The Final Grade of UC 256

The class of UC 256 has come to a close and I felt it was necessary if to share my feeling about this course. There have many blog post and class presentations about the good and bad that many had experienced throughout this semester. Personally, I didn’t think this class was so bad, and compared to classes that I have taken so far, it is definitely one of the better ones.

What I liked most about this course is that variety of content that were presented. I know this an interdisciplinary course and consequently required but I felt the ones they chose for the most were pretty interesting. The only thing that I wasn’t really thrilled about was how we didn’t engage deeply into those topics. Yes, we had reading quizzes, and opportunities to blog, but I thought it would be a little more interactive. To be honest I’m not really sure how we could change that, but maybe with a smaller class size, if that is even possible.

Another hot topic of this course was the discussion of the grading system. I don’t think it was necessarily unfair because there were so many options to get the points I needed instead of like most classes where your whole grade is based off of three assessments. Also, those assignments were not hard and really long except the major quest, so the workload for the class wasn’t really heavy.

With that being said and going off the topic classes and grades, I want to award UC 256 with a grade of a B⁺. This course would have gotten an A if it were more interactive and not just write about them in blogs or answer reading quizzes.

More Perspectives on Drug Testing in Sports

http://www.cagepotato.com/mma-steroid-busts-definitive-timeline/

I recently read a very interesting academic article on doping titled “Blue Sky Steroids”1 from the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology.  In that article, Geoffrey Rapp introduced a very interesting perspective on drug testing.  Cleverly refuting several anti-doping arguments and citing the ineffectiveness of drug testing, he argued that doping should be allowed but subject to a full disclosure policy similar to the so-called ‘Blue Sky’ laws enforced on corporations. 

The ‘Blue Sky’ laws force companies to give shareholders full disclosure of what they are doing with their money.  So, though there are few direct limitations on what corporations can do with their investors’ money, they do have to take into account ‘market values.’  No want will want to invest with a company that makes foolish or overly risky decisions. 

Rapp believed that disclosure of players’ drug use would similarly subject team owners to ‘market values.’  If fans actually disapprove of doping, players who dope would loose their support.  I think that Rapp’s view deserves a second look because it allows for judgment on a case-by-case basis by the people whose opinions actually matter.  After all, the problem with doping is that detracts from the meaningfulness we find from success in sports, and meaningfulness is a matter of opinion.  An example Rapp used was that fans might disagree with a young, healthy player’s use of human growth hormone (HGH) but OK an older player using it to recover from an injury.

However, there is one problem I see with this solution.  If fans disapprove of doping then won’t athletes will simply go back to doping in secret and won’t we have the same drug testing problem all over again?  What do you think?

1. Rapp, Geoffrey. "Blue Sky Steroid." Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. 99.3 (2009): 599-618. Web. 14 Apr. 2012.

Hockeytown: The Home of Playoff Hockey

                Motown?  Hockeytown?  Whatever you like to call it, Detroit is home to the greatest hockey team in the history of the sport.  The Detroit Red Wings have made the NHL playoffs every year since before I was born.  That’s 21 straight seasons, with 4 Stanley Cups in that span.  The Wing’s playoff streak is the longest in all professional sports. 

I have been a Red Wings fan as long as I can remember, and am used to them always reaching the post-season.  This year is no exception, however, something was a little different.  The Wings are in the playoffs as the 5^th seed because this season their division was incredibly good.  Usually they are one of the top four teams and earn the home team advantage.  Four of the five teams in their division made the playoffs which has never happened in this division.  

Currently they are playing their division rival Nashville in the first round of the playoffs.  I think that this is going to be a great series.  The atmosphere of playoff hockey in Detroit is electrifying and with a rival in town it can only get more exciting.  These two teams have always had a very competitive and physical rivalry which makes for a great series, but more importantly just great hockey!  Despite the Wings being down 2-1 in the series I think they will pull even in the next game and take the series in 6 or 7 games.  GO WINGS!

The Final Game

As the end of the semester approaches, students are rushing to finish their assignments and are vigorously studying for exams.  Final exams are used by teachers in order to evaluate their students based on how much material throughout the course the students have actually acquired.  Personally, I find finals to be too stressful of an event to determine the student's accurate acquisition of knowledge throughout the course.  Because finals create unnecessary pressure, students often are under too much stress, and therefore "break" and perform subpar on their exams.  Especially after class and hearing the presentations of how to redesign the structure of the university as well as the individual course, I find finals to be an inefficient method of evaluation.  The final exam period at the university can easily be looked at through the lens of gaming.  Because the stress and pressure creates a rigid and tense atmosphere throughout the entire campus, students are competing with others to study more, do better, and eventually receive the better grade.  Each student is its own player, making strategic moves in hopes of outsmarting others and eventually "winning the game", or getting a higher grade.  I cannot wait for finals to be over so I can finally relax and not feel as though I am a player in a high-risk game!

