Boredom is often characterized and idealized as an irritation, as a lack of having something interesting or engaging to do. Most people hate to be bored, view it as a negative emotion, and often try to involve themselves in something constantly to avoid the grating pain of boredom. They find boredom and lulls in activity as bad things. "Idle thoughts are the playground of the devil" is an old saying from long ago, in reference to being bored. On the other hand, I don't think boredom is a bad thing whatsoever. Being bored is an excellent way to relax and to inspire creativity. It also shows an ability to cope emotionally.
For instance, life is filled with a constant source of pain and aggravation. Bills, stress, fights with friends and family, responsibility. They are all significant sources of frustration and stress. Being bored, being presented with absolutely nothing to do can have a very relaxing effect, rather than investing all of your effort into doing something to entertain yourself. Simply going outdoors and doing absolutely nothing can be boring, but absolutely relaxing at the same time.
Boredom also has a wonderfully stimulative effect on the mind. I know this myself, first hand. Often times, when I'm in a class or doing something I'd rather not be doing, my mind immediately wanders to the first thing I'd rather be doing. More often than not, that thing I'd rather be doing is writing. Although it's not productive to not pay attention in class, when you can afford to be bored and let your mind wander, you can come up with brilliant ideas. For me, I've come up with several story ideas by simply being bored in class and opening a notebook and doing something else instead. Boredom can be the throw of the switch that ignites the best of ideas.
Also, there are some people who believe that those who are able to cope with boredom have a higher "EQ", an emotional quotient, similar to an intelligence quotient. EQ gauges your emotional intelligence, your ability to tackle emotional obstacles and overcome them successfully. Thus, those who can cope with, manipulate and benefit from boredom have a higher EQ and are able to deal with emotional obstacles better. In a video, they recorded children given chocolate eggs. They were told that if they could wait without eating the chocolate egg for twenty minutes, they'd get two as a reward. Some of the children entertained themselves by counting, others talked to themselves, and some seemed to do poorly when presented with nothing to do. Some ended up giving in to the boredom and consumed the egg for lack of anything better to do after a bout of frustration. The experiment was run to simulate boredom and how those who could wait longer and entertain themselves would be able to overcome obstacles easier.
Despite boredom being labeled a "negative" emotion or state of mind, it should be viewed as a more positive thing when one knows how to benefit from it.
Sky Annotation Project - Assorted Stuff
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
There's the picture I'll be using. (If all falls through, at least)The topics I will discuss:
-Clouds patterns and how they can foretell weather
-Environmental Concerns (global warming, bla bla bla)
-Various symbolisms of the sky (metaphors, etc)
-Why the sun sets red (Something many people don't actually know)
-
Sources:
- http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/wmovl/VRL/Texts/SATELLITE_METEOROLOGY/CHAPTER-3.PDF
- http://www.cleanairtrust.org/
- http://www.weatherquestions.com/Why_are_sunsets_red.htm
More laterrrrr.
Ethnography
Monday, October 26, 2009
We walked down the dimly lit stairs after pulling open a door to a shop in a plaza in Framingham, Massachusetts. I personally expected it to be a normal shop, not one that went underground. It was daylight when we arrived and it felt as if we were taking a descent into darkness when we opened that door to the shadowy underground. We took the steps down through the dimly lit stairwell and rounded a corner, finding ourselves in a brightly lit video game shop littered with tables that were spotted with television and Nintendo Wiis. Everyone was crowded, nearly shoulder to shoulder (some had to stand due to lack of chairs), as the sound of control sticks clacking against the plastic of the controllers echoed over the chatter of the players.
Nearly everyone was playing the same game to warm up before the tournament; Super Smash Brothers: Brawl. It was somewhat of a cult hit, this game. The point of it was to "KO" your opponent on a floating stage. You wouldn't KO them in the traditional sense of hitting them until they ran out of health, though. In this game, you had infinite health, but as you got hit, you took more "percentage", which meant that you'd go flying farther when hit at higher percents. In order to KO someone and take a life (more commonly referred to as a stock) you'd have to hit them with a powerful blow that's strong enough to knock them clear off the stage and into the "blast zone", where you'd die. This aspect is what makes it such a unique fighting game, which also lent to it's popularity.
The game originated on the Nintendo 64 as a royal rumble of sorts, starring all of the major video game characters of the Nintendo franchise. Link (a medieval styled swordsman) from Legend of Zelda, Mario from the world-renowned Mario Brothers games, Kirby from the series of the same name (he's a small little pink fluffball), Samus (a female bounty hunter from a futuristic setting) from Metroid, Fox (a mercenary piloting spaceships from another futuristic setting) from Starfox... all of the characters were ones you'd know of if you were an old-school, hardcore Nintendo fan. It then moved to the GameCube, increasing the roster of characters with the release of Super Smash Brothers: Melee. Now, the competitive game on the Nintendo scene was Brawl.
