Final Draft

I do not believe that we have a final draft of who we are. When we are born we are considered to be a "blank slate" and our personality and who we are forms from the influences of genes, heredity, environment, culture, society, and our family. As we grow up all of these factors effect and help shape us into the person that we become. Some may disagree that once you get to a certain age that we have enough experienced and know enough, that we are who we are and consider that to be our final draft. I think that since we will always still be meeting new people, going to different places, having changes (expected or unexpected) in our life, experiences and learning different things that we are always being influenced by our surroundings and therefore we will be adding to or editing the draft of ourself continuously.

The Sims

When I was in fifth grade, Sims was the thing to do! The whole time I was reading this that was all I could think about. I found myself remembering my Sims and the lives I created for them. Unlike Kolsterman, I never made an exact replica of myself. I would make Sims I thought were cool or I guess you could say people I thought it would be cool to live through or control, because that is what you are doing in the game. I think it is very interesting how Kolsterman gets so into this game! I think even today if I played the Sims and created myself, I wouldn’t expect to learn something about myself. I think if I created myself it would be boring, I know what my life is like, I don’t want to live it the same way on the computer! That is why when I was younger I would make up people who had things I wish I had and created houses and scenarios I thought would be cool to live.
I do like the way Kolsterman starts off describing his Sim after he has neglected him. It made me keep reading because I wanted to know what the heck was going on! Overall this was an interesting read but the only way I can relate is that I used to love the Sims.

Billy Sim Questions

1. Klosterman almost got sucked into The Sims in a sense trying to recreate his identity. So much that it made him take a closer look at his own identity in real life.

2. Klosterman's piece reminded me of the Vanish piece because both men got frustrated about the new self they were creating. Klosterman because of the limitations of Sims and how he couldn't make a replica of himself. Whereas Ratcliff wasn't trying to duplicate himself at all, and was losing his identity in that respect.

3. I agree with this statement. Children are advancing, but they aren't using their imaginations as freely because computer games have cut and dry rules to get a score. Like a computer, they can be more focused on the outcome or score than they are on the experience.

"Billy Sim" - Group Questions

1) In this article the most interesting aspect related to identity is the fact that people are very materialistic in nature. In the game the only way to make your Sim happy is to buy him nice new expensive things.

2) This article relates to another article we read earlier in the year "All my life for sale" because of how each object a person has represents certain memories or happiness related to the object.

3) We believe that computers help to make children advanced faster. We also can see how it makes children think as computers such as not having as good as an imagination as they could if they were not always on the computer. Also, children are always using electronic forms of communication and lack interpersonal communication skills.

"Billy Sim"

1) It was interesting how Klosterman was trying to re-create himself into a Sim character and how he tried to make it just like himself.

2)Klosterman's piece could be connected to one of the other readings Vanish, how the man created a new identity for himself, wore different outfits and then had people try to track him down. While Klosterman created a new identity for himself through a character just like him that he created on the Sims.

3) We don't necessarily agree or disagree with Klostermans arguement, it just depends on how much time children are using computers and how dependent they are on using them.

Billy Sim - group answers

1. The most interesting implication is that in today's society people seem to rather live their lives online. Online, people can be whoever they want despite who they are in real life. In the writing, the author wanted to live his life through the game Sims instead of living in reality. Online you can say and do things without it actually affecting the person you are in reality.

2. We can relate Klosterman's piece of writing to Slumming, the writing we read a few weeks ago. They relate because the characters in both stories think the 'grass is greener on the other side'. People seem to think that no matter how well they have it, living another person's life must be better. Whether it's online or on the streets, people look for outlets to escape their own lives.

3. When Klosterman argues about children thinking like computer, we feel he is talking about emotions and social interaction. On computers, children don't necessarily have to express their emotions and don't get experience with face-to-face social interaction. The children of the future may find it hard to socialize publicly because we are familiarizing them too much with the usage of computers. In the real world, while technology is important for success, if you lack the social skills to interact with others and share ideas, you will not be very successful.

"Sim"ulated Reality

1. We thought the most interesting part of the reading was how philosophical he became when playing God. At first he was addicted because he could make SimChuck could do whatever he wanted but he saw how materialistic his character was and he became conflicted with the game by intertwining the reality of SimChuck with the reality of real Chuck and not seeing that sometimes a game is just a game.

2. Vanish by Evan Ratcliff was the first reading that came to mind because Evan changed his appearnce and his identity so many times trying to reinvent himself the same way Chuck was trying to reinvent himself through SimChuck.

3. In some cases, children may advance too fast depending on the uses they have for the computer, but it would be a stretch to say that children would solely think like a computer because they have the capacity to imagine, to create out of nothing whereas a computer only has the capacity to do whatever it is programmed to do.

