Now, I usually try to use my assigned blog posts to talk about something important to me and things that should be important to more people than just me, like my other post today about the Voices of Chronic Pain survey (some really interesting results, check it out!). However, there is this one thing that has been driving me insane and I figured this might be a good forum for airing that one. Human noises: those noises that we make when chewing, eating, drinking, coughing, and all of that stuff. How has it become so hard to keep these noises to ourselves??
I was in a class last week and for the entire class, the guy who sits next to me was clearing his throat. Never an actual cough, just clearing his throat every 3 to 7 seconds for the entire length of the class (thankfully, it was only an hour long because if it was any longer, I think I would have serious issues not losing my frikin’ mind!). He’d clear his throat, then take a sip of the coke he had with him, then a few seconds would go by, and he’d do it all over again. By about 15 minutes into the hour-long class, he was out of soda, but didn’t stop clearing his throat. I couldn’t concentrate in the slightest on what the professor was talking about, which is problematic because he was talking about this huge major project we have due soon. I had to fill in my blanks by comparing my notes with some people I’ve made friends with in my class (this is one of those times I am glad I tend to be a really friendly person!). It was completely driving me insane! I just wanted to scream at him, “Can’t you just go outside and have a good coughing fit like a normal person?!?” I’m terrified about class tomorrow. I really hope that he doesn’t have bronchitis! If it were me, I would have gotten up and gone out into the hallway and cough until the need to stopped. If I had bronchitis, which I get with some frequency (2 times since January), I’d break out my emergency cough drops, make sure I had something to drink that would last me the entire class, and deal with it. I won’t even blow my nose in the classroom because I don’t want to irritate or distract someone else in my classroom.
The second person who got to me with the bodily noises was in my next class last Thursday (2 people, in 2 classes, back to back – yeah, my tolerance levels were toast by that class). Thankfully, our class had moved out of the tiny conference room in the communications department offices where two people had to stand each class because there was no room for them and no room to even put chairs if we could find them. So we finally got a classroom, but everyone hadn’t heard yet, so there were people trickling into the room we were moved to after we had already started class. So, the last person came in and sat next to me. No big deal. I don’t mind strange people sitting next to me. It’s always a possibility of making a new acquaintance. However, when she sat down, I heard it. She pulled out some Trident gum (I chew the same on the rare occasion I feel the need, but never in front of everyone for this exact reason!) and proceeded to pop two pieces into her mouth. I immediately went, “Oh good God NO! Not again!!” My instincts were correct. She put the image of Elsie the cow into my head, but not because of the way she looked, because of the way she chews. The entire hour and a half of my class (It’s a 2 hour 45 minute class, so thankfully we only had the room until 4pm), she was sitting next to me, smacking her lips and the gum the entire class. She didn’t stop at any point! Just kept smacking and chewing, smacking and chewing, and popping, and smacking and chewing. I was starting to twitch by the time we got out of there.
I refuse to eat in my classes, simply because I don’t want to disturb the people next to me. If I must eat something, I grab something small and something that doesn’t cause the loud chewing noises some things like crackers and cookies do. I’ll grab a hot pretzel from the student center and eat just enough where my medication isn’t going to make me feel like I’m going to be sick or is too overpowering for me to concentrate in class. Also, I won’t chew gum in class, or pretty much anywhere. If I feel the need to freshen my breath before going to class, or the dentist, or hypothetically on a date, I will chew a piece or two for a few minutes, and then take it out before I get to a place where I might annoy someone else. My father told me once when I was a kid that I chew like a cow when chewing gum and to knock it off. So I don’t chew gum around people anymore to avoid either grossing someone out or irritating them like other do me. If I have to cough badly and it’s not a small cough I can get away with in the classroom, I will get up and leave the room so that I don’t interrupt the class. If I have a runny nose, I will go out of the classroom and blow my nose so that I don’t spend the entire class sniffling and bother a neighboring student.
I don’t know why it seems like I am the only person who has that kind of consideration for others in my classes. Maybe because I am older than pretty much 99.9% of my classmates, or maybe because I just have a higher sensitivity level about it than others and won’t do something that I know would annoy the crud out of me in front of other people.
I just don’t think it is too much to ask that people be respectful to others. I don’t know why people can’t keep those noises to themselves. Please, for the sake of your neighbors, think about it! If you can hear yourself chewing, don’t chew gum or eat in class. Make the time beforehand or take the time after class. If you know you’re going to be coughing, bring some cough drops, or something to drink that will last the entire class. Have the courtesy of getting up and leaving the classroom if you’re having a coughing fit so that others in the class don’t have problems hearing the professor. I missed every 4th or 5th word from my professor last Thursday because the guy next to me was coughing. Please, have some consideration. Give your neighbors a break! Spread the word! Let’s start a campaign! No more human bodily noises in class! Let’s have a strike! Yes, I’m being funny. Seriously, just have some consideration. If it would drive you nuts if someone else does it near you, then it will probably annoy the crud out of someone else when you do it.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Voices of Chronic Pain
A national study was recently performed by the American Pain Foundation and was sponsored by Endo Pharmaceuticals to see the ways that chronic pain affects the sufferer’s life. The results were published in May of 2006. I actually participated in the survey, and wasn’t very surprised at the results, but others in the public may be shocked to see the actual extent of the impact this disability has on our lives.
A little over half (51%) of the survey’s respondents said that they feel they have little or no control over their pain. Also, 96 percent said that controlling their breakthrough pain (pain that is above their constant pain levels; for me, this type of pain is caused by picking something up that I shouldn’t have, driving for an extended period of time, and everything that going to school entails, including the drive, sitting in classes, and moving between classes carrying weight on my back.) was important or very important to them, but the results show that this type of pain is too often under-treated by doctors so “the typical chronic pain patient using opioids to control their pain experiences breakthrough pain or severe flares about twice each day, or 14.53 times each week.”
More than three quarters of chronic pain patients said that they feel depressed, have trouble concentrating, and that their energy levels have been affected because of their pain. Depression is very common in chronic pain patients. I haven’t been off of an anti-depressant for more than about a year in the past four years. As soon as our pain increases or something else is taken away from us because of the pain, our depression inevitably spikes. Someone once told me that all chronic pain patients have to grieve over the loss of their lives because their lives are gone. Our lives are nothing like they were before this happened to us and we have to realize that we will never be that person again. It’s hard to say the very least. Our lives now begin as soon as the pain started because we changed so utterly that there’s not a single piece of our lives that hasn’t been affected by the pain. It’s hard to work through, but if a chronic pain patient doesn’t, they will never be able to move on to dealing with the pain instead of wallowing in it.
Some people have questioned the validity and applicability of the results because a pharmaceutical company sponsored the study. They say that the only reason they were willing to finance the study was because they could use the results in future marketing campaigns and commercials to specifically target chronic pain sufferers. However, I disagree. I think that the results of the study show, without question, that chronic pain negatively impacts almost every facet of our lives. These results can be used to promote better understanding about what this disability really is about. Many people underestimate exactly how hard this life is, or refuse to believe that anyone could really survive a life like this without going insane, or being completely dependent on others, or even kill themselves because of the constant, unending pain.
My biggest hope with these results is that they can help lead to more research that looks at ways to help us deal with the pain more effectively and even lead to the development of new and better pain medications that will treat the pain and help reduce the amount of suffering we have to go through because of our disability.
Voices of Chronic Pain Survey Results
A little over half (51%) of the survey’s respondents said that they feel they have little or no control over their pain. Also, 96 percent said that controlling their breakthrough pain (pain that is above their constant pain levels; for me, this type of pain is caused by picking something up that I shouldn’t have, driving for an extended period of time, and everything that going to school entails, including the drive, sitting in classes, and moving between classes carrying weight on my back.) was important or very important to them, but the results show that this type of pain is too often under-treated by doctors so “the typical chronic pain patient using opioids to control their pain experiences breakthrough pain or severe flares about twice each day, or 14.53 times each week.”
More than three quarters of chronic pain patients said that they feel depressed, have trouble concentrating, and that their energy levels have been affected because of their pain. Depression is very common in chronic pain patients. I haven’t been off of an anti-depressant for more than about a year in the past four years. As soon as our pain increases or something else is taken away from us because of the pain, our depression inevitably spikes. Someone once told me that all chronic pain patients have to grieve over the loss of their lives because their lives are gone. Our lives are nothing like they were before this happened to us and we have to realize that we will never be that person again. It’s hard to say the very least. Our lives now begin as soon as the pain started because we changed so utterly that there’s not a single piece of our lives that hasn’t been affected by the pain. It’s hard to work through, but if a chronic pain patient doesn’t, they will never be able to move on to dealing with the pain instead of wallowing in it.
Some people have questioned the validity and applicability of the results because a pharmaceutical company sponsored the study. They say that the only reason they were willing to finance the study was because they could use the results in future marketing campaigns and commercials to specifically target chronic pain sufferers. However, I disagree. I think that the results of the study show, without question, that chronic pain negatively impacts almost every facet of our lives. These results can be used to promote better understanding about what this disability really is about. Many people underestimate exactly how hard this life is, or refuse to believe that anyone could really survive a life like this without going insane, or being completely dependent on others, or even kill themselves because of the constant, unending pain.
My biggest hope with these results is that they can help lead to more research that looks at ways to help us deal with the pain more effectively and even lead to the development of new and better pain medications that will treat the pain and help reduce the amount of suffering we have to go through because of our disability.
Voices of Chronic Pain Survey Results
The Effect of the Internet on Newspapers
The internet has revolutionized the way the public gets their news. A person can go online for the most up-to-date stories and then can see a video about the story, can read blogs by other people to help them decide how they feel about the issue, and then can post their opinions and insights on a message board, all on a news site and all in one place. The internet has and will have its effect on all sorts of media outlets, but especially newspapers. Newspapers do not have the immediacy of the internet because between the time the newspaper is printed and the time it reaches the public, the news is old and the public has already moved onto newer stories. The newspapers must evolve, and start using the internet as a tool to reach and keep readers. If the newspapers refuse to see the internet as a tool, they will lose advertisers and go out of business. However, some people believe that journalists will always have a place on the internet, no matter how popular “public journalism” becomes, because the public will always have a need for good news writing.
“Clark Gilbert, a business professor at the Harvard Business School, said success on the Internet means seeing ourselves as doing a different job than the one newspapers have traditionally done (“Keys to the Future: News as Watchdog, as Trusted Agent, as Useful Tool”).” In order for newspapers to survive, they must start using all of the new mediums the internet makes available. For example, newspapers must use their website as an accompaniment to the paper version of their newspaper. They could publish a story on the front page and then direct the reader to their website for more content. That content could include a photo gallery of pictures or a video that relates to the story, or a list of other stories that give the reader a different perspective or other stories that have to do with the issue covered in the article that was in the newspaper. Also, by using the internet, the newspaper could post stories around the clock, allowing them to compete with other news sites.
Internet users today are looking for a customizable news experience. They want to be able to shape their interaction with the news and filter out the stories they don’t feel will have anything to do with their lives. A newspaper must give readers the ability to change their news experience via their websites in order to survive the growth of the internet. “‘It's about making news more of a one-to-one product,’ said Howard Finberg, The Poynter Institute's director of interactive learning. ‘We need to figure out how to produce what a single consumer needs to survive in a complex world (“Keys to the Future: News as Watchdog, as Trusted Agent”).’”
The internet has introduced the public to the idea that they can not only control their news experience, but also write their own news. Citizen journalism and blogging has started to draw people away from the formal news sources, including newspapers. Newspapers must start accepting these new forms of journalism in order to survive. “Howard Weaver, vice president for news at McClatchy, said much the same thing: ‘It's not just professional news or citizen journalism; sometimes it's professional news AND citizen journalism. You can use some professional standards with citizen input’ to produce a whole new kind of news (“Keys to the Future: News as Watchdog, as Trusted Agent, as Useful Tool”).” Newspapers cannot have a reporter everywhere all the time, so sometimes, the ordinary citizen is the only person to see a major event. Those citizen journalists will then be able to write an article about what happened and then the newspapers will publish their story, provided the citizen journalist followed the newspaper’s guidelines.
