Reality is Broken (Jane McGonigal)

Mom and I picked up this book by Jane McGonigal a couple months back, somewhat on a whim and when we were really only intending to pick up A Game of Thrones (George R. R. Martin). The title and front cover drew our attention, and a quick look inside the front flap convinced me to convince mom to buy it:

More than 174 million Americans are gamers, and the average young person in the United States will spend ten thousand hours gaming by the age of twenty-one. According to world-renowned game designer Jane McGonigal, the reason for this mass exodus to virtual worlds is that video games are increasingly fulfilling genuine human needs. In this groundbreaking exploration of the power and future of gaming, McGonigal reveals how we can use the lessons of game design to fix what is wrong with the real world.

Fluently Improper

(This post'll be short, as I'm having a Firefly marathon with a friend today and don't have much time to write.)

Like most people who speak more than one language, I sometimes tend to slip between the two. There's a lot of Spanish spoken in the desert where I live, and some people may start a conversation in English and end it in their home tongue. I don't know Spanish, and while I've been taking French long enough to break into it when writing notes to myself, the language I find myself slipping into in common writing and speaking is a fairly new one: Lolspeak.

 

Twenty Twelve

Many of us have just gotten the hang of writing '2011' on our school papers and checks, and in just over a year and a half, a dusty old calendar mapped by an ancient culture neck deep in polytheism and human sacrifice predicts we will all die horrible, tragic, unavoidable deaths.

Literally

You know I'm a literature major when the incorrect use of common words bugs the heck out of me. I wont mention the word 'Ironic' - that's for another blog - but instead I'll focus on a poor, unfortunate word that's been unnecessarily turned into a hyperbole.

Literally, obviously, comes from the root word 'literal', which comes from the Latin word 'literalis' which means "of or pertaining to letters." The idea, as the word was formed, was that when a text was copied literally, it was copied letter by letter, to be as correct as possible. It's a bit ironic surprising, then, that the definition becomes figurative, having jumped from talking about letters to talking about whole ideas and abstract nouns, when the actual definition of the word is the opposite of figurative.

When something is literal, it is exactly as stated. We don't tend to use the term 'literal' a lot, because generally when we say something, it's assumed to be exactly as we stated it, unless we're being sarcastic or figurative or using some sort of idiom, which is the also implied by common knowledge (such as when I tell people, "Well, that sounds fun") or intonation (Depending on how you say it, "Thanks a lot" can mean two different things). The word 'literal' then generally only comes into play when we're referring to something or someone else, as "they were being too literal" or "I thought it was meant in a literal sense."

We never use the term "literal" to mean "figurative." It wouldn't make any sense. So then why do so many people use the term "literally" to mean "figuratively?" "She literally devours every piece of music I give her," or "cars were literally flying down the road."

It's true!

In most cases, I wouldn't advocate the idea of using the term "figuratively" instead of "literally," (such as "cars were figuratively flying down the road") because that just sounds weird, and is unnecessary. The term in these cases is an intensifier; by saying 'I literally', people actually mean "Listen close because this was intense [or shocking, or awe-inspiring, or any other intense emotion] and get goosebumps just thinking about it," or something like that.

The word 'really' is an intensifier. "He was really fast" means the same thing, literally, as "he was fast," but adding the word 'really' in there makes the sentence more intense. 'Really' has been used too much, however, so people are turning to the word 'literally' to make their sentences even more intense (similar to how the intensifying terms "awesome" or "epic win" have become overused lately). Saying 'cars were flying down the road' just doesn't give you the same hurried feeling as they "were literally flying down the road."

However, the word 'literally' should not be used as an intensifier, even though scores of people want to make it such. Why?

• "He literally has the heart of a lion." ("No, really, he collects really weird animal organs")
• "We were literally jumping for joy!" ("Seriously, actually jumping up and down, we couldn't help ourselves!")
• "I was literally rolling in money" ("I actually withdrew half a million in ones just so I could roll around in it and see how it felt.")
• "My mother was literally heartbroken." ("I'm serious. That's why she had surgery last year. Don't worry, though, she's fine now.")

When we use 'literally' as an intensifier, we can't use it the way it's supposed to be used, and a clarifier. We have to explain that no, we actually did bite our tongue, and now it's bleeding, or no, we didn't get married, we've just been learning how to tie complex knots.

