Top 10 Favorite Movies

Movies:1.Boyhood

2.Whiplash

3.The Seven Psychopaths

4.The Thing (1982)

5.Life is Beautiful

6.The Master

7.Old Boy

8.Drive

9.Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

10.The Iron Giant
Bucket List:1. Write some kind of piece (Op ed maybe?) for a major national newspaper2.Work for some kind of Video Game publication (i.e. polygon, gamasutra, etc)3.Be involved in some way or another in game development.4.Get into E3 as a press member.5.Try to see if i can become a caster for a professional game match on twitch.com6.Learn how to code.7.Try to become an extra in a movie.8.Try to start/be involved in some kind of kickstarter campaign.9.Backpack through Africa.10.Learn how to navigate NYC by myself.

Mrs. Venezio Interview: Life Outside of the Library

Mrs. Venezio is usually seen shuffling about the shelves of the Niskayuna High School library, making sure that it continues to be a place of tranquility. Some students see the her as an annoyance, not wanting to get warnings about getting kicked out of the library due to their noise level. Others actually like to greet her as they enter the library to find a quiet place to study. With such polarizing views on her, there is no doubt that Mrs. Venezio is considered the most infamous figure in the Niskayuna school library. However, many forget that Mrs. Venezio is also a person. A person who's been through much more than the students she has to deal with daily. A person who's had fears, hopes, disappointments, and dreams just like the rest of us.  For a person that is seen everyday by most students, not many of them actually put in the time to get to know her.

For starters, Mrs. Venezio wasn’t always a watchful library assistant. Back in 1977 after graduating from high school, she attended the Europa Beauty school in Schenectady to learn hair styling. Once out of school, she started cutting hair professionally for four years at Remo Unisex in Scotia, NY. When asked why she wanted to pursue a career in cosmetology Venezio replied “I just loved cutting hair”. She specified later on that It brought her joy that she was helping people look their best.

Unfortunately, when she realized that hair styling ultimately wasn’t a stable source of income, she knew had to find a new career. Even when she was faced with this dilemma, Mrs. Venezio knew what she wanted to do: to help others. She was quickly able to find a position as a bookkeeper at Ellis Hospital, keeping records on critical items such as organs, blood, and bone marrow. During her time there she saw many children that needed these items for special treatments, which inspired her to once again change her career path into education.

In 1989 Mrs. Venezio ventured into working in a school environment as a substitute teacher at Hillside elementary school right here in Niskayuna. This is where also she started to get more experience with handling kids as a bus aid, a recess aid, a lunch room aid, and a study hall teacher. As time passed however, she started to work more with special ed students in Rosendale Elementary, staying after school to assist them in their school work.

In 2000, Mrs. Venezio was given a great opportunity when she was asked to work at Niskayuna. While she does work in the school library to this day, her passion to help disadvantaged students continues over the summer as a special ed teacher and an advisor for the work study program.

Though Mrs. Venezio considers the library to be “like her second home” it is not her only domain. She loves to garden, and is part of Niskayuna’s horticulture club, “My favorite aspect to gardening is seeing something grow due to someone’s hard work and care” said Mrs. Venezio describing why she loves spending time outside with her students.

Outside of school Mrs. Venezio continues to foster her green thumb by maintaining her huge home garden. Not only does she love nature, Mrs. Venezio is also all about staying fit. Her husband of thirty five years, Bob, keep up an active lifestyle together, going on nightly bike rides everyday. Yoga is another staple recreation in her schedule, an activity whom she partakes with retired Niskayuna library assistant, Mrs. Edwards.
However, Mrs. Venezio doesn't forget to indulge. Her and her husband go out to eat with their friends regularly through the whole week. Mrs. Venezio stated how Sunday was her favorite day “Everyone on my street knows when there’s a Venezio family dinner going on” she said smiling as she described her huge family gatherings on Sunday nights.

Mrs. Venezio probably has developed a tough skin over the years, but if you look beyond her role in the school library it is easy to see that she is a warm, kind hearted woman. When asked what her favorite aspect of working in Niskayuna was she confidently replied “working with the kids”. Venezio says that having to yell or tell students what to do is her least favorite aspect of her job, describing the experience as if a “knife was piercing through me”. It was obvious by interviewing Mrs. Venezio that she takes the  greatest joy in seeing others succeed. At home she is a loving wife and mother, making sure she spends her time with her family without missing a beat. It’s amazing to see how if you just talk to a person you barely know, even for just a few minutes, the amazing stories and experiences they can tell you.