The tournaments were pretty standard; the use of items was forbidden (except for characters who could create items in match), the matches were strictly eight minutes long at max, and both players were alotted three stocks to fight with. There's even a list of stages that you can only choose from, to ensure optimum fairness so that your lose was due to a lack of skill to defeat your opponent. Some stages had outside forces that could kill you, which could be frustrating in the middle of a match if you're winning and then the stage kills you, turning the tides against you.
As I scanned the crowd, I couldn't possibly find a single way to categorize them. There was no single definite label to give them as a whole. There were players of all ethnicity and colors, heights and weights, appearances and personalities. There were the archetypal video game nerds, the gangstaz wearing their bling and representin', the average Joes, the japanese "otaku", emo kids, scene kids, trendsetters. There was a little bit of everything here at this major Brawl tournament known to Brawlers (what the players of Brawl refer to themselves as a whole) as Mass Madness. This was the 17th Mass Madness and although it was on the small side, about fifty or so participants had arrived.
At it's height, Mass Madness had seen around double that number, but even with a smaller crowd, it was still fun. As I walked around, I mingled and observed, enjoying the atmosphere. Everyone was friendly. One of the first things I noticed about this group was that almost every one of them had a unique GameCube controller. Also, let me explain. Despite the game of Super Smash Brothers Brawl (hereby referred to as SSBB or just Brawl) being a Nintendo Wii game, just about all players used a GameCube controller, as it allowed for better control over their character compared to the Wii-mote and nunchuck control set up.
But I digress; It was hard to spot two remotes that looked the same between the fifty or so players. When I asked, I was told that most competitive Brawl players customized their controllers so they wouldn't lose them, and if they did, they'd be easy to recover. I was also told that some just did it because they liked having a unique remote, be it for show or for luck value. Some adorned their with stickers, others painted them. Some even removed half of the controller and replaced it with another controller's half so they'd have a silver and black GameCube controller, for instance. Other more extreme varients involved removing buttons and control sticks with other kinds of buttons and control sticks for a completely customized look.
As the Brawlers played, you could hear a lot of unique terms that you'd not recognize unless you were active in the competitive scene. I am half in and half out of the competitive scene, so I know most of them. One of my top favorites and probably one of the most common is "No Johns." It's a common retort when a player makes an excuse as to why they lost a match.
Most often the excuses are aimed at the stage they played on causing their loss, or the character they chose not being their "main", or character they use most often. It's used almost universally for any excuse, no matter how valid the excuse is. I soon came to find out that even if someone stabbed you in the side mid game, if you attempted to use that as an excuse for losing, you would be verbally smacked with "No Johns" until you submitted that you lost.
When I asked about it's origins, I was told that the term was coined back during Melee, when a Texas player named John would make excuses mercilessly, never accepting a loss. Eventually, people started to refer to excuses as "Johns" and those who made excuses were accused of "Johning", in reference to the most infamous excuse maker of them all. It eventually was warped into "No Johns", and is a universally accepted term in the community.
The next most important knowledge about the game is the existence of "tiers". In fighting games, tiers are a prominent feature of the metagame. Some characters are naturally designed better than others, and therefor can play better than other characters. People tend to play the higher tier characters to place better in tournaments. Tiers are established by the quality of a character in terms of how powerful he is regardless of the player.
Meta Knight is ranked first of all the characters, and is a universally despised character in the SSBB competitive scene. He's commonly referred to as "broken", because he is overpowered in comparison to a vast majority of all the other characters. He is faster than nearly all of the other characters, dies less often, can kill more often, and has one of the easiest learning curves compared to the other characters in the roster. I've even gotten comments from people who play as Meta Knight, saying that they hate the character, but use him just because they can win with the character. There have even been movements to ban the character from the competitive scene, but has been overturned multiple times by the staggering population of players who would hate to lose their dominance because of the character getting banned.
Despite the soreness between players who lost to Meta Knights or other characters deemed "cheap", a lot of the players were very cordial and polite. There were a few bad seeds that the players refer to as trolls, a term coined on the internet for those who cause conflict for the sole satisfaction of irritating people. But even then, the atmosphere was very fun and lighthearted. Also, among the players there are a large share of inside jokes either about the characters or sometimes even about players.
My best friend who had brought me to Mass Madness had told me in specific about a certain player who went by the handle "Inui" that they liked to make fun of. He was an incredibly sore loser, had and over-abundance of misplaced self-esteem and ego, and liked to trash other players who used the same character as him. So, the players in the SSBB community decided to create an "Inui Bingo" wherein they baited the player Inui online to say various things that were sometimes so ridiculous that you couldn't help but laugh. Although spiteful, most viewed it as well deserved. The SSBB community likes to poke fun at one another in some interesting ways.
