It has been a few days since a Republican won the Kennedy seat in the senate. So you can imagine my surprise when I noticed that none of the rivers in Massachusetts have been running red with blood and that fire has yet to rain from the sky.
Yep, just like Y2K and the upcoming 2012 nonsense, we have made a big deal over nothing. Yet, this special election is being treated like an event that will shape the future of America as we know it. As if a 43% GOP minority is going to make any difference to a senate that has been trapped in a battle of wills equal only to when a child refuses to eat vegetables. Believe me when I say that, besides signing a few Cosmopolitans, he’s not going to do much when he moves in. He’ll just be one more “No” added to a room of people ignorant to their own worthlessness.
Why did we take any of this seriously? The competition for Kennedy’s seat was between an unlikable no body and a no body with a truck. They were the best of what was laying around when Kennedy died, which isn’t a complement by any means. Honestly, I believe Martha Coakley had no interest in becoming a senator. No one could do such a bad job promoting themselves on accident. This defeat had to be planned, as proved during her “Well, I lost” speech where she mentioned how excited her dogs will be when she returns home. And good for those dogs! Because while they are getting their bellies rubbed by a Democrat that couldn’t even win in Massachusetts, we are stuck with a media declaring that Brown’s victory means starting over on the universal health care bill.
What kind of dark, twisted circle of Hell have we fallen into? Start over? It took us nearly a year just to get this far. Months devoted to bickering back and forth, missing deadline after deadline, and ultimately achieving nothing. Why would they ever go back to square one? For Scott Brown!? As if he isn’t all ready set on saying no has soon as his butt sinks into the indention that Kennedy left behind. It’s not like he even needs to be brought up to speed. Besides, he’ll have plenty of time for that. It’s not like this bill is going anywhere….EVER!!
The lack of productivity in Congress poses a serious problem. Our leaders have become stubborn to the point that they have yet to pass or deny the health care bill, despite having all most a year to sit around and bicker about it. This behavior is unacceptable. We have other problems besides health care that need to be addressed. Our economy is still on a life preserver. American troops are still in the Middle East. Uncle Sam will soon be reduced to mowing lawns to pay off the debt to China. It’s time to GET TO FREAKIN’ WORK!
Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, for or against universal health care, you have to admit that this nonsense has to come to an end. We can’t have a Congress that is too scared to knuckle down, have a vote, and move on. They’re supposed to be running a country. Instead, they’re just rehashing the same old petty arguments over and over again. News flash Capitol Hill: that’s the American public’s job!
So the new Student Union was completed over the break and you can count that as the first of many moments where I point out the obvious in this article. Perhaps it would be best just to leave it at that and focus on more important matters like a Republican winning Massachusetts, BUT NO! Seeing that our administration have put a whole lot of time and money into this facelift, and because it was requested of me, I will tell you everything you need to know about the new Union.
Stepping through the front doors, my first impression was that our newest building was meant as an ode to chairs. There are chairs on the first floor, chairs on the second floor, and even chairs between floors. It’s a monument to sitting, which guarantees a place for you and your friends if you want to show off your social competence. However, that only goes for the lounge and cafeteria on the second floor. Most of the other chair layouts are lined up against the wall in groups of two. This might be a bit awkward for bigger groups, especially if the Union doesn’t want you rearranging their precious sitting arrangement. However, this is a great set up for those couples who want a romantic evening in a hallway of the new Union and a painful reminder for the Blazer singles that they are, in fact, very much alone and unloved in this world. Perhaps these couple chairs could be used as some singles night routine, where you sit down and anyone interested can take the empty seat. It might sound a bit awkward, but if anybody goes through with this game and scores a spouse then I would like some credit, preferably in the form of cake.
Pastry pandering aside, there is a whole lot more to the new Student Union than just a place to sit. The Loop is back and it brought a friend in the form of a Nathan’s Hot Dogs, adding to the variety of food on campus. Though the student body is celebrating its return, the Loop doesn’t seem to share the enthusiasm. The average wait time for the Loop varies between 10 to 20 minutes and, as demonstrated by Francesca in this issue of the Spectator, the employees are comically incompetent with orders.
There’s also a Starbucks, but a handful of students have all ready told me that the coffee giant has saved their lives. So, I guess the Starbucks remains a good purchase on the university’s part, and thus, safe from scrutiny.
What doesn’t escape scrutiny, however, is the convenience store of overpriced goods and refusal to accept Blazer Bucks. No one can explain to me why the store doesn’t accept campus currency, but it is this kind of inconsistency that just gets annoying.
Most of the features of the Student Union are for the student organizations on campus. If you’re a student organization that can attract a crowd without the promise of alcohol, then the Student Union can’t get any more convenient. With conference rooms, offices, ball rooms, pool, ping pong, and a movie theater up for rent, there is really no reason why we shouldn’t see a lot more organizations active on campus.
