Michael Fogleman

It's time for another nerd-tastic post! And this time it's about that classic game known as Scrabble. I play this game with my parents just about every time I visit. But recently my friend Rachael got me playing online at games.com. But I wasn't happy with their interface so I searched for a better online Scrabble. And I found it! It's the Internet Scrabble Club, hosted at http://www.isc.ro/ They have their own program that you download and run to connect to their Scrabble server. The reason I like it is because there's no extra fluff -- it's just Scrabble. Also, this is where serious Scrabble players play, so you know it has to be good. The server tracks your wins, losses, and rating. You can also view your past 10 or so games at any time. All of the games are timed, ranging anywhere from a few minutes to about an hour, per person.

And so I've been playing online Scrabble quite a lot. So far I've played about 90 games. One morning I woke up and I was playing Scrabble in my head! And this leads me to the second portion of this blog post... As you know, I'm a computer programmer. So when I get addicted to something like Scrabble, it's only natural for me to want to program it. And, well, that's what I did last weekend when I was sick. I wrote a program that plays Scrabble. No, not for cheating purposes. Only because I like a good programming challenge!

The program first loads a dictionary of about 170,000 words. It's the official Scrabble dictionary. Then, you can either type in moves or do a search with a set of tiles, to find the highest scoring move. Or you can tell the program to play a whole game of Scrabble against itself. After some optimizing, it can play a whole game in less than one second! It's average per-play score is anywhere around 25-40, depending a lot on what tiles it gets. And of course, I have yet to beat my own program at a game of Scrabble. And I still have improvements to make!

I'll soon add my Scrabble program to my software page on here. Speaking of which, I also need to add Pac-Man!

posted by Michael  # 2/20/2005 01:33:00 PM 2 Comments

... and I'm sick. I did absolutely nothing today. Well, nothing worth mentioning. I didn't go to work. I didn't leave the house. I slept in, sat around, did some homework, and played some online scrabble. Being sick sucks. And it isn't very romantic, either. Not that I have anyone to be romantic with...

Winter is kinda crappy. No one really does anything since it's too cold outside. People get sick and feel miserable. We didn't even really get any snow to play in this winter.

Oh, yeah, Valentine's Day. I think people make a big deal out of it. They either a) feel like that have to do all kinda awesome stuff for their significant other, b) whine about not having a significant other, or c) complain about the (a) and (b) people. I guess by writing this I fall into the (c) category. I'm not in the (b) category though. Because I don't need Valentine's Day to be reminded that I'm single. All I have to do is go out with my friends who are couples (many of them are) and the waitress will stinking point out that I'm the only single one there. (this has happened on more than one occasion) Thanks a lot! =)

I'll continue with this unsubstantial post by giving a "shoutout" to my roommate's relatively new website. It's a photo blog. He goes around taking pictures of things and then posts a new picture every weekday. They're good pictures too, believe it or not. Check it out at http://daythief.com/

posted by Michael  # 2/14/2005 09:41:00 PM 4 Comments

This is an excerpt from a paper I wrote 4 years ago as a freshman in college! I stumbled upon it while looking through some old documents on my computer. I enjoyed reading it after such a long time and so I decided to post it on here so you can read it too! My views on alcohol have become quite a bit less negative since writing this, but the paper still makes a lot of good points. Especially regarding underage drinking, which is what it's all about anyway. Note that the character in the "One Side of the Story" section is fictional. ;-) You can skip the first two sections if you find them terribly boring!

An Introductory Statement

Before I begin, I would like to start by writing at least a part of my required “Reflective statement.” Creative Option One immediately stood out among the list of options for my paper. After deciding to choose this option, I wondered what types of cultural “texts” surround me, while not properly belonging to them. It wasn’t long before the first such “text” came to mind. Underage drinking. Not even on one occasion have I given in to the demands of peer pressure or have I conformed to the majority, regarding alcohol. In America, teenagers who drink certainly belong to the majority. It is a crime, whether done once or every day, for a person under the age of twenty-one to consume alcohol. Why, then, is drinking so important, or so common among citizens of this age group? My goal is to answer this question, or at least provide theories concerning this question, but hopefully not without humor or parody. Chronologically within my paper, I will try to follow the same steps that Geertz used in “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight.” I will provide a story describing the interactions between a fictional character and the people that are a part of this majority. This story is my concrete form of this cultural text. Then, following Geertz’s order, I will attempt to interpret the story I have told and draw theories to explain the behavior of the majority and the character I create.

My Mission

I have suddenly noticed the annoying fact that so many people are controlled in some way by alcohol, even those who do not engage in drinking. As a result, I have become interested in figuring out the reasons why those who drink decide to do so, and if there is any way in better preventing minors from obtaining alcohol, or preventing them from even wanting to obtain alcohol. To do this, I have spent a good deal of time talking with those teens whose lives are not alcohol-free. I have made an effort to understand their way of thinking and the reasons why they choose to drink. The section that follows is intended to aware the reader of what I have found to be a typical timeline of events among young adults who eventually begin drinking. It is the account of a young adult whose life has been changed because of alcohol.

