Morrisville State College • December 2009 • vol. xxxviii • no. 4

Wendy Vair, ‘12Staff Reporter

“MSCEI was developed be-cause Professors Paine, Patter-son and Mills were sitting in a restaurant and saw people with high web development skills washing dishes, not putting their skills to use,” says MSCEI Marketing Director, Web De-veloper and senior Application Software Development student Shawn Tysco.

The Morrisville State Col-lege Entrepreneurship Institute is one of the first college-run student organizations, accord-ing to their Web site, msceion-line.org.

The group is dedicated to bringing students and busi-nesses together for the benefit of both. Their goals are to provide educational, real world experience and to also provide local organizations and small businesses with affordable solutions so they can remain competitive in today’s chang-ing world.

MSCEI Project Director and Web Development student Timothy Burrows says MSCEI was started to help give stu-dents real-world experience and to work with real clients, with real requirements.

Lindsey Kilian, ‘12Staff Reporter

Each year, Morrisville State College holds a Campus Holi-day Drive for Community Ac-tion Partnership. This year, the need for donations is greater than ever before.

With drop-off sites in Resi-dence Life, the library, the Au-tomotive Technology Building, Seneca and STUAC, the officials hope for a positive turnout. The food drive ends Dec. 15 and the food will be picked up the following day.

Kim Krula, the executive administrator for CAP, said the organization is a non-profit organization serving Madison County. The group helps to

Food Drive serves local needget people back on their feet and out of social services, while also giving families and individuals clothing, food and shelter. Krula said CAP has a youth mentoring program and a program to educate parents on better ways of parenting.

Terri Jones, a worker at Com-munity Action, said they service about 100 homes and house-

Tysco says MSCEI teaches students personal skills, time management skills, business skills and ethics, while work-ing on projects and business marketing plans. Students can also apply these skills to classes, giving them an edge over other students.

MSCEI is a student-run organization, who chooses not to join the Student Govern-ment Organization. The group has been running successfully without their help for six years now. “There was too much pa-perwork, and they had too many requirements,” Burrows says.

“We’re run by students, professionally,” Tysco says. “Even if a student’s project fails, we have the money to still pay them; we don’t want to be a college group.”

In the past year, MSCEI went from having seven mem-bers to 23, with an average of about 12, Burrows says. He feels the increase in members this year is because of presentations in lower-level computer and information technology classes.

The group is currently fo-cusing only on not-for-profit organizations, meaning they do not charge the customer for their web development skills, Tysco says. They don’t plan on

changing their target businesses for a while, in order to continue increasing their membership and continue building new skills.

MSCEI, however, is not a

group just for CIT students. Burrows says any student can join. As long as members keep grade point averages of 2.75 or higher, they can be a part of MSCEI.

Automotive student Chris-tina DaGasta joined MSCEI to learn how Web sites work and meet new people in a new sur-rounding. She says she’s learned

a lot like hypertext markup links (HTML), GNU Image Manipu-lation Program (GIMP), and cas-cading style sheets (CSS) from attending MSCEI workshops. She said she’s been able to apply these skills to the Web sites she’s worked on and has had a lot of fun doing it.

Every semester, the group puts on three workshops, open to anyone on campus, or the public, interested in learning about how to design a functional Web page, Tysco says. All work-shops offer pizza and drinks for anyone who decides to attend.

The first workshop is an HTML workshop that teaches students Web design and the programming language at a ba-sic level Tysco says. This gives people the ability to make a per-sonal profile page and teaches the students how to utilize their W drives. The second workshop is a hypertext preprocessor (PHP) workshop which teaches more advanced Web program-ming and HTML. This work-shop demonstrates the basics of editing content on the Web with a user backend, similar to a MySpace page where users can edit and update their content.

Their last workshop is a workshop about the image manipulation program, GIMP.

MSCEI founded to prepare students for the professional world

Students from the Morrisville-Eaton Central School sing Christmas carols at the tree lighting ceremony at the Crouse Community Center last Friday. Working along with the college, the center offered sleigh rides, hot chocolate and cookies, and gifts from Santa. Photo by Jeff Witherow, ‘09

“it gives students

real-world experience and work with...

real requirements.”

holds every month. About 350 to 400 individuals use CAP services. CAP offers 15 meals a week, and has a five-day food supply for families and individuals.

CAP has been holding a food drive on and off for at least 10 years. Administrative Secretary Pat Branigan said last year was the best year for the food drive, but said she hopes this year will be better yet.

“I think it’s important that everyone donates food,” Bra-nigan said. “It helps the people in the community who have no other means of getting by,” she continued. Branigan also ex-plained it gives donors a sense of pride and shows the community that Morrisville State College students, faculty and staff care.

GIMP is a tool very similar to the Adobe program, Photoshop. This program is easy to use and free to download, unlike Photo-shop which can cost hundreds of dollars, Tysco says. Students learn basic photo editing skills and how to make and design their very own logo.

David Verro, an application software development student, has been a member of MSCEI since January 2008. Verro says it’s been good to deal with real clients. He says you have to avoid “techno babble” while talking with customers about what you’re trying to do.

The client didn’t want tech-nical updates, Verro says. They wanted something “simple and friendly.” They coordinated to-gether with marketlinx.com to make it easier for the client and the realtors to update their own pages on the site.

The group is always wel-coming new members who are interested in learning about what it takes to learn in a real world environment. Their meetings are every other Wednesday at 1 p.m. in Charlton 225.

To learn more about the group, visit their Web site, ms-ceionline.org or contact the group through e-mail at mscei@morrisville.edu.

