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(07/28/13 3:22am)
Cam Newton and Johnny Manziel have many similarities. They both were basically the heart and soul of their teams, both had successful first seasons, both won the Heisman Trophy and both drew a considerable amount of media attention.
The difference is how the media has portrayed the two.
Manziel is beginning to get negative attention for the things he has been doing, but it is very mild in comparison to what Cam received.
It is hard to imagine that the hate of Cam by opposing team's fans and the constant abuse from the media could have been any worse than it was during his short time at Auburn. But, what if Cam acted like Manziel has acted since winning the Heisman?
Think about it?
What if Cam tweeted that he could not wait to leave Auburn? What if he decided to take online classes instead of attending classes like a regular student or was seen at major sporting events all over the country on a consistent basis?
Allegations would have come from everywhere, and Paul Finebaum would have been working overtime.
Naysayers would have said he is not really a student, they would have asked who is paying for him to go to these events and would have said he didn't care about Auburn.
But Cam didn't do those things, and as a matter of fact he didn't do anything to raise concern while he was at Auburn, and he still received more criticism than Johnny Football has.
I know Manziel is beginning to take some negativity for the things he did this summer, but it is not nearly as bad as what Cam had to endure and still has to endure.
Analysts said Manziel is just a kid that has been thrown into the spotlight too soon, and implied Cam was just a thug.
Honestly, I understand that Manziel's every move is being watched now, but he has not handled the situation he has been dealt well at all. Nobody appears to be holding him accountable for his actions.
He has made mistake after mistake, but he is still being portrayed as the great "Johnny Football".
However, this could change once the season starts and he has to play Alabama in the second week of the season.
He and Texas A&M are going to learn firsthand that you cannot act like Manziel has acted and expect to compete in the SEC.
Alabama has proven time and time again you can maybe beat them once, but you will not beat it twice.
Not only does the Crimson Tide have a year's worth of film on Manziel, but also he has proven that he has everything on his mind but playing football.
It takes an enormous amount of focus to compete in the SEC, especially when you have a target on your back like Manziel will this coming season.
Cam understood this and stayed out of trouble during his time at Auburn.
Manziel has not learned this yet, but he will once Alabama embarrasses him in front of millions, and his draft status goes way down.
I also do not think Alabama will be the only team to show Manziel the error of his ways this season.
Who knows, an improved Auburn team may show him a thing or two also.
I really do not wish failure on Manziel, but I have been very disappointed in the way he has handled his fame, and I believe he will pay for it this season.
Also, I do not like how some players are given chance after chance after chance and still continue to make stupid mistakes, while other players are thrown under the bus after only one.
This fact will probably never change, and that is very sad.
(07/19/13 2:28am)
Auburn's next athletic year will be one of its most important ever.
The train wreck of football, baseball and basketball seasons put Auburn on the short list of the SEC's worst teams. Mix in firing coaches, Selena Roberts and Spice, the athletic department had a difficult few months, but this next sports year is make or break.
Every school has had a down year, but the ones that return to the top and do it immediately are consistently the best schools in every sport.
It's become obvious the athletic department knows it cannot repeat a year like last.
The athletic department's tenacity in hiring new coaches, and the amount of money Auburn is investing in them shows how important winning this year is. Sunny Galloway will be the second highest paid baseball coach in the SEC, and with the combined salaries of the football staff nearing $6 million, winning is the only option.
The hardest part of becoming a top tier athletic university is getting there.
Once at the top it becomes easier to consistently win. Schools such as Florida and Ohio State are ranked high in many sports every year. Recruits flock to their basketball teams because of their success, guaranteeing wins for years to come.
The same idea goes for schools at the bottom.
A university can fall into a losing cycle, something that takes years and years to escape from.
Luckily Auburn has the resources to make sure it doesn't fall into that cycle, but this next year will be extremely important for the University's image. Winning will show Auburn is back on track to be one of the most competitive schools in the country, but losing next year would once again make Auburn the joke of the SEC.
Even though in recent years the schools prone to losing in big SEC sports are becoming more competitive, they're still known as losing schools. Kentucky and Vanderbilt were always the bottom two universities in football rankings in the SEC.
Auburn's wins and prestige over the past 10 years will keep them out of this SEC grave-yard, but another losing season will put them on the bottom while Vanderbilt continues to improve.