Psychology in Hunger Games

     The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, was undoubtedly an exciting novel with action-packed adventure, but I have focused more on a perspective that many others may have not.  When reading this novel for my book quest, through all the different twists and turns that the story took I felt there was a very prominent aspect of psychology within the games.  There were many instances in which the characters were forced to make decisions in the game that often entailed very positive or negative consequences.  The many factors and motives that went into the characters' decision making led me to my emphasis on the field of psychology and various mind games.

Katniss and Peeta

     A very common theme throughout the Hunger Games was the obvious connection between Katniss and Peeta.  Prior to the games even beginning though, Katniss was immediately faced with the obstacle of being selected alongside Peeta, who had previously saved Katniss' life when they were children.  Katniss felt like she owed him, yet she was now expected to kill him in the games which really forced her into a dilemma.  By the end of the games, Katniss and Peeta were the only two left.  It seemed as if it was now inevitable that one of them had to die now that the newly established rule of same-district winners had been revoked and it was secretly the plan of the Gamemakers all along.

    This was a prominent point in the book that facilitated my focus on mind games that the characters had been a part of.  With the devotion to her love for Peeta, Katniss comes up with the brilliant plan for them eat the poisonous berries together and then pretend to be deeply in love with Peeta in order to both be declared winners and not be held accountable for their actions.  With stunning acting, the both pull it off and convince everyone that they are truly in love.  This both has an affect on the audience and spectators of the games as well as Katniss herself.  They had now escaped their biggest problem and most importantly death, but now Katniss was unsure if Peeta actually had a real love for her.  This was just another instance of how manipulative the characters were throughout the development of the Hunger Games.

     A very interesting speaker we had in our class that always stands out in my mind was Stephen Garcia who lectured about psychology of competition.  The struggle between Katniss and Peeta as well as their focus on winning the Hunger Games was a situation where psychology played a major role.  One of the main concepts he expressed that was very evident throughout the book was social facilitation.  This concept states that competition and motivation on a given task increases when you work in pairs or small groups as opposed to alone.  This can be exemplified by the many alliance realignments such as Katniss' alliance with Rue and the on-and-off alliance with Peeta.  I can agree with this with first-hand experience that working together with someone is always more tempting.  It gives you a sense of reassurance when you think may be incapable of reaching your goal, ultimately providing more motivation.  Additionally, Dr. Garcia discussed the role of situational factors on competition.  Such examples included time, resources, and perhaps even the role of love, which all can profoundly impact the course of a game like it did in this book.  With the scarcity of food and supplies as well as the relationship between Katniss and Peeta, the level of competition in the games were without a doubt altered.  The love Katniss and Peeta may have had for each other completely changed the course of the game as an alliance between the two may never have even existed.  As far as I see it, the Hunger Games would have been a completely different story without the various psychological factors that were clearly put in play.

     I believe my understanding of the Hunger Games was enhanced by my prior knowledge surrounding the psychology that goes into competition and games.  It offered me a perspective on this story that probably would not have even crossed my mind.  Rather than simply following the storyline and plot, I was able to pick apart the motives and psychological mechanisms of the characters.  Katniss' love for Peeta as well as the strategy going into the various alliances formed contributed to my complete comprehension of the story, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Can There Ever Be Equal Competition?

I’ve recently been reading a few blogs and comments about how many think the NBA is unfair and uninteresting to watch because of teams that are “stacked”. Like the Miami Heat with the Big 3 and also the Boston Celtics and their big players, like Allen, Garnett, and Pierce. The same goes with the disappointment people feel with the NCAA basketball tournament and champions the Kentucky Wildcats and how those players aren’t really student-athletes and how it’s unfair to the rest of the teams and tournament.  Not to offend anyone but I think it’s all ridiculous, and there is no way to regulate or fix this without taking away from the game. No matter what sport you play there are going to be people, teams, or countries that are going to have an advantage over others but what those advantages are can be different in each case.

