Christmas with Family

Mom said something to me on Sunday that I just can't stop thinking about. She said, "Autumn, make sure you soak everything in and enjoy this time, because you're not going to remember it. You'll think that you'll never forget, but it's all so busy that you will."

Of course she's right, because she's my mom and she's always right. December has been an absolute whirlwind with college graduation, Christmas, and the fast approaching wedding and honeymoon. I probably won't remember most of this stuff. It'll all just be a big, happy but vaguely stressed blur.

So this weekend while Logan and I visited family, I made sure to actually take pictures.

At the Smiths' we played the worst game ever -- Aggravation. Somehow I managed to win, but it was as frustrating as all get out

When we opened presents, we found out that Logan's mom accidentally bought his brother the same exact sweater she got him last year. Which he was wearing that day. Hilarity ensued.

At the Shulers' we played a super intense game of Settlers of Catan, which Logan got for Christmas from his parents. My parents had never even heard of the game, but both had a pretty good time and came very close to winning. Unfortunately for them, I was the champion.

Poor Logan had a terrible game, but made the most of a bad situation by recreating Stonehenge out of Catan bits.

All in all, it was a great Christmas weekend with family!

Final Wedding Plans and a Wedding Band

Yesterday was a blur of driving and wedding plans. I went back home to get all the final details for the ceremony and reception down, which was simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying.

I'm getting married in a week!

I'm getting married in a week!?










The excited side is waaaaaay stronger than the scared side though. And Nola Ann at The Prizing House was super nice and made me feel assured that yes, everything was indeed taken care of, and no, I didn't forget anything huge and important.

Afterwards, Logan and I went to get his wedding band and to eat! That's a monkey off our back, because we weren't sure the ring was going to get here in time. But all is well, and we celebrated by going to The Pub.

It seems that we've been eating out a lot lately, but the end of November through now has been full of celebrations, and food is certainly how we celebrate.

Janelle Monae

Recently, my friend Emma showed me this video:



I fell in love with the song and the video as soon as I heard/saw it, but only today did it occur to me to look up Monae on Spotify.

I like all of her stuff.

I'm not one hundred percent sure what it is about her music that speaks to me so completely, but I am completely hooked. I'm especially digging The Electric Lady, her newest album, and the one that "Q.U.E.E.N." comes from.

The Electric Lady's radio show sound makes a great album even more interesting and rewards listening to the entire thing as a whole rather than just one or two songs at a time, which I appreciate. There's a cohesiveness there than really gets me going.

I'm so glad I heard Monae's music and I'm happy to have a new artist to get into. I sense a binge session of her music coming on.

Generational Fear Gap

Lenora's final presentation today was eye-opening for me. I had an epiphany.

Older people think I'm really good at technology. I'm not. I'm just not afraid of it like many of them are.

For example, my last boss and I started Twitter accounts at the same time. Neither one of us had any clue what we were doing, but he just assumed that because I was a twenty-something, I would "get" it and then could teach him. I was fighting off questions about what makes a "good" tweet, how to use a hashtag, and what the heck all the @s were.

Because he was worried about all this stuff, my boss wouldn't try anything. His Twitter account sat stagnant while mine started somehow gaining followers. The difference was that I just tried stuff to see what worked. My strategy with digital writing -- any writing really -- is just to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.

I think this is a common theme between the generations. Older people that didn't grow up with ridiculous amount of technology are afraid they'll "mess it up" or "break" it, but my generation knows that it can always be wiped and started over.

Social Engagement

Today was my last meeting with my Writing for Social Change class in Over-the-Rhine, and I'm having very mixed feelings about it. I'm excited because that means I'm one step closer to graduation, but I'm also bummed. That class got me thinking about social issues in a way that I never would have before, and for that I'm grateful.

I'm aware that I could always go out and continue engaging myself in social issues outside of the class, but it was so nice to have some guidance. I feel like that's a big part of all the problems we have in the world. People want to fix them, but aren't sure how. It's overwhelming to tackle social injustice and not knowing where to start something can make you feel like you'd be no help at all. At least, that's how I often feel.

There's no real point to this story. I don't know what my next step is as a socially engaged citizen and I'm not 100% sure how to figure it out. I just wanted to share my feelings with you with the hope that maybe you can help me stay engaged. Leave me a comment and let me know.

Professionalism on the Internet

Katharine's final presentation in Writing in the Digital Age focused on professionalism in digital writing. This concept is one that both excites and terrifies me.

I mean, on the one hand, we're more visible than ever before, which means it's easier to connect with others and share our experiences. On the other hand, if an employer deems a topic that we've talked about unsavory, then that can be held against us in the workplace.

I'm not one that does much that anyone would deem inappropriate, but I still think about this stuff. For example, I don't curse on the Internet, I don't talk about alcohol on any of my social media sites, and I don't get political as often as I want to. All for the sake of professional appearance.

A common argument I hear against making these kind of changes is that you don't want to work for someone who would hold those types of things against you anyway, and that's a fairly good argument, but not one that can always be followed. Sometimes, an employer wouldn't want to hold something against you, but it isn't always up to them. Often there are official rules and protocol to follow for the sake of the company at large, and I can appreciate that.

What are your thoughts on professionalism on the Internet?

Practicality of Digital Writing

Abby's final presentation for Writing in the Digital Age was a redefined rubric for the class focused more on practicality of projects, and less on the theories and motivations behind digital writings.

While I'm inclined to agree with this sentiment, being a big fan of practicality myself, I enjoyed talking about the theory behind digital communication. I like knowing, or at least thinking about, how and why things work. Plus, the beauty behind so much of what we've been talking about is that it's best figured out by just doing it!

That being said, Abby's presentation was beautifully said and we agreed on a lot of what we liked about the class.

Twitter as a Discussion Board

It's funny how many of my digital writing classmates's final presentations have featured Twitter. Before this past summer I had only the vaguest ideas about how Twitter was supposed to work, and now I have enough knowledge about it to find myself able to debate about its use in our class and its potential use in future classes.

