Hello, readers! I know it's been a long time. But fear not, my blog has officially returned! What has been going on that caused me to take such an extended break? Well, multiple reasons: a. Eleventh grade was a lot. b. 2021-2022 after I made my previous post has been... a lot. c. I had so many post ideas but not enough time for them until now. d. I was also working on the article linked below:  https://curioussciencewriters.org/articles/2022/06/08/from-virtual-reality-to-goodbye-malady/ From Virtual Reality to “Goodbye Malady!” | curiousSCIENCEwriters : “In a matter of six weeks, you couldn’t even tell he had a stroke.” This is what Arik Yates, a physical therapist assistant, said about a chronic stroke patient who had tried virtual reality therapy… After my article in 2020 about wearable technology paired with machine learning algorithms being used to help counter smoking addiction , I returned to Curious Science Writers for one more article with them! This time, I knew I had to ...

(Above you can see the spooky edits I made to both my profile picture/blog favicon and my personal Discord server's icon for this year!) UPDATED: I wrote this in the morning, but now, in the evening, I updated it at the bottom :)  Hello, everyone! I know I haven't posted in a long, long time. A lot has happened since mid-July. For one, school has continued (in-person, kind of) through hybrid school for many people where I live. I was hybrid for a short amount of time but am now back to remote. Many, many exciting things have also happened. The article I wrote with the fantastic team at Curious Science Writers got published! It's about using wearable smartwatches to fight smoking addiction, a problem that likely affects at least someone you know in your life, like a family member or loved one:  https://curioussciencewriters.org/2020/10/26/going-from-ismoke-to-no-smoking-with-wearables/ .  I know I've talked about technology constantly on my blog, but this article is more...

Photo Credit: Arca Baran for This and That, Here and There The president of Nintendo, Shuntaro Furukawa, apologized for the Joy-Con drift issue in a recent meeting with investors. This is what he had to say during a Q&A session, translated from Japanese by Kotaku ( https://kotaku.com/nintendo-president-apologizes-for-joy-con-trouble-1844216184 ) from this source:  https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2020/qa2006.pdf   "Regarding the Joy-Con, we apologize for any trouble caused to our customers... We are continuing to aim to improve our products, but as the Joy-Con is the subject of a class-action lawsuit in the United States and this is still a pending issue, we would like to refrain from responding about any specific actions." So basically, this starts out with basically what Nintendo would reply with when asked for comment about the issue by various publications last July when a major sudden public outrage occurred over the topic, which has been prevalent since near th...

Image Credit: Sony from the official PlayStation Blog US You are not looking at a concept art design. You are not looking at fanart. That is literally a Sony-made render of the final design for the controller that will ship with their new console, the PlayStation 5, when it hits store shelves this winter (but still could be delayed, and so could Microsoft's Xbox Series X). This is probably the most surprising and out-of-left-field controller reveal that I've ever gotten to experience, ever. The only things similar were when I found out about the Nintendo Switch reveal a few days late and it didn't look that different from a Wii U gamepad, or when I saw the Xbox Series X controller and console get revealed live during a YouTube livestream of the Game Awards 2019 (which was on the day of my 15th birthday), and while the console itself was very tall and PC-like, the controller wasn't particularly radically different in terms of aesthetics. But oh boy, we've go...

Hello, everyone, this is Arca, and this is my second-to-last "edublog". Today I decided to write about a type of thing that we've all been using a lot of during this quarantine situation, which is a web app. Web apps are programs that can be run in a browser like Google Chrome as a website, or for some, alternately downloaded to a computer. It runs all of its processes over the web, but behaves like an application, which is why it can be called a "web app". I have listed just a sample of 5 of my "favorite" ones and briefly described what I like about each of them and why, and as well as some constructive criticism of each of the programs. Let's face it, even the best thing in the world has some faults, since nothing is perfect.  Discord Discord is great since it has done as much as possible to be an all-inclusive chat and community platform designed specifically for gamers, regardless of platform. It runs on PC or phone and tablet, which...

For this gaming news roundup, just when you thought the coronavirus couldn't possible effect more, and be given lectures in school or work about what your closing schedule may be (I know I was), I found out some news that would have had me do a double-take had I been drinking water. Ready for it? E3 2020 has been cancelled due to the coronavirus. Wait a minute, that was obvious. Ready for the actually surprising part? Living meme, gaming icon, and former Nintendo of America CEO Reggie "My Body is Ready" Fils-Aime has now, in the middle of his retirement and time spent giving lectures on the business benefits of memes (among other things) at Cornell, become a part of the board of directors at the slowly-falling company that is GameStop. So no, he won't try to beg you to get a PowerUp Rewards membership in a small, anime-merch-filled building near you. First, for the less surprising (but more recent and relevant, as it was only confirmed this morning) news. E3 20...

A UFO came up and he smiled at me... He said it's gonna be a good day just wait and see... Jumped out of my tent, and I Naturo-ran outside, feeling so like Kyle and paranoid... It's the best, day, eveeeerrrrrr..... Oh, sorry about the Spongebob song lyrics. It's just that I was feeling particularly happy about how September 20th, 2019, is actually the most eventful day of this year. What makes September 20th so special this year? I'm going to list as many things as I can, and make each thing brief as possible. Without further ado, let's get started! I'll list this in order of most boring to most exciting. Most boring stuff first, all on today, September 20, 2019.  National Fried Rice Day, National Pepperoni Pizza Day, and National String Cheese Day Image Credit: Gimme Some Oven I have no idea who thought it was a good idea to have so many food-related holidays in one day, but there you go. Surprisingly, I unknowingly celebrated one of thes...

News. * clap * Review. * clap *. What is up, fellow ogres? I haven't posted very frequently recently because of summer camp taking up much more time than I initially expected (hey, that wasn't in the job description), but that's actually a positive thing. Why? That means I have more important news to talk about and catch you guys up on, and then proceed to babble on about it for 12 pages!-- Just kidding. While there may not be a TL;DR included for this post due to the fact that it covers so many topics at once, I have attempted my best to make each individual section as short as possible, like a TL;DR in it of itself. You're welcome. Now, without further ado, let's Naruto Run straight into this news! We're starting off with an announcement that seems perfect after the Switch Lite last week...  New Switch Model Announced! But is it a worthy upgrade? On Wednesday, Nintendo announced via their Japanese website that a new Nintendo Switch model set...