Ecological Lifestyle: Carbon Footprint

End:
I reduced my footprint by 1.2 and ended up with 3.7 Planet Earths.

In order to reduce my carbon footprint, I ate solely healthy and naturally grown food, like veggies and sandwiches. I also recycled some paper and plastic bottles and reduced my input of electricity by turning off the lights more frequently, instead of just keeping them on all the time. I also did not travel on any form of transportation, besides walking. Though, my carbon footprint reduced by a whole planet earth, I do believe that it ended up being more cost effective, in some ways. I have heard and read by various sources that it takes more energy to recycle objects, than it does just by using throwing things away without recycling. So because of this, I believe that not much is done to help our carbon footprint by just recycling. I do agree with eating more of a vegetarian diet because not only is it healthier, if you know how to treat yourself on a proper diet, but it also allows for a minimized amount of chemicals and gases produced by factories and restaurants making inorganic or unhealthy and fatty foods. Also, by not traveling as much, you are hence saving gasoline and in turn preventing from damaging the ozone layer and causing more problems with global warming. Basically, it's not always too easy to reduce your carbon footprint in today's society, seeing as, everything has become fast-moving. For example: rush hour, fast food, people on the run. Thus, it's not too easy to just try to create a better environment, if there are things that simply cannot be done without increasing your carbon footprint or even being influenced by others who simply do not care about the environment.

Ecological Lifestyle

Start:
Current Ecological Footprint: 4.9 Planet Earths

My no-communication-technology day!

3AM-2PM: Sleeping
2PM-5PM: Doing Chemistry homework
5PM-6:15PM: Eating at Argos with my friends
6:15-6:20: Walking back to my dorm
6:25-10PM: My friend and I studied for our Chemistry Test
10PM- 12AM: We walked around campus, climbed trees, did things of the reckless sort
12AM-12:45AM: Went to Taco Bell and helped fill up my friends' tire with air
12:55AM-1:40AM: Hung out with my friend in our dorm just chatting and not watching television, even though she tried to make me watch it.
1:45AM- 2AM- Got ready for bed
2AM-3AM: Played my guitar until my 24 hours of Amish Day was over so, I could blog about it.


By not utilizing technology at all, for 24 hours, my day seemed really hard to get through. For example, instead of just calling up my friends, to see if they wanted to hang out and eat with me, I had to go to their dorms and ask or hope that they would see me around campus, so I could ask them. The really weird thing about my day was that, even though I told many of my friends that I couldn't speak with them today on the phone, many of them still bothered to call me up and see if I would answer. I actually got more missed calls today, then I do on most other days. Some experiences that I've had without these forms of communication technology, such as my cellphone, are numerous. For example, in middle school, I didn't have a cellphone and my mom would come to my school to pick me up. However, many times, she forgot the time that she would have to go to school, to pick me up or she would have errands to run that took a great deal of her time. So, I would stay at school, till either her errands were over, or till she remembered to pick me up. With technology, the world seems a whole lot easier, especially because people are always either on the rush or are just really busy. Thus, the only way to communicate with them is either by using the computer or calling them up. Just going to a person's house does not really work as well too much, because you never know if they'll be there at that time.

whew!

ENDING MY DAY WITHOUT USING ANY FORM OF COMMUNICATION USING TECHNOLOGY.

but only for a day.

STARTING MY LIFE WITHOUT ANY FORM OF COMMUNICATION USING TECHNOLOGY.

One Challenge

Global Warming is a very eminent environmental issue on the rise. The icebergs, from up north, are rapidly melting and creating a rise in the sea levels, due to the increase in the Earth's temperature. There has even been studies showing a decline in the polar bear population, since the global warming crisis came to be known. Not only has this crisis been affecting the animals, but it is also affecting us. Floridians, can especially feel the change that global warming has caused to our weather. The increase in sea levels has created hotter temperatures in our climate and in turn more hurricanes. It was actually about five years ago when Florida was hit by three hurricanes in a row. These hardships and changes have been felt worldwide, seeing as people have created committees to try to recuperate the Earth's health. Many companies have tried creating more eco-friendly cleaning supplies for people to use and so as not to hurt the ozone layer as much anymore. This is an environmental injustice because it is our fault that this crisis was created, but we're not doing much to alleviate the problems that we have caused, especially the United States. The US was actually the largest per capita emitter of carbon dioxide in fossil fuels in 2005. We haven't even ratified the Kyoto Protocol which is supposed to help the United Nations work together to improve our environment. However, despite not agreeing or withdrawing from this treaty, America has decided to create more energy smart appliances that reduces the amount of energy used in households on a daily basis. As citizens, we could try to persuade our government -and other fellow citizens who don't believe that global warming is a major crisis- to become more environmental friendly and become more active in aiding the planet before it gets out of hand.

South Park: Big Wheel Death Rally

Thesis: South Park: Big Wheel Death Rally involves ethical dilemmas by not just being an animated cartoon game that will attract kids, but it also conveys the idea that killing hippies and cussing at your friends in a not-so-friendly competition, is acceptable.

