Globaloria :)

Oh, what can I say? This has really been one of my most favorite classes, it was interesting and fun as well as educational and helpful. English, even though I really do not like it, is one of the most important classes you take, it helps you become more professional in word choice and the way you present yourself and work you have completed, not only did Globaloria accomplish this with English, it helped us work with technology and things that will help us with the way college works since everything and everybody is getting more and more involved with technology.

I think my favorite part of the class was learning how to make the game and even though it was incredibly stressful at times, it was worth it in the end. Katie and I finally finished our game, well finished what we could, our coding didn't work out the way we planned but we did what we could and still had fun. Our game was Pinky and the Brain's Maze To Graduation, you should take a look if you haven't already. During this time I became addicted to the student made game Go, Rabbit, Go! and Jessica and Jerimiah's game Trash For Cash In WV. I had a lot of fun and also learned a lot in this new form of class and environment and I'm glad I got to experience it.

Also, I would like to say thank you to Ms. McChesney and the Globaloria staff for making all of this possible for me and the rest of the class. I would also like to thank Katie Ferrell for being my partner and for everything she has done for me not only in this class but just in general. I hope to be able to continue blogging about things in my life, hopefully I won't get too busy. Chez, I'm going to miss being a macaroni in your class, but I will probably end up sending you a paper or two if I need help editing. :)

Group Chat

Yesterday, my group was group number one. Jessica, Jessi, Kenny, and myself held a group chat conversation about the poems we were supposed to read from our Literature book. Jessica read the first poem and gave her summary on it, Jessi read the second and supplied her summary, and then I read the final poem and gave my thoughts on it. After each person gave their summary we discussed the poem and got a mutal feel on it. I think this is a very good and effective way of having a group discussion because you can have the whole room in small groups having discussions without causing problems by talking loudly or something to that distracts other groups and such. I really liked the G-Mail chat discussion and if we have to do another group discussion i think this would be the best way to do it.

Reflection Blog

The Washington Post Article on Mine Explosion.

What I read and what has happened recently in our community has been really upsetting and heart breaking. The song has a lot of meaning behind it not only for people who are living that life but people who know other people who are going through it. Even if you're not close with the families it still effects you. It makes you start thinking about your family, friends, or loved ones that these things could happen to and it really makes you think about things and put your own life into prespective.


My Favorite Place in the World.

To me, West Virginia is my home. It has all of my memories and is home to my favorite places. I may want to leave when i get older and move on to bigger and better places for myself, however, West Virginia will always have a special place in my heart. As for other people who live in West Virginia I think it means the same to most, others are more passionate and want to stay here forever instead of leaving, however there are some who don't care at all and are ready to leave and never look back. I think being passionate at heart about our home but doing what you think is best for you is the best choice to make in the end, but you can't control peoples emotions so what they decide is their choice. Outsiders, on the other hand, are a completely different story. Most of them look at us and see the country side more so than the main picture and I think thats ridiculous. Yes, most of us have the accent that people think about when they think of West Virginia, but we don't all act the way people think we do. I hate stereotyping and unfortunately, where we live, we are pretty much guaranteed to become a victim of it. I think that is one of the main reasons I have chosen to leave here to make something of myself, to show people that the stories and stereotyping isn't all true, at least not for all of us.

Button Tutorial

PJ came and helped us make our buttons work correctly today. We learned how to make our buttons on the pages and make them go to a different layer or page using codes. It was quite frustrating at times but once we got our coding right and fixed mistakes and made changes and got everything working it wasn't as bad as it was in the beginning and now we won't have to go through all of this stress when we are putting together our real games.

Drawing and Making Buttons in Flash

Katie and I started drawing in Flash by working on our title page and our mouse. I created the title page and Katie created the mouse, which was quite cute if I do say so myself. After we finished that I started on the title page buttons. I made one for rules and one for starting the game. Making the buttons the first time wasn't really that hard, however, when I went back to make one on a different page it didn't work for me, so I guess I will just need to continue working with it and figure out whats wrong.

The Canterbury Tales

In this blog post I will discuss things I learned about The Canterbury Tales through the prologue. While reading through the character list I realized that all of the characters were being put into a stereotype by the narrator, such as rich and/or poor. I think Chaucer chose to use stereotypes because it is more relatable since people have always been categorized as something. No matter where you go or what time period you are from there are very few places that actually treat you equally, no matter what a sign on a door may say. I think the characters played a very important role as to what society they were from; it showed that in certain time periods jobs were completely different then how we view them today. For example, in this story the merchant was considered rich and the doctor was considered lower class as opposed to today’s society where it is the opposite. I believe that this was indeed an honest depiction of the time and the people. Most of the characters I feel fit well for that certain time period such as the friar or the parson, which are terms you don’t normally hear today.

