A new addiction

Since last week, during my time at my grandparents home (I was there because I had no electricity due to the snow storm) I found myself spending much of my time playing a new game I bought. Its called World of Warcraft, and I know some of you may roll your eyes, some of you may get excited when you hear it. But if you have absolutely no idea what i'm talking about, World of Warcraft  (or commonly Wow) is a fantasy role-playing game where you pick a character and is proffesion as a warrior, mage, warlock, etc. and then begin to level the character up to get new armor and skills. Its a really fun game and I fell in love with it.

But the point is that I didn't just play the game after the first few days, I lived the game. I literally spent all day doing the quests and leveling my character (level 25 mage as of now). All I could think about was Wow. When I was in the shower, i'd think about what I had to do to achieve the next level. My life became my character. But it really hit me about what I had become when I left my grandparents and found that I didn't even want to be around my family or anything, and I just wanted to get back to my computer and resume my cyber-life.

This started me thinking. I'm addicted to this game. Of course I knew that already, but sometimes a person really needs to think about it for a thought to sink in.. I'm really addicted.. so I started searching the web about something that might be bigger than myself, and come to find out, this video game addiction I had just surrendered myself to was a real issue. Doctors have actually diagnosed it as a psychological disorder and addiction just as severe as smoking. Plus, I found that World of Warcraft was ranked either #1 and #2 in all the rankings of most addicting games in the world! 

All I could do was take a deep breath and say "Wow" (pun included). I also found that some kids are addicted so much they play non-stop for 15 to 16 hours at a time without eating or sleeping. Absolutely crazy in my case. So now I am trying to overcome my addiction with video games, and since it is relatively new, I am doing well and fighting it. (just so some of you know, my new year's resolution is to get rid of all my addictions and bad habits.) Listed below are some sources I found about this issue, if you care to read on further on the topic.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19354827/

Below is a very extensive article that I highly recommend.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/03/health/webmd/main1773956.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_addiction 

White Sand

Dunes and drifts. Snow and sand are so similar, and I've personally gotten to experience the joys and travesties that follow mass accumulations of snowfall. Its been a hard couple of weeks since the snow and ice befell my Kentucky area. At first it was funny, just another day out of school and another opportunity to relax and soak in the beautiful rays of incandescent light bulbs. It was coming down nicely at first, like a dry mist. Subtle enjoyment from the dusting relinquished upon the arrival of "snow chunks", as my acquaintances have so elegantly named. Then came the sleet, and thus, my yard transformed into a thin layer of ice. I found after the sleeting passed that creating a new species known as the "ice man" is a difficult art to master, equipped with only bare hands. Short of purchasing an ice pick and blow torch, I surrendered back into the warmth of my home.

Unfortunately, I learned something of the electric and gas wiring and works within my house the following evening. Although someone may use propane as their source of heating, it becomes futile to use in the event of an electrical outage. Evidently, the fan used to push the gas into the propane burner runs on electricity generated at your local electric substation, which lost that particular ability from the previous sleet and snow storm earlier that day. 

After spending a grueling night inside a subfreezing house and under five varying blankets and quilts, my family decided that frostbite and pneumonia were unpleasant ways to die, so we agreed to travel to my grandparents barracks against the cold, south of our current location. 

Four days passed miserably, my sanity saved only by my ability to locate a Wi-Fi internet connection. I spent my days reading about my Nikon and the overwhelming features of PS CS3. Sunday approached with snail-like momentum. That day would be my savior. A day of reckoning. 

If for some reason you had it that I wished to praise the Lord Almighty, shamefully I must apologize for your assumption and substitute my explanation. You see, that sunday was a day held dear in the hearts of all men. A day where binge snacking is looked upon as a symbol of jolly cheer. This special sunday, set in alignment to many American's biological clocks was Superbowl Sunday. I felt it approaching like a seismograph before an earthquake. It was my chance to get away and I took it, sprinting through the doors, and flying to my assigned destination, meeting my closest friends to witness the greatest battle of willpower and fortitude ever shown on digital television.

So after returning from a night of gleeful bliss and simultaneous disappointment( my chosen team fell to the hands of a bunch of miscreants), I discovered that my power and heat had returned. 

School being closed for another day, I have now had the time to transcribe my adventures and will keep you posted later on today about my thoughts, Chao!

New Hobby: Photography

I'm not known around my area for wearing necklaces, but that all changed when I found one connected to the end of a Nikon D40. A Christmas present from my father, I have started an exciting new life, taking a new role as an observer. To tell you the truth, I've had some hard times trying to figure out all the complexities of the DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras. As many people know, point-and-shoot cameras use their LCD screens to display the picture, so you don't have to bump your nose up against the camera. Little did I know, DSLR cameras don't work that way. I probably scrolled through menus upon menus of options and settings before I just gave up on finding a way to see my pic on my display screen, and submitted myself to the oldschool ways of peeking through a viewfinder.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I decided I should become the next great photographer, envied by all, and hated by none. The world of Photography is a brand new field of study for me, and to learn the correct aperture and shutter speed setttings, the ISO settings, and all that jargon filled manual seemed to be about, was completely overwhelming. 

After a few weeks of fiddling and studying the dynamics of my camera, I now feel pretty confident (although I still can't get past my long lens envy). If your a photography guy, then i'll tell you that I just couldn't take it only shooting pictures with a 18-55mm lens(a lens with not very much zoom at all), that comes standard with the Nikon D40. So now i've bought a Nikkor 70-300mm lens and my mother came across a 55-200mm, so now i feel like a pro, sitting outside with my camera on its tripod and adjusting for just the perfect scene to come into my viewfinder, except for the fact that I can't get over camera envy and absolutely need an external flash.. Its already an addiction..

I'll post some pictures every now and then on the blog and let you tell me what you think of them, I am always up for some constructive criticism. I'm sure you'll read many more stories about my experiences with my new hobby and how frustrated i'm getting with photoshop cs3. Too much of a newbie to be working on the pro-style program.. hehe.

Welcome!

Hey, and welcome to my blog. This should be quite the adventure, as you are now so cordially invited into the life of a teenager, however not just any teenager. This is a drama free zone and I'm just going to discuss whatever is on my mind at the time. You might find this blog exciting, boring, dull, intriguing, and even eye opening at some moments, so expect everything. Come back and see me again!