Morning lecture by Danielle McNamara from ASU. Preaches for “games” (she speaks incredibly broadly about this topic) to be used as educational tools but argues adamantly that games themselves have NO LEARNING VALUE. She proves this by administering pre- and post- examinations to groups who play a (pretty shitty-looking*) game vs. watching a powerpoint presentation. *[they admit to this, saying they didn’t have the money to make good games so they just “gamified” stuff]

I got riled up. Still bummed about my camera. Bugs in our tracking program are keeping me down too. Cash is leaking out of me in fat streams as I prepare for this panama trip. I’m also battling against the dwindling business days in which I can purchase equipment and have it before setting off to panama.

Have to keep reminding self that I’ll be fine no matter what and that money spent prepping for ULTIMATE BADASSERY is always worth it. Decided to upgrade to a full 3D gopro. Need to capture and share footage that the world has yet to see! Who knows how well the system will actually work though.

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Dropped Maria off and had to miss the rest of the evening’s activities. Found my way to barefoot beach. Giant gopher tortoises crawling everywhere! Manatee reserve on one side, beach on the other. Signs everywhere saying beach closes at dark, but no one comes to throw me out. Get caught up taking weird long exposure pictures anyway.

Dissembling and trying to clean the broken camera

Get scared by monkeys(?) in tree. Things in woods. A little scared of armadillos.

Finally set up camp. My tent is fantastic. Up in just 5 mins. Large, airy, and cool inside. Fist time lying down fully reclined all week! saw shooting stars and fell asleep against the sky, sand, and waves.