Walmart assault issue with employee

I read an article today titled “Man fired for aiding woman rejects Walmart offer to hire him back”. This article was published on October 25, 2013 by Lisa Maria Garza for Reuters news. Christopher Oswald is a thirty year-old man that works nights at a Walmart northwest of Detroit, Michigan. Walmart fired Oswald for confronting a man who was attacking a woman in the Walmart parking lot at 2:30 A.M. because he did not call the police immediately when he witnessed the assault. Christopher was beaten severely by the assailant for stepping in and he received a death threat. Christopher is currently seeking therapeutic help. Walmart has recently asked him to return with the promise that he will receive reimbursement for his lost wages. Christopher has turned down this offer out of fear of repeating his experience and knowledge that his position was only returned due to Walmart’s increase in negative publicity.

I think that Christopher Oswald did what was right and should have been rewarded for his actions. However, it would also be good to remember to call the police so that if this situation were to repeat itself that he would not receive as many injuries.

Walmart seemed to lack conviction in this face of this experience. If they fired Christopher Oswald for not following the store policy, then Walmart should have stayed consistent and left him jobless, wrong as that is, or not have fired him in the first place. Instead, they made the wound deeper by taking back what they did to Christopher by offering him his job back. Now, not only this Walmart, but the entire chain looks stupid due to this mistake.

That is a little unfair to Walmart’s generosity. The offer Walmart made was kind but, inappropriate due to the situation. There is no way for Walmart to make right by Christopher Oswald without it seeming like a grab for redemption in the eyes of the public even though they only want redemption in the eyes of Christopher Oswald.

I wish that there was some way that Christopher Oswald could get back on his feet. It must be hard to get your job back anywhere in America right now due to this harsh economy. Getting a job must be especially hard near a tough city like Detroit, Massachusetts. Hopefully some other company or business will hire Christopher Oswald after reading Lisa Maria Garza’s article seeing that he needs a job.

Gamer Update: Zelda SpeedRunners

This weekend I found an interesting article on Yahoo News titled “For the World’s Fastest Gamers, Failure Is Just One Bad Jump Away”. This article was from Wired magazine online and was published on October 17, 2013. It caught my eye because it mentioned one of my favorite games, “The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker”. This article describes speed running, with the gamer finishing a game in the shortest possible time using bugs in the programming to his advantage, and focuses on 23 year-old Cosmo Wright as a primary example. Wright holds the record for the fastest time on the Wind Waker game for GameCube and is practicing to hold the fastest record for the Wii U version.

The Creators of games don’t exactly appreciate gamers exposing the bugs in their games and they aren’t very likely to give for doing so. However, it is possible to benefit from a speed running habit. Speed runners can increase their popularity by entertaining viewers online and they also make money from companies who advertise on their videos. There are also competitions which speed runners can enter to earn big prizes for having the fastest times.

While striving to have the fastest time on a game, you might notice that others take your place and are going faster than you. This causes many speed runners who have been working for hours to find the bugs in games and minimize their time to become a little competitive. It also discourages some gamers when their tricks and hacks are copied or used by other speed runners better and faster. This is why there is no time for you to do your homework, or your chores, because ABC123 or whatever their name is just beat your best time.

 Now that I’m done somewhat describing the struggles and hardships of speed runners, let me explain explain the plot of Wind Waker for those who are unfamiliar with this game. Wind Waker begins with a boy named Link living on an island with his sister and his grandmother. It is Link’s birthday and his sister gives him a telescope. Then his sister is captured by a giant flying bird and taken prisoner by an unknown enemy. Link learns the story of the hero of time, inherits the hero’s clothes, finds a sword, and teams up with some pirates to save his sister (warning: this is the extremely abbreviated version).

The rescue attempt fails and Link meets a talking boat (weird day) and gains power from the Wind Waker (that name is familiar somehow) to control the wind due to some adventuring and practice. After a while of adventuring, Link gets some new weapons, gains some experience, makes some new friends, and improves the world in general. Near the end of the story, Link learns that one of his pirate friends is actually a princess named Zelda (where did I hear this before), a guy named Ganondorf is responsible for his sister’s capture, and that Zelda has a dad that lives under the sea. In the end Link saves the world, defeats Ganondorf, gets his sister back, saves Zelda, watches Zelda’s dad die, and returns home only to start a new adventure later with his pirate friends.

Wind Waker is a game that was created in Japan and is exported across oceans to countries that can afford to play video games in their free time, like America, Britain, Canada, etc.

Somewhat Update on Edward Snowden

This afternoon I read an article titled “Snowden: mass surveillance making us less safe” by the Associated Press, which was written on October 12. Edward Snowden, as most of us know, is the National Security Agency analyst who has leaked information to Russia about United States surveillance within our country. Edward Snowden’s reason for committing this crime is that he believes the U.S. government is abusing its power and is limiting the success of our nation. The U.S. has filed charges against him for espionage and Snowden has been granted refuge in Russia. Edward Snowden recently spoke in Moscow when he received the Sam Adams Award from a group of retired U.S. National Security officers. Edward Snowden has gotten quite used to Russia in the time that he has been there and it has been said that he may never return to the U.S.

My opinion about the situation with Edward Snowden is quite uncertain. I feel slightly disappointed that he betrayed the U.S.; however he did have good intentions for doing so. In my opinion the central government has gained too much power for its own good. The government has already denied our right to privacy as it records our phone conversations and observes what we do online. The fact that the government is in charge of drone strikes terrifies me because the drones are too destructive and they aren’t known for their accuracy inaccurate.

On the other hand, there is no reason to give this information to foreign countries. The powerful tool that Edward Snowden has given to Russia is frightening, even though Russia is currently an ally. This situation with Edward Snowden has not only put stress on our relationship with Russia, but it has also endangered the national security of the U.S.

The fact that Edward Snowden was given an award by retired U.S. officers makes American patriotism seem weak. Overall we did not learn anything new about Edward Snowden’s exact whereabouts due to these officers discretion. We also do not know what effect this act of espionage will have on the safety of the United States, but something makes me feel like it will not be pretty.

Moscow is the capital of Russia and because of this is a place of serious political importance. The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, also resides here. Russia and America are currently allies but have had some conflict in the past.