Issue1 - John Abbott College
Transcription
Issue1 - John Abbott College
Volume XXXIV Issue12 Teaching fish how to fly since 1971 HURRICANE KATRINA: THE AFTERMATH Lindsay Cotton Contributor At 6:10 AM, on August 29 th , 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall as a category 4 hurricane near Grand Isle, Louisiana. As of 1:30AM of the following day, three levees are breached and over 80% of New Orleans is underwater. By then over 30 000 evacuees have taken refuge in New Orleans’ Superdome with only enough food to last for 36 hours. President Bush has assigned Micheal D. Brown, head of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency, more commonly known as the Under Secretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response) to aid those who have suffered in the aftermath of the devastating hurricane. Since Mr. Brown’s appointment, many questions have been raised about the way the American government has dealt with the catastrophe. Why had it taken the government so long to respond to those in need? At the fifth day after the hurricane hit Louisiana, there had yet to be a massive airdrop of food and water to assist those who were trapped inside the Superdome. After the horrific tsunami ravaged Southern Asia, sur vivors in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, were able to receive food and water within two days of the disaster. Why was there such a lack of communication within the FEMA organization? The head of FEMA admitted that he had only learned about the execrable conditions of the tens of thousands of people living inside the Superdome through the media. It took those in charge until September 4 th to completely evacuate the survivors of the lamentable Superdome. The most important question of all is why the government is so ill prepared to face such a catastrophe, and why the rescue measures are so tardy? On September 9 th, Micheal Chertoff, the head of This Issue: My Two Cents: Page 4 Rantification Page 5 First and foremost I’d like to welcome everyone back to JAC. Another year for the most of us and an intro to life for the rest. Now before I begin I’d like to make the following promises (to be broken later). Welcome back psychos! I hope you enjoyed yours summer and spent many hours roasting yourself out in the sun causing great skin damage and premature ageing. Unless you used sunscreen, in which case, good for you, you roxors my boxors! Now, onto the ranting. There are things in this world that are considered unlawful by the system that I find particularly holy. Throughout this summer I have been mentally exploring the different acts that are lightly illegal and forming opinions and theories about them. This has boiled down to me to jack and all this summer besides sitting on my arse… The Oval: Page 2 Photography 101: Page 6 Game Reviews: Page 7 Music Reviews: Page 8 Today in Bander History: Page 11 News................................................2 Campus.........................................3 Arts...................................................6 Games............................................7 Entertainment............................8 Opinion........................................10 Wet Ink Page 4 Hello Abbotters! Welcome back to school! I’m sure you’re all very excited to be back in class! Ya right! Unfortunately summer is gone and although there are certain things that you can’t do now that you’re back in school, fortunately sex isn’t one of them! I’m sure (or at least I hope) that you’ve all had some new sexual experiences this summer, but none of us know it all so thankfully there’s still lots to discuss. For those of you who are new or who have never read this article before, basically every week I’ll be talking about something pertaining to sex. I’m very open minded so although some people may find this article offense in my point of view I’m just telling it like is and you can choose to agree or not. the Department of Homeland Security, removed Michael Brown from his duties as supervisor of the Hurricane Katrina relief effort and replaced him with Thad W. Allen, the chief of staff of the United States Coast Guard. This abrupt change of power came only one week after President Bush praised Mr. Brown for his great work and expertise. Beside this obvious lack of organization within the American government itself, many believe there are ulterior motives for the tardiness in aid. There is speculation that the source of this extremely slow reaction time is the social background of New Orleans; over 25% of all residents and at least 40% of New Orleans’ children are living at or below the poverty line. Many people in a position to speak are condemning President Bush’s government once again, but none more so then Kanye West. During NBC’s “Concert for Hurricane Relief ’” on September 2 nd, he went off script and went on to say: “I hate the way they portray us in the media. When we see a black family, they say they’re looting and when we see a white family, they say they’re looking for food. (…) We realise that a lot of the people that could help are out war right now and fighting another way (…) they have even given permission to go down and shoot us.” To conclude he states: “ George Bush does not care about black people”. These very powerful statements created an uproar of controversy and made many analyze the approach taken by the American government. In Canada, many have offered all the help they can muster. The provincial government of Canada has donated $5 million to the Hurricane Katrina fund and many have followed suit, such as the government of Nova Scotia, who has donated $100 000. Many provinces have also offered to shelter those affected by the hurricane and have even donated cots, mattresses and other items useful to those who have lost their homes. The federal government has also sent help in the form of vessels, as well as divers to retrieve the bodies of those who have perished. To aid those in need please feel free to contact the Red Cross who are still accepting donations. You may contact them via Internet at WWW.REDCROSS.ORG or by this toll-free phone line 1-800-HELPNOW. Every issue of Bandersnatch has something that makes it special. For example, Issue 4 of last year was one of the most stressful productions we ever had. Everything was going wrong, from technical difficulties to late contributions. It was the first time we printed the “Wet Ink” column...no, no, not the one with the infamous banana, the one before it, when we didn’t even know we were calling it Wet Ink. Until about 11:30 that night, it was just the sex column. The whole night, the editors were racking their brains over how they were going to find content...they had more important things to worry about than the name of something that was only about 300 words, and would fill just and that was final. It was also the issue we reported on the changes to the CRC, which lead to interviews with Academic Dean Allister Thorne, as well as with members of the student union. There was an article on the Decentralization of CEGEPS, an article about the “Mysterious Sainte-Anne Jeep”, an opinion piece on cell phones ringing in classrooms, a feature on the Talent/Variety Show “Temptation”, and a look at artists and groups like Velvet Trench, David Hodges, DJ Mana, and Kobayashi. a quarter of a page, when we collectively had to fill 16 pages. At least Jay Newcomen, who was the Entertainment Editor at the time, and I were working on it. He had suggested that the title contain the word “Wet” in it...both of us cracked jokes back and forth, until finally, dead tired, and stressed to my limits, I looked up and said the following: “Wet...Ink”. Jay just looked at me, and said; “That’s pretty good man”. Excited, I tried to call up Julia Dovings (the writer at the time) on her cell phone, to ask her if this was acceptable. I didn’t get a hold of her...and at the time, I didn’t really care much either. The column was called “Wet Ink”, With all the problems we encountered, we were all convinced that that issue would be terrible. But it wasn’t. In fact, it was one of the best, if not the best issue we ran last year. But every issue has a story like that. For instance, for issue 2 of that year, the writer who does “Off the Top Rope”, R-Prime, was asked what his article was to be called. He looked at Ben Wald, who was the temporary editor of that section, and said, “Type the following characters”. Eventually the title was “HHH, Y2J, HBK”. There were also the arguments over the headline on the front page, and whether or not “American Politics Heats up” was grammatically correct. There was Issue 7, when we ran the article in Slanderbatch called “Dean Does Dastardly Deed”, and got Allister Thorne to pose with a Superman doll. There were frisbee reviews, Slanderbatch issues, reviews, news reports, opinions pieces, and columns. This issue is no exception. This is my first issue as Editor-in-Chief, an issue where we have only five Executives working on the paper, and are at the same time training new students to take positions here. As I sit here at this computer, typing this Editor’s note, and reminiscing about the success of past issues, I wonder if the next fourteen issues could compare to the last. Then I remember that I have an amazing staff, right now, and I look at the people who want to join, and I ask that question again. The answer is; they will be better. 