“The group helps to get people back

on their feet.”

page 2 December 2009 - The CHIMESEditorial

Kendra K. Spenard, Co-Editor In ChiefKayla L. Santoro, Co-Editor In Chief

Jeffrey Costello ---------------------------------------- Editorial Page EditorAthena Lazo --------------------------------------Campus News Co-EditorMonica Bonneau ---------------------------------Campus News Co-EditorMeghan Dewinde -------------------------------------- Lifestyle Co-EditorBenjamin Drew ----------------------------------------- Lifestyle Co-EditorKristin Clark -----------------------------------------------Sports Co-EditorGretchen Cramer -----------------------------------------Sports Co-EditorJeff Witherow --------------------------------------------------Photo EditorHeather Foster -------------------------------------------------Layout EditorAsst. Prof. Brian L. McDowell -----------------------Editorial, Layout, &

Photography AdvisorT h e C H I M E S i s a p u b l i c a t i o n o f s t u d e n t s i n t h e J o u r n a l i s mDepartment at Morrisville State College. The CHIMES office is located at Charlton 101, or by phone at (315) 684-6247. Letters and columns appearing on the editorial page re-flect the opinions of their authors. Letters to the editor are subject to editing for length, clarity, and standards of decency. Letters to the editor and other communications can be sent to chimes@morrisville.edu.

You know you’re at Morrisville State College when...

Corporations are saving millions of dollars per year in reduced labor costs with the publically scrutinized move-ment of industry overseas. But as a result of careless manufacturing, recalls are costing these corporations millions of dollars a year as well.

There have been 38 major product recalls in the new millennium. This includes the recall of 6.5 million Firestone tires in 2000, as well as all 2008 Ford Diesel Super Duty trucks because of reported tailpipe fires. Although the tires as well as the trucks were assembled in the United States, the parts were manu-factured in China.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, a major product recall is clas-sified as a retraction of over 1 mill ion products made available to the public and voluntary recalls. Recalls are commonly used by com-panies to avoid charges of corporate negligence.

As a result, the company avoids bad publicity and large legal penalties. Recalls are detrimental to corporations because they often have to pay to replace or fix the product, on top of paying for damages as a result of its use.

“It’s boring, and there are a lot of cows.” - Alex Gelting, Sports Nutrition and Fitness Management

“There is a unique smell. There is a different variety of what to do. It’s diverse; different.” - Shalaya Banks, Individual Studies

“You’re cold, and the smell, it’s…the smell…” - Asha White

“When you see the variety of people that don’t look the same.” - Alishia Davis, Restaurant Management

“The weather is definitely different.” - Christon Breland, Liberal Arts

“The weather is always windy; it feels like you are [on]top of a mountain. But the teachers are great, Morrisville is a great place, nice place to start your education.” - Mike Bodway, Health Sciences

Photos by Briana Foisia, ‘13

“It’s cold 90 percent of the time.” - Paul Carrigan, Applications Software

“You smell the horses.” - Kiara Richardson

Shane Pastor ‘13Editorial Staff

Recent recalls raise concerns over manufacturing

Melissa Lopez, ‘11Editorial Staff

On Nov. 9, Maclaren baby products recalled about one million units of nine dif-ferent strollers created over the past 10 years. It came as a result of reports that 12 toddlers have suffered fingertip amputations in the side joints of the strollers. Around the same time, Nokia Corp. announced it will recall nearly 14 million cell phone chargers due to the risk of electrical shock. On Nov. 14,

Toyota Motor Corporation offered to fix the accelerator pedals of nearly 4 million ve-hicles because of the position of floor mats. In late Novem-ber officials determined that it was the accelerator pedals that were defective.

Using data from MSNBC sources on mass recalled products, it was to my sur-prise that recalled products have severely increased since the turn of the century.

This is a result of a country’s Consumer Protection Laws, which regulate how much a company should bear mon-etarily and make sure that there is no failure to recall a product.

What bothers me most about recalls is that some products can be declared un-der a compulsory recall, and if the consumer does not take action in returning or dis-posing of the product, they can be fined up to $5,000, according to the Consumer Protection Agency. Based on stats from the Recall Owl Web site, China recalls over twice as many products as the United States, most of which are used by American citizens.

Maybe corporations in the United States made a terrible mistake. Thousands of American jobs have been outsourced overseas, con-sequently these overseas factories are producing faulty products that cost the cor-poration millions of dollars, and can potentially affect our safety and health.

The corporations may have saved some money by moving production overseas, but in my opinion, you can’t put a price on the welfare of consumers.

CampusDecember 2009 - The CHIMES page 3

Katie Collins, ‘12Staff Reporter

Nursing student Frances Ajayi said the Educational Op-portunity Program provides great academic support. Ajayi said she thinks the EOP staff are always helpful, no matter how busy they are.

Ajayi has been a student at MSC since 2007. She said at times she was discouraged, but EOP Director Tim Penix would always try to motivate her. Ajayi said people have, "to push themselves; EOP can only do so much."

Created 40 years ago by a New York State legislator Arthur O. Eve, the Educa-tional Opportunity Program helps potential students who want to attend college, but are missing some of the necessary credentials.

A New York State program, EOP was developed from a similar program that was cre-ated by the City University of New York. Penix said when the program was created by CUNY, it was meant to "work with stu-dents who are academically and economically, what they called, disadvantaged at the time."

Penix explained that if a potential student applies to a college for a particular major and is said to be 'at risk' for admission, the student may be eligible for EOP. The student must fall short in at least one of the criteria for acceptance.

If a student does not have the proper GPA or SAT scores, Penix said, "you would fall a little bit shy," of the academic requirements. Students' ac-ceptance into the program also depends on their families' incomes and the number of members in their household, because they must meet certain financial guidelines as well.

