiment. All those times I blogged about buying cucumbers, avocados, alfalfa sprouts, and Evian water...well factor in some pears, cherries, the whole leafy greens section of Krogerine, add soy milk and cheese, and multiply it by two times a week. This was all because of the diet that he followed in Recetas Nutrivas Que Curan, or Nutritional Healing. He even had two copies of it, one that he specifically brought when he made the two minute trek to our house.

He eventually bought my mother a copy for her birthday, so we now have it in English also.

My grandfather lived his life according to this book. He took the vitamins it recommended, he ate the food that it said to, and gave up the food it said not to eat. This book is probably the most comprehensive and useful resource to use if you are looking to live healthily, Ago read it religiously for almost the last ten years of his life and he lived his life almost exactly like it recommended. When I saw my roomy reading it, it made me smile because I knew that this book, the book was going to influence her life as much as it did Ago's. (Well...actually IDK about that. It will influence her life, she will know what to eat and what kind of water to drink like gpops, etc., but I doubt she'd give up red C potatoes like Ago did.) And when I told her about him and the book, she said, If your grandpa lived to 94 and read this book, he must have been doing something right!

I didn't realize that Christmas is creeping up on me. So far my parents have put up the tree and we even have a present underneath!

Miss Daisy LOVES the Christmas tree skirt. Last year when we were putting all the xmas decorations away, we folded up the skirt, went to go look for the box, and when we came back she was sitting on the folded skirt with a "I know what you're doing, you're putting away my favorite sleeping spot" look on her face as well as a "This is unacceptable, how DARE you do this to me. I do not like this" expression. Yes, there are such looks. Any cat owner would know that cats have attitudes.

I'm using this time wisely I swear!

SO it's that last week of the semester. Tests tomorrow, project due tomorrow and here I am, in the PCL, sandwiched between the stacks because I couldn't get a table that was close enough to the proximity of the prized outlet. Yes, there is an insufficiency of outlets and desks to laptops and students. So while I wait for the laptop to charge up, and stalk my writing surface, I believe it will be time well spent to update this little blog. Right now I'm at 24% charged...looks like I'll be here a while.

Hmmm.....Thanksgiving was last week and it was well...ehhh..

It was the first Thanksgiving without either of my grandparents. Of course it wasn't the same, and Ago's presence was missed, but nobody mentioned it. I don't think that anyone wanted to bring it up. I genuinely think Ago enjoyed Thanksgiving. He never cooked anything, but he always joined us. He called it "el dia del pavo" and I believe that out of the whole year, it was this day that he ate meat.

But besides the point that this day encourages you to feast, Thanksgiving is a holiday for everyone. It doesn't matter where you're from, or what religion you are, everybody can celebrate it. Thanksgiving is a day just to say and give thanks. Something of that simple matter. And I think that's why my grandparents participated in it. With their different backgrounds and the fact that they were from different parts of the world, countries where this holiday was not celebrated, by participating in it, it brought them closer to their American grandkids.

ANNNNNDDDDD.....What else is new???

School is winding down. I'm drained from school and I don't want to talk about it. In the next few weeks I'll have time to process everything and then post on it.

I'm up to 45% yessssssssss!!!! I think I'll start studying now.