Bringing It Home

Over the duration of the semester we've discovered a correlation between games that emulate real life experience with the progression of time. The first games were original thoughts of fun that differed greatly from the monotonous daily choirs children had in the 1700's. Today, games have a tendency to capture a strong essence of real-life activities. 

As a conclusive evaluation of this discovery I thought it would be interesting to jump from the 1940's to  2013. 

Three of the most popular Christmas toys for 2013 are the LeapFrog LeapPad Learning Tablet, the Zoomer Robot Dog, and the Nerf Rebelle Heartbreaker Bow and Arrow. 

It used to be that as mom or dad whipped up a batch of cookies, little Sally would be pushing tins of dough through her Easy Bake Oven. This year as mom or dad swipe their iPad, so does Sally on her tablet. The Leapfrog LeapPad Learning Tablet is basically an iPad for children. It has the ability to connect to Wi-Fi, hold 8 GB of information, and host over 800+ apps. 


 The Zoomer Robot Dog captures the essence of Spot. The robot dog runs, sniffs, wags his tail, sings, barks, responds to his name, lifts his leg to pee and has the ability to learn tricks such as "sit down" and "roll over".

Finally, the Nerf Relle Heartbreaker is a target gift this year. A bow and arrow would capture the essence of hunting but this gift is probably popular this year because it captures the essence of the Hunger Games.  Katniss, the main character, is a beautiful, strong young woman who unintentionally becomes a revolutionary idol for hope. What girl wouldn't want to be like her? Although the movie is fictional the essence captured is of a reality fans will to be real.  

This has been a fun little study. It would be interesting to see if this correlation will continue throughout time or make a rapid reversion back to a kind of 'original fun'.

Sharing Stories from Abroad

San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, Spain 

Study abroad alumni gathered to share their tales from abroad. Shepherd University Study Abroad Office hosted a panel on Monday, November 11th. The versatile panel brought experiences from all over the globe: Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Ireland, England, Italy, Quebec, Russia, Switzerland, and Spain. 

Quebec, Canada

The panel was originally designed as an outreach event for students who do not know much about study abroad. However, it quickly turned into a round table discussion. There were not a lot of people who attended so the hosts reshaped the room to complement the crowd.

I really enjoyed this event. Each person gave a brief account of their study abroad experience.We talked about the cultural differences, the people we met, the programs we attended, the food, the language barriers, the financial restraints, and our unforgettable 'learning moments'. 

Costa Rica

The panel was especially interesting because even though we all experienced new ways of living, our new experiences were sometimes radically different from the one another's.The alumni who studied in Russia and Czech Republic learned to not even make eye contact with people on the street. Conversely, I was taught to greet everyone with a kiss on each cheek.

The Regal Experience

Although sweeping popcorn is not the most ideal job in the world it certainly has its perks: it helps pay rent, it is open late which is conducive for day-time class scheduling, you get to meet a lot of people, and when there is time, you can see FREE MOVIES!    

Co-workers on a week night

Since September I have been able to watch The Butler and Captain Philips. 

The Butler was a very dramatic film. It boldly presented profound stances on slavery and American history. The film evoked all kinds of emotions: happiness, disgust, anger, fear, and even comfort. The high-class acting combined with my low tolerance for inhumanity made my stomach turn.

Although I think that The Butler was a good film, I thought that it was slightly overdone. I felt like the film was written in such a way that every major event in American history from 1920-2009 was forced into the film. Rather than embracing a true narrative with real events or supporting a documentary with some narrative the movie sat somewhere in between the two and by the end of the film I lost interest in both

Captain Phillips, on the other hand, was one of the greatest films I have ever seen. I do not frequently rave about movies but I highly recommend this film. Captain Phillips is based on the Maersk Alabama hijacking by Somali pirates in 2009.The movie was suspenseful and realistic. Normally I hear mixed reviews from guests at the theater but I did not hear one negative comment about this movie.

The acting was phenomenal! Tom Hanks did an award winning job.  In regards to one of the later scenes my roommate said,"That was the most convincing scenes I have ever watched."

The camera never stops moving throughout the film; it intensifies the suspense and embraces the unsteady rock of a ship on the ocean. The use of close-ups and wide shots was brilliantly used. There was just enough emotion captured for the audience to sympathize with the actors and yet it had enough release for there to still be mystery and safety. 

The Butler and Captain Phillips were both based on true stories but Captain Phillips had a rawness to it that completely separates the two even though The Butler was so dramatic.  

Free movies! I'll pop another patch to that.

Sweet Homecoming

Every year Shepherd University hosts a homecoming celebration parade through downtown Shepherdstown before the big game. This years homecoming theme was Hollywood walk of fame.

Student groups chose different Hollywood stars to decorate their floats and banners for the homecoming festivities.  This year "Common Ground",  a student group that I am involved in, chose Dick Van Dyke as their star.  We decorated our float like the roof top scene from Mary Poppins.

        We painted boxes to look like chimneys and cut holes in them so that the smoke (cotton) could billow out of the tops. We also made a giant measuring tape that was put over the back of the float.

On the day of the parade, one of the ladies in our group dressed like Mary Poppins and one of the young men dressed to look like Bert (Dick Van Dyke). The rest of us threw some dirt on our faces and casted ourselves as extra chimney sweepers.

Compared to past I think that there were fewer people than usual but the experience was very fun nonetheless.