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July 2012

Dense Matter:Garett Svensen adventures into Prometheus and Excession-Page 2

Poor Charlie: K.G. Wilson visits his characters Charlie and Alex.-Page 4

Lollipoppin’:A.Warren Johnson takes a trip with Juliet Starling and her boyfriend Nick-Page 8

Out of Control:Paul Strickland journeys through museum office politics -Page 8

1 The Confluence

officiers, spokespeople, or employees of a student association, federation or an organizer of a demenstration range from $7,000 - $25,000; Stu-dent associations, federations, em-ployees associations or unions range from $25,000 - $125,000. These ranges are for first time offenders of Bill 78, any subsequant offenses leads to fines being doubled.

While this Act has been in ef-fect for a little more than a month, a request for an emergency injunction against this act was denied by the Québec Superior Court on June 27, 2012. It would seem that this denial by the Québec Superior Court was at least in part due to a clause in Bill 78 that states, “previously filed judicial proceedings including injunctions and applications for injunctions will be discontinued as of the date of coming into force of the Act.” It is clear that the most recent Québec students’ protests have become much more than a struggle for the right to education.

Pride in Prince George

Prince George hosted its first Pride Parade in 1997 as a response to the growing anti-gay movement ac-cording to Pride Prince George. The first year saw 100 attendees which has now grown closer to 400 indi-vidual partisipants and is supported by many local businesses. In 2010, then mayor Dan Rogers was the first mayor to march in the Pride Parade.

While the Pride Parade and Pride Celebration Party are two of the bigger events Pride Prince George hosts during Pride Week, other such events for the “Pheniox” themed 2012 Pride week have in-cluded; Pride Bowling Night, Drag Queen Bingo, a Drag Show, and the Pride Brunch to end Pride Week in Prince George.

Contact and Submission Info:

The Confluence is looking for submissions of any type from students, alumni and staff.

The next deadline is:August 3rd 2012.

Send angry invective, self-indulgent contributions and jokes to:

confluence.editor@gmail.com

Send classified ads to:

confluence.classifieds@gmail.com

Andy Johnson,Editor-in-Chief

Garett Svensen,Production Editor

Andy Johnson, Editor-in-Chief

On February 13, 2012 students attending post-secondary in Québec began protesting the propsed 75% tuition increase (which was release in March 2011-2012 budget by the Québec Liberal Party). This led to roughly 250,000 students walking out of classes. These stiking students attempted to make an appeal to the Government to repeal the propsed tuition increase, and freeze tuition at the current rates before they returned to their classes.

What started as a seemingly simple demonstration soon escalated into on going clashes with police. Most notably 1,000 students from Université de Montréal, the Uni-versité du Québec à Montréal, at

Laval University, and at the Col-lège d’Alma marched to the Jacques Cartier Bridge where they were forc-ibly removed by police with batons and tear gas on February 23, 2012. While there were many more violent confrontations, it seems that this was the first encounter that brought the protest into the international con-sciousness.

May 10, 2012 a deal that tu-ition would be temporarily frozen for 6 months had been reached by Québec Liberal Party representatives and student representatives, but was rejected by striking students. This rejected deal led to the resignation of Education Minister Line Beauchamp, stating that she was “no longer part of the solution.” Beauchamp was replaced by Michelle Courchesne. 6 days later, it was announced that an emergency law called Bill 78 would be introduced by Québec Priemer Jean Charest and Michelle Courchesne, by May 18, 2012, Bill 78 was fully adopted.

Bill 78 is controversial Act as it suspended the winter term for most CÉGEPs, as well as the winter and summer 2012 terms for most univer-sities in Québec. Bill 78 also states that “demonstrations or actions are prohibited inside campus buildings, on campus grounds or within 50 metres of the outer limits of campus grounds.”

This Act also grants police “special powers” that include the allowance of police to order a change of demonstration routes or venues that must be adhered to. By allow-ing police this power it has led to the arrests of 36 people in Sherbrooke under Bill 78, yet these 36 people were not charged under this Act, but under Section 500.1 of the Highway Code.

While limiting students’ right to assembly and granting police more power, the most appaling aspect of Bill 78 are the excessive fines that can be issued to “those deemed as of-fenders of the Act.” Individual fines range from $1,000 - $5,000; Senior

Bill 78 and The Right to AssemblyAndy Johnson, Editor-in-Chief

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Excess, Genderand AliensGarett Svensen,Production Editor

Ridley Scott’s long-awaited Prometheus premiered recently, to somewhat mixed and confused reviews. While the visual quality of the film was praised, it was damned for its choppy editing, obtuse plot and sloppy writing. I will concdede the editing point, the film was hard to follow at times, but the plot/writing was perhaps less obtuse as dense. Prometheus doesn’t follow the horror and action bases of the Alien films where it derives its setting, but takes more from philisophical flicks like Solaris or 2001: A Space Odyssey.

