October17 2012 Issue

Volume 44, Issue 3

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Strength through faith A breast cancer survivor story

Pg. 2

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NEWS

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

PUT IT ON

Calendar 17

Chef Lydia Gonzalez of the Latino Culinary Institute will speak from 11:15 a.m.-12:10 p.m. in N-222.

A tasting will be held after the lecture.

Representatives from 35 colleges will be in the Pit from noon to 2:30 p.m. for a fair to promote awareness about how to transfer.

Thu

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” will premier at 7:30 p.m. in the Performance Hall.

Mon

Nutritionist Betty Murray will speak from 12:301:30 p.m. in S-101.

Tue

Professionals and college representatives will be on hand for a Majors Fair from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Pit. A drawing for gift cards will be held every half hour. Participants must bring their student ID to enter. The first 100 students to finish an evaluation will receive a Midterm Care Package.

18 22 23

“Pizza and Politics: A Conversational Debate” is a panel discussing giving federal aid to illegal immigrants. The debate will start at 12:30 p.m. in G-101.

Wed

Mezzo soprano Brandi Estwick and guitarist Eddie Healey will perform starting at 12:45 p.m. in F-117.

Wed

WFAA News co-anchor Cynthia Izaguirre will speak from 10:10-11:05 a.m. in the Performance Hall.

24 31

November Thu

A student presidential debate will be held from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Performance Hall.

Fri

The “Fast” art exhibition will start at 9 a.m. in H-100. A reception will begin at 6 p.m. in the same room.

Thu

“Fast Food Nation,” the movie, will be shown from 12:30-2:30 p.m. in C-135.

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The Et Cetera

BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH

A 15-year survivor

October Wed

www.eastfieldnews.com

Craddock conquers a family history of cancer

By Claudia Guerra etc4640@dcccd.edu

Liz Craddock never expected to hear the words “you have breast cancer” when she went in for a regular check-up one morning in 1998. As the words sunk in, she realized her world would never be the same.

“It’s a scary situation because you don’t know if you are going to die or what’s going to happen,” said Craddock, who has worked as a purchasing transaction specialist in the college’s business office for seven years.

What made the diagnosis even more frightening for Craddock was her family history.

When she was 8 years old, Craddock’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She died less than a year later.

Naturally, those memories resurfaced when Craddock’s doctor gave her the news.

“It was devastation,” Craddock’s husband John said. “You hear bad news and you’re just devastated, but you go on from there. You have to have hope and optimism and complete faith in God.” When her mother was diagnosed, Craddock did not understand what cancer was. She remembers going with her father to visit her mother in the hospital, but she can’t remember the details of her mother’s battle.

Thinking back, she said, is still very painful.

Although it was a difficult time,

JIMMY AMBASSA/THE ET CETERA

Liz Craddock shares her battle with breast cancer 15 years ago.

Craddock said she was fortunate to have family that looked after her.

“I still had a good childhood. My dad was a good dad,” she said. “Of course I wish my mother hadn’t died, but I had a lot of aunts and relatives that helped my dad.”

In 1997, the Craddocks moved to Mesquite from North Carolina when John was transferred. Craddock began working part-time at the District Service Center.

The couple had a son who was still in school, and their daughter, Melanie, was attending college in North Carolina. However, they had no other immediate family in Texas.

A few months later, they received the news about Craddock’s cancer.

“We had just moved and we didn’t know a soul,” she said. “Then I go to the doctor for a check-up and they say, ‘You have breast cancer.’ It was very scary.”

Melanie was just 20 years old at the time. She flew home from college several times to be with her mother during her treatments.

“It was so hard being so far away,” Melanie said. “I was worried that she wasn’t going to make it through it.”

Fortunately, the cancer was caught very early, which Craddock said was the key to survival. She underwent surgery and endured three months of chemotherapy and radiation.

The recovery was difficult. She battled constant nausea. The only

food she was able to hold down was Blue Bell vanilla ice cream.

John was by her side, helping her get through the tough times.

“It was hard, very hard,” he said.

“But you have to have faith. God will pull you through a lot of stuff.”

One day while in the hospital for a chemo treatment, Craddock met a fellow cancer patient. As they talked about their recent experiences, he delivered a message that helped her put things in perspective.

“He said ‘Don’t let people say ‘poor you.’ Don’t be around negative people. Be around positive people that build you up and make you feel good,’” Craddock said.

Craddock continues to live by those words today, surrounding herself with positive energy. Her 15-year celebration of being cancer-free is approaching, but now Craddock is concerned about her daughter.

Because breast cancer has affected the past two generations of her family, Melanie knew she needed to be cautious. She planned to have her first mammogram last year, but she discovered during her doctor’s visit that she was pregnant. So she had to postpone the procedure.

Melanie said she follows a healthy lifestyle by doing little things like exercising and eating better. She also discovered that breast feeding can reduce the likelihood of breast cancer.

“I’ve realized life is short, and I’ve realized you have to take care of yourself,” she said.

Employees give back through SECC campaign

By Jimmy Ambassa etc4640@dcccd.edu

Last year more than half of DCCCD employees donated a portion of their paychecks to charities and scholarship funds through the State Employee Charitable Campaign (SECC). District leaders are hopeful that generosity will continue in this year’s campaign, which ends Oct. 31.

“The [2011] DCCCD participation rate was 54 percent, which was the highest [among state institutions of higher learning] for the third consecutive year,” DCCCD Chancellor

Dr. Wright Lassiter said in a district wide bulletin.

The SECC is a program created in 1993 that allows employees of state agencies to donate to charities or DCCCD Foundation scholarship funds through the convenience of payroll deduction. Eastfield has been an active participant for 17 years.

Campus coordinator Don Baynham has a goal of $33,000 this year.

“My goal is also to make sure no one feels pressured into doing what they don’t want to do,” Baynham said.

“No amount of money is too small.”

Dr. Richard Cinclair, dean of So-

cial Science and Human Services, created a scholarship foundation, the Dr. Richard J. and Dr Carol L. Cinclair Endowment Scholarship, more than 10 years ago with his wife Carol who teaches at Richland College.

“The thing I like about the scholarship is we’re taking care of our own,” Cinclair said. “If I give to an agency, every dollar is important there also, but I’ll never know who I helped. There is a lot of need … and in this day and age, every bit helps.”

The DCCCD requires a minimum of $1,000 to create a scholarship and $25,000 for endowed scholarships.

“I was giving money to the Arthritis Foundation, then I decided I really wanted my own scholarship because I saw a need,” speech instructor Dr. Mary Forrest said. “It doesn’t cost much for students to get their degree at a community college and by me helping them climb the first rung of the ladder, they see there is a chance.

Brenda Lee, an administrative assistant in Arts, Language and Literature, has been donating to charities through the SECC since 2007.

“Even if its just helping a student buy a book, it makes a difference,” she said.

NEWS

3

The Et Cetera

www.eastfieldnews.com

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Organic vendors sprout new income ideas Justin David Tate etc4640@dcccd.edu

When the college welcomed six local organic food vendors to sell and sample their products at the Oct. 3 Health Expo, they didn’t just invite businesses. They shared their stories.

Each business owner came with a personal passion for a particular organic food and a history of hardship.

THREE HAPPY COWS

After being chased out of his home country of Columbia due to threats of violence over his accumulated wealth from his days as a dairy farmer, Edgar Diaz came to America to start over. With only his ideas and a dream, he started Three Happy Cows in Dallas, hiring people, such as Alejandra Rivera, who could work fast and hard enough to keep up with him.

“We are small, so I do a little bit of everything,” Rivera said. “They call me and I come out and [do] marketing. I’m a marketing and sales representative.”

Three Happy Cows sells organic fruit, drinkable yogurt and milk spreads. The majority of the flavors, including strawberry, blueberry and piña colada, were created by Diaz.

“He designed the flavors,” Rivera said. “He taught us how to make it.”

Three Happy Cows makes its yogurt in a local Dallas factory and is offered in a growing number of stores across the Metroplex.

“My days are full, but I love what I do,” Rivera said.

