2016 geek pride issue of the interrobang

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Volume 48 Issue No. 24 March 14, 2016 theinterrobang.ca


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2 Volume 48 Issue No. 24 March 14, 2016 theinterrobang.ca

COVER DESIGN:Candis Bross

Editorial opinions or comments expressed in thisnewspaper reect the views of the writer and arenot those of the Interrobang or the FanshaweStudent Union. All photographs are copyright 2015by Fanshawe Student Union. All rights reserved. TheInterrobang is printed by ThuroWeb, 201 Elm St.,Durham, Ontario, N0G 1R0 and published weeklyby the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe

College Blvd., Room SC1012, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributedthrough the Fanshawe College community.

Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and

should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information.Letters can also be submitted online at theinterrobang.ca by following theInterrobang links.

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Canadian University Press (CUP), National University Wire (NUWIRE), OntarioCommunity Newspapers Association (OCNA)

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COLUMNISTSRoee Dunkelman, Nauman Farooq, AngelaMcInnes, Nick Reyno, Dan Todd, MichaelVeenema, Andrew Vidler, Joshua Waller

CONTRIBUTORSVictor De Jong, Roee Dunkelman, Carl Garnich,Pam-Marie Guzzo, Cody Howe, Bobby Foley,

Kori Frederick, Jessica Klaver, AmandaMichalik, Jessica Milton, Karen Nixon-Carroll, Jaymin Proulx, Melanie Rintjema, JerroldRundle, Chris Russell, Emily Stewart, HencyThacker, Dave Voyce, Mitch Vollmer

GRAPHIC DESIGNCandis Bross, Jacob Brown,Vinoth Kumarathasan, Alicia Mak

COMICSLaura Billson, Alan Dungo, Anthony Labonte,Chris Miszczak, Sammy Roach, Matt Rowe,Andres Silva

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: [email protected]


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Volume 48 Issue No. 24 March 14, 2016 theinterrobang.ca 3NEWS 3

Forsythe wins in a landslide

Carlie Forsythe has been electedthe new president of the FanshaweStudent Union (FSU).

Her term will begin on May 1when current FSU president Alan

Bushell steps down.Forsythe was up against fourother contenders for the title, some-thing that is considered unprece-dented in the history of the FSU.

Forsythe said she initially choseto run for the position of president because she thought she did an ex-cellent job as VP finance over the past year. She added that it feelsgreat to have won against so muchcompetition.

“It feels absolutely fantastic. Itwas a really intense race, having

five candidates out there it was re-ally difficult to stand out,” Forsythesaid. “I treated my campaign morelike a job interview, so it was lessabout me and more about what I cando for you.”

Forsythe credits engaging voterson a personal level for her victory.

“[My election] says a lot aboutstudent engagement. I was out thereevery day until late at night just en-gaging one-on-one with students. Itsays a lot about how much studentscare,” she said.

Forsythe said one of the firstthings she wants to check off herlist is to cancel Fanshawe’s mem- bership in the Canadian StudentAlliance (CSA), a change that willsave over $90,000 per year, or $6for every student.

The only other FSU position that

was contested was the VP enter-tainment portfolio that was won byMorganna Sampson, the former VPinternal. She replaced former VPTabatha Rosborough who left theFSU due to a pregnancy in January.

The following winners ran unop- posed.

The new VP finance is JahmoyiaSmith.The new VP internal is Kevin

Kaisar. Kaisar is the current VP en-tertainment.

The new VP external is BryanLevesque.

The VP athletics & residence liferemains open and will be filled at alater date in a by-election.

Final election numbers will be posted in the next issue of Interro- bang and are also available onlineat www.fsu.ca.

First Nations Centre

hosts Year End GatheringFanshawe’s First Nations Centre

(FNC) will be hosting their 19thYear End Gathering celebrationfrom March 21 to 23.

In previous years the celebrationwas a one-day event, but thanks tothe support of the Centre and stu-dents it grew into a three-day eventinstead.

Daniel Kennedy, the Aboriginalcommunity outreach and transi-tions advisor at Fanshawe, said theevent is a celebration of everythingthe students have accomplished

that year.“It’s a celebration of student suc-

cess, the end of the second term anda cultural celebration for our stu-dents and for Fanshawe,” Kennedysaid.

On March 21, the event will hosta musical Nooner, inviting two art-ists from Six Nations, Lacey Hilland Logan Staats. They will be per-forming in Forwell Hall at 12 p.m.

On March 22, the FNC organizeda lacrosse workshop in Gym 3 from4 to 7 p.m.

Also on this day, comedian RyanMcMahon will do a live taping for

his podcast “Red Man Laughing” inA1047 from 12 to 3 p.m. and will perform a comedy show in D1060from 7 to 9 p.m.

On March 23, two tradition-al teaching sessions will be madeavailable from 9 to 10:30 a.m. LizAkiwenzie will give a lecture titled“Understanding Culture Education”in SC2014 and Jessica Ford willgive a lecture titled “Who are theLocal Indigenous People and whatdo they do?” in SC2012.

The official Year End Gatheringwill take place later that day in JGym from 11 to 2:30 p.m. Grandentry takes place at 11 a.m.

The FNC also gives out a Stu-dent of the Year Award to a First Nations student who was activewith the FNC and performed wellacademically.

Kennedy hopes indigenous andnon-indigenous students alike comeout to the event.

“We encourage everyone tocome out to the event. Every yearit’s gotten bigger and bigger and wewant to keep it growing as much as possible.”

All events are free and all stu-dents and staff are welcome.

KERRA SEAYINTERROBANG


MITCH VOLLMERINTERROBANG

Fanshawe College to offerFarm Management program

The demand for middle managersin the agricultural sector of Ontariohas been on the rise for some time,and yet there seems to be less andless people willing to work these positions. The thought is that alack of managerial training in farmmanagement is the cause of the de-crease. This is where Fanshawe de-cided to step in.

“The message we have receivedfrom the community has been quite

consistent: there is a need for a pro-gram delivered locally that providestraining for students who couldtake on middle management roleson large and growing farm opera-tions,” said Andrew Gunn, regionaladvancement co-ordinator for Fan-shawe College in an article by Nor-folk Business.

A farmer’s work is never done;they work from dawn until duskmaking sure that their product is al-ways in its finest conditions. How-ever, this leaves little time for bookkeeping and other logistics for the business. Graduates of Fanshawe’s

program would be ready to pick upall managerial duties, while givingthe farmer the time they need to fo-cus on their work. This program isall about creating better efficiencywithin the agricultural sectors.

“It’s managing the business sothe owner can expand or focuson diversifying or whatever theyneed,” said chair of Fanshawe’s Norfolk campus Donna Gates inthat same article.

Based out of the Simcoe campus,Fanshawe hopes that the programwill bring more traffic into agricul-

tural institutions and provide man-agers who are willing to work onfarms. It will be a post-graduate cer-tificate program to be geared toward people who already have degrees insimilar fields or have already beenworking in middle management.The program will focus on every-thing surrounding managementfunction and how to properly coveran agricultural institution. Amongthese topics are technology andhealth and safety, leadership skills,food safety and traceability, thecurrent status and direction of theagricultural industry and pest con-

trol. This will also give potentialmanagers the opportunity to buildrelationships and network to helpfurther the growth of the country’slargest industry.

The program will differ fromother farm programs in that it willoffer students skills, which theycan directly apply in the workplace.Knowing exactly where and howfood is produced and grown willalso be an important aspect of the program.

The creation of the program alsohopes to give a boost to Norfolk

County’s economy. An expectedrise in local employment and over-all traffic generated by the programwould create a better system for Norfolk to expand upon.

The college is currently in thefinal stages of approving the pro-gram, which will offer agriculturaland managerial studies, intended onstrengthening Ontario’s horticulturelifestyle.

The Farm Management programwill be offered as early as the 2017– 18 school year if approved by the provincial ministry of education.

Just because I’m Irish doesn’tmean you can kiss meConsent still applies on St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day is a holidaythat was intended to celebrate Irishculture and somehow evolved intocelebrating the stereotype of thedrunken Irishman. For many stu-dents, St. Patrick’s Day is an excuseto wear all the green clothes in theircloset and to get plastered by noonon a weekday.

One concern that arises with theincoming holiday is the issue ofconsent. Leah Marshall, the sexu-al violence prevention advisor atFanshawe, launched a St. Patrick’sDay themed awareness campaign todrive home the fact that consent isstill required, even on a holiday de-voted to drunken rowdiness.

The campaign, You Can’t GetLucky Without Consent, is a con-tinuation of Marshall’s goal to hostat least one awareness event everymonth. This event is a partnershipwith the student life facilitator andthe Fanshawe Student Union (FSU).

“St. Patrick’s Day is a day wherewe see a lot of shirts and slogansthat actually put forward messagesthat can be considered rape cul-ture,” Marshall said. “We’re tryingto put this different spin on thingsthis year, and we’d like to see amessage going out to the collegeabout consent culture.”

