Volume 48 - Issue 23April 1, 2015

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Wednesday, April 1, 20152

Wednesday, April 1, 2015 booze 3

Budgets, beats and boardroomsThe alternative budget crafted by the Ryerson Students Union (RSU) was met with confu-sion at the Board of Governors (BoG) meeting and opposition on March 30.

The content of the RSUs presen-tation to the BoG was somewhat unexpected, according to Ryerson President Sheldon Levy.

We were actually expecting this presentation to be at the next meeting, said Levy after the pre-sentation.

But the RSU received an invita-tion to speak at the BoG on March 26 and had given administration the slides shortly after, according to RSU Vice-President Education Jesse Root.

Root said that the purpose of this meeting was to talk about the context of high tuition fees. During the BoG meeting they used

Jesse Root speaks to a crowd about the alternative budget.PHOTO: al dOwnHam

specific examples from the alterna-tive budget to explain their points.

We gave them that presenta-tion within 24 hours of them in-viting us to that meeting in the first place, Root said. I found that an attempt to delegitimize me a little bit, which I didnt appreciate.

Following Roots presentation, Ryersons Deputy Provost Paul Stenton, said that a tuition freeze would cost the school $73 million over 10 years. Root said that the BoG could email him to discuss anything in the alternative budget that they disagree with.

Im happy that they were at least listening I think ultimately well see what their reaction is when and if governors take up my invitation to talk with them about the budget, Root said.

Before the presentation the RSU rallied supporters to follow them into the BoG meeting. They had music and megaphones, but they

werent the only ones. A counter-rally was organized

under the name Enough is Enough to protest the Freeze the Fees campaign. This ran parallel with Freeze the Peas, a satirical rally held on March 27 that was also a food drive.

We donated a bunch of canned goods and we had students come in and collect and its a pretty big donation for the Good Food Room, said Obaid Ullah, incom-ing vice-president operations for the RSU.

It was rally against rally as a small battalion of engineers took the centre of Lake Devo for their protest dance party. Both the RSU and Enough is Enough rallies blast-ed music to drown the other out.

People stopped and stared in confusion as both sides dueled with decibels. When both the RSU and the Enough is Enough rally played Uptown Funk at the same time, the audio war ended.

Theyve been out protesting and not been giving information as to why they have such an is-sue with the alternative budget [Its] making a mockery of student poverty, Root said.

The fact these things dont matter to them [and] they cant just stay out of the way and rec-ognize that these are issues for a lot of students on campus is really frustrating.

Root said he believes that the actions hes seen from students is alarming, especially regarding in-

coming RSU executives. My challenge to them again,

as Ive said publicly before, is if these issues dont matter to you, thats fine, and in fact, great but please stay out of the way when were trying to advocate on our members interest, Root said.

He said he worries that the in-coming RSU slate will undo the work that he and the rest of the current executives have done this year.

Cormac [McGee], whos go-ing into my position, has said that the only way hes ever gotten any-thing, and this is what he said in the debate, was through sitting down and asking for it, Root said.

Ive been sitting down and ask-ing for this stuff for four months, eight months, nine months, how-ever long Ive been here ... things only started to happen when we did other things like rallies.

Ryerson is making the most of its phone bills

Ryerson University made more than $125,000 this year from the phones in your residence rooms that you unplugged and threw in your closet to make space for booze.

The 252 students that reside in the International Living and Learning Centre (ILLC) and 565 students living in Pitman Hall all paid a fee of $156 this year for phone services a total of $127,452.

I think its completely stupid. Im already paying an arm and a leg to live in res because I dont live in Toronto normally. You dont get messages on it anyways. So its kind of useless, said Abi-gail Miller, a first-year criminol-ogy student.

According to Ian Crookshank, Ryersons director of student com-munity life, any excess money would be spent on other forms of communication like in-room in-ternet access, although he said the

By Keith Capstick

Engineers countered the RSU rally by dancing on lake devo. PHOTO: JakE ScOTT

Phones are the most useful things people own, except when theyre plugged into the wall like an ancient artifact.PHOTO: JakE ScOTT

school needs to change the way it drafts the budget. Residence stu-dents pay an additional $160 per room for internet access.

The way that I would look at it is that the full phone charges and the equivalent charge which is for the internet, those charges havent changed in 15 years or something like that, he said.

A better and probably more accurate label for both of them would probably be communica-tion charges.

But Crookshank is aware that students are using their landlines less and less each year.

The longer-term conversation is that we know that the tech-nology is that students have cell phones and are less likely to use the landlines in the room, Crook-shank said.

Maddie Lamirande, a first-year hospitality and tourism manage-ment student, is also adamant that the transition to students using mainly cell phones has made these landlines obsolete.

Ive had a message on that phone probably since the first day of school and I havent checked it, Lamirande said.

Crookshank, whos in charge of developing the housing statistics that are provided in the schools budget, says that its his priority to make this change possible going

McGee, the incoming vice-presi-dent education for the RSU, agrees with the sentiment of the current RSU, but not the execution.

If I was VP education and I developed an alternative budget I wouldnt be yelling in the streets about it. They went to the finance committee and got accepted ... I commend that, they seem pretty professional from what I hear, McGee said.