On MSC's main campus, the state's budget allows for 200 students to be in the EOP program. All majors are open to EOP enrollment. As a state program, Penix said every year EOP is susceptible to state budget cuts and funding. Penix said the program is a legislative initiative, which means, the legislator would cut or remove some of the state's funding or increase it, but the "program is handled through various sec-tors," Penix said.

According to MSC's Web site, the program is for students

who have the "potential to suc-ceed in college." Penix said it is meant for a potential student who has done what they can to get into college, but there was something that was affecting their admission.

For the past two years, for four weeks during the summer, eligible EOP students came to the college and went through what Penix called a, "number of steps." These steps allow students to academically, tran-sitionally and socially acclimate to college. Students also attend some general education classes so they can get acclimated to college life.

Penix said the summer pro-gram is relatively new because of MSC's transition to becom-ing a four-year school. Penix said the summer program is necessary. By putting a person in the college environment, they can build up some transi-tion skills. "This person will be successful, or will have the potential to be successful, while they're in school," he said.

EOP gives financial as-sistance for books and sup-plies to eligible students. Most scholarships are based on aca-demics, but because the stu-

dents are, "below what you usually take for admission," Penix said students receive financial assistance rather than the scholarships. Originally, Penix said 10 or 15 years ago, EOP helped students with more than just books. If the country’s economy stabilizes, Penix said it would seem fea-sible that, financially, EOP would receive enough money to help students. He said the program is a huge resource for students, and with more money, he said the programs would need to grow, change and be reconfigured. "There is a significant population that shows the potential, but also has need for academic or financial assistance," he added.

Students are required, es-pecially in their freshman year, to meet with EOP counselors. Penix said the counselors are great for the students because "you have the opportunity and access to someone that has a wide-range of experience in understanding how to be suc-cessful in college."

By using the counselors as resources, Penix hopes that the program will train students to have, "an understanding and

building of skills and habits that will make you successful."

As the director of EOP at MSC, Penix said he is supposed to, "ensure that the campus is in line with whatever guidelines for the EOP program that have been set through the state." Pe-nix supervises and helps set the rules of the program at MSC. Penix is also a counselor for more than 70 upperclassmen.

A business student from India, Tarlok Singh, has been in the program for two years. "It's really great; they help us out," Singh said. EOP helped Singh adjust to the American education system, as it is dif-ferent than India. Penix helped Singh with translation because he was only in the United States for four years when he came to MSC.

As part of the program, Pe-nix wants students to become advocators for themselves. He said, "we ultimately want them to be critical thinkers, and be able to analyze themselves." The goals set for the students are getting them past the no-tion of just passing, to what Penix called, "the goal of doing as well as they can."

Educational Opportunity Program helps students adjust to college

Catherine Flood, ‘13Staff Reporter

A two-hour presentation was held in November to edu-cate students on the war in Af-ghanistan; a war that has been going on since October 2001.

The professors who spoke at the presentation said their goal is to explain to students what exactly is going on. “It’s a way of educating young people on how it will affect their fu-ture,” said Assistant Professor of Social Science Kurt Rey-mers. “It gives opportunity for questions to be asked on press-ing matters,” he added.

Associate Professor of the School of Liberal Arts, Thomas Hogle, opened the presenta-tion telling the audience about how Al-Qaida planned the Sep. 11 attacks in Afghanistan. The U.S. is fighting against the Taliban because they allowed Al-Qaida to attack the U.S, and the generals in Afghanistan are requesting more soldiers.

Associate Professor of the School of Liberal Arts, Alan

Levinsohn, said Afghanistan is a small country in Asia that consists of mostly Muslims. It is a very poor country that lacks water and resources, but is rich in poppy plants, used mostly for drugs.

The presentation proceeded with a video about the war. The video said the soldiers in Afghanistan are there to con-nect with the Afghan people. According to the video, this is difficult for the soldiers be-cause the Taliban threatens the locals’ lives if they associate with Americans. The soldiers are told their mission is to pro-tect the local Afghan people and to differentiate the locals from the Taliban. The Afghan people have a distinct hatred for foreigners.

Hogle said public services are limited or non-existent in Afghanistan. In the past, the Soviet Union tried to take over Afghanistan.

The U.S. gave Afghanistan weapons, such as stinger mis-siles, to defeat the Soviet Union, and now those same weapons

are the ones Al-Qaida and the Taliban are using to fight the U.S.

Most of the money Al-Qaida receives is from the Tal-iban. Al-Qaida and the Taliban have connections in Pakistan, a country that contains atomic weapons. This is a concern to the current government.

According to the video, in Afghanistan, “corruption is the rule, not the exception.” Sev-enty percent of Afghanistan lies beyond government control.

When the locals get sick of, or are not satisfied with the government, they turn to the Taliban for help. A general in the video said ridding Afghani-stan of corruption is the new military’s necessity. The military is also trying to get rid of timber smuggling in Kunar.

Assistant Professor Go-swald Hughes said there is a population of 31 million in Afghanistan, and 53 percent of the Afghan people live below the poverty line. Most of the money made is taken because of the high inflation of 13 per-

cent. He said the life expectancy of a local is 44 years.

Afghanistan borders six dif-ferent countries and 60 percent of Afghanistan’s profits come from drugs. The country sup-plies 75 percent of the world’s opium. Hughes showed a You-Tube video of the poppy fields, and said anyone that doesn’t grow the crop makes little to no money.

Reymers explained that even before Sept. 11, Al-Qaida was responsible for attacking the U.S. The government started the war in Iraq to distract the focus from the war in Afghani-stan, a war that has cost the U.S. $23 billion. Innocent people in Afghanistan are being killed, and the war is costing the U.S. its reputation. One positive of the war is the reduction of long-term threats.

Associate Professor of So-cial Science Robert Dushay said the goal of terrorism is enjoying when the other side gets hurt, but the U.S. is making it worse by trying to stop it. Terrorism will never end; there will always

be someone wanting to hurt their enemies.

