thegrandtree-blog

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Week 4 Collection

This week I decided to collect things that have been forgotten about in my room. They have been all sitting either in corners of the room or places that just are visited. These items havent moved in weeks and I thought they needed to be brought attention to. What other items are forgotten about in your house? These have no real significance to me and probably why they have not been touched.

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In Game Items - Day 30

First of all, this is the end of the blogs, I'm so happy we have finally got here because it is not something I have enjoyed doing, even though it has brought up really good questions that I have been pondering. It has allowed me to take a step back and really analyze every little detail that is day to day whether is be just thinking, learning, decision making, cooking, sleeping, other people, really anything.

The last blog post I wrote brought me to this thing that is essential for most games in order to make money. A normal store will sell things to consumers, physically of course. It doesn't matter if you have to buy it online or go there to get it, you will have a physical version of it in due time. But what if I told you, people buy imaginary things that will not matter to them in a year? Crazy right!?

Most games have something called the "In Game Store", where you can buy cosmetic items for your player in the game. Why bother do that? Is there a point to buying fake things? Most kids do it because they want to flex on other people and show them that they have the cooler content than everybody else playing the game. So essentially this cosmetic item becomes part of your ego and how you self Express in game. self Image goes beyond just real life, but also in game.

This brings me to an interesting point, buying in game items that give you an advantage over other players online. Is that legal? The answer to that is no, there is actually are that forbids gaming companies from doing that because then people can buy their way to success and it limits other players from being able to have an equal chance at being good. There was a company a couple of years ago that had something similar, but it was practically gambling for better items. Long story short they got sued and the game had to get fixed right away.

Wild world we live in. crazy times

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New Season- Day 29

The new season of Rocket League just dropped today. The game that my roommates and I play very competitively. With this new season all of the rankings reset so you have to do placement matches again in order to see what level you are. I'm still Gold 3 so nothing really has changed.

This new season brought forth a light that I havent felt in a very long time. Excitement for something new! I forgot how fun it is to doing something that is brand new! sure this game has been our a while, but the end of last season brought new rewards for ranked players and a new chance to get more in game items!

I played it a fair amount today in order to rerank myself. OOOH! Another thing that happened to the game is full cross platform play between consoles and PC for this game. That really makes you wonder though because xbox and Sony are very strict for those rules. What kind of agreement did they have to make in order to enable that type of access? I'm sure it had to be a profitable one for all parties. Curious to see how one of those negotiations goes down, only part is they are so secretive about cross platform.

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Dreaded - Day 28

This long blog got me so mentally exhausted from forgetting about it to worrying about it to grinding out a post at the last minute. But at the same time it has really made me think about the same subject from different angles. I never knew how many different things you could write about games. I havent mentioned a topic of games yet, can you think of what it is?

That was a trick question honestly. This type of gaming has nothing to do with actual video games. I'm thinking about the games people play with each other. Mind Games! I am all too familiar with these people people have done them to me all the time. I ain't about that life. but how far do mind games go? and to what extent do they affect the person that is implementing them in the first place?

Mind games deal with relationships and make the other people really question everything that is happening within them. It also could be that the relationship hasn't started yet but they playing games to get one another. my take on this is that they are incredibly dumb. its 2019, stop lolly gaging and get to the damn point. Mind games are for the mentally insane (not literally). I think the people that are doing them dont realize how much of an impact they actually have on someone. They really can mess someone up and be self conscious. Not cool. Rethink people before you play this game!

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Title Goes Here- Day 27

As the semester drags on the creativity has to also continue. But for how long can the creativity be flowing? What inspires someone be think abstractly and continue the flow if brain juices when it comes to a design major? I am always super pumped to get into the swing of things when class starts back up and always look forward to the new projects that I will get yo work on. After a while though it becomes hard to think.

We are starting the 5th week of the semester, close to being 1/3 done. Even with all these classes being cancelled my brain is exhausted and I can't find the motivation to keep on keeping. I don't have a choice so I keep designing things.