Marc's comments about live-tweeting a class particularly got me thinking about Twitter and its implications. He suggested that there be one class period held completely on Twitter, with no face-to-face meeting. I think that idea is interesting, but a little overwhelming. I don't like sitting and reading Twitter for long periods of time, and find discussions on the site are often hard to follow. The occasional lag between a point and people's reactions often causes confusion because other comments get thrown in and it's hard to follow who is talking about what.

But it would still be interesting to see, if only to get a feel for how Twitter functions as an actual discussion tool.

Link to the Past, Part 5: The End

Image from justpushstart.com

I beat it! After many, many fights against Ganon at the end and many curse words being slung around in the final few dungeons, I beat Link to the Past.

This actually happened a week or so ago, but I totally forgot to post about it because I started Ocarina of Time almost immediately after turning off the Super Nintendo. 

Overall, I liked the game a great deal, despite my belly-aching about the more difficult bits. It was challenging without making me feel like it was completely impossible, the story was ok, and it was quite charming. I understand why it's one of Logan's favorites, and I liked it enough that I might even play it again sometime in the future.

Video Game Writing

With the full onset of winter always comes the winter blues. Not having lots of sunlight makes me cranky and apathetic in equal measure, which is not a good combination for me or anyone that has to be around me. Lately I've noticed that Logan also seems to be getting the winter blues, despite his normal aversion to sunlight, and I made it a mission to figure out something that could cheer us both up.

I've always found that being creative gets me out of my funks, and suggested to Logan that he find something creative to do, either with or without me. After a few days of thinking about what he'd like to take on, he thought it would be cool to make a video game. He's made really short games before and had a good time, so I agreed that it was a great idea.

Then he asked me if I could write it.

And I was all like

.gif from imgur

Because of this recent occurrence, I found Nate's presentation on games as literature extra fascinating that I normally would have. Telling stories through video games is so different than what I'm used to, and I'm stoked to stretch myself in this new direction!

Kids and Reading

I've loved reading since I was very young, so I found Kathryn, Lexi, and Jenna's final project for class fascinating. They interviewed three sets of young kids about reading physical books vs. reading on a e-reader.

All the kids had read on an e-reader, which blew my mind a little bit, and all of them found reading "real" books and on a screen equally fun. In fact, they seemed to have trouble differentiating between the two. That got me thinking about my own reading experience and how I would have like to read off a screen growing up.

As a kid, I think I would have adored reading off of a reader. I was the type to look up every word I didn't know, make notes about passages I particularly liked, and carry around more than one book at a time. Heck, I'm still that type, which is why I love reading off my Kindle. It's all integrated right in one device, which is super portable to boot. Do I love the aesthetics of books? Of course. But I also love being able to do things with the story as I read, and e-readers make it almost obscenely easy.

What are your thoughts? Do you enjoy reading on a reader? Why or why not? Please, let me know in the comments!

Klout

Well, I created a Klout account. After hearing Kelsey and Ashley's presentation, I just had to try it out.

So far, nothing interesting has happened, since it's just updating to include my multitude of accounts. I hadn't realized how many things I'm involved in until I had to include them on my Klout profile. I was surprised that Pinterest isn't an option, and bummed that Ravelry isn't. Not that the Ravelry thing surprises me.

Speaking of, when adding topics to my list on there, I was sad to see that "yarn" wasn't an option. Knitting and crochet were represented, but not yarn. I love talking about yarn! Super bummer.

Whatever, Klout. Yarn is totally an awesome topic. Here's a picture to prove it. By the way, if anyone wanted to get me anything from the shop linked in the caption below, I'd love it.

I don't care if you work with yarn or not, this stuff is pretty! Image from Alcidina on Etsy.

Live-Tweeting -- Does It Have to Be New?

Even though I use it fairly regularly, I still don't 100% "get" Twitter. Of course, I don't think anyone really does. It's too new and different from everything else.

Something that I'm currently struggling with is the concept of live-tweeting, something that was explored by my classmates Ryan and Ranee during Writing for the Digital Age.  I get that it's tweeting about something in real time, but I'm having trouble putting it into practice.

Let me give you my example.

I'm currently playing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. For those of you who don't know, I'm very late to the party on this, because the game came out a long time ago. Nevertheless, I'm currently playing it and I'd like to tweet about my reactions to it in real time, but I'm wondering if that's incorrect Twitter etiquette.

Is it ok to live-tweet something that isn't current to the world at large if it's current to me? This is not a rhetorical question -- please give me your thoughts/opinions/suggestions in the comments section!

The Emotional Significance of Pictures

My classmate Hannah Hearn's final presentation for Writing for the Digital Age was about emotions through drawings. She asked some people she knew to draw four pictures, one for happy, one for sad, one for angry, and one for neutral. She then gave the pictures to other people and asked them to tell her what emotion they thought the picture represented. It was interesting to see how some of the drawings were so perfect for their respective emotion that everyone guessed correctly, and how some were completely off the mark.

Hannah's presentation reminded me of a game I played a couple of years ago called Dixit. It's a tabletop game a lot like Apples to Apples except the cards are all pictures instead of words. One person comes up with a word or phrase for one of the cards in his/her hand, then everyone lays a card face-down on the table. The cards are shuffled, and everyone tries to guess which was the dealer's card.

The art is gorgeous and though it sometimes gets silly, I feel that Dixit can get surprisingly insightful. It's fascinating to see how people attach meaning to pictures and how that meaning changes once words are assigned to the pictures. I feel like it would be right up Hannah's alley!

Breaking the Cardinal Law of the Internet

I've always heard people say to never google yourself. Nothing good is supposed to come out of it. But Kerry's presentation said exactly the opposite. The first rule of creating your own personal brand is googling yourself to see what's already out there about you. Then you can decide what you want to show up in the future and work towards making that happen.

I googled myself as soon as I got home that day and was delighted to see that I really like the results. Most of it is actually me--though there is a doctor out there named Autumn Shuler--and that it's all stuff that I proud to be associated with. Some of my Zelda blog posts come up, as well as a lot of my yarn stuff, my various social media profiles, and some feminism.

It's interesting to see what I boil down to on the Internet, and how it truly reflects what I want it to. I guess that means that I'm doing something right, since that's all the stuff I consider to be most important to me is actually what I'm talking about.