Associate Professor of Lib-eral Arts Mark Whitney said language impacts the situation; it is the real weapon. The U.S. is setting up a government in Afghanistan that the Afghan people do not want. Whitney said Afghanistan is number 179 on a list of 180 countries for least corrupt. He said this proves the government is not stable.

“I recently heard about the war, but didn’t know details, just that we were losing,” said audi-ence member Melissa James. James added, “Now we can actually take account for actions and the government’s actions overseas.”

Some said they think the U.S. should stay in the war, while others disagreed. “The presen-tation was very informative. I learned things I didn’t know before and realized it’s not just a war anymore,” said audience member John Philipps,“we need to stop what’s going on because it’s not working.”

Morrisville professors team up to educate students on current war

page 4 December 2009 - THE CHIMESCampus

Athena Lazo, ‘11Campus News EditorJoshua Ocasio, ‘12Staff Reporter

Some Morrisville State Col-lege students have begun to crave Greek Life on campus. Student Jonathan Rodriguez said the main reason is to give the campus a better sense of diver-sity, while creating role models.

Generally, two-year col-leges are only entitled to have one fraternity or sorority. With MSC now offering 22 bachelor’s degrees, the college is eligible to host additional Greek Life. “You need a counsel of paid posi-tions,” Campus Activities Board Chair Nate Czamara said, “and right now SUNY is cutting back on spending, not dishing out.” Czamara said there would also be a potential need for housing and advisors and right now, this isn’t possible.

Without additional funding, some students are looking to the Student Government Or-ganization for help. “I feel all Greek Life should have a close

relationship with any student government, on any campus,” Rodriguez said. He said he feels Greek Life and SGO should merge due to current financial re-straints. “Financially, the school just cannot afford it right now,” he added.

Rita Goyette agreed that right now may not be the best time to pursue Greek Life due to budget cuts. “And then you have to think about the discriminatory policies that Greek Life brings,” Goyette said. Typically, Greek letter organizations are single-sex groups. She said SGO clubs and organizations aren’t allowed to discriminate based on gender or race. They must stay neutral, and she said this may be difficult for certain sororities and fraternities if they were placed under SGO rules.

“They’d have to be open to everyone,” SGO President Kimani Smith said. He said if this wasn’t a problem, they would be recognized as a club with funding. He said SGO is open to any group willing to go through the proper procedures,

including producing an approved constitution, filling out a new club recognition form, as well as membership applications and club rosters.

According to Syracuse Uni-versity’s Web site, Greek Life brings leadership and service opportunities, as well as brother-hood and sisterhood. Assistant Director of Student Centers and Programming Services at the university Anthony Otero said, “For the most part, it can have a positive effect if managed cor-rectly.” He said Greek Life tends to help with school spirit and retention of students.

Rodriguez said the only way MSC will see retention such as this, or an increase in enrollment, is with the addition of Greek Life to campus. “More and more high school students are becom-ing aware of Greek Life and are picking schools intentionally looking for an organization to join,” he said.

“Typically the organization pays insurance, not the college,” Goyette said. She said it’s a lot for the college to think about

right now. With “rush week” and initiation processes, hazing is also a concern.

“There always seems to be issues with larger fraternal orga-nizations,” Otero said. He said fraternities and sororities bring a lot of underage drinking, as well as hazing. “[They] think we, as administrators, don’t know what happens, but in reality we know more than they think.”

Czamara said the Morrisville community may not be ready for Greek Life. “They have problems with us holding events past 7 o’clock sometimes,” he said. “The school’s been here for what, 100 years, and they still don’t want us here,” he added.

According to Colgate Col-lege’s Web site, Greek Life brings much to their campus. Academics aren’t put aside, and leadership, as well as networking and social aspects are covered. Most students in fraternities and sororities agree on the posi-tive experiences they pull from Greek Life.

Merrimack College is a small campus like MSC located in Mas-

sachusetts. It is home to three sororities and two fraternities. All of the groups are required to do community service and hold educational events. They hold events about drinking, sex and breast cancer. Zeta Tau Alpha raised over $11,000 last year for breast cancer.

Management student at Mer-rimack Kristina Martin said sorority life gave her best friends. “It has given me girls who I don’t only have to call friends, but sisters who I share a special bond with.”

Martin said their student gov-ernment gives them some money for events, such as formals, but they cover most costs with dues they pay throughout the semester and year.

Rodriguez said he will con-tinue to push for Greek Life at MSC, hoping for similar experi-ences. He said he is so passionate about Greek Life, he is willing to fundraise any monetary require-ments the school is not able or willing to fund. He encourages students to pursue this topic with him if they are interested.

Morrisville students pushing to establish Greek organizations on campus

E’Moni Tool, ‘13Staff Reporter

WCVM hosted their second annual Moville’s Best Dance Crew competion Dec. 4. The event was fashioned by Sydney Pajack and hosted by students Kurtis Hillard and Ella Jacobsen. The highest scoring group won a cash prize of $1,000. There were raffles to break-up the performances.

“This show will be bigger than the football team’s losing strike,” said Hillard as he opened the show alongside his co-host Jacobson. The show started off with the duo making a few jokes about what they would do with the $1,000. The show consisted of five performances including a performance from a profes-sional dance crew, Illstyle & Peace Productions.

Pajack said she developed the idea in December of 2008. “Being that I am a fan of America’s Best Dance Crew on MTV, I thought it’d be cool to do that here at MSC,” Pajack said. She said she would like to see the show carry on even after she graduates.

