3DS

I (Kyle) want to blog about a little gadget that will be gracing store shelves in the near future. It's Nintendo's latest hand-held gaming system, the 3DS.

Voilà

Its biggest selling point is, of course, it's ability to give 3-dimensional images to your eyes WITHOUT GLASSES. So far, the reception has been overwhelmingly positive from those that have had the pleasure of trying it. It also boasts an accelerometer, similar to that of the iPhone, so that tilt functions can be implemented into games as well. Not to mention its two cameras, updated graphics, and internet service that let's you download old Gameboy games from the past.

And the games themselves are sure to be great as always. Classic Nintendo franchises like Animal Crossing, Kid Icarus, Mario Kart, Nintendogs, Paper Mario, will all have new games on the system, as well as third party games like Contra, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Madden, Metal Gear Solid, and Resident Evil.

But Nintendo has also announced it is remaking some of its classic games in 3D, including Star Fox 64, and the greatest game ever: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I have played through that game many times, and I can't wait to do it again in 3D and with updated graphics.

Drool...

Of course, this isn't all sunshine and daisies, which is kind of a bad metaphor anyway because while I do like sunshine, I really don't care that much about daisies. Anyway, the system comes out on March 27 of this year and will cost $249.99. Well, this is a little to quick for me to scrape together that money. Sure I have it, but I'm not really just going to throw it down on day one, because I am a college student and I spent more than that amount on just books for this semester. But mark my words: I will have one before the end of this year! I suppose this is my New Year's Resolution. So while most people say they are going to exercise or eat better, I'm going to play more video games. Nice. Don't worry, I exercise too! Come on, guys.

Music

Hey, it's Ben, hopefully this blog will count more as a real blog.

I was trying to think of something good to blog about and came up with this, I hope that you like it. Here at Dordt we have praise and worship on every thursday evening at 10 pm. I really enjoy this time because it is basically a half hour to 45 minutes of straight singing and praising God. So basically, I want to share with you some of the favorite songs that we sing, hopefully this will mean something to you as it does for me.

The first song is a new one that many of you have probably never heard, It's called "With Everything" by Hillsong. This song I like a lot because it builds throughout the song and I can't help but praise God when I sing this song.

Another song that I really enjoy singing is "the Stand". I like this song once again because it builds throughout the song. I really like the fact that it talks about giving everything over to Christ and abandoning everything that our heart desires that is sinful.

Another song that I really like is "Our God" by Chris Tomlin. I really like this song because it talks about how our God is the best and is superior to all gods. In the first verse it talks about Jesus turning water into wine. We all know how this was significant because of the elements. But something I just learned was that when Jesus did this, he was indeed proving himself as higher than the greek gods. There is a story in Greek mythology that their gods turned water into wine at a wedding in Greece at one time, but there was no proof of this. Jesus came to the area, and showed the people, I am GOD, I can change water into wine, follow ME!

I don't know if this post will influence you or mean as much to all of you guys as it does to me when I sing these songs. I just love to sing these songs and praise God through the singing of these songs. Have a great weekend!

Ben Sytsma

Prairie Grass Film Challenge

Sooooooooooooooooooooo,

It's been a while since I (Kyle) last blogged. It's really been a while since this blog has been updated in general. Ben's last post doesn't really count. Anyone can just type what is happening around them while they are supposed to be listening to a teacher in class. It's time for a forizzle blog. Here it comes.

This past weekend, I got the pleasure of participating in The Prairie Grass Film Challenge here at Dordt. This is actually the second time I've participated, but I had a completely new team this time. For those of you who don't know how it works, on Thursday afternoon we were sent an e-mail with 4 things: A prop, A character, a genre, and a line of dialogue. We then have 48 hours to create, shoot, and edit a short film using these things. Our 4 things were as follows:

Genre: Comedy
Character: Jimmy Carlos, who just invented something
Prop: Five packs of Chiclets gum (which took us forever to find)
Line of Dialogue: How many times have we done this? About five?

I'm not going to go into extreme detail about our film, because when it becomes available for you to watch it, I want you to enjoy it then. All I will tell you is that it is called "Kelly", and it involves an intense game of racquetball. Here is a photograph from our filming so you get an idea of the stupid things we did making this:

The lengths we will go to for a shot. It kinda looks like he doesn't have a head, doesn't it?

Well, that's all I got. I'll post something on here when the video becomes available on Dordt's website.

TTFN.

Class

Today, I would like to welcome you to Core 160, the intro to the arts. Kyle and I, Ben Sytsma, are currently sitting in a big lecture room listening to an old guy speak to us about experiences in different art courses that we could take. Austin just looked at me weird.

Two days ago in this course, one guy was presenting a presentation about a trip that we could take in this class. A picture of a kid came up who was imitating a sculpture, apparently he thought it was really funny. He said, "He's acting like the bunny, OH NO!"

Matt is good at dancing. He is another one of the professors. We are now going to talk about the paper we were supposed to read but didn't. Sometimes I like to joke with Kyle that he is an Art Fart, because he is majoring in an "art." Kyle is currently singing Bob Dylan, who I will be writing my 20 page history paper on!!!! Cool stuff!

We are now talking about that we are created in the image of God, and therefore, we are made creative, with beauty and functionality. We also need to go into the arts with excitement. Finding the good in others works and to see the beauty in everything that artists have made.

Thanks for joining us in Core 160 today, I must be off

Ben Diggidy