The biggest effect the internet has had on newspapers is that they must learn to expand into other types of media and other sources for their stories. Their websites have to become both an accompaniment to their print publication and a site that can stand on its own for readers outside of their circulation area. Newspapers must be willing to change to survive. “Ideally, newspapers and the Internet complement each other, such as when a reader comes across something new and interesting in a newspaper, and then digs deeper on the subject using the Internet (“Read all about the newspapers’ future”).”
“'The new and troubling reality for newspapers is that even if they excel as purveyors of information to appreciative audiences, they still face tough business terrain. ‘They can try to be the destination where you go online and [can] be really successful with citizen journalism and blogs,’ says Lauren Rich Fine, a Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst who has covered the industry since the 1980s, But such innovations are ‘not going to pay a lot of bills’…Consumers are shifting decisively to online information, says Fine, especially the young (“Net to Newspapers: Drop Dead”).”
The biggest thing that will make a newspaper successful, whether it is printed or online, is good writing. The public will not trust anything written that doesn’t use basic grammar and spelling rules. “Newspapers hold an edge in terms of actual editing and intelligible writing compared with often incoherent ramblings spewed forth on too many blogs…Newspapers are not dead (“Read all about the newspaper’s future”).”
“Clark Gilbert, a business professor at the Harvard Business School, said success on the Internet means seeing ourselves as doing a different job than the one newspapers have traditionally done (“Keys to the Future: News as Watchdog, as Trusted Agent, as Useful Tool”).” In order for newspapers to survive, they must start using all of the new mediums the internet makes available. For example, newspapers must use their website as an accompaniment to the paper version of their newspaper. They could publish a story on the front page and then direct the reader to their website for more content. That content could include a photo gallery of pictures or a video that relates to the story, or a list of other stories that give the reader a different perspective or other stories that have to do with the issue covered in the article that was in the newspaper. Also, by using the internet, the newspaper could post stories around the clock, allowing them to compete with other news sites.
Internet users today are looking for a customizable news experience. They want to be able to shape their interaction with the news and filter out the stories they don’t feel will have anything to do with their lives. A newspaper must give readers the ability to change their news experience via their websites in order to survive the growth of the internet. “‘It's about making news more of a one-to-one product,’ said Howard Finberg, The Poynter Institute's director of interactive learning. ‘We need to figure out how to produce what a single consumer needs to survive in a complex world (“Keys to the Future: News as Watchdog, as Trusted Agent”).’”
The internet has introduced the public to the idea that they can not only control their news experience, but also write their own news. Citizen journalism and blogging has started to draw people away from the formal news sources, including newspapers. Newspapers must start accepting these new forms of journalism in order to survive. “Howard Weaver, vice president for news at McClatchy, said much the same thing: ‘It's not just professional news or citizen journalism; sometimes it's professional news AND citizen journalism. You can use some professional standards with citizen input’ to produce a whole new kind of news (“Keys to the Future: News as Watchdog, as Trusted Agent, as Useful Tool”).” Newspapers cannot have a reporter everywhere all the time, so sometimes, the ordinary citizen is the only person to see a major event. Those citizen journalists will then be able to write an article about what happened and then the newspapers will publish their story, provided the citizen journalist followed the newspaper’s guidelines.
The biggest effect the internet has had on newspapers is that they must learn to expand into other types of media and other sources for their stories. Their websites have to become both an accompaniment to their print publication and a site that can stand on its own for readers outside of their circulation area. Newspapers must be willing to change to survive. “Ideally, newspapers and the Internet complement each other, such as when a reader comes across something new and interesting in a newspaper, and then digs deeper on the subject using the Internet (“Read all about the newspapers’ future”).”
“'The new and troubling reality for newspapers is that even if they excel as purveyors of information to appreciative audiences, they still face tough business terrain. ‘They can try to be the destination where you go online and [can] be really successful with citizen journalism and blogs,’ says Lauren Rich Fine, a Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst who has covered the industry since the 1980s, But such innovations are ‘not going to pay a lot of bills’…Consumers are shifting decisively to online information, says Fine, especially the young (“Net to Newspapers: Drop Dead”).”
The biggest thing that will make a newspaper successful, whether it is printed or online, is good writing. The public will not trust anything written that doesn’t use basic grammar and spelling rules. “Newspapers hold an edge in terms of actual editing and intelligible writing compared with often incoherent ramblings spewed forth on too many blogs…Newspapers are not dead (“Read all about the newspaper’s future”).”
KUSports.com Site Review
From KUSports.com
1- Who owns and runs the site?
The site is owned and run by the Lawrence Journal-World and 6News, the newspaper and television station in Lawrence, Kansas. An interesting note: The 6News website and KUSports.com are copyrighted by both the newspaper and the television station, but the newspaper’s site is only copyrighted by the newspaper. It seems to me that the newspaper is a bigger, more popular media outlet in the area.
2- Who is the site aimed at?
The site is aimed at a lot of different populations. One of the biggest of the groups is current and prospective students, and even alumnae and members of the community who like to follow the school’s sports teams. Also, people from outside the area can follow their teams and even post on the available message boards. Anyone who missed a game that they wanted to see can go to the site and watch the game at a later time.
3- Identify and describe the coolest feature on the site.
I really like the feature that allows you to get messages sent to your cell phone to keep you updated about what is going on in a game if you can’t be there in person and can’t wait to find out what’s happening.
4- The pros of the site:
I think that one of the biggest pros of this site is the interactive features it offers. There are message boards where you can communicate with other people about the teams and current events. At the bottom of the page, there is a box on the left side of the page where the site posts a good comment posted on the message boards. Underneath the comment, the site gives two links to either reply to the post or go directly to the boards to read other comments.
Also at the bottom of the page, the site gives a daily poll. Today’s question asks, “Who had a better rant? Colorado coach Dan Hawkins' response to an anonymous letter from one of his players' parents or Mark Mangino's calling out of the BCS following KU's heartbreaking loss to Texas in 2004.”
Next to the poll, the site also gives the public a place to “Grade the ‘Hawks,” where people can go to grade a team’s recent performances and see what other people think. I think that’s a really neat feature that I’ve never seen anywhere else. It gives the public the ability to have their say about how they think their team is doing.
Another great feature is called “’Hawk’s Forecaster,” where the public can go and predict how the team will fare in their next game, “from who will win, to which KU freshman will score the most points.” If you get it right, you’ll get a free t-shirt, and something I think is more important to most of the people posting there, the bragging rights.
The site also lists all of the current stories that people are talking about, and stories from “around the Big 12 and college sports.” There’s a huge amount of multimedia stories listed on the site, and even podcasts with press conferences and ESPN shows that talk about KU sports. The site lists blogs and other columns that the public might find interesting.
One of the more interesting things I found on the site is the listing of all of the students that have ever been recruited for professional teams in both the NBA and the NFL, and current students that are being recruited. I think this is a big pro for the site because it does show what kind of players the school attracts for their teams.
5- Cons of the site:
If there is any con to the site, I think it is that there is so much information available on the site. When someone is looking for something specific, there is a lot of information that they have to pick through just to get to it.
Overall, the site is really great for fans of the KU sports teams because it is focused on them and on any ways that the site can help them keep up with their favorite college’s teams.
1- Who owns and runs the site?
The site is owned and run by the Lawrence Journal-World and 6News, the newspaper and television station in Lawrence, Kansas. An interesting note: The 6News website and KUSports.com are copyrighted by both the newspaper and the television station, but the newspaper’s site is only copyrighted by the newspaper. It seems to me that the newspaper is a bigger, more popular media outlet in the area.
2- Who is the site aimed at?
The site is aimed at a lot of different populations. One of the biggest of the groups is current and prospective students, and even alumnae and members of the community who like to follow the school’s sports teams. Also, people from outside the area can follow their teams and even post on the available message boards. Anyone who missed a game that they wanted to see can go to the site and watch the game at a later time.
3- Identify and describe the coolest feature on the site.
I really like the feature that allows you to get messages sent to your cell phone to keep you updated about what is going on in a game if you can’t be there in person and can’t wait to find out what’s happening.
4- The pros of the site:
I think that one of the biggest pros of this site is the interactive features it offers. There are message boards where you can communicate with other people about the teams and current events. At the bottom of the page, there is a box on the left side of the page where the site posts a good comment posted on the message boards. Underneath the comment, the site gives two links to either reply to the post or go directly to the boards to read other comments.
Also at the bottom of the page, the site gives a daily poll. Today’s question asks, “Who had a better rant? Colorado coach Dan Hawkins' response to an anonymous letter from one of his players' parents or Mark Mangino's calling out of the BCS following KU's heartbreaking loss to Texas in 2004.”
Next to the poll, the site also gives the public a place to “Grade the ‘Hawks,” where people can go to grade a team’s recent performances and see what other people think. I think that’s a really neat feature that I’ve never seen anywhere else. It gives the public the ability to have their say about how they think their team is doing.
Another great feature is called “’Hawk’s Forecaster,” where the public can go and predict how the team will fare in their next game, “from who will win, to which KU freshman will score the most points.” If you get it right, you’ll get a free t-shirt, and something I think is more important to most of the people posting there, the bragging rights.
The site also lists all of the current stories that people are talking about, and stories from “around the Big 12 and college sports.” There’s a huge amount of multimedia stories listed on the site, and even podcasts with press conferences and ESPN shows that talk about KU sports. The site lists blogs and other columns that the public might find interesting.
One of the more interesting things I found on the site is the listing of all of the students that have ever been recruited for professional teams in both the NBA and the NFL, and current students that are being recruited. I think this is a big pro for the site because it does show what kind of players the school attracts for their teams.
5- Cons of the site:
If there is any con to the site, I think it is that there is so much information available on the site. When someone is looking for something specific, there is a lot of information that they have to pick through just to get to it.
Overall, the site is really great for fans of the KU sports teams because it is focused on them and on any ways that the site can help them keep up with their favorite college’s teams.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Two Alums on Monmouth's New MAC
WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – Monmouth University received final approval from the Zoning Board of Adjustment for construction of the Multipurpose Activity Center on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2007.
The approved building plan for the proposed 152,400 square foot MAC includes seating for 4,122 people and a parking and traffic plan that joins the Monmouth University and West Long Branch police department that will be used when 3,000 or more spectators are expected at an event.
One of the biggest issues both current and past students of the university have with the new building is the parking situation. The plans call for a small parking lot to be built near the new facility for event parking. The university has not said if this parking lot will be available for regular use by commuter students.
Jaime Cannici, a Monmouth alumnus from the class of 2003, believes that the proposed center could have both positive and negative effects on the campus and university as a whole.
“If it is done right, I think it will be a very good thing for the school,” she said, “but if they mess up on the parking plan, it’s going to be a complete mess.”
Ross Maczack, a Monmouth alumnus from the class of 2004, agrees, but feels that there may be more negative effects on the campus community.
“I think that it might bring in more students for the sports teams that will use this new facility,” he said, “but that might not be a good thing. The campus is already strained by the current students, so adding any would make getting around campus impossible.”
The university plans to bring in approximately 12 capacity events each year, and will also allow the community to rent the space when not in use for university functions for free.
“It seems like they are trying to kiss up to the surrounding residents when they say they’ll happily give the space away to community groups,” Maczack said, “but I really think that the university won’t honor that. I’d be really surprised to see the school let someone else use it more than once a year.”