GARDEN INSPIRATIONS

Seven years ago, while working at the Greenery, a landscape nursery in Waxahachie, Marilyn Simmons developed the idea to sell her own vegetables. Not long after, she began running a community-supported agriculture (CSA) business.

CSAs are funded by a community of families who pay a farmer to plant and grow vegetables organically and locally for them. While running her CSA, Simmons soon learned how little people knew about local, organically grown vegetables.

“Tomatoes are a hot-weathered plant and cabbages are a cold-weathered plant, but people thought things would come like the grocery store,” Simmons said. “In the grocery, they come from all over the country, not from Texas. If you’re going to purchase organic food, you really need to eat what’s in season and what grows in Texas.”

That’s when Simmons grew her own company, Garden Inspirations, into not just a business venture to sell produce, but an educational tool offering classes in farming.

After saving enough money, Simmons quit her job at the nursery. Today, Garden Inspirations has grown enough to provide for her all by itself.

THE NOBLE COYOTE COFFEE ROASTER

Kevin Sprague’s girlfriend knew he loved a good cup of coffee, so in 2003 she bought him a small roaster with a sample batch of beans.

Sprague more than liked the gift; he fell in love with it.

“I got into it and really just enjoyed the way fresh-roasted coffee [tastes],” he said. “It’s hard to find fresh-roasted coffee locally, and there’s few people doing it, but [it’s hard] to find people doing it the way I liked to do it. So I started doing it at home, and it grew into a passion.”

Sprague began selling it and giving it away to friends while continuing to work at his full-time job in industrial corporate rigging. When his company closed down, Sprague decided to pursue his new passion and start Noble Coyote Coffee Roaster in East Dallas.

“I thought it was the perfect catalyst to just go ahead and launch this,”

Sprague said.

A year and a half after opening his business, Sprague said it’s still growing. With coffee beans roasted fresh each day, Noble Coyote continues to find new customers.

CITA’S SALSA

Now Castillo is happy to cook alongside her daughter, who has joined her full time to run Cita’s Salsa. Sanchez came up with the name.

“When she was having children, I was in my 40s, and I refused to be a grandmother,” Castillo said. “I told her we’d have to make another name for me than grandma or abuelita.

That’s not what I want. She [said], ‘Well you’ll just be the Cita. I’ll be the Mama.’ That just stayed.”

THE WARNE BEE FARM

GRAPEVINE GRAINS

According to Carol Castillo, the love of cooking is a family tradition.

“My grandfather was from Greenville and he made tamales,” Castillo said. “He had the tamale cart [and sold them for] 10 cents a dozen.”

Castillo is a connoisseur of salsa.

Her flavors, Red Rage and Garden Green, took second and third place, respectively, at the Fiery Food Challenge at Zest Fest in Irving.

But the award-winning cook wasn’t always a business owner. She cooked to feed her daughter, Lena Sanchez.

“I would send tacos to my daughter’s job, and whenever I sent tacos, I would send salsa,” Castillo said. “I started doing orders for Christmas and birthdays.”

Castillo was content to continue dealing with friends and coworkers, but the insistence of those who had become fans of her cooking encouraged her to standardize her recipe.

“From then on, they’re like, ‘You have to open a business. You have something here,’” she said. “I sold to them for years. [Last] October is when [my daughter] made me get the recipe down.”

Castillo still needed something else to push her towards pursuing a career making fresh salsa.

“I had been working a job at a convenience store gas station for 14 years, and I lost my job,” Castillo said. “[My daughter told me], ‘It’s perfect timing. If you weren’t let go from your job, you’d still be working there.’”

A year later, Castillo believes it was a blessing that she lost her job.

Sanchez, who worked in financial services, used her nest egg and money-managing skills to help her mother open the business.

Vickie and Steve Smolek just wanted to eat healthy in the beginning, but their love of whole grains took their lives by storm.

“He was the main one who started the business,” Vickie Smolek said.

“I kept teaching full-time [the first year]. Second year, I was part-time.

The third year, I’m now full-time in this.”

Her research showed that a lot of grains in the United States are highly processed and therefore not healthy.

The minerals are often blanched out.

The oats are dehydrated.

Grapevine Grains was created to make granola that retains the minerals lost in mass production and to provide a product that not only tastes better, but is healthier for consumers.

The creation of the company proved to be a slow, expensive process.

“I think in any small business you’re going to find money [troubles],” Vickie said. “We had made the decision to go totally debt free with the business, so we weren’t going to borrow.”

Now, with a dedicated customer base that demands such granola flavors as cinnamon apple and spicy hatch chile, Grapevine is a fully sustainable venture.

“We’re profitable enough to be able to pay all of our bills,” Vickie said. “So now it’s paying for everything. The next [goal] is hopefully getting money back in our savings account.”

The Warne family’s relationship with organic honey began in the 1940s. Steve Warne’s father, Jasper, was a commercial beekeeper who taught him about making honey.

“He was what you call a migratory beekeeper,” Steve’s wife, Sheila, said.

“In summer, he went to Minnesota.

In winter, he went to the Rio Grande valley, so he trucked his bees back and forth to get the honey.”

Jasper passed away in 1990, and the business faded with him. It would be another 10 years before Steve’s son Anthony brought it back.

Missing the honey that grandpa once made, Anthony joined the Collin County Beekeepers Association and became the president a year later.

His son’s enthusiasm for beekeeping inspired Steve to return to return to the family business.

Though Anthony’s company, AP’s Apiaries, and the Warne Bee Farm are separate businesses, they’ve worked together to accumulate more than 200 hives of bees after starting with only two in 1999.

“From one hive, you can split it twice,” Steve said. “Three can turn into six or nine. Then that nine can be 27 by the second year. During that second year, you can keep multiplying, which is kind of like compound interest. You’re making interest on top of interest. You’re making bees on top of bees, as long as you feed them.”

The Warne family continues to expand its products by making butterspread, honey straws and other items in a wide assortment of flavors, from buckwheat to orange blossom honey.

“It’s a lot of hard work in the summer time to work the bees and collect the honey, but when you get to bottle it and come to places like [Eastfield], to colleges, trades days, farmers markets and you meet people and sell honey, it makes it worth it,” Steve said. “Besides, you get to eat all the different flavors of honey yourself.”

4

NEWS

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

www.eastfieldnews.com

The Et Cetera

Honor guard marches onto campus

By Keturah Jones etc4640@dcccd.edu

With a series of precise moves, the college’s new Police Honor Guard marched with the American flag in hand toward the campus flagpole for the first time.

Eastfield proudly presented its first Police Honor Guard at the Sept.

11 ceremony held on campus. The debut wasn’t the only thing special about the ceremony.

“The flag wasn’t just any ordinary flag,” said Lt. Timothy Ellington of the campus police. “This flag was flown over Ground Zero in New York City. We wanted to have something symbolic and special.”

The idea was born last year af60 ter a student approached Ellington and asked why the college didn’t do Et Cetera pg 5.1 xanything 5.25 to honor the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. There had been pre9 - 10/31/12 vious talks within the police department about having an honor guard, so the police administration decided it would be a great idea to introduce the Honor Guard at the Sept. 11 cer-

emony.

An Honor Guard is a group of people dressed in uniform that honor an event or someone who has passed away. At Eastfield, the Police Honor Guard is made up of campus police employees such as Cpl. Kevin Levingston and Officer Philip Wilburn.

Levingston, who has worked for the department for two-and-a-half years, said his strong faith in God is the foundation of his principles and was part of his reason he joined the Honor Guard.

“I like the structure, the uniformity and camaraderie of being with other officers and knowing that we are doing something positive,” Levingston said.

Wilburn, who was in the Marines for four years, said he enjoys observing the customs and courtesies of the U.S. military.

“I think back to some of the guys I was in charge of that are not with us anymore,” Wilburn said. “Their loss was not for nothing. I can go out there and honor them. It’s a little thing that I can do. They paid the ultimate sacrifice.”

The Honor Guard is planning to serve not only the campus but the community as well. Some honor guards serve at special ceremonies, graduations and sporting events.

