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Outlook
Opinion Seasons change
Deedee Jilani Cartoonist
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h, spring! The flowers bloom, the birds are making nests, the cats are all lazy, and people are beginning to fall in love all over again. Except this year, spring was on and off from March till beginning of May! So this whole love business, Does it come and go like the seasons? I noticed that at every turn, there is a couple or a “wouldbe” couple sitting next side by side. Love, where did that thought come from? Isn’t it all just hormones flying out of control? Is it nothing but chemical reactions in the brain? Does the spring season stimulate the feelings of happiness and want and need in our minds and make us grow attached to people we have known for a while now? But spring changes and summer comes. Summers are hot and stuffy. It is impossible to even hug your friends from the sticky heat! Is this why problems arise? Is it all just the season? Then summer turns to august, and it brings a feeling of nostalgia where you no longer know what it is you really want. It seems as if, like the leaves, you are falling out of love… Finally winter. Its cold out like your heart, you just want to sit at home watching TV drinking your coffee or hot cocoa. You’re happier this way, it’s soothing and relaxing.
But New Year’s makes you want to meet someone soon just to go to that club with your friends on New Year’s. So you meet someone, you start talking, spring comes, and the cycle repeats itself. Is it all just the season? Some of you may not go by this pattern. Some of you may see winter as the season you want someone to keep you warm at heart, and summer the season where you want to be left alone to tan on the beach, or have ice cream under the air conditioning. There seems to be a pattern. If all our emotions are affected by the seasons; If love, hate, joy, and depression are brought about by the whim of the weather… does it mean that none of them really last? Can we grow out of love? Can we forget to hate? Can we become pessimistic? Or miraculously become cheerful and optimistic once again? If it is, then all our emotions are just an illusion. They are just our hormones and bodily chemicals reacting to the weather o Our horoscopes are based on the orientation of the planets and other space features billions of light-years away, why can’t our emotions be based on something not even a hair’s breadth away from our physical self? It’s all around us! The feelings that we get are superficial. It is an illusion, a game our young minds are playing with the weather. Let’s hope that global warming will improve us and not make us worse, but from the looks of things, it’s going to be too hot this summer for you to want to speak with anyone, and it’s going to be a messed up winter again which will throw people’s mood swings in every direction! So next time you think you’re in love and you’re suddenly caught in a twisted love relationship and messed up triangle, just remember this: Let us put all the blame on the Weather Man!
Aug 10, 2010
AUB’s lessons and problems
Mohamad El Jabi Staff Writer
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irst and foremost, this is actually my first and
last op-ed (sniff) so bear with me. Since the editor was wise enough to put in place almost no restrictions on what we could write, and since I am finished with AUB forever (hopefully), I would like to use this opportunity to just give my impression of my time here and to offer some advice to those planning to continue their studies here. Advice number one: Be grateful! Yes although we all love to bitch and complain (I plan to do plenty of that here), remember how fortunate we all are in being able to study in this university. Also, to those of you who still think otherwise, try saying that in the face of someone who’s studying in the Lebanese or the Beirut Arab University. That being said, I think that there are plenty of problems
which plague AUB, many of which can be resolved by the students themselves. One such problem is that of political interference in the USFC elections. Yes, I know you’ve all heard that for the umpteenth time, but since the message has yet sink in, I’m going to repeat it here: Seeing the brilliant job our political elite has done in running our country, do you really want them to extend their enlightened rule over AUB? Another major problem here in AUB is that of the registration process, because the fact is, the software currently in use is abysmal: it can’t handle large amounts of users causing it to crash often during registration hours, it needs a manual for it to be operated and it’s easily hack-able. Yes, there are programs out there that allow you to register 5 courses at once. Moreover, I believe that with a little pressure from students, the administration would be forced to get the higher-quality registration programs that are out there, while an intermediate step would involve the IT team patching the system’s numerous bugs. This brings me to my next point, that of the reason behind the massive pressure that comes with registration. Registration can be extremely stressful owing to the huge variation in the quality of AUB’s professors. This leads to a massive competition between students over the signing up with the good ones. To
be perfectly clear, I am not saying that all of AUB’s professors are terrible, what I am saying is that while there many brilliant, even inspirational people teaching at AUB, there are others who balance things out. This fortunately can be easily remedied; even more, the means for doing so are at our fingertips. What I am referring to is teacher evaluations. My main beef with the current system is that we have no idea how the evaluations are being used. I have received completely different answers, which is never a good sign. A first step AUB could take is to clarify exactly how it uses the surveys. An ever better move would be for it to publish the surveys, comments and all, in order to increase transparency which would lead to both, the enabling of students of making better choices and to force underwhelming professors to clean up their act. In conclusion, I make these remarks not because I feel my entire experience here was an utter waste, but rather to make it even a better one for those who wish to study here. One last note, while grades are extremely important, what gives students the extra edge is their co-curricular activities. What I mean is that while building up your social life or actually doing some studying, find some time to join a club (or write for Outlook!), it really is that important.
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