The STACK Game, A Metaphor For Life

One week ago I was sitting in bed searching for a way to mindlessly entertain myself. I was pretty tired and didn't have the strength to play a game on my computer so I decided to find one on my phone. After searching through the app store a little while I came across a game named STACK.

I played stacking games before and found them quite entertaining. The first reason I downloaded the game was because of the color scheme it had, elegant and simple. You start off with one color and as you continued stacking, the colors change. The nuances of the colors were beautiful and somewhat soothing.

As I sat in my bed, tapping on the screen to stack square plate after square plate, the music playing in the background made me feel like a Buddhist monk in some form of meditation. Again it had a very calming effect. I must admit I didn't play the game for hours or any chance I got, unable to stop, but I enjoyed the 15 minutes I had spent on it and it actually got me thinking about how this game resembles life. To explain how I got to this conclusion I must first explain the rules.

You start the game with an already stacked pile of square plates. The point of the game is to evenly place another plate that is floating above your stack, on top. If your margins do not perfectly align then the portion left out will be cut off and you will have a smaller piece on top of your pile. The game is over when your pieces get so small that it's almost impossible to place them one upon another.

The perk is that when you evenly stack eight pieces, the eight piece gets larger and so do the other ones stacked evenly upon that one until you reach the initial square size. Of course if you don't then your piece will be again cut off.  It's also cool than when you neatly drop the pieces, you get the "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si, Do" notes, one for each piece.

Now that I explained the rules, there is one specific thing that I often stumbled upon that I want to talk about. Of course it's satisfying when you do manage to perfectly put one piece on top of the other but it's not that fun when a part of your plate gets cut off when you were about to place the eight perfectly stacked square and have it grow bigger. But why did I miss when I was about to make a perfect eight? And this kept happening. It was like the eight piece was cursed or hated me and wanted to torment me. We often come so close to success but somehow we fail miserably right at the end. Why is that?

Well psychologists have an explanation for that. To win at this game, or at any other thing in life you need to acquire a certain skill that through repetition becomes better and better. When you use a skill, like hand eye coordination in this case, over analyzing under pressure often leads to the disruption of the certain skill. Your brain is like a supercomputer that learns to do things semi automatically. Let's think about breathing. Breathing can pass from being an automatic reflex to a voluntary action when you concentrate upon it. That's almost the case with learned skills. When you do them enough times they become an automatic sort of reflex. This automatism lets you do the job better than if you would analyzed it.

When you start intensely focusing on something, while under pressure, you sort of overwrite the brains subconscious controls, bringing them to a conscious level. And that's when you screw it up. In this case you subconscious brain is better than you. I know it's not always the case, but this time you should trust it. I know I often come across this problem in my life. Many times I've been almost there but never reached the metaphorical podium.

Another reason for this is how we perceive loosing and winning. People who hate loosing more than they love winning are less likely to choke. And it makes sense. If you focus more on not being the last than on being the first, any win you will have just comes as a pleasant surprise. On the contrary, if you think about winning too much the likelihood of you choking is much greater because of the pressure of being the best.

What other reasons do I have to compare this game to real life? Well you could see each plate as one of the challenges in life. Some of them we overcome well enough, but others give us trouble. If one of your pieces gets cut it doesn't mean you can't build anything upon it. Yes, you failed but it's not the end. It also teaches us that you always have a second chance if you work for it. But second chances don't erase the mistakes we've made. We all have to make peace with our mistakes and accept the construction we've built with its beauty and its faults.

Another thing I found interesting is the change in color of the plates as the game goes on. It made me realize that the way we perceive life always changes from one building block to another. Sometimes we might view things white, grey or black but if you keep building there is a whole specter of colors waiting to be seen. Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you get.

The last thing I wanted to say is that advertising this game isn't the point of my article. I chose to write about it because it made me think. There are many other games out there that teach you a lot about life, you just have to look close enough. And I guess that's the conclusion I'm trying to reach. Open your eyes to what surrounds you. Wisdom can be found in the darkest of places if one only remembers to turn on the light. (Dumbledore would be proud!)

Would you make 300 sandwiches to marry a man?

I don't know if you've heard of Stephanie Smith, the woman who made 300 sandwiches to get her boyfriend to propose. It all began like this:
 "My boyfriend Eric is obsessed with two things: Star Wars and sandwiches. During a Sunday lunchtime viewing of "Return of the Jedi" he told me: "you are 300 sandwiches away from an engagement ring!" ... And so, I got cooking ..."

The story got public when she started a blog entitled simply Three hundred Sandwiches where she kept track of every sandwich she made for him, counting down from 300 to the Last Sandwich Day, when all her dreams would come true. Naturally, their love started many controversies. Feminists went wild, of course, because of a statement that Stephanie made:
"Each morning, he would ask, 
-Honey, how long you have been awake?

