|
|
November
11, 2004
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Other
Areas of Interest
|
|
|
Meet
the Writer
My
name is Brent, and I'm the writer for this here shebang. Allow me to introduce myself.
I
was born back in the day in a small city called Dallas, Texas. We were going to be missionaries,
but instead, my family moved to the insignificant village of Houghton, New York, when I was two. My
parents worked for Houghton Academy, the small Christian boarding school from which I later
graduated.
In
between moving there and graduating, I grew up. Houghton happens to be a fantastically boring town,
surrounded by a whole lot of nothing. As such, we did a number of things that are stupid within
most of the rest of American civilization. Napping in the middle of the road, repeatedly collapsing
snow caves on our friends, tricks with campfires and Nerf wars throughout the campus of Houghton
College were all fairly common occurrences.
We
had a Sunday school class one year that met in the faculty lounge of one of the college's
buildings. There we learned why busy college students shouldn't be Sunday school teachers, as well
as the way Slim-Fast interacts with everything else in the fridge.
You'd
think that a bunch of kids who grew up in the lawless hills of western New York would go into the
world and promptly be unsuccessful. Happily, this isn't the case: most never leave. For some
bizarre and unusual reason, however, I managed to come to LeTourneau University in Longview,
Texas.
Photo
of the Month
This
is Bob, the lifeform we grew in our shower. When room inspections came around, we used half a quart
of bleach to send Bob onto the next life. We also had headaches for the next 24 hours from the
fumes.
The
Case for Science Class
Cafeteria
discussion throughout my high school career generally alternated between complaints of poor food
quality, annoying junior highers and troublesome classes. Not infrequent on our list of classes to
complain about were biology, chemistry and physics, all of which New York State decided we ought to
have under our belt in order to graduate. "What's the point?" we asked.
Short
answer: There is none. Long answer: There is none: All of the same things are taught in college
"intro" courses the world over. The reality of the situation is that most of what is required in
high school sciences courses will be revisited at a faster pace in college. There seems to be
little basis for the hours spent memorizing the names of amoeba organelles or pondering the logic
by which "Iron" became known as "Fe."
Consider
this, however. Prior knowledge is the basis of education. That's why kindergartners learn the
alphabet before learning words, second graders learn multiplication before division and high
schoolers take pre-calculus before calculus. By knowing the basics of physics, chemistry and
biology prior to their freshmen year, rising college students can ease the pain inflicted by vast
required piles of nightly reading and writing.
This
eased pain can mean the difference between success and failure early in college, which itself can
mean the difference between success and failure throughout college. When you're on the third Dew in
20 minutes while cranking out math problems and fretting about next Tuesday's Bible mid-term, you
can take solace in the fact that you'll ace the periodic table quiz in chemistry.
Study
Break
Wasting
time is one of our favorite activities here at LeTourneau. This is generally not for lack of things
to do. Instead, students often need to take their minds off of the night's insurmountable piles of
calculus, or perhaps blow off some steam after a dangerously broad Bible test. Among the most
effective wastes of time known to the modern college student are computer games.
Popular
on the floor currently is
Need for Speed Underground. Previous versions of
Need for Speed revolved around police chases and powerful exotic cars.
Underground is centered around street racing, and gamers are afforded a choice between any
number of Japanese four-bangers. Various upgrades, both aesthetic (decals, lighting) and
performance-related (engines, tires) are given for finishing first.
Racers
gain points, dubbed "street-cred," through sprint, drift or drag racing. Sprint racing is
comparable to any other racing game, but of course takes place on the streets of a major city.
Cross traffic, overpasses and pedestrians must all be taken into account during competition. Drift
racing is simply an attempt at gaining points through power slides around tight corners, and is set
on a small closed course. Drag racing requires perfect shifting down a long, straight stretch of
road. All are fun, and provide a challenging variety while managing not to be too infuriating.
The
only thing offensive about this game is the quality and variety of music. One of about four crummy
rap tunes are playing all the time, which certainly annoyed me until my roommate figured out how to
change them. Of course, he changed them to "Cotton Eye Joe: Techno Remix" and "Hamster Dance,"
which annoyed me until he figured out to shut them off and use iTunes. All in all,
Need for Speed Underground is a quality game fully capable of wasting copious amounts of
time.
If you have questions about
LeTourneau or college in general, we would love to hear from you. Send your e-mail to
admissionsinfo@letu.edu.
If you would prefer not to receive
this newsletter from LETU Admissions then send email to
admissionsinfo@letu.edu.
|