A novel I recently read by Iain M. Banks, Excession, left a similar feeling of confusion and depth as Prometheus as I read it. As I sorted out the convoluted plot, and dense symbolism, a sereis of realizations hit. While widely different sci-fi works, the two were thematically similar to the degree of being able to help disambiguate the other. They are both works about discovery and the unknown, with a strong emphasis on gender, obsession and secrets.

In both the film and the book an event occurs that challenges the scientific understanding of the universe. The epynomous‘excession’ from the book, and the archeological findings of ancient aliens in Prometheus. What follows in both is a web of slowly revealed deceit as the key players seek to control and understand the point of the

Environment Canada 5-Day Weather Forecast:For Prince George, BC. 15-19 July 2012Sunday, July 15: 28°C, 14°C, SunnyMonday, July 16: 28°C, 14°C, SunnyTuesday, July 17: 28°C, 11°C, SunnyWednesday, July 18: 26°C, 11°C, SunnyThursday, July 19: 22°C, 11°C, Mix of Sun and Cloud

“In both cases, an ‘unnatural’ pregnancy is violently cut from the body of a

protagonist.”

unknown, the ‘out-of-context-problem’ as Banks puts it. The players in some cases will go to extreme, even violent, lengths to gain the knowledge they may find out in the universe. While in both there is a subplot about the unknown monsters that lurk within the intimate mysteries of the human condition. In particular, in the strange gulf of the gender divide.

Both works feature a perversion of pregrancy and a horrifying termination scene where the mystery of reproduction is subverted, and the connection between sex, physical reproduction and love is called into question. In both cases, an ‘unnatural’ pregnancy is violently cut from the body of a protagonist. Without getting too deep into the gender symbolism of the act, both scenes offer the rejection of the desires of the men who instigate the pregancy in favour of the unique reproductive role of women.

Meanwhile, the men are attempting to penetrate the mysteries of their existence. Well, male-ish characters anyways. Banks tends to a certain looseness about gender in his fictional ‘Culture’ society. A good number of the key players in Excession, the conspirators, warriors and spymasters are godlike artificial intelligences called ‘Minds’ and effectively genderless. Except for their names and actions that is. Most

of the conspirators have aggressively masculine names like “Steely Glint” and have male humanoid avatars of their personalities. In Prometheus, Holloway, Weyland and David aggressively seek their knowledge without prudence or protection. It does not turn out well for anyone involved. The masculine conspirators wind up victims or their own hubris, often dying violently and causing harm to innocent bystanders by the consequences of their actions.

The meaning that can be derived from these examinations lends to an interpretation of themes in both works that help with understanding and enjoying them. Prometheus and Excession are both about man’s search for answers, and the consequences of ignoring women in that quest. There is more to both works, for instance Prometheus has several biblical allusions that are fairly intriguing, but this offers a base to having a sort of understanding of the works. I hope this helps sort out some of the confusion surrounding Prometheus and if you’re a Banks fan, some of the density present in Excession.

A Sacrificial Engineer ponders Iain M. Banks’s culture novel Excession.

3 The Confluence

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Aries: Be careful not to react too soon to someone’s urgent cries for help today. Chances are, this is a textbook case of ‘crying wolf’ — or this person may have a very distorted sense of what ‘urgent’ really means.

Taurus: An innocent comment that someone makes may irk you — but keep in mind that this person is just trying to help. Of course, this kind of help is the last thing you need!

Gemini: Today, try to get involved in a fun debate or at least eavesdrop on a titillating conversation. Definitely don’t go around looking for a fight, but step out of your comfort zone and experience a little bit of conflict right now.

Cancer: You’ll be the recipient of an extravagant gift today, but it won’t come wrapped in pretty paper. Someone will give you the gift of understanding something new.

Leo: You may have your eyes on the prize today — but is this prize the right prize to be focusing on? You will have no trouble achieving what you set out to do right now, so don’t be too conservative in your goals.

Virgo: When things are not going exactly the way you want them to, it’s good for you to be flexible. But you also have to know when to stand your ground and not give in — not even an inch.

HoroscopesLibra: Whenever you’re in doubt about how to act today, just talk! Your way with words will turn the key and unlock many exciting new opportunities — especially if you are in a group situation.

Scorpio: Coasting through life can be a lot of fun, but it won’t get you too excited today. What you need right now is a real challenge — something that tests your abilities.

Sagittarius: The bold risk-taker deep inside of you is eager to take this chance you have been given — it’s fully confident that all will go well and that you will succeed. But is gambling really something that you should be doing right now?

Capricorn: It’s in your best interest to lend a friend a few of your resources. So open up your wallet, hand over your car keys, or give up some of your free time. Don’t worry about helping someone out and get nothing in return.

