poster comments

writing workshop

AB 1) Hyde, "Addictions: Gambling, Smoking, Cocaine Use, and Others"

-Medical definitions of addiction
-Explanation of tolerance and withdrawal
-Substance related behavior
-Narcotic use and alcoholism

AB 2) Rauh, "Detox for video games"

-Detox experimenting in Amsterdam
-Alcohol dependency in comparison to gaming addiction
-Realizing and accepting addiction

Addiction.

So, after being assessed, it appears that I should show how excessive gaming and addiction correlate. Examine the type of addiction, such as social or mental, and the surroundings and supporting points as to why it may be identified as a social or mental addiction. Socially, referring to addictive gaming, the addiction may be an effect due to friends who play, or the fantasy world itself. Mentally, I can examine self-control to the point where one feels he HAS to keep playing or just can't stop playing and why this feeling exists. These factors will help identify the case of whether an addiction actually exists and the causes to why it does.

Addiction?

1) Excessive gaming is a problem in many homes, and the conflict that has arisen in examining excessive gaming is trying to determine what defines excessive gaming.
2) While originally trying to assess the causes and effects of excessive gaming, I have encountered an obstacle in trying to identify these ideas. The obstacle is based on determining which cases of gaming are considered excessive gaming to the point of a problem, and which cases of gaming are just for leisure. This is interesting because when viewing 2 similar cases, there is almost no direct way to diagnose whether an individual's excessive gaming can be referred to as an addiction or not.
3) It is important here to define what an addiction is in order to examine the cases and determine if ones' excessive gaming is actually due to an addiction. Understanding addiction can help in examining whether a person plays a game to the point of excessiveness. After understanding all of these terms, it will help in examining the causes as to why one may be gaming in excess, as well as the effects.

Lives of Sex Workers in Turkmenistan

The object of this research is to explore sex workers’ insight on the possible risks of being a sex worker, and to advise the sex workers about HIV prevention as well as other STDs. The sampled population included 9 individuals in all, eight being sex workers, ranging in age from 26 to 38, and one expert from Turkmenistan National AIDS Center. Five of the sex workers come from the city of Ashgabat and three from Russia. The work environment of the sex workers includes the streets and the bars. Based on those who were examined, an overall conclusion was made that the knowledge of HIV transmission is poor among the sex workers. These people feel that they are at low risk which leads to them not practicing safe sex. Although it has not been a priority of theirs to get tested, the sex workers all said that they would be interested in being tested regularly if it were free. By using the term sex workers, does that imply that this is a profession and is legal there? Zulfiya Chariyeva, from the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, frowned at the question and replied saying, “no it’s definitely not legal there, in fact, the sex workers are sometimes forced to satisfy the needs of the police with the hopes of being released".

Babel: A study of languages in the emergency department

Language concordance is detrimental in the emergency departments, because in certain situations, a case could be a matter of life or death. The goal of this research is to gain an understanding of the linguistic needs of the patients. Suburban hospitals face a language barrier due to the diversity of people requiring services. People enter daily who do not speak English as their first language. Interpreters are sometimes available for non-native English speakers. The tremendous rise in the immigrant population leads to a higher demand of variety and availability of interpreters to ensure that the needs of the patients who can’t speak English are fulfilled. There is a total of fourty-four diverse languages spoken in the emergency department. What is the solution to the problem of needing more interpreters? What about solving the problem of the variety of languages spoken? Ginny Lee, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill department of emergency medicine, said the following: “the goal when searching for employees who are going to be interpreters is to find more people who are fluent in various languages rather than just in one”.

Title I Spending

Title I is included in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The goal of the Act is to fund primary and secondary education in schools with a high percentage of students from low-income families. The point of the funds is to improve professional development, educational program support resources, and instructional materials. Title I funding is regulated by the No Child Left Behind organization. In order for a school to qualify for the funding, 40% or more of the students must come from families that qualify as low-income.

In this study, questionnaires were completed by four different schools, revealing the percentage of low-income families as well as the demographics of the schools. The aspects that were improved by the funding in the four schools include: more teachers, teaching assistants, a pre-kindergarten program, curriculum specialists, computers and software, and books. Although the schools had somewhat similar demographics, the funds were spent differently. A school with 241 students belonging to low-income families out of 344 students was funded $68,200; whereas, another school with 236 out of 311 students coming from low-income families was funded $120,000. Why would there be such a significant difference in the amount of money funded between two schools with such similar demographics? Julius Tillery, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, responded saying, “many factors have an effect in deciding which schools get what amounts, for example, location plays a big part because of things like food and technology delivery and the cost to influence teachers to live and work where they are needed”.