10 Cents of Gasoline, Please? Jay Dubeau Campus Editor “Don’t bother, for that price it’s on the house,” the guy responded as he went back into the Petro-Canada, following an interrogation of why I had just pumped ten cents worth of gasoline in my car. This was my beginning touch to a protest which took place on Sunday, September 11 in the major cities of the Northern Laurentians. Participating cities included MontTremblant, St-Jerome, St-Faustin, Ste-Adèle, Ste-Agathe and any major northern city. As announced on the local radio station 101.3 CIME FM Tremblant, drivers were encouraged to gas at any Petro-Canada, Esso or Shell station and put in between three and ten cents of gasoline, take all the time in the world to clean their windshields, check their oil, check their windshield washer fluid and basically Editor-in-Chief Robert J. Briza News Editor Open Campus Life Editor Jason Dubeau Opinion Editor Li Kennedy Entertainment Editor Open Sports Editor Open Arts Editor Open Assistant Editor-in-Chief Open 2 there is a specific minimum purchase. “You’re not hurting the big guys, you’re hurting the little guys who can’t afford to get screwed over,” spat one of the owners of the Petro-Canada I went to that morning. The fact is that yes, we are indeed hurting the little guys, but if we can hurt the little guys long enough for them to become annoyed they will begin complaining to the big corporate giants such as Petro-Canada, Shell, and Esso. If the big guys become annoyed, they in turn will begin making pressures on the world petroleum market, the real guys behind the gasoline prices. According to CIME FM Tremblant, if the said protest works out as well in the Laurentians as they anticipate, it may just domino and spill over into the metropolis such as Montreal and surrounding areas. I was unable to get statements from anybody, however I was informed later that day by a reliable source that after I had left, net- hold up the line; The key part of the entire protest however, was to pay for that ten cents of gasoline with their CREDIT CARD. Furthermore, the entire point of protestors taking their time at the pump is to discourage anybody who is really interested in filling up and to get them annoyed so that they decide to pack up and leave. For some people who aren’t aware, businesses are charged something like a dollar and fifty cents every time they have to use their Interac machine for debit or a credit card. By putting in only ten cents of gas, stations get frustrated because they are charged about fifteen times that amount in administration fees, thus making the purchase cost them more than the value of the purchase. That, ladies and gentlemen, is where this protest hurts them because consumer-protection laws state that gas stations are not allowed to refuse to process our purchases with credit cards unless they have a very legible sign up saying Office Manager Open Production Manager Trevor Smith Foreign Languages Editor Open Games Page Editor Blayne Bradley Webmaster Open bandersnatch working began taking place between gas stations and soon everybody was doing it, ten cents of gas, checking oil, windshield wiper fluid, and then paying with credit card. People may think anybody crazy enough to spend nearly half an hour at the gas pump just to pay ten cents worth of gas with a credit card have too much time on their hands, but when one thinks about it, it really doesn’t take long to do and the results are so worth it, you might get entertaining looks and comments from the owners and at the same time you are part of the movement to lower the gas prices. September eleventh is nearly considered a national day of mourning for the World Trade Center collapse, and after last Sunday, it will be a provincial day of mourning for Gasoline stations who were screwed over by protestors! BANDERSNATCH - John Abbott College - P.O. Box 2000 Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC - H9X 3L9 Phone: (514) 457-6610 Ext 5389 - Fax: (514) 457-6091 - Office: H-041 bandersnatch@johnabbott.qc.ca Bandersnatch is the student-run Alternative Press at John Abbott College. It is published every two weeks and is partially funded by the Student Activities Commitee and by advertising solicited members. Submissions are welcome in traditionally either English or French and become property of the newspaper. Submissions must be on an IBM compatible diskette along with a printed hard copy and MUST be in Text Format (*.txt) or RichText Format (*.RTF). All submissions must include the full name and telephone number of the contributor, as well as the e-mail address if applicable. The staff reserves the right to reject or edit any submissions for length, legality, or clarity. Letters to Bandersnatch should be a maximum of 500 words but may see print nonetheless if they are longer but worthwhile. Neither spelling nor grammar will be corrected on letters to the editors, it is the responsibility of the contributor to correct them. Submissions and letters should be dropped off at the Bandersnatch office, located in the basement of Herzberg, H-041 (across from the Hallway entrance of the oval). bandersnatch bandersnatch bandersnatch bandersnatch Hello readers, and welcome to a new semester at John Abbott. As the new Campus Life Editor I feel it is my responsibility to also bid welcome to the new students joining us for the first time. This is my third semester at Abbott and I must say quite simply: time flies. It seems like not long ago I was attending Open House in the fall of my graduating year of high school in 2003. Like it or not, none of us get through without working for our marks and that is another true fact from orientation. I’d like to take a couple of paragraphs to give advice to the fresh, young minds joining us this fall. What they say at orientation in August is all correct. College is more freedom, but a lot more responsibility. We don’t all have mummy and daddy nagging us to do our homework but trust me; it must get done if you have any interest in thriving and moving onto university or the real world. Now to introduce myself, anyone who read Bandersnatch last semester will observe a few familiar things in Campus this year. Last year I was Opinions Editor and became very attached to my section. Therefore my headers I had in the Opinions section will now be used in Campus, along with many new ones I will be introducing for Campus over the next couple of issues. I do have one lovely project in particular, which still needs some work, so look for it in a month or so. Even as Campus Editor, I still remain very opinionated and still enjoy expressing myself on certain issues. I may occasionally become very opinionated about certain events happening on campus however my goal with the Campus section is to actually focus on events taking place at, and around Abbott. Don’t be afraid, though you will still be able to enjoy our lovely sex column: Wet Ink, run by the infamous Chrystal De Lina, I have even been simmering ideas over the summer to enhance the columns already found in Campus and as I said, create new and interesting colomns to please as many readers as possible. Next thing I’d like to mention is assignments, those lovely one thousand word, researched, double-spaced, cited, Undergraduate Style essays you have the entire semester to get to. Those were my favorite pains in the backside my first two semesters in Social Science. Ye s t h e y s u ck b u t t h e y t o o, need to get done, and my advice regarding those is: do not wait UNTIL the end of the semester to work on them, because for the average student who has between six and nine courses, if you multiply a thousand words by six or by eight you will quickly realize you have a great deal of writing to do. Gathering all your research and information alone can take about a week or two, depending on the obscrurity of your subject. That being said, if you’re thinking of getting your entire essay researched, processed, typed, referenced, and handed in the weekend before the lovely thorn is due…you may as well drop the whole damned course and spend your entire semester with your head stuck in the ground. bandersnatch That being said, I wish all new students an excellent first semester, and wish a welcome back to returning students. May the minds of our brilliant doctors and other instructors inspire you. If you wish to write a story or an article on an event taking place, or that has taken place around Abbott and want to submit it feel free to drop by Bandersnatch in the Hertzberg basement across from the Oval or write to us at bandersnatch@johnabbott.qc.ca and I’ll see what I can do to publish it. Enough babbling from me now, in closing I wish everybody luck this semester and I look forward to another stressful, but exciting year at Abbott. bandersnatch 2005 - 09 -14 First and foremost I’d like to welcome everyone back to JAC, another year for the most of us and an intro to life for the rest. Now before I begin I’d like to make the following promises (to be broken later). 