Class Reflection

This English class 114B has taught me a lot. The most important aspect of it was the way it was a cohort all year round class. This made it easier to know everyone better and also grow a better relationship with Sean, our professor. I personally have always wanted low student count classes like this because we all get to know each other by our first name. In this class I learned how to think and write critically. Analyzing a piece of writing or paper never seemed to be so important to me but after this course I can read things in more depth to understand them farther. Thinking outside the box was a must in this class, it opened room for a more wide imagination that eventually lead us to making great conclusions. I really like how the class was never really boring, we had fun discussing in class and out of class topics. We mostly got off track and talked about other events not related to the subject in class, but we still did work. Sean allowed us to be free, have a voice and take part in each activity. I am glad he was lenient on all of our work or else I would have failed the class going into the first 2 months. I have learned not to procrastinate because in the end it will bite you in the ass by having to bust all nighters completing all your homework assignments, just like I am doing now. Overall I feel like have become a more better effective writer. At first writing two pages was a challenge but with the constant practice of havig to write papers I became better at it and now I don’t have a problem completing them, the only thing I still lack is effort and the drive to want to do it, what can I say…I’m lazy. The part that I hated most was the fact that the class was too damn early; a lot of my absences were responsible from me over sleeping or not being able to wake up. I’m glad I got to take this course, not only because I need it to complete my undergraduate program but because it was a fun course over all. But despite all I am saying I am more than glad that it is over! It truly was an easy course but I didn’t take is as serious as I should have because I was lazy. I have learned to get my work done on time now. Hopefully my future courses are like this.

Analysis of Project Web

I really dont see why it was necessary to make this blog and do our homework here. I got to admit though it was a great way of doing it. It was easy to stay organized and turn in the work. Not only did we save paper by turning in our work here online but it was easier to get a hold of things. I also glad that we made things different this semester by resourcing to blogger. In a way it made it fun.

Project Text Revison

Gustavo Vieyra          

Professor Sean Pessin

English 114B

7 March, 2012

Time Can Change All

            The only thing on this earth that never stops, keeps going, and you will never be in control of it, time. What is time? Time is a complicated system that can be described in many ways, in so it can be the past, present, or future, but it all involves sequential events that build itself, yet it can be the simplest just by leaving it alone. Time can also be the most powerful tool used in any event depending on the amount that it is exerted on something, but no matter the size of the period, drastic changes can be made from a split second to millions of years. In example, it would only take a second to determine if someone gets to live by holding a gun to someone else’s head, if the person holding the gun decides to pull the trigger they will not be able to go back and undo the damage that is nearly not repairable. In another example, evolution of animals that occurred from millions of years ago now plays a big effect on the whole life of the evolved animal, some have adopted from being water animals to land animal, therefore creating a big change. Changes can be good yet again can be bad, but again with the amount of time spent on that change. In two books that I read time greatly impacted the outcomes of different events and people. These two books were Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead, both written by Orson Scott Card. The first book to the novel Ender’s Game is about a young boy named Andrew Wiggin who is known and referred to as Ender. Alien species called Buggers have attacked the planet twice and almost wiped out humanity, to win the next war against the Buggers they must prepare. They turn to kids and build them up to become military experts who will in the future defeat the Buggers. In the training camps their ways of developing into higher skilled soldiers is by playing these battle games and Ender being the extraordinary at them easily dominates. Throughout his young childhood he faces tough obstacles, one being his brother who desperately wants to kill Ender. He also faces challenges that shape him into who he becomes, for example leaving his sister and parents, getting bullied around at school, and following the demands of strict officers that influence him deeply.  He becomes the best of the best and manages to destroy the Buggers in effort to protect his home planet, titling him with the name “Ender the Xenocide”. In the second series Speaker for the Dead, Ender who now refers to himself as Andrew Wiggin is in his mid-thirties but it has been over three thousand years since the Xenocide of the Buggers. Because of his space travel he has managed to beat time and travel for years even though the real time is still going without affecting him. His new job as a Speaker for the dead is to travel to world and host these ceremonies where he speaks “true stories” of those who have recently died. With him he carries a cocoon that homes the Hive Queen, the only remaining life of the Buggers.  His first task was to speak of the Buggers who he wiped out. He travels to a planet who is given the name of “Lusitania” where a new alien species since the Buggers is discovered, for short of Pequeninos they call this species; Piggies. They are observed by two “Zenadors” or anthropologist; Pipo and Libo who are father and son, as they have the Piggies in a gated closed society. Mysteriously they are found that they have been killed but do not know the exact reason why. Only one person knows why they were killed, her name is Novinha, who used to have a relationship with Libo. She knows that Pipo was killed right after he discovered a link of the Descolada disease to the Piggies. A call was made to Andrew to speak for the deaths of these. After he arrives at the planet him and Novinha quickly grow fond of each other since they have had similar pasts and encounters. He is determined to settle this mysterious death of Pipo and Libo. It may too have been possible that he found a new home for the Buggers since the cocoon can hatch at any time and possibly give them a second chance to live. Like I mentioned earlier, time is a powerful tool, in these two books time developed many changes. Differences between the books enhance how Ender went from being; Ender to Andrew Wiggin to a Speaker for the dead, many of these events affected his age dominance meaning that the older Ender got just like anyone they get more power and respect. As he got older he managed to earn this power of being better respected and looked up to. He gained more authority.

