pinion MY VOICE As the second week of classes draws to a close, you may have finally been able to meet up with old friends and catch up. However, there are the few who have had to start over. Whether you’re a transfer student, a freshmen, or are just with a new roommate, you may be in the awkward position of not really knowing anybody. Though this is no life-threat ening handicap, it can make college a hell of a lot less enjoy able. However, if you’re shy or insecure, this process can be as difficult as integrating a partial fraction while sitting in the Perry Hall lobby on “thirsty Thursday” while a gaggle of plastered freshman sit four feet away, screaming about how shwasted they are. Now, don’t go arranging to move back home just yet because there is hope. Below are five sure-fire You® YO'.'Wlf " HOT YOUNG SEXAGENARIAN READS EVENING NEWS TO OLD PEOPLE v More From Dtane Sawyer [Deploy: •i N § Share % Favorrte Rat* ***** i I'l V A i ikk < 'MSI R\ I K MY VOICE Parking passes break the bank BRANDON BOYD I'd like to take a moment to do some complaining in my first column for the Behrend Beacon. I transferred to Penn State Erie from University Park, after only a few days there. I’m a freshman here on campus, and I was recently be stowed a great honor from the Police Services here on cam pus. I got a parking ticket. I get that I parked in Parking Lot “A,” near the Reed Union Building. I get that I wasn’t al lowed to park in that lot. That’s cool by me. Having to pay $l5 because I parked there for one day? Not cool. Adding that $l5 onto the $l5O that I’m already paying for parking this semes ter is like a punch to the groin. Under the “Frequently Asked OVR VOICE Market yourself; it's the only way out The same spiel can be a tired one: sell yourself. Our parents tell us. Our professors plea for us. Anyone who’s taken an in ternship hears the same thing. How are you going to secure your future? Is your resume going to be enough? Are you prepared to, for lack of a proper vernacular, whore yourself dur ing your interview? We’re aware, as a staff, that our future employers are al ways looking to see who’s ahead of the game. What ten tative employee will bring the most to the table, so to speak? First of all, students need to be ahead of their peers. The staff of the Beacon recognizes that. We involve ourselves with extracurriculars. Not only that, but we put ourselves into posi tions of authority or guidance, Lets meet new people ways to make some friends 1. Talk. It seems rather straight forward, but nothing is going to delay you in your quest to find friendship like being too shy to talk. Sometimes you can’t think of the right thing to say, or you want to be funny right off the bat. Honestly, you are just better off offering them a handshake and asking them for their name. Some times the simplest solution is the 2. Be positive! Never ever, ever, ever be negative when you are first meeting somebody, even if you are trying to be funny. It may work, but it’s not worth the risk. Just smile, Wane Sawyer Add to Playlists Flag Questions” section of Penn State Erie’s Police Services website, it asks “How are park ing permits used at Penn State Behrend?” The answer? “The money generated from selling student, faculty, and staff park ing permits is used to construct new parking lots, maintain ex isting lots, and administer the parking program.” Is that a joke? si,ill writer At almost $3OO a year, and oh, 2,000 people or so (to be safe) buying permits, they would have enough for 150 parking lots, according to Northwestern’s website, which says that parking lots cost about $4,000. Now, I realize that building parking lots and keeping them maintained isn’t cheap. There shouldn’t be free parking by any means. However, unless Majority opinion of the Behrend Beacon editorial board as leaders, we can only improve our chances on the market. When you view yourself as a product which businesses and employers shop around for, you realize that you need to adver tise yourself. Again, sell your self. Stay ahead of the curve. That’s a must! Keep with the times; when technology takes a step forward, we - you take two. Manage your Facebook page so that when, not if, your prospective employer looks for you, he or she is looking at a person they’re going to want to hire. We’ll tell you who they won’t hire. You know that one profile picture you have, yeah, the one with your eyes looking in two different directions and the fifth in your hand? Yeah, laugh, nod and be happy. Even if you have to fake it, be happy! 3. Ask questions. People like to feel appreciated and unique. Nothing achieves this goal more then asking questions about thierlife. However, asking the right questions is like an art form. Avoid questions that yield one word answers, but don’t get too in trusive. It’s really creepy. You may want to know the life story of the NEIL JAMES Opinion Editor cute girl who sits next to you in math class, but now is not the time to ask. Just play it safe at first. Ask about their major or what the do in their free time. Those never go wrong. 