Game week

Last week, I spent the whole weekend on downloading the game The Legend of Sword and Fairy and learning how to operate it. As a beginner, I know nothing about role playing game. Before I started, I was thinking that how could a game adapted to series.

The Legend of Sword and Fairy is based on the martial arts story. As a theme, martial arts and Kung Fu are very popular in China. There are tons of novels, movies, series, paintings and songs about martial arts every year and some of those are popular in the world. Because of the popularity of martial arts, most Chinese teenagers have dreams about Kung Fu. This game satisfies the players' imagination of martial arts world and connects closely with real life, because players can collect antique and open stores in the game. Compared with the previous, the new version is more realistic. The views in the game were created by traditional Chinese watercolor painting making the visual effects much closer to the imagination of fairyland.

The background of the story is in a fictional world where normal people still live in the normal way but there are monsters and human with magic power. The main characters in the game are this kind of people. They got their power by several methods. Players need to improve their abilities and learn new skills by fighting and exploring. The fictional world can expand itself through the progression of discovery. There are hundreds of mazes. Every time the players pass a maze, this one becomes a part of the world. The most special part of this game is players can choose the ending, such as a happy ending or a tragedy.

Although I just on the third step of the game, I found many useful strategies in fighting and cooperate. Every time I was noticed that the character upgraded, the sense of achievement is strong. It's not good to spend too much time on game, but it will be great to try some simple games.

Week 7

The cultures in Asia are diverse. Some of the cultures have lasted for thousands of years, such as the cultures of India and China. I have stayed in U.S for a month and I found that many people are very interested in the cultures of Asia. Many friends asked me about the chinese characters and buildings. My roommate said chinese characters look like painting and she can't understand why sometimes I can write chinese in vertical line instead of the normal form. To me, I think Asia is a land full of mystery. On the other hand, Asia is not as developed as Europe and America in technology field, although many Asia countries develop very fast in recent years. Because most Asian countries are still developing countries, engineers have both high social status and political status in many Asian countries. If someone wants to work in Asia, I think that will be a great experience.

Oiligarchy - Gameplay Report

Oiligarchy is a modification of the word ‘monarchy’. It implies that the player is a totalitarian ruler of all the oil in the world.

The game is set in the post WWII era. The primary objective being that as the CEO of an oil company the player has to explore the ground, drill into oil deposits and make money. The player starts out with $4000 and has to manage his budget while expanding his empire to meet global demands for oil. The player can drill in locations around the world, each with its pros and cons and can also bribe the government (oil the government) to get certain laws passed. If the player is generous enough, he bribes the president and gains access to a secret room under the White House from where he can create global chaos and basically call the shots.

There exists on the lower right corner an oil demand bar. When the consumption is below the demand, the in-game oil prices rise. Price rise results in increase of dissent (people who will defect their vote in the next election) and environmentalism (turn more undecided representatives green).

The game has 5 major options and some area-selective options available to the player in any of the locations displayed on the map except Washington D. C.:

ACTION	COST($)	DESCRIPTION
Select pointer	Nil
Explore	100	Shows presence of oil in selected area
Explore Sea (places with sea)	300	“
Deploy small well	500	Yield = 25bbl/yr
Deploy normal well	2000	Yield = 100 bbl/yr
Deploy Platform (places with sea)	4000	Oil well at sea Yield: 100 bbl/yr
Deploy Mercenaries (Only Iraq)	100/Mercenary	To protect oil well from attacks
Demolish	300	Demolish selected structure

Below are the descriptions of the various places on the in-game map at the beginning of the game (1946):

PLACE	DESCRIPTION
Washington DC	Home of the government, environmentalists and dissenters.
Texas	Available for drilling.
Venezuela	Available for drilling. Small tribe will be displaced. Later government missions will make it peaceful drilling
Nigeria	Available for drilling. Corrupt Nigerian govt. helps for small sums of money.
Alaska	Unavailable for digging due to wildlife reserves but a well oiled government will allow it
Iraq	Unavailable for drilling. Elaborate set of government missions before drilling can begin.

For the purpose of this report, I will detail one experience I have playing the game. I will explain new phenomena that haven’t been addressed so far when they occur during the game.

