17) Capacity and Venture

Having enough time to process and ponder The Dumbest Generation from a previous post, I've formulated a theory on why the book is right, even though it's not the premise the book advocates. I respect the book for the perspective it's given me, but I hate it begrudgingly for failing to convince effectively. And if it can't convince a 16 year-old effectively, I don't think it would convince others.

And so I see the folly that proves my theory. The book claims that the younger generation of today is much dumber than the previous, due to their reliance and obsession with modern technologies. But what I see is not lack of intelligence, but a lack of effort.

In the beginning of the 20th century, when standardized schooling become more mainstream in America, the social norms at the time demanded that students learn without resistance. That was a time where you did not talk back to your parents.

By the time World War 2 rolled around, and the GI bill was introduced, education was necessary for success. Colleges and universities became a symbol of a respectable way of life for the American youth.

What do these times have in common that does not exist today? Effort.

In those two times, effort was an asset and not a liability. You had to try hard or realize your failure catching up behind you. There was little argument that the American dream demanded that the young never stop trying to exceed their parents. Social developments and generational shift has loosened the need to try your hardest for the many things that can be taken for granted.

The way I see it, it used to be full effort and little intelligence. Now it's full intelligence and little effort.

These days, technology has diminished the need for effort. You don't need to walk to the library to get a book and read it for a report. You can go online to copy and paste from Wikipedia. The information is easier to obtain, letting technological dependence make us lazy.

I scour the web daily and see insightful arguments in the realms of YouTube and online forums. They go in-depth about the world, ranging from politics to religion.

The problem is that such intelligence stays at the computer. I believe most are now more comfortable expressing themselves in ways that demand the least effort.

Intelligence has not regressed or stopped. It's just being expressed in unprecedented forms. That's why the evidence is more difficult to obtain.

And mostly because we're too lazy to find said evidence.

English Final: Analyzation

Blogger and the overall idea of blogging has changed little about me, even though teachers would claim it is beneficial to my writing skills. My problem is that I don't see whatever improvements I'm supposed to have made. My doubt into this matter is a result of my constant writer's block.

I'm not accustomed to "freedom" writing in school. I doubt many others are either. There are very few writing assignments where you have full flexibility in what you wish to express. This is most likely due to fears of what you can write about in school and get away with. People love to bend this thin line of school ethics whenever they can.

This year, when I decided to take creative writing and required English, one of my main objectives was to defeat my adversary, Mr. Writer's Block. Now I have two classes that force me to do what I am not used to: exercise creative freedom. The number of assignments I have with such flexibility is on the rise. Right now, I'm juggling between blog posts and a few fictional stories I intend to finish.

Such creative independence is daunting. I am not accustomed to freedom over my actions. Most of the time, somebody controls or influences what I wear and eat. In my previous schooling, over numerous assignments, I've always had direction that forced me to work with guidelines.

This lack of dependency now has forced me into an ocean of topics that I hesitate to choose from. It's not because there's so little to work with, but because there is far too much. I don't like jumping into the ocean of creativity without a lifesaver. I often drown.

This is why most of my blog posts are drawn from random moments of inspiration. These are often influenced by others, which I still consider to be guidelines from fake teachers. They indicate what I should write about. These moments are seemingly random, and there is a subconscious response that reminds me I have a post due as an assignment. Sometimes I write these ideas down, and then disregard them later because I deem them stupid or impractical. The one idea I do keep, I write about.

This brings me to my second problem. When I don't discover moments of inspirational clarity, my mind enters a narrow alley. I just want to get the work done and disregard my creative voice. Some may be able to pull ideas out of nowhere on the spot, but the assignments I work on have a deadline. Although it is to be expected, you can't control creativity. I can't pop up with writing ideas at any given moment. My lemon of a brain doesn't like to be squeezed as a last ditch effort to complete homework, especially not the night before it's due.

