Last week, last article! 10 days to leave Houghton and 13 days to leave America! I’m doing this countdown at least 10 times a day. I cannot wait any more to go back home. I know you guys have the same feeling, don’t you? Well, first thing first, before we leave school, we need make sure all the final exams are doing well. I don’t want to bring a bad GPA with me to home. It’s shame. Chinese go back home only with awards.
This last one is kind like a wrap up for my column this year.
First of all, I would like to thank all of you for reading my articles this school year. It has been a great time for me to write this column. It gives me a chance to think about how different culture is between two countries. Hope you guys enjoyed those articles and have some general ideas about my country after reading them. China is still a miserable place for most western country people. There are too many thing need be found out. But because of my knowledge limitation, I’m afraid I have to stop at this point and leave more rooms for you guys to discover by yourselves. Just like what I’m doing here.
Culture is a very interesting topic to talk about. It affects how people think, live and make decisions. People respect each other from different culture backgrounds. I’m going to take a class called Communication Between Different Cultures next fall. It should be fun. So I can learn this from a professional way.
Final exams week is almost here. I bet all of you are working super hard to get a good grade to stay on the den’s list. So do I. From my past experience, if you take some time review all you have learned this semester and do some practice exams, you should be fine.
Do you have any friends graduating this May? Sure you do. It is always sad to say goodbye. There are five senior students are graduating from my organization and enterprise team. I promise I will pass the torch and teach new guys just like what I have been taught. Come back and visit any time you feel free. Tech is always your home!
Oh, by the way, please don’t be mad if I never reply your facebook messages. It has been blocked for a while in China. Can someone take care of my Happy Aquarium? We can talk on Skype though. Just search my real name on Skype you will find it easily. I’m a MILES of SMILE.
Well, here’s the end of the column. But our life will keep going, on the journey to success. I love you all and have a great summer. See you next fall!

The annual Northern Lights Film Festival, which features original filmmaking and independent films, premiered last week in the Rosza Center for the Performing Arts. The 2010 festival featured two Oscar-winning independent films, “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” and “The Hurt Locker”. Every year, the Northern Lights Film Festival brings Michigan Tech and the surrounding community an array of talented filmmakers, from Oscar-winners to student productions.
The film festival celebrated its sixth year with a chance booking of the Rosza just months before the festival. “[Seeing the films in the Rosza was] very exciting because it’s the Rosza, which has a status to it. I like the McCardle but I was pretty amped up to see [the films] in the Rosza” said Gabrielle Pastore, a Michigan Tech alumni, who attended the festival to see her documentary “A Thin Line” play in the student films section.
The first film of the festival was Kathryn Bigelows’ Oscar winner “The Hurt Locker”, which was awarded Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Sound Mixing, and Film Editing. The film is an intensely gripping narrative of modern warfare that follows the lives of the soldiers of an explosive disposal unit in Iraq trying to survive their last thirty-nine days of deployment under the command of their enigmatic new disposal expert, Staff Sergeant William James.
The film was well attended and the audience experienced the gripping narrative on the big screen. The film festival is actually the second time that “The Hurt Locker” screened on Michigan Techs campus, as it was a film board selection as well. Professor Erin Smith, presenter and organizer of the Northern Lights Film Fest said “I know that many of you have had the chance to see this film already but I’ve hope that you’ve come here tonight to experience it with this community of people.” She went on to describe the innovative sound work done for the film, given the label “occepella” sound mixing, as one of the reasons for including the gritty war film in the festival.
Audiences on Thursday night also had a chance to experience“Anvil: The Story of Anvil.” A reverent yet light-hearted documentary, directed by former-roadie-turned-director Sacha Gervasi, that follows the aging metal band Anvil dedicated to their ambitious dreams trying to hold down fame and fortune in their later years. The Thursday events were sponsored in part by the Sound Design and Audio Engineering Programs at Michigan Tech.
Friday, April 2, featured Nicole Oppers’ coming-of-age documentary “Off and Running”, which tells the story of an adopted African-American teenager looking for her roots and exploring her complex identity in a multi-racial family. Following Oppers film, Lee Daniels’ acclaimed and Oscar-winning film “Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire” will play at 8 p.m. “Precious” explores the deeply troubling life filled with abuse and neglect suffered by an overweight African-American girl living with her terrifying mother, played by Mo’Nique who received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. The Friday events were sponsored in part by the Presidents’ Office for Institutional Diversity and the Humanities Department.
One new addition to the festival was the inclusion of short films and documentaries produced by Michigan Tech students. Three films produced and mostly shot on Michigan Tech campus by students played on the big screen as well. Saturday events were sponsored in part by the Cin/Optic Communication and Media Enterprise at Michigan Tech.
The festival ended Saturday night with, “Sin Nombre”, the story of two Latin-American immigrants escaping gang violence and looking for the promise of a better life in the United States, directed by critically acclaimed Cary Fukunaga and also heralded for its cinematography done by Adraino Goldman.