Both alumnae are worried about the impact the construction will have on the campus, and especially on the commuter parking lot, located near to the proposed building site.
“If the university thinks that the commuter students will be okay with having some of their few parking spots taken for the construction, they are sorely mistaken,” Cannici said. “The students don’t care that in a few years, they’ll have this cool new building. Parking takes precedent over anything on campus when you’re a commuter student.”
Others question the need for such a large building, and question why the school is retaining the old Boylen gymnasium.
“Monmouth is a small school in the middle of the Jersey shore. We’re not Rutgers, and we’re not Seaton Hall,” said Cannici. “I wish the administration would get it through their heads that, no matter what you build or what new degree you offer, we will always be a small school. This campus isn’t equipped to be anything else and I wish they’d understand that and stop trying to destroy our campus.”
The approved building plan for the proposed 152,400 square foot MAC includes seating for 4,122 people and a parking and traffic plan that joins the Monmouth University and West Long Branch police department that will be used when 3,000 or more spectators are expected at an event.
One of the biggest issues both current and past students of the university have with the new building is the parking situation. The plans call for a small parking lot to be built near the new facility for event parking. The university has not said if this parking lot will be available for regular use by commuter students.
Jaime Cannici, a Monmouth alumnus from the class of 2003, believes that the proposed center could have both positive and negative effects on the campus and university as a whole.
“If it is done right, I think it will be a very good thing for the school,” she said, “but if they mess up on the parking plan, it’s going to be a complete mess.”
Ross Maczack, a Monmouth alumnus from the class of 2004, agrees, but feels that there may be more negative effects on the campus community.
“I think that it might bring in more students for the sports teams that will use this new facility,” he said, “but that might not be a good thing. The campus is already strained by the current students, so adding any would make getting around campus impossible.”
The university plans to bring in approximately 12 capacity events each year, and will also allow the community to rent the space when not in use for university functions for free.
“It seems like they are trying to kiss up to the surrounding residents when they say they’ll happily give the space away to community groups,” Maczack said, “but I really think that the university won’t honor that. I’d be really surprised to see the school let someone else use it more than once a year.”
Both alumnae are worried about the impact the construction will have on the campus, and especially on the commuter parking lot, located near to the proposed building site.
“If the university thinks that the commuter students will be okay with having some of their few parking spots taken for the construction, they are sorely mistaken,” Cannici said. “The students don’t care that in a few years, they’ll have this cool new building. Parking takes precedent over anything on campus when you’re a commuter student.”
Others question the need for such a large building, and question why the school is retaining the old Boylen gymnasium.
“Monmouth is a small school in the middle of the Jersey shore. We’re not Rutgers, and we’re not Seaton Hall,” said Cannici. “I wish the administration would get it through their heads that, no matter what you build or what new degree you offer, we will always be a small school. This campus isn’t equipped to be anything else and I wish they’d understand that and stop trying to destroy our campus.”
Monday, February 19, 2007
Five sites that use the New Jersey state government page
1. Rutgers University Libraries: Career and Employment Resoures; New Jersey Jobs
Links to:
- “Workforce New Jersey Public Information Network” that gives, “resources for job seekers and employers.”
- “NJ Civil Service Jobs,” lists “current job vacancy announcements” at the state, county, and municipal levels
- “OneStop Career Centers” gives, “information about NJ state-sponsored career development centers”
- “NJ Department of Labor Reemployment Information,” “list of resources for finding a job when you are unemployed.”
Each of these links are greatly helpful for a student, just out of college, when they are searching a job. These links are all connected to New Jersey's job opportunity, so would be even more helpful for someone looking to stay somewhere close to home or even simply wanting to stay in the state. The links lead to different types of sites, so the user gets a diverse sampling of different jobs and different approaches to use when applying for a job.
2. Issues Management, LLC.
Links to:
- State of NJ home page
-The Governor’s home page
-NJ Legislature
They link to the site because their company is all about advocacy. They help their clients advocate for their position on an issue by focusing on any number of the following concentrations : legislative advocacy, environmental issues management, regulatory counseling, grass roots advocacy and coalition building, and crisis management. They work with these departments on a regular basis when advocating for their client or doing research into the current trends in order to be able to advocate well.
3. WashLaw: Legal Research on the Web
Links to:
-Administrative Code
-Court Decisions
-Legislation
-Statutes
This site, created by Washburn University School of Law, is a free research site where anyone can go on and look for anything that has to do with the law. It links to New Jersey so that residents of the state, and even other states, can access the information they are looking for quickly and easily, with all of the information and links on one page.
4. Youth Consultation Services
Links to:
-New Jersey Department of Education
-New Jersey Division of Human Services
-New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services
-New Jersey Division of Mental Health Services
-New Jersey Division of Office of Education
-State
All of the links connect to different sections of the state site that are related to helping at-risk youth find the resources that they need to help them succeed in life. “YCS is New Jersey's premier private non-profit provider of behavioral health and social services to strengthen and support children and families.”
5. Park Avenue Building and Roofing Supplies, LLC
Links to: state site only, but to help their customers find the building codes they need for all of their building projects. They also link to sites for New York’s building codes , so their customers, no matter if they are in New York or New Jersey, are able to get all of the information they need, and then can order what they need from the company, all from one single site.
Links to:
- “Workforce New Jersey Public Information Network” that gives, “resources for job seekers and employers.”
- “NJ Civil Service Jobs,” lists “current job vacancy announcements” at the state, county, and municipal levels
- “OneStop Career Centers” gives, “information about NJ state-sponsored career development centers”
- “NJ Department of Labor Reemployment Information,” “list of resources for finding a job when you are unemployed.”
Each of these links are greatly helpful for a student, just out of college, when they are searching a job. These links are all connected to New Jersey's job opportunity, so would be even more helpful for someone looking to stay somewhere close to home or even simply wanting to stay in the state. The links lead to different types of sites, so the user gets a diverse sampling of different jobs and different approaches to use when applying for a job.
2. Issues Management, LLC.
Links to:
- State of NJ home page
-The Governor’s home page
-NJ Legislature
They link to the site because their company is all about advocacy. They help their clients advocate for their position on an issue by focusing on any number of the following concentrations : legislative advocacy, environmental issues management, regulatory counseling, grass roots advocacy and coalition building, and crisis management. They work with these departments on a regular basis when advocating for their client or doing research into the current trends in order to be able to advocate well.
3. WashLaw: Legal Research on the Web
Links to:
-Administrative Code
-Court Decisions
-Legislation
-Statutes
This site, created by Washburn University School of Law, is a free research site where anyone can go on and look for anything that has to do with the law. It links to New Jersey so that residents of the state, and even other states, can access the information they are looking for quickly and easily, with all of the information and links on one page.
4. Youth Consultation Services
Links to:
-New Jersey Department of Education
-New Jersey Division of Human Services
-New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services
-New Jersey Division of Mental Health Services
-New Jersey Division of Office of Education
-State
All of the links connect to different sections of the state site that are related to helping at-risk youth find the resources that they need to help them succeed in life. “YCS is New Jersey's premier private non-profit provider of behavioral health and social services to strengthen and support children and families.”
5. Park Avenue Building and Roofing Supplies, LLC
Links to: state site only, but to help their customers find the building codes they need for all of their building projects. They also link to sites for New York’s building codes , so their customers, no matter if they are in New York or New Jersey, are able to get all of the information they need, and then can order what they need from the company, all from one single site.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Branding: When does it get to be too much?
I was at the New Jersey Devils versus New York Ranger game in January, held at Continental Airlines Arena (one of the first stadiums to have a company’s name slapped on it), when a penalty was called on the Rangers. Now, for all those that have grown up in New Jersey and know even the tiniest thing about hockey, you know that the Rangers and Devils have had a long-standing feud and that the games are always really entertaining and heated, and that’s to say nothing about what it is always like on the ice! So, there are bound to be penalties, especially in a tight game when winning means so much (the score was Devils 1, Rangers 0. Being a Devils fan, I was a very happy woman at the time!). One of the Rangers players was called for a simple hooking penalty, which is in my opinion the most common penalty called in all of the NHL, and he was sent off to the penalty box. Just as play resumed, the arena’s announcer came on and said, “Now it’s time for a PSE&G POWERPLAY!” I looked up, and saw that on all of the screens that surround the rink, PSE&G was splashed everywhere. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! They sold the rights to a power play! How is that possible? I know that the team isn’t desperate for money! And attendance hasn’t been that bad this season! I still can’t believe it. The team had sold the rights to a power play to New Jersey’s only power provider.
Plus, when the Devils move to Newark for the next season, (a bad move according to all of the fans I have spoken to about it, and almost all are saying that they won’t go to Newark. There’s not going to be any tailgating, which has become quite a ritual for many people, including my father, his friends, and I, especially during the playoff or even the Stanley Cup games. The last playoff game I went to was years ago, but I’ll never forget having this beautiful flank steak that my dad cooked, whole live lobster, filet mignon, all of the things you wouldn’t expect to see in a parking lot tailgate. It’s a part of the game for many people, and the only way to get ready for a game.) the 2007-2008 season, the stadium will not carry along its original name, “Continental Airlines Arena” where the Devils have played for decades. It will get a new name, “The Prudential Center.” Here’s a piece of the blurb I found on the Devils’ website:
“Devils & Prudential announce naming-rights deal Devils Arena Entertainment, LLC, an affiliate company of the New Jersey Devils hockey team, announced Monday that they have reached a 20-year naming-rights agreement with Prudential Financial, Inc., one of the world's leading financial services companies, for the Prudential Center in downtown Newark” (The Devils and Prudential)
I am sure that the Devils organization made a lot of money off of that deal, especially because it is for 20 years, and they could say that they’re using that money in order to get some better players into the Prudential Center. However, they are already pretty close to the salary cap the NHL now has, and they really don’t need new talent. The team is really strong right now, and they’re playing well together.
Now, New Jersey is talking about selling both the Garden State Parkway, which I drive each day and is in good condition, and the New Jersey Turnpike. Also, they will be selling what is currently the PNC Bank Arts Center, where Monmouth’s graduation ceremonies have been held for the past three years, after the ceremony four years ago was held during a monsoon and they were not able to move it indoors in time, so they went ahead with it. (There wasn’t a whole lot of pomp and circumstance since the honorary speakers said probably four words each, then the students went up, got their diploma, and left, completely soaked. The next year, it was moved to PNC.) The sale will supposedly “net $15 billion, slashing the state debt and boosting nearly depleted funds for state programs said Sen. Raymond J. Lesniak, D-Union, who announced plans to introduce legislation on the proposal Monday” (Gloucester County Times, Feb. 1, 2007, “Toll roads plan may add $15 billion,” by Trish G. Graber, ). If the roads are sold, the contract would be for a maximum of 75 years “and would permit annual toll hikes based on the consumer price index for cars and on the gross domestic product for commercial vehicles” ( “Toll roads plan may add $15 billion”). However, the state doesn’t seem to encourage or demand that the roads be improved under someone else’s ownership, so a company could buy the roads, take the toll profits, and watch the roads disintegrate. Also, the company would own the property alongside of the roadways, so they could feel free to develop that land and add shopping centers, malls, anything they want, no matter what effect these commercial areas would have on the roadway. Can you imagine traveling down the Pfizer Parkway and having to dodge people moving in and out of these shopping areas, especially with the speed limit set at 65mph?
