Living In A Virtual World - Reading Response 3 -

For my last reading response of this semester, I read a passage from Convergences called 'Living In a Virtual World' which can be found on page 357. This passage is about online games called Second Life and World of Warcraft and in these games, people can create avatars that will obey there players every command. The passage continues to talk about why people do such things, what it's like in the gaming world, and where will all this lead. The gaming world is a place that people can "escape" to and break social norms and not be judged for it. The passage says that people can openly have sex, kill people, and have political riots without getting in trouble for that they're doing. It's an escape from their every day life that has
become a routine and some people spend up to 40 hours a week on video gaming.
Some psychologists worry that dangerous or perverted online personas could spill into the real would and cause more harm and crime in the world. There are some people who are actually addicted to online gaming and have to go to a rehab group to deal with their addiction.
I'm not a gamer at all so reading this little story opened my eyes. I had no idea that online gaming had so many depths to it and could potentially cause harm. Some gamers use online games like Second Life to live a life that they could potentially wish they had. I would suggest you read this article because it's short and keeps you interested throughout the entire story.

Interview Photos

This is University of Michigan Hospital - this is where Amit was finally diagnosed with neuroblastoma (pediatric cancer) and where he spent a majority of his next two years.

This is another emergency room that Rani visited (in canton), and here, Amit was "diagnosed" with pneumonia.

This is the first hospital that Rani took her son Amit to. She visited this hospital twice and the first time she went Amit was "diagnosed" with a common cold and the second time he was "diagnosed" with an ear infection.

Reading Response 2

The section I read in the book is called dividing lines- subsection: gender and it is mainly about the stereotype that girls talk more than guys do. On page 460 there is a cartoon about “When Guys Hang Out” compared to “When Girls Hand Out” and in the guys comment bubbles there are two words, and inside the girls comment bubble there are so many words that you can’t read what any of them are saying.
For my second reading response I read -Report on the Difference Between Men and Women written by Penelope Scambly Schott. This is a very short passage about a married couple, the husband and wife have been married for thirteen years and after “thirteen years and 27 days” (Pg. 461, Convergences) the husband asked the wife why she never buys lemonade - the kind of lemonade that’s frozen and comes in a can. Sure enough, the next morning the wife went to the grocery store and bought a big can of lemonade…while she was in the checkout line, she couldn’t help but wonder about that else her husband secretly wants but never told her about.
Although it might seem like girls talk more than guys do, it’s not true! In the book, Convergences, there is a statistic presented saying that both men and women speak and average of 16,000 words a day (Page 460). The passage I read had a “deeper meaning” behind the husband not getting lemonade, it was about what other things the husband might have kept from the wife after all the years they were married. In my opinion, the passage is suggesting that girls always speak their mind where as men tend to keep things to themselves.

Acedemic Articles

In the first article I read, “In Sickness and In Health Care – a student’s thoughts before beginning his medical training” from Perspectives in Biology and Medicine (2009), Brian Finkelman expresses that he is both fearful and excited about starting medical school. The setting of the article is at the hospital- the summer before Brian starts medical school. In the article, he starts by talking about his grandfather being sick at the hospital and switches to his thoughts of modern medicine, this trend continues throughout the entire journal article. The first aspect of medicine he mentions is bout medicine and society. He believes medicine will become so modern that people will have their entire genome (gene sequence) printed out and the people’s physician will have to read the sequence and tell the patient what potential diseases they could have and how to prevent them. Finkelman then talks about the problems with this genome print out and how difficult it would be to understand each patient’s genome. Another part of the article that stood out to me was Finkelman’s concern about how little the doctor visited his grandfather while he was in the hospital. Although he hated the fact that the physician only visited once a day, for about five minutes, Finkelman knew that he would be in the same position one day and he would have to completely diagnose a patient with only a few simple visits to see them. The purpose of Finkelman writing this journal article was so that he could relate his current experiences to how he would be spending the rest of his life- as a physician. Brian Finkelman writes to an audience of undergraduate students so they can understand what to look forward to when or if they become physicians.

Still working on articles 2 and 3

Reading Response: Life in Motion

The first story in the textbook Convergences, that really caught my eye is a story called Life in Motion written by Nicole Lamy. The story is all about the journey the author went on to take pictures of all the houses she had lived in while she was growing up; thirteen houses in twelve years! The purpose of her taking the pictures was to make an album for her mother so the two of them could look at it and remember old times together. The journey began when Nicole and her father went on a road trip to take pictures of the houses they lived in together - they started in Maine. There, Nicole tried to capture her first house from the view of a preschooler because that's the age she was when she lived in that home. While she was adjusting herself to get the right angle she reminisced about some of the things she did there with her parents. Nicole continues to explain each of the homes she lived in and how the surroundings of the houses, apartments, or duplex had changed (new skyscrapers, dead trees, different color paint on the house, ect.). Along with each old home visited, she had a little story that related to her living there. The author, Nicole, gives great detail about how she was feeling at the time of her stories and it almost feels as if you experienced the same thing. Nicole then continues and tells the reader that her parents had gotten a divorce when she was a younger; because of this she had to find some of the houses on her own (her father didn't exactly know where Nicole and her mother lived). After all was said and done: Nicole went from Maine, to New Hampshire to Massachusetts to capture moments of the past on her camera. When the album was complete and she handed it to her mother, the mother responded with a "Ha ha, all of my failures."

I'm glad I chose this story to read because it kept me interested, but also because there was an interesting twist in the end that made reading it seem more worth-while. First off, it would be very hard for me to relate to Nicole's story because I have lived in the same house for almost sixteen years now! All of the memories I have are from the house that I an currently living in. (I was too young when I moved to have memories from my old house). Also, I really liked how the author wrote the story; she numbered each new step/part of her life so it was easy to follow because there were 12 clearly separated parts rather than one very long story- very organized. When I read the end of this story I was kind of upset because I can't imagine how the author felt after hearing that reaction from her mother. The reason she wanted to make an album to begin with was to give it to her mother and I'm sure she was expecting a more excited response (or at least a great full response). The author did a great job talking about each house and her experience while she lived there; I would recommend students read this story (on page 291) because it could help bring back some of your old childhood memories!