I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." -Michael Jordan
Hello world! For those of you who are new, welcome to the Luminstruct blog! I am currently working on a "365 Word Project" where everyday I will be posting a reflection on a word and today's word is "game".
A certain talent that I don't advertise very often is being good at various games. Unless you have known me for a longer time than most, you wouldn't even realize how competitive I am at certain games. Although I am much better than I used to be, I still try to be the best I can be in certain games.
In my family room I have two different types of games. One type are games that can be won at chance. These are games which although they might need a little skill such as "Uno", Ellen's "Heads Up", or "Apple's to Apple", the real winner is mainly determined by the cards they are dealt for that particular round. These games don't bother me very much if I loose, there really is not any way to "train" for them and they are more fun for everyone to play. The other type of game I have are strategy games which I know I can win. These include some word games such as "Scrabble" and "Bananagrams" or others such as chess and monopoly. I own these games because I am good at them and I enjoy winning. This is a very selfish reason, and I realize this, but it is a thrill when I get beat by a friend at one of these games. One of my old RAs and I played chess every time we had a one on one meeting and although he beat me most times, I enjoyed it because I knew I was getting better each time I played. I come from a very proud background, and I feel like it is a secret goal of mine to be the best version of myself that I can be, this oddly includes the ability to win at simple games I guess.
It's really kind of odd, when it comes to athletics, I'm really not nearly as competitive, being a smaller guy, I know I will easily be beat in most sports unless it has to deal with endurance and running for long periods of time (thus the reason I enjoy playing and am good at Ultimate Frisbee). I do try to walk everywhere on campus and eat right in order to stay healthy, but if I also know I will never be the best basketball player or baseball player among my friends, so I try to spend more of my time on enhancing my brain capacity and becoming better at these topics. This is a bit of a stretch, but it kind of reminds me of the book, The Time Machine by HG Wells. In the book there are different species which have stemmed from humanity after thousands of years. These include the Morlocks and the Eloi. The Morlocks are more driven, brutish, smart, and kind of ugly whereas the Eloi are more graceful, beautiful, not the smartest, and are a very fragile society. I'm not necessary saying that I am more like the Morlocks or the Eloi, but this separation over time was created by humans setting their attention toward a certain way of living, based on smarts or looks. In many ways it is important to have a good combination of the two, but if I were to choose, I would rather be smart and ugly than dumb and beautiful. I guess I'll never become a celebrity :) But I digress, it was a bit of a stretch comparing my games to a new way of humanity, but it makes you think what you would choose. I think the book makes the decision even harder because the Eloi culture are represented as the "good guys" and show the time traveller kindness and warmth whereas the Morlocks are the ones who steal the time machine because of it's power and technology... I need to read that book again, the movie adaptation with Guy Pearce is actually not too bad either and is usually found in the Walmart $5 bin if you ever were interested to watch it :)
Question time: Are you competitive when it comes to games? If you had a choice between the Eloi tribes and Morlocks, which would you choose?
About the video: Another game that I enjoy, especially to pass the time, is ninja. During the past vidcon and other various conferences, the DeFranco team usually host a ninja game with their fans. Last year this ended up being a world record number of people in attendance! Although they also played this year, I've posted last year's video because it is a bit more entertaining and you get a good idea how it is played. Enjoy :)
A certain talent that I don't advertise very often is being good at various games. Unless you have known me for a longer time than most, you wouldn't even realize how competitive I am at certain games. Although I am much better than I used to be, I still try to be the best I can be in certain games.
In my family room I have two different types of games. One type are games that can be won at chance. These are games which although they might need a little skill such as "Uno", Ellen's "Heads Up", or "Apple's to Apple", the real winner is mainly determined by the cards they are dealt for that particular round. These games don't bother me very much if I loose, there really is not any way to "train" for them and they are more fun for everyone to play. The other type of game I have are strategy games which I know I can win. These include some word games such as "Scrabble" and "Bananagrams" or others such as chess and monopoly. I own these games because I am good at them and I enjoy winning. This is a very selfish reason, and I realize this, but it is a thrill when I get beat by a friend at one of these games. One of my old RAs and I played chess every time we had a one on one meeting and although he beat me most times, I enjoyed it because I knew I was getting better each time I played. I come from a very proud background, and I feel like it is a secret goal of mine to be the best version of myself that I can be, this oddly includes the ability to win at simple games I guess.
It's really kind of odd, when it comes to athletics, I'm really not nearly as competitive, being a smaller guy, I know I will easily be beat in most sports unless it has to deal with endurance and running for long periods of time (thus the reason I enjoy playing and am good at Ultimate Frisbee). I do try to walk everywhere on campus and eat right in order to stay healthy, but if I also know I will never be the best basketball player or baseball player among my friends, so I try to spend more of my time on enhancing my brain capacity and becoming better at these topics. This is a bit of a stretch, but it kind of reminds me of the book, The Time Machine by HG Wells. In the book there are different species which have stemmed from humanity after thousands of years. These include the Morlocks and the Eloi. The Morlocks are more driven, brutish, smart, and kind of ugly whereas the Eloi are more graceful, beautiful, not the smartest, and are a very fragile society. I'm not necessary saying that I am more like the Morlocks or the Eloi, but this separation over time was created by humans setting their attention toward a certain way of living, based on smarts or looks. In many ways it is important to have a good combination of the two, but if I were to choose, I would rather be smart and ugly than dumb and beautiful. I guess I'll never become a celebrity :) But I digress, it was a bit of a stretch comparing my games to a new way of humanity, but it makes you think what you would choose. I think the book makes the decision even harder because the Eloi culture are represented as the "good guys" and show the time traveller kindness and warmth whereas the Morlocks are the ones who steal the time machine because of it's power and technology... I need to read that book again, the movie adaptation with Guy Pearce is actually not too bad either and is usually found in the Walmart $5 bin if you ever were interested to watch it :)
Question time: Are you competitive when it comes to games? If you had a choice between the Eloi tribes and Morlocks, which would you choose?
About the video: Another game that I enjoy, especially to pass the time, is ninja. During the past vidcon and other various conferences, the DeFranco team usually host a ninja game with their fans. Last year this ended up being a world record number of people in attendance! Although they also played this year, I've posted last year's video because it is a bit more entertaining and you get a good idea how it is played. Enjoy :)
Take Away:
Tomorrow's Topic: "Connected"