Infamous St. Patrick’s Day tag-lines like, “Kiss me, I’m Irish” orthe tradition to pinch anyone notwearing green are examples of say-ings and behaviours that Marshall istrying to prevent.

Marshall is running more than just an awareness campaign. Shehas also organized a scavenger huntevent to engage students and to ed-ucate them on

“Students will have to follow theclues which will take them aroundcampus so they’ll know what’savailable to them if they run intoany [problems],” Marshall said. Sheadded that the clues will take the stu-dents inside the services and they’llhave to answer some questions.

Free consent-themed swag isavailable for those who complete

the scavenger hunt, along with oth-er prizes including taxi vouchers sostudents can get home safely.

“Just because it’s a special holi-day for some people and a day thata lot of students end up doing somecelebrating doesn’t mean that con-sent messaging shouldn’t be ring-ing even clearer that day and should be at the forefront of anything thatgoes on,” Marshall said.

The campaign will be hostedin Forwell Hall from 12 to 2 p.m.Food will be available along withIrish and Celtic music.

KERRA SEAY

INTERROBANG

CREDIT: COURTESY OF FANSHAWE COLLEGE’S FIRST NATIONS CENTRE

Logan Staats with be performing Mar. 21 at noon alongside Lacey Hill in forwell hall.

CREDIT: KERRA SEAY

Meet your new FSU president Carlie Forsythe.


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4 Volume 48 Issue No. 24 March 14, 2016 theinterrobang.caNEWS

London called a “gatewaycity” for human trafcking

Katarina MacLeod, a survivorof sex trafficking, was only five-years-old when she was sexuallyassaulted for the first time. She saidit was this abuse that led to choic-es that eventually took her down atragic path into the world of prosti-tution, domestic violence and sub-stance abuse.

MacLeod told her story as part ofa panel discussion on the impactsof human trafficking. The eventtook place in Alumni Lounge onMarch 8.

The panel featured speakers froma variety of London-based organi-zations, including Sgt. David Elly-att and Rob Wever from the LondonPolice Service (LPS), Megan Walk-er from the London Abused Wom-en’s Centre (LAWC) and a numberof survivors who fight for victim’srights.

According to the United Nations(UN), human trafficking is definedas, “the recruitment, transportation,transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat oruse of force or other forms of coer-cion… for the purpose of exploita-tion.” This exploitation can include prostitution, trafficking for the purpose of labour and even for the purpose of organ removal.

The panel focused on the sex

trafficking portion of the broaderhuman trafficking issue. London isknown as a “gateway city” for hu-man trafficking victims due to thefact that the city is along the 400highway system, making it easy totransport victims from one city toanother, even crossing the borderinto cities like Detroit.

Human trafficking, specifical-ly sex trafficking, is referred to as“The Game” by pimps.

Ellyatt said they have been incontact with victims who have beentrafficked as far as British Colum- bia and Las Vegas from London.

Sgt. Ellyatt said investigatinghuman trafficking is particularlydifficult because many victims aremanipulated into falling in lovewith their abusers. They refuse toseek help and often do not cooper-ate with police. He said thousandsof hours of manpower can go intoresearching the “spiderweb” woven by traffickers.

“Just touch one little line [of theweb] and the next thing you knowyou’ve opened Pandora’s Box, andeach of those little strings have to be followed up on,” Ellyatt said.“Each follow-up can take days,weeks or months. It is quite timeconsuming… but we do it becausewe have to, to save people from alife of slavery.”

On March 5, London City Coun-cil denied the LPS request for fund-ing that would specifically be di-rected towards investigating humantrafficking in the city. The LPS didnot comment, but Walker said thisshows that city council, much likethe rest of Canada, is not keepingup with what is necessary to end hu-man trafficking for good.

“It’s indicative that city councildoesn’t understand the emergingneeds of the community,” Walkersaid. “I was actually dumbfound-ed... The amount of funding theycut from police service comes di-rectly on the backs of women andgirls in this community.”

As a way to help other victims ofhuman trafficking heal from theirtrauma, MacLeod formed an orga-nization called Rising Angels. Hermission is to raise awareness abouthuman trafficking through educa-tion and to provide support servicesfor survivors.

“I had a vision. I wanted to help,I wanted to give back and I wantedto set up an organization. I wanted itto be something different, and Ris-ing Angels was born. All these girlsare angels, and they’re all rising up.They’re my angels,” MacLeod said.

She added that she wanted to give

other girls the same opportunity toget out of prostitution that she had.

“I wanted to be a voice for thevoiceless… I wanted people to un-derstand that prostitution is not achoice,” MacLeod said. “I’m one ofthe lucky ones, but not all girls areas lucky as me.”

In 2014 the Harper governmentenacted Bill C-36, or the Protec-tion of Communities and ExploitedPersons Act, which criminalizedadvertising and purchasing sexu-al services. This makes the act of pimping illegal and protects the prostituted victim. Under this leg-islation the LPS acted upon searchwarrants involving the websiteFantasy World Escorts, a site thatadvertised escorts available in theLondon area.

The Globe and Mail reportedin November 2015 that HamadAndwar and Tiffany Harvey, twoLondon residents, were chargedwith material benefit from sexualservices, possession of proceeds ofcrime exceeding $5,000, traffickingin people and advertising another person’s sexual services in connec-tion with the site.

London was one of the first citiesto charge someone with the chargeof advertising another person’s sex-ual services in the country.

The website, fworld.com, has been shut down by the LPS, and thecase against Andwar and Harvey is

ongoing.MacLeod, along with the other

speakers, urged the community todo what they can to prevent humantrafficking from proliferating.

“It’s our responsibility as a com-munity, and just as people in gener-al, to come alongside and help thesegirls,” MacLeod said.

If you have any informationabout a possible case of humantrafficking please contact the Lon-don Police Service, the London An-ti-Human Trafficking Committee orthe Coalition Assisting TraffickedIndividuals.


CREDIT: KERRA SEAY

Sex trafcking survivor Katarina MacLeod (left) spoke at a panel about the reality of human trafcking in London. She was accompaniedby her mentor Sheila Howlett and said that without her support, MacLeod would never have gotten out of “The Game.”

Canada fth most obese nation

The Senate released a new studytitled Obesity in Canada this month.They found that the rate of obesityin adults has doubled and the rateof obesity in children has tripledsince 1980. Canada was found to be ranked fifth in the world in thenumber of obese citizens.

Canadians are calling on the fed-eral government to help end thisepidemic by implementing a tax on beverages with added sugar, such asfruit juice and pop.

Aaron Wudrick, federal directorof the Canadian Taxpayers Federa-

tion, released a statement pressingthe government to reject the proposed tax.

“Fat and sugar taxes have a du- bious record with respect to actu-ally improving public health, buta consistent one when it comes tofilling government coffers and kill-ing jobs,” Wudrick said. “This gov-ernment seems attuned to the factthat more taxes would be harmfulto Canada’s economic growth, andwe would encourage them to resistcalls for any new, regressive taxes.”

The Canadian Beverage Associa-tion (CBA) released a statement as

well. “This has been tried in other jurisdictions and it has failed. Itdidn’t reduce obesity. It increasedthe price of groceries, and resultedin job losses in the food and bever-age sector,” said Jim Goetz, presi-dent of the CBA.

In addition to the proposed tax,the Senate has requested that thefederal government rewrite Cana-da’s food guide without input fromthe food and beverage industries.

University of Montreal’s Jean-Claude Moubarac, who has a PhDin public health, suggests that Can-ada follow the Brazil food guide,which focuses more on how food is prepared or processed.

“In Canada we’re grouping to-gether things like sausages andchicken within the same group. Wewant to orient people into choosing

the best quality of food that is outthere. These are foods that are closeto nature,” he told CBC’s All in a Day.

The report also stated that theSenate would like to see food anddrink ads that are directed at chil-dren banned. They are also recom-mending a national campaign tocombat obesity, ban the use of par-tially hydrogenated oils to cut transfat content in food, revisit how foodcompanies make nutrition labelsand to introduce nutrition labelingon menus, along with many others.

JESSICA KLAVERINTERROBANG

CREDIT: KERRA SEAY

Canada has been ranked fth internationally for their obesity rates and Canadians areurging the government to help put an end t o this epidemic.


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Volume 48 Issue No. 24 March 14, 2016 theinterrobang.ca 5NEWS

Stevie Starr visits Fanshaweand bewitches everyone

Stevie Starr, widely known as theProfessional Regurgitator, left thestudents at Fanshawe College inawe with his performance.

Stevie Starr performed at Fan-shawe on March 3 in Forwell Hall.Performing all his popular acts thatmade him a finalist at America’sGot Talent , he gave a completeroller coaster ride experience, fromfear, to thrill, to entertainment.

“When I was four, I used to swal-low my pocket money and bring it back up,” Starr said.