“The Honor Guard makes the event seem more official,” Ellington said. “ It gives it some class.”

Ellington, who retired from the Army after more than 15 years of service, previously served as a member of the Army’s Funeral Honor Guard.

A military background isn’t needed to be in an honor guard, but Ellington said the experience does make it easier to train someone.

One of the many duties performed by an honor guard is to present the American flag, which is why members wear white gloves. The gloves are a symbol of purity. Anyone who holds the flag must wear white gloves and remember that the flag can never touch the ground.

Ellington is hoping that the Police Honor Guard’s next college-related event will be the spring graduation ceremony. He said the group feels honored to be able to give back to the students during graduation.

“We are doing this for you, the students,” Ellington said. “We are honoring you because you have done

something that probably somebody said you couldn’t do or you didn’t think you could do.”

JIMMY AMBASSA/THE ET CETERA

Officer Philip Wilburn holds the American flag that was flown over Ground Zero as Cpl. Kevin Levingston salutes.

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NEWS

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www.eastfieldnews.com

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Auto Tech drives to create certificate Certificate will allow students more experience

By Justin David Tate etc4640@dcccd.edu

The Automotive Technology Department will soon offer a certificate for High Performance Modifications.

The certificate may not be ready until 2014, according to Automotive Program Chairman Elias Alba, but the certificate will open doors for students to modify vehicles.

“The skills [students] learn will allow them to go out to lots of the highperformance shops,” automotive technology professor Jeremy Bramall said. “We started doing research for this program about what high-performance shops would support us, and there were eight shops within 10 miles of the school.”

Students can already educate themselves in automotive repair to build cars back to what they used to be, but proposed classes in the High Performance Modifications course-

JIMMY AMBASSA/THE ET CETERA

Kandace Yang and Jose Hernandez work on rotors in the T Building.

work will allow them to learn more.

The budget for these courses is paid for through sponsors, such as Hondata, which donate supplies as a way to advertise to students.

“After I ran a class this summer,

the kids got to tune using the Hondata program,” Bramall said. “Two of the kids went out and bought the Hondata system. It’s a good sales opportunity just for the sponsors.”

The problem is in the paperwork,

Streaming into the future with new media service

By Marimar Lazaro etc4640@dcccd.edu

After decades of showing videos by DVD and VHS tapes, the college is now digitally streaming media content.

Films for the Humanities is providing the college with a collection of academic films, including documentaries, archival film footage and access to “BBC America”, “ABC News” and a variety of films. Swank Motion Pictures is providing the college with feature-length films and documentaries.

Sandra Hunter, manager of Media Support Services expects 90 percent of all classes to be using the new services by the spring semester.

“Before Swank and Films for the Humanities, we were physically renting 16 millimeter projector titles, VHS and DVD,” Hunter said.

One of the things that attracted Hunter to these two providers was their easy access and payment structure. Swank has a tiered rate, which compares to buying viewing rights.

“I would pay $800-900 for one showing using the film format,” Hunter said. “But at the very worst, [using digital streaming] I’m going to pay $240 to see that same film as many times

as we want to in the space of one year.”

The college now has access to more than 15,000 full-length films from Films from the Humanities and 25 titles from Swank. Students will be able to access them through Blackboard.

Instructors also have access to an account.

Currently, the college’s video library consists of VHS tapes and DVDs that are either severely outdated, at the verge of extinguishing or the college’s license is about to expire.

“I’ve had some faculty that in the past had some difficulty with software programs come by for some quick orientation, and they’ve had no problem with these programs,” Hunter said.

One of the perks of the new service is the companies will automatically load the updated films. Before, Hunter had to physically purchase the updated film. Also, instructors will now be able to show movie clips that previously were purchased independently of the film.

Hunter said she has received great feedback from instructors who have tried out the new streaming services.

“What I found most beneficial is the ease of use and convenience to the instructor,” said Marsha Hasenyager, a basic peace officer and criminal justice coordinator said.

or “legal stuff,” as Bramall and Alba put it. There are numerous organizations such as the Automotive Curriculum Committee that judge the feasibility of the program.

This summer, a course titled “Special Topics” under section number 1491 was introduced to students wanting to learn car modification.

Alba has seen students who have no previous modification instruction ruin their vehicles by not having the knowledge of how to make the changes they want. “[Students] buy all these bolt-ons and they don’t achieve what they want for what they pay,” Alba said.

“What we’re saying is if you add a turbo, what’s needed in order for this turbo to work properly in the vehicle? You can’t just add a turbo and expect your vehicle to be fast.”

Randol McCommas was among the first automotive students to take the special topics course over the summer. He said the course was informative even though it is currently an elective.

“I know it’s not a class that’s designed toward putting you in that field of work, but it does open that

door to you,” McCommas said. “Instead of just being a repairman, you can be more of a performance enthusiast or performance professional.”

Bramall said original equipment manufacturers (OEM) such as Honda or Toyota are desperate for experts in high-performance modifying, so much so that many instructors have side-contracts with them.

Landing a job with a major OEM can change a student’s life.

“The guy that I learned from, he’s a Ford guy,” Bramall said. “He flies around the world with a laptop making cars run better. That’s his job.”

Alba said students who move to other cities such as Austin or Houston can still land a job at a performance shop as an intro-level tech with the knowledge they learn from the special topics course.

Despite seeing the benefit of the course, automotive student Ivan Arana-Orozco is anticipating the day he’ll earn a certificate.

“Instead of just becoming a class that’s offered, they told us it was actually going to be a certificate. That actually sounds a lot better to me,” he said.

6

NEWS

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

www.eastfieldnews.com

The Et Cetera

Nutritionist warns of possible health risks

By Anjulie Van Sickle etc4640@dcccd.edu

Sophomore Lisa Hutchins recently had a heart-attack scare, although she never imagined it would happen to her. “I had never had high blood pressure or anything, but I’m older and I’m more overweight than ever,� she said. “I was actually thinking about doing a walking class next semester.

It makes you a little more conscious about what you eat.�

That’s one of the reasons Hutchins came to hear Dr. Vivian Jones speak about the importance of weight management during a science seminar on Oct. 8. Jones explained how to stay healthy while noting the benefits an active lifestyle can provide.

She explained that weight loss is achieved by burning more calories than are taken in. The average American who weighs 100 pounds will lose roughly 1,000-1,500 calories per day by simply getting up in the morning and living.

However, obesity occurs when people intake more calories than their bodies can metabolize.

“

I feel like people always say they want to lose weight, but never try hard enough. —Lauren Allen Film major

�

“Food and nutrition isn’t just an issue of personal health,� said John Emery, associate dean of science and physical education. “It’s not just an issue of the impact on the economy. It’s also an issue of personal ego.�

Emery, who helps organize the science seminar series, then talked about how his own doctor said he was overweight during a recent physical. Emery responded by informing the doctor that muscle weighs more than fat. His doctor said, “Yes, muscle does weight more than fat, but what does that have to do with you?�

Jones explained that getting healthy is a lifestyle change. One of the ways to engage the body and become healthier is to increase daily

physical activity. “Be active,� Jones said. “Take a walk, be a part of nature, hang out with friends outside. Turn off the TV and become more productive.�

Another healthy strategy is making smarter food choices. Jones suggested eating low-fat yogurt instead of ice cream. Fish, baked chicken and walnuts are also smart options.

Other suggestions were to take the stairs instead of the elevator, park far away from class to increase walking distance or take a walk with friends. “I feel like people always say they want to lose weight, but never try hard enough,� film major Lauren Allen said. “You always think about it, but you end up saying, ‘No, I’ll just work out tomorrow.’�

Regular exercise is also important.

Jones suggested exercising five to seven times a week if possible. However, she also stressed that each individual has to find what works. “Find what you love to do; don’t do anything you hate or you won’t enjoy exercising,� Jones said. “You will set yourself up for failure. Try several different options and find something that works for you.�

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7 The Et Cetera

www.eastfield.com

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

East Dallas still recovering

By Morgan Corley etc4640@dcccd.edu

On June 13, east Dallas was hit by a storm that dropped hail the size of baseballs in some areas, resulting in one of the area’s most devastating hailstorms in almost 10 years.

