THE SIGNALVOLUME 79 | ISSUE 16

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY

SERVING THE STUDENTS SINCE 1933

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2011WWW.GSUSIGNAL.COM

Whether in a meeting, forum or local poetry night, members of the

student organization Conscious Collective bring every part of

themselves. C.C., as called by the mem-

bers, committ body, mind and soul to their delivery and perception in and out of the Georgia State community.

Through poetry, they have developed a free and open environment for themselves and other students to be cre-ative.

All topics are open for dis-cussion in this group. Ranging

from domestic violence to celi-bacy, the more authentic, the bet-

ter.The ultimate goal: to bring aware-

ness and a place to express emotions in the best way students know how.

Full story on p. 13

aLICIa JohNSoNCopy editor

❚ SPortS▲ Player Spotlight:Kelton Hillcharges back from a troubling summer

▲ Travelogue:The sights, sounds and fl avors of Coasta Rica

page 15

US!Follow us!

▲ Student entrepreneur does it again: see what heʼs up to now

page 14

▲ Students host crime pre-vention townhall▲ twilight mania is not losing its bite: what gives?▲ Whatʼs next for the Atlanta Hawks?

ONLINE

Find out how Georgia State is helping the homeless this

holiday season. Volunteer

today!

Happy Holidays!

❚ ONLINE EXCLUSIVE

❚ read more at www.gsusignal.com ❚

❚ artS LIVING&

WEDHi 53

FRIHi 57

THURHi 54

GIVING THEM A VOICEA LOOK InSIde ATLANTAʼS HOMeLeSS neWSpAperFull story on p. 3

rIGHtInG HIS WrOnGS

Whether in a meeting, forum or Whether in a meeting, forum or local poetry night, members of the local poetry night, members of the

student organization Conscious student organization Conscious Collective bring every part of Collective bring every part of

themselves. themselves.

bers, committ body, mind and bers, committ body, mind and soul to their delivery and soul to their delivery and

ative. ative.

cussion in this group. Ranging cussion in this group. Ranging from domestic violence to celi-from domestic violence to celi-

bacy, the more authentic, the bet-bacy, the more authentic, the bet-ter.ter.The ultimate goal: to bring aware-The ultimate goal: to bring aware-

ness and a place to express emotions ness and a place to express emotions in the best way students know how.in the best way students know how.

aLICIa JohNSoNaLICIa JohNSoNCopy editorCopy editor

Student organization Conscious Collective form poetic family

WrItten COnSCIOuSneSS

aySha JohNSoN | The SIGNaL

SIX In tHe CItYDefense shines

in six-game winning streak

Full story on p. 9

page 10

Our o� ense is created by our defense. You can’t run and score points if you don’t get stops.

“ “

--Coach Ron Hunter

FAt MIKe reFLeCtS On HIS dArK pASt And LOOKS tO A BrIGHter FutureFull story on p. 2

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“If I had kids, I would’ve trained them to be athletes like me.”

Despite being a part of the ever-grow-ing homeless population of Atlanta for some 20 years, Fat Mike - the name that he is known by in the community – still has a strong passion for sports. “I played all sports, especially basketball. I loved to play basketball.”

But Fat Mike doesn’t play much bas-ketball these days.

Speaking with a slight tint of melan-choly in his voice, Fat Mike said he has done a lot of reminiscing lately on his once fast-paced life, fueled by drugs and alcohol but now detoured into the streets.

Born and raised in Atlanta in 1950 to what he described as “true Christian par-ents,” Fat Mike said he had a relatively normal childhood. After graduating from West Fulton high school, Fat Mike had a job, a girlfriend and a plan to move out of his parents’ house.

He eventually moved in with a friend during a time in which everything was “going good.”

But after a few years and several jobs, things started to fall apart.

Following the breakup with his girl-friend, whom he says he planned on mar-rying, Fat Mike was lost.

By this time, well into his twenties, he took a job with his father’s church, which he managed to hold for a couple years. Around this time, he met another “lit-tle chick,” whom he began to experiment harder drugs with after they moved in to-gether.

It was during this time in the mid-1980s that he made the mistake, as he called it, of “snorting some cocaine.”

But by the late ‘80s, Fat Mike went from simply using drugs to selling them.

“And I fell into the trap like a fool. I should’ve known better.”

He began with selling marijuana - amongst other drugs such as speed – and felt trapped. As he sank deeper into the world of drugs and alcohol, he began free-basing cocaine or inhaling it in its purest form.

“It was a turning point in my life,” he said. “Everything started going downhill.”

As everyone surrounding Fat Mike be-gan using drugs, his habit began to become quite expensive.

“I kept food on the table, I kept the bills paid and I supported my girlfriend – but I was using drugs.”

Unfortunately, Fat Mike’s temper got the best of him, causing him to quit his job at church and propelled him further into the lifestyle of a full-time dealer.

Sometime between 1986 and 1987, he was introduced to crack.

“It was cheaper,” Fat Mike recalled. “It was only fi ve to $10 for a hit – cocaine was about $25-$50.”

He continued using crack, alongside his girlfriend, while they lived in an apart-ment in the Bankhead area. Shortly af-terwards, they relocated to another side of town, met up with some old friends and began selling drugs there. He and his ‘clique’ had an assortment of hustles, he says – including gambling and prostitu-tion.

“Some of my boys were so-called ‘pimps,’ and they had their own thing go-ing on in Alabama.” According to Fat Mike, him and his ‘clique’ were pulling in an es-

timated $5,000 and split it amongst four people. “I had one friend who made prob-ably $10,000 a week.”

“We were eating the best food, going to the best clubs and traveling – just living the fast life.” By his own account, Fat Mike continued this lifestyle for some 10 years.

Although he always kept in constant contact with his family, they never ques-tioned where he was getting such large amounts of money from – but they defi -nitely knew.

“They knew I was hustling, especially my dad,” Fat Mike said. “He always says, ‘son, if you ever get locked up, don’t expect me to come get you. Your mom might, but not me.’”

Even the death of his mother in ’94, which Fat Mike says hurt him deeply, had no eff ect on his illicit activities – he con-tinued to use and sell.

The fast-paced lifestyle in which Fat Mike had become so accustomed to fi nal-ly caught up with him in 1996. Fat Mike, along with his clique, pulled an armed robbery at a local loan company and was caught by police.

With the arrest and sentencing, his

girlfriend left him, which he says didn’t surprise him much.

And, true to his word, his father never came to his rescue or so much as visited Fat Mike while he was incarcerated.

“My father never came and saw me. Actually, nobody did,” Fat Mike said.

But while serving his sentence out in prison, his father fell ill and died in 2005, without so much as a word with his son. Fat Mike was later released in 2006.

After his release, Fat Mike was em-ployed at a waste management company for about three years, until the company was sold and Fat Mike was laid-off . With the small amount of money he had to his name, he lived in a hotel room at the In-town Suite for six months – until his mon-ey ran out, forcing him to become yet an-other face living on the streets.

He did fi nd another job as a security guard at a local pizza joint for a short peri-od of time, but, as a felon, Fat Mike was not allowed to own a fi rearm and was laid off due to the restaurant’s need for an armed security guard.

Once again, he was homeless. “The last two to three years have been

a struggle,” Fat Mike said. His struggle worsened in May 2011

when he was found sprawled out in the grass lawn of a neighborhood in Homepark by emergency medical tech-nicians, suff ering from a form of arthri-tis known as gout that plagued his hands, knees and other areas of his body. Diabe-tes and high blood pressure have also been constant health concerns. Combined with the fact that he was homeless, his dwin-dling health caused him to enter a deep depression.

“I was just in too much pain, physical-ly and emotionally.”

Wheel chair bound for six months, Fat Mike slept in numerous spots, including the grass, the front yards of abandoned houses and inside empty buildings.

With the help of pain relievers and di-abetes medication, Fat Mike is slowly but surely rebuilding his life. He’s back with his church family, who provide him with food and clothing.

“All I have to do is call my outreach pastor Steve up, and he’ll take me to church and drop me back off . They’ve been a good support group for me.”

Fat Mike also spoke of plans to start searching for a job after the Christmas holiday, perhaps another security job. He also said he wants to lose 50 pounds, which he plans to do by working out fi ve days a week at the gym connected to his church.

“Working out keeps me focused,” Fat Mike said. “An idle mind is the devil’s playground.”

Fat Mike loves to talk about sports – he is an ardent fan of the Lakers and Steel-ers – but holds many regrets.

“I regret doing drugs and alcohol,” he related. “Alcohol led to me doing drugs. If I could go back, I would’ve never tasted it.”

“I’ve seen what it does to many people in my family, but it wasn’t enough to make me stop at the time,” Fat Mike said, look-ing down at the pavement in contempla-tion. “I had two choices: stop using drugs or end up in the ground. So now, I keep myself surrounded by spiritual people; I pray a lot, too. “

Fat Mike said he has considered sui-cide in the past.

“At one point, I wanted to give up. Four or fi ve times I’ve thought about sui-cide – just swallowing a bunch of pills and ending it all.”

But sitting on the ledge where only seven months ago he lay sprawled out waiting to go to the hospital, his eyes beam bope, and a smile stretches across his face,.

“God has a plan for me. He never puts more on you than you can handle.”

NEWSwww.gsusignal.com/news

❚ ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Offi ce of Civic Engagement provides volunteer opportunities to help the homeless ALSO: Students to host crime prevention townhall

NEWSwww.gsusignal.com/news

HoMELESS

aLeXIS SmITh / The SIGNaLFat Mike rests on the corner where just a few months ago he lay sprawled out, plaged with gout, waiting for an ambulance to arrive.

One homeless man’s battle to overcome a troubled past

Fighting the past Looking to the future

aLexIS SMIthStaff Writer

At one point, I want-ed to give up. Four or fi ve times I’ve thought about suicide – just swallowing a bunch of pills and ending it all.

“

“

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2011 NEWS | THE SIGNAL 03

The courtyard of Mercy Communi-ty Church quietly fills up with knit-cap covered heads, each waiting patiently for their turn at fresh coffee. As the Bible study next door lets out, Jeremy Godfrey prepares pens and paper for his writer’s workshop class held inside the church.

The workshops are designed to help the writers that contribute to his news-paper, Atlanta Overlook, fine-tune their writing skills. However, the Overlook is no ordinary newspaper: the entire writ-ing staff of the paper is homeless.

“I prefer the term residentially-chal-lenged,” Gerald, a homeless writer at-tending the workshop, said. “When you say residentially-challenged, you can al-ways get a smile out of someone.”