The Tigers don't have time to rebuild.
Sure it will take a few years for Malzahn to make Auburn a top tier SEC school, but he must be able to at least compete this year. Going 0-8 in the conference in 2012 is embarrassing, and being nearly mercy ruled in most of them makes it even worse.
Winning on the football field also takes some of the pressure off basketball and baseball to be successful. After the 2012 season, fans just wanted to see one big sport win and were disappointed by the two teams. Losing in the first games of the SEC Tournament hurt Auburn's image, and after a year like this Auburn just needs to be competitive again.
Some big SEC wins this year in all of the sports will help people be one step closer to forgetting the embarrassment of last year. Auburn will rebound, and all will be good on the Plains once again. I'm not asking for an immediate national championship, just a competitive and relevant athletic school.
(07/19/13 2:21am)
College is meant to shape and educate us as individuals, the transition between youth and adulthood.
At first glance, campuses are extremely diverse, consisting of different ethnicities and cultures. But do we, as students, take advantage of the cultures that we are immersed in? Or do we come into this new experience with preconceived notions and stereotypes that lead us to only befriend those who look, dress and act like ourselves?
As much as we would like to over- look the fact and make the claims that segregation is a thing of the past and racism is long gone, it's just not true. For all of our progress, including having a multi-racial president in office, America is still largely divided, specifically in the Southern states.
This year an analysis of the 2010 U.S. Census Date revealed Southern cities, including Birmingham; Houston; Memphis, Tenn.; New Orleans; and Miami, among the 21 most racially segregated major cities in the nation.
My high school was comprised of only 30 percent Caucasians. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a culture of multiple ethnicities. Even as a minority within my school, I never experienced racism or the segregation of cultures that seems so much more common in college. I have come to realize acceptance of multicultural relationships and friendships are not as orthodox or well received by everyone. I have quickly found out that not only are some people unaccepting of biracial relationships and multicultural interaction; it often provokes anger and strong emotion.
Since I've begun my college career, I have been in utter shock at the lack of interaction between races. Greek systems are racially divided, classrooms seem to be a seating chart based on skin color, and when I go out on the weekend, I find clusters of colors divided around the bar.
Difference in skin color is a result of the same scientific explanation as difference in hair color, melanin. Different skin pigments create different skin color, the exact same way different pigments create blonds and brunettes. I have yet to find the blond-only sorority on campus, and I see multitudes of hair colors interacting everyday.
So why does this stop at hair and not transition to the acceptance of different skin color as well?
Of course, our race is a part of who we are, but it shouldn't define who we are.
Our experience as the Auburn Family is not based simply on a college education or around a football team. Being a part of this Family is an opportunity to utilize a complete learning experience, including the learning opportunities available from our diverse Auburn Family members.
We are young; we have our entire lives ahead of us, and a great big world to explore. For the most part, students are not taking advantage of the opportunity to open their minds
to the stories and experiences of others. We are moving away from home to attend college, yet remain in our comfort zones, avoiding the very individuals who actually give us the opportunity to learn something new, useful and beneficial that isn't taught in the classrooms.
We are all a part of the Auburn Family, with our own unique backgrounds, stories, ideas and knowledge.
Next time you go to class, sit next to someone who looks nothing like you, who dresses nothing like you, who talks nothing like you, and open your mind to something more valuable than an education. Learn his or her story, strike up a conversation and leave your comfort zone.
Change begins one person at a time.
(07/12/13 12:32am)
Two weeks ago and a few days' change, our mates across the pond hosted the biggest and best Grand Slam in tennis: Wimbledon.
I'm not going to lie, I don't really keep up with the women's side of the tournament, and that's nothing against the ladies out there. It's just a lot easier to tune in to a five set match (men's) than a three set match that could be over in less than an hour (women's), so I'm going to be focusing on the men's singles.
For those of you who didn't keep up with the tournament, Andy Murray, who is Scottish and British, became the first British man to win their home Grand Slam in 77 years.
I mean, most of the British people alive don't even remember the last male champion, Fred Perry, who won in 1936. That's way back when Hitler was in power, people, but I digress.
While Murray's victory in three sets over world No. 1 Novak Djokovic was immensely impressive, it was also a bit disappointing.
When I, and many other Americans, woke up early Sunday morning to watch the finals, we were hoping for a four, and if we were lucky, five set match that would see both players pushed to their limits.