Literally is supposed to take a sentence that has multiple meanings, generally metaphoric, and clarify that the intended meaning is the literal one. If 'literally' was only ever used to clarify our meaning, we wouldn't have this confusion with the figurative, and our language would be that much easier.

Commenting Changes

I was told last night that someone wanted to comment on a blog post, and was unable to do so. I can't figure out what the problem might be, so until then I'm changing the way comments function.

Previously my comments had been embedded below each post, so that when you clicked to view and post a comment, the website would take you to bottom of the post's individual page. I liked this because it makes comments more fluid and easy to access, in my mind, but apparently other bloggers have been having trouble with this working for everyone.

I've changed comments so they now appear in a pop-up window. I'm generally not a fan of pop-up windows, because a lot of people (myself included) have pop-up blockers that may not allow it to appear easily, and some browsers display pop-up windows behind the window currently in use. However, from what I read from other bloggers, the pop-up window comments allow all readers to comment without trouble. I've also removed the word verification feature for unregistered commenters, as I'm typically not a fan of those either, and I think I can moderate my own blog without the computer's help.

So, while a bit more awkward, comments should be accessible by everyone now. If you have the time, please try leaving a comment on this or any other post, to test out the pop-up system and make sure you have access to the comments. If there's any problem, please email me at Kengirl01@yahoo.com, with the subject line "Blog Comments," explain what happens when you try to post (and if you're getting any error message), and leave your browser and version number (Example, I'm using Firefox 3.6.16). I'll use this information to try to figure out what the problem is and fix it.

Thanks for your time!

April Fools!

If you're not on the internet, you probably think April Fools is a lame, or even annoying, pseudo-holiday. There are pranks, teasing, and bad jokes everywhere, and it's all made worse by the fact that all of it is completely expected. Jim's pranks on The Office are funny because they're creative and unexpected, but trying to pull similar stunts on April Fools' Day is unsatisfactory to both those pulling the pranks and those on the receiving end, because everyone suspects it.

In the twenty-first century, however, April Fools' Day is one of the best holidays of the year, for a simple reason: the Internet.

Websites of all sorts have become the playing field for good April Fools jokes. There are a lot of false, humorous news reports that pop up on April 1st, and there are several well known web companies (Such as Google, YouTube, and Hulu) who have been joining in the fun now for years, changing parts of their websites in a pretend effort to expand their horizons. A number of people may become confused, believing all the web sponsored pranks, but for the most part everyone's in on the joke.

Because everyone understands what's going on, April Fools' Day on the internet has become a sort of comic-relief holiday. It's tons of fun, going around to all the popular tech sites or smaller communities you're a member of and trying to find their April Fools' secrets. And it's great to see that such a humorous tradition continues no matter what else may be going on in the world.

I'd love to make a list of my favorite April Fools' Day 'pranks', but instead I'll just link you to the April Fools List from TechCrunch. I suggest you go check it out and join the fun! Happy holiday!

Looking for a Quiet Drink

Today I'm celebrating Unification Day with the rest of the internet! Well, at least the two thousand other members of the Facebook event page, and maybe a few more. Let me explain.

About a year and a half ago, my dad and I heard an interesting story on the radio on the way to a hike together. It was about a web show I'd never heard of, by a TV director who I'd never heard of, named Joss Whedon. The web show, Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, was an attempt to counter the Writer's Strike, showing writers that they didn't have to use traditional media to get their work shown, and as the report stated, 'you'd either never heard of it, or you loved it.'

The report also mentioned Joss Whedon's other work, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which, yes, I had heard of, but never seen) and a TV series called Firefly, which only aired for one season before being canceled for having low ratings.

With my interest piqued, I looked up both shows when I got home. At this time Hulu had all the episodes of Firefly up, and Doctor Horrible has always been available online. Within an hour (the time it takes to watch all of Doctor Horrible), I considered myself a Whedon Fan, and in a week (the time it took me to finish Firefly) I considered Whedon a genius.

Firefly, if you've never heard of it, is a Science Fiction/Western (According to Wikipedia, the term Space Western is more appropriate). It almost touches on Steampunk, but it's a uniquely different fictional genre of itself. It takes place hundreds of years in the future, in a new galaxy terraformed by the remaining humans after earth gets used up. The planets closer to the center of the galaxy (the Central Planets) form an Anglo-Sino Alliance, with very advanced technology, while the outer planets, who wish to remain independent, survive of the bare necessities (Thus the Western part of the 'Sci-Fi/Western' genre card).