Should Collegiate Athletes get Paid?

Sports as entertainment has always been a lucrative business. Millions tune in each week to watch professional athletes duke it out in their respective sports, rooting for their favorite team. Advertisements, merchandise, and ticket sales all pool together to create huge profits for both the players and leagues alike. 

However, there is another popular facet of competitive sports that seems to only pay off for the organization and not the players. This is the current nature of collegiate sports, specifically the NCAA. There has always been controversy whether or not division I athletes should get paid in their respective sports, and I honestly think there is no reason why players don’t get compensated, even just little, for the work they put on the field in for their schools.

College sports has always had the reputation of being a “minor league” of sorts for many viewers. These are also the people that argue that college athletes should not get paid, usually pointing out that an athlete’s tuition is being paid in full while they play for their school’s team. Many say players should just be satisfied by the facilities and gear given to them.

While getting a world class education next to their expert training  great for these athletes, it is their performance on the field that matters more towards them. Just the same way someone who is passionate about music would spend most of their energy and time on practicing their instrument, most of these athlete’s worlds live and die on the field. If an athlete is injured or can’t play for the season, most of their academic benefits would cease to exist leaving them with nothing at all. These athletes need something to fall back on if their college sports career needs to take a break.

The college sports industry generates almost eleven billion dollars of revenue each year. Most of these profits then go to coaches, managers, and directors. Players however, don’t see a single penny even when they are the ones risking their well being by playing. Their names and images are even used to market products and games, but not a single athlete see’s some kind of royalty payments.

The NCAA says that if it starts to pay their players that it would destroy the “balanced” playing field they have created for their sport leagues. This makes no sense, as player’s services are already being used for free. Instead of finding other ways to show equality in the sports, the NCAA seems to just choose a method that lets them reap the most benefits for themselves.

Fans need to realize that collegiate sports are just as profitable as professional leagues, and that it is not simply a stage for amateurs to play on. The NCAA keeps making weak excuses to further proliferate the idea that collegiate sports are somewhat of a “practice” league, when they are making billions behind the scenes. They can’t seem to admit the fact that they are a business trying to run at maximum efficiency, which ultimately harm the players in the long run that are actually generating the money for them. I’m not asking the NCAA to give players six figure salaries, but to at least compensate the athletes for their actions on the field.

The Long Dark: An Early Access Review

In the open world survival genre, games need to really differentiate themselves from the likes of Day Z and Rust to even get the attention of most gamers today. The Long Dark, an early access title from brand new independent studio, The Hinterland, still manages to give players a fresh and ruthless take in the over saturated survival market.

While there is a promised story mode that is to come later this year, currently you can only play a sandbox mode which puts you in the shoes of a sole survivor of a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness. The moment you spawn at random locations in the game’s huge map, you are pelted with blistering cold winds, deteriorating gear, and an insatiable appetite for food and water. 

One of the most defining features of The Long Dark is its brutal take on micro-management. While it may seem like worrying about your clothing breaking apart due to harsh weather conditions and items breaking down after a few uses would be a big turn off in most survival games, The Long Dark manages to make these tasks meaningful. Within my first few deaths, the game made me repair my breaking ski jacket countless times, and made sure I had enough back up sewing kits in my backpack so I knew I was going to be okay if my thin wool socks turned into smithereens.

While the game’s atmosphere is extremely bleak, especially since there is no rescue crew to save you, or a town with living inhabitants nearby, there is still a certain beauty to The Long Dark. Watching the deer or wolves trot along the horizon, and the quietness of the wilderness being cut down only by the crunching of your character’s boots on the snow makes the struggle for survival almost seem a little bit more tranquil. The paper-craft like aesthetic within the calm isolating environment the game is set in also makes the harshness of the Canadian winter seem like a daring adventure out of a children’s picture book. 

The survival mechanics in The Long Dark are simple enough: find shelter, make a fire, loot buildings to find supplies, get enough sleep, rinse, and repeat. Along the way you meet wild animals that will get aggressive should you come close, and the only weapons usually at your disposal will be your bare fists or a rusty hatchet if you’re lucky.

But it’s not the wild animals that are the scariest aspect of The Long Dark, it’s how every action you take uses up calories and precious supplies. There are four main meters players need to constantly manage: thirst, fatigue, hunger, and cold. Even just standing in the wilderness will start making your character feel tired and cold, so players need to constantly be on their toes to make sure they've scavenged enough supplies so they don’t freeze to death. Every second counts, and that’s where The Long Dark’s problems also arise.

