Written April 18, 2006. A news article on this same subject can be found here in The Daily Texan

I can’t wake up to my alarm clock anymore.

For five years, my Sony alarm clock served me well and woke me before every 8 a.m. class and exam–but no more. Ted at RadioShack assures me that the one I bought last week is the loudest one they sell–my housemates agree. Maybe I grew accustomed to the dependable beeping tone of my previous alarm clock. Maybe the alarm got quieter in its golden years. Maybe my former alarm clock simply sounds identical to the reversing construction equipment.

West Campus has turned into a block party for construction crews now that new zoning has allowed land owners to build high-rise apartments in the area. Developers pay more each day for land, and apartments go up faster than Starbucks locations.

It started with the Texan–a six-story mammoth of “luxury apartments” across the street that now blocks out the sun. A few months later, the Sterling complex showed up uninvited right next door to me. On that fateful day, I awoke to a cement breaker destroying what had been a parking lot next to us. Just to dispel any thought of efficiency about this cement breaker, it consists of a giant chisel-like column that a crane carries into the sky and drops onto the parking lot repeatedly to shatter it into pieces. From my second story bedroom, my entire world rattled each time it dropped. I expected my rent house, already passed its prime aesthetically and structurally, to collapse like a house of cards.

Along with construction came the beeping–construction crews must always drive their equipment in reverse.

At first, it tortured my housemates and me. We woke up and bickered about it as if the crews could hear us through our windows in the mornings and smothered our heads in pillows.

Several weeks later, the beeping, the banging and the sawing all became only background. We slept through it without tossing or turning. My previous alarm–may it rest in peace–lost its effectiveness and so did the beeps reminding us to change the batteries in our fire alarm.

Just as we had started to get used to the noise, the workers captured our backyard fence in the rubble. Without a fence, new sounds join the list of grievances. I went to the bathroom and heard voices outside–workers ducking under our external stairs to dodge the rain. The repetitive clang that woke me one Saturday–workers playing our horseshoes game in the backyard, or what used to be our backyard. When the construction workers finally put up a Rent-a-Fence, it cut our yard in half so that they could fit their gravel truck through.

I sometimes wake up at 9 a.m. to “La Cucaracha” on the horn of the taco dealer giving the construction workers their morning fix. She comes back at noon—so does the horn, and a gauntlet of workers sits on the railroad ties on both sides of our front walkway. When I leave for classes, I always want to run down the line and get high-fives like the announced starter for the Dallas Mavericks.

Even at night, the constant rustling of the paper attached to the siding they are putting up on Sterling eerily reminds us that out in the darkness, IT is waiting. Creepy. If only I could measure the decibel level to see if it warranted a noise complaint.

Now I realize that this construction is inevitable. Construction itself is not the problem, but the sheer amount of construction–on all sides of my current residence and many other locations throughout West Campus–makes it a disturbance to Austin’s “weird” community. With developers salivating to build apartments, land rates are skyrocketing and construction crews are matching the student population in West Campus. The Kappa Alpha Order’s second house sold for $4 million just so developers could tear it down. The location, far from the UT campus, is less valuable than most.

It is our own fault as West Campus residents. We encourage this rapid rush to build since every apartment that claims to be “the next big thing” with the best “luxury apartments” always fills up despite insane rent prices–that is, until the next one is built.

Almost three years ago, the talk of the apartment search community was the Villas on Guadalupe. Students signed pre-leases to live in the Villas almost a year in advance. Rent was higher than Snoop Dogg at about $1,000 a month per bedroom, and although some complained, they paid it.

The Texan put an end to that. With rent higher than the Villas, the Texan was full for this current school year before it even had walls while the Villas marketing team visited student organization meetings all last year searching for more tenants and dropped rent to somewhat sane numbers. The management was certainly probably caught off guard by how quickly the Villas aged in the life cycle of West Campus housing.