1) From now on, articles will be researched. Contrary to just about every other opinion article last year, statements that are blunt, one-sided and retarded at the same time will not exist; hopefully. 2) We promise to have at least 50% less typos this year around. Yes this promise is very, very drastic and well the point is, we’re going to try for it. Wish us luck or even better; join the Bander copy-editing team! 3) We promise to keep Rob from scaring people... as mush as we possibly can. “Rob Says” will still be random and frightening but at least... at least we promised to protect you from everything else Rob does; great guy, scary social skills. And finally 4) We promise to treat Bill Mahon like a living, breathing person. We love you Bill even though you probably have no faith in us. Now that the promises are out of the way, I have taken the rights to my 2 cents this year since Rob has become big Kahuna this year. So bandersnatch bandersnatch from now on all those beefs against everyone will be coming from yours truly. Now for the best part of my 2 cents...the part where I complain about things. This week’s rant is one that hits close to home; I want to talk about how everyone is loud. Sounds like a really dumb rant but think about this; you just got out of your three science classes in a row, you’re on your way home via the Bus and you forgot to take those things we call Tylenol for the headaches. You board the bus and surprise, surprise: it’s a cacophony of sound rumbling through your brain. Why is this? I mean most people have good hearing. Why is everyone yelling? Not to mention the fact that the halls of JAC are now filled up more than ever with plenty of co-students to get in your way and make noise. It’s becoming harder to find a dark and quiet corner these days and for that reason I think we should all try to lower our voices or maybe at least go outside and let the halls be a little bit emptier. That’s all for now folks, now go and enjoy that thing we call edumacation. 3 Hello Abbotters! Welcome back to school! I’m sure you’re all very excited to be back in class! Yeah right! Unfortunately summer is gone and although there are certain things that you can’t do now that you’re back in school, fortunately sex isn’t one of them! I’m sure (or at least I hope) that you’ve all had some new sexual experiences this summer, but none of us know it all so thankfully there’s still lots to discuss. For those of you who are new or who have never read this column before, basically every issue I’ll be talking about something pertaining to sex. I’m very open-minded so although some people may find this column offensive. From my point of view I’m just telling it like is and you can choose to agree or not. Anyway, enough of that blabber; to start off this year I’ve decided to talk about something that is so simple that people may feel there’s nothing to discuss. However, I’ve found that this subject is a key ingredient to having good foreplay, good sex, and it also has many other advantages. So what am I talking about? I’m talking about boobs, breasts, tits or jugs. You call them whatever you want, the fact of the matter is they’re on everyone’s minds more often than you can imagine, and why wouldn’t they be? Out of every sexual body part that can be named, boobs are the ones that happen to be the most noticeable; every girl has them, and every guy loves them. They may not be the favourite part of a woman for every single man but we all know men give them plenty of love! So men love breasts, that’s a given. But how do women feel about their own breasts? Boobs Welcome back psyMentaly chos! I hope you enjoyed yours summer and spent many hours roasting yourself out in the sun causing great skin damage and premature ageing. Unless you used sunscreen, in which case, good for you, you roxors my boxors! Now, onto the ranting. There are things in this world that are considered unlawful by the system that I find particularly holy. Throughout this summer I have been mentally exploring the different acts that are slightly illegal and forming opinions and theories about them. This has boiled down to me, to jack and all this summer besides sitting on my arse… On a side note, I’m not actually IN THIS SCHOOL this semester, which makes me wonder why the hell I’m writing this article. The short answer is that while I don’t actually have all that much free time, I like to pretend I do. Onwards my faithful minions! One of these not really sinful sins that I find holy is j-walking. This art and game is something 4 come in many different shapes and sizes, so is there such thing as a perfect set? Not exactly, but according to my friend: the perfect pair of breasts is about a C-cup, perky, with a proper nipple to breast ratio. Nipples should be darker than the person’s skin but not so dark they look like rubber. Contrary to popular belief, men don’t enjoy nipples to be erect at all times. It could be arousing to see, but a girl with hard nipples 24/7 is just plain weird! All women are very aware of what their own breasts look like and are often insecure about their size and feel that they have too much or not enough, the key to remember is that no two sets are identical and most importantly: however big or small, no one can dispute the pleasure they bring to women when they are touched and to the men who touch them. It often seems that girls don’t really get turned on when their breasts are stimulated. It is true that the sensitivity of the nipple is different for every woman. Some women feel touch more on one nipple than the other. Some enjoy very light contact and find that too much pressure or squeezing can hurt, while others can barely get aroused by light contact and would rather feel pinching, twisting, pulling or biting. The best thing to do with any partner is to start off light, if you feel that they aren’t getting aroused: add in squeezing and licking. The best way to tell what the girl likes is to try something new and see her reaction, if she moans, shakes, gets flushed, etc… keep doing it! If nothing really happens chances are it just doesn’t feel so great for her. Another idea is to discuss what the woman is feeling so that abuse does not take place. pretty much any proud Montrealer has perfected to some degree. From the streets of downtown to the quiet rural streets of the West Island, there’s a f*ckload of miles of road and only about ten percent of that road is legally crossable. That leaves a whole lot of space to j-walk! The greatest thing about j-walking is doing it at around 3:00 am on the quiet streets of the West Island such as St. John’s and Sources. The way to optimize the amusement of doing so is to steal a grocery cart from the nearest food-stuffpurchasing area and then use it as a mode of transportation. This is truly a holy action if ever bandersnatch bandersnatch Suction and pressure can be great however when a woman is P.M.S’ing, her breasts are a lot more sensitive and too much pressure can hurt. The most important thing to remember is NO GIRL IS GOING TO ORGASM IF YOU JUST PLAY WITH HER TITS! Fondling is more of an added bonus. It’s like when you go to McDonalds you order your nuggets or burger, which is great, but the fries just make it even better! Courtesy of firegirls.com (trick#011 devotes an entire web page to breasts!) here’s a list of different techniques you can use to stimulate a woman’s boobs: · Gentle tracing with the fingertip or tongue · Tickling the nipple with a feather or cloth · Gentle rolling or pulling with fingertips or lips · Lightly raking fingernails or teeth across the nipple · Light massage with oil · Firmly rubbing across the nipple with finger, tongue or