If it wasn't for Joss Whedon's amazing writing and directing, the show could easily have been forgotten in the myriad of fun but pointless television entertainment. As cheesy as the 'Sci-Fi/Western' identification might sound, however, it's an amazing experience - one that fans were only able to get so much of, since it was so hard to sell to the networks and convince people to watch.

Unfortunately, the show didn't gain a real following until after it got canceled. There are over 60 thousand followers on the show's Facebook page now, and that's just the page that I'm a member of. There are thousands more fans not on Facebook, with more growing each day as the title spreads through word of mouth and continues to be re-aired on the Sci-Fi and Discovery: Science Channels.

Meanwhile, on the Internet, a cult fandom has formed. The show is talked about almost constantly, with references to be found across multiple internet subcultures. Every so often, a 'revive Firefly' movement starts up, and occasionally they're successful, sparking the filming of the sequel film 'Serenity' and the publishing of the Firefly graphic novels.

That's where the idea of today being Unification Day springs from. Recently, when prompted what he'd do if his new show Castle got canceled and Fox decided to pick Firefly back up, Nathan Fillion (The actor who plays the spaceship captain) said he'd be willing to jump back into Firefly in a heartbeat, and expressed a desire to buy the rights from Fox and allow the show to be available for free over the internet. Less than a day later, a website appeared, asking fans to pledge money to donate for that exact cause.

In the second episode of the show, the protagonists are in an bar, picking up a contact for a less-than-legal job, and they end up in a brawl with Alliance supporters who are celebrating Unification Day that day. In the next scene, the ship's first mate says the the captain, "Funny, sir, how you always seem to find yourself in an Alliance-friend bar come U-Day, 'looking for a quiet drink'."

With the most recent outburst of Firefly-renewal fire, someone on the internet decided to dub today Unification Day in an attempt to ironically corral the Browncoats (Firefly fans) into a unified support of the show. There are only two thousand members of the event page, but it's a fun excuse for me to wear all brown today and marathon the show all over again.

Happy U-Day!

15 Characters Repost Meme

I generally tend to shy away from Repost Memes (those lists and other such things that get posted in Facebook notes and on Blogs telling people to personalize them and repost, tagging friends, et etc.), but I found this doing research for an Econ paper, and it sounded fun so I thought I'd give it a try. The idea was to think of fiction characters - of any kind, from any work of fiction - and write down the first 15 that come to mind. Then one would expound upon the characters, explaining why you like them or whatever. I took a bit more care choosing 15 of either my favorite characters or characters who influenced my writing/reading preferences. Take note - this list was formed and this blog started about halfway through December, so if I were to rewrite it now, it might be a bit different. See how many characters you recognize:

Musical Update

I've never been extremely good with musical instruments, though in saying that I'm of course comparing myself to my youngest brother, who could pick up almost anything and master it in a few practice sessions (He played the flute in middle school, and the quad-tenor drums, the glockenspiel, the oboe, and a few others in high school).

I took Clarinet lessons in 5th and 6th grade, when my local middle school had a program that allowed 5th graders to take Beginner Band lessons first period, before the Elementary school started. I was pretty good at it, but in 7th grade I moved to a school closer to where I lived, and their band program was famously the worst in our district, so stopped practicing clarinet. I still have my clarinet, and with a bit of practice I'm sure I could play it, but what I really gained taking that band class was an understanding of music theory. I can read the music staff (though it takes me a moment to translate), and I understand sharps, flats, time signatures, and scales pretty well.

I don't quite remember where it came from, but we've also had a piano in my house since I was in elementary school (I think it was a gift from someone who was moving and couldn't take it with them). Before taking my band classes, I had no idea how to play it, except for a basic C major, since anyone can find C on the piano. After taking the class, it still took me a while to find which keys corresponded to which notes, but with a better understanding of the music I could figure things out.

Recently - in the past year or so - I've been picking up piano practice again. Not conventionally, as I dislike playing the piano, or any instrument, where others can hear me, but when I have the house to myself I'll tinker out whatever I have. If we're practicing a song in church, I'll play my part so I can get it down better, and lately I've been printing out video game sheet music. I have to admit, I'm sounding pretty good.

At least with things I've practiced. It still might take me an hour to get a flow for something I've never played before, and that's not even considering the bottom hand. It takes a lot of concentration, or skill, or practice, or whatever, to get the bottom hand on the piano working. We never learned bass clef in band class (Well, some of the other instruments did, but us clarinets never learned it). Combine that with the fact that, once I've figured out what I'm playing, I have to play two different chords at different times on different locations on the keyboard.