The deal would keep the state police patrolling the roads, but it doesn’t say whether or not the private company could put their own police on the road in addition to the state troopers, with the authority to pull people over and charge them disproportionate rates for a simple, minor moving violation, like a failure to use turn signal or failure to stay to the right. Also, the people who work the tollbooths on both the Parkway and the Turnpike would have two years before they are kicked out into the cold. There is no telling what these private companies could do to the state’s major roadways if the idea of a sale goes through. The last news I read was that the state was already taking bids for the sale, which says to me that any debate being held is just a formality because the powers-that-be in the statehouse have decided that they are going to sell these roads, no matter what anyone says. The state’s only motivation is simply that it would pay down some of the estimated $50 billion dollar debt, and do it in a way that would remove the need for the state to examine its budget and spending to find ways that they are wasting money and adding to that huge debt. When our governor was running for election, he said that he’d be getting rid of the wasteful spending, but it seems that his only plan was to find ways around cutting the illegitimate spending. I think there are a lot of underhanded deals going on in the statehouse, and that the government is trying to find any way to look like they are going to decrease spending and try to lower the excessive property taxes and get rid of all of the double dipping and unjust spending (like spending millions of the department of transportation’s budget to install high-speed impact resistant guardrails on every state roadway, even where there are natural barriers, like trees that they have to clear cut in order to put these guard rails in, no matter the actual frequency of accidents where someone crosses the median on that specific road. They are putting them in throughout the entire length of the parkway, but there’s a ditch that prevents anyone from crossing over throughout the majority of the places where the roadways are close enough to have a possible problem. They still installed the guard rails, no matter what. Those millions could have been much better spent, even if it was just to find ways to cut the budget in places where it could be cut without affecting the state’s residents negatively, like the national budget’s proposed cuts to Medicare, which would leave thousands of chronically ill patients out in the cold. These quick fixes aren’t even really fixes. The people in power in the state will find another way to spend this money to line their own pockets, not to help any of us insignificant taxpayers.
There's just something so wrong with this need to sell anything possible to big companies to get the money, but without requiring that things would improve with their ownership. There needs to be a guarantee that this branding won't make our lives worse.
Plus, when the Devils move to Newark for the next season, (a bad move according to all of the fans I have spoken to about it, and almost all are saying that they won’t go to Newark. There’s not going to be any tailgating, which has become quite a ritual for many people, including my father, his friends, and I, especially during the playoff or even the Stanley Cup games. The last playoff game I went to was years ago, but I’ll never forget having this beautiful flank steak that my dad cooked, whole live lobster, filet mignon, all of the things you wouldn’t expect to see in a parking lot tailgate. It’s a part of the game for many people, and the only way to get ready for a game.) the 2007-2008 season, the stadium will not carry along its original name, “Continental Airlines Arena” where the Devils have played for decades. It will get a new name, “The Prudential Center.” Here’s a piece of the blurb I found on the Devils’ website:
“Devils & Prudential announce naming-rights deal Devils Arena Entertainment, LLC, an affiliate company of the New Jersey Devils hockey team, announced Monday that they have reached a 20-year naming-rights agreement with Prudential Financial, Inc., one of the world's leading financial services companies, for the Prudential Center in downtown Newark” (The Devils and Prudential)
I am sure that the Devils organization made a lot of money off of that deal, especially because it is for 20 years, and they could say that they’re using that money in order to get some better players into the Prudential Center. However, they are already pretty close to the salary cap the NHL now has, and they really don’t need new talent. The team is really strong right now, and they’re playing well together.
Now, New Jersey is talking about selling both the Garden State Parkway, which I drive each day and is in good condition, and the New Jersey Turnpike. Also, they will be selling what is currently the PNC Bank Arts Center, where Monmouth’s graduation ceremonies have been held for the past three years, after the ceremony four years ago was held during a monsoon and they were not able to move it indoors in time, so they went ahead with it. (There wasn’t a whole lot of pomp and circumstance since the honorary speakers said probably four words each, then the students went up, got their diploma, and left, completely soaked. The next year, it was moved to PNC.) The sale will supposedly “net $15 billion, slashing the state debt and boosting nearly depleted funds for state programs said Sen. Raymond J. Lesniak, D-Union, who announced plans to introduce legislation on the proposal Monday” (Gloucester County Times, Feb. 1, 2007, “Toll roads plan may add $15 billion,” by Trish G. Graber, ). If the roads are sold, the contract would be for a maximum of 75 years “and would permit annual toll hikes based on the consumer price index for cars and on the gross domestic product for commercial vehicles” ( “Toll roads plan may add $15 billion”). However, the state doesn’t seem to encourage or demand that the roads be improved under someone else’s ownership, so a company could buy the roads, take the toll profits, and watch the roads disintegrate. Also, the company would own the property alongside of the roadways, so they could feel free to develop that land and add shopping centers, malls, anything they want, no matter what effect these commercial areas would have on the roadway. Can you imagine traveling down the Pfizer Parkway and having to dodge people moving in and out of these shopping areas, especially with the speed limit set at 65mph?
The deal would keep the state police patrolling the roads, but it doesn’t say whether or not the private company could put their own police on the road in addition to the state troopers, with the authority to pull people over and charge them disproportionate rates for a simple, minor moving violation, like a failure to use turn signal or failure to stay to the right. Also, the people who work the tollbooths on both the Parkway and the Turnpike would have two years before they are kicked out into the cold. There is no telling what these private companies could do to the state’s major roadways if the idea of a sale goes through. The last news I read was that the state was already taking bids for the sale, which says to me that any debate being held is just a formality because the powers-that-be in the statehouse have decided that they are going to sell these roads, no matter what anyone says. The state’s only motivation is simply that it would pay down some of the estimated $50 billion dollar debt, and do it in a way that would remove the need for the state to examine its budget and spending to find ways that they are wasting money and adding to that huge debt. When our governor was running for election, he said that he’d be getting rid of the wasteful spending, but it seems that his only plan was to find ways around cutting the illegitimate spending. I think there are a lot of underhanded deals going on in the statehouse, and that the government is trying to find any way to look like they are going to decrease spending and try to lower the excessive property taxes and get rid of all of the double dipping and unjust spending (like spending millions of the department of transportation’s budget to install high-speed impact resistant guardrails on every state roadway, even where there are natural barriers, like trees that they have to clear cut in order to put these guard rails in, no matter the actual frequency of accidents where someone crosses the median on that specific road. They are putting them in throughout the entire length of the parkway, but there’s a ditch that prevents anyone from crossing over throughout the majority of the places where the roadways are close enough to have a possible problem. They still installed the guard rails, no matter what. Those millions could have been much better spent, even if it was just to find ways to cut the budget in places where it could be cut without affecting the state’s residents negatively, like the national budget’s proposed cuts to Medicare, which would leave thousands of chronically ill patients out in the cold. These quick fixes aren’t even really fixes. The people in power in the state will find another way to spend this money to line their own pockets, not to help any of us insignificant taxpayers.
There's just something so wrong with this need to sell anything possible to big companies to get the money, but without requiring that things would improve with their ownership. There needs to be a guarantee that this branding won't make our lives worse.
A Monmouth student who actually blogs!
The blog I found was by a former Monmouth student, Joe (his last name isn’t listed and none of my friends could remember). He graduated in May 2003 with a bachelors degree in English, and as he says, the school ruined the ceremony. From my recollection, that was the last time graduation was held at school and it was held during a rain storm that would have made a monsoon look like a drizzle. He was a member of the Sigma Pi fraternity at Monmouth, and still holds a position, province archon (what he says is like “a volunteer regional director”), with the fraternity.
Joe has a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Rutgers, and is planning on going back to get his doctorate when he gets rid of some of his debt. His “About Joe" page does a good job of laying out who he is, where he’s from (including that he moved from Manhattan to Morris County when he was 8), and even his grade point averages from when he graduated from high school, Monmouth, and Rutgers, all of which are pretty impressive. He also includes information about a web design company he started, Usable Web Solutions, LLC.
His most recent post,"New Friends for Usable Web Solutions, LLC" talks about some of the companies he’s worked with and how his company is doing. It seems like a public relations effort more than a blog post because it seems directed towards possible future clients. It says something like, “Look, here are the companies that I’ve worked with already and because you know them and you respect them, you know that I can be trusted to do whatever web design projects you need.”
The blog seems to have a duel purpose. On one side, there’s the business aspect. This could be a great public relations tool. If a prospective client calls him to set up an appointment to discuss their project but wants to see some of his work before they commit to anything, they could come to his blog to see one style of design, then use the hyperlinks to jump to sites that his company has designed for other clients. In my opinion, it is a good way to show off his ability to design a site for every purpose. One company may want a site that is meant for a young audience which is well represented by his blog’s site. Another may want something more professional, and through the links on his blog, the company can see the different types of professional sites that Joe has created for his other clients. It is a great way to both get his company’s name and its ability to create good sites for all types of clients out to the public.
Joe also appeals to another audience. He posts on topics that are directly related to the people who live around Monmouth. In a post submitted on Wednesday, February 14, 2007, titled “Bad Ice on the Roads in Monmouth” (), he follows up on an earlier post about what he called “Storm of the Century on the Way” . In his first post, he basically says that none of the weather people can decide what is going to happen, and that they can’t know. “There’s only one problem with all of this planning, though…absolutely nothing supports the claim that there’s going to be a bastard of a snow storm tomorrow!” He says at the end of the post that he thinks the snow they are predicting won’t happen and, “that we’ll all be at work tomorrow.” He was right; there wasn’t much snow, but no one was at work that day either because what was snow turned to a nice two inch coating of ice. It is beautiful to see on the trees, but it wasn’t conducive for travel. I am sure that the roads were a nightmare because the university’s president actually cancelled class. It was the first snow day in his entire career at Monmouth.
Another interesting thing that I found on Joe’s blog was in a box on the right side of the page, about halfway down. It says “categories” and includes: "Book, DVD & etc. reviews, Christmas and Wintertime, Entries, Gym Stories, Idiots, Morons, and Fools, Iraq & War on Terror, Jokes & Humor, Sigma Pi & Fraternity, Student Loans and Debt, The State of New Jersey, WWE, ECW, & TNA Entries ." The number of posts that have to do with each category is listed with the topic, and when you click on the link, you get a list of every post that has even the tiniest bit to do with the selected category. I think this is a great feature on his blog. It makes it very easy for someone to come onto his site, and find whatever you might want to read about in one click instead of having to pick through each entry. Under the category “Entries,” there are 529 entries, and it would take ages to get through all of them if they weren’t separated into categories.
I really like his site. I think it has a bit of everything to appeal to a diverse number of audiences including Monmouth students, especially those in the Sigma Pi fraternity, and any possibly business clients. This is the kind of site I would expect from a website designer. He understands that people want what they are looking for now, with as few clicks as possible. If I had a blog on my own site, I would want it to be like this one.
Joe has a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Rutgers, and is planning on going back to get his doctorate when he gets rid of some of his debt. His “About Joe" page does a good job of laying out who he is, where he’s from (including that he moved from Manhattan to Morris County when he was 8), and even his grade point averages from when he graduated from high school, Monmouth, and Rutgers, all of which are pretty impressive. He also includes information about a web design company he started, Usable Web Solutions, LLC.
His most recent post,"New Friends for Usable Web Solutions, LLC" talks about some of the companies he’s worked with and how his company is doing. It seems like a public relations effort more than a blog post because it seems directed towards possible future clients. It says something like, “Look, here are the companies that I’ve worked with already and because you know them and you respect them, you know that I can be trusted to do whatever web design projects you need.”
The blog seems to have a duel purpose. On one side, there’s the business aspect. This could be a great public relations tool. If a prospective client calls him to set up an appointment to discuss their project but wants to see some of his work before they commit to anything, they could come to his blog to see one style of design, then use the hyperlinks to jump to sites that his company has designed for other clients. In my opinion, it is a good way to show off his ability to design a site for every purpose. One company may want a site that is meant for a young audience which is well represented by his blog’s site. Another may want something more professional, and through the links on his blog, the company can see the different types of professional sites that Joe has created for his other clients. It is a great way to both get his company’s name and its ability to create good sites for all types of clients out to the public.
