THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2013
THE UNIVERSITY DAIRY GASAU
PAGE 4A
opinion
TEXT
FREE FOR ALL
All of the spring BIOL 102s are at 8 a.m., I propose a protest.
Text your FFA submissions to 785-289-8351 or at kansan.com
Someone should pick up their tampon from the Budig floor...
Thank you, incredibly distracting group on the 2nd floor of Anschutz, for talking at length about who shaves what and why. This was beneficial to my study time.
You got it all wrong...you don't start losing weight until push-up number 6.
Let's take a moment of silence for our male shopper. O brownie points- you just got friendzoned, bro.
An there's nothing sexier than those lab goggle marks after chem lab.
Like, I think I like like you like a lot.
I almost drew a perfect circle, and now I am devoting my whole day to it.
If the Jayhawk was real, would it have KU printed on it?
You know it's going to be a good day when you come to your car at 11am, which was parked in red parking all night & morning, and weren't ticketed!
Does having six new treatments in my pocket make me a hoarder? Someone call TLC.
CAMPUS
You know you're a poor college student when you use your laundry detergent as your free weights.
When are they going to turn off the AC in Smith Hall? It's ridiculous that I have to go outside to "warm up."
Watching the sunrise at Fraser Hall makes the walk to my 8am class worth it.
Dear banana suit guy, I have a gonilla suit with a left nipple piercing and a pee hole already cut out of it so that the suit never has to come off all Halloween night.
Technically, Chief Keef makes less than your average orthodontist. That's not rich.
So Weis wants the students to be louder? That can be arranged.
There have been three short stories about poop in my fiction writing class so far.
My life is just a long WorldStar Hip Hop video.
What's the deal with Wisccoe Beach?
There's no sand on it! *cue Seinfeld*
bassline*
Take advantage of unique resources in campus buildings
Anyone who has stepped onto campus can agree that there are a lot of buildings. Few, if any, students know the purpose of every single building, but some are certainly more familiar with the general population than others. For instance,"main" campus buildings such as Fraser and Strong are universal landmarks for KU students, while lesser known, but equally useful buildings, are forgotten by most. As a KU Ambassador, I know just about every building on campus, and the longer I'm here, the more I realize how few people know about some pretty awesome places. So for a quick lesson on the five resources you're seriously missing out on, read on.
1) Burge Student Union Location: Irving Hill Road, down the hill from Daisy Hill residence halls and west of Allen Fieldhouse. It's the small brownstone building.
The Burge Union serves as a
satellite Union to the main Kansas Memorial Union. Closer to Daisy Hill, Oliver and the Towers, this union is a seriously underutilized gem. Besides the basic Union stuff like the KU Bookstore and Pulse Coffee shop, the Burge has an IT Lounge (for broken computers, phones or tablets), Legal Services (for suing people) and the Career Center (for when you realize you might actually want a job after college). These three services are free and a very important part of campus life. All are helpful, but the Career Center is especially important to note. It offers mock interviews, resume editing and cover letter consultation. It can also help you find a job or internship to get you started on that ever-terrifying path towards adulthood.
Random Fact: Burge has an IT drive-thru window. You can put your phone or computer in, and if it's a quick fix, the technician will fix it and hand it back through the
small window.
2) Dyche Hall
17-9 pinnell
Location: Jayhawk Boulevard,
between Lippincott Hall and the
Kansas Memorial Union. It's the one that looks like a giant church with a bell tower.
Did you know that we have a natural history museum? If not, try treading down Jayhawk Boulevard sometime and stopping by. The natural history museum is free to enter for all KU students and houses a lot of really neat exhibits. For instance, see the Lewis Lindsay Dyche world-famous Panorama of North America Mammals that was created in
1903, or visit Comanche the Horse, a stuffed horse that was a survivor of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Dyche Hall has both permanent and traveling exhibits, as well as its own working bee-hive. Once you start exploring, I guarantee you'll have fun and learn something new.
