presentation

Here is my ignite presentation for class.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19A9jslajLfRsWuN9mnpiXSA-p0Ovb2ecy1XEQmIsuY0/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=15000#slide=id.p

Here is the video of me presenting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k_ugwhl0ms

This Day Book thing

When we were first told about having a Day book i was not very interested in it. Just having a book that we could write in to get things off out minds sounds a lot like have just a diary/journal. Our first free write for me was literally just a few sentences about how i did not even want to be writing. i found that over time this Day book was a good way to help me get things off my mind. A few times i wrote about songs that were stuck in my head or topics that had been on my mind that day. Looking back now i noticed that free write began as just a few sentences and over time became more and more.


This Day book might be my first time i have ever actually writing just for the hell of it. as long as i remember writing has always been a homework assignment. This Day book has changed how i look at writing.

Inspired to write?? WHaaaaaa

This class has actually gotten me to write more on my own, i am surprised on how easy it is to put down my thoughts on paper without the stress of it being picked apart by others who just want to grade it. when i was working on my nerf gun work cycle i mentioned niners vs zombies. without knowing it at the time i simply wrote about it on facebook. now i realize that if i had not have already been writing about it in my make cycle i really dont think i would have even mentioned it on facebook. i made a simple diary/journal of the days i was "alive" during the game. even though i only lasted a few days i found writing about it to be fun.

here are the posts.

Ben Hartgroves zombie diary Day#1

started out easy, didn't see a zombie at all through out the day. it wasn't until the night mission that i encountered my first zombie. my group was picked by random and we got a pretty good team and an awesome leader. this leader had alot of experience and his knowledge of the campus and other things defiantly saved the group. we completed all the missions, even the optional one. once we returned to the belk tower we broke apart to get back to our rooms. me and some others just ran for the high rises, the zombies were not expecting us to bolt straight through them, so we got home safely, however i am not sure about the others we left behind. Darren Jessup group died pretty quick but luckily he survived. i am not sure if i will survive today, because there is a ton more zombies now.

Ben Hartgroves zombie diary Day#2

day started out good, didn't encounter any zombies. I had to escort my buddy Darren around to his classes today. went to the night mission and split from my group to help another guy find the flags we were to retrieve. we found 2 before heading back to the belk tower. while getting the second flag we encounter alot of zombies, lucky we were able to team up with another guy who is sooooo BA he simply walked up with us behind him and confronted the zombies without them doing anything to us. on our way out me and my buddy got separated from that guy and we were almost cornered by some other zombies, lucky i came up with a plan to run around a sharp corner and surprise the zombies by fighting back, this worked and allowed us to escape with our lives. now we are pinned down in a bush near the check point, unable to move much, crap a zombie is near i need to stop writing, its only one zombie so ima shoot this one...

Ben Hartgroves zombie diary Day#3

soo remember when i said there was only one zombie... well i was wrong... i shot the zombie and she calls out to her horde and i was consumed. thus ended my human life. i think now that i am not a human anymore i wont be playing as a zombie much this may well be my last zombie diary entry for this semester until next semester when it starts again!!!

these posts actually inspired me to continue this diary next semester when niners vs zombies start up again.

toy hack refection

I started out by just buying a Nerf gun from the store and I thought hey why not incorporate this into my toy hack. The original purpose for the gun was for Niners vs zombies. While in class I was able to talk with some other classmates and came to the conclusion of connecting toy guns to bad influences for kids.

I started this make by just simply doing a little research on toy guns and their connections to violence. I went to the library to find some peace and quiet, I usually go to the top floor because it has a really nice view from up there of the campus and also because there is normally not to many people up there. I have noticed when I am sitting alone in a quiet place I am able to focus much more than with a group. I remember it being a little cold up there, and almost awkwardly silent.

I made a rough draft of my make and headed back to my dorm where I took some pictures of my guns and added them to the make. However I thought I posted it, but instead I realized that I had not even saved it. Luckly I was able to rewrite it even if I turned it in a bit late.