            Throughout Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead Ender’s age is obviously affected by time. He began his journey and this great genius military expert at the age of six when an I.F. Officer named Graff chooses Ender to go to the battle school to start his training. Enlisting in the military at this certain age distorts time because it is very unusual. This is never really seen in our current time country. On the contrary if you wish to enlist in the service here you have to be at least eighteen years old. Ender is only six, he is still young and may not be sure about his choice. Although some third world countries do force child this young to join the military its is nit dine here. While being eighteen you are technically an adult already, by then you have been exposed to many things that can possibly affect you choice of enlisting. Here Ender has not even finished or better yet starting his childhood so how will he know that he has been exposed enough to certainly make this decision?  Ender being really young he is uncertain about his decision; he leaves his parents to draft and enroll in this battle school. His age plays a deep roll in his encounters, for one he would be bullied at school; he wasn’t one of the big older kids so this made him a target. Being vulnerable may not have been the worst thing though, he was young and picked on by bullies at school but he was strong and smart. A fight had broken out between him and a bully named Stilson. Stilson continuously picked on Ender and one day Ender finally had enough, he fought back. The fight brought out an inner vane monster-like Ender, his anger took over and harshly beat up Stilson. Not realizing that the true fact was that he had killed him. We can clearly see that his young age affected him as any regular child would be affected in our time. Bullying highly developed ender to become who he is now. The constant pushing around from his brother and peers at school made him realize that their doings were to not be tolerated anymore. Bullying made Ender stronger. Young children now days are targeted by older kids to make themselves feel of power and control. Everyone wants to seek power, the easiest way of this would be to go after younger, smaller beings that you know you can easily dominate. This scenario of what happened to Ender is seen all over the world in schools. Unlike for ender he did not win dominance by punking younger kids than him. He stongly fought to be on top.  His experience of being bullied comes into play here, he is tored of it so his only resort is to fight back. The bullying and experiences that he had at his young age change him to not let himself get pushed around anymore. We can clearly see this when he finally decides to stand up for himself and fight back.  Many fight for that “popularity” where it is better to be feared then respected. Power is like a hunger that many crave so they turn to dominate over those who seem weaker. Back to my example in high schools the older seniors target new incoming freshman to state their presence and make a stand that because they are older they have more power and dominate the area. Ender because he is still the youngest in the battle camps he is still picked on. On another event on their way to the battle camps he is picked on by an older kid. The same thing happens, Ender fights back but this time a result of only a broken arm occurs. Age plays an important role on how Ender develops over time, he does not have control of time so he can’t magically make himself older. It forces him to grow as he endures all these painful fights, even to him as he wins them all. His age overtime does not catch up to other so he is always looked down upon because he is the youngest.  

            The relationship between bullying and time is that from all the time he was bullied and pushed around it later took affect after a certain amount that in the future it made him the leader her became. It took years of him being bullied for him to snap out of his push over ways and realize that I was no longer okay to get taken advantage of. If possible he had not been bullied for that long he might not have seen just how bad it was or he wouldn’t have taken it serious to think that changes had to be made. He might have tolerated it enough to where no great effect would take part in him. The relationship between knowledge in time is that the longer you live and are around experiences that build you up the more aware you become of your surroundings and how to exactly cope or work with them to your full advantage. Time is powerful, it is impossible to learn the same amount of material in different time periods. Of course you will take in and digest more when you have longer time to analyze it. Same thing with practice, the more practice you have at things the better you will get at preforming them. Ender did not have the largest amount of time to take in his childhood but in a way that worked to his advantage. He was more focused on becoming this great fighter/leader. As you can see he managed his time in his battle school more over being a kid that form this he became great. He figured that learning to become a soldier was more important than being a kid, he was correct because he managed to lead the army into a glorious victory against the Buggers.