Billy Sim

1. We don't necessarily realize who we are exactly or what it is that we have to do until it is brought to our attention. Whether through other people or, in this case, through a video game that "SIMulates" reality. He attempted to construct a character that adequately represented him in real life...but like Klosterman says, nobody truly knows himself.

2. We feel that it contrasts with "Slumming" in that Klosterman's Sim's character was only happy if Klosterman was buying things for him. His happiness was soley based off of the purchases he made. In "Slumming," these rich people already had all these nice things but they wanted to live a less luxuorious life and they took to the streets abandoning all thier possessions. They thought this would make them happier.

3. Children definitely become computer/Internet literate very quickly, which is beneficial in our technologically-centered world. However, we agree that children do think more like computers. Everything on a computer is systematic and everything is all already there. They lose imagination in a sense. Once they leave the computer and are forced to do homework on paper, write in journals, or just play with toys they do not know exactly what to do because they have been confined to following certain rules a machine creates for them.

Billy Sim - Group Questions

1. We thought that it was interesting that people in real life would like to view themselves from a different point of view and sort of live their lives through a computer. Its also interesting to see how Chuck, in reality, was someone who didnt value many material things and when he created his Sim Chuck he strived to be very rich and materialistic, therefore his real life identity was different from his simulated one.

2. We connected Klosterman's piece to the vanishing story. Like the man who tried to change his identity and lead a new life, it corresponds to the concept of the Sims game by creating a new identity and living your life in a different way.

3. We don't agree that the statement about children thinking like computers is true. Unlike being cold and rational like computers, humans still and will always have emotions and humans still act upon those emotions.

"Billy Sim" In-Class Questions

1. One thing that our group agreed was interesting with respect to identity was the idea that everyone is wrong about their own identity. It's an interesting thought that we could interpret ourselves so wrongly as to think that as we sit alone at a party, we are oxtroverts, or as we greet and speak to everyone that we could see ourselves as introverts.

2. This piece's discussion of creating virtual identities relates to Evan Ratcliff's vanishing and creating a new identity in the digital age.

3. Our group agrees that the use of technology is not making children think like computers, but rather making them lazy and to rely on computers.

Sims

When I was a kid, I loved the sims. It was fun to me being able to create someone completely new and doing whatever you could think of. At the time I took it so seriously too, remebering to spent time with of the sim's friends, going to the bathroom at regular intervials, keeping him entertained, the whole deal. Nothing else really existed outside of the game when I started playing. It was like a second life to me and I really enjoyed it at the time. And it's funny to me now how interesting I found it, when now I honestly can't get myself to play.

Reality

I played the Sims games for a short while back in my formative years. I would have to say that I agree that these games and vidoe games in general are just a waste of time and a simulated reality. It allows people to escape from the mundane tasks of their everyday activities. I think that these games allow people be who they want. This allows them to escape from who they really are.These games become so engulfing because they soon overtake and best reality. I can see the addictive potential, and it makes sense that people would spend so much time with these fake realities and identities. I think that this article really made me look at my own gaming habbits. I dont play the sims but I do play xbox and CoD. These types of games dont let you creat a reality but the anonimity of the internet allows you to be whoever you like to the people you are gaming with. I can see the appeal and I think in the future I may not look at gaming quite the same as I have in the past.

Billy Sim

The whole time, up until Klosterman spoke with Will Wright, I was frustrated reading what he had to say about video gaming and The Sims. His thought process that The Sims boiled down to materialism just aggravated me. It seemed like he was thinking into the game way harder than was necessary. This seems to be a constant with a lot of people that dislike the ideas of videogames. I remember there was lawyer in Florida named Jack Thompson who kept going at a certain game company and ended up getting disbarred because of his work. Video games are just an easy target for these types of people.

That wasn’t the only thing that bothered me about this article. Klosterman didn’t even explore the other ideas possible, he immediately assumed the worst. It took calling the creator of the game and complaining for him to open his mind to the other possibilities.

Simulated Reality

I personally have never played the original Sims game but do have experience with the SimCity game and understand the basics of the game. I remember playing the game and feeling almost sucked into it as if I was the actual mayor of the city. It gave me a chance to be someone else for however long I played. It was like I was able to escape my own reality and enter a completely new one, one that which I could control entirely. I think this was the same way that the author felt when he got hooked into the regular Sims game. The difference with Chuck was that he did not see his Sims character as similar to that of his ownself. Sim Chuck was materialistic whereas Chuck in reality did not have many belongings, not even a bed. As Chuck continued to play the game he found out that with all the items he purchased for his character, he still seemed to not be entirely happy. Even after he bought him the nicest T.V., an expensive bed, and all the furnishings for his house that he still could not bring his character out of a depression. When he talked to the creator of the game he soon realized that the Sims game concept was not entirely materialistic. That even though he bought all these things his character would not be happy. Once he found this out he decided to sell all these things and lived more like he would in reality and I think he found greater success in the game.

