Entries Tagged 'Not-so-legit Articles' ↓

As one could expect on Morningside campus, athletics are a great opportunity for making friends. Oftentimes, one will see a couple of wrestlers rooming together, a trio of basketball players doing a DJ program together at the college station, a group swimmers playing League of Legends together, and a handful of football players eating supper together after practice. Obviously, athletics help bring students (and certain faculty) together, as they work together to meet a common goal. Through trials and triumphs, teammates help each other grow as a whole.

This rings especially true for Morningside’s Track and Cross-Country teams. Coached by Dave Nash, the two teams are quiet possibly the strongest display of a team. Often times, one can tell who is part of the teams simply by the way they interact with each other. The large table of athletic looking students in short shorts way on the other side of the Caf might be one of the easiest ways to find a track or cross-country runner during the dining hours on Morningside Campus.

“I knew I wouldn’t have any trouble fitting into the program,” comments Alex “AJ” Janssen, a freshman runner on both the track and cross country teams [insert rest of recorded quote here].

– How easy it is to get along with everyone on team    “Everybody hangs out with everybody.”
– Insert Eric Koithan quote about how top runners players still socialized with not-so-top runners
– Add in AJ quote that confirms and expounds on such detail

– Any quote from Coach Dave Nash, when I get him
– Quotes from Eric and AJ (maybe another source too) about Nash’s coaching style
– Explain how Coach Nash cares more about the athlete than the sport

– AJ quotes
> “Running in college is more than competing.”
> “He really just wants you to grow as an athlete.”

– Koithan quotes
> “If it was not for Coach Nash, my running career probably would have ended early.”
> “Coach Nash is the only coach that took extra time recruiting me…”

– Throw in things about health here and there.
– Close up with Koithan and AJ speaking of their plans to continue running after college. Maybe a quote from Nash again too.

Meet Paul Johnson. Some of you may be saying to yourself, “that’s the whitest name next to ‘John Smith’!”; others might be thinking that I am introducing the current coach of the Georgia Tech football team, but most will be surprised (if they have not met this character yet) that Paul Johnson is in fact a 100% Nigerian citizen who is currently double-majoring in Mass Communications and International Communications at Morningside College.

Paul does lots of things. One of those “things” that he’s most notable for is making friends. One walk from Dimmitt to the Caf with Paul Johnson will show you a fraction of the people that he has opened himself up to on campus. This friend-making trend has been exemplified by his involvement in student government, Morningside Mass Comm, Residence Life, Men’s soccer, and much, much more.

Of course, involvement does not equate friendship. Despite the fact that Paul is an “introvert”, he keeps a sign by his frame that reads “Open Door PAUL-icy” to show the he welcomes everyone into his place. Without fail, there is cheerful chit-chat coming from the chamber of our champion. It’s very rare that anyone on Morningside’s small campus does not know Paul Johnson.

It was a Monday morning, probably the worst I’ve ever had.

I was still waking up I received the phone call. My screen showed my pastor’s Facebook profile picture with his name underneath it. Why’s he calling me right now? Normally, Pastor Terry called me when he wanted to know if I could help out with the worship band that week or not. I had the month of August off, though, so there wouldn’t be any reason for him to call me unless it was important. Did I do something wrong at church yesterday morning?

“Hello?” I sheepishly answered the phone. I knew something was wrong.

“Hey! Ben…” Terry’s voice warmly greeted me over the phone, as if to comfort me about something. “I’ve got bad news.” I couldn’t catch much of what he said. He mentioned something about being in a bad spot for making calls, so his voice cut in and out of the call. The only two words I could catch were “Patrick” and “dead”. Before I could ask any questions, the call dropped.

I didn’t know what to think. I tried telling myself that it was a miscommunication. Patrick didn’t die. He was still spry, even at the age of 63. His wife, Julie, just suffered a bad fall and needed to be taken care of by him; we just saw them at the hospital the day before. My grandmother already died earlier this summer, there’s no way that another loved one has died. I kept telling myself these things to keep my spirits up. I had work in an hour and it would’t be good for me to be there while I’m depressed.

