Sebastian's English Journal

The entertainment of video games may make your children addicted, but is that really worse than them causing trouble elsewhere? Video games have pros that overshadow the cons by a mile. The main reason to play a video game is to have fun. They will keep the occupant busy having fun so they don’t complain about being bored with nothing to do, it may also stop your children from getting involved in bad situations and causing mischief as they are occupied with this alternative hobby. Depending on the game, they can also be educational. Your kids may learn new things through the game, whether it would be educational or in the form of new skills. A personal example I have of this I have experienced is an educational gain. Through the game Pokemon, I learned the meaning of the word fissure, which I used in school, rewarding me in a compliment from my teacher. If they worked hard enough, and were willing to invest some money in, your children could be earning a living from playing games by recording videos and uploading them to YouTube for example. This could perhaps tempt even you parents to give video gaming a go! Making money from playing video games, Lord Sugar would be impressed.

Even with those benefits, you may still try to argue for the abolition of video games, but that would just be your jealousy speaking; jealousy of the new generation who can spend their childhoods enjoying these games. Most people would say that too much fun and too much time spent on video games could lead to addiction, which is correct to be fair, however this also depends on the parenting or discipline the child has or is receiving. If the parenting is strict or the child is very limited then they will be less prone to addiction, unlike someone who is not disciplined or has parents who are not very strict, who will tend to succumb to addiction more.

People may also say that attempting to turn uploading to YouTube into a job is not a very good route to go down for a job because of the high and still increasing amount of competition in that sector, which would lower the chance of being noticed and building a fan-base/being successful there. This depends on how serious the person takes it and how much work is put into it. If the videos were of great quality and are entertaining, people will want to watch your videos and the person will start to get more views and subscribers.

A game’s influence on your child depends on a few factors; The type of game, their awareness between real life and fiction and again, their parenting/discipline. If the game is a violent, crime based game like grand theft auto for example, your child could potentially be badly influenced by it if they haven’t been taught to distinguish between fiction and real life, which you parents should be responsible for doing. If you have a game that’s the complete opposite of that, something like Nintendogs for example. the only influence I see the game taking on someone is to make them want a dog, which I guess could be a nightmare for you parents!

Whether or not a violent influence is gained from a violent game depends on the player’s awareness between fiction and reality. If this awareness is at a low level, they might think that killing someone and hiding until some imaginary stars disappear would make the police forget about them is a real possibility when in fact it is not. If this awareness is high, they would understand that robbing a bank, killing a lot of law enforcers and then hiding in a tunnel until they are forgotten is not likely to be successful.

Their parenting will determine whether any negative impacts actually happen. For example, if there was a 10 year old and his/her parents gave them access to an 18 age-rated game like grand theft auto, they could be prone to falling under the game’s bad influence. This is because they are very young and may not be mature enough to understand or distinguish between real life and a video game. There would be no bad influence if his/her parents bought them games that were appropriate for their age. Therefore parents are clearly a big factor that affects whether the negative effects of video games actually affect a person.

In my concluded opinion, video games are an overall benefit to children if they and you are able to deal with the negative impacts effectively, which aren’t very hard to deal with. You parents could also give your children an occasional kick up the backside to discipline and teach them. Video games are obviously fun and make use of your children’s time to prevent boredom and trouble-making. Video games can also lead to a career path.

It is a humid night, which is unusual considering this time of year. All the ordinary people are retired to their homes, regaining their energy for the next long day ahead of them. Only the brave, the careless and the evil beings prowled in the darkness, searching for entertainment or their next victim.

Fear flowed through London at late times. The evil presences were not to be messed with as they were lethal. At night it was their city, ran by them, the equivalent of a dictatorship. If you disagreed with their views or attempted to rebel, you would be executed at the click of a finger. These occasions would be rare, as not many people dared to challenge the unknown. The cloaking mist transformed the streets into a maze, a shroud concealing the contents of London. The only noises that could be heard were shouts and screams that originated from nothingness.