Unfortunately that was not the case, and the British wait was over in the minimum three sets.
Where the men's final was a bit anticlimactic, the men's semifinals were anything but. The first match last Friday, July 5, saw Djokovic pitted against top ranked Argentinian Juan Martin Del Potro.\0x2028 It was the match of the tournament, there's no doubt about it. \0x2028It went to five sets, and two of the sets were determined by tiebreakers, with each competitor taking one of those.
The match lasted four hours and 43 minutes, which was the longest semifinal ever at Wimbledon.
It was back and forth the whole way, but in the end the conditioning of Djokovic paid off, and he emerged victorious over a completely gassed Del Potro.
The other men's semifinal was exciting as well, coming later in the day.
Murray faced Polish international Jerzy Janowicz in Friday's second semifinal, and while Murray showed some obvious frustration when he lost the first set, he pulled his game together and won the next three sets and consequently, the match.
All that being said if you got to watch a large share of Wimbledon, good for you. Tennis is one of the oldest sports in existence, and has been around this long for a reason. It's spectacular, and those who play it at the highest level can do some incredible things on the court that you have to see to believe.
If you missed Wimbledon, that's a bummer for you, but hey, it comes around once a year. Plus, the U.S. Open Grand Slam event will begin August 26, and it's held in Queens, N.Y.
So I urge you to watch, if only one semi-final match. You never know, it might hook you on a new (to you) fascinating sport.
(07/12/13 12:31am)
The first step is admitting you have a problem. My name is Raye, and I'm a nerd. Well, allegedly, anyway. Hardly a day goes by when that adjective isn't thrown my way for some reason or another.
I could quote Lord of the Rings to you in three different Elvish languages, and my wedding rings are replicas of the ones worn by Galadriel in the movies. In high school, I wore Arwen's necklace to homecoming.
I reference Star Wars almost daily, and I have a Deathly Hallows bracelet. I dressed up in costume with friends for the midnight release of The Hobbit. I still play all my old Nintendo 64 games, and I could school you in Mario Party.
Lately, though, I've noticed the word "nerd" is becoming synonymous with "hipsters who want to seem smart." I saw a chick in a Death Star t-shirt and frameless black glasses on Facebook with the caption, "live long and prosper." I almost died.
Loving the new Star Trek movies doesn't make you a nerd. Popping the lenses out of plastic black glasses doesn't make you look smart.
We're all making fun of you. Well, except the people who are doing it with you, but they think you're a poser, and they were doing it before it was cool. \0x2028 I get it; I really do. People want to be trendy, and that's fine. I bought a pair of wedges the other day because every girl at Sky Bar last week was wearing them, and they look pretty cute. I can't walk in them, but that's another column for another time.
My question is this: why do you have to sacrifice your individuality to be in fashion or cool? And why is "nerd" the new thing? Being a nerd has been historically the opposite of cool, and the true nerds out there are still being shunned.
How many of you would be willing to openly talk about your World of Warcraft raids or your character in Dungeons and Dragons? Anybody? I didn't think so.
Pop-culture knowledge and Internet memes do not a nerd make. Leave me and the other true nerds alone, hipsters. Stop stealing the only thing that's ours. Go take more Instagram pictures of that vegan dinner you had last night. (By the way, we know you ate a hamburger afterwards. That couldn't feed a hamster, and you're not fooling anyone.)
Just be you. Why would you want to be anybody else? When you stop giving a damn what the rest of the world thinks I promise you'll be happier. Stop doing things because it's what's "in." If you like it? Great. But don't just do it to fit in.
There are a million squares and circles and triangles out there. You don't have to be one of them. Embrace your weirdness, be amorphous and may the Force be with you.
(06/30/13 3:14am)
Last week while watching the epic game seven of the NBA finals, one could not help but notice the awesome championship atmosphere that surrounded the game.
Miami's fan base became a part of the championship run, witnessed it first hand and then celebrated on their home court.
This raises a question. Should the college football national championship be played on college campuses, giving one team home field advantage?
It would not be hard to accomplish, even with the new The College Football Playoff starting in 2014.
The two semi-final games could be played in the traditional bowls, and then have the highest ranked team host the national championship game.
Simple, right? To quote ESPN college football analyst Lee Corso, "Not so fast my friend."
