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C a l i f o r n i a S t a t e U n i v e r s i t y, F u l l e r t o n
T h u r s d a y, F e b r u a r y 1 7 , 2 0 0 5
White speaks on life issues
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Practice makes perfect
By julie kim Daily Titan Staff
By laura peltakian Daily Titan Staff
Marilyn White, founder and editor of Precious Times, an online magazine, spoke Wednesday in the Women’s Center at Cal State Fullerton on “Finding Your Purpose When All the Dots Are Not in a Row.” White described ‘dots’ as different goals and interests that one is working toward, and that these scattered dots can, in the end, form a straight line to your purpose in life. White said she became a successful black woman with a sports car and a condominium with a pool, Jacuzzi and tennis court. She added that she was on her way to becoming a politician until she realized her life didn’t have any purpose. “With all the success, I was still void,” said White. “I was successful, but I didn’t have my dots in a row.” This is when she said she began to re-examine her life. “I talked to a minister I knew and he told me that ‘whatever comes in, comes out.’ I realized it was garbage in, garbage out,” White said. “This is when I realized that they were not all wasted dots. There is no wasted time or wasted individual on your journey to find your purpose,” said White. “The interests you are following will eventually lead to your purpose.” White said she eventually found her purpose and established Precious Times, a contemporary online magazine dedicated to black, Christian women. “It doesn’t matter when you start,” said White. “It is the journey that leads you to your purpose.” She said purpose is something that you cannot breathe without. It is something you should have, even if you aren’t paid to have it. “Every conversation, every lecwhite 3
Online networking grows in popularity MySpace replaces Friendster as primary Internet hot spot
Web magazine editor lectures on how she got her dots in a row
james carroll/Daily Titan
BJ Vandrovic of the CSUF Pole Vault Team clips the rope in an attempted vault during a practice session Tuesday.
Vo l u m e 8 0 , I s s u e 6
The World Wide Web serves as a virtual playground with an abundance of entertainment, and for a growing number of people, the hottest spot to bookmark is MySpace. Co-founded in September 2003 by Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, the site operates on the theory of six degrees of separation, the notion that everybody knows each other through five other people. Potential users can register for free accounts, create personalized web pages with HTML codes and add companions to their list of friends. “I like that you can have more than one picture and can design your page to express your personality,” freshman kinesiology major Kami Altar said. Users can re-connect with childhood friends, leave private messages for each other and even play games on the site. MySpace is one of the most visited sites on the Internet, according to comScore Media Metrix, an online traffic-measuring group. According to
Metrix, MySpace is eighth when it comes to page views, right behind such powerhouses as Google, Hotmail and AOL. By Anderson’s estimates, MySpace currently caters to 9 million registered users, and CSUF students – both former and current – make up a portion of that fan base. Alice Kim, a Cal State Fullerton radio-TV-film senior, said she signed up with other online forums, but prefers MySpace because “they have more users.” “I keep in touch with friends who I lost touch with after junior high” Kim said. “I can even keep up with old friends in other countries.” But MySpace isn’t the first Web site started with the intent of forming an online “social network.” Rather, there have been others sites, like SixDegrees, which was created in 1996. Then there was Friendster, once the golden child of the Internet and the site that some hoped would have the power to revive Silicon Valley after the dot.com bust. But while both have failed to attract new members, MySpace has seen a dramatic increase of active users since its inception. According to �������������������� Nielsen/NetRatings, another group that measures Internet traffic, in December 2004������������� , Friendster
had 16 million registered users, as opposed to MySpace’s 7.6 million. But the latter had more than five times the number of visits. In addition, the average page view on Friendster lasted less than 17 minutes compared to 78 minutes on MySpace. Titans like Altar and human services senior Julie Palmer, said they spend about four hours and at least two hours, respectively, on MySpace each day. There are many reasons that contribute to the popularity of this online community. One is that the Internet offers a countless number of pages where you can rate a user’s picture according to his or her attractiveness (HotOrNot and FindAPix), keep an online journal (Blogger, LiveJournal or Xanga), play computer games and listen to music. But MySpace conveniently offers it all for free in one readily accessible site. “I emphasized that we would become as big as a portal and compete on the level of a Yahoo, MSN or AOL,” Anderson said. “We want MySpace to be the place where people do everything they typically do on the Internet – e-mail, search, game, shop and so on.” Additionally, Anderson and myspace 4
Man’s best friend acts as therapy specialist St. Jude Hospital enlists pet expertise to aid patients By april miller Daily Titan Staff
Heads turn as Dr. Mo enters the lobby at St. Jude Hospital in Fullerton. Everyone’s attention is drawn to the blonde wearing a red bandana printed with white hearts. Dr. Mo mingles with the crowd in the waiting area. He’s never in a hurry. He has time for anyone who wants to talk to him or give him a pat. “You know, Dr. Mo didn’t exactly go to medical school,” said Matt Foster, the hospital’s guest relations manager. That’s true, but Mo did pass the Canine Good Citizen Test. You see, Mo is a golden retriever and “doctor” is an added nickname. He is one of the 15 dogs in the Therapy Dogs International program at St.
