The T-Block

I probably play more games than most people, and I also play a fair amount of Tetris. While I'm no Tetris god ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kqKOlcaZuI ), I do fairly well. Today while I was playing I started to realize something about Tetris that I felt could be generalized to everyday life. No, it has nothing to do with how it is protective for PTSD it's more of a metaphor.

What is your favorite Tetris piece?... The Line block right?
It can't ever hurt you and it is needed for the "best move" in the game scoring four lines at once.

I used to think be like you. I was always praying for a line block to save me from the mounting hoard of mistakes piling up. Today I realized there is a better block. The T-block the T-block is the often overlooked hard working among us. It carries its weight and some extra in the game. It is used for the highest scoring line clear in modern Tetris the T-spin. I know it sounds heretical, but hear me out. The T-block allows you to selectively complete rows without re-covering holes in lower layers making is easier to mount a comeback, It is also an easy shape to get rid of, and it doesn't lead you to the trap of having a 3 deep hole praying for another line block if you lose focus. It is almost never a bad block, but it doesn't have the same flashy draw of the line block which is vastly overrated.

While it might be a little bit of a stretch the line block reminds me of all the people and things that I regularly take for granted. So remember next time you sit down for a relaxing game of Tetris don't forget about the T-block while you're begging for a line block to save you.

I don't think this makes as much sense as it did in my head.

Less Than 1 Week

Only 4 more days of classes until the summer!

It's been a long day today. First I went to Port Discovery with my HAPP 354 class to talk about public health specifically fire safety. This counted as my final for the class so it wasn't too bad but there were many fewer kids then the first time we went so it did get boring at times. I also spent the rest of the day finishing the co-op campaign of portal 2 with my girlfriend Amanda, and now I'm here. Sorry for the lack of a post on Friday I had some Supreme Court to work on and I went to an awards ceremony to see Amanda get recognized.

I don't know if I'll be around much this week because I have an exam, a 10 page paper, and two HPEC documents due before Thursday. However on Tuesday I do get my MCAT results back so that should be interesting. Also on Wednesday I'm swearing in the new SGA officers. All in all a busy and exciting week but it doesn't leave much time for blogging.

In other news I recently heard Reel Big Fish's song Drunk Again and am totally in love with it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ22Wnp08Po). In the future I might make these hyperlinks but right now I don't really mind. Also you'll notice I got all my tabs set up as 4 different blogs but I think the navigation isn't too bad. Anyway there's a lack of content on INDS and Pokemon but that's just because I've been so busy. I hope you'll take the time to check back and look at my other pages in the future.

Interesting Facts:

I once appeared with my band Altar Ego in Carroll magazine as the Bassist. I have also been in several other bands but many were short lived

Lungfish my favorite fish can encase themselves in mucus and greatly reduce their metabolic activity allowing them to survive for up to a year under a dried lake bed. You also might occasionally here the lungfish enthusiast call them the only fish you can fish for with shovels.

Thirsty Thursday

Yeah I actually did drink last night, but it wasn't actually that much. I spent the day preparing for my exam in my statistics for psychology majors class, and didn't feel like doing much else. So instead of working on typing up a flow chart and some edits to the procedural rules I decided to procrastinate. Then I realized there is no better form of procrastination then playing the newly released portal 2 co-op mode with my girlfriend and drinking casually. This game is awesome and when I get some more exposure to the single player mode I'm definitely going write a review.

So last night was awesome but nothing sucks more then after drinking and playing portal late at night then waking up for a 9am class about death and mourning from a feminist teacher who tends to discredit any work done by males except for her mentor. Fortunately I managed to escape that class a little early and now I'm chilling with you guys.

I'm going to be at Port Discovery tomorrow for my final in Social basis of public and community health to give a presentation at healthy first Saturday informing kids about fire safety.

Then new layout is here... well somewhat I had to make 4 blogs and they are linked to each other by the tabs at the top, but it seems to have worked out fairly well. I know I don't have a pokemon blog up yet or any content in my INDS tab, but I was busy yesterday and will get it updated as soon as I can. There is a review of a flash game called Epic Combo! up if you want to check that out.