penis · Slow, gentle licking · Lightly tracing the nipple with a firm object, such as a pen cap · Biting—gently or with some pressure (be careful with hard biting) · Biting or nibbling outside the nipple · Licking or sucking around the nipple, but not the nipple itself · Use of syrups, oils, whipped cream or other food items to enhance the fun of nipple sucking · Continuous squeezing, twisting or pulling · Rhythmic squeezing, twisting or pulling · Firmly tapping · Place finger directly on nipple and press, rapidly wiggling finger · Rapid, light licking · Rapid, firm licking · Simple kissing · French kissing · French kissing with suction · Slapping (do not slap the female breast hard) · Firmly pinching, or pinching/pulling · Use of nipple clamps, clip-on nipple jewellery or other accessories So there are obviously many ways for men and women to enjoy what God so generously gave us! But what if this kind of stimulation isn’t enough? Some men would love nothing but to be brought to climax by the stimulation between your boobs and their penis. You know what I’m talking about: Tit-jobs. Although this isn’t really enjoyable for the female, it can be a nice change to regular sex positions or giving head. Simply lie on your back and have your man straddle you, placing his penis in between your cleavage. Either you or your partner should squeeze your breasts together to create some friction and allow your man to thrust on top of you until he cums. You can help out by licking the tip of his penis between thrusts or switching back and forth between the motions and sucking. When the time comes (no pun intended) you can choose to either have your man ejaculate in your mouth or you can have him cum on you (a topic discussed in one of last year’s articles). Whatever you choose this can be a great (and freaking easy) way to get your guy off! Whatever you choose to do with the twins I guarantee there’s a good time waiting for all of you! there was one. Another fun activity that, if caught, you’d probably get into a good little sh*tload of trouble depending on who’s lawn you are on. Picking a flower from a random person’s lawn is a holy action as well. Remember though, only take one flower from one plant, being greedy is bad, kiddies! No need to hurt nature, kays?! Finally there is the wonder that is saving pylons from their enslavement on the roads. This heroic feat is not meant for saving pylons that are directing traffic or pointing out dangerous potholes in the road. It is for those poor pylons in large groups that stand there to point out the obvious fact that the lines have been repainted. One must find the saddest and lone- liest fnord pylon to save and bring home to the warmth of your bed or living room. Remember to care and love for the pylons you save and give them appropriate names! So, one may look at this list of illegal things to do and wonder why I would call them holy and support doing them. The truth is, I don’t. Just because they are holy doesn’t mean YOU should do them! Who do you think you are? Go home and study, stop going out late and help your parents more! Oh, and learn some respect! Yeesh, all you kids are so out of line. In conclusion, look both ways when crossing the road; respect your neighbours and city. Oh, and you all smell like a dead squirrel, so take a shower. bandersnatch Some sites to check out (all about boobs!): -http://www.menstuff.org/pov/povs/ breasts.html#attraction -http://www.babeland.com/sexinfo/ howto/breast-play -http://www.firegirls.com/tnt/trick2.html bandersnatch bandersnatch Presents: Back to School Beach Bash! Saturday, September 17th 94.7 Hits FM Broadcasting Live Smirnoff Ice Crew on site Wet T-shirt & Boxers Contest Cash prizes O P E N 7 D AY S A W E E K 8 : 0 0 P. M . - 3 : 0 0 A . M . 69, RUE STE. ANNE STE. ANNE DE BELLEVUE party@thepub.com www.par ty.thepub.com bandersnatch bandersnatch 2005 - 09 -14 bandersnatch bandersnatch 5 Photography 101 George Tankov Contributor I’ve noticed that many people have bought or are planning on buying a camera, most likely digital, but they don’t know how to properly use one. Therefore, in this thread I’ll explain the basics of photography, and I will try to be as brief, but informative, as possible. If you want to know more about this, I highly recommend that you buy a book about photography. First of all, remember that the most important thing you must have in order to make a picture is light. Light is exposed onto film or a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) and it forms pretty pictures. The more light there is the better. Everything you see reflects light, so when you press the shutter button, the light it goes through the lens, through the diaphragm, and onto the film or CCD. What the shutter button does is open a curtain for a certain amount of time (I’ll get to that in a bit) so that light can be exposed onto the film or CCD. Another thing that happens is the diaphragm forming an aperture (simply put, a hole) for the light to go through. When there is a lot of light, you have to limit the amount that goes through the lens so you would not overexpose the shot. Exposing is basically putting the correct amount of light for a correct amount of time onto film or CCD. Too much light or too slow of a shutter speed will cause an overexposed picture; it will basically too bright. Not enough light or a too fast shutter speed will cause an underexposed picture, it will be too dark. Your camera will probably determine the exposure automatically. When you focus on a certain scene, it might say something like 90 4.0 which means that the shutter speed is 1/90th of a second and the aperture is f/4.0. The f/stop is a ratio between the diameter of the aperture in the lens and the focal length of the lens. The higher the f/X number, the smaller is the aperture. The faster the shutter speed, the less time the shutter curtain will stay open, therefore the film or CCD will have less time to get exposed. This means that there is less chance to get a blurred picture. Fast shutter speeds are usually used for shooting sports, where you need to freeze the moment. A 1/2000th second shutter speed is “fast”. Shooting at a faster shutter speed means that you will need to get more 6 light through the lens, so you will have to use a larger aperture (smaller f/X number). The largest aperture on a usual consumer camera is usually f/2.8, which is not that bad. If you have a film camera, SLR (Single Lens Reflex), or a digital SLR, chances are the sensor is big enough for you to be able to get depth of field. The larger the aperture, the more depth of field there will be, meaning the objects out of focus will be blurry. This is useful for blurring the background when shooting a portrait for example. Since consumer digital cameras have very small sensors, it will be harder to get a shallow depth of field. Another way to get a shallower depth of field is to get closer to the subject, for example it is very visible (and sometimes a problem) in macro photography. As you can see in the picture below, the tip of the flower is sharp, but the background is blurry. The quality of the bokeh (Japanese term for out-of-focus blur which is used by many photographers) depends on the lens you use. Most expensive lenses and good primes give a nice bokeh. The quality of the bokeh, as well as the sharpness of the lens can be found out by reading an MTF (Modulation Transfer Function) chart. A great article about MTF charts is located here: http://www.luminouslandscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-mtf.shtml . The lens is generally a lot more important than the camera itself. A cheap SLR with a quality lens will produce pictures that are a lot better than an expensive camera with a cheap lens. It’s a bit different with digital cameras, since you need to take into account that there are different sensors with different quality and noise (grain) control. There are different types of lenses with different focal lengths. The 50mm lens is called a “normal” lens, since it provides the same focal length as a human eye. Anything that has a shorter focal length than 50mm is a wide-angle lens, usually 28mm. Under that you will see extreme wide-angle and fisheye (usually 15mm) lenses that provide 180 degree angle. There are exceptions though, for example the Canon 1740mm f/4.0 L zoom is a lens many DSLR users prefer, since the sensors on those cameras provide 1.6x magnification, so that lens turns into a 2764mm. A lens that is longer than 50mm is called a telephoto lens. Those range usually from 200mm to 400mm; 300mm being the most commonly used one. There are also zoom lenses (as opposed to primes) that have some disadvantages like losing