Bring in good photos you take over the next day to class. Use digi camera.
Make inital contact: who you talked to, what your progress is. AKA woodcutter.
============
Begin with an anecdote. The example Dan gave me is the woodcutter needing to cut off his leg when a tree fell on him.
Nut graf: (I wrote down "nut grab") Why you should be reading this story. How it relates to more than just one person.
Scene: Sketch a textural picture of poignancy. My woodcutter limps to the forest.
Chronology, AKA background. How he got into woodcutting.
Scene 2: Now my woodcutter is in his truck. He will make 175 dollars.
What lies (we tell) ahead.... Woodcutter dreams of a new leg. Oil industry to crash.
Final Quote. Leave the reader at the end of the story with a quote from the subject/someone involved.
============
Bob Bean Profile :Next Tuesday His retirement, etc....
Two Tuesdays from now: How much do people drink on Campus? Jonathan Davis, George Hacking RA's, PEOPLE WHO DRINK, etc.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
3050 English
Two or three preferred stories.
Dress professionally on Thursday for meeting with client.
I am apparently the writer for my class of five. Ask Dan for details.
Look up the Charity Walk of the Santa's weekend. Mount Snow in Southern Vermont.
Be careful so that my fellow classmates don't hate me.
Get any necessary books for this class.
CHRISTMAS!
Holidays!
Reader involvement?
*_*
0.0
-_-
0_0
^ ^
0_0
FUN PAGE!!!!!!
See Dan, but not around noon.
Dress professionally on Thursday for meeting with client.
I am apparently the writer for my class of five. Ask Dan for details.
Look up the Charity Walk of the Santa's weekend. Mount Snow in Southern Vermont.
Be careful so that my fellow classmates don't hate me.
Get any necessary books for this class.
CHRISTMAS!
Holidays!
Reader involvement?
*_*
0.0
-_-
0_0
^ ^
0_0
FUN PAGE!!!!!!
See Dan, but not around noon.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
PWC
ENG 2710 Final Project Guidelines
Imagine a rich foundation is giving you $100,000 to create a vibrant Web site to serve a community of your choice. What magic could you perform?
“Community” is defined broadly here to represent a geographic location or a group: Lyndonville, the Northeast Kingdom, Littleton; Vermont dog owners, Newport motorcycle riders.
The site needs to meet a few guidelines:
It must be interactive.
It must be updated frequently.
It must include multimedia.
It must display an ability to become self-sustaining.
What bells and whistles would you put on your site?
How many people would work for it?
What would the home page look like?
What would you link to?
How would you attract readers?
Bonus: Are there items you could include on your site that we haven't talked about in class?
Feel free to bounce ideas off me.
Due: May 1
Length: 4 to 5 pages, double spaced.
Eric Downing
2710
Procrastinators Web Community
The perfect web community for people like me. This web page will be updated daily, if we get around to it. Here at the procrastinators of the academic world website, our motto is “Better Tomorrow Than Today.” But seriously, this web page is more about support than encouraging late papers.
Who staffs the PWC? There are two web masters, one who updates the news feeds and works on any bugs, while the other web master's job is content management. Of course, depending on if one job has a lot of work to be done, the two can work together in the constant struggle to get updates on time. There will also be interns as this community grows.
Students will join PWC for its interactivity, its innovation, and its support. Upon joining, a new member is given the opportunity to create an avatar to represent him or her during her or his travels on the site. This avatar is highly customizable and can be altered at any time. A student's unique avatar can reflect his or her mood (an option which can be selected from the user's profile) by pantomiming the feeling. The purpose of the avatar is not only draw users to the site, but also to make the user feel more comfortable and like a part of the community.
A User is also given an academic calender in which he or she can put important test and assignment dates. The user can also activate a system that notifies her or him about upcoming deadlines at varying times before the date comes up (you could select between a few days and a few weeks, for example). A user can also request to receive these notifications through another email service. As assignments get completed, a user can check it off on her or his calender. To make transportation of files easier as well, the PWC would feature limited storage space with easy access that a user could upload a document to.
Using some of the vast (but still limited funding), PWC would get an endorsement by Google so that users could sign in using their Google accounts, and chat while browsing the site. This integration would allow better use of RSS, as well as make checking the deadline calender easier and unavoidable.
