Sport

In class, everyone got a chance to discuss their choice of keywords for their final post. As I listened to other keywords, I noticed that quite a few of them play a role in my keyword. Whether it is Arisa’s keyword expression, Bernie’s post on pain, or Carol’s post regarding obesity, they all intersect in one way or another with my keyword, sport.

Sports have existed since mankind has existed. After reading Truman’s post, I think his idea of linking the history and allowing you to read it that way is better than having me ramble about it so here’s the link. The word sport was originally defined as a pleasant pastime. The definition came up during the 15^th century. Over time, the definition has evolved into an athletic activity that requires skill and is often of a competitive nature. There are various other ways the term is used. Fathers often call their sons by the nickname of “sport”. In this sense, it is a slang term used from a father figure to a young person to show affection and support. Another potential definition is another slang term where a person “sports” something. In this sense, “sports” is used as a synonym for wears. If a person is “sporting a jersey”, the person is wearing the jersey. However, there is no doubt that for the majority of people worldwide, when they hear the word sport, they think of some activity people engage in. Despite having a consensus on the definition, its application is contested amongst its members.

The definition of the word sport leads itself to be highly debated. There are many activities that are considered a sport worldwide. The “trinity” of baseball, basketball, and football are never debated as they are universally regarded as sports. Various other activities such as volleyball and hockey are also deemed to be sports without argument. However, ESPN, known as the “Worldwide Leader in Sports”, has aired different “sports” such as Texas Hold ‘Em, NASCAR racing and golf. In NO way is playing poker an athletic event. While I personally think golf is a sport and racing is a waste of gas and NOT a sport, that’s not the point. The argument people make here is that poker requires skill and is a “mind sport”. People are reverting back to the original definition of the word as a “pleasant pastime” despite the fact that we usually move forward, not backward.

Sport also has a secondary definition to its participants and viewers that we do not think of or associate it with until the time comes. During tragedies, sports are one way by which people can come together and grieve with others. After the 9/11 attack, there was a short break to mourn the catastrophe. When the games started again, you could see a sense of solidarity despite the fact that these teams are competing against one another. In baseball, during the Seventh Inning Stretch, instead of playing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”, stadiums played “God Bless America” as a sign of unity. Football legend Brett Favre played a Monday Night game after learning of his father’s death the previous day. He provided a memorable performance as he threw four touchdown passes and even received cheers from the opposing fans. Tragedies bring people together. For some people, there is no better way of grieving than to watch or be part of a competition between highly skilled players with thousands of others to help the healing process.

Sport is a word that intersects with various keywords from the book as well as keywords written by everyone for the final post. Whether it is the expression of individuals watching or completing a spectacular play, the agony of injuring themselves or taking part in an event to reduce obesity, sports can connect so many keywords that exist in our vocabulary today. However, people are going backwards in trying to find a way to justify their activity as a “sport”. We need to remember that over time, evolution occurs. Since the definition has evolved, we should remember that the definition of the word sport is an ATHLETIC activity that includes the use of skill. We also should keep in mind that sports are also a means by which we grieve with others.

Reflections on UWP 101

With the end of Summer Session I in sight, the curtain will soon close on this UWP 101 course. As I look back on the memories of this course, I cannot help but chuckle at some very comical moments and conversations during class. Like everyone else in the class, I am taking this class to fulfill a graduation requirement. I had originally signed up for a UWP 101 class for Summer Session II but I decided to switch to this one because I could take it with my roommate Truman. When I first read the general guidelines for the class, I was completely startled and surprised. I expected that we would be forced to churn out four page long papers about some ridiculously boring topic. Instead, I found out that we would be blogging. I felt elated yet skeptical at the same time. I HATE writing long papers. I hate having to fluff a paper with random bullshit. You cannot imagine how thrilled I was when I learned I did not have to write papers like that. However, that delight was shrouded with skepticism as I was completely unsure how we would be able to make the class work utilizing blogs.

