Michelle's Blog My life is almost as interesting as this theme.

Twas’ the night before, wait Christmas?  It’s not Christmas yet, however the department stores seem to think it is.  That’s almost a nightmare in itself.  Anyways, it was Halloween night awhile ago when my peers and I would don our costumes and go around the neighborhood knocking on doors greeting people with the phrase trick-or-treat.  We never got a trick usually just a treat.

The people always seemed friendly and were glad to give us the candy our hearts desired.  We never skipped a house as we tried to get as much candy as we could.  One year we came to a white house with several red vehicles in the driveway.  There was no jack-o-lanterns on the front step and the whole house was dark.  My friends and I didn’t think anything of it.

The instant I rang the doorbell and prepared myself to yell trick-or-treat a monster came crashing into the front window of the house with a force that it sounded like the window would break that very second, unleashing the beast it contained.  My friends and I scattered across the front lawn like when a bag of candy is opened and explodes its contents across the floor.  The house owner opened the door as we ran, and the beast escaped chasing us down the street.

We narrowly escaped the white and brown monster that year; it is a vision that pains me to see even to this day.  Our greedy candy addiction got the best of us that year.  My friends and I now know why that house had no jack-o-lanterns out front, and we skipped that house on the Halloweens that followed as not to disturb the monster that lurked within.

Putting two strangers in a room together for 9 months and seeing how things work out sounds like a reality television show. In actuality, this is a common occurrence at colleges all across America. Often, students will fill out some type of vague personality survey online or on paper that is sent back to the school, which is then supposedly used to match that student up with a compatible roommate.

Miraculously, this approach does sometimes work, although it is unclear whether it is because of the method of the personality survey or just because the two people are easy going enough to not switch rooms. However, there are times when people are paired up who do not mesh with each other, and problems ensue.

Jill Borer, a past Morningside student, is all too familiar with life with a bad roommate.

“My first roommate at college, things started off badly and got progressively worse,” said Borer. “She was nice, but equally as weird.”

Borer’s roommate was a lesbian, which she specified didn’t bother her, but things got awkward when her ex-roommate asked to see her in her underwear.

“She was just fascinated by the kind of underwear I was wearing and asked me to show her more. I felt so uncomfortable.”

As the semester progressed, Borer’s roommate filled their room with bonsai trees, read books about witchcraft, and constantly made Chinese soups that would stink up their room and her clothes. Her roommate moved into a room with her girlfriend the following semester.

This is one instance where thing just would not click, but luckily the end result wasn’t too disastrous as the two never had a big fall out; they just decided to live separately.

In the new age of technology, people will take to Facebook and Twitter to express thoughts and frustrations. The problem is they often forget that those posts are public and can be seen by others.

Just ask Andrew Snyder, sophomore at Morningside.

“One day I happened to stumble upon my roommate’s Twitter feed, and it turns out he has been talking crap about me since school started. It’s sort of fun because he doesn’t even know that I know, but it’ll come out before too long, I bet.”

Another student, who wished to remain anonymous, had a roommate who would steal her debit card while she was in class, use it, and return it before she was done with class.

“I finally noticed on my bank statement after she had been using it for gas, food and shoes for 5 months.”

In cases like this, it is essential to involve the college to prevent future problems and to notify the thief what can happen if they do not stop stealing.

According to Pablo de la Cruz, resident assistant (or RA, for short), stealing is not tolerated by Morningside’s residence staff.

“The residence staff will generally organize a meeting between the two roommates and the Associate Dean of students to go over what steps will be taken if the thievery does not stop. If the stealing was bad enough, sometimes it is decided in these meetings to involve the police.”

Former Morningside student Ryan Schneider had a friend whose old roommate ran an unspecified business from their dorm.

“[He] tried to sue my friend because his alarm went off too early every morning. Apparently, it was ‘interfering with his business.’”

Claire De Roin, senior, dealt with a roommate who was more passive than up-front with her issues.

“My roomie left me passive-aggressive notes everywhere and wouldn’t talk to me at all, ever.”

In these cases, according to Cruz, a roommate contract is drafted that lists what each roommate can do to help alleviate the problem.

“If that doesn’t work, then the last step would be that usually one of them will move out.”

It’s obvious that there are often problems between roommates, but what does the college’s residence life do about it?

Sheri Hineman, head of Residence Life at Morningside College, basically said that they move them around and don’t ask questions.

