Why I Like Video Games
The potential for games, game developers and gamers themselves to change lives is often underestimated. I'm excited that I get to be a part of changing the face of gaming and to experience it so deeply.
Humans love stories. They teleport us to different worlds and show us life from a perspective we may never truly understand. They instill us with wisdom and hope and they teach us lessons about others and ourselves. Some people are readers, some people are movie buffs but me, I'm a gamer.
With a book, I only dreamt and imagined. Turning page after page racing to the end. In movies my hands gripped the theatre armrests while my eyes and ears were flooded with a sensory overload that was tainted by the imagination of another. But with a game, instead of imagining or just seeing Laura Croft tip toe down a hallway shaking with fear or waiting and hearing the shaking of commander Shepard's voice making a difficult decision I got to be them. I got to order their steps, pave their paths and experience their stories first hand.
In Halo, I got practice not just knowing about and seeing heroes but becoming one by making tough choices, fighting the good fight and helping others along the way.
In Life is Strange, I got to think critically and cry, as I lost someone I'd grown fond of without letting revenge consume me.
In Beyond Eyes, I got to be young again and immerse myself in the footsteps of a child very different from me while helping her mother grieve.
In Rayman Legends, I got to push my self farther and faster to the music of teamwork and coordination
In Goat Simulator, I also got to be a crazy goat in the big city.
The potential for games, game developers and gamers themselves to change lives is often underestimated. I'm excited that I get to be a part of changing the face of gaming and to experience it so deeply.
Find me on Xbox Live with gamertag: Iam Full of WIN
EDEN BodyWorks Turns 12
Happy 12th birthday to @edenbodyworks ❤️💁🏽❤️here's to a beautiful future!
14 years ago I lost my hair and I thought I lost everything.
13 years ago I developed an oil to help heal my scalp and regrow my hair.
12 years ago I learned that I could help others, share my story and change the world by starting a company.
After more than a decade of traveling the world, meeting men and women of all ages, colors and textures, developing dozens of products and supporting initiatives and people that align with our values, I couldn't be more proud of the impact #TeamEDEN has had to date.
Happy 12th birthday to @edenbodyworks ❤️💁🏽❤️here's to a beautiful future!
You are not a beautiful flower
I will plead ignorance to any impact I may have had on your demise and I will not mourn your passing.
Dear flower,
You are so beautiful and for that I will pluck you from your brethren and expedite your death. For days I will watch as your beauty fades. Your fragrance will dissipate and so will my attention. I will remember and long for you as the flower you were and never be satisfied by the flower you are becoming. I will plead ignorance to any impact I may have had on your demise and I will not mourn your passing.
Because you are just a flower. You were once beautiful. You have served your purpose and I have no more need of you.
Sincerely, The one who chose you
Dear Reader,
You are not a beautiful flower, picked at it's prime. You are a person. You were meant for more than just to be beautiful for someone else's pleasure. You can have a legacy that is remembered through the ages. Always remember the person you were and use their experience as strength as you run towards and define the person you are becoming. Take responsibility for your life and use it serve others.
Because you are not a flower. You will always be beautiful. You serve a purpose and the world needs you.
Sincerely, Jasmine
Walking the Walk
Sometimes I don't want to fight. I don't want to have to be strong for the people who will come after me. I just want to sit and sulk and cry and for things to just be different. But then I see someone else's light because I've surrounded myself with just the right people and they love on me in little ways that aren't always clear to them and just like that the fire is stoked.
I can't remember who or what it was. It could've been my parents. It could've been all the PBS I watched. It could've been all the children's books I read about dreaming, wanting, and doing. It could've been my youth pastor who helped me see that I was meant to serve.
Someone put a fire in me. A fire that makes me want to do more, be more, and not accept the world for what it is. Someone else helped me temper that fire so I could pick my battles, create strategies and execute with grace and precision. It's like one day I just woke up from a haze of floating through life and it began.
I see problems in my life: the way people are treated, the way that some systems were built, and the fear that hinders people from taking their next step. Dozens of problems, big and small, old and new. Sometimes there's such an overwhelming amount of darkness it feels that it may not be worth it to be a light. I can't help everyone or fix everything. What is the point.
