Vol. XXXVI, Issue 7, October 2, 2012 www.richlandchronicle.com

CHRONICLERichland

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Have you ever had the feeling that every-one is against you?

That’s about how I’ve felt this past month. Sometimes you just have to gripe about goods and services and how poor they are these days. It’s amazing the amount of time one has to spend in person, on the phone or writing letters trying to get something ac-complished.

My most recent disruption took place a couple of Saturdays ago when I didn’t feel well. My husband was nice enough to take me out to eat for breakfast so I wouldn’t have to cook. This popular little spot on Northwest Highway was about as crowded as it always is. The food was pretty good, but I always order my toast well done with no butter.

Our orders came and the eggs, grits, bacon and coffee were fine. My husband and I shared his two slices of toast assuming that mine would be delivered soon. It wasn’t. We finished our meal. Still no toast. No check, either. So, we tracked down the waitress and asked her about the toast, but she was clueless – apparently forgetting it because it takes a little longer to make it well done. Who wants toast after you finish your meal? This has happened before at this restaurant but never this bad.

I asked her just to take it off the bill. She didn’t know how to do that. We told the cashier next what terrible service we had. It didn’t matter. She said it would cost more with just the eggs and grits. A totally ridiculous answer! I wouldn’t settle for that. If I was going to pay for my meal, I wanted all of it. The girl didn’t even understand that she could have just taken off $1 from the bill to

please the customer. I told her I’ll just wait for my toast, even if I have to take it home – which I did.

Whatever happened to good customer ser-vice? If they had anyone who knew anything about restau-rant manage-ment, they should have given me my meal free since they ruined our breakfast. There’s noth-ing more ir-ritating than expecting to enjoy a nice meal with friends or relatives and then have it disrupted by poor service. We left no tip, and they lost a customer. We’ll never eat there again. There are too many restaurants that serve a good breakfast just the way you want it, so there’s no need to go back to a restaurant that doesn’t appreciate your business.

My next traumatic encounter occurred while we were on vacation a few weeks ago driving back from Colorado. My husband and I stopped at a motel in Amarillo that I’d found in our American Automobile Associa-tion. (AAA) handbook, which we always take with us because it lists addresses, phones and prices.

It was extremely hot and we were dead tired from driving all day. We always stop at motels that offer free breakfast with the room

for convenience. After I’d paid by credit card, I asked about the free breakfast and the clerk just handed me a $2 coupon at the restau-rant next door. That wasn’t what I’d call a free breakfast. I complained about it, but the

woman looked like she was brain dead. I showed her in the book where it was listed, but she still didn’t get it.

Finally, I told her this was a ripoff. She didn’t care. So, we went to the room and d i s c o v e r e d that there was a reason why a fly swatter was sitting on top of the air con-

ditioning unit. We were plagued by two or three rambunctious flies the entire evening. I swatted one right on the bedspread.

My husband couldn’t even see his face to shave the next morning. The mirror was so small that he had to squeeze his nose up to the mirror to see what he was doing. We went to the restaurant next door and asked about the breakfast and they said it was $9.95 each minus the $2 off coupon. That was in-deed a ripoff.

When we were checking out, I again told the woman this was a complete ripoff. She still looked dazed and checked her own AAA handbook. It said, “Free breakfast” with the room, but that was not the case. I told her I

was going to follow up and complain to our AAA office. And I did. When we got home, I wrote a long letter about our experience and sent it to them. The lady at the Dallas AAA office called me back and said they were send-ing my letter to the corporate office. You just have to take the time and make the effort to write when these businesses stick it to you.

My third encounter is with our cable com-pany. One would think that when you get some disruptive squares jumping all over your TV screen that the company would send a representative to fix it. Well, they did and that rep put in some new cable in the al-ley behind our house and went into our attic. He said there would be no charge.

However, when we got our next bill, it was quite a bit higher so I had to call the office and ask what happened. They said I’d changed my plan. Not so. No one gave them authority to change my cable plan. I told them I’d pay this amount but give me credit on my next bill, but give me back my old plan.

My next bill was still $43 more. I called again and asked why the extra charge this time.

I couldn’t even understand his answer – it didn’t make any sense. You can’t enclose correspondence with a bill, so I just paid that and still have to write another letter to some administrator listed on the bill. I still think they charged us for repairing their equip-ment. So, again, one has to battle with these companies just to make sense of what they’re doing.