4. Be cool. Contrary to pop- Channels Videos •/lews 15,202,876 our parking lots are enriched with gold flakes, we shouldn’t have to pay nearly $3OO per year. (As a quick note: Ohio State charges their students $BO per year.) If you want me to pay $3OO a year, I expect girls in bikinis washing my car every day and perhaps a pizza thrown in as well. Heck, I want access to parking on top of the roof of the Kochel Center. To be serious though, an actual change could be made in that the closer you want to park to the Reed Union Building, the more you pay. You want to park right next to it? You pay, say, that $3OO per year. You want to park a mile away? Pay $5O. Don’t charge the same amount to everybody. It’s sim ply not fair. Fittingly, it seems like noth ing in college is fair. When you they’re not hiring that. Keep a blog. This is almost a must nowadays, as employers are looking to see how involved with the world their prospective employee is. No, we’re not talking about the personal blog a lot of you already keep. Not the one that references your weekend parties, or how your girl or boy broke up with you. Employers don’t care about that. They want attentive hirees. While you’re at it, maintain a twitter. Gather followers. Is twitter the most amazing thing in the world? Absolutely not. Are businesses and the rest of the corporat world taking note of this massive media phenom enon? Heck yes they are, and they’re going to love that you took it upon yourself to follow Siipi I Ip Community [vdcj-: 3 Swrcfr 1 V Good Evening America K>..l' From: MuSttwycr '• aai ' 43B At usu Mf**- 07:00 From: MsSaw/ar v Related Videos Old Man Watches Network ~ News Broadcast 29:69 From W>c;(ininn V*w» 25 345 W ■ms Qrandpa.Times In To il Katie Couric - J M*- '1 21:20 From AHeV'Aa : 137.096. MS Granny Likes The! Smart Brian Williams Boy 28 45 From AHeyw.irrlNtlv Views 99,323.5/2 Networking News ■ rfl 4:15 From BFF«*i<}f.i4H VOW* 3 r,864,39C -eTr> r ular belief, being “cool” is NOT analogous to being popular. Being “cool" is simply being clam. Relax when meeting new people. If you act too extreme, you may scare them away. You don’t need to be badass, super happy, or different. Just be calm, relaxed, and collected. 5. Be yourself. Though it may be cliche and annoying to hear, it’s still very true. If you act as the person that you gen uinely are, then you will de velop a confidence that will attract people like magnets. If you don’t care what others think and do your own thing on your own terms then you will eventually command people's respect. Once you get their re spect, then friendship will soon follow. Just be you and do what you do. add the costs of tuition, hous ing, food, parking, etc., the amount is mind boggling. All of that money basically goes to wards knowledge, a piece of paper, and memories. Awe some. I don’t have anything against Penn State, in fact, I enjoy it here and I enjoyed my (very) short time at University Park. It’s just that I would love to see something done about the parking passes around here, at the least. I even had a teacher say they could com plain about the passes here all day. For those from the Police Services reading this, please don’t take away my parking pass. After all, I’m too lazy to walk, and the pass costs me a lot of money. Of course, you al ready know that, don’t you? the trends. We feel it’s unfortunate not enough students take their col lege education and spent money seriously. These are all things a student can do inde pendently. You don’t need pro fessors’ approval, nor do you need the go-ahead from your peers. This is upon your own volition. Does this seem like a lot? Did I lose you somewhere along the way? Then maybe you need to prioritize. Maybe it’s time you dedicate yourself to your future a little bit. Get in that state of mind. Prepare. Because as it stands, marketing yourself may be the best deci sion you ever make. Evan Koser for the Behrend Beacon editorial staff. IVIY VOICE Procrastination CARA DALLENBACH Picture this: you sit down to your desk and open Microsoft Word. You take a deep exhila rating breath, crack your knuckles, and begin typing out your name. You think to your self, “I’ve got this 25 page re search paper in the bag. There’s absolutely no stress here!” Your self-satisfaction is then followed by a fun-loving high five from your roommate, Jimmy, as he makes a swift b line to the door for some Hun gry Howie’s. Bringing yourself back to the paper, you type the date: 9/11/09. Your eyes can’t help but immediately glance down at your syllabus and you cringe as it reads: Due Date - 9/12/09. Calmly you think, “Not a big deal. A bit worrisome, but all in all, I’m fine here.” Then, to your inevitable dismay, you feel your hand slowly creeping towards the mouse. Your mind set is: “I can accept just this one friend request, there is no harm in one. One is fine.” You check to see if Jimmy is looking. He turns his head slowly in your direction and anxiously whispers, “Don’t you do it, not again.” You respond with, “What? I’m changing my font to Comic Sans. You know it’s my favorite." He nods his head in agreeance and exits the room. The next thing you know, it is 3 hours later. Jimmy is standing over you in shock as you lay under your desk shiver ing in a helpless and vulnerable fetal position. What happened? You’ve procrastinated. You have replaced all of your responsibilities with silly tasks for three hours and where has it gotten you? All you have to show is a heading, 9 accepted friend requests, a pyramid made out of ramen noodles, an unnecessary rearrangement of the dorm beds, and a guilty and confused conscience. Jimmy calls the RA, shakes his head at you, lobks away in dishearten ment, and utters “It’s bad. He stacked