When I started weekly blogging with YOM, I was enthusiastic about the idea. My first post was a prelude to the great endeavors I would undertake. As time wore on, my idea pool became exhausted, and I began writing ideas without efficiency and thoughtful prose. By the time I got here, my writing style was lacking in terms of language diversity and purpose. I was writing because I had to, not because I wanted to. This still holds true today.

Part of it is that I do some of the blog posts at school, or that I'm simply repulsed with being forced to make ideas out of thin air. My distaste for blogging has grown into an untimely chore rather than an outlet for my spirit. I'm still struggling with writer's block on my blog, along with the overall construction of this entire self-analyzation. The evidence is in my old blog, Shattered Infinity. Writer's block forced me to kill it with extreme self loathing.

When I do write, my current blog follows a trend. I generally just write about media and politics. Everything else falls into the miscellaneous category.

Media is an easy choice for me, as it is for many others on their blogs, obviously because of the impact it has on our lives. My obsession comes with people's interactions with media, and exactly how trends work. More specifically, this goes into the booming video game industry I am so very fond of. This is reflective on the video gamer in me.

Politics is the second fail safe option. It's tempting to write about, but must be done carefully to avoid confusion and criticism, even though both are expected in the final result. I fear the outcome enough to shy away from it.

The bright side on writing about political affairs is that you can relate to everyone on a personal level, as many have a political opinion. Also, you choose who to write about without getting easily stuck. There are many influences to draw from. Barrack Obama is clearly one of the major characters that come to mind. Following my mission statement, I have an inner craving to urge readers of my blog to think more about politics. After all, the government controls many aspects of your life.

Other times, I speculate on combining the two. I often visit www.gamepolitics.com, where I can get inspiration on the two topics that inspire me to write. I've started many hybrids of game politics posts, but they've turned video game posts every time. I hate politics more than I love video games.

I'm dissatisfied with restricting myself to these topics. I want to break the trend, but alas, Mr. Writer's Block has his gun to my head.

If there is anything I learned in the past few months, it's that I should broaden my writing horizons. I'm trying to overcome my fear of writing without being stuck. I've started to save unfinished blog posts and rants instead of deleting them. Looking over them might give me inspiration, and tell me what I shouldn't do when it comes to writing in general.

First, writer's block killed Shattered Infinity. Now it's forced me into a ditch with my current blog YOM. I feel I need to gain some revenge against Mr. Block.

Third time's a charm.

Interlude: Quickwriting Groups

In an effort to help Mr. Sutherland with his writing groups, I want to help him gain perspective on what I really think about the whole idea.

Personally, I am against the entire thing because I don't think people are comfortable enough with the students on the opposite sides of the room to work with each other on something as personal as writing. Most of the people in the class are often clustered and do not like to stray from the people they sit next to and know so very well.

If you wish to encourage stronger bonds in helping each other with writing, I don't suggest you do it with groups of more than 2 or 3. It is also important that students are able to work together with someone they know and are comfortable working with to maximize efficiency.

The only real advantage I see to writing groups in addition to our current discussions is to help with writer's block. For people who discuss the quick write in a short five minutes, half the class is actually talking about the topic at hand, while the other half are socializing or sleeping. As such, unless executed with minor deviation from our current procedure, I think these groups are a waste of time.

16) Innovation and Expectation

Above is a picture of Sony's hardware dedicated to their game Warhawk. Instead of forcing players to host games on their own consoles, players get to host their games on a select PS3 in the server cluster owned by Sony. Not only does this make the games faster and smoother, it is also a staggering example of innovation in technology use.

Of course, I bring this up to segway into discussing game industry innovations in the last few years. The past year showed progress in the form of new games:

Demon's Souls: A classic role playing game that brings the dungeons and dragons fantasy into the gaming world. This certainty isn't the first of its kind, nor will it be the last. But it introduces a new system of multiplayer interactivity not seen before.

First and foremost, you are online at all times. You see the "ghosts" of other players in your section of the game world. This is a real-time image of what that player is doing in the area you're in. This is vital, as players can help each other in unsuspecting ways.

