The lecture I attended was part of a lecture series called “Globalization lecture series: Language and global culture.” It was hosted by Dr. Lois Spitzer and she talked about if making English a global language I a good idea and what the advantages and disadvantages are to having a global language. She talked about why English would be the best choice for a global language and not any other popular languages. She described what we may lose with a globalization of one language but also what we would gain. The main point in this presentation was the concern for culture around the world and the impact it would have on all these different cultures that exist.

The reason for wanting to make English the global language is not because of how many people speak it but because of how widely spoken it is. If it was decided by how many native speakers there are of the language we would all have to learn Chinese. But Chinese is not the native language of many countries. English is the native language of almost fifty countries in the world.

The main problem with a global language, and making other languages die off is the loss of cultures. In many languages across the world there are unique words that we do not have words for in English. So we would lose all those unique words which will then develop to a loss of culture. Losing all these cultures will be very bad for the future of the world. There will be nothing for kids to learn about other countries. If we all spoke the same language we will all eventually fall into the same culture. There will be no differences between countries so there will be nothing interesting to study anymore.

A global language does have some benefits though. It will help to communicate better in business markets and fields of research. If a German scientist discovers something he can easily share it with the rest of the world because everyone will have the same language. There will be no more confusion in business markets and no more miscommunications. But along with a global language should come a global currency if we are doing it to make things easier. We will not have to convert Dollars to Yen or Pounds anymore so there will be no mistakes in those conversions and no money lost.

On Saturday the 23rd I attended the Day of Leadership with the speaker Naomi Natale. I was not looking forward to spending the majority of my Saturday out going to this event. The only reason that I was going was to fulfill my requirements for service learning. Waking up early and getting moving all so I could finish my service learning requirements was not going to be fun. However, I willed myself up and out to this event and I was extremely impressed. Each of the workshops were fun, creative, and informational. I was able to take away a lot of information about how to be a leader and what skills are needed to organize and run an event/project.
During lunch Naomi came over and sat with my table and talked with us. This was by far the coolest part of the day because the five of us at the table got to ask her personal questions. We were able to talk with her about her projects and what she thought of the ideas we had. She was very nice and gave us some advice about what she thought we should to in order to further our ideas. After the day was over my opinion on the day had changed drastically, I began the day thinking that it would be a boring day filled with guest speakers but it was much more fun that that.

On Friday November 22, the Environmental Discourse on the Ingestion of Bugs Leage (EDIBL) hosted a movie night in the Campus Center Theatre.  They played the 1950’s horror science fiction movie Them!  While attendance was low, everyone had a good time talking with each other and watching the movie.

Them! takes place in a rural town in New Mexico where the first nuclear bomb was tested.  Due to nuclear radiation, ants mutated into nearly 10-feet-long monsters.  There was not enough food for the ants in the wasteland to feed the gigantic ants, and they began to feed off of human flesh.  The Doctors Medford attempt to put an end to the ant menace, but even if they can destroy the ants, there is no telling what the other atomic bombs might have caused as the radiation infected the surrounding wildlife.

The majority of the people that came to see the movie were from EDIBL while one person was from outside the club.  The movie started at 8:30 pm and ran until 10:15 pm.  Everyone spread out in the Campus Center Theater taking advantage of the amount of empty seats.

EDIBL arranged to have snacks for the movie night, but they were unable to have them at the event.  No one seemed to mind as they were watching the movie.  It was the final event of the semester for EDIBL, and that appeared to be what mattered most to everyone.

EDIBL advertised the event over Facebook through their page Edibl at Stockton College, titling the event “Them! A B-rate Horror Movie Night.”  The movie brought about both scares and laughs and kept the audience’s attention even if it was considered “B-rate.”

I got the chance to see the Stockton Theatre Club’s performance of Hello Herman. The show focuses on the story of a boy, Herman Howards, who murders about forty people in his high school. A reporter tries to learn the reason why Herman has committed such a violent crime. As they speak through his journey more characters are revealed and parts of Herman’s past are relived. From Herman dealing with his parent’s divorce to seeing his sister die, after be hitting by a car, while he gets bullied, the reasons for his crime become slightly more clear. Herman discusses how he wants to be remembered like no one else, how there will be more of him, but once the reporter turns off the camera, everything changes. Mikey, the actor playing Herman, began to shake and speaks of how scared he is and how he wants to take it all back. It is too late for Herman however. The next day, he is executed.
This show definitely has a darker side to it than most of the shows I have seen. Friends of mine left feeling sick and completely disturbed. Their feelings were created by the remorseless acting of Mikey, along with depressed Ms. Howards, played by Taylor. The other characters in the show also added to the cringe factor that the lines already held. This show is not like most, in the sense that you watch people get murder by a teenage boy, the reporter beat a man with a bat, a mother have a hysterical break down, or an electrocution. All of these events are seen in Herman and leave you feeling just a little too close and in touch with what happenings before, during, and after a school shooting. While this closeness was disturbing I think there is a very relevant point in doing it. School shootings happen all to frequently, and while we mourn them, many are not a part of them. This show brings you deep within what it is like to be tangled with characters like Howard, his mother, and the reporter. Disturbing, as it is this play shows you the true horror of death and destruction.

