Do you want to build a snowman?

...because sometimes, you just gotta be a kid at heart.

Review: Z82 Retrocade

Business name:	Z82 Retrocade
Business type:	Entertainment
Location:	Sherwood, Ark.
My rating:	A
Website:	Facebook

I enjoyed video games much more when I was younger, mainly because I had more time to play. Since high school, I have spent less and less time playing video games as my daily responsibilities have increased. Although I find myself playing less, I still enjoy the occasional game. 

This weekend I finally had the opportunity to go to Z82 Retrocade in Sherwood, Ark. I had been wanting to go since a friend told me about it in 2014 but hadn't had the chance. With rain forecast for all day Saturday and no plans, I needed to find something cheap to do indoors. Z82 offers a variety of old arcade games set up on free play and only costs $7.50 per person for the entire day.

Environment

The arcade is a family-friendly environment. There were kids and adults enjoying the games. The machines looked new, the facilities were clean and the staff was very friendly. There aren't a lot of options for food and drinks and no outside food or drinks are allowed. However, a thirty-minute pass is available to allow for reentry. Several fast food restaurants are within walking distance, including Subway, Sonic, Arby's and McDonalds.

The Games
I was first introduced to Galaga when I was in middle school at which time I spent way to many quarters to play. Later I found it again on Gamecube. Saturday was probably the first time I had played in 10-12 years. Z82 Retrocade features classic arcade games such as Galaga, Donkey Kong, PacMan, Frogger and many others. I was even reintroduced to some games I had played in the 90's on the computer but had forgotten about like Asteroids and Missile Launch II.

Along with the classics other options such as Foosball, Air Hockey and Digital Dance Revolution were available.

My nephew and I spent from noon until about 9 p.m. at the arcade on Saturday. It was an affordable indoor option for a rainy day. My rating: A!

Hunger Games

I am a little behind on some popular reading, but decided to catch up the other day after continually seeing and hearing about Hunger Games. I found the book online and began reading around 2 p.m. on Wednesday. I read for twelve hours straight, stopping only for a bite to eat. I read about two hours the following day and was finished with the book. After all, I only had about 30 pages left to read.

I didn’t really know what to expect going into the book, just that it was very popular. I approached with an open mind. It captured my attention from the beginning, something fairly difficult to do for me. I will say that some of the ending is predictable, but the events in between were unknown. What would happen next? I had to know. The writing style was almost journal-like as it was in first person. It often annoyed me. It was definitely not Harry Potter. But it was a great read. And throughout the entire read I kept trying to analyze it as if I were back in my high school literature class days. What was being said about our society? Was this an allegory?

I began to think that maybe the Capitol was meant to represent the United States. The districts which were more well off, at least with plenty of food, might be considered Western Europe and possibly other industrialized nations such as Australia and Japan. And further districts were representative of places where, although some people may be surviving without much problem, there are many people starving. Many people were needlessly dying from malnutrition and a lack of money to buy food, medicine and shelter.

I previously interned with an organization, Heifer International, whose mission was to end world hunger and poverty while caring for the earth. I couldn’t help but think about that in this context either. They work to teach communities invaluable skills. Later the community may receive plants or animals to help them become self-sustainable. These gifts begin to change their lives as they are not allowed to eat the gift itself. They can, however, eat the produce from the gifts and sell the rest for extra income. Take a cow for example. They can drink the milk. Or a nanny, which can provide milk for drinking or cheese. Keeping this in mind, I continued reading and then I came across this on page 144.

Owning a nanny goat can change your life in District 12. The animals can live off almost anything, the Meadow’s a perfect feeding place, and they can give four quarts of milk a day. To drink, to make into cheese, to sell.

That brings me to my conclusion. Whether or not this book is meant to be allegorical or not, it has some truth to it. It is no game at all. People around the world fight for their lives every day. Maybe they aren’t set up by the government against each other, with only one person allowed to live, but they have to fight their environment. They have to fight empty stomachs. They have to fight disease. They have to fight for their lives.