Watching these other players provides insight into whether or not there are enemies nearby, what strategy to follow, or where certain items are. If a player dies, you can find their death spot to witness their last actions in the game world. This can clue you in on what to do and what not to do if you are intent on succeeding where they failed.

Players can even leave messages anywhere on the ground to be read by others, advice that can be followed or ignored. These notes can be rated by readers to provide a health boost to the author of the note.

Players can also team up in co-op with two others to take on a boss. And you can even invade others people's games, in which case you are no longer a ghost on their screen. You get to kill them and loot their items. As a matter of fact, one major boss fight in the game requires that you fight an invader. In such a case, you might either be the defender, or the boss.

Heavy Rain: A brand new unreleased epic that builds on the increasingly popular trend of experimental games. In Heavy Rain, you don't follow just one path. Rather, you are incorporated into a world where you must make free form decisions that can change game elements. No two play sessions will be the same.

You control characters in their natural and sensual environments, laced with events in which you must make quick button presses to perform actions. This includes everything from drawing a picture, to shaving, or a heavy fist fight.

What if you make a bad decision and your character dies? They are dead for the rest of the game. You must continue in the eyes of another protagonist.

Needless to say, there is still a long way to go before we delve into the realm of realism that games will one day achieve. As for now, we are seeing the starting steps to new and unprecedented ideas that can and will change our perspectives of entertainment and media.

So don't worry folks. Life is just a game....

15) Apocalypse How?

Let's face the facts. America is not in a good shape right now. You don't read the front page of the newspaper or watch the local news without seeing some disturbing, convoluted, or depressing image.

And yet here we are, nearing the most holy of days, and the general aura around me seems to be getting sadder and sadder. There is an unspoken, unrealized trend of depression going on, seeping into the very fabric of our lives, dragging us down into the depths of our own private hells.

But who's to blame? You can't really be optimistic when you see the long list of things this current society gets to complain about. There's global warming, the war in the middle east, the destroyed housing market, the collapsed economy, the rising unemployment rate, etc. The list goes on.

I try to remember the happier days, when others around me weren't so grouchy and pessimistic about everything. You could sense the shift from the happier times to the current hell. You might not have seen it, but I did, in very subtle and nearly unnoticeable ways.

Take the slackers for example. There are always a group of people in school that don't do the work, joke around, disrupt class, etc. I always used to think that they really didn't care about their future. But now, I start to question whether they are subconsciously smart enough just not to care anymore. What good does an education do you when the world is ending? Why not laugh it up while you still can? Isn't the guy with no brains and a stable low-paying job worth more nowadays?

I don't really know. All I can know is how to pull through. But if I survive long enough to see the next generation suffer, I can tell them what an idol of mine once said:

If you're going through hell, keep going.

- Winston Churchill

14) Ego Stroke.

It was all started in 1899 by Rudyard Kipling. "The White Man's Burden" unleashed a hell of what is today, arguably, a policy of global intervention and imperialism. Granted, the poem can be interpreted many different ways, but the main message persists: It is the white man's way to try and help the other, lower, inferior races.

It all started the spiral of Eurocentric racism, and more importantly, it is still a vital part of many countries today. However, I bring this up to remind you of the repercussions.

Racism is what is too natural in compulsive human behavior. Nobody can be blamed for prejudiced behaviors and opinions because they cannot be easily controlled. There is still no effective way, in this day and age, to eliminate racism.

But when it comes to conquering other countries and killing their people to satisfy the "White Man's Burden", how far is too far? Where does the global superpower draw the line between the improvement of other countries and genocide?

Take the Philippine-American War for instance. When the U.S. tried to annex the Philippines, what happened? The country, expectantly, fought back. And then the U.S. government now had an obligation to correct the wrongs of the country and instill "peace". And that's exactly what happened. The Philippines would not become independent until 1946.

And so it continued, and continues to this day. The fact is that Imperialism is just another form of racism, clear and simple. I said you couldn't prevent it. That you couldn't get rid of it. But when people realize it, and do absolutely nothing against it, we have a serious issue on our hands. Forget the moral implications. Isn't it more central to American ideals that all men should be able to live with their creed and beliefs? Without being punished for it? Without being forced to change it?