Aquarius: Your impulses can lead you to some wonderful places, but they can also lead you down some very unpleasant paths. Be mindful of taking direction from your whims today — there will only be a few situations where you should obey them.

Pisces: As conversational topics go, politics and religion can be very tricky — so even if you are among friends, be aware that enemies can be created if the wrong comments are made.

An idea that is not dan-gerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

-Oscar Wilde

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book in his hand with his compact mirror.

He flipped it open and studied his hair. As he thought, his raven hair was eschew and unkempt from being pushed down. He lightly grabbed a few strands from his bangs, straight-ened them out, patted down any hair that was sticking out and gently brushed his hair on the back of his head to flatten any strangler hairs he couldn’t see.

“FAGGOT BITCH!”He looked behind him. The

group of boys appeared to have been watching him instead of walking away. Their pack leader, a preppy looking kid he recognized from His-tory, a rich kid from College Heights. “Don’t look so fuckin’ faggy! Head back to Japan you fuckin’ chink!”

His goons laughed and passed around a water bottle – water/vodka the boys concocted to drink down every lunch time. Alex remembered the teachers on lunch duty inspecting water bottles for the last few weeks. Most of them don’t bother coming back from lunch break for school and drove around town harassing people.

***“Did you see the new 3D remake

of Star Wars?” Charlie asked as Alex walked up to him.

“Yeah. It was okay – could have done without Jar Jar but what can you do? I suppose every franchise needs a jump-the-shark moment.” He grabbed his ticket from Charlie and both headed to the food counter.

“I wanted to see it. When I was younger, they released it in Hazelton for a few days and I missed it.’

“How old were you when they released it? I thought you were twenty!”

“…I was a teen. No need to peg me now. I’m not that old, dude.”

“K’ bro.” Alex grinned and ordered them two popcorns and two bottled pops. He liked going to the movies with people.

The Unlucky BoyK.G. Wilson,Contributor

Poor Charlie, was today sup-posed to rain on his birthday? He scurried along the sidewalk just outside the plaza downtown when he looked at his iPhone. He swiped through the apps to look for the weather one. He found it, pressed on it and it was loading Vancouver. Et tu, phone?

A friend of his, Alex, pulled up beside him in front of the Cineplex. It was the only one in town; the kind of theatre with regular rotation from crap to good crap movies. Alex’s passenger window slid down and he leaned out towards Charlie, “Wanna ride home?”

“Maybe, I was kinda thinking for going to see the new 3D movie about zombies in Canada. Apparently they shoot some of it here in Prince George.”

“How about I park the car and come with you? At least that way, we can catch up and watch a hopefully good crap movie.”

“Sure man, that sounds grea. I’ll buy our tickets and you grab the food?”

“Sounds like a plan! See you inside in a bit.”

***Alex was walking to school from

Wasabi Sushi when he dropped the English text book he was reading. He always kept his nose in his book. He wanted to become a writer and to do that; he needed to master the basics. Which his teacher said were the most important tools of any good writer.

Walking down the street, he felt sharp blunt pain on his back and he fell forward. He picked himself up, brushed the rocks off his jeans and looked around for his book. He saw it under a car, as he went to pick it up he heard shoes running behind him. Grabbing the book and looking at the boys – around five at least – he went into his back pack and replaced his

It was always fun when Charlie came along – never mind the theater, he was just happy to be hanging out with Charlie period.

“I wonder if that line by the usher is for us or for another movie? I hate line ups.” Charlie looked con-cern and was twiddling his blackber-ry between his fingers crosschecking the times between the movie they were going to see and what was end-ing and starting.

“I think ours started five minutes ago.” Alex handed Charlie his food.

“But that means they’re running late.” Charlie frowned.

“I think we can go in.” Alex smiled in encouragement.

“It would suck if that was our line up.” Charlie scrunched his nose at the notion.

“I’ll grab the straws Bateman, you go ahead and investigate our situation. Bring your cleaver if you must.”

“Okey dokey,” with that Charlie walked up the usher and pointed to the line. Alex watched Charlie’s face. Charlie seemed neurotic but he was really good at smiling and looking positively calm in about any situa-tion Alex had seen.

***Alex was reading again Ranma

½ manga series for the umpteenth time. He was careful to not fold the spines. He had always made sure that his manga looked as new as possible. He loved his books, and always made sure his most prized series were taken care of with delicacy.

He finished Volume 1 and placed it gingerly back in the book shelf and grabbed the second and third volumes. He loved the humour, the artistry and the wild imagina-tion Rumiko Takahashi had in her books. The characters jumped at him and grabbed his fascination with Japanese culture – their expression articulated from the eyes, emotions so subtle and unique to each charac-ter – all from their faces.

Arts & Entertainment

5 The Confluence

Alex a brotherly side hug and tried giving a meaningful caring look.