If you were looking for a healthy way to exercise, a midnight jog would suit you just right, assuming you survived. The pollution flung around in the daytime has less presence at the late hours, as the majority of Londoners are cramped in their safe-havens browsing the internet, the doom our society has fallen into. Inhale the midnight air and feel relief as your lungs take in an untainted sample of oxygen. It could be the last bit of atmosphere you ever experience, so enjoy it. Your daring run sets you into a paranoid state as you are aware of the deadly environment you’re pacing through. You’re staring down every street and peering around every corner on your toes as an understandable precaution, turning your head towards any slight sound. Before you know it, you’re sprinting at full speed after performing a u-turn, heading home. You hop into bed in anticipation for the morning, where you can go about your business in a safer environment, with the evil being vacant.

The morning is a cold one, different from the earlier warm temperature. Your mood has improved due to surviving the daring feat of venturing out into the darkness. Now that it was an early time of day, your guard could be lowered and you could enjoy a less stressful existence for the day. You’re not the only one taking advantage of the safety of daytime. People have flooded the streets and the shops are struggling to cope. The traffic is shooting out pollution into the air, resembling the worst fireworks ever in celebration of the day. Shouts of pain have been exchanged with shouts of irritation, excitement and joy all stirred into one pot. The overpopulated streets of London could be mistaken for a third world country. Even if you decided to jog in the day instead of the night, it probably would not have been possibly anyway, considering the people on the streets are packed like sardines. This is when fear levels are at rock bottom. The population is the most relaxed at this time, but the relaxation gradually decreases as the darkness of the late night approaches. The fear does the opposite to the relaxation, this cycle repeats and repeats and repeats and will do so for all eternity.

Chapter 1: Scout mentions Jem, her brother, breaking his arm and begins to talk about the events leading up to the accident. She talks about her current family, as well as her ancestors. She talks about the place she lives in, Maycomb. She also introduces Charles Baker Harris, who calls himself Dill. Scout also talks about Arther Radley, known to them as Boo Radley.

Chapter 2: Dill leaves for his hometown Meridian, as he only comes to Maycomb for the summer. Scout is preparing to go to school. When in school, Scout starts to get into trouble with her teacher, miss Caroline, who seems to be a new teacher there and does not understand some things about the students. She gets into trouble for a few reasons including defending Walter Cunningham.

Chapter 3: After the lesson, Scout is annoyed at Walter for getting her into trouble. Jem stops the conflict and invites Walter to have lunch with them at home. Atticus, who is Scout and Jem’s father, talks with Walter about farm conditions. When Walter puts molasses all over his food, Scout finds it bad and impolite, criticizing him. Calpurnia, the family’s maid and mother-figure to Jem and Scout, calls scout to the kitchen and tells her off for doing so, explaining that Walter is not as fortunate as them and is not used to eating like that. Scout also asks Atticus if she could no longer go to school. Her father tells her that the law says she must go to school.

Chapter 4: Scout is not enjoying school because she feels that she knows most of the stuff that is being taught to her. Scout finds two pieces of chewing gum hidden in a tree and decides to start chewing them. She tells Jem about this and he makes her spit it out. On the last day of school they both passed the same tree and found two pennies in the same spot, they decided to keep them. Dill returns to Maycomb and the trio start playing again. They then get the idea to start playing a game called “Boo Radley”. Eventually the game gets them acting out scenes of events in the radley family. Atticus confronts them about it, then Jem lies saying that their acting isn’t about the Radley family.

Chapter 5: something happened

Chapter 6: 

The ice bucket challenge is supposed to be an activity which raises awareness about ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), however an article titled “Ice bucket challenge: a celebrity wet T-shirt contest that has nothing to do with charity”, written by Peter Robinson, tells us that the challenge isn’t being as effective as it could be. The challenge is to pour freezing water over your head and post a video of it on a social media site. The person would then nominate people of their choice to take part in the challenge. The article was published by The Guardian on the 21st of August 2014.