As each class passed, I found myself enjoying the class more and more. It was an odd source of entertainment as some of our conversations were among the most random I have ever heard. The most entertaining for me was no doubt the conversation regarding online relationships. The best part?
Student: “You can’t have sex with yourself forever!!”
Chris: “Why not?!”
It does not get any better than that. The entire class just burst in laughter. Chris’s response was just hilarious. However, this type of conversation also demonstrated how open and easygoing our class was.

Writing these blog posts allowed me to view writing in a different sense that I had never thought about. Whenever I wrote papers, they always needed to be in some formal manner. However, with these blog entries, I was given more freedom to express myself without feeling the constraint of formal guidelines. Sure, we had to follow a topic and a minimum word count, but those essentially were the only rules. No ASA, APA, cow manure guideline. We were free to write what was on our mind without having to write about anything in specific detail. Good writing is not restricted to just “formal” writing by famous authors. Good writing can be found in something as simple as an everyday blog kept by regular people like you and me.

While I enjoyed the class for the most part, I did not like having to speak up in class or comment on another blog to earn your participation grade. I have never been someone who likes speaking up in class. I am one of the students who enjoys sitting in class and listening to the conversations rather than initiating them. As for commenting, I found it somewhat difficult as I did not really know how to respond to people’s posts. I read everyone’s posts and everyone articulated what they wanted to say so clearly that I could not think of a comment that does not start with “this is a really good post!” and have it end there. However, these are just small issues that do not take away from how enjoyable the class was.

I am quite surprised to find myself feeling bittersweet at the end of this class. I am very happy that I will not have to be up at 4 or 5 in the morning trying to finish a post before the deadline. I am also ecstatic that I will actually have some time off since I am not taking Summer Session II. However, I will miss coming in to class everyday not knowing where our random conversation may lead, not to mention the spontaneous comments that Chris comes up with that generates laughter from the entire class.

Dreaming of...

What is a dream? Oxford English Dictionary has two definitions that I believe are the main things we think of when we hear the word dream. The first definition is “a train of thoughts, images, or fancies passing through the mind during sleep.” The second definition is “an ideal or aspiration.” After reading Arlen's post on dreams and sleep habit, I decided to focus on the first definition.

In Arlen's post, he mentions that he rarely has dreams and lists out a few reasons why he doesn't think he dreams. I thought that his reason of sleeping “a consistent amount and on a regular basis” was very unique and one I had never heard of or thought about before. As I thought about it though, the logic there seems a bit flawed. If a person is able to sleep more, I would think that there is a higher likelihood of a dream occurring. Also, by sleeping more, a person enters more REM cycles. REM sleep has been associated with dreaming. One possible explanation as to why Arlen might not think he dreams is because he does not remember them. If a person wakes up during the REM cycle of sleep, they are very likely to remember dreaming about something. However, if they don't, there is a higher likelihood that they will not remember if they dreamt about anything. When he mentioned that he does not eat spicy food, it got me a little curious about the connection between spicy food and dreams. I did a quick search and supposedly, if you eat spicy food, you have disturbing dreams. That part really surprised me, as I enjoy spicy food. I eat pho fairly often, and every time I always douse the soup with so much hot sauce that it ends up turning red. I also use hot sauce or chili oil in some random foods and I rarely have disturbing dreams.

There are various theories as to why we dream and what dreams mean. Some people believe that dreams hold no real purpose and that it just occurs while you sleep. Others believe dreaming allows the mind to be satisfied through fantasy. Maybe dreaming helps us regulate our moods. There is no consensus in explaining why people dream. The simplest explanation given is that the function of dreams has yet to be discovered. As for what dreams mean, there appears to be numerous ways they can be interpreted. A search on Google using the terms “dream analysis” yield over 1.1 million results. One interesting theory about dreams was Freud's interpretation. He believes we dream to satisfy unconscious wishes which are represented with symbols. Under this theory, a therapist's aid is needed to help interpret the symbols to help uncover a patient's hidden desires. Another theory states that dreams provide clues to the person's problems, concerns, and emotions. I think this theory makes a lot of sense. During a day, we as humans are constantly under stress from various factors. Whether it be from work, family, bills, or paying an arm and a leg for gas, we are barraged by things that stress us out and worry us. It would not be surprising that some of these worries drift into our dreams. Then again, who can explain a dream where you are eating a donut shaped like a laundry basket?!