We should also look at this from the standpoint of the coaches, because for them if they don’t win games and win champions they are out of a job. They have to get the best or the better players to increase their chances of winning. By recruiting the top ranked players isn’t violating any rules and it doesn’t hurt any of the other players. So why should coaches be punished for be able to get the big players.

 This is true with any competition in life that we face, whether it’s in sports, school, or with work. It is unlikely that everyone has the same chance and ability to be successful and nothing can change that.  Like with school there are competition between students for better grades, exams scores etc.  and there are also students who have advantages over others with tutors, natural ability, or even with cheats which aren’t allowed. With jobs and competition within the workplace but also between companies and businesses, and they all try to get an advantage other them, some even illegal, just to be successful .

I think in whatever we do there will be people who have the upper hand and it can actually fuel the fire of competition. Yeah, I know it can suck going up against those team, cause I have for sure, but it doesn’t make the games less interesting or take anything away from the other players. Including me, people just don’t like to see their team lose.

The Fun of Anti-Language

We recently had guest speaker Robin Queen come into class to talk about the games we play with our own language, and by languages it included both verbal and non-verbal languages as well. The thing that stuck out the most for me during the presentation was when she talked about anti-languages.  Anti-language is mostly used to distinguish members from a certain group or to communicate in way that only select few are permitted to hear.

This got me thinking about if there were any anti-languages that I heard of or used. The first think that I thought of was the abbreviations that we used while texting or chatting online. Like the use of “lol”, “smh”, “idk”, and many more. I feel this is a type of anti-language because if you’re not part of the generation that has adopted this type of language you will have a hard time understanding what is being said. It defiantly isn’t as complicated as the example she mentioned in class like Polari or the cockney rhyming slang, but when these saying are used you can get a better understanding of what type of group or generation they belong to.

I then realised that I also used anti-language as a way to be secretive and that was when I was younger and with my friends to try and be “cool” but at the same time not get in trouble with my parents. As with most my parents were defiantly not okay with me swearing so to try and be sneaky we would say  “shut the front door!” or “what the french toast”.  Our parents had no idea what we were saying but we felt so cool because to us, that was the same thing as swearing.

Here is a funny Orbit Gum commercial that uses some of that disguised swearing I was talking about.

The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome

Spoiler Alert: contains key plot points from The Hunger Games Trilogy

http://www.jensc.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/HG2.jpg

One of the things I noticed while reading The Hunger Games Trilogy was the numerous ways in which the Capitol resembles ancient Rome, probably the most obvious being the gladiatorial like games that they hold for both the punishment of the defeated and for their own entertainment.  However, the resemblance goes much deeper than this.
Something that struck me almost immediately was the first names of the Capitol's citizens: Cinna, Caesar, Plutarch, Flavius, Octavia, Venia, to name a few.  The first name of every person from the Capitol is a traditional Roman name.  I decided that the author, Suzanne Collins, was purposely trying to create a connection in the minds of her readers between the Capitol and ancient Rome, and so I began searching for more similarities.

http://thehungergames.wikia.com

I then realized that both ancient Rome and the Capitol had penchants for excessive wealth that they relied entirely on their providences/Districts to provide.  A very specific example occurs in Catching Fire when Katniss is disgusted by the Capitol practice of making oneself puke at a dinner party in order to make room for more food.  The Romans also indulged in this disgusting habit.  I later discovered in Mockingjay, that Plutarch directly compares the conditions in the Capitol to the 'Bread and Circuses' of Rome.
There is also an interesting correlation between President Coriolanus Snow and the emperors of ancient Rome.  In ancient Rome, the emperors often gained and held power by whatever means necessary.  In Mockingjay, Finnick Odair reveals the brutal tactics that Snow used in his ascension to power, including a Roman favorite, poison.  Readers are treated first hand to the threats, torture, and executions Snow uses to maintain his position.
There exist many more examples I could point out but instead I'll ask a question.  Why is Suzanne Collins making these comparisons between the Capitol and an ancient civilization from thousands of years ago?  In Mockingjay, Plutarch mentions that Panem had once been a republic, another quality it shares with Rome.  Now think of the implications when considering that in the first book, Katniss relates that Panem was once known as North America.

http://www.crystalinks.com/romerecreation.html

Carl Becker stated in Everyman his own Historian, "to be prepared for what is coming to us it is necessary not only to recall certain past events but to anticipate the future."  I think Suzanne Collins trying to use her vision of a dystopian future to warn us that we need to learn from the mistakes of the past.  This is why she ends The Hunger Games Trilogy with Plutarch's expression of hope that the people of Panem will learn from their recent history.