Another feature that would be worked toward for PWC would be music to work by. We could feature an online radio station that plays music that's conducive to study. PWC and the radio station could endorse each other effectively as business partners.
A big part of PWC would be the community itself. One could post a soon-due paper in a “peer-review” section to have it proofed by a volunteer before turning it in. Volunteers would be enlisted from Colleges, as students there know the true meaning of procrastination. They could also write columns about procrastination stories as well as methods for coping with stress.
Volunteers wouldn't be the only ones to read a given student's article, however. Over time, the community of PWC would hopefully become self-sustaining as members start to read and review each other's work and offer input.
News featured on PWC would be filtered by the content manager to relate to the community. To aid this process, an occasional survey would be sent out to members, to find out about interests and to give feedback on the site. This would help PWC grow and develop in a way that would suit the community, which is the most important aspect for such a website.
To further make the PWC member-operated, users would be encouraged to send in procrastination stories and stress-coping methods, as well as cramming methodology to be reviewed by the content manager. Users can freely post such content on his or her own profile, but in order for a post to become a featured article, it either has to catch the content manager's eye, or receive much acclaim from the community. Users could also send small videos or podcasts, but a very small number of these would be featured, as they take up so much space.
Although members get much input on the PWC, certain behavior will NOT be tolerated. Any discriminatory language will NOT be accepted. Instances in which a user abuses his or her privilege to use the site by using racist, sexist, homophobic, or anti-semitic language will be immediately suspended from the site for a period at the discretion of the web master. Further instances will get a user kicked from the community. The only thing that the PWC will discriminate against is discriminatory behavior. Users can also get warnings from insulting other users' work and otherwise being abusive. We want the PWC to be as friendly as possible so that all can feel welcome to share their work without fear of ridicule.
PWC would feature a few games, but none so addictive that they'd stop work. For example, PWC's version of solitaire would say during each Deal, “Don't you have a paper to do?” Users with more control could set it so that games are disabled until all immediate assignments have been uploaded.
The problem with starting a web community is just that: starting it. PWC will need a flashy homepage. I'm thinking purple with Neon blue writing of the words “Procrastination Web Community”. Below that it could say “come study with us, if you have time.”
The site will have many instances of humor regarding the speedy way in which its users often have to complete their work. There will be links to Google (a great search engine), as well as other sites with academic themes. With luck, PWC will be able to form some partnerships with websites that help instruct users about popular topics such as Shakespeare and Physics.
Because of daily updating, hopefully the PWC could have its own word-processor built right in so that users could just do their work on the site. It could be downloadable too, in case a user didn't have Word at home.
Legal stuff: Firewalls and other anti-hacker junk. Filters to prevent inappropriate content from hitting the site. All that Jazz.
Now I kind of want to make this website for real....
Imagine a rich foundation is giving you $100,000 to create a vibrant Web site to serve a community of your choice. What magic could you perform?
“Community” is defined broadly here to represent a geographic location or a group: Lyndonville, the Northeast Kingdom, Littleton; Vermont dog owners, Newport motorcycle riders.
The site needs to meet a few guidelines:
It must be interactive.
It must be updated frequently.
It must include multimedia.
It must display an ability to become self-sustaining.
What bells and whistles would you put on your site?
How many people would work for it?
What would the home page look like?
What would you link to?
How would you attract readers?
Bonus: Are there items you could include on your site that we haven't talked about in class?
Feel free to bounce ideas off me.
Due: May 1
Length: 4 to 5 pages, double spaced.
Eric Downing
2710
Procrastinators Web Community
The perfect web community for people like me. This web page will be updated daily, if we get around to it. Here at the procrastinators of the academic world website, our motto is “Better Tomorrow Than Today.” But seriously, this web page is more about support than encouraging late papers.
Who staffs the PWC? There are two web masters, one who updates the news feeds and works on any bugs, while the other web master's job is content management. Of course, depending on if one job has a lot of work to be done, the two can work together in the constant struggle to get updates on time. There will also be interns as this community grows.