Cars and homes across the area were damaged. The Southwestern Insurance Information Service initially estimated the damages to be between $1.5 and $2 billion. However, the amount of actual claims filed fell just shy of $1 billion.

Lakewood took a particularly brutal beating. The sounds of construction echoed across the area for months as residents worked to repair the damage.

Stephen Snow’s rental home on La Vista Drive took minimal damage.

“A window in my roommate’s room [was broken], but it has been repaired now,” he said.

A broken window is minor compared to the damage sustained by other homes, but because Snow rents the house, it fell under his landlord’s duties to fix it.

MORGAN CORLEY/THE ET CETERA

Some Lakewood homes are still undergoing repairs after the hail storm.

“But the landlord didn’t even pay to have it done,” Snow said. “The landlord also hasn’t made any plans to have the roof inspected or repaired.”

Many well-known businesses in the area were as damaged as the homes around them.

Among them was Kalachandjis, a vegetarian buffet that has been operating out of the Sri Sri Radha

Kalachandji Mandir Hare Krishna Temple for 30 years.

Cook Danny Thomas, who was working in the restaurant when the storm hit, said the building is still damaged.

“The roof is completely toasted, just like every other roof in the area,” Thomas said. “We still haven’t gotten it fixed.”

The majority of Lakewood has

been re-roofed by now. However, for months after the storm, the small residential streets were clogged with trucks and debris.

Roofing companies from all over the nation have been flooding into east Dallas to cash in on the demand for repairs.

“Something that probably didn’t make the paper was that we had pallets of supplies that had been delivered to homes that were being stolen,” Dallas police officer Dan Russell said. “Trucks would just pull up and steal the entire thing.”

In addition to the damages to home and businesses, many cars in the area had cracked windows several weeks after the storm. Some residents have complained about being ticketed by officers for their broken windshields.

Russell said most officers weren’t ticketing individuals with cracked windshields during the weeks following the storm.

“Now that we’ve reached about three months from [the storm], I would be more likely to ticket them,” Russell said.

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What is your favorite guilty pleasure and why?

Giant eyeball washes up on shores of Florida beach

A man taking a morning stroll Thursday along Pompano Beach just north of Fort Lauderdale came upon a giant softball-size eyeball.

An assistant professor in the Marine Science program at Florida International University in Miami, BrackenGrissom, said the blue eyeball may have come from a deep sea squid or a large swordfish. The mystery of how it washed ashore won’t be revealed until further testing is complete.

2-year-old has too much fun at birthday party

In London, a small boy was taken to a hospital when his mother noticed a quick and strange change in his attitude while the family was celebrating his second birthday at a restaurant.

After he began making funny faces, his mother tasted his drink and noticed it was not juice, but whiskey.

The restaurant chain, Frankie and Benny’s, apologized for the incident and is looking into how the mix-up could have happened. The boy has been released from the hospital and is doing well.

‘Warning Zombies Ahead!’ says hacked construction sign

A Portland hacker changed an electronic construction road sign that read “Night work 8 pm-6 am” to “Warning Zombies Ahead!” Drivers may have gotten a laugh out of it, but spokeswoman Nicole Clegg says the sign is a safety hazard and could be a distraction to drivers. She told the Portland Press Herald that tampering with a safety device is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. It’s unclear who is behind the prank, but local officials say it isn’t the first time it has happened.

Arrest me, please Carlos Herevia International Business

Maribel Tonche General Studies

Dylan Howe Science

Armon Reynolds Studio Art

Ana Monsivais Education

“Watching a Hispanic soap opera called ‘El Capo.’ It’s so addictive. Last night I watched three chapters.”

“Eating barbeque sandwiches. I love them so much that I eat them all day, every day. They take me to my happy place.”

“Video games. I play anytime that I have free time. My favorite game to play is ‘Runescape.’ I used to play about 100 hours a week, but I had cut back to 20 hours.”

“My guilty pleasure is kind of weird. I watch “Lion King” every day. Parts one, two and three. I watch it to get inspiration for my art.

It works out pretty well.”

“Shopping for shoes. I absolutely love shoes. I buy shoes when I know I should be saving money for something else.”

Jeffrey McMullen, a 50-year-old regular customer of the AmeriServ Bank in western Pennsylvania, was arrested Friday for robbing the bank of $1. Police say McMullen wanted to be prosecuted federally so he could be taken to a prison in central Pennsylvania. There is no word as to why, but he awaits a preliminary hearing.

— The Associated Press

8 The Et Cetera

www.eastfieldnews.com

Spicing things up

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

ALBUM REVIEW

COURTESY OF RCA RECORDS

Miguel crafts lustful dreams for listeners

By Justin David Tate etc4640@dcccd.edu

BRAULIO TELLEZ/THE ET CETERA

The singers from the Booker T. Washington Latin Ensemble get into the music while singing “Oye Como Va” during the recital series on Oct 3.

Ensemble brings a Latin flare to recital series

By Angel Abarca etc4640@dcccd.edu

Beating timbales, beautiful voices and saxophone notes rang through the performance hall as last week’s Wednesday Recital Series took on the spice of Latin music.

The Booker T. Latin American Ensemble, directed by Kent Ellingson, performed various Afro-Cuban works as well as Brazilian and Puerto Rican numbers from greats such as Tito Puente and Celia Cruz.

The group took the audience on a journey through the various styles

of Latin music with its renditions of “Oye Como Va,” “La Vida Es Un Carnaval” and “Ran Kan Kan.” From Cuban salsa to rumba, the ensemble kept the audience wanting more. However, Ellingson wanted everyone to leave with more than just the music.

“Basically, the sound of Latin music and how all these different parts percussion, horns, vocals-rhythm section-intertwine and mix together to achieve an overall sound,” Ellingson said. “I think this group conveys that very well.”

Throughout the crowd, there were

bobbing heads and smiling faces as the recital continued. Everyone was fully engaged in the music.

There were many different ages, ethnicities and fields of study represented in the audience. Some were simply there to enjoy the music, and others were more musically inclined students like Oscar Romero, who plays the piano and was trying to expand his musical horizon.

“I thought that it was a very well executed performance,” Romero said. “It was a great representation of Latin culture because of the variety of music styles performed along with

the very fitting dancing movements and gestures.”

Throughout the whole ensemble there was nothing but smiling faces and dancing, which fed the energy of the small but enthusiastic audience.

By the end of the show, everyone was lost in the music. Timbales player Ethan Worland said that is one of the group’s primary goals. “[We are] trying to heal the people,” Worland said. “If they have any troubles when they walk in, if they find the groove, or the “tumbao”, then they don’t feel [their troubles] for a minute.”

Miguel Pimentel is one of the top students in the new school of R&B. Like his crooning peers Frank Ocean and The Weeknd, Miguel is furthering the genre with every song.

Look no further than “Adorn,” the opening song of his sophomore album “Kaleidoscope Dream.”

This self-produced instant classic is the album’s main single, and its unconventional use of a throbbing bass doesn’t conflict with the silky smooth vocals that ooze carnal temptation into every syllable.

The lyrics of other songs such as “Do You…” provide charmingly funny lines such as “I want to do you like drugs tonight,” while other songs prove more thought-provoking.

In “Where’s The Fun In Forever?” he questions and even rebukes the idea of immortality with lines like, “Where’s the meaning in tomorrow/ Where’s the lust/ Where’s the angst/ Never feel like time is borrowed/ ’Cause it’s all the same.”

Though Miguel poses many questions, by song’s end, he answers in a command for listeners to celebrate and live each day like it’s their last.

Some tracks combine humor and depth such as the crass “P*ssy Is Mine,” where he examines why he wants the woman he’s sleeping with to lie to him by claiming he’s “the only one.”

If listeners want a smooth, fun R&B album with depth and plenty of surprises, then this album is a dream come true.