Unless you were looking at the sky last week, you must have noticed the chalk battle being waged under your feet. The phrase, “I Agree with John” was scrawled across campus by the Campus Crusade for Christ. Almost immediately, additional chalkings sprung up. They included phrases such as, “I Agree with Darwin”, “I Agree with John Lennon’s Imagine” and my personal favorite, “I Agree with E=mc2”. Another chalking mapped out a brief explanation of basic evolutionary concepts while others called for religious tolerance and division of church and state. And it wasn’t only the newly-sprung crocuses that shocked us with their greenness; bright “I Agree with John” shirts popped up across campus. Whatever you agree with, John or not, the campaign certainly provided a lively distraction from a mundane walk to class.
I have heard some accuse Michigan Tech’s student body of being politically passive. I did notice a significant lack of political activism during the 2008 presidential election and for a moment, I thought Tech to be a wasteland of political and moral debate. But when instances like the “I Agree with John” campaign stir up such intensive conversation about religion and politics, I am encouraged that the campus is no wasteland, but an ocean of incredibly diverse, from the absurd to the sophisticated, opinions.
It’s not only the concrete on campus that serves as a forum for debate. Facebook threads often stretch on and on between Tech students arguing over an issue. Although the nature of these debates range from peaceful disagreements to violent arguments riddled with obscenities, it is important to acknowledge the relative constructiveness of such debates. Both sides get a chance to hear what the other has to say while exploring their viewpoint even further.
What I believe provoked particularly fierce discussion over the “I Agree with John” campaign is the typical reluctance, on both sides, to respect alternate perspectives on religion. For Evangelists, the idea of their God not existing is impossible. For Darwin-worshipping atheists, the idea of a god existing is simply ludicrous. The extremity of these perspectives make it difficult to have a constructive, much less civil, conversation.
An opinion about whether God exists or not would fill more than one newspaper. However, I would like to pose one question to those furthering any particular religion or spirituality. In the thousands of years of recorded history, why is your religion, the version here and now, the correct one? Religions come and go. Some, like the Roman gods, we treat as entertaining myths while others are forgotten all together. Nearly every religion has disappeared or changed so much over time it is unrecognizable from its original form. Why, to those sporting the “I Agree with John” shirts, is your form of Christianity the only true spirituality? Now I’m not saying that John was or wasn’t right, I suppose I’ll never really know until I breathe my last breath. But if I am to be won over to Team Jesus, I’ll want to know why the Bible deserves more of my attention than the Qur’an, especially given their similarities. I’ll also want the inside scoop on why the narrative of Jesus so closely matches that of the Egyptian god Horus, among other “mythological” characters which pre-date Christianity by thousands of years.
So maybe I felt left out of the chalk discussion last week and had to say my piece. Whether you found the chalkings inspiring, offensive or amusing, it is encouraging to know that spirited debate on Michigan Tech’s campus is always only four words away.