The Sims

I admit that I do own one of The Sim's games and that my friend Kelsey and I used to play the game and thought it was fun for a little while. After reading what Chuck Klosterman had to say about his experience playing the Sim's made me think back at all the hours that I must have spent playing the Sim's and how pointless and time wasting it really was. Chuck kind of took some of the fun out of playing the game. He said that "Clearly, video technology cages imagination, it offers interesting information to use, but it implicates that all peripheral information is irrelevant and off- limits. Computers make children advance faster, but they also make them think like computers." I somewhat disagree with him. I do not think that that video technology necessarily cages your imagination, although it may weaken it. Like when Chuck asked his niece about his Sim's character; about how he got there, if he had no job where the money came from, where he went to college, etc., and how she answered was by saying that's just the way it is. She could have used her imagination to make up a little background story about the character just like she would have about her Barbie doll. Except maybe if a parent decides to let their child play nothing but video games they may lack an active imagination, but is it technology to blame or would it be the parents fault for not limiting the time spent playing video games.

As Chuck went on playing the game he sort of became angered by the Sim character he created of himself because he had to keep him happy by buying him things and making friends. Chuck was mad because some of the materialistic things he purchased for his Sim would make him happy, but for other expensive things he bought, his Sim would become unsatisfied. Then when he bought a nice table, which was meant to impress the lady Sim that Chuck had met, he reaction was just to clap her hands excitedly. So Chuck decided to have a talk with the creator of The Sims, Will Wright, because he started to question what the purpose of life was. And basically what he said was that while playing this game people discover interesting things about themselves. Also that if by chance the game had changed a person’s perception of the world surrounding you, then the game was successful. I have never thought of the game in that way before. When I played The Sim’s I didn’t create a Sim that was just like me, I just created made up people and just had fun with the game.

Sims

I thought this was a very interesting and also a very humorous article to read. While reading it the entire time all I could think about was when I would play the game a long time ago. I did the exact opposite of what he did though. I would never to try to make the character I had anything like me. This might be because I was just a young kid and this guy was a mature adult. Nonetheless, when I played I would just try to create the best sim that I possibly could. I would try to make the house that I bought as big as possible. I would always to have the nicest and most the most expensive things that I could possibly buy. I guess in a way I was trying to make the character be as successful as I would someday like to become in life. I made my utopia in life through a Sims character. I would have an excellent job that would be a super high paying job, so that I would be able to purchase any of the luxuries that I wanted. I would put so much time and effort into the detail of my house. I would go room by room buying some of the items that looked cool to me and things that I would want in my real life. I just remember that I would always be adding and buying things to make my house bigger and more prestigious then ever. I guess the sims was my way of living my “fantasy” life.

klosterman's SIMs

I never owned any of the Sims games and I have never played them either. I suppose I had actually never really known the premise of the game until I read this article. I had no idea that the Sims was basically "a video game where you do all the things you would normally do in real life if you weren't playing a game." The game seems to me to be a mirror of our actual life and all its mundaneness (i.e. bathroom breaks and eating).
Klosterman suggests that some believe the Sims gives the gamers a view into other people's lives...the good and the bad. However, Klosterman says that for him (and he suspects many others) it was the opposite: "I don't care about anyone's peephole but my own." This made me think about my Facebook assertion that people love participating in social networks because we are informally invited to "creep" on anyone who accepts our friend request. But when I think about it, I spend way more time on Facebook "creeping" on myself. I just want to know what other people see when they interact with me so I look at my own photos and page mostly. I know how vain that sounds but I cannot in any way act as if it isn't.
Klosterman's mentioning about road construction and how it will always exist, that "there will never be a day when it's all fixed" really struck me because I have actually thought the same thing before! We are constantly doing something to expand and reach more people and see and do more things. Our whole life, as the Sims creator says, is "an ongoing strategy problem." We have to fit so much into our daily routines just so we can feel alive. But are we really living? "Even free people are eternally enslaved by the process of living." Such powerful words. Life will always inforce some sort of constraint on us, whether it be time, money, the basic need to eat, etc. there will always be something keeping us from doing something else.
My favorite part is when Klosterman grants his Sims character free will. Wouldn't it be nice if free will were that easy to obtain.

The Sims and their Electronic Pathos

In the 8th grade, I got The Sims for Christmas and never really played it much. It frustrated me to the max. All I was doing was making sure they slept, ate, went to the bathroom, showered, and looked for a job. I apparently never learned how to play The Sims correctly though because my characters kept dying on me within 20 minutes. This was no fun for me, with the exception of watching the characters interact with goofy babbling.

