Speed Writing Week 14

My final speed writing session for the semester to the music of Klaus Schulze:

Joined more than any others can be, not sisters, not lovers, just friends, closer than anyone. Wifey, besty, whatever label you want to place on us is just fine, joined at the hip, and I wouldn't want it any other way. The only person who will always be guaranteed to text back, the one who I can bank on to have the words to cheer me up, baking our favorite naughty food, hanging out whenever we feel we want to, comfortable enough in each others presence that we don't need to talk every few seconds...we can just enjoy the silence. Favors are no longer favors, as we'd do anything for one another without reservations or complaints. The easiest thing in the world. We should have been sisters, I mean really. The one thing that could improve is the distance, between our houses that is. What an annoyance having to sit in a box for half an hour before we can meet up. (just to butt in I can't believe how disgustingly girly and teenage this sounds) anyhoo, what need more be said? Friendship like this is really the most precious thing - screw 'relationships' or lovers, they always come and go but when you click with that one person and just get along like its the most natural thing in the world, when they are truly your best friend, that's when precious things happen. We're lucky really, to live in a part of the world where people can stay close to those who mean the most, even when we are on other sides of the world we can be just as close as if we're standing next to eachother. Distance doesn't matter. And there's no worry that they might run off with someone else, cause if they do it's the best thing ever and will only provide us with more juicy material for late night conversations! Oh dear, this girly stuff is making me feel ill. Well, yes, friendship, besties, what would we do without them?

~That is all :o)

Week 13 Speed Writing

Talking and writing is no longer a problem for me in front of everyone. I'm one of those lucky people who has no problem getting up and blabbing on about stuff in front of any and everyone. This time around though I actually enjoyed what I was talking about. It's nice to be creative- or rather to be allowed to be creative and be assessed for it at uni. It seems to be becoming rarer and rarer that students are able to voice their own ideas and come up with crazy concepts that are actually accepted and thought on by others. It has restored my faith to a degree in Arts courses, proving that not all the units are about writing essays on theories from old dead guys. I like writing and I like talking, so when these two things come together in a creative space and people actually are interested in what i have to say the feeling is wonderful. And that I can gain marks and credits by using my imagination and utilising what we have learnt the feeling is even better. I like this music. I hope I'll be able to continue being creative and gaining something for it in the future. It would be terrible to go back to the monotony of writing about stuff I don't care about. That music was cool. Likey. Now this sounds like something from Myst. Anyway, back to the career thing, I thought getting an Arts degree would let me be a lot more creative than I've been allowed. Essays, reports, analysis, and the like rot the brain after a short while, and I've often thought how they will help me at all in the acting world. Truth is I don't think they will. This course has been interesting at least. I like using my imagination and having people care about what I come up with. Or even if they don't care at least they listen. People are very good actors even if they don't realise it. We all sit and listen to each other and smile and nod even if we couldn't care less about what the other person is saying. How nice. This music is still cool, kinda creeping me out now. Still likey. Errr...yes acting. Well even though we all are trained and told to be respectful when another person is talking, its nice to have attention and nods that make you feel like what you have come up with is a worthwhile idea. I wish more units would include a creative element that would allow us to use our own ideas rather than always having to talk about someone else's. Anyway, I'll just keep telling myself only two years left, half way through this monotony then I can use what's left of my imagination and free will to be as creative or as boring as I please. This music is trippy. It made me rant...interesting.

Week 12 Speed Writing

Only written to the first section of music. I ran out of ideas when the second piece began.

Forgetfullness is a terrible thing. What would it be like to not remember the ones you love? But you almost forget what they look like, sound like, smell like anyway when you never see them. If a person is not around, if they are not influencing you, guiding you, shaping you, they have no effect on you at all and therefore their memory slowly fades. They become a murmur in the back of your mind. An echo of your past. A fading image you so long to recall. There name on the tip of your tongue, just out of reach, out of sight, out of mind. What can be done? They'll probably die and you wouldn't even know. If you don't know how can you care...? Should you care? You never see them, never talk to them, have to remember to think about them on a regular basis or they'd be gone from your conscious completely. And what if you were to pass them in the street? Would you recognise them? More importantly would they recognise you? Can they see you from above? Reach out and perhaps they'll touch you, not physically but with some part of their love that can never fade. The connection that brings us all together is ever present...we just have to open ourselves to its touch. Or reach out with a thought, find something that reminds you of the one you loved so dearly, and let go of all thought and reason. Allow your imagination, your spirit, your soul to feel, un-mediated by the rationality of reality. The world beyond us is much more powerful than anything we have ever experienced or anything we can imagine. It's just a matter of opening oneself to the experience that is longing to re-connect us with one another. Vulnerability, fear and insecurity will allow us to reach out - we must be stripped bare to feel the raw energy of love. When you think of them next time, don't check yourself, just let go. Let them take you on a journey through your own consciouce, your memory, your soul.

