Rage Rage Rage

A certain nasty, thoughtless comment was made by Dr. Koons in an email about newspaper. Essentially, he stated that he did not see the value in it.

Really? Really?

As the Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper, this enrages me beyond belief. What upsets me most is not the fact that it insults me, but that it insults the entire newspaper staff and Miss Beach.

Can the newspaper improve? Of course, I'll be the first to say it. Despite the fact that we have so many people reviewing and checking for errors, some will slip by. Sloppy, last minute changes might be made, or a tiny typo could go unnoticed. As much as I would love for our paper to be perfect, it isn't possible, but I aim to make it as interesting and fun to read as possible. I take a lot of pride in watching people read the newest issue and comment about the most humorous or intriguing articles. Generally, students and teachers alike enjoy the newspaper.

So how can you not see the value in it? It's a source of entertainment for the students, while it improves the writing styles of those on the staff. The constant deadlines will also prepare staff members for later occupations, since almost every job will require people to work together and to finish their task(s) by a specific date. Also, if both Editors-in-Chief (myself and Ali) were accepted into Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, doesn't that say something too?

Oh, and administration doesn't give us nearly enough money. For those of you who have ever wondered why we only published five issues a year, it's because newspaper is poorly funded.

"But Marc, you're a Senior, so it doesn't even matter if they take it away."

That's a comment I've gotten more than a couple of times. Yes, I won't be here, but that doesn't matter. I'm not going to fight for newspaper because of myself. Nope. I'm going to fight so that future students who are interested in journalism/writing may have a creative outlet.

I'm not sure what the administration has planned, but if it has a negative impact on the future staff of the Tiger Times, then you can bet I'll be the first to stand in the office, demanding some answers.

All I can say now is this (cool points awarded to the first person who translates this into slang).

Six Words

I passionately protest this preposterous paper.

Why So Much Apathy?

(Warning: If you don't want to read a blog post that contains much anger and confusion, simply don't read this one. If you want to learn how to be a kind human being though, then please continue. I had a bad day today, and this blog seems to be the perfect outlet.)

Why do people feel so much better about themselves by knocking others down?

I gain my self-esteem through hard work and ambition. There are others, however, that seem to steal self-esteem from everyone else. It's like a leech, and it's disgusting.

There was one thing that happened today that simply annoyed me beyond belief.

So juniors are allowed to be in the senior lounge, as long as they're with other seniors, which makes perfect sense. It's never been a problem before, and I don't see why it would be. The reason I say "before" is because it did become a problem today.

For the sake of names, I will call this guy "Dissenter." Dissenter felt the need to come over while we (three seniors and a junior) were playing the Nintendo 64, so that he could unplug the game. We all asked him what his problem was, and his response was that juniors aren't allowed in the senior lounge. We persisted by telling him he was being a hypocrite (since he has invited juniors to play in the senior lounge in the past) and asked why he would even care. Our protest didn't matter though, because the junior decided it wasn't worth it and left the lounge. We asked Dissenter why he was acting in such a abhorrent manner, and he replied with "Oh, I just don't like him."

Seriously? Seriously? All that, just because he doesn't like him? You know what I do when I don't like someone? I leave them alone. There was literally no point in him doing that, aside from trying to emotionally beat down someone. It's inappropriate behavior, and doesn't work in the outside world.

I could go on for pages upon pages about how much I despise people like this, but I'll stop it here for now. You have no idea how hard it was for me not to include cussing in this blog post. I really wanted to, believe me.

Thank You, Newspaper

Lately, a lot of conversations/events have been reminding me of my position as Editor for the school newspaper and how it has affected my life, and how it will affect my life in the future. Ms. Serensky paralleled Vernon and I today, commenting on the fact that I may be in the same position as him someday. I agreed, although added that I believe I would make better choices than him. I'd like to think I wouldn't publish silly, private photos of someone for petty reasons, but I can't be sure. Despite the fact that I am an Editor, would I feel differently if I were the Editor of a non-funded newspaper? Also, I have never received blackmail against someone I dislike. Would I publish something if it could ruin their lives? I have been pushed around before, and it would probably feel pretty good to be the one in control, like Vernon is now.

I'll probably never know, since I may never be in the same situation, but I still believe I would do the right thing. As a kind individual pointed out to me today, I'm a very empathetic person, which is an admirable quality for a leader to have. This surprised me, since I didn't realize that it was such a recognizable trait in my personality. Either that, or (s)he is just being way too nice.

There's a noteworthy accomplishment that I'd like to touch on in this blog post though.

The last thing I'd want to do is embarrass someone by mentioning their name, so I will simply call this person Awesome. Why Awesome? Well, I like the word, but that's beside the point.

Awesome was having trouble with their poetry papers, and I noticed after taking a glance at their grade. I immediately noticed some of the errors, because the majority of their problems were just grammatical/mechanical. I fix errors like those every day in newspaper, so why not come to their aid? I asked if they would like some help, they did, I took the paper, revised it, then gave it back the next day. During their next poetry paper, Awesome had it next to them as they wrote, or at least that's what Awesome told me. Awesome got their latest poetry paper back and improved immensely.

Seriously, that was one of the proudest moments of my life. You can call me egotistical, you can call me a bragger, but I'm honestly not trying to be any of those. I'm just amazed by the fact that I was able to help someone else through my writing skills. I mean...I do it in newspaper, but in AP English? I never thought that would be possible.

Maybe if we all just helped each other to improve, we'd all be getting A's on these papers. I'm just throwing that out there. Food for thought.

(Also, I feel as though that whole last half completely negates my feelings of "Oh, maybe I'm not that empathetic." I know I'm empathetic, I guess I just didn't realize it was noticeable when I'm not doing empathetic-type things. Well, whatever, I digress.)

(Magicka Page Count: 3 STILL. Very busy week, but unproductive to my writing.)