Thirteen more days until responsibility

It's close to 10 p.m. on this Sunday night. I check my calendar to see what the date is, as I don't care too much during the weekends and often lose track. It's the 26th.

Let's see here: Thirty days in April minus 26 days equals four, and the graduation date is set for the 9th of May, so add four plus nine and that's 13. Phew, that was tough.

Wait a second. Did you say 13 days until we graduate? What happened to those four years of college, those other 1447 days? They're gone, along with the 250 Chipotle burrito bowls I've eaten over this time period.

Well, now I'm in quite the conundrum -- to purposely fail everything and stay for another semester or to turn in my work and graduate and become, well, a "big boy?" It seems like it was just yesterday that I was wetting my Huggies, but I guess it was actually 20 plus years ago.

Just another milestone, right? Right? I hope so. Because I'm planning on turning in another philosophy paper on Friday.

-Alex Tandy

When readers lose control

The Internet does strange things to people. I’ve written about this in a previous column, if anyone cared to read it. Once people have the opportunity to act anonymously, they really do convert moral inches into moral miles. The next thing you know, we see people doing things they never would in their normal inch-living day.

You know, I also wrote a separate column that talked about swearing, and when to do it. It has become clear that many people have never learned how to properly swear. For example: A cheerful reader left a comment as follows: “I have no words to describe myself, so [expletive] you.” Funny thing: It seems that this reader did, in fact, have words to describe their - what would you say - emotions? Their choice of words just lacked any serious effort at creativity.

The most damning thing that I experienced over the past couple of days was the easiness from which blanket statements were thrown by blog readers over certain issues and topics. Some readers would do better by throwing a blanket over their monitor and keyboard – nothing short of terminating usage.

In defense of the writer, Isa Gillette, I will say a few things. With the content written in her blog post, it should be evident that her experience in the Lair was not a random occurrence for her; it was a recurrence. On multiple mornings, she deals with the same employee who makes it difficult for her and everyone else to get in and out of the Lair quickly. While the problem may be pointed to the individual employee, I think it would be valuable to consider the possibility of an understaffing during those hours. Long lines at the registers are not something entirely new to the Lair.

Furthermore, at the bottom of Ms. Gillette’s post, there was a link to Jose Martinez’ blog post, which essentially offered an opinion of the complete opposite. The reader would do well to consider this before vocalizing – what I would call – emotional comments, which seem to be completely devoid of rationalization.


-Alex Tandy

What about those vegetarians?!

I think I'm going to stick with the topic of Sodexo because, well, they always seem to have room for improvement. I don't, of course.

Anyway, I recently found something out quite interesting or rather, appalling after I had taken a fancy to the "new" salad bar, Garden Daze, in the Lair.

I wanted to see what my salad was like without meat for a couple of reasons. One: I was doing it for an article. And two: I was really low on money and figured that without chicken the price of the salad would be cheaper

Appalling factor? As I strolled over to the cash register, I coolly told the cashier, “Chinese chicken salad. No meat.”

She said there was no button to reduce the price. If I were a tea kettle, you would have heard my high pitched whistle – it probably would have made you deaf.

Sodexo doesn’t discount the salads if there is no meat on them. I suddenly felt a great deal of sympathy for vegetarians on campus, who never get discounted for being a better person than me.

There’s all this talk about people being rewarded for acting “green.” Well, what about not acting “red” by being a lover of meat? Plus, being "green" can include eating less meat. Cows emit some serious CO2. Eat less cow, have less CO2. Talk about bad gas.

Look, I love meat, don’t get me wrong, But if a salad costs the same price with or without meat in the Lair, that is just one less incentive for me to go cold turkey on eating meat.

In terms of running a business, I have no idea how this is fair to the consumer. In terms of principal, when you buy more merchandise, you pay more money. You should never be paying the same amount of money for less merchandise.

That’s like saying “the sky is down,” “Christmas is Halloween,” “children are dragons” and “Sodexo runs a perfect business.”

None of these statements make sense.

-Alex Tandy

Photo courtesy of Tomas Castelazo

Sodexo makes improvements, BUT

I think that in all fairness the people working at Sodexo deserve at least a clap or two for improving the quality of food in the Lair. Between Quiznos and the new salads, I don’t have to go to my next class with my stomach screaming, “Why did you eat the Loco Nachos? You’re crazy!” Ha. Ha.

Anyway, Sodexo doesn’t often get credit for doing things right, and I figure: Give credit where credit is due.

1) Now, about the charging for cups of water …

There should be reusable, washable plastic cups for us to drink water from. I’ll never get over having to pay 25 cents for a blue Pepsi Co. cup.

2) And about those occasionally long lines …

Nobody wants to wait in line. Figure it out.

-Alex Tandy

I wonder why you suck at life

Wondering is what I do. I’m sure the phrase “I’m beginning to wonder” can be found in more than a few of my articles.

Today, I’m wondering why so many students at LMU don’t seem to care. How can some of them pay $40,000 and be OK with never going to class? How can some students turn in papers written on Martin Luther King Jr. when two weeks of lecturing was spent on Martin Luther, the man credited for spearheading the Protestant Reformation. Does the 95 Theses ring any bells? No, nothing? Not even a church bell? Well, this girl in question basically wrote a paper that was 450 years off from the subject material; she wrote about the Civil Rights Movement, not the Protestant Reformation. Failure confirmed.

What’s the point of going to college, if you aren’t even going to pay attention? I’m not asking for everyone to be a super-duper, outstanding, A+ student, but I am asking for at least B- students. Getting a B- shows that you’ve at least applied yourself to a level above apathy. And apathy is just a plain waste. Too many young, and even older Americans would love to switch places with our privileged bums. They’d love to receive a higher education, but they didn’t have an opportunity to do so.

Essentially, though, your life is certainly not my life. I won’t tell you how to live it. You can waste as many opportunities as you want. But then I’ll probably tell you: “You suck at life.”

Restoration of hope in student-kind

I don't often lose things. I carry three things on me: cell phone, wallet and keys. I check my pockets to an extent that you might believe I have OCD. After all, it can't be that hard to keep track of three things, and I'm 22, not 12.

You can imagine my surprise when I was standing in line at Chipotle and a guy asked me what my name was. I was beginning to think I was going to be famous. I looked over my shoulder to see if he was talking to the guy behind me, and I then swiveled back, "Who me?"

"Yeah, what's your name?"

I replied with surprise, "Alex." With that, he handed me my wallet. My world fell apart as if he had passed a baton of doom – not the leather wallet I had grown to love. How could I lose my wallet? I then became overwhelmed with graciousness and offered to buy him his meal. He refused.

About two weeks later, I pick up a voicemail on my phone from Public Safety. They let me know that my wallet was found and returned to their office. Once again, my mind was blown. My thought proceeded in the same way as before: How could I lose my wallet? And how could it possibly have been returned to me?

I've been dubbed a pessimist by many, and their title is probably well warranted. I expect the worst in order to avoid disappointment. I certainly don't expect to get things back that I've lost, especially things that have value.

Maybe I need to have a little more faith in my fellow students. (Our mission statement says something about that, right?) *Scratching my head*

Maybe they will do the right thing. Maybe I'm losing my grip on pessimism. Probably not.

-Alex Tandy