We all need to wise up. Whether the problem is the developers’ craze for new apartments or UT students’ desire to fill them, we will soon be competing to live in the highest ivory tower of West Campus. The residents, including myself, need to band together during this time of change and demand better treatment and lower rent prices. If none of us jump on the boat to live in the next mammoth dwelling, then the apartment companies will eventually have to come to their senses and drop pricing. On that same note, if we stop filling every apartment that goes up and providing an insane profit for the developers, maybe apartments won’t keep shooting up like weeds. Years from now, the greed of developers is sure to leave West Campus buried in a graveyard of old structures and faded dreams.

However, we have no neighborhood association. Every rogue element of West Campus has to fend for itself, and there is no stage for me to jump on, no soap box for me to occupy.

My advice: Ask for Ted and buy this new RadioShack alarm clock for $12.99. It’s going to be a loud next few years in West Campus, and unfortunately, all we can do is bunker down for the ride.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Originally written March 28, 2006

With talk of Microsoft developing the iPod killer, techies again discuss what it would take to sink Steve Jobs‘ iShip. Usually we leave it to the nerds to talk about the latest innovations, but Apple’s iPod crossed over to the mainstream. iPods topped most wanted lists for the last two Christmas seasons. At the University of Texas, we cannot make it from one building to another without seeing the famed white earbuds.

What is it that makes the iPod such a formidable foe in the mp3 market? Are we buying iPods because we want a music player or simply because we want to be part of the in crowd?

“They’re made to be seen,” UT senior David Metter said. Every student who spoke to me agreed that the iPod is a status symbol. Many other companies produce mp3 players, but they lack the indefinable cool factor of the iPod. Even when the iPod isn’t visible, the white earbuds give it away.

“Once in a while I’ll see a generic mp3 player and they’ll have iPod headphones,” UT senior Andrew Chew said. “A fashion statement.”

This “fashion statement” helped bring Apple back to the forefront of electronics and computer technology, and while Apple heavily advertises its music player, the students agreed much of the iPod’s appeal originates from mob mentality–the influence of trendsetters.

College students are not alone in grabbing up iPods, which dominate the mp3 player market and even rule the catchphrases associated with such devices. Children as young as nine or ten years old know how to operate iPods. Despite the fact that the technology has been available for years, the birth of the iPod brought “podcasting” to the forefront of emerging communication. Podcasting refers to the ability to publish a sound or video clip on the Web in mp3 format with a tag allowing us to find it and download it. We can listen to it on our computers or on the go with our iPods–or any other less socially desirable mp3 player.

The media buzz on iPods never ceases, and even when it does, Apple releases a newer, sleeker model to capture our gaze. It is difficult to figure out exactly what made the iPod jump into the limelight and escape being pigeonholed as a nerd-chic pocket protector filler, but it may simply be because people are sheep. Steve Jobs may just have a better understanding of this behavior than other technology moguls.

“I guess in the end, most people want to buy an iPod just because they see everyone else has one,” Chew said.

It would take a great deal of time to learn the ins and outs of several different mp3 players and what they have to offer, so perhaps the easy cop-out is just to buy an iPod and be part of the masses.

Why not? We can leave the competitor mp3 players to the kids that just want to be punk rock.

If Microsoft really is trying to kill the iPod, Bill Gates has his work cut out for him. The sheep have spoken.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

The final article that I had published on PartyCampus.com before it went away…

From the very first date, a girl usually tends to analyze each move that the guy makes to determine its meaning. I have been asked on more than one occasion to interpret these male moves or actions by some of my female friends, but, sadly, I usually have no idea what the actions really means–and most of the time, there is no meaning behind them. Guys and girls play two different games when it comes to dating.

Girls see dating as a game of chess, but guys are just playing checkers.

For girls, each piece and each move is part of great plot–a great plot to get in bed with them or, in the circumstance of a nice guy like myself, to develop a relationship. Every piece a guy moves has rules and a specific objective, and girls try to analyze every step of the way to figure out how the guy will get the checkmate. If they can guess the guy’s next move, they feel some type of accomplishment and preparedness. They want to know the guy is still playing for a checkmate and not quitting. The King’s Gambit rarely works for those of you outside of chess, that’s a checkmate in three moves.

Guys are far less complex in their dating rules and behavior. In checkers, there is no real strategy behind it except to keep moving forward. Guys just throw out all the pieces and hope to get kinged. There may be no meaning behind any one specific move, but, as long as he is still moving pieces, the game continues. The piece may just be the closest one to the guy’s hand when it is his turn.

