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Andy Johnson,Editor-in-Chief

Garett Svensen,Production Editor

We Are Back!

Taren Johnson,Web Manager

The Society of Business Program Students’ (SBPS) 2nd annual networking dinner gave students a chance to meet and greet with local business leaders. The Citizen, Northern Health, KPMG were among the companies to attend the event. The $15 entrance fee was a small price to pay for the advice offered by those companies hiring in the community. Once the plates were cleared, a

questions and answers section was held for students to ask local business leaders, including Neil Godbout and Shauna Harper, questions on how to best approach seeking employment. The evening came to a close with a speed-dating-esque meet and greet for students to network with other business leaders who were present at the event.

SBPS 2nd Annual Networking DinnerAndy Johnson,Editor-In-Chief

Photographs from CNC SBPS Facebook Page.

Andy Johnson,Editor-In-ChiefHello and welcome back to another

semester! Hope you all have had time to relax and get over that nasty bug that has been going around.

The CNCSU is pround to announce that the new CNCSU website will soon be live. As many of you already know, Taren, our web manager, has been working diligently on re-vamping the site. She has completed it and it looks great, so keep your eyes open for the new look of cncsu.ca, coming soon.

Guest Sign-in

Shauna Harper

The evening’s event was hosted by Grant Bachand, president of SBPS. CNC President, John Bowman, gave a warm welcome to all attending students and business leaders. Shauna Harper gave an insightful presentation on utilizing social media sites to increase chances of employability, followed by dinner provided by Kodiaks.

The Dinner

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Environment Canada 5-Day Weather Forecast:For Prince George, BC. 21 January-25 January 2013

Monday, January 21: -1°C, -7°C, Partially Cloudy.Tuesday, January 22: -3°C, -9°C Partially Cloudy.Wednesday, January 23: -3°C, -6°C, Cloudy.Thursday, January 24: -1°C, -7°C, Cloudy.Friday, January 25: 2°C, -8°C, Snow.

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January 2013 January 2012

The Confluence is produced biweekly at the CNCSU office on CNC’s Prince George campus by Garett Svensen, Taren Johnson and Andy Johnson.

Submissions, inqueries and requests can be made to news.cncsu.ca, in person at the CNCSU office room 1-303, or mailed to “The Confluence c/o CNCSU 3330-22nd Ave. Prince George, BC. V2N 1P8”

All submissions are welcome, the authors of edited works used in the confluence receive a $20 cheque upon publication. Advertisement rates are availiable upon request. ht

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HolidaysNew Year’s Day

Confluence

Confluence

Confluence Submissions

Confluence Submissions

SBPS Social Networking Dinner

$2Pizza Lunch11:30-1:30Atrium

Back to SchoolPub Night?Clubs

Day!

HarvestMarket

Health and Wellness Fair

NEW STUDENT SAVER CARDS!

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2013Why I Play Tribes: Ascend

Dave Landrey,Contributor

The thing about Tribes is that it has been around for a long time. The first game in the Tribes series was called Starsiege: Tribes, and it was released in 1998. It was, in most respects, a typical team-based multiplayer shooter. You got guns, you got three classes of armor (light, medium and heavy) and you got a jetpack, which was good for short bursts of flight. You also got the exploit. The exploit worked like this: if you timed a jump properly, while running downhill, you started to slide. You gained momentum as though your feet were frictionless. Players called the exploit skiing. This glitch in the game has become the trademark of the Tribes series; it is beautiful.

Tribes: Ascend is the latest in the series. By now, the game developers have seen the potential of the skiing exploit and made it a real mechanic of the game. There is no jump button; you have a jetpack if you want to

leave the ground. Instead, there is a ski button. The game is still a team-based shooter, but now, the maps you play on are absolutely huge. There are hills and valleys that you can use to propel yourself at Formula One speeds. Speed is the thrill of Tribes, but momentum is the skill.

