and it’s officially here!!!! being the nerd i am, i attended the midnight launch of the brand new Pokemon games, Pokemon X and Pokemon Y. there were huge lines of fans queuing up for the game at the EB store on Swanston street. which was given out from exactly 12:01am on friday night (well, saturday if you’re getting technical).
so, which one did i get? see for yourself:
now there’s just 3 questions i need to ask myself: fennekin or froakie? squirtle or bulbasaur? and Pokemon or study?
we’ve officially entered october and you know what that means…. HALLOWEEN!!!!! the one time of year (ok, so not just one) that i wish i lived in america. and to get you into the holiday spirit, here’s a picture of some spooky ghost pokemon getting ready for to go trick or treating.
you know, as much as i had never thought of myself as one, i found myself proudly putting my hand up in this weeks lecture when adrian asked who in the crowd considered themselves a gamer. i guess i’m not a gamer in what most people think of the term. i don’t sit on my computer or my console playing games 24/7, i don’t shoot
other people from across the globe, or battle them in magical duels over the internet. but i do play my games (more often now than i did in high school thats for sure) and i do love them. even if it really is only one or two games that i actually play (*cough* pokemon and kingdom hearts *cough*).
first off, there are many types of video games, and all of them are different (and this doesn’t count all the games that aren’t video games) so it’s hard to be able to make an overall, wholesome statement about all video games being hypertext or not. i think it was Elliot who mentioned that when hypertext first came around, people started calling it a video game. but there’s a difference. a video game, even if it does have a word that you can explore, is still set in it’s story (if it even has one, but we’ll get to that) whereas a hypertext can have nearly limitless possibilities, the story doesn’t have to result in this one specific conclusion like a video game. BUT! as Jasmine then pointed out, when playing a game, there can always be parts of the game that you haven’t yet explored or discovered and this is like hypertext, you cannot see all the possible paths. but is this enough of a connection?so, “what relevance does this have?” i hear you ask. well, you inquisitive reader you. one of the big points discussed in this weeks lecture was whether a video game can be considered a hypertext narrative. and there were so many differing opinions coming out from the symposium too. we had a resounding “NO!” from one side of the table and a yes! from another and then kinda just landed in the middle. so let me break down the points for you
i’m not sure. adrian emphasised the necessity of story and narrative within both the hypertext and the game. well, mainly that a hypertext does have a narrative but a game doesn’t have too. i mean yes, some do, but there are other games that obviously don’t have a narrative, like pong. or tetris. so where hypertext is about new and different ways of telling a story, a game doesn’t even have to have one, so how can it be a hypertext narrative? another point that adrian brought up was that “games are about winning” and that “you can’t win a story”. but, when you read a story,
isn’t reaching a positive outcome within the story kinda like winning? i mean, you want the outcome to be good and when it it you feel as if you have won. i guess it’s still different types of winning. but with a video game that has a narrative rather than a competitive or points system, there’s also no real definite “win”. does beating the game mean you have won or just completed it like you have completed a story? take kingdom hearts for example, you play a single character, sora, and your quest is (in simple terms) to bring peace to pretty much everywhere. yeah, there’s fighting along the way, and you can win those individual battles, but when you complete the story, is that really “winning” or have you just reached the conclusion of the narrative? and some games you never win. like tetris or temple run, the aim is just to keep going for as long as you can, so really you’re only option is lose, there is neither a “win” nor a narrative conclusion. so really, there really is no proper way to answer this question. because there are too many different types of games to classify anything. as long as we keep playing and reading, does it really matter?
just one more small note from the lecture, i really liked Adrian’s point about the meaning not living in the text (or shot, as his example was in film) but in the combination of two shots or links between the texts. on it’s own, a text is nothing (similar to the theory that context cannot survive) but it must be combined with something else to have a meaning and different combinations can have different meaning. this reminds me of something we covered last semester in cinema studies about editing, what is known as the Kuleshov Effect and pretty much is about how the meaning of a shot can be altered completely by the following shot. check out this video below from none other than alfred hitchcock for a much better explanantion.
that’s all from me now, a bit long this post was. i guess there was a lot to talk about.
this week was a very interesting unlecture, despite us not getting to my question :(. i guess there were just so many good things to talk about in regards to the other questions that we just ran out of time for mine.
