My Video Game Life

Eric Ibarra

Professor Reyes

English 100

25 Jan 2016

My Video Game Life

            Every since I could remember I’ve always been playing video games. I’ve played games on the old Nintendo 64 to the new consoles and computers games. I got a lot of hand me down games but I didn’t care as long as there were fun to play. When I was a kid, maybe around 9 years old, my brother gave me some of his old computer CD’s. Some of  them were games like plane simulator, Oregon Trail and some learning games. My favorite game was a math learning that taught how to do algebra and geometry in a fun manner. I would play that game for hours and hours not realizing that I was how much I was learning from it. That game helped me so much that even now I am good at math and I never get below an A in class.

            Another game I would play a lot was Pokémon Red Version. I played this game a lot because it was on the Game boy and I could take it where ever I went. This game was so fun that it made me want to watch the Pokémon anime series. Playing the game while watching the anime was something I did a lot. I loved to pretend that I was Ash Ketchum and that I wanted to “catch them all”. This game made me want to try and play other games that were based off of anime like the Naruto and Dragon Ball Z fighting games.

            I have played almost every genre of video games and I figured out that my favorite genre of video game is strategy. I learned this in middle school when played games on my GameCube. I would rent games from blockbuster to try all the games to see which ones I liked and the one I loved the most at the time was a game called Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. It was a turn based strategy game where you fought with solders that had different classes and weapons. The weapons had strengths and weaknesses so I had to strategize how you would use your solders to fight. This game showed me how fun strategy games and made me want to play more. I played all kinds of strategy games, even chess on the computer, they allowed me to put my knowledge to the test and figure out the best method to win the game. To this day I still love playing turn-based strategy games and working my mind to beat the game.

            When I got into high school my parents bought me an Xbox 360 for my birthday. The first game I got for it was Call of duty: Modern Warfare 2 which was a shooter game based on war. Though this wasn’t my first shooter game that I played it was the first game I could play online with other people. See I was always shy when I was around people and didn’t like to talk to people face to face when I was growing up. So playing this game online and have the ability to talk to people but not having to see them helped me. After playing it for a long time I got better at talking to people face to face and though I am still a little shy it is not as bad as it used to be.

            Toward the end of my high school years my sisters handed me down their computer and that was the start of my gaming life on the computer. I have played many game on the computer since getting it but the one that I like the most and still play to this day is game called League of Legends. It is a M.O.B.A., which means multiplayer online battle arena, that has all kinds of characters to play from and you battle in teams of 5 vs. 5. Though in this game you talk to people with your voice you can talk to them by typing. I have befriended people that are from a different state or country playing this game. It has also help me improve my reaction time and think on the spot.

Digital (Draft)

Rafael Magaña

Professor Amanda Reyes

English 100

23 January 2016

                                                               I: Loss

                      As a child, I was always fascinated with video games. I found comfort in knowing that I could come home and immerse myself in the worlds that were present in these games. At times, I often did it as an escape. When I was three years old, my father passed away and it visibly affected everybody in my family. For the next couple of years, my mother and sister were in a visible depression. I have no memory of my father. I can't even remember his voice, and I couldn't understand why he had been taken from me at such a young age. As a result, I often played games on the Super Nintendo that my father had bought for us before he passed away. I'd spend hours of my time playing Super Mario World with my sister and it definitely helped us through the time. Trust me, nothing was better than beating that game. I'll never forget beating it at 3AM with my sister. It's here where I believe my fascination with video games began. Around the age of 5, my mother bought me a Nintendo 64 for my birthday, and I couldn't have been happier.

                                                                  II: Courage

                      The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask was one of the first games I got for the system. The game had a very creepy atmosphere, with the protagonist, Link, having three days to save the world before a moon crashes down and destroys the planet, killing everyone and destroying everything around him. He embarks on this journey unknowingly, with him searching for a friend that left him without warning. It was a pretty dark premise for a Nintendo game, and I was even scared to play it. Despite my fear, I forced myself to play it. No matter where you were in the game world, you'd constantly see the threat of the looming moon growing ever so closely, with it donning a disturbing face. Majora's Mask often dealt with the theme of death, with many of the characters you meet in the game often are seen coping with a loss, and are either in denial or depressed. Despite me being unsettled by the atmosphere of the game, especially since I also was still coping with a loss of my own, I felt connected to the protagonist, Link. He was ten years old, and was faced with impossible odds, yet is determined to save his own life and the lives of those around him. Unfortunately, though he ends up saving the planet, he still does not find his friend, leaving their fate ambiguous. Although I was well aware he was fictional, I admired Link. How could he continue on so courageously despite him failing in finding his friend? In a way, he represented the type of person that I wanted to become. Link's courage helped me get the courage continue on myself, despite the fact I’ll never see my father again. If I had not played Majora's Mask, I feel as if the grieving process would have been prolonged and would have been even harder than it was on me. It, quite literally, changed my life for the better.