Joe also appeals to another audience. He posts on topics that are directly related to the people who live around Monmouth. In a post submitted on Wednesday, February 14, 2007, titled “Bad Ice on the Roads in Monmouth” (), he follows up on an earlier post about what he called “Storm of the Century on the Way” . In his first post, he basically says that none of the weather people can decide what is going to happen, and that they can’t know. “There’s only one problem with all of this planning, though…absolutely nothing supports the claim that there’s going to be a bastard of a snow storm tomorrow!” He says at the end of the post that he thinks the snow they are predicting won’t happen and, “that we’ll all be at work tomorrow.” He was right; there wasn’t much snow, but no one was at work that day either because what was snow turned to a nice two inch coating of ice. It is beautiful to see on the trees, but it wasn’t conducive for travel. I am sure that the roads were a nightmare because the university’s president actually cancelled class. It was the first snow day in his entire career at Monmouth.
Another interesting thing that I found on Joe’s blog was in a box on the right side of the page, about halfway down. It says “categories” and includes: "Book, DVD & etc. reviews, Christmas and Wintertime, Entries, Gym Stories, Idiots, Morons, and Fools, Iraq & War on Terror, Jokes & Humor, Sigma Pi & Fraternity, Student Loans and Debt, The State of New Jersey, WWE, ECW, & TNA Entries ." The number of posts that have to do with each category is listed with the topic, and when you click on the link, you get a list of every post that has even the tiniest bit to do with the selected category. I think this is a great feature on his blog. It makes it very easy for someone to come onto his site, and find whatever you might want to read about in one click instead of having to pick through each entry. Under the category “Entries,” there are 529 entries, and it would take ages to get through all of them if they weren’t separated into categories.
I really like his site. I think it has a bit of everything to appeal to a diverse number of audiences including Monmouth students, especially those in the Sigma Pi fraternity, and any possibly business clients. This is the kind of site I would expect from a website designer. He understands that people want what they are looking for now, with as few clicks as possible. If I had a blog on my own site, I would want it to be like this one.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Jobs: the one for now, and the one for later
I’m one of the few people who actually know exactly what she wants to do after I finally graduate from Monmouth. My future is, loosely, planned out. I know that I want to start off at a weekly newspaper, hopefully The Messenger-Gazette/The Reporter, located in Somerville, New Jersey, right near my house. I want to try and get my feet wet in an environment that isn’t too insane or hectic so that I can get the feeling for the pace and way things work at a newspaper before diving in, head first, at a daily newspaper. Then, I want to move up to a daily newspaper, but a small one, preferably the Courier-News, located in Bridgewater, the town I currently live in and where I have spent my entire life. From there, I’d like to move up to a bigger daily newspaper, like the Star-Ledger, one of my favorite newspapers. Beyond that, I’m not sure where I’ll end up. I know that I don’t want to go to the New York Times, Daily News, or New York Post, simply because each of those newspapers have a large negative reputation. I think that the Washington Post may be a newspaper I would like to work for because of their historic reputation for great stories that make significant changes in society. The most important thing is that I want to be at a newspaper where I am happy and feel like I am doing my best work and am in the best situation I could have ever asked for.
My dream job isn’t at any particular newspaper. My dream is what my writing does for the community it serves. I want to write stories that will change something, even if it is just someone’s opinion about a topic. There’s nothing better to me than writing a story and seeing the story have an effect on society. I wrote an editorial last spring about the lack of accessible handicapped parking for the communication building. There was a single handicap parking place in the student lot closest to the communication building. There are three parking spots in the small, faculty parking lot that is located right next to the building, but two of those spaces are continually taken by two faculty members who refuse to park in the actual faculty and staff parking lot, right next to this one, that has numerous handicap spots that are almost always empty. Or, they could also park in the spots directly next to the handicap spots, a place I can’t park, but refuse to move over. Monmouth was breaking the law, plain and simple. If you look at the faculty lot, which is actually somewhat smaller than the student lot across the street, but had four times the number of handicap parking spots, so why should the commuter lot have only one? That parking spot was perpetually taken by the same person, leaving two of us to fight over the single handicapped spot located right near the building. I asked a police officer if I could park next to the handicapped spots in the faculty lot nearest the building, and he told me that the police preferred I wouldn’t, simply because they were afraid other students would think they were allowed to park there, even if they don’t have a handicap pass like I do. I didn’t have a choice, so I parked there anyway, continually terrified I’d come out from class to see my car ticketed or even towed.
The article I wrote quoted the state’s policy on handicap accessibility which uses a ratio to determine how many handicapped parking spots a public place must provide for handicapped people. The commuter lot was short two parking spots, and was breaking the law. I had made this fact public, and could have taken the school to court for breaking the Americans with Disabilities Act, and would have a strong case.
The following semester, this past fall, when I returned to school, I was ecstatic to see that two new handicapped parking spots had been painted in the commuter lot. I know that this doesn’t make any of the commuter students, besides the handicapped ones, happy, but those spots were needed and are filled each day. However, they were placed on the far side of the parking lot, the farthest away from the communications building the spots could have been placed. There was no better feeling than knowing that I have helped at least two or more handicapped students get to class more easily. And that’s my dream job. There would be nothing more satisfying than being able to work for a newspaper where I have the ability to make changes in the community and help others through my writing, and that would be my dream job, no matter where that it or what it pays.
My dream job isn’t at any particular newspaper. My dream is what my writing does for the community it serves. I want to write stories that will change something, even if it is just someone’s opinion about a topic. There’s nothing better to me than writing a story and seeing the story have an effect on society. I wrote an editorial last spring about the lack of accessible handicapped parking for the communication building. There was a single handicap parking place in the student lot closest to the communication building. There are three parking spots in the small, faculty parking lot that is located right next to the building, but two of those spaces are continually taken by two faculty members who refuse to park in the actual faculty and staff parking lot, right next to this one, that has numerous handicap spots that are almost always empty. Or, they could also park in the spots directly next to the handicap spots, a place I can’t park, but refuse to move over. Monmouth was breaking the law, plain and simple. If you look at the faculty lot, which is actually somewhat smaller than the student lot across the street, but had four times the number of handicap parking spots, so why should the commuter lot have only one? That parking spot was perpetually taken by the same person, leaving two of us to fight over the single handicapped spot located right near the building. I asked a police officer if I could park next to the handicapped spots in the faculty lot nearest the building, and he told me that the police preferred I wouldn’t, simply because they were afraid other students would think they were allowed to park there, even if they don’t have a handicap pass like I do. I didn’t have a choice, so I parked there anyway, continually terrified I’d come out from class to see my car ticketed or even towed.
The article I wrote quoted the state’s policy on handicap accessibility which uses a ratio to determine how many handicapped parking spots a public place must provide for handicapped people. The commuter lot was short two parking spots, and was breaking the law. I had made this fact public, and could have taken the school to court for breaking the Americans with Disabilities Act, and would have a strong case.
The following semester, this past fall, when I returned to school, I was ecstatic to see that two new handicapped parking spots had been painted in the commuter lot. I know that this doesn’t make any of the commuter students, besides the handicapped ones, happy, but those spots were needed and are filled each day. However, they were placed on the far side of the parking lot, the farthest away from the communications building the spots could have been placed. There was no better feeling than knowing that I have helped at least two or more handicapped students get to class more easily. And that’s my dream job. There would be nothing more satisfying than being able to work for a newspaper where I have the ability to make changes in the community and help others through my writing, and that would be my dream job, no matter where that it or what it pays.
What would I like to know about Monmouth? Who is more important, the kids who might come to school here, or those who already do??
I think the biggest thing I would like to know about Monmouth is why more effort isn’t put into alleviating some of the major parking problems on campus. They have spent millions of dollars, of our tuition, to try to build a new dormitory behind the existing dormitories and the new Monmouth Activity Center near the gym, but have spent nothing to try and help those of us who already go to the school. There are many times that I feel like the school only concentrates on prospective students and ignores those of us who already go to the school. We pay tuition, which means we pay the president’s and most of the staff’s salaries, so why don’t we deserve some of the attention also?
I think that the MAC is a bad idea. They are adding a major facility supposedly to draw more “big name” schools to play against Monmouth’s basketball team, and to build a bigger fitness center, but nothing has been done to add more parking. The original gym will still stand, so no parking will be gained from that property. All of the planning the school has done for the MAC, but they have ignored a very significant fact: if no one can park at the MAC, no one will come to it. The surrounding residents are currently going against the application the university had to submit to the West Long Branch Zoning Board of Adjustment, and one of their main arguments is the fact that more people will be parking on the side roads, making the residents’ lives, understandably, more difficult. This concern could be simply addressed if the school made a plan for parking the increased traffic the new center would create.
Also, if both of the plans were to go through and be built (the dorm is being held up right now due to a lawsuit, filed by a group of residents who live around the area where the dorm is to be built, after the Board of Adjustment approved the project. The lawsuit has to prove that the Board acted against the township’s master plan and outside of the Board’s mandate to nullify the decision. It will take years to decide, and I think the same thing will happen with the MAC application, should it be approved, which I don’t think it will.), parking would become an even bigger problem because there would be increased interest in the school, and more people would apply and come here as commuters. The school doesn’t seem to put any limitations on the number of commuter students they admit, so as the interest increases, so will the number of people looking for the precious few parking spots there are now.
When President Gaffney took office a few years ago, he tried to “flatten the schedule,” or make more classes meet on Fridays, previously a day where no one had classes because everyone went out on Thursday nights. Part of his reason for this was that it would help improve parking because there would be less people on campus at some of the peak times. However, it has done nothing to alleviate the problem. What we need is a real solution, not just changes in the schedule and the addition of more features to draw more people to the school’s parking.
I think that a parking deck needs to be built. There is no more room to expand the parking lots, unless the school gives up on the MAC plans. The deck could be built on the current site of the lots located closest to the communications building and the current gym. It is on an interior location, so there wouldn’t be concerns about blocking a neighbor’s view or destroying their property values (another one of the reasons for blocking the recent proposed projects). It would be somewhat visible from the street, but it would not stand out like a sore thumb if done correctly. The construction could be started just after finals end in May and it should be completed by the time school starts again the following fall. The addition of a single new layer of parking may reduce some of the congestion issues on campus, and hopefully reduce the number of students who are obscenely late to or even miss classes simply because they can’t find a parking spot.
I think the administration needs to examine their plans for the future of Monmouth and see if the money that they are planning to use for these two projects might be better off used to alleviate some of the major problems on campus, the biggest of which is parking. Monmouth, by choice, is a commuter school that ignores its commuter students. I’ve been at this school for seven years, but I have yet to see any attempts, besides the addition of the small parking lot near the communications building (which was added simply because the building was built in a place not readily accessible by the main commuter lot) to try and alleviate the problems with parking. One of their solutions was to add valet parking and block off a large part of the lot to those who didn’t want to have their cars parked by the valets. However, this didn’t work, simply because there isn’t enough room for the amount of cars that need to be parked there. At the busiest times on campus, if a person manages to get the last spot, the furthest away from their building, they consider themselves lucky because there are dozens of people who aren’t going to be able to park. Many people have resorted to parking on nearby residential streets, but as soon as it starts to snow, they can’t park there anymore. Then, for this school year, the school gave away the commuter passes for free to anyone who chose to register, but didn’t turn anyone away. They don’t put a limit on the number of passes they give out each year. There hasn’t been a year where they have said, “we have this many spots on campus, so we can only give out this many parking passes.” I believe they have even given out nearly double the total number of parking spots on campus, without thinking that their actions may cause a problem.
