College graduates should mind their manners

By Arianne Custer 
Published: May 16, 2011 for the Daily Titan


There used to be a day when parents found it unacceptable for their children to behave unruly in front of others at the dinner table. In fact, it was an etiquette taboo not to have table manners. A child was to follow certain inherent rules in front of family, friends, dinner guests and even strangers.

Dinner at home, just a few generations ago, used to go like this. First you would wash your hands and then set the table with actual silverware and dinner plates – usually without even being asked – simply because your mother told you it was dinner time.

Read the rest of the story HERE.

Call for action at Cal State Fullerton

On behalf of the editorial staff of the Fullerton Sentinel, we would like to offer our support for higher education. Many of our contributors are teachers and students who understand the challenges before you because we are living through them.


The Fullerton Sentinel does not support the Declaration to Defend Public education because, among other reasons, it does not hold anyone accountable.

That said, please consider the following message from the Fullerton Sentinel to the CSUF students at tonight's rally:

California State University at Fullerton has been mismanaged for decades. Now in the midst of an economic depression we see the results of poor financial planning and what it is like to live hand to mouth.

Whether it is the faculty early retirement program which causes a significant burden on the coffers or poor leadership from the president, CSUF students are at the epicenter of a major institutional shakeup.

Each of you are the hope of tomorrow. You are the leaders of tomorrow but your state needs you today. It is time to learn about the CSU budget. Its time to learn about CSU funding. Its time for you to take all of your knowledge and ambition to do fix this broken university system.

Declarations do not change state or university budgets. Pounding your fists will not stop the incessant waste of your tuition to pay for "conferences" for administrators. You must root out and embarrass the university's leadership to affect meaningful and lasting change. You must become smarter than they are and a PhD will not grant you the common sense you will need to wage a battle over budgetary policies.

The Fullerton Sentinel extends to ALL CSU students an opportunity for insightful change instead of blind change.

Only one question remains, who among you has the fortitude and character to lead the charge of higher education?

Show us that leader.

The Fullerton Sentinel

Does being attractive get you an A?

By Jessica Druck
Published: March 21, 2011

Looking back on high school, I’m sure you can easily recall the popular, good-looking kids making you feel inadequate with their coiffed hair, cool clothes, piercing eyes and the use of words you thought sounded stupid but made everyone worship them (see: senior year superlatives).


You probably also recall that the popular, good-looking students proved looks got you further in life (see: insecurity problems).


Now that you’re in college, you wonder to yourself whether or not wearing cool clothes, smooth talking your way through Intro to American Studies and having impeccable hair will get you free tutoring like that cheerleader in senior year math.


Do good-looking people have it easier in school? No. Maybe in high school or the work force—you know, if you’re into standing in front of Abercrombie & Fitch with your shirt off while young girls take Polaroids with you—but not in college.


In fact, being attractive may actually deter your success, according to research done by psychologist Maria Agthe, who found you can be too good looking for your own good.


Being beautiful may cause you to lose opportunities in jobs, scholarships and maybe even promotions, depending on the gender and attractiveness of your evaluator.


Her research showed that attractive women were more closely evaluated by the same sex, which sometimes led to negative ratings even if they were extremely qualified.


The same went for men, but when attractive women and men were evaluated by the opposite sex, their approval ratings were higher.


She concluded that working in an environment where someone is qualified, intelligent and better looking made others who were less attractive feel inadequate, making some employers turn away applicants.


This study just gave me terrible flashbacks of high school. How many times did I not want cheerleader Christy on my dodgeball team (knowing all the boys would aim the ball at me and everyone else but not her because God forbid the girl in tiny shorts with hair bouncing about got out)?


An argument against this is a study performed by Michael T. French of the University of Miami, who researched high school students saying attractiveness, personality and grooming affected GPA in grades k through eight, as well as college.


If students took care of themselves—groomed, dressed well and had upbeat personalities—the study showed attractive people eventually got paid more. But why?


Well, he proved that throughout years of education, those who took care of themselves and presented themselves in a more put-together manner than those who didn’t got more rewarding feedback and attention from teachers, making them more confident when they applied their education to the workforce.