When one plays Tribes one learns about the poetry of momentum. The determined parabola of an attacking light player, or the deadly arc of heavy assault weapon aimed at your base. You will often see a figure in the sky, and not know if it is friendly or hostile. While you zoom in with your scope, the figure might already be opening fire on you, or, it could be opening fire on the hostile player 30 meters behind you. Either way, you had better not stay still. In the time it takes to reach over for a sip of your beverage, you could miss a game-changing play, or the chance to make the play yourself.

Now, I don’t mean that everything in

Style Steve

Tribes happens at 200 kph. A lot does, but not everything. There are rarely one-shot frags in a game of Tribes. The weapons you use in Tribes: Ascend are very sci-fi. Most of them fire discs, which are basically Frisbees of hot death. These projectiles take time to get to their target. When they do, they explode, causing damage and altering the momentum of players in the radius of the blast. This changes the flavor of a firefight. Every encounter with a hostile player is a miniature drama. It is a struggle to use your speed, your momentum and your weapon to gain a slight edge over your opponent. These things take time to get right, but the payoff is satisfying. A well fought duel, whether you win or lose, is one of the peak experiences in Tribes: Ascend.

I play Tribes because it has given me some of the most exhilarating “holy shit” moments I have ever had while gaming. The best part is that after the “holy shit” moment normally comes, “that was beautiful.”

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2013Horoscopes

You’re a pioneer, and others know it. You may find that your energy is better spent on checking out nightspots or scanning for new activities.

HIJKL

ABCDEFG

This is a great time to stick to the status quo — though quite a few of your people are prob-ably stirring up trouble!

You meet someone new who changes the way you see things. It could be at work or at home, but you should find that your perspective is broadened considerably.

You need to convince the boss — or maybe your sweetie — to try something new, but you need to go for their head.

Is it time to let go? Maybe that old flame needs to stay in the past, or maybe you need to finally get rid of all that clutter.

Your ability to learn is legendary, but right now, you need to experiment and try new things rather than just memorizing.

You can get really creative today and find new ways to brighten your life — and you’re always looking for more of those! You feel a special thrill.

You need to make a big change — though it may have to be more sudden than you would like. You may generally prefer going slow.

Your creative ideas are inspiring today — so either write them down or get to work on them! You should find it easier than usual to move forward.

Expect a big disaster — so when the tiny one comes, you’re relieved instead of disappointed! Things don’t go perfectly today.

You are feeling even more ambitious — though you aren’t exactly power-hungry or combative. You just want to do more than you’ve done.

Your wisdom is much in demand today — at least from one person. Make sure that you’ve got time to help them out, even if you don’t really get what they need.

1) Who played parents in the same TV series and were both born on June 21, 1947?

2) In 1989, Pepsi pulled an ad featuring what Madonna song, after it appeared in a controversial video?

3) In 1995, what Canadian booze company bought Universal Studios from Matsushita for $5.7 billion?

4) A famous set of 1960s ads asked, “Does she or doesn’t she” use what product?

5) As Jubilee, what superpower does mutant mallrat Jubilation Lee from Bev-erly Hills have?

6) In the standard version of the board game Monopoly, how many properties can you buy without being able to put hotels or houses on them?

7) In the long version of Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First” routine, each position is identified except one. Who is left off the team?

8) In the comics, what is the occupation of Brenda Starr, who was created by Dale Messick?

9) Meryl Streep played the French lieutenant’s woman. What nationality was that woman?

10) Survivor All Stars brought back veterans from the first seven series. Which one gave us Amber, the All Stars winner?

Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, and Dreamweaver are yours to explore in this two year diploma program. Learn to build websites, animate ads, draw digitally, and design books, packages, logos and more. Unleash your digital creative and begin a career you’ll love!

What do you get when you cross a laptop, smart phone, camera and creative applications?

A two year career-building program at CNC...

For more information on a career in digital art and web design email: Sean Siddals, program coordinator at: siddalss@cnc.bc.ca

Ad_Faculty assoc NMCD.indd 1 12-12-20 4:42 PM

Trivia1) Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter. 2) Like a Prayer. 3) Seagram. 4) Clairol hair color-ing. 5) Can create fireworks. 6) Six. 7) Right fielder. 8) Reporter. 9) English. 10) Australia.