Godfrey, an english professor at Georgia State working on his disserta-tion, has been an active volunteer with homeless-affiliated organizations before creating the Atlanta Overlook.

Godfrey said that “not a lot of peo-ple know about street papers in general,” but most major cities in North America and Canada now have papers similar in concept to the Overlook. These papers were what drew Godfrey’s initial inspi-ration.

“I was in the library researching and came across Nashville’s Contribu-tor, which has been established since 2007, has a monthly circulation of over 150,000, which is incredible,” Godfrey said. “It’s basically a phenomenon.”

Godfrey traveled to Nashville to meet with Tasha French, the Contribu-tor’s executive director, to see how her street paper operated.

“I was like, ‘wow, I could do this’ and got really excited,” Godfrey said.

Godfrey was an active volunteer at Mercy Community Church, and they graciously agreed to partner with him to host the workshops.

Meeting Monday and Thursday mornings, the church workshop hosts seven to twelve homeless people on av-erage. On these days, men and women of varying ages and ethnicities gather around wooden tables in an area that doubles as an art room.

During one of the meetings last Thursday, a woman walked into the room in the middle of the workshop ac-tivity, inquiring if this is the place where the homeless people can come and write.

“I’m a writer! I’m a writer!” a wom-an named Beth, who fell on hard times since she returned to the Atlanta area

from California said. She said she hopes to enroll at Georgia State sometime soon.

Another peculiarity of the paper is that the writers double as newspaper vendors as well, which they sell for a dollar a piece.

“That’s part of the method of em-powerment, the way I see it,” Godfrey said. “There’s that one-on-one interac-tion between the public, passersby and the vendors.”

“[This is] a way of reaching a public that views homelessness in a negative light, hopefully bringing those two sides together; the public and the marginal-ized community,” he continued.

One of the most successful vendors is a homeless man named Steve, who said he is grateful for the Occupy Atlanta protesters because they make such great costumers.

“If you go to a rally with Jeremy, you are going to sell some papers,” Godfrey said. “The people of Occupy Atlanta are ready to hear what we have to say.”

During the workshop last Thursday, the writers and vendors made it clear that they want to make sure their per-sonal distribution of the paper is infor-mative and not perpetuating stereotypes that they say marginalize the homeless.

“Now, [shoppers] have these home-less papers in their face, they see it as a nuisance… they are trying to shop,” Leg-end said. He is a writer for Overlook that is known for his hand-made jewelry, which he sells in Little Five Points.

He said that he has witnessed over-ambitious solicitation of the paper in that area. How and where they sell the paper matters, especially if they don’t want to drive costumers away. One con-cern is weather to promote the paper in areas that are notorious for homeless drug abuse.

“The people that distribute [Over-look] represent the paper,” said Rich-ard, a homeless writer and vendor who is concerned that untactful distribution could hurt Overlook’s image and stain their message.

Even with these dangers, Godfrey believes in the positive impact of the pa-per on the lives of those who contribute to it.

“I’ve had people who write for the paper come up to me and say, ‘this is re-ally changing my life,’” Godfrey said.

Godfrey has felt the impact as well.“It’s really helped me rethink my

teaching here at Georgia State,” Godfrey said. “How do you build community? You have so many people from different walks of life walk through the door.

“This is kind of like my life goal,” he added.

terah boydassociate News editor

Atlanta Overlook tells the homeless’ side of the story

Giving them a voice

(Above) One homeless writer, known as Legend, focuses on writing a story for the latest issue of the Atlanta Overlook, which went to print for the fourth time last Friday. (Right) Jeremy God-fey, a Georgia State english pro-fessor that manages the Atlanta Overlook and assists Gerlad with the proofreading of a story in the art room of the Mercy Communi-ty Church, which doubles as the Overlook’s newsroom. (Bottom) Legend reads a draft of his sto-ry with Gerlad. The writing staff is made up of various homeless men and women that sell the pa-pers for a profit.

Terah Boyd/ The SIGNaL

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 201104 NEWS | THE SIGNAL

deCeMber 4University CommonsOffi cers arrested two GSU students for Alcoholic Possession un-der 21 Years Old. At 11:00 p.m. offi cers made contact with the two students and confi rmed they were underage and intoxicated. They were arrested, processed and released on a Copy of Charg-es.

University CommonsOffi cers arrested two GSU students for Alcoholic Possession un-der 21 Years Old. At 1:00 a.m. offi cers made contact with the two students and confi rmed they were underage and intoxicated. They were arrested, processed and released on a Copy of Charg-es.

deCeMber 3

Freshman dormitoryOffi cers arrested a GSU student for Alcoholic Possession under 21 Years Old. At 8:30 p.m. offi cers made contact with the indi-vidual who was underage and intoxicated. She was transported to the hospital for observation and was arrested, processed and released on a Copy of Charges.

Freshman dormitoryOffi cers arrested a GSU student for Alcoholic Possession under 21 Years Old. At 10:00 p.m. offi cers made contact with the indi-vidual who was underage and intoxicated. She was transported to the hospital for observation and was arrested, processed and released on a Copy of Charges.

Piedmont North General areaOffi cers issued a Non-GSU individual a Criminal Trespass Warn-ing. At 4:06 p.m. offi cers were advised the individual received a parking citation and that he became verbally combative. He was issued a C.T.W. and was escorted off campus without incident.

deCeMber 2

Student recreation CenterA report was fi led for Theft. The complainant, a GSU staff mem-ber stated, at 4:00 p.m. after receiving a bank statement of insuf-fi cient funds from an account a GSU student advised her she had been taking money from the account. The case is being handled by Investigations. General Classroom buildingA report was fi led for Threatening/Harassing another Person. The complainant, a GSU student stated, on 11/07/11 at 11:00 a.m. she began receiving harassing phone calls, emails and text from another GSU student. The case is being handled by Investiga-tions.

deCeMber 1

Sports arenaOffi cers arrested a Non-GSU individual for Disorderly Conduct and Failure to Leave Campus. At 8:37 p.m. after advising the indi-vidual to leave the Sports Arena he returned. Offi cers made con-tact with the individual and he became verbally combative and refused to cooperate with offi cers. He was issued a C.T.W. and was arrested, processed and transported to Fulton County Jail.

Library PlazaA report was fi led for Theft of Lost or Mislaid Property. The com-plainant, a GSU student stated, at 9:50 a.m. she left her cellular phone unattended and when she returned at 10:04 a.m. she no-ticed it was missing. The case is being handled by Investigations.

Library SouthA report was fi led for Theft of Lost or Mislaid Property. The complainant, a GSU student stated, at 11:00 a.m. he left his back-pack containing various items unattended and when he returned at 11:10 a.m. he noticed it was missing. The case is being handled by Investigations.

turner Field Parking LotA report was fi led for Theft of Lost or Mislaid Property. The complainant, a GSU student stated, at 4:30 p.m. he left his back-pack containing various items unattended and when he returned at 7:45 p.m. he noticed it was missing. The case is being handled by Investigations.

Located at the heart of a city with one of the na-tion’s most heavily concentrated homeless popula-tions, policing the campus of Georgia State provides a unique challenge, Carlton Mullis, the director of university police, said.

“It’s an ongoing problem that we deal with,” Mullis said. “We have a large population of homeless – people who are in downtown, so this is one of the large congregating areas because a lot of the servic-ing centers are here.”

Because of the unique problems facing the homeless community, including potential “mental illness or substance abuse issues,” university police receive additional training in how to deal with po-tentially unstable individuals.

“Our biggest way [in addressing the homeless is-sue] is probably our Crisis Intervention Team,” Mul-lis said. “We have a large part of our offi cers, prob-ably over half our patrol offi cers, are trained in that program.”

“It’s not just for homeless [people,] but it teaches our offi cers to recognize when a person is in what they call ‘in crisis’ with a mental problem and that may be better addressed through mental health rath-er than taken to jail.”

Still, he said police must be careful to address only the behavior of the homeless and not their resi-dency status.

“What we are concerned with is behavior, not status. So if you’re behaving, certainly in the public areas, like Hurt Park, if you’re obeying the rules of the park, I’m not concerned whether you are home-less or not.”

Rather than arresting homeless men and wom-en caught loitering or soliciting on campus the fi rst time, university police frequently issue criminal tres-pass warnings, which gives a written notice prohib-iting repeated behavior for a set period of six months to two years.

If individuals with active warnings appear back on campus, they face the possibility of being arrest-ed on sight, Mullis said. But these warnings are only valid for university property, meaning that those fre-quently identifi ed as homeless are free to go any-where else.

In the month of November, university police is-sued approximately 26 criminal trespass warnings, according to daily crime reports.

These police reports often detail suspects that were “acting suspiciously” or “loitering” on univer-sity property, sometimes entering and exiting vari-ous buildings multiple times.

Other reports detail incidents where individuals were reported sleeping inside university bathrooms as well as taking plastic bags and paper towels.

Some of these individuals can be helped, and university police work with the Gateway Center, an Atlanta non-profi t organization that shelters and provides services for the homeless.

ChrIS ShattUCKNews editor

policing the homeless “an ongoing problem”

Manning a homeless shelter may not be the most glamorous way to spend a night, but that has not stopped up to 25 Georgia State students from doing just that on a regular basis.

“It honestly makes me feel so great just to be with these people,” said Vanessa Segura, a market-ing major that regularly volunteers at two home-less shelters nearby campus. “I love hanging out with them.”

Besides the relatively straightforward tasks of feeding the homeless and watching over them while they sleep, volunteers are also encouraged to interact and talk with the men and women they help.

“People think that charity is just money and giving material things, but that’s not what it is,” she said. “These people just want attention. They want friends. They want to be considered human beings.”

Led by Rudi Schlosser, a post-grad student, the Catholic Student Association helps coordinate volunteer opportunities for Georgia State students at the Central Night Shelter and a shelter within the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, a Cath-olic church located just a few blocks away from the edge of campus near the Capitol Building.

All together, these shelters house and feed about 100 men every night from the start of No-vember until the end of March.

He said the group welcomes all students, re-gardless of religious inclination, to come out and help.

“It has nothing to do with religion, other than it’s a student organization – the Catholic Student Association – leading Georgia State students to help at this shelter,” he said.

Prompted by a stated need to expand aware-ness about what students can do to help the home-less, Schlosser said the CSA has distributed fl y-ers around campus asking for their time, clothes, blankets and extra food.

Students have responded fairly well, accord-ing to Schlosser.

