Hmm…

I just finished the story for tomorrow’s class. At first I thought, my gosh 53 pages…but it flowed very well and definitely caught my attention. I really wanted to know what year it was. I realize it is set in the future but knowing how far it is in the future would be very helpful. Also, I wanted to know how much money a credit note actually is. Is it equal to a dollar? He says that making 100 credit notes a day is 10 times as much as he would make on earth. If a credit note is equal to a dollar, then on earth he could only make 10 dollars a day? Not likely.

I was really intrigued by the Kimonians and how they treated Earth. It seemed a lot like Kimon was Earth and Earth was a lesser planet. We think of Earth as the only livable planet and all the other can’t match up to it just like the Kimonians think that everywhere else is barbaric compared to their planet. Did the first settlers in the East think that their place was all there was before the West was discovered like we think that Earth is all there is? Thats a little out there for me but its something to think about.

I really liked the idea about history being dramatized with the Battle of Hastings visit. Maybe the heroes from history didn’t exist but thats depressing. It takes some of the magic out of it. Many people believe that things did happen differently. The DaVinci Code, while a work of mostly fiction as Brown calls it, brings those type of questions into play. I’m a Christian and it does seem possible that Jesus could have had a child. I realize I’ve been taught to not think like that but it could be true. We can’t really know for sure.

It seemed like when Bishop got the job as a babysitter, that it was going to be something like slavery. That the Kimonians were using the Earthlings as slaves to do their jobs that they didn’t want to do. Then it seemed like they were adopting the Earthlings as pets which really made me think about how we treat our pets. I found myself wondering if I respected my dog, which is a really weird thing to think about (I concluded that I do ).

The story then switched to this whole nature of schooling epiphany. It seems like the schooling in Earth was to prepare Bishop for the schooling in Kimon except the schooling in Kimon was a lot different. Instead of learning only what we are taught through books, SOLS, regurgitation of facts, in Kimon you learn about life and the world. Everyone has a willingness to learn and can learn anything. They aren’t forced to learn certain things. And isn’t that how all schooling should be? Shouldn’t it be something that you want to do and something that is truly interesting and insightful?

I was flipping channels last night when I came across a news story about a new website. The site is called “Miss Bimbo” and is a gaming site aimed at girls 7-17. You create a profile and then you can create your own “Bimbo,” a doll who you have to take care of and make her work to buy her the best fashions available. Its supposed to be a Virtual Fashion game but its actually whacked out. You find a place to live, find a job, etc. That seems innocent enough until you get into the real nuts and bolts of the game. “Enter the world of Miss Bimbo. Become the most famous, beautiful, sought after bimbo across the globe!” Why would anyone want their daughter becoming a bimbo? The whole thing kind of reminds me of Bratz dolls. Basically, you have this doll who wears very little clothing but who is supposed to be amazingly cool. And people used to complain about Barbie… CNN has jumped all over this story as well, especially after they learned that you can purchase breast implants for your bimbo. I think this is an example of the internet going too far. This is basically teaching girls to become strippers, get plastic surgery, marry a hot man with lots of money, pop pills, etc. The television news article last night was relating this to Paris Hilton and other socialites and the influences that their actions have on girls who may look up to them. While I personally think thats taking it a little too far, I can see how the link could be made. I’ve pasted the CNN article below for anyone to check it out and if you want to check out the website, click HERE.

LONDON, England (CNN) — A Web site that encourages girls as young as seven to give virtual dolls breast implants and put them on crash diets has caused concern among parents and children’s activists.

The Miss Bimbo Web site has attracted widespread condemnation.

The provocatively named “Miss Bimbo” Web site launched in the UK last month and is described as a “virtual fashion game for girls.”

Girls are encouraged to compete against each other to become the “hottest, coolest, most famous bimbo in the whole world.”

When a girl signs up, they are given a naked virtual character to look after and pitted against other girls to earn “bimbo” dollars so they can dress her in sexy outfits and take her clubbing.

Sound off: What do you think about the “Miss Bimbo” Web site?

They are told “stop at nothing,” even “meds or plastic surgery,” to ensure their dolls win.

Users are given missions, including securing plastic surgery at the game’s clinic to give their dolls bigger breasts, and they have to keep her at her target weight with diet pills, which cost 100 bimbo dollars.