Hunger Games or Hunger Wars?

            For my Book Quest I chose to read the entire series of the Hunger Games.  This trilogy has been talked about and advertised across the country for the past several months, with phenomenal reviews.  When the Book Quest was assigned, I felt a sigh of relief because now I had no excuse not to read the books, and I would be able to see what the rave was all about.  Shortly after beginning the first book of the trilogy, I found it extremely difficult to put down.  The story is engaging and made me feel as though I was a character in the book.  It also was interesting to read because I now have a whole new perspective of what constitutes a game.  The structure and plot of the story enabled me to look at games in a new and different way.  The Hunger Games is a story about a televised community competition, called “The Hunger Games” that takes place each year, in which only one competitor can survive.  This book directly correlates to the themes discussed throughout the 22 Ways of Thinking class.  I found that this book most closely related to the theme of Psychology, as discussed by both Stephen Garcia from the Organizational Studies department, and Susan Gelman from the Psychology department.

            Susan Gelman discussed the value and structure of games during childhood.  We discussed that play is a fundamental human activity in which children are able to express their creativity while conforming to particular rules, all to facilitate their learning. In the Hunger Games, the tributes are children between the ages of twelve and eighteen, somewhere between childhood and adulthood.  Although Susan spoke mostly about children in their young childhood, her theories and facts relate directly to the children participating in the Hunger Games, and the concept of games in general.  Susan discussed games as the way most people today think of them: fun, play, enjoyable, entertaining, and educational.  However, this is NOT the kind of game that takes place in the Hunger Games.  Instead, the Hunger Games is a competition in which the “Magic Circle” is an arena in which twelve districts have two competitors each to fight for their lives.  This differs from the traditional games discussed by Susan Gelman, because although there are set rules as most childhood games have, these games are not for fun and are most definitely not enjoyable for the participants.  In today’s society, most people would refrain from using the word “game” to refer to a life or death situation.  However, the people living in the time of the Hunger Games did.  In addition to games being fun and academic, Susan also mentions that play is a way in which individuals can express their creativity and conformity.  Within the Hunger Games, Katniss, Peeta and the other tributes are confined by many rules that govern the life competition.  In order to stay alive, the tributes had to use creativity to come up with innovative plans for hiding and killing others.  Because of the rules put in place, they were forced to accommodate the environmental conditions and the rules into their own skills and practices, something Susan proved as being part of traditional games with children as well.

            Stephen Garcia’s approach to discussing games also correlated directly to the implications within the Hunger Games.  He discussed the various aspects of competition and the motivations for people to perform at higher levels during competition.  He showed experiments that prove that people engaging in forms of competition have different motivations that therefore affect their performance.  For example, when Katniss is put under pressure in practice with few spectators, her usually perfect aim with the bow and arrow was completely thrown off.  However, during the actual gaming events, with thousands of spectators watching from home, her skills were near perfect.  This relates to the social facilitation theory which states that motivation and skill increase with the number of spectators watching. 

            Despite the Hunger Games mainly being about the actual fighting for survival, it also contained more abstract “games” that we discussed briefly in class.  Other than being an action novel, it was also a love story.  Through the different competition strategies endured, such as pretending to be in love, Katniss and Peeta eventually fall in love with each other, and they help each other through the gruesome competition.  As mentioned several times throughout the course, love can be considered a game because of the structured “rules” and variability involved.  Their love is portrayed throughout all three books, with the final book of the trilogy ending with the beginning of their life and family together. 

            I highly recommend this trilogy to anyone! After partaking in this class, I was able to look at the story from many perspectives and analyze it in a way I would have never thought before.  Because of the game-like nature of the book, I think it related perfectly to the course material.

Why Do We Focus on Final Four, not the Actual Championship?

     Don't get me wrong, I love college basketball, March Madness, and especially all the attention that is put on this tournament.  I'm a huge fan of the game entirely.  The level of competition with its exclusion of cash-based incentive makes the sport a lot more exciting than professional basketball.  However, where did this tradition of full attention of the final four start?  Why not the final two, or the actual championship?