Blogging as a Class

My Writing for the Digital Age class has started giving our final presentations, and I'll be posting up some blog entries about the various subjects brought up.

Today I'd like to talk about Jordan's presentation. Jordan chose to reflect on our class and point out what she thought worked about its format and what didn't. I agreed with her on many points, but most of all on her point about our blogs. 

Though we were all required to keep a personal blog about whatever we wanted, we weren't required to read each others's blogs. I know that not everybody is as gung-ho about the whole blog thing as I am, but I read each and every one of my classmates's blogs, and I'm so glad that I did.

Because we were allowed to post about whatever we wanted and not just about class readings, I feel that I've learned a lot about my classmates from their individual blogs. I feel that I know everyone in my class much better than any other class I've ever taken, purely because I paid attention to what they had to say online.

I think Jordan's suggestion that future sections of this course be required to comment on each others's blogs is a very good one. Interaction and interconnectivity between peers is an excellent thing, and is made all the more so when it turns your peers from just students into complex individuals with lives outside of the classroom.

Link to the Past Part 4: Ice and Death

Long time, no see! It feels like forever since I posted last, and I'm excited to share my experience with Dungeon 5 of LttP.

I located the dungeon fairly easily, despite Logan's warnings that I was probably going to have a tough time with it. I think he gets used to my gameplay being poor and severely underestimates my puzzle solving abilities. If there's one kind of game I have lots of experience with, it's puzzle games.

My elation faded quickly once I actually started the dungeon. Ice floors? Really? Because I don't have a hard enough time getting around already!

This room in particular gave me a lot of trouble. (image from blondenerd.com)

According to my Google search for that picture, the dungeon is called Ice Palace. Now I feel really dumb, because I've just been referring to all of these places by their number rather than their titles. I had no idea! Loss of nerd cred right there.

Anyway, I ended up walking through the majority of this dungeon quite a bit, because the ice psyched me out and the enemies are getting tougher. Fortunately, I now have blue mail, and that helped quite a bit in the enemy department. Once I had that, I got to the boss much more quickly than I expected.

I certainly felt that I was getting the cold shoulder. (image from zeldadungeon.net)

I am pleased as punch to announce that this is the second boss in a row that I beat on my first try! Fire rod and potions all the way!

Watch out Dungeon 6. You're next.

Navigating a Sea of Jobs

Today is a "two cups of tea first thing in the morning" kind of day.

Yesterday I gave my big Capstone presentation. It went very well, and I was extremely happy with the amount of audience participation I received during the Q&A session. My mom came up to see it and was very proud, and treated Logan and I with a trip to Tom&Chee and Coldstone.

All of that stuff was wonderful, but it certainly made a Wednesday feel like a Friday, which is always a dangerous game to play. This morning I'm having a hard time getting started because it feels like it should be the weekend already, and it is anything but. I'm probably going to be pulling a twelve-hour day on campus because EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING TODAY. I have a million places to be and not enough time to really be in all of them.

But that's not what makes this a two cup kind of day. No, in addition to all of the stuff that's going on on campus today, I'm job hunting. I've been casually job hunting for a little while now, just to see what types of things were out there and to figure out exactly what I'm interested in, but so far it hasn't really gone anywhere. But yesterday I stumbled on a job that I REALLY want.

Reeeeeeeeeally want.

And now I'm panicking because I found it yesterday and it closes tomorrow, which means I have to get all my stuff together today. I have a resume that I've tailored to the position using my base resume that I'm fairly confident in, but I'm getting stuck on the stinking cover letter. I'm writing ok cover letters over and over again, but none of them seem to convey just how much I want this job and how good of a fit I would be for it. Every one of them falls short of the (admittedly high) bar I've set for them.

I know that I need to just slow down, take a step back, and restart the situation. Nothing good comes out of panic for me. It's just hard.

Ugh, here's a picture of an alpaca to make myself feel better.

Image from cutestpaw.com

A Link to the Past: Part 3 ft. The Most Annoying Dungeon (I Hope)

Image from justpushstart.com

Over the weekend, I beat Dungeon 4. I call it Dungeon 4 here for the sake of keeping the blog family-friendly, but trust me, I don't call it Dungeon 4 at home. It has a quite a few colorful names there.

I found the dungeon (do these things have real names, or they actually referred to by their numbers?) fairly easily. Logan thought I would have trouble tracking it down, but since I've gotten into the weird habit of pulling on stuff while I'm thinking because I think the animation is hilarious, I found it almost as soon as I walked into town. Of course, the completely inconspicuous statue helped.

I mean, this doesn't look suspicious at all. Image from zeldawiki.org.

I even managed to get through the dungeon fairly well. If there had been any more rooms, the similarity between all of them would have gotten me very confused, but after a little while of trial and error, I got used to the set-up.

Then I found the maiden.

Image from nerdgasmnetwork.blogspot.com

As per her request, I tried to take her outside, only to have her run away when we got to the entrance. I immediately thought that she wasn't a maiden after all, but was actually the boss. I went all the way back through the dungeon, got her again, then led her into the room that the compass told me would house the boss fight.

Nothing happened.

I knew it had to be something to do with the light outside that made her run away the first time, so I figured I could beat her with some bright light. While exploring the dungeon earlier, I found an upstairs area that was brightly lit. I led her up there, smug with my intelligence, and she ran away again.

Frustrated by getting beat by the puzzle and by Logan's obvious desire to help me, I ran around in circles upstairs while I thought. That's when I noticed I could bomb the floor right underneath a beam of light. Lo and behold, the "you did something right" noise went off, and I went to fetch the maiden for the third time.

The third time was the charm because when I led her into the boss fight room, she transformed into Blind -- the master thief who hates light.

Image from nerdgasmnetwork.blogspot.com

I'm extremely proud to say that -- despite being confronted with two invincible, fireball spewing heads in addition to Blind himself -- I beat him on my FIRST TRY! Huge success!

The fact that I used two potions is irrelevant.

A Link to the Past: Part 2

Image from justpushstart.com

A lot has happened since my last LttP update. I am now able to travel between the light world and the dark world, which is pretty exciting.