As impressive as the Student Union may seem, it’s important to remember what it really is: a luxury. It’s something primarily for the Alumni and the brochures. A moneymaking scheme meant to receive what tuition and fees didn’t get. The students who will get the most benefit out of the new Union are the freshmen who managed to get a dorm on campus. At best, it’s a place to sit between classes for those of us who live off campus.
Everything about the new Student Union screams of a D1 inferiority complex, which I find troubling. There’s nothing wrong with the way VSU is. Sure, we don’t have enough room for enough freshmen on campus, but that’s because enrollment was raised to pay for projects like the Student Union. Some of us don’t want to pay for the costs that come with a D1 school. I, myself, attended a D1 school for two years and left the first chance I got. Now we have the new Union, and it poses as one of the first of many recruiting tools that we will be paying for.
Just be yourself VSU. As for the student body, I suggest that you spend as much as your free time sitting in every chair available in the Student Union. It’s the only way to guarantee your money’s worth.
I pretty much said all I wanted to say in my goodbye column, “You say goodbye, I say hello”.
I just wanted to give one more shout-out to everybody who has left comments and feedback, whether good or bad, but especially bad. Bad comments and feedback only makes us stronger. We might run the newspaper, but we are still learning.
I love you guys!
The semester is coming to a end. Two days left and four days of finals.
I know that I am ready for this semester to be over. Of course I am ready for this week to just end. I have so much work to do.
I am pretty sure that everyone is just like me and has work piling up. All the teachers seem to realize that there are things that they need to cram into the semester before it is over.
Friday needs to get here and so I can stop. Of course then I have to move out out of my Residence Hall.
Of course as the semester ends many students are graduating. Some are happy and some are unsure because the future is all that is next.
The end of spring semester means the end of the school year and the beginning of summer. For some that means fun times and friends, others work and others more classes. Most people have a mix of the three in some way.
This summer I will have online classes and I have work to look forward too. Of course I am glad that I have some form of a job lined up for the summer that is set. It may not be my dream career but i am a college student and I am college to get the career that I want no to just have a job. I hope that it works out the way that I want to.
So to everyone no matter what your position or view is of summer I leave you with Alan Kay’s words
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
So take life on day at a time, and move forward.
And lastly to all of you, I hope to you will look for the Spectator in the fall even if you are no longer on campus look us up here on the World Wide Web.
What to talk about? That is a good question….. I realized/ was told that I should update the staff blog.
But what should I talk about? I really haven’t got a clue. Maybe if I ramble a little I will come up with something. Of course this is harder than it looks because every ninth or tenth letter I have to backspace due to miss spellings or errors… That sounds pathetic.
Oh well… off that tangent, and back to my ramble. Classes… that would be a good subject… but everyone has classes and are really for the semester to end. Right?
I mean spring semester is harder than fall because there are very little breaks.
There I go backspacing again… I do that because I don’t think what I type sounds right… okay, I just have typos, but that is not the point.
Back to classes, everyone has teachers trying to finish up work so that they can get all the information in, tests, projects and finals coming. I know I am not alone. Sometimes it seems that I have so much going on that I forget to breath.
I went back to the blog roll. I was looking at the author count. It seems that Karah-Leigh has the most posts.
I guess that can mean two things in my mind. One that she likes to talk to most or has the most to say, and the other is that we just go to her if we don’t know what to talk and we know that she will come up with something. Of course she talks about television shows and celebrities the most… oh and let’s not forgets NASCAR. So that makes me wonder does she like to talk or is it that she just doesn’t care if people agree to what she likes.
Maybe that is something to think about or praise, because I know that I think sometimes that people will act differently to me if they know what I like. So should I really care because I do like it?
Of course I am already the odd man a little at the Spectator because I am an Art Education major and have nothing to do with English, Mass Media, or Journalism, but that is not that big of a deal here. It just sounds a little odd to say that I work for the Spectator and I hate writing with a passion, I always dreaded any writing assignment. So then always comes a little bit of an explanation to people I met, but I really don’t care about that. So why does it matter sometimes?
*sigh* There I go backspacing again… So much for my typing and grammar ability.
Tags: Karah-Leigh, ramble
There are four more issues of The Spectator that are under my control… I think four, maybe five, but I’m pretty sure it’s four. It’s a little depressing when you think about it because I love being on the staff so much. Enough of that… I’m talking about that in my final column.
This week’s issue is a little interesting. There’s a story that I wrote about an old classmate that is now on a reality television show. I’ve known about it for a few months, so I’m execited it’s coming out. I’m a reality TV junkie (especially the ones on VH1).
There’s the editorial where Michael Wilson is telling people not to vote for SGA (which I think is an awesome editorial). The one thing that upsets me as Editor-in-Chief is that I’ve seen no promotion for the people who are running. Shouldn’t there be public debates where the candidates face-off? Not to sound cheesy, but that happened on the Episode of 90210 when Brandon Walsh was running for Vice-President. I know it’s TV, but it’s still a good idea!