Stocktonopoly happened the first weekend of October. On Friday the 4^th there was a parade and pep rally to show appreciation for clubs and sports. I am a member of our Track and Field team and our coach wanted all future and former members to meet up and join the parade for some team bonding and to show everyone how wonderful our team was. We met outside of Big Blue or The Sports Center, all wearing a track shirt with other teams that were meeting. We were all led to the gym where every club was preparing or gathering around their float and there were a lot of floats. The whole gym was colorful and full of people. It made me realize that Stockton really does have a lot of clubs and organizations, and they clearly put a lot of effort into their monopoly themed floats.

I stayed with the track team the whole time. In the gym we were all talking and laughing with each other and waited for the parade to start. We took a nice team picture and then were on our way. As we were walking out, my friend and fellow pole vaulter asked me if I could pull up “The Fox” by Ylvis to show his friend. Since I thought the song was hilarious, I gladly pulled up the song and we all had a good laugh about it. Who doesn’t love that song right now?

We walked from the back of Big Blue to the Campus Center for more pictures and some spectators. It was nice seeing support from people around the campus for this event. We paraded along in between other floats and banners. Everyone seemed in high spirits and happy to be there, which was wonderful. The day was hot but that didn’t seem to bother anyone. We paraded towards the freshman dorms where people were starting to come outside and waving from their windows. We walked from Housing 3 to Housing 2 where the parade dispersed and gathered for the pep rally.

The pep rally was on the side of the TRLC and there was a little stage. My friend and I sat down on the ground to watch the events of the pep rally. There were performances by different clubs which were pretty impressive. Cheerleaders, dancers, and singers were all pepped up and bravely performing in front of all the students that were gathered. Each group earned cheers from all the students. There were speakers from different people around the campus, and each sport team got individual recognition. They all were together with their team and cheered when their accomplishments were announced. Homecoming King and Queen were announced and each gave a short speech. When the pep rally ended, almost everyone lined up to get a free t-shirt. Everyone loves free t-shirts.

The pep rally and parade definitely raised spirits that day. I know I walked away in a great mood from seeing how close, talented, and determined these clubs and organizations were.

This has been the most exciting, terrifying, thrilling week I have ever lived through. I had never thought I would ever get the chance to play in a live action video game until I came to Stockton and heard of the human verses zombies. To think such an unofficial, farfetched, event could be so popular and active is hard to believe but personally I can’t wait to play again. This year there were a total of 211 students and alumni participating; one of the largest turn outs yet. The game starts with only one zombie and as the week goes on more and more people get infected; the number of zombies increase and the human population begins to fear for their lives. Every night there are missions that pit humans against all odds and force them to step out of their comfort zone to meet new people, form alliances, and protect your fellow humans.
The game goes on throughout the week, day and night. So classes or not, as long it’s out doors, humans are free to shoot and zombies are free to chase. Missions are scary but for humans, even walking to class is filled with anxiety. Nothing is cooler than seeing a gang of ‘humans’ walking around campus fully equipped with loaded nerf guns, bullet belts, and sock grenades. The one thing that might be cooler is being able to be a part of that gang and to see the faces of confused pedestrians. Sure there are always those few who cheat and are sore losers but overall I must argue that this game brings people closer and is extremely fun. For me the game encouraged me to stay indoors as much as possible so besides classes, being indoors gives a person a lot of study time. The neon green band do attract a lot of attention so hopefully by the end of this week everyone on campus will know about HVZ and join next semester.

One event that I have been waiting for since the summer was the Get Involved Fair. I was on a mission to try out as many clubs as possible because I really wanted to be as involved as possible. Since I am an incoming college student I’ve heard many people talk about the importance of getting involved and how it makes the college experience. A week before the fair one of my friends had a pamphlet about the different clubs which especially got me interested. I looked at the list and found that Stockton has a lot of clubs to offer, and just by looking at the names of the clubs I knew I was interested in at least twenty.

The morning of the fair I wasn’t sure when I would be able to walk around and see all the clubs I wanted. I had a class in the morning, then I had to do my daily track workout, and I had an evening class. I wasn’t going to attend class due to having a meeting for track, so I still did not have much free time that day. I thought I would have to go after the meeting but that really wouldn’t have left much time to visit all the clubs if they were even still there. Some did pack up throughout the day. Thankfully my roommate wanted to go, and I got my workout done early so I got to go in the middle of the day, so we went on to adventure at The Get Involved Fair!