Starting from Britain’s Got Tal-ent , Starr has done several other

talent shows like France’s Got Tal-ent, Italy’s Got Talent, Germany’sGot Talent and Czech Republic’sGot Talent . He was then invited to America’s Got Talent since theywanted something different amongthe participants.

“This is all I know. I have neverhad any other job. And I love this,”Starr said.

Being a popular entertainer, Starrgets to travel all around the worldto perform. He has been part of a lotof troll shows where he performsin front of unsuspecting audienceto freak them out, and their expres-sions are recorded on camera.

“Once, I went to a hospital, and

met with the nurse. I told her, mystomach is in pain. She got worriedlooking at my reaction and thoughtI might have appendicitis. I assuredher, that’s not it, and asked her fora glass of water. As soon as shegave it to me, I had a couple ofsips, and brought up 10 baby goldfishes, which I had swallowed ear-lier. They were all alive. I did that,thanked her for help and left. Shewas so shocked and freaked outcompletely. I love freaking peopleout like that,” Starr said.

Stevie has been coming to Fan-shawe for over 20 years now toentertain students. He manages tocompletely catch them off guardwith his quick wit, charm and abso-

lute spontaneity.“It is not a trick. It’s 100 per centinternal body control. I know whereto put what when I swallow it. Forexample, sugar, smoke and gasgoes into [my] oesophagus. I canopen and close it as per my will, butfish go in at a different place. I canswallow a fish, eat a meal and then bring up the fish while keeping themeal inside and the fish will still bealive,” Starr said.

Leaving all of us to feel lucky tohave been able to see something sounusual in life, Starr bid farewell toFanshawe students with a warningto never try doing what he does.

Support and equality for part-time college workers

“Same job, less hours, less pay,less power. Organize for a say, orwatch your rights slip away,” rapsSocialist Hip Hop’s Mohammad Aliin his new song “Same Job”; a songwritten as a lament to the part-timeworkers in Ontario colleges suffer-ing unfair treatment.

Ali has been a political advocatefor the fair treatment of part-timeworkers in Ontario colleges for overa year. To share his dissent, he hasused his music collective Socialist

Hip Hop as well as his work withthe Ontario Public Service Employ-ees Union (OPSEU).

OPSEU started in 1911 as theCivil Service Association of On-tario and represents approximately130,000 members from places suchas the Ontario government, com-munity colleges, the LCBO and thehealth care sector.

OPSEU has been championingthe rights of part-time Ontario com-munity college workers for decadesnow, and Ali believes now could bethe time to clinch the issue.

Part-time workers in Ontario’s

community colleges remain theonly group of workers who are un-able to organize and collectivelynegotiate the terms of their employ-ment, which leaves them open to betaken advantage of by employers.Most part-time workers in Ontariocolleges will struggle with low pay,lack of hours and lack of sick time.Precarious work is a dangeroustrend, especially in Ontario, whichhas the highest post-secondary tui-tion rates in the country.

“OPSEU has been fighting for col-lege part-timers’ rights to unionizefor over three decades,” said chair

of OPSEU college support staff di-vision Marilou Martin. “In Septem- ber 2015, OPSEU launched its lat-est campaign to organize thousandsof part-time college support staff.”

OPSEU represents all full-timesupport workers across Ontario’scommunity colleges. They want tolevel the playing field for part-tim-ers and negotiate better wages,improved working conditions andgreater fairness, according to Mar-tin.

OPSEU has undergone an educa-tional campaign geared towards in-forming part-time workers of their

rights as employees. OPSEU is alsoattempting to get more part-timeworkers to sign OPSEU member-ship cards so that they can even-tually unionize and benefit fromthe same rights that their full-timecounter parts enjoy.

OPSEU has recently shifted intohigh gear after fighting for part-tim-ers for decades. In the first week ofMarch, OPSEU filed an applicationto the Ontario Labour Board to be-come the representative of and ne-gotiator for thousands of part-timesupport staff in Ontario’s colleges.

President of OPSEU, Warren

(Smokey) Thomas remarked, “Tothe best of my knowledge, this isthe largest single certification application in Canadian history. Thisapplication covers 24 colleges andmore than 100 campuses in everycorner of Ontario.”

OPSEU is looking for your support as the final nails are driveninto the coffin. If you would like toget involved, you can visit college-workers.org.

“Together, we will be turningthousands of precarious jobs intogood, stable, unionized jobs,” Mar-tin said.

Does college prepare you with theskills needed in the workforce?

A big factor in ensuring thatstudents graduate with the skillsemployers are looking for is to en-sure that they are entering into theappropriate courses that match theirskill level.

In the fall of 2015, Fanshawe im- plemented a math assessment testfor students entering General Artsand Science programs.

This assessment was created toget a better sense of the mathemat-ical skill level students had uponentering college to ensure that theychose the correct class level.

Mathematic classes are dividedinto four levels at Fanshawe.

The first level involves decimals,

fractions and algebra and studentsare not allowed to use a calculator.

The second level goes into trig-onometry, statistics, graphing andfinance and students are permittedto use calculators.

The last two levels involve calcu-lus vectors and advance functions.

Erin Kox, a co-ordinator in Gen-eral Arts and Science as well as a professor of mathematics at Fan-

shawe, explained that students takethe math placement test online be-fore enrolling in classes.

The assessment tests all of theskills taught in the level one course.If students pass the test then they donot need to take the level one courseand are able to start in the secondlevel.

All General Arts and Sciencestudents must complete the secondlevel math course in order to takethe third and fourth course.

Kox described what led to imple-mentation of this assessment.

“In the past it was completelyoptional which course [students]took. A lot of students needed thelevel three and four courses andwould go directly into them. Theydid not have the skills they needed

for it and didn’t find that out untilit was too late for them to get intothe level one or even the level twocourses. We decided that we neededsomething to help them figure outwhere to start.”

Tracey Gedies, the director forthe Centre for Academic Excellencenoted that Fanshawe did somethingsimilar with the WRIT a number ofyears ago.

“That is why so many programsnow have WRIT and you can eithertest in and out and then go onto the[communications course].”

Gedies described WRIT as acomprehension type of assess-ment. Once completed, a numberof reviewers from the faculty oflanguage and liberal studies will re-view your writing.

“They will tell you that you eithertest out of WRIT or you must stayin. If you test out then you go di-rectly to the communication coursewhich is the next level up and has amore vocational application to it.”

Both of these skills assessmenttests are ways that Fanshawe isworking to ensure student success by helping guide students intocourses that will best build the soft

skills necessary in the work force.Kox believes in the success of the

math placement test and advocatesfor its implementation across thecollege just like the WRIT assess-ment.

“If we could expand it across thecollege, I think it would benefit ev-eryone because numeracy and liter-acy skills is the big issue.”

JESSICA MILTON

INTERROBANG

CREDIT: OLIVIA DRAKE

Fanshawe students left in awe after Stevie Starr swallows a goldsh and regurgitatedit alive and well.

HENCY THACKERINTERROBANG

DAVE VOYCEINTERROBANG

CREDIT: MOHAMMAD ALI

Mohammad Ali, of Socialist Hip Hop, raps about the struggles of part-time college workers in Ontario.


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6 Volume 48 Issue No. 24 March 14, 2016 theinterrobang.caNEWS

Intramural sports sees spikein inappropriate names

“Next up: the Toronto MapleQueefs go head to head against TwoBalls One Stick.”

This is what seems to be heardduring a night of intramural sports.

Up until last week, the TorontoMaple Queefs, an intramural hock-ey team at Fanshawe, were paradingtheir name before they were forcedto change it to the Toronto MapleLeafs. The name raised questionssurrounding misogyny and sexismon campuses and the elimination ofsafe spaces.

Intramurals are supposed to beabout taking a must needed breakfrom school and having some fun

without competitive pressures.Fanshawe’s new online registration process has made it much easier tosign up in order to encourage stu-dents to get active.

However, the immense amountof students signing up for over 20sports throughout the year mightlead to some details getting over-looked.

Jackie Corby, intramural athleticofficer, has been overseeing cam-

pus recreation and the intramural program for over three years atFanshawe.

Although Corby keeps a closeeye on the sanctioning of teamnames, there are no rules or regula-tions set in stone for teams to followwhen creating their brand.

“What we typically do is makesure it’s not derogatory towards acertain race or a certain gender orany religions. So we usually do aquick scan of the team names andlook up that information.”

Current team names include,“Multiple Scoregasms” for indoorsoccer and “Scoregasms” for ballhockey. The underlying fact ofthese names that have been regulat-ed may be hard to spot due to the

rise in the trends.“I’m not getting any younger…

Young people are coming up withslang all the time,” Corby said.“Lots of times people will bring back their forms during the day[and] I will ask them what thatmeant. If they blushed or got quietthen I knew it was not appropriate.”

The athletics department is notimplementing new physical ways tocombat this rising issue; however,

Corby said she will turn to UrbanDictionary to learn more about thewitty names.

However, Brianna Underwood,third year Media, Theory and Tech-nology student, finds the names to be a harmless play on words.

