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I went to the hospital yesterday to welcome Dan's son, Liam, to the world. Had a good time visiting Jenn and Liam and hanging out with her sister and her boyfriend. We hung out for about 3 hours talking about random thoughts and helping the boyfriend figure out what parts to buy for a new computer. It wasn't until the 1am drive home last night that it really occurred to me what was said by the nurse giving the discharge information. "Birth to Life" I dont know exactly what she was talking about at the time but she kept referencing the transition from "Birth to Life" when explaining different details of their new baby.
What exactly does this phrase mean and why would this nurse continue to phrase it as a transition in which the baby had no life prior to being born? At what point is it considered that a child is living? Isn't there laws which state that an abortion cannot be done after a certain time because the pregnancy is too far along, meaning life has begun? I dont know why this really hit home as much as it did. I dont agree with abortion of any kind for any reason... Life as far as I'm concerned is the moment of fertilization. I guess its kind of a topic thats been in my head lately. After the events of that woman who killed another and cut the baby out of her and they found that the baby was not considered murdered because it never took a breath...
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/07/oregon.pregnancy.murder/index.html?iref=newssearch
I'm sorry but after 8 months that baby is living... Liam was born after 8 months and I dont know... looks pretty alive to me. I dont understand how they cant count the baby as being murdered, that bitch needs to go away for double homicide.
So I come back to this "Birth to Life" thing. I wanna know if this is something that hospitals have started asking their nursing staff to say to protect themselves from such cases. Are we trying to callus ourselves up for a world where abortion is part of an ordinary way of life? I dont like this world we are developing in which we no longer consider when a life matters. Whats next, children in the military? Why not? Other countries do it, lets just use them as cannon fodder so the soldiers with experience can do the real damage.
This world is bullshit!
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Written for my WR 121 class, Fall Term 2008
After the release of World of Warcraft in November of 2004, several million players have become increasingly engrossed within the virtual world created by Blizzard Entertainment. When I say several million, it was just a few weeks ago when the folks at Blizzard officially announced they now have over 11 million monthly subscribers to their online game. At $15 a month per subscription, Blizzard has certainly hit the mark when it comes to feeding into an ever-growing problem around the world. Even websites like Olganon (Online Gamers Anonymous) and GamerWidows have been developed as a direct reaction the epidemic of addicted gamers. But what do we do to solve the problem?
In Short, the game takes place in a virtual world where players interact with other players around the world fulfilling various tasks and duties. Each player controls their very own persona in which they pursue careers as a mighty warrior or the weak mage who packs a ferocious fireball. Many players even choose to play multiple personas to vary their role within the game. The almost cartoony art style to the game gives World of Warcraft its distinct look from the other online worlds out on the market today such as Everquest II, Age of Conan, and EVE Online.
Why might a person decide to play an online game? For me it was rather simple, I enjoy games already and I enjoy socializing with people online so playing an online game was a natural fit for me. I have always been kind of anti-social outside any online setting and World of Warcraft allows me to fulfill my desire for some sort of interaction with other people. Others may have joined the game because of a friend or spouse who already play just to gain the attention of the person they know who can’t seem to escape from the virtual reality. I’m sure there are all sorts of reasons people would pick up the game. The problem is figuring out how to put the game back down.
What makes games like World of Warcraft so addictive? The trouble with online games is there is no real end to them, the worlds are persistent. Life within the game continues when you are not even logged in. The first goal for most players is to reach the highest obtainable level to be among the best players in the world. After reaching the highest level, then there are upgrades to armor and weapons to obtain. However, these upgrades aren’t that easy to obtain, more times than not the gear a player is looking for requires a group of other players to get to after several hours of working together. Even then the chance for the item being found is completely random thus making the players repeat the task over and over until his desired item is discovered. For example, an item I needed to upgrade my online persona took almost a year to recover after several attempts every week at 6 hours per encounter. “Online games such as World of Warcraft clearly demand more from their players than your average first-person shooter or sports game. To play all parts of the game calls for skills that takes time and perseverance to develop.” (Levin) There is always the next goal in an online game, and with the recent release of Blizzard’s Wrath of the Lich King there are all sorts of brand new goals for almost every WoW player.