I thought Chuck brought up a good point when he said his niece would be a more imaginative girl when she played with her Barbies than when she played Sims. There are no limits and boundaries in the silly little scenarios you develop on your own when you're a 6 year old playing house. Growing up, I remember my mom getting a kick out of the things my sister, the neighbor kids, and I would come up with to entertain ourselves. I don't think she would've had much fun watching us sit on our butts for a couple hours staring at a screen. And this kind of goes along with the whole Facebook thing. I myself don't think in 10 years I'll look back on the thousands of hours I will have spent on fb in my life and say, "I'm so glad I made a Facebook! Sitting indoors and staring at a website was always the best choice."

While Second Life is an interesting concept because it's so elaborate, I can't believe people spend money on it. The biggest thing for me is that they hide behind it. Whatever they're doing on Second Life, they should be attempting in real life! :)

Virtual Personality

I immensely enjoyed reading this piece. It was witty and cutting while giving great insight into how people live their lives through the eyes of simulated characters. After some time, it became difficult for Chuck to differentiate between himself and SimChuck. I thought it was really amusing that he started having a nervous breakdown because he could not comprehend "the meaning of life" in relation to the Sims world. Then, to add to the headache he had created for himself, he calls the creator of the Sims, Will Wright, and they have a philosophical debate on the purpose of the Sims. From their conversation, it seems that the game teaches quite a few of its players about themselves and the selves they may not have been aware of their whole lives. Personally, I felt that Chuck learned some very important things with his own self reflection. For one thing, I think Chuck found out that trying to simulate his real world life or understand himself better using a game like the Sims, only answered a few of his questions about himself and people in general while opening up a whole new can of worms filled with more questions than he started with. I think he also learned that obsessing over and living his life through a game for hours upon hours instead of actually living for himself was slowly taking away his free will just as he had control over and eventually gave up SimChuck's free will.

Online Virtual LIfe

I feel that these online social communities are changing the way people communicate to one another. People can make themselves look anyway they want, act anyway they want, and say anything they want and their will be no consequences for it. That's why people love these games so much. You can get away with anything on sites like that. They let people be who they want to be and not who they really are. The games are addictive because people begin to like that life better their own. If you go on these sites and play for a while you will notice that you won't find one fat person or an ugly person. People will make themselves look so attractive because in real life they aren't. These online games are bad because people become so addicted and attracted to their online life that their real life does not matter anymore. This article reminds me of the movie, "Surrogates." This movie was about how people could make a body and live through that body while they sat at home and controlled it. In thus movie everybody was so attractive and didn't have any flaws. This is what these games are, they are an alternate universe that looks better then the one we live in.

Final Draft

I think we choose when we want the final draft and mission statement of our lives to be drawn up. For some, it's written years before they die. As people get older, they can sometimes become set in their ways and say, "I've tapped out, I am who I should be, and you can't teach me any new tricks." These people aren't necessarily pessimists or underachievers, but they're definitely comfortable with where they are.

For others, they aren't done working on it until the day their souls leave their bodies. They won't stop at life, and learning, and bettering themselves until they are satisfied. I would fall into this category because there's a lot I ought to and want to learn and experience before I reach self actualization, as Maslow would put it.

Final Draft

Is there a final draft of who we are? No. I believe that we are always being “revised”. People grow and change in little ways every day, whether we realize it or not. A “spelling mistake” there, an added “comma” here, sometimes deleting whole sentences. As individuals we are constantly evolving into something slightly different, doing so till the day we die. We take day to day experiences with us and add them to our “paper”, not necessarily making it better or worse but making it unique to our life. Only final draft you will have will be submitted at your death bed.

In Class 03/14

I'm interpreting this question as asking if there is some point at which we stop developing our identity or personality.  I definitely don't think that there necessarily is some stopping point like that, and I'm not sure that one ever exists absolutely for an individual.  As long as a person continues to experience things, those experiences will in some way be assimilated into that person.  Development is continuous, and I think that there is always some kind of capacity for change in everyone.  A person might be more or less comfortable or secure with their self at different points in their life, but there is always the possibility of something happening to upset that security.

Final Draft?

I don’t believe there is a final draft of who we are. I believe that we are constantly changing who we are whether it is intentional or not. For example right now I am this person, but when I have kids I don’t think I’ll be exactly the same. I’ll be a mother; I’ll be more developed as a person. In death our “final draft” will be what it is. We will no longer be living in ourselves but now living within those who knew us. And that may be a different person to each of them. To my children I will be a mother; to my husband a wife; to friends I will be who I was with them…etc. I don’t think I am the same person with everyone I meet. To professors I am a name, an ID number or a voice. To my close, best friends, I am silly, outspoken, corky and witty. To people I just meet I am quiet, polite and maybe a bit mysterious. In the end I am not just one person. I may be to some people and to myself, but I am pieces of me. There will never be a “final draft” because it is being edited every single day and will continue to be even after I am gone.

