#8 The Finale?!

     Hello fellow adventurers! As my blogging career is coming to an end I thought I would just talk about the future. 

    I am finishing up my latest semester and thought it would be a good idea to summarize how I feel I did, and ask myself will it help me? Starting with the prior. I felt like I have applied myself adequately through this semester. I turned in almost everything on time while fighting back illness, traveling and holiday. I did not excel at writing papers, but then again I never have. To be honest with all of you I have hated English as long as I can remember. In school I loved reading the books, but hated writing and grammar. I actually failed all four years of English in high school. Yes, I am a native speaker of English! haha. I am no where near failing English this semester as of yet and I think that is something to be celebrated. 

    Now for the harder question will it help me? In my mind most definitely not, but it could possibly help me. I will never find myself in a career field where I will have to write a huge paper with documented sources. Nor will I ever apply for a field with that kind of thing in it. The thing I think that will pry help the most is the critical thinking skills. Looking at a news article and figuring out if its legitimate or if its sources are legitimate. Something like that will never hurt anyone, it will only make them a more intelligent person.

    I guess what I am trying to get at is never look at something as all bad and all good. Try and look back on your experiences with open eyes and an open mind. You never know maybe you will find your calling by doing just that.

For the last time, I hope you roll a high initiative!

Christopher Vining

Entry #6 Earthbound! The greatest video game ever?

 Hello fellow adventurers! All gamers have their favorite game. Well today I thought I would talk about mine. If you can, imagine an 8 year old in blockbuster on a Friday night looking for the game to rent for the weekend. Your browsing and see this box cover.

Bright colors and cool space suit! Clearly a winner for a weekend game. In Earthbound you play as a young boy named Ness. A meteor has landed in your town and wakes you. You meet an alien bee named BuzzBuzz, who sends you on an epic journey to 8 powerful locations and to meet 3 new friends to defeat Giygas. Giygas is an alien lifeform coming back in time to defeat Ness as a kid before he grows up and defeats Giygas. I cant explain how amazing this game is in one blog. Here is a speedrun of Earthbound. While you wont get to se ethe full game you might just see what is so amazing about it. 

The art and music is a masterpiece in an of itself. Plenty of color and unique characters and NPC's to meet. There is a decent size playlist you can listen to on Spotify if you look up earthbound. The game itself has a lot of The Beatles references as well. I can't force anyone to play this game, but if you have a chance I highly advise to give it a try. The game can be found on the Switch, Super Nintendo Mini, and you can buy the cartridge for the original SNES. If your tech savvy you can even download an emulator and try it for free. 

Until next time, I hope you roll a high initiative

Christopher Vining

#5 Arizona is causing its own demise

 Hello fellow adventurers! Today I read an article from earth.org about Arizona and its water shortage. Reading this and living in the state I already knew Arizona is kind of screwed. I decided to do a little research of my own. Like did you know that cement an asphalt that get direct sunlight can be as hot as 180 degrees Fahrenheit? 

     I don't know if you understand exactly what that means. In a state where they keep building houses with concrete fences, that means we are just building heat storage walls and knew asphalt roads that just makes Arizona hotter. Meaning people will need more water and will cause more of a shortage. It could just be me, but I feel like 360 days out of the year there are no clouds in sight meaning most concrete and asphalt are in direct sun light.

    Not only is that one problem, but the other is ore ecosystem. Arizona has some of the most diverse foliage ever seen. The reason? People thought Arizona looked to bland and brought in outside plants and trees. Well it takes a lot of water to keep all of these alive. People also try to grow grass here, that does not belong in the state.  

Imagine a state that has normal rain fall and temperatures that don't reach 120 degrees. Its very easy to maintain that lawn. Now imagine a lawn and how much water it must need to survive direct sunlight 8 plus hours in 120 degree weather. It takes considerably more water, but the state does not restrict whole neighborhoods to have Lucious green lawns.

According to Dr. Kevin Foster, he believes in less than 30 years Arizona will be to hot to live in at our current rate of house growth and I believe it. 

Until next time, I hope you roll a high initiative

Christopher Vining

Entry #4 My Favorite Book Series

 Hello fellow adventurers! Today I thought I would talk about one of my favorite book series. The Inheritance Cycle, also known as The Eragon books. Written by Christopher Paolini. 

I first read this book when I was around 18 years old. The thing that drew me to the book is at the time the author was around my age and he had my first name. Not the greatest reason to read a book, but hey its why I chose it. I read the book 3 times before the second book came out. I have now read the series more than 10 times all the way through. I love the world in which Paolini built, and his characters. I have been in love with dragons as long as I can remember. A book about a boy finding a dragon egg, and raising a dragon from a hatchling is something I have dreamt about. Unfortunately this series had a big issue when they tried to make a movie. 