Creativity comes to me randomally. Usually when I'm laying in bed with all the lights off is when it comes to me. Other times it's by doing simple activities throughout the day and seeing other things that inspire your mind to expand. What inspires inspiration?

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Recovery - Day 26

The word recovery is very versatile. If we start this day at exactly 12:00 in the morning then...I stumble out of the bathroom where I had been laying recovering from the night out at the bar. I had been there long enough to hear my roommates come home and say “Oh Brenden isn’t here” and then turn the T.V and watch Netflix. This entire time I feel too sick and don’t want to move or talk for the fact it might make me feel worse. Roughly 45 minutes go by and I managed to get up and walk to the door. I opened it and it swung fast slamming into the trash can. I had both hands spread out of the door frame trying to hold myself up. I looked dead into my roommates girlfriends eyes and she said “Oh Brenden is here!” At which moment I fell onto the floor. I was taken care of while I was recovering from a lot of 2 for 1 deals at the bar. You live and you learn.

There is a different form of recovery, a definition related to the subject of gaming. It’s pretty universal for using the term in games. But it is an essential part of gaming. It usually just has to deal with coming back from a bad loss. It can vary though. In rocket league, recovery is to come back from being defensive against the opponents attacks to going to pure offensive moves. The term is also used in a sense of landing, if your car got hit hard and flipped while soaring through the air you can recover and roll it while flying and then land on your wheels. Those are two examples of recovery, but each game has a form of recovery and it is essential to be good at it in order to establish victory amongst the enemies. 

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The Mind - Day 25

The mind, the brain, the thing inside your skull. It controls you. It is you. It’s responsible for everything you do and everything you are. It doesn’t always work the way you want it to. But it gets the job done enough for you to function to a certain extent. 

My mind is different from everybody else's. We all have unique minds and brains and they all think differently. Could be from a disorder, or just that someone else has had different experiences that has shaped theirs differently than yours. That what it really comes down to. Every second leading up until now. now. now. Now is always changing, and every second is another second for your mind to be more unique. We all live different lives. 

My brain is very thoughtful with everything and needs a reason for things to exist, but at the same time I have a little scatter brain and when it comes to writing these blogs, I just kind of just ramble on with no order or reason. Where as some of my friends in this class are very organized with how they phrase things and write theres. 

Is the way I am doing it wrong compared to theirs? Nahhhhh being the same is not fun, be unique.   

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Ingredients - Day 24

There is this whiteboard that we have hanging up in my room that is main room next to the door out of the place which has several bits of information on it. There is a tally for two of my roommates to keep track of how many times they eat out during the week and how many times they cook. Next to this is the recipe of the week. This whole time I’ve been watching my own habits, but I have failed to notice me noticing other people’s habits. It’s so normal to just go day to day thinking only about yourself, but the entire time you are also aware of the people around you, being curtious to them. They live other lives and have their own set of concerns and worries that are completely separate from you. For my roommates, they are trying to limit how much money they spend eating out instead of cooking. 

This raises the questions: How much money are you saving by either eating out every night and not cooking, or buying your own ingredients and cooking your own food instead of eating out? Which one is actually more cost effective? Which one is healthier? Is there a balance?

You could probably save a little money if you went to Mc Donalds everyday to eat off of their dollar menu, but you are sacrificing some of the health benefits of eating. No way a dollar burger is good for you in anyway. You could spend more money to go to some place like crisp and green to buy an expensive salad, but then you at least are sparing your body. Where is the line between good pricing and healthy food for eating out? It is a little easier to make healthier food at home if you grocery shop. Then you can control the cost a little bit more and could potentially have left overs to keep eating.    

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Collection 3:

These are a bunch of different types of controllers that we have in the room. One for the tv, one for the cable, and the rest cor gaming. Each one is different and serves a different purpose. There are so many different medians for gaming.

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Retro - Day 23

There is this really strange assignment that I have in class that actually requires us to go out into the wide world and buy something that we just feel we need. Not too much explanation other than your urge to splurge the item. That is the easiest way to say it. 

So I went to target to get my item and had to first grocery shop and then proceeded to look for something. This journey made me realize another aspect I had been leaving out of the whole gaming category in this blog. Fan bases and retro gaming. 