Students will join PWC for its interactivity, its innovation, and its support. Upon joining, a new member is given the opportunity to create an avatar to represent him or her during her or his travels on the site. This avatar is highly customizable and can be altered at any time. A student's unique avatar can reflect his or her mood (an option which can be selected from the user's profile) by pantomiming the feeling. The purpose of the avatar is not only draw users to the site, but also to make the user feel more comfortable and like a part of the community.
A User is also given an academic calender in which he or she can put important test and assignment dates. The user can also activate a system that notifies her or him about upcoming deadlines at varying times before the date comes up (you could select between a few days and a few weeks, for example). A user can also request to receive these notifications through another email service. As assignments get completed, a user can check it off on her or his calender. To make transportation of files easier as well, the PWC would feature limited storage space with easy access that a user could upload a document to.
Using some of the vast (but still limited funding), PWC would get an endorsement by Google so that users could sign in using their Google accounts, and chat while browsing the site. This integration would allow better use of RSS, as well as make checking the deadline calender easier and unavoidable.
Another feature that would be worked toward for PWC would be music to work by. We could feature an online radio station that plays music that's conducive to study. PWC and the radio station could endorse each other effectively as business partners.
A big part of PWC would be the community itself. One could post a soon-due paper in a “peer-review” section to have it proofed by a volunteer before turning it in. Volunteers would be enlisted from Colleges, as students there know the true meaning of procrastination. They could also write columns about procrastination stories as well as methods for coping with stress.
Volunteers wouldn't be the only ones to read a given student's article, however. Over time, the community of PWC would hopefully become self-sustaining as members start to read and review each other's work and offer input.
News featured on PWC would be filtered by the content manager to relate to the community. To aid this process, an occasional survey would be sent out to members, to find out about interests and to give feedback on the site. This would help PWC grow and develop in a way that would suit the community, which is the most important aspect for such a website.
To further make the PWC member-operated, users would be encouraged to send in procrastination stories and stress-coping methods, as well as cramming methodology to be reviewed by the content manager. Users can freely post such content on his or her own profile, but in order for a post to become a featured article, it either has to catch the content manager's eye, or receive much acclaim from the community. Users could also send small videos or podcasts, but a very small number of these would be featured, as they take up so much space.
Although members get much input on the PWC, certain behavior will NOT be tolerated. Any discriminatory language will NOT be accepted. Instances in which a user abuses his or her privilege to use the site by using racist, sexist, homophobic, or anti-semitic language will be immediately suspended from the site for a period at the discretion of the web master. Further instances will get a user kicked from the community. The only thing that the PWC will discriminate against is discriminatory behavior. Users can also get warnings from insulting other users' work and otherwise being abusive. We want the PWC to be as friendly as possible so that all can feel welcome to share their work without fear of ridicule.
PWC would feature a few games, but none so addictive that they'd stop work. For example, PWC's version of solitaire would say during each Deal, “Don't you have a paper to do?” Users with more control could set it so that games are disabled until all immediate assignments have been uploaded.
The problem with starting a web community is just that: starting it. PWC will need a flashy homepage. I'm thinking purple with Neon blue writing of the words “Procrastination Web Community”. Below that it could say “come study with us, if you have time.”
The site will have many instances of humor regarding the speedy way in which its users often have to complete their work. There will be links to Google (a great search engine), as well as other sites with academic themes. With luck, PWC will be able to form some partnerships with websites that help instruct users about popular topics such as Shakespeare and Physics.
Because of daily updating, hopefully the PWC could have its own word-processor built right in so that users could just do their work on the site. It could be downloadable too, in case a user didn't have Word at home.
Legal stuff: Firewalls and other anti-hacker junk. Filters to prevent inappropriate content from hitting the site. All that Jazz.
Now I kind of want to make this website for real....
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Podcasting
In response to the horrfic shootings at Virginia Tech, LSC held a community meeting to discuss the incident and how LSC would handle such a situation. Residence Hall Director Jonathan Davis assured the campus community that the college would be closed immediately following a crisis like the one at VT. LSC has actually had school safety procedures in the event of a crisis for several years now, and is working on making an even better one, thanks to administrators. Bob Whittaker put it best when he said, "In the last year it's become evident that we need to be prepared for what was just 12 months ago unthinkable. We just hope for the best."