I know that everyone always complains about the parking here at Monmouth. Everyone is always complaining, because it is the biggest problem that faces any student, but especially commuter students. Yet, the school’s administration can find the money to spend to build a new dorm, and even to build an activity center that would put even more pressure on the parking situation, but without giving any adequate proposal as to how to deal with that increase in the traffic the campus parking lots will suffer because of the new construction. The school needs to stop looking at ways to bring in more students, and start looking at ways they can help the students that are already attending the school. It’s not like we are asking for something that is impossible to fix. Through some simple controls, and through the diversion of funds to solving this issue instead of adding to it, the school could attract more students while making it a bit easier for the existing students to succeed. What I would like to know most about Monmouth is how they can ignore the needs of existing students, and how they can put the needs of students who aren't even at Monmouth yet in front of the needs of those who already pay to get a decent education and a parking spot.
I think that the MAC is a bad idea. They are adding a major facility supposedly to draw more “big name” schools to play against Monmouth’s basketball team, and to build a bigger fitness center, but nothing has been done to add more parking. The original gym will still stand, so no parking will be gained from that property. All of the planning the school has done for the MAC, but they have ignored a very significant fact: if no one can park at the MAC, no one will come to it. The surrounding residents are currently going against the application the university had to submit to the West Long Branch Zoning Board of Adjustment, and one of their main arguments is the fact that more people will be parking on the side roads, making the residents’ lives, understandably, more difficult. This concern could be simply addressed if the school made a plan for parking the increased traffic the new center would create.
Also, if both of the plans were to go through and be built (the dorm is being held up right now due to a lawsuit, filed by a group of residents who live around the area where the dorm is to be built, after the Board of Adjustment approved the project. The lawsuit has to prove that the Board acted against the township’s master plan and outside of the Board’s mandate to nullify the decision. It will take years to decide, and I think the same thing will happen with the MAC application, should it be approved, which I don’t think it will.), parking would become an even bigger problem because there would be increased interest in the school, and more people would apply and come here as commuters. The school doesn’t seem to put any limitations on the number of commuter students they admit, so as the interest increases, so will the number of people looking for the precious few parking spots there are now.
When President Gaffney took office a few years ago, he tried to “flatten the schedule,” or make more classes meet on Fridays, previously a day where no one had classes because everyone went out on Thursday nights. Part of his reason for this was that it would help improve parking because there would be less people on campus at some of the peak times. However, it has done nothing to alleviate the problem. What we need is a real solution, not just changes in the schedule and the addition of more features to draw more people to the school’s parking.
I think that a parking deck needs to be built. There is no more room to expand the parking lots, unless the school gives up on the MAC plans. The deck could be built on the current site of the lots located closest to the communications building and the current gym. It is on an interior location, so there wouldn’t be concerns about blocking a neighbor’s view or destroying their property values (another one of the reasons for blocking the recent proposed projects). It would be somewhat visible from the street, but it would not stand out like a sore thumb if done correctly. The construction could be started just after finals end in May and it should be completed by the time school starts again the following fall. The addition of a single new layer of parking may reduce some of the congestion issues on campus, and hopefully reduce the number of students who are obscenely late to or even miss classes simply because they can’t find a parking spot.
I think the administration needs to examine their plans for the future of Monmouth and see if the money that they are planning to use for these two projects might be better off used to alleviate some of the major problems on campus, the biggest of which is parking. Monmouth, by choice, is a commuter school that ignores its commuter students. I’ve been at this school for seven years, but I have yet to see any attempts, besides the addition of the small parking lot near the communications building (which was added simply because the building was built in a place not readily accessible by the main commuter lot) to try and alleviate the problems with parking. One of their solutions was to add valet parking and block off a large part of the lot to those who didn’t want to have their cars parked by the valets. However, this didn’t work, simply because there isn’t enough room for the amount of cars that need to be parked there. At the busiest times on campus, if a person manages to get the last spot, the furthest away from their building, they consider themselves lucky because there are dozens of people who aren’t going to be able to park. Many people have resorted to parking on nearby residential streets, but as soon as it starts to snow, they can’t park there anymore. Then, for this school year, the school gave away the commuter passes for free to anyone who chose to register, but didn’t turn anyone away. They don’t put a limit on the number of passes they give out each year. There hasn’t been a year where they have said, “we have this many spots on campus, so we can only give out this many parking passes.” I believe they have even given out nearly double the total number of parking spots on campus, without thinking that their actions may cause a problem.
I know that everyone always complains about the parking here at Monmouth. Everyone is always complaining, because it is the biggest problem that faces any student, but especially commuter students. Yet, the school’s administration can find the money to spend to build a new dorm, and even to build an activity center that would put even more pressure on the parking situation, but without giving any adequate proposal as to how to deal with that increase in the traffic the campus parking lots will suffer because of the new construction. The school needs to stop looking at ways to bring in more students, and start looking at ways they can help the students that are already attending the school. It’s not like we are asking for something that is impossible to fix. Through some simple controls, and through the diversion of funds to solving this issue instead of adding to it, the school could attract more students while making it a bit easier for the existing students to succeed. What I would like to know most about Monmouth is how they can ignore the needs of existing students, and how they can put the needs of students who aren't even at Monmouth yet in front of the needs of those who already pay to get a decent education and a parking spot.
Lawrence.com Commentary
Lawrence.com
1 – How does the site attempt to appeal to a college audience?
I think the site does everything they can to appeal to a college audience. It’s a one-stop-shop of sorts, a place where a college student, or even someone from the surrounding area who is of a similar age, can go to find out what’s going on in the local music scene, the bar scene, and the “best bets” or things that the site things would be a good thing to go to. I really like that they list the bar specials, maps of where they can find the bars in the area, coupons for music events, and a great calendar of upcoming events that can be searched both by the type of event and even by the venue where the event is being held. In partnership with the calendar, they have “Distant Early Warnings,” or upcoming events that might be of interest to those viewing the site. Another section of the site I like are the “Timewasters.” This section of the site is the perfect draw for college students. It has a section for “Party Pics,” Sudoku, crossword puzzles, comics, and a section called “E pluribus internets” that holds interesting websites submitted by other users. Also, the site includes job openings, rental apartments, and even car advertisements, all things college students need. At the bottom of the page is a link to local videos, or videos made by college students on random topics.
Down the right side of the page, towards the bottom, are reviews of new movies (this week’s was “Pan’s Labyrinth”) and video games (NCAA March Madness 2007 on Xbox 360), both of which are of interest to college students. (Especially the March Madness. Go to any male college student’s room and you will find either this game from previous years or the even more popular John Madden Football.) At the very bottom of the column, is a review of local music groups and shows.
The site includes shows from the college’s television station, including a show called “The Turnpike,” which seems to be a live music show. Also, this is a page for the school’s radio station; and both pages give the user the ability to access past shows, so that if they watch or listen to it every week, or however often the shows air, and happen to miss a show, or are in class at the time it airs, they are able to go to this site and catch up with it. Included on the “Audio” and “Music” sections on the site are User created playlists, where any user can upload their favorite playlist from usually an iPod for other people to download.
The features are hard to all list here without this post becoming miles and miles long (I’m trying to cut them down because I’m tired of hearing the “oh man, I got her’s again,” when we do the reviews in class.) but I think everything about this site is geared for college students. If I were a student at Kansas University, I would use this site, and the magazine it is linked to, for everything because it offers everything I need, especially for the weekends, all in one place. Instead of having to go to this bar’s website to see their deals for a Thursday night, and then go off to another’s site, and another, and so on, to see where I can go to drink cheapest with my friends, I can just go to Lawrence.com, and have it all in one place.
2 – If you went to this school, what makes this site appealing and why?
It’s everything I need to have a good social life and be able to do the things I love. If there’s a local band that I really like and want to see, all I have to do is open the page, go to the calendar, and search for them. Or I can just search the page to see if there are any reviews of an upcoming show. If I’m bored after getting my work done for the night and looking for something to waste some time until my roommates get back from their late-night classes, I can go to this site and find a crossword puzzle or some interesting websites. If I had a great time at a party this weekend and had some pictures taken, I can go online and post them for the world (and future employers) to see. Like I said in the first answer, it’s a one stop shop. I can find everything I want and need to have a good time while I’m at school. I wish that Monmouth had something even vaguely resembling this site.
3 – Describe the target audience from looking at the content. Who lives and goes to the school?
The target audience is people in their 20s (there’s a lot of bar content, so I wouldn’t open it up to people who are underage and unable to drink) who like to go out and see a band play, or who like to be able to find a place to go out and drink for as cheap as possible. It’s mainly for people from that area, but some of the content, like the movie and game reviews, can be useful to people from other areas. I’d say the main target audience, judging by the content, is the average college student who goes to Kansas University and likes to go out, see a good band and get a few drinks.
4 – Address the writing style. Is it good or bad?
I think the writing style is perfect for college students, with the usual short attention span. They want the information, and nothing else, from the content on this type of site. The important pieces of information should be plainly listed, with little fluff or filler. Just the basics, whatever someone needs to know, and nothing else. I think that’s exactly what the site needs to have. If the site went into long-winded descriptions of an upcoming event or concert, people wouldn’t bother reading it, so there’s no point spending the time to write it. This kind of site is where someone goes to get the information about what’s going on in the area, so that’s all the site needs. Just the facts, and the site, I think, understands that and writes to what the audience wants.
5 – Address the site’s use of media.
There’s media everywhere on this site. They have locally made videos, radio and television programs from the university, user-submitted pictures, band pictures, and even maps of local restaurants and bars. Under the “Music” tabs, they have music videos, mp3 downloads, and under the “Audio” tab, they also have audio interviews and podcasts. Under the “Video” tab, they have links to news videos from the school’s television station and “Q’time with Randy,” another program from the television station. The site uses all of the media they can to give the college students something to watch and do that will keep them on the site and also keep them coming back to see what new things are posted under each of the above categories. I think it is a great idea for the site to use that much media and I think they don’t just throw things on there to have media on the site. All of the media on the site is related to their content and to their target audience.
6 – Is there a community of users? How about interactivity?
The only things that link the community of users together is the link under “Timewasters” that links users to a page where they can see the entire list of users that have registered with the site. They can see when they joined, what their user and real names are, and the last time they posted a comment. I really don’t agree with this idea. I think that they should have made it something where you could search for someone within the list, but without listing every user. This really doesn’t help bring those users together, so what’s the point? If people want to see if their friends are on the site, they can either ask the person, or search with their username, but I really don’t agree with posting the entire list where the entire world can see it.
There are a lot of blogs on the site, but the only way to make them interactive is by using the comment section. I don’t think that counts as interactivity because someone can comment, but the blogger really only is able to respond through their blog and not really to each individual comment.
Users are able to post comments throughout the entire site, but these comments don’t appear to be listed in most places and they don’t seem to be answered, so the communication is only one way.
The calendar on the website and the bar and restaurant listings are all classically interactive features. The calendar allows the user to change the calendar to suit their needs by only showing the events they want to see on the calendar and leaving out all of the rest. The bar and restaurant listings include a way to search bars and restaurants by any term the user wants, like location, type of food, price, and any other feature they might want. The site allows users to search the entire site, or just certain sections of the site, like the videos, songs, photos, or even events.
The site also allows users to submit events for the calendar, links for the interesting links section, videos and films, and pictures. Users can also create their own playlists and upload them to the site.
The site makes some effort at interactivity, but it doesn’t really create a community. There are no message boards or chat rooms where the users can communicate directly to one another. There are ways to email the staff of the site, but those emails aren’t listed anywhere on the site, and there’s no promise of an answer. I think this is the area of the site that is most lacking. The rest of the site is great, but I think they could do a lot better to try and connect people with others with similar interests.
1 – How does the site attempt to appeal to a college audience?
