My Opinion

Twisted Registering

It’s that time of year again! The time where the air gets cooler in Los Angeles, Christmas lights glimmer on ever street corner, and students at CSUN are forced to think about next year’s swiftly approaching stresses. Yes, tis’ the season to register for the spring 2009 semester.

So like any hectic season of running around and picking the right Christmas gift, preparation is needed to pick the right class. So what can a student do to prepare and not get trapped into last minute scrapping of just any open course? Well, besides a prayer to even get in a class before they all get the blue box symbol signifying closed, selecting the professor that will give you the least amount of stress is essential.

Somehow, college in a student’s perspective has nothing to do with those long, sleepless nights working on that 10-page paper or stressing about a midterm. Forget about even going to class to listen to boring lectures planned by a dull professor or crippling your fingers with note taking. God forbid, the class you pick challenges your way of thinking.

There is a perfect way to avoid all of this. These days, it is not even a secret anymore. Just like Christmas shopping has become simplified to a click of a mouse with online purchases, so has picking the least stressful class for the spring semester. All those college horrors about that heartless professor who fails everyone in the class can easily be prevented by choosing wisely on RateMyProfessor.com.

In fact, the only time management and pressure a student will have next semester is the months before where research on the easiest professor is crucial and registering in that class is critical. (Gives you more time to worry about holiday shopping, right?)

RateMyProfessor.com is not a new phenomenon for the average college student who is most likely guilty of planning their semester around the easiest instructor on campus. There are over 6.8 million students who have gone to this handy-dandy website and rated a professor at their college.

What is disturbing to know is the quest a student has to divert away from learning in college to doing whatever it takes to get an easy “A” on their transcripts. College has morphed into this learning institution where students do not want to learn, instead want to find the easiest way out of college and with a “hard-earned” degree in their hands.

RateMyProfessor.com is that Internet source that helps students dissect each professor they have encountered and either praises them for their “easyness” or bashes them with no remorse for receiving an “F” in the course.

Since the creation of the site in 1999, over 1 million (and counting) professors have been subject to ironically being graded by their students. Beware if you are one of those professors who actually expect your student to do work in the class because those are the professors that receive the harshest criticisms and a few curse words to add some flavor.

Just like the chaotic Christmas season, and the banging your head against the wall to get all the shopping done in time, having that one instructor that will make your semester miserable is unavoidable. There are no shortcuts, and we all have to face it eventually.

Immigration Story

The Hardest Decision


It’s the middle of a summer night in Chinautla, Guatemala. The air has finally cooled from the day’s heat. This is the moment for the people of Chinautla to peacefully sleep, yet she sits there manically contemplating her decision. “Should I stay or should I go?” The words repeatedly race through Juanita Barrios. Her mind is telling her to go, leave Guatemala for a better life, a better opportunity, a guaranteed chance to live better than her poverty stricken life in the country that offers her nothing but cheap labor. However, her heart pounds to the beats of the word no. “No, I can’t leave my child. I can’t leave him here in this misery, but it’s too dangerous to take him with me. I have to go and make a better future for us.” With that final thought she gets up, looks over to her unaware child. He lays there huddled with his cousins in their one room home, housing nine people. She stares at him profoundly in order to still frame that moment and imprint it in her memory as her motivation to keep on with her journey. “I have to provide a better life for us. That’s my job as a mother.” Juanita kisses him softly on his forehead in order to not wake him. Her tears are uncontrollable at this point, and her heart is still fighting her mind and telling her not to go, but she knows she must.

Even though that memory was 25 years ago for Juanita Barrios, that moment when she decided to leave her child in the care of her sister for the pursuit of a better life still haunts her to this day. After 25 years, Juanita’s memory is a daily reality for immigrant women who are making the same decision. It is now a much more told story of how mothers left there children behind in their home countries for the land of opportunities. The glamorized American life is effortlessly emphasized in these third world countries. “You hear the success stories of your neighbors’ friend making it to the U.S., and you think to yourself you can do that too,” Juanita says in her soft spoken voice, yet the knot in her throat lingers, ready to break and release the suppressed tears.

She left her 2-year-old son in pursuit of that fairy tale that America would offer her the best opportunity. Juanita was only 19, young, vivacious and optimistic, even though her life to that point was the definition of misery. Now she is 44, the pain is seen in her eyes when the topic of when she left her country, and the night she abandoned her son is revealed. Her eyes want to tell a story of her journey, just like the many women who have or are now sharing the same experience.

Each year, an estimated 700,000 immigrants enter the United States illegally. This wave of illegal immigrants differs in one respect from the past. Before, when parents came to the United States and left children behind, it was typically the fathers leaving for that journey. The mothers were left behind to take care of their children. In recent decades, the increase in divorce and family disintegration in Latin America has left many single mothers without the means to feed and raise their children. The growing ranks of single mothers coincided with a time when more and more American woman began working outside the home. There is this voracious need in the United States for cheap service and domestic workers. The single Latin American mothers began migrating in large numbers, leaving their children with grandparents, other relatives or neighbors.