The most exciting thing that has happened since my last update was getting the hookshot. The hookshot is the greatest thing ever. Ever! And I beat the boss of that dungeon on my very first try! Thank you hookshot.

Image from gamespot.com

I also finished Dungeon 3. Twice.

Yes, you read that correctly. About 3/4 of the way through the dungeon, one of my cats somehow managed to eject the cartridge. So, I went through the whole thing again. And the whole thing took way, way, way longer than it should have because of the hands.

Master Hand is not my friend. And I have a bad feeling that haven't seen the last of them.

Why vs. How in Digital Communication

Today, I'd like to talk about a quote I found in the article "Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century."

The goal was to allow students to set and complete their own tasks with the focus almost entirely on the production process. Little effort was made to give youth a context for thinking about these changes or to reflect on the new responsibilities and challenges they faced as participants in the digital culture.

This quote is interesting to me because it brings up two main points.
1. Teaching in the digital age is focused on production.
2. There is little context for thinking critically about digital culture itself.

In my experience, it is much easier to learn how to produce something on your own than it is to understand how something works. For example, trying to explain why blogging is interesting in the digital world and what it means to be a blogger is much more difficult than acutally going out and just writing up a blog post or two. But we still focus on teaching production.

Now, I'm not saying that we should stop teaching production. It's important to be able to make things competantly and confidently, but it's more important to focus on why we make the things we do rather than on how to do so.

But there isn't really a space for us to talk about this new "responisibility" and the "challenges" it creates. And I don't mean actual space -- obviously I'm talking about it right now. I mean a space in our social order. We don't give our forms of communication as much thought as we probably should. We don't take the time to figure out how and why something works before we go and start using it or making assumptions about it. It's time to change that.

The Top 5 Reasons I'm Pro-Choice

On Thursday, November 7, 2013, I protested for the first time in my life. A group on campus (whose name I don't know -- they didn't really advertise that) had an anti-abortion display up that was so disgustingly inaccurate and offensive that something in me broke down and I knew it was time to stand up for what I believed.

First of all, they were saying that abortion is genocide and that we're going through a new Holocaust. We won't even get into how misleading and offensive such a faulty comparison is. Secondly, they were showing obviously mislabeled and extremely graphic pictures of aborted "9-10 week old" fetuses that were obviously way, way more developed than 9-10 weeks.

I stood across from the display with signs of my own proclaiming my own pro-choice views and eventually people starting standing with me. Lots of students came and went, using up their gaps between classes to stand for what they believed. A lot more stood for a long time, and many sacrificed their lunch in order to make themselves seen and heard. At our strongest point, we probably had about 20 ladies and gentlemen out there with signs, peacefully protesting.

The amount of strangers who came up and thanked us for standing up against the group was astounding, and the support we garnered was heartwarming in the most unbelievable way. Lots and lots of people stopped and offered to buy us hot drinks, to bring us food, and to apologize that they were going to class and couldn't stand with us. It was amazing.

But unfortunately, such a stand doesn't leave much room for discussion with people on their way to class, and signs can only hold so much information, so I didn't really get to explain my views, only present them. Now, I would like to share the top five reasons I'm pro-choice and the reasoning behind them.

5. We do not have enough resources to care for all potential children.
     It is undeniable that the Earth is running out of resources and that overpopulation is already a problem. If every single fetus were to become a person, we would run out of what little we have even more quickly.

4. Abortion only affects the couple going through it.
    If a woman wants/needs to get an abortion, nobody else has to know. It does not affect anyone but her, and the father of the child. (I do think the father should get a say in what happens, as long as he's not a rapist or something, but that's a whole separate issue.) By choosing to have an abortion, it doesn't affect anybody else's life, but by making abortions illegal, people are directly affecting the life of that couple.

3. A woman should have more rights to her body than a fetus.
    There are laws that state that no person can use another person's body without their continual consent. If a woman is pregnant and no longer wants to be, then the fetus is using her body without her continued consent. By not allowing a woman to terminate her pregnancy, we are giving a fetus more right to her body than her.

2. We currently lack viable alternatives to abortion.
    Most schools in the country teach abstinence-only sexual education, which are ineffective. By not teaching students about sex in a frank and transparent way and creating an environment where students are not comfortable asking questions, we are not keeping teenagers from having sex, only from having educated, well-informed, protected sex.
     In addition, we need free contraception for all citizens. Allowing our taxes to go towards paying for birth control would actually save us money, because pregnancy is far, far more expensive, as are welfare programs and other expenses that come from supporting children that are born into a family that cannot afford them.

1. Every child should be wanted.
    Most importantly, I want every single child that is born to be wanted. Every baby deserves to be raised by people who love him or her and chose to bring them into their life. In cases of adoption, because I know not everybody who wants children can have them, there will be enough people morally opposed to abortion that would be willing to put their children up for adoption. We already have more children that need homes than homes for them to go to, and that makes me sad.

I hope this entry helps you get to know me a little better, and I hope you think closely about the abortion issue and where you stand.

After Graduation

Yesterday it was brought to my attention that we are currently in week 12 of this semester. Week 12 of 16 of my final semester!

Since it's my final semester, people are constantly asking me what I'm going to do after graduation. I know I've had a few years to figure it out, but I'm still just not sure. It's terrifying to think about and between classes, working six days a week, and planning for a wedding, my job hunt just keeps falling by the wayside. The pressure from all of this is really starting to weigh on me, and today I'm having one of those days where I just want to curl up into a fetal position and shut down for a while.

This pressure has gotten me thinking quite a bit about my future career and what I want it to be. Obviously I wouldn't be able to handle a high-pressure environment. But those are the kind of jobs we're supposed to want. High-pressure jobs that allow you to make lots of money. But right now I'm a secretary for the English Department here on campus, which is work for sure, but it's nice work. Nobody is breathing down my neck for something to submit for a tight deadline, if I mess something up a little bit, nothing really bad happens, and I get to talk to people all day.

