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THURSDAY, MAY 2, 2013
Text your FFA submissions to 785-289-8351
opinion
Guess we should all get ready for the "Kansas you're drunk, go home" tweets.
The real definition of classy, having a formal at Abe and Jake's. C'mon, pharm school.
FREE FOR ALL
I start to question my choice of school with my extreme fear of squirrels.
Mad props to the Wichita State baseball player who caught the squirrel with his helmet. You, sir, are a hero.
KU squirrels stormed the field at the baseball game last night... They fear nothing
"Livin' On A Prayer" is playing on the radio as I rush to campus in search of my last flash drive, Ironic.
Finally someone who speaks logically about our standard on grades! We value our grades over what we learn. Sad.
Test first thing in the morning and what am I doing? Ordering hedgehogs online
No, I went through the same door twice.
Now that summer is here: Legs. Legs everywhere.
UUHHH BATMAN! No doubt! He doesn't even have super powers because he's just that badass! Being rich AND smart comes in handy! Editor's note: I said end of discussion.
What is it about baseball that squirrels just love?
If you didn't Instagram it,it didn't happen.
So my horoscope said to reschedule meetings to be with my kids...I don't have kids...
Superman can go back to his no longer existent planet Krypton. Batman got our planets safety under control!!! Editor's note: I said end of discussion.
To the person who thought the statue outside of smith was Cleopatra. Congratulations! You just won the dumbest comment in the FFA this year.
It's amazing how one person says something clever and in the following days several others are saying the same thing worded differently.
CULTURE
You know what I realized? Every day is a good day according to the horoscope.
Never seems to dip below a 6!
To the tour group decked out in Mizzou apparel, please leave.
I see someone found the sensitive subject area for the FFA editor. Let's not bring up superheroes anymore. Editor's note: I said end of discussion.
The girls wearing boots aren't from JOCO, they're from up north and they think Kansas is "the south." #iDiots
Thank you FFA Editor for choosing Batman over Superman. Now I can rub it into mg friends face! #winning Editor's note: #Winning
I wouldn't not.
Paranoia leads to over-cautious society
A lot of our new developments and cultural standards are simply outstanding. They reflect an (almost) unified cultural maturity. Yet, as is always the case in the states, the good trends are accompanied by the stupid trends. I feel there is none worse than Health and Safety Paranoia. Coined it myself, do you like it? HSP
Here is an example of HSP. In the United States we advertise for medicine on television. Ask your doctor if it's right for you! Wouldn't a doctor tell you if it was right for you without you asking? Well the advertisements work and people do ask and doctors prescribe drugs to help calm anxiety, anti-depressants, sleeping medicine, and wake-up medicine all with just a few potential side-effects: bloody nose, liver failure, insomnia, trouble eating, trouble breathing, potential to contract SHPD, eyes popping out, light-headedness, heart-murmers, seizure, coma, vomiting, vomiting blood, vomiting mucus, loss of arms, and you might start to like "Glee."
Why? Why do people think
they need so many drugs? Because they help you live longer and healthier. We don't need to live longer. We enjoy almost a century of life but for some that's apparently not enough. We live these mega-long lives and we can't even retire. That sounds depressing. Good thing we have medicine for that.
The genetic continuation of health paranola will probably end up changing our immune systems for the weaker. We're dependent on drugs to cure basic ailments and complicated ones. We're dependent on drugs to fix real medical problems and ones we only think we have. We're so weak. God forbid we find ourselves without access to all of these drugs one day. Our dependency could be our end.
Then there's safety paranoia which might even be worse for us. Safety paranoia is plastic jungle-gym equipment, rubber-padding instead of rocks, every one gets a trophy so nobody's feelings get hurt, football with less tackling, not letting kids play with each other outside of a parent's earshot, and not letting kids
take walks because everyone now is a child-molester or a murderer. Generation X, you’re doing it wrong.