ATTEMPT 1:

YEAR	EVENT
1946	Begin exploration and drilling. Oil starts at $10/bl.
1952	Another well put in place (big).Big wells make lesser noise than small wells in-game.
1959	Production<Demand. Prices rise. Shareholders upset. (On this attempt I didn’t get very far, but after a certain year, the shareholders don’t mind the disparity in production and demand that leads to a price hike. It shows how profit becomes more important than public welfare in the oil industry around the early 21st Century.)
1961	Oiled the government. More oil friendly acts get passed (such acts increase oil addiction leading to increased demand and hence increased prices in the long run.) [List of Oil-friendly and Oil-unfriendly acts given later on] Underground Chamber missions available. Mission 1: Enemy of the Enemy: Finance Shi’a opposition for regime change in Iraq
1962	Mission 2: Messing Iraq Economy: Use ally Kuwait to damage Iraq economy. Provoke conflict, provide justification for intervention.
1969	News: Iraq Invades Kuwait (The game periodically gives news updates based on the events taking place in the game.)
1970	Mission 3: Operation Desert Storm: Defend Kuwait, Attack  Iraq.
1971	Didn’t oil government. Oil-unfriendly acts begin passing.
1972	Warning 6/8 board members are unhappy. (The board reserves the right to fire the CEO if they are unhappy with his performance. If they fire you, game over.)
1977	Texas oil production peaked
1979	Search in Venezuela. Displaced animals and locals. Set up oil wells, deforestation.
1981	Oiled govt. (Multiple mission choices based on which area you want to focus on) Mission 4: AIDing Democracy:  Form right wing opposition parties in Venezuela to obstruct social reforms.
1894	Mission 5: A New Way Forward: Send troops to Iraq. (Can send more every year by repeating mission)
1985	First Water Search.
1986	News: Global Warming
1991	Didn’t oil govt. on purpose (Oil addiction falls. Helps keep prices constant and reduces need for investment)
2001	Oiled govt. Set up sea drilling station. New missions available include: ‘Create a Monster’ and ‘Anthrax Everywhere’ both of which are intended to scare the population of the USA to reduce dissent and internal unrest.
2003	News: 9/11
2010	Searching in Nigeria
2011	Not oiled. (To sustain prices)
2021	Tribes occupying oil wells. Pay Nigerian govt. to raid tribe
2026	Tribes demonstrating. Pay Nigerian govt. to conduct public execution
GAME OVER	SUSTAINABLE WORLD ACHIEVED. ALL OIL-UNFRIENDLY ACTS GOT PASSED BECAUSE I DIDN’T OIL THE GOVT. ENOUGH EARNINGS: $117,306 OIL PRICE: $27

Below is the aforementioned list of some acts:

OIL-FRIENDLY	OIL-UNFRIENDLY
Greasing the Breaks	Big Cars Special Tax
Heil Highway	Clean Cars Act
Drill Baby Drill	Livable Cities Act
SUV Craze	Mass Transit Act

I noticed a mild amount of audio rhetoric in the game:

·         The title track is catchy and has very interesting lyrics.

·         The rhythm that the oil wells produce is fun to listen to.

·         Dissenters and environmentalists make annoying noises.

There are several alternate endings to the game and I will have to play it quite a few more times before I can completely understand the important rhetorics of the game.

video game

I can say this week is the worst week until now in this year. I had three exams and tons of homework to do. On Thursday, my team decided to do the team work after I finished the exam. When I tried to get to Shreve more quickly, I lost my way in the school and I didn't have a map and cell phone. Fortunately, I found out the right way. In last week, I stayed awake until 2a.m everyday and felt exhausted. Sometimes I almost fall asleep on class. I need to learn how to deal with time management in college and try to organize my schedule.

I am keeping thinking about the English Paper this week. Because I am not familiar with video game, I tried to analyse the traditional game at first. But I found it's hard to write 1200 words on it. My friends gave me a good suggestion. The single game The Legend of Sword and Fairy is a game of role playing and exploration. This game is very popular and has five versions. I'm familiar with this game because the background story of the game was adapted to TV series and I'm a big fan of it. It will be much easier for me to play the game and analysis the process.

But, real life is never as same as my imagination. It took me a whole night to download the game, but there are some problems and I can't play it. As a result, I tried to find a simple version. I'm so excited when I started the game,but after 10minutes I found that I have no idea about how to play the game. Although I know the story and I know what should I do or what staffs I need to find for the next step, I can't do it! Playing game is totally different with watching the series.