            Compared to Enders age in Speaker for the Dead he is much older but no one seems to consider his age. The true fact is that no one really knows that “Andrew” is Ender the Xenocide, they all think that he is deceased. His life as a young kid drastically impacted the man he is today. Because of all his struggles with his young age as a kid he is shaped into this bright brave man. The obstacles he faced really changed him in the most positive way, as he was picked on through time and time it made him tougher. Now in this new time of the Piggies his age plays no important roll on what he is and what he does. Many people have gotten over that age where the feel power is gained by dominating the younger and weaker. They have matured enough to realize that other traits are what differences each other and gain a new respect kind of power. He may not be the oldest in this time but unlike when he was a kid it does not matter. Although if Ender would have been one of the older kids in the battle schools, he might never gotten picked on. This effect trickles all the way down to the person he is now.  Those encounters and fights caused by his younger age shaped him to be this tough victorious man, without them he might have been a completely different person. I believe those taunts really brought out the best in him that led him to be the best at the games and eventually defeat the Buggers and save his planet. If time would be broken to change his age to be older when he was young the Earth may have perished due to the fact that Earth never developed a hero to save it. Time unfortunately cannot be changed to do this. Luckily the perfect time to prepare an ambush against the Buggers at Enders age came right.

Throughout his life from a young age to an older soldier Ender changes from being this Ender character to Andrew, his ability to lead and have respect over most people is managed just by the experiences he has throughout his life; age dominance. At Enders young age he was easily influenced to do whatever Graff and the battle school wanted him to do to create this genius military expert to lead the fight against the Buggers. With time Ender managed to grow of out this person he was or he was created to be. His young age managed older people to control him and watch his every move. He was easily brainwashed to what they wanted to make him into, what they consciously created was a killer that with any loss of control the true Ender would come out that would defeat any opponent. His young age brought him to the lowest possible rank, he had decisions that he was allowed to make but even those decisions had outcomes that he may not have wanted to do. As time passed and he grew he slowly moved up not regarding his age. This changed many things; power was not dominated by his successful doings. People started to look up to him. A life where age is no determining factor of who you become will never happen. Although if possible pretty much everyone would be equal. No matter the time difference whether years or seconds, there will always be that one individual looking for dominance because they are older. If the same scenario would occur as when he was older and age didn’t play an important role on his doings and when he was young I believe that there would be no motivation to move up and defeat those who believe have power over you. Time had a perfect impact on Ender because of his age. He was deeply picked on because he was the youngest but in the end he came out to be victorious over the rest. Time can change all, this can include your faith as being the world’s Hero.

Works Cited

Card, Orson Scott. Ender's Game. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1994. Print.

Card, O. S. Speaker for the dead. Tom Doherty Associates, Inc., 1986. Print.

Project Space Revision

Project Space

            In this world we can always count to be surrounded by one thing at all times, that is space. What is space? Space is defined by an online source as a continuous are or expanse that is free, available, or unoccupied. Space is found everywhere we go and in all dimensions, such as two-dimensional, three-dimensional, in our world, or virtual ones, like video games. Space is an essential element for our survival, if we had no space we would not exist, we are space! The way we use it can change us though, it is up to us how we take advantage of the space that is provided for us. Furthermore in my English class 114B with Professor Sean Pessin we were assigned to play a video game. From that we would analyze how the space inside the game or outside was used or how it affected us. For my choice of game I picked Grand Teft Auto III that is an action adventure game who was developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar. My game system of play is my own iPhone 4s. This game became the first three dimensional game to the Grand Theft Auto series. The story line of this game consists of a criminal named Claude who was backstabbed and is made to work his way up to the criminal pyramid to later face the one who backstabbed him. This game is described as a third-person shooter and driver game, where you control the player but also the vehicles he manages to steal. The setting of this game takes place in current time “Liberty City” or pretty much New York City. I have provided images of how the play of the game works to give a better understanding of my descriptions. In the pictures you can see how it looks in the third-person perspective and how it looks when you are conducting a vehicle.

The objective of the game is to pass missions that are given to you by high lord criminals where you have to do the dirty work of killing people, robberies, chauffer, and deliver for them and as a reward you are paid with money. Within the game story you unlock and are able to retain new weapons, these weapons can be from a hand pistol, to a rifle, to an rpg launcher to a tank. This game is truly mde very realistic; you can get arrested, killed. To add on you are in control of the player at all times so you are free to roam around and do as you wish with Claude. The basic controls of the player are simple; on the touch screen you are given an analog stick, a fight button, a run button, a jump button, and a button to steal the closest vehicle to you. As for driving you are given another analog stick, a gas button, a reverse button, and a break button. It is up to you the player how you put use of these controls to manipulate the space in the game.

            Space in the game not very limited, you are freely ably to go pretty much anywhere but some buildings and outside of the city. There are invisible barriers that are held in the game that restrict you from going to certain areas. A lot of limitations occur in the game, such as; how far you can aim with a gun, the velocity a car could go, the height of Claude’s jump, the health the characters are given, and many more. When on a mission if not all the steps are followed or you get killed the mission is failed and you are made to start all over to the beginning of the mission. The good thing about this game is that you are not given a certain amount of lives; you can die as many times as you want and you won’t get to a game over. The only end to this game is when you succeed in all the missions and you become the top dog. The use of space can be carefully analyzed of how it makes everything work in the game, how one space affected thing can cause of chain effect that will eventually put you in front of a limitation barrier. Although I can get into further detail about how the use of space happens inside the game I have chosen to analyze how the use of space outside of the game constrains me.