“From the fl yers, we’ve collected about maybe 100 blankets from Georgia State students that are

used for the indoor shelter.” And blankets are very important, especially as

the temperature begins to drop with the change of the season, Schlosser said.

“Last year at least one person froze to death that was just too cold, and that blanket could have saved that person’s life,” he said.

The group is also preparing a variety of holi-day celebrations for the homeless men’s shelters, as well as for the Gateway Center – a shelter for women and children.

For Thanksgiving they helped prepare a large meal for the patrons, and they have begun deco-rating and preparing gifts for the winter holidays.

“We made lunch for them and decorated the fourth fl oor of the building with a Christmas-type theme. We decorated the ornaments and decorat-ed the gifts,” Schlosser said. “And when they saw so many students and other people volunteer, they were just overwhelmed.”

But Schlosser made it clear that physical con-tributions are not the most important thing to homeless people, in his view.

“The most important thing is just spending time with them,” Schlosser said. “I’m not just go-ing to throw food at you. I’m not just going to give you money. I’m going to spend time with you and just hear your story and see if I can help out in any way and listen to what you have to say.”

ChrIS ShattUCKNews editor

Making a connectionStudents volunteer to help the homeless

It has nothing to do with reli-gion, other than it’s a student organization ... leading Geor-gia State stu-dents to help at this shelter.

“

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FroM the edItorIaL board refl ects the majority opinion of the Editorial Board of The Signal, but not necessarily the opinions of individual editors

THE SIGNALEditorial Board

Miranda Sain, Editor in Chief• Mishall Rehman, Managing Editor • Chris Shattuck, News Editor • Sebastian Wee,

Associate News Editor • Angel White, Campus Life Editor • Saakib Zafrani, Sports Editor • D.J. Dunson, Associate Sports Editor • Brooke Marshall, Entertainment Editor

•Paul Demerritt, Associate Entertainment Editor • Bennett Greer, Production Editor• Aysha Johnson, Assistant Production Editor • Brittany Williams, Online Editor • Sa-

vanna Keo, Copy Editor • Miles Keenlyside, Copy Editor • Alicia Johnson, Copy Editor • Judy Kim, Photography Editor

opINIoNSwww.gsusignal.com/opinions

FroM the edItorIaL boardShame on the adminstration

With record-breaking numbers of students being accepted and graduating from Georgia State, you would think now would be the perfect time for administrators to start celebrating.

Instead, as hundreds prepared to graduate in the Georgia Dome at the end of this semester, those same administrators have dashed the chances of others to do the same in the future.

Unlike in previous years, when Georgia State held a commencement ceremony for both its winter and spring classes, the administration has apparently decided the students this winter will be the last class deserving of that honor.

In a supposed cost cutting maneuver, the university administration has settled on postponing the ceremony until the spring, so that both groups will graduate together.

However, the problem with this reasoning is that it ignores the goals and plans of our potential alumni. For starters, it is assumes that students have the luxury of waiting several months to attend a commencement ceremony.

Their reasoning assumes that these graduating students have the time to just wait around another fi ve months to get the full recognition they deserve.

This assumption by school administrators belies a general problem within the upper echelons of those with power over public education.

Like the cuts to HOPE and other anti-student policy changes in the last year, those in power have shown a persistent tendency to put their balance sheets over students.

Yes, these ceremonies cost the school lots of money, but if there is a single event worth spending any money on, then it should undoubtedly be on the recognition of the school’s graduating class.

And rather than forcing these students to postpone their recognition, we should be holding them up as examples for the rest of us not fortunate to have fi nished our degrees yet.

After all, every other large, public research university in the state holds a major commencement ceremony for its graduates at the end of each term, including Georgia Tech at the dome. We look foolish and uncaring to not do the same.

Everyone involved in the decision to eliminate winter commencement, from the University Senate, the Deans Group, the Administrative Council and the Student Government Association, should be ashamed.

So while we congratulate those graduating this semester, we cannot help but feel as though the school thinks their of their graduation not as a celebration but as a fi nancial burden.

terah boydassociate News editor

Please allow me to preface this with the knowledge that I break out in cold sweats when I fi nd myself at a dinner table with mul-tiple glasses or worse; more than one fork. And yes, when I make my annual pilgrimage to church on Easter Sunday my Grandmoth-er continues to scowl at the fact that I have donned un-creased slacks instead of a pastel dress.

But if you are a person fortunate enough not to have been raised by a pack of wolves, there are a handful of common sense rules of politeness that should be pretty standard is-sue, especially here at school.

A few actions I witnessed this week on campus led me to near violent fi ts of rage and tyrannical outbursts. Fortunately I was polite enough to refrain.

CELL PHONES

During a group presentation that counted as our class’ fi nal exam grade, I watched each of the members of our assigned team take their turn to speak. One student, after narrat-ing her piece of the project, reached into the breast pocket of her jacket to retrieve her cell phone.

I gave her the benefi t of a doubt; maybe she was checking the time. Her eyes scanned the images her sleek smart-phone, followed by a chuckle. A chuckle! She then proceeded to write a thoughtful response to the mes-sage before replacing the phone in her pock-et. A few moments later an ambiguous buzz prompted her to once more locate the phone, followed by another chuckle.

I know it’s rude to stare, but I was shocked! While I was trying to scrape my jaw off the fl oor I was again surprised to discover that that only a handful of students seemed to be as shocked as I was.

The check out counter at the grocery store, the car swerving in front of one on the interstate, and obnoxious beeps on the fi fth fl oor of our library are constant reminders of how cell phones provide new and improved ways for people to showcase how base, dumb, and absolutely inconsiderate they can be.

One could stand on a soap box for days dissecting the ways constant communication is killing our culture, but I have more shock-ing tales of rudeness to expose.

BATHROOMS

Again, this is a subject that is a constant source of pity and rage for my fellow man.

While washing up after class and attempt-ing to snake charm my medusa mane, a fellow lady student walked out of a restroom stall as I was collecting my things. We were the only two in a bathroom equipped with six stalls and four sinks.

We exchanged polite bathroom smiles, and as I turn from the sink she exits the stall,

puts her potentially poop covered hand on the knob of the bathroom door, and vacates the woman’s restroom. [Insert expletive] come on! I too have to touch the poop knob now, or be forever trapped in the Aderhold loo.

In a perfect world this gal has a gallon jug of Purell in her backpack, but ours is not a perfect world. Infesting the door knobs and handrails on the world with your excrement, sneezing on keyboards and coughing without a hand in front of your face to catch your nasty mouth juice is not only super-icky-gross, it’s top three on my rudest things ever list!

MERGING

I don’t have it in me to fi ght the good fi ght that is road rage…but let me start with this one battle.

OK, Mr. Toyota Prius, with your clean emissions, how did you get on the interstate today? Where you dropped from the heavens, magically becoming one with rush hour traf-fi c? No, you had to merge on to the roadway. Funny, I too am attempting to make my way on to the Connector. The only problem with that, Mr. Toyota Prius, is that as I slap on my blinker to let you know I’m coming, I see you accelerate in an attempt to pass me before I am safely on the highway.

The bad news is that you are softer than the brick wall I am about to hit, so I continue my journey into traffi c. The good news is you have decent brakes.

After my fellow commuter let me know they were not pleased with my necessary merge, (I received a plethora of honks and strange gestures until Courtland Street), they proceeded to cut me off at my exit. I soon learned that aside from being environmen-tally conscious, they too attend Georgia State University. Great, I bet you cash money that I end up sitting next to this jerk next semester.

How can nice descent people get behind the wheel of an automobile only to become raving lunatics? We forget that a minor car crash could really hurt or kill someone. We forget that the person in the other car is a per-son.

Would you fl ick someone off in the gro-cery store, if their cart came too close to you in the freezer isle because they are pricing a Totino’s Pizza? No, you would be polite and say, “Excuse me.”

As you wade through the un-pushed-in chairs of our classrooms and step over the trash in our courtyard, keep in mind that we are all in this together. Politeness isn’t a for-mal courtesy; it is looking out for your fellow student, paying it forward, you know…golden rule type stuff .

As we embark on this Holiday season, let’s try and use an empathetic eye and think about the decisions we make and how they impact others. If this is possible I think our campus next semester will be a happy place.

Yep, manners are DEAD

Would you fl ick someone off in the grocery store… No, you would be polite and say, “Excuse me.

“

“

❚ ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: do the holidays truly bring the best out of people?

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2011 06 opINIoNS | THE SIGNALopINIoNS | THE SIGNAL

During the last election, Mis-sissippi voters defeated a ballot ini-tiative known as the “Personhood Amendment” or Initiative 26. This initiative attempted to make an amendment to Mississippi’s state constitution that said life begins at fertilization of the egg. 58 percent of Mississippians voted against the bill in a state with a long history of pro-life sentiment and legislation.

The initiative, which support-ers thought would challenge na-tionwide abortion laws and rights, attempted to establish very gener-al legislation in an eff ort to make it nearly impossible for a woman to have an abortion. It not only would have accomplished this but it could have suppressed women’s ability to gain certain types of birth control, fertility treatment and fertilization counseling. While it was defeated in Mississippi many are fearful that a more succinct and less sweeping form of the initiative may emerge, making it more palatable for voters in other states.

Thankfully, Mississippi voters, like Colorado voters twice before, came to their senses and realized the potential implications of passing the initiative. Certain types of birth con-trol, because they can kill fertilized eggs, might become illegal to obtain. Providing emergency birth control such as the “morning-after pill” to rape victims would almost certainly become illegal. In Vitro fertilization

techniques could become illegal be-cause of the disposal and use of fer-tilized eggs. Women carrying fertil-ized eggs might eff ectively lose their legal rights because they “house” an-other person. Such an amendment would be unconstitutional because it is in direct confl ict with Roe vs. Wade, which legalized abortion in the United States.

It was the very general and self-ishly delusional terminology of the initiative that eff ectively turned off voters and their support. The Per-sonhood pro-life supporters her-alded the amendment when fi rst in-troduced as a no-brainer right wing vote. When the implications of its passing became apparent, it began to lose support from normally conser-vative followers.

The initiative attempted to change too much at once. This made many supporters uncomfort-able. Even Republican politicians such as Mississippi Gov. Haley Bar-bour admitted struggling with “Per-sonhood” before eventually voting for it because he is pro-life. Barbour wanted the wording of the bill to be ironed out in the state legislature be-fore being given to voters.