“I have a sense of humour. Ithink it’s hilarious, but I totally un-derstand why people would find itoffensive,” she said. “Especially ifit wasn’t a women’s team, if it wasa guy’s team then I feel like thatcould be taken as insensitive.”

Underwood is attracted to the playful aspect of intramural sports,which is part of the reason for herinterest in signing up for an unde-cided sport next fall. She will cred-it any athlete who can prove their

team name to be purely hysterical.In her opinion, the late Toronto Ma- ple Queefs was a group comprisedof students wishing to practice theirfreedom of speech.

Nonetheless, Corby believes thatcensorship is important in order toensure a safe space without target-ing any minority groups.

At the end of the day, it’s the tar-geted group that gets to decide whatis deemed as inappropriate.

HALA GHONAIMINTERROBANG

Twenty-ve years of creating Original Kids

For most of us, our fondest child-hood memories of the arts weresinging in choir or the few plays wewere lucky enough to be involvedin during our years in grade school.But for a quarter of a century, theOriginal Kids Theatre Company has been working diligently as a not-for-profit charitable organization tochange that reality for the youth inLondon and the surrounding area.

As the current artistic director ofthe program and former OriginalKid, Andrew Tribe said, “The pro-gram consists of putting on showsusing a learning-by-doing modelwhere the kids are advancing notonly their preforming arts skills, but also their social skills as wellas confidence and leadership skills,ultimately striving to accomplishsomething together as a group.”

Founded in 1991 by David Con-ron at Alma College in St. Thomas,the Original Kids Theatre Company began its long history with only 12members and a dream of exposinglocal youth to the theatre arts.

In 1994, the company transitionedto the forest city seeking out limitedspace underneath Museum London before finding a larger, more per-manent home in what was then thenewly renovated Covent GardenMarket in downtown London.

The program allows for individu-als aged seven to 18 to gain solid experience in all aspects, both on stage

and off, of putting together a profes-sional theatre production. “We’re afully outfitted theatre,” Tribe said.“We have all the same equipmentand facilities you’d expect from atheatre company and the kids take part in all aspects of putting a showtogether from acting, to stage man-agement, to running the box office.”And that fact becomes quite appar-ent when you look over the list ofshows the company puts on yearto year. Ranging from small-scale productions to elaborate musicals,these talented youngsters can standwith confidence and pride next to

their more senior contemporaries.When asked about his experience

with the program, current Fanshawestudent of the Theatre Arts program,Ben McVittie, responded, “You getto work with so many directors, youget to do so many different types ofshows…you don’t get locked into

thinking your one type of actor.”McVittie who completed a full 10

years with the program describesone of the main benefits of workingwith the company.

“It’s made me so much morecomfortable with the audience andreally helped me learn the technicalaspects of acting, such as how tocontrol my voice.”

It comes as no surprise that manygraduates from the program returnto volunteer their time or seek employment in the program later on.McVittie went on to say, “I wouldreally like to come back in the near

future and apply as a director forone of the shows, I think that would be great.”

To celebrate the anniversary,Original Kids will be putting on aselection of shows designed to notonly pay tribute to the origins ofthe program, but also to show how

far it’s come over the course of its25-year history. From classics likeGodspell and The Importance ofbeing Earnest , to family favouriteslike Disney’s Tarzan and The Lion King , Original Kids continues to bea clear example that age is no limitwhen it comes to expressing your-self and that young people todaycan accomplish much when simplygiven the chance.

For information on becominginvolved with the program as wellas a complete list of shows and to purchase tickets, call 519-679-8989or go to originalkids.ca

STEPHEN LEGRESLEYINTERROBANG

CREDIT: STEPHEN LEGRESLEY

Director Kerry Hishon helps the kids prepare for their upcoming production of Tarzan.

Upcoming record show excellentopportunity for collectors

Centennial Hall in downtownLondon will be hosting the first oftheir bi-annual record shows thisyear on March 20.

According to event organizerand music lover David Richardson,shoppers can expect 50 vendorsspread over 60 tables at the venue.

Richardson estimated that rough-ly 10 of these vendors will be localsellers, including a table for Mi-chael Todd’s Speed City Records.

Other areas to be represented in-clude Windsor, Toronto, Kitchener,Waterloo and points in between.

Richardson discussed the bene-fits of the unusually large selectionavailable at record shows.

“If you’ve got 50 different deal-ers, all of which bring what theythink are their interesting titles,you’re going to get more thanyou’re going to get at any one

store…you’re going to have 30, 40[or even] 50 thousand records.”Additionally, record shows stim-

ulate healthy competition betweenvendors, a rivalry that works in thefavor of record buyers.

“[Vendors] want to sell what they bring, so they have to be pricingcompetitively. Maybe there’s a re-cord that three or four or five differ-ent dealers at the show each have.The guy that has it for the mostexpensive price isn’t as apt to sellit as somebody who has more of amedian price.”

These prices tend to be dramati-cally cheaper than those of the av-

erage retailer selling newly pressedvinyl.

“New records are very expen-sive these days. In a record store, ifyou’re going to buy new vinyl a lotof [them will be] $30 or more, plustax. If you go to a record show you

can get a lot of things for $5, and invery nice condition.”

Passionate collectors hunting for particular super-rarities may notfind exactly what they’re lookingfor at a record show, but casual toseasoned record collectors can expect to be overwhelmed by desir-able products.

“Some dealers bring some oftheir really special stuff, more toshow it than to sell it,” Richardsonsaid. “You can also make a connec-tion with any of these dealers thatmight have something more specif-ic that you’re looking for.”

Another benefit of record showsis that many vendors, includingRichardson himself, sell from their

private collections, which are oth-erwise not available to the public,making it an exclusive opportunityfor collectors.

Other than 12 inch vinyl records,there will be 45 inch singles, CDs,DVDs, posters and other musicmemorabilia for sale.

The London Record Show, whichhas been around for over 30 years,has a historical connection to Fan-shawe College.

“The first show I did was in 1983at Fanshawe because the FanshaweStudent Union sponsored it for[around] the first 20 years,” Rich-ardson said.

CHRIS RUSSELLINTERROBANG

Apply online at ontario.ca/summercompany

For more information call 519-659-2882

Create Your

Own Job This

Summer

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$3000 to start

and run your

own summer business.

A government of Ontario Program

Space is limited. Apply early.

CREDIT: DUTCHSCENERY / THINKSTOCK

The London Record Show has been around for over 30 years, with it’s rst show beingsponsored by the Fanshawe Student Union.


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Volume 48 Issue No. 24 March 14, 2016 theinterrobang.ca 7COMMENTS

HAVE AN OPINION? SUBMIT YOUR STORY!

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: [email protected]

Lights, camera, ticket

The scene opens with a hapless youngadult watching television. The cable cuts out,the lights turn off and a cursory check con-firms the phone is dead too. That’s right, it’sthe plot of every pre-cellphone horror movieever. Just as air travel made the plot of everyepic voyage film seem trivial, technology ingeneral changes the way we experience theworld around us.

The law is constantly fighting to keep upwith technology. This past election markedthe first time that election results on the EastCoast could be reported on the West Coast before their polls closed. Before the Internetexisted, it would have been more difficultfor the average person to know how the EastCoast had voted.

Elections Canada worried that peoplemight vote differently if they saw that their party of choice was in trouble. With the pro-liferation of social media and cellular com-munication, those laws became nonsensicaland were rightly removed.

The mayor of Toronto is appealing to the premier for permission to install cameras thatwould enable law enforcement to ticket driv-

ers without being there in person. The ideais as obvious as it is unpopular. The 407 hascameras at every on and off-ramp to allow theowners to send a bill directly to the homesof users. A logical extension of that technolo-gy could calculate the driver’s average speed

and ticket them for an estimate of how fastthey had gone. If a driver travelled a distanceof 50 kilometres on the highway and it tookless than half an hour, it stands to reason thatthey must have been speeding and could becharged accordingly.

This is the kind of legislation that could,and should, have been enacted almost a de-cade ago. The results would be two-fold: anenormous increase in revenues from trafficfines and a drastic improvement in drivinghabits. Both of these outcomes are highlydesirable from a government perspective, sowhat is standing in the way? We are. Every-one breaks the law when they’re behind thewheel. Whether it’s going 10 over the limit,not signalling or not coming to a full stop atfour-ways, everyone is guilty of the occasion-al traffic violation.

It’s unclear whether the issue will moveforward, but Premier Kathleen Wynne hasinsinuated that she wouldn’t stand in the way.Regardless of how Mayor John Tory justifiesthe plan, it’s about the money.

The issue gives rise to the question of what precedent this could set. It’s common knowl-edge that doing 20-over on the 401 is unlikelyto result in a speeding ticket, so where wouldthe camera give leeway?

The logical extreme of giving out morefines to generate revenue is a scenario inwhich enforcement increases in direct cor-relation to the financial needs of the region.

Times are tough? No problem, start sendingfines to anyone doing five over. The odds arelow that such a bleak outcome would actuallyresult, but it seems distasteful for laws to only be enforced when the government is broke.

