Post #4

I don't know about all of you guys- but I love video games. Nothing beats coming home after a hard days work, kicking off my shoes and dominating the Halo galaxy. However, when I think of education, I usually put learning and entertainment at odds with one another. Well, not any more! Studies done by Dr. James Gee and published in his book What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy show that video gaming promotes and facilitates problem solving skills, and offers a medium through which information can be distributed to the student through repetition and practice. We could very well sit in class for 50 minutes writing down the same definition over and over, or students could sit in the cockpit of an F-22 fighter jet and blow those math facts out of the sky! Boy do I love Technology!


This past week I took the exam for the Microsoft Word skill check. During the course of my preparing for the test, I discovered many new and innovative uses for the program which I had previously been ignorant of. One aspect of this revolutionary application that proved particularly useful was the "Header and Footer" function. In the past, I had always been unsettled by the vast amount if unused space left in the margins of my reports and term papers- unavoidably feeling guiltily of all of the innocent trees gone to waste because of those unused centimeters. Did you know that the average American consumes 2780 pieces of 8 1/2" by 11" paper per year? And that for every 3,050,244 sheets of paper printed one North American Long-Leaf Pine is cut down? Makes you feel a little guilty about all of that wasted space- and in order to maximize the output of all my papers, I have decided to utilize the header and footer function to fill up all of the white space within the top and bottom margins. You may think I'm nuts- but will you be laughing when all of the disgruntled homeless squirrels victimized by your wanton neglect of mother nature come knocking on your door? I think not.


In my experience, there are two kinds of people in the world: Pirates and Ninjas. Although this classification has recently been publicized and exploited by the users of "facebook" and other online community networks, the true essence behind these opposing forces stems from a deep history and unique cultural backgrounds. Pirates, also know as brigands, knaves and the "refuse of the sea", hail in origin from the early Phonetician sea fairers and traders who came to dominate the Mediterranean during the 12th century BC. From their various exploits and conquests upon the high seas, these privateers earned a reputation for gluttony, brutally compounded by frequent raiding upon local commonwealths and fisheries. Their ranks swelled and soon spread throughout the globe, seeking riches and very large pirate booty. It would seem that there would be no stopping the pirate menace from engulfing the entire known world- that is, until one wayward pirating crew was shipwrecked on an East Asian island we now know as Japan.

The Japanese have a long tradition and history of self-discipline, serenity, and skillful execution of the combative arts. However, these elements we see today are but mere shadows of the past greatness of the noble and lethal Honshu Ninjas. The ninja arts spawned during the Feudal ages of prehistoric Japan, where these nimble warriors served as guardians of their respective shoguns, and their personal treasuries. A ninja would devote his or her entire life to the welfare of their master, and gladly sacrifice themselves for the sake of protecting the treasure stores of their lord. It is written in one account that a certain ninja, when his master reported having lost a golden ring while casting a fishing net into the sea, was flung into such a rage that he filleted 1000 live tuna with his bare hands to avenge the missing ring (this also marks the origin of sushi).

So, it was on that fateful day that a band of greed ridden vagabonds and these guardians of fortune met in what was to be the beginning of the most epic struggle in all of human history. Ambitious fortune versus noble virtue. The clash of Titans. Although the Pirates remain a sea fairing folk (beware of coastal regions such as Florida), if ever they make landfall, the ninja forces are always there to meet them. Even now that battle rages in this world wide vie for dominance. Republican vs. Democrat, Communist vs. Capitalist, Coco Puffs vs. Frosted Flakes- it all boils down to one side or the other. So, the question you have to ask yourself is- which one are you? A pirate, or a ninja?