I dont know if the budget is being taken seriously or its just giving them a platform that they can say that they spoke on Professionally I think the admin would be smart to look at the budget and forget about the other bullshit.

The RSU will be addressing ad-justments to the alternative budget at the annual BoG budget meeting in April.

With files from Jackie Hong and Keith Capstick.

By Jake Scott

forward. He also added that stu-dent reps are consulted to make any budget decisions or revisions.

Its important to look at some-thing far more all-encompassing like a communication charge. Rather than something thats bro-ken down into these categories which at this point in time are

kind of misleading, Crookshank said.

With this in mind both Miller and Lamirande said that its sur-prising when they have a message.

Actually I had a message on it the other day, and it was just from Rogers and I was like I dont even use you, Miller said.

4 eddys tutorial Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Editor-in-ChiefMohamed Defies Pickles Omar

NewsJackie Undermines Beets Hong

Jake BESTOWS BANANAS ScottKeith SQUASHES Squash Cap-

stick

FeaturesCharles Shaves Kiwis Vanegas

Biz & TechLaura Understands Sea Salt

Woodward

Arts and LifeAl Freezes Peas Downham

SportsJosh Dribbles Potatoes Beneteau

CommunitiesDylan Finds Beans Freeman-Grist

PhotoRob Films Cabbage ForemanSierra Believes Radish Bein

Stephen Lifts Melons Armstrong

FunEmma Judges Mangoes Cosgrove

MediaBadri Edits Plums Murali

OnlineFarnia Hunts Apricots Fekri

Behdad Suspects Coconuts Mahichi

Web DeveloperKerry Maps Peaches Wall

General ManagerLiane Manages Pears McLarty

Advertising ManagerChris Knows Pineapples Roberts

Design DirectorJ.D. Designs Papayas Mowat

Circulation ManagerMegan Circs Lettuce Higgins

ContributorsBrandon Kevin Buechler Maya Rookie ShlayenAidan Radical Macnab

Dana Undead Dank DwaikNatacha Nass Exodus Janjic

Robert Quite Fun MackenzieYoupSo Very Fun Zondag

David Weed Jesus LaoMansoor Boom Boom Tanweer

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Lulu VR TanenbaumChris Fearless Specialist

BlanchetteTagwa Quiet Artist Moyo

Anders Tuff Demon MarshallAnnie B-Loved Dominator

Arnone

Jake Dat Green KivancSalmaan Smash Bro Farooqui

Bahoz Oozing Class DaraSarah LARPAGEDDON Desabrais

Super Awesome InternsAnika Sgt. Peppers Syeda

Hayley Lonely AdamMohamud Hearts Club IsmailSarah-Jayne Band A. Canlas

Playing the part of the Annoying Talking Coffee Mug this week is the Sunshine List. Thank you very much for letting us know that there are some people working in offices at Ryerson who MAKE MORE MONEY THAN HUMAN BE-INGS WHOSE CAREER IS DE-VOTED TO CARING FOR OTH-ER HUMAN BEINGS LIVES. BY JESUS, MOHAMED AND MO-SES, GET YOUR FISCAL SELVES TOGETHER AND STOP PAYING SO MUCH MONEY TO PEOPLE WHO HAVE LITTLE TO NO BENEFIT TO STUDENTS. April Fools! Go ahead and enjoy all that cash, you financially-stable rascals!

The Eyeopener is Ryersons largest and only independent student news-paper. It is owned and operated by Rye Eye Publishing Inc., a non-profit corporation owned by the students of Ryerson. Our offices are on the second floor of the Student Campus Centre. You can reach us at 416-979-5262, at theeyeopener.com or on Twitter at @theeyeopener.

Q&A with Ryersons richestBy Mohamed Omar

Ontarios so-called Sunshine List, which shows the names and posi-tions of public sector employees who made $100,000 or more the previous year, came out on March 27. One thousand twenty-two Ryer-son employees made the list in 2014, and we got an exclusive interview with all of them at once. We will hereby refer to all of them collec-tively as Ram Cashmoney, or RC.

Eyeopener: How does it feel to make all that money?

RC: Pleasant. Yes, quite. We also receive benefits, like healthcare, dental, life insurance and Monop-oly money. Do peasant students en-

joy such delicacies?E: No. Never.RC: Good. E: Did you know that all 1,022 of

you combined account for almost $147 million in salaries alone?

RC: Quite.E: Can you justify that?RC: We work hard.E: So do students and young

graduates. But a lot of them strug-gle to find jobs and benefits are un-heard of these days.

RC: Look, asshole, what is this interview actually about?

E: We just want to know whRC run away, shouting Im rich,

biatch! while $100 bills gush out of their pockets.

want to own your very own newspaper? check out ryersonian.ca for more details.

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Eyeopener Fall 2015 Elections

Speeches:6:30pm, April 2nd, in the VIP Roomin the depths of the

Ram In The Rye

Voting10:30am - 4:00pm

April 3rd

vote via emaileditor@theeyeopener.com

via voicecall 416-979-5262

live and in personSCC207

Eligible voters: Ben Waldman, Evan Manning, Chris Blanch-ette, Daniel Rocchi, Tagwa Moyo, Lulu Tannenbaum, Andrei Pora, Julia Knope, Jacob Dub, Mansoor Tanweer, Aidan Mac-nab, Robert Mackenzie, Karoun Chahinian, Bahoz Dara, Cater-ina Amaral, Jacob Thielen, Anders Marshall, Deven Knill, Sean Wetselaar, Natalia Balcerzak, Jess Tsang, Nicole Schmidt, Leah Hansen, Becca Goss, Deni Verklan, David Lao, Luke Gala-ti, Krista Robinson, Brennan Doherty, Devin Jones, Michael Grace-Dacosta, Annie Arnone, Nick Dunne, Jake Kivanc, Aidan Hamelin, Matt Ouellet, Brandon Buechler and Justin Chandler.