What do you consider clean? Is it a sparkling glass window, laundry that smells like spring breeze and a room that smells like Lilacs? I have come to fear cleaning products. I consider them dirty. Our bodies are not steel walls. Our skin breathes and absorbs chemicals from our environment. There are a plethora of health regulations for food products, but the products we use to clean ourselves and our surroundings with daily are full of dangerous ingredients. The chemicals contained in these cleaning products are inadvertently absorbed into our bodies, especially via our hands.
One of my least favorite house products are air fresheners. They are utterly useless. Why cover a stink when you can clean it right? Why have your house reek like artificial flavons? Air fresheners are known to contain toxic chemicals such as formaldehyde, used to embalm the dead, and phenol (which can cause skin to swell, burn, or break into hives). Personally they give me headaches, but this may be cause by my snobby hate for them. Truly though, the fragrances may cuase respiratory irritation such has headaches and agitate asthma. We carelessly spray our air freshners and the little misty particles settle themselves lovingly onto our belongings and into our lungs.
Chlorine is actually an agent of chemical warfare. After World War II ended there was an abundance of chlorine. Of course a lot of money was made off of this surplus by adding it to water supplies and to many products, especially store-brand cleaners like dishwashing detergents. Of course residual dishwasher detergent remains on the dishes and you inevitably consume it even though there is a warning “harmful if swallowed” on the container. We literally are swimming with chlorine. Chlorine is said to cause breast cancer. My uncle puts bleach on his poison ivy rashes so who knows.Laundry detergent is one of those things I wish people would think twice about. It’s blue most the time. Why? It gets blended into the water supply and results in water contamination. The harmful chemicals used in laundry room products follow us everywhere. We inadvertently absorb them through our clothes and bedding. They often cause rashes, itches, allergies, sinus problems and so on.
Possibly one of the most toxic chemicals used in a household, along with corrosive drain cleaners and acidic toilet bowl cleaners, is oven cleaner. Oven cleaner often contain lye and ammonia or chlorine and ammonia. Both can eat the skin and affect the respiratory system. Some toilet bowl cleaners actually contain hydrochloric acid and hypochlorite bleach. When chlorine is mixed with acids, toxic chlorine gas can form. These cleaners can cause vomiting or coma if ingested. I think that might be interesting to witness.
There is also the topic of body cleansing products. There are harsh chemicals in our body wash, toothpaste, shampoos, antiperspirant deodorant…
I could go on for a long time.
My father used to run a car business. As a kid I’d wash cars with “brown stuff”: a brown liquid chemical in a spray bottle. He’d always say, “don’t breath it in”. Everyday working people such as my father are dealing with chemicals. How is one to make the connection that the exposure to products used in everyday work, from carpet cleaner to car cleaners, are making people sick. These products poison our bodies and environment. It is an interesting phenomena how this came to be.
All the cleaners are diluted with water and disapear through drains. Most ingredients in chemical cleaners are broken down and seem to be relatively harmless. There are, however, exceptions. There is a class of chemicals called alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs). APEs are surface active agents that are used in cleaners for the detergents’ effectiveness. APEs have been found to mimic estrogen and interfere with the reproduction and survival of fish. Also, phosphates, water-softening minderal additives found in automatic dishwasher detergent, act as fertilizer and may spark overgrowth of algae. In this light, phosphates encourage eutrophication, or a depeltion of the oxygen supply in water. Extreme eutrophication leads to deadzones.
The solution is to stop purchasing stupid products to “clean” and to educate yourself about what you put on and near your body and in your surroundings. You can try all natural products, they smell good too. Usually they don’t give you headaches unless you’re really taking deep whiffsIt’s worth the extra money to be uncontaminated, I promise
There are simple solutions. For instance, instead of oven cleaner one can use salt and baking soda. Actually, baking soda can be used to clean many different things (including your teeth and face if you want to go that far). Other cleaning agents to utilize and look for are vinegar, lemon juice, borax. The best solution in many cases is some sort of orange cleaner for heavy duty cleaning needs and for the rest simple soap and warm water.
So, the same goes for a pretty face. Cosmetics also contain some very dangerous compounds. They are pretty scary and it takes a lot of time in a year to deck the face with shiney anyway. That time could be used to better oneself in a more permanent fashion. But seriously, consider what it is you are putting near your precious eyes and near your eating orifice and all over your skin.I’m sure you’ve heard it before anyway. Not like we can pronounce half the words in ingredient lists for our food let alone know what is in the cleaning products. If you haven’t noticed many time there aren’t any ingredient lists on cleaners. It drives me batty. To get an idea of what might be going on in the plastic bottles, read the warning labels and check for active ingredients, which are most likely detrimental to you in some way.