I will find some friends to help me tonight. Good luck!

Differing Cultures

The article highlights how differing cultures do not have the same views involving British, German and American engineers. The engineers are confronted with differing methods on how to solve problems because each culture believes their way is right. To me, this extends from ethnocentric perspective. All cultures have a certain mind frame that has been created from a country’s history. There is no room for growth unless dominant images are changed. Changing a dominant image brings about a hybrid mind set. Referring to page 11 in The Challenges of International Management Teams – How Different Cultures Affect Business Decisions, the project was never completed causing a loss of over 20 million dollars. This could all have been prevented with global competency. With it, we gain the knowledge and ability to work effectively with people who define and solve problems differently. Learning about global competency and understanding how other cultures view problems is beneficial to a company and team.

Week 6

The article talks about the different way of thinking from distinct culture and explains how to solve this problem when people are working in the same team. We were talking about the cooperation between different cultures for several weeks. The article gave us a good suggestion.

I think the key aspects of International Business Contact is Trust. To be reliable and believable is the first rule to success. No matter how different the cultures are, we can cooperate with the people who we believe. Also, we are supposed to respect others, especially the partners. I think communication is a good way. In the example, both Mark and Max are not comfortable because they don't know the habits of each other. I think the six key aspects, "trust,commitment,success,working together,attitudes to time and decision Making" can serve as a suitable manner to work with people from all countries.

Last week, the introduction of Australia is attractive. I'm looking forward to know more background of different countries.

Examining Rhetoric: An Advertisment

(For the purpose of this blog post I chose to rhetorically analyze one of my favorite advertisements. It is a Volkswagen commercial entitled 'The Force'. The link is included at the end of the post.)

The promotional ad starts off with the Darth Vader theme. It features a child determined to use 'the force' to move an object, any object. The child's desperation becomes clear as the ad progresses. At one point the mother slides a plate with a sandwich on it in hopes to satisfy the kid. Ultimately the dog's bark startles the young padawan on one of his many fruitless attempts and the kid heads out to find the father getting out of the Volkswagen Passat. A hug offered by the father is denied by the frustrated infant who seems to be keen to believe in the force. The child assumes a position in front of the car and tries to focus every energy on moving it. The Passat spurs to life for a second and dies back down much to the kid's surprise. The screen cuts to the elaborate, multi-functional, key of the Volkswagen Passat 2012 and then to the father holding the key who gives a look of relief to the child's mother.

The most discrete and at the same time most prominent message that the advertisement conveys is that the car being sold is a family car. It focuses on every member of the family. The father, the mother, the pet and most importantly; the child. Perhaps the most important thing I noticed about the child is that the kid is gender-ambiguous. One would generally expect a boy to be a fan of Star Wars and dress up as one of the male leads in Star Wars: The Darth Vader. But in one section of the ad, the child is trying to move a baby doll in a room which is decorated in the most girl-like manner, inconspicuously giving the viewer one of two messages: the child is a girl or has a sister.

The ad makes appropriate use of a child's innocence and adorable actions while at the same time trying to appeal to fans of the Star Wars franchise. These tactics are not subtle but they are also not the primary appeal. These form the fabric within which the advertisers have integrated the much finer message that the Passat is a car for the entire family.

In most ads, the end screen involves a flashy picture of the car with huge text displaying small prices and a presenter talking with severe enthusiasm in the background. In case of this advertisement end text is simplistic, which I believe is meant to reflect the nature of the design and interior of the car neither of which were explicitly addressed in the duration of the promotion. Volkswagen prides itself on class, comfort and safety and the ad rightly assumes the consumers know of this fact.

I would say that this is a brilliant advertisement on the whole as it does a fantastic job of conveying a fine message to the viewer's subconscious by means of almost invisible visual and audio rhetoric. The ad leaves a lasting impression on its viewers which is the greatest accomplishment any television ad can achieve.

Link to the ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0

inFamous as an example of rhetoric

I had somewhat of a challenge picking a game for the upcoming project. The challenging part wasn't really finding a game that contained examples of rhetoric – it was finding examples of rhetoric that made (or lent itself to) a strong, concrete argument. I could argue that any video game in the world from Tetris to Call of Duty: Black Ops exhibits rhetoric, it's just that most games I have played do not have very strong messages conveyed by said rhetoric. I further complicated matters for myself by limiting my search to commercial video games which, unlike “serious” games, tend not to have an obvious rhetorical argument.