                                                            III: Present Day

                      My experience with Majora's Mask , and video games in general, has always been good. I've always considered them an escape from reality, and they're pretty much always there when I need to unwind or just have fun. In recent years, it's become possible to even play and speak with friends online, whether it be down the street, or half-way across the world, even making them a good social platform, with it continually becoming more and more advanced by the day. Majora's Mask's themes of loss and death really resonated with me as a child, and now that I'm older I can truly see the significance of the themes that it presented. The impact that it had on me truly changed my life, and it influenced my views on life. That can be said for video games as a whole, with titles such as Bioshock, The Last of Us, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid, among others, having some of the best stories I believe have ever been told. The medium is constantly evolving at a rapid rate, and I am excited to see where it'll be in a couple of years. Yet, I feel that no game will ever surpass Majora's Mask. It came along at a time in my life in which I felt sad, angry even, at the circumstances that I was presented with. It was a game that was hauntingly beautiful, and quite literally changed my life, and for that, I thank it.

digital autobiography draft #1

Luis Puquirre

English 100    

M/W

YouTube

The first time that I used YouTube was when I was 11 years old, I was in six grade. And the first assignment that I had to do in my history class, American history to be more exact, was the dead of Martin Luther king Jr, the instruction of the assignment were clear you can use the book for information or used YouTube to learn more of his assassination, the teacher posted a link that would give me information of the topic. This was the first time that I was going to use my computer for education and not for games. I tried to use the book for information but the information was the same that everybody knew of already and I want my project to unique. I got in my desktop computer and type U Tube, I thought it was spelled like that and either way if you google something, even if it is wrong, at the end it gives you the same answer.

The Martin Luther King Jr assignment I did I ace it with the information I found in YouTube not only information, but I found an old news broadcast were the news guy announce his dead I also learned how the black community felt and what happen next without King .I found videos that had happen years ago in one website I figured it out that in some point YouTube would take over history books, that YouTube can show you what had happen in history in ten or twenty minutes.

Discovering a website that can give you from historical videos to my favorite music videos was amazing! Even though YouTube started in 2005 at the time that I first used it was an amazing experience that I’m not going to forget for the rest of my life. A place where I can listen to music while doing my homework I used to open two tabs in my computer one for home work and the other one for YouTube. Every time that I was using the computer I did the same my parent’s believed that I was focusing in my homework but in reality I was listen and watching videos in YouTube every time they were not looking at my computer screen, I switch screens back in fort from my homework to YouTube. Until I got my first smart phone.

My Digital Life

 

             My relationship with technology started pretty early, I guess when I first learned what music was is when it started. Some of my favorite moments in childhood were just of me listening to music during a drive or the music that was being played in my neighborhood when I was a kid. Early on in learned that different  music meant different things. I knew music was for kids,what was for adults what my granny would listen to,and what was not cool. In my neighborhood loud and in your face music was the norm it signified your lifestyle, what kind of person you were . I was raised around mostly women, my mom, my aunties my granny, so I learned R&B music, the love songs Micheal Jackson,  soul music. And from my cousins I got rap. I got a glimpse of "gangster " lifestyle , I learned it was important to have money and women. 

            I never really questioned much at that young age. When I moved out of that neighborhood I was 8 years old. Up until about 8th grade all of the music I had claimed as my own were given to me. I had never chosen my own music to listen to it was all from the radio, or the CD's and tapes my parents had . When I first started collecting my own music ,everything was still from my friends, I needed their iTunes and their Internet to get music. They had decided for me what was cool. Ice Cube, Tupac, and Biggie Smalls began bumping through my earphones. Around the same time, I got more freedom in ,your style of dress,and sure enough I dressed like a 1990s Crip lol. 