One Side of the Story

Even after a long, boring summer, the first day of my sophomore year of high school was not a thing I had been looking forward to. The last thing I was ready to do was to return to a place where I was an outcast from society, only to feel left out and alone. I went from class to class by myself, and all I could think about was how much I wanted to be popular and with the “in crowd.” I don’t know why becoming a part of this group would be so hard for me; I looked normal, dressed normal, and acted normal. At least I thought so. Except for a loyal friend or two, I was very distanced from all of my peers, all of the people around me. I felt depressed and alone.

Things always seem to change when a new school year begins. Nothing is ever the same as it was the year before. I say this because it wasn’t long after the beginning of the year that one of my “loyal” friends began to distance himself from me just like all the other punks in the school. The only time he seemed to associate with me anymore was when no one else was around. He was now “one of them” and all I wanted was to be accepted, and I don’t even know why. What would it take?

A couple months later, word around school had it that there was going to be an awesome party, thanks to the trusting parents of the most popular kid in school who were leaving town for the weekend. Even though I hated the “in crowd,” I wanted so bad to be a part of an event such as this, but I didn’t have the courage to just show up at something like this. I needed the comfort of having a friend or two with me when attempting to make an entrance. I want to be different, but I hate standing out, which I would surely be doing if I showed up at this party alone. I had no choice but to spend another weekend sleeping and watching TV.

That is until I received a phone call the night before the party from my good old “loyal” friend. He wanted to know if I would accompany him to the party, he had no one else to go with. Despite my anger towards his abandoning me earlier and then coming back to me only after he “had no one else to go with,” I decided that my life was too dull to pass up an opportunity such as this, so I agreed to go to the party. Now I was nervous, and I hardly knew what to expect the following evening, but it would surely be a blast. Why else would so many people be going?

The party was on a Friday night, so we had school, which was no different on that day than any other day. I didn’t even talk to the “loyal” one until he arrived at my house to give me a ride to the event. We arrived about an hour and a half late, supposedly that was the “cool” thing to do. My friend said nothing gets good until then anyway. Cars surrounded the area around the house and the music from inside was perfectly audible from outside. I wasn’t nervous anymore. I was excited and ready to be a part of the social action. Besides, I wasn’t alone; I had my friend with me.

The night flew by pretty quick, at least the parts that I remember did. I felt horrible the next morning with a bad hangover. Aside from this, the remainder of my weekend went as usual, but the events to follow were much different than I had expected. I don’t know what it was I did that night that attracted so much attention to me, but the following Monday at school I was encountered by several people with a variety of random conversations, as if these people had been my friends for years. I couldn’t believe it, I was talking to the “popular” kids, and before I knew it, I was a part of their group. Attending parties like the first one became a common thing, and I found myself sucked into the world of alcohol.

Of Alcohol and Teenagers

Before the teens can begin with the partying, they must first find a way to acquire the alcohol. There are several ways the seeker can obtain the alcohol. Friends or relatives of the teen who are of age may purchase the alcohol, even though these people face heavy consequences in the case that the distribution is reported to the proper authorities. Teenagers also often wait outside of a store that sells alcohol to ask older people entering the store to buy the alcohol for them. Again, the individual who gives way to the teenager’s requests faces terrible consequences. Many older teens are able to purchase the alcohol themselves without being carded. Fake ID’s also assist many teenagers in purchasing alcohol by fooling the vendor into believing that the customer was born on an earlier date. Hence, laws regarding the sell of alcohol are becoming stricter, and those selling beer are risking losing their job if they are not careful about whom they sell alcohol to. Another method of receiving alcohol, and probably most disappointing, is to get it from parents. This is a strategy sometimes used by the parents to keep the drinking “safe” and keep the kids off of the roads.

Why do those under the legal drinking age choose to drink? There is no single answer to this question. Many choose to drink due to social contact. When people who consume alcohol surround someone, it is hard for that person to resist the pressure of their peers. Most young adults want to be accepted, and if conforming is the answer, they will do so even though they are usually very aware of the consequences they face. Oftentimes, teenagers associate drinking with adult behavior, possibly because of the age regulations placed on alcohol. Eager to be more like the ones they look up to, teens often drink for this reason. The media also often places a positive connotation on alcohol and drinking, giving young adults a false sense of safety and lack of danger in drinking. As teens are often associated with rebelling, many young adults choose to drink as a method of uprising.

Although the explanations listed above are very true and cover most of the topic, none of them are quite from the point of view of the teens themselves. When asked, most teens say that they choose to drink because of the mood it brings within them. It is relaxing and helps them forget about stressful things for the time being and loosens them up. They feel like they can have more fun and they worry less about what others think of them while they, let’s say, dance or crack corny jokes. The presence of alcohol in parties provides a basis or ground for social interaction. One word can pretty much sum it all up: fun. To them, drinking is fun.

The Party

Parties of this type almost always take place at night, often lasting through the early morning hours. As the night progresses, the crowd generally gets louder and crazier, until everyone is tired and spent. At this point, the party members slowly break up and the party eventually comes to an end. Occasionally, if a party gathers enough people, and the crowd gets loud in the late night hours, police may be called upon to break up the party. This often results in young adults spending a night in jail, and the one who organized the party may be penalized, especially if he has aided in the distribution of alcohol to minors. The party is a place for people to meet, to have fun, and to relax. Alcohol is simply the medium between the contacts. But is this medium completely necessary?

posted by Michael  # 2/09/2005 10:33:00 AM 0 Comments