“Stare all you want but it still won’t change the fact that the red-necks in town still try to find ways to harass me. Most of the boys are from rich families in College Heights. I’m starting to think their parents just don’t care; never mind how they treat people in town.” Alex felt his stomach turned, flashbacks of his mom ran through his head as she looked terrified and called 911.

***Alex felt light headed. He saw

lights flash around him and could hear warped, distance voices.

His arms were heavy, legs still and his eyelids were slowly opening and closing. He could vaguely male out his mother. He heard her scream-ing, with what little comprehension he had, “Alex! Wake up! Oh my god, Alex! What the fuck did you do?”

There was silence – he couldn’t move his mouth but tears filled his eyes. He wanted to tell her, “I’m done mom. I’m done. I just want to leave this world happier now then suffer more shit. Please just let me leave and be in control of my life. Let me have one more choice I am allowed to make.”

He felt someone touch him. He heard more noises and another spot of light shine into his eyes. He tried shutting his eyes but the hand pulled one open with force. He attempted to push the hand away, only to real-ize his arms were pinned down. He couldn’t move.

There were more screams and more noises. Footsteps, voices dis-persed in severity of loudness. He felt the sounds but the throbbing pain he felt kept him preoccupied. He felt his body being touched and moved.

“Most of the boys are from rich families in College

Heights. I’m starting to think their parents just don’t care;

never mind how they treat people in town.”

He embellished each and every line, coloured the black and white pictures with colour and shading. He brought them to life, adored them. He fantasized about how well he would do in their world. He won-dered what kind of fighting style he would have, what kind of virtues he would hold and imagined which of the friends and foes from the Ranma universe would be his allies and enemies.

As he lay in bed, he was trying to figure out what kind of fighting style he would want. His cell phone vibrated. He picked it up, slid the touchscreen unlock button and read the new message.

Eat shit n die fagot. Go fuck a dog and rot in hell. no1 in school fucking likes you. Ppl think youre a fucking goof. Wanna knife? We can bring one for you fagot.

***“Success! We get to go in!”

Charlie exclaimed, “I’m pretty happy that the staff is good again. I remem-ber waiting in line for a movie I went to last summer and they were run-ning late. The movie was supposed to start at nine but the line wasn’t al-lowed in until twenty after.” Charlie talked enthusiastically with his hands as they approached Cinema 4.

“That’s lame. Last time I came, I went to see that chick flick about the boy who fell in love with a girl in the middle of the recession.” Alex pushed the left side of the double door open and Charlie thanked him for doing so.

“Oh, did you bring a date?”“No I went alone.” Alex

shrugged and smiled at Charlie.“You are allowed to have friends

Alex.”“But last time I did, I got bul-

lied and look what happened!” He casually pulled up his sleeve to show Charlie again the scars from the sev-eral cuts he made last year.

“It won’t be fair to tell you I know how you feel. I’ve never been there. But I know that I care about you and that there was a reason they chose me to be your Big Brother for the past few years.” Charlie gave

He tried looking around but found his head was fixed to look only at the ceiling. He wished he could control his body once more, he wished badly that people would just fuck off and let him choose to be happy . . . to escape.

***“That was perhaps the most bor-

ing movie I have ever seen.” Charlie dropped his pop into the garbage.

“C’mon, at least there were some sexy guys in it.” Alex scanned the lot, looking for his truck.

“Well, I’m not into hot zombies, so you are alone in that my friend. Why is it still raining? Someone hates me today.” He scowled and pulled up his hoodie.

Alex smirked, he always thought Charlie was more attractive when he scowled and looked stoic and manly. “Charlie, did you want to go have a few beers or a Dairy Queen ice cream cake for your birthday?”

“Surprise me. Although I thought everyone forgot.” Charlie looked at his phone, ignoring all the texts that were inviting him out. Most were people that never talked to him on a daily basis. Most only sent him ap-plications on Facebook. He blocked almost every social app they sent his way.

“I didn’t – and happy birthday! You had to work on your birthday one year with Big Brothers and Sis-ters. We went to the laser tag arena and everything was paid for by the society.” Alex smiled and started walking towards his truck with Char-lie following suit.

“God, why does every geriatric have a license in this forsaken town? You’d think most would get caught for senility while driving and then stripped or tested for driving ability. Is it too much to ask for public safety of everyone?” Alex was scanning from his seat, tempted to honk his horn at the old lady in her little blue car.

“Get into politics.” Charlie said, as he looked down at the barrage of messages he ignored during the movie, “Aw crap, I forgot my mom wanted to see me today.”

The Confluence 6

“Sure, I think my mom would like you. If you mention bingo, she may make you play a game or two.” Charlie finally smiled, “and your friend vomited in here? That’s funny. Gross, but funny.”