     After four rounds of games already played, there is a long and much needed break for the players before the start of the national semifinals.  This round is obviously extremely important and much anticipated by almost all of America.  Then again, two of the teams in this round aren't even going to be competing in the national championship.  There is tons of media coverage, interviews, and analysis solely based on these final four teams for about a week's span.  By the start of the national semifinals, you almost get sick of hearing anyone debate about who is going to win.  Even before the tournament, when everyone is filling out all their brackets crazily, the most common question I hear among any group has to be, "Who's your final four?"  Again, when it comes down to it, two of these teams will not even be competing in the national championship, so why don't we let all the excessive predictions and analysis come once we actually know who is playing in the finals?
     I fully expect many people to disagree with my point, but it is kind of an interesting topic to debate when you take a closer look.  One of the most renown sports tournaments in the country has put so much emphasis and is even titled The Final Four aka The Semi-Finals.  I just don't get why we all, including myself, anticipate the national semi-finals of such a great tournament, rather than the actual finals.  I also am not implying that the national championship does not receive enough coverage, which I am positive that it does get its fair share.  I'm merely suggesting to maybe get rid of the famous title The Final Four and start recognizing it simply as The NCAA Championship, as it should be.

United Way & the NFL: Pledge to Make A Difference

I am about to embark on a new journey; I was one of 32 college students, selected nationwide for the United Way Team NFL Player Partnership. The United Way Worldwide has partnered with the NFL for over 35 years. United Way believes there are "three key building blocks of a good life: Education + Income + Health." However, the only way to achieve success is through education. 

As a member of the NFL & Strategic Partnerships, Brand Leadership team, I get paired with an NFL player (a United Way Team Ambassador) from one of the 32 NFL teams. My partner is Chris Canty, Superbowl XLVI winner, and New York Giants' Defensive Tackle (#99); it gives me great pride — both as a college student, and as a New York Giants fan — to spread the word about what Canty and the other players in the NFL are accomplishing to make a difference in their communities. 

Chris Canty attends benefit for United Way of New York

Together, Chris Canty and I are working to recruit 1,000 volunteer readers, tutors and mentors, in an attempt to help United Way Worldwide achieve their goal of reducing the number of high school dropouts in half by 2018. In addition, Chris Canty has his own foundation. His organization uses sports to make a positive impact on children through mentoring, educational programming and engaging physical activities, while promoting health and well-being. 

Help Chris Canty HERE

I invite you, to join me, my partner Chris Canty, United Way and the NFL, to cut the dropout rate in half by becoming a volunteer reader, tutor or mentor:


PLEDGE HERE: http://www.unitedway.org/team-nfl/players/chris-canty/


*Did you know that 60% of all 4th graders in the U.S. cannot read proficiently? Did you also know that 25% of students fail to graduate on time?

Something must be done. How will WE do this? — with YOUR help. Please sign this pledge to help cut the high school drop out rate in half. Something needs to be done, and YOU can do it. Chris Canty and I CAN'T do this without you. The difference between a graduate and a dropout could be you.

Starving Myself from The Hunger Games

The Midnight Premiere of The Hunger Games is officially only 23 hours away, and just like any other person who has read The Hunger Games I am dying to see the movie...so why am I going to wait?

Right now I am currently in the middle of the second book Catching Fire. This book is amazing and I envision all of the scenes as if I were there. I have images in my head for Katniss, Gale, Peeta, Haymitch, President Snow, the Capitol, District 12, Katniss' home, the rebellions...all of it! I am enjoying this book so much that I actually don't want it to end! However, I won't let myself see the movie until I am finished with the complete trilogy.

I love keeping the images I have in my head of everything Hunger Games related. When reading the books, I like to have my own vision of this atmosphere, which is not yet affected by any third-party visions of the same story. Therefore, I have been trying to steer clear of all Hunger Games related publicity including all trailers, magazine articles, and news-related stories. Trust me...this task has been very difficult. It really seems as if The Hunger Games talk is permeating and ever-present; discussion of this movie comes up on TV, on Facebook, on websites, and in conversations with my friends. However, no matter how difficult it may be, I am on a mission to avoid all images of this movie until I am absolutely finished with The Hunger Games trilogy. This may be a daunting challenge, but I won't let anything get in the way of my vision of Katniss and her world.

So while everyone is off seeing The Hunger Games, I will be off somewhere playing my own game...avoiding this movie at all costs!

What do you all think about this task? Do you like completing a book before you see a movie to keep your own personal visions of the story? Or instead do you not mind having the images of the movie mix with your own imaginations of the same story?

