Alcohol drinking: The pros and cons – Part 3

Booze On The Brain

So you like the odd beer or glass of wine? Many people do. Alcohol is the original social lubricant where parties loosen up, strangers become friends, and laughter is spun from the strained silence of the sober.

But be careful, this social hair of the dog has the ability to drive thoughts of value into brooding silence. Drinking is socially rewarding for precisely the same reason it produces suffering – it diminishes the influence of remote stimuli.

About 30 seconds after entering the bloodstream, alcohol quickly bypasses the electrical-chemical gateway known as the blood/brain barrier. Consequently, alcohol has an immediate and profound effect on behavior.

So after tipping one too many drinks, the cocky, careless, behavior of most drunken people comes to the foreground. Cognitive resources take a nose dive, social hang-ups flee towards the sunset and Howie Mandell crashes the party.

But all is not fun and games. Other aspects of this alcoholic collision with the brain inhibit loss of fine motor skills, impair vision and slur speech – the all too familiar defining characteristic of the brain taking a temporary vacation. But hey, it’s all in fun right? Not too fast, there’s more.

Long term abuse gets somewhat more complicated with the brain. The findings of imaging techniques, such as CT scans consistently show an association between heavy drinking and physical damage. In other words, memory goes AWOL, personality changes occur, and most seriously, there may be an overall reduction in brain size. A study of a group of alcoholics who drank heavily over a 5-year period showed progressive brain shrinkage. It is said that after 40, some of the changes may be irreversible.

I focused the reaction of our cranial orb, because long term health is often sacrificed for short term social pleasure. Regardless of whether it is beer, tequila, wine or cider, alcohol takes a powerful and detrimental toll on the brain, as well as the total body. So keep it moderate, don’t overlook the effects and enjoy it the way it was meant to be consumed in moderation.

Is gaming addiction a problem? – Part 2

For people that see others waiting in front of a Gamestop at midnight to buy a video game, this may offend you, but I really do not care. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I am a very big video gamer, but I am not addicted to video gaming, and for anybody to say that I am should not be quick to judge. Personally, I loathe the word addict. It makes me feel like I have a problem that has the potential of killing me in the long run if I’m not careful. But that’s enough about me, it’s time for the subject at hand.

People that say that gaming is a problem are the people that have problems themselves in their own lives, so naturally they feel that they need to place blame on others to make themselves feel good. Look at what persistent gaming has done for people. Now there are professional gaming leagues where people are making this into a business, just to play games for a living. These people also get paid large amounts of money just to keep people entertained with their superior gaming prowess, and you people say that being a game addict is bad. Addiction to me is just a fancy term for really liking something to the point you are willing to give up other things to do what you like to do. In a sense, it’s kind of like Lent in a twisted way. Besides, gamers do other things besides gaming. We have jobs, hobbies besides gaming, we exercise (for the most part. Look at DDR! That’s a game, and exercise all rolled into one nice and neat slice of video gaming genius. Plus, with the Wii out, there is an exercising tool that is the controller! You have to get up to play it, and with sone of the motions required to play, you get a pretty decent workout from it! If that isn’t enough to appease the biggest skeptic, I don’t know what is.), and we WRITE! I guarantee you a good portion of the helium population are gamers. Gamers are NOT addicts, nor should be classified as addicts. Try using some anti-gamer slander on something that needs to be addressed, like smoking, excessive drinking, and gun control that fits the 5th amendment. Those truely need to be fixed in this society, not gaming addiction.

Best casino card games

I know how to deal nine casino card games and Roulette. I dealt Blackjack, 3-Card Poker, Crazy Four Poker, Mini-Baccarat, Pai Gow Poker, Texas Shoot-Out, Single Deck Blackjack, Let It Ride and Ultimate Texas Hold Em. I dealt in an Iowa casino for a year and one month. I found dealing these games the that the best money makers are Blackjack and Mini-Baccarat. I also found that if you want to have fun while playing card games the best would be Crazy Four (4-card Poker), Pai Gow Poker and Texas Shootout. I have seen thousands be won on Blackjack and also on Pai Gow Poker.