“Deal – so long as you play too.” Alex turned onto one of the main roads out of the parking lot. He was behind that little old lady in the blue car.

“Deal.” Charlie sighed as he began updating his status about how the movie was tonight on his phone.

Alex finally managed to get out of the plaza and was passing Pizza Hut going towards the hospital. He was going uphill behind the slew of cars coming from the theatre. He avoided the jaywalkers as they scurried back to homes close to the theatre or back into the Hood. He looked up the street and saw the Hospital. The jail he forced his mom to live with him for a week.

***The sun crept through the white,

sterile curtains in a bedroom of the hospital; its rays reached farther into the room every hour. Alex counted each and every hour. He measured how far the rays have crept in. It was about an inch an hour. Lying still, his head faced the window and his bed parallel to the doorway into his room.

He thought about the night he cut himself.

The amount of vodka he took from his mom’s liquor cabinet; strong, burning and quick. He re-membered opening up the bottle of vodka and swallowing as hard as he could all the liquor he can handle. The liquid seared his throat and worked quickly. He put the bottle down.

Alex’s mom came home from work early. She requested it as she felt that Alex would need more of

“I thought you loved your mom?” Inquisitive as he was, Alex couldn’t keep his eyes off his path as more old people backed out of stalls despite knowing Alex’s truck was mere metres away.

“Yuppers, and she loves to talk about how much of a good boy I am.”

“That sounds sweet.” Alex tried his best to be compassionate – de-spite Charlie’s cold manner about his mother.

***Alex was lying in the hospital

bed. He felt terrible, body sore and drained from trauma inflicted from his wrists and alcohol. He could feel his wounds; throbbing pain from where the bandages on his arms were wrapped. He wanted to scratch his stomach but they strapped his arms down. He had to push a button for anything he needed.

Looking around, he noticed his mother was sleeping on the couch. She was in her work clothes; their family must have brought her extra stuff. There were plastic Tupperware containers around her and an iPod lying idle. He also saw the story he wrote about ghosts dangling from his mother’s hand.

He wrote the story in high school and was published in an anthology of young writers sponsored by the Prince George Public Library.

***Driving out of the parking lot,

Alex was tired of slowing down for every teenaged girl that crossed in front of him. “As much as I liked hanging out at the theatre, I really do hate the vampire teen movies that keep coming out.”

“Agreed,” Charlie nodded, “ter-rible movies.”

“So you want to see your mom?”“Sure,” non-committal, flat and

direct, Charlie was somewhere else.Alex pushed on, “I can come

along and then we can go out for drinks. My friend owes me one this weekend, she vomited in here last week.”

her time today.She carried a letter from the prin-

cipal. The letter was about another fight Alex got into with a boy, from College Heights. The letter recom-mended that Alex should seek coun-selling and maybe humour the idea of a restraining order. The principal was compelled to believe that Alex’s visibility of being different was the stem of this fight. Just like the last fight… and the fight before that.

She believed the restraining order would only escalate what was already a bad situation. The boys going after her son were essentially replicas of their fathers. As a nurse, she has seen too many sons being rewarded with praise for fighting or scolded for not being tougher. In Prince George, she hasn’t the most rewarding of jobs of taking care of men who would rather see her and her son deported for being Asian instead of helping them.

She put the letter down on the counter beside the door and made her way into the bathroom – some-thing wasn’t right. Alex was usually playing video games in his room by now. There were no noises. She checked his bedroom but he wasn’t in there. She checked his bathroom and noticed his razor was dismantled and blades were eschewed. Her eyes widened and she felt her heart begin to race. She started to walk quickly, calling around the house. Each time she called his name, she raised her voice.

She ran into her room. She was breathing hard and her heart raced. She saw all the blood on the bath-room floor and screamed.

This was the worst day of her life – knowing that Alex didn’t feel loved . . . no matter how hard she tried to convince him that she loved him so much.

Alex’s concentration on the rays broke when he heard footsteps coming into the room. He closed his eyes, wanting to be alone and not talk. The shuffling footsteps were his mom‘s. She had come back from the bathroom and was going to retire back onto the cot the hospital had provided for her. He assumed she

“The sun crept through the white, sterile curtains in a

bedroom of the hospital; its rays reached farther into the

room every hour.”

7 The Confluence

was allowed to be here in his room instead of working at her post in pe-diatrics. He felt his insides burn and tears swell, he felt the need to hide and run away from his her. He was ashamed that he couldn’t kill him-self. He was so bad at life that even death didn’t want him.

He felt her hand come over his head. She brushed it gently like he had a nightmare, like he was still her baby boy. He couldn’t stop from crying. He felt her climb into his bed and wrap her arms around him. Softly sniffing, voice shaking, “I love you so much Alex . . . I love you, I love you, I love you . . .”