        
          In our human world space is pretty much endless; there is space beyond space beyond space. Our area of space is so great that we have not accomplished to reach even the farthest of sights; we have not been able to conquer every single part of space available. We may have the technology and space crafts to carry us throughout outer space but no matter how far we go we will never travel it all, that is because it is endless. Even though we have no limit to the amount of space, we do have limits to where and how we can use it. This Grand Theft Auto III video game can demonstrate exactly how it limits me to a certain extent on the levels of space that I can play it or control. I may be outside of the game but it still places great limitations as to where I can or how I play the game, many factors determine just how the game is somewhat in control of me in some areas or spaces. The following factors somewhat have a significant impact on the use of space; portability, battery restrictions, memory, expenses, processing speed, small screen, small control buttons, lighting, easily can break, time consumption, and overall the environment that it is played in.

            To begin with I mentioned earlier that I play this game on my iPhone 4s, making it very portable. With this you don’t have to deal with going to a certain area to play the game, you can have it with you at all times. The phone alone measures about five inches in length, two and a half inches in width, and is about a centimeter thick, this makes it small. The fact that it is small means that I can easily carry it anywhere, like my pocket, or in a small travel bag. The dimensions of the phone are fairly small so it does not need a lot of space to maintain it around. Even adding a case to the phone does not change its appearance much, it will remain small at all times, and this is perfect. The devise is highly portable so it allows opens the doors to play pretty much anywhere or any space that it is allowed in. This is where our first complication with its use of space, although its portable and it is developed to be played anywhere the truth is that I can’t. To explain this further I am limited to playing with it at a meeting with someone important, while driving or in class. It will be highly disrespectful if I decide to pop out with my phone and decide to play it in a public meeting. Meetings are obviously made to “meet” and to be given full attention, whereas if I am playing I will be breaking that purpose of the meeting. The space where I can enjoy myself while playing this addicting killing game is also limited when I am driving. Of course it’s a horrible idea to even try to play and remove the focus off the road and onto the game, that is life threatening. Imagine one hand on the steering wheel and the other on my iPhone, that would not work. I would not be able to do both drive and play because to have full control of Claude I would need both hands, I would not be able to drive like that. My space here is affected because the combination of playing the game and driving would not be a successful adventure, I can possibly get killed here, and in that process more space would be affected by making room for me six feet underground to lay my deceased body.  In class it will be my choice to play or not, but the consequences could involve crucial space and time consumption. My space in a classroom is reserved as my place to get an education and learn. I can easily whip out my phone and decide to play Grand Theft Auto but many people would not appreciate this. I wouldn’t only be wasting my time but others time as well. The professor would not be very accepting of this behavior and could easily remove me from class, eliminating that space provided for me. Without my focus on the material being taught in class I will not learn and possibly not get very far in life, the space of a great genius would never be filled all because I decided to play in class instead of paying attention. This type of behavior is looked down onto; the least of my worries would be to not learn anything and later struggle to recover what I missed, impeding with the space of others by bothering for help with what was missed.

            Battery restriction occur regularly with these type of handheld devices, although not much space is required for the battery itself on the device there is the hassle of having to recharge it all the time. If the iPhone is being used constantly throughout the day whether it be on playing it or using it for other purposes the battery tends to drain out pretty quick, the life of the phone would not last you over a day. Charging it is mainly where space is affected, the quick death of the battery makes the owner carry the charger around most of the time just in case. The cord and the wall plug have to be carried so that take up more space in placing it somewhere where you can easily access it. Another space problem would be finding the right place to charge your devise. Not all places are convenient but if you have to charge it you have to deal with it. Space and time is wasted the most when having to wait for it to charge. These devices charge slowly so you have to wait till it is charges sufficiently for your needs.

            A great advantage to these types of handheld devices is that for video games you don’t have to carry game cartridges for them. All the games that you desire to play can be downloaded through the application store if provided. This saves you space or room for the games you want to play; they are installed and saved in the devise for as long as you please. Although memory or space is taken up the more you play and the more games you add on to the devise. The negative part is that just like anything else you have to purchase the games. Although to first buy the games you would have to buy the devise first, this can be an iPhone, and iPod Touch, or an iPad. Regardless what devise you purchase space is taken either way, this part of used space occurs in your pocket or in your bank. The devise is not cheap so you would have to waste a good amount of money on it.  In the game the more money I make, missions I pass, or accomplishments I make they are saved and every time takes more and more space. There is a high chance that if your iPhone device does not have enough free memory you will no longer be able to proceed in the game because you will have no more room to store your advances. Processing speed of the game affects the use of space and time as well. Luckily my iPhone is the newest version and it is equipped with two dual A5 chips, making it the fastest of its time! Since it allows for the action to run fast and smooth you waste no time waiting for the game to load, as soon as you open the app within matters of seconds you are ready to start the all the blood violent filled killing.

