REPORT 3 HUNGRY FOR MORE

Where do I begin? The next class instructions were to do a third report. Wow, I was going to begin knowing more about the Internet. Yes! I am excited! Now I can brag to my friends that I am learning faster on the Internet then they are, again. Boy was I in for a big let down. I really thought I was going to enjoy this project. Low and behold, I began to dislike the topic from the start! The purpose was to travel through Gopher and grasp all the information concerning "What I'm Afraid of?" and enjoy these interesting comments in the form of stories, books, articles. etc... Well, this is where the frustration, headaches, swearing, and a very sore rear end began.

Let's start with the problems of finding a computer to use. The times that I am able to go to a computer lab during the day must be at the wrong times. I have to either wait twenty minutes for a computer at Sinclair Library in the Clic Lab. Then, I continue to The English Department Computer Lab in Kuykendall Hall room 411. I am so disgusted that, I end up calling my co-worker to come over to his house in Pearl City to use his computer. Well, this is an aweful idea because I end up talking more then doing my homework. Plus, I feel it's an inconvience for him. Finally, I am back on campus in the late afternoon and end up at Porteus Lab that I use during class time. This is my haven away from the chaos. I am not freezing to death, the lab workers are very helpful, and the lab stays open until 10:00pm during the week. It's great!

The time has come! I am using the IBM and go straight to WS Gopher. It is just aweful. The Search Engines didn't do the trick either. The person next to me hears my OOh's and grunts, that was pretty loud. He tells me of the Yahoo.com hoping I could use the http to do the assignment. The computer kept telling me that the time I am searching for my topic is just alittle busy, BIG PROBLEM! Then, I went back to WS Gopher and kept searching for more information. I was hooked up to the directory using Veronica under via University of KOELN. I really don't know how I ended up on this directory. All I know is that I typed in "Fears" onto the space that said subject and the searching began. Wowy, I was getting somewhere because a super long list of information on different types of fears was right infront of me. I was so frustrated at this point and my rear end was falling alseep so much that I was standing up every thirty minutes. I began to push return on every line in the directory that was showing up onto the screne. I ended up with the first five topics: 1)Give to the winds Try Fears: The women's...(Blocker)1985, 2)Nos.55-Unfounded Fears: Myths and Realit...(Wober)1989, 3)Tears_4_Fears, 4)The Enc. of Phobias, Fears, and Anxieties(Doctor), and 5)Tears for Fears. Well, "out of date" and "this entry was returned, unable to access document" was turning up onto the screne every ten minutes.

I came back the next day and started fresh. I began with the subject "Afraid" and got responses but all of them I was not able to get into. I went back to the subject "Fears" and just started to push the button on everything that came onto the screne, again. It took me fourty-five minutes on the computer until I saw some results. Guess what I found?

The first story I found was, Student fears global warming will sink Maldives by Mary Somers. The basic context to understand was a students concern about the islands Maldives. The students name was, Aly Shameen. Maldives is an independent state of 1,190 small coral islands situated in the Indian Ocean at 600 kilometers south of India. The Dalhousie Community was aware of possible effects of this global warming and rising sea levels on the small island states like his homeland. This hypothesis had put a great amout of fear into the people and the government who live in Maldives. The states economy relies on tourist, fishing, and shipping. They are totally dependent on the sea. The people of Maldives are fearful that their state could become environmental refugees and the whole country become uninhabitable. This global warming is related to economic development and is threatening their very existence.

The next story I found was, Book helps Nurses to confront fears about AIDS by Wendy McGuinness. The context of this sad story was about a caring female nurse named, Gail Tomblin Murphy. This women was confronted with her first AIDS patient. She knew nothing of this disease and she wasn't alone. Her lack of knowledge and the other colleagues had became obvious that they didn't have a clue due to them not accepting any care for these AIDS patients. They were very fearful of this disease and knew nothing on it. All of this easy ignorance lead to discrimination. Mrs. Murphy was asked by (CNA) Canadian Nurses Association to Chair an advisory committee to look at the issues surrounding HIV/AIDS nursing care and its affects on the nurses and patients. It has become a two year project and was funded with $350,000 by a grant from Health and Welfare Canada. It was a series of indepth interviews with nurses and HIV/AIDS sufferers across Canada. Mrs. Murphy is very greatful of this opportunity because now there is no fearful ignorance on her part. She is hopeful that her research will help benefit other individuals who has any type of fears regarding HIV/AIDS individuals.

After finding these two successful articles, I was then on the computer for another hour. I kept running into, "valid name but no data record of requested type of material", this useless statement. I had quit because I was getting frustrated all over again. There was two questions that was running through my mind, "Why this topic?" and "How boring is it?", and found no explanations.

Finally, I kept comming up with more and more articles on AIDS. This was getting me depressed. Here's what I came out with: Hemophiliacs' fears on AIDS by Andre Picard. All is said was Canadian hemophiliacs' fear of blood products supplied to them from contaminated blood. Another topic was on a county in Maryland. Prince George County mother fears for her Girl's lives by Greg Seigle. This article was on a mother accussing her former husband, an HIV-infected former Baptist minister of endangering their younger three daughters lives. The next article called, Fears by Luke Thomas. He spoke of AIDS is a reality that affects all walks of life. He is scared to go on a simple date and to get any urges because anybody can have IT. Just too afraid to date. He then jokes about it by giving recipes of meat dishes and say's, "You are safer eating meat!" I am not so positive.

