THE BATTALION
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The Final Steps
fhere are several things students need to complete
efore they can take that final walk on the stage
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By Melissa Sorola-bilano
THE BATTALION
Dt pile graduation being three and-a-
If months away, Alisa Bescherer, a senior
secli communications major, is ahead of
)$t'December graduates.
Hith reservations for hotel rooms for her
anciu
family made last Christmas, Bescherer only
needs to complete Fall 2000 classes to
receive her diploma. She even has address
labels made for her announcements, so she
will not have to do them at the last minute.
All graduates would like to see their
family and friends on their big day, but
unless they made reservations months in
advance, the chances of getting a hotel
room on those
days are slim to
none.
Pattie Sears,
interim director
of the Convention
and Visitor Bureau at
f the Bryan-College
Station Chamber of
| Commerce, said fam
ilies should make
their reservations
three to four months
in advance.
The Convention
1^ and Visitor Bureau
checks weekly with
1 ~ local hotels to see what
rooms they have avail-
J able. People can call
them to see if there
are any available
rooms. This infor
mation also can be
found at the Bryan-
College Station
Chamber of
Commerce
Website, and reser
vations can be made
online.
They also have
X
a list of facilities that can be used for catered
graduation parties. Sears recommends this
option because restaurants will quickly fill
up.
Sears said to make these plans early, so
they will not have to worry about limited
options closer to the graduation date.
“They’ve worked hard to get this degree,
so they shouldn’t wait to the last minute to
decide how to celebrate,” Sears said.
Even before all the party planning goes
on, graduation announcements have to be
ordered and sent out. The Memorial Student
Center (MSC) offers the only official
LIniversity-approved announcements, which
use the crest of the Aggie Ring.
Aren Murray, assistant director of the
MSC, said priority order for graduation
announcements must be done by Oct. 1.
Students are guaranteed to receive them in
enough time to send them out.
All ordering can be done online by
choosing the graduation link at the A&M
homepage, and samples can be viewed
online and at a display at the MSC Box
Office.
Timing is important, and Murray sug
gests ordering early, especially for students
requesting a class year prior to 2001 to be
put on the Aggie ring crest on the cover of
their announcements.
Diploma framing can be ordered through
University Plus, and students are encour
aged to place their orders at the same time
they order their announcements.
Jim Lukeman, craft facilities supervisor,
said students who place their orders before
the priority date of Nov. 27 can drop off
their diploma as soon as the ceremony is fin
ished. University Plus works nonstop
See Graduation on page 7.
CHAD MALLAM • THE BATTALION
Cbthim J
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TMENJi
ased
BCS
BlcyclM/
louiriQ
Fidht Club
Chuc
Palahniuk
Choke
By Chuck Palahniuk
Choke is a lamentable novel in
which Chuck Palahniuk, author of
Fight Club and a contributing
writer for Gear magazine, takes
readers on a tour of raw humanity.
Palahniuk asks readers to think
deeply about the reason people
lumber zombie-like through life,
hiding their problems and insecuri
ties behind perceived personal
incapability.
Choke is the slow-motion ver
sion of Fight Club that went over
readers heads as a moving picture of nihilism, or a rejection of
customary beliefs. It was never about nihilism, it was about
asking, 'what are we doing with our lives?” This is nine-inch-
nail commentary — a hard and graphic point on the surface of
every page.
Self-styled sex addict and museum employee Victor
Mancini discovers at a young age that, during a moment of
choking, the whole world cared what happened to him.” While
gagging and turning blue, Victor realizes he is on centerstage
and in a position to make a hero of the one who saved him.
Intentionally choking became Victor's strategy of manipulating
the one who rescued him. The “hero” plays a parental role, vir
tually sponsoring his pathetic lifestyle and paying for his moth
er’s medical treatments.
Palahniuk constructs a ludicrous storyline and asks readers to
enjoy his humor and bizarre plot twists. Laughing outloud is sim
ply inescapable, but the plot is merely a lure that gets us to bite.
Some have called Choke's Victor an antihero, but they are
not seeing the big picture: heroes no longer take on the form of
men in blue tights and red capes. The new hero, the Palahniuk
hero, fights his battles within his mind.
In Palahniuk s world, there is no utopia. The reality is
dystopia, a hypothetical world with a poor quality of life. Life
is not clean. As in Fight Club, readers are not unique
snowflakes, and the answers do not appear clear.
A defining moment of human lives was described by
Palahniuk s description of mishandled chicken eggs that even
tually hatched.
“There are chickens with no legs...Blind chickens without
eyes. Without beaks. Born that way. Defective. Born with their
little chicken brains already scrambled.” Bizarre with no point
In many ways Choke would have you believe, humans, too
similarly mishandled. (Grade: A+)
are
Sam the Cat
By Matthew Klam
Sam the Cat is an original and feisty
piece of American fiction. Klam takes a
big torch and burns away pretense and
facade. This collection of seven short
stories disregards everybody’s concerns
and emotions but the teller's. In many
ways, this novel is naked, but does not
shy away from its nakedness — it runs
into crowds.
The title story, “Sam the Cat,” is
about a guy who constantly attempts to
find comfort in his life. He constantly dates women and enjoys
sex in a vain attempt to settle into society.
At a bar, Sam’s eyes follow a pair of legs from the ground up
— along the calves, thighs, midsection, up the back, the neck,
and finds himself convinced that this is what he is looking for.
The head turns quickly and he is staring eye-to-eye with anoth
er man. This does not align with his world view, but he some
how finally feels comfortable.
This is the type of story Klam is going to tell. He deals with
the emotions that people feel. He is bold and uncut and tells the
whole truth. The truth is not that Sam is gay or straight, but that
he is thinking, feeling and discovering.