Each of the four compet-ing crews danced one round to show their moves and to impress the judges. They were scored on a scale of one to five, five be-ing the highest. Each crew was

judged on creativity/originality, choreography/synchronization, style/appearance, teamwork, and entertainment. IllStyle judged the performances because Pajack said

she wanted professionals to pick the right winners for the grand prize.

The crews, Team Envy, In-novative Illusions, Moment of

WCVM hosts second annual Moville’s Best Dance CrewClarity, and Queens Dolls, all had a unique way of coming on the stage. Innovation Illusion, a crew that had one week to rehearse, began with Athena Lazo on stage dancing a lyrical piece. Lazo beck-oned the other four members of her team, dressed as boys, onto the stage. Their theme included the song transformers and by the end of the mix, they had transformed into girls. “It wasn’t about the money; we just wanted to put on a good show,” Lazo said following her crew’s performance.

Moment of Clarity, an all boy crew, did a performance to satisfy the ladies in the audience. Team Envy appealed to the gentleman.

Joshua Sajous (left) and Darius Beale (right) perform during Moville’s Best Dance Crew Competition last Friday. Their crew, Moment of Clarity, won the grand prize of $1,000. Photo courtesy of Errol Scott

Hosts Hillard and Jacobsen did a comedy performance to Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” and Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi.”

Illstyle’s five-member crew performed prior to the finale. The members, Forest ‘Get ‘em’ Gump, Web, Suave Gotti, Dre-Live, and Johnny Break, are from the Bronx, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Dre-Live said, “The performance was lovely and the energy was live.”

Queen Dolls came in third winning $150. Innovation Illu-sions walked away with $350 and second place, and the grand prize winner, for $1,000, was Moment of Clarity.

LifestyleDecember 2009 - The CHIMES page 5

The Fantastic Mr. Fox trumps sparkle sparkle vampiresKyle Wilson, ’10Senior Editor

You really do have to see “The Fantastic Mr. Fox.” You see, I’m making the assumption right now that you haven’t seen this wonderful film yet, mostly because during the two or so weeks its been out it has been beaten handily by the god-awful “Twilight” or “2012” at the box office. Why America? Why have you allowed this to be? Here, let me tell you what you have been missing.

“Mr. Fox” is about a fox named Fox, voiced by George Clooney. What with his being a fox, he enjoys the things that foxes enjoy, such as sneaking into farms and killing chickens. He has to give this up fast- paced lifestyle though when his wife tells him she is pregnant.

Twelve fox-years later—or about two years in human years—Fox is writing a news-

paper column and wishing to relive his more exciting chicken stealing days. He plans one last big score on the three meanest farmers in the valley, Boggis, Bunce and Bean. Thus does Fox trigger a war between the three mean farmers and the snappily dressed woodland creatures of the valley, leading from one gorgeously crafted set piece to the next.

Not that any of you would know this though. You all are apparently too busy watching sparkle sparkle vampires or overblown end-of-the-world tales to view this charming and hilarious movie. ‘Hilarious’ is the word to best describe this movie. I rarely laugh out loud at most quote unquote “comedy” movies nowadays.

But this film makes the best use of its subtle humor. There are sequences like explaining how to take attack dogs down through the strategic use of

blueberries, or a bizarre musical number in the middle of the film explaining what the plot is so far.

Even the subtle movements of the stop-motion charac-

ters add to the humor and charm of the film. These are deeply drawn characters. You feel like you get to know Fox and his family. You are right there with them as they run from the farmers and their guns. As the young son of Fox learns his important life lessons. As Fox’s wife wonders why she mar-ried such an impulsive and reckless fox as Fox.

These are fully real-ized people, even if they are animated puppet animals.

Now, if you think this is a movie for kids, you are sadly mistaken. This is an adaptation of a Roald Dahl book. This

is the guy who made “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

I really do think he hated kids. His stories are really de-

lightfully messed up. There are some dark moments in this film, and it features a few jokes that would go way over a kid’s head. Much like this year’s equally missed child-like film, “Where the Wild Things Are,” which is a movie that everyone should be able to enjoy.

So what you have to do, right now, is to go to the theater and pay to see “The Fantastic Mr. Fox.” It’s the Christmas season, kids love puppets, you love clever humor, and I love watch-ing good movies succeed and become hits.

It’s a win-win. It’s an obvious choice, really. So please, forget “2012.” Ignore the sparkle sparkle vampires of “Twilight.”

Instead, let us all view a film where the effects aren’t the only things that are special, where the characters are given reasons to exist beyond not wearing shirts.

Let us all celebrate one fan-tastic fox.

Lastly, learn to solve little prob-lems. Not only does it manage stress, but helps give you a sense of control. When you have control of

Alysha Jones, ’11Staff Reporter

Stress: why not? Everyone is doing it.

Life and stress come hand-in-hand, and if it didn’t hit you in high school, then it will hit you hard once you start college.

Why do people get stressed? And what are a few things you can do about it?

According to the American In-stitute of Stress, “Stress is difficult for scientists to define because it is a highly subjective phenomenon that differs for each of us. Things that are distressful for some individuals can be pleasurable for others.”

Jennifer May, a 21-year-old en-vironmental construction student, plays both lacrosse and field hockey. She says she takes six classes and gets stressed. If she took more than that, May says it would be too much.

“In college,” May says, “You actually have to do good,” and there is a lot more pressure for college students. With exams coming up, she says she is more stressed, which makes her hyper instead of tired.

Equine science and business student Kayleigh Furia says she has issues with stress. “All-of-the-above,” she says to feeling tired, upset and anti-social when she gets stressed. “In college you can’t go home at the end of the day,” Furia says, “or ride horses.”

With exams coming, Furia says she doesn’t feel pressure because she doesn’t think about exams and tests. Other than math, she says she gets 100s on tests without studying.

