Book of Jamez

55 y/o malcontent, something of a writer

Category: Stories

  • Virtual Addiction (ENG 111 last essay) Grade A

    In 1981 Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia sat down to write a song expressing how the nation felt about a virtual character that had captured the hearts and quarters of America.

    ‘Cause I’ve got Pac-Man Fever, Pac-Man Fever.

    It’s driving me crazy, driving me crazy.

    I’ve got Pac-Man Fever, Pac-Man Fever.

    I’m going out of my mind, going out of my mind.

    I’ve got Pac-Man Fever, Pac-Man Fever.

    I’m going out of my mind, going out of my mind. (BucknerGarcia.com)

    Pac-Man Fever was a one hit wonder, one of those songs that everybody could relate to and was stuck in your head for days and days. Long gone are the days of Pac-Man, but the virus has mutated into a more terrible beast than the ghosts themselves, in today’s world, we have true video game addiction.

    Added to the ranks of drunks, druggies, and dope fiends—the dreaded video game player, so grab a pitchfork and torch, and join the morally righteous in their attempt to stop video games from gaining further ground in personal entertainment. Millions are suffering each day, trapped in worlds of MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) living in fantasy of violence, romance and adventure; or lost behind PSPs (Play Station Portable) and Gameboy screens experiencing the same thing. Do video games seriously pose a threat to society at large?

    Are we about to see an explosion of Video Game addiction treatment centers springing up around the world—the answer is overwhelmingly no. Patrick Isenberger, Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor, says video games can be seen as “problematic if they become someone’s whole life.” He also says that video games are more likely to become an issue to “people who have addictive personalities.” Like the alcoholic who substitutes alcohol with drugs or pornography, replacing one addiction for the other does not change behaviors, the habits just rearrange themselves to the new substance, or in this case activity. Hospitals are not in danger, at present or the foreseeable future, of being overrun with video game addicts seeking or needing help.

    Uproar about violence in video games is nothing new, first reported in 1976 with the game Death Race 2000 where you earned “points by running over stick figures. Public outcry against video game violence gains national attention, and the game is taken off the market.” (Herman et al… 6) Violent video games have not been shown to make non-violent people violent; however, to those already in such an environment the violence of a video game, television show or movie can add fuel to an already out of control fire. In other words, normal people are not suspect to become more violent when playing video games.

    In today’s world it is not uncommon for a player to spend 5 to 6 hours or more online in a virtual gaming community or even one hooked up to the TV. Blizzard, the current leader in online video game entertainment, has recently introduced parental controls allowing limits to the amount of time a child spends playing. After only one year, the game World of Warcraft (a Blizzard product) has jumped to the head of the pack in sales and subscriptions, boasting over 4 million active subscribers—with the average subscription cost of $15.99 approximately $63,960,000 a month and yet compared to the amount of alcohol sold in the world this is a single drop in the ocean. (Blizzard.com) “In 2002, 54.9% of U.S adults (18 years and older) reported drinking at least one drink in the past month.” (CDC), clearly this is more of a danger to society at large than a game or two.

    Educators, health experts and parents are concerned when a child spends hours playing a single video game; nevertheless children are allowed to spend hours watching television programming. Violence in video games is also the target of many parents and experts, and yet violence and sexual content run rampant in television and movies. “If playing too much, it short changes them in other areas, but the same can be said of television or other activities”, says Donna Marschall, PhD with Washington, DC’s Children’s National Medical Center. In children it is a parenting issue, not addiction, parents “need to set appropriate limits”. Dr. Marschall also points out that some games help children learn to interact, communicate and build effective teams to accomplish tasks and meet goals, these are good tools for some children.

    Video games are played by people of all ages as seen in a recent Washington Post article even senior citizens are into the game; Barbara St. Hilaire is a video game aficionado.

    Like many gamers, she owns a PlayStation 2, a GameCube and an Xbox, and subscribes to Electronic Gaming Monthly, Computer Gaming World and Game Informer. She drives her red 1997 Pontiac Grand Am to a nearby GameStop, where she buys and exchanges her games, and also to Hollywood Video, where she rents them. But unlike many gamers, she’s been gaming since the early 1970s. Even with her hearing aids, she turns up the volume on games so loud that, one of her grandkids says, “her room literally starts to shake.” Her treasured strategy guides — the Cliffs Notes of tough-to-beat games — are tucked next to her equally treasured cookbooks. (Vargas A01)

    Alcoholism, drug addiction, and gambling have been proven to disrupt lives, lead to bankruptcy, destroy families and can even lead to death. A physiological withdrawal is clearly seen in abstinence from alcohol, drugs and cigarettes; however, not so with the cessation of video games—there is no physiological response. “Almost anything could be an addiction,” says Chris Sarampote, PhD with the National Institutes of Mental Health. “There have been no studies to suggest a clear path to addiction from video games. While not as defined as standard addictions—alcoholism, drug addiction or gambling—the compulsion is so high addiction cannot be ruled out completely.”