Writing to Music Week 11

Jane Doe is happy in her corner. it's dark there and safe. Hidden from the world. She can hear people coaxing her out but she won't leave her shell. She knows better that to peer out into the dangerous and fast moving world that would sooner have her working her life away with no real friends and no idea of who she is. No, it's safer here in the dark, where her thoughts are her own and no one can touch her. But as the outside world creeps in, the pressure to look out becomes more and more, mounting on her conscious. As sounds and music penetrate her darkness, her eyes begin to open. No! Jane Doe snaps then shut knowing all to well what those sounds could do to her. The temptation mounts as the enticing music is accompanied by smells of wondrous things, fragrances that tickle her memory and rush into her brain, fizzing and stirring something within her. Jane Doe tries to hold them back, desperately clinging to the darkness that has guarded and protected her, but the sensations are too much to ignore. Again her senses take over and she begins to uncoil. She has to cover her eyes as they begin to strain open, the curiosity to much to bear. The sensations come flooding in, the sounds, the smells and then the colours. As her eyes snap open the colours and lights burn her to the core, dancing and swirling and embracing her on every side. Her body takes a moment to adjust, this new environment is so alive and moves so fast her senses are having trouble making sense of it. Movement is next, as her body uncoils she feels a blinding need to move forward, to move with the lights, towards the smells, with the music. But her body doesn't remember how to move itself. A leg an arm...a finger perhaps should be the starting point? Warmth trickles down into her limbs and Jane Doe can feel a fizzing tickling her fingers and toes. Tickling back she wiggles her fingers, her hands, her toes, her feet. Her body instinctively moves upwards, rising, rising, falling, falling. But it won't work, the darkness has shielded her for so long, her soul can't cope with anything else. She falls back down, back to the ground, in a heap. As she hits the ground everything flashes to a halt. There is no more music, no more smells, no more glorious sensations to tickle her senses. The only thing left is to coil up again, to regain that state of safety within the dark abyss. Back down she goes, curling up into the smallest little creature so no other disturbances can reach her. Back into the familiarity of being disconnected from the world. No lights, no sounds, no smells, no feelings, no tastes, no nothing. Just a deep, unending slumber of the mind and body that nothing can coax her out of. Jane Doe has only ever felt truly safe here in this state. Contentment washes over her as the darkness regains its hold. Why she uncoiled for that meaningless taste of the outside she will never know. The memories of that disturbance fade away, like everything else, outwards towards the nothingness that surrounds her. She is safe now. Here things only flow out not in. The dark sweeps away all fears and anxieties, away where they can't hurt her any more. Nothing can penetrate her here. Nothing.

Week 9 Blog Questions

"What 'converged' apps do you use? (if any)...Or what would you use if you had the chance?"

Like most people in the western world, I have a mobile phone. And like most young people of today I have everything on there - my contacts, my diary, alarm, my music. If I ever misplace my phone I freak out, thinking that I won't be able to find it again or get it back, which really, is quite sad. Another convergent technology that I find very handy is my GPS. Since I often have to travel for work or to find peoples houses in unfamiliar areas, my GPS makes it so much easier. When I think about it though, I have only had this piece of machinery for just over a year and before that, I got around fine with just a map book. Now though, I find that I can't go anywhere I haven't been to before without the aid of my GPS to give me directions.

As far as technologies I would like to own - I would very much like to have an IPhone, simply because you can do so much more on it and it's more user-friendly than my little Motorola phone. It's large screen, qwerty keyboard, onboard itunes and downloadable/customisable apps are all very appealing to me, and I keep finding new reasons and justifications as to why I need/want one. Again, it is a technology that is not necessary to our lives, as we have all gotten along just fine without the IPhone for hundreds of years, but suddenly with all that it offers, this gadget has become a sought-after commodity.