I received another call back. It was Terry again. The call was clear this time, no dead zone. My worst fears had been confirmed. He went on to explain how he didn’t show up for work (which was very unlike him), and Julie tried to get in touch with him. When the authorities had arrived, they found him dead at the bottom of the stairs in his basement.

This was unreal. I hadn’t felt this bad before. The closest thing to that was when my dad texted me about Grandma Mac, but we knew it was going to happen, we knew that it would stop her suffering. This was different. This was too sudden, too problematic. Patrick took care of so many things around church and even Morningside. What’s going to happen to everything that he’s been holding together?

I hadn’t realized how long I had been silent, “Are you still there, Ben?”

“Yeah, I’m still here…” I gathered the strength to reply. “I just don’t know what to think about this…”

Terry suggested that I tell all of the other people that went to Patrick’s young adults’ Bible study, namely, my two best friends: Hunter and Hanna. He said that they’d probably rather hear the news from me, rather than him.

I decided that I should call Hunter first. He had always said that he could relate to Patrick in certain ways. He felt a certain father-son bond with him that he hadn’t had with anyone else. I remember him being angry at his mother for not telling him about his Grandfather’s passing the summer before. When I told him the bad news, he didn’t believe me at first, thinking that I was kidding, for some reason.

“I wouldn’t joke about something like this,” I snapped. I had been known to make pranks and jokes that made people mad, but this was too far even for me.

“Oh…” He paused. He didn’t know how to feel about this either. I told him that I still had to call Hanna about it too, so we said our goodbyes after that.

I glad that I called Hunter first. Hanna was not an easy call. When the news sank in for her, she began to cry uncontrollably. My heart dropped farther than I thought even possible.

When she was able to muster up some intelligible words, Hanna suggested that we meet up together to console each other, the three of us. I told her I had work, but that I was off by around 3:oo PM, so she said just to come over to her house afterward. I splashed some cold water on my face, E-mailed my boss to let him know that I’ll be coming in for today, but not the rest of the week, and then made my way to Sioux City.

Thankfully, when I had gotten to Hanna’s house, she wasn’t crying anymore. She told me that she just had to get it all out. We waited for Hunter to show up, as usual, before we figured out what we were going to do. Her family had already planned to go boating at McCook Lake that day, so she invited us to come with her.

“I feel like Patrick wouldn’t want us to be sad about him,” She sighed. “He’d want us to be happy about the life he lived.”

Neither Hunter or I could disagree with that. We knew that to Patrick, death was just another part of life. He knew that where he was going and he wouldn’t want us to waste his time mourning over him. “A dead body is a dead body; they’re soul has moved on, so should you,” he used to say whenever the topic of death had come up. As much as we missed him, we knew he wouldn’t want to look down on us from Heaven and see us being sad about his death.

The boating helped. It was still in the back of our minds, but we did our best to not beat ourselves up over it. Hanna’s family was very comforting and knew how much Patrick meant to us. We knew that he was going to be missed, but we also knew he was a good man. Even people with differing religious views believed that Patrick would go to Heaven. This wasn’t because he practiced other religious rituals; this was because he was such a wise, caring, and helpful man that it would be wrong for him to go anywhere else.

Aside from a few of your close-knit sports teams, one would not refer their recreational group as a family, but for a certain Sioux City based film group called Fatal Nostalgia, the word “family” is very well fitting. “Fatal Nostalgia isn’t like a family to me; It is a family. We are always growing in numbers and in ideas. [I] Love this group to death,” says Kelsey Dill, one of the original members of the film group.

Fatal Nostalgia started out as an improvisational film group attempting to show their versatility with filming. It began with three members, including Kelsey, her friend Ben, and a buddy of his from high school. Initially, the trio intended to do a different genre for each “Film Improv” that they released every other week, attempting to cover a wide array of story lines, characters, and settings. But as membership and ideas grew, the group began to broaden its horizons beyond their original specifications.

