ALT

1MAY 2009ISSUE 1

MUSIC, OPINION, ETC.

ALT.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDY BUCK.

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A LETTER FROM THE EDITORSWelcome to the first issue of ALT magazine. Since you’ve already picked it up, we guess you deserve an explanation.

ALT means “everything” in Norwegian. It also looks really good set in Rockwell. We chose the title because it covers exactly what we do–everything. ALT has no single focus; we write about whatever interests us. The parallels with “alternative” are handy too, as we at least try to go a little out of the ordinary with the topics, issues, and interests we cover. We hope you’ll find at least one article that will be worth your time to read, no matter what your interests are.

Again, welcome to the first issue. Enjoy.

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DAYAN D’ANIELLO - THE GAMER

Dayan is a game connoisseur. He plays a vast array of sports, from tennis to table tennis to swimming, and even frisbee. In his 14 years, he has played at least eight differ-ent sports, ranging from soccer to dodge ball. He hates rednecks.He is also an expert on first-person shooting video games such as Halo 3 and Call of Duty: World at War. In this issue, you can read his stories about games, “Video Game Addiction” and “Blade Grips” about table tennis. He also tried his hand at poetry with his “Black-and-White-Out Poems,” at the back of the magazine. In his spare time, you can find him in the cafeteria or in his backyard playing ping-pong next to his pool, or playing tennis on the courts of Westo-ver four times a week.

WALLIS ROBINSON - THE OPTIMIST

Wallis tends to spend far too much time agonizing over words for her articles to be very good, however she has tried very hard to make an exception in this issue to write “The Bile Farm”, which she hopes will be effective since bile farming in Asia is an extremely inhumane practice and it is important to bring it to light. Wallis also writes unreasonably long sentences. Although she has lived most of her physical life in Austin, Texas, Wallis spends ap-proximately half of her time trying to get to Oregon or pretending she is in Oregon. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) for her friends, Wallis tends to disappear into

semi-random parts of the school whenever she is very busy (90% of the time), and when she is very not-busy (2% of the time). This leaves very little time for so-cializing, except for with some grackle associates who wish to remain anonymous until further notice.

AVERY HERMAN -THE SPORTY ONE

The only thing Avery has time for right now is lacrosse and writing stories for ALT. She is playing lacrosse for the LBJ girls team. They were undefeated district champions. She also played basketball an volleyball for a while, but likes lacrosse a lot more. She loves watching all sports, especially anything the Texas Longhorns play. Vince Young and Colt McCoy are her heroes. You can read her article on football, “The Gift of the Game,” on page 14. If she could be anywhere right now it would be either Vermont or Maine. Basically, she wishes she could live in Ocean Park. She would be sitting in the Sweet Shoppe Ice Cream Parlor sipping a Rasp-berry Lime Rickey and reading a mystery novel. To read her memoir about her days in Maine, go to page 34 for “Colors of my Childhood.”

ISMAEL SOBEK -THE DESIGN NERD/THE ONE WHO YELLS

Ismael is cool enough to know bands you don’t, but nerdy enough to yell at you for using Papyrus. He’s the one who keeps it together

right before ripping it apart. In high-stress situations, he can get a little bit loud. He’s been making websites for fun and profit for a couple of years now, and greatly enjoys it. He probably knows more about type than you, you watched-Hel-vetica-one-time poser. He posts little things he likes at http://cordfunnel.net/. In this magazine, he’s the one to blame for “Striking,” “How BitTorrent Works,” “Stirred, not Shaken,” and “The Things We Leave Behind.” He did most of the design work for the magazine.

BIOs

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CONTENTS

REDNECK WOMAN

NOT SO SMOOTHIE

MUCH ADO ABOUT SOMETHING

STRIKING

THE GIFT OF THE GAME

HOW BIT TORRENT WORKS

A VIDEO GAME ADDICTION

A DAY IN AUSTIN

THE BILE FARM

STIRRED, NOT SHAKEN

THE GREAT GRACKLE CONSPIRACY

COLORS OF MY CHILDHOOD

THE THINGS WE LEAVE BEHIND

BLADE GRIPS

BLACK AND WHITE-OUT POEMS

PHOTO CREDITS AND JUMP PAGE

PAGE 6

PAGE 8

PAGE 18

PAGE 12

FULL INDEX

PAGE 36

PAGE 22

DAYAN D’ANIELLO

AVERY HERMAN

WALLIS ROBINSON

ISMAEL SOBEK

AVERY HERMAN

ISMAEL SOBEK

DAYAN D’ANIELLO

AVERY HERMAN

WALLIS ROBINSON

ISMAEL SOBEK

WALLIS ROBINSON

AVERY HERMAN

ISMAEL SOBEK

DAYAN D’ANIELLO

DAYAN D’ANIELLO

681012141618202228303436464853

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“Redneck Woman”By Dayan D’Aniello

The term “redneck” could be used to de-scribe anyone who has spent too much time out in the heat and acquired sunburn on their neck.

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But in the context I will use it in, redneck is a slang term for a rural white southerner who is politically conservative, racist, and usually Christian. One thing all rednecks have in common is their love for country music.

These “country singers” (rednecks) are singing about what they did that day in an extremely thick redneck ac-cent and it just sickens me. Using words like “Yee-Haw,” “Y’all,” and “Ain’t,” (some of which aren’t recognized as real words) makes me wonder how these thick-accented, low-class rednecks got famous in the first place.

I’ve recently found the perfect example of how terrible country music is. The song, ironically, is called “Redneck Woman” by the redneck singer Gretchen Wilson:

“Hey, I’m redneck woman / And I ain’t no high class broad / I’m just a product of my raisin’ / And I say “hey y’all” and “Yee Haw” / And I keep my Christmas lights on / on my front porch all year long…”Truly, a perfect example and stereotype of a redneck

person. The last remark, especially, is a stereotype that red-necks are hardcore Christians–and that they’re proud of it.

Unfortunately, I felt it was necessary to listen to this song, if only to hear her redneck voice and what redneck activities she was doing. And of course, the absolute neces-sity for every country song: the cheap, detuned violin. Its shrill tune along with the drums and guitars made me a little nauseous. In the video, she did extremely stereotypi-cal redneck things like drinking beer and riding 4-Wheel-ers. I didn’t know how much longer I could listen to the song and I could not wait until it was over.

“Well I ain’t never / Been the barbie doll type / No I can’t swig that sweet champagne / I’d rather drink beer all night / In a tavern or in a honky tonk, Or on a 4 wheel drive tailgate…”It is a well-known stereotype that rednecks love to

drink beer and this song just fortifies this stereotype. And it gets better (well, worse):

“Victoria’s Secret / Well their stuff ’s real nice / Oh but I can buy the same damn thing on a Walmart shelf / half price.”This is probably one of the biggest stereotypes of red-

neck people; they love to shop at Walmart, a store whose ethics and lack of quality products disgusts me. I only shop at Walmart if there are no other stores open or there is a product specific to Walmart.

One man hates country music so much, he decided to blog about it. I believe that the person that wrote this blog was spot-on with his reasoning for his hate (or despise, in his words) for country music:

“Country Music inspires poor clothing decisions. Every musical genre has its caricatures: the Goth, the Hippie, the Punk. But I’d take them all next to the mouth-breather in the stiff neon orange striped shirt and the Wrangler Jeans latched up over his small intestine by a belt buckle that doubles as a beer can opener. Only a country music fan would take something as cool as cowboy boots and ruin them by tucking their jeans INSIDE them.”Some say that country music has a nice rhythm and the

lyrics are inspiring and funny. These people also say that in order to like country music, you have to give it a chance, and it will grow on you. And I agree with them (and “The Professor”): it will grow on you, “just like cancer or a good heroin addiction.”

What I find particularly amusing (and sickening) are the title of some country music songs. “Do You Love As Good As You Look?” “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor On The Bedpost Overnight?” “Drop Kick Me, Jesus, Through The Goalposts Of Life,” “Get Your Biscuits In The Oven And Your Buns In The Bed,” “I Wanna Whip Your Cow,” “You’re The Reason Our Kids Are So Ugly.” When I read these song titles, I don’t know whether to laugh because they are so funny or cry because I lose an IQ point.

