Video Games

Video games are a great way to beat boredom. The thing is about them, there are so many to choose from! How could you ever find one that you would like? There is shooting games, fighting games, adventure games, role playing games, racing games, and the list goes on. And not to mention, there are literally thousands if not closer to a million types of games under each genre.... So, the question is how do you find something you like? Well, start by picking the type of games you enjoy, then look for popular games in there. Then you try to find the game you most enjoy from there. Once you figured out a few you like, you need to start concerning yourself with the community of the game, and if the people playing it are people you want to associate yourself with. Sometimes the community for a game is really helpful and supportive and can help you and others play the game better/ learn more about it/ get more people into it. Other times you're going to find games with communities that are quite literally the opposite. There are some games that have very toxic communities and that can drive people away from the game.

The other thing I want to touch on in this post is about the stigma that goes with playing video games.  People for some reason think it is a bad thing that they play a certain game, or that they should be ashamed of the games they play. I think that is quite an odd concept to have thought of. Everyone has something they do with free time, so why does it matter if you do something you like to do ( game). I understand that many people don't want to be seen as "nerdy" but over hundreds of millions of people play video games. Also, people think that playing a game competitively is strange. I am very competitive in two different gaming communities, and now that you know that, would you have expected it? People aren't defined by what they do with their free time. So, the idea that gaming is something to be ashamed of, is crazy.

State Championships

John F. Kennedy High School is having quite the year with sports. Actually, we are having a phenomenal year. Our football team is actually completely undefeated. Like they have not lost. Once. That alone is insane, but now they are on their way to the State Championship. Next Friday, at the university of Northern Iowa "Unidome" Kennedy will be playing against Bentondorf in the Semi-finals. After this, Kennedy will be playing in the state championship. But, not only is our football team doing great, our volleyball team is doing amazing. Next Tuesday, our Girls Volleyball team will be playing in the state semi finals at the US Cellular center, and then after that they will play in the State Championship on Thursday at 10:00 AM. It is truly an exctiting time for lots of our sports players, our sports fans, and the competition as well. The competition will be tough to get our two teams to state, but I know that our teams will be able to pull through and succeed.
Update: Cougars won, we are now going to state

Can It Really Be True? [Walking Dead Spoilers Inside]

Spoiler warning, if you don't want to see spoilers for the fifth season of TWD, you should just close your eyes and scroll to another point on the page. Far far away from this part of the page. Are you gone yet? Please leave so I can start this blog. Alright Thanks.

Lots of us are wondering it. Few have accepted it. Many don't want to face what seems like the truth. Can Glenn be dead? Many of us saw the heartbreaking scene where he tried to save the life of another, and then was thrown from the roof of the van into a hoard of walkers. This probably caused about 90% of the viewers to go into shock, and probably more to cry. Glenn, the man we knew since the beginning scenes, appeared to die... How can this be happening you ask. Well, unfortunately I don't know. I really want to believe that he is still alive. There are many ideas floating around that he is still potentially alive, but there is a lot of doubt from most people who experienced the traumatic incident of watching the show live. Well here is the main theory that I have heard going around. The idea that when Glenn went to grab Nicholas, they both fell, with Nicholas landing on top of glenn. This would allow for that scene where we saw guys being torn out around Glenn to not have been from Glenn. This case, the already dead Nicholas would have acted quite literally as a meat shield for Glenn's body. This would hopefully allow Glenn to then crawl under the van and hide from the walkers. I have my own speculations about this, because it would be hard to crawl under the van after just hitting the ground with the weight of two grown men, then crawling under the van while there was a grown man on top of you, and then also many zombies holding that man down on top of that. This would be an incredible stretch in my opinion but it is still possible. Then the other questions that are raise is if Glenn really is stuck under that van, how long could he survive? He was already on a run, so it is not like he had much food or water left with him. I am having very strong doubts that Glenn could survive this. But, I believe. I really want to believe that Glenn, the guy I've known for years, is still alive. After all he's been through, the times he's come close to death. I don't want it to be over.

Learning How to Code

Learning how to understand and write your own programs is a really cool experience. The first program you make is really cool, but then you realize just how basic your code is, and then begins the arms race of continually trying to make the best program you can make. Every time you finish a program, you will want to play with it for so long, and then that leads to you wanting to improve it, and make it superior. Once you learn how to code there is nothing stopping you from making an amazing program. But, I'm going to break this apart into sections.