“Once the housing freeze [amount of time at the beginning of a semester where a student can’t move out from his or her dorm unless there is a very good reason as deemed by the residence staff] has ended, I don’t ask why the person is moving.  They may tell me; they may not.”

There are no numbers on how many students change roommates due to problems each year, mainly because, as said by Hineman, students often move because they would rather live with someone else they are better friends with on campus. And since Residence Life doesn’t ask questions, they don’t know whether these room changings are because of problems or just a desire to live with someone else.

There are many different reasons that two roommates might want to split, as discussed above. Hineman gave a little insight on the typical reasons for a roommate to move out.

“The most common issue is differences in values.  One student is into the party scene and the other is not.  One student ‘borrows’ their roommate’s belongings without asking.  Sometimes it is schedules that cause the problems, if one person has to be up early for practice and the other does not.”

Bad roommate or a “difference in values?”

Putting two strangers in a room together for 9 months and seeing how things work out sounds like a reality television show. In actuality, this is a common occurrence at colleges all across America. Often, students will fill out some type of vague personality survey, which is then supposedly used to match that student up with a compatible roommate.

Miraculously, this approach does sometimes work, although it is unclear whether it is because of the method of the personality survey or just because the two people are easy going enough to not try to switch rooms. However, there are times when people are paired up who do not mesh with each other, and problems ensue. And yes, problems worse than a roommate who refuses to wear pants.

Jill Borer, a past Morningside student, is all too familiar with life with a bad roommate.

“My first roommate at college, things started off badly and got progressively worse,” said Borer. “She was nice, but equally as weird.”

Borer’s old roommate was a lesbian, which she specified didn’t bother her, but things got awkward when her ex-roommate asked to see her in her underwear.

“She was just fascinated by the kind of underwear I was wearing and asked me to show her more. I felt so uncomfortable.”

As the semester progressed, Borer’s roommate filled their room with bonsai trees, read books about witchcraft, and constantly made Chinese soups that would stink up their room and her clothes. Her roommate moved into a room with her girlfriend the following semester.

In the new age of technology, people will take to Facebook and Twitter to express thoughts and frustrations. The problem is, they often forget that those posts are public and can be seen by others.

Just ask Andrew Snyder, sophomore at Morningside.

“One day I happened to stumble upon my roommate’s Twitter feed, and it turns out he has been talking crap about me since school started. It’s sort of fun because he doesn’t even know that I know, but it’ll come out before too long, I bet.”

Another student, who wished to remain anonymous, had a roommate who would steal her debit card while she was in class, use it, and return it before she was done with class.

“I finally noticed on my bank statement after she had been using it for gas, food and shoes for 5 months.”

Former Morningside student Ryan Schneider had a friend whose old roommate ran an unspecified business from their dorm.

“[He] tried to sue my friend because his alarm went off too early every morning. Apparently, it was ‘interfering with his business.’”

Claire De Roin, senior, dealt with a roommate who was more passive than up-front with her issues.

“My roomie left me passive-aggressive notes everywhere and wouldn’t talk to me at all, ever.”

It’s obvious that there are often problems between roommates, but what does the college’s residence life do about it?

Sheri Hineman, head of Residence Life at Morningside College, basically said that they move them around and don’t ask questions.

“Once the housing freeze has ended, I don’t ask why the person is moving.  They may tell me; they may not.”

There are no numbers on how many students change roommates due to problems each year, mainly because, as said by Hineman, students often move because they would rather live with someone else they are better friends with on campus. And since they don’t ask questions, Residence Life doesn’t know whether these room changings are because of problems or just a desire to live with someone else.

There are many different reasons that two roommates might want to split, as discussed above. Sheri Hineman gave a little insight on the typical reasons for a roommate to move out.

“The most common issue is differences in values.  One student is into the party scene and the other is not.  One student ‘borrows’ their roommate’s belongings without asking.  Sometimes it is schedules that cause the problems, if one person has to be up early for practice and the other does not.”

So, appreciate your roommate in all of their pantsless glory and be thankful that they aren’t a theiving homosexual who threatens to sue you for messing up their shady business, leaves you nasty notes and talks smack on Twitter.

Stranger than Fiction by Chuck Palahniuk is a collection of short essays from Palahniuk’s life and adventures between writing novels. There is a good chance that everyone could find at least one essay they really liked and one essay they really hated; there is that much variety. Everything from drunken crowd orgy-like conventions to an explanation of the wrestler affliction cauliflower ear is explored in this nonfiction conglomeration. It is almost impossible to summarize what this book is about because it really isn’t about any one thing. There are hardly even any recurring themes within the book. Nothing builds from one story to the next so this book really could be read in any order, or the reader could skip stories they didn’t like and not lose much as far as content.