“It’s filmmaking for the sake of filmmaking,” Ben Catus explains. There are no set rules on what sort of film that this group is supposed to make; sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s scary, sometimes it’s planned out and scripted, sometimes it’s completely on the spot. After watching a few videos, one could say that it is obvious that this group tends to favor random comedy with what has been called a “unique” sense of humor.

More often than not, harsh language is avoided in videos and any sort of extensive gore or sexual innuendos are absent from these videos. This is not due to any censorship stipulations or intended audience, but rather simply the flow of the unusual humor that comes from these young film-makers. One could say that not only is Fatal Nostalgia a family, but it is inadvertently a family friendly film group.

The term “family” also applies to Fatal Nostalgia in a literal sense. Two sets of brothers: Ben and Matt Catus, plus Garth and Max Servis, are four of the core acting troupe within the group. Believe it or not, it isn’t actually nepotism that brings these brothers together in the group, but rather, past experience with each other.

Most of the members of this film group didn’t actually start here; many of them had worked with either each other and often non-members before the start of this group. The brothers’ Catus began with stop-motion animation videos with legos in their parents basement. Other antics they had filmed were posted onto a channel Ben had set up, the channel that the film group no uses. Sam Foo, another main member, was an avid filmmaker with his friends when he lived in Indiana. Mason Bakker, one of the main actors and idea-pitchers, had acted in videos for a friend from school several years prior.

Needless to say, these young filmmakers have worked hard to get to where they are now. “We’re definitely at a start; Our video quality right now is about the same as other famous YouTubers when they started out,” Sam expresses as he absentmindedly scrolls through old videos of some of his favorite YouTube stars. He’s not too far off when he says that they’re at a start. It has only been since November of 2013 since the first video by this film group had been posted, and only since July of this year that the “core” group was established.

The distinction between core members and regular members was established in order to maintain more organization within Fatal Nostalgia. The group is very open with whom they let star in their videos, with 26 different people showing up and playing important roles in their videos. The core group are the people who have ultimate say in what direction the group goes creatively as well as contribute the most to projects. This methodology of distinction forms a loose hierarchy within the group, but altogether act as a family would in making sure everyone is happy.

Yeah, they’re late. Working early mornings and afternoons really demotivates you for any kind of homework you get. So, I’ve got the Story about Construction on Campus, and the Story about other stuff. I hope they please you.

One word could describe Professor Hutchins: Dad. No, I do not mean that this person is my own father; nor am I solely referring to the fact that this man is legitimately teaching one of his own offspring at this school. It is the fact that Professor Tony “P-Hutch” Hutchins is a father figure to many of his own students. Also, his sense of humor is what many could refer to as “dad humor”.

This may be because Professor Hutchins might not get your attention any other way. Being approximately 5’8″, bald, and of considerable weight, Hutchins’ appearance does not scream “attention-grabbing”. He often acknowledges his less-than-perfect looks as a way of self-deprecating comedy to add to the numerous “lame” puns, which he dishes out whenever he can. This often leaves many students to simply groan in exasperation.

But that is not the reason why most students enjoy having “P-Hutch” for a class, at least not the main one. It’s his dedication to his students, in making sure that they learn at the very least one thing from any class with him. His methods, though sometimes uncanny, prove rather effective, especially with the Jazz Ensemble, which he instructs. Though, he is not afraid to go one-on-one with a student to sort out any issues that may be occurring.

This is later than even I expected it to be. I am an irresponsible student, that’s all I can say. Some friends wanted to hang after supper, and I was dumb enough to say yes. Regardless, I’ve gotten it typed out. I will come back with the audio of this and the last broadcast assignment tomorrow, after I have at least rested. Also, I must get up at 6 for work, so at least 4 hours of sleep would be helpful. My apologies for all the late work.

In today’s media scene, one might ask whether or not hard copies are still relevant. With Netflix for movies and TV shows and iTunes for music and games, it’s easy to get a media fix without leaving the house. But does that mean everyone is doing it that way?