A lot of people aren’t as familiar with a lot of the games and that’s why they loose money. When you play Blackjack, you can play it for fun but if you are playing to make a little extra money, never go on a weekend. Why do I say this? Usually, on the weekend people that are first-timers and don’t know what they are doing go to the casino. A lot of the time, they could care less if you are playing $100 a hand or $5 a hand. They are there to drink and enjoy themselves. Biggest mistake ever seen while dealing at a $5 Blackjack table. I watched a man loose a $300 bet sitting at first base because the girl sitting at third base was drunk and didn’t follow any of the rules.

I’ve seen a man stopping at the casino for a rest between stops while going across country. Two days before Christmas and decided to play at Texas Shoot-Out because he liked poker. The man made a one time $25 dollar bet on the bonus and won close to $6000. Texas Shout-Out is a carnival card game. You can make money on these games just like you can make money on Blackjack. I loved to deal this game because you could win in so many ways. Don’t forget the House always has the advantage though.

There is no way a table game dealer or casino can cheat while dealing. I can’t vouch for every casino but I can for the casino I worked at. The table advantage on Blackjack is that the dealer gets the last cards in the shoe. The shoe is very important in six-deck games. Also, games like Three-Card Poker and Crazy Four Poker have a house advantage because the dealer gets the last cards.

Why does it seem that Blackjack dealers always win and don’t bust? Blackjack dealers have to hit soft seventeens and can’t stay because they are worried they are going to bust. If they have a sixteen showing and you have nineteen showing, they have to draw a card. It is not an option to stay. If you and the dealer had a soft seventeen, which is an Ace and a Six, you have the option to stay but the dealer does not. A lot of players believe that the dealer is cheating and feel as though the House is getting the advantage there. Just like in basketball, if a team that shoots from the 3-point line all the time makes more points they most likely win the game. If the other team only takes occasional 3-point line shots and missed the majority of the time, they will lose. You have to take risk to win.

As far as risk are concerned. Any game in the casino is a risk. The slot machines are a higher risk because these machines are computerized to jackpot at certain times. Table game card games on the other hand are not computerized but controlled by your decisions. I would not recommend at all going into a casino with your rent check to try and double it to pay your rent and your car payment. It only works once in a while unless you are a professional gambler. Yes, you have a better chance winning money at a card game in the casino than on a slot. You also have a better chance of loosing money in a casino period. In closing, try to gamble responsibly.

Does violence in video games contribute to real life violence? – Part 3

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Violence has been a problem in the world for many years and many generations now and i have recently noticed that the people at PC (political correctness) headquarters now have decided video games contribute to crime, more importantly violence.

To me personally i don’t think video games to contribute to violence. The BBFC have age ratings and parental warnings for a reason and it’s exactly the same as how movies and TV shows are portrayed with the same types of violence and crime and do not cause controversy.

Before video games there were TV shows and movies, and before television and movies there were books and plays, take William Shakespeare for example, many of his plays notably Romeo And Juliet and also Macbeth, noted many acts of violence some of which were very disturbing and could affect the minds of young people. The Robert Louis Stevenson classic <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:off ice:smarttags” />Treasure Island being another perfect example, acts of piracy and violence sum up many plot points of the story.

My argument is basically have you ever saw a BBFC classification on a book? No you haven’t yet this time 100 years ago before the Internet, Video games or even television and radio existed, books were the primarily source of entertainment, you didn’t have newspapers saying “Treasure Island has been banned by the government due to all the murders going on around the city”. And you didn’t have “Jack the Ripper murdered prostitutes because the main character in his favourite book was a serial prostitute killer”, you just did not have it and this is why i believe video games should not be categorised in such a different way when clearly that isn’t such a case.

Video games are a source of entertainment, just like any other sort of entertainment. There are different genres and types that appeal to all kinds of people for all ages, male and female just like anything else. Don’t get me wrong i was shocked when i read a few years ago that some teenager butchered his best friend for no reason, but once i read that he had been playing a game that in all fairness he should not of been playing then i thought to myself, there are age classifications for a reason, people that age should not be playing games or watching movies that they aren’t old enough for, it’s just like drinking and smoking and other similar issues. They should be dealt with responsibly and reasonably.