CREDIT: NIGELPARKE / THINKSTOCK

The mayor of Toronto is trying to get permission to install average speed cameras that would enable law

enforcement to ticket drivers without being there in person.

VICTOR DE JONGINTERROBANG

Owners or tenantsof our fragile home?

It is not a problem to visit spectacular na-ture destinations. Take for example the Hima-layas. A web search or two with a credit cardhandy, a few ticket purchases, several flights,some ground transportation and viola, youare following the lead of your Tibetan hikingguide.

It’s even easier of course to get to theRockies, the far North or to some stunningdestinations on Canada’s East Coast. Andwhen we get home, we can enjoy the senseof renewed appreciation we have for this as-

tounding blue planet on which we live. Wemight even congratulate ourselves on havinga stronger understanding of the need for envi-ronmental stewardship.

Nowadays, however, it is harder to be incontact with nature without feeling guilt.That very trip we take to see the shores ofGeorgian Bay is one of the reasons our planetis in trouble.

We love travel, but lacking the technologythat powers the USS Enterprise’s transport-er, we are stuck with the primitive carbonemitting internal combustion engine. We all probably do care to keep the Great Lakeshealthy, and we all probably would like it ifthe 46,000 glaciers in the Himalayas were toremain in place through this century. How-ever, it is our energy-intensive travel habitsthat, among other things, are spelling doom

for these and of course, many other, naturalwonders.Let us consider those thousands of glaciers

of Tibet for a moment. They are the source ofAsia’s six largest rivers that bring water to 1.3 billion people. No glaciers, no rivers.

And here is the crux of the problem for

those one billion and more people. Accordingto the Tibet Nature Environmental Conversa-tion Network, the glaciers are receding at arate of seven per cent annually as a result ofclimate change.

It’s no wonder that few of us like to thinkabout global warming because the reality isfrightening. Along with this the thought ofdoing enough to stop the Earth’s atmospherefrom heating up is also daunting. We hopethat by some miracle, by some combinationof the rapid cessation of the use of fossil fuelsand the rapid increase in the development ofclean energy, we will wake up a few decadesfrom now to discover that fresh water stillflows in Tibet and the Great Lakes are stillhome to fish and plant life.

We human beings are called, I believe, toenvironmental stewardship. We are asked to

consider that a caring God creates the world,and that human beings are called into rela-tionship with our environment. The environ-ment does not exist mainly for the profit ofmulti-national corporations. It is not ours todo with as we want. Our role is to care for,and, if necessary, to restore our environ-ments. We are tenants, not owners.

The opening pages of the Bible reveal aGod who gives order to the creation, allowingit to be our home. Those pages offer a nar-rative that, even though it may be partly orcompletely symbolic, nevertheless delivers aliteral and hopeful truth that we live in a cre-ation that offers us what we need and more.

Our own record of caring for our home may be poor. Aboriginal groups tend to slash and burn. Modern industry pillages and toxifies.

But still we are called upon to renew our

care for the world. Development must bedone cautiously and with prayer. We oughtto manage our environments not with thegoal of providing ourselves with endless en- joyments. Instead our aim must be to leave behind a planet that our children will find awelcome home.

MICHAEL VEENEMARUMOURS OF GRACE


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10 Volume 48 Issue No. 24 March 14, 2016 theinterrobang.caLIFESTYLES

Mythology: The origin of video games

Game designers can draw inspi-ration from some of their favoriterealms of their imagination. Onespecific realm that has inspired avariety of games is mythology.

For Fanshawe student NakitaThapar, mythology has been prev-alent in her life.

“Everything I learned [studyingmythology] I now see in my everyday life, in movies, video gamesand TV shows,” she said. “I under-stand it all so much better.”

Mythology is home to variousaccounts of gods, unique creaturesand situations that men overcameor fell to.

Stefanie Ketley, professor ofLanguage and Liberal Studies atFanshawe, said that the roots in aspecific mythology reflect the cul-ture that created it.

“There is a strong theme in my-thology [where] human beingsare trying to overcome challenges presented by nature,” Ketley said.“There is good and evil, which re-flects on the human condition. Thegood is the aspirations of the cul-ture and the evil is the fears that theculture has.”

In the video game industry, these

aspects can be used to create an experience for the consumer. Gamessuch as God of War and Legend-ary encapsulate all three of theseaspects, specifically in Greek my-thology.

In God of War, you play as Kra-tos, a demigod who challenges hisown on Mount Olympus to makehis way up to Zeus to end his reign.The series draws on Atlantean my-thology, the prequel to Greek my-thology, and brings in Gaia, themother of Zeus, and focuses on thewar of titans against gods.

Legendary brings Greek mythol-

ogy into the modern world. The protagonist activates Pandora’s box, causing mythical creatures toflood the streets of New York City.It becomes the player’s responsibility to use modern weaponry andspecial powers from the box to takedown all the creatures.

Ensemble Studios’ game Age ofMythology is a Real Time Strategy(RTS) game that allows players to build up an empire or follow thecampaign and play as Arkantos, thesoldier of Poseidon and Zeus re-covering Poseidon’s trident, whosegoal is to take back Greece.

The game incorporates Egyptianand Norse mythology to the game- play, allowing players to combatone another as a variety of differentgods, creatures and soldiers. In theexpansion later released, Atlanteanmythology became another choicefor combat and provided a sequel toArkantos’ story. Arkantos’ son Kas-tor becomes the main character andtakes on the titan god Kronos withthe help of other titan gods.

The Final Fantasy series incorporates mythology with religionssuch as Christianity and Hindu-ism. In the games, the Leviathan is based on the biblical sea monsterLivyatan. In Christianity, the Levi-athan was portrayed as the satanicavatar for the demon of envy. Shivais a character in the series that could be a female rendition of the Hindugod Shiva.

Items, weapons and equipmentsuch as Zeus’ wrath, Minerva’s bustier, Hades’ equipment, Hermes’sandals, Artemis’ bow and Perseus’ bow refer to Greek and Roman my-thology.

One issue that arises in thesegames is the liberties taken by thegame developers to make their ownrenditions of the creatures or waysthat the situations took place. ForKetley, she sees these games as anexample of how people can incor-rectly interpret the specific mythol-ogy.

“The creatures and the stories

were written in a different time,”she said. “They adapt from paint-ings and the contemporary art anduse it to create their own monster[or story].”

“You’ll find that some have con-tinuity and some have additions.”

However, Ketley said that somecreatures have remained the samethroughout time.

“The hydra is one example of acreature that still looks relativelythe same as it did,” Ketley said. “Sogame designers and artists do keepsome aspects the same but couldtake liberties with others so that itfits the experience they are goingfor.”

One mythology that Ketley saysis picking up recognition in pop-ular culture is Norse mythology.Game of Thrones and Marvel’s TheAvengers are franchises that havetaken various aspects from the cul-ture and have incorporated theminto a situation similar to Legend-ary. The games base will focus onthe interpretations from the specificfranchise.

“Norse mythology is definitelyone of the more exciting mytholo-gies. There is a strong human ele-ment present,” Ketley said. “Thegod Odin for example is shownwith an eye patch because he was blinded in his quest for knowledgeand he is not shown as a tyrant tothe degree that Zeus is.”

However, Odin in Age of My-

thology is modified to fit the waraspect of the game. Odin regener-ates the heath of his soldiers andmakes infantry stronger all whileturning away from his title as thegod of poetry and art.

Building a game based on my-thology or religion allows the de-signers to contribute interpretationsof how these realms could exist andinteract with the world. As moregames learn from each other, spe-cific aspects can inspire new di-rections for the interpretations and build a cohesive virtual reality for players to immerse themselves in.

CARL GARNICHINTERROBANG

CREDIT: CANDIS BROSS

Your favourite video game character may actually come from ancient mythology.

Fighting evil by moonlight

When Naoko Takeuchi decidedon revamping her beloved Sailor

Moon franchise, it was under herterms completely; she was deter-mined to not make a simple rebootof the 1992 anime. For fans of thedubbed North American version itmay not make sense, but to diehardMoonies it was exactly what theywished for.

She then went to task; cuttingfiller episodes, returning SailorMoon’s name to her original Usagiinstead of North American Serena,a plot issue some devoted fans areunhappy with, along with her team-mates’ names as well and leavingall original relationships intact anduncut.

The last point was a big one,while the original manga and Japa-nese versions of the anime allowedfor complex and fluid relationships,the American version changed Sail-or Uranus’ and Neptune’s relation-ship from one of lovers, to merelyvery, very, very, close cousins,sleeping in the same bed, some-times holding hands and kissing.

It wasn’t convincing to say theleast, and due to extremely awk-ward editing, people thought thetwo cousins were constantly flirt-ing with each other. This wasn’t theonly time North American produc-tion messed around with relation-ship dynamics, but Takeuchi defi-nitely wanted to make sure it didn’thappen with Sailor Moon Crystal .