Final Draft of a Person

I don't know if there ever really can be a final draft of who we are. I think everyone starts out with a goal in mind as to the person they would like to be when it's all said in done, but I'm not sure we can ever really be what we strive to be. I'm not trying to sound cynical when I say that, because I do believe that we definitely grow into a person that we're more comfortable with as life goes on, but the experiences and lessons we learn throughout life are endless, and I think that has a lot to do with who we are. I think we are constantly being educated during our lives from the things that we see and do, and no matter how long we live we can never understand or do everything that can be done. I'm a very open-minded person, and I feel like I learn new things with each day that I live, and a lot of the things I learn change my opinions that I once believed to be fact. So to give my final answer to the question asked I would say no, there is no final draft of a person. I remember seeing something that said the peak of life is self-realization; the complete understanding of oneself, and being as young as I am now, I'm not sure I believe that can ever really be attained.

final draft of me

The other day I was on the phone speaking to my grandmother. She was asking if my brother (now a senior in high school) had chosen a college yet and what major he was thinking about. I told her I wasn't exactly sure but they he was in the process of deciding. She proceeded to tell me how lucky we are and that going to college was the best decision we could make; "If I had made better decisions maybe I'd be someone else, but no, I just work at Walmart." Those words make me think, if my grandmother could go back and "revise" her life, I am most certain that she would.
So I do not think that there is a "final draft" of who we are. Things change everyday. We meet new people, we experience new things, we go new places, everything around us is changing right before our eyes so how is it possible for us to remain the same? We have to change, we have to adapt, our life is in constant "revision." I hope throughout my life that I have critiqued and made edits to myself and that I have allowed myself to be subject to other's opinions and views so that I can hopefully be the best version of the "me" I want to be by the time I reach my final days.
But who is to say whether or not I will. There is no "final draft." Things can always get better. Just like in class when we turn in a final draft we have the opportunity to revise it once more. And so in life we have the chance, if we seek out opportunities and choose to change, to constantly revise who we are.

"Final Draft?"

Do I think that there is a final draft of who we are? I definitely would have to say no because people are not static, as were are every changing and evolving to shape the person and identity of who we think we are. Truth be told most people in the world will never know who they are, and only some people will think that they have figured out who they are. It is too hard to declare that we have a final draft of who we are as a person because we are always changing. I would have to say the only way a person could have a final draft of themselves is when they are dead. But, is that really your final draft of you as a person? What about after you die, where will you go? Will you start a new life? Or even an afterlife and live forever? This question is hard to answer but I would have to say that as people grow with time, we will always be becoming closer to our final draft, but even when death is upon us, we may not have been able to finalize some things in our life, and some things will be left for others to determine. I would say that life is a book that never ends, and we are writing the pages every day that we are living on this earth, so a person should live each day for the next trying to accomplish as much as they can while they have a chance to change the world. Because when we are gone we will never be able to return to be the same person we once were.

Final Drafts?

Is there a "final draft" to who we are? I can't say there is. As humans, we naturally evolve by who we surround ourselves with. We adapt to a change in environment and pick up habits from new friends. While I feel there is so much changing going on in our lives today as college students, maybe once we are settled down, married with children and start a career we are closer to a final draft. However, life has unexpected changes like the death of someone you are close to or losing your job that may make you change the person you are to adapt to these changes. I don't think there will ever come a day where we can say this is the final me, this is my identity, this is who I will be for the remainder of my time on earth. It is true that we are creatures of habit but there are just some things in life that are beyond our control and it is in our nature to change with them in order to survive.

Our Final Draft

I feel that as humans we continously grow not only physically but mentally, spititually and emotionally. I do not think that there is a point in life that we stop maturing and ecoming a different person. I feel that we constantly change and grow and strive to be something else that we never stop and take time out to appreciate the person that we are. It it impossible to look at yourslef and think that there is nothing that you would change about you. There is no point where we can say I am happy with who I am and I never want to or am going to change. Even if we try not to change, we still do. Change is impossible to avoid. I do not think that there is a final draft to who we are because we are never finished.

Final Draft

When I hear final draft, what comes to my mind is a complete finished piece of work. In my opinion, I don't think there is a final draft to who we are. I know i have changed plenty of times during my life, and I'm sure other people have too. I just don't think that anyone can just be "done" and be the same for his or her entire life. If that was the case, everybody would be so dull and boring and go through the daily routines of their monotonous life.