           Around the 10th grade I started going out on my own, traveling more throughout L.A . My older cousin became a big influence on my life. The popular rappers of that time were Lil Boosie- who had his own haircut named after him that I got- YG and other up tempo gangster rappers. I dressed like them talked like them. Luckily something opened my eyes and yet again around 11th grade

I was changing again. This time I wanted to be a person with "swag". It was no,longer cool to be "tough" I wanted to wear cargoes and hats and party. I didn't want to be dumb. It was cool to be smart and be a clown at the same time. To hang with drug dealers in the streets and read the newspaper before sleep. At the the same time, I pressured myself to be cool. I didn't want to fall behind on the best trending music. The FOMO got real.  This also happens to be when I first began to use social media. It's funny how that worked out. Mac Miller , Drake, Wiz Khalifa, and Biggie Dean were the names for me in that Era.  These were the artist I can say shaped me and my generation. Even now that I don't listen to hip hop in connection still listen to one of there songs.

          My final transformation happened during senior year of high school. I never felt more different and isolated in ,your life that year. No one in my social circles listened to anything I did. My life did a 180 and I was listening to the Beatles  the biggest thing that changed about me was my new found openness to the world I was more accepting of different music, views and culture. 

Internet Identity

Internet Identity

            I remember it clearly, one day into my early pre-teen years the cable man showed up and installed what he called dial-up Internet. He said it was something revolutionary but I had no idea what he was talking about nor did I know the impact this would have on my life. As a child struggling with to come to terms with my identity and with little to no role models I spent my days sulking. There was no drive or content just sulking. I did not know who I was and I had no one to guide me, that is until we got the Internet. Overnight I had been granted access to the world and all from the comfort of my desk. I used the Internet on a day-by-day basis to learn more and more. I frequented blogs, social media, music sites, fashion magazines and Google all to help me piece together my identity.

            A blog is defined as a regularly updated website, run by an individual or small group written in a conversational style but to me the meaning was simple a blog was a magazine. It was something to “flip” through until something grabbed your attention. Much like magazines, blogs gave me access to people’s personal lives and deepest thoughts. I was able to go through the thinking process that kids my age were going through without actually going through it. The bloggers shared the same fear and concerns as me and this was comforting. The bloggers though completely anonymous felt like brothers to me. I started to feel like I was not alone and it was one the pages of blog that I saw the word “gay” for the first time in my life.

            Today we have Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat but when I was a “rebellious teen” we had MySpace. MySpace was it. MySpace was where cool kids and outcasts alike could be cool. MySpace with its backgrounds, profile layouts and music player was the one social media site that allowed you to be you in every way possible. Sadly my MySpace was just as conservative and timid as I was. In stark contrast were all the random kids I “friended”. They owned who they were. They were upfront and unapologetic in all their posts. They did not care what you thought; instead they lived their lives how they wanted to live them. They were what I wanted to be.

            Music has always been around but because I was basically poor it did not become readily available to me until the Internet became readily available. Before the Internet I thought I did not like music because it had never called to me. Then I heard “Emotions” by Mariah Carey and my downward spiral began. “Honey”, “Vision of Love”, “Dreamlover”, “Hero” and “Fantasy” there was so much to love from this woman who sang with more emotion than I had experienced in my life. Shortly after I found Whitney Houston, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Cher, Britney Spears, Ciara, Destiny’s Child, Beyonce and Lady Gaga. They sang about love, loss, identity, friends, family and just having a good time. They did it all while being unapologetic and being themselves. They exuded confidence through their music so I listened religiously hoping some of it would rub off on me.

            I could not afford a magazine subscription so I had to find everything online. It was difficult but not impossible. My favorite fashion magazine by far was V magazine. It was fairly new to the magazine scene but to me everything about it was new. The first cover I experienced was Gwen Stefani’s fall 2004 cover. It was gorgeous. The lighting, the look, the clothes and the talent were all perfect. I had never before seen such confidence in a photo or so much expression through clothing. I also loved Vogue and Bazaar I would look for the ads in these two. I knew very well that the retailers paid so much money to advertise their even more expensive garments and this was part of the allure. The other part was the simple fact that the clothes were gorgeous; prints and designs I had never seen. Fashion magazines taught me how to express myself with clothes, a feat I thought was impossible.

