Friday, February 24, 2006
Dishonesty and deception: Dates gone bad
Have you ever met someone that you were romantically inter
ested in and were really click-
ing with that person and
everything was great until the
two of you went out on a cou
ple of dates? Then, all of a
sudden, this person is nothing
like you thought he/she was,
and you ask yourself, "What
the hell was I thinking'?"
Many people can have this
feeling, and it commonly hap
pens when you find some
thing out about your date that
he/she may have been con
cealing. This was the case for
Andy, a junior student here at
Behrend.
Andy met a girl at work,
and after many conversations
on the job, the two decided to
go out on a date. They went
out to dinner and a movie, and
everything was going well.
"We saw each other and
went out on a couple more
dates over the next two weeks
or so, and then I found out
some stuff about her from a
guy I work with," said Andy.
A co-worker informed Andy
that the girl he had been see
ing has two children. "I was
surprised that she didn't bring
the kids up at all, but I guess
it didn't really bother me that
much," said Andy. He contin-
ued to see her for a little while longer, until he found out that
she was going to have a third child with another man. That v as
the end of that.
Honesty is important when you are developing a relationship.
although some people are misleading on purpose. Kelli, a soph
omore at Behrend, learned this the hard way. "1 was hanging
out with this guy, and I thought he was really nice, hut I thought
it was weird that when I would ask a question about his ex-girl-
Scottish sensations Belle & Sebastian release The Life Pursuit
For anyone who isn't familiar with some of the catchy tunes
that Belle and Sebastian has released over the years. I suggest
you check them out on Napster. Their newest album, The Lite
Pursuit, should be on your playlist. While it's too hard to com
pare them directly to any modern band or even genre, they take
an approach to their music that is similar to The Strokes or Jet.
That doesn't mean that this album sounds exactly like some
thing the Strokes would release, it just simply means that their
music has that vibe to take you back in time to rock music's ori
gin. In comparison to the disposable rock music on today's
radio, Belle and Sebastian is a truly unique hand.
Experimenting with many instruments and even throwing in
some blues/jazz material, their album combines many genres
into one album. However, the tracks on the album contain a
sense of familiarity, even though it is unique to today's stan
dards.
After listening to it a few times, I started to realize that some
of the songs contain the overused 60s sound, and some of the
simple chord progressions that are the basis for most of their
songs sound a little too cliché. Now I don't mean to contradict
Roundtable Society searching for creative writers to publish
By Zach Mentz
staff writer
Roundtable Society is producing the first Behrend stu
dent-run literary magazine entitled Illusions. Illusions
will provide a medium for students to display their art
work, photography, short stories and poems. Submissions
for the magazine will be accepted until March 3, and the
magazine will be distributed in April.
Illusions is a complement to the nationally published
Lake Effect. Lake Effect was developed by George
Looney, Behrend's department head of Creative Writing,
and began as a collection of writings produced by students
at Behrend. Since its creation, the magazine has graduat
ed to incorporate the work of writers and photographers
outside of the University. Now, the magazine is recog
nized on a national level, leaving little room for Behrend's
aspiring writers.
Prema Bangera, president of Roundtable Society, iden
tifies the lack of outlets for the creative students within
our campus. "Since Behrend is the only campus that offers
Creative Writing as a major in the commonwealth of Penn
State, I feel that it's necessary for students to have the
chance to enter the publishing world while attending
school." The proposed magazine will have about eighty
pages and offers a medium that Bangera identifies as
By Rachael Conway
copy editor
rke I 35 (qTql.edu
By Ryan Gallagher
contributing writer
mg5(X)4O psu edu
zdmlo4@psu.edu
riend. Ile completely avoided the subject,'' said Kelli.
Prying into someone's previous love life could make that per
son change the subject. but in Kelli's case, he was avoiding the
topic because he didn't exactly have an "ex. - "One night, I was
out at the club and I ran into a girl I went to high school with.
I pointed my guy out to her and said that I'd been seeing him,
and then she told me that
Adam's family there. and again. she couldn't stop talking about
her s. To this day. his family still refers to her as "Cow
Paddy.-
As von can see. dates might not turn out how you expect them
to. and by getting to know someone better, you might find that
a certain person just isn't a good match for you. But don't let
these stories scare you. Wouldn't you rather have a bad date
than no date at all'?
being "uncensored." The only requirement is that the
writing and photographs must be "good and done tasteful
ly." thisions is one of Roundtable Society's attempts to
rejuvenate interest for the arts on campus. In addition to
the magazine, the club is planning open mics, slam poet
ry performances and a night of "Dubious Taste," an annu
al event that focuses on the darker side of literature.
The lack of art on campus is not a problem that
Roundtable Society faces alone. The Student Government
Association recognizes only five of over ninety of the
clubs and organizations on campus that fall under the
umbrella of art. Besides the Roundtable Society, Jazz
Club, Matchbox Players, Gospel Choir, and Screen
Visions are the only clubs which are governed by the
Student Government's Art Council. The Student Activity
Fee (SAF) has recognized this problem as well and have
provided funding for Illusions, hoping that the magazine
might fill a void in the interests of students and spur future
art-promoting programs.