It is not that easy. There are negatives to this scenario.
The biggest issue is small college towns like Auburn, Clemson, S.C., and Athens, Ga., can't accommodate all the media, game sponsors and fans that would swarm into these towns for the game.
Also, the weather, even in the South, is not the best in January when the game would be played. Most players and coaches welcome playing in a dome stadium or a town with great weather like Los Angeles or Miami, instead of Ohio State or Michigan.
It would also give the home team an advantage by being able to practice and watch film in their own facilities, while the visiting team would have subpar accommodations right before the biggest game of their season.
Even with these negative points it still makes a lot of sense to have the championship game on a college campus.
A major benefit would be making the game easier to attend for fans, at least for the home teams fans. While a lot of Auburn fans traveled to Arizona in 2011, many did not, especially students.
Imagine what it would have been like for Auburn to have won the national championship game in Jordan Hare Stadium? It would have been an unbelievable atmosphere that many more Auburn fans would have been able to experience.
BCS game attendance has struggled the past few years. Having the national championship game on campuses would probably solve that problem.
Imagine the huge economic boost it would have given Auburn and the state of Alabama to host a national championship game.
Not to mention the economic boost of being able to host national championship games in 2010 and 2011. Both years Auburn and Alabama were ranked No. 1 before the national championship game, giving them home field advantage.
While this is a nice thought, it will never happen.
There is too much money being spent by the four BCS bowls (Orange, Rose, Sugar and Fiesta bowls) for the game to be moved to college campuses.
However, the national championship game should be moved to college campuses.
The positives out weigh the negatives.
College football is great because of the college campuses, stadiums, traditions, fans and most of all the students.
None of these things are being represented in the biggest game of the year.
(06/29/13 6:28am)
Scientists like to say there is such thing as failure.
They claim even when an experiment goes awry, or the results are unexpected, they are still able to gather useful data. Some of the best scientific discoveries have happened by pure accident, by accepting the situation and learning from the results.
For example, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin after noticing the effects of a mold growth on some flu cultures.
He could have yelled at his assistants, punched the wall and peeled out of the parking lot in his Trans-Am in a fit of rage, but he didn't. He played it cool and won a Nobel Prize. Also, Trans-Ams hadn't been invented yet.
I wish I could be like Fleming because I'm terrified of failure.
During the past 10 years, I've had 18 jobs, most of them lasting no longer than a few weeks. I would go into the job like any other person, ready to make money and do what needs to be done. But that drive soon turned into fear and anxiety, and it wouldn't be long before I quit because I was too stressed out by my constant worrying about failure.
Now, I realize I was the one causing what I feared to happen - a self-fulfilling prophecy - but damn did it take a long time for me to realize that.
Just ask all the kitchen managers I've left without a fry cook during the Friday night dinner shift. I know one restaurant owner in Athens, Ala., who would probably pay a hefty bounty for any information on my current whereabouts.
I like to believe I'm more mature, more confident. Learning from my past mistakes is something I take seriously.
At least, I thought I did.
I took the Candidate Physical Ability Test, which is one of the first steps in becoming a firefighter, or student firefighter in my case, Saturday, June 22. I trained for this test, called the CPAT by all cool firemen, for three months. I even quit smoking-- cold turkey.
Dreams of a fitter, sexier version of myself were quite common. I would run into the burning building and come out with a gorgeous blonde on each arm. The dreams would then take a very different turn, but I won't burden you with the details, which are sexy.
I built up a wall of confidence, even though I almost passed out at all the CPAT practice sessions. Somehow, I just knew all the years of smoking, drinking, and bad food would melt off in three months, and the test would be a breeze.
But I failed.
That's what it's called, a failure.
One of the proctors even says "Failure!" when you make a test-ending mistake.
My confidence was gone, my fragile ego shattered. I spent the rest of the day and the next in bed eating way too much pizza and hating myself. All kinds of old anxieties and fears resurfaced.
It was not a pretty sight.
I was thinking about Fleming.
How was he able to stay calm and not crawl back in bed and go on a pizza
binge?
He didn't because he knew there is always something to be learned.
Not all mistakes are final.
From failing the CPAT, I've learned that I'm good at lying to myself. and, more importantly, I relearned failure is nothing to be afraid of.
Learning from failure is a good thing, even if the failure seems overwhelming.
