Newspapers / North Carolina School of … / Nov. 1, 1999, edition 1 / Page 8
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pages opinions november 99 ■Newport News When I was little, I always dreaded baths. My mother would tell me to take a bath, and I would scream and yell and stomp my feet. But I went in that room and took that bath anyway, squeezing my eyes shut the whole way. Now, eleven years later, I am probably one of the cleanest people you’ve ever met. I bathe (on average) twice a day, brush my teeth at least three times a day, change my sheets once a week and my towel twice a week. I even vacuum my carpet about once a week. I’m not asking that everyone be like me. Hell, I’m not asking that anyone be like me. I’d just like for every single person to pick up some soap every now and then. It’s simple: start your morning with a shower. When your alarm goes off, grab a towel (preferably not used more than 10 times), some soap and shampoo, and head to the shower (wearing flip-flops, of course — fungus is a nasty thing). Hop in, strip (with the shower curtain closed), turn the water on, and immerse yourself. But don’t stop there (as people tend to do) — grab the soap and lather up, getting every part of your body soapy (yes, there too!). Then rinse it off. Next, pick up the shampoo, squeeze a dollop in your hand, and disperse that stuff through your hair. Then rinse out. Turn the water off, towel off, cover yourself, and you’re ready to get dressed! There are some variations on this method that should be mentioned. After washing your body, you can use a specially formu lated soap on your face. These not only help get rid of zits, but they tingle, too. After washing your hair, you can use some conditioner also. You use it the same way as the shampoo and it leaves your hair soft and shiny. There are also shampoo plus conditioners, which take out the extra step, but I’ve found that they don’t work as well. You can also take your razor in there and take care of that hair problem at the same time. Some people even bring their toothbrush and toothpaste to the shower with them. Which brings me to an interesting point — your teeth (and breath). You’ve got to brush your teeth. At least once a day. First, it’ll help keep your teeth in your head (so you don’t permanently look like a member of Fight Club). Second, your breath won’t stink (and maybe that girl/guy you’ve been pining away for will be able to stand being near you). And, as an added plus, it’s easy to do! Pick up your tooth brush, get a little water on it (so the bristles are pliable), put some toothpaste on it (I prefer Aquafresh Extra Whitening—it tingles), and stick it in your mouth. Scrub around in there until you’ve scrubbed every part (front, back, side, top) of every tooth. Especially the ones in the back. Then, brush your tongue. Just a couple of sweeps with the ijrush’ll do it. Then, spit the toothpaste juice out, rinse your mouth, rinse the toothbrush, and you’re done! A few other points of interest: a swipe of deodorant under each arm never hurt anyone; it’s bad if your sheets walk to the washer )y themselves; the way to drive away a roommate is not by the stench coming from your wardrobe; and clean up your room at least for every room check—unexpected science experiments in the refrigerator aren’t a good thing. Some of you are saying, “Jermifer. What if we don’t have any soap or shampoo or deodorant?” Well, if you can’t make it to the store, just ask somebody. I’m sure anyone who has to spend any time near you (lab partners, roommates, etc.), would be glad to loan/give you some. If all else fails, come to me. I’ll help you out. Some of you are laughing, wondering how anyone could possibly need this little refresher course in hygiene. Look around you. When was the last time you saw that person down the hall in the jathroom? When was the last time you saw your roommate take his dirty sheets home? When was the last time you saw that person wearing something different? Now set your paper down and go take a shower. If you don’t do it for yourself, do it for your roommate, your hall mates, your class mates, your family. Jennifer E. Newport is a non-syndieated colum nist for the Stentorian. Misuse of state property? jonathan raxter Since we cannot have ears here, it is ex tremely difficult to go places which are more than a few bloeks away. Club activities and any other group of students who want to go some where rely on school vans as their transportation. However, when van re quests are denied, people get mad. Here is my at tempt to clarify one such case. On Wednesday, October 20, at 2:00 A.M., for the first time in several years, a man was executed by the state ofNorth Caro lina. A group of NCSSM students wanted to attend the vigil at Central Prison in Raleigh which was or ganized by People of Faith Against the Death Pen alty, a Christian group who travels to execution sites across the nation and holds late-night gath erings to protest capital punishment. The students’ re quest for a school van for transportation to the vigil was denied by Dr. Barber. The students eventually attended the vigil, but had to rely on the personal transportation of faculty. The request was denied because, as Dr. Barber ex plained, the state has ex pectations for the use of its property, and “as a state institution, we can not use state property to express political views.” Apparently, the reason the state has these expec tations is that some tax payers would complain if they saw a state van at something like this vigil. These policies may seem ridiculous—^they did to me at first. Without transportation from the school, it is difficult for us, without cars, to act on our opinions by attending events that will either re inforce or reject those opinions. It’s not like we would be breaking the law; I do believe that peaceful assemblies are still legal. However, after some thought, I decided that I agree with the state’s policy. If students were allowed to use a van to go to the vigil (which I be lieve is a worthy cause) a precedence would be set. Then, students could re quest vans for anything, provided it was legal. For example, some students could request a van to go to a Ku Klux Klan rally, which is not a worthy cause in my opinion. Now I would be the person complaining about misuse of state property. With this in mind, I believe that the state’s policy is the fairest for all involved. Besides, we have in volved faculty that can and will take us to events such as the vigil. Teach ers, SLIs, and others care about us enough to help us when we need a ride somewhere. It is not Dr. Barber’s fault that the students were not given a van; she was following the rules...rules which are jus tifiably good. The stu dents, although not allowed to use a school van, were granted curfew extensions. I did not get the impression that any one did not want them to attend the vigil. 1 also do not feel that anyone in volved is interested in im posing political views on others by hindering oth ers mobility. Ido believe, however, that everyone is interested in the sanctity of our school and those within it. It’s my free time! Surfing and relaxing in the Fish Tanks laurapipe It seems that every time you check your e-mail everyone else seems to be checking theirs, or they were surfing the net look ing up what I deem to be useless information. Af ter careful consider ation, I came to realize that I was one of those people on the computer surf ing. I was looking up useful things to me, but to no one else. My only excuse is that we aren’t too ex posed to the outside world here; we try, but never seem to quite fill the bill. Honestly, if you wait until nine or ten o’clock at night, other people are going to be on the com puter, and whether they are doing homework, or looking up pictures of the Marine Corps, they were there first and deserve just as much respect as you would demand. Now if you are thinking, “I don’t have a problem with you looking up Johnny Depp at night.” Then you are obviously not one of those people Students gather in the Big Fish Tank homework, research, or just exscape of the world. who hover until someone gets off the computer. Honestly, making those little huffy-puffy sounds isn’t going to get anyone off faster. If anything you are going to make them want to stay on the com puter longer, just to tick you off. I have witnessed a few people who just seem to be all out angry, when you are on the computer and they want it. Listen, I know it is fhistrating, but calm down. If I want to spend my free time looking at pictures from Hubble or reading ar ticles about Stephen Hawking that is how I will ^ spend it. The problem isn’t that people are wasting their time doing fun stuff, the problem is how some students are handling a lack of Internet connected computers. A couple more here or there could help ^Computer continued p9 to do to the rest
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