This movie was horrendous, to say the least. Basically they took the names of all the characters and places, and followed maybe 50 pages of this 400 page book to make the movie. The CGI was bad and the acting was not much better. I had given up hope of them ever doing anything with this book series ever again.

Boy was I wrong. Now Disney is making a TV show about Eragon. I am very excited! The news doesn't stop there. Paolini has also come out and said he has written a fifth book! It comes out this November, and of course I already have it preordered. I will probably stay up until the book is finished the second it is in my hand. I hope you all take time to read this book and enjoy it as much as I do!

Until next time, I hope you roll a high initiative

Christopher Vining

Entry #3 Slanted Reporting... is it possible to write an interesting article with out opinion?

 Hello fellow adventurers! Today i figured we would talk about slanted reporting. What is that you ask? Good question. Slanted reporting is when a writer writes an article and gives their opinion through out the article. They example I figured I would use is this one. Rotten tomatoes is garbage. As the article says the writer talks about Rotten Tomatoes and how they have ruined movie watchers. They author gives their opinion multiple times in this article. It is very slanted in a negative attitude towards Rotten Tomatoes.

Now that you know what slanted reporting is, can a report be written with out giving an opinion? In my personal opinion I say no. Even when writing a scientific article is not the writer trying to prove their opinion? I know that is not as slanted as the article I linked prior, but still slanted in my opinion. I actually prefer slanted articles because they are more interesting to read which is the point. I believe you just have to read every article carefully, don't take everything they say as 100% proof. Be diligent and don't get caught up in their hysteria or excitement. Make your own decision. 

Enjoy reading your articles, news stories, and scandalous celebrity gossip. Just please remember most of it is slanted and you should read more than one article or research the topic yourself before making your final decision.

Until next time, I hope you roll a high initiative

Christopher

Entry #2 Spooky Season Enters the Building!

 Hello fellow adventurers! Today I thought I would talk about one of my favorite things! It is almost October and with this spooky season almost upon us. I have already started watching horror movies. I have been a horror movie fan every since I watched "Pumpkinhead" when I was 7.  It was made in 1988 and now is far from scary, but let me tell you as a 7 year old watching it at night, it is the scariest thing on earth.

    After that I was hooked! My next experience into the world of horror movies were the black and white universal studio monster movies. "The Wolfman" and "Dracula" were always my favorite. Now a days I love the conjuring universe. The Conjuring Universe is a well thought out and planned universe much like the marvel universe. All the movies are connected. This is the first time in horror history that I know of they have done this. I also love the old "Friday the 13th" series and "Nightmare on Elm Street" series. I guess they could be considered in the same universe as well since they did fight each other in "Freddy vs Jason". 

I hope anyone who reads this enjoys October and what ever fun things you do for spooky season!

Until next time, I hope you roll a high initiative

Christopher

Entry #1 Learning about Blogs... or am I?

 Hello fellow adventurers. If you have stumbled through some foggy woods or a deep cave into this area I foreworn you, this will be a place for my opinions mostly on topics of my English professors choosing and some of my own. Todays topic is my opinion on blogs. 

 As I read through a few of the recommended blogs by my professor I had that topic in mind. I have to say as a writer of one I am not a fan. I do not like putting my thoughts on the internet for the world to see, but I can see how it could be beneficial to the writer or the reader. 

 An example I found as beneficial for the reader was this quaint cooking blog Smitten Kitchen. I love cooking and reading cooking blogs. I learned a new recipe that looks absolutely delicious and I learned the history of eggplant parmesan. I think finding new recipes and learning what they mean to someone else just helps us who enjoy cooking to feel inspired.

 Now to benefit of the writer I read a blog called Katie did what. In this blog she talked about homeschool curriculum. It felt more like a paid advertisement. I think this one it benefited the writer because she got to feel pride talking about how she builds a curriculum for her kids and how proud of her kids she is. She talked about the website she uses to help build this curriculum and as I said before it felt like a paid advertisement, which in this case I hope she was paid for it because it was well articulated. I do not have kids and I wanted to use the website. 

 You made it this far I guess now I will go into more detail about my opinion of blogs. I think if you find the right blog for you as a reader it can be an awesome experience. As a blog writer maybe getting your feelings to the world or just written down for your own personal gratification is helpful. For me I dislike this. I do not think I will continue this blog past my English class, and that is ok, blogging is not for everyone! I do encourage you to read a blog and maybe try to write one. Who knows you could be the next big thing or find a new hobby.

Until next time, I hope you roll a high initiative

Christopher