Among the bingo slots were "Get Inui to trash another fellow Peach player" and "Cause Inui to rant on about how good he is" among others. This trend continued as other players who were often needlessly raucous and obnoxious had bingo cards made for them as well and distributed in secret.
Between intermissions in the tourney, the food consumed was fairly common amongst the players despite the wide differences in people who attended. Almost universally, fast foods were eaten at the tournament during the lunch break, and either soda or some kind of energy drink was consumed alongside of it.
After, I had participated in the tournament and played against a handful of players before getting knocked out of the brackets. Although during a match the atmosphere was tense with concentration (especially in close matches where both player's skill are almost even), after the match finished, the feeling of seriousness immediately washed off and you were greeted with a smile and "Good game." from your opponent, even if they lost. Even having gotten knocked out fairly early, it was still a fun social event and I got to meet a variety of interesting and hilarious people. One group in particular I played with had a penchant for shouting and grunting random things mid match in exaggerated voices. In the end, we strode out of the underground shop having enjoyed ourselves.
My best friend Kyle, after having buckled up and started the car, looked over to me as I continued jotting down notes. "Get enough material?" He asked, and I nodded. "I think I've got enough."
Nearly everyone was playing the same game to warm up before the tournament; Super Smash Brothers: Brawl. It was somewhat of a cult hit, this game. The point of it was to "KO" your opponent on a floating stage. You wouldn't KO them in the traditional sense of hitting them until they ran out of health, though. In this game, you had infinite health, but as you got hit, you took more "percentage", which meant that you'd go flying farther when hit at higher percents. In order to KO someone and take a life (more commonly referred to as a stock) you'd have to hit them with a powerful blow that's strong enough to knock them clear off the stage and into the "blast zone", where you'd die. This aspect is what makes it such a unique fighting game, which also lent to it's popularity.
The game originated on the Nintendo 64 as a royal rumble of sorts, starring all of the major video game characters of the Nintendo franchise. Link (a medieval styled swordsman) from Legend of Zelda, Mario from the world-renowned Mario Brothers games, Kirby from the series of the same name (he's a small little pink fluffball), Samus (a female bounty hunter from a futuristic setting) from Metroid, Fox (a mercenary piloting spaceships from another futuristic setting) from Starfox... all of the characters were ones you'd know of if you were an old-school, hardcore Nintendo fan. It then moved to the GameCube, increasing the roster of characters with the release of Super Smash Brothers: Melee. Now, the competitive game on the Nintendo scene was Brawl.
The tournaments were pretty standard; the use of items was forbidden (except for characters who could create items in match), the matches were strictly eight minutes long at max, and both players were alotted three stocks to fight with. There's even a list of stages that you can only choose from, to ensure optimum fairness so that your lose was due to a lack of skill to defeat your opponent. Some stages had outside forces that could kill you, which could be frustrating in the middle of a match if you're winning and then the stage kills you, turning the tides against you.
As I scanned the crowd, I couldn't possibly find a single way to categorize them. There was no single definite label to give them as a whole. There were players of all ethnicity and colors, heights and weights, appearances and personalities. There were the archetypal video game nerds, the gangstaz wearing their bling and representin', the average Joes, the japanese "otaku", emo kids, scene kids, trendsetters. There was a little bit of everything here at this major Brawl tournament known to Brawlers (what the players of Brawl refer to themselves as a whole) as Mass Madness. This was the 17th Mass Madness and although it was on the small side, about fifty or so participants had arrived.
At it's height, Mass Madness had seen around double that number, but even with a smaller crowd, it was still fun. As I walked around, I mingled and observed, enjoying the atmosphere. Everyone was friendly. One of the first things I noticed about this group was that almost every one of them had a unique GameCube controller. Also, let me explain. Despite the game of Super Smash Brothers Brawl (hereby referred to as SSBB or just Brawl) being a Nintendo Wii game, just about all players used a GameCube controller, as it allowed for better control over their character compared to the Wii-mote and nunchuck control set up.
But I digress; It was hard to spot two remotes that looked the same between the fifty or so players. When I asked, I was told that most competitive Brawl players customized their controllers so they wouldn't lose them, and if they did, they'd be easy to recover. I was also told that some just did it because they liked having a unique remote, be it for show or for luck value. Some adorned their with stickers, others painted them. Some even removed half of the controller and replaced it with another controller's half so they'd have a silver and black GameCube controller, for instance. Other more extreme varients involved removing buttons and control sticks with other kinds of buttons and control sticks for a completely customized look.
As the Brawlers played, you could hear a lot of unique terms that you'd not recognize unless you were active in the competitive scene. I am half in and half out of the competitive scene, so I know most of them. One of my top favorites and probably one of the most common is "No Johns." It's a common retort when a player makes an excuse as to why they lost a match.
