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The Importance of Cooking as a House

For one of our house dinners recently we all pitched in and helped make an enormous amount of sushi together. This has been one of the most memorable meals because of the ef-fort it took to roll all of the sushi, how many people were packed into our kitchen, and because it was delicious. Dinners together in Raft Hill are one of our favorite times to bond as a house; its the part of the day where we get to talk about anything and everything that comes to mind, while eating food our housemates have prepared. Normally we have 2 cooks each day who cook for 2 hours to prepare a meal for our 12 housemates. In the beginning (at least for me) this was extremely difficult to manage and seemed overwhelming. The more we cook though, the easier it gets and now it is something I look forward to doing every week.

-Rachel Tilson, Raft Hill

A Magical Journey – Part One

This is my (Alex John) tale of a 10 day trip that I recently took in a geographical rectangle across our great nation to play Magic: The Gathering. For those of you that don’t know me, I am a super senior student here at MSU doubling as a professional Magic: The Gathering player. I travel across the U.S.A. and sometimes the world playing in card game tournaments, and earn money doing this. At the beginning of October I began a journey that took me from Lansing to Orlando, Orlando to Oahu, and Oahu back to Lansing. My trip to Orlando began in the Lansing Capital Airport, where I ran into fellow Co-oper Jim Cave. We sat, regaled tales of manly conquest, and parted ways as Jim went to a family wedding and I went to Detroit. After landing in Detroit, I had an exchange with a woman that may have been the second best highlight of my trip. While walking on a moving sidewalk, I noticed that there was a large group of people blocking both the ‘standing’ and ‘walking’ lanes. Knowing that I could not traverse this group (nor did I want to, I had a two hour layover and was waiting for a friend to arrive), I walked at a leisurely pace, when all of the sudden I hear from behind, “On your left…on your left.” I moved to my right, and saw a woman walking in full stride pass me, get up to the cluster, and stop. I got up as close to her as I could, waited for us to reach the end of the track, and said prominently, “On your right…on your right.” She turned her head, scoffed, and walked away. I joined up with my friend Jon Johnson, we had a round of $8 Goose Island beers (from the bottle), and flew down to stop one on the trip. The first tournament I played in was a Grand Prix that consisted of slightly over 2,000 people. Anyone can enter a Grand Prix, and the players who do the best after 15 rounds of swiss style play (non-single elimination, winner of a round is determined by best 2 out of 3 games) get invited to play in the top 8 (single elimination). Due to my performances last year, I was awarded a two-round bye, which meant that I didn’t have to play until round 3 of the tournament, so I along with other professionals begin with a slight advantage. The type of tournament this GP was a sealed deck tournament. This means that all contestants show up and receive six randomized packs of cards and build a minimum 40 card deck. To do this well, a player has to look at their pool of cards, determine which are the most powerful, and then find a way to build a deck around those cards. With the newest set of Magic, Khans of Tarkir, the most powerful cards for this type of tournament are the lands (resource producers) that can produce multiple types of mana (resources). There are many cards that require combinations of different mana, and therefore require these lands to give you the highest percent chance of being able to play them during a game. Fortunately for me, I opened 10 of these lands, along with 2 of the most powerful cards in the set, and was able to build a deck that may have been the best sealed deck I ever received. I began the tournament 5-0, when I faced off against a guy that I beat earlier in the year in the top 8 of a Grand Prix. We had friendly discussion, played three excellent games, and he ended up besting me in game three. Any loss is a dagger in a tournament, as reaching an end record of 13-2 or better gets you qualified for a Pro Tour Tournament. The Pro Tour is the highest level of competition that is invite only. The prizes are higher, the competition is the most intense, and the traveling that goes along with it is the most fun (as it usually is free from winning tournaments that feed the Pro Tour). I took this loss, sucked it up, and moved on. I finished the day at 8-1 and promptly went to the nearest restaurant with my friends and watched MSU beat Nebraska (Go Green!). Getting to sleep is the hardest part, because I get so nervous about the next day while trying to come down from the rush on the first day. This is usually subsided with a few drinks and a comfy pillow.