So does this study mean if you stop showing up to class in sweats, put on mascara or spray on some Axe, you’ll get rewarding attention from your teacher, eventually resulting in higher pay?


I show up to school put-together; I’m not calling myself Cindy Crawford, but I brush my teeth, I don’t have dirt on my face and I’d like to think I look like a normal, functioning member of society.


But I have yet to receive special attention or have it easier than someone who may be considered more or less attractive. The only special attention I’ve seen attractive students receive is unnecessary gawking from other students like me who drift into a dreamlike coma about the guy next to me who’s as beautiful as Ryan Gosling.


Dressing well, taking care of yourself and presenting yourself maturely does result in feeling more confident, but it won’t change an F to an A.


Maybe it will help you in the long run like French’s study concludes but then again, you might be screwed if your evaluator is the same sex and you’re too good looking.

Modern Romance

by Jessica Druck
(JessicaDruck.com)

When I say the term "modern romance" it sounds like some innovative new way of loving each other, right? Innovative in an energy-efficient-car, Peter Frampton introducing that talk box guitar sound, sort of way; too bad it's not.

Too bad it’s what our society has become: a lazy and frightened generation that likes to hide behind text messages and online profiles making us lose our ability to really communicate.

I remember the days before text messaging when most guys called to talk or ask you to … well, I would have been 13, so that meant asking me to come over after school, watch MTV Beach House and sip on Capri Suns while his mom hovered and watched Oprah on her mini TV in the kitchen. Ah, young love.

Romance was lost somewhere between MySpace and iPhones. We live in an instant gratification society that has made us emotionally shallow at times.

With emailing, texting and social networking, we’re lucky to be able to keep in touch so easily but we’re also kind of at risk of losing touch with each other.

Our generation has become so interpersonal that we can’t even talk to each other during phone sex, we sext. See my point people? Is it that bad to communicate?
So what is romance anymore, liking someone's status update and sending them electronic flowers? Of course, sending sweet nothings using our wonderful technology is fun and convenient--I am not going to totally knock it--but it diminishes what’s really important: getting to know each other.

What do we really know about each other anymore, what we all like and are fans of on Facebook? We practically know everything about a person before dating them anyway thanks to social networks. What fun is that? What do you talk about when you go to dinner, how many sugar packets are on the table?

I find it so refreshing when I meet someone who isn’t into Facebook or Twitter. I know very few men (and by few, I can hardly count them on one hand) who value old fashioned ways and I totally commend them for it.

Texting and networking are crutches; we use them to conduct the perfect sentence to that certain someone but in reality, you don’t have a thesaurus and time to think up witty conundrums in real life when you’re with that person.

The bottom line is, if you really like someone, get offline and be with them. I’m not saying you have to go buy a box of chocolate covered strawberries (this goes both ways ladies) but "if you’re not willing to sound stupid, you don’t deserve to be in love."

Daily Titan: College campuses should not integrate men and women in dorm rooms

By Jessica Druck
Published: February 23, 2011

Have you ever seen an episode of The Real World? You know, that show on MTV where seven strangers move to a city they’re new to, share a seven-bed apartment, possibly form romantic relationships (or just hook up), ally together and gang up on others and the couple breaks up seven times in a four month span, all while trying to get along as a house because no one knows anyone else?

Add a school mascot, midterms and Top Ramen, and you have a parent’s worst nightmare of a coed dorm. Of course, MTV’s The Real World is a rather embellished depiction of what can really be found in a coed dorm.

I can’t speak for all schools, but they are a bad idea.

Cal State Fullerton does not offer coed dorms, but according to an article in the Los Angeles Times, as of March 2010, about 50 colleges in the U.S.—some of which are Ivy League—are permitting mixed-gender dorm rooms to undergraduate students.

Freshmen and sophomores—at least most of them—are not mature enough to live with the opposite sex. Hell, some 30-year-olds aren’t even mature enough.

Promiscuity is huge today; just turn on the CW and watch an episode of 90210 (I did this for research). Look at what those teenagers are doing and they are in high school.