Due to this and host of nitpickydiehard fan-driven theories, it’s safe

to say fans were equally excited andnervous about the new series pre-miering.

Two decades after the originalseries’ own release, Pretty Guard-ian: Sailor Moon Crystal premieredJuly 5, 2014 on NicoNico in Jap-anese audio and English, Spanishand Portuguese subtitles. Two daysafter the release, Anime News Net-work revealed the episode had beenstreamed over one million times in12 countries.

Despite multi-week delays for afew of its episodes, the series hasnow released 26 episodes. The se-

ries is also on streaming serviceslike Crunchyroll for free.

Watching the new series wassometimes painful, in that watch-ing a formula happen over and overcan get repetitive. Viewers see eachSailor Scout get her own “I realizeUsagi is my best friend even thoughI’ve met her once”, “finding true

power/sailor scout transformation”,and “fighting your enemy with theexact same power” episodes.

Of course, one can argue it’scharacter building for viewers firstgetting into the Sailor Moon fran-chise, having never watched the previous series. But it’s mildly repetitive at times as well.

A significant change from theoriginal to the new version is theremoval of the Doom Tree Saga, amini arc about an alien duo steal-ing negative emotions to fuel itsstarship/space/tree/birthing pod. Itwas weird. The anime needed filler,and that’s what came out.

The new series cut to the nittygritty though and pushed togethermultiple seasons into two 13 epi-sode arcs. It’s important to under-stand that most anime seasons will be split into two 13 episode arcs, al-lowing for easier storytelling whilealso giving the season a middle point kick of freshness.

The effect of this choice on theseries was felt quickly. Instead ofgetting to frolic in their win overQueens Beryl and Metalia for acouple episodes, the team is imme-diately hit with a team from the fu-ture trying to change the past.

Fans of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Transformers will no-tice striking similarities throughoutthe season to these two franchises,and they’ll be correct. Takeuchihas stated throughout the years that

these two shows were key influenc-es during the making of the Sailor Moon manga.

With foot soldiers looking likePutty Patroller clones, and theBlack Moon Clan’s origin story be-ing eerily similar to that of Decep-ticons, there could be no mistakeabout the influence of both series.

Despite minor pacing issues, andthe length of each episode being atad short, Pretty Guardian: Sailor Moon Crystal is a great series, andTakeuchi’s reworked vision for theseries will be sure to leave fans beg-ging for season two.

JERROLD RUNDLEINTERROBANG


Creator Naoko Takeuchi brought back her popular animated series with a reboot titledPretty Guardian: Sailor Moon Crystal .


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OF FANBOYISM

Andrew Vidler | Interrobang

For a long time there was a stigma around gamers.They were thought of as weird, uneducated and generallydisrespectful towards their peers or anyone else who daresto have a differing opinion. Fortunately for those who lovegames, the ever-growing popularity and relevance of the

medium has seen that stigma largely washed away, nowviewing the gaming environment as a more educated andwelcoming place.

This view is largely true, at least until you attempt to discussthe topic online and have your faith in humanity thrown intoquestion.

The Internet-based gaming community is toxic for so manyreasons, a shame for those who desire to see the industryget the respect it deserves, but one of the more perplexingissues facing the industry is the utter disdain and contemptthat gamers seem to have for each other.

One glance at any website, forum or comment section onthe subject and the discussion at hand is being conductedwith all the grace of a frat boy after his 17th keg stand. Xboxusers hate PlayStation gamers, PlayStation fans look downon Nintendo fans and PC gamers have built themselves apedestal so high that PCMasterRace has grown into one ofthe most obnoxious memes on net.

These are the fanboys – or girls – and they are one of themost infuriating diseases in gaming culture.

It seems to be a minor issue; a bunch of bored gamersbombarding each other with childish snipes, but thementality behind these posts is as fascinating as it istroubling, especially for the effect it has on how gaming isviewed.

Any other entertainment form can be studied anddebated, but always with the understandingthat enjoyment of it is wholly subjective, andis respected as such. Not so with fanboys. Noamount of facts, research or open discussionwill sway them from the opinion they hold,and they hate nothing more than those whodare to hold a different one.

The wilful ignorance in these argumentsis simply that; a conscious choice to ignoreanything that counteracts whatever arbitrarytitle or system they have chosen to fanaticallydefend.

The worst part of it isn’t that the arguments areso ignorant. Poor arguments occur everywhere,but it’s the immature and overwhelmingly stupid

comments found on these online sources that give theeducated gamer such a bad name.

One doesn’t have to scroll too far down a thread beforefinding a chorus of “PSF*g,” a bevy of sexual propositions toother commenters’ mothers, and hundreds of other cringe-

worthy insults. It makes it nearly impossible to defend theintegrity of those gamers who are willing to let the industry just be.

The overriding fact of the matter is that this dividedculture is inherently damaging to the industry itself. As thetired cliché goes, competition breeds success, and this isperhaps more true in gaming than it is in any other industry.If it weren’t for multiple companies attempting to enter themarket in the early days of Atari and Nintendo, then therewould be no gaming industry as it exists today.

When looking at today’s gaming industry as a whole, onecan clearly see the continued benefit of that competitivespirit, both in individual studios and between the big threeconsole makers.

Games are only getting better with each year, and aslong as they improve, every company will strive to outdothe other. It’s this desire to outdo the competitor that hasgiven us the best titles in gaming history, and it’s the drivethat will see gaming finally recognized as the art form that itcould be.


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Volume 48 Issue No. 24 March 14, 2016 theinterrobang.ca 13LIFESTYLES

What the frack does that mean?Terms you need to know for roleplaying games

Playing a pen-and-paper tabletoproleplaying game (RPG) can bringworlds and characters alive whilealso giving you a reason to drinkand be silly with friends. Whetherwandering dark and twisting alleysor fighting a dragon to save a vil-lage, there are some basic terms ev-eryone needs to know.

Dungeons & DragonsMore often referred to simply as

D&D, this is actually a collection ofmultiple similar games with vari-ations of rules, races and classes.

D&D 3.5 is the most commonly played edition, although there aretwo newer editions, both of whichwere made simpler in differentways. The easiest to access is fifthedition, which has free base classesand races up to level 20 availableonline.

D20This both refers to a die with 20

sides and a system that bases suc-cess or failure of actions on thistype of die. Usually rolling a oneis considered an automatic fail or botch, occasionally with hilariousconsequences. Rolling a 20 is anautomatic success, with some greatadditional benefits like extra dam-age, depending on the game you’re

playing. There are numerous sys-tems with many of different typesof dice used, but D20s are the mostcommon.

DM/GMThe Dungeon Master or Game

Master (GM) are in charge of thestory, creates the enemies and holdsyour life in their hands. While mostGMs try not to kill the players, aguiding rule is to never antagonizethe GM, unless you’re fine withthe possibility of a meteor crushingyour carefully built character.

ClassThis is basically your job in the

group. You could be a fighter, hack-ing and slashing your way throughhordes of goblins, or a wizard,flinging fireballs from a distance,or a cleric, healing and protecting

your friends while keeping an eyeout for evil. With tons of availableclasses, you can choose pretty muchanything you want to be, and mostgames have expansions to give youeven more options.

RaceThis doesn’t refer to ethnicity or

skin colour, but species. Often in-cluded are elves, dwarves, humans,halflings and gnomes. Each gamewill have slightly different descrip-tion, with specific benefits and dis-advantages for each race. Certaingames, like Shadowrun, which isset in a dark future full of evil corporations, limit your race optionsand include racism as a game me-chanic to make the world feel more

depressingly realistic. Other gameslet you choose from pretty muchanything you can imagine, on thisworld or any other. Rifts, which letsyou explore every world from theold west to a post-apocalyptic cyberfuture, is a great example of this.

MetagamingDon’t do this. Metagaming is

when a player uses knowledge thattheir character has no way of real-istically knowing in the game. Thiscan ruin the experience for every-one, exacerbating the GM and oth-

er players. After all, the chances ofthe dumb barbarian dwarf knowinghow to solve a complex riddle are pretty slim.

TPK Total party kill. The dragon has

eaten you all.

PAM-MARIEGUZZOINTERROBANG

CREDIT: LANTERNWORKS / THINKSTOCK

Before rolling the dice to play Dungeons & Dragons, try learning some of the terms rst.


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CREDIT: LAY-DUCE

Welcome to Mars and the world of Classroom Crisis, where civilization has colonized the solar system.There’s kidnapping, ransom and so much more drama.

The anime industry is a behemoth that continues to grind out several

dozen new series every quarter across a variety of genres, following

idols, magical girls, mech pilots and regular teenagers. Because of

this, it’s also a fairly common reason that people give for not getting

started into the popular medium.

A piece of advice? Just dive in. Pick a genre you like from anything

else (movies, shows, games, books) and get into it. If you don’t like a

show, try another. There’s been more anime released than is possible

to watch in a lifetime.