But I want to be a part of a solution. I refuse to feel helpless. Like there is nothing I can do to make change. I don't care if I'm just one person. I want to believe I can do anything. Not because I can but because then I will try. You can't take away my desire to try. Or fail. But at least I tried.
Sometimes I have to settle with the truth that in the end only my perspective has been changed. I think that counts.
Sometimes I don't want to fight. I don't want to have to be strong for the people who will come after me. I just want to sit and sulk and cry and for things to just be different. But then I see someone else's light because I've surrounded myself with just the right people and they love on me in little ways that aren't always clear to them and just like that the fire is stoked.
Thank you to all the people who help me be me. I'm doing my best and you know that but you may not understand that with the small ways that you impact my life you enable me to live my life serving others the way you have served me.
#greaterthanthesumofourparts
Work haikus
I wrote some haikus about work.
Take a deep breath, write a haiku, carry on. These are from a particularly tough week. Why no good day haikus? Because on the good days my energy is poured into the work I do and the people I work with. These haikus were meant to encapsulate a moment, affirm that it existed and as a reminder of how small the moment was in the light of eternity.
Even days when you are following your passion, or living your dream, can be hard. I was taught not to give up when things are hard. I was taught that the way I carried myself through hard times was a truer reflection of my character than many other times. To share joy that cannot be stolen by events of this world I take a moment, release the stress, and recognize the strength that fills me is not my own.
Cool, fresh, morning air
Inbox full of unread mail
Time to get it done
Talk but don't listen
Where are all the markers at?
How not to meeting
What is your status?
What is the priority?
So this is agile
Coffee, more coffee
I don't need to eat today
I am burning out
Don't build it like that
New designs are due today
Now the feature's cut
It is 5PM
There's too much work to leave now
This has to ship soon
Dinner on the go
Red bang mails are coming in
On my way in now
Work in industry
Get all the monies and perks
Can you tough it out?
Kintsugi as an analogy of God's grace.
275 word analogy of Kintsugi and God's grace.
This plate is an example of what one may try to be when people are watching: perfect, pure, clean and having the appearance that everything in order.
But I feel like this this plate is more realistic depiction of how we actually are or can sometimes feel on the inside: broken from the challenges of life, just trying to hold it together to get through the day.
Here's where the analogy starts: Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. At the end of the process you have a piece of art work that is more beautiful than it was before it was broken, because it was broken.
Below is epoxy mixed with gold dust. It symbolizes God's grace. I like to think if it as an infinite, all encompassing, life changing mix of forgiveness and love.
God's grace doesn't make us perfect but it does set us free. Free from what you ask? From guilt, from shame and embarrassment, from thinking that we are not good enough, from thinking that we need to be something we're not, from societal standards, from hurt and anger, from bitterness and hopelessness, from sin. God's grace gives us a right lens through which to to see ourselves and an example of the way we should treat others.
So like this plate I am glad to have been both broken and a recipient of God's grace. I can remember that the struggles I have been through, that God has brought me through, as beautiful marks that built me into the person I was always meant to be.
Change The World - Hour of Code 2015
I had another great opportunity to work with with Code.org for Hour of Code (as a member of Team Xbox) and to share my thought on how getting more women into computing can really change the world. I was honored to "co-star" with some other amazing women who are doing big things including Sheryl Sandberg, Karlie Kloss, May-Li Khoe, Mia Epner, Alice Steinglass, Jess Lee, Jessica Alba, Paola Mejía Minaya, Malala Yousafzai, and Susan Wojcicki.
HCDE 511 Final Visualization
This is a project I worked on for my information visualization class. I'm debating whether or not i want to make a portfolio showcasing more of my work from grad school.
You can find the visualization here
Code.org: Learn how the Internet actually works
I recently partnered with Code.org (as a member of Team Xbox) to help explain one of life's great mysteries. I had a great time co-hosting with Tumblr founder David Karp.
You can find the Code.org blog post here and my video below.
On Stage at Gamescom 2015
I really should update my blog when more awesome stuff happens to me. Like the giant picture of my face in this POLYGON ARTICLE. Check out the briefing I was honored to participate in below. Check out my segment at 1:07:15