the biggest point i took away from it was about the amount of control the author can have? and how much is that? well, right now it doesn’t seem like a lot. that’s the problem with the gap between the author and the reader, you can never know just how they’re gonna interpret your work. so, in a sense, emphasising your lack of control can give you more control. if we write something that allows for different interpretations, we are showing that we are understanding how our audience works. actually, i don’t know. i lost myself just then. but it made sense when i started, haha. it’s also about not being able to know exactly what the author was thinking or intending, we just need to take the work as it is and attempt to make sense of it independently of the author.
another aspect of this, which was also brought up in the unlecture was the notion that context cannot and does not survive the text. so how could we know what an author was thinking when he wrote a book 150 years ago because it was a completely different time with different social norms and ideologies. we can only interpret it the way we see it today because we no longer have access to the context in which the work was created.
i know there was more important stuff that was discussed but my brain is falling out on me, it’s been a long day at work. but the last thing i want to mention (which was actually the first thing adrian mentioned so working backwards here) was that awesome animal book (i forgot it’s name!!!!) with the ten animals that you could mix and match to create almsot endless possibilities. oh, how i would love to read that book. that book is probably how they make pokemon now a-days, seeing as how they are really running out of ideas for those little pocket monsters (fairy floss pokemon??? say whaaaat??). but, being the child at heart that i am, i really wanna read that book and see what cool animals i can make. it was an interesting point to, the difference between that and the “choose your own adventure book”. although everyone was talking about that because the reading mentioned something similar, the titanic online game/book was pretty much a choose your own adventure because there were more limited outcomes (well, thats what i assume, i haven’t actually read/played it). but the endless sonnet was cool. i wonder if anyone has done all the possibilities? i guess not considering it would take, what was it?, 200 million years. ok so maybe not, but there’s no harm in trying 😀
it feels like i haven’t blogged in a while. do you guys miss me? (do you guys even exist? probably not, haha). i guess we all took a nice break for the week. (just to say, at least our mid semester break was in the middle of our semester!!! deakin’s was in week four and monash’s is like in week 10! whats up with that?) and i haven’t really done or been looking at anything worth blogging about. and “why is that?” i hear you ask? because my new kingdom hearts 2 finally arrived (well, by new i mean i jsut got it, the game come out in like 2004).
now, for anyone wondering, kingdom hearts is by far my favourite game (yes probably even more than pokemon. ok, lets not get too crazy, equal to pokemon. but they’r very different) and i’ve played kingdom hearts 1 more times than i can count. who doesn’t love the magical adventures of sore, donald and goofy and travelling through the incredible worlds of the disney movies? (peter pan is obviously the best world). so, once i got that pesky little comm essay out of the way (which sadly took a lot longer than i had hoped due to some facebook/youtube/all time low obsession interference), it was a nice dive into the world of kingdom hearts 2. and it’s pretty cool. there’s some awesome new features, like double keyblades, and new worlds, like milan and lion king! its just awesome. and i know you think it sounds lame but trust me, the kingdom hearts series is regarded as one of the best games out there so get into it.
now, i’m so hyped up about this because they are finally releasing a kingdom hearts 3!!! but the killer line….. only on the new PS4 or new X-box! 🙁 which i don’t have and am not planning on buying. so depressing. how will i ever know if sora, donald, goofy, riku and kairi and up happy??? but they are also rereleasing the first game in HD with extra goodies and limited edition sketch books so i’m happy about that.
wow. that got off topic, i was not planning on going on for o long about kingdom hearts. well, thats the blog for you, start off in one place and end somewhere completely different. i guess it’ll be good for me to get back into regular blogging this week, maybe with some stuff to do with the actual subject involved. well, last week (or two weeks ago i guess, stupid holiday) it was finally my classes turn to come up with the questions for this week’s unlecture! now, there was some confusion due to the whole naming of the weekly readings in the blog, you know 01 reading for week 02. or the 05 readings for week 06 but we’ll discuss them in week 07. all very confusing. but we came up with some questions anyway. proudly, mine made it in!!! what is? no spoilers!!!! you’ll have to wait and hear it in the unlecture. but let me tell you, it’s a doozy! (ok, not really, i wasn’t even expecting it to be picked! but the others all liked it). but the others were pretty good and also brought up some good class discussions about what can be classified as hypertext or what kinds of hypertexts can be classified as academic or essay. and then we dove into the usual niki work.
