Reading Logs 6

Title: Playing video games is good for your brain- here's how
Author: TheConversation
Text Type: Article
Date: 18/09/17

In this article they talk about how video games can be good for you and it even helps with depression, fastens your reaction time and hand-eye co-ordination. They talk about how gaming is good for your brain in many ways.

In the article they talk about all the different thing video games do to your brain and how they help. For example, one area of the brain is called Prefrontal Cortex and playing games like Tetris activate that area of the brain and help with decision-making. Another area of the brain is called Dopamine and it gives you the feeling of reward when you finish a game or beat a boss. Most game developers put clues or as some call it "Easter eggs", where a developer puts something in the game that is not in plain sight and you have to connect the dots to find out what it is. So what is what will trigger Dopamine more because once you find it you will get the sensation of relief.

I can relate to this article because once I start playing a game I don't want to stop until I fully finish the whole game or get all the trophy. Just like in the article when they talk about the satisfaction of finishing a game and that you have completed all the way through I get the same feeling. When they say that people that play "shoot-em-up" games have better perception, attention and cognition in life.
This reminds we of another article I read, they talked about how 29% of gamer are over the age of 50 and the average gamer is 37. This shows that gaming is great because it keeps your mind active and learn new things and it makes your brain work more though out the day. In the end of the article they say gaming is another treat to depression so they created games like Jane the concussion slayer and many more to cope and help with depression, anxiety, brain injuries and more.

Artist Model

My Artist model is Akira Toriyama, he is a Japanese manga and game artist born in Aichi Nagoya on April 5, 1955. He is known for his design in Dragon Ball Z and all of his character design. But first, he created Shonen manga which aimed at teenagers ages from 8-18 and was the biggest comic of that time. Then Toriyama went on to make Dragon Ball Z and the series took off. Now there are seasons Upon sessions of Dragon Ball anime cartoons as well as comics. His wife is a former manga artist her name is Yoshimi Katō "Nachi Mikami" and sometimes helped Toriyama with his early work.
Toriyama likes Astro boy and One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Toriyama is influenced by Toyoo Ashida an animator.

Reading Logs 5

Title: Schindler's List
Author: Thomas Keneally
Text Type: Book
Date: 18/09/17

In the book "Schindler's List" by Thomas Keneally, Tells a story of how a rich businessman at the start hated and had no care for jews. Then once he sees what is happening to the jews in the ghetto he feels really bad and changes his mind. He starting hiring all these jew to work in his factory and ends up saving over 1,100 jews.

This book gave me an insight into the world back then in world war two and the Holocaust. For example, when Oskar Schindler is walking through the town where everyone lives but all there is are dead bodies, people hiding and nazi people walking around with guns. The author does this to show what is happening during World War 2 and the Holocaust were all the Jews are dying, hiding their kids and themselves from all the nazi with guns and the gas chambers. When Schindler joined the Nazi party and sees what they were doing where they were exterminating the Jews and gassing them, he started to hire all the jews to give them money and a new life and saved them from death and the gas chamber. He sends up saving over 1,100 jews.

This is relevant in today's society because in the novel when he is looking at the town that is destroyed and dead body's everywhere and people hiding to save there and there kids life. It shows what it was like back then in world war 2, with Jews and everything with hitler and how racist he was. For example during the Holocaust they killed innocent Jews and their family's. This shows us how greatful we should be here in New Zealand, and in our world today. Although  we have terrorists attacks they are nothing compared to the 6 million Jews that were killed in the Holocaust. In the novel they talk about Schindler seeing  the gas chambers and the Jews lining up to be executed and this show what it was like and how Germany affected the world back then.

Reading Logs 4

Title: Trash
Author: Andy Mulligan
Text Type: Book
Date: Friday July 7 2017

In the book, "Trash" by Andy Mulligan, Tells a story about how Raphael Fernandez, Gardo and Rat(Jun-jun) Living in a third-world country picking up rubbish every as their "Day Job" discovers little pieces to the puzzle of Jose Angelico murder.

This text explores ideas which are important to society today because as our principal says "You only get one world and you have to take care of it". For example in the book, they are living, eating, working in rubbish all because people didn't take care of where they live. When Gardo and Rat are working in the rubbish all day and all night just to find stuff to sell to support his family and survive. Living in poverty, his house is made out of tin and cardboard. Not having a bed, sleeping on rubbish Mulligan does this to show what can happen when you don't take care of your city and just like Raphael if your family is not wealthy you become a "Trash boy" as a job and don't get the luxury as "normal" person where you have somewhere to sleep at night, something over your head. This relates to our generation because if we don't take care of our city/country we could turn into something like in the book Trash and we don't want that. Where they are working in rubbish just to find things to sell for money to survive.


This article influenced my understanding of friendship when Raphael and Rat will do anything to help and get back there friend Gardo. For example, even though Gardo is the "big brother" of Raphael, Raph will do anything to help and get back Gardo from the police when he sneaks into the prison with the letter seeing his "grandfather" Raph helps him get into the prison to deliver the letter and lies to the police as a cover up. Even though in the book Gardo dies in the end. But it takes courage to help and risk your own life for another. But in the end,  when the boys get the 6 million they all help the other workers on the trash pile and spread all the money around the pile so they all get some of the money.

Reading Log 3

Title: How Counter-Strike turned a teenager in a compulsive gambler
Author: ESPN
Text Type: Article
Date: Friday June 2 2017

This article is about how a teenager named Elijah turned into a compulsive gambler influenced by two big Youtubers Trevor Marin (TmarTn) and Tom Cassell (Syndicate) and spent $8,365 of his parents money and they had no idea what he was getting up to.

This article shocked me when I seen that a little boy was becoming a addicted gambler at such a young age. The start of the article they talk about how two young millionaires named "TmarTn"and "Syndicate" changed skin gambling for the worse. For example when TmarTn was betting on these websites the main website used is called "csgolotto". TmarTn uploading video of him "Winning Big" but in reality its his own website that he made with Syndicate and they started to rigging the odds so that he wins every time. This means all the little kids watching his videos of winning big they think "Oh if he can win big, I can win big too" that's how the gambling addiction starts. Another example on how they changed the skin gambling scene is when they where uploading these videos they never told anyone in the description that they owned it or said anything to do with owning the site. An important lesson in this text is that just because you see people on the Internet winning big in gambling is that you don't need to go out and try to bet and win big just like Elijah did.

This article influenced my understanding of gambling and and how much they where ripping people off. I learnt that Valve this allowing people to make and rig sites for content. For example in the article they talk about skins and how skins has changed the game. They explain about how 5 billion was wagered over the year of 2016 through "coin flips" and "roulette". It's just like going to Vegas and betting at tables but they are in there room on the computer. Just like Elijah did and they are only kids. Another example of the money is Counter-Strike is that if you have expensive skins you are considered "cool" because you can show them off in game and too your friends just like Elijah when he spent $8,365 of his parents money on the game and skins. he stayed betting and gambling until he checked his account balance and it read: 4 cents. I relate well to this article because I watch these two youtubers and I have gambled with skins before. For me I think that this scandal is good because it stopped most gambling sites after the scandal was over because Valve (owners of csgo) sent out violation letter to the websites saying that they had to shutdown or they will get shutdown by valve in 24 hours because they where violating rules valve had.

Art ideas

ScreaM walking Baby Super Sayian

AK-47 Bullet lying on the ground

Week One

Plan

ScreaM Sketch - SuperSayian Woodcut face - Both Faded into eachother

ScreaM Flag Photoshop