light, but they can replace a couple lenses at once, for example a 28-70mm is a standard zoom lens that might work well in 90% of situations. A good lens is generally bandersnatch bandersnatch the one that is capable of a larger aperture. A 75-300mm f/4-5.6 usually costs around $150 USD, while a 300mm f/4 lens might run for about $1100 USD, and a 300mm f/2.8L IS is about $4000 USD. The f/2.8 lens is not only faster (since you can use a higher shutter speed because it lets more light through) but it is also much better built and has a much better optical quality. Generally, if you want to shoot offhand, you should use the highest shutter speed possible in order to get sharp photos. The general rule is the shutter speed that is 1/125ths and faster is usually good enough for shooting handheld. If you are shooting indoors, you will not be able to get that fast (unless you have a lens with a very large maximum aperture, like an f/1.4) shutter speed, so you will have to use a flash. Flash acts nicely to freeze a picture, so shooting as slow as 1/60ths handheld. If you don’t want to use the flash indoors or you want to get a sharp picture, you should use a tripod. If you are interested in starting in photography, I recommend that you get a digital camera. Depending on your budget, you can either get a consumer digital camera, just make sure it has full manual override, or it won’t be fun. When shopping for one of these, you should get the one with the largest aperture (usually f/2.8 or more), largest zoom capability (something with at least 28-80mm), and finally the highest resolution (megapixels). You can also get a digital SLR like a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT which might set you back $790 USD nowadays. You can spend an extra $140 USD for the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens and $70 USD for a 50mm f/1.8 II which is a very solid although cheap lens, with a decent aperture. If you have a bit more money to spend on it, you can get a 17-40mm f/4 L lens to which I referred before. Remember, most digital SLR cameras have a 1.6x or 1.5x (Nikon) magnification, so to see what sort of real focal range you will get with a certain lens, multiply the focal length by the magnification ratio. You might not get a true wide angle with a digital SLR and that is one of its weakest points. Make sure you also get a high speed flash card so that your camera will take less time to transfer the photos from its buffer. It’s not worth buying a film camera anymore. When you finally decide to get a camera, I suggest that you don’t buy in Canada since the prices are much higher here. It would be worth it to check eBay for some new and used cameras and lenses, since you will get much better prices. There are also websites like www.bhphotovideo.com (new equipment) and www.keh.com (used equipment) where you can find some excellent deals. By the way, if you buy used from the USA you will not have to pay the 6% duties, only the GST and PST. This makes buying used equipment even more of a deal. Be careful though, if you buy used from eBay make sure that the seller has a lot of good feedback, or even better that they are a store who sell over eBay. This way you won’t get any nasty surprises when you receive your equipment. I hope I’ve helped you understand how to control your camera and you can now clearly think about what would be the best choice for you. For more information, send an email to toxicbug@hotmail.com Uncle Bander Wants You! Next Meeting: Tuesday, September 20, at 5:30 pm in H-033A Paid for by the New Bander Order bandersnatch bandersnatch bandersnatch Flatout Battlefield 2 Justin Banks Contributor Blayne Bradley Games Editor What makes a racing game unique? Need for Speed Underground has it’s illegal street racing and unique customization, Mario Kart: Double Dash has it’s co-op play, Burnout has it’s intense speed and adrenaline buildups, so what does Flatout offer us that is so original? What it does offer is not so much the racing but the various selection of minigames that are available in the game. Flatout allows the driver of your car to go right through the windshield when you crash, thus allowing you to propel your driver into a dartboard, bowling alley, or as high as you can for some of the offered minigames. The rest of the game is just your basic racing/destruction derby game, with the choice to upgrade your vehicle with the cash that you earn from every win, although every car pretty much looks the same. Being a game that’s all about wrecking your ride the crash detail on the cars is phenomenal, doors and trunks fly off, dents appear all over, tires get blown out and ruin your control while making you drastically slower, sometimes you’re lucky to finish the race, arriving at the end with your engine on fire. And where would a racing game be without a boost ability, Flatout lets you gain boost in a very similar method to Burnout, knock stuff over, ram other vehicles, and then some. The tracks however are lacking in variety, with their being only three or four different environments and the courses just take you through the track but using different routes, you get the feeling that you’re not really accomplishing anything by playing the same levels over and over. Yet it still manages to grab hold of your attention, being a fun an entertaining title available on the PC, Xbox, and PS2, this one’s worth checking out. Final Rating: 3.5 out of 5 The Hulk Justin Banks Contributor weapon, most in due time having to earn smash points to purchase the moves, but fear not for you get smash points for smashing or hitting anything, which is not an easy thing to avoid. The destruction that you can cause has only been dreamed about No game was more anticipated then battlefield 2 since its predecessors Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield Vietnam. Battlefield 2 breaks old rules and establishes new ones by being one of the few games our their to bring the FPS genre to the modern post Gulf war era of warfare. In BF2 you can play one of three militaries; The United States Marine Corp, the People’s Liberation Army and the MEC that is the Arab, force. In Battlefield 2 like in the former games you can play various kits, many that you will undoubtedly recognize to a few new ones such as Special Ops, which is a more supped up version of the engineers just a little funnier. Battlefield 2 is also the first game that I’ve noticed to fuller introduce a in game voice option to allow for better Squad organization and having as an official feature the ability to form squads where instead of you spawning all the way behind your lines safe in a cozy little fort, you instead can spawn (your choice) where your squad commander is allowing for a faster paced battle in a multitude of well designed maps featuring stunning graphical detail. But that is not all featured, Battlefield 2 also offers a new command system where your team has an overall commander with the ability to give orders (though you can disobey them) to squads, call in artillery strikes (according to the recommendation of scouts but the Commander is the guy who pushes the button so we don’t get any asses who calls in an arty on his own team-mates. The commander can Para-drop in creates of ammo and health, which are a great tactical help. Battlefield 2 also has the great ability to feature so little lag in its maps of 64 players though its recommended to play only with high speed internet it isn’t Starcraft man. BF2 is an amazing game full of challenges with only a few problems here and there (team killing will however probably never be fixed though BF2 offers a system where you can choose to forgive a team killer thus if he team kills too many times he’s gone). One final feature I should mention is that Battlefield 2 has a rank system where after a certain amount of kills it will allow you (depending on the server) to unlock new weapons, such as an auto sniping rifle for the medic a cool nice weapon to have. A great game to buy I highly recommend it, there are thanks to punkbuster very few cheaters, go out to Futurshop buy it, and enjoy. Though one other note there is a special keyboard known as “Zboard” with a BF2 keyset for it that will allow you to have the ultimate gaming experience as it puts the buttons in convenient places, though that should be for another article. 