How does one get out of a bad date? That was the question asked to a few LSC students recently. The result was hilarious. One popular excuse was feigning illness. Injury could apparently lead to unwanted sympathy and fear of contagion could easily excuse one from any visits. Other suggestions involved being extremely rude to your date, such as talking over anything she has to say, or becoming very inebriated. Another suggestion was to fake a cell phone call with a reason for leaving. A personal favorite, though, comes from Samantha Guilmette, "Talk about marriage and having a lot of kids right away."
How does one get out of a bad date? That was the question asked to a few LSC students recently. The result was hilarious. One popular excuse was feigning illness. Injury could apparently lead to unwanted sympathy and fear of contagion could easily excuse one from any visits. Other suggestions involved being extremely rude to your date, such as talking over anything she has to say, or becoming very inebriated. Another suggestion was to fake a cell phone call with a reason for leaving. A personal favorite, though, comes from Samantha Guilmette, "Talk about marriage and having a lot of kids right away."
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Less Than Brilliant
Author: Trish Pennypacker
Date: March 17, 2007
Title: Less Than Brilliant
Blurb: Columnist Pennypacker Believes that Daylight Savings is a pointless tradition impressed upon Americans by the government.
Benjamin Franklin was a brilliant man, but I don't think that Daylight Saving Time was one of his brilliant ideas. Originally developed to increase the amount of daylight that was available to working people, and to decrease energy costs as a “convenience for commerce,” Daylight Saving, or Shifting, as it correctly suggests, has been met with controversy, much like the controversy I am experiencing as my children and I adapt to the time shift.
To say that children need more daylight as they are commuting to and from school is like saying that the parents, the bus drivers and the teachers are all incapable of keeping them safe. What about the kids leaving for daycare in the early morning hours, and those that arrive home well after dark? Society moves beyond the eight-to-five time frame that Shifting might benefit.
As everyone knows, the government decided that it would be beneficial to shift time earlier this spring in an attempt to save more energy. They claim that we spend one percent less energy a day by shifting an hour of daylight. I want to laugh. Do they really think that we all rise and go to bed at the same time? Don't they take into consideration that the decrease in energy consumption might be because the weather is warmer and more people are spending time outdoors and away from their homes? The government also claims that Shifting saves the United States three hundred thousand barrels of oil a year. Is this how they justify disrupting our sleep habits, by taking our focus away from the oil that they are burning as they import and deport cargo, and move U.S. battle ships and submarines?
I can't speak for every American, but I know that I am not saving electricity when I am forced to wake in the night to my daughter singing, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star for the hundredth time. She has been so tired from waking up an hour early (and she certainly doesn't fall asleep earlier in the evening) that she sleeps an hour longer during her naptime at daycare. This refreshes her enough to make my evenings miserable, and after the umpteenth time of trying to sooth her to sleep, she finally surrenders. But by then I am wide awake. Getting out of bed, I turn on a light so I don't trip over the dog or a pile of Lego's; I turn on the stove, heat up a cup of tea, boot up my computer, set my CD player to shuffle and listen to Dylan until my eyes feel heavy once more. I would imagine that I am not the only parent who goes through this kind of ritual as I try to adjust myself and my children to the time change.
To make matters worst, we have to go through this not once, but twice a year. This year, in an attempt to reduce the hazards for trick-or-treaters, the shift will not go into effect until the first Sunday in November. I'm thinking that this adjustment will just add to the controversy over Halloween, but who am I to say anything? In the Northeast Kingdom, by the time the kids are off the bus and into their costumes, dusk is upon us, regardless of the time change, and no one can possibly tell me that they are adding an hour to my daylight hours when in the winter months there are no hours of daylight to be added, only an extra hour that will have passed unnoticed as I have bustled through my day.
If we could leave Daylight Saving on the spring format, the nation would function just as smoothly. We would have plenty of daylight in the warmer months, and in the winter months, those shuffling home from work at five o'clock might be lucky enough to enjoy the daylight for a half an hour. Maybe that half hour of evening light might be enough light to cure the depression associated with seasonal disorder. It's just a thought.