Alex John, MSU SHC VP of Membership

On the second day of the tournament the players had to booster draft. A booster draft is a skill intensive process of selecting cards from booster packs for a deck you will build (again, minimum 40 card deck). You sit 8 people down at a table, have each of them open a pack, take one card and set it face down in front of them, and then passing the remainder to the left. The players then pick up the cards being passed to them from their right, and once again select one card, passing the remainder to their left. This process continues until the pack is gone, at which point the players may review all the cards they picked (this is all done without revealing any information about what they picked to their neighbors). After one minute, the players put their selected cards back down, open the second pack, and repeat with the exception that in pack two you pass to the right, and in pack three you pass to the left. After completing the draft, players are brought to the deck building area where they construct their decks and get ready for three rounds of playing against the people who they drafted with. There are two booster drafts before the cut to top 8, at which point the top 8 does another draft. I pride myself in my ability to booster draft, and came in expecting to go 5-1 or better which I have done multiple times in the past. I ended up going 2-1 in my first draft where I attempted to draft a whacky type of deck that involved a lot of mystery and deception. I was not happy that I lost, but coming out of it with a 2-1 record was good, all things considered. In my second draft, I was surrounded by talent, and draftedan extremely aggressive deck that I went 2-0 with, before facing my elimination match for top 8 (or at minimum receive an invitation to the next Pro Tour). For the first game, I had to mulligan my opening hand down to four starting cards (you begin with 7, but if you do not like the hand you can shuffle it back into your deck and draw one less card for each time you mulliganed), and was destroyed by the 6th turn of the game. The second game went very long, and was determined by my opponent having a two card combination that I was unable to deal with. I lost, ended in 18th place, and received $500. Normally I would’ve been extremely upset, but I realized that in the morning I was about to travel to Hawaii for 6 days, so I felt a little better, but still had a taste for redemption.

Part two will be in the next Pine Press

A Magical Journey – Part One, cont.

A Word From Joshua Schriver, VP of Education, MSU SHC

Sup.

Wanna write an article? DO IT! Email education@msu.coop and you will be published, yo! Straight up, down, and all around! No matter who you are, you are interesting. Even I am interesting!

I like sports...literally all of them. I like artforms...practices! What isn’t an artform? Every-thing is an artform as far s I am concerned.

Speaking of artform, I like religion. In the sense of traditional faiths past down thousands of years and in the sense of new religons, or lifestyles developing along with our ever changing world.

Speaking of our ever changing world, I like that about it. My most favorite part of our planet, is our ability to change. Hopefully, for the best. A microcosom of the worlds ability to change is exempilified in sports. For example, 2 weeks ago the Lions were down a lot of points at halftime...then they came back and won the game at the last second.

And that’s what it’s all about (clap, clap)

You don’t have to put your left foot in, or your left foot out, and you most definately don’t have to shake anything all about. You don’t have to do the hokey pokey and you don’t have to turn yourself around...

...but I encourage you to seek comfort, love, faith, and hope. Seek it, be it, move it, watch it, turn it, leave it, bop it, twist it, MOVE. Invest your energy into things that your care about however your creative Spirit can concieve and never settle..unless you really found it. Then settle all the way down to Tonka Town. Touchdown Titans! After party in the sky! <3

I thought some of your members would be interested in a campus wide initia-tives called Destination Detroit. We work to bring together several diverse stu-dent groups on campus and connect them to the city and people of Detroit. We are working to build bridges between diverse student groups through meaningful service that engages Detroit youth. MSU students provide academic, artistic, and athletic enrichment in our free monthly trips to Detroit. All accommodations are provided for this trip, including transportation. We take a charter bus down to the city for the day and participate in service and city touring. The city touring in-cludes spending time learning about grassroots organizations and dining at local hot spots. Attached you will find a poster for our program and below are some links to a video explaining our program and an application to sign up. If any of your students would like more information, please have them email us at MSUD-estinationDetroit@gmail.com. The last Destination Detroit trip of the semester is set for Friday, November 14th.