I believe that all redneck country singers should be imprisoned. Then again, they might just write about their experiences in jail. It could so something like this:

“Today I woke up and found my room had been searched / and I thought to myself ‘This ain’t right,’ / then I was hungry so I waited impatiently for lunch / I missed my Twinkies and Moon Pies / and what I wanted the most was beer.”

But at least we wouldn’t have to hear it.

By Dayan D’Aniello

When I read these song titles, I don’t know

whether to laugh because they are so funny or cry

because I lose anIQ point.

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especially fermented ones, but I like to try new things. So I packed up my meat-lovin’ bags and walked to The Daily Juice, a new vegan and raw café known for its kombucha. Nestled into the Corner of 45th and Duval, this trendy new restaurant was hopping.

The atmosphere was relaxing, with a friendly staff and cool building. The only problem was the food…

Don’t get me wrong; it wasn’t the chefs that weren’t skilled. It was just that what the chefs were cooking that wasn’t all that appetizing.

The building has very cool tables and stools, all carved out of wood, each holding a jug of water. The café has two rooms: the first room has a fridge display case where food is laid out for easy pick-up, while the second room is very open, with huge windows covering the walls. Health food posters with explanations of the different ingredients found in the café’s food covered the walls. I was reading the explanations and was very grossed out. I was not sure what kombucha was when I ordered my kombucha cherry limeade, Unfortunately I soon learned I had ordered fermented mushrooms. The poster also informed me that I had the privilege of eating phyto-plankton, something that whales appar-ently eat. I kept away from anything that sounded like it would be fishy, as to avoid the plankton. Even though this was an interesting poster, it made the atmosphere of the room less like a café and more like a nutrition-ist’s office. Beside the posters, I liked the way being in the café felt. I felt like I was in the jungle or in a remote restaurant in Costa Rica. The wooden tables were not perfectly carved, giving the illusion of rustic village and the peaceful music sounded like it was coming from the middle of the rainforest.

The staff was very helpful. The woman who took my order to was eager to help me identify what I might like to eat. That was very help because I didn’t know about a lots I would compare the staff to the staff of Amy’s Ice

Cream; very cool, hip and fun to be around. The menu is not very extensive, with six or seven

foods being offered, such as sandwiches, enchiladas, and chips and queso. The chips and queso and enchi-ladas sounded good so I ordered them. I knew they were going to be a little different, but I was not what I thought I was going to get. The food is, in fact, all raw and vegan. I was not expecting uncooked yam and flax seed chips but that’s what I got. The queso was made of almond paste and peppers—not the most appetizing queso that I have ever had.

The only delicious thing that The Daily Juice offers is their all-natural smoothies and drinks. The smoothies are scrumptious and they are made out of just about every type of fruit that exists. The acai berry, which is very rich in nutrients and flushes toxins out of the body, is added to every smoothie. To give a sort of variety to the smoothie menu, the Daily Juice allows customers the option of ordering smoothies that they suggest or look at a list of fruits and make one of your own. The “Berried Alive” Smoothie was made with acai berries, banana, strawberries and blackberries. The smoothie’s flavors are always strong because was no water or sugar is added to the recipes.

Even with my disdain for the café, many like its raw and vegan offerings. According to the woman behind the counter, the most popular dish in the café is the enchiladas: sometimes the Daily Juice runs out of them by mid-day. Café regulars think that this is the per-fect place for Austin, a bit alternative but with a great atmosphere.

Reviewers on Yelp.com give it four and half stars, but I think very few people will enjoy this café. You need to be very open to trying interesting foods. I liked the smoothies but I don’t think I could ever go back for the lunch food. Just smelling the flax seed and almond paste might make me sick.

I’m not a big fan of mushrooms,

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Not So Smoothie

A review of the

by Avery Herman

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Much Ado About Something

by Wallis Robinson

At Bruce Robinson’s south Austin apart-ment, papers cover most of a small glass coffeetable from IKEA.

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It’s the only table in the apartment, aside from the desks built into the walls. Any space that’s not covered by pencil-marked papers is that way only because the stack that was there has been moved to the floor to make way for a pen or two. The occasional rubber band peeks out from the mass. A laptop sits dormant on a plastic utensil holder. The old, homemade wooden bookshelf has a healthy population largely composed of books on communications -- old college textbooks, newer ones (circa 1980s) on societies perception of the media around them. It looks like the office of a nutty professor, but it isn’t. Since leaving UT’s post-doctoral program, Robinson has been a school bus driver, an intern middle school teacher, and a FedEx Ground driver. Why? Because he didn’t finish his dissertation. It’s not that he couldn’t think of anything to write or that he wasn’t a good writer. Robinson didn’t finish his dis-sertation because he didn’t want to.

“It occurred to me at this late point in the game that the career I was headed for would make me miserable,” he explains.

After fifteen years or so of doing odd jobs for a living and for other academics, Bruce Robinson is again trying to make a name for himself in the field of communications, although he says that at this point, “the main rewards are personal.”

Although it’s possible to make money in Robinson’s field of choice -- analyzing the way societies around the world are shaped by mass media -- it generally involves being a university professor, he says. To be a professor, an academic needs produce a certain number of books per year before achieving tenure, and teach students interested in their field of expertise for part of the year. For Robinson, this is an uncomfortable job description. Like many academics, he prefers researching and writing to teaching.

“I just wouldn’t have the time, and the moments of inspira-tion would be too few compared to the vast expanse of soul-wrecking mediocrity and worse, to make teaching a practical choice for me,” he says.

Robinson believes that if one aspires to be a teacher, one should be a good teacher at worst. And to be one, it takes something special. “It’s not enough to teach your subject, you have to teach subjectively; you have to teach your self. You have to be, yourself, a charismatic exemplar, a humid spirit, warmed in the thermodynamic exchange of material [and] mysterious reality; you have to make life contagious.”

Robinson doesn’t think he has this ability to adequately transfer knowledge into a student’s life, and is unwilling to be a bad teacher. In fact, he’s more unwilling to be a bad teacher than to be bad at anything else because “it makes a difference.”

Lastly, Robinson doesn’t want to have to live with the knowledge of being a bad teacher. “I wouldn’t like knowing that other people’s [kids] were telling their [parents] what a crummy teacher I was.”

In addition to being unwilling to teach for part of the year, Robinson claims he is a very slow, meticulous writer, who takes at least a day to write half a page double-spaced – and some-times more. Between the large amount of research involved and figuring out how to phrase things better, he “frequently take[s] two or three days just to write a single paragraph.”

Unlike many writers, this isn’t because of the time it takes to research the subject or to phrase things correctly. It’s for getting the point accurately across to the readers. “I strive for clarity. I want to say what I mean to say in a way that makes my meaning clear to readers. I also want to make sense. It’s actually very difficult to do both.”

This means that he would have to struggle with getting books published yearly, regardless of how original the ideas are.

Still, Robinson realizes that there are few jobs available that would allow him to write at his own pace and do nothing else.

“The only job like that is ’writer‘– the one that you make for yourself,” Robinson explains.

Since he doesn’t see that hap-pening due to time constraints, Robinson predicts he’ll continue doing what he’s doing now: “work-ing long hours at some kind of odd job to support myself while keeping up the editing and co-authoring as a semi-professional sideline.”

Although this may not sound like a particularly appealing lifestyle to many, it works out fairly well for Robinson. This is because one of his great loves in life (aside from photography and Tabasco

hot sauce), is driving around in cars or trucks. Being a FedEx driver, Robinson has ample opportunity to do this, and to some extent, too much. In addition to working 50 to 60 hour weeks on a regular basis, FedEx doesn’t give sick days, and his two weeks of vacation time are unpaid (this is due largely to the fact that every FedEx driver is considered to be a small busi-ness owner). Although he uses his time on the road to work on concepts from his academic life, this lifestyle makes it much harder for Robinson to further his writing career or do any of the overseas research that is needed to finish the book he is coauthoring.