***After two games of bingo with

Charlie’s mom, they hopped into Alex’s truck and headed towards Charlie’s apartment. Still relishing in the laughter, Charlie was grinning. Still, he looked somewhere else.

“Hey Charlie?” Alex asked.“Yeah?” Charlie turned to Alex

with raised eyebrows.“Happy Birthday.”“Thanks, and a very happy un-

birthday to you.”The rest of the ride was quiet.

They men sat in the truck in silence, listening to the hum of the engine and crackling radio. Alex pulled up to the apartment complex and killed the engine. They sat there, watching the midnight traffic – what little there was. It wasn’t raining – in fact there were stars out and a crescent moon hung in the quiet sky.

“Your mom loves you very much Charlie.”

“She’s my only friend some-times… and really, that makes me angry that I don’t have any others.”

“She loves you so much. You can tell by the way she talked about you, how much pride and joy you bring into her life.”

“I just wish I had more friends like you Alex. Instead of just my mom who I see all the time as I am the only child she’ll ever have. Heaven forbid her son doesn’t have a social life.” Charlie appeared upset – he started to chew his nail absently.

“For once – just once – I wish I can just hang out with someone and be myself and know that they will be friends with me tomorrow.”

Alex frowned, “What the hell am I?”

“I didn’t mean it like that –”“I am glad I even have one friend

like you Charlie.”Charlie finally turned his head

towards Alex. He just spent his whole night with someone who looks up to him. He spent the night at the theatre with a decent young man who has been nothing but fun and cheerful. Charlie felt like an idiot, his epiphany of what was actually going on tonight made him feel embarrassed. “I’m such an idiot . . . thank you so much for being a friend Alex.” He hugged Alex and held tightly. He can feel he tears coming up.

“I love you like an older brother Charlie.”

“I love you like a younger brother Alex.”

They said farewell and made plans for coffee later in the week. For the first time since his time in the hospital with his mom, Alex felt loved.

For a birthday that began with rain, it ended in metaphoric rainbows for Poor Charlie. It was the first time in a long time that Charlie felt loved. He crawled into bed, texted his mom a good night and turned on his small television set. He started Netflix on his game console and fell asleep to Mambo Italiano.

As a young writer, K.G. Wilson had the opportunity to write a short story for a competition for young native writers: Our Story. He placed placed 3rd and 8th for the two years he applied. The 3rd place story was published in an anthology. Writing for him has now become a hobby.

K.G.Wilson

The Confluence 8

The museum director who had hired Jason in August retired four months later, to Jason’s unpleas-ant surprise. Now, while the Basaltic County Commissioners hadn’t made any hiring decision yet to replace him, the curator of manuscripts, Gerard LaPierre, assumed he would be appointed the new manager, and started barking orders to everyone, including Jason, as if he were already in charge. Most people in the mu-seum office just fell into line without asking any questions. But Gerard was affectionately known to some as “Mr. Rockhead”.

At a staff party at a fellow curator’s home in February, he sat down at a chair next to Jason’s and warned him that, with a new admin-istration, certain practices would “stop IMMEDIATELY!”

Jason said, “You mean if Reagan is elected?”

“No!” Gerard responded. “After I’m appointed director!”

Too many old-time patrons were being allowed into the manu-scripts area and into the library with-out adequate security checks, Gerard said. Employees were not being monitored closely enough concern-ing their use of their time during the work day. Employees who were in an emotional state, especially after an argument with him, were not focused on their work, Gerard continued, and therefore were not earning their pay during the time they were upset. Under rational labour standards, he contended, they should be docked for the period of time that he – Gerard – considered them to be disturbed and distracted from their work.

Authoritarian AssertionPaul Strickland,ContributorGrasshopper Manufacture, X-Box

360, Playstation 3

The zombie sub-genre of hor-ror movies has finally reached the last leg of its ten year span, parody. In Suda51’s latest release “Lollipop Chainsaw” the player takes control of Juliet Starling, a stereotypical cheerleader, all-American eighteen year old girl, who battles hordes of undead with her highly accessorized chainsaw.

The introduction provides a lot of background about Juliet, but also does a decent job of explaining certain items and characters that are featured in the game. Lollipops are used for health regeneration, while her boyfriend (at least in part) can be used as a secondary weapon. While most of the characters introduced provide Juliet various new main weapons, or power-ups.

The story (written and adapted by James Gunn) begins with Juliet rushing out of the house to meet her boyfriend Nick at school. On the way Juliet begins to encounter zombies. Once Juliet does meet up with Nick, he is bitten by a zombie and is decapitated by Juliet in a very Evil Dead 2-esque fashion. From this point on the storyline keeps getting stranger, and really is what makes “Lollipop Chainsaw” an enjoyable experience.