A "Final Draft" of Who We Are

In high school, our art teacher told us that our work was never really finished, we just stopped at interesting points. I think this echoes to many other fields. Stories ending with some self-realization or happy ending are still cliff hangers, leaving these fictional peoples with lives to live off the page. There is always more to the story in a newspaper or magazine - a back story, plans for the future, the opinions of those not interviewed. We, like the oil paint on our canvas, the characters in our books, or the subjects of our articles, are works in progress, never done, just pausing at interesting times. We are students today, professionals in years to come, later to be parents, grandparents, retirees on cruises or paying with change for our ice cream cones. We are always developing characters, full of depth and life, and there is no "final draft" until death.

Final Draft

A final draft in writing terms would be the revision of a previous draft that was not as well thought out or organized. Is there a final draft on the level of an individual? I think the answer is yes in some cases. In situations like job interviews, first dates, and business meetings I think that most people like to make themselves look good to make a good first impression. People dress nice, and tend to think about what they say before they say it. In contrast to when your around a group of friends you have known your whole life, your girlfriend for the past however many years, or your immediate family when you tend to not think before you speak and the real you comes out. I think in some cases that yes there is a final draft of someone when the situation calls for you to make a good first impression on someone or a group of people.

Am I a final draft?

I think that there is no “real” final draft of who we are, because of the many different stages that we go through our life. I think we have a very sturdy foundation of who we are, but I feel that parts of us are always changes. I think we are different from our teenage years and then we change a little when we are adults. And we change even more when we have a family and kids. So I feel that we continue to change and form ourselves into a little different then we were before. And I feel we continue to change even more when we get old. But I feel we have the same basic foundation of who we are our entire life, but little pieces of us and some of the things we believe in are going to change throughout our life and the stages that we go through.

"Final Draft"

I don't really think we as human beings ever stop evolving when it comes to our identities. I know for example, the more I learn, the more my views change about my surroundings; thus, effecting who I am. We never stop learning, which I feel plays a critical role in defining who we are. It's a fast-paced world, where information and technology is ever-changing, and I feel people nowadays have to keep up with this, causing changes in how we think on a daily basis. I also feel that as we mature, we tend to change our views based on how we percieve the adult world; moving from adolescence to adulthood is the biggest transformation. Again, returning to knowledge as the catalyst for such changes. We may have a generic set of characteristics, but when it comes to certain ideosyncracies and taste, we are constantly shifting our views and opinions. The metaphor "final draft" suits my argument further; you can work on a paper for a so long, and get it to a point of completion, but in reality, there is so much more you could change about it...it's never really finish, and the same holds true for identity. So, when it comes down to it, we never really have a set "final draft" of ourselves.

Final Draft of who we are?

I don't believe that there is a "final draft" of who we are because we are always changing. Whether its a change in opinion,view,or routine it still changes some small part of who we are as an individual. And as we make these small changes we eventually become someone slightly different then who we were before. I also believe that its possible after we die people will look back and see us slightly different than they did before because they are changing and seeing the world differently than they did before.

The Final Draft of Who We Are

I believe that there is a "final draft" of who each person ends up being, but I believe that each person will never know his or her own "final draft". I believe that a person will change many times in his or her lifetime and even if he or she does not change significantly it is still a slight "revision" on which each person actually is. However, when each of us has died there is a "final draft" which we have left on the people we have met, known, loved, or even hated. They end up carrying that version of us with them for the rest of their lives which will inevitably alter their personal "drafts". It's like remembering something profound in an earlier draft and that something sticking with you even if it gets cut or changed for the final draft. We affect and effect everyone and we remember things about them that change who we are and decide what kind of person we will be in the end.

An Absolute Personality

All throughout life we over come obstacles, fall into calamity, witness life-changing experiences... all of which are unexpected and sometimes untimely. When all of this happens, of course I do not believe we are ever at a "final draft" with our personality and with ourselves. To say that would be offensive to me, personally. I would like to think of ourselves as living, growing people that change. Of course there will be constants such as what we like and don't like to eat or (sometimes, depending on the person) what we Believe in. I am ready to accept the fact that later in life I may no longer Love kayaking or Broomball. If I ever pop out kids, I may actually like them as opposed to now where I don't really tolerate them. Unless we count Change as being a part of who we are, I think people will adapt to their surroundings and lifestyle while it changes, thus changing themselves and never really having a "final draft." Maybe you should look at it as more of a chapter rather than a draft. The story continues but you can't revise what has already happened... you can just keep on reading.

Final Draft of Who we are

I don't think that there is a final draft of who we are mainly because most people go through life wasting their days on trying to find out who they are. We discover something about ourselves everyday day. I think that there could be a draft but we would be changing it every hour of the day. Sometimes I wish there was a story written on who I am so I don't have to go through life trying to figure it out. Some people know exactly who they are and some don't, but I definitely think that there is no final draft.