Random Fact: Dyche Hall is a top-10 tourist attraction for the state of Kansas and welcomes more than 100,000 people per year.
3) Spencer Research Library Location: Directly behind Strong Hall. If you go through the main entrance of Strong and walk all the way through, you'll end up on a platform that leads straight to Spencer.
This library is one of my favorite places on campus and, to be honest, if I hadn't been forced to visit for one of my classes, I probably would have never known how spectacular this library is. The Spencer Research Library
houses rare books, manuscripts and archives, and allows you to view and handle nearly every text housed there. There are very specific guidelines for how you are to handle the books as well as what you're allowed to have with you when you're researching (only pencils and paper, but there are lockers for the rest of your stuff until you finish), but as a student you are able to touch manuscripts that are hundreds of years old. It's a really neat, powerful feeling that sticks with you when you can actually interact with that much history.
Random Fact: One of the only books you cannot view in Spencer Research Library is a first edition of Charles Darwin's "The Evolution of Species" because one too many people tried to take their hatred of evolution out on this priceless piece of history.
RELATIONSHIPS
Anna Wenner is a junior majoring in English from Topeka.
Dedicate time to friendships throughout school and career
The older I get, the more I reminisce on how things use to be. The memories that I cherish most seem to be connected by one underlying factor; brotherhood.
Back in my day, everything I did was oriented around my community of friends — not unlike the girls who refuse to go to the bathroom alone, but hopefully a little less intrusive. After school it was routine to hang out with friends, because back then, time was on our side. The burdensome weight of responsibility and adulthood wasn't upon us; we were young, wild and, most importantly, free.
When that first girl was brave enough to kiss me, my friends were there to cheer me on. They were there the first time I went TPing, strategically putting toilet paper around the house and ultimately ending in escaping angry parents, but we stuck together and made sure we didn't lose anyone. And when I got homesick at my first sleepover, my friends turned panic into an unforgettable night; this is the brotherhood I'm talking about.
brotherhood I'm talking about.
But the older I get, the more excuses I have to be selfish with my time. My fond memories with friends are all I've got, because I don't have the time to make new memories. I'm busy building my future and becoming a grown up. Responsibility is a time killer.
It's a lot easier — and severely selfish — to let go of people and just hold onto memories you shared with them instead of finding the time to hang with old friends.
True as it may be, growing up is a poor excuse to evade long-time friends. Everybody is growing up, so why don't we grow up together like we did as kids? I pledge to work on this, because I'd rather become a man with a mediocre job, surrounded by friends than a man who sacrificed everything to be alone at the top.
On the battlefield of life, I've been too focused on what lies on the other side — my career, girlfriend, part-time jobs, internships, school, Netflix — and lost focus on everyone who's supported me through it all.
Friends are the key to a happy life, and there's no age restriction.
I refuse to become another Facebook stranger amongst my friends. I have family members who spend late nights at the office and early mornings taking the kids to school, so they don't have "time" for friends. But maybe the kids ditch them for their friends, or the wife leaves for a girl's weekend, or perhaps they're a single parent, so it would be nice to have someone their age to be with. Instead, they are home alone, struggling to make dinner for themselves and reminiscing about old friends over their Facebook timeline.
I like talking to my parents and grandparents about their "young and wild" days. It sparks life in them. My grandma, who's a widow, talks all the time about her friends and how much fun they had. When she tells these stories, she always has a smile on her face. I tell her it's never too late to connect with old friends and make new memories. She tells me that it was a long time ago and she's too old now.
My grandparents always remind me of two valuable lessons: the memories you're making now will be with you for the rest of your life, and don't give up on making new memories because you're never too old to have friends.
This gives me a lot to think about since my friends and I will be graduating college soon and going our separate ways.
Life is one big picture that can't fit into any frame or canvas, but there's plenty of room in your mind. When you're old and telling your grandchildren about your young and wild days, you won't be talking about the times you spent kissing your boss's ass for that promotion or filling out invoices. You'll tell them about the time you and a good friend stole a bar sign while wasted.