Focusing Excersize

Steps:
1- open lead-in one-line statement
2- Why this topic is “a problem or issue, that is, a conflict or something unsettled, perplexing, vexing, distressful, and in the need of investigation” - why is it interesting?
3- justifications for further inquisition (why is it important that #2 be answered?).

1- MMORPGs are silent in-home hindrances that interfere with daily life of persons of all ages.

2- Playing games is something done all the time all over the world, however, the possible effects of the MMORPGs are what intrigue me. Since there is no one individual type of person who sits down to play games at the computer, I'm curious as to what aspects of the games are able to attract its diverse audience. Although the audience may vary, there is no individual character trait of the audience who suffers from the effects of online gaming. Instead of delaying tasks of one's daily life, why can't some people leave the game environment, even if just for a small amount of time to complete tasks.

3- A deeper understanding of the causes for a person's addiction to an online game, as well as, the effects of online gaming would put me in a better position to relay information to those who have already been sucked into the virtual world of online gaming and to those who are already feeling the effects and may not even notice it. With a better understanding of debilitating effects of the virtual world and its effects due to excessive or long-term use would lead people like parents to a better understanding of why and how certain reactions of gamers take place, as well as what to do about it.

Pulling questions out:

> What are aspects of the audience of online gamers that the creators of the game are searching for? What type of people are they trying to attract, and what characteristics of the game do they use in order to attract a larger and more diverse audience? What aspects of the game are created in order to keep the audience playing for as long as possible?

> Once the audience is attracted and spend immense portions of they free time, if it is their free time that they are spending, what are the negative effects they suffer from due to the incredible amount of fun they are having? How can these effects be prevented and what steps can be taken in order to reduce the number of victims?

Topic Progress

With my topic, I'm pretty sure that I need to continue to narrow it down in order to keep my topic from being too broad. Today we covered the boolean operators to be used in search engines which I can use from this point forward to narrow my searches and find information more relevant to the topic that I have. Previous searches involved me doing a lot of clicking and reading on sites that showed up as a result of the search in a search engine. With these boolean operaters, I should be able to find what I'm looking for a lot faster than before with a lot less clicking and reading, ultimately leading to less time wasted.

Responses to poster

In a survey of about 30 people there were several opinions upon gaming and whether people feel that people can easily become addicted to games. Out of all the responses, two categories can be created to separate most of the feelings people have for gaming. The first side basically says: "too much of anything makes you an addict". The other opinions feel that gaming for recreation and relaxation purposes can only have good effects.

Gaming: A problem? Or not?

Video games are a great concern of society today in many aspects. Gaming systems are found in many areas such as at home, in dorms of college students, and even in the workplace. With gaming opportunities so widely available, one may tend to wonder: “are all of these games a good thing or a bad thing?”. Although there is no direct answer to this question, there are strong supportive statistics for each argument.

On the negative side, games tend to affect younger kids’ social lives, college students’ grades, and the productivity of the working-class. Video games never were such a problem in the past due to society being less advanced, technologically. In the times today, with such technological capabilities, newer gaming options are available almost daily. On the positive side, however, playing games is a great stress reliever. For people ranging from the ages of childhood to adulthood, gaming can provide a break from the real-time stressors of today.

For gaming:
All work and no play make Johnny a very boring guy.
Against gaming:
Life isn’t about fun and games
Neutral position:
Work before play

Potential Questions:
What are the problems with games found in the home, dorm room, and workplace?Why do people become so addicted to games?Is there controversy over the use of the word “addiction”?What are the different types of gaming that produce problems?Are there any benefits to gaming?

Gaming
Gaming comes in many different styles. From video games to gambling, controversy is presented. When the word “addiction” is used, many people find themselves in denial, unwilling to admit any problem they may have, if any at all. Gaming for many isn’t much of a problem, however, there are those who have become addicted to excessive gaming. To consider excessive gaming a problem would be somewhat the same as considering ones addiction to shopping, eating, gambling, sex, and even drugs.

References:
Are Games Addictive? Retrieved January 15, 2008 from Gamasutra website: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060228/clark_01.shtml

Problem Gaming. Retrieved January 15, 2008 from National Council on Problem Gaming website: http://www.ncpgambling.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1

I like dogs

I am making a blog because I was told to. I like to do what I am told to stay out of trouble. Trouble is bad Mkay?