Eligible voters are students who have contributed six or more times since August 2014. If you dont see your name on the list, please email editor@theeyeopener.com

Wednesday, April 1, 2015 dudes 5

The coffee train ends here, kidsFirst-year students are no longer allowed to use their meal plan funds to purchase Starbucks gift cards

By Julianna Garofalo

Ryerson students can no longer use the meal plan funds on their OneCard to purchase gift cer-tificates from the Starbucks in the Student Learning Centre (SLC) due to tax laws imposed by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

Students have been buying Star-bucks gift cards to use up their re-maining meal plan balance before the end of term, as the balance does not carry forward into the next academic year.

Ellis Poleyko, a first-year RTA school of media student, took to Facebook after she was told by a Starbucks barista that she couldnt use her OneCard to buy a gift cer-tificate from the cafe in the SLC. A few weeks prior, at the same loca-tion, Poleyko was able to use her meal plan funds to purchase a $50 Starbucks gift card.

Update: Ryerson told the Starbucks in the SLC that we can no longer use our OneCards to get gift certificates because despite the fact we are paying a crazy amount for tuition, they want to steal more of our mon-ey, read the post shared on the Ryerson University Class of 2018 Facebook page.

The purchase of gift cards us-ing OneCard meal plan funds is not permitted as it goes against the Canada Revenue Agency rules governing the non-tax-able status for on campus meal plans, Darcy Flynn, OneCard manager, said in an email. This includes any gift card such as those sold by Starbucks, Tim Hortons or other establishments

on campus.According to the CRA, gift cer-

tificates do not meet the condi-tions of a tax-free meal provided under a meal plan.

The Starbucks gift cards were accidentally sold at the Student Learning Centre as the new staff at the location were unaware that meal plan funds on the OneCard were not permitted for that trans-action. Staff have been since in-formed that this practice is not permitted, said Flynn.

I am very frustrated. I pay for most of my own schooling and I can hardly afford it as it is. On top of paying high tuition fees, Im going to have a bunch more money taken away from me at the end of the year if I dont use up all of my meal plan, said Poleyko in an interview. Its greedy and unfair.

At Ryerson, students who live in the International Living Learning Centre or Pitman Hall residence

buildings are required to purchase a meal plan. The mandatory meal plans are available in small, me-dium and large, ranging from ap-proximately $2,500 for the flex plan or $4,000 for the full meal plan.

Its our own money. We were forced to buy a meal plan so big many of us cannot finish it, so we should be able to get our money back, said Poleyko. If Ryerson isnt willing to give us back the money we dont spend, we should be able to buy gift cer-tificates that we can use at future times.

After reading Poleykos Face-book post, Jonathan DaCosta, 19, decided to petition the university to reform its OneCard policies.

When I read through the com-ments on the post, I saw that peo-ple wanted a petition to be start-ed, he said. I just put the wheels in motion.

DaCosta launched the online

petition on Change.org. So far, more than 200 supporters have signed it.

I feel like us students are being ripped off, he said. We should have the right to do whatever we want with our remaining balance. I know some people who are going to lose upwards of $1,000 because they cant finish their plan. Other universities allow the plans to be refunded or extended, so Ryerson should incorporate that into their policy too.

First-year student, Alyssa Keighan said that the real issue is not the purchase of gift cards with meal plan funds but the loss of un-spent meal plan money.

Its ridiculous, she said. I un-derstand that a gift certificate may not be a legitimate meal, but it is a future meal. If I cant use my extra cash to buy things like gift certifi-cates, its not going to get spent.

The real question is, why do they get to keep my leftover money?

PHOTO: FLICKR/MSSARAKELLY

PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA

96.6 scarlettmacaws

1.2 McDonalds franchises

Name: Madeleine Lefebvre Title: Chief LibrarianSalary: $193,375.30, or,

Sun shines on Rye

Name: Wendy CukierTitle: Vice-President Research and Innovation Salary: $366,223.54, or,

More than 1,000 Ryerson employ-ees made more than $100,000 in 2014, according to the Ontario governments public sector salary disclosure list (the Sunshine List). Here are some of Ryersons (and the provinces) top earners and what they could buy with their salaries:

122,074.5 hot dogs

Name: Sheldon LevyTitle: PresidentSalary: $370,475.04, or,

PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA

Science one step closer to forming a society

Name: Mohamed LachemiTitle: Provost and Vice-Presi-dent Academic Salary: $349,999.96, or,

PHOTO: FLICKR/KARI SDERHOLM

140,562.2 bags (105,421 kg) of Green Giant frozen peas

The Board of Governors approved a referendum for the Ryerson Science Society during its March 30 meeting

By Laura Woodward

The Ryerson Science Society (RSS) is one step closer to being created.

On March 30, Ana Sofia Vargas Garza presented the logistics of the society at the Board of Governors meeting resulting in their referen-dum being approved by the board.

We presented what the science society is willing to do in the up-coming years, what we have done and what were planning to do. We asked [the board] to go on ref-erendum next semester, in order to get support for our society, Var-gas Garza said.

If students vote in favour of cre-ating the RSS in the fall semester, students in the Faculty of Science will pay $22.50 per semester to

fund the society.The price was decided through

surveys conducted in Fall 2014 by science students that asked others how much theyd be willing to pay and whether they would be in sup-port of the referendum.

An extra $22 wont do much to the $7,000 that Im already pay-ing, said Mariam Chakvetadze, a fourth-year biology student.

But Vargas Garza said the mon-ey would go toward supporting students initiatives [and] student groups. We want to make sure we foster collaborations between dif-ferent student groups. We also want to make sure we give professional developments to students to make sure students know what to do when they graduate.

Alisa Prsaut, a second-year bio medical science student said she thinks the Faculty of Science needs a society. Our program is rela-tively new so we need a voice as well. And everyone else has one, so why not? Prsaut said.

The science faculty separated from the engineering faculty nearly three years ago, the same year the science executive team decided to create its own society. In that time, the executive worked with the student union, other student soci-eties [and] the deans office we wanted to make sure everyone was 100 per cent supportive of the sci-ence society before we even consid-ered going to the board, Vargas Garza said.

Imogen Coe, the dean of the

Faculty of Science says she was de-lighted the proposal went through.

Weve supported [the executive] and directed them to people that could help them in developing a proposal, making sure that it would cover all the bases, Coe said.

Voting will occur in the fall semester of 2015 to determine whether the RSS will receive stu-dent funding or not.

For a brief period of time, students were able to use their meal plans to buy green tea lattes. Yuck.PHOTO: SIERRA BEIN

Ana Sofia Vargas Garza.

PHOTO COURTESY ANA SOFIA VARGAS GARZA

6 Wednesday, April 1, 2015T-SHIRTs

This man is dying! Shall I finish him?

Bas Grav stalks out from a round, circus-

style tent, leaving a body sprawled on the dirt inside. No one con-fronts this man wearing a Doctor Doom mask. His hands turn into fists when no one attempts to pull out a weapon to try and protect his latest victim. He turns on his heel, mud squelching under his boots. Fine then!

All around Bartertown, bod-ies lie in the mud. There are 10 sprawled along the main street dressed in dirt-covered camou-flage and torn up khakis. Its been raining all day. Moaning zombies add to the misery. The only thing louder than them is the screaming.

This isnt real, but the fear is. [Elegys world] is a harsh and

dangerous world where the doom of humanity is well and truly upon us, but in which humans keep on struggling on to survive, says co-founder Julia Gurro.

Elegy is a live action role-play

ter board games were introduced, roleplay games such as Dungeons and Dragons allowed players to impact the narrative. Now, LARP-ing allows players to physically alter the course of the game. With one word, one Nerf bullet, a char-acter can change an entire plotline.

Theres a large stigma around LARP, though. Despite being a part of geek culture, it hasnt

become popular in the way that comic books and video games have. Lowell Williams, the presi-dent of Ryerson Universitys As-sociation of Ryerson Role-players and Gamers (ARRG), says its a weird line to draw between geek culture and popular geek culture. But its still a line that LARP hasnt been able to cross. Iantorno says that LARPing is just too nerdy for the majority of the culture and society itself. Williams believes that part of this idea of it being too much comes from a place of intimidation. Lori Connor, a Ryerson journalism graduate, the Elegy player behind Toshra Freed-Lance, and an ARRG member, says that LARPing is seen as be-ing at the extreme end of the nerd spectrum, and that its full of weirdos.

She thought this herself, when friend Marco De Crescentiis ARRG president in 2013-14 mentioned Elegy to her. Her ini-tial thought was that it sounded kinda weird and nerdy but she got hooked when Elegy ran a day event for ARRG in the Student Campus Centre in 2013. Her thoughts quickly turned to, Oh crap, this is awesome! and she attended her first weekend event in October 2013.

Between ARRG and Elegy, Con-nor managed to make a set of new friends. She joined ARRG in her second year at Ryerson, and she says she didnt have many friends at school. She had to travel home to the suburbs every night, so staying late at school for clubs or hanging out with other students wasnt an ideal thought. Upon finding ARRG, she says that the club was where she made most of her friends during university.

Valerie Gershman, a fourth-year architecture student at Ryerson, and a sassy mutant bird shaman in

are you afraid of the LARp?By Sarah Desabrais

Elegy, can attest to finding friends through LARP. She says shes a shy person by nature, but LARP is one such event that helps [her] get out of [her] shell and be a little more gregarious.

It is a very unique experience in that it allows you to be someone else for a while, giving you freedom to be whoever you want to be, to

express yourself on your terms. She says she is a member of

ARRG via Facebook presence only, but she can still be counted among the small group of LARP-ers involved. During the student fair at the beginning of the semes-ters, Williams says that out of the roughly 120 sign-ups they receive, maybe only five to seven people will be interested in the hobby.

He himself has attended a single LARP event, Elegys May 2014 game, the same event Gershman started at, but says it just wasnt [his] thing.