I’m getting tired of writing complaint let-ters, but I’ll do so if necessary. I have a huge complaint file at home that I’ve kept over the years. These days, it seems like these compa-nies just want to rip you off for every dime they can get and the service isn’t anywhere as good as it used to be.

Customers don’t always win out Joyce Jacksoncopy editor

Image credit Kisten S. Chetty

Joyce Jackson vents her anger.

COLUMN/NEWS

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Have you ever had a bad custormer service experience? Scan the QR code and share your story on our website.

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One of two vehicles involved in a traffic accident at the intersection of Walnut and Abrams early Wednesday afternoon. Emergency response crews were called to the scene. No further information was available as The Chronicle went to press.

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CAMPUS/NEWS

ReBecca Bankseditor in chief

Upcoming EventsEach week, the Division of Humanities, Fine and Performing Arts at Richland College presents its Recital Series. All performances are Tuesdays at 12:30 p.m. in the Fannin Performance Hall and are free to the general public. For more information about this series, contact Dr. Michael Crawford, associate dean of Performing Arts.

Today: 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Everyone is invited to hear the music of Mike Hayes and the Iridium Brass.

For future events students can look at the campus calender located in El Paso Hallway and also in the OSL (Office of Student Life) office.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Oct. 2-3: 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Carter Blood Care will be located in the traffic circle for students and faculty to donate. Each donation is a chance to win Screams Halloween theme park tickets.

Thursday, Oct. 4: Reception - 5 to 7 p.m. Juror: Gabriel Dawe, Brazos Gallery Annual Juried High School ExhibitionThe exhibition will run from Oct. 4-12.

Tuesday, Oct. 9: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free STD Testing East Circle Drive (near library)The tests will include HIV, chlamydia, syphilis and gonorrhea. For questions or more information, call Dallas County Health and Human Services at 214-263-5851, the Richland College Health Center at 972-238-6135 or stop by Thunderduck Hall, Room T-110.

Friday and Saturday, Oct. 12-13 and Oct. 19-20: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12: 2:30 p.m.Fannin Performance HallThe drama department will present “Night of the Living Dead” by Lori Allen Ohm. It’s based on the screenplay by George A. Romero. All performances are free and open to the public. No reservations are necessary.

The time has come to watch the first presi-dential debate.

President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney will discuss their po-litical views on domestic policy. On Wednes-day, the candidates will be in Denver. View-ers can watch on all major networks and C-SPAN from 8 to 9:30 p.m.

Jim Lehrer from PBS will be the mod-erator, according to www.2012presidentialelectionnews.com. The website also listed the topics to be debated, which are the economy, health care, the role of government and governing.

The debate will be a total of 90 minutes which will consist of 45 minutes to discuss the economy and 15 minutes for the other three topics. Each topic will begin with a question from the moderator and the can-didates will have two minutes to discuss the topic before the discussion will be open for debate.

The website www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/elections shows the latest election

polls with Obama leading but Romney not too far behind. The poll lists each daily stand-ing dating back to Aug. 20.

Individuals are able to watch the vice pres-idential debate (Joe Biden vs. Paul Ryan) on Oct. 11. Biden and Ryan will discuss both foreign and domestic policies. The debate will follow the same guidelines and time as the presidential debate. The moderator will be Martha Raddatz from ABC.

The second presidential de-bate will be held Oct. 16 in Hemp-stead, N.Y. The debate will be a town meeting where citizens will be able to direct their ques-tions to the can-didates regard-ing foreign and domestic policy.

At the 2012 Election Central web-site, www.2012presidentialelectionnews.com, individuals who are undecided and selected from the Gallup organization will attend and participate in the debate. Candy Crowley from CNN will moderate the debate.

The following week, on Oct. 22, the third presidential debate will be held in Boca Ra-ton, Fla. The debate will focus solely on for-eign policy with CBS’s Bob Schieffer as the moderator.

Presidential debate on tap

A diverse group of people attended Rich-land Immigration Night in Sabine Hall last Tuesday. Attendees included teachers from Garland ISD, individual who works at a ju-venile hall and poliice officer to everyday Richland students. The majority of the night was hosted by Luis Atango, who works with Catholic Charities, a nonprofit organization serving immigration services and advocating justice in social structures.