Dreams are supposed to be a train of thoughts passing through the mind during sleep. Sometimes it is clearly seen to be, as dreams can help us uncover our problems that bother us. However, not all of us dream constantly and it is hard to know what we think about while we sleep. Until we can figure out why we dream, endless interpretations of dreams will occur.

Good times

As I browsed through the various pictures I've taken, I came across this one that I forgot I had. It is a picture from my freshman year in the dorms here in Davis. This was taken on the day we were forced to leave the dorms. I lived in a suite in Thoreau Hall in the Cuarto area. It was a four room suite that was split amongst nine people. I shared a room with two others as witnessed in the picture. There were two people in each of the remaining three rooms.

I can be seen in the picture sleeping on the bed to the left. The look I have on my face is one of pure exhaustion after having three finals the previous day. Next to my pillow is my old cell phone which I used as my alarm at the time. In the middle of the picture is a loft bed with a desk underneath it. If you look carefully, you can see the toes of one of my roommates who is also still asleep in the picture. His area appears to be fairly messy as he has lots of random things in his drawers and on the floor. On the left of the picture is a familiar face. That is Truman, who is listening to music on his computer though it cannot be seen. We have been roommates/apartment-mates since freshman year here.

This picture shows various things very easy to see with the naked eye. Obviously, there are two people sleeping, one person listening to music, and random items strewn about as cleaning is still incomplete. However, there are lots of things that can't be seen from this picture, both tangible and intangible. In this image, you can see the desk of one of my roommates. However, my desk as well as Truman's desk cannot be seen because of the angle of the picture. The rest of the room also isn't shown, as there is a sink, three closets, and a shelf. There are many things this picture doesn't show. It doesn't show any of the camaraderie shared between my roommates and myself, or between all of us who resided in the suite. We would have dinner as a group, go out to try various restaurants on the weekends, play Smash Bros or Counter-Strike with or against each other, or just relax and watch some television or random video clips. While we had the occasional disagreement or argument, we always resolved them quickly and brushed them aside so we could focus on the better parts of life: friendships and having fun. Besides, it is natural to argue with the people you live with from time to time. It's just the way life is.

After looking at this picture and reminiscing about times long gone, one very simple, yet puzzling question remains: who in the world took this picture?!? I described the room, my roommates and the picture, but as you can clearly see, all three of us are in the picture. None of us would have been able to take the picture. To this day, I still have no clue as to who took this picture. My other suite-mates claimed not to have taken the picture. However, it is a very minute complaint to have, as this picture allows me to recall one of my most favorite aspects of college life: dorm life.

Do I really need this...

In a previous post, I had discussed the idea of wants and needs being blurred because of a profit-driven business. As I read through a number of blogs, I saw that many others had their own opinions on wants and needs. Peter believes that our inability to be satisfied with what we have forces us to constantly purchase new goods. Ashley feels that wants or needs are so intertwined that we don't think about things as wants or needs, but as urges that we have to satisfy. As I thought about it, I noticed that all three ideas had one thing in common: they all are affected by the idea of relative deprivation.

Relative deprivation is the idea where we believe we are being deprived of something we are entitled to. This tends to occur when we compare ourselves to those who are more advantaged. Businesses are profit-driven and benefit when they can create a need or want out of one of their goods. Some people buy it, some people don't. However, once someone buys it, another person of similar economic standing is going to compare their situations and realize that someone has something they don't have. When that realization hits, they feel deprived and are tempted to purchase the same or similar good just to keep up. Peter's idea fits in exactly with the concept. We are not able to be satisfied with what we have because we are constantly comparing ourselves to others. However, we always compare upwards, not downwards. "That person is driving a nice sedan while I'm just driving this crummy old Toyota." We feel deprived and aim to increase our own standing by trying to get an even nicer car. Ashley's ideas on wants and needs being so intertwined that we can't tell them apart is also explained by the idea of relative deprivation. The feeling of deprivation when compared to someone doing slightly better leaves us wanting more. However, do we really need more? It feels as if the only reason we want more is because we need more. Relative deprivation causes us to lose sight of what we truly need and what we want.