Williams says there isnt as much of a stigma around LARP-ing as he thought and especially not on campus. He says, This isnt high school, commenting

on Ryersons and univer-sities in gen-eral diverse population. In regards to geek culture on cam-

pus, he says there isnt much but ARRG is the place for that.

Both Connor and Gersh-man were part of the 110 players who came to-gether for Elegys dreary

second season finale. The event was permeated with the promise of death and it was evident from the newbie mod, an intro adven-ture into the world of Elegy, that

(LARP) set up at a campsite called Mythwood, about two hours northwest of Toronto, near the small village of Dundalk, Ont.

Unlike most LARPs in southern Ontario, Elegy is set in a post-apocalyptic universe instead of a fantasy/medieval one a point co-founder Jamie Snetsinger says makes for a better game.

Theres a lot about the post-apocalyptic genre that lends itself well to LARPing. Costuming and set-dressing is relatively easy and opportunities for conflict, and therefore story and drama, are rich, he says.

The game runs one weekend a month between May and October. It gives players the ability to lose themselves in a crumbling world affected by The Calamity over a century ago.

The goal of the weekend: survive.Michael Iantorno, a senior

member of The Ontario Pathfind-er Society a roleplay gaming club describes LARPing as the natu-ral evolution of board games. Af-

Why do we come here?! Its just bullshit and bad weather!

PHOTO: NaTasHa Prieur

PHOTO: NaTasHa Prieur

Wednesday, April 1, 2015 7T-SHIRTs

The doom of humanity is well and truly upon us ... humans keep on struggling on

are you afraid of the LARp?

by the end of the weekend players would not be disappointed. After log in and opening announce-ments, the new players gathered outside the directors headquar-ters the main buildings on the site decorated with medieval shields wait-ing for the game to begin around 11:30 p.m. on the night of Oct. 17, 2014. They showed off boffers melee weapons made out of PVC piping, plumbing in-sulation and duct tape intend-ed to look like pipes, crowbars and swords. Some players, like Dean Hitchcox, a construction project manager (and in-game, a heavily-armed medic) take Nerf guns apart and remodel them to their own liking, complete with a fresh coat of paint.

With players armed with proper post-apocalyptic weap-ons, the game is

on. A shark chimera named Great White attempts to kill Bas Grav. The chimera part animal, part human storms towards the murderer while onlookers watch with anticipation. He rais-

es his sword and stabs Bas Grav through the chest. Adam Petkovic, a 22-year-old film and media stu-dent at Humber, slinks away back to headquarters. Bas Gravs body disappears.

Great White walks off. Hes heard that an acquaintance of his Toshra Freed-Lance has de-cided to go wandering off in the woods, alone. Again.

Its one degree the next morning.Why do we come here?! Its

just bullshit and bad weather! someone shouts.

They come for a vacation from

reality. They clear their schedules, pack their camping equipment and drive two hours to a place that even Google Maps has trouble finding.

Players range from 18 to 60 years old. They are sign mak-ers, construc-tion workers, u n e m p l o y e d business grad-uates, war vet-

erans. Several of them have social anxiety. An alcoholic attends be-cause he knows its a dry place.

During the weekend Im not allowed to drink and I have people that are all doing the same so that I dont feel any pressure psycho-logically or physically, he says.

Andrew Duke, who plays a wolf chimera, says, LARP is the per-fect hobby, vacation and therapy all in one.

Hitchcox agrees that the game is a stress releaser, and that peo-ple can combat different mental states by portraying the opposite in game. He gives the example that those with depression can play a happy saviour of people, or that those with social anxiety can in-teract as someone [theyre] not.

As the sun sets on Oct. 18, 2014, walking corpses arrive in town. The call of walkers! rings out. In the glow of hand-crank flash-lights and the dim lights of town, the players are seen in silhouette, melee weapons raised and guns aimed at the approaching horde.

If they get into town, itll be a clusterfuck! shouts Jason Mc-Cloud, a spaghetti-western gun-slinger.

On Sunday morning, its no longer raining. Around 12 p.m., an air horn sounds. Cheers erupt from the players, and takedown and clean-up start.

Once Mythwood is devoid of all things Elegy, some players head to a nearby restaurant to celebrate what they called Afters. They crowd around tables and swap stories from the weekend, trying to make the mealtime last before they have to return to reality.

Thomas Reive, who plays Great White, still wears some of his make-up. The top of his nearly shaved head is painted dark grey.

When people have to leave, they hug and voice their hopes of seeing each other at the Novomber 2014 social. Until the game officially re-starts next season, theyll make do

with organized pub nights, spon-taneous weekend boffer battle royals, game days at Torontos Snakes and Lattes and improv eve-nings. The friendships they make outside of the game only reinforce the fun they have in game. Gurro says, Its important to LARP with people youre comfortable with.

Elegy will resume May 1 and ARRG will resume its weekly

gaming nights in September for the new school year.

When Jack Westlake, who plays Jason McCloud, gets up to leave the restaurant, he stops in the doorway of the banquet room and turns to the people still eating.

When I say Bartertown, you say fuck yeah! he shouts. Bar-tertown!

Fuck yeah! they respond.

