Returning to wellness

At the end of spring, I was super-motivated to work out due to the fact that I had an approaching Memorial Day weekend at the beach, but since my return I have slowly fallen off. With all of the summer socializing, working out and eating right hasn't always seemed like the most fun option. But over this hiatus, I have found myself feeling sluggish and fat, so I realized that it is time to start things up again. This week, I have decided that I am not only returning to a consistent workout schedule but that I will also be pairing it with the South Beach Diet, which during it's first 2 week consists of very few carbohydrates, eating 5 times a day, and absolutely no alcohol. I have done the Atkins diet in the past and know that I am very capable of doing no carbs, I just thought that this time, I would give South Beach a try, because most people find it to be a healthy alternative to the low/no carb lifestyle. As for my fitness goals, I want to try a muscle confusion approach, meaning that I want to do something different every day that I work out. The psychology behind this exercise plan is that one's body never gets used to the same routine and therefore continue to move forward in gaining results. Hopefully this new plan will get my body bathing suit ready for the vacation my boyfriend and I are planning for the end of August.

Starting things up again with my blog.

So lately I have been feeling restless; no jobs, very few prospects, and not much to show for it. So I have decided that little by little, I am going to update my portfolio and get back in the saddle!! I thought I would begin with returning to my blog, and making regular entries. Instead of blogging about video game censorship,or game design, I will be blogging about various things that interest me and affect my day-to-day life; relationship issues, reality television, fitness, nutrition, film production, entertaining, and travel. I'm feeling excited to get back in the habit, and look forward to creating more entertaining and informative blogs in the future!!!!

Feeling nervous

It doesn't help that I barely slept last night, so brace yourself if I'm not sounding optimistic. Today, I learned that along with having to continue doing the navigation I must also add sound to the game, and a little annimation. That would be fine except for the fact that we have a week and...I'm not really sure how to do that! I'm definitely going to try my best and put in the extra time when I can, it's going to be tough because I have a lot of other things to finish. I am willing to try, but I'm nervous that it's not going to come together. Monica says that if I study the template and model my navigation from it, things should go well. Unfortunately, I feel a lot of this stuff is a foreign language to me, but I'm willing to give it a shot. Although I'm really cranky today, I'm going to suck it up and try!

Wal-Mart sells Christian based video games?

Around 100 different Wal-Mart Supercenters in Texas have been selling Christian-based video games by developer, Left Behind Video Games. The success of sales encouraged the corporation to expand the sales in various Wal-Mart stores throughout the country.
Typically, I write about games that are violent and graphic, so why would I write about christian-based games? Well, I find them to be equally as controversial as the "bad" ones. I feel like if there are going to be religious video games to be sold at retailers, all religions should be covered, i.e. jewish games, ilsamic games, buddist games, etc. If we are allowed the right to freedom of religion, national chains should not back a specific one. It shows bias and discrimination to a certain level. Therefore, I have no problem with the development of religion-based video games, however I do have a problem with Wal-Mart supporting the sales of Christian games specifically.

Continuing the game

As the end is nearing, some changes and compromises have been made in order to make food forecast a reality. First of all, there will only be one year instead of four to win the game. and Secondly,there may or may not be a "did you know?" screen that pops up after the season. I am currently working on the transitions to the different seasons and creating the potential "did you know" screens, so we'll have to see how it goes. I think we need to have a few more meetings to see where we stand but I think each of us understands our roles and what needs to be done by the 27th. Wish us luck!

Game Developer Speaks Out Against Game Critics

Karsten Lund, the director of the upcoming game, Kane and Lynch: Dog Days, spoke to computer and videogames.com about parents and political figures who wish to speak out against violence in the gaming industry. Lund says, "I'm not an expert in psychology, but I do think that some of these opinions come from an outside crowd that's not really used to dealing with games, they just watch it and think, 'Oh it's got to be affecting people.'" Lund believes that video gamers, "know the difference between real life and games." he goes on to say, "Even Chess is a violent game about war you could say, right? Games are a chance to try stuff that you're not trying in real life and without having to face the consequences."
Although Lund makes a few valid points, I definitely feel that he is downplaying the effect that violent video games has on certain audiences. I also feel like using chess as a comparative example is unrealistic. Although the concept of chess is based around basic warfare, the player does not see a graphic depiction of people killing each other anywhere in the game.

New Week: New Task!

I FINALLY have the instructions and title screens linking to each other. Now I need to connect the start buttons with the opening scene. I have done the majority of the coding and now I am planning on ironing out the kinks. I feel that now that I have successfully completed one area of this task, it will be easier to understand how to do the coding for the rest of the game. I plan on finishing this task by the end of the week and begin linking the seasons together within the game. Last week, I was a little nervous, but I am starting to see that if each of us continues to do our part, we have a fighting chance of completing food forecast by our April 27th deadline!