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Our LandBurton Alexis,CNCSU

It’s our pride that will change the tide, push

The pressure the other way instead of always

Feeling it inside. Together we need to unite,

Come together to put up a fight. For us, for our

Family, for mother nature we have to fight against

Insanity, and if not for OUR future, or OUR sanity,

But for a purpose, for a reason, for our children’s

children to be pleasing. So that with each passing

season our land will always give us a reason, to

share and not just take, to care for everyone’s

sake, so that we do not make unfortunate mistakes.

For with this land we share, So for this land

we must care.

Welcome To The Board!CNCSU Board

The CNCSU would like to welcome our newest members to the board of Executives:

We are pleased to have Roxanne Quock as our Womens’ Representitive. She is determined and dedicated to build a strong Womens’ community at CNC.

We are also ecstatic to have Catherine Munisi as our new External Coordinator. Her game plan is to build a strong student community for the CNC student body.

Finally we would like to welcome Clint Everall as our new Treasurer. He is commited to making sure the books balance and the budget is student oriented.

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Histories of the North: The Series

“According to Wikipedia”By Andy JohnsonEditor-In-Chief

The reasoning behind providing a brief (and most likely inaccurate) history of Prince George is simple; it is one of many representations of my home town. As the title suggests, the information in this section has been compiled from Wikipedia entries that concern a recorded history of Prince George. There are discrepancies that are interesting and may very well be of great importance to an accurately compiled and comprehensive history of Prince George, but are incongruent with my motivation for writing this book. My investment is not in providing a history, but providing multiple histories of the more notable residents of Prince George, who have either become successful, played a part in shaping, or—which happens more often than not—dividing my home town.

Prince George is located in the Fraser-Fort George District in Northern Brit-

ish Columbia. The city’s geographi-cal location is close to the transition between the northern and southern Rocky Mountain trench. Prince George’s population is approximately 71,030—the census including the sur-rounding area inflates population to approximately 83,225. The population combined with the confluence of both the Fraser and Nechako Rivers and Highways 16 and 97 makes Prince George the largest “hub” in Northern BC. These factors have made Prince George the self-proclaimed “Capital of Northern BC.”

The city proper can be divided into three distinct parts, the Hart, the Bowl and College Heights. The Bowl—which is the main hub of Prince George—can be broken down further and includes Central and South Fort George, the residential and light in-dustrial district north of the Nechako River and the downtown core. These divisions are not exclusive to the infrastructure of Prince George, but extend, also, to its citizens. As the histories (as presented on Wikipedia entries) of this northern town seem to map out that this northern hub has been divided since its foundation.

Fort George was founded in 1807 by the North West Company as a fur trad-ing post centred in Lheidli T’enneh territory. Unlike the prospering main trading post of Fort St. James, or the mining town of Quesnel, Fort George was isolated. Fort George remained mostly unchanged until 1865-67 when the Collins Overland Telegraph Trail was built. It followed the Blackwater Trail from Quesnel and continued northeast to Hazelton. In 1903, Grand Trunk Pacific Railway announced that it would pass near Fort George, and by 1906, agricultural settlement had begun.

In 1909, Nick Clark of the Northern Development Company purchased property along the Fraser River, near Fort George (owned by the Hudson Bay Trading Company after the North West Company had no choice but to enter in a forced merger) from Alex-ander Hamilton and Joseph Thapage. This community became known as South Fort George. Meanwhile, 3 kilometers (km) northwest, the com-munity of Central Fort George was formed along the Nechako River.

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13Both Central and South Fort George prospered from George Hammond, a Central Fort George land promoter. Hammond pitched Central Fort George as a future hub of British Co-lumbia. Hammond further described Central Fort George as having mild winters and suitable for any agricul-tural endeavour, save for peaches.