            With the small size of the phone comes the small size of the screen. This goes back to how small and portable it is so not much space is taken up by it. The negative part about this is that your fingers are on the screen as you play controlling the character Claude, so if you got big fingers it will increase the difficulty of play because you will block off a big portion of the screen. To play right you would have to be in the perfect lighting area, which would be a place that is not too dark or too bright lit. Playing outside in the sun could possibly be the worst are to play at because the suns light over powers the light given off by the phone, this would make you move to a new space or area the is more preferred, such as in a closed room or indoors.

            You have to be very careful when handling these types of devices; they are made out of glass and can easily break. It is best if you provide your phone with a durable case that will protected in case it is dropped or hit. Another alternative could be to go to a spacious place with carpet or a soft padded floor. Time consumption is what really determines your area of play. There are those people that are highly addicted and devoted to the game that they have a designated are where they concentrate the best and accomplish more in the game. Whereas there are the ones who only play it as a pastime and will play it when they have nothing else to do, these people generally play it anywhere where they have the best opportunity.

            In the video I provided below specific reasons why playing this game in certain areas is not okay are demonstrated. A good example would be at church, if I were to pull my phone out that would already make me look bad, but what if I start playing with the full volume up. All of those around me would look me down with the craziest eyes, that would definitely be frowned upon! If you listen closely you can tell how much violence occurs in the game just by the noises. I think this is a perfect example on how space is affected and used, I cannot play this game anywhere that I wish.  People go to church to pray and praise gods, being interrupted by this would more than likely result to my exile from church. The environment of play is very important, I also provide a picture of me playing the game. In the picture there is nothing much to it, I am riding on a gondola across the city of Mammoth Lakes, sure it is a strange place to be playing it at but it shows how easily I can play anywhere and how portable it is. Not much is needed from the game but my willingness to play and a good space to play at.

Project Text

Gustavo Vieyra          

Professor Sean Pessin

English 114B

7 March, 2012

Time Can Change All

            The only thing on this earth that never stops, keeps going, and you will never be in control of it, time. What is time? Time is a complicated system that can be described in many ways, in so it can be the past, present, or future, but it all involves sequential events that build itself, yet it can be the simplest just by leaving it alone. Time can also be the most powerful tool used in any event depending on the amount that it is exerted on something, but no matter the size of the period, drastic changes can be made from a split second to millions of years. In example, it would only take a second to determine if someone gets to live by holding a gun to someone else’s head, if the person holding the gun decides to pull the trigger they will not be able to go back and undo the damage that is nearly not repairable. In another example, evolution of animals that occurred from millions of years ago now plays a big effect on the whole life of the evolved animal, some have adopted from being water animals to land animal, therefore creating a big change. Changes can be good yet again can be bad, but again with the amount of time spent on that change. In two books that I read time greatly impacted the outcomes of different events and people. These two books were “Ender’s Game” and “Speaker for the Dead”, both written by Orson Scott Card. The first book to the novel Ender’s Game is about a young boy named Andrew Wiggin who is known and referred to as Ender. Alien species called Buggers have attacked the planet twice and almost wiped out humanity, to win the next war against the Buggers they must prepare. They turn to kids and build them up to become military experts who will in the future defeat the Buggers. In the training camps their ways of developing into higher skilled soldiers is by playing these battle games and Ender being the extraordinary at them easily dominates. Throughout his young childhood he faces tough obstacles, one being his brother who desperately wants to kill Ender. He also faces challenges that shape him into who he becomes, for example leaving his sister and parents, getting bullied around at school, and following the demands of strict officers that influence him deeply.  He becomes the best of the best and manages to destroy the Buggers in effort to protect his home planet, titling him with the name “Ender the Xenocide”. In the second series Speaker for the Dead, Ender who now refers to himself as Andrew Wiggin is in his mid-thirties but it has been over three thousand years since the Xenocide of the Buggers. Because of his space travel he has managed to beat time and travel for years even though the real time is still going without affecting him. His new job as a Speaker for the dead is to travel to world and host these ceremonies where he speaks “true stories” of those who have recently died. With him he carries a cocoon that homes the Hive Queen, the only remaining life of the Buggers.  His first task was to speak of the Buggers who he wiped out. He travels to a planet who is given the name of “Lusitania” where a new alien species since the Buggers is discovered, for short of Pequeninos they call this species; Piggies. They are observed by two “Zenadors” or anthropologist; Pipo and Libo who are father and son, as they have the Piggies in a gated closed society. Mysteriously they are found that they have been killed but do not know the exact reason why. Only one person knows why they were killed, her name is Novinha, who used to have a relationship with Libo. She knows that Pipo was killed right after he discovered a link of the Descolada disease to the Piggies. A call was made to Andrew to speak for the deaths of these. After he arrives at the planet him and Novinha quickly grow fond of each other since they have had similar pasts and encounters. He is determined to settle this mysterious death of Pipo and Libo. It may too have been possible that he found a new home for the Buggers since the cocoon can hatch at any time and possibly give them a second chance to live. Like I mentioned earlier, time is a powerful tool, in these two books time developed many changes. Differences between the books enhance how Ender went from being; Ender to Andrew Wiggin to a Speaker for the dead, many of these events affected his age dominance.