The price a player pays from their online addiction can be any number of things. Loss of job, failure in school, loss of friends and family, eating disorders, physical disorders and even death are all reported issues that have been a result of online gaming addiction. At first glance you wouldn’t think of death being a result of wow addiction but it was reported last year that a Korean couple was charged last year when their 4-month old daughter died while they were playing WoW at a nearby internet café. It isn’t just Warcraft causing the problem either, a man in South Korea died from exhaustion after playing yet another Blizzard title, Starcraft, for 50 straight hours. On a more personal level, I’ve lost jobs after several late night marathons in the virtual world and have struggled with school work as a result.
So how does a player deal with their addiction to an online virtual world? In China, all persons 18+ are limited to the amount of time allowed to play in an online game by the government. Maybe a similar course of action should be required to be enforced on the software companies that develop these games. “… many gamers wind up begging for help in online support groups rather than seeking out mental health professionals.” (Kennedy) There are a number of 12-step programs out there to feed the adopted term of “internet addiction” in which Olganon.org has adopted from the folks of Alcoholics Anonymous. The treatment of WoW addiction isn’t just for the players , but for the people effected in their lives as well, GamerWidows.com is one such website for players to discuss the addictions of the people they know and how to seek help. “The American Psychiatric Association is considering adding video game addiction to the next edition of its diagnosis book for mental health professionals.” (Jackson)
Online addiction to games is an ever-increasing problem and with new online games coming out in the not so distant future, I don’t see the problem going away any time soon. There needs to be some kind of regulation set in place for the people who may have a harder time avoiding this sort of problem to keep from getting it so it doesn’t affect their lives and the lives of the people around them. I have an idea, the next time you hear a co-worker, classmate or friend talking about their online encounters within a game, ask if they’d like to chill sometime and get them away from the game. As we say within the game, “Life > WoW.”
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Written as a Personal Essay for my WR 121 class, Fall Term 2008.
As far back as I could remember, there had been a house that always remained a consistent place I could call home. The house wasn’t my own home but my grandparents and no matter how far away we lived or financial living situation, the house had always been there to go to as a place of refuge. The house was once a truly magical place that reigned supreme atop a hill. It became a place of dreams where battles were won and horrors have been conquered. It was a place of joy, and laughter, and even tears, but only in my dreams do those feelings remain. No matter how long it has been since I’ve visited the house, it still remains a consistent part of my life. I think it is important for someone to have a place that you can call home, where you interact with a loving family, and where you learn to be yourself.
Driving to my grandparent’s house seemed like an escape from reality on every visit. Nestled in the back hills of Beaverton, OR, their home seemed to remove itself from the hard yet worn city streets; we vanished into a lush heavily populated community of moss-covered cedar and fir trees. The drive to their house flowed more like water cutting across a canyon, banking up to a point and rushing down around a bend, and when every rock in the gravel road shaking the car like rapids against a boat. And just when you think you can’t handle the rapids any longer, you escape the grasp of the outstretched limbs of the overgrowth and are thrust upon the emerald green hill. The smell of the crabapple tree blended with fresh cut grass was the hills friendly greeting as we climbed the drive up towards the house. And there it was sitting at the top like a king upon its throne and even the sunlight reflected jewel for a window resting at its peak.
As an extension of the house itself, the trees became a roof stretching over the south end as if they were the hands of the house sheltering its eyes from the sun. Underneath the branches a shaded section of the deck wrapped around a majority of the house where it had seen numerous events, from family reunions, wedding receptions, and large family barbeques. The summer under the trees was a way of keeping cool in the hot summer months, allowing us to keep cool and protected from the heat of the sun. At least once a day we would gather on the deck to lounge around for any number of activities, from chucking freshly picked corn from the garden to cracking the hard shells of walnuts to even knitting. Always watching over us on the deck was the great protector of a giant Oak tree, littered with holes of woodpeckers who made sure to remind us not to sleep in too early in the morning with there chain gun ratta-tat-tat of a nuisance.