-About 15 minutes, I’d reply.
-You’ve been up for 15 minutes and you haven’t made me a sandwich?"

You can imagine how the public responded to that, us women finding ourselves in a time when emancipation from the "woman in kitchen" stereotype is a very important part of the 21 century. Nevertheless Stephanie went on with her quest "One ring to rule them all"- the sandwiches I mean (Pitty Eric wasn't obsessed with Lord of The Rings, it would have made much more sense).
I will not discuss the implications of their little arrangement because it actually didn't bother me. I am not good at cooking, I have many failed attempts and if she likes it, that's what she should do. What I will discuss is why did this bother so many women. Well the obvious answer would be that we are so used to being victims of society but it went much further than that and I think it was designed to.

 

I am not one to judge relationships, especially when there was a clear joke at the beginning, not a very good one even "Woman, go mke me a sandwich", but what exactly has to go wrong in your head to take it seriously? Nothing of course, and if you haven't guessed yet, Stephanie is a reporter, and she came up with the perfect plan. It actually has everything: love, misoginism (a woman trying to impress a man with the single arrow she has left in her quiver, cooking), the man is totally disinterested and she seems desperate, and an awesome blog/website that depicts her culinary art. The girl knew what she was doing, having desperately in love women and Martha Steward fans to support her endevour and feminists giving her the publicity she needed, the story was gold. I actually appreciate the idea and am sorry it didn't come to me first.

Also my post's name is "Would you make 300 sandwiches to marry a man?". I want to give you all a response to that. Stephanie said:

"Maybe I need to show him I could cook to prove that I am wife material. If he wanted 300 sandwiches, I would give him 300 sandwiches-and I'd blog about it."

"Wife material" din actually bother me and not because it's the woman who has to prove something, "Husband material" would have bothered me aswell. I do not think of marriage as something I have to prove worthy for. Marriage is a promise two people make to eachother because they would like eachother's company for the rest of their life, you don't have to make yourself in a certain way to become wife of husband material and of course I would not make 300 sandwiches to prove that. It was not their joke that I didn't like and the feminist in me didn't scream out because of her giving in to the stereotype. I just didn't like how the press approached it, but then again you shouldn't believe all you hear.

Well leaving the publicity stunt aside, girls, there is no better way to a man's heart than his stomach. The girl got what she wanted. She was 300 sandwiches away from marriage and now she's there. Give her a clap for the commitment. Maybe I am just a hater and I don't understand love. I am not a feminist, it is true that men are better at some things and women at others because that is how our society developed.

The sandwiches actualy do look awesome and Stephanie deserves credit for that. Here's a little sample 

                         Pulled Pork Gyros with Red Cabbage, Roasted Tomatoes and Cilantro

Four reasons you should think twice before swimming

Few people can say they’ve never swam in a pond, lake, canal or river. Children, in particular, love this kind of entertainment and nobody can blame them. Everywhere there is a lake, pond or little river, local children gather to have a little bit of harmless fun. We all know the risk of drowning is equal to the risk of playing on the side of the road and getting hit by a car, people sometimes are not careful enough. But no matter how much we supervise children there are still things out there that you cannot stop no matter what you do. It doesn’t matter if you have your parent’s supervision or you are parents now and you are watching out for your own children, the question remains the same: Do you actually know the risks? Nowadays we stumbled upon the fact that drowning may not be your biggest concern and not because there are monsters in these waters that will grab your kid by his foot and devour him. The actual monsters aren’t big at all, you can barely see them looking through a microscope. But how can we stop something we cannot see with our naked eye? Should we carry a microscope in our bags at all times and test the water?

 Specialists may not have the answer to this question but they can tell you what you should be afraid of and what to avoid. Apparently still water is the perfect place for parasites, and if you stop and think about it for a second, it’s pretty logical too. Lakes have still water, which means no major movement will disturb its fauna, which makes it a perfect breeding place for parasites and other creepy little creatures that crawl up your every orifice. But parasites aren’t only in still water. Here are some of the potential inhabitants of your body which you can contact trough water :

1. Parasitic Roundworm Ascarisis Lumbricoides

   But you can call him Lumbri, since he will be spending his childhood in your intestines. Your new friend will cause you the disease known as Ascariasis. Research says that as many as one quarter of the world population are infected so better go check as quick as possible because Lumbri’s not alone and his friends aren’t nice.
After the parasitic eggs enter the digestive system either by swallowing infected water or food, they hatch and begin spreading. They start burrowing trough the gut wall and travel to the lungs using blood vessels. When they get to the lungs they are coughed and swallowed again, reentering the digestive system when they mature into adult worms. But that’s not the whole story; while they are taking a trip through your body they damage your organs producing peritonitis, the enlargement of your liver and spleen, verminous pneumonitis. The ones in the intestine may cause malabsorbtion and anorexia.
Doctors can’t really diagnose it unless one of the worms is passed in vomit or stool. So apart from being incredibly gross they are also dangerous. Lucky these cuties are mostly found in Africa or Latin America so unless you live there you can think of something else that cause your cramps this morning. If you those actually live in those regions stay out of canals, wash your hands 20 times a day and don’t eat anything that has fallen on the floor because if you do there will be worms coming out your nose!