Peter Robinson thinks that the challenge isn’t helping to increase donations for ALS as much as it could be, clearly shown from the title of the article and this quotation about Charlie Sheen, “His seemed an impressive donation, but it’s the least he could have done – almost literally.”. I partially agree with Peter. Many people are taking part in the challenge. This will raise awareness, but what good is awareness if no action is taken? It’s like if you watch someone bullying another person, but don’t do anything to intervene, a bystander of sorts. The challenges are effective in letting people know what ALS is, but do they actually increase the number of donations being handed over? The answer is actually yes, as from 29 July to 28 August this year, ALS received $98.2m, an absolutely huge increase from $2.7m donated during the same period last year (according to the BBC). But as stated in Mr Robinson’s article, the donations aren’t as large as they could be, yet again Charlie Sheen being a great example: “Sheen made $30m a year when he was in Two and a Half Men, took a $100m payoff when it all went wonky and stands to receive a windfall of $200m later this year when Anger Management tapes its 100th episode”. He donated $10,000, that is less than 0.01% of not even all of his money, showing how much people are actually doing. Awareness is pointless if no action follows.

For most people, their motive of taking part in the challenge might not be to raise awareness of ALS, but to just fit in with everyone else or to make themselves look concerned and caring about the campaign. Another quotation highlighting this is about another quotation: “Olly Murs chirpily tweeted his fans on Wednesday morning, asking to be nominated. “Haha someone nominate me,” he mused. “I’d be well up for the #IceBucketChallenge”. If Olly Murs really cared about ALS, he would make a video to raise awareness and donate money without needing to be “nominated”, but it’s almost as if he is treating it as a game. Yet again, this is an example of a lack of action. Instead of wasting loads and loads of water by pouring it over your head, you could simply donate a sum of money to the charity and spreading news of your genuine generosity. Your generosity could tempt others to follow in your angelic footsteps, which would lead to an increase in donations, as well as the awareness and also less water being wasted!

Celebrity contribution could actually increase the amount of concern about the campaign. Since such significant figures in the world (Charlie Sheen, Bill Gates etc.) are taking part in the challenge and donating money, other people could be convinced that this is a serious issue considering such high members of society taking an interest in the affair. This might not be the celebrity’s true motive though. They might just want to look like a saint to all their fans, using this challenge to their advantage to gain a little popularity. When a celebrity takes part in the challenge, it would be viewed by a lot more people, having a greater impact on the awareness of the campaign, but many people may watch purely for the entertainment value of the video, and not necessarily a celebrity’s video. No one will donate because no one will actually be interested or bothered to look into ALS, and is more interested in watching someone shriek at the water being dropped on their head.

Slang is a very open topic, viewed in different ways. Some people think slang is a good thing, while others, like Isabelle Kerr, believe that it is a horrific addition to the English language. Isabelle is very anti-slang, and she shows this in her article, where she dwells upon the ridiculousness of slang being added to the Oxford dictionary. Her biased article sends strong points against slang, saying how it’s “making the future of the English language look bleak”, and also that slang is mostly related to image, reputation and sex.

First of all, slang is used in many different ways, and is also related to much more than image, reputation and sex. The reason it might appear to revolve around these topics is because they are popular topics among the new generation, so slang would circulate around these topics. Whether the topics are a bad influence or not, slang is merely a medium for these topics to be spoken through. If there’s anything wrong at all, it’s not with slang, but with the topics themselves. Regardless, slang is associated with lots of topics other than those three.

Slang is not ruining the English language, but expanding it. Slang is thought to make someone seem illiterate or stupid, but this isn’t true. It shows inventiveness. A prime example of this is William Shakespeare. He created over 1700 new words, including critical, countless and many other words that might seem formal to us now. At the time he created these words, they would have been considered slang, but they are now considered as normal everyday used words, just like our modern day slang.

That is why I think slang should be given a chance. Of course, the idea of making up words sounds ridiculous, but it was been done throughout the history of the English language and it has proved to be successful, so why can’t the same outcome happen for our modern day slang? The English language is progressing for the good.

