LETTITOR

App happy and proud

s of last week, thanks to craigslist and a
Ame man in a golden Toyota Corolla, I

became the proud owner of a used iPod touch.
While the significance of this additional weight in my
pocket may be lost on those of you who have long
since adopted the iPhone into your family, it’s kind
of a big deal for a guy who’s used to toting around
a beat-up iPod nano. Did I mention it has “Optimus
Prime transform” engraved on the back... you know,
like the iPod is Optimus Prime... like my iPod is a
transformer... nevermind. Moving on.

After begrudgingly buying a screen protector
for $11.00 from a kiosk in the mall, I was eager
to get home and get things app’ening. So, let’s get
superficial.

First up: Tiny Tower. A building management
simulator wrapped in a too-cute pixel wrapper; the
goal of this “game” is, fittingly, to build your “tiny”
tower up from the ground floor, rags to riches style.
By building residential properties, you attract bitizens
and, from there, it’s all about the bux. With each
floor you build you’re given the choice of creating
anything from a retail space, like a toy store, to a sushi

an explosion quota to fill, I’1l direct you now to my
second app’session: Jetpack Joyride. With players
taking on the role of protagonist Barry Steakfries, the
name of the game pretty well says it all. Starting off
with the most primitive of jetpacks, a machine gun
backpack, players are put to the task of navigating a
corridor generously littered with lasers, missiles and
hapless scientists. Reminiscent of that old helicopter
flash game we all used to play back in middle school,
it boils down to a game of “beat your previous high
score.” Where developer Halfbrick, makers of Fruit
Ninja, seem to have really gotten it “right” was in the
doling out of coins, missions and bonuses. It. Just.
Works.

While I’ve had more ups than downs in my first
week as the first time owner of a current piece of
technology, I have yet to really understand what makes
an app “good” or... even necessary. In the dud list so
far: a riveting grocery list app called ShopListFree
and an equally fascinating, painfully unlicensed, light
sabre app called LightSaber! And so, my death spiral
into the world of app’dom continues. Wish me luck.

the time, or cash, to spend on it.

 

restaurant or seedy pub. While there’s really little
more going on here than a simple time management
game— balancing your expenses with the coins and
bux coming in—there’s something oddly satisfying
about being the omnipotent driving force behind a
“tiny tower” filled with adorably mindless consumers.
With the option to dish out real bucks in exchange for
bit bux, there’s a silver lining of fun to be had with
Tiny Tower past its addictive qualities... if you have

Later Days,

Cody Klyne
The Other Press
Editor in chief

For those adrenaline junkies out there who have

 

 

 

Changes at Douglife

www.douglife.ca

    

Maria Asselin-Roy
Staff Reporter

ouglife is administered by the
D== for Campus life. Since the

launch of Douglife in 2010, the
student organization has seen a dramatic
increase in student volunteers, activity
on the website, and involvement around
campus. Because of this, this year, Douglife
has more than a few adjustments in order to
get more students involved with the college.
Scott Fraser-Dauphinee, the campus life
coordinator sat down with me and discussed
these changes (listed below).

First of all, there will be an expansion
of current events as well as a creation of
new events in order for students to be more
inclined to join. An example of this is the
Rock Paper Scissors tournament, which
many of you may have seen taking place
on the new stage area in the concourse.
Scott says that “What we are trying to do
is create new events where students can
come out and meet other students, and
give students the opportunity to come
together and have fun in order to create
more of a community at Douglas, which

is something that has been lacking in the
past.” Douglife has also shifted in offering
smaller weekly events to bigger events;
where more students can come and mingle
and meet with people, such as the volleyball
tournament this past Thursday. Another
larger student event involves taking students
to the Whitecaps and BC Lions game. The
first trip to the Whitecaps game will be on
Saturday September 24", and the BC Lions
are playing on October 8". For all students
who are interested in the future, Whitecaps
tickets are $22 and Lions tickets are about
$25 and should be purchased at the Fitness

you can search and categorize which jobs
are best suited for you. Scott says that
Douglife hopes to have this new feature on
the website up by the end of September,
but it will definitely be running with many
job offers by the end of the fall semester.
“Tt’s really exciting, it’s something that has
already been developed and we’re just in
the middle of getting all of the approvals.
A lot of students have expressed interest in
having that, and so that’s what we’re putting
forward.”

One other feature Douglife is trying to
add to their website is additional providing

“Douglife has also shifted in offering smaller weekly events to bigger events;
where more students can come and mingle and meet with people, such as
the volleyball tournament this past Thursday.”

Centre at the New West campus or the
CCLA office at David Lam. All Douglas
College students will go together, and
friends and family are welcome.
Secondly, in terms of changes to the
website, Douglife is planning to add a
“Student Jobs” section. This will involve
external as well as campus jobs being
offered to Douglas College students. It will
be looking quite similar to an average job
site, like monster.ca for example, where

and promoting of supports for clubs and
organizations. Scott says that he would like
for current and future clubs to interact with
Douglife on their website, so other students
can know when certain clubs are hosting
events, etc. Douglife already has a section
for clubs to list what they are, but they have
just added a new highlight where you can
sign up for the club via the website. This
makes it easier for students because once
you have signed up for the club online, the

e-mail goes straight to the organizer. “We
are also really pushing for people to join
our Facebook and our Twitter, because

it’s all integrated. We have also hired a
student marketing and promotions team,
and we’re really excited about this group
of six students to help update the site as
well as making the site grow.” Douglife has
grown so quickly and they want to continue
to grow in order to reach more students.
The hope is being that everything Douglife
provides for the college is more student
focused and driven. “More student writing,
more content driven by students, and more
students interacting on Facebook would

be ideal.” If you’re interested in exploring
these changes and getting involved check
out www.douglife.ca.

hl