There is a new Cafe in Loyola’s new “Information Commons” between the Commons and the old library.

Well… it was open. For a few days. Until the city found out it was open and nobody got a license to open.

Oops

I am finally over my flu. I think.

And I am finally done with Mock Trial. I think.

And a week from Wednesday I turn 21.

And I don’t really feel any emotion regarding any of those things.

On the topic of Mock Trial:

I just got back from Note Dame for the College Mock Trial regional tournament. Loyola is already sending the max of 2 teams to the national tournament, so there wasn’t too much pressure on us to do all that great. Which is a good thing, I guess, because we didn’t do all to great. Out of 20some teams we placed right about in the middle of the pack. We would have done better but there were some issues in the final round. Lets just say that some people need to stick to their day job and leave judging mock trial rounds to people who know what they are doing.

I did manage to drop a hot iron on my right fist. The burn isn’t too bad and it doesn’t hurt all that much, but the mark is somewhat unsightly. Seeing as it is on my knuckles it is somewhat difficult to get a band-aid to properly stick, so for the moment i will just have to deal with keeping it somewhat clean.

Wonderful, turns out that not only did I have the flu, I also have a rare type of Strep throat called Type-G (normal is type-A.) Standard treatment is antibiotics, which I was given yesterday for the fact that a lymph node in my neck was the size of a golf ball, so when the throat culture results came back today there wasn’t much I needed to do.

I have another appointment with the school’s clinic this afternoon

How the hell did I get a rare type of strep throat????? I wasn’t licking any cows… not like I would tell if I was.

Loyola is big in stoping binge drinking and marijuana use. So they have a few resources, like the marijuana survey called “eTOKE

Now I don’t smoke pot. I have all of twice in my life and found it somewhat pointless. But I decided to humor myself and take the test, as if I was a responsible pot user… using it only during times when I would have otherwise not been at school or working. Then I entered the amount of money I think I would be spending on pot each week ($10-25, I entered 25) and then it asked me about alcohol usage. I entered in that I had 5 drinks a week.

So… what response do I get… well….. it doesn’t really have anything bad to say. Except pointing out that “WITH THE MONEY YOU SPEND ON POT YOU COULD BUY A PLASMA TV OR EVEN GO ON A CRUISE”

But if my pot usage ended up being my ‘recreation’ for the week, then it really isn’t an unnecessary expense. I would otherwise spend it doing non-pot related things like… well… go to movies. parties with friends. etc.

One thing I don’t get is why people smoke cigarettes… I know it is addictive, but why start? You know it is bad for you and costs a fucking fortune. Think of the amount of stuff you could do with that insane amount of money… you could go on a cruse!

Let me preface this by saying that I am not intending on shooting up a college campus, I own no guns, as of today I have never fired a ‘real’ gun and I feel horrible for those impacted at NIU and Virginia Tech, including all the students, faculty, staff and parents.

Now with the standard disclaimer away, lets get down into this Northern Illinois University shooter, Steven Kazmierczak and the horrific events of February 14, 2008. Now here is this guy that doesn’t look dangerous, sound dangerous, or take any overtly dangerous acts (until the day of the shooting.) This brings up the question: Could this have been prevented?

No. Probably not. He didn’t show any signs and kept his plans rather hidden.

But NIU did exactly the right thing. Within 20 minutes every student knew about the incident and kept inside and away from the hall that the shooting was at. This allowed emergency response officials to get into the hall and handle the situation without mass chaos on campus, of people having no idea what is going on. They did this using an Alert System that informs students, staff, and faculty in real time via their cell phones and email that there is an emergency event happening on campus.

What about the Virginia Tech massacre? Could that have been prevented?

Possibly. Or at least it could have been harder for the to get his guns.

But you know what is the most asinine thing that happened at Virginia Tech? They decided that a shooting on campus just wasn’t important enough to let students know about. Could the VTech tragedy been fatality free? Probably not. Could there have been less fatalities? We will never know, but I think that there could be.

Loyola implemented one of these Alert Systems recently, to aid in informing students if there is a problem. Of course, it would be nice if they used it once and awhile, like when there was a murder a block away from campus and the killer was roaming around the neighborhood. No, they waited a few hours to email that notice out. I guess it could be considered a somewhat isolated incident, but if the killer ran a block east instead of west he would have been right in south-campus.

These things confuse me.