I have a very specific type of games that I like to play, usually ones that are very competitive and are most likely rated mature. Not only that, but also ones that have a good story line behind them. When I started to think about the games I like I realized the games that had the most impact on me are the ones I grew up with. 

The section in target had their own retro gaming section for all the classics that are for sure targeting the millennials that walk by them on the way to modern games. It’s all memorabilia, but it makes you remember your childhood.    

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Boggling - Day 22

There are days like today where I think about the grand scheme of the entire world and what it has in store for us. It is such a simple question, but potentially one of the more difficult ones to answer. 

Is there a path for us written in destiny? 

I have always pondered to myself if I made different choices if I would still end up in the same place with the same people. Did the one decision I made in 9th grade to want to become an aerospace engineer really drive all the outcomes of my life today? It guided me to do math and science, join the robotics team in highschool which I absolutely love and still go to watch their competitions. It was not my forte after all and now Im in design. Was is destiny to drive me to those decisions? 

another career changing experience. A single swipe right. Out of the thousands of time I have swiped nothing has ever happened. Not that many matches or even people that would respond. But the one time someone did reply my entire life path was altered. I wasn’t planning on learning another language or planning on going abroad. Was it destiny that our paths crossed to help me become a better person? Was I supposed to learn something from it? Whatever it was, I find it rather interesting that small events can change your life so easily. The real thing though is, do you really have choice over how your life turns out? Is there a path you are destined to go down? 

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Away - Day 21

I woke up eagerly to start the day knowing that I two meetings with different people about the same topic. I met with the national director of my scholarship to discuss the finances of study abroad and to see how much they would cover out of the fee. They said they cover everything that is educational related so many tuition and possibly books. After that I went to meet with the actual advisor to discuss the program I want to do. We walked through the basics of the program and it made me feel homesick even though I hadn’t even left. 

How much can people tolerate being away from home by themselves? I have done trips in the past with my friends, but I feel homesick after only a short week or two and need to return to Minnesota where everything feels normal. My family lives in Florida now, but I grew up here so it will always be home. How am I supposed to adjust to leaving America for 16 weeks and being there all by myself, no friends initially. It’s very intimidating. 

I knew people that came over to America for a full year and said it was fine and they didn’t feel too homesick. It’s something you have to accept and just adapt to by making friends and a name for yourself so you feel like you have a home there.

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Dreams - Day 20

Dreaming is the most confusing thing in the world. Both definitions to be honest. Why do we dream? Is it a view into our subconscious? Why are some people better at it than others? How can some people control them? 

I accidentally started lucid dreaming when I was in 9th grade and it was the most exhilarating experience. I still can remember was it was about. I was jumping out of a plane over and over again and parachuting, just gliding over the earth and when I reached the bottom I would just jump out again. I was in full control of all movement and actions in the dream and it felt so real falling out of a plane. 

Since then I have been able to lucid dream on command, it honestly is hard not to dream for me. I always wake up shocked if I do not have a dream. I may not see the deeper meaning to the dream right afterwards, but reading back in my dream journal I see how connected they all were with the things I was going through during those times. 

It’s not only just lucid dreaming, there are so many unknowns with them and scientists have been trying to figure them out. Is Deja Vu related to dreaming an experience and just forgetting about it until it happens in one way shape or form?

There are out of body experiences as well which are wild because thats transcending your mind body and soul through time and space. They did an experiment where one person had to do a OBE and read a few number on a sheet of paper that was 10 feet above him that he had not seen prior. He did get right and that begs the question, where can you go and what is the extent to what someone can see?

Last thing that always bothers me about dreams in death. People think it’s impossible to keep dreaming if you die within a dream and if you do where do you go? What happens? I have had two dreams I can remember where I have died in my dream and not waken up right away. So it’s possible to die in your dream, the difference is you don’t actually feel any of the pain that is inflicted to you body in the dream. WILD right!? First time I was on top of a car that hit a road block and I flew off sliding against the concrete. Gruesome, I won’t go into details. But I remember seeing everything fade away, feeling the fear of death and flooding memories and not wanting to go. And then everything went black. But it just remained black like I was standing in a room with out windows or lights. I didn’t wake up right away. Second time was more involved where I got eaten up by an escalator and then I was sitting in a bar as a ghost and I had to go find the place where I died. When I finally returned to the bar, I sat down and talked to the man next to me and had an epiphany about life and the meaning of it and then woke up remember everything except for what I learned at the end of the dream.      