the ramen noodles again.” You are probably asking why I am reaching out to the Behrend community with this overly exaggerated scenario of procrastination at its worst. I’ll admit that it may have been extreme, but this is an extreme problem we are dealt with. To those of you who are free of the traps of procrastination, I commend you. Hopefully this article, if anything, will enter tain you. But for those of you who are struggling with this The Behrend Beacon Penn State Erie. The Behrend College Reed Union Building 4701 College Drive, Erie PA 16563 Room 10H Telephone: (814)898-6488 Fax: (814)898-6019 Editor-In-Chief: Connor Sattely editor@psu.edu Managing Editor: Christine Newby censos6@psu.edu Web Editor: Marcus Yeagley mjysol2@psu.edu News Editors: Mike O. Wehrer mrwso94 @psu. edu Heather McGovern hamsoB4 @psu. edu Culture Editor: Evan Koser emksllo@psu.edu Opinion Editor: Neil James opinion@psu.edu Sports Editors: Nick Blake npbso4l@psu.edu Shawn Annarelli smaslB9@psu edu Business Editors: Harmilee Cousin 111 hxcso2o@psu.edu Garrett Carson gmcso2l @psu.edu Editorial Pi Single copies of the Beacon are free and available at newssiands around campus. Additional copies can be purchased with permission of the editor in chief for $.50 each. Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the students, faculty or University administration. Opinions expressed in columns, cartoons, and letters are not necessarily those of The Behrend Beacon unless otherwise indicated. Any letters intended for publication must be addressed to the editor, be no more than 250 words, and include the writer's name and phone number. Letters may he edited for content or length at the editor in chief's discretion. The Behrend Beacon does not publish anonymous letters to the editor. If students want their letters to be published, they must include their name. The Behrend Beacon intends for its Opinion page to be a forum for discussion, not a screen to hide behind. Occasionally, The Behrend Beacon may request responses to online queries in which responders will be identified by their username. The Behrend Beacon is editorially independeni from the Penn State system. The Behrend Beacon operates partially on Student Activity Fee. and partially on advertising revenue. It is published every Friday during the school year except for before and during scheduled vaca tions, with exceptions for special issues. The editor-in-chief has the final authority on editorial decisions, including, but not limited to. alt columns, editorials, and letters to the editor. Complaints regarding Beacon coverage of school events should be directed to the editor at editor a psu.edu. Behrend Beacon I f" September 11, 2009 www.thebehrendbeacon.com I hardship, lend me your ears (actually eyes) and I will try to lead you down the path of or ganization and time-manage ment! Sounds super fun, right?! No, not at all. This is the main problem I notice when it comes to finding motivation to do work. Homework is not univer sally a “fun" thing to delve into. stall wntf'i When I asked for advice on how to end my procrastinating, most responses I received would have been as follows: “Oh that’s easy. Just organize your time and manage your life while simultaneously prioritiz ing your goals and saving the world!” “Great, thanks I’ll do just that. Right after I pass out from how exhausting and un appealing that sounds.” So what do we as procrastinators do? Well we’re going to take the road less traveled on the sub ject and address things that most people don’t think of when procrastination comes to mind. First, don’t call it procrasti nating, rather call it something else, time not well spent. The trick is to look at things in a positive light. Entertain the idea of homework as something positive. I know that sounds farfetched but the fact is, and will always remain, that work is, for the lack of a better word, grueling. Therefore, realize that any work completed has its benefits. Whether it’s gaining better skill in something like reading or just getting satisfac tion out of completing some thing. Whether it seems it or not, those small aspects are benefiting you. The other tactic is to find a way to stimulate your wander ing and curious mind. Get away from anything scholarly-like and exert yourself physically. Go for a run, work out, walk around campus, or join a club sport. Just be ambitious and try new things. I promise you, if you better yourself physically, you will want to better yourself mentally as well. Try it,T ttere you. Just remember we no longer get a sticker of a bumblebee on our homework when we do a good job, so we have to make our own “mental stickers.” Think positively and be excited about becoming smarter. If mental stickers don’t work for you because you’re a visual person, then just go ahead and give yourself a thumbs up in the mirror, hold it there for 5 to 10 seconds, and repeat what the wise Dane Cook once said, “I did my best!” e Board Edit iicies Business Manager Bethany Long bjiso37@psu.edu Faculty Advisor: Kim Young kjylo@psu.edu Engineering Editors: Sid Carson socso77@psu.edu Science Editor: Brian Carlson bmcso62@psu. edu Humanities Editor: Adam Spinelli alsssB9@psu.edu Photo Editor: Daniel J. Smith djss223@psu. edu Photographers: Jon Klein /ekso34@psu. edu Mike Fultz mj!5204 @psu. edu Sarah Baker sjbs273@psu.edu
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers