TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013
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Anyone else see the guy with with the Samurai sword on his back in Mrs. E's?
TEXT FREE FOR ALL
What does a turtle do on Turtle Tuesday? It shellebrates! And I refuse to apologize for that pun.
Last road win? Pshh. It've been here since the football team won the Orange Bowl... Can I just graduate already?
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Why does the vegetarian booklet smell like chicken?
My parents don't know when I was born.
Just got carried away by squirrels like Veruca in Willy Wonka.
65 degrees and cloudy, shorts and a t-shirt on, and I still sweat walking to class. What is wrong with me?
you know it's going to be a long day when you have a carrot and a stick of gum for breakfast.
To the girl on the front of today's paper... Marry me?
Monday Night Football is proof that God doesn't want me to do my homework.
Tissue sales are skyrocketing after Drake's new album dropped.
I just remembered that there were three fires started by Easy Mac at Naismith last year.
Damn, I never really liked Snickers before, but yesterday I had one, and I finally just GOT IT.
The weather dips like ten degrees and everyone starts breaking out the sweaters.
The temperature is dropping -- I think we're all ready for a little basketball.
UNSPOKEN ILLNESS
I love how many people we have from Minnesota and Illinois because I find their accents hilarious.
There's probably going to be record-low attendance on campus after the season finale of Breaking Bad.
Christian Moody, Sasha Kaun, Cole Aldrich, Jeff Witty -- who's going to fill the void of big, goofy white guys on this year's team?
My days would definitely better if I would eat an actual breakfast, but those extra four minutes of sleep are just too precious.
Hey guys what's your favorite Shrek movie?
Where is Matt Kleinmann now?
Blue Man Group tho
Addressing mental health remains vital priority
I have a friend. Let's call him Cass, because that's his name. Cass is a great human being. He's not perfect; not even close. He loves adventures. He does wild things and periodically, he rolls fat blunts the likes of which would make Snoop jealous. Yet Cass is great in the sense that he has charisma that can only be likened to a black hole. People are drawn in and can't help but to want to be around him.
He would do anything for his friends. One day, it was my first semester at the University. I woke up feeling grouchy. I needed to do something drastic and stupid. It was my freshman year and the first time in my life I'd ever had money, or at least a credit card. I decided to go to Los Angeles for the rest of my life.
I got my poor roommate to drive me to the airport and told him he could have all of my stuff that I hadn't packed. On my way there, I called Cass to tell him my plan. As opposed to being shocked and telling me I was an idiot, he said, "Sounds cool, man, I'll go too." Less than two hours after I woke up, we were on our way to spending the rest of our lives in L.A.
Clearly it didn't end up being the
rest of our lives, but it made one thing clear. Cass is empathetic. He knew I needed someone by my side without me having to ask. Without me even knowing myself. He has a superhuman ability to connect with people.
When I went over there I'd always find him watching really depressing documentaries. He would always say something like, "What's wrong with the world?" He wanted to help.
I remember the day as vividly as if it were yesterday. On April 21, 2015, I got a call from Cass' brother asking if I'd seen him.
I'd been wrapped up in the waning semester and I hadn't. It had been about a day and a half since anyone had heard from him, and he had missed work. He loved work. He sold cars here in Lawrence. It suited him. He loved talking to everyone and meeting people. There were nights when we went out to the bars and when it was time to go, wed find him outside talking to some homeless guy about life.
I started calling everyone who I knew, hoping that someone had heard from him. Everyone had the same reply: "Not for a couple
days." I started getting desperate. I called the jail. I mean, maybe he'd gone a bit overboard on an outing and he'd gotten arrested. I was actually hoping that my friend was in jail.
By Nick Jackson njackson@kansan.com
I called the hospital. I was more desperate this time. It was insane. I was thinking, "Please let my friend be sick. Hurt. Let him be in a comal! I don't care just don't let him be..."
Finally, I ran out of ideas. I looked on the Internet and found a website that had a police scanner for the local area. And I sat.
I sat there for hours staring into space, but I heard nothing about Cass. Maybe he had dropped everything and gone to L.A. again. It be had to that, right?
Then it came over the scanner in the crappy, static-infused tone: "We have a code black, East 1950 Road."
East 1950 Road? That was where he lived, but a code black? That could be anything.
But then the radio conversation continued, and I just sat and listened about how he'd been found
in his car. He was dead on arrival, and had been dead for a while. I remember they said they needed an ambulance but there was no reason to hurry.
Oh really? No reason to hurry?
Here were these asshole talking about "The young male, DOA," and they didn't give a damn who he was. They didn't remember the time he kissed a dude to get an actress' phone number at the Renaissance Festival.
They weren't there when he played the best football game of his high school career despite barely being able to stand from mono. And they certainly weren't fortunate enough to see him dressed in one of his mom's wigs to play "Treatrunks," the elf in a "Lord of the Rings"-based movie we made in my pasture. I understand that they have to stay disconnected, but I just wish I was there.
Cass had killed himself.
Cass had killed himself. I guess there is really no way to know if things might have been different if I'd been less focused on school and a little more focused on friends. Everyone wonders about that probably, but I'm not mad. I could never be upset with him. I understand where he was
coming from. I just don't know why. I want to know what he was thinking.
it runs through my mind every day, and the only strong theory I can come up with is that he felt all the negativity in the world to the point where it was just too much. He wanted to help, but realized there wasn't anything he could do. He didn't want to help one person at a time, he wanted to heal everyone all at once.
I've tried to find a lesson in it, and I feel awful saying it, but maybe we should be more selfish. I don't know. Maybe if Cass had been talking about his problems instead of trying to work out everyone else's, he would still be here.