When you develop anything that will be used as entertainment whether it is a book, movie, play, or video game you have to have a flowing storyline. I think one of the most important characteristics of a video game is whether or not your characters fit well with your storyline. My last sentence means that you wouldn’t use certain characters in storylines that are something completely different from their actual style, for example, you wouldn’t put Superman in a video game that is used to help girls design outfits online. Hence, I think it is very important to use the correct characters in anything you design or develop, no matter what it may be, from paper to cyber space, characters still need to flow with their surroundings.

FLASH Blog #2

We've been continuing working with FLASH recently. Katie and I worked on a topic for our game as well as working with the layout of the screens were going to use. We creating a text box on FLASH and it was actually really easy. After we worked with FLASH we edited our game again on Friday, we tried to make it better, and I think we're doing okay. Katie and I have decided to be team Pinky and the Brain and I'm pretty sure our game is going to be pretty awesome. Guess we'll find out soon.

Anglo-Saxon Heroes Today

How do the heroes of Anglo-Saxons compare to the heroes of today's video game industry?


In the time period of the Anglo-Saxons heroes were considered the people who fought in wars and fit the description. When you hear about heroes from years ago they are usually a male, a warrior, and/or strong willed. Characters from myths or legends that are examples of this are Samson, Beowulf, Hercules, etc. I think people who design video games and movies today get a lot of ideas and inspiration from the myths and legends from the past, turning them into different characters and making them more attractive for our generation making us want to try the game or watch the movie.

When I think about characters from history and characters today sometimes I see similarities. Hercules, for example, reminds me of the characters Spiderman, Superman, Batman, and a few others because they all have storylines based on strength or powers of some sort. Also, some examples of how movie writers and designers have used the characters in new ways to attract different audiences are Hercules or Beowulf. I think the media world today would not have the same characters they have today or even the same storylines they use without the impact of mythological or legendary beings.

So when it all comes down to it and you really think about the heroes from the past and present you can connect dots and match up characters. Some have the same names like Hercules and others just have some of the same qualities, like Joan of Ark, I think the people who designed characters like Wonder Woman got the role of the super hero in woman form from the courage of Joan of Arc. Of course all of this is just from my point of view and how I match up the qualities and characteristics of one person to another, however, I think most of my assumptions have valid points.

Flash Mini-Game

Well, it took me from Feb. 11th - Feb. 19th to get my flash game figured out and to get it published to my wiki. It was very complicated at first but I think the more we work with it the easier it will be to make our games. I think the best part of making a pre-game is that we learned even if your game is simple, like a bunny trying to catch a carrot, the coding is still complex and you need to focus and make sure every detail is correct. Occasionally I play some student made games if I have free time, but not on a daily basis. I enjoy playing Go Rabbit, Go!, it is by far my favorite. I like it because it is simple yet you don't really get bored with it for quite a while. Overall, I think making us create the pre-game was a very good idea, it showed how much work went into the games we play even if they dont look the best or don't work exactly correct. You should still have respect for the person who put their time into making it because as we learned, it's a lot more work than you would anticipate.

Audience Post

- When the first teller of Beowulf prepared to share the tale, what assumptions do you think he (or she) made about the purpose of the story?

- I think the first teller of Beowulf thought that Beowulf himself fought for good reasons instead of fighting just to be fighting or fighting for a reward. I feel the story teller wanted to tell the story of Beowulf because they felt that he was a good person and fought for pride and others instead of just fighting to make people afraid of him or for selfish reasons.

- How do you think the storyteller's beliefs about the intended audience--men gathered in mead halls--affect the content of the story?

- I think the story tellers audience, being a group of men in an area together, shows that the story might not have been as graphic or gory, but to capture the attention of the audience the truth may have been bent to more fit their taste, not to say the story was all lies, but just more detailed than the truth.

- How do you think YOUR beliefs about your video games' intended audience (you will need to determine who your audience is) will affect the development and final version of your game? Think of age appropriateness, learning goals, types of characters, etc.

-I feel that we should make a game to target people in our own age range becacuse we know what catches our attention. I think that we should make it age appropriate for people a little younger than us though because you never know who may access our games. As for the learning goals I think they should be set a few bars ahead of our learning experience as well as provide a challenging game for some people whom are a little younger. The characters are all pretty much the same to me though, I don't really think anything that goes into our game will be targeted at a certain age level, probably just the regular characters you see in most games, it just depends on the game we design.

Beowulf Part I

When it comes to Beowulf as a character I do believe he has some qualities that would make him a hero in some peoples eyes. I also believe in some other ways he is not a hero, don't get me wrong I think he is a good character, however, some of his decisions could have been resolved in other ways as opposed to all the violence. Which is why I have to say no, I don't think Beowulf would be a good educational video game character. I have to say I think he would be an excellent character to base a regular video game off of but, not an educational one. To be a hero I think you mainly just have to make the right choices for the well being of others as well as yourself instead of being selfish and only thinking of yourself. You don't have to have super powers to be a hero, you just have to do things for others and make the best choices for the specific situations.