"Final Draft" of Who We Are.

I do not believe there is a "final draft" of who we are until we die. I think a part of why humans are so different from other animals and beings is that we really do not ever stop evolving. I'm not talking about Darwin's theory of evolution... I'm talking about how we continue to make choices each and every day that alter our lives, even if the change is slight. We can't help but grow and learn from the world around us, even if it happens subconsciously.

I don't believe that people can't change - we can, and we do. It is possible for us to change for the better, for the worse, and neither. I do believe that "I am who I am" to a certain extent, but the twelve year old version of me is not the same as the sixteen year old version of me - and that version is not the same person that I am today, either.

Final Draft

First, let me say, what a great philosophical question. I'd assume that this question is directed at the idea that we are ever changing beings. I would have to say that there is certainly no final draft to any person. Some may come close to a fianl draft in their death but most will continue to be thought of even after death. Our personalities are ever changing but they become more solidified over time and less wavering. The final draft of who we are can never be complete in my opinion simply because as we continue on in life our experiences are always shaping us and changing us everyday. And in death we are shaped by what others think of us or who we were.

So, no, there is no final draft of who we are. Just an ever changing template that gets close to that final draft.

Billy Sims

I found this story very interesting. Even though I have never played Sims I have played games that are smiler. Games like Sims can be very addicting you can easily wast hours of your own life while trying to live a pretend life.

The Sims and Materialism.

After reading the first paragraph, I wasn't really sure what I had gotten myself into. After reading the whole chapter, I went back and read the beginning again and laughed. It seemed so depressing and awful... What was this man really doing? He was just playing The Sims. That's all. I thought it was all kind of pathetic.

I've never played Sims, but my best friend plays religiously. He occasionally tells me all about his little Sim family. His Sim is married and has four kids - one of which just started college. Every time he tells me about his simulated video game life, I get so annoyed that he isn't actually living his life instead. I think this game does offer an escape from real life. Maybe if you create a good life for a little avatar on a screen, your life won't suck so much. Or, your life will suck even more because you're not doing anything to fix it and make it better. Instead you're spending your time living a fake life in a false reality.

When Chuck Klosterman mentioned all of the things he bought for SimChuck to make him happy, it really sickened me. I know it's not real money... But I thought it was just ridiculous. If we can be happy without material possessions, which I believe is completely possible, then Sim characters should be able to live just fine without fancy things, too, right?

I know it is just a game and there probably aren't so many controversial issues involved, but I can't help but think that that ideology is false. Overall, I am happy. Today I got pulled over because the red covering for my taillight broke off, so my right break light is a white light. I have to work in order to barely pay my bills and expenses. I don't have fancy clothes or a nice house... But I am happy. I don't need goods and services to make me feel good about my life, and I think it's sad when people think they do.

>>>Also, I loved that Klosterman referenced Fight Club. :D

Sim World vs My World

As an avid Sims video game player, I found this article to be a real eye-opener. I would think, whenever I'd play, about what my characters do in their life in comparison to my own life. The game is so addicting that I would mindlessly control this "person's" life for hours but never really accomplish anything by doing so, save buying pieces of furniture, entertainment, and other expensive, useless things.
Yet, I still would wonder... Why are we, the consumers, so captivated by this game? The game of life. (I think it's kind of humourous that while we are playing someone else's life, we are wasting our own.)

I realized, while playing the game a few months ago, it is so interesting because we can see what this person wants. We can see their mood and their dreams and who they have connections with, etc. In my life, I am constantly bombarded with thoughts that contradict themselves and I am also confused by my needs as apposed to my desires. What mood am I am? What will make me happy? What do I want my career to be? What are my interests? Who do I actually like and who am I just "class partners" with?
While I am struggling with these thoughts that are constantly changing, my Sim is a source of consistency. You can read them and understand them by the charts on the side. There is no guessing as to what they want when their bars clearly state hunger, full bladder, comfort, etc. This is our chance, also, to break away from our lives and create someone either better or worse than ourselves. Feeling bad about yourself? Just make a Sim who burns down the house. He's worse off than you are! Want to imagine being rich and powerful? Just use the cheat codes and watch your Sim float in thousands of Simoleans instantly.

Are we a bad society for playing Life with someone other than ourselves? I don't think so. This is our chance to entertain ourselves in a safe, relatively cheap, and fun (sometimes) way. As much as I would like to think deep into this game about life and how it shows my ethos as a person or the facts of living, etc, I'd just like to think of it, also, as just a game. Just a way of losing our identity and taking in someone else's for a few minutes/hours while we play. Sometimes a game is just a game...