LIFE & ARTS

9

The Et Cetera

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Four hours of Fair fun

By Braulio A. Tellez brauliotellez@dcccd.edu

It’s 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday and the Texas State Fair is offering $2 admission when you donate three cans of food at the front gate. My friend Brendyn and I are leaving Kroger with two plastic bags filled with canned beans and corn. It’s going to be a good day.

4:45 p.m. — Highway 30 West is fairly busy. I’m usually rushing to work around this time, but it is my day off and I have all day to stuff my face with fried foods. The First Avenue and Fair Park exit has excited me ever since I was a child. It’s like a paved Yellow Brick Road to the gates of the fair.

5:03 p.m. — Parking is hard to find, but I manage to snag a spot behind the Pizza Lounge directly in front of the main entrance.

We turn in our cans of food and receive our $2 admission. As we make our way to the edge of the fairgrounds, the smoky aroma of barbecue and the sweet scent of deep-fried confections welcome us. The ticket booths sit directly in front of the entrance, welcoming our minimum wage-fed wallets. Tickets cost 50 cents each. I start with 40 tickets, which sets me back $20.

5:17 p.m. — I step up to one of the many famous Fletcher’s corn dog stands scattered around the park and buy a corn dog for 10 tickets. I take it to the condiment area, which is surrounded by dozens of hungry Texans trying to load up their deep-fried hot dog with their favorite toppings, and smother mine in mustard. Then I head toward the auto show in the Centennial Building.

5:32 p.m. — After eyeballing the new Corvette and every other sports car I’ll never own, we head to the Midway. We pass the man working the Roll-a-Ball stand, who is wearing a squid hat. He

BRAULIO TELLEZ/THE ET CETERA

The Love Bug and Big Swing are two popular rides at the fair.

tries to lure us in by enthusiastically repeating “the next big winner” in a voice you would expect a man wearing a squid hat to use.

I kindly pass up the offer but snap a picture of him for the memories. I’m too broke for playing games. I came here for food.

It’s time to hit the food court.

6:02 p.m. — We follow the Texas Skyway lift to the Tower Building and enter the cluster of food stands that line the picnic area. I have always been bad with decisions, especially ones involving food. I rip myself apart deciding what to eat every year.

I make my mind up after gawking at menus for several minutes and go with brisket tacos. I shell out 12 tickets, grab my food and sit down at one of the empty benches to devour my food and wait for my friend. She comes back with a basket of Twisted Taters covered in ketchup, which I do not hesitate to eat, like the good friend I am.

As we eat, we flip through the pages of the fair guide and find a pig race. I’ve never seen a pig race. That’s about to change.

6:15 p.m. — The race starts at 7:45, so we have time to kill. We begin walking aimlessly through the coliseum, where wall-to-wall vendors are selling everything from homemade fudge to top-of-

the-line cutlery.

I stumble into a booth selling Indian ornaments and clothing and buy a Hindu prayer flag.

As we make our way past the maze of tables, my friend is lured into the sales trap of a woman demonstrating flat irons.

She walks away with a strand of ironed hair and an awkward experience.

We head out of the coliseum and merge with the crowd as we make our way to the Cotton Bowl. There we find a booth offering a chance at season tickets to Dallas Cowboys games. All I have to do is fill out a form and spin a wheel. Brendyn spins and misses the win column by two spaces. I go next and land on win.

I begin hollering about winning tickets as the woman in charge of the wheel congratulates me.

She then takes me to a plastic display case where the grand prizes are kept: sunglasses. I thought I had won the tickets. I pick a pair my brother would like and walk away disappointed.

6:45 p.m. — Our inner gluttons come out, and we decide to hunt down some of the notorious fried foods the fair is so famous for. Our noses guide us to a food stand selling fried peanut butter, jelly and banana sandwiches.

I buy one for 12 tickets, and

Brendyn buys a bacon-wrapped cinnamon roll skewered on a stick. We find a bench to sit at and quickly devour our mini heart attacks. I instantly feel guilty, but in the back of my mind, I wouldn’t mind having another one.

7:15 p.m. — We sit for a bit to let our food digest while we people watch. It is getting dark and the true mystique of the fair is beginning to show. The lights of the ferris wheel and the Midway gate flicker and flash as people scramble to watch the Chinese Lantern Festival.

It costs $20 to get in, but we can see the fireworks and hear the music just fine from the outside.

We make our way to the Pan Am Arena and find our seats in the stands. The room smells like a pig pen and looks like one, too.

A lady comes out in overalls and explains to us how the races work. There are three races and four different pigs for each race.

The pigs represent all four corners of the room.

Our first pig is named Wigley Nelson, the second Sylvester Stalloin and the third Miss Piggy.

Each loses the race, although to be fair, not by much. The races last a total of 20 minutes. It was not what I was expecting, but this night is about new experiences.

8:04 p.m. — As we exit the coliseum, we catch the last part of the night parade. The floats include various fair sponsors such as the Shriners. They put together a band and perform cool surf rock, which I have genuinely enjoyed since I was a kid.

8:30 p.m. — My legs are tired, and my belly is full. My mission is accomplished. I snap a few pictures before we make our way to the car. As we drive off into the unusually cool Texas night, the lights of the ferris wheel glimmer in my rear view window.

It was a good day.

10

LIFE & ARTS

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

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The Et Cetera

Fear takes on a new form with ‘Slender’

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

By Caitlin Piper etc4640@dcccd.edu

Lovers and fairies and dreams, oh my! begins. It will continue after the play ends. Student tickets for the matinee will be $5, and general admission tickets will be $7.

“We’ll be doing a lot of activities, and it’ll be free [and] open to anyone who wants to come and participate,” said Dusty Reasons, head of the Drama Department.

There will be many different activities at the festival, including bowling, jousting, face painting, maypole, hair braiding, dancers, and a Shakespearean insult booth.

There will also be trolleys full of actors reciting lines from different plays. The performances will be from “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).”

“It’s a three-man show where they go through all the works and scenes from each play,” technical theater coordinator Lori Honeycutt said.

“I think it will be really fun and entertaining.”

By Danyelle Roquemore etc4640@dcccd.edu SCREENSHOT BY CAITLIN PIPER/THE ET CETERA

manoid monstrosities need to eat too.

However, that doesn’t mean it isn’t fair, as long as you follow a few unwritten rules.

The first thing you should know is that you are required to look at the Slender Man, at first. He cannot move when he is in your line of sight. You can’t look for too long, though. At a rate depending on how close he is and how long you have him in your sights, your camera will be overtaken by shrieking static, allowing him to rush at you while you’re blinded. Wait too long and you’ll suddenly find yourself face-to-torso with your lanky pursuer. If that’s the case, game over.

You can sprint in short bursts, but go more than a second or two without rest and your character will begin to pant. After a while you will be unable to sprint at all, and the Slender Man has the ability to force you to turn around and look at him when he gets too close.

This is compounded by the fact that it is pitch black and your flashlight will eventually die. While it is possible to beat the game in under 10 minutes, it doesn’t take much longer for your flashlight to fail you.

Also realize that with each note you find, the Slender Man becomes more relentless in his pursuit. By the last three pages, you can’t turn around without risking him catching you automatically.

The only possible criticism I can think of is that the Slender Man model can look a little goofy once you get over the initial shock of his sudden appearance. While his arms are properly disproportionate, I can’t say the same for the rest of his body.

His legs are short even by human standards, and his small, oval head is laughingly reminiscent of an egg. I understand why this was done. If he were as tall as he was supposed to be, the heart attack-inducing sequence where he follows you into the cramped abandoned bathroom complex wouldn’t have been nearly as effective.

However, this isn’t enough to ruin what I believe to be the scariest game I’ve ever played.

It’s simple, but nothing short of brilliant. A must.

Many students would willingly admit that they cringe at the mere mention of William Shakespeare’s name.

But that may be about to change.

The Drama Club is hosting a free festival in honor of the fall show “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” that will make Shakespeare and his works seem like a good time instead of a tedious, outdated read. “[Students should come] to relax and just get their minds off of classes,” event coordinator Alana Henry said. “[They can also] enjoy some Shakespearean delicacies.”