            Lastly there was Google. I went about my day-to-day life with a small notepad always in my pocket. In it I would write down words, ideas and concepts I heard but did not know or understand. When I got home I would put it all into Google. Through this tedious process I learned most of what I know today. I learned about words, slang, historical events, people, cultures and sub-cultures. I loved Goggle because it taught me things I wasn’t taught in school. I loved expanding my knowledge even if it was just one word at a time.

            I still remember it clearly, how one day one man walked into my house and installed a seemingly simple device onto our computer. He warned me that it was something revolutionary but I did not heed his warning. I wandered into the depths of the Internet and discovered more than I could have ever bargained for. I discovered good and bad alike, lies and truth alike. I discovered heroes and I discovered villains, but most importantly I discovered that there was more to me than I had ever imagined was possible. 

Technology

Jocelyn Beltran

English 100

M/W 5-7pm

Technology

    Growing up I don’t really remember technology having a big impact on me. Now-a-days, we see kids of all ages with tablets and cellphones, and are left to wonder if this is what the future holds. It wasn’t until I was in middle school that I started to get into using technology. I spent my childhood outdoors playing with my neighbors and friends building mud cakes or playing with rollie pollies, not in front of a computer screen. Its not that I didn’t have technology available to me, it’s just I never used it myself. I remember my older brother being glued to his computer and video games, and he hasn’t changed to this day. The one situation where I do recall using technology was watching Laker games with my uncle and cousins, not that I was ever into watching sports, I just watched it to hang out with them. Other than that, I only remember actually using technology as a resource until I was in middle school, and I had to turn to the internet for help on my homework because my mom wasn’t able to help. This was when I was introduced to a whole new world: the world wide web.

    Now that I’m older, I have the internet available to me at my fingertips. Ive grown accustomed to asking the internet for all my questions in life. From everything to help on my work, giving myself a self-diagnosis when I’m sick, to figuring out the title of the song that’s been stuck in my head for days. The internet also allows me to communicate with my friends when theyre not around, and be updated with what they are up to throughout the day, all through the use of social media. I am able to share my ideas, music, adventures, and things I find to be funny all with social media. This alone impacts my life because the little free time that I do have, I am able to easily communicate with friends or distant family at times where I am not able to see them in person.

    With such easy access to millions of web pages, I am able to research new topics and learn something new everyday. I can be informed on whats happening with the world around me, all with the click of a button.  The internet holds so much information, enough to keep you entertained for hours. I can say that now I tend to spend the majority of my free time online, and I don’t know what I would do without it. Ive gone days where I try to refrain myself from using the internet, and I feel like I am missing out on the world. The internet has become a part of my daily routine, and I realize the impact it had made on my everyday life.

digital autobiography

Carissa Ayala

English 100

M/W 5-7pm

Draft 1

            I have grown up with technology all around me. I can’t remember a time when there hasn’t been, because all my life I have been surrounded by it. Computers, internet, and cellphones have been around longer then I have, so all forms of digital technology have immensely impacted my life. I actually have no idea how I would have turned out if it were any different. I think the main forms of digital technology that has impacted me the most has been computers and the internet. From what I can remember my house has always had a computer with functioning internet. I can even remember back in those ancient times, when internet was dial up and the most dreadful noise played that let you know you were connecting to the internet and yelling through the house for everyone to get off the phone.

Something I don’t remember is who taught me how to use the computer; I couldn’t have been older than 4 when I learned. I also don’t remember how advanced I was at working the computer, but it must have been pretty advance because I know I helped teach my mom how to work it when she was taking computer classes. I know by the time I was 5 years old I could work it by myself. In my kindergarten class we had computers, I remember using them to take reading comprehension tests after we read our weekly books. At home I remember having a bunch of computer games. One was jukebox teaching the alphabet and how to spell, another was Freddy the Fish, and Putt-Putt, both I believe were also educational. Sometimes I would use my older sister’s game, it was called The Clue finder’s 3^rd Grade Adventures. Mind you I started borrowing her game since I was in kinder. I continued to get more tech-savvy as the time passed. I remember I got a leap frog reader and one of those fake laptops, which I actually can’t remember what it did. Then I started getting more computer games as gifts, like a strawberry shortcake one, they were fun but I liked the original ones that I played I would just replay them from the beginning. I think that the learning is what made them fun to me, that I had to solve the problems, because baking a cake is fun for a little bit but there’s no challenge to it.