Billy Sim

I thought this week's reading was really interesting and thought provoking. I enjoyed the section when the author talked about the character he built on Sims. He wanted the character and house to look exactly like his. He brought up some really interesting ideas. He said he thought that maybe he did this because he wanted to learn more about himself through his virtual self and/or just wanted to watch himself live.
We often times look forward to something in the future or refer to the time period after we graduate college to be 'starting our lives'. When in fact, our lives have already begun. To think the author may have created a similar character as himself on Sims so he can watch himself live may possibily be linked to a mental illness or carry traits of a socially awkward individual. Although that comment was only a joke, he's not alone.
Whoever thought making a game about living was very clever. As a society, we are always curious about how other people are living. Anytime you check out at the grocery, you can get an inside look into any star's life. We are obsessed with living without actually taking the time to recognize that we are living.

"Billy Sim"

This was a very interesting piece to read as it really made me think about how reliant people are on material things. I realized just from this essay that people buy things in order to make themselves happier. However, does this really make a person happy? I would have to say for personal experience anytime I buy something for myself I really do become more happy. For example, this past weekend I bought a new pair of Asics, which are the elite running shoes for our time. I bought them, for $120, which is the most, I have ever spent for a pair of shoes in my life, but honestly, they are the most comfortable shoes I have ever owned. When I bought them I was instantly happier with myself, I believe this was because I had finally spent my money on something that I could show off. In addition, I now had no reason to not run every day.
After reading this, it really made me think about my purchase and when I was walking through the mall how so many people were out shopping and all the different stores and products that are offered for people to purchase. I realized that so many people buy things in order to make themselves or other happy. But, I honestly do not have a problem with this because, isn’t that why we work for our money? So that we can buy things (material goods) to make ourselves happier. I also, feel like I do not need a game such as the Sims to make me realize things about my life. I understand what I do on a daily basis and why I do it.

Billy Sim

After reading this article i could not help but to feel so bad for this poor man. It almost seemed as if his life was over until he discovered the video game The Sims. I don't know how anyone could get so depressed that they would have to turn to a video game for some relief. If he felt that he life was that bad then he should have changed it. I absolutely hate games like The Sims because who would want to create their life in a video game especially if your life sucks. I really don't understand the point of it, but millions of people love this game. I think that he discovered a lot about himself by playing a pointless video game and that is sad.

I think that he tried to create another identity for himself, maybe he wanted to see himself have a better life in a video game but it turned out wrong. I guess he found out that his character was just like him in real life, sad and depressed. I couldn't understand how long it took him to figure that out. if we are going to create someone like us in a virtual world then they have to be like us in some way. It did seem to me like he was in a midlife crisis and he was just trying to see if he could get out of it. After all I just felt bad for the poor man, the fact that he was so into this game shocked me. I don't know a lot of people who would play their lives out on a video game so it was a bit funny.

Billy Sim

"Everybody is wrong about everything, just about all the time."

I loved that, in choosing his avatar's personality traits, Klosterman said this, that everyone is wrong about everything. His hypothesis seems pretty accurate, pointing out that many extroverts believe they are introverts, optimists see themselves as cynical, average people call themselves "creative." This relates, I think, to our discussion before about writers. People who are talented writers can feel disappointed by their own work, while others who may not be so talented may see themselves as so; and teenagers with cameras and pictures of trees think they are photographers. Perhaps everybody isn't wrong all the time, but we can certainly have different perceptions and misconceptions about ourselves and others.

"[...] I was doomed to live in my own prison, just like the singer from Creed."

Living in Ohio, where weather destroys the roads each winter, Klosterman's realization that he could never escape road construction is especially relevant. His expression, here, of feeling trapped in a prison reminds me of the Benjamin Franklin quote: Nothing is certain but death and taxes. This is a reality and when it sets in, it is very easy to feel trapped.

Billy Sim

The essay expressed very valid points when it comes to technology and identity. It made clear that this generation is looking more and more into technological entertainment as a means of escapism and ultimately a way to discover themselves. Just the fact the author looked to The Sims as a means of discovering something about himself seems a bit ludicrous, but the logic behind it is perfectly understandable. I mean, who wouldn't want to look at their own daily rituals and actions from a third person perspective? Throughout the rest of the essay, the author is able to distinguish harsh personality differences between his pseudo-character and his real self. It's funny how the author is able to discover so much about himself not through similarities, but differences. However, the most profound realization that is made in the article is the realization that the only thing that made his Sim character 'happy' was being emancipated. The author came to the conclusion that his Sim character was ultimately just as unhappy as he was, and 'deployed actualization'. In comparing the author and his Sim, they were both just as longing for a reason to live. They were just waiting for their own emancipations from the materialism and society as a whole; virtual, or real. Through the rejection of society, comes a free-will to think whatever crosses your mind or do whatever you feel. Without the rules of society, you are able to be what you've always longed for; to be you.