Hello, my name is Marcus Lauren Lamothe or you can also refer to me as the future leader of tomorrow. I’m eighteen years old and currently attending New York City College of Technology. The major I am currently going for is the field of Communicative Design. As for me, my favorite interests consists of playing video games, drawing manga characters, watching anime. In the means of illustration, I have always been very passionate about drawing ever since I was young and was mostly due to the fact that it gave me a positive outlet for expressing my emotions and creating stories straight from my imagination. Its like creating an entire universe with nothing but a pencil and paper. To me, anime is in a different level (visually) from a normal cartoon, not only through art style but it’s movie like and captivating nature to drag in audiences of all ages. In addition to all of these interests, video games are an important part of my life for various reasons such as emotional support through my hardest times, teaching me how to think for myself, and making me a more confident individual. Many people wouldn’t really take video games as seriously as gamers would mostly because they would compare it to something like toys in the means that eventually we grow out of it but what many people do not realize is how inspiring video games could be to someone.

Ever since I was young, I’ve always loved to play video games. It was kind of like love at first sight or discovering a new environment you’ve never been to. From its music to its level design, characters, and the new stories that they tell, you weren’t just playing the game anymore, you were experiencing it. Anyway, when people are at their low points in life, they would usually try to find some kind of outlet like overeating or crying however for me, I would just play video games. Video games or as I like to call them, digital pastimes (mostly because so much time passes while playing them), has gotten me through so many emotional moments in my life such as a death of a friend or a relationship breakup. How you may ask? Well, rather than sitting down and giving up on life like most people, I decided that something that would help cheer me up or boost up my spirits would be doing something like slaying a massive armies of demons or beating people in a game of Street Fighter and setting people on fire with your bare fists, shouting out words you don’t know the meaning to like “Shoryuken!!”. When you are engaged in these thrill rides, you’ve already forgotten what made you so sad or angry in the first place. All of your emotion was washed away  moments ago after speeding through seven zones at supersonic speeds. In my opinion, it is one of the best feelings because everything just feels right in the world again.

Nowadays, its very important to be able to think for yourself because that is the main thing that forms your personality. What does this have to do with video games? Quite a lot actually. As I play and finish various games, like everyone, I would summarize the game in the means of how I felt about it or how the game was in general. Based on experience, you would either say you enjoyed it or despised it. Its also kind of funny to see how people react to the fact that you don’t like the game that they like. This seems like a little problem to most people but to gamers, it was like an invitation to start a war. I honestly would not believe how offended others became just because I respectfully criticized a product that I didn’t find that enjoyable or worth my time. In the same means of reviewing a movie, giving an honest opinion about a game will not only benefit any interested consumer but it is also like free promotion that could help developers make better games. I don’t buy games that people tell me to buy because in reality, that doesn’t show that I could think for myself and I would just bend to anyone’s will. Yeah it’s just a video game but for all I know, this could apply to any situation kind of like peer pressure. Anyway, I’m going to keep this mentality because overall, it makes me a smarter consumer for following my own instinct.

Confidence is something that an individual develops overtime (it also means the will to succeed) but in my case, I could say that I got most of my inspiration from characters I got to know and love. Video game heros such as Link, Dante, and Nathan Drake go against unspeakable odds just save the world and risk everything to do so. How does this apply to me exactly? Growing up, I was not a very confident person, I didn’t feel like I could excel very well at things such as playing sports or anything else for that matter. It’s like how young boys get inspired to play basketball after watching Lebron James or Kobe play the way they play, but more importantly they never gave up. Now, I can say that I’m a more confident in myself than I ever was before mostly because I could actually speak in front of large audiences and not feel intimidated to express myself. The funny thing is most of my confidence comes from the video games that I’ve played in the past. There was also other important people in my life that helped me out with many obstacles in my way. I would still have to say that video games help me in more ways than I could count. Yet again many would say “oh it’s just a videogame” but for people like me, it goes quite a long way to as it just being a little distraction like watching TV or anything else like that. What I mean by this is that people don’t realize how much you can learn from a video game. In a way, video games teach about important life lessons such as trial and error. In reality, you will make some mistakes here and there and you will become very frustrated when you can’t solve the problem directly. That is how a game challenges and provokes you, it tries to push you into a situation where if you want to escape, you have to use your knowledge and wit to beat a challenge and in turn, you feel a sense of accomplishment and you learn from the mistakes that you’ve made previously and therefore makes you smarter.