The opening was dark and large. Kevan looked at his map to confirm his findings, and they seemed correct. It wasn’t a natural crevasse that Kevan had located, it was an American intelligence base, spying on the Taliban’s operations. It was Kevan Thakrar’s job to retrieve any information about the Taliban and destroy it.

He stepped in. Around the entrance was some sort of ancient structure, suggesting that this place had been in use for quite some time. It was unusually dark in the cave and it seemed as if there was no sign of life whatsoever, but that what it’s supposed to feel like, it’s a hidden American base, after all. Kevan was entering through an unmonitored entry point, so he wouldn’t meet any resistance on the way to the base walls.

Multiple tunnels were branching off in all directions. Kevan dug into his pockets and unfolded the piece of paper holding all his instructions. He scanned through until he found the directions he required: ‘Far right’.

Kevan stepped down the correct tunnel and advanced at a quicker pace. The darkness surrounded his vision entirely now, it was pitch black. He was just walking blind now, only able to rely on touch and sound to make out his surroundings. Kevan’s footsteps remained quiet with no echos, suggesting that the tunnel was maintaining its compressed form. He also noticed that the tunnel was starting to descend; either the Americans wanted to stay absolutely hidden, or the complex was bigger than it was made out to be.

Kevan carried on following the route for several more minutes until a faint light could be made out. He started to slow down and be more wary, he was beside enemy territory now. He was in front of the door now, he examined it. It seemed very old and rusty, like one of those old war bunker doors, with a small panel for a window which was where the light was coming from.

Kevan didn’t know how many people were in the base, so his best option was to scout the base undercover. He had an image of the uniform worn in the sector of the base beside him. It was something similar to a hazmat suit. There was something poisonous about the air near Kevan’s position and according to his information, a long exposure could prove lethal, but he would soon enough be protected.

Kevan stared through the panel. The room he saw was small. It contained three desks, each holding complex computers, which stood out from the rock walls, floors and ceiling. In the left corner, Kevan spotted a miniature server, which meant that this operation was big. This meant that he couldn’t easily remove the data, so plan B would have to be put into effect. One of the computers was occupied by a person. It looked like he was the only person present in the room, which would make Kevan’s job of accessing the facility much easier. Kevan took his attention away from the room and examined the cave-like area he was present in. He looked around the floor and corners, sniffing around until he found what he hoped to find; dried up urine. It was in a corner with a heavy smell, suggesting that it was routinely used as a toilet. This gave Kevan the option of waiting for his target to make himself vulnerable,which would require patience. Kevan also spotted a large boulder across from the urine, a convenient cover for him to wait behind. Kevan leaped behind the boulder, sat back to back against it and closed his eyes, waiting for the sound of the door.

Kevan opened his eyes. He could hear footsteps gradually becoming louder and closer. The door creeked open and then closed after a few seconds. He slowly raised his eyes over the boulder to see the man in the same exact corner fiddling with his trousers. Kevan’s best option would be to choke the man to death, considering the uniform which needed to be preserved. Kevan started edging silently towards the man, who was now urinating. He equiped his fibre wire and coiled it once around each wrist so his arms could be used for a harder choke. The man finished his business and started fiddling with his trousers again. With great speed, Kevan swung the wire around the man’s neck and pulled hard. The man started squealing and panicking, swinging his arms around as the consciousness started to drain, but in his panic he swung his head backwards, colliding into Kevan’s jaw. The pain caused his grip on the wire to loosen and before he could regain it, the man sent a powerful back-heel into Kevan’s shin, making the wire loose enough to slip out of the chokehold. Kevan reached for the back of his trousers and unsheathed a combat knife. The man was stumbling towards the door, Kevan glided across the floor and plunged the knife into the man’s neck, piercing his carotid artery. The man dropped to the ground, while the blood from his neck seeped out to fill the suit, which was now ruined in terms of both camouflage and safety. Kevan would now have to infiltrate the facility with no disguise.