The way I see it, Daylight Saving is nothing but a rooster call from the government telling us when to rise and shine and when to tuck ourselves in for the night. It does nothing to boost our proficiency, and it demeans our intelligence. If you want more daylight, get out of bed earlier; if you are worried about safety, pay more attention; if energy usage is a concern, do your part to cut back on the energy you expend. Maybe if everybody took responsibility for themselves we wouldn't have to let the government tell us when our day begins.
Date: March 17, 2007
Title: Less Than Brilliant
Blurb: Columnist Pennypacker Believes that Daylight Savings is a pointless tradition impressed upon Americans by the government.
Benjamin Franklin was a brilliant man, but I don't think that Daylight Saving Time was one of his brilliant ideas. Originally developed to increase the amount of daylight that was available to working people, and to decrease energy costs as a “convenience for commerce,” Daylight Saving, or Shifting, as it correctly suggests, has been met with controversy, much like the controversy I am experiencing as my children and I adapt to the time shift.
To say that children need more daylight as they are commuting to and from school is like saying that the parents, the bus drivers and the teachers are all incapable of keeping them safe. What about the kids leaving for daycare in the early morning hours, and those that arrive home well after dark? Society moves beyond the eight-to-five time frame that Shifting might benefit.
As everyone knows, the government decided that it would be beneficial to shift time earlier this spring in an attempt to save more energy. They claim that we spend one percent less energy a day by shifting an hour of daylight. I want to laugh. Do they really think that we all rise and go to bed at the same time? Don't they take into consideration that the decrease in energy consumption might be because the weather is warmer and more people are spending time outdoors and away from their homes? The government also claims that Shifting saves the United States three hundred thousand barrels of oil a year. Is this how they justify disrupting our sleep habits, by taking our focus away from the oil that they are burning as they import and deport cargo, and move U.S. battle ships and submarines?
I can't speak for every American, but I know that I am not saving electricity when I am forced to wake in the night to my daughter singing, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star for the hundredth time. She has been so tired from waking up an hour early (and she certainly doesn't fall asleep earlier in the evening) that she sleeps an hour longer during her naptime at daycare. This refreshes her enough to make my evenings miserable, and after the umpteenth time of trying to sooth her to sleep, she finally surrenders. But by then I am wide awake. Getting out of bed, I turn on a light so I don't trip over the dog or a pile of Lego's; I turn on the stove, heat up a cup of tea, boot up my computer, set my CD player to shuffle and listen to Dylan until my eyes feel heavy once more. I would imagine that I am not the only parent who goes through this kind of ritual as I try to adjust myself and my children to the time change.
To make matters worst, we have to go through this not once, but twice a year. This year, in an attempt to reduce the hazards for trick-or-treaters, the shift will not go into effect until the first Sunday in November. I'm thinking that this adjustment will just add to the controversy over Halloween, but who am I to say anything? In the Northeast Kingdom, by the time the kids are off the bus and into their costumes, dusk is upon us, regardless of the time change, and no one can possibly tell me that they are adding an hour to my daylight hours when in the winter months there are no hours of daylight to be added, only an extra hour that will have passed unnoticed as I have bustled through my day.
If we could leave Daylight Saving on the spring format, the nation would function just as smoothly. We would have plenty of daylight in the warmer months, and in the winter months, those shuffling home from work at five o'clock might be lucky enough to enjoy the daylight for a half an hour. Maybe that half hour of evening light might be enough light to cure the depression associated with seasonal disorder. It's just a thought.
The way I see it, Daylight Saving is nothing but a rooster call from the government telling us when to rise and shine and when to tuck ourselves in for the night. It does nothing to boost our proficiency, and it demeans our intelligence. If you want more daylight, get out of bed earlier; if you are worried about safety, pay more attention; if energy usage is a concern, do your part to cut back on the energy you expend. Maybe if everybody took responsibility for themselves we wouldn't have to let the government tell us when our day begins.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Articles to Webitize
Some Students at LSC not just 'high on life'
By Caleb Byerly
Critic Staff
Lyndon State College's official motto says, “Experience Makes the Education”. But some students have incorporated this motto to include using illegal drugs such as cocaine.
After interviewing three students who were eager to disclose their drug use, under the condition of anonymity for obvious legal reasons, more than 20 different kinds of illegal drugs (including LSD, cocaine and heroin) were identified by the students as being used on either a regular basis or on an experimental basis.