Chuck Palahniuk is most well-known for his book Fight Club, which was adapted to film 1999. According to the Internet Movie Database, Palahniuk is quoted as saying the movie improved upon his novel, which is uncommon praise given to film adaptations of novels. If they are praising, authors will often say it was a good movie, but not usually that it was better than their own book. Palahniuk says in Stranger than Fiction that he often goes on trips between novels in order to get ideas and inspiration for future writing endeavors. He said that some of the stories were just too good to not be used in their full and original context, which is why he wrote them all down as they happened for this book.

Palahniuk’s purpose in writing this book is up for debate. In my opinion, he wrote this novel to show more common and average people the outlandish lifestyles of others. Kind of like a “This is America” idea. He doesn’t seem to exploit or judge these people, which would be very easy to do. In one scene, a woman is described as spreading her legs to a crowd and allowing them to probe her with their fingers. He never makes a comment about her being disgusting; he just tells it all factually. It is easy to come to these conclusions, but he never comes right out and says them. In another part of the book, Palahniuk tells the story of men who obsessively build castles, one even getting a divorce over it. He does not make fun of these men who want to build castles all the time, even though it would take only minimal effort to do so. He just tells their story to the reader and allows them to make their own opinions.

The information for this book was obtained in several ways. Probably the most common method Palahniuk used was observation. It seemed like he would people watch until he found an interesting story. Once he got his idea, he would explore more and interview the people he was watching. This is how his writing is organized. He almost always sets the scene first and includes a lot of sensory details to put the reader there. He then asks the people involved questions and gives the reader a greater understanding of who these people are and why they are in the situations that they are in. He never really participates in anything. Palahniuk mainly sits on the sidelines, observes, and asks questions.

I thought that this was a fun novel to read. Some of the stories were boring to me, so I skipped them with no apparent consequence. That is a big plus to the book. If there are slow parts that are uninteresting, it works out just fine to skip over them. I am going to create a genre for this novel and call it “Campfire Nonfiction.” I choose this title because it sounds like what happens when you get a bunch of older, life-experienced people around a campfire and just let them talk. It is the zest of life without that uninteresting travel and explanation of how the author (or speaker) got to that point. It cuts to the chase of the interesting stuff, and this “stuff” is all piled together into a book. I wish it would have had more of an underlying theme through each story or some kind of sense as to why it is organized the way that it is, but it isn’t a huge deal. Chuck Palahniuk’s Stranger than Fiction is an enjoyable light read of life’s most interesting and memorable moments.

I believe that people need to be good and moral for the sake of being a good person, not for the sake of some mysterious “God” figure. People are so hung up on “What would Jesus do?” that they forget “What would I do?” If you don’t want to help someone pick up something they dropped, then don’t. If you don’t want to hold the door for someone, don’t. And if you do want to do these things, then do them. Do things to be nice, don’t do things for credit from the J-man. Doesn’t that completely negate the purpose? Isn’t that being a good person for your own selfish purposes? I’m no religion guru, but I know that is not religiously sound thinking.

The world would be a better place if we just dropped this whole illusion of religion and just be ourselves for our own purposes. This way, the assholes of society can just be outright assholes instead religious assholes who judge others because they think they can justify their actions because it’s what “God” would want. I hate those uppity religious fiends who think they are better than everyone else because they go to church on Sundays with their noses in the air and are consistently judgmental assholes. You are no better than me because you believe in God and I don’t.

You can think that I am going to Hell because I don’t believe in Jesus, but honestly, if there really is a God and he sends me to Hell because I don’t believe in him despite the fairly moral life I have lived, I wouldn’t want to believe in him anyway. Why would I worship someone who creates so much pain for so many people and animals? That’s like someone slapping you in the face and kneeling before them like they are your master.

I believe in chance. Sometimes things work out and it almost seems miraculous, but also there are times when it seems like things can’t get any worse. You can’t just look at those miraculous times as proof of God, but then look over the days that suck. Fact of the matter is, some days are good and sometimes luck can be on your side, but other times that isn’t the case. So instead of tricking ourselves into some God illusion as a reason to be a good person and to explain those moments of fortune, how about we be good for the fact that it is right and accept that sometimes luck is just on our side?