I eventually happened to remember some commercial games I have played that had interesting examples of procedural rhetoric – specifically, games that forced me, the player, to make in-game decisions that changed the outcome of the game or modified gameplay or gameplay mechanics. One of those games is called inFamous. In inFamous, I play a person named Cole who gains electric/lightning powers after being caught in a nuclear explosion of some sort. In the open world of his city, Cole can use his powers to do good or bad things, like choosing to save a group of people from certain death, or letting them die and stealing their resources.

I found the way inFamous used these in-game decisions very interesting because not only does it force you to make decisions (which is an element most commercial games lack) these decisions actually change the gameplay. Doing good or bad actions changes your “karma” in the game. If your karma becomes good enough, you get certain powers and unlockables, and if your karma becomes bad enough, you get different powers and unlockables. Also, at the climax of the game, you have to make a final decision that changes the entire outcome of the game.

For this project, my goal is to play through the entire game (with assistance from some of my gamer friends if necessary) twice – once by doing all good decisions, and one by doing all bad, and examining the differences between good Cole and bad Cole.

Retail in Austrailia

This article reminded me of what was frequently on the news last year. Australia’s retailers are slowing down. Living in the 21^st century has allowed consumers to become more viral. With this, people can buy what they want and check prices online. This causes a chain reaction. Australia has been slow to adapting to the online retail world. Because of this, large corporations are running small family-owned shops out of business. High rent prices and competition from online stores puts companies of all types are beginning to collapse. Retail experts are calling the worst the situation the worst retail conditions in two decades. Australia’s retailers will be thinking of new ways to bring customers in to their shops. New shopping trends will emerge. This relates to what we learned in class because dominant images are beginning to change. Pop culture from Australia’s younger generations will be defining a new culture.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/economics/more-retailers-expected-to-hit-the-wall-as-the-downturn-bites/story-e6frg926-1226140387404

Website to Increase Australian Department Store's Profits

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/myers-9m-bet-on-website-build-it-and-customers-will-come/story-fn91v9q3-1226138251804

The article is a report on the new website of an Australian fashion store called Myer. Myer spent over 9 million dollars on developing the new website. The philosophy behind this investment, according to the company, is that the website will boost their online presence, and that, combined with their existing network of 67 stores in Australia, will greatly increase their customer base, sales and profits.

Reading this article reminded me of how the internet is increasingly affecting our lives and strengthening the global community. Everything from music to education, books and shopping - practically anything you want - is available online. In the case of Myer, more and more of their customers are getting "connected" to the web, and it makes more sense in the world's online environemnt for Myer to increase their online presence.

game

I'm not a fan of video game, so it's hard for me to think of a video game which I played before and left a wonderful memory to me. I'd like to introduce a popular game in China called Killer. Killer Game has been very popular in China for recent years. It's not a video game. Killer is a kind of physical game. We need to play it physically. I don't know the origin of this game. Killer became famous overnight. Almost everyone in every city knows Killer and this game has tons of big fan.

The game is simple. We don't need to prepare many things. What we need are paper and pen. Absolutely，don't forget participators! In the game, we need a judge and killers（the number is decided by how many people in the game）. Other people will be citizens. We will write down the roles on paper and everyone choose one without showing it to others. Then the judge will say:'The night is coming, please close your eyes." After everyone close eyes, judge will say:"killers, please open your eyes and kill one people." Every killer should "kill" one citizens and inform the judge. Then close their eyes quietly. As a result, in the game, the judge is the only one who know the roles of others. "Please open your eyes. A,B and C were killed by the killers." the judge will say. At this time, everyone has the chance to defend and to guess who are the killers. After 2 to 5 minutes, the one everyone believes that he is the killer will be "killed" and stop the game and the night comes again. The game will finish when all the killers are killed or all the citizens are die.

This game is not seem that attractive at the first time. It seems like gambling. But when everyone becomes familiar with the game, we find that the game teaches us how to defend in logically. A good killer can let everyone believes that he is innocent. He should know kill whom will be the best choice. Sometimes killers must sacrifice themselves to protect their partners and mislead the others to believe someone is the killer.