A senior, nicknamed “Dr. Mario” for this story, proudly listed the numerous prescription drugs he enjoyed that would put a pharmacist to shame, including such as powerful painkillers Vicodin, Percocet, and Oxycontin.
“I do acid, shrooms (psychedelic mushrooms), coke, ecstasy, pills.” Dr. Mario said, laughing. “You'd better put a star in your notes next to that one.”
Although there was a long list of prescription drugs, Dr. Mario asserts that the hallucinogenic drug LSD was his preferred method of getting high.
“I do it for the learning experience.” Dr. Mario said. “I get to see the world from a new point of view. It's by far my drug of choice.”
Another student, a sophomore, nicknamed “Smokey McCloud” for the interview, described his drug use as recreational and dismissed the dangers involved with drug use.
“There are a ton of things that kill your brain cells.” McCloud said. “As long as you stay in control, you're okay.”
Another sophomore, nicknamed “Lisa Lush”, talked about doing drugs such as coke, mushrooms and ecstasy as recreation and during parties. While acknowledging the harmful effects these drugs have on the body, Lisa did not see any reason to quit.
“I just do it for fun.” Lush said. “If it gets out of control, I'll stop.”
The belief that a drug user is in control of the drug is very naïve, according to Public Safety Director George Hacking, who has seen the devastating effects of drug abuse first hand.
“Some people don't know if they will become addicted.” Hacking said. “It's naïve to think a person can control a drug. It controls the person.”
The students that were interviewed all admitted to going to their classes under the influence of an illegal substance at least once. English professor Alan Boye is not unfamiliar with this fact.
“There have been numerous occasions where someone seems inebriated and reeks of alcohol.” Boye said. “I have asked them to leave the class.”
Boye annually conducts a casual survey among his students in order to find out what types of drugs that are brought onto the LSC campus.
“I am always shocked by the number of drugs on campus.” Boye said. “I've found as an educator, it's much harder to learn and retain what you've learned when you're stoned.”
None of the students interviewed for this story expressed any desire to stop using illegal drugs in the near future, though two did say they intended to quit eventually.
To: The Critic
Series: Moments Like This
Author: Trish Pennypacker
Title: It Seems Like Yesterday
Date: March 2, 2007
It Seems Like Yesterday
Driving by the old house yesterday, the ghosts of my childhood taunted me. The driveway was plowed and children were building a snowman in the backyard. I watched the children heave and push as they rolled their bodies over wet mounds of snow. I would believe that only a few years had passed since I ran through the halls of the spacious house, skated on the frozen pond in the backyard, and climbed through the rafters of the barn, but the crooked, aged branches of the crabapple tree on the front lawn, told me otherwise.
I was eight years old when Dad brought the crabapple tree home from a local nursery. I was playing in the kitchen with my younger sisters when Mom started laughing in protest. Dad caught her in his arms, blindfolded her, and began twirling her dizzy. Curiously, we followed them onto the lawn, where Dad had the tree and a shovel waiting. When the blindfold was removed, Mom saw the skinny, budded red branches of the tree, and hugged and kissed Dad. She danced as she walked with my father across the lawn, trying to decide the best placement for the tiny tree. I didn't understand her excitement, until I tasted crab-apple jelly.
Only two years after Mom had planted her tree, she was able to make a couple of pints of crabapple jelly. As the years progressed, the jelly-jars began to fill the basement pantry.
My sisters and I eagerly offered to pick the tiny red fruit, in anticipation of the jelly. We were only allowed to pick the fruit that we could reach from the ground, tip-toes were allowed, climbing the tree was not. Mom taught us to twist and pluck gently, removing the crabapples without hurting the tree. We filled our buckets with the smooth, round fruit.
Before simmering the crabapples in a large stainless steel pot, Mom would sift through the twigs, leaves and bugs. As the fruit simmered, the house filled with a sweet, tempting aroma. “Don't touch the hot jars,” Mom would say as she lined them to cool, on rows of white linen. “Listen. Make sure they pop,” she'd say as we peered through the rose colored jars, the sunlight sifting through the glasses, casting a pink glow on our curious faces. “If they don't pop, that means they didn't seal. I'll have to reprocess them in hot water or they will not last.” We laughed as the Pop! Pop! Ping! filled the air.
