Affordances cont.

This week we continued expanding our knowledge around more things that come under affordances and how they fit in when analysing my activity.
The next three headings are; aesthetics, memories/ history, and physical.
Aesthetics:
(a few key words) the way it looks, attractions, express sense of beauty. The attractions for myself when I'm playing poker would be the eagerness to win, the challenge, trying my luck and its something that I can do to de-stress. The beauty of poker is the happy and bright faces on the people who have good cards, the togetherness we feel once we have finished playing, the laughter involved and the awesome feeling when you win.

Memories/ History:
As stated in my first post regarding poker, poker has been played in my family for many years. Playing the game reminds me of all the years I spent watching the other members of my family play, and wishing I could play. In the future playing it will also remind me of playing it with my flat mates in this flat. All my memories around this activity are positive, even though I have lost my fair share of games...

Physical:
includes things such as stretching arms to put cards down on table, raising hands when you have won a round, dealing the cards, flicking your finger against chips to push into the middle, running to get food so that people don't cheat and look at your cards, tapping your foot in suspense, clapping for those who won at the end.


Reference:
Anderson, S. (2007). Collins dictionary. New Hampshire: Harper- Collins Publishers.

Ergonomics and Affordance

Ergonomics is described as: “constantly make slight invisible adjustments to an activity to adapt to the needs of those taking part and ensure that it continues to work for its intended purpose” (Caulton and Dickson 2007).  This is helpful in my learning around ergonomics, and how to fit it into my own activity. 
How this can relate to POKER;
- well as stated in my first post on poker, when we first initially started to play poker, there were people who were just learning how to play. we (the one's who knew how to play) "adapted" how we played the game, using little tactics and going easy on them.
- depending on how we are feeling that day is how long we play for (sometimes stop half way through)
- depending on how many people are playing, is where we play the game
and many more


Affordance;
Communications; 
flatmate relationship
winner/ loser
instructor/ student
non- caring relationship
non- verbal + verbal communication
(to name a few)


Connections;
e.g this is the game of poker
these are the cards we use in the game of poker
this is the table that holds the cards we use to play the game of poker
this is the room that the table sits in that holds the cards we use to play the game of poker
this is Claire whos room we are in where the table sits that holds the cards we use to play the game of poker
Poker - Claire


Ethics;
Burden- guilt of winning, guilt of not doing homework, keeping straight face
Joy- winning, spending time with friends
Good- learning new skills, happiness, bringing people together
Bad- addiction, time wasting, money loss, overeating bad food


References:
Caulton, R. & Dickson, R. (2007). What's going on? Finding an explanation for what we do. In J. Creek & A. Lawson- Porter (Eds.), Contemporary issues in occupational therapy (pp. 87- 114). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd

P P P P Poker; My Chosen Activity

Back into it for our second semester of learning, in our second year!

We were told to choose an activity that we enjoy, that's meaningful to us, or that we just want to do!
Guess what i chose.... Poker.
Poker is a game that has been played in my family for years! Any chance the boys in my family get, they whip out their cards, chips and money!
I was never allowed to join in this fun, due to the fact that I was too young for gambling, however I took every chance I could to watch them play. I was so intrigued by it. I learnt the rules through observation (which shows that modelling works) and started getting really into the game.
At last, I was old enough to join in. There was a joining fee of $5- eeeek! I was going to try my best to win it back. Turns out, I was a better observer than I was a player. I lost my first game. In fact, I lost several games.

It has now become a tradition in my flat. One of my flatmates, Ron, decided one day that he would buy a poker set for all of us to play. I was rather excited by this. It didn't take long from when the poker set entered the house, to being sprawled across the coffee table ready to be played. Ron and another one of my flat mates, Thomas + myself were the only one's who knew how to play the game. So we spent the first 20 minutes explaining the rules and objectives to the other, Claire, Alix and Monique.
At first we played easy, very little strategy was used. Alix won. Beginners luck I say.

Poker + Mindfulness =
Seeing the people around you, trying to suss out what their cards are
Seeing your cards and wondering "how am i going to win with this"?
Feeling smooth but hard cards
Feeling round bobbly chips
Smelling the dinner burning
Smelling the plastic cards and new smell of chips
Hearing people screaming about their "dumb" cards
Hearing others yell in delight because they won
Tasting salty chips and creamy dip while you play


So what are some feelings/ describing words when playing poker?
For me personally;
enjoyment
fun
strategic
hope (for good cards)
laughter
addictive
thrilling
challenging
long lasting
psychological
bluffing
competitiveness
poker face
table talk
"pocket aces" (Thomas)
anger/ sadness (when losing)
"all in mate"

How this relates to occupational therapy?
Meet new people
Join groups
Learning new skills
Keeping the mind active
Give them something to do during the day
It could even be a "meaningful occupation" to some (which us OT's are all about)
& I'm sure there are many more...

That's me for today.
:)

Participation in Occupation II

This blog will now be used for my semester two paper occupation in occupation II. It is a follow on from the paper i done relating to the information already within this blog
Cheers