Tia Marie

The Birth of a Gamer

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I wish to share a very personal story with all of you.  This is the story of how I became a gamer and I write it because I want you my friends to know how gaming came to be with me.

The year was 1987, I was a young child of five and we didn't have a great deal of money.  I don't know how my mother convinced my father to buy a Nintendo in the first place, but she did.

Her favourite game was "The Legend of Zelda." The first installment in Miyamoto's dynasty of the Zelda universe.  My mother was in love with the game.  Despite being so young, I can clearly recall the time my mom spent at the NES.  She had her pencil and graph paper out, carefully marking every hidden item in the game.  Each and every bush, rock, wall or secret place in the game that you could burn, bomb, push or play a recorder at, that woman had it marked (on the 1st and 2nd quest). Then she helped me through it. It was another one of our reading bonding exercises.  She'd help me read the clues and the speech boxes and give me gentle nudges in the directions of the clues. I fell in love with gaming.  It was even better since my mother had such a direct impact in my life as a gamer.

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My last memory of my mother was the night before she died. I was sixteen years old, it was a Sunday night over the summer.  We were playing the original Diablo over battlenet.  I had introduced her to "hacked" characters and showing her that you could PlayerKill with these. She was laughing herself in tears telling me how horrible I was as she controlled the mouse to kill unsuspecting players as I trolled them over chat.  I'd never seen my mother laugh so hard. Nor had I remembered having so much fun playing a video game before in my life.

 

I'm all grown up now and I'll never forget where I got my start as a gamer.  My mother's influence in my gaming origins will never be forgotten.  Legend of Zelda had such an impact on my life and my memories of my mother that I had forever etched the tribute of the game that first tied me to gaming on my right forearm.

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In closing, I had the most awesome mom ever. <3

YAY! New DragonAge DLC

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It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Dragon Age.  I have been since I got the chance to do the live broadcast for EA and Bioware demoing Dragon Age for fans.  I've had a huge love of this game and have never made my feelings secret about it and any of my involvements.

September 7th there will be a new Dragon Age DLC that will cover what happened to Morrigan after the end of Dragon Age origins. I won't give away any spoilers, but this just leads me to hope that there will be a DLC that covers Alistair.  Seriously, I'd like another chance to get my swurve on with him... I mean... NEVER MIND END OF BLOG POST! 

Originally written on email from Geeky Randomness

Kari Byron now has an educational show, why not Danica McKellar?

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I'll preface this entire post with this, "I'm grumpy and snarky today," and that I don't hate Kari Byron.  Getting those two points out of the way, I wanted to dedicate my #Blogin5 post to this topic.

Every web nerd's wet dream, Kari Byron will be staring in a science show with the aim of getting kids interested in Science. She's gorgeous, charming and got her start in a very popular show.  It's pretty easy to see why she got the role/gig.  She's a sexy "geek."  There are tons of other sexy geek lady actresses (who probably would never host a kids' show) that originated their professional lives with an education in Science/Math related fields. I've put together a small helpful list!

• Danica McKellar: Wonder Years actress, Mathematics - UCLA
• Lisa Kudrow: Friends Actress, Biology - Vassar
• Natalie Portman: Star Wars Queen, Psychology - Harvard

This is a really short list, I haven't done tons of research (I didn't want to spend a load of time on this post cause I am at work), I'm sure you guys could name some other actresses who started in a science field.

It probably is difficult to find Television personalities who have backgrounds in science or math to host educational programs.  As far as I'm aware, the most prominent person I can think of who had an actual background in science who taught in an educational show was Bill Nye, who studied mechanical engineering at Cornell. I even looked into Mr. Wizard and Beakman from Beakman's World, neither of which studied science or math in college.

Of everyone I've listed in this post, Danica McKellar is the one that really stands out to me.  I'm still dumbfounded she hasn't gotten her own educational show (she might not want one).  Danica has been a proponent of helping middle school aged girls gain interest in mathematics.  She's even written two books, Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who's Boss and Hot X: Algebra Exposed that targets young girls in grades 7 - 9.

I do appreciate Kari's position at least that one can be a girl without a science background and still celebrate and enjoy science related things. Regardless of who gets to host an educational kids' show, if it inspires at least one child to imagine and fall in love with science. It's a Good Thing.

 

Rat Brain Robot: Disquieting or Amazing Advancement?

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I originally found this video on reddit, of a robot that is described as being controlled by the neurons in a rat brain that is kept in a bell jar.  I wasn't paying complete attention during the video the first time around and later watched it again after reading the comments in the reddit thread.

One of the comments struck a chord with me in a very disquieting way. To think of an a creature's consciousness being used like this creeped me out.

Now of course, this isn't the case at all, but I did envision how entirely confused an animal like a rat could be. The cold confusion within that shell of a body...

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It reminded me of a Dr. Who episode, where these cybermen were created and they were <spoiler> destroyed eventually by turning on their emotions on and allowed the creatures to realize what they really were.</spoiler>

I'm not one to really be waxing philosophical, but the benefits of such technology out weighs the social implications of that sort of lifestyle.

 

Sensationalism aside, the technology is beyond incredible.  It's the Reading University Neural Animat Project.  Here is a brief description of what they are:

 

The neurally controlled animat consists of a culture of cortical cells which are embodied enabling them to interact with the real world via a robot which acts as the artificial body of the 'brain'.

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The technology could assist scientists on discovering more about neurological disorders and the potential to merge technology with the nervous system in order to treat disorders and injuries.

What advancements do you think technology like this could have on our society?  Do you think the societal implications would be a factor on whether or not this technology sees the light of day anytime soon?

Leave a comment or a shoutout on twitter!

Like a train wreck, you can't not watch

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Seriously, I hate to make fun of some one directly in my blog and single them out.  However, I stumbled across this guy from fark.com.  His videos are much like a train wreck, you don't want to watch but you simply cannot take your eyes off.  I've only seen a couple of videos and I have come to the conclusion that either this man is a brilliant troll (and I've just been had) or he needs to separate himself from his digital life and seek some group therapy.

Originally written on email from Geeky Randomness