A Colorful Background...

seem to be an irony to my gloomy feeling...just like the awesome weather recently we have here in Vancouver...a beach weather...a weather that perfectly allows people go out for fun and natures and companionship...yet i can find no one to share with...how pathetic...

trying to cheer myself up by changing the colorful background...just as trying to appreciate the fantastic weather so that i may be able to feel refreshed...

seem that never in my life do i hate the nice weather so much more than ever...the nice weather not only contradicts with my emotional gloominess but also seems to laugh at my current life stagnation...which is something i dare not to face with...

thinking of the classic Japanese drama Long Vacation, played by Kimura Takuya...and wonder how long my vacation would be before my dawn appears on me...a question that i have no answer so far...

and u...knowing my fragility so well...give me no comforting words...not even one word...

go away the god damn melancholy and depression!!!!!!!how long you wanna occupy my mind......

[SNGR] From FB (3)

April 2nd 2010

it's been a while that i haven't updated, guess i'm a little bit out of mind and forget what i plan to do, or more precisely, i'm not determined enough to keep my own words...anyways...here's some updates:

1. automatic or systematic rewards or remind: i'm build up the Maison and Horse Stable in my Farmville, both of which required certain amount of categories of materials such as nails, boards, window panes, etc. I can buy the materials by myself, or I can ask friends to send me some materials. Of course, it always takes some time to receive the gifts and it is not guaranteed that your friends will send you whatever and whenever you want. I notice that the Farmville system seems sometimes send me the materials as well. I assume the system may perceive that recently i don't have much progression in building up the Masion/Horse Stable and guess i am short of materials. Therefore the system automatically send me some materials for me to build.

Implication: this may be applicable to e-learning / gaming curriculum design. designers can design some auto-reward or remind function for learners to keep their learning interests...

[SNGR] From FB (2)

March 21 at 12:33am

1. motivation mechanism: shelf-disciplined short-term and long-term goal (e.g., strawberry will be fully grown in 4 hrs and i have to finish sth within this 4 hrs, so that i can get harvest of the strawberry-working with strawberry)
2. curriculum package based on Farmville logic: level-up notion (e.g., you can purchase some stuff once you have certain amount of cash or coin) and collaborative working idea (e.g., fertilizing your friends' crop or cast away fox...)

[SNGR] From FB (1)

Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 5:08pm

It's the 3rd day of playing Farmville.Everything is so far so good. I hope I can keep working on my initial purpose of playing this game, trying to investigate how, if any, social networking sites and games can promote teaching and learning, esp. in literacy education.

I hope I can keep the experiment diary at least once two days, taking down all my feelings, thoughts, ideas, experiences, and findings when playing with this game. I hope I won't be addicted to this game, so that I can keep my own promises.

Some quick notes so far:

1. learning some vocabularies
2. math questions and even the business model
3. how to avoid being addicted
4. how networking with people can boost learning

Social Networking Game Research - Preview

Decided to move all the fieldnotes from Facebook to this blog, as a blog serves more functions than Facebook in terms of taking down notes.

The title will be abbreviated as [SNGR], meaning social networking game research.

This research starts on March. 17th, 2010. Here are some questions I want to investigate:

1. Can social networking games promote learning / teaching?
2. What benefits social networking games may bring to learning / teaching?
3. How social networking game can promote learning / teaching?

I chose Farmville to be the game I investigate and start playing it by myself. It's a farming game that players grow produce, raise animals, and build their ranch by engaging the game over time. Players can add neighbors and friends, helping each other to fertilize or water the crop, to feed chickens, to cast away crows or pest. Meanwhile, they can send gifts to each other and they earn their farm coins, cash, and levels of mastery in farming. Players can only access to certain materials only when they reach certain levels.

I will also read some relevant books. Books I have right now are:

1. E-Learning and Social-Networking Handbook: resources for higher education
2. E-Learning: the key concepts

Some professors and related researches I think I may be able to seek for help or implications are:

1. Natalia (EDUC816): video games and education research
2. Kevin O'neill: Civilization video game, see wiki

That's pretty much it so far.

Holidays Literally Over

It's the end of Dec. 29, 2009.

Coming back from Whistler, I think my holidays, as the title suggests, are literally over, and the Whistler trip seemed to be the perfect ending for my holidays. Not just holidays for between-semesters, Christmas, and New Years, but the holidays for my graduate studies. Technically I was totally done with my graduate studies, therefore I will not have between-semester holidays anymore. A little sense of loss, with some sense of achievement. I know, a awkward combination...

From tomorrow, I'm going to have training sessions at the Taiwanese restaurant for five days in a raw. I don't know if or not it will wear me out. Hopefully not. I hope I can make it and earn this job.

With the completion of my graduate studies and holidays, a lot of tasks need to be done: post-graduation work permit, booking a plane ticket, UBC research project, Mr. Sub part-time job, and of course, a couple of weekly activities I initially involve. I know these schedules seem to make me busy, yet with the busy schedule people more or less come up with more efficient ways of doing things. Somehow you know you cannot idle around or serve the internet for no reason, because you cannot afford that luxury. It's a process of learning, and I hope I can learn to be more self-disciplined.

So, 5 to 11pm, and I'm going to sleep now. Hopefully I can fall asleep quickly and with the utmost spirit to start my tomorrow.

How to be Good to Yourself?

Planning to go to Whistler with James and other friends recently results in me adding another item, a pair of snow boot, in my shopping list. Considering changing my cell phone to monthly plan and it turned out that I cannot find even one plan that meets my requirements: no contract, no connection fee, no activation fee, and compatible in other phones provided by other telecommunication company.

Babe always told me to be good to myself, and this makes me wonder how I treat myself. Do I treat myself well? How to treat myself well? To some extent, I think this might be a matter of definition.

Sometimes I thought buying yourself whatever you want is a way of treating yourself well. Following this logic, I don't know if I can treat myself well indeed. Very often I am content with my material life, which means that I don't think there's much I want to buy. As there's not much that I want to buy myself, I seem not able to treat myself well. Besides, sometimes what I want is beyond what money can buy. Under this kind of circumstance, how can I treat myself well?

Then some people may say, there might be something wrong with my definition of treating yourself well. So can anyone tell me, what's the definition of treating yourself well? Probably this will work: try to make yourself happy and healthy. Embarrassed to say, sometimes I don't know if I'm happy or not, nor what I did now, posting this article at 1:40am, will bring me health. But no worries, I just do this once in a while. I do know how to be healthy, and for sure I will do as told.

So maybe let's go back to the topic. Am I really mean to myself? I don't think so, at least this is not what I thought to myself for most of the time. What some people though I'm mean to myself is just because I don't have much desire in everything. I can lead a very decent life, having everything merely meet my basic needs. That's all. Do I envy other people leading luxurious life? Maybe sometimes I do, yet I know very often I do despise that kind of life. I want my life more meaningful, and that's one thing fore sure.

So what is being meaningful? I guess that's another matter of definition. And I think now it's time for me to go to bed. Anyways, it's not that hurry to figure this out. and things have its own priority, isn't it?