Unlike Furia, wood products technology student Enrico Campoli is getting more stressed with the exams coming up. He says he gets stressed about tests, but not too much about classes.

Referring to decreasing stress, “You can do lots of things,” Cam-poli says.

Hanging out with friends and relaxing are ways he says he tries to reduce stress. He says he wouldn’t get stressed at all if he had less exams and less school.

Furia says a good stress reliever for her would be more time rid-ing horses without having to take lessons.

According to kidshealth.org, there are some ways to “de-stress”:

Don’t over schedule and try not to be perfect. Figure out your priorities and where they stand in your life. Along with figuring out your life, you should remember that not everyone is perfect, and trying to be causes large amounts of pressure and stress on yourself and others close to you.

Sleep and relaxation: these are good for the body and mind. Sleep-ing a good amount of hours each night will give your mind a break to help get through each day with low to zero stress. Sleeping also takes stress away from your body. Learn-ing to relax any way is good; you can either do breathing exercises or other calming techniques.

Exercise and keep your mind thinking positive. Exercise not only gets you in shape, but also helps manage stress. Having a good at-titude and outlook on life are also

stress reducers. A person’s outlook determines how a situation will turn out. If your outlook is bad, things will turn out bad.

the minor issues in your life, you’ll have the confidence to move on to the bigger issues and soon be able to control your life without stress.

End-of-the-semester stress: bad for the body and mind

page 6 December 2009 - THE CHIMESLifestyle

Fog your computer screen with a little SteamRichard Nieves ‘13Staff Reporter

Gamers find many different ways to play the video games they love. Some play on consoles like Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Wii in front of their wall-sized HD TV’s. Others play in front of a PC monitor with their keyboard and mouse in-hand, ready to raid another dungeon or kick some zombie hide.

The console gamers have their own platforms to play on, being the systems themselves, but what do PC gamers have? They have the famous and most- used platform, Steam. Steam is an online video game platform that hosts video game down-loads such as full games, demos, trailers, screen shots and a wide variety of information on the games it has available. Steam users create an online account, download the desktop program, and that is it; time to shop.

Speaking of shopping, buy-ing a game on Steam is as simple as putting in valid credit or debit card information, placing a game in your virtual “cart” and check-ing out. Users can buy a game for themselves, or they have an

alternate option to buy a game for someone as a gift and send it to them via email or through the Steam platform itself.

Once the purchased game downloads, which can take from 20 minutes to a couple of hours depending on the size of the install, gamers can be on their way toward playing some fan-tastic games such as Plants vs. Zombies, Peggle Deluxe, Fallout 3, Borderlands and Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Games run just as well or even better than they do if they were on an install disk. On a Lenovo Thinkpad model T400 laptop with 4 gigs of Ram, games run fairly well. Certain games like Fallout 3 or Borderlands might need a better PC to run smoothly, but they worked very proficiently. Smaller games like “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” and “Peggle Deluxe” ran extremely smooth with the occasional slow down, but those are few and far between.

There are other platform-type clients such as Direct-2-Drive and Amazon, which are not considered actual platforms but still allow gamers to down-load online versions of a large

variety of video games. Steam still tops them off however due to the great deals they release every weekend, which can start from 10 percent off a game with bonus content, to even 50 per-cent off a pack of video games.

Black Friday gave gamers a glimpse at the best deals on Steam which included a pack of games that totaled almost $400 but was cut by nearly 75 percent.

Some PC gamers don’t have the luxury of owning top notch

rigs that allow them to play almost realistic games such as “Fallout 3” or “Crysis,” but they do have a steady, stable platform to play video games together as a growing and powerful com-munity, and it is known as Steam.

Shomari Smith ‘11 Staff Reporter

50 Cent is rich and you can tell by listening to his new al-bum, “Before I Self Destruct.” Basically, he doesn’t sound hun-gry anymore.

50 released a song with Ne-Yo called “Baby By Me,” which has been well-received by radio listeners and music television viewers. This lead single is catchy, but there is a noticeable difference between the radio edit and the explicit version. The latter is a much dirtier song and the main message to the ladies can be found in the chorus, “Have a baby by me, baby. Be a millionaire.”

He starts off the album with “The Invitation,” which is an overly aggressive song. The production of the song sounds like a response track, and 50 uses it to slam the critics who have been claiming he is no longer hungry. The song is reminiscent of those from his first album, “Get Rich or Die Trying,” but sounds so forceful

that it becomes over-bearing after a while.

Another song that sounds overly-gangster is “Crime Wave” where 50 says if he is pressed, he will pull out his gun and cause a crime wave. He starts off the song with a message that some killers might appreciate.

He says, “I’m not telling you to shoot somebody, but if somebody tries to shoot you, shoot them. Don’t waste time; little n***a just do it.” This is not a song meant for children.

The first half of the album is filled with songs like this, but the standout song among them is “Psycho” featuring Eminem. “Psycho” is another song about killing, but the flows used by both rappers is enough to make you nod your head and vibe with the murderous melody. The song is perfect for the kind of rappers both men are. One could see they make each other better on the last verse when they trade bars back and forth.

The second half of the al-bum is his attempt to find the hit singles that he can release. It is filled with songs that are easier to listen to than the songs on the first half, but sound as if they missed the mark for what they were supposed to accomplish.

An example of a song that missed the mark would be “Do You Think About Me” because it sounds out of place on this album. This song is an attempt of having some sort of soft side, but doesn’t work with the rest of the content of the album. “Could’ve Been You” is a bet-

‘Before I Self Destruct’ too little, too late for 50 cent

ter song and expresses the same message of the need to have a woman who is down to be with him for the long run.

“Before I Self Destruct” is a rewind to the 50 we all knew

and loved. Unfortunately, that is past-tense. This album is a collection of songs that are too little, too late to please 50 Cent fans. To be honest, I wish he would self-destruct.