Computer are what shaped my early childhood development. Kindergarten and first grade we used those multiple choice tests for our reading comprehension. In second and third we did the same but they were longer and we learned and had to fill out Scranton’s and run them through a little machine ourselves. In the fourth grade we learned how to use Microsoft Word so we could use them to write our essays. In the Fifth grade we learned how to use Power Point so we could do all our projects and presentations. And along the way I learned how to do everything else.

1st Draft

My earliest memory of using technology was probably in kindergarten. Even though it was just painting, being able to use the computer was remarkable to me.
My high school consisted of 3 magnets. Fashion/Business, Engineering, and Technology.
I was placed in Technology as a freshman. In 9th grade, my first computer class was Computer Science. Honestly, I was lost. The teacher noticed and wrote me a slip to go to the library while he asked the Digital Imagery teacher if I could be in her senior/sophomore class. I got in and again I was lost.
She gave me a tutor  (alumni). He was full of shit. I eventually caught up to the assignments but at the end, I got a D.
In tenth grade, I retook the Digital Imagery class but this time with people my own age and in the same grade. I learned how to use the program. The stamp tool was my favorite.
At one point I was obsessed with photo shopping eyes and making them look abstract by using the stamp tool. I would lightly change an image, let's say a wolf howling at the moon or a clock and I would stamp it on top of the eye.
In eleventh grade, I took "photography". It was just Digital Imagery (Part 2)  again but this time we had to take our own pictures and create something out of it using photo shop. I wasn't too shabby, if I do say so myself.
My senior year, I took filmaking. This was probably my favorite year.
Yes it was difficult coming up with a good screenplay and yes it was cold when we played a broadcaster in the rain but it was all worth it when I got to learn iMovie and create what before were still images, into moving pictures hence our films. It was all worth it when my group left the audience shocked when they saw our final film. It was worth it being nominated for an award for one of our films. It was worth meeting The Game at the Fox Studios.
At the end, it was worth it getting that A in Filmaking.

Jorge Digital Autobiography

Jorge Barajas

January 27, 2016

English 100

“A piece of life”

How long ago was the camera invented? Ten, twenty years ago? My first encounter with technology with cameras started in 7^th grade when I was introduced to my first given camera. The camera I received was a Nikon.  It was very small and light weight. My camera wasn’t the best camera but it did a big change in my life. Receiving that camera was greatest of all time and became a part of me throughout my life to this day.

Cameras have created a legacy in me in my early years. I have created history of my own that till this day I see. Pictures that my parents took in throughout my childhood have made me realize that everything changes, not only does physical as well as mentally. As years passed, I see pictures of prior years that have changed and moved on like society, events, family, friends and myself. I always asked myself “why did we all want to grow up?” if all we can do is see pictures and realize how things change.

Myself, I took many types of pictures that have had great meaning to me. Some examples of the pictures that I have taken are family portraits, friends, scenes that liked seeing, and events that have occurred throughout my short life. One of the most important pictures that I have taken is of myself. I have taken many pictures of myself not only for the way physically I changed but what has changed on the things I’ve done. I have seen my accomplishments that I have succeeded and also material wise on what I have done with what I earned. Each and every picture has a meaning, I always try to keep the date to look back and say “that was me?.”

My photographs with my Nikon are effective to my daily life. They are affective because I say to myself, if I did it here than I can do it here as well. The most important picture that I have taken that gives me the passion to keep pushing is my graduations and my family. They give me the strength that I need because they are my motivation. Motivation is in those pictures because they always told me to continue being who I am and try to become what I pursue in life. I always say to myself, “if I did this in the past, than I can do more now”. That’s one of my motivation in seeing pictures that I took in the past years. Seeing the photographs also have brought memories that I remember like times that we had a family outing, events that I played soccer in and also accomplishments that I have done.

Digital Times

I was gifted my first cell phone in 7th grade. Cingular was the preferred cell phone carrier at the time and new phone had just been released. Apple and Motorola had been working together to create the first phone with iTunes and AIM (AOL instant messenger). They called it the iROKR. She was pearly white and small enough to fit in my pocket. During this time, AIM was the main form of communication amongst teenagers and young adults. iTunes was peaking due to the overwhelming demand of the iPod and the need to fill it with music, videos, and photos. The fact that AIM and iTunes was now portable and available on a cell phone revolutionized the industry.