    Too much of anything can be a bad thing. There is no empirical evidence to stating video games are an addiction, it is all just virtual hype.

    Works Cited

    Blizzard Entertainment. Company profile page, http://www.blizzard.com/inblizz/profile.shtml

    BucknerGarcia.com, Pacman Fever Story, http://www.bucknergarcia.com

    CDC “Alcohol Facts”, http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/factsheets/general_information.htm

    Herman, Leonard, Horwitz, Jer, Kent, Steve and Miller, Skyler “The History of Video Games.” Game Spot.com

    Isenberger, Patrick, Telephone Interview, December 2, 2005

    Marschall, Donna, Telephone Interview, December 2, 2005

    Sarampote, Chris, Telephone Interview, December 2, 2005

    Vargas, Jose Antonio, “Grandma Gets Her Game On.” Washington Post, 3 Dec. 2005: A01

  • Warm Nights

    I’m awake at 3:04 a.m. I wanted to go to sleep around 12:00 a.m.
    The heat, for some reason, wont shut off… just keeps blowing. I flipped the off button, I turned the AC on… nothing.

    First thought is: holy batwings, batman… that’s gonna cost a bundle.
    Second thought: where the hell are those important phone numbers from when I signed the lease?

    It says on that very important sheet of paper:

    situations [that] are considered an emergency:

    • fire
    • gas leak
    • no heat
    • toilet backed
    • flood
    • broken window
    • no A/C

    No where does it say too much heat… so I’m not gonna call at 12:00 a.m. or at 3:07

    But, I’m not gonna have it keep blasting heat at me. So, I flipped the fuse for it. Now I have no heat, but it’s my own fault… do I call them now? “Yeah, I have no heat… ah, duh, cause I flipped the fuse.” yeah, that sounds real smart.

    I’m about to run the heat for just a little bit, and then go to sleep, cause I’m tired… I get sleepy when it’s warm. I’d just let it run and charge the leasing company, but I have irrational fears of the thing blowing up and killing the cats… which would be bad… No, really it would be.

  • Wind Blown Rainbows and Butterscotch Dreams…

    My umbrella was destroyed in today’s wind and rain-bent and battered it still managed to block the wind and rain. It was my rainbow umbrella, I loved to spin it in a circle and it always made the song Singing In The Rain come to mind. Today we mourn the loss of another rainbow.

    “After two years without scotch, your much butter!!!” Butterscotch, get it lol… too funny.

    So, the computer instructor would really like me to sign up for some kind of teaching here at TCC, he says he has too many classes to instruct and they are always looking for good people. He says they would probably take into account work experience in the case of teaching computers. He made some reccomendations that I will consider pursuing. You need to remember, writing pays diddly til you’re “somebody”.

    A woman in my Math class (out of the blue) says: “So, are you going to get involved in the drama program this spring?” Wha…? We’ll see, it has been almost twenty years since I’ve done any real acting (pretending to be interested in certain medical professionals banter doesn’t count) and I’m not sure how it would go over.

  • Congressional Recess (Essay 2, Grade: B+)

    In recent times our government seems to have lost touch with what matters in favor of the frivolous and seemingly unimportant. The evidence clearly points to a loss of direction with Congressional Investigations into why CEOs of Oil companies are rich, a congressional recess called after the disaster of Hurricane Katrina or even the short lived “Freedom Fries” movement:

    …all references to “french fries” and “French toast” on the menus of the restaurants and snack bars run by the House of Representatives would be removed. House cafeterias were ordered to re-name french fries as “freedom fries.”

    Such actions demand congressional investigations into why our lawmakers have difficulty passing laws for universal health care, lowering the cost of malpractice insurance or finding alternative energy sources for the ever increasing cost of oil. In our country helping the poor, unemployed, homeless, and disaster victims should be paramount in the minds of our leaders. It is high time for the voters to decide what is important enough for our lawmakers to spend extra time on.

    To appease the religious right, lawmakers wrote and passed “Terri’s Law”—ordering a feeding tube reinsertion—in less than one week. Enough members of the House and the Senate showed up to work on a Saturday and the President cut short one of his many vacations to ensure the measure passed into law. Elected officials used powers—they were entrusted with—to pass a law for one individual. Is this an example of “We the People?” Will there be an individual law written for your benefit also?

    Looking at the Patriot Act, a measure passed almost immediately following the events of September 11th, we see transgressions that laugh in the face of freedom. At the time, political careers ended for those that didn’t sign, they were obviously “unpatriotic”. In Michael Moore’s controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, a member of Congress readily admits “We don’t read these bills.” Was this one they should have found the time to read?

    Running our country are the groups with money such as the “religious right”, the NRA, Big Oil. These organizations dictate the path of American values through lobbyists and money; is this path a direction you had envisioned?

    Who watches the watchmen? Who do our leaders report to? Who elected them? The answer to all three is you and me; ultimately we are the ones in charge as we put them in office. Our responsibility, as Americans, is to ensure they do the job we elected them to do, not the jobs the feel pressured into. Demand answers, action and results or sit idly by as truth, justice and the American way come to exist only in the world of comic book heros.