This toy hack make actually made me look back at how I was raised and made me think of how I should raise a family. There is a lot of pressure on parents and a lot of power they have over their children. A parent has the potential to influence their child to be great or not. I remembered a youtube video documenting a father who lucky found out his son had an interest in chemistry (or something in science) at a very young age, maybe around 5th grade, instead of not doing much about it this father pushed his son to learn more and more. The video said that the boy was able to sit in a college class and knew what was doing on, and also to answer many of the questions that the teacher had asked. The father expressed the potential that his son has is limitless because he encouraging his son to learn more when he was young. This video shows how much a parent can affect a child, this video never mentioned the mother so if one parent has this much power, then think of how much power two parents have.

(not actual boy)

Toy Hack

Toy Hack

I am currently involved with the Niners vs Zombies, a game where students attack zombies with nerf guns and try not to get infected. This got me thinking, do toy guns possibly have a bad influence on kids?

            My childhood didn’t consist of a lot of shooting video games or even any toy guns. Since I was not introduced to it I didn’t know what I was missing out on until I went over to some friends’ houses that had these things. However I never got an xbox or any guns until I was much older (still don’t have an xbox). Even though I never had an xbox I always wanted to go to my friend’s house in order to play with his. I never wanted my friends to come over to my house only because I didn’t have an xbox. Around 16 I was introduced to paint ball, and I fell in love with it. I got my own paintball gun and equipment. Paintball gave me the impression I could shoot someone without consequences.

            When I was of age to shoot a gun I didn’t actually like it too much at first, mainly because of the recoil of the gun hurt my shoulder. I had this idea in the back of my head that shooting a gun wouldn’t be this bad mainly because of video games and paintball games.

            Toy guns give kids a since of invincibility and do not tell the dangers of real guns. There are countless stories of little kids finding a parents gun and accidently shooting themselves because they didn’t know the danger of this weapon. I know me and my neighbors liked to play a game called cowboys and Indians which is the same as cops and robbers. This game involves the cowboys and Indians constantly shoot at each other. If you really look at this game it has a very violent history.

            “Most kids play with guns as children and few grow up to use guns in an act of violence”. This quote assumes that each parent educates their children of the dangers of a real gun; however this is not the case in real life. There have been many bans on certain toy guns and there are many people who still think that toy guns in general are bad.

            I have come to the conclusion that the dangers of toy guns mainly come down to how the parents educate their kids of the dangers and that they understand the difference between a toy and the real deal.

Reflection work cycle 2

This is the first make that I actually enjoyed. I liked going out and getting lost it was like an adventure. This got me thinking... It seems to me that we make better quality papers/makes/projects when we enjoy what we are doing.

Here is an illustration of how having fun effects work.


                               FUN                                                                

• People who enjoy going into work everyday will not worry as much on wage
• I once meet a girl who liked to do HW. She loves to learn. Its not surprising that she did good in school
• We hear about music artists that sold everything and lived very unhealthy so that they could focus totally on their work

                             NOT SO FUN

• People who don't enjoy their work will complain and would not put as much effort into their work
• If you hate going to school then you would not learn. These people tend to have lower grades
• Someone who doesn't love what they do would never sell everything to focus on their work

BROOOOO! Make Cycle 2!

The instructions for this make was to go for a learning walk and document what we saw, but while on the walk I thought instead I would make a map of the path I took and where I took these pictures at.

While on the walk my purpose was to get lost and discover new places in the local area. I started at the student union and decided to head toward the engineering because I only know the areas around where my classes are and I have no classes up towards those buildings. When you think the campus is pretty dead on the weekends you will defiantly see this to be true when you reach the engineering buildings.

Like Marys learning walk I did not have a planed route, the only thing that was planed was that it would be an adventure. To make things interesting, every time I would see a side trail that did not look very well traveled I would go down that trail. I was able to find a hobo's tent and a bunk of lost items such as a shopping cart. The hobo's tent got me to think, maybe this isn't a homeless mans tent but instead maybe its a students. If you were to think of all the money that is spent on college, it is huge! Maybe, just maybe this student camps out, instead of having to rent an apartment or a dorm. That would save the student alot of money.

While on my walk I am supposed to document some science that I saw. I found some interesting cloud formations and plenty of pollution.

This is my map of the path I took. Started from the student union. ended at Sanford Hall