“It will require my partner and I to spend at least a month in Beijing this summer conducting interviews, and at this point I am not certain that I will be able to get away from [FedEx] long enough to do that,” says Robinson.

Still, Robinson will probably continue doing some sort of job that requires driving of some sort. Cars have played a large part in his life, even to the extent that he uses them as an example of how we subconsciously absorb ideas and aspects of our environment before we even learn to identify them and how they got there.

“I like a particular shade of green, and I like a particular shape of car, just because those were the cars that I grew up with,” he says in reference to how people may pick up ideas and preferences.

“It occurred to me at this late point in the game that the career I was headed for would make me miserable.”

- Bruce Robinson

(Continued on page 53)

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Sounds like the setup to some joke, right? But the Brooklyn-dwelling musician is nothing if not seri-ous. In interviews, he is quiet and constrained, utter-ing things like “human contact can be distracting, a waste of time,” and withholding more than he gives forth. In the studio and on the stage, he is brash and absolute, crooning in a soulful falsetto and whirling around in a jerky, unpredictable boogie. He is at once reserved and uninhibited. He is simply Francis, of Francis and the Lights, the first exception to the 80’s rule (if it happened in the 80’s, leave it in the 80’s) that I have found, metallic tights be damned.

Striking, the ensemble’s first EP, arrived in 2007. It opens with the title track, a fast-paced number complete with 80’s-style synthesizers screaming, catchy and simple guitar riffs, and Francis demon-strating his impressive vocal range. Francis and his band are truly musicians of a new era, one of deliber-ation and a kind of joyful restraint. They’re bursting with energy, but by focusing it so resolutely, they’ve turned them-selves from a reservoir to a veritable fire-hose of musical talent. Fran-cis (and the Lights) suc-cessfully mixes energy and charisma with a refresh-ingly modern minimalism and an almost mathemat-ical prescision, leaving one pointy, black loafer in the past while the other one slides surely into the future of pop.

From “Striking,” we are quickly hustled into “My Goals,” another shimmering gob of solid beats and soaring vocals. In one of the short track’s highlights, a single synthesizer plays a church-organ-style pulse while all other noise stops and Francis belts “Don’t forget you told me / To set my goals / You said it’s time / To set my goals, baby / Yes I did, I set mine.”

Eventually, the beat dwindles, and the guitars move with a flourish into the territory of “How Could You.” Instead of lamenting his loss, Francis simply asks himself a simple question, repeating “How could you stand to be alone again?” before breaking the song down into a mini jam-session and simply fading away. But the song’s mournful tone belies its high energy, filled with more bluesy guitar and the explicit, methodical drum beats that fill the

rest of the album.A few moments later, the album takes another

turn as Francis’ voice again comes in, this time hum-ming over a piano: it’s time for “He Was a Good Friend.” Swooning, moody gospel “oohs” swell and ebb under cries of “But I don’t think she’s coming back this time, this time” from Francis. The beat picks up and the music gets faster, but it never gains enthusiasm, instead remaining a quiet backdrop for the emotions of the singer. It all culminates in Francis asking his listener “Have you ever been lone-some? Have you ever lost someone?” before the band pulls together the last dredges of music, and drops out.

The album ends with its most minimal and pos-sibly most touching track, “I’ll Never Forget You.” Francis sits alone at his piano, beating out simple melodies while softly singing. It captures none of the reckless energy of the first two tracks, the energy that makes Francis and the Lights’ music so appeal-

ing, but that may well be its strong point. It’s simple, and beautiful.

Detractors will no doubt say that Fran-cis’ ship sailed – 25 years ago. The hollow

echoes, dance beats, and synths of the group’s addic-tive pop, coupled with Francis’ own “isolated artiste” persona, may at first make the group seem a horrible cliché. But this discounts the fact that this particu-lar cliché’s work is so – pardon the pun – strikingly good.

With an excess of enthusiasm and unconven-tional dance moves, Francis and the Lights promises to be one of the breakout acts of the coming years. Since the release of Striking, Francis has continued to “detonate his creative vision on continually greater scales” (in the words of his record publisher), releas-ing two more EP’s and playing acclaimed live shows in New York and Austin.

Francis is a product all his own, and his music proves it. Fresh and clean, yet still evocative of the past, Francis and the Lights promise to bring back to life the best parts of the so-called “Minneapolis Sound” era - and believe me, it’s a good thing.

FRANCIS FAREWELL STARLITE.

STRIKINGA REVIEW BY ISMAEL SOBEK

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(STILLS OF “THE TOP“ MUSIC VIDEOBY FRANCIS AND THE LIGHTS)

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THE

GIFTOF THEGAME

Father and son passing the football in the back-yard. The father’s eyes tighten after all the bad passes. The son sheepishly looks down after ev-ery missed pass. Looks like a normal game of pass and catch, right?

Not when it comes to Jeff and Emory Blake.

BY AVERY HERMAN

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The father-son duo has been working on football together a lot lately. Signing Day is coming up and for nine years, Jeff, a former pro football player, has been training his son for this moment.

Now that signing day has happed, they are proud of the results. “My first scholarship was from Tech, but I really wanted to go USC. I just didn’t get an offer, Today I signed to Auburn,” Emory says, with a proud smile on his face.

Emory has come from a long line of football prodigies. His grandfather played for the Canadian league for many years before incurring an injury and switching to a semi-pro league in Florida. His father played for the Pop Warner League after playing baseball and basketball through out middle and high school.

“I thought about playing other sports, but I had the best chance in football,” Jeff said. “Why give that up?”

Although it seems like is Jeff only about sports, he thought about other hobbies. Needless to say, sports still ruled over his life.

“When you play sports, it consumes almost everything in your life,” he says, smiling at Emory.

Jeff went to East Carolina University in North Carolina. He led the Pirates to many victories and kept up with his schooling. Playing Division I sports and keeping up with grades would be hard for most people, but not for Blake.

“[When playing sports] is what you want to do; you know you can’t play unless you make the grades,” Jeff explains.

Jeff enjoyed playing college football the most. He hopes his son has the same feelings for college sports.

“The game [in college] is played with more heart and passion, like high school, but with more people,” Jeff laughs “You could get 10,000 people at a college game, but high school? You could get 5,000, if you’re lucky.”

Jeff ’s attitude was passed on to his children. They all have taken up his passion for sports. Emory has been trained in football by his dad for nine years. Tori, a freshman at Austin High, plays volleyball. Trey, a 7th grader, plays a mul-titude of sports.

Just like his father, football takes all of Emory’s time. “I can’t do things all my friends do; I’m always training,”

he says.During the season, his friends would always want to go

out on Friday evenings. In Emory’s busy life, Fridays are re-served for football games. Lucky for him, most of his friends are on the football team at Austin High as well.

“We train together, that makes it more fun. Just today we were training. They like being coached by my dad, He gives them tips and pointers that they wouldn’t get from anybody

else.” Emory says. As the son of a former professional football player,

Emory has a lot of pressure on him. Emory knows it will be hard to play college football when everyone is comparing his statistics to his dad’s. That is why he wants to have his own identity in the football world. Jeff understands the pressure that is being put on Emory, and even though Jeff is not try-ing to pressure Emory, it is still there.

“People always say I get my talent from my dad. I would like them to credit me for working hard. I understand where they are coming from and my dad has been really helpful. But I am a new football player not an returning one.” Emory says.

Jeff is excited for Emory to move up to college ball. He has no worries for Emory.

“He needs to just do what he’s been doing and keep up with his studies. He’ll be fine.” Jeff says, “I am worried that he will hurt himself but I think that every football coach or player is.

Jeff Blake has really set Emory up straight. Emory knows there is no pressure on him to play pro football and he has his father’s support the whole way.

“He understands that I might want to do other things, because he wanted to try other things too.”

Jeff has put all his time into training Emory into a better football player and man. Jeff trains Emory himself, using techniques that

helped him when he was playing high school football. “My dad would rather me train with him. I don’t mind

because he knows me better than anyone else and his drills always help me get better.” Emory says.