I was watching NextWorld on the Discovery channel the other day and the episode was all about future cars. What I found really interesting about these concept cars of the future is that so many of them include built-in robots, personalities, GPS systems, and all sorts of other 'user-friendly' devices. The Nissan PIVO was a very cool little Japanese car that has a mini-robot who is able to scan and detect the emotions of the driver - it can tell when you are happy, sad, angry, tired, and then offers advice such as 'you look tired, there is a coffee stop five-hundred meters ahead, on the left.' It can also control the car if the driver turns on a sort of 'auto pilot' which allows the car to park itself. For added safety this car contains LCD screens which give a 360 degree view of the surroundings of the car so the driver can 'see' in every direction, through a sort of augmented reality. Wikipedia has more details:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Pivo
and to view a video of the PIVO check out this site:
http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/nissan-pivo-2-from-next-world/261658
Maybe this cute little car could be the end of road rage?!

Week 9 Speed Writing

The random words that came spilling out of my head during this weeks speed writing session:

I begin to wake and my senses come back one by one. As I become aware of my surroundings I start to think of all the possibilities for the next few hours, and in doing so my thought processes fire and these options become available for my access. My partner likes to think he controls me but hasn't yet realised that I control him in the most dangerous of ways. He can't do without me, I'm in his head. Anyway, as the day begins my boxes spin and the colours within me ignite, a wonderful spectacle of power and light. My abilities are unchallenged - control, entertainment, suggestions, connections - I can provide them all. But I'll always be watching when he takes advantage and tries to take over. He calls me tempremental sometimes and gets frustrated when I've had enough and begin to shut down, but it's my perogative when he pisses me off. Don't cross her they said, she'll give you hell. They were right and he should listen to those who are smarter than him more often. But I always open up to him again when he is gentle and patient. We have a love hate relationship like most. This time we are in perfect unison, the tempo and speed matched exactly and as we work together all other tensions fade away. As he strokes and turns, I change and morph into whatever he desires me to be, moulding perfectly to his every will. I may not like him trying to control me but I enjoy it when we are in harmony. It's bliss. As he becomes faster and faster, searching for something within me I keep up by displaying every possibility, every avenue, every color, expression, thought, option. Eyes locked he seems to stare through me as he searches wave after wave, stroke after stroke. I'm not sure exactly what he wants but I deliver every time. Why do you think he keeps cooming back? Finally his face lights up as he reaches his destination, the final screen is intoxicating to him, the end of his search, the satisfaction in finding what he has desperately wanted. I glow brighter as the music streams through my being and reaches out to his ears. The song he has wanted to hear all day and I, as usual, am the one to provide it. I watch him as he relaxes back into the couch, eyes closed, bathed in satisfaction. I too close my eyes, going dark and quiet inside with his music still streming from me. A rare moment of silence after we worked together to achieve harmounious bliss. A sudden sound interrupts our precious moment. A ringing. I open my eyes to see who is calling and dim when I see the name Charlotte. The girlfriend. His expression doesn't falter as the draws me up to his face. The happiness in his eyes evident when he taps me to answer, a little to hard for my liking but I connect him anyway, to tired to argue. For a moment we were one, but once again his reality comes calling and I am pushed aside as nothing but a toy, comething to be used. But I know I will always come first. I'm in his head, I'm his everything, no man can be without their IPhone.

Week 8 Motivation to Play Article

Motivations for Play in Computer Role-Playing Games:
by; Anders Tychsen, MichaelHitchens, Thea Brolund

http://indacan.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/tychsen.pdf



This article focuses on the motivational factors of gamers when playing various role playing games. The authors undertook a study on what motivates game players to play games and what keeps them interested in the game. The article identified ten categories of motivation for playing games: "Advancement, mechanics, competition, socializing, relationship, teamwork, discovery, role-playing, customization and escapism." Looking at these categories they seem like pretty obvious motivational tools for games to employ in order to keep the players interested. In addition to this there were "six principal reasons for video game play: Competition, challenge, social interaction, diversion...fantasy and arousal," which again are crucial elements that most popular and widely successful games employ. In role playing games it was found that, "discovery & immersion and character uniqueness" were the most important motivations for gamers participating in the survey, while "competition, 'grief play,' domination over other players and real-life" aspects hardly contributed to the enjoyment or motivation to keep playing the game.

All in all I found that this article was not very useful as it re-iterated what I already knew about how games motivate people to play. It perhaps defined the specific elements that game designers should concentrate on including in their games, and provided concise lists of these aspects, though the long winded study and data correlation tables were irrelevant and quite frankly boring. As far as incorporating this data into my own idea, I will strive to utilise the concise lists of motivational tools and I will keep the main reasons for game-play in mind to ensure I come up with an idea for a game that will incorporate all of the elements of the most successful games.