            Throughout “Ender’s Game” and “Speaker for the Dead” Ender’s age is obviously affected by time. He began his journey and this great genius military expert at the age of six when an I.F. Officer named Graff chooses Ender to go to the battle school to start his training. Ender being really young he is uncertain about his decision; he leaves his parents to draft and enroll in this battle school. His age plays a deep roll in his encounters, for one he would be bullied at school; he wasn’t one of the big older kids so this made him a target. Being vulnerable may not have been the worst thing though, he was young and picked on by bullies at school but he was strong and smart. A fight had broken out between him and a bully named Stilson. Stilson continuously picked on Ender and one day Ender finally had enough, he fought back. The fight brought out an inner vane monster-like Ender, his anger took over and harshly beat up Stilson. Not realizing that the true fact was that he had killed him. We can clearly see that his young age affected him as any regular child would be affected in our time. Young children now days are targeted by older kids to make themselves feel of power and control. Everyone wants to seek power, the easiest way of this would be to go after younger, smaller beings that you know you can easily dominate. This scenario of what happened to Ender is seen all over the world in schools. Many fight for that “popularity” where it is better to be feared then respected. Power is like a hunger that many crave so they turn to dominate over those who seem weaker. Back to my example in high schools the older seniors target new incoming freshman to state their presence and make a stand that because they are older they have more power and dominate the area. Ender because he is still the youngest in the battle camps he is still picked on. On another event on their way to the battle camps he is picked on by an older kid. The same thing happens, Ender fights back but this time a result of only a broken arm occurs. Age plays an important role on how Ender develops over time, he does not have control of time so he can’t magically make himself older. It forces him to grow as he endures all these painful fights, even to him as he wins them all. His age overtime does not catch up to other so he is always looked down upon because he is the youngest.  

            Compared to Enders age in “Speaker for the Dead” he is much older but no one seems to consider his age. The true fact is that no one really knows that “Andrew” is Ender the Xenocide, they all think that he is deceased. His life as a young kid drastically impacted the man he is today. Because of all his struggles with his young age as a kid he is shaped into tis bright brave man. The obstacles he faced really changed him in the most positive way, as he was picked on through time and time it made him tougher. Now in this new time of the Piggies his age plays no important roll on what he is and what he does. Many people have gotten over that age where the feel power is gained by dominating the younger and weaker. They have matured enough to realize that other traits are what differences each other and gain a new respect kind of power. He may not be the oldest in this time but unlike when he was a kid it does not matter. Although if Ender would have been one of the oldest kid in the battle schools, he might never gotten picked on. This effect trickles all the way down to the person he is now.  Those encounters and fights caused by his younger age shaped him to be this tough victorious man, without them he might have been a completely different person. I believe those taunts really brought out the best in him that led him to be the best at the games and eventually defeat the Buggers and save his planet. If time would be broken to change his age to be older when he was young the Earth may have perished due to the fact that Earth never developed a hero to save it. Time unfortunately cannot be changed to do this. Luckily the perfect time to prepare an ambush against the Buggers at Enders age came right.

            At Enders young age he was easily influenced to do whatever Graff and the battle school wanted him to do to create this genius military expert to lead the fight against the Buggers. With time Ender managed to grow of out this person he was or he was created to be. His young age managed older people to control him and watch his every move. He was easily brainwashed to what they wanted to make him into, what they consciously created was a killer that with any loss of control the true Ender would come out that would defeat any opponent. His young age brought him to the lowest possible rank, he had decisions that he was allowed to make but even those decisions had outcomes that he may not have wanted to do. As time passed and he grew he slowly moved up not regarding his age. This changed many things; power was not dominated by his successful doings. People started to look up to him. A life where age is no determining factor of who you become will never happen. Although if possible pretty much everyone would be equal. No matter the time difference whether years or seconds, there will always be that one individual looking for dominance because they are older. If the same scenario would occur as when he was older and age didn’t play an important role on his doings and when he was young I believe that there would be no motivation to move up and defeat those who believe have power over you. Time had a perfect impact on Ender because of his age. He was deeply picked on because he was the youngest but in the end he came out to be victorious over the rest. Time can change all, this can include your faith as being the world’s Hero.