Sexual harassment can be a problem as well. I’m not saying everyone is vulgar, but I am saying that some are more sensitive to jokes which can be taken the wrong way, leading to harassment.

Speaking of harassment, while many people may feel completely comfortable walking around exposed, some may feel displeased by having to find your bare body on the couch watching TV. That alone can be some form of harassment.

Some colleges, like CSUF, offer coed floors as opposed to just dorms and even that might be overbearing for students.

Seeing someone with no shirt can be offensive. It may be religious or personal values, but those values should be respected.

And when it comes to values, what do young adults who moved out for the first time really cherish?

Freedom: the freedom to leave dirty socks on the floor, not do the dishes and date whomever they want, even if that includes rooming with their girlfriend or dating their roommate.

If breaking up is the least of your worries, come talk to me after you have to see him or her every morning while eating your Captain Crunch. Talk about awkward.

Freshman year is stressful. At 18 and 19, it’s hard enough to be yourself, so your living arrangement should be comfortable.

College campuses need to focus on what is really necessary for students, and coed dorms aren’t.

‘Glee’ causes anger and depression

By Ally Bordas
For the Daily Titan (re-posted here without permission)
Published: December 07, 2010 Glee is the worst sitcom ever created. Why anyone in their right mind would waste one hour every week watching this show is beyond me. Glee makes me want to lash out.

Our media has become infiltrated with idiotic individuals scrambling to keep the masses of our nation entertained, since we desperately cling to all things new and improved with the potential to take the world by storm.

The fact that this show has exploded and made everyone a part of it an instant superstar is seriously disturbing. I am begging, pleading, with citizens, non-citizens and aliens alike to band together and overthrow FOX for airing this sort of rubbish.

Unite or be forced to watch people in their late 20s dressing like high schoolers and singing songs when in fact they are butchering all that is great about music!

Glee was inspired by high school drama, sex and choir. FOX aired the pilot episode in 2009. Since then, it has completely blown up into a social phenomenon.

The show has been nominated for 19 Emmy awards, four Golden Globes, six Satellite Awards and 57other awards.

Is this what the youth of America, nay, all of America has become consumed by? Slutty girls and bad choir performances? I like my brain! I like knowledge! And hardcore cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester, played by Jane Lynch, is legitimately torturing every fiber of my being.

The writers of this show, who I now have a personal vendetta against, are Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchulk ad Ian Brennan.

These writers missed the target from day one. For example, let’s dissect the word glee; the first part, beginning with “g-l” automatically makes me think of gluttony, one of the seven deadly sins. Which makes sense, seeing as the majority of America is an over-indulgent nation, enjoying shows such as Two and a Half Men, Trueblood and of course, Glee.

The second part of the word, ‘e-e’, makes me think of e.e. cummings, the sappy love poet. Glee is the cheesiest show ever with the most horrendous plotline, so e.e. cummings fits into this equation perfectly.

Put the word back together and you have Glee: over-indulgent people pretending to feel the most unrealistic level of happiness that no one in this economy will ever attain.

Let’s take a look at the show from a different perspective, like if Glee is a realistic portrayal of high school: haha don’t make me laugh, hell no it is not a realistic portrayal! Wake up to the injustice they are serving our mindless youth!

Glee is completely opposite of what real high school is like. Ian Brennan conceptualized the show based off his own high school experiences when he was in choir. What high school did he go to? Prick-town high?

Ladies and Gentlemen: This is not high school. Do not be so easily fooled. Where is the acne? Where are the braces, the high-pitched male voices that have yet to crack, the mismatched clothing, the battered lockers and all the other terrible plagues we all had to face in high school? They are missing because this is not high school. This show is a bad acid trip.

I felt like if I was going to write an article about Glee, I had better watch at least one episode. So for the sake of researching, I endured 45 minutes of torture in the form of the Glee episode entitled “Special Education.”

As expected, it was terrible. At least I got to watch the first 10 minutes sans singing. When the singing did kick in though, it hit with full force. In an apocalyptic way.

