EDITORIAL
Your horoscopes suck!
Dear Editor
My name is Doug Hoderny. I read
(or at least try to read) the Beacon
every week. I must say I am quite
disappointed with the section of your
paper that has Horoscopes. I enjoy
reading horoscopes (even the ones
that aren't mine) just for fun. But I
have found that your horoscope col
umn is a waste of ink. Bongo, if all
you can do is tell people to get a life,
I don't think your readers are going
Musin
Valentine's Day
Ok, so I'm single this Valentine's
Day. No big whoop. Alright, yes I'm
lying. It sucks. However, I will not
be hitter about it. Just kidding, I will
be completely bitter about it. All
around me I see couples preparing to
have "The Best Valentine's Day
Ever. - Blech.
Oh wait, I am guilty of this in past
years, so I can't detest them entirely.
But what's the big deal with
Valentine's Day anyway. I can't
figure it out. It really is the
commercialization of an emotion.
Love. Ah, love. Make me puke.
Cupids and hearts and arrows and
more hearts and sickening sweetness.
Wow, I am really bitter. Sorry.
Just in case you don't have a date
for Valentine's Day this year either, I
think I should offer a few suggestions
to make your day a little bit better.
For the girls:
Listen to depressing music.
Being Mr. nice guy
by Adam Shiver
Central Florida Future
Have you ever listened to women
talk about what kind of guy they are
looking for? If so, then you have prob
ably overheard the same things I have.
When they get around to naming
qualities they want in a man, they al
most always list honesty, kindness, a
good sense of humor and chivalry. I
laugh at this. I think they're just mak
ing all that up.
One woman explained to me re
cently that I was "too nice." Too
nice?! Is there such a thing and if
there is, is that any reason not to give
a good guy a chance? I don't think
so. In fact, I don't think there is
enough niceness in this day and age.
I open doors, pay for dates and
strive hard to be caring and sweet, but
none of that gets me very far. But the
guy who stands in a corner, aloof and
playing hard to get? He's golden. He's
got no trouble finding a date.
The guy who runs around with his
buds, gets drunk and finally thinks to
call around 1 a.m., hoping he can
spend the night? 'No problem, come
right on over, a lot of women say.'
They flock to him.
I just don't get it. These girls must
love being the caretakers of their boy-
to read the Beacon anymore. I'm not
sure if your goal is to offend every
body but why can't you at least make
them interesting. Here is a sugges
tion, go get some from the Internet or
something. I thank you for taking the
time to read my letter and hope to see
some changes in the future.
Doug Hoderny
MIS, 04
S • •
sucks!
Depending on your mood it can be
slow and angsty or hard and angry.
For the first suggestion I highly
recommend Sarah McLachlan. She is
the queen of sadness, gotta love her.
For the latter, I am thinking a little
Korn is in order. Or maybe my
personal favorite, The Blood Hound
Gang "Lift your head up high and
blow your brains out."
One word: Chocolate. And not the
crappy, ruftly heart-shaped boxes of
it that you can buy in K-mart. I am
talking some mean chocolate. Make
fudge! Then eat it all, or if you feel
nice, share some with your
roommate.
For the guys:
Since I'm not a guy, the only advice
I can offer you is Quake. Take out all
of your aggressions of being alone by
blowing away virtual enemies. Fun,
right? Just leave the anger there.
Of course, you can always rent a
friends. They get caught in cycles of
always trying to "keep his attention"
or "win him back" usually employ
ing tactics that involve sex. All of their
energy and focus is consumed with
trying to hang on to a person, so they
fail to notice the nice guys all around
them.
Instead of trying to hold on to a
loser, they could be getting to know
all the nice guys who out there the
real marriage material the guys like
me. I also have another guess as to
why a lot of girls seem to settle for
whomever (make that "whatever")
they come across: They are just as
shallow as a lot of men. Oh, looks
aren't as important as personality and
all those other fine qualities that typi
cally make their Top-I0 lists. Yeah,
right.
So, where does that leave me and
all the other "too nice" guys? Well,
we're going to continue to maintain
our honesty, integrity and charm.
We're going to keep on opening doors
and sharing our feelings. We aren't
going to play games. We'll assume
responsibility for ourselves and for
any hurt feelings we may cause. We
will always try to take care of those
whom we care for.
And will we have time for women
who expect less of us? Probably not.
Letters to the Editor:
Hey!
Send your
complaints here!
I'll listen,
promise!
behrcoll2@aol.com
Kate Galle
'girlie' movie (no not THAT type of
movie) and practice crying and
showing your sensitive side.
Hopefully all this practice can help
you score a girl next year. I
recommend Steel Mayno
or The Empire Strikes Back (hey
whenever Han Solo gets dropped into
carbonite, it's pretty darn moving).
If all else fails, there is always the
good old stand-by. Friends. Hang out
with all your other single friends and
watch a hysterically funny movie. My
ring of single friends plan on
watching Warne's World and
Clueless. Also since Valentine's Day
is on Monday, we can always watch
WWF RAW. Yeah, that sounds good.