The free session began with an introduc-tion of attorney Arango, following up with a re-recorded video titled “Know Your Rights.” The encouraging video informed the audience about rights all people posses within the United States, regardless if docu-mented or not.

The informational session was an open event targeted at international and undocu-mented students who are in consideration of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

DACA is “basically a discretionary pro-cess” Arango said. It prevents those who meet all seven criteria from being deported. A couple of those criteria include being in the United States of America before the age of 16

and not having more than three convictions. Deffered Action prevents an undocument-ed individual from being deported, making

BRIDGeT cHIBUokestaff Writer

him/her eligible to obtain a work authoriza-tion card, apply for a social security number and likely attain a driver’s license. The action

is renewable every two years with proper I-821D, I165 and I-765WS application forms.

DACA is “not a way to permanent residency or change of legal statues,” ac-cording to Arango, unlike the Dream Act.

Izela Alcala, a UTD stu-dent, passionate about the Dream Act as it relates to DACA, felt that she made a support group website for those who wish to “share their testimonies and their tri-als and, if wish can choose to be confidential.”A represen-tative from another DCCCD school was also there and ex-pressed strong interest in the program.

For further governmental information on the Deffered Action or immigration, visit www.uscis.gov/childhoodarrivals or for support in the Dream Act, visit www.utddreamact.

org. In addition, Catholic Charities offers low-cost fees in service to Childhood Arrivals and other services at www.catholiccharities.com.

Immigration Night a success

Richland College hosted Immigration night to inform the local community about DACA.

Image credit Aurora Castillo

Mitt Romney Barack Obama

First Presidential Debate can be viewed tomorrow at 8 p.m. central time.

Image credit chicago.about.comImage credit theepochtimes.com

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GAME PREVIEW

Does any one remember that crazed bear that killed all those other bears because they shunned him?

Yeah, it’s “Naughty Bear” and not very many do remember this demented game, unfortunately. But do not worry because I remember and guess what? There is a sec-ond installment, “Naughty Bear: Panic in Paradise” where players take on the role of Naughty Bear once again.

Now Naughty Bear lives on Perfect Island, but of course he gets rejected by the other bears when he isn’t invited to go to Paradise Island with them.

Naughty Bear takes revenge and gathers a

hit list of the bears that screwed him over. Picking them off one by one, Naughty Bear will allow players to excecute these helpless little bears in so many messed-up ways that deranged minds can only imagine.

“Naughty Bear: Panic in Paradise” gives players a refreshing combat system, a new level-up system and has a thousand combi-nations of equipment customizations that will take you through more than 30 missions in 11 specific areas of Paradise Island (of doom).

Players will be able to explore this new massive world and will see how crazy and jacked up your little minds are when you play “Naughty Bear: Panic in Paradise,” which will be released in October.

It will be available on Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) and Playstation Network (PSN).

MARY CHANNELLGaming Editor

Naughty

BearyBeary

Images courtesy Multiplayerlog.mtv.com, rueachievements.com, Pause.es, Godisgeek.com

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ENTERTAINMENT

One of the more promising new shows of the fall season, “Revolution” looks to be the next big sci-fi show on TV. It comes from Bad Robot Productions, the same company that has brought us such awesome shows as “Lost” and “Fringe.”

The plot is simple yet intrigu-ing, which is the perfect mix for a television show like this. For un-known reasons a massive black-out has caused all machines in civilization to cease working.

Besides the obvious comput-ers and cellphones, even simpler machines such as cars and refrig-erators have died. Mankind has reverted to colonial era means of living. The government has col-lapsed and the only real govern-ing force is the Monroe Republic Militia under the command of a warlord.

The story revolves around Charlotte “Charlie” Matheson and her journey through the post-apocalyptic landscape to rescue her brother Danny, who has been kidnapped after trying to prevent the Monroe Republic Militia from taking their father Ben.

Ben was wanted because he had some knowledge concerning the origin of the mas-sive blackout and how to possibly reverse it.

He is shot and killed during the confronta-tion where Danny is captured, but not before passing on a mysterious USB device to close friend Aaron and sending Charlie to find his brother and her uncle Miles who he hopes will help Charlie rescue Danny.