Breast implants sell at 11,500 bimbo dollars and net the buyer 2,000 bimbo attitudes, making her more popular on the site.

And bagging a billionaire boyfriend is the most desirable way to earn the all important “mula” or bimbo dollars.

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Working, it seems, is a bit of a chore in bimbo world.

The site says: “Bimbo dollars is ‘the cabbage,’ ‘bread,’ the ‘mula’ you’ll need to buy nice things and to get by in bimbo world. To earn some bimbo cash you will have to (gasp) work or find a boyfriend to be your sugar daddy and hook you up with a phat expense account!”

The advice on feeding the dolls is even more spurious, encouraging them to feed the dolls “every now and then” even though they want to keep their Bimbos “waif thin.”

The British version already has nearly 200,000 players, most of whom are girls aged between 7 and 17, according to the Web site.

Although it is free to play, when the contestants run out of virtual dollars they have to send cell phone text messages costing $3 each or use PayPal to top up their accounts.

In France, where “Miss Bimbo’s” sister Web site, “Ma Bimbo,” was criticized by dieticians and parents when it began last year, one parent threatened the creators with legal action after his daughter ran up a $200 mobile bill sending texts without his knowledge, according to the Times of London newspaper.

Parents’ groups are horrified that the game is taking off in Britain, fearing it could send the wrong message about eating disorders and plastic surgery to young girls

Bill Hibberd, of parents’ rights group Parentkind, told the Times the game sends a dangerous message to young girls.

He said: “It is one thing if a child recognizes it as a silly and stupid game.

“But the danger is that a nine-year-old fails to appreciate the irony and sees the Bimbo as a cool role model. Then the game becomes a hazard and a menace.”

One parent also told The Times the creators were irresponsible. Nick Williams said he was appalled when he saw his daughters Katie, nine, and Sarah, 14, playing the game.

Williams, 42, an accountant, said: “I noticed them looking at possible breast operations and facelifts for their bimbos at the game’s plastic surgery clinic.

“Katie is far too young for that kind of thing and it is irresponsible of the site’s creators to be leading young girls astray. They are easily influenced at that age as to what is cool.”

However, the creators of “Miss Bimbo” claim it is “harmless fun.”

Nicolas Jacquart, the 23-year-old Web designer from Tooting, south London, who created it was quoted in the Daily Mail as saying: “It is not a bad influence for young children. They learn to take care of their bimbos. The missions and goals are morally sound and teach children about the real world.”

He added: “The breast operations are just one part of the game and we are not encouraging young girls to have them, just reflecting real life.”

Guitar Hero hits handhelds for first time

Sponsored by Verizon

WATCH THE GUITAR HERO: ON TOUR PREMIERE

Smash music franchise rock and rolls to the Nintendo DS this summer.

by YVG Staff

With over 64 million Nintendo DS owners in the world and a monster music game franchise like Guitar Hero (over 14 million games sold in the U.S.), it’s no wonder Activision is giving living room rockers a chance to take their show on the road. Available this summer, Guitar Hero: On Tour brings the series’ fret-burning fun exclusively to Nintendo portable game system.

And that includes the guitar — sort of. Rather than make you haul a big plastic axe everyone you go, Guitar Hero: On Tour comes equipped with a space-saving new peripheral called the Guitar Grip that effectively simulates the guitar controller used in the console games. Simply plug it into the DS and you’ve got four familiar colored fret buttons to work with. The game also ships with a custom-made guitar pick stylus, allowing players to essentially “strum” the DS touch screen.

Over 20 songs will ship with Guitar Hero: On Tour, including tracks by such bands as OK Go and No Doubt. No other groups have been confirmed so far, though Activision has stated that most of the songs will be exclusive to Guitar Hero: On Tour and over 80 percent will be master recordings rather than sound-alikes.

Activision also announced a few multiplayer modes, including a new “Guitar Duel” mode that will allow two players in the same room to wail against one another in a head-to-head rock-off. Players will be able to use power-ups similar to the ones featured in Guitar Hero III, but tailored to suit the technical capabilities of the DS. For example, you’ll be able to set another player’s guitar on fire and score big points while they frantically blow into the DS microphone to put it out.