Most often the excuses are aimed at the stage they played on causing their loss, or the character they chose not being their "main", or character they use most often. It's used almost universally for any excuse, no matter how valid the excuse is. I soon came to find out that even if someone stabbed you in the side mid game, if you attempted to use that as an excuse for losing, you would be verbally smacked with "No Johns" until you submitted that you lost.
When I asked about it's origins, I was told that the term was coined back during Melee, when a Texas player named John would make excuses mercilessly, never accepting a loss. Eventually, people started to refer to excuses as "Johns" and those who made excuses were accused of "Johning", in reference to the most infamous excuse maker of them all. It eventually was warped into "No Johns", and is a universally accepted term in the community.
The next most important knowledge about the game is the existence of "tiers". In fighting games, tiers are a prominent feature of the metagame. Some characters are naturally designed better than others, and therefor can play better than other characters. People tend to play the higher tier characters to place better in tournaments. Tiers are established by the quality of a character in terms of how powerful he is regardless of the player.
Meta Knight is ranked first of all the characters, and is a universally despised character in the SSBB competitive scene. He's commonly referred to as "broken", because he is overpowered in comparison to a vast majority of all the other characters. He is faster than nearly all of the other characters, dies less often, can kill more often, and has one of the easiest learning curves compared to the other characters in the roster. I've even gotten comments from people who play as Meta Knight, saying that they hate the character, but use him just because they can win with the character. There have even been movements to ban the character from the competitive scene, but has been overturned multiple times by the staggering population of players who would hate to lose their dominance because of the character getting banned.
Despite the soreness between players who lost to Meta Knights or other characters deemed "cheap", a lot of the players were very cordial and polite. There were a few bad seeds that the players refer to as trolls, a term coined on the internet for those who cause conflict for the sole satisfaction of irritating people. But even then, the atmosphere was very fun and lighthearted. Also, among the players there are a large share of inside jokes either about the characters or sometimes even about players.
My best friend who had brought me to Mass Madness had told me in specific about a certain player who went by the handle "Inui" that they liked to make fun of. He was an incredibly sore loser, had and over-abundance of misplaced self-esteem and ego, and liked to trash other players who used the same character as him. So, the players in the SSBB community decided to create an "Inui Bingo" wherein they baited the player Inui online to say various things that were sometimes so ridiculous that you couldn't help but laugh. Although spiteful, most viewed it as well deserved. The SSBB community likes to poke fun at one another in some interesting ways.
Among the bingo slots were "Get Inui to trash another fellow Peach player" and "Cause Inui to rant on about how good he is" among others. This trend continued as other players who were often needlessly raucous and obnoxious had bingo cards made for them as well and distributed in secret.
Between intermissions in the tourney, the food consumed was fairly common amongst the players despite the wide differences in people who attended. Almost universally, fast foods were eaten at the tournament during the lunch break, and either soda or some kind of energy drink was consumed alongside of it.
After, I had participated in the tournament and played against a handful of players before getting knocked out of the brackets. Although during a match the atmosphere was tense with concentration (especially in close matches where both player's skill are almost even), after the match finished, the feeling of seriousness immediately washed off and you were greeted with a smile and "Good game." from your opponent, even if they lost. Even having gotten knocked out fairly early, it was still a fun social event and I got to meet a variety of interesting and hilarious people. One group in particular I played with had a penchant for shouting and grunting random things mid match in exaggerated voices. In the end, we strode out of the underground shop having enjoyed ourselves.
My best friend Kyle, after having buckled up and started the car, looked over to me as I continued jotting down notes. "Get enough material?" He asked, and I nodded. "I think I've got enough."
Ethnography Essay Rough Draft
Saturday, October 17, 2009
We walked down the dimly lit stairs after pulling open a door to a shop in a plaza in Framingham, Massachusetts. I personally expected it to be a normal shop, not one that went underground. It was daylight when we arrived and it felt as if we were taking a descent into darkness when we opened that door to the dim underground. We took the steps down through the dimly lit stairwell and rounded a corner, finding ourselves in a brightly lit video game shop littered with tables that were spotted with television and Nintendo Wiis.
Nearly everyone was playing the same game to warm up before the tournament; Super Smash Brothers: Brawl. It was somewhat of a cult hit, this game. It originated on the Nintendo 64 as a royal rumble of sorts, starring all of the major characters of the Nintendo franchise. Link from Legend of Zelda, Mario from the world-renowned Mario Brothers games, Kirby, Samus from Metroid, Fox from Starfox... all of the characters were ones you'd know of if you were an old-school, hardcore Nintendo fan. It then moved to the GameCube, increasing the roster of characters with the release of Super Smash Brothers: Melee. Now, the competitive game on the Nintendo scene was Brawl.