I've got the bottom hand accompaniment figured out for a few of the video game songs I'm practicing, but I'm not exaggerating when I say all of the notes are next to each other, in order, repetitively. If it gets much more complicated than that, I start to lose it.

I am proud of what I've taught myself, however - it sounds like a real song! - so I don't mind playing it when my parents are home anymore, and even at church, on the new electric keyboard we have in the Young Women's room. Unfortunately, this gives people the impression that I actually know what I'm doing, so when my mom suggested they make me play the music for the opening song, the Young Women's leaders happily agreed.

So now they're making me learn a song out of the hymnbook to play in two weeks. Because I've got enough time on my hands to figure out another set of bottom-hand notes.

I'm happy that I have the musical training that I do - I can sing Alto now while a few others who purport to be more musically inclined can not, and I can lead the music as well. I'm a bit annoyed on this fact - leading music is really easy, yet I seem to be one of only a few who can in my youth group, and possibly the only one who can do more complicated time signatures like 2/2 or 6/4. I volunteered to attempt to teach everyone else, though I'm not sure how willing or how easily they'll learn. But actually playing music, while fun and endorphin-releasing, is really only a pastime for me.


(Because you truly care, these are the songs I've learned:
Pokemon Route Theme: Piano (Simplified, no chords)
Majora's Mask Clock Town: Piano
Zelda 1 Dungeon Theme: Piano (Simplified, still working on bottom hand)
Monkey Island Scumm Bar: Piano (Simplified, bass clef only on ending)
I'm also attempting the Wind Waker Ocean Theme (Piano, tho' my sheet music is different), but I'm having trouble with the bottom hand, and the chords during the second part. Especially hard since this song is supposed to be a call-and-repeat, and you can't call-and-repeat with one instrument.

The Great Divide

There are two types of people in this world: those who take showers in the morning, and those who take showers at night (And I guess those who take showers twice a day, but they fit into both categories).

Part of me is thinking that this is a subject no one wants to speak about. Whenever it's brought up in forums and on health websites, the shower-at-nighters bash everyone else for sleeping in bed with their own filth from the day, and the shower-in-the-mornings deride all the people who fail to wash off the sweat achieved while sleeping and starting off the day less than perfect. Both sides say, "Don't you feel so gross?"

Despite my best efforts, I haven't been able to find a health expert with advice, saying which is better or worse for you. The only health advice about showers I can find is that people should take them, but not too much, and cold ones are good for you.

In my opinion, it doesn't matter when you take a shower. Some people feel gross waking up, some people feel gross before going to bed. It all has to do with what you were brought up with. It's the same with kids who aren't allowed to eat fast food, trying it out for the first time as a teenager. What tastes normal to most people is a bit repulsive if you haven't been accustomed to it.

If you're only taking one shower per 24-hour cycle, then you'll be just as dirty at the end of that 24-hour cycle no matter what time the cycle starts. If you really start feeling gross, than you can take two showers a day, or three, or one an hour, and soon enough your skin will dry out and your hair will split and, if you're really lucky, your face may break out (any more than two showers a day is past pushing it).

I, personally, take showers at night. My hair is short and curly, which others may find cute, but in actuality is really annoying. If I let it air dry naturally (I have a aversion to blow driers), then it ends up poffy (EDIT: I meant to write poofy, or maybe puffy, and ended up making a portmanteau, which I decide to keep in)  and I look like a lopsided mushroom. When it dries, I need to make sure it's being held flat, so taking showers at night makes so much more sense. It dries while I sleep, and I can rely on either a hat or my own pillow to keep it manageable. Also, I'm a big fan of sleeping (My alarm is set to 15 minutes before I have to leave to house), so the idea of waking up earlier just to be clean doesn't appeal to me. At all. I can see the benefits of morning showers as well, but unlike people who've been trained for that lifestyle, I don't feel a pressing OCD need to be completely purified in the morning.

Maybe the question of 'when is the best time to take a shower?' isn't such a common quest, but in case you've been wondering, here's my answer: whenever you have time. If right before work is the only time during the day when you can do a proper cleaning ('washing off' in the shower may be nice, but I don't consider it a real shower) then by all means. And stop worrying so much about being perfectly clean. If your body isn't exposed to some contaminants, your immune system wont ever learn how to fight them off properly.