If Cass had expressed himself when it was becoming too much then maybe Id still have my best friend.
Maybe he needed to just let things go. It's heroic to take on so much of other people's pain, but it's like my grandma always tells me, "Even iron wears out."
BODY IMAGE
Nick Jackson is a junior majoring in chemical engineering from Lawrence.
Respect different body types,accept your own
I've been skinny my entire life.
When you look at me,
you instantly know it. I'm obsolete as a male. I don't deserve your respect, admiration, company or acknowledgment. At least, that's how I feel when you remind me, "Oh my God, your legs are so tiny!"
legs are to try How should I respond to that? It was probably not your intention, but you just insulted me to my face. It's actually a common occurrence that someone straight up tells me about how insignificant my body is.
A lot of people don't understand that being underweight isn't as light of a load as it appears. My confidence is always affected. Clothes hardly ever fit. Girls overlook me. It follows me every second of the day. I've been laughed at outright for being underweight.
That's when it is easier to deal with—when I know that it's just an attempt to get under my skin. What really does get to me is when people have the nerve to let me know I should be thankful to be thin – girls would kill to be that skinny; I have the freedom to eat whatever I want; I don't sweat as much, etc, etc. I've heard it all. I should be
I've heard it all. I should be happy to be underweight, right?
Wrong. Lines like those are just an excuse to avoid understanding the underlying issues that I
By Dalton Boehm dboehm@kansan.com
constantly deal with. The worst part is, if I do get upset and say something, I'm regarded as being sensitive- another unattractive trait that only emphasizes my weakness and further destroys my psyche. I'm told to sit down, shut the hell up and take the punches with a smile on my face. Sure, my body type isn't grotesquely unhealthy. It does have some benefits, but I would still switch with most people in an instant. Inconsiderate people would suggest that if I just put in some effort, I could gain weight. He tried for the last three years
I've tried for the last three years and gained five pounds.It's not that simple.
I have high cholesterol,high blood pressure,a fast metabolism and heart disease in my family that prevents me from devouring any food in sight. Oh,and a towering 6" (or more) frame that only adds to the complications. What if I have scoliosis,cystic fibrosis,hyperthyroidism or one of the other many common diseases that make weight gain seemingly impossible -or cause massive weight loss?
Fortunately I don't. I've learned to cope and accept my body. It's no longer a paralyzing strike when someone tells me these
things, but it still stings. It's made me aware that behind hidden doors, everyone has their own problems and insecurities. I'm not implying that skinny men have it worse than anybody else, but that everybody has it bad. No person should have to feel inadequate or alienated for something that's so far out of their control. We should have a social obligation not to stomp on each other's toes. Complete strangers wield unknowingly powerful influence over others.
Consider how impactful compliments can be. In a joking exchange with a new friend, I said I was "going for the freshman 25." Instead of just letting me accept this, she said "You don't need to! You're huge!" The compliment reverberated in my head for days and made me feel great. By inspiring positivity in others, it spreads and make the world a better place- if even for a few people.
That's not to say that everyone is perfect and nice and that if we all just told each other that we look nice once in awhile, everything would be fine and dandy. It's never that easy.
Simply put, it's your duty to try to understand the human beings walking amongst you.
Dalton Boehm is a freshman majoring in journalism from Prairie Village
EDUCATION
Eastern studies classes deserve greater attention
W who owns the most U.S.
Debt?
China.
Who owns the second most? Japan
The Middle East has the greatest security dilemmas of this generation, Asia is spending the most on military modernization, and the U.S. is expanding its own businesses there.
Indeed, there is an abundance of evidence that suggests Asia will become the praxis of international politics in the coming decades. Unfortunately, the U.S. education system is failing to prepare students for this dramatic shift in power from the West to the East.
That is because the U.S. education system is too Eurocentric. Eurocentricism is defined as placing disproportionate emphasis on European history and culture without appreciating a wider worldview; in this case, a nuanced understanding of the East. In doing so, the U.S. is preparing its students for the wrong global theater.
Not even our beloved university is free from this constricting worldview. Perhaps one need look no further than to our own the University Core, where "Chinese literature in Translation" is mysteriously left off the list of approved courses for Goals 3 and 4, while French and German versions of this class were all approved. In fact, the number of approved French and German courses vastly outnumbers the approved Chinese and Japanese courses. The University also still offers two Western Civ classes vs. one Eastern Civ class.
But take a look at the broader picture: European perspectives and biases percolate throughout American education. Coverage of Japanese history ranges from Imperial Japan to (if you're lucky) modern Japan. The years before
ing of the task. In fact, there are many good reasons to begin to shift our attention to the East. The collective economies of Asia are growing at six to seven times the rate of their European counterparts. Their economic blocks (part of BRICS, ASEAN to name a few) are flourishing while EU institutions suffer. This isn't a new trend. Asian economies grew at twice the rate of European ones between 1985-1995, and that gap is only widening, because the IMF forecasts an excess of six percent growth for Asian economies in 2013.
Opponents of this argument would suggest that such depth is simply impossible given the length of a student's education. Even if you believe this argument, you must recognize that choosing a nuanced, Eurocentric curriculum tacitly suggests that deeper knowledge of the West is of greater value than a rich understanding of the East - which it's not.
A mastery of Asian history and culture will do you well - especially since many businesses are looking towards Asia for expansion. Your competition, namely everyone else on the planet, is probably more versed in Eastern Civilization than you are, simply because of the educational system they have been through. If you want to increase your chances in the job market, go east. Consider that next time you decide which "civ" class to take.
and in-between are a historical blur. Christopher Columbus discovered the New World in 1492 (never mind the Native Americans or the Vikings).
Will Ashley is a sophomore maping in global and international studies and Chinese from Topeka.
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