On a day that went from hot to cold and rainy in an instant, one thing that remained the same was the Huskies effort in the annual Titan invitational hosted by the University Of Wisconsin- Oshkosh. Not only was the temperature a factor in today’s contest the ever present wind also made things difficult for many of the huskies as they attempted to run, jump and throw their ways into team points. Many of the competitors had the same response to the wind and that was they did not like it. Their efforts did not go unnoticed though, as the Men’s team earned fourth place in the competition. The big difference from this year to last year though was on the Women’s side, as they went from an eighth place finish last year all the way up to a fifth place finish this year.
The day started off with the field events taking place an hour before the running events. With this wind being a factor all of the huskies who entered the hammer throw and discus, none of them could advance to the championship round. Meanwhile on the track the huskies started getting team points quick. In the 3000 meter steeplechase Tech was able to earn points on the men’s side from Jon Graves, and the women scored with Lauren Rantalla. The first person who earned all ten points from their event for the Huskies was Nathan Saliga in the 400 meter dash. Saliga finished with a final time of 0:51.82. Nathan must have sparked something in his team because four events later Ken Gilkerson took first in the 800 meter dash. The men would have two more firsts and they would come via Brian Stetter in the 5000 meter run and the 4×400 relay team also grabed first. The women’s side had no first place finishers however they had several ladies who did extremely well. Sydney Brustelle finished fifth in the 800 meter run, Erin Tucker finished fifth in the 400 meter hurdles, Jill Smith took fifth in the 5000 meter run and the 4×400 relay was also able to pick up a fifth place finish.
The final scores for the contest were as follows. For the men’s competition the host UW-Oshkosh- 338.35, UW-Eau Claire- 103.75, UW-Stout- 89, Michigan Tech- 84, Ripon- 60, UW-Stevens Point- 30, Concordia St. Paul- 7 and the Wisconsin Track Club- 6. On the women’s side first place went to Winona St. with 302 points. The rest of the field was UW-Oshkosh- 199, UW-Stout- 71.50, UW- Eau Clare- 62.50, Michigan Tech- 26, Minnesota State Mankato- 20, Ripon- 17 and UW-Steven’s Point- 6.

Dear Sassy,
I care for my boyfriend very much, but he has some issues. He gets very upset over miniscule things. He’ll get ridiculously jealous one moment and then he’ll suddenly get depressed. Every time I call him out on his out-of-control mood changes and anger issues, he blames his depression that, he says, runs in his family. He’ll then get impatient with me for not understanding his “condition”. I care for him, but I’m getting tired of riding his emotional roller coaster. What do I do?
Sincerely,
Languished lover

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Dear Sally,

My guy friend is really creepy. He asks me for girl advice all the time, and I don’t know how to tell him that he creeps on girls and makes them uncomfortable. I know he’s harmless, but I wish he would stop. He’s a nice guy, just very clingy. How can I make him aware of his creepiness without hurting his feelings?

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Needing a strong showing to salvage what was quickly becoming a disappointing GLIAC campaign, the men’s tennis Huskies grabbed two big wins over the Tiffin Dragons and the Findlay Oilers to pick up their first GLIAC wins of the season.

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Frustrating could be a word used by head coach Mike Axford to describe the men’s tennis Huskies, especially since they started the season with such promise only to drop their first four GLIAC matches. The Huskies fell 6-3 on Saturday to the Ferris State Bulldogs and 9-0 on Sunday to the Grand Valley State Lakers.

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