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This is my desk with my custom gaming PC. The actual PC is below the desk so you cant see it. 

-24″ BenQ Gaming Monitor 

-Razer BlackWidow Chroma Keyboard

-Razer Death Adder Mouse

-Razer FireFly Mouse Mat

All of my Razer peripherals light up and can be synced to match in color and change in color simultaneously through the Razer Synpse 

The computer itself lights up red from the GPU and CPU water cooler. Other than that the parts are decently good and can run games on high settings

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Personal Computers - Day 19

I built my first computer when I was in 12th grade. I had saved up money from the summer and from the job I was working during the winter and school year to buy all the parts I needed. Personal computers offer a larger variety of games that you can play because all the games that are only offered on the internet through websites. 

You can still play most of the games on the consoles on computer as well so why wouldn't everyone just use a computer to game? I can think of a few reasons. First off, if you want to game on a computer, you are gonna need some really good components to be able to run games smoothly and on good visual settings. And by running them on high settings this requires more energy for processing from the computer parts. To put it into perspective, from the last post a playstation may only use 240 Watts per session, my gaming computer has a 850 Watt power supply to just supply enough power at all times to it. I used to have a 650 Watt power supply, but that wasn't enough and overwhelmed my computer and it broke. So I fixed it and upgraded all the parts.  

But if it is so good for gaming why don’t more people use computers for gaming? A console costs about $400 dollars to buy. A custom PC meant for gaming will run between $2,000 to $5,000 for just an average gaming computer. The nice ones run above 10,000 dollars and usually have SLI running for max efficiency. But on the flip side a lot of games on computers are generally free. You also don’t need a membership to be able to play on online servers. 

The real problem is if people have the funds for getting into the Pc Gaming business how can they? How do they learn about what all the different parts are for in a computer? How do they learn where to put them? How do they learn how to correctly do it with out statically short circuiting everything? How many Parts do they need?

The worst part about those questions are that it is up to the builder as to what they want. So if you have no idea what parts do it is gonna be really hard to understand what they need in order for it to run how they want it to.  

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The Cost Of Gaming - Day 18

Gaming is by no means a cheap activity. A membership for a year to access content and use Xbox’s or Sony’s servers costs $60 a year. It also costs $60 for every brand new game that comes out. On top of those both you have to pay $400 dollars for the console itself. What justifies someone buying Xbox over Playstation? They both are equally good in terms of performance. Is it how they are marketed that makes people buy one over the other or is it the experience that you receive from having a certain one? Could also be the name associated with it that makes people buy one over the other? I know I bought a Playstation over an Xbox because all my friends I grew up with had a playstation so we could all play together. All the people I currently live with have an Xbox and I’m the odd one out. 

There are certain game titles that are only on one console. Like the Halo franchise is only on Xbox. It will likely never be allowed on Playstation. That definitely helps people choose to buy Xbox over the other console if that is their game of choice. The only difference is there is a younger generation playing Xbox while most of the older kids and young adults are on Playstation. Why is that? Could it be that Xbox is from an American company so all these parents that are buying their toddlers games only want to trust that because Microsoft is so well known? Why do the older people tend to sway to Playstation, a Japanese company? 

There is another cost of gaming that goes unnoticed, ELECTRICITY. You need to use energy to power these devices and they require a fair amount to keep the components running. The playstation will use about 240 Watts per normal length session and for a Netflix session around 90 Watts. Over time that builds up and costs a fair amount of money. That is also just one person, now imagine the millions of people that use them daily and both consoles being run. If that seems like a lot to you then you don’t even want to know about the PC wattage usage. Gaming PC’s require much more energy and money to run     

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League Of Legends ESports Competition