House Bonding Opportunity with Children in Detroit

*All sessions located at C302 Snyder Hall unless otherwise noted.

*Contact msumbk@gmail.com or visit www.msumbk.weebly.com for info/details.

*Sessions begin at 10am

Saturday, November 15, 2014Saturday, November 22, 2014 [MSU @ PRMXA (Detroit)]

SPRING 2015January 31, 2015February 7, 2015 [MSU @ PRMXA (Detroit)]February 28, 2015March 28, 2015April 18, 2015 [MSU @ PRMXA (Detroit)]April 25, 2015

My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) is a nonprofit, African-centered mentoring program that works with middle school boys from Paul Robeson Malcolm X Academy (PRMXA) in Detroit, Michigan. College students from Michigan State University serve as mentors and role models to the boys from PRMXA, and design mentoring sessions to increase their mentees’ awareness of college life and career opportunities.

Community Outreach Opportunity with Detroit Youth in East Lansing & Detroit

Houses interested in hosting kids for lunch/play games? Contact education@msu.coop.

Chaotic sign-insheets are on bulletin boards where did the pens go?

I see some coffee.Cups are nowhere to be foundbring your travel mug.

Hurray! Lunch looks great.Who forgot to bring the plates?Curses, House of Apollo!

So we pass some time.What do you love in your house?Bower Hour. Woo!Does anyone haveSome childhood memories? Josh would like to share.

Dan the president.Dance to that 80s music! I like to move it.

Someone brought the plates! Well, we only have fifty. I share one with Ky.

Now we have more plates! Turkey sandwhiches for all. Except the vegans.

The feedback workshop.Hold people accountable.Communication.

Ask for their consent. Can I give you some feedback?Compliment sandwich.

What a good meeting! The SHC is growing. Meeting is adjourned.

Reflections from the Fall All Member Meeting -Anonymous

u Mud & Mug - 3rd Fridays from 7-10pm (BYOB - sculpt/ play with clay /socialize) - 11/21; 12/19 ($25)

u Palette to Palate - 2nd Fridays from 7-9pm (BYOB - paint at your own level w/an instructor) - 11/14; 12/12 ($32)

u Knit & Knot So Much - 3rd Mondays from 10am-12pm; knit with a pro's help, work on what you want!

u Clay Tuesdays - every Tuesday from 6:15-9:15pm (Make anything you want out of clay - potters wheel or hand building)

u Sessions as follows: 1 session, $25; 4 sessions for $70; 8 sessions for $125 + purchase clay (5lb for $8; 10lb for $15; 25lbs for $32)

Reach Studio Art Center is a non-profit community art stu-dio located in the REO Town District of Lansing, Michigan. REACH offers out-of-school visual art education for youth of all ages (2-18), and adults from the Greater Lansing Area, taught by local artists and art educators.

1804 S. Washington AveLansing, MIPhone: 517-999-3643Email: info@reachstudioart.org

http://www.reachstudioart.org/

There are many different kinds of things you can do as a volunteer! Most volunteers like working with the kids in our classes but there is also the opportunity to do more behind the scenes work at REACH.

1. Fill out our Volunteer Ap plication

2. The Volunteer Coordinator will contact you to set up an interview where we will show you around REACH and set up your volunteer schedule

3. Start volunteering and REACH-out to your com munity!

A great bonding opportunity !

Haven House provides emergency housing and support services for one-parent and two-parent families with children. The shelter helps families who are homeless prepare for permanent housing by developing and promoting self-sufficiency, stability, and financial re-sponsibility. In addition to housing, residents receive meals, crisis counseling, assistance with goal setting and referral to other agencies as needed.

