Mobile Phone Gaming, Don't Get Involved

(*Disclaimer: The following paragraph is pretty much a rant fueled by my phone being frozen for fifteen minutes after trying to open a game on my phone.)
Oh lord, mobile gaming is just garbage. Everything about this new platform is lazy and almost pathetic. The games themselves are extremely unimaginative and suck so much battery from your phone you are left with a crucial decision, play the game, or be able to actually use your phone for more than an hour. Plus, it is very possible to get a virus from these games because of advertisements, or shady games. I received an almost phone breaking virus from Boom Beach which randomly shut off my phone. The virus stayed on my phone for a couple of weeks after un-installment of the app. That being said I don't know how the app came from Boom Beach, and I have nothing against that game. The sad part being I really enjoyed that game. Now my experience may not be so common. Why is that? Well I am part of a minority of teens that do not care about getting a new phone. The problem with staying with my old Galaxy s3 is that I haven't received a software update in around two years. Leaving my phone hopelessly behind the curve, and prone to malfunctioning. So using my phone on a daily basis is a pain because of constant freezing, and lagging. (*Rant Over, Thanks for Listening)

Back to the topic at hand mobile gaming on your phone is good for app designers, but very bad for consumers. Now that seems like a silly statement doesn't it folks? However, when you stop to think about it what are you really getting out of your games? Sure, a small amount of fun. But what does that fun cost you? Most games allow you to pay for free. Except those "free" games still put on ads that put your phone at risk for malware, or other nasty stuff. The problem with not paying physical currency in exchange for in-game money, leaves the user to spend hours grinding away to get meager amounts of so called "loot" (Experience Points, gold/money/gems/coins). So you end up paying with your time, not the cash in your wallet. This leaves a majority of sane people (myself included) who refuse to pay one cent to some stupid game that will give a couple weeks of entertainment, which leaves us spending way too much time playing. The time spent with that could have been used for much more productive things such as homework, seeing friends (real ones, not your clan buddies from thirty-seven countries), and being more social when around other people. This problem isn't just for teenagers mid you, it spans over most age groups. Mobile gaming has become an epidemic for wasting time because the games are no longer limited to your home, or don't come in the form of an expensive mobile gaming platform.

The problem with Mobile Gaming is it's accessibility, which leads to overuse. In around thirty seconds a person can open up their favorite game and start playing. Any chance people get they open up a game and get immersed in it. This is especially true at school. I can't tell you how any times I see people wasting their time on a stupid game instead of paying attention. Phone gaming has allowed people an inconspicuous way to play, and not get caught. The reason my classmates easily become addicted to their games is because of how easy they are to access. This wasn't a problem when games were limited to households, and arcades. It's important to note that consumers have been able to do this with hand held gaming devices but these are much more cumbersome and are hard to hide under a desk. Those gaming systems are also quite costly. While most games are now technically "free". Phone gaming has allowed people an inconspicuous way to play, and not get caught.

Celiac Woes

Going out to a restaurant, a time that's supposed to be full of good times and good food, but having a food allergy drastically changes the experience. Before we dive into this I'd like to say that a food allergy is such a pain, it seems like a small matter but it rears it's ugly head everywhere you look. I have celiac disease, better known as being "Gluten-Free". No I'm not one of those cliche trend surfing hipster idiots that take it upon themselves to be as fake as Hillary Clinton. Alright enough of the rant, I'm better than that. On to the main obstacle of this disease, finding food at restaurants and home that won't bore oneself to tears.

It's challenging to find food that I'm truly excited about when out to eat. In the beginning of having this disease it was honestly pretty depressing. Being in middle school and having to watch all the other kids be able to eat whatever they wanted and I hate to bring a stupid lunchbox. I ended up having to put my lunch meat on chips because gluten free bread was still in it's infancy and man was it bad. But over time the gluten free movement gained a lot of ground and many substitutes started to pop up.

My hometown has been a major help for gluten free options. Being a more modern town, my hometown has evolved into more of a midwestern Seattle in recent years. A hipster Mecca if you will. With the building of a market area downtown, and multiple other old locations being destroyed and turned into health food markets many more options are being opened up to me. Alos, several gluten free options are opening up. Where a lot of growth in the gluten free sector is would be major chain restaurants. Whether it be Culver's/Red Robin and their addition of gluten free buns,or all the major fast food pizza/ pizza delivery places offering gluten free crusts, gluten free foods have truly become more prevalent in our society. Also, many new products have become to stock the shelves of the organic/health food sections of the local super markets. All these little additions add up to mean the world to me.

