Jake C

 The fandom that I have chosen for this mission is the Assassin’s Creed series. The reason I have chosen Assassin’s Creed is because I’m a big fan of the series, and I feel like there’s a pretty strong following for the video games series because of its mystery, innovation, and enjoyability. The storyline of the game is also very interesting, and makes the players think “what if?”. I’ve played and been a fan of this series since 2007, which is when the first Assassin’s Creed video game came out, and ever since then I’ve played every installment that has been released on a major console (XBOX 360, PS3). Every time you complete an assassination, especially difficult ones, I feel like I have taken part in an epic win. Especially when you keep trying over and over, it feels good to finally shove that hidden blade in your notorious target. 

The (terrible) drawing above, drawn by myself, is inspired from the fifth installment of the Assassin’s Creed series, Assassin’s Creed III (there were two extra games after the Assassin’s Creed II). Here, I drew Connor’s (the main protagonist of ACIII) Tomahawk, which isn’t just any tomahawk. As you may or may not be able to see here (because the drawing is so terrible), The head of the tomahawk is actually forged into the Assassin’s Creed crest/symbol, which I also have drawn on the bottom left side. The reason why I chose to draw the tomahawk is because it is the most recent weapon which is easily identified as an assassin’s weapon, and it is also the first time in the series where an assassin has a tomahawk as a default weapon. It also introduces the first time where an assassin uses dual-hand combat, holding the tomahawk in one hand, and his hidden blade in the other.

The meme that I’ve chosen for this mission is the “Y U NO guy” meme. Those who use Tumblr outside of class may be familiar with this meme, otherwise, you are probably like “what the f**k is this??”. 

The Y U NO meme was originated in 2010 on Tumblr, and is used to draw the viewer’s attention to a certain subject. The face of Y U NO guy is taken from a japanese manga/anime series called Gantz, in which the anime character’s face is angry and frustrated. 

The reason why Y U NO guy came to popularity is because after the original one was posted on Tumblr, someone added a blank one to the site memegenerator.net, and any user of that site could create any Y U NO meme that they desired. Other variations of the Y U NO meme have been created by other people drawing on the Y U NO guy to resemble a celebrity which makes it look like that celebrity is asking the question.

SoundCloud is a social sound platform which allows anyone to create and share their own sounds everywhere. It was created in Stockholm, Sweden, but established in Berlin, Germany by Alex Ljung and Eric Wahlforss in August of 2007. Alex Llung is a sound designer, and Eric Wahlforss. In 2009, SoundCloud received Series A funding of€2.5 million from Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures, and in January 2011, SoundCloud announced they raised $10 million Series B funding from Union Square Ventures and Index Ventures. SoundCloud currently has over 20 million registered users, which include upcoming, indie, and mainstream music artists.

The user base for SoundCloud is basically anyone who makes music. SoundCloud is a platform which allows any artist to upload, share, and promote their music. 

Under U.S. law, SoundCloud seems to be a legal enterprise. It is a site that allows users to upload and share their original music. A download feature is also featured, if users wish to download those original songs. If a song that is under copyright protection is found posted on SoundCloud with the download feature enabled, it would be quickly taken down because of copyright claims. 

When SoundCloud started to become popular, it was a challenger of then-popular music platform MySpace. While MySpace only allowed musicians to upload their music under the MySpace URL, and hosted the artist’s music on the MySpace site, SoundCloud created widgets for users’ songs which could be shared on Twitter, Facebook, and any other social website. This was the major difference between SoundCloud and MySpace.

SoundCloud has also integrated the creation of a mobile app for iPads, iPhones and Android phones, which allows users to record new sounds right from their smart phone, upload them, and share them on any social network site that they would like. Another feature of SoundCloud is that they allow users to join groups that may have similar interests, where their content can be shared with like minds.

On SoundCloud, listeners may like and comment on tracks, and download tracks (if artist enables feature). Users may also follow or subscribe to other users, and in doing so, whenever an artist that is followed posts a new track, it shows up on the followers’ home page.

SoundCloud also allows users to see how many people have listened to their track, a total play count, a daily play count, what region the listener may have been from, and may even see what gender the listener is.

Although SoundCloud is free to register for, the paid subscription offers additional features, such as having more hosting space (the free membership allows 2 hours of free hosting space), the ability to distribute their content to more groups and users, and more specific tracking of statistics for each of their tracks. 

Hi, Digizens! This is my first Podify Your Life, it's about why I wasn't about in class on Monday, which is because I was on Mauna Kea checking out the snow! It's kinda awkward, and I promise my future ones will be better, but check it out!

Jake C.