I remember the day my elementary school removed the giant jungle-gym from the playground. It was a lot of fun, but a little bit dangerous. I saw a few friends fall in uncomfortable ways which resulted in injury. They were replaced with a much safer piece of playground equipment that replaced the tall metal with short round plastic. Fewer injuries were occurring, but nobody really thought it was as much fun as the old metal beast
— at least, not in my little group of miscreants.
As a child I was beat-up, scratched-up, scabbed-up, bruised, and blistered; but I had
a lot of fun. My friends and I would take adventures unsupervised all around Olathe, exploring the creeks and tunnels, different parks and the sketchy parts of the park where you could tell some older kids had been... doing what they do. I've had the pox, the flu, a heat-stroke, and all sorts of other bacterial infections, but hey! I had a lot of fun!
Yeah, we stayed inside to play video games, but that's when we weren't trying to sled underneath a slightly broken chain-link fence. I managed to do it because I was small, but my older neighbor didn't fare so well. Sometimes we were supervision; sometimes we were getting into trouble and getting bloodied up rough-housing. It builds character.
It astounds me that we wonder why kids stay inside playing video games all the time when they're not allowed to have adventures anymore. They don't play dodgeball in PE because someone might get a bloody nose which would be dangerous. Being worried about safety is one thing, but denying the joy of life so nobody gets scratched is just raising a
weak generation.
We need a little danger. We're animals - resilient animals that don't go down easily. A child can mature faster socially by interacting with other children away from adults. Getting into a little troubles test your limitations.
This is how it works: Every time a kid breaks his arm, he becomes a stronger person. This is the truth. A higher pain-threshold is a good thing. It starts with rough-housing as a child getting into a little danger. If a person doesn't learn at an early age to be courageous, he'll be a coward when he's grown-up. Cowards aren't winners. A sheltered child has no need to be courageous at an early age. Guess what happens when he grows up.
He's passive aggressive, afraid of confrontation, afraid of out-side, and addicted to prescription drugs like his parents.
AUTO
Bartocci is a junior majoring in journalism from Kansas City
Cars need to be fixed,don't let it ruin your entire summer
Your opportunities over the summer are endless. The warm weather and abundance of free time put plenty of options at your disposal, like bonfires by the lake, canoe trips with the guys, concerts in Kansas City, or even fixing up your car.
Alright, I'll admit it, fixing our used cars probably isn't at the top of anybody's fun list except mine, but for many of us, it's a necessity. It doesn't have to be so hard, though.
The first thing you can do to keep your car in smooth running condition is changing the oil, which anybody with a wrench and a bucket can do themselves. Use the jack to lift up the front of the car, then slither underneath the engine to find the oil drain plug (oftentimes, it's conveniently labeled "engine oil"). Use your hardy wrench to unbolt the plug, and let all of the old oil drain into your bucket, then replace the bolt and tighten it on. Stay under the front end of the car to find your oil filter, which is usually a brightly-colored cylinder. Unscrew it from the engine and screw the new one right in place. Next, pop the hood and pour your fresh oil into the top of the engine, making sure to add the amount your owner's manual specifies. Check underneath the car to make sure none of your fresh oil is leaking on your driveway, and then replace the oil cap on the engine and you're ready to roll.
While you've got the hood open, you might as well check your air filter. Use your owner's manual to determine how to access the air filter, and if it looks pretty dirty, it's probably time to
replace it.
Remove your radiator cap, which is usually near the very front of the car by the hood latch, and make sure your radiator is full of antifreeze. If the bright green fluid doesn't reach the lip of the radiator spout, it's time to add more.
If you've made it this far through the article, you're pretty adventurous when it comes to your auto maintenance, and for that, I applaud you. Next, you'll want to address your pesky check engine light. Simply take your car to the nearest auto parts store (my personal favorite is AutoZone), and ask them to run a diagnostic test on the car, which is completely free. They'll tell you what's throwing the check engine code, and then you can replace the part yourself. Run a quick Google search before you buy any new parts, though, because sometimes the part just needs a quick (and free) cleaning. At least, that was the case with my car's Exhaust Gas Recirculation valve last summer. Sounds complicated, but it was just a couple bolts to remove it, a bit of carb cleaner, and then retightening those bolts.