I discovered at an early age my fondness of gardening, or rather, my lack there of but I learned how important it was to develop the skills of a gardener. The garden was across an ocean of field stretching out to the north end where the eyes would focus on the large conifers that stood at the base of the wooden gate like sentry guards protecting the garden surrounded by a living wall. The Jays would fight us over the blueberries, grapes and cherries but we won valiantly with pie covered with a cloud of whipped cream. The harvested corn became a weekly tribute at our BBQ’s and the cucumbers were pickled and savored over the years. The playground that was the garden also protected two large walnut trees at its back end where monkeys use to swing from its limbs. The harvested the nuts from those trees produced some of the most mouth-watering brownies ever known to mankind. There was a magic all on its own when it carried itself throughout the house as if to reawaken the senses from a coma with a sweet buttery aroma of milk chocolate and roasted nuts.
The section of cut grass in front of the house spanned out to the north like a slightly lumpy football field. It was our Olympic stadium of sorts where bikes were learned how to be used and golf clubs were swung. Even when the grass was uncut and up to the elbows, the yard became a battlefield to hide in, playing Cowboys and Indians, or various types of war games. On some summer nights the field became our campground where tents were nothing just a mere reflection of society. On the field in our tent the house no longer existed, it was just us and the stars, and the occasional silent whoosh of a dark object with a large wingspan that was undoubtedly an owl out on the hunt. It was the star-speckled sky that sheltered us from the elements of the world and we were safe. It was only the damp morning dew covering the grass, covering us, that made the experience of camping under the stars regrettable.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been up to the castle on the hill. It became too much for a couple of still young grandparents to handle anymore. Their children had all grown up and have moved off to new places of their own. I have however visited the development that seemed to have chewed up all the woods, the fields and even the guardian oak tree and spewed out houses in their place. Where trees once shaded the house, cars now rush past with no acknowledgment of the historical landmark the house is to the hill. To any other person the house may be nothing more than an old gray house with odd triangular shapes for windows and outer walls in weird places. But for me the castle on the hill still lives on, where monkeys swing from the giant walnut trees, epic battles are won, and the nightmares are conquered, its my late night protector, it will always be my home.
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Late last night I was in the mood to go through my netflix instant queue and knock out a movie on my list. After watching Ben Stein in the documentary titled "Exposed", I didn't feel like I was ready to get to sleep. It came down to a choice between watching "Summer of Same" or "Gameplan". I ended up choosing "Gameplan" because I thought it would be light and fun before going to bed.
Ultimately watching the movie was a terrible mistake. I laid there for atleast an hour, if not an hour point five contemplating my feelings towards the events of the film. Let me tell you a little bit about myself first before I go on. I'm 27 (or is it 28, I dont remember atm) and I haven't had any kind of physical interaction with that of the female-kind in atleast 2 years. No dates, no anything, and I'm effin lonely! I have a friend who's married with 1 kid and 1 on the way. Another friend who's had kids pretty much since I knew him in high school. I'd give anything to have a family of my own right now. So late last night after watching the movie, I laid there in the darkness contemplating the life I wish I had.
The "Game Plan" in brief is about a pro football player who is visited by a daughter he had never met before. Throughout the movie, he goes through a bit of personal growth has he deals with suddenly becoming a father and maintaining his football career. The part that really got to me was the interaction he had with his daughter and his attempts to take part in her interests, such as ballet. I think the part that gets me is that I dream about having that kind of interaction with a child of my own. I want to be someone looks up to and learns from.
This wasn't the first time I've done this. There was another movie that came out about a year ago called "Definately, Maybe" about a girl who asks her dad a series of questions about how he met her mom. Theres a kind of bond there between the father and daughter that feels so powerful and you can see the love they have for eachother.
I know it may sound kind of cheesy but with both films I couldn't help but tear up just a little. I'd give anything to have a family, think about it all the time. I know it'll come in time, but time flies and I'm not getting any younger. I guess the moral of the story is to be careful of what you watch late at night before bed. Stick with the things you dont long for, like drama or horror films (unless thats the kinky thing your into).
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