The gameplay seems to be a throw back to retro gaming, as most of the game’s pattern is enter a room, kill all enemies, sometimes destroy debris, head to next area, rinse, repeat. This is good for story pro-gression, as it means the player will not have to wait too long between

plot points; however, it does severely limit exploration in the world. This is too bad since the levels all look like they were intended to be open and erxplorable, but for whatever reason were limited to a linear path.

One of the oddest differences between levels in “Lollipop Chain-saw” is the breakable items. While this may seem like an odd gripe, it still warrants a note. In the prologue, items that can be broken is very limited. Usually it is an obstructing item that is required to be destroyed, and yields no zombie medals (the games currency). In the High School level, almost everything is breakable, sometimes yielding zombie med-als, and sometimes not. Yet, after the High School level, the break-able items are once more extremely limited.

Every level has mini-game por-tions, some of which are fun, and some that are annoying. The fun games range from running over zom-bies with a combine harvester to a few 8-bit styled games. Mini-games that are not so much fun usually include Nick.

The controls are easy enough to learn, although there are combo moves that can be purchased simi-lar to those found in fighting games such as “Mortal Kombat,” or “Street Fighter.” One of the more humorous aspects of the combat system is the star power up. When the star power meter is activated “Hey Micky” begins to play for a brief period of time. “Lollipop Chainsaw” also has a feature called sparkle hunting. This is activated when three or more zom-bies are killed in a single strike.

Overall, this game is short, roughly four to seven hours depend-ing on individual gaming level. While the game does have its flaws, it is a fairly entertaining experience, although at times “Lollipop Chain-saw” feels like it would have worked better in a film format. Definitely a game worth owning, but wait until the price drops as it has low replay value.

Lollipop ChainsawA. Warren Johnson, Contributor

Zombies, chainsaws and... lollipops?

9 The Confluencehttp://cncsu.cfs-services.ca/en/student-saver

In a few minutes, Jason said OK and moved on as quickly as would be polite in order to talk to someone else at the party.

Jason had been hired to the reasonably important-sounding, if vaguely outlined, job of Manage-ment Assistant I, but some people in the museum system more realistical-ly described it to him as a “go-fer” position. When, two months later, the former director drew up a formal job description for him, the position was said to be 30 per cent helping the museum secretary, such as going on errands to the nearby university or downtown to a local print shop for her; 20 per cent helping the mu-seum librarian shelve books and clip articles of historical interest from newspapers for inclusion in vertical files; 10 per cent answering research-ers’ letters; 10 per cent editing and occasionally writing historical col-umns for the state’s newspapers; 10 per cent leading student tour groups through museum displays; and 20 per cent dusting exhibits, sweeping the entrance sidewalk and the front steps, replacing dead fluorescent light bulbs and ballast in the over-head lighting system, and cleaning the museum washrooms. The last required a lot of attention because of younger elementary school students’ “mistakes” on the washroom floor.

However, it seemed that, especially after the original director retired, the janitorial portions of his duties increased to something like close to 50 per cent.

While Jason was still a graduate student at the university, he

happened to be in one seminar with Gerard. At that time Jason had a little income from a teaching assistant-ship and didn’t need another job. Yet Gerard warned Jason not to take any job at the museum or he would regret it.

At the end of the two-year teaching assistant contract the previ-ous June, though, Jason was broke and had had to move back in with his parents near the university. When the director approached him in the his-tory department that summer about the Management Assistant I opening, Jason believed he had no choice but to accept the job offer.

Gerard not only didn’t like Jason, but believed that, with his freshly minted master’s degree in state history, he might be a threat to him. He proceeded to try to make his job miserable for him.

In March the Basaltic County commissioners considered a short list of five candidates for the position of acting director, and Gerard had made it onto that list. He concluded that, as the only local candidate on the list, he essentially had the job in the bag, and proceeded to change policy in the direction he wanted.

The result of one of his initiatives was that patrons who had previously been allowed to enter the manuscripts area were now con-fronted with the demand that they turn over their ID for the duration of their visit. In addition, they were required to sign a form which started with the warning “YOU WILL BE CHARGED . . . .” if they tried to deface or take away any documents. The form continued with other unfriendly wording about strictly enforced policy. Gerard had said in the past he thought his adversaries in the museum system would try to embarrass him by visiting and surreptitiously taking away some

documents and then pointing out lax security under his watch. Jason, however, could see that some of the proud ranchers from the more remote regions of Basaltic County would be offended by this approach.

Gerard also took to waiting two minutes after an employee had gone out on an errand on museum business to get into his own car and follow the employee’s vehicle to be sure he was in fact going to the des-tination he’d indicated he was going to visit.

One time Gerard’s girlfriend was visiting the museum office. Dur-ing her visit Jason was walking to-ward the manuscripts area with a file from the library when Gerard stuck out his foot and tripped Jason. He laughed uproariously as his girlfriend smirked.