Miles is a former U.S. solider, and he is also wanted by the Monroe Republic for his knowledge concerning the blackout.

The pilot does an effective job setting up the world and the characters we will be fol-lowing throughout the duration of the show, although its characters do feel relatively fa-miliar.

This is especially true of Charlie, whose

never-say-die attitude, risking her life to save a sibling, and her preferred weapon of a crossbow draw inevitable comparisons to Katniss from “The Hunger Games.” In terms of its setting, “Revolution” will also draw comparisons to the very popular post-apoca-lyptic show “The Walking Dead.” However the thing that makes “Revolution” stand out from “The Walking Dead” is its stronger fo-

cus on the cause for its apocalypse.While “Revolution” does focus on its cast

of characters and their struggles, there is a sense of hope that their current apocalyptic situation could be explained and even re-versed through their efforts. Judging from

the pilot this seems to be focus of this series as it progresses.

The one thing that concerned me about the pilot is just how much information we received throughout its 44-minute length. By the end we already knew several major plot points such as the real identity of the warlord in charge of the Monroe Republic Militia, that several of our main characters know what

caused the blackout and poten-tially how to fix it and that some people have managed to reverse the effects of the blackout.

Coming to this show as an avid fan of the past Bad Robot Productions shows I mentioned earlier, I’m used to getting far less information from a series pilot. The plot changes I men-tioned could each have served as excellent season cliffhangers or plot twists enough to last several seasons.

The pilot moved at such a fast pace and revealed so many plot twists that I can’t help but worry about whether or not this show will have enough steam to carry it through several seasons.

Then again, considering how ruthless television networks have become concerning renewal of shows (Anyone re-member “The Event”), this may end up helping the show in the long (or short) run. New episodes of “Revolution” will air Mon-day nights at 9 on NBC.

NOAH PERCIVALStaff Writer

When the lights go out

Image courtesy revolutiontvshow.net

The main characters portrayed in the show’s postmodern, overgrown environment.

Did you love LEGO building blocks as a kid?

If so then “Minecraft” is definitely the game for you. It is possible to create mind-boggling feats of architecture from blocks of different materials.

The game revolves around mining for material that can be found in the game world. At first, you use your hands to mine materials, but soon enough you will build tools that help you mine faster. Eventually, different types of tools are needed to mine special or rare materials like gold or dia-monds.

The crafting system used to create items is simple to grasp and rewards

experimentation. You craft an item by placing the raw materials in a certain pattern, then if you have enough you can create the item. It is a truly ingenious system and is applied logically to the game. An example is by placing a lump of coal above a single stick in the crafting menu you are able to create a flaming torch. The crafting system goes even deeper. Once you find the right materials you can create paint-ings and even bookcases.

The game allows two settings; normal and creative. In normal, players are attacked by different types of enemies when night falls or if they mine too deep. In creative or peaceful mode, you are free to build your creations unmolested by any pixelated Creepers (an enemy that explodes destroying all the blocks around it).

It’s hard to truly capture what has made “Minecraft” such a runaway hit; this

seemingly unassuming game with terrible graphics. The biggest draw I believe is the almost limitless creativity allowed. While playing with a group of friends, one person built a tower in the middle of the sea while another created a farm. I, decid-ing to be different, dammed a portion of the ocean and created an underground glass dome. Once finished, I broke the dam allow-ing the water to spill over. For the fun of it I then proceeded to plant some seeds in my underwater lair and grow some trees under the ocean.

That is just a glimpse of the madness pos-sible in the world of “Minecraft.” On May 9 “Minecraft” made the jump from computer to the Xbox console. Xbox was the only console that received “Minecraft.”

The console version differs from the pc version in a few ways. In the pc version the game map is endless. You can travel as far

KISTEN S. CHETTYStaff Writer

as you want in any direction, and you will never reach the end. For formatting pur-poses the console version has a limited map, but I found it to be large enough for sufficient exploration. The console version also does not include Ender-men, a truly terrifying enemy from the pc version. It therefore does not include the achievement “The End,” either. This achievement was released for the pc as the Adventure pack and gave players a goal to beat the game.

“Minecraft” is what you and your imag-ination make it. I found it a refreshing change from the cliché hack n slash, point-and-shoot experience grinding games that litter the current game landscape.