Jeff always gives his advice to his son, because he has gone to all the places his son is going to.

“If he gets to the next level, he needs to set himself up straight,” Jeff says. “He needs to know that football will end one day, and what he will do then.”

Emory agrees with his father. He feels that he is pre-pared to go to the next level.

“The only thing that I am worried about right now is not winning as much. We had a pretty good season at Austin [High]. I just love the feeling of winning. [When I get to college] I want to have better stats than my dad.” Emory laughs.

Jeff believes that Emory will do fine at Auburn, He would like for Emory to play pro-football, but whatever his son decides will be fine with him.

“He needs to know that football will end one day, and what he will do then.”

GIFTOF THEGAME

“When you play sports, it consumes almost every-thing in your life.”

- Jeff Blake

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HOW BIT-TORRENT WORKS

In a BitTorrent network, things work differently. Instead of you down-

loading one file start-to-finish from one person, you download pieces of

the file (or folder) from many other people.

First, a person with a file (or folder) to share uploads a .torrent file to a “tracker.“1When someone else wants to download that file or folder, they first download that tiny .torrent file. The file isn’t the shared file or folder; instead, you can think of it as a kind of “map“ to be able to find the pieces of the file online.

2

In traditional P2P (peer-to-peer) networks, one computer (the

“server“) has one complete file that you want. Once your computer (the “client“) makes a connection to the

server, you download the complete file once.

Once the file is opened by a BitTorrent pro-gram, the client’s computer begins down-loading the file or folder in pieces from people across the internet.3

FIRST THING S FIRST (LET’S GET SOME THINGS STRAIGHT)

BY ISMAEL SOBEK

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FIRST THING S FIRST (LET’S GET SOME THINGS STRAIGHT)

Now here’s the cool thing: as you’re download-ing the file, you also become a server for others who are downloading. Because of the way that BitTorrent works, even those without a complete copy of the file can “seed“ the pieces they do have to others who are downloading.

4

Once all of the pieces of the file have finished downloading, they are gath-ered and put together by the BitTor-

rent program. And vióla! You’re done.5

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Casey Edgerton is an average school attending teenager.

But there is just one thing that makes him different from many: he is addicted to video games. Video game addiction is a serious problem; some even con-sider it a disorder. A video game addicted teen, Dan-iel Petric, shot his parents, killing his mother, after they took away his copy of Halo 3 in October 2007.


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Trickery and deception is involved in Edgerton’s peculiar habit almost every night. “I generally ‘go to bed’ at 9:00-9:30, but I stay up much later, usually playing video games,” he laughs. Edgerton’s parents think he goes to bed early, but if they went down the hall, passed a couple doors, and opened Edgerton’s bedroom door, it would be like opening the door to a different universe. When all is quiet in the rest of the house, he is just sitting in his computer chair playing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on his PC.

Video game addiction is a serious problem. In fact, the American Medical Association is currently trying to classify the addiction as a disorder. Harris, a company that did an online poll of 1,187 US youths, concludes that 8.5% “can be classified as pathological or clinically ‘addicted’ to playing video games”, but did not explain how this conclusion was reached.

A video game addicted teen, Daniel Petric, shot his parents, killing his mother, after they took away his copy of Halo 3 in October 2007. In a sentencing hearing after the teen was found guilty of aggravated murder, Judge James Burge, the judge that heard the case, said “I firmly believe that Dan-iel Petric had no idea at the time he hatched this plot that if he killed his parents they would be dead forever.”

Video games have the capability of making young adults, without fully de-veloped brains, violent. “If you are sen-sible, you might get violent ideas from video games, [but] there is a disconnect from reality and the world of video games,” says Edgerton on the topic of video games causing violence Burge also shares the same basic idea. “I don’t think that they [video games] make people violent who aren’t already predisposed to violence,” she says. “However, I do think that they raise heart rate and blood pressure in the excitement the game provides, so sleep is slower to come. As far as emotional changes, I think that some of the changes are temporary but I have seen displays of temper in certain situations.”

Her daughter agrees. “They [video games] can teach kids that it is okay or even cool to do things portrayed in video games. This occurs mainly in the younger, undeveloped kids with little to no common sense. In games like Grand Theft Auto IV, kids could get the idea that it is OK to steal cars or kill people.”

Edgerton has chosen his favorite video game. His favorite genre is first-person shooter. His only reason being, “I like to shoot things.” The game that diverts his attention away from his school work, his social life, and probably his parents is Call of Duty 4 where his alternate persona is Towelface.

“My favorite game is Call of Duty 4 because I have a group of friends who all own the game and a server with Game-Speak, which allows us to speak with each other using micro-phones.”

This has affected Edgerton because the popular first-person shooter Call of Duty 4 is an addicting game. What makes it

even more addicting is that he has a group of friends that also own the game and play with him. A relatively new addition to the video game world is the ability to talk with your friends and play video games at the same time without ever having to leave your room with accessories like Game-Speak. This has made video games even more addicting because a gamer would never need to leave their room to be with their friends, at least verbally.

“It [the time he plays video games during a week] ranges from 30-40 [hours], but it depends on how much homework I have. Daily, I probably play 2 to 3 hours on weekdays, and 6 hours to the whole day on weekends. Homework usually comes first and video games after, most of the time. I also do my homework during lunch,” Edgerton states. But some parents think that it is impossible to put time constraints on the amount of time an addicted gamer plays. One mother, Hallie Braje, a mother of three, has one of child who is mildly addicted to video games.

“Everything that I have read suggests that game play-ing should be limited to one hour a day, however, in my own experience, as a mother of three, you just can’t do that,” she says. “The reason just one hour a day can not be achieved is because video games are very addictive, because there is al-ways a quest to get to the next level or beat the next guy or whatever the game is about.”

A recent study by Drs. Stinebrickner and Stinebrick-ner in association with the National Bureau of Economic Research state there may be a connection between the pres-ence of video game consoles

and poor school performance. According to their study of the freshman students habits of Berea College, a student who lives near to or actively plays video games does consistently worse academically than students who do not play or live around video games.

Edgerton says that was the case for him. “Before playing video games, I was making all A’s, but now, I make A’s, B’s, and occasionally C’s,”

Video games can also cause sleep deprivation when people stay up and play until 3 and 4 a.m. and have to wake up for school at 6 a.m.

“It depends what time I go to sleep, usually 1:30-3:30 on weekdays. I don’t sleep on the weekends sometimes because of video games.” It is amazing how he can have this lifestyle and still function in the morning. He replied to this comment “The only reason that I can stay up so late and wake up so early is because I drink a lot of caffeine, Edgerton explains”

As he walked out of the classroom to have lunch, he said nonchalantly, “I’m going to do my homework.”

“It depends what time I go to sleep, usually 1:30-3:30 on weekdays. I don’t sleep on the weekends sometimes because of vid-eo games…”

- Casey Edgerton


20 21

A DAY IN AUSTIN

YOU ARE:

By Avery Herman

A friend wants to go on a bike ride with you. You:

Offer to go shopping instead. Who wants to get all sweaty?

Grab your helmet and hit the road.

Suggest rapelling instead. Bike riding is for wimps.

Neiman Marcus is com-ing to the mall. You:

The I.M. fields are hold-ing pick-up basketball games You:

The zoo is holding “swimming with sharks.” You:

Run, screaming, to the car and head over there.

Groan. You only like to shop at the Mom and Pop stores.

Are excited, anything for a quick game of hoops.

You’d rather tan in a lounage chair.

Are disap-pointed. Just basketball?

Hell yeah! Who doesn’t love that?

A SHOPAHOLICAlways on top of the newest gos-sip and the sales. People flock to you for advice on makeup, stores and clothes. Maybe you have all the answers, maybe not but they still ask. The you shop at all the de-partment stores but never pass up the little boutiques. You will never ever wear crocs and always have your best face forward.