It may vary from person to person. Take Mel Kiser, for example. Mel is a freshman at Morningside College. She’s an average girl who loves to cheer and loves music even more.  “… Like, a 10, on a scale of one to ten.” For the most part, Kiser uses iTunes to get music, but sometimes, other sources work just as well. “I like to listen to music on YouTube a lot too.” In spite of this easy access to music, Kiser remains faithful to hard copies of music. “If I like ‘em, or if they’re like older artists, then I’ll try to get their cd’s online.”

But music isn’t the only thing that Kiser has a passion for. “I love movies too- I like action movies, so… every action movie comes out, I try to watch it.” Not just movies, but TV shows too. “I actually buy all the seasons of TV series on DVD…” Unlike music, though, she prefers hard copies over digital files. “I do not, because they’re usually crappy quality, so I’d rather just buy it so I can have it at all time.”

Are you on the same pages as Mel Kiser? Feel free to tell us at our E-mail. Or if your prefer hard copies, we still accept snail mail.

In the meantime, experience another way to get songs…

Learning music just became a little bit cheaper. The Academy of Fine Music, in North Sioux City, opened up this past September. “My mom wanted to make it more affordable, because a lot of kids are in a lot. If its over-priced people just aren’t gonna do it. And so she just wanted to make it affordable and allow for everyone to learn music…” explains Jenna Likness.

The Academy of Fine Music is a low price music studio that allows children aged K-12 to learn piano, voice, violin, or guitar. It’s a modest business, sharing a building with two other local businesses. Owned and operated by Brenda Likness, she also receives some administrative help from her daughter, Jenna.

But that’s not the only thing that makes the Academy unique. Most of the teachers there are Morningside students. “She submitted a brochure to the music department and they knew a few students and those students knew a few students and it just grew from those few students.” Though, there are a couple of Dakota Valley students working for the Academy.

Despite most of the teachers being students themselves, the results of the lessons have been quite productive.  “My mom’s gotten E-mails from parents saying, ‘my child’s learned so much in these couple weeks than they’ve learned in a different place and we’re just really happy with what they’ve learned and they just like coming every week.”

Perhaps it’s the method of teaching that makes the Academy of Fine Music so effective.  “They’re one-on-one, thirty minutes, just you and the teacher, which allows you to learn a lot more [than] when it’s a big class.” Likness also went on to explain how different books are given to students so that they may learn a larger variety of styles of their instrument.

Soon enough, the Academy of Fine Music might have to move to its own building. “It’s already growing out of space right now.” When asked about whether her mom would get a new place, Jenna answered, “I’m sure she’d like to open up her own, that way she wouldn’t have to worry about noise from the dance studio.” Maybe they’ll get enough money to have their own building.

Speaking of construction…

With a growing student body and academics, Morningside campus is expanding and constructing new buildings. For the most part, the construction has been fairly easy. “So far, smooth sailing… No mistakes there. Everything’s happenin’ so fast that they ain’t keepin’ up with us. We’re waitin’ on red iron. Particular pieces, ‘cause you can’t build without ‘em.” I managed to get ahold of Marc Curl, the General Formen of the project.

According to Curl, the crew is working very hard on the project. “Usually, if it’s an 8 hour day, we do what we need to do in 8 hours.” That’s including weekends. “Just to get ahead of winter, you know?” With winter approaching, the crew is buckling down on getting things done. “… when winter comes, we usually turn on the hours because it’s going to get cold…”

This is all in an effort to get it done by deadline. According to Curl, that would be, “… a year from now. There’s a lot of steps to get to that point.” Despite the heavy load up ahead, Curl and his team are optimistic about this project. “So, we got a lot of work here… It’s an awesome project to be part of.”

This has been “Ramblings” with Ben Catus.

Interviews to whet your apetite.

Mel Kiser Jenna Likness Interview with Marc Curl

Due to construction taking place on Morningside campus, classes in room 111 of the Library have been forced to move to the ICN room in Roadman Hall. The transition, so far, has been fairly smooth, with little to no complaints. “It’s an issue, but it’s not a huge issue.”