The day and night cycle is sped up so that your waking hours of sunlight are shortened to around fifteen to twenty minutes of walking around before you have to hit the hay. While such mechanics work fine in other popular survival games such as Minecraft, in The Long Dark you have to constantly be taking care of yourself during the day. By the time nightfall came and I clicked on a bed to fall asleep, I felt as if I had barely achieved anything while the sun was out. The day and night cycle almost feels like something the developers tacked on to make sure it was marked off the “open world survival game development” checklist.

This accelerated sense of time also messes with the player’s intimacy with their gear and supplies. On the third day in one of my playthroughs I had eaten four granola bars, a can of tomato soup, and some cooked venison within a matter of seconds to make sure my hunger wouldn't deteriorate my condition. This really broke the sense of immersion that I had playing the game, making me feel less like a human being that was always on the brink of getting killed by nature, and more like a resource hungry machine that just emptied out whatever location it plundered. The sense of excitement from finding food and supplies that you find in games like Day Z unfortunately doesn't seem to lie inside The Long Dark at the moment.

As I ventured around the wintery landscape, I also noticed how restrained the world seemed. There are areas that were clearly blocked with a dense group of trees so players couldn't proceed, and repetition of some landmarks, such as cabins, along your route to stay alive. This however doesn't detract from the fact that the game is still beautiful to look at, from abandoned railroads to the warm orange sunsets, The Long Dark is definitely an eye pleaser.

Beautiful Sunsets.

I’m sure the developers will continue to make the desolate world of The Long Dark more detailed, but as of right now I’m getting a bit tired of eating ten granola bars to make sure I can sleep through the night without starving to death.

Verdict

For $19.99, I think the price tag is somewhat too steep for the content that is in the game right now. There are enough things to keep players occupied, but with no real goals yet implemented, I find it hard for players to stay motivated in the game. If it’s on sale however, I would definitely check it out.

Future Outlook

Strong. The game has been getting consistent monthly updates, and the developers are communicating with its fans in the steam forums. The Hinterland is also a developer full of industry veterans who've worked on games such as Company of Heroes, Mass Effect, God of War, and other polished AAA products. The Long Dark is an early access game that is getting all the attention it needs.

Powerful Images: ISIS

In today’s bustling, breakneck paced, information sharing world, media is now more than ever a part of our daily lives. The multitude of platforms to consume media is exponentially growing every year, and even companies are having hard time catching up with the latest trends. Most recently, the terrorist cell ISIS thinks that it is a good way to disseminate their beliefs to the rest of the unknowing world through controversial images and videos.

The media that ISIS put up online has proven over and over again to stir up controversy in the news media. The Huffington Post mentions that news networks such as Fox, consistently puts ISIS media out as top stories. The funny thing is that even when they reject to actually show these images, cable news networks usually provide 24/7 coverage when ISIS media is released, giving it immense air time.

Social media platforms such as Youtube, Facebook, and Youtube also have gone out of their way to quickly delete ISIS content as fast as they come out, but even their efforts are too slow compared to the sharing speed of the internet.

But, this blatant censorship of ISIS content is exactly what ISIS wants. It wants to pique the interest of the general public, to make us curious to check out their video. To see how “controversial” and “disturbing” their content actually is. It also doesn’t help that after these companies hide the actual videos, they continue to talk about it, almost as if they are teasing us about how horrible it was. The New York times gives an example of how the New York Post said they would not provide a link to the ISIS media, but “chose to publish a cover featuring a still from the video just moments before the killing.” So, even if it seems as if social media is trying to stop the spread of the message from ISIS, hiding it only increases the want to watch.  

The whole point of having the freedom of press, is that no image, statement, or video is “too graphic” for the general public to see. As a population that lives in such a country that promotes free speech, we should be able to have access to these images. There should always been a viewer discretion warning before hand, but the content should be accessible for anyone at anytime.

I also agree with Matthew Ingram who said “For whatever it’s worth, I think we owe it to Foley — and others who risk their lives to report the news — to watch the video, out of respect for their commitment.” As a professional, Foley knew what he was getting into and to completely cover up the work he has done seems a bit disrespectful.

The way social media and the news manipulates “disturbing” content, is actually doing more harm that just letting the public have access to view them. These images ultimately will help people understand the true horror of ISIS and their work, instead of just reporting/hearing secondhand accounts. By allowing media outlets censor the propaganda of ISIS, we are inherently allow them to permeate through our lives more than we think.