My Hero

I have many heros including; my papaw, mamaw, mom, dad, and other family and friends. However, the hero who has taught me the difference between some rights and wrongs is my older cousin Jessica. We grew up together and she's like my big sister. We've been through a lot together and I don't know what I would do without her. We talk about anything and everything together. But the biggest reason she is one of my heroes is not only because she's such a good cousin it's because she has made mistakes in her life. Everybody makes mistakes, of course, however the ones she has made impacted more than herself, they've impacted my family and her friends as well. She has made some bad choices in her life and seeing the way they turned out, I know to choose a different path. She has helped me become who I am today in more ways than she will ever know. I hope my younger cousins can take the mmistakes im most certainly going to make, or have already made, to better themselves the way I have tried to do.

Play To Learn Reflection

My Favorite Student Developed Game Was...
Go Rabbit, Go!



My Favorite Professionally Developed Game Was...
The Cost Of Life

^^Click the Pictures to Play My Favorites^^


While playing these games I realized that developing games isn't as easy as it appears. Playing the professionally designed games was just like playing a video game, as was the student made games, however, they weren't as good. The student designed games were interesting and fun to play, they just weren't as well develiped and detailed as the ones done by a professional. But then I thought about it and I realized that it's ok if your game isn't the best looking, if it works you're already well on your way. Just because your game isn't as prefessional looking as some of the others doesn't make your game any less interesting. I enjoyed them both and I will, more than likely, play them more as time goes on, no matter what they look like.

3 days worth of make up

I am going to begin working on my make up work tonight and tomorrow so I can, hopefully, be caught up with everybody else by Monday, or at least close. I wish i could have been in class more this week, however, Wednesday was not fun, Thursday was the blood drive, and I spent my Friday at my Uncle Ray's funeral. Boy, have I had a wonderful week. I'm just trying my best to bounce back from all of this.

Senior Project Time

So, for my senior project I have decided to pair up with Katie Ferrell. We have been friends for a really long time and I think we will work well together. She is the artistic one and I enjoy messing around with the computers and coding, so hopefully we can make an awesome project. I have a feeling it is going to be difficult at first but we're most definitely not giving up.

Online Safety & Teens

While reading information on internet safety I realized that a lot of the things I do and put online are even more unsafe than I originally thought. I learned that most internet safety issues are either caused by carelessness or the unknown. When I say carelessness I am referring to the people who post personal information on their pages or profiles when they know how dangerous it can be, yet they proceed to do it anyways. The unknown, on the other hand, that I stated is considered the things about the internet we do not know. Most of us just post information by filling in the blanks that the profile provides we know there are some dangers involved but we are not aware of how many things float about in cyber space. Hopefully, somebody can read this and become more aware of the hidden dangers of the internet.

My research led me to a lot of information on cyber-bullying. Cyber-bullying is when people post mean things about you or harass you online by continuous commenting, messaging, IMing, etc. to make you feel bad about yourself or to just get on your nerves. It usually starts out as playfully teasing a person and gradually gets worse and could possibly lead to embarrassing pictures or videos leaking into cyber space for everybody to see. This is not only wrong but in some cases can be illegal. Luckily, there are at least some teens, like myself and most of my friends for example, who do not get involved in a cyber-bullying environment. A poll was conducted about what you would do if you received an e-mail that somebody sent to bully another person, forty percent of teens said they would delete the e-mail and tell the person what they are doing is wrong and forty-four percent of teens would just delete it. Only six percent of the teens polled said they would send out the e-mail, to me these are shocking results. They are shocking because you would think most teens would forward it and laugh about it with their friends, however I am happy to see that my theory was incorrect.

The next thing I learned the most about involved sites, for example MySpace and Facebook. I discovered that these sites are not always as safe as they should be. A poll was also conducted on how safe you think these sites are and a shocking fifty-nine percent said that they felt the sites were unsafe, forty percent feel that they are somewhat unsafe and the other nineteen percent feel the sites are very unsafe. These statistics opened my eyes a little to the safety of my profile and personal information, I always knew putting anything online for that matter was unsafe and not the best of ideas but reading these results is making me think even more about it. I think the results that shocked me the most were the results of the poll given to the fifty-nine percent who felt the sites were somewhat or very unsafe. They asked them about their online habits and most of them uploaded information, pictures, and/or videos of themselves to their pages even though they felt it was unsafe. That is a startling discovery, to know that people would post things even when they did not feel safe doing so is quite scary business.

I am glad we had to do research on this topic because it really showed me what I was overlooking when it came to my safety online. I post things all the time but I do not really feel unsafe considering I use the private settings on many parts of my profile. However, reading over this information and thinking more about it, even though I use privacy settings, I am going to start being more careful as to what I post online, and I think everybody should read over this research as well, you never know, it might save you from many scenarios, whether they be small or life threatening.