I managed to speak with Dave Madsen, the department chair of Morningside’s Mass Communications program. He helped share some information about the construction. “… [It’s the] Academic Building, that is for nursing and education and advising center and our new program that’s going to be coming on campus next fall…”

But that’s not the major reason why students are changing classrooms, “… In addition to the work on that new building, they’re working on the façade of the library on the west side of the building, which is where our offices are… And our classroom is for the Mass Comm department…” Madsen explains how this move is for the students’ and faculty’s own safety, “The potential is, that, you know, a big piece of steel could come crashing through the window. They don’t want us sitting here when that happens. Same thing on the classroom side: they don’t want students here when they’re working in there.”

Fortunately, this ‘minor inconvenience’ is not going to last for too long. “So when we come back after Christmas break, we should be able to come back into our space again.” Though, construction will return during the summer. “In May, during the summer, they don’t want us in there again. Because, I think, that’s probably doing the final work on the project.”

The project is due to be finished by October of 2014. According to Marc Curl, the General Foreman of the project, that’s when the college wants construction finished. “… a year from now. There’s a lot of steps to get to that point.” The construction crew is doing anything everything to ensure that they finish the project on time. Lately, the crew has been working 10 hour days, “Just to get ahead of winter, you know? Usually, if it’s an 8 hour day, we do what we need to do in 8 hours. But when winter comes, we usually turn on the hours because it’s going to get cold…” This is including weekends. “… same deal: just trying to beat the weather.” Needless to say, the crew is hoping for a late winter, “Yeah, like none at all.”

Fortunately, there haven’t been any hiccups down the road yet. “So far, smooth sailing… No mistakes there. Everything’s happenin’ so fast that they ain’t keepin’ up with us. We’re waitin’ on red iron. Particular pieces, ‘cause you can’t build without ‘em.” Despite the heavy load up ahead, Curl and his team are optimistic about this project. “So, we got a lot of work here… It’s an awesome project to be part of.”

All in all, any inconvenience will be proven worthy once the project is complete. For all of us here  on 92.9 KMSC News, I’m Ben Catus.

Due to current health conditions and the fact that I cough up a lung if I speak too long, I will put together the broadcast version of this when my voice is ready*. In the mean time, I have the sound files with all of the information.

As seen from the Mass Comm Dept.

Interview with Dave Madsen    Interview with Marc Curl

*I know, I should have gotten to that before I got sick. But I’m a procrastinator, not a psychic. Sincerest apologies.

A woman was shot by her husband, Saturday, at 5 p.m.  The couple had just been married 3 hours earlier. A neighbor had called the police. “I heard the sound of a shot, at least I think I did.” By the time the police arrived, the groom had fled.

This came as a shock to the neighbors. “I’d never seen him violent, never heard them yelling. It blows me away.”  The shooting took place after the wife had thrown a plate of macaroni salad at him. The wife was shot in the abdomen and is in “satisfactory condition”, according to the hospital she was checked into.

A statement by one of the neighbors

Believe it or not, it is not possible to make up for lost hours of sleep. The adverse affects of sleep loss cannot be undone by putting in extra hours over the weekend. Alexandros N. Vgontzas ([insert phonetic spelling here]) discovered this during a 13-day study at the Penn State University College of Medicine.

The study involved a group of 30 individuals. The volunteers slept for 8 hours for the first 4 nights. During the next 6 nights, the volunteerss would be woken up 2 hours earlier. The volunteers were then allowed to sleep for 10 hours in the final 3 nights.

At 3 points during the study, the researchers tested the subjects on the physiological (FIZZ-eeh-oh-LODGE-ick-al) and psychological (SY-co-LODGE-ick-al) effects the study had. The results showed that even though certain hormone levels had re-balanced, their attention span did not improve after the final 3 day period. This means that certain adverse health effects were not improved from recovery sleep.