PHOTO: NaTasHa PrieurPHOTO: Carly sHields

PHOTO: NaTasHa Prieur

Wednesday, April 1, 2015 Farts In my lIFe 8

Blood, guns and makeup: FX on film By Dylan Freeman-Grist

Scott Sport Doog Jenner uses DIY prosthetic effects to make gore and mutants for his films. PHOTO COURTESY SCOTT JENNER

Scott Jenner needs to blow his friends knee off with a revolver.

First, he has to clean the lube off a condom and then tie one end with a fishing line. Next, he pumps in fake blood before tying off the other side.

Jenner ties a piece of fishing wire to a washer before gluing it to the outer layer of the condom. With some medical tape to secure the squib to his buddys knee and a quick flick of the wrist, the splat-ter effect is achieved.

The suggestion is that explo-sion, or the burst, says Jenner.

That one took a couple tries that was something I had never done before.

Jenner is a videographer. Hes shot music videos for bands in his hometown and is working on a sci-fi mini-series called Inner City Cult which demands the occasion-al blown knee or splattered brain.

Like most emerging artists, he often needs to produce high quality on a budget, which is not always as easy as fishline and Trojans.

Basically there is a triangle with three different points: good, cost and time, says Ian Wratschko, a fourth-year theatre production

s t u -dent and DIY FX junkie. If you want two of the three things youre going to lose the third. If you want two, be it fast and good youre going to have to spend money so making sure you have enough time is important.

When Wratschko isnt in class he punches his card at one of Torontos sculpture and effects shops, which welcomes new art-ists looking to gore out on a budget. He honed his craft in a special effects course taught at Ryerson before taking his love of the art on as a career.

The shop caters to all needs of young videographers looking to pull off stunts from dismember-ments to gunshot wounds, mon-ster heads to mask making.

In one scene, Jenner needed to crush an actors hand. He poured a reservoir of fake blood under the hand, and upon the hammers im-pact, a red pool oozed up through the fingers. By pairing the shot with the sound of cracking bones, the scene was complete.

I just borrowed a silicone hand that a friend had made for an-other film, says Jenner. It was all painted, it had fingernails and everything, it looked good.

Modelling and painting are a part of the game. It becomes nec-essary for everything from a mi-nor gunshot wound to a convinc-ing decapitation. Although this is where most filmmakers max out their credit cards, they dont al-ways need to.

Latex is your friend, says Wratschko, who advises it as a cheap alternative to silicone when creating masks and torn flesh.

For a simple gunshot wound, he notes one cost-effective route is

to put a thin piece of latex on someones skin, then add a layer of cot-ton and more latex overtop. From there, the artist builds up a ring, lays on some fake blood and ties it together with make-up.

There are tiers to how these things work, adds Wratschko, who notes all budding filmmak-ers first step should be YouTube, which archives an endless supply of FX geeks showing off their craft.

But Wratschko advises to use common sense not everyone who claims to be an expert has enough chops to back it up, a fact that could lead to a lot of wasted time on set or an injury at the worst.

Ive had people come in and ask if when Im attaching silicone to their face, do I use super glue, recalls Wratschko. You just need to stop, and think about what some people are saying and think: Does that actually make sense?

The need for special effects, however, is not limited to film.

Joseph Hammond is a fourth-year photography student at Ryerson. For the most part, his work deals in classical black and white studies of portraiture and nudes. For a third-year photo es-say, he needed to add some blood and guts.

His work then delved into The Island of Dr. Moreau, a 1896 sci-fi novel by H.G. Wells. The book, which follows a mad scientist who demonizes and butchers people, required some help from the

world of prosthetics.

S p e c i f i c a l l y, Hammond needed to document surgery scars which he managed to pin down pretty cheap by having Wratschko build them.

I was playing with a cult men-tality where the animals were proud of their surgery scars bring-ing them closer to being human and the ideas that the human was more monstrous then the ani-mals, says Hammond.

To achieve an acceptable level of fear and unease, artists like Hammond are the first to admit that gore is not always a priority.

What comes to mind regard-ing film and photography and horror and makeup is its more atmosphere and an actors ability, says Hammond, who recalls Mar-lon Brandos out of focus, dimly lit and anxiety-riddled close up in Apocalypse Now, a shot with zero money spent on effects.

Instead of blood and guts, Ham-mond says the director plays with anticipation, weaving the plot and atmosphere as his most potent tools to fiddle with the viewers.

Makeup is the last part of it all to validate the emotions of fear you already have.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015 TIZ & BECH 9

Devamrita Swami, Yale grad and an internation-ally renowned monk comes to Ryerson and invites

us to a look behind the masks we wear and examine the quality of our lives. April 8th, 6:30pm Thomas Lounge

Talk, Q&A, Meditation & FREE VEGAN FEAST!RSVP@ byoga@ryerson.ca or

FB Bhakti Yoga Club- Ryerson

Future choppedBy Laura Woodward

Students speak out about losing their jobs at Future Shop

Moroka Mokgoko (left) partnered with mdBriefCase and Funda Online. PHOTO COURTESY MOROKA MOKGOKO

Brad Shankar didnt think skip-ping a Saturday morning work meeting at Future Shop was a big deal. But it was since his man-agers announced every Future Shop store in Canada had closed down immediately.

