Aton

What to do when you walk into the glass before class

Coping with those awkward college moments

By Naomi Ambrose

e’ve all experienced
awkward moments at
college, like stumbling in

the hallway or running into a glass
window. In my case, whenever I

get into an awkward situation, I feel
embarrassed, hot, and foolish. Right
now you're probably remembering all
of your own awkward moments and
keep asking yourself what you could’ ve
done to make them less traumatic
experiences. In order to offer you some
form of solace, let me tell you about
some of my own awkward moments at
Douglas—and offer my advice for how
to deal with them.

One moment that I’m sure plenty
of you have also experienced was
when the security gates in the library
went off as I was leaving. They’re only

supposed to ring if a book hasn’t been
desensitized or if someone is trying
to steal a book, yet in my case it was
neither. Several people kept staring at
me with a look that said “Oh there’s
another book stealer,” and when I
went back to the check out counter I
was told: “it’s probably just a glitch!”
I know that technical issues can occur
with machines but just the thought of
me being viewed as a thief makes me
shiver.

Another awkward moment was
when the U-Pass dispensing machine
didn’t give me my monthly bus pass.
I knew the instructions said to swipe
your ID card’s magnetic stripe, which
is exactly what I did, but even then I
didn’t get my pass. So, thanks to the
faulty U-Pass machine, I had to deal
with increased anxiety and the glares
from another student who thought I

didn’t know how to use the machine.

I can also assure you that I can
use the water and ice dispensing
machine in the cafeteria just fine. Yet
my T-shirt always gets wet whenever
I press the water button, meaning I
leave the cafeteria with a wet shirt. It’s
even worse when I have to return to
the classroom and then deal with the
awkward silence between myself and
whomever I am sitting next to.

And who can forget the awkward
moment that comes when you make
eye contact and then the person tries
to avoid you. The other day I saw a
former male classmate walking in
hallway that I had spoken to often in
class and I also thought was pretty hot.
The moment arrived when the two
of us stared at each other for a brief
second and I got ready to hi but then he
turned away. Really? I asked myself:

do cordial relations end because I’m
no longer in the same class with that
person? It seems the answer is yes.

So, what did I do to cope with
these awkward moments? I had a good
laugh! We use less facial muscles to
smile than to frown, so I figured that
I’d do my face a favour by smiling. So
the next time you find yourself in an
awkward situation just smile and have
a good laugh. Awkward moments are
always going to be present in college —
it’s just a matter of dealing with them.

 

 

iMad about iPads?

Tablets vs. textbooks
By Gurneev Panesar

y dad has been utterly
convinced that I need an
iPad, but I won’t take the

bait. You may wonder why, but like any
piece of technology, tablets have their
share of good and bad qualities.

Touch screen technology in class is
an easy way to supplement the lectures
with photographic data, which helps
visual learners to better understand the
material and also provides access to
external sources of information. Tablets
are also more attractive and less bulky
than a big fat textbook, hence they save
you a few kilos in your backpack. They
are also more mobile than laptops,
as students can carry them in and out
of the classroom without having to
pack them back up again. Since it is
somewhat inexpensive to develop apps
for portable platforms, there is a rapidly
growing amount of free or low-cost
apps for tablets, several of which are
suitable for education purposes. And
finally, tablets have an extensive battery
life that makes them more fit for a
school day!

However, finger-based tablets can
have a limited use in higher education
and also require special formatting.
There is only so much you can do with

a tablet when it comes to studying,

and reading off a small screen all day
can cause a lot of eye strain. Smudgy,
inaccurate typing is also another one of
their flaws, with most screens needing
a general wipe down of fingerprints
everyday.

Too much Facebook, Twitter,
MySpace, and so on are just a few
examples of how unrelated browsing
can throw students — including those
around them— off track and bring down
concentration levels in general. When
it comes to exams, answering questions
using a tablet makes it easy for students
to simply look up the answers, making
them academically ineffective.

You also can’t use a tablet in every
aspect of education, such as in arts and
crafts, music, or drama; on the other
hand, some students simply may not
be tech freaks and prefer pen and paper
as opposed to tablet technology. Last
but not least, the fact that technology
is constantly changing, often rending
things obsolete within years of their
creation means that tablet learning is
complicated due to financial constraint.

I think that education should be
how it has always been—involving
hard work, ink-covered hands, and
struggling to figure out what your
prof’s messy writing on the board says!

 

 

Transit etiquette: mind your manners

Fs

  

Photo by: Rita Vityaz

By Allie Davison, Staff Writer

icture this: it’s Monday morning.
Pr going to work, or school,

or wherever it is that your busy
little body has to go. You’re tired,
possibly (or in my case, probably)
hungover, not looking forward to the
day ahead. And the only seat on the
SkyTrain is the one next to the jerk
that has his music on full blast (cause
who doesn’t love listening to a garbled
version of gangsta beats). But wait,
there’s another seat open too! Except
a woman’s wet umbrella apparently
has first dibs. That’s okay. You can just
stand next to the tween recapping the
latest episode of Jersey Shore over the
phone at the top of her lungs.

Seriously people, show a little
respect. We all have to take public
transit and you’re not making the
ordeal any easier, so would it kill you
to act at least semi-decently to your
fellow transit-er? Does your backpack
really need a seat? Answer: No!

Here are a few of my own personal
etiquette rules that I think people
should follow in order to help improve
everyone’s transit experience:

Move jerk. Get out the way
jerk, get out the way. There is
nothing worse than trying to get off
the SkyTrain and being greeted with
a wall of people. Is the notion of “off

first, then on” that hard to grasp? While
pushing people out of the way to raise
your own chances of getting one of the
coveted seats may seem appealing, it’s
just plain rude. Think of it this way:
the more people who get off the train,
the more room you will have to be
obnoxious in.

It’s a SkyTrain, not a bar. Now,
I like to drink as much as the next girl,
but drinking on the SkyTrain (and other
transit vehicles) really grates my gears.
Yes, I know that taking the 15-minute
trip from your house to the bar/party/
drinking gathering in the woods can be
trying even to the best of alcoholics,
but sometimes you’ve just got to take
one for the team. The team, in this case,
is the majority of SkyTrain users who
don’t want to see if you really can chug
a beer in-between stations. Not cool,
bro. Not cool.

Does your backpack really need
a seat? Seat hogging is probably the
most common SkyTrain offense I come
across. I can think of no reason why you
would not simply have your backpack
sitting on your lap or even just on the
floor. No one will steal it and I’m sure it
won’t catch any cooties. It’s going to be
okay! The SkyTrain floor is not going to
open up and eat your bag. Trust me. Just
put it on the floor and let me have the
seat instead. Thanks.