Week 5 ENGR103

The article I read is "Oil fails to float above $90 barrier". The article talks about that "Oil futures prices tumbled 1.6 per cent yesterday, unable to sustain a breach above $US90 after flirting with the level this week". I know few things about economy, but I got the information from TV and newspaper that the price of oil is very significant to the world market. Every time the oil price is not steady, it means something is happening in the world. For example, the turmoil in Libya.

I can see from this article that the world is connected tightly. The change of oil price let "the dollar rise 0.4 per cent to 76.596 on the ICE Dollar Index" and let "ventral bankers vowed to backstop European banks wrestling with sovereign debt problems". Also about US prospects," a spate of weak US economic data is rising doubts". Every part in the world is influenced by the same circumstance.

I believe that in the future the world will be much more connected. The comment interest will play a important role in world economy.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/markets/oil-fails-to-stay-above-90-barrier/story-e6frg91x-1226139636790.

The Very Concise Guide To Tackling A Zombie Apocalypse

As man's desperation to live forever grows it is only a matter of time before a minor mishap in some laboratory jump starts the brain of a corpse who will give rise to the era of the undead.

To prepare for the inevitable phenomenon, you must first understand zombies. Zombies are a derivation of humans. They're formed in two ways; they either rise from the grave or they're converted when a zombie bites the brain of a normal member of the Homosapien species. The only way to stop them is to kill them and the the only way to kill them is to have something penetrate their brains. They don't shower and are usually poorly dressed. It is still a mystery whether there exists a food item other than healthy brains that will satisfy their hunger.

You will need great skill to survive in a world dominated by a never ending motorcade of zombies. The first, most vital step is to barricade your house. Not with wooden slabs and nails. Barricade your residence with a state-of-the-art security system. Unbreakable glass, foot thick walls, CCTVs, the entire deal. Make sure your house has only one narrow corridor leading in and out.
Next, you purchase a shotgun or two (preferably two).  The advantage with shotguns is that the bullets scatter so you don't have to be particularly good at firing a gun to shoot a zombie in the face each time. You may also want to acquire a crowbar in case the zombies reach you.
You won't be able to get out much once the apocalypse is underway so you want to make sure that you have stocked up on ammunition, food and water. Your house should essentially have rooms full of these things, there is no other way.

The rest is a matter of common sense and if you are not able to survive after you have followed these instructions to the letter, then you probably don't deserve to anyway, so please don't be too hard on yourself.

Week 4: Chunnel

The “Chunnel” has to be one of the most amazing engineering projects ever encountered. For two countries to build an underground tunnel together, a lot of work had to be put in.

Great Britain and France must have developed unique engineering cultures because of their histories. Different cultures are taught to solve problems differently. The environment and problems of the people are all factored in their solutions.

It appears that these two countries have always been competing and the Chunnel is another example. I can’t help but wonder if the friendly competition was what led to the incident of water getting in the tunnels in the British side. According to the article, “The British never plan.” This makes me wonder if they were truly prepared for the project or if they accidently overlooked the waterproof problem. Either way, the British worked well under pressure and managed to think of a solution to continue the job.

To learn more about each countries engineering culture, it would be wise to look up famous architecture and the influences that have affected the countries.

ZOMBIE APOCOLAPYSE

Since the world is going to be taken over by zombies, I figured I should get my ten step plan in order before it was too late.

The zombies have begun appearing out of the shadows, are creeping out of alleys and are popping out of bushes.

Step 1: Stare with mouth slightly ajar. Blink at least seven times to make sure it is real life.

Step 2: After making sure it is real life, Tweet and update Facebook status asap!

Tweet: made eye-contact with a zombie #zombieapocolapyse

Facebook: ________ just saw a zombie! Nbd…

Step 3: Text everyone, “OMG! Zombies! Ruuuuuuuuun!” Just in case they have not noticed.

Step 4: Make sure phone is fully charged and have extra phone battery packed.

Step 5: Do not forget money and PU ID (you never know)! Pack a lot of food. *Look up what zombies like to eat.

Step 6: Search for Nerf gun only to realize it will not help much. Bring slingshot instead. Remember to wear good running shoes.