In conclusion, my last article was on women and breast cancer. Fears about Recurrence by reprint of MYSERNET. This story was with women who have Breast Cancer as a common fear to be preoccupied of an recurrence every happening to them again, especially after a two year check up was finished. These women are fearful of any ache or pain or sustained bruise you may have that may or may not be cancer that has spread.

After reading all these articles, I found no use for them. The reason being that when I see the word FEAR, I think of death of a loved one or the most embarrassing moment in my life. All I was seeing mostly was on AIDS. Don't get me wrong this is a serious topic but for a computer that is so sophisticated in receiving data, the information was to similar and not enough diversity. I was getting bored way too fast. The screne kept saying, "data not found on extended information." This was not a topic I would have choosen at all. It was to depressing for my taste. I am a excited personality and would have liked to pick a topic of bizarre information. In the end, I would recommend that if you are looking up fear not to unless you are doing a research paper on HIV/AIDS!

After my third to the last class, Dr. James was telling everyone that we are not giving this Report 3 a fair hand. I knew in my heart that I didn't spend enough time in coming up with various terms that will work or not work for my topic. I came up with a new list and began searching with a better attitude that I will end up finding some relavent information on my subject. My attitude was fresh and this is how I began with the steps:
1.) I went to WS Gopher
2.) I got onto the Home Gopher screne
3.) I pressed on Other Gopher and Information Servers
4.) There were 1O sections shown

a.) Search GopherSpace Using Veronica

b.) Links to other Hawai'i Gophers

c.) U of MINN (the original) Gopher Server

d.) Gopher and information Servers via University of Minnesota

e.) Gopher-Jewels (via USC)

f.) Interesting finds through the Inernet

g.) Interesting Resources by Subject via MSU

h.) Interesting Resources by Type via MSU

i.) New Internet Resources via Washington and Lee Law Lib

j.) United States GOVERNMENT Gophers (via UC Irvine)

I went in every section, I typed in new words to search for my topic, and found more intersting stories about what people are afraid of. The words I used was fear, afraid, scared, scary, frightening, phobia's, and anxiety. All the terms I tried was very good but most of them had "no" stories to be found. I kept coming to blank, blank, and more blank screnes. But, I did have some success with these terms and here is what I found. It started with "Phobia" and landed on the topic called "Virus Phobia." It was written by Fabien Pichard . I only found his e-mail address. He wrote about a virus on American Online being sent by e-mail called "Good Times." He says not to read it or download it. It is a virus that will erase your hard drive. Fabien is scared to let anyone find this out the long way by their hard drive receiving this virus on it.

I continued by finding another story called "School Phobia." There is no way to hook up to the data because it had no address. The story was about a couple and their 15 years old child in Long Island. The parents were saying that under the law of the Legal Rights of Students and the Disabled, a child suspected of having a Handicapping condition, by his parents has the opportunity to receive educationally related support services to a regular educational program and to consider the child's eligibility to receive services presented under Section 5O4 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 USC.794) by Henry A Fernandez.

I extended my search with the word "Frightening." I found a story called More Frightening than Taxes by Ady Ibaraguchi. Basically, the story is about Death. People who speak about death need to accept it as an inevitable part of life. She is quoted by saying, "Well, we all have to go sometime." The story continues with the religious aspect-the fear of death a vast array of choices to accomadate one of the Human trademarks: The Fear of Death. One must confront it, embrace it, and welcome it. Suicide! But that's ridiculus. One would put up with the oh-not-so-pleasent aspects of life because we want to live, not die. So of course, we are afraid, very afraid.

Furthermore, I have five contributions from individuals viewing my page on "What I'm afraid of?" Let's begin with Noreen Jacob Dorion. She speaks about her childhood fear of the dark. She mentions that it may sound funny but she still needs the night lamp on in order for her to feel comfortable while sleeping. In addition, if you have the time to visit Ms. Dorion's Home Page. It has interesting and helpful information. If you have a chance, look her up.

My second contribution is from Veron Smith. She mentions that her fear of family members getting sick. She seems to worry that the fear of them suffering is very frightening.

My third contribution is from Cher Daniels. She mentions that the fear of herself getting sick and suffering is great. She also mentions that her future holds an amount of fear.

My fourth contribution is from Clint Morgan. This young man mentions that he is afraid of dying. He has so much fun living here on earth that the thought of letting go and passing on after this life is over is just so unbelieveable to think of.

My last contributor is from Haunani Donald. This young lady mentions a childhood memory of a little girl being afraid while sitting on her bed. She relives her past of her father leaving her mother and three children. This young girl has the fear that her father left because of her.

In conclusion, I enjoyed the second time I went searching through Gopher and Veronica. I found different stories, instead of the same stories on AIDS. Also, searching the database was faster. I had better knoweldge on how to go through Gopher. I wasn't as frustrated. In the end, I rather enjoyed my topic on, "What I'm afrid of?" I had more terms to choose from, the screnes were popping up faster, and my attitude changed. I feel this was due to the class after our Report 3 was supposed to be completed. Dr. James explained what he wanted and was aware of those in distress . Especially, when Dr. James had every student in class stand up, say their first and last name, name of their database, what it's for? (what is the reader seeing), and the significance (take a step back at a psychologist point of view). This helped me a great deal on how to do a more extensive search then the first time I had tried. I am very happy with my findings. I hope you as the reader can use my information I have found.

---

Return to Top!