This means that, in most cases, as long as guys are still pursuing a girl, they are probably interested. If a guy smiles at a girl, it may be no sign of attraction, but if he starts to flirt regularly or call a girl, it probably means he is sending a checker out there to try and make it through enemy lines.

If a guy doesn’t call you one weekend or takes a few days off from talking to you, it may just mean that he wanted a break from the game, or, in some cases, he might be playing against another girl on another board–which girls must admit is perfectly legal since girls may also be doing the same thing. In any case, girls play chess and take much longer to think about their next move, so guys have some downtime.

If a guy doesn’t talk to a girl when she sees him at a club the night after she woke up at his place, she should probably be concerned that he considers the game over after being kinged and has lost interest in her.

It is not that he’s just not that into you. A guy may just be bad at checkers or trying to take his time and select the right piece to throw out there. If he draws you a picture of a duck with your head on it and gives it to you, it may just be his style, or he may very soon start up a cult and drink the punch–in that case, you don’t have to worry about any more duck pictures. There are many different ways to play checkers. A guy’s method could range from cheesy lines to just the lustful stares of a brooding artist. One guy’s method may not work for you, and maybe you should end that game.

In short, the only true way to know what a guy thinks is to wait it out through a few turns and sweep the checker board off the table at some point to ask him the hard questions. Girls can ask directly what his next move will be without ruining the game, but girls must also make sure that they wait until the guy has made several moves and is fairly committed. If not, the guy may get scared off by removing the checker barrier and run back to find a new opponent.

Whenever you girls out there start trying to analyze the moves of a guy, remember which game is being played. You don’t have to figure out the strategy he is using, just make sure he is still moving the pieces and decide whether to king him or triple-jump the hell out of him and leave him crying over his checker board.

Technorati tag: college, dating, checkers, chess, overanalyze.

(more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Another article from the former PartyCampus.com that I wrote back in the fall of 2004. Not many comments from the PartyCampus.com readership on this one…

A recent article in The New York Times highlighted recent news release segments produced by the government to promote agendas or support initiatives such as the war in Iraq. Video segments were filmed and sound bites were placed praising the administration for their job in Baghdad. The same story also brought up columnists who were exposed for being paid by the government to write in support of the administration’s policies. Now, it is fine for the government or any institution to try and generate positive publicity. Celebrities and corporations are constantly throwing stuff out there to try and advertise products or themselves. All you have to do is marry Britney Spears, which isn’t that hard these days. If there wasn’t so much secrecy surrounding the White House, the Bush family might have their own reality show on MTV.

The problem with this practice arises when news organizations neglect to inform people that these video clips or printed news releases are made by another institution and not the news organization. Most people take what is in the paper or on the televised news to be objective reporting, so putting news releases on without attribution is comparable to lying to the public.

As the public of tomorrow, we shouldn’t let the world we will inherit become a manipulating commercial nightmare. Press releases have tried to put spin on news forever, but video news releases go out pre-formatted with interviews and commentary ready-to-play for news programs. If someone sends you your homework, you probably will just use it as is and not write “Made by my friend Mike” at the top of the first page. Video releases make it too easy for journalists to be lazy and not preface the report with a statement on its source. Small-town stations serving rural areas are especially likely to show these releases because they don’t have the resources to investigate themselves. Within those communities, no one would be able to scrutinize the news and have no other source to contradict the news released. Jethro and Paw would be none the wiser–maybe they would have been anyway, but they deserve a chance.

If this policy continues, pretty soon the news will be a series of commercials for various corporate and government interests. I know I don’t want to start seeing infomercials on my news broadcasts. I get enough of those in the early hours of the morning while recovering from the night’s festivities. Just imagine “1,000 soldiers have now lost their lives in Iraq, but you could save tons of money if you switch to Geico.”

Some media outlets, such as the FOX News Channel, have already been accused of spreading propaganda in their programs, and, if the media begins to air un-attributed news releases, all channels would eventually go the same way. It is not the place of the government to frame and report on its own functions; journalism and the First Amendment were designed to maintain a watch on the government for the public. It is also not the place of the government to influence columnists or influence them to gain their support. Columnists are not paid to write someone else’s opinion; people look to columnists as having their own personal biases, but not advertising for the highest bidder.