Discipline is always the way around things and yet we are only human after all, we have all from one time to another done something that is underage or against the rules, but people will make their own choices, a life of crime is a choice, something that should be tackled which i think is a lot more important than pointing out petty excuses for why we have violence and crime in the first place, lets make choices not excuses.

Nick Adams

Which is better: Online roleplaying games or tabletop roleplaying games? – Part 5

I’ve been a role player for nearly 10 years, and have tried pretty much every type of role playing available. Every type of RP can be good or bad, depending on a lot of different factors, but for myself, I tend to prefer table top (or pen and paper to the old fogies out there!) Here are some of the reasons I love table tops:

Play groups – There is something about sitting around a table with a group of people, being able to look in their eyes when you talk, see their expressions, pass notes by hand, toss dice, spill drinks, get into shoving matches, and generally be silly and have fun. A computer game, no matter how good, can’t replicate personal interaction like that. And on a night when people can’t get into character, or we run into a total party kill; we can always run down to the video store and have a movie night.

No connection speed or server overload – I lost count of the number of times I died on City of Heroes because of overload – when the computer couldn’t keep up with the amount of information, my character started moving about 5 minutes after I told her too – which has fairly predictable results in the middle of a melee. That’s not to say a table top can’t get information overload – but when there’s to much going on in melee for the GM to keep track off, he can always call a five minute break to put together a time line or something.

Story Control – In most online RPGs, the story is already written. Some smart guy put together a series of quests, and I connect the dots, beat the bad guys and save the day. My only influence on the story is which quest I pick – Oh! and don’t forget that as soon as I am done, the bad guys spring back to life for the next player on Quest. In a table top, my character’s choices shape the story (or should anyway, there are bad GMs out there after all). And when we finish a story line in our table top games, the story is over – we’ve won, or lost, and the time line moves forward. The world is a slightly different place because of what our character’s did.

Low Tech – Alright, I admit; I am not, never will be, and never wanted to be, a geek. I do fairly well on the computer and the Internet, and even know a little (tiny) amount of programing (about 15 years old, but it’s something, right?). But online RPGs require a level high tech multi tasking that I have trouble keeping up with. How do people manage to chat in combat? Every time I try, I end up dead, cause my fingers just don’t move that fast! Table top games don’t require me to know insane code combinations, or what the gibberish on the screen means. I need to know to things: how to talk, and how to role dice. I don’t even really need to know the rules! As long as one member of the gaming group (usually the GM) understands the rules, the group is good to go.

Character Driven (possibly) – I like character driven games – things where the focus is on the characters lives and telling a story, the alternative is generally called ‘hack & bash’ – games where the only thing that matters is how many bad guys you kill, and how much treasure you get. In the end, I have yet to find an online RPG that isn’t essentially hack & bash. Alright, if you consider Second Life or the Sims as RPGs, there are a few that aren’t hack & bash, but most people I know don’t consider those RPGs. In any case, I love the way a table top RPG can become a real epic story centered around the characters, and not just another dungeon quest.

Downloadable game review: Hospital Hustle

Hospital Hustle- 4/5

What do they call this genre, the Multitasker? They make these games for people that want the excitement of having a menial part time job, but instead of a paycheck you get points and virtual upgrades. You’re making pizzas or flipping burgers in one game, running a salon by the seat of your pants in another.

Hospital Hustle puts the gamer in the medical field, running the ER and treating patients. It’s a pretty misogynistic affair, with a ditsy-looking nurse folding sheets and washing bedpans while the male doctors and pharmacists tap their toes and fiddle around.

Reviewing this game, I had a chip on my shoulder in the first place because it insisted that I enter my name before playing, then proceeded to call me Sarah. There wasn’t time to dwell on it, though, because I soon had patients to tend to after a brief tutorial. The head nurse, or whatever she is, who does the tutorial was apparently a former weight lifter with the East German Olympian team. I don’t know why every fictional hospital ever has a “scary nurse”.

Anyways, folks with various maladies (indicated by the color of their faces) file in, the player’s job is to run them through triage and send them to their prescribed treatment. As you can imagine, with each level the patients’ needs become more ornate and they file in faster. Fail to attend to them quickly and they get mad and leave, rather than die.