“Before I Self Destruct” is a

rewind to the 50 we all knew and

loved. Unfortunately,

that is past-tense.”

Photo courtesy of www.50centbase.com.

SportsDecember 2009 - The CHIMES page 7

Heather Foster, ‘11Layout Editor

On Oct. 31, I had the opportunity to experience something new and excit-ing. This experience was not your average new experi-ence. This was an experience I will remember for the rest of my life. This was my first hockey game in the on-ice press box.

The night began just like any other night on the in-ternship. There was a crowd of people in the stands decorated with “Morrisville

On the Ice with Heather Foster: A behind-the-scenes look at sports

Bryan Eddy is a third-year Morrisville State College stu-dent. He has played forward for the men’s basketball team since 2007. Bryan is originally from Brooklyn. He later moved to Greenburg where he played his first game of organized basketball at the age of 12. After four seasons as a for-ward, Bryan graduated from Woodlands High School in 2007. Even though basketball is his first love, he also played football and ran track during the basketball off-season. Growing up in Brooklyn, Bryan was a fan of streetball tournaments. These tourna-ments have been around since the 1970s, where youths from each community competed against each other for respect. College and professional scouts often attended the games for both entertainment and recruit-ing purposes.

During the summers, Bry-an would watch the older guys

Aston Lee, ‘11Staff Reporter

play in these tournaments. As the summers passed, Bryan became more than just an observer; he decided to work on his skills, which allowed him to compete against those he once observed. Since 2004, Bryan has played in neighborhood tournaments such as Gauchos, Roundball and Dycman. Bryan chose Morrisville to fur-ther his basketball career, as well as to pursue his interest in the au-tomotive program. “This school has one of the best automotive programs in the northeast,” he says. In the 2008-09 season, he con-tributed 91 rebounds and 17 steals. Head coach Joseph Smith said he feels that Bryan will be a good asset for the upcoming sea-son. “Bryan will be looked to as one of the leaders on the court,” Smith says. As a captain, Bryan has been said to be very competi-tive. “His drive to compete makes us work harder as a team. If we slack in any aspect of the game or practice, he forces us to pick up the pace by playing even harder." “This season I am confident that we will be better competitors. Be-

ing a captain to me means much more than just a title; it symbol-izes dedication and the will to go beyond when things seem to be falling apart,” Bryan says. He says

he wants to be a stronger pres-ence in the paint, helping with rebounds and increasing second-chance opportunities. Teammate Andrew Vandyke had

State College” logos. There was a couple sets of coaches attentively watching the op-posing team as they warmed up, carefully making a mental recording of any stand-out players with extraordinary ath-letic skill. You could cut the tension between hand-shaking captains and see the nervous butterflies bouncing around in every starter’s stomach. It was a typical game night.

I approached Brandy Thur-ston, my mentor and sports information director, exactly a half hour before the game be-gan. She smiled and said, “Are you ready for this?” I replied, “Yeah, I think I’ll make it.”

It was 6:42 p.m. at the Mor-risville ice rink, and I was in for quite a unique event. I fol-lowed Brandy around the left side of the ice rink, through the opposing team’s bench area and on the ice. Holding on to the edge of the rink with a Superman grip, I cautiously walked across a small patch of ice, making my way into the press box.

She sat me down in front of the laptop and I began the usual game setup: Upload the

team rosters, input the game information, enter the starting players, identify the starting goalies and get ready to type. With Brandy’s help, I was ready to enter in shots, penalties, goals, assists and anything else that happened during those three, 20-minute periods.

“Okay, faceoff. Elmira, 16, Morrisville, 16,” she in-structed. My fingers, nearly frozen from being so close to the ice, typed fast as she reeled off play after play. “Shot for Morrisville’s 15, save…Shot for Elmira’s 31, wide…Penalty, Elmira’s 17, two minutes for hooking…Shot for Morris-ville, goal! It was #9 with an assist from #2…You get the on-ice offense and I’ll get the defense and your face-off.”

After the first period, my fingers were tired and cold, my head was spinning, and I had a grin on my face of pure satisfaction. I loved every minute of it. Even though it was stressful at times, the experience as a whole was ex-actly what I had been looking to pursue as a career. When you’re that close to the ice, feeling the crash of every

rough play or seeing first-hand how much work goes into entering stats; the game turns into so much more than just a college ice hockey game.

After each period, Brandy and I would check our stats with the scoreboard, tell the bookkeeper the amount of

nothing but good things to say about Bryan. “He is young and adaptable. He has a good knowl-edge of the game, and he makes us work hard on the court, but even harder off,” Vandyke says. “This will be my third-season playing with Bryan. I have a strong feeling that he will dominate at his position and grab the necessary rebounds. He knows exactly what we need from him as a team,” Vandyke says. Bryan says that he is solely self-motivated, but his mother and aunt have been the backbone that kept his drive going. “Without them I don’t know where I would be. They keep me grounded, especially when things seem a bit out of reach,” he says. In the overtime 87-83 lost in the season opener on Nov. 18 against SUNY Canton, Bryan had 12 points and a game-high of 8 re-bounds. He averages 7 rebounds and 13 points per game. The Mustangs won their first game of the season on Dec. 5, against Paul Smith’s College with a score of 76-73. Their next home game will be against SUNY IT on Dec. 12 at 7 p.m.

Men’s basketball forward comes from streetball background

shots and saves and then scoot across the same small patch of ice, through the doors and into STIX where we could get warm for nearly 10 minutes until it was time to go back and do it all over again.

By the end of the night, I couldn’t wait for the next game.