Every hundred thousand miles or so, your car will need new spark plugs and wires. This is a tricky process, because you'll need a special socket to remove
and replace them, and you'll have to be very careful when replacing them so as not to cross-thread your engine block. We're talking a couple thousand dollars to fix your mistake if you cross-thread your spark plugs, so seriously, be careful here.
Finally, your brakes will heed a bit of attention sooner or later. Changing your front brake pads is as easy as removing the wheels, loosening a few big bolts on the back of the caliper mount, and then removing the caliper. Hang the caliper from your coil spring so you don't have to disconnect the rubber brake hose, and you'll have easy access to removing and replacing the pads. There's two pads on each wheel, so don't miss any.
If you've ever noticed strange wobbling or vibrations when braking, you'll want to have your rotors resurfaced. Simply remove all of the caliper hardware and the rotor will slide right off so that you can drive it to your local O'Reilly Auto Parts to have it resurfaced for about $10. Prot tip; don't drive your car with the brake rotors removed; find another car for this drive if you want functioning brakes.
With all of this routine maintenance performed on your car over the summer, it'll be ready to tackle the dangerous streets of Lawrence in the fall! Not only that, but you will save yourself hundreds of dollars over going to a mechanic, so you can spend it on other things, like performance modifications for the car! Or your fall textbooks, whichever you deem more important.
Zeiler is a junior majoring in mechanical engineering from Olafhe
TELEVISION
Free time should be spent watching TV
We are finally nearing the end of the spring semester. With all the time-consuming homework, summer job applications and overall insanity, I haven't had time to check out some of the newest TV shows on air. So, for my last column of the year, I want to share the shows I will be checking out this summer, once I have a life again.
"THE BIBLE" — HISTORY CHANNEL
"The Bible" mini-series on History Channel aired this March, and from what I've heard, the producers did justice to the religious text.
Whether you are religious or not, the Bible is one fascinating piece of literature. Once you get over the worse-than-Shakespeare diction, you have an ancient reality TV show with drama, romance, and war. To make it a TV show was all kinds of genius, and from what I've heard, people are loving it. I'm excited to see how actor Diogo Morgado portrayed Jesus, which is one hefty role to play. But to be completely honest, the real reason I want to check out this show is to see the physical resemblance between the character Satan and President Obama that sparked outrage. Call it morbid curiosity.
"DEFIANCE" — SYFY
This sci-fi show aired on April 15, so I'm not too far behind. Aliens, post-acapalytic world, and a corresponding video game? Yes, please. "Defiance" is a town built upon the ruins of St. Louis, trying to recoup after the arrival of several different alien races and the war that followed. But what I truly love about this concept is the video game they created to add to the overall story. This is the future of storytelling, and I can't wait to immerse myself in the TV show and learn more about the world in the video game.
"HANNIBAL" ABC
I'm a little nervous to check out this TV remake of my four favorite movies in the world: "Silence of the Lambs," "Hannibal," "Red Dragon," and "Hannibal Rising." Nobody can do Hannibal Lector like Anthony Hopkins, though Gaspard Ulliel did a decent job in "Hannibal Rising." But I'm a sucker for serial killer-inspired TV shows, so nothing could keep me away. This show apparently details Lecter's life before he is outed as a serial killer, and his work in aiding criminal investigations.
I can only hope for it to be as good as I want it to be.
"SUPERNATURAL" — CW
I'm only on season 2 of "Supernatural," and I'm already obsessed. I had to take a break from the emotionally and physically heart-wrenching show, so I could survive this second semester. But I willingly surrender my social life this summer for this show. My goal is to catch up to season 8, which just finished airing. If I'm not back next year, it is because Dean Winchester, played by Jensen Ackles, killed me with his hottness. Or his brother Sam Winchester, played by the very tall Jared Padalecki, killed me with his ridiculous bad luck. If you want a taste of demons, ghosts, angels, vamps, shape shifters and the brothers hunting them down, "Supernatural" is the show for you.
Brown is a freshman majoring in journalism from Overland Park
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