A SPORTY PERSONYou love playing sports and watch-ing them too. You cannot get enough of any sport, basketball, football...As a die hard sports fan, you only have one team to support, no matter how good they are. You are stubbern as well, not giving the other team the staisfaction of the win. Your name is sinonymus with competitive.

AN ADVENTURERAways trying new and crazy things. Swimming with sharks, no prob. The only thing that scares you are the people that aren’t adventurous. You are brave and a little crazy. Every-one loves to be around you but sometimes your ideas scare people off. Come on people! Where’s your spirit!

20 21

To start off the day, head down to the Drag (Guada-lupe, along the west edge of UT). Look for cute shops like Manju’s, Blue Velevt, By George, and Urban Outfitters - a cool mix of vintage and high end clothing stores.

FOR THOSE ADDICTED TO SHOPPINGFor lunch, head over to Moonshine Patio bar and Grill (303 Red River) for some good southern cookin’. With appetizers like Corn Dog Shrimp ( 9.95) and meals like Chicken Fried Steak (11.95), it can’t be beat.

For dinner and a movie all in one, head over to the Alamo Drafthouse (409 Colorado St). As you sit down for the movie you will be waited on by servers. Get there a little bit early and be sure to get the popcorn, which is served with delicious real butter. Enjoy!

A nice hike the the Barton Creek green belt would be perfect for a cool Austin morning. Start at the Loop 360 access and hike to the Zilker park access - about a 5 mile hike along a dry creek bed. It’s best to start early, so it doesn’t get too hot.

After that nice long hike, take a swin in Barton Springs ($3), just outside of the Zilker ac-cess. You should be at Barton Springs right after your hike. Spring fed and kept at a con-sistent 68˚ to 70˚, it’s a refresh-ing treat after a long hike. Grab lunch at the snack shack in Zilker park as well.

For all those sports fans who need a big TV and a cold drink to relax, Third Base (1717 W 6th St.) is the perfect mix of a sports bar and a burger place. With poker offered weekly and TVs on all the time, Third Base is a perfect place to relax after a day of swim-ming and hiking.

To start the day off, head to the Cyprus Valley Canopy Tours (Hwy 71 and Pale-face RR.) With zip lines and brigdes, this tour is not for the faint of heart. There are many tours you can choose from, and you can go with friends and family or by your-self.

For a more relaxing afternoon head to the Zilker Botanical Gardens. Take your pick from numerous paths to find the Japanese Garden or the But-terfly Garden. Teeming with peaceful plants and animals, this place is one of the most tranquil in Ausitn.

For dinner go to Uchi, a deli-cious Japanese restruant. The wait is long and the eentrees expensive, but with plenty of sake and edamame appetizers, the wait soon disappears. Bring a friend and try the Omakase, a ten course meal ($100). Uchi is one of a kind and completely deli-cious.

FOR THE SPORTY

FOR THE ADVENTUROUS

22 23

THE BILE FARMBY WALLIS ROBINSON

CREAK! THAT’S THE SOUND of the grille on an old crush cage being pushed down for the second time in its use. Its first occupant is dead. Prob-ably in some landfill lying in a distended heap while its shriveled appendages and ravaged gallbladder are being sold in a shop some-where in Asia. It’s the lucky one. No more suf-fering through daily harvesting of bile. No more atrophy. No more days spent in boredom and agonizing pain.

22 23

The newcomer, a young Asiatic Moon Bear, is being pressed and flattened against the rusty iron bars of its prison. Its crush cage. For the first time in its life. In fact, there’s still blood congealing in a deep gash on its front paw, from where it was caught in a trap left out by its future tormentor. Sud-denly, the frightened animal feels a sharp, excruciating pain in its side. It moans in agony and bites the bar rubbing against its nose.

A long needle has stabbed straight through the muscle wall and into the gallbladder. It will be used to extract bile from this individual and every other bear in this building at least twice a day for the next nine to twenty-five years. Oh – and that grille that got pushed down to make it possible to extract the bile? The farmer forgot to pull it up again. The bear is pinned to the bottom of the cage, with even less mobility than before.

This is bile farming.

Although bear bile is not used much outside of Asia, the distress bile farming causes to its victims is too great to ig-nore. We need to end the use of bear bile and replace it with more effective synthetic and plant based chemicals.

Bear bile has been used for centuries by practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), mostly as a cure for liver-related problems and to relieve cold symptoms. Because of its high concentration of the chemical ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), it has long been considered irreplaceable by another animal’s bile or plants with similar healing attributes. Howev-er, the demand for bear bile and other animal derived “medi-cine” had driven the Asiatic Moon Bear and others such as the Tiger to the brink of extinction.

Farming of the moon bear for its bile began in Korea and then China (and later Vietnam) in the 1980s to preserve re-maining bear populations so that bile could continue to meet the growing consumer demand. It was believed that if the bears were kept alive and harvested daily, fewer bears would be killed in the wild, which would keep the bile market from going under due to extinction of the resource. This was coun-terproductive because many bears were taken from the wild

and continue to be poached today, depleting the population to an equal or greater extent. In addition to further endangering the moon bears in the wild, bear farming has been the source of the unimaginable suffering of about 7,000 (a conservative estimate, says Animals Asia, which believes that the number could be as high as 10,000) bears on farms today. The bears are kept in small, telephone booth-sized cages that have an adjustable metal grille that is lowered when the bear’s bile is being harvested. These grilles often are never lifted once they have been lowered, further limiting the bear’s range of mo-tion. The bears on the farms are clearly in pain; they bite their cages (a sign of anxiety), have scars from rubbing their heads against the bars of the crush cages, and have been observed groaning when their bile is being extracted.

Although free-dripping (drilling a hole into a bear’s gall-bladder and breaking the membrane on the wound when it’s time to extract the bile) is said to be “more humane,” none of the methods used to extract bile can be considered acceptable, since humane treatment would obviously entail giving the an-imal adequate amounts of food and water, medical attention, proper amount of space, and a stress-free environment.

In addition to the fact that bear farming is an egregiously cruel thing to inflict upon the bear species, it also happens to be unnecessary. This is because it’s cheaper and less haz-ardous to synthesize UDCA in a lab than to extract it from a bear. Why is it then that bear-farming still exists? A couple reasons. After a bear stops producing bile, it’s usually left to

Bear farming has been the source of the unimaginable

suffering of about 7,000 bears today. Animals Asia

believes the number could be as high as 10,000.

(Continued on page 26)

24 25BI

LE E

XTRA

CTIO

N ME

THOD

S Metal and Latex TubesAlthough these methods were used at different times in bile farming history, they both are used in a similar way. A 5-7.5 inch long tube is surgically connected to the bear’s gallbladder, and exits the body through the upper leg or abdomen of the bear. The bile is extracted two to three times a day, a process that involves luring the bear down to the bottom of the cage, lowering the crush on it, and finally, harvesting the bile. The latex tubes proved ineffective at extracting bile because the tube was quickly obstructed by solid pieces of bile.

1

Metal JacketsAfter latex tubes and before metal ones, came metal jackets. These permenently encase a bear’s midsection, which causes the bear’s fur to rub against it and mat into painful knots. On one side of the jacket, there’s a box that contains a bag that collects bile. This bag is attached to a tube which, once agian, is surgically connected to the gallbladder. This method is unsafe for the farmers as well because they must remove the bag from an unhappy bear evey two weeks.

2

Free-drippingIn an effort to continue bear farming under the pretense that it was humane, the free dripping technique was developed. Free dripping involves gauging a hole through the bear’s abdo-men and into the gallbladder. The hole is reopened two or three times a day to harvest the bile from the bear. This is even worse than previous methods because it causes bile to leak out into the surrounding area, causing infection, and some-times death.

3

UltrasoundPerhaps the most common method of bile extraction in Viet-nam is using an ultrasound machine to find the gallbladder and inserting a 4 inch syringe into the bear’s stomach until it pokes a hole in the organ. Like free-dripping, this method causes bile leakage into the body. In addition, the bears are drugged using a substance called ketamine, which has numer-ous psychological side effects and has been known to cause liver damage.