Honestly, I'd like to continue working in a similar environment, because I really like it here. Being involved in academia means things are never stagnant because every day's schedule is different, and I'm not the biggest fan of monotony (like anyone is). I always have plenty of work to keep me busy and that is important enough that I know I'm needed, but very rarely does something ultra stressful come up. Plus, the people I work with are wonderful individuals whom I don't want to part with.

Going to college "just" to become a secretary is painted as a failure. I'm supposed to become a power-suit wearing high-level executive, or at least aspire to become one through my fearless climb of the corporate ladder. This kind of job just doesn't really appeal to me, not only because it sounds needlessly stressful (how important is that report in the grand scheme of things, really?) but because it would leave me absolutely no energy for my creative pursuits.

I love knitting and writing -- two things that involve a lot of creative energy. If I work at a high-energy job, I know I won't be able to donate my best efforts to the two things that matter to me most. Is it really a failure to want a job that allows me to earn a wage while leaving me with enough will to do what I care about most?

A Link to the Past: Part 1

Image from justpushstart.com

As you can see, I decided to start playing A Link to the Past rather than to continue with The Legend of Zelda. I think it was the right decision, because I'm already having way more fun. I'm missing out on some serious potential nerd cred, but whatever.

My initial impression of LttP is that it's a bigger fan of puzzles than the original. Instead of just hitting enemies, you have to know how to hit them. Case in point -- the most recent boss that I defeated, pictured below. I was super proud of myself for figuring out how to beat him on my very first attempt, and Logan was the very picture of disbelief, because he saw me beat the boss in the dungeon before.

Image from digital-polyphony.com

Which, let's talk about that guy for a minute. I thought Zora was a jerk, but he's got nothing on Moldorm. Moldorm is a jerk, not because he takes much health at a time or anything, but because he's so pushy! And his health resets every time he knocks you off the platform! Let's just say that after getting him down to one hit left three times in a row only to get knocked to the floor below to start over, I was saying some words that my mother would not approve of.

Image from zelda.wikia.com

But the sense of accomplishment I got when I finally beat him was unbeatable. Even finding the Master Sword directly afterwards meant nothing in comparison.  I have a feeling that the fight against Moldorm is going to be a constant companion in my memory when I'm trying to get through something difficult. Can't finish my essay? Don't want to clean out the litter box? Getting out of bed is an absolute chore? Heck, I can do all that stuff and more, after all, I beat Moldorm!

The Legend of Zelda: Part 3

Image from fatratgaming.com

Since last time, I have cleared dungeon 3. I actually got through it without much trouble, which was super surprising! I'm still not very good at the game, but I have noticed a marked improvement from when I started. I die for stupid mistakes less often and I don't have to actively think about the mechanics of the game so much anymore. It's like it has seeped into my brain.

Image from Zeldadungeon.net

Despite all that improvement and my feelings of accomplishment, I am considering letting Zelda go. Because Logan and I are both playing it right now, I see everything before I actually get around to doing it, and it's quite disheartening to watch someone who's awesome at the game blast through a dungeon in 30 minutes that I later take a couple of hours to slog through. It's starting to feel tedious because it's always on in the apartment when I'm home from one of us playing and it feels repetitive to see the same bits over and over.

Image from zelda.wikia.com

So I'm torn between moving on and playing Link to the Past, which is next on my list, or sticking to Zelda. On the one hand, I would be more entertained with Link to the Past because then Logan and I would be playing different games and there would be some variety on the tv. On the other hand, I feel like a wimp by quitting Zelda. 

What are your thoughts? Should I stick with Zelda and be a little frustrated/bored, or move to Link to the Past and be a quitter? Please leave me a comment!

The Legend of Zelda: Part 2

Let us take a moment to discuss this biggest jerk I have ever encountered. This guy:

Image from superadventuresingaming.blogspot.com, emphasis mine.

According to zeldadungeon.net, he's called Zora, and I HATE HIM! He pops up out of the water -- any water -- and shoots stinking fireballs that always hit me. Every. Single. Time. I'm pretty sure he's the cause of most of the cussing that takes place when I play this game. 

While we're at it, I should mention the whirly-gigs you see in the picture. They're annoying as well because they're super fast and you can't hit them until they come to a complete stop. Zeldadungeon.net says that they're called peahats. Both they and Zora are on my blacklist.

Aside from the frustration I feel because I'm just not very good at dealing with enemies, I'm having a good time with The Legend of Zelda. Last night I made it through dungeon number 2, and felt super accomplished once I did. I have to go back though because I missed whatever item is in there, and Logan told me there's an item in every dungeon. It's nice having Logan around -- it's like having a game guide that cuddles you while you play.

I do kind of cheat through Logan, though. The final boss of the second dungeon is a dinosaur, and if I hadn't seen him fight a couple, I wouldn't have known how to kill it. I wish I could show you a picture of him, but I can't find a good one and my phone doesn't photograph the tv very well.

Tonight I'm hoping to find dungeon 3, so stay tuned!

The Legend of Zelda: Part 1

 Last night I started playing The Legend of Zelda. I wanted to play it on the NES, but Logan insisted we get it on the Wii to save the NES the strain. Because I've never played Zelda, I wanted to have the full old-school experience, but I understand his concern.

Image from fatratgaming.com

I needn't have worried about losing the old-school experience though, because about a minute into the game I realized Logan isn't kidding around when he says old games are much harder than new games (in general, of course). I died a few times before I even managed to find my way to the first dungeon, mainly because of the jerk in the water.

Image from ign.com

I finally did make it to the first dungeon and died a number of times in there before I finally got the swing of the game and managed to walk a couple feet in a row without getting the crap smacked out of me. But then I had to master the art of walking through doors, which sounds easy, but actually requires pinpoint accuracy. I cannot tell you how many times I have walked into walls already and before I stopped playing, I'd only completed my first boss fight. 

Image from superadventuresingaming.blogspot.com

 Aside from the frustration that I'm suffering because of the game's difficulty, I'm having a good time so far. There isn't really a story at all (at least not yet) and it's not the best visual experience in the world, but I like that I'm doing something that's challenging and works out my brain in a way that I'm not used to.