As I scanned the crowd, I couldn't possibly find a single way to categorize them. There was no single definite label to give them as a whole. There were players of all ethnicity and colors, heights and weights, appearances and personalities. There were the archetypal video game nerds, the gangstaz wearing their bling and representin', the average Joes, the japanese "otaku", emo kids, scene kids, trendsetters. There was a little bit of everything here at this major Brawl tournament known to Brawlers (what the players of Brawl refer to themselves as a whole) as Mass Madness. This was the 17th Mass Madness and although it was on the small side, about fifty or so participants had arrived.
At it's height, Mass Madness had seen around double that number, but even with a smaller crowd, it was still fun. As I walked around, I mingled and observed, enjoying the atmosphere. Everyone was friendly. One of the first things I noticed about this group was that almost every one of them had a unique GameCube controller. Also, let me explain. Despite the game of Super Smash Brothers Brawl (hereby referred to as SSBB) being a Nintendo Wii game, just about all players used a GameCube controller, as it allowed for better control over their character compared to the Wii-mote and nunchuck control set up.
But I digress; It was hard to spot two remotes that looked the same between the fifty or so players. When I asked, I was told that most competitive Brawl players customized their controllers so they wouldn't lose them, and if they did, they'd be easy to recover. I was also told that some just did it because they liked having a unique remote, be it for show or for luck value. Some adorned their with stickers, others painted them. Some even removed half of the controller and replaced it with another controller's half so they'd have a silver and black GameCube controller, for instance. Other more extreme varients involved removing buttons and control sticks with other kinds of buttons and control sticks for a completely customized look.
As the Brawlers played, you could hear a lot of unique terms that you'd not recognize unless you were active in the competitive scene. I am half in and half out of the competitive scene, so I know most of them. One of my top favorites and probably one of the most common is "No Johns." It's a common retort when a player makes an excuse as to why they lost a match.
Most often the excuses are aimed at the stage they played on causing their loss, or the character they chose not being their "main", or character they use most often. It's used almost universally for any excuse, no matter how valid the excuse is. I soon came to find out that even if someone stabbed you in the side mid game, if you attempted to use that as an excuse for losing, you would be verbally smacked with "No Johns" until you submitted that you lost.
When I asked about it's origins, I was told that the term was coined back during Melee, when a Texas player named John would make excuses mercilessly, never accepting a loss. Eventually, people started to refer to excuses as "Johns" and those who made excuses were accused of "Johning", in reference to the most infamous excuse maker of them all. It eventually was warped into "No Johns", and is a universally accepted term in the community.
The next most important knowledge about the game is the existence of "tiers". In fighting games, tiers are a prominent feature of the metagame. Some characters are naturally designed better than others, and therefor can play better than other characters. People tend to play the higher tier characters to place better in tournaments. Tiers are established by the quality of a character in terms of how powerful he is regardless of the player.
Meta Knight is ranked first of all the characters, and is a universally despised character in the SSBB competitive scene. He's commonly referred to as "broken", because he is overpowered in comparison to a vast majority of all the other characters. He is faster than nearly all of the other characters, dies less often, can kill more often, and has one of the easiest learning curves compared to the other characters in the roster. I've even gotten comments from people who play as Meta Knight, saying that they hate the character, but use him just because they can win with the character. There have even been movements to ban the character from the competitive scene, but has been overturned multiple times by the staggering population of players who would hate to lose their dominance because of the character getting banned.
Despite the soreness between players who lost to Meta Knights or other characters deemed "cheap", a lot of the players were very cordial and polite. There were a few bad seeds that the players refer to as trolls, a term coined on the internet for those who cause conflict for the sole satisfaction of irritating people. But even then, the atmosphere was very fun and lighthearted. Also, among the players there are a large share of inside jokes either about the characters or sometimes even about players.
My best friend who had brought me to Mass Madness had told me in specific about a certain player who went by the handle "Inui" that they liked to make fun of. He was an incredibly sore loser, had and over-abundance of misplaced self-esteem and ego, and liked to trash other players who used the same character as him. So, the players in the SSBB community decided to create an "Inui Bingo" wherein they baited the player Inui online to say various things that were sometimes so ridiculous that you couldn't help but laugh. Although spiteful, most viewed it as well deserved. The SSBB community likes to poke fun at one another in some interesting ways.
Among the bingo slots were "Get Inui to trash another fellow Peach player" and "Cause Inui to rant on about how good he is" among others. This trend continued as other players who were often needlessly raucous and obnoxious had bingo cards made for them as well and distributed in secret.
Between intermissions in the tourney, the food was fairly common amongst the players despite the wide differences in people who attended. Almost universally, fast food was eaten at the tournament during the lunch break, and either soda or some kind of energy drink was consumed alongside of it.
After I had participated in the tournament and played against a handful of players before getting knocked out of the brackets. Even having gotten knocked out fairly early, it was still a fun social event and I got to meet a variety of interesting and hilarious people. One group in particular I played with had a penchant for shouting and grunting random things mid match in exaggerated voices. In the end, we strode out of the underground shop having enjoyed ourselves.