4

24 25BILE ALTERNATIVES

1CoptisCoptis is a widely distributed medicinal root that has been

used in China, India, Japan, and North America. The variety used in China is called Coptis chinensis, and is a traditional plant in TCM. Common applications of it include curing gall bladder

stones, cold symtoms, and liver problems, which is more or less what bear bile does. In fact, coptis has been found to contain a chemical similar to the one found in bear bile (UDCA) that is

more effective at killing cancerous cells.

2DandelionAlthough not one of the 50 fundemental herbs used, dande-lions are indeed used in TCM. The most common application

within TCM of the dandelion is clearing heat from the liver, which basically means getting rid of infection and pain in the

liver, another application often designated to bear bile. In addition to being a good alternative for liver problems, dan-

delions have the added benefits of being edible in salads and being present in many backyards throughout the world.

WolfberryAlso known as the Goji Berry or Boxthorn, this antioxidant-

packed fruit is rapidly making itself established in North Amer-ica as a superfood. Although only starting to gain attention in the western world, the wolfberry has long been used in Asian

countries for medicinal purposes, including improving eyesight (a common use of bear bile) and cancer prevention, due to

thier high antioxidant content (antioxidants prevent oxidation, which can create free radicals, the beginnings of cancer).

3

4ChrysanthemumAnother widely distributed plant, chrysanthemums are mostly

used in chrysanthemum tea, which is made using the leaves and blooms of the plant. Chrysanthemum tea is used for cur-

ing colds and sore throats. Dried chrysanthemums are com-monly found in Asian markets and can be brewed in a large

kettle.

26 27

starve to death or is killed on the spot. Either way, the farmer can sell its paws and gallbladder. The number of bile provid-ers now exceeds the demand for bile in the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) market. Since many famers are either unable or unwilling to shut down their farming business, excess bile frequently is put in other products, such as shampoo, tea, and throat lozenges and advertised as having medical benefits. Even though bear bile, along with other animal products, has been considered an irreplaceable substance in TCM, more and more practitioners of it are switching to acceptable herbal and occa-sionally synthetic alternatives. As a result of this and a growing awareness of bear-farming, many farmers no longer make much profit off their business. However, most farmers have no way to get rid of the unwanted bears and so continue harvesting bile from them. In many cases, harvesting bile is a farmer’s liveli-hood, which makes it difficult to just stop doing it, regardless of how little it pays. However, this isn’t a valid reason to keep up bear farming because the Animals Asia Foundation (AAF) of-fers compensation money to farmers who give up their animals and farming license.

The AAF is an organization that works for the humane treat-ment of animals in Asia. Their biggest projects are the Friends…or Food? campaign (which discourages the use of dogs and cats for fur and meat, more because of the cruel transportation and slaughter methods as opposed to moral concerns), and the Moon Bear Rescue project (which actually extends to sun bears and any other bears in or at risk of being taken to a bear farm). At the moment, the AAF houses 286 bears on its grounds, and has confiscated many more. Unfortunately, many bears must be euthanized because of extensive damage to various organs, especially the liver, which is often found to contain massive tu-mors. In addition to saving bears from farms, the AAF works with various governments to promote the use of more effective synthetic and herbal remedies within the community.

As awareness in the western hemisphere grows, pressure has mounted on the Chinese and Vietnamese government to bring bear farming to a swift end. However, seeing that bile farming is not really at the top of these governments’ agendas, they cannot give rescued bears a home or even concentrate much effort into shutting down farms. Because of this, it is important to donate to organizations like Animals Asia that can do something about it. Unfortunately, AAF does not currently have the resources to house 7,000 bears, but the more donations that are made, the more bears that can be saved from their hellish prisons, and the more progress that can be made in eliminating this egregious practice once and for all.

To find out more about bile farming and how to make a do-nation or sponsor a bear, go to the Animals Asia website: http://www.animalsasia.org/

26 27

Above left: Bear bile is sold in many forms in Asia, including podwer, pills, and in liquid form.Left: One of the bears rescued from a bile farm. Unfortunately, Chengdu Truth (bear’s name) had to be put down because of irreversible damage to his body.Above: Chengdu Truth in his crush cage.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ANIMALS ASIA FOUNDATION / ALI BULLOCK

28 29

The college-age political activist says of his childhood, “If I had to designate my house [sic] of any political, it would be Democrat.” He says he is able to provide a Democratic perspective on Republican issues. “A Re-publican going into a Democratic office is not a good premise to begin with,” says Garcia, but with his his-tory, he believes that he’s able to see things differently. “It’s a little easier for me [than for other Republicans] to … maybe not convince them to vote one way, but to … get into their shoes, tell them how [our solution to] the issue would be beneficial from their point of view.”

That bipartisan spirit may be the key to Garcia’s success as an activist. During his time in the College Republicans, the UT chapter has swelled from having just ten members to the largest College Republican chapter in the state. Garcia says that he and his fellow College Republicans just want to “make Texas a better place for everyone.”

When asked why he became active in the Republi-can party, Garcia again talks of his parents. “They also taught me to listen to both sides of the argument … although I started out believing … what my parents believed, I decided to read some conservative books, and I decided that I liked the conservative arguments better.”

Still, says Garcia, he and his fellow officers “mainly

inform people,” spreading political information around. “Most of the things that we go campaign on [with the public] are on local issues, and … well, most people don’t know too much about local issues.” They do this campaigning through “block-walking:” going door-to-door with pamphlets and cards. Although even Garcia sometimes doubts the effectiveness of this approach. Says Garcia, “Most people … they’ll take the handout and say, ‘Thank you very much, I’m eating

dinner right now…’ of course, a lot of the conservative candidates lost…”

As a college Republican, Garcia says he is geared towards on-campus conservatism, rather than throughout the city. Austin is historically very lib-eral, from our public policies regard-ing the environment to the “Keep Austin Weird” campaign throughout the city, so it would make sense for the attitude towards conservatives amongst students - historically a very liberal age group - to be hostile or,

at the very least, suspicious. But surprisingly, Garcia describes the on-campus attitude towards conserva-tives as “friendly.”

As Garcia shows, a bipartisan outlook can go a long way. Garcia is a model for cooperation in politics, something I think many politicians these days could stand to learn a lesson in.

Garcia says that he and his fellow Col-lege Republicans just want to “make Texas a better place for everyone.”

Mikael Garcia says he used to be a Democrat.

28 29

In a world of more and more divided poli-tics, Mikael Garcia remains convinced that the happy medium can still be happy.

STIRRED, NOT SHAKENby Ismael Sobek

30 31

G19 -- POSTED AT 5

TH AND LAMAR, CORN

ER LAMPPOST.... G5

TO WHOLE

FOODS, WATCH SUSPI

CIOUS FIGURE AT TA

BLE 8. DELIVER PA

PERS TO TOP

LEVEL TABLE 7. --

^--

G5 -- FLYING OVER

TABLE 7, TOP LEVEL

. THERE’S A HUMAN

HERE.

ABORCKT MISSION?

--^--

G19 -- NEGIT. HU

MAN NEEDS TO KNOW.

CARRY OUT MISSIO

N. --^--

G5 -- .....ROGIT.

----^_----

Human – This package is one of only three in the world being delivered. Inside is a record of the last few weeks, comprised of selected letters that have been transcribed into English, one of your dialects. These letters were chosen because the council in charge of this operation believes they give the best idea of what is going on within the GGC. This is especially relevant right now because of the most recent virus we have sent out. Although you are not yet in immediate danger, if you cannot begin reducing your population size by this fall, we will be forced to do it for you. Please record this message in as many places as possible so that many people have access to it. Keep in mind that some of our associates do not approve of giving humanity this warning and may snatch it up if you’re not careful. The sooner people find out, the better you shall be prepared. Take this t-----

The Great Gra

30 31

ckle ConspiracyNovember 2004Judging from recent events in human society, things are going to continue getting worse. Although there may be a continued death count in the Middle Est, not enough will die to significantly dent the human population, and in the mean time, nothing will be done towards lowering the population by more effective, less pain-ful means. Please wait on table perch 1.6 with vials for CG287. She will carry it north to another CG, who will move it to the northern most borders of the range. CG-R himself will then take it to our raven friends. They will carry it to Thailand and infect the selected livestock there. Although this virus is also slow, it has a high plastici--

32 33

...

