Swine Flu: A National Pandemic

Swine flu, also known as 2009 H1N1 influenza, is a human disease. People get the disease from other people, not from pigs. Symptoms of H1N1 swine flu are like regular flu symptoms and include fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, body aches, headache, chills, and fatigue. Many people with swine flu have had diarrhea and vomiting. Nearly everyone with flu has at least two of these symptoms. Pregnant women are six times more likely to have severe flu disease than women who are not pregnant. Young children, especially those under 2 years of age are also more susceptible. Other people most at risk include people with asthma, COPD or other chronic lung conditions, cardiovascular conditions (except high blood pressure), liver problems, kidney problems, blood disorders including sickle cell disease, neurologic disorders, neuromuscular disorders, metabolic disorders including diabetes, immune suppression including HIV infection and medications that suppress the immune system, such as cancer chemotherapy or anti-rejection drugs for transplants, residents of a nursing home or other chronic-care facility, elderly people, and babies are at high risk of severe flu disease. Relatively few swine flu cases have been seen in people over age 65. People in these groups should seek medical care as soon as they get flu symptoms. As far as the shot, I'm allergic to it so I'm pretty much SCREWED, but I think it's a dangerous sort of a good idea. I'm kind of undecided about the whole "shot" theory. I think you can help prevent swine flu by NOT EATING OR DRINKING AFTER OTHER PEOPLE, WASHING YOUR HANDS REGULARLY, and AVOIDING BEING AROUND PEOPLE WHO HAVE IT. I feel about the same about the swine flu since I researched it. It still scares me because I don't want my premature daughter to catch it. I have to take all possible precautions to protect her. I think all of us have a civil responsibility to help prevent swine flu in our community. We should all practice good hygiene, cover our coughs and sneezes, and wear medical masks if we are infected to help prevent others from catching it. Everyone who is infected should get treatment IMMEDIATELY. We've GOT to STOP this thing!!

The Act of Kindness

Sometimes, (and we're ALL guilty of it), we say or do things to people without thinking that hurt their feelings or make a bad day even worse. In some cases, this can sometimes push people over the edge enough to take their own life. It happens every day, everywhere around the world and it's something that should be addressed more thoroughly. All we have to do to help prevent things like this from happening is BE KIND to people!! When someone does something that irritates you, (such as forgetting to use their turn signal) think about the possibility that the person may have had a death in the family or a divorce. Maybe they just had a really bad day. It doesn't matter which may be the case, we should all still be kind to one another. The world would be a much happier place if everyone could just refrain from being... "aggressive." ;-] If we could just be NICE to people, we could help each other out. Even in cases where you don't particularly like the individual, you should try your best to be kind to them. You never know... you could say or do something to set them off and they could go somewhere and end everything. You'd have to live the rest of your life knowing that if you would've just been nice to the person, they may not have decided to kill themselves. Besides, even if they DIDN'T take their life, you could make them unbearably miserable. That's no fun either. We all need to quit being so defensive and help each other. It makes for a happier world.

Adobe Flash Mini Game Experience

For the last few days, I've been observing a good friend of mine working on her mini game on the computer. I'm trying to learn as much as I can so I can start a mini game of my own. I've already got a few good ideas, I just have to put my ideas together and hopefully make some kind of impressive work of art. ;-) I know it won't be anywhere near professional, but I'll give it my best shot. I've already learned quite a few things about making a flash game. I've watched the tutorial and learned quite a bit from it. I hope to someday make a complete up-and-running game that I can publish and play on the internet. I also hope to publish it somewhere where EVERYBODY has a chance to play and give me feedback and opinions on the game. Wish me luck!!! ;-)

Domestic Violence and Abuse: Can We Prevent It?

One of the civic issues that needs to be adressed is domestic violence and abuse. So many people, especially children, areabused and neglected every day. As a former victim myself, I know the pain and stress that comes from the abuse that effects your daily life profoundly. I think the government needs to do more to keep the abusers away from the abused. I think the government needs to have special apartment or housing complexes for abusers. This way, when someone is found guilty of abuse of any kind, the government will place them in a special house or apartment to live and the victim will be offered a restraining order. (If it were completely up to me, I'd dig a giant hole a mile deep and throw them all in it, but I have to be fair about this. ;-] ) They could still have all their rights EXCEPT the right to own a weapon, but they would have to stay completely away from the victim at all times. I think that would be a good solution. There needs to be more investigation into domestic violence. It IS a major problem that CAN be prevented!

Our Visit With David

Our GED class recently had a visit with David Lowenstein and he spoke with us about our blog entries and our games we are currently creating. He told us what the whole project is about and answered any questions we had. I enjoyed the visit and learned a lot about the Globaloria program. I asked him if the games we create get put on web-sites or if they're just on our Globaloria pages. He explained to me that they'll be on our Globaloria pages, but if a software company finds a game and decides they want to sell it, you can make a lot of money. Unfortunately, this is EXTREMELY rare, and probably isn't going to happen to anyone here. I don't think our computers have the software to make a game complex enough to be sold. I've been wrong before, though. Maybe somebody will make a game good enough to be sold on a software C.D. Who knows, maybe my poverty game will make it to XBox!! HIGHLY unlikely, but possible! ;-)