Category: Authors FA17

Usernames for Fall 2017 students of Comp II

EO3: Critical Reading-Flyerfan1974

Section 2

  1. “Caleb has been home since 2006, way more than enough time for Brannan to catch his symptoms.”
  • Home- Caleb is home after coming back from Iraq with PTSD. Home is a confined space where Caleb and Brannan spend their lives together.
  • Enough Time- The author is telling us that the couple has been in this home for so long that Brannan has caught her husbands mental disorder.
  • Catch his symptoms- Brannan never went to war, however being with her husband in their home everyday, she has contracted the illness

2. “When a sound erupts—Caleb screaming at Brannan because she’s just woken him up from a nightmare, after making sure she’s at least an arm’s length away in case he wakes up swinging—the ensuing silence seems even denser.”

  • When a sound erupts- When any sound erupts, Caleb suddenly feels as if he is back in the war, reacting with some violent actions
  • Screaming- Caleb screams to the anger he is feeling
  • Nightmare- Caleb may be having nightmares due to his experiences in war
  • In case he wakes up swinging- Caleb’s nightmares put him in a defensive state, and Brannan must make sure she is out of range to avoid being injured

3. “Their German shepherd, a service dog trained to help veterans with PTSD, is ready to alert Caleb to triggers by barking, or to calm him by jumping onto his chest.”

  • Alert- The dog helps Caleb by showing him if a trigger is near
  • Triggers- These are factors that can aggravate Caleb’s PSTD

4. “This PTSD picture is worse than some, but much better, Brannan knows, than those that have devolved into drug addiction and rehab stints and relapses.”

  • PTSD is a serious problem that plagues may Americans, some have it not so serious, but many have very serious PTSD
  • Picture- The author uses this word to describe Caleb and Brannan’s situation
  • Drug addiction- Due to deep depression and other symptoms, many PTSD victims turn to drugs to ease the pain. The author adds this part to show what can happen to PTSD sufferers if they do not receive help
  • Relapses- This word is added to show how powerful PTSD can be, it has the power to keep people unhealthy and make them keep turning to drugs

5. “Sometimes I can’t do the laundry,” Brannan explains, reclining on her couch. “And it’s not like, ‘Oh, I’m too tired to do the laundry,’ it’s like, ‘Um, I don’t understand how to turn the washing machine on.’ I am looking at a washing machine and a pile of laundry and my brain is literally overwhelmed by trying to figure out how to reconcile them.”

  • Brannan cannot do the laundry do to her PTSD from her husband. She physically forgets how, and becomes overwhelmed.
  • The author included this quote to show how Brannan, who was never in the war, is affected by PTSD
  • Overwhelmed- The PTSD causes stress which makes her panic and not be able to do the laundry
  • Reconcile- Reconcile means to restore friendly relations between. This word is added in the article to show how her brain tries to put together that laundry goes into the washing machine

6. “When we hear Caleb pulling back in the driveway, we jump up and grab their strings, plunging the living room back into its usual necessary darkness.”

  • Jump up- These words are added to show the severity of his arrival. Brannan must act fast not to trigger her husband
  • Plunging- This word is added to show how the darkness makes the room a dark, unlikeable place to be
  • Necessary darkness- It is vital for the room to be dark so that Caleb is not triggered

7. “Now, he’s rounder, heavier, bearded, and long-haired, obviously tough even if he
weren’t prone to wearing a COMBAT INFANTRYMAN cap, but still not the guy you
picture when you see his “Disabled Veteran” license plates.”

