Columns

An older, wiser person once told me he thought campus was too busy. Ever since then, I have been constantly wondering if this is true. Being busy is nothing new to me, as I came from an affluent town where kids were encouraged to do as many things as they wanted to and even things that they didn’t want to, and this goes for many other places, not just Mercer Island, Washington.

The Energy Competition is raging on, and it’s a close game! Currently, Ylvi is in the lead with a 8.4% reduction, followed closely by Dieseth with 6.9% and Larsen with 5.5%. After that comes Olson, Baker, Farwell, Brandt and Miller. But with half of the competition left, it’s still anyone’s game!

Last Thursday, I had coffee with a close friend who I haven’t spoken to in the past year. She had been scanning the listings in the non-profit sector. Most of these positions called for multiple years of experience. There were few entry level jobs to be found. And none that interested her.

Together, we considered her options.

There’s a gigantic void in the middle of the world. It neither grows nor shrinks, but neither does it leave. It just stays there. With every fiber of my being, I will do anything to fill it up.

I’ve tried everything: more writing projects, obsessions over British actors, hours at coffee shops strung out on caffeine, manic pleas to the darkness that it won’t close-in because I have too much to do. Still, the void waits.

Editor’s note: The title for this column comes from the nickname for French composer Francis Poulenc. Translated idiomatically, the phrase means “Half Monk, Half Delinquent.”

“It is in the desert of loneliness and emptiness that the fear of death and the need for self-affirmation are seen to be illusory. When this is faced, then anguish is not necessarily overcome, but it can be accepted and understood.

There has been a flurry of political discourse lately about the Affordable Care Act. While debate is healthy for any discussion, the political rhetoric and mud-slinging tends to muddle the actual facts being debated. To set the record straight, here is the Affordable Care Act simplified.

Editor’s note: The title for this column comes from the nickname for French composer Francis Poulenc. Translated idiomatically, the phrase means “Half Monk, Half Delinquent.”

If Ludwig Van Beethoven were alive today as an African-American man, he would be Kanye West. All right, settle down all you classical music nerds, hip-hop heads and general population who think Kanye is a jerk. I mostly just said that to be inflammatory, but if you who don’t sympathize with me at least a little bit (I don’t completely sympathize with my own opening statement), you might not know enough about either Kanye or Beethoven.