4 of 5 stars. previously, the new weaponization mechanic is very interesting in itself, providing that you have the ability for whatever it is you want to do you can take a vehicle, pole, boulder, or even a missile pack and turn it into a weapon for the Hulk. If you don’t feel like taking anger management and would rather be destroying everything in your path, pick this one up for Xbox, Gamecube, or PS2. For as long as we can remember, there have been games based on movies, even disappointing movies like The Hulk. No doubt that The Hulk movie game wasn’t one of the greater moments in movie-togame history, mostly ruined by the Bruce Banner sequences where you had to not be seen and get to your objective point, that ruined the feeling of you had of having all the power of the Hulk, in all his unstoppable greenness. The Hulk: Ultimate Destruction takes what was good in the movie version and takes it to the streets, GTA-style. You play as the green giant himself this time trying to rid himself of his alter ego, which is actually part of himself... while trying to find a cure while in isolation in the desert, Bruce Banner is assaulted by the army who destroy all of his work done there. From there on you spend most of your time recovering pieces for your machine, most of them having to be stolen from the army. This leads our anger management deprived hero to the city. Now the game gets interesting, as the name implies you can destroy anything all the while using your Hulk abilities to their fullest. As the Hulk you can use anything as a bandersnatch bandersnatch 2005 - 09 - 14 7 Songs Not to Get Married To The Art of Drowning Judy Gelsthorpe Contributor Trevor Smith Production Manager “Songs Not To Get Married To” is Reggie and the Full Effects’ fourth fulllength album. Released by Vagrant Records in March 2005, the album is really the work of one man and, curiously enough, his name is not Reggie. James DeWees, former keyboardist of The Get Up Kids, plays nearly every instrument recorded onto the CD’s 13 tracks, including bass guitar, drums, keyboards and vocals. The band’s first full-length album “Greatest Hits 1984-1987” was released in 1998, while “Promotional Copy” (2000) was not far behind. In 2003, “Under the Tray” was launched, and with these three albums came an interesting mélange of fictional and comical characters that materialize into their newest album to lend a voice in certain songs. These characters include Hungary Bear from Blue Collar Distribution, Klaus from Common Denominator, and Fluxuation. Throughout the record, genres are interchanged, rearranged, shifted and conflicted. Ranging from grinding ‘metal core’ to heavily synthesized European dance music to sweetened emo-pop, the diversity of this record is more than you would get from a multicultural “let’s travel the world in 23 soothing tracks” tape. The underlying theme of the album is DeWees’ divorce and how he feels that he suffers from “big man crushes small man syndrome” in that everything was taken from him just because someone found that they were able to do so. In songs like “Caving” and “What the Hell is Contempt” this newfound seriousness has shone like the sun through the clouds. Meaningful lyrics walk hand in hand with a catchy rhythm and sharp guitar progressions to create what Much Music and MTV should be mud-wrestling over. Don’t be frightened off by this serious theme, however, because songs like “Love Reality”, “Deathnotronic” and “Get Well Soon” bring in the fun side of Reggie that would have been sorely missed. Also a skit track is included on the album: “Guess Who’s Back” tells the story of a “good mother” who “loves to smoke crack”. You may be wondering how James manages to play live performances if he is playing multiple instruments on the CD. The answer to this is that he has an interchanging line-up of musicians which contains members of The Get Up Kids, Coalesce, and the Esoteric. Recent shows include opening for New Found Glory, and Warped Tour. I saw Reggie play live at Warped Tour in Montreal, and even with the lack of fluffy bunny suits (which they had on the NFG tour) it was a very entertaining show. DeWees has a great sense of humour 8 and can keep the crowd entertained in the time needed between songs. Personally, I think that DeWees has created something that very few people would be able to achieve: a smart, sophisticated, stupid, loud, angry, lyrical, soothing, melodic, metallic album. He should be praised in the streets on bent knee to show the proper respect for the man that brought this wonderful record into out midst. James DeWees AKA Reggie AKA Klaus AKA Paco AKA Music God! monica pak Are you a fan of bands like Our Lady Peace and Switchfoot? If so, this is a Cd for you. For all the long time Christian-Rock fans out there and anyone who just simply likes that late 90s Rock scene, The Thousand Foot Krutch has come out with their latest Cd titled “The Art of Breaking”. The Canadian band has the honour of being on tour with mainstream bands such as the Foo Fighters and Jimmy Eat World as well as having Adam, lead singer from Three Days Grace on some songs to help influence the hard-rock tempo. The Album itself is a bit different from their earlier stuff seeing as they’re trying to get back into their roots, which was Alternative Rock not uncommon to artists such as The Red Hot chilli peppers. For “The Art of Breaking” they decided to scrap the whole Hardcore-Rapcore scene and the result is very retro 90s considering that. The CD starts up with Absolute, a very mellow guitar to begin but it soon picks up and it’s a non-stop Hard-Rock ride all the way through. I’d just like to point out that the lead singer attempts and manages to hit those high notes. His style reminds me of early Davey Havok from AFI so if you’re into him you should try giving it a good listening. The next track is Slow Bleed, a mix of heavy Rock riffs and melodic breaks along with some more great singing to make this song more than worthwhile. One song that really touched on the old 90s Rock beat I’ve been talking is Hand Grenade. From the sounds of it, their influence must have come from early Our Lady Peace and myself being a fan of their sound, couldn’t resist that feeling of nostalgia. On a side note, I’d also like to say that although they are Christian-Rock, that doesn’t mean to say that they’re terrible. This is the first Christian Rock band that I’ve ever listened to and all that matters is well, they’re good. The Album ends on a track much more relaxed than the rest of the Cd. “Breathe You In” gives you a chance to hear the lead singer at work along with some alright drum and guitar melodies to give th album a great ending. Their Cd is in stores now, check it out “The Art of Drowning”. Jack In A Box Krystyna Glavinovic Contributor What a great way to start your day, your week, your life. Honestly, Turin Brakes’ newest, JackInABox, is filled with promise. Each song spells out hope, love and, yes, even heartbreak and death. This album isn’t morbid, nor is it over-the-top happy. Turin knows what he’s doing. He knew how to emote through song in 1999, with his rare EP The Door (only 500 copies each of CD and vinyl were ever made), and it seems he’s only gotten better. His hopeful ‘They Can’t Buy The Sunshine’ is separated by his haunting ‘Road To Nowhere’ by merely minutes. It seems Turin has come to terms with his life and he’s discovered true happiness. This album is all about understanding who you were, who you are and who you might grow to be. It’s about entering a new stage in your life and experiencing everything you possibly can, even if you’ve just experienced the heartbreak of a lifetime. He nails what so many of us are hop- bandersnatch bandersnatch ing is true when he says “If you try, you’ll be alright”, sung in ‘Red Moon’. An urgent, desirous tone can be found amid the guitar strums and the calming lyrics, one that promises truth and beauty to those that discover not only who they are but why they are. When Mr Brakes sings in ‘Over And Over’, it’s as if he’s singing to each and every one of his listeners. He’s the magician revealing his secrets. We’re provided with insight into life, death, pain and adventure. Who knew it could sound so wonderful? bandersnatch It’s hard to classify Turin Brakes’ music into any one genre. He is perceptive and able to express his thoughts, a talent many mainstream artists lack. In this manner, he is similar to Pete Yorn and Joseph Arthur. His youthful, optimistic attitude can be compared to that of Jason Mraz’s. He is folk with a dash of rock. What we can take from this album is what we can take from few others: the belief that we can resurface after a tough _______ (insert period of time here). Whether you’ve had a day or a year of hardships, Turin Brakes’ JackInABox has showed us that we can be in control of turning that hardship into happiness and success. I’m 100% certain that the butterflies that scatter the jacket and the inside of the cover are there to represent an evolution into a new phase in Turin