Hungry for the Hunger Games

I finally understand societies’ infatuation with The Hunger Games. Having just completed the first book in the series, I must say, I’m definitely hooked. When I read the first book, I laughed, I cried, I gasped, and I smiled with a great deal of suspense. Who could have thought the game of love could last so long? 

It centers around its’ title, The Hunger Games; in which, a set of “Games” occur annually. Each of the 12 Districts in a city of the future have two children ages 12-18, compete for survival, in a quest called, “The Games.” Every year, during the ceremony known as “the reaping,” two children are selected from each of the 12 Districts to participate in the event. The 24 children are thrown into an arena, with a forest-esq ambiance, in which they fight until there is one person left standing. A person’s likelihood of being chosen to participate increase year after year. Thus as age increases, so does one’s chances of being selected.

This year, the public witnessed a set of games, which tested the limits of love, lust, extremity and will to survive as Katniss Everdeen—the girl from District 12, who can kill squirrels, rabbits, and people with one shot from her bow and arrow, and Peeta Mallamark—the “baker’s son,” were faced with the ultimate test: partnership. I made so many predictions as to how I imagined the first book would end (all of which were erroneous); but, regardless, I already began reading the second book. I developed unique conjectures of the characters in the book and let my imagination paint a picture. Until I finished the book, I refrained from watching any of the film's trailers. The first time I saw Lions Gate's portrayal of the film was during last week's episode of the Ellen Degeneres show, where they shared a brand new trailer with the audience; who would have thought Lenny Kravitz would assume the role of Cinna--the stylist for District 12!?  The book in and of itself is riveting, and at the end, leaves the reader yearning for more (hence why I had to buy the second book, IMMEDIATELY). 

My creative vision of the book's characters ceases to exist, thanks to an inundation of images from US media coverage. Regardless, I finished the first book and the frenzy is everywhere. The next chapter will begin when Lionsgate releases, The Hunger Games, worldwide on March 23, 2012. Side note: (I finished the book the minute my plane touched down at a New York airport. The cover of Glamour was the first magazine I saw upon arrival. Can you guess who's on the cover?)

Entertainment Weekly: Jennifer Lawrence

Glamour: Jennifer Lawrence

Flare Magazine

Seventeen

Details: Liam Hemsworth

People Magazine: Collector's Special 

Are Games all Fun?

Who decides what is a game and what is not a game?  Since I was very young, my notion of a game was a fun, harmless, fictional realm in which there were set rules and an ending with some desired reward.  However, as I get older I am exposed to more serious and less fictional "games."  What happens when a fictional game is brought into real life and is no longer harmless?  Is this still considered a game?  As seen in The Hunger Games as well as a recent Law and Order: SVU, there is evidence of games in which the human life is at risk.

In The Hunger Games, representatives from each district are competing in a televised competition for survival.  The rules state that there can only be one winner, forcing all participants to rambunctiously kill all others in the game.  This "game" is neither fictional, fun, nor harmless.  It threatens the lives of all participants.  Similarly, in the episode of Law and Order: SVU called Hunting Ground, a man kidnaps women and plays a "game" with them.  He directly states the rules of the game in that each woman must act as an animal and be waited to be hunted by him and his gun.  In a dense forest, he searches for each woman and kills them.  He tells each participant that the only way to win the "game" is to die.  Based on these two similar life-threatening "games", my concept of what a game is has drastically changed.  I no longer think of it as a childish activity that is fun and harmless.  I now know that games come in many different forms, including ones in which death is the ultimate prize.

Perspectives on Drug Testing in Athletics

www.icassp2006.org

On February 17^th, I attended an international sports law symposium hosted by the Michigan Sports Law Society.  For one of the topics, Howard Jacobs, one of the leading athlete’s lawyers in the United States, and William Bock III, who has served as General Council to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) since 2007, discussed their perspectives on drug testing in athletics.  Both agreed that doping in order to increase athletic performance should be considered cheating, but they disagreed over the ways in which USADA handles drug testing and prosecution of those athletes who test positive.

Mr. Bock opened by discussing the difficulty of actually catching dopers.  He used as an example a blog that tells dopers how to avoid testing positive.  He also showed how athletes could use extremely complex and exact routines that involve ingesting huge amounts of chemicals to avoid detection.  However, these detection avoidance routines involve a lot of money too.  As a consequence, the athletes that actually get caught doping are usually just the ones who can’t afford the extensive lab work and expensive physicians that these complex routines require.  Another consequence is that just because an athlete never tested positive for steroids doesn’t mean he or she never used them.