The anime industry is so broad that ‘80s titles like Fist of the North

Star and the Macross Saga hold up just as well as those from the 2000’s

like Serial Experiments Lain and Yukikaze. But we’re here to talk about

new anime, and these are a few series that stood out in the endless

stream of animation being released in the last year.

All listed are easily available on Crunchyroll for free.

Jerrold Rundle | Interrobang


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Wolf Girl and Black Prince

At rst Wolf Girl feels like a comedy shōjo, like watching Sailor Moon’s

title character Usagi go through high school life. Erika, the protagonist, is

extremely clumsy but really just wants to make friends at her new school.

Then it starts getting weird. Through a series of unfortunate events, Erika

begins dating class president Kyouya, a clean-cut, welcoming, nice guy

that everyone falls in love with. Reality is quite different though as it turns

out he’s a total pervert, insisting on Erika acting like a dog. This is weird for

multiple reasons, but because of this dynamic between the two there’s also

moments where Kyouya acts like a protector to her, throwing the watcher’s

impressions of this relationship. Wolf Girl and Black Prince could have been

a typical shōjo high school comedy, and it is in some respects. It’s about

a girl who wants to t in, trying to get out of a bunch of little white lies

that keep getting bigger and bigger. But, it’s also an interesting take on

unconventional relationships. If you’re tired of the typical girl-falls-for-boy

shōjo, this might be the next pick for you.

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?

First impressions placed it in the same vein as Sword Art Online with the

world being a fantasy MMORPG; levelling systems showing a holographic

display giving you growth feedback, and characters being able to modify

stats and skills. But nothing was ever actually mentioned, so viewers are left

only with visuals looking vaguely super-tech. The main premise behind magicin Orario is the idea of cults, like ancient Greeks worshipping pantheistic

gods. In fact, the gods are the ones being worshipped by these cults. In

Is It Wrong, all of these deities gave up their powers to live as immortals

in the human realm. By doing this they were able to grant superpowers to

individuals deemed worthy enough to defeat monsters from the Dungeon.

Bell Cranel is the only member of his cult for the goddess Hestia. Because

of this he’s placed himself on a mission to recruit more followers to worship

her. With such an obvious title, it’s funny to see that Bell isn’t hitting on his

female companions, but simply trying to survive, though he does fall in love

with his saviour in the rst episode. When watching Hestia interact with the

rest of the pantheon, we see that politicking is a large part of navigating

through this world. Throughout a few episodes there was a nagging feeling

the gods might be aliens, but overall the series is a slightly comedic take on

the standard magical fantasy genre.

Classroom Crisis

A young woman starts up her scooter and proceeds to bike through the

beautiful mountain scenery. Using the nifty little moped like a racing bike,

she bypasses trafc in a rather dangerous trick, eventually stopping in front

of another young woman standing at the edge of a beautiful campus. The

moped driver is Iris, and she’s also a spaceship pilot. Her friend, Mizuki, is an

engineer for the same spaceship. Welcome to Mars.

In the future, humans have colonized the entire solar system, from Mercury

to Pluto. Because of this, corporations also dominate the system, setting

up and being responsible for new colonies, making schoolchildren their

employees. Classroom Crisis centres around a new transfer student coming

to the Martian academy. Before the new student can arrive though, it’s found

out that he has been captured and is being held on a mining asteroid for a

sizable ransom. Before ofcial rescue plans can be made, Iris pilots a highly

experimental spacecraft the class has been working on to trade a ransom for

the student, who later belittles the A-TEC class for wasting so much money

by coming to his rescue. The transfer student, Nagisa, also happens to be

their boss. The series centres on his attempts to dismantle A-TEC, a highly

expensive research project, which also happens to be his homeroom class.

Food Wars: Shokugeki no Sōma

This series follows the young man Sōma who believes he’ll learn the best

cooking practices in his father’s restaurant. After using his skills to prepare

the most savoury meat dish, and saving the restaurant from a group of

shady-probably-yakuza members trying to buy the property for condos, he’s

immediately thrown through a hoop. His father tells him that he’s leaving for

a couple years to work with a friend, closing the restaurant in the process.

From there we watch as Sōma cooks his way through Totsuki Academy, the

most prestigious chef school in Japan with a survival rate to graduation of

only 10 per cent. His surly demeanour is washed away quickly when he sees

how tough it is to even get into the school. Some parents are willing to

donate millions hoping their children will be accepted. He begins his rise

through the culinary school, hoping to be good enough to nally beat hisfather in a cooking battle and reopen the restaurant.

Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers

This is a bit of a shift for art style in fantasy animes, as the overall architecture

in Piena is that of meso-American cultures like the Aztec. Spired castles are

replaced with massive ziggurats, sprawling lush rainforests all sitting on the

edge of mist-lled waterfalls. The series begins with Adlet Mayer declaring

to be the strongest man in the world, interrupting a ceremonial battle. The

battle is to decide who will be a Brave, a warrior chosen by the society’s god

who is needed to halt the demon king’s ends from destroying everyone.

Mayer interrupts this, beats the crap out of the two opponents and promptly

gets his ass tossed in jail. The series centres around the idea that the Goddess

of Fate choose six Braves at a time to stop the demon king from overrunning

Piena, and that for the rst time in history, there are seven instead. Mayerreceives his circular mark in prison, declaring him to be one of the Braves,

and he, along with the rabbit-eared princess Nashetania, travel to meet the

other Braves in order to save the world.

These are just a few of the countless anime series’ currently out, and the

amount of shows will only increase. Crunchyroll isn’t the only place to look

either. Netix has dozens of new and old series, including Knights of Sydonia

while YouTube has some weird stuff as well.

Sōma’s journey to reopen his father’s restaurant means gaining acceptance to the most prestigious academy and becoming the best in Food Wars: Shokugeki no Sōma.

CREDIT: J.C.STAFF


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Tabletop roleplaying games for beginners

Why are there so many rules?Why is there so much darn math?Who came up with this crazy stuff?

With large books full of rules forcombat, skills, monsters and more,it’s easy to get bogged down in themany details of tabletop roleplayinggames. Luckily, not every game islike that, and there are many op-tions for those who just want to sitdown, make a character and start playing.

Doctor Who: Adventures inTime and Space

Focusing on the David Tennant’srun as The Doctor, this is a simple

roleplaying game with a core setthat includes everything from pre-made character sheets, to adven-tures to dice. There are also othereditions and books that include oth-er Doctors, and the Matt Smith seteven has beloved characters such asRiver Song and Craig available for playing, although feel free to turnyourself into the Doctor’s newestcompanion. The publisher, Cubicle7 Entertainment, has plans to even-tually include all the Doctors, andfor Whovians who care more aboutstory than beating up the bad guys,Doctor Who: Adventures in Timeand Space is a great pick.

The New World of Darkness

One of the only systems that in-corporates the internal mental andmoral anguish that comes with be-ing something other than human,The World of Darkness consists ofseveral distinct but similar games.These games allow you to be amage, vampire, werewolf or anyof a number of other supernatu-ral creatures, struggling to retain asemblance of humanity in a worldlike our own. The core games, Vam- pire: The Requiem, Werewolf: TheForsaken and Mage: The Awak-ening are streamlined new ver-

sions based on an older collectionof games, and go out of their wayto immerse the player in a land of blood and madness.

Crimson Dragon SlayerIf you’re nostalgic for a time

slightly before when you were born, Crimson Dragon Slayer offersall the best of ‘80s ridiculousness inwonderfully fun way. Once you’rescanned into your incredibly oldcomputer Tron-style, you get the joy of turning into a pixie fairy prin-cess, robot or any number of otherrandom creatures, or a combination

of any two, rolling a six-sided diceto save the busty damsel in distress.The game is far from being politi-cally correct, skirting copyright in-fringement with all the grace of anepisode of The Simpsons and plac-ing a great deal of focus on adultthemes. Not for the faint of heart,Crimson Dragon Slayer is a great,silly game for the right group ofdrinking companions.

FireflyMore Brown Coat than Whovi-

an? The second roleplaying game based on the much-loved show of

the same name, Firefly lets youcruise the ‘verse in a shiny shipof your own. With both pre-madecharacters and rules for creatingyour own, the game is easy to jumpright into, and goes out of its way to prevent the credit counting detailsthat many others seem to focus on.This is another system where fight-ing is rarely the right answer, al-though feel free to pull out a gun ifthat Alliance 青蛙操的流氓 (pro-nounced: ching-wah tsao duh lioumahng) officer gets in your way.


With a huge variety of tabletop games available, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Here are a few to get you started.

PAM-MARIEGUZZOINTERROBANG


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Fantastical tips for fanc fanatics

Fanfiction is defined as fictionwritten by a fan of a particular book, movie or other fictional uni-verse and using the characters in anoriginal story. Some common mis-conceptions are that everyone writ-ing this type of work has no life,and no plans of becoming a profes-sional author.