You're never too grown up or responsible for the people who made you who you are today: friends.
Bryenn Bierwirth is a senior majoring in journalism from Overland Park.
FFA OF THE DAY
I wonder if the girls that tuck the sweats into their Uggs just don't care, or if they just really want to look like a Dragonball Z character?
HALLOWEEN
Five tips to create perfect costume
@BrandonWoodard
WelcomeOnion Free Charging Stations!
allowee is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total
suit and no other girls can say anything about it, or so the quote from Mean Girls goes.
In the end, we all agreed that we—men and women alike—should have the ability to choose for ourselves what we wish to wear without the social inhibition of slut-shaming or other such negative judgment. After all, when we degrade others, aren't we setting limitations for ourselves?
but is this really true? Granted, I'm not sure how anyone can be surprised by this premise—it seems nothing in the stores these days is offered with more than a few shards of fabric to cover up the most essential parts of the body.
I think Cady got the idea right, but chose her words badly. Halloween is the one night a year when women may wear ridiculous conceptualizations of the word "sexy," like "sexy nurse," "sexy Disney Princess," "sexy giraffe," etc. But they aren't sluts. A woman is never a slut for what she chooses to wear. Self-expression through clothing has nothing to do with how sexually active a person is. And it should never, ever be seen that way.
This was a very vibrant discussion amongst the many women living in my scholarship hall last year. Funny enough, the topic never really got around to the sad fact that women's costumes are so overtly sexualized while men's costume selection seems to remain fairly varied. Instead, we gung up on the word "slut," and what would constitute dressing "like a total slut."
That being said, I do think it is an unfortunate and frustrating issue that no matter where you go, finding a costume that isn't a sexualized version of something is nearly impossible. I, for one, have never really had a desire to don the shreds of fabric they're calling costumes in stores these days. Being the broke college student and dry humorist that I am, I opt for cheaper, creative costumes. If you're still looking for some ideas, here are some quick suggestions:
1) Old person—this is particularly good if you are theatrical
and good with makeup. I went as this last year and almost convinced some friends I was an actual alumnus of the scholarship halls.
3) Ironic—For some reason, dressing as an animal dressed as a human never gets old. Also, any costume Jim Halpert wears in "The Office," except for that one year when he was Popeye.
4) Obscure—find the most normally dressed supporting character in a television series you watch. Go as that.
5) Couple/Group—Everything and anything is better in numbers. I really love the idea of Bob Ross and his painting. Or, you know, go as pieces of a salad. That works too.
2) Puns—I am all for anything that shows this level of creativity. A few of my favorites include '50 Shades of Gray' (basically just wearing as much gray as possible), 'One Direction' (draw an arrow heading upwards with an 'N' above it on a shirt), and 'Cereal Killer' (just drag a trash bag full of cereal boxes around with you all night).
If you do choose to wear something store-bought, please remember to be responsible with your choice in clothing. Costumes that are culturally or racially insensitive are never okay, and you should choose what you wear because you enjoy it, not because you think others will like it or feel more attracted to you. Choosing your costume—as in all things—based on the presumed opinion of anyone other than yourself will only leave you disappointed.
So remember, Halloween is a fun time whether you dress up, or down, or not at all, but what you wear or don't wear has no basis upon your character. Also, don't have sex. You'll get chlamydia and die.
HOW TO SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Tasha Cerny is a senior majoring in English from Salina
@FreeFoodAtKU
@KansanJimson All this free food!
Length: 300 words
The submission should include the author's name, grade and homework. Find our full letter to the editor policy online at ksanm.com/letters.
LETTER GUIDELINES
Trevor Graft, editor-in-chief
@ekanson.kansan
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akohn.kansan.com
Dyian Lysen, managing editor
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@ThatHawkwardGuy
@KaraDonahorn The library staff, when you need help with research! They're all super nice, and very knowledgeable. @kublairn
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kansan Editorial Board are Trevor Graff, Allison Kohn, Dylan Lyon, Will Webber, Mollie Pointer and Sean Powers.