So, for the first time in 598 years, the pope is resigning. Apparently, Pope Benedict XVI is resigning due to health problems. People have predicted this since last year, but is that REALLY the reason for resignation? There’s been speculation of the pope’s resignation, being that it’s connected to the scandals that took place in the Vatican. Of these scandals include allegations of child sex abuse by priests and corruption within the Vatican. However, these problems will reportedly be passed onto Pope Benedict’s successor, because currently only Pope Benedict knows the contents of these scandals.   Another thing that people have been bringing up is the apocalyptic aspect of conspiracies. People are saying that the next pope will be the last pope. I read in an article about how the lightning struck the Vatican just hours after the Pope announced his resignation. The strange thing is, that the Tarot Tower card predicts the fall of Pope Benedict XVI. The card is the number XVI, and shows a tower being struck by lightning, with people falling from it, and a crown falling off as well. Of course, these days, with change comes conspiracies, and I’m not really a conspiracy theorist, but I do find these things intriguing. 

Link To Article

On the topic of the fairness of using money to buy virtual money for games, I think that it depends on the game. For example: I think that paying someone to level your WoW avatar up is unfair. However, I do think it’s fair to buy virtual currency in games that actually incorporate it. Although seemingly unfair to people who don’t have money or don’t want to spend the money to buy it, it technically is fair (in games that incorporate the virtual currency) because every player has the right to legally purchase the currency. For example, the video game NBA 2K13 has a new system where everything you do in the game can earn you Virtual Currency (VC) which you can use to build up the stats of your MyPlayer or your MyTeam. Players are also given the option to buy VC using Microsoft points, and ultimately real money. Unfortunately, there is no separation from those who buy VC and those who earn VC in the MyPlayer or MyTeam modes. For MyTeam specifically, to play a game, you create a team and can purchase players with VC you earn or buy. There are three tiers of players: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Gold players are the superstars, and the most expensive, and the value decreases down to Bronze. To play, you’re matched up with a random person, and sometimes you are matched up with players who earned their VC, and have a regular-to-crappy MyTeam, and other times you’re matched up with players who have legends such as Larry Bird, Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, and current Superstars like Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, all gold players, one through twelve. And you’re sitting there, thinking, “How am I supposed to beat this cash-sponsored team when I got like two silver players and 10 bronze?!” It’s seemingly unfair, but still technically fair.

Now this is scary. North Korea made a video of President Obama and U.S. troops in flames. Are you serious? I think that we’re going to war this year. Trying to get out of one, and go right back into the next one. One of the downfalls of being the most powerful countries in the world. Sad to say it, but no matter how many UN sanctions the U.S. tries to impose on North Korea, they won’t slow down. I think that North Korea is going to push the U.S. to the edge, and force us to go to war. It's crazy how crazy North Korea is. Nobody in the U.S. wants to go to war. Who in the world wants to go to war?! Honestly, what does North Korea want? What do they mean by the U.S. hostility towards them? Did I miss something here? So many questions, and so little answers. It’s too bad that North Korea can’t just take the South Korea route and have K-Pop blow up internationally and have everyone doing the horse dance to Gangnam Style. Also, is the U.S. doing anything to prepare for a nuclear attack from North Korea? Hopefully they are, on some secret base somewhere in the mainland, instead of hoping that North Korea doesn’t send a nuke our way.

10:31 - Crap failed the quiz

10:39 - Tien-Yu finishes his howdedodat? about how to clean dogs. very informative and interesting! (and funny)

10:41 - Discussion about Portal: Digizens who are usually quiet during discussion speaking up

10:46 - Awkward silence begins

10:47 - Awkward silence ends

10:49 - "Tell me a little bit more" is a phrasee that makes me cringe

10:54 - Discussion dominated by opposite side of the room. sorry >.<

10:58 - Ambrosia gets hit with the "tell me a little bit more" for the third time today lol

11:00 - Wishing I had read the article

10:32 - DEFINITELY nailed the mini-quiz today

10:34 - Defining art

10:36 - wanted to google G.G. Allen for one second. then I didn't

10:37 - cliches all around

10:39 - Hayley's facial expressions and hand movements while talking are great

10:41 - In my opinion, art is anything that has a creator. A-NY-THING

10:44 - If the point of this discussion is what my thought was... smh

10:44 - I am always hungry in this class.

10:54 - Revealed my fantasy to become an assassin to the class

10:59 - Actually participating in class discussion. This is a milestone

11:04 - Autocat? Ottocat? what?

10:32 - mini-quiz for reading. nailed it

10:34 - Sean explains mini-boss

10:34 - realized i didn't master everything there is to know about St. Augustine of Hippo

10:36 - I don't have 250 Media Literacy points yet but Editor-in-Chief for the mini boss? I gotchu

10:40 - Awkward silence

10:51 - didn't know Super Mario Bros. was the most successful video game franchise in the world lol

10:52 - apparently DID NOT nail the quiz. -__-

10:57 - chopping wood challenge

10:58 - absolutely starving

11:02 - Watching a movie = game

11:14 - Playing "Eat Poop You Cat"

10:30 - Sean remembers everyone's name except one

10:32 - Max is on the volleyball team

10:33 - Garrett aka Komo aka Slash, from Cali as well

10:35 - "I'm gonna take you on a journey through a couple thousand years"

10:41 - Master everything there is to know about St. Augustine of Hippo? CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

10:46 - Collective Intelligence & Community process vs. Shared Knowledge

10:48 - mentioning Yelp as a collective Intelligence

10:49 - I actually use yelp quite constantly

10:49 - Hunger pains

10:52 - Wikipedia is another example of a collective intelligence

10:59 - Epistemology: the study of knowledge. I apologize as a second-year Latin student for not knowing lol

11:00 - SO TIRED

11:04 - Who or what do you believe in?