It is this editing and “ironing out” of the initiative which is most dangerous to many pro-choice sup-porters. Personhood USA has al-ready failed to pass such legislature twice in Colorado and now once in the much more conservative Missis-

sippi. We can now look for more suc-cinct forms of the initiative to reach the voters in other states.

Attempts are currently being made to have the initiative put on ballots in Montana, Ohio, Florida, Nevada and California. Personhood USA offi cials have already said that they may attempt a re-wording of the initiative and reintroduce it in the states where it has already failed.

This relentlessness to have their initiative passed should frighten pro-choice advocates. It is easy to identify such bills when they are la-beled “Personhood Initiative” or have extreme language. It may be more diffi cult to identify and rally against such bills if their wording is changed and their support is unifi ed. Voters in the states where such ini-tiatives are already suggested should be wary of attempts by personhood advocates to increase their follow-ing. They may do this by support-ing legislation that supports abortion access restriction or even by gaining the support of religious groups with anti-abortion stances.

The defeat in Mississippi is posi-tive. It makes us think that if such a conservative state can oppose such an initiative it can be done in any state. This may be true in its current form, but without due vigilance we may fi nd ourselves fi ghting to main-tain ground against similar initia-tives in the future.

CraIG dUNN

Occupy Wall Street exposes police state in its infancy

MILeS KeeNLySIdeopinions editor

The protesters of the Occupy Wall Street movement took to the streets to draw attention to cor-porate greed and the uneven dis-tribution of wealth in the United States. In the end most media at-tention they got wasn’t for their economic messages, but for the extreme treatment that they suf-fered at the hands and boots of the police. If the protesters can’t expose corruption in the high-est echelons of the banking sys-tem, perhaps they can expose the much more pressing and perhaps frightening development in the United States: The extreme mili-tarization and illegal tactics of the police in the United States.

Over the years, the escalation of the “War on Drugs” has lead to increasing number of police sta-tions across the country to begin training their officers in the use of more sophisticated weaponry and tactics. Due to fear mongering on all levels of government, the Unit-ed States citizenry has sat silent over the years, believing that the increasing military style presence of the police all around them was for their own protection.

So when I show up to a peace-ful protest in my hometown of Atlanta only to have it broken up by what I could only describe as black-clad, club wielding storm troopers, I begin to worry. So in this, our beautiful “land of the free”, what are the freedoms that we hold so dear? Our freedom of speech is threatened. The gov-ernment is voting on things like SOPA and Net Neutrality in or-der to limit our access to informa-tion online. Our freedom of press is limited. Media conglomerates control our media, and use their influence to seek private gains. Our freedom of religion is sup-pressed. Muslims in our nation are treated as outsiders and ter-rorists. And now we finally know that our greatest strength, our freedom to peaceful assembly is being slowly chipped away.

Overseas, we condemn the use of force against peaceful protest-ers. When demonstrations break out in the middle east, the White

House is quick to hold a press conference where they “urge” the leaders of the country to “use re-straint” when dealing with the protesters. At home, our police are using tactics and weaponry that our Marines in Iraq are pro-hibited from using on peaceful demonstrators.

In many countries, police are unarmed and drive highly visi-ble vehicles painted in reflective paint. They wear reflective vests and are trained to be approach-able and friendly so that they can better serve the citizens in their area. Now consider the po-lice here in Atlanta. They dress in all black with a firearm on their hip. They drive supercharged cars with dark paintjobs and black tinted windows. I don’t know about you, but the police officers here in Atlanta don’t look very ap-proachable to me; they look more like they are about to invade Po-land.

In Oakland, Marine Scott Ol-sen received brain damage and was hospitalized after being struck in the head with a “less than lethal” 40mm tear gas pro-jectile at the Occupy Oakland pro-test. Do you know why the police refer to them as “less than lethal” weapons? They are not legally al-lowed to call them “non-lethal” weapons because these weapons can still kill you. Or how about the elderly woman who was pep-per sprayed in the face at Occu-py Seattle? Or the students who where seated peacefully with in-terlocked arms who were pepper sprayed by an officer with such a casual swagger that it became an internet meme? When will it alarm people that the police are so ready to use these weapons against demonstrators? When the police are so ready to use these weapons on peaceful demonstra-tors, they are not serving or pro-tecting our interests.

Our media is even actively coming to the defense of the po-lice and the tactics being used. Fox News has accused Occupy move-ments of running “rape camps” and hiding “weapons caches” in parks. A demonized movement is an easily suppressed movement. Megyn Kelly came to the defense of police officers using pepper spray by saying it is “essentially” a food product. The complacency of the media when it comes to the clearly coordinated actions of the police is worrying.

So next time you are driving along as a law abiding citizen and you get that twinge of fear when you see the dark police cruiser glide up behind you, ask yourself this: What has gone wrong when you fear the ones who are meant to protect you?

JUdy KIMPhotography editor

As the 2012 election approaches, presidential candidates debate large-ly on the topics of social and interna-tional concerns.

Environmentalism has been thrown to the back burner, and many seemed to have forgotten that the en-vironment still directly aff ects our ev-eryday lifestyle and our future genera-tions.

For example, look at the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill or the BP oil spill di-saster. The spill date was on April 20, 2010, and the well was not offi cially sealed until mid-September of the same year.

Nearly six months of unregulat-ed and unaccounted oil covered the shoreline and the top surface of the ocean – and people only cared about what they could see.

According to an article written by Abrahm Lustgarten from ProPublica, BP had to use a chemical dissolvent called dispersants to get rid of the sur-face oil.

The solution made by two mix-tures containing a certain amount of

toxicity that has been associated with headaches, vomiting and reproduc-tive problems.

Not only did this particular envi-ronmental catastrophe damage ani-mal and plant life, but it also destroyed the fi shing industry and tourism – and it can have extensive damage to the health of the human population in the area.

Since then the United States gov-ernment has continuously allowed BP to drill its product on our soil de-spite several past off enses – the larg-est being the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. Several people have called for the de-barment of BP, but to cut off the third largest oil company in the world could create devastating repercussions in the global economy.

Recently, Republican representa-tives have proposed a plan to abolish the Environmental Protection Agen-cy (EPA) because they believe that the EPA is destroying small businesses.

From the ThinkProgress publi-cation, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said, “I want to replace, not reform EPA, because [the] EPA is made of self-selected bureaucrats who are anti-American jobs, anti-American business, anti-state govern-ment, anti-local control, and I don’t think you can reeducate them.”

First, not only do I fi nd Gingrich’s statement to be extremely outlandish and cringe-worthy, but very ignorant as well. How was he able to say that the bureaucrats were self-selected? The EPA’s Head Administrator is ap-pointed by the president and then ap-proved by the Congress.

How is the EPA anti-American? The EPA represents America when disputing with other internation-

al corporations and countries about how they utilize our territory and de-mand that they respect it – the EPA fi ghts for our health and well-being as a whole.

And who said that the EPA is against American businesses? The EPA’s goal has always been plain and simple: to protect our citizens from water, air, pollutions and any other environmental hazardous concerns, never to harm specifi cally American businesses.

If a business is to get in the way of these safety concerns anyway, should they be allowed to operate? I say nay, especially because there are several other businesses out there that are more than willingly to conduct their business with a green sense of mind.

Having environmental regula-tions and requirements is a must in our country, because it is indisputably more important to have the health of our population prioritized above the businesses who are greedily abusing the environment for their own profi ts.

I am not saying that we can man-age without businesses operating ef-fectively in our country – I’m just say-ing that these businesses need to keep the environment in mind because our health and well-being are directly af-fected by their decisions.

It would be nice and actually more helpful to assess presidential candidates if they debated about envi-ronmental issues, of how they intend to invest in alternative energy, of what kinds of “green” plans they have, of how they would like to encourage our country to preserve the lands we live on and what they would do person-ally to ensure that the air we breathe would be as clean as yesterday’s.

“Personhood” defeated

reigniting the environmental Concern

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your voice • your opinions

How do you feel about the homeless on campus?

“I personally just act like they aren’t there, because it’s just easier to go about my day like that because honestly I get singled out a lot I feel like. For what, change? Cigarettes? And I think its only contributing to the criminalization of our society because what are they going to do with that cigarette? What are they go-ing to do with that change other than ruin themselves. I think I should hand them a job application rather, and tell them to get on their feet.”

-- George “Greg” Mammen

“I haven’t witnessed any disturbances by the homeless peo-ple against the students in my four year career here at [Georgia State]. So I honestly have nothing bad to say. I have very little interaction with [the homeless] besides the occasional cigarette bum.”

-- Thomas Chapman

“I don’t mind them being on campus. It doesn’t bother me. It’s a public school but I don’t mind them being on cam-pus grounds. It doesn’t offend me, I would much rather them be on campus in the courtyard where it is less exposed to the elements, than out on the street. Especially when it is so cold. It doesn’t bother me at all.”

-- Katy Garrett

“Whenever I see them, I react like they are normal people. But I wish that they had better care options, better places to go. But if they want to come to campus then that’s perfectly fine with me, because it’s a nice place to be, so if it’s good enough for us then it’s good enough for them too.”

-- Mandra Guth

StUdeNt Vox

Return your rental books now through:

December 13, 2011

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Visit www.gsubookstore.com for additional buyback hours and locations.

www.gsusignal.com/sportsSpoRTS

On Mar. 21, 2011 Ron Hunter walked through the doors of the Student Center Ballroom and accepted the job as Georgia State’s men’s basketball head coach. There, he boldly proclaimed that he would reverse the Panthers losing culture and take the program to plac-es it had never been. He never lost as a player at Mi-ami (Ohio), as a coach at IUPUI, and he made the same promise to Georgia State’s hibernating fan base. The fu-ture appeared bright—but it wasn’t supposed to arrive so quickly.

Most transformation projects take a few recruit-ing cycles to truly take eff ect. Common knowledge says that a new head coach requires a grace period to install a new style of off ense and defense. Hunter appears to have done the bulk of his work in three games.

After going winless during a three game tip-off tournament in Seattle, Hunter tweaked the defense be-fore the home opener against McNeese State.

“With the new staff and the system that we’re put-ting in, you only have two and a half weeks to practice before you start playing,” Hunter said. “We played some good basketball teams that are well established and all in all, I think we needed that.”

When the team was 0-3, this story would have been about Hunter’s Panthers crashing down to Earth.

Instead, the outlook hasn’t been this bright since Georgia State was an elite member of the Atlantic Sun Conference. Since the winless start, the Panthers have rocketed into the stratosphere and allowed just 47 points per game en route to their longest winning streak since the 2003-2004 season. That team won sev-en in a row. Georgia State is currently in the midst of a six-game winning streak and appears poised to con-tinue it.