Sports

Sports, easily one of the most divisive source of entertainment today. People get crazy over what team is better. Rivalries are very bitter between fans of certain teams. And if you're in Europe watch out for those crazy football fans, they'll kill people sometimes after a disappointing loss. Which is totally acceptable behavior, or maybe not. Also the majority of people who enjoy sports are predominantly male and women typically don't enjoy watching sports for hours. By contrast males would rather die than watch a Say Yes to the Dress marathon. Therefore unless they are  conditioned, women don't love watching sweaty guys run around and play with a ball for hours, especially if the sport is American Football. It's so much more exciting if you have played the sport in the past. This makes you understand the game so much more and brings you into an understanding with other players on the proper way to act during the game. These are things that totally escape me seeing as how I have only played baseball and even though I was good I didn't find it fulfilling. So I feel horribly bored when any type of sports come on. Mainly because I usually feel like the odd one out, and that any comment I make is seen as annoying or unnecessary. So I sit down and try to be one with the others as much as possible. But if you aren't part of that group it becomes difficult to try and find the right moments to say something and what to say.

There are so many sports to choose from that anyone can find one they enjoy. Of course the world wide favorite would have to be soccer but different countries may find pleasure in other activities depending on the wealth and climate of the country. Such as the northern countries focus on winter sports, which makes sense seeing as how their climate may make other sports hard to play and practice for, making hockey, skiing, snowboarding, and other winter Olympic sports very popular. Countries around the equator wouldn’t be able to focus on such sports because their country would not be able to have their own team, making it impossible for the country to have true national pride for a team they support since it wouldn't be their own. Now rich countries like America is a true jack of all trades when it comes to sports. America has both the infrastructure and national pride to propel them forward in almost every sport. Never is this more prevalent than in America's dominance in basketball. We here in America really love us some basketball, most players start from a very young age watching NBA and dreaming to becoming like them. Sports are heavily tied in with the American dream and that's why we do so well with them.

Boredom Identity

I can't remember the last time I was excited to go to the movies, or listen to the radio. Because it seems like I just watched or heard the same thing last week.  My word I get tired of the formulas used to create today's so called "entertainment". I just wait for it to come to DVD to be marginally impressed. Or turn off the radio after hearing the seven or eight songs that will be on it for the next month.  Now don't mistake my demeanour for pessimism, I just have low expectations for most things. Which apparently makes me a happier person according to a recent issue of Time magazine, because then I'm never disappointed. Sure I feel a little left out of the monotonous conversation about the new _________ man movie or the title which goes as follows, adjective followed by  noun. My only problem with the level of quality is that I'm always left wanting more. Pretty much like eating at the same restaurant day in and day out because your friends have no standards and everything is always "the best". Which makes the chance of getting something different almost like the next hit of meth (I know, a bit morbid), an insatiable want. I yearn for another Silence of the Lambs, Saving Private Ryan, and Green Mile. Sure for the hipsters any hint of artistic flavor makes it an instant classic, well I'm tired of Art House crap. Give me some grit with legitimate substance, suspense that doesn't stick to a rigid plot line which makes the outcome so obvious it's almost pathetic. Now it's not like I'm oblivious, I know a lot of focus is on people in tights because that's what sells. I'm just saying that I'm over the trend. "Hulk Smash!" doesn't do it for me, tell me hulk why DO YOU SMASH? Did you have a sad home life, not many friends as a child, got your lunch money taken? I'm aware that there have been background movies, but they seriously lack depth. It's as though those movies have the attention span of their targeted audience "Ugh, why do I care about Bruce Wayne's parents I wanna see Batman". Kinda want to tell them to go sit in the corner and calm down. But, I know that i have to take a step back and realize what the whole purpose of these movies are. To make as much money as humanly possible through the movie itself, and all other merchandise including video games,clothes and the soundtrack. So yeah, of course these movies won’t be reflected upon in the future as some great achievement, more like super cheesy. Because by then their special effects will eclipse the capabilities of our own.  

Star Wars 7, the first good Star Wars?

In the era of "Hmm I'm out of ideas what movies can we redo that no one cares about" looking at you "Pan", it was interesting to see that an enormous blockbuster was coming back, Star Wars. However its not as though Star Wars ever went dormant. The film has been represented in many different forms such as a gaggle of toys/promotional items, video games to animated spin offs, and a ridiculous amount of content in the expanded universe novels.

The giant is back, and I feel and though this will be the first well done Star Wars. Pardon my French fan boys, but these films were just cash cows. Little effort was put towards the acting or lines, especially in the three more recent ones. Leaving only the special effects for any source of possible entertainment. Needless to say I wasn't impressed by the time I was 8. If you can't stimulate an eight year old then that is a little sad. Except now the special effects look so beautiful that it'll put Avatar to shame (The Blue Pocahontas hair fetish one). Finally Star Wars is huge, it looks big, bad, and oh so cool. Of course the previous ones seemed like that to the audiences of their time, and I respect the amount of work that went into the films. But hey I'm picky and I want to be amazed.