Juanita’s experience is sadly very common now. In Los Angeles, the University of Southern California conducted a study which showed that 82 percent of live-in nannies and one in four housecleaners are mothers who have at least one child in their home country. A Harvard University study showed that 85 percent of all immigrant children who eventually end up in the United States spent at least some time separated from a parent who was migrating north.
“When I decided to leave Guatemala, I really didn’t know what I was going to myself into,” says Juanita as she dazes looking up and shaking her head as she replays her horrific journey in her mind. “I heard it was going to be dangerous, I was told it was going to be dangerous, yet my own stubbornness blocked all that out. My mission was to do whatever I can to provide a better life for my baby.”

Her journey quickly turned sour when the coyote, the person who leads the hopefuls through the border, abandoned her after barely crossing the Guatemalan-Mexican border. She had paid him in full to take her all the way to the U.S. border. It can cost somewhere in the thousands to have a smuggler lead the way, but it is a priceless feeling to be left abandoned after so much hope. “When I was tricked by the coyote, I wanted to give up and go back home. He left me there with three other people. If it wasn’t for them, I would’ve gone back to my son.”

Juanita explains that the man she was traveling with knew of priests that established missionaries in various parts of Mexico. He knew one in Chiapas, Mexico, and they stayed there for a few days while they figured out a way to get the border. “Mexicans are hostile. They don’t like knowing that people are crossing through their country. They feel like they have power because we’re not from there,” states Juanita with a stern face, full of anger. If it were not for the man Juanita was traveling with, she admits she would have never made it to her destination.

After three months of traveling she did reach her destination.
Ever since crossing the border, she has lived in Los Angeles and earns her income as a housecleaner. She earned enough money after two years to send for her son so she can finally reunite with him. “That was the happiest day of my life. I would never leave my son again,” says Juanita, this time the tears are displayed.
Despite Juanita having a horrible experience of being tricked in her journey north, she says she was blessed to have a guardian angel lead her way through Mexico, the U.S. border and all the way to Los Angeles. “Living here, I hear the real stories of other women making the journey I did 25 years ago. I was fortunate not to have gone through what some of the women I know went though,” she looks up again and recites under her breathe a quick prayer.
Central American women face a huge danger because they have to pass through Mexico entirely to reach the border. That crossing involves the risk of rape, kidnapping and even death. Some parts of Mexico are heavily corrupted by gangs and drug lords and seeking refuge in the police system is suicide itself because they are run by the very corrupt. According to the United Nations, up to 70 percent of women crossing the border without husbands or families are abused in some way. Rape is the price for admission for these women, and sometimes that takes them nowhere but deportation.

Juanita does not regret leaving Guatemala. For her, it was a change for the better. She knows that she would never have been able to give her son the opportunities that were unimaginable when she grew up. Her only regret was trusting the coyote with all that money she had earned. Her secret pain is still that she left her son. She hates to admit she was capable of doing such a thing. She rarely talks about that with her son, but she hopes he understands why she did it. Her son is now a U.S. citizen.

GREEN IS THE NEW BLACK

The lights are beaming bright and attracting to the consumers’ eyes. The loud music and the manikins strategically dressed with the newest items delivered to the store gravitates your attention even more. On the windows, a big display of a sale blowout is enough needed to magnetize young women to come in and spend their last pay check on the trendiest attire for the fall. The blissful sign of the store, Forever 21, suggests to all women that not only do we all wish we stayed that age forever, but that this is the haven for the trendiest clothes for a bargain price.

After being sucked into the euphoria of this palatial house of trends, one fad has definitely arrived to the racks, “Going Green”. Basic T-shirts wear the logo of the recycle sign and plush, bold words indicating to “go green.” When fashion begins to mimic the actions of people, especially celebrities, one thing becomes certain, green is the new black.
Between the beauty industry and fashion industry, it appears that green is becoming very popular with its consumers. Eco fashion is becoming more prominent and beauty products that are all natural or environmentally friendly continue to be popular among all demographics. Forever 21 has become one of the many chain stores that have successfully seen the results of this new trend.

In the store, Nancy Rodriguez has piled together many of the green logo shirts including a green bag that reads “a greener life is a better life.” Clearly, she is one of the many young women who have been influenced by this movement. “I have always been into all natural beauty products and being conscious about the environment,” admitted the 22-year-old student. “Now I can wear a shirt that lets everyone know that it’s cool to recycle, and I love that.”

It seems that everyone has jumped on the bandwagon that's heading towards a greener lifestyle. Popular actors in Hollywood have recently been preaching "Going Green" to spread the message about helping clean up the environment and the importance of doing your part. Ever since Al Gore spoke An Inconvenient Truth, and received loud public support from Leonardo DiCaprio and the rest of the Hollywood crew, Green is now in. Companies are now taking notice and quickly aligning themselves with environmental causes. To demonstrate the power and influence of green, Wal-mart vowed to boost energy efficiency and cut down on waste and reduce greenhouse gases. Even small businesses are seizing the opportunity to help consumers make environmentally-friendly choices. Digitech, a distributor of technology supplies, offers renewable printer toner cartridges to anyone who owns a printer. Reusing printer cartridges saves them from being dumped in landfills where they are left to decompose. They also took their green service one step further by delivering all their printer cartridges to customers via the new Toyota Prius hybrid vehicle.