You can learn from past mistakes, but it's also all right to make new mistakes to learn from. It's one of the ways we grow as people. Just as long as you don't wallow in defeat for too long, you can make the best of it and come back stronger.
Anyone who has ever had a penicillin shot for syphilis can attest to that.
(06/28/13 1:46am)
Like is a word with many meanings. Usually overused and often misused, like is a bad habit that plagues the speech of young generations. It's unprofessional, adds an element of uncertainty to a conversation and makes me internally cringe when I hear it. Still, perhaps the worst part about misusing the word is I do it, and in abundance.
The habit began in Southern California's San Fernando Valley in the 1970s when teenage girls began to speak in a social dialect called Valley Speak. Words including like, totally, whatever and way became fixtures in daily conversation.\0x2028 Examples in pop culture are the movie Clueless, Shaggy from Scooby Doo and Michelangelo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Although to hear a real-life like misuser, turn your attention to the nearest female (and sometimes male) millennial.
Misuses, for the most part, fly rapid-fire from the mouths of the younger crowd. But the power of change lies in knowledge. After research and consulting a dictionary, I've found identifying correct uses and misuses is helpful when trying to drop the habit. Here is your cheat sheet.
Correct uses of like:
Similarity: saying something is like another thing. Analogies fall under this category, as well.
Example: You look like your mom.
Enjoyment: saying you like something.
Example: I like the color blue. Misuses of like:
Describing speech: using like instead of said, remarked, whispered, yelled, etc.
Incorrect: He was like, yeah, I'll be there.
Correct: He said, yeah, I'll be there.\0x2028
Hedge: using like as an approximation or in un-certainty.\0x2028
Incorrect: I ran, like, six miles.\0x2028
Correct: I ran approximately six miles.\0x2028
Filler: also called a vocalized pause by linguists, which are used to keep the conversation going when you have nothing else to say. In this instance, like can often be replaced with ah, um, uh and you know.
Incorrect: So, like, when are we leaving?
Correct: So, we are we leaving?
These nontraditional uses of like often accompany the words so, really and literally, and often involve exaggeration. Avoiding the misuse of like, as well as the three words in the last sentence, can dramatically increase both your vocabulary and credibility.
Indeed, saying like is a difficult habit to quit.
Talking is infinitely harder when policing every word that comes out of my mouth. It's been an incredibly contradicting journey.
I've found when I'm conscious of avoiding like, I hesitate even when I'm about to use it correctly. I secretly snicker when friends misuse it, but when I hear myself say it, I feel like an idiot. (Note the correct usage in the previous sentence. Avoiding the misuse of like in writing is much easier than when speaking.)
The hypocritical life is the hardest life.
(06/23/13 5:12am)
The recent hiring of former Oklahoma head coach Sunny Golloway was a surprise to many Auburn fans, but the head coach for 17 years is a proven winner; someone Auburn baseball needs.
When John Pawlowski came to The Plains in 2009, he had taken the College of Charleston to three NCAA regionals in nine seasons. Golloway has made the postseason in 14 of his 15 years as a head coach at Oral Roberts University and the University of Oklahoma, including a trip to the 2010 college world series. At Oral Roberts, Golloway finished first in the Mid-Continent Conference six consecutive times and had a 117-15 conference record.
The numbers speak for themselves.
Golloway has proven he can win at big schools like Oklahoma and consistently gain postseason berths. His successful career will be tested at Auburn when he competes against some of the best teams in the country each week in the SEC.
For someone who got results at Oklahoma, why would Golloway leave?
Recently, a Sooner player called Golloway "two-faced" while publicly ripping him over Twitter. Clearly, at least one player has issues with him now, and back in 2006, Golloway had a falling-out with his own nephew on the team.
Kody Kaiser decided to transfer from Oklahoma after two years of ongoing issues with his uncle. Golloway blocked his transfer, preventing Kaiser from maintaining eligibility at Oklahoma City University, an NAIA team. For Golloway, it seems a change of scenery was needed and the draw of the SEC, as well as the cash that comes with it, is too much to turn down.
The reaction from Auburn fans and its press coverage since the hire has been overwhelmingly positive and full of excitement, as it should be, but the response from Oklahoma fans has been nothing more than a shoulder shrug.
Oklahoma's reactions raise questions about Golloway and his relationship with the Sooner nation, but if he's winning at Auburn, any personality flaws can easily be overlooked.