I thought the [Saturday morn-ing] meeting was just a quarterly meeting where we normally just talk about what the plans are, if theres anything upcoming like im-portant sale dates. But no. It was a meeting with our managers just to say our store was closing, said Shankar, a Future Shop sales asso-ciate and a second-year journalism student.

Shankar had been working at the Future Shop on Dixie and Dundas streets since November 2012.

But after Best Buy Canada which owns the Future Shop stores announced it is consoli-dating the Future Shop and Best Buy stores and websites under the Best Buy brand, he and 1,500 other employees lost their jobs as of March 28.

In total, 66 Future Shop stores will be closed and 65 will be trans-formed into Best Buy locations. But Shankars location is not one of them.

From the DMZ to South AfricaBy David Lao

Moroka Mokgokos entrepreneur-ial skills began at a young age, selling pop and cake at his board-ing school in South Africa.

As he moved on to high school he sold SIM cards to foreign stu-dents, as well as protection ser-vices due to the rampant bullying problems in his school.

I grew up in a household with two healthcare practitioners, and for all my love for them, theyre still the biggest cheapskates I know, so growing up, I had to get creative about getting money, said Mokgoko.

His creativity lead him to Ryer-sons Digital Media Zone (DMZ) under the South African Fellow-ship a program that selects sev-en entrepreneurial students from South African universities to incu-bate their ideas at the DMZ.

Customers came to the store to see whats going on with their serviced products at Geek Squad, but all the doors were boarded up, he said. Its unfortunate because people who dont have their laptops have to call a num-ber to see whats going on with their products and Im not sure if theyll get through.

Shankar says his location laid off employees last year, but he had no idea something [of] this scale would happen.

Shankar plans to reapply at Best Buy in Sherway Gardens.

Future Shop hired an employ-ment assistance agency that helps employees with the transition pe-riod offering guidance on inter-viewing, resume construction and the general job market.

As for my store I only know of two managers that were trans-ferred over, plus the people from Geek Squad, as for everyone else we all have to reapply and hope-fully theres some luck because Im not sure how many positions are available, Shankar said.

Those kept on will be in charge of removing the inventory from the store as it plans to be fully out by April 4.

To read more, check out theeyeopener.com

Mokgokos idea was Tiro Hold-ings, an app designed for doctors and practitioners who are not able to fulfi ll the 30 hours they need to maintain their license because of their location or busy schedule.

I wanted to create something that offers quality content and convenience in the sense that it bridges the gap and geographic discrepancies practitioners face, Mokgoko said.

By the end of the four-month program, Mokgokos idea grew into more than he anticipated forming a partnership with two startups at the DMZ.

It began with Mokgoko team-ing up with Jason Muloongo, the founder of Funda Online a company that creates web and mobile apps for education and training.

The partnership then expanded to mdBriefCase a website that

provides online medical education content. On the website, doctors, students and nurses can receive an accreditation they can use towards their 30-hour requirement.

The three startups combined their forces of software develop-ment, South African market ex-pertise and medical education to create the application: mdBrief-Case South Africa.

It was a perfect situation be-cause the Canadian company md-BriefCase was talking about ex-panding to South Africa. But they didnt have expertise in it as well as them not being sure of what technology to use, Muloongo said.

So here, Moroka and I come with the expertise and technology, and they have the content, so it was a perfect match.

The app is set to launch in South Africa on April 21.

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10 sprots Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Hitting wickets in FLARyersons new cricket team places third in tournament in Fort Lauderdale

By Brandon Buechler

The Ryerson cricket team in Florida. PHOTO COuRTesy Obaid ullaH

Ryerson University now has an official cricket club and theyre already making a name for themselves.

The Rams got the news that they had achieved club status just be-fore placing third at the American College Cricket National Cham-pionship in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., competing against 32 teams from the United States and Canada. Ry-erson has been sending a group of students to this tournament every year since 2011, but this is the first time the team has competed as a Ryerson sanctioned club.

During the tournament, which took place March 11-15, the team

made it to the semifinals, its best finish ever, before suffering a dev-astating one-run loss to the Uni-versity of Texas at Dallas.

In basketball terms, it was 74-73. It was a nail-biter situation, says club president Obaid Ullah. I remember Nikhil Dutta saying Ive never played such intense in-nings in my life.

That means something coming from Dutta, an accomplished crick-eter whos played for several Cana-dian national teams and is currently on Ryersons active roster.

All of our guys have some [out-side] experience playing, says vice-captain Anees Saeed. Theyre good. They want to be the best.

Ullah says the trip allowed

the team to figure out their team chemistry while also giving them an opportunity to hit their stride on the pitch.

The team going there and the team coming back were two differ-ent teams, he says. We bonded so well by the time we made it back.

However, the success in Fort Lauderdale was just a drop in the bucket for the club. They have much bigger plans, Ullah says.

Long-term our goal is to be-come a varsity team, he says. We want to work with Ryerson Athletics to become an OUA (On-trio University Athletics) sanc-tioned sport. Were a competitive club. Although we like to have fun and we do have fun playing, we

want to be on top. Ullah says the club is collaborat-

ing with other clubs at universities such as Waterloo, York, and To-ronto to develop a structured sea-son to present to the OUA admin-istration in the near future.

We want to show them that we can consistently have quality matches and that people play the sport, he says.