To submit work for Illusions, send your submissions to
the Roundtable Society Mailbox (located in the basement
of Reed Building in Club Mailboxes—Suite A) or mail it
to MB# 491. Submissions must enclose a self-addressed
envelope, your PSU email address and a cover letter. For
writers living off-campus, please enclose a stamped enve
lope. These restrictions will allow Behrend writers to
develop the skills for submitting work to national publica
tions.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
he was engaged to her
cousin, - said Kelli. And
again, that was the end of
that.
For Andy and Kelli,
dishonesty led to the
demise of the relationships
they were beginning to
build. But, in some cases, a
person just might turn out
to he nothing like you
expected. This was the
case for Adam, a senior at
Behrend. He met a girl,
and the two of them talked
on the phone for two
weeks. Things were going
well between them, and
they met at a restaurant for
their first date. This date
went extremely well, so
they decided to go out on a
second date, which unfor
tunately didn't go as well
as the first. "All she did
on our second date was
talk about her cows. I
couldn't even change the
subject," said Adam. Even
though she was a little too
enthusiastic about her
barnyard friends, he saw
her again and brought her
to the fireworks at
Mercyhurst. She met
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Write for the Beacon and
your resume! To contribute,
e-mail us:
Pick up a CalpV
skew Mb se NW *bit
- nrri
How do I work this thing?
By Logan Stack
technology columnist
sllB(a)psu edu
Dear ASCII,
How does a digital camera
- Filmfree
Dear Filmfree,
From the person you're photo
graphing to where the film would
be, a digital camera works just
like an analog camera. The light
bounces off the person and goes
through the lens, creating an
inverted image inside the camera.
In an old-style analog camera, the
light hits film and causes a chem
ical change in the film.
In a digital camera, the light
hits an array of light-sensitive
cells. These cells give off an elec
tric charge based on how much
light they are absorbing. The
camera turns that charge into a
number ranging from zero to 255.
These cells can't tell what color
light they're receiving though, so
your images would be in shades
of grey if something else isn't
done.
To get colors, the cells are bro
ken into groups of four. Each cell
in the group has a filter applied to
it, so it only receives red, blue, or
green light. The fourth cell is an
extra green cell. The human eye
is more sensitive to green light
than red or blue, so getting green
correct is more important. Also,
dealing with the cells in groups of
four is much more convenient for
the computer inside camera
because it's a power of two, and
computers work best in powers of
two.
At this point, light has hit our
array of cells and been filtered
myself since I just said they sound unique, but the main reason
their sound is so rare is because they are incomparable to any
other modern bands in today's music market. On top of that, a
couple of the songs just needed a little more kick, and that
brought the album down a bit.
You shouldn't be discouraged if you're considering purchas
ing the album because their previous album, Dear Catastrophe
Waitress, should be your Belle and Sebastian album of choice.
Something about the tracks on that album will make you want to
listen to the entire CD.
As for The Life Pursuit, the tracks "For the Price of Tea" and
"White Collar Boy" epitomize the sound of Belle and Sebastian.
They have a strong, universal sound to them that most people
could enjoy, a sound like nothing you've heard in years. Then
there are some tracks that just don't do it for me. The songs are
too boring, and by that I mean there isn't enough creativity, and
I feel there was room for improvement.
But for someone that doesn't get the chance to listen to music
that isn't played on the radio, I recommend you check them out
just to hear something different. Expand your musical taste to
include the unique elements that Belle and Sebastian has to
offer. Whether you like the nostalgia of the 60s or are looking
for something to break away from the monotony of today's
music, I suggest giving this group a chance.
smm4Bo@psu.edu.
YOUR LIFE DOESN'T BEGIN
FIVE POUNDS FROM NOW!
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"Into.
"Mawr leak. spooks, women
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and, skirt toning the skin. nere, in.
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The Behrend Beacon I
into red, green, and blue. When
you press the button to take a pic
ture, the 0-255 number is read off
of each of these cells and stored
in internal memory. This memory
is not the same as the Flash card;
it's much faster, like RAM on
your computer is faster than your
hard disk.
Here comes the part where
camera manufacturers lie to you:
you need the data from all three
colors to make a single color
pixel. But digital cameras which
claim to have 5 million pixels
really have 5 million cells.
Software in the camera makes a
guess at what the value of each
pixel is based on the amount of
light in each color cell and the
amount of color in all the sur
rounding cells. So it's a bit of a
"fudge" to get better resolution.
Once the camera's computer
has figured out what all the pix
els' colors are, it converts the data
into a JPEG image and writes the
JPEG to the removable memory
(usually a Flash drive).
A good camera may have a
gigabyte of internal memory. The
processor has to be fast too. It
makes several million calcula
tions to write a single photo and
has to focus the lens and display
to the LCD and make various
other internal adjustments. In
essence, a digital camera is a very
specialized computer small
enough to hold in your hand.
Good digital cameras are more
powerful than the computers you
use in the Penn State labs!
Do you have a computer ques
tion? Then ask ASCII! Send an e
mail to ASCII @psu.edu with
"Ask ASCII" in the subject line,
and you may see your question
answered in next week's column.
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