hilltopics images people features 10A friday, february 2. 2001 for comments contact kristi elliott at 864-4924 or features@kansan.com
for comments, contact kristielliott at 864-4924 or features@kansan.com
Cameron Hawk, Manhattan freshman, owns about 700 CDs and 100 records. Hawk said he would move his bed out of his room in order to expand his CD collection. Photo by Thad Allender/KANSAN
OBSESSION
for students
BY MEGHAN BAINUM ♦ KANSAN WRITER
1. a KU senior, loves good beer and good pot.
    "One of the two better be good," he said.
But if I've got kind bud, I'm not going to sink cheap beer."
"Whatever money is left is party money," he said.
After tuition, books, food and bills, Al says his daily ritual of beer drinking and bud smoking is his biggest expense.
Al estimates he spends between $50 and $100 a week on his smoking and drinking pleasures — not including the additional money he spends at bars. Al said that although the price
was steep, it was worn in, because the day
and let him relax after a busy day
during the day.
Buttercup, one of the Power-puff Girls, fights for the attention of Haley Ross, Dodge City junior, Ross said she would continue buying Powerpuff Girls items, even if it meant she couldn't buy food for a while.
Photo courtesy of Cartoon Network
"It's a very escapist behavior," he said. "It's not for everybody, and I realize that, but it works for me."
Whether it's spending money on clothes or trips to the strip club, most KU students have something that sucks money out of their pockets
almost as quickly as a trip to the bookstore at the beginning of the semester. And it is not just limited to substance abuse. Even something as innocent as a cartoon can become an expensive addition to a student's life.
Haley Ross, Dodge City junior, estimated she had spent about $250 on her Powerpuff Girls collection, which includes clothing, dolls, key chains, tableware, posters, a jewelry box and more. She even has a tattoo of her favorite girl, the butt-kicking Buttercup.
Almost the only Powerpuff Girls items Ross has been able to hold off on buying were a waffle iron, sheets and a big, plush Powerpuff Girls head.
"They're damn cute," Ross said. "I look at their stuff and I'm like 'I am their biggest fan'"
"When I go to the store and look at everything, I always have to stand there and tell
myself 'I am 21-years old.' " Ross said. "But here's me in the kid section going 'look my god, that's the coolest shirt I've ever seen.'"
Still, Ross said she would only go so far.
"I don't have a Powerpuff Girls car — which would be cool — but I wouldn't do it," she said.
Al, a KU senior, says his biggest expense after tuition, books, food and bills is beer and pot. He estimates he spends about $50 to $100 a week, not including trips to the bar, on his vices. Photo by Nick Krug/KANSAN
Ross said the good thing about her Powerpuff shopping sprees was that most Powerpuff Girls stuff was fairly cheap. Nonetheless, Ross said if she saw the ultimate Powerpuff Girls item to add to her collection, she would choose "her girls" before other things—even food.
"I'd dend for myself food-wise," she said. "Especially if it was something I've been looking at for a while."
Ross isn't the only KU student willing to make sacrifices to indulge her pleasures. Bill Staples, professor of sociology, said this was because of messages sent by society.
"We're bombarded from the day we're born by advertisements that tell us we need to have these things," Staples said. "If you’re constantly told that things make you happy, then people can take that to an extreme in which they become obsessed with collecting things."
If Cameron Hawk, Manhattan freshman ever had to make more room for his CD collection, he would get rid of his bed before his CDs. As it is, Hawk's collection of more than 700 CDs — not to mention 100-some vinyls, several guitars, a keyboard and a drum set — make for a tight fit in his room, which is smaller than an average KU residence hall room.
For some students, obsessive behavior can be lustified by a career choice.
But Hawk, who says listening to and playing music is his passion, said it was worth it.
"It's my life, it's what I do," Hawk said. "Everyone's got some kind of passion they pay attention to more than anything. This is mine, and it involves a lot of accessories."
Hawk, who also plays in the local band Podstar, considers music to be his life, but said he actually had cut down on his CD consumption
after he came to the University.
"I used to buy four or five CDs a week when I was in high school," he said. "A lot of it is that I have other stuff to pay for, and I can't splurge as much as I would like to."
Still, Hawk said he bought about 10 CDs and 10 records a month, even though he had been trying to cut down.
Staples said knowing when to draw the buying line was important.
"When your priorities are such that you either spend so much money accumulating
this stuff that you live way beyond your means or you forget your priorities, that would be something that would potentially be dangerous." he said.
Hawk said that he had been trying to cut down on his CD buying by listening to the hundreds of hours of music he already had in his collection.
"Lately I've been trying to tell myself 'You've got so much stuff and there's a lot of stuff that you haven't listened to that you might really like, so you should stay here and listen to that stuff instead of going and buying new stuff.'" he said.
Hawk, who has spent thousands of dollars on his music collection, said his biggest fear was that his collection and his instruments would be destroyed in a fire. Even though his room is in the back of his house, Hawk said he would try to save all he could.
"I'd do my best," he said, "Maybe coming out with a third-degree burns or something — but I wouldn't go too far to the extreme."
Al feels the same as Hawk, saying he would never sell anything or go without food to get good weed and good beer.
"I'd get a job if I needed money," Al said.
"And I always buy food first. You've got to eat — it's no fun getting high with nothing to munch on."
Though Hawk considers music to be a lifetime career and obsession, Ross and Al both think of their pleasures as just a normal part of being a college student.
Al said he knows that sooner or later the partying will have to stop, or at least decrease.
"As my responsibilities increase, certain things become not as feasible," he said. "But right now, I'm just enjoying college."
Bainum is a writer for the Kansan. She has an
tattoo of a bat. Bainum can be contacted at features@kansan.com or 864-4810.
Edited by Jacob Roddy