Reflection

When trying to think of something to throw on here, it occured to me that I could look at the blog I wrote for computer science during freshman year and think about how I've improved my writing since then.

In this blog that I wrote three years ago, I wrote mainly on the topic of video games. One of the main characteristics of my blog is that I was painfully biased toward nintendo and against most everything else in that industry. I think I still am, but at least today I can recognize it. Freshman year I had no awareness of my own ignorance; I spit out stuff without knowing both sides of a story and I didn't care. Today's article that we heard in Creative Writing reminded me of this a lot, because this author sounded about as opinionated as I was. So, I decided to tear apart a paragraph I wrote back then much like we tore apart the other article in class.

"Heeeeyyy...I'm back. Miss me? Didn't think so. Anyway what to say now.........the games. People love Halo for Xbox and Grand Theft Auto for playstation. I can't make a fair opinion about Halo because I haven't played. Though the fact that it helped inspire the Maryland sniper doesn't make me approve of it. It's because of this that I can safely assume that Halo is just another game with tons of unrequired violence that get popularity from immature gamers."
-Me, freshman moron of '06

"Heeeeyyy...I'm back. Miss me? Didn't think so." - ........OMG SO FUNNY!!11oneone!!11!! If that opening line was any more creative, my head would have burst open!

"People love Halo for Xbox and Grand Theft Auto for playstation." - Here I am under the impression that I can somehow speak for thousands of X Box and Playstation fans across the nation, many of which I have never met before.

"I can't make a fair opinion about Halo because I haven't played. Though the fact that it helped inspire the Maryland sniper doesn't make me approve of it." - The maryland sniper comment wasn't a made up statement, I saw it on a news cast, but nevertheless the people who committed those crimes were messed up to begin with and Halo can't be blamed for that. Unfortunately, that thought had not occured to me at the time; I pulled a Jack Thompson and took an oppurtunity to blame a tradgedy I knew little about on a video game I knew nothing about. Also, in general I wasn't being as effective as I had hoped to be by simply saying an objective-sounding sentence to excuse an extremely one-sided statement in the next sentence.

"It's because of this that I can safely assume that Halo is just another game with tons of unrequired violence that get popularity from immature gamers" - translation? "I only said one thing that isn't even solid fact against this game; This gives me a right to act like I know more than anyone who disagrees with me. And I am totally mature and correct. I promise."

Having looked over how I used to think things through, or not think at all (depends how you look at it), I would like to take this oppurtunity to say that I am truly grateful for having been taught to support arguments with thought in these four years of high school. If it wasn't for my education, I fear I would be reduced to this for the rest of my life.