My best friend Kyle, after having buckled up and started the car, looked over to me as I continued jotting down notes. "Get enough material?" He asked, and I nodded. "I think I've got enough." I said, as we drove back to Fairhaven.
Nearly everyone was playing the same game to warm up before the tournament; Super Smash Brothers: Brawl. It was somewhat of a cult hit, this game. It originated on the Nintendo 64 as a royal rumble of sorts, starring all of the major characters of the Nintendo franchise. Link from Legend of Zelda, Mario from the world-renowned Mario Brothers games, Kirby, Samus from Metroid, Fox from Starfox... all of the characters were ones you'd know of if you were an old-school, hardcore Nintendo fan. It then moved to the GameCube, increasing the roster of characters with the release of Super Smash Brothers: Melee. Now, the competitive game on the Nintendo scene was Brawl.
As I scanned the crowd, I couldn't possibly find a single way to categorize them. There was no single definite label to give them as a whole. There were players of all ethnicity and colors, heights and weights, appearances and personalities. There were the archetypal video game nerds, the gangstaz wearing their bling and representin', the average Joes, the japanese "otaku", emo kids, scene kids, trendsetters. There was a little bit of everything here at this major Brawl tournament known to Brawlers (what the players of Brawl refer to themselves as a whole) as Mass Madness. This was the 17th Mass Madness and although it was on the small side, about fifty or so participants had arrived.
At it's height, Mass Madness had seen around double that number, but even with a smaller crowd, it was still fun. As I walked around, I mingled and observed, enjoying the atmosphere. Everyone was friendly. One of the first things I noticed about this group was that almost every one of them had a unique GameCube controller. Also, let me explain. Despite the game of Super Smash Brothers Brawl (hereby referred to as SSBB) being a Nintendo Wii game, just about all players used a GameCube controller, as it allowed for better control over their character compared to the Wii-mote and nunchuck control set up.
But I digress; It was hard to spot two remotes that looked the same between the fifty or so players. When I asked, I was told that most competitive Brawl players customized their controllers so they wouldn't lose them, and if they did, they'd be easy to recover. I was also told that some just did it because they liked having a unique remote, be it for show or for luck value. Some adorned their with stickers, others painted them. Some even removed half of the controller and replaced it with another controller's half so they'd have a silver and black GameCube controller, for instance. Other more extreme varients involved removing buttons and control sticks with other kinds of buttons and control sticks for a completely customized look.
As the Brawlers played, you could hear a lot of unique terms that you'd not recognize unless you were active in the competitive scene. I am half in and half out of the competitive scene, so I know most of them. One of my top favorites and probably one of the most common is "No Johns." It's a common retort when a player makes an excuse as to why they lost a match.
Most often the excuses are aimed at the stage they played on causing their loss, or the character they chose not being their "main", or character they use most often. It's used almost universally for any excuse, no matter how valid the excuse is. I soon came to find out that even if someone stabbed you in the side mid game, if you attempted to use that as an excuse for losing, you would be verbally smacked with "No Johns" until you submitted that you lost.
When I asked about it's origins, I was told that the term was coined back during Melee, when a Texas player named John would make excuses mercilessly, never accepting a loss. Eventually, people started to refer to excuses as "Johns" and those who made excuses were accused of "Johning", in reference to the most infamous excuse maker of them all. It eventually was warped into "No Johns", and is a universally accepted term in the community.
The next most important knowledge about the game is the existence of "tiers". In fighting games, tiers are a prominent feature of the metagame. Some characters are naturally designed better than others, and therefor can play better than other characters. People tend to play the higher tier characters to place better in tournaments. Tiers are established by the quality of a character in terms of how powerful he is regardless of the player.
Meta Knight is ranked first of all the characters, and is a universally despised character in the SSBB competitive scene. He's commonly referred to as "broken", because he is overpowered in comparison to a vast majority of all the other characters. He is faster than nearly all of the other characters, dies less often, can kill more often, and has one of the easiest learning curves compared to the other characters in the roster. I've even gotten comments from people who play as Meta Knight, saying that they hate the character, but use him just because they can win with the character. There have even been movements to ban the character from the competitive scene, but has been overturned multiple times by the staggering population of players who would hate to lose their dominance because of the character getting banned.
Despite the soreness between players who lost to Meta Knights or other characters deemed "cheap", a lot of the players were very cordial and polite. There were a few bad seeds that the players refer to as trolls, a term coined on the internet for those who cause conflict for the sole satisfaction of irritating people. But even then, the atmosphere was very fun and lighthearted. Also, among the players there are a large share of inside jokes either about the characters or sometimes even about players.
