Learn all kinds of interesting historical facts!...or forget that and play games instead

I’ve never been very good at choosing my own topic for school assignments, and the Passion Blog is no exception. Maybe it’s because I rarely get passionate enough about a particular subject to visualize myself writing lengthy essays on the topic. Alternatively, I do have passions, but my ability to write about them is only a step or two above that of a bowl of tapioca which has somehow gained access to a copy of Microsoft Word. Or maybe the problem is that when I do get very passionate about one subject, I get too embarrassed about my interests and my writing in general to be able to share that passion with other people. Whatever the case, I spent most of my time on this assignment either obsessing over it without actually getting anything written, or doing unrelated things while pretending that the assignment doesn't actually exist.

There is one advantage given by having to choose a topic for a blog, an advantage which has been unavailable in other assignments in the past. This is that the blog itself can be used to talk about ideas and gauge readers’ interest in potential discussion topics. After a good deal of deliberation and running around the campus at random, I’ve picked out two potential ideas for blogs I might write. This is the part where you read those two ideas and tell me through the comments that both of them are terrible, or at least the titles are. (The titles can be changed later, so don’t worry too much about those.)

Signs of the Past

If you’ve wandered around the Penn State campus enough, you’ve probably noticed some of the signs put up by the Penn State Alumni Association which detail historical facts about the campus. Of course, there’s also a good chance that you haven’t actually noticed these signs, or at least not taken the chance to read them. Only a nerd with an odd interest in random historical facts and too much time on their hands would actually take the time to look at as many as possible, and even look further into the history surrounding these signs and what they commemorate. Fortunately, I happen to be a nerd with an odd interest in random historical facts and too much time on their hands, so if this blog option is chosen, I may do just that. If by chance I can’t find a sign or there's not a lot of information, there’s surely other odd history around Penn State just waiting to be researched and discovered.

Free Game Friday (These blogs are to be updated on Fridays, after all.)

Video games are a thing which I like to do in my spare time (if you don't believe me, check my first post), and I know that a lot of other people seem to enjoy games as well. This is not likely to change during college. What has changed, however, is my budget for obtaining video games, which has gone from “not a lot” to “literally nothing”. How can I indulge myself in fun activities while ignoring my real responsibilities now? The answer to that lies in the Internet, where kind people make games on their own time and send them out into the world at no cost except time and computer disk space. Naturally, the vast majority of these games are trash, but over time I’ve formed a small collection of free games that are high-quality enough that I feel confident in recommending them to other people (you) who will enjoy them. In this blog option, I would talk about great freeware video games people have made, what makes them great, and where you, the reader, can get them to play for yourself. People might find this topic more interesting than the other...or less. It could go either way.

So, what am I actually going to blog about for the whole semester? If there seems to be a preference for one of these topics, I’ll probably go with that. Otherwise, I’ll just pick one at random. Or maybe I’ll make up a totally new one. Who knows? All that’s for sure is that my posts probably won’t get as long as this one. I needed to ramble a bit here in order to get my heading on what to do with the assignment. Sorry about that, and thank you for reading to the end despite my rambling.