As a volunteer at Haven House, you can assist residents by cooking dinner, leading activities in the children’s playroom, help clean and organize the shelter, and much more! Our kids love making crafts, running outside, and playing games in our new playroom! If playing with kids isn’t your thing, we could always use some folks to help design murals in our hall-ways, touch up paint in bedrooms, and mend our garden.

If you’re interested in serving your neighbors in a meaningful way, contact Leah Wei-dner at lweidner@havenhouseel.org

Located next toBower House

at 121 Whitehills Drive

East Lansing, MI

Connect withcommunity,help others!

Giving=Recieving

Erin presenting her material in class.

I have to be honest, the project Austin Jackson

assigned me, in which I had to find a way the Student Hous-ing Cooperative connected to what we were learning in class, is my favorite assignment of the year so far. Despite being a Freshman, and having never lived in any type of housing other than my parents’, I love the idea of the Coop. (Rea-sons why shall be explained later in this paper.) And I’m also really interested in one of the concepts we are learn-ing in class - that of Marxism, or counter-Capitalism. So, enjoy my project on how the Student Housing Cooperative connects with Marxism! (I am very excited about this idea, so hopefully you will be too!) Because the SHC has a policy of only one vote per person - with voting power not doled out accord-ing to status - it is a true democracy. Or, a truer one than democracy in America is now. This style of voting, which is not representa-tive or unequally weighted, prevents power imbalance based on status from oc-curring. This prevents the ‘bourgeoisie’, the group in power (we would call them the 1%), from controlling the government with the political power they win from their money and social status. As Marx and En-gels say in The Communist Manifesto, the modern state is, “but a committee for

managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie” (303). How-ever, the SHC prevents that from happening in its own community by giving every-one equal political sway. It really is run by the people, for the people. Another aspect of the Student Housing Cooperative that caught my attention is that it’s not based on capital - the purpose of the SHC isn’t to make money. It’s not even organized on a stock basis, so that Coop leaders aren’t trying to please random people outside of the Coop, instead of the people actu-ally in the Coop. Plus, the SHC doesn’t even own any property, once you pay the fee, that house is yours, for as long as you paid for. It belongs to everyone who lives in it! But it is not the Coop’s - the houses aren’t rented out, their owned. Because of that, there is no landlord with enormous power over the renters. All of this reverses the tradi-tional capitalist structure, which is based on property and power over others. In this way, the SHC prevents the Proletariat (the lower class) and the bourgeoisie from forming, because they are dependant on power based on property. When everyone is sharing the house, nobody gets more or less than anyone else, so these classes cannot form. One of the best things about the Student Housing Cooperative is that it creates its own culture. The culture it creates, because of all of the great counter-capitalist ideolo-gies it is based on, is devoid of the capitalist Ideologi-cal State Apparatuses that American society is steeped in. The ISAs, as they’re called, are basically ways

in which ideologies cen-tral to the continuation of capitalism are spread and strengthened. ISAs can take the form of media, family, religion, education, and po-litical parties. It’s their job to tell us our place in soci-ety, others’ place in society, and, of course, to buy more things. They keep us in line, and keep us complacent with our extremely exploit-ative and materialistic soci-ety. It’s not a conspiracy, re-ally - your local news anchor doesn’t wake up and think, wow, how will I keep the masses oppressed today? - but it still manages to do its job very effectively. In fact, the dorms and apartments could be thought of as ISAs, as well. They’re your family away from home, right? Your roommate could impact what you consume and what you think, and so could friends that live near

you. “Culture [is] both the cause and effect of class”, as Richard Wolffe says, and because there should be no class structure within the Coop, the culture has no need to reinforce capitalist norms (15). It doesn’t need to tell some