Step 7: Find a group of people who look like they have battled zombies before and stick with them while being careful not to trust them completely (they could be zombies).

Step 8: Volunteer to be the one who runs to get help if The Plan does not work (there’s a chance for survival this way).

Step 9: Find the zombie headquarters and locate the OFF switch. There is always an OFF switch for these types of situations.

Step 10: Save the planet from zombie destruction, receive medal and have a reality TV show.

Of course, this plan is subject to change depending on number and types of zombies and where the zombie apocalypse is beginning.

Week 4 Zombie!

Before I start to write my blog, I have read two blogs about zombies. I must say tonight is really a terrible night. I was scared by the rules about how to survive from zombies. When I turned all the lights off and stayed in the dorm alone during the night, the atmosphere here was perfect for horrible movies. When wind passed, it feels like something was wandering behind me. So I decided to keep awake and watch comedy.

Compared with zombie, vampire is more popular. I don't like zombie anyway. This creature makes me think of death. I guess the most important reason is zombie is not good looking and the way they change human to zombie is terrible. I like the movies of Twilight and The Vampire Diary. There are two different ways about how to change human to vampire. So I always think that maybe zombies are much prettier than I thought. I am sure that zombie is exist in every culture. They have same characteristic in some way, such as lifeless human, grey skinned and slow moving. But the survival rules are different. In western culture, clubs, chainsaws, rifles and submachine guns are the best choice. In ancient China, when people thought there are zombies, we will find Taoist to draw "Fu"(a magic figures drawn by Taoist priests to invoke or expel spirits and bring good or ill fortune. ). And there is an old rule in China that those kind of lifeless creatures are afraid of the blood of dog. I guess this is why we wear red clothes on chinese new year.

But now I think it's a good idea to stay with family and friends in a food store and keep a submachine gun with me. Although I am interested in what are zombies and vampires really look like, I hope they will never show up. I prefer to say hello to them in the movies or novels than in my real life.

Week 4

I'm surprised after watching the video about the "chunnel". "Chunnel" is one the most famous projects in modern world. It connected England with Europe. British and French are rivals for a long time,but this great project changed the rivals to friendly competition. It must be a classical example in engineering history.

I can find the different engineering cultures between British and French from both the video and the article. Both countries kept working day and night. As the article describes, French engineering pay more attention to the plan. They used to plan all the things before the beginning. British engineers are good at "sorting out the resulting chaos". When they meet problems, they can do their best to solve the problems. I think this is the strong power of engineering. The cooperation let us to admire the advantages of our rivals and make advancement.

Besides the cooperation and competition, the ultimate goal of engineering is make life better and safer.

Diverse Engineering Cultures: France and Britain

The biggest factor affecting the Engineering culture of Britain and France would be the geographical separation between the two nations coupled with the lack of a concept of globalization and their diverse histories.

Britain at a point of time was the most dominant force in the world primarily because it was the epicenter of the industrial revolution. It was the birthplace of the steam engine, the handloom and countless other innovations. On the other hand France was historically more meek and in major contrast, was the source of the nationalist movement. As for the scientific prospect, France was more purist than Britain and held more theoretical scientists than engineers. Additionally, each of the nations possessed different natural resources and therefore gained different kinds of engineering experience while they developed methods to extract and enrich or process these materials.

The engineering cultures of these countries are the culmination of these factors and centuries of diverse experiences.

Old and New Wars

The evolution of war over the last century has been profound. The changes affect everything from the subject and scale of war to the weapons and the warriors using them.

This is the image that would have come to mind at the mention of war sixty years ago: The clouds bearing down on the men who picked death over slavery and ostracization. The gloomy atmosphere amplified by the ballads of death and loss courtesy the grenadier who was a bard before the war. The blind fire coming from the defendants doesn't help. The first wave of recon; the men who picked the short straw and a few brave idiots, brought down in seconds by the machine gun controlled by the opponent who also doesn't care about the fight and wants to go home to his five-year-old but is shot down in that moment of weakness by a sniper just doing the job assigned to him by a hierarchy of captains, colonels, generals and majors all of whom are more keen on advancing through the ranks than keeping their men alive. The fighter jets cloaked  by the moist atmosphere come out to massacre the helpless attackers. The unprepared AA-guns fire pointlessly, all of the ammo missing, bursting into black clouds. The attackers retreat to the uninhabitable trenches. The capture of the next 200 yards of blood pools will have to wait for reinforcements.