At this point, winning is what matters for Athletic Director Jay Jacobs and Auburn. The former days of the good ol' boys has been steadily declining on The Plains. Coaches don't need personal connection to Auburn anymore to have a chance at landing a position.
Casey Dunn, a former four-year Auburn player and current coach at Samford, was an early favorite for the Auburn-Family-type head coach now and back in 2009, but lacks the big time coaching experience.
Pawlowski was the safe pick then, and he flopped. Jacobs and the department have now brought in an outside candidate with some controversy and flare to shake things up, and they should be praised for it.
(06/21/13 4:37am)
The midway point of the MLB season is just around the corner, and with the All-Star Game comes the first mention of the post-season.
For those of you who are uninitiated in big league baseball rules, the winning team in the All-Star Game's league gets home field advantage in the World Series.
All of that was said to tie in a serious complaint I, as well as many others, have with the new MLB postseason.
The ridiculous, preposterous and head scratching one shot win or be eliminated Wild Card Game.
I'm not just angry because the Braves lost in the Wild Card Game last year, though that does contribute to a large percentage of my fury. I am irritated with this game because somewhere up the MLB management chain, the bosses decided that a 162 game season should rest on the edge of a knife in the format of a one-game playoff for two teams in each league.
It's absurd. Baseball is the one game in American sports where any team could beat another on a given day.
For instance, in college football there's no way an Alabama is going to lose to a Mississippi State (at least in this juncture in their programs).
But in baseball, even the major league worst Marlins would have a chance (however slim it may be) to defeat the major league leading Cardinals.
The Wild Card Game can be fixed though. The MLB just needs to turn it into a three game series. That way, it's just like a regular season series and the teams can afford to lose a game.
A three game series would also get a better look at which team is actually better, because potentially three starting pitchers and lineups would be used instead of just one.
In the National League Wild Card Game last year, the umpires really worked the Braves over by calling the infamous infield fly rule 30 feet into the outfield. If it had been a three game series that blunder by the men in blue would have had a chance to go unnoticed, but as it was a one-game win or go home scenario the game will live in infamy.
Now, as last year was the first year of Wild Card Games, only two teams and their fan bases have cause to be upset, but if the format does not change soon enough half of the big league supporters are going to be ticked off.
Braves fans, who, like it or not everyone else, make up the majority of fans around these parts, are furious about the debacle last October. There was garbage, bottles and worse things thrown onto Turner Field during the Wild Card Game last year, and it may not get better for the MLB any time soon.
As long as the MLB just makes it a three game play-in, none will have any cause to complain, because after three games in baseball, the winner has won fair and square.
(06/17/13 7:31pm)
Before you stop reading, I'm not going to ruin the suspenseful end to Game of Thrones, or whatever TV show or movie you're excited about.
Although, the season three finale of Game of Thrones Sunday June 9, where Jon Snow--- just kidding, I really won't ruin it for you.
Spoiler alerts are everywhere on the Internet and in daily conversation.
Online, they're followed by a lot of space, giving the scrolling reader time to weigh the consequences of finding out information too early. Or, they're coded so by simply hovering over the text with your mouse, you can see the information you so desperately seek.
In daily conversation, spoiler alerts are usually clearly broadcasted, or accompanied by the belated, and conversational faux pas, "oops, spoiler alert."
For me, I love spoilers.
By knowing what is going to happen, I'm able to see all of the elements and their role in leading up to a dramatic conclusion.
I like seeing how it all fits together to create a masterpiece of fiction.
The reason I prefer spoilers may be because I'm literary-minded. I can examine the plot and the characters, the tragic or heroic decision they make and how they become the characters they are destined to be.
Or, it could be because I'm a journalist.
I attribute my voracious and unrelenting desire to know everything as a byproduct, or maybe the reason, I'm studying journalism.
I live on Google.com; it's second nature to throw every fact or rumor I hear into Google and check its veracity.
Whenever I hear a name, it's instinct to plug the name into Auburn People Finder or Facebook and find out everything I'm able to learn about that person in seconds.
In the words of a journalist friend, "it's not creeping, it's investigating."
What people say about themselves, or elect not to say, can tell me a lot about a person. But I admit it's an incomplete picture. That's why I wouldn't claim to know someone based on the spoilers littering his or her Facebook profile.