A month later the Basaltic County commissioners flew West-ern historian Walsh Burdett in from North Platte for an interview, and appointed him acting director of the museum. Gerard was briefly crestfallen, but he was still on the short list for the permanent museum director’s position. He quickly filled Walsh in on who he thought were valuable employees in the museum and who were troublemakers. He described Jason as being in the latter category.

During a staff meeting two weeks later, Jason brought up what he described as “a needlessly author-itarian style” in dealing with com-munity members and old-timers who visited the manuscripts area. He said the sign-in form was unnecessarily confrontational in style and might offend Basaltic County ranchers who had been honoured patrons providing considerable financial support to the museum. “I don’t appreciate being blind-sided like this by a challenge to my authority of this sort,” Gerard

The Confluence 10

agement tactics and a return to an atmosphere of mutual professional respect among museum staff.

But before leaving for his new position in the county archives, Gerard filled Serrano in on who he thought were the most valuable em-ployees and who were the trouble-makers. He again pointed out that, in his view, Jason was one of the worst troublemakers.

Instead of a better atmo-sphere on Gerard’s departure, Jason found things got quickly worse. Ser-rano called him in in early December and told him that from now on, his job would be 100 per cent janitorial. He was also put on a split sched-ule that meant that, while he still worked only about 44 hours a week, he would have to come in six days a week. Serrano also advised him that he would be pleased to write a letter of recommendation for him in con-nection with any other job he applied for anywhere in the country.

A cousin visited the museum soon after and saw Jason behind a custodian’s cart. “What’s this – a guy with a master’s degree doing janito-rial work?”

Jason had two weeks’ holi-days in January and went for an in-terview in Calgary with the editor of the Palliser Springs Chronicle. The editor told him that if he could get the proper visa, he would consider hiring him.

In late January Jason filed a grievance through the State Em-ployees’ Association for ‘demotion without documentation’. While this grievance was in process, he used banked overtime to take a quick trip to the Canadian Consulate in Denver

and succeeded in obtaining a landed immigrant visa because the proposed job at The Palliser Springs Chronicle was in the southern Prairies where the unemployment rate was low. In early February Jason learned that his grievance about the unfavourable change to his duties at the museum had been upheld, and he was re-stored to a job description allowing fifty per cent of his work day to be spent on professional duties relating to history and correspondence with researchers.

Again celebrations with friends at the Gold Ore Restaurant proved premature. The state’s gover-nor, imposing a program of austerity in reflection of the newly inaugu-rated President Reagan’s policies, announced a ten-per-cent cut to the state’s annual grant to the county for its historical museum in mid-Febru-ary. Although he was third lowest in seniority, Jason found his position was the one “lined out of” the coun-ty’s budget effective the beginning of the new fiscal year July 1.

On March 2nd Jason received a call at the museum office from the editor of the Palliser Springs Chron-icle. “Hell, I’ll hire you!” he said on learning of Jason’s success in ob-taining the visa. Jason then boasted that the new job in Palliser Springs would pay $70 more per year than the Management Assistant I position at the museum, neglecting to inform co-workers that the exchange rate for the Canadian dollar was 84.34 cents American at the time.

Jason gave two weeks’ notice at the museum, and on March 24th, his car fully packed, he started driv-ing to the Canadian border. He had left the intense office politics of the museum for a more professional atmosphere at the small Prairie daily, but in terms of hours, he had gone from the frying pan into the fire.

said.In May Jason let his name

stand for the Republican nomination for the assembly seat for his district. Walsh and Gerard called him in and told him he would probably not be able to continue in his job because a civil servant could not run for political office. Jason showed him the section of the Civil Service Act that said university professors and lecturers, as well as staff at cultural institutions, were exempt from this provision of the Act. He stated his intention to stay in his position, and received support from the State Employees’ Association. Gerard’s monitoring of his work intensified.

Jason lost his bid for the nomination in the September 9th primary. The incumbent won 636 votes. Jason received only 364. The concern about his running for public office was now moot.

In October the Basaltic Coun-ty Commissioners flew in the other three out-of-town candidates – peo-ple with museum experience from Belle Fourche, Gillette and Minot – to be interviewed for the permanent director’s position. Walsh Burdett, not feeling at all certain he would be confirmed as permanent director, accepted an offer for an equivalent position in his native Nebraska and moved back. In early November, the county commissioners announced the appointment of Raymond Ser-rano of Belle Fourche as the new permanent director of the Basaltic County Historical Museum. Gerard was moved from the museum, where he had been presuming to give orders to fourteen employees, to the county archives, where he would supervise only three staff members.

Jason, family and friends cel-ebrated at the Gold Ore Restaurant what they thought was an imminent liberation from authoritarian man-

“Again celebrations with friends at the Gold Ore Res-taurant proved premature.”

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