Complimentary colors can be defined as two colors that when mixed yield a neutral color of white, gray or black. So there is some combination or red and green that when mixed will create a gray color.

Unlike angles that can have both a compliment and a supplement there is no such thing to my knowledge as a supplementary color.

Black and White

So apparently today is Star Wars Day, because it's may the fourth and it sounds similar to may the force be with you. So I guess I can't say I haven't learned anything in college.

Before I get into the rest of the things I am going to talk about today I also have recently discovered the 36 officers problem. At first I didn't understand how it could be impossible but when you look at the 2x2 problem it becomes clear. The problem is conventionally arrange 36 officers with each of one rank and house in a 6x6 grid. It can also be thought of arranging the number letter combinations A1, A2, A3....F6 in a 6x6 grid.

So now my opinion on video games as a fairly avid gamer I am in support of video games, but I understand they are not all created equal. Most educational video games are horrible and not fun, but after raiding in wow it's easy to see how you can learn the importance of teamwork and leadership. I've also learned other facts through my gaming experience like how to make bronze and steel. A recent release Portal 2 also shows other benefits like problem solving skills and complex thinking. Anyway I think video games are a positive, but I do believe violent video games can have adverse effects when the people playing them are too young.

So onto Right and Wrong. My ideas about what is right and wrong are based on individuals beliefs and values as well as the context in which it occurs. My personal rules may break down in some extreme cases but are very helpful in day to day life. The basic premise is that something is wrong if you feel bad for doing it or if you believe it is wrong. This would mean that someone who was raised in a society that embraces discrimination it is not wrong for them to uphold these beliefs because it is how they were raised. This doesn't mean that the discrimination in it's self is acceptable just that we cannot fault the individual for their beliefs.

This can also be extended to other people for example I would be upset if someone stole my car, and I would think it was wrong. Because of this it would be wrong for me to steal another person's car because I believe it was wrong. This does leave room for more specific cases to use the classic example stealing bread to feed your family because I would steal to feed my starving family I cannot fault individuals who do the same thing. While this only applies to individuals and individual cases and it isn't a perfect system it helps me evaluate whether things are right or wrong and can show me when I am being unfair.

Kangaroo's can't hop backwards.

New Layout

Hey, I revamped my old layout after realizing that it was a little bland. This new layout uses one of the provided background pictures because I haven't found one of my own that I like enough yet, but keep checking and hopefully soon I'll have a completely original background.

In other news I was learning about bacteria in microbiology and was amazed by the number of opportunistic pathogens there are, and how these horrifying diseases are literally surrounding us and only our competent immune systems are keeping us safe. Also I finished comparative animal physiology lab yesterday which is why I'm free right now =^). However I have a really important paper due in one of my classes next week and I should probably be working on that, not to mention my exam on Thursday.

I am a member of the UMBC SGA specifically the supreme court. We serve as Judge Advocates serving both to help students and hear petitions about SGA or organizations on campus. My specific initiative has been redrafting the procedural rules for the Supreme Court which will hopefully be passed early next semester. While I know that few of you are likely UMBC students if you are I would encourage you to consider applying to our branch of the SGA. If you want to know more you can leave a comment or message me and I'll give you the rest of the details.

As my semester comes to an end it's hard not to look forward to the future and next semester. I have a phenomenal schedule next semester with classes on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and no classes starting before 1PM. Hopefully I can utilize the extra time to find a job to start saving for medical school and working on my INDS capstone proposal on biopsychosocial health at UMBC. Many of my good friends are graduating and I'm not sure what next year will be like, but I'm not really worried (I was really tempted to make a Counting Crows reference there).

I know this post is getting quite long, but in America Osama Bin Laden was recently killed by the American military. While this is a large improvement in the "War on Terror" I don't feel right celebrating his death. This is primarily because of my views on right and wrong and personal understanding of good and evil. While I would never condone the actions of Bin Laden it is in my eyes no more correct to rejoice in his death than it was for Al Qaeda to rejoice the deaths of many Americans. To get back to studying I'm going to hold discussion of my beliefs on right and wrong or good and evil to next post.

Question of the day: Do you see video games as a good or bad thing? Why?

My answer next time.

Also sorry for the lack of an interesting fact but I really need to start studying.