To help my drawing skills, I picked up a couple of books about clothing styles throughout the 20th century. Total culture shock! I’ve learned two lessons from this.
Styles change but run in about 20-30 year cycles. Don’t believe me? 1900-20 meet the ‘sack trousers’ wide leg pants sometimes with cuffs sometimes without; 1930s ‘Wide leg denim’ pants come in; 1960s-70s Say hello to ‘bell bottoms’; 1990s-present you know them as ‘wide leg’ carpenter jeans.
Shoulder pads were seen in the 1920s, 1940s & 1980s. Remember the non-flattering ‘babydoll dress’? Go back a few more years. You’ll know them as ‘smocks’ and ‘sack dresses’ during previous portions of history.
Fabrics and some details may change. But the feature remains the same.
Lessons 2 is that the clothing that we consider ‘old folks clothes’ today was what young people wore back then. High waists were popular as was many other things that we consider ‘old’.
I think this is the real reason why a resurgence in 80s style is happening. We, the 80s kids, are getting older and we want our old stuff back.
Wow, the thought of our wrinkly butts running around in faded out, rolled up stonewashed denims as ‘old folks clothes’ is kinda creepy.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Video Game Life lessons Part 1
A few years ago, a friend got me addicted to watching video game playthroughs and Let’s Plays of them. (A Let’s Play is a player commenting during gameplay.) I’ve gotten to see quite a few games that I’ll never get to play. I get to see some that thwarted my childhood efforts. Plus, there are quite a few games from consoles that I never knew existed.
One thing that I hear quite often is “How was I supposed to know that?” or “That’s STUPID! How’d they expect people to figure THAT out?”
Gee, I dunno. How about these little life lessons called ‘trial and error’, ‘patience and determination’ and ‘developing problem solving skills’.
Ever since video gaming exploded in the 80s, people have complained about all of the bad things that video games are; too violent; too sedentary; waste of time; non-productive; too difficult; ect; ect; ect & totally BS.
Actually, video games are full of life lessons. Sometimes they’re more useful than the supposed ‘life preparation lessons’ taught in school.
These days, we’re familiar with such lessons as
“Beware the plumber.”
“In medieval times, women regularly fought in wars, wearing armor that afforded them equal protection to suits of plate mail worn by men, despite only covering about 3 inches of skin.”(1)
“Property destruction, theft and mass murder are not only acceptable, they’re encouraged through rewards and required to get to the next level.”
“Everyone is a stupid NPC (non player character) except for you.”
Mainstream as they are, I have a few other ‘real-world applicable’ lessons in mind.
There’s a long 40 year+ history behind video games. Obviously, all of the life lessons can’t be covered in one post. So, let’s just start with the early years.
During the 70s and early 80s, video games didn’t end. Literally, there was no real end to these games. Except for the occasional bug corruptions around level 255, games were just the same 4-9 repeating levels. With each cycle the AI (artificial intelligence) moved faster to create more of a challenge for the player.
What life lessons did those repetitive cycles teach?
Pattern recognition and memorization – Many games had patterns to each of the enemy AIs. With a little patience, those patterns could be memorized. Knowing the pattern makes defeating an enemy easier.
Patterns are everywhere; from numbers to words to human behaviors. Dictionaries use an alphabetical pattern. Knowing the pattern allows you to skip around the book to find what you need more quickly. Even the simple act of counting is a pattern of 0-9 cycles. As you grow up, you memorize the pattern of things like a 9-digit phone number, 16-digit cards and various other things. Even a street address is a pattern.
Identifiable disease patterns allow doctors to develop working treatments. Behavioral patterns help therapists figure out how they can best motivate a recovering patient. You always thought teachers had eyes in the back of their heads? Nope, they just memorize their students’ patterns. After a few years, they just know when to expect things and from whom. Like it or not while student faces change each year the behaviors remain the same. Even leaders stay in control by recognizing patterns and taking advantage of them.
Crowd Navigation – Most of the early games featured masses of enemies against one player. No matter how many times the player cleared the screen, foes always returned with about 60 of their buddies. Still, the player hitched up their pixels and cleared the screen again.
Life is full of crowds. From traffic to stores to school and work hallways, you’ve got to get through the crowd to reach your destination. Granted, you can’t just destroy them or hit them. If Frogger was your teacher, you’ve learned to observe the crowds and dodge your way through.
Repetitive cycles – Get used to it, kid. Each weekday, kids go to school, sit in classes, do assignments and leave. Each year, it’s the same thing only with higher grades of information. (And there’s the whole ‘growing up’ thing. I suppose you could call that a difficulty setting increase.)
After school, you’ll be in the adult world of ‘a job’. 10 to 1 you’ll be going to some office, store, or other location, to do the same thing on a daily basis…for the rest of your life.