The people of the United States have finally realized that living green is not only profitable for the businesses, but a bold personal statement about a chosen lifestyle. Becoming eco-friendly has been an underground secret that has been known by those who were passionately involved and aware. Now thanks to the influx of celebrities choosing to be more aware of global warming, their fans are now becoming curios about this cause.

Heading that list is Leonardo DiCaprio with his commitment to not only preaching an environmentalist lifestyle, but actually living it. DiCaprio's home is solar powered, and he drives around Hollywood in a Toyota Prius, a hybrid car that boasts 55 mpg and emits 89 percent fewer harmful gases than gasoline-powered car. However, to get the message out about living green, DiCaprio co-wrote and co-produced the film The 11th Hour. He has his very own environmental Web site, www.leonardodicaprio.org and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, which he has established to inform the effects of global warming. He told Hybridcars.com in an interview, "We have the technology to make every car produced in America today just as clean, cheap and efficient.”

Much like Leonardo DiCaprio, Sheryl Crow's name has also become synonymous with green efforts as well. Earlier this year, the soulful singer circled the country on a bio-diesel bus, powered with vegetable oil, for her "Stop Global Warming College Tour." She visited university campuses nationwide to inform students of global warming dangers, but more than simply an advocate for the environmental cause, Crow recognizes her own personal role in pollution prevention and energy conservation. "I try to wash my clothes in cold water as much as I can," Crow said in an interview with People magazine. "I turn off lights in rooms that I'm not using. I drive a hybrid. I'm getting solar panels for my house."

Other important and more relatable celebrities that have role modeled this lifestyle are Cameron Diaz and Brad Pitt. Diaz drives around in a hybrid car, and even went as far to drive a simple, ineloquent hybrid to the 2008 Oscar Awards rather than a lavish stretch limo. Brad Pitt has helped the environmental group, Global Green, to rebuild in New Orleans more "green-style" homes. Celebrities might not solve the issues of global warming and other environmental concerns, but if Cameron Diaz has the power to get people to pay attention and start talking about this issue then it's a step in the right direction.
As Nancy is ready to buy the majority of shirts that display the green movement across the chest, she impulsively buys one more item. The simple, green bag that has been circulated and seen on the arms of celebrities in Hollywood, which proceeds are donated to a global awareness foundation is advertised at the cashier. She without a second thought adds the little bag to her total. “Sometimes it takes a celebrity in Hollywood to bring awareness to the important issues of what's going on in the world,” she said as she walks out the store with a smile showing she is proud of herself for contributing to the cause.

Whether businesses and celebrities are jumping on the green wagon because it is trendy or a core belief, it can only help to make us all more aware and curious of the world we live in. It will be interesting to see how green influences buying behavior over the upcoming years. It’s true, “Going Green” can be expensive, and maybe that is why only those that can afford that expense are the ones that are marching on in this movement. For now, though, ones that support but cannot exactly afford, can wear shirts that pursue this new green revolution that will not be just a trend, but a permanent lifestyle.

YES WE CAN!!!

Everytime I watch this, It moves me to pusue My Dreams even more. Si se puede!!!

How To Be A Better Boo

Listen up gentlemen. You are most likely reading this because either your girlfriend handed you this article, forcing you to read it and hoping that you learn something, or she strategically placed this article where you would actually pick it up and read it. Either way, the mission is complete. You are reading this article.

It’s rather simple when it comes to women. Forget all the negative hype out there that embrace the thought that women are complicated individuals. When it comes to pleasing your girlfriend, the secret is to let your woman know that you’re curious about her world. It’s the little things that count for a woman that show you actually care. Here are some basic questions that to you may sound irrelevant, but to your girlfriend, it is letting her know that you care enough to ask.

• “How was your doctor’s appointment?” Sure, you have a lot going on like work, watching sports, watching other sports, but when your girlfriend mentions she has a doctor’s appointment, ask her later on how it went. “Making sure she’s okay demonstrates to her that you feel protective and are sensitive to the anxiety the appointment may have caused her,” says Dianna Kirschner, PhD, author of Love in 90 Days. Hey, when else can you earn points for manliness and sensitivity?

• What would you like to do this weekend?” To you, this question probably sounds the same as, “What are we doing this weekend?” But women notice semantics more than men do, and asking “What are we doing?” implies that you want her to come up with a master plan. So make it clear that you’re interested in her opinion and that you both can decide. “She’ll open up if she feels one of your priorities is making sure she has fun,” Kirschner says.

• “What do you think I should do?” Much like you enjoy helping her reach something on a high shelf or lift heavy stuff, she likes helping you sort out your problems. Women, by nature, are nurturing, so it’s emotionally satisfying when she can assist you with a tough issue. “Asking for her thoughts shows that you value her opinion,” says Joyce Penner, a couple’s therapist in Pasadena, California. “Brainstorming solutions together drives home the point that you’re a team,” Penner explains.