2. Naegleria Fowelri 

..or as some might call it The Brain Eating Amoeba. This one is exclusively found in lakes, ponds, hot springs, unclorhidrated swimming pools and even in the soil near lakes. In fact they can be found in any type of water except salty water.
So how do they get to the brain? Well Lumbri’s system was indeed a good one but The Brain Eating Amoeba has a different plan. This parasite enters your brain through the nose, specifically the olfactory mucosa (when it infiltrates it produces necrosis and bleeding in the olfactory bulbs). After that, it climbs along your nerve fibers until it gets into the brain where it starts chewing your brain cells.
The problem with this one is that, in most cases it kills you, and it has no time to lose, you’re dead in less than two weeks, and diagnosing it is tricky because the first symptoms, such as changes in smell, nausea, vomiting, fever, headache, are usually mistaken with the flu or doctors connect them to other diseases.

After three to seven days since the first symptoms have appeared, things get out of control and now the patient has hallucinations, lack of attention, ataxia and even seizures. After seven more days the patient is most likely to decease. Once contacted there is no turning back, 98% of the cases having a tragic ending.
Unfortunately this one has no preference of region and it is possible that you find in any warm place that contains water and is not properly sanitized. I guess overly protective mothers aren’t so crazy after all by wanting to keep their child away from brain eating amoebas.

3. Dracunculus Medinensis known as The Guinea Worm

    This parasite lives in stagnant water and you get to have him by drinking infected water. The name Dracunculiasis in Latin means “affliction with little dragons”. The illness was called The Guinea Worm disease because it was first seen by the Europeans on the Guinea coast of West Africa.
        This worm is really thin and long, the adult female measuring 2-3 feet. The worm forms nodules under the mammal skin in the shape of painful blisters. The female forms a blister after one year since it was ingested. Usually the blisters are situated on the lower limbs. Obviously, it’s not deadly and all you have to do to get it out is to submerse the affected area in a bucket of water to reduce the eggs and therefor the infection, also relieving some of the burning sensation. After that you wrap the worm on a stick and pull. This is the painful part because pulling the worm causes a burning, extremely painful sensation and it might take a couple of hours or a couple of months to extract it from the body. Another way to get rid of it is to have surgery, and by all means that seems to me the best alternative. The wound may develop a second infection such as tetanus which might be life threatening though.

4. Schistosoma

Schistosoma produces Schistosomiasis. Affected individuals release parasite eggs intro the environment. These eggs hatch when they contact fresh water and after that affecting the freshwater snails.
The parasite enters the snail’s foot where it form, close to that place the main sporocyst(a protective case or cyst in which sporozoites develop and from, until they are transferred to different hosts). Germ cells that form the first sporocyst divide, producing secondary sporocysts which migrate to the snail’s hepatopancreas. After dividing in the second sporocyst, the germ cells become larvae capable of affecting mammals.
The larvae enters trough the mammal skin remaining there for two days until it locates a post capillary venule. It travels to the lungs to suffer the changes it needs to migrate to the liver. The Schistosoma parasites (S. mansoni and S. japonicum) develop an oral sucker after arriving into the liver and begin feeding on red blood cells. The nearly mature worms pair and then relocate to the mesenteric or rectal veins. Adult worms are about 10 mm long. After reaching maturity schistosomas produce nearly 3.000 eggs a day that travel through the walls of the veins and the intestinal wall being eliminated in feces and continuing the cycle.
The disease has a low mortality rate, but it’s a chronic illness that can damage organs. It is most common in the regions where, of course, the water contains many freshwater snails like South America, Asia and Africa.
At first, there are no signs of infection, but after a few days the patient may develop a rash or itchy skin. After one or two months of infection, symptoms may develop, including fever, chills, cough, and muscle aches. Without treatment it can persist for years and the signs of chronic Schistosomiasis include abdominal pain, enlarged liver, blood in the stool or blood in the urine, and problems passing urine. Chronic infection can also lead to increased risk of bladder cancer.
 Well, who thought snails could be dangerous being so slow and all…

These are some of the parasites that can be found in water, there are many more but I tried to point out the ones that were the most disgusting.  Parasites can be contacted either directly, like the first three I presented;
either by having an intermediary agent such as the snail in the 4th example, or the pig, an intermediary agent for Thenia.
It is very important that people understand the risks of contacting a parasite and learning where they are and how to recognize the symptoms may help them avoid particular places or seek medical care when they recognize the symptoms