I can appreciate independent sources of opinion and news for keeping commercialization out of the media. Perhaps we will all just have to start going to more bloggers and Internet sources for our news. What has the world come to when “Diary of a FreaKaZOID” has more truth than CNN? While these outlets may or may not have their biases, in many cases they admit their bias. We expect a need to be skeptical of things we read on the Internet as opposed to what we see on the front page of the paper. Whatever the solution, I hope journalism will survive without being spoiled by a flood of government or corporate produced news releases because it is not fair to any of us.

With that said, we should all rush off to our nearest news station that we feel is not being responsible and burn that mother down–no kids, you can’t blame me because that is not what I am saying. All I am hoping to instill is a demand for morals, a foreign concept for some people during their youth and possibly their entire lives. It is these morals that will prevent media from becoming a commercial spectacle.

Technorati tag: Bush, Iraq, journalism, fox.

(more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I started college trying to be someone that I was not–someone majoring in something that makes money. I came into college thinking that I couldn’t just major in something that I liked to do. If I am paying thousands of dollars, I want a degree in something that will pay me more than my semester’s tuition per year, and my freshman year I started on my double major in computer science and journalism.

Computer science was the only other subject other than journalism that I really enjoyed in high school–mostly because our teacher let us have a great deal of free time after we finished our work. I know that it probably doesn’t sound interesting to most college students out there, but, in my defense, I also picked computer science because I want to make video games when I grow up–or at least get older–and computer science seemed to be the best degree to go in that direction.

Much to my surprise, the computer science program was not what I expected. Rigorous logic paths and data trees constantly discussed and displayed using webs and strings and lines. It seemed very easy to do for the rest of your life–if you were a computer void of all emotional impulses. I exaggerate this point a little, but, for me, computer science seemed to kill all creativity.

All of my classes were computer science classes my first semester; it was bearable, but I was miserable in those lectures. For a kid who slept maybe two days in class during his entire high school career, I was racking up an unheard of number of in-class naps through all my classes. Trust me–it wasn’t because I was out partying every night. Freshman year all my festivities were on the weekends. I just could not stand my classes. I couldn’t sit next to the kid that stomped your foot anytime you fell asleep for the whole semester, and my foot was starting to get some mean bruises.

My second semester was worse. I started taking my first journalism class in addition to my computer science classes, and halfway through the semester, I found myself hating every minute that I was in computer science classes and actually staying awake in my journalism class despite it being at 8 a.m.

By halfway through the semester, I finally made a decision and dropped the one computer science class that had me doing the most work. Managing to make it through my other computer science course, I finished the semester, and the last three hours of computer science that I would ever have to take.

Clicking my heels, I left behind all the tin men of my former major and became a fully committed journalism major.

Now, yes, I get jokes made about me by super-cool engineering friends telling me how much less money I will make or how much easer my major is–not true, but I am somehow completely fine with that. Of course, I plan on going into video game design anyway and making a quick fortune to rain down upon my friends from college while I spout off a good Dr. Evil laugh–but in the end, I am happy as a journalism major. Poor people are far more interesting anyway, and if I get really poor, I can just look forward to voices in my head to keep me company in my cardboard box by the highway.

Technorati tag: college, journalism, decisions.

(more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Homework and cartoons were the only two things that ever kept me up past bedtime, but it was homework that finally succeeded in keeping me up late enough to contort my meaning of “late.” When I was younger, midnight was late; in high school, homework took longer so 2 a.m. became late; now in college, I don’t start homework until midnight, and 5 a.m. is late. That is, 5 a.m. is late except on weekends when no rules apply and late begins when Whataburger stops serving breakfast.