  •  rounder, heavier, bearded, and long haired- This is added to describe how Caleb has let himself go, the PTSD is affecting his health, and physical appearance
  • prone to wearing a COMBAT INFANTRYMAN cap–  If Caleb wore this hat, he would be triggered
  • Disabled Veteran license plate- Caleb is a strong man who you would never think is disabled by his physical appearance, but no one really knows what is going on inside

 

Critical Reading – Yoshi

Section 21

  1. I can feel him slipping down—it’s like this…vortex, this hole. And I try to grab him, like, ‘No! Don’t go down there!’ He can still get really depressed.
  • I can feel him slipping down: Charlen knows when Steve  is about to enter one of his flashbacks and depressed stages.
  • Vortex: Charlen is talking about Steve and how she knows when he is falling into mass of whirling fluid
  • ‘Don’t go down there’: Charlen tries to pull him out of the depressed state he is going to enter.
  • Depressed: Steve enters a state where he feels helpless. Categorical.
  1. Charlene has long, graying dark hair parted down the middle and super-serious eyes, which she has to lower to compose herself for a minute when I ask her, alone, if she saved Steve’s life. “He loves me a lot,” she answers. “I’ve never known love like this. He is…awesome.”
  • Super-serious eyes: She is probably very concerned with Steve and everything he does.
  • if she saved Steve’s life: Charlen saved steven from depression because of his PTSD?
  • “He loves me a lot,”: She he loves her alot because she saved his life and helped him throughout the years of their marriage
  • I’ve never known love like this: He loves her more than she’ll ever feel because she saved him.
  1. “She saved my life,” Steve says of Charlene, without my asking.
  • -Casual claim because of his PTSD his wife saved his life
  • -Steve suffers from PTSD
  • – He would’ve fell into depression without his wife.
  • – He didn’t ask she willing put up with it
  1.  VA rated Steve at 100 percent PTSD disabled, but he’s found his way to his version of a joyful life
  • 100 percent PTSD disabled: Definition claim saying Steve is 100% PTSD disabled
  • Found his way: Steve has found another way to do life
  • joyful life: Steve lives life another way so he enjoys it
  1. In the Vines’ household in Alabama, at any unpredictable time of night, the nightmare starts in Iraq.
  • -Nightmares: Categorical claim
  • – The nightmares Steven has because of his PTSD
  • – any unpredictable time of night: PTSD occurs randomly
  1. Someone’s yelling for the medic and an indiscernible string of noises seeps out of Caleb’s mouth while he’s dying.
  • Categorical claim: flashbacks are a part of PTSD
  • Indiscernible string of noises: the noise someone makes when they’re in pain
  • He’s dying: PTSD is bringing flashbacks of his friends dying.
  1. she wakes up, shaky, the next morning. “Still don’t get how I can so vividly dream of somewhere I’ve never actually been.”
  • Brennan caught PTSD
  • Brennan has never went to war so we assume PTSD is contagious
  • She wakes up shaky: because she had such a vivid dream about Iraq

 

Critical Reading – theintern

Section 18

1.”But here we’ve got lasagna, and salad with an array of dressing choices, and a store-bought frosted Bundt cake with chocolate chips in it!”

  • Dressing choices: We can assume the word dressing choices indicates that there was a variety of dressings and the people wouldn’t have to just choose one.
  • The store bought cake can be assumed that Brannan does not know how to bake a cake or just doesn’t have the time to bake a cake.
  • By having an exclamation point end with chocolate chips means that Brannan loves chocolate chips and is excited to have them in the cake.

2. “There is no dining-room table—when they bought the house years ago, they thought they’d finish it up real nice like they did with another house, before the war, but nobody’s up for that now, so we all huddle around the coffee table in the living room.”

  • Years ago: It seems like they were financially stabled because as they said that they finished it up real nice.
  • War: This war really screwed the whole family up. The family thought that they would be same even after the war but it left heart broken because the man of the house Caleb was suffering from PTSD which back pedaled their plans.
  • No dining room table could mean that they are not financially stabled and can’t afford to buy one or that the house that they bought did not have the space for the table.
  • Huddled: By the word “huddled” the author means that the family had to make the best out of where they ate and that was on a coffee table in the living room.
  • Nobody’s up for it now: By this phrase the author sums up what the family goes through on a daily basis with the father/husband’s PTSD and that no body is normal enough or has the free time to fix up the house.

3. “And it’s lovely. Dinner lasts for hours. Brannan tries to calm Katie down despite the excitement of the visitor at dinner, while Katie shows me games and drawings as we eat.”