Also during this time in Soda Creek (38 km north of Williams Lake) the Fort George Lumber and Navigation Company (a South Fort George com-pany) built two sternwheeler boats, the Chilcotin and the Fort Fraser. These two sternwheelers were used, along with the Chilco, Charolette and Quesnel, to deliver passengers and supplies to Central and South Fort George. The BC Express Company—which had been servicing this area since the Cariboo Gold Rush—owner, Charles Vance Millar, had also de-cided to expand the BC Express route to the Fort George area.

Both Central and South Fort George saw a population boom in 1913, due in part to thousands of railway con-struction workers who would come into the communities for supplies and entertainment. The new supply and travel routes facilitated by the Fort George Lumber and Navigation Com-pany, as well as Hammond’s charming descriptions of Central Fort George, also contributed to this boom in both communities, as well as Birmingham, Nechako Heights and Willow City.

Because of this population boom, both Central and South Fort George had reason to believe that Grand Trunk Pacific Railway would be building the railway and station in their respective communities. Deni-zens of both Central and South Fort George would be disappointed, as Grand Trunk Pacific Railway opted to purchase 1,336 acres from the Lheidli T’enneh Nation instead. Charles Vance Millar, who had been in nego-tiations for this same stretch of land, was sold 200 acres by Grand Trunk Pacific Railway for $59,296.

By the time the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was completed in 1914, there were four distinct communities around the area formally known as Fort George: Central Fort George, South Fort George, Millar’s Addition, and

the Railway town site. A speculation has been raised by Leonard Frank that after the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway reluctantly sold Millar the land for his community (Millar’s Addition), Grand Truck Pacific Railway built a low-rise bridge across the Fraser River to block one of Millar’s sternwheeler routes, although this remains unconfirmed.

While it is unclear at what point the events of Millar’s settlement with Grand Trunk Pacific Railway unfolded in 1914, it is clear that 28 July 1914 marked the beginning of World War I. And while the four communities that made up the Fort George region were divided, both in trade and by short distances, their local economy suf-fered mutually due to the new Pacific Great Eastern Railway project being halted due to the enlistment of many construction workers, as well as deni-zens of the Fort George region.

George Hammond fought a series of legal battles on behalf of Central Fort George, with the Railway town site for the right to self-govern. Presum-ably Hammond fought these battles throughout 1914-5. However, on 6 March 1915, nearly one year after World War I started, the Railway town site became a self-governed commu-nity known as Prince George.

Grand Truck Pacific Railway specifi-cally chose the name Prince George to take away claim of the region from the rival town sites of Central and South Fort George, but there is some discourse about where the name was derived. King George V seems like the most obvious choice since his rule over the United Kingdoms, the British Dominions and India began in 1910. Yet, King George’s fourth son, Prince George was also alive at this time.

I find the discourse of Prince George’s namesake to be quite fas-cinating, as it lends credence to the notion that Prince George (as the larg-

awarrenjohnson.blogspot.com

est northern “hub” of British Colum-bia) has always harboured a cultural divide. To clarify this statement, I am not referring to the divide between First Nations and European settlers, rather in regards to the divide between communal cultures which make up a community. These communal divides have seem to become almost a tradi-tion in Prince George, yet is not by any means exclusive to this commu-nity, or to the many smaller communi-ties that make up the whole.

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At Coutts the customs officers examined Terry’s old landed-immigrant visa from 1973 and the form from the Denver consulate that renewed it temporarily till March 31st. He had to return to Canada by that date, only four days away, or both documents would become permanently invalid.

The skeptical customs officers asked a series of set questions about his background and purpose in moving to Canada, and Terry pointed out these were roughly the same questions the officer at the consulate had asked him two months ago. Perhaps they wanted to compare answers to look for discrepancies between what he had said then and the information he was giving them in answer to their questions now. They finally relented and granted him entry. One surly officer told him he’d have to make sure the U-Haul car carrier on his 1976 Ford Mustang II was out of Canada in 30 days. Terry said he would make every effort to do that.

Terry drove north, and the highway narrowed from the four lanes of the American Interstate to two. He was glad to be out of the States where Ronald Reagan had been inaugurated as president just a couple of months before.

It had been a dry winter. Across the grey-brown fields of stubble, he could

see only the occasional patch of snow in a dugout.