So your pretty little nurse runs her buns off while you try to keep up by strategically placing beds, x-ray machines and other upgrades around the hospital. You can even buy things like drink dispensers and fake plants to help the patients last longer, and bribe the doctors so they work a little faster. One thing that got me peeved was how there wasn’t any apparent way to make your nurse move faster, which would have been nice.

Hospital hustle overall is well done but it’s not going to blow anybody’s mind. The gameplay is straightforward and easy, the graphics and the appearance of the game look good. The game escalates in difficulty at a nice pace, and new items unlocked as you go along help keep the gameplay fresh. There are little sound-bites and other amusing details that showed some creativity in the production.

The downsides to this game for me were the bland “muzak” and the basic lack of a story. I realize that these things are more about the challenge of time and economy, but when I become a character in a video game I like to have a little adversity. Maybe a browbeating hospital warden breathing down Sarah’s back or a penny-pinching board member squeezing the hospital’s budget could have been worked in there.

Overall, I would recommend this title to any gamer looking for a way to kill time without getting to deeply involved in a story. Hospital Hustle is a decent production and would hold up nicely when compared to other titles of the genre.

Video Game reviews: Nethack (various)

Most mainstream gamers have never heard of Nethack, which is a pity, because they are missing out on one of the most complex, challenging, and fun games designed for any system, ever.

The game itself is simple in execution. You are an adventurer, who enters a randomly generated dungeon filled with treasure, monsters, and items. At the start, you create an adventurer, with choices including some stock fantasy stereotypes (Wizard, Barbarian, Priest, Rogue), along with some more unusual types (Tourist, as a nod to Twoflower in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, or Archaeologist, complete with bullwhip and fedora), and you enter a dungeon with a few meager supplies, and a pet dog or kitten to assist you. Your goal is to descend the levels to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor, a powerful magical artifact craved by your patron deity, and then return to the surface clutching it. Like so many goals, this does not prove to be as straightforward as it sounds…

Nethack is simplistic looking, to say the least. The dungeon is represented from a top down view, as if you were perusing a map, and is displayed entirely in ASCII graphics. Your character is shown as a white @, and other creatures with different characters from the alphabet. A rat would be shown by a brown lower case r, an ice troll by a white upper case T. Items are similar; for instance, a magical potion would be shown with a ‘!’, in various colors depending on its effects (If you’re wondering why a ! would look like a potion, consider the symbol upside-down).

Initially, when you enter the dungeon, much of the map is unexplored, and the screen mostly dark. As you move around, you reveal more of the map, much like how many real time strategy games have a ‘fog of war’, only revealing details after you explore.

The game has been around since 1987, and is regularly updated with new features and tweaks, to the point where a ubiquitous phrase among its devotees is simply “The Devteam thinks of everything”, a view rather hard to dispute. Consider an example. Your adventurer finds a room containing a sink (Which came into the game a few years ago, after someone commented how the game included everything but the kitchen sink). There are various things you can use this for. You can drink from it, and water is only one of the possible fluids which might gush forth. You can give it a kick, and possibly dislodge a random magical ring from its drain. After all, we all know these items tend to go down the plughole.

History of the game of darts – Part 3

There is a rich history behind this engrossing and unique sport, which does not require any particular dress code and the gender, age or size of the players does not in any way influence the outcome of an individual’s game.

The history of darts springs back from the Medieval times. Its origin being from the art of archery, it was a way of teaching archery students, by shortening the length of the arrows and letting them throw at the bottom of empty wine barrels.

The old name of a dartboard is ‘butt’(the bottoms of wine barrels were the original dartboards).This word,comes via archery, from the French word ‘butte’ meaning ‘target’.

Soldiers then turned the idea into a game and soon began playing during their drinking sessions also as a way of showcasing their skills.The empty barrel soon became obsolete as one of the players brought in a cross section of a moderate sized tree which had rings on it. When it dried out, the cracks provided further segmentation. This board later evolved into the form of dart board we are using now.

Early in the inception of the game, some wise inventor probably conclude that the game would be more interesting if more of the area around the dart board was utilized and not just the center. A spoke-shaped metal web, dividing numbered segments was added to the board. Brian Gamlin, a carpenter from Bury, Lancashire, added the standard board numbering order in 1896.