The Legend of Zelda and the Symphony of the Goddesses

Last night, I took Logan to the Symphony of the Goddesses show put on by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. It was a Legend of Zelda-themed show that played music from a whole bunch of the games, accompanied by a cool video of game clips that corresponded to the songs. It was an absolutely fantastic show, and he was as thrilled about it as I could have hoped.

Image from zelda-symphony.com

Unfortunately, though understandably, recording and pictures of the show weren't allowed, so I can't share any of the actual performance with you, but I do want to talk about how it made me feel about games.

Watching those clips of various Zelda games (many of which I haven't played -- lose 50 nerd points) reminded me how inspiring games can be. An orchestra was playing pieces from the games, which a LOT of people went to go listen to. And many, many more people are fans of the Zelda series than just the ones who were at the show.

Why? Because Zelda (and when I say "Zelda" I'm referring to the franchise as a whole, not one specific game) is the epitome of what we love about games. It's a classic story of good vs. evil where we know good will prevail because we have as many lives as we need in order to complete the game. We are given a worthy mission -- go save the world from darkness and also rescue this super-cool princess. We're set in a world that is fun to explore and has a lot to see and discover besides just the parts that are fundamental to the plot.

In other words, we're given a clear purpose and the means to achieve that purpose -- something I think we all crave in our day-to-day lives.

Image from fatratgaming.com

Going to see the show made Logan decide to replay the series and I think I might just join him. Stay tuned for gaming updates and blogs about over-thinking the symbols and messages in games!

I'll leave you with this video about Ocarina of Time, which is hilarious:

A BETTER PENCIL Chapter 8: Writing on Screen

This is going to be a review of a chapter of our textbook for my Writing for the Digital Age class. I'm just warning you so if you aren't interested you can just skip this one and come back tomorrow or Saturday for a post about something fun.

Considering the only person who's probably left at this point is Dr. Alberti, I'm just going to write this one for you. Hi, Dr. Alberti!

First off, I'd like to thank you for requiring the Baron book over something else, because I actually find it enjoyable to read. Not only do I not dread my reading for this class, I kind of look forward to it in an ultra-nerdy kind of way.

Now, about chapter 8 specifically, there's a quote near the beginning that I would like to discuss. When talking about computer generated texts, Baron says that their

value and reliability go unquestioned by their enthusiastic practitioners, but which prompt serious objections from the vociferous technophobes who still long for an imaginary 'good old days,' a golden age that never really was, when texts were simpler and more reliable.

I think this sentiment of non-existent "good old days" is interesting not only in the context of technological texts but also with print texts. We, in general, are mistrusting of new technologies because we get stuck in a rut. We get comfortable with certain ways of doing things, and altering those patterns is hard and kind of scary because there's a potential for things to get worse instead of better.

But when it comes to reading books, and I'm talking traditional paper books here, we're the same way. We are always claiming that literature isn't what it used to be and writers aren't as good as they once were and that pop fiction and fads such as the current zombie craze are going to ruin literature forever. They really aren't. I mean, good stories are good stories, and good writers will always exist to tell those stories, regardless of what's popular at the time. And who's to say that zombie books and paranormal romance are always bad things? Look at Frankenstein and Dracula.

I guess what I'm driving at is that I understand this yearning for the non-existent, "better" past, and I recognize that I'm guilty of those same irrational desires, but that we shouldn't feel this way. New technologies, modes of delivery, and types of writing are not going to ruin literature, reading, and the language as we know it. Change it, yes, but that doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing.

The Ohio Ren. Faire

This past weekend, my brother came up for a visit. Travis and I haven't seen each other for a while since we're both so busy, and it was really nice to catch up for just a little while. His birthday is Halloween, and as a birthday treat, I took him to the Ohio Renaissance Faire.

We had a great time, even though the day was extremely cold and it drizzled on us the whole time we were there. Travis hadn't been to anything quite so nerdy, being a sports guy and interested in popular stuff as he is, but he loved it. Sometimes I don't see how we're related because we're so opposite, but times like this past weekend remind me just how similar we really are. We express our delight in much the same way, as well as our disappointments and frustration. It's funny, but I noticed we even use a lot of the same phrases with the same intonation.

Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures while we there because I didn't want to get my phone wet or remove my hands from my toasty jacket pockets, but there is one I want to share of a costume I saw while I was there.

I'm assuming the photographed lady won't mind since you can't see her face or anything. I saw some other good costumes, but I don't want to put them on the blog in case the subject doesn't want their face all over the Internet.

Anyway, LOOK AT THOSE WINGS! They're stunning! I would love to make some sort of fall fairy costume like this for myself.

I also saw a pretty cool yarn-bombed tree while we were out and had to snap a picture of it. I'm a sucker for a good yarn bomb.

Fantastic!

I hope you had a good weekend as well. What did you do?

Performance, Play, and Transmedia Navigation

For my Writing in the Digital Age class, we're reading an article by Henry Jenkins called "Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century." The title is quite a mouthful, but the work itself is surprisingly accessible and interesting.

One of the things Jenkins talks about are the "new skills" that we now need in order to function in a media-driven society. Eleven skills are listed, but the three that interest me the most are play, performance, and transmedia navigation. Jenkins definitions for these terms are as follows:

Play — the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem-solving 

Performance — the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery 

Transmedia Navigation — the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities

These are interesting to me because I like to have my hands in a lot of different platforms at the same time, and find the differences between different mediums fascinating. I'm particularly fond of examining what makes certain things work versus certain other things on multiple sites.

Lets take, for example, my Twitter feed versus my Facebook profile. Though both are very personal for me -- I don't keep them for work -- they feel quite different. They feel this way because I utilize the performance that Jenkins writes about. I adopt different identities for these two sites, and view this as a kind of play.

Not only this, but I like thinking about the transmedia navigation that Jenkins mentions. Following current events on multiple platforms is an adventure, because each platform highlights different aspects of the same event in a different way. And somehow, I can keep track of all these different feeds seamlessly.

Nobody taught me these skills, but I find Jenkins' proposal to begin teaching these skills intriguing. How would we go about creating classes for these skills? Can we teach these skills, or must one simply be willing to experiment and make mistakes in order to learn how to navigate the various media they come into contact with?