I think the site does everything they can to appeal to a college audience. It’s a one-stop-shop of sorts, a place where a college student, or even someone from the surrounding area who is of a similar age, can go to find out what’s going on in the local music scene, the bar scene, and the “best bets” or things that the site things would be a good thing to go to. I really like that they list the bar specials, maps of where they can find the bars in the area, coupons for music events, and a great calendar of upcoming events that can be searched both by the type of event and even by the venue where the event is being held. In partnership with the calendar, they have “Distant Early Warnings,” or upcoming events that might be of interest to those viewing the site. Another section of the site I like are the “Timewasters.” This section of the site is the perfect draw for college students. It has a section for “Party Pics,” Sudoku, crossword puzzles, comics, and a section called “E pluribus internets” that holds interesting websites submitted by other users. Also, the site includes job openings, rental apartments, and even car advertisements, all things college students need. At the bottom of the page is a link to local videos, or videos made by college students on random topics.
Down the right side of the page, towards the bottom, are reviews of new movies (this week’s was “Pan’s Labyrinth”) and video games (NCAA March Madness 2007 on Xbox 360), both of which are of interest to college students. (Especially the March Madness. Go to any male college student’s room and you will find either this game from previous years or the even more popular John Madden Football.) At the very bottom of the column, is a review of local music groups and shows.
The site includes shows from the college’s television station, including a show called “The Turnpike,” which seems to be a live music show. Also, this is a page for the school’s radio station; and both pages give the user the ability to access past shows, so that if they watch or listen to it every week, or however often the shows air, and happen to miss a show, or are in class at the time it airs, they are able to go to this site and catch up with it. Included on the “Audio” and “Music” sections on the site are User created playlists, where any user can upload their favorite playlist from usually an iPod for other people to download.
The features are hard to all list here without this post becoming miles and miles long (I’m trying to cut them down because I’m tired of hearing the “oh man, I got her’s again,” when we do the reviews in class.) but I think everything about this site is geared for college students. If I were a student at Kansas University, I would use this site, and the magazine it is linked to, for everything because it offers everything I need, especially for the weekends, all in one place. Instead of having to go to this bar’s website to see their deals for a Thursday night, and then go off to another’s site, and another, and so on, to see where I can go to drink cheapest with my friends, I can just go to Lawrence.com, and have it all in one place.
2 – If you went to this school, what makes this site appealing and why?
It’s everything I need to have a good social life and be able to do the things I love. If there’s a local band that I really like and want to see, all I have to do is open the page, go to the calendar, and search for them. Or I can just search the page to see if there are any reviews of an upcoming show. If I’m bored after getting my work done for the night and looking for something to waste some time until my roommates get back from their late-night classes, I can go to this site and find a crossword puzzle or some interesting websites. If I had a great time at a party this weekend and had some pictures taken, I can go online and post them for the world (and future employers) to see. Like I said in the first answer, it’s a one stop shop. I can find everything I want and need to have a good time while I’m at school. I wish that Monmouth had something even vaguely resembling this site.
3 – Describe the target audience from looking at the content. Who lives and goes to the school?
The target audience is people in their 20s (there’s a lot of bar content, so I wouldn’t open it up to people who are underage and unable to drink) who like to go out and see a band play, or who like to be able to find a place to go out and drink for as cheap as possible. It’s mainly for people from that area, but some of the content, like the movie and game reviews, can be useful to people from other areas. I’d say the main target audience, judging by the content, is the average college student who goes to Kansas University and likes to go out, see a good band and get a few drinks.
4 – Address the writing style. Is it good or bad?
I think the writing style is perfect for college students, with the usual short attention span. They want the information, and nothing else, from the content on this type of site. The important pieces of information should be plainly listed, with little fluff or filler. Just the basics, whatever someone needs to know, and nothing else. I think that’s exactly what the site needs to have. If the site went into long-winded descriptions of an upcoming event or concert, people wouldn’t bother reading it, so there’s no point spending the time to write it. This kind of site is where someone goes to get the information about what’s going on in the area, so that’s all the site needs. Just the facts, and the site, I think, understands that and writes to what the audience wants.
5 – Address the site’s use of media.
There’s media everywhere on this site. They have locally made videos, radio and television programs from the university, user-submitted pictures, band pictures, and even maps of local restaurants and bars. Under the “Music” tabs, they have music videos, mp3 downloads, and under the “Audio” tab, they also have audio interviews and podcasts. Under the “Video” tab, they have links to news videos from the school’s television station and “Q’time with Randy,” another program from the television station. The site uses all of the media they can to give the college students something to watch and do that will keep them on the site and also keep them coming back to see what new things are posted under each of the above categories. I think it is a great idea for the site to use that much media and I think they don’t just throw things on there to have media on the site. All of the media on the site is related to their content and to their target audience.
6 – Is there a community of users? How about interactivity?
The only things that link the community of users together is the link under “Timewasters” that links users to a page where they can see the entire list of users that have registered with the site. They can see when they joined, what their user and real names are, and the last time they posted a comment. I really don’t agree with this idea. I think that they should have made it something where you could search for someone within the list, but without listing every user. This really doesn’t help bring those users together, so what’s the point? If people want to see if their friends are on the site, they can either ask the person, or search with their username, but I really don’t agree with posting the entire list where the entire world can see it.
There are a lot of blogs on the site, but the only way to make them interactive is by using the comment section. I don’t think that counts as interactivity because someone can comment, but the blogger really only is able to respond through their blog and not really to each individual comment.
Users are able to post comments throughout the entire site, but these comments don’t appear to be listed in most places and they don’t seem to be answered, so the communication is only one way.
The calendar on the website and the bar and restaurant listings are all classically interactive features. The calendar allows the user to change the calendar to suit their needs by only showing the events they want to see on the calendar and leaving out all of the rest. The bar and restaurant listings include a way to search bars and restaurants by any term the user wants, like location, type of food, price, and any other feature they might want. The site allows users to search the entire site, or just certain sections of the site, like the videos, songs, photos, or even events.
The site also allows users to submit events for the calendar, links for the interesting links section, videos and films, and pictures. Users can also create their own playlists and upload them to the site.
The site makes some effort at interactivity, but it doesn’t really create a community. There are no message boards or chat rooms where the users can communicate directly to one another. There are ways to email the staff of the site, but those emails aren’t listed anywhere on the site, and there’s no promise of an answer. I think this is the area of the site that is most lacking. The rest of the site is great, but I think they could do a lot better to try and connect people with others with similar interests.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Super Bowl Commercials Part 1: Super or Sucky??
This week, everyone will be talking about the Super Bowl commercials. Yes, the game was pretty good, and exciting, and I think the game beat out the commercials this year. Some companies tried the same old routine: make the public laugh. It worked for a few companies. The rest just made me wonder who thought that was funny enough for them to put that much money into that commercial. Other companies tried to reach the public by allowing members of the public to design their commercials. In my humble opinion, they should have kept it “in-house.” Now, in this post, I’m only going to cover the first half of the game’s commercials since there are so many in the whole game. So here are the winners and the losers in my mind from the first half of Sunday’s Super Bowl. Everyone else is giving their opinions about these commercials, so why don’t I add mine to the mix?
I think the winner, hands down, is the Blockbuster commercial that aired during the first quarter. The commercial features a hamster and a rabbit in a pet shop across the street from Blockbuster. They are trying to order videos via the “mouse,” which, instead of being a computer mouse, is a real mouse. It is hysterical. The animated mouse’s facial expressions make the commercial. They try clicking it by pushing down on its body, then moving it back and forth, all with no luck. Then the commercial flips to the actual ad for the movie service (similar to NetFlix, in that you can order movies online, have them delivered, and then either return them via mail or back to the store. The difference is that you can actually go to the store and pick out movies, all on the same account.) The commercial ends with the hamster holding up the mouse’s tail and saying, “Here’s the problem. We forgot to plug it in!” I think my grandmother, who lies across the street, could probably hear me laughing at that commercial.
Another great commercial was the Budweiser Dalmatian commercial. Basically, there’s this adorable homeless white dog who is wandering around the town, looking for food, staying away from another nasty dog, who then finds himself at a parade. As he is standing at the edge of the road, watching the Budweiser cart go past with this loved-looking Dalmatian riding alongside the driver and feeling sad about his life (the look on his face tells the whole story. This dog had a very expressive face.), a truck comes by and splashes mud and dirty water all over him. The mud settles on him in a way that makes it look like he has spots, just like a Dalmatian. Then, all of the sudden, he’s on that cart next to the other driver, feeling like he belonged somewhere. It’s a great, heart-warming commercial. They are a rarity anymore, so it’s great when you see one that is genuinely good, and simple. It speaks to everyone.
Now, there isn’t one commercial I can say is the worst commercial of the first half. There are a few that had me wondering why anyone would spend money making them. One of those is the Sierra Mist commercial that played during the first quarter featuring a comedian who has a “beard-comb-over.” Instead of being funny, it’s really just creepy. He gets fired for it, and when he walks out from behind the desk muttering something about social norms, he’s wearing short shorts and old roller skates. The whole commercial gets a 10 on my “what was the point of that?” The other Sierra Mist commercial had me shaking my head too. It was a self-defense class to learn how to protect your Sierra Mist. And that was it. Again, what was the point? It didn’t make me want to buy the product. It made me want to find the person who thought that the idea was a good one for a commercial that is going to air during the Super Bowl, and ask them how much money they wasted on that commercial.
Then there were the two commercials that Doritos ran during the first half (one in the first quarter, one in the second). They were made by members of the public, who I assume won a contest (I don’t eat Doritos so I don’t know if they ran a contest or something like that. I don’t remember hearing anything about it, but that doesn’t mean much.). I am afraid to see what the losers were. One commercial has a guy driving down the street eating a bag of regular Doritos. He sees a woman walking down the street eating Spicy Doritos. As he’s looking at her, he rear-ends another car and his bag of Doritos gets squished by his head. At that point, the word “crunchy” pops up on the screen, as if the chips were then “crunchy,” like they suddenly morphed into another type of their chips. Then you see the woman running onto the street, presumably to stop the accident, and she’s a “Bold” Dorito at that moment. Then the word “smooth” appears on the screen with a question mark, as the woman trips and bashes her head into the passenger side door of the guy’s car. And that’s the commercial. It really does nothing to make me want to buy their product, and isn’t that the point of a commercial, especially one that cost so much just to air it. I can only assume that they were trying to identify with the average person who dreams that they could have a commercial air, especially one during the Super Bowl. It just didn’t work for me.
The second Doritos commercial made even less sense. It features a woman working at a grocery store checkout line who is waiting on man who is buying numerous bags of Doritos, just like he was having a party (even a Super Bowl party. Just a coincidence? I think not!). As she checks him out, she comments on the items she’s passing over the scanner. As she checks the regular nacho cheese Doritos, she makes some strange hand gesture and says, “old school.” Then, she passes the Fiery Habenero (I’m sorry about the spelling. I don’t have a bag of Doritos in front of me.) flavor Doritos over the scanner and says, “Oh yeah! Those are hot!” Then there are the Salsa Verde chips; with them, she starts purring at the man and he purrs back. The commercial now begins to seriously teeter on the edge of very strange. Next is the Blazing Buffalo Ranch. With them, she says, “Giddy up” in a suggestive manner. This one has officially fallen over the edge of creepiness. Then the company’s logo pops up along with their website where you can go to watch more of the commercials made by the average person. No, thanks. I’ll stick with normal commercials that are made by multi-billion dollar companies that know statistics and not so much of the people.
There were definitely some winners. However, the majority of them were either somewhat scary or completely creepy. Let’s hope the second half gives us viewers some better things to watch during the game’s breaks.