Now I don’t exactly remember how I convinced my parents to purchase 13 year old me a brand new cell phone for my birthday but I did. The first few days of having my shiny new cell phone were thrilling. I bought song after song to fill my iTunes library and I never signed out of AOL account. My instant messenger account was active at all times; during school, at home, at night when I was supposed to be sleeping, it was always active. Little did I know that I had spent an estimated $700 in data. At the time I was not aware that data cost money since my parents never explained that part to me. I assumed buying the songs I wanted off iTunes was the responsible thing to do rather than relying on LimeWire or another illegal site. Every message I sent on AIM and text messaging was costing money. Unlimited data wasn’t a norm yet and it seemed obnoxious to have that much data for one person. Thus resulting in my parents cancelling my cell phone plan and leaving me phoneless for till the following school year. Then it wasn’t a big deal to be without a phone since its basic use was to place a phone call but things have changed.

Fast forwarding to current time, if one leaves their cell phone at home, it is considered to be an unfortunate circumstance. The thought of not having this object in our hands for a couple hours is empathized amongst our peers. We feel the need to document our life on a daily basis to entertain our audience and we can’t do that if we accidentally leave our phone charging in our bedroom.

The Roughest Draft

Technology is shaping the world around us as we know it. Technology is moving faster than ever. My English Professor told me something that I will now never forget. She said "Did you know that all the things you learn at MIT in one year become absolute in the next year?" My mind was blown. I never realized the speed of technology and how it was also shaping me. If I did not have my phone, or even the internet, I would definitely have to change my lifestyle. No doubt about that. How much I use my technology in everyday life has me dumbfounded every time I think about it. I depend on it. Clearly. Out of all the ways I use technology. I think I use it for music the most. I take my music seriously. I cannot imagine my life without music. There are so many ways to hear music. There are so many ways to places to hear music. My favorite way that music has come into my life is through my cellphone. The technology my cellphone has for music pleases me. I can download music. I can stream music. I can share music. I can watch music videos. The options are almost endless. 

My cellphone is what gets me through the day. My cellphone wakes me up. It keeps in contact with the important people in my life. It reminds me of things i have to do. The best thing it does is play music. I can download music right onto my phone. No matter what happens around me, I can always play music. When music is downloaded, the device does not depend on any other factor besides the battery life because it is now store into the phone. Having access to my music, anywhere, gives me happiness. Music has always been part of my life. Since before I can remember, I can remember growing up with music. My grandfather would always be playing his music in the house. He played music loud, all the time. He played his music loudly even when we did not want it. I say this as if it were a bad thing. Music, and having it around me all the time, has helped me become more aware of the world around me. Just because someone listens to a certain type of music does not mean they are open for judgement. Music can tell me how I feel better than I can tell myself how I feel. It is a way for people to express themselves. Sometimes, a little music can fix any problem.

A World I Never Knew Existed

            

                                                      A World I Never Knew Existed 

       Growing up technology wasn't all that well known or yet as popular as it is now in 2016. Now in today's world technology is known world wide and it keeps expanding. My 6 year old daughter has pretty much grown with technology her whole life making it part of her everyday life. I know it sounds harsh but it is today's norm. My daughter is able to navigate through the web and knows how to use a phone, she's able to open up phone applications on a cell phone and even knows how to make phone calls. At that age I had no idea what a cell phone was, at that age I was playing with toys or the good old days of having some outdoor fun were the norm 18 years ago. My discovery to technology that impacted my life on a whole different level was the day my life was changed completely, which was around six years ago, I know it wasn't too long ago but I can clearly recall the day I discovered a world I knew nothing about, it was a world that I never knew even existed. 

      At the age of 18 navigating the web just looking around at non sense I came across YouTube. YouTube is a video sharing website where you can upload anything and everything. On YouTube you can find all sorts of videos and I mean hundreds and hundreds of videos. Videos such as how to apply makeup, how to cook, how to fix your car, how to learn a new language, music videos, people who document their everyday life on a daily basis to show to the whole world, even advice videos, I mean the list just keeps going on and on and it is ridiculously amazing. At the age of 18 when I came across YouTube I found this community of women who are known as beauty gurus, and these are women that make videos on how to apply makeup these women are like you and I sitting on a chair in a room in their home talking to the camera and recording how they apply their makeup. They do makeup reviews and share their tips and tricks on beauty related topics. I seriously became hooked on these videos, I couldn't wait to get home to watch videos for hours straight and it actually became very time consuming and because of that I opted for staying up all night to watch these videos and I would literally wake up the next day with only four to five hours of sleep, but I didn't mind I was completely hooked. Now six years later here I am still hooked on these type of videos, although I explored and now watch all types of videos on there, I've seriously learned so much from these YouTube videos and now I find all these type of videos to be part of my everyday life because I watch them religiously, it's kind of scary to think of it that way but when I open that YouTube page I enter a whole new world.