I still cannot believe they sang a song from the classic movie Dirty Dancing and did the famous dance, that is a terrible way to pay thanks to the late Patrick Swayze. And they sang a song by Florence and the Machine… so depressing.

In the end, not only was the acting heinous, the singing was just as unbearable. During the dialogue sessions, one character dropped the word hipsters, another couple went through a cheating scandal, every click just seemed to love each other and all the hidden advice this episode tried to give was so fake. I almost hurled.

I hope I persuaded the world against Glee. If you would like additional information on why NOT to watch Glee, check out Kroq’s Gleecap by DJ Omar Khan. Funniest segment on radio.

There’s an app for that

By Ally Bordas
For the Daily Titan (re-posted here without permission)
Published: December 08, 2010 Cell phones have changed our lives and destroyed them at the same time.

I do not know how many more times I will be able to endure wandering around campus watching hundreds of students and faculty alike making public love to their cell phone. It is distressing, and most of all uninspiring.

There used to be a time when cell phones were a coveted item to own. My favorite times in high school were the class periods when someone’s phone would randomly begin to vibrate aor ring and everyone in the class would make ridiculously loud distractions in order to save the culprit from getting sent to the deans office.

Fake coughs, pounding on desks and turret-like shouts were all tactics used by fellow students in order to save the owner from embarrassment and a for sure grounding. Ah man, the good ole’ days.

Now as I sit in class I notice that at least 90 percent of students have their cell phones visible during class and at least 75 percent of those students will check their phones multiple times. And let’s not forget the professors, who also either have their phones out on the desk and check it throughout class time.

I am mentally sick because of how consumed we all are by technology. What happened to mail, you know, being delivered and put in our mailboxes? Or documentaries, playing outside, long grungy hair and the phones that actually have cords? Am I just wishing that we could all go back and live in the ‘70s? Maybe. But I think my point is more valid than that.

Amy Gahran, specialist for CNN, wrote an article discussing how cell phones have changed our lives. Her article starts out very promising, but then takes a turn for the worst as she begins making love to technology as well.

“Cell phones provide vital services and human connections. They connect people in dire need with services that can change (or save) their lives and offer new hope, even through simple broadcast text messages,” Gahran said.

This is what Gahran was inspired to write after she witnessed a supposed homeless person on the bus whip out a cell phone.

Gahran goes on to advocate for everyone to purchase smartphones, “smartphones do matter. I own a smartphone, and I use it nearly constantly. (Over the summer I ditched my iPhone in favor of the Droid Incredible.)”

Cell phones do not really connect us at all! Yes we can instantly get in contact with each other, check e-mails and get news reports but is that really a human connection? They make us scared to interact with one another, invade our minds and implant a brand new slang language into our vocabulary that is less than impressive.

Now when I text someone and do not get a response they can make up so many excuses: my phone is broken, I lost my phone, I didn’t get your text I swear… back in the day there were no such excuses! You had to get creative to avoid people and almost always had to respond to someone or they would just show up on your doorstep.

I do not want a smartphone. I am not tempted in the slightest to go trade in my 1990s brick of a cell phone for a smartphone. Smartphones are going to pull a Transformers 2 and change into super smart robots that will take over the world! So much for getting prepared for when zombies attack, I am petrified of a technology apocalypse.

OK, I will not be completely ignorant and at least acknowledge the fact that with so many improvements in technology a lot of good has become of it. I admit it. But the question I have is when is it going to stop? When is it going to be enough?

Globalization has spurred so much international competition between countries that brilliant minds of our society are supercharged into wanting to discover the next big thing. But are these “next big things” causing an outbreak of laziness? Have we become so dependent on technology to do all of our work for us that we would not know how to survive in the world without it?

I still crave stimulating conversations and debates that get me riled up. I do not care about “news” updates on way too naive Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus on a stripper pole, the underage annoyance known as Bieber fever, Lady Gag-me, sexually charged dead vampires or where in the world Lindsay Lohan is. I want unbiased news no matter how hard that may be for people to understand. Wake up! Or the puppeteer (AKA technology corporations) will permanently own you.