Beginners: Right away you will probably be working along side a tutorial, or guide book to help you learn how to program. The first things you make are very simple no matter the language you are learning. Usually they consist of inputting something and having some output come out such as "Hello World"
Once you begin to master these, you will learn how to string them together, and create various response depending on the input. Once you are able to string together the conditions and outputs, you have got yourself a pretty good understanding of the coding language. 

Intermediate: Now you understand how to code for lots of situations, and you're looking at compiling your knowledge into something big. Something really cool. This stage is going to allow you to do quite a few things with how much you know, such as making games, or programs with interfaces. This stage can really only be developed by practice making these programs. There will be errors, you will have to check your code tons of times, but after it's all finished you're going to have a pretty cool thing.

Advanced: Now you've gone ahead and made some of your own programs and even a game or two. There are tons of applications now for your knowledge. You can make websites, games, anything you put your mind to. And because of this, you're probably going to be able to look into going to college for Computer Science. These degrees will help you get a job that is going to pay well, be needed for a long time, and be doing something you love to do, coding. 

So, as you can see, coding is pretty cool. You can eventually get paid for the stuff you learn to do right now with it. Pretty good way to beat boredom, something fun and productive.

Super Smash Bros

Today I'm going to talk about my favorite game to play. It was one of the first games I played and it is still my absolute favorite. Super smash bros throughout the years has been an amazing game to play. Whether you are alone or with friends it's a great way to alleviate boredom. I first started playing it on the Nintendo 64 when it was first released and have played every version of the game since. Smash 64, melee, brawl, and now for 3ds and wii u, the game has been one of the best throughout the years. It is a fighting game between characters  from multiple games, including pokemon, Pac-Man, Megaman, the iconic Mario, Sonic, and even Ryu from Street fighter. The idea of fighting with characters across many platforms is really cool. There are over 60 characters throughout all the games and still more in the works. There are so many ways to play the game too. People play for fun, and with friends, and then also there is a competitive scene where people play in tournaments and try to be the best. The game has had lots of success recently with the Wii u version of the game gaining popularity. More and more people have begun to change over from their old favorite version of the game to the Wii U version. This game has been one of my favorite throughout the years and it has always been there to alleviate my boredom. Smash Bros. Is having a great year and before the end of the year it will only get better, because soon there will be the release of more characters including Cloud from Final Fantasy. This game is truly unique, making you able to decide who the ultimate fighter is even if they used to not even be from the same console you could play the games on.

Reading

So here is something that's new, or not so new. Reading for enjoyment. Ha! What a good joke! Actually no, reading is a really good pass time to alleviate boredom. And the beautiful thing about is that there are just so freaking many books to choose from. Just hundreds of millions of books. And on top of that there is a book on practically everything so you have to be able to find something you like. The reason reading is such a good pass time is that not only can it improve your reading abilities for school, it is fun, can be done almost anytime, almost anywhere, and tons of people read. You can talk with others to see if they liked the book, about how they felt about a certain part or maybe some character in the book, and you can have reading circles or groups that can make reading more enjoyable. The whole thing is quite fun and you are actually able to read for however long you want thanks to the genius invention of the book mark. So, if you thought reading was awful, or an abomination, you should give it another shot. Try to pick up a book you are interested in,  sit down and read for a while. And if you get tired of it  try another book. That's what makes it so fun. Thanks for reading this and go to the library and find something you want.

Woodworking

Today, I have another fun hobby for you to maybe explore. I have never personally done this, but none the less it is still very fun and rewarding. Woodworking is something that is going to take quite a bit to get into but the rewards can be great. People not only woodwork as a hobby but also as a job in some cases. People who
Really get into the hobby have shops where they woodwork. But for now I'm going to start off with the basics

So, the concept of woodworking is quite simple. You take wood, and craft it into anything. Really anything you want, a chair, a table, a bench, a sculpture, a toy, anything! But there is quite a bit more than that when you get into it. It is very intricate and requires an insane amount of precision. One mistake can cause you to have to trash the piece you are working on.

Selecting the wood is a big part of the process, you have to pick something that will have enough support for what you are trying to do and something that had the color you want. The wood selection takes quite a bit of time because there is simply so many types to choose from. But this part is much less time consuming than the other steps of this process.

The design is something that takes quite a bit of time and thought. You have to pick something you are about to dedicate tons of hours to so choose wisely.

So, all in all woodworking is really cool and a hobby I would eventually like to get into, but it is quite expensive and time consuming. Thanks for reading!