That's one of the exceptions to my propensity to crave spoilers. The other exception is those one-time-watch movies like Inside Man or The Sixth Sense, where being surprised is the whole point of the movie. Interesting plots are a rarity these days, with most movie reviews containing the words "predictable," or "you see the end coming."
People are far from predictable, another reason why I love journalism and being able to interact with different types of people each day.
Everyone's plot is different, and you can only know people by spending time with them, not by reading the About page on their Facebook profile.
A friend of mine's About page says simply, "you can't begin to know me by this (page), but only through countless hours and countless contradictions."
A spoiler alert is a choice.
Either you can take a shortcut and have an incomplete picture, or you can experience the full extent of what your seeking has to offer.
And if you're claiming to know people based on what you see on Facebook, turn off your computer and go talk to them.
A lot of what we incorrectly assume about people stems from what we see online.
People can't be spoiled; they're permanently interesting and mercurial.
Go see for yourself.
(06/17/13 7:29pm)
As college students, we are educated on numerous subjects, some resulting from our choosing, but most from the University curriculum's choosing.
(06/06/13 7:34pm)
It seems there is no impossible task for a smartphone. It can be your planner, book, camera, radio, news source and now, your accountability partner.
(06/06/13 6:38pm)
With any raunchy comedy, critics usually find the subject matter immature and overdone.
(06/06/13 6:36pm)
I was at a party a week or so ago. There wasn't really anything outstanding about it: loud music, a beer pong table, artery-clogging food, all the normal party stuff.
(06/06/13 6:34pm)
If I had met Jay Jacobs at a bar or a cattle auction or in the plumbing section at Home Depot, I would have thought he was just an average guy. In another life, he could have been my cool older friend, the guy who bought me beer when I was underage and showed me how to cat call at women on the street.
Last semester, I was invited to eat lunch with Jacobs in the hallowed halls of the athletic department.
I didn't want to go because I was invited under the pretense that I am student leader, which I am not. Also, I have written a few less-than-kind editorials about Jacobs and his inability to hire winning coaches. The fear of a poisoned sandwich and a shallow grave somewhere on Pat Dye's ranch made me anxious.
But I went, and I'm glad I did.
It's easy to say people are bad at their jobs and demand they be fired from far away behind the safety of a newspaper. Eating lunch in their office is quite different.
For those of you who have never met Jacobs, let me try to describe his personality.
He's an amiable straight-talker who seems to be genuinely interested in whoever he's talking to. His story as a walk-on during Pat's Dye's reign over the Tigers is impressive and, at least for me, was somewhat endearing. I'm a sucker for tales of Auburn's past.
I wanted him to be a jerk. I wanted him to tell me I was a no-talent hack. I wanted him to give me a reason to not like him.
Instead, he killed my ire with kindness. He bought his way onto my good side with a Panera Bread sandwich and a smile.
The worst part: I still think he should be fired.
Of course, I'm not some tortured soul who can't reconcile the choice he has to make with his whiney conscience. I know Jacobs has not hired a coach who can consistently bring us the wins we so desperately crave, and, therefore, has failed at his job.
There is a club of former Auburn coaches somewhere, and its only requirement for membership is being hired and fired by Jacobs, and that club seems to be getting bigger every year. If you go to Jacobs' Wikipedia page, there is a one sentence paragraph that stands as a bleak reminder to one of the of worst football seasons in the history of the University - and the most damning evidence to Jacobs' poor job skills.
But now I've met the man I want to put out of work, and despite all the negativity I have towards his performance, Jacobs - as a person - is all right with me. I've shaken his hand and looked him in the eye, and that has given me a greater appreciation for what I have to say about him and my responsibility to keep the job and the man separate.
(05/30/13 5:50pm)
With the firing of head baseball coach John Pawlowski on Monday it raises the question: was this the right move?
(05/30/13 5:47pm)
With any raunchy comedy, critics usually find the subject matter immature and overdone.
(05/30/13 5:44pm)
Without a doubt, the news and media affect people.
(05/30/13 5:40pm)
I recently had the opportunity to see Jim James of My Morning Jacket promoting his solo album. The show was phenomenal, and the audience remained captivated throughout its entirety. James switched from guitar to saxophone, dancing around the stage as his mane of hair billowed in the wind.