The best part came when we were finally allowed to taste the jelly. Mom would open a pint. Ping! The seal popped. Our mouths watered as she scooped into the jar, and spread the thick, sweet goop over crunchy, brown slices of toast. Next to maple syrup and strawberry-rhubarb jam, crabapple jelly was my favorite topping.
That was years ago. Now, I long for the taste of Mom's crabapple jelly as I spread store-bought jelly onto my toast. Sometimes I purchase homemade crab-apple jelly during the summer at local farmer's markets or I make my own strawberry jam. This is better than the store-bought jelly, but it holds no comparison to the jelly that my mother made from the crab-apples.
Driving by the old house yesterday, I noticed that much is the same. The house has been re-sided in the same yellow, the barn repainted in the same red. The same colored white curtains hang from my former bedroom window and a tabby cat, much-like my childhood tabby cat, sat on the same stone stoop where my cat used to bask in the sun.
However, the ancient cedar tree that had loomed above the house, its branches startling me during the dark night as it scratched the window pane, has been cut down; a brown cargo van, parked in the driveway, replaces my father's blue pickup; the hammock is gone from the white birch trees, and our name is no longer scrawled on the side of an old, metal mailbox: an unknown name is engraved into the homestead sign that is mounted above the snow bank. These differences sadden me, but the greatness of the old crab-apple tree, with its bare solemn branches, saddens me the most.
Who would have thought that time would move so swiftly?
When we drive by the house, on our way to Littleton, my children sigh melodramatically, “We know, Mom. That's where you grew up.” They tire of hearing me reminisce, but I keep reminding them that I was a child once too, as if to tell myself that it wasn't too long ago. My children know nothing of the ghosts that lie within the old yellow house on the edge of Route 18. They are too busy creating their own ghosts to understand.
By Caleb Byerly
Critic Staff
Lyndon State College's official motto says, “Experience Makes the Education”. But some students have incorporated this motto to include using illegal drugs such as cocaine.
After interviewing three students who were eager to disclose their drug use, under the condition of anonymity for obvious legal reasons, more than 20 different kinds of illegal drugs (including LSD, cocaine and heroin) were identified by the students as being used on either a regular basis or on an experimental basis.
A senior, nicknamed “Dr. Mario” for this story, proudly listed the numerous prescription drugs he enjoyed that would put a pharmacist to shame, including such as powerful painkillers Vicodin, Percocet, and Oxycontin.
“I do acid, shrooms (psychedelic mushrooms), coke, ecstasy, pills.” Dr. Mario said, laughing. “You'd better put a star in your notes next to that one.”
Although there was a long list of prescription drugs, Dr. Mario asserts that the hallucinogenic drug LSD was his preferred method of getting high.
“I do it for the learning experience.” Dr. Mario said. “I get to see the world from a new point of view. It's by far my drug of choice.”
Another student, a sophomore, nicknamed “Smokey McCloud” for the interview, described his drug use as recreational and dismissed the dangers involved with drug use.
“There are a ton of things that kill your brain cells.” McCloud said. “As long as you stay in control, you're okay.”
Another sophomore, nicknamed “Lisa Lush”, talked about doing drugs such as coke, mushrooms and ecstasy as recreation and during parties. While acknowledging the harmful effects these drugs have on the body, Lisa did not see any reason to quit.
“I just do it for fun.” Lush said. “If it gets out of control, I'll stop.”
The belief that a drug user is in control of the drug is very naïve, according to Public Safety Director George Hacking, who has seen the devastating effects of drug abuse first hand.
“Some people don't know if they will become addicted.” Hacking said. “It's naïve to think a person can control a drug. It controls the person.”
The students that were interviewed all admitted to going to their classes under the influence of an illegal substance at least once. English professor Alan Boye is not unfamiliar with this fact.
“There have been numerous occasions where someone seems inebriated and reeks of alcohol.” Boye said. “I have asked them to leave the class.”
Boye annually conducts a casual survey among his students in order to find out what types of drugs that are brought onto the LSC campus.