 

Instructions

In my technical writing class, we're doing our "process assignment," which basically amounts to writing instructions for something. We're allowed to do it over whatever we want and, as usual, that freedom is a little daunting. I want to write instructions for something fun and/or interesting, but I'm coming up blank. So far, my thought process has gone a bit like this: 

What are you good at, Autumn?

Well, I'm pretty good at yarn stuff.

Ok, that's a good start. What kind of yarn stuff could you talk about?

Checking project gauge, blocking, doing a specific stitch, choosing appropriate yarn for a project, spinning...

Wow! Look at you! You've got lots of ideas. What seems to be the problem?

I learned all of those things from a set of instructions, so my instructions would be exactly the same as instructions that are already out there. I don't want to accidentally plagiarize.

Hm, I see your point. Can you think of anything you taught yourself?

Nope.

Shit.

Exactly.

You see my predicament? The worst part is, the draft is due tomorrow.

Ugh.

Gracie

I love animals. I particularly love cute, furry animals, and can never get enough of them. Luckily for me, I got to house-sit for a colleague/friend this weekend and got to play with her dog, Gracie, and two cats, Stevie and Marvin.

I have two cats that I absolutely adore and wouldn't trade for anything in the world, but watching Gracie reminded me how much I like dogs. So, in honor of my love for dogs (and my love for lists) here are the top five reasons I love Gracie (and dogs in general).

Long walks are rough.

1. She's not afraid to show her excitement. I love it when people get really excited and passionate about something, even something small and/or silly, but we tend to squash that tendency for the sake of seeming "normal." Gracie doesn't. She lets me know she loves that I just walked into the room.


2. Gracie likes to walk. I also like walking, and when I have Gracie with me, it's even better. She gives me companionship without having to feel the quiet moments with chatter.

3. She thrives on routine. I like doing the same types of things at the same time everyday, so the fact that Gracie is game for this as well is nice.

4. Gracie likes to play and be silly. I can make a total fool out of myself with Gracie and not only does she not care, she likes it.

5. She's adorable. I mean, just look at her!

Cute doggy smile.

Technologic Aesthetics

"In an attempt to counteract suspicion, new technologies may mimic the look of older ones in order to gain readers' trust." --Dennis Baron, A Better Pencil.

Image from Goodreads.com

This quote from our Writing in the Digital Age reading really got me thinking yesterday evening. Why is it that we place so much emphasis on the looks of things in order to evaluate their authenticity? This is true of all people, and not just with technology and writing, but with almost everything in our lives.

We're a prejudiced species, which is  neither good nor bad. We have the gift of self-awareness, so of course we're going to have biases that are connected to our thoughts and that will affect our perceptions of the world. These biases come from everywhere -- our upbringing, commercial media, our daily interactions, our past experiences -- and impact every aspect of our lives.

What I'm fascinated with is the impact of our bias on the way we visually perceive things. Things that don't really matter. I can understand biases on physical things. For example, someone who doesn't like big dogs and is afraid of them even before seeing if the dog is nice has a pretty justified reason -- big dogs could potentially hurt you. Even people who judge other people usually have some kind of logic (we won't get into the sense of that right now). But the look of technology? Pure aesthetics? Why does it matter?



When I say it like that, of course it seems silly. If you're anything like me, you're probably saying to yourself "well, it doesn't really matter, as long as functionality isn't an issue." But that's not true. We really do prefer certain aesthetics over others, even when functionality is comparable.

For example, on my Kindle Fire (which I love, and no, Amazon doesn't pay me to say that) some books get distorted because the publisher/self-publisher/whatever didn't do a great job formatting the text for e-book. That shouldn't reflect on my perception of the text, but it does, because I'm used to neat, orderly books. Forget the fact that I'm aware why the formatting problems happen and that my logical brain knows it makes no difference to the words themselves, my bias makes me want to put the book down or dismiss anything it says as untrustworthy.

What are your thoughts on aesthetics in writing and technology? What are some of your biases? I'd love to hear your stories in the comments!

Ah! It's a Snake!

This past weekend there was quite a bit of excitement at the Shuler/Smith apartment because of this guy.

I caught that little snake in our bedroom right beside my reading chair. On Friday night I was reading in my usual spot with Hexe (one of my cats), when she started freaking out. She puffed out her fur, jumped onto the floor, and began frantically digging at a bag of yarn. Now, as much as my cats love yarn, they never go for it in bags, preferring to wait until I'm working with it and they can screw up a project, so this reaction was unexpected.

I assumed that the she had spotted a cricket, since that's the only kind of bug that tends to get either one of the cats rattled. Our apartment is underground, so crickets and spiders are pretty frequent visitors. You can imagine my surprise when I lifted up the bag of yarn and saw a snake instead! 

I caught him in a gift box and released him into the wild, where I think he'll be very happy.

An Unfinished Book

Last night I made the difficult decision to let go of a book. You may remember from a couple weeks ago that I was reading The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan, the first in his famous Wheel of Time series.

Logan has been obsessed with the series for a couple months now, so I told him I would read them so he'd have someone to talk to about them. I made it about a third of the way through when I finally admitted to myself that I just wasn't enjoying the story.


I can't really put my finger on why I wasn't enjoying myself. The writing style is fine, the characters are pretty interesting, and the plot is fun. It has all the elements of stereotypical fantasy I usually enjoy in a book, but it just wasn't cutting it. I didn't feel myself drawn to read it like I normally am with books, and every time I picked it up, it felt like homework, not something enjoyable to spend my free time on.


Have you ever had books like that? Books that you just didn't like for some reason you couldn't quite explain? Do you go back and try them again later, or let them go for good?

Jane McGonigal: Gaming Can Make a Better World

I recently watched the above video for class and found it absolutely fascinating. Go ahead and take 20 minutes to enjoy it -- I'll wait.

Cool, right?

If you didn't watch it (shame on you) McGonigal is basically saying that video games make us awesome people and we can use games to better our world. She completely convinced me. Everything she said about how we play games and change our mentalities as we play rang true. I am more optimistic in games than anywhere else. I am more social. I am more willing to help others even when there's nothing in it for me.