It was early afternoon, and he stopped at a small restaurant in Warner. He noticed the tin of pop he’d ordered was the equivalent of only 10 ounces, as opposed to the 12-ounce cans sold in the United States. This no doubt reflected the impact of the hidden Manufacturers’ Sales Tax, which made many things in Canada more expensive or smaller in capacity.

Terry took a cut-off highway to Coaldale and turned east on the Crowsnest Highway toward Taber, where he had a coffee. Back on the road twenty minutes later, he followed a curve in the road that for a short distance led him north-northeast. He admired the green-and-white Alberta Wheat Pool elevators, and once, on the railway tracks running parallel just north of the highway, a train made up of mostly Alberta grain cars and some SaskPool cars gradually caught up with him and overtook him.

He turned on the radio: One song he heard a few times was John Lennon’s posthumous new single, “Watching the Wheels,” about the need to take a sabbatical or break from a career to raise children or recharge one’s batteries. After 45- or 46-hour weeks with split shifts at a government office where he had been low on the totem pole, Terry was pleased he was back in Canada where, he thought, labour standards were better enforced. At least they had seemed to be in the Lower Mainland of B.C.

He arrived in Palliser Springs around 3:30, and, as he descended a hill toward downtown, he viewed with awe the high brown cutbanks that suddenly appeared to the north, looming over the city and reflecting light from the declining sun. He found a parking space in front of an old building which he thought housed the offices of The Palliser Springs Chronicle, and it still had the paper’s logo painted on a portion of its east wall. However, the building was closed and looked empty. A passer-by told him the paper had moved to the new suburban area in the southeastern quadrangle of the city.

In about fifteen minutes Terry

New BeginningsBy Paul Strickland

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13found the new one-storey dark-red-brick Chronicle building with high modernistic windows that didn’t open to the outside. Terry entered the foyer and was directed to the newsroom. It turned out both the managing editor and the city editor were gone for the day, but his official start date wasn’t till the 30th anyway. A wire editor and an amiable lifestyles editor were telling off-colour jokes from the UK. They turned to him, looking slightly embarrassed, and welcomed him warmly. Reporters introduced themselves and invited him to a barbecue to be held at the court reporter’s rented 1920s house on First Avenue.

He checked in at the Selkirk where the company put up all new reporters till they could find an apartment or other rental accommodation in Palliser Springs’ tight housing market. The hotel had an early 1950s neon sign with some peeling paint in front over the entrance. Carpet in the rooms seemed to be from that era. Terry ended up in a room over the pub, and didn’t get to sleep until after 2:00 a.m.

At the party he was clearly accepted but was the object of a lot of questions. The court reporter asked to look through his car, and found a couple of rolls of toilet paper in the trunk that Terry had put in in case the car broke down in a remote area.

“We have that here, too, you know,” he joked. He also saw Terry’s single-shot .22 rifle and its cleaning kit, asked if it was registered and told him about the local gun club and its location.

Later Terry talked about the difficult passage through the mountains of south-central Montana where there had been steady rain sometimes mixed with snow and, here and there, fallen rocks on the travel lanes of the highways he’d taken.

“You went through hell to get to hell,” a sports reporter said.

“What do you mean?” Terry asked.

“They’ll really work you over here,” said the lifestyles editor’s assistant.

“In this job, you stay until all your

work is done for the day, no matter how late you’re in the office,” she advised.

“Oh,” Terry said.

On returning to the Selkirk around 1 a.m., Terry was downcast and wondered if he’d made a serious mistake in accepting the job in Palliser Springs. But he couldn’t go back now. His government job in the States was to end by July 1st because of budget cutbacks, and he’d resigned from it to take the job in Palliser Springs anyway. His relatives and friends were highly critical of him because of the number of times in his twenties that he’d been laid off or had only been able to land part-time, temporary contract work.

He looked at his car in the hotel’s parking lot across the street near the railway tracks. He’d have to go the U-Haul agency next week to turn in the car carrier and make sure the personnel there had returned it to the United States by April 27th.

CNCSU:

Tackling Student Issues