but i should stop there. i’m rambling again and this post has covered a few too many things. stay tuned folks, hopefully more to come!
so we were finally getting the hang of the unlecture symposium only to have it stripped away from us. yes, hopefully the strike will lead us to a good outcome for students and teachers, but it was cold and raining and i spent around 2 hours trying to film the protest while shielding the camera from the rain under other peoples umbrellas. safe to say, i couldn’t feel my hands when i came back inside which made transferring the footage onto the computer a much harder task.
but, onto the the lecture that never happened. instead we got some pretty interesting youtube videos to look at. the problem was that watching these videos on youtube of course led my mind to wander so after watching one i’d be led onto something completely random and irrelevant (like the new honest trailer for star trek into darkness or what if star wars episode 1 was good or more info about the new pokemon mega evolutions – megakangaskhan anyone?!?!) so it really took me a lot longer than it should have to get through the videos. but i did. and they were pretty good. and here are some interesting points i took away from them.
the first video asked us if schools kill creativity. this comes from us learning and creating through making mistakes and being wrong however the current construction of the school system puts great emphasis on being right and never making mistakes. kids aren’t afraid to be wrong but as we grow older we become more afraid of being wrong because the institutions around us push us to be right. if you’re not prepared to be wrong then you’re not gonna come up with anything original. education system restricts creativity by not allowing being wrong at all. we grow out of our creativity. again this relates back to design fiction. we need to be able to think ahead, to speculate and not just live in the present where we are told what to do and whats right and wrong. nothing can ever be created in an environment where creation is inhibited.
next came the description of the hierarchy of subjects in school: maths at the top, then humanities, then arts (and within arts is art and music then drama and dance). and all these relies on academic ability – aimed at creating the university professor. in this model, most useful things (subjects) for work are classed as more important. we need science and we need doctors and lawyers and maths. but the problem with this system is that highly talented people don’t realise they are because what they are good as is not classed as important during school. kids who are brilliant at music or dancing or acting are forced into those horrid methods or physics classes and are told that they are not learning right. and so the actual talent is suppressed. who knows what these kids could create? and now we might never know and the whole world has missed out.
the second video emphasised the difference between knowledgable and knowledge-able and the importance of the latter. Wesch describes knowledge-able as “being able to find, sort, criticise and create new info.” again this is similar to what we were hearing from adrian back on day 1 of Networked media, we want the “know-how” not the “know-what”. anything can tell us the know what or give us the knowledge but we need to know what to do with that, how to use it or even how to create our own.
there was also a lot of talk about the impact of media on communication and the world in the recent years. how “media has mediated our relationships” for example us changing the layout of our living rooms to be situated around the tv. our programs and conversations have been shortened and are punctuated by commercials. tv and media is a one-way conversation. you have to be on tv to have a voice or be significant. in the classroom, the students are trying to finding meaning in the word and find their significance in the huge world online. media is a global conversation, and now, even though it is easier to connect and share than it ever was before, it is also know eve harder to actually get out there.
Welsch also discussed the video he made with his students. check it out below if you haven’t already because it was actually brilliant and describes how most students feel at uni or even high school.
just so interesting, it’s like what’s been discussed previously in the lectures and classes. we need to create our futures. what we are learning right now isn’t necessarily the best or most conducive way to learn what we need. problems with technology now, we all have our fancy laptops open in class but are we always working? sit at the back of a lecture theatre and at least half of the screens will be showing facebook or some other social networking site. the sentences i found the most interesting in the video were about how much reading and writing would be done for their classes compared to their online life. which is why i have found keeping this blog is so great. it encourages us to contribute in a way that we are familiar with. i feel i’ve written more in this blog for the subject than i would have for any other class this year so far. and that’s the importance of creating and introducing these new modes of learning that better suits the way society and students function today. the current education system is practically archaic and students tune it out purely because most cannot focus for that long. we are used to 6 second videos, not 2 hour lectures.