For more dirt on this pocket-sized powerhouse, check out our exclusive producer interview or watch the awesome launch trailer!

Posted: 19 Mar 2008

Everyone knows those guys. The ones who crowd around the television screen feverishly pressing buttons while swigging whatever the cheapest beer happened to be at the gas station earlier that night. They yell when they make a wrong play and cheer when they one-up their opponent. Exams, girlfriends, family pets, and all others get left in the dust that is caused by the Madden obsession.

I’m no stranger to gaming myself. I own various systems beginning with the Atari and advancing to the popular Sony Playstation 2. I’ve been addicted to helping Mario save his princess, committing Grand Theft Auto, street racing in Japan, and leading the Bulls to victory but the one game that I can not stand is Madden. I’ve tried it but I have to say I absolutely hate it. In fact, I don’t know of a single girl that is a Madden fan. They might be out there but I’ve never encountered them. So for the next 30 days, I’m sentencing myself to my personal hell, 60 minutes of daily Madden.

Will the addiction overtake me? Will I too become one of those people who neglects everything around me to play Madden? I guess we’ll find out as I blog daily about the game, the people I know who play it, and video game obsessions in general.

To keep everything easily separated from the rest of my posts, I have set up a blog account at http://whenmaddenattacks.blogspot.com/ which I will use only for this project. This is the first post from that blog which was posted on March 17.

When I was younger, Archie comics served as my constant companions. I was hooked on Betty, Veronica, Archie, Reggie, Jughead, Moose, Ethel, etc. and their drama filled story blocks. I actually still have all of them in boxes under my bed at home. Comics are just easier to understand. Not only do you have the dialogue but like in movies or television, you also have the picture to go along with it.

Comics also help with the visualization of a novel. Due in part to my comic obsession and the blessing of an overactive imagination, I can read a book and completely picture the story and characters in my mind. I can create the movie adaptation of the novel in my mind. It allows me to really delve into the story because I can see the two kids walking down the road.

Sometimes, comics can be used in the academic realm. In 295, we read a novel that was actually in the form of a thick comic book. It was about a boy and the images that he conjured up in his imagination. Think Calvin and Hobbes but smarter. It was one of the easiest novels that we read because you could really see what the boy was thinking. If it had only been in traditional text form, most of what was happening would have been lost.

I think the same idea comes across in novels that have little pictures in them. Not photographs or cartoony pictures, but rather those little pencil drawn, etched things. It also for some basis of visualization for everyone who is reading the novel. It ensures that everyone is on the same page.

Perhaps we give children picture books in order to teach them the art of visualization. A small child goes from books with all pictures to books with text and pictures to books with only text. It allows children to prepare their minds in order to visualize and fully understand what their reading later in life.

Apparently our class aren’t the only ones who are still fond of the Oregon Trail….Click here to play an Oregon Trail-ish game that I happened to run across while randomly surfing the internet

So I’m reading all of this fun stuff about kids programming robots and I’m feeling a little left out. We never got to do that kind of stuff in my schools. We did have a pet gerbil that ran around in one of those balls and a bear that the kid of the week got to take home, but sadly no robots. It wasn’t like we didn’t have computers. My elementary school had a large computer lab and every class had time in which they rented out the lab. The computers where huge! They were the old school kind that took those gigantic floppy disks where you slid them in and the pressed that lever down. Then the computer would make this loud noise and sometimes you would have to switch disks in between games. The sound quality was really whacked out too. It wasn’t really so much music as it was a bunch of different notes that made sounds. I’m feeling kind of old now…. Even in first grade, we would be able to go in there and play things like Oregon Trail, Dino Park Tycoon, Word Munchers, and Number Munchers but we never played with robots. It’s crazy how far technology has came since then anyway. If I described my old elementary school computers to an elementary school kid today they would think I was crazy or ancient. I remember reading in my Weekly Reader (did anyone else have those?) that some day everything would be run by computers and every home would have one. They were completely right (and incidentally, they seem to have correctly predicted numerous things). I hope I’m not going to be one of those people where the technology passes them by. I don’t want to be calling in my grandkids to set the clock on my VCR….

Here is the link to Virtual Apple 2 where you can play the Oregon Trail (the old school version that I played in Lee Hill)…Enjoy!!!