  • Lovely: The author describes how it’s lovely in the sense of how peaceful the environment is and how much love is being shared.
  • Visitor: The word “visitor” is used to allow the audience know the author’s acquaintance with the family.
  • Seems like Katie never sees other older people because maybe the family does not have the time/patience to meet and greet with other parents.
  • The author expresses Katie as too excited that Brannan has to calm her child down because a visitor is over where she offers the author to look at her games/drawings.

4. “Caleb makes jokes that it does indeed feel like he and Brannan have been married for-ever.”

  • Joke: The author notices that Caleb still has a sense of humor.
  • Caleb acknowledges and remembers that Brannan is his wife and that it has been a long time they’ve been married.
  • Caleb “feels” that he is married to her for-ever with the numbers in his head actually knowing.

5. “he laughs when he says this, she laughs, and swats at him from where she’s curled herself into his armpit with his arm around her.”

  • The love and joy is still in the air because they both laugh at Caleb’s joke and are not laughing at each other.
  • Swat: The author uses the word “swat” because it’s an action verb that represents playfulness and teasing each love couple does to one another for affection.
  • Curled: This word is used to show how comfortable Brannan is with Caleb and how she can curl into his armpit with his arm around her.
  • Armpit: The author used the word “armpit” even though some people might find it disgusting to hear but does it really matter when you love someone and that’s what the author tried to show the audience, the compassionate love they had for each other.

6. “At the front door, we all beam at each other in the warm way people do when they’re separating after a nice meal.” 

  • Why the front door, some people open the garage door to leave and others go through the side door.
  • Beam: The author uses the word “beam” as sense of fear but he rephrased it and said in a warm way because usually beam means to look at someone with long glance and have fear develop inside the person you stare at.
  • Separating: This word is a harsh word to use because it means to separate from someone and never see them again in which has done.
  • It is confirmed that the author went to Caleb’s house for a nice meal, observed his surroundings and left with a warm beam looking at them.

7. “Caleb is in such a good mood that Brannan asks if he’s up for putting Katie to bed so she can go lie down.” 

  • Good Mood: The author uses this word to describe how Caleb is feeling at the time concerning he has PTSD which means at times he has break downs and starts screaming where he always feels he is in danger.
  • Ask: It is hard for Brannan to ask Caleb for anything because he is not right in the state of mind and doesn’t want him to feel stressed out about anything.
  • Lie Down: The author uses this word “lie down” instead of sleep because the author knows that it won’t be long till Caleb starts screaming which means she can only “lie down” for a few minutes while sleeping means to doze off for more than an hour.
  • Seems like the audience can estimate how old Katie is and that she needs someone to tuck her in at night.

8. “Not two days after that, he tells her he’s leaving her. “I’m going to get it over with and do it so you don’t have to,” he says,” 

  • Not: The word “not” is used to say that is hasn’t been long till something has happened.
  • After a long time of being married, Caleb is leaving his wife because of the pain she goes through to be with him.
  • Get it over with: This phrase is used to mean that the person wants to be done with any deed and not regret anything.
  • The author explains that Caleb was strongly using “you” towards Brannan and not the audience.
  • Caleb ended the relationship because he knew that Brannan would not end it, even though Caleb felt horrible he did not want Brannan to suffer anymore.
  • We can tell that Caleb is getting better because he can make more decisions on his own with out being too mad about it.

9. “when he weighs the pain of being alone versus the pain of being a burden.”

  • Weighs: The author expresses this word as the weight he mentally and physically carries.
  • His weight consists of being alone and the heavy load some he must carry all due because of his PTSD.

 

E03: Critical Reading – Princess 45

Section 13

“The amount of progress in Caleb’s six years of therapy has been frustrating for everyone. “

  • Caleb has been in therapy for six years
  • He has been making minimal progress

 “we have reason to be reasonably optimistic. Psychotherapy does work for typical PTSD.” The VA tends to favor cognitive-behavioral therapy and exposure therapy—whereby traumatic events are hashed out and rehashed until they become, theoretically, less consuming. Some state VA offices also offer group therapy. For severe cases, the agency offers inpatient programs, one of which Caleb resided in for three months in 2010.