The festival will be held on Oct. 25 in the courtyard from around 10 a.m. until 12:30 p.m., when the second matinee performance

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Originally dreamed up by somethingawful. com user Victor Surge for a paranormal Photoshop contest on June 8, 2009, the Slender Man quickly caught on among the userbase, spreading across the Internet like wildfire.

We loved the idea of a 10-foot-tall, noodlelimbed, faceless monstrosity in a snazzy black suit stalking and devouring children, leaving their remains hanging on a lone forest tree for an unfortunate passerby to find.

Less than two weeks later, a group of young film students decided pictures weren’t enough.

On June 20, the first entry to the ongoing horror web serial “Marble Hornets” was posted to YouTube. Shot in a minimalist, “found footage” style, it follows 20-something film major Jay as he tries to put the pieces together after his friend, Alex Kralie, begins to act paranoid and aloof, leaving behind only a stack of videotapes as explanation. Episodes are rarely more than two or three minutes long and put their shoestring budget to great effect, allowing you to fill in the blanks as you personally witness Alex’s slow crawl into madness.

Even film critic Roger Ebert praised the show, calling it “remarkably well done.”

While not the first game to be based off the Slender Man, “Slender” is the one the Internet can’t seem to shut up about. A free, independently produced love letter to “Marble Hornets” by one-man studio Parsec Productions, it has exploded in popularity over the past couple of months after YouTuber PewDiePie posted a video of himself playing it on July 1.

Let me just say that headphones are a must while playing. There’s a lot this game does right, but the true genius within it is the music.

It is simultaneously minimalist and somehow so very overwhelming that it forces you to focus on your task: finding eight pages scattered randomly across 10 landmarks that would feel right at home in Alex Kralie’s sketchbook.

You are an unidentified young girl armed with nothing but a dying flashlight and a video camera, arriving in a fenced-off, seemingly abandoned section of forest in the dead of night with no explanation. As a young girl, you can’t run very fast or for very long, which proves rather problematic when you first spot a particularly well-dressed gentleman off in the distance. You go for your first page after a few minutes of exploring the forest in silence, and suddenly a booming drum starts to rhythmically echo throughout the trees.

Welcome to the first layer of music. It will be burned into your mind soon enough.

Oh, and you should probably start moving.

“Slender: The Eight Pages” is not an easy game.

You will die many, many times. After all, hu-

LIFE & ARTS

11

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Wednesday, October 17, 2012

‘Crazy Mexicano’ inspires students through art

By Anjulie Van Sickle etc4640@dcccd.edu

Marty Ruiz, the college’s featured artist for Hispanic Heritage Month, asked the students who came to hear him speak on Oct. 8 what “showing up” meant to them.

He said he believes “showing up” is 80 percent of life. This means simply being present during life’s learning experiences. However, there must be engagement and attentiveness in order to reach 100 percent. “[If I’m engaged], I’m awake for it; I’m there for it,” Ruiz said. “I get to experience everything that’s going on, and chances are that if I am paying attention, I just might remember something that will help me in my lifetime.”

He explained that art is taking an inward emotion and expressing it with an outward medium. Whether singing, writing or learning how to be a better speaker, he said personal talents are all ways of taking something from the inside and putting it outside for the world to see.

His art, he said, is straightforward.

He likes to make people feel good through his art by being positive and

using a lot of color. It doesn’t have to be too elaborate; people just have to feel good after looking at it.

“Long after I am gone, which hopefully won’t be too soon, people will still be looking at my art and saying, ‘We met this guy a long time ago.

He was a crazy Mexicano,” Ruiz said.

“I hope that I will leave a mark, just like every one of you in this room will have the opportunity to leave your mark doing something you love.”

He said we cannot control many of the things that happen in our lives.

Using the carpet as a metaphor, he said there was a solid part to his left, a stripe in the middle and then another solid part to his right. The area to his right represented events that are out of a person’s control. This he called E for events.

“Here it is, the most valuable lesson I could teach you about life: Bad stuff is going to happen to you,” Ruiz said. “You’re very, very welcome.”

However, he said that bad things don’t necessarily have to defeat one’s spirit or destroy one’s dreams.

The strip of carpet in the center stood for response. He said when people respond there is an opportunity to think things through, instead

of reacting in the heat of the moment.

“It’s how I respond to the stuff that I don’t like,” Ruiz said. “I’m not talking about pretending that it didn’t happen, because it’s a reality. This is where I get to show my own power.

Because it is how I respond to this stuff that will change what’s over here [to the left].”

To his left was an area he referred to as O for outcome. This was his complete formula: The events plus the response to those events equals the outcome, which is E + R = O. The message stuck with many in the audience.

“I learned a new song today,” speech professor Bob Hopkins said while laughing. “It’s Old McDonald had a farm, E, R, E, R, O.” Students in the audience said Ruiz helped put things into perspective.

“I think that how I deal with things is going to be a little bit different than how I have in the past,” math major Steven Matias said. “I’m going to think more about how I respond to events instead of just reacting to them.”

Ruiz concluded by reminding the students how important they are.

“No matter what dream you may

GRISELDA TORRES/THE ET CETERA

Marty Ruiz delivered a positive message along with his colorful art.

have, no matter how big it is, no matter how incredible, you have the ability to make it real, because your

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response is where you have power,” Ruiz said. “No dream is too big. It’s never too late to start your dream.”

12 The Et Cetera

Carletta Ford

Award-winning member of: • Texas Intercollegiate Press Association • Associated Collegiate Press • Texas Community College Journalism Association

Eastfield College 3737 Motley Drive Mesquite, TX 75150 Phone: 972-860-7130 Fax: 972-860-7646 Email: etc4640@dcccd.edu

Put down the phone and start paying attention

Editor In Chief Justin David Tate Managing Editor Claudia J. Guerra Design Editor Chris Guerra-Yanger News Editor Keturah Jones Opinion Editor Anjulie Van Sickle Life & Arts Editor Sidney Murillo Sports Editor Kevin Cushingberry Online/Social Media Editor Danyelle Roquemore

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Copy Editors Caitlin Piper Enrique Morales Staff Writers Jimmy Ambassa Melissa Joyce Marimar Lazaro Sergio Léon Ginny Morris Miguel Padilla Braulio Tellez David Valderas Photographers/Videographers Odessa Leeper Griselda Torres Cartoonist Jonathon Wences Graphics & Layout Chadney Cantrell Student Publications Manager Lori Dann Faculty Adviser Caitlin Stanford Editorial Policy The views expressed on the opinion pages and other opinion pieces and cartoons in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of The Et Cetera, Eastfield College or the Dallas County Community College District.

Letters to the Editor Letters must be typed, signed and include a phone number. Letters will be edited for profanity and vulgarity, Associated Press style, grammar, libel and space when needed.

The content will remain that of the author.

Letters must be 250 words or fewer. Letters may be delivered to Room N-240 or e-mailed to etc4640@dcccd.edu First Amendment Right Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

OUR VIEW

Outsourcing fewer jobs could mean better economy Last month the national unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent. It was the first time the rate dipped below 8 percent in four years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As heartening as this news is, we still see many people without jobs struggling to make ends meet.

Some of these unemployed Americans would be more than willing to take some of the jobs that are currently being outsourced by companies to countries like India and China.

Yet, amidst all the chatter in the news about the civil war in Syria and what the two primary presidential candidates are saying about that issue or that, we rarely hear anyone say U.S. companies should bring jobs back to America.

Many of the jobs companies outsource to other countries do not require college degrees. Therefore, Americans without a college education could be working in those jobs, providing for themselves and their families, buying goods, paying taxes and living better.

A recent article in The Los Angeles Times gave an example of the effect of outsourcing. The article focused on a medical insurance firm called Wellpoint Inc., which sends many of its jobs such as pre-service nursing, billing and medical accounting to the Philippines.

The people previously working those jobs in the United States were laid off. The company turned more of a profit by paying the Filipinos less than what they would have to pay Americans.