However, the best-selling noveland box office hit Fifty Shades ofGrey began as a fanfiction on a sitededicated to stories based aroundcharacters from the Twilight saga. Fifty Shades author E.L. James hassaid that Twilight author StephenieMeyer inspired her to sit down and

write her own stories, and was ap- proached by publishers when theonline serial she was writing be-came popular.

Cassandra Claire, author of the bestselling series The Mortal In- struments, started out writing Lordof The Rings fanfics.

Writing fanfics is something thatanyone who loves any series cando, whether it be from Lord of The Rings, Harry Potter , Supernaturalor more.

The purpose behind writing suchfiction may be that a reader felt thatthe end of a story lacked closure, orthey want to explore other avenuessuch as a romance between char-

acters that didn’t take place in theoriginal story.

Readers may also not be readyfor their favourite character’s sto-ry to be over, or might enjoy thedynamics of the fictional universe,and so they create new characters

to inhabit it. Some people are alsointerested in what would happen ifcharacters from different universesmet, and create crossovers.

Some readers also want to depictcharacters in sexual situations. Thistype of story is referred to as a lem-on.

Other terms associated with fan-fiction are fandom, which refers toa group of fans that are interested ina specific story or character, canon,which refers to the original sourcematerial and fanon is informationthat appears so often in fanfics thatit may be considered or become a part of the canon.

AU means the story takes place

in an alternate universe, and AR analternate reality. In an alternate uni-verse the physics or geography may be different, whereas in an alternatereality certain events and detailsmay be changed.

Another common term, and one

that may frustrate readers is a MarySue. This is a character that is creat-ed and favoured by the author oftenin order to fulfill a fantasy of rescu-ing the main character from impos-sible situations.

Here are some tips to followwhile writing a fanfic.

Avoid changing a character’s per-sonality without good reason. Do alittle research in order to enhancethe story’s landscape for the reader,and be sure to include disclaimersor warnings for any material thatcould make readers uncomfortable.Be open to constructive criticismfrom fellow authors wherever you post your work.

DAN TODDINTERROBANG


Writing fanction is a great way to continue your favourite series and who knowswhere it could lead?

Digital vs. analog

When digital music first rolledonto market in the form of CDs, people were hesitant to accept it asthe superior listening format. De-spite being the better medium interms of dynamics and sonic accu-racy, consumers still clung to theircollection of vinyls.

The CD felt more like a dinkynovelty, with its plastic case andtiny disk, than it did a tangible pieceof art. At face value, the argumentof digital vs. analog is complete-ly superficial, but if we dig a littledeeper into digital music standards,we’ll find renewed value in the an-alog format.

The dawn of digital music brought the loudness wars. Every-one wanted to be the loudest bandon the radio and over the years thisled to a demise of the CD’s once superior dynamic range. The loudnesswar focused on reducing the quietand loud parts of a song so that ev-ery second is at the same deafen-ing volume. Although this allowedsongs to be louder than ever, it com- promised a crucial element of mu-sic. The digital music experience became shallow, and listeners weresubjected to accelerated ear fatigue,making it difficult to enjoy musicfor long periods of time.

Although this is a con for digitalmusic, it’s a con for analog mu-

sic as well. Most CD albums thatare re-released for vinyl haven’t been re-mastered or altered for thestrength of the medium. Masteringan album for vinyl is an expensive process that, due to rampant pirat-ing, few bands can afford. As a re-sult, most vinyl re-issues have beentaken from the CD masters, whichare of course victims of the loud-ness war. Taking a CD album and printing it to vinyl degrades the mu-sic, introduces distortion and sabo-tages the inherent warmth of ana-log. If you’re looking for authenticvinyl quality, check the band’s web-

site first or buy a vinyl that predatesthe CD.

The one place where analog mu-sic overcomes digital music without

a doubt is file quality. When musicwas being printed to vinyl, the actu-al amount of data in a song wasn’ta big issue. In the analog era, whena band couldn’t release a record onone vinyl, they’d release a doublealbum and everyone was happy. Atthe beginning of the CD era, digitalmusic didn’t have this luxury.

Sure, you could put more dataon a CD, but when a hard drive ranout of memory space, it was goingto cost a pretty penny to get a newone. Nowadays, space isn’t an issueas we can get a terabyte hard drivefor less than $100, but unfortunate-ly the standards were set in stonelong before 2016.

The regrettable standard of digitalmusic is the mp3. This format offersa compressed version of music thattakes a 46 MB WAV file down toabout 4 MB and is responsible fordestroying the quality of digital mu-sic. To cut a file down this steeply,much of the data is simply thrownout. The essence of the music is stillthere, but we’re missing out on thecritical little details that really bringit all together.

To make matters worse, peoplelike TIDAL bigwigs have taken ad-vantage of these low expectationsof music and are trying to profitoff of reintroducing it to market.TIDAL asks subscribers to dish out$20 a month just to hear music asthe artists originally intended it to be heard.

In the end, each format has a ben-efit. Digital music is portable, andyou can carry large libraries withyou, but with a sacrifice in quality.The analog music is tangible andcarefully crafted, but it’s very muchan in-home activity. The question ofwhich is better boils down to yourenvironment.

If you want to get in the zone orset the mood at home, try puttingon a record and see how fast thingsdevelop, but if you’re about to trainfor that 10-kilometre run, maybeleave the record player in your bed-room.

NICK REYNOINTERROBANG

CREDIT: VIKTORUS / THINKSTOCK

What’s all the noise about?

Fragging out in class

Having Internet accessibility oncampus is a crucial resource for stu-dents but also a gateway to specificvices such as online video games.

With the ability to log into Fan-shawe’s Wi-Fi or accessing con-nection through Ethernet allowsstudents the potential to game withtheir friends, but one place growingin popularity is the classroom.

Michael Feeney, program co-or-dinator of the game development:advanced programming program,computer programmer analyst program and Internet applicationand web development program atFanshawe, said that students haveto consider their age and maturitywhen deciding to use the Internet inclass for purposes that are not appropriate to the class.

“This is post-secondary educa-tion, these students are adults in ev-ery way,” he said. “They pay to behere, they want to be here. Part ofwhat they have to learn is self-dis-

cipline. Part of the struggle we havenow is constant distraction and weneed to fight it.”

Games such as League of Leg-ends and Hearthstone are twogames becoming popular amongstudents. Both games are easy todownload and play, but require ded-ication to a specific match until it isfinished.

Depending on the gamer, a per-son can become addicted to theimmersion in specific games. Ingames such as League of Legendsand Hearthstone, the player cannotsave and pick it up later. Players

need to commit to the games inorder to be respectful to the other players.

This necessity to commit cancause problems in the classroom because students need to focus onthe match to do well for themselvesand the team, which can causea student’s education to take the

backseat to the games.“The question is, ‘Why are they

there?’” Feeney said. “They can-not pay attention in class if theyare right in the middle of some bigmultiplayer battle. People thinkthey can multi-task and they cansuperficially, but not for things thatrequire their absolute attention. Ifa student tried to play a League ofLegends game while listening to theinstructor, the student cannot takein everything that is being said.”

Playing in class can create adistracting environment for col-leagues, which can affect their ed-

ucation.“I am not a police officer, I do

not need to micromanage them be-cause that also does not teach themto do it themselves,” Feeney said.“My only rule is that if they disturbsomeone in class or play a gameright in the front row, it would bethe same as if they were talking. If

they are disruptive they need to stopor leave.”

Being an adult does not mean thatlife has to be all work and no play, but it becomes the responsibility ofthe student to understand that theirfuture is on the line. Playing gamesin class could mean failing cours-es and prolonging graduation, or itcould create bad habits in the workplace that could affect the student’sability to hold down a serious job.

Mixing video games with class-es could be a bad combination. So before you log in during class, re-member to game responsibly.

CARL GARNICHINTERROBANG

CREDIT: CARL GARNICH

There are many distractions that students face in class. Instructors such as MichaelFeeney ask that the classroom is a place of learning rather than gaming.


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Volume 48 Issue No. 24 March 14, 2016 theinterrobang.ca 21LIFESTYLES

Untitled 09 | 03.14.2016

By virtue of his thought provok-ing lyricism, unique jazz influenceand captivating live performances,

Kendrick Lamar has become morethan just a household name.After the release of 2015’s To

Pimp A Butterfly, he performed aseries of untitled songs during liveconcerts that caught quite a bit ofattention from fans. These concertsincluded appearances on The Col-bert Report , The Tonight Show andmost recently at this year’s Gram-my Awards. On March 3, Lamarfinally responded to the public’sgrowing interest by releasing a surprise album referred to as untitledunmastered .

While Kendrick’s latest release bears all the marks of a well-round-ed mix tape, it exists in the samecohesive realm as its predecessor.Recorded for the most part in 2014,the album consists of eight tracksthat didn’t quite make the cut for To Pimp A Butterfly.

While many artists release allof their ‘b-side’ songs as extendedalbums, Lamar wanted to let thesesongs exist in their raw and unfin-ished fo

2016 geek pride issue of the interrobang

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