Be warned you may find yourself losing hours and hours just finishing up that castle or getting that diamond pick-axe. Happy mining!

Image courtesyJootix.com

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Movies

RICKY MILLERStaff Writer

Staff meetings: Monday and Wednesday 2 p.m. in E-020-------

Letter PolicyLetters to the editor may be edited for space. They will be edited for spelling, grammar and malicious or libelous statements. Letters must be the work of the writer and must be signed. For identification and verification purposes, letters also must include the writer’s classification (grade level), full name, address and telephone number, although address and telephone number will not be published.

Editorial PolicyThe Chronicle is the official student-produced newspaper of Richland College. Editorials, cartoons, columns and letters are the opinions of individual students and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of other individual student writers, editors, advisers or the college administration.

© Richland Chronicle 2012

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ON THE COVER

Erica EdwardsJack Fletcher

David GoodloeTim Jones

August 21August 28September 4September 11September 18September 25October 2October 9

Rebecca BanksTBATBATBAAdrien MerlissKisten S. ChettyTBACarla DavisTBATBATBAJoyce JacksonTBATannia GarciaMary Channell

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October 16October 23 October 30November 6November 13November 20December 4December 11

Richland Thunderducks defeated Mountain View Lions 3-0 on September 22.

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‘Hotel Transylvania’ With “Hotel Transylvania,” it looks like

the animated Adam Sandler will mark the actor’s only hit following a couple of misses with the dreadful twins comedy “Jack and Jill,” as well as, “That’s My Boy,” the sum-mer fiasco that was the idiotic and sopho-moric tale of a student who impregnates his teacher.

Everyone is gathering at Hotel Transylvania for Dracula’s (Sandler) daughter Mavis’ 118th birthday celebration. Why 118 is so important is nev-er fully explained.

She wants to explore the real world, since her whole life she has been confined to the grounds around the castle built especially for her. All of that chang-es when she meets a backpacker named Jonathan (Andy Samberg) and the two share a “zing,” which amounts to an instant connection.

Also garnering a few laughs is Sandler regular Steve Buscemi as Wayne, an over-whelmed father who just wants to rest on his vacation.

I guess the so-called magic that was absent in “That’s My Boy” must have worked, since Sandler brought his “Boy” co-star Samberg back for either redemption or punishment, since he actually garners a few laughs in this

animated tale from Sony Pictures Animation. Grade: For kids 12 and under B-. For adults: C+

‘Dredd 3D’I thought the people over at Lionsgate

would make an improvement over the Dan-ny Cannon flick “Judge Dredd,” but it falls somewhere lower, despite the benefit of the overused 3-D format.

It is faithful to the lexicon of the comic book in that his character never removes his helmet.

The plot revolves around Dredd (Karl Ur-ban of “Star Trek” and “Pathfinder”) and a rookie girl (Olivia Thirlby, “Juno,”“The Darkest Hour”) who also happens to use telepathic powers.

The villain in this “Dredd” tale is an abu-sive woman named Moma (Lena Headey, “300,” “Gossip”) who also supplies drugs to

Megacity.Director Pete Travis takes advantage of

the “scope” lens and actually has purpose for most of his shots. Grade: C+

‘Won’t Back Down’The inspirational teacher movie has been

done before. “Stand and Deliver,” “Danger-ous Minds” and John G. Avildsen’s under-rated “Lean on Me.” With “Won’t Back Down,” all of the cliché’s are present, but like “Freedom Writers,” the emotions put a lump in your throat.

Here, the bureauracy tries to win out, but the two women of our tale, single mom Ja-mie Fritzpatrick (Maggie Gyllenhall) and fellow mother Nona Roberts (Viola Davis) have a different opinion.

Each has separate problems. Jamie suffers from dyslexia while Nona deals with a mar-riage that is ending.

Ving Rhames (“Pulp Fiction,” Out of Sight,” “Dawn of the Dead”) makes a cameo as principal Thomson, one of the bureaucrats in the tale.

Strong support also comes in the form of Oscar Isaac (“Sucker Punch”) as Michael Perry, a teacher at Jamie’s daughters school. The same can be said of Holly Hunter (“The Piano,” “Raising Arizona”) who fills in the role of Evelyn Riske, a bureaucrat who changes by film’s end.