So, found this photo and just realized how true it is! I don’t know where all the time has gonna but somehow we’re a third of the way through the teens. Or is it Tweens? What exactly are we called this decade? And speaking of, what did we call the last one? The ones? The naughties? The unos? Anyhow, the point is that we (or maybe just I) barely even noticed this time disappear. And I think we just let this last decade pass us by. Yeah, we got all this fancy new technology and iPhones and all that stuff. But is that all we’ll remember?
I guess, the problem for me is I’m picturing the 90’s as my childhood. Movies and cartoons and toys and primary school. Which, in part, is true. But I was born in ’94 so by the time we hit 2000 I was just 6. Now, lets be honest, who remembers what they did from ages 0 – 6? So when I’m remembering my childhood or thinking back ten years, I guess even though I’m imagining the 90’s, I really am just thinking about the early unos. It’s so crazy thinking that within ten years I went from a little girl who loved Pokemon and teen titans and her tamagotchi to a year 11 student who still loves Pokemon (and plays the games on a Nintendo DS), knows how to download her favorite shows to watch them before they come out on tv and has her first iPhone.
So maybe more happened in the last ten years than I thought. The picture is still true. When I try and go back ten years, my mind immediately skips back to the 90’s, but I really am just thinking about the last ten or so years. Now I just wonder where the next 10 years will take us
honestly, i don’t think you can get funnier gifs than the ones with nigel thornberry (or nigel strawberry, as he was loving called by the rugrats). here are a few of my favourites. (loving the combination of avatar and nigel thornberry btw. it’s amazing how much avatar love there is online)
i miss back when community was funny. maybe they should put nigel in more of the episodes
even avatar korra cant escape the thornberry!
of course, i do have to include at least one with pokemon
ok, last one. they just don’t stop getting funny!!
so, i don’t know if any of you saw my post last week with my pokemon beanie but even if you didn’t i’m sure you can all tell by now that i’m a bit (okay, may more than a bit) of a nerd. and what better way to show off your nerd obsessions than with hats!! alongside my pikachu beanie (and in case you were wondering, my head isn’t that pointy, the beanie is on my knee), i also have an NCIS hat, two different types of fringe hats, a cat in the hat hat, a yoda beanie (with full on ears!) and a sydney swans beanie. oh! and a 3-eyed alien onesie! (you know, the little alien guys from toy story? “you have saved our lives. we are eternally grateful).
so, for any of you out there with a love of geeky beanies, this site is perfect for you! http://www.etsy.com/au/shop/GeekinOut?page=1#. i love that they even have avatar beanies!!! how cute is this momo beanie?!?! and they have aang and even Appa too!
the minion one is great too. (as you know i can’t resist the minions)
edited to add: i may have also just bought a pikachu onesie off ebay. omg i’m such a nerd. and so excited!!!
the release of Panic! at the Disco’s new single today, This is gospel, from their new album coming out in october got me thinking just how awesome that month is gonna be.
well, to start off, 2nd of october marks exactly 5 months until my birthday (always a plus). then we have Panic!’s new album, “Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die!”, coming out on october 8th.
next is the super awesome, highly anticipated, new pokemon games. X and Y on the 3DS. a whole new style, platform and generation of pokemon and gameplay including riding on top of pokemon, mega evolutions and the introduction of the brand new “fairy” type!
for the end of the month, what could be better than not only seeing fall out boy for the second time in one year but to also be seeing yellowcard 3 days later!!! omg i love concerts and these are both gonna be insane.
and to top off an entire month of awesomeness, just incase the days between these incredible events get a bit too unexciting, pretty much every show i watch returns sometime in october so be prepared for many posts on the new episodes of supernatural, arrow, vampire diaries and anything else i may be watching.
oh, and uni finishes in october too. i think god likes october.
so, which one did i get? see for yourself:
so, i don’t know if any of you saw my post last week with my pokemon beanie but even if you didn’t i’m sure you can all tell by now that i’m a bit (okay, may more than a bit) of a nerd. and what better way to show off your nerd obsessions than with hats!! alongside my pikachu beanie (and in case you were wondering, my head isn’t that pointy, the beanie is on my knee), i also have an NCIS hat, two different types of fringe hats, a cat in the hat hat, a yoda beanie (with full on ears!) and a sydney swans beanie. oh! and a 3-eyed alien onesie! (you know, the little alien guys from toy story? “you have saved our lives. we are eternally grateful).