What gives a country the right to impose on another, when they have been doing perfectly fine by themselves for the past thousand years?

And yet, we see the paradoxes that have occurred. Today, the war in Iraq serves as a prime example of the American ego that has not yet been quelled. Of course the war is justified on some means. But you want to be fair? Put U.S. troops in every single major conflict in the world. Put them in Israel-Palestine, put them in Africa, and then we can talk.

And then I'll be able to look you in the eye and tell you humanity has advanced themselves for the past two millennium. That they've risen beyond selfish compulsions of resorting to violence.

13) I swear I wasn't high. Well, maybe a little.

When it comes to creating art, most tend to come up with something that hasn't done before. The premise is that you really want to avoid being called a plagiarizer.

Video games are no exception. I'm referring to the unique ones with an interesting premise, or lack thereof. For those who can pull it off, they not only have something terribly unique, but they also have a blockbuster hit on their hands.

It all means that when you sit down and try to ponder where these ideas came from, you might as well draw blanks. Some games really take the phrase "I couldn't make this up if I tried" to a new level. That's how creative you have to be when you want to sell to millions around the world.

But of course, you demand examples (SPOILER ALERTS):

Portal: Imagine yourself trapped in an abandoned testing facility built in 1986. Your only companion is an AI voice named GLaDOS that becomes increasingly homicidal as you progress through test areas of the facility. Also, you solve puzzles using a device that opens and closes instant teleportation portals.

Fallout 3: Taking place in an alternate timeline in which the electronic transistor was never invented, you fight for your life in a post apocalyptic Washington D.C., devastated by nuclear war. The entire setting is locked in a 1950s culture with a Cold War that lasts 332 years. Think of The Jetsons, but with atomic weapons.

Silent Hill (series): Protagonists are drawn into an abandoned town that is home to two alternate dimensions: an empty and deserted town with perhaps ten inhabitants, or a dark and hellish nightmare. All the games are depicted as a protagonist's fight against him/herself. Also, you fight humanoid headless teddy bears with giant claws (I'm not kidding).

Bioshock: An underwater dystopian/anti-utopian city of the 1960s where gene manipulation has caused people to make lighting/fire/water/ice from their hands. As the lower classes suffer, a civil war erupts into pure chaos. The citizens who modify their genes suffer extreme mental and physical degeneration. And they all want to kill you. Here's a speech from the beginning of the game:

I am Andrew Ryan and I am here to ask you a question:
Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?

No, says the man in Washington; it belongs to the poor.
No, says the man in the Vatican; it belongs to God.
No, says the man in Moscow; it belongs to everyone.

I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something
different. I chose the impossible. I chose...

Rapture.

— Andrew Ryan

That's my speech when I create a game that involves hyper ninja green space zombies of doom that fight humanity along with a religious alien empire hell bent on human extinction.

Wait, that's the Halo series.

Damn.

12) Artificial "Intelligence"

There used to be a segment on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, called Jaywalking, in which Leno would walk around L.A., interviewing people and asking them basic questions anyone should know the answer to. The humor came from the fact that 20 and 30 year-olds could not tell the audience how many stars were on the American flag, state the first amendment, or who invented the telephone. Of course I understand it's humor, and not a good representation of the average American. But this introduced something else in my mind.

After reading and gutting The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or Don't trust Anyone Under 30) by Mark Bauerlein, I have come to the decision that the title is exactly what it suggests: the newer generation is stupider than the previous. And there is little we can do about it.

Granted, this most likely makes the publishing of the book completely pointless (Which makes him the ultimate idiot), but I understand what he is so paranoid about.

This is the basic premise: the technology age has provided enough opportunities for students to devote themselves to everything else than what matters: an interest in learning.

No student reads Machiavelli's The Prince even though its online. They skim it. And they sure as hell do not read it for leisure.