Project Space

Gustavo Vieyra          

Professor Sean Pessin

English 114B

15 April, 2012

Project Space

            In this world we can always count to be surrounded by one thing at all times, that is space. What is space? Space is defined by an online source as a continuous are or expanse that is free, available, or unoccupied. Space is found everywhere we go and in all dimensions, such as two-dimensional, three-dimensional, in our world, or virtual ones, like video games. Space is an essential element for our survival, if we had no space we would not exist, we are space! The way we use it can change us though, it is up to us how we take advantage of the space that is provided for us. Furthermore in my English class 114B with Professor Sean Pessin we were assigned to play a video game. From that we would analyze how the space inside the game or outside was used or how it affected us. For my choice of game I picked Grand Teft Auto III that is an action adventure game who was developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar. My game system of play is my own iPhone 4s. This game became the first three dimensional game to the Grand Theft Auto series. The story line of this game consists of a criminal named Claude who was backstabbed and is made to work his way up to the criminal pyramid to later face the one who backstabbed him. This game is described as a third-person shooter and driver game, where you control the player but also the vehicles he manages to steal. The setting of this game takes place in current time “Liberty City” or pretty much New York City. I have provided images of how the play of the game works to give a better understanding of my descriptions. In the pictures you can see how it looks in the third-person perspective and how it looks when you are conducting a vehicle.

The objective of the game is to pass missions that are given to you by high lord criminals where you have to do the dirty work of killing people, robberies, chauffer, and deliver for them and as a reward you are paid with money. Within the game story you unlock and are able to retain new weapons, these weapons can be from a hand pistol, to a rifle, to an rpg launcher to a tank. This game is truly mde very realistic; you can get arrested, killed. To add on you are in control of the player at all times so you are free to roam around and do as you wish with Claude. The basic controls of the player are simple; on the touch screen you are given an analog stick, a fight button, a run button, a jump button, and a button to steal the closest vehicle to you. As for driving you are given another analog stick, a gas button, a reverse button, and a break button. It is up to you the player how you put use of these controls to manipulate the space in the game.

            Space in the game not very limited, you are freely ably to go pretty much anywhere but some buildings and outside of the city. There are invisible barriers that are held in the game that restrict you from going to certain areas. A lot of limitations occur in the game, such as; how far you can aim with a gun, the velocity a car could go, the height of Claude’s jump, the health the characters are given, and many more. When on a mission if not all the steps are followed or you get killed the mission is failed and you are made to start all over to the beginning of the mission. The good thing about this game is that you are not given a certain amount of lives; you can die as many times as you want and you won’t get to a game over. The only end to this game is when you succeed in all the missions and you become the top dog. The use of space can be carefully analyzed of how it makes everything work in the game, how one space affected thing can cause of chain effect that will eventually put you in front of a limitation barrier. Although I can get into further detail about how the use of space happens inside the game I have chosen to analyze how the use of space outside of the game constrains me.

            In our human world space is pretty much endless; there is space beyond space beyond space. Our area of space is so great that we have not accomplished to reach even the farthest of sights; we have not been able to conquer every single part of space available. We may have the technology and space crafts to carry us throughout outer space but no matter how far we go we will never travel it all, that is because it is endless. Even though we have no limit to the amount of space, we do have limits to where and how we can use it. This Grand Theft Auto III video game can demonstrate exactly how it limits me to a certain extent on the levels of space that I can play it or control. I may be outside of the game but it still places great limitations as to where I can or how I play the game, many factors determine just how the game is somewhat in control of me in some areas or spaces. The following factors somewhat have a significant impact on the use of space; portability, battery restrictions, memory, expenses, processing speed, small screen, small control buttons, lighting, easily can break, time consumption, and overall the environment that it is played in.

            To begin with I mentioned earlier that I play this game on my iPhone 4s, making it very portable. With this you don’t have to deal with going to a certain area to play the game, you can have it with you at all times. The phone alone measures about five inches in length, two and a half inches in width, and is about a centimeter thick, this makes it small. The fact that it is small means that I can easily carry it anywhere, like my pocket, or in a small travel bag. The dimensions of the phone are fairly small so it does not need a lot of space to maintain it around. Even adding a case to the phone does not change its appearance much, it will remain small at all times, and this is perfect. The devise is highly portable so it allows opens the doors to play pretty much anywhere or any space that it is allowed in. This is where our first complication with its use of space, although its portable and it is developed to be played anywhere the truth is that I can’t. To explain this further I am limited to playing with it at a meeting with someone important, while driving or in class. It will be highly disrespectful if I decide to pop out with my phone and decide to play it in a public meeting. Meetings are obviously made to “meet” and to be given full attention, whereas if I am playing I will be breaking that purpose of the meeting. The space where I can enjoy myself while playing this addicting killing game is also limited when I am driving. Of course it’s a horrible idea to even try to play and remove the focus off the road and onto the game, that is life threatening. Imagine one hand on the steering wheel and the other on my iPhone, that would not work. I would not be able to do both drive and play because to have full control of Claude I would need both hands, I would not be able to drive like that. My space here is affected because the combination of playing the game and driving would not be a successful adventure, I can possibly get killed here, and in that process more space would be affected by making room for me six feet underground to lay my deceased body.  In class it will be my choice to play or not, but the consequences could involve crucial space and time consumption. My space in a classroom is reserved as my place to get an education and learn. I can easily whip out my phone and decide to play Grand Theft Auto but many people would not appreciate this. I wouldn’t only be wasting my time but others time as well. The professor would not be very accepting of this behavior and could easily remove me from class, eliminating that space provided for me. Without my focus on the material being taught in class I will not learn and possibly not get very far in life, the space of a great genius would never be filled all because I decided to play in class instead of paying attention. This type of behavior is looked down onto; the least of my worries would be to not learn anything and later struggle to recover what I missed, impeding with the space of others by bothering for help with what was missed.