  • We can have hope, psychotherapy has been proven to work for PTSD.
  • There are multiple methods but the VA prefers the cognitive-behavioral therapy and exposure therapy.
  • Other methods: group therapy, for severe cases: inpatient programs

 

‘The VA also endorses eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR), which is based on the theory that memories of traumatic events are, in effect, improperly stored, and tries to refile them by discussing those memories while providing visual or auditory stimulus.”

  • EMDR also offered by the VA is based off the theory that memories of traumatic are in effect but improperly stored and attempted to be restored.

 “There’s a fairly strong consensus around CBT and EMDR,” Brunet says. While veterans are waiting for those to work, they’re often prescribed complicated antidepressant-based pharmacological cocktails.”

  • There seem to be a lot of people who agree with CBT and EMDR
  • While veterans are depending on the progress of CBT and EMDR they’re prescribed antidepressant based pills with who knows what else is in them

“Currently, the agency is funding 130 PTSD-related studies, from testing whether hypertension drugs might help to examining the effectiveness of meditation therapy, or providing veterans with trauma-sensitive service dogs, like Caleb’s. The Mental Health Research Portfolio manager says the organization is “highly concerned and highly supportive” of PTSD research.”

  • The VA is very concerned about their PTSD patients and are researching all methods
  • Testing of drugs to increase effectiveness of therapy’s
  • Testing if service dogs are an alternative
  • Health Research Portfolio is concerned and supportive of their PTSD research

“But a lot of FOV members and users are impatient with the progress. Up until 2006, the VA was spending $9.9 million, just 2.5 percent of its medical and prosthetic research budget, on PTSD studies. In 2009, funding was upped to $24.5 million. But studies take a long time, and any resulting new directives take even longer to be implemented.”

  • Family of Vet members are impatient with progress of the different therapy’s
  • The concern for PTSD victims has risen and funding for research has been upped
  • Research and validating new methods take time and anything proven to help will still have to be put into action

Summaries – Plethoragaming

It seems counter intuitive that the competitive video game industry going but is it worth it to award players a gold medal? Esports is what the competitive video game industry is called, and its rapidly growing. The League of Legends World Championship had a 15 million people watching at its peak with sold out arenas and players winning millions of dollars. Games like this are considered “mind sports” even though it does not have any real physical activities, so who knows if esports will make it into the Olympics.

http://www.foxsports.com/olympics/story/esports-olympics-video-games-league-of-legends-shouldnt-be-olympic-sport-summer-041817

It seems counter intuitive that esports is growing but there is a lot of resistance in the growing it. The Super Bowl Championship in 2015 had a $5.1 million dollar payout and the Game Dota 2 Championship had $5 million dollar payout in 2014. With a growth in payout like this it is futile to resist having esports grow. Twitch bought by Amazon, which is a platform for gamers to stream their games, get over 100 million unique viewers a month. Gaming industry has more followers on YouTube than sports, news and education.

http://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/13059210/esports-massive-industry-growing

It seems counter intuitive that fast food is growing, and the effects of it has not lowered. Junk food has shown to cause fatigue causing energy for daily tasks to drop. Not only that, it drops our daily performance and increases obesity, these food cause cause high blood pressure which can cause serious health problems. Junk food can even cause damage to liver and heart due to its high trans fat. And finally junk food is only of leading reasons to diabetes, which occurs due to high sugar intake.

http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/health/how-dirty-is-my-car.html

Purposeful Summaries—Princess45

It seems counterintuitive that there are so many nuclear power plants in the U.S when we are constantly being told of how harmful they can be to us. Global warming has constantly been an issue in our world and it will continue to be as long as there are people on this planet. Nuclear power plants can be extremely dangerous if anything were to happen and became out of control. These plants from an alternate source of energy without the high levels of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels but there are a lot of costs and questions such as where and how will there be a proper disposal of waste? How safe are they? and what are the consequences of a disaster in a populated area? Not only are these power plants dangerous to the environment but they are dangerous to us as humans. The talk of Nuclear power plants has been around for years and it will continue to be as long as global warming is a current issue.