Let me level with you. As a student, I disagree with Bauerlin because I don't see the advantage of going to school past the 8th grade. I don't understand why I'm going to learn so many things I will never use in my lifetime. The plot of The Cather In The Rye does not help you do the taxes. It doesn't help you get a job. It doesn't pop back up when you are 35 and are working in a cubicle, where reciting its plot details gets you a promotion.

When you hand in your resume, they will ask you whether or not you know how to use Microsoft Word. Not whether you know the British commander at the Battle of Yorktown.

I'm not saying this is to apply in all situations. I'm saying that students learn things they have no interest in learning, and will do nothing for them should the distinct opportunity arise. They simply go online and do a simple copy and paste for assignments in school. They skim passages like you are doing now. Nobody learns anything permanent when they pick up the backpack and leave the door.

Of course I know why. It's much more important to be accepted by your friends when you know more about an American Idol judge rather than a Supreme Court judge. It's more important to update your Facebook page than to read the news. That's just where society has gone.

Is it a bad thing? That's not really for me to decide.

All I really know is that the British commander at Yorktown was George Cornwallis.

11) Neon Lights Far Too Bright.

Few people know I was born in Hong Kong, and even fewer know I went there this past summer. As such, its time for me to 'reminisce' about the good times I had before I truly embark into the "Year of Hell" (Otherwise known as school).

I'm writing this down because I'm bored, and also because I hope to find a bit of myself by sharing my experience. I hope you get something out of this. Anything.

Most people have never visited Hong Kong. The lesser known cousin of the bright lights New York, most Americans will never go there in their lifetime. I urge you to go if you have the chance, not only as a vacation destination, but to understand a bit about yourself by contrasting culture.

I say this because I was not born in the good old United States. Most people who are natural born citizens, as I see it, always take it for granted. Maybe it's the fact that they don't have a moral obligation to think otherwise, but I still hear and feel the culture that clashes with what little I grew up with.

I just couldn't seem to understand why everyone was so used to saying "we" when they referred to the United States instead of the words "the U.S." You don't say that the U.S. is going through tough times. You say WE are going through tough times.

I came to this realization while walking down main street Hong Kong, 11pm, while the city was still in full swing. Then I realized something else:

I am not American.

As much as I might try, I will never truly understand what it means to be born here and to die here. I can come close, but I can never know and appreciate what everyone else values and respects.

Don't get me wrong, I know this works both ways. But it's still another case of unknown identity. I can wear the clothes, speak the language, and blend in, but I will never FEEL like I'm part of the group. I will always have an excuse to say that I'm not like the others.

I'll try and get over this someday, but maybe that's part of what being American is all about: Having the opportunity to be yourself without punishment of any kind.

Well, almost any kind.

Interlude: Mirror, Mirror...

I often reflect on my origins and my past for future steps. We all do. When I try to think about why I do the things I do, I draw blanks.

What is my purpose? My destiny?

That's another philosophical question for another sunny day. For today, I had to look at the past posts on this blog and decide whether I've stuck with my original purpose and goals.

What goals? What purpose? I created the blog because it was a mandatory assignment. My original statement of purpose? I pulled that out of my ass because it was an assignment I had to do.

I said I would try to make the world a better place by provoking thought. I might have succeeded in making the few who read my blog think, but I've really achieved what I was looking for: Reflection.

School isn't easy. It is very tiring and boring for me. This blog is just tacking on to the list of "Reasons to live". Reasons to get up in the morning.

When it's all done and over, I think I could look back on this blog and see what I've accomplished. It'll bring a small smile to my face knowing I've done what little I could online in the grand scheme of things.

So that's my new goal. To keep publishing new posts on my blog. Surviving. Being proud of something at the end of the day. Just for the hell of it.

So I will remember what something someone close to my once said: "Life is the uphill battle you fight. When you get to the top, your ultimate reward is peace - Death. The part you need to look for is getting up the hill under enemy fire. And planting your flag on the top."

So I will keep fighting that war. That struggle to get to the top of the hill. This blog will be another rest stop for me.

I can put my weapon to the side and just sit down for a while. That sounds about right.