I couldn’t tell you one person that is running besides the current SGA board members.
Where are they?
Come to the newspaper. E-Mail us. Take out an ad for exposure! We’re the media of the school and when we don’t even know who’s running, it’s kind of sad and down right pathetic.
We know who’s up for elimination of “American Idol” or “The Biggest Loser,” but not who’s up for SGA?
The subject of this story was wonderful. I was eager to start researching and reporting on the story since it was first purposed. The staff had found out about Todd Howard’s trip just a few days before he left in early February so he would be available until the end of the month for an interview. It worked out for the best because the story ended up being about his success at the games. I didn’t find out that he had won a bronze medal until I arrived for the interview. Todd had his Olympic apparel and his medal on him and unfortunately I didn’t have my camera but I was able to get some pictures of him with his medal later that day. The interview was very relaxed. Todd and his co-worker were very cooperative. They gave me all the information I asked for and they gave me the contact information for a few people who had written a story on Todd before he left for the World Games. He is an incredible person and his story made for a great article. Todd’s story is a story about an athlete and it was not a stretch for me to write what was basically a spotlight on him, but this story was a little different. It was a story about a man who finally lived his life long dream and was successful. It was a human interest story more than a story about sports and I tried to emphasize that fact in the article. I didn’t want to talk about the game or the scores as much because that is not what really mattered to Todd. The thing that stands out to me about him is that he loves playing his sport and being a Special Olympian so I did not want to over shadow that with a typical game story. I feel that it is important for people to see what being able to compete in any sport really means to people, especially Todd. He is just like so many amateurs athletes around the world who play the game just to play the game and for nothing else. His story is universal in a lot of ways and it is great story about a great athlete and a fantastic person.
I’m not going to lie… I graduate (hopefully) in May and I’m already beginning to freak out about it. The economy is so bad right now that newspapers are firing people left and right. I’m just scared that I won’t be able to find a job. I don’t have a Mommy and a Daddy to depend on like a lot of people. My Mom is on disability and gets $600 a month - to live on, which is why I work my butt off.
I’m so paranoid that I’m going to graduate, be jobless since I’m out of school and don’t have my on-campus jobs anymore and become homeless because we can’t pay our bills.
I’m spending all day Friday sending out resumes by e-mail and / or mail.
If you haven’t heard though, the Spectator is the best college newspaper ever! Just read this!
The semester begins. As always, I seem to have forgotten something. I am always forgetting some supply or a textbook. Of course I really hate it when techers just drop a textbook on you on the first day of class. I looked up to see if my class will have a textbook and I did not see one and sure enough the first day of class, I have to buy a textbook… not just any textbook an expensive one. (Note: An expensive book is over 7 dollars, yes I use the same standard for textbooks.) It just gets on my nerves and hurts my wallet.
I seem to have more problems with the first week because of sleep schedules. Yes I like to get sleep. I have to get use to the class schedule.. at least this semester because 3 days a week I have to get up at 8 in the morning which I really do not like. I am a person who likes to sleep until at least 10… of course that rarely works except during school.
Did anyone ask you for directions this past week? I had at least 2 people ask me directions and the irony of that is the fact that they are asking directions with about 2 minutes until the hour… Do people wait until 5 minutes before a class to go find a classroom? I hope not. That just does not make any sense to me. Of course if you just read the signs in the buildings you can normally find your way. I am not saying that asking for directions is wrong but maybe people should use a little more time management.
It’s been a while since I have updated the tator blog. Um… the only reason I’m doing it right now — with my hair everywhere, waiting for my roommate to get out of the bathroom, and freshly brushed teeth, is that if I didn’t Rebecca would hunt me down and hang me up by my toes somewhere unpleasent…. just joking.
I want to talk about my creative writing story that I am trying to start. It’s for my fiction writing class. I have my main character pretty fleshed out, but I’m trying to fit the scene. I kind of want to do it in two arcs with the first one being in first person, with the main character as narrator, to try and build trust and then break it when I bring in another narrator in the second arc. I want the second arc to be in third person omniscent.
I don’t quite know what I want for setting. I may do south Georgia because it’s what I know. Or maybe Florida swamps. It seems okay.
I’m slowly plotting out my chain of events. I think I want to write it out in a 18-hour span of time — from wake up to discovery… which isn’t sleep and will never be sleep. There will be blood… and a trip to the ER. I’ve figured that much out. Maybe even a guitar. There will be sushi. Yes, indeed. Even “hair like lo-mein.” I started writing the begining of it a while ago… but I put that little snippet into my folder for further use… and I think it has found usefulness.
The title of this blog is part of my story. I have several concepts that I want to tie in together. Like mistrust and something seeming what it is not. I mainly want to place mistrust on the narrator.
I think I’ll start writing it today.