Jude Hospital that must be certified before seeing patients. Since 1996, St. Jude Hospital has used therapy dogs to give patients comfort and draw their attention away from what ails them. The dogs also give the patients something to talk about when friends come to visit. Visitors actually come out of hospital rooms to greet Mo as he meanders down the hospital corridor with his owner Bob Williams. “I wanted to share him,” said Williams. “He’s everyone’s friend.” “We love the therapy dogs,” said Becky Haslett, who was visiting her father. “It’s really nice. My dad’s not really a pet person and he loves it.” Not just any dog is cut out to be a therapy dog. Dogs must be at least one year old and must to allow strangers to approach and pet them, but not be distracted by noises from medical equipment, Foster said. The command “leave it” must be followed when walking past food
carts or anything interesting left on the floor, Foster said. The dog must also behave around other dogs, come when the owner calls and not jump on anyone, he said. As Dr. Mo and Williams stroll down the hospital corridors it’s hard to tell who enjoys them more, the patients or the nurses. On each floor Mo gets treats from the nurses-dog biscuits or a bowl of water with ice chips. “Mo likes his water shaken, not stirred,” Foster said as he placed a bowl of water with ice floating in it on the floor for Mo. Foster’s job is similar to that of a hotel concierge. He offers books, magazines and a movie list to patients. When a patient’s hearing aid battery died, he went to a drug store across the street to buy a hearing aid battery. And, he schedules the pet therapy dogs. People can call and ask for a dog to visit a particular room. “I take requests,” said Foster. “People say ‘go see my dad.’ But we also visit with anyone who sees
april miller/Daily Titan
Bob Williams reassures Sophia Byers it’s all right to pet Mo, the therapy dog, who visits St. Jude Hospital on Fridays. us and wants to see with the dog, while we are making our rounds.” Sometimes patients are sleeping during the 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. rounds, and aren’t disturbed. Each day a different dog comes
to St. Jude Hospital. Mo’s day is Friday. As Williams and Dr. Mo approach a room, Williams said, “knock, knock. I understand you like dogs. This is Mo, he wants to say hello.”
Students and faculty step up to ROTC challenge
Group fundraise for small charities
By nicole m. smith
By masha khalilifar
Cadets show off skills to grab campus attention, increase recruitment Daily Titan Staff
Standing before a man-made wall, Army officers offered students a challenge: climb to the top and win a prize — your pride and ego. And maybe a keychain. The gray wall with rubber handgrips was put in place around 9 a.m. Wednesday and served not as a means of recruiting soldiers, but more to inspire and challenge students, Staff Sgt. Bobby Hoops said. “I challenge people to challenge themselves,” said Hoops, who was assisting Cal State Fullerton’s Army ROTC. Upward of 50 challengers showed up before
1 p.m. to climb the 20-foot wall, which was erected in front of the Humanities Building, Hoops said. A buzzer sounding like a police car siren went off each time a participant made it to the top, drawing a modest crowd of interested onlookers. Men and women, both students and faculty, tested their strength. “I guess we’re being an equal opportunity employer,” Hoops said, smiling. As students curiously walked by during the between-class rush, Army recruiters called out to the crowd, seeking challengers. Some offered excuses and others stepped up and strapped on helmets and harnesses to climb the wall at varying degrees of difficulty. Junior communications major Matt Christl climbed the wall in about 90 seconds. “It looked like fun,” Christl said before heading off to his next class. Christl said he rotc
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Volunteers collect donations for those with speech disorders Daily Titan Staff
eric tom/Daily Titan
Cadet Major Daniel Churchill, a member of the ROTC and a CSUF senior, performs an Australian repel off of the Humanities building Wednesday morning as part of a demonstration.
A cardboard box containing toothbrushes and children’s books sits next to the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association table this week in College Park, as cabinet members advertise the human communication studies club while fundraising for Communicative Disorders. “Our main goal is to fundraise,” said Nichole Fivecoat, a junior and communicative disorders major and co-president of NSSLHA. “We do [all this] so we can donate to the small-
er charities. Last year we donated $1,500 [to various organizations].” NSSLHA, according to the Fullerton chapter information sheets, has 11,000 members and over 294 chapters in various universities nationally, and is an organization that supports “the study of the normal and disordered human communication behavior.” Members of the club, which is overseen by the American SpeechLanguage- Hearing Association, set up a table near the Nutwood Café on Monday to promote awareness of their club and their fundraising efforts. After being contacted from the California Speech and Hearing Association, Fivecoat said the Fullerton chapter of NSSLHA helps nsslha 3