It's not all just about race

Earlier in the week, we discussed difference and it ended up leading to a rather heated discussion about race. Race is just one of a multitude of ways by which we can be seen as being different from others. However, people can be judged differently even within race.

Economic status is one of the most common ways we differentiate ourselves from others. The haves are able to purchase luxury goods on a whim. The have-nots struggle to find enough income to get through each month without starving. A simple comparison of two neighborhoods of San Francisco, a "diverse" city with an eclectic mix of cultures and people, can demonstrate how our economic status separates us. I grew up in Chinatown, one of the most popular destinations for tourists in San Francisco. Despite all the restaurants and businesses in the area, many of the residents who reside here are fairly poor. The largest apartment structure in Chinatown, known as Ping Yuen, is a government-owned structure that leases apartments out to low-income families. Living in a government-owned apartment like that leaves people stigmatized, as they are seen as being too poor to be able to live without government aid. On the other side of town is the Sunset District. I attended middle and high school in this area and I got a chance to witness how different these two neighborhoods were on a daily basis. Each street in the Sunset is lined with houses. These weren't small houses either. Many of them are two-story houses with a two-car garage, front lawn, and backyard. Both of these neighborhoods are inhabited by mainly Asian families, yet the differences in the way people live their lives in each neighborhood are as different as night and day. Sunset residents are more apt to purchase things like luxury cars or plasma televisions. Chinatown residents are more likely to not purchase anything asides from dinner.

While race has been a factor by which people have been distinguished throughout history, economic status stretches back just as far. People of different skin tones will always be viewed differently. The poor and the rich will likewise always be seen differently by different groups of people, or even by the same group of people. Economic status will forever linger as one of the ways by which people are separated.

Take me out to the ballgame

Can you hear the roar of 50,000 fans root, root, rooting for the home team? The smell of overpriced hot dogs and beer wafts around the entire stadium. For 81 games a year, the historic Yankee Stadium is the site that hosts the New York Yankees home games. Many famous legends have called the stadium home, from Mickey Mantle to Mariano Rivera. This celebrated stadium will be torn down at the end of the season though, as the Yankees are planning on moving to their new stadium, named New Yankee Stadium.

The image shows many different views depending on how it is looked at. One of the most obvious things we see in the picture is the 50,000 fans watching the game. However, some of these fans are enthusiastically rooting for their team. Some are apathetically sitting there, waiting for the game to end while dreading the impending traffic jam. Others appear to be heading to the concession stand to fill up on more overpriced snacks.

Another obvious sight is the heading on the picture of "Pride, Power, Pinstripes." Players have a lot of pride putting on the pinstripe jerseys that belong to the Yankees. With so many legendary players here before them, there is a sense of honor that comes with wearing these jerseys. I'm sure that there's far more honor wearing a Yankees jersey than there is of wearing a Kansas City Royals jersey. Power can be seen in different ways. One way would be power as in home-run hitting power. The Yankees certainly have that with Alex Rodriguez, who many believe will break the home-run record currently held by Barry Bonds. Power can also come from the fact that as a franchise, they are one of the most preeminent in the league. They easily have the resources, as witnessed by how high their payroll is compared to the rest of the league.

With this view of the game, all you can really discern are little figures moving around. The small, white flash of the baseball is nearly impossible to notice. The home umpire, dressed in huge, protective gear, would be hard to detect if it weren't for the fact that he SHOULD be at home plate. Despite the poor view, it's hard not to get swept up in the excitement of watching a game with 50,000 others. Besides, isn't the "thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" the reason we watch and love sports?