Ideas:

1. Cartoon

• Cartoons were initially made for children and because this is a cartoon children will be attracted to this show and thus wish to play its games. They might not understand the sexual or adolescent innuendos at first, but they'll probably ask people to figure out what it means.
  

2. Killing Hippies

• First of all, you're killing people. It doesn't matter if they're hippies or not, you're still killing them. This game has no moral outlook on killing others. The characters in these games are just racing in order to get their prize without thinking of the consequences of hurting others. Basically, their only consequence in this game, is not getting the prize at the end.

3. Cussing

• Cartman, one of the characters in the game uses bad language such as, "You've just been f'd in the a" or "son of a bitch". Cussing, in general, is just against many people's personal values but cussing when you're angry makes it worse.
  

Opinions on Two Articles

In regards to the article about restricting the allotted time given to kids to watch television or play video games in order to reduce obesity, I can really understand why a study would be done of this. In today's generation, young kids are obtaining so many health problems, with obesity being one of the main ones. Furthermore, parents aren't necessarily understanding how they are contributing to this issue as well because we are living in a fast-moving society; thus, parents might not always be attentive or be at home to determine what their child is doing. However, this study really shows that when parents monitor what their kids are doing, not only does it benefit their child, but both also gain more bonding times between each other and they learn to love and respect each other more. It also helps the child become more social and create more friends, which is a very important factor for a growing child.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080303164504.htm

My second article was about the opinions and myths that people have of video games. Most people think of video games as the sole reason for why kids in our generation have become so violent, anti-social, aggressive, etc. However, in my opinion, there are some games that actually benefit kids. Leapfrog is an example of a game that is not only entertaining for kids but it also helps them learn how to read, write, perform math problems, and just over-all feel better about themselves. Kids who play leapfrog can also play with their parents and in turn feel more connected with them. Thus, I agree, with what this article says about video games because not all video games are there for malicious purposes. In fact, basically none of them were made for that purpose. They were made to entertain and teach the gamer. Furthermore the article says that video games also help gamers to examine their own values and as a result create a better person by seeing how to or not to behave in virtual space.

http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html

Theeesiss and Oooutlllineee

Thesis: Both Peta's Fur Fighters and Starbucks' Planet Green have created games that show a deep, underlying theme and help promote rallies to fight for their belief; however, these games do display different styles of conveying their goals.

Outline:

Introduction: Introduce the reader to the basics of both Peta's game and Starbucks', as well as, explain what they were made for.

Body #1: Show how Peta's game promotes rallies, provide information on how to play it and why it is important to the game, and explain the theme.

Body #2: Show how Starbucks' game promotes rallies, provide information on how to play it and why it is important to the game, and explain the theme.

Body #3: Demonstrate how the styles convey different meanings about the game.

Conclusion: In additon to, providing a closing statement, I will also give a brief overview of my paper

...may or may not have more paragraphs.

2 VIDEO GAMES

I chose to play an advergame and an educational game. My advergame was from PETA and it helped promote PETA's decision to boycott clothes sold by Burberry due to their usage of fur. I believe that PETA did a very good job in advertising their belief by creating a game of it. The structure of the game was very well thought out, seeing as, PETA displayed vast amounts of blood on the floor and boxes filled with what seemed to be dead animals. Though, it was a bit extreme, it surely gave the gamer the impression of how passionate PETA is about this subject. Also, due to the drastic measures that PETA used to portray their thoughts, the gamer (which in this case, was me) was able to see what it really “looks” like behind the scenes and in turn, they might even think about taking a stand for this cause. PETA created this game to help educate the people that “the only place we should ever see fur is on the backs of the mammals it belongs to” and not being worn by other people. Although, it wouldn’t be my way of displaying this subject, there doesn’t really seem to be another way around it. For if PETA had tried to hide the facts about this situation and not have felt so stoutly about it, the gamers would not have cared about this as much and might have just played it for fun.

Furthermore, I also played the game FreeRice, which can be seen as both an educational game and a persuasive game. It’s purpose is to help the UN World Food Program end world hunger by donating 20 grains of rice. The gamer’s goal is to correctly define as many words as they can and for each word they define correctly, they help donate 20 grains of rice. This is an educational game because even though, the gamer is playing for a good cause, they are learning new words, all the while. It is also a persuasive game because it influences players to play a fairly easy game in order to donate rice to people in third-world countries who are suffering from famine. I believe that this is also a very good way of advertising the need of fighting against famine because not only is it simple to play but it is also free. People in other countries are getting free rice just because other people are playing a game for free. They don’t even have to send in a dollar a month, like some of those other commercials on TV, just to help somebody elsewhere. Now, I’m not sure if this game actually donates 20 grains of rice, but it is a great attention-grabber. Most people wonder about ways in which they can help the world or fellow people around them. However, even if this game is just that, a game, it might be able to encourage people to go out and find ways of aiding others who are in dire need and desire assistance, but might not be able to attain it.