In “There Should be a Name for It.” Klam details a beautiful
relationship of love and happiness that is interrupted by an
unplanned pregnancy. Jack treats his wife Lynn disrespectfully
and leaves her and her mother to deal with the pregnancy. The
mother’s only advice comes in a foreign language: aborto, that
is, abortion. Jack’s tragic abandonment, both emotionally and
physically of Lynn is Klam’s social commentary of the harsh
reality women face.
Klam has a voice that is shamelesily honest. His article on
romancing the drug ecstasy in the New York d imes Magazine is
a perfect example. He is relentless in his pursuit oi accuracy.
Although hard to accept, the quality is necessary to get atten-
tion
Through his stories, Klam invents the reality of individual
ism - the notion that events happen differently to different peo
ple and that there are no standard rules for response or reaction.
From the outside looking in, perhaps that is the notion readers
have the most trouble dealing with. (Grade: A)
j... •
Reviews by Kevin Burns
G
Students find
alternative ways to
make money through
en trepreneursh ip
By Kevin Burns
THE BATTALION
The number of available
workers has increased dramat
ically with the coming of Fall
2001, and competition for jobs
is fierce.
This means there will be
new faces scooping up half-
eaten pickles at the movie the
ater, new smiles serving burg
ers and many disheartened
faces of the unemployed seek
ing jobs within a system of
campus-job bureaucracy.
Students can be seen filling
out job applications and loan
forms until their fingers bleed.
However, there are other
options. Ryan Ewing, a senior
marketing major, and Josh
Dayberry, a freshman comput
er engineering major, have
found another method of earn
ing extra cash flow — entre
preneurship.
Ewing is the owner, opera
tor, manager and janitor of
Northgate Vintage, while
Dayberry personally launched
www.SKERBLIP.com this fall.
Ewing's business is tucked
away above Campus Photo on
Northgate and specializes in
vintage T-shirts. Ewing start
ed the business in a kiosk in
the mall last year, but said
eventually he started doing
more online business and
needed a bigger place to ship
from. His customers range
from college students looking
to get away from today’s khaki
and tees fashion trends to
Japanese teenagers looking for
a little American chic in their
wardrobes.
“They are all T-shirts rang
ing from old YMCA tees, track
tees, to band tees, to special
ized sports shirts,” Ewing said.
“1 try to focus on everything
from the ’70s and '80s. It’s
very rare that anything will
sell that was made in the ‘90s.”
Ewing said his parents are
very supportive of his business.
“My mom is involved —
she is key to finding the shirts.
She has a great eye and is def
initely an integral part of the
whole process,” Ewing said.
While he admits students
are purchasing clothes his
mom picked out, the complete
process of finding and selling
T-shirts is more complex than
a two-person operation.
“Clothes are brought from
all over the U.S. and some
from outside,” Ewing said. “I
have distributors that work
with me from New York,
France and elsewhere, who
separate the shirts for me and
after that, my mom sifts
through those.”
Ewing estimates that his
mom goes through 100,000
shirts each month.
“I don’t know what the
story is behind the popularity,
but there does seem a recent
craze for them,” Ewing said. “I
can remember ever since I was
little, people always hanging
on to favorite, old shirts. I
think there’s something people
like when they can hang onto
something that’s older —
maybe it takes them to a place
in their past. Perhaps it’s just
something that’s comfortable
that allows them to feel more
at ease to be themselves.
Sometimes that is the case
with these shirts. It’s a mix
ture of a lot of things, but def
initely, I think, nostalgia is a
major part.”
Ewing said he is not sure
what the future holds for him
or his business.
“That’s up in the air,” he
said. “I hope maybe to keep
pursuing retail or to become
an entrepreneur in some form,
to see how far this can take
me — definitely venturing out
on my own somehow. I have
really enjoyed the idea of
working for myself and set
ting my own hours ... I don’t
really know what’s in store,
but that’s in God’s hands.”
Dayberry, who designs
dynamic, or changeable,
Website graphics, joins
Ewing’s rank as a new busi
nessman. The graphics, which
are customized to automati
cally update themselves on
the Website, are the substance
of his entrepreneurship ven
ture, Skerblip.
“I'd say the dynamic
aspect of our Web pages is def
initely good for the person
who is purchasing the Web
page,” Dayberry said. “The
reason they bought it is
because they don’t know how
to [design graphics]. So if they
ever want to change it, they
have to buy again. But ours,
being dynamic, are easier to
change ... so they can update
it everyday — not knowing a
thing about Web pages.”
Questioned on his motives
to start his own business,
Dayberry said, “I've been
working with Web pages for
four or five years. 1 worked for
another company designing
Web pages similar to the ones
we make.”
Dayberry said he had a par
ticular reason for leaving his
previous job and starting his
new business.
“Well, my former boss
tried to take advantage of my
youth,” he said. “I’ve read in
the newspaper where people
do exactly what I do, with
maybe more experience, and
get paid $90,000 a year. I got
paid $6.50 an hour, which is a
little different. You can look
at that and say, ‘that’s an iso
lated incident,’ but I’ve seen
$20 to $40 to $50 an hour for
what I do.”
Dayberry said that stu
dents interested in starting
their own businesses should
be aware that it does take
time and money. Dayberry
offered his advice for poten
tial entrepreneurs:
“I can’t think of anything
that doesn’t sound cliche, [but]
I’ll say this: I didn’t have a
problem with it because there
is little investment, and there
isn’t investment until you actu
ally have clients. And once
you have clients, you have
money. So it’s been kind of
easy for me since I didn’t have
to worry about losing any
thing, and I can take on as
many jobs as I want.”