LOL

No, this is not what you are probably thinking. I have recently came across a game called "League of Legends" and that has taken up almost 5 hours a day for the last 3 days (while I am at school). The reason I am liking this game so much is because the game is free to play online, and also that you do not need skill. Obviously skill helps, but it is not required. I am the perfect example of this phenomena. When I used to play games like World of Warcraft, I did not ever compete at the highest levels because every character has 40+ spells to use, and most of them help you in different circumstances. If everyone had to click them, I would assume I could be just as good as the next guy, but to be faster, the best players keybind their abilities so all they have to do is press a letter on their keyboard when they want to use a certain move. I on the other hand can hardly think fast enough to do anything besides clicking, so I stuck to the slow method. Now for League of Legends, each character has about 6 moves they can use total, and the letters on the keyboard you use are q,w,e,r,d, and f so you don't even have to move your hand around. This allows me to focus more on strategy over playing ability. For the first few games I was absolutely terrible because I didn't understand the game dynamics, but now I am certain that I have been either the number one or number two contributor to my random groups of 5 online players. It is the perfect game for someone with my learning ability and skill ability, as learning benefits you much more than skill here and I have the former of these two. That is all.

School and Grades

I forgot to mention what I basically live for currently, so I thought I would share. I am a junior at a private college in Minnesota and I study Kinesiology. This college is not the typical post-secondary education experience most people would look for, but it suits my needs quite well. There is not a whole lot of partying going on here, so many people at this establishment turn to academics. I should mention also that this private college is a Christian college so for the few of us here who actually believe what we represent, the experience is what we expected. Still many do their own thing and disobey their commitments, which I do not agree with, but they can do whatever they like as long as it does not interfere with what we all signed up for when we enrolled. This is not what I wanted to talk about though, I would like to discuss my priorities. For as long as I can remember, I have gotten above average grades in school. Starting around 5th grade was the point where I was informed that I would never get a job paying good money unless I continued in the education process. First of all, this is a complete lie. I wish I had not taken so much stalk in what I was being told. This mentality was all-encompassing in every aspect of my life through 11th grade in high school. Nothing could come before my school work. It is unfathomable how much time I must have wasted perfecting techniques and memorizing things I had absolutely no interest in. Some point during the 11th grade, I had a realization that I could spend a lot less time doing homework and studying while still maintaining the grades I wanted. Unfortunately, this did not mean I found something productive that I enjoyed as an alternative to school. Instead, I started playing video games, or rather, A video game. World of Warcraft... I am not sure what to think of all the time I have spent playing that stupid game, totaling up to around 70 days of playing time. So much joy has been brought to my life from that game (pathetic, isn't it?), yet every time I quit I find myself becoming very agitated with the fact that nothing has come out of my playing the game (this might seem irrelevant, but it will tie in soon, I promise). I played WoW off and on into college until about halfway through my sophomore year. This is also the point in my education where I picked a major, switching from undecided to Kinesiology. Of course this is not the most difficult of majors, but it was one of the few majors that I felt I had any interest in. Deciding my major was one of the few large decisions I have made in my life. You may think I am exaggerating, so let me clear any misunderstandings you might have. Here is a short list: my cousin went to the college I attend, so I followed; my mom is Christian, so I am Christian (something I only challenged during college), I have rejected almost all advances from girls, even a couple that I was interested in, I have had the same summer job for the last 4 summers and I hate it, and I have never followed through with vacations through any type of organization, even though I love to explore places I am unfamiliar with. To get back on subject, the first thing I thought of when I chose the major I did was what kind of high paying job can I get with this. It only seems plausible that someone with this type of major would go into coaching or nutrition or something, both of which I would not enjoy. Then I got to thinking Medical School would be where I ended up because I honestly love to help people out whenever I can and it offers more money than almost any other type of job out there. I have already taken many of the per-requisites for med school and my GPA is around 3.94 with experience volunteering at hospitals and whatnot, so I was confident I would not have problems getting into some form of medical school. Then, one day, I realized that spending the next 10+ years studying was not very appealing to me, so I began to reconsider. I also looked at my motivations to pursue such a difficult career, and the prime driving force was the potential salary. Up until this point in my life I thought reaching my maximum potential in terms of money was the ultimate goal. All of a sudden, I realized that nothing in my life that I enjoy requires any substantial amount of money. I am almost embarrassed to say what career I am currently pursuing because it is not a low paying job, but I will anyways. Physician's Assistant. They require less time in grad school, they make substantially less money compared to doctors, and they basically do the same job without overseeing many others. It seems like a dream job. After making this choice, I have made it a commitment to not make actions based on what others think is best for me, rather what I think suits me best.

I honestly can't stand typing this long, so I am ending this post. My next posting will be shorter, I guarantee.

Wow

Well well well... So it has been about 5 months from my last post where I proposed a theoretical commitment to posting consistently on blogger. Obviously I have done no such thing, but I felt the sudden urge to rededicate potential free time in the future (potential = undoubted) to the art of blogging. There is so much that goes through my mind every day and I can no longer resist the temptation to keep a safe haven of my thoughts. Of course, these ideas I ponder upon are in so way shape or form a breakthrough idea that nobody else has discovered, but the simple act of writing "my life" down, errr typing I guess =) ... will help clarify what I stand for/my likings/my faults/etc., this I am certain of. After writing that last sentence, I have decided that grammer will not be a forte of this blog, rather my conscience is going to be the main contributing factor. I am extremely excited knowing there is endless potential in recording MY history on here, but I will have to pace myself so I don't get too personal right off the bat. Discussing the people close to me is a goal of mine here so I need to refrain from giving out information that is too personal as I have no clue who will want to read this. Regarding this, I am not promoting myself to become a well-known blogger or anything, but if there is something I write that is thought provoking/inspiring to someone else, I would love to hear their opinion on the topic (which I believe can be shared via comments on posts?).

Also, from now on I am going to refer to any reader as YOU, whether it is myself, my mother, some rando from Russia, etc. unless stated otherwise. I think this underlying basis will help me generalize the things I wish to say.

Okay, so you are probably wondering what this sudden urge of mine was that I so desperately needed to record, regardless of this painfully descriptive introduction I felt I needed to create to explain what I see coming from this blog. The topic is not uncommon, but it has never been so intriguing and applicable to me. Here's the scene: I am watching a YouTube video of a song called, "Whenever" by an artist named Mike Stacks when I see a comment along the lines of "this guy is better than Eminem". This is not what caught my eye though. A reply to this comment said, "Better than eminem lol...... not even Mac Miller is better than him and hes dope as fuck". I don't like the language he used, but immediately I thought of why Mac Miller could not be compared to Eminem (both of which are amazing entertainers in my opinion). What I came up with was that people instantaneously apply the title of "good" to someone who is obviously talented, but to be considered good without skill requires an immense amount of subjective appeal. I know people who are crazily obsessed with Slim Shady simply because he is one of the best hip-hop artists of our generation. On the other hand, many others love terrible rappers (*cough* Lil' Wayne *cough*) due to the way they present themselves. Going back to the comment, the replier obviously implies that Eminem is one of the best in the industry, then he goes on to say that even his opinion of Mac Miller doesn't outweigh Eminem. Skill cannot be debated whereas impression can. Unskilled artists can potentially have a larger fan base over skilled artists if they express entertaining material to a large audience. My point is not coming across at all as I expected, which, on top of the time it has taken to write this post, has made me very frustrated. Trust me, I learned something from that stupid comment! More posts to come soon!!!!!!!