But, you and I, we can do something about this. Unlike the sponsors in the book it does not cost us a fortune to send gifts to these people. In fact, through Heifer International we can buy an entire flock of baby chickens for $20. Or, if we don’t want to spend that much, we could pay for a share of a goat for $10. Every little bit counts. Even a Heifer is relatively inexpensive, $500, when compared with the benefits. And these donations aren’t helping just one person, they’re helping many. The first female offspring will be given to another person in need. The gift keeps giving. You can view Heifer’s entire gift catalog online. With Mother’s Day just around the corner this is a great opportunity to help a family in need in her honor.

Being a nerd

Photo compliments of HEXrpg.com

Lets face it, I am a nerd. I like a lot of things that are most likely considered "uncool." I am 23 years old and still absolutely love the Harry Potter series. I have read all seven books, several of them up to three or four times. I have even read the first book in Spanish. I have seen all of the movies. And when I was in high school I began playing on a Harry Potter Role Playing website called HEX. That stands for "Hogwarts Extreme."

A few years later, in my junior year of high school when I became a part of newspaper staff I didn't have a lot of time on the internet. So I gave a lot of the items I had earned on the website away to other users and went inactive. That inactivity lasted for about five years, until last week.

Last week I didn't even remember my password. I had to email the website staff in order to retrieve it because I no longer had access to the email address I had used to sign up. But within a day I had my password and was back online.

Many things had changed within those five years, but many things stayed the same. I won't go into a lot of that, I will simply describe what it is all about. First and foremost, it is a Harry Potter website dedicated to role playing. Some features are very similar to an old website called Neopets. Users can create their own stores, a club, and even a dormitory. They can play games, make friends, and collect items. The areas and forums on HEX are mostly named after places from the Harry Potter series. There are common rooms, the great hall, the quidditch pitch and many other locations.

One forum is dedicated to all RPGs. And for those who still don't know what RPG means, that is "Role Playing Games." Users pretend to be in the fantasy world and they make up their own plots. It is often in a story-like format. I was amazed at how quickly I picked back up after five years with no role playing.

Another common activity is attending classes. Every "term" new professors are selected to teach classes at Hogwarts. Users buy the textbooks and required items and then do homework based on an RP the professor posts. The points they get from that homework goes toward winning the house cup.

Then there are contests. And games. And I am not going to say much more. If it sounds interesting to you, check it out at www.hexrpg.com. As for me, I am going to go be a nerd some more.

Speaking out while you can

It is all over the news. It is all over the social media. Although, from Spain I see very little of the "protesting," that has been reported such as the Wikipedia blackout (this links to Wiki's explanation of the blackout and some more info about the whole idea.)  and Google's photo of the day. However, I have read some articles and seen videos explaining the intent of a new bill/resolution introduced to the U.S. Congress. In the house it is commonly referred to as SOPA, or Stop Online Piracy Act; and in the senate the name is so long I will only refer to it by acronym, PROTECT IP.

I am going to try to keep this blog fairly short so if you want a lot of details I would encourage you to look at some of it yourself. Some of what is reported that the bill would do is require all websites such as YouTube, facebook, etc to remove any material that might infringe on any copyrighted material. Those that don't would suffer from fines and penalties. Search engines and advertisements would have to remove all links to infringing websites. And the government would be able to block access to the websites. That sounds like a very dangerous precedent to allow to be set to me--the government being able to block access to any website deemed to be in violation.

I was glad to see an announcement stating that the white house does not support this bill. For once I can agree with them. I know in countries such as China many websites are filtered through the government. For instance, without a special way around their filters Facebook is not available in China. Now, this bill may not exactly let the government pick and choose what sites to filter but it is still a dangerous precedent. What might be next?

At the same time I can somewhat sympathize with the entertainment industry. They spend thousands or millions of dollars to make a movie or an album, only to have it end up on the internet where anyone can download for free. But, if I am a true fan of an artist I am going to want to buy their products to show I am a fan and to support them. Without the sales they may not be around for long. As far as music goes, being able to listen to songs on Youtube or other websites doesn't mean I won't buy a CD, in fact, if it is often why I buy a product. If someone sends me a link to listen to a group and I like it, I might buy a CD. Without Youtube I would probably never have heard of the group. So banning all of this could actually hurt the industry even more. If I can't preview music I won't buy music. I have enough in my collection already and there is always the radio.