The world in your hand

The world in your hand

Tegucigalpa Honduras 1995, I was working for an International company “Aselcom” as a specialist in telecommunication when I had the chance to introduce new technology in my country, the “Cellphone”. The simple idea of making a call from anywhere your device has a signal was fascinating to me. At that time most people were using pagers to communicate, which was a limited form of communication. Although in the end my company did not win the contract to introduce this new technology, just knowing about this opportunity opened my eyes to what technology could facilitate and how it could change people’s lives.

Two months later I had the chance to try out this new technology. My company gave me a phone and compared to what we have now, it was a BIG cellphone. Although it was big, I was one of the first people to have this new technology and it changed my life right away. At the time my project at work was to provide wireless network communication to have Internet access in the University. No one on the team was able to make the equipment work, but using my new cellphone I was able to get assistant from the manufacturer located in Miami and make the network function. This network connection brought Internet access to students on campus. This project it was the beginning of my work with technology. I continued to gain interest and wanted to learn more and more about technology and wireless devices.

A Window to my World

1-24-16

Engl 100

My Window to The World

My first notable encounter with technology was one that set a stage for the rest of my life. This event was the discovery of the artistic creating, sharing, viewing, and interacting website that is Youtube. The presence of Youtube in my life has affected how I view and understand my world, my immediate environment, and even myself. The Youtube that I have come to know is much larger and much deeper than just cat videos and people hurting themselves. Before I go into what exactly Youtube is and how it has impacted me so, however, I’d like to tell you the story of how I first encountered Youtube. If you’re not interested in this story then you can just skip to paragraph 4, otherwise thank you for taking the time to read the story of Youtube and I.

I was around the age of twelve and was your average dumb middle school student. I grew up in South Central Los Angeles so my parents were not too fond of the idea of me leaving the front gate. They didn’t want me to be the next innocent bystander, so I spent a lot of time with the people directly surrounding me, especially my older cousin who live in the neighboring duplex. . I was hanging out in my cousin's’ room; just lounging around, bored, hot, and listening to her staticky radio. I think Chris Brown was popular back then because I could swear I heard “Kiss Kiss” about three times in my trance like state. The lifeless silence was interrupted when my cousin jumped up from her sprawled position and strolled to her desktop.

“I got to show you this one video on youtube”. “What the hell is youtube?” I replied with the enthusiasm of a person waiting for jury duty. After some discordant back and forth, I reluctantly joined her at her computer screen. It was a pivot animation, an old freeware that you could use to animate stick figures and save them in a GIF format, that would later be posted to various websites. The one we watched was a popular series at the time, and had the figures move and play out scenes while being paired with sound clips from random media sources. These scenes were short, random, and crude for the most part. It was called “Stick Figures on Crack” by PivotMasterXD, or DX; I don’t know, it’s been a long time. The juvenile, brain rotting humor resonated with my young mind so much that I made myself an account.

Soon after creating my account, I became familiar with the big youtubers at the time. Over time, I branched out a bit and started checking out the recommended videos as well as the popular page. I would also see my favorite youtubers collaborate with other youtubers, who I would check out if they interested me. Now almost ten years later, my uses for have increased exponentially. I still use it for entertainment, though my taste have expanded upon. Apart from comedy, I now watch the short films like the ones made by “Wong Fu Production”, I listen to music from artists like Anthony Vincent and Nathan Sharp, and I also view the dancing styles from those like Mike Song and Marquese (NONSTOP) Scott who I actually taught myself how to dance from. Even on the comedy side, I have found different types of humor. I found Theatre of the Absurd and sketch comedy with goof balls like Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla, I found standup comedy from Gabriel Iglesias and the Comedy Central, and Black Comedies like SUPEReeeGO.