Overall, I feel that video games are much more important compared to movies or plays because it connects more with the audience in so many ways from it visuals, soundtracks, and gameplay. It was an escape from the rustle and bustle of modern day because in all honesty, life can be pretty stressful and tragic but turning on a video game and having a great time gives you a peaceful feeling and is also relaxing. I feel that video games can make a player go through a variety of different feelings such as a sense of accomplishment or anger maybe because you constantly lose at a level. This is just an example of how easily a video game can bring you into its world, you feel like you are actually in the game that you’re playing because it is that immersive. Nowadays, as I’m getting older, it’s not about your high score any more, it’s not about how fast you could finish a level, it’s all about the general experience. You are the one going to stop the oncoming threat, you are the one who got smarter and stronger for each level, and as an end result, you became better at the game you played. Additionally, I feel that in a very small way, video games can teach you to be a bigger person than you would ever think of before. Anyway, I didn’t choose to become a gamer because I have no life, I chose to be a gamer so I could have many more lives to live.

For today’s class, you read the “Stress” chapter from John Medina’s Brain Rules. Spend the first ten minutes of class summarizing what you remember from the reading in your notebooks. Before our class on Monday, you will want to type and save copies of your summaries for today’s reading and the previous one on the “Sleep” chapter. Then, copy-and-paste your summary on “Stress” as a comment to this blog post, and copy-and-paste your summary of “Sleep” to the previous blog post that is specifically about that chapter. You will not receive credit for putting your work in the wrong place. Read the blog posts carefully and post your work accordingly. This is building your digital literacy and professional attention to detail. Your summaries for both chapters are due before we come into class on Monday.

During the first ten minutes of class today, let’s continue your regular writing and summarization practice. In class, write a summary of your reading of the Sleep chapter from John Medina’s Brain Rules. After class, type up your summary, save it, and copy-and-paste it into a comment to this blog post. You have until class on Monday next week to complete this. As you write your summary, you can write about how the reading relates to things that you have experienced, learned, or read before.

During the first ten minutes of class, write a summary of today’s assigned reading from John Medina’s Brain Rules: “Exercise.” Before we meet again next week, type up your summary, save it someplace safe, and copy-and-paste it into a comment to this blog post.

Some questions to consider: What is the relationship between exercise and cognitive function? What are some of the ways exercise help us think better than if we are inactive? How convinced are you by Medina’s argument (and of course, explain why he is or is not convincing to you)?

During the first ten minutes of class, write a summary of your reading from the “Introduction” to John Medina’s Brain Rules in your notebooks. Before we meet again on Monday, type and edit your summary. Then, copy-and-paste your summary into a comment posted to this blog post.

Also, I would like to remind you of the companion website for Brain Rules, which you should check out for references and explanatory videos: http://brainrules.net/.

During the first ten minutes of today’s class, write a summary in your notebooks of the two readings assigned for today’s class: Seven, “12 Rules to Boost Your Brainpower,” http://goo.gl/ZjfGyu, and Medina, “About the Author,” http://www.johnmedina.com/index.php?q=bio.

Before our next class, type up your handwritten summary, save it some place safe (e.g., the Cloud, flash storage, email, etc.), and copy-and-paste it into a comment added to this blog post. Moving forward this semester, these beginning of class writing assignments from one week are due before the first class of the following week. This gives you ample time to type and post your daily writing to OpenLab.

During the first ten minutes of class, I would like you to use your own notebook paper to write a brief essay of introduction. Tell me your name, your major, what you hope to make your career, and some things tell me something unique about you (clubs, hobbies, interests, activities, etc.). The important thing about this and all beginning of class assignments is that you use the full ten minutes of time for writing. Finally, tell me what you would like to learn and get out of our class.

Unlike your future beginning of class writing assignments, which you will post here on OpenLab, I will collect this assignment when the ten minutes are up.