12 Things That Only Serious Gamers Will Understand  

http://www.buzzfeed.com/nvidia/12-things-that-only-serious-gamers-will-understand  

            For the most part this list was really accurate in depicting the game community, with a few exceptions. Meme number 5 doesn't have a lot of truth to it, even with a large amount of time I’ve put into video games I have yet to see my hands as what actions on a controller they would perform yet. So either I just haven’t become a serious gamer yet or the author is over exaggerating a little, I’m going to go with the latter option. Meme number 7 is just straight up wrong, there is a lot of shame in intense public gaming, and public gaming in general. Go ahead and pull out your old handheld gaming device in a crowded area and see if you don’t get weird looks. Other gamers probably won’t judge you, but the average person will. Meme number 8 is surprisingly accurate, a game ruining a friendship might seem a little far-fetched but it happens. A few years ago I witnessed two guys get into a fist fight over Mario Kart on my bus because one of them was hit with a blue shell right before he reached the finish line causing him to lose the race. Meme 11 describes serious gamers perfectly, when you get really into a game it does not matter what the weather is outside all you care about is playing the game. The 1^st meme is true as well, it feels almost impossible to quit a level until you complete, and walking away for a while feels like giving up.

            Though some of the stereotypes in this list are exaggerated for comedic effect, most of it is still true. However I don’t feel like you would have to be a gamer to recognize most of these things, which kind of makes the list seem unoriginal.

     Well that was bad, really bad. I should have used note cards, because I forgot quite a bit of what I had intended to say. As was evident by the really long pause that I took early in the speech and the repeated use of filler words and the smaller pauses that I took. All of the material that I memorized vanished as soon as I got up there and I started getting even more nervous because of it. On top of that I just kind of stood there  gesturing at my power point, using it as a crutch to support my pathetically executed speech. Another thing that is bad is that I ended early, even with my awkwardly long pause. I honestly think that my nervousness was very noticeable and was distracting away from the information I was presenting. Thankfully the audience was quite courteous, which made things a little better.

      Now to the things I did well, which were few and far between. I managed not to play with the clicker the whole time, which is surprising given that the reason I didn't use note cards is because I couldn't stop playing with them while I was practicing. I did somewhat keep up eye contact throughout the disaster that was my my speech. Also my power point had the required amount of images, so I didn't mess up everything. Somehow I managed to make the class laugh a couple of times, though I suspect that was because they could tell how nervous I was and were trying to make me feel a bit better about my presentation.

     Next time I intend to do a lot more practice and definitely use note cards. However I don't think there is anything I could do to make me feel less nervous about public speaking. I detest speaking in anything but very small groups anyways, and this being a group of strangers made it even worse.

For the secondary source for my speech I used the website for the MacAdam student observatory. This site provided a lot of information on upcoming events at the university's observatory. Such as a monthly lecture and trip to the observatory for non-astronomy students. The observatory also holds smaller events for current astrological phenomenon. It is also open for students every week night, weather permitted.

      Unfortunately this has also shown me how unpleasant doing my ethnography on this space would be. The space has mostly an academic culture and would be very dry and uninteresting to write about. It doesn't seem to be a very lively place, and most people just seem to keep to themselves. 

      I am now highly considering switching to another space to research, preferably a more social one that I can observe with more interest. I find it unlikely that I could convince anyone to view this space as interesting or get involved with it. More sources for it would be less than easy to come by as well. 

 "MacAdam student observatory." College of arts and sciences, dept. of physics and astronomy. N.p., 9-17-2013. Web. 19 Sep 2013. <http://pa.as.uky.edu/observatory>.

For my two spaces I was thinking of doing the Johnson center, because I've never really worked out or exercised before. It is also conveniently close to my dorm. If not that than I would like to research the school observatory. That is also a type of place that I have never been, and it would work into my astronomy class