Putting two strangers in a room together for 9 months and seeing how things work out sounds like a reality television show. In actuality, this is a common occurrence at colleges all across America. Often, students will fill out some type of vague personality survey, which is then supposedly used to match that student up with a compatible roommate.

Miraculously, this approach does sometimes work, although it is unclear whether it is because of the method of the personality survey or just because the two people are easy going enough to not try to switch rooms. However, there are times when people are paired up who do not mesh with each other, and problems ensue.

Jill Borer, a past Morningside student, is all too familiar with life with a bad roommate.

“My first roommate at college, things started off badly and got progressively worse,” said Borer. “She was nice, but equally as weird.”

Borer’s old roommate was a lesbian, which she specified didn’t bother her, but things got awkward when her ex-roommate asked to see her in her underwear.

“She was just fascinated by the kind of underwear I was wearing and asked me to show her more. I felt so uncomfortable.”

As the semester progressed, Borer’s roommate filled their room with bonsai trees, read books about witchcraft, and constantly made Chinese soups that would stink up their room and her clothes. Her roommate moved into a room with her girlfriend the following semester.

In the new age of technology, people will take to Facebook and Twitter to express thoughts and frustrations. The problem is, they often forget that those posts are public and can be seen by others.

Just ask Andrew Snyder, sophomore at Morningside.

“One day I happened to stumble upon my roommate’s Twitter feed, and it turns out he has been talking crap about me since school started. It’s sort of fun because he doesn’t even know that I know, but it’ll come out before too long, I bet.”

Another student, who wished to remain anonymous, had a roommate who would steal her debit card while she was in class, use it, and return it before she was done with class.

“I finally noticed on my bank statement after she had been using it for gas, food and shoes for 5 months.

Former Morningside student Ryan Schneider had a friend whose old roommate ran an unspecified business from their dorm.

“[He] tried to sue my friend because his alarm went off too early every morning. Apparently, it was ‘interfering with his business.’”

Claire De Roin, senior, dealt with a roommate who was more passive than up-front with her issues.

“My roomie left me passive-aggressive notes everywhere and wouldn’t talk to me at all, ever.”

If you like movies about awkward moments and incredibly outdated social opinions, then “In & Out” is a must-see for you. “In & Out” is a 1997 movie directed by Frank Oz starring Kevin Kline, Joan Cusack, and Tom Selleck.

“In & Out” is one of those movies where you don’t have to think to enjoy it. Just sit back and enjoy it for what it is- a hilarious movie with a long kiss between Kevin Kline and Tom Selleck.

In the film, Kevin Kline plays student-loved English teacher Howard Brackett. A few nights before marrying a fellow teacher (Cusack) whom he had been engaged to for 3 years, he was watching the Oscars because one of his former students was nominated for Best Actor. Naturally, the entire small, conservative town was watching, too, as they all knew him as well. He won Best Actor, of course, and went on to thank one of the bravest men he knew- his gay English teacher from his hometown. Brackett, his fiance, and the whole town is in complete shock as their opinions about Mr. Brackett suddenly change. Tom Selleck plays a homosexual entertainment news reporter who comes to cover the story in the small town.

The entire film is about Howard Brackett questioning his life and his masculinity and also about dealing with all of the sudden attention.

Arguably, the biggest problem with this movie is the fact that its funny in a way that the writers didn’t intend. Looking at it from today’s opinions on things like the equality between men and women and society’s views on homosexuality, it is hilarious to hear things like “No son of mine is gay,” and, especially, “You need to hire a lawyer. A real one, not one of those women lawyers.” It’s debatable whether or not this flaw in the source of the humor is a problem, but the movie is more funny for the lack of political correctness as opposed to the comedy actually present.

There are scenes, however, that are just purely funny regardless of how you are watching it. A scene where Brackett listens to a tape on how to capture your masculinity is a gag that has been done many times before, but it works so well.

This film is corny and predictable, but it’s charming at the same time. Kevin Kline does a wonderful job playing the man questioning his entire life, Joan Cusack is hilarious as the “once fat, now crazy” fiance, and Tom Selleck is a pretty convincing gay guy. Throw in Debbie Reynolds as the overbearing mom who just wants to have a fancy wedding (because it’s “like heroin to her”), and you have the right combination for a knee-slappin’ good time.

It’s also important to remember how groundbreaking this movie had to be for its time. It showed homosexuality as something to be accepted, and gay men as important equals in society. Also, these lessons are right in the forefront so it doesn’t take much digging to get them.

On a scale of 4 stars, this charming movie gets 3.