For kicks, if you have a blogger with Google, follow me at http://walkerwhited.blogspot.com/.
I post photographs I take over the year and try to talk about them a little. I just started updating it again today. Thanks.
-Walker Whited
So the chapter on Play pretty much told me video game playing is fun and constructive, in most cases. Video games can help solve real world issues, recruit people into the military, and open ones mind to new things. One of the activities said to go learn about video games by going in a store or by getting a demo or looking in a magazine, well I am a freshman in college so obviously I know what videos games are. So I tweaked this activity called Get Your Game On, and I got my game on… very nerdily, if that’s a word. I broke out a classic nerdy game called The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. 
Picture from: http://diendangames.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5112
To play this game you have to have nerdy side since its sort of like World of Warcraft but not online. You are in the time of kings and queens on a make shift world stopping the portals of hell from opening; the usual. As I played though I actually thought about the problems that I was solving and thought about real world issues. The first problem I came to went like this: a lady found some cursed staff that summoned and made mythical creatures follow her around that made creepy breathing noises, kind of like most people that play WOW.
She asks me to help her, so I could say no and leave her to be stuck in her house the rest of her life (a respectful lady wouldn’t go out with weird things following her that apparently smell really really bad), or I could help her and take the staff thus making the creatures follow me and take it to where it was originally found releasing the curse and thus getting rid of the creatures. The problem with saying yes is that it puts my character in danger. I have to go through a cave full of badies and figure out where to put the staff.
Obviously since it’s not real I don’t care and I say yes. Now I know curses and staffs and mythical bad smelling creatures aren’t real, but doesn’t this all kind of help in a way in real life? It teaches me to see things through moralistic eyes, by helping her, and it teaches me how to help other people… sort of. There are tons more problems that can be solved in the game to expand the mind. Its just like a problem solving game but ten times better. Instead of doing a cross word or some silly math problem, i’m closing gates to hell and helping people out of life long torment. Sounds like something i’d do in real life.
One of the main differences I thought about between the game and real life, other than crazy fictional worlds and creatures, I could mess up as many times as needed and just load the game all over again. I wish I could do that at least once ever day.
I’m still not buying the whole, playing video games can one day stop world hunger or stop terrorism, or whatever else, idea. If playing video games could help me pass my CS class or other peoples Chem classes that would be great, but now I do understand the problem solving connection between real life and video games more. So I say lets get in there and couch potato it up!
-Walker Whited
Assignment from Daniel Pink’s “A Whole New Mind.”
Symphony: a puzzle piece. Take unrelated objects and ideas and make them related.
“Create an Inspiration Board.”
Yes please. Every day I see and hear things that inspire me, even if I don’t do something with that inspiration. Today I searched for inspiration rather then stumbled upon it.
As a musician, I become inspired constantly since I listen to music constantly. Every time I hear something awesome or see something awesome onstage by another band, shivers run up and down my spine. Yes, it’s a little weird… One of the biggest inspirations I drive from is a band from my home town called The Crash Years. Yes. This is now a plug. Check them out. They are quality.
Photo from: http://www.facebook.com/thecrashyearsmusic
This song is called “The Only Way to Make a Mark.” This video is live at a local show. This video was made by me and W^2 Media. Yay.
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Want to see something weird that inspires me?!
Photo from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/8720585/Libya-conflict-rebels-inside-Muammar-Gaddafis-Bab-al-Aziziya-compound-in-Tripoli.html?image=14
People standing up for what they believe is right in Libya inspires me.
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As a film maker, this short film inspires me. I like to watch it when I need inspiration on a script or for a film. I’m about to start doing music videos for some bands and this will probably come in handy even though its not a music video. The imagery and symbolism invoke awe and a sense of emotion.
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Again as a musician, this inspired me when I found it… Its just unbelievable that she can do all this and it sounds so good! She reminds me of three of my friends, Trevor Wiggins, Tyler Carter, and Dillon Tanksley. All of them are truely inspirational musicians. Dillon can make simple beats on Garageband and then expand them into complex raps and songs. Trevor has a studio that he raps in constantly. Tyler is now a very well known singer, known for his R&B voice, but he became known for his old band Woe, Is Me, a heavy hardcore electronic style band. This girl in this video and all of those friends truly inspire me.
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All of these different songs and people and photos inspire in the same exact way. Each of them drive me to be a better person, or be better at what I do each day. I know non of these things are inspirational in the way that the “You’re ok” song is inspiration, but for what I do and what I strive to accomplish these things are inspirational to me. There is so much more in the world that inspires me and drives me to strive to become greater and what I do, but of course I can’t think or find any of it right now. As these posts continue I may update this one or keep making more filled with things that inspire me.
-Walker Whited
How we begin…
So, each of us brought in a product we made. I brought in a Flavor Flav clock. I really don’t know why. I had nothing in my room that I had made in previous years, so I tried to think of something simple, stupid, and original. So I got some paper, pens and scissors and went at it. What we decided we should TRY to do is create a collage out of tiny pictures that display people doing creative things around campus. People, at Tech, doing right brained activities. I’m not quite sure its possible, but we shall see. The collage will create a brain, more specifically, a right brain. Our second idea, if that one does not work, we will create some sort of film depicting left brain activities. It will be awesome of course. No matter what we do, we will use our right brains to create said product and we will illustrate others using their right brains.
-Walker Whited