My best friend who had brought me to Mass Madness had told me in specific about a certain player who went by the handle "Inui" that they liked to make fun of. He was an incredibly sore loser, had and over-abundance of misplaced self-esteem and ego, and liked to trash other players who used the same character as him. So, the players in the SSBB community decided to create an "Inui Bingo" wherein they baited the player Inui online to say various things that were sometimes so ridiculous that you couldn't help but laugh. Although spiteful, most viewed it as well deserved. The SSBB community likes to poke fun at one another in some interesting ways.
Among the bingo slots were "Get Inui to trash another fellow Peach player" and "Cause Inui to rant on about how good he is" among others. This trend continued as other players who were often needlessly raucous and obnoxious had bingo cards made for them as well and distributed in secret.
Between intermissions in the tourney, the food was fairly common amongst the players despite the wide differences in people who attended. Almost universally, fast food was eaten at the tournament during the lunch break, and either soda or some kind of energy drink was consumed alongside of it.
After I had participated in the tournament and played against a handful of players before getting knocked out of the brackets. Even having gotten knocked out fairly early, it was still a fun social event and I got to meet a variety of interesting and hilarious people. One group in particular I played with had a penchant for shouting and grunting random things mid match in exaggerated voices. In the end, we strode out of the underground shop having enjoyed ourselves.
My best friend Kyle, after having buckled up and started the car, looked over to me as I continued jotting down notes. "Get enough material?" He asked, and I nodded. "I think I've got enough." I said, as we drove back to Fairhaven.
Rough Draft of my Personal Essay
Thursday, September 24, 2009
"Hey Kevin, why do you still wear that ring?" My mother would ask me. I'd look to my left hand, to the simple silver ring with the Celtic design I always wore. I felt my chest heave, as I pushed forth a quiet sigh. "I just think it looks cool." I'd say with a smile as I turn from her and head back into my room.
The ring I wear was given to me one day a while ago by one of my ex-girlfriends. Even now, it's something I wear religiously. Without it on, I get the annoying feeling that there's something crucial missing. Before you get some strange preconception of why I wear the ring, I don't wear it not because of feelings for her that I once had, like most people seem to think. The real reason why I wear it is usually too much of a hassle to explain, so I usually give a simple answer that's only skin-deep. In truth, that silver ring she gave me is actually my class ring. But that doesn't explain anything, does it? All that explanation does is create more questions.
Have you ever had something that reminds you of a collection of happy memories? A card, photo, or even a shirt? You love that object because it reminds you of a great time you had on a vacation, or times you spent with friends. That's exactly what this ring is; a collection of all my happy memories of the time I spent in high school.
I remember the day she gave me the ring towards the end of senior year, roughly about a half a month before I graduated. I had spent the day at her house, eaten a delicious dinner with her family while watching a movie with them, and was now heading home. Her mother was driving and my girlfriend of the time wanted to come along for the ride, sitting besides me in the back seat, her arm intertwined with mine.
I don't remember how the topic of class rings came up, but I can vividly remember the darkness that surrounded us in the backseat as we spoke softly to one another, the dusk of night outside the car silently rushing past us while we drove down route six in Fairhaven while we spoke.
I said I was depressed that all of my friends had gotten their class rings this year if they hadn't gotten them junior year. She smiled at me through the veil of the darkness in the car, as if it were the silliest thing to be sad over. I explained I couldn't afford one, and I wanted something to remember my high school time by. I felt stupid, wanting to have something material to represent immaterial objects like memories. I was waiting for her to say what I thought, but she never did. Instead, she was silent as her small forefinger and thumb pinched around a small silver ring she wore on the thumb of her right hand.
She pulled it off, and attempted to slide it onto my index finger, then realizing amusingly that most of my fingers were larger than her thumb, which seemed to somewhat annoy her. Eventually, she found the right finger, and slid it on triumphantly. "There. Problem solved. Now you have a class ring." She said with a grin. I was stricken silent by her sudden declaration. She understood my silent confusion and spoke again through the silence of the car.
"Every time you look at this ring, I want you to think about all the fun times and friends you made while you were here at FHS. That way this is your own class ring." She said and I couldn't help but laugh while I looked at the simple silver ring. She was a smart girl, doing that instead of fumbling with the conversation like I'm sure anyone else would have. She spent the rest of the night silently, with her head on my shoulder. I had nothing to say either, nothing else we may have said could've topped that moment of understanding between us.
Now, I look at the ring and I think about the trip I took with eleven other students to Dallas, Texas for the robotics championship our club got nominated to go to. I think about driving my robot with friends at local competitions, fundraising with friends for our club, my very first love, the engineering course that helped me decide my college major, having parties with my friends, bonfires, all the breakfasts and lunches filled with laughter in the lunchroom, and all of my friends who were going their separate ways once graduation rolled around. I smile even now as I watch the silver ring dance across the keyboard as I type this piece explaining what happened on that dark, meaningful ride home that urges me to continue wearing this simple silver ring even after the love between me and that girl had faded and disappeared.