The diff erences between the Barnes-coached Pan-thers and Hunter’s fi rst season has been staggering to witness. Even after Barnes’ 8-6 record in January of last season, there was an underlying sentiment that the team was playing below its potential.

Throughout their current six-game winning streak, the Panthers have been closing out games strong, which is a complete 180 from last season when the team would regularly fall fl at in the waning minutes. Fortunately, the Panthers closers during their winning streak have been their walk-ons as they’ve won each game by a comfortable average of 23 points per game.

After struggling to win on the road during Barnes’ tenure, the Panthers set a new school record for mar-gin of victory in a road victory in a 31-point thrashing of South Carolina State.

The Panthers fi rst road win of the season was a hard fought, 55-47 win over the Samford Bulldogs. Last No-vember, the Panthers allowed the same Samford team to rally back from a seven-point defi cit with 1:10 re-maining in regulation. The Bulldogs escaped the Sports Arena with an overtime victory.

On Saturday, in Hunter’s CAA opener, the Pan-thers nearly cloned William & Mary’s point total in a 66-34 victory. The defensive eff ort came one-point short of breaking the Georgia State record for fewest points allowed. The defensive pressure was swarm-ing so quickly that William & Mary often struggled to cross half court or to beat the shot clock, and William & Mary didn’t make their fi rst shot from inside the three-point line until the second half. By comparison, in their lone meeting of last season, Georgia State was dealt a fi ve-point defeat. It may also be time to throw out the low pre-season expectations about the Panthers. In the CAA Preseason Poll, Georgia State was picked to fi nish 11th, William & Mary was sixth.

The most obvious diff erence from this season to the last has been the team’s blistering pace. While Hunter’s affi nity for up-tempo off ense has been a popular topic, the defense has been the primary component of their early success. Recently, Hunter has called this most athletic team he’s ever coached and that athleticism has been on display in their full court press and on the re-sulting fast break opportunities.

According to Hunter, the core values of his teams at Georgia State will be defending, rebounding and run-ning, in that order.

“Our off ense is created by our defense. You can’t

run and score points if you don’t get stops,” Hunter said.As the consummate showman, Hunter has changed

everything including which side of the court the team’s bench is on and introduced the idea of the arena going dark during player introductions.

“It’s something I’ve wanted to do. I want it to be an event. When the students walk in there, I want them to feel excited,” Hunter said.

A side eff ect of Georgia State’s success has been the awakening of the fans as attendance and crowd inten-sity are both up. The rowdy no-sitting student section led by super fan Nick Bray has ruffl ed the feathers of opposing fans but has earned the admiration of Hunter and the team, who celebrate with them after every win.

The most extraordinary aspect has been that Hunt-er has accomplished all of this with nearly the exact same rotation that Barnes utilized.

Eric Buckner is establishing himself as one of the top shot blockers in the nation and ignites the crowd with his rim rattling dunks. Freshman swingman Tony Kimbro Jr. aka Kimbro Slice’s athleticism is unsur-passed and has also begun earning a reputation as great shot blocker. Senior Jihad Ali has also contributed his shooting touch as the team’s unoffi cial sixth man.

Although he loves the shot blocking of center Eric Buckner, Hunter believes the guards can improve in preventing dribble penetration.

The biggest surprise has been the play of quick trig-ger, three point specialist, Rashaad Richardson, who av-eraged only four minutes per game last season but has scored in double fi gures in three contests.

“One of the things when I fi rst came in here, I told him I didn’t care if he played one minute or every sec-ond last year on the basketball team,” Hunter said. “I didn’t watch a lot of team on him last year because it was a new day at Georgia State and I’m more concerned about the future than the past.”

Although, the season is young, Hunter probably doesn’t heed caution. Back at his introductory press conference in March, Hunter quipped that in a year he envisioned Georgia State competing in the CAA Cham-pionship Game on ESPN. Perhaps he wasn’t joking af-ter all.

dJ dUNSoNassociate Sports editor

Hunterʼs Rebuilding Plan Ahead of Schedule Panthers race to best start in eight years

ChrIS ShaTTuCK / The SIGNaLLed by shooting guard Rashaad Richardson and the conference’s top-ranked defense the Panthers have sprinted out to their best start since the 2003-2004 season. (Inset) Coach Ron Hunter

❚ ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: the Bowl Championship Series and its controversial selection process: Will we ever have a playoff system?

Modern day sports pages are overfl owing with tales of star athletes who wasted their talent and oppor-tunity because of poor judgment off the fi eld. This summer, Georgia State quarterback Kelton Hill II nearly be-came one of those stories. Despite reaching the halfway point towards earning his degree in education, Hill learned a valuable lesson this summer that couldn’t be taught in a classroom.

Along the way, Hill also took an unlikely path from running Georgia State’s practice squad in September to breaking numerous off ensive records over the fi nal fi ve weeks of the regular season as the starter.

Originally, Hill almost didn’t end up at Georgia State. After passing for 3,993 yards and running for 1,688 yards and scoring 54 touchdowns in his fi nal two seasons at Lithia Springs High School. Hill received off ers from bigger Division I programs. However, his father, Kelton Sr., didn’t want him to stray too far from home.

Kelton Jr. was also a very good baseball player. So good in fact, that Kelton Sr. envisioned his son playing college baseball. Some schools even off ered Hill dual scholarships to play both sports. Ultimately, Hill’s choic-es came down to playing football at

powerhouses such as Appalachian State, Alabama State, Middle Tennes-see State and Georgia State. When it came time for Hill to commit to a col-lege, he consulted Kelton Sr.

“We started going on visits and he decided he wanted to stay close to home because he wanted his family’s support,” Kelton Sr. said. “He liked what Georgia State was doing and wanted to play for Coach Curry after hearing about him.”

As a freshman, Hill’s only snaps came from the Panthers’ Wildcat packages, and he threw the ball just 15 times but led the team in rushing yardage.

After the conclusion of spring practices, Hill emerged as the pre-sumptuous starter for the 2011 season opener against Clark Atlanta. How-ever, this summer everything nearly came crumbling down.

On June 22, Hill was arrested by Georgia State University Police and charged with felony forcible entry in connection with a June 17 campus burglary. According to a police report, Hill and another student entered the room of a student through an un-locked window and stole a laptop. Hill was released on a $10,000 bond but was removed from the team’s ros-ter ,and a few weeks afterward the in-vestigation was turned over to Fulton County. The university also suspend-ed Hill, and the majority of observers outside the program thought Hill’s days as a Georgia State student were done.

“Having a son, who has never, ever, ever got into trouble, never sus-pended from school, never had to go to the principal’s offi ce, it was very shocking when I fi rst learned of it,” Kelton Sr. said.

Fortunately, the charges were later dropped by the Fulton Coun-ty District Attorney, who stipulated in a letter to Georgia State President Mark Becker that Kelton must gradu-ate from college within the next four years.

However, Curry had stipulations of his own before Hill could fully re-join the team.

Curry wanted Hill to apologize in front of the team, show remorse and tell his teammates that he’d made a terrible mistake which he would learn from.

After initially choking up and walking off the auditorium stage, Hill gathered himself and returned to de-liver an emotional apology. Hill also asked to re-establish himself as the leader his teammates knew him to be. They reacted by jumping up, holler-ing and immediately began embrac-ing him.

Although Hill didn’t see any actu-al game action until midway through Georgia State’s defeat against Hous-ton, he eventually became one of the brightest spots of the Georgia State off ense. During the fi nal fi ve games of the season, Hill performed brilliantly with his combination of running and throwing ability.

“His accuracy has improved, his leadership has improved and he has come through some personal adver-sity this year as have all our quarter-backs, in a way that makes us real proud of him, but we just want him to continue,” Curry said.

In the meantime, Hill has avert-

ed trouble off the fi eld, but because of his slim frame, Curry has emphasized that his 185-pound quarterback must also learn to avoid collisions on the gridiron.

“Trying to tackle him in the open fi eld is almost impossible. He is gift-ed,” Curry said. “He’s not a quarter-back that runs out of bounds or slides. He picks a linebacker out and tries to hurt him. And usually it doesn’t hurt the linebackers at all but it hurts Kel-ton.”

Not only do Kelton Jr. and Sr. share a name but they also remain gracious towards Curry. Despite his reserved personality, Kelton Jr. heaped plenty of praise on Curry.

“That’s a great man, great dude, he’s a player’s coach. He looks out for his players.” says Kelton Jr.

Kelton Sr. praised the way Curry handled his son’s return to Georgia State.

“The day he went through this, Coach Curry was on the phone and was on his way out of the country. We were on the phone with him and he talked about football being second-ary,” Kelton Sr. said. “ [Quarterbacks] Coach Pew called us every other day telling us to keep our spirits up. We knew it wasn’t about football. It was about Kelton. It showed us that they were here for the athletes. We were elated that they hung in there with us.”

In the meantime, Hill has taken care of his responsibilities off the fi eld and shown improvement on the fi eld. His responsibilities also include a mentoring group called the 4K Quar-terback Club. Before each game, Kel-ton meets with young quarterbacks from age 8 to 16 and talks to them about life and football.

Hill is again expected to begin next season as the starting quarter-back, but this time he’ll enter the off -season with more maturity.

“I’m happy he’s here at Georgia State, and I know we’re going through some growing pains,” Kelton Sr. said. “I truly believe the pains we’re going through right now will help the team next year.”

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2011 10 SpoRTS | THE SIGNAL

dJ dUNSoNassociate Sports editor

Kelton Hill charges back from troubling summer

SaaKIB ZaFraNI / The SIGNaLKelton Hill celebrates after winning fi rst start at the Homecoming game this year. He passed for 209 yards with two touchdowns and ran for 45 yards.

SpOtLIGHt to Hill and back

Position: Quarterback Height: 6’0” Weight: 183 Year: Redshirt Sophomore Hometown:Douglasville, Ga.

Starts: 5Passing Yards: 1,021 Rushing Yards: 609Passing TD: 11Rushing TD: 4

Facts:❚ Rushed for Georgia Staterecord 152 yards on 19 car-ries at West Alabama❚ Scored school-record fi ve touchdowns in regular sea-son fi nale❚ Led Georgia State to win in his fi rst start against South Alabama

BY tHe nuMBerS

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❚ ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: twilight mania still goingstrong: What gives?

consciousness

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: twilight mania still goingtwilight mania still going

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aySha JohNSoN | The SIGNaL

LIVING&ARTSwww.gsusignal.com/campuslife

Giving birth to

No fi nger snaps, no cou-plets or any rhyme schemes were needed at all. Even though there was a group of poets in the room, this was business.