November 1958Our comrades to the north have developed another virus, though much less lethal than the previous one. We believe this is important because there is no reason to wipe out a large portion of the human population, as they are only predicted to proliferate uncontrollably. In addition, it is possible for this strategy to backfire. If the virus is too deadly, the humans will be more inclined to develop more effective vaccine technology. Please alter these tablets at the base next to Lamppost 25. The tablets will be dropped in the trashcan of on level 2 of ---

32 33

...

April 2009In a few days time, GG09 will once again deliver our

latest prototype to its starting destination. Unlike our

raven friend’s assignment in 2004, GG09 will carry the

tablets, instead of ingesting them, as this is too high a

risk to the bird population. GG10 has found a suitable

pair for the final step in the creation of this strain, one of

which will eat anything (a young member of the target

group), and one of which will eat almost anything (a

domesticated, but rather intelligent form of wild h---

COMPILED BY WALLIS ROBINSON

34 35

As the summer ends, we head to the beach, to watch the thursday night fireworks. Cleo grabs a handful of sparklers and I grab the blanket. As the rumble of the ocean gets louder and the road thins out, we start up the walkway. Sand tickling our bare feet. The moon is behind a cloud and the beach is pure black, with the occasional sparkler lighting the ocean. Couples snuggle in the sand. We try to avoid sitting near them, not wanting to disturb anything. As the moon pulls out from behind the grasp of the clouds, the fireworks start. Golds and blues, purples and reds. And we sink into the sand, sending the summer off with a wave of our sparklers, needing nothing more than this.

Late August arrives, the sun heating the pools and lakes of the town. As soon as my dad pulls into the driveway, I slip on my longhorn shirt and grab my cap and we’re off! Gloves in hand, we walk to the front. The sun is high in the sky so I angle myself just right so the sun is glancing off my face but not quite blinding me. Whap, Whap. Ball hits glove. Dad has wanted me to play softball, pushing me to throw with him after work. But I see Grant ride by. I sprint off, and my dad’s dreams melt in the heat of the summer. Pooling into the cracks of the sidewalk.

My brother pats his hand on my back, leav-ing sticky finger prints on my shirt. I push him away, five is too old for sisters to have to deal with their little brothers. He pouts, to young to understand. Just like a three year old, his little hand offers the purple mess on the stick. The purple juice slides over his hands, a peace offering. It fills the cracks of his palms, his hands now a mottled violet. His eyes plead, as he stretches his arm to-wards me, grubby fingers stained with grape. I sweep him into a hug, purple mushed between us. He plants a sticky kiss on my forehead and slips his hand into mine. To-gether we are unstoppable.

My grubby fingers grasp the side of a painted pink sign board. The makings of a perfect lemonade stand. Blais, holding some plastic cups, stumbles down the steps. Chubby legs swaying, he falls on to his butt, cups flying everywhere. I dropped the sign and run, straight to his side. I pull him up and grab the cups. I have to get the stand set before Grant shows up, he won’t play unless everything is ready. Katherine walks out with the lemonade and I grab it, spilling drops along the front of my already stained t-shirt. The hot August sun beats down the ice, and the lemonade becomes sickly sweet. I gulp some down anyway.

I’m running down the street, bare-feet slip-slap-ping on the sun-warmed pavement. This is the first year I am able to cross the street by myself and I take it in full stride, bounding, skipping, leaping and cartwheeling. Neighbors call out, smile and wave, impressed by my contain-less energy. Next door the sprinkler sprays a wall of water, first hitting my toes and then to the thirsty ivy, thin fingers spanning a wall. The hot black asphalt burns my toes so I hop, hop onto the speed bumps and over to the sweet grass of the neighbor’s yard. I sink into the grass, tired and suddenly pain shoots into my toes. I look down and I have scraped the skin, somewhere along my dizzying trip. I rest my toe against the curb, deep red against the white of the summer.

Colors of My Child hood

by Avery Herman

34 35

Colors of My Child hood

by Avery Herman

The magazine tells us grey, grey is the new color of the summer. So we dress up, grey eyeliner and silver nail polish. Dark grey jeans with a shock of color for a shirt. Blue for me, red for Ella and yellow for Cleo. We have to look nice since I have a date for this dance. Cleo and Ella are looking for the perfect boy that these magazines always promise. Dusk is settling in as we walk to the old grey house. We walk past the tennis courts, wet with the residing rain. As we walk past the ice cream parlor I remember. The dance is cancelled on the third week of July. They look at me and Cleo cocks her head in the direction of the dance hall. I can’t let them down so I stop in my tracks, not wanting to say but having to.

I see him everyday for two weeks. Every single day. We swim, we laugh, we play. We are joined at the hip. I still have the necklace he gave me, at the dance last year. We are inseparable. Him and his brothers tease me and I feelthat I be-long. It had been a great year, with us emailing all the time. Planning out the summer, one day at a time. And for a little while it is great. Until they get here. The girls, the ones that steal his time and take his love. I don’t understand, half of me jealous and the other sad. Slowly I am cut out of the picture, piece by piece, day by day, until it is just me. Only me, and I can’t stand it, I’m losing something I never had and it hurts, hurts real bad.

I am sitting on the green grass in front of Grummy’s porch, eating a klondike bar, white and brown mixing, pooling under my chin. My legs swing back and forth, sweat free, thanks to the cool Vermont sun. Blais is riding a bike with my little cousin. She squeals with pleasure as they pedal in circles. She is dwarfed by his tall frame. The bike, which is made for little kids, is being flattened under his nine-year-old body. I wave and they wave back. I lean against the stucco of the porch, planning out the whole day. We might go get creamies at Eddy Bison’s store or maybe we will go to the Montpelier pool. Maybe we will just stay here. I sigh and sink back into all those maybes.

The house is yellow, a spark of life in the dusty Maine twilight. I hop out of the car before it comes to a complete stop. I run up the stairs and pull on the door. Locked. My mom and Grum-my don’t share the same excitement that I do. I yell back to them and fall into the dusty porch furniture. The first day in Maine is always the best. I am not yet used to the smell of the salt and it tickles my nose. As my mom unlocks the door, I push her aside and head indoors. I look out the window. I see all the moms and dads lugging tired children and sandy beach toys. I see the late beach goers, trying to take in the last of the sun’s rays. I join them, lying in the sand, grabbing the rays and hold them close to my heart, as the sun pulls up its own stakes.

The workers come, lugging large slats of wood. The sun beats down on them, slumping their backs and staining their shirts. I sit at the win-dow, forehead smushed against the glass. Eyes wide with wonder. Mom calls, nap-time for me. I wonder why, I haven’t taken a nap in six months. My mom pulls me to my room, and as she leaves she gives a little wink to the work men. I drift off to sleep, falling back into the dreams of a young girl. The hour is over, I bolt down stairs, grasping at the door handle. I get it open and there it is...A playground, fit for a princess. Brassy wood shines like a new penny. So much magic in this play-scape. Folded into the swings and tucked behind the slide. The kind of magic that never goes away.

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THETHINGSWELEAVEBEHINDBY ISMAEL SOBEK

We, as a culture, value the new. We like the shiny new car and the fast new computer and the lastest buzzing, whirring, or talking toy. But what gets discarded? When something goes in, some-thing else must come out.

These are those things. These are the things we leave behind.

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Advantages: This is the most com-monly used grip. It would

be easy to find a teacher that uses this grip and you can practice with your friends who use the same grips and get advice from them. This is one of the grips that I use and I find it to be the easiest and most effective. It is also easy to perform all forehand and backhand strokes with this grip, making it a good grip for players who like to attack the ball from every angle.Disdvantages: A disadvantage of this grip is that it has a ‘crossover point’; where the player has to decide which shot to hit, forehand or backhand, because the ball where the ball cannot easily hit with one shot, and the decision mut be made quickly.