Mr. Jacobs argued that current testing results in too many false positives.  He believes that substances other than steroids or accidental consumption cause the majority of positives in drug tests, citing problems such as the notoriously bad quality control in the supplement industry and the general athlete attitude, ‘I’m not taking illicit substances, so I don’t have to worry.’  USADA spends too much money prosecuting these false positives when it should be spending its money developing more accurate drug tests.

If an athlete tests positive, the burden then lies with the athlete to prove their innocence.  Then, even if the athlete shows that the positive was caused by, for example, accidental consumption of a substance through a contaminated supplement, he or she is still penalized, though less so than an intentional doper.  Does this seem right?  Mr. Bock argued that some of these excuses are ‘dog ate the homework’ excuses.  Also, even if an athlete accidentally consumed a substance they still might be receiving its illicit benefits.  Is USADA going about its drug testing and prosecution the right way? 

Play AND Learn?

Every kid engages in several different games, whether it be by themselves or with other children around them.  My personal favorites were the game of LIFE, Guess Who?, Twister, and Chutes and Ladders.  These games all have set rules and are common among all childhood cultures in the United States.  As we learned in class, there are many benefits to children participating in these games.  Increased math skills and problem skills are among the most important.  I wonder where I would be if I never played these games.  Would I have liked math as much as I do? Would I have the same problem solving skills as I do now? And would my intelligence be at the level it is today allowing me to still be attending the University of Michigan? I never realized how much of an influence moving up and down ladders on a board game or simulating real life with game pieces would have on my life.  Because games are critical for a child’s development, most children play.  I find it unique that regardless of the environments in which we live, there is a shared “children’s culture” that is common among all kids.

Google v. Foursquare - Who Will Be the Winner?

According to ABC News, Google is directly taking on Foursquare and creating its own version of a location-service check-in game. Both of these services allow users to check into a location, share it with friends, and earn points on a leaderboard just for showing up.

The New Google Latitude Interface

The Established Website Foursquare

And even though both of these games are in competition with one another, Foursquare does not seem phased. Erin Gleason, a Foursquare spokesperson told ABC News "far from concentrating on what others are doing, we're 100 percent focused on continuing to build an amazing product that changes the way people experience the world around them."

I guess we will all have to wait and see whether the service Google Latitude or Foursquare prevails as the winner of the location check-in competition.

Best of luck to both competitors!

Mind Games

When first hearing the phrase 'mind game' some may think about the things people say or do that is purposely meant to trick or fool the psychological thinking of another, in other words, they play tricks with your mind. However, what about the games we play in our own head? The ones that are not meant to trick or fool you but actually try to help you make better decision in the future, which is essenitally the same to a  game theory or decision theory mentality. 

I personally find myself playing mind games as well with situations I encounter. Like when I was recently away at a soccer camp with a new coach and new staff members. I had no idea what they would be like or how they thought, and the only thing I had to go off of was what I saw and heard from them each and every day, which was definately a challenge. I was constantly trying to figure what they meant by this and that, and how they thought I was playing based off of their body language, comments and feedback. I found myself always thinking what I should do to be better based off what I thought they wanted. And of course that changed from day to day when something new would come up, it became sort of like a game to figure out what actions would help me the most.

Hunger Games

 We can see an example of this in The Magic Circle's book quest of the novel The Hunger Games. I recently finished reading the novel and I realised that there is game theory throughout the whole book. The main character Katniss Everdeen battles with many decision about who to trust, how she should act and many more. There are countless examples of where she tries to understand and interpret actions of other so should can do and say the right things to better herself. For example, how she analyses the conversations and actions of fellow district member Peeta Mellark, and mentor Haymitch to find out their intentions so she can make her decisions from them. The decisions she makes are not also permanent and are actually changing numerous times as her interpretations are changing as well. You get a chance to see how she plays these games in her head and her thought process throughout her experience of the hunger games.

Even though your intentions are to make decision that will benefit you, playing to many decision games in your head can get confusing and tiresome. But I think it's something that is hard to avoid when you want so some so bad, like Katniss does with surviving the hunger games or wanted to impress coaches. But it's interesting to see what games your mind plays when faced with decisions.

Make Love, Not Warcraft

  

Make Love, Not Warcraft

This is a clip from the South Park episode "Make Love Not Warcraft" when the characters use their avatars to first go inside the game of World of Warcraft. I think that this clip is very relevant to our class discussion today about choosing your own avatar and how it relates to one's sense of self. Additionally, this clip is an example of Murphy's idea of Media Convergence. 