It seems counterintuitive that a New York assembly man who’s daughter has needed two transplants is is fighting to increase the number of organ donations by trying to change the voluntary organ donation system to a presumed consent. This means that you would  automatically be an organ donor unless you opt out. Monique Sneed has a mother who has just been told that she needs a transplant and she is a donor herself but doesn’t believe in the presumed consent. She chooses to wait for someone who voluntarily wants to help and that it would still not lead to 100% donation. The presumed consent has failed in two states.

 

It seems counterintuitive that the FDA does not regulate the labeling of supplements. So do multivitamins really work?  There is virtually be no evidence that multivitamins actually make healthy people healthier. Some multivitamins have been proven to do more damage than benefits. The vitamin shop has 700 million in annual sales and has been growing year after year, and just recently there has been multiple studies that show that you could be “Pissing your money away”.  Just last June manufactures were forced to put a label on multivitamins relating the “health risks”. How can there be heath risks if they are just natural vitamins that our bodies need? Not all companies police their labels well and it was found that 60 common multivitamins found fault with their labels. Most people will have adequate nutrient intake with their daily eating.

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2012/03/econundrums-do-vitamin-supplements-work/

Purposeful Summaries-Jonhjelly

Price to high

It seems counterintuitive the price to build a nuclear power plant is to high and not demanding right now. There are other concerns to be dealt with before we have to worry about a what if factor. One of the biggest problems we would face is money. Were would we find enough money to fund this project. Banks are not lining up at the door to come fund this idea no matter how good it could be for the state. But if we were to make a power plant other factors have to go into the idea. For instance the safety of the plant. Is it safe enough for people to work on and how many deaths happen per year. An the plants that we have right next to New York if a incident occurs then it would be chaos getting them out of the city. Nuclear power would be very beneficial towards the city but the cost of it will be to expensive.

New Yorker: ”silent Minds”

It seems counterintuitive that doctors have been misdiagnosing  patients of PVS when in reality they are conscious. Their has been serval studies completed in the late 1990s about patients who suffer from disorder of consciousness. But 15 to 43 percent of the time they are misdiagnosis because of the doctors relying on their bed side observation. The have been overlooking the patient behavior like their breathing and the way they smile or cry, and they would look at these characteristics as evidence of conscious. A lot of the patients who are blind are conscious and are able to communicate are just being misdiagnosis by the physicians.

The Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

It seems counterintuitive that the shower can be a killer to the elderly.  Falls are the common cause of death in older people. So the author of the article is explaining the percentages of a person falling in the shower. He talks about his which is 75 and how if he lives to reach 90 his life expectance then he has about 5 thousands more showers to go. An the odds of the author falling in the shower has now just gone by 5. He goes on to talk about to odds of a  dead tree failing on a person(1 in a 1000). Then he talks about how Guineans have to be be more alert and think clearly about dangers 911 to bail them out or doctors either. He states that they watch out for the wrong things. The author states that his hyper vigilance doesn’t keep him from living a full and happy life. He enjoys all the dangerous things but he try to keep in mind the danger ratios.

Purposeful Summaries- phillygirl20

  1. Silent Minds

It seems counterintuitive that with all of the technology there is, doctor’s still struggle with misdiagnosing patients. Physicians misinterpret any noise a patient makes and things like their behavior as evidence of consciousness. Physicians also misinterpret their patients to being in the vegetative state when research later showed that these patients were “blind or severely visually impaired.” The argument ended with the story of Terri Schiavo, who spent fifteen years in vegetative state. Her death provoked a debate over the rights of severely brain- damaged patients.