By golly the teaser trailers looked amazing, but I'm much more curious about the personality behind those curvaceous lines of code. This is by far the most nerve racking part of seeing a revival of a successful film. I was taught this sad and upsetting lesson with the new Lord of the Rings trilogy. Goodness me those were terrible, they stretched that plot out more than Kim K's pregnancy pants. It was one short book, not even close to enough content for over 9 hours of movie (this is a rant best saved for another post, ah... the anger). But honestly folks, a movie has to have moving and believable dialogue in order to truly be considered great.

I'm hoping for the best, what about you?

Bechdel Test

Around seven months ago my better half brought up that there was a test to show whether or not a movie was sexist towards women. Now this was a strange concept to me being a male, but it really made sense to have such a thing due to the increasingly sexualized portrayal of females in movies. I ended up remembering the test because of another blogger who writes about problems that women face everyday (The link to her blog is right there ->http://cupoequality.blogspot.com/ ).The Bechdel test was popularized in 1985 with the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel whom the test is named for.

The test consist of two primary criteria. Are there two or more named female characters (this does not include blood relatives of the female character, and when they are alone do they talk about anything besides men. It seems as though this is a very simple test to pass, however most directors forgot to study.

This is the key problem for why women don't get as many movies that pertain to their needs. Women don't care to hear about what a fictional woman has to say about a fictional man. They are looking for a complicated and stimulating plot that empowers them. Now I am no expert when it comes to these types of movies, I always find them to be cliché since their message typically passes right over my head. However, I'm sure many people including myself would like nothing more than to be more informed on the subject.

A lack of attention is why this problem remains rather unheard of. I have only known of this for a few months and have heard about it only twice. Which seems odd considering how many revolutions of the social kind we have been experiencing in this progressive decade. This test is only to see if a movie is sexist on the surface, just because it passes doesn't mean that it is full of female empowerment.


The Comic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test

 

 

"Chick Flicks vs. Micheal Bay inspired Explosion Inc. movies"

What makes a movie become a so called a chick flick? Well what usually comes to mind is some sort of trap or lure to get the girlfriend or wife to say these famous words "But babe it isn't a chick flick, it has military stuff in it" or something along those lines. Now don't get me wrong I have absolutely nothing against movies that women enjoy, because there are movies that are just like this for males. Such as any type of movie made by Michael Bay, which would seem stupid or silly to a majority of female viewers. Which is also true of males when they see a movie that is geared towards women.

Women deserve to have movies that relate to their everyday lives, which begs the question as to why aren't many made. The problem is, men and women are fundamentally different. Dan Goleman Ph.D. explains this fundamental difference
"Here's where women differ form men. If the other person is upset, or the emotions are disturbing, women's brains tend to stay with those feelings. But men's brains do something else: they sense the feelings for a moment, then tune out of the emotions and switch to other brain areas that try to solve the problem that's creating the disturbance.
Thus women's complaint that men are tuned out emotionally, and men's that women are too emotional - it's a brain difference." (1) Which makes the long scenes of emotions being portrayed is very hard for males to enjoy, because we are already over the gripping scene and ready for the next one. But since we have already checked out of the emotional state required to understand and enjoy the film we get bored, while the significant other is having the time of her life. As to where a girl understands what an explosion is she just doesn't find it stimulating. This is what creates a lack of not only quantity of emotional female movies, but also the quality. Leaving women to have to find enjoyment out of dreaded Hallmark and Lifetime t.v. movies (Oh the horror). Being that around half of consumers are males, and typically when they bring a female with them the male is more inclined to pay due to social pressure. This means that it is more likely that a more action heavy movie will be attended.

However, the counter part of the previous genre the action movie is in abundant supply, and tend to be fairly successful. Why may this be? It is fairly simple, action movies are simple themselves. They easily connect with anyone who has ever had the fantasy of flying, being admired, being the hero, saving the day, or what have you. While emotional movies are complex, with many different levels of understanding. Which makes the audience that can understand and enjoy the material much smaller than the audience watching superman throw heavy stuff. This in turn puts more funds towards the creation of faster, bigger, and crazier action films. As well as less attention for emotional movies because there is less money to be made. Making any films that show even a tiny bit of emotional complexity less frequent and of lower quality. Which is a shame, I haven't seen a film in quite a while that gave me the chills and thrills that the likes of "Shawshank Redemption", "Saving Private Ryan", "The Green Mile", and others of that caliber. Of course there have been a few films that showed great promise like "American Sniper" because I had a cousin in the marines and that was a very frightening time. So that movie was very relatable to myself, and many others with relatives in the service. The problem is that there appears to be a trend in having movies be more hollow, and have less substance.

I'll try to delve deeper into this subject after getting thoughts and views from the fairer sex (My girlfriend), and try to put a more feminine touch on this article since I feel as though I butchered this one.
 1.)https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-brain-and-emotional-intelligence/201104/are-women-more-emotionally-intelligent-men