Food Within Video Games

I would just like to start this blog out by thanking Casey and Joe about doing such a great and informational presentation about food and video games! To be honest I never ever would have thought that the topic of food would some how appear in video games. I have a younger brother who is 16 almost 17 and has been playing games for years now. Also, my younger cousin who is 11 almost 12 also plays video games. My younger cousin has been playing for awhile now, so his parents let him play at a young age. First off, I do not think all kids should be able to play these violent games at a young age or all the time. I believe they are way to violent for them and even older teens. During the presentation it really kept me interested in the different ways that food is incorporated into video games. I really liked the Cluckin  bell commercial. I even watched them again on youtube with my roommates and they thought I was completely crazy! I talked to my brother for a long time on the phone yesterday about this whole topic of food within video games and he was some what useless at first because he told me I had no idea what I was talking about and in the end he ended up agreeing with me. He never realized how food was incorporated into games and thought it was really interesting. I even sent him the video clips of Cluckin bell and he thought they were hilarious. Over all, I wish I knew more of the video games out there and how they incorporate food, but I learned a lot of useful information from this presentation and will be sure to tell my brother more about it when I am home for summer if he wants to hear more or not I'm telling him about it anyways, since he does play those games constantly!

Mon Jin Lau

This past weekend I went home to see my my dog, my brother, and my parents. One night we were unsure on where to go for dinner and I suggested trying this restaurant called Mon Jin Lau, which is right by my house and we always hear how good it is. The inside of the restaurant was very small and dark it had a few tables and a small bar. The food on their menu was a combination of both Chinese and Japanese dishes. Their dishes are larger, so you are supposed to pick a few depending on how many people you are with and all share. Since, my family eats Chinese food a lot we decided we would try some of the Japanese dishes. We got two different types of Sushi dishes one was called the "Classic Roll" and that had tuna, avocado, and cucumber. The second one that we ordered was the "New York Roll" and that had smoked salmon, apple, and avocado. My brother does not like Sushi at all so he got chicken fried rice. I tried each type of dish and ended up really not liking either dish at all...I never liked seafood and that type of food plus I already am a very picky eater, so for me to go and try something completely new was hard. I am glad I got this opportunity because I was some what forced to try new food, but I am done now trying new food for awhile! My dad really enjoyed it because he loves Sushi and my mom was in the same situation as me and ended up not enjoying it. I would completely recommend this restaurant to anyone they have great food and a large menu as well!

Ending to Wintergirls

The end of Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson is very interesting and intense. The ending of the novel is that Lia is eating the green lollipop and the sugar is making her strong and allowing her to think about her future. She then calls her mom and talks about not answering Cassie's phone calls and also lets her mom know where she is. Later, an ambulance is called for Lia and they have to take her to the hospital by ambulance, but when she is in the ambulance her heart stops beating. While reading this I was freaking out to myself and even telling my roommate about what was going on. I was so surprise what was going on and if Lia would live or not....she ends up surviving in the ambulance. Lia is trying to rebuild the relationship with her family, while she is trying to recover from her treatment. She really was working hard to fix everything that was going on and bothering her. I felt bad for her because so much was going on with her family and she had to go through the death of Cassie. Overall, I thought this book was good. I would recommend this book to most people it is book though that you have to enjoy this type of material.

Wintergirls part 2

While reading the second half of Wintergirls  I still really enjoy it, but parts of it really caught me off guard me out a bit. It continues on with the idea that Cassie's ghosts appears, which they say only comes out at night. The girls all try to get rid of this ghosts by doing different activities. Emma takes sleeping pills or will workout until she is completely exhausted and Lia will sleep with her stepsister. During Cassie's funeral, Lia says that she sees the passed away Cassie sit up in her casket and eat something. Lia said that she was eating a piece of green see-glass, which is something used to tell the future. That is the part that completely freaked me out and caught me off guard. I was not expecting that to happen in the novel this far because it is just something I would not except in the way the book is written. Lia ends up developing a very interesting relationship with Elijah and she buys him food and she does not believe that he will judge her for anything she does for him or herself. Reflecting on that now I think it is nice that she does that for him, but at the same time it just seems weird that she thinks that he would judge her even though she does so much for him. As the novel goes on it will be interesting to see how it continues since parts have already caught me off guard. I still really enjoy this book and even hope to finish it this week or weekend!

Wintergirls

The novel that sounded most interesting to me is called Wintergirls written by Laurie Halse Anderson. This novel is directed for young adults and is focued on a story about a girl named Lia. She is only eighteen years old in the beginning of the book and is dealing with a personal issue with is....anorexia nevorsa. Lia has a good friend named Cassie they have been extremely close friends for ten years now and Cassie is bulimic. One night she tried to call Lia a large number of number of time and Lia never answered her phone calls. That night night Cassie ended up passing away. Just thinking about that made me realize that even in today’s society there are so many people who are fighting with these problems. It still is happening every where in the world. I am sure people know people that are struggling with this problem and it is on the news and in newspapers frequently. I know people from my high school who are a year younger than me and are struggling with anorexia and being bulimic. It is just sad because all these people are great its just upsetting to see them have to go through this. So far though I really enjoy this book and very pleased I picked it! 

Hunger Games~Part 2

While reading the second half of the Hunger Games I found it to still be very suspenseful. The first half the book I did not really enjoy because it is not the type of book I would just read for fun, but the second half I really liked a lot more! In the end Haymitch told Peeta during the interview to say that he loves Katniss. This was because it was intended to have Katniss seem like a much more interesting person, which would hopefully mean that they would get more people to send them gifts during the games. Then it happens that Peeta falls in love with Katniss during the games, but Katniss was not interested in him very much and was just going along with it for attention.During the train back Peeta got annoyed because he figured out Katniss was just messing with him and had no interest in him. Outside of the train there are reporters all over with cameras, so Katniss is just pretending to like him in front of the camera when she really doesn't. It is a key part that they are in love  because the berries made the Capitol not come off as being as strong and it is important that during the Hunger Games it needs to be seen as being strong. They had to admit that what they were doing with the berries was done from the care that they have towards each other, not because they were just trying to make the Capitol seem weak and lower. Overall, I am glad I read the book it was as great as people said it was once the second half came along. I would recommend this book to anyone! 

Hunger Games 6-18

While reading chapter 6 through 18 of the Hunger Games written by Suzanne Collins I thought it was very intense and suspenseful. I never have read this book before, so it was something new to me. Well....I do enjoy the book a lot, but it is not something I would usually read just for fun. One of my favorite chapters is chapter 16. In chapter 16 Katniss begins to try to figure out how to destroy the Careers' items while Rue sleeps. In the morning Rue is woken up to the sound of a cannon going off, which then leads to another tribute that has died. Then Katniss gets all the information possible from Rue about the Carreers' camp that she possibly can. During this whole process Katniss learns a lot about Rue, which is that she is the oldest of six children. When reading through this chapter and this point in the book I found it to be very interesting because I only have one younger sibling and having to live with 5 more would be a lot. Let alone so much action and activities is going on that having all these other siblings running around just seems like a lot of confusion. Rue and Katniss then figure out how to get rid of all the Careers' items by building some campfires to redirect the Careers. I found this to be much more intense while reading it, but it just does not seem real at all and that it is another reason why I am not a huge fan of the book. I will continue to read the rest of the book....maybe I will end up really loving it!