Working for Points - In the 70s/80s, games were played for fun and high score bragging rights rather than a good ending. Games were replayed to get a better score and higher bragging rights. It’s really as simple as that.
Welcome to the reason for which you work; a paycheck. If you work hard or smart enough, your paycheck gets bigger. A bigger paycheck means better stuff.
These are a mere few of the ‘life lessons’ from video games. Don’t worry, there’s more – a whole lot more. But that is for another post. Seeya next time!
Footnotes:
1. (2008) 101 things we've learned from videogames The wisdom of our favorite pastime, applied to real life http://www.gamesradar.com/101-things-weve-learned-from-videogames/
One thing that I hear quite often is “How was I supposed to know that?” or “That’s STUPID! How’d they expect people to figure THAT out?”
Gee, I dunno. How about these little life lessons called ‘trial and error’, ‘patience and determination’ and ‘developing problem solving skills’.
Ever since video gaming exploded in the 80s, people have complained about all of the bad things that video games are; too violent; too sedentary; waste of time; non-productive; too difficult; ect; ect; ect & totally BS.
Actually, video games are full of life lessons. Sometimes they’re more useful than the supposed ‘life preparation lessons’ taught in school.
These days, we’re familiar with such lessons as
“Beware the plumber.”
“In medieval times, women regularly fought in wars, wearing armor that afforded them equal protection to suits of plate mail worn by men, despite only covering about 3 inches of skin.”(1)
“Property destruction, theft and mass murder are not only acceptable, they’re encouraged through rewards and required to get to the next level.”
“Everyone is a stupid NPC (non player character) except for you.”
Mainstream as they are, I have a few other ‘real-world applicable’ lessons in mind.
There’s a long 40 year+ history behind video games. Obviously, all of the life lessons can’t be covered in one post. So, let’s just start with the early years.
During the 70s and early 80s, video games didn’t end. Literally, there was no real end to these games. Except for the occasional bug corruptions around level 255, games were just the same 4-9 repeating levels. With each cycle the AI (artificial intelligence) moved faster to create more of a challenge for the player.
What life lessons did those repetitive cycles teach?
Pattern recognition and memorization – Many games had patterns to each of the enemy AIs. With a little patience, those patterns could be memorized. Knowing the pattern makes defeating an enemy easier.
Patterns are everywhere; from numbers to words to human behaviors. Dictionaries use an alphabetical pattern. Knowing the pattern allows you to skip around the book to find what you need more quickly. Even the simple act of counting is a pattern of 0-9 cycles. As you grow up, you memorize the pattern of things like a 9-digit phone number, 16-digit cards and various other things. Even a street address is a pattern.
Identifiable disease patterns allow doctors to develop working treatments. Behavioral patterns help therapists figure out how they can best motivate a recovering patient. You always thought teachers had eyes in the back of their heads? Nope, they just memorize their students’ patterns. After a few years, they just know when to expect things and from whom. Like it or not while student faces change each year the behaviors remain the same. Even leaders stay in control by recognizing patterns and taking advantage of them.
Crowd Navigation – Most of the early games featured masses of enemies against one player. No matter how many times the player cleared the screen, foes always returned with about 60 of their buddies. Still, the player hitched up their pixels and cleared the screen again.
Life is full of crowds. From traffic to stores to school and work hallways, you’ve got to get through the crowd to reach your destination. Granted, you can’t just destroy them or hit them. If Frogger was your teacher, you’ve learned to observe the crowds and dodge your way through.
Repetitive cycles – Get used to it, kid. Each weekday, kids go to school, sit in classes, do assignments and leave. Each year, it’s the same thing only with higher grades of information. (And there’s the whole ‘growing up’ thing. I suppose you could call that a difficulty setting increase.)
After school, you’ll be in the adult world of ‘a job’. 10 to 1 you’ll be going to some office, store, or other location, to do the same thing on a daily basis…for the rest of your life.
Working for Points - In the 70s/80s, games were played for fun and high score bragging rights rather than a good ending. Games were replayed to get a better score and higher bragging rights. It’s really as simple as that.
Welcome to the reason for which you work; a paycheck. If you work hard or smart enough, your paycheck gets bigger. A bigger paycheck means better stuff.
These are a mere few of the ‘life lessons’ from video games. Don’t worry, there’s more – a whole lot more. But that is for another post. Seeya next time!
Footnotes:
1. (2008) 101 things we've learned from videogames The wisdom of our favorite pastime, applied to real life http://www.gamesradar.com/101-things-weve-learned-from-videogames/
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Dull Cartoons = For Girls?
Just for ‘fun’ – and because I’ve never actually seen it - I looked up a cartoon called ‘Lady LovelyLocks’. It’s supposed to be an essential for girls’ cartoons everywhere. My impression? Dear gawd, that was worse than watching paint dry. (At least paint gives you those nice spirit-lifting noxious fumes.) This show was boring, contrived, overly moralistic and just plainly lacks replay value except for those with ‘the blinding light of nostalgia’.. I can’t believe they expected anyone to watch that drek!