A small, white room in the Student Center of Georgia State, was the strategy grounds of pure creativity. The only unpredictable sound was the rattle of the central air system, interjected by the opening and closing of the wooden door.

People who manage to use not only the right, creative, side of their brain in perfect harmony with the more logi-cal, left side are few and far be-tween. Student organization, Conscious Collective (C.C. as called by the group mem-bers), does just that. Made up of various students through-out the Georgia State commu-nity, these poets produce cre-ativity in a way that still brings societal and personal issues to light.

Formerly known as No-madic Ciphers, C.C. developed nearly a decade ago within the Offi ce of African Ameri-can Student Services and Pro-grams. Collecting an aspiring teacher, a former musical lyri-cist and a committed commu-nity service advocate, among others, forms a conscious group to say the least.

One glance at any of these poets sparks creativity and an urge to infl uence others imme-diately.

The group’s goal is simple. According to the group’s mot-to, they want to give “birth to consciousness without a need

for contraceptives.”On Fridays, the E-Board

of the organization meet to plan upcoming performanc-es, discuss fi nances and cri-tique their most recent poetry events.

The left sideKenny Golden, the presi-

dent of C.C. for three years starts off by telling the oth-ers how proud he is of them. Golden, a mid-level education major, got his start with poetry his freshman year at the Geor-gia State talent show. Although it’s been years, he still remem-bers the poem by heart. He’s thoughtful that way, steering the meeting in order to keep the others on track.

Within this session, the group decides on ciphers and other poetry events for next semester, one of them is cen-tered on Valentine’s Day. Da-vid (D.J.) Williams, the most outspoken one of them all, gets excited when plans are being made.

“February is takeover the world month,” Williams said.

Until then, C.C. continues to hold weekly forums with other Georgia State students and perform at venues in At-lanta. The forums, held in the Urban Life Building, allow stu-dents to creatively vibe with C.C. At each forum, a large cir-cle expands as more poets join; everyone with a pencil and pa-per in hand.

“Sometimes I wonder why time is so infi nite and how I’m limitless,” Williams created.

This evolved from the ‘sometimes I wonder’ writing prompt given at the start of the forum.

In a constant eff ort to im-

prove their poetry and per-formance, members got in the middle of the circle and per-formed new poems, while be-ing recorded to receive some healthy criticism before head-ing to poetry night at Urban Grind Café in midtown.

Fellow C.C. member Zak-kiyya Anderson practiced her poem “Listener Discretion Ad-vised” for the group. Ander-son evoked immense amounts of emotion depicting her ide-al mate. Consciousness fi l-ters into every part of her life, claiming she wants, “a man who is conscious of her every need.”

One of the most organ-ic poets in the group is New York City native, Devan Pinck-ney. Pinckney, new to C.C. has been a poet since his life back in Manhattan and does more than simply deliver his poems for entertainment. “This spo-ken word is a piece of me ... When I perform this for you, it’s really for me,” Pinckney rhymes.

C.C. seems to bring a New York State of mind with two other members originating from the Empire state. Shalom Little, a Brooklyn native, con-nects with poetry in a diff erent way than the others. As a for-mer hip-hop rapper since age 11, Little brings a more musical element to C.C.

“It’s a transition,” Little said. “It helps me grow better as a rapper.”

These tactical individu-als were replaced on the next encounter with black clothed, free-fl owing poets that opened up their hearts and minds to complete strangers.

alicia JohnsonCopy editor

The right side Pinckney approached the barren space fi rst. Barely

through the door but eager to perform his poem, he began fi lling the faintly lit circle formed by unfamiliar creative souls with words.

Pinckney’s presence was solemn as he told the story of a woman trapped in an abusive relationship. He licked his lips in between the stanzas, emulating L.L Cool J’s signature ges-ture. He elevated his voice as the poem progressed, counting down the seconds until the woman shoots her abuser. This poem was inspired by a domestic violence discussion that took place in one of Pinckney’s courses.

A polar opposite performance was delivered by a smil-ing, energetic Golden before the anticipated C.C. group piece.

In a tag team manner, all of C.C. including a distinctly bold Brandon Roberts and Adam McIntosh, the group’s el-oquent ambassador, recited separate verses between a com-mon chorus. They were all high energy and this evoked onto listeners. The premeditation of their art made them confi -dent poets, not a stutter or disclaimer in sight.

This confi dence was felt by them too, “I know I did good,” Williams said.

While a more modest approach was taken by other mem-bers. “I can always work on my delivery,” Little said.

After the performance like many others, they all relaxed, gave each other hugs but they still did not abandon their po-etry.

Anderson was in a corner reciting a poem from her note-

book to Pinckney who tried out some of his new material af-terwards. A few steps away, Golden gave advice to Molly Bea-vers, a fi lm major, on her stage presence. Beavers is currently co-president and gets anxious whenever performing in front of people, but C.C. has helped her with her nervousness.

“I really do love this organization, “ Beavers said. “It’s ca-tered to people like me.”

The success of this night can only be contributed to the thought that goes into C.C. long before the lights shine on these individuals with eager ears listening for the fi rst sylla-ble. The mindful nature of C.C. allows them to make a mark wherever they step.

“I feel like we’re bigger than just a school organization. (We) touch people in a diff erent way,” Little said.

Holiday cheer is here, and winter break is the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. But before you overdose on eggnog, remember that your academic duty calls. Here are a few tips to help you remain focused and finish the semester strongly.

Sleep well and eat well. Late nights and early mornings are parts of a college student’s life, but all-nighters

shouldn’t be. A study titled Effects of Caffeine and Nighttime Technology Use on Sleep Quality in Col-

lege Students done by the Boston College School of Nursing found that students who do not get enough quality rest have greater daytime dysfunction than those who do not.

“The keys to finals prep are adequate rest and eating regularly. These will reduce your amount of stress and increase your energy and ability to focus on a given task,” Jon Boles, an exercise science major said.

He also advises, “Avoid greasy foods and late night snacking. Caffeine and energy drinks can easily backfire. All these things will help in the long run.”

While grabbing a McGriddle or hamburger and french fries in the cafeteria is a quick, easy way to have a meal, taking time to carefully choose nutrient-rich foods can boost your brain’s learning power. Try low-fat yogurt or fresh fruit for breakfast and whole-grain crackers with peanut butter or cheese for a snack.

Make reservationsBut not for your tummy and a two-seater table. Make reservations at the student study

rooms in the library. During finals week, Libraries North and South most closely resemble the midnight premiere of a Twilight movie – a packed house. Prearranging a room ensures that you’ll have a quiet, comfortable area with space to spare. Reservations can be made in person or online by visiting the library website.

Go digital. Organizing group study sessions can be a hassle during finals week. To avoid conflict, form

a Google group or use a video conferencing program like ooVoo to connect with numerous people at once. If you’re pressed for time, create flashcards on your phone with free apps like Flashcards+ or Flashcards*.

Consult your on-campus resources. The university provides a host of services that cater to your academic needs. However,

many of them are specialty programs, so be sure that you meet the participation requirements in advance.

For example, Student Support Services only offers one-on-one academic counseling to students who demonstrate academic need and are first generation or low income or have a documented disability. The Department of Applied Linguistics & English as a Second Lan-guage (AL/ESL) provides tutoring to an incredible number of students. It only serves those enrolled in the Intensive English Program and all Georgia State students whose first language is not English. Normal hours are posted on the department’s website, but lab coordinator Dara Suchke can be contacted by phone at 404-413-5189 for information regarding finals week scheduling.

Some campus-wide, open-access labs are the Counseling and Testing Center, which of-fers several workshops and seminars including study and note-taking skills throughout the semester; the Writing Studio, a resource for all students and alumni who need help with and tutoring in English composition and related areas; and the Language Acquisition & Resource Center (LARC), which reaches more than 3,000 students enrolled in language classes through an array of resource materials, tutoring and tape exchange. Students who are not enrolled in language courses can purchase full access to the lab for $5 per semester.

“The LARC offers a variety of resources to help you succeed in learning any language. We have Rosetta Stone, native-speaking tutors and text books. I’d recommend coming to the LARC before and especially during finals week,” Ashley Joseph, a LARC student assistant said.

Preparing for finals can be a stressful process. Remember to eat well, get plenty of rest, be resourceful, relax and enjoy your well-deserved break!

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 201114 ARTS & LIVING | THE SIGNAL

Student entrepreneur

taking small steps to big futureashleigh atwellStaff Writer

If you have worn a Georgia State sports button or went to any of the Spotlight Concerts last year, you were exposed to Ryan Kulp’s handiwork. Kulp could be considered a jack of all trades. He has dabbled in everything from music to mak-ing gold teeth. Kulp’s latest project is his burgeoning de-sign company, Mylar Designs.

“We do button printing, like merch buttons for bands, brands and organizations,” Kulp said. “We started that with Partipig and a couple of months ago started doing it as its own entity. Mylar is clean, shiny, plastic stuff on the but-ton.”

Mylar Designs started out as a part of another business venture, PartiPig, an event planning company that began in September 2010. Although event planning companies are plentiful in Atlanta, Kulp found a way to cater to a market that has been virtually untouched.

“We did a little bit of every-thing---salsa nights and par-ties,” Kulp said. “But our spe-

cialty was hookah catering. We didn’t know anybody else that was doing it and we figured hookah was a cool thing to try.”

Although Partipig was fair-ly successful, Kulp decided that it was becoming a bit of a has-sle and retired the business un-til he was able to commit fully to the project. “It really started to lift off this summer. We were doing 30 gigs a month at a cou-ple places a week,” Kulp said. “It got a little too crazy so we put it on the back-burner.”

The marketing major seems to have an eye for what may interest an audience. Like PartiPig before it, Mylar De-signs is already generating buzz.

“We’re getting new cus-tomers every week, mostly through word of mouth. A lot of clothing lines and bands are constantly re-ordering and it’s cool to have that growth,” the senior said. “We’re always try-ing to find brands to cater to. We’ve done all of the Georgia State athletic buttons.”

Although Kulp has had success with Partipig and My-lar Designs, these projects will not last after his graduation,

and he has even bigger aspira-tions.

“I won’t be doing either of these businesses in five years. I have a couple of other proj-ects right now with other part-ners that I think will take me to the next level of entrepreneur-ship,” Kulp said. He already has a big project in the works.