            Battery restriction occur regularly with these type of handheld devices, although not much space is required for the battery itself on the device there is the hassle of having to recharge it all the time. If the iPhone is being used constantly throughout the day whether it be on playing it or using it for other purposes the battery tends to drain out pretty quick, the life of the phone would not last you over a day. Charging it is mainly where space is affected, the quick death of the battery makes the owner carry the charger around most of the time just in case. The cord and the wall plug have to be carried so that take up more space in placing it somewhere where you can easily access it. Another space problem would be finding the right place to charge your devise. Not all places are convenient but if you have to charge it you have to deal with it. Space and time is wasted the most when having to wait for it to charge. These devices charge slowly so you have to wait till it is charges sufficiently for your needs.

            A great advantage to these types of handheld devices is that for video games you don’t have to carry game cartridges for them. All the games that you desire to play can be downloaded through the application store if provided. This saves you space or room for the games you want to play; they are installed and saved in the devise for as long as you please. Although memory or space is taken up the more you play and the more games you add on to the devise. The negative part is that just like anything else you have to purchase the games. Although to first buy the games you would have to buy the devise first, this can be an iPhone, and iPod Touch, or an iPad. Regardless what devise you purchase space is taken either way, this part of used space occurs in your pocket or in your bank. The devise is not cheap so you would have to waste a good amount of money on it.  In the game the more money I make, missions I pass, or accomplishments I make they are saved and every time takes more and more space. There is a high chance that if your iPhone device does not have enough free memory you will no longer be able to proceed in the game because you will have no more room to store your advances. Processing speed of the game affects the use of space and time as well. Luckily my iPhone is the newest version and it is equipped with two dual A5 chips, making it the fastest of its time! Since it allows for the action to run fast and smooth you waste no time waiting for the game to load, as soon as you open the app within matters of seconds you are ready to start the all the blood violent filled killing.

            With the small size of the phone comes the small size of the screen. This goes back to how small and portable it is so not much space is taken up by it. The negative part about this is that your fingers are on the screen as you play controlling the character Claude, so if you got big fingers it will increase the difficulty of play because you will block off a big portion of the screen. To play right you would have to be in the perfect lighting area, which would be a place that is not too dark or too bright lit. Playing outside in the sun could possibly be the worst are to play at because the suns light over powers the light given off by the phone, this would make you move to a new space or area the is more preferred, such as in a closed room or indoors.

            You have to be very careful when handling these types of devices; they are made out of glass and can easily break. It is best if you provide your phone with a durable case that will protected in case it is dropped or hit. Another alternative could be to go to a spacious place with carpet or a soft padded floor. Time consumption is what really determines your area of play. There are those people that are highly addicted and devoted to the game that they have a designated are where they concentrate the best and accomplish more in the game. Whereas there are the ones who only play it as a pastime and will play it when they have nothing else to do, these people generally play it anywhere where they have the best opportunity.

            In the video I provided below specific reasons why playing this game in certain areas is not okay are demonstrated. A good example would be at church, if I were to pull my phone out that would already make me look bad, but what if I start playing with the full volume up. All of those around me would look me down with the craziest eyes, that would definitely be frowned upon! If you listen closely you can tell how much violence occurs in the game just by the noises. I think this is a perfect example on how space is affected and used, I cannot play this game anywhere that I wish.  People go to church to pray and praise gods, being interrupted by this would more than likely result to my exile from church. The environment of play is very important, I also provide a picture of me playing the game. In the picture there is nothing much to it, I am riding on a gondola across the city of Mammoth Lakes, sure it is a strange place to be playing it at but it shows how easily I can play anywhere and how portable it is. Not much is needed from the game but my willingness to play and a good space to play at.

Abominable 04/11/2012

This is my last post about the Comic,
honestly I didnt even look at this weeks panel but regardless I know it was a good one. I really like the comic and it kept me entertained but i will not read it for fun. its not for me. Maybe one day if im really bored ill go back and look at it again and catch up with all the new panels!