Moving on, I tried to look up some lists of ‘girls cartoons’. All I really found were ‘hot girls’ lists created by boys. One list that attracted my attention was ‘5 80s Girls Toons That Boys Secretly Watched’. I gave it a look. Some of those list members completely confused me.
Care Bears is a girls’ cartoon? I’ve honestly always thought of it as a gender-neutral toon for the younger sets. In fact, it seems that most ‘little fuzzy animal’ toons are placed into the realm of ‘girls toons’. The Wuzzles, Popples, and Pound Puppies are just a few of the shows given the designation of a ‘girls cartoon’. The cast seems diverse enough that it should be a gender-neutral show, at least, in my personal opinion.
Now, one remark on the previously mentioned list did catch my irritation. The list creator mentioned that he watched G1 My Little Pony. As a hasty side note, he added “That’s the original My Little Pony, not Pony Tales! That was definitely for girls!”
So are you telling me that basically any cartoon which is low-key or boring is automatically a ‘girls cartoon’? Anything that doesn’t involve a world-altering consequence, big-issue conflict or smash bash action is obviously a show ONLY designed for girls? Are you saying that girls shows are required to be dull, cutesy drek?
“Oh, that’s dull. Must be a girls’ show!”
Thankfully, we have seen some companies attempt to break this trend with shows like the PowerPuff Girls and Kim Possible. Results have been mixed at best. Quite frankly, Japanese animation has done a far better job of bringing respect to a ‘girls show’ with shows like Slayers and the, parody-enriched, Excel Saga.
It’s sad to think that 91 years after women acquired the right to vote in America, the designation ‘for girls’ still implies a vastly inferior product to the designation of ‘for boys’.
Moving on, I tried to look up some lists of ‘girls cartoons’. All I really found were ‘hot girls’ lists created by boys. One list that attracted my attention was ‘5 80s Girls Toons That Boys Secretly Watched’. I gave it a look. Some of those list members completely confused me.
Care Bears is a girls’ cartoon? I’ve honestly always thought of it as a gender-neutral toon for the younger sets. In fact, it seems that most ‘little fuzzy animal’ toons are placed into the realm of ‘girls toons’. The Wuzzles, Popples, and Pound Puppies are just a few of the shows given the designation of a ‘girls cartoon’. The cast seems diverse enough that it should be a gender-neutral show, at least, in my personal opinion.
Now, one remark on the previously mentioned list did catch my irritation. The list creator mentioned that he watched G1 My Little Pony. As a hasty side note, he added “That’s the original My Little Pony, not Pony Tales! That was definitely for girls!”
So are you telling me that basically any cartoon which is low-key or boring is automatically a ‘girls cartoon’? Anything that doesn’t involve a world-altering consequence, big-issue conflict or smash bash action is obviously a show ONLY designed for girls? Are you saying that girls shows are required to be dull, cutesy drek?
“Oh, that’s dull. Must be a girls’ show!”
Thankfully, we have seen some companies attempt to break this trend with shows like the PowerPuff Girls and Kim Possible. Results have been mixed at best. Quite frankly, Japanese animation has done a far better job of bringing respect to a ‘girls show’ with shows like Slayers and the, parody-enriched, Excel Saga.
It’s sad to think that 91 years after women acquired the right to vote in America, the designation ‘for girls’ still implies a vastly inferior product to the designation of ‘for boys’.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
The 'Annoyed with Christmas Already' Song
I think it's time for a repost of an old song.
(Tune of 'Here comes Santa Claus')
Here comes Selfish Claus, Here comes Selfish Claus,
Ruining all holidays
He gets his kicks by steamrolling over anything in his way.
Thanksgiving is all but gone
Halloween is shunned
Say bye-bye to your holidays dear
Cuz Selfish Claus hogs the year
Here comes Selfish Claus, Here comes Selfish Claus,
Ruining all holidays
He gets his kicks by steamrolling over anything in his way.
Columbus and Veteran's Day - were they known well anyway?
An' when his foot holds in July, Independence Day will fry
So hang your head cuz holidays are dead
Cuz Selfish Claus hogs the year
(Tune of 'Here comes Santa Claus')
Here comes Selfish Claus, Here comes Selfish Claus,
Ruining all holidays
He gets his kicks by steamrolling over anything in his way.
Thanksgiving is all but gone
Halloween is shunned
Say bye-bye to your holidays dear
Cuz Selfish Claus hogs the year
Here comes Selfish Claus, Here comes Selfish Claus,
Ruining all holidays
He gets his kicks by steamrolling over anything in his way.
Columbus and Veteran's Day - were they known well anyway?
An' when his foot holds in July, Independence Day will fry
So hang your head cuz holidays are dead
Cuz Selfish Claus hogs the year
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