“I am always shocked by the number of drugs on campus.” Boye said. “I've found as an educator, it's much harder to learn and retain what you've learned when you're stoned.”
None of the students interviewed for this story expressed any desire to stop using illegal drugs in the near future, though two did say they intended to quit eventually.
To: The Critic
Series: Moments Like This
Author: Trish Pennypacker
Title: It Seems Like Yesterday
Date: March 2, 2007
It Seems Like Yesterday
Driving by the old house yesterday, the ghosts of my childhood taunted me. The driveway was plowed and children were building a snowman in the backyard. I watched the children heave and push as they rolled their bodies over wet mounds of snow. I would believe that only a few years had passed since I ran through the halls of the spacious house, skated on the frozen pond in the backyard, and climbed through the rafters of the barn, but the crooked, aged branches of the crabapple tree on the front lawn, told me otherwise.
I was eight years old when Dad brought the crabapple tree home from a local nursery. I was playing in the kitchen with my younger sisters when Mom started laughing in protest. Dad caught her in his arms, blindfolded her, and began twirling her dizzy. Curiously, we followed them onto the lawn, where Dad had the tree and a shovel waiting. When the blindfold was removed, Mom saw the skinny, budded red branches of the tree, and hugged and kissed Dad. She danced as she walked with my father across the lawn, trying to decide the best placement for the tiny tree. I didn't understand her excitement, until I tasted crab-apple jelly.
Only two years after Mom had planted her tree, she was able to make a couple of pints of crabapple jelly. As the years progressed, the jelly-jars began to fill the basement pantry.
My sisters and I eagerly offered to pick the tiny red fruit, in anticipation of the jelly. We were only allowed to pick the fruit that we could reach from the ground, tip-toes were allowed, climbing the tree was not. Mom taught us to twist and pluck gently, removing the crabapples without hurting the tree. We filled our buckets with the smooth, round fruit.
Before simmering the crabapples in a large stainless steel pot, Mom would sift through the twigs, leaves and bugs. As the fruit simmered, the house filled with a sweet, tempting aroma. “Don't touch the hot jars,” Mom would say as she lined them to cool, on rows of white linen. “Listen. Make sure they pop,” she'd say as we peered through the rose colored jars, the sunlight sifting through the glasses, casting a pink glow on our curious faces. “If they don't pop, that means they didn't seal. I'll have to reprocess them in hot water or they will not last.” We laughed as the Pop! Pop! Ping! filled the air.
The best part came when we were finally allowed to taste the jelly. Mom would open a pint. Ping! The seal popped. Our mouths watered as she scooped into the jar, and spread the thick, sweet goop over crunchy, brown slices of toast. Next to maple syrup and strawberry-rhubarb jam, crabapple jelly was my favorite topping.
That was years ago. Now, I long for the taste of Mom's crabapple jelly as I spread store-bought jelly onto my toast. Sometimes I purchase homemade crab-apple jelly during the summer at local farmer's markets or I make my own strawberry jam. This is better than the store-bought jelly, but it holds no comparison to the jelly that my mother made from the crab-apples.
Driving by the old house yesterday, I noticed that much is the same. The house has been re-sided in the same yellow, the barn repainted in the same red. The same colored white curtains hang from my former bedroom window and a tabby cat, much-like my childhood tabby cat, sat on the same stone stoop where my cat used to bask in the sun.
However, the ancient cedar tree that had loomed above the house, its branches startling me during the dark night as it scratched the window pane, has been cut down; a brown cargo van, parked in the driveway, replaces my father's blue pickup; the hammock is gone from the white birch trees, and our name is no longer scrawled on the side of an old, metal mailbox: an unknown name is engraved into the homestead sign that is mounted above the snow bank. These differences sadden me, but the greatness of the old crab-apple tree, with its bare solemn branches, saddens me the most.
Who would have thought that time would move so swiftly?
When we drive by the house, on our way to Littleton, my children sigh melodramatically, “We know, Mom. That's where you grew up.” They tire of hearing me reminisce, but I keep reminding them that I was a child once too, as if to tell myself that it wasn't too long ago. My children know nothing of the ghosts that lie within the old yellow house on the edge of Route 18. They are too busy creating their own ghosts to understand.
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