“I can’t say what it’s called, but I’m launching a brand of saki that will be nationally dis-tributed hopefully by the be-ginning of 2013,” Kulp said. “We’re also launching fran-chises for bubble tea bars and saki lounges to go along with the brand of saki.”

In addition to his entre-preneurial pursuits, Kulp is in the process of writing his own book.

“I started writing my own book last year and about a third of it is done,” Kulp said. “It is called Professionalism in Flip Flops. It is about whether pro-fessionalism is about what our parents say. Whether it is a suit and tie or can it be shorts with flip flops, great attitude, a seri-ous mentality and good ideas.”

ryaN KuLpRyan Kulp is getting a jumpstart on entrepreneurship through the launch of two busi-nesses, PartiPig and Mylar Designs.

CoUrtNey boydStaff Writer

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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2011 15ARTS & LIVING| THE SIGNAL

(Left) Tapestries hang from a store in Las Pais, a beach on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. (Below) Georgia State stu-dents hike up Cerro Chato with Touch the Earth program director Carson Tor-torige.; (Bottom Left) Sophomore Sora-ya Farivar rides her horse Comandante – or Commander in English – down the slopes of Monteverde, Costa Rica.

Judy KIm / The SIGNaL

The day-long hike on Cerro Chato was not something one would have expected as part of a Thanksgiving vacation.

You could pounce on soft white sand and splash in the warmth of the cold Pacific – making sure not to grab several slender green vines to pull yourself up on steps too high for their stature. It’s hot, the air is sticky but not too much since the country of Costa Rica is making their transition from wet to dry sea-son during November.

At the end of the hike you can feel re-newed and empowered despite possible bat-tle scars. At night, other students and I wan-dered around a little town known as La For-tuna next to Volcane Arenal.

Once our Touch the Earth group hit the beach of Las Pais, I kicked off my chacos and let my body soak up the sun to relax.

Students like sophomore Soraya Farivar beats harvested coffee to break the beans out of their shells in Las Brisas, a coffee and plan-tains farm in Monteverde, Costa Rica.

A laid-back or lazy life, you might think? But no one judges you because relaxation is the way of life. The people here have good morals, never wasting anything they were given.

Their day starts early, 6 a.m. to be exact, but they stop working once the sun goes does at 5 p.m., then they mingle and mull around until whenever they fall asleep – which is typically early as well.

A man trucks a large icebox full of pipas around to hand out fresh beverages.

Pura vida is quite the understatement. here.

Sophomore Soraya Farivar beats harvested coffee to break the beans out of their shells in Las Brisas, a cof-fee and plantains farm in Monteverde, Costa Rica.

Judy KIm / The SIGNaL

JUdy KIMPhotography editor

KeNdaLL harrISStaff Writer

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 201116 ARTS & LIVING | THE SIGNAL

1. Christmas with the Rat PackThis album contains 20 Christmas songs sung by Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dean Martin. It’s classic, and the last track is Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin singing a duet of “Marshmallow World.”

2. Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album, Vol. 2Even if you don’t watch Glee, this Christmas album is irresistibly fun.

3. A Very She & Him ChristmasIf there’s anyone in the world who could make a classic song like “The Christmas Waltz” even more beautiful, it’s Zooey De-schanel. This album is charming and warm.

4. Have Yourself A Very K.T. ChristmasIf you’re sick of Christmas songs being sung exactly the same every year, this album is for you. K.T. Tunstall could make anything sound original and new, and her rendition of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” is fantastic.

5. Snowfall-The Tony Bennett Christmas AlbumThis is another classy Christmas album. Tony Bennett’s voice is fl awless.

6. Christmas in HarlemI know what you’re thinking-Kanye West has a Christmas single? It’s nothing like any of the other albums on this list, but it’s signa-ture Kanye-in-your-face and cleverly writ-ten. And when else are you going to hear Kanye West say that something is “deer-icious”?

7. Glee: The Music, The Christmas AlbumYes, another Glee album. Kurt and Blain’s version of “Baby It’s Cold Outside” is beau-tiful.

8. A Jolly Christmas from Frank SinatraWho can resist Frank Sinatra? This album is elegant and simple.

9. Charlie Brown ChristmasEvery generation loves Charlie Brown. This is an adorable touching album that you can listen to with your family.

10. A Very Special Christmas, Vol. 1This album has Stevie Nicks singing “Silent Night,” Madonna singing “Santa Baby” and Run-DMC singing “Christmas in Hollis”- need I say more?

Holiday Albums

Holiday songs are an age-old tradition, but they’re making a huge comeback this year. In 2011 alone, Justin Beiber, the cast of Glee, She & Him, Carole King and Michael Buble’ all released Christmas albums this year. So whatever you’re into, fi nd your favorite and get in the Christmas spirit!

Start next semester off right by completing ALL the steps of the enrollment process on PAWS/GoSOLAR!

STEP 1: Run a Program Evaluation to Review Remaining Course Requirements and Schedule Advisor Appointments as necessary

STEP 2: Register for Classes

STEP 3: Check Financial Aid Requirements for Eligibility and Accept Aid

STEP 4: View and Pay Charges on PantherPay

STEP 5: Print your Course Schedule

Check your student e-mail often for important messages

Print a copy of the Academic Calendar for semester dates and deadlines

For more information go to www.gsu.edu/onestopshop

ALL SET FOR NEXTSEMESTER?

IN THEATERS DECEMBER 9www.newyearseve-movie.com

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. TWO (2) TICKETS PER PERSON. EACH TICKET ADMITS ONE (1).

SEATING IS BASED ON A FIRST-COME, FIRST-SERVED BASIS. PLEASE ARRIVE EARLY. TICKET DOES NOT GUARANTEE ADMITTANCE.

THIS FILM IS RATED PG-13 FOR LANGUAGE INCLUDING SOME SEXUAL REFERENCES.

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What do you get when you throw three hung-over designers together and give them 24 hours to create a website? Drinkify.org- a website that gives you the perfect cocktail for any music selection.

Hannah Donovan, Matthew Ogle and Lindsay Eyink arrived at Hack Day in Boston with alcohol on the brain. The three soon came up with the idea for a campy web-site that gives drink suggestions for any artist the user searches.

“I think it was the perfect proj-ect for 24 hours, Donovan said. “It forced us to stay really focused and launch something simple and as a byproduct—silly.”

Drinkify uses Last.fm, a mu-sic website, and The Echo Nest, a massive music information engine, to generate drink ideas. Depend-

ing on the genre of the artist and the average tempo of the music, Drinkify will suggest a drink for you.

The website is “not something to take seriously,” according to Donovan.

In fact, most of the results are joking ones.

One of the most telling search-es, according to Drinkify creators, is when a user searches Bob Dylan. The website suggests a drink of half gin and half cough syrup.

Since the release of Drinkify, it has received a lot of attention from the online community. Alcohol brands have even expressed inter-est in the website.

So what does the future hold for Drinkify? “We never thought beyond those 24 hours, but since we’ve seen how popular it’s be-come, there are a few options. We’ll see,” Donovan said.

Drinkify.org shakes things upKeNdaLL harrISStaff Writer

01 Beautiful LifestyleGeorge and Jonathan (Self-Released)

02 Live from The Grove3:33 (Parallel Thought)

03 HighlighterPeople Under The Stairs (Piecelock 70)

04 DiveTycho (Ghostly International)

05 Madness in MiniatureMr. Gnome (El Marko)

06 Gentle StreamThe Amazing (Subliminal Sounds)

07 Hell Death SambaJ.C. Satan (Slovenly)

08 Nothing GoldJoakim (Tigersushi)

09 Carrion Crawler / The DreamThee Oh Sees (In the Red)

10 Essentials and RaritiesJean Michel Jarre (Ais)

11 QuiltQuilt (Mexican Summer)

12 Singles 2007-2010Ty Segall (Goner)

13 Chicas! Spanish Female SingersVarious Artists (Vampisoul)

14 CoCo BewareCaveman (Magic Man!)

15 BlouseBlouse (Captured Tracks)

16 Bad As MeTom Waits (Anti)

17 Reworked/RemixedTrentemoller (In My Room)

18 Staring At the XForest Fire (Fatcat Records)

19 Wolfroy Goes to TownBonnie “Prince” Billy (Drag City)

20 Bliss ReleaseCloud Control (Ivy League Records)

21 ParallaxAtlas Sound (4AD)

22 Hurry Up, We’re DreamingM83 (Mute)

23 For The RecordTorae (Internal Aff airs Ent.)

24 MacheteVisionMarq Spekt & Kno (QN5)

25 Spills OutPterodactyl (Brah Records)

26 Mount Wittenberg OrcaDirty Projectors & Bjork (Domino)

27 AcrobatsPeggy Sue (Yep Roc)

28 Walt WolfmanRichard Swift (Secretly Canadian)

29 Neva DoneGrap Luva (Redefi nition Records)

30 ReplicaOneohtrix Point Never (Mexican Summer)

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2011 17ARTS & LIVING | THE SIGNAL

Music Inspired DrinksThe 2Pac2 oz. Orange Juice2 oz. Maotai

The Christina Aguilera8 oz. red Bull 8 oz. Half and half

The Britney Spears8 oz. Vodka 8 oz. Club soda

The Phoenix12 oz. Schnapps

The Adam Levine8 oz. Hennessy

The Outkast8 oz. Cough syrup8 oz. Finlandia Vodka

The Roots – UndunJeaN-FraNÇoIS GÉrardStaff Writer

Penetrating The Roots universe is not always easy at fi rst listen, but as you go into the Philadelphia jazz/rap band’s atmosphere, it brings you a quiet withdrawal of the world.

After teasing us with the fi rst sin-gle “Make My” and other following short video clip leaks of “Stomp” or “Sleep,” their new album Undun re-leases on Dec. 6. Undun is more than a simple album, they made it a proj-ect. This project is a concept-centric album that we can’t describe best than the Roots themselves do. Undun

is the semi-fi ctional story of Redford Stephen told through an intern dia-logue. The few guests the Mississip-pi rapper Big K.R.I.T. and long time affi liates P.O.R.N., Phonte and Dice Raw fi t into the concept and spent many hours rewriting these songs to get everyone on the same page.

It is hard for a band to continue to make creative music after 12 al-bums, and the Roots keep doing what they do well, even if they are slightly more abstract in this project. It lacks a little more eccentricity and creativ-ity to make it a total masterpiece, but this album may be one of their best.