We may not be smart but we are confident

By Ally Bordas
For the Daily Titan
Published: November 16, 2010
(re-posted here without permission)

Being educated is not important. As long as our government is confident, as long as we are confident, then we will make it in this world. Confidence is much more important than any education system.

What good is education really? I mean, seriously, with the budget cuts, ridiculously low employment opportunities and a worsening economic downturn, what is the point of school?

According to Open Innovation, education does not teach you the joy of living, “it only creates people who can earn their livelihood but it does not give any insight into living itself. It is not only incomplete, it is harmful too because it is based on competition.”

John Schulte, a retail tycoon, says “just because you don’t go get a degree does not mean you can be ignorant on your subject matter, it only means you’re not paying the university/college to tell you to read books on the subject.”

Let me tell you, it’s not a joy when I am sitting on the floor in a lecture class crammed wall to wall with people while my professor reads off of the power-point slides that I can clearly read myself. Like I can’t read two sentences on a larger-than-life screen with my own two eyes? Way to insult my intelligence.

I learn more from protesting the educational system than sitting in a classroom learning about it.

The educational system seems to capitalize on the student population, creating business drones that can quote statistic books but cannot hold a conversation about Marxism or history.

Our government is confident in us as American citizens so being educated is a footnote on the many lists of U.S. “successes.”

Dr. Roberts from Global Research says, “The U.S. owes its image of success to: (1) the vast lands and mineral resources that the U.S. “liberated” with violence from the native inhabitants, (2) Europe’s, especially Great Britain’s, self-destruction in World War I and World War II, and (3) the economic destruction of Russia and most of Asia by communism or socialism.”

“The U.S. nation is a failed state,” Roberts said.

Great Depression: FAIL.
Korean War: FAIL.
Vietnam War: FAIL.
Cold War: idiotic and FAIL.
Desert Storm: FAIL.
US Bank bailout: FAIL.
Recession: FAIL.

Um, should we really be confident in the U.S. with all those bomb fails? Maybe we should stay in school? Anyone?

“After 20 years of off-shoring U.S. production, which destroyed American jobs and federal, state and local tax base, the U.S. unemployment rate, as measured by U.S. government methodology in 1980, is over 20 percent. The ladders of upward mobility have been dismantled,” Roberts said.

Oh of course one could not forget the war against terrorism: EPIC FAIL.

According to Roberts, “the ‘war on terror’ completed the constitutional (and) legal failure of the U.S. The U.S. has also failed economically. Under Wall Street pressure for short-term profits, U.S. corporations have moved offshore their production for U.S. consumer markets.”

The extent of these failures is all hearsay, but in general, our country as a whole did not slam-dunk all of these wars and other issues.

Our government has installed fear in order to gain control. Now, a terrorist threat is “a creation of (our) own government (and) is sufficient justification for naked aggression against Muslim peoples and for an agenda of world hegemony,“ Roberts said.

Not only have we lost many, many young American lives at the hands of ignorant American dictators, we have lost billions of dollars, global credit and have been claimed as “brutal.”

What kind of confidence can be had after all of these failures? I mean how can the government function while drenched in blind confidence and narcissism? It’s disgusting.

Now we are left with no confidence and no need for education. What the hell do we do? We have become chained to our government; giving our leaders every fiber of our being… can you feel the heavy weight on your chest? That weight is the realization that our rights have become sickeningly limited. That weight is the realization that we are doomed.

So what can be done? Roberts gives us the pessimistic version, “the American people are lost in la-la land. They have no idea that their civil liberties have been forfeited. They are only gradually learning that their economic future is compromised. They have little idea of the world’s growing hatred of Americans for their destruction of other peoples.” Ouch. That hurts, especially if you are not “educated enough” to understand what that means.

We can go to school and become one with the grad school kids that use their degrees to be top-notch bartenders. We can educate ourselves on… I can’t remember what my lecture professor has taught me thus far.

But then again, we are the country of dreams, so my unending optimism forces me to believe that my college degree will aid me in some way. Yes, our government is very arrogant, but I am forced to believe that in the end, education is a great tool to aid me in becoming a confident being, ready to throw down against ignorance.