In modern warfare, such a scene seems impossible. The battle for land through organized violence has ceased, armies are more of a tool for stopping riots. A single casualty is a devastating blow. The weapons are more lethal, diverse, strategic and precise. The budgets are phenomenal.
However, most of the wars today are not fought with guns and bombs on open grounds but with paper bombs, threats, deception, superior strategy and leverage in closed rooms. The warriors are lawyers, witnesses and politicians. Men wearing a poker face and a sharp suit. It is not even the countries that are competing as much as it is representatives, multinationals and ginormous corporations. They're not fighting for land anymore. That would be uncivilized. They fight for resources, the reason behind the wars for land acquisition. And they're fighting for intellectual property, the right to own the motion of swiping three fingers downward on a touchscreen.

War has transformed. The fact that it does not involve the shedding of pints of blood everyday is the only comforting thing about its present face.

10 step guide to surviving the zombie apocalypse

The zombie apocalypse is coming. Whether its in 10 years, 50 years, or on December 21, 2012, it is a certainty that a virus will spread among the human species, transforming the infected into undead, flesh-eating monsters. With the zombie apocalypse comes certain death for every human on this planet, including YOU.

Unless you are prepared. If you take the necessary steps to protect yourself, you will have an infinitely better chance of surviving the scourge and possibly escaping to another planet on a makeshift spacecraft - for there will be nothing left for humans on this planet Earth after the zombie apocalypse.

The following will serve as your 10 step guide to surviving the zombie apocalypse. Learn it, memorize it, worship it. It will save your life.

Step 1: When you find out that the zombie apocalypse is coming, pinch yourself to make sure that it's not a dream.
Step 2: Acquire a rifle, a pistol, a hunting knife, a military grade machine gun turret, a Japanese bazooka (it must be Japanese, no alternatives) a nerf gun (no this is not a typo), and as much ammunition as you possibly can.

Step 3: Learn how to operate the aforementioned weapons. Otherwise they'd be pretty useless, no?

Step 4: Move to the highest location you can find. Mount Everest will work just fine (zombies hate the cold).

Step 5: Fortify your chosen location with whatever you can find - cardboard boxes, bricks.

Step 6: Cook lots and lots of Ramen noodles. Zombies hate Ramen noodles! It is like poison for zombies.

Step 7: Acquire the loudest, largest, bassiest sound system you can possibly find. Even if you have to steal it. It must have atleast 15 subwoofers. (What do you mean, you can't? For heaven's sakes, you have a bazooka!)

Step 7: Blast dubstep as loud as you can on your sound system. This will wobble the zombie's brains and turn them to mush.

Step 8: YOU DON'T LIKE DUBSTEP? I should just kill you right now.

Step 9: Fly a giant flag with Justin Bieber's face on it.

Step 10: Kill dem zombies.

Social Network

There are tons of social networks ,such as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace. The differences among them are obviously. I'm not familiar with neither Facebook nor Twitter. There are some special social networks very popular in China. To be specific, QQ and Renren.

Other than Chinese and people living in China, I never heard about other people have QQ account. But QQ has the largest user group in China. QQ account seems like the second cell phone number. We leave message to friends, send documents online and discuss everything in QQ group. There are music, videos and TV shows for free. Also, we can invite our friends to play chess on QQ. I think the most exciting thing is I can invite my friend to enjoy the movie I am watching or the music I am listening to without download. Now, the most useful function to me is the free visual communication. It’s convenient for me to contact my family.

Another famous network is Renren which is especially popular among students. Renren is just the same with Facebook. We can find our friends, classmates, or anyone we want to know by searching their name on Renren and sending a request asking them to be friends on line. Also, the most basic function is we can post the photos and blogs and share information with our friends. Renren is a good place to know what is happening to our friends, where they went, what are they doing. Even we are living in different cities now, it’s easy for us keep our friendship even without hang out for a long time.

It doesn’t matter which network I’m using. Social network is like a bridge to me, connecting me and my friends. I’m growing up. I can’t stay at home with family and hang out with friends everyday. Everyone begins a new life in college, meets new people, makes new friends. Social networks are important for me to keep contact with my old friends and be familiar with new friends.