Brakes’ life and artistry. Without a doubt, we will fully support him in his future endeavours. It’s folly to not do so. Turin Brakes’ JackInABox came out 30.05.05. He is currently touring Europe. For further information, visit his website at http://www.turinbrakes.com/. bandersnatch bandersnatch The Redwalls: De Nova D.T. Contributor “We’re not preaching,” Logan says. “Every once in a while you feel this obligation to acknowledge some of the fuckedup things that are going on. But we also sing about girls, and all that other stuff. What we really do is play rock’n’roll.” I thought I was enjoying myself immensely in the listening until I realized that it was twenty minutes later and I hadn’t been really listening. I started the CD from the beginning again and somehow faded into space... again. Coffee didn’t help. Musically, these guys are a blow-away; the majesty of their performance marks them as bandersnatch perfect background music for anything. There isn’t a hook or a catch anywhere to hang your attention on, really, just seamless great music. The texture of it is amazing, with production values through the roof. By the second day it had grown on me like a tattoo. The singer is, as far as I can tell, either a Brit faking a British accent, or an Aussie imitating Bob Dylan imitating John Lennon... with stunning levels of success (music to MY ears, anyway). I had the severest difficulty understanding the lyrics — then I just checked them online. The singer’s amazing vocal acrobatics probably actually serve to dissimulate the bland landscape of the lyrical content, the band’s one weak point. ‘Front Page’ is the most lyrically interesting, but very reminiscent of ‘A Day in the Life’. Smooth rockers like ‘On My Way’, ‘Rock & Roll’ or ‘It’s Alright’ evince no originality whatever, but lack of originality never kept hips from swinging, or hands from clapping. Their forebears of the sev- bandersnatch enties can be proud of the Redwalls; they prove somebody was really paying attention. If you have any taste for real rock & roll, you’d definitely be putting this one on your list. The one ringing bad note on the album would be the track before last, ‘Glory of War’, which allies ideologically and musically dubious lyrics to around-the-campfire guitar work the album could do without. 2005 - 09 - 14 bandersnatch bandersnatch The Redwalls’ ‘de nova’ certainly isn’t for everyone; but ‘de nova’ is very much a recommended buy from this quarter, especially if you know the difference between rock and rock & roll and prefer the latter. As the Redwalls’ second album, it shows many of the promising qualities of the first, including it’s derivative charm, and a few more all it’s own. 9 You’re in Hot Water Now Bad Boys of Rock 'n' Roll Li Kennedy Opinions Editor Li Kennedy Opinions Editor I was all prepped for my gym class that was about to start. A bunch of us stood sweating at the edge of the vast and enticing John Abbott pool waiting for the teacher’s word…so we could plunge into that cool, clean and chlorinated water. The air was humid as hell and it was boiling hot, making me all the more ready as I rushed forward with the others (no running of course) to the chilly salvation we anticipated. Cold water was all we needed. But lo and behold when we dove in at last the water was not cold at all. No, not even close. The water was as sickly warm as fresh urine. It’s probably not much cleaner either. In fact I think most showers I’ve taken have consisted of much colder water. It felt like stale dirty bath water and the chlorine is seriously hard on the eyes. The swim test was a disaster of course, 16 laps in 12 minutes was my final score… I can’t breathe in this! You figure you won’t get hot if you’re in the water, right? And that’s usually true if you take a ten second break you can continue and you feel cold again. This water was THIRTY TWO DEGREES CELSIUS! If it’s ever that hot outsideoutside in the summer time people hide out in air-conditioned shops all day. In their lame attempts to beat the heat. First A little bit of history The Fire Still Burns for Twisted Sister, their new album/DVD comp, Live at Wacken, The Reunion has not only 11amazing, live audio tracks but also 23 music videos! Even In The Beginning, these guys were Born To Be Wild, they started playing together in 1972, and after 15 years and more than 9000 shows, The band played its final show in Minneapolis. They released a couple albums in the ‘90s and played a show or 2 sans bass player Mark Mendoza. They have been steadily on the rise ever since, performing about once a year, Mark came back in 2000, and all 5 of the boys were onstage for the first time since 1986. With Superb guitar solos, prized showmanship and an energy exclusive to the genre, watch out, The Kids Are Back. They’ve been broken up, phased out and boycotted by squares and abandoned by fans Like A Knife In The Back, but I Wanna Rock and We’re Not Gonna Take It! So, Stay Hungry because You Can’t Stop Rock & Roll. Yeah yeah I know everyone says Rock and Roll is dead, but we’re in a renaissance now, and I think we’re at least here in time for the death rattle. Lately we’ve had no choice to bring back the old because the new just sucks. I mean… “you make my pipi go dedoing doing doing” COME ON what do you call that?! I call it C – R – A – P! Because that’s what it is. Sure, maybe some people call “you make my pipi go dedoing doing doing” catchy, but I doubt anyone’s going to pay $ 21.00 to buy the over priced cd for “you make my pipi go dedoing doing doing” and this is what GROWN UPS listen to? You can take that rubbish and well… use your imagination. You know, people tell me to grow up and get a real job, and I must admit I’m starting to need one but this record set me straight. Something’s been missing in my life lately and rock and roll is it. I’ll Never Grow Up, Now! Cover Charges Suck Li Kennedy Opinions Editor People go to bars to drink. They go in and pay good money for house alcohol. Now why on earth would the bar charge these poor good-timin’ chick-cruisin’ drunks five dollars before they even lay a finger on the bottle? Because they are inconsiderate, uncompassionate, unethical conglomerates companies run by slimy, unsentimental, soulless businessmen. Granted, some people don’t go to bars solely to drink, often some girls (and boys) get together just to go out and dance. This improves the bar, makes it more fun and user-friendly if you will. It attracts the men customers and produces the urge for more people to go out to the bar, dance, drink and have a good time. Yet these fun-loving dancing queens must pay a cover fee to do what they love simply because of some morose money-hounding miser who is probably far too rich for his/her own good anyways. Some poor creatures are sucked into the bar scene because their friends want to hang out, loitering is frowned upon (and rather boring) and you have to go SOMEWHERE at night. Now many of these people are just there for a game of pool or 10 Bogarting the jukebox, have a beer or two maybe but mostly spend money on pool, blitz and foosball. These lost souls are only looking for a place to chill and hang out with their buddies. Now surely it isn’t right that for the need of shelter, meanwhile spending money on music and pool games that we should take five dollars out of our own sweet pocket for the simple pleasure of being in that smoked out dirty, sticky and smelly bar? OK… then we get into the real kickers. Designated drivers. Everyone is drunk. You’re waiting around for your drunken friends while some sweaty, hairy guy is leaning over you to get closer to the bar/ pretty girl he’ll never get/his friend/the dance floor. Did you pay to get into this place? If you did, you got seriously ripped off. And the millionaire owner is trying desperately to fit his bulging wallet into his overpriced brand-name suit pocket. There was once some kind of logic behind this cover charge… girls would pay so that they didn’t have to be in a place where slimy old drunken guys were all over them, hitting on them, trying to converse but more successfully spraying them with beer… unfortunately, girls flocked to cover bars and slimy old drunken guys followed. Now we’re simply paying to get into a place where without a doubt at least one creepy drunk will attempt to cop a feel. It’s outrageous, unscrupulous, preposterous. bandersnatch bandersnatch Oh yes, and abstract art sucks. You want art? THIS is art. You got a problem? Send your opinion to Bandersnatch@johnabbott.qc.ca bandersnatch bandersnatch bandersnatch Far From Germany Today in Bandersnatch History Till Boegelsack Contributor Imagine you are staying one College year in Europe. Go abroad to a foreign