Wellpoint’s employment at the end of 2011 was 37,700, compared to 40,500 in 2010.

Laying off Americans and sending jobs overseas is not good for America, especially as we attempt to climb out of a long recession.

Many nations are dealing with similar economic problems. The citizens of those countries need work too.

However, it is wrong for U.S. companies to offer them jobs when so many Americans are still struggling to find employment.

A nation should not allow companies to outsource jobs when its people need to work.

Though the jobs we export still support U.S. businesses, the workers being paid are not American. Large firms like Wellpoint do not think this is a problem as long as there is profit. Huge corporations should not be so greedy.

We want companies like Wellpoint to bring back the jobs they have been shipping overseas.

If they do, they will find plenty of eager Americans ready to roll up their sleeves and get back to work.

Everywhere you look on campus, people have cell phones in hand and earphones in their ears. They don’t even realize what is going on in the world around them.

I’ve walked down the halls and had students bump into me because they were too focused on their cell phones. They didn’t even have the courtesy to say excuse me.

In one of my classes recently, the instructor asked us to make a rule about using cell phones. I suggested making the offending student leave class and lose points, unless the call was an emergency. When you are in a classroom setting, it is not appropriate to be on your cell phone.

Some would argue that college is when you become a free spirit and find yourself. But where do we draw the line?

You do not have a one-on-one instructor. There are other people who have paid tuition and want the instructor to be the focal point in the room. It is very annoying to hear the clicking of keys from texting, the vibration of a phone going off and the occasional music that lets you know you have an incoming call.

Often when students are listen to music, I can hear that also.

Cell phones are a nice invention, but when do we turn them off and turn on our social skills that are so obviously lacking on this campus?

For once in your technical life, stop and see the world around you.

There are beautiful things and beautiful people in it. If the cell phone is the only thing you care about, you may look up one day and find that the world as you knew has gone on without you.

Social skills are more important than technology. If every electronic device shut down today, what would you do? Think about it.

OPINION

13

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www.eastfieldnews.com

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

The classroom has its perks There’s no doubt that our generation is technology driven. Therefore, it would seem appropriate to teach us by the medium we are most familiar with, the Internet.

That is a growing trend on college campuses, as instructors incorporate the Internet into their class curriculums.

Some classes feature a blend of traditional lecture and online assignments, in which most tests, homework and quizzes are completed online. Others incorporate the Internet only to complement the class, through resources, practice or extra credit work.

Personally, with an overstuffed schedule, I have found that traditional classes are much better for me than Internet-oriented classes.

Although the more Internetbased classes are beneficial because of their availability, they fall short in some of the more essential aspects of education such as diagnostics,

Marimar Lazaro

teacher expectations and simply understanding students.

Since most of the work is done outside the classroom in these types of classes, the only diagnostics the instructor has of his students’ progress are test results and homework grades.

These diagnostics may be marred by something as simple as a computer glitch or a student needing clarification on the way a question is phrased.

Moreover, there are many limits to what can be tested through the Internet. Concepts, terms and formulas are tested easily enough.

However, applying these concepts, such as speaking another language or performing a physical task, is not as practical.

There is also no room for students to think outside the box. Online tests have one answer and one answer only.

Classes that use the Internet as a supplement have the advantage of consistency and flexibility.

Besides becoming familiar with how the class works, the students form a perception of the teacher’s expectations and orient themselves to do better in class For example, some instructors set a high standard on vocabulary while others prefer their students to comprehend functions, knowing these expectations give students an idea of what the instructor concentrates on most.

Internet-only classes give objectives that are too general to formulate an idea of what is most

Nursing your child publicly should not be covered up

As I pack my daughter’s diaper bag before I leave home, nursing in public should not be at the forefront of my mind, but it is.

One night when my daughter was 2 months old, my husband and I decided it was time to treat ourselves to dinner.

It was nice to get out and be the one being served for a change.

Soon after we ordered, our daughter woke up. Not surprisingly, she was ready for dinner, too.

Without any hesitation, I picked her up and fed her in the most natural way possible.

When our waitress brought our drinks, she acted as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

I started to feel more comfortable with the idea of nursing in public.

Then I felt eyes staring me down from across the room. A mother eating dinner with her husband and son was looking right at me with a look of disgust.

I have never felt so uncomfortable. As the woman continued to stare, I debated weather I should

Claudia Guerra

stop feeding or continue.

But why should others decide where I can and can not feed my child? Would society prefer I give her powdered milk?

I vowed to always give my daughter the best of everything, which she deserves, and I believe breast is best.

When a mother chooses to breast feed, she is making a healthy choice for her baby. According to kidshealth.org, babies should be exclusively breast fed for up to 6 months, even 12 months, if both mother and baby are willing.

Breast feeding has many rewards, like passing your baby antibodies that help them have a lesser chance of getting an ear infection, diarrhea,

respiratory infections and meningitis.

It also contains the perfect amount of minerals and vitamins your baby needs.

Because each mother’s milk is designed specifically for her baby, many breast fed babies rarely catch the flu.

If the mother is healthy, she doesn’t need extra supplements because her milk is all the baby needs for its first year of life.

I’m not saying breast feeding is the only way to go, because I am not a judgmental person. I believe a mother should do what she thinks is best for her and her baby. For me, that would be breast feeding.

Another reason I chose to breast feed is because it is free, and you don’t require any additional packing.

The whole argument against breast feeding in public seems silly.

Just like the popular e-card says: “People always want to see your breasts, until you’re feeding a baby; then it’s considered indecent. Anyone else see the flaw in this logic?”

important.

In a classroom setting, instructors understand when some students have bad days; therefore, they are more apt to provide a second chance to complete an assignment than those who only teach online classes.

I have also found Internet-based classes to be too time-consuming and tedious. A two-day-a-week class requires daily monitoring for any new assignments, and there is a constant possibility of a change in plans.

The online resources that are supposed to be all-encompassing are overwhelming.

Videos and Power Points frequently overlap the same material, and what’s supposed to be reinforcement becomes a redundant nuisance.

Interactive e-labs and online video lectures are never going to come close to the experiences offered by one-on-one teaching in traditional classes.

DCCCD Subway gives back Props to DCCCD Subways for giving back a percentage of sales on Oct. 15 and 16 to benefit student scholarships and employee professional development. Subway stores also donated $1 for every supreme muffin sold. Hopefully, plenty of you went out and showed your sub love.

Rangers disappoint Dallas Drops to the Rangers for losing the wild card game against the Orioles to cap a horrible late-season collapse. Despite a 93-69 overall record, the team lost seven of its last 10 games to miss out on a chance to win the American League West.

Supersonic skydiver Props to Felix Baumgartner for shattering the sound barrier and safely landing on Earth after jumping 24 miles from the stratosphere. Three hours earlier, he took off in a 55-story ultra-thin helium balloon. As he came down in the Eastern New Mexico desert, he lifted his arms in victory.

Sidney Murillo

College dating shouldn’t be first priority Once in awhile, I will sit at the campus watering hole, a.k.a the Pit, and do some human watching. This week, I evaluated the different courtship styles of students.

First there was the “Oh, hey can you help me find the library” from the cute, curly-haired girl with the scarf.

Second was the obvious but not totally off-putting flirting between the cute Subway guy and the girl with glasses.

Then I saw the one that made me want to get my laptop out and start typing up a column.

I saw a girl with books all laid out in front of her. She was juggling three highlighters and a pencil in one hand and looking up sites on her laptop with the other. If the dedicated look on her face, didn’t say, “Steer clear, studying here!” then the ear buds in her ears should have been a sign.

But that didn’t keep Johnny Bravo from attempting to invade her time, not to mention her personal space.

The female rejected the initiation of courting. The male puffed up his chest and decided on a more bold approach.

He sat down beside her and attempted a conversation. The whole exchange made me cringe inside.

It also brought up a question: Should we college students even be thinking about dating while we have so much going on in our lives?

Raging hormones and loneliness are staples that come with the hoodie and flip flop ensemble.