The saving grace is that this movie was in-spired by a true story, leaving viewers with a strong sense of hope in their fellow man by film’s end. Grade: B-

Image courtesy shockya.com

Jonathan (Andy Samberg), Dracula (Adam Sandler) and Mavis (Selena Gomez) in “Ho-tel Transylvania.”

Vampires, judges and teachers, oh my!

ColuMn/sports

So there I was browsing the Internet early one morning last week when, while listening to the TV, I heard an ABC news anchorwom-an report the following.:

“It has been established that persons who have recently died have been returning to life and committing acts of murder. A widespread investigation of funeral homes, morgues and hospitals has concluded that the unburied dead have been returning to life and seeking human victims. It’s hard for us here to be reporting this to you, but it does seem to be a fact.”

OK. Maybe it didn’t exactly happen that way. Actually it didn’t happen at all. The quote, however, is real as I got it from imdb.com researching useless trivia information on director George A. Romero’s black-and white 1968 horror classic, “Night of the Liv-ing Dead,” in which the undead come back to feast on the living.

If such strange events were to happen, and this was the beginning of the zombie apoca-lypse I imagine such news reports would sound reminiscent of those press confer-ences seen in Romero’s film.

With all the life-threatening catastrophes we are faced with, I’d like to think the one thing we don’t ever have to worry about is the dead coming back to life and attacking

the living. Personally, I have never understood horror

fans’ obsession with zombies. Director Mar-tin Scorsese said it best when he told movieline.com that he prefers vampires over zombies, though I am not too fond of bloodsuckers, either.

“A vampire, quite honestly, you could have a conversation with,” Scorsese said. “He has a sexuality. I mean the undead thing. Zombies. What are you going to do with them? Just keep chopping them up, shooting at them, shoot-ing at them. It’s a whole other thing that appar-ently means a great deal to our culture and our society.”

Indeed. Zombies have no real personality. They move slowly, make howling noises and I am fairly certain, given they either just came out of their coffins or at the local morgue, that chances are they give off a foul odor.

The only time I have ever seen zombies in movies exhibit any lifelike personality is in “The Return of the Living Dead” (1985) where the undead actually spoke, albeit less than maybe 50 words which was either

“Brains!” and “More brains!” whenever they saw a live human walk in on them, or after chomping down on an entire police depart-ment, one zombie tells someone on the radio to “Send more cops.”

I won’t deny that, when the Dallas area had that outbreak of tor-nadoes last April, the first thing I did in case one touched down where I live was grab my wallet, credit cards, checkbooks and two USB flash drives with all my files on them. Prior to that, however, I have never once given a thought about pre-paring for a national emer-gency, zombies or not.

Disaster preparedness is not the first thing on my mind. Sure, I have a flash-light somewhere in the house, but I have no idea where it is, nor do I know if

it even works. Obviously, that’s the

thinking behind the Homeland Security De-partment’s mock announcement a few weeks ago educating the public on how to better prepare themselves should a zombie apoca-lypse actually happen. That includes having an emergency evacuation plan, a change of clothes, water, medications and flashlights.

“The theory: If you’re prepared for a zom-

bie attack, the same preparations will help during a hurricane, pandemic, earthquake or terrorist attack,” said an article on The Huff-ington Post’s website.

I can’t help but feel how sad it is where the only way the public might actually pay any attention to this is if a national emergency is inspired by a cheaply made horror film that spawned five sequels, several cannibalistic imitations, a comic book series and a current TV series on AMC the past four decades.

On the other hand, art has a funny, or in almost all cases, a not-so-funny way of imi-tating life.

Should the day come in which I see a crowd of slow-moving figures coming out of the cemetery down the street and start drag-ging people from their vehicles causing traf-fic jams, rest assured before leaving work I’ll make sure to check the back seat of my car should a zombie be waiting for me lying on the floor. Then I’ll drive off jamming to such tunes as “The Sun Ain’t Gonna’ Shine Any-more” by The Walker Brothers and Johnny Cash’s “The Man Comes Around” on my iPod.

Like those four survivors who took refuge at a mall in the 1978 original and 2004 re-make of “Dawn of the Dead,” I’m racing to take over the nearest shopping center.