My roommate and I started from the very beginning. Every table had nice decorations to relate to their club and many of the tables had free stuff. Some of the people sitting at the tables did not seem interested at being there at all, while others smiled and waved and would call me over if they heard me ask a question about their club. It was nice, no matter what table I walked to I was greeted with a smile even if the person was just sitting in boredom a few seconds ago. All the tables I approached were very good at explaining their club and I ended up signing up for a lot more clubs than I planned to.

We made our way through the fair and began looking at the same clubs. We walked through for 10 minutes and couldn’t really find all the clubs we were looking for at first so we stuck together just talking and walking. As we got to the main part of the fair I started seeing more and more clubs I was interested in. It got to the point where my roommate walked on without me since I was stopping at almost every table. I was really excited to get to the EDIBL club since I remembered it being about bugs. When I got to the table I learned that it wasn’t a club about just bugs, it was a club about eating bugs. At that moment I also realized how clever the name was. EDIBL. I felt silly but I was super excited to learn about eating bugs.

I continued to make my way around the giant circle of clubs. I was finding most of the clubs I was interested in but I was really looking for the Geology and Art Club, they were nowhere in sight though. As I was talking to all these people about their clubs I realized that I couldn’t make a lot of the meetings. So many clubs had meetings around the same time and same day. That was kind of disappointing, especially since I had evening classes on Tuesday and Thursday. Still I was determined to try and be a part of all these clubs. I finally started to make my way down to the end of the fair where I finally found the Art Club. I was impressed with their setup since art was being displayed. After that I saw the Math Club, it caught my eye because the poster mentioned the possibility of being a Wu Warrior. I had Dr. Wu as a professor over the summer and he was great. Who wouldn’t want to be a Wu Warrior? I definitely wanted to join that club. That was the last club table I got to, and then I walked into the track meeting since it was right in that hallway.

Overall I really enjoyed the Get Involved Fair. I would like to think it has helped me get involved a lot, and even though I’m going to have trouble making it to most of the meetings. I signed up for 21 clubs, but I was disappointed that I didn’t see the Geology Club even though I went both days for the fair. The friendly faces and free candy was a very nice touch. If I had any complaints it would be about the lack of organization, or how sometimes I couldn’t see the signs for some of the clubs. The Get Involved Fair was a very useful event for students and I enjoyed it.

Bloods is racing, adrenaline is pumping, and the nervous pee is coming back. It’s now or never, get on that stage, take the mic, and sing your heart out: that’s all karaoke is really about. Monday September 16 SET hosted the first karaoke night of the year and I must say it was quite successful. It was a good turnout and the stage never lacked a star. It didn’t matter who sang, whether he or she came with a group or alone, whether he or she was good or not, whether he or she liked country or rap, the stage loved everyone. No one was booed; the audience was great and always supportive. If there are any people out there who have always wanted to make their debut and sing on stage for the first time I must recommend going to the next karaoke night. There were so many songs to choose from; from “Do the Time Warp” to “Call me Maybe”. There really is no reason for stage fright because the audience really doesn’t care since they are there to have fun not to judge.
No one is required to sing, it can be a blast just to go out and support friends and fellow classmates. People were able to enjoy the lively atmosphere just by being there since the Campus Center already provided a great variety of things to do. So people who had to wait to sing could play pool, Ping-Pong, or just hang out. It’s events like karaoke that give people the chance the express themselves and show a side of themselves no one has ever seen before. This was one of the best events SET has hosted this year so far and the year is only just starting; I look forward to the next karaoke night.

On Thursday September 26th Stockton hosted a convocation with guest speaker Mary Roach. Roach is the author of multiple science based books including Stiff and this year’s required freshmen reading, Spook. At the convocation Mary Roach discussed a wide variety of topics ranging from the disputed ending to her book, the perks of being curious, and even some interesting facts about hyenas. Roach used a combination of comedy, inspirational advice, and a wide variety of intriguing subjects to keep the audience attentive and entertained.

During the extended question and answer session Roach discussed the premise behind her book stating, “It wasn’t a book to say there’s no such thing as the afterlife.” Many readers, including fellow students, have questioned the purpose behind her book. At the convocation I believe she made it clear that her book was not about finding an answer to a seemingly unanswerable question so much as investigating the beliefs and methods of others in a simple attempt to learn more about that which we know very little. Roach claimed that she is a very curious person by nature and is constantly questioning how things work and where they come from. With this notion in mind, Spook makes more sense. After hearing her discuss her curious nature and the intent of her book, claims made by students that the book did not make sense and went off on tangents seem invalid.

In my opinion, this book was not written to prove or disprove the afterlife; however, it was simply Roach’s investigation of the methods and opinions of professionals in the field, believers and skeptics. Many people expected her to give a clear answer on whether or not she believed in the afterlife and were upset by her statement at the end of the book. At the convocation she stated, “I don’t want to be in a world with no possibility of ghosts.”  Her statement at the end of Spook reaffirms the fact that her book was written with the idea of acquiring knowledge and still choosing to believe in what makes people comfortable or happy. Overall the convocation was an informative, entertaining, and eye opening experience.