country leads to FARSICKNESS. Out of conviction you make your whole environment like friends and family crazy. Only out of conviction! WHY GERMANS STUDY AT JOHN ABBOTT Canada is supposed to be wild. You will see a bear looking through your window in the morning. Germans think that most Canadians are working as lumberjacks. One day there was a guy from Canada at my High School. After he made a speech and represented his college while everyone sat quietly in their chairs and looked up to the overhead. Everyone read a list of costs. Staying abroad is expensive. By showing us photos from John Abbott College near Montreal, after recommending a lot of positive aspects of being an international student, we were convinced enough. Well, I was 14 at the time. Within the last year I first tried to bring up my exchange program with exchange organizations. At last in December I applied for John Abbott. Now I am the last survivor who is really going to Canada. Getting a grant and organizing the Visa was now the only problem. I dreamed for half a year what was waiting for me. Basically all fifty German students at college have the same aim, to improve their English (if necessary also French). This school has over 5000 students so you are constantly meeting new people. I often have the feeling that most people spend their first semester here and a lot of them speak French as their first language. But this multiculturalism is an important reason to go here. This College offers a wide variety of courses and clubs and that is great! I joined Bandersnatch, Kayaking and swimming. Nevertheless I was soon surprised in Germany about the possibilities to study. You know that we have a comfortable campus. Among other things we have an arena, a bookstore, a sauna and so on. There was an Orientation session placed at the weekend before school started and we saw Montreal with its great skyline. It was important for me not to go to a place like Nebraska at a restricted High School in the middle of nowhere. During the stay I found the activities for students very attractive. I go home from College to D.D.O. and an airplane is flying over every time! Then I think about what a nice time I’m going to spend here at JAC. That first College day I was amazed at John Abbott College. This New Blood is Hot Mr. Nutrient was discovered. Mr. Nutrient was born back in the day when the John Abbott newspaper still had the life giving dignity of a refrigerator. To our misfortune, the underworld inhabitants of the clubroom next door who call themselves “gamers” discovered that the power is turned off during the summer. This unfortunate discovery led to the placement of an empty bottle of mayonnaise in said fridge before the clubrooms closed that May. Needless to say, something started growing in the jar. It grew out of the jar, and into the fridge. It grew out of the fridge, and into the office, it grew out of the office, and into the hallway. They named it Mr. Nutrient. Mr. Nutrient was discovered the following autumn. The hallway was evacuated and fumigated. Humorizer: This joke is funny due to the idea of an infectious substance filling the inside of a fridge, somehow escaping the sealed door and growing all the way from said fridge presumably at the back of the room into the hallway. It also provokes the hilarious mental image of various specimens of underworld miscreants such as gamers, Banderites, Chinese and Muslim club members flailing their arms and fleeing their dwellings narrowly escaping the tentacled grasp of Mr. Nutrient and the alien screams of the being as green gas filters into the sides of the hallway and tentacles wave and wither. Li Kennedy Opinions Editor Legend retold by LiKennedy I remember all the girls I graduated with. We were stunningly beautiful, model quality looks, all 58 of us. So it’s natural to expect the same from the men of our generation, right? Wrong! More like for every ten beautiful women there was a single (though probably not single) good-looking male specimen. We, the poor, deprived, “hot chicks” have woefully accepted this and lowered our standards accordingly. What a sad, sad existence we led. I hate to be shallow but left right and center, pretty women were walking with gorillas. They say that looks don’t count for much; well there goes your proof. But wait a tick – why is it that men expect flawless beauty from us, the spectacular, yet any cocky bastard can be as ugly as he wants and still expect to “get chicks”. Now after a couple years of CEGEP, and MANY years of dating, it has started to dawn on my fellow college girls that we have been sorely gypped. Slow Walking and Other Back to School Faux Pas Kristine T Contributor But what’s this? It’s become apparent, and odd but true, that more and more of the first year men are turning out to be quite the young cuties. Now I’m no cradle robber, but man do I ever wish I were sometimes. The Death of the English Language Nicola Fleming Contributor Almost everyone has used it at some point. It makes life ‘easier’ for thousands of users worldwide. Teens spend their evenings staring blankly ahead as they attempt to communicate with the outside world. Teachers lose sleep over it as its effects surface more and more often in the classroom. It is highly addictive, and extremely appealing to today’s youth. Chatspeak. Who came up with this ‘language’ that has been taking the Internet by storm for years? More importantly...why do people use it? I don’t understand what is so appealing about chatting to your friends in a form of English so horribly mangled that it can’t possibly be deciphered without a certain amount of squinting at the computer screen? For those trying to stop their parents from understanding what they’re saying to their friends...be honest. If your parents are that intent on trying to find out what you talk about with your friends, they’ll manage to interpret the chatspeak (especially if you’re talking about that party last weekend where you had a little to much to drink and can’t remember where you left your-...uh, QUICK! YOUR PARENTS ARE WATCHING!). So u revrt 2 ta1king lyke this 2 a11 ur frendz b/c all tha kewl ppl r doing it + that bandersnatch way ur parents dont no wat ur sayin!!!111 Someone please punch me for writing that sentence. Thank you. I mean...look how stupid that looks. What’s worse is that this sort of writing is popping up in essays! That’s right. This butchered form of English has become so mainstream that students are considering it acceptable to use it in major assignments! I could probably carry on for pages, lamenting the imminent demise of English as we know it. Instead, I’m going to set you all a challenge. Break the habit. Stop giving in to what is ‘easy’. When the time comes to type the word ‘you’, make those two extra keystrokes. You’ll seem much more educated for it, and you won’t slip into the irritating habit of forgetting how to spell threeletter words. KTHXBI. (That’s all I have to say. Thank you for your time, and goodbye.) ((It’s not that hard)) bandersnatch 2005 - 09 - 14 It’s said to be the most wonderful time of the year! No, not Christmas, back to school, people!! Yippee! Or not? Every year there is the hustle and bustle around John Abbott, between the expenses of books, line ups for STM photos and people who have temporarily lost brain to limb coordination (i.e. Slow walkers in the hallway). This might just be me, but I’ve come to notice that part of the reason I’m so stressed when school begins is because things are so poorly organized. Now, this isn’t a shout out to all the organizers of our school, but things tend to go A-wall at the start of the school year. First off, I think we are in dire need of signs! I might have been the only one that has done this, but there we no signs around labelling the long line-ups in to the Agora, and I, for one, would have been highly appreciative if there had been one. I stood in the STM photo line because someone told me it was the agenda line for an hour and a half! Yeah, laugh it up! Not only did I feel stupid but I also felt bad for the other ten people behind me who I had told this was indeed the agenda line (I didn’t have the guts to tell them they were in the wrong line after I found out). Sorry, guys. Not only this, but people tend to walk aimlessly about the hallways as though they are the only ones around. I mean, come on! It’s not that hard; we learned how to do it properly when we were three. All in all, next year will be the same, but I, for one, will NOT be standing in the STM photo line for my agenda! bandersnatch bandersnatch 11 12 bandersnatch bandersnatch bandersnatch bandersnatch bandersnatch
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