On the flip side of youtube entertainment, there are ways to share, receive, and discuss information. There are, of course news networks who have channels like Fox News but I am very wary of these types of networks who often have very obvious agendas. I instead go to news/comedy hybrids like John Oliver and Trevor Noah, who often are more trustworthy than traditional news stations and especially politicians. It’s like a quote I’ve heard floating around on the internet recently. “We use to listen to politicians and laugh at comedians. Now we laugh at politicians and listen to comedians.” That, however, is an argument for another essay. - to be continued

My Digital History

My Digital History

Childhood-Video Games

   "Hey Josh, can you help me with my computer?," this is the question I get asked the most from family members, friends, coworkers, and even my boss. I was exposed to computers practically my whole life, my dad was very into electronics and taking things apart and fixing them, he would always bring family members electronics and appliances home to repair them. He would eventually come to show me his first computer, which was very basic and it couldn't handle very much besides word processing or at least that's all my parents used it for. I remember my first interactions with computers was when I was 8 years old and using this very computer to play an old 2D side scrolling shooter game and from then on I was hooked I eventually moved on to play on a more powerful machine and more and more nicer looking games that varied from shooting, racing, sports, and strategic games. Video games started my passion for computers, I couldn't do much else due to me being anemic so video games were my sports, my physical activities, my dreams. I felt that I could do anything, become anything.

Middleschool- Hardware and building

      As I got a bit older I started to shift my focus from computer games to the actual components of what make up a computer. I was maybe 12-13 years old and I had never seen the inside of these metal boxes that until this point only served the purpose of me playing games. I eventually decided to take a look inside, I took a screwdriver and started to remove the side panel. Once opened I revealed a whole new world, it was such an incredible sight to see all these new weird looking parts that made up the brains of the computer. I saw wires, lights, fans, and many other parts which I did not know what they were or what they did. After seeing all of this I wanted to learn more about the components that made up the computer so I immediately told my parents to take me to the library, which was just down the street, I checked out a couple of beginner computer books and I started to learn the basics of what each part of a computer does. During this time my parents were looking into getting a new computer and the only person that they knew that could help them was my uncle who was the most computer literate person they knew. My uncle ended up convincing them that it would be cheaper for them if they just bought the parts and have him to build them the computer. When the parts finally arrived I felt more excited than I did on Christmas day. I opened everything up and thanks to my reading I knew exactly what everything was, with the help of my uncle I had built my very first computer.

Highschool-fixing computers and selling

        I had become obsessed, computers were becoming the center of my life and through this I made a lot of friends and money. I started volunteering myself to help the other students with any questions or problems they had with technology and soon I had become the go to guy for anyone that had a problem with computers, tablets, smartphones, video game systems, and anything else that had a CPU(Central Processing Unit). It got to the point where the school that I went to, which didn't have a very good computer program, started going to me for their computer issues from cleaning out viruses to upgrading all their student computers. I began to get bored of the same basic things and I just didn't feel that I could be smart enough to get into software development so I ended up falling into the dark side of technology, during my sophomore year I got into software and movie piracy, I had known about piracy for a long time and since I had no  income I even used software and movies to run the latest programs and games but until this point I kept it all for myself. I had never thought of using piracy to make money, I always felt it was too risky but one day a friend of mine approached me and asked if there were ways of getting movies for free, this was before Netflix really took over, I’m not really sure what came over me maybe the sensation of the risk or the feeling of being needed for something other than fixing a computer. I had sold my first pirated movie and I honestly didn’t feel bad about it so I continued to do it for the next several months. I made sure to keep all of this strictly with students, I was doing quite well for myself but eventually out of fear of getting caught and losing everything I decided to stop doing it all after about six months.

Post Highschool- Software and editing

     After high school I stopped focusing so much on the technical parts of the computer and I started to get more into the creative avenues of computers. I began to learn Photography and Videography but mostly sticking to the computer editing side of things like using Photoshop, After Effects, and Sony Vegas. I started moving my focus towards these because there was a need in my church for someone who could put together slideshows, and make short videos for the special events that they would plan out. As I got older and I started having more responsibilities at work and started making more money. I began to lose my focus and the passion for the one thing that I knew best started to fade away in pursuit of the easy way out. Now that I look back it’s kind of heart breaking for me to realize what I had done because maybe if I would have taken the risk of quitting my job and just kept studying computers I would have now been working with the one thing that I had ever really been good at, the one thing that made me feel like I made a difference.