MSC’s Bryan Eddy shoots a free throw at the Nov. 18 game against SUNY Canton. The Mustangs stand at 1-4, after a win against Paul Smith’s College on Dec. 5. Photo by Dan Moreno-Gonzalez, ‘12

ATHLETIC NEWS

Courtney Cook, ‘11Staff Reporter

"It feels good to know that he's the guy behind me," de-fenseman Tom Longland said of junior goalie Caylin Relkoff.

Caylin was named Ath-lete of the Week back-to-back weeks, Oct. 19 and 26. Cay-lin was also named SUNYAC goaltender for the week of Oct. 26. He was named Athlete of the Week for his overall per-formance and helping aid the Mustangs to upset the nation-ally ranked Elmira; where he had 57 saves out of 58 shots. He had a 98.3 save percentage for the game. Longland said Caylin stops almost everything that comes at him.

Caylin is a junior at Mor-risville, majoring in Human Performance and Health Pro-motion. After school he plans on either attending Graduate school or playing professional

hockey. Caylin's favorite team in the National Hockey League is the Montreal Canadians, and former goalie Patrick Roy is who first inspired Caylin to become a goalie when he was a child. Besides Roy, Caylin said, "I liked the equipment when I was little." As for coaching in the future he said, "I wouldn't mind it, but not head coaching. Maybe assistant; specifically working with goaltenders."

Caylin has been playing hockey since the age of six and was goalie since he was 13. His favorite part of play-ing the game is, "making the saves that keep the team in the game." Fellow teammate Bobby Cass said that Caylin is always intense and extremely competitive, and "even when he gets scored on in practice he gets upset," Cass said.

Caylin, however, doesn't feel that there is any pressure to keep up the work; he said it's

his third-year and the team has improved every year. "He leads by example, he works hard so the rest of the team works hard," Longland said. This year alone, Caylin has made 271 saves with 305 shots and only 36 goals scored on him.

Longland said Caylin makes Longland and the rest of the de-fense's job easy. With 45 games played and 1,429 saves in his career, "he never gives up on a puck," Cass said.

Caylin has an 89 percent save-rate this year, and an 88 percent save-rate in his career. When asked if there was a standout player on the team this year, head coach Brian Grady replied with, "everybody contributes.” He also added that the game starts with de-fense and the team plays de-fense until they can capitalize on the other end of the rink. "Caylin is the backbone of our team," Grady said.

On Nov. 20 Caylin made 23 saves in the loss against Cortland State. On Nov. 21 he had 25 saves in the loss against Oswego State.

On Dec. 4, Caylin recorded the loss against Buffalo State

College, saving 9 of 13 shots made against him. On Dec. 5, he did not see the ice.

The Mustangs next game is Dec. 13 against New England College. The Mustangs record is currently 3-7-0 overall.

Relkoff achieves honors for his performance

Women’s basketball season starts 1-7Nicole Williams, ‘12Staff ReporterGretchen Cramer, ‘11Sports Co-Editor

The women’s basketball team is off to a rocky start head coach Sean Pinkerton said. The team opened the 2009-10 season on Nov. 18 at home for their first loss of the season, falling short by 18 points to the SUNY Canton Kangaroos. Pinkerton didn’t play his of-ficial starting lineup for the first game. “We didn’t run their offensive set which lead to poor play and as a result Canton kept the lead.” Pinkerton said. Captain Tekesha Hanson, a returning point guard, led the team with 21 points.

The team started the sea-son with a new head coach, Pinkerton and assistant coach Camille Murphy. The team brings back only four return-ing players and eight new freshmen.

“We have a new coach and we are learning new things

during practice. Mustangs can improve on everything; a basketball team is never per-fect,” Hanson said. She feels the season is going to be hard, but if the team works harder than they should do better than last year.

Pinkerton was hired in the spring of 2009. He came to Morrisville from SUNY Can-ton, where he served as the assistant coach last year. He assisted the team to a second place tie in the Sunrise Con-ference.

Murphy joined the wom-en’s basketball program in the fall of 2009. She is a Syracuse native and a former Division I women’s basketball player for the University of Georgia.

“This is definitely a growing year,” fan Kylie Stewart said. “I feel very confident that these coaches can pull this team together and produce some more wins.”

The team played their sec-ond game, Nov. 20, in Oswego. Freshman Bette Davis led

Morrisville with 19 points. The Mustangs almost had their first victory, but fell short with the final score 65-54.

“We did much better in the second game, the offense was fueling our defense and that’s backwards; it’s normally the other way around,” Pinkerton said.

Roberts Wesleyan College team left with a victory over the Mustangs, leaving the final score 82-30. Due to poor shooting the ladies got frus-trated, Pinkerton explained.

“Roberts Wesleyan College is a good school, it’s a division 2 school, meaning they have girls that are on sports scholarships and are giants, and most of their girls are at least 6’1. We have a small team; our tallest girl is 5’9.” Pinkerton added. This has been the team’s big-gest loss of the season so far.

“For the upcoming games, Morrisville can look forward to the team progressing, and new team bound to come together and play ball…we are going to

be more aggressive on defense and more aware on offense,” Kimberly Lewis, a returning point guard said.

The most recent game was against Keuka College, which resulted in a lose for the team.

The Mustangs are currently 1-7-0, with upcoming games Dec. 11 and 12 against SUNY IT, with a start time of 5 p.m., and Buffalo State College, with a start time of 2 p.m. Both games are home.

Members of the Women’s Basketball team race down the court at the teams November 18 game against SUNY Canton. The girls next home game will be on Friday, Dec. 11 against SUNY IT. PhotobyJoshOcasio,‘13

Morrisville’s Kyle Roberts defends goalie Caylin Relkoff against an opposing player. The team’s next home game will be on Sunday, Dec. 13 against New England College. PhotobyBrianaFoisia,‘13