people that they are in the lower strata, because there is no lower strata. There is no need to reinforce class structures when there are none to reinforce. The SHC is inherently counter-capi-talist, and so it is a welcome respite from the ISAs that permeate so much of our culture. Ok, so this is all cool, but how does the SHC actually help our society? The answer lies in its radi-calism. The Coops operates on a business model so completely different than most businesses in America - with the goal of benefit-ting its members, instead of gaining capital - that its mere existence is progres-sive. The fact that this many people joined together to live in a counter-capitalist society is very radical, es-pecially since our capitalist society attempts to solve the

problem of revolt by “shaping subjects such that if they re-volted against consumerist society, that revolt should be individual, not collective” (Wolffe, 20). The SHC is collec-tive! Therein lies its radicalism: it is able to bring people together so that they can revolt more powerfully. It can also act as an example to other

businesses, to give then an alternative business model, and hopefully spread the Cooperative model to more and more businesses. The SHC is an amazing, revolutionary housing system. It has the potential to change the world, if you let it.

Marxism, Cooperation & You

Erin Paskus

Potentional Cooper

ABOVE:

The SHC Office should be utilized as a chill space and a work space. With free computer and printing usage, one can easily come in and get stuff done. With a location just off campus, it’s a great place to eat and/or relax between classes. The company is on point and, who knows, we could learn something as we chill. There is always coffee and sometimes bagels to snack on! Across the hall is Flat Black and Circular, which is a cultural hub of the area. Who doesn’t want to know the newest, cool-est music? FBC has it! So come over, chill, get some work done, print some things off, listen to some music, have a conversation or two, meet some new people, and build some relationships! The office isn’t just a place to pay rent or file complaints! It’s a place to relax, and accomplish work! Get in, get out, get it done, get on with it! The office is at 541 E. Grand River, 2nd floor of Campus Mall, right next to Chipotle. Stop by and make the experience your own! The Office is here for us, let’s use it!

MSU SHC Office 541 E.

Grand River, 2nd floor of Campus Mall

Office Space

Posting up/chilling/ kicking it.

Working hard & eating candy.

MSU SHC member Joshua Schriver uses his time wisely in the

office, balancingrelaxation withproductivity!

Question: Who doesn’t love coloring? Answer: Trick question. Everyone loves coloring, they just might not realize it yet.

Crayon Club meets Monday nights at 8:30pm in the RCAH Art Studio, in the basement of Snyder Phillips Hall. We’ll have brand new crayons, watercolors, markers, oil pastels, and paper for you (yes, YOU) to use for whatever coloring/drawing/paint-ing purposes you might have!

Come on down and relieve some stress by exercising your cre-ativity! Bring a friend! Bring ten friends! Everyone is welcome.

Feel free to email me with any questions!Emma Hintzen (hintzene@msu.edu)

HOUSE DOODLE PAGE:

November 2014 Events

Board Meet-ing, Lake Erie Room MSU Union 7:30pm

Board Meet-ing, Lake Erie Room MSU Union 7:30pm

Game night Apollo 7:30pm

Game night Apollo 7:30pm

Game night Apollo 7:30pm

Game night Apollo 7:30pm

Hedrick documentary night 7:30pm

Hedrick documentary night 7:30pm

Hedrick documentary night 7:30pm

Bower Pot-luck/Open Mic 8pm

Bower Pot-luck/Open Mic 8pm

Bower Pot-luck/Open Mic 8pm

Thanksgiving BreakT-Gives

Education Meetings: 11/10 @Toad Lane & 11/24 @ Orion @7:15pmMembership Meetings: 11/10 @Ferency & 11/24 @ Apollo @8pmFinance Meetings: 11/10 & 11/24 at 6:30pm Email treasurer@msu.coop for location details.Physical Development Meetings 11/12 @ SHC Office & 11/26 @ SHC Office @ 5pmMaintence: Email maintenance@msu.coop for details.

NASCO Institute

NASCO cont.

Event ideas? We want.Email education@msu.coop

Co-op Thanksgiving TBA