The regulation of the ‘throwing’ distance also happened at about this time.The ‘throwing distance’ was marked by means of three crates placed from one end to another, from a certain brewery called ‘Hockey and Sons’, that provided beer to the Southwest part of England.The beer crates were about 3 feet in length, thus a distance of 9 feet from the line to the dashboard. The ‘Hockey and Sons’ crate size was ultimately decreased to 2 feet and four crates were lined up to mark a distance of 8 feet in length. The 8 foot space distance continued to be the standard for several years.

In the 19th century, darts became a famous pub game. It was during this time that colored circles were placed on the dartboard and a system of scoring was developed. The highest score came from that of a bullseye, located at the center of the board and the lowest score would be given if the darts would fall on the lowest edge.

In 1908, there was a serious challenge to the game when the Leeds Magistrate heard a court case against a local pub owner, named ‘Foot’ Anakin (he had very

Great drinks to buy for someone you like

Eat the food she likes.

My first date with my wife was a great memory. I did not know that i would fell in love with her in the first place.

She is beautiful, fun, loving and honest.It was an accident when we met. Through a friend, we were introduced as a temporary partner for a game. I didn’t like the game but the friend told me that she has no choice but to ask help from me.

We talked. Just to get things run smoothly, i asked her number. She gave and i did called her just to say hi.

The next thing happened, we were out for our first real date.

As a gentlemen, i asked her to pick a restaurant.I mean i know that place but i just want to give her a chance.Then, she picked this old designed with brown wood restaurant.

I recognized that place and i have never enter it before in my life,but since she picked it, i agreed.

She started to order a sort of menu which i have never seen and tasted before. It is called the sizzle ‘mee campur udang’. The noodles is cook with sesame oil, black ketchup,oyster sauce and black pepper,topped with chopped spring onion and fried brown onion and fried sliced prawn. It is then put onto an iron plate that make sizzle a little bit when the put is place on it while the mee is still very hot.

I have never order this sort of menu but since she ordered it for the both of us, i put them in my mouth with a scared heart.But little that i know, that is her favorite menu, until now.

So, every time we went out for dating, she ordered the same menu and i grew in love with it.Now, that we have a child, we will bring our child to the same restaurant every weekend just to eat this meal.

Does violence in video games contribute to real life violence?

Violence in Video Games Make Violent Children?

I do admit, video games are too violent. This is a subject involving more than about the game. It is the player of the video game the time he spends away from others and how important the game becomes, not all feel the same way when playing video and that does games. It does not necessarily mean he will become violent. It depends. If he/she plays once in awhile or fourteen hours a day, it is in timing. It really depends on how much time of their live they live playing violent games.

If someone does have video games which are violent, they should not play them during the entire spare time, it will get to them. But won’t it also effect them, should they play any other kind of game, alone in their room, violent or not? Or isn’t it quite similar to a teenager spending all their free time and the wee hours of the night in a chat room? Isn’t that too dangerous? I think we should be more observant of how long we play or how important it is, in our children’s entertainment. Or better yet, limit the games, if our children won’t and spend time with them. By golly, even if we have to make them spend time with us, just get them out of the room sometimes.

There are some children and adults who can not stop playing. No kidding, some will start in the afternoon and continue all night, they are totally hooked. Anything, which takes that amount of time in your life, can not be good. It is suppose to be a game, but some become obsessive. The obsessive ones, or the lonely ones are the ones who make life scary. They are the ones to walk away and leave it. This must be like gambling or drinking, when they never know when to stop, until it is too late.

I do believe games should be age appropriate for obvious reasons.I do not think playing a violent game would necessarily make a person anymore violent than watching a movie which is violent. Unless, the person is continuously, obsessively watching violent movies all the time, same deal with the games.

Honestly, maybe we should all remember these are games we play and we walk away from. And maybe a walk outside in the fresh air sometimes, helps to clear all our heads from time to time. Taken in stride,practice self discipline, then it will not matter and is no excuse for what someone may do after a game, as a crime. But too much of anything is always bad.

We should pay attention to how we spend our time and realize when to stop the game.

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