11:07 - I've seen Twilight: Solar Flare #23

I’ve played and completed every Assassin’s Creed (AC) video game released, and despite the title, (Assassin’s Creed III) this is actually the fifth AC created, after two games which elaborated on Assassin’s Creed II. The series goes as follows: AC, ACII, AC: Brotherhood, AC: Revelations, and ACIII. This installment of the AC series keeps a lot of elements from the prior games, as well as adding some new ones. ACIII is the first game that takes place in the United States, in its early years, and the main character is the newest assassin, Connor, who is half Native American and half British.

The Good:

ACIII keeps the classic free-flowing fighting system that it started with, but tweaked it a little this time around, which allows Connor to counter multiple enemies at once, and use two one-handed weapons at the same time (ex. Tomahawk & Hidden Blade). This tune-up in the fighting style results in new killing animations, which are brutal and bloody, yet satisfying.

ACIII introduces climbing in trees, a big part of Connor’s culture, as he grew up in the woods. There are countless tree-climbing animations, which makes navigating through tree-tops fun and entertaining. 

There are three vast maps where the game takes place: Boston, New York, and the Frontier. The frontier consists mostly of the trees mentioned earlier, and also gives the player an opportunity to hunt wildlife such as hares, bears, deer, elk, etc., which may be skinned and sold for cash. This was a great addition to the series, as it serves as a time-killer for players who may be bored, are low on cash, or just plain adventurous.

The cities of Boston and New York are also created in great detail, and even though the frontier and city are so massive, there are no loading times (especially if you have to travel across the city) inside any of the maps. 

The Bad:

I know that I’ve just praised the maps on their detail and size, but sometimes they can be a little too big. A little trick is the “fast travel” option that lets you travel to harbors, city entrances, and other fast travel locations in a second, but other times, the objective is placed a great distance away, which forces you to either free-run or ride there on horseback. 

At times, while during battle, the camera is placed at inconvenient angles. You may come across a situation where you’re surrounded by eight men, and the camera doesn’t let you see the seventh or eighth one, and they end up attacking you, and breaking your kill streak. However, this is just a minor nuisance in an otherwise great game.

The Finish: 9/10

Just heard the best news for my favorite NFL team today, the Philadelphia Eagles. Such news, that Chip Kelly, former Oregon Ducks football team head coach, is going to be signed by the Eagles. We’ve been waiting for something like this to energize the fans, energize the players, and Chip Kelly is just that. Sure it makes today a good day, and as far as we know, that might be it. However, it gives us something to look forward to, over the off-season and into the new 2013 season. Now I’m not expecting an amazing, undefeated, super bowl or bust season because it’ll be his first season as Philadelphia’s head coach, and his first season in the NFL. This year is the rebuilding year, and 2014 will be the breakout year. Trying to be patient, I guess... although I do like the cliche “the sooner the better”.

Things I think the Philadelphia Eagles need to do to make Kelly's first season a good one:

Find a way to keep Michael Vick

Integrate a dual-running back offense

Trade Bryce Brown for LaMichael James

Get the Seahawks' Defensive Coordinator

(I'm an extremely observant person so there may be a ton of updates)

10:26 - Sean jots something on the blackboard behind the projector screen.

10:27 - Awkward roll call begins

10:28 - I glance around the classroom and notice 12 laptops/iPads/other tech remain on the table. Substantially more than the last few classes.

10:32 - Realize I'm sitting a seat over from the seat I was in on Friday

10:33 - Kristen takes a sip of her drink from her mason jar... interesting (that it's a mason jar)

10:33 - Ambrosia apparently loves bugs and has three different names

10:34 - "Daniel" is an Animal Science major from Taiwan. Notice "Daniel" in quotes

10:34 - Maddy was named after a dog by her sister

10:35 - Maddy also doesn't like getting her hair cut

10:35 - (Second) Daniel hates vodka, hates spiders but can handle other bugs, maybe he and Ambrosia should do a lightning debate?

10:36 - Jenna(?): Half human, half bird

10:37 - Five introductions finished within 4 minutes, Sean is relieved and ready to "barrel" through today's "lecture/rant"

10:45 - Discussion is opened up after an interesting introduction by Sean

10:47 - Kristen and Daniella have similar views on content and medium

10:53 - Electric light changed everything.

10:56 - This room does not exist without electric light

10:59 - Immediately confused about the chicken and the egg statement

11:03 - Sean admits to his terrible handwriting

11:07 - The Constitution has all of the power, prime example of the way print shaped the way we view everything.

11:12 - Interesting point on different types of deliveries/presentations e.g. Romeo & Juliet

11:16 - Personal agreement with the statement that guns = death