I am an insomniac and a college student–are they the same thing? College kids are notorious for keeping late hours and being out all night, especially on weekends. Even when there is not a kickass kegger to attend or a soiree in lingerie to dress for, I can always take up time by watching Adult Swim cartoons or SportsCenter late into the night. I have to admit that even infomercials have a certain appeal at 3 a.m., and I find myself strangely compelled to buy that shiny aluminum blender that can chop through coconut shells and blend them to a fine pulp. What would I do with myself if I passed it up and then ended up bored with a coconut at 5 a.m. on Sunday? Getting a little snooze on just always seems to come last on my list–right after, satisfy random obsessions such as cleaning out my email inbox or picking pieces of hanging thread from my sheets. I kid you not. I, like many of you, can probably find any reason not to sleep.

On weekends, college students are always hitting up the Whataburger or Taco Cabana at all hours of the night to satisfy the drunken hunger and put something on top of all the indulgences in their stomach. The craze has become so popular that many businesses are becoming 24-hour establishments–it’s not just for ATMs and 7-11 anymore! Now the local grocery store can sell you coconuts at any hour of the day. No need to plan ahead for midnight mischief.

It’s not even just for college kids anymore. Now everyone is doing it. What do you have to lose? It won’t make you grow hair on your knuckles or make you go blind; in fact, you might even be cool enough to develop your nocturnal vision. The only real consequence of living the life of an insomniac is that eventual hibernation-like crash that sneaks up on you and causes you to miss out on important hours of your life. In the long run, you miss out on seeing people unless your only long-term relationships are with the graveyard-shift workers at Whataburger.

I can’t explain why I became an insomniac. Perhaps it was my random obsession that kept me up late or just that amazing blender. Eventually, I am going to have to learn to manage my time well enough to get sleep. Someday in the future, as much as I hate to admit it, I will have to take up a 9-to-5er and wake up before noon.

For now, I have learned how to succeed as an insomniac college student–counter insomniac tendencies by scheduling all classes at noon or later and never share a room with a devil-possessed “morning person.”

(I am not the only one staying up late, see my story on college sleep habits here.)

Technorati tag: college, sleep, insomniac.

(more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Another column from PartyCampus.com which caused some controversy.

It didn’t take me long to realize college was a completely different social environment than the high school scene. Back in high school, the cool guys were the AC Slaters. The jocks were stars covered in the city newspaper and getting visited by colleges. Standard attire was t-shirts and jeans. From this experience, you would probably understand my shock when I got to college. Suddenly, moccasins, khaki shorts, aviators and a pink polo shirt are the uniform for social success. The longer your hair grows, the cooler you are, and if you can flip your collar up on your polo shirt, your coolness increases two-fold.

When did that become cool? Last I checked, that is what middle-aged men wear when they are skipping out of the office. It wouldn’t even be so bad if it was the wardrobe of some candidate for best-dressed, but I don’t think that anyone wearing a polo shirt with the collar flipped up should be considered to wearing THE in-style look of our college demographic.

Apparently, this look is associated with the “fratty” or quintessential fraternity man. According to fratty.net, which prescribes this fashion sector down to the very specific detail of color combinations, the more you look like you don’t care about how you look, the cooler you are. Personally, I would rather look like I didn’t care what I was wearing in a t-shirt, jeans and Nikes.

Even in what Texans call winter, guys are still refusing to give up their pastel polo shirts and shorts. When the high is less than 60 degrees, you would at least think that they could pop the collar on a fleece and break trend for a moment.

You can never say that these misguided individuals are even in a fraternity because now many guys are simply copying the style to look “fratty.” They think they look cool. To them, I say congratulations. Thanks to your popped collar, you can’t see the heads of everyone you pass shaking because you are trying too hard. You would probably have a better chance looking cool if you found your own style and didn’t all dress alike. I mean, when a website says exactly how to dress like you, it is probably going to lose its glamour pretty quickly. Now, don’t you feel unoriginal?

This is not my campaign against fraternities either. I am in a fraternity, but my fraternity prides itself on being original. I am afraid you are not going to see me flipping up the collar on my polo or even wearing a polo shirt regularly on campus.

I offer all of you “fratty” individuals this suggestion: look in the mirror and not just to check that your collar looks like you didn’t check it in the mirror. “Fratty” is an epidemic, and I am sad to be the one to inform you that your secret is out. Just another note, not all girls dig the whole moccasin concept either.

Technorati tag: college, fraternity, fratty.

(more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!