This episode is an example of different forms of media converging as the makers of South Park and Blizzard Entertainment were able to combine the media of television and video games in order to create a new medium. The medium of television plays on the medium of video games by literally incorporating real game footage into the episode. 

Therefore, this episode of South Park is a good example of how avatars play into gaming culture and how new media remediates older media as well.

Girly Games Too?

Upon hearing Sheila Murphy speak about the emerging field of Video Games, I was intrigued when she mentioned the sexism and gender segregation present in most video games.  As we began the class we brainstormed a list of typical stereotypes people think of when picturing a "gamer".  Most people said nerdy, isolated, and most strikingly, male.

I was a victim of believing this stereotype because I do not know many females who engage in video games often.  Sheila Murphy noted that often games that are directed towards boys are adventurous and can be violent, whereas those games directed for girls usually revolve around secrets, puzzles, and juvenile activities that are generally more playful.  I never noticed the difference until Sheila had said something because I never thought of electronic puzzles, such as tetris, or hello-kitty games as "video-games".

I, too, fell under the impression that all video games were adventurous, violent, and mainly for men.  After listening to her lecture, I was able to have a broader and more detailed understanding of what video games were, and now know that they encompass much more than just the simulated war zones.

A Second Life in a Virtual World

I have heard of Second Life, but have never played it before so when making an avatar was part of our homework assignment I was very interested in finding out more as to what Second Life was all about.

My original avatar

The vampire version of my avatar

Like the title, Second Life actually is a "second life" where your avatar can socialize and interact with other characters in an online virtual world. In this role-playing game, you can easily direct your character to interact with the other users simultaneously playing this game.

 

My avatar interacting in the world of Second Life

The well-designed graphics of the game
 make it interesting and entertaining

The arrows in the game direct players where to go

Although I previously had no idea how people could get into a game such as this, after playing it for a few minutes, I was easily able to find out how players could become captivated by Second Life. This game is literally a whole different world, but once you get the hang of the game maneuvers, it is actually quite simple and entertaining as well.

The chat feature allows the game to become extremely social and interactive

Presentation Can Be Everything

Last Tuesday, February 7th, was the 14th annual Mock Rock Athletic Variety Show  findraiser held at Hill Auditorium . The show consisted of various skits, songs, and dances performed by many athletic teams, and trainers. The show was hosted by ESPN analysist Dana Jacobson and judged this year by, Laura Hoke, wife of the football coach, men soccer coach, Chaka Daley, Mary Petrovich President of the Letterwinners M-Club and a former Mott patient Max Merget. This years fundraiser supported the C.S. Motts Childrens's Hospital, Big Brother Big Sister of Washtenaw County and Student-Athletes Leading Social Change. During the show there was singing, dancing, jokes, jumps and a few wild performances. The most interesting part of the show was the performances that may have played to close to the line of being funny and just plain mean.

This is related to what we learned in our UC 256 class with the Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman. There are two things that occur when people express themselves to others, there is the impression they give and the impession they give off. The impression they give is totally intentional, with the use of words, sounds, symbols and more they believe this will form a connection. On the other hand, the impression they give off could be both intentional and unintentional, and happens when other people are recieving those expressions. And during the show, lets just say they were a few teams who may have gave off a bad impression.

Take men's soccer who played out a news broadcast skit that mocked many athletic teams. Although it was meant to be all fun and games, it was not well recieved by the judges and many in the audience, and consequently getting them the "better luck next year" award. Even their newly assinged head coach, Chaka Daley, couldn't sway the unimpressed audience with his great freestyling abilities. This was also the vibe given off during the men's ice hockey performance when they decided the make fun of their own teammates along with a few other athletes from different teams. In some cases (and surely not all!) their intent was just to entertain the crowd in the way they knew how and hopeful get some laughs. In the end it just came out to a lot of "oooo that's bad!" and a few, "wow, they're bold!" statements. At the same  time this could of been their plan from the beginnning. Having the audience react the way they did surely made their performance one that would never be forgotten.

Chaka Daley, Men's Soccer Coach



By the end of the show the main point of the event was realised, which was to raise money for a few worthy charities. Even though there were high and lows during the show, more than $85,000 was raised and the event was a success. This is the case every year at Mock Rock and proves to be one unforgetable night.