The real question now is how am I going to apply those skills to my real life? I'm sure there's a way, I just haven't figured it out quite yet.

The Work/Play Relationship

For my Writing in the Digital Age class, I read an article by my professor titled "The Game of Facebook and the End(s) of Writing Pedagogy." It was an interesting exploration of Facebook, how social media and digital writing are changing the way we view writing, and the ever complicated relationship between work and play.

This work/play relationship is a subject I am also interested in, so the article was particularly enjoyable for me. I've often asked myself where the line between work and play is, partiuclarly in my writing. I write for fun almost every day, but I also write for work. What separates the two?

Honestly, not much. For example, for my Honors senior Capstone (read: big final project) I decided to write a novella. The story started out as a lot of fun, but now that I'm in my second semester and third draft, it's starting to feel more and more like work. It's the same story and the same characters that I loved before, but something shifted and I can't quite put my finger on where that shift occurred or even why.

This is true of more than just writing. My knitting often undergoes a similar transformation. Those of you who know me in real life (probably all of you) know that I'm knitting a big shawl for my wedding. It started out fun, and I would still probably call it fun, but it has also started to feel like work.

Why do you think things start to feel like work even when they started out as play? Do you have any examples of something that started out as work and transformed into play?

To My Class

Dear Writing in the Digital Age Class,

You all are the best.

Ever since my presentation on Thursday, I have been receiving lots of tweets and some blogs about yarn, knitting, and social interaction. I haven't gotten the chance to catch up on everybody's blogs yet (my bridal shower was this weekend), but know that I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone has to say.

Thank you for being so attentive during my presentation and humoring my unhealthy passion for yarn-y things. I'm sure I came across like the Helvetica guys in the video we watched, but hey, passion is a good thing.

And thank you all for your tweets. Each and every one that has been sent my way has made me really happy. I'm so glad our class is together.

Love,
Autumn

Just Some Stuff

Usually I come to the blog with some sort of plan, but not so much today. Because of this, I figured I'll just share with you some of the things I'm into right now.

Logan started reading the Wheel of Time series and reeeeeeeally wants to talk to me about it, so I've jumped in. So far, so good, but I'm only about half through the first book. Hopefully it continues to be good, but I'm not going to jinx it by sending praise its way too soon. (Picture credit)

I'm still playing Red Dead Redemption, sort of. I wish I were playing Red Dead, but I never have the time any more. It's especially sad because I was starting to actually do story quests when my school work picked up. Also, does anybody know where I can find this horse? (Picture credit)

I'm still plugging away on the wedding shawl, and I won't post a picture because I want to save it for a big reveal. It's great, though. Use your imagination to picture its beauty, then double that. You're close to how gorgeous it actually is.

What are you into right now?

My Notebook Collection

Sometimes I miss writing things by hand. Reading A Better Pencil's chapters on handwriting and writing on clay tablets has made me nostalgic for how I used to run my writing life.

This was my favorite notebook in high school.

At my apartment, I have an entire shelf of notebooks full of the stories I would write in middle and high school. I usually got done with assignements early in class, so I had plenty of free time during the school day to fiddle around with my ideas.

When college started, I didn't have any time during class to work on my writing and I wrote on the computer when I was in my dorm. It was faster and easier on my hands with the additional benefit of not taking up as much precious room as multiple notebooks.

I didn't believe in right hand margins back then.

But now that I have some space once again, I've found that I really like having those notebooks. They give me a bigger sense of accomplishment than the works stored on my computer. When I'm having a rough day or just need a bit of a boost, I can look at my bookshelf and feel validated by the volume of work readily apparent.

But why is that? Why does my physical paper feel any more real than my virtual paper? There's no real difference. They're both just spaces filled with words.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts. Do you feel like you've done more when  you handwrite something versus type something? Why do you think people view handwriting and typing differently in the first place?

So many notebooks! And a Kindle.

iPhone Update to iOS 7.0

So, Apple just released the iOS 7.0 for iPhone, and it just finished downloading on my phone. I just got my iPhone (4S) and I love it, so the change has me a little nervous. I haven't looked up anything about it and have no idea what's coming, so I thought it would be fun to give my thoughts as I experience them.

So far so good, I like my phone telling me "Hello." Is that Helvetica? Ooooh, the new passcode buttons are pretty snazzy.

Asking for location services permission first thing is quite nice. Even though I'll probably change my mind later, I appreciate Apple allowing me to disable the service up front. The openness and availability of information on what location services is and how it's used makes me feel good. 

Typing the password for my Apple ID gives the first glimpse of the new keyboard, and I love it. I'm 99% sure it's in Helvetica now and the clarity is much improved (period).

Haha, updating my iCloud. I don't think I even have anything in there.

Oh. The home screen is a bit disappointing. The running header thingy with the time, charge level, and signal amount looks nice, but the apps and whatnot look kind of cheap. I'm sure I'll get used to it, as I get used to everything, but my initial reaction is that everything appears a bit flat. But that's just aesthetics, so I'm going to start getting into actual usability.

Since I use my calendar more than anything, I'm going to start there. My initial reaction is that there's a bit too much going on. I don't want to see the days of the week, I just want to see today. I liked the old list look, rather than the time blocks I'm seeing currently. Because I don't have any other calendars besides my personal one, and I don't use the invitation feature of the calendar, the bottom bar is just taking of valuable screen space. It's not enough to make me switch from Google calendars to something else, but it does feel a little clunky to me.

So I accidentally swiped up from the bottom, and now there's a handy screen! Nice, I have all my frequently fiddled with settings right there so I don't have to go into my actual settings menu to fool with it. As well as flashlight, alarms, calculator, and camera. Wonderful! And whatever I'm listening to at the time has a handy-dandy little section. Loving this!

Just sent a message to Mom, and the layout is much nicer to read quickly. The new font really helps improve clarity, and the keyboard is immediately easier to use.

I'm also digging the fact that pictures are now sorted by date taken. The web is cool too. I'm having too much fun playing to continue typing now.

TL:DR -- new update is super cool.