According to the OUAs consti-tution and by-laws, a sport must

consist of eight teams to apply for a new sanction by the organiza-tion. After that, they must main-tain a minimum of four participa-tory members, or teams.

Going forward it looks like well have three major tourna-ments: the American College championships in Florida, the Northeast regionals in New York, and the Canadian nationals along with a more structured season-style approach, Ullah says.

Underwater hockey dives into RAC poolBy Maya Shlayen

When Jeff French moved to Toron-to from Alberta, he was consumed by one desire: to find a local under-water hockey team.

Its a really intimate sport, says French. You cant talk to anyone [underwater], so you have to learn to connect with body lan-

guage and positioning. The fact that its so unique is a point of pride, too.

French has been a member of Torontos Underwater Hockey Club since its conception three years ago. The club meets week-ly at the Ryerson Athletic Cen-tre (RAC) pool for training, and many of the members participate

in tournaments.Here in Canada, theres a com-

petition almost every month, says Matthew Mihatov, an Australian player living in Toronto. In Aus-tralia, we had maybe two a year.

Players wear snorkelling gear, a cap with ear-guards (to protect their ears underwater), fins and a glove on their user hand. Sticks

can be no longer than 35 cm and are always black or white to dis-tinguish the players team.

The gear is simple, says French. You could get all of this stuff for less than $100, though we always have extras on hand for people who want to drop in.

The pucks are similar in size to those used in ice hockey, but are

made of lead or other heavy ma-terials so that they will sink to the bottom of the pool.

As the practice begins, six people line up on each side of the pool. There are three forwards, three backs and no goalies on each team.

Head over to theeyeopener.com to read the rest of the story and see a video of the club in action.

The Opre Roma/Rise Up Roma festival will be happening April 7-12 in celebration

of International Roma Day. This celebra-tion of culture and art will be the first festival of its kind in Toronto. Join us for music, visual arts, storytelling, and youth performances. For more information

please visit www.romatoronto.org

Wednesday, April 1, 2015 ACTUAL NEWS 11

A Ryerson pigeon has been arrest-ed for roof-topping, according to Toronto Police.

Police detained 14-year-old (two in human years) Paddy the Pigeon Friday night on the roof of Eric Palin Hall. According to po-lice, Paddy was engaging in what is known as roof-topping, the practice of taking photographs from the roof of a building, par-ticularly one accessed illegally.

Usually the photographs are then posted on Instagram and are accompanied by a song lyric. Sometimes these pictures receive a lot of likes, but thats more de-pendent on the person that posts it, how many followers they have and how much their followers en-joy pictures taken from the top of buildings.

In an exclusive interview with The Eyeopener, Paddy denied the polices allegations. I was on the roof because Im a pigeon and thats one of the places we like to go, said Paddy. I have never tak-en a picture in my life because I am a pigeon and therefore am unable to carry out even the most basic human functions.

However, Toronto police arent buying Paddys claims of inno-cence. There was an old Italian lady at Bathurst station throwing bread to all of the pigeons during the time of the offence, said To-ronto Police Chief Bill Blair, who has personally taken over the case. If Paddy is really a pigeon, then why wasnt she going for some bread?

Despite these accusations, Pad-dy stands by the fact that she is in fact a pigeon. Look at me. This

is what pigeons look like. I dont know what they think I am if Im not a pigeon.

The Toronto police have invest-ed over $500,000 into this investi-gation of local roof-toppers. Blair says they are currently looking into Paddys social media accounts for evidence of the crime.

I dont have Instagram or any-thing because I am a pigeon, said Paddy.

Paddy is set to defend her case in court on April 16.

UPDATE: According to police reports, Paddy the Pigeon has fl ed the country and is currently a wanted fugitive. After scouring Instagram, offi cials found her ac-count @Paddy2fl y which had over 3,000 followers and over 50 pictures connecting her to mul-tiple roof-topping incidents.

By Robert Mackenzie

Pigeons in high places, jail cells

Apple unveiled their latest prod-uct, the MacBook Clear, at a con-ference in California on Sunday.

The new laptop computer is Apples most inconspicuous yet, weighing in at 0.0 kg. It introduc-es the tech companys fastest pro-cessing system to date at a speed that cant be quantifi ed by existing units of measurement.

The MacBook Clear isnt just

a laptop. Its an idea, said Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook at the unveil-ing.

This table right here might look empty. In reality there is $2,460 worth of innovative tech-nology on it. Pretty cool, huh? Cook said in front of an audi-ence of approximately 3,500. Its there, trust us.

The Clear features advanced Cloud technology, consisting of tropospheric air particles embed-

ded in the core of the product. The rest of the air is shipped in from various global innovation hubs such as Japan and Germany.

We wanted to create a light-as-oxygen tool that transcends space and time, Cook said.

Our new product is all about trust. You need to believe that its there in front of you. Only when that trust is established will the product function optimally.

Toronto resident Tory DiMateo waited in line for 84 hours before purchasing her Clear. She said she was initially disappointed by the appearance of the product. I was expecting something a little more visual, but Ill get used to it, she said, cradling air.

Sources say Apple has big plans for next years model, MacBook Clear 2.0, hoping to invert oxygen particles to create technology that exists in negative space.

New MacBook is clearly coolBy Emma Cosgrove

PHOTO: EMMA COSGROVE

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