The unbelievable artistic work invested in this album forces listen-ers to not merely listeng to the mu-sic but experience it. Some tracks like “Sleep” are musically more ab-stract than usual, but it really tells a story. This is shown in the release of an online 10-minute black and white movie with tracks and quotes of Mal-com X and Norman Cousins between them to illustrate this tragic story.

These creative lyricists tend to realize the perfect blend of energy and cool rhythm. Listening to it gives you energy for the day and can appeal

to all, even for those who aren’t hip-hop fans. Not to mention it is always a pleasure to rehear Black Thought’s sweet voice that makes the Roots rec-ognizable among all.

“Stomp” is the most impressive track, a perfect balance of rhythm and smooth notes. These tracks stand out among the previous Root’s work because of their perfect use of the drums, fashioned with the piano, organs, R&B grooves and strings in-struments. The collective use of in-struments is simply impressive and provides the album real depth. The rhythm of the 40 minutes between rhythmic songs like “Lighthouse,” more quiet tracks like “I Remember” or the single “Make My” is worth noting. The alternation of men and women voices are another appre-ciated feature that brings diversity among the tracks.

The album ends with four in-triguing instrumental tracks that are nice and surprising but not really what we expect. It opens your mind to iinterpret the project in a diff er-ent way. More than the consistently pleasant musical performance, the total artistic work deserves an award.

Mike Posner – The LayoverZaCK KraIMer

Riding on the momentum of his somewhat meteoric rise to fame, recent Duke graduate Mike Pos-ner already has a 21-track mixtape ready since releasing 31 Minutes to Takeoff last year. The new mixtape, called The Layover, is much like his

past material in style but includes some covers that serve as both high and low points.

The material on The Layover isn’t going to shock anyone, with the possible exception of feminists in re-action to some of his lyrical content. There are a few standout moments on the record, like the doo-wop swagger of “Traveling Man,” but even many of the tunes with A- and B-list guest features fall fl at.

The covers that Posner chose are fairly widely performed—Oasis’ “Wonderwall” and Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” have become mainstays in the acts of artists spanning many genres. Posner’s smoky near-whis-per is well suited to “Wonderwall,” but the same can’t be said for Adele’s breakout hit. His performance on that track is so limp it’s cringe-wor-thy, so the reason for its inclusion in

the mixtape eludes me. Posner isn’t bad at rapping, but

even though there are a few sharp lyrical turns he straddles the line be-tween crooner and rapper to the ex-tent that he seems almost indecisive. The beats are pretty minimalistic, but the production value is huge, so overall it sounds full and vibrant.

Fans of Justin Timberlake, hip-hop, blue-eyed soul or misogyny (perhaps all four?) will fi nd some-thing to like about The Layover, but Posner sounds detached and dis-passionate, especially compared to many of his contemporaries. He has a pleasant voice, but he doesn’t do anything particularly exciting me-lodically, although it sounds like he has the potential to do exactly that. Luckily, this college boy has some-thing to fall back on in case this mu-sic stuff doesn’t pan out.

George and Jonathan- This synth-pop group infuses 80s rock with quality produc-tion to form an easy listen-ing gamers’ soundtrack and likeable album.

Quilt- Quilt delivers feel-good music to listeners that compliment a relaxing day on the beach, using steady tempos and smooth vocals.

Peggy Sue- This United Kingdom songbird gives soulful vocals to sultry music on this album that is worth a listen.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2011 18

thaddeUS MorGaNassociate Campus Life editor

There are plenty of places that students can eat on Broad Street that can make your mouth water, but Ali Baba’s is the only place that off ers a menu that’s full of food and ca-ters to those with a foreign taste for Mediter-ranean culture.

Ali Baba’s Turkish and Mediterranean De-lights off er gyros, hummous, baklava and no-table falafel for students to enjoy.

“We won best falafel in Atlanta for four years in a row,” Timothy Atenda, an employ-ee at Ali Baba’s said. “If you want some of our best stuff you should try the Turkish food, but we have other things too, like Greek fl avors and American fl avors.”

Everything in Ali Baba’s is made fresh that day, according to Atenda. So for all you tra-ditional fast food lovers that like your food thrown out of a window, this is not the restau-rant for you.

However, Ali Baba’s was originally start-ed in order to give the community options in terms of foods that are available, instead of having to rely on the same burger and fries combination.

“We opened fourteen years ago in this lo-cation,” Atenda said. “We wanted to give the community the opportunity to eat quality, healthy food, with an entrée and a side for less than seven dollars for students.”

Ali Baba’s is still growing, with another lo-cation in Little 5 Points and plans to incorpo-rate catering and delivery services next year.

But if you go to the Ali Baba’s on Broad Street between classes, don’t be surprised if you are greeted with smiles and friendly ex-changes. They appreciate the student custom-ers they have by providing discounts to stu-dents for certain entrées.

“Without Georgia State students, there is no Ali Baba’s,” Atenda said. “About 80 percent

of our customers are returning customers, and that’s because we treat people well.”

The menu is about 70 percent vegetarian, according to Atenda, and three diff erent types of meat are off ered in gyros: lamb, chicken and fi sh.

“It’s alright but there wasn’t enough meat for me,” Darius Sutton, a senior philosophy

major said when asked his thoughts about the food served at Ali Baba’s. “Other than that it was good though.”

Senior journalism major Tara Siddiq had a diff ering opinion, saying that she enjoyed the variety of food off ered at Ali Baba’s, including the meat and vegetarian selections.

“The falafel at Ali Baba’s is so good,” she said. “So are the hummous and the grape leaves. It’s all good.”

There is not anywhere to eat inside the restaurant so students can take their meals to go or sit at the tables set up outside and enjoy the scenery.

The food at Ali Baba’s provides for a spe-cifi c experience with specifi c dishes. They of-fer students food with strong fl avors and plen-ty of options, including specials that change every week. But if you’re not sure that this food is right for you, there’s only one way to fi nd out.

“We believe the food should speak for it-self,” Atenda said. “So students should try it and see what they think.”

ThaddeuS morGaN | The SIGNaLOpened 14 years ago, Ali Baba’s is located on Broad Street and serves a variety of Mediterranean inspired food items.

The Mediterranean meets downtownThe Mediterranean meets downtown

IF YOU GO...

Address: 60 Broad Street NW, Atlanta, GA

Phone: (404) 681-3997

Website: www.alibabaatlanta.com

Re

gis

ter Here!

ARTS & LIVING | THE SIGNAL

CLASSIFIEDS

Word FINd

SUdoKU Classifi eds Lost or found any books, clothing, umbrellas, sunglasses, (etc.) this semester...?try lost.or.found@gmail.com(For non-clothing items, you should also contact GSu police)

Wanted to buydo you still have your “commercial master” commuter-locker padlock, and no longer need it after this semester?I need a couple, willing to buy yours.Call (404)941-0790

I still need a comfortable used backpack...(Similar to path ones)Color/appearance not as important as good price.Call dean 404-585-7063 and thanx

Laptop or netbook wanted by returning student. (need min. 2Gig ram)Also want to buy dragon naturally speaking.please contact (404)941-0790, asap.

Announcement:Grad student desperately seeking affordable/pro bono legal assistance in pursuing couterclaims in unlawful eviction/breach of verbal contract case. If you might be able to help, as an attorney or by passing this plea on to an attorney, thank you. My personal, confi dential contact number is 404-585-7063.

&pUZZLES

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Leadership Development

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENTwww.gsu.edu/leadership

CONGRATULATIONS to the

Fall 2011 recipient of the Nell Hamilton Trotter Award

— Kortney Easterly —

for her outstanding contributions to the university community!

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Campus Events

CAMPUS EVENTSwww.gsu.edu/studentevents

Interested in performing on the Courtyard Music Stage during Spring Semester?Application Deadline: Friday, December 9 The Courtyard Music Series exists to enhance and broaden the experiences of GSU students, faculty and staff by providing live musical entertainment in the Student•University Center. Our hope is that, by featuring a diverse group of musicians, this series provides GSU students the opportunity to showcase their talent as well as break through existing music boundaries of the GSU community. Applications available at www.gsu.edu/studentevents.

Take Advantage of Discount Tickets!Movie theatres, theme parks and other venues offer discounted rates

to the GSU community through the Student•University Center. DISCOUNT TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE FOR

AMC Theatres • Biltmore House • Georgia Aquarium • Georgia Renaissance Festival • Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament • Regal Cinemas • Six Flags Over Georgia • Six Flags White Water •

Tennessee Aquarium • Walt Disney World • Zoo Atlanta

More Information: www.gsu.edu/ticketdiscounts

Leadership Development

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Student Organizations

Just Like a Native AppOrgSync Mobile can be used on any smart-phone and works just like a native application. To access OrgSync Mobile, log in at www.orgsync.com.

Some devices will allow you to bookmark OrgSync to your home screen for quick access.

Just Like a Native App Mobile BetaOrgSync Mobile is in beta phase, and not all features are enabled yet. If you can’t �nd what you’re looking for, the full version of the site is just one click away.

More InformationVisit www.orgsync.com/recent-updates/mobile

Try out Mobile!Use OrgSync on mobile devices without installation

STUDENT ORGANIZATIONShttp://gsu.orgsync.com

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Itʼs time to clean out your locker!

The deadline to remove all items and locks from

lockers rented through the Student•University Center is Friday, December 9, 2011.

Any items remaining in lockers after this date will be discarded.

NO EXCEPTIONSSpring locker rentals will begin on

Wednesday, January 4, 2012.

Good Luck on Finalsand

Best Wishes to all New Graduates

Happy Ho�days!

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STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS

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Any items remaining in lockers after this date will be discarded.after this date will be discarded.after this date will be discarded.after this date will be discarded.after this date will be discarded.after this date will be discarded.after this date will be discarded.after this date will be discarded.after this date will be discarded.

Spring locker rentals will begin on Spring locker rentals will begin on

xcinefest movie timescinefest movie timeshttp://www.gsu.edu/cinefest

Georgia State University uLearn Facebook TwitterGeorgia State University uLearn Facebook Twitter

Cinefest Film Theatrex

Cinefest Film Theatre is closed for renovation.

It is scheduled to reopen on Monday, January 9, 2012.

Happy Holidays!

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Student

Any items remaining in lockers after this date will be discarded.

Spring locker rentals will begin on Wednesday, January 4, 2012.

Any items remaining in lockers after this date will be discarded.

Spring locker rentals will begin on

Itʼs time to clean ListsLists

http://www.gsu.edu/studentcenter

WHATʼSHAPPENINGON CAMPUS! Supported by Student Activity Fees