Advantages: This grip allows the wrist to move freely. Because you can

move your wrist freely, the forehand with more be con-trolled and powerful. The player also is not conflicted with a ‘crossover point’ because the same side is used for the player with this grip. It also allows the player to block and push easily on the backhand side because the backhand side always stays flat and foward. Disdvantages: This grip is not good for a consistent backhand spin because it requires the player to bend the wrist unnaturally. This grip is better for slice and returning shots by pushing the “blade” foward.

Advantages: This grip is almost identical to the Shakehand Shallow Grip

above. The advantages of the deep grip is that it pre-vents the racket from moving in the hand as much, and removes some of the wrist flexibility. This is useful for players who want more control and less power.Disdvantages: This grips shares the same disadvan-tage of the Shakehand Shallow becasue it has a ‘cross-over point’ but it can also be difficult to attack balls over the table, due to the lack of wrist movement.

As you might have heard, Table Tennis, or Ping-Pong as it is more commonly known, is be-coming increasingly popular. For all of you aspiring Ping Pong players, I will show you the

most favored and easiest to use Ping-Pong grips. Check out these...

Shakehand Shallow

Chinese Penhold

Shakehand Deep

NOTE: This grip is similar to the Shakehand Shallow, but the whole hand is positioned further up the handle of the “blade,” placing the finger more on the face.

NOTE: The only difference between this grip and the Japanese/ Korean Penhold is the fingers are curled when preforming this grip.

NOTE: This grip is the most commonly used. The hand is placed at the base of the ‘blade” handle and the finger is positioned where it is the most comfortable.

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Advantages: This grip allows an extending reach, making returns faster

and mre accurate. The player also has more leverage, the ability to produce more power, spin, ability to pro-duce shots with wide angles, and more control. Having a grip that is good for power, control, and wide angles.Disdvantages: Shots to or above the player’s elbow can be difficult to return because the area of overlap between the forehand and backhand stroke zones is smaller than the shakehand grip. This makes the player unable to ocver the table easily.

Advantages: This grip is almost identical to the Chinse Penhold but the

three finger on the back of the “blade” are exteneded rather than curled which adds power that can be made on the forehand side. The wrist can move relatively freely when moving the “blade” from left to right, and vice versa, which is good for spin and slice.Disdvantages: It is difficult to decide which type of shot to use because you have a limited amount of space on the backhand side because the fingers are extended. This grip also has a restricted reach on the backhand side, making it necessary for players to cover more of the table with their forehand side.

Advantages: The Seemiller grip allows good wrist move-ment on the forehand stroke,

giving a powerful forehand topspin. It is also good for blocking on both sides.The grip does not have the problem of a crossover point that the shakehands grip has. This grip is almost identical to the Shakehand Deep but the “blade” is held higher up the handle and the index finger is resting against the “blade.”Disdvantages: The wrist cannot move as freely on the backhand side, limiting spin and power. The wrist is also bends a little unnaturlly on both stork sides, mak-ing this grip hard on the wrist.

The V Grip

Japanese / Korean Penhold

Seemiller Grip

Blade Grips

NOTE: This grip is similar to the Shakehand Deep, but the plam is raised off the handle of the “blade” and the index finger is wrapped around the side of the face.

NOTE: The index and middle finger are placed where the handle meets the face of the “blade.” The thumb is placed over the index finger of wherever posible.

NOTE: This grip is similar to the Chinese Penhold, but the fingers are extended rather than curled.

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To create these two very different kinds of po-ems, I found three articles relating to our theme (some-what). For the first two Black-Out poems, my goal was to take an article about music and make it funny or com-pletely different from what the title suggests. The next one, titled “Global,” was a little more serious, a sort of warning for people worldwide of the imminent changes due to global warming. The third and final poem was my finale and I wanted it to be different than the rest. This one I decided to make a “White-Out” poem with a myste-rious title. I got my inspiration from Austin Kleon, a guy who makes Black-Out poems from his website and even posted a video on how he did it. I enjoyed making them from the start.

BLACK&WHITE-OUTPOEMS By Dayan D’Aniello

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PAGE 4 (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT): DAYAN D’ANIELLO, BRUCE ROBINSON, LYNN BLAIS, THERESA JENKINS

PAGE 6: FELICIANO GUIMARÃES

PAGE 8 (ACROSS): FLICKR USER “DEUSXFLORIDA ,“ FLICKR USER “THE WANDERING ANGEL,“ AND FLICKR USER “LITTLEBIGSIS“

PAGE 9: FLICKR USER “DEUSXFLORIDA“

PAGE 10: BRUCE ROBINSON

PAGE 13: THESE PHOTOS ARE STILLS TAKEN FROM THE “STRIKING“ MUSIC VIDEO BY FRANCIS AND THE LIGHTS

PAGE 14: RON ALMOG

PAGES 22-23 (ALL): ANIMALS ASIA FOUNDATION

PAGE 24 (ALL): ANIMALS ASIA

PAGE 25 (DOWN): FLICKR USER “PVERDONK,“ PER OLA WIBERG, KOK ROBIN, AND FLICKR USER “FORESTMIND“

PAGE 28: JANE GEORGE

PAGE 29: UT COLLEGE REPUBLICANS

PAGES 30-33: WALLIS ROBINSON; BACKGROUND IM-AGE BY FLICKR USE GROUND*FLOOR

PAGES 36-45 (ALL): ISMAEL SOBEK

PAGES 46-47 (ALL): DAYAN D’ANIELLO

CONTD. FROM P. 11PHOTO CREDITS

DISCLAIMER: PLEASE NOTE THAT THE ILLUSTRATION ON PAGE 18 IS NOT AN ORIGINAL ARTWORK, BUT A DE-RIVITAVE WORK OF AN IMAGE FOUND ONLINE. EVERY EFFORT WAS MADE TO IDENTIFY THE ORIGINAL ARTIST. IF YOU ARE THE CREATOR OR KNOW THE CREATOR OF THE ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATION, PLEASE CONTECT US AT [email protected]

ANDY BUCK (COVER PHOTO) HAS MORE OF HIS PHO-TOGRAPHIC WORK ON DISPLAY AT HTTP://SYMPOSED.COM.

NO ROYALTY-FREE ICONS WERE HARMED IN THE MAK-ING OF THIS MAGAZINE.

Being able to pick up on these ideas and inclinations, no matter how they get there, is what creates different cultures, and causes them to change over time. Robinson believes that mass media is becoming ever more important in causing change within countries, and is particularly interested in its role in China.

“My current theory… is that CCTV (Chinese Central Television) allows the Chinese government to communicate with the Chinese people, and the people to communicate back, in a way that is pseudo-democratic.,” explains Robin-son. “Chinese people do not get to vote on their leaders or the policies of their government, but because of the way that China Central Television works these days, it now acts as both a creator and a conduit of public opinion, making it the closest thing that the Chinese people currently have to an instrument of popular control over their government.”

The reason that CCTV occupies this role is because it is completely government owned. Since it is government owned, it only airs what the government wants it to air. So there isn’t any sort of really major criticism of the govern-ment shown. However, the government has to make a profit from CCTV, so it has to air things that are interesting to the public. As a result, the government airs things they think will appeal to its citizens. If it’s well received, then CCTV makes a profit. If not, then it loses some money. So it acts as a social barometer of the citizens’ approval of their govern-ment, which is important to the government because of their need to appease the people to successfully stay in power.

This is a new concept that Robinson is exploring, one that is his own original idea, and he believes it’s a good one. “It is always compelling (to me) to pursue good ideas. Not easy, however. Because you have to make them clear, and they have to make sense.”

Although Robinson wants to pursue these ideas, he is unwilling to become a professor, the only feasible job open to him. As a result, he finds himself between a FedEx route and academia, moving slowly towards a coauthored book. What will come out of these odd hours? Robinson doesn’t know yet. “FedEx will wear me out physically at some point. The book is still on.”

ALT

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