Source: AOL Sports
I think the winner, hands down, is the Blockbuster commercial that aired during the first quarter. The commercial features a hamster and a rabbit in a pet shop across the street from Blockbuster. They are trying to order videos via the “mouse,” which, instead of being a computer mouse, is a real mouse. It is hysterical. The animated mouse’s facial expressions make the commercial. They try clicking it by pushing down on its body, then moving it back and forth, all with no luck. Then the commercial flips to the actual ad for the movie service (similar to NetFlix, in that you can order movies online, have them delivered, and then either return them via mail or back to the store. The difference is that you can actually go to the store and pick out movies, all on the same account.) The commercial ends with the hamster holding up the mouse’s tail and saying, “Here’s the problem. We forgot to plug it in!” I think my grandmother, who lies across the street, could probably hear me laughing at that commercial.
Another great commercial was the Budweiser Dalmatian commercial. Basically, there’s this adorable homeless white dog who is wandering around the town, looking for food, staying away from another nasty dog, who then finds himself at a parade. As he is standing at the edge of the road, watching the Budweiser cart go past with this loved-looking Dalmatian riding alongside the driver and feeling sad about his life (the look on his face tells the whole story. This dog had a very expressive face.), a truck comes by and splashes mud and dirty water all over him. The mud settles on him in a way that makes it look like he has spots, just like a Dalmatian. Then, all of the sudden, he’s on that cart next to the other driver, feeling like he belonged somewhere. It’s a great, heart-warming commercial. They are a rarity anymore, so it’s great when you see one that is genuinely good, and simple. It speaks to everyone.
Now, there isn’t one commercial I can say is the worst commercial of the first half. There are a few that had me wondering why anyone would spend money making them. One of those is the Sierra Mist commercial that played during the first quarter featuring a comedian who has a “beard-comb-over.” Instead of being funny, it’s really just creepy. He gets fired for it, and when he walks out from behind the desk muttering something about social norms, he’s wearing short shorts and old roller skates. The whole commercial gets a 10 on my “what was the point of that?” The other Sierra Mist commercial had me shaking my head too. It was a self-defense class to learn how to protect your Sierra Mist. And that was it. Again, what was the point? It didn’t make me want to buy the product. It made me want to find the person who thought that the idea was a good one for a commercial that is going to air during the Super Bowl, and ask them how much money they wasted on that commercial.
Then there were the two commercials that Doritos ran during the first half (one in the first quarter, one in the second). They were made by members of the public, who I assume won a contest (I don’t eat Doritos so I don’t know if they ran a contest or something like that. I don’t remember hearing anything about it, but that doesn’t mean much.). I am afraid to see what the losers were. One commercial has a guy driving down the street eating a bag of regular Doritos. He sees a woman walking down the street eating Spicy Doritos. As he’s looking at her, he rear-ends another car and his bag of Doritos gets squished by his head. At that point, the word “crunchy” pops up on the screen, as if the chips were then “crunchy,” like they suddenly morphed into another type of their chips. Then you see the woman running onto the street, presumably to stop the accident, and she’s a “Bold” Dorito at that moment. Then the word “smooth” appears on the screen with a question mark, as the woman trips and bashes her head into the passenger side door of the guy’s car. And that’s the commercial. It really does nothing to make me want to buy their product, and isn’t that the point of a commercial, especially one that cost so much just to air it. I can only assume that they were trying to identify with the average person who dreams that they could have a commercial air, especially one during the Super Bowl. It just didn’t work for me.
The second Doritos commercial made even less sense. It features a woman working at a grocery store checkout line who is waiting on man who is buying numerous bags of Doritos, just like he was having a party (even a Super Bowl party. Just a coincidence? I think not!). As she checks him out, she comments on the items she’s passing over the scanner. As she checks the regular nacho cheese Doritos, she makes some strange hand gesture and says, “old school.” Then, she passes the Fiery Habenero (I’m sorry about the spelling. I don’t have a bag of Doritos in front of me.) flavor Doritos over the scanner and says, “Oh yeah! Those are hot!” Then there are the Salsa Verde chips; with them, she starts purring at the man and he purrs back. The commercial now begins to seriously teeter on the edge of very strange. Next is the Blazing Buffalo Ranch. With them, she says, “Giddy up” in a suggestive manner. This one has officially fallen over the edge of creepiness. Then the company’s logo pops up along with their website where you can go to watch more of the commercials made by the average person. No, thanks. I’ll stick with normal commercials that are made by multi-billion dollar companies that know statistics and not so much of the people.
There were definitely some winners. However, the majority of them were either somewhat scary or completely creepy. Let’s hope the second half gives us viewers some better things to watch during the game’s breaks.
Source: AOL Sports
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Should Grandma and Grandpa be driving?
As the “baby boomer” generation ages into senior citizens, the retesting of drivers when they reach a certain age has become an enormous issue in society. Many argue that the retesting will take away the senior’s rights. “Advocacy groups for the elderly urge states not to overreact to each incident, noting that accidents happen in every age group and that taking away an older person's license could rob them of their independence. ’The issue is not age; it has to do with the person's physical and mental limitations, and that goes beyond age,’ said Beverly Moore of Illinois' AARP.” (FindLaw.com)
However, others think that the retesting is necessary to keep everyone on the roadways safe, including the senior citizen, and argue that it is common for a person’s eyesight and reaction time are reduced as they age. “Older individuals are more likely than younger people to experience health impairments and changes in functioning that affect their driving skills and may put them at increased risk for being involved in accidents.” (AARP.org Policy Book)
Recent deadly accidents, including an 84-year-old Illinois woman who drove through an elementary school cafeteria and killed an 8-year-old boy when on her way to the local senior center for a driving class, an 89-year-old California man who drove through a farmer’s market in 2003 and killed 10 people, but was recently sentenced to five-years probation because he was too sick to go to prison, and an 89-year-old New York man who also plowed through an outdoor market and injured 10 people, have pushed the question of retesting seniors to the forefront of the public’s mind. (New York State Statistics)
Many people, if asked, would likely respond that one of the most dangerous groups of drivers is senior citizens, along with teenagers. However, this is not true, according to the statistics. “Nationally, in 1995 senior citizens accounted for:
5% of all people injured in traffic crashes;
13% of all traffic fatalities;
13% of all vehicle occupant fatalities; and
18% of all pedestrian fatalities.” (New York State Statistics)
Furthermore, the statistics also, “show that in two-vehicle fatal crashes involving an older and a younger driver, it is 3.1 times as likely that the vehicle driven by the older person will be struck. “ (New York State Statistics)
In New Jersey, the statistics are different than the national average. “In New Jersey, the number of senior citizens involved in fatal crashes has climbed in recent years even as the overall number of fatal crashes has dipped. Seniors in New Jersey have the highest fatal crash rate of any age group, measured by miles driven.” (Driving Safe.org)
In order to make the roads safe for everyone, a retesting program should be instituted with drivers over the age of 70 will be retested every 5 years. The test should entail a test of response time, using the average time it takes a traffic light to turn from green to red as a guide. Also, the senior drivers should also be taken on a road test, in a real world environment, to test their practical knowledge of the rules of the road, their ability to respond to the changing environmental factors on the road, and to test their ability to interact with other drivers.
Senior drivers should be retested every time they have an incident, but not only for accidents. They should be tested whenever the police are called because of reckless behavior, inability to keep in their lane, failure to keep right and yield to other drivers, and other actions that make the roads dangerous for both them and the other drivers on the road. For example, take a senior driver who turns on their turn signal a half mile prior to the turn, stops four times in that half mile preparing for the turn, drives at 10-20 m.p.h. below the speed limit but refuse to pull over to let others pass, and then randomly stops in the middle of the road, causing the drivers behind them to stop short, no matter how much room they leave between their car and the senior’s. This senior should be retested since the police were called to intervene and get the driver off of the road in order to make the road safe for others.
If the police are called three times or more, the senior should have their driver’s license turned into a probational license, similar to that given to a teenage driver. They should be limited to driving only during the day, but not during the morning and evening rush hours. A condition to the license is that if the police are called, even once, because of their behavior behind the wheel, the license is taken away with no chance of ever getting it back. Finally, if a senior driver has a fatal accident that can be attributed to being their fault, their license should be taken away permanently.
Not all senior drivers are automatically bad drivers, but not all of them are the safest drivers. Statistics say that the majority of people think of seniors as the most dangerous group on the road, but in terms of fatal accidents, that is not true. However, the statistics do not take into account minor accidents or traffic incidences. If these types of incidences were also taken into account, along with the major traffic accidents, the case for retesting senior citizens would be clear cut: they need to be retested, based on their ability to drive safely.
However, others think that the retesting is necessary to keep everyone on the roadways safe, including the senior citizen, and argue that it is common for a person’s eyesight and reaction time are reduced as they age. “Older individuals are more likely than younger people to experience health impairments and changes in functioning that affect their driving skills and may put them at increased risk for being involved in accidents.” (AARP.org Policy Book)
Recent deadly accidents, including an 84-year-old Illinois woman who drove through an elementary school cafeteria and killed an 8-year-old boy when on her way to the local senior center for a driving class, an 89-year-old California man who drove through a farmer’s market in 2003 and killed 10 people, but was recently sentenced to five-years probation because he was too sick to go to prison, and an 89-year-old New York man who also plowed through an outdoor market and injured 10 people, have pushed the question of retesting seniors to the forefront of the public’s mind. (New York State Statistics)
Many people, if asked, would likely respond that one of the most dangerous groups of drivers is senior citizens, along with teenagers. However, this is not true, according to the statistics. “Nationally, in 1995 senior citizens accounted for:
5% of all people injured in traffic crashes;
13% of all traffic fatalities;
13% of all vehicle occupant fatalities; and
18% of all pedestrian fatalities.” (New York State Statistics)
Furthermore, the statistics also, “show that in two-vehicle fatal crashes involving an older and a younger driver, it is 3.1 times as likely that the vehicle driven by the older person will be struck. “ (New York State Statistics)
In New Jersey, the statistics are different than the national average. “In New Jersey, the number of senior citizens involved in fatal crashes has climbed in recent years even as the overall number of fatal crashes has dipped. Seniors in New Jersey have the highest fatal crash rate of any age group, measured by miles driven.” (Driving Safe.org)
In order to make the roads safe for everyone, a retesting program should be instituted with drivers over the age of 70 will be retested every 5 years. The test should entail a test of response time, using the average time it takes a traffic light to turn from green to red as a guide. Also, the senior drivers should also be taken on a road test, in a real world environment, to test their practical knowledge of the rules of the road, their ability to respond to the changing environmental factors on the road, and to test their ability to interact with other drivers.
Senior drivers should be retested every time they have an incident, but not only for accidents. They should be tested whenever the police are called because of reckless behavior, inability to keep in their lane, failure to keep right and yield to other drivers, and other actions that make the roads dangerous for both them and the other drivers on the road. For example, take a senior driver who turns on their turn signal a half mile prior to the turn, stops four times in that half mile preparing for the turn, drives at 10-20 m.p.h. below the speed limit but refuse to pull over to let others pass, and then randomly stops in the middle of the road, causing the drivers behind them to stop short, no matter how much room they leave between their car and the senior’s. This senior should be retested since the police were called to intervene and get the driver off of the road in order to make the road safe for others.
If the police are called three times or more, the senior should have their driver’s license turned into a probational license, similar to that given to a teenage driver. They should be limited to driving only during the day, but not during the morning and evening rush hours. A condition to the license is that if the police are called, even once, because of their behavior behind the wheel, the license is taken away with no chance of ever getting it back. Finally, if a senior driver has a fatal accident that can be attributed to being their fault, their license should be taken away permanently.
Not all senior drivers are automatically bad drivers, but not all of them are the safest drivers. Statistics say that the majority of people think of seniors as the most dangerous group on the road, but in terms of fatal accidents, that is not true. However, the statistics do not take into account minor accidents or traffic incidences. If these types of incidences were also taken into account, along with the major traffic accidents, the case for retesting senior citizens would be clear cut: they need to be retested, based on their ability to drive safely.
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