I’ve got dibs on Dallas’ NorthPark Cen-ter. They have a LEGO store and a movie theater where I can spend my remaining end of days.

JOE STUMPOColumnist

Preparing for the zombie apocalypse

Image courtesy zombiesurvivalguide.com

Zombies are going to kill us all!

Richland coach Sean Worley’s men’s soccer team has a very strong international group of players that started the conference sea-son 1-0 with a 3-0 win over longtime rival Mountain View College Sept. 22.

Worley said the team record is now 4-3 with one draw. He add-ed that they are p r o g r e s s i n g each game to improve both defense and of-fense. He’s also delighted that the team held Mountain View scoreless.

Worley said the team started slow in the game’s first half but became much stronger on offense in the second half. Alfredo Gonzalez scored two goals, and Flavio Guzman added a penalty kick goal.

The team of 30 players has 16 from Tex-

as, five from France, two from Brazil and one each from Florida, Sweden, Honduras,

Columbia, Ven-ezuela, England and Mexico. Hav-ing such a diverse group in many sports could be dif-ficult, but soccer is the national sport of many countries making it a very in-ternational game.

The team’s most recent home game was scheduled against San Jacinto College on Satur-day (Sept. 29).

The Thunder-duck Invitational Tournament be-gins Thursday and runs through Sun-day. Richland and seven other schools from Texas, Kansas and

Nebraska will be competing. All of the games feature free admission. The Thunderducks welcome fan support.

-John Kosanke

JOHN KOSANKEStaff Writer

Images credit John Kosanke

Flavio Guzman’s penalty kick was good to make the score 2-0 on the way to a 3-0 victory over Mountain View College.

Soccer team: Goal!

At the first fall baseball practice session coach Guy Simmons anticipated around 50 players. When he walked into the room he found 65 Richland students eager to partici-pate.

Simmons said that he normally recruits through the local area high school systems and also gets referrals from other sources. In addition, there are many other high school baseball players who want to continue their participation in baseball while attending community colleges.

Many are drawn to Richland for both its solid educational reputation and its past excellent baseball status. The Thunderducks have won four community college national championships in recent years.

To give each of these new prospects a fair chance to show their talent and desire takes time and patience, both from the coaching

Images credit John Kosanke

Unexpected baseball turnout

Scores of hopeful students line up for baseball tryouts.

staff and the many players who have to wait their time to show their skills either at bat or in the field.

Simmons said he likes to take the time to watch every one of those wanting to make the team. So each player has a chance to show his talent and his drive to make the team. He added that sometimes those who are timid and shy have to work extra hard to show what they can do in competition with other more outgoing competitors.

The squad will be cut to around 50 players for the fall baseball session and then cut to 25 at the end of this term. That’s the team that will compete in the spring baseball season.

Simmons said the large turnout is a compliment to Richland and its tradition of excellence. It’s his desire to help his players continue to develop and improve their skills so that some of them are able to win scholarships to four-year schools so they may continue their education while continuing to play baseball at that level.

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A Member of The Texas A&M University System

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3 Chris, a music major and graduate of Celina High School, chose to attend A&M-Commerce after being admitted to the Honors College

and hearing the wind ensemble play at the Evening at the Eisemann.

“I was blown away by the quality of music I heard, and by the scholarship I was offered,” Chris said.

Two of Chris’ favorite classes, The 1960s: A Nation Divided and Cinema, Philosophy and the Political, complemented his music studies by delving into the human experience, something that Chris feels is at the root of music appreciation.

“Most everything that is a part of American culture today finds its roots (or at least influences) in the turbulence of the 1960s, and many of the issues aroused during that time are still issues today, issues which demand not only solutions, but a better knowledge of their origins to find those solutions.”

It’s Steinway Artist, Dr. Luis Sanchez, an internation-ally acclaimed pianist and Chris’ piano professor, however, that inspires him to excel in music.

“I have had (and hopefully will continue to have) the privilege of studying piano with Dr. Luis Sanchez over the past few years,” Chris said. “Dr. Sanchez is genuinely concerned for the educational, physical, and emotional welfare of his students. He is ever-patient in teaching us what it means to be a musician.

SCAN THIS QR CODE to learn more about Chris, see his video profile and learn how Texas A&M University-Commerce can change your future.