But let’s face it, we are more naïve than we think. This is the time for self-discovery. By bringing someone else into our lives and letting them nestle in our brains, we compromise the chance of becoming ourselves.

We shouldn’t take dating so seriously, we don’t even know our major will be. Or what university we want to transfer to.

But there is a bright side: Dating molds the idea of what we want and don’t want. As long as we don’t take it too seriously and forget who we are.

DIG PINK ON THURSDAY

The volleyball team will hold its annual breast cancer awareness match on Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. versus Richland College. Dig Pink T-shirts will be sold, with proceeds benefiting the Side-Out Foundation.

The Et Cetera

14 Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Gladiators promote healthy habits

By Kevin Cushingberry Jr. etc4640@dcccd.edu

Ally Davidson tried out for “American Gladiators” four hours before her wedding. She qualified for the television show in her wedding veil. After the honeymoon, she and her husband Jeff competed on a couples-themed episode of the show.

Ally became a grand champion, and with the prize money she and Jeff started “Camp Gladiator,” a group fitness movement that began training individuals in the Dallas-Fort Worth community in 2008. It now has more than 10,000 members spread across six states.

The group’s mission is to positively influence the health of as many people as possible. That isn’t easy in a state with an obesity rate higher than 30 percent. Unhealthy eating habits play a big part in the problem.

Camp Gladiator trainers Mason Murphy and Amy Pylant spoke about nutrition,fitness, and motivation during the common book keynote speech on Oct. 9. This year’s book is “Fast Food Nation.”

To give some insight into the country’s present health crisis, the trainers put things in historical perspective.

“The human diet has changed more in the last 100 years than it did in the 10,000 years prior to,” said

Murphy, who served four years in the Marine Corps.

He spoke about the big debate in nutrition: real food versus fake food.

The “can’t kill it, can’t pick it, don’t eat it” mentality that played a part in many Americans’ diets in the past is almost extinct. Today, many Americans ingest a diet loaded with processed foods.

According to Murphy, the amount of calories in a product can be a nonissue. What’s important is the ingredients. The gladiators said if there are more than five ingredients in a food product, you should probably reconsider eating it.

Pylant said another rule of thumb is “if you can’t pronounce it, it’s not a real ingredient.”

However, even a child can pronounce corn syrup or refined sugar.

These sweeteners are used in most snacks and are a leading cause of the 1-in-4 obesity rate among children, Murphy said.

“If it doesn’t grow out of the ground, fall out of a tree, cluck, moo or swim…don’t eat it!” Pylant added.

According to the gladiators, this is important in the real-versus-fake debate. Actual fruit is very nutritious, while many fruit snacks are unhealthy, even though they may resemble mini apples and oranges.

Children aren’t the only ones eating sweets. Murphy said over the past

300 years, the average intake of sugar by adults has increased dramatically.

In the year 1700, the average was four pounds per year. In 1800, it was 18 pounds. In 1900, it was 60 pounds and in 2009 it was 180 pounds.

This amount of sugar intake can cause obesity. A long list of health problems can develop because of obesity including heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, cancer and even reproductive complications.

Besides eating right, another important health aspect the gladiators pointed to was fitness. The culture of working out has changed drastically in the last 20 years. At one time, some thought of jogging or bodybuilding as fitness. Now, there is a “Planet Fitness” in all of the major areas of the Metroplex. More than just jogging, repetitive acts of the primal movements are proven to improve health Murphy said.

“Those who want to work out but are not motivated should look to their past failures as motivation.

No one ever says, ‘I really regret that workout’, the regret comes after assessing a long day of inactivity,” Pylant said.

Eating right, working out and staying motivated all contribute to living life without regret, but it is up to an individual to make their own steps toward becoming a gladiator.

SEVEN EXERCISES YOU SHOULD DO DAILY

CHADNEY CANTRELL/THE ET CETERA

Jerry Jones throws his team underneath his Bentley The Dallas Cowboys win, then lose. Then they win again, and lose.

This is very frustrating for diehard fans of the team. The squad should release a statement every other week when they are going to win so fans won’t get their hopes up.

Who is to blame for this?

As kids, Texans grow up believing the Cowboys are America’s Team.

The truth is the Cowboys have gone from being America’s Team to one of the least favorite teams in the NFL. Part of this can be attributed to the way Jerry Jones has handled the team’s business since he purchased the Cowboys back in 1989.

Miguel Padilla

Since then the Cowboys have won three Super Bowls, but have missed the playoffs six times in the last 10 years. That did not stop Jerry from building a new $1.2 billion home for the team.

Fans expect an owner’s main goal to be winning at all costs. Nobody wants to pay to watch a hopeless team

play. But from the looks of it, Jones is more interested in the monetary side of the game. He always finds a way to turn publicity into some form of revenue.

Take his Papa John’s ads. Jones shows his urban side by doing rap songs and dancing hip-hop. This is an example of how the Cowboys’ owner and general manager uses the media to boost the team’s name, both locally and nationally.

While these advertisements may be a success in terms of publicity, the Cowboys are losing the battle on the field, where it matters most.

It’s ignorant to think the team is

moving forward with Jason Garrett as head coach. Since he took over for Wade Phillips in 2010, the team has not made it to the playoffs. This year is not looking very promising either, with a 2-3 start that included two blowouts.

December is the month when the Cowboys’ season usually comes to an end, but this year might end by Halloween. Dallas is already last in the NFC East.

The offense is not putting points on the board despite having some big-name players. They only scored one touchdown in games 2, 3, and 4. Quarterback Tony Romo threw as

many interceptions to opponents as touchdowns to teammates in those games.

Romo is not the only one to blame.

The offensive line is just not good enough. Receivers are not catching the ball, forcing Romo to become the hero by making unexpected plays to gain yardage. This gives the opposing team a chance to outscore the Cowboys.

At this point, I am not expecting anything better than a 6-10 season with coach Jason Garrett’s play-calling. An 8-8 season would be an accomplishment.

Jerry, YOU might be the problem.

15 The Et Cetera

www.eastfield.com

Jonathan’s World By Jonathan Wences

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

MOVIE REVIEW

COURTESY OF 20TH CENTURY FOX STUDIOS

Sequel is ‘Taken 2’ far

By Sergio Leon etc4640@dcccd.edu

A Furry Situation By Stephanie Owen

SUDOKU

Much like a single dab of butter cannot be spread across two slices of bread, the sequel “Taken 2” feels pretty thin.

The film, which opened Oct. 5, begins with our hero, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), once again making an effort to be a part of his daughter Kim’s (Maggie Grace) life, this time training her for a driving exam.

Bryan’s ex-wife Lenor (Famke Janssen) confides that she is separating from her current millionaire husband. Sensing the tension in Kim and Lenor’s home, Bryan decides to invite them to spend a few days with him in Istanbul after he works a security job escorting a rich chic. Unknown to Bryan and his family, the fathers and brothers of the Algerians he killed in the first film are plotting revenge.

Bryan and Lenor are kidnapped

and Kim is left to fend for herself and find her parents. With Bryan guiding her via a small cellular device hidden in his sock, Kim is never completely alone and shows she has matured a bit from the ordeal in the last film.

“Taken 2” might satisfy some fans of the first film, but it’s clearly a step down. Director Olivier Megaton tries too hard to make Bryan look like a badass in an effort to recreate the magic of the first film.

The seductiveness of the first film was the amazing and detailed skills Bryan utilizes to get his daughter back despite near impossible odds.

“Taken 2” still showcases those skills, but they are overshadowed by explosions and time spent on the phone.

Liam Neeson’s performance meets expectations. However, in some heavy-action scenes, it’s apparent that he is no longer a young man. He just looks tired.

Overdramatization is also a problem. The lack of emotion in the first film as Bryan takes out more than 30 Algerians was what made it so great to watch. Now that Bryan is on the battlefield with his wife and daughter, there are too many heavy emotional scenes that seem out of place.

Overall, ‘Taken 2’ is not a bad film, but it is ultimately a letdown for those of us who wanted to see Bryan Mills “do what he does best.”

16

START YOUR LEGACY HERE!

The Et Cetera

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

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