A bunch of big sweaty people rolling
around in a ring and heating the crap
out of each other. Now that's what I
call love. Happy V-day!
National Student Commentar
Bored teens? Here's a creative solution, de-boot the
computer.
"I' m bored, Mom." "I' m bored,
Dad." There isn't a parent who hasn't
heard this whine from his or her chil
dren. Usually, we just ignore it and,
usually, that's good advice. But when
40 percent of this year's college fresh
men report that they were "frequently
bored" with school when they were
high school seniors, that's a warning
that can't be ignored.
That 40 percent figure is a record,
according to the UCLA Higher Edu
cation Research Institute, which has
been asking freshmen this question
for 15 years. It's nearly twice as many
students who reported being bored
with high school back in 1985.
What's the big deal, you almost
certainly are wondering. I'm bored a
lot of the time at work, you're think
ing. And I surely remember being
bored back when I was in high school,
you recall. But the latest research into
young people and the major unhealthy
risk behaviors they face alcohol,
drugs, sex, tobacco and violence
suggests that we should be very con
cerned.
The federal Add Health survey, the
largest study of adolescent life ever
by Shepherd Smith
Knight Ridder
Why is Behrend in three time zones?
Dear Editor
Can I just ask why they decided
to build Behrend across a time zone'?
Well, maybe it's not that bad, but the
five minute difference from one end
of campus to the other makes it re
ally hard to get to class on time. Al
most every day I haul it from the
Nick building to the Academic build
ing to find that the not even five
minute walk has taken are ten. I have
even had an occasion when I was late
due to the time gap and class being
conducted, surveying more than
90,000 teen-agers, found that adoles
cents who don't feel connected to
their school, who don't feel as if
they're really part of school life, are
at risk for unhealthy behaviors. They
are more likely to engage in violence,
smoke cigarettes, use drugs and alco
hol, and engage in early sexual activ
ity. Certainly, being bored at school
is a pretty good sign that a young per
son is feeling at least a bit discon
nected from school.
So kids being bored is nothing to
ignore. That almost half of America's
high school seniors are bored should
be alarming. We ought to do some
thing about it. I have a radical idea to
offer. But first, let me admit some
thing unheard of for somebody writ
ing a newspaper column: I'm nowhere
near 100 percent sure this will make
4 difference, though obviously 1 sus
pect it will. My idea? Turn off the TV
and computer. That's right, turn them
off for a while.
No, I'm not a techno-Luddite. The
computer and television are wonder
ful things. In fact, I used an online
dictionary to make sure Luddite (one
who is opposed to technological
change) is spelled correctly. I'm sim-
FEBRUARY 11 2000 THE BEHREND BEACON PAGE 9
held over for one minute. It's not
just the students, most of who agree
with me, that are rushed by
Behrend's discordant clocks either.
One of my professors complains al
most daily about the time gap and
not being able to prepare for class
before it starts. I understand that it
is nearly impossible to synchronize
every clock on the campus and that
no one really has the time to do it,
but limiting the gap would keep us
ply making the point that the omni
presence of these technologies, par
ticularly the computer, marks the be
ginning of a new era in the way chil
dren grow up. Children will think dif
ferently. They will look at the world
differently. They will be intellectually
stimulated differently. Their attention
span will he impacted.
Nearly anything can be well used
... or abused. When we as parents or
educators depend on televisions, and
now computers, to both entertain and
inform, we better be darn careful.
Computers, particularly, have the po
tential of cheating young people out
of many positive life experiences.
Great pleasure often comes after hard
ship or hard work.
When youthful curiosity and edu
cational inquiries are made too easy
through "answers.com," the challenge
and joy of learning can easily turn to
boredom. And when we eliminate
debate or conflict by depending too
much on machines and not people for
our intellectual pursuits, conflict reso
lution and interpersonal skills suffer.
If that's the case, and findings from
our own focus group studies suggest
it is, then we need to rethink how we
use this powerful technology. Plus, in
from speed-walking everywhere and
save us from the "are you going to
he this late everyday'?" look.
Gretchen Lokey
CHEM 02
our focus groups young people corn
plained that, while they appreciate the
tremendous gains technology has pro
vided, they see it as contributing to
the accelerated pace of their lives, thus
increasing their stress. It's as if they're
spinning their wheels, but don't know
where they're going.
One thing's for sure. This genera
tion of young people is attracted to
the computer, is in love with the com
puter, even more, it seems, than the
television. The downside of all this
computer experience and expertise
will, undoubtedly, he less time spent
in activities demanding social inter-
action. And less social interaction
means more boredom
So, if we're alarmed by the latest
data on bored high school seniors --
as I believe we should he we need
to give our children a little more di
rection, and tell them to de-hoot the
computer and boot up the world out
side their front door a little more of
ten.
Because teaching our children how
to explore the world through low-tech
experience is just as important as un
derstanding the nuances of Web surf
ing. And on occasion, a lot less bor
ing or stressful.