  • Updates

    Tuesday I handed in my Essay: Congressional Recess, which is about the way our lawmakers seem to waste time, once it’s graded I’ll let you know how I did. At the third draft stage my Professor did say he “hated it.” I love that, I need that kind of honest feedback. I then proceeded to rewrite the piece which is what was handed in. Essay #3 is a Documented Essay, I plan to write on Video Game addiction with quoted text from very intelligent people from Washington, DC.

    Last week in Math we took test #3 and my score was revealed today: 95% correct! Woot!!! Making me feel better about useless knowledge that will never come into play in my real or imaginary life.

    I came home from school, took a quick shower and shaved and went to look for a job… handed in my resume and filled out the application at the FarmFresh (local grocer) and they asked me to come back at 4:30 for orientation… God help me. [For those of you who may need to know, FarmFresh is owned by the same company that owns Cub Foods: SuperValu] So, Orientation went well, and it looks like I have to have some cashier training… still hoping Walmart will call with a better offer.

  • Saviour's Cookies

    In Psychology class we were asked to create an ad that evoked a response, below is my ad:

    Saviour’s Cookies

    An sad angel, complete with halo and wings, is on the screen holding a box of Saviour’s Cookies.

    “Last week ten children died without the heavenly taste of Saviour’s Cookies, don’t let your child be a victim, serve them the heavens light cookie: Saviour’s.”

    The angel folds her hands in prayer and we see her fly up to the heavens. Lot’s of organ music in the background.

    Of course on the back of the cookie package we’d have to have some kind of warning label about how it doesn’t actually save lives, but I think printing it in Latin would do the cookie’s justice.

    Would you feed your children Saviour’s Cookies?

  • For Publication

    At the urging of my English professor, I will be submitting three stories for the schools annual publication: Creepy Guy on a Bike, Battered Innocence (originally named Pain and Memory) and the Race for the Cure story, if I can come up with a catchy title. He also wanted me to submit My Knuckles are White, but each submission is limited to 2000 words, my story is over 4000 and try as I might, I can’t cut over half of it.

    As for writing for the school newspaper, they don’t consider anyone for a writing position until they have successfully completed ENG 111, which I’m taking now. Of course I thanked them and said “If I’m still interested in January, I’ll let you know”. LOL

  • Essay Two – Idea/Ideals

    The second Essay is to look at an idea… include at least one (informal) outside source, some quoted text, and I need to show by example…

    These are the selections I’m considering:

    AA’s watered down message of group therapy
    Congress passing laws in a day, only when it benefits them directly
    Blind Patriotism
    Gay Marriage

    Which do you think I would write well? Leave me a comment (be sure to type in the word verification after your comment) on the site.

  • Style

    I have no idea how to “write” for college. I write how I write, from how I feel.

    I realize there may be some formats that I will have to follow specifically, but as of this moment none of my instructors has said much besides “double spaced” or “on college ruled paper”.

    My first assignement in ENG 111 included the following questions and my answers:

    II. Finish the sentences below:

    1. My most memorable positive writing experience is … being published. I wrote true life article about a suicide call I received while working the night shift at a drug and alcohol treatment center. The story was a positive story about hope, help and reaching out to those in need. I was proud of the work and the article has been framed.

    2. My most memorable negative writing experience is … censorship. While I’m not sure that’s the term I want to use, that’s what it seemed like to me. I had been writing a weekly newsletter for my department for a couple of months, I had not gotten and bad reviews nor had there been any editorial control besides my own. However, one day my boss pulled me into her office to say someone had complained to her boss’s boss about one of the jokes. The truly frustrating thing for me was that person didn’t feel comfortable coming to me directly to talk about the issue, nor to my boss. I was asked to tone down the content of my newsletter and to be more considerate of others. So, for a while there was a censored version of the newsletter and an uncensored one. The uncensored version was sent to those people with a little tougher skin. News quickly spread however; soon people were begging to be added to the un-censored list, and soon the censorship it self just disappeared.

    3. A person or place I’ve always wanted to write about is … Superman. I became interested in reading and writing by following the adventures of Superman in comics and television. In my early 20’s I even wrote my own comic for a while. Looking back on that I’d say it was more of an epic story, but at the time I envisioned it as a comic.

    4. What do you know about that might be interesting for readers to read about. … Computers. I know a computer inside and out and I know how to make it do exactly what you need it to do with minimal headaches involved. I make working with your computer a fun experience.

    5. What life experience, type of work or travel could be important to your writing? I think being a recovered alcoholic/drug addict gives me a unique perspective in what I see and do. I know what it feels like to be hopeless, and I know a path or two to recover from that.

    6. What do you read that could inform your writing? Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code gave me a feel for capturing the full attention of the reader. Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series shows me the importance of details. Reading comics shows me that while a picture may be worth a thousand words, a “POW!” placed strategically can have just as much impact.