I look to some of the other students in my college classes. Others have those dark steel rings with a large colored gem in them that look heavy and clunky in comparison to my sleek, bright silver ring. I think back with a chuckle to the time I wanted to get one and I instead got something measures better than I expected; a memory of a thoughtful, understanding person on top of every pleasant memory I had of my high school friends. Memories that I'll never forget, thanks to this quaint silver ring.
The ring I wear was given to me one day a while ago by one of my ex-girlfriends. Even now, it's something I wear religiously. Without it on, I get the annoying feeling that there's something crucial missing. Before you get some strange preconception of why I wear the ring, I don't wear it not because of feelings for her that I once had, like most people seem to think. The real reason why I wear it is usually too much of a hassle to explain, so I usually give a simple answer that's only skin-deep. In truth, that silver ring she gave me is actually my class ring. But that doesn't explain anything, does it? All that explanation does is create more questions.
Have you ever had something that reminds you of a collection of happy memories? A card, photo, or even a shirt? You love that object because it reminds you of a great time you had on a vacation, or times you spent with friends. That's exactly what this ring is; a collection of all my happy memories of the time I spent in high school.
I remember the day she gave me the ring towards the end of senior year, roughly about a half a month before I graduated. I had spent the day at her house, eaten a delicious dinner with her family while watching a movie with them, and was now heading home. Her mother was driving and my girlfriend of the time wanted to come along for the ride, sitting besides me in the back seat, her arm intertwined with mine.
I don't remember how the topic of class rings came up, but I can vividly remember the darkness that surrounded us in the backseat as we spoke softly to one another, the dusk of night outside the car silently rushing past us while we drove down route six in Fairhaven while we spoke.
I said I was depressed that all of my friends had gotten their class rings this year if they hadn't gotten them junior year. She smiled at me through the veil of the darkness in the car, as if it were the silliest thing to be sad over. I explained I couldn't afford one, and I wanted something to remember my high school time by. I felt stupid, wanting to have something material to represent immaterial objects like memories. I was waiting for her to say what I thought, but she never did. Instead, she was silent as her small forefinger and thumb pinched around a small silver ring she wore on the thumb of her right hand.
She pulled it off, and attempted to slide it onto my index finger, then realizing amusingly that most of my fingers were larger than her thumb, which seemed to somewhat annoy her. Eventually, she found the right finger, and slid it on triumphantly. "There. Problem solved. Now you have a class ring." She said with a grin. I was stricken silent by her sudden declaration. She understood my silent confusion and spoke again through the silence of the car.
"Every time you look at this ring, I want you to think about all the fun times and friends you made while you were here at FHS. That way this is your own class ring." She said and I couldn't help but laugh while I looked at the simple silver ring. She was a smart girl, doing that instead of fumbling with the conversation like I'm sure anyone else would have. She spent the rest of the night silently, with her head on my shoulder. I had nothing to say either, nothing else we may have said could've topped that moment of understanding between us.
Now, I look at the ring and I think about the trip I took with eleven other students to Dallas, Texas for the robotics championship our club got nominated to go to. I think about driving my robot with friends at local competitions, fundraising with friends for our club, my very first love, the engineering course that helped me decide my college major, having parties with my friends, bonfires, all the breakfasts and lunches filled with laughter in the lunchroom, and all of my friends who were going their separate ways once graduation rolled around. I smile even now as I watch the silver ring dance across the keyboard as I type this piece explaining what happened on that dark, meaningful ride home that urges me to continue wearing this simple silver ring even after the love between me and that girl had faded and disappeared.
I look to some of the other students in my college classes. Others have those dark steel rings with a large colored gem in them that look heavy and clunky in comparison to my sleek, bright silver ring. I think back with a chuckle to the time I wanted to get one and I instead got something measures better than I expected; a memory of a thoughtful, understanding person on top of every pleasant memory I had of my high school friends. Memories that I'll never forget, thanks to this quaint silver ring.
Brainstorming thoughts.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
I'm kinda annoyed with my progress on my personal essay so far (or lack thereof). Nothing has stuck out much in mind that in my opinion would serve as a good start for the essay. I have a few bland ideas in mind, but they don't seem to be very interesting to write about and I feel that if I don't enjoy writing it, odds are that people won't enjoy reading it either. Which in the end, seems like a waste of writing if no one enjoys reading it. What I'm hoping for is that while I'm busy doing something else, be it playing a video game, doing other classes' homework, or writing a chapter of one of my stories, a good idea will suddenly roll out of my head and my eyes will widen as if I had experienced an epiphany. That's the way I work, which turns out to be a pain at times. I get my best ideas when they're the least useful; IE: While taking a shower. While doing yard work. While I'm walking my dog at the park. With a few gentle nudges, I'm sure that good idea will come forth.
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