http://notdeadyet.org/2007/10/new-yorker-silent-minds-article-on-pvs.html

2. Vancouver

It seems counterintuitive that anyone would try to combat heroin by giving addicts the best heroin. In Vancouver city, there is a safe zone called “insight” where addicts are given the best heroin with proper utensils without getting arrested by the police. This is their way to treat heroin addicts. The author says, “If you give these people doses of heroin every day and keep them comfortable and keep them docile and keep the sort of demons of heroin addiction at bay, then those people are much less likely to end up in an alley, dead with a needle in their arm, or much less likely to sell themselves sexually for money to buy drugs, or much less likely to break into somebody’s car to steal something, or to shoplift or to strong-arm rob or to whatever. So the harm that they can cause to themselves and society is reduced if you simply give them the drug.” In a way this is preventing the rapid death amongst the heroin addicts, but this is not a cure for them.

https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-02-04/vancouver-combats-heroin-giving-its-addicts-best-smack-world

3. Is PTSD Contagious?

It seems counterintuitive that PTSD is being considered being contagious. Research shows that PTSD is rampant amongst returning vets and now it is showing amongst their family as well. PTSD, meaning post traumatic stress disorders that is most of the time found in returning vets who was recently involved in a war. PTSD is a type of anxiety disorder that occurs after experiencing a traumatic event which doesn’t make sense for the family of a vet to feel if they’ve never experienced the traumatic event. I believe the family of a returning vet may experience like symptoms, but not actually be diagnosed with PTSD.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/ptsd-epidemic-military-vets-families/

Purposeful Summaries -New Edition Lover

  1. “Anne Frank Novelist ” It seems counter-intuitive , where everyone knows the story of Anne Frank from Amsterdam where she impressively wrote direct accounts in her personal diary which gave us a insight on her young life as the holocaust ended the life of her and many other Jews. The maturity and growth Anne showed in the diary showed how mature sh was at such a young age going through the worst time of her life. The legacy of Anne Frank will continue to live on and her story will always be told.
  2.   “Men Defining Rape : A History” It seems counter-intuitive that men are defining what rape is. Rape has been written in many different way and forms since the begging of times,which rape to me is the assault on rape or even men where you force them to have sexual intercourse. Its also counter intuitive that January of 2012 is when the FBI updated its definition of forcible rape ,which one cant consent or have no physical capacity due to drugs, alcohol or age.
  3. “Do Tom Shoes Really Help People?” It seems -counter intuitive but could be true that Toms may not help people. Founded in 2006 which goes with the line “buy one give one” which donates to all kids around the world in need. But which also may seem counter intuitive is that a piece by Sarika Bansal which she went and met one of their partners from Ethopia where they give shoes to those who already have shoes which is not the idea of it at all. The idea that Toms are not really helping people but in reality competing for sales prices. Toms are very limited from their website and the message they are achieving is not clear due to global issues around the world.

Summeries- pdqlover

Junk Food is 21st Century Imperialism–

1. It seems counterintuitive that billon dollar companies such as McDonalds, Pepsi and other are tasteful and are very assessable but these companies cause many health risk and obesity. Reports show that these companies are now working on healthier ingredient to include into recipes and menus. In Brazil many cultural food places are being replaced with european cultural food places. The European food places are not what the Brazil people are use to and are unhealthy, they feel as the they are bring ripped away from their culture. The European food culture includes things like Coke and Kit-Kit and pudding.

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2012/03/econundrums-do-vitamin-supplements-work/

2. It seems counterintuitive that some say the $28 billon supplement and vitamin industry the vitamins we are taking have no nutritional value to them at all and no evidence that they make us healthier. We should eat more of green leaf foods, and foods that contain these vitamins in them to receive vitamins, instead of taking a pill supplement.

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2012/03/walmart-groceries-organic-local-food-deserts/

3. It seems counterintuitive that many items in Walmart’s vegetable section items are listed as organic but may only say grown in the USA as customers read closer into the label. This is misleading to their customers